City Council - workshop

Benton County
Tuesday, August 25, 2026Official site

The City Council reviewed the preliminary 2027 Capital Improvement Program, detailing numerous projects across city utilities and facilities. Additionally, the Chief of Police presented an overview of the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) system, discussing its compliance with new state laws and data access safeguards.

About this meeting

Government Body
City Council
Meeting Type
City Council
Location
Richland, WA
Meeting Date
August 25, 2026

Published excerpts

Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.

49 sections (from 51 segments)

11:39•Pat Holten

Okay. There was controversy, and I think it had nothing to do with the city, but over the new poles there.

12:09 – 12:45•Shayne VanDyke

Okay, no, go ahead, please. Sorry, I'm just bouncing around here a little bit between, so we've got the capital improvement plan by fiscal year, sorry, and then we've got the total costs, I think, over here, and I get, I think most of it matches with 2027 project costs, but I'm looking over at the totals, and the totals don't seem to match up on a fair amount of these with what's here and then what it is by, Charge code, essentially, if that makes sense. What am I missing, John? Blue sheet comparing to green sheet comparing to that.

13:16•Shayne VanDyke

Oh, and then you're looking up here. Let's see.

13:38•Shayne VanDyke

But this is, we're talking about 2027, right? Yeah. Total costs. Correct. It's close. Okay, keep going.

14:08•Pat Holten

The underground that you're putting, is that replacing underground or is it taking above ground and putting underground?

14:37•Pat Holten

So it sounds like everything's going to look kind of the same.

14:44 – 14:58•Shayne VanDyke

Yep. Just want to confirm, too, some of these are long lead items. Some of this funding includes buyheads for long lead items? Yes. I don't want to know the details on it. Just confirm that's how it is accrued. Yes. All right.

22:17 – 22:59•Kurt Maier

I've got a quick question. When we deliberated this plan, one of the appealing aspects of it was that there was a rest of the building. How much of the design work that's coming up in that three million is toward designing how we handle the building in between delivering a functioning police station and deciding what to do with additional floors and space in that building. So is this just focused laser in on get a working police station up and going, or are we moving, looking forward with that process today?

24:36 – 24:48•Kurt Maier

So, so the, it's a design build approach. Yes. But there's no scope for the build past the police station. I'm trying to figure out where that line is drawn.

25:22•Kurt Maier

Okay. And that minimal restructuring is in scope for this? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

25:33 – 26:21•Shayne VanDyke

A couple things. First, fantastic job. I'm excited about this. I continue to encourage, and we've had conversations about this idea of a nexus for both federal, could be local, not always, or it may be law enforcement and there may be other agencies. It would be really great to, you know, in this building, in the floors that we're not using to pull in tenants that could make us a regional hub for helping our communities here regionally and nationwide. I think there's great opportunity there. The other part is I just want to say thank you to Joe and Chief and others that you've gone out and tal

26:27 – 26:53•Jhoanna Jones

I know you mentioned bringing in other partners, and I'm thinking the 911 call center. They are in a different location, single building. Is that something that we're also maybe concerned just to kind of have all the first responders in one area so they get to know and build that relationship and report with each other so they know who they are as well? Or is that something that we're not concerned at all?

27:15•Jhoanna Jones

And if you're bringing, you know, now that you mentioned that, if you're thinking about federal agencies, they will require that as part of the lease.

27:26 – 27:50•Kurt Maier

Yeah, just one thing I forgot to ask earlier. With the design-build process, I know that we're required to get certification and approval from the state to undertake that method of contracting for this kind of work. Is this specific to this project approval that we've got here, or have we qualified for the blanket you get to do this stamp from the state?

36:25 – 36:37•Shayne VanDyke

This is probably a question more for John. Without separate line items for things like reserve, I'm assuming there's management reserve built into these for management reserve for the various line items on capital improvements.

36:47 – 37:04•Shayne VanDyke

Are there often in projects you'll have a 5% or so opportunity of like if things Scope changes slightly if there's escalation or things you run into. Are these exact or are there some reasonable reserves built into them? I don't want to know the specifics. Has reserves been planned into these?

