Ad Hoc Committee on Police and Community Relations - Regular Meeting

Alright. Are are we live?

Yes. We are.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. Well, hello, everybody. This is the community livability and public safety committee meeting, for the Olympia City Council. The time is 05:31, and the date is January 28. My name is Danny Madrone, and I'll be serving as the chair of the committee this year, and so I'm calling the meeting to order. And, actually, we have we have a whole new committee, myself included. Mayor Pro Tem Yong Hwan, I see that you're here, and you're joining for another round with clips. We've we've got Kelly Green as a new member of the committee and myself.

I'm also new. So really excited to work with the two of you this year, and, we'll, we'll we'll just dig right in. First off, we need an agenda for the evening. So if I could get a motion to approve the agenda as published.

I'll move to approve. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Excellent. We have an agenda, our first action together. So first, we do have somebody signed in for public comment, and I see that he's also here in attendance. So, Colin Bartlett, if we could give Colin the power to speak. Hi, Colin. You're able to unmute yourself. We'll generally keep it at four, three minutes. Great.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here. I'm gonna be relatively brief. I said most of I'm just essentially reemphasizing what I said yesterday at the city council. To for those who did not see that, my name is Colin Bartlett.

I'm co owner of Wobbly Cup Cooperative Roasters here in Olympia. I'm a long town longtime Downtown Olympia worker. I'm Thurston County planning commissioner, and I'm a former unhoused Olympian. I wanna thank the manager Bernie and the city councilors, including councilor Gilman and councilor Green, Vanderpoole, Barrett for committing Olympia to a housing first policy that centers underhoused Olympians as decision makers and solutions to the house of suits our state has subjected them to. And their agreement that any solution to issues such as encampments, such as, the no sit, no lie ordinances that currently criminalizing houses exist existence, must, as a minimum, meet the needs that the solutions under house folks have found for themselves, meet.

Those include long term stability independent of the whims of state of of city government, freedom from paternalistic scrutiny, connection to found family, and agency daily agency in the conditions that they're living under. These are not meet me means that are currently being met, so I'm looking forward to ways that we can find solutions to that. And I did want to say that as a planning commissioner, this is something that is very important to this particular, planning commission and this particular, county commission, and I'm looking forward to working with the city, on those issues, going forward. So if there's any way that I can be of help, I would love to. Thank you very much, and thanks for having for, having this.

Great. Thank you, Colin. Thank you. Colin is the only person who signed up for public comment, so I'll I'll I'll see if there is any response from the committee. Okay. Well, I know you got to hear, back from some council members last night at the meeting. So thanks for being here, Colin. The first oh, we need to approve our minutes from the last meeting, which was October 15. So if I could get a motion to approve those minutes.

I move to approve the meeting minutes.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Alright. Committee business, the first item that we have on the agenda is the Rebecca Howard Park development plan recommendation. And we have Sarah Giannoble, who's gonna be leading the presentation and the, getting us oriented. So hi, Sarah. Thanks for being here.

Oh, yeah. Is my audio working?

Yep.

Okay. Perfect. Great. And then do I share the presentation? Or Yep. Is it okay.

This is your show. Alright. Great. Let me just put my slideshow. Okay.

Okay. Is it is it popping up?

It is. Yeah. You just need to put yourself in presentation mode, we should be good to go. Oh, it's it's it's doing that thing where we see the the notes on the side. So yep. There you better? Okay. Perfect.

Alright. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm Sarah Gia Noble. I'm a parks planner with the City of Olympia. I'm excited to be here tonight to present the Rebecca Howard Park development plan. Also joining us on the call as panelists are Shauna Hawk and Stephanie Chamondele, who were hired as cultural design advocates for this project. Also, Savannah Neuhauser, the director of parks parks, arts, and recreation is here to join the conversation as well. So we can jump in. So I just wanted to go over a quick timeline of the project to get us to the development plan where we are today.

So in 2018, the city purchased this property for economic development purposes. In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protest, the focus for the site shifted from housing to healing to provide a safe place for community members to find peace, connection, and belonging. A stakeholder committee was formed to imagine what the space could look like. In 02/2021, the property was transferred to Olympia Parks, and the stakeholder group developed the park purpose and goal statements. In that same year, the park was named after Rebecca Howard.

In 2023, the stakeholder group created an early conceptual site layout. And in 2024, the city hired a consultant team to help develop the park development plan to guide future development. So right after the consultant team was hired, they started reaching out to mostly black and African American community cultural advocates to form a steering committee to help design the site work and community engagement. The steering committee met nine times from October to July to help co design public engagement, review engagement outcomes, and give feedback on the designs. The steering committee brought great insight and heart to this project.

Another part of the community engagement process was hiring two community design advocates to build relationships, plan community events, and help the project team remain responsive to community priorities. As I mentioned before, the two community design advocates on this project were Shauna Hawk and Stephanie Chamondele. The Olympia's black community members were invited to participate in feedback sessions, workshops, online surveys, and celebrations. There are three phases of community engagement. Phase two was asking who do we need to invite to this conversation.

Phase three focused on what stories should be told and how. And phase four touched on feedback on the design and how to engage people of all ages. How we reach people was through a combination of in person and digital approaches. In person approaches included works workshops, community events, tabling, paper surveys, and flyers. Digital approaches included an online engagement Olympia landing page, online surveys, online meetings, and a storytelling website.

Earlier on in the planning process, a group of stakeholders helped brainstorm the list of purpose and goal statements for Rebecca Howard Park. These guiding principles have been the foundation for the design process, and the report is largely built around them and how community responses reinforce these purpose and goal statements. So I just wanted to read those here. To celebrate, honor, and recognize the local history and contributions of our African American and black community members, to find common ground with each other through storytelling, performance, and art, especially stories, performances, and art from or promoted by or led by our African American and our black community members. To provide a safe place for peace and healing that honors representation and fosters a sense of belonging and inclusion.

To promote equity, respect, and learning as we build community together, and to build strong connections with the surrounding neighbors and organizations. So here is a plan view of the site design layout. The circular forms invoke connection between past, present, and future. It's a welcoming embrace by ancestors. Flexibility is the key for such a small space.

This the park spaces need to support gathering at many different scales. Large celebrations on the lawn to small group meetings at the gathering circle to quiet solitude in the garden. This design extends beyond the boundaries of the site. A festival street on 9th Avenue allows traffic and can close slows traffic and can close to support large community events. And across the street, a connection to the downtown Olympia Library with additional seating areas and a reading nook.

Community members envision a space that elevates black artists through art and storytelling and performance with a large lawn and stage to support that. A community hub offers indoor space to gather and document local histories. So this is a bird's eye view of of the site. Here's the cafe and hub area for the indoor gathering and workshops, a porch and stage area for outdoor seating and performances, the lawn for large gatherings or day to day relaxing, garden in the back here for quiet contemplation and reflection, gathering circle here for smaller group meetings, the Festival Street, a long night that had been closed off for special events, and a reading nook near the library for storytime and workshops. So this is a close-up of the gathering circle designed so we can see everyone's face around the circle.

Flexible seating options depending on what is needed. Opportunity for art to adorn the seat walls. Here's a close-up of the garden area. A path elegantly traverses the photograph topography of the site and is lined with planting beds that are filled with culturally significant plants that convey the deep spiritual connection to the land that is fundamental to black communities. This is a close-up of the Vestibile Street and how it connects the park to the library.

So the library's here. Park's here. A slight curve and narrowing of the road to slow traffic, limited grade changes between the sidewalk and the road, easily transitions to a plaza like feel when closed to expand the use of the park. Space for food trucks to park during events and additional seating areas to encourage conversation and community building make this an enjoyable place to walk and linger. Bite storytelling and activation has been an important component of this design.

The community wants to see art throughout the site and in many different forms, embedded in the pathways and seat walls, in large sculptures, as wayfinding signage to connect park visitors to other sites across Olympia that showcase black history, plant ID signs, and murals. The art should be clear visual expressions of African American people and culture. And also, the art and storytelling will touch on the stories of creators, community builders, trail biz trailblazing pioneers, food and land stewards, and entrepreneurs. These stories are captured in a website that the design team created pulling largely from the stories of doctor Thelma Jackson's book, Blacks in Thirst in County County, Washington from 1950 to 1975. Artists will use stories from that resource to design art in the park.

In this park, there is a community hub. This structure will replace the existing structure that is currently on-site. In the community hub, there's a cafe with views out towards the park, rotating art displays, a lending library, and an outside walk up counter. There will be a restroom to serve cafe visitors and another to serve park users. In the community hub, there is a multipurpose room, a flexible community space for gathering, programming, and education.

In the park, there is a porch and a stage, outdoor coffee shop seating, quiet spot for reading, rest, and reflection, a gathering space during park events, doubling as a stage for music, storytelling, and celebration. These are some inspiration images, including mural ideas for behind the stage area. We also wanted to include a slide on sustainability and climate resilience recommendations that are included in the park design. We'll be exploring solar and rainwater reuse options on the building. Plant selection will focus on drought tolerance, pollinator friendly, and black cultural significance.

The goal is to preserve existing trees where possible and add new trees for shade. The site includes pedestrian and bike friendly infrastructure and amenities to encourage alternative modes of travel to the site and also exploring the use of natural, permeable, or reused materials throughout the site. A frequent conversation during the design process about what programmed this site and how to activate the space. The text and circles are sized to show the frequency of community members' comments. The ones that rose to the top are histories and storytelling, displays, legacy, and learning.

Events, community wide, festival street, classroom meeting space, rest and wellness, seating, relaxation, healing, and health reflection, nature areas, garden, lawns, plants, food, coffee shop, movement, walking paths, art, performance, music. So the design consultant team hired a subconsultant, DCW, to do a cost estimate for this project. They broke it into three different phases because it's likely we'll be able we will need to be able to build the park through a phased approach. They also provided a budget range for each phase that generally separates out a more standard design for things at the lower end, like more of a standard building design and more specialty items added at the higher budget level, so adding solar or and or rain catchment. The lower budget total comes to 5,500,000.0, and the higher budget total comes to about 6,500,000.0.

Also, the numbers are escalated to January $20.27 dollars because we know we'll be able to break ground within the next year or two depending on funding. This budget also does not include art and signage. We will be utilizing the 1% for the arts and seeking grant opportunities for this. Here's a big picture workflow of the next steps in the process. So we're finishing up the park development plan and have an understanding of the overall cost of the project.

We are moving through committee approvals before going to city council. We'll be searching for grant opportunities to help create the design and construction drawings for the design and secure funding so we'll be able to put the first phase of the project out to bid. Okay. That's it for my presentation. Thank you all for listening. We're definitely excited about this process, and I welcome any questions or discussion.

Great. Thank you so much, Sarah. And to be clear, you're looking for a recommendation from this committee to the council?

Yes. Mhmm. For sure.

Excellent. And I see that do you mind going ahead and stop sharing your screen so we can see each other better? Kelly, I see you've got your hand up, but I first wanted to turn to our community members who are joining us just to see if they have any words they'd like to share. So either Shauna or Stephanie, if either of you wanted to jump in and share your thoughts on this project, the process, you know, anything you'd like to share.

Yeah. It looked really good seeing that form that presentation. So I'm just coming down off of that. And I think I would actually like to know what your thoughts are. I'm I'm just really, being with this project since 2020, 2021 and seeing it, you know, going this far and and hoping that it would have gone farther, like, two, three years ago.

But seeing that we're still, you know, moving moving in in a good direction, it feels really good to see that model. And, I really appreciate your consideration and to continue to support this. Many of your faces I've seen since 2020 when we first you know, I first approached and and we had many meetings with y'all and kind of, you know, talked about my my feelings and my hopes for this part to happen. So I just I just you know, I think this the presentation and all the work that we've done really speaks for itself in a lot, but just know that I feel, that this is definitely part of a promise being kept. We know that we wanted to the first idea is my first idea is whether it was gonna be pushed, you know, kind of forward in front of the line before other parks because of, you know, the the the the timing, the the deaths of Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and others and just and, you know, Andre and Bryson locally and others, we just really wanted to get that forward and do that healing and have that place to be able to come together and acknowledge the work that's in the contributions of the black foundation of black Americans here in, Olympia and surrounding.

So, yeah, that that's what that's what I'll say for now. I'm really curious to know what y'all think on the on the panel as you've seen the presentation.

Great. Thanks so much, Shauna. And we, of course, appreciate your patience. Sometimes we do go with the PISA government, so so it goes. Stephanie, did you have any words you'd like to share?

I do. Forgive me. I'm dealing with a cold and not quite camera ready this evening, but I wanted to definitely show up and support this amazing effort. And to see it fully realized in the drawings, I can't say how amazed and beyond beyond excited I am. And I think I want to also share some history in regard to public spaces and how black people have not been afforded the level of engagement.

