City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, hello and welcome everyone to tonight's Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 regular meeting of business meeting of the Olympia City Council. First up, our roll call. As you can see, our mayor is not with us today, but I am. I'm Mayor Pro Tem Huynh, and our mayor does a lot, so it's nice for him to have a night off, I think. With that, everyone else is here on council, so we'll move to announcements. And I just have a quick one, which is just letting folks know that there will not be a regular council meeting next week. It is also primary election night, Tuesday next week, so reminding everyone that if you haven't gotten your ballots in, please do vote. Local elections are really important. And then also, it's National Night Out, and so for those of you that don't know what National Night Out is, it is... Well, it's national, and it's a time once a year that usually also always falls on primary election night that we have an opportunity to go out, and you can as community members too, but go out with our local law enforcement and visit community block parties that are made up for National Night Out, and it's a great time of connecting, learning, and just engaging with one another. We learn a lot from both law enforcement and community members about what interests folks have, what concerns. And it's also just nice to have a hot dog together or a veggie one or whatever it is. So with that, council members will still be diligently working. We just don't have a regular council meeting. And then the following week, we'll pick it back up again. Oh, and we have another exciting announcement, I said more exciting, is from Director of Community Development, Tim Smith. So Tim, if you'll come up and share your announcement.

Yeah, good evening mayor pro tem and City Council Tim Smith community development director, the city of Olympia. So this evening I'm very pleased to introduce our new housing director for the city, Ashley Chambers. Ashley started just yesterday, so this is her second day on the job. This is not a new position in the city, but it's been a vacant position since the departure of Darian Lightfoot last year. The department's gone through some reorganization, we have a new name, and now we've got our housing director with us, so we're excited to introduce her to you tonight. I'm actually selected to a very competitive recruitment process we had a lot of very high quality Canada pool went through several interview panels and actually was on on top in terms of the top candidate. In this role is housing director actually is going to leave the department's housing division. Within the community development department and it's one of our five divisions in community development includes planning economic development housing. building permit services and administrative operations. Ashley brings about over 10 years of experience in housing strategy, affordable housing development, homeless response coordination. She has a strong background focused on building and maintaining strong partnerships with the community, with elected officials, developers, housing authorities, service agencies, and regional organizations. And she actually has launched successful programs including landlord into education and Senate programs. It you production housing. Landlord registry expedited permit for a permit review and other affordable housing incentive programs actually served the last 4 years as the housing manager in Grand Junction Colorado. Where she directed housing strategy in the homeless response program she received render a graduate degree from University of Washington and her master degree from Purdue University. I'm originally from Washington actually looks forward to relocating to the area and so I'd like to give actually an opportunity to see a few words to you.

Good evening counseling and council members it's exciting to be here tonight, I'm on day 2 I feel like I'm a little bit drinking from a fire hose but things are going really well. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I, as mentioned, I'm originally from Washington. I grew up here in Puyallup and have lots of local ties to the Thurston County area. I am not quite officially moved back. Strangely, the thing about being a housing director is I always move to areas where housing is a challenge. And so we are in the process of moving back from Grand Junction, Colorado. So I'll move back with my husband of 20 years and three of my four teenagers. One is staying behind and starting college. But I'm really excited to be back in the land of really good coffee and oceanfront views again. Colorado has none, if you didn't know. And also really good Asian food, because if you've ever left the Pacific Northwest, you know that that is not something that you find regularly there. But thank you for having me tonight, and I'm really excited to get to meet all of you and work in our community on housing and homeless initiatives here.

Thank you. Ashley, I'll just ask for you to stand at the podium there so you might hear any comments from council. Oh, perfect. All right, Council Member Gilman, followed by Council Member Madrone.

Just say welcome, Ashley. Welcome home, and I'll look forward to sharing some teriyaki with you.

Excellent. Cannot wait.

Yeah, I just want to say welcome. It's been an open position for a long time. And there's a lot of work to be done, as you've probably heard drinking from that fire hose. We have some really big goals as a city. We have some really big challenges. But we also have a lot of political will and ambition around this. You know, you probably have heard some of the history, but we were the first city in the state of Washington to legalize middle housing across the board. We're often on the leading edge of a lot of issues, and I think that's where we'd like to stay. So glad to have you aboard and on the ride with us.

Well said. Just looking around for any additional comments.

Oh, Council Member Barron.

Yes, I just wanted to join the others in welcoming you and... saying thank goodness you're on board. We've got a lot going on. It's an aggressive agenda, and I look forward to working with you as everyone else. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, I'll just close us out of announcements just saying a hearty welcome from all of us on here. Truly, Council has been keeping abreast of the hiring and interview process. And while Council Member Madrone is correct that it was open for a while. And that's not because no one wanted to apply. It was because we needed the right person. And it was competitive. And I have heard so many great things about you. And I think I speak for all of us when I say that we're looking forward to getting to know you more and being able to learn from your expertise and do some great work on housing here. So thanks for joining the team.

Thank you.

All right. With that, we'll move to approval of the agenda.

Move approval. Second.

Second? All right. I will just note that while the agenda for tonight has been republished to now just go from three to two items for business items, we decided to move, which was originally item 6B, off till a later date. It just needed a little bit more work. So with that, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All right. The agenda has been approved. And then that moves us to special recognition. And we're just having one council member read that tonight. And is it appropriate if I ask you, Council Member Barron, to stand up so we can read your shirt?

We're celebrating parks tonight, so.

It says parks make life better, with the exclamation point. So I think we chose the right person to read this proclamation, so go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, and it's an honor to be able to read this proclamation this evening. Parks and Recreation Month. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities, throughout this country, including the city of Olympia, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving and physical and mental health of people who live near parks, and whereas parks and recreation has the opportunity to create a sense of belonging for all who engage in our services and facilities, and whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illness such as depression, attention deficit disorder, and Alzheimer's, and whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking, fitness programs, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles And whereas parks and recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community and serves as critical infrastructure necessary for advancing climate goals, and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors and whereas our community has consistently and graciously supported parks and recreation services through two voted measures and whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month and Whereas the City of Olympia recognizes the benefits derived from Parks and Recreation resources, and now, therefore, be it resolved, the Olympia City Council does hereby proclaim July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month. And the City of Olympia invites all community members to enjoy and support our parks, trails, and recreation opportunities that make Olympia a vibrant and healthy place to live.

Thank you, Council Member Barron. Next, we have a receiving this proclamation tonight, and I understand a short presentation to follow from Laura Keahan, who is a director of Parks Planning and Maintenance.

Yes, good evening. It's wonderful to be here tonight. For the record, I'm Laura Kehan, the Director of Parks Planning and Maintenance. And it's a wonderful time to celebrate July as Parks and Recreation Month. So the national theme this year is the power of. The power of our parks and recreation places and programs to foster connection, allow for play, act as places for people to gather as community, preserve important natural features, and serve as free and open places for all people to belong and nurture their well-being. To illustrate how this plays out in Olympia, we've listed a snapshot of the scope and depth of Olympia's parks, arts, and recreation places and services. We steward 57 parks and almost 25 miles of trails. We organize thousands of volunteer hours annually, produce four seasonal recreation brochures that garner over 10,000 registrations in recreation programs in 2025. We've awarded more than $17,000 in scholarship money from INA's fund for recreation programs. We saw more than 100,000 people participate in our arts programs and sponsored seven cultural events in 2025. We recognize that the power of the positive impact of parks and recreation provides to this Olympia community. I wanted to take the opportunity to share two pieces of good news. The first is that the Washington State Recreation and Parks Association awarded the Grass Lake Trail Project their annual 2026 Trail Award. This is quite an honor to be recognized statewide among our peers, and we continue to hear from our community members about how much they're enjoying this new trail and their ability to now recreate in Olympia's second largest park. For those that haven't yet visited, the new trailhead is located on Kaiser Road Northwest, and the park hosts over a mile of accessible shared-use trail, including a boardwalk with views of the wetland that's on the site and pieces of public art that were repurposed from an old steel tank that had been in the park site for many years. My second piece of good news is that we are embarking on the update to the Olympia Parks, Arts, and Recreation plan. The planning process will continue for the next 18 months, where we will be engaging with the Olympia community around their parks, arts, and recreation needs and priorities for the 2028 through 2034 time period. We'll be using Engage Olympia as the planning process landing page, and if people want to check it out, The web address is listed. It's olympiawa.gov slash parksplan28. And with that, I thank you so much for your time and your recognition of the power of parks, arts, and recreation as core services to Olympia.

Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Are there any responses from council members? Oh, Council Member Barron.

Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. I get really excited about the parks because we have such fabulous parks. Since being elected to the council last fall, I made it a point of trying to visit every park. I haven't gotten to them all yet, but I will be. And Grass Lake, Watershed, Squaxin Park, such fabulous trails. for the community to get away. I'm a daily user of the parks. I have a dog and I go to the dog parks at both Ward Lake and Mud Bay. And people love those parks. The community, we just have this tremendous deep well of affection towards the parks that, not just the dog parks, but all of the parks. I thank you for your presentation and your service.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Well, I think that wraps us up really nicely. Here, here. I agree with Council Member Barron. Parks makes life better. You did such a great job of laying that out. And you are one of many, but a very, very important one of our park system and maintaining it. So thank you so much. And would you like to take a picture with us?

I appreciate it, though.

