City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the City Council meeting of September 15, 2026. Before asking the clerk to call the roll for tonight's regular meeting, I want to note that Councilmember Paschall and Councilmember Falcone will be absent from our meeting tonight. Is there a motion to exclude Councilmember Paschall from tonight's meeting?

We're going to do them separately. Thank you. All right. It's been moved by Council Mayor Prim, second by Council Mayor Arnold to excuse Council Mayor Paschall. Is there any discussion? The question is on the motion to excuse Council Member Paschall. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. The next motion is on excusing Council Member Falcone from tonight's meeting. Is there a motion? So moved.

Thank you. It's been moved by Councilmember Prim, second by Councilmember Arnold to excuse Councilmember Falcone from tonight's meeting. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Our study session tonight is on two items. First, we will discuss the proposed utility rates for 2027-2028. Second, the Council will discuss the Human Services grant funding recommendations. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at 7.30. City Manager.

All right, so moving. Coming in late. Sorry. Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did come up with a question. Cuz I don't know if we're gonna be talking about fund balances in connection with the other utilities, although we very well might. But since we are talking about it here, you mentioned at the outset that the staff is going to continue to be committed to the regional efforts. Advocacy. Yeah, advocacy at the legislative level with respect to utility rate savings. What is our strategy looking at these fund balances? I mean, some of them obviously give pause to me. I'm sure they give pause to folks in the public. If we do see those reductions

Okay, so we're going to take this question up when the time comes. Maybe we see the legislative advocacy success, we see the savings, and then we'll have to figure out what has changed in the plans that might be more expensive, whether we can share the savings among our fund rebalancing and our utility rate payers. Okay, thank you.

I did that look away from the mic thing. Okay, go ahead, thanks Brooke.

Jen, let's pause for a second. Council, do you have any questions on Brooke's presentation?

and again uh hang on council yeah just um just one quick comment i'm as part of the advocacy that we're gonna be doing i i do wanna see if we can push king county to do that affordability summit um so that we can actually sit down and kind of talk about what's Legally required like scientifically needed to have safe and reliable and environmentally responsible sewer systems for an example And just I I think the the urgency is quite critical right because these rates are going to be implemented early next year, so In order for us to actually be able to advocate for something I think it's import

I do have a question that may be well, adoption on October 20th. When is King County supposed to adopt these rates? Because you said King County's decision will impact.

Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, one thought sort of springboarding off of what Councilmember Prem said about the regional rate summit. I think the last time we talked about this, we heard that Executive Zahalai does have, um, a second rate summit, regional rate summit planned. Have we heard anything new about the timing of that, especially given what Councilmember Prem said, which is true, which is the urgency? No.

Okay. That's helpful. Obviously, we'll continue to do our advocacy to not only to have the rate summit sooner rather than later and as well as speaking and having a meaningful contribution to that discussion. Okay. Oh, one more question. Sorry. In the materials, there was a comparison of our peer cities with respect to reserve policies, which is helpful, and I think that's a direct response to questions the Council had at the last meeting. Just for the benefit of some of our members of the public who may be joining this conversation right now, I know the answer to this because we've had this c

Thank you. I represent Kirkland on committees involving solid waste, Council Mayor Pascoe on Cascade Water, Council Member Prim generally on SCA that looks at all these rates. Just building on what the Deputy City Manager said, really appreciate the team's work here. What I'm seeing at King County at this point is More and more bad news over time and really appreciate the work that you have done that has given us some options to smooth rates and and look at things that we can do. Um, it's as we join with this at this at the county level, it is, um. very frustrating and scary at what they're lo

Anyone else? Yeah, I want to echo what Councilman Arnold just said. Thank you for this, for sharpening the pencils and smoothing these rates out. And I'm very aware that behind you sits the Human Services Commission, our Human Services staff, where we're going to talk about funding. And this this impacts the affordability of our families and and pushes them into housing and security. So and thank you, Councilman Prim, for talking about the advocacy. I think that when in your Public Issues Committee Every time good the order comes up. It's like what about the affordability summit? So I think we

Okay. Thank you all, and we will take a quick 10-minute break. Yes, please. All right. We'll be back at 6.10. Thank you.