And this is not a so far, but it's a very near past. It's within my childhood. So I'll say in the 1960s, there were parks available, but they were segregated. And one in particular that I am very familiar with was Paradise Park in Florida. And that was a park that had a definite area for white people to come and enjoy, and it was fully realized with beauty, plantings, and activities, and actual amusement rides that were available and accessible.

And if you didn't know, which is a lesson that I'm becoming familiar with because I was so sheltered from that kind of experience. But if you were black, you could only come on one day a week, and you were allowed allowed to to visit the other side of the park. And I want you to imagine seeing from a distance what the white parents and the white kids were able to access and enjoy. And

you

being a child and and you realizing, well, why don't I get to go and visit and enjoy that part of the park? So this is very important to me and very important to the community to build a park that we're able to feel ownership. We're able to feed feel pride. We're able to know that we're welcome and that it was created for us, by us, here in Olympia. And believe me, it it will not be just Olympia citizens coming to enjoy this wonderful realization of of the possibility.

So I I wanna share that and let you know that Shana has been stewarding this forward for a long period of time. And we are so happy that it's moving forward finally, and we can't wait.

Thank you, Stephanie.

You're welcome.

Well, thank you both. Alright. My committee mates here. Kelly, you had your hand up. Would you like to go ahead and start with thoughts and questions?

So many thoughts and questions. And just cut me off at any point if I have too many questions. But I just wanna start with a big thanks to to Sarah for that presentation. I mean, is my I've I've heard snippets about this park in my short time on council, and so seeing that and hearing the story of the the process in particular, you know, it's really clear this is gonna be a very unique space in our park system and and really gonna fill a a significant need in the scope of the parks. And so big you know, Shauna and Stephanie, thank you so much for for all your participation in that and for helping lead this work because it looks like based on what was shared about the feedback and the the kind of goals during the process, it certainly looks like the the outcomes, you know, to me, look look like they reflect that.

So I think that's really incredible. I have a few questions, and Sarah and Silvana, if these are two in the weeds and we just don't know these yet, that's okay. But just a couple of things that popped into my mind. So the the Festival Street looks super cool. I did not know that term, and I I wanna put a bunch more of those around. So you mentioned that it can be, you know, it can be closed wonderful for events. Is there gonna be, some type of, readily available physical barrier for when that's closed for kinda safety and, yeah, to make it real obvious and and real impossible for cars to go in there?

Yeah. Usually, a lot of the festival streets do have, like, a bollard system at the ends that they can you know, removable bollards that you can put up and close it off more permanently. And I I have seen people move, you know, like, movable planters there too if you kind of want more of a aesthetic and or maybe a more solid blocking device during an event too. So, yeah, there's definitely some options for that.

Okay. I just they weren't on there, I'm sure, because the presentation the renderings look nicer without them.

I appreciate hearing that.

Long term, and I know the the cafe probably would be, like, a later phase, but is the vision for, like, a third party operator for that, or is that how do we manage that in other parks where we have concessions to or cafes?

Well, it would be a brand new thing for Olympia Parks. Yeah. We do have, you know, concessions in several parks. It we it would be the model that we would build the building and own the building, and then it would be a third party that would be running running the like, the cafe portion of it. And then the community space or the multipurpose room would be more community run and Harbor House, I guess, like, renting that out that space out.

And then the and I don't know that this is for sure, but I know I've heard conversations about, you know, the building that is currently the downtown library maybe won't forever be the downtown library. What does that look like in a future where because, like, I love the connections of these two spaces like that. So were there con what are the conversations around that?

Yeah. Definitely a lot of conversations back and forth. I mean, it's never it's always been such a future timeline there that there's or or a vague timeline that it's always just felt so far in the future that it it was hard to make any sort of concrete decisions around that. Hopefully, if if if a future scenario is where the library chooses to no longer be there, we we would still it's it's city owned property that we would still have some connection if it was. I know this area, you can you can build higher, that maybe their the Ground Floor would be some sort of community space that would still feed into this this portion of the of the plan that we do have on that side of the street.

Ideally, you know, the library connection is one that we were really excited to make, but hoping that it can be adaptable in the future for whatever changes might might come up.

Fabulous. Thank you.

Ian.

Wow. This is a huge deal. I mean, the park still needs to be built, obviously. But this is kind of a big deal thing. And when it comes to the full council, because my spidey senses anticipate that it'll be approved tonight, but we'll see, is this this is really a long time coming type of project.

And I think that, I think that our community members, Shana and Stephanie, I think they're being really gracious with their words and and that, you know, there was a lot of patience. There was a lot of storming is my understanding too. And and I think everyone that came together for this project, if I'm correct, had big passions and and wanted you know, just had a really big tie to what they wanted it to be. And to get so many people together like that, it's no wonder that the vision for this park has grown exponentially. It is so different.

The renderings that we're seeing are so beautiful, so complex in a good way than I think that we had initially imagined. I mean, and the fact that we have the cafe, that we have indoor and outdoor spaces. And like you were saying, Sarah, the cafe is something is something really different. Right? And so it's not gonna be a sort of a passive park.

Right? But we are gonna be making sure that there are folks, like, literally engaging community there, being able to have different events there, I think. And and we wouldn't be able to get to this point without all of that, the community input and sticking with it. So thank you for sticking with it even during times of storming and and helping the city really really bring it to where it is now. It's just it's a big deal.

So I love the renderings. They're more more beautiful than I even thought it would be and very, very thoughtful to to make sure that you can accommodate a lot of different types of community gatherings and situations. I was curious also oh, and, you know, I just wanna highlight that the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, surely, everyone that's working on this on this call knows this, hopefully, but the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and the Earth Commission both unanimously support this project. And I think that, you know, I just wanna lift that up and, you know, that's that's a good thing. You know?

They don't and that's not necessarily an easy feat. They don't necessarily unanimously vote on things to approve things all the time. So big deal. I think people see the work and the value in this. Yeah. I was curious about the what are we thinking as far as timeline for so this is a phased project is my understanding. So maybe I missed it, but I'd love to get some information about, you know, what can we expect to see and about when?

Yeah. We are, you you know, with the contingencies of, you know, going to council and getting everything approved, which, fingers crossed, there we are headed into a grant round for this spring for the recreation conservation office in for the state, which we have been pretty successful with those grants over the years. So we would we're we're considering we're looking at phase one, which is the the the main park area and going for that as our first phase. And, you know, so it it it's hard to put a timeline because it will depend on being successful with our grants and, you know, kind of seeing seeing where we come. We we won't know those grant standings until the fall, and then we won't get that money until the following July,

which would be

2027 at that point. So, yeah, there's some things, you know, that are, you know Yeah. I guess yeah. It it it's hard for me. Yeah.

I don't know

she's still fine. I did wanna actually give a little more background information on that. So we have four projects right now that are currently in the development phase. All of them have grants from going back several years that are tied to them. So we're not going we're continuing to finish those four projects.

But the next two projects that were in our parks plan that were identified for development was the Lily Road neighborhood park and the Squaxin Park inclusive playground. And those currently don't have all of their funding tied to them yet. And what after doing this project and working with the community and really understanding the significance of this project, we're recommending that this the first phase of Rebecca Howard Park be developed before those other two projects, which we don't typically ask for that type of or make that type of a recommendation, but this is such a significant project, and we need to we need to continue making visible progress. And right now, we have a 170,000 that we've set aside that was left over from the planning stage of the project. And and I'm working with finance on a plan to help reserve some of our capital dollars if they're not spent that typically get moved to operations to support some of our operations.

But if they don't get spent, I wanna be able to reserve them in our capital fund so that we have a solid match for these grants. So so, anyway, we're working on a strategy, and then our consultants also gave us a list of different potential grants that we can apply for, and we'll be looking at some of the ones that are also no match. And that's part of what's on Sarah's work plan this year is is working on securing the funding. And so that way, we wanna be ready to, you know, secure the funding, get the grants, and move right into design and development.

Thank you. Cher, I do have a couple more questions coming today. Okay? Okay. Oh, yeah. Thank you for thank you for answering that. I know there's a little bit of, like, you don't have a crystal ball. Right? And so I don't mean to get you in a bind. I know that, Shirley folks that are on the staff side that are working on this also wanna see their work come to fruition. So I just wanna appreciate that. I guess I was just thinking of, like, what are we saying goes first? And so, Sarah, when you say that in general park area, what what does that mean exactly? Does it mean, like, everything but the indoor spaces kinda thing?

Yeah. It would be everything, but the the building and Festival Street is is how they broke it down. Like, the main, yeah, main park area, lawn, garden, small gathering spaces, it would be one phase, and then the building itself is another phase, and then the Festival Street is the third phase. And I don't you know, we're saying phase one would be likely the park, but I don't know what the if we have talked about really what the second would we go building next, or would we go Festival Street next? Haven't really

Oh, okay.

Gone that far.

I'm, like, curious of and this one might sound silly to some, but, you know, I think it's also important is that that property is pretty unique in that it has some pretty significant plants and trees on it, like fruit bearing plants and trees. Is there any thought of preserving that? I think Yeah. That's different. Okay.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. It's definitely come up a lot in the conversations with the community. There's a lot of love for, yeah, some of those mature fruit trees that are out there. I think from this design, they they did try to keep a lot of a lot of the ones that are at least, you know, skirting the large lawn expanse. So there there are probably some that fall within that space, that that that might be get removed or, or replanted, in another area that works better with the design. But I think there's definitely a goal to to leave some of those those larger, more established ones.

K. I'm yeah. I'm glad that, there's some consideration to that. It it takes a while for there to be fruit bearing. And, also, I think because of the type of park it is and the purpose of the park, there's something really beautiful about that. So and, I mean, honestly, like, who doesn't like to hang out and grab a snack from a tree? You know?

Like Yeah. A huge fig tree out there. And yeah.

Exactly. And then lastly, and I don't mean to be too picky about this, but, something that I might have saw missing from the design, but correct me if I'm wrong, is for the aerial view where you see the the Festival Street. Do we have the Pan African, crosswalks on there? And if we don't, I'd love to make sure that's added.

Oh, from the aerial.

Yeah. Just because that is

Oh, you're right.

Something that's unique. And and I think, people, no. I guess people probably think of a lot of things when they think of Olympia, but that is becoming more and more one of the things. Right? But Right. I think it really helps orient people.

No. I love that. That's great. Good catch.

Yeah. Go ahead, Shana.

And we're actually going with the black liberation flag because this versus Pan African, but thanks for bringing that up. So black liberation, especially, you know, opening it up for, like, foundational black American freedmen. So that's a different that's a different vibe, but can be together. But just want people to kinda get used to you know, instead of going straight to Pan African because we're not all a monolith, but that color represents us. Does that make sense?

Yeah. I'm hearing you.

Right. Well, I have some some thoughts to share. Well, I'm super excited to see this. I knew the women I know them. They're still they're not around anymore, but they're still around.

The women who tended that land, for a long time at fertile ground, Gail and Karen, and they tended that as a community space, even though it was their private property. We used to do the village building convergence there. There was all sorts of type to all types of, like, you know, eco events that happened there, community celebrations. And so it's really exciting that, to watch how this is evolving. And it's been really wonderful to celebrate Juneteenth, in these spaces the past few years.

Shauna, I really appreciate your all all your work there. And it it like, to see have this forward looking, you know, how this is going to turn into just more and more of a treasure for the community. I'm super excited. Excited about the Festival Street. Like, yeah, more of those across the city too. I we I think we hear that from a lot of the community members. So be great to get the first one going in this space. I'm trying to think of a quest I had so many questions, and they were asked by both of my committee mates. Young even beat me to the fruit trees. I mean, that giant fig tree, the persimmon tree there, like, you know, there's some really good apples and pears.

And, you know, especially with the cafe there, I can just imagine food going straight into that cafe, feeding community. It's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing. So yeah. No. I had questions about the cafe. I had questions about the Festival Street. I had questions about the trees and the funding, and they've all been asked. And so I am excited to to move this forward for the rest of council to consider. And, yeah, is is there anything else for my committee mates here? I'd be happy to to entertain a motion at this point. I do I've got nothing else.

I would happily make a motion to forward this development plan to full council for their approval.

Second.

Alright. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Excellent. Well, thanks again, both Shauna and Stephanie. I know a ton of other people have been involved in this process. Thanks to our staff. I know it's been a long time coming for this, but it's all about that forward process. And the next step in that process is bringing this to council, and I I'm really excited about that. Do we have a sense of timing for coming to council?

I was looking at the agenda today, and it was starting to fill up. So I was hoping to do something towards the February, but I'm thinking the March would be more feasible since I don't want this to get overshadowed by any other big items that council is working on. I'd love for this to be the the spotlight for that night. So so I'll work through agenda setting with Debbie and Jay and Stacy to get this on council's agenda. And we'll be inviting our community design advocates back, of course, and steering committee members as well.

And then I also wanted to just confirm that the committee members here didn't see any big issues with supporting this project before those other two projects. They're all important, but this this one's yeah. Staff staff recommends.

