City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. I now call the September 8th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. We will take a moment to take roll call of the council members by position number. Please say here when the clerk calls your name. Council member Angulary.

No, I did my... Yes, you go ahead. You call the names. Thank you. It's on my script.

Thank you, Clerk. We'll now go over the meeting agenda with the city manager review.

All right. Are there any changes to the agenda? Okay, next up we have public engagement opportunities. So we are working to build a community where everyone feels welcomed. So join us at an open house to learn about our DEIB roadmap and share your experiences and input to help create a more equitable Bothell. That will be next Wednesday, the 16th. You can also apply for a creative arts grant. Bothell's Arts Commission provides grant funding to artists and cultural arts organizations for innovative projects designed to showcase artistic and cultural diversity community-building activities throu

All right. Sustainamania is returning on September 26th. Sustainamania is our annual sustainability festival, and it returns for its 14th year. Join this free, family-friendly festival to celebrate the everyday actions we can all take to lead a more sustainable life and build lasting change. And that will be held at Bothell City Hall on Saturday, September 26th. Thank you. Okay. And we do have three proclamations tonight. I have asked Councilmember Dodd to read the Welcoming Week proclamation.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I have the wrong one, though.

All right. Whereas, Welcoming Week is celebrated annually each September by hundreds of cities, towns, and organizations to promote compassion, unity, and respect for our neighbors, with a shared vision that all community members are valued and protected. And whereas, Welcoming Week gives us the opportunity to bring together neighbors across Bothell and invites us to work together towards a prosperous and welcoming Bothell in which diverse people from across the world feel like they belong in our community. And whereas the Welcoming Week 2026 theme, Stories We Share, The Courage to Connect, ca

Nice. And we have Gabby Kuna here to accept. Thank you.

We're gonna save pictures for the end and we'll pass out the folders then. Thank you. All right, next up we have Diaper Need Awareness Week. Whereas diaper need, the condition of not having a sufficient supply of clean diapers to keep babies and toddlers clean, dry, and healthy can adversely affect the health and well-being of children and their families. And whereas national surveys and research report that nearly one in two families with young children experience diaper need, and 48% of families report delaying diaper changes to extend their available supply. And whereas a sufficient supply

Appreciate it. And then I've also asked a council member curd to read the proclamation for Puget sound starts here month.

All right. And if those who, if staff wants photos with Council, we can do that. It's up to you. That is a no. Okay. All right. Do you want to go ahead and take the folders to them just while we're here? Thank you. We have to honor the ceremony a little bit. Thank you. All right, next up we have public comment, but before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that we are in election season and there are certain campaign-related restrictions regarding public comment on ballot measures. Public speakers generally cannot specifically address a campaign or ballot measure at a public meeting or

Thank you, Clerk. Next up, we have the City Manager report. City Manager.

I want to look to my colleagues to see if they have any questions for you first. All right. We'll have questions for you next week.

Thanks for the presentation. We'll see if there's questions up here. Council Member Miles.

Thank you. Thank you for this presentation. This is really great. I might have some basic economic questions for you. Sorry, I did not take econ. So with the unemployment rate, how do you factor in people live one place and work another place? How is that? How do those numbers jive?

Okay, got it. And then with the folks that are unemployed, is there a particular sector, like tech, where they're being let go? Is that really the big one?

Sure. Last question. Any way that we are supporting or helping people get back to work in terms of programs or other things like that?

Okay, thank you very much. This was super helpful. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. First of all, Claire and Ashish, great report. Thank you so much. Employment is key for all our communities, and we have Canyon Park. Some of us were at portal space systems, which grew from 600 square feet to 6,000, and now to 60,000 square feet. So it's really awesome to see that it's growing in our own communities. And I really loved the connecting employers to the campus training programs. That's really great. We are blessed with our UW Bothell. So definitely unemployment and office vacancy, probably a couple of metrics, but I wanted to hear from you. What are the

And unemployment rate in 2018, 2019, we were close to 3%, 3.5%. Now we are at 4.7%. Is that a bit concerning or not really? What do you think?

