City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, it is Tuesday, September 1st, 6 o'clock, and I will call this city council regular meeting to order. It looks like we have all council with the exception of the mayor tonight. And so for all those who are able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice. and I will read our land acknowledgement. We, the city of Lacey, are on the ancestral land of the tribal people of the Treaty of Medicine Creek, including the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the Squaxi

Move to approve the agenda and consent agenda as published.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Are there any opposed? Seeing none, we have an agenda. And the first item on our agenda tonight is a proclamation for Emergency Preparedness Month.

Whereas first responders may not always be able to quickly reach community members in an emergency or disaster, and whereas the Lacey community can take action to prepare, respond, and recover from any natural or human disaster, the more who prepare, the safer we stay and the faster our community will recover. And...

Whereas we encourage community members to learn more about preparedness by attending local events and visiting the ready.gov website to make a family preparedness plan, create an emergency kit and evacuation plan, prepare for local hazards, and teach youth about emergency education and

Whereas we encourage the community to visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency's website, FEMA.gov, to learn more about this year's theme, Americans Stand Ready, end.

Whereas Lacey community members who are prepared to meet any emergency or disaster can be a positive influence on their neighbors by sharing their preparedness story and encouraging the participation of friends, family, and coworkers. And now, therefore, I, Malcolm Miller, Deputy Mayor of the City of Lacey, on behalf of the Lacey City Council, do hereby recognize this month of September 26, 2026, as Emergency Preparedness Month in Lacey, and encourage all community members to prepare themselves, their families, and their neighbors for the consequences of an emergency. And with that, I'd like t

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the different things that you guys do to keep communication going in all different types of circumstances and situations. Much appreciated.

Next on our agenda is public comment. We didn't have anybody sign up here. in the chamber. We do have one person online. We have zero written public comments, so we will go with the one person online.

Thank you for your comments, Christine. We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to seeing and meeting with you when we can.

Next on our agenda, we have an update. Oh, yeah, you're right. Before we move on, is there anyone in this chamber wishing to address this council? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to our next agenda item. Lacey Makerspace. Vanessa.

So. Well, I really appreciate that you put the numbers to the screen here that truly tell the story of the success of the Lacey Makerspace. When you consider how far we've come in just three short years, it's staggering. And what a gift to the community. So thank you both very much. Thank you.

Congratulations on your new position. Thank you. I think this is really kind of a testament to what public-private partnerships can really do. You know, as we get to our budget every year and we see Lacey Makerspace as a line item, I think we're all really proud of the work that comes out of there and the expansion that's happened in there. You know, the St. Martins, you know, being a part of this and and us being on their campus really able to help their students out and and uh you know while sean did a great job i'm excited for you and what you're going to be able to do in this role overseei

Can I ask a quick question? Yes. Okay, so the wire will be gone, all right, and then you said one of those poles is coming down as well, so that electrical will be undergrounded?

I definitely appreciate these construction updates and project updates because we always get questions about what's happening here, what's happening there. And without your guys' presentations, we would have to go to the permit office to get the information and or go and make Rick pull it or whatever the case may be. So thank you so much for your presentation. It really does help us out.

Okay. Moving along in our agenda. It looks like we are going to be looking at ordinance one seven zero five, our final 2026 budget amendment. And I see Chelsea on her way.

Can I get a motion? I would move to approve Ordinance 1705, the final 2026 budget amendment. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing none. So in the past, we've had these in April, maybe once or twice a year, and it looks like we've really kind of got it down to once.

I think we took a pretty deep dive last week, and I appreciate you bringing all those numbers forward and the clarifying information about the difference between the two pots of money. So thank you so much for doing that. Unless there's something more from the council, it has been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 1705, amending the 2026 fiscal year budget by ordinance. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Is there any opposed? Seeing none that motion passes unanimously and thank you so much.

Okay next on our agenda is our interlocal agreement for Franz Anderson. It looks like we have Vanessa and Ryan.

Thank you. So I think it's pretty well known that I've been opposed to this project since the beginning, and I think the $3 million would more than cover the $1.5 million needed to make the conversion at Maple Court, which would make a lot more sense to use Lacey's monies for, in my opinion. But I'm forgetting that for the moment. On 1G, on Maple Court, is there anything we can do to make that language stronger? I mean, that's pretty vague language that we're going to get support from the other communities. Is there anything we can do to strengthen that language to basically guarantee the $1.5

I don't know where the rest of the council is. That's something I would definitely like to see is more firm language on that.

It's interesting that you brought that up because that's exactly what's in my notes, which is that language, it is a little vague for our goal. And the word funding, I really strongly feel that it should be in there somewhere because we do need their support. Participation in their backing for funding very specifically, especially since we're handing over $3 million now, I am in favor of building an ecosystem for shelter to 30% to 50% to positive outcome. Right. That is the ideology. And we've all agreed that we will work on this as as as a collective body, as opposed to everybody being siloed

So those two would be my recommendation. I'd like to see their backing on our effort to gain the funding, transition the funding, and get new funding whenever we go out and apply for that. Because saying that, hey, us going by ourselves and them saying we are in agreement doesn't mean that they will back our funding recommendations and or asks. That is all.

As a veteran of the Housing Council, and I'm really glad to see two successors here, one of the things I think we've never done terribly well as jurisdictions is hold each other accountable on this. So my thread is following kind of what Malcolm has just said, is that we find a way in this language, without being too ham-fisted, And to agree as a body that we're going to hold each other accountable to make these things work together as an ecosystem.

