City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and this is July 20th, 2026, and welcome to the City of Pasco Council meeting. The Council thanks you for being part of our city government. At meetings, the City Council takes formal actions on items, holds public hearings, and conducts other business of the city. Agenda packets are available at the City of Pasco's website at www.pasco-wa.gov slash agenda. This meeting is also being televised live on PSC TV channel 191 on Spectrum Cable in Pasco and Richland and is streamed on the city's Facebook page, website, YouTube channel, and Microsoft Teams webinar. This and previous council meeting video is available on the city's website. Lastly, the public may submit their comments and or questions by contacting the city manager, city clerk, or by using the Ask Pasco app. And with that, let's get a roll call.

Compos?

Here.

Carter?

Here.

Figueroa?

Present.

Hernandez?

Present.

Perales?

Here.

Milne?

I am present. Grimm? And he is excused. So with that, we have the honor of having Troop 100 here with us tonight, and we are going to give them the honor of doing the Pledge of Allegiance and doing the flags. So do you want to present it?

Colleague, I push colors. Will the audience please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Well, thank you, Troop 100, for your participation in our city government. It's an honor to have you here. So thank you. So with that, we're going to roll on to number four, which is the consent agenda. All items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by a roll call vote as one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If further discussion is desired by the council members, the item may be removed from the consent agenda to the regular agenda and considered separately. So we have 4A, approval of meeting minutes for July 6th. 4B, bills and communications, approving claims in the total amount of $8,281,420.02. Resolution number 4764, Washington State Department of Transportation, detour agreement. Number 4D, planning commission appointment to appoint Sonny Victor Banku, hopefully I got that somewhat close, to position number one. Term expiration date of 12-31-2027 to the Planning Commission. Number 4E, Loaf Disability Board appointment to appoint Jody Christensen to position number three. Also has an expiration date of 7-15-2028 to the Loaf Disability Board. And number F, Pasco Public Facilities District Board reappointment and appointment to reappoint Marie Gillespie to position number four and appoint Craig Maloney to position number five to the Pasco Public Facilities District Board with both terms expiring on 7-15-2030. So do we have any council members that would like to take anything out of the motion? Not seeing any of that, so Councilman Perales, can I get a motion?

I approve. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as read. Can I get a second? Second.

We got a motion on the floor by Councilman Perales, and we got a second by Councilman Campos. So if we could get the roll call.

Carter?

Yes.

Figueroa?

Yes.

Hernandez yes, and no, I think you forgot rose Perales yes in campus.

Yes And then myself yes All right, so Proving Ashley, so thank you for that. We're gonna jump on to number five proclamations and acknowledgments. I'm not seeing any listed So let's jump to number six Public comments. The public may address council on any items unless it relates to a scheduled public hearing. This item is provided to allow the opportunity to bring items to the attention of the city council or to express an opinion on an issue. Its purpose is not to provide a venue for debate or for the purpose of questions with the expectation of an immediate response. Some questions require consideration by council over time and after a deliberate process with input from a number of different sources, Some questions are best directed to staff members who have access to specific information. Citizen comments will normally be limited to three minutes each by the mayor. There's a little timer up there. Kind of can't really see it with the flag, but it is there. Those with lengthy messages are invited to summarize their comments and or submit written information for consideration by the council aside of formal meetings. Lastly, when called upon, please state your name and city or county residency into the microphone before providing your comments. With that, is anybody in the audience that would like to make a comment or have their opinion? All right.

Good evening. My name is Mariana Marquez-Cidal, and I am the Scoutmaster for Troop 100, whose scouts range in ages from 11 to 19 years old. It is an honor to be here today representing our troop in Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America. One of our Eagle requirements requires merit badges, citizenship in the community, requires scouts to attend a city council meeting and learn about the role of local government. We sincerely thank you for providing our scouts with the opportunity to observe local government in action and to share their perspectives with you. This evening, several of our scouts will briefly represent their thoughts and ideas. Thank you for your time, your service to our community, and your commitment to civic engagement. We appreciate the opportunity to be here and are grateful for this valuable learning experience for us, for our scouts. Have a wonderful evening.

All right, thank you. And can you make sure that the microphone is on if any of your, okay. Okay, usually it has a little red light up, but push the button. Okay, now it's on.

So red means it's on.

Now we can hear you, but I didn't hear you fine, so thank you. Okay, thank you. All right.

Michelle Andrews, resident of the city of Pasco. Glad to see there's a new person on the left board. It's the left board. As you know, the... Ferguson and Company swept $4 billion out of that. Left One, which my husband is a member of, and he is a volunteer, and he did not put me up to this. This is my thoughtful, long, not really wanting to come here and say what I have to say. He serves as a volunteer. Left One is a pension. Most of the people on that do not have Social Security. This city... made a commitment to pay for those bills that Medicare does not pay for. And yet an attorney was sent to that room saying, the RCW say you don't have to do this. Well, I object on behalf of many people that are on their last legs, that are struggling, nickel and diming, whether they're going to pay for TV or what in a nursing home. Some of you have not been here that long. Our new city manager has not been here that long, but that is a commitment that this place made. And I understand maybe you've done some audits because I demand it. If you're going to cut those people that pull up on accidents, crack babies dying, being born on the porch like my husband for 31 years, you better think again. These people served, missed holidays, birthdays. And somebody's sent there to say, well, you don't have to because of the RCW? We had a family member in a terrible accident on court. 40 miles an hour, hit a brick wall. She was not conscious. Something happened. Now those same people that are serving you now, if that had happened at Road 100 and Court, there's two massive speed bumps that somebody with two broken arms, a shattered ankle, nine broken ribs, and a brain bleed would have to go over. Those speed bumps don't belong there. That is a thruway. That is not a neighborhood. Now we're trying to seek video and all kinds of things. It's really hard unless you go personally to the offices to get anybody to answer the phones. All the while, across from my house, you don't have the proper animal control and code enforcement. I have had three dogs from the same house hit and killed right there in court in 76. Goats were out recently. Now five chickens are in my yard regularly. You drive right through it, Mr. Mill. You're my representative. They run water. They don't turn it off. It just runs into the new house, which happens to be my kids, in their new home, right into their foundation. And furthermore, they were given access to a sewer because they were on septic. And I said, you know, I saw a little backhoe thing right where that's supposed to connect and work being done, but I don't see any permit. There's a lot of revenue, unfortunately, to enforcing, but it would come into our city. So when you're cutting things and you're not standing up to your obligations and you're putting our public servants that go out there and try to save lives that have to reroute around speed bumps that you won't even put in a neighborhood where it was deservedly belonged. I have to come tonight and object. You run a winery, you run construction, you run a tool thing.

I think we're over your limit. Okay.

I think I've made my point.

I appreciate your comments, and I appreciate your husband's service, and we had talks about this, but I appreciate it. Anybody else in the audience that would like to make a comment?

Hello, thank you for being here tonight. My name is Andrea Dominguez and I live in Pasco. I am from Troop 100 and tonight I will be talking about after school activities. As we know, the school district is spending money on learning and it is very important to acknowledge that, but after school is just as important. So picture this. You spend weeks working, promoting, and giving up your own personal time for clubs but just for one day it just being closed due to budget cuts but who's to blame clearly not pasco school district it's not their fault they don't have enough funding nor the city of pasco they don't have anything to do with it some organizations help with this with with the growing problem one notable One notable example is Parks and Rec. They do a lot for the community. For example, they have safe spaces, free to low-cost activities, and so much more. But some families don't get access to these things. These things, for some reasons, like transportation or no family around to take them to these things. And that is why I'm here to ask for these organizations to be able to expand and be more accessible to schools, students, and people all over Pasco.

