City Council - Special Meeting

Nothing I need.

Good evening and welcome to the May 19th, 2026 City Council regular hybrid meeting. I'm Mayor Dave Rosenbaum. Tonight's hybrid City Council meeting is being brought to you in person and by Zoom. We're also broadcasting on the city's YouTube channel and MITV channel 21. Welcome to everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Councilmembers, please have your microphones turned on for the roll call. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Andrall has not arrived yet. Councilmember Shea? Here. Councilmember Reynolds?

Here.

Councilmember Weicker also has not arrived yet. Councilmember Weinberg?

Here.

Deputy Mayor Becker?

Here.

And Mayor Rosenbaum?

Here.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, there's a quorum present. City Clerk, please note that council members Reynolds and Weinberg have joined us via Zoom. Next, we have the Pledge of Allegiance. Council, please, if you have joined us in council chambers, please stand and face the flag. If you've joined us via Zoom, please mute and turn off your video to ensure that the U.S. flag is visible.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, we now move to the approval of tonight's agenda. If there are no questions, may I have a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved. Second.

Okay, there's a motion by Deputy Mayor Becker and second by Council Member Weinberg. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Member Weinberg?

Aye.

Council Member Shea? Aye. Mayor Rosenbaum?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Becker.

Aye.

And Council Member Reynolds.

Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. First on the agenda, we have a study session on AB 6931, YFS Program Update and Youth Matters Report. We welcome YFS Administrator Derek Franklin.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, members of the Council. I'm Derek Franklin, Administrator for your Department of Youth and Family Services. And here tonight, before you, presenting Agenda Bill 6931, YFS Programs and Youth Matters Updates. I am here tonight to share a little bit with you about the Youth and Family Services Department. Historically, we have come before you to share when there are updates approximately annually. For example, we've been before you to share a little bit about how we adapted to service demands under COVID. And then prior to that about or after that, I mean, a little bit about a community assessment we did in 2024. So tonight's presentation is going to be a summary overview. I'm joined tonight by two youth leaders with me before you. Alice Liang and Kieran Lancaster who will present as part of the presentation towards the end from their perspective regarding issues relevant to youth, sort of in the behavioral health, mental health space. In the audience with me and behind me are two key players at Youth and Family Services, Marina Gonzalez, who's our programs coordinator, and Michelle Ritter, who's our prevention coordinator, should questions arise in their domains. So this evening's study session will provide an overview of our services. I'll discuss some demands on those services, some of our responses to those demands, Then we'll drill down on some data from that Washington State Healthy Youth Survey that has some interesting and important risk and protective factors that have to do with the youth community, youth population on Mercer Island. And then you'll hear from perhaps the highlight of this evening's presentation from youth themselves. One moment, please. So before I go into a little bit of the information about our services, I thought I would share with you a reminder of sort of the framework about how Youth and Family Services considers our program and programming philosophy. Before you on the slide is borrowed from the medical field, the continuum of care model that we like to use in a way to kind of outline how our services align with the different types of demands in the community. On the far left, you'll see promotion. That's health promotion. And the red letters are our programming offerings that correspond roughly with that part of the wheel. Health promotion includes public health messaging, town hall events, community presentations. online efforts, substance abuse prevention, social norms work. Moving to the right, from the left to the right, you'll see different types of prevention. Universal prevention, we focus on sort of the whole community. So messaging out about things like impaired driving or underage substance use. Selective and indicated prevention has to do with preventing risks to kids and to individuals that are already experimenting or somewhat down the road of risk behaviors. And then comes treatment. And you'll see in the red our school-based counselors and community counseling efforts kind of hover between prevention work and intervention. Most of our staff at Youth and Family Services works in the treatment realm, and that's where there's already identified issues. So maybe school counselors get kids referred to them because they're having trouble in class. High school kids might self-refer if they're struggling at home or with peers or with mental health issues. And then we have a confidential voicemail line where anybody in the community can call Youth and Family Services and speak with a counselor in person and really have a discussion about what their needs would be. Sometimes that's referral to services. Sometimes that's setting an appointment for outpatient mental health. And then to the right, recovery is where we kind of categorize some of our case management work. We have two staff that do geriatric or senior services and senior supports. and emergency family assistance, so limited financial assistance and support to folks. Along the bottom of that chart is health promotion, which is something I think we do all the time when we can. I think we do work around fentanyl opioid prevention. We might have a speaker come. We might respond to emerging needs in the community. So we do newsletters, articles, publications that tend to respond to public health issues. So a little bit about our programs and what we're seeing today. First is our community-based mental health counseling, where we offer low barrier and sliding fee scale counseling to anybody in the community. So it's somewhat subsidized. So your ability to pay isn't a barrier if you get mental health care on the outpatient side. We see all ages, kids, teens, couples, adults, seniors, families. And we offer referral resources through our school counselors or from our school counselors, that is. So when school staff have a case that may be just too big, too maybe sensitive to see in the school building, they would then refer to our outpatient counseling team for more traditional and maybe more in depth psychotherapy work. What we're seeing on the outpatient side right now, More kids with mood disorders, that's things like anxiety and depression, family conflict, youth and parents sort of adjusting to what we see as this rapidly shifting culture, what's new on the Internet, what's new in the job market. Things are changing quickly, and we talk a lot with parents and kids about how to adapt. We talk about screens and screen time sleep and eating disorders. We're seeing couples that are having perhaps a spike somewhat in intimate partner violence or domestic violence issues and working in some couples counseling around that kind of support and referrals. On our family counseling side, we're seeing families new to the island adjusting based on culture and some families having challenges launching kids. We do a great job in this community preparing kids for adulthood, for job, for career. Not every kid makes it, and some families are having a hard time with kids who come back not quite ready to launch. Next is our school-based mental health counseling. There we provide an early intervention model. To have school counselors means that kids with mental health needs are statistically almost 20 times more likely to get mental health care when they have that kind of counseling support in such close proximity. We provide community and individual supports out of the schools, parent and teacher consultations, and classroom presentation and instruction. So the instructions around social-emotional learning, usually based in curricula, sometimes involving puppets, sometimes involving in the elementary and kindergarten level, sometimes involving more serious topics about mental health prep, substance abuse prevention, and the like. In the school base, some of the things our counselors are reporting are just generally seeing more extremely high needs kids. So a few kids that are really stretching our ability to provide support in the schools and the school systems support services as well. So trying to be creative about how to provide supports to kids that need a little bit more. We've seen requests for, and met, frankly, some requests for gender-aligned counseling. Currently, our two counselors at Islander Middle School are female, and our two at the high school are male. So we have done a swap. So once a week, counselors swap. And it's been very welcome, I think, especially at the high school, where they get to have access to a female counselor. Other thing that we're paying attention to is the school recently announced that they're expanding their high-cap classrooms to another elementary school. Those have its own challenges. Sometimes students in those classrooms tend to be a little more anxious than others, but we have good experience providing support at another school. Next is our emergency family assistance. So that's where we provide support for islanders that struggle to meet basic needs. We provide food security, emergency financial assistance in terms of one-time rent or utility support, and employment assistance. What we're seeing, our staff are noticing, is just a continual increase in rent assistance demands. We have a new emergency assistance staff person, Monique Miner, brings with her some great experience from division of children and family services with the state. So she's been great and trying to kind of get her feet under her and been able to do some, some outreach, uh, really good outreach work. Uh, our food security programs also see a steady demand. Uh, Marina behind me coordinated the, uh, the mobile food market from Hopeland coming every two weeks here to the community center parking lot, which continues to be one of their larger stops. And we continue to provide food cards as needed to sort of compensate. Senior services, we provide, we have a part-time geriatric specialist, a senior services specialist on staff at YFS who offers free case management support groups. And we recently started a fitness falls prevention class. and have taken on what we call the Senior Rising Initiative, which is part senior newsletter, part just focus on seniors in terms of different kinds of supports and efforts. Recently had a senior lunch event that was aligned with the release of one of our print copy newsletters. So trying to work on things like seniors feeling isolated and getting seniors back out in the community, having meaningful connections that links to positive mental health. And then finally, our drug and alcohol prevention and mental health promotion efforts. It's largely led by Michelle behind me, who leads the Healthy Youth Initiative Coalition. So it's a prevention coalition that does drug and alcohol prevention for kids, but for the community as well. We do parent education. We built a Parenting Mercer Island website. And through the Best Starts for Kids grant, we're doing parent classes. Recently, we started parent classes just for dads. and one that focused recently on parenting between cultures, so families of different cultures. And to my right, we started the Youth Matters YFS Youth Advisory Group. So one of our efforts in the prevention and mental health promotion space is to elevate youth voice. And so you'll hear from youth later tonight, but that is part of our efforts and kind of an overview of what we're seeing in our programs and some of the stressors right now. As an overview of some of those, some of the behavioral health trends and the data we're seeing, when we see a spike in needs, that generally disproportionately impacts our low-income, marginalized, or underemployed individuals and families on the island. So our emergency support services continue to work to field those needs. We're paying attention to what is a continued reduction in certain federal and regional support services. YFS is a small department. Our case management staff is one and a half people. We rely heavily on resources in the region and the community for referrals. YFS does a great job doing up to a point, but specialized services are sometimes beyond us, so we would refer for for legal help, for additional homelessness support, for domestic violence support, for other kind of resources. And those tend to be shrinking. So we're navigating how we can in-house kind of modulate the resources we have to be able to best respond. We are seeing what seems like a small increase in support requests from those folks experiencing homelessness. Our outreach person has been a little busier than lately. a little busier lately, excuse me. And in terms of that, we continue to monitor what the light rail means, if that's part of it. We also have done some outreach to folks with significant mental health issues and looking at referrals for them and working with the police department to coordinate supports for folks in that kind of distress. And I'll say in general that the mental health needs of kids remains high. In a moment, I'll be going through some slides that show some data that, in fact, is quite encouraging. There's some positive signs in a lot of spaces, but as I'll point out, even if there's an increase in a significant risk factor, oftentimes even a lower number is something we should be working on. So that's something that's not just Mercer Island, but that's a national trend in terms of youth mental health issues. We see senior support services in general have decreased, our services have increased Our offerings have increased. Working well with PARCC, seniors, I think, from the YFS perspective, are getting more of those sorts of behavioral supports. And demand remains high. We hear often from seniors that they are interested in more of our services and services in general. And then finally, as I just mentioned, I'll share in a moment what looks like some positive longitudinal trends in youth risk factors related to mental health, substance use, and some other indicators from the Healthy Youth Survey. Before I transition to slides, however, members, I'll pause and see if there's any questions about this component. Then I'll explain a little bit about some of the data we're seeing.

