City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I would like to call the City of Mount Vernon City Council meeting for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 to order. The time is now 7 p.m. Would you stand with me, please, for the Pledge of Allegiance?

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

Clerk, would you 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. We're good. Okay. Agenda requests. Council, any agenda requests you'd like to see on future council agendas? All right. Item 3 is approval of tonight's meeting agenda. I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So moved. Second. Motion by Navor and a second by Melissa. Any discussion there? All right. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Motion passes. And we will jump to community comments. If there's anyone in council chambers tonight who would like to address city council, please come on up to the podium and state your name and your city of residence. And please let us know if three minutes is enough time for you.

Hi, good evening. Thank you. I'm Sam Irons from Mount Vernon. I wanted to highlight the consistently ongoing and ramping up of ICE activity in our town. There are countless stories and traumatic events that have been happening here in Mount Vernon and across Skagit regarding incidents, abductions, and detainments from federal DHS ICE agents. I could talk about each story I have heard about, but I only have a couple minutes to speak, and there is real fear in the community about sharing too much info right now, and it's important to respect confidentiality and needing to protect people's privacy. This is a serious community safety issue and every single one of us has an obligation and duty to stay informed because what is happening, I believe, is a state of emergency. Federal agents are acting unlawfully, breaking windows to get to people, covering their faces, using unidentifiable markings and not identifying themselves, some driving around with no plates, not obtaining judicial warrants. taking people not subject to deportations, taking people going to and from work, taking people from courthouses, and taking people trying to go through proper system channels of holding green cards and visas, and they are violating Keep Washington Working Act. It is breaking my heart to witness this. Our community is grieving. It is shameful to not step up and take a stand. I know a couple of you have voiced support. but for some of you, I have no idea if you understand the gravity of this crisis. I've heard some of you say you are fearful to draw unwanted attention and cause more problems, and I hear you. But people here are scared just to leave their homes, and all they want to do is live, work, and make a good life for their families. Some cities in Washington have taken supportive action and made statements against the unlawful actions of DHS ICE agents, including Everett, Spokane, and Seattle. I will leave you with these questions to think about. What will you tell the younger generations when they ask you how you responded to such atrocities in this time we are living in? What are you going to do to support community safety and lead by example? Thank you.

Thank you, Sandy. Anyone else in the audience tonight wishes to address City Council?

Good evening. Ron Wilson. I live out in the bow area. I'm also on the schedule leaders board. I really appreciate your time and consideration on the discussion coming forward. I understand as property owners, do you have a big thing to look at? If you want to sell property, I think you all understand how good the cleaners for the community. I really appreciate all your support for that. One thing leaders, they've grown tremendously over the last six, seven years. And at some point they need to decide what their next step is gonna be. So they're just asking for an answer one way or another and go forward. I think some of the questions brought forward are really important. Because you are the property owners for the property that they're looking at, and you have to decide for the next, you know, forever. If you need that in the city, and there are big issues coming up with their public works and what they need to do. And I'm sorry, the schedule county fairgrounds from my perspective. We looked in it for housing, but the cost to replace it someplace else in the county, the buildings and so forth, just way out of our sights. So I'm personally not looking to. change the fairground situation there but thank you for your consideration i think you've got a lot of things you need to think out all the different possibilities one way or the other but at some point gleaners needs to have an answer one way or another going forward and i think the due diligence is important so everybody understands what's on the table and make that decision but you're not making just for yourself it's generations in the future they're going to have effect on that the county is growing the city is growing We need to have infrastructure, and so all that is important. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Reeson, thank you for being here tonight. Thanks for your support of the gleaners. Anyone else? Come on up.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Your Honor.

I have a very disturbing topic for you today. I'm just going to interrupt you to ask you to state your name and city of residence, even if I know him.

He's my neighbor. I'm Christopher King, and I reside here in Mount Vernon, as I have pleasantly done so for the past three and a half years. I'm an out-of-state attorney who has worked here on infrastructure relative to wireless infrastructure, and we'll get to that in a second. But In our neighborhood, I have been very happy in general, except for the one time a couple of weeks ago when a carload full of white guys in a pickup truck called me a nigger. So I wasn't too happy about that. But other than that, it's been good here, and I really have felt welcomed in the community. But that point is going to come back around in just a second. And what I want to share with you today involves racism and an investigation of a matter, an out-of-state matter in Texas. It's the Carmelo Anthony murder trial. And I was an assistant state attorney in another life. I was a journalist, daily journalist, and I investigate murder trials. So pursuant to that, I've uncovered a number of things that you'll see in this handout about corruption in Collin County, Texas. It's bad. I was actually a licensed attorney in Collin County. 24 years ago. But, be that as it may, as a result of my investigation and other people investigating this murder, some of my work, actually, I filed a mandamus petition. It's a legal filing that asked the court to open up the court. Some of my work has been featured by the man's appellate team, and it will continue to do so, to be so, because I'm sending them information. All right, and I know that they're using it, and some of us are doing it, but I'm the most proactive voice, especially the one with that alphabet suit behind his name, that certain ESQ, and I'm a target for racists online. They make up blackface images, they will mock us and use our own faces for their websites. And they go in our live feeds and harass us. And when we respond, they have the tyranny of the majority. They will report us to Facebook, get our pages taken down, all of these things. Just the other day, I was talking with a woman. We talked for two days straight. She gave no indication whatsoever that she was going to do this. But then I found out from one of my sources that she's working with someone on the back end who had lied about me and defamed me and said that I was disbarred. Never happened. And so they're working together. to report me to Facebook to get my site taken down. These are crucial issues that we're dealing with, not online even, but just right here in Washington. I have a lawsuit against the Liquor and Cannabis Board for eliminating speech for black and brown because we're trying to get what we're owed under the system. And we're going to trial on that. They lost their motion to dismiss, and we're moving on. So I'm very much a First Amendment proponent. And I will lobby for the KKK to say what they want to say, as long as they're not inciting to riot. That's where I'm at. I'm a First Amendment almost absolutist. So let's turn to what my concerns are right now specifically. Christopher, we're right at three minutes. I know, but I have to do this. I should have said I needed more time because this is very important. So this is the man who's asking me, and people online know what he's about. This is like a 10-second clip.

