Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, Mr. Chair, I believe we have 6.30. So if you're ready and everybody else is ready, feel free to proceed when you are.

Excellent.

Thank you. I was just waiting for the music. All right.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Jerry Cochran. I'd like to call the City of Pasco Planning Commission meeting to order. I'd like to welcome all those attendants this evening and ask you to join me. in citing the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, to begin tonight's meeting, I'd like to ask the clerk to call the roll.

Rosa Torres, excused. Austin Crawford? Present. Pat Jones? Present. Kim Lehrman, excused. Rob Waits, excused. Dana Crutchfield? Present. Rachel Teal, excused. Jay Handler?

Present.

Jerry Cochran? Present. Mr. Chair, there are five members present. We do have a quorum.

Thank you very much. And I'd like to welcome our new commissioners to the commission. Thank you for being here. The Planning Commission is an advisory board made up of volunteers appointed by the City Council. The purpose of the Planning Commission is to provide recommendations to City Council regarding changes to the city's comprehensive plan land use updates, block grant allocations, and zoning code. The Planning Commission is tasked with considering the long-term growth and development of the community, the impact of land use decisions on community, livability, economic opportunity, housing affordability, public services, and the environment. Are you all getting some feedback or are we okay?

I am getting a little bit of feedback. I know we had this at the council meeting too on Monday. So I haven't fixed it. All right.

Well, I'll just go ahead and keep going and hopefully it won't be too bad. I would like to remind the audience tonight's proceedings are being broadcast live on the city of Pasco's Facebook page and on charter cable spectrum PSC channel 191 and will be rebroadcast several times over the next month. This meeting is also being recorded, and you can watch it on the City of Pasco's website, which is pasco-wa.gov. You click on Video on Demand link and make your selection there. There are copies of the meeting agenda available online on the City of Pasco website, and you may follow along for the meeting. And at this time, I'd like to ask everyone to silence your microphones and cell phones to prevent interruptions during the meeting. For those present this evening, when you are given the opportunity to address the Commission, please raise your hand so that you can be the light you'd like to speak or address the Commission. Speak clearly into the microphone and state your name and city of address for our records. Before we begin, I need to remind the audience and the Planning Commission that Washington State law requires public meetings like the one being held this evening not only be fair, but also appear to be fair. In addition, Washington State law prohibits Planning Commission members from participating in discussions or decisions in which the member may have a direct interest or be benefited or harmed by the planning commission's decision. The objection to any planning commission member hearing any matter on tonight's agenda needs to be aired at this time or it will be waived. So first, is there any planning commission members who have a declaration at this time regarding any of the items on the agenda? All right, hearing none, let the record show there were no declarations. second is there anyone in the audience this evening who would object to any planning commission member hearing any of the items on the agenda all right hearing none let the record show that there was none declared we as a planning commission need and value your input it helps us understand the issues more clearly and to make better decisions to city council or make better recommendations for city council excuse me Furthermore, in many cases, your report here at this filing commission meeting is your only opportunity to get facts and opinions placed into the official record the city council will use to make its decision. I encourage you to take full advantage of this opportunity. To start off, the first item on the agenda is approval of the meeting minutes, and those meeting minutes are from, which is last month. Sorry, pulling those up. I'm not sure why I'm not seeing them, but the meeting minutes were sent ahead of time, and so I trust everyone has had a chance to read.

Mr. Chairman, I'll move approval of the May 15th minutes. Pat Jones.

Thank you. Do I have a second?

I'll second. Crutchfield, Commissioner.

All right. Then moved by Commissioner Jones, seconded by Commissioner Crutchfield. All those in favor of approval of meeting minutes, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? All right. Meeting minutes are approved unanimously.

Mr. Chair, if I may interrupt for just a quick moment, just a reminder for planning commission members to push their mic button on when they're speaking, please. Thank you.

Super helpful, yeah. Thank you. All right, so I'm pulling up the agenda. Our first item on the agenda is, gosh, I'm sorry. I'm looking for the actual agenda that I don't seem to have in front of me. The curse of being remote. I'll find it here in just a second.

Mr. Chair, first item of business is the comp plan kickoff presentation by Director Miller.

Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and start with that. Now over to you, Director Miller.

