City Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I would like to call the August 13th, 2026 Des Moines City Council meeting to order. Council Member Pierre Blas will lead us in the pledge. Please stand if you are able.

Thank you. We do have one council member who is with us. Okay, we have a council member who will be joining us remotely as soon as he can. So we will note that he is in the process of getting signed in. But other than that, we have our other six council members here in person. Is there any correspondence not previously received by the council? No, Mayor. Thank you. Now it's time for comments from the public. We ask that you keep your comments respectful. When I call your name, please come up to the podium. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please state your name and your city of residence. N

Thank you. I have Susan Iger. Okay, thank you. Patrice Thorell.

Thank you. So as an update, we're trying to connect with Councilmember Steinmetz and we're going to need to use the phone. And so if you can give me a quick moment, I have to learn how to use this phone because I don't know that I ever have used it. Hold on. Hello, is this Council Member Simons?

Oh, good. Great. Well, you are on speakerphone, so the rest of the room and audience can hear you as well. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for joining us. We just finished our public comment, and so we're going to move on to our... REGIONAL AND COMMITTEE REPORTS. SO, AS YOU KNOW, MANY OF YOU KNOW, WE'RE CURRENTLY RUNNING UNDER A COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING MODEL. HOWEVER, COUNCIL MEMBERS DO SERVE REGIONALLY ON MANY OTHER COMMITTEES. DO ANY COUNCIL MEMBERS HAVE ANY ITEMS OF INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC OR THE COUNCIL? COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS.

THANK YOU. I SERVE ON THE FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND Essentially, our entire task is to provide a budget letter to the King County Council, which doubles as a flood control district board. And it is a funny thing in terms of process in that we're required to, over time things have shifted, we're required to provide this budget guidance by the end of this month, but we don't actually get the budget until after. There have been a number of problems in terms of process since the Flood Control District was created in 2007 and it now faces a $300 million shortfall and The reason

Thank you, Mayor. I'm a member of the WIA 9 Watershed Ecosystem Forum. It's a group of 17 local and tribal governments, state and federal agencies, and nonprofits focused on salmon habitat recovery in the Puget Sound and our local rivers. We had our meeting today right before this in Burien. We talked about the preliminary numbers coming in for the salmon in our rivers. Looking pretty good this year. The forecast for the whole year for Chinook will be about 25,000 in our rivers. For coho salmon, it's over 100,000, which is really good numbers. 50% increase from last year, so good news. We'll h

The budget is a little over a million dollars. Then one share is $17,000. The bulk of the funding comes from the City of Seattle, King County, and King County Flood Control District. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Simons, did you have anything you'd like to report?

Okay, thank you. Now, thank you very much. We'll move to the City Manager's report, and I will turn the meeting over to City Manager Catherine Caffrey.

Questions or discussion? Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Is part of your outreach going to include working through the schools?

Thank you. I didn't think I had any because, you know, my little speech about the flood control thing, I'm also on the RTC advisory. First of all, thank you for the connectivity, better connectivity to RTC. at KDM Light Station that's really good. We argue over moving things around, but that's a really good step. The late night step thing is good. My ongoing nag is if you could just hand out Orca cards or some kind of thing at the senior centers, City Hall, just pass them out like candy. And because people here were blessed to have the 635 shuttle, and it's a really good thing. I'm always stru

I was trying to give you a softball. I'm a big fan and, you know, especially adding the later. To me, it's not like 10 o'clock. It's not like super late. I mean, that added service is really good. So thank you so much for that. Thank you.

Council Member Simons, did you have any questions?

Well, thank you very much. I've been asking for this presentation for quite some while, as Catherine knows, but I'm really glad that you could be here with us today. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to coming back next time.

Councilmembers, questions or discussion? Councilmember Harris.

I get choked up every time you guys show up. I mean, literally, you're like the community centers and I just I don't like to do these little things like that, but you're it, and I can't say enough good things about, you know, with my kids and so forth. I can't think of a website or a communication system that would make people understand how much stuff you guys offer. I mean, it sounds like a late-night infomercial, but no, I mean, when I go down the list of stuff, that I've seen people do in events. You mentioned the museums. People learn to sew tools. I mean, it never stops. And the biggest

Other questions or discussion? Councilmember Simons, do you have any questions?

So folks, if they wanted to learn more, they could go to Pierre Kent, and I presume they have a website.

Well, thank you very much, Felicia, Eric, and always great to see you. Thank you. OK.

Council, questions or discussion? Councilmember Harris.

You said all the right things, and yeah, I can't tell you. I mentioned Reach Out Des Moines, and I just, I know that what you do is, yeah, I mentioned the library and that being the community center, but you can, you know, When I first moved here, we had this much tighter integration with the schools and the library and stuff. It was just a different generation, and I feel like you can bring that back a little bit. I actually have a, just, I'm going to ask if you really could change your email address just to junior. No, I mean, seriously, because the public, just for them to reach you, if the

Yeah, no, but I'm just saying junior at desmoineslaw.gov. But other than that, no, man, go get them. Thank you.