You're the reason why I'm going to drag every single person around. Fact checkers, racist asses. I got all those racist messages. I know Sarah's not going to help you. I'm coming after you, and I'm going to take your white, racist group down.

Okay. So now I'll run through this quickly. All right. So I have a handout for you. But this man has been writing me incessantly and the city attorney is aware of it. I've written the prosecutor's office several times and he writes me with from anonymous pages. Right. And repeatedly says he's going to have me locked up and thrown in jail. He's even said one of the commissioners is going to get fired for giving me a subpoena. for social media. So just real briefly here, I'll just run through the list. Okay, I've got some handouts showing my previous involvement with Community Matters. You know, I mean, I put up, I like to consider myself, and I told this guy, I'm not a criminal. I have helped the city. You know, my name is on the little mountain extension over there to help law enforcement and communications here. I was lead consultant. I've worked with the police on the graffiti wall next to our house. You know, you live right there, Peter. So first off, he says, cops aren't your friends or the mayor. Fafo King. As if he's talking to you guys and he knows that you're going to turn around and investigate me. Next part, we'll call your job. You think you're slick? KingCast, you're not. P-U-S-S-Y. KingCast is always scared of me and, you know, bragging about the fact that he can scare me. I just tracked KingCast, his location, et cetera, off of TikTok. It's easy to do. Why are you tracking me? Okay, this is harassing, stalking behavior. Arrested. He's got to get me arrested. Here's another one. Can make one call and your whole case goes away and you can go to jail. Because, you know, I sued them civilly. But, you know, let's see how it appeals to get you out in your place. Harassing. You want to get put in jail? Harassing intimidation lawsuit. Just made a call to the Ohio Bar. This is harassment. The commissioner's going to lose her job, too, because of your actions. FAFO, B-I-T-C-H. You know... want to get effing put in jail on charges of harassment, etc. I mean, come on. So I go... Listen, I understand that you don't have to... I know the statute. And the statute carries over state lines. I know. Yeah, that's fine, Your Honor. The statute carries over state lines. And I'm getting no response back from the prosecutor's office about this. You know... I don't deserve this. I'm 61 years old. I don't have to live like this. And I need an answer. And I think he would feel the same way. And that's really what I have to say right now. And I just, I can't believe that there's no rationale for this. Because first, the wrestling officer says, well, it depends on where he lives. It doesn't. The statute crosses state lines. And the repeated anonymous, he's got like 10 different handles he harasses me through. And that's That's a clear-cut criminal violation. It needs to be addressed by law enforcement. I'm an excellent law enforcement attorney. I know this.

Did you say you had something you could leave the clerk for us? Perfect. Okay. Thank you. You'll get a response.

Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to address City Council tonight? Come on up. Last chance. I think there are a lot of people here waiting to address City Council for another item on the agenda. So thanks for your patience. We will move on. We're going to move on to the consent agenda. Tonight's consent agenda includes meeting minutes, payroll claims, agreements, street closure. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved.

Second.

Motion by Navor and second by Demme. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Passes and we will go on to councilmember comments councilmember comments tonight Councilmember West I'll start.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor and I'll kind of warn everyone I did get the flu and kovat vaccine this week. So they they noted that I might Begin to act normal for a short amount of time. So, okay one thing I wanted to focus on during my councilman comments today is I Navor and I and Demi are at large are having our board one meeting this Monday at Cats 2.0. That's the Cats restaurant. So, yes, you can bring your children. We are going to be providing refreshments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that. And it'll be two hours. It'll be six to eight. The first half will basically be discussion by Jennifer and our police chief. I don't know if he's here. I can't see you around the TV. But regarding e-bikes, and I've snuck into one of these with one of the other city council meetings. Actually, two of these.

Three?

Okay. Oh, yeah. So I snuck into a couple of these. And one thing I will say about the e-bike presentation is – Jennifer and the chief, they have both refined the meeting based on the previous week's comments. So that's pretty impressive that they can do that turnaround so quickly. And e-bikes is going to be a big issue, I think, for this council. For me, I went to two because it helps me remember the rules the more times I hear it. So I appreciate the others for letting me attend. Anyway, join us at CATS. We'll buy you refreshments. And we want to hear from you in terms of what's your focus, what should your council members be thinking of. And, yeah, let us know what's on your mind.

Okay. Thank you. Any other council member comments? All right. We'll move on to mayor's report. I don't have a slide for you, but I do have an announcement for mayor's coffee. So the next mayor's coffee, we're going to do this one on a Saturday. We try to do a couple Saturdays a year for folks who can't make it during the week. This one is Saturday, September 19th. It is at 10 a.m. And it is right here at the mount Vernon police court campus so if you don't know where that is you're watching at home, it is 1805 continental place. And we'll be in the multi purpose room of the police court campus that's Saturday September 19 at 10am. All right, we will move on to new business for item a we're going to have some presentations for the city's affordable housing grant and our special projects manager. Adam Pearson is here to introduce this item. Hello, Adam.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor. Tonight, we have eight applicant presentations for 1590 grant funding. As we discussed in your July Committee of the Whole meeting, House Bill 1590 provides a 0.1% sales and use tax to fund affordable housing, homeless services, and mental and behavioral health programs to at-risk populations at 60% or below AMI. It's one of the few funding mechanisms that we have for funding organizations who need this and provide these services. And this year we have about a million dollars available through this program. So tonight, each applicant will give about a five-minute presentation summarizing their funding request, followed by five minutes of Q&A with you if they need that much time, if you have questions. And no decisions will be made this evening. You'll have the opportunity to deliberate during next week's Development Services Committee meeting. And then if you're ready to make decisions, you could do that at the following council meeting on September the 23rd. So the order tonight was determined randomly. I took some sticky notes, wrote down organizations' names, put them in a hat, and pulled them out. So here we go. The first up this evening is Catholic Community Services, and I'd like to welcome Ariel Wright.

Let's see if I can get you started.

