City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the City of Pasco Council meeting. The Council thanks you for being a part of your city government. At meetings, the City Council takes formal action on items, holds public hearings, and conducts other business of the city. Agenda packets are available on 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, Ms. Sanchez, would you call the roll, please?

Campos?

Here.

Cotta?

Here.

Figueroa?

Present.

Hernandez?

Present. Perales? He is excused, ma'am. Actually, I apologize. I think he's offline. Sorry, Council Member Perales. I am here in the cloud. Thank you.

Meehan?

I'm present.

Ann Grimm?

Here. If everyone would please rise for this flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the All right. Thank you, everyone. Moving on to number four, our 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 council members, the item may be removed from the consent agenda to the regular agenda and considered separately. Letter A, approval of meeting minutes for July 13th and July 20th. B, bills and communications approving claims in the total amount of $4,848,019.56. Resolution number 4770, project acceptance for Schlegel Park stormwater main replacement. That's letter C. Would any members of council like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Not seeing any. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the consent agenda as read. Second. We have a motion on the floor by the Mayor Pro Tem to approve the consent agenda as read. Seconded by Council Member Hernandez. Ms. Sanchez, if you would take a roll call vote.

Grimm?

Yes.

Mill?

Yes.

Figueroa?

Yes.

Perales? Cotta?

Yes.

Hernandez?

Yes.

Campos?

Yes. Yes, yeah, let the record show I did hear Mr. Perales say yes. All right, very good. Passes unanimously. Let's move on 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 posing of questions with the expectation of immediate response. Some questions require consideration by counsel over time, and after a deliberative 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. Those with lengthy messages are invited to summarize their comments and or submit written information for consideration by the council outside of formal meetings. Lastly, when called upon, please state your name and city or county of residency into the microphone before providing your comments. And with that, we are open for business. Who would like Mr., I'm gonna, Before you miss hatch, Mr. Klippert started his way forward. Okay, there you go. Oh, one second, ma'am. Just your button at the base of it will turn it on for you. You get to turn it on for being first. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, Lawanda Hatch, Franklin County. The role of any advanced societies to protect the children, not only ours but those around us. As a city council, you are representative government, the people, and that includes the youth, even though they cannot vote. Today's marijuana leaf contains 30% THC compared to the 1970s that contained 1 to 3%. That increase has made it as addictive as alcohol. But because of the legalization and the promotion by Big Weed, it has become more socially acceptable. And with the use of vapes with fruit and gum scents, many youth have stated they use it in class while the teacher isn't looking. This has made it socially acceptable for young people to use it. Like any addictive substance, including alcohol, when it becomes socially acceptable, legal, and readily available for adults, more young persons get a hold of it and will use it. During alcohol prohibition, although adults sold and bought it on the black market, it was rare for a child to get a hold of it. So making things illegal has never been for consenting adults, but to protect the youth. If adults have it, they sell it or give it to the youth, partly because drug users tend to have poor judgment themselves. Unfortunately, what big weed is hidden are the peer-reviewed studies on the permanent effects on the brains of the youth. Psychology Today and Mark Potenza from Yale University stated this, accompanied by greater social acceptance of cannabis use, And these perceptions seem prominent among younger individuals. We see impacts on mood, psychiatric illness, increases in risky behaviors like unprotected sex, gambling, other drug use, and driving under the influence of cannabis, THC, and other drugs or alcohol. And we have to pay for it. Even casual use has led to depression and suicide among youth, as well as truancy, poor grades, and trouble with law enforcement. this is not seen in casual drinking today there are two and a half million teens considered casual users and are more likely to suffer behavioral and mental health problems psychosis is one of the scariest conditions both being caused by potency or frequency many teen school shooters were marijuana users and in fact the actor who played in diary of a wimpy kid killed his mom after a week-long binge of marijuana, and schizophrenia has developed after just two to six years of regular use in teens and people up to age 25. Teens are attractive to the sellers, thus why the THC edibles are made to replicate real treats and candies. This also helps the youth hide it from their parents. Teens are the target market. Twelve and a half teenagers are estimated to be driving under the influence by marijuana, risking the lives of the rest of us. The U.S. is facing an upcoming crisis that will lead to more addictions and psychosis of our children. The best outcomes for our youth is not to be exposed to any addictive substances. The answer is not making addictive substance legal. That idea has been blown out of the water. One of the best tools is to make all drugs sociably unacceptable for youth. Adding more stores will undermine that effort. So the question isn't how much money can be made because the cost outweighs any profits. The question isn't equity because today's children will be tomorrow's victims of the iniquity by convincing them THC is safe and okay.

Ms. Hatch, please wrap up.

Okay. Do you care about our children enough to put them first once? Please vote no on more marijuana THC pot shops. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Mr. Klippert, you are next, or Rose next at least.

Who do you want to be next, sir?

You, sir.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Portem, members of the council, for the record, Brad Klippert, Kennewick, Washington, Benton County. I've been asked to come here today and testify because of my over 33 years of law enforcement experience, two different counties, and at 26 of those years as a school resource officer. I've seen the drug marijuana destroy individuals' lives, marriages, families. If you've ever gone to a drug court graduation, as I have many, take a box of Kleenex because you hear of the damages this drug causes in people's lives. I've heard many graduates say, if it wasn't for drug court, I'd either be high or dead right now. I've actually, as a law enforcement officer, contacted a young man one time who grew up in the town of Burbank. He said, Deputy Klippert, I used to be a star athlete and a straight-A student. Started out with alcohol, went to marijuana, and then methamphetamines. I alienated all my family members. I became an F student and was no longer an athlete. Two years in prison saved my life. And marijuana was one of the complicating factors in his life. So I would strongly encourage you on the document that's being considered, change it from adding marijuana shops in Pasco to eliminating each and every one of them if you truly care about the citizens of Pasco because I have seen the damages of this drug. When Richland was considering the similar topic, I bought for each of the council members this book. and gave it to them. It's called Why Haven't Marijuana Smokers Been Told These Facts? It cites over 758 cited resources. It's not just something somebody dreamt up. They actually researched the topic and put their citations in there. Here's some of the topics. 43 warnings on how pot damages the brain. 30 warnings that it is more harmful than tobacco or alcohol. 24 warnings on the danger to pregnant women and their babies. 46 warnings that it changes behavior. 50 warnings that it affects mental health. 38 warnings that it affects human cells and chromosomes. 10 warnings on the connection with cancer. 17 warnings that it stays in the body a long time. 14 warnings that it lowers resistance to disease. 13 warnings that it causes psychological dependence. 25 warnings that it can lead to other drugs. 283 warnings, including its harmful effects on the glands, liver, heart, and central nervous system. Gentlemen, I've seen the harmful effects of this drug, like I said one more time, in individual lives. I've seen it destroy marriages. I've seen it destroy families. I strongly, strongly encourage you, do not add to the marijuana shops in Pasco. In fact, I strongly encourage you, if you love the citizens of this city, eliminate each and every one of them. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Klippert. Yes, sir.

How are you guys? Good?

Good. Thanks for asking. Name and city or county of residence for the record, please.

Yeah, Russell Wood. I live in Benton County, Kennewick, Washington. I'm director over at U-Turn for Christ Calvary Chapel. So it's a program for men, substance abuse program. One of the men wrote this. He could not be here tonight due to some different things going on with the ranch, but I live in the area, so they're out in Prosser. So I'm going to read this real quick. His name is Ryan Fowler. He's been in our program for a couple of years now. He lives in Prosser, Washington. U-Turn for Christ Ranch. U-Turn is a drug and alcohol ministry based out of Calvary Chapel, Tri-Cities. Professionally, I'm a pharmacist. who has specialized in ambulatory care and outcomes research. I've seen firsthand the impact drugs and alcohol has on individuals, families, and the community at large. I've also experienced how addiction can hurt a child or childhood and saw how my addiction hurt my children. I've been staying up to date on the conversation on expanding the number of retail outlets for marijuana and PASCO. The moral dilemma with drug use, the financial impact of creating jobs, the social justice on lifting up marginalized communities. Everything I heard was said from people who desired positive changes and not from people who are driven by greed. Honest and open businessmen asking for an opportunity to succeed. Families who want to protect their children from potential harm. No matter what choice is made, it can benefit some and harm others. I would ask the council to carefully consider their roles and responsibilities when deciding the next step. Marijuana is legalized for recreational use and growing business. is important to the city, but increasing access to it brings safety concerns that should not be ignored. A great example of this is the opioid epidemic. In the early 1990s, there was a shift in how pain was treated. Campaigns like Pain as the Fifth Vital Sign pressured healthcare providers to constantly assess pain and aggressively treat it. Early research in new and potent opioids did not fully expose the addictive potential. Basically, doctors followed legal and largely accepted prescribing practices, and when they did not comply, they fell under scrutiny. Fast forward 20 years, the full impact was finally recognized and the restrictions put in place to stop excessive prescribing. Unfortunately, the damage was done, so people turned to illegal ways to acquire opiates. This is not the entire story, but the point I want to make is this. No matter what is socially accepted or legally allowed, safety should always be considered. And just because we don't know everything, Now it does not mean the impact will not be seen later. I got 20 seconds, right? Yes, sir. So I spend all my time with these guys, um, seven days a week. And we deal with a lot of the guys we deal with are some of the worst of the worst, meaning they've, they've gone through multiple programs. They've fallen all over the place. Most of them, they've, they've done burnt their families. I'm just a complete mass train wreck. Um, And the amazing thing is that when they stick their heart to Jesus, it does change their life, and they move forward. And a lot of them come out, and they stop the train wreck. But I go up to the prisons. I've been at the Union Gospel Mission. I've been working over there since 1885 every month. Pleads to wrap up, if you would, please. Yeah. And so seeing this done over and over again, I just don't see how another retail cannabis shop is going to help at all. Understanding from what he's talking about, I get that. Thank you for your comments. Not for the people and not for the kids, right?

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Anybody else want to speak on this issue? The gentleman in front, then I've got two ladies ready to come up to.

