City Council - Regular Meeting

Have you asked the Father to give you that little mouth of his word?

Call the City of Mount Vernon City Council meeting for Wednesday, May 27th, 2026 to order. The time is now 7 p.m. Would you please stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance?

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

I'd like to ask the City Clerk to please call the roll.

Council Member Beaton?

Here.

Council Member Damon? Here. Council Member Hudson? Here. Council Member Oliver? Here. Council Member Tessaro?

Here.

Council Member Vanderstoop?

Here.

Council Member West?

Here. Thank you. Council, for Item 2, I'd entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda, unless you have some changes you want to make. So moved.

Second.

Motion by Navor and a second by Demme. Any discussion on that? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. We should passes on item 3 it's community comments if you are here to speak to City Council please come on up to the podium, I will say there are a couple of public hearings for later in the agenda if you're here for those of just ask you to wait until that item is called, but if there is any open community comments you're welcome to come on up to the podium right now. No one wishing to address Council I come on please state your your name and your city residents. Yes.

Perfect. Can you guys hear me?

We can.

Oops, sorry. Hi, my name's Leah Litke, and I'm representing Skagit Valley College. I'm representing the student voice at Skagit Valley College. I've come here today in hopes of halting and preventing new AI data centers from being built in Washington state. There are 126 data centers in Washington, each center using anywhere from two to five million gallons of fresh drinking water daily, totaling 600 million gallons of water wasted. every single day. 80% of this water is not recycled. It is evaporated and does not return to our area. Only 2.5% of the Earth's water is fresh drinking water, and we are wasting it. Not only is the water wasted, but these centers are contributing to the rise in unemployment. The Quincy Data Center is 240,000 square feet and only employs 30 to 50 full-time employees. In comparison, Burlington TJ Maxx is 24,000 feet and employs 70 employees, many of which are full-time. These centers will continue to increase our electric bills as the smallest centers on their own use the same amount of energy as 10,000 to 40,000 households per day. Those who live within three miles of these centers will hear a constant hum 24 hours a day. Communities surrounding the centers have been experiencing their taps pouring out undrinkable, muddy, sediment-filled water, and their wells are running dry. Members of the Yakima Nation are not in support of the 700-acre hydro storage project because of the evidence that shows the large data center campus will be a beneficiary of this energy, and yet this project continues to move forward. We read the land agreement before every meeting, and where's our support when they need it? Where's our support for the one in 17 underage victims who have been turned into AI pornography against their will? What are we doing to prevent more unconsensual AI porn from being made? I'm also extremely concerned for the United States as the flock surveillance expands. There are almost 100,000 flock cameras surrounding the US. We're told the surveillance is used for license plate reading, but if we have any sort of historical literacy, we know how fast constant surveillance can turn sour. We all read George Orwell's book, 1984, right? My ending note is this. I need your help. I need your support and representation. I need you to contact our legislators and express your support for bills that aim to protect us against the dangers of AI and data centers. We cannot continue to be complacent and watch our lives and futures be taken from us. Ephesians 5.11 says this. Take no part in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wishing to address City Council tonight? Okay. We will move on in our agenda. Item 4 is tonight's consent agenda. It includes meeting minutes, payroll, claims, agreements. Any motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'll move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Motion by Mary and a second by Navor. Any more discussion on that? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. She passes item five. A is council member comments. Any council member comments this evening? Yes. Council member to Sarah.

So we have a award one meeting, um, scheduled for June eight at the library commons at six 30. And we invite anyone from around the city to come join us. Um, we would like to talk about the, uh, the downtown area and what people's visions here in the city, what they'd like to see in our downtown, but certainly we're going to open the, um, open it up to whatever topic somebody wants to bring to our attention so we would like to encourage whoever would like to show up to come join us there at the library Commons second thing that I'd like to bring up is some of us on the council and the mayor were recently at the North Star symposium and I just want to say that was such an encouraging day there Hearing the stories and experiences of different people whose lives have been completely changed and altered because people took the time to care and gave them hope when they felt like they had no hope. And I certainly think that that helps to define a community if people care enough to get involved. And so that was a very encouraging day there with the rest of the cities that are involved and the counties. So that was a great day. Thanks, Council Member.

