City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome. As it is 5.30 p.m., I will call the City Council meeting of August 5th, 2026 to order. We recognize that this meeting is being held on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people. We pay our respect to those past and present. Tonight's invocation will be led by Pastor Matthew Erickson from the First Reformed Church. If we could all please stand for the invocation and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, let's pray. Gracious God, we thank you for the privilege of calling Oak Harbor our home and for the many people who work together to make this a strong, welcoming, and a flourishing community. Tonight, we give thanks for those who bring music, art, celebration, and joy into the life of our city. We're grateful for the many volunteers, the local businesses, the artists, and community leaders whose service helps create places where neighbors can gather and relationships can grow. We also thank you for the work that often goes unnoticed for the employees who maintain our streets, our utilities and parks, public spaces, and essential services. Bless those who serve our community day after day, often behind the scenes, and keep them safe in their work. As the council members consider the stewardship of public resources and the care of the infrastructure beneath our city, grant them wisdom to look beyond the immediate moment, make decisions that will serve both the residents of today and the generations who will follow us. Give our mayor, council members, city staff, and all who speak tonight patience to listen carefully, humility to learn from one another, and courage to pursue what is just, responsible, and what is good. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Reminder that this will be both a physical and a virtual meeting. The meeting may be viewed on YouTube and following the meeting on Facebook. All members are present and accounted for. No reason to call for roll. Next up is the approval of the agenda. Are there any suggested changes to the regular agenda as presented? If not, I would request a motion to approve it as presented. Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

I move to approve tonight's agenda as presented.

Second. Okay, we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented by Mayor Pro Tem, seconded by Councilmember Wittgenstein. Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Hearing, seeing none. All in favor, raise your right hand. Passes unanimously. All right. First up tonight, we have a presentation by our Oak Harbor Music Festival. And here to introduce that topic is the Oak Harbor Music Festival board president, Miss Cynthia Mason.

Hello. It's that time again. Thank you for this moment in time to say hello and brag about the music festival just a little bit. We're entering in the 15th year. The board of directors work all year long, clocking in nearly 1,900 hours on fine tuning every single detail to bring the world class event to Oak Harbor annually on Labor Day weekend. Those board members include Margaret Livermore, River Powers, Diana Bodine, Maggie Aguilar, Mary Elizabeth Himes, Rachel Spears, Larry Mason, our newest member to the table, John Shajar, and myself. The event couldn't be possible without the hundreds of volunteers that show up and give their time in making the festival such a success as we roll out the red carpet for the musicians, food vendors, arts and craft vendors, and the thousands of visiting festival goers. Keeping the festival free is no small feat. The 2026 sponsors include title sponsor Annie Cash, along with stage sponsors Island Thrift and People's Bank, beer and wine garden sponsors Hearing Health Services, Balance Center, and Land Title and Escrow. The center stage sponsor this year is Whidbey Coffee, Busker's Cove sponsors Island Trollers, and volunteer apparel sponsors Regency on Whidbey, both the Oak Harbor and Coopville locations. Campground sponsors this year is Brushworks, and backstage sponsors Team Kingsbury at Caldwell Banker 360. and Tradewinds Insurance. Our annual report that I put in front of you before you came in the room gives a little insight of operating expenses and funding sources, which in addition to the sponsorship program include LTAC grants from both this county and the city of Oak Harbor. Revenue from the festival is returned to the community by way of scholarships offered to all high school students on Whidbey Island heading to college, pursuing music in some capacity. Also, the Quarter Note Fund is an instrument program created to assist Whidbey Island middle schoolers, and currently we're exploring ways to touch the grammar school kiddos. As of 2025, Cumulatively, over $130,000 has been awarded. With that, let's take a look at last year's event. And we have our video and get everybody excited about that 2026 Music Festival.

Music Fest 2025! Woo! Hello, everybody! We're so excited you're here! Woo!

Welcome to the 2025 Oak Island Music Festival.

It's gonna kill me softly I want it so bad Forbidden fruit goes down so soon It's a wonder we all ain't cried It's warning in the morning You're gonna wanna run it back Cause sugar's so sweet and honey's so sticky If it's too good it's gotta be

Music Fest has been great this year. It's been so fun to see people come out from off the island. We love having such a big, really exciting, fun event right on Main Street.