Good evening. My name is Les Jones. I live in Franklin County. And mayor and council, my name is Les Jones, and I live at 9109 Wellington Drive in Pascoe. I served 22 years in the military, and I'll be straight with you up front. I am a customer. I buy CBD from one of the stores operating in this city. So I'm not here to tell you that retail cannabis was a mistake. This council settled that in 2023. And I'm not asking you to reopen it. I'm here because four stores was the deal, four stores is working, and I'm asking you to keep it. That cap was not an afterthought. The city's own community survey found residents split among exactly down the middle. 45% would support retail cannabis sales while 46% would not. And about 10% were unsure. This ordinance passed three to four. The four store limit is what made that vote possible. It was the assurance given to half of the city that did not want this, that it would stop at 4. Nothing about that split has changed and nobody has come back to those residents to ask. Now, to be precise about what is in front of you tonight, the report calls this a continuation of an established use at the same address. The applicant's own letter says that tenant operated there until recently relocating within Pasco. Green to go moved to Road 68. It did not close. Your report states that all four licenses are in operation today. Nothing was vacated. This is a fifth store. And consider why that operator left. They said publicly that Road 90 limited their exposure. because it sits back from the road, which it does. I drive by there every day on my way home. They looked at the road 90 and chose somewhere else. The applicant now projects $200,000 to $300,000 a month at the same address, modeled by their own brief on Pasco's lowest performing store. The store is telling you it won't support that. The road is telling you it won't support that. If anyone tells you this is about revenue, look at your own report. Pasco received about $41,650 in fiscal year 2025 from all four licenses. Roughly $10,000 a store a year. That is an actual figure, not a projection. A very small check to write against a permanent change to the neighborhood. I'm going to start talking faster. And this is what I'm really asking. Your staff report says density limit of four remains the effect until amended. Changing it requires a public hearing and a public notice about two months. That hearing is where 46% finally gets to be heard. If you consent tonight, that hearing is a formality. You'll be answering the question two months before you ask the public what they think of it. Staff already gave you the answer. Please wrap up your comments. I'm asking you to vote no on consent.

Thank you for your comments. Ms. Camara or Ms. Kelly? The two ladies in the back. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Camara Brooks, and I am from Burbank, Washington, Walla Walla County. I am the current owner of Tri-Cities 911 Driving School. here in Pasco. Every year we teach hundreds of new drivers, most of them between ages 15 and 18. Our mission is to teach the younger people the knowledge, judgment, and responsibility that they need to become safe lifelong drivers. I'm not here to debate whether marijuana should be legal. That's already been settled. The question before you tonight is do we need another retailer here in Pasco? Every decision you make helps shape the future of our community. Land use decisions is more about approving businesses. They should not be based on monetary and all of those things on what we can gain in the city of Pasco as far as taxes. Pasco already has licensed marijuana retailers serving this community. Before approving another one, I ask you to consider whether there is a demonstrated public need or whether we are simply increasing the concentration and visibility of a business that is already readily available. As a driving school owner, public safety is at the heart of everything we do. Every day we teach students that impairment, weather caused by alcohol, marijuana, prescription medication, and other drugs reduces reaction time, impairs judgment, and puts lives at risk. According to Washington Traffic Safety Commission, nearly half of Washington's fatal crashes involved impaired driving. The Commission also reports that over a quarter of those impaired drivers tested positive for Delta 9 THC. While impairment can involve multiple substances, these statistics remind us that impaired driving remains one of the most greatest traffic safety challenges our state faces. On another note, we teach level one and level two defensive driving. Level two is typically attended by those who have been ordered by the court to take this course because of impaired driving. From last year to this year, from January 1 to today's date, both last year and this year, we have quadrupled. and sales of defensive driving level two. So that shows you that the need for this is increasing, and it shouldn't be. It's pretty sad that it is. We are seeing a growing demand in education related to impaired driving, which underscores the importance of prevention and public safety. As a community, we should be looking for ways to reduce impaired driving, not increasing the visibility of businesses that sell intoxicating products. Legalization does not require normalization. Marijuana may be legal for adults, but legality alone does not require the city of Pasco to approve additional retailers. Every new retailer increases the visibility of marijuana in our community and contributes to normalization. Over time, that visibility becomes part of our environment that our children grow up in and influences the characters of our city.

Please wrap up, Ms. Camara.

Years from now, people will not remember how many retailers we have in Pasco, but they will remember what kind of community we had and that we built. So I ask you, should we really add another dispensary in Pasco?

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening, my name is Kelly Parks. I am a public school teacher here in Pasco and this gives me great concern for the future of the kids that I teach five days a week and I teach music at elementary school in North Pasco and those kids, for the school boundaries, they end up going to Reynolds Middle School. And I've heard directly from a Reynolds, if this shop is, close, truly going to be close to the middle school. That's a real concern too because I know that I've heard directly from a Reynolds counselor that has said that they've already had issues with kids wanting to skip school or be late to class by walking down to the Sinclair gas station on Road 100 and that's probably just for snacks and drinks. I can't imagine what more of a distraction this may bring if this is down the road from the middle school. I also have a teacher friend who is at Pasco High School. Her son is about to go into sixth grade at Reynolds Middle School and she is literally right by the school and She is absolutely opposed to that as a public school teacher and as a single mother of two boys thinking, caring about the future of her kids. So I am all for new businesses throughout Pasco. I love the growth that we've seen in recent years, but I really don't think that this is a very wise location for this besides just having another cannabis shop. So thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening. My name is Mindy Gardner. I'm a resident of Franklin County. I've been a lifelong resident of Pasco and have watched Pasco change and grow over the last 40-ish years. I'm a mother of two and I've had the privilege of serving as an elementary school teacher for the Pasco school district since 2006. I love this city and I care deeply about the future that we are building for our children and families. I am here tonight to respectfully ask you to deny the application for another marijuana store in our community. My concern is not about judging individuals or debating state law. It is about what is best for Pasco and the message that we send about the kind of community that we want to become. As a teacher, I work with children every day who are growing up in a world filled with challenges. They need safe neighborhoods, positive influences, and adults who consistently place their well-being first. Every decision we make as a community contributes to the environment in which they will grow up. Pasco has always been a community built on strong families, hard work, and looking out for one another. I believe our focus should be attracting businesses that strengthen our economy while also promoting health, opportunity, and a family-friendly environment. As someone who has spent my entire life here, I want Pasco to continue being a place where families choose to put down roots, where children can thrive, and where our community reflects the values that we have made. It's such a wonderful place to live. Thank you so much for your time and for your service to our city, and for carefully considering the voices of residents that you represent, like me. I respectfully ask you to vote against approving the new store. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in the chamber want to address council? Step right on up, sir. Yeah, just share them with the clerk over there if you would, sir.

Good evening, I'm Zachary Farrelly, Pasco, Washington. Good evening, mayor, city manager, council members, and staff. First, I'd like to thank each of you for the thoughtful discussion during last week's workshop. I believe covering the possibility of Compass LLC being the next social equity cannabis operator in Pasco. While there's certainly different opinions being expressed, I appreciate our conversation because it showed everyone was genuinely thinking about what's best for our community. My partners and I take your comments to heart, as well as the community, as well as we're actively listening and we're being proactive to all the concerns that are with the community as well currently. One of the biggest concerns raised was how our business would impact the surrounding neighborhood. Instead of assuming what the community thought, we decided to ask them. So we got out in the community. We went door to door over the last several days. And we introduced ourselves, mainly just telling them what we were, who we were there for, and more importantly, we listened. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Many residents expressed their support. Others also shared their ideas how we can be an even better neighbor, as well as a cannabis retailer in this community. Those conversations reinforced our commitment to enhance security, maintaining open communication with the community by having workshops, and also communication with them by talking with the community through our city council and doing everything we can to ensure our business never negatively impacts the quality of life of the people who live here. I'd also like to recognize two long-time residents who are in that area who spent a considerable amount of time speaking with me, Terry and Cecil. They live directly right across the street from the dispensary. They've been there the whole entire time. Again, they were very open with talking to me about their experiences that they've had from going to that dispensary. They said they never had any issues with the previous tenants or any of the customers. In fact, Terry said that she had a surgery that's coming up very soon that's of great importance, and she was disappointed when the dispensary closed because it was nearby. She didn't have to get in her car. She didn't have to drive anywhere. She could walk there. She could be able to get a specific edible that carried certain cannabinoids that helped her manage her pain. That conversation reminded me of many people in this area that need these products about improving their quality of life that we also talked to that day or those days. They also shared something else that stuck with me. They said the biggest disruption they experienced isn't a cannabis dispensary. It's actually the nearby gym. At about 5 o'clock in the morning, they start playing loud music, and then they start getting waken up by the sound of weights hitting the floor. Whether everyone shares that concern with them isn't really the point. For us, what mattered is that we listened and we took notes to everything that they had concerns about. If we're fortunate enough to earn your approval, that's exactly the kind of relationship we want in this neighborhood, one built on communication, accountability, and being a good neighbor. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and the opportunity to speak with you this evening.

Thank you for your comments. Just name and city or county of residence for the record, please.

Thank you. Oops. Caleb Stromstedt, Pasco resident. Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Grew up in Pasco. Raised my family here in Pasco. I'm here against providing the state with an affirmative consent letter for an additional cannabis retailer. One of the things that may have already been discussed, and I just watched the meeting last week a couple times to catch up on this, the request seems to be out of order. The city's current code has a cap, and they're asking for a consent to the state that you will allow them to store. It seems to violate code on its face value. So that seems premature. if that ordinance is amended, um, I'll just go along and say, I would be against raising that cap as well. Um, and most importantly, I was after watching the, uh, tape from last week, I just want to encourage all of you to, uh, to vote according to your own informed judgment and your convictions. That's why the people voted for you for that position. Um, Our community entrusted you with the responsibility to listen to every perspective, to weigh the evidence, to make the decision that you sincerely believe in for the best long-term health of our city. If you can go through that process and you stand by your decision, you're in my respect. And that responsibility requires both courage and humility. Courage to stand by your decision and believe it is right, even when it's unpopular, and the humility to acknowledge your decision is wrong. If in the future you realize that you made a wrong decision. But again, the people at Pasco did not elect you to surrender your judgment or your morals. They are the things they elected you to withhold and to guide you and to exercise them. Public opinion, if that's gonna be the primary factor, to my knowledge, it needs to be generally sought and that, or to my thoughts, it needs to be genuinely thought. And the last survey that I'm aware of was in 2023 when this issue was brought forth whether we should even have cannabis stores in Pasco. And fact check me on this, but it was a near split with 1% in favor of against it. So that's important information if we're going unpopular vote here. And again, if, if we're going to do a code amendment, we need to go through the process. You can't just rush this through. I understand this business from what was available in the public record took some significant risks. I don't know, five year lease. Um, they either did that with optimism or an expectation. Their risk is their risk. There's obviously big reward to take that kind of a risk. That doesn't force the city council to do anything hastily. We should go through the right process. And if we want to update a code to increase the cannabis level that was just put into place, we had no cannabis stores three years ago. Now we're going to increase that cap. Let's go through the proper process. And I appreciate each one of you for serving our community. Just encourage you to, again, follow your convictions, your morals, your principles, and guide you. That's what we need. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in the chamber want to? Yep, step right on it, ma'am. You can pull the mic down.

Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Angela Fraga. I'm a Pasco resident, a local business owner, and I'm here tonight in support of the compass group and their opportunity to open a cannabis retail store here in Pasco. This ownership group is also my family. And one of the members is my husband, Steve Garrido, who grew up here in Pasco. Steve has worked professionally in the cannabis industry for the past 10 years across Washington, California, and Florida. and brings valuable experience and knowledge to this opportunity. For Steve, this is about more than opening a business. This is home. He wants the opportunity to come back to the community that raised him, create jobs, and give back. As a Pasco resident and business owner, I understand the value of professional businesses that contribute to our community and local economy. I also have many professional clients who use cannabis for medicinal purposes. and I believe safe, responsible, and professional access is important. Compass would also be the first Latino, black, and veteran-owned cannabis retail business. I'm proud to support this group, and I believe they have the experience and commitment to do this the right way. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in the chamber want to speak on this issue or anything else?

Mr. Mayor, can I use the 12 seconds that I have?

No, sir. No, thank you for asking.

Good evening, I'm Samuel Anise, mayor, council members, and city staff. First, I'd like to thank you for your time and your thoughtful consideration and for giving us the opportunity to be here throughout this process. After our last council meeting, we took the concerns that were raised to heart. Rather than simply responding with words, we chose to listen. We went door to door, excuse me, door to door directly with the residents living in the immediate neighborhood surrounding the proposed location. We knocked on approximately 60 homes and were able to speak with about 80% of those households. Many expressed support while others told us they had no objection to us operating in the neighborhood. The few concerns we did hear were not about crime or safety. One nearby resident mentioned that during wind storms, litter sometimes blows over into her yard. We appreciate that feedback and we've already committed to making parking lot cleanup part of our daily opening and closing procedures because we want to be good neighbors. I also respectfully ask that you consider the full picture. Cannabis is not only a recreational product. For many people, it is medicine. Patients living with chronic pain, epilepsy, PTSD, cancer, and treatment for side effects. and other serious conditions rely on medical cannabis to improve their quality of life. Whether or not we personally use it, those patients are still members of this community too. I was born in this area and raised here in the Pasco community. I live in Pasco, I own a home here in Pasco, I do business in Pasco, and I built my life and career in this community. As general manager, I will be accountable every single day. If concerns ever arise, I will be available, I will listen, I will work with our neighbors to address them. I respectfully ask for your support, and I thank you again for your time, your service, and your consideration. I hope you will vote in favor of this application. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. We'll let him go then, you Miss Mahoney, thank you.

Hi, my name is Taylor Taranto. I'm in Pasco. Technically, I am an unlicensed naturopath in the state of Washington by RCW, and I can get into that, but I don't really want to. Right now, I'd rather just say that I'm in support of any competition, especially local, considering that a lot of the original retailers were You know, not necessarily, we'll call them big chains. Some of them are. Anyway, I don't know. I've also seen that one of them in particular is not very enthusiastic when it comes to being competitive. And I'll just leave it at that. So I think it would be healthy for our economy here to have good competition. Medically, I'm in support of cannabis products, cannabinoids, any of them, for research. Also, I think Washington, in particular, Pasco should be leading in products such as, that are like associated with Delta 8 and things like that, our state is not really adamant about research that. But with our state laws that require certain testing, I think we could start looking at possibly leading the path with that because that would be super, super helpful for a lot of people. Considering that a lot of people are misinformed about cannabis as a medicine, and usually typically think about it as a recreational drug. So anyway, I'll just spare it, the details. I don't know anything about these guys in particular, but I was asked to come and speak, and I think it's a good idea to let them be licensed here in Pasco. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Toronto. Ms. Mahoney?

This isn't about marijuana.

That's fine. You are welcome right up. This is open general public comment time.

Yes, it is. Mary Mahoney, this is an amendment to my comments and request for records made on 4-20-26, and it includes those documents I provided to Councilman Leo Perales on 7-2-26. On our local news, Tri-City Animal Services, TCIS, Animal Control, I'll call it Animal Control, estimated there could be 50,000 homeless cats roaming the Tri-Cities and that the community needs to spay and neuter their pets. With that, what, where, and how does Animal Control plan to reduce their own projection of 50,000 roaming homeless cats, provide the number of cats animal control has spay and neutered in 2026, provide the number of cats euthanized in 2026, provide the number of cat adoptions for 2026. Any TNR trap, neuter, release programs ever introduced or practiced at animal control. Provide the number of cats dead or alive sent to WSU for research and the money paid by WSU for those research cats. Provide the number of low-cost spay-neuters performed at animal control for cats and for dogs in 2026. Provide dates, times, places, and names of Pasco councilmen and Pasco officials who have gathered facts, information, and costs for a low-cost spay-neuter clinic. Provide a comparison of all our tax dollars to be spent on the Pasco Aquatic Center versus all of our tax dollars spent on a low-cost spay-neuter clinic for our dogs and cats. provide our total tax dollars to be spent on the Pasco Aquatic Center's phase two and phase three, include payments for ex-Pasco Mayor Matt Watkins, Watkins Endeavor LLC, Pasco City Attorney Lee Curran proxies, and payments for all Pasco officials. Mr. Watkins just bought a new house, and regarding the Pasco Aquatic Center, he has paid approximately $11,000 per month, plus his travel expenses. The Pasco Aquatic Center's phase one, or as Pasco calls it recently, phase one, the fun phase, fun phase one has cost the taxpayers over $43 million. As with all past requests and records, documents, and materials as requested via RCW 42.56, They're included to put Pasco on notice.

Thank you, Ms. Mahoney, for your comments. Anyone else in the chamber want to address council on any issue? Step right on up, sir. Just name and city or county of residence for the record, please.

Good evening. My name is Antonio Espinoza, and I reside here in the city of Pasco for the last 14 years. I'm in here in support of the expansion to allow the Copas de la Silla to open up a retail location for cannabis. I've been part of this community since I was little. My grandparents lived here on Park Street, served the St. Pat's Church, their whole existence here in Pasco, served the community, and built a a standard of community in our family along with my other side of the family that all reside here in the Tri-Cities. And one thing that I am very, very excited about is to extend that with this business to be part of this community, to have members of the community in the ownership that I know for a fact are willing to extend the level of service to the community in a legal manner and use that as a platform in support of other city programs because we love this community. And I know that for a fact with the ownership that are trying to get involved in this retail location. So I understand that there's opposition. People have their concerns. And I hope that in the fact that if we're allowed to have this location opened up, that we can show the community that we are truly about retail. this community and to keep it here, to keep these, to me, are wonderful people that are asking for the city's support in this. And I'm a big fan of these people. They're my family, they're my friends, and that's what I'm asking, for you to take that into consideration and just to show my support for that. So that's about all I have to say.

Awesome.

Thank you for your comments.

Appreciate it. Anyone else in the chamber want to address council on this or any other issue? We'll be wrapping up soon. Going once. Thank you.

Dorothy Frenzel, Franklin County, and I'm here to ask you to not open another dispensary. I wanted to read a press release from Office of Public Affairs that just came out, and it's about a woman who pleaded guilty for smuggling unaccompanied alien children into the United States. Her and her three other accomplices used by the gummy bears to drug the children. And they're seeing a lot more of this. And that's why I'm against the dispensaries. I don't know why they have to have such cute candies and all those things to attract children. You can take it out of the package and share it with your friends at school. And I think the teachers are seeing that a lot more lately. And I did see some independent media down at the border the last administration and they showed a lot of children that were just drugged out and they were easily trafficked. So I just ask you to vote now, thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Anyone else?

Going once, going twice. Is there anyone online, Ms. Signell, before we move on? Okay, thank you. With that, we will close public comments for the evening. Number seven, reports from committees and or officers. Quiet week. Mr. Perales, I know you're online. Do you have a report to give, sir? It wasn't a quiet week, but I don't got nothing to share tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Number eight, moving on. Hearings and council action on ordinances and resolutions relating thereto. Letter A is a public hearing in ordinance number 4851, renewing moratorium on essential public facilities, secure community transition facilities. And for this, it looks like we're going to you, Mr. Raymond. Good evening, sir.

Thank you very much, Mayor and City Council. Good evening. As you know, the City Council and staff have been working on an ordinance related to essential public facilities, including secure transitional facilities. Back in February, a temporary moratorium was initiated for a six-month period of time. Conversation has continued. The City Council has shared some specific ideas about what it might like to see as far as proposals and overlays and maps and so on. In order to complete that work, an additional six-month moratorium is needed to complete that and bring it back to the City Council. So what we're asking this evening is that the City Council conduct a public hearing related to Ordinance 4851 to extend that for another six months.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions or comments from council for Mr. Raymond or anybody? Mr. Cotter.

Just in support of the extended moratorium, obviously, you know, we've come up with some good criteria, you know, increasing security, increasing buffer zones so that if these facilities are allowed into our community, we're able to, you know, isolate them and restrict them into places that aren't gonna be so close to children and other people. We just need more time for our lawyers to approve the measures that we've asked them to take.

Thank you. And again, I guess for those unfamiliar with this, this is the state of Washington trying to put sexual violent predators within our neighborhood. And we as a body, yes, as Mr. Raymond said, imposed a six-month moratorium to try to figure out what we could do to protect our city, to listen, to hold public hearings, and to really, we can't zone them out of the city. State law, unfortunately, will not let us do that. The state is imposing these sexual violent predators. You think about, they've committed sexual crimes with violence, and they are preying on the most vulnerable amongst us, and I'm just really adamant about that, because I don't want this to get lost in the weeds. This is what the state of Washington is doing to the the communities taking them off of McNeil Island where they are trapped and then dispersing them through the state and we are as a City Council taking this very seriously and again we can't zone them out completely but we are trying to make it as difficult as possible where sadly for another community they could just realize that We're just too stringent here and there's too many battles to be had and they'll just move on and maybe go somewhere else. So got to help those other communities. So anyways, with that, I'm going to open this public hearing. This public hearing is open for anyone who would like to speak on the moratorium of renewing our moratorium on essential public facilities. Would anybody like to speak on this issue and this issue only? Going once, going twice. Yes, sir. Step right on up. Appreciate it. Just this issue and this issue only.

Yeah, I think, I think one more time. Just, yeah, my name is Taylor Taranto. Thank you. Pasco resident. And I think it's, you know, common sense here that, um, there's something we can do as a city and a community, um, So first off, I think I want to dispel the myth that we're powerless here at the state. There's lots of things, and more than just six months, but I'm in favor of the six month moratorium. So I really want to, considering that this has been an issue for a while, Yeah, putting this off is the simple approach, but I don't think we should just keep kicking this can. This is the safety of people at large. When I look at it from a statistical perspective in crime, having that many sex offenders of a certain caliber brings about a certain doubt in our city government. So I think we should certainly advocate for ourselves here. And I don't know, I feel like we should more or less get not just our lawyers, but whatever it takes to protect this community. That's really how I stand on it. And I think everyone here, I don't really want to speak for everyone here, but I feel that that's pretty much the consensus at large. So, you know, don't give up. That's really all I have to say.