One more time with the date for your award meeting.

June 8th from 630 to 830 at the Library Commons. Thanks.

Any other council member comments?

Yeah. I just want to thank everyone that came to our Ward 2 community meeting last week. I know I had a lot of fun. I know Andrew also had a lot of fun. Our next one will be in August. Date coming soon. But thank you everyone who attended.

I'm so curious. I'm going to have a lot of fun. Any other council member comments? All right. We will move on. Mayor's report is next. And we finally have an update to share with some firm dates for the public for the Washington State Department of Transportation West Side Bridge Painting Project. So I'll just go over that with you. Our residents are going to begin seeing some project preparations being made as early as this week, by Friday. More staging and prep work will take place through the first week of June and into the second week of June. How are we doing with that? By the end of the second week of June, so by around June 11th, 11th or 12th, WSDOT is expecting that their contractor is going to be closing down the eastbound traffic lane. So westbound traffic only. we can plan to travel both ways on the bridge until the second week of June. So it's still open. We still are getting lots of questions. Why is the bridge still open? And that's the reason. Until the second week of June, it will be open in both directions. So that's good news, especially for the school district and families going to Washington Elementary on the west side. But after June 11th, We should plan on being able to use the bridge going from downtown to the west side only until the project is done. When will the project be done? Well, originally the projected completion date was one year. Fortunately, we're hearing that this contractor is going to be working 12-hour days, six days a week. or up to six days a week, in order to finish that project before the 12-month projection. So that's all we know for now. We hope that that works out that way. Fingers crossed, and we can all stay up to date on this project by scanning that QR code that's on the screen right now. That'll take you to WSDOT's page, I believe. You can also go to the city's website at www.mountvernonwa.gov, and you can find updates there as well. I think we link you to wash.site as well. So one way or the other, you'll get there, you'll get the latest updates on that. And then a quick update and great news for pedestrians walking from their hilltop neighborhoods to downtown. You may have noticed the brand new flashing pedestrian warning sign that's located midway down Kincade Hill, that is in the photo there. This sign was requested a while ago at Mayor's Coffee by some folks who regularly walk this route and found that cars are unfortunately using Kincaid Hill as an elongated on-ramp to the northbound I-5 on-ramp. So our Public Works Department was incredibly responsive and repeatedly reached out to WSDOT. This is a WSDOT-controlled area to make these improvements. So thank you To them, additional improvements at this intersection include a longer pedestrian walk light down below to provide people enough time to cross the road before the next race car comes flying down the hill. Quick public request, please slow down when you're going down Kincade Hill, and please pay attention to your neighbors who are trying to walk safely downtown. In the meantime, yeah, again, thanks to staff for getting that request fulfilled. Last week, Children of the Valley invited me and all of City Council to the one-year celebration of their anniversary at Washington Elementary School. Council Member Tricero and I showed up that day and attended the chair naming ceremony where Children of the Valley added a City of Mount Vernon recognition plaque to a chair in a third and fifth grade classroom. That's us proudly holding up our City of Mount Vernon chair in the background behind some ridiculously cute kids who shared with us all of the things that they love and learn at the Children of the Valley after school program. So this was a thank you council and recognition of the city's 1590 grant that was awarded in support of this vital community resource. Children of the Valley is in the middle of a capital campaign right now, so it's not too late for folks to contribute and to have a chair dedicated in the local classroom of your choice. Do we have one more slide on there?

Nope.