Yes, Junior, I want to welcome you aboard. And we're supposed to have been meeting, but we keep running into each other at different events, and we haven't met up yet. But I do want to thank your efforts and stress how important it is that we do interact with our youth and our communities and bring everybody to the table as far as community building a sense of community. So thank you for your efforts and look forward to talking to you soon. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

It's Desimone. Yes. Thank you, Junior. Welcome to the team. I've already handed your information out three times, and I'm excited to be working with you on the business side, the brick-and-mortar businesses. We need better communication, and we need that contact. We need someone to reach out to. Sometimes calling 911 isn't what we need to do, so I'm excited to team up with you on this.

I just want to welcome you aboard. Great presentation. Said all the right things. You're going to do a great job here. And you're in a city that actually likes our officers. And so it's going to be good. I hope you've had a great experience so far. And it's going to get even better. So congratulations.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for joining the police force. I really like your approach. When you came in, you had a listening tour. You met with me. You met with a lot of community members. And that's a great thing. You don't have a set way of doing things. You want to listen before you act. I love that. And welcome to the city. Thank you, Council Member.

Council Member Stimons, do you have any questions?

EVERYONE HAS SAID IT ALL, SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YES, I APPRECIATE IT, AND THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION.

COUNCIL, QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSION? DEPUTY MAYOR OXAGER.

THANK YOU, CHIEF, FOR THE REPORT. VERY INFORMATIVE. ONE THING, I DID HAVE ONE QUESTION ON THE CHANGING DRIVER BEHAVIOR. SLIDE 11. OKAY. THE NUMBERS FOR 2026, IS THAT A SIX-MONTH FIGURE? Seven months? What is that?

It was about seven? Yeah. So on the recidivism, we had a huge drop from 24 to 25, but 26 numbers. We can expect that at the end of the year to try and pretty much mirror those from 2025.

Thank you. We've talked about lies, damn lies, and stats, but I don't know how much you can do about it, but I'm just struck going through this stuff by it doesn't seem to do a good job with gender in terms of breaking down crimes in terms of Am I missing something there? I would have thought that in these lengthy reports, just you would really want to zone in on, you know, victims and also just crimes based on, like, you know, that are happening in the home rather than – and, I mean, I understand you're dealing with a standardized process, but that would be just something that –

It just doesn't. The other thing is just the public, when we talked about a couple of years ago, you're kind of the public. The problem is that you're doing a really good job. Crime is declining. And somehow a presentation has to happen that expresses more the value of officer welfare and just the long game. Because I'm not trying to tell you a thing, but every department talks about being down officers and so forth. And somehow you have to sell. the value of the officer's well-being and so forth to a certain extent. Take it away. I'm just saying I'm all for it. I'm just telling you that's rea

No, maybe I'm saying it backwards, but basically people see crime go down and then they will say, well, why should I pay more property taxes or whatever to hire more police officers? And so I'm just somehow we have to sell the notion of that it is worth doing things to, you know, make it improve retention and so forth and so on.

Yeah, thank you. Council Member Simons, do you have a question?

All right, I do have a couple. One, I had given you some prior warning that I was going to ask you about motor vehicle thefts. Can you give me your theory, and it can be your opinion for sure, about why we've seen that decrease, not just here in Des Moines, but regionally?

Thank you. And we talked a little bit in depth about the staffing improvements. And can you repeat for us how those were financed? Where did we get some of the additional resources to fund those improvements?

Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah. So let's move on to the consent agenda. Will the clerk please read the consent agenda?

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as read? Councilmember Nutting. And a second. I HEARD COUNCILMEMBER BLAS FIRST. I'LL GO WITH THAT. DOES ANY COUNCILMEMBER WISH TO PULL AN ITEM? HEARING NONE, ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF THE CONSENT AGENDA AS READ, PLEASE RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND UNTIL I CALL YOUR NAME. DEPUTY MAYOR OXAGER, I'LL COME BACK TO COUNCILMEMBER STEINMETZ AT LAST BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE YOUR HAND. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, COUNCILMEMBER DESMONI, COUNCILMEMBER NUTTING, COUNCILMEMBER BLAS AND MYSELF, HOW DO YOU VOTE, COUNCILMEMBER STEINMETZ?

All right, that passes 7-0. Thank you very much. All right, we are now moving on to our public hearing. Do we have any sign-ups that are going to be passed down to me? The purpose of this agenda item is for the council to hold a public hearing on the Carter Stock LLC development agreements. I will now open the public hearing. We'll begin with a staff presentation by Community Development Director Rebecca Demming.

Before you get started, do you mind introducing yourself? Oh, hi.

Let's do that. And we can have Rebecca come back up as well. Council, do you have any questions at this time? Questions only, please. Council Member Harris.

Yeah, I'm terribly sorry, but it's like 1,000 pages and stuff, and these may be incredibly silly, but just this – you're asking for a modification of our standard zoning, right? I mean, there are things apart from the, you know, what are the special items that are being, that are outside of just, you know, what wouldn't require the council to talk about this now?

