City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Kent City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. If you could all please rise and join us in the flag salute. Melissa, would you please call the roll?

Here. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes this evening? All right. Hearing no changes, a motion would be in order to approve the agenda.

Got a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. We will move right in to public communications. We have several items this evening under public recognition. I'm going to start, Council, with something that's on the consent calendar, an appointment to the Special Events Public Facility District. So that is the board that Oversees the tax payment at the public facilities taxed at Shower Center. I am bringing forward for your approval Todd Oyafeso. Many of you know him. He's on our land use and planning board, part of the Kent Community Foundation,

All right. Our next proclamation this evening is for National Hispanic Heritage Month, and joining us is Jaime Mendez. Did I get that right? Yes. All right. Thank you. Spanish media pioneer in the Pacific Northwest, so thank you for being here this evening. Proclamation says, whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month, known as Mes de Herencia Hispana is celebrated nationwide from September 15th through October 15th each year. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover the month at which it was celebrated today. And wher

Thank you so much. Next proclamation we have is for Week Without Driving, and Prem Subedi and Miguel Ibarra from our Bicycle Advisory Board are here to accept the proclamation. Proclamation says, whereas the city of Kent is dedicated to fostering a safe, healthy, sustainable environment and transportation access for all of its residents, and whereas providing mobility options and infrastructure is a key function of the city government, and whereas nearly a quarter of Washington State's population consists of non-drivers, this group includes people with disabilities, young people under the driv

Okay. So I'm gonna read this on behalf of Prem. With the recent Metro service changes in Kent, it is easier than ever to rely on transit in Kent. I'm gonna tell you, I got an email. Thank you so much for the email, wanting to make sure that we sent all this information out. So thank you for being here tonight. So week without driving 2026. With the recent Metro service changes, bike lane and pedestrian improvements in Kent, it is easier than ever to rely on transit to get around our community without driving. This week without driving, I want to challenge our elected officials and community le

Thank you. All right. Our last proclamation this evening, I want to call up Claire and Christy that have joined us this evening. Our proclamation is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The proclamation says, whereas childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among children, with approximately 15,500 children in the United States diagnosed each year, and one in six children with cancer not surviving five years. And whereas many childhood cancers have seen limited treatment advances while survivors may experience serious long-term health conditions, and as a result of treatment

It takes a lot of bravery to get up here and share your story, and we are very, very grateful for your willingness to do that and hope that it really does continue to promote awareness and support for organizations like See You Later Foundation. I'm going to call out my friend Brian Williams in the back, doing so much work when it comes to supporting families in our community that are fighting this fight. Very grateful. There's lots of opportunities during the year to support See You Later, including their upcoming auction here in just a couple of weeks. Claire, mom, thank you so much for bein

Thank you, Madam Mayor. At Assessor Showers Center on September 26th, there's a home opener game with Seattle Thunderbirds versus Prince George Cougars. And you can purchase the entire season, 2026 to 2027 tickets on assessorshowerscenter.com. And October 22 through 25 will be Disney on Ice, and the tickets are on sale now. And we also have Living Well Kent Farmer's Market happening on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. until October 17 at Town Square Plaza. And we also have Team Up to Clean Up event happening this Saturday that we need volunteers for. And you can sign up on kentwa.gov slash tal

Thank you. The next item on our agenda is our public safety report. Joining us this evening is Chief Padilla.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I do solemnly swear.

The state of Washington. The state of Washington. And the city of Kent. The city of Kent. That I will uphold the Constitution and laws. I will uphold the Constitution and laws. Of the United States. Of the United States. And the state of Washington. And the state of Washington. And that I will obey the rules and regulations. I will obey the rules and regulations. Of the Kent Police Department. Of the Kent Police Department.

If you want to come up and take pictures from the center, please feel free.

Thank you, Chief. Any questions? Okay, I'm not seeing any.

All right. We are going to move on in the agenda to reports. Each of the council members up here not only represent our residents and businesses at the formal council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month, but also sit on regional and statewide boards, making sure that the voice of Kent is represented in conversations that range from policy to grant funding and everything in between so really grateful for that representation you will hear from each one of them about some of the work that they've done over the last couple of weeks i am going to start i have a little bit longer t

Council President. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Earlier tonight, we had a great workshop item on economic and community development. update from Bill Ellis, and that presentation is available on our Facebook page and on our Kent TV 21. I serve on King County Regional Domestic Violence Task Force, or Regional Committee Initiative. I do not know why I said task force. We were talking about task force earlier. Sorry about that. I had great presentations. That report will be in the council newsletter that comes out tomorrow, but there was a statistic that I wanted to point out, that from 2020 to 2025,

Thank you, Council President. I am the subject matter expert for public works. We had quite a few items on the agenda earlier this evening. So if you're interested, you can go back and watch that. I also sit on the Regional Transit Committee. We meet tomorrow afternoon. And my busy day is also tomorrow. We have... Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Governance Board meeting tomorrow evening, and that is all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Troutman. Council Member Boyd.

Council Member Larmer. Thank you, Council President. I am the subject matter chair for the Economic and Community Development. And earlier this evening in the Committee of the Whole, we had two motions that expand our rental housing registration and inspection program. This is a program that we put in place in 2018 to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of tenants in our community. We have not had a fee change in that program since 2018. So in order for it to continue to be a self-sustained program and to expand into the new properties that have been built since 2018, we have raised

Thank you, Council Member Larmer. Council Member Michaud. Thank you so much, Madam President. Just as a reminder, I serve as the Kent's Human Services Commission liaison to the Council. We are skipping our October meeting, and the funding recommendations for organizations from the grants will be in the Mayor's budget recommendations. And at some point, Marina will come and present those to Council. And then at our next meeting in October, the Commission will do an after action review on the grant process. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Shulker. As you can see, our council is very busy serving our community, and all the information will be on our council newsletter that comes out tomorrow. With that, back to you, Madam Mayor. All right.

Thank you. Moving on, we do not have a public hearing this evening. Next item is public comment. Melissa, do we have anyone signed up to provide public comment?

All right. I just want to... kind of lay out our public comment policies. Public comment is an opportunity to speak to the council and mayor on issues that relate to the city of Kent or agenda items that 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 of Washington strictly prohibits people from using public comment. It's an opportunity to support political campaigns or candidates. Sorry about that. And we do ask that as you are speaking that you address the mayor and council as a who

Omar, thank you for being here. Welcome to Kent Youth and Family Services. We are really excited. And we'll see you at prom on Friday. The annual fundraiser for Kent Youth and Family Services is being held at Assesso Showwear Center on Friday. My guess is if you are interested, you could probably still get tickets. The theme is prom. So if you have a prom dress or a tuxedo... love to see it so thank you for taking the time tonight and really look forward to working very closely closely with you and supporting our families and kids thank you all right anyone else signed up okay that will bring

We've got a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We do not have any other business tonight, but we do have a bid for the East Hill North Community Park pedestrian access improvements. Joining us this evening is Chad Barron, our public works director.

All right. Thank you, Chad. Council Member Michaud.

Thank you so much, Madam Mayor. Chad, thank you for working on this. I have a question about the budget. It just says that it's coming from the park project. I'm wondering, is this a public works? Is it coming from public works budget?

Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for Chad? Okay. Motion would be in order.

I move to award the East Hill North Community Park Pedestrian Access Improvement Project to Rodarte Construction Incorporated and authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the public works director, parks director, and the city attorney.

Second. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Thank you. We do not have an executive session this evening, so that brings us down to the bottom of our agenda. And with that, we are adjourned.