Cause sugar's so sweet and honey's so sticky. If it's too good, it's gotta be.

So fun. So it's that time to officially invite the council members to attend our Oak Harbor Music Festival Labor Day weekend. And hopefully, Mayor, your calendar is free for you to participate in the opening day ceremonies on Friday, September 4th. and I'm literally running off to the Sounds of Summer concert series that begins tonight. The series is funded by the festival as a thank you to all the community for the support they give to this event. Come down to Windjammer the first four Wednesdays of August, bring a chair, picnic, family, and friends, and enjoy the music on the green. Thank you, guys.

Thanks so much. Council Member Merrill.

Cynthia, I wanted to make mention of the fact that I'm not a generational person of Oak Harbor, but I've constantly got my eyes on performers of all kinds of get things done. And the music festival is astronomically successful and wonderful. So it's exemplary for all the events that we all have. So I wanted to thank you and your leadership team specifically because you've got it.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

All right. We're going to move on to public comments. Comment on consent agenda items or subjects of interest not listed on the agenda at this time. Opportunity to comment on the remaining agenda items during the meeting as appropriate. Please note comments regarding public hearing items will be heard during that portion of the agenda. We have no public hearing items for today's meeting. Visit our website for methods to submit public comments. Public comments sent anonymously or from a non-verifiable address will be shared with the mayor and council but will not be displayed. At this time, we will accept public comments on items not listed on the agenda or on the consent agenda. The clerk will call your name and the order in which you signed in to speak. Please step forward to the microphone and state your name and address. Please limit your comments to three minutes.

Mayor, we had no one sign up to speak this evening.

Okay, great. And is there anyone here with us that didn't have an opportunity to sign up that would like to step forward at this time and make public comment? Hearing seeing none, I'm going to close public comment and we are going to move on.

We do have one comment that we received. Oh, sorry.

We'll display that now. Okay, thank you. Mm-hmm. Alex, I'm assuming you're taking note of that. Yes, I'm aware of that. Okay. Thanks. All right. With that, we will now conclude public comment and move on to consent agenda. Tonight's meeting has three items on the consent agenda, including two regular items and the award of a construction contract for a project discussed in detail at the April 28th Council Workshop as part of the capital project presentation and subsequently bid. Presenting items and answering council questions in advance at workshops allows us to place them on our consent agenda and helps to shorten our meetings and make them more efficient. Are there any objections or other changes to the consent agenda items as presented?

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I'm very sorry, but I don't really recall hearing about the construction contract and it's probably because I was on vacation, but can we just hear a little bit about it, please? Like maybe a five minutes.

So we have to pull it off of the consent agenda. That's the proper action to take.

Thank you. I'd like to pull it off the consent agenda.

Okay. So you're making a motion to remove

The construction contract off of the consent agenda. I'd like to make a motion to, I am making a motion to pull the approval of the construction contract.

Right, which is item 4C.

4C.

Okay. And I second it. Okay, so we have a motion to remove item 4C from the consent agenda as presented by Councilmember Peterson, seconded by Councilmember Marrow. Are there any other items that we want removed at this time? All right, so the proper protocol would be to approve the consent agenda first and then do this item.

I believe so, yes.

Right, so can we just approve a, can we approve the consent agenda with items 4A and 4B first? So moved.

Seconded.

Okay, we have a motion to approve items 4A and 4B. And seconded, is there any further discussion on that? All right, all in favor, raise your hand. All right, we all agree. All right, now we're gonna pull back down item 4C. Alex, I'm gonna guess we want you to

All right, thanks, Mayor and Council. I'm Alex Warner, City Engineer, and we have our Project Manager and Senior Utility Engineer, Andy Walsh, with us to give this presentation on our Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation, Inflow, and Infiltration Project Contract Award.

Yes, so happy to provide an overview of the project. This project was, let me, I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Hey, there we go.

Okay.