I'm going to have to sincerely apologize. I made a mistake and jumped the gun here. So we have to go to public comment first before we get to those council questions. So if you wouldn't mind writing that down, we can come back to it first. Okay. I'm very sorry about that. That is entirely my fault. It is the time for public comment portion of the public hearing which we're in, and we ask that folks keep their comments respectful and. When I call your name, please come up to the podium state your name city of residence and you will have two minutes to speak, and so the first person I have is Le

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I APPRECIATE IT. KAREN SHARTMAN.

IS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T SIGN UP TO SPEAK WHO WISHES TO SPEAK? SECOND CALL, IS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T SIGN UP TO SPEAK WHO WISHES TO SPEAK? COME ON UP. I'M LYNN FROMATER, AND I LIVE IN REDONDO ALSO. THE THING THAT I AM EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT IS THIS IS A LITTLE OVER A HALF AN ACRE. IT'S A VERY SMALL PIECE OF PROPERTY, AND THE DENSITY, YOU'RE NOT DEALING WITH THE DENSITY ISSUES. 14 TOWNHOMES. WHAT I READ IS I HEAR THERE MIGHT BE CONDOS. ARE THEY RENTALS? WHAT ARE THEY? IS IT DEFINED IN THAT INFORMATION? I THINK THERE'S EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT ISSUES REGARDING THE WATERFRONT, THE ENVIRONMENT

I'M GOING TO GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO QUESTIONS. SO I APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE HERE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, DO YOU WANT TO COME BACK TO YOUR QUESTION, PLEASE?

So maybe I can find the proper words, but what are the modifications to our standard zoning? Because the thing is, I think this is a deal where people are making everything about everything. And I just, if possible, can we narrow down to what is outside of, yeah. Does that make sense?

Okay. And going back to the hearing examiner. Yes. That is.

Rather than if the agreement came to the council and we would have a first and second reading.

Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Just because I know we have a lot of interested parties, I wanted to do one question and then I'll cycle back through. So anyone else have a question? Council Member Blass.

In terms of parking, again, so I'm looking at a satellite imagery here. Currently, there's about eight angled parking and about six parallel parking on Redondo Way South. Is that going to stay there and five of them are included in the kind of, is what's required for the code? Or are some of these parking spaces going to be removed?

Just for clarification, this process, this is the first step in getting conceptual drawings?

Yes, one of the concerns that's been expressed is which is going to come first? Are you going to remodel the restaurant and restore the restaurant first or are you going to develop the property first, the parking lot?

I want to ask a little bit more because that to me doesn't seem to be directly related to this developer agreement.

OK, but what I'm addressing is the concerns for the community as to what is the intent.

Councilmember Simons, do you have a question?

Thank you. Go ahead. Councilmember Desmoning.

I did have a question earlier. I'm sorry, I forgot your name. Carol. Carol. Earlier in your presentation, you did discuss that the redevelopment would be funding the part of the restaurant, and you did also use the terms married to. So am I under the impression that you are going to be doing both?

I HAD ONE FOR YOU. I WANTED TO CHECK. SO THIS IS A LOT OF INFORMATION ABOUT PARKING ORDINANCES, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE TO ME, AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I'M READING THIS CORRECT, THAT IF THE DEVELOPER AGREEMENT FOR THIS PARCEL IS APPROVED THIS YEAR, THE CURRENT CERTI-CODE WOULD BE IN EFFECT. AND IF IT WAS DELAYED, THE NEW POSSIBLY LOWER NUMBER OF PARKING SPOTS WOULD GO INTO EFFECT. OKAY. SO BY APPROVING IT NOW, WE'LL NET MORE possible parking spots.

Council Member Harris, your second bite.

So when you say five existing angled spaces and five additional spaces, When you, the five existing are on Redondo Way, and then five, okay, the east-west.

Somehow. No, I'm not being difficult. I'm just trying to get a sense just.

CAROL, YOU MENTIONED THERE WOULD BE ZERO RUNOFF FROM THIS PROJECT INTO PEGIT SOUND. WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?

department of ecology permitting so i am very fond of our riverways and so we will we'll keep them safe all right i just want to check back in with you councilmember simmons okay thank you i will now close the public hearing is there a motion councilmember netting

I move to adopt draft ordinance, draft resolution 26-096, approving the Carter's Dock LLC development agreement and authorize the city manager to sign the development agreement substantially in the form as submitted.

Do I hear a second? Council member Desmonee did raise her hand first. I'LL TAKE THAT. ANY DISCUSSION? COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS.

SO WHOEVER CAN PUT THEIR EAR MOVES ON. WHEN ANYBODY SAYS IN 2026 THAT THEY CAN'T DO BETTER WIREFRAME DRAWINGS WITH THREE, I MEAN, THERE ARE 17-YEAR-OLDS THAT CAN DO FLY THROUGHS AND I'M JUST SORRY. YOU KNOW, AND I UNDERSTAND, YOU KNOW, WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THE EXPENSE, I'm sorry, that just doesn't do it for me anymore. You can just buy a Mac for $750 and free software, and you can do an illustration. And nobody wants to hold you to it, but my point is that I think you could address a lot of the heartburn that I have heard just by having better drawings. The public gets nervous. In fact, it w

