City Council - Regular Meeting

I call the Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 council business meeting to order. I met with the council members at 5 p.m. in the sixth floor council conference room for a briefing to discuss tonight's agenda. At 5.30 p.m., we moved here to the first floor chambers to conduct the council business meeting in person. And because we encourage... Sorry. community involvement, we invite the public to join us in person. Attend via remote option through Zoom or view on BCAT. Please note that tonight's agenda has been amended to add item 4B under general business, which will include an executive session and

Thank you. Is there anybody who wishes to comment on any of the agenda items, consent agenda items?

Not that I'm aware of, but perhaps our finance director. No. All right, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments on the consent agenda?

I think this is a great comment to do during community comment, but not on tonight's agenda.

Thank you for your comment. Are there any other comments on tonight's agenda? We also received some requests from Tiffany High and Darrell Fields to address remotely on consent agenda items. So I invite these speakers to address council now. Are they online?

Oh, but you're gonna speak in person anyway, so it wouldn't be a remote comment. So that's fine, okay. And you're Ms. High? Okay. And we don't see Daryl Fields online to give a comment.

The hand's raised. Oh. We do have a hand raised for Mr. Field. Okay, so Mr. Field, next time you want to do remote, you have to identify your phone if possible.

So did you have a comment on the consent agenda, sir?

No, this isn't the time. So we're just taking comments on the consent agenda right now. Thank you, sir. Okay, seeing as there's no additional comments, we will move to the council consideration for the consent agenda. I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second?

Second. Okay. All right, we have a motion and a second. Seeing no further discussion, I call for the question, please.

Council President, I just want a point of information. I just want to make sure that Mr. Fields is... That's the point of information. Council President, I want to make sure Mr. Fields is on to speak remotely for the agenda item in which he wanted. I want to make sure he was on the list for that. On the general business item? City Clerk, did he sign up for it?

I'd like to request that we add him to that.

Yeah, we'll add him when that item comes up.

Any members of council have questions for Katie? Ms. Getterer? Go ahead. Council President, I believe we go to the public first. Before we can talk to Katie? Correct. Okay.

Okay, I'd like to invite members of the public to the podium to comment on this item. Speakers will have 90 seconds to address the council. Please remember to state your name clearly before providing your comments if you wish your name to be included in the meeting record. Is there any member of the public who would like to discuss this? Did you give me a list?

You can go first, but I don't have a list.

Thank you. I'm going to have the city clerk read out the list of people who signed up to comment, please.

Do we have, are there more people who signed up to speak on this?

And I... This whole list is not working tonight, so just people, come up one by one, please, and talk to this issue.

Can you talk into the microphone a little bit more? Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak to this issue? The gentleman who was online earlier who Daryl Fields. Mr. Fields, are you still listening in? This would be the time you could comment.

Thank you. Do we have any other comments on this issue?

Are there any more comments concerning this issue? Okay, we'll go to council for a motion. Oh, I'm sorry.

Is there anybody else from the public who would like to speak?

Do we have any other member of the public who would like to comment on this?

Okay, seeing that there's no more comments, I'll go to council for a motion. Is there a motion to discuss the resolution as written? Do I have a motion for any modified Resolution. I need some advice from the city attorney.

Move to amend the motion to allow for an honorary street name change.

So it wouldn't be amended, it would just be whatever your motion is. Are you making a motion?

I withdraw the amendment, the motion to amend.

Okay, give me advice. I move, I'm gonna try to do this with correct parliamentary procedure, to adopt not resolution number 3416, but to adopt a different resolution, so far so good, that allows for an honorary naming of the street, of 8th Street from Warren to Pacific. All right. This would simply mean adding the word honorary to the current resolution 3416.

I'll just withdraw the whole thing. I have said nothing. Let's just pretend we were just rolling back time for about three minutes here, okay?

I think I would like the discussion, and I want to honor what you're trying to say, which means I can't speak against it when it comes up, but I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion to make an honorary renaming of 8th Street from Warren Avenue to Pacific to Bishop Robertson Way. Did I say it the correct way? Is that what you were trying to say, Councilor Mochler?