Yes. She sees us all the time. All right. Thank you, Laura. I'm still going to come give you the proclamation. All right. So moving on, we have public comment tonight. And I see we have a few that have signed up in person and just one online. So just quickly for those that may not be familiar with public comment, or are returning after some time. So each public commenter gets two minutes. We'll do in-person first to honor those that have made their way here to join us in person, and then we'll follow with our single public commenter online. So when you hear your name, please do step at the podium. Looks like it's just already on and ready for you to go. Once you start talking, the two-minute timer will start. it's just right over there so it'll start counting down from two minutes and at 30 seconds left the light before you and the speaker will turn yellow to signal to you to please wrap up your comments and when it's at red telling you that your time has lapsed if we catch you mid-sentence please feel free to finish your comments but do try to keep it at that if the two minute time is not enough then please know that we do Read the emails that you all sent in. So feel free to come back next time to public comment or continue through email. So with that, we have Norman Clark. Followed by Jen, and I can't quite make out the last name here, Jen. So if you could share with us for the record, that would be great. Followed by Chad Kate.

Good evening. Thank you, counsel. My name is Norman Brian Clark. I'm a 66 year old resident of Olympia. My family goes back hundreds of years, back to her grass lake. My grandmother's property was there. My dad bought it while he was at war in World War II. Quickly, I'd just like to talk about the condition of downtown Olympia. My mother is 99 years old and has lived here since 1927. She will not come downtown anymore. She cannot stand it. It's disgusting to her. The homeless people, the condition of the roads, the garbage even right out as we speak on the park benches along in front of this building. It just seems to her and I and the family that there is no longer pride in the downtown Olympia. I grew up here. 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful city to live in. And it seems like it's just deteriorated to the point that, like I said, there's no pride. I spoke with my neighbor who is an Olympia police officer, and I was told that there are 40 to 50 arrests made a day from downtown Olympia city limits. Prisoners that are taken to Nisqually and rotated right back out the door because they don't have a home address where they could be subpoenaed to appear in court. No charges are being followed up on. They're not doing the time. for the crimes that they are committing. And those crimes are, we all know what they are. And let's see, what was my last comment? If anybody here can get me a seat with Governor Ferguson, I'd like to sit down and talk with him also. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening to me. Please help us clean up downtown Olympia. Oh, and the artesian well. It's disgusting. I don't know if any of you have visited. I suggest you go do it and take a look for yourself. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Another thing I should have mentioned in the housekeeping is that there will be run through all of the public comment tonight. There's just four short ones. It'll go pretty quickly. And then there will be an opportunity at the end for council to comment. So we are listening to you and you're hoping if you're hoping for a response, I'd really encourage you to stick around. All right, next, Jen, and you're going to teach me how to say your last name, Jen.

Good evening, council members. For the record, my name is Jen Chernit. I'm the executive officer of the Thurston County Realtors Association. And I am just here to personally invite you to join myself, my colleagues at OMB and Inner City Transit on Monday for our annual elected officials bus tour. I know some of you all visited last year. It's a great opportunity to see kind of the ecosystem of what's contributing to the housing issues. This year's theme is housing affordability is contingent on housing availability. So we're going to be kicked off by Senator Jessica Bateman. She's going to talk about some legislative directives that have come down. We're going to partner with inner city transit, look at transit oriented development, look at some middle housing development. ADUs, mixed middle, lot splitting. So if you have not registered, please do so. Reach out to me or any of our colleagues, and we hope to see you there. Thank you.

Thank you. Chad, go ahead.

Greetings, Mayor and City Council. My name is Chad Kate. I would consider myself the starving college student of the entrepreneurs here downtown. who have chosen to take a risk here downtown. And I would like to request more time. Can I get more time than the two minutes?

Oh, I see what you're saying. Unfortunately, I don't have the time.

Got rid of that, okay. So yeah, my name's Chad Kate, thank you. Our future is built off our children, the young adults, and its businesses. Yet downtown has become a place where the next generation struggles to find opportunity, connection, and a place to belong. COVID exposed how disconnected our systems were from the need of our young youth. Years later, many of those same young youth are waiting for investment in mentorship, housing, opportunities, and downtown that welcomes them. About 2 years ago I quit my job at little Creek and started my dream of opening a tea bar here downtown Olympia and alcohol free sober Barton lounge spent the years to prepare getting it ready and I put my whole life savings in it. I'm here today for a few reasons. I'm here because the effort to navigate and after many attempts to communicate with all of the city management and lack of effort back. I first met with Jenica in 2025 about the Grow Olympia Fund, which was created to support and be a revolving fund for businesses here in Olympia. I'm going to skip down a little bit. I met with the city manager on the 26th. And I've gotten no messages back. They all say it's deactivated, except for the Grow Olympia Fund is stated in Olympia literature that it made a million dollars established in a revolving loan fund, meaning it was intended to be loaned eligible businesses and then reloaned as the money is paid back from the borrower. It is not designated one-time grant. I'm requesting the audit of the Grow Olympia Fund, established in 2015. I would like to please provide all records relating to the status of the Grow Olympia Fund, including date of any suspension, termination, or deactivation, transfer, or closure. City Council authorizing such charge, turn fund balance, and...

Sorry, I'm going to have to wrap you up. This is the unfund part of my facilitation role.

They give everyone else more time when I've watched the 10 times I've been in here. They said, could I have a couple more minutes? And they would say yes. I think it says that on the pamphlet you gave me. If it doesn't, I'll go sit back down.

It sounds like you have some comments written out there. And so I don't know if you feel comfortable sharing that with our assistant city manager so that we can have a copy of that. You're also welcome to email us as well.

Yep. I've also reached out to the news and other resources as well. So, yeah. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Okay. With that, we are transitioning to our single online public commenter. Okay. Oh, looks like they're online. So, is it Andre Lynn?

Hi, yes, it's Angeline Esquiro from Pierce County District 2.

Oh, wonderful. Okay, we can hear you. You can go ahead.

Yay. All right, thank you. I'm speaking today in regards to a very important issue as an emergency for women who are having to endure illegal pregnancy experimentation, like me. While Washington State is a no-ban abortion state, There's still a huge problem with trying to gain adequate abortion health care from hospitals. For about three years, I have searched for abortion medication due to being a victim of illegal pregnancy experimentation and have not been able to get any. Experiment procedures have varied over the past four years. It's extremely painful. Also, I know of one doctor who tried searching for abortion medication in at least 10 hospitals. Within a few days, I was told no. Another doctor outside of his residence was trying to find out if his patient could receive a safe emergency abortion surgery since she couldn't find anything at a local hospital. He searched some Western and Eastern Washington hospitals and was given the same response as she, no, out of eight hospitals. All of these asks are from this year, another time that I had searched between 15 hospitals. I had no luck getting past the lobby waiting room or check-in room in the emergency department section with only a vital check-in symptoms list. Sitting there in such horrible pain was tough for hours only to be told that there's nothing else that could be done at that moment because they chose not to do abortions. Council members, I'm asking that you take a look as an audit hospital operations within the city of Olympia on their code of conduct of performing abortion procedures and access to abortion medication while also reassuring the community that appropriate actions are being taken to ensure fair and undiscriminatory treatment of pregnant women is strongly encouraged as well as guaranteed. Plus supporting women with a hope restored for higher probabilities of reliability of care from institutions that can safely and efficiently treat any patient, including all emergencies involving our reproductive systems. This will help discourage more human traffickers from preying on women and trying to unlawfully impregnate us and help victims stay on the road to recovery. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments so before I go to the Ask counsel for their response, but just with this one I heard most of the things that you had said and then there were some moments that I'm not sure I quite caught everything and this is sounds like a an urgent and delicate matter so i see that when you registered to public comment we also have your email so if it's all right i'm going to ask staff to follow up with you directly as soon as possible to just understand more fully what's going on and how what support looks like on the city level it sounds like you do understand that we the city of olympia are sanctuary city for reproductive rights and so um While we are somewhat limited in supporting, there are some supports possibly that we could provide. Hopefully you heard that. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you. All right, so with that, I'll just turn it over to Council for any responses to public comment. I see Council Member Gilman.

Well, first, I just, Norman, I'm Clark Norman, so meeting Norman Clark is pretty cool. But I also, I hear your concerns. I've actually been engaged on some work around the well in particular in the last couple weeks, and if it's okay with you, I'd be glad to reach out and talk about what's going and what you think should be added to the efforts that are going on now. I appreciate your coming down tonight. And I'm glad that Jen shouted out the Realtors and Builders Tour. I'm not available this year, but I've gone several years, and I find it a really useful time to spend together with Realtors and Builders. And for Mr. Kate and the T-bar I'm hoping that staff will be able to come back at another meeting to describe to us the grow Olympia fund and and what's happened with that fund because I'm just I'm not aware of Exactly what's happened and mayor Pro Tem I appreciate your asking Angela if we can reach out and get more clarification because it was difficult to hear the whole story Thank you Thank you any other council comments

All right, I'll just run through mine. I think Councilmember Gilman covered it well, but for Norman, thank you for coming and taking the time to express your frustrations. And I oftentimes think that, well, I know it to be true is when people take the time to share their frustrations, it's because they care. So while I don't quite see it your way because I mean it's probably because I'm on the City Council and I'm aware of what efforts that we're trying to do and I could sit here and tell you all the efforts that we're really doing this we put more emphasis in here and at the end of the day if it's not impacting you positively or impacting your mom positively that you talked about then there's certainly more work to do so so thank you and looking forward to hearing what what comes of this meeting if you're amenable and then oh you also did run through a number of different topics and We have your email here. I always get nervous that we might type something different than we see. So if it's all right, could I just ask you to leave your, or if city staff could jot down your email? And if we could even just connect Norman with the different different staff and departments that um from the different categories that they had talked about because there were a number of things it was housing there was the artesian well and the list goes on and there's a lot of efforts in those different areas so thank you Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I understand two minutes goes by quickly. And then also, Jen's not here, but I know that the realtors watch every single one of our meetings. And so with that, thank you for... inviting us in person and then also via email to another year of the bus tour. I think it's such a really cool way of getting a day's immersion for what it's worth and a great partnership with Inner City Transit and the different developers and to just understand what the challenges are, understand, dare I say, what's going well. And I, along with a few of my councilmates here, had a really great time last year. Unfortunately, on Monday, I told my team that we would do an all-person in-person day, so I can't flake on that. I am hoping, though, that we still all receive the one pager that comes out from from the tour. So please do send that to us. I find it very helpful. And then for Chad, thanks for taking the time to join us tonight. I know about the tea bars, but I didn't know that you were there. or the T-bar. If I didn't know that you're the face behind it, I have a big heart for N.A., and I want to understand more of what the issue is. I mean, it sounds like it is very much the Grow Oly Fund, and we didn't quite get all of it through in two minutes. But it sounds like, yeah, it sounds like you said you connected with City Manager Bernie, so I'll be following up with him. OK, thank you. All right, with that being said, I think that wraps us up for public comment. And then we'll move on to our consent calendar. We do have one poll from our consent calendar. It's actually a poll from staff. And that is item 4D and a poll from, I understand it to be from Natalie Weiss, Climate Resilient Coordinator.