I DID ALSO STRUGGLE THROUGH THAT PRESENTATION A LITTLE BIT. I DIDN'T HEAR CONFIDENCE. I HEARD A LOT OF WE MIGHT, IT COULD, THERE'S IDEAS, THERE'S CONCEPTS. THE NERVOUSNESS IS REAL. The trust factor is real, but I'd like to remind everyone here we're still in the conceptual phases. The right hand cannot do anything without the left hand right now, and the left hand cannot do anything without the right hand right now. So we are actually having to trust at this point in time. So if we can have a little bit of latitude and understand that this is an ongoing process and that we will get there and t

Thank you. Hang on as we dial that back here again, or maybe it timed out. Any other discussion? Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Thank you, Mayor. There's a line from the movie Risky Business that I think applies here. That line is, it seems to me that if there is any logic to our language, trust is a four-letter word, or should be a four-letter word. And that's really what we're talking about here is trust. Most people in the community want the restaurant to open. Still, many are worried it could make the current problems in Redondo worse, which are already making life very difficult there. I understand those concerns because I've lived here for 50 years and I've seen developers and businesses come in, make their money

Council Member, I wanted to check to see if Council Member Blas had any comments before I go back through. All right, Council Member Desmonet.

Thank you, I did wanna sound a little more upbeat than the other council member with the trust. As a business owner, also it behooves a business owner to do right by the community. Trust is something that I understand is earned, but also they're putting their livelihood on the line to become a part of this community, to work with the community. And as a business owner who has changed communities because I did not receive that type of partnership in a previous city, Chief Bowe, I do see the trust and I understand the commitment and to be fair, there is fear on the other side as well. So the tru

The Redondo area is so beautiful. I love going with my kids there, walking on the boardwalk, going to the beach there, going to the Mass Center Aquarium. But ever since we moved here for years, there's just nothing to do aside from them. There's no businesses. Salty's been closed for years. We always wonder, why isn't there anything? And people are asking for something to be there. This is our first chance, really, in years for this to happen. And I would be in favor of this. What we're voting on today is the development agreement. And really, we're only voting on three small things in there t

Thank you. I'm thinking of Rick Johnson now because years Ten years ago or so, the city was trying to do this redondo, just master plan kind of a thing, and it never really came together as a deal. The trust I have is that a successful commercial venture restaurant there will improve quality of life there. So if you manage it well... it will actually reduce the problems that people complain about organically, apart from anything else. I don't like giving up control. Nobody does to a hearings examiner and so forth. But yeah, when SALTES was there, the area was calmer. And it sounds may be unint

Thank you. Councilmember Simons, did you have any final comments?

Sure, thank you. I want to say thanks to everyone who came out today to express their concerns or their excitement for any of these projects I do believe that there has been a lot of thought into what this development might mean, the impacts to the community, and like Councilmember Nutting said earlier, this is just the first step. This is just reaching out the hand, and there are so many more touches that we will have over the concept, the design, and how it will be implemented as we move forward. I'm very concerned and really aware of some things that maybe other folks don't have to think ab

COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS. I thought you did. I saw you go like that. Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Desmoning.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. On the option three, can you pull that slide up of the street? It looks like we've lost all the on-street parking. Could you just confirm for option three?

So again, I know we're still conceptual, but if you go to the next picture, the prettier one, there is no on-street parking in the picture on the right.

So is option two, that's eligible for the grant or is it, or is that like a separate thing and then we could accept the grant and then have an add-on for the water quality thing or is it?

Okay, but all right. I'm just... What Mr. Linscott was referring to, I would call option five, because the original thing, it had a working creek and flying fish. I just made that up. But the $20 million one was option four.

I JUST DON'T WANT TO, I THINK PEOPLE ARE CHARACTERIZING OPTION THREE OR MISREMEMBERING IT AS SOME KIND OF LIKE ROLLS-ROYCE OPTION, AND TO ME, THIS IS SCALED BACK TO VALUE ENGINEERED CONCEPT.

I'm just, the thing I was looking for, my eye keeps straining to see the interface with the marina steps. You know, like how that's, That's what people always ask is how that's going to come together.

Thanks for the presentation, Mike. On option two, if you go to the map, it says almost 50% of the cost goes to decorative lighting, which is not reflected in the rendering. Decorative lighting in there too, or is it just the same?

And that's 50% of the cost of the sidewalk?

And then the water feature, so it's no longer above ground. It's just large tanks underground that would hold the runoff water for just the time and then go to the steps, water filtration.

I thought the steps took in all that water from the whole downtown. The steps don't take the whole downtown, no. Okay, just two acres that it takes. Okay, and then you said you could build the sidewalks and then separately have a project where you ask for additional grants from the state to build the underground sidewalks.

So there could be two separate projects where you build, fund the construction of the sidewalks, and then you accept the grant that we already have from the state, and then ask for more grants. And if we get it, then we can build the water feature. OK. Thank you.

OK. So thank you for the presentation. You mentioned that the water quality issue would address 30 acres. How many acres total are we talking in the downtown area?

So why wouldn't we be going for an option that addresses the entire 60 acres rather than just 30 of it?

COUNCILMEMBER SIMONS, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

No, we don't. Second time for Councilmember Harris.

