City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good afternoon. As it is 1 p.m., I will call this city council workshop of March 10th, 2026 to order. This will be both a physical and virtual meeting. It may be viewed on YouTube and on Facebook following the meeting. Public comment is not normally taken at workshop meetings, although the council may allow or request public participation on action items. We have no action items on our workshop agenda today. Welcome to all of those in attendance. Up next, we have the countywide planning policy update in advance of request for council action. And here to introduce that is our principal planner Rajesh Kakamak to present.

Good afternoon mayor, members of the council. Uh Gakmack, uh principal planner. I have a short presentation for you about the uh countywide planning policies and uh the amendments. Uh this is just to workshop the item and get council comments as we um bring it forward for action at an April meeting. So to just go back and provide a little uh background, countywide planning policies are required by the GMA to provide mainly consistency between all jurisdictions that are planning in a county. So the countywide planning policies for Island County were adopted in March and they were ratified by the city in April. The process is every time county does an amendment, it has to be ratified by Langley, Cookville and Old Harbor in order for those policies to take effect. So uh the policies were adopted in 2024. uh this round of amendment done in 2024 included the HAP the housing for all planning tool that included the housing for all income levels and that's the document that assigned the 5533232323 units to focus UG um knowing that this is a heavy lift for all jurisdictions department of commerce uh provided grants the city of OKAR app grants and was successful in getting and city applied it to hiring consultants to help with this comprehensive plan update. And so they went ahead. There are lands capacity analysis procedures in the countywide planning policies which the consultants followed. And these documents have been provided to the council. I'll just go over the numbers. The initial capacity analysis

based on our current development standards is about,474 units. The state requires cities and jurisdictions to con consider alternatives to see if you can change your development regulations to accommodate more. The city provided some options on that and then raised the capacity to 3,735 units and still doesn't address the 5 and uh 533. So in discussions with the county um it was determined that uh there is a lot of challenges in the UG. We have developed and undeveloped land in the UG and so it makes it really challenging to try and plan for capacity in the already developed areas because of the infrastructure that's there right now and the infrastructure that would be needed if you were plan for development. And so all of those challenges could not be done with this update. And so the balance of 1541 is what this amendment is trying to deal with because it couldn't be accommodated in the in the UG. So in the discussions with Island County was decided that it was determined that um the one of the best steps going forward would be to try and annex as much of the land that's in the current UG that's underdeveloped or undeveloped into the city. And this will provide the city a chance to do the zoning and the capacity analysis for that as part of the EIS and the comp plan process. And the balance of 1541 would then be removed from the population and the housing counts based on an RCW referring to capital improvements that need to be provided for all of these. So, as part of any update, as part of this 20-year plan, the state requires that when you

do this um uh planning for the 20-year projection, you have to have capital facilities in place or in your six-year capital facility plan to to come on board for this growth. And since that would be challenging to do for the already developed areas, uh the uh county decided that we can remove those numbers from the population based on lack of capital facilities and then maybe plan to have an ILA because this all of these areas are not under one jurisdiction. They have to be planned jointly. They're already developed. If they're undeveloped, bring them into the city, have city infrastructure. These already developed plots, they're already infrastructure, they already have working water and sewer, some of them in different um stages of of um u how and when they were installed. And so you have to have a phased approach to it and there needs to be a joint study and understanding. You have to develop a tool in which all the jurisdictions can understand including the state in terms of what we're doing here. So one jurisdiction cannot cannot um envision what will happen in this area by themselves. So joint study is needed. So that's this is all the changes that have occurred during our discussion with the county and therefore they're bringing forth this amendment so that um they can adopt their comprehensive plan um based on this uh these numbers. So um just to I I I have a map here to kind of just show the challenging areas. I mean these areas already developed already fully um surrounded by the city. These are the areas that are challenging um to u plan for as an individual jurisdiction. So you got to do joint planning. The areas on the south that

are underdeveloped is what's proposed for annexation. And I think council is aware that there's a joint meeting next week to consider that as part of the comp plan the annexation. So this is the area that is coming up for uh the joint annexation and so just wanted to include this as part of the strategy of how all of this is being considered. So the basically what the changes do um is to clarify uh or to amend the population projection from 102 to uh 102,639 to 99,22 and then reduce the allocation that was originally provided to OK Carver reduce that to 3992 to match the capacity that we have uh determined through our analysis. So these are the changes that are being proposed. I think it's a step in the right direction to have this annexation at least come out of all the discussions with the county and that is going to allow Oak Harbor to try and use those UG lands will probably if the annexation occurs be rolled into our comprehensive plan will be rolled into our EIS process and the city will start to plan for those areas with city zoning etc. And I think that's a step in the right direction uh with this entire change. So with that um we'll open it up for questions and comments uh from the council. Thank you.

All right council questions, comments for CAC council member Stucky. All right, a few questions here and and I'm all for that reduction in housing units. I thought that that was a little aggressive. Um, first things first, does this affect any of the other municipalities? I remember there was a time where Langley was looking at their density based on the conversations about our density. Does does this affect Coupeville or Langley at all? No, it's uh it's more of a surgical approach to making these amendments that impact just Harour's UG. They do not want to impact their uh allocations.

Okay. When it says immediate annexation, what does that mean practically? Like time frame wise? I mean immediate is and we sign this the next day it's annexed. Like what does that mean? I think the ordinance is craft 5 days after signing.

Okay, that's pretty immediate. Um, when I was reading all the material there, one of the things that was added is the county must be consistent with the associated municipality is on page seven of that document. What does that mean exactly? Does that mean that they need to look at adopting our density in that area? Yeah. I mean, what does that mean? That they must be consistent with the associated municipality.

Their the numbers that they have in their comprehensive plan document that they're uh reflecting as they're planning for it should be the same as what we reflect in our plan. Gotcha. Okay. So, overthinking it there. Um the 80 acres that we're talking about for annexation, does that mean I remember there was a time and I think our city administrator put it together. There was conversations about a few annexation areas. Does that mean that those others are kind of off the table?

I don't know if they are off the table, but for this current annexation, what we're trying to accomplish, these are the only parcels that we're talking about. Adding others would mean other reasons to do so. And I think that starts to get outside the scope of what so there's totally separate issues. I think so. Just just to add on to that, thanks KC. Um the part of what we're discussing is is that there would be a separate process for what we're referring to as area 5 and we're talking about having a working group that works on that in the future. This action is the immediate activity that we want to take on right now.

That um 80 acres when we annex it, it comes in does it automatically come in at R2? Like what is it annexed? Is R2? Yes. What does R2 practically mean for 80 acres unit density like number?

Um it's a limited u residential limited multif family residential is held the terminology it's term and so R2 is the zoning that you will see duplexes and forplexes. Okay. Um and lastly the 80 acres what do we know and this is more a question for me. What do we know about the owners of those 80? I mean, does one owner own 40 acres? Cuz if they do and they have no interest in doing anything with it, that does I mean, it helps our calculation, but it doesn't practically help the issue. I mean,

I can tell you very uh from a 30,000 ft level that there are less than 20 property owners for the properties that are being considered for annexation. Um there are multiple properties owned by the same entity or the same uh person. So less than 20 and they've and this we've sent letters out to the property owners on record about the annexation but we don't and again I understand we're annexing this and I understand that it would help with the numbers for this but we honestly don't know if any of them have any intent of developing those in the future. Is that correct?

As being part of the UG, I don't know if that meant something for them in the long term. So, these are maps that have been established since 1995. So, they're aware that they're in the UG. So, we don't know, you know, till they come into the city whether they have actual plans, but we we've been approached by people that are not in the UG. They don't want to come in. But uh some of these properties we haven't had direct uh applications or requests for any development at this because I'm aware of it seems like this would have quite an effect on them. I mean one it doesn't it changes their property tax structure a little bit being in the city. Correct.

It will change city prop Yes. city taxes. And then two if I understand correctly and please correct me if I'm wrong. It's if they just don't do anything, they don't have to bring things up to city code. But the moment they start doing any development, then we are talking about hookups for utilities and sidewalks and things and things like that. Correct. Okay. Certainly a consideration if someone owned those properties. So that uh is all the questions I have. Thank you, Council Member Marshall.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, K. At what level does At what level does will the property owner have to redevelop or I mean if somebody just wants to remodel their home does that is that going to then require them to develop the entire property up to the R2 standard? I mean at what level does that trigger that?

I think I believe they may be a 50 or 60% assessed value. So I think people will be able to do additions as long as it remains single family. They could probably operate it as a single family and expand. Even R2 zoning does not prohibit R1. So as a single family residential use, you're prohibited uh your permitted use. Now through the comp plan process if the zoning changes to I believe R3 and above that's when the existing homes would become non-conforming and eventually when they develop they would have to get the standards of the R3 or the R4 if that's the zoning eventually that the comp plan uh adopts for that property. Okay. Once the annexation takes place, what level of service? It's my understanding, and I could be wrong, that if they're currently on like Island Disposal, Island Disposal has a 10-year or something contract that they they can continue that, and so we don't necessarily have to provide solid waste, but fire and police then become our responsibility. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. I think it is the requirement for all the properties in the city to maintain some sort of solid waste management. So if there are properties currently that don't have any service maybe and if they do have a structure on it then they may be required to have some even with island disposable whoever the franchise agreement for that area is will be able to continue the service there. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Romero.

I'm delighted with the progress, CAC. Thank you for that part. I did want to make an observation that we discussed uh neighborhood centers, small locations scattered over the decades as the area develops so that people have um fac stores and similar items nearby. And um my thought was is that if there was a higher concentrations than say R2 permitted in zoning then that increases the degrees of flexibility because R1 would still be allowed. Is that right? Under R3

under R3 they start to fall off. R1 and R2 they're permitted. R3 starts to lock in the higher densities.

Okay. But uh at least in military terms, you know, we always talk about leaving our options open. And I would think that a higher density uh especially when you're putting in expensive infrastructure uh improves efficiencies. And of course, we're talking years down the road. But um but my thought is that R2 is probably not as dense as uh housing density as might be preferred in my opinion. But I'm not speaking as a professional. That's just a thought with regard to these neighborhood centers and uh and maybe that would be one area that could eventually become one. That's all I have. Mayor. All right. Thank you. Anybody else for the good of the order on this matter?

Yeah. Council member Peterson, are you wanting to speak? Yes. Thank you. Okay. I'm just trying to be nice. Okay. Um, I've asked before and I think I've forgotten. The Dr. Horton project is that include is that included in those numbers already? The Dr. Horton project is in the city in so but the numbers that we have to come up with that. Yes. Yes. So that's already included based on zoning. So there Yes. It's calculated. It's part of the calculations.