Councilman Reynolds.

Yes. Ms. Franklin, you mentioned early on there was a number someone could call for confidential services. But I don't think you said what that number was. If you could do that, I'd appreciate that. And also, can you kind of compare and contrast for anybody who might be listening? When it's appropriate to use that number versus 911 versus 988.

Thank you, Council Member. The number for YFS is 206-275-7657. That's a confidential voicemail line. Leave a message or you'll get somebody live. Usually leave a message and one of our counselors will get back to you. The way I think about that is call 911 if there's any immediate threat to your safety or the safety of anyone around you. Call 988 if there's a mental health crisis that you can't resolve and it's critical. Call Youth and Family Services at the number I just gave if you're struggling and can't overcome something and it's not an immediate crisis. One of the things we will do if you call Youth and Family Services is talk through with you whether or not a higher level of care is needed. So, for example, if you call us and you have, let's say, a child in a mental health crisis, we may be able to schedule somebody for counseling within the week if we're lucky. However, it may not be a 911 or 988 call, so we may talk with a parent about going to Children's Hospital and getting some specialized support.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I have another question if there are no others.

I'll come back to you. I have a question. Okay. So my question, on the same, on that phone line, what's the volume like for that?

Volume for where?

On that phone, on the confidential phone line. How many folks are sort of calling into that?

Oh, gosh. I would say three, four, five calls a day, sort of depending. And we typically run a wait list for outpatient counseling services. It's low right now. So if you want a session, please call us. But, you know, the wait list for us typically goes from a few weeks to a month plus. And as I said, it's something that's managed by one of our clinical supervisors and other support staff.

Got it. Councilor Reynolds.

Yes. I'm just curious. You mentioned the spike in services or a modest spike. Spike makes it sound like a lot in services to people experiencing homelessness. If a member of the community sees someone who is apparently experiencing homelessness and apparently suffering from mental health issues or substance abuse problems, who should they be calling and what role can YFS play in that?

Thank you, Councilmember. I think there's, it's obviously somewhat of a complicated question. I think the important matter would be to get somebody who knows how to handle situations, A, safely, and B, competently in terms of what kind of referral or services are needed. YFS is not structured to do crisis response or outreach. However, we do some of that sort of on the clock. I think you can call the police non-emergency line The city also funds through YFS dedicated mental health homeless outreach folks through Porchlight and Sophia Wynn. So what we might do if we get a call and we feel like somebody is in need of more significant referral or resources, we might call one of those outreach workers. I would say in general, give us a call. If nothing else, then we can kind of direct you in how to get the best kind of services in place.

Thank you very much. OK. Great.

Thank you for this next section. I'm going to be presenting a couple slides from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey. The Healthy Youth Survey is given every two years by the state through the school district. Questions, there's maybe 170 plus questions. Tonight's presentation will have just a sample that have to do with youth mental health, some of the things we pay attention to at Youth and Family Services. The way to interpret these slides are we have grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 along the bottom. And then along the top, the colored dots indicate with years the survey was administered. The first one, sort of the ochre color, is 2021. The purple, 23. The blue, 25, the most recent one we got back. And then the black is the 2025 Washington state average for comparison. So in this slide, what we're seeing is current e-cigarette smoking or vaping. and the question being percent of students who report using electronic cigarette, e-cig, Juul, or vape pen in the past 30 days. And so interpreting this, you see along the bottom what the trends look like. You see eighth grade, sixth grade, almost no use. Tenth grade, you see some use 8% in 21, up to 13% in 23, down to 5%, which sort of aligns with state average. And as we go through these, there are many variables, some of which I think I've got some insight in, many I don't. I think these have to do with, like, for e-cigarettes market trends and advertising to kids. They have to do with policy at the state level about accessibility. They have to do with enforcement. They have to do with how cheap and good fake IDs might be. which is a real concern for us right now. So you can see how these trends are moving. Other things to consider that we look at in our prevention work is if we see the numbers, for example, in 12th grade going down from 15% to 8%, we also are thinking, well, what else might be in the marketplace? So things like nicotine pouches have become popular. So the question might be, are those replacing e-cig or vaping? Current alcohol use is one that we pay particular attention to among the youth community here. And in many places, alcohol and cannabis use are the two highest substances or most frequent substances used among youth. And the trends are moving in the right direction. And as I prepped the council a second ago, it's great for us to see these numbers dropping the way they are. However, there's still that caveat that, for example, in 12th grade, We would say in public health that 22% is a lot better than 40%. 22% is still too high. And so we keep the pedal down and working towards continuing to decrease that number. I will share with council that one of the things that we look at when we interpret these data is that, and this may be contributing a little bit to how these numbers have dropped this year, is in 2025 it was the first year out of, several where our survey was administered within two weeks of homecoming and you'll see in the subsequent questions for example here in binge drinking where our numbers were significantly higher than state average 28 percent of 12th grade 27 percent that's when we were capturing the homecoming weekend we did not capture it in 2025 The numbers dropped significantly, which is good news. However, our numbers still in binge drinking are above state average. That's one of the more concerning issues, given that binge drinking is students who report having drunk five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks. Current marijuana use. Our state was the first to have legal cannabis with Colorado in 2012. There was predictions that the rates of underage cannabis use would skyrocket. The number of youth who used cannabis did go up slightly, but not to the amount public health professionals were anticipating. What did increase was the potency of the cannabis they were using. The Liquor and Cannabis Board notes that in the 70s and 80s, typical flower or plant product that was used was 3, 4, 5, 6% THC, Now it's over 20, 24, 25, not 50 times greater, but many times greater. And many youth are using cannabis concentrates. So THC concentrates in the form of wax, tar, shatterer, things that can be included in vape pens. Current prescription drug use. It's great to see these numbers low. There is confidence intervals that I don't show here. So the number, you know, it's a few degrees or a few percentage in either direction. Great to see the numbers low. This is percent of students report using prescription drugs not prescribed to them in the past 30 days. Sometimes high school kids in the past have said, oh gosh, everybody shares their Ritalin before hard tests. That's just not borne out with the data. But there is a remaining concern, again, around prescription drugs, including opioids and painkillers that can be captured with this data. We continue to do prevention work in this area. Riding with a drinking driver. Low-ish numbers, somewhat flat. Of note, if you look in 8th grade, 8th grade, it's 10%, which is the highest in 2025. It's hard to see in this slide because of the captioning, but Our concern with eighth grade having the highest percent of kids reporting having ridden with a drunken driver in the past 30 days is we think most likely that's parents. Not as many eighth graders are hanging out with friends who have licenses. It reminds us to keep not only our drunk driving and impaired driving prevention efforts focused on youth, but also on adults. This next is perceived availability. Its percent of students report alcohol would be very hard to get. Lower in Mercer Island. Mercer Island kids generally feel like alcohol is not difficult to get. And again, that has to do with secure alcohol or not at homes, the frequency of house parties on Mercer Island, prevalence of fake IDs, and sort of the belief among youth that it's easy to acquire. Perceived risk of regular alcohol use. Students report great risk of harm from drinking alcohol daily. So without coming across too moralistic as health providers, we do want to say that a higher perception of risk among some of these substances does equate with lower use, so that's a positive thing. Sleep on a school night. My friends that are pediatricians say, if you can do one thing, please get kids to sleep more. This study shows that, or these data show that the percent of students who report sleeping less than eight hours on an average school night, not only high here, but high across the state. It's not exactly in the mental health realm, but it's something that we promote in terms of mental health because it makes a difference. Lifetime sexual violence. This is percent of students who have having ever been in a situation where someone made them engage in kissing, sexual touch, or sexual intercourse when they did not want to. Another case of where any percentage is too high, but the numbers continually going downward is encouraging to a degree. Of note is this survey was administered in October of 25 when there was a lot of conversation in the school about sexual assault and misconduct alleged by teachers. And so interesting to see these data and what to do with them. A few more slides and I'll be turning it over to our youth. Depressed feelings. I'm so encouraged by this. The confidence intervals are pretty good with the data this year. A lot of kids took the survey. To see numbers continue to go down, that's a big deal for our school staff. It's a big deal for the work that we do, for parents, for community members, everybody who's a stakeholder of kid mental health. Good news to see this. Similarly, contemplation of suicide, this scares all of us, but the numbers are decreasing. We do continue to do education in the schools about suicide prevention, education in the community, and more. Someone in the community to talk to, I'd like to share this slide just to remind the community that you can make a difference here. This is a percent of students report having an adult in their neighborhood or community they can talk to about something important. We talk about the importance for youth mental health and youth development in general that kids, whether it's in the home or outside the home, have a safe, trusting adult they can go to if they have something big to talk about. We do a pretty good job here on Mercer Island. Before I kick it over to the kids, let me just say thank you for your attention and pause and see if there's any questions from council about some of these data.