Hi everyone. My name is Ariel and I'm the Director of Housing at Martha's Place with Catholic Community Services. We're located here in Mount Vernon. Martha's Place is a 70-unit permanent supportive housing community serving adults experiencing chronic homelessness and living with documented disabilities. Tonight we'd like to share our outcomes, the impact we've achieved over the last three years, and how House Bill 1590 funding will help sustain these critical services in the face of rising costs and increasing resident needs. By design, Martha's Place serves some of Skagit's most vulnerable residents. Individuals enter the program through coordinated entry, and they typically have a long history of homelessness, significant health challenges, behavioral health conditions, disabilities, and extremely limited financial resources. Today, we have 72 people housed with an average age of 55. Nearly half of our population is over age 60 right now. As our residents age in place, we're seeing increasing complexity in our cases. Many residents require additional health care coordination, behavioral health support, and assistance maintaining housing stability. Permanent supportive housing provides the stability needed for residents to improve health outcomes, increase community connection, and avoid returning to homelessness. Housing itself is only part of the solution. What makes permanent supportive housing successful are the services that help residents remain housed. Martha's Place provides many supports listed on your screen here. Residents also receive individualized trauma-informed case management that connects them with the appropriate resources they need. While partnerships help expand access to services, demand continues to outpace our available resources. Additional funding would allow us to strengthen staffing capacity and expand behavioral health supports, helping stabilize residents earlier and reducing the likelihood of behavioral health crises requiring emergency interventions. These services directly contribute to the outcomes you'll see on the next slide here. When evaluating investments and homeless response, the most important question is whether the investment produces measurable results. Over the past three years, you'll see Martha's Place has served 121 residents, achieved 61 documented positive housing outcomes, and successfully housed 35 households since we've opened. These outcomes reflect real progress for individuals who entered the program. Success is maintaining housing stability, engaging in treatment, improving health, and avoiding a return to homelessness. The impact extends beyond our residents living at Martha's Place. When individuals remain stably housed, they're less likely to rely on emergency departments, crisis response services, law enforcement, shelters, and other high-cost public systems. In other words, Martha's Place helped shift resources from crisis management to long-term stability. These outcomes shown here demonstrate that Martha's Place is delivering results. The program is improving lives, strengthening community stability, and supporting county goals to reduce chronic homelessness while lessening demand on already strained public systems. The opportunity before us is not to create something new. It's to strengthen and sustain a proven solution that is already producing meaningful outcomes for residents and measurable value for the community. But these outcomes aren't achieved by housing alone. They're made possible by skilled staff, intensive case management, behavioral health coordination, and around-the-clock supports. The question isn't whether this model works. The results clearly show us that it does. The question is whether we can continue to provide the level of support necessary to maintain these outcomes and prevent our residents from returning to homelessness. That's why this bill is so important. HB 1590 funding would help preserve a proven investment in housing stability for some of Skagit's most vulnerable residents. While Martha's Place has achieved strong outcomes, we are facing growing operational pressures, including rising staff cost, insurance, maintenance, and increasing behavioral health needs amongst our residents. Without additional supports, staffing reductions may become necessary. which would directly impact our ability to provide crisis intervention, housing stabilization, and intensive case management services. This funding would allow us to maintain critical staffing levels, strengthen behavioral health support, and continue delivering the services that keep residents housed and reduce reliance on high-cost public resources. Simply put, this request is about protecting a successful program, preserving community impact, and ensuring that people already housed at Martha's Place continue to receive the supports they need to remain stable. Investing in Martha's Place isn't just an investment in housing. It's an investment in public health, public safety, fiscal responsibility, and long-term community stability. Thank you.

Thank you. Council, do you have questions for or about the Catholic Community Services Martha's Place application? Council Member Hudson.

Yes, thank you so much. Would you mind going back to the pie chart? Can you tell me, I just want to make sure my understanding. Yeah. The 61 positive housing outcomes, does that mean... What does that mean? Where do they go? Yes. Thank you.

That's either folks who have passed away house. That is a successful housing outcome for us. We ideally you stay with us until you pass or we move you on to a higher level of care even. So that's a lot of those or they've moved to a higher level of care. They've passed away. Um, the housing transitions are are separate and we separated them on here. So I would include those in a successful tendency as well. Someone who could move on from us too. But mostly those are folks who have either passed away successfully housed. They remain with us housed right now, or they've they've moved on to other opportunities for themselves.

Do you have people there that would have been there since the beginning?

Absolutely. We have 35 successfully housed right now. So from day one, we have 35 people who have been housed three years with us and seemingly will continue on.

And so this this ask is specifically service driven, not any capital. Correct. Am I correct? It is service driven. OK, I just want to make sure I had that on my right columns on my paper. Thank you so much. Thanks. Any other questions? All right.

Thanks for your time. Thanks for your presentation today.