Thank you, Mr. Toronto. Yes, and for the record, by no means are we kicking any can down the road. As Mr. Cotta said, this is us just taking more time just to really sew this thing up as tight as we can possibly can to protect our community. Anyone else in the chamber like to speak on this issue and this issue only? This is a public hearing for renewing our moratorium for essential public facilities. Yes, sir. Step right on up.

Caleb Stromstedt, Pasco resident. First time I've heard of this. Just wanted to say thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Anyone else in the chamber want to speak on this issue and this issue alone? Going once. Going twice. Three times. This public hearing is closed. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor.

I move to adopt ordinance number 4851, an ordinance of the City of Pasco, Washington, renewing the moratorium adopted in ordinance number 4817 from August 17th, 2026 to February 31st.

Is that date correct, February 31st? There's no such date. Whoops. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Temp. We're just trying to extend this as long as we can. We'll put this into an infinity if we can. Mr. Sigdell or Mr. Raymond, if you would correct the record, please. I'm so sorry. I'm proud of you for taking the hit on that, though.

If you could revise that to February 28th, please.

Thank you. All right. So February 28th, 2027, providing for interpretive authority, providing for corrections, providing for servability, and establishing an effective date.

Second.

Motion on the floor by the Mayor Pro Tem to adopt Ordinance Number 4851, seconded by Councilmember Campos. Discussion? Not seeing any, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Number nine, ordinances and resolutions not relating to hearings. Letter A, resolution number 4771, setting a public hearing to consider Lightspeed Networks Incorporated franchise extension. And I am not seeing Director Serra tonight, so Ms. Sigdell, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm presenting this item on behalf of Director Serra. who much like most of her team is out sick today. So you'll have to bear with me here. Before you is the resolution which sets a public hearing for 7pm on August 17th, 2026 to consider a fiber optic franchise with light speed networks. This is a renewal and per our PMC or our municipal code. Council must hold a public hearing before considering any franchise awards or renewal. So tonight's action simply sets that hearing date. It does not grant the franchise agreement. And with that, the earliest council action would be in September 8th for next month. And with that, I'm open to any questions you might have.

Thank you, Ms. Sigdell. Questions, comments from council for the deputy city manager? Not seeing any. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem?

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve resolution number 4771, setting 7 p.m. August 17th, 2026 as the time and date for a public hearing to consider a fiber optic franchise with Lightspeed Networks Incorporated.

Second. Motion on the floor by the Mayor Pro Tem, seconded just barely faster as Mr. Campos. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. Motion passes. Letter B, resolution number 4772, setting time and date for a public hearing for a right-of-way vacation, portion of road 108, right-of-way vacation. And for this, we are going back to you, Mr. Raymond. Thank you very much, Mayor.

Every once in a while, there's some shifting that needs to take place in order to accommodate transportation systems and future growth. particularly where the city and county share boundaries and where new city growth is adjacent to older county development that was completed long before master plans and comp plans affecting the area was ever completed essentially that's what we have here over time as the city has progressed north in this area it became apparent that road 108 would need to shift west somewhat Shifting ultimately resulted in excess rights-of-way that is eligible to be vacated because it's no longer needed The process for rights-of-way starts with a petition and Once we have a completed petition the city will conduct a public hearing to consider a few basic criteria such as traffic circulation future public use resulting property access and the impact on the public interest and We'll also determine whether or not a professional appraisal is needed and whether compensation will be required. On this map here, you can see just a little bit of a couple of the pieces that are being requested to be vacated because the right-of-way needs to shift to the left or over to the west. It leaves some additional bulk property that's no longer needed. Here's a little bit closer detail, and you can see, unfortunately, the map, the north arrow is off to the side, so it's skewed just a little bit. But you can see the new path for Road 108 and also the excess property on the lower portion, that hashed area in the lower portion that is requesting to be vacated is going to be added to those parcels in that subdivision. So at this point, staff is requesting that the City Council approve Resolution 4772, setting the public hearing for February 31st.

Thank you. Questions, comments for Mr. Raymond? Nobody caught that. February 31st.

Oh, see, sorry.

Mm-hmm. Anybody, questions, comments? Mr. Perales, sorry I missed you on the last one. Do you have any questions for Mr. Raymond?

Nope, nope. Great work on this one. Appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem.

All right. Thank you. I move to approve Resolution Number 4772, Setting 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 is the date and time for a public hearing to consider the vacation of a portion of the road 108 right-of-way dedication to AFN 1918957 and AFN 1956207. Second.

Motion on the floor by Mr. Milne, seconded by Mr. Cotta. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Aye. Motion carries. Letter C, resolution number 4773, segregation of local improvement district number 152 assessment. And for this, we're going to you, Mr. Hebden. Good evening, sir.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. Before you tonight is this resolution, as you're aware, may be aware, the city set an LID, LID 152, which is kind of north of, in the northern part of the city. That was to install sewer for growth. As those properties come on board, they are subdivided by the owners and then homes are built, things like that. So we've received information from the county that one of these properties that was assessed their portion of that LID, when they are subdivided, we have the duty and responsibility to segregate those subdivisions. The whole assessed for that initial property now needs to be divided into those subdivision or subdivided properties. So this was a property known as J14 LLC, and it's now into eight separate parcels. And so this is a routine, resolution that we are asking that you approve the segregation or the division of that assessment to those eight different parcels. Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Hebden. Questions, comments for our finance director? Not seeing any. Thank you. Mr. Milne.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve resolution number 4773 related to the local improvement district number 152 providing for the Segregation of assessments for certain parcels referred to as J14 LLC consistent with RCW 35.44.410. Second.

Motion on the floor by the Mayor Pro Tem, seconded by Council Member Hernandez. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Motion carries. Moving on to number 10, unfinished business. Letter A, cannabis, affirmative consent to Compass, LLC, social equity, retail license, and letter of support. And for this, it says Mr. Palm, but I see you, Mr. Kinney, this evening. Good evening, sir. Good evening, Mayor.

Can you hear me okay?

I can. Thank you for asking loud and clear.

Great. Wonderful. Well, good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Yeah, we're continuing on the discussion on the cannabis licensing that was discussed at a prior meeting and is being brought before you tonight with a recommendation to authorize the city manager to execute and submit the notice indicating affirmative consent for Compass LLC. Since the last meeting, you'll see in your packet, the last two pages are the notice of license application that the city received. That notice requests answering by the city of two questions or objection to those or disapproval of those two questions. Those two questions are very straightforward. It's do you approve of the applicant, yes or no, with checkboxes, no commentary, and do you approve of the location, yes or no, with no commentary. There really is not an opportunity in the response to this request from the Liquor and Cannabis Board on this notice of application for a letter supporting or opposing, it's merely answering the questions as posed. And so the recommendation based on the conversation at the last meeting is to authorize city manager to respond to this letter by indicating either yes or no, depending on the will of the counsel to this letter. And then there's a signature and a date. If council wishes to proceed with approval of the applicant and approval of the location, it would need to authorize staff to move forward with preparation of code changes. The code changes would not be done tonight. That would follow on likely in September by the time it gets prepared and presented to council. Code would need to be changed to allow for additional licenses to be granted. that code change would not be specific to this applicant. That would be a general code change that would be then available as the status quo for the code available to applicants as they come in. Naturally, if this applicant works through with the state and the code is changed, they would be available, the code would be available to them as it would be to anyone else. But the code would not be changed for them specifically it would not be granting them any special privileges other than simply responding to the state per the inquiry from the state and then having the code be available to them or anyone else that wanted to avail themselves of that code change. And so, the steps tonight are to consider and make a motion to authorize the city manager to respond to this letter from the state. And then if there's a direction to then change the code to allow for an additional license opportunity, that would be included as well. And there's some language in the agenda materials speaking to that in terms of And let me just find it here. I believe it's changing additional, changing from four to five licenses and then establishing future increases at one license per 30,000 population increase to create an incremental change. And so that's for the council's consideration tonight and action.

Thank you, Mr. Kenney. Any questions for Mr. Kenney from council? Mr. Mayor Pro Temp.

Thank you, Mayor. So what I heard, to make sure that sounds pretty correct, so we opened this up against it, but say it goes through, so we have now five. If anybody else could come in, so if they came, so somebody else that was already ready to go could come in, so Mr. or the Compass LLC could be out, and then say hypothetically if we wanted this business to be here, hypothetically, then they would have to do the process again. And we'd have to up it to six or seven, depending on how many, like another person came in. So we open it again. Another person came in until finally they, their company could move. Is that pretty much the gist of it? Or did I miss something on that?

Uh, yeah, I mean, correct. The code is available to the community broadly. Right. And so the code is not being changed to earmark a license, um, for a specific company. They are certainly in the process. They have an application into the state. The state is making its inquiry to the city. So that process is underway. I am not aware of who else might be well positioned to take advantage of that. But the code side of things, as that were to progress through council, we really should not be taking that into account. The code is, um, applicant agnostic. It does not apply to specific applicants. It is the allowances under the zoning code for those uses.

Okay. Thank you. I think that makes it clear. I don't know how many pot shops we need in the city of Pasco, but as you know, I'm against them, but I do appreciate the clarification. Thank you.

So, Mr. Kinney, just as another point of clarification, as far as our motion goes, is this just for the letter or obviously you mentioned, you know, having to authorize zoning and other stuff. And I realized some of that was going to come back in September. Would we need some kind of separate motion or something to direct the city manager to go forward with that or just... the passing of this motion itself would put that in motion, for lack of a better phrase.

Thank you for the question. I think the motion itself, if it is to authorize the mayor to indicate affirmative consent per the letter from the state, that would be direction to staff to prepare the code changes because If we're indicating to the state that we are approving of the applicant and the location, we should be taking steps to make that truly available. And I believe we'll try to include perhaps a cover letter or something short that indicates that there is no opportunity under our code right now, but that the intention is to look into that. There's no promises. It's a legislative decision that you all get to make, you know, and that's not being made right now. But yes, if you do indicate affirmative responses to the letter from the state, I believe that is indication to the staff to prepare the code changes that you will then independently consider around the September timeframe.

Perfect. Thank you. And just one other follow-up question based on the Mayor Pro Tem's question. If, let's just say, like you said, you weren't aware of any other potential cannabis retailers positioned to apply also, if another one approached the state just even next week about something like this, and wanted us also to put in a letter for them, but we only lifted it by one. Does it somehow become competitive between the two since we're not earmarking this specifically the zone for this retailer itself?