Councilman Reynolds.

I'm just curious on the data. Do you have breakdown by gender for the responses? Does it vary materially? I'm curious particularly about the sexual violence question, if it varies materially between males and females.

Yeah thank you council member. I do not tonight the school district has some data that we can drill down further upon and when we have that available we can make that available to you publicly.

Thank you. And just just a quick comment. Thank you. This is an amazing story. YFS is a treasure for our community and while you had a lot of candor explaining why there might be other explanatory factors that the trends generally look good and I'm sure you guys are part of the cause of that. So thank you.

Derek, when there was, you know, back in October, you sort of mentioned about the discussion about sexual violence and sort of the conversation in the schools. Was there an uptick in requests for counseling around that time or sort of an uptick in outreach or whatever metric you think is appropriate? But I'm sort of curious what the... Yeah, I think there was...

In mental health work, when issues like that hit the community, people with existing traumas that have been touched by that kind of assault or that kind of violence in their lives can also often be re-traumatized. We saw existing folks have that brought back up into their counseling work. We saw some new people reach out for services. And as I mentioned before, at the high school, we had a request from female students to help have a female counselor, which we were able to meet. It didn't spike, double, and triple. But there was, not just with kids, but with adults as well, folks that had already been working on trauma work perhaps had that triggered or re-triggered a little bit. And that came up for us.

Got it. And I guess I'd ask our students, not to put you on the spot, but I will. Do you feel that students in the school know where to go for these kind of resources?

Um, I think that we're getting there, but that is a big part of the youth matters group and just other like We have a safe club too, as well, at Mercer Island High School. So we're really trying to make sure that outreach gets across. I've told a lot of my friends that we have counselors in the school, and they had no idea, or they just never went there. So it's definitely something we're trying to keep work on. But I think people generally have a good idea, especially with the smaller community of Mercer Island.

Yeah, I kind of just wanted to add to that. You'll see later with my results from my own survey that I did. But I think there's just a lot of fear and stigma around these very sensitive topics. So it's kind of this trouble of reaching out. But I think the incidents that have been brought up with the concern of student safety, I know that MIHS now has a student well-being and safety committee. that I know some friends who are a part of, so we're actively working on improving that.

Great. Derek, one other question for you would be, sorry if this is somewhere that I missed, but in the state data, are there questions about screen time? In the state data? Yeah, or in our data as well.

Can you restate? What are the questions, like the question stones? No, are there questions about screen time? There are, and the survey has, I think, some deeper questions about that, but it often has to do with just the amounts, just the amount you spend over X number of hours per day.

Okay. And did we do that as part of our survey as well?

This survey, the survey data I shared is school surveys, so that's state level. The state changes and can update their survey data every two years. And they started asking about that a few years ago with the advent of social media and more screen time.

Maybe you can point me to that data at some point.

For sure. What we can do is that the school district has released a good chunk of the data that I'm sharing with you here tonight The bulk of the data sort of has yet to be released. It's out there. When it does, we can summarize that. Any questions council has in terms of specific trains such as your question, Mr. Mayor, we're happy to get that to you and summarize.

Great. Thank you.

If there's no other questions, then I'd like to turn it over to the Youth Matters leaders, youth that are just remarkable people. Maybe I would start with Alice Liang. because Mr. Mayor, your question actually plays into some of the data that she has. And then we'll wrap up with Kieran Lancaster.

Alice? Hi. I am a sophomore and a Youth Matters member, obviously. And so my interest and deep passion for student well-being and mental health counseling started around when I started in high school, and I helped support a lot of my peers through their struggles. And so I just want to give a little bit of background. At MIHS, we're considered to be a very highly academically competitive school, relatively. And so we've seen a lot of high anxiety. Recently, a survey came back, the SBIRT survey, and they reported very high rates of negative body image as well. So generally, just a very high academic pressure environment. So I decided to do a study that got around 150 responses from students independently. And this survey was aimed to kind of get a grasp on collective student idea of these gaps in existing mental health resources and these gaps in health curriculum and the relationship between academic pressure and student well-being. So I just want to introduce three pieces of data here. First, you can see that I was just wondering about the effectivity of current mental health surveys. And you can see that it's a two out of five stars, unfortunately. And this kind of goes to show that students um who do end up filling that out this survey like kind of explain the reasons behind why they gave such a low score and they said it was because they didn't see a lot of active like change or response to them filling out the survey um it's more of like a one-sided like students fill out the survey but we kind of don't know where it's going or we don't know who's on the other side who receives the data there seems to be no significant change or effect to students lives after these surveys are completed. And the second piece you can see here is I was wondering whether or not our mental health resources are currently effective right now. And you can see that almost 65% of students at MHS who filled out this survey have never actually used any of the resources at our school. I think we're very lucky to have all these resources like counselors, like Youth Matters, the R&R, but unfortunately these resources aren't being used. And again, students were provided responses for reasons why this might be the case. And again, there was this recurring fear of being judged maybe by other peers or by society or going with answers that were deemed okay by society. And there's just this incredible environment of this stigma and fear around these sensitive topics. which is extremely unfortunate. Yeah, and so this is the last piece of information I will just be sharing, and I think this is actually the most interesting part, where I was asking whether or not students decided to actively prioritize academics over their mental health, their well-being, and I found that two-thirds of students prioritized their academics over their well-being, and this could include examples like pulling all-nighters or not eating, forgetting to eat, as well and so I think it's very interesting it illustrates like this toxic like work-life kind of balance that is really imbalanced really for students and how much of effect like this high pressure academic environment and the school culture kind of pushes students to disregard their mental health and their well-being in favor of academics And so there were pre-written responses and 35% of students felt that they had to work constantly to succeed in life, which isn't true. And like they felt that is necessary to prioritize academics because it's like the only way to get like to a certain career, which we also know there are a lot of different ways to achieve success, especially out of high school. And so lastly, I kinda just wanna go off my own thoughts and opinions a little bit is that I am currently working with Youth Matters and Michelle here to create a peer support group at MIHS. I think the peer to peer support is very important and kind of reduces that initial barrier of like fear of like talking to adult or like reaching out to counselors and being able to connect students to the resources that they need. And so I just want to give a big thank you to Youth Matters for allowing me this opportunity to speak today. And I hope that sharing this information will help the council also understand some of the struggles that students are going through currently and make a bigger impact on the wider district community. So thank you. I'm open to questions.

If there are none, we could go right into Kieran, if you wouldn't mind. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Shea.

Thank you so much for that presentation, Alice. So I'm coming from a background as a family physician. So I've seen firsthand just the importance of psychotherapy to help with supporting mental health and wellness. And it's so wonderful that what you're doing at the high school. So I have a high school and a middle schooler. So I am, yeah. So I am aware of just the challenges of being in this environment where academics is very highly prioritized in the students. And I'd just like to hear more about your support group. I think that's really fabulous, especially when the students are saying, I don't know what the impact will be for taking this survey. And will that support group be in person or is it available online? Because some people may still feel like there may be a stigma if they come out in person for this group.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I kind of have like a two-fold project going on. First off, the peer support group, just to answer your question, is going to be an in-person, we're kind of doing like this lunch and learn kind of thing. We'll be doing it for both lunches, and we will get like, I already have like around 10 interested students who would want to like kind of lead this peer support group, and we'll be providing resources and obviously like education around like listening skills, emotional like, kind of regulation and like being able to step out when you need to. And I hope to address like the other factor of like obviously there are going to be students who are kind of afraid to like obviously talk to people in person. I do get that as well. And so I'm also trying to do like this individual website on mental health resources because I myself have done a lot of research around mental health specifically like ADHD since I am neurodivergent and I was interested on how that affects like student well-being and mental health so having those resources online and students can privately like access that and I think it's also just addition to the health curriculum which I mentioned in my survey that, like, the health curriculum doesn't really teach you how to, like, bring up these difficult conversations and talk to your friends. Like, if your friend comes up to you and is like, hey, I'm, like, having this crisis right now, how do you respond? And so I hope that, like, my website will help with that as well. So, yeah.

Well, thank you very much. Sounds amazing. Thank you.

Councilor Weiberg.

I just want to say kudos for setting up your support group. As a Mercer Island High School graduate myself, class of 86, I can say that having a peer group, whether it's people that are providing support or need support or just who want to get together and chat as friends. Yeah, for sure. Having a place to go and people to hang out with and to eat food with, It helps in a lot of different ways, not just for the people in crisis. It's good just to have friends to go hang with. So thank you for setting that up, and thank you for structuring it and for keeping it going. There are a lot of kids that can definitely use that that might be a little shy to set it up themselves, but when they see that there's one that is there that's welcoming and that they can join, you can probably get a lot of people to come and join you.