All right. Next up, we will welcome Skagit YMCA. I believe we have Marie Carlson, Kelly Sullivan, Danielle Vincent, and Juan Rocha.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Marie Carlson, I'm the Interim Executive Director of our Social Impact Programs. We have five that are serving youth in Skagit County, two that I want to speak with you tonight about are the Oasis Teen Shelter and our Host Homes Program. We've spoken with you about these programs before. The city of Mount Vernon has been one of our strongest partners for the past two years. With the city's support, we were able to rebuild the Oasis Teen Shelter from nine beds to 14 beds and launch our host homes pilot program, serving youth in a community-based housing setting. We've created more options for young people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Oasis provides an emergency overnight shelter, while Host Homes adds a community-based transitional housing option for youth ages 13 to 17. Currently, we are the only housing option for unaccompanied youth from Bellingham to Monroe. So today we're asking the city to help us take the next step and make these investments work even more effectively for young people. A 1590 award would support our Oasis and Host Homes care coordinator and allow us to expand our operating hours. This investment, in addition to covering critical after school and evening hours, would increase available beds. In the short time since we have opened after the rebuild, Oasis has served 21 youth from anywhere between one night and the full 90-day allowed time frame. Most transition to stable placements like family reunification or temporary housing. We anticipate these numbers increasing with the start of the school year and the limited resources within our school system. and reliance on what we have to offer and our host homes availability. While our programs have grown, the needs we are seeing have also changed. One of the trends that we are seeing is unfortunately we are seeing more and more younger youth, including youth as young as age 13. Many are coming to us with significant trauma, family conflict, mental health challenges, behavioral health crises, and housing instability. We're also seeing substance use concerns and a higher level of involvement with CPS. The reality is that these young people need more than a safe place to sleep. They need supervision, trusted adults, individualized support, and connections to resources. The funding that we are requesting would allow us to use the capacity we already have in a much more effective way. Right now, Oasis is open from 8 p.m. until 8.30 a.m., but with additional funding, we could be open at 3 p.m., adding five hours of staff coverage every day, giving young people a safe place to go after school and creating opportunities for meals, homework support, peer connection, and supportive services. It also allows us to serve more youth throughout the year. This was really about getting more impact from the infrastructure that has already been built. We also want to be clear that city funding is just one part of a larger sustainability strategy for these programs. Our youth deserve stability. We are actively expanding our philanthropy efforts and pursuing additional private County and community funding which includes funding for program operations as well as direct means for you such as rental assistance groceries hygiene supplies and phones. Our goal is to diversify our funding so that the services are not dependent on any one source the city's investment helps us meet the need now while we continue to build the long-term funding base to sustain these programs into the future. An investment in youth is an investment in Mount Vernon. The city has already helped us make this progress possible because of our partnership. Oasis has more beds, host homes is staffed, and operational and young people have more pathways to safe housing and stability. We have strengthened the community's response to youth homelessness. Now we have an opportunity to build on that foundation. We are asking for support to expand Oasis hours and sustain the care coordinator position to be able to meet the complex needs of youth in our community and serve as a bridge between our housing programs and community resources. With continued partnership from the city, we can make the investments we've already made in Oasis and the host homes program go further and help more young people find safety, connection, and a path forward. I want to introduce you to Juan Rocha, who is our host homes program manager. Has been in this role since February. And to Danielle Vincent, who is our director of youth housing. And they are available for any questions you might have. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions about the YMCA OASIS application or presentation? All right. Thank you. Thanks for being here tonight. Thanks for presenting.

All right, and next we will welcome New Earth Recovery, and Alan Muya is here to present this topic.

Good evening. It is great to be with you again. I feel like I'm a frequent flyer. Thanks to you all. There have been numerous opportunities to come and to talk to you about what we do at New Earth Recovery. For those of you who don't know and for anyone watching from home. We operate eight recovery homes here in the Skagit Valley and have been at this for the last 15 years, helping people who are doing the hard work of recovery from substance addiction. And so we strongly believe and we have evidence every day that shows us that what happens in those homes is profoundly important to folks who are doing the hard work of recovery. Without that, that kind of foundational place where people can live and experience safety and community and connection to the larger community. Without that, their chances of actually making it in recovery are significantly decreased. And so we see evidence all the time of people who used to take from the system in all kinds of ways who are now uh contributing to the system and so and paying taxes and doing the responsible thing and reconnecting with families and all of that so uh anyway that's more than i had intended to say but i get kind of preachy um so we're we're deeply committed to partnership in fact as i look at the list of folks who you're hearing from tonight we partnered in one way or another with most of these uh agencies and so uh and we have partnered with you you've partnered with us And so, for that, we're really thankful, um, uh, last, uh, for the last couple years, you have contributed to the construction of alder house, which we opened, uh, last December. And, uh, now we have 8 residents living there who have been there for the last 8 months and are experiencing a lot of success in their story, uh, largely because of you and others who have contributed to that to that effort. Uh, but this project, I want to talk about, um, this evening. is, let's see here if I can do this, there we go, is called, let's see if I can do this, oh, okay, oh great, thanks. Let me go back. Yeah, I think so. I want to go to the first one. Second one, actually. Oh, there we go. Those are the ones. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. So this house is, we call this Juniper House. Juniper House is 4,300 square feet, five bedrooms and five bathrooms, which is, you know, that's a big single family house. We occupied that in 2024. One of our board members actually knew the folks who built this house and tells us that they had three daughters. And that was kind of part of the origin story of this huge house with all the bathrooms. We now house up to eight women in that house. And consequently, it's just been a perfect home for what we do. And those women are all working together. toward their work, they're in school or they're working through their jobs or whatever to kind of rebuild their lives. And so this home for us has been a real, just an amazing place. So much so that we are committed to purchasing the house this year. What that does for us is allows us to save on rent. We've been renting We're actually partial owners of the house, but we want to buy out our landlords so that we're full owners because we're so convinced that it's the right house for us. And so this project will allow us to do that. It'll ultimately save us money. Uh, something like 28,000 dollars a year in rent. Uh, so over 10 years, that's, uh, 280,000 dollars that we that we can spend towards program and not have to spend towards rent. So, so, uh, purchasing is kind of part of our strategy to be to be sustainable for the long term. We intend to stay in the community forever. And consequently, purchasing is a part of that. So you can see the budget here. We have already secured $300,000 from the Murdoch Charitable Trust toward this purchase. We intend to apply for funding from the Department of Commerce. There's money that we advocated for in the last legislative session that's for capital funding for recovery residences like ours. And so we intend to apply for $100,000 there. We think we have a pretty good chance at that. And then we're coming to you requesting $130,000 both for the purchase of the home and to replace a roof, which is in serious need of replacement. So that is our request. And again, the goal is to be sustainable so that we can spend those rent funds on programming and staffing, which is just essential to the success of our residents. That's our project. I'm glad to answer any questions you might have.

Questions for Alan? All right. Alan, thank you for applying, and thanks for being here tonight. You're welcome. Thanks, Alan. Thanks, Alan.

All right, our next presentation tonight is from Salem Lutheran, and Greg Krimker is here to present this one. Sorry, Greg, I'll...

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Greg Gronacher. I'm with Salem Western Church, and I have Sarah Volt here from Luckman's Gadget to answer any questions should you have any.

Next slide.