Okay. and the green line that goes up Swantown in our in the what? I'm confused. If you go back to the map, what's the green line up there in the top that goes up?

Good question. Uh so we are we do have areas um that the county has included as part of this these uh descriptions here. and and this is the Swantown Road. Um the county wants to dedicate the Swantown Road to the city so that maintenance-wise and infrastructure-wise we can extend it. And so the county was involved in doing the survey and the and the describing the area for us and it was very easy for them to add that swan town and we were okay with it. It doesn't affect the annexation. it improves our kind of coordination with them. So, just threw that in there. So, it's not a it's not a boundary. It's a it's just a rightway uh line that we're bringing in for convenience of the process.

Thank you. Yes, Council Member Wiganstein. Uh thank you, C. Thank you, Mayor Council. Um glad to be here today in person, folks. Um, couple of questions, but my first one is the patches that are still the county is are those even being discussed at annex for annexation in the future or I mean are they part of the UGA? You know, those sections that are still fully island county within within our city,

right? The little our little pockets and islands. Yes. that and and then part of that also is is my my concern for you know that western side of our city Hillrest area and how that's looking and whatnot and how that fits into all this if it does th those are the areas that made it challenging for us to consider all of these numbers in this round in the UG. So that's the area of focus for the next 7 8 years before you get to the next update to work with Island County. The joint agreement is to try and address those areas and see what is possible for growth and how how do we extend infrastructure and who bears the cost for all of that. Financially it has to be feasible

in order for all of this to happen. So there's uh that's the that's the challenge. That's that's what's and we have to deal with it before the next update because in the next update it'll we have to do something with that area because that's what the state was saying. You got to you got to find a way to put your capacity there. And we were like well how can we we don't have ways to extend our infrastructure there. We don't can't spend the money to do that either unless we have some understanding of what and how that will happen. So we're creating the tool by which we can address that.

Okay, cool. And my other one going back to the property owners, right? Cuz as a as property owners, I imagine they some of them, you know, my understanding was we wouldn't nobody would be forced into upgrading their systems until it was a catastrophic failure. Is that not true? if in in this scenario because of because you said something about 50% change to a remodel which maybe that doesn't change the septic system but it you know that's what I'm saying right like

the yeah the septic system can continue to operate as long as it's functional if they still want to do modifications and it can meet the island counties island county will still have to do their public health inspections for these as long as it meets that they I think they should be able to do modifications to the house as well. Now, if the subject system fails, they'll be required to connect to the city. Now, some single family homes are exemp I think there are uh exemptions for annexed properties or pre-existing properties to be on septic system until that failure. Until that, thank you.

Thank you. Yes, council member Stucky. thinking of council member Marorrow's comments do when we bring assuming this goes through and it's brings in that R2 designation do we have to go with that or is that just is is our code that when we do something like this that it has to be R2 or is that one that just makes the most sense and if so why

it's just the one that makes most sense most of the people at least in the most recent past annexations residential properties have chosen that because then they have the flexibility between going single family home or triplexes, town homes, etc. So that gave the best template um and it's a middle ground. So this this this property that's our land use map and these properties are yellow designated as low density residential. They can come in as three three zoning designations

R1, R2 or R3. So, we're recommending R2 just because it's in the middle ground. R3 would immediately put single family homes non-conforming. So, we didn't necessarily want to create that scenario right away. No, if through the comp plan process there's some changes occur, then there's a way for public engagement before you make the change as opposed to just bringing it in as R3. But I could still, if I own one of these properties, I could still ask afterwards for a reason to R3 if I wanted to.

Absolutely. Even before the Yeah. Yes. You can do it through a regular reasonzoning process immediately after annexation. Okay. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Council member Merrill,

I wanted to affirm Council Member Stucky's comments with regard to being able to adjust to an R3 after an initial R1 or R2. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Thank you, CAC, for all your presentation. All right. So, we are going to take something out of order next. Maggie, I'm going to put you on the back burner. Sorry. But in respect of Emily's uh Wildman's time from the county, I'm going to ask her to step up next and present on the Island County 5-year homeless housing plan. Um, and here with us today is from Island County Human Services Housing Program Manager, Emily Wildman. Welcome, Emily.

Hi, thanks for having me. Um, so I'm here today to talk about the 5-year homeless housing plan. This is a plan that is mandated by Washington State Legislature. Each community in Washington, uh, whether at county or city level, is mandated every five years to, uh, create a 5-year homeless housing plan. Uh, for Island County, we re we're required to reach out to the two largest jurisdictions, um, which was Okar and Cootville to find out if they wanted to do their own plan or if they wanted to have representation on the the task force to create this plan. and and they chose to have representation. So, this plan is for the entire county. Um, and so we did a big uh we put out a variety of emails and requests to people throughout Island County, uh, city government, county government, nonprofits, um, food banks to see who wanted to be participate in this plan. And so, uh, for Oak Harbor, uh, Chief Sloick was a representative. Uh we had a uh Nolan your planner last year was on the task force at the time and so that was Oak Harbor's representation um along with opport lots of organizations in Oak Harbor like opportunity council and spin cafe and uh Kada and organizations that are currently very active in the homeless housing and support services field. Um Washington state uh also department of commerce also released guidance for this plan on what they wanted in it which in addition to um kind of creating a plan how we're going to address homeless housing uh they also wanted reporting on current service levels current fund sources

estimates of permanent and emergency housing needs and prioriti uh prioritization of affordable housing funds that we currently have available. able in this county. Local jurisdictions um were required to adopt five objectives outlined by the state of Washington that they have in their homeless housing plan. And then within those objectives, the task force that was put together was um created action steps, go timelines and people responsible for those uh within underneath those objectives. The task force really advocated for achievable goals within the current budgets and systems. So we have a lot of great ideas, but um we don't have $50 million to implement them, nor can we change the behavioral health system. And so we really tried to focus on things that were within our our control and within the budget constraints that we currently have. Uh we also distributed a lived homeless housing ex uh survey for people who are currently experiencing homelessness whether they were literally homeless or in a shelter and uh included that in the plan around what their they felt their barriers were um what uh things were working for them in the community currently. And then also this plan is mandated to align with the housing element of the island county comprehensive plan and then local jurisdictions comprehensive plan like Oak Harbor. And so although this is a totally separate plan, it is mandated to align with the HAP. And so the HAP that um CAC just referenced around the housing element and how much housing is needed. And this plan is really focused on the emergency shelter and the permanent supportive housing uh pieces of that housing element. Affordable housing is also addressed in that plan,

but but this is uh more of the focus of the plan. And the task force also really emphasized the need for more collaboration between the cities and county. Um the county and Oak Harbor used to be pretty separate um and siloed, but their communication and working together in this area has improved drastically over the last few years. And so we really want to capitalize on that and and keep moving in that direction. So, like I said, there are five objectives. And so, I'm going to go over each of the objectives and kind of summarize what uh the plans are within those objectives. Um, and then if you guys want to ask questions at the end. Uh, so the first objective is to promote an equitable, accountable, and transparent homeless crisis response system. And this goal is really focused on making sure that everyone in county has equitable access to services. Um, we want to re-engage a coordinated entry oversight committee. So, coordinated entry is the place that anybody in Island County or any county in Washington state can access services if they're having a housing crisis. Our coordinated entry is housed at the office in Kootville, but there are also side doors. We have a a homeless outreach case manager who is travels around. She's goes to spin. she goes and meets people at the library or wherever they want to meet. Uh there's a veteran side door, so anybody who is a veteran can access services either through coordinated entry or through opportunity council directly. Um anybody experiencing domestic violence can access services directly through KADA, our local domestic violence um nonprofit, or through the coordinated entry. And then young adults can access services through coordinated entry or through Ryan's House for Youth, which is our local uh young adult, which is ages

18 to 24. Um, we want we there are several systems that the Department of Commerce has set up to really regulate how our outcomes and if we're providing equitable services in this county. And so we really want to promote those and uh teach our nonprofits how to use those tools to so that they can track what they're doing and how they're doing and so they can make shifts in their services if needed. Uh we want to strengthen communication with our buyin for organizations. So buyin for organizations are organizations that are run um for vulnerable communities by somebody who is a member of that community. So, um, for example, we partner with Mission Ministries, Pastor Dean. And so, she really provides a link between the county and, um, uh, African-American and black, uh, community members who maybe are not feeling really comfortable, uh, coming into the county or communicating with the county. And so, she really helps uh, bridge that gap. We have a buyin for partnership with Pastor Maria Francisco who who works with Spanish speaking populations. So we want to strengthen those relationships and also explore maybe some other avenues that we we aren't uh meeting the needs of people yet. And then we want to promote capacity building opportunities for our smaller organizations. A lot of you guys, I'm sure, have heard about all the budget cuts and concerns about federal funding. And so we really want our our uh organizations to have different funding sources so if one thing gets cut they don't have to shut down that they have a variety of things to rely on. Our second objective is strengthening the homeless service provider workforce. Um this work is really really taxing. It's a lot of exposure to trauma. Um a lot of 10 steps or one step forward and