I'll just say option three is what has to happen. It's just normal. It's, you know, option three is not Cadillac or whatever. It's just a normal, complete street that is supposed to be part of the city's policy going forward. And, you know, especially it's not the sequencing that I would have expected

Well, are we still in the questions period?

We're still in the questions period, yes.

All right, if there aren't any, did you have any questions, sir? Okay, if we don't have any other questions, let's move into, I'm going to ask for a vote. And I would like to make sure that we have this in a vote format rather than a hand raise. Councilmember Desmone?

OK. Why don't we make the, we'll see if there's a motion first, and then we can see if there's a second, and then we could get to discussion.

I'd like to move that we go with option two, and that we do not accept the grant. and that we simply use our funds, I'm sorry, I forgot what it was, to go ahead with option two.

Is there a second? I can second that for discussion. So it's been moved and seconded. Let's move into discussion of option two, which is the minimalist, as we discussed earlier, without the addition of the water quality grant. Discussion? Councilmember Blass.

I understand we can separate the two projects. We don't have to reject the grant. We could separate the project, approve the grant, and then wait to see if we get grants later down the line to build the underground. We could do that. So I don't think we should reject.

Yes. Okay. Discussion? Other discussion? Councilmember Desmoni.

I will. defend my motion. I see this as a beautification project. I know I missed the finance meeting last week, but I truly believe our priorities are to maintain what we already have before we start with something new. But I do recognize the need to get this street closer to what we need for our stair project. I understand that. I'm a safety girl. I think people walking in the street on Cliff Avenue is unacceptable. I think there's other places where we should be spending this money, but $500,000 can get us to a place where people are safe and we're achieving what we need to do. There have b

As I was saying, you build the city that you want. You only get to tear up the streets once in a blue moon. And so you should build what the future will want. You know, 216th, it looks really good. And you should basically make every project that we do to a certain standard because you're leaving it to the future. And, you know, a complete street is the city's standard. And, you know, if you go... If you go cheap on this in any way, basically, yeah. I mean, we talk about making this the waterfront destination. If it takes longer, be patient, but do the project you want, even if it takes longer

I tend to agree with Councilmember Harris. If you're going to do it, do it right in the first place. That said, I AGREE WITH COUNCIL MEMBER DISMONES THAT WE HAVE MUCH MORE PRESSING PRIORITIES. WE'VE EXPRESSED THOSE PRIORITIES IN OUR LEGISLATIVE ASKS. IT'S CRITICAL THAT WE FIX CLIFF AVENUE. That's going to be the vehicle access to both the Beach Park and the North Marina. We've also put ourselves, I think, in somewhat of a bind in that the construction of the steps cuts off the Dock Avenue. access. Yes, you can get through, but it's going to be extremely problematic. We had this discussion in R

Just a second. Just a second. I want to reiterate before I go back around that I agree with some of the points that have been made here as well that we're talking about a project as if it was put on this because it was necessary to do. And that's the question that we're considering right now. Is this a necessary project to do at this time. Because option one is don't do the project and save all of the money. So I want to consider that what we are doing is basically leapfrogging other priority projects. That's what will happen here if we take this commitment. It's not free money. It's a commitm

I guess I'm puzzled. And I don't want to put you in an awkward position Mike, but do you consider it a zero-sum?

I'm sorry, but that sounds like an opinion that we were asking for, or you were talking about funding?

I'm asking a question regarding funding. Well, let me finish. Is it an either-or kind of a deal? No. I guess is what I'm trying to say, is the planning process in accepting this grant, does that come at the cost of the other things that we've been discussing?

Because that seems to be the ‑‑ Councilmember, I'm going to interrupt there because I want to say that that is actually a council decision. Council decides the priorities. And so...

It's not a priority. It's a question of our city regularly executes on multiple projects simultaneously.

And the question is what order of priority they should go in.

And that comes back to us. You can walk and chew gum. We do several projects simultaneously. And what I am asking is... IF WE ACCEPT THIS GRANT AND GO INTO INITIAL DESIGN ON THIS, DOES IT COME AT THE COST OF OTHER, OF THE OTHER PRIORITIES, YOU KNOW, CLIFF AVENUE, WHICH I'M STRONGLY IN FAVOR OF AND SO ON. I MEAN, DOES IT, IS IT A ZERO SUM KIND OF A THING WHERE WE HAVE TO CHOOSE EITHER OR IN ACCEPTING THIS GRANT?

By accepting the grant for the design, does that put a time frame on when we have to do this project?

SO IF THIS PROJECT IS NUMBER 23 ON THE LIST, IT DOESN'T MOVE IT TO NUMBER ONE?

We're trying to get Mike to make a commitment when he's asking us for direction. And the question is whether or not we're going to go with the motion that's on the table, which is to accept option two.

Point of order, Mayor. That wasn't anything that I was interjecting. Right. I was not stating that we were making that a priority.

But I feel like your question is basically the same answer that we just gave Councilmember Harris, which is we're not sure BUT PUTTING ANY PROJECT ON STAFF IS TAKING AWAY RESOURCES THAT COULD BE SOMEWHERE ELSE.

