City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6.30, and the meeting will come to order. Thank you for the lights. Good evening, and welcome to the July 7, 2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Will the city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Thank you. Council Member Anderson provided advance notice of his absence. Is there a motion to excuse the absence?

Is there a second? Mayor, Council Member Millbauer. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Millbauer to excuse the absence of Council Member Anderson. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of Council Member Anderson. Will the clerk please start the vote? That vote has passed five to zero, plus one more. That vote has passed unanimously. Thank you. Next is our Pledge of Allegiance. Will Council Member Milbauer please lead us in the pledge? No one

Thank you, Mark. Would anyone else like to? Ken, please.

Would anyone else like to wish to speak this evening?

Additional comments this evening? Sorry, just one time. Sorry. No. Doesn't matter. Okay. All right. If there are no additional comments tonight, this comment period is closed. Next item is approval of the agenda. If a council member wants an item removed from consent agenda, please be recognized by the mayor and state the item you want to be removed. For further discussion, the item will be considered separately. I'll entertain a motion.

Is there a second? Second. Council Member Trumbo. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Trumbo to approve the agenda as presented. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

That is passed unanimously. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kennewick City Council for reading and study, are considered to be routine, and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussions. I'll entertain a motion.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

It has been moved by Council Member Milbauer and seconded by Mayor Pro Temporelli to approve the consent agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

I think we'll go ahead and continue if that's all right while we're getting that assistance.

Tonight we have two public hearings. Each will be considered separately. Each hearing will be conducted as follows. After the staff report, council will have an opportunity to ask questions or request clarifying information. Following questions, persons interested in testifying for or against the matter will be invited to speak. General discussion and debate by council must wait until after a motion has been made. The city clerk is informing there's still no online visitors signed up to testify for the public hearing. When testifying, please remember, the testimony period is your opportunity t

Any questions this time? Yes, Council Member Trumbull.

Is there, in approving this Transportation Improvement Plan, is there any consideration coming from Kennewick relating to seeking a grant for the continued revitalization of the historic downtown Kennewick area through the Transportation Improvement Board's Complete Streets Program? Can you comment about that?

Okay. That clarifies it. Thank you very much.

Additional questions? Heath, the $3.3 million in grant funding, is there any local match required with that?

correct yeah that's a great job right there yeah thank you thank you any other questions all right thank you all right and it will now start the public hearing and the public hearing is now open if someone in the audience wishes to speak please raise your hand yes please

So only this issue on the six-year transportation improvement plan amendment.

Okay, yeah, sorry. That part of the meeting is already passed.

Seventh Avenue is not part of this public hearing, I don't think. I guess if it was related specifically to a transportation improvement project in the six-year TIP, I think that would be okay. And I don't believe that's the case.

I'd be happy to have you talk with the city clerk right after the meeting. She'd be happy to help you with that.

Then take her card at the door, and she'll schedule a time to meet with you.

Thank you for that. Okay, any additional comments for this public hearing? Warren.

Yes, I assume that was limited to the tip, not just anything in general. No, that's only on this public hearing. All right, are there any additional comments? Okay, if not, this public hearing is now closed. I'll entertain a motion.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to adopt the resolution as presented. The floor is open for discussion. I'll just say again, it's a great job. It's exciting to see us take that kind of federal funds into the city. That's an amazing opportunity. We've got a lot of needs, and so this gets us a long ways towards some of those. Thank you again. With that, it's been properly moved and seconded to adopt the resolution as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

That is passed unanimously. Next is a public hearing for vacation of a 44-foot access easement, 10-foot utility easement, and 15-foot utility easement at and within 101 and 109 North Oak Street. Mr. Kaling, may we have a staff report, please?

Now, now. All right. Any questions of staff this evening? Okay. Okay. If there are no other questions of staff, the public hearing is now open. If someone in the audience wishes to speak, please raise their hand.

Seeing no members that want to speak this evening, the public hearing is now closed. And I'll entertain a motion.

Is there a second? Mayor. Council Member Milbauer. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to adopt the resolution as presented and authorize the mayor to execute all necessary documents. The floor is open for discussion. It has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the resolution as presented and authorize the mayor to execute all necessary documents. Will the clerk please start the vote?