10 steps backward. And so we really want to increase the capacity for our service providers around better training opportunities um and establishing some local best standards for case management. We don't want somebody to go to one organization and receive a different kind of level of service at an at another organization. We want everybody who seeking services in Island County to get that same uh standard of care. Uh we'd like to uh advocate to commerce to increase inflation funds for livable wages. Um historically nonprofits and direct service providers are are on the lower wage scale and it makes them finding housing themselves challenging. Uh we also want to advocate to the legislature to reexamine the area median income um and how it's impacting affordable rents. So, for example, we have Cameas Flats that has been built in Oak Harbor and is is opening and people are moving in and those rents um are based on area median income. The highest is at 80% and below. And for a lot of people, even though they're set at an affordable rate, they're still really out of reach for many of our most vulnerable people. Um many of the rents are some of the rents are over $2,000 a month. And so the affordable rents are based on a median income, which means they're taking the highest and the lowest and coming into the middle. And in this community, we have a lot of very, very high wage earners and their wages are going up um pretty consistently every year. And then those people who are at the bottom who are on fixed incomes like disability or social security, their incomes are only going up maybe $15$20 a year. And so the gap in between is getting bigger and then it's throwing that area median income off. And so the affordable affordable rents are becoming less and

less affordable. And then in turn we have um the housing authority that has vouchers um the housing choice vouchers that people are on wait list for for years and we the vouchers need to be set at a high enough rate that they can find a place to live in the community. And so it is this pushpull between those two things that we really want to advocate to see if there's other ways to look at um setting affordable rents. And then we'd also like to encourage agencies to provide job share opportunities for more full-time work. It's very really really hard to afford to live anywhere anymore without full-time work. And so a lot of our agencies are too small to provide maybe a full-time job, but if they paired together, um they could provide maybe a full-time work for a custodian who would go from different shelters to to clean or or provide maintenance or that sort of thing. Uh objective three is to prevent episodes of homelessness whenever possible. So before the pandemic, prevention was kind of the bottom layer of concern because people for the most part if they got be a little behind on their rent, they could come up with it. Nowadays, rents are much higher, deposits are much higher, and and the state has found that people can't make it up anymore. They can't borrow the money. They can't put it on their credit card and and make up for it over the next three or four months. Uh, and so if you are a couple months behind on your rent, it's it's digging a hole so that people just can't get out of it. So we need to focus more on prevention than we needed to in the past. Um, we need to advocate to commerce to increase flexible funding. Currently, people have to be behind on their rent to qualify for assistance. that creates a uh negative feeling with the landlords oftent times and they get tired of it and then they stop renewing people's leases if they've received rental assistance and that's the last thing we want. And so we want to advocate to be

able to be more flexible with our funding. If somebody knows they're not going to be able to pay their rent in two weeks, then let's help now and not create that negative feeling with the landlord. Um we need to increase uh life skills and um financial skills, case management. More and more people have really poor credit scores which is now impacting them finding housing, sometimes finding work, um eviction history. So we really want to help people with that uh financial assistance and we have opportunity council does has a great program for that but we really need to expand that capacity. Um, we want to prioritize prevention services for the people who are most vulnerable, but also help those who are in crisis. Right now, Commerce really asks us to only help the most vulnerable, but we have families who maybe have a their car breakdown, a medical bill, and they are kind of slipping through the cracks because they just they're not vulnerable enough because they're just having this one-time crisis. And we really want to be able to help both ends of the scale. Uh we want to partner with senior service providers to establish housing needs for this population. The h the senior housing is probably the most ch most impacted by lack of housing. The senior weight list through the housing authority are 5 7 10 years on some of the the properties and so and we can't get properties built quickly. And so we really need to figure out how to better help this population because we have more and more people aging in this community and this problem is only going to get larger. And then assist again assisting agencies in grant writing support. Uh so city county we have grant writers. How can we help do some TA with our local organizations? Objective four, prioritize assistance based on greatest barriers to housing

stability and greatest risk of harm. Uh so we want to collaborate with Island County emergency management, Oak Harbor emergency management around cold weather shelter options, wildfire smoke is becoming a bigger issue, extreme heat. So really all kind of extreme weather uh uh things that we're running into now. We we need to work to get a better system going. Right now it's kind of like it's uh it's not as strong as it could be and we we want to we definitely want to improve that. We need to strengthen our vulnerable vulnerability form to make sure we are serving the most vulnerable stronger uh we need to develop stronger partnerships with agencies serving our bipok and LGBTQ plus communities. Um, we need to engage more frequently with people accessing services to understand their current barriers. So, somebody's barrier when they're unhoused is different than their barrier when they're in shelter and then when they're housed. And we we find more and more that just housing people is not enough. They really need more support services over many years to kind of keep them housed and maintain that. Um, and then identifying housing gaps such as respit care. That's a big one. We get calls from the hospital. We get calls from Island Senior Resources. So and so needs a surgery. They're homeless. They don't have anywhere to go to recuperate. And we don't have any sort of respit care on the island right now. So we really want to work to improve those kind of gaps in our system, more group homes, more shared housing. Objective five is to seek to house everyone in a stable setting that meets their needs. So, this is this goal is probably the most impactful with with you all is we really want to continue strengthening our partnership with the county and city governments to prioritize land um around not only

affordable housing but potential shelter sites. Um we want to increase um abilities to braid funding together. So, if the county has some funding and the cities have some f funding, how can we braid that stuff together? We want to advocate and I think you guys are doing a great job at this right now with less restrictive zoning around looking at where zoning can be shifted to allow for higher density. Um, we have an affordable housing specialist who has been uh seeking out properties that have higher density, especially for affordable housing. We found the most success at the county level at purchasing property and then putting an RFP out uh for developers to to and that has that's what led to Cameas Flats. That's how Malberry Village is is coming in. Um so those that's been really successful. So we want to do more of that in partnership with the city. Um and we want to do that not only for affordable housing but collaborating on potential land for emergency shelter. Currently, there is no place for a unhoused male to go in Oak Harbor overnight. And so, that's a huge gap in our system that we really want to try and address. So, men, men with children, in addition to more uh more housing options for women and women with children, but right now, Margie's House is the only emergency shelter in Oak Harbor, and it only serves women or women with children. Um, and then we want to advocate for funding for our aging homeless population. I'm sure you guys see it. There's a lot of people who are unhoused, who are have mobility issues, who have chronic health issues, and we are asking our shelter system to really kind of pull at their liability because they're not allowed to put hands on people. They can't help somebody go to the bathroom. They can't help them get in the shower. And so we're seeing more and more people

with higher medical needs that our shelter system is not set up for. And it takes time to get a cops assessment, which is what would let those people get into assisted living. So we really need some solutions in the middle um to help our aging homeless population. So this um there's a public hearing set uh for this plan on April 14th with the island county commissioners. uh the board of county commissioners. Um so that's kind of the final step in in this plan. Um does anybody have any questions?

So before I open it up to questions, I also just want to highlight um coming up on March 28th, there's an arts and elegance dinner. Um I met with the executive director of the Woodby Island Homeless Coalition about 6 months ago. um they demonstrated a need for financial assistance. So I put together a team of people and we've um uh set in motion this dinner to raise money. It's essentially taking place of festival of trees that's no longer happening. Is it festival of trees or the other dinner? I don't remember. I don't know. One of them is not happening anymore. So this is essentially going to be the same type of platform. Um tickets I guess are going really quickly. So that's exciting. Um, all everything's been paid for for this benefit dinner. So, all of the proceeds are going to go back to the homeless coalition. This is going to be a huge shot in the arm for them. So, I'm very excited for this opportunity and this will help them a long way in combating some of the issues that Emily's outlined here. So, with that though, um, just mark your calendars March 28th. Get your tickets now. Um, and I look forward to seeing you all at that dinner. All right. With that, I will turn it over to council for questions, comments of Emily. Yes, Council Member Wigenstein.

Thank you. Um, I have a lot of questions, but they were coming up and you were checking them off a little bit. And thank you so much for acknowledging the uh struggle for homeless men. Um, it's not just they are the last to be taken care of and always have been the last to be taken care of in our society. and and that's, you know, it's got its own reasons and and we're not here to fix the the the problems from the past. We're trying to

help create solutions that are going to solve our problems going in the future. and I and I've spent the better part of 15 20 years uh supporting and trying to help people through homelessness through my work through nonprofits through regular organizations and obviously dealing with absolutely dealing with it myself as well as dealing with family members that have dealt with it. Um this is a great start. Um, the one question I did want to kind of get to early is, and I'll only ask one or two before I come back to another one. Um, if all the nonprofits fell off the side of the earth tomorrow, what's the county's plan?

Well, we'd be in big trouble.

And I don't mean to call the county out because I'm I'm not We would be in big trouble here, too. I mean all of us would be in huge we'd have way more situations going on. The city's impact the police department would be way busier than they are. You know hospitals would be overflowing with with with things. I mean this is not like Absolutely. So we're grateful for all that. We you mentioned some gaps and we've had these gaps historically in our society. This isn't the only community I've lived in that has dealt with this. Um and and it's we always lean lean into lended or excuse excuse me words come faster sometimes than my brain can process. Sometimes we lean into these um with nonprofits because that that is the way to get it done.

Right. As the mayor indicated um nonprofits struggle to pay their bills, right? Um people don't work for nonprofits helping homelessness to get rich. I don't know any that have um at all and I've sat on a few boards. Um I'm I'm hopeful. I'm I'm really hopeful that we can support what we have and create stuff that's going to bridge the gaps because much like homelessness, addiction, mental health, cancer recovery, you know, any kind of major recovery we have to go through in our life, it doesn't happen overnight. And it doesn't happen just because I have a job or just because I have a house over my head,

right? There there's so many things impacting people in this world today regardless of their housing situation. So I I know that people struggle at every level in life. And I've known people that have enough money in the world to buy happiness, you would think, and they struggle with some of the exact same things that these people on the street are struggling with,

right? same things that probably a percentage of the people in here are struggling with. Um, and so we got to keep going, pushing forward. We got to bring more topics. We got to keep this on the forefront. Um, I heard you I list a whole list of problems we have in this community that that need addressing. Um, and you know, this is all part, you know, we're at a really good opportunity with all these comp plans and everything to really set in motion some things and and the city of Oak Harbor has an obligation to, you know, a good if, you know, in my opinion, and this is my opinion, 40% of the population lives on the north end of the island. Oak Harbor is the services for that 40% if not greater. I mean to be fair and so historically Hulk Harbor has let the county just deal with it and I hope we can stop that process. We have this so far with this mayor and this administration. I I appreciate the work and we have to keep going with it. Um and so uh I hope you'll see me you'll be seeing me a little bit more often probably than than you have in the past. I have had a year of kind of just getting some medical things taken care of. Um, so we're on the back end of that and ready to start charging in. Um, the thank you for acknowledging the side doors. Um, I I I mentioned it in another meeting online. I just want to kind of reiterate it. Um, the county needs to have a coordinated entry presence location within the city somewhere and the county has got pockets of land and I know they have some commercial buildings too. Um I I would really like to see that happen. Again, the largest portion of the homeless population is probably living in Oak Harbor and busting out the coupe belt, right, in order to get overnight stay. And that's the extent of what we can do for that critical people. So again, thank you. And if there's a question in there, I think you mostly covered it. But that's all I have for now. I will say the Oak

Carver peace and coordinate entry came up at the last presentation I had with the um police oversight committee and and uh I agree um Kville was really chosen because it's of geographical location so the south end um Port Kamino they get they get the really the the lowest end of the stick but um we would like we do have an office in North Hook harbor and um so we would like to increase our our presence here. We've we've started that with having the homeless um case manager in this area, but I definitely see the need for you know maybe down the road like one one day a week where we're here. It is not foreseeable in the future that it would switch from coupe bill um but we could certainly expand our our footprint here in Oak Harbor.

Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. So Kristen, your your comments are welcome are appreciated and welcomed. You know, I know how much work you do in this area. I appreciate Emily a ton. I appreciate our chief of police. Um I appreciate Representative Dave Paul and his wife Rachel. They are all working on the task force as well as different committees as well with their advocating at the state level as well as locally. Um we have a lot of people. Commissioner Jill Johnson comes to every meeting and she's been involved. Commissioner Bacon's been here as well. um we're all working collaboratively together to um you know deal with this issue um and the challenges that that you know we face. So and I know that there's a lot of negative stuff that we see in social media and in the public because they want instantaneous change. It takes time though. We didn't get here overnight and we're not going to fix it overnight. But we are working on it and we're working together I would say for the first time in a long time. So, but I appreciate that. Anyone else? Yes, Council Member Stucky. Piggy back in on that a little bit. I like how we're a a body. We all come with from different experiences. We all have different skills. I was waiting for you to chime in and you you did not disappoint. So, I appreciate it. Council member Wenstein. Um, few questions a little bit about the report itself having gone through it. Talking about the amount of unhoused. I know the point in time's at 173. I understand that's voluntary. That's really not a great picture. Yet on the next page, it says 1,229, which is a huge difference, which not totally unexpected cuz one's voluntary, one's going based on data. That 1,229, I was looking like where the data is coming from. We can never be 100% accurate, but do you think that's a a pretty darn good ballpark or do you think that could be using old data that people have been taking out of a system or something like that?

I think that's pretty accurate in that that is over a full year. And so that you might be couch surfing for a while, you might be staying with friends and then you're homeless for a few nights. And that data comes from uh like you said, it comes from the homeless management information system. comes from medical benefits, food benefits. And so I think it's a it's a more clear picture of not just who's unhoused, but who's unstably housed. And so maybe they're housed tonight, but they don't know that they're going to be housed next month. And so I do think that is a representative more of instability, how many people in our community are feeling that.

Sure. Because I mean there's definitely I mean you could look at just the point in time and if you're playing the political move, hey, homelessness really isn't a problem. There's only 173. But it's it's voluntary. So, um, and sorry, one more quick thing. Point in time will only count people that are literally homeless. It doesn't count people that are staying on somebody's couch. Um, and so that is a that makes up a big difference, too. I remember probably four or five years ago, I went to a meeting where it was the majority of nonprofits and a lot of those being churches. And it was very clear in that meeting that a lot of those organizations don't talk to each other and they didn't all know what everyone else was doing.

I mean, you have your you have your big players and then you have your not so big players as I mentioned kind of like churches. And I thought that was a good meeting and it was surprising to me how much everyone didn't know what everyone else did. I haven't heard of those meetings continuing. Maybe they are and I just don't know. Oh, can you give us some status on those meetings of getting all these organizations together? Does that happen on a regular basis? What does that look like?

Yeah, we have I would say it needs improvement for sure. We have what's called the housing provider network where we host a meeting um quarterly, ideally, sometimes it's only twice a year where we try and get everybody in the community together to talk about kind of what their services are, what's um what changes, new staff, that kind of thing. But that is one of the things with the oversight committee that we'd really like to get some of the more key players together more regularly to exactly what you were saying. What are you doing? What services do you have? What changes are going on? Because that is an area like city and county that had been siloed for a long time and we really want that to change. And so that is a big goal.

I you know the the Cameas Flats that that's wonderful. Um the mul malberry place is it the one on Swandell any time frames on that just ballpark I believe they're they are potentially going to break ground in this fall

okay and the last few more questions here kind of the more I'd say uncomfortable questions shall we say um I saw and it wasn't in your presentation but it was in the plan where we talked about no barrier housing Is that something that's still discussed or is that kind of something that was just a brief footnote and not really because it wasn't in your presentation but it was in the plan?

So low barrier housing is um more and more recognized as best practice and com our funding is more and more requiring low barrier but not no barrier. We don't I the h would be as close to no barrier and even with no barrier you still you can't be you know under the influence and out of control in your behavior while you're there. You you can't threaten to you know kill a staff me you know there's certain there's still things but most of the shelter that we're focused on is like low barrier in that if you have a criminal history that's not going to keep you out. There are some things um like if you're a registered sex offender that is going to keep you out of most projects um throughout the state, but if you have um an assault 5 years ago, we don't necessarily we don't want that to keep you out of housing um or housing options. So, it is lowering the barriers for people who have eviction history, criminal history, um financial lack of finances, but it's not removing all barriers. It's trying to lower it so that the people can access it who who need it.

So if I was somebody who was a a drug user Mhm. would and I'm not really taking steps to combat that. Am I still allowed in a low barrier?

If you are managing of your behavior, you can't use on site, you can't act uh you know, you can't break the rules, there's a behavior contract, then yes. Uh it and it depends. Some of these are going to be time limited. So if you're not engaging in the program, you might not be getting an extension. So we have a lot of programs now where you can get your stay extended if you are engaging in the process and engaging with your case manager. So that would that probably wouldn't happen for you if you were using and not really wanting to take any steps to work on permanent housing. So there are some strings attached. Not I mean again it's low but there are some strings. Okay.

And then one question that comes up a lot is when it comes to drug alcohol and mental illness. And I want to be clear. I'm by no means saying you're homeless. That's why you're homeless and that's why you're there. Okay? It's we're not I don't even think we probably even talking about a majority of the people of homeless that that affects. But it does affect some and those individuals are shall I say often the most visible in our community. So when people are I hate to use the term cherry-picking but for lack of a better term I'm going to use it. When people are negative towards that population and they're cherrypicking a little bit they're going to hold up hey that person on that corner who's always acting a certain way or I saw these active drug use in this bush and things like that. We tend to cherrypick that and say well that's the homeless population. I'm not doing that. But what I am do want to ask and I don't expect a firm answer because if no one really can for those individuals what are the options? I mean if there's somebody who doesn't want assistance and doesn't really have much show of stopping my behavior. Is it pretty much I hate to say it put the chiefs but is it kind of catch and release where either we pick them up and then back on the street and problem's not solved? I mean again I'm not looking for a firm this is the solution cuz if you if you did I think Seattle and a lot of other places could make good use of you but what what in this plan certainly it's been come up as a discussion what are we doing when it comes to that population who goes I don't want the help this is what I'm going to do and this is how it's going to be.

So I think it it's really twofold. But I think if we could create some more opportunities for like emergency shelter to move some of the people out of the haven that are ready and spin for that next step, they would remove them from that environment so that the people who are running those programs could put more energy towards people who aren't ready. And then the county has established like the recovery navigator program and the co-responder programs that really try and engage with people in crisis in the moment and they're not ready today, but maybe they're going to be ready next week. And so continuing to kind of try and harm reduction. So maybe somebody is ready to not give up drinking, but they're ready to give up liquor. you know, trying to step down the the harm that's happening to get help people get ready. And certainly there is a small percentage of people that maybe we're not going to be able to assist. But I think with the more resources we have and the more ability to remove some of that those barriers, then we can get we can help more people.

Does that extend to mental illness as well? I mean, well, just go see a doctor. Well, that that's not for someone in mental illness. I mean, is there a mechanism to help enforce that?

Washington state, unfortunately, has some of the worst mental health care in the nation. And they're they're they have chosen to go with a very hands-off like individual rights approach. And so, it's very hard to get somebody hospitalized against their will. And so there would have to be changes kind of at a system level uh to potentially it really impact the behavioral health but certainly increasing behavioral health would be the first step. We have a lot of it's gone to Zoom which is great for maybe you and I but not so great for somebody who's living on you know who's unhoused. And so and that is that we didn't address that much in this plan because we don't have a lot of impact on behavioral health because it is an entirely the county you know does we certainly and Commissioner Johnson and our behavioral supervisor Katherine Clancy they do a lot of work around trying to communicate the needs of the community. Um but it is it's a big problem and we need better mental health services for and behavioral health services to really make an impact on that. And and last question I feel like it's just my opinion, but it helps when people have a sense of purpose. I've seen and granted in much bigger cities, we're talking New York City, things like that. You can't always apply that directly where there's opportunities for, hey, we'll give you housing, but we need you to clean up trash for an hour or two. And if you can do that and you can do that for a week, then maybe we can help you into other some training programs. Is there any talk about giving people jobs that may be menial menial or easy to do with little training as a stepping stone to try to get them further employment through a county level?

I mean, I think that there are programs like Ryan's House is um they're building a commercial kitchen and so they're going to help do some training around um getting like your uh your health card and cooking. And there are um I lost the other one. I don't I do not foresee us saying you need to do this job to have housing. For one, we would lose our funding. That you're not allowed to do that. And two, I think that um I I do think that the federal government is moving in that direction and there are lots of opinions on both sides of that around whether that's going to be effective or not. I think most of the people who are the most vulnerable, they're they're not necessarily ready for that. And so the hope is to get them housed to help with sobriety and behavioral health and then that would be when they're ready maybe to to get into the workforce if if you know if that's an option for them. But at this point I think people when when you're dealing with the most vulnerable, they're in really like that crisis mode, survival mode. And so you really got to get them out of that first before you can kind of tackle those that pyramid, you know, like water, food, housing, and then next, you know, in the next step, the next step.

All right. Well, thank you for my answer my questions and for what you do. Thank you.