All right, we are back after a brief break to address some technical difficulties. We are now on our second study session, which is second item on the study session, which is the 2027-2028 Human Services Commission Grant Funding Recommendations, City Manager.

Sorry. No. So I just want to clarify. So like the goal you're talking about, those goals would be specific for Kirkland residents? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to pause for a second. Council, do you have any questions on the priorities? Deputy Mayor?

Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, and I want to thank everyone, um, both for being here and presenting this and also all the hard work that goes into, um, the grant funding recommendation, recommendation. So thank you. Um, this could come up later, perhaps when we're talking about, um, some of the applications that are not being recommended for funding, or we can talk about here. I'm going to talk about it here. I just want to understand a good example. Under access to critical services, we have domestic violence and sexual assault survivor services. One of the things we know as a council and

Anyone else? Yeah, I just had a question about kind of the And first of all, thank you so much for doing this work. I think it's really hard, especially given where we are with lack of funding available to prioritize because the need is just so great. So I know it must have been a very hard job to get to this list. So really appreciate that. In regards to like the bigger ticket items, right? So the things that are like 100K and above. I was curious about how far back do we go to see like the like the performance or the number of Kirkland residents that were positively impacted for us to then m

Yeah, it does. And then one just follow up question. Do we do we make those determinations based off of. like the self-reporting, like the quarterly annual reports that come in versus like the monitoring visits. Like are the monitoring visits like audits or are they just visits?

Um Jen back to you. Oh Councilmember Tim Chisholm.

Thank you. Um I saw the Helen's Place funding and that that is something that I fully support. I'm wondering if the addition of the permanent supportive housing um has any impact on what we need to fund and how we um to view the possible relationship between Helen's Place and the permanent supportive housing?

Well, great. Well, keep us updated if the needs shift. Thank you.

How many programs, Jen? 71. And option C, I can count.

Thank you, Sri. Thank you for the work on this. It does a tremendous service for us to be able to say, okay, option A and hopefully option B are done and focus on some of the trade-offs. The budget process is very complicated. Dynamic but also iterative. We have not yet seen the city managers recommended budget. Um, I for one is hopeful that option B gets funded in there. That would save a lot of. Challenges and that's trying to make that happen. Um, and then as we look at other things that are not in the city managers budget. you're the first one that we've heard of saying okay if you have mo

Okay. And then but if we let's say we're only looking at $100,000, it might be the first the first three of those for tomorrow and Asian counseling and referring service would be the top priorities within that.

So that gives us some idea of what we'd be finding, but you'd like the opportunity to refine that if we're looking at some level of partial funding of option C.

I understand. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful feedback for us to take into consideration. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm glad Council Member Arnold asked that question because it answered a lot of my questions. I think to that point, though, just springing from it, I think the last time, two years ago, the Commission, we did ask the Commission to meet and come back with recommendations based on how much of I don't remember the exact details but you we basically said okay we don't have enough for all of it if we don't have enough for all of it how would you prioritize it so this is your scenario where we're within a budget or sorry within a bucket is that does the Commission have a mee

i would just want us to i'm looking at the city manager now i just want i'd want us to plan to have the commission meet on the right um cadence to be able to provide us that input if we if we do need the input that the chair was suggesting yeah we probably need to have a special meeting of the commission your main where you're going to hear the main presentation on the budget at the end of october so that's where you really have a sense of the whole balancing and what

subtotal of each of the buckets that'll help us when we do the budget conversation in october Thanks.

I don't know if this has already been said, but Thank you so much for the work you've done. My only fear about funding a lot of stuff in this year is that the next two budget cycles may be worse than this budget cycle. And so I wouldn't want to create a dependency by funding something that we can't fund in 27 and 28. Thank you.

All right. So council, why don't you take a look at these questions, see if you have any other input that you want to share. And while you're doing that, I also want to share my gratitude and appreciation both for staff and the Human Services Commission. I do recognize this is heartfelt challenging work. It's very difficult to not fund all of these programs because the need is very great. So I recognize that there's emotion involved in making these decisions. So thank you everyone for your commitment and your hard work. Council, do we agree with the grant priorities? We talked about option C,

Council Member Arnold. Thank you. I mentioned this to staff, but especially as we're looking at option C, you mentioned that a number of those were things that we fund today and some of them are new. And I want to make sure it's clear in the chart, which are as we look at how much of option C that we're funding, which is existing, which is new, which existing type programs, which is new. Thank you.

