City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Kent City Council meeting for September 1st, 2026. If you could all please rise and join me in the flag salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,

All right, Melissa, could you please call the roll?

Here. Thank you. All right, thank you. Item number three, are there any changes to the agenda?

All right. Seeing none, a motion would be in order to approve the agenda as published. So moved. A motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye.

Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. All right, that brings us into item number four, public communications. We have several items this evening. We're gonna start out with employee of the month. Every month here at the city, our employees get together and they nominate one of their coworkers for the honor of employee of the month. Our employees of the month generally exhibit all of the mission, vision, values, and goals that we have here at the city. often up on the screen. And it's not just in a special project, but in just the day to day of how they show up and how they do their job and how they ser

Let's come up and we'll do a photo, and then I'll have you say a few words.

Jack, thank you so much for the work that you do in supporting our families. I think if you're not in that phase in life where you're realizing how many Diapers, babies go through, and toddlers, it's a lot. And recognizing how expensive they have gotten, the need is great, and we are very grateful for all of the work that's being done. So thank you.

All right. Um, our next proclamation is for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and joining us tonight are Clara and Alex. Thank you for, for being back again. We are really grateful that you are here bringing awareness. So I'm going to go ahead and read. You guys know the drill, right? I'm going to read the proclamation. We'll do the photo and then I'll have you step up to the podium. So the proclamation says, whereas fetal alcohol spectrum disorders or FASD is a group of conditions that can occur in a person who was exposed to alcohol before birth, causing lifelong complications such as physical

Thank you both so much. Start out with thank you, Ann. Year after year, we hear about how much you support Clara and Alex. And I think all of us are very, very grateful for that. So thank you. Yep. I'm just gonna ask you how long it's been that you both have been coming to city council. So it's been, this is the fourth year? Somewhere in that. So for the members of our audience, Four and a half years ago, I got a request for a meeting from Alex and Clara to come and talk about the impacts of FASD and what they are going through. And you heard them say it to make sure that this very preventable

Yeah, grateful. All right. This is one of those no easy transition moments in the meeting. So, Council President, I'm going to turn it over to you for community events.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I do want to echo what you said for a second for Alex and Clara. Thank you for coming here, and thank you for the courage. And I hope our residents and our community listens to your message and takes it to their heart, because it really means a lot, so. With that, as Madam Mayor said, it's hard to transition, but I'll be sharing events happening at SSO Showroom Center. September 26th is a home opener for Seattle Thunderbirds versus Prince George Cougars and the entire season for 2026 and 2027. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. October 2nd, Seattle Thunderbirds

All right. Thank you. All right, the next item on our agenda is Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Governance Board structure changes. Back in August on the primary ballot, a measure went before the Black Diamond community about the City of Black Diamond joining the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority. That measure passed in Black Diamond, so they are going to be joining the RFA, and with that, the Governance Board took action to change the structure and makeup of the board. And part of the action that they took was to change the number of council members that represent each city. So in citie

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Since we will have two seats and one alternate, Council Member Troutner will continue serving on the board as a voting member. And Council Member Boyd will continue serving as a voting member. For now, Council Member Larmer will be the alternate, but we still have conversations to be had on that. So we'll be working on that. But right now, it's Council Member Larmer as the alternate. All right. And that is it. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. We are going to move on to reports of several things this evening. So each one of the council members sits on a variety of boards outside of our city council meetings, making sure that the city of Kent's positions and voice are being heard at both the regional and state level as policy decisions and funding decisions are made. I'm going to start with a couple of reports. The first thing tonight, I want to give an update on the quiet zone. So we heard the train as we were presenting the proclamation. So over the last close to 14 years, the City of Kent has been working wit

We had our council workshop and we got update on our Facilities move for our staff ASB building as it's called and that presentation is available on Ken TV 21 and our Facebook page and I serve on various boards and commissions regionally, but we did not have our meetings during the last month. I did have one update from public health board regarding pet licenses and the changes they're making that will be available in my council newsletter that comes out tomorrow. And it will also include all the events I have been to with the pictures. And you can sign up on our city's website to cancel newsl