Yes. Okay. I second. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Okay.

So now let's have a discussion amongst council, please. Okay. So I'm going to make the motion, and I'm not prepared to speak in support of or in opposition to it, but I would like to hear the discussion. So thank you.

Okay. Okay. OK. So I think Bishop Robertson was a great man. He was intrinsically good. And you don't meet people like that often. Not only was he intrinsically good, he did good works every minute of the day. And I really think he should be honored. I very much think this. It's my duty as a member of this council to prioritize the residents of the city. And not only is it a financial burden and a time burden on the residents, but every single email or communication we've received from the residents of this stretch is against the renaming. Even 10, 15 years ago, when you renamed a street, ther

Thank you. Are there other council members who'd like to comment on this?

Approved the motion made by councillor Jennifer Chamberlain. So you are not amending I am NOT amending councillor Jennifer Chamberlain's motion in any way.

Sorry I Will explain what the difference is I

Point of order. I think a correction needs to be made for protocol. Don't we need to accept, once there's a first and a second, don't we need to accept public recognition or public comment on this and then we have discussion or do we just go straight to discussion?

Okay, are parliamentarians spoken? Thank you.

I think it is important for members of the public to know the difference between an official and an honorary street name change. So if it's an honorary, you still get mail the way you used to. You don't change your passport, your driver's license, anything. So it would be the official sign up above for 8th Street and then below it in another color, usually historic honorary names are on a brown background and then his name would be on that. But it would not mean that people had to go through changing their name, their address officially. So that's the difference. So we can continue council dis

You know, I found myself earlier as residents. It deeply concerns us, as you can tell, when we hear from residents of 8th Street who are overwhelmed with the possibility of $1,000 worth of change fees. It does cost money if you have, you know, wills and other legal documents, you know, your car register, all of that stuff. It concerns us. And I try to think, and I think if Larry Robertson was here tonight, I'm sorry. I think he would be saying, let's come up with a solution that doesn't harm people living on 8th Street. I gotta say it. Let's come up with a solution. And I think that's what cou

Did you want to speak? You don't have to. I'm happy to.

No, this is, so this is not the first time it's come before us. And we had a resolution for, am I close enough? I see. Okay, there we go. We had a couple of weeks ago here in city council an honorary and a permanent resolution. We had two that we were ready to discuss. And it was decided that nobody wanted to discuss that because what this group was looking at was a permanent name change for this. And so we tabled all discussions that we had about creating an ordinance that let everybody know what we would be looking for, what the criteria would be. things that would make this process easier a

Well, I agree that we should have had the full policy in place before. I think a lot of people on 8th Street, even though there was an attempt to notify them, I think a lot of the residents didn't know about this until they read it in the Kitsap Sun over the weekend. So somehow there was some sort of disconnect and I'm not sure what that is. Council hasn't been given a list of addresses that the notification was sent to. So we're unsure. why at the last minute, which you have until noon yesterday to do it, we did get at least five from actual people who live on 8th Street who are opposed to a

Yeah, I agree. And I wish we weren't already in the midst of talking about who we want to honor. But I would be happy to do an honorary street naming for Bishop Robertson. We've done research. We've looked at what other cities are doing and Other cities are doing honorary and when we brought this up last time I think it could have been a done deal and we could already have signs up Had we moved on it? We would just have to pick color and design and font and things like that and so, you know, I was just in Chicago and I Actually, there was interesting because I saw one that was an honorary hono

This is Rick Tift. I concur with Councilmember Camerata's comments that we need a process for folks to follow. And frankly, I thought that's what we were headed for about a month ago when we retracted the previous proposal, said we would go back and come up with a blueprint, for lack of a better term, on how to approach this. Naming Astrid also, I personally worked with Bishop Robertson myself through the years, and so I do remember him as a very influential, inspirational, can-do individual that did make a big difference in our community. So this is certainly not to diminish his contribution,

Yes. City Attorney, we have a question for you. Can we just go to that original resolution that we were discussing? I believe it was four weeks ago, and then we... Point of order.