Hello. Thanks, everyone. So my name is Natalie. I am the climate resilience coordinator for the city. And if approved by council tonight, we'll be receiving grant funding to support youth-led climate projects in Olympia. The grant funds will be used to support eight projects, each worth $5,000 over the 2026-2027 school year. We're super excited about the opportunity to meaningfully support youth-led projects developed by them, led by the youth, since our youth have played such an important part of climate action in the city. So the program is being co-led by the climate programs and the youth council. And if approved by council tonight, applications will open tomorrow, Wednesday, July 29th, and will be open through September 15th. You'll be able to apply for the grant funding and find more information on our program website. So the easiest way will be through the climate change website at the city. and then it'll link you to a new program. So applications and applicant teams will form two or more members, be between the ages of 15 to 24, and have an organization sponsor the project. The projects will be within city limits or serve the Olympia community and really focus on three main Topic areas that relate to our climate goals. So these are encouraging sustainable transportation excited about the bus tour Reducing waste and promoting community action and stewardship I also want to invite people who are listening we're going to have an event at the harbor house on august 27th from 4 to 6 pm and it will be kind of a mixture of a brainstorming session for project ideas and like matchmaking with sponsor organizations so people can come up with different projects find teammates and connect with organizations to sponsor their application um Yeah, so thank you for your time. I'm really excited to see what the youth come up with, what they bring to life in the community if approved by council tonight.

Thanks so much, Natalie. This is a win. So it's great to have you pull and highlight it. And speaking of if it's going to be approved, we'll just pick it up at the end here by opening the consent calendar and asking if we have a motion from council.

I would move to approve the consent calendar.

Second. All right. All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Consent calendar passes. Congratulations to all and congratulations to Natalie. All right. And that moves us to our first item of business tonight, which is item 6A. That's Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project Update. And we have a number of folks that are in person tonight. And so I'll just hand it over to Southwest Region Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, Bobak Tlaiby.

Yeah, thank you so much for having us here tonight, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. It's an honor to be here in person with you to talk about this project for the first time. Like the Mayor Pro Tem said, I'm Bob Actalabi, and I am the project director for the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project. Ecology, the legislature transferred this project to the Department of Ecology in July, and we've been scrambling to get our feet underneath us, but also not losing any progress on the project. So it's really exciting to be here with you for the first time, and I got a great team with me here today. I've got our project manager from Ecology, Lynn Turner, our project manager for Floyd Snyder, our consultants, Tessa Gardner-Brown, and Nathan Anderson from KPFF from our civil side of engineering. And then we have Jill Ferguson, our newest planner at Ecology, who joined the team last week from California. So we have a great agenda for you tonight, and we're excited to provide some updates. And before we do that, I just want to acknowledge that the city has been working on this project for a very long time. Even though Ecology took this over in the leadership role in July, the efforts by the city have been incredible. And I would say that our success has been dependent on the region partners, including your staff. And so city manager Bernie, as well as the rest of your staff have just been incredible to work with. And we really appreciate all the effort and support on this project. And with that, I'll turn it over to Lynn.

Hi everyone. We have a few slides to share with you tonight. So Bobak mentioned the agenda. This is briefly what we're going to go over. We have a few design schedule reminders and updates. And then our main focus is to talk about some of the design developments for the Fifth Avenue Bridge, as well as a few items for the Heritage Park habitat berm. And then hopefully a little time for questions. So I think you are all very well aware of what the project is. This is a transformative project for the city's waterfront. We're planning to do restoration to resolve one of the most significant human-caused water quality problems in the entire South Puget Sound that the state has been trying to address since the 1970s. And although ecology came into this role a year ago, we also have had a lot of involvement. You know that the city has a lot of important roles in this project, one of those design elements is we need to remove the 5th Avenue dam and replace it with a new bridge so that's kind of the main focus for tonight see some of the other elements of the project labeled but I think folks are have a have a good baseline understanding so we'll try to go faster through this. Where we are in the schedule, some of you probably know that the conceptual and 30% design stages were going on in 23-24. We've been moving through 60% design and permitting since ecology kind of stepped in in 25. We're moving into that 90% design stage next. There's a lot of other text up here. I would say one of the highlights here is that at every stage, the city has been really key reviewer reviewing all of the design package with us you know we've worked through those comments and refined our design in full collaboration with the city and again one of the reasons we're coming back tonight is as we've been progressing that bridge design and some of those heritage park design elements some of the pedestrian and bike facility thinking as well The city suggested that we do a little bit of facilitated discussion with our community sounding board, who's been involved throughout, kind of go back to those folks, which has representation across a number of local organizations. We'll talk about it a little bit more. And then take some of the ideas as well to the bike and pedestrian advisory committee for the city. So we got their input. And then coming to you, bringing the same presentation, a little shortened for this setting, as well as summarize kind of that feedback that we got from those two other groups. So that's the main focus for tonight. I'm going to ask Tessa to come up next and get into some of the technical details, and you'll see me again towards the end.

You get to hear a little bit from all of us, so thank you for that. Hopefully it keeps it dynamic. As Lynn was describing, we have convened a community sounding board for the design process, and the intention of the community sounding board is to receive input on the design that can help to increase the quality of pedestrian, bicycle, and other community spaces. And this is something that has been spread across the entire project. But for the purposes of tonight, what we wanted to do was focus in on the input that we received from this community sounding board on the Fifth Avenue bridge design, because Nathan Anderson, our civil lead, will give you an update of where that's at right now and how we've reflected this input into the process. One thing that I should say is that the community sounding board is comprised of 25 representatives from various Community groups that are rooted here in the city of Olympia so that's very important to receiving that good cross section of information. On the fifth avenue bridge, we have met with the Community sounding board three times beginning in the conceptual design phase in March of 2024. And in that meeting they provided good input relative to the importance of separated bike and pedestrian spaces away from the vehicular spaces on the bridge. That they're really interested in opportunities for pause and seating, so that they can be viewing back to the salmon and to the Capitol building. and that where we can integrate opportunities for interpretive signage to convey the history and art within the space. And in August 2024, we met with them as part of the 30% design process, and we got deeper into the design details. And that was focused on the importance of the connection, the connectivity to other bikes, and trails in the project area. They wanted to have design think about an opportunity on the bridge to reduce the amount of noise that would be in the pedestrian space so that that pedestrian space could really be activated and very much a community use opportunity. And then they reinforced the need for community education on the bridge. And then, most recently in July we met with them to as part of our progress toward 90% design and shared an update of where we were at and really we're looking at the final details of the Community space on the bridge and within that there was good conversation around how bikes and peds. use the shared use space they continue to support protected bike lanes there was some discussion of materiality on the bridge and then. we heard importance for city involvement around the art that would be on the bridge because the bridge will ultimately be conveyed to the city after construction. One of the key things that we have described to the Community Sounding Board and to all of our design partners is that that is an important influence into the larger puzzle and to the broader range of input that we receive on this project. So while we receive input from community sounding board and let that influence design in the ways that we can, we also need to receive and incorporate input from other key partners like the governor's office and legislature and the city of Olympia. And what we have heard from them are focused on reducing costs. And so since this iteration of the design that you see on the slide, We have gone back to the drawing board to reduce the bridge width and size to make some detail changes so that we can drive costs down. And then in very close collaboration with public works and transportation at the city, we've taken a careful look at all elements of the bridge design to increase safety and reduce maintenance. We brought the presentation that Nathan is going to go through in just a bit to the Bike and Ped Advisory Board on the 15th, so just about a week and a half ago, two weeks ago. And their comments were very similar to what we heard from the Community Sounding Board, but in just a little bit more detail. So we also talked through with them how bikes and peds would move through the shared space. They really appreciated the single lane in each direction on the bridge, which our modeling supports that that is suitable for the amount of traffic that would be going through. We talked about design speeds. We talked about bike use of the roundabouts. So there were a number of detailed questions, learning more, but overall support for the design as it has evolved. And with that, I'm going to pass it to Nathan to show you how it has transitioned from the rendering I showed on the last slide.

