City Council - Regular Meeting

King County Council meeting to order. And thank everyone for coming. Reagan Dunn, Vice Chair of the Council, going to chair the committee as our chair, is not available to chair today. I want to welcome everybody to the July 14th meeting. And let's go ahead and get started by asking the clerk to please call the roll.

Thank you, Chair Dunn. Council Member Balducci. Here. Council Member Barone.

Here.

Council Member Domboski. Here. Council Member Fain. Here. Council Member Lewis. Here. Council Member Mosqueda. Here. Council Member Perry. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Here. Chair Dunn.

Here.

You have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Next, we have the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Rod Dembowski.

Please stand if you're able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci, the minutes of July 7, 2026 have been put in the packets. For approval, would you kindly move?

Thank you, Chair. I move approval of the minutes.

Very well. The minutes of July 7 are before us. Any discussion? All in favor of approving the minutes, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, say nay. The minutes are hereby approved. Additions to the council agenda. Are there any...

I do have one, it's a presentation in the community and the title is Recognition Declaring Tuesday, July 14th as Andy Miklo Day.

Very good. All right. That's an addition. We appreciate that. Before we proceed, I want to share the chair's office received and granted a request for a one-week courtesy delay on item 14, which proposed motion number 20-26-0084. Unless there is an objection, and I'd be deserving of one, I will take up item 14 on next week's council agenda. You want to roll the chair in the first five minutes? That'd be good. All right. Very good. We will be accepting public comment on that item. and we have a special item for recognition item number six which is a recognition of the 30th anniversary of emerald downs and i am noting for the record this will be presented in the community by councilmember von reichbauer rather than in chambers today because of this we will be moving on to the public hearing now to the issue of public comment okay uh reading of the items into the record uh first and hearing of public comments all right so clerk is going to read the items into the record uh thank you clerk

Thank you. The two recognitions are recognition of Emerald Downs on its 30th anniversary and the recognition declaring Tuesday, July 14th as Andy McLeod Day. Item 7 is proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0067, an ordinance related to notification requirements for booking restrictions at King County adult detention facilities. Item 8 is proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0069 relating to the sale of the county Parcel 212205-9183, located in Kent, Washington, in Council District 5. Proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0083, amending an interim loan program to facilitate acquisition of property for low income housing, allowing for the executive to extend loan terms. And grant further flexibility to county partners. Item 10 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0128 relating to the sale of the surplus property located at 8923 Fauntleroy Way Southwest, Seattle, Washington and Council District 8. Item 11 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0167 approving and adopting the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by and between King County and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77, representing employees in the Metro Transit Department and establishing the effective date of said agreement. Item 13 is proposed motion number 2026-0089, confirming the executive's appointment of Brian Flaherty, who resides in Council District 9, to the Public Defense Advisory Board representing the Washington Defender Association. And item 14 is proposed motion number 2026-0084, a motion approving the King County Youth Diversion and Intervention Program Report.

Thank you, Clerk. Appreciate that. So we'll take public comment on those ordinances, motions, proclamations, and recognitions, which includes agenda items 6 through 11. And listening to these public comments is an important part of the public's process here. And it's important and enhances our deliberations. In order to allow everyone equal time to provide comment, I'd like to set aside a few ground rules. Limit comment to two minutes. Remain seated. Public comment, don't make any audible noise during the meeting when you're seated. This is also a reminder that public comment may not be used for purposes of assisted campaign or promote our opposition to any ballot proposition. Speakers should address their comments directly to the chair, to me. In addition, per the council rules, disruptive behavior can and may lead to an audience member being asked to leave the meeting. This includes such things as speaking from the audience without being recognized or standing, except when providing comment or exiting the chambers. Holding signs that obstruct the free passage or view of others is also prohibited. Using bullhorns or noise makers. for online public comment press star 9 on the phone or click the raise hand icon on the zoom toolbar located at the bottom of the screen to notify the clerk you wish to provide public comment during this time the clerk will call the names the last three digits on the phone number in order in order and will then unmute each line. And at the end of comment, the clerk will then lower the hands of the people who have spoken. With that, Clerk Foss, please begin calling the names we have here in person first, then we'll do online public comment next.

Thank you, Chair Dunn. First person in chambers is Kevin Altheimer.

Mr. Altheimer, thanks for being here today. You have two minutes.

