Remarks by Susan Walton
124 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 5
- Play at 1:50:53
“This was not a mountain bike that you could go back and forth. It was, it was probably a class two, maybe a three. Nothing was moving. There weren't any pedals or it was just stationary. So I've noticed an increase with that as well.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:51:07
“another consideration not to make it too complicated is that regular bicycles like on the buff trail they can go 20 miles an hour i mean they they can but i'm just going to push back on that a little bit something to think about i do i do a lot of bike riding so does trail riding um it takes a lot on the bluff trail to get your bike going to one miles an hour like you got to be a you know tour de france rider to do that it takes zero effort to speed on an e-bike sure And therein lies the gap between a bike and an e-bike.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:51:44
“We could have a great discussion too, but I'm just kind of focusing more on this. But there is definitely, and there's the inherent danger. I can get myself up to almost 17 miles an hour on center drive if I'm hauling. My husband and son can get up about 24, and they're hauling. But you can't sustain that. You can go that fast on an e-bike or a scooter within seconds. So that's why the conversation was kind of, for me, important to have.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:54:47
“They're doing that in December coming up?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:54:54
“That's good to know, timing's good. Just one follow-up you mentioned, I don't know if you used the word citation, so that was my word. You said something about if you're not following the rules on the sidewalk, et cetera, et cetera, there could be a penalty of some kind. My question about that though, and again, ooh, I'm, looking out, walking as much as I do, that's kind of hard unless you catch people to do that. And I'm not trying to make too much of it, but I think recently on social media, one of our concerned citizens very respectfully showed, I think it was a video, still shots of a…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:57:23
“Actually, my son, when he's 23 now, but when he was in fourth grade, he was turning 10 that summer, we were doing a bike ride. We did a lot of bike riding. We're out by the golf course. We always make that the end. The sun's going down. It's really pretty. He was going just over six miles an hour because we have the speeds on our thing, fell off his bike, helmet saved him, cracked it. Next thing I know, we're going on an emergency vehicle to Mary Bridge, six miles an hour. with a helmet and the doctor flat out told me your son would have a traumatic brain injury had he not had the helmet on…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:01:02
“Yeah, right. That's good to add to the discussion. Yeah. Yeah.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:04:09
“Just a general statement. I mean, yes, they take off on their bikes and yes, they leave our garages. But if we create rules, laws, and ordinances just for the people that follow them, the rules are there, kids are gonna break them, adults are gonna break them. We still have to have the structure of rules. I can suspend students and guess what I do? They know they're not supposed to do what they did, but there's the accountability piece. So I don't want us to not be courageous in this discussion simply because kids are kids. I don't think that's where it comes from. We have expectations, we…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 2:05:37
“And in our school district, you can ride them, but not on campus. So our school is in the middle of downtown in the valley. You get off, the minute your toe steps foot on our campus, whether it's a bike, a scooter, a skateboard, you name it, it is walked across the blacktop. It is walked out, and then there's something out there. So it's actually helped. Parents have found it valuable. And most people will comply. They really will. They want to do the right thing. But yeah, you're right. Schools too.”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:14:57
“Am I in? Really? Oh my God. As an administrator, I guess I like the idea, Jugal. I just have some concerns. It seems like an idea right now without a systems, how do we get these kids involved? Seven council members, mayor, what if more kids than seven were interested? Who's going to train the students? Where would the training take place? When you want to start student groups, even within the confines of the school itself, it's a lot of work, not impossible, but an outside entity is even more problematic. Not that it's not impossible, but it has different problems. And I'll just be really…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:19:35
“Can I ask a question about that follow up? How do these students get elected? Because, and also just to caveat a little bit, anytime you have an outside agency and a school, if a school supports your plan, the school also has certain liability that they're responsible for. If something happens to these students, if something was, so I'm just saying that's a little more complex than, you know, it's delicate balance to have those two, public and private. But let's say, you know, 20 people wanna do it. how how is the election and who votes because the whole like stillicum high school votes there…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:21:07
“And if- But I'm basically, what if 20 want to participate and we have seven positions?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:21:16
“Then you'd also need to answer to, I'm assuming, the high school principal or someone, maybe a civics teacher, and to those parents, why my child wasn't selected. And believe me, they might ask. So I'm just saying, those are things that until I hear really, really specifics, it's hard for me to do a lot of yay or even nay. I'm just like, ooh.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:30:29