Well, it's a fair question. I don't really know how I would describe it. I'm not sure I would say it's competitive between the two. It's just that the allowance in the code It has a cap and they need a business license. They need to have a location. They need to have approval from the state. And yes, the first person that accomplishes that and receives the approvals necessary would have the ability to do it. It can't be saved for a potential applicant or somebody that started the process but hasn't finished. And so it's just up to you. And then that's not uncommon under the rest of the code as well. It's whoever gets it in and it's a complete application that gets approved would have that opportunity.

Thank you. Any questions, comments? Mr. Campos.

Yeah, just to clarify. So somebody who is applying for the social equity cannabis license, would have to go through this, they would still have to reach out to us, and then we would still have to answer yes or no to both questions? Mr. That's my understanding, yes. Mr. So the fact that that hasn't happened yet pretty much tells us that there's nobody else that has had the social equity license?

Mr. So I believe that this, notice of cannabis license application isn't specific to the social equity that is listed as the privileges applied for on page one of the notice. It may be used for other ones. What I don't know is if somebody already has the ability to do it. And I mean that I truly don't know, not that it doesn't seem to exist, that I don't know whether it exists. And so whether there's somebody out there that has the ability to have this license already and it's just been waiting for an opening. I don't know. I just, I really don't know either way. Okay. Thank you.

Other questions, comments from council. Mr. Connor.

Lots of good testimony tonight. Thank you for everybody that came out and wants to contribute to, you know, a voice of the public in Pascoe. I think at the heart of this, and I took notes on every speaker that came up and just a lot of good insight, but I think to sum this up, what's really bringing all of us here is, at least the ones that are against the expansion of the cannabis dispensaries, is that they're selling something addictive that's causing mental illness. And the more of that that we have, the bigger the problem we're going to create. And so that's why I'm voting against this. Are there things that they're selling that are positive? Yes, I mean, I understand that. Are there other elements that have strong arguments? Yeah, maybe they do. But in the end, they're selling something addictive that is creating mental illness and they can't stop using it. And the reason we know that is, we talked about these studies last time where the amount of hospital visits are going up due to cannabis use disorder when a dispensary moves into the community, when they live within 10 miles of that. And then, you know, there's, once they get even more concentrated than that, then the numbers get much more exponential. And if we put another store in at Road 90, there's already one less than two miles away. I mean, it's right there. So I don't see the reason or justification for lifting the cap.

Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I was going to, like, I'm sure we all know it. Again, I appreciate the great comments in the audience. I will say that us on the dais will be judged on how we vote today, how we push this forward. Again, I know it's an issue very strong for or against, but I will say that whether they get in, there will be somebody else. And there will be somebody else who will say, well, you did it for them, do it for us. So I'm saying this isn't the end of this conversation. It will, I mean, if you go to five, then there'll be six. Then it'll go to seven. The only thing, it'll drop down the prices. I mean, I've heard that they're very competitive, all four are competitive, but I'm saying you're dropping the prices. Eventually it will happen, and then it'll make it even easier for kids to buy it, or young adults, they'll give it to their younger brother, younger sister, more of a problem. So again, I love people trying to start their own business. Sounds like they're a great individual. Sounds like they're, you know, Johnny on the spot, going around talking to neighbors. give hands off to that. Just, I wish it wasn't this business. So that's my two cents, but we will be judged on this. And again, it won't be the end of this. I guarantee you that. So that's my words.

Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, go ahead, Mr. Campos.

No. Now I just want to say thank you so much for all the feedback and engagement that everybody did, whether it's through emails or conversations, one-on-ones, or even showing up today in the meeting. This is the topic that I think none of us here on the Dias takes lightly. There's a lot of things to consider, a lot of things to kind of balance out and figure it out. But I do want to make sure, on the side note, to reject the idea that the amount of cannabis stores that we have in the city defines our city. It doesn't. The people define who our city is. It's who we are. It's how we interact. It's the unity that we have. And the appreciation to understand that we're not gonna always agree on certain things. And that's okay. That's important why I think it's so amazing that even here on the city council, we don't always, We disagree at times, but at the end of the day, we appreciate everyone's voice, we take the vote, and we move on from that. And so no matter what happens tonight, I just want to encourage that we as a city understand that we are a special community, that we are people who want the best for this city. This vote should not dictate whether we like the city or gonna kill the city or, you know, I really reject that idea because I really believe that at the end of the day, the city is an amazing city with lovely people who value family and principles that lead us ahead. And so I do value Compass LLC. They've done a fantastic job of reaching out to us to let them know what their heart is how they're willing to serve. And hopefully you could solve some of that today. I mean, just the reality of going out, knocking on doors, talking to them and some of the things that they're willing to do is kind of just like refreshing to any type of business that would do that. I hopefully that is something that whether it happens today or later or not, I hope that all the other stores are listening and Because there has to be a higher standard when it has to do with this business. I agree with Mrs. Hatch about there has to be some regulation. These things should not be looking like candy. I agree with that. But there's also other things that we have to balance out as well. And so I appreciate all the feedback and thank you for engaging into this very important topic tonight.

Thank you. Mr. Perales, did you want to weigh in on this?

Yeah, I didn't want to, because I think we've already kind of talked about it enough, but nothing like more dialogue. You know, I guess I'm just going to rattle off what I talked about last week. I find it odd that we are judging this product unlike anything else that any other vice in society, I guess that's what I don't get. And I don't want to go down the rabbit hole, but I mean, who's does not to say that fast food is addicting. We're opening up a slim chickens tomorrow. We have an obese epidemic across the society, but no one's saying, Hey, no more fast food restaurants. Like I get it, but I'm a believer of personal responsibility. Go parent your kids. Tell them not to do drugs, drink alcohol, step away from the food table. Like, we need to start taking ownership a little bit. I think this is a good business to elevate. Compass LLC is setting a standard that I didn't see. I didn't see their community advocacy with other organizations. MARIJUANA STORES A COUPLE YEARS AGO WHEN THE COUNCIL DECIDED TO VOTE THESE IN. I DIDN'T SEE THAT. AND A LOT OF TIMES I DIDN'T HEAR, OH, YEAH, WE'RE GOING TO GIVE BACK THE COMMUNITY. AND THEN AS SOON AS THEY GOT THEIR LICENSE, NEVER SAW THEM EVER AGAIN. SO I APPRECIATE THE DIALOGUE. THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS THAT WE CAN DO DIFFERENTLY. JUST LIKE MR. COMPOS WAS SAYING, different regulations we can tailor this to our community a lot of it does have to do with the state so i think we should definitely talk with our state legislators about the appearance and how those candies and gummies look in stores but you know i would have never brought this to the council if I thought it was going to change the perception of the city it was going to make us not make business want to recruit and come here I don't see that happening at all I think this is again this is legitimizing a business that is here to stay there's been other and I'll go ahead and say it there's been other conservative states that have allowed medicinal and recreational marijuana the times are changing and I think it's time for us to start changing with it thank you

Thank you, Mr. Perales. Mr. Cotto, your light's still on. Did you have more comments?

Yeah, just one more thing, especially on behalf of the people here that came expressing concern for the youth. I mean, naturally, we understand that the youth are not allowed to have this product. That's against the law. The issue is they're getting it anyway, and they're getting it when the dispensary is close to them. That's the issue. The number of people, I spoke about this last time, from 12 to 20 years old, experiencing cannabis use disorder when there's a dispenser within 10 miles of their home, it's going up 7%. And so they're getting it, they're getting more cannabis use disorder when it's in the community. And there's this perception, you know, I understand that the people define the community, but this is absolutely going to deter families from coming to Pasco. This is evidence of that. I mean, even if it's not all the families, it's going to be half of them. You know, when we took the poll a few years ago, it was 1% more, 46% to 45% that opposed bringing cannabis to Pasco at all. And you're hearing concern for the kids, you know, that people are going to be making a decision about where they want to live, and they're going to think about that when they want to live here.

Thank you. Yeah, and I guess just to wrap up, my comments are similar to the mayor pro tems. I mean, we even got an email this afternoon from somebody saying, wait a second, what about me? I want in on this too. I too want one of those licenses. And so we discussed in depth last week just about really there's nothing councilmanic that just can't keep this from just being lifted again next month. Or next week even for that matter. So it's for that reason many of the others discussed over the last couple weeks I'm also opposed mr. Figueroa Yes, I want to bring the attention back to see actual discussion that we should be having in front of us is