Thank you for your time. Thank you for your nice comments. Was there any other members of Group 100 that would like to make a comment?

Good evening council, my name is Camila and I am from Pasco and today I want to speak about something that affects all of us, keeping our community safe by maintaining grass, weeds and vacant fields. I believe our city and county should be more consistent when it comes to making sure properties are properly maintained. During the summer, especially here in Pasco, temperatures rise quickly. Dry grass, weeds and neglected fields can become a serious fire hazard. It only takes one spark from a vehicle, a cigarette or even faulty equipment to start a fire that spreads rapidly through dry vegetation. I think property owners, especially those with larger pieces of land, should have their properties inspected once or twice a year. These inspections wouldn't have to be complicated. They would simply make sure that dead grass has been cut, weeds are under control, and fire hazards have been reduced. Most property owners already take pride in caring for their land, but regular inspections would help ensure everyone is doing their part. to protect the community. If a property is found to be poorly maintained and the owner does not address the problem after being notified, I believe there should be a fine. The goal isn't to punish people right away, but to encourage responsibility and prevent dangerous situations before they happen. A small effort in maintaining a property can make a huge difference in preventing fires. And if rules like this already exist, then they should be enforced more consistently. Laws only work when they are followed and enforced. When regulations are ignored, dry fields continue to build up, increasing the risk to nearby homes, businesses, wildlife, and even the firefighters who put themselves in danger to protect Preventing fires is much easier and much less expensive than responding to them. Keeping our community safe is a shared responsibility. Thank you for your time and I hope you'll join me in supporting stronger enforcement of property maintenance to help keep Pasco safe.

Thank you for your comments. I think there was another couple gentlemen in the back.

Hello, everyone. Mitch Snow, Pascoe. I was going to thank the Mayor for meeting with me this week, along with Detective Taylor, taking the time. As you guys know, I've been going through some serious problems here, serious concerns, and been waiting for some action to be taken. I have in front of me some disturbing evidence of Where the people have broken into my house have admitted to taking it, breaking in before, multiple times. They're literally getting online and mocking about it. Making other threats. And still nobody has put any cuffs on them or even contacted them or looked into them. I really hope that's going to change soon. I'll be handing this information off. But something has to change with what's going on with our policing. It shouldn't take this much. There's definitely a double standard going on. I also have the information here of when I was arrested with no information, with no evidence, no anything. kidnapped in the middle of the night, taken. Months of my life taken away. Ain't nobody stepped up to even say they're sorry, or we were wrong, or go after those who lied. And now they're blatantly doing it. And that's all happened here. I really hope we see a change.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. I'll let Mayor Graham know that you stopped by. So thank you. Do we have any members also of the audience? The lady in the back.

Hi, I'm Natalie Williams and I'm from Pasco and I wanted to come in support of the data center moratorium and I see that you've listed other types of computing centers and things and so I found this very comforting that they thought of different types of computing centers. and even cryptocurrency on your ordinance 4850. So the mayor had talked to me. I'm concerned that the Walla Walla Data Center is going to be utilizing our agreement from 12 years ago to process their wastewater. at first he wasn't sure that that was a thing and then came back to me and said that indeed that would happen and so I'm just really happy that you guys are entertaining this because I'm worried that we're not going to have safe clean drinking water if something like this if these types of things keep getting past and I just want to make sure that we're not having to like haul in clean water and like we need to be able to bathe with water and things like that so and that our agriculture is protected along with people having access to electricity first before a massive data center. Thank you.

I appreciate the comments and appreciate city staff also sending us some information on that as well so thank you. I guess you're on the blue shirt.

Hi, my name's Dennis Brown from Pasco, Washington. I've lived here over 15 years and another 25 in Kennewick. I graduated in 1976. Six months later, I was working for Lampson. They gave me a grease gun. They told me how to put cranes together. A year after that, I was driving them over the old green bridge. I'd been around a while. Lampson, Neil Lampson, lived down the road a country block away from me, 10 city blocks. One country block. We had discussions. His company grew into one of the biggest ones in the world. You know how he did it? He got people together. How can we do this? How can we assemble a crane? How can we get it apart without taking apart five different pieces just to get to one? Between the crane operators, the iron workers, the engineers, the safety guy, everybody all sitting around getting together, how do we put a crane together in a better configuration? My first seven years with Lampson was great. I worked with some of the smartest people I've ever met. The people I worked with, the crane operators. I'm cashing my checks at the Bridgeview Tavern on the Kennewick side of the old Green Bridge. I was 19 years old. They were cashing my checks for me. I sat in that tavern, and I listened to... I learned how to operate a crane by how not to operate a crane. The stories those guys had, epic. Laughing, rolling on the floor. On that note, the professionalism that was involved, in spite of all the fun we were having, we worked our butts off. We busted knuckles. We didn't have the tools we have now today. Lampson got everybody together, and we helped build the biggest crane company in the world. When I come to the city of Pasco, how do I get something done? Who am I working with? The next 40 years, I'm working with contractors that didn't have a clue. They kept trying to kill me, putting me on unsafe equipment. They had to kill a lawyer in Seattle before they required crane operators to get certifications. All I'm asking for is curb ramps to help me get in and out of my driveway without destroying my equipment. Here's a bill for over $1,000, rack and pinion, suspension. CB axle joints. I've been over that curb 9,000 times since I've lived in that house. I'm representing a lady that got a terrible note. At the end, maximum monetary penalty for each separate violation per day. We're neighbors. Why do you treat... I wouldn't send this letter to my neighbor. Why don't you get together, work with her, see what she's got, take a look at what she has going on and instead of giving her a code violation, talk to her. See if you can't work something out. Neil Lampson did it.

Thank you for your comment on Neil Lampson. I didn't know that, so thank you. And I recommend if you'd like to turn in some paperwork, give it to the clerk, and then they can send it off to the city council. so we could actually read what's going on. But I do appreciate your comments. I appreciate you coming down here. So thank you. All right. Is there anybody else in the audience that would, gentlemen?

Hello, I'm Jason Malloy, not a member of Troop 100, but the general manager of the Pasco Resource Recovery Center. Council members and staff, thanks to those who toured the Resource Recovery Center this past week, We certainly appreciated the opportunity to show you our operation, how we support the city's process water reuse facility. For anyone who could not attend, of course, the invitation remains open. I'll provide a brief quarterly update as I'll do each quarter going forward to promote transparency and accountability. In Q2, Burnham finished the quarter $275,000 under budget and now roughly a half million dollars under the annual budget through the first half of 2026. Those results are driven by continuous improvement, with one such example being reduced digester heating costs. Burnham operated both digesters below the manufacturer's targeted temperature range and maintained strong better than expected performance. This was achieved through meticulous data driven process with extensive collaboration between operations, our engineers, and third party experts. Looking ahead, our third quarter priority is maintaining availability and maximizing renewable natural gas uptime, as strong gas revenues in the peak season is critical for containing the city's treatment costs, and our team stands ready. Burnham continues to invest time and resources into trying to make the city's proposed nitrogen removal system work. We are targeting the completion of performance testing this quarter. In addition, Burnham will fund the first phase of engineering for an alternative solution to ensure the city has the best information available while determining the path forward. Based on our analysis thus far, the sequencing batch reactor Burnham originally proposed to remove nitrogen may ultimately prove to be the best long-term solution. Thank you for your partnership, and as always, I'm available if you have any questions. Thank you.