Chairman, Chair, I just wanted to stand up here and let you people know that that juvenile diversion issue that you guys are wanting to talk about is de facto, and I'll tell you why. Because on May the 14th, 2025, the auditor, Kimber Waltzman, dropped the scope And she told all of those guys sitting up there. Not only did she do that, you know what else she did? She contacted the vital statistics and got the birth certificate of Yolanda McGee. And that's how she actually. Stated that she got it because she was doing an investigation. You know, I got that from public disclosure and Reagan done being an ex federal prosecutor should have called in the FBI when she did that. But, you know, he didn't do that. So, you know, that ordinance 2026 is de facto. You know why? Because. The state of Washington, Miles versus Washington, states this. No administrative body can actually do a subpoena. He wrote that mess in there and knew it was a violation of the charter. Not only that, you can't take a voter initiative charter and take it and turn it into an inspector general. So you know what I did? I sent it to the governor. I sent it to Nick Brown. I sent it to the auditor. And I told Mr. Zillow in his office with the notice of pending litigation that he better not sign that into law because you know why? It's a violation of the charter. They know it. Reagan already knew he was supposed to go to the voters. But that guy sitting up there, the weasel, all he wanted to do is get it out there. Because you know why? These people are running for office and they want to have legislation. And you know what's happening? That man sitting there has been here since 1993, the one drinking pop. That guy should have been kicked out of here a long time ago. He has nothing to do with real oversight. All he does is sit up there and say what he wants to say.

Mr. Alderman, let's not attack council members. Thank you for your testimony.

Next on the list is Yvette Dynish.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Thanks for coming out. You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, council members, and seeing how there's recognition today, I just want to recognize you all for the hard work you do in service to our community, and thank you very much.

Thank you for your public testimony.

Next on the list in chambers is Alex Zimmerman.

Hi, my name Alex Zimmerman and I want to speak about something that is absolutely critical. Yeah, it's my sign, yeah, sorry.

No sign, Alex, thanks. No sign, yeah, I know, thank you very much.

Yes, so agenda number nine, talking about housing for low income. I try to understand what is your freaking degenerative idiot, a bandita, damn Nazi bandita, did this for the last 20 years, so we need 300,000 housing in King County. How is this possible? So I give you a couple of examples, absolutely critical. King Country Housing Authority spent $100 million for 1,000,000 people. You know what it means, what it means, don't have a document. It's very critical, absolutely not understandable, because we have 20,000 homeless, and most of these homeless are American citizens. But Trump's executive order, all government housing possibly belongs only to American citizens. I cannot find two, a low-income senior citizen and a thousand senior citizens low-income cannot find. Back in country, how is it notory to spend $100 million? Because I investigate this. I know what I am talking. This is how this is working, how Democrats destroy us life fundamentally. Stealing, for example, Sound Transit, $35 billion. You can imagine this. How you can steal $35 billion? In two, you have a million idiots or four million idiots from another county. You know what this means? Very quiet. How is this possible? Can somebody explain to me? Only Alex Zimmerman talking about this? Alex Zimmerman, a crazy man? One? You have a syphilis epidemic that will cost us right now $100 million because syphilis epidemic is very dangerous. It goes very slow. Last epidemic is in the 15th century. It killed Europe totally. It's a nightmare. Viva Trump, viva new American revolution. Stand up, slave, and happy cow. My question, stop stealing money from us. Make us for poor people.

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Others in the chambers that would wish to speak that haven't signed up? You okay? All right. Then let's go online. No hands online. Seeing any hands online. Seeing none. All right. Then we're going to go ahead and close public comment. Thank you very much. And let's go on to consent ordinances 7 through 10. I want to note that item 7 is being removed from consent agenda for the purposes of amendment. We'll take up consent items 8 through 10 first, followed by item 7. Ask Council Member Balducci if she'll move consent agenda items 8 through 10.

So moved, Chair.

Very well. And Clerk Hay, have you read those items into the record?

I did.

Okay, you did. All right, so I thought. Okay, so- The consent agenda is before us. Is there any discussion on consent agenda items 8 through 10? Very well. Seeing none, I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Aye. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Domboski. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Perry. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Aye. Chair Dunn.

Aye.

The vote is eight ayes, and Councilmember Perry excused.

Very well. By our vote, we've adopted proposed ordinances 2026, 0069, 0083, and 0128. Thank you so much. Moving on to item seven, concerning notification requirements for booking restrictions at King County Adult Detention Facilities. Item seven.

I can do this.

Okay, do you want to move it? Yep. All right.

Thank you, Chair. Move Adoption of Proposed Substitution Ordinance 20260067.2. All right.

It is before us. Item 7 is before us. Do we need discussion on it?

Yeah, just briefly. Okay. At the core of this ordinance is a requirement that if we're going to impose, the executive branch is going to impose booking restrictions over at the jail, that they give notice to our regional partners and the county council. We have support from the executive branch on it. At the committee hearing, we had positive testimony. One of the things that got through me as the sponsor of this was it would also to apply in the cases of a short-term booking restriction, like a 48-hour booking restriction. I thought that was a little bit much and not necessary. It was inconsistent with the thrust of this legislation. So I have an amendment, Amendment 1, which would say for any kind of short-term, 48-hour or less booking restrictions, where they're just doing it to respond to an emergency or short-term population, they would not have to comply with these notice requirements. So I would offer Amendment 1. It gives some more flexibility and deference to the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention.

