Metropolitan King County Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to welcome you to the July 21st, 2026 meeting of the King County Council. I'm Sarah Perry, Chair of the Council, joined by Vice Chairs Jorge Baron and Reagan Dunn, and our council colleagues today. And this meeting is called to order. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish people's past and present. We thank these caretakers of this land who've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial, bringing the cultural ways of life and greatly enriching our communities.

Chair Perry, you have a quorum. Thank you very much. I'm just going to take a moment and ask folks, we need to have folks seated in as chamber rules seated in chambers. So if you are here and you're here for the service awards, if you could step outside until your name is called and then when people's names are called, they will circle back out and you can exchange with each other. I'll wait just a minute while we allow for that. Thanks very much. If you're already seated, you can certainly remain seated. Yeah, if you're already seated, you can certainly remain seated. Thank you so much. I sur

Thank you, Council Member Lewis. Vice Chair Barone, may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the July 14th, 2026 council meeting?

I move approval of the minutes of July 14th.

Thank you. The motion is before us. All those in favor say aye.

Those opposed say nay. Minutes are approved. Clerk Hay, are there any additions to the council agenda? I have none. Okay, thank you very much. Turning next to our two special items. The first special item is... is this proclamation recognizing the 100th anniversary of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, led by me, and joined me in spirit by Executive Zahilay. Following the proclamation, Executive Zahilay will present the County Service Awards, recognizing the exemplary public service of our King County employees and their contributions to the county. I will give

Yeah, just throw this thing right there. That'd be great. Sure, we'd love that. Great, thank you. Hello, join us. Yes, please. I'm pleased to co-sponsor the recognition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials in spirit with Executive Zahilay today. For 100 years, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials has played a vital role in protecting the health and safety of us all by advancing safe sanitation practices, protecting drinking water systems, and promoting sustainable plumbing technol

Thank you. Thank you. uh council members would you please join me down here for a picture with our with our uh recognized guests of iotmo thank you very much thank you okay so let's see should we move this back here let's come in front of okay

That's public health. No, no, nope, nope, nope. This way. It goes this way.

Okay, thank you very much. Next, we are turning to the County Service Awards. Executive Zahilai is here to join us.

Hold on, I've got to get in on the action here. You know, Gerald is a great American and a great member of the King County family. But he's got many titles that come with all your nicknames today. Are you ready for it? Are you ready? This guy's got great nicknames. Are you ready? G-Money. G-Unit, Swaggy G, Big G, G-Dog, and last but not least, Mr. Metro. Let's give it up for Gerald. I would love that.

Mr. Zimmerman, please leave chambers. Sorry, executive, go right ahead. Start again. I bet you are.

And folks, just a reminder that if you're in chambers, please find a seat. It's the chamber rules. Thanks very much.

No, it's hearty mama. It's hearty mama. It's hearty mama.

thank you very much executives ally for presenting these awards and thank you to the county employees recognized today for your distinguished public service and dedication to the residents of king county we'll now turn to the reading of items into the record and the hearing of public comments clerk hey will you please read the items into the record thank you chair perry item six was 100th anniversary of the international association of plumbing

Thank you very much. We will now turn to public comment on those ordinances, motions, proclamations and recognitions on today's agenda for action, which includes agenda items six through eight. Listening to public and taking into consideration the public's thoughts is an important part of our process and one that enhances our deliberations. In order to allow everyone equal time to provide comment, please recognize the following rules. Please limit comments to two minutes. Please remain seated until time for your public comment. Please do not make audible noise during the meeting. Please also d

Thank you very much. One more chance. If there's anybody here in chambers or online who would like to speak that hasn't had a chance to, please raise your hand or come to the podium. Anyone who'd like to speak that hasn't had a chance. All right. Well, thank you. Seeing no further requests, we'll close the public hearing. Really appreciate all public comments and encourage participation on the fourth Tuesday, especially because it is you have the opportunity to speak to anything that is not on the agenda as well as what is. We'll now turn to the first action item on today's agenda, which is co

I move that we approve consent agenda item seven.

Thank you. Item seven is before us. Clerk K, would you please call the roll? Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Aye.

Aye. The vote is nine ayes, zero noes. Thank you very much. By our vote, we've adopted proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0108. Turning next to item 8, proposed motion 2026-0084, which concerns the approval of the King County Youth Diversion and Intervention Program Report. As a reminder, this item was deferred at last week's council meeting for the purposes of amendment. Council Member Lewis, will you please move proposed motion 2026-0084? I move motion 2026-0084. Thank you. proposed motion 2026-0084 is before us and before we proceed I'll note we have Miranda Leskinen from council sta

Councilmember Lewis. Thank you. This motion is before us as a response to a proviso. We are replacing the restorative community pathways with the new program King County Youth Diversion and Intervention Program. Some of my colleagues have submitted amendments that I believe strengthen the new program and the provisions thereof. And I'll just say that since its launch in 2021, we've enrolled 1,200 youth in the Restorative Community Pathways Program, and 250 people who have experienced harm have also been served by the program. We know that diversion programs work by offering offenders an altern

Thank you very much. Any other comments? Okay, now let's go ahead and take up Amendment 1. Council Member Balducci, will you please move Amendment 1?