Thank you for that report. It is much appreciated. thank you for trying to cut costs we love to hear that on the council all right please step right up what do you mean by

Mayor Pro Tem, council members, I am Elaine Hetherington, and I live here in Pasco. Tonight, I am here as a member of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin counties, and I'm here to encourage everyone in Pasco that's eligible to vote to participate in this year's election. In the coming weeks, the ballots have been arriving in our mailboxes, so don't set them aside or forget about them. Open them up. Take some time to review the candidates and the ballot measures, and use as many nonpartisan resources available to help you make the informed decisions. After you've completed your ballot, remember to carefully sign it and date it and return your ballot. Thousands of ballots across Washington are challenged each election because of missing or mismatched signatures or other simple mistakes. So take an extra moment to help ensure your ballot is counted. So if you choose to mail your ballot, which no postage is necessary, but you need to at least mail it by July 27 to allow plenty of time for delivery, Even better, use one of our secure county ballot drop boxes before 8 p.m. on election day, which is August 4th. So there's one at 404 West Clark, on 4th on the courthouse parking lot, on Happo, the corner of 3rd and West Clark, and on Road 84. But your voter's pamphlet has all the lists of all the drop boxes also, so they're nicely located there. And there's also a drop box in Connell, Mesa, and Colotus. And other Franklin County election officials, only, I should say only Franklin County election officials, empty those ballot boxes. By casting your own ballot is the only part of being an engaged citizen, but you're supposed to encourage your family friends, families and friends and neighbors and coworkers, to vote as well. Offer to answer any questions about the voting process. Remind others of secure drop boxes or point them towards trusted non-partisan election information. Small conversations can make a big difference. So Pasco is one of the fastest growing communities in Washington and our voice should be reflecting not only in our population but also in our voter participation. So every election is an opportunity to demonstrate that our community is informed, engaged, and committed to shaping its future. So let's work together to increase voter participation in Pasco and show the rest of the Tri-Cities what civic engagement looks like. Thank you for your time and your service to the community.

Thank you. And hopefully everybody listens to that because it is an important part of our democratic institution to go out and vote. So again, thank you for that. And again, thank you for all your work with the different forums. for the candidates. It was a lot of fun to hear those, so thank you. Is there any members also of the audience that would like to make a comment? Going once and twice.

Good evening, council members. I'm Amber Wade. Why no one is here. We are here, we are here. Can you see we are here? You asked us to come. We came despite our fear. One voice stood shaking, then one stood strong. One carried questions they'd carried too long. One spoke of water. One spoke of streets. One spoke of children. One spoke of empty seats. The room stood listening. The room was alive. For one brief moment, hope survived. People walked home believing one thing. Maybe this time... Morning arrived, the sidewalks were cracked, the meetings kept meeting, the facts stayed the facts. The neighbors grew older, the children grew tall, the silence spoke louder than speeches at all. We are here, we are here, can you see we are here? If showing up matters, why are we here? Then fluoride was spoken, the room overflown, Every chair was taken, every story was heard, Richland stepped, reached out, Pasco stepped back, one city asked, one city declined. We are here, we're here, can you see we are here? Three minutes waited, the countdown turned green, your eyes watched the seconds before hearing me. Every speaker is more than a name, more than an issue, more than a claim. I learned how to stand, I learned how to speak by 13 years old, week after week. Boarding schools, classes by classes, every word meant to last. I was recorded. I was corrected. Again, Amber, again. And again, how to stand, how to speak, how to hold a room, a room each week, where pause, where smile, how to listen all the while. I learned every lesson. I learned every part to speak with my voice, to lead with my heart. Then life changed courses. My health changed too. The lessons are still there. They just don't break through. The thoughts still gather, the message is clear, but somewhere between, it's slowly hard getting here. So if I pause or I search for a word, don't mistake the struggle for having no voice, don't mistake the silence for having no fight. We are here, we are here, can you see we are here? One chair sat empty, then five, then 10. The room kept shrinking, though we became me. People asked, why isn't this room full? One stayed home, one stayed late, one lost hope, one lost faith. One stopped asking, one stopped trying, one stopped laughing, one stopped crying, one less neighbor, one less friend, one less story near the end. One more meeting, one more year, one more voice, hard to hear. Can you see we are here?

Can you wrap this up?

We came with hope, we left with doubt. One by one, the lights went out. We're not here, we're not here. Can you see why we're not here?

Thanks for the well-written poem. Is there anybody else before we move on to report reports? Third final call. All right. Well, with that, we're going to move on to number seven, which is reports from committees and or officers. So has anybody been busy this last week? Let's start with Councilman Cotto.

Yeah, I was able to tour the process water reuse facility. Jason was my tour guide. I was the only one that day, so it was a private tour. But it was really good. Jason's really competent, and it was wonderful to listen to what they're doing here. Obviously, the issue is we're not getting enough nitrogen out of the water, and so we're working on solutions to that issue. The other thing I did today was attend the data center meeting held on by the Chamber of Tri-Cities. And it was very pro data center. But there were four panelists there that all have responsibilities in their respective fields with the data centers. It was good to listen to them. They gave us a lot of good information. Really, there's a lot of questions not answered, but it was good. It was a good foundational meeting. Thanks.

All right. Thank you for that report. Maybe when we get to that part, you could bring up some of the positives, because I've heard a lot of positives on the data centers. All I hear is the negatives. Anyway, any other members of the council?

not let's go with that councilman figure out yeah just to echo i wasn't on that day that you went um mr carter but a few of us went the following day um and same thing we got to come to the facility and really get to hear kind of the process and everything else and see all the good work that kind of this relationship is bringing in the collaboration to the city and burnham and all that stuff so um kind of same sentiments looking forward to see the process fully uh be effective and efficient And same, was able to attend the regional advocacy roundtable. Same things here, some of the pros, I guess, for data centers, but also just kind of the economic impacts and all those different things. So definitely looking for a fruitful discussion when we hit that agenda item. And yeah, that's it.

All right. Well, thank you for that. Yeah, I look forward to going out there as well. I was with my family this last week, so family takes kind of precedence over other things. But I'm not seeing any other lights on, so let's jump on to number eight. hearings and council actions on ordinance and resolutions related to there too. Public meeting resolution number 4765, accepting a notice of intent to commence annexation, Goodwin 10% annexation petition ANX 2026-002. And we're going to have Deputy Director Craig Raymond.

Thank you very much, Mayor Pro Tem and council members. Good evening. Let me get to the right page here. On May 22nd, 2026, Daisy Harris of Core States, on behalf of Larry and Melvina Goodwin, submitted a notice of intent to commence annexation proceedings. The subject site is just over six acres in size and is located within the Broadmoor Master Plan boundary between Harris Road and Highway 182, as shown on this map. The property is currently designated as medium density residential. As you'll see over the coming weeks, the annexation process comes with several formal and incremental steps in order to process an annexation proposal from start to finish. For the vast majority of PASCO's annexation proposals, we receive petitions signed by the owners of at least 10%, which is actually the statutory minimum, but commonly we get 100% ownership of the value of the property proposed to be annexed. If accepted, the applicant is required to submit a formal petition with signatures covering at least 60% of the annexation area. That petition then gets sent in for a formal sufficiency review by the Franklin County Assessor's Office to certify that the signatures indeed meet the minimum 60% requirement. Many times, as I just mentioned, as is the case with this particular proposal, We receive petitions from 100% of the ownership, as typically there's only one entity, one ownership entity involved in the annexation request. It's at this point that the annexation project is placed on the hearing examiner's docket to consider the proposed zoning that is being requested to be applied to the property subsequent to the approval of the annexation. Should it be approved? The hearing examiner will conduct a public hearing and then ultimately makes a recommendation to the City Council regarding the proposed zoning. After receiving the hearing examiner recommendation, the City Council will then hold an additional public hearing and consider the final annexation and zoning ordinances. Upon passage, staff coordinates, assuming it's passed, staff coordinates final notification with the State Office of Financial Management, Franklin County, as well as other agencies. For this project, on July 6, 2026, the City Council adopted Resolution 4762, which was actually on the consent agenda, setting this evening as the date to consider the notice of intent to commence the annexation proceedings. As part of the process this evening, the City Council must either accept, reject, or geographically modify the annexation area or boundaries. whether to adopt simultaneous zoning regulations and whether to require the assumption of any city indebtedness upon annexation under the city limits. For council's consideration, staff submits resolution 4765 that accepts the annexation petition, approves the annexation areas as submitted, requires the proposal to proceed through a hearing and review process to determine the zoning, and requires the property to assume a proportionate share of existing city indebtedness upon annexation and Thank you. I'm available for any any questions All right.