Great. Amendment 1 is before us. Thanks for explaining it. All in favor of Amendment 1, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Say nay. Amendment 1 hangs. Underlying legislation. Any further discussion?

Nothing further.

All right. Anybody wish to discuss this? All right. Very well. I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll on item 2026-0067.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Aye. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dabowski. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Perry. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Aye. Chair Dunn.

Aye.

The vote is eight ayes and Council Member Perry excused.

Very well. By our vote, we have adopted proposed subsidy in Ordinance 2026067 as amended. Item 11, Ordinance for Council Action. Item 11 is proposed Ordinance 20260167, which concerns approval and adoption of collecting bargaining agreements. Ask Council Member Balducci to move the ordinance.

I move adoption.

Very well proposed ordinance 20260167 is before us. Before we proceed with discussion, I'd like to ask Erica Newman from Council Central Staff to provide a briefing on this. Erica, thanks so much for coming up. I want you to orient us to this legislation and maybe introduce your colleagues. I see Sasha's up there, our Labor Relations Manager, and Jonathan Finch, Business Representative from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 77. Thanks for being here. They're also available to answer any questions. So go ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Erica Newman, Council Central Staff. The items for proposed ordinance 20260167 begin on page 136 of your packet. The proposed ordinance would adopt the collective bargaining agreement that was negotiated between King County and the International Brother of Electrical Workers, Local 77, which represents employees in the Metro Transit Department. Negotiations began in October of 2025 and they reached a conceptual agreement for a two-year agreement on March 10th of 2026. The union ratified the tentative agreement in May. on May 21st of 2026. The agreement would cover the period of January 1st, 2026 to December 31st, 2027. A little bit about the bargaining unit. It has about 149 employees who are charged with maintaining the electrical systems that support Metro's overhead, trolley bus wires, and power link light rail. including fire life safety systems. And the employees in this unit hold a variety of titles that include cable splicer, electrician constructor, line material workers, pole haulers, and a few more. The summary of the terms include wage and COLA increases for January 26th, And for January 27, there will be new job titles such as fire life safety technicians, rail electrical worker crew shift, rail electrical work programmer, and rail electrical worker technical trainer. to support the expansion of light rail services. Executive staff have noted that these new titles will be open for competitive recruitment applications. And they expect that many of the new positions will be filled by current employees for higher level positions. According to the fiscal note, the cumulative total to implement for the duration of the agreement is about 9.3 million that would be coming from the public transportation fund. The executive staff did say that they would request, well, to implement the agreement, it would cost an additional 6.2 million more than what was assumed in the baseline budget. The executive office budget team plans to submit a supplemental budget request to cover the additional costs associated with implementing the agreement. The changes seem to be consistent with King County labor policies. To my right, I have Sasha Alessi. Labor Relations Manager and Jonathan Finch, Business Representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. And online, I think we have Lauren Watson, who is a Senior Relations Project Manager in the Office of Labor Relations. Mr. Chair, that concludes my remarks.

Thanks. Any questions to staff or our panel here today from any of my colleagues on this? Seeing none, appreciate the good work in negotiating, appreciate the good work of our international brother of electrical workers, 77, for your continued leadership and help for what we do. So, yeah. Somewhere I heard something.

Council Member Barone.

Oh, there you go. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Barone, please proceed.

Thank you very much. Could somebody likely from the executive staff speak a little bit to the how we came up with this 7.55% market adjustment, please?

Dasha Lassie, Labor Relations Manager, King County. Yes, Councilmember, the large part of this wage increase is based on a market study. Our King County wages for these positions were roughly 15% behind market. For context, it's about $20 an hour less than Seattle City Light is paying for similar work. So putting together a market increase and the COLA for the January 1st raise and then an additional market increase that takes effect mid-year 2026 is how we arrived at that increase 15%.

Thank you. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Council Member Fain.

Thank you. Just tagging on to that market benchmark question, is this going to establish then a benchmark for other skilled trades negotiations going forward or – Well, I guess if so, are there other fiscal implications? And I preface with thank you for all of the work on this. And I know you spent a lot of time, and we want to support our skilled workforce, obviously. I'm just more about the process, curious.

Thank you council member. These market studies are specific to the electrical trades and specific to high voltage electricians and obviously our labor rep could tell us more about it. But these are the excuse me this is the only contract of the county that has these classifications for high voltage electricians. So it shouldn't have too much of an effect on other classifiers using other wage issues for other classifications.

Thanks. Council Member Balducci.