Yeah, thank you.

Alice, is your perspective on the question that you did around prioritizing academics over well-being?

Yeah.

Is there a, like, the answer might be all of the above, but, like, is there a genesis from the students that you talk to is, like, where does that culture come from? Is it parents?

Is it other families? This is actually what we talk about in, I think, Youth Matters a lot. We have, like, these monthly meetings, and And I've gotten to hear a lot of different student perspectives on this issue. So what we kind of came to was there's a lot of influence from the existing school culture, but also a lot of it is from family pressure. I feel like families who move here to Mercer Island want their students obviously to be successful. And a lot of that is pressure on this one way to success, as I've emphasized. And so what I want to do is kind of just like, give the idea that when you prioritize your well-being or you emphasize it a bit more you're not taking like a slice away from the academics like pie kind of like there are two separate sections that you can definitely support both of them and have that balance so just to like emphasize it is very much family which we are trying to incorporate into the youth matters um curriculum and like reach out reaching out and advocacy as well And just general like there's a lot more instability in like the global world and politics on a national level So yeah, there's kind of just this pressure to like succeed and like work Constantly, yeah Great and bringing us home is Kieran Lancaster Kieran

Yeah, thank you Derek. So I am a senior at Mercer Island High School and I was really excited that the Youth Matters group was starting and I was really excited to join it because I've been going to MIYFS for the past like six or seven years and have just had the most wonderful experience there. And I do a lot of my own advocacy with like newspaper and stuff so I just was really excited for the opportunity to work with a group. Youth Matters is a student-centered group where students of different grades and backgrounds can meet to discuss topics around mental and physical wellness. And the goal is to help bridge the gap between Mercer Island youth and the adults in our community. We try to pinpoint certain aspects of our day-to-day lives and decide how we can bring more awareness or better support to the community as a whole, especially the youth. So this year, the group has focused on different topics. One of them is underage binge drinking, which was a big one recently. Success, and academic success like Alice was talking about. Social groups in high school, hazing, and just so many different topics that maybe parents don't know enough about or even Students just have so many different perspectives on so one recent example Like I was saying is about binge drinking because based on the data that came from the survey We found that like it's still a really big issue among students so that was one example of like a conversation that we had and we were all able to share different perspectives and experiences that we've had among different grades and just backgrounds. So we want to really like bridge the gap, like I said, between the knowledge and understanding of adults and youth in our community. So that's just an example of what some of our conversations have looked like. And our goal as a group is to really like educate the entire community which is definitely not easy. But we want to aim to create a really safe space in the community for mental health and mental health awareness. And as the group continues to grow, we're trying to have more targeted projects and opportunities to speak to people in the community. So that's why we're coming here today, kind of introduce it as a budding group. And we want to actually create tangible change in the community, which according to Alice's data, you know, people aren't really seeing. So that is the goal of the group, if there are any questions.

I don't see any questions, but I think you have a question. Okay, Council Member Shea. Okay.

So communication is very important to get the word out about the groups that you're establishing. So what are some of the different ways that you're trying to reach the students so that they know this is available to them?

So I work on the newspaper and I've done a lot of articles about mental health, social media, binge drinking, peer pressure, things like that. So that's definitely one thing we're really pushing for is to get more examples of community outreach in that. And then we also have an amazing radio station that some members of Youth Matters are in and They're holding a lot of different podcasts and episodes for that. We also just sent out a project called I Wish that went to the community during class periods, and that was broadcasted on the radio station as well. So we're really trying to utilize a lot of the resources that the high school and the middle school and elementary schools have because we do have really amazing resources like that. Um, but we also want to get across to the adults in the community as well, because that's, that's where there's a really big gap in understanding. So one example that we were kind of brainstorming on is during the parent conference night when the parents come into the high school and their kids are about to go, um, that could be a really great opportunity to talk to them about some of these resources. But yeah, we're definitely still trying to figure out all the different ways we can do outreach, but those are some examples.

Thank you, that sounds great.

Councillor Weinberg.

Yeah, well, first of all, Great work reaching out to everyone in the community and raising awareness on hazing and binge drinking and the pressures of social groups and finding ways to give people alternatives. I found that when I was your age at high school and also at college, that oftentimes the hazing and the binge drinking that I observed was happening when there weren't viable alternatives and there weren't really other things that people that didn't want to participate in those activities could do. And so having something that is an activity that is just as fun but that is safer and that is better for one's long-term physical health and mental health would be a great way to both raise awareness and counteract some of the pressure that leads people to these activities. So again, great work on this and I'm a big fan.

Thank you. Yeah, we are working on brainstorming different things like that. We were talking about what could students do on a Saturday night that doesn't involve partying and drinking. There is like a bowling alley here, just little things like that. We were kind of having fun brainstorming about different things that we could bring to the community. just generally like Outreach like that. So yeah, I think we'll definitely keep brainstorming about that And I think one big thing is that a lot of people just aren't aware of the other options So with peer pressure, it's really easy to see all your friends doing one thing and just think of that as the normal thing to do So that's another thing we're working on

There used to be a bowling alley on Mercer Island back in the 60s. Maybe it's time to bring one back and give it a place to hang out. But anyway, thank you for all your efforts.

Casimir Reynolds.

I just wanted to give a shout out to our two youth speakers. Public speaking is one of the most terrifying things in the world for a significant portion of the population. It takes real courage to do what you did before this group. And in addition to the work you're doing, coming here to talk about it is particularly hard. So thank you. Great job.

yeah i just want to echo that uh i have young kids so seeing the number like 65 percent of kids feel like they're putting their you know mental and physical well-being you know in the back seat to success makes me really nervous so i'm curious you know look forward to hearing more of what the group is doing but i also think that you know as parents how can we be better is a big piece of this so look forward to hearing more from you all about what that looks like council reynolds do you have another question or is that an old hand And you're on mute.

Okay, we'll move on. I'm just failing in the technology today. That is an old hand. I apologize. All right.

Mr. Mayor, that concludes our presentation tonight. Again, shout out to our youth leaders. They're remarkable. YFS will continue to support them, Youth Matters and Youth Voice in the community. Thank you again for your attention and support.

Yeah, well, I think, you know, I'll say on behalf of the council and I think on behalf of the community, thank you and the staff at YFS for all that you do. It's such a important element of what the city does and, you know, that reverberates throughout the community. And thank you to you all for being here as well. Like Council Member Reynolds said, I know it's not easy to speak in front of this microphone. It makes me nervous and I have to do it every other week. So thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. Okay. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. okay next we will hear from city manager jesse bond for our city manager support thank you mr mayor and i think you don't contain that's not me okay

Nothing like a big echo entry. All right, Casey, next slide, please. Okay, they're not advancing on my, there we go. Council just a quick look ahead to the next several weeks of meetings your next council meeting is Tuesday, June 2nd We do have a pretty steady stream of Board and Commission meetings coming up lots of work happening The Planning Commission meets next week and again the following week Keep all of our Board and Commission meetings updated on our website if you'd like to follow along there That's also where our agenda materials are posted next slide Wanted to give you a heads up council about a survey that has recently gone out to the community We've been working on this to help the Parks and Recreation Commission gather information from the community as they work through a policy considerations, and ultimately are preparing to make a recommendation to you on how best to regulate e-bikes on our parks, trails, and open space areas. So that survey is out now. Thanks to some quick feedback we got from some folks that attended Bike to Work Day and a couple council members, we did make a few adjustments to the survey. it will be open i believe for a few weeks it's available on our let's talk page and my thanks to the parks and rec commission and the staff for their ongoing work on this topic it's new and emerging technology and uh making a for some tough discussions right now so more to come on that next slide please I wanted to also say thank you to everyone, the community, the staff team, council members for participating last Saturday in the Mercer Island PTA Special Services and Learning Differences Community Day of Inclusion. And I think that in that photo there might be a council member in the wolf suit, right? I thought I heard Councilmember Shea was in the wolf suit. Well, that is taking it to another level for Councilmember volunteering. I'll expect to see the mayor.

She did try to pawn that off on other council members. Unfortunately, I had other commitments that I had to get to.

Nice delegation, Mr. Mayor. All right. Well, it was a really fantastic event. I wasn't able to attend, but I've heard great feedback. And I just want to thank everyone from the city side of the house for participating and certainly a shout out to the Mercer Island PTA for hosting a wonderful event. Next slide, please. All right. Oops. There we go. Just a quick capital project update. Last week, we began saw cutting and excavation on Southeast 80th Street and Southeast 82nd Street. This is in the Island Point neighborhood. You can see a photo there of the work we're doing. This work is actually stormwater infrastructure improvements. And I wanted to just highlight this project in particular because this road is scheduled for a residential street overlay this summer. So this just highlights how our teams work when we know we've got infrastructure in the dirt that needs to be upgraded We go and time those improvements to happen just ahead of the overlay work. So this is an example of that happening right now. We should be wrapping this up in June. And then the street overlay project is currently out to bid, and we typically do all the overlay work over the summer. Thanks, Casey. Next slide, please. And one more. Just one event to call out for you tonight. We're hosting a Stop the Bleed training. Emergency Management is hosting, I should say, on Thursday, May 28th, here at the Community Center at 6.30 p.m. This is about helping our community learn more in the area of a safe response to controlled bleeding, such as applying pressure and correctly placing a tourniquet. We do require registration for the class, although the class is free, but space is limited. So if you'd like to register, the web link for emergency management is there on the bottom of the screen. I think we have one more slide. Council, we wanted to officially welcome Officer Jack Baker to the Mercer Island Police Department. He graduated from the Police Academy on May 13th and is now the department's newest police officer. He has a really fantastic background, joins us after serving 10 years with the Warwickshire Police in the United Kingdom. And that is where he's originally from. He relocated to Washington with his wife and was hired by us in November 2025. As you know, from the point of being hired to being actually out in the field does take a little bit of time. So we thank him for all the work he put in to get to graduation. And we are excited to officially welcome him to our team. And we will ask everyone to say hello when you see him out in the field. And I believe that is our last slide. Thanks, Casey.