I have a motion on the floor. It has to be withdrawn.

Right now? That's what one of the council members asked me. Or if we just move forward on this vote instead.

Thank you. OK. So I made the motion so we could have the discussion. So many folks have been showing up, and you're here. And we needed to hear from you. We also needed to hear from the residents, too, of 8th Street, right? It would be a disservice to all the people that showed up today to let this die. So that's why I said I'm not prepared to vote either with or without, you know, just to speak with or without yet. May I ask what the original motion was that was referenced by another council member? Is that okay? May I ask that information what it was four weeks ago? I would just like to know

I understand the importance of it is because if we do adopt it, which you're reading the tea leaves, okay? Yeah, so I understand the importance of the whereas. It's because what we want is to have the information, the historic information preserved with our vote. Am I incorrect or am I correct in that assumption? The council member who was wondering about the resolution wanted the historic information from the whereas is preserved for this vote.

Did I say that too fast? Was that your question?

All right, to be clear, it was me. I wasn't trying to change anything of yours. No problem. I was just wondering if we could walk on. Get this done. Walk that one on. Get it on the books so we can do our job and write the ordinance. We had one that was ready to go that we were in support of. But I'm just trying to keep things neat. But let's wrap up this first.

Can we adopt that resolution at a later date? Yeah, we can do that.

this is what this is what the council wants i'm going to vote with them y'all um and i appreciate i just appreciate so many people coming in and showing up to talk that's all thank you are there any other comments by any council member call for the vote please

It's almost executive session time. Do you want to introduce? Yes.

Well, we are gonna go into executive session for 15 minutes. So right now it is 6.38, so

OK. We'll return at 6.54. Recording stopped.

Sorry. I call a meeting back to order. The next item, and it's one that we just discussed in our executive session, is we had a former legislative office manager who left. And we had a committee of three people, myself, the council vice president, and Michael Goodnow. We interviewed four internal candidates. The reason why we did internal candidates is the last time we went nationwide at a cost of like $30,000 and hired somebody from Kitsap County. And plus we wanted to hire somebody, get somebody on board quickly if possible. So the person that the committee recommends that we hire is Lindsay

Oh, and one other thing I wanted to add. Lindsay Victor also is, she fills in for our city clerk, too. And so she's got a lot of skills that I think are going to be very helpful to us. Would you like to speak, Mike?

Well, actually there is a pay ban listed already. I'm not officially negotiating

Is there anybody else who would like to speak? Okay seeing none I go to the council for a motion I Move to authorize the council president

To extend a conditional offer of employment for the position of legislative office manager to Lindsay Victor.

Is there any further council discussion? I call for the vote, please.

Yes. First, I want to make a correction. I saw on Facebook that the Kitsap Sun said that we were trying to raise the transportation benefit district by $40, and that was incorrect. People who were unable to click on and read the article were asking to raise it by an additional $20. currently the transportation benefit district fee is $20 per vehicle per year and we would like to raise it to $40 the last time well when it was first initiated I believe it was 2009 and Things have gotten much more expensive, just the cost of concrete and asphalt and of course labor. And this money will be used on

Does anybody else from the public wish to comment on this issue?

okay seeing as there's no other public comment ask for a motion move to pass ordinance number five five four zero to increase the bremerton transportation benefit district vehicle license fee from twenty dollars to forty dollars for the purpose of funding transportation improvements second

I'm going to open it up for council discussion. Would you like to start?

Yeah. So. Every year I've been on council, we have talked about this. So we don't take it lightly. And we are, as somebody mentioned, really trying to find priorities in the budget, trying to have the most sort of bang for the buck, I think somebody also used. But, you know, thinking back a little bit, I don't remember what year the I'm in initiatives is what brought us down. It was a very popular thing. They get a lot of people to vote for a $20 car tab, car tabs in Washington. Some folks were paying closer to $400 for their car tabs. I've lived in different states. I've definitely paid a lot

Anybody who's next? Ana, I'm sorry. Thanks.