All right. Yes, Councilman Romero. Of course, I affirm and support the observations that have been made so far and and I'm going to take up the issue that's not been voiced at all. And that is with regard to drug traffickers who in fact are very skillful at uh engaging and recruiting the most vulnerable people to get them to be substance dependent. And um it's a multi-million dollar uh business and there's a lot of stakeholders involved in it and the stakeholders don't always want to see the uh the addicts uh come around to being free from that. As I've said before, I view drug traffickers very much like slave owners. uh uh they're they hold them captive and uh and if and they do crime to support their habit and it's all very I mean I know it from law enforcement I just could read on it's just like in the back of my hand I know it's so familiar with it and consequently there need to be consequences or uh for individuals who um are trafficking and um and there's many that live on the streets by choice voice. I mean, I know that. I mean, cuz I've dealt with them. Uh, so there are those who are lazy and there are those who are defiant and um and some are addicts and some are uh mental cases because of the drugs. And then there are some who willfully um disable themselves somehow or another so they can get on the uh the dole shall we say of governmental services. So I say

all that not because I am have lack of empathy because I know I'm very familiar with many people who through no fault of their own are not only homeless but jobless. I mean they're in desperate straits. But I am describing that uh the incentive for uh bringing universal addictions if it was possible that that has to be removed and it's not simply I mean we still have to take care of the folks that are homeless and we try to but we need some tough love in here and um and that's where we need uh strong law enforcement prosecutors that will prosecute judge judges that will rule and not just have a rotating uh uh rotating door so that the uh very same traffickers that get busted and then they catch it as this expression goes catch and release. That's ludicrous. Okay, so I did some quick math and I'm not going to go in the detail of it, but the cost of an individual who is homeless and in all likelihood jobless, but not always. Um, it could easily be uh an exponential or at least a um a compounded cost. It's not like 10 + 10 + 10. It's 10 x tens 10 x 10 because the people who are on the street, they're not contributing to the tax base. They're drawing tax monies uh through services and then on top of that they're depreciating the quality of our town because I've been in a number of towns that were wonderful at one time and now they're ruled by um homeless druggies and drug dealers. I mean my own I call it my hometown of Burian. It used to be a wonderful town, but now it's just uh it's gotten to be disaster. So, uh so I say all that because I wanted to

voice in public this concern because I have empathy not just for the homeless who are not who are homeless on through no fault of their own, but I have empathy for the people who work who work hard, people even who have two and three jobs. And guess what? their taxes are supporting the people who willfully are saying I'm I'm living on the street. And I've talked to them recently. I say, "No, no, no, Jot. Work is not my not my thing." So So, and um here I am retired from the Navy and I work hard as hard as ever. I try to put in 40, 50, 60 hours a week doing public service and work. Okay. So, uh so it's made a matter of record and I've addressed it. I don't have anything else to say. Mayor, thank you.

All right. It's any anybody else? Yes, Council Member Peterson. Thank you. Didn't didn't turn on. Thank you. Um, you mentioned the dollars amount and you said we have many many high income earners in Oak Harbor. Many many is not. No, in Island County. The area median income is set by the whole county. So, not just OAR.

Can you tell me what many many actually is? 20 40 180 what's many many high income earners and what's the high income to you because you well I would I know that there are 6,000 approximately 6,000 units that are at second third homes in this community and so I would say those people are are very high income. So I I could I could give you that figure right off the top of my head but I don't have an exact tax bracket number for you. Okay. because you equated that to our median income. Mhm. So, I'm assuming there are numbers somewhere. What What What is Island County's median income?

Um, for a family of four, it 100% of the area median income, I believe, is around $112,000. So, I'm sorry, my pen's not working very well. 112,000 is our median income. Yes, approximately. Okay. carbon will be slightly lower. Yeah, Carver will be slightly lower. Okay. Yeah. And it it only breaks it down unfortunately by county. So I can't tell you the city. Yeah.

That that's all right. Um but part of what this deals with is the kind of money we get or the kind of money we need based on the numbers we have. And as I say, many many doesn't work for me as a number. So um and then 179 actual homeless people and the rest are in and out of homelessness. So that is the number that was counted on the day of point in time count. They say that that number is an is underounted by about two and a half times and those are the people that yes are literally homeless. They're in their car, they're in a shelter, they're sleeping outside. They're not sleeping on someone's couch.

Okay. And just out of curiosity, because we talked about this at one time when the school district was speaking to a group I was in that the the young people who are angry at their parents and not living at home anymore counted in the homeless um population. Is that still true? So the school has Yeah. different they count people who are who are sleeping on couches. Uh yes. Unaccompanied minors not sleeping staying at home. Yes. Th those numbers are different. But that's not part of your count. Not part of our count. No. Okay. We're not allowed to count that. Okay. Unless they are sleeping on the street.

They're bunking with their buddy. Okay. Um, thank you. That's all I have. This is a a big work and um I know y'all are working hard on it and I thank you for that. Thanks. Yes. Just one second, Barbara. A high income earner is 198,000 and above, just so you know. Thank you. Uh-huh. Yes, Barbara or Council Member Arms. Sorry. Whatever. I'm sorry.

I want to thank you for presenting this information. You know, this is a long-term thing that's been going on for years. You know, I'm old enough to remember when it all really hit the fan and started and it's really hard and we have so many organizations that are trying so hard. And I wish we had, you know, like um a place where we knew where all this information was. You know, where are all these facilities? Like if you have somebody that needs something, then you're scrambling yourself to figure out which place do I go? like you have a you know some kind of book or something where we have the information out because I ran into that situation and you know I'm scrambling to try to answer that person's question. Uh luckily they found something but you know it was well how about here here or there. So, I wish we had a better way to put the information out like you could. It's a lot of work, but you can go here, there, and whatever. And it is very hard to do. You know, it does take a lot of resources. It takes a lot of energy. And you guys do a fabulous job. This is a longstanding problem. And I think part of the problem in Oak Harbor is the jobs. There isn't jobs that equate for what the houses are paying, right?

You know, you you can't expect somebody on $15 an hour to think they're going to rent the apartment for 12 $1,500 a month because then you have a utilities, the car, the insurance. It's all the things that go with it that we forget. We're, you know, you look at, oh, well, he's got a job. Well, you forgot, you know, he has other things to do, right?

And um so it would be interesting to see that kind of collaborative information so that if you had a crisis with somebody you knew it would be there. But you did an outstanding job. I hope you come back. I hope we get more information and whatever we can do, I would really appreciate helping. I you know it's a it's a cause dear to my heart too. Thank you. And if you do have somebody really contacting coordinated entry is the best option because unfortunately there's wait lists really for all the shelters right now. And so we have those weight lists. The people who are most vulnerable get get sent to the the openings. And so um that would be the best bet right now.

So Emily, you guys do have a resource tab on your county website, do you not? That has all of this information listed on it. Um I I we we do. I don't know. I haven't looked at it recently enough to know it off.

No, that's fine. I didn't mean to put you on the spot with that. It was just to say because one of the things that we can do is I will have Maggie work with the county too and we can pro we can put a link up on our website that that put you through to that. So, um and I do have some information that was just shot to me here. Um so, Oak Harbor approximately $76,84 is the median income. Is that it, David? And then the median individual income is $44,000 for Oak Harbor from the unverified AI results.

Those numbers were for household income from the unverified AI results. So I'm just saying so that's what he Yeah. just shot over. So again the the 198 though is a national number for a high income earner. So I that is a safe number that you can use. So I shouldn't have said many many. I probably should have just said one many.

Well, I would that would not surprise me though. I mean, if you look, especially on the south end, there are a lot of second homes. And so, and in the line of work that I come from, I know what people make there. There are many, many high income earners there. So, um, I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. No. So, yeah. Any other questions for Emily? Oh, yes. Council member Marshall. Thank you, mayor. You you had mentioned assistance for those that fall behind on on rent. Is there is that same true for somebody that falls behind on a mortgage, for example, or is it

Unfortunately, no. We had mortgage assistance during the pandemic and that money ended. And so, we we do not have mortgage assistance. There is a Washington state resource line for people who are facing foreclosure and having struggles with paying their mortgage. I don't know exactly what services provide, but we do give that number out. But that is something that the state has recognized that we need, but I think because we're in such a deficit right now in Washington state that there's not money putting being put forward, but hopefully in the future that would be something um that that could be available again because I know that was really helpful for people.

And then the the methodology for using median income, where has that come from? I mean, does is that required versus the ability to use actual income, right? Um because you mentioned like a Camas flat, some of those those apartments are over $2,000, but is there a methodology or way to use just actual income and and make it a percentage of somebody's earnings? the income is set by HUD and so those the federal government oversees area median income, but the state could um look at proposing a different different way to do that and and then my guess would be they would need to get permission to do that from the federal government because it's kind of a standard practice on across the country.

Okay. Thank you. There are, and just so you know, there are veterans programs for federal veterans and for active duty military for mortgage relief. Um, yeah. So, yes, Council Member Wiganstein. Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you again as well for all of the the information and for supporting the county like you do. I'm going to kind of say what I don't think you could. Yes, there are. I got to talk to the mayor about I can't tell every opinion on right. Isn't that right? Yeah. Okay.

I'm I'm talking what I'm saying is yes, the the organizations meet probably still on a quarterly basis because I still get emails from them that bring the nonprofits and church organizations that support people in need. Um and they meet typically at you was at St. Augustine. I don't know if they're meeting anywhere else, but um most of the major churches are involved and supporting. And then I know that Sven and Homeless and Senior Services and Island County has been there a few different times. Um and so that is happening. They also put out a list of all services that does exist um out there. So th those things are out. they probably could use some some, you know, injection and more and update and some new energy into it um to help out and revitalize and rejuvenate things. Um we're not reinventing any wheels here. None of this process is new to any of us. If you're been in the industry as long as I have, um it all comes to be, right? Um you know, you know, yeah, consequences need to be enforced if we can enforce them. Um this is a bigger bigger problem. It really is. We're trying to address it through our comprehensive plan and that and impacting the growth of housing needs and we already have a shortage of housing, right? We don't have enough jobs for for people that live here to be able to get the housing, right? And and so that's the problem. It's it's it's way more up than just getting somebody treatment or locking somebody up in jail. The Department of Justice has been treating addiction and behavioral health issues as a crime since the beginning. Addiction and behavioral health medicine was never designated as a disease until a few decades ago. So, it's very much

late in that process of of following that disease mo model. And so, we don't if you have a heart attack, you go to the hospital. If you have a schizophrenia attack, you go to jail. How's that even close to to to equitable for for all our citizens? Um, so but we don't want to release that. So, we can't just get rid of a system that has somewhat worked to help keep the problem at bay. Um, but we don't necessarily have anything in place yet that's going to totally take it away. We're in the right direction with this harm reduction. And I'm the last probably to get on the harm reduction boat. I'm an old school, you know, individual from from the counseling world that believe believed in abstinence-based period for a long long long time. I mean, that doesn't work as effectively as you think it does. It's not willpower. It's it's a brain disease. There's a disconnection in our brain that is causing all that. I could do a whole school on if you'd like, but and and that was the other thing. I I'm more than welcome to to to visit and help and be a part of that. And I'm much more active starting today. So, um, thank you again. And and hopefully I covered what I didn't miss.