Okay, thank you. Next item of business is appearances. This is an opportunity for anyone to speak to the council on any item, except items requiring public hearing or any quasi-judicial matters or campaign-related matters. City Clerk, has anyone signed up for appearances and wishes to address the council?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, tonight's agenda will include in-person public appearances and remote public appearances via Zoom. Individuals wishing to address the council may do so in person or by Zoom, provided they register with the City Clerk by 4 p.m. today. When it is your turn to speak, you will be called by name. Remarks must be addressed to the council as a whole and not to individual council or staff members. Any person making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or becomes boisterous, threatening, or personally abusive while addressing the city council may be requested to leave the meeting. Please speak audibly and state your name and city residence for the record. There will be a timer on the screen. You have three minutes to speak. When your time is ended, your microphone and video will be turned off. I will thank you for your comments and move to the next speaker or item of business. Staff, please promote the first speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Our first speaker tonight is Addie Smith.

Hello, my name is Addie Smith. Today is May 19th. I'm speaking before the Mercer Island City Council. On May 5th, I quoted Judge Jeff Gregory's statement that he made from the bench. He made that statement on March 14th, 2023, and that statement was a lie. I won't repeat the statement here today, but it has been posted to social media. On March 14th, 2023, Judge Gregory claims that he made this statement to me during a previous hearing. I provided the dates that all hearings before him took place. Again, Judge Jeff Gregory committed perjury from the bench. He has misled the court and made misrepresentations. These city council members allowed him to continue working as the city's municipal court judge, knowing that he has committed perjury and knowing that he has aided and abetted in the suppression of hate crimes. 9Z093066 is the one case wherein I was charged with two counts of assault, after defending myself in repeated hate crime attacks by a white racist convicted felon. She was helping her friend who wanted to live in a low-income apartment in the $100 million luxury apartment building I was responsible for operating. But because she earned too much money and didn't qualify to live in one of them, she began recruiting white racists in the building to threaten, harass, stalk, and attack my child and I. These recruits were led to believe that I was trying to move all the white people out to move all the black people in. Ridiculous, but racists don't need much to go off of to commit acts of terrorism. The dates that I was before Judge Jeff Gregory are as follows. June 21st, 2021, August 9th, 2021, December 13th, 2021, March 1st, 2022, December 1st, 2022, December 5th, 2022 by phone, December 12th, 2022 by phone, January 17th, 2023 by phone. On December 1st, 2022, the public defender, Ms. Hutchison, filed a motion with the court for additional funding. That motion was denied on December 12th, 2022. On February 28, 2023, the court and Attorney Hutchinson intentionally called the wrong phone number. Both the court and the attorney had the correct number. By March 14, Attorney Hutchinson filed a motion to withdraw. Judge Gregory committed perjury and stated that I had forfeited my right to counsel. Against the prosecutor's objection, Judge Gregory granted Meredith Hutchinson's motion. All because she was denied more money to represent me. This after I refused to take some sort of ridiculous, concocted deal that she made with Prosecutor Blakely Warbington. Absolutely not. The city of Mercer Island will be held accountable for their police refusing to write police reports, wrongful arrests, and for allowing my daughter and I to endure months of hate crimes committed by whites and Asians. And my daughter is biracial, Asian and black. And it's been ridiculous. Seven years. It's been seven years and you guys are holding on to this. The taxpayer will be held accountable. That's all I can keep saying. And that's all I'm going to continue to say. I'm going to post it and tell people what is happening with the city of Mercy.

Our next speaker tonight is Nancy Lee. Nancy, you can go to the podium.

Thank you. My name is Nancy Lee. And I'm here simply to acknowledge the City Council's consideration of Proclamation No. 388, declaring the first Friday in June to be a National Gun Violence Awareness Day. On behalf of the Mercer Islands Everytown for Gun Safety group, we are supporting this proclamation and commend the focus on actions that will increase gun storage especially. Given the concerning statistics in the United States, an estimated 63% of gun owners have at least one gun in their home, never locked up. 80% of firearm suicides among youth involved a gun belonging to a family member. And half of school shooters stole their gun from a family member. In addition, we support increasing awareness among students of the Say Something app, anonymous reporting, that students can use to report any knowledge of a potential gun shooting. This is based on statistics that four out of five school shootings, one person knew in advance. They knew that this was going to happen. So I support your consideration of proclamation.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, our last speaker tonight is Charles Kite. However, I don't see Mr. Kite in the Zoom audience or in the audience in council chambers. And we could move to the next item if you'd like, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. We now move to our next item of business, approval of the consent agenda. City Clerk, please put the consent agenda on the screen. Council Member Reynolds. Is that an old hand?

No, it's a new hand. I just wanted, at an appropriate time, I'd like to pull 6933.

Okay. That will be our first item of regular business. The consent agenda now contains three items.

Mr. Mayor, would you like to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended?

Is it possible to put it on the screen?

Yep. That item four is being. Why isn't it? It was up. Sorry.

No worries.

And item four will be removed from the consent agenda pursuant to Council Member Reynolds.

Okay, Council, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended? So moved. Second. And that was moved by Deputy Mayor Becker and seconded by Council Member Reynolds. To approve the consent agenda as amended, City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Member Shea? Aye. Council Member Weicker? Council Member Weicker? Aye. Aye. Deputy Mayor Becker?

Aye.

Council Member Andrall still has not arrived. Council Member Weinberg?

Aye.

Council Member Reynolds? Aye. And Mayor Rosenbaum?

Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Our next item will be AB 6929, the 2025 Community Member of the Year, Proclamation Number 387. The City Council is honored to be presenting the 2025 Community Member of the Year tonight to Fan Yuan. Before we invite Fan up to accept the word, would anyone like to make a promotion to approve Proclamation 387, proclaiming Fan Yuan as the Community Member of the Year? So moved. Second.

Second.

Okay, it was moved by Councilman Reynolds, seconded by Deputy Mayor Becker. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Rosenbaum?

Aye.

Council Member Weinberg?

Aye.

Council Member Shea? Aye. Council Member Reynolds?

Aye.

Council Member Weicker? Looks like Council Member Weicker, she's been having internet issues and looks like she dropped. Oh, she's back. Council Member Weicker, would you like to vote on the approval of Proclamation 387 for 2025 Community Member of the Year? I think we're still having internet issues. We'll move to Deputy Mayor Becker. Aye. And we'll come back and see if Council Member Weicker's internet is there and she can hear me. I think we're having, yep. We've got five yeses. Okay.

Motion passes. Okay, whereas in 1990 the city council began recognizing outstanding contributions of Mercer Island community members and the city has continued this tradition for more than 30 years. During the January 16, 2026 City Council planning session, the City Council selected Fan Yuan as the 2025 Community Member of the Year for her contributions to the Mercer Island community. Fan has served as the President of the Mercer Island Chinese Association since November 2023. Through her leadership on the MICA and other local organizations, she has continually showed her dedication to the Mercer Island community. Fan has played an instrumental role in strengthening the partnership between the MICA, and Parks and Recreation through the development and support of multiple major community events, including the Lunar New Year Celebration and Mid-Autumn Festival Carnival, each hosting thousands of attendees at the community center. Through this collaboration, MICA has been able to expand opportunities for residents to engage with and celebrate Chinese culture through inclusive, family-friendly events and activities. These events have included cultural celebrations, performances, workshops, and community gatherings that highlight traditions, heritage, and shared experiences for residents of all backgrounds. Outside of MICA, Fann has been a passionate advocate for children in our library system and schools. She runs a weekly Mandarin story time at the Mercer Island Library and is on the KCLS Foundation Board, and she is actively supportive of our school system as a board member for MIPA and the Northwood PTA. Through thoughtful planning and strong community partnerships, Fann has helped foster a vibrant and inclusive environment that reflects Mercer Island's commitment to cultural diversity and community connections. Now, therefore, I, Dave Rosenblum, Mayor of the City of Mercer Island, do hereby proclaim Fan Yuan as a 2025 Community Member of the Year, approved this 19th day of May, 2026. So it's now my honor to present you with the proclamation. And this engraved plaque, I'll drop it, which commemorates you as being the 2025 Community Member of the Year. Congratulations. Council, would anyone like to share a few words? Deputy Mayor Becker.

Yeah, fan. First of all, congratulations and also thank you for everything you do for our community. Something I really appreciate about you is that you are a doer who looks at things with an eye for how you can make it better. Some people have complaints, even if valid, but don't want to be part of the solution. And then there are people like you that step up time and again, helping to make this a great community. We already mentioned major events like Lunar New Year, but also smaller things like all island playdates. where you've taken gaps in services and found solutions that improve the lives of residents. I'm not saying you did these alone. There are a lot of people who all deserve appreciation, but it takes a leader to make them happen. And yet, you're still humble and not looking for recognition. You may not even like being here and having us talk about you, so I won't say much more. But I want you to know that your efforts are appreciated. You are a great example for all our kids, but also your kids who are here today. Your mom is a rock star. Thank you for loaning her to the community.

