City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

With regard to Island Transit, just a point of information about AI policy. We finally finalized the final draft for policy. And big emphasis was a human in the loop. And I made direct observation that putting a human in the loop does not guarantee it's going to work right because humans fail too. But it's a step in the right direction and the document itself is a work in progress. Or shall we say a dynamic process on a final document. Thank you.

I think we can agree that could have been handled a little bit better. I think it was a little confusing for the public as we negotiated those treacherous waters. I'd also like to apologize to staff. We did ask some hard questions and there's a place for those hard questions. And we can always do better, and we should always strive for transparency. And if there's issues, we need to fix them. But I think we should always assume a positive intent, not necessarily nefarious actions. And I think some of our tone may have came off a little more accusatory towards staff than it should have. So I ju

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I just want to address Ms. Whitbeck's comment that I spoke with our city attorney yesterday regarding the perceived conflict of interest. And just for the record, that property that in question is not actually owned by Mr. Thompson. It is owned by another individual who we have to seek permission from. Pacific North Group is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, just about the same as 475 other members of the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, I have no additional financial interest with Mr. Thompson or his companies. And I believe the last one was familiar relationship

Yeah. Um, a few of the salmon have returned to the Marina. Of course the seals are busy, uh, but they are, you know, they are there and we are making some progress on and doing some work for the Marina. So things are going along really well and we're looking to Saturday's event harvest at the Harbor. Thank you so much.

I will be talking about Oak Harbor Main Street.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I strongly favor doing this change. It does not materially affect the use of the money as far as the principle or the purpose. I do agree with Mayor Pro Tem that it cannot be a precedent setting, but I'm all about getting things done. And when there is a hindrance like this, I really want to set it aside and move on. So I strongly support this change. Thank you.

That's OK. It's a little hand. I want to offer all of the entities that come to us for LTAC funds. I don't know how you can say making an exception is not precedent-setting. It seems very precedent-setting to me, which is of concern. I'm not strongly pro or con this idea. But we are supposed to know I just heard the executive director say we hope, which is I guess how any person can do, but I don't know that they have a good idea that this money will be spent towards something that we would have looked at before. I'm certainly junior here. It's just an opinion that I'm worried that then later

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Heisen. I think you're doing a great job of saying, okay, we'll do it because it's so short time. You know, we only have so much time and we know the holidays are important. That was a fact. And so, yes, it makes it a little awkward, but we do know from last year There were so many people out there. It was just like a mob scene. I mean, it was like, how can we find a place on the sidewalk? So we do know that that event brings a lot of people, and we saw it last year. And so I wish it hadn't happened this way, but it did. I think it's important for the community. They'r

love the change but they were comfortable with it so that was their recommendation councilmember Stuckey all right there's got to be some questions but first i want to turn to our city attorney partly because she's in the house it's one of those questions i know the answer but i always got to ask it my wife as of like a week ago is now on their board am i allowed to vote on this Can I say that definitely she's not on the board yet because I haven't given her her contract and she hasn't signed it. It shows how much I know. She's probably watching right now.

of the RCWs. Applicants applying for use of revenues in this chapter must provide the municipality to which they are applying estimates of how money is received will result in increases in the number of people traveling for business or pleasure away from their place of residence or business, staying overnight and paying accommodations to a place 50 miles or more from their place of residence or business. And I want to zero in on that. So first of all, for Wendy, Because we don't have an updated application with those updated numbers, are we still able to approve this? Because the RCW is saying

OK. Now, I struggle with that 50 miles. And sometimes I bend when it comes to LTAC. Main Street is wonderful. And having been to that Christmas event, I think I've only missed one year of the last six. It's wonderful. But I think to myself, if this event was held in Arlington, would I go? Probably not. I don't know how often any of us have gone that far for a small town Christmas event. Maybe I'm wrong. To the executive director, if you could explain a little bit, I mean, we have this, but there's also the public watching. So if you could explain a little bit why this would be different, the i

So the money, I heard it's for the tree, which we did have a sad tree a few years, so. But it was for what else specifically that this is being used for this year? That would be used specifically for the tree. That's how much tree.

Show us how much I know about trees. Yeah. So. It's a commercial grade tree.

Fair enough. And then to Mayor Pro Tem, who's our LTAC chair. I mean, I hear what you're saying about the precedent. How do we navigate that in the future? Because I really don't want people applying. I mean, a lot of times you have applicants that apply and they never use it, which kind of stinks because they take the money out of the pool. Yeah. but what can you do? But how do we stop people from, I don't think anyone's doing an intentional bait and switch, certainly not with this project, but it could happen in the future. And that's kind of my worry is, we're applying for this, you know, w

OK, and then circling back to our city attorney. I'm good?

Could you, if I abstain, I really don't think it's a big deal considering she's not even on the board, but if I abstain from this round, can you let me know for sure? Are you sure enough?

All right, thank you, that's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. As the chair of the LTAC committee, may I also make a recommendation that when reviewing this, we look at moving items from year to year as well because that has come up in the past that we had a request for funding for one year and then that event didn't take place and so we were asked to move that to the next year and that too was also kind of a squishy situation as you described it.

Yeah. So in this particular matter, however, I fully support this reallocation of the funds. I know that the director is new, was not the one that made this request last year, kind of inherited what it was. I personally am more in favor of building on an existing event as opposed to trying to create a new one. All the numbers... were just hypothetical when it comes to the Oktoberfest event. Those were hypothetical numbers based upon past performances. But I think that growing this type of event is gonna pay off having a tree that you can use year over year. I think the Warm Beach, for example,

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Stuckey kind of brought it to that point of I was wondering how much the tree cost.

I'm not a fan of squishy at all. I'd rather it come back and not be squishy. That's where I kind of sit with this, and it's not to delay. I don't mean to do that. I think it's the right thing to do with it, but I think that process should be laid out. We're setting precedents, whatever we do tonight.

I think what I'm saying is that I won't even vote for it tonight because it's not teed up and eyes aren't dotted and the T's aren't crossed for me. So that's the reason.

I did, but I took it down. But I'm happy to ask my question if you all have time.

I'm curious about a tree that isn't planted that grows. I'd love to know a little bit more about that. And also Councilmember Stuckey I think what you're remembering is we talked about no immediate family member chairing a commission. I think that's but I don't remember there being anything about voting if our family member was on a commission.

Somehow I thought you were talking about a live tree, and I'm like, there is no way that I am.

I'd be proud to make the motion if it's presented on the screen. And have your permission.

I move to approve an amendment to the Oak Harbor Main Street Association Professional Service Agreement for lodging tax slash tourism grant funds from the 2026 Oktoberfest event to the 2026 Home for the Holidays event. Actually, I strongly move. Thank you. Second.

And you voted against it. No, she was against it.