All right, that is it. That is your mayor's report for May 27th, 2026. Thank you, Steve. We will move on to new business. Item A is a public hearing for a resolution to consolidate the Veterans Affairs Clinic. And Principal Planner Rebecca Lowell has this item. Welcome, Rebecca.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. All right. So the agenda item I have before you this evening, as the mayor stated, is for a new VA outpatient medical clinic. And personally, I'm very excited for this project. It's been a long time in the works, and I think it'll be a... Just very excited to see that construction start I will back up and say that tonight this is a closed record public hearing which of course means that that is why you get those enormous packages from me because you have everything that's in the record before you this evening and the only thing that can be considered is information that's in the existing record but having said that we had no opposition to the project and nobody spoke at the hearing examiner's hearing so I would be surprised if anyone other than the project proponent is here tonight for this hearing. I always like to start with just a general idea of where this project is located in the city. As you can see, it is in the northwest portion of the city. The site address is 1501 Continental Place, and the site is comprised of three distinct parcels. Interestingly, the project actually started with two parcels, and then the applicant ended up purchasing one more. To make sure that they had enough room for parking and the other amenities that they wanted to provide on that site. Um, and as you can see, this is, uh, more specifically, uh, north of Roosevelt between leeway and continental place. Here, I've got a, uh, just a, um. taken an aerial map and then overlaid just the outline of the new clinic and the parking just to give you an idea of what this will look like in relationship to the surrounding properties. You can see where I've identified the boundary of the new site in yellow. I've identified the new clinic. It's a stormwater facility that'll need to be constructed. and they will be providing 120 parking spaces for this new structure that is a little bit short of 27,000 square feet. This site will generate 102 p.m. peak hour trips, which is why this item had to come before Council this evening. You'll recall anytime we have projects that are generating 75 or more p.m. Peak hour trips that requires what we call a type 4 permit Which goes before the hearing examiner for an open record hearing and then we bring it before City Council for a closed record hearing In the general process that we're in right now, where I put a little check mark, a little bit premature, so we still have to do this hearing tonight, but hopefully this will be approved. We're just about done with what we'd call the entitlement process, which would be the traffic concurrency, the site plan, critical area, and the SEPA process, which is before you this evening. Next up will be the construction permits. So after this is finished The applicant already has submitted their building permit and they're filling grade permit, but we can't issue those Until this step is completed So the permits before you were considered at an open record public hearing before the hearing examiner who recommended approval of the application with a few conditions. And as such, staff is recommending council hold the required closed record public hearing and approve the subject permits by authorizing approval of the resolution that's been provided in the packets.

And we will do that closed record public hearing but first council do you have any questions for Rebecca? Yes councilmember West Thanks, Rebecca.

So first of all, I I do support this project. I think that this is the right thing type of thing to happen However Exhibit 4b The date on that is listed about 18,000 100 years into the future 3,000 125 I'm assuming that should be 2025.

I don't have all the exhibits in front of me. I could go into the S drive and look at them. You said it was Exhibit 4B. What was the?

It's the publication date on Exhibit 4B. Yeah, I think it should be 2025, I'm guessing. But, yeah, it's listed. It's 2125. Typo.

Apology.

I'm open. Yeah, yeah.

I can look at it when I get back to the office tomorrow. It was published when it was required to be. I don't know why that mistake was made. It was mine, obviously. Apology.

We'll get all the punctuation and scrivener's errors ironed out of it. Any other questions?

Thanks.

I don't have a question. I just have a comment. When I opened up the packet to read this, I'm so excited that we are bringing 26,000 square feet of care to our veterans. It's just really cool. So I share your excitement that this is coming.

Thank you. And if anyone has had the opportunity, which I do several times a year, to bring somebody to our existing VA clinic, you'll understand how exciting it is to have ample parking in this facility, this new one.

And to have a facility here.

Yeah, exactly.

Anyone else? Okay, with that, I will open the closed record public hearing. Public, if you are a party of record, you're welcome to come forward and address counsel. Anyone here for this item? Okay. Then we will close the closed record public hearing. Council, this is Resolution 1099. If you'd like to make a motion.

I'll move for approval of Resolution 1099. I'll second.