Thank you for that. And when you get your invitation to the next one, could you make me your plus one? I would really like to attend that meeting. So, yeah. Okay. All right. Anything else for Emily? Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. Thank you. All right. We are now going to take a step backwards and go into city council finalization of overarching priorities. And here to introduce this topic is our fabulous communications officer Maggie Agular. Hello. Let me grab before we do that. Maggie, we're going to take a 5minut quick break for everyone. We'll be back at 2:26. Sounds good.

Good enough. Good enough. probably.

All right, it is 2:26. We are going to get back in session here and we are going to continue on where we left off with city council finalization of overarching priorities with our communications officer, Maggie Aguilar. Hi, Maggie. You can Yeah, you can just sit right there.

Um, good afternoon, mayor and uh city council members. um happy to be here today to present um the council priorities and the discussions that we had at your council retreat. Let me move over to the next slide. So why are are we here today and the purpose um we're here to review the priorities that you talked about at um at your retreat, present those categories um and also present the input that you had given at that retreat. present the data and also look at the final priorities for 27 and 28. Okay. Um this is just a reminder of your 2025 2026 priorities which are displayed online on our website. Also I included the legislative priorities there for you as well to see. Um, on January 8th, as you remember, we held the council retreat. And this is uh just to remind you of that process. If you needed uh to trigger your memory of what uh took place that day, uh we gave you some sticky notes. We had uh the green notes were your top priorities for the identified priorities, followed by the yellow notes were your secondary priorities, and then those items were grouped under the nine overarching priorities and goals. Um, and then we reviewed those, had a discussion, and summarized all of the responses. The top priorities identified that day are listed here. I won't go through all of them as we are going to go through them throughout the process today. So, we'll move on. Okay. So, I did break down the priorities. uh also took key themes from

the discussion that day and listed them under the uh the priorities. And I also want to um uh let you know that these were done before I sent you that survey on March 5th. So the this these are the key uh themes that were found um on that day. So we'll discuss the survey after we go over these, but I'm not going to go over them in in complete detail because we will be here for a very long time. you do have them and um the uh so the first one obviously public involvement these are the key findings uh key themes that that uh were discussed that day

I just want to add to I'm going to interrupt but I just want to add these are your priorities so when you don't participate in the survey process I don't want to hear you complaining about that you're not reflected in this so okay

thank All right. Next one was the housing action plan followed by police engagement. I also should note uh for the record that at the council retreat our uh chief of police and um chief both chiefs were there. So uh followed by employee morale. I also did a brief overview of the employee survey and discussed some of the things that are being discussed at the uh employee survey committee meetings which that will be coming up. Our next one will be coming up March 19th. roadway projects and its key themes. Park maintenance which also included recreation uh park maintenance and recreation utility infrastructure, water supply and storage connecting downtown and marina and then we also had a an option for other. So, as I went through these themes, um I was trying to find an efficient um way to uh to conduct today's uh workshop. So, on March 5th, I sent you a survey with these uh with the questions and a breakdown of every priority with the key themes that I just explained. And uh and I'm proud to announce, mayor, that everybody everybody took it. So, thank you so much. Yeah, just a few reminders, but they everyone did it. So, thank you so much.

Yes.

Yes. So, um uh you have today a presentation that I put together with the uh the the priorities and the goals. Uh I also included a summary for each and that's not that's not listed in the in the presentation because you have that in front of you. I just completed it last night. Um so so the presentation has uh like I said each priority. I also included the summary for what we had talked about at the retreat and I I took your top three goals three or four goals based on the survey that you took uh online. So I do appreciate you taking that appreciate the um you trusting the process and also the comments that you gave after at the end of the survey. So the first one, public involvement. Um our city administrator and David uh also have a copy of that. Um these are your top goals. Priority two is your uh implement housing action plan. And if you would like uh a revision on any of the summary or if you would like to add anything to these top goals, uh please let me know. I'm happy to do that. I'm also happy to uh meet with you one- on- one and discuss if you would like to add anything or have um uh any additions to some of to some of the goals. Happy to do that with you. Priority three. Uh this was really interesting because there was a four-way tie for each goal. Um yeah, so goal uh A through D, there were three votes each. So that was a four-way tie. So those are your top four priorities there. It was really interesting to see the the results because everybody it was pretty much on on par with uh with everybody's everybody's view. So, it was really nice to to look at. Uh the employee morale, I

added uh a fourth goal just because there was some there was a tie there as well. And I also want to add with the employee morale um with your permission I would like to take this to the uh employee survey committee and discuss this a little further and see what the committee has in terms of suggestions to uh to support this this priority roadway projects. Yes, of course. that they're invited to everything. Correct.

They're invited to everything. Correct. They are definitely invited to everything. So, we will That's on them to show up, right? We will Yeah, we will include that. We will work with council. I'm just making a point. Yes. Okay.

Yes, we will work with council to navigate through that process to see which items or which activities, events, things like that they can attend. Happy to navigate through that. uh roadway projects. Uh priority six, your parks and maintenance and recreation. Priority seven is your repair utility infrastructure. uh followed by eight water storage and supply and then um your priority nine it I included the breakdown of the survey at the very end of the presentation. So if you look at um connecting downtown and marina there is a uh one two three five there's a fiveway tie on all of the other items uh in the survey. So basically all of that has to do with a waterfront act vision to action plan. So we can include some sub goals in in into that that theme.

Ackie. Yes ma'am. That the this particular one was actually number 10 and number 11. I'm assuming you scrunched all that together.

I did. I combined Yeah, I combined that data. And so when I created the survey, it did multiply that question and I didn't want to remove it once there was data in there because it's not good practice to remove any questions after there's been data submitted. So I did keep it on there and then just combine both data. Both. Yeah. Um and again I included the uh the breakdown of the results and uh that is that is what I have. Do you have any questions? Um, I do I did have some comments at the end of the survey. So, uh, would love to meet one-on-one if you'd like to create some sub goals or uh, some other goals and if something changes within the year or if something does come up that is an important issue that you would like. I believe we we can amend this, right? And Okay.

It's their priorities. Yeah. Okay. So, I just want to make sure that this is a document that it it is it could be amended based on your your priorities and um whatever is important to you. So, um we are going to do some outreach on this and make sure that the community is able to follow along to see where the progress is um so they're able to see it visually as well. I didn't give one to you, but I did. You're welcome. And any questions? Questions, comments. These are your priorities. Yes. Council member Romero, communications director Maggie Aguilar. I love this. Oh god, because you compelled us to think about these things. Good. I'm glad

the administration did. So, thank you for that. That's all I have. Yes, Council Member Arms. Uh, we do have something new that is going to come out. Um the um Margaret Livermore from Main Street is working with the marina to better connect and they're having some kind of brochure something that they're working on right now. I did see that and it's going to go to whoever to look at it. So that's kind of an improvement with that so that we have a better connection with the two. I did see that. I believe it's she is trying to create a walking map.

Yes. Yes. Council member Peterson. Thank you, Mayor. Would would y'all please explain to me what are you thinking when we are talking about increasing council member presence and engagement with staff? Because my thought process was that when you say staff, are you talking about the department heads? Aren't we just kind of supposed to not deal with staff or talk to staff? I'm just confused about that whole thing. No, when there when there are events like the um the staff holiday party or the staff picnic all staff all staff,

those are things that you guys should be coming to and be a part of. Um when there are staff um departmental like if there's a retirement and someone's retiring, you guys should be there if you want to be there. Um, Council Member Stucky and Council Member Arms are sorry, but they're frequently there for all of them. So, just pointing that out. So, um, those are the types of things that we're talking about. Yeah. I mean, should should you be walking up to an HR person and saying, "Hey, I heard this happened to No, you shouldn't be doing things like that." But, I mean, yes, but you know, it's good to say hello and have a relationship with them, and those are good things. So, yeah. Go ahead. The the other thing I will add is sometimes when our staff is presenting at the chamber of commerce or there's an event at the center, those are also other good opportunities to um chat with the staff. That's what they're looking for is that engagement where they can talk to you about events and programs and specifically when they're running a booth having that conversation with you because it also shows the community your engagement in the programs that they're working on.

Yes, Council Member Stucky.

Couple of thoughts. First, I've I've gone through a few of these goal setting exercises. I I will say that what I've seen thus far, this has probably been one of the best and most seamless. I've sat through here for multiple meetings. I I love the Whby News Times article. It said council can't prioritize their priorities. I think that was from what four years ago. I think the survey you did and to do it that way was absolutely wonderful as opposed to us just sitting here hashing it out. Not that we can't have a little bit of that, but the hashing it out of our multiple meetings, boy, that was not always as efficient as it could be. So, wonderful job. Um, two thoughts. one on the interactions with staff and I'm just because newer to council it it it is an interesting eb and flow. I think we've seen both scenarios. I think we've seen a scenario where council members have come into people's offices and basically told them what to do which we're not supposed to be doing. And I've seen times where we're completely out of the picture, never talking to them. There's no relationship there and we're in a bubble.

So it's definitely a give and take. And sometimes we overstep, sometimes we underst. But I I think and I don't want to speak for mayor, I think that's kind of the in intent when we talk about interactions with staff. It's not don't interact with staff, don't say hi in the street, don't have any kind of relationship. It's don't go into their office. I I mean, I've gone into offices of department heads and and asked a question before. I mean, that's totally fine. Um or even a lot of times I'll get people that interact with me and I'll forward it to the department head like hey can you give me a response I can forward on or or could you help but definitely we have had instances in the past where we've gone in and made trouble intentionally or unintentionally. So it's an eb and flow but so that's probably some of the thought process. I do have one specific question because I know when you know when the community looks at priorities a lot of times they want things that are easy to understand and immediately tangible. Probably the biggest item would be roads.

Road I mean homelessness sure but like when we get into like the weeds of like inflow and outflow I don't think the average person would be like that should be top priority. It's roads and whether or not that should be is a different conversation but we do need to concentrate on roads. Right now, the biggest road is Pioneer. Pioneer. It was Westwy. Now it's Pioneer. And I see every time we spend money on anything, when are you going to do Pioneer? And I've always used the answer of, well, it's in the CIP. It's supposed to be addressed within the next 5 years. And all that's true, but I actually looked at the CIP the other day and it is on there, but the part that concerns me, and this might be a David Goldman question, giving him a heads up.

Yeah, he is. He is. He's always listening. So when I when I looked at the C and I'm just taking just this what I saw in the CIP. It says that there's basically going to be substantial work in 2728 to the tune of a couple million dollars and the funding is not secured. It was basically implying it was on grant funding of how that was going to be done. If we're going to make this a priority, do we have funding or how are we getting the funding? I mean I I I just want to be able to tell people yes, it is actually being worked on. It's not just on a plan that's going to keep being pushed back over and over.