KETSUMER WEINBERG.

So I'm going to pretend for a moment that I know how to speak Mandarin, which I'm still learning. But which means thank you for your exceptional service to the community. KETSUMER SHAY.

Yeah, I remember when you first had the idea to do Lunar New Year celebration at our community center and it just seemed like there were so many things that had to be done and we're sitting around in the circle and you got it all done. It's just so impressed with your leadership and thank you for all your service to our community, to raise the importance of recognizing Chinese culture, And, in fact, you know, it's Asian Heritage Month, so it's especially special that, you know, that you're here today to receive this award. So thank you for all you do in our community.

Yeah, Fann, I was thinking about what to say tonight. And there were a couple of things that came to mind. The first is there are events that we've had in this community for a really long time. You think about the tree line, you think about summer celebrations. And the fact that the events that you've put on here at the community center have become staples like that so quickly is truly amazing. You know, I remember the first year, you know, literally people could not get in, you know, to the event. And it's just incredible. I mean, the amount of people that come every year to celebrate, you know, Lunar New Year and the Autumn Festival are really incredible. It's a testament to you. Um, you know, I think like the deputy mayor said, you know, you do so much for the community, but it's also, there's a, a humbleness to you. That's really inspiring. Um, if you remember at the Chinese New Year's festival, when I was speaking and you were translating, I said, I'm going to embarrass you. And I think you meant, I think you thought I was going to say something silly. But the reality was, you know, I was going to talk about how deserving of this award you were. You did not translate those comments, so I'm holding that against you. But I really do think it's, you know, this is just a token of our appreciation in the community, and thank you for all you do, and also thank you for all I know you're going to continue to do, because that's the kind of person you are. So thank you so much on behalf of the community. Congratulations.

Thank you. Do I have, I do want to say a few words. Go ahead.

The floor is yours.

Thank you. I come here. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Becker, for nominating me. And thank you to the Marsana City Council for this incredible honor. I've actually been here in the country before in very different chapters of my life. I came to the East Coast for grad school and later worked in New York. But it's here on Marsa Island. that I feel I've truly found a home. This is where we're choosing to raise our girls and put down roots. As an immigrant, the sense of home really means a lot. It's not something I take for granted. It's something that has been built slowly through friendships, through community, and through being welcomed and choosing to give back in return. So I wanted to thank you to the many kind friends I've made here on the island whose warmth and friendship have shaped my sense of belonging. and to this community for seeing me, welcoming me, and embracing me for who I am. I think it's that quality, the ability to truly see and understand one another that unites us. I also wanted to say this to my girls and also all the parents out there. I feel like community value cannot always be measured in job titles or income. Some of the most meaningful work happens quietly in everyday life in the care we give to our children, the support we offer our families, the ways we show up for one another, and the effort we make to help people around us feel seen, included, and connected. And finally, thank you to my amazing husband, Brian Sloan, and our two lovely girls, Cara and Raya, for supporting me in doing the work I love for this community. I'm really deeply grateful to be part of the community where this kind of work is recognized. I feel especially grateful that immigrants like me can not only find a home here, but also shape it the way we want it. Because in the end, this is what turns a place into a home. So thank you so much.

Thank you. It's people like you that make this such a wonderful place to live. We'll now take a five-minute recess and invite Brian, Cara, and Raya up for some pictures.

We just started that.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it just moves ahead of, before the boarding commission.

Oh, you mean like the gun?

Yeah.

The gun combination? Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

It's basically like if you, you know, Craig wants to just speak to it. Like more discussion, like talk about it. Rather than just passing it.

Than just passing it. Yeah. Okay, okay. And then we'll just vote on it after we.

Exactly. Then we actually have to vote on it. Right. We've already approved the other items here, but that one isn't approved yet. So then we would vote on it separately.

All right. All right. Well, we're going to pray more about it.

Eat some food.

Oh, I wonder how long this board and commission thing is going to go. I don't think it's going to go. Because there's like so many positions.

Yeah, we'll see. Although usually there's like, I don't think we actually talk about this. Do you just keep voting? Do we just kind of keep voting until we get to four? Vote around.

I'm hoping we'll get through some of these things and I can eat in the executive session. Is there going to be any food left? I'm just going to get some for the executive session.

Rather than eating up here...

Okay, the City Council is in recess for five minutes. First item of regular business is AB 6933, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Proclamation Number 388. I will turn to Council Member Reynolds.

Thank you. I wanted to pull this in part because I was instructed to try to make sure the proclamation was less than one page, and there are a few additional points that I wanted to get out. This is an issue that is personally very important to me, having lost a dear friend to gun violence when I was in high school. And I often hear parents around the island and more broadly say that they would do anything possible to help their kids and to protect their kids. And I think the single most important thing you can do to protect your kids is to make sure that if you have a gun in your home, that it is secure. And the Mercer Island Police Department is happy to provide free gun locks to the members of the community. There are other options as well, gun safes as well. But make sure if you have a gun in your home, it is secure. There are more than 128 people a day killed by gun violence in the United States, and another 523 that are shot and wounded. About 18,000 gun homicides every year. About two-thirds of the deaths by gunfire in the U.S. are suicides. You might think your family's immune to that, but I imagine that many of the people that have experienced that thought the same thing. So make sure the guns are safe. People in the United States, of course, have a unique problem here at work. You're 26 more times likely to die by gun violence here than in other high-income countries. That's a problem we don't need to have. It's a preventable problem. And I'm glad to see Mercer Island taking steps to address the problem. And I wanted to thank the local Everytown for Gun Safety group on the island who pushed forward to make sure this was on the agenda. That is all.

Thank you. And thank you to Council Member Reynolds for his work. on this issue and this proclamation. Council, is there a motion to approve proclamation number 388, proclaiming June 5th, 2026 as gun violence awareness day at Mercer Island? So moved.

Second.

Second by Councilman Reynolds and second by Councilman Weinberg. Please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Rosenbaum?

Aye.

Councilmember Weicker? Aye. Councilmember Shea? Aye. Councilmember Andrall? Aye. Deputy Mayor Becker?

Aye.

Council Member Reynolds.

Aye.

And Council Member Weinberg.

Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Motion passes. Our next item of regular business is ABCC 928, 2026 Board of Commission Appointments, Resolutions Numbers 1694 and 1695. As noted in the agenda bill, there is a different process for appointments to the Open Space Conservancy Trust. We begin with the appointments to the Open Space Conservancy Trust. Appointments to the trust are outlined in Ordinance Number B93, which established the trust in Ordinance Number 96-002. which amended the trust. The mayor shall appoint members to the trust and the appointment will be confirmed by a majority vote of the city council. The names of the applicants that were selected had been added to resolution number 1695. City clerk, can you please read the appointment section of resolution number 1695 and put it on the screen?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, it should be coming up on the screen now.

Okay, thank you.

Section 1, appointment of the Open Space Conservancy Trust. Pursuant to the Open Space Conservancy Trust ordinance number 96-002, the mayor hereby appoints and the city council approves the following individuals to the Mercer Island Open Space Conservancy Trust for the designated term hereafter set forth. Carol Burseth, position number 2, term expires May 31, 2030. Kipley Olson, position number four. Term expires May 31, 2030.

Okay. Council, is there a motion to adopt Resolution 1695? So moved. Second. It was moved by Council Member Weinberg and seconded by Deputy Mayor Becker. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Member Weicker? Aye. Deputy Mayor Becker?

Aye.

Mayor Rosenbaum?

Aye.

Council Member Reynolds?

Aye.

Council Member Andrall? Aye. Council Member Weinberg?

Aye.

And Council Member Shea? Aye. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. The motion to approve Resolution 1695 passes. Congratulations to our Open Space Conservancy Trust members. Next, we'll move to appointments for the Utility Board, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Arts Council. Council, Section 8.12 of the Council of Rosa procedure provides that all appointments to the Arts Council, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Utility Board are made by a vote of the city council during a regularly scheduled meeting, and that each city council member will complete a written ballot, casting a vote for the identified open seat on a board or commission. If there is more than one open seat on a board or commission, then each position will be voted on separately. The position with the longest term will be voted on first. The applicants that received the most votes, provided they received a minimum of four votes, will be appointed to the expiring or vacant seats on the board or commission. The names of the applicants selected will be added to resolution number 1694, with final approval required by a vote of the city council. Since the city council is participating in a meeting in person via Zoom, the city clerk will send email ballots to council members. The city clerk will collect ballots from council members, naming their candidate of choice. The city clerk will tally the votes and read a lot of the votes and outcome of the vote. We will make appointments in the following order, Utility Board, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Arts Council. The first selections are to fill two positions on the Utility Board, position number six, expiring May 31, 2030, and position number seven, term expiring May 31, 2030. We will start with the Utility Board position number six, term expiring on May 31, 2020. City Clerk, please distribute the ballots to the City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot has been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Debbie Bertland received votes from Shea, Weicker, and Weinberg. Meredith Lear received votes from Andrel, Becker, Reynolds, and Rosenbaum and is appointed to position number six on the Utility Board.