I support this. And I would just add that in 2010 and 2011, the minimum wage in Washington was $8.55. The current minimum wage is $17.13. I don't think this is unduly onerous. It's not too much. For me, I haven't heard this mentioned so far, but what I hear from constituents that they want on streets is they want the speeding to stop. slow the heck down. They want their kids to be able to walk along the street. They want to walk along the street themselves. They'd like to walk their dogs. They'd like to push a stroller or a wheelchair. They'd like to be able to keep pets without people bombing

I'm not in favor of this proposal for the following reasons. One, our citizens have been very generous in the past few years, voting yes for the levy lid lift. We consistently pass Bremerton school levies and bond issues. And we recently passed our fire levy lid lift. I'm opposed to the imposition of any further taxes or fees on our citizens at this time. I feel like they need a break. Another thing that might not be obvious, but personally I just stumbled across it recently, that the state increased the registration fees for trucks effective July 1st, now basing your registration on your gros

There are other council members who would like to talk to this issue.

So looking at this, the fact that it hasn't been addressed since, I mean, December 7, 2011 is when it was established at $20. And what I don't want to have are fees that are out there for a decade and a half or more, actually. Uh, so yeah, like a lot more actually. We're like, anyway, um, 16, it just really like to have a fee that's out there that is just continuous and isn't being looked at of, is it meeting the needs? Is it doing what it needs to do? And it's just out there, not, not doing what it means in all of this. I just, I cannot believe that we've had a car tab fee since 2011 that has

All right. I will probably be the last one to speak. I don't think we're going to. No. OK. I'll be speaking. OK. Well, I mean, we already know where you stand on it. I really appreciate what Councilor Camerota is stating about a fee that's not looked at. We think about inflation and the cost of things and the cost of construction costs are going up. And this is an easily attainable cost. something that's councilmatic, a fee that we can raise without having to put it to the voters. And for that very reason, it makes me feel super uncomfortable. And I'm going to take a different stance than some

Thank you. Okay, so I wanted to address a couple of the comments that were made. Currently, the county does have a road tax, so that's how they collect money from people who live just in the county, right? I live in the city of Bremerton, so I pay county taxes too. And so they get their money from their citizens for roads and, or I'm sorry, two different ways. In their general tax that they tax county residents, tax all of us, and then they have a separate road tax. Most of the cities that have a transportation benefit district do it through sales tax. And yes, I agree, Washington State has a

There are some people who are requesting that we take a short break and others that don't wish to take a break. So that's what the conversation is up here.

I would be happy to proceed. And I believe I heard my colleague, Councilor Frey, would love to proceed as well. I'm not going to speak for you, of course. I'd like a break.

We'll come back at 747. Recording stopped. Meetings back in order. Next up, I believe it's item 4D. Am I correct? That's correct.

Okay. Councilor Chamberlain, would you like to talk? Yes.

Yes, thank you. So council, thank you for the opportunity to do this publicly. This was not something I felt like we needed to do privately. So this is regarding an incident that happened on July 22 between me and Ms. Allison. So I'm not going to argue semantics, but I'm going to say that there was definitely a verbal interaction that roundabout resembles what was stated by Ms. Allison. And so, you know, my commitment is to have more positive interactions in our public spaces with our constituents. It's never been my intent to inhibit freedom of speech at all, you know, from folks or to make o

Are there other members of council who would like to make any comments or motions regarding this issue? All right, as council president, pardon me. Go ahead.

This is a very difficult type of situation where we're asked to somehow stand in judgment of a peer. It doesn't feel comfortable. This doesn't feel comfortable. And I'm reminded, it just exacerbates the issue for me because I'm reminded that it isn't just the person who the complaint is against that has rights. And so this was made public, this discussion, without any consideration of the person against which the action was taken. And that bothers me. There are sensitive issues that come to council almost every week, almost every meeting. But this issue is probably the most sensitive that we'v

Is there anybody else on council would like to make a statement at this time? Okay.