MY QUESTION WAS, BY ACCEPTING THE GRANT, DO WE MAKE THAT A PRIORITY? AND THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE VOTING ON HERE, AND THAT WAS YOUR STATEMENT IS THAT IT BECOMES A PRIORITY.

LET ME CLARIFY, AND I'M SORRY IF I WASN'T CLEAR. OPTION ONE IS WE DO NOTHING, KEEP THE STATUS QUO, IN WHICH CASE THERE WOULD BE NO PRIORITY ASSIGNED TO THIS, AND IT WOULD NOT EXIST AS A PROJECT. OPTION TWO IS CREATING A PROJECT that has been deprioritized back in April back up into active movement of design. That does, in fact, raise its priority list from where it has been. So I hope that's accurate. And I think that those kind of questions are, I just don't want to put Mike so much on the spot that he's having to commit to something that we haven't even told him we want to do yet. So that's

Yeah, so the steps are going to be completed at the end of the year. There's currently nothing really pedestrian to walk from the steps to downtown, which is the whole point of the steps. And I think we need something. So I like the option two like to have sidewalks improvement there. Option three obviously looks awesome. It's got landscaping, all the wires, the cables are down. But it's expensive, and it's going to take a while to build. The sidewalk could be built in a year. The option three would take four or five years, maybe. And I'd rather see something now rather than later. With that s

Would you like to offer an amendment? Oh, you could say we'd like to, in addition to option two, add a $75,000 budget for landscaping.

Yeah, in addition to option two, I'd like to add a $75,000 to $100,000 beautification fund.

So I'm going to consider that a motion. Would anyone like to second it? Council Member Dismoni. All right, let's have a quick discussion about an option two beautification or landscape. I don't like beautification as a word, but A little bit beyond the minimalist into adding some nice features, including landscaping, trees or something so much. So I heard $75,000 on top of option two. Any discussion? Council Member Blass. Hold on just a second. Council Member Blass.

This is going to connect the downtown to the marina. And we have the steps. We are spending $11 million on it. It would be nice to have a nice-looking connection point between downtown to this step that goes to the marina. I think it's fair to spend a little money now to make it look nicer. This is going to be good for 20, 30, 50 years maybe. Let's spend a little money now and make it more inviting for people to walk down, for visitors to come from downtown to the marina and vice versa.

Could I get clarification on that statement from Council Member Steinmetz to do option three. Oh sorry. I'm sorry he was just saying. It was about the funding. He was saying that there was funding guaranteed for option three which I am not clear on because I Didn't understand it.

Okay, hold on. Yes, hold on just a second. Let's try and talk one at a time. It's difficult. Go back to the rest of your question.

So the clarification was that there is no guaranteed money for the actual project. It is the grant for the design. The rest would come from?

Santa. OK. All right. OK. Sorry. Or potentially capital if it didn't fall, if we didn't get a grant funding. I'm just clarifying the dollars. Thank you.

All right. OK. Thank you. And so to the amendment, we're speaking to that. Councilmember Harris.

Respectfully, Council Member Vlas, this is like one of those things where it was the value of having committees. It would often be the case that we would separate out the design.

I will speak to whatever I wish to speak to. This amendment... It's micromanagement. You hire professionals to create the best possible design. You don't design from the dais. And so I would just say you figure out a way to have them design it. Then if you have to put it on the shelf for a couple of years, but you're patient. I'm sorry, can you?

Okay, thank you. Any other comments about just the amendment? All right, so let's go to a vote on just the amendment, which would be adding $75,000 to option two, and then we'll vote on that motion. All right, so all in favor of amending the first one to include a $75,000 budget for enhancements for landscaping or other, please raise your right hand until I call your name. So I have Council Member Desmone, Council Member Netting, Council Member Blass, and myself. That's four. How many do you, what vote do you have? Council Member Steinmetz. All right, so that does pass for three. So let's go b

Do I need to revise the vote we just took?

Okay. Can you go back to the number two so we can look at what it said? about total costs. There we go. Okay. It's an estimate. There. So it's an estimated. So now let's say the estimate is at $575,000. Does that accomplish what we need? It's still an estimate.

Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Absolutely. All right.

Your... Point of order question. Is the... REJECTION OF THE GRANT IN THAT MOTION? IT IS. CAN I PROPOSED AN AMENDMENT TO REMOVE THAT FROM THE MOTION? THE REJECTION OF THE GRANT? I PROPOSED TO REMOVE THE REJECTION OF THE GRANT. I'M STILL UNCLEAR OF WHAT WE CAN SEPARATE BOTH PROJECTS.

DO WE HAVE A SECOND? OK. All in. Let's talk about some discussion about the accepting of the grant so that let's restate what would happen first. Let me make sure that we're all talking about the same thing. So that would be option two sidewalks improvements with a concept that we like around five hundred and seventy five thousand dollars which is an estimate but also accepting the grant for five hundred and eighty thousand dollars which is the commitment for the water quality engineering. Is that correct?

That's what you want your... No, I want just to remove that.

The grant not be... Yeah, your motion would result in us having option two with an estimated cost of $600,000, which includes the landscaping and accepting the ecology grant.

No, I would be completely separating that out. I have a different motion or discussion next week or next two weeks to talk about

We don't have a meeting until... We have the 27th.