Thank you, Chair. Hello, everyone. My name is Celia Miller. I'm your new Community and Economic Development Director. It's nice to see all of you, and welcome to the County Commissioners. I look forward to meeting you in person, and thank you for allowing me to attend the night. And this item was meant to just be a quick check-in with the group. Back in June, we did cancel the regularly held Planning Commission meeting. And then we did a joint meeting with the Planning Commission and City Council where I presented a lengthy presentation on the comprehensive plan kickoff. And for those of you that don't know, we are going through That was a plan update. It now occurs every 10 years for all cities in Washington. It's a required GMA, Growth Management Act requirement. And what we are doing with this plan is looking 20 years ahead in FOSCO and planning for growth in residents. We're planning to grow to 121,000 residents in the next 20 years and agree for a 84-85,000 population. We will also be welcoming new jobs to the area. And this is really an important opportunity for the planning commission, the city council, Pasco residents, the entire community to get together and dream, you know, what they want for Pasco and the city to look like. So I conducted the kick off and one of the questions at the end of the meeting was whether or not planning commission and council would like to do a joint meeting and I did get mixed feedback from both groups so what I'm suggesting that we do is just sort of go through our normal meetings related to the comprehensive plan and if we hit a point where we think there's documents that we need to check in with council I'm happy to do the liaison between the groups and if I hear from any group at any point and I'll tell both groups this if anybody you know the majority of each group says If you would like a joint meeting, I'll go ahead and facilitate that. But it sounds like for now, a few people were in support of it, but the majority was not. I'll be a liaison and make sure that if you guys, if the planning commission is discussing a matter I feel like may surprise council at the end, or where I think a check-in may be validated, I'll just go ahead and bring that up and be the liaison. wanted to provide a quick check-in. If there is any of you in attendance, if you have any comments or feedback on what I just said or to pick up, that would be a good time to step back. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Miller. Any commissioners have any feedback? I know we discussed this and there was mixed feedback. Even the council was not sure. The mayor wasn't sure he wanted to spend the time doing those check-ins either. But I think If we kind of reach points where our key, like, okay, we've been discussing something, we're not sure where the council may come down on this. If we start to find a collection of those, I think what Director Miller is saying is that might be a good forcing function to say, let's check in with council in some form or fashion. And that could take a variety of forms. It could be a giant workshop or it could be simply, you know, one or more of us or me actually just visit it. having an agenda item on the council meeting as well. So we could do whatever we think is the right thing there. Does anybody else have any feedback? Commissioner Jones, go ahead.

Thank you very much. I attended the city council meeting where all of this went down, and many of us had questions and were not sure where we should go from there. In thinking about it since then, I was wondering if before we started our hot and heavy deliberations on this, would it be worthwhile to have perhaps a small committee of a couple members of this commission, a couple of city council members, and the chairman or the... Director Miller to sit down and just kick this around a little bit and make sure we're not going two totally different directions before we start. That would allow some feedback to come back to both groups without having to take up everyone's time in formal meeting session. I'd like to know what the other council members think of that, and Chairman, you as well, and see what kind of discussion we can generate on that. Thank you.

I don't think it's a bad idea. The only thing I would look to staff for a judgment call is whether it violates Open Public Meetings Act by meeting in a subset. So there are some restrictions on meeting only part of a group or part of a commission. So I'll defer to staff on the guidance on that.

Yeah, and I can work into that. It's not a quorum unless there's four on each side. And it does sound like the suggestion was more aligned with, like, a committee that you heard, you know. I think that that would be a good question to ask the new city manager when we get to that point. I don't think we'll be hitting the wall with any issues like in the meantime in the next few months. So I have that comment noted and I'll discuss that with the new city manager and the port mayor and see what their thoughts are on that. But just so everyone knows, my job as the director is to serve as the liaison between the four groups. So I have a really good sense of when there's starting to be crashes in view, so I will be watching on both sides and if there's something I can reach out for, I'll bring it up at one of the meetings too. So just don't feel like I'm not watching, observing and taking notes and I'll make sure I'm bringing it up to the chair.

Since neither group would have a quorum, we wouldn't be in any violation. It would be just like any regular old subcommittee meeting on any regular old topic. So we would certainly be within the legalities. It just might be worth taking everyone's temperature as to where we're at because we have a lot of ideas and questions. I know they do as well. So worth some discussion and investigating it. Thank you.

Commissioner Jones. Anyone else? Commissioner Crosby.

Yes, thank you. I also was at the meeting, or the city council meeting when we attended, and I feel that it would be a good idea to have some interfacing with the council, maybe not in the beginning, in the early phases, but as the process unfolds and so forth, I think it would be a good idea to have clarification and sharing of ideas and goals and that at some point. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Crushfield. Anyone else?

I have one thing to add if everyone else is done.

Go ahead. It looks like everybody.

Thank you. So I appreciate the feedback and at the next meeting I'll bring some different ideas to the group. I did just want to point out that I do feel you know, very strong that the planning commission is, you know, tasked with doing most of the heavy lifting and, you know, you're the minds that help create these ideas and, you know, it's always good to have a finalized product ready to cancel from the planning commission because you guys are spending more time getting into the weeds and details. So I don't want that to get lost by bouncing back and forth the whole process. I think You know, if you follow the standard process, the planning commission does all of the hard work and presents it in a nice, better council. The thing that I would like to avoid is it getting the council and something being just completely turned over. So I think regular check-ins are good, but when we're doing everything together, it's sort of losing the whole purpose of the planning commission structure, which is, you know, we're going through and doing this and looking at it from a land use aspect where the council group is looking at that too, but not as stringent as this group is. So I hear your feedback and I will come back to the next meeting with some additional ideas as we move through this process.