Motion by Mary and second by Demme. Any more discussion on this? All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Motion passes. All right. Item B is a public hearing for an ordinance to update the work plan for battery energy storage systems. And I believe Rebecca Lowe will have this item, too, when she gets her notes.

I couldn't remember what the order of the agenda was. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. So this next agenda item is something that has come before the Council last year. As you'll recall, in June of 2025, Council adopted Ordinance 3913, which put in place a moratorium on the submittal of permits that would authorize battery energy storage systems, or what we hear people call BES, within the city. Shortly thereafter, whenever the city, whenever we initiate a moratorium within 60 days, we're required to hold a public hearing, which was done in July, and Ordinance 3915 was adopted. reason for these the moratorium was basically because this type of a use is a new use we don't have an allowance for it in our code and there is reasonable evidence to suggest that citing one of these facilities could have significant negative impacts if we are not careful with crafting regulations to allow them within the city So having said that, the ordinance that's before you this evening will extend this moratorium for an additional six months. The last moratorium was in place for a year and our department was not able to finish the work plan. For a variety of reasons that the council has been briefed on But we basically need additional time and if we don't adopt another ordinance extending the moratorium Somebody an application could be made to the city for that type of the use So if that staff is asking for council to approve the ordinance that's in your council packets All right questions for Rebecca

And this isn't so much a question for Rebecca, maybe a comment for the rest of us. I know that in Snohomish County, there by the Arlington Airport, they allowed battery storage there. I don't know how we could encourage either staff or council members to visit that facility to see what they did down there in Arlington to make something that hopefully was safe that addressed all of the issues that we are also considering. But we know that electricity is only going to become more more scarce and these battery storage facilities are going to be necessary if we're going to provide the public with the level of electrical capacity that that we know we are going to need in the future thanks anyone else comments or questions yes councilmember west yeah you're good thanks rebecca um so

I do have a question, a couple of questions on section seven. So I think it's requiring a super majority. Is that correct? So that would mean in order for it to get approved, it would need five of the affirmative votes.

Yeah. So the ordinance section seven, the city council hereby declares that an emergency exists, necessitating this ordinance take effect immediately upon passage of a majority plus one of the whole membership of the council.

Okay.

And then also in Section 7, there's something that I'm trying to understand. There's a sentence that says the adoption of the interim regulations within this ordinance need to be immediately implemented to address ongoing housing crisis.

You've caught two errors of mine tonight. I apologize. That was a copy and paste from another ordinance and it should not be in there and I will make sure that that is taken out before the finance director or before it's routed. Section 7, the last whole sentence. Again, apologies.

I just want to, I know this has been a year, right? We've already done the year. Is six months adequate? Do you feel like you're coming to the end of your discovery or whatever process you need to do? Is this an adequate amount of time?

So at this point, we can only ask for six-month extensions. And honestly, it'll depend on the priorities that are set for by the director and mayor. Okay.

I just wanted to have kind of an idea where you thought you were. Thank you.

Very open to discussing priorities too. Yeah, I plan it. Sure. No requests for a site within city limits, but it doesn't mean we can't get to work on finding the right place for it. It's just a matter of prioritizing. Sure.

Understandable.

Anyone else? Sorry. Prioritizing our workload you looked confused prioritizing the work that we have ahead of us.

Oh No, I I just so anybody watching knows I used to be a part of a lot of the permitting processes for these and this sort of moratorium that is Extended into forever is just pretty standard and it's fine but Yeah, just something that I've dealt with a lot. That's why I was frowning. Sometimes we don't say what we're meaning, and I was just frowning at that.

Anyone else? This is a public hearing, yes? Open public hearing. Anyone else? Comments or questions before? Yeah, go ahead.

I just wanted to confirm that... This is just extending the moratorium just so that everybody understands. It's not that we are going to allow these in the city. It's just extending the moratorium to study.

To study whether or not we cite them and if we do, where and how we regulate them.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

Okay. I am going to open up the Public hearing on this topic. If anyone's here to talk about battery energy storage systems, you are free to come on up and address City Council. Going once, going twice. All right. Seeing no comments, I will close the public hearing. And Council, this is Ordinance 3940.