Our proposed grand is roughly 13% of our annual budget of 384,000 dollars in the grant. We'll go directly to supporting the welcome home schedule. Uh, program, and that'd be specifically utilities, maintenance, custodial and daily operating supplies. It also helped reduce any unexpected costs we have during the year supporting the program and the building itself that SARA uses. And that specifics would be like we just recently replaced the fire sprinkler valves and then we're also replacing a fire panel that's failed and that's cost for up around $35,000. Purpose of our day center is support the people in the community with the greatest needs. Most of the persons that attend the facility are at the lowest AMI levels, and many, or I would say the largest part, have no income at all. We also assist a stable starting point for people transitioning to housing and other programs within the community. We also support the Mount Vernon Police Department. and the outreach teams with a low barrier option for them to bring persons right from the camps or off the street, service program can assess them and give them critical resources to positively impact their future. Also, the new construction that we completed this last year was 1,400 square feet of new spaces. It put in a laundry facility, showers, men's and women's bathrooms, and then office and counseling rooms, and that's really allowed Sarah to overall grow her program from what it was. It was two classrooms and outdoor restrooms to start, and now it's about almost 4,000 square feet of space for her to operate. just a real uh brief update on our financial status uh the the project itself last year uh the new construction and the renovations uh was funded about a third by grants so thank you for the city for those grants and then we through salem were able to use our investment fund and our capital campaign and we completely funded the entire project and we have no debt at all right now so that's a good news for supporting the welcome home schedule program in the future Uh, support the program we've signed a contract with Sarah for 3 years of support and we plan to extend it at that period. When they're finished. The shelter is 6 to 7 days a week, 9 to 5. We also support the overnight safe parking program that's for people living in their vehicles and they rotate through our property and use our resources also. Our new spaces also have additional space for medical personnel, counseling and vocational support through Sarah's programs where the homeless can get needed resources. Also, we signed a contract with the city last year for 10 years of support. Homeless or low income type services and right now our financial status looks really good with the project paid off and we see that that's not a problem going forward in the future. The day shelter usage, I just want to give you a couple numbers off that list. Roughly 600 individuals attended the shelter this last year for 11,000 visits. Sarah's program made 27,000 meals for the day and the night shelter combined, and all those majority were made through our commercial kitchen at the church. There was 1,100 care coordination services, and that was resource navigation, peer support, and advocacy. 462 DSHS assistance services, and that would have been like for food stamps, finding benefits, age blind and disabled services. And then just to jump down to the bottom, it may seem insignificant to some, but over 1,200 showers, 521 loads of laundry, that made a huge difference for the homeless that come in right off the streets or the camps, and they can basically get cleaned up and feel good about themselves. next slide as far as benefiting the community allows city of mount vernon at a relatively low cost to support the homeless outreach program and provide services for those in need supports the county-based needed services addressing adult daily safe housing and it also aligns with city state federal and hud and north star goals as far as supporting those with the lowest income levels and then also At the very basic level, sanitary conditions for the homeless are really, in my opinion, that's the key to the program at the very lowest levels. It really helps those persons. And we also support the Family Promise Program. They rotate through our building every quarter, and that's for children also. The day shelter is 18 and above, but Sarah does, when we do have youth that come in through her program, she gets them to the correct resources. Next slide. Any questions? And if you're ever interested in taking a tour, feel free to stop by anytime, 9 to 5, by yourself, or give us a call, and we'll coordinate a guided tour.

All right. Thank you. Questions for Greg or Sarah? Especially Sarah. She loves to talk in public. Any questions? All right. Thank you all for what you're doing. Thanks for applying as well. Thank you.

Right next up, we will have children of the valley and Jessica Rodriguez is here for this one.

Just continue. Adam, do you want to upgrade?

Sure, why not? I'm standing by.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Jessica Rodriguez, and I'm the Development Associate from Children in the Valley. And this is Jennifer Pitner from Collective Impact. Thank you again for having us here tonight. Children of the Valley is entering our 20th year of operations, and for the past 20 years, we've been committed to helping children and families in our community. COV, the free referral-based after-school program that began in partnership with the Mount Vernon School District to serve students who are experiencing the greatest need. Our students are referred to us by school staff because they're facing barriers that can make it difficult to be successful in school. All of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch and many experience challenges such as academic difficulties, attendance concerns, housing instabilities, and other barriers outside the classroom. We know that a child cannot always focus on learning when they're worried about where they sleep, whether there'll be food when they get home, or whether their family will be able to pay the next utility bill. That is why COV takes a whole-child, whole-family approach. We don't just focus on what happens after school. We work to address the barriers that can prevent a child from being successful in the first place. COV currently... Sorry. DOV currently has two sites in Mount Vernon. We have a site located at Bethany Covenant Church and has five classrooms and a site at Washington Elementary that has two classrooms. So we serve approximately 116 students and 92 families within those two sites. We also have our middle school bike club. We also have our Middle School Bike Club, which provides an opportunity for middle school students in Mount Vernon to build confidence, learn important life skills, and stay active. Each year, we serve approximately 15 to 30 Mount Vernon Middle School students through our Bike Club, and students participate in a seven-week cohort where they learn bicycle safety, the rules of the road, bike maintenance, and safe riding skills. At the end of the program, students have the opportunity to earn their own bike, giving them a reliable way to stay active, explore the community, and practice the skills they've learned. The bike club is more than just learning how to ride a bike. It gives students the opportunity to build responsibility, independence, confidence, and healthy habits while connecting with positive mentors and peers. So Children of the Valley is centered around the five cornerstones of care, which guides everything that we do. Academic assistance, enrichment activities, social-emotional learning, mentorship, and family support. Our goal is to provide wraparound support that removes barriers and gives children the opportunity to be successful in school. The need for this support has grown tremendously since COVID. Today, we're seeing families face multiple barriers including housing instability, food insecurity, utility assistance, clothing needs, and other basic necessities. Many of our students are identified as McKinney-Vento, meaning they're experiencing housing instability. When a child is worried about where they will sleep that night, whether there will be food at home, or how their family will meet their basic needs, it becomes much harder for them to focus on school and to be successful. This is why family support is such an important part of our work. Our team works directly with families to help connect them with available resources, including food assistance, housing resources, utility support, clothing, and other community services. In the Mount Vernon community, we serve a large population of families who experience these significant barriers. Approximately 89% of the families are Latinx and 57% are migrant families within the Mount Vernon School District. Many families face language, transportation, financial, and resource access barriers. At Children of the Valley, we believe that supporting a child means supporting the whole child and the whole family. When we help a family find stable housing, connect them with food resources, provide a safe place for their child after school, or give a student the academic and emotional support they need, we're helping remove the barriers that stand between the child and their education. So here we are tonight to ask for your continued support through the 1590 funding. Last year, this funding made a transformational impact for our families. We were able to support 46 families with critical basic needs. Because of the funding, families were able to receive rental and mortgage assistance, helping some families remain safely in their home rather than being on the streets. We were also able to respond to food insecurities, helping make sure children and their families had food to eat. In addition, we provided utility assistance to help families keep essential services such as electricity and heat during cold months and water connected. When a child has a safe place to sleep, food to eat, and basic utilities at home, they are better able to come to school ready to participate and succeed. We are so grateful for the City of Mount Vernon's continued partnership, and we're asking for you to continue to support the children of the Valley and the families we serve. Thank you.