The resolution is passed unanimously. All right, we're now to the section of council comments and discussion. We'll go ahead and start. Council Member Beecham. I have nothing to report tonight, thanks. All right, Council Member Milbauer.

Thank you, Mayor. I attended the KPD swearing-in of Mayor Pro Tem and City Manager Erdmann to witness the swearing-in of Officer Jeffrey Wood and attended the Ribbit Cutting for Kuki Japanese Pub restaurant on Vista Field. They have very good food. They were able to spread out for those in the Ribbit Cutting and it was really good. And today I attended a therapeutic veterans court to witness the graduations of two veterans, Scott and Steve, who spent been a part of a year and a half and graduated and are doing well i also want to thank the city the staff for the opportunity to attend the 2026

Thank you, Mayor McShane. I have a number of things to report. I can tell you that I attended, as the city's representative, the Law and Justice Commission 10 days ago, however long ago it was. It was a fairly limited representation, but it was a good discussion on topics that have been in motion for a while on the commission. And I'm going to move on to the next thing. I did have an opportunity to... These are not in order because, well, they're just not. I took it upon myself after the last workshop to volunteer to take a guided tour of our museum, both upstairs and in the storage basement.

I can tell city staff about the problem with cleaning up a lot next door. That seemed to have been inordinate interference by city employee on getting that done. I also, excuse me. I appreciate your comments there, Mayor Pro Tem Torelli, but I invested considerable time in all of these endeavors. I will tell you that the HDKT board meeting was very informative for me, but I still see kind of a lack of kind of a unified direction. There's still a lot of conversation that isn't focused on how to get to wherever the goal is. I think the B&O tax is a great idea, as mentioned previously by our citi

Yeah, I might clarify that that's not just limited to citywide. It could be anyone across the state is able to donate to our historic downtown partnership. Thank you for that clarification.

I have just one other item, and then I'll be done, Mr. Torelli. And that is I couldn't help but notice that the fireworks were marketably louder. These are legal fireworks. Remarkably louder this year in my neighborhood. And I don't know if that's something that should concern others, but I couldn't help but notice. Maybe that's enough for now. Thank you for paying attention and for the time. I appreciate it. Council Member Clipper.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say it's my honor and my privilege to be one of the Marine deputies for the Benton County Sheriff's Office patrolling the river on the 4th of July when we had our fireworks display. Once again, just a shout out to everyone who helps to make that happen. Amazing. We just do a great job. And I remember hearing over the radio that the park is packed. No one else is going to be allowed in. That's just another, to me, another compliment to the city of Kennewick that we do such a great job. The people come from miles around to see our fireworks display. So thank

Yeah, please. Thank you. In regards to the fireworks, we are receiving, at least I am receiving, several emails from citizens on the fireworks. I just wanted to say that the next workshop is going to be updated on Independence Day after Action Report, and that's where I'm replying back to let them know if they want to come down and talk about the fireworks and the way they feel about them, for you all to know and those on That's the wrong thing, isn't it? Yeah, I was going to say, we don't normally have a public comment period at the workshop. I understand that. But to come down and hear the r

Thank you. I'll respond to them that way.

And thank you for that clarification. All right. Deputy City Manager, Chief, or what? Okay, Chris.

Thanks. Thank you. You know, I'll just take a moment and appreciate people's attendance this evening and encouragement. And I want to, you know, Reiterate again, what a great job we did getting that grant for $3.3 million. Significant proceeds towards our city, and we certainly can use it. I know that those grants take time. Oftentimes it's not something you guys have programmed into your normal day, and usually it's something extra that's done. So we very much appreciate the work of city staff to do that. I just wanted to add just one more thing this evening, an appreciation of our... 4th of

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And on that, I saw an email. Is there something happening here at the council chambers also concerning that matter?

So still a lot of celebration yet to be had. Probably not enough to celebrate the liberties that we've been able to be fortunate to experience these last 250 years.

And with that, there's no further business on this evening's agenda. It is now 7.33, and the meeting is concluded.