Well, thank you for that reports Anybody have questions before I do the the public meeting All right, well with that We're gonna open it up for a public meeting. So if there's anybody in the audience that would like to Talk on this issue, please step forward I'm not seeing too many people jump up. Going once, going twice, going three times, okay. Let's close the public meeting. And with that, Councilman Perales, can I get a motion?

I move to approve resolution number 4765, accepting the notice of intent to commence annexation proceedings for the Goodwin annexation for parcel number 118180157, parcel 1 of AFN 456145, located south of Harris Road and north of Interstate 182, southwest of the Future Road 108 and Harris Road intersection in Section 18, Township 9 North, Range 29 EWM, establishing the proposed annexation boundary and determining whether simultaneous zoning, and the assumption of bond indebtedness will be required.

Second. All right, so we have a motion on the floor by Councilman Perales and a second by Councilman Cotta. Do we have any questions? No? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. All right, that one passes unanimously. Thank you for that. Let's go on to 8B. Public hearing ordinance number 4848, R15 to RS12, frontage improvement code amendments. And again, take it back to you, Deputy Director Craig.

Thank you very much. And I'll try not to be overly repetitive tonight on this agenda item, but given that there may be interested parties here for the public hearing, which are here or watching for the first time on this matter, I'll briefly recap some of the information. As I mentioned last week, one notable item is that the old zoning district known as RS20 is now referred to as R15 after Ordinance 4828 was adopted back in April. I think it was also mentioned at that time what we're discussing tonight would be effective in the new R15 zone. The city once had a similar regulatory threshold some time ago that you are considering this evening. which was rescinded, though, back in 2019 through Ordinance 4454A. Here's an updated map depicting the affected areas under discussion. The mustard-colored areas are the new R15 zone area and the lime green are the RS12 zoned areas. I think the two primary motivations to consider the exemption is based on lower initial redevelopment costs. And there may be some cases where traffic volumes may not necessarily be proportionate to the immediate need. Additionally, some may prefer a more open, informal streetscape and desire to see the city neighborhood or that neighborhood character to remain as it is. The city's comprehensive plan calls for a full interconnected street trail and access network. Multimodal transportation is another area of emphasis that will require greater focus in the coming years. The city has been working with the county in order to require infrastructure buildouts within the UGA area that match what has been adopted policy through the comp plan. When the city inherits an area that is being annexed, and if it doesn't match our requirements, it's very difficult and cost prohibitive to update the existing infrastructure to correct these deficiencies. In 2018, the city council adopted Ordinance 4389, which established a complete streets policy which is committed to the safe and usable network of connected streets, sidewalks, and multimodal transportation systems. Exempting improvements in these areas directly conflict with this policy. And also, in as much as we desire to preserve existing neighborhood character, House Bill 1110 allows for four to six units per lot on existing lots. thereby considerably increasing the density above what we currently see. In some cases, current right-of-way width may not be sufficient to serve that new growth. Even in the absence of infrastructure improvement requirements at initial development, at a minimum, right-of-way dedication should be the baseline requirement. Obtaining right-of-way in the future subsequent to development becomes extremely difficult and cost prohibitive. As in most cases, there are pros and cons to any proposal, and on the plus side, the exemptions will definitely lower development costs for builders in these zones, thereby reducing the immediate burden on individual property owners. On the concerning side, the exemptions would undermine UGA city standard arguments, would conflict with our complete streets policy, potentially create pedestrian traffic safety risks, especially as affected areas continue to experience higher density redevelopment in the coming years. Additionally, due to the number and size of existing lots in these areas, with our current traffic impact analysis policy, new plats in development will likely never trigger a TIA because they will not generate the number of trips necessary in order to require a TIA, thereby potentially creating gaps in traffic and pedestrian safety systems. At this time, staff requests that the City Council conduct a public hearing and consider Ordinance 4848. Thank you. Thank you for that report.

Anybody on the dais make a comment before we open up the public hearing? I'm not seeing any. So with that, let's conduct a public hearing. Anybody in the audience that would like to talk on this, the ordinance number 4848, please, now is your chance. Step right up. This is Anders.

Michelle Andres, when you plan these different zones, there's an overbuilt. That's what happened on Sylvester. There used to be a flow-through traffic area. It's not a neighborhood. And yes, there were hearings and people voted. I didn't hear anything about it. I didn't get to weigh in. And again, emergency vehicles need to have access to things. That's a problem when you've got two big humps in the road. So I'm very concerned about overbuilding in areas that don't need it. I'm very concerned about some of the density that we do have being added to Road 76 just north of Court. I can't emphasize enough that taxpayers are paying for that. And I just, I can't, really say much more than that, but it just seems like we're overbuilding. Yes, we're one of the fastest growing counties in the country, but when you actually slow us down and make neighborhoods out of thoroughfares and put up a lot of sidewalks like in Sylvester, well, I don't think the boat race benefits from that. That's a community builder. And so now people have to park way away, hike with kids and inner tubes and wagons and tents, just to see a nice boat race for a couple of days. So just keep that in mind. It has to make sense for everyone, not just that neighborhood.

All right, thank you for those comments. Anybody else in the audience like to make a comment on 4848? Going once, going twice. Three times, okay. Let's close the public hearing. Do we have any questions or comments by anybody on the dais? I know this issue right here, we're actually trying to lower density, which is what I think a lot of people in the river area are asking for, to limit people buying up one house and then putting it into 12 houses in that same piece of property. So it's very concerning to us on the council that we want to keep our districts and our neighborhoods the same and kind of give more of a feel to it and then what the state wants. So I think that's the whole purpose of ordinance number 48, 48. So with that, I'll turn it over to councilman Perales and I'm sure he has some comments on this as well.

Yeah, I was just going to make a quick comment, but you pretty much said everything that I was going to say because we've been hearing about this for so long. Um, even before I was on council and I think this just provides a good, um, balance in regards to policies and, I appreciate the staff giving us the presentation, giving us the pros and cons, but I think sometimes as cities and with our home rural authority, we need to push back on some of the densification that we keep getting hit on. Hey, this is what you got to do. In that area, I believe it has a rural feel, suburban feel, and that's why people move there. They don't move there to one day see a, you know, 100 unit apartment complex across the street from them um so this is just a policy and hope i hope it works out i think it's going to it's going to provide some relief to developers in the area especially in that riverview area and so i think that this is going to be a sound uh policy moving forward but but we will see and if it doesn't um some future council can obviously reverse it so um with that i again appreciate the staff working on this thank you

Yeah, and I'd also like to follow up that. I do appreciate staff on this one. It's always nice when the council says stuff and we actually get back from the staff in a timely manner, so thank you for that. Anybody else before we do the vote? I'm not seeing any.

