City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this hybrid regular council meeting of August 11th, 2026 to order at 7 o'clock p.m. Will you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

And will the clerk please call the roll?

Okay. Thank you, Jill. Okay, Council. Does anybody have anything to add or delete to tonight's agenda? Okay. Seeing nothing, we'll move on. We're going to start off tonight's meeting with a public hearing. And the public hearing we are conducting this evening is regarding agenda bill 26-116. This is the electric alarm systems fencing and retaining wall code amendments. audience. A public hearing is a one-way communication that allows citizens to present testimony on a specific topic for the City Council's consideration in their decision-making process. Please frame your testimony as a statemen

Thank you, Mr. Kubica. Okay, takes us to public testimony. So we have two people that have signed up. First of all, Andrew Wiesenfeld. Please step to the podium, Andrew, and you have up to five minutes. We do not give out bonus points for using all five minutes, but you're welcome to. Okay. Brief but slow.

Thank you, Andrew. Next up, we have Kyle Hardkey.

Okay. Thank you, Kyle. Any other public comment in this public hearing? Don't see any hands raised in our audience or the virtual audience. Josh, do you have any final words to say before we close our public hearing?

Okay, with that, our public hearing is closed at 719. And that takes us to next portion of our agenda, which is audience comment. So we also have Andrew. Andrew Wiesenfeld that has signed up, and he wrote down the PSE rate increase. So that is his topic. So, Andrew, you already know the routine. Step up. You got five minutes or going to pass out something. So Mark and Christy were getting a little handout before Andrew starts his five minutes or something. And just so you know, Deputy Mayor Creeley and Councilmember Keith, this is the notice of public hearings and requested changes to Puget So

Yeah. Sorry. Thank you, Andrew. And you'll, I'm sure, let us know the date of that. It's actually on your document. Okay. Perfect. Sounds good. Thank you, Andrew. Is there any other public comment here tonight, either in person or in the virtual audience? Don't see any hands raised among participants. I assume there are none. Okay. That concludes our audience comment for tonight. Okay. Takes us to the mayor's report. so just a couple of things to pass along i spoke at the seeds of change dinner recently a week or two ago that's kind of a quarterly commitment to speak on thursday nights to the

Okay. It has been moved by Council Member Rasmus and seconded by Deputy Mayor Creeley to approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Okay, motion carries. Council Business. Council, there is no official Council Business agenda items tonight, so keeps us moving on. We are now to our final item, which is Council Comments. Who would, and Jason Ramirez. Council Member Ramirez.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. My question's for Public Works. Going in line with curb appeal of Meridian. And I understand we as a council canceled the contract for maintenance on Meridian for budgetary purposes. I was just wondering if there's a plan with public works of getting out there and cleaning some of them up because they are going over the curb as well as the sidewalk. And I just was wondering if that was somewhere on the schedule over the next few months. Thank you.

Okay, I'm not sure. Oh, there he is coming off. So, Public Works Director Chuck Henderson. Chuck, would you like to address Councilmember Ramirez's questions?

Okay. Thank you, Chuck. Yes, Council Member Southard.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make two motions. Is it okay if I do them one at a time? Sure. I would like to move to have the subject of automatic license plate readers presented at our September 1st study session.

Okay, do we have a second on the motion before the floor? Okay. Okay, so we have a motion to put automatic license plate readers on the September 1st study session agenda. And we have a second. So, Council Member Souther, do you have the floor?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have some questions about automatic license plate readers and There's some concerns I have, and also there's the passage of a relatively recent law by the state, and I was curious of how that affects people's privacy and civil liberties when using automatic license plate readers in common highways.

Okay. Councilmember Edwards, you now have the floor.

I'm just interested to learn more about these cameras, just because it's a very hot topic issue right now, locally and nationally. And so just getting more information about them.

Okay. Speaking for Chief, that's three weeks from tonight. I'm guessing if this is intent is to start a conversation, I would think he's ready to have some information to start a conversation about this in three weeks or so. Do you have anything you want to add? Because I know this is going to be

I'll make some contacts on the future agenda list. September 1st is free, but it looked like it could be moved to the 15th. We wanted. If that would work better.

Right. Okay. Why don't we, well, we'll stick with the first. That was your motion. Yeah. And we can go ahead and adjust later, move to postpone. But we'll keep it clean. We'll keep it with September 1st for now. So any other comments to the motion on the floor to place? Okay. City Attorney Maylee Barber would like to, has her hand raised. Maylee?

Oh, okay, thank you. Yeah, we will go over that Senate bill on September 1st and some other items that Chief will have for us. So any other comments to this motion? Council Member Keith?

I don't know, point of order, point of information. In our bylaws, it says that two council members can put a topic on the agenda. And I take that to mean, and parliamentary procedure takes that to mean, that we don't actually have to vote. I think that discussion's fine, but basically just two people can insert information.

You're right. There's multiple routes. That is one route, but this is a route that Council Member Southard has chosen. So we will continue with, you know, we have a motion on the floor. I think it's cleanest to move forward with the motion on the floor. Okay. Any other Council comments on this motion? Okay. All those in favor of placing the automated license plate reader topic on the September 1st study session agenda, say aye.

And the opposed, say nay. Okay, motion carries. Council Member Souther, you had a second motion.

Well, based on the previous comment, I would like to add the United Regional Approach to Homelessness in Pierce County on the September 1st day session.

Wait, we're not doing a motion, though. I just did what you told me to.

You have to have two people. I'm your number two.

And then that's it. So you can't confuse it with the motion and there's no parliamentary questions.

Yeah. Okay. Duly noted. We have two council members that have placed an item on the agenda and it's the United Regional Approach to Homelessness topic to the September 1st study session. Okay. Thank you. Any other council comment here tonight? Yes, Council Member Edwards.

I just want to thank the police department for letting me come along on National Night Out to do that ride-along. The backseat is not comfy at all, so don't go in the back. But I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun. The three places we went to were great, and just thanks for everyone who participated in National Night Out.

Okay, thank you. Any other council comment? Yes, Council Member Keith has her hands raised.

I also wanted to thank the police. We had the concerning incident with the reader board sign that sort of blew up on social media and the police were on it quickly, efficiently, With dedication. And I appreciate that very much.

Yes, I agree. Anything else? Okay, I sense that we're done. So we are adjourned at 737. Happy anniversary.