Hi there. All right, so this is the latest version of the bridge design. We're looking at an overhead view of the center span of the bridge with north pointing to the top of the page. From top to bottom, we have a sidewalk on the north side. a westbound bike lane with a three-foot buffer space, two vehicle lanes, an eastbound bike lane also with a buffer, and then a shared-use trail on the bottom, the south side, which is part of the North Basin Loop Trail. The bridge design has evolved quite a bit since its initial concept, but we've incorporated key features that we heard were valued by the community. The first thing you'll notice is the curving nature of the trail, and this allows the center span to be a focal point Gathering space where people feel comfortable stopping and viewing the estuary Capitol reading interpretive signage and overall encouraging moments of pause The trail will be lowered to provide a vertical separation from the roadway side of the bridge This not only enhances safety but encourages the sense that users are separated from the traffic planters and benches will be included between the trail and the roadway side of the bridge and and laid out with similar curves as the exterior. As we further refine the design, we plan to include elements of history, art, and community education. The trail will maintain a 12-foot minimum width, allowing it to be shared use, meaning bicycles could use the trail. By also providing bike lanes on the roadway side, our logic is that commuters and cyclists wanting to ride at higher speeds can use the bike lanes, and slower, more casual riders could use the trails. But all of these design elements I just mentioned, especially that curving alignment, will raise biker awareness and calm speeds as they navigate this more pedestrian-focused area. You can also see two ramps that connect the roadway to the trail. Those were included by recommendation of the city to provide access for emergency personnel to respond to situations on the trail. They will also allow bike lane users to dismount and walk their bikes down to the trail area. It's important, however, that we include elements such as signage and tactile warnings to ensure pedestrians on the trail don't walk up and get on the road at this location. Okay, so now we're looking at an overview of the new roadways and bridge. The colored lines represent pedestrian and bicycle access. So blue is sidewalk, green is bike lanes, and red is shared use. So you can see the red going across the bridge. That's the loop trail we've just been talking about. On the right side, the east side of the bridge, you can see the trail continue on into Heritage Park. And also on the right side, you see the bike lanes and sidewalk swoop up and tie into the existing Fifth Avenue. On the left side, the west side of the bridge, there's a new roundabout, which corrects a deficiency with the older configuration by connecting Deschutes Parkway, Fifth Avenue, and an all-new roadway, Olympic Street. which will provide a connection to the existing 4th Avenue roundabout. All of these roadways will have bike and pedestrian access that will tie into the existing system. The photo at the bottom right shows a real-world example. Oh, excuse me. You'll also notice that the roundabout, there's red all around that. That's the shared use, and this is because bike ramps will be included that allow bike riders in the bike lanes to access the sidewalk. The sidewalk's going to be widened out in these areas to become shared use. This is intended for casual riders to allow them to use the sidewalk and crosswalks to navigate the roundabout, while more focused and experienced riders can use the vehicular circulating lanes if they choose. And so that photo in the bottom right shows a real-world example of what that bike ramp to the sidewalk is going to look like. I also want to note that the crosswalks in the roundabout will have push button flashing beacons, which will dramatically raise driver awareness as a person crosses the lanes. Okay, so the bike lane vertical separation. So we have the three-foot buffers that separate the bikes from the vehicle lanes. The intent there is to increase safety and comfort. In working with city staff, there was a request for a more substantial vertical separation within that buffer. So we've settled on curbed medians. So you can see them there in the rendering and the photo on the left. They will be concrete, two feet wide within that three foot buffer space and be mountable, meaning the edge of the curb will be beveled so it's easier for maintenance and emergency vehicles to get over. Overall, these medians will greatly reduce the risk of vehicles drifting into the bike lanes and provide greater safety and comfort for bike lane users. I'm gonna turn it back over to Tessa.

Okay, since the heritage Park is also a key area of community use within the project and will be improved by the project and it is very it's a. area of focus within downtown we wanted to give you a brief update on the work that will be doing as part of this project to improve those conditions, so what you see in this picture is a photo from. Flood event just a couple of years ago and what it shows you is that the water level elevations. are overtopping the existing seawall and moving into the park. And we know that Heritage Park is a primary flooding pathway and would continue to move into downtown affecting businesses and primary transportation corridors. And so part of the work that we'll do with the Deschutes Estuary is to raise the shoreline to increase climate resiliency and to reduce those impacts that I just described. It will change how the community uses that shoreline, but it will be an improvement overall as a result of the design that we're working through. This is an excerpt from the Olympia sea level rise response plan. We haven't modified this figure in any way, but what this shows is the inundation if there isn't a change along the shoreline. Along the shoreline and that red line it shows annual overtopping in king tide events with heritage park and so the work that we will do will eliminate this flooding pathway and is consistent with the measures that were outlined in the Olivia Olympia sea level rise response plan. This last slide that will go through on the technical aspects of the project shows you. Just a conceptual rendering of a habitat berm concept, which is consistent with the estuary habitat that we'll be constructing along the shoreline. We'll continue to build that habitat up and over the existing shoreline by about three to four feet to raise that elevation to increase climate resiliency through the end of this century. and then we'll provide a multi-use trail on the top of that berm and water access opportunity. The rest of Heritage Park landward of the existing trees will remain unchanged. Let's talk about construction, I'll pass it to Lynn.

All right, so this is a high level overview of what the construction timeline is likely to look like at the moment. mentioned have been working through some of the phasing and funding options with state leadership. We also have a diversified funding portfolio package that we are diligently working away at and as a part of that you know some of these elements are you know happening throughout the entire construction period like you see the River channel reestablishment and then kind of the habitat creation that's that's our longest time period some of the other elements can move a little so the Fifth Avenue bridge construction a couple of key things about it one is that we construct the new bridge before we take the dam out. The dam is kept in to maintain the water levels where we need them throughout construction and also we want to be able to maintain. the ability for residents to cross the bridge and go around the construction until we're ready. We'll open that bridge and then we'll do the dam removal. So the bridge itself, this is our anticipated years. You see it in kind of the mid 29 to late 31 timeframe. However, if we receive some funding that we are trying to receive a little earlier, then that could get moved up. That's one of those elements that could move in time. So don't get too attached to those exact dates, but this is sort of our anticipated timing of how these things come together. The regional partnership, which the city is a key partner in, has been working with us on kind of the state and federal grants, that diversified funding package.

Lynn, is it already if I ask you a question? Of course. I just don't want, I got a little caught up when you said, completely unintended, but you said at which time we will do the dam removal. And I know you mean D-A-M.

I do. I do. Yes, yes.

Remove the dam. But I want to make sure I didn't miss over something that very important that you said. You said that there are two items that potentially could move. in time. And so could you tell me again what those two things are?

I intended to say a few rather than two. And that's basically that the critical path items are that dredging and habitat creation. That's sort of not movable. That's what drives the timeline. The other elements underneath it are, you know, within them there's a lot of sub items. So there's a few things that kind of may shift in time. This is a summary roll up City Council Chambers, Look at this at the schedule. City Council Chambers, And the the really key parts that are not going to change is that we will finish constructing the bridge before we remove the dam and. City Council Chambers, So that's not movable, but the fifth avenue bridge could potentially move up in time if funding were to be available that's kind of the key piece there.

Okay, that's really helpful for me. And I didn't mean to, you know, cause you don't have to spell it out for the rest. It was great levity for me at these meetings. So thank you so much for clarifying that.

No worries, we also sometimes refer to it as the fish passage barrier. So the regional funding partnership, which you know the city is a is a key part of has been working on this. diversified funding package that's kind of an array of state and federal grants, as well as legislative appropriations anticipated, and so you know with the regional funding partners, we talk about strategy. We evaluate eligibility together. We sometimes request letters of support from our regional partners. And everyone's been very supportive. The regional partnership continues to be just a really productive and helpful way to move through this process. So we're very grateful to our regional partners, including the city, very much. And we'll continue, you know working at that construction funding as we as we move into this actual period but our earliest possible construction Pending that funding could be starting late 27 Okay, that's the end of our slides thank you so much for having us happy to be here to give an update I

Thank you. I'll go ahead and turn it over to my councilmates for response, comments, questions. Sounds like Council Member Madrone and then did I see your hand, Council Member Vanderpool, followed by Council Member Gill. Probably everybody. But feel free to stand up. And we'll go ahead and go in that order.

All right. Of course I got something to say. Um, I really, really appreciate this update. Um, actually let me back up a bit and say, I really, really appreciate ecology taking leadership on this issue. Um, you know, the folks at department of enterprise services got it as far as, as I think they could, but really this is a huge habitat and environmental restoration project. And so, you know, I, I really believe that ecology is a really great place for this to live. So I really want to thank you guys for pulling together and say okay we're doing this now, and you know I see you guys out there in the Community really championing this project and working really diligently on it so just wanted to start by saying that. i'm really glad to hear that the collaboration is continuing with the city and. Glad to i'm actually very glad to see this bridge redesign the first bridge looks super cool and I was like wow that looks really expensive to. So i'm really glad to see it i'm glad to see that you guys are engaging with our staff around maintenance and safety, I know that those have been. You know things that we need to get out of it, we need safe roadways and we need to be able to maintain them, along with the rest of our transportation network so. Glad to see that worked in. Glad to see the sea level rise work that's a part of this. I know Natalie's still back there. And just appreciate Ecology's work on that with us, including attending our sea level rise response collaborative meetings. Really appreciate that. And also, Tessa, great to see you here again. You're like the consistent thread through this years of work. So glad that you are still part of the team. The one question that I have for you is that I know that the port is needing to do some dredging to clean up some legacy pollution prior to this work taking place, if I remember correctly. So do you know where that's at in process and how that might affect this timeline here?

Yeah, thank you. Those are great comments. One note before I answer your question about the port, I do want to note DES is still one of our key partners. Of course. All our sister agencies are working very closely together, and DES is definitely a huge part of that. Yeah, the port cleanup, the port is also one of our partners, and we are coordinating closely on multiple levels, technical as well as kind of within that regional funding partnership to make sure that, you know, the port cleanup that needs to happen In relevant areas happens prior to that damn removal, so these dates are being well coordinated with them as well okay great excellent and actually just one other quick question, you know you mentioned.

phasing, and so I see that broken out here, and I mean I know that was part of the proviso language also is like, how are you going to do this in phases, so that it's like more. Manageable bite-sized chunks large bites still but you know So is that is that part of the is that tied to the funding strategy like okay? We're gonna go after this part of the project with this fund and are you doing like some matchmaking around that?