I'll make a motion that Council adopt Ordinance 3940.

Second. By Melissa and a second by Randy. Any more discussion? Yes, Council Member Chisora.

I'm going to assume that our fire chief is involved in this study?

Would be when we get there, likely. Yeah, draw from whatever resources we can. We've had a number of agencies reach out with model code and other ideas, but yeah, when we get to that point, we would invite all sorts of input to include public safety for sure. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Okay. To item C. It's a public hearing for an ordinance to rezone. And Rebecca Lowell has this item as well.

All right. Last agenda item from the committee. So before you this evening is a rezone. Again, this is another closed record public hearing. This particular rezone would change the zoning designation of the property that I'll show and describe to you momentarily from professional office district, or what we call our PO district, to residential office district. The site is about four acres in size. comprehensive plan designation for both the PO district and the RO district allows the zoning to be interchangeably or in it can be interchanged so with the existing comp plan designation the site could be the RO or the PO and that's why we didn't have to have a comprehensive plan amendment plus a rezone this was just a rezone by itself The primary difference, as I understand it from staff who's been working with the applicant on this project, the reason they wanted to have this rezoned was that the RO zoning would allow multifamily development on these parcels and the PO zoning does not. So this site, the overall city map on the left, you can see that it's in the southern middle part of the site. We've got an aerial map here. You can see the... Parcels that comprise the rezone where we've got South LaVenture Road on the east in Little Mountain Lane on the south and on the east of the the other parcels that comprise this I Mean if any of you are familiar with that area, it's got Skagit pediatrics and an eye clinic that are nearby Just quick procedurally, the process that we go through from submittal, SEPA process, the notification process. We had a open record hearing before the hearing examiner in April this year, and the hearing examiner did recommend approval of subject rezone, which means we're here tonight at another closed record hearing. The rezone was found to be consistent with our comprehensive plan and development goals. The procedural requirements for rezones and the SEPA process have been satisfied. And as I just stated, the rezone has been previously considered at a open record public hearing before hearing examiner. And as such, staff is recommending council hold a closed record public hearing and approve the ordinance before you.

All right. The question is for Rebecca on item C. Okay. No questions. I will open up the closed record public hearing for this item. Anyone wishing to address City Council on this item can come on up. Doesn't look like we have any comments and I will close the closed record public hearing. Council, this is Ordinance 3941. I'll move to approve.

I'll second.

Motion by Navor and second by Mary. More discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you, Rebecca.

Thank you. Good evening.

Item D is an update related to our current permitting process improvements and Development Services Director Steve Sexton will introduce this item. Steve.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. It was two weeks ago that the Mayor mentioned in his Mayor's report the over-the-counter permitting process that we rolled out in Development Services. I thought it'd be good to have Tim Woodard, our building official, come in and give you a little bit more detail about that. This is Tim's idea. He implemented the whole thing and it's gotten great reviews and people are excited about it. So Tim, if you want to come on up and let's make sure they don't clap for you.

Welcome, Tim. So that last comment was a reference to Mayor's Coffee, where we had 30 people asking questions and we shared this news with the room. And for the first time in two and a half years, they gave applause at Mayor's Coffee. It was for something I didn't do.

Well done.