Thank you. It definitely is our job to get them a product and that's why we exist. So they don't have to go through all that weeds. All right. Anything else on this topic before we move on to the public hearing topic? All right, thank you, everyone. Our next thing on the agenda is our public hearings. And the item we have for public hearing is 2026 Community Development Block Grant Program allocation. And I assume I'll be turning that over to Ms. Webb.

Good evening Planning Commission. Tonight I will be discussing the 2026 Community Development Block Grant Annual Work Plan and Allocation. Next slide.

Keep going.

One more.

There you go. The outline for the grant program is how to approve the five-year consolidated plan which is the goals and strategies for the funding for the next five years. Then each year of the consolidated plan we submit an annual action plan which is the basis for carrying out the annual goals. and activities for each program year. At the end of each fiscal year, we submit the Consolidated Annual Plan Evaluation Report.

I'm not hearing Kristen. Are you speaking here?

Yep. Hold on. Good. Can you hear me now, Jerry?

Yep. Can you hear now?

At the end of each fiscal year, we submit the Consolidated Annual Plan Evaluation Report, also known as the CAPER, to evaluate the annual action plan performance. And, of course, citizen participation is mandatory and encouraged throughout the process with public comment periods and public hearings like the one today. The Consolidated Plan for 2025-2029 goals are increase and preserve affordable housing. This is done through down payment assistance and owner-occupied rehabs. community, neighborhood, and economic development through facades, public works, and facility projects, examples with installing like ADA equipment at the city parks, homeless interventions, and public services through activities like the YMCA and the Architrize Cities. This is an estimate of the available funds based on the entitlement total for 2025. There were no prior There were no prior year funds, and I am not anticipating program income, which the only activity that we receive program income is from the owner-occupied rehabs that have been paid off. So available for use in 2026 is $650,000. For 2026, we received 14 proposals for funding total of $1.2 million. So with an estimated of $650,000, we have a deficit of $641,000. There is consistently a shortfall in available funds due to the volume of proposals exceeding the allocated budget. Additionally, with annual fund reductions by Congress, there is a possibility that we may eventually be unable to support any activity. For example, from 2024 to 2025, we had a $39,000 reduction in funds. This is a breakdown by project type, which lines up with the consolidated plan goals that we're currently doing. And this is the timeline of what the path is moving forward. We had the applications which the deadline was May 31st. Today we're having the public hearing and this also ends the public comment period for the annual action plan. Next meeting we are hoping to bring you back a staff recommendation. and get your recommendations so we can submit to council, and then the council workshop and council regular meeting will be determined, and then after that, update allocation for final submission to HUD. With that, are there any questions from the commission before we open the public hearing and hear from the applicants themselves?

Commissioner, do you have any questions or feedback? Okay. One of the things I, you know, just a comment, just a thought as we go through this. You guys always do a great job of coming up with a kind of a scoring, and the scoring is based on what the HUD criteria and other criteria is for application. So I think that's super helpful for us to understand how you score them. The one thing I have observed over the last, you know, five or six years since I've been doing this is that We tend to, a lot of times, do the same ones over and over again, and that's not a bad thing, especially sometimes we do that because those are the ones that meet the criteria. But it would also be good to start to see some new applicants, and as long as they meet the criteria and they score high, it would be nice to see some new applicants as well as we go through this. So that would be my only feedback as we get into this. Anything else before we open the public hearing?

I have a question real quick. Maybe this comes at a later date, but I guess the requested funding amounts for each one of these, there's a handful of requests for the funding block, but no information as far as what percentage of that allocation or what the funds requested would be, and I'm just asking if... there's a means of us picking multiple or mixing and matching of these just depending on what allocation funds those are i don't know if that's how that works so what happens is um so with the funding like this year we're anticipating

650,000 and so 20% of that automatically goes to the admin so that has to get taken off right up at the top with public service activities we have a cap of 15% then we also do have a section 108 debt payment that has to be repaid out of these funds and that's 250,000 so that only leaves about 300 and so thousand dollars for us to split up between all these applicants and so last year we kind of did it on a basis of the priority of what was in our consolidated plan and with housing being the focus we did focus more on housing projects unfortunately there were public service activities that none of them did get funded last year so next month we'll come back to you guys with staffs recommendation and you guys are all always able to change that or make your own recommendations that gets submitted to council.

Okay, so based off that we're allowed to pick one, I guess, or is that whatever the $300,000 plus or minus fund?

Last year we actually funded everything, practically. Everybody got something.