37:35 – 37:50•Kurt Maier

Yeah, so parking lot renew and replace, you said you're doing Central Richland. You mentioned City Hall. Is that the immediate surroundings of City Hall or is it the one we share with the federal building? And if so, are they chipping in?

38:12 – 38:50•Jhoanna Jones

Thank you. So I'm trying to understand, when we do ask for funding for a project, that's just a one-time cost. How about the maintenance? Because that's a long-term asset that we have to maintain. So we do account for forming and maybe building, but then we're not accounting for the actual yearly cost. How are we doing that when it comes to our budget? Because I think that's important for us to know. It's OK, that's a one-time cost for building, but then we still need the money to actually maintain that facility.

40:15 – 40:29•Jhoanna Jones

So we don't have anything that ties to that specific facility on an accounting line, saying this is how much it costs to build or replace, and this is how much it's going to cost us on an annual basis to maintain this facility. That's kind of where I'm after mostly.

41:07 – 41:19•Jhoanna Jones

And I think that would be great for any city resident just to be able to determine, okay, this is the actual cost, but the maintenance adds up over a period of time, and we want to know what that really is at the end of the day.

42:12 – 42:32•Kurt Maier

I just want to comment for the folks following along at home that those sort of costs usually get surfaced in our annual budgets, and this one specifically focuses on the capital improvements. And so that's why a lot of those pieces aren't in this sheet, because I know I'm going to get questions about that. Thanks.

56:29 – 57:46•Jhoanna Jones

Yeah, and I was actually going to ask the same question, what funding we use to do the road diet that was implemented along the Queens Gate all the way to Badger Mountain, which has been just amazing. It's been a great addition. I know there was a few complaints. of people that crashed because they did not know how to slow down. But I can tell you, I have seen a significant difference in the speed once you get to that area. Maybe not from Cane Road to where that specific project was done. They're going pretty fast. But I got to say, it's made a huge difference. So $100,000. I mean, it doesn't

57:56 – 58:11•Shayne VanDyke

If I remember correctly, John, didn't you have if there was additional funds that may have been left over close to the year, you were able to fund some further down on the list? And I liked that model of having a budget, and as things come up, there is ability to address more. Am I missing? Is that right?

59:24 – 59:37•Jhoanna Jones

But I think that's important for us to know as well, because when we hear complaints and people say, well, this is a very dangerous street, whatever that may be, we can tell them, well, some of those projects have been shut down by their own community as well. So thank you.

59:38 – 1:00:15•Kurt Maier

I just wanted to piggyback on that. I heard some complaints about the Queensgate choker curbs and I got in my F-250 and I drove through them and it's totally fine. And while I was there, I have seen those things function. I've seen people manage their speed appropriately where they obviously had not intended to at the outset. So I'm a big fan of the neighborhood traffic safety program. I understand that it kind of ebbs and flows with community demand, but I'm a strong supporter of making sure that thing has the resources it needs to be successful.

1:00:16 – 1:00:30•Pat Holten

Thank you. Council Member Holton. Can you tell us what the projects were and what they turned down? And the other question is Haynes Avenue and Harris, are they on the new list?

1:01:55•Pat Holten

Can you say which neighborhoods failed and what the projects were?

1:18:07 – 1:18:39•Shayne VanDyke

Quick comment. In about the last six weeks, there's been significant upticks and attacks, likely from nation states on municipal critical infrastructure, operational technology, SCADA systems. I know that we have improvements, significant ones set up for 27 and 28. Humble thought is, are there some bang for the buck things that we could move forward potentially to help protect us? The size of municipalities are right in the zone that we're at. Just a thought.

1:19:28 – 1:20:13•Kurt Maier

I was going to ask the same question on the other end. Looking forward, we've got, as you said, SCADA replacement funding in 28 and 29. Given the velocity at which new methods of cybersecurity vulnerabilities are being detected, is that something we might want to look at revisiting in the longer term instead of, because whatever evaluation we did for something that we started in 25, was already obviously last year's news. So I'm wondering what the sort of support life cycle is expected to be for the replacement system that we're getting in the future.