All right. Any questions, Council? Clarification? Yes.

I'd just like to remind people that you are celebrating, what, 20 years? 20 years, yes. The 27th on Sunday?

Yeah, Sunday the 27th at Bethany.

Let people know that they can come support you that way.

Yes, absolutely. We'd love for you to join us.

Congratulations. Thank you for applying. Thanks for presenting tonight.

Thank you.

All right, next up is Family Promise with Audrey Wall and Amber Lang.

Good evening. I'm Andrea Wall, the CEO of Family Promise of North Sound, and this is Amber Lang. We're very blessed to have a dedicated development director for Skagit. So thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with you a little bit about what we're doing this year. Family Promise is a holistic approach to serving families. We don't operate our programs on one moment of crisis, we really have built a continuum of care to support families through their journey back to stability. Our housing programs have changed a lot, and I know I have two projects and five minutes, so I put all those changes on the slide. Our goal really is to intentionally build a continuum that really helps prevent families before they become homeless to reduce the demand on our system. And then if they do become homeless, really support them to have a safe place to be and live and build back to independence. In 2025, with the support of 1590 funding and other local funding, we were able to serve 211 families with an 80% success rate out of all of our housing programs and a 96% success rate out of our homeless prevention programs. Next slide. Our first request tonight is for $75,000 towards our service programming. 40,000 of that would go to our housing continuum in general, and then 35,000 to homeless prevention. One of the most imminent uses of that funding would be for seasonal shelter, which is a life-saving service during the winter months. Due to our capital campaign and funding costs, we have done a little bit of shifting on how we would do that. Previously, we would serve seven families at a time in our fellowship hall at the day center. For at least this year, we're going to shift that into a hotel, which I'm not a big fan of long-time stents in hotels. I think that that cuts off people from community. However, because of the growth in all of our housing programs, we believe we can serve them within a week or two in those hotels, bring them quickly into shelter. And as we're growing more housing, which you'll hear about soon, over the winter months, we will then have options for people to move up quicker. So we believe that we will be able to serve an additional eight to 10 families with this funding. We run continuously for the full 16 weeks. So that would give us an additional family all through the season or additional room all through the season to house those families. Then the $35,000 will go towards homeless prevention. This is a $10,000 increase from last year's ask. Our goal this year is to serve 110 families. And to get them stabilized, we do this through landlord mediation, problem solving, lots of different work one-on-one. A lot of funding cuts across our full housing continuum and homeless prevention. Transitional housing was very well funded this year, so we're a lot less concerned about that. And we're building a model that will sustain us. So really, overall, this is a 10% ask of our overall homeless prevention and housing budget. And that will, in total... Across all programs in Family Promise, our goal is to serve 560 Skagit County residents, 225 families. So this is not only life-saving funds, but this is life-changing funds. So project number two. So for our second ask, many of you know we're building a 14 cottage housing initiative right now. We're very excited to have our ribbon cutting on April 24th. Thanks to your $75,000, we are done with site work. We have no debt on our site work or the first two cottages that are now on the ground and just got occupancy on Friday. So I'm working on the lease agreement and hope to have families in there maybe by next week, fingers crossed. Our ask is for $249,000. This will actually fund an entire unit from start to finish, get it on the ground, get it delivered, skirting, permitting, all the nine yards. Why we want transitional housing as part of our continuum and why we are going for the zero debt model is because this will sustain us from having to continue to come to you and ask you for government funding when the transitional house funding runs out. We all know that funding shifts back and forth. And transitional housing is a very huge part of our continuum in the housing crisis that we are in. This housing allows families to have that extended amount of time Will they get on their feet? Will they get maybe another career under belt so that they can make living wages to afford the very expensive housing we have? And it really, the goal is to keep that 80% AMI, our 80% success rate as our housing market shifts and have more housing options. So, yeah. That project was initially, when I put that, so the actual total cost for that project is $4 million, a little over $4 million. And we've already secured half of that. And most of that went into the dirt, unfortunately. But fortunately, it's done. So now moving forward, all funding goes to cottages. If you fund us today, we could have a cottage on the ground within 90 days and occupiable within 30 days after that. Okay. both projects are North Star aligned and I will leave it to Amber to answer questions or add anything I might have forgotten.

I just want to add two things. One is that we have entered into partnership with Skagit Home Trust and are moving into partnership with Skagit Habitat to start working with our families in this transitional housing in these cottages to help prepare them for home ownership as their next step. So we'll identify families Early on that may be a good candidates for that, get them working with those programs and as they're living in these cottages, preparing them to move into home ownership next. So that is a really important piece of what we're doing here with this. And, like, Audrey said, we have to hopefully we'll have families in them right away and we're looking to have another 2 in the ground with families living in them before the end of this year.

Okay. Ready for questions?

Yes.

All right. Any questions from Council?

I've driven by the site in Cedar Woolley because I am promising that I will come to one of those meetings because it never works, but I promise you I'm very interested in the cottage housing. So I'm very impressed with what you've done so far. I think it's really a great model.

pretty exciting you can come anytime shoot us an email yeah and i've known you for since i've been on council so you know you you're you're solid you've been there for a long time and done a lot so thank you yeah and the city of mount vernon has been an exceptional partner and we're really really thankful for um how this council and how the mayor have supported us

Folks watching home might wonder what's the connection between city of Mount Vernon funding, pass through funding and a project that's being built in Cedar Willie in this case. And the answer is, you kind of mentioned it before he alluded to North Star. The answer is that this city council and the previous city council were forward thinking enough to recognize that. The families that we're helping, uh, our schedule. Families not not Vernon families, not Cedar Willie families. They're, um. They're Skagit families. So I just want to thank this council for what you've done to support Skagit families here.