Okay, so we don't get split up. Okay, that's what I was wondering. Great question. If I can follow up on that, it says on here on this spreadsheet that that the estimated entitlement $650,000, but then you said we actually only have about $350,000 that we can distribute tonight? Yes. Or did I not hear that correctly?

No, that's correct. So the Section 108 payment, the debt payment, that has to come out of this amount. And so does the admin.

So then we have these eight requests listed here, or maybe more than that, I'm not sure. So we do not have $650,672 to distribute amongst those. No. What is the real number?

Let me see.

It's that minus $250,000. $400,000?

Roughly. It's on page 35 of your packet, if you have that.

Yeah, it's about $400,000 that you guys would have, or that we would have.

I just want to know what we actually have to distribute before we start because I would have thought just looking at this we have 650,000 but 400,000 would be a more accurate number. Correct. And do all the people presenting tonight realize that as well?

Most of the people who have applied before are past applicants so yes they do all know that and when they receive their packet and stuff there's some information in there.

And I assume then, since this is my first time sitting on the City of Pasco's, not the first time in doing this process, but first time for the City of Pasco, there are qualifications that each applicant has to meet in order to be on the page?

Correct.

Is being a non-profit organization one of them, or can they be for-profit?

In our application process, we are a non-profit. We only accept non-profit.

So if an applicant that is a for-profit operation applies, that would make them ineligible?

Not necessarily, because they can go under our economic development national objective as well, but it just depends on what the council wants to do.

is that I was surprised to see a for-profit operation listed on here when everything else on here is either city or non-profit. So that's something that I think we need to keep aware as we go through and hear the presentations is that we really take good care of our nonprofits and of our city needs maybe more strongly than we look at for-profit organizations that will make money off of our possible funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Jones. Yeah, you know, you'll see the process as we go through, too, is that in addition to the funding we have available minus the debt payment, we also have a scoring system that I think is in the packet if I'm not incorrect. Kristen, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's in the packet or last year's is in the packet. Yes, it is. In August, you'll present us a scoring and recommendations from staff based on that scoring. And you also explain that scoring because the scoring is really not dictated by us or just a whim. It's dictated by the funders of the grants, which is HUD, and HUD has some specific, I think it's HUD, right, Kristen? Correct. Yeah, and so they are very specific of how you rate and how you score, what the risk is, what the opportunity is, who they're serving. And they'll probably staff a little bit over with that in August, and you'll get a really good sense as the packet has some of that in it as well.

Thank you. I had a question for Kristin. Is there any way for us to know or maybe we have discussed this about the applicants if they're receiving from other sources so that we might have one that looks great and we want to fund but they're also getting funds elsewhere and as opposed to one that might not be. Is that included?

That's actually in their packet. It's in their budget. In their scoring thing? Yeah.

Okay, I thought so, but thank you for clarifying that.

Any other questions before we open the public hearing and hear from applicants that are here? Okay, let's open the public hearing. I don't know who's in the room, so you'll have to help me. If we have an applicant, applicants, please come forward, or other public comments, please come forward at this time.

Yes, so tonight we're actually going to start with Upwards Care, since she is online and we just don't want to have any technical difficulties. So, Melanie, go ahead.

And I think that's Melanie.