whether we want to provide as a city an affirmative consent. And the two questions in front of us are, do we approve of the applicant, which is Compass LLC, and do we approve of the location? It's a yes or no, the checkbox. So what arguments do we have to not approve of the applicant, if you can share those, outside of the sector of business that they're doing? Then we heard some of these things here, Like they're setting the standard of what a business should be overall. I wasn't here in 2023 and four of us weren't here in 2023 when you all took the decision to open it up to begin with. And I wanted those of you that were, did you have the level of commitment from those owners as what they're having here? That's the question. And do we approve the location? The location has already been approved because it was already an existing business of the same sector. Therefore, we're not changing any codes or regulations. It was already an approved location. So therefore, if we look at it at face value and not putting our personal take into it, that's what I have in front of the council here before us, is do we approve of the applicant to provide an affirmative consent, and do we approve of the location, which has already been kind of self-answered. The location's been approved before. So, obviously with that, then that will kind of trigger some other changes to the Pasco Municipal Code, which is, again, the conversation that we had last Monday of the proposal that we were talking about, because I understand, and I'm listening, and I'm hearing, right? And this is the beauty about local government. We all represent different aspects and facets of our community and of our great city that we all love. And some of you in your communities, in your neighborhoods, you're hearing we're opposing this. However, I also got elected to represent my community. AND WHEN I GO OUT THERE AND ASK THESE QUESTIONS, SOME OF THEM, NO OBJECTION, SOME OF THEM ARE EXCITED TO KIND OF TRY THIS NEW BUSINESS, AND YOU HEARD SOME OF THESE TESTIMONIES TODAY. IF I LOOK HERE AT ALL THE TESTIMONIES THAT WERE SHARED, I MEAN, THE YAYS, THOSE IN FAVOR HAVE IT FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE CITY OF PASCOA OR FRANKLIN COUNTY BECAUSE THAT'S THE JURISDICTION THAT WE ARE IN CONTROL OF. I MEAN, NO DISRESPECT TO ANYBODY OUTSIDE OF THE JURISDICTION IN BANK COUNTY, BUT THAT'S A WHOLE SEPARATE ENTITY. RIGHT? That is kind of what I want to bring into this conversation of can we focus on these two questions in front of us, and if we have an issue with the applicant, what are those issues? I mean, these are folks that went and listened to their community. They're trying to be good neighbors. They're out there asking what kind of issues would this provide. They're already making plans. I mean, these are things that even elected officials should be doing, right? And we do it all the time, right? We go out there and listen to the community. We doorknock and we hear and we try to do something proactive about it. So again, to me, this isn't really about the cannabis issue. It's about whether we want a predictable policy or do we want an unpredictable one? We talked about last Monday I'm against, too, I don't want it to be a free-for-all. I mean, the suggestion came about eight shops, dispensaries, I'm against that. I said, again, we have an opportunity to make long-standing impact if we have a say here, hey, we don't have an issue with this applicant, we don't have an issue with this location, we open it up for a fifth one social equity license, and then we cap it at that with the proposal that I kind of mentioned of having a population cap. we will not be having this discussion from here on out until there's a 30,000 increase in population. And then whoever counsel will decide there, right? Because at the end of the day, It's about responsible planning and responsible growth. That's what we've been elected to do. Again, I share the concerns about it's gonna open the floodgates. I respectfully disagree. I think that this policy, we go with it. It's a lot more controlled than just, it provides a ceiling. It has a checkpoint. It can be right there, hey, we have a 30,000 increase. That council will make that decision, whatever they wanna do. We'll have the same concept here. People can come and share. all their thoughts. Again, this is not expansion without limits. This is expansion with discipline. I think that's important. Also to kind of go back to some of the comments that, well, what about everybody else? Or why is, this isn't fair, right? Well, how come they're getting this treatment or they're the ones who caused this discussion, this entity, right? Anybody could have come with a social equity license and started this conversation a long time ago, but they didn't. The door was open to anyone eligible, but these are the only applicants that brought it forward, right? They came forward. They completed the process. They have the ducks in a row. They've signed the lease, five-year lease. They're doing everything they should be doing that we've kind of told them or the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board has told them for them to do. So who are we to punish that process and system there? No one guaranteed them success, and you're absolutely right. Some of the comments have already said that. They simply took the opportunity that already existed. And to me, this is, you know, the coach in me, I always tell my athletes, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So these other businesses who are wanting to now get a piece of the action, I'm sorry, but you had the opportunity. You didn't take it, right? Every entrepreneur accepts the risk. They put a lot of capital in there. This is a big risk. And sometimes big risk pays off with big reward. That's just how business works. I DIDN'T WANT TO KIND OF ADDRESS THIS ISSUE EITHER, BUT BECAUSE THERE'S PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE AND CERTAIN COUNCIL MEMBERS HERE AS WELL, I DO WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING, I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE SOME IMPORTANT TOPIC. I HEAR ALL THESE MORAL VIEWS AND I'M HEARING PERSPECTIVES, RIGHT, AND ALL THESE DIFFERENT COMPONENTS, AND I WANT TO SAY THAT AS A PERSONAL person of faith. I understand why some members in our community and even council members, esteemed colleagues that I have, have moral objections to cannabis. And I respect those beliefs, and many of those concerns come from genuine desire to protect family and our youth. And I share those beliefs. It's a reason why I work in our school district, at the high school. I see a lot of this stuff. I'm a coach myself. I volunteer most of whatever extra time I have to mentor youth. I'm not... innocent to any of these issues that they're going with, right? But I believe that every legal activity is not necessarily a wise personal choice, right? But I also believe in a higher calling for those in authority to be fair and partial and just. We're not here to have a moral decision on whether cannabis is legal or not. That's already been set by the state. What I'm here is about good governance and good policy moving forward. That's what we've been elected to do. Again, Washington's social equity program was created because for decades, cannabis enforcement disproportionately impacted communities of color, which I am a part of. Whether people support those laws or oppose them, history can show that the burden was carried unequally. This program, although it's not a perfect program because no programs that are manmade are ever perfect, But this is an opportunity for legal economic opportunity where previous enforcement created unequal outcomes. Again, we can disagree on legalization. That's a whole separate conversation. But what we have here in front of us is about striving to administer today's laws which we have in place fairly and consistently all the way throughout. So again, I go back to the two questions that we have in front of us. Are we going to provide affirmative consent based on approving of the applicant, yes or no? And are we going to approve the location? And do we approve of the location, yes or no? One already has been already answered, which is the location. It's not an issue. Now I go back to my esteemed colleagues. Why or why not do we not approve of this applicant?

Mr. Hernandez. I'm in agreement with... Councilman Figueroa, Councilman Campos, and Councilman Perales. They did the work. It is, like Councilman Figueroa said, strictly two questions. One has been answered. The other one is, are we going to punish them after they've done all the work just because it is cannabis? I don't think that would be fair, so I'm in favor of this.

Thank you. And I guess just to answer the question that's been made, I think I would just respond for me personally just by saying we have already gone above and already granted one social equity license for somebody who just perhaps in our society was unfairly treated or didn't have all the opportunities someone else had. So I believe that we've already met that basis. And this is... just opening it up to what could be an unending amount of continuing to open it up. Mr. Mayor Protem.

Yeah, again, I respect everybody. I don't want to get into a heated debate, even though I'm pretty passionate. And just to give you a few heads up, we've had employees in the past, Hispanics, that needed a chance. We had them as technicians to fix tools. A couple times they came in, hi, all marijuana. We said, hey, it's legal. Obviously, you can't have somebody working, especially with tools, or even working at my store like that. Eventually we let him go. We warned him a couple times. One individual we sent home. I have since run into him. He eventually got off drugs, but it totally destroyed his life. But, I mean, again, he just couldn't get, once he got into marijuana, he couldn't stop. That's my own two people. It's difficult when you really, you know, want these people to succeed. He was right out of high school. And, again, it's difficult. So that's my own personal. But I would say my question to you, and please answer me, is we're doing this for a compass LLC. They're in line. Say we say, yeah, we want them to have it. But as the lawyer was saying, they're not guaranteed. So what if somebody jumps in front of them that already has their social equity license? They get that spot, that fifth spot. Do we then as a council go back, say now they eventually have it say four months, six months, whatever. Do we then open up a sixth one? Or what if there's somebody that's jumped in front of them? So now they're like number seven. I'm just saying it's not guaranteed just for them. It's we're opening the door. Somebody could be first. And then by the time they get it, then there could be another one. So I mean... it's kind of hard to open it up, but it's no guarantee for them. These guys might be the best business people ever, very Johnny, as I said, Johnny on the spot, but there's no guarantee that they actually get it. So that's why I said once we open it up, we're opening it up in this 30,000 thing. That's just not going to fly. That's just wishful thinking on that. So my question is if somebody else jumps in front, do we then give them a shot again to like a sixth or seventh or What is your idea behind that?

Yeah. Please, by all means. Yes, thank you, sir. I mean, I stand where I'm firm on the five and cabinet. I mean, I know you say it's wishful thinking, but that's why we codify it in the PMC. And like I said, some of us have three more years. And as long as I'm here, I will be adamant about that. And you can check me on that. You can come back. Some of us aren't seeking re-election. Some of us are in the next year, right? So I think that if we put it in the PMC and we address our heart of this is where we're at. But it goes back to It's a risk, that's a risk that they're choosing to make, right? I'm hoping that this is a little more fair of, you know, it's by priority or line or whoever's on the queue. Again, these folks have everything set, right? I mean, if we look at the packet, everything is set, they're ready to go. I mean, even their landlord, you know, spoke highly of them, which is, you know, a really big company and even investment group in the community. I have yet to see that they give out a lot of letters of recommendation freely, right? So that goes on to show that they think highly of this organization, this business. And again, they have all the ducks in a row. So I don't know how well the process is, but I think that they came in to us at the beginning and they're sharing, hey, this is our plan. We want to be in partnership with the city. And I think that's really important to have because I would expect that to be for any other business, any sector, to come in and say, hey, we want this partnership with the city. We're looking to be part of your community. These are local folks. Again, to just say that one social equity license and we've checked the box, that's just like, all right, check in the box and we're good. I think that we as a city of Pasco should do a little bit more. I mean, we're a minority-majority city. To have a business that is Latino, black, and veteran-owned, like, my goodness, that is something to be proud of. regardless of the sector that they're doing. It could have been a winery. It could have been whatever it could have been, right? But to have those businesses that are going to give back to our community, I think that's a really high standard, and that should really push every other business who's willing to do business here in the city of Pasco to that same standard. So I can only commend them for that. But then again, we don't control that, right? And I always say, as a coach, control the controllables. The only things we can control tonight is here we go. Do we approve of the applicant, yes or no? And do we approve of the location, yes or no? That's what we're in control of right now.

And Mr. Figueroa, I want to say I do appreciate your heart for those that have been disproportionately affected. And I mean that with all sincerity. Just to reiterate, my concern is that, you know, a month from now, somebody comes that was even more disproportionately, you know, affected in some way. And, you know, my goodness, you know, makes even another case. And whether, you know, it's... And I appreciate your commitment to stay at five and I take you at your word and everything like that. But, you know, what's... You know, I guess... It worries me, the president, that the next council could, and it's outside of our control, admittedly, but they say, well, hey, they did it, so can we too. Mr. Cotta.

Yeah, just to answer Councilman Figueroa's question. I think we had a couple people come here tonight and say that the process is out of order. We have somebody doing all the hard work like he talked about, getting their ducks in a row, but there was never a fifth spot open for them to be eligible to work into. And so if you lift the cap first and say you're going to allow one more store, and then everybody gets to apply for it, then it's like fair for everybody. But now we're bringing it to the point where we're just, well, do we approve of campus or no? Because they did all this work, but there wasn't an opening. And so it kind of forces the issue but it's out of order because it's really not fair for anybody because nobody else thought that we were just gonna lift the cap. And so again, the first thing is you decide what you're gonna do with the cap and then you allow people to apply.

Thank you and is everyone, up here already kind of mentioned I do appreciate everybody coming out tonight and sharing their thoughts their concerns no matter how they were I wish the public got engaged on more issues we've talked about LRAs to to empty rooms the state putting sexual predators in our communities and I'll be honest with you we really love to see public engagement and would would continue to I'd like to have more of it. And also to my fellow council members, I appreciate the thoughtful, respectful discussion that we have had tonight, where obviously there's some strong feelings to be had. Mr. Figueroa, do you want to make a motion? Sure do.

So I would like to move to authorize the city manager to execute and submit the Washington State Laker and Cannabis Board local authority notice indicating that the city's affirmative consent for COMPAS LLC WSLCB application number 445257.

Second.

Motion on the floor by Council Member Figueroa to authorize the City Manager to execute and submit this letter to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, seconded by Council Member Hernandez. Ms. Sanchez, if you would take a roll call vote, please.