Councilman Figueroa. I just want to add on. I mean, the sentiment is I think that one of the things that we've kind of talked about as we were new council and kind of everybody else here getting in touch with one another is the importance of being consistent through and through. I mean, when I gathered the information and everything else, right, there was already councils that approved our complete streets policy and we're going back and we're going to undo that and then we're in a comprehensive plan and everything else about multimodal transportation and connection and sidewalks but then with this action if it goes through then we're kind of taking that back out so there really isn't a consistent layout moving forward right we kind of try to pick and choose what we like it was my understanding when it comes to this it was going to be a small segment like the river area but now looking at this map this is like a lot of the city of Pasco. What's the long-term implications? We have to look into that. I really don't like saying, hey, the next future council is gonna deal with it because look at how we feel with some of these issues. that we feel like previous councils, for whatever reason, didn't decide to tackle some of the issues, but we have to, right? So my mindset is always how do we leave this better than how we found it for the future council so that they're able to say, hey, we're thankful for those council members. They really set us up pretty good instead of like, oh, man, we wish they would have done something else about it. So that's my concern when it comes to this. is are we being consistent with our plans that we have in place that we've adopted moving forward, right? Because then are we going to have to go back and redo it because it doesn't fit our comprehensive plan or we're not a par? I appreciate that the pushing back and also, but like, what is the neighborhood character that we want throughout the city? Do we want people to be connected or are we just going to pick and choose what is consistent for our beliefs or our views? So that's kind of my questions and I would definitely open them more for debate and discussion to take out the more sentiments about this topic.

Thank you, Councilman Figueroa. I know in the past and other previous councils, there's been issues like with Terra Vida as far as putting stuff that part of the council didn't agree with and actually it didn't go there. I don't know, I can definitely explain to the offline, but Again, there is times where the councilman really does try to hear councilmen or council members with their ideas of their districts and then try to implement it. And that's one of the greatest things about our council is that I think that we all try to work together and we're not in it just for ourselves. We're actually really trying to make the people, when they buy in a certain area, keep the feel of that area. Obviously, things are perfect. Sometimes things happen. But overall, I do believe everybody on the dais really cares about their constituents and what's best for Pasco as a whole, even if the state doesn't want it. So, anyway... If there's any other comments, if I could get a motion, Councilman Perales.

Yeah, I make a motion to adopt Ordinance Number 4848, amending Pasco Municipal Code, PMC Title 12.04, required sidewalk and driveway improvements, Title 12.36, concurrency in Title 21.15, complete streets policy and providing for severability and establishing an effective date.

Got a motion on the floor. Can we get a second? Second. All right, so we have a motion by Councilman Perales. We have a second by Councilman Cotta. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay.

Nay.

All right, so it's five to one. All right, moving on to ordinance number nine, ordinance and resolutions not related to hearings. We've got 9A, ordinance number 4849, creating chapter 3.31 of the Pasco Municipal Code, local income tax, and we are going to have a report by our city manager, Harold Stewart.

Mr. Mayor, Pro Tem, members of council, I'll be brief on this. Last regular council meeting, city council directed staff to bring this ordinance back, so it's before you this evening. As far as I'm aware, staff has not made any changes to the ordinance since it was discussed and researched previously. So with that, I'd stand for any questions of the council.

All right, so any questions? Let's start off with Councilman Brouts. No, no questions. Just appreciate us taking up this topic. I think it's of the times. I saw that initiative did get the votes, and so the millionaire's tax repeal will be on the ballot in November. This is just I'm fine with the people of my district and of the city who don't want to see an income tax, whether it's at the state level or local level. There's pros and cons to an income tax, but I think this state and our community has said no to it for so long, and I think this is just an ability for us to again, put in a process where if a future council wants to do this, they have to have public input and they have to talk about it. They have to have a council meetings. So this is to me, this is what this is doing. Um, you know, I don't know what the economic forecast is going to be in the next 10, 20 years. Maybe perhaps the state and local at the end of local level have to put one in. I don't know. Um, but I think that people should have been saying, so this is kind of what it is. And I, and I appreciate the staff working on this and bringing it out from 2022 to now and, Hopefully this passes tonight, and again, I just really appreciate staff's time. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for those comments. Yeah, I do appreciate that it came so quickly upon our agenda, so thank you for that. Any other comments? I am not seeing any, so if I could get a motion.

I move to adopt ordinance number 4849, creating a new chapter 3.31 of the Pasco Municipal Code entitled Local Income Tax with entitled 3, Revenue and Finance of the Pasco Municipal Code, to oppose a local income tax on the residents and businesses of the city of Pascoe, providing for severability and establishing an effective date. Do we get a second?

Second.

All right, so we got a motion on the floor by Councilman Perales. Got a second by Councilman Nakata. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. All right, that one passes six to nothing. Jumping on to 9b, which is ordinance number 4850, imposing a six month moratorium on license and permits related to new data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities, blockchain computing facilities, and artificial intelligence computing facilities on. And again, we this time will go to Deputy Director Craig Raymond.

Thank you very much again. As most people are now aware, permitting and construction of facilities, I'll generally refer to as data centers, but you read the entire list of everything included. They're rapidly expanding across the country, including Washington State and definitely within our region. There's a lot of urgency in both the expansion of the data center infrastructure due to the ever-increasing demand and increasing capacity. And on the flip side, there could be significant opposition to some of these facilities due to the concerns of the impact to the communities that are located in. Currently, here in the City of Pasco, data centers are allowed by right within the I-2 and the I-3 zoning districts. Standard zoning regulations do apply, such as setbacks, height, lot coverage, landscaping, and parking requirements, as well as standard concurrency requirements, such as proving that adequate water, wastewater, and other utility infrastructure capacity exists to serve the facilities and not unduly impair the planned growth of the community moving forward at the request of council staff has prepared ordinance 4850 to impose a six-month moratorium on the acceptance and processing of licenses and permits related to new data center facilities excuse me declaring an emergency and directing staff to develop and return land use regulations of such facilities within six months i'm here for any questions and would welcome feedback from the council Initial thoughts and expectations and what those regulations might address. Thank you All right.

Thank you for their reports Let's start off with questions or comments to start off with counseling for else.

Thank you mayor Pro Tem The only question I had was in regards to the alternatives you decided an interim emergency ordinance Essentially in lieu of more time. What's the difference between that and the more time? Oh

I think just coming up with some draft regulations in place of a moratorium.

I think that's where my head's at. I think using the moratorium in the meeting a week or two ago was kind of strong language, in my opinion. I know some people want to just say straight up moratorium, but my intent is I think there's pros and cons to this, and so either drafting some newer language, some newer codes, and perhaps even, like I indicated, talking with some of our local municipalities over in the Umatilla area, Hermiston, Boardman, where we're seeing these data centers go up. I think that should be on the table. Essentially, maybe perhaps creating not a task force, but obviously you guys already have staff to do that, but just going out and getting a lot more information because I think the biggest issue that I'm seeing in the last couple weeks is that there is a lot of misinformation about these data centers. I think there is again, there's lots of pros in regards to economic development, but there's also negatives in regards to what they perhaps can do to the environment. I did reach out to some of my counterparts in those areas that I mentioned, Umatilla, Boardman, and honestly, they didn't tell me any negatives. And these are rural communities, and so we kind of see this stuff on TV or on social media that these data centers are coming in and just tearing up rural areas, and at least in our area, it's not really the case. And so You know, I just want to get the right information so that we can share it with our constituents. If and when we decide to perhaps put a moratorium, if perhaps we get a package of information that is just all negative, then I think it would be prudent for us to say no to them. But if we get something that says, you know, there's some mitigations that we can put in place that will keep our environment safe, that ensure that our residents are paying skyrocketing electricity bills, water bills, then I think there's a framework that we can work with these data center vendors and stuff. And so. That would be my recommendation would be to do that interim emergency ordinance rather than a full blown out moratorium. So that's where I'll leave it at with the rest of the council.