So I'll be honest. I kind of didn't know why we were discussing this and was very curious to see what your statement was going to be because when, I mean, we all got a copy of the email, the emails in your packet, it's on page three 10 and you know what it states is that, Oh, I'm sorry. that somebody had a conversation with another person and some language was used that was colorful. And it was between two adults, It's not like there was a child involved or something. It was just colorful language was used. And my understanding was that when we were going into executive session, which did not

Thanks. I concur with the remarks that have been made. I have pretty hot temper myself. I can easily understand saying something that I would regret immediately, but I can't imagine not voicing my regret immediately. And then the follow up with the signs I don't think that was professional conduct. In fact, that was not professional conduct. And that reflects poorly on all of us. And what that means is there's just that one little bit more that people don't trust their government. That's the Sisyphean boulder we keep trying to push up the hill is like really trying to run a government so that

I'm not going to get into this. I will say to everyone that it's pretty remarkable how great the acoustics are in here. Like when Finance Director Riley whispers to Mr. Sorenson, I can hear that. So I'm just going to keep moving to that, ahead with this main thing, okay? I think that... This was just really out of line. It was over the line. And I think censure is appropriate for this action. I'd like to, before I stop talking, I'd like to say that Councilor Jennifer Chamberlain's advocacy for homeless people, for vulnerable people, for those subjected to our aggressive tax in the state of Was

Councilman Tiff, we're good now. Do you have comments before I do? OK. I was really upset when I got, or disturbed, when I got the email from a constituent telling me what she had heard. And in not our break room, it was in our office manager's office. Okay, well, the break room is off limits, although people have been invited back there for snacks during some of our meetings, so it's not 100% off limits. But beyond that, There's a lot of misinformation going on about the proposed shelter. I'll put that out there. There's so much misinformation from all points of view out there. I read stuff t

Okay, so I want to make sure that I'm, and the reason that I wanted to have this public is because there is a lot that we do behind the scenes and the public wants to know what we talk about. And this is theoretically what we would be saying if we were back in that room and the public has a right to hear. And what we do as human beings is we learn and grow, and we find resolutions. I know that the sign felt like mocking a constituent, and that wasn't my intent. My intent was instead to address what was perceived by many constituents to be harmful misinformation. And in doing so, my delivery wa

If she wants to, and if she does not, this is not a call, and that's okay.

sir i'm sorry but somebody can you can you you're more than welcome to give to give comments at community comments or i'm sorry yes so okay so here's the next step for folks that would like to um continue to help me in this process uh we will have community comment and at that point in time then those things should be shared

If there's no other council member who wants to make a motion.

Ana, did you want to speak? I do. I move that we should center. since your counselor jennifer chamberlain for for this action is there a second i'm sorry were you not going to take public comment not on this issue yet thank you thank you though for coming up thank you jennifer

So there doesn't appear to be a second, so then I can't move it to public comments on this issue, but you'd be able to comment during community comment period after the mayor's report. Welcome, Mayor Wheeler.

All right. Good evening, Council, members of the public. So a couple items here. All right. Everybody's well aware, but I wanted to publicly thank the citizens of Bremerton for voting for Prop 1. So this is a big deal, it's a big investment in your future here as far as public safety goes. And I just kinda highlight as a reminder what we all have coming our way now with this positive vote. We will be hiring nine firefighters. Replacement of two fire engines and one ladder truck. critical updates to Fire Station 1, and the creation of a dedicated equipment and replacement and revolving fund to

Thank you, Mayor. Seeing as this has been a really long meeting, I was going to move the agenda around a little bit and allow for community comment first. And then everybody who wants to hear our council reports, we welcome you to stay after community comments and listen to our reports. Do we have anybody sign up online to give community comment?

Is Jacqueline Reed here? OK. All right, great. And we're not going to do the sign-up sheet either, because it didn't seem to work too well. So just come on up if you would like to give a comment. You have 90 seconds. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anybody else who would like to speak for a community comment?

Thank you. Is there anybody who hasn't spoken who would like to speak? Okay, well, I'm happy you're still all here, because now it's time for council reports. I know you've been waiting for them. I'm not sure what order the slides were tonight, starting at District 7.