Yeah, so We've been putting together different funding options which are based on the fund on the different phases of the project and each one of those elements again, this is a very rolled up version if we gave you a The full version, it would make you go cross-eyed, I think, tonight and wouldn't fit on the screen. But each one of these elements is highly coordinated with different funding pathways. So strategically, we're weaving together the phasing of the project and the timing of these different elements with different opportunities that are available now that we know could be feasible. And that could be state and that could be federal. And so some of these areas we've been able to identify as being flexible or some of the elements of the project being flexible based on some of those fundings. I think it's important to note too that just because we don't get one round of funding it doesn't mean that we still won't pursue that for the next year and so that's some of this is built into that too not just one cycle because sometimes it takes one cycle to get into the process and get socialized and then the next time you're more competitive based on that feedback that you get back so all those different elements we're weighing as we're going through this project to the to put this these options forward excellent great I'm really glad to hear it and

This issue is a very long time coming for our community and we've gotten to the point where I just see people casually talking about how cool this is, and even the lake drying down this past week, people are like, that's kind of what it's going to look like. It'll look very different. We all know that. But people are really, really excited about this. So thanks again for your work.

Yeah, and I'll just add that City Manager Bernie joined me in D.C. in the spring for Puget Sound Day on the Hill, and we were able to have some really good conversations about this project. So I appreciate him having the flexibility to join us in D.C. Thank you.

Thank you. And is it all right, Council Member Vandepoel? It sounds like city manager had to follow up on that. Go ahead.

Yeah, I just want to say, I think Lynn mentioned it, and they didn't show the slide here. They're going after any and every grant that has a nexus to this project. And it's impressive to see the work effort that's going into the grants and the opportunities that they're chasing both at the state and federal level. And so I just really want to thank them for the thoroughness. And they've updated the regional partner team every step of the way about the dollars they're going after. And to Bobak's comments, I think depending on which ones they land and which ones they don't can affect some of these items is the way you see them. And so I think In a perfect world, everything lines up, but you all know how construction works. It depends on how the funding comes in. And so that's my way of saying they'll be back, probably annually at least at a minimum to kind of give you updates about where they are. But I just, Lynn just touched on it, but I just really want to celebrate the great work that they're doing around the grants and all the applications they're putting together.

Thank you. Council Member Vanderpool?

Yeah, a lot of my questions are already answered, but I also want to have praise for this because it seems more tangible now in a lot of ways, right? it's not often you see something go pat and be near 90% design and be that close right i'm so used to projects taking significantly longer, so I really do appreciate the fact that there is a timeline I realized that there's a lot of money attached and you're in you're. Working really hard to fill those funding goals and making sure we get it done, but like it is it feels a lot more tangible. in a lot of ways, I don't usually see big projects get done like this as much anymore, and I appreciate that. I really do, and I appreciate reaching out to BPAC and others for that feedback on the design. I think over a year ago, it was two travel lanes in each direction, and now it's one, which is much better for speed management and having that protected bike lane, all of that stuff, right? I even had a friend the other day who was like, oh, did they consider ADA? And I looked at the design, I said, yes, it looks like Pearsley have actually looked at a lot of that need for folks that are rolling through their community. And I also noticed on one of the renders that there's a little segment for the future if we ever decided to do, or when we do the rainbow, the rail crossing right there, which looks really cool. And I'm looking forward to that too in the future too. So it's funny because when I said that all of you nodded at the same time. So anyway, I appreciate you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, we're excited about the momentum too. And I should have mentioned when we were talking about funding and phasing and all of these things, you know, the legislature fully funded us through to finish the design and permitting. We're being 100% design, fully done with the design at the end of this biennium. So one year from today, we're going to be done with the design phase. So that's really exciting. It does feel like we have huge momentum. We're working our consultants hard. So thank you for recognizing it. It feels that way to us too. And we're also excited for potential future connections.

Hey, Council Member Gilman.

Thank you. Well, it is, I guess, quick progress, as you're saying. And I'm also thinking the lake closed to swimming 40 years ago. because we decided it wasn't safe for people or small hydros to be out there. So it's both this particular effort is moving pretty quickly, and also there's been conversation in the community and efforts. I first met Councilmember Madrone when she was speaking on behalf of the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team, I don't know, 12 years ago or something, in advocating for this. So for me to have that slide up, and I realize that the dates aren't set in stone, but to have a slide that talks about a date for tidal flow restored is, it was unimaginable just a few years ago. So I'm so, so excited. And I have one nerdy question. about the bridge replacement, because that's the piece we'll touch the most, I think. And I appreciate the efforts at bike lanes, but I wonder, with light electric vehicles, e-bikes, scooters, one-wheelers becoming... On my bicycle ride down here, four e-bikes went by me. I didn't see another human-powered bike. So... Is the state of the art evolving? Because this looks similar to what was best practices 15 years ago about separated bike lane, pedestrian lane. Are there new standards coming to figure out where's a third place for this other category of 28 mile an hour wizards that don't belong alongside grandpa pedaling slowly up the hill?

I think the short answer is no. The bike lanes are intended for slower vehicles. And so if one chooses to ride a faster vehicle, they need to be in the traffic lane. And so, of course, there's various rules and regulations that could get passed. But no, I think we keep the bike lane for bikes, and they're intended to be slower moving and protected.

And so my experience is that e-bikes are in the bike lanes and the sidewalks routinely. And so we have this evolution right now where we're not treating them as a separate third kind of vehicles, the light electric vehicles, and it's just blurry. So that's one thing I would consider in the bridge design is that it's going to last forever.

for decades and the world is changing really quickly right now. And I think that's most pertinent at the center span where we do have a more focused pedestrian area. And we're looking really closely there at how can we, through design, control speeds? How can we really raise the awareness of those users, both bike and maybe on e-scooters? And I think it's that curving nature. Automatically, you have to slow down to physically get through there. It's the benches. It's the signage. All of these things, I think, are going to work together to really force people to slow down and pay attention.

Thank you. Thank you for your work. I'm excited about this value-engineered bridge design. Thank you.

Thank you. That's a great point, Council Member Gilman. Did you have more to share? It's fine. Go for it. Tessa, this council loves hearing from you.

Okay, I was just going to add that the City of Olympia has really designated the Fifth Avenue corridor as the primary east-west bike and ped corridor in the city, and so that was really fundamental in the thinking about the bike and ped space and ensuring the right grades and the separation and keeping those bike lanes there. And then it's for Nathan to figure out how we slow people down. So thank you.

Thank you. That was helpful. Council Member Barron.

Thank you. I think the greatest challenge this project has faced is that the community has had a hard time visualize the reality of it. It's been a conceptual, but not reality. And I'm so excited by this presentation because it's very tangible and real for the first time for me personally. So thank you, and thank you for all your work. I also just want to recognize our legislative delegation that has worked so hard on getting this to this place. Representatives, partially, Indolio and Senator and, frankly, Governor Ferguson. I think his office has really not turned his back on this project, and they've embraced moving it forward, which was a big obstacle in getting it to this point. So I just want to recognize those elected officials. Thank you for chasing the grants, and it's really about nailing down the money, and so I just if there's anything the city can do you know i'm hoping that we can be we are totally all in on this project, but making it even a higher priority is essential, thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Council Member Barron. I agree. Yeah, I'm excited by all this, too. I think my councilmate said it well. So I'll just say thank you so much for being here. Thank you for this very comprehensive presentation. You all moved just so seamlessly. It's clear that you're familiar with each other and working hard on this. And glad to meet a new team member. So thank you for saying yes to us, this place, and this project. Jay said we'll be seeing more of you. So look forward to that 100% design. And thank you so much for all your hard work. And do the damn removal. Thank you. All right, so that item was an update only, though a very exciting one. We'll then move to our next and final item, which is item 6B for the night. And that is a quarterly financial reporting briefing by none other than our finance director for the city of Olympia, Mike Gibbons. Hi, Mike.