Well, thank you, Mayor and honorable members of the council. I am here tonight to just kind of introduce this program more than anything else. This was kind of a pet project for a while now But the idea behind this this program is to take away some of that I guess fear behind permitting get people to come in and ask questions get them to Kind of see what the process is and what the requirements are So in order to do that, we've rolled out this program that is fairly limited for now But it includes basically any interior remodel of any residential house if you You didn't know. Currently, our reviews weren't long on something like that. It was right around a week, maybe two weeks. But the process of somebody doing something and asking for forgiveness has been a longstanding process when they're afraid to come in and ask the question to start with. So what we've seen from this program so far in the month that it's been rolled out is we've only actually issued four over-the-counter permits so far. But we've seen a lot of inquiries. We've seen a lot of people coming in now that they have designated times and designated people that can respond to their questions and hear exactly what they're planning on doing and provide guidance for how to make that process happen. Like I said, it's fairly minor now. It's applicable to any single family residential projects that are interior projects. We're also including small additions such as decks and patio covers, installation of solar equipment on existing homes, and all mechanical and plumbing permits for single family houses. So with that, I wanted to make sure that you guys are aware of this and be here to answer any questions and bring some more good news to the council, hopefully. All right. Any questions for Tim on this?

Yes. Thanks, Tim. I think this is a move in the right direction. And I know that you're saying that it's limited at this point, but maybe at some point we could open up a call-in line for people that are homebound.

Mm-hmm.

so that they could get a similar type service, you know, without having to come in.

Yeah, I mean, with the advances in technology currently, it's not abnormal for somebody that calls in that has questions for us to transfer that question into something like a Teams or a Zoom meeting kind of format. So therefore, we can pull up documents, pull up examples on screens to show them that now. But to your point about an actual designated time frame for these call-in types questions, I think that would also help ease the burden of feeling you know, that they may not get their call answered or their questions answered. So I foresee that being a possibility for sure.

Good. Thank you.

Good idea. Thank you.

Other thoughts, questions?

I don't have any. I just want to say thank you for trying something different and trying to smooth the process. And so I see good things coming from this. And so thank you for... Your willingness to do this.

Yeah. I will do a shout out for my staff. Um, um, they were excited about it too. So, uh, Billy inspector Morgan, uh, Morrison, and also our code enforcement officer, Mike marker. Um, they're excited to have these types of opportunities to. Provide that level of customer service to our, our, uh, communities.

I just like to say thank you for also being the face of this and being out in the community with the builders. Do you have ideas of other events to show up to to help promote this initiative?

yes unfortunately our rollout was kind of passed a lot of like the spring home shows and things of that nature where I feel like communities coming to look for ideas for remodels and things like that but um we have begun to develop somewhat of a booth we did go to or were invited to cascade lumber at their annual kickoff event unfortunately we were not able to make that event but we did get to go to visit with the builders in town and and kind of present this idea to them. And everywhere so far it's been met with that applause, if you will.

Hopefully that continues. Anyone else? All right, Tim, thank you. Can't wait until you're back here with pre-approved ADU plans for someday.

Thank you.