Okay, good evening, everyone. I had the privilege to attend the PSNS and IMF Change Command Ceremony last Friday, where Captain J.D. Crinklaw was relieved by Captain William Sumson. And there was high praise for Captain Crinklaw and the work that he managed during his tour, and confidence that Captain Sumson will continue that. The one noteworthy comment I wanted to bring forward tonight, in addition to just those gentlemen and their command tours, but there were three admirals there, a three-star and a two-star, and in their comments regarding the work of those commanders, they also praised B

Thank you. Council Member Mockler, would you like to give a report?

I would, yeah. First slide, please. Thanks. Next slide. So on September 10, from 4 to 7, you guys all know the St. Vincent de Paul site. They're by 13th and Callow, 13th and Wyckoff. So at the food bank, which is 1117 North Callow, Joe Crane of Star of Hope is going to talk about this extremely large project for which they, oh my gosh, finally have the money. So I hope you can come. I can't tell you if there'll be snacks. I'll try and bring them. Next slide, please. Is that it? OK, then could you take down the slide? Thanks. You all know that back in March, the mayor determined that he wasn't

Next we have District 5. Councilmember Michael good now for his report.

I Don't think I have any slides this time because the staffing so I'm glad we're hiring somebody new and You know I I I really would like to see the council as a whole operate with more grace. I think it is not a one-time issue. It is not just the folks we're talking about tonight. I think we are, I think our country So we may be lagging that but we just need to be kind and we need to move with grace and I This is something I've felt for a while, and I feel like I've voiced my opinion on this. And we put the time in to come up with those rules, and we're not following them. And it disappoints

Thank you. District 3, Ms. Camerata, do you have a report?

No slides just an update I've been going out I think I brought it up the last time that I had made a survey to small businesses So I've been running around Doing that in the downtown section so far. So I even before this meeting was running around picking up surveys that I had dropped off for businesses it seems like it's well received and There was one business downtown that let me know that my questions are garbage. So that's going to be a fun Easter egg for everybody to find when it's publicly out there, where it was like, oh, that's nice feedback. Thank you. um so it has been nice it has a

Good job. District 2, Vice President Frye, do you have a report tonight?

Yeah, I think there's, I've got one slide, kind of duplicating the mayor's, kind of, it's exactly the same slide. So we won't be redundant. I'm sure I'll see you there, Mayor. It is a good time to come together. The Bakke's are going to be there, and I think Greg Nance is going to be there. A lot of people have worked hard on this for a long time. So people are coming together kind of to celebrate, not just to hear more about it and give input. So please try to join us if you can. And then I want to just end by making some comments. I think when the four women were first elected, we came into

Council Member Chamberlain, do you have a report? Wait a minute. I would rather hear that ringtone, whatever that was. I want to thank my son for joining us today. Nobody knows he's back there. So I welcome accountability, and I did all this in front of my child. So... Ooh. So... I think that there's some things that came out of this meeting that I'm going to take away with me. And I want to just quickly just talk about it. So Mr. Corey mentioned power imbalance. So thank you for reminding me of that. I want to address Mr. Perlinski's concern that I stole signs. I did not steal signs. I took a

So Doc Loved the Kids Day is coming up Saturday, August 22nd, noon to 3. It's a great event. They still need volunteers. It's where kids get free backpacks filled with school supplies. And last year, they must have had over a dozen bouncy houses. There was a lot of fun for both... the kids and their parents, there were a lot of people there, and it was a really hot day, so I hope it's not quite that warm for them this year. Oh, that's right, yeah. Christie even signed up to work at the dodgeball game, and nobody but Christie played. but anyway I hope people stop by spend a couple hours and get

Yes, we did. And then if you live in District 4, or actually if you live anywhere in the city, Bremerton Food Line's in my district. And the city public work staff has been working hard to do upgrades around that for the past couple years. Replacing all the ADA ramps, putting in marked crosswalks, putting in handicapped parking spaces, putting in a loading zone for the access bus who brings a lot of the people who use our food bank. So I'm really very thankful to our Public Works Department for putting in all that work, and it looks great. They really did a good job. So I don't think I have an