So this is an effort over a number of years. I've been with the city for a year and I took this project over but it was thoughtfully scoped. It involved a variety of funding sources including funds from the EPA, from I believe it was Representative Larson who provided some funding for this, about $2 million. But basically in scoping the project, we evaluated or we applied for these funds to look at some of the worst sewers in the city that would contribute I and I which is inflow and infiltration when we get rain events or there's just groundwater that's above the pipe that can seep in through cracks that are created a lot of these pipes are old clay pipes and trees send roots to the pipes and so it's not uncommon but on These sewers here, they're some of the oldest in the city in the southeast quadrant and we work with our utilities staff to evaluate some of these pipes by close capture, TV, video of each of the pipes and our staff are trained through this program, through the NASCO Pipe Assessment Certification Program and identify the defects in the pipe. So we found the worst pipes in this area, keeping in mind future development that may occur and trying to tackle some of these projects that we don't think will be replaced at any point soon. We determined that there are 1,500 feet of pipes that needed to be excavated. primarily undersized pipes where we weren't able to get equipment into to maintain properly. We also considered trenchless technologies to rehabilitate the pipes without digging. This is an area that's culturally sensitive, and so we wanted to avoid digging where possible. So 9,000 feet of pipe, we determined we could slip line, which is a felt sock product that they saturate with an epoxy and they invert it into the existing sewer pipe and it creates a structural repair. And I have a sample of that that I'm happy to pass around if you're interested. Would you like me to bring it up?

Okay.

The samples there, the one on the inside is the felt sock, which is the product that gets inverted into the pipe. So that's before it cures. And the hard ring on the outside is after it's cured. So you can separate the two and look at them if you'd like. But it creates a hard shell, basically a structural lining within a pipe. and so like we show up here about 9 000 feet of pipe will be rehabilitated in that fashion and it avoids having to trench pave avoid traffic control or any disruptions in that regard Like I mentioned, it'll reduce infiltration into the system. It preserves capacities of the pipes. Instead of it getting filled with groundwater, you preserve that capacity, and it saves capacity at the treatment facility as well. It also can reduce exfiltration from the pipe, which is the wastewater seeping out of the pipe, so it creates a tight system there. oops we went out to bid in march of this year excuse me june thinking of a different project and we received four bids they're shown here srv being our lowest responsive and responsible bidder they're currently doing work on another project and they've done great work for us in the past so We're excited to recommend them for this project. As mentioned, they were the low bidder. We are requesting a $100,000 change order allowance in addition to their low bid, so a total contract amount of $2,117,925 and some change. The funding sources, as I mentioned, an EPA grant that I believe Wendy Horn helped us procure. This $1.7 million is what's remaining after the design effort. Total EPA grant was about $1.95 million. Council priority project funding, which was formerly ARPA funding, and transportation benefit district funds for the paving piece on the local streets. So construction start, if approved, would be later this month. We would try to get going right away and reach substantial completion the first quarter of 2027. So with that, do I need to read that?

So we have recommended motion here, and now that it's off consent, and we can take any questions you have.

Do we have that $1 million grant already sitting on a shelf somewhere? How does that work? What if we don't get it?

The grant referenced in this presentation? Yes, we have. It's a $1.95 million grant, and it was awarded, and we've been spending the money on the design phase of this project. Yes, it's in hand.

Thank you.

Yes, Council Member Williamson. Sorry, you piqued my interest for some reason, probably because we just did this at one of, somewhere else where I know. How are they going to navigate all the Gary Oaks on 8th Street that are in the middle of the road? Because that's one of the main ones there, right? And so 8th Street Southeast, I think, right? And how does this material get through roots? And you're talking clay. People need to know clay, not the gray concrete that we use on the playground we play in. brown clay that breaks when you look at it wrong.

Yeah. So it is, is there a pointer on there? Okay. Okay.

Point it out for the, it's the dark red one, right? Or is it the one above that? It's the one above that.

So this is ninth here, and this would be eighth. Yeah, that one. And so when you say dark red, that is open cut, and that is southeast ninth. Okay. So you had mentioned the Gary Oaks on eighth, and the dashed line, and I do apologize, it is very difficult to see at this scale, but that will be cure-in-place pipelining, which you see in front of you. the sample so we won't be open cutting that and a benefit to that is not having to cut through historic Gary Oaks. what roots do make their way into the pipe though staff are able to remove through various equipment that we have and we have to maintain those regularly so we'll go in there and jet the line if there is a root intrusion we would if it's severe enough we would cut that out as far as the clay that you mentioned it's a petrified clay so some of the old I'm trying to think of the term, like the pickle jars and those vases were a vetrified clay material, a ceramic of sorts. It's very strong. I'm surprised I think it's still used today in some capacity, but it can be pretty brittle too. So the roots make their way through the roots as it's settled since the 40s and make their way in. And this product allows us to eliminate it. It's essentially a permanent fix for as long as a product to last. I would think a good, hopefully 50 years.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Great. If you could put the motion back on the screen, please. Now, yes, Council Member Romero.