Yeah. Yeah. I know I'm in agreement with that. I'm gonna see Ian's got her hand up.

Yeah. I oh, I just wanted to respond to Solana. This is this is not my first time hearing about it. And so so please know, at least for myself and and probably other colleagues here, is we understand that this is an unusual recommendation from staff to to sort of put it on the on the front end, and we understand it. And oh, I use sexual attack myself. But I understand it and agree with it. So it's not like something you said, and I'm just, you know and it yeah. So thanks for double checking, Silvana, and, thanks for your your thoughtfulness with it. So

Absolutely. And, Kelly, sound good to you? Thumbs up?

Thumbs up. Totally concur with my colleagues.

Excellent. Yes. You have our blessings, Ivana. You can make that a formal part of the recommendation from this committee.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that very much.

Excellent. Well, Shana and Stephanie, thanks so much for spending some time with us this evening. You're obviously, you could stick around and watch our poll if you like. But, otherwise, we will, see you when this comes before the full council.

Excellent. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share our hopes, dreams, and desires, this beautiful park, to be realized.

Thank you. Bye bye.

Alright. Thanks. Alright. Next item of committee business, another exciting topic, actually. And we have a briefing on the parking and business improvement area preliminary evaluation, which actually doesn't sound all that exciting as I'm saying it, but I think it is actually a very exciting topic. So I saw that look on your face, Young. I it it just it sounds very, you know, technocratic there, but, like, you know, we're it's it's fun. Alright. Jenica, I think you are gonna be leading us here.

Yes. Thank you so much. Good evening. Jenica Machado, economic development director. I'll provide some quick background information on this topic, and then I'll pass it over to our external consultant. But in recent years, concerns have grown around the equity of the assessment structure and the administrative complexity of our PBIA. In 2024, the PBIA Advisory Board and City Council determined that a comprehensive review was needed. The evaluation was initiated in late twenty twenty five with Uncommon Bridges selected as the consultant to conduct the evaluation. For the presentation, I'd like to introduce Brian Scott. He is the founding partner of Uncommon Bridges and will provide more information on the evaluation and preliminary information.

Brent, you're on mute.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to be here with you. Brian Scott with Uncommon Bridges. I'm gonna share my screen here in a moment, but the first thing I wanted to say is the most important thing I'm gonna say is build that park. That's a great project.

But let me go ahead and do what I'm here to do. So as as Jenica said, this is a briefing on the parking and business improvement area evaluation. I wanna do a brief welcome and introduction to myself and our firm and the project, give you a quick overview of the current situation, then give you kind of an orientation to what business improvement areas or place management districts are, share our findings of the condition of the district in Olympia, and outline our preliminary recommendations that we'll be coming to full council within a a few weeks, and then I'd be happy to take any questions and and share our next steps. So I'm Brian Scott. I founded Uncommon Bridges sixteen years ago after twenty five years of work on similar districts in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

I've been ably supported on this project by my colleagues, Jacqueline Robinette and Ashley Day, who've both been in Olympia several times, meeting with stakeholders and with the committee. I founded this firm with a vision for vibrant, just, and thriving communities. Our work has evolved into consensus leadership, inclusive process, impactful organizations, and meaningful places, and a place management district, like the parking and business improvement area in Olympia, is all of those things together. My own story in this, I grew up in Portland, kinda got a vision in college for making cities better so people didn't sprawl all over the countryside. That led me into downtown revitalization and urban design work.

That led me into running a statewide organization in Oregon called Oregon Downtown Development Association, and then ultimately Livable Oregon, where we helped write the enabling legislation for similar districts in Oregon, helped form dozens of districts in Oregon. I won a project for the city of Seattle almost twenty years ago to try and upgrade their program with these. Ultimately, that led me to moving to Seattle and founding this firm. So we've worked in a blizzard of cities around the Northwest and in 17 states across the country doing strategic planning, district formation, renewal, and various things. So we've done a lot of this work, and we're happy to be trying to be some help in Olympia this year.

These districts come in lots of different shapes and sizes from the Downtown Tacoma district that's been there for thirty years to the Downtown Everett District that's that's been been there there for a little over twenty years. The Metropolitan Improvement District in Downtown Seattle, which is by far the biggest and most visible one in Washington State, has been around since 1999. The Chinatown International District in Seattle is a neighborhood based district that's been around for a long time. Just a few examples. What's the current situation in Olympia?

You formed the Parking and business Improvement Area in 2005. And as outlined in the state statute, you had 60% of downtown businesses signing a petition in favor of this self assessment district to provide services for the to benefit those businesses in Downtown Olympia. The ratepayers that pay into this district represent 520 different businesses that are of all shapes and sizes and locations within the three zones that are downtown that are outlined on that map. In 2024, you collected a $114,000 from those businesses to provide services for their benefit. But as Jenica said, there have been a fair amount of controversy and and challenges to the program.

And, ultimately, the committee recommended and the council decided to not assess any dollars in 2025 and repeating that again in 2026. So you're assessing $0 for a program that still exists at the moment. And and the the the pause was to do this evaluation, talk to the stakeholders, and figure out what to do next. So that's where we that's what we're doing. Before I get into what we found and what we recommend, I'd like to just give you a little primer on what these districts do around the country.

The this industry has come to be known as place management, which is just what it sounds like. It's managing a specific place, in every case, smaller than a city and more focused than a city government that has so many other things. It was in response in the nineteen fifties to the dramatic decline of America's downtowns in response to the GI bill and the interstate highway system and urban renewal and redlining, which caused some of the harms that your park is responding to. Downtowns, to fight back, began getting organized in the nineteen sixties and started thinking managing public areas, kinda like shopping centers, manage their public space, started to become the thing. By the nineteen eighties, everybody figured out this was gonna need to go on for a long time, and sustainable funding was needed.

And we invented these assessment districts. The the enabling legislation in in, Oregon passed in 1985, similar timing for Washington state, trying to provide stable funding for ongoing services to benefit downtown property and businesses to help them work collectively together. It started mostly funding clean and safe sort of activities, somebody sweeping the sidewalks, removing graffiti, having a uniform presence on the street, giving people a sense of security. By the February, there were lots of neighborhoods, districts. There was more programming of public space and putting on events.

Also more and more social services being provided as the needs in downtowns evolved. Today, there are thousands of these districts across the country. The International Downtown Association is kinda where all these districts come together to establish best practices. And today, they observed that the industry consists of more than 4,000 organizations globally, 2,500 in North America, employing a 100,000 people and paying $3,000,000,000 in wages. On average, these organizations provide about $1,200,000 in services in districts to help businesses thrive and make the district great places for workers, residents, and visitors.

In Washington state, there are over 25 of these districts with budgets ranging from $50,000 to over $20,000,000. There are 11 of them in Seattle, two in Spokane, two in Yakima, two in Richland, two in Everett, and then you can see the other cities that are listed there, including Olympia that have these districts that vary greatly in size. What is a business improvement area or a parking and business improvement area? They've got lots of different names. The state law is in Washington and calls them parking and business improvement areas, and some of them actually do some stuff related to parking, but most of them don't accept advocate for a policy.

But there are BIDs, BIAs, PBIAs, EIDs, ESTs, PIDs, whatever you want, depending on what state you're in. It's a funding mechanism for local place management, place making. It's enacted by the city council, but it's managed right in the neighborhood where it is by the folks that are paying the fees. It's an assessment on property and or businesses. That's a key factor.

Vastly, most of these districts in the country these days assess properties, but some assess businesses like yours does. It's an what the assessment is is a local preference, whether it's on square footage, the value of the property, the sales, the number of employees, whatever that metric is is a local preference. And what they use the money for is a local preference. It just needs to be for the mutual benefit of the rate payers. The most typical are cleaning, safety, marketing and promotions, business development, and professional management or coordination.

This slide illustrates the breadth of the things these districts provide. Nobody in the country provides all of these services, but somebody in the country provides each of these, whether it's marketing promotions and events, economic development, beautification, parks and public space, clean and safe, homeless services, transportation. All of these things are where ratepayers in a district like a downtown or neighborhood mixed use district came together and recognized they needed more and more specific services than the city could provide. And they wanted to they wanted to pay for them, and they wanted to manage them themselves. And it varies across the country in wild ways.

Two examples that are, I think, comparable in scale to Downtown Olympia is the Downtown Everett Association. The Downtown Everett Business Improvement Area was created in 1990 and has been renewed every five years since then on a five year cycle. They have a total budget of about $730,000. Their assessment is just a little under half $1,000,000 based on 11¢ per lot square foot plus 16¢ per thousand dollars of total market value. That's an assessment on properties in Downtown Everett.

They also raised $2,200,000 as from tax credits related to the main street program that your program is also a a member of. Their service area is 54 blocks. They do professional management, cleaning and beautification, marketing events, and business development. In West Seattle Junction is a district that is similar to yours in that it's an assessment on the businesses or the tenants as opposed to on the properties. It was created in 1987.

Most of the business based assessments were created a a long time ago. Their total budget is about 1,200,000.0. They get a lot of grants and raise some event revenue, but they assess about $570,000 through their district. And they do a similar set of things, professional management, marketing and events, business support, repair and maintenance, clean and safe parking. We did a little analysis of the Downtown Olympia District, and and the Everett District is about 60% in terms of land area.

The Everett District is about 60% the size of the Olympia District. West Seattle is about 20% the size. So both so Olympia's land area is much more. The real estate value in Everett is about half again as much, a 150% of yours. And in West Seattle, it's about 90% of yours, a

little

less. The assessment amount, the amount they collect, is five times as much in Everett and six times as much in West Seattle. The value of the real estate per per land area square foot is about three times as much in Everett and about three and a half times as much in West Seattle, so the the properties are worth more per square foot. So I'm just giving some comparison to those two examples I used. How do you form one of these things, or how do you renew it or keep it going?

You start out by assessing the nature of the current organization helping it make sure it's a good solid organization. Starts with a core group of property owners and or business owners who identify a service area and goals, a work plan and a budget, and an assessment mechanism they can all agree to. They work on building support through making sure they're closely aligned with the city staff on on making sure they're following the city regulations. They engage community members and especially major ratepayers. They get their messaging right.

They do a lot of one on one contacts and general meetings. They draft an ordinance, gather and document ratepayer support, and then there's a formal city council process. I always tell people that the council process is what people worry about, but it's not the hardest part of this. The hardest part of this is talking to people that are gonna pay the assessment into it and getting them all in agreement about what they wanna do so they're not all coming and yelling at you, the city council, when you're thinking about passing it. Why do people do this? You know, they're assessing themselves. They do it because they wanna increase activity in the area. They wanna increase vitality. They wanna increase occupancy rates, cleanliness, public safety. They wanna improve the district's image.

They wanna advocate for the district, And perhaps most importantly, they want everyone to pay their fair share so you don't have the same five or 10 people who pay for everything, come to all the meetings, and do all the work, and all those other freeloaders are getting the benefit of that. They want everybody contributing equally. How are these things organized? This is an important subtlety that may not be the the most interesting part of this presentation, but it might be the most important for Olympia. This the national best practice for this is there's three players in this.

There's the city council and the city administration in the middle, which has the authority to make this assessment, to collect the assessments, provide financial accountability, and then audit and operating standards. That's sort of the the the core of it. But then there's two other interest groups that aren't the same thing. One is the ratepayers, who's paying the bill and a ratepayer board, like you have the PBIA board, who are people who are actually getting assessed, and their job is to approve and monitor the program priorities, the budget, and the performance. And, essentially, they're an advisory board to you, the city council, and they're saying, we think this program is going well or not, and we think you ought to continue to hire this operating entity to maintain the program or not or make a change if they don't like it.

Then there's this operating entity, which is most times is a separate thing. In Olympia, you've got the city staff managing this, and the services, some of them are provided by the city itself. Some of them are provided by the Olympia Downtown Alliance or private contractors. But the most common model is there's a nonprofit to often called something like the Olympia Downtown Alliance or the Downtown Seattle Association or the Downtown Everett Association, and they do a number of things. One of the things they do is provide specific services with the assessed funds, for district operations, often clean, safe, marketing, activation, economic development.

And those are things that are in the ordinance that say they can do with these funds, and they they operate those, and then they report to the ratepayer board on how they're doing. And the ratepayer board says annually to the city council, those guys are doing a great job. Keep it up. Or, potentially, if they're not, say, we're not happy with that, and you should hire somebody else to do this. That would be a recommendation they could make.

These organizations also get fined to other funds through contracts with the city, with an organization like the port, or other people, or, to provide specific services through a memorandum of understanding. They also often collect dues or donations for various programs, which provides them some money that is more flexible than the money that's governed by the city ordinance. And so that sort of three party thing is by far the national best practice. At the moment, your program is mostly run by the city, and then there's the Olympia Downtown Alliance that's kinda doing its own thing, and they're not as tied together as they are in many places. So that's a quick primer on what these do.