Thank you so much. Okay, you can hear me. Good evening, commissioners, community development team. My name is Melanie Fore. I'm the community impact manager at Upwards. Thank you for the opportunity to share how Boost can support the child care providers and working families in Pasco. As you may know, in Pasco, child care providers earn on average $19 an hour, qualifying most as low to moderate income. This makes it very difficult for them to sustain, let alone grow their business. Meanwhile, PESCO faces a significant childcare gap with nearly 50% of children under six who can't access licensed care, which leaves thousands of families, especially mothers and single parents struggling to participate in the workforce. These are the very challenges that BOOST will address. The goal of our program is to equip the low to moderate income micro enterprise childcare providers, so these are in-home daycares, with personalized coaching and digital tools to streamline their operations and increase revenue. This allows them to manage and expand their business, create local teaching assistant jobs, and improve the quality and inclusivity of care, all while maintaining affordability for families. To reach these goals, each provider is paired with a dedicated care manager. So this is a business coach who works with them to create a custom strategy to help grow their business. Our multilingual care managers have over 15 years' experience in early childhood education, including their own lived experience of running successful daycares. Providers work through a tailored curriculum and best practices for running a successful, sustainable daycare long term. They guide the providers through our child care management software system that's designed to streamline the entire operations and boost revenue and improve quality of care. It's important to note that providers will retain free access to the platform even after the program ends, allowing them to continue building on their success. So this program is entirely free for providers and families, not just through the program year, but in perpetuity. So we had applied for $128,000 in CDBG funding, and along with upwards matching contribution, that would have allowed us to support 16 family child care providers in PASCO, create five teaching assistant jobs, and expand care to over 200 families. Now, given the presentation, I really want to highlight that BOOST is fully scalable. So given limited funds, we can scale the program down without sacrificing the quality to support the handful of providers who are in most urgent need of support. I also want to highlight upwards contributes a lot more than is reflected in the budget, but because those are variable contributions that are variable based on the needs of the providers, we didn't include it in the budget. But we did note that we also offer a teaching assistant subsidy to really help ease the financial burden of hiring a teaching assistant, which allows the providers to expand access and improve the quality of care. Again, why is this important? For a large portion of Tri-City families, child care access remains limited. Less than a third of local families needing care for kids between the age of three and five are able to access it. This is only going to get worse with the proposed cuts to the early childhood education and assistance program, not to mention Pasco's growing population, as Director Miller mentioned. With the support of our care specialists, any family in Pasco, not just those enrolled with BOOST, can access care that fits their unique needs, including emergency backup care within 24 hours. As a working mom with two toddlers, I can say this is a game changer for parents. and meanwhile children benefit from higher quality care. BOOST is a proven model. We've launched the program in over two dozen counties and cities nationwide, not only met but exceeded all projected outcomes. We're in our second year in Bellevue and our first in Bremerton, and we'd be thrilled to launch a pilot program in Pasco. I want to note that while BOOST addresses many public service needs, as an economic development program, it's not restricted by the public service cap. And while we're a for-profit social enterprise, we are more akin to B Corp, actually looking into those certifications right now, and contribute a significant amount to the communities we serve, again, more than what's reflected in the budget. We're a really mission-driven company, and Boost is the heart of the agency's mission. I want to emphasize that sustainability is at the core of the model. We equip providers with the training and tools they need to thrive beyond the program year. So I'm happy to answer any questions, both as a representative of Upwards and a mom who will forever be grateful for the Upwards daycares who cared for my little ones, who you may hear in the background. Again, I can vouch from my personal experience that it was very validating that the most affordable option for my family was also the best quality.

Thank you. Thank you very much for being here and for presenting your application. Commissioners, questions for the applicant?

Are we in a question mode right now, Chairman? Go ahead. Okay, thank you very much. You stated that your business is a for-profit operation. That is correct?

Yes, I would say more akin to, well, definitely that social enterprise. So we operate at the federal, state, and local level. On the federal level, we offer childcare benefits to military members, including in the state of Washington since 2021. On the state level, we distribute subsidies. So we're more of a pass-through. We distribute childcare subsidies. The small service fees we get from those programs are to support our navigational services. So that's the child care matching element that, again, with the BOOST program, any family would be able to benefit from as well. So the funding we make goes right back into our non-revenue generating programs. BOOST is, like I said, the heart of what we do. It's about a third of our team is focused on BOOST. And really, for us, it was not only the initial genesis of why Jessica Ching started upwards was to support in-home child care providers. But if you think about it with other services like subsidy, if we don't have any child care providers left because they keep closing, then we're just going to be putting parents on wait lists, which is not what we want to do.

And you currently are not providing services in the city of Pasco, is that correct?

Sorry, I didn't hear the beginning of the question.

Are you currently providing services in the city of Pasco?

Yes, so we haven't launched the Boost program in the city of Pasco, but we are partnered with existing in-home child care facilities, I think about 16 in the city right now, and we serve families as well in Pasco. So any family can download the Upwards app for free to help find care.

And so where does your funding for that part of your program come from?

Sorry, just for like the providers who are on our network.

For whatever services you're providing in the city of Pasco right now, what are your funding sources for that?

So providers and families are not paying anything to access those services. It's more, it's like akin to a 3% credit card fee if they're paying each, if the families are paying the providers through the platform, they could always pay directly to avoid that. So when I mentioned that we're a social enterprise, we branched out to bring on government stakeholders and private employers so that we can provide these services for free for providers and families.

So are you currently receiving any taxpayer funds to operate your organization in the city of Pasco?

No.

So it's all private funded?

Yes. I mean, it's It's the platform, so we're essentially offering the platform for no cost.

Will any of the dollars that you would receive from the City of Pasco go directly to child care, or would it all go towards training of people who want to operate and run child care facilities in their home?

So that's a great question. So the teacher assistance subsidy is an example of upwards contribution that would go straight to the provider specifically to help them offset the initial cost of bringing on a teaching assistant. Aside from that, the reason we can't include a lot of our contributions in the budget is because it's really variable on the needs of the providers. So let's say they need to improve something in their home to get up to compliance, that's something we would contribute. Let's say that they don't have a smartphone or a tablet to run the platform, that's something we would contribute. Maybe less likely that they don't have internet, but if that was the case, that's something we would contribute.

Do you help potential providers achieve state or local or whatever certification they have to have in order to be an in-home provider?