Thank you. And a quick question, City Manager. Anything we can talk about Philips, or is it better not to hold it for the future Philips?

Thank you so much. Great report. Thank you.

All right. If nobody else has any questions, I have one. I'm curious to hear more about the Welcome Mat experience. Can you describe what people are looking for and what the intention is there?

Great. I love the concept. I'm glad that you've developed it at least that far. One question I have for small businesses, are you including that welcome mat experience for people who want to start neighborhood retail?

I love that. Um, for a long time I was in a profession where my job was to provide emotional, physical and informational support to people as they were trying to do something. Um, and that sounds like what you're trying to do. Not, I'm not calling you doulas. I'm just saying that you're using those skills, that skillset. Um, The other question I have is now, just like you did on welcome mat experience for the small businesses, but also for large businesses, will you be including sponsorship opportunities for the city in your welcome experience?

Um, because I know that the sponsorship, uh, for four city programming and, um, events and like amenities are, it's pretty recent. Um, and so just to like help get the word out as if they're new to the area, just making sure that they know immediately, you know, immediately, like in the first, the first contact that that is something that they can, um, pursue with us and that we can find ways to, to serve the community together. So, um, thank you for the presentation. for answering the questions. And I think that's it. Appreciate you being here.

All right. Looks like Council Member Dodd.

Thanks. I wanted to ask, one of the boards I represent the city on is the North Urban Human Services Alliance. I can no longer attend the meetings which are the fourth Wednesday of the month from about 9 to 10 30 ish So if that is something anyone can accommodate I would love to have a warm transfer of responsibility there I Can support its conversations, I don't have to call on you I can help unless if anyone else wanted to happy to yeah it's fine I was wondering if it's in person or it's virtual virtual and it's always virtual it's always hour and a half yeah so because you're on the board y

Yeah. So, yeah. Please share more information through email or however, in case, yeah, if that can help me to catch up anything.

Yeah. And then, Council Member Miles, I saw your mic was on. I didn't know. I can send it to both of you. The three of us can talk about.

No, my mic's on for something else. Sorry.

That's right, it's conversations. We can converse. I want to say it has been an eventful and fun nine months being on council, and we had a wonderful off-site back in March. One thing that didn't happen in that off-site was that we didn't have discussion about how we will work together as a new body. So what I was wondering and thinking is, is it possible that we could have a facilitated half-day off-site to talk about how we work together, just so that we are forming, norming, and storming together so that we will be bigger, badder, and stronger as a group? So just wanted to throw that out to

Absolutely. I think especially because one of our two new folks is asking for that, I think it's important that we respond. I'd be happy to participate, hopefully on a weekend day. She said sort of tired.

Thank you. I'm glad that there's interest and appetite. And yes, a weekend would be awesome.

I'd support that too. I 100% support. I used to comment a couple of times, our city manager. It was a very working session, last time retreat. I think we need to have more team building. I 100% support. The more we spend, of course, it needs to be a public, I think, informing way in advance and all. But I love it. Thank you for bringing it up, Council Member Miles.

Well, thank you, everyone. I'm super glad and excited, again, that there's appetite. And then city manager, no trust falls. So thank you.

And just to note, I know that we are in the busy season. We're trying to compress everything before the holiday season. So sometime after that, I wouldn't expect anything more.

All right. Last call for council conversations. All right. Moving on to projected agenda discussion. We have council member Dodd here to introduce this item.

It's true. So I am going to start with a reminder for all of us, because this doesn't come up super often, just to follow state law. My question is, do we want to consider taking a position on this, not what is your position, because we can't talk about that until we meet again, if we agree to meet again on this. I'm going to forget the initiative numbers, but they're in your packet. There are two initiatives on the November ballot. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And I was hoping that we could add to our agenda a discussion to take place whether we should take a position as a city council on these.

So I had a question. So we're having a discussion about having a discussion, correct?