I would be pleased to make a motion. I move to award a contract for the Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Inflow and Infiltration Correction Project to the low bidder, SRV Construction Incorporated, in the amount of $2 million. $17,925.60 authorized the Public Works Director to sign change orders in a total amount of $100,000 for a total construction contract amount of $2,117,925.60. All right, we have a motion as presented.

Second. Seconded by Council Member Marshall. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Passage unanimously. Thank you very much. All right, we are done now with consent agenda. We are going to move on to mayor and council comments. National night out, thank you to our police and fire department and everyone who was on site to support last night's event. I attended with members of our staff and council members. And I was pleased to see so many families and community members come out and meet the first responders who are committed to keeping Oak Harbor safe. Thank you to everyone who helped organize the event and to everyone who took the time to attend. Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in Washington Collaborative Elected Leaders Institute in a leadership program offered through the William D. Ruckelshaus Center at the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance in partnership with the Association of Washington Cities. Over several days, I joined elected officials from communities across Washington to participate in workshops, discussions, and collaborative exercises focused on strengthening our leadership skills. We explored strategies for active listening, managing conflict, engaging our communities, building consensus, and working through complex issues in ways that bring people together rather than divide them. One of the most valuable parts of the experience was the opportunity to connect with leaders from cities of all sizes and backgrounds. Hearing different perspectives and sharing ideas reinforce that. While every community faces unique challenges, many of the issues we encounter are shared and we can all benefit from learning from one another. I believe this experience will make me a more effective mayor by strengthening my ability to build relationships and work collaboratively with city council staff, partners, and other community i'm grateful for the opportunity to participate and look forward to applying what i learned to serve our residents ltac grant applications are open and speaking about serving our residents i'd like to remind our non-profit organizations even organizers and tourism partners that applications are still open for the city's 20 27 lodging tax tourism promotion grants bless you I am reminding our community about these funds because they are an investment back into our community. They support events, festivals, marketing efforts, and tourism related projects that bring visitors to Oak Harbor. When people choose to visit our city, they support our local businesses, restaurants, shops, and hotels, which creates a positive economic impact that benefits all of us. Applications are being accepted now through 4.30 p.m. on August 14th, so don't wait until the last minute. If you think your project may qualify, I encourage you to take a look at the application materials and submit your proposal. We have many incredible organizations doing great work in our community, and I look forward to seeing the ideas that come forward this year. Summer construction continues as we settle into summer. We're also in the heart of construction season. If you've been driving around Oak Harbor, you've probably noticed more road work, utility projects, and maintenance taking place throughout the city. You may also encounter construction as you travel on and off the island with WSDOT's improvement projects. Information about the washed out road closure on State Route 20 is on the city homepage and on our Facebook page. I know construction can be frustrating and no one enjoys delays or detours, but summer gives us the best weather to complete important infrastructure work safely and efficiently. We want to make the most of this construction window while conditions allow. I want to ask everyone to please slow down, be patient, and give our crews plenty of space by respecting work zones. If you're heading across town or leaving the island, I also encourage you to give yourself a little extra travel time. A few extra minutes of planning can make your trip less stressful. To stay informed about city projects, road closures, and construction updates, please visit oakharbor.org. Thank you for your patience and for helping keep our crews safe this construction season. Social media comments disabled. I'd like to take a moment to address a change some of you may have noticed on the city's social media channels. Over the past several months, our communications officer has been evaluating our social media practices and working with our city attorney to ensure our policies reflect current legal guidance and best practices for local governments. Earlier this year, she attended the government social media conference. where more than 1,000 public sector communications and legal experts from across the country shared many of the same challenges we're experiencing here in Oak Harbor, particularly when it comes to managing comments. After careful review, I made the decision to disable comments on social media and to use our social media channels primarily as an information resource. This decision wasn't made to limit communication. It was made to improve it. Our social media pages are intended to improve or to provide timely updates about city services, public safety, road closures, events, and other important community information. Unfortunately, we've seen an increase in spam, fake accounts, scams, and off topic conversations that often distract from the information residents are seeking. Managing those comments also requires a significant amount of staff time and creates additional public records retention requirements, which ultimately increases costs to our taxpayers. This decision is a more efficient use of city resources and helps ensure our communications remain clear, accurate, and accessible. I also want to acknowledge the impact social media has had on our employees. Since my time here as mayor, I've had conversations with staff about how some of the interactions they experience online have affected their morale, and in some cases, their personal well-being. Since day one, I have made a strong commitment to our employees, so supporting this decision was easy because I believe we have a responsibility to care for the people who dedicate themselves to serving our community every day. I also want to be clear that I hope this decision is not portrayed by the newspaper as an effort to avoid criticism. That is simply not the case. We remain committed to hearing from our residents. That said, we absolutely want to hear from you, so we're directing the conversation to places where residents' questions and comments can be answered by staff directly. We encourage you to reach out directly to or attend our community events like the Right Blend or community catch-ups. Those conversations are far more productive than a social media comment thread and help us provide better service to our community. In fact, there were three ideas that have been brought forward to council in the last year from these in-person conversations. I appreciate the thoughtful work our communications officer has put into reviewing our practices, training staff, On the screen is a photo of the recent social media training she conducted with staff and directors and ensuring we're following best practices. This change supports our commitment to keeping residents informed while maintaining meaningful ways to connect with city staff. Upcoming events. No need to mention the events by name. They're on the screen. Didn't need to read that part. Sorry. Wildfires in Washington, I don't know how badly they're affecting you, but they are me. That's why I'm coughing and my eyes are watering. Like many of you, we're thinking about the communities impacted by the wildfires across Washington. Our thoughts are with everyone affected as well as the firefighters and first responders working tirelessly to protect lives and property. Our fire chief, Travis Anderson, remains on standby with resources if and when needed. As wildfire smoke continues to affect air quality in many areas, I would like to encourage residents to visit the city's website homepage for the latest air quality information and resources to help protect themselves and their families. With that, I will turn it over to council for their comments. Council Member Romero.