And a large percentage of what we serve over there in Cedarville are actually Mount Vernon residents. Some of this funding will go to, we have a shared living transitional house here in Mount Vernon. So if families go through and they identify as being better fits to come to Mount Vernon, then they will move to Mount Vernon. But we know that there's just not enough housing. So a percentage of them will still stay in Cedarville until we can find them permanent housing.

I'm just glad you're working on it. We'll work on the housing part.

That's the whole point of this project, right? We can't develop all the housing, but we can offer a new model that people can look at under some different kind of RCW coding. I'd love to have more conversation at a later time about that. But some fun things that can be added to the housing market.

And it's a beautiful opportunity for legacy for the City of Mount Vernon and the City Council. This funding for the cottages, we could name one of the cottages after... the city of Mount Vernon. So just really great legacy for you all.

Thank you both for applying for being here tonight.

Thank you. All right.

And next up, we're going to welcome Sarah Vogt back to present or welcome home Skagit. Sarah, I'm great.

Yes. Okay. So, um, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present here tonight. Welcome home is asking for continued 1590 support for our vocational program, which includes the vocational space as 1 connected program. We are requesting $90,000 per year for two years for a total investment of $180,000. Sorry, I just put these back on. At the heart of this request is something pretty simple, help people move forward. For some experiencing homelessness, getting a job is incredibly important, but a job alone doesn't always create stability. People also need support, accountability, practical skills, and sometimes a safe place to land while they work towards permanent housing. That's what this program is designed to provide, a place where people can build on their strengths, work through barriers, and begin to believe that stability is possible again. The goal is permanent housing and self-sufficiency. The people we serve are adults experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, including those who meet the 1590 eligibility requirements. What we've learned is that most people need more than a job referral. Excuse me. There are often barriers that need to be worked through first. Building confidence and workplace skills, budgeting, transportation, education, or navigating. Sometimes they simply need someone who keeps on showing up and asking, what's the next step and how do we get there? That's why our vocational curriculum and care coordination work together. to help people build practical skills while also working towards employment, stability, and housing. This is really one pathway with two connected pieces. The vocational program starts with the person, where they are, where they want to go, and what may be standing in the way. From there, we provide support with goal setting, housing navigation, vocational education, job readiness, employment, transportation, and continued mentorship. Because getting a job is important, but keeping that job, building income, and gaining confidence are important too. All of those steps help move people closer to permanent housing. For eligible and employed participants, the vocational space provides that next step. Five pallet units hosted through our partnership with First United Methodist Church provide a structured environment built around sobriety, safety, accountability, and self-governance. Participants contribute 30% of their income, with a portion going towards utilities and the rest set aside as savings for permanent housing. That is an important part of this model. The vocational space is a bridge, not a destination. And while we know that this work takes time, we're already seeing people move forward. These are not just numbers. They represent people with their own stories, challenges, and hopes for what comes next. With prior 1590 support, we served 47 participants through the vocational program during the 2025-2026 year. Of those, 18 are housed, 15 were sheltered, 13 became employed, four were enrolled in higher education, and seven were still actively participating at the time of reporting. Two participants also moved into vocational space. Among participants, nearly half became housed or employed, 23 total participants. We know progress doesn't always follow a straight line. And sometimes a step that looks small from the outside is actually a really big step for the person taking it. These outcomes show people beginning to build something different for themselves. And we do not accomplish this work alone. The city's investment is part of a larger community effort involving our partners, our staff, and most importantly, our participants. Our job is to help create the opportunity and structure around them so that when someone is ready to take that next step, there's somewhere for that step to go. We are grateful for the city's partnership, and we take seriously the responsibility that comes with that investment. Over the next two years, our goal is to continue building this as one connected, accountable program. In year one, we will continue care coordination, employment support, vocational education, and operating the vocational space program while strengthening the curriculum. In year two, we will build on what we've learned from participant experiences and outcomes. through the full-based participation, education milestones, and follow-up after participants leave. Because compassion and accountability should go together, we want to care deeply about the people we serve while also showing that the resources entrusted to us are making a meaningful difference. So I will close where I started. We are asking for one integrated two-year investment of $180,000 or $90,000 per year to help people build skills, earn income, find stability, and continue moving toward permanent housing and self-sufficiency. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Sarah. Questions on this one? Anything? Yes.

I just want to say I've always been so impressed talking with you, Sarah, about Welcome Home Skagit and how much you really highlight that self-sufficiency of the program, and I've just been impressed.

Thank you.

Yeah, Council Member Beaton.

I just want to add, Sarah, you do fabulous work. I know that public speaking has been a challenge for you, but I have to tell you, every time you're getting more and more confident, you did a fantastic job.

It's so dry.

Thank you.

Thanks for all you do.

Thanks for your presentation.

All right last but not least tonight we have community action of Skagit County. I believe we have page combs Yasmeen Flores and Dolce Vasquez to present. Again it started me on my last night.