All right. Thank you for that. Do we have any other members of the dais that would like to?

Oh, I didn't see a councilman. Got it. Yeah, as I mentioned, I got to attend the Tri-City Chamber Data Center meeting today. and it was a very pro data center kind of a meeting. They gave us a lot of good information in the sense that, well, this is the amount of power that our facilities are currently using, and it's really not that much. The questions were asked about use of power and use of water and how they can compete with cities for those resources. And honestly, data centers come in all shapes and sizes. And so honestly, as long as there's a plan to supply that power and water, I'm not sure those are really the issues. there was only one question that had time to be asked and that was a regulatory question. How do we expect to be able to supply the power and water that's needed for these data centers when the state legislature is imposing so much restriction on hydro power and reducing power in general, restricting the use of it. gas power others. And there was really no answer to that. The facility that was routinely mentioned was the one in Quincy, the Microsoft data center there. And the numbers on it looked really good. Like it really wasn't a problem for the city there and the resources that it was taking up. It says about 5% of the water supply and some other numbers. I think it said they were around maybe 60 megawatts in their measure. But the thing is the facility is 20 years old. And so those aren't the ones that we're having issue with. People were shouting about this 20 years ago like they are now. And so to me the questions that need to be answered have to do with wastewater. The wastewater wasn't even discussed today. And then there's all the EMF, all the things going on there with the radiation there and how that's affecting people. And there are all kinds of complaints about that and we don't have any data on that. And so a moratorium seems really wise in the sense that we need to wait, we need to get more information so we don't start creating situations where we're building things that we can't support. Maybe the issue isn't resources, but it's regulatory. We have to have everything aligned to be able to perform, supply the needs of a data center. And again, if it's a small data center, that's really not that big of a deal. So it's not like a restriction against all data centers, but how much power is it going to require? Who's putting it in? How likely are they to work with the city so that we're not competing for resources? Those kinds of things. And it does look like there are health issues that need to be investigated that we don't know the answers to yet. Thank you for that.

Again, I know I have my own concerns, especially when the Seems like the state always wants us to go to electric vehicles, get rid of gas, and then they put in all these bike lanes, so it's like, oh, are you trying to tell us that we're all going to be riding bikes? Maybe we'll lose some weight, but anyway, it does kind of get kind of scary when they're talking data centers and then mass power, too, so they would have more of a control over us, but that's my own two thoughts there on that one. Let's go to the councilman and figure out on this.

Yeah, so on the topic of data centers, I think that it was also pretty good information to get from today's round table. And I had also had other conversations with of different elected officials across the state. They have had, and even the country, who have had, I think that one of the biggest topics is that, kind of what Mr. Carter has had already mentioned too, is that there is no data center that is one size fits all, or that they're all the same. I think that the biggest pushback that we're seeing is with these hyperscale data centers that are just massive, that are like big corporation embedded with AI, trying to keep up, and I think that a lot of communities that got hit with those hyperscales weren't ready for that. And just kind of putting it in perspective, some of the local ones that have been going on for a long time, one of the comparisons was our phones. They use data centers. When we're out there watching Netflix and Hulu, that's all part. Hospitals, even cities, municipalities use part of data centers to kind of be able to function properly. And we're talking about small ones. And so when we look in comparison, I know that the name that they shared was like an enterprise data center. And it was usually the way that the research that I made was they don't use more than 10 megawatts for that data center. The ones that we're talking about, the hyperscales are about 50 megawatts and above. I mean, one megawatt can power up to a thousand homes, right? So that kind of just gives you the scalability of how big this could be. And then the regional ones, which is the Quincy one. I mean, there was a lot of good talk talking about the Quincy one. And to me, I'm a firm believer of there's pros and cons. And I know that now, as time has been given through this 20-year-old facility, I think there's some environmental impact that we're beginning to see. because these data centers do operate on diesel generators so that they're never out of power, right? So that study has been seen about, has there been some toxic fumes that have been released in the air? So there's some impacts there that maybe we can definitely see. So I think that I see this conversation as being proactive before somebody's knocking on our door and then we don't know what to do. I think that we should definitely provide some good limiting guardrails. I'm not sure about banning any of these things. Maybe our attorney can talk about you know where there'll be some liabilities or will somebody feel like hey you know the city of pasco discriminating against something but i think that we can have a good conversation maybe have some research uh and have a presentation of what proper guardrails can we provide what capacity do we have when it comes to like power water because that was the biggest component um that it talked about just also give uh more numbers right so that facility in quincy is uh over 530 square feet um 530 square feet. So that's a pretty mid-sized data center. They made it sound like it was more of a smaller one, but that's pretty mid-sized. And it was running at about 90 megawatts, right? So kind of understanding what we could provide and what we do. And I think a lot of folks aren't opposed to the small enterprise ones. And I can definitely say that in talking to different individuals about this topic, but it's the hyperscale ones that people are definitely opposed because they have a lot of... So it's too big and the technology is moving too quick. They talked about that too. It can become obsolete rather quickly because technology is moving rather quick. And I definitely think that the more we have time with this AI and this technology, we're going to be able to do more with a smaller space. So there really isn't a need for these massive ones here. At least that's my opinion. But yeah, I definitely welcome more discussion. But I think that we can definitely provide good, good perimeters and guardrails here to ensure that our citizens are safe and protected in the environment and everything else in our resources as well. Thank you for those comments.

Let's go to Councilman Campos.

Yeah, I think this is definitely a hot topic. I think we want to make it first clear, you know, whenever we discuss any type of issue, one of the first assumptions that, you know, RC starts thinking is one coming, is one already here, is one already planned. So before I get to what I'm saying, I just want to make it clear, there's no one in the works right now. There's not one planned. There's not permits that are already showing for it. We just want to make sure that we are getting ahead to make sure that we understand that if one does try to come here, that we have the ordinance in place for that. With that said, I think because there is a lot of information that we still have to get, and obviously there's passionate people on both sides, I think it will be wise of us to do our due diligence of getting all that information, making sure we pause. I'm okay with putting certain regulations right now, I'm more into the moratorium, just like six months, just completely stop anybody from everybody coming. And then allows us to really get some information and then plan everything from that. And so I just think it's just so important to the city. I don't know how many, you know, messages I got even this week, just like, you know, saying that assembly is coming. It's coming. I'm just like, no breaks, breaks, breaks. We're just talking about it. One should come in the future, but I think it's a very, very important topic. And so we have to give it due diligence in making sure we get the information, and we also give time for our community to give us feedback.

All right. My thoughts exactly on that one, so thank you. Councilman Hernandez, do you want to say anything?

I'm in agreement with that. Okay. It is obviously we need to be prepared in case we do have one wanting to come and have all the information in order to actually go forward with it or not.

I appreciate your comments and I think we're all on the assumption that we want to make sure that with the rates of utility bills gone up in the last couple years, everything's gone, seems like crazy, whatever we can do as a council to try to make sure that these just don't go out of control and get people where they can't afford to take a bath or whatever because they're so worried about their water bill. So again, we're just trying to come up with a plan before and then maybe it never will, but if it does, We'd like to have a plan of action. I think that's what this moratorium is basically doing for us. So I appreciate it. So with that, let's see now the lights on.