Councilor Primm, did you have a question?

Yeah. I also would, you know, I'm fairly new to council, as you know. And so there's a few of these programs that I don't know much about. So I may set up a meeting with you to just kind of go through some of these programs and just also to figure out, find out, you know, how many Kirkland residents do they, have they helped in the past? And then kind of what the criteria was in determining that yes, these are the ones that we want to prioritize. So kind of maybe even walking through a couple of very specific examples, like their applications, and, you know, what was in those applications, and

Any other comments? All right, thank you.

It can happen offline. That way I don't have to try to type. Thank you.

OK. All right. I think that's it. Thank you so much for being here.

All right. That concludes our study session. Oh, yeah. We will resume our regular meeting at 730.

Okay, let's just start over. Hi, everybody. We are back to our regular meeting. We are back in session following discussions on the proposed utility rates for 2027-2028 and the 2027-2028 Human Services Commission grant funding recommendations. Before I begin I want to acknowledge that council member Pascal and council member Falcone are not in attendance this evening And their absences were excused by council earlier tonight. So we are a small and mighty team We will start tonight's meeting with honors and proclamations. I'm going to turn it over city manager. I

Thank you. You can join us up front. And Council Member Prim will be reading the proclamation.

Freedom to Read Week, October 4th through the 10th, 2026. Whereas Freedom to Read Week, also known as Banned Books Week, highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community, librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas. and whereas in 1982 judith f krung the director of the office of intellectual freedom within the american library association launched the annual event in response to a sudden surge of books being challenged in libraries bookst

We are now going to move on to our Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month Proclamation. Council Member Arnold will do the honors. City Manager.

I'll be reading the proclamation for Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month. As an English speaker, we've chosen the term Latinx and there's a description in the memo of why that term was chosen with me reading this proclamation in English and what it signifies with all the things it includes in Spanish. Whereas Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month celebrates the vibrant cultures, histories, languages, and traditions of those whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. And whereas Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month commemorates the anniversaries of the inde

All right, we are now moving on to items for the audience. This is a time in our meeting when we normally hear from the public on matters that are not quasi-judicial. or are otherwise scheduled for a public hearing. We do have a public hearing this evening. It is item 6A on revenue sources for the 2027-2028 budget. On all other matters, please limit your remarks to three minutes. We will provide up to a total of 45 minutes for our items from the audience with no more than six speakers on a subject regardless of their position. to address this council from during this items from the audience pe

Jennifer, I'm sorry. You have run out of time. But thank you. We sincerely appreciate you coming forward.

You can give that to the deputy city manager.

Thank you. All right, next I have Christina.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, everyone. We are going to now move on to our public hearing, which is on revenue sources for the 2027-2028 budget. I will now open the public hearing. City Manager. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Excuse me. Thank you, Kevin. And I love the way that you presented that information. Thank you. Council, any questions for Kevin? It looks like not.

I will now call upon any members of the public who are signed up to address the council for this public hearing. Please limit your remarks to three minutes. During this time, I want to be really clear. You are limited to speaking only about the topic of this public hearing, which is revenue sources for the 2027-2028 budget. Is there anyone signed up to address council?

Alex, do you have any comments on what was presented this evening about revenue sources?

What this public hearing is about, which is revenue sources.

Alex, you're not discussing what was presented. Let me give you 20 more seconds.

Alex, you are excused. This is the third time that you violated the council rules about public comment during public hearings. You will receive a letter from the city regarding the consequences of these violations. You're excused. Thank you.

Thank you, Liz. Staff can follow up with you. City Clerk, anyone else?

