Remarks by Yoshiko Grace Matsui
218 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 7 of 9
- Play at 6:14
“Thank you very much. And we do have another proclamation. Councilmember Nutting.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 6:37
“Do I hear a second? Councilmember Desmone. All right. All in favor, please raise your right hand. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Passes 7-0. I'm going to take a moment to read that as well. Whereas the city of Des Moines is a proud waterfront community located along the shores of Puget Sound, rich in history, tradition, and community spirit. And whereas the Des Moines Waterland Festival was established in 1959 as a celebration of our city's connection to the water and the people who make Des Moines a special place to live, work, and visit. And whereas, for more than six decades, the Waterland Festival…”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 12:18
“Reister. Thank you. And Christine Fredericks. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 12:54
“So we're currently running a committee of the whole. However, council members do serve regionally on other committees. Do council members have any items of interest to the public or the council? I would like to take a brief moment here to talk a little bit about the association of, no, that's the wrong one, the Sound Cities Association, there we go. We had a discussion last night at the Public Interest Committee about potential new sales tax increases that would include funding for affordable housing initiatives And we continue to talk about potential increases to the solid waste fees and…”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 24:43
“Thank you very much for coming to speak with us. I appreciate your continued outreach, and I'm very excited to see your participation in our upcoming parade. That's very exciting as well, and I'm very grateful to see that as This area continues to grow, that we're seeing an uptick in staffing, and that there'll be more folks ready to deploy in case our residents are in need of firefighting or BLS support. So I appreciate it.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 38:10
“Thank you. Council, any questions or discussion? Councilmember Harris.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 41:27
“THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PRESENTATION. YOU SAID A COUPLE OF THINGS THAT JUST, I'M NOT IN ACCOUNTING, BUT IT MAKES ME EXCEPTIONALLY HAPPY. THINGS LIKE FORMALIZING THE PROCESSES, UNIFORMITY AND CONSISTENCY, AND THINGS THAT ARE LESS MANUAL. SO THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT POPPED TO ME AS BEING IMPROVEMENTS, LIKE COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS HAD SAID, AND I WANT TO SAY THANKS FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP ON THAT. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. THANK YOU. ABSOLUTELY.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 42:49
“THANK YOU. IS THERE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA AS READ? COUNCILMEMBER NUTTING.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 43:01
“THAT HAPPENS NEXT. DO I HAVE A SECOND? COUNCILMEMBER BLAS IS SECONDED. DOES ANY COUNCILMEMBER WISH TO PULL AN ITEM? COUNCILMEMBER SIMMONS.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 43:14
“All right. I'll pull item five. All right. So then we will... Oh, one more. I'm sorry. Yes, Councilmember Harrison.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 43:25
“Item three. Okay. Thank you. All right. So now we will pull items number three and number five, and we'll be voting on the consent agendums one, two, four, six, and seven as read. Okay. Let's vote on those. Please hold your hand up until I would say your name. Deputy Mayor OXFORD Councilmember Steinmetz Councilmember Harris Councilmember Des Moines Councilmember Nutting Councilmember Blass and myself that passes 7-0. Let's start with item number 3 and that consent agenda passes. Thank you. Councilmember Harris.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 44:31
“Can we stick to a motion rather than a discussion?”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 44:43
“DO I HAVE A SECOND? FOR LACK OF SUPPORT, THAT MOTION DIES. ITEM NUMBER 5. OH, I'M SORRY. OKAY, COUNCILMEMBER. OH, I'M SORRY, YES, THANK YOU.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 45:14
“Motion's been seconded by Councilmember Steinmetz. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Steinmetz, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmone, Council Member Nutting, Council Member Blas, and myself. That passes 7-0. I'm sorry about that. Let's go to the considered item number five. Council Member Steinmetz, you may speak.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 46:03
“NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE IT. COUNCIL MEMBER NUTTING.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 46:15
“NEW SPEAKER IS THERE A SECOND? Councilmember Blass, any discussion? All right, all those in favor of consent agenda item five, please raise your right hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Desmoni, Councilmember Netting, Councilmember Blass, and myself. All those opposed? And then abstention? And we have one recusal, motion passes six-zero. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Now it's time for new business and our first item is the establishment of the ad hoc city council budget engagement committee.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 47:06
“Oh great. Thank you. So folks today we heard from finance director friend that we will be heavily diving into budget season as we come up on looking at our next two-year budget cycle. One of the reasons that I have proposed an ad hoc budget engagement committee is to have a subset of our council really be the face and the primary body responsible for ensuring that we get as much community engagement as possible. There are already, as we heard, many outreach activities that the city traditionally does. But I believe that in a effort to be more transparent and to hear from as many constituents…”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 49:05
“I really see it as truly an engagement. So folks that will go out and be like the liaison, like I am your liaison to the budget process. And while we all do that in an informal way, I would expect that folks who are on this ad hoc committee to really be a front and center and the face of that process so that publicly you can be identified. I ALSO SEE THAT THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO EDUCATE FOLKS ABOUT HOW THE BUDGET PROCESS WORKS. I THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, WE SEE MANY, MANY TIMES THAT THERE'S AN EFFORT TO GO OUT AND TELL FOLKS ABOUT HOW FINANCE WORKS AND WHAT KIND OF SANDBOX AND TOYS THAT WE HAVE TO…”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 50:51
“That is a fantastic question. And instead of saying that's totally been determined, it's more like to be determined. I would imagine that we would work most closely with city manager Caffrey on that, but we would absolutely have to report back to council and I think the other council members could be involved in that as they would like. And so this is an opportunity to sort of shape this idea because I haven't decided like, oh, this will be the relationship, this will be the reporting structure, it will result in this work product, but I'm hoping to get there. Yes, go ahead. One more, yeah.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 51:52
“what we saw last time is not going to be what's going to happen this time oh absolutely it's very outward facing and it's very much about the engagement it is not duplicative of the finance committee or budget committee to develop uh priorities and then sell them to the rest of council absolutely not i don't envision it that way thank you councilmember harris um so um”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 53:47
“I appreciate your comments. The only response that I would have is that this is our big budget year and we're looking forward to putting together our next final budget and next year will be our quote unquote small budget year. So I do find that this would be most impactful if we did it this year. Although there can be changes to the budget next year as well. Councilmember Desmona.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 54:35
“Oh, it's a three-person ad hoc committee of council members. Well, apparently I volunteer. Okay. Thank you. All right. Other questions, concerns, discussion? All right. Well, I have not... established a mechanism for just appointing folks. I was hoping that folks would be interested in volunteering. And so we do have a suggested motion. But at this point, I would ask that folks who are interested indicate that they would like to be considered. Okay.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 55:26
“Yeah. The suggested motion has people's names in it. So then I thought I would just ask. But we could do it in two parts. Would that be more helpful? The establishment of the ad hoc engagement committee and then the council members? All right. I'm happy to break that. Is that OK? Sounds good. Someone want to change the suggested motion so that we can start first with the establishment and that we'll move to the second part of the self-nomination of committee members? Councilmember Nutting.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 56:23
“Councilmember Simons. I second. Thank you. Any discussion? Oh, we can add that to the next one. Oh, that will be dissolved? Any discussion? Councilmember Harris.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026
- Play at 57:51
“OTHERS BEFORE I CIRCLE BACK THROUGH? COUNCILMAN RUHERS.”
City Council · Jul 9, 2026