Yes. Okay. That is the state law in front of us today.

Okay. And by having a discussion about having a discussion, what problem are we trying to solve?

that we could potentially come back on October 8th to have the discussion about whether to take a stance on these initiatives as a council. Staff will prepare both a pro and con resolution and we could pass one of them or none of them.

Got it. City Manager, can you as staff do that because this is a political issue or not?

Okay. One other question, Councilmember Dodd. What are you trying to get out of this? What's the end game?

The end game would be that I would hope our council would listen to the public hearing and take a position on these initiatives. I am talking slowly and deliberately because I want to follow the law in this, so I'm not sharing a personal position, but other city councils are also doing this. These are pretty broad and impactful initiatives and helping people understand through a resolution that calls out the impacts and that we as a body are for or against them, however the votes go, could help people see that and draw attention to it. So my hope is that we take an informed position that helps

One last piece, and then... Is that... I get that. I understand that. keeping all personal feelings aside, is that the place for a council to do that?

I think that's what we're talking about right now. So we have done this in 2024 for a couple of statewide initiatives. Not all of the ones on that ballot, certainly. I think it's something that I personally try to support sparingly. And for me, these feel like initiatives that I hope we can take a look at.

I will also add that this process has been used in the past to align our positions with clearly stated values that we have expressed as the city. And so I do appreciate that Council Member Dodd is bringing this forward because my understanding is that by hearing the discussion from the city, from members of the public, and weighing that, we are able to then make a united decision here on council where we're able to stand in alignment with those values.

I think this will be my last statement. I mean, if we're having a conversation about having a conversation, that's one conversation. I do have some concern about us moving forward. And maybe that's the conversation that we have during the conversation. But I do have some concern about us taking a position on this.

Okay. So I know that one of the situations needed here. Can I have my script back?

Alright, so we do need at least three council members to voice support to be able to put this on the agenda and have the discussion.

So far I think we have... If it helps, I think it's good to have the conversation when we're allowed to have the conversation. So we can decide at that time on the direction. But I said yes because I think we do need to discuss this in the proper way. regardless of how we feel about the initiatives themselves or whether the council is supposed to take a position, all that stuff. We can have that discussion in the open when it's fully legal to do so.

Certainly it's easier when we can speak less like this.

Okay. And one question I have is, is it three council members in addition to council member Dodd or is it council member Dodd and two council members?

So inclusive of council member Dodd, we have, I think, support to put this on an upcoming agenda. If I can count correctly.

Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Next up, we have the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Council Member Dodd.

I move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

The motion to approve the consent agenda has been made by Council Member Dodd and seconded by Council Member Curd. Is there any discussion? Clerk, you may proceed with the roll call.

Okay. We have a public hearing, which means I am going to go to our Choose Your Own Adventure agenda item. So let me explain the purpose first. The purpose of this agenda item is for the City Council to review and take action on the street vacation for a portion of Northeast 185th Street between 108th Avenue Northeast and 110th Avenue Northeast as requested by the University of Washington Bothell. As this is a quasi-judicial proceeding, it is handled differently than other matters that City Council routinely discusses. I will first go over the order of operations for this matter. At the start

Thank you, city attorney. Does anyone in attendance wish to challenge the participation of any council member based on appearance of fairness doctrine? If so, please step up to the podium. If you are viewing the meeting on Zoom, please use a virtual raise hand feature located at the bottom of the Zoom interface. Select raise hand. The host will then see that you have your hand raised and can invite you to speak. When called upon, please state the name of the member and the reasons why you believe they should be disqualified from this matter. Please remember we are not taking public testimony a

Okay, I see no challenges, city clerk. Okay, I'm gonna keep going until I find the place where we're supposed to be. I'm on page seven. Okay, so we're moving on to public testimony. Public testimony for the proposed street vacation for a portion of Northeast 185th Street between 108th Avenue Northeast and 110th Avenue Northeast is now open. Sign-ups for public comment were received by the city clerk. We will now ask for members of the public to present testimony. When the city clerk calls your name, please step to the podium. Please remember to state your name, confine your remarks to the matt

Okay, with that, I will now close the public testimony period. We will now ask the street vacation applicant to speak on the proposal.