So your motion was to separate it out and vote on it later? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that what you thought? Right. Okay. All right. So, okay. Let me rephrase. I'm glad we did this then because I wanted to make sure we were tracking. So your amendment, I don't think that's amends the first, does that amend the first motion at all? It's a separate motion. Yeah. I'm going to have to look to city attorney George if that's how you're interpreting that. I just want to be clear, Robin, or sorry.

I'm with you. OK, so what I asked for is option two and to not accept the grant. And I think what Councilmember Blass is asking is to make the grant a separate decision in a different entity entirely. So would that be me removing from my original motion the grant?

And that's me amending it because it's my motion.

Right. Let me clarify. Let me try here. Can I have you state what you want your amendment to be? So I move that we, and it has to amend the motion that was the original one, which is that we go forward with option two and decline the grant. So let's make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

So I move to amend the motion to remove the statement by rejecting the grant.

Yeah, we could do that. Let's revise. Can we make sure that you have a second for that? Okay. So that's been moved and seconded. Let's talk more about that. Council Member Blass.

I feel like it's kind of the first time I heard today about being able to separate the two projects and have it be a completely separate project. And I need to have more information on that and what it would take away from other projects in the capital improvement plan. I need more details on it. And I think if it's two separate projects, then we should separate the motions too.

Other discussion? Okay, let's go to a vote. I'm going to restate it. All in favor of amending the original motion to put the grant back in, which will hold over the discussion about the grant to a later time. Let's go for the vote. All in favor.

Okay. I'm sorry. Council Member Blass was nodding along, but yes, go ahead.

I don't think that's what you meant. So let's go back to the originator of the amendment.

I agree with what Damir said and how she summarized it.

So I believe that's the motion on the table, is to remove that language. And that means that the grant would have to come back for another discussion. All those in favor, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy, or no. Council Member Nutting, Council Member Blass, how do you vote Council Member Steinmetz?

All those opposed? Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmone, Council Member and Mayor, myself, that is going to fail 4-2-3. Let's go back to the original motion. Okay, I think we can do it. You're right, we had the momentum. Let's go ahead and take it to Oh, yeah, I can restate it. Council Member Desmone, would you like to restate your motion?

Oh, it's my privilege. I would like to make a motion that we go with option two and that we decline the ecology grant. All right.

All in favor, please raise your right hand until I call on you. I HAVE COUNCIL MEMBER DESMONI, COUNCIL MEMBER BLAS, AND MYSELF. HOW DO YOU VOTE, COUNCIL MEMBER STEINMETZ?

OKAY. ALL THOSE OPPOSED? DEPUTY MAYOR OXFORD, COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS, COUNCIL MEMBER NUTTING, AND COUNCIL MEMBER STEINMETZ. THAT MOTION FAILS 4-2-3. DOES SOMEONE HAVE ANOTHER MOTION? COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS, A MOTION

Second. Option three. Discussion. Deputy Mayor Oxker.

We're back into the priority issue again. You know, we have two projects that we've cited that are very important. I don't want to take our eyes off the ball. And so when we get these projects going, we can come back to this. The $580,000 grant, it's not a good fit for us at this time if we're trying to work with the other priorities. it's kind of like the old saying about, you know, we're getting a pony, but you've got to figure out how you're going to feed it, how you're going to house it, who's going to, you know, take care of it, that sort of thing. We've got these priority projects that w

Gosh, it seems like 800 years ago that we had committees, but if this were going through a committee process, we would not be having this discussion. You don't turn down the money. You find a way to do the design, and then you move the priorities for construction as you see fit. Nobody wants the Cliff Avenue and Beach Park projects done now. more expediently than myself, but you don't turn down state money. You figure out a way to get to design. And I honestly didn't see this coming, that it's not an either or in terms of priority. It's just, yeah, I'm just repeating myself. You do the design,

Mike, could you please pull up that option three with the math, with the numbers, the money part. Thank you. I will not vote for a project for a grant's sake. I will not do it. The grant is $500. I'm sorry, I don't actually care. Thank you. for the design for something that is still going to cost us this much money if possibly maybe someday whenever we get other grants that might defer some of these costs. I will not vote for this. This is asking too much of us financially. We have a possibility of something that can put things to a place where we can function now while we can maintain other t

I promise you. Council Member Simons, did you have any comments?

Before I go back around, I want to make sure that there are others who haven't spoken yet who can speak. Anyone? All right, let me go first. I think it's important for me here to hear what other folks are saying. Other folks have said here and I've heard very strongly some opinions about why we have reservations why I have reservations for this project. And I think it's also important to remember that the city residents and voters told us twice that they didn't want us to continue the spending priorities that were a bit fantastical and the lessons that I learned from the vote from our resident

Yes, and I believe that it was also the comment, correct me if I'm wrong, of the city manager that when these grants come with a due date, we have something that we have to do, and that creates a priority. And so by accepting the grant, we're putting this into the middle of the decision-making on other projects that we're working on. And we've already said that the priority has to go to Cliff Avenue and fixing the Redondo seawall to protect the pump station down there. So we're just interjecting another mess into the whole conversation. And is it worth $580,000 to you know, put ourselves into

Other discussion? I'm sorry, to clarify, Councilmember, the motion is for option three, which is $4.2 million, not $500,000. You just asked if it was worth $500,000. I just want to make sure. The grant. Okay.