Good evening. Thank you mayor pro tem when and members of council for the record Mike gethens finance director I Am going to take us through the quarterly Financial report and just to review with you the last time I was here At the end of April we rolled this tool out that we have on the city's website So as a reminder to those watching if you go to the city's website under the government budget and performance section, then scroll down a little ways on the page, you'll come to the monthly financial report where this document lives. So I'm going to start out with just pointing out a couple of things with this. tonight. As you know, expenses aren't able to be divided, nor are revenues into equal twelfths. But this monthly financial report at the end of June represents that 50% look at our fiscal year. And I think it's a really good place for us to take a look and analyze our financial position at this point in the year. As well, tonight's presentation is an important link to the 2027 budget process. where we're estimating and receiving revenue and expenses this year and it closely ties to that development of next year's budget. And we'll take a look at that in some detail, focusing quite a bit on the general fund, but also across all the funds. And when we look at elements of the budget, such as the end fund balance above the 10%, and where we're tracking on expenses to revenue, it's critical for the development of the upcoming budget. We're balancing ongoing expenses to revenue In our 2026 budget without reliance on use of our fund balance above that reserve that's a great position for us to be in the city's long term financial strategy dictates the use of fund balance and other one time monies are to pay for one time kinds of expenses so. Let me point out a couple of things to keep in mind as we really budget and financial elements as we kind of lead towards that 2027 budget process. We did a briefing with you last month at a meeting. The work continues by city staff. across all departments as well as the finance team to put together the estimates and parts of the 2027 budget process. You as council will have several more touch points on that as you know coming up throughout the budget process. So we prepare the budget based on prior years actuals and forecast. We're conservative in our approach to budget development, reasonable revenue projections and a conservative approach to expenses when we don't know actual increases. So an example would be our estimate is very conservative in one of our large personnel category areas, which is medical. We don't know exactly what that expense is going to be, but we're going to kind of err on the side of a larger increase and then bring that to hopefully a lower amount as we develop the budget. We have some kind of exciting things to look at. You don't always hear me say that when we're looking towards the 2027 budget. One of those is, of course, some funding mechanisms that US City Council approved as part of the 2026 budget. One of these is tied to the sales tax increase that was one of the tools the legislature gave city councils a couple of years ago. It's related to House Bill 2015. And as you approved that ordinance to authorize the sales tax collection, it also enabled us to apply for a grant. And we received a Washington State CJTC Criminal Justice Training Center hiring grant. This was a project led by Chief Parker. It was a lot of work. It's been a lot of work by the police department. I saw the application process that Chief Parker was working on last fall and it was robust and ambitious. And so the fact that the city of Olympia has received this grant in the amount of over $1.9 million over the course of, and we'll be able to use this during our budget development for 2027, and a good half of fiscal year 2028 is a great thing, and that really helps us. It allows us the ability to hire and retain officers, train. The fact that our police department met those requirements is just phenomenal. This, I want to assure you, isn't something that we'll have to come up with money then to replace in the future, so that's also a great thing. These are ongoing budgeted positions. And then I briefed you last month somewhat as we were looking at our revenue sources for the this look ahead into 2027 about sales tax. I'm pleased to tell you, and as we look at the financial report, you'll see sales tax is performing really about at budget. I talked about some new types of collections that may be temporary. We'll see as part of the legislature's actions. That is still difficult for us to get a read on, but I think the really summary of that story is our sales tax is coming in at a really good place. Again you'll have several more touch points and updates on the twenty twenty seven budget process but this is really where this financial document I think allows you as well as our community to have an open and transparent look at the city's finances. So let me take you through a few things that are different from when I was here in April. I think one of them in particular you asked us about. And that is, well, let me point out up here in the upper right hand corner of the report, you're going to notice that we'll always have it updated with the month that we're most recently reporting on. So that's where you and the community can take a look and make sure they know where the data is. Also on this page, you'll notice that we added an instructional video on how to use this report. And we'll continue to look at it if we need to add some other instructional pieces to it, but I think it's summarizes and to the point so that people can really know where to dig into this because as a reminder it has some features on here that you know if you look at view notes or You can move the graph lines to kind of be able to see where you might want to calculate the city's revenue and expenses. And we go through that. So this first page that we're on is the summary page through June. The top lines here are the total operating revenues and budget. And then the bottom two squares are the general fund revenues and general fund expenses. I want to take just a minute and talk about a couple of these parts on here. Oh wait, but there's also a really important part that I'm really excited and I have to skip over and show you. I'm talking outside the mic here, but this is good work. Whoa, am I doing this on the wrong thing? No, here I am.

Hey, take your time. Yeah, and for the things you didn't say in the mic, Mike Givens is really excited to show us something.

All right. Another thing, I received feedback from some community members, and I think we all in finance knew it was going to be important to have, and that is the historical part of the financials so back prior to the city transitioning to work day we had some a product that allowed people to go on and look at historicals so what we've done here is added back through 2023 so that people can see our current fiscal year 2026 and then fiscal years 2524 and 23 we have it so it's right now rolled up to all funds all departments But you can move over here and choose to go to any of the city's funds. You could pick just the general fund. And then if I were to choose the general fund, you could also then choose any one of the individual departments and take a look at it. It gives the revenues. You can dig into that. So this was an added piece that the finance team was able to put together and I think provides good comparative data it's not just looking at what this year's budget report is but also how's this compare to the last 3 fiscal years so that was something. important I wanted to point out. So let me take us back to the summary page and talk just a little bit about what you see here. I'm going to switch this. So over on the right hand side I'm going to go to view notes. Every month we'll be updating this to really give a look at what's happening here based on what this month's revenue and expenditures have shown us. So the revenues through June have provided that first biannual payment of property taxes. Those were received in May. So when we looked at the revenue in April, it was off because we had not received that large source of general fund, well not just general fund, across several of our funds property tax revenue. So when that comes in, it really brings that projection up to a more, well, green level where we're tracking these. So we have that kind of watch color list here of green is looking on track, yellow we want to watch, and then red we need to answer some questions about it. And I think that's come to light sometimes. Well, how would we know if there's a need to have a warning? And we'll talk about that a little bit here. On the expense side of this, the first quarter budget amendment that City Council, you all approved in June, included new expenditure and carryover budget authority. This budget amendment improves the high actuals versus budget year to date indicator for total operating expenses. So in prior years, one reason, and I'm gonna focus on just the general fund here where you see that red because I think that needs some Analysis by me and answers because that would be something that you might say okay Why is that that way do we need to do something? My answer to you is no we don't because we've analyzed this very carefully We've updated city manager Bernie to really talk about why is this looking this way as we've explained here When we transition to a new financial system, we didn't have an even transfer. So we're doing that. So when we compare that to prior years, it makes it look off. Some transfers and capital outlays aren't divided equally. So when those happen, it can also make expenses look higher. You adopted a balanced budget revenues to expenditures we're just giving a projection here on what's it looking like at the end of June and it's just some areas to be aware of we will not exceed the appropriation that us city council adopted but as we look at this. The most important thing I really want you to focus on is that revenue square. It's green. We're on target. We're on track with that. We had also, if you recall, at the beginning of this fiscal year, some settlements on a couple of contracts that required us to pay out more heavily at the beginning of the year. As the year goes on, that kind of effect of the 12 months will bring that down. It's not considerably out, but I'm not going to artificially just make that color be green. We wanted to leave it the way it is so that you could see and our community knows we're being very transparent and open about this. We're watching it. I think one of the things I'd like to draw your attention to also is if you compare this to last year, We were in a situation where the city manager actually had to freeze spending, do a soft hiring freeze. You know, we still hired our police officers and public safety, but we put, you know, we carefully scrutinized other positions that were being hired. And that was because we saw our revenue not coming up at places we needed to, in particular sales tax. So we slowed our... EXPENDITURES TO MATCH THAT. THIS YEAR WE'RE SEEING NO NEED TO DO THAT. WE'RE NOT RECOMMENDING IT TO CITY MANAGER BERNIE AND WE DON'T SEE ANYTHING IN THE NEAR FUTURE THAT WOULD NEED THAT KIND OF ACTION AND THAT I THINK IS ONE OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS TO BRING TO LIGHT HERE IS WE GO OVER THIS IN GREAT DETAIL IN FINANCE, WE BRIEF THE CITY MANAGER And I think this added briefing with you and to our community is an important part of that so that it brings this to light. Let me take just a minute and look at the watch list because this is something important in our monitoring of the budget. So we call it the city manager's watch list. I think this could evolve if there's something that maybe we want to take a closer look at or in particular he does. But for right now, let me take you through quickly just some of the areas that are on the watch list consistently. So the commercial development permit plan review fees. I want to point out that this is the commercial part of it. If you want to look at the full fund you'd go to the 006 down here and look at it but we watch this with the city manager and community development director. You'll notice how I'm hovering over this line here and it'll bring up those amounts in comparison to other years. So our Look at this, or just to give a quick high-level analysis, it's somewhat higher than last year, but both 2025 and 2026 are significantly lower than last. twenty four and twenty three and that's why it's on the watch list and so we continue to monitor that the nice part about this and just as a reminder to those online using it if you hover over those months you can do that comparison and see where it's at up here in this quadrant then is the public defense support appointed attorneys and where those are standing that's tracking at forty one percent again this is an easy place to look at the budget 50% would be right on. So that's looking good at this point in the year. And then our BLS transport revenue. This also is looking good. If I hover correctly, it brings up notes and you can read kind of where it's at. and what's going on with that. We don't have any concerns right at the moment. And then if you go up here to the top right, you can click on view page two of two, and it takes us to the other parts that are on the watch list. Down here is the B&O, or business and occupation tax collections. Again, I'll Hold my finger there and hover over it. You can see where that's at in comparison to other years. We would expect it to be higher in 2026 as compared to prior years because We, you as city council, adopted a different rate structure for our B&O tax. Now, you might say, well, why is it maybe not more collections? And that's because that's going to take some time for the effect of that because of our going into effect January 1st. We have a number of annual filers. So I can reassure you that our revenue teams looked at it. It's on track. Things are looking good. But that's a watch list item that we have on here police department overtime That looks high because it is high that's because we have a number of vacant officer positions and so Overtime is going to be higher. I think I'll look down here. Well where as The fire department overtime is looking Better than it was last year up here at the Nisqually jail services contract. That's another large general fund budget item, which is the reason it's on the city manager watch list. You'll notice it's, if I, whoa, I don't know. Did it go blank? I don't know why it went blank. It's at 38%. That's because we haven't received the June contract when we were in here. So the other thing is the general fund personnel costs. Those again are in effect of what I mentioned earlier those contract settlements at the beginning of the year is that kind of goes out that's really kind of the crux of the issue if you will of kind of what we see on the summary page so those are the parts that we're watching with the city manager watch list. If I take us over here, then this is the general fund. I think that's the other place that I would, since it's always, yes.

Oh, is that our, we have a question from council. Is that all right?

Of course. Yes.

Council member. Great.

Thank you. I have a question just looking at the areas where, I mean, I, my eyes certainly drew to police over time versus what we've budgeted. And it, I mean, it looks like we're going to exceed what we've budgeted for police over time. But the question I have is we also budgeted for positions that are currently vacant. And so, um, I'm curious, I mean, if you've dug in there to be like, okay, well, we don't want people working over time because that exhausts them. And you know, it's, it's, uh, it's not the best position for them to be in. That being said, what we've budgeted for vacant positions, does that, kind of even out with what we're seeing around police over time.