Thank you, Chair. I move the adoption of Amendment 1.

Would you like to speak to the amendment, or would you like Miranda to brief it? I'd be happy to do it.

I think it speaks for itself, but I'll just say a few words about Amendment 1. Amendment 1 would add two whereas clauses, that is non-binding statements of fact, one of which establishes that the goal of youth diversion is to intervene with young people address the needs that led to behavior that caused harm, put them on a path to success, and avoid additional or escalating criminal legal system involvement. And the second whereas sets out that King County provides a range of different paths for youth who are involved in the legal system, including this kind of community-based diversion that i

No? Okay, great. Thank you. Let's proceed to the vote. All those in favor of Amendment 1, please say aye. Those opposed say nay. Amendment 1 is adopted. Turning next to Amendment 2, Councilmember Dabowsky, would you please move Amendment 2? Thank you. Would you like to speak to the amendment or have Miranda brief it?

This is an amendment jointly offered by myself and Councilmembers Balducci and Barone, and I think it would be helpful to have Miranda brief the entire Council in public.

Chair Perry, I think maybe Miranda might help to go through at least at a high level maybe the effect statement about what we're intending to do here.

Thank you very much. Council Member Dembowski, did you have further?

Sure. Thank you very much, Miranda, for your work on this, and also to Leah Krekelzoppe, who I think also helped on some of the work. Was there one other person who helped from central staff? I want to make sure we get the thank yous out.

Colleagues... As you may know, I've had some concerns about some of the work of the Restorative Community Pathways program. I think it's important for folks following this to know that, at least it's my understanding, that for certain lower-level alleged crimes, state law requires that the county have a pre-filing diversion program. with the prosecutor, refer young folks who have gotten into trouble with the law, and I'm just going to use real simple and plain English here, so forgive me, that we refer folks to a course of response that is not necessarily court-driven, a typical arrest, prosec

I I just wanted to note that You know part of this is a little bit of an unusual mechanism to do this right, because this is a we're kind of amending a report that the executive sent over about how they're planning and implementing this new Program. And so this isn't sort of an ordinance that we're amending this is something that came over from the executive, but we have gotten. You know an understanding from the executive branch that they're they're at least willing to to agree and so to me This is an expectation setting kind of message that we're sending here about what we expect and I think

Thank you very much, Council Member Viceroy Barone. Council Member Fain.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to thank the sponsors of this amendment. The previous program was one that I had followed pretty closely over the last year or two, and I'm really happy to see the forward-looking approach to this new program and appreciate The idea that we need to let providers know what data they should be tracking ahead of time so that they can plan ahead and work in partnership with the PAO and DCHS as well. gratitude to all of you for putting the amendment together and to the executive's office for agreeing with the approach and working in collaboration to ensure that this

Thank you, Council Member Fain. Appreciate that. So it looks like the discussion has all been held for this. Let's proceed to a vote. All those in favor of Amendment 2, please say aye. Those opposed say nay. Amendment 2 is adopted. Moving on to the underlying motion as amended. Do my colleagues have any closing comments before we proceed with a vote? SEEING NO, COUNCILMEMBER DEMBASKI.

JUST FOR THE RECORD I WANTED TO SAY THAT I REALLY WANT TO ENCOURAGE THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HUMAN SERVICES AS PART OF THEIR REVIEW OF THE RESPONDENTS TO THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL TO CARRY OUT THIS NEW PROGRAM TO LOOK CAREFULLY AT THE FULL RANGE OF FOLKS THAT HAVE OFFERED TO PROVIDE SERVICES AND BE OPEN TO NEW PARTICIPANTS VIA who may have a different approach or a better approach, but I was very heartened to see, I took a look, I was given the opportunity to take a look at the early folks and groups that have proposed, and I'm heartened to see a range of trusted community partners that I th

Thank you very much, Council Member Dembowski. Seeing no further discussion. My hand's up.

Sorry, Council Member Mosqueda. Thank you. I wanted to say thanks to my colleagues for the additional amendments. I'm really glad to see the school liaison language in there. I think that's a good addition. I also wanted to comment on the process for the evaluation. It feels important to call out that we are not inventing a brand new program here. We are building off existing research-backed models. And I hope that when we pass this today, we also send a message to the departments, our executive partners, and the community at large, that it's important to take into consideration that any analy

Thank you. Moving on to the underlying motion as amended for the vote. Claire Kay, would you please call the roll? Thank you. Excuse me. Council Member Balducci. Aye.

Thank you. By our vote we've adopted proposed motion 2026-0084 as amended. If there's no objection the published marked agenda together with any changes made in today's meeting will stand approved as the first reading referral and referral of ordinances and motions items 9 through 15 as listed. Before we adjourn, I want to quickly announce the names of the nominees for two vacancies for the council-nominated at-large positions on the Harborview Board of Trustees, Dr. Meredith Matthews and Dorothy Teeter. I also want to remind my colleagues there's an upcoming vacancy for a council-nominated at