Yes. So with the BOOST program specifically, we start by reaching out to licensed, existing licensed providers. But one of the very first steps is making sure that they are completely, you know, not only meeting all state but exceeding all state standards. That's part of any provider that gets added to the upwards network. I think this just brings it up to another level. So yes, we would work with them. We also have what we dubbed boost and build, which is where we help folks get licensed. So that's a little bit out of, the scope of this proposal just because we want to really support the existing providers before more close their doors. Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you. So if this just supports existing child care facilities, how does it increase the number of children that can be served?

That's a great question. So I think I glossed over it in my presentation, forgive me, but essentially you can have a license to be like a small license provider. or you can have a license to be a large license provider. One, there's different qualifications. So we do help the interested providers who want to expand their capacity to a large license capacity. We would help them with all of the licensing requirement that entails, including bringing on a teaching assistant. That might not be the only reason they want to bring on a teaching assistant, but when they do bring on a teaching assistant, whether they're changing their license or not, that can create more slots. Now let's say the provider doesn't bring in a teaching assistant. They still have, it's kind of counterintuitive because there's a massive capacity gap. However, providers still have a hard time filling in all the like puzzle pieces of enrollment. So let's say they have a kid who is, you know, they're part-time or there's different ratios of, babies versus toddlers and so forth, we, with our proprietary matching algorithm and the help of our actual care managers, we can help match make and fill in those slots so that they can really increase the revenue based on what they're comfortable with accommodating at any given time, but really get them up to their desired level of enrollment. So by spreading out the operational costs over more families, they're also more sustainable Because let's say one family moves and all of a sudden they have three slots open up, whatever it may be, then we can help fill those in right away.

It sounds like you might be in the business of brokering kids into daycares. Do families contact you and then your organization places them in a certain daycare that you're working with?

Yeah, that's definitely an aspect of the BOOST program. So I really also want to highlight the importance of the platform and the curriculum and custom action plan. But yes, to answer your question, that's one of, again, it's counterintuitive because there's a huge capacity gap. But a lot of times, these are women who may have gone into it for their own child care needs and figured they may as well start a daycare. They might not be as business savvy, and they might be relying on word of mouth. helping them increase their enrollment is a huge part of it. Part of upwards matching contribution or contribution is not just we're already in touch with all of the licensed daycares in the city, but wanting to really promote the program to all the low to moderate income families who would most benefit from it so that they can take advantage of this level of, you know, kind of concierge matchmaking service that our military families, for example, get. So while I said all the families could download our app for free you know that's kind of like they're still kind of on their own of course there's 24 7 support but they're on their own to try to still find that match whereas this through the boost program that's where we can help families find a care within 24 hours so does upwards care inc make its profit uh based on how many children they place in daycares or how do they make their money No, so we work with the Department of Defense to offer child care benefits to U.S. Army, Army National Guard, and Air Force. That, again, there's a small service fee for that for navigational services, but most of the funding that we receive from Department of Defense is in the form of, except we're a pass-through, so it's like a child care benefit. We also, again, like I mentioned, work with the state of California for subsidy in a similar kind of format where there's a service fee. And then we work with private employers. So like Amazon's our biggest private employer, and they pay a service fee for our navigational services as well. They're just one of many. So we work with Trane and Peace Health in Washington State. So Chobani, JCPenney.

So those companies pay you to provide child care in the city of Pasco?

No, so the companies pay us at the base level for the navigational services, so the matchmaking. So all the partners I listed, at the very least, are paying us a service fee so that we can help their employees find care Again, we're down to 24 hours, so that has a huge impact on productivity and retention, and that's why they're motivated to do that. similarly with the Department of Defense. Now, in some cases, like with our military program, they also are paying us to distribute that subsidy. So it's basically like, I mean, I receive it as an upwards employee where I just get reimbursed for a portion of my childcare costs. And so we help make that all very smooth and easy for the employer to offer.

So do families have to work at a certain employer in order to use your services and then be placed?

No. To clarify, I was answering your question about how Upwards makes its money. The whole goal with Boost is that all of the families in the city would have that level of concierge service completely for free. Okay.

Thank you. That concludes my questions.

Thank you.