OK. Congratulations. City Clerk, please distribute the ballots for Utility Board position number seven, term expiring May 31, 2020. 2030.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot has been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Debbie Bertlin received votes from Andrel, Becker, Shea, Reynolds, Rosenbaum, Weicker, and Weinberg, and is appointed to position number seven on the Utility Board.

OK. Congratulations. Thank you. The next elections are to fill two positions on the Parks and Recreation Commission. Position number three, term expiring May 31, 2030, and position 24, sorry, position four, expiring May 31, 2030. City Clerk, please distribute the ballots for Parks and Recreation Commission position number three, Term expired May 31st, 2030 to the city council.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot has been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Damon Jacobson received one vote from Weicker. Andrea Kristoff received one vote from Weinberg. Jason Saneo received votes from Andrell, Becker, and Rosenbaum. Nathan Sim received a vote from Shea. And Jim Stanton received a vote from Reynolds. Pursuant to the city council rules of procedure, I'll send another ballot, this time only with names that received a vote. Sorry for the wait. The pallet has been sent, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Jason Sanio received votes from Andrel, Becker, Reynolds, Rosenbaum, Weicker, and Weinberg. Nathan Sim received a vote from Shea. Yes, and Jason Sanio has been appointed to position number three on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

OK. Congratulations, Jason. City of Cork, please distribute the ballots for Parks and Recreation, position number four. Term expiring May 31, 2030, to the City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot has been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Damon Jacobson received votes from Andral, Rosenbaum, and Weicker. Andrea Kristoff received a vote from Weinberg. Pam Rock received a vote from Becker. Nathan Sim received a vote from Shea. And Jim Stanton received a vote from Reynolds. Mr. Mayor, we'll move to round two, this time with ballots only including those who received a vote in the first round. Mr. Mayor, the ballots have been sent. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Damon Jacobson received votes from Andrel, Becker, Shea, Rosenbaum, and Weicker, and is appointed to position number four on the Parks and Recreation Commission. Andrea Kristof received a vote from Weinberg, and Jim Stanton received a vote from Reynolds.

Okay, thank you. Now, the next elections are to fill the three positions on the Arts Council. Position number three, term expiring May 31, 2030. Position number four, term expiring May 31, 2030. And position number two, term expiring May 31, 2027. Council's reminder pursuant to City Council Rules and Procedures, Section 812, the positions with the longest terms will be voted on first. We will begin with position number three, term expiring May 31, 2030. City Clerk, please distribute the ballots for Arts Council, position number three, term expiring May 31, 2030, to the City Council.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, the ballot has been sent. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Jonathan Harrington received votes from Shea and Weinberg. Kay Huang received votes from Andrel and Reynolds. Katie Kratzner received votes from Becker, Rosenbaum, and Weicker. Mr. Mayor, no candidate received four votes. So we'll proceed to round two with the candidates who received a vote in round one.

Mr. Mayor, point of order. i certainly meant to type harrington in that round did i type my name wrong no i i wrote harrington and that was not read correctly i just can't read my apologies that is correct council member reynolds voted for harrington we still do not have a candidate who received four votes and will proceed to round two would you mind reading the correct the full list of results

Jonathan Harrington received votes from Shea, Reynolds, and Weinberg. Kay Huang received votes from Andrall. Katie Kratzner received votes from Becker, Rosenbaum, and Weicker.

Thank you. Thank you.

We'll proceed to round two, Mr. Mayor.

Please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot's been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Jonathan Harrington received votes from Reynolds and Weinberg. Kay Huang received votes from Andrall. Katie Kratzner received votes from Becker, Shea, Rosenbaum, and Weicker, and is appointed to position number three on the Arts Council.

OK, thank you. City Clerk, please distribute the ballots for Arts Council position number four, term inspired May 31, 2030, to the City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been sent. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. Kay Huang received a vote from Andral. Yuxi Deneve received a vote from Weicker. Mindy Stern received a vote from Rosenbaum. And Jonathan Harrington received votes from Becker, Shea, Reynolds, and Weinberg and is appointed to position number four on the Arts Council.

OK, congratulations.

City Clerk, please.

Distribute the ballots for Arts Council Position No. 2, expiring May 31, 2027, to the City Council.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballot's been sent.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The ballots have been tallied. received a vote from Weicker. received votes from Reynolds and Rosenbaum. received votes from Andrell, Becker, Shea, and Weinberg, and is appointed to position number two on the Arts Council.

OK, congratulations. City Clerk, have the votes been compiled and the appointed names added to resolution number 1694? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Chief administration is about to put the resolution on the screen.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, would you like me to read the appointment section?

That's OK. OK. Let me just scroll down a little bit. Okay, thank you. Next, we'll have the adoption of resolution number 1694, appointing members to fill vacancies in the Arts Council, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Utility Board. Is there a motion to adopt resolution number 1694? So moved. Second. Let's move by Council Member Weinberg and second by Council Member Reynolds. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Deputy Mayor Becker?

Aye.

Council Member Weicker? Aye. Did you hear me, Council Member Weicker? She's still been having internet problems. I saw her say yes, even though I didn't. Aye. There we go. Thumbs up. Council Member Shea. Aye. Council Member Andrall. Aye. Council Member Reynolds.

Aye.

Mayor Rosenbaum.

Aye.

And Council Member Weinberg. Aye. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Congratulations to all of our new members and thank you for everyone who applied. This service is really important to the community. Okay, our next item, this is AB 6930, City Planning for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. We welcome Management Analyst, Amelia Jaden.

Nice.

Good evening, Council. Amelia Chayden, Management Analyst. And I am joined tonight by quite a few staff members as the city planning for the FIFA World Cup has spanned almost every department. I will be taking the lead tonight on walking you through tonight's presentation on the World Cup, starting first with an overview of the games, the tournament, and its impacts to the region. And then I will walk us through how the city has been planning for public safety, traffic, parking, and communications. For three weeks starting in June and July, Seattle will host six FIFA World Cup matches. This World Cup is said to be one of the largest tournaments of all time, spanning three countries and 16 host cities. In Seattle, the tournament and all of the events in the region are expected to bring between 400,000 and 750,000 visitors into the region. On screen, you can see the dates and times for the six matches scheduled in Seattle. All of the matches will be played at Lumen Field, which will be renamed to Seattle Stadium for the duration of the tournament. All of the matches are weekday matches and four of the matches are daytime matches. Notably, the Mercer Island School District will be in session for the first game on June 15th. One thing I would like to call your attention to is the time that the gates open and the gates close. Gates will open three hours before kickoff and are open two hours after the final whistle. The middle columns in the table on the screen will show the approximate travel window for when matchgoers are out and about, thinking an hour or two before or after that for travel time. Staff anticipate that the different teams will draw different crowds and different amounts of people. So far, the US versus Australia game appears to have the highest draw, though the later games, the undecided games, could invite teams from Mexico, Germany, or other places in the world that may bring in larger fan bases. Looking at the Washington State footprint as a whole, Seattle will host four official FIFA Fan Fest locations, which act as gathering spots to watch the matches live if you don't have a ticket. There are nine additional fan zones in cities around Washington, including Bellingham and Spokane. And then the region will also host four base camps, one in Renton, Spokane, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon, where teams will reside and practice for part of or all of the tournament. The practice facilities for these base camps are closed to the public unless they are authorized by the team, but the base camps could bring more visitors into the region and invite in more travel. That's not all. Vancouver, British Columbia will host seven matches, with many matches back to back with the Seattle games. Given the short distance, about a three hour drive without traffic, many match goers are expected to travel back and forth between Washington and British Columbia. On screen, you can see a graphic created by Visit Seattle of the anticipated travel intensity in the region with the highest intensities highlighted underneath the days in red. Factors that'll impact travel intensity are Mariners home games, cruise ship sailings, whether or not there's a match in Vancouver, and more. This brings us to Mercer Island. The city is seven miles and only two light rail stops away from the center of the action. The city also sits on the I-90 corridor, which is one of the primary ways to get to and from Seattle. While the city may not see the large fan zones or as many visitors as other places in the region, the city will feel the impact of the proximity to the games. Staff began preparing for the World Cup in early 2025, and tonight I'm walking you through a high-level overview of all of this preparation. Starting with public safety, the Mercer Island Police Department will be at the forefront of public safety for Mercer Island. MIPD will increase their staffing on match days to include two marine patrol vessels supporting operations on Lake Washington, and then increased land-based patrols led by the new town center unit. The emergency manager, Amanda Keverkamp, and the Emergency Operations Center team, which includes staff from every department, have been preparing for these games for well over a year. This preparation has included regular planning meetings with regional partners, attending various trainings and events like the Emergency Management FIFA World Cup Planning Symposium, and also conducting trainings with internal staff to make sure that our EOC teams and frontline staff are prepared. The city's EOC will be activated at an enhanced monitoring capacity on match days, which means staff will be ready and aware to respond quickly if an incident were to occur. The city will also coordinate with regional partners as needed throughout the duration of the games to make sure we're all on the same page. Shifting our focus to traffic, the WSDOT Revive I-5 Ship Canal Bridge Preservation Project is repairing the upper bridge deck of I-5 between East Roanoke Street and Northeast 45th Street. Currently, northbound I-5 is reduced to two lanes across the Ship Canal Bridge. The weekend of June 5th, WSDOT will fully close northbound I-5 to remove the work zone, making the traffic lanes open and available for use during the entirety of the World Cup. Then, starting on July 10th, four days after the last match in Seattle, WSDOT will complete another full weekend closure of the northbound lanes to reestablish the work zone and resume work on the Revive I-5 project. While this project does not directly impact Mercer Island, it has impacts to the region as a whole and is therefore helpful to note in planning. Coming back to the island, the city recently entered into a contract to install a new 10-inch water main on Gallagher Hill Road. This 10-inch water main project precedes the water supply line replacement project. Staff are working with the contractor to ensure there will be two travel lanes open on Gallagher Hill Road on match days. Staff are also in coordination with King County on the sewer upgrade project affecting North Mercer Island. The work on this project recently moved to southeast 36th Street, and currently this area is reduced to two lanes. The lane reduction is likely to continue during the duration of the games. In regard to road projects, staff will pause work on curb ramp replacements and the 76th Avenue mid-block crossing to limit traffic disruptions. Finally, the Xinhua development in Town Center has intermittent one-lane traffic reductions in the project area. These lane reductions may remain during the games, but Xinhua would not be permitted to expand its traffic impact footprint. Coming to my specialty, City Council, you have heard this before, but staff anticipate that the park and ride will be fully occupied on weekdays throughout the World Cup. Staff also anticipate increased demand for parking in and around Town Center. With these things in mind, staff's response has been to look for solutions that first and foremost, serve islanders by balancing both commuter and match goer needs, and second, looking for solutions that give staff flexibility to respond quickly to the demands presented by the World Cup. The World Cup is a first of its kind event for the island and impacts are hard to estimate. After the first game and after every game, staff will conduct a post-match review and adjust strategies as needed. One of those strategies being at the town center parking area, which has 33 spaces available on the north edge of town center. On match days, staff will offer the first two hours of parking for free with registration, as is current practice, But after two hours, parking will become a flat $25 daily rate. As mentioned, staff will monitor usage and adjust the rate if needed, based on demand. Switching gears, looking at the community center. The community center will be open in a very limited capacity on match days. Rentals and drop-ins will not be permitted, nor will park permits at Luther Burbank Park. The community center parking lot will be open to the public for use on a first-come, first-served basis. The community center is just north of the transit center, and opening this lot to the public will greatly increase the parking supply for the city on match days. Importantly, parking will be free for islanders. Off-islanders will pay a $25 flat fee upon entering the parking lot. Staff will be on site to verify a vehicle's residency using driver's license verification as the vehicle enters the lot. Any revenue generated from parking will go towards offsetting the expenses incurred from the World Cup, like police overtime and other EOC operation expenses. Last but not least, the city will conduct a robust outreach campaign similar to the campaign for the I-90 closure last year. The city wants the community to take away first that public transit will be the easiest and the best way to travel through the region, whether that is attending a match or going to other off-island destinations. Second, the island will be impacted by this large regional event. The island can expect traffic and congestion impacts, increased foot traffic, fully occupied park and ride, and more. And finally, residents should plan now for impacts and delays. The city encourages people to work from home on match days if able, adjust appointments around peak match travel time, and if travel is needed or required, to budget more time to allow yourself to get to the destination on time. Communications have already started to roll out. Council, you can expect to see posts across social media, a dedicated section in the MI Weekly, and a landing page on the city's website. Staff work is not done. Staff will continue their preparations and provide council with updates as they come. Information will continue to be distributed across all channels, and the city will stay engaged and up to date with regional partners working on emergency management. The World Cup will be a busy time for staff and for the region, but all of our hard work now will pay off as we move forward. As I mentioned, I am supported by many staff members tonight, so if you have any questions, we would love to hear them.

