Remarks by Dean Johnson
82 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
- Play at 12:51
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to speak, too, in honor of our former colleague and all the great work that she did here on the eight years. I, too, share some great memories with Robin. Her and I were elected at the same night, our first time to city council. I remember celebrating together with her. I, too, had a real fondness for her as a colleague and respect for her as a colleague. But, you know, sometimes we disagreed on a few things. But we never let that get in the way between us. We had disagreements, but it was really never this large feud. She didn't see me as her enemy, and I…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:15:15
“I'll second that. Yeah, I'll second that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:15:43
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Sometimes I've decided tonight to talk about this rationally and keep the emotion or my own personal preferences out of it. I do believe and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we can come up a collaboration between the school city staff and council, and the neighborhood, no question in my mind that we can come up with a plan. I don't think we're there yet, but we're close because we'll get there. We can come up with a plan that will provide safety for the students and the neighbors. We can get there, and we will get there. In fact, I don't see it going without it.…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:55:18
“Well, before it's passed on the first initial, I still have some discussion. I want some clarity on what we're actually proposing on the First Amendment when we get there. So I'm not done with discussion yet. I'll wait until Council Member Caston has completed that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:55:34
“No, no, I don't want that. But there are some other aspects to the initial motion that I want to come to before we go there on that discussion. So we can do your amendment, but before we vote on the initial...”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:56:26
“Not on the amendment, but I do want to have a discussion on the motion before we pass that. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:57:48
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to, I don't want to offer a third amendment, but maybe kind of a council member, gentleman and gentlelady acknowledgment. I did hear a few of my colleagues say that in council member Castamore's amendment that we were going to look at that and have traffic engineers look at that. I also heard several of you say that my map could be included as possible discussion as part of that. Could that be expanded to that or do I need to make another amendment to include that as well or can that be by default as additional studies are happening that they'll look at this…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:58:36
“Well, I can make a third amendment and ask that to be included in the continued discussion and evaluation, but if it's understood that they're going to view that in addition as kind of part of Councilor Acasima's overview of mapping, I don't need a formal discussion. I just want to make sure the staff has a chance to look at it as well as the school.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:59:00
“Is everyone comfortable to include that understanding without a formal amendment? I need to make a formal amendment to put it on the record.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:00:52
“Okay, I can continue to discuss that. So thank you for that clarity. If it does, if, okay, let's just back up. If in fact a re-look at this includes further vacation and that starts the process over, but we get it right the second time, it's worth the extra weight. If, in fact, closing just the one street and we don't add any more closures to that impacts 8th Street, then all the mitigation you want is not going to work. So I would like to say, could it be possible if, in fact, there were some studies done that show that some extra vacation would mitigate any negative impact on residential…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:02:35
“I'd rather get it right than look at extra time if, in fact, it's proven that extra closure need to happen to mitigate and protect the neighborhood to the west. But that being said, I do want to put that aside for now, and we'll let the process play that out. I do want to understand, is this motion, does that include the city yielding the normal valuation of $375,000 donation back to the school? We need to clarify that, because I'm assuming that is?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:03:22
“Right, so we're basically giving $375,000 to the school for mitigation improvements. I remember bringing that up publicly, and part of the contingency, I brought that up. Initially, the school wanted to do two street closures, which would equal to about three-quarters of a million. And I'm the one that offered, say, hey, listen, I'll be happy for the city to entertain waiving those 375 twice, contingently close both streets on 7th, as you originally proposed. Now it's come back, and they don't want to close 2nd Street, and so now they're asking for the 375. That wasn't what I proposed in…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:27:24
“Thank you, Mayor. I want to utilize my council comments to not reopen an item, but just for a clarifying question to city attorney or city staff. I want to know if I made a mistake in suggesting as an option to utilize that Sound Transit open lot if that was a subject matter that we could not entertain or have a discussion with the impression that I got from body language but maybe misread it was that was kind of a foolish question on my end and I want to make sure if it was that I stand corrected on that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:28:15
“So I apologize for that. So I want to clarify, that is a viable option if the city or school want to go into negotiation to discuss possibly use of that?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 3:28:33
“I just want to make sure it's viable. If I was trying to suggest something that wasn't doable, I want to stand corrected on that. But if it's not, I want to clarify that to make sure it's a viable option. And so thank you for clarifying that question. I want to make sure I'm accurate in my recommendations really an elected official. I'm not a professional, right? So we're trying to figure things out as residents of our city. And I'll utilize that. Sometimes my ignorance is there, but we try to do the best we can to find solutions. I do want to just state, I am a little bit disappointed in,…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 48:18
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve a second reading as listed in 4A under ordinance.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 52:38
“Yeah, I support this because it does allow for more discussion and analysis that's specific to this area, the state, and its good intent. well-meaning, oftentimes we'll do what's called a paintbrush approach and just come up with these random numbers to, again, to protect whatever it may be. And while I appreciate that, the opportunity to be more surgical, specifically in this area of our city, is a wise thing to do, and many cities haven't taken it on as we have. And so I think it's a real compliment to our city staff and to our council that says while we appreciate the intent of what the…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:02:22
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Are there any cities that do not opt in this? Because you said this helps us in terms of federal grants, but are there any cities that don't opt into this? Are there independent cities that stay out of it?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:02:56
“Yes, it seems so. And this resolution, was this PLOP specific or was it regionally specific and we're adopting PLOP? I know you mentioned a little bit, but I just want to reaffirm, are there specifics to PLOP or is this kind of a general region and we adopt into this resolution language?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:03:24
“Are there any conflicts or parallels that would?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:03:46
“You mentioned that there were some surveys. Forgive me if I missed it, but I don't think I did. But you said that you put on some online data. What were some of the things that people were concerned about? I didn't know if I caught that or not. You mentioned there was concerns of danger.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:04:18
“Again, just asking the questions, because I feel like without asking questions, it's kind of rubber stamp. Here's a before you. We adopted this. We're partnering with these. We're collaborating. So just here we go, counsel. We'll at least be educational in terms of understanding it. Is there anything in terms of, if we adopt this, is there anything that would strengthen what we already have at this point? In other words, before we adopt this, I assume we have some kind of plan. Is that sufficient? Does this add any strength other than opportunities for more funding, perhaps?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:05:26
“Okay, hypothetical situation, I guess my last question. This is important for me. I think that our identity as a city should be maintained and not grouped into control by a regional or statewide response. I don't mind collaborating. I think it's wonderful. Sharing resources, ideas, wonderful. But hypothetical, if a tragedy hit, and we're getting direction from county or state, this is the way we need to respond to this, and if the city of Pilp says, wait a minute, that's a one-size-fits-all, we're not going to respond that way. We're going to respond this way under our own emergency…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:06:19
“So we're not bound by this. That makes me feel great. Again, I think autonomy, how we want to run our city and protect our city based off of the data that's specific to us in a specific situation. We should not be bound by a regional state or county. We want to, again, work together. But as long as we have the say as a city to respond as we see fit, then I would support this. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:28:01
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll be brief. We know that it is possible for some lahar issue here in Puyallup. I was talking many years ago to a guy that does dirt work and does a lot of digging of foundations and things and putting in infrastructure. And he said that he went down 30 feet and found a whole preserved cedar log. So we know that when that comes down, that's why the Puyallup Valley is such a fertile place. It's all topsoil. I can go anywhere on my property in the valley, put my foot on the shovel without any resistance, and bury it with not hitting one rock. complete topsoil. That…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026