Thank you. Public hearing is now closed. The council will consider all public comments received on this issue, including those we receive in writing. So we are now moving on to our consent calendar. Before I have a motion, I'd like to ask the deputy mayor to present the auditive accounts.

uh thank you madam mayor we had payroll in the amount of eight million two hundred fifty thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars and fourteen cents and bills in the amount of four million four hundred ninety thousand nine hundred twelve dollars and eighty seven cents i also want to note uh that on e page 97 the september 1st 2026 minutes did not show the applicable underlining and strikethroughs on one of the motions, but that is being corrected by the city clerk as a scrivener's error.

Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I was waiting for proclamations. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? Second. It's been moved by Deputy Mayor Black, second by Councilmember Prim to approve the consent calendar. Is there any discussion? Questions on the consent calendar? It contains an ordinance. City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes. The consent calendar is approved 5-0. We are now going to move on to our first business item, and it looks like we have some audience members here for that. And... It is, we are now moving on to our regular business agenda. Our first item of business is endorsing the Kirkland Youth Bill of Rights as a reference guide when considering policy and budget decisions that may impact young people. City Manager.

Thank you. And thank you for all your work and your collaboration on this. Council, any questions? Deputy Mayor?

Thank You madam mayor, hopefully I gave my colleagues enough time to ask you questions, but I'm assuming you'll also entertain a motion I would Madam mayor I move adoption of resolution are 57 38 a resolution of the City Council of the city of Kirkland Endorsing the Kirkland Youth Bill of Rights as a reference guide when considering policy and budget decisions that may impact young people

second it has been moved by deputy mayor black second by councilman pram to move forward resolution 5736 it's been or 38 sorry i don't have my glasses on um any further discussion deputy or councilman arnold

Thank you just wanted to put on the record. I appreciation for the Youth Council. This is a robust set of items for youth in our in our future and really appreciate the work. The thoughtful work that went into both developing the Bill of Rights and lay on your presentation on explaining some of the work in the goals behind it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Questions on the motion? Oh, sorry. Council member Tim Chisholm.

Thank you. I really appreciate your presentation, the work you put into this. My wife's a middle school principal and I asked her if I should support this or not. And she said yes. So I don't have any concerns. Thank you.

Thank you. questions on the motion to move approve resolution 5738 all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed motion carries 5-0 would you like to do a picture congratulations You want to come up? Yes.

You guys can stand right in front if that works for you. Reggie, you can join them too if you want.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Council, any questions? Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. One question. By the way, really great presentation. Thank you. I really appreciate all the detail, and I think members of the public must surely do too. When it comes to, we know that there, you know, before any of these changes, there were a certain number of homes in the Highland that had too much pressure, and they had to have a pressure reduction valve at their home. I don't, we don't need to worry. I'm not worried about what the situation was in the interim period where it was 450. There might still have been a certain number of homes with too high pressure, but t

okay a follow-up question if we did do alternative two would we expect there to be some homes that are surprised that they have too much pressure and will it be wise to get a pressure reduction valve yes there will be a lot more that will be subject to excessive pressure and that was another reason why we choose prefer or recommend alternative one okay thank you very much anyone else counselor

Thank you so much for this presentation. I specifically really loved the slide with the two alternatives and then the big red circles circling alternative one. Very helpful. And I think alternative one does seem like the most reasonable choice. I think it addresses all the um like the greatest pressure problems while continuing to preserve like the water quality issues and um specifically the the fire flow improvements as well um the one significant technical concern that was identified by the independent consultant um where there were certain residential homes where like outside of the 510 zo

Anyone else? Questions? I'm just going to say the standards for slide presentations has gone way up. So well done. Thank you. I will entertain a motion. Oh, go ahead, Council Member Arnold.

Oh, just thank you, Ewen. Another kudos on the presentation. And I'd like to move to approve alternative one as the long-term improvement approach for the Highlands Water System.

Thank you. It has been moved by Council Member Arnold, second by Deputy Mayor Black to move forward with alternative one. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you so much.

I believe we have an out-of-town guest for the next presentation. So I'm gonna, instead of calling a break, let's go ahead and do item 9C. Sorry, John. Sorry. Okay, so we're gonna move on to our next item, which is discussion of the Northeast 85th Street Station Area. City Manager.

Great. Thank you so much. Council, any questions? Council Member Tim Chisholm?

Thank you. Two quick questions. One, when you say the area, what is the geographical outline of the area that you're referring to? What is the district?