So let's get a motion. I move to adopt Ordinance Number 4850, an ordinance of the City of Pasco, Washington, imposing a six-month moratorium on the acceptance and processing of business license is indoor development permit applications related to new data centers, cryptocurrency, mining facilities, blockchain computing facilities, artificial intelligence computing facilities, and other high-density computing facilities. Setting forth preliminary findings in support of this moratorium, declaring an emergency, establishing an immediate effective date, authorizing publication by summary only, and directing staff to develop and return to City Council with recommended land use regulations addressing the permitting and licensing of these facilities within six months of adoption of the moratorium. We have a motion on the floor.

Can we get a second? Second. Okay, so we got a motion on the floor by Councilman Perales. We got a second by Councilman Figueroa, which doesn't happen often. Can we get all those in favor say aye? Aye. All those opposed say nay. All right, passes unanimously, 6-0. Let's go on to 9C, and that is resolution number 4766, Washington State University.

One thing, the air conditioner is not on. Yes. If we take maybe a quick recess so the staff can turn it on, maybe that would be worthwhile for all of us.

Do we know why? Because I know it was hot in the conference room at earlier meetings.

We just need to find... I have a few minutes. If you want to go into recess, we need to find the control. It's working everywhere else in the building. We've got to figure out why it's not working in this room. Okay.

Let's take five minutes. Right now it's 8-11. We'll be back at 8-16. Hopefully get the AC on. Thank you.

All right.

Well, thank you for taking your seats. Looks like we have the whole council back. So 9C says resolution number 4766, Washington State University and City of Pasco for the use of body-worn camera footage for research purposes. So we're gonna go to our chief of police, Brett Cook.

Mr. Mayor, before you, or Mayor Porton, before you do that, just to provide an update for the break. The AC controls are on. It should be working, but it's obviously not. So we tried to open up some doors to get some air flow and those kinds of things, and we'll have to get someone out to look at the AC and why it says it's on, but it's not working. So I apologize for the discomfort tonight. Okay. Well, thank you for that update.

All right.

We'll give the mic to...

Chief Police, Brett Cook. Hi.

So, Council and Mayor Pro Tem, the Resolution 4766, the agreement with Washington State University to share body-worn camera data and some other relevant data like our CAD stuff so that they can look into what our performance is looking like. So we look forward to having that agreement refreshed. We've had an agreement with them since about 2022. And it's time to update those signatures and have the right people on the forum.

All right. Well, it always is important to have people look over and make sure that you guys are doing an outstanding job. I know I wish that you guys are top performers. Top in the field as far as how you connect yourselves. I'm very proud that you represent Pasco so well. But let's see if we have any other members of the council that would like to make a comment.

Yeah, just for the sake of public record, I know that at the workshop there are some concerns from some residents about confidentiality and stuff like that. But clearly it's not the first time that there's been this collaboration. So has there been any issues with body-worn camera footage and

Privacy with different folks or everything else you just kind of speak to that for the public record Yeah, the the question of privacy they the agreement clearly covers that and we haven't had any problems at all with the students or the professors at WSU Going through our our cameras. They are Doing a lot of coding and so that it's pretty technical what they're doing. They're looking for specific behaviors specific phrases that do that kind of thing. Um, so I'm not concerned about that. And if, if we did have those, we would address those appropriately.

All right. Well, thank you for that comment. All right. We'll not seeing any other, uh, else. I'm in a relics.

Can I get a motion?

Yes.

Um, I moved to approve resolution four seven six six authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement between the city of Pasco and Washington state university for the use of Pasco police department, body worn camera footage for approved academic research purposes.

Got a motion on the floor. Can we get a second? Second. We got a motion on the floor by Councilman Prowlis. Got a second by Councilman Cotta. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. All right. Passes unanimously, 6-0. We're going to run on to 9D, Resolution Number 4767, Approval for Application to Public Works Board for Preconstruction Funding for the Butterfield WTP Land Acquisition. And this is going to be by Director Maria Serra.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem and council members. This item is very similar to other items you've seen in the past. We are preparing an application to support the purchase of land for the construction of the new butterfield facility that will replace the aging water treatment plant for the city of Pasco. proposal is to apply for $1 million in support of that acquisition, and that is the max award for pre-construction activities in this biennium. This is a low-interest loan, although SerioPasco qualifies for some forgivable principle, which effectively functions as a grant, and there will be a percent within within the award we hope to receive. The resolution you have in front of you allows us to submit the application and is the prerequisite of that application to include the resolution within our application. That's why it's in front of you. As you know, Public Works Board is a state entity and it offers really low interest funding and this is below 1%. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you for the report. Do we have any members of the diocese that would like to make a comment? Or let's start off with Councilman Campos.

Just a comment. I mean, it's amazing. You know, I'm going to be all for it. I mean, the interest rate is like 0.93%, and then we could possibly grab up to 50%. So I think this is a no-brainer, so good job.

All right. Thank you for the comment. Not seeing any other lights on, so let's jump to Councilman Perales.

I move to approve resolution number 4767, authorizing the submittal of a Public Works Board pre-construction loan application for the Butterfield WTP land acquisition.

All right, got a motion on the floor. Can we get a second? Second. Let's, I guess we'll give it to Cotta this time. So we got a second by Councilman Cotta. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those disapproved, say nay. Again, Pastor St. Anthony, 6-0. We're going to go to 9E, Resolution No. 4768, Right-of-Way Dedication and Reimbursement Agreement. And we're going to go to Deputy City Manager, Richa Siddall.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem and Council. This item asks for your authorization for the City Manager to execute a right-of-way dedication and reimbursement agreement with Big Sky Developers for an additional right-of-way along Convention Drive. This is not a new conversation. Staff, many staff, many different council members and few different city managers have had this conversation in the last four years. And the challenge that we have in this particular area is the alignment of Burns Road and Convention Drive. The alignment is a little bit problematic, especially given Burns Road used to be called Powerline Road for a good reason. There's high voltage transmission lines that cost a lot to move, but they also are aligned right along the property boundaries, which requires us to be a little bit more creative on where the road goes. Usually the road goes half on one property boundary and half on the other. And the intersection that is currently misaligned, we explored every option and each option that we examined had significant cost or risk. One of our former city engineers estimated that a city-led realignment would be at about $2 million. And then on top of that, there would be additional cost for the developers for as far north as we would go along Convention Drive to move those high voltage power lines. An estimate from the PUD was that to move one of those poles costs anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000, so an additional cost of development. So what staff and council have discussed is a novel approach of essentially the city buying the additional right of way in this particular site and be able to essentially have a straight intersection on Burns and Convention. So with that, you will see the agreement attached to the staff report where the city pays $8.85 per square foot. at about an estimated $516,000. $500,000 of those dollars are already budgeted in Citi's biennium budget, and the developer would be responsible for all of the design permitting construction, all of it, and they would have to build the whole road to city standard. Another component that is unique about this that makes development a little bit difficult is the convention drive is also right along the donut hole in the city, and convention drive is a major parallel street to Road 68, so our goal of ensuring that there's proper network around Road 68 so it is not as stressed as it is right now. Convention Road is a major part of that network. With that, the key here is the fiscal impact of $516,000. And while this is not ideal, to ensure that we have a proper, safely aligned road that is able to handle high volumes of traffic down the line, 20, 30 years, This is, as staff sees it, a good investment. And also it would prevent future developers have to, or the current developer have to move significant amount of power lines that are dangerous to move as well. So with that, I'm open to any questions that you might have.