Let me tell you what we found is happening in Olympia. I've already alluded to a number of those things and then give you some recommendations. First of all, the original structure, the way this was set up in Olympia is easy to understand in the context and timing of when it was created. There were lots of other districts up in the eighties, nineties, and into the February that were set up pretty similar to yours. So good job to those that were there.

But the assessment rates haven't changed at all since 2005, and everybody knows there's been plenty of cost of living increases since then, and there was nothing built into the formula here. And so just doing just just that one factor has crippled the program. It doesn't have as much buying power as it did before. It's also it's a tenant based district. You assess the businesses, and that's challenging to administer.

It makes perfect sense. Like, let's get all the businesses together, put the money in a hat, and do something for all them together. But there's no list of the businesses. Theoretically, they all have a business license, but I bet all of them don't. And and, also, a business might have several locations, and their business license might not be the downtown location.

And you don't have a lot of metrics about the business. You don't actually know how many employees they have or what square footage they have or what their sales volume are or other things that you might use to figure out how much they should pay. So there's just no list. And so there's a lot of administration time goes into trying to figure out who should be paying this assessment and how much they should pay and what to do about it when they don't pay. It also you're not raising enough money.

You saw at the beginning, you raised a $114,000 the last time you collected it. You probably spent that much or half that much on just staff time administering the thing. It's just not enough to be worth the effort. There was a recent attempt led by the Olympia Downtown Alliance to create a property based district, which would be a much more stable and manageable function, But it was unsuccessful, and many people are discouraged as a result of that effort. Just as an illustration, your this is a city slide.

You know, the rates that were set up are based on the number of employees for large, medium, and small businesses in different rates, in different parts of the Zone A, Zone B, Zone C. Zone A is the core of the district and pays the most. Zone C is kinda out at the edges and pays less. But a large restaurant in Zone A would pay $750 a year. So that's, like, $60 a month.

And, you know, compared to other costs that a business of that size has, that's a tiny number. Professional services, a large one in Zone A would pay $400 a year. Financial institutions, $750 a year. Lodging and apartments, a an apartment building with 30 or less rooms would pay $200 a year. A one with more than 50 rooms would pay $400 a year for the whole building.

In Downtown Seattle, a one residential apartment would pay more than $200 a year. So a 50 unit building would pay 50 times 200. So it's $10,000 a year at, you know, at that rate. So those rates are extremely low, and they haven't changed in twenty years. We just did a little arithmetic.

And if you didn't do anything but apply the consumer price index change from 2005 to 2025, your $114,000 collection last year would have been a $190,000. We didn't do anything else except just apply the consumer price index to it. So it's showing one of your issues is it's just you're not keeping up with change. So it's hard to administer. It's not enough money.

It's not keeping up with national best practices. So we have a number of recommendations. You do need a stable place management funding. You need you need this program, and you need a program to be stronger because it just provides all kinds of solid benefits to help have a vital, and prosperous downtown Olympia. Ideally, this would be through a property based assessment.

It's just so much easier to administer. You can use the county assessor's data. It'll tell you which properties are there, how big they are, how much they're worth, who owns them, and so you know where to send the bill, and you and you can use a publicly available dataset to administer. That works much better. But since there was this recent attempt and everybody's pretty discouraged and burned out, it's fresh in people's minds, it may be too soon to launch another effort to create that.

Nevertheless, that should be the long term goal. In the meantime, you should collect much more from the PBIA, which would which the council can do with a public hearing. And I think you should transfer day to day administration from the city staff to a nonprofit program manager, like I explained. That could be the Olympiad Downtown Alliance, or it could be some other nonprofit. But it it it'll be much more effective if you've got the people who benefit the most from the district much more in charge of managing its day to day operations.

You also need a stakeholder advisory board and an operating entity, as I mentioned. I think that's a very important element. The Olympia Downtown Alliance is a proven operator of downtown programs that could operate the PBIA programs. They haven't agreed to do that, and they're not, you know, they know I'm here saying this, but, you know, that that's a thing that should be considered. The operator could also manage the rate payer advisory board, which is using up a lot of your city staff time.

And and then the rates and the budgets should substantially increase. First of all, just adjust for inflation, and then also assess more, you know, more equitable in light of current activities. Residential development has happened a lot in that district, and you're not remotely assessing as much that residential property as much as comparables in other cities. In the Ballard neighborhood in North Seattle, they collect more money from residential than they do from commercial properties, and they got more support on their last renewal from residential properties than they did from commercial properties. Both should be in it together.

I'm not saying it's better for residential, but that that's an important major change. So that's where we are. I've got a presentation for and discussion with the PBIA board next week. We need to have further discussions with the Olympia Downtown Alliance about their willingness to step in so that when we get to the city council with a final recommendation, that can be a little tighter. And then a final report goes with the presentation to the council. That's what I got. I'd be happy to respond to questions. Or, Jenica, you might have closing thought. I don't know.

Just add with the conversation around residential and any future recommendations, we do have a meeting set up with Jacinda, our housing manager, to ensure that any recommendations are aligned with our affordable housing goals.

Great. Thank you so much. Brian, that was a really, really great presentation. I learned a whole lot more than I expected to, and, really glad to have you working on this. I'd like it to open it up to the committee, for any thoughts or questions you have.

Go ahead, Ian.

Yeah. Thanks so much, Brian. Really comprehensive, presentation. I am I have a few questions. I'm curious. There was a slide of, you know, all of the different potential uses. Any will your final recommendation have any recommendations of what those could be, or is it just kinda like, here's the universe? And, of course, if we collect more money, then we could do more things in the universe.

That's a that's a great question. You should not do all those things. I think the beauty in these things is they're very closely tied to the ratepayers. And my recommendation would be that some organizing be done of the ratepayers and prioritizing services that they wanna pay for and and put put those forward. You know, my my instinct tells me it will still be clean and safe more than anything else.

That tends to be kinda where it goes. And certainly in the conversations I've had with folks, clean and safe kinda topics come up a lot. But how a variety of things are managed and I know the city is currently contracting with ODA for some services, and they've heard some messages about the city may not have funds for those services. So there should be a whole bunch of discussion about exactly how you get all that sorted out, over time.

Thank you. I'm curious about compliance. There in past by both business owners on the PBAA and not and even past staff folks have felt that, you know, sometimes businesses didn't didn't see the value. Or I mean, honestly, sometimes there's just been, like, a a misunderstanding or a language barrier too, and and people weren't paying. And so what is any any thoughts on best practices for a compliance model that, you know, that takes the human into account?

What do you mean by compliance model?

I mean, make sure people pay.

Uh-huh. In a

kind way.

So so the state law does not provide a provision for putting a lien on a property or a business if they don't pay, which makes collection problematic. In my experience in Washington state, if people don't pay enough and it becomes a priority for the city to take take a a delinquent ratepayer to court, the city will win. But you're not gonna do that unless it's a fair amount of money. And when you are assessing small businesses, it tends to be a small amount of money, and it be that's where it becomes a a a burden on your staff or whoever's administering it to try and persuade them to pay. It's a good reason that having a a nimble associate a a nimble nonprofit that is close to the rate payers to be in charge.

So they are they have a high incentive to be highly in communication and providing services that people want. And so you end up with people they want more that you know? And so they're more apt to pay. So that's would be my biggest thing because it's it really is kind of a peer pressure cajoling thing. And and the closer you can get it to the action, the better it is.

And I think that's a you've got you've got this kinda double whammy going on where you both are assessing the businesses, which is harder to administer, and you've got the city doing the assessment. So how easy is it to just turn your back on the city and say, you know, those people don't know what they're doing? It's I mean, I'm I'm sure you've never heard those words. You know? And so that that becomes a challenge, and that's why you get it closer to to the ratepayers, and they're the more incentive is there.

If I had it my way, you would do all that, and you would switch to a property based assessment because you'd have way less rate payers. And the individual assessments would be more, and it would and the the amount of transactions you had to deal with would be far less. And then the landlords are gonna pass it through to their tenants one way or another. So the same people are gonna end up paying at the end of the day, but it's much easier to administer.

Thank you. I'm curious about the footprint of I don't know if you have any visuals like that, but, like, who are within the rate payers right now? You know? I mean, as far as, like, in in our downtown, and is there any opportunity to broaden it out?

We we took a look at expanding to the North, to East Of Plum or South or East of Zone C, potentially. It seems to me that your district is largely in the right place. And and there are, you know, some you know, if you if you're trying to expand to the North, the port really dominates the properties that are there, and the kind of the character of the properties is different. So it may not be you know, there's not a lot of public right away that with you you're sweeping sidewalks, there's not as many sidewalks. If you go East Of Plum, it's a real mix of commercial and residential.

That's probably the most logical, but there's a lot of single family residential in there, which is, by state law, is not accessible. So, I mean, you don't wanna set yourself up to have to provide services to people that aren't paying for them. South or east of Zone C, you get into a lot of government and nonprofit. You get closer to, you know, the state capital, and it gets a little less downtown y. So I my sense is your boundaries are pretty close.

You know? That that I I I I don't see that as a big need. There might be some adjustment that's appropriate, but our our analysis of what's there doesn't show like, oh my gosh. You're missing, you know, this. Sometimes you see that somebody built a big hotel right outside the district, and it's just dumb that they're not in it. You don't have something like that that is clear to us.

Yeah.

Is it okay with my colleagues if I ask just a couple more questions?

The floor is yours. Keep going. Okay.

I'm curious about and and maybe this is it could be a Brian. It could be a Jenica question. But I'm curious about the PBIA's involvement. You know, it's it was stormy on there to to get them to to all just even be in favor of this process. Nothing to do with you, Brian, mostly on on our behalf. We have some relationship building there to do. But, yeah, I'm curious about what that process has been like and, and the reception from the PBIA.

Well, Jenne can can certainly add her own thoughts on it. She's been there in my interactions with that committee. By the time I showed up, they seem ready to do this and and real eager to, to do this assessment and very open to you know, in the interview for to get hired, I explained about my background, and they seem to really like it that I'd worked on a lot of these in other places. And they seem to be pretty receptive to, you know, some some of the input. They haven't seen everything that I just presented.

I can't imagine any of it will surprise them, based on what I've already said to them. But, you know, the it it will be my hunch is, you know, the composition of that board and the staffing of that board will be of high interest to them. And I know there has been some sense that, you know, they kinda wanna be the small business advisory committee for the city of Olympia or something, which is not actually their job. But it's easy to understand why you might wanna, you know, have the city council's ear on what you think about those kind of things. So some of that trying to explain, you know, what they are charged with will be important.

Yeah. I I would just add that Brian and his associates have been to multiple PBA advisory board meetings to go over what the process is, to involve them, get their feedback. Some of the people that Brian was able to follow-up with for one on one interviews were passed along through advisory board members to make sure that we were speaking to a wide variety of different downtown business owners, property owners. And next week is when we have our February advisory board meeting, and Brian will be providing this information, but then some additional recommendations that will be developed within the next week. And so they will have a chance to see the full and final recommendations to where when we get to a point where we do come to full counsel, the advisory board will have seen, and, we will include what their remarks and feedback are so the counsel can consider that.

Thank you. And then I just have a final question. Is, Brian, I just wanna make sure that, that I'm clear on on what you're sharing, specifically about from from your view, what the city's portion should be of assessment and, in a nonprofit such as, the the ODA, but, you know, could be someone else. And then what the PBIA's role would be in a in a reimagined future. You know?

So I think I think your question was, what is the role of the city? What is the role of the PBIA board? And what is the role of an an an operating entity like the ODA? Yes. So the city's role

Mhmm.

Should be to enact an ordinance or to update an ordinance to authorize this collection or mandate this collection and to provide the collection mechanism and, you know, the assessment and collect the funds and then monitor that the funds are expended in line with the ordinance. And that that basically is the city's role. And and I think then the the job of the PBIA board is to meet probably not near as often as they are meeting now, and their primary job is to to to identify the priorities of the district. You know, you your your ordinance would say you can do these six or seven things with this money. But year to year, they might have a different priority for those and which they would report back to you, but they'd they'd talk about what are those priorities.

Like, maybe we need to focus more on cleaning this year and more on, you know, marketing next year. And so the board would identify those priorities, and then they would monitor the performance of the operating entity. And, ultimately, every year, would have an annual meeting and make a report to the city council. And and, you know, most of their report will probably be all the good things that happened. But one of the things they might say is there's big problems, and we think you should change the operator or something like that, which they could do.

I guess I missed the other thing. The other thing the city should do is contract with an operating entity to provide the services. So you should you know? And then so you hire this third entity as the operating entity, could be the ODA. I'm I'm trying not to promise them because it's they haven't said that, but that would certainly make sense, you know, on paper.

And and the city then contracts with them to provide the services at the direction of the PBIA board. And so the the operating entity board probably meets every month. They do lots of programs. Probably their biggest program will be the operation of these PBIA services. That'll be their biggest source of funds.