I wanted to speak in favor of the stricter controls with regard to the social media content. I'm all about efficiency and I know for a fact from personal experience interacting with constituents, there are certain constituents who who will spend their time just venting and they're not acting in a constructive way. So I think that that is a tangible and workable alternative. So any types of steps along this line that could be responsible may not support it. I spoke at length with City Administrator Sabrina Combs and I command also Communications Officer Maggie Aguilar because this is the type of action that we need so we don't have so much inertia and just wasted time and effort. Thank you.

Thank you. Anything else? Yes, Council Member Stuckey.

General question. Obviously, there's pros and cons to that policy. I have some difficulty with it, but I understand this is probably not the best form to address it. If not that we're encouraging it, but if someone decides to send a Facebook message to the city, will that still be responded to by staff? Not that that's what we're encouraging, but I would hate for someone to send a message and just be ignored if it's legitimate.

No, we do have a way of doing that. So Maggie can still communicate through that. And it does, in fact, have an automated response that says when the hours of operation are, if I recall correctly. So if you send a message on a Saturday, it says that the office hours are Monday through Friday at these times.

If there's a large response over any particular item, and I don't anticipate that, can that be shared with counsel? I personally, well, I don't rely on Facebook. I'd be lying if I don't say I don't occasionally look at comments to help direct my thoughts. So if there are some comments that are sent electronically, If there's enough about a particular issue, can that be shared with us?

Oh, are you saying if there's a lot of messenger?

If there's a lot of messages about a particular item because people want to comment and now they can't. So if there's a bunch of messages related to a particular item, is there some way to share those so that they can be seen by council to help with decisions?

Yeah, I think if there's something that's of concern, Maggie will evaluate that and look into that. I think the big concern here that we're talking about is that The responses that we're seeing in the comments are not necessarily, as Mayor talked about, related to the subject matter that's being discussed. For example, a road closure is mentioned that's being shared from a WSDOT post. We're getting a bunch of comments that are about, why is the city doing this? The city's doing something dumb. I don't agree with this plan. And it's not really constructive to the conversation, which is WSDOT, a state agency, has decided to close a road. So those are not the comments that we would call constructive comments that are being responded to in relation to that post.