Have a good evening. Thanks for being here. All right. Item E is an ordinance for a 2026 budget amendment. And our finance director, Doug Valesky, will present this item. Welcome, Doug.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council members. So tonight I'm requesting for council to approve an ordinance to amend the 2026 adopted city budget. The 2026 budget amendment includes the following. First, the Parks and Recreation Fund requires an increase of expenditures in the amount of $672,562. The City entered into an agreement with Northwest Playground Equipment for playground equipment for Hillcrest Park in the amount of $1,172,562. The 2026 budget was approved for only $500,000 because there was a definite Answer on how much could be completed in? 2026 and as you know that projects moving really fast and it'll be completed all this year. So we need to increase those appropriations So the city will transfer six hundred and seventy two thousand five hundred sixty two dollars of 2026 a general fund property tax revenues into the parks and recreational fund to offset the additional expenses. These expenditures agrees with the use of additional property tax that was created from the voter-approved levy lid lift, which was approved in 2025. The following parks capital funds need an increase in 2026 appropriations to carry over budgeted 2025 funds for projects that will not be completed until 2026. These include the parks capital fund projects fund requires an increase in amount of $20,000 for the bonnie ray parks improvements and 12,000 for playground development replacement and upgrades in various city parks the little mountain parks fund requires an increase in the amount of seventy two thousand nine hundred and twenty eight dollars for the completion of the little mountain vault vault toilet and $8,000 for new trail and educational science park impacts fee funds requires an increase in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for bonnie ray park improvements and The fire debt service fund requires an increase in budgeted appropriations in the amount of $105,667 to make the debt service payments for the financing of the new ladder truck. And the fire capital fund will need an increase in appropriations to transfer $105,667 to the fire debt service fund to fund those payments. And lastly, the Affordable Housing Sales and Use Tax Fund, this is our House Bill 1590 money, requires an increase in budgeted expenditures in the amount of $334,441. In 2025, Skagit Community Action was awarded an affordable housing grant from the city in the amount of $500,000. This was a 2025 budgeted expenditure. Their project was not fully completed in 2025. So this amendment is carrying over the remainder into 2026 for current year expenditures. Also tonight included in this ordinance is for the city is requesting the following 2026 salary schedule and position adjustments. Just to be clear that there's no actually no increase in appropriation for any of these changes. And actually there are some budgeting savings, um, in the fire department. Um, Request to eliminate the office specialist position and also eliminate the nurse educational educator position and create an EMS captain admin position. In the police department, we want to retitle the evidence tech to senior evidence tech. There's no change in salary range. The retitle the record specialist to evidence tech and no change in salary range and also a retitle the records manager to records supervisor. Again, no change in salary range. And then the parking enforcement officer moved from protect union to the police non-commissioned. So with that, as these increases in appropriations and position adjustments were not included in the adopted 2026 budget, these budget amendments are necessary to complete and properly record these transactions. All listed funds have available funding for these expenditures. So city staff is requesting council to approve ordinance 3942 to amend the 2026 budget.

Right. Questions for Doug on this item? Yes.

Doug, I just want to make sure you didn't read it just now, but the ordinance mentions the wastewater utility that I believe we're not doing.

That's right. And the ordinance that will be signed has already been adjusted. That wastewater position is not included.

Got it. Okay.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Move to approve.

Second.

Motion by Navarro and a second by Melissa. More discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Item F is a resolution related to petty cash funds and Doug will talk about this one.

Yes, I'm also requesting for council to approve a resolution to dissolve five petty cash funds that the city has. So operational processes are constantly changing and the need for some of the city's petty cash funds are no longer required. Eliminating petty cash funds also is risk adverse since there will be less cash to reconcile and audit So city staff would like to dissolve the following petty cash funds finance $400 public works 200 public works engineering $25 public works solid waste $50 and fire $100 for total of seven hundred and seventy five dollars The cash proceeds from these funds will be deposited into the general fund in the amount of seven hundred and twenty five dollars and fifty dollars into the solid waste utility So city staff is requesting council approve Resolution 1100 to dissolve petty cash funds in the amount of $775. All right.

Questions for Doug or Resolution 1100?

I'll move to approve Resolution 1100. Second.

Motion by Mary and a second by Navor. Any more discussion on this item? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Passes item G is a resolution to establish a new bank account Thank You mayor Yeah, lastly I have requesting for counsel to approve a resolution to create a new bank account for our EMS billing The City has entered into an agreement with Systems Design West as the new provider for EMS billing services. Finance has a responsibility to capture individual transport revenue and reconcile with our monthly bank reconciliation. Systems Design West suggested, and the City agrees, that we open a separate bank account to capture all these individual payments. This will simplify the reconciliations of the electronic deposits. This new account would be at the City's current bank, Columbia Bank. So city staff is requesting council to approve resolution 1101 to create a new bank account with Columbia Bank for the EMS billing purposes. Questions on this one? 1101.

As I stated earlier, as a bookkeeper in my full-time job, I wholly think this is the best thing to do. It makes things so much easier. So I'd like to move to approve resolution 1101. Second.

Should I marry in a second? Any more discussion? Did I get the second right?

You did. Okay.

All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Thank you, Doug. Thank you. For item seven, I will ask our city attorney if there's a need for an executive session tonight.

No.

And with that very brief answer, we will adjourn the City of Mount Vernon City Council meeting for Wednesday, May 27th, 2026.