All right, well thank you for that report, Mrs. Zakedal. Anybody from the dais have any questions or comments? Councilman Perales.

Yeah, no, I was just going to say that I'm glad we're tackling a problem before it becomes more expensive. Really, at the end of the day, this is something in that area that needs to be addressed. You know, we want to have our city better aligned in some of these spots, especially in areas where maybe perhaps they didn't see growth coming. But no, no, this is great to do it before it becomes more expensive as well. So all in favor of this. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. My sentiments exactly. Not seeing any other lights, so if I could get a motion.

Councilman Perales. I move to approve resolution number 4768, authorizing the city manager to execute right-of-way dedication and reimbursement agreement with Big Sky Developers LLC, a Washington limited liability company, for additional right-of-way dedication along Convention Drive.

All right, we got a motion on the floor. Can we get a second? Second. All right, so we got a motion on the floor by Councilman Perales. We have a second by Councilman Campos. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. All right. Passes unanimously, 6-0. We're going to jump to 9F, Resolution Number 4769, Targeted Urban Area, TUA, Tax Exemption Program. And this is also going to be talked about by Deputy City Manager, Richard Siddall.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. This resolution is declaring the city's intent to designate portions of our industrial zones as targeted urban area. and setting a public hearing for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8th. At that time, staff will bring all of the program details to council for review and also for the public to review and give their comments on.

All right, well, thank you for that report. Anybody on the dais have a comment? All right, let's go with Councilman Kata.

Yeah, I mean, the tax exemption program is... essential for competing, you know, to bringing business here, especially when, you know, other, you know, it's a state allowed program. And so other countries have already, state cities, cities in the state have already implemented it. And so it's something we need here to be able to bring business in. Good words.

Appreciate that. Anybody else? All right, moving right along.

If I could add a motion, Mr. Prowse. I move to approve resolution number 4769, declaring intent to designate portions of the city's industrial zones as a target urban area for the purpose of an industrial manufacturing tax exemption and establishing a public hearing on 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8, 2026.

So we have a motion on the floor by Councilman Prowse. Can we get a second? Second. All right, we got a second by Councilman Cotta. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. All right passing honestly 6-0. We're gonna jump to number 10 unfinished business We got 10 a agreement Harris Road realignment agreement with VWA Pasco LLC Visconsi for Broadmoor development and we're gonna jump to city manager Harold Stewart Good evening, mr. Mayor Pro Tem members of council I did talk extensively about this at the last City Council meeting

So I'm not gonna go into it a whole lot. Again, this is important road infrastructure that is needed as a piece and an element to the road network out in the Broadmoor development area. Working with the two developers that are looking at developing this area, particularly this first one, Visconsi. Commitment from the city about where this is gonna go and what it's gonna look like so they can begin finalizing leases and deals and sales with a variety of different retailers in their first phase of development, so I would state publicly that this would be paid for out of the TIF bond revenues that the city already has. We do have funding there available. This is one of the eligible road projects within that TIF. And then the city would recoup its funding or these portions of its funding through the transportation impact fees as developers develop in this area. So other than that, there is no other financial incentives or tax rebates or anything else to support this development over there. I think that this first phase is a key element for the rest of the Broadmoor. This has been a a dream that's been talked about by this community for several years. And I think this will be the domino that kind of breaks the dam that once dirt starts moving and buildings start being constructed on this, there's going to be a flood of interest on both of these developers. And we're already seeing it actually. So anyway, we're asking council this evening for agreeing to this agreement with Wisconsin that we are committing to realigning the Harris Road within a certain time frame so that they can have the security to move forward with securing their development agreements with their partners.

All right. Thank you for that report. Do we have any comments or questions for our city manager, Harold Stewart? I'm not seeing you, so let's get a motion.

Councilman Prowse? I move that the City Council authorize the City Manager to execute the Harris Road realignment agreement with VWA-Pasco LLC, Wisconsin, and substantially in the form presented with authority to make minor administrative or non-sensitive revisions as may be necessary prior to execution.

We've got a motion on the floor. Can we get a second?

Second.

All right, so let's give it to... We've got a motion on the floor by Councilman Prowse. We'll go A second by Councilman Hernandez. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Again, passes unanimously. So we're going to jump to number 11, new business. I'm not seeing anything listed. We'll jump to 12, miscellaneous discussion. We've got a city manager report. So I'm going to take it away.

One item to report this evening, just a notice to the public that on August 4th, our police department will be participating in and celebrating its national night out. It'll be August 4th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. I know it's always a fun family event for many of our citizens to come out and get access to some resources that they may or may not be aware of, but also have some positive interaction with our fine police department and interact with our new police chief who's been with the department for 36, 37 years. But that will be held at the Pasco Sporting Complex out on Home Run Road. So look to our social media or our website for further information. But we invite all the public to come out and join us at National Night Out on August 4th. With that, that's the only thing I have to report tonight unless council has any questions with regards to anything that's in the city manager report in the packet.

All right. Does anybody have any questions or comments? I'm not seeing any, and hopefully we can all be out there on August 4th. So with that, we're going to jump to number 13, which is executive session. I'm not seeing anything listed. No need for executive sessions. All right. Hallelujah on that one, because we are hot. Oh, we already did that. All right. All right, well, do you want to read something? Okay, well, I guess we'll be real quick. We have... Councilman Perales, a second here to read something?

The constituent wanted me to read this to the council. She didn't really want to have to find everyone's council email and stuff. This is in regards to fireworks. I'm not going to say who the individual is, but here we go. I am writing to you now out of frustration with the fireworks. I have read information that may or may not be true. The PASCO is considering implementing stricter enforcement of fireworks violations. I surely hope they do, something is needed. I will detail what is going on with me and the impact it is having. In January, I was diagnosed with a DCIS tumor, stage zero to one, but it was removed successfully with a simple procedure and surgery. I have had to undergo just five treatments of radiation. Those were completed by the end of May. The only complication I'm dealing with is radiation fatigue and not being able to sleep at night is not helping me in my recovery. I am sure that there are many others who, like myself, really need to get a decent night's sleep, and we can't when it sounds like a war zone all around. Plus, it is so hard on my poor little dogs. They are terrified to even go through the door into their own yard. Yesterday, my older dog was hiding behind my feet, barking, and I put my hand on her to calm her and found that she was trembling violently. It isn't just right. It just isn't right to put little animals through torment like this in their own homes. And they are too afraid to go outside to do their business. I have had to mop more puddles in the last week than I have in months, ever since the younger one was housebroken. I have been watching what people have to say on Lewis Street neighbors. There are many who are really frustrated and angry about the lack of consideration, and this is not even concerning the fire danger. I heard there were 75 fires started from fireworks. They have all gone out of control and or under control. But what if they hadn't? A friend lives in one of the older mobile home parks just before the Blue Bridge on A Street, and there were two fires just across the street from her. I know it's hard to catch them in the act, but I heard Pascal is considering levying fines against the owner of the property where fireworks are being set off and the fine will be substantially enough to make people think twice. I have thought of a couple of crazy ideas, not very practical, but if the police department doesn't have enough manpower, then call the National Guard and have them out on the streets watching what is going on, where the noise is the worst, and then they might actually catch someone. So I just wanted to, I really touched me when she sent me that, and so I just wanted to share that with the rest of the council. Thank you.

Thank you for doing that. Well, with that being said, we are going to jump to number 14, which is the good one of the night, and that is a German. So thank you, everybody, for being here.