City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6.30 and the meeting will come to order. Good evening and welcome to the September 1st, 2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Council meetings are streamed live on our website. Go to kennewick.com. Viewers can enable closed captioning by accessing the setting feature in the preferred web browser either during the live broadcast or when watching the recording. Will the city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Thank you. Will Councilmember Milbauer please lead us in the pledge?

Thank you. No one registered to provide tonight's invocation. Persons interested in giving the invocation can find information on our website or through the city clerk's office. Council Member Trumbo provided advance notice of his absence. Is there a motion to excuse the absence?

Is there a second? Mayor? Yes, Council Member Millar. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to excuse the absence of Council Member Trumbo. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of Council Member Trumbo. Will the clerk please start the vote? It has passed unanimously. Thank you. Next on the agenda is visitors. This is the only opportunity for visitor comment at tonight's meeting. Visitors are welcome to state their opinion on any topi

Additional public comments this evening? Who are we?

Any additional public comments this evening?

This comment period is closed. The next item is approval of the agenda. If a council member wants an item removed from the consent agenda, please be recognized by the mayor and state the item number you want to remove for further discussion, and that item will be considered separately. I'll entertain a motion.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to approve the agenda as presented. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kennewick City Council for reading and study, are considered to be routine, and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no

Yes, Council Member Millar. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Millar to approve the consent agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Thank you. That motion is passed unanimously. Next, we will consider the adoption of several ordinances. After each staff report, Council will have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information of staff. General discussion and debate must wait until after a motion has been made. First is a docket pertaining to boards and commissions. Ms. Johnston, will you please read the ordinances by title and provide a staff report?

All right. Does this council have any questions of staff?

So one of the other changes we're making here is about this professional membership, right? Yeah. I just want to make sure it's clear. So previously we had seven. and we had one of those was one of these professional members, is that correct?

And so previously all seven had to be somewhere within this grouping, right? Yes, and it's still... Now we go to two of those.

Any additional questions? I'll entertain a motion.

The floor is open for discussion. Oh, I guess I need a second. Yeah, so let me ask for a second first.

Mayor, I second that. Thank you, Council Member Anderson.

Now, the floor is open for discussion, as it has been properly moved by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to approve the docket as presented. Adopting the ordinance is presented under 5A1 and 5A2. Any additional discussion?

And willing, I think is the other, available and willing. All right, any additional discussion? If not, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the docket as presented. Adopting the ordinance as presented under 5A1 and 5A2. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Next is an ordinance pertaining to the ordinance introduction and enactment requirements. Ms. Johnston, will you please read the ordinance by title and provide a staff report on this as well.

Not to be pre-decisional here. Okay, with that, I'll entertain a motion. Mayor McShane. Mayor Pro Temporelli. Is there a second? Mayor, I second that. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to adopt the ordinance as presented. The floor is open for discussion.

I was thinking we may delay this until October. Okay.

Well, we appreciate all of your services. I think it's a great thing for us to streamline our activities as normal.

I think it's a good thing for us to move forward with. Thank you. All right. Any additional discussion? Otherwise, it has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the ordinances presented. Will the clerk please start the vote? That motion is passed unanimously.

Okay, the next is a quasi-judicial docket pertaining to the rezone of 5551 South Olympia Street and 5400 South Garfield Street under permit COZ-2026-0004. Will the clerk please read the ordinance by title? Is this the last time?

Thank you. That's a good one to end on. All right. This is considered a quasi-judicial act by council rather than legislative. Quasi-judicial matters require the council meet the appearance of fairness doctrine. I ask that the council listen careful to the following questions. If your answer is yes to any question, please ask to be recognized. I will call on you once all questions have been raised. One, do you have any interest in the property or the application, or do you own property within 300 feet of the subject property? Will you stand to gain or lose any financial benefit as a result of

Thank you. Any questions? What was the rationale for opposition?

How many members of the public actually attended spoken opposition?

I think that's the number I'm looking for is less than a certain threshold. Right, yeah. And when you say that they were living adjacent to the subject property, are they just in the neighborhoods around that within a half mile of the property, or what are we talking about?

Yeah, sorry, but they did not show up, right? You had a certain number that did show up, and of that, four or five of them spoke in opposition. Aren't you also required to post the property as well? So it's not just notice sent to people within 300 feet, but it's generally available to anyone that passes by.

And again, subjects of their opposition were really not related necessarily to the subject of reducing this lot size, but the fact that they just were subdividing in general, or was it focused on the reduction in lot sizes?