Sure.

The stuff that we get that's more of a direct message are things related to a specific topic where somebody maybe needs a question answered or they were trying to address something. And so at that point, typically it's a specific answer that is provided by the communications officer to address their question. And it's usually a one-off. I wanted to get a hold of somebody to do X. So how would I do that? And then she's providing the resources to connect them with that service.

And I would encourage those that are commenting in legitimate comments to do a public comment. I mean, that's my thing, is always take your email or take your message and put a public comment. Because I think within that spam, and there is a lot, and within those comments that are unrelated, which there are a lot, there are some legitimately good comments and feedback on there. I would just love for those people to just take the step email it as public comment so it can be seen.

And that is actually what she has been encouraging. And in fact, there is a homepage message on our website that is talking about that. There's been a lot of effort to revise the resident action form so that when we're hearing about things, we're being more specific. For instance, today I got a comment about a new ordinance that we had put into place and you as a council had done. And so it was, how can we refine that form to be more specific for the needs of our community? So that is the work we're doing to make sure it's addressed in that way. that we're receiving that feedback. And again, as Mayor talked about, at the Right Blend, we've had many positive ideas and concepts that have been brought forward to us that we've been able to move in a direction for action by U.S. Council.

I just don't want anyone to exclude who that may not work with their time frame. I mean, to me, Facebook is the... Lowest form of communication. I would say it's the easiest because there's no barrier of entry and then that can lead to a lot of not well thought out comments, but there are some good comments in there. I just would hate to lose those.

I will say too that community members are being very good about connecting with us. I received a phone call today where a community member really wanted to get an answer to a question and they wanted to hear it from the city administrator. And they called my line and this morning at 9.30, 10 o'clock, I answered my phone and answered their question. And then work with staff to make sure that the communication or the information was more readily available. So I think that our staff does a great job of responding to in person, over the phone, email, and other forms that we receive for communication.

Council Member Wittgenstein.

I thank you for turning the comments off on the posts. Because if people really want to talk about it, they're going to share it and start their own thread in that regard. I'm thankful for the messenger piece to be discussed because it is an avenue that is probably been used many times already, but potentially could be increased now that the comments are turned off. And I think that's where Council Member Stuckey was implying is like those discussions on council related things should be available to us if need be. And that's kind of reiterating that because I would agree with that as well. I just want to say thanks to our chiefs, both of them, especially the police department for putting on a wonderful event last night. Well turned out. I want to thank all of the vendors that came and participated and all of the different organizations. I had a good time talking with people. And thanks to the radio station for putting it on because as I was coming back on island from a run down to the airport. I got to listen to the beginning of it as it started, as they were telling about what's going on and people down there and the excitement kind of ringing around. So good event. Thank you so much. And so I think it just grows each year. It looked pretty big this year compared to others. And so thank you. And thanks for staff for putting their stuff together too. I don't say it enough, but much appreciated.

Council Member Romero.

I do want to mention, too, about National Night Out. It was an outstanding event. And I stayed for several hours. So I even came early. So that was different than the last time we had it. So good on you all for putting on a superb event. And I had to smile that the SAR helicopter landed a distance and not right over the tents from a previous experience we had. So thank you for that. And then also I wanted to mention, too, about the social post factor. So I like to get a reputation on the council as being somebody that that says we have a way of doing things and it's organized in a way that we get it done. And there are constituents who just don't like that. I mean, they want to do whatever they want to do. And I'm stating as a matter of record. Hello. If you have an issue, you can talk to me, but we're going to go by the book to get things done. And I'm constantly recommending comments like this comment we had tonight was exactly a response to a constituent who I visited with. And same thing with regard to emails and so forth. But anyway, that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

All right. Is that it from everyone? Mayor Pro Tem, did you have something? Yes, go ahead.