Sure some of that open position effect will definitely have that savings that we're seeing but over time is oftentimes and I don't want to speak for the police chief or city manager but certainly sometimes that's you know they're having to call back staff in order to meet our minimums across the city for police staffing so

Yeah, absolutely. I'm thinking about, like, what is the other information behind this other than the dollar signs? I'm seeing impact on people right there.

And I don't have it in front of me, but we have a number of open regular positions to be filled. I think it's around 14 or 15.

And with additional information, I saw City Manager Burney.

Yeah, just to the point, Council Member Drone mentioned that, you know, we had budgeted for a certain number of vacancies. And so what the finance team has done is pulled those dollars back out of OPD's budget as they've actualized them. So they're not sitting in the budget where they can accidentally get spent on something different. So because we budgeted for the overtime, excuse me, the vacancies, they've pulled the money back and put it into fund balance so that it doesn't get spent. And that helps offset the costs of the overtime that you see. And Mike, you might say that better than I did, but how you guys pull that money back.

No, that was a strategic part of the balancing for the 2026 budget is we know that not just in police, but across the general fund in particular, we have a certain amount of vacancy rate or staff out on unpaid leave, for example. So rather than just... try to make balancing decisions that might cause reductions in other parts and just achieve that savings in another way, we strategically budgeted an amount of that. So the budget team looked at what our vacancy amount has been and then budgeted that. We pulled it out of departments then you know police has a number of vacancies so that it doesn't get accidentally spent and then we achieve that budgeted amount so in other words that money then is saved the overtime though has to be spent because we have that and i think it's an indicator that we've used but we know that there's a bigger story behind it because we have the vacancies in that particular department

Thank you. Does that satisfy your question? Okay. All right. Council Member Madron is satisfied.

And then just to kind of wrap things up here, I'll point out this is what you're looking at on the general fund. You can drill in and go more into taxes. So if you want to see where are the taxes that are at each category, you can take a look at that. Again, it's updated through June so if you kind of take a look at that far right hand column some of the you know just Fleshing out indicators if it's at 50% or above that's looking really good You know property tax should be because we've received that first half amount and then you can go down and Drill into more of those I'll just point out then we have some of the larger funds here available One thing I was going to spend just a minute on because I tend to focus on the general fund we have our other funds all across the bottom and then you can also Get to them in this tab if they're not called out here But if we take a look at fund 401 which is drinking water fund 402 wastewater fund 404 is our storm and surface water There's if you drill into this you'll notice and you'll see it here on stormwater There's kind of a spike in the expenses there in the red arrow and that's largely because of some administrative Budgeted transfers out that we did they were recorded in June. We're not looking at being over budget at all in this It'll equalize out, but we just made a bulk of those so then it causes that indicator to look off and Again, I don't want us to artificially say well. We know the reason for that but for this to truly be a Indicator of where we're at at that point, but it's able to be explained And that's what I would offer you in this report that we know why that is and it's not a concern for us at this point But again, I'll just go over here so you can see then if a community member wanted to see you can drill into any of the funds that the city has listed on its annual comprehensive financial report and budgets for and That's my formal comments on the financial report. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. We'll see what we have. I will first like to turn it over to the chair of the council's finance committee, which is Council Member Gilman.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. A couple of takeaways and then a question for you all. First, I think, as Mike was pointing out, you watch month by month, and there's going to be some things that don't exactly align on last year's line because transactions happen at different times of year. So for me, taking this look halfway through the year is really important because we're getting a look at the six-month point. And I just want to say that While we did have a red on the expenditures for general fund, it's pretty close. We're not in the same urgency we were feeling the last couple of years, and I'm greatly relieved by that. We're still seeing inflation outpace the increase in revenue year to year, so we're continuing to deal with that. But we're sitting okay for right now. So that reassurance is the main thing that I was hoping to pass along. And then I wanted to ask, we've spent, as finance committee, part of each meeting this year learning together. to learn about the funds, the processes, the audit, so that we have a better understanding as we head into potentially challenging decisions around revenue and reducing expenditures, those things that may come upon us. I'm super proud of the team that put together this tool. I think it's remarkable both as a dashboard and as something that you can drill down much deeper and explore particular expenses. I just I would say if this is I hope that this is helpful to do a quarterly visit to how we're doing financially because we're all going to be faced with budget decisions across the year. And if this is too much or too little give a give a shout or if there's more that's.

Thank you come to my room a joke.

This is super cool. And I can feel your excitement. It's like you're showing off your new toys. I love it. It's really, really great to have this kind of a visual. And one question I have before I get to answering Councilmember Gilman's question is, you know, so on the main screen there, you know, it shows we're in the red for something, but we're not worried about it because we're mid-year and we expect that revenue is going to catch up to those expenses. We had big expenses early in the year. What is the indicator if somebody is looking at this to know that it's red, but it's serious? Are there little flames that come off of it or what does that look like?

I think our notes over here, we're trying to add to them and we're certainly open if as you're reviewing this, you think, well, I have a question and maybe in our minds in finance, we're answering it to what we feel covers it. You may say, well, But what about that doesn't help answer it please let me know city manager Bernie and he can talk to me about what kinds of things we can add there really what the takeaway here is on both sides of this in the general fund. We also have some capital transfers that happen at times that aren't you know that equal one 12th that can just divide it out so it's going to sometimes show a bit on that side but as you look at it. It's close yeah if it were. a greater distance apart and we'd have to see some indicators like revenue lines that are primary sales tax or property tax or B&O tax that we're tanking also to really tell us okay now we've got some structural problems with this and we're not seeing that we can very well predict where our expenses are going to go. And we have a certain amount of control on it. Again, we know those vacancies exist. We budgeted for them and we saved that money first half of the year, so we're also not realizing any of that savings. And I really, I think you need to know that the vacancies can be a pretty significant part of savings in this, so. All of that together leads us to a sense of security.

Okay, but what I'm hearing there is that, so I do not have 20-20 vision, like it's good enough, but like I can't read that. So, but what I'm hearing there is in the narrative there, it kind of explains what we're seeing in these numbers here that would give the average person, you know, as they look at that, some assurance that yeah we see that it's red we're watching it closely and here's why okay correct and we'll change these notes each month and that's why i wanted to point out i think it's really important when the page loads it's like that that you look at them okay great that that that's what i needed to know just can't see it from here it's not showing up on our screens here for some reason which is what i was hoping for but um and to answer council member uh gilman's questions in terms you know i kind of In terms of how frequently we get updates, I think these updates are really important for us as a council. Finance digs in deeply on the budget every single month, and those of us who aren't on finance don't have those close attaches, so I think even for the, educational purposes for us on council being connected to the budget and understanding how it works and where there are points of concern is good. I wonder if quarterly it might be too much. What I wonder is if we are to get regular updates. I think a mid-year update is good unless Those numbers are on fire or or there's multiple indicators that suggest that there's something the Council needs to be paying better closer attention to. So I would I would kind of lean into half year mid year update from the finance director. So we all get that touch point with the budget. And then otherwise it's kind of like, you know, what are we watching that would bring it to the level of the Council needing to be read in on some some concerning things that we're seeing.

All right, City Manager Burney?

Yeah, I just wanted to point out a couple things as I listened to the conversation and kind of Mike's presentation. And one rhythm of this is at your pleasure. So even at mid-year, so let's just say you'd like to have these at mid-year. If at the end of first quarter, Mike and I see something concerning, We're not going to wait. You know, we'll come to you first quarter if we think we need to come to you in first quarter and give you an update because we see we see a trend that is unfavorable. We need to have a conversation about where we need to go with it. So I'll just give you that. And then the other thing I just want to give the council a shout out here to your work on the budget for this year, because we identified a few things. We're mid year last year. Mike mentioned that revenues were off, but we also saw development fee fund was way off. We saw jail costs way up. We, BLS revenues were not where we thought they would be because we just didn't have history at any point in time so that we gave what we thought was a good budget number. And when we did the budget work this year, we shored up the development fee fund with some additional general fund support, acknowledging what we know about the market right now that Interest rates are higher, construction costs are higher, and so development just isn't happening at the pace that we thought it would. So we shored up the development fee fund with more general fund. And because of that, we're not in the same place as the development fee fund that we were last year, and I don't have the same concerns. Because we added more dollars in for jail costs, as you can see, we're well below the budget at this point in time. We're actually tracking below where we were last year on jail costs. Thank you, Chief, for that piece. But because we planned for it, it's no longer in the red, and we've budgeted for it. And we now have history with BLS revenue, so it better informed our budget estimates around what we thought we would take in with BLS. So it's my way to say that through the help of Mike's team and the implementation of these quarterly budget updates for me, it's kept us all more informed. And then because of that, we've made changes and you all made changes to this budget for 2026 that have helped us not be in the same place we were in June of this year. So it's just really good work. And so I want to thank Mike's team for all of their work. I can't get where I can get to with recommendations to you without good data. And the kind of data that I'm getting is remarkable right now. And then just thanks to the council for your patience as we work through this and your dedication to kind of closing, working with us to close gaps so we have a more resilient, more sustainable budget, which is the work we've all been doing over the last few years. So thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Council Member Barrett.

Thank you. And Mike, thank you. This was a really good presentation, and I'm grateful for it. And just a few thoughts. I fall into the category of liking a quarterly report. When we see these reports in real time, these are metrics that really show the exact management health of each of these departments in real time. So twice a year is great, but I think quarterly provides council members with more robust information to make decisions. I also think that we, from time to time, are asked to make unbudgeted budget approvals. And while they fall more like in the $10,000 range or the $30,000 range, I like to know current information in which to make those decisions. And so because it's an important metrics and it's an important management tool and it's what we have to really determine the health of all of these departments and where the, you know, the red, the red flags are and where the yellow flags are and where the green flags are, I would prefer to see a quarterly report. And it's great for the public, too. When the public sees this, it's reassuring to the public. And that's really important to me. So anyway, these are just my thoughts. Thanks.