Not a question, just a few words. Colleagues, I think we're all keenly aware that the county's policies, many of our policies are pushing us in the direction of increased electrification of our transportation systems among other things as we try to meet climate goals, as we expand light rail, as we expand uh you know sort of uh the the general fleet of electrical electric powered vehicles and so these types of expert workers are going to become more and more critical to all the things we're doing and so i think it's really important that we have a good up-to-date contract but i also know that we're going to be having to talk about sort of the ways in which we maintain the system that we're building so I'm happy to vote yes on this proposal, but I think it's going to be the beginning of a long-term upswing in terms of the need in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member, for those comments. Okay, any final other words? All right, we'll go ahead and take a vote on this. And seeing no further discussion, I ask the clerk to please call the roll on item 2026-0167.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci? Aye. Council Member Barone?

Aye.

Council Member Dembowski. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Perry. Council Member Von Reikbauer. Aye. Chair Dunn.

Aye.

The vote is eight ayes and Council Member Perry excused.

And by our vote, we have adopted Proposed Ordinance 20-26-0167. Thank you. Thanks for all your work. Hearing, examine, or consent agenda. Clerk, this has been read into the record also.

This one has not. I need to read this one. OK.

Thanks.

Please do. Item 12 is proposed substance ordinance number 2026-0093, concurring with the recommendation of the hearing examiner to approve subject to conditions the application for public benefit rating system assessed valuation for open space submitted by Grow, Inc. for property located in Shoreline.

Thank you. Council Member Fain, would you kindly move the hearing examiner consent agenda item 12, please?

So moved.

Very well. It is before us. Any discussion? No. It's a consent agenda. Ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Aye. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dabowsky.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Council Member Perry. Council Member von Reichbauer.

Aye.

Chair Dunn.

Aye.

The vote is eight ayes and Council Member Perry excused.

Very well, thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed substance orders 2026-0093. Great, turning to the next motion consent agenda. Council Member Balducci, will you please move consent agenda item 13?

I move the consent agenda.

Very good, it's before us. You don't need to read in the record, so we're good. And Clerk Hay, will you please call the roll?

Yes, thank you. Council Member Balducci? Aye. Council Member Barone?

Aye.

Councilmember Domboski. Aye. Councilmember Fain. Aye. Councilmember Lewis. Aye. Councilmember Mosqueda. Aye. Councilmember Perry. Councilmember Von Rykebauer. Aye. Chair Dunn.

Aye.

The vote is eight ayes and Councilmember Perry excused.

Our vote, we've adopted proposed notion 2026-0089. Moving to item 14, we have a courtesy delay on this item. Moving then to item 15 through 19. If there is no objection, the published mark agenda together with any changes made in today's meeting will stand approved as the first reading of referral ordinances and motions, items 15 through 19 as listed. other business before we adjourn a few quick announcements to share from the chair's office in accordance with kcc 2.36.0770 i'm announcing an upcoming vacancy for council nomination at large position to on the conservation futures advisory committee and the chairs requesting the colleagues submit nominations to fill the position council members may nominate an individual by sending an email to the chair's office by 5 p.m july 27th and we'll announce them on the meetings on the 28th um also chair asked me to remind everyone about the vacancies for the two council nominated at-large positions on the harborview board of trustees council members may nominate to fill these positions by sending an email with the completed application forms to the chair's office by 5 p.m monday july 20th after receiving nominations will name the names will be announced on july 21st council uh meeting and then forwarded to the executive Finally, as noted earlier, recognition was added to the agenda for presentation in community by Council Member Balducci. This recognition declares Tuesday, July 14th as Andy Micklow Day in appreciation of Andy's many years of service here at the legislative branch. That's a great idea. All right. Is there any other business to come before this council or for the good of the order? Council Member Dombrouski.

Thanks, I'm not sure where Councilor Balducci's gonna present that recognition, but I wanted to, on the record, express my gratitude for Andy McClough's years of incredible service to the legislative branch. We've been very, very blessed to have Andy's work, and Andy has made a big difference in a lot of policy areas. Andy, wherever you are, we appreciate you.

Thank you. Dr. McLo has indeed been an amazing contributor here and was very insistent on not having a lot of big public hoopla being made. And so we delivered the recognition just before the council meeting started today.

Oh, that's great. That's great. Thank you. And Council Member Pete Von Reichbauer.

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to remind everyone that this coming Saturday there's going to be a great scholar-athlete breakfast in Auburn. on behalf of the school districts of Auburn and Federal Way. On Sunday, there's an opportunity to support one of the greatest industries in our region, one of the oldest industries, horse racing, and that's going to be very important. And lastly, on Monday morning at 8.30, all members of the council are invited down to the Museum of Flight

an opportunity to talk to tenants and people who live in the general area there we're going to have copy from 8 30 to 9 30 prior to the gao meeting which is going to focus on kcia this coming monday thank you thank you mr von reichberg i appreciate that any other announcements all right seeing none no further business we are adjourned remind colleagues that in five minutes we'll start the king county flood control district where we will consider a number of items including the supplemental budget