1:20:56•Shayne VanDyke

One day you get rid of me talking about SCADA systems.

1:41:57 – 1:42:08•Jhoanna Jones

Yeah, thank you very much for the presentation. Does the state have access to that data? Okay, so we have to actually give them the authorization if they wanted to?

1:42:14•Jhoanna Jones

Okay, that's all I wanted to know. Thank you.

1:42:20 – 1:42:43•Kurt Maier

Thank you for this. I think it's important that all of this stuff gets said out loud and on the record, and we have these conversations. I do have several questions. One is you mentioned that there was other state mandated information that gets collected. Can you describe in brief terms what that might be?

1:42:55 – 1:43:09•Kurt Maier

Okay. That leads into the next topic. You said the access to these records and videos and so forth is auditable. Who does that auditing?

1:43:14 – 1:43:30•Kurt Maier

Okay. And recently the courts decided that the video collected as part of these systems is not subject to public records requests. Is the access log subject to public records requests?

1:43:43 – 1:44:04•Kurt Maier

Okay State law, as you mentioned, with SB 6002 mandates a maximum 21-day retention period. I assume it is RPD's intention to make full 21-day retention the policy? Correct. Is there a reason not to have a shorter retention time?

1:44:38 – 1:44:57•Kurt Maier

Okay. And do we have information based on previous years use of LPRs on what the average sort of retention time is between collecting data and when it's useful for the data that is involved in cases?

1:45:36 – 1:45:50•Kurt Maier

I'm asking for how old the given piece of data is on average when it becomes useful. Is the 80-20 putting it at it's useful the same day it was collected? Or is it more common that it's useful 20 days after it's collected? You see what I'm saying?

1:46:38 – 1:48:37•Kurt Maier

But what I'm getting at is if we are going to say, well, we want to keep our data as long as legally allowed, I would like to be able to justify that with some performance information explaining that we are getting real benefit from maximizing retention of this tracking information. I'd rather see a minimum effective retention policy rather than a blanket, we're going to keep everything as long as the state will let us. And that's strictly for privacy reasons. What I'm curious about here, and again, all that stuff, I'm expressing a personal preference, I'm not trying to order anything. But I'm

1:49:36•Kurt Maier

And that access is logged? In the same system as the ALPR access logs, or are those covered by different technological systems?

1:49:58 – 1:50:45•Kurt Maier

Okay, so it still acts on products. Either way, but different products within their portfolio. Yes. Okay. And that auditing is also records management oversight. Okay. Last thing, sorry. You mentioned we had to approve sharing each time, but I got the impression from some of the other phrasing that there were sort of standing sharing agreements that we can revoke at any time? Is it a case by case, no pun intended, sharing request or can other law enforcement agencies set up standing sharing agreements where they have access at any time?

1:51:01 – 1:51:14•Kurt Maier

In such an agreement, would that be handled through Axon's systems so they log in directly, or would they put in data requests to your office and your officers respond to those?

1:51:45•Kurt Maier

Okay, that's axon system prevents. Yes. Okay. Okay, that's all I've got.

1:52:41•Kurt Maier

So that does bring up an important point. Do we have data on the accuracy of the license plate transcriptions and the vehicle make model color identification?

1:55:35 – 1:57:38•Shayne VanDyke

I appreciate the I mean, that was quick, too, a week to put all that together. That was fantastic. Just for council, I wanted to provide some recent things for me that I gained context on this topic on. A couple weeks ago, I had a chance to do a ride-along. It was with a squad on the night shift, and it was great. A few things specific to this is I saw firsthand that their ALPRs are not active. But I also learned something else from that, and that is that doesn't mean that license plates aren't being searched or looked at. I found officers have phenomenal memory for seven, eight-digit alphanum

1:57:55•Pat Holten

So you don't need a vote? Is that what I'm hearing?

1:58:01•Pat Holten

We don't take a vote. No, I know we won't tonight, but in the future?

1:58:06•Kurt Maier

We voted to approve this contract like a year ago, I think, in October.

1:58:34•Kurt Maier

So I thank everyone at the police department for doing that. I think it reflects well on your people.

These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.