Other questions for the applicant?

all right well thank you melanie for being here and presenting your application thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to present virtually um and uh kristen has my info if anybody has follow-up questions thank you again thank you very much okay do we have another next applicant yep next will be the ymca of the greater tri-cities thank you welcome

Is that good? There we go. I'm Steve Howland. Got you. I'm the director for the YMCA in the Tri-Cities, and for about the past 40 years, the YMCA has partnered with the city of Pasco to operate the Martin Luther King Center after schools, and then we've developed a pretty sizable soccer program for the kids in the area. During this relationship, the YMCA has provided funding along with the city of Pasco. We had a previous nonprofit that also supported it. When they departed, we came to the city and said, hey, we're in trouble of keeping this going along with our other programs. So for the past about 18 years, the city has helped us out to keep that program going. That program consists of an after-school program where kids can drop into the YMCA, have a safe place to recreate, have homework, computers, and things like that. And then we transition into a soccer program. So throughout the year, about 44 weeks out of the year, we have a competitive soccer program that the kids can play in and then move on through. What we've seen with this program is it's allowing the boys and girls to continue on, get higher education opportunities. So as they graduate from high school, they played with us. If you were to talk to Matt Potter over at Pasco, a large percentage of the kids that play for him have gone through the YMCA's program. But what he's seen and what we see is these kids then go on to community colleges and other college opportunities. So while it's soccer and it sounds like it's just a game, there's also some real side benefits for the kids and what they're able to do. But we've done this because of the partnership between the three of us. We appreciate that support. We understood last year it wasn't able to, and our board is committed to the Martin Luther King Center and has been for a long time. So the board said, great, we will allocate some additional funds from our operations to make sure that we continue to operate with that. And that continues on. The board has obviously believed that after 40 years, we're not going anywhere. We believe in the neighborhood. You should all be aware of the construction that's going on there, and that's had some disruption in services, but we're still there every day so those kids can come in and have that safe place to be. Rob's going to tell you a little bit about the soccer program and some of the growth that we've seen there.

Good evening. I'm Rob Wilkinson. I'm the program director out at the Pasco YMCA. On a typical year, we see about 3,000 youth and adults that come through the center. I say typical because Steve mentioned that the center, as you may know, the center is going under an extensive renovation project over the next few years. So we have seen our attendance drop the last couple of months, but the jury is still out because we see our attendance drop in the summer months anyway. On a typical day during the school year when we have our soccer programs, we'll see 40 to 50 people come through the center. on an average night. And right now in the summer we're seeing about 20 to 25. But we still are out there providing those services as Steve mentioned. The other thing that I'll talk about is our soccer program. As Steve mentioned, we're over in the Kurtzman Park area. We're predominantly a low-income area. And most of those kids rely on our soccer program and the fees that we charge. Our program is quite a bit less than some of the other leagues or programs in the area. And we also offer financial assistance. So our kids can play a low-cost program but they don't lose the competitiveness that Steve alluded to and that Coach Matt Potter speaks to all the time. Excuse me. The last couple years, we've seen robust growth in our program. In 2023, we had 1,500 kids. 2024, we had about 2,000. And this year, we're going to be close to 2,500 by the time we're done. And I think a big part of that is we're over at the A Street Complex now, the brand-new soccer complexes out there. We're using that. and it's more accessible for the residents that are in our program. Again, I just want to stress that we do appreciate your funding, the opportunity to apply, and with your funding, we're able to keep our rates reasonable for our participants. Thank you. Any questions?

Thank you for being here. Any questions from the commissioners?

Welcome to the Pat Jones Show. It's so nice to have you all here. Having been involved, thank you gentlemen for your presentation. I've been involved with YMCA's all my life at various levels. whether it's east coast, west coast, middle of the country, you name it. One of the great things about a YMCA, when a parent decides to send their child to the YMCA for any program, they know they're going to be safe, they know they're going to be well taken care of, that the adults that they're working with have been vetted, and every dollar that we invest goes to making that child better. And so communities that have YMCAs are blessed to have them, and we as one partner, because I know that YMCAs have a lengthy list of funding partners to make things work. Members, other private entities, taxable entities, and so on. So I thank you for the work you do with the kids, and encourage support of the YMCA, because every dollar enhances the experience that a child has on a daily basis. Thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Jones. Others? Commissioner Garfield?

Yes, I just wanted to echo what Commissioner Jones said. This is such an important service that you give to our community and have for many, many, many years that helps children who might otherwise not be able to participate, and then that helps them with their future in school and college and I think he mentioned the safety, and so I think you do a great job. Thank you for coming tonight.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Crosby. Anyone else? All right, thank you for your presentation. Next applicant, I guess.

Next we will have the ARC of the Tri-Cities.

Thank you, welcome.