All right. So, um, thank you for that question, Council Member Stucky. What we're going to do is when we put the budget together, we want to follow, um, guidelines and this, um, this survey responses and the work that the city council has done over the past two months will be those guidelines that'll help us develop the budget. So, we're going to start out the capital improvement plan process relatively soon and we're going to put together the priorities based on this document and then we'll plug in the revenues that we have available to um manage some of these items depending on priority level. And then we'll also look for grant revenues and other revenues that we don't currently have to ensure that you know we at least have a plan put together to go towards um what's needed based on the priorities provided.

Okay. And I'm going to along those lines tee up our public works director only because I want to make sure the answer is coming straight from the source. It's not a matter of let's just repave it. I believe there's a lot more to it and if you could elaborate a little bit on that stuff underneath the surface. It's not just yay let's just go out there on an afternoon pave it over because there's some potholes. Yeah, I um I'll be very brief. There's really I think though three separate projects when people bring up Pioneer. One is go fix the potholes which seems to be the one people are responding to the most just cuz in essence there's no road anymore in some areas. It's just potholes holding up other potholes. Uh second, there's the Main Street group that approached us that wants to do something to draw people downtown. And so they wanted to do kind of an an interim improvement to the road uh with trees and some artwork and things like that. And then there's the we just went through the year and a half of the waterfront visioning and that area was a big part of the renderings. And so that's the third area is the redevelopment of that. And as you work on the comp plan and some of those areas uh are scheduled for upzones, there's that ultimate redoing of pioneer. So to me, when we talk to constituents, I I follow up now more with finding out which one are they talking about, right? Which one of those three things are they focused on? So, as far as fixing the potholes for the most southerntherly lane as you head eastbound, which is the worst, we plan to do some uh initial uh pothole fixing. It won't be a beautiful new road, but let's call it pothole fixing uh this year. Then there is really uh we we went out and we met with wash regarding Main Street's request. The difficulty is SR20 and that five lanes

right there. There's not much we can do for about 300 400 ft um near that intersection because you can't just take five lanes and say oh everyone will emerge in like 50 ft and we'll do what Main Street Group wants to do, right? So that kind of discouraged Main Street Group appropriately in that a lot of the work would not be right at the highway intersection. It would be very difficult to do that on an interim basis. Um, so that one's kind of off the plate for right now. So the other one is the really the redoing of that and we have more conversation uh to do that and so we would typically need to apply for state or federal grants and be successful in getting those grants before we did that redevelopment of that main street.

Did that help? It did the part but the part I like there is talking about the potholes and that we will try to address at least something of that this year. Yeah. Not redoing the whole road but at least some of the more inexpensive clear.

Yeah. And then the conversation we're having uh in house uh briefly is a fourth alternative which is do we use our precious arterial money which is only $500,000 a year which I know sounds like a lot of money but as you know we're guessing that oil prices will be even more expensive this year. Right. Um, and so, um, do we want to just fix those potholes so people it's a little smoother for you or do we want to do a a complete resurfacing of that knowing that we've got a redevelopment in, you know, coming up in the next 5 to 10 years? And so, that's something we'll bring to council. We'll work with Sabrina and David to to talk about those alternatives. You know, we're kind of leaning that that could be a like a a waste of precious money and there could be other roads that we want to preserve and and leave Pioneer the way it is and then figure out how we communicate that with Maggie and and the mayor.

I think so. Wonderful. Well, I appreciate now I have something to reference people to. So, thank you so much. Actually, can I add something really quick? Um I I would like to acknowledge the public works um team and um Stephen and and the staff over there because they're consistently updating the projects page. So uh all of the questions that the community has um they they can find those answers easily on the website uh because it is constantly being updated and Alex our city engineer and I are working on some outreach uh for roads things because that is one of the biggest questions we are getting. So there are some some stuff in the works

and I do think that Steve and Alex are doing a great job in, you know, listening to priorities as well as direction that they're getting from the executive office. Um they're liking the the partnership that we've been having and working together and and seeing the more transparent um way of going through the budget process that's coming up and how we're approaching this. so that you feel like there's a better sense of direction and where we're going as far as planning. So, I just wanted to say that, you know, it's it's been advantageous that way, too. So, go ahead, Council Member Wiggenstein.

Um, thank you, uh, Maggie. And, um, couple of things. I like the fourth idea, by the way. I'd love to figure out how we could pay and just resurface the whole road for 5 or 10 years. It gets enough that'll make it more attractive instead of just having patchy potholes. seems it seems like the more advantageous. Can that infrastructure underneath that road be upgraded at during that project time as well? Oh, I love your follow-up question. Now, now we really get to get into road construction. Uh, which we should spend 90% of our time talking about. Um, way more than 500,000, but I'm just one of granny in this room.

My grand my heritage built roads early on in the 1900s in Missouri. So, yeah. Thank Thank you, council member, for that very smart and uh um and and deep question. You're right. The problem with repaving the road is then we go, "Well, how old is the water line? How old is the sewer line? How old is the storm water system?" And now we've got to, you know, do we really go repave it and not take care of the old water line? We fix it. So, you know where I'm going. I'll leave it at that. But that's the problem.

Yep. Um Thank you. Yeah. And that's that has to be done. It probably when the we do the whole thing anyways. So maybe this is a way to get a little bit of a head start and get the the you know the the community you know understanding that this is going to be a longer process and here we fixed your pothole. You got a whole new road. Um we got to pay for it first. It's not happening yet. Um, my other question was like first to all the staff, thank you for the email invites to events that have been coming. This last year has been a large improvement. Um, is there a way to preload the like the quarterly meetings or any of that into the calendars? Um, so that just kind of like it's it's the recommended attendance for us, right? you know, the all staff meetings or any of that because continually I'm neurode divergent. I have I have like executive functioning issues sometimes and so

I will say remember I will say that I think with the the city events I think we can absolutely do that because we control that 100%. But when you're talking about a ribbon cutting or something that involves Main Street or the chamber, we can't always do that because we don't have that much advanced notice from them. So when as soon as we get those, we're forwarding those on. No, I appreciate that. So, but I don't think that we could do that a quarter in advance is all I'm saying. No, no, no. I was just thinking like we know when I would think we know that staff meetings kind of on a regular time base. Um, so that type of thing and yeah, we can, you know, I understand that the organizations outside our purview we can't control. So, thank you.

Right. And just to answer that question, council member, at our director's uh retreat not that long ago, um we did launch a calendar, a citywide calendar that you will all have access to. So, I'm still working on populating that based on some of the information that came out of that director's retreat. Um last year at the end of last year we also uh conducted along with the chamber and Main Street we conducted a community meeting um which gave us all of the events that were planned for 2026. Unfortunately at that time those events weren't set in stone yet but we are working on creating that calendar um with the with the chamber and um with uh a young lady from Sherwood um services. So hopefully we will get that up and running fairly soon for you.

And thank you again, we're talking about priorities and so to kind of go to the the council member at the end question about what do we mean by because there are priorities and both the mayor and and administrator have answered the question for us. I'll give you mine. I need I I like the calendar help. The more technology we can in integrate into helping us do our job,

the better for everybody all the way around. and I need that help. I'm I'm not as organized as others. And so, um, we we do our best to to do what we can. And then and so I again, thank you for the increase of the last I mean that's been great. It was it was a fun and impressive exercise at the retreat to see the directors and they actually had 12 months up on all the windows calendars and then we used post-it notes to put every department's events and all of the months and then those now that's going to be she's going to make all that electronic and then everyone's going to have access to it. So that's the entire city in a snapshot. So I thought it was it was really impressive to see. It also has like our vacations on there that are already planned and you know we know. So yeah.

Yeah. Any Yes, council member Romero. I support council member Wiganstein's recommendation with regard to the calendar. So thank you for that. Um that's all I've got. Cool. Anything else for Maggie? So I have one more thing for Maggie. Um, these are their priorities, but I am going to suggest one edit. Yes. Priority six, parks, maintenance, and recreation. Goal B, install lighted turf fields, including I would just leave those. Install lighted turf fields. Leave it alone. We don't know where those are going to be yet. Yes.

Yeah. I'll I'll make it on record to strike that Fort Nent. So, Okay. Done. I don't want to upset anyone. So, okay. Noted. Um, is council okay with me bringing this back in April for as an action item?

Council, go ahead. Just speak. It's you guys. I do have one question because I understand I mean these are priorities and what may be a priority for one of us may not be for the whole when it comes to some of these priorities that are more on the back burner and I'll be specific and I'll say the what are we calling it these days the universal playground cuz that was what was parks and w was working on and then it was on grant funding does that mean that we that that is completely abandoned because it didn't make the top top or does that mean is on the back burner and if things come up, we'll pursue it.

So, it's it's one of the things that we're talking about in parks and recreation is the parks and open spaces plan. I probably just said that wrong cuz I always try to get pros spelled out correctly. Parks and recreation open spaces plan. That is what is coming up as one of the activities as well as the work that Maggie's doing for the indoor um recreation facility. So, all of those conversations are going to lead to where those types of projects would fit in into long-term planning. And that is the conversation we're going to be having with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. So, we've talked about the fact that they need to look at the list of items that they have on their list, what we currently said was already existing and needed to be addressed, and then prioritize that to bring a recommendation forward to you. So, I don't want to say it's dead as much as it's something that the group needs to look at and make sure it's prioritized. and then they're going to present a recommendation to you as a council.

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Council member Wiganstein has one more and then Council Member Peterson. Yeah. Um I had it. We can come back. Yeah, go ahead. Council member Peterson, go ahead. I I guess I'm confused. Council member Stucky. Um the second yellow is complete wind jamber park projects playground lagoon windmill. Will that not be part of the playground you were speaking of?

I guess that's a good qu. So the universal playground which is the the term we're we're using now when really it was you know sensory equipment things for people of all abilities. I I don't I don't know. I I assume that that was separate but it might be taking place there but I don't want to. So I am meeting with staff tomorrow afternoon to talk about grants that are u pending and what our applications are going to be going forward. So I can revisit that with you and you'll see it on the application chart. But again, we are planning to talk to the parks and recreation advisory commission about their priorities and what we have funded and what we're going to move forward and what will be uh future grant applications. So that is part of the conversation.