I think the final question for me is we heard about some of these comments, concerns about opposition to this proposal related to the ability of city services to be able to service this. Does the city have code and requirements to ensure that this would not take away from city residents, that they have to provide those essential city services?

Yeah, and our city code also requires if they are creating greater traffic impacts, that those impacts are studied and that those impacts are mitigated, correct?

Any additional questions of the staff? Council Member Klippert.

Any additional questions? I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Yes, Mayor Pro Temporelli.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinance as presented under 5C1 and 5C2. The floor is open for discussion. Okay. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinances presented under 5C1 and 5C2. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Thank you. Next, we have new business, and it's a report regarding the city hall replacement project. Ms. Erdman, will you please have a staff report for us?

All right, any additional questions? I want to just take a moment and express appreciation for the staff's time and effort, and our consultants work on this as well, and recognizing this is really the beginning of this process and not the end. That's correct. And so we've got a long ways ahead of us as we get, and so I appreciate everybody's efforts. Next, we'll have council comments and discussion. We'll start. Let's go ahead and start. Council Member Beecham. I don't have any this evening.

I'll make up for that, but try and keep it brief. I attended the waste management virtual tour for recycling, a lot of changes. It was actually very interesting. I don't know who else attended it. It was interesting to see how the recycling's changing and the way it's gonna go forward. Also attended a recovery court on August 19th for the graduation of three individuals. came down with the wife to national night out really enjoyed it warm as usual but that's okay it was a good turnout by everyone and i think staff and everyone did a fantastic job so thank you for that let's see regional chambe

Thank you. I attended the Roads and Transportation meeting. Not a lot to report on that except for the fact that you talk about unintended consequences of doing X, Y, or Z. The big push, not just in the state of Washington, but especially in the state of Washington for electric vehicles, has cost the budget significant millions of dollars. And so that's a big part of the budget shortfall is When you're selling electric vehicles and the number of electric vehicles on the road is increasing, you're not getting gas tax from those vehicles. And so the state's facing a massive budget shortfall in t

And then as far as Ubi's comment on the pool, that it's the same pool for her kids. I don't know your exact age, Ubi, but I think it was the same pool when you were a kid. So it's a very old pool. I'm not saying you're very old. It's the pool's older than you. But if you heard, we're getting there. We're getting there. So we have been listening. Yeah, thank you, that's all.

I could not beat his 84 questions he asked, but I tried. Thank you, Mayor Motown.

I hesitate to ask, Jim, how many questions did you have? Okay, I was going to say, you're going to really love Kennewick before we're done. You're going to end up raising our rates. Charges by the questions, good. All right, city manager.

Yeah, I was going to say, traditionally there's a sunrise one as well, right? Yeah, there is that portion. And that will still be there, right?

Yes. But the 25th is the evening. Thank you. I, too, attended National Night Out and want to just express appreciation to all the city staff and effort that goes towards that, plus the volunteers as well. I mean, I think that we don't always recognize we had members of our Parks Commission, we had members of our Arts Commission that were there as well, Manning Boots, and helping to help folks see what the city has to offer and what the community really has to offer. I don't want to pick on anybody, but I did see a little bit of Richland's National Night Out. It was not quite as good as ours, b

I may apologize. I left off one thing. Okay, go ahead. I did attend a Visit Tri-Cities, and I wanted to bring up the Ironman September 20th. If there are a need of volunteers, you can go to the webpage, Visit Tri-Cities webpage, and sign up for the different positions they need. They are having, on the Friday night before, it's called Party at the Point. It's a kickoff party. It's from 5 to 8, and it's open to the public, no cars, no charge. So if you're interested in something like that, And then the Iron Kids race is Saturday for under 17 years of age, 9 a.m. Registration is before that. The

And Jim, aren't they doing a, at that party at the point, aren't they allowing people to actually swim the Ironman swimming event or portion of the event as part of that? It kicks at five. It kicks at five o'clock on Friday. As part of that Friday night activity. So I thought that was something I hadn't heard before. I thought that was interesting.

And so my last thing I wanted to address this evening was just an update on our drought conditions in the community. And so we do have the latest numbers will be coming out on Thursday. We expect those numbers to hopefully hold at a 58% for the pro-rationed irrigation districts up and down the valley. It's possible it could go down. As we look at the long-term forecasting and concerns about October, and for those that may not recall, Last October was the first time in the history of the Acoma Basin that there was a curtailment for drinking water in some of the upper valley cities. We're hopefu