Compost?

Yes.

Carter?

No.

Figueroa? Yes. Hernandez?

Yes.

Perales? Yes. Milne?

No.

Grimm?

No. The resolution passes 4-3. Moving on, number 11, new business, Mind the Gap, navigating language barriers in traffic stops. And for this, we are going to Captain Paramore.

Good evening, sir. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council, I would like to introduce Dr. Hillary Mellinger. She has spent the last three years working on a study using body-worn camera video from the Pasco Police Department, and it involves issues with individuals who come across that English isn't their first language. And so I'd like to have her come up and present. Good evening, Dr. Mellinger. Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you all for having me here tonight. Do I get to control the slides, or is it... Perfect. OK. Hi, everyone. My name is Hilary Mellinger. I'm an assistant professor at Washington State University. And I'm presenting alone today, but I do have a co-author. It's a little bit difficult to see on the screen, but she is the bottom right. She's a PhD candidate named Brittany Solonston. And I also wanted to make sure she received credit for this work. So with the 15 minutes I have, I will first provide a brief introduction, followed by research questions, methods, findings. And if anyone has additional questions, I have an appendix. So why this project? So I moved to Washington State from Washington, DC. That is where I got my PhD. And I went to graduate school at night and worked at a nonprofit during the day. It was a nonpartisan nonprofit that supported immigrant women and girls survivors of violence, things like trafficking cases, asylum, domestic violence, honor killings. Many of these individuals had very protracted immigration cases. And while they were waiting for their cases to be adjudicated, They often fell victim to additional crimes in the US, things like being mugged or assaulted at bus stops, being harassed in the workplace. And when law enforcement officials responded to them, there were often language barriers. And so my PhD research was on language barriers. And when I was hired by Washington State University in 2021, they requested that in addition to that work, I also look at it within the criminal justice context. And it was very fortunate that the Pasco Police Department was willing to partner with me on this more than partner. Let me interview officers, watch body worn camera footage, do police ride alongs. I've also done seven focus groups with Pasco community members over the last three years. As you mentioned, Pasco is a majority minority community. And so to me, that was why I picked this location, not just the partnership of the police, but thinking about the people who are here and who would be most affected by this research. According to title six of the civil rights act, Recipients of federal financial aid, which includes schools, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies, must provide meaningful language access to individuals with limited English proficiency. Yet when we look at academic research, it's largely silent on this. We see a lot of this being applied and technological innovations coming out, but not much done with what works, what doesn't work, what community members think, and what officers themselves are navigating. And so we know that languages affect, for example, the safety of everyone, especially in traffic stops. We know that officers will find it difficult to request information like a license or registration or explain the reason for a stop or even tell somebody the next steps, such as if there's a ticket or if there's a warning. And we know from medical literature that doctors struggle to get by with language barriers. The little bit of literature out there discusses, for example, how children are often used as language brokers and how that can result in misunderstandings. But we don't really know about this in the law enforcement context. And so that was the space in which I stepped into, in which the Pasco Police Department was gracious. Now, today I'm presenting specifically on traffic stops, because that is a way in which many community members interact with law enforcement. But as I mentioned, I've done focus groups and other research that I'm not sharing today that are still being analyzed. This has been a very connected study that looks at all pieces of the puzzle, so it's not just from officers. My research questions for this component of the study were first, what language access tools do officers use in traffic stops with language barriers? Second, what are helpful strategies? Third, what approaches are less productive? And finally, and most importantly, what can law enforcement agencies, officers, and drivers do to support each other? As you mentioned, this is a community. It's not just one person solving things. It can't just be top down. Both sides need to have input. I will make my methods brief because as much as I love to nerd out and be a social scientist, I realize you probably want the findings. But for this particular study, it was a random sample of body worn camera footage of traffic stops. They were quantitatively coded first in a lab at Washington State University, the complex social interactions lab. That involved two students watching and they would assess things. For example, how good was the reason for the stop? with maybe a one being you sped, a two would be you went 35 in a 30, a three would be you went 35 in a 30 going down Main Street. So the more specific, the better. And so the two students would vote. I would watch the third video or I watched the video a third time independently. And then a computer would say whether we all agreed. So it might say somebody did a two and the other two people did a three and I would be the tiebreaker. I then went through all of those and transcribed them. So Axon has body worn camera footage And there's English transcripts and Spanish transcripts, but Axon's not so great at Spanglish. And so I do speak Spanish. I'm not a native speaker, but it was my other major and I worked at, I have a lot of proficiency in Spanish, although I'm not a native speaker. So I went through and then transcribed everything and went and stopped and said, okay, if there was a language barrier confusion and students noticed it, where are we getting stuck? And so this was multiple iterative rounds of coding combined with 15 interviews with officers. And I coded until basically I found I wasn't reaching any new findings, which happened at 84 police stops, of which 43 involved language barriers. So it makes sense, but it very serendipitously was about half no barriers, half barriers. And of the ones with no barriers, you can see the green line, 31 were English fluent and 10 were fluent Spanish. So 41 in total that were fluent as in no barriers, either a bilingual officer and a Spanish speaking individual behind the wheel, or full English fluency on both sides. And then the remaining 43 that had language barriers, we coded them into minor, moderate, and major. And so you can see here, 16 were minor, 20 were moderate, and seven were major. Okay, I'm going to, I need my PhD candidate, Brittany Solenston, who's fantastic, made this beautiful graphic. So 79% of officers use survival Spanish defined as something like licencia registro, like law enforcement oriented vocabulary. So we're not talking about Complete basic Spanish proficiency, we're talking about targeted vocabulary for words they know somebody would need. 21% relied on adult passengers or civilians, and here it could be the driver proactively saying, I would prefer to have the person next to me interpret. It's not always the officer initiating it. 12% of stops involved a bilingual officer interpreting, 7% use Google Translate, and 0% use language line, although I'll note that is specifically because a lot of the officers indicated there's highway noise and language line, while it's a wonderful resource and they tremendously valued it, is not the most helpful when you have traffic considerations or when you're trying to be mindful of dynamics in the car and you don't want to be looking at your phone trying to make sure the interpreter's connected. Of these resources, one stop could use multiple. And in the appendix, if you'd like the nitty gritty, I can show you, for example, the 79% of stops that use survival Spanish, some of them also had a bilingual officer. So you see officers switching and navigating tools as needed. So it isn't a one and done. Some other findings, 63% of stops with language barriers involved pantomiming. And the examples I saw on footage Or things like officers pointing to headlights and saying, no luz, and maybe typing a flashlight. So again, you're seeing survival Spanish with pantomiming. This only happened in 19% of stops that were in fluent English or Spanish. The reason for the stop was provided 96% of the time. And that, to me, is the most important takeaway. So officers gave the reason for the stop, regardless of whether or not there was a language barrier. And that made me happy. I didn't know if I would discover this, but that is what we found. So we have two caveats. These are 43 traffic stops with language barriers. Again, we coded until we felt like we were seeing the same things happen repeatedly and we didn't have new findings. But if we had done a different random sample, we might've found something else. For example, I know that our lab manager has seen language line used in traffic stops. It wasn't in our random sample, but she has seen it happen before. And a second caveat again is I'm not trying to tell you 79% of stops involve survival Spanish and nothing else. More than one tool can be used for the same stop. I asked officers about these findings. There are five things they gave me and I'm going to circle through all five. All five are listed on these slides, but I'm going to go ahead in the interest of time and move to the first. And again, an appendix has all of these. This is a 126 page report. It is very long. I've crammed it into these slides. So I asked them, Tell me about survival Spanish. And one of the officers says, well, we learned that there are three E's for stops, enforcement, education, and engineering. And this officer said, you know, the big one is education, education, and enforcement, really. Are we able to do those things effectively if we can't communicate with somebody? And that was the rationale for survival Spanish. And then explaining if that does not work, if the person doesn't understand what the speed limit is, And the officer said, I might say, like, tres cinco, because I'm trying to say treinticinco, but I don't know how to say treinticinco. So the officer was like, then I get a bilingual colleague. Or you might see them punch, like, three five into a phone. People get very creative, but the officer was deliberate. If I can't explain that the speed limit is 35 in survival Spanish, I'm going to use another tool, whether that's tapping a bilingual colleague or something else. Regarding adult passengers or adult civilians or passengers, so somebody using a passenger or maybe somebody in the car calling somebody on the phone. Another officer acknowledged, how much I use an adult passenger or civilian depends on the level of burden that is present that I need. And here, it's important. If it is a criminal investigation, I'm getting an officer that speaks Spanish. So you see officers being very cognizant of if drivers prefer to have the passenger while thinking through, am I really providing sufficient language access if it's something where somebody could be under arrest or have a fine? I want to make sure they're having a bilingual officer there. Regarding bilingual officers, which was the third most commonly used resource, all of the interviewees, all 15 said it was their favorite resource. As they said, having a Spanish speaking officer come to your location is always the most dependable because generally they understand that you're going to translate word for word, but also have the law enforcement perspective. The reason they're not used more is because they're not a finite, you know, there's not an infinite number of them. They're a finite resource. And so as we'll see later in the slides, they were very careful of their bilingual counterparts to try and make sure they weren't overusing them. Officers and drivers sometimes used Google Translate. But as I have underlined, one interviewee said, that is a good tool, but only if it's a basic type of incident. And then again, for language line, they loved it, especially for languages where there weren't bilingual officers as commonly like Vietnamese or Russian.

But they said it's very difficult in traffic stops with traffic noise and safety considerations.