And they will provide cleaning and safety and marketing and other things that are in the ordinance. They will report to the you know, and it'll be that board that comes together and cooks up the idea that we're gonna have a big event, you know, for the July 4, and that would fit within their list of things they could do. And there'll be that's where they'll have the creative brainstorming about how that'll work, or we're gonna have the art walk or whatever they're gonna do, or they're gonna up and that's where they would talk about we need to move the cleaning from the afternoon to first thing in the morning or whatever like that. And then they report maybe every couple months or quarterly to the PBIA board about how it's going. They get feedback.

The PBIA board is is charged with representing the ratepayers, The people are actually paying for it, and reporting to the city council. I talked a lot. Did that answer your question?

I thought it was all valuable. Thank you.

Good.

I Kelly, I have a quick follow-up, Brian. That was super helpful. And as it's currently set up, the city of Olympia decides, you know, the PPI makes a recommendation, and we decide, yes, that's how the funding will be spent. It sounds like in this scenario, we're kind of removed from that. We we set up the ordinance, and we say, here's our priorities. Go do it. And, ultimately, and then the PBIA would set within those priorities what the priorities are. And then the operating entity would say, okay. Here's our direction, and they kinda get to make the decisions ultimately.

The the day to day decisions. They would the the PBIA board would come to you one once a year and say, next year, we think the budget should be x dollars, and the rate should be this. And for that, you're gonna get this, and they would give you a work program. And you and you'd say, okay. That makes sense. Or, you know, you could say, no. You gotta change it in some other way if you need if that that would be in your like, once a year, though. And then and then you you step away from it.

And Yeah.

And it's the PBIA board's job to then make sure that the operating entity does what they promised to you at that meeting and report back to you in a year about how it went. And

Okay.

And and then the operating entity is day to day, you know, saying, you know, you told us to prioritize cleaning, and we are, you know, thinking it would make sense to do it this way, and we're doing it. And then we're coming quarterly to the PBIA board to say, you know, it's going pretty well. And somebody on the PBIA board is somebody who's gonna say, you know, the corner by my business is a mess, you know, all the time. What's up with that? And they would try and deal with that.

Okay. So so it would still be the case of the PBIAs bringing a recommendation to the city council. We approve it, and then they care and then the work is carried out as as you described. Okay. I was just checking to see if that was still a part of the process or if we just set it and I don't wanna say set it and forget it.

Well, I think I think annual annual kind of update on the work plan, the budget, you know, and you have to you know, I think the way it's currently set up in your ordinance is you annually set the rates and the budget, and we I think that would continue.

Great. Okay. Thank you.

Jenica, is that right? Is that is that an annual action? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Kelly, patiently waiting with your hand up.

You know, it I have very strong arms, so it was fine. Brian, thank you so much for that. I, you know, like Chair Madrone, I think I learned a tremendous amount in this presentation about these districts. And I have, you know, I have heard PBIA off and on, and and the parking kept throwing me off. And so this is really helpful to understand that it is not about that.

But a couple of questions. So, I'm not familiar with the recent attempt to create a property based district, and I don't necessarily want the history of that because I I'm sure that's another rabbit hole. But just for clarity, so if like, there's is there a mechanism for counsel or somebody else to take this from a tenant based to a property based, or does it fully require a new vote, whatever that is, that essentially dumps the old and replaces it with the new? I mean, is there any in between there?

Yes and yes. All of the authority is with the city council. You know, you you you are the ones that have the authority to do this, either to modify the current one or to create a new one or change how it's done. If you follow the state statute for parking and business improvement areas, it outlines a process of gathering support in which there's a petition with ratepayers, and the the requirement in the state law is that ratepayers representing 60% of the assessment, not 60% of the owners or 60%, but 60% of the assessment are shown in a petition that they're in support of this. And and that could be whether it's businesses or whether it's property owners.

And and then it's and up to you, you know, to to take that into advisement. You know? And if they've got 61, you know, what does that mean about the other 39%? Does that mean that they're all asleep, or does it mean they hate it? You know?

And you have to make, you know, a reasoned judgment like you have to make on anything else. And and, essentially, that's the process that's outlined in the state law. Largely, the council has the authority to, you know, make your own decision about what happens there. But I should be clear that if it goes wrong and somebody wants to sue over their assessment, it's the city that'll get sued. And so, you know, your legal counsel and your risk managers will, you know, advise you about what makes sense.

And I'm sure some of the ratepayers will let you know what they think as you're thinking about doing that. And even to even to just go back and collect another $114,000, which I don't recommend that you do, you'd have to have a public hearing to do that and, you know, and deal with whoever showed up at the public hearing and whatever they had to say.

And

then something else you said triggered a thought for me. So, I mean, I don't I don't think either of my counsel I don't think anyone on this call would would disagree with the statement that, you know, with the you mentioned the increase in number of residential units that are going in downtown, and I think it's it's a it's a goal of the city to increase, you know, the number of people living, living downtown, increase residential down there. And at the same time, we hear and we experience regularly that, affordability, particularly with the high percentage of renters in Olympia, is is a very real problem. And so when you mentioned the city that, every unit did forgive me if I'm I'm misstating, but it if I remember correctly, was like every unit in their residential things was $200 a year or paid $200 a year into this. Right?

And so I think about that in the context. And then you use the phrase that, you know, that that gets passed through to tenants, and I think that's exactly what would happen. And then I just worry a little bit about, okay, now we're automatically putting a premium on living downtown even though we want people to live downtown, and we've created a scenario where we're increasing the number of units downtown. So just do you see have you seen any cities particularly in areas like our region where affordability is such a problem? Have you seen any attempts to to mitigate that or any successes with that?

The the import good question. And affordability is a great big deal, and it's a great big deal all over the place. You know? How housing afford that's just gigantically important. And the amount of money we are talking about is if you think about the the example I used was a a major city with a two in the ballpark of $200 a year for apartments.

The average apartment in that district costs about $2,000 a month to rent. So this is 10% of one month's rent. You You know? Know? So it's, you know, it's $200 is, like, $15 a month, you know, or something like that.

So it is a pretty small number compared to rent. And in every case, in every category, I have never seen a place management district assessment that the assessment wasn't a really small number compared to all the other costs of operating that business or operating that property. And that gets kinda overlooked. You say $200, and you think $200 it meant your head your brain goes at $200 a month, but it's not $200. It's $200 a year.

And and if you went to a $100, you know, half of that, you'd be dramatically more than you're you're you're you're talking about now. And I'm I'm not even making a proposal there, but just it's just getting it in the scale of of how much money you're talking about is important. And and many districts do provide discounts for nonprofits and or affordable housing or other things like that, and and that becomes a, you know, a a a local discussion point about what feels right to everybody.

Have you seen any do it as a, like like, a percentage of the rent amount? So for example, if you were gonna rent a, a more expensive or larger unit, you know, you'd pay a little bit more. And if you were gonna rent a studio or a unit in a in a more affordable building, you'd pay a little less. I mean

You certainly could do that. And, you know, my my advice is every time you add a nuance, it makes the administration get a lot more complicated because suddenly, you know and and suddenly, you provide a a data point that, you know, nobody's got that data. And the next thing you know, you're asking the property owner to tell you what the rent on the units are, and the property owner won't tell you what the you know, because it's proprietary information, and they're competing with the other property owners. So it gets really complex. No. There's no legal reason you couldn't do that. It's just it gets really complicated really fast.

What if we have a rental registry, and we are supposed to know that information?

If if you well, then you could you could definitely do it. If you've if you've got the right registry and it all works. I'm I'm just a big fan of using publicly available data so that, you know, everybody could say, our formula is $30 per square foot, and we can just look at the data and say, you got this many square feet. This is your rate. You might tell us it stinks, but at least we don't have to you know, the the arithmetic isn't controversial.

Well, I could see a scenario where we said, you can either participate in the rental registry and tell us what your rent is, and we'll assess based on that, or we'll assess this higher flat line number that is our default.

Yep. You could you

you could say, there's an administration component of that.

Somebody's gotta do that then, and I'm not I'm not saying that's a bad idea. I'm just acknowledging that probably somebody that's on your payroll is gonna have to follow you know, you take time to do what you just said.

You. Appreciate your creative thinking there. Yeah. And, Yang, I see your hand. I also wanna quickly say, like, you know, in terms of, you know, getting people to want to live downtown, you know, affordability is absolutely a part of it. And, also, livability is a part of that too. So there's a there's a equation to be balanced there, you know, to make sure that downtown has the services to to be, you know, perceived as as a place that people wanna live. But appreciate I really appreciate your your questions and your line of thinking there. Ian, go ahead.

Yeah. I I so appreciated you, Brian. You're speaking to what all these different entities should do from your view, right, with the city, PBIA, and, whoever the third party would be. I think, once this does come to the full council, well, even to the PBI, but to the full council, it'd be really important to for, council members to just see that laid out. And then, I have a question that, maybe for you, Brian, and it could just be for staff.

But, we are evaluating right now, all of our different advisory bodies or or that work is getting wrapped up. And so PBIA being one of them as well. So I wonder if some of these things are, not within Brian's scope, but a recommendation for, how often the PBI should be meeting and what form, that kind of thing. So some of the, some of that type of things that doesn't have to do with, you know, setting the rate.

If if if you know, my recommendation would be that they don't need to meet as often as they are meeting now, because I would recommend that there is an operating entity that that is the place where people are debating, you know, things that are happening on a day to day basis and priorities that ought to be set, and what are we gonna do about this, and what are we gonna do about that. And that should be happening in the operating entity that's closest to that, and the ratepayers advisory board's job is to represent the ratepayers and advise the city on the performance of the contractor that's providing the services. And and and that makes that board less challenging to manage. And I also suggest that that be managed by the p the by the operating entity itself, which will save the city a bunch of staff time.

Yeah. And if

anyone else had anything to add, staff wise, I'm I'm just curious. So when this does come to the when this recommendation does come to the full council, is that when we would be I mean, is that everything for the PBIA, or, are we gonna hear about, some, possible process improvement when we hear about advisory bodies? Does that make sense?

I'm not I'm I'm not clear on will you hear about process improvements for PBIA, or is there a connection that you're asking about for the larger effort around committee evaluations?

Thanks, Jenica. Yes. So, it is, it's really the the larger advisory, but I see Debbie has her hand raised, so she probably will answer this. But I just want to answer your question first is that yeah. I'm just talking about the broader, like, beyond the rate structure.

It's part of my understanding was that we are also evaluating the PBIA as well. And and Brian had actually mentioned that there are some things that the PBIA, the current group of PBIA board members are interested in that don't necessarily have anything to do with the rate structure.

Yeah. Go ahead, Debbie.

I see Stacy just popped up. She's leading this effort, so I'll go ahead and and, defer to her.

Mhmm. Go ahead, Stacy.

Okay. Stacy Ray, assistant city manager and also the, yeah, project lead for the advisory body evaluation work that mayor Pro Tem was referencing. So so I think that that it'd probably do a lot worth a longer conversation. But, if I'm understanding your question, I think we most certainly are interested in the recommendation that's coming out of this process because it has to do with, you know, the the dedication of staff time and looking for efficiencies. I also heard mentioned, and and maybe this is part of what you're getting at, is there is a there is some desire.

I think I heard that Brian talked about on the part of the PBIA to have some advisory type influence. So and, you know, and we're taking that into account that that that there's been some conversation about whether or not that really lives within their current role or not. So as we look at advisory bodies and we look at, you know, potentially some opportunities to have that voice kind of represented in a different way, that can be part of the evaluation process.

And and I'd just like to add that this work that Jenica and Brian is doing right now is absolutely critical to inform that larger recommendation.

Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you so much. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I just wouldn't it it wouldn't surprise me that those types of, I guess, process improvement recommendations wouldn't come from, you know, when Brian comes and, shares it to the full council. But I just, my understanding is when we do do, however, we sort of reimagine advisory bodies that the PBIA is included in that. Okay. It sounds like we're all tracking.

I I would. I just make an observation that really isn't about Olympia, but it's about sort of best practices in you know, on these things all over the place. Advisory is an interesting word. It provide you know, it suggests that they're gonna give advice. And and if you get a bunch of downtown property and business owners together and ask them, you know, what they think and what they wanna advise on, every single time, they're gonna say they wanna go give the city hell about something.

You know? That's the nature of the beast. You know? Whatever the I'm not saying I'm not talking about Olympia. They're gonna wanna you know?

And and there's a inherent disconnect between forming a group with city council authorized funds to tell the council what the council ought to do. I mean, it's it's it's it's it's a it's a, you know, it's a vicious you know, it's like like, if they if they push hard enough, it's gonna annoy you, and you go, why are we why are we helping them raise money to you know? And so there's a but there's an advocacy function, and there is an importance that that property and business owners ought to be advocating to the city about policy. But I think that's better done by an independent organization that is that is using its own resources to do those things, and and that's where you get that separation of duties. The job of the ratepayers advisory board is to advise about the use of the rates collected for this district.