Thank you. We will now ask city staff to present their staff report on the proposal. All right, we're getting some tech set up. Don't worry about it. I don't know if I have good jokes. I know this is where we get to ad lib. And then the city attorney gives me a stink eye because I'm going off script.

I literally can tap dance. Please don't ask me to do that here. That doesn't stop me. All right. Staff is set up, so thank you so much to Peter Pearson and Boyd Benson for being here tonight and presenting to us.

Okay, thank you. With that, the applicant will now be provided a brief opportunity to present a rebuttal if they wish. I don't believe there's anything to rebut. Seeing none. All right. And that means staff does not have anything to rebut. So we will move on to deliberations. All right, city council members, is there any discussion of this matter or questions for staff or the applicant? They're confident. I went and sat down.

It'll be quick. I don't know if you can actually see this in this proceeding, but is there a recommendation on the compensation model?

Thank you, City Manager. That just didn't occur to me. I didn't see it. Thank you.

Now that the flashbacks are over, there is still time for Council Members for questions or discussion, if you'd like. All right, with no more, the evidentiary record on this matter is now closed. It is my understanding from the testimony tonight from the applicant and staff that both the applicant and staff are not looking for a motion tonight, but we'll bring back a draft ordinance at a future meeting in October for council's consideration. With that, unless there is more discussion from council, we will conclude this agenda item. Okay, I'm going back to my regular script now. Before we take

Thank you, thank you Deputy Mayor. I think, are you looking for us to say a bunch of yeses or how is this going to work?

Move to approve the appointment of Sarah Frost to position three on the lodging tax advisory board second All right.

I have a motion from councilmember Alcabra and a second from councilmember Dodd Move to roll call.

With that, we are going to take a 15-minute break, and then we will reconvene down at the table for a study session. At 8-0-2. Recording stopped. All right, we are back. And are we? We're almost all here. Okay. Yeah, Council Member Alcabra can join us. We are going to get started with a study session on the Transportation Safety Plan implementation, and we have staff here to present to us. Thank you very much.

And then future council touch points, just, oh, sorry, there we go.

Oh, thank you. I didn't realize that I had turned it on. I want to say thank you for this. This is near and dear to my heart. I was speaking with the chief, I think it was last week, about having almost three accidents on 120th in about a 15-minute drive time. And I feel like sometimes the speed limit is a suggestion for some folks. And I'm not saying that I'm not a person that takes a suggestion every now and then, but I try to drive the speed limit. It's good to hear that people are driving the speed limit. And I did hear the fact that we can't add cushions everywhere, which totally makes se

Echoing the thanks, unless you start cloning our traffic officers, I don't know how you could cover the whole city. Is it wrong to say that this seems similar to Lake Kenmore's CAPE program with the after-hours enforcement of the legal speed limit outside? in school zones outside of school hours? Very similar. Okay. Um, I did want to call attention to Kenmore also has a ticket reduction, um, option. If you can prove certain kinds of need, they'll reduce the cost of it. I don't know the details. I've thankfully never gotten a ticket in Kenmore or needed to reduce it. But, um, I would love to se

Or come back with why we shouldn't. I just think it's worth explaining.

Yeah, cool. And then the other thing for the future is I also hear why we can't put speed cushions on every road living off of 228th, which is a giant hill. I had fun thinking about speed cushions there, but I realized why you wouldn't do it. I put gravity and physics together. But I would love to understand, like I do get, to Council Member Miles' point, I try to go the speed limit. It's a fear of mine to get pulled over by an officer I know in the city that I work in. So I go the speed limit, and people are not happy about that when I'm going up or down 228th. And also I live there, and I kn

Yeah, and you can't. design a road that's gonna deter like the worst, you know, 5% of people. I imagine they're not super intimidated by cameras. So, okay, thank you.