Second question, thank you for defining that. Have the consultants or anyone had an opportunity to connect with the Kirkland Heritage Society?

It doesn't need to be. I just want to provide that opportunity if it's needed.

So thank you for answering my questions.

Just in some of the reaction that council had gotten via email to the memo, I just wanted to make a comment. I've been part of a couple of naming projects, and Greg or team, I don't know if you ever go into this where you present something and somebody comes in and says, oh, my gosh, that's a home run. There's immediate consensus.

which became the east trail and also with the non-profit group future wise which was formerly a thousand friends of washington there was not um immediate um acceptance going oh my gosh that's it um but then you look at those 10 20 years later and people can't imagine why you had the old name in the in the first place so i just wanted to set expectations that you know if people were expected to have immediate um uh home run consensus that that that would be that would be rare i think and we have some things to work with here and i look forward to our discussion next month thank you very much

else we're not voting we're just no commenting um real quick i guess my comments would be i do see this as a east of 405 thing i don't think below 405 i see that as the same district i have difficulty seeing that as having the same name my second comment is that once one of these names is chosen it would be interesting to talk about signage you know being called the forge district would be a lot more interesting in my opinion if there's a hundred foot high steel sign when you drive up 85th and into this district so that the name kind of resonates with people that visit that area. And yeah, tha

Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. I just, I know, yeah, we're not making a decision tonight, just a little bit of feedback. Just share my initial impressions when I saw these in the materials. You know, I first sort of gravitated toward the forge, honestly, and part of that reason is I appreciated the historical context that was folded up into that. Early on in this process, I'll just remind everybody there was, early on in this process, know we had thought about ways to sort of honor um indigenous names and for many very many very good reasons um we moved away from that um and i think you know on

Yeah, thank you so much for this presentation. I think my kind of immediate, and this is purely based off of just preference, no real in-depth look into the actual like branding perspectives. But the Rise District was, I thought was very positive. And I really liked the fact that the area kind of sits on high ground. So I think that really accurately reflects the area. I also really liked the Forge District for the reasons the Deputy Mayor mentioned. I think the Union District was maybe my least favorite just because of Lake Union exists in Seattle. So there could be some confusion with both t

more um a comprehensive view thank you thank you thank you thanks arnold and councilman do you want to prioritize or are you not ready to do that yet councilman

since we've started to make some comments um i i do like the forge district i think it represents the the history and uh some uh uniqueness and some edge and it's versatile um rise does reflect the topography and the the top-of-the-world views that are available there I share similar concerns with council member Prem on the Union District and when you mention Union Station in your presentation there is a Union Station in Seattle it's our train right it's near our train station so I think they're using Union in addition to what council member Prem has mentioned doesn't offer the uniqueness and

Um, I share my colleagues thoughts. I think we should preserve the rise and the forge for the next meeting. And I wouldn't have a problem eliminating number three here. And then if we preserve those two names, maybe we can encourage feedback from residents and uh other people and see think about this they're both great options i mean i i i can't complain about having two great options um yeah

Thank you. I really don't have anything more to add. The Forge is the strongest contender for me. And as you said in your presentation, you read them and then you have to sit with them for a while and you have to process and you have to imagine, which is what I've been doing in the last few days. And as Council Member Arnold, I've been through this before. And yeah, it's rarely that everybody goes, oh yeah, that's it, let's go. But I also have the concerns about union. And Greg, I did exactly what you said people do. I immediately started googling synonyms for union. so and i understand union

OK. Great. Great. So anyway, the five of us up here, it sounds like we're coalescing on something. So that's really positive. So thank you. Jen, do you have next steps?

You're welcome. And thank you all for staying up late with us tonight. So we appreciate it. We'll see you soon.

All right, Council, it is getting late. We're going to take a quick break. Let's try to come back at 945. All right, we are back after a short break, and we are moving on to item 9D. Need my glasses, which is potential development agreement for the Main Street Property Group, LLC, Slate Peak Project. City Manager.

Alex, this is your first time in front of us? It is, yes. Welcome.

Council. Thoughts? Council member Tim Chisholm.