No, it's okay. Any other discussion before we go to a vote on option three?

The voters objected to the city borrowing money. And I just want to point out that this is not borrowing money. And that's basically it. It's a question of sequencing. And I just think about the original notion of downtown redevelopment from 2008, the UW presentations. I just can't imagine doing something as dramatic as the Marina Steps and then not have something leading up to it that is commensurate with that. And I am willing to be patient as long as it turns out to be someone else's money, as long as it's all of equal beauty. Thank you. Oh, and also the water quality thing. I mean, the fac

I just want to clarify that there's no other funding attached to this at this point. So to say that there will not be loans on it, I think is hypothetical. Let's go to a vote. All those in favor of option three, which is the full corridor improvement, please raise your right hand. Council Member Harris, Council Member Nutting, how do you vote, Council Member Simons?

Okay. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Desmone, Council Member Blass, and myself. So that motion fails 3-4. So we have some choices here. We can go with option number one, or we can table this discussion, because it doesn't sound like we have agreement, quite frankly. Okay.

So unless there's a motion for option one or option two. There isn't a motion yet, so there are options until... We would need a motion. Okay, so he would need to restate that motion. I would not be able to support reopening this discussion when there's absolutely no agreement. So what would be the point? Go ahead.

I'll second that. DISCUSSION. COUNCILMEMBER BLAS.

IF I UNDERSTAND, THIS IS REJECTING THE GRANT, BUT ALSO REJECTING OPTION 2 AND 3 AND GOING DE FACTO OPTION 1?

I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD MAKE THAT DECISION NOW. WELL, FOR REJECTING, WE CAN, BUT I THINK WE SHOULD STILL DISCUSS TO DO SOMETHING DOWN THERE.

WELL, WE DID. We discussed option two and we discussed option three. So tabling would effectively move us to option one, which is the only thing that we haven't discussed. Any other discussion?

Right. That's the option we haven't discussed yet.

Right. And I'm trying to look here to see if tabling actually is debatable. Go ahead.

TABLING IS NOT POSTPONED. TABLE MEANS THAT WE DON'T MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS DISCUSSION. SO THAT'S WHAT MY MOTION WAS TO DO. OR, YEAH. SORRY. IT WAS, YES, DEPUTY MAYOR OXFORD'S MOTION.

IF FOR CLARIFICATION, PARDON. IF FOR CLARIFICATION, JUST GO WITH ONE. I MEAN, IF WE'RE GOING TO HAVE AN ARGUMENT OVER WHAT THE MEANING OF TABLING IS, THEN I WOULD RETRACT MY MOTION AND MOVE TO JUST SIMPLY GO WITH OPTION 1.

IS THERE A SECOND? COUNCILMEMBER DESMOND HAS SECONDS. NOW WE CAN HAVE A DISCUSSION ABOUT OPTION 1. ALL RIGHT. DISCUSSION FOR OPTION 1. Doesn't sound like there is any. Should we go to a vote? All those in favor of the status quo, option one, please raise your right hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Desmone, and myself, how do you vote, Council Member Simons? Are you a yay? Okay, great. All those in favor, all those opposed to motion on the table, please raise your hand. Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Netting, Councilmember Blass, and Councilmember Simons. So that motion fails thre

So, and I may be misreading this, but the term six months is used, is that the length of time to come to an agreement?

I just want to make sure that we both side... He's attempting to answer. Hold on just a second.

For expediency, can I move on to someone else, and I'll come back to you with your second question. Anyone else have any questions? Great. Councilmember Simons, did you have one before we move back? Councilmember Simons?

Okay. Councilmember Harris, your final second question.

Yeah, so... You know, I had mentioned to the city about having like a little bit of fencing or something around, decorative around the pathway from the activity center into the park, just something. I'm just, the purple or whatever the square, is that really going to be the extent of the development? Will it take away from any of the parking or any of the access areas? from the activity center into Stephen Jay. Does that make sense?

Any final questions? All right. Is there a motion? Councilmember Nutting.

I move to approve the MOU with Des Moines Area Food Bank to grant access to city property to allow the preliminary planning and review for the potential relocation of the food bank and authorize the city manager to sign the MOU substantially in the form that is attached.

Is there a second? Councilmember Des Moines. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy Mayor Ochsinger, Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Desmoni, Councilmember Nutting, Councilmember Blass, and myself, how do you vote Councilmember Steinmetz?

That passes 7-0. Thank you very much, and thank you for your patience, Executive Director Van Gaskin. All right. I am going to ask for some indulgence here because we're going to need to adjourn in five minutes. And so I'd like to skip our final couple of items, the new agenda items for consideration and any council member reports. All right. So then why don't instead of seconding that, why don't you have a movement to adjourn, a motion to adjourn?

Any second? Council Member Desmoni, all in favor of adjourning, please raise your right hand. And if I could hear your aye, that's a 7-0. Thank you very much. And we will see you next time on the 27th, 2026.