Where does the requirement that an officer needs to be with those mobile cameras come from? Is that state law?

One data set that I think would be really useful in this conversation is the near miss map. I was a little surprised not to see it in here, especially if we could, because that was some really great data that was available to us few years ago when we were talking about this, um, to be able to overlay, uh, some of the data that you've presented with, like looking at those, the collectors and these school zones, um, for near misses. I know that both of the two school zone areas that you are proposing, um, have the feel of a country road because at one point they were and I live off of one over o

The neighborhood occasionally experiences reckless driving through there. And so my thought is that that probably happens on 23rd and 4th as well. Any straight shot road that was formerly a country road, people will find the opportunity to do that. And so I do think that like having that near miss overlapping what you're proposing here would be helpful in a future presentation. Yeah, those are some of my thoughts. I will just say as a family that lives in West Hill, we saw the, um, the benefit of, of speed, like deterrent, um, not just cushions, but, um, it's going through conifer view and tha

There's a question. In the beginning, you had the bar chart where when you did the cushions, I think the brickyard one in the beginning, it had a steep drop off. Yeah. So is that like a baseline, those four, four, three, four, you know, or can it get lower? Is that like a best practice type of number or is it...

I think that's the part where we got the emails too, right?

100%, I was wondering if the number can approach zero more than this. That's the question.

And I would just also add that we've had positive emails being thankful and appreciative for the change that has taken place in that neighborhood too. We've definitely heard some positive feedback from the community.

was gonna that was kind of the question I had queuing up to is I I share the concerns about the the lack of sidewalks which which is all over and I understand the history of it but that doesn't make me like walking on a shoulder more but also I look at it as more of a system you're slowing down traffic reducing the severity of accidents when they happen and neither sidewalk nor bike lane nor speed cushions means no accidents ever at the same time I think I know I could use help telling that story and not so much the cost because I don't want to fall into saying like, well, it's just too much m

so much of this is rule of law, right? If we change the rules, then how are we getting the rule change out to the public so that they're aware of what those changes are? And so, you know, one of my questions was like, are there good PSAs around the safe systems approach? And so then of course, I just asked the internet myself and found that there's this lovely playlist on YouTube called the safe system approach that like breaks it down one or two minutes at a time. So like something like that might be really beneficial for our community to just be able to share this as like, what are we doing

I'm going to pick on Captain Rogers, too, because when I did the Police Department Community Academy, I don't know, a thousand years ago or five, it you were. they're talking about traffic enforcement and talking about the difference in the severity of someone's injuries at the different speed that the crash happens. That was something that either I didn't take it in during driver's ed or I was perhaps 20 years out of driver's ed or whatever the cause. That felt like the first time I was hearing that, and it made a huge impact on me and how I drive, which has always been super legal and above

Just to tag on to the PSA, which I think is great and it's necessary, do you talk to the kids at the driver's school, the driver's eds at all? Do they bring you in at all?

Yeah. Those are the worst parking lots in the world. I've been rear-ended many times, and people are like, you know what? This never happened. We're not reporting this. But it is pretty bad. I did have one sort of one-off question. Since we've seen a decrease in ticketing and infractions, have we seen a decrease in accidents happening or fatalities in any way?

Yeah. I remember at post-COVID, I had forgotten how to drive. Yeah.

To answer your questions, I heard one is yes. I mean, for me, I'm not speaking on behalf of council. I think let's reduce the speed and see what that looks like and then have a conversation again in the future. And the second one is, yes, the caveat is the privacy, and I know we have a solid policy on that, but it's just ensuring that that's part of the analysis and the conversation we're going to have at that discussion. I think that would be good.

So that picture up there was of you standing with that Buick or whatever it was?

All right. Well, ending on a throwback. Thank you. Did you have anything else to add? Okay. Sounds like we're good here. Thank you. And since we do not have an executive session, we can adjourn. Thank you, everyone.