Good evening. I'm Paige Combs, our Housing and Outreach Program Manager with Community Action of Skagit County. And today I have Jasmine Flores, our Division Director overseeing our Care Coordination Program. Thank you guys for the opportunity to apply for 1590. I'm very excited to apply. So Community Action has served as an established community partner since 1979. Our central belief is that rental assistance is most effective when it is paired with case management services, resource navigation, and stability planning. which participants are currently receiving. This request would connect those two pieces so households can address an immediate crisis while building a path toward longer-term stability. This proposal addresses a practical gap in the current service model that we currently have. Some of our current funding supports staff time, but not ongoing rental assistance. Other sources do not cover deposits, added fees, or sustained help for families with school-age children. The 1590 funding would create an integrated response, direct rental assistance for immediate financial barriers, ongoing case management through individualized housing stability plans, and a trauma-informed approach that supports trust, choice, and engagement. Together these elements can prevent housing loss, support positive exits, and preserve affordability. Community Action currently holds several rental assistance contracts, but most do not include operational funding needed to deliver those services effectively. Of Community Action's seven rental assistance projects, only three include operational dollars within their contracts. Our foundational community supports contract is based on units served fee for service, which does not fully cover staffing wages or the broader operational costs required to sustain case management. Through 1590 funding, community action would prioritize participants experiencing behavioral health challenges, physical disabilities, domestic violence, justice system involvement, and families with children. Many participants currently receiving case management do not have access to ongoing direct rental assistance support, leaving them with with supportive services. But excuse me, no dedicated resources to address the costs of housing, no dedicated resources to address the costs of housing. We can put these resources to work pretty quickly because the project builds on relationships already in place today, a 111 households receive case management support through foundational community supports alone with 7 families residing at our family development center in Mount Vernon 49 of those participants are currently unhoused and 55% participants are currently housed. The Family Development Center can also serve 10 families with children at one time. Rental support would extend the value of this exiting care by helping households engage and maintain into housing. Care specialists or case managers are the link between financial assistance and lasting housing stability. They meet participants in homes, in shelters, and in community settings to understand their needs, support lease compliance when they are housed, support the landlord engagement pieces. Each participant helps shape a trauma-informed, strengths-based housing stability plan with clear goals. Staff work through tenancy barriers such as maintenance requests, lease requirements, rent changes, and access to resources. We have a fairly large request tonight, and I understand that this is, you know, we're shooting for the stars here, but we do cover a lot of programs, so this funding would help sustain a lot of our programs that we have available at Community Action. We're asking for $240,000 in operational costs for staffing dollars and $160,000 for rental assistance specifically. This funding would help cover an average of four families into housing at about $2,800 per month. We did estimate about $25,000 for move-in reserves to help with those associated costs. that are oftentimes really challenging for families to get. One goal that we do have with our households is to help them understand and engage in employment or further education in hopes that they can one day sustain their lease or the cost associated. Community Action has built relationships with existing landlords, has case management capacity, and has a housing stability planning process. The missing piece is flexible rental assistance and staffing dollars. Funding that gap would help prevent housing loss, support positive exits into housing, and advance self-sufficiency.

All right. Questions on this presentation? Yeah, Council Member Hudson.

Thank you for your presentation. I do have a question since you did mention that this is a fairly large ask. If we were able to partially fund it, do you have plans to try to find the rest of it or do you have another funding strategy for the balance?

We do. I think that we could certainly... I mean, the ask was fairly... You know, we were shooting for the stars there. So we do have... We have wiggle room in our ask, definitely.

So the ask overlaps over several programs. So our family shelter, our Mount Vernon Resource Center, and our housing department, which is outreach and recovery. So we kind of took a look at our needs, and we decided to have a big ask. These programs already exist, but we do have... like Paige mentioned, about 111 households that are receiving case management, and that's the extent of their service. So this would really help put those people in hotels or housing or have them access resources that they really need. So those are the households we were thinking about, the households that don't qualify for any particular service, and we were just trying to cast a net. Sure. Thank you. Any questions?

All right. Thank you. Thanks for applying. Thanks for presenting today. Thank you. So, Adam, the next steps are city council discusses. Yes.

Yeah, I would love to thank everyone of the applicants for presenting this evening, especially the part that they read in my email, which was. Please keep it to five minutes. That was incredible. I must come across very intimidating over email. I don't remember the threats or anything like that. So this is just meant to be an introduction to the topic and to the needs that are in the community and the asks. You have the full applications from each organization in your packet. We will go through kind of the spreadsheets Next week in committee and and discuss and then if you're ready, you know, we can make decisions the following I think it's September the 23rd Second council meeting in September Any questions about the process?

Yeah councilmember all over could we get these slides added to our

Absolutely. Yeah, we loaded them on today. We were just chasing a few that came in at the last minute. And so I wanted to send out once. Yeah.

Great. Okay. Thank you. It's got some great organizations in our community. We will move on to item B. It's approval of an art project and Parks and Rec director Jennifer Berner is going to present this. Jennifer.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So this evening, I'm bringing before you a call for artists that went out from the Arts Commission. We received funding for this through a lodging tax grant. And so with this, there are four boxes that were signal boxes that were identified in the downtown area. They wanted to focus in the downtown area for one main focus for supporting next year's project that they're putting in a lodging tax for, and that is working with our downtown galleries and arts programs downtown and We'll be partnering with them to do art walks and bring additional activities to the art walk and actually do guided art walks during that time frame as well. And so they wanted to bring as much art as possible to that downtown area. looking forward to what they want to do in 2027. So we put a call for artists out for four signal boxes in the downtown area. 14 submissions were brought in, and at the last Arts Commission meeting, they ranked all of them. And as you see on your slide there, They ranked the top, these were the top four that came out in their ranking. And so part of that ranking was, did they put in a complete application? Did they follow the guidelines as what we had spelled out in the call for artists? That call for artists was called Celebrating Skagit Valley Connections. So trying to look at how the Skagit Valley, all the different connections to nature, And you know just society and how those connections work as usual We got a lot back with nature and that is you know what a lot of people think about when they think about Skagit Valley and so these what I'm doing is bringing before you all art has to be approved by City Council and And so each one of the artists will receive a $300 award, which we put out in the call. We are really pro to support our artists and not take advantage of their art but try to support them. even if it is in a small amount, to say thank you to them for their art. And so we're asking for you guys' approval, council's approval, to move forward with these four different pieces of art to put on the boxes in downtown.

Questions for Jennifer? Take that next step. So moved. One question.

Yeah. So Jennifer, thanks. I assume that we're choosing four because that's what the budget we had, like, $1,200 or how did we how do we choose four out of 14?

We only had four signal boxes that we were looking at due to exactly that budget on what they had left from their lodging tax dollars. They spent some of those lodging tax dollars on the performances that they did this summer, and so they had a remaining amount, and they wanted to look on how they could do that and impact the community with art. Yeah, good question. Thank you.

Any other questions? I think DeVore made a motion. Second. Andrew seconded that. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Motion passes. Thank you, Jennifer, and please thank our Arts Commission for us. They do a great job. Right. For item eight, I'll ask our city attorney if there's a need for an executive session this evening.

No.

That is the end of our agenda this evening, the end of our Mount Vernon City Council meeting for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. The time is now 816 p.m.