The job of a downtown organization or a district organization is to do whatever it can to make the district better, and some of that is advocacy to the city about, you know, where the bus route goes or how the parking policy is or the residential requirements or, you know, whatever it is that are the issues. And those things are important issues, and they should be advocating in a public place and with the city council on those things. But they shouldn't necessarily be using the city authorized money to do it. Does that make sense?

Candidly, I'm still processing some of what you're saying. Interesting perspective. Yeah. We, currently have I think folks that I've been talking to about this that are on this call for a long time now understand where it's coming from. But just in case anyone doesn't, we, no matter what the PBIA sort of becomes, we still have had long longstanding community members on there that are really invested. And, and I think there are some frustrations that go beyond the the rate payers. And so I just wanna make sure that while we're in this sort of evaluation period, that, that we we see to those things.

Thanks. Thank you. I'm really, really enjoying this conversation. I have a question too. And so, Brian, you had mentioned, I believe, on the slides of examples of other business improvement areas, you talked about, revenue other than rates. Is that correct?

Yes.

And so help me thread the needle here. You have the business improvement area that is making, you know, setting the priorities. If they're working with an operating entity, you know, they they're they're engaged in that in that way of setting the priorities. Where does other revenue come in in this situation? I think you had mentioned grants. Like, is the operating in entity applying for grants that the business improvement area folks are, you know, advising on? Like, how how does other revenue play into the equation?

So a typically, a a district association or district alliance is a nonprofit, sometimes a five zero one c three, sometimes a 5014, or 5016, depending on how they're constituted. And like every other nonprofit you're familiar with, you know, the Boy Scouts or the the theater or, you know, the YMCA, they're out there scrapping around for money every way they can think of to get it to fund what they're doing. And, you know, they have good days and bad days, and sometimes they, you know, chase the wrong kind of money for the thing they wanna do, and sometimes they get it just right. And and they're putting different things together. And most effective place management organizations have an assessment that they are managing that is a stable funding source for providing day in, day out services, like sweeping the sidewalks or putting up the banners or having the concerts in the park in the summertime or something like that.

That's a stable ongoing expense that isn't great for, like, having big sales to fund that or, you know, kind of trying to raise it. But then they then they go out and write a grant because they wanna put, you know, a big welcome sign to downtown up, and it's gonna cost a $100,000. And they go out and write a grant for that, or they they wanna do or the or they have, you know, a great big event, and they sell beer and wine, and they make some money at that. The Ballard Alliance makes runs seafood fest, which is a great big event. And they do it very well, and they raise about $400,000 beyond their expenses.

Yeah. And that helps provide them some money to do what, you know, what what they want with it. And Yeah. Okay. And and so you know?

Or or or they have a membership program. And the very same property or business owner who might pay $10,000 into the assessment district because they have to because the city told them, also pays a thousand dollars in dues or $2,500 in dues because they really like what the association is doing, and they want the association to have some money that is discretionary to do what they think is a priority, which could be advocacy or it could be, you know, some kind of charitable campaign. Some of them have big galas, you know, to raise money just like every other nonprofit.

Okay. I think where I got confused is that I didn't realize you were talking about what the operating entity is doing to bring in additional revenue. And so I was like, oh, wait. Hold on. Does, like, the the the business improvement area, that structure have have other revenue opportunities where then this, you know, the advisory committee or whatever we're calling it would be weighing in on. But that sounds like it's a very separate thing, and it is strictly, like, the operating entity that has access to, you know, grant opportunities and everything.

The other thing I mentioned in passing that is is important enough, I should I should re restate it. In Everett, they are a participant in the Washington Main Street program just like Downtown Olympia is, and there is some tax credits available for donors who wanna give a donation to a Main Street organization, and that can provide some real money to those organizations. And that that is an available vehicle that the Olympia Downtown Alliance has.

Great. I just wanted to fully tease out that for the purposes of the conversation of the future of the PBIA, we're strictly talking about rates. We are not talking about any okay. Okay. And and that's got confused because it was all in all in your your very holistic presentation there.

And the rates the rates are authorized by the city council

Yes.

And administered by the city, and that's what the rate payer advisory board ought to be talking about is those Okay. What's being done with those funds?

I am totally picking up what you're putting down there. Excellent. Well, I've I like I said, I've learned a lot, and I really look forward to this, you know, going through PBIA and coming back to council for us to figure out what the future of this looks like. And, Kelly, I heard you say that, like, oh, yeah. That history with the, you know, the property based assessments.

Like, what happened there? I think it'd be good for you and our other newer council members to, you know, maybe through your one on one with Jay or connecting with Desiree over at the ODA kinda learn that story. Because I I was I was super bummed when that didn't happen. I'm in I'm in agreement with Brian. That is the ideal way to go, and it would be really good for us to fully understand the why that that didn't happen, why they didn't get to 60% of, you know, the total assessed area and, you know, have have some some of those conversations of, okay.

Here's what we can do now. And longer term, this is how we build up to to getting to that 60%. So, any any other final thoughts or or oh, I saw Jenica just jumped off mute there. Go ahead.

Just had I wanted to follow-up on two items just if there were, and kinda where you were going. Any additional request for information that we can incorporate as we finish up? And if Klipsch would like to see this item again before it goes to full council or, as we finish and finalize recommendations, would you prefer to go, just to a full council meeting next? Well, that's a

good question, because, often, a committee will make a recommendation to the council. And having this go from PBIA to council, it would be absent a committee recommendation. Are you hoping for action from the council at that point, or are you looking to, help the council get up to speed and then there's more process that would happen around a decision?

I my goal is when we come to council that we will have a recommendation on actions, especially because we will be going to PBIA first, and I will be looking for feedback from them in which I can bring the full council. Okay. But but if it is preferred to slow the process down, we could come to, counsel with the presentation on information and, have decision points come at a later date.

Okay. My my inclination is that this committee makes a recommendation to the council, which would add a step in the process, I I I know, and and slow things down. But I think that, I think it helps the council out at times to know that it's been fully vetted by a committee. And, Kelly, I saw your hand pop up, then it came down. Were you gonna say the same thing?

Yeah. I was gonna say exactly the same thing is that I feel like when committees bring stuff to council, council will look to us for some type of recommendation. And personally, the piece that I feel like would be really that will be really valuable to this committee is that feedback from the PBIA after you all present. I'm very curious. You know, I feel like right now, I couldn't even give a solid opinion to counsel without recognizing, you know, how how folks feel about it.

Yeah.

A key piece of information that is still in development is what are recommendations or rates, options on rates. And so that's that's a key piece of information that was not presented today. It's still in development, but would come to you in the next iteration.

Great. And I think another key piece of information that will inform those rates, but also that Kelly was asking about earlier, is that affordability to live downtown component. And, Jenica, I heard you say you're gonna be connecting with Jacinda on all of that so you'll have more information. So okay. So I'm hearing next steps are you you all are gonna go to the PBIA, get their feedback, refine this more, bring a recommendation to the committee so that we can then make a recommendation to the council. Excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah. Go ahead, Eung. I saw your hand there.

Yeah. I'd I'd just rather be annoying now. So I know I I've I've said this before, but I I really it it would be so important to me to get the on on the rate, yes, and the thoughts of the PBIA, but also on I wanna make sure that there's a clear there's recommendations from Brian and Eugenica, and then and the PBIA on whose role is what. And there's been a lot of discussion on PBIA. I haven't attended in in a few meetings, but on what exactly you know, what does the ODA do?

What does the PBIA do? And so I just I think that's really important.

Great. Well, thank you, everybody. Thank you, Brian, for spending the evening with us, you know, learning about a new park and, working with us, through the this stuff with the PBIA. And thanks, Jenica, for all your work on this. Sounds like we can look forward to seeing both of you sometime. Do you is there any kind of estimated timeline to we'll be talking about our work plan later this evening. Any estimated timeline in terms of going in front of the PBIA, incorporating recommendations, and

bringing something back to us? Our PBIA meeting is next week, and so we could work, you know, with Tim and Debbie and Jay on scheduling with clips. But we, I think, would be able to come back probably late February, mid to late February.

Okay. Well, we we only meet once a month, so it'll be late February. Yep. Then just kidding. So then. Yeah. No special meetings for you. No problem. Alright. Well, thank you both so much. Brian, did you have anything else you wanted to say before we agenda items here?

No. No. Thank you for your attention to this. And and, you know, I would say that the big time line question is the difference between me giving you an informed opinion about how it ought to be versus building consensus among the people in Downtown Olympia about what they want it to be, those are not the same thing. And and, you know, the building some consensus there would be much more time consuming.

You know, coming to a recommendation that I'm happy to defend, we can be at your next meeting next month and hit those that that's not that hard. But but, you know, whether or not you're gonna have overwhelming support from the PBIA board and or anybody else is a whole another can of worms.

Yeah. Well and we can talk about that when we see you next if some more community engagement is needed and what that could look like. But it sounds like having something clear that we're putting it in front of people is a is a is a good move to have, I think. So okay. Great. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. And with that, we will go ahead and, shift over to the next item on our agenda, which is an update on the advisory body recruitment process. And, Stacy, I believe you are leading this.

Yes. This one will be mine. So, again, for the record, I'm Stacy Ray, assistant city manager. I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. Okay.

Alright. Make sure I can advance the slides here. Okay. So for tonight, I am talking about our current advisory body recruitment process. If this is for purposes of providing an update tonight, I do have a couple of questions for the committee, in terms of process.

But by and large, this is an overview of what would be considered a typical, recruitment process. For tonight oh oh, actually, first off, I just wanna acknowledge that this is a team effort to run this recruitment process this year. So I'm here presenting, but we also have Don Carvalho who's available to answer questions as well, and then Margo Morales is providing support to this process. So, again, tonight, I'm just gonna provide a briefing on the advisory body recruitment selection and appointment process, And we can't talk about whether or not you wanna make any changes to what you see here, but I do have a couple of questions as we move further along in terms of, like, what kind of information you want to at some of your decision points. So I'll talk just a brief introduction.

What do I mean when I say council appointed advisory bodies? What's our process and timeline? What does the recruitment looks like? How many applications have we received? I'll talk a little about the interview selection and appointment process, and then briefly touch on the relationship to the advisory body evaluation process, which was brought up during the PBIA agenda item.

So just as a reminder, we have, with several different types of advisory bodies at the City of Olympia. We have boards, we have committees, and we have, commissions. So here's the list of our council appointed advisory bodies. These are the bodies that we are working on, appointing members to for vacancies for, so they're just noted here. And I'll talk a little about our recruitment and appointment process.

This it's not this is not an easy graphic to read, and we essentially, the point I wanna make is that we're currently running on time and on schedule for a typical recruitment, interview and appointment process. So we're about in the middle of the graphic right now in January. We're currently we've closed the recruitment period, and our boards and our advisory bodies are screening or reviewing the applications and preparing to make recommendations to community libili and public safety committee on who they would recommend be interviewed to be appointed to the vacant positions. As we move into February and March, you know, and I'll go into more detail about the timeline in a minute, that's when this committee would conduct interviews, ultimately making a recommendation to counsel in terms of who should be appointed. So our recruitment launched in October, and this is, kind of on on time or, you know, in accordance with our typical recruitment timeline and process.

We use a variety of methods to get information out. We use our e news, our social media. Our staff liaisons are a great resource for getting the word out to community members. We use we ask current advisory body members to reach out, and we've, you know, made announcements at city council and committee meetings. Our recruitment closed on December 12, and we had 62 applications for this round of recruitment.

So I'll just highlight, where we had vacancies that we were recruiting for. So we had the the body shown here with the number of vacancies. I will add that the one change since I put the slide deck together that just came in to us is that we have one planning commission member who needs to step down. So we'll have two planning commission vacancies. It's shown here that we have one, but we'll actually have two.

So there are a few advisory bodies that have no recruitment this cycle that includes the Community Policing Board, the Social Justice and Equity Commission, and the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. So here's some of the data, in terms of applications received. I'm not gonna go through the entire chart here except to highlight a few things. One is that we had 18 total vacancies to fill, although make that 19 because we just, received another planning commission vacancy. So we have 19 vacancies.

We received 62 applications. And, and and just a reminder for those of you that haven't been through this process, if you haven't been, on our application, we ask folks to indicate their first, second, third, fourth, etcetera, choice in terms of what body they're interested in. So that's that is something to take into account with the application review process. So in terms of the interview and selection process, the guidance provided to advisory bodies is to review the application. So they receive all of the applications, with folks interested in that advisory body, including those that made it their first, second, third, etcetera choice.

The some identifying information for the applicants is redacted for the purposes of the advisory body review. And then they're asked to recommend for interview two applicants more than the number of existing vacancies. So I think, I haven't always been the lead on this process, but I think over the years, it has kind of this guidance has kinda changed, but I think this is what we've mostly settled into over the last at least the last two recruitment cycles. And, right now, we've asked asked the advisory bodies to provide this information back to us as staff, by February 13. The community livability and public safety committees the interviews are currently scheduled for March.