So for those of us from Riol Linda then what playground are you talking about? I know there is a playground there as well that was um older. I don't know exact time reference at this point. Um, so that is a conversation for the commission to provide a recommendation on and I will talk to parks and rec staff about that as well. Yes, council member side. I got it. I wrote it down. Um, so we we do all this and and I'm going to simplify it because some of us need it that way. We do all the priorities in order to help with the budgeting process for the next 2-year cycle in 2728.

Yep. These priorities then should in my opinion would lead the advisory committees. So their priorities I was going to I was going to touch on that. So it's like two things, right? There's current priorities that they're currently working on that are still in the 2526 and then their conversations, you know, should also be including these. So this will, you know, help I' I'd listened to a couple of meetings recently and then and they're looking for things to do and in some in some of those advisory committees. So um good. Thank you.

Yeah. No, thank you for that. So, I had a note to follow up and say I've already met with two this week. I have one tomorrow night with the arts commission as promised. I'm meeting with all of them this month um to lay out roles, responsibilities, and then I'm also talking about um priorities and and then how we're going forward, budget process and that kind of thing. And then I think we're also scheduling a few where needed if wanted uh one-on-one meetings with the chair folks of the different committees to um have further discussion. So if they want that. So yeah. All good. All right. Thank you Maggie. I think we got one more item and then we are free. So

thank you. Last item is ICOM Island County Emergency Services Communication Center lease. And here to introduce that topic is our deputy city administrator and finance director, David Goldman.

This is the city currently leases a structure across the street next to the police headquarters. your mic on. Sorry about that.

So, for the folks at home, ICOM currently leases a structure that's across the street from city hall and right next to the police station, next to that large communication tower. That's very apparent when you're driving down Bington. Um the initial lease with ICOM started back in 2016 and it lasted about 5 years and it was renewed in uh at the end of 2020 and it lasted another 5 years and it expired on December 31st, 2025. Um the uh police um police chief and um ICOM have been negotiating on a lease continuance. So um I'm just going to turn around. up here.

I'm good. So, here's some of the background between what's currently in the lease, what is in the icon proposal, and also what's in the city um proposal that um we're looking at putting together with your input today. So, the le the lease length we're considering keeping it at the five years, but with our proposal, um we would we would put an auto renewal on that. So, an autorenewal for one year. So, it gives us some time to um renegotiate a continuance on the lease if that's what both parties choose. The amount per square foot recently increased to 93 cents per square foot. Um ICOM is proposing um 94 cents per square foot. That was a recent proposal from um the board meeting a few weeks ago. So, our proposal would be to keep the 93 cents through June because the city did provide a notification back in September to ICOM. That would be the rate for 2026. Um, but then we would um change the the terms of the lease, change the amount of lease to $1.29 per square foot for the remainder of 2026. That would be the second half of 2026. And I have a few slides on how that would how that number came about coming up. So the inflation factor that translates into those numbers um for the current lease is 2.7% cuz that was taken back in September of last year. Icon proposal was 3.1% that's the latest um inflation factor and um the city proposal we'll just keep with our notification um for the first half of 2026 at 2.7%. And the inflation factor is pretty much the same thing. is the Seattle um 12-month trailing CPIU, which is consumer price index for all all urban consumers on a 12-month trailing basis. Um our proposal though is to tag it with the October CPI. That's due to the fact

that the October CPI comes out in November and we can have an understanding of what the next increase will be starting in January of every year. um if we wait until the December CPI, that doesn't come out until after January 1st has passed. So there's no way to have it start at the beginning of the year. So the October one makes the most sense here. So as far as rent increase caps go, there is no current rent increase cap. It just goes straight for CPI. The icon proposal from the board was to cap it at 3.1% for the 5 years. And we're saying that it can float with CPI, but we'll bound it. So we'll have a cap of 5% and we'll have a base of 2% because you know cost of maintenance and so on and you know just to maintain the parking lot and everything that goes up you know by by by amount every year. So um so 2 to 5% bounded. So currently there's a September 1st rent increase notification date. I come the proposal is not changing that and what we're saying is that we can make because the CPI doesn't get published until November. We can have an optional rent increase notification date of December 1st. And the only reason I say we should have it optional is because this lease has some certainty to it. Um the CPI is um is a public it's public information. and you can just pull it down when it gets uh published as long as there's not a government shutdown, which happened a few months ago and wasn't published. But as long as that's published, um the person who's paying the lease can pull it down, do the calculations, and know what the knew what the increase is is going to be. Um, also if we keep it optional, if for some reason the December 1st notification deadline is inadvertently missed, um, it could cause a dispute as to saying, you know, well, you know, uh, maybe we don't have to pay that increase even though

the contract says so. So to avoid that dispute, I say just make it optional. Um, and then as far as termination goes, in the current contract, it says in the event of default and/or breach of terms that leads to a termination, there's waiting periods and days and cure notices and all that. With the ICON proposal that the board uh put together, it says um it can be terminated by ICOM with 120day notice. Our proposal is saying we'll keep the 120-day notice, but it'll also be for both parties. The city or ICOM has the right to cancel it. David before you can you go back please one

my notes say and I could have this wrong but that bounded between I thought between the meeting that you myself Sabrina and deputy chief had I have 3 to 5% not 2 to 5%. Oh, I put it down to two only only because you see that inflation factor the the current inflation factor 2.7. Oh. Oh, well, we we keep it at three. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Three. Yeah.

All right. 3 to 5%. All right. So, here's part of the reason why we did this um this this rent adjustment. So, currently it's at 93 cents. Um, we looked we went ahead and looked at some of the data that was out there and what um, commercial property that's it has over 1,000 square foot of space. There's a lot of smaller ones. We we didn't really want to use that because the space we have is 4,200 ft². So, we looked at everything over 1,000 square ft. We looked at what was actually rented out and what's available on the market today. The stuff that was rented out was mo is mostly in 2025. So, it's a little little dated. Um, but the stuff that's available now is, you know, it's it's available now. That's the current going going rate. Um, and we got an a weighted average of $165. So, the thought was we just, you know, meet in the middle at a$1.29 um for the for the for the proposed rate. So, that that just basically splits the difference. And then here's the what the how much revenue that would generate. So, by go by modernizing um the lease and and alignment to that, splitting the difference, it would go to about $56,000 a year, about a 22% increase over um the 2005 amount. Um so, so that's pretty much um kind of what we put our calculations together. And you see um there's 2017. So I know it it doesn't show all the years between 2017 and 24 just because of space things but basically it if you look on the chart that's in the backup that's in the actual agenda packet you can see that it has increased between 0 and 9% um per year over that time period. And with that, um, we are available to, uh, hear your feedback and, um, make adjustments if necessary. And then we'll

bring we'll bring back, um, we'll communicate with ICOM about it and then we'll bring back something to city council for approval and, um, deliberation at a later date. Questions, comments from councils? Council member Peterson.

Thank you, uh, staff and David. Um, it's like I'm asking for any tenant improvements at this time. Um the only thing that that is uh on the improvement list is the emergency generator and that is already budgeted by the uh uh Sandra has already budgeted that as equipment rental replacement um with the police department. So they're going to replace um the police department's emergency generator and icons at the same time. There's already $75,000 that's in that fund. Um, and it's been an ongoing process of getting that um, generator purchased and and identified. So,

I'm I'm having just a tiny bit of trouble hearing you. Did you say there's over $75,000 or only? No, there's there's over $75,000 in that fund already for that replacement that it's not going to cost that much, but with installation and everything. Yeah. Council member Stucky. Who pays utilities? They do. They do. Is this tripline?

Um, where is Let I can't proceed going sideways and them saying, "Hey, we're out." But let's assume they they did. They can't just take their office and just put it somewhere. It's not a matter of just, "Hey, let's move the phones and computers." Like, there's much more to this. Correct.

Correct. There's the the uh it's a purpose-built facility for dispatch. It's um because there wasn't um funding streams uh outside of user funds in the past. Um we as a city decided to not increase their rent. Um that's changed now that they've got the um 210 sales tax uh percentage that they'll start receiving in April. And you kind of teed me up for where I was going to go with that 210. still remember listening to the presentation. I still remember, oh, the possibility that this could go back to the municipalities and things like in a certain way. Is there any talk of that or is it still, hey, we're collecting the money. We don't know what it's going to look like.

They're not they're not decreasing fees. No, I guess that's my question. Yes. I mean, t typically places don't decrease fees, but the board the board voted to not decrease this the fees for this year. However, there is a full study going on right now on how to spend the fees and not going to decrease all of that. I I I kind of tend to agree that they're pro I mean, if they said yes, we're going to decrease our fees, I' I'd probably be a lot more likely to to play a little more ball, but if they're not going to decrease their fees, we're still getting them a decent deal. And I think as a city, we have a habit of giving good deals. I look at the yacht club.

Um I just saying I I think that this increase is absolutely warranted. I like that it's being anchored with something so it's not just, hey, this is what we feel like. I I see no reason why not to go with the city's proposal and it's not like we're being unreasonable and saying, hey, where else you going to go? I think we're being very reasonable and I think this increase is warranted. And I would say I'm all for it. I can tell you at the board meeting, was it last week or two weeks ago, there's there's no intention of moving. They they may have like a 10-year plan, but like in the next not for 10 years. Um we're we're definitely increasing, but we're still far behind what the market rate is. So, they're still getting a very sweet deal. It's not near the deal that the yach club's getting, but um they're definitely they're getting an increase. And you know and I made them aware of that that there was going to be discussion about that you know I would look at whatever they were paying and look at the market and you know we would decide but you know so I was very candid. I think we have a meeting next week to discuss this. I think we're having a special meeting next week or a week after next. So I don't know I have some coming up. Sorry. Um anyway it's coming up. Um and we're going to discuss this. I don't anticipate any push back. I really don't. So again, we're not we're not breaking the bank here. So any other Yes, Council Me. Thank you, Mayor. For the record, I'm strongly in favor of establishing the costs that we ch that we charge or the based on reliable, relevant data and information that reflects reality and not what special pressure groups want. Not to mention the yacht club by name. Yeah. No, I mean this what they weren't even in they didn't come into this

thought process at all. We looked at um index data. I I just I want to go with 3 to five because I think overall that's going to eventually bring us in line with a market rate because by the time that they're ready to vacate that building, the city can then be in a position to reent to somebody else and you be in a stronger position to um budget for replacement costs. So yeah, anything else? All right, that's it then. Thanks so much. All right. Well, that is the last thing on the agenda. So, I did not ask you guys if you had anything. Does any you guys have anything you want to report out on before we adjourn? Nothing. Okay. It won't then at 33