I'll kick it off here. I am super excited about the possibility of this. The fact that this project could potentially have 10% of the units at 50% AMI is exciting. And the 30% of these units are two and three bedroom is very interesting also. I would potentially be located near one of the best elementary schools in our city Peter Kirk elementary and those 2 to 3 bedroom units would provide an opportunity. For a lot of families to be located near that elementary school. the 65 feet and the additional height doesn't particularly bother me because of the location of the building because I don't a

Thank you councillor prim Yeah, thank you for this. First, I also want to just start off with saying I'm really excited with seeing a proposal come in the 85th Street station area. I think there's just a few comments that I have on the proposal itself. I think... One is I would encourage the city staff to maybe see if we could, as part of an additional public benefit, to increase either the number of affordable units or the percentage of affordable units, because right now it's already zoned for 10%, right? So I would want to see if we could get More out of in return for giving the 2 floors of

No, the number of units that would become affordable. So whether that's 10%, 15% in the future, either that, we negotiate on the percentage or the number of units that would be affordable. Got it.

Thank you. When I look at my priorities with this, I am more concerned with the commercial space available than the potential for more affordable housing that Councilmember Prim talks about. Thank you to Kim Faust for her public comment. I think this answers some questions, but and we're getting closer if if i read the diagrams right and your your public comment we're looking at two floors of commercial on seventh and and um one floor of commercial or one floor of non-residential half of which could be retail half of a retail on eighth um if we take their numbers and i hope staff can come back

Well, thank you, Madam Mayor. I don't need to add a lot to what's been said, but I do want to say it'd be great to find a home for the KPC studio. I share that remark, share that sentiment. I don't know if that's possible in this, but that would be great, I think. I want to say, as someone who negotiates as part of their day job, how much I like negotiating as a committee against ourselves in this way. It's just excellent. Negotiation should always be handled this way. But no, I'm being somewhat light-hearted. Generally, I think what's being proposed here, for me, I was part of the stationary

OK. Yep. Okay. As long as you feel like you're getting the guidance you need. I did think of one more comment I had. When it comes to deeper levels of affordability, I find that interesting, but you know what? Actually, I would trade deeper level affordability for knowing that a family size unit was included in the affordability. So if it was studio units that were mainly achieving the 10% or 50%, but there was somehow... family size unit or two that would get me even more excited than a deeper level affordability so i just mentioned that and so that's one more variable that director you have

I don't have a lot to add. I think this is a very intriguing proposal. I think that there's a lot of things in it that I like. This is underutilized land. I mean, we see it's boat storage right now. So this is an incredible opportunity to catalyze this area and get things moving forward. I am a strong supporter of option A. I appreciate the creativity around it. We know that a lot of our nonprofits can't afford to pay the rent so i think that's the direction we should go in i would like to push a little bit on the 1500 square feet and see if we can carve out some more i reached out to some non

okay great we get so much done when there's only five of us all right we are going to move on to i think we're at 9e which is transfer uh is that right yep 9e which is uh transportation commission roles and responsibilities charter city manager

Any other comments? All right. Yes, thank you for raising it. Thank you both. Steven, did you really stay till 1017 for two minutes? OK. Thank you. They came on a greenway, so it was OK. OK. We are now at item 9F, which is Transportation Benefit District Programs. City Manager.

Laura, before you go on, has a question.

Yes. Yeah. I, you know, I was going through the packet and, you know, I understand that many of these projects, they're originally based on, like, planning level cost estimates. But can you just share some information on. how these shortfalls, like, I'm just trying to understand, like, these are pretty large differences, right, between the original estimates and then what we find out later that, oh, crap, you know, like, we need to, it's a lot more money, or we need to do a lot of additional things around the area. But can you just explain that process? You know, like, I guess it would be real

So the primary fix right now is we, just to summarize, we have a dedicated individual, like a project manager almost, that's ensuring that the estimates are more accurate moving forward, is that right? Correct. Okay.

Thank you both. Thank you for the good presentation. And I really appreciated that Laura gave you, Jessica, a shout out for the work that you do on grants. We get those emails, and we're always very pleased. So thank you for all of that. We don't thank you enough for that.

