Remarks by Dontae Payne
111 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
- Play at 0:05
“Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 regular business meeting of the Olympia City Council. For the record, we have a quorum with Mayor, excuse me, Council Member Madrone excused and Council Member Gilman should be joining us momentarily. So with that, I need a motion to approve tonight's agenda.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 0:32
“All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the agenda as published, signify by saying aye. Aye. We have an agenda. So our first item tonight is special recognition, a proclamation recognizing Women's Equality Day. And we will begin with a shared reading of the proclamation. And council members, just a note to remind you to please use the alternative version of your proclamation reading. And we'll begin with Council Member Vanderpool.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 4:40
“And now, therefore, be it resolved that the Olympia City Council does hereby proclaim August 26, 2026 as Women's Equality Day in the city of Olympia. and celebrates the continued effort for equality for all women and the removal of barriers to the resources, support, and opportunities women need to live thriving and healthy lives. Signed in the City of Olympia this 25th day of August, 2026, Olympia City Council, Dante Payne, Mayor. And now at this time, I would like to invite up Ali Yuen, who is the chief executive officer from the YWCA of Olympia, for a few words and to accept the…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 10:19
“Thank you so much alley, we'll see if there's any comments from Council and then I'll come and present you the proclamation. Any comments from the days. Councilmember green.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 11:48
“Thank you. Any additional comments? All right. I will just say thank you, Ali, once again for coming back and accepting the proclamation. It's always good to see you. I, you know, I have to say that it's so important for all the reasons that you spoke to about of, you know, having women be recognized for their tenacity, their grit. all that they've done to get to this moment of the right to vote and participate civically in our society. And I have to say that in addition to that work, it's so important to see representation at all levels. And I think you see that how decision making changes…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 14:32
“All right. Thanks, Ali. all right thank you so much again we're going to move on to our next special recognition item on our agenda which is item 2b a proclamation recognizing overdose awareness day and we will begin with a shared reading of that proclamation with council member vanderpool whereas no community in washington state is immune to accidental or intentional overdose and drug overdose deaths remain high across the state”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 17:48
“AND CALLS UPON THE COMMUNITY TO JOIN IN RAISING AWARENESS OF DRUG OVERDOSE MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY BY REDUCING STIGMA THROUGH EDUCATION, PREVENTION, TREATMENT AND RECOVERY SUPPORT OR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER. SIGNED IN THE CITY OF OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON, THIS 25TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2026, OLYMPIA CITY COUNCIL, DONTE PAIN, MAYOR. And now I would like to invite up Christina McVey, who is the co-director of the Franklin Street Harm Reduction Facility, to the podium for some remarks and to accept the proclamation tonight.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 20:43
“Thank you very much, Christina. And this is your first time accepting this proclamation. It is.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 20:52
“Yeah. Well, thank you for your words. Are there any comments from the dais? Yes, Council Member Vanderpool.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 22:56
“Thank you so much Thank you additional comments Yeah, I just want to express similar sentiments. I thank the Franklin Street harm reduction site, not only those of you that are here, but all of your staff and your team that responds to those community members that need your services. And I think about those words, you know, harm reduction and and how that is a place where they can go to receive just that right because there are so many other places where they're getting anything but right and that's because it's so stigmatized and so that's why we need proclamations like this one today to…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 26:26
“All right. Thank you all once again who came out for special recognition. We're going to keep our evening rolling with the rest of our agenda. And now is the moment for our public comment segment of our agenda. And I am going to pass it over to the mayor pro tem.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 38:50
“All right. Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tem. Are there any comments from Council? Council Member Vanderpool.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 40:17
“Yeah, thank you so much. Additional comments? Mayor Pro Tem Nguyen.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 42:12
“Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Any additional comments? All right, seeing none. I will just speak briefly to the public safety concerns that were brought up. I will say that I understand your concern. I also share those concerns. Just earlier today, I had a conversation with staff about the very things that you brought up. And we know that this is something that needs to be carefully thought through just in terms of what is it that we're experiencing. It seems like we've had these kinds of violent incidents more recently in recent weeks. But we pay very much intentionally to data and crime trends.…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 47:54
“Thank you, Chief. And if there is, where can people sort of go to learn more about what the police department is doing in response to these types of incidents? Is there somewhere where our community members can go?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 48:51
“Thank you very much. All right. Additional comments. All right. Thank you. And at this time, I also would like to call up Mark Russell, our public works director, just to speak to the concern about trash. Maybe you could give a few comments on how our community members can connect with the city if they have concerns about it.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 51:02
“All right. Thank you very much, Mark. All right. So with that, that concludes the public comment section and response on our agenda for tonight. Thank you all to our community members who came out to express their concerns And so with that we are going to move on to the rest of our agenda with the adoption of the consent calendar I need a motion and a second to approve I Move we adopt the consent calendar second All right, we have a motion and a second. I am tracking that we have two pools on our consent calendar tonight. They are items 4C and 4D. The first beginning with 4C, which is the…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 56:07
“So now we're going to move on to the requested pool for item 4D on the agenda, which is the approval of a bid award for the 2026 sidewalk repair project, a pool that was also requested by Councilmember Vanderpool.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 58:36
“Thank you very much, Mark. Questions for Mark?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 59:38
“Thank you. Additional comments? All right. Seeing none. Thank you, Mark. All right, so that's it for our polls on the consent calendar. We have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor of adopting the consent calendar as published signify by saying aye.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 59:57
“Consent calendar is adopted. Before we move on to our business items, it doesn't look like Councilmember Gilman is going to join us. So please just let the minutes reflect that Councilmember Gilman is excused tonight. Thank you. All right. So we'll move on to item 6A on our agenda, which is the jungle encampment transition update. And we have Stacey Ray, who's our assistant city manager, presenting tonight, along with our police chief, Shelby Parker. Hi, Stacey.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:02:19
“Stacey, would you prefer questions during the presentation or would you like us to wait until you get to the end?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:12:24
“Stacy, could you speak to, I believe it was Annette, our public commenter, who mentioned earlier about how is the by name list a closed list and paying attention to how the population at the jungle fluctuates. Could you speak to that?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:20:42
“Stacey, can you provide some clarity or maybe shed some light on what the conversations with the regional team is like when it comes to, so we have our by name list and that's the list and it's closed. What is the response to those who just show up to the encampment? You mentioned the alternative coordinated entry process earlier. But beyond that, what happens in the moment as we're trying to shrink the size of the encampment?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:29:31
“Stacey, we have a question from Council Member Barrett.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026