Those are virtual, and they take place for, between 05:30 and 09:30PM. Right now, we allocate ten minutes per applicant. The invitation goes out to advisory body chairs or a representative that they've that they've selected to typically attend, and the goal for those evenings is to determine which individuals to recommend, for appointment. Now this is the slide I wanna pause on for a minute because, one of the things I'll mention that is different this year is in the past, you may have also had a meeting, a formal CLIPSE meeting in February in order to formally select who to interview, but we're recommending this year to use a separate process and not use not make that a business or agenda item for clips, and staff can help kind of post that process with you. And then but what we'll do is after February 13, after we have the recommendations from the advisory bodies, we'll work with each of you to determine who to interview and then notify the applicants as soon as we can so they can be prepared for interviews on March March.

So I do have a couple of questions that I wanted to clarify about this point in the process. Cher, Madrone, would you like me to stop and ask those here while we're on it? Sure. Yeah. If we get

the information in front here, that's great.

Okay. So one is, in the past, typically, the committee has requested to see all applications that have been received. So there's two options here. You can receive all applications, or we can forward the applications that have been recommended by the advisory bodies. And just as a reminder, this year, we've received 62 applications for all 19 vacancies.

Alright. Go ahead, Yen.

I'd like to see all

of them. Oh, do

you wanna oh, do

you wanna know why? Sure. Yes. Go right ahead.

Yeah. I just, I I just feel like if we only receive, the recommended ones, then it's just kind of like I I don't know. I I I just feel like it's like we are we basically just approving those ones? You know? And if we wanted to because sometimes we do actually pull someone into it. It actually happens almost every single time that we pull a few people that we're interested in hearing from, and they ended up they ended up doing really well. I'm sure everyone on the committee has a different way of kind of sorting through it. And so I wanna respect that. I'm not saying everybody has to look at all 62 of them, but that is something that I'm interested in seeing.

Yeah. And I was gonna say if one of us wants to see them all, then let's let's send them all, and just flag for us which ones were recommended, and then we can discuss we we we can figure out, you know, if we want to, bring additional people into the process.

K. That sounds good. As I mentioned earlier, we it's been our practice to redact the names when we send the applications to the advisory bodies. But, typically, they have not been redacted for clips, so I just wanna confirm that you still that that's still the case.

Is there any legal requirements around redaction here? I assume not, if if that's the case. No.

It's just been our practice.

Yeah. Go go ahead, Eun, who who is our our veteran in this process here. Kelly and I both being new.

Oh, I know. Here, may I have my happy hand? Okay. Yeah. I I I feel strongly about still having it redacted, for current advisory body folks. I'm happy to have it redacted for for us too, as, you know, if that doesn't create any complications. But the the idea is really even though it's a small community, but it's really to, you know, try our best. Well, try, to, to to reduce some bias. Okay. And I find it really helpful.

Did I see you nodding there, Kelly? Okay. Great. Let's do it. K.

Sounds good. The only other thing I just wanna check on is that, you know, everybody's still comfortable with us not coming back in February to to a Eclipse meeting to actually confirm who you're gonna interview, but to do that work with you, with you separately. And

When you say separately, you mean, like, through email?

Yeah. We would we would have a system set up for where you have the ability to kind of do the ranking process. You know, of course, we, you know, adhere to all the things we needed to to make sure that you're not host you know, participating as a meeting. But Yeah. But this was this was our attempt to try to maybe not take up meeting time with something that we could do administratively.

Okay. Great. Go ahead, Kelly.

Oh, I am comfortable with that. But, Stacy, can you walk me through then the the full timeline from, like and I not with dates, but just I'm I'm having trouble visualizing the process from committee members read and recommend their interviewees. And then where does our reading come in on recommendations for different ones? And then when is the when are the potential interviewees notified? Do you see what I'm struggling to flow?

Yeah. So we have the applet applications. So since you've indicated that you wanna see all the applications, we can we can provide those to you. So what you'd be waiting for is after February 13, we would then have the recommendations from the advisory bodies. So I can then provide that information to you. So then you can we would then ask you. We would help you collate who you wanted to interview based on your read of the applicants, and be able to notify folks so that they'd be ready to interview on March.

So the none none of the, applicants would hear until after we've seen the recommendations and either said yes or yes, and we wanna add some more.

Yeah. So sometime between February 13 and March 4, we would ask you to finalize your recommendation so we can give notice to applicants.

I think I get it now.

Yeah? You good? I think the one thing that I would ask is that we're not asked to rank everybody. I remember doing that for, like, council appointment processes where it's like, okay. Rank everybody, and it just it just gets to be a lot of work. Like, it's it's so it's like, who are your top five? I think think through it as, like, the the administrator who's gonna be supporting us in it. And, what do you need to know from us in a ranking? Yeah. So so that we're not having to I I think I saw one of them had 20 applications.

Like, I don't wanna figure out who's eighteen, nineteen, and 20. So what what what is what is the the bare number of ranking you need from us so that we can choose our our top five or whatever, for for, for each of them?

So let's go back and talk about that for a moment. So so we have for example, let's use Arts Commission. So we our our practice has been to ask the advisory body to recommend two more than the existing vacancies. So for example, Arts Commission, we would be asking the the advisory body to recommend five applicants for interview for three vacancies. So I think how many how many applicants would you wanna account for to interview for the vacancies that are available, if that question makes sense?

I'm looking for a little bit of help from you in terms of making that decision because if some of them are three, some of them are two, some of them are one. But, also, let's say, you know okay. We'll use the arts commission as an example. We'll get a recommendation of five folks from the the committee chairs. And so and so how how many extra should we be ranking?

So, like, let's say, if if you just ask for top six and my six choice is different than, you know, Kelly's or Eyoung's, then, like, that's not enough information to make the decision. So I don't know what the right number is, be and I won't be the one who's, like, running the process. So but, Young, maybe you've got a thought. Yeah.

I think they'll let me know if this prevents or if this, gives us staff challenges. Though, I seem to think it's more of an art form and less of a science. You know? There are, people I mean, there could very well be committee members that want to, say yes to all of the recommendations and and approve those recommendations to be interviewed. And then you just really wanna interview one more person that happens to wanna be on the arts commission.

So I think I think just, you know, do do you approve do you approve the recommendations? If not, what are the changes you'd like to be made? And and whether it's we'll just say five people. And, you know, do you wanna add another person or two people? You know, if if it's a thing where you wanna start adding a lot of people, there's probably a discussion that needs to be had. But I'd be fine if Kelly or or sorry. Community member Green or, chair Madron wanted to just add another person to any one of these. I don't really feel like I I actually need to be, consulted on that. I I would just like to see the final and then know that someone requested someone extra, and I'd be fine with that.

Okay. Okay. Well, then I'll just ask us to be judicious and not ask for two extra people for each thing because, you know, ten minute interviews are short, but they'll add up to a lot. So okay. So it sounds like not really ranking then, but except it sounds like we're just we'll accept the recommendations that come from the committees themselves. And and then if we have one or two that we want to interview on top of that to just share that information with with Stacy. Okay. I see some nodding from Kelly. And go ahead. Sort

of. If if you're really feeling like there are, you're not sure why, if you're feeling like you don't really you don't think that there is a strong applicant in the recommended one, I would just empower people on the committee to just say that, because you're ten minutes is a short amount of time and does add up to a lot. So, so I I guess I'm just reacting to I had heard you in the beginning say, okay. Sounds like we're gonna accept the recommendations. But if if we also don't want to, that's okay too.

The I think the challenge, though, is that we won't have a decision making point. Like, you know, if I'm like, I don't wanna interview that person, but neither of you say some something about it, because we're not communicating on this. I don't want that person to automatically fall off the list because it might be your assumption that that person moves forward. So

I see.

Yeah.

I'm not sure how to answer that.

I would just like to add that Stacy is gonna be running this process. And so, you know, she'll be able to see what everybody is putting forward. So I I'm not that concerned that you won't have another decision making process because Stacy will be able to manage that. And am I getting that right, Stacy?

Yeah. I think, you know, I'm I'm generalizing, but in in in years past, you'd you'd generally be able to come to consensus on who it appears to interview. So if, you know, I will certainly reach out for clarification if one of you has, you know, added an additional interview, and I can also make sure that you're all comfortable with the numbers and what, you know, what that would equal to in terms of interview time for March.

Okay. That sounds good. So it sounds like we're not actually doing any ranking, here, but we're we're just putting the names forward of the people that we'll do our internal ranking. I'm I think I'm reacting to how we've done council appointments before, and it's just a ton of work. We get asked to rank everybody who's there, and it's like, oh gosh. You know, it ends up being a lot of thought. So okay.

Think if I may, what I'm hearing is start by looking at what the advisory body recommended, and they will have recommended the arts commission, for example, a three plus two. They'll recommend five individuals to interview. And then just provide your comments. If you agree with those five, just, you know, just say yes to that. If you wanna add anyone additional or remove anyone, then make that note, and I will work with what I get back from you.

That sounds amazing.

Okay. Yeah.

I apologize for making the conversation longer than it potentially needed to be, but we got through it.

This is exactly the kind of clarification I wanted to make sure that we had because we're continuing to adapt the process, you know, as we go along and we learn each time. So I appreciate that.

Thank you. Did you have any other things you need from us? Okay. You're moving along.

I was gonna I was gonna move along. So so, again, just to reiterate, then we'll have interviews on March, and the hope is that if you can reach consensus those evenings on who to recommend for appointment. So assuming that's the case, we'll be back March 25 or I'll be back March 25 to this committee. So you can take formal action then on your, recommended applicants and and take formal action to move that recommendation forward to the council. And then oops.

Excuse me. And then city council, right now, we have scheduled for March 31. Now we'll have two things that evening. One is a proclamation honoring outgoing advisory body members, and then the other would be council action on the recommended appointments. Then advisory bodies turn around and start in April, so they hit the ground running.

Debbie's trying to jump in there real quick.

Yeah. I might be able to add some process improvement here, Stacy. I believe that Kelly asked for formal action on the applicants on March 5. Is that right, mayor pro tem?

And so did not come back to community livability for an additional meeting. Oh, okay. If if if the if the committee is prepared and able to do that, we we can certainly be ready for that.

Yeah. I think are you yeah. So okay. I see. March 5 being the final night of interviews. So if we're able to decide yeah. It yeah. It would be great if we're able to to actually finish at 09:30. So that is, you know, what we'll hopefully go for. But yeah. We do one of the reasons that those nights stay so late is because we do try to to wrap it all up.

Mhmm. Yeah.

I do have some questions about

Well, that was it for the process piece, and then I was just gonna touch on the relationship to the evaluation process. So I can I can stay here for a minute?

Did you have a question, Yeon? Go ahead.

Yeah. Just wanted to ask if, we are going to, when I guess, when this body would be getting the questions. And then, also, I'd still be interested in having the, the the advisory bodies form one question. Usually, we work with a chair, and they they bring the question that night. And then we have just a little bit of time.

It was actually nice if we have the question from them before they actually come because then we can kinda get organized. Sometimes they come, like, right when interviews are about to start, that can slow things down. But we'll add their question, to our bank of questions, and it ends up being, like, four or five questions. Sometimes if it's similar, we'll kinda collapse it. Or

Okay. Yeah.

So just wanna make sure we're still doing that. And, I'm wondering, what the process is for this group to be reviewing questions, open to it not being during meeting time as well?

Yeah. So thank you for the question. So being new to this process, so I, I can make a recommendation on that, and I'm happy to continue the the process in which the way in which you've done it. So we can put out the request to the advisory bodies or to the chairs to develop the one question as you mentioned. And then if you have questions that you've used in prior cycles, we can continue to use those. Or if you'd like us to put forward a recommendation for you to comment on, we can do that as staff too.

Just responding for me. I I'm happy to if we could do both. If yours if, you grab the, you know, the bank of questions we've been using or or the questions we've been using and then you see, areas for improvement, I I'd love to, to just see that as well. Because things can always be improved, I suppose. And then, chair, I did have, another quest two questions.

Go

ahead. Okay. So, so honoring outgoing advisory body members, sometimes they just we just don't always get a lot of people showing up for that one. And I still think it's really important to honor them. There was, the proclamation, and I think that we had a whole thing for, like, you know, different different items that they might get. So are we gonna just send that to them? Are we still gonna do a proclamation and just kind of, or I'm I'm just wondering if that has changed at all, that process for honoring that.

Again, yeah, I know we didn't have good attendance last year, so we've started broadcasting that this is gonna be on the thirty first to to liaison so they can start being in communication earlier with their members. And so our hope is to improve the attendance that evening So you'll have a chance to really acknowledge the members that are outgoing. And if you'd like us to try to collect RSVPs in advance, you know, we can we can do that as well so you'd know what to expect.