And you're humble, too. So Council, any questions on all of this?

uh deputy mayor once again i hope i gave everybody a chance to ask their questions if not you'll entertain a motion um so i will uh move consistent with the staff's recommendation uh for approved council approval of the removal of the four previously discussed scopes from the tbd along with reallocation of tbd contingency to address the anticipated shortfall for the previously for previously discussed projects

second thank you it's been moved by deputy mayor black second by council member arnold to authorize the use of tbd contingency funds as recommended by staff any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries 5-0 thanks All right, we are now on to our last business item. I'm so glad that we didn't have to send Anna home. Our last business item is urban forest management plan update briefing number three, city manager.

sorry i was so enthalled enthralled councilmember arnold go ahead thank you anna can you go back on one um one slide or perhaps okay you're on this slide this works too um in um 3b which you mentioned before um we're looking at land use and you mentioned some differences between some of our neighborhood centers for the wording of 3b um i just am concerned that if we look at um just increasing canopy cover in areas that are below land use that limits our flexibility and just would like to look at some other languages it says how do we get to this goal but if we're looking at neighborhood center

Go ahead. One more slide back, Anna. Goal 4B, which was 2B in the packet. Yep. Thank you for the heads up that you would change it, because especially at 11 o'clock, it would have taken me a while to figure that out. I'm a little... Unsure of what you're looking at with identifying the gains and losses to inform decisions for high-value trees This kind of reads to me that we're looking at Potentially changing our landmark tree standards and Not sure if that's what the intention is and just would want some clarification on what do you What? What's the intent here around management decisions aro

Thank you. Anyone else? I think you have a slide, questions for us. Yes, thank you.

I'll just make one brief comment. I remember Mayor Curtis and I, I think we were baby council members, whatever that was, seven years ago, visiting a site in Finn Hill where the community that we were there just simply asked us if we could incorporate what you just described. in transportation public works that assessment early on of at least what trees are going to be impacted is there a way to change the design to so can i say thank you and i think there's members of the community out there who i hope are listening uh who will say thank you as well so um otherwise i think this is great i lik

And just a final comment on this slide. I know I had a lot of comments the last time we talked on vision and principles and really appreciate the direction that you're going. You captured our feedback well and like the revisions of the vision and the guiding principles.

staff is killing it on presentations tonight and the reason i kept not noticing councilman arnold is i was so focused on these slides so well done um and i want to echo deputy mayor or councilman arnold in that you really i love the transition of land use that tells the story so much better so you really captured our feedback the only real i don't have a comment on what the content you're doing a great job you're going in a great direction my comment is when you look at the land use and you look at the neighborhood centers and you look at those neighborhood centers with low percentage of of ca

All right. We have finished our business agenda and we are now moving on to council reports and I will start with Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's almost 11 o'clock, and we still have an executive session. I don't have much, and what I do have, I can email the council.

Thank you. Council Member Brim? Same. I will email to the council. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Arnold.

One thing and I'll email the rest just to note the state building code council delivered some recommendations to the governor on wildfire response. He'd asked what things he could waive as far as to support reconstruction in Spokane similar to how the governor waived regulations during COVID. He's got that emergency power. We delivered a report that offered some options but Really, it's not just about what's waived, it's what regulations replace that to encourage building faster, and we gave them some options that would allow the state building code council to take a look at some emergency rul

We are now going to move on to city manager reports. I have nothing to report. I will send an email. I will say thank you to Chief St. Jean and Chief Ledoux for the 9-11 remembrance ceremony. It was very well put together and well done and very impactful. So thank you. City manager, over to you.

Council, any calendar updates? I have one. As you all know, we've received a number of requests from community members to take position on two ballot initiatives. So I would like to request that the city manager comes back to council with potential action for council to take a position on the two ballot measures, which are IL26638, which is protecting girls sports, and IL 26001, which is restoring parents' rights, which both will be on the ballot in November. So, Council, any objections to having that as a future discussion? All right. I see no objections. City Manager?

All right, we are going to adjourn to exec session to discuss potential litigation as authorized by RCW 42-3110-1I, Romanette 3. We expect to reconvene our regular meeting at approximately 1120? We're thinking 25 minutes.