So when it comes to the quarterly reports that we're asking for, I am glad that we have some measures in place to demand more accountability. And I've come to understand why we don't want to be too prescriptive right now in terms of what is going to be included in that report. But I do want to make sure that we have that flexibility to add to what we need to see in the report if we don't get it the first time or the second time, or we feel that it's needed. The second thing, and this is more of a question, I recall that when we were talking about this building earlier this year, we were talkin

Thank you. I'm mostly concerned about holding them accountable and monitoring the work that they do.

There's one last thing that I wanted to bring up, which is capacity for Maple Court. I know we're not at capacity, and part of that is because we don't have enough case management there. Is that still true? Correct. I don't know if we've tried to find a solution for that. I know that we... We would like to see the building at capacity. And I think that would help the region as a whole. I'm not sure how we're going to get there. So have you guys had any thoughts, ideas, goals, plans for getting that location to capacity?

I think this is a little bit off topic, but on Maple Court, where are we on Lehigh management over there? I understand there's another new manager there now again? for like the eighth one or something that we've had?

This is who's going to be running the new facility, and this is who we're putting all of our faith in. Not your call, I know, but the fact that Olympia is moving forward with this project, with Lehigh as the entity, is baffling to me. They have an absolute, miserably bad record of success, so why we would put all this money into a project that's going to be theirs is beyond me.

Which is why I'm so concerned about accountability.

They've done none. They have no accountability.

But with what? I mean, the money will already have been spent, right? So there's not a whole lot you can do at that point. The money's gone. It's a bad deal.

Well, you know, go ahead, Council Member Hsu.

Okay. So, you know, in our... Our agreement that we had with the county and our interjurisdictional agreement originally said that we would have, in five years, turn this into a permanent supportive housing. And it started kind of getting off the track, if you guys remember. And it was almost looking like we were just going to be the shelter and everybody else was going to get the permanent supportive housing, making us the warehouse that everybody kind of pulled from. So once that... language in that contract was reviewed you know we the mayor myself we talked to city manager and said hey you

That sounds great, but the money will be gone.

Before we end this discussion, I think it's important to point out that just a few years ago, You know, we had a mess with encampments along the freeway. We had the governor having to step in and create this funding that got us here in the first place where we are now. And so I think, you know, it's tempting to say nothing good has happened, but that's not true. I think we've made a lot of progress and we need to keep that in mind. I mean, I'm not saying that... Maple Court can't be improved and I'm certainly supportive of converting it to permanent supportive housing. But I just think to be t

It's really changed things. We don't have the encampments along the freeway anymore. I can't remember the name of the hill over here. Hamburger Hill is gone. And it looks like the jungle is probably one of the last remaining ones that it looks like maybe not there by the end of 2027. So you're right. We have made progress. But in this moment, I just want to make sure that Maple Court becomes what it is supposed to be. And that is my big goal in this. So that's why I'm glad we've given our direction, stronger language. Let's make it a little more ironclad. And we'll have those discussions with

Can I just add, you know, this has been a long haul, and I really want to thank staff, particularly Ryan and Vanessa and Rick for all the work they've put into it. It's been frustrating having to serve as the tech team and go through all the iterations that have happened, and so gold stars. Thanks.

All right, and I also don't want to fail to mention that in addition to our team here, the county and the city of Olympia were instrumental in getting some of the Maple Court changes happening, the reporting happening, because they were at the table as well demanding that, hey, we need to have reports on how it's going, and they were instrumental in helping us get that done as well. So it really has been a group effort. With that, we will move on to our next agenda item, which is the city manager's report. Do you have anything for us? No report tonight. Okay. Next, we have the mayor's report.

Just one report tonight. Medic 1 EMS met on August 27th. Just a couple of things from that meeting. The Opioid Abatement Council granted $311,000 to Medic 1 for the project, and I've discussed this project previously with Council, but this is a project where they're going out with Suboxone for overdose situations and also bringing directly into offering treatment and offering counseling services with transportation and some of those other things. So that is one of the things that was funded with the opioid abatement money that the county dispersed. And then the only other thing I wanted to men

Okay. This is a report of the August 19th meeting of the inner city transit authority. And I'm pleased to announce that once again, the inner city bus operator and maintenance teams are the state. Rodeo, R-O-A-D-E-O, champions. And while it's fun, there is an important element to this, and that is to have highly skilled and trained bus drivers and the crews that are necessary to keep... the buses functioning at a high level so inner city transit has won more than their share of these and so it's it's really great to see them come home with it again recruitment is underway for citizens who want

Yes, I have a brief report. I attended the RHC meeting last week as an alternate. Also, I attended the River Council meeting. We got quite a briefing on events to remove invasive species, sometimes they're plants, sometimes they're animals. But as far as plants are concerned, we're working with other organizations like the Nisqually Land Trust to remove plants such as scotch broom and Himalaya blackberry. I was not familiar with any of these, but apparently they are squeezing out some of our native plants, which means some of the animals are not able to get the food that they need. It's also a

Okay. With that, We have reached the end of our agenda. It is currently 7.39 p.m. I did want to just take a moment to talk about the loss that Nisqually had a couple weeks ago. They lost their chairman, Ken Choke. We've had a longstanding relationship With the tribe we have an accord with them that dates back to 2012 We have a totem pole in our lobby. So we are very sorry for their loss and We sent a card out To the tribe. I hope you guys all got to sign it but it's it's always tragic when when a an organization loses their leadership. They have gone through their process of replacing their le