So things that are helpful, keeping things short and simple. Again, luz, manejan muy rapido, trying to keep it simple. As officers said, if I'm not bilingual in Spanish, I'm not going to try and get the grammar wrong and confuse them more. Speaking in a friendly and measured cadence. Many officers said, even if I get the words wrong, if I come across as friendly and speak in a measured tone, it can convey a lot. and can help calm the person down. Many officers described exercising patience, and I have some good quotes on the next slide for that, building rapport and developing linguistic and cultural awareness. Their advice for other officers reading this report was things that are not as productive are unclear, technical, or confusing speech. And while this might seem obvious, things like third brake light that they might be trained in when they're becoming officers, but civilians may not know third brake light. Speaking louder, one interviewee said, You know, they speak a different language. They're not deaf. I think some people speak louder out of, you know, gut instinct, but it's not helpful. Negative mindsets. When there's a communication gap, sometimes we both get frustrated, but that's not going to solve it. Stay calm. We're problem solvers. We love the community we serve. That's why we became officers. Many of them said, don't use unclear, incorrect survival Spanish. Back away. If you can see they're not understanding, Or if your Spanish isn't good enough, switch resources. Another was don't make assumptions. A lot of times we think people are understanding if they're nodding. Sometimes we nod because we're uncomfortable. Check for understanding. Officers also said don't not give the reason for a stop. Sometimes people will try. They'll get stuck. Don't just let them go with a warning. They need to know why you pulled them over. They need to understand what happened. Even if it's just a warning, they need to know why they were stopped. And finally, using potentially biased interpreters, and that really referred to civilians, children, officers were very cognizant of, even if people have good intent, we can all be biased, even if it's accidental. A child could wanna protect a parent, or a passenger may simply not have the competency skills to interpret, and that results in bias. So I loved these quotes, and I'm so short. Allow time, whatever time is needed. Oh, it's so, the slides were darker on my version. I'm trying to read it, allow time, whatever time is needed to be able to communicate accurately, really hear out the person. You can't be narrow-minded and say, I'm in a hurry to get this traffic stop done. It's really take the time and do it right. And that goes with, you shouldn't assume that they're understanding, read their body language, think about how quick they're replying. And if they're saying C to every question, because I've seen that a lot on both languages, English and Spanish, sometimes you just agree because you're uncomfortable. The interviewees emphasized any traffic stop should have three components. And this, again, is a public report. It's with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. So this is going out to statewide agencies. First, make sure you say your name, the agency you represent, whether the person's being audio or video recorded, and the reason for the stops. In your closing statement, reiterate the reason for the stop, the outcome, and next steps. And always check for understanding. Explicitly ask if they have questions. Assess body language. and know that agreement does not equal understanding. And finally, towards working together, all interviewees identified, this requires our law enforcement agencies, the officers within them, and the drivers to come together. From agencies, we want them to hire bilingual officers, but as the quote at the bottom says, while hiring more is easy to say, it's hard to do, because not everyone that's applying is bilingual, but even if they are, there's a criteria that needs to be met, right? You don't just want a body that speaks Spanish, it has to embody the spirit of the department. They wanted to encourage Spanish language proficiency amongst officers and invest in technology that would support language access. Their goals for their fellow officers were, we should all be identifying appropriate language tools, we should be using bilingual officers for complex, sensitive, or criminal matters, and being cognizant of their potentially higher demands. As one officer said, if you know that your partner, your bilingual officer, is taking a bunch of calls for you, I think you should do the same for him, kind of help each other. And for drivers, they said, We have lots of ideas for community partnerships. They said, for example, if there's back to school events, maybe part of it could be an orientation session reminding people of traffic rules. Here's the speed limit. You might need your license registration insurance. Officers described how heartwarming it is when there is a meet people halfway effect, if possible. They said it's not always possible. But officers described how even if there's like a language error, if somebody says cumpleaños instead of fecha de nacimiento, people understand and they smile. And then often the person might say back in English what their birth date is, and there's sort of a melding. And they described how really that bonding is what their goal is for the community. To remind community members to be patient with officers, and I have a quote, we're doing the best we can with that in mind. Give us a little grace, a little patience while we get those resources to you. And then they encouraged individuals, please attend outreach events. We know there's a lot of understandable reasons to be afraid. Immigration is a very hot topic in the country, but please attend outreach events and get to know us. so that we can have the chance to really meet you there. So in conclusion, I'm moving the wrong way. For future research, I see a world in which officers are tasked with more of their first aiders, they're often soothing people, they're often dealing with language barriers. At the same time, communities' linguistic and cultural identities are changing. In Pasco, we have Spanish and Vietnamese, we have Russian, we have so many languages, and they're going to continue to change as people move here. There's also technological advancements, and for me as a researcher, I'm concerned that this is occurring without us pausing to ask officers what works and doesn't work, to ask communities to give feedback, or ask technological innovators how well is your artificial intelligence transcribing, translating, and interpreting? I'm sure it has capacity, but to what extent? When does it go wrong? And so my hope looking ahead with this research is really to do that, to assess to what extent technological tools can help or hinder. to determine which tools are most useful for different situations. Again, language line, wonderful resource, many officers say, but not as helpful in traffic stops. To receive input from officers and community members, and again, for a separate study I have seven focus groups with community members here and ultimately to collaborate together so that as a community we're addressing language barriers. I'm happy to take questions and I'm just going to quickly show the appendix has lots of other resources and I've also shared with the police the full 126 page report as well as a seven page brief and both will be published next week on the Washington Traffic Safety Commission's website. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Dr. Mellinger. I'd like to say, first of all, you're probably the most eloquent speaker I think we've ever had at the podium there. Yeah, very well done. Thank you. No, it was really, really good. And we put you in an awkward spot in the middle of the room where you're stuck trying to address everybody. Yeah, camera's up here. We're up here. We love them. yeah just ignore them in the future and no I appreciated the rapid fire you'd not give me one moment for my mind to wander to keep up with you so very well done thank you for your presentation questions or comments from council

Mr. Campos? No, I just want to say, just echo what our mayor said. Thank you so much for the presentation. I think what you're talking about is very important. And, you know, you mentioned the whole, like, don't make assumptions. And I get tests, we do it all the time, right? We nod our head and kind of like have no idea what's happening. And some people could take it as that's a yes, or you may. So something so small that we don't understand can be a big problem in the future. So I thank you so much for bringing this. I thank you for your endeavor of just making it right and so what things that we could do to make it better. So thank you so much.

Mr. Figueroa.

Yeah, first and foremost, go Cougs. And don't worry, on our end, it was crimson and gray, your slides. So I appreciate that even more. But this is a great resource. As you talked about a lot of the stuff, it just takes me back to My childhood, I mean, being the first in my family, having English as my second language, being that civilian, translating at times for traffic stops, and a seven-year-old kid, like some of these terms you have no idea how to translate them into. But I think it's important, and I appreciate the research that our Pasco PD can take, and I see a lot of the great work, you know, building relationships. I mean, one of the things I shared when I had the first kind of interaction with Pasco PD was, we're kind of raised to be afraid of law enforcement, right, because of different things, immigration, stuff like that. But learning that, hey, PASCO PD is here to help and to be that kind of organization to help you out and give you the resources that's really important. So I appreciate a lot of the stuff because I know that our community is going through this. And so if we can learn and be more effective and efficient, I think that's a good thing to have. So thank you again for the presentation and the findings. Mr. Hernandez.

Thank you for the presentation. Have you thought about using AI for interpreting at all?

Could you expand on the question?

I used to work at the courthouse, and they were working on a program to actually use AI instead of interpreters, because interpreters are very expensive, especially in a courtroom. So is there a plan for that at all?

So David Macon and Dale Willits are two of the people who created the Complex Social Interactions Lab, which it's just really cool because the acronym is CSI, at Washington State University. And I know they want to research what AI has done. Right now within law enforcement, it's mostly things like Google Translate or Axon, which is the company that does the body-worn cameras. They just released recently the ability to try and translate So they haven't been really studied yet. To my knowledge, me watching those videos and watching Google Translate and seeing when it gets it right or wrong is kind of the first attempts. But I think it's something Washington State University hopes to do. I will tell you from what I understand from my colleagues working in the health care sphere or the court sphere, they're very reticent. Sometimes it gets it right, but things where the reticence happens is things like volume. Like I've heard, for example, maybe it works, but the internet cuts out or the volume isn't good. person can't hear so anything that is video technology or not human seems to be and to be honest the officers at pasco seem to agree with this they they were like if you can do it in person that's the gold standard but i do think that ai is here to stay and so i think that's where it's really important to try and figure out as these tools are so quickly evolving like what tweaks can be made so that they are leveraged in a way that's really helpful right now i think most of the language access fear is a bit hesitant it feels like It feels like we're rushing a little bit quickly, but I don't think anyone is saying they shouldn't exist. I think it's more how should they exist and where do they need to be improved before somebody gets given a tool that might cause confusion more than help. But that's anecdotal.

Thank you, Mr. Cotton. Thank you. You answered my question with Cal's question. So thank you, and thank you. Good job on the presentation.

No, and I'd just like to add also, this is an important work you and your colleague are doing, and we really appreciate it because we believe in community policing here. It's National Night Out tomorrow, make an early plug, and we want positive relationships with our community And all the research you're doing and everything, it just, you know, kind of humbling. I'm sure my family's even at home saying, Dad, see, it doesn't help when you speak louder and all that kind of stuff. So, no, it is an important work you're doing. We really appreciate it because we want to be better. I mean, we believe we're the best, right, Captain? We know. We know. we know we're the best, but we know we can still improve and, um, you know, look introspectively at our, at ourselves. And, uh, that's, that's just part of growth and everything. So really appreciate your partnership and helping us do that.

Well, I appreciate yours as well. When I first came here three years ago to do ride along, somebody from city council came and talked to me and talked about demographics and really introduced me to your community. And I really appreciate you being partners in the same to the police department.

Thank you all. Thank you. Anybody else? Captain Paramore, you have anything to add?

One thing, just real quick. As you were paying attention to that presentation, I'm so proud of the men and women that participated in that. If you saw the quotes, they didn't know that their body-worn camera footage was going to be used in a study. And so their interaction with the community is genuine. It wasn't like they had the answers before the test. And so to have 96% or whatever the percentage was of procedural justice score, It's because we train that, and that's because we live it. So I'm super proud of the men and women of the Pasco Police Department. I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you.

And that's a really important thing to make clear. Thank you so much. Yeah, it really speaks to the ongoing training and just the culture and the atmosphere you have within the department that makes you the best. Thank you. Appreciate it. Anything else? Thank you again, Dr. Mellinger. Moving on, number 12, miscellaneous discussion. Ms. Sigdell.

Mayor, you beat me to it. Tomorrow we still have scheduled National Night Out, which will be taking place at 2.30 p.m. at Tierra Vida and again at 5 p.m. at Giza Stadium. The event will be held at 5 p.m. and will be in partnership with Tri-Cities Dust Devils baseball team. We invite the community to meet the Pasco Police officers There will be patrol vehicles and police equipment for kids to get into. I'm sure my son has enjoyed that quite a bit over the years. Take pictures, play carnival games and pick up games and get some swag from our police department. So we welcome all of our community to come to those two locations. Again, 2.30 p.m. at Tierra Vida and then 5 p.m. at the Giza Stadium.

Thank you very much. And from what I hear, Captain Paramore, how are we doing back there? You gonna throw a skipper across the ground, a little skitter? Yeah, no skitters out there, please, yeah. Anybody else have anything for miscellaneous council discussion? Mr. Perales emailed and told me he's saving his comments for next week. Do we have anything else? Not seeing any, and I'm not seeing any executive session this evening, Ms. Sigdell. Number 14's adjournment. This meeting at 9.05 is adjourned. Thanks, everyone, for attending.