“Would it be possible, Carrie, to, I mean, and then put it back up again, shrink that down where the bulleted list. There, yeah, and show that piece down a little bit. Okay, so when I'm looking at that and I'm looking at this as a school principal, that's a full-time job for somebody to do that. I mean, that's a job description, to be honest. You're going to coordinate annual events. So my question is, who is doing all that? Because I don't think we have the city staff to take that on. And I don't know if you want to take it on as one person. I also want to point out, and I just looked it up,…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:37:10
“Can I circle back onto something that you said, Tom? Like we're saying pursuer and I'm going to be honest, I'm not I'm not yay or nay. I don't really want this to be pursued until a few more details come our way. And I think if you're going to talk to a very busy high school principal, the details need to be really ironed out because that administrator is ultimately responsible for the entire thing, including student safety. So. I think you, we, whomever goes in with a very specific plan, very small scale, nothing like that. I think you go into it with, if people wanna volunteer here to lead…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:39:11
“i'm thinking you you want to at least give it a go and put something down i think you give it a go and then come back to us with this is what i i just think all of us as a collective group i don't think i don't want to be represented by any by this body with a stillicum high school principal using my name to be honest until i can say yes i'm aware of that program we talked about it we did multiple study sessions here's the main person in charge, here's the locations, here's the calendar. Certainly not something, I think you would need all year to be frank, to really put that together. You're…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:41:34
“Could we do this? Could you come up with even a fairly skeletal version of what you want to present to the Steilacoom School District so that you have our backing to do so? it seems like we're going to them and then coming back to figure out how we're going to support it. It has to originate here, well thought out, pretty planned, and then go present to the school board obviously would be a part of that too. It just feels like I would like to know more before the DuPont City Council goes to talk more. Does that make sense? And ultimately, are you running this? Who's in charge?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:42:32
“Yes, but I can't say right now. I just want more details. Right now, it's very pie-in-the-sky-ish, and I would need a little more specifics.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:23
“Yeah, give us something to say, wow, please take this and pursue it with the school district's telecom. before it has our name on it as a unified group. So right now, my answer would be no. I'm not comfortable having conversations with anyone until that gets ironed out.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:44:25
“Well, what I'm trying to say is we need more information. We need you, Tom, whomever to come back and say, hey, here's what our plan would look like that we would like to run by the superintendent and the high school principal. Students are gonna meet once a month in city chambers from six to seven. And we have a tentative agenda of what that would look like. Maybe on day one, they do a little background knowledge of what is city council. What do we do? What do we not do? Maybe they take a vote on who's gonna be the mayor. There's a scope and sequence as there is with good curriculum and…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:45:35
“What kind of funds and what parts of city government? There's some hot topics and some of them we talk about as educators and some of them we stay away from, quite frankly. So I want all of that because at the end of the day, it is our name collectively as the DuPont City Council and mayor And city that would be supporting that. So if you guys could come back with that, I'd be happy to email you just the 2 of you with what that could look like. But right now it's an idea. It's not a system. And I need to, I need to see the system play out.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:48:08
“risk management kind of adding on that mike we if you're within the still looking high school let's say those teachers go through boundary training all of this stuff in order to work with kids um and they also have the confines of the school system as a place of support when outside entities come into public ed it can work but it's a whole different ballgame And ultimately, no matter who's running it, it is the Steilacoom School District that will be responsible for the dialog that takes place, the conversations, an appropriate encounter.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:48:49
“No, we don't do transportation. It'd be like, you know, they would do that. But you're right, Mike. There's some really dicey things in dealing with students that are very liability oriented.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:49:33
“And remember, those school districts have probably been doing it a while. I would be interested in learning where they started, because they didn't start with that big bulleted list, I guarantee it.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:50:32
“But that was, what year was that though, 2016 and 2018? I would be hard pressed to think those are still the same standards when it comes to things like, you cannot have students give you their cell phone numbers, absolutely not, even if it's voluntary. So some of those rules that might have been in place back then, have changed. I know they've changed at the elementary level, because I have sixth graders. So I'd be, you know, worrying about that, too. But I would definitely start with a smaller, we're 43 schools, we're not Federal Way, we're never going to be. But maybe we're more like…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026