Okay, any questions? I feel like I should call on Council Member Reynolds just in case.

Well, I will just wanted to take a moment to commend the staff. I'll admit that I was guilty of greatly underestimating the effort required to plan for this. I was thinking of it primarily as a Seattle event. It's clearly much bigger than that with impacts here, and I commend them for their foresight, and I think it's going to be a great event. Looking forward to it. I only regret that I have to go to work on the 15th in Seattle, and I'm somewhat dreading it.

Take the light rail. Council Member Shea. Absolutely.

Or my bike.

Yes, I echo what Council Member Reynolds said. Thank you to the staff for preparing us for the FIFA. And just trying to imagine when people come to the parking lot here and you're checking their driver's license, how will that look? And do you anticipate it's going to go smoothly? Or is there a way to just make that a bit more efficient?

Thank you for the question, Ryan Daly, Interim Parks, Recreation and Facilities Director. I do expect it to go very smoothly. We have had some large, very large scale events obviously here at the community center with people converging all at one time. So thinking the YFS breakfast, that's sort of a worst case scenario and we're able to manage that pretty effectively. We'll have traffic plans set up and signage within the lot, as well as a number of staff helping to guide people to parking spaces.

As far as checking every individual license, that should be okay?

Yes, so excellent question as well. So we will be, as people come up and they say they're a resident, they'll be going up to the upper lot. So we'll be separating people out that way and then verifying up top. So we'll be separating those groups to make it that much more manageable.

Okay, I just want to say thanks. This is definitely a tremendous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and definitely a type of situation where failure to plan is planning to fail. So I appreciate all the work that goes into this. Obviously, it's a huge event. I encourage folks to take the light rail, and maybe folks who are coming from elsewhere, get off the light rail, come check out Town Center and have a meal, take a break, beat the crowds. But thank you all for your work on this, and obviously it's going to be really busy a few weeks here, so thank you for that. Anything else? We'll wrap up. All right. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Okay, we now move to other business in the planning schedule. We welcome City Manager Jessie Bond.

Mr. Mayor, I don't have any updates.

Okay. Council, are there any upcoming council member absences to report? No. Seeing none. Okay, we'll move to Council Member Reports. Deputy Mayor Becker. Nothing to report. Council Member Weicker.

Council Member Weicker had to step away. Okay.

Council Member Weinberg.

Yeah, so May 8th was the most recent gathering of the Eastside Transportation Partnership, and with our enthusiastic support, the partnership signed off on the letter of support for the preservation of the Sound Transit 4 line connecting Issaquah to Kirkland, the preservation of the funding for that, that is. uh... the remainder of the forty-two attendee meeting focused on the people of preparations with speakers from wash dot and s dot and some transit metro and port of seattle and of course the people organizing committee instead of starting to of course before each kickoff there'll be a twenty block area surrounding the stadium that will be coming pedestrian mall in the borders of the sonar alaskan way to the west yes or to the north 4th Avenue to the east and Edgar Martinez Drive to the south. And so everyone should already have the six game calendar, six game days on your calendar to ensure that you don't have a doctor's appointment or some other meeting that can't be done remotely on those days. And my next monthly open lunch will be at 12 p.m. on Saturday, June 20th at Hap's, Burgers and Taps. The address is 2411 76th Avenue Southeast. As always, all are welcome. It's an open agenda, news, sports, weather, humor, soccer balls, whatever. All I ask is that everybody please show their respects to the chefs by ordering some food and or beverage. Shakes are great. And let me know if you're coming so I can make sure to reserve a large enough table.

Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Nothing to report. Council Member Shea. Oh, sorry. Council Member Anderle.

Nothing.

Council Member Shea.

Yes, thank you. So I visited a Brownie troop and we had a really nice discussion over 30 minutes about local government. So I was just really impressed with their insightful questions. And I also attended the Puget Sound Regional Council Housing Mini Academy with electives from across the region and shared challenges and strategies on housing. And I took the light rail with community members on May 7. We went to Pike Place Market and everyone had a great time. I anticipate doing my five monthly light rail ride with our community. So this month we're celebrating two heritages. So happy Jewish American Heritage Month and happy Asian Pacific America Day. American Heritage Month. So there's actually going to be a free annual Tai Chi practice event at Mercerdale Park on May 30th, Saturday from 4 to 5.30, taught by Master Yijiao Hong. And our farmers market opening day is coming up. May 31st, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you like to volunteer or make donations for Market Bucks, please check out their website. On May 27th, Wednesday, we have an arts gathering from 5.30 to 7 at MyVol. So please contact Anne Ritze, Jonathan Harrington, or myself if you're interested in joining a group of art lovers and advocates in our community. June 10th is my next community coffee at ASA from 11 to 1230. Please let me know if you'd like to join. And always welcome to check out my social media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Thank you.

Okay. I'll recognize myself to congratulate the council. No one hit reply all on our Boards and commissions appointments. That might be a first. City council will now go to executive session for approximately 60 minutes to discuss with legal counsel pending or potential litigation pursuant to RCW 42.30.110.1i and to consider the selection of a site or the acquisition of real estate by lease or purchase when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of increased price pursuant to RCW 42.30.110.1b. The city council will be in recess from 7.15 until 7.20. The City Council will convene the Executive Session at 7.15. Sorry. The City Council will be in recess from 7.15 until 7.20. The City Council will convene the Executive Session at 7.20 and end at 8.20 p.m.

Good evening. Thank you for your patience. City Council will continue an executive session for an additional 20 minutes until 840 p.m. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for your patience. City Council will continue an executive session for an additional 15 minutes until 8.55 p.m. Thank you.

All right. City Council was in executive session from 8.16 p.m. until 9, sorry, 8.54 p.m. The City Council was in executive session from 7.16 p.m. until 8.54 p.m. The next regularly scheduled hybrid City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, June 2nd, beginning at 5 p.m. Thank you.

Sorry. Sorry.