I do have a couple of somethings. I also want to thank you for making an executive decision. Frankly, I can't believe that we have been allowing and engaging with the public comments for so long, especially on live feeds, like when we're broadcasting our meetings and people are commenting. The interaction is fantastic, and knowing what people think and how they're reacting is absolutely fantastic. As a concept, but what a lot of people don't understand is, especially when live comments are popping up every single one of those creates a public record if it's on our page and we have all kinds of obligations for capturing that and retaining that and. making it searchable and storing it somewhere. And so if someone makes a comment and, and then they go back and delete it, if we haven't captured that, that public record has just disappeared and that's our problem. And that creates a problem for us and for staff. And so there's lots of considerations when it comes to things like every single interaction on a city owned page, creating a public record. If more than three of us council people like a comment or reply to a comment, we just had an illegal meeting. Maybe illegal is too strong of a word, but you know what I mean. There are so many logistical and legal considerations to keep in mind, which is why we have systems in place to... route those comments and that feedback to us because we absolutely want to hear from you. And tonight's public comment was fantastic. Thank you for pointing that out. The, the speed sign thing that that's exactly the kind of thing that needs to be brought to our attention. And if, you know, if Maggie is seeing an influx of the same question being messaged, then that triggers to her that, you know, we can, do some clarity in our communications and she can create a whole other post, say, Hey, I'm getting this question a lot. Here's this, if it's going out to a lot of people. And I think every single post I've seen, it includes the contact info for somebody if they have a question. And then there's a mechanism for submitting public comment. If someone does have something to say that, or a question they, and they want to let us know by all means, you know, yeah, type out the exact same thing and just do it by email instead of, instead of on whatever social media platform it is, and then it will get to us, and we can address it. And that, I think, creating a specific conduit for that kind of feedback, as well as the in-person stuff, like you said, will allow us to do a better job of addressing things, because trying to keep up with... constantly changing thing. I mean, God, that's a full-time job. And I honestly don't know how staff is managed up to this point. So thank you for trying. But yeah, I think there's a better, there is a better way. And we love it when people engage and let us know what they think and how they feel and have questions point out. things that we might not have considered. That makes what we do so much more effective when we have feedback. So we definitely encourage that. And on the staff angle, I was reminded tonight when a consent agenda item was pulled that staff was prepared with a presentation. They had a PowerPoint. They had a presentation. They had a visual aid. They were ready to go. And that just reinforces to me the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. How many hours has staff spent putting together presentations that they might never have to actually give? For every consent agenda item, someone is prepared to stand up and go into more detail just in case one of us asks them to. And that is so much. work that goes unseen and unacknowledged. And I just wanted to acknowledge it and say that we, we see it and you know, sometimes we're not always aware of it. And so it's good to occasionally be reminded that they're, they're ready to go with all of the adjusting cases and you know, and they do that for us. And so the public can be better informed and I appreciate it so much. Uh, last thing I promise is the, the air quality. I just wanted to let you know, as of 9.30 this morning, I got an update from the executive director at the Northwest Clean Air Agency, and it was a brief summary of the air quality for Island and San Juan County. It's listed as moderate. As of today, Skagit and Whatcom counties is unhealthy or very unhealthy, especially for sensitive groups. And there was a comment here that says the periodic Light westerly wind continues to result in better air quality in the western parts of the counties compared to the eastern portions. Best news is that the clearing is expected to start late this evening and into tomorrow morning, and this will bring cleaner air from the Pacific over our area and air quality will improve as a result. Yeah, so there's, and we're getting daily updates from Clean Air Agency, and I want to remind people that they can just search Northwest Clean Air agency or go to nwcleanairwa.gov, northwestcleanairwa.gov. And there's a really great interactive website with FAQs and maps and all kinds of statistics. So if you are concerned about the air quality, there is a place that you can go and get all the information that you need. I mean, they even use historical data and weather predictions to forecast into the future. It's really amazing. it's, it's really, it's amazing. Science is amazing. And, and the fact that they can not only tell you what's happening now, but kind of predict what is about to happen is it's just phenomenal. So go check it out if you are concerned about that. And that is all I have. Thank you so much.

Thanks. Chief. Before I call for a German, did you have an update on that speed?

Sure. I would just like to just add is, is sending those requests or comments in through that official site. Departments get notified immediately and specifically on this speed trailer, the speeding incident, we had a speed trailer posted within an hour of receiving that at the department. So often those ones that are sent over the weekend, because I'm checking my email, we can get patrol officers to go out and respond to those concerns as well. Just those official processes are very helpful for us.

Thank you for providing that update. All right, so there being no further business, is there a motion to adjourn?

I move to adjourn. Second.

All right, we have a motion to adjourn. Seconded. All in favor?