Yeah. That would be great. And, I yeah. I'd love if people I mean, even if people want to because it'd be under special recognition. And, if there's a few people that wanna speak about why it was important to them, you know, I don't wanna, you know, create, things for to obligate people to. But I I think I would think that, that would be great to share. Just give them a little time. Some of these people serve for, like, nine years. You know? It's just been a long time.

And then, I'll just ask, one more and kinda wrap up here is we do do, such a job of of, of trying to vet the the applicants, honoring, existing advisory body's thoughts too, and then interviewing them. Though they're short interviews, I'm glad that they happen. And sometimes people are seem like they're gonna do great, and and it is just not a match. And so for that reason, I I know that past committee work this committee has been to have sort of, you know, an expectation of how people will conduct themselves. And so how are we moving forward with that?

Are people getting this day one, or do they sort of read it before they apply? Yeah. I'm just I'm just wondering. There has been some moments where we haven't had that, and there's been gray areas. And so I just wanna make sure that we have everything in place that, unfortunately, if we needed to to well, honestly, remove a member, then everyone understands why that's happening, and everybody's been given the the notice that they should have gotten. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So this is one of the areas improvement that we're working on in terms of the advisory body evaluation process is really making a more consistent onboarding process for all new members. However, what I hear you saying, and it's a good point, is are we making sure people are aware even prior to the interview as they're coming into the interview and the selection process of what our expectations are? And so we can, yeah, we can make sure that our applicants are connected to the advisory body the name just went right. The guidebook that lays out kind of the expectations for advisory body members and make sure that they haven't seen that already. They that they have a chance to look at that coming into the interview process.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay. Hold on one second. Kelly, you had your hand up for a moment, and then you took it down. So I just wanna make sure that you didn't

No. I'm good. I was just gonna ask if there are, as a dear colleague said near me last night, the hour is getting quite late. If there are pieces of this that are really past the appointment process, I was just gonna request that we sort of wrap up this piece for Stacy so we can continue on.

Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. I have I have the feedback that I need and and a great conversation, so thank you. So I was just going to wrap up by saying that, you know, there there's a relationship here to the evaluation process. So, just reiterating that that process is underway, that we're we're much of the research interviews and, dialogue has been done around that with the with with you, with with council members, with and with also liaisons. So we're right in the middle of having some conversations with advisory body liaisons right now around draft recommendations, and then we're still coming forward to you in February for that conversation.

Okay.

But, again, just to say, this year's recruitment looks a lot like last year's recruitment, but we'll really once we get some direction from you, then we'll be able to start implementing some improvements for so that's it for my presentation.

I I hope we went through all the questions and discussion already, but I will, do one more call out to my committee mates here. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. Thanks for that. Alright. Excellent. Stacy, thank you so much. I know that this is a big body of work, for everyone involved, and really excited to, to work through it with you.

Yeah. Thank you for the guidance tonight. Have a good night.

Good night. Final item on the agenda is to approve our work plan for the year, and this will we'll need to make a recommendation on this. It'll come to the full council for their, review and approval as well. So, Debbie?

Yes. Thank you. This will be a the seed. What What am I sharing? Am I sharing?

You are sharing.

Am I sharing the work plan?

You are sharing the work plan.

Oh, thanks be to God. Okay. So that is good. This will be relatively fast. I recognize the hour is late. Just a little bit of background, the committee met in October, developed a draft work plan. The chair and I met and, refined it ever so slightly based on the annual retreat. And you all got a copy of it, so I will just highlight the changes that I have made since you received it. And that is based on the fact that some items are moving to the full council for a study session. So tonight, January is done.

February, I'm going to recommend based on the conversation that you had earlier tonight that perhaps the PBIA conversation does not come in February. Give them a little bit more time and we can schedule them in March.

I think that's a good idea.

Yeah. So I can put PBIA here. And when you get this at the full council meeting, it will not say PBIA. I'll put a proper title on it. Okay. The one thing we do need to talk about is the April 22 meeting needs to be rescheduled. We do not need to find a date tonight. I can send an email out asking for dates. I did confirm with Stacy that we can change the review of the advisory body work plans and we can move that to March 25. And then that will keep them on the schedule that they need in order to move forward.

The reimagining public safety update, Jay is recommending that that is a study session for the full council. So that would come off of this work plan. And then a couple of things on the items to be scheduled, the Thurston County District Court interlocal agreement that will be going to a study session or at least the update of how the transition is going in any other conversation we want to have Thurston County that will go to a study session and same with the emergency management briefing. Oh, and then I did find out that the council advisory guidebook, Don confirmed that that work was completed in May 2025. So that will come off.

Already done. I love starting with the No. With one thing already checked off.

Done and done. So, that's what I have for the work plan.

Could could you scroll back down to the bottom real quick, Debbie? Absolutely. I just wanted, folks to be aware. We had other things that were on here that were already moved to full council, like code enforcement update and, other things that, you've already mentioned. West Bay, master plan. And I flagged those for Jay this morning that those are items to come to the full council to work into either a study session or a business item.

Honestly, all of those things will move to the full council.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Just wanted you all to be aware that I connected with Jay

on that. So Okay. Great. I'll take this one off.

Go ahead, Anne.

Yeah. I'm curious about committee member Green's referral. I forgot if it was coming to Eclipse or oh.

It is on August 26.

Oh, update. Okay. So what would that yeah. I so what would that look like? Does that mean that the work is underway and then we are gonna get like, what is the update? Is it a briefing or is there some action and recommendation are we thinking?

My understanding from Mark Russell is they're still scoping this and figuring it out, but they would have done some research and be coming forward with information on it. And it's not just speed enforcement cameras. It's also other traffic safety or a pedestrian safety options. So and we can refine that as we go about what that actual agenda item looks like for you.

Okay. And is there do they need until August for that?

They do.

Okay.

I can ask them to move it, up. But when I was talking to Mark about it, he appreciated August.

Yeah. I do know that those staff are quite understaffed, so it may be that they need a few months to to bring something forward. Yeah. Did you have anything else, Young? You have a you have a thoughtful look on your face?

Yeah. I I understand that they have I hear the words that you're saying, and I would like to see if they can do it sooner. There because whatever is brought to us, it's not gonna be ready for action. Right? And I just, the community forum is fresh on my mind, that happened on Saturday.

And this traffic safety came up over and over again. I don't need to, be preaching to the choir. I mean, you all witnessed, this community, and, you know, a lot could happen, after August. And I just yes. And I would at least like to ask a question if it could be brought sooner.

And I can share that with Jay during my one on one with him, and I can talk to MarCrestle about it as well.

Yeah. And there's a balance between bringing something sooner because there's capacity to do it and then also bringing something sooner, and then it's not enough information to really inform us of anything. So, but thanks, Debbie, for looking into that. Yeah. Go ahead, Kelly.

Yeah. Thanks for those questions, mayor pro tem, that I was gonna ask about that as well. But then I just wanted a clarification on the items to be scheduled. Are is the expectation all of those will happen within this year, or is that, like, a rolling list?

The way that we treated this section in the land use committee was that was if we get to it this year, we get to it this year. And if it if if there's not capacity to do it, then it becomes kind of a docket for the following year. So that's kind of what I discussed with Debbie.

Can I also share that I know just by way of example, developing approaches to addressing experiences of discrimination is on the 2026 work plan, but we don't know what date they will be ready? So we can use it both ways. Right? If if if it's being worked on, we don't know what month it's gonna go in, then I will I can pull it from there.

Okay. Well, the item I was thinking of, it just you know, I still see a lot of holes in the in some of the months, which I know will get filled up and all that. But I, like, I would love to see us talk about the parks naming process this year. I know we we did some lovely namings last night and I was, as I as I read through the process, I was really, really underwhelmed and I had some concerns with it, but I didn't have the heart to bring them up last night when everyone was there to celebrate and be wonderful. So I think at a time where we don't have namings imminent or expected namings imminent, I think it would be awesome to take this opportunity to talk about this in a in an off let's call it an off parks naming year.

Yeah.

Great. Thanks for that. Go ahead, Ian.

Yeah. I would like to see us work on, I and it's like, I think it's time, you know, to work on the the Olympia strong implementation strategy. I think that's a a big deal. And then, also, I see on May 27, we're doing sister city anniversary planning. And to me, I mean, the I mean, there is some out there is some planning already some planning efforts that I think, can happen outside of clips.

I'd be I'd be curious, to see how committee members feel about that. I know that I, committed to helping the mayor plan and, and also opening it up, of course, to other council colleagues. And, also, I I would think that the folks that are whoever is gonna end up going to will be part of that planning process. So I don't I don't necessarily think that this committee needs to do it. What I think this committee, it it would be more of a priority for this committee is the item two to be scheduled, which is discuss actions to strengthen sister city relationship with Kato Japan.

And that's something that that last year, we I I know we're a new committee now. But last year, we were really hoping to bring bring to the finish line. And so and it's gone back to staff for more work. And so yeah. I'd be I'd be disappointed if we didn't get to it this year.

I I'm in agreement, actually. In terms of, like, planning an event, you know, planning something, it doesn't seem like that's really committee function, and other people might wanna be involved. Maybe even people, like, that are outside of the city, like the the sister city association. But I do I did flag that, you know, the the actions to strengthen the the relationship is but I know that's been an ongoing, conversation of this committee. And so, I think that we could, potentially pull the that, the planning part of it, above, off and have that happen in another space and then promote this, actions, the the the actions to strengthen, the relationship component.

Okay. Here's what I have. I have that you would like me to plug in the dates for park naming process, actions to strengthen sister city, and the actually, first four items on that list to find dates, talk to staff and see when they would be ready to bring those forward. I heard that you would like me to talk to Mark Russell and Jay about the timing on the speed enforcement cameras and other pedestrian safety tools that can be used. And what am I missing?

I know I need to reschedule the April 22 meeting. And my one request is for me to launch this. I have to have the staff report and this finalized tonight. So if you are can will give me some trust, I won't be able to get those scheduled by tonight or tomorrow. So it will go to council like this.

Mhmm.

But perhaps the chair could mention that those things will get scheduled.

Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, Debbie, I think that all the committee work plans work this way where it's like, it's on the list, and the dates are gonna move around. And so everything's a guesstimate right now. It I don't think tonight we need to say, okay, Debbie. Before you can go to bed tonight, you need to do figure out what we're that. So but, no, I I think it's fine to come to counsel with those items to be scheduled because we're notifying the counsel that those items will be scheduled.

Okay.

Go ahead, Kelly.

Yeah. I I agree with that approach, and I'm it probably wouldn't be too much to ask tonight to just, like, specifically flag them on there as such. Give them a little asterisk. Give them a little something something just to sort of formalize that. And then this is just for your information.

It doesn't need to go in here. But if the speed enforcement camera is also gonna include other, like, traffic pedestrian safety measures, I know I saw an email from council member today or yesterday with some interest around that as well with some some other sort of traffic calming measures or some pedestrian safe. Anyway, just to say, Debbie, when you talk to Jay, you know, that may be something he wants to include, Or I don't know if if council member Vanderpool had another vision for a different avenue on that, but to me, they're very related.

Okay. That's great.

Take off all those. Move to full council. That's that's done.

That felt really good.

I know. I love that. I know you can you can get that down to just two pages. Mhmm. Go ahead, Anne.

I got it. I got it. I got this.

So I I really don't mean to wordsmith here. I just think about both the sensitivities, especially right now when we talk about any type of enforcement cameras. So I and and to me, the referral is broader than that. So I'd be surprised if we got something back and only talked about cameras. So I just wonder if we might think about updating that. I'd hate for folks to whoever it is, to be perusing what what the city's different committees are working on, and and then there'll be some big headline that says we're we're in force of campus.

That'd be addressing speeding issues and pedestrian safety? Or

don't have

meeting, I'll pull the referral.

Yeah.

And get some different language.

Great. Yeah. Alright. And I don't know what the practice is on this committee, but at in Land Use, we would always, during reports and updates, kinda check-in on the work plan, to spend a couple of minutes, say, okay. Here's how things have moved around. Here's what's coming up next month, and just give us all an opportunity to just, each month check-in on the work plan and see when things can happen. Do you have what you need from us, Debbie?

I do. I do. Great.

Well, I know Kelly did tell me last night that two and a half hours is her limit, and it's we're we're beyond that. So, we better we better see, we better move on from this item here. Anything for reports and updates? The answer is no. Okay. Great. Well, with that, thank you all for your work. A great first meeting together. It feels like a very collaborative oh.

Could I could I have an

action and motion

for the work plan?

Yeah. Thank you.

I will move to approve the work plan.

Oh, that's right. Yes.

Yes.

Second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Thank you. Sorry about that. I'm so eager to get out of here. Okay. Well, with that, thank you all for your time. I will go ahead and call this meeting adjourned. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks, Debbie.

Bye. Bye.