Thank you, Madam President. I sit on the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Governance Board. At our last meeting, we had a couple of proclamations and some meritorious awards. I also got to do a presentation from the Citizen Advisory Committee, which I am chair of. On August 12th, we got to observe a multi-company where members of that committee got to go to Station 74 and watch a simulated two-story house fire. There was also a vehicle crash involving extrication. And it's really cool when our committee members get to see some of that stuff and watch our firefighters in action so that we ca

Thank you, Madam President. I sit on the city public safety committee and represent the city on the public safety side. So we did have an ordinance that we introduced tonight and if you have noticed that you've been driving around in the state of kent there's an influx of unlicensed mobile food place almost on every corner right so we put the ordinance in place really that's going to require them and it's a public safety issue right so really they're going to require them they must have a license they must be able to have the food handling document that is saying they can handle food and the o

Thank you, Council Member Boyce. Council Member Larmer. Thank you, Council President. I sit on the King County Growth Management Planning Committee. We did not meet in August. We will be meeting September 16th.

Thank you, Council Member Larmer. Council Member Michaud. Thank you, Council President. I serve on Kent's Human Services Commission as the Council liaison. They adopted their or approved their grant funding recommendations, so those will be coming to Council. I believe that Marina will present us with those recommendations and explain the whole process. So more to come.

Thank you, Council Member Schoker. Thank you, Council President. I sit on the Sound Cities Association's Equity and Inclusion Cabinet. We haven't met this month, so no new updates there. All my other updates are in the Council Newsletter.

Thank you, Ms. Shoker. And with that, back to you, Madam Mayor.

All right. Thank you. Moving on in our agenda, item number six is public hearing. We have a public hearing tonight on the resolution reviewing moratorium on additional or expanded jail, correctional, or other detention facilities. So we will now hold the public hearing on the resolution renewing the moratorium on additional or expanded jail, correctional, or other detention facilities. Staff will give a presentation and then I'll invite the public to provide testimony, written statements, and other evidence. Public input must relate to the subject of the public hearing and council members, as

Kristen, I had a hard time saying September 1st when we started, so I don't know where the year's going. All right, council, do you have any questions? All right, Melissa, do we have anyone signed up to testify?

All right, as you make your way to the podium, if you could state your name and city of residence for the record. Just a reminder that your comments need to be related to the matter of the public hearing. We do have a three-minute timer that will go up on the screen.

Thank you. Melissa, do we have anyone else signed up? No one else. All right. Do we have any written comments that have been submitted? All right. With that, is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Got a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. The public hearing is now closed. Council, any questions, discussion, or debate on this topic? All right, seeing none, is there a motion to adopt resolution 2110?

I move to adopt resolution number 2110, adopting findings of fact and renewing for a six-month period a moratorium on additional or expanded jail correctional or other detention facilities.

Second. All right, we've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

All right. We are going to move on to public comment. Melissa, do we have anyone signed up for public comment? All right.

All right. So public comment period is your opportunity to speak to the council and the mayor on issues that relate to the city of Kent or the agenda items council will consider. This is not an open public forum and comments that do not relate to the business of the city are not permitted. Additionally, the state strictly prohibits people from using public comment opportunity for political campaign purposes, including to support or oppose ballot measures or a candidate running for office. Speakers may not give political campaign speeches and must instead speak to the matter of the city council

Thank you. I just want to put out on the record so our city did respond to the the complaints we did connect. This is a private facility series of retention ponds that are built into the Lakes neighborhood. I know that we did make the connections between the residents and Department of Ecology, Washington State Department of Agriculture, Chad Baron, our public works director is in the back. If you have any additional questions and then we will. see where else we have an opportunity. Again, private property and the homeowners association, but we'll make sure that those connections continue to b

All right, thank you. All right, moving on to item number eight on the agenda. It's our consent calendar. Consent calendar is a compilation of items that the city council has considered at both workshops And Committee of the Whole had an opportunity to engage in discussion and ask questions. These items have all passed out of Committee of the Whole unanimously. We have tonight items A through I. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. We do not have any other business this evening, bids or an executive session. So that brings us to the bottom of our agenda. And with that, we are adjourned.