Thank you. Council Member Vanderbilt, did you have something?

Not extensively. I mean, I'm okay with continuing to have it quarterly, as my councillors have said. We also kitted it on Finance Committee, so it's perfectly fine.

Yeah. OK. I have some questions. Easy peasy for you. So how often is this updated? Is it every month?

Every month, and we strive to have it updated by the 20th for the prior month. And we usually beat that. So by the 20th of July, we're going to have June's information up there and so on. By the 20th of August, we'll have July's update. So it'll be monthly.

Oh, got it. Okay. And then are you tracking or is your team tracking usage of this? Are there any analytics? I mean, not necessarily who's using it, but I mean, are you tracking if folks are visiting it much outside of the organization? Can you share anything about that?

Well, we haven't looked at it yet, but that's something we definitely will.

Oh, lovely.

I'll work with communications to get some information on that.

Okay.

That is good information.

Yeah, yeah. And I'd love to, at your next update, hear about how sort of, how granular are we going on that? You know, are we finding out there are analytics that people are just obsessed with fund four through three or, you know, or something like that? Like where are the trends? So that would be nice to know.

And I don't want to overpromise on that, but I'm pretty sure we can pull something together.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

I don't know how much we'll be able to get, but I know we can track some hits on it.

Yeah, that's my style too, yeah. As evidenced by the 20th, but we almost always beat it. This is really, really great work. I wonder about community members that are bumping around here for the first time or many and they have a question. Is there somewhere on here that says if you have a question, go to this email or?

Sure that's a great thing to point out so on that landing page where you go to government and budget and performance there's my contact information is there and so that'll get The question answered and many times I'll receive that either my phone number as well as other email is listed there and then the instructional video we really tried hard to make sure we're covering that so people can kind of self-direct if it's on a weekend or you're trying to find something out to come testify before council you can watch that and see how to dig into the information. So hopefully between both of those folks can get a hold of us.

Thank you. Wow, you have a question straight to the director. I mean, that's powerful. Other than that, I really just have praise. This is really, really exciting stuff. I mean, the level of detail here, I love the notes, that there's notes to explain the story behind the numbers, right? And while we do have some red, which I appreciate that you said you decided to not take any liberties of making it green. So thank you for that. But also is that my understanding is we're where we plan to be.

Yes. Right?

So the city manager reminds me this is a big one for us. So very, very good work on behalf of your team. And then also through this, you collaborate with all the other departments.

um so yeah really great stuff and just gonna do a last scan uh and i see council member gilman i just i wanted to appreciate both council member barrett and council member madrone's thoughts about how frequently to bring this and i i think just as um city manager bernie had said that um We would bring this up if there was ever a red flag sort of issue. I guess I would also suggest that, as Council Member Barrett said, sometimes we have decisions that come up during the year. And I think bringing along this dashboard when we discuss a budget amendment or when we discuss a one-time expenditure that we need to make, This could be a great part, I think, of the explainer for justifying an expenditure or a reduction in the middle of the budget.

Thank you, Council Member Gilman. That's a great point. And to make sure I answer your question, I don't have strong feelings. Although it might make sense to start with more and not less and see if we need them. If folks are feeling they really need the quarterly. But I'm really excited that I can just go on here or any member of the public and just bump around by ourselves. All right, anything else, finance director?

No, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to bring it to you. Thanks.

Thank you. Likewise, really exciting stuff. Okay, that closes us out for business items tonight. And that takes us to council reports. Is there someone that's so excited to give a report that would like to start? Go ahead.

Nothing to report. Ooh.

I see that as a challenge, and I take it. All right. Then we'll just follow down the line.

All right. So Regional Housing Council met. We gave an update to the board on where we are with the jungle by a city manager and assistant city manager that came out and City Council Chambers, Talk to the board about that, and one I guess a couple other things that they. City Council Chambers, brought up some of the board members brought up so they had concerns about illegal dumping, but also made sure that there was concerns about privacy of individuals are kept concerns. City Council Chambers, Well, about ensuring that, like the lacy that that Center. is used as a resource, a part of that work. Ensuring that the Built for Zero and the data matrix from that is included was also brought up, ensuring that we are pursuing what best practices we have around this came up by several of the members, which is understandable, particularly where we are. And then we had the encampment resolution program proposal, which is the navigator policy that we all know about, that passed three to two with Tumwater and Thurston County wanted to They voted no because they wanted to make sure that the lived experience committee was brought into the process. But we all supported just to make sure that those committee members from lived experience were brought in as stakeholders. And I will continue to talk to Jay and Stacey about that. And then land use environment met. We had the tenant and community opportunity purchase. It's being narrowed down to more of a concrete policy. It'll come back to us one more time. Thinking about what we can do, but also thinking what else we can do if we had more capacity. It'll be coming back to us in the next few months. Short-term rental and permitting enforcement was also an agenda item. interested in auditing and using some of the, maybe doing a census of the short-term rentals, just kind of looking at what from our, maybe our tax B&O team that we've expanded and just seeing if they could look at, you know, if there's any information that we can determine from those businesses. And I guess there's a little bit of, and also there's a discussion about the overlap between the home business occupation conversation with the potential for the policy to inform each other in the future because there's so much overlap between the two. And then, let's see, and then in reports, we had our temporary response to tree coverage. So while we're working on the urban forestry plan, which will be developed in the next years, it'll come back to us next month. We're trying to make sure we have the spirit of what the community concerns are while not trying to contradict our affordability housing policy. So I expect to have a little bit more defined conversation next land use. So that's it. That's my notes.

Thank you. Any comments or questions for Council Member Vanderpool? Oh, Council Member Gilman.

Thanks. I was wondering if the city manager might be able to amplify or comment on consulting the lived experience working group from the county on that difficult decision that the

Yeah, thank you. I'll say a couple of things. One is I just want to lift up the work of our work group and the work that Stacey, a city manager, does with our work group around this. Stacey gave it provided an update at the beginning of the conversation about how we're engaging residents and that we do plan to engage the lived experience advisory committee as our planning work continues. So to that end, one of the commitments I made at that meeting is that we would have that meeting with lived experience before a penny of the money that the R.H.C. provided to us would be spent. Their next meeting is August 3rd. So I'm planning to attend that meeting. Stacey will be on vacation that week, but I'm going to attend with one of our work group provider members is going to attend with me since they're ingrained in that in that work. And part of this recommendation came from that group. to help me have a conversation with lived experience advisory committee, and then also to set a tone for how we have continuing conversations with them throughout our planning process. So we're gonna do that in advance of the board of commissioners acting on this recommendation from the RHC on August 18th, at their August 18th meeting. So we made that commitment and I'll be there August 3rd.

All right, any other comments or questions? Okay, Council Member Gilman.

No report this evening.

Okay. No reports? Council Member Green?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. No report.

Thank you. Council Member Barron?

I have a couple of things. I just want to acknowledge that I attended the Thurston County Food Bank conference breakfast, and Councilwoman Madrone was one of the great speakers at that, talking about food security. She did a fabulous job and represented us well, and it was a great event for one of our community's premier nonprofits. I also met with a group at the South Capitol neighborhood. really want to try to help them work through a dozen sticky issues. And we discussed this some at our land use meeting under short-term rental policies. There are many, many issues facing the households in that neighborhood. One is what kinds of businesses should be allowed, if any, in the houses where lobbyists have moved in and taken over houses and turned them into essentially office buildings. But there's also other issues related to short and long-term rentals within those facilities and whether those rentals are for people or for businesses and it's kind of complex. So I think it's really important from a policy point of view when we're working through these that we think about that neighborhood and how it impacts every one of these sub-issue areas. We had this robust conversation at the Land Use Committee regarding short and long-term rentals. And anyway, it's going to be an ongoing subject matter. I also attended the Regional Housing Council meeting meeting and I do just want to say that the appropriation was passed on a three to two vote and it nearly didn't pass and this was something very important to keep the ball rolling on the effort that we're doing to shut down the jungle. This is the crux of this issue is a $300,000 appropriation and My hat is off to Stacy and the city manager for walking through this. These are very difficult issues, and everyone feels that they should have a veto power over a very difficult project to implement. And if we acquiesce to people having too much veto power this project will never get done. And so I think that our team has done a really good job of keeping this ball moving forward, weighing all of the community interests at stake. But this vote I felt was a really significant issue, and I was disappointed to see the two people who peeled off and voted against this because I felt that it showed a lack of commitment in keeping this ball moving forward to do what it takes to address community concerns regarding the jungle. That's all.

Thank you. Any comments or questions for Councilmember Barron? Oh, Councilmember Madron.

I just want to thank you for mentioning the food bank event. That was a good one, the annual breakfast. And I was very pleased to speak at that. And then as a result of that, I got an invitation to be one of the elected officials to judge the berry pie contest at the county fair this weekend. I'm so excited. I told her I have been waiting my whole career as an elected official to be invited to some kind of baked good judging contest. So excited for that.

Very good. Very good. I know you want to go there now. You are so excited. Any other comments or questions for Council Member Barron? Okay. Well, with that, that closes us out for the night. Oh, sorry about that. I forgot, didn't I? I'm going to have to make it up to him later, I'm sure. Okay. Council Member, or sorry, there. City Manager Bernie, do you have a report for us tonight?

Thank you. I do not.

That was great. Okay. Thank you. With no further business before us tonight, we are adjourned. Thank you.