Do I have to hold it? Can you hear me? Okay. Thank you for having me tonight. I appreciate that we have the opportunity to speak with you. My name is Sue Peterson, and I have worked with the Arch of Trade Cities for over 20 years. I've been involved with the Arch for over 30 years. And I want to start off with... I gave you all a handout, and I know that handout is for a young person, but I want to tell you that that's my son's story. not that personal one, but my son is 38 and that could have been my son 30 years ago. And the Arc of Trade Cities and their programs have taught my son life skills that you would not believe. Things that he still uses today he learned when he was 7 and 8 years old in our Partners and Pals program. So this is very close to my heart. So I thought I'd share with you a little bit of information about the programs that your funding will help. One of those is our Partners and Pals program, and we serve young adults. We serve from 7 to 21, so there are many, many adults who come. This is a nine-week camp. This year we have over 300 kids that we're serving in nine weeks. They go all over the Tri-Cities in buses. One of our camps has nine BFT buses filled with children. And we have a camp here in Pasco. I believe they have six buses of Pasco kids going around the Tri-Cities. Actually, I think Pasco is our biggest camp. It is our biggest camp. We're expanding and expanding our partners and pals program. Another program that we have serves young adults with intellectual disabilities and autism. It's called our Voyager program. It is social skills classes that are run by a, and the curriculum is built by a special ed teacher from Kennewick, and we have several individuals from PASCO who are attending those classes. They're weekly. They also do Dungeons and Dragons, if you all know what that is. And they love that and they're building friendships and learning skills that they can use out in the community to be productive citizens. It's an amazing program. Let's see. Our adult rec. Oh, I should maybe tell you what our, it's just therapeutic rec. is our title, therapeutic rec is what we're asking you for. So we have our adult rec program and we serve probably maybe a thousand individuals during the year who come to many events, many events. We have monthly dances or socials, we go on trips, we go see the hot air balloons, we go We've been to the Elks, go out and see the Elks. And these individuals are all low income, poverty level. They're all getting social security pretty much. And this is one avenue that they can be with their friends and in a safe environment where they're accepted and their parents know they're safe. And we have like 300 volunteers who come and help at these events. One in particular is amazing and I have to tell you that we use a facility here in Pasco for most of our dances at the CBC and the Hub. They partner with us and our Halloween dance is huge. We have at least 200 individuals with disabilities come to our Halloween dance and they're all dressed up. And it's like the highlight of the year we also have our fall ball where they get to dress up in really pretty gowns and The guys were suit and ties and it's like they're their highlight of their fall time Let's see so This funding is going to help many, many, many individuals with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities, autism. And we really appreciate that you allow us to partner with you. You have been a partner of ours before. And so thank you very much for your time and your consideration. Do you have any questions?

Thank you. Commissioners, questions?

Pat, you have to have a question for me.

Yes, define what ARC stands for, please.

The ARC does not stand for anything. You want me to give you the whole story? I can give you, I know the whole story. Let her rip. So the ARC was formally called, oh, it's actually had a lot of more names, but it used to be Association for Rechartered Citizens way back in the day. And then 1993, I was actually on the board of directors at the Arc of Tri-Cities and went to their convention and they changed it to Advocates for the Rights of Citizens with Disabilities. And then, I'm not sure what year it was, because I was an employee, and I was just working my buns off. They decided that now the Arc is just going to be the Arc. And they're all over the United States. We're a chapter. We're chapter-based. And they're all over the Tri-Cities. So we are the Arc Tri-Cities. Spokane is the Arc Spokane. Et cetera. So we are only the arc. Thank you. A little history. Any other questions?

Commissioner?

Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Have a great night.

All right, our next applicant.

Next we have Boys and Girls Club of Benton and Franklin Counties.

Great, welcome.

And Kristen, I think we sent over slides. Okay, wonderful. While we get started here, my name is Elizabeth McLaughlin. I'm the Chief Development Officer for Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties. I'm joined by my colleague Chandra Burns, who is our Chief Operating Officer. I'm wanting to talk to you a little bit about our Pasco Clubhouse and the teen program there. I am representing our clubhouse, which is at 801 North 18th Avenue here in Pasco. Just to start out, next slide. Our mission is to empower all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible community members. Next slide. Our project, we are requesting $30,000 to enhance teen programming at our Pasco Clubhouse. Funds will be used to support direct services for teens, particularly those from low-income families through workforce readiness, academic enrichment, and leadership development activities. This is Robert, too. He's our Youth of the Year this year, and he represents our Pasco Clubhouse. Next slide. Pasco's teens face real challenges. Poverty, academic struggles, mental health crises, and exposure to crime. Structured, supportive programs like ours help address these risks and give youth safe, productive pathways. You can see some of the statistics that we've put together regarding our teens here. Next slide. Boys and girls clubs make a difference. Our members outperform their peers in school and in avoidance of risky behaviors. This investment in teens supports improved academic attainment, reduced crime, and building the next generation of leaders. At the Pasco Clubhouse, we offer robust slates of teen programming intentionally designed to provide safe, welcoming environments where you feel a deep sense of belonging. In a community where we're often competing with the influence of gangs, our goal is to create a space where teens want to be. where they're seen, supported, and engaged. Through a variety of enriching experiences, we help teens explore what's possible when they stay focused on school and their future. From college tours and career exploration to tutoring and homework help, we equip them with the tools they need to succeed academically and plan for what comes next. Our programs also emphasize personal growth and resilience, helping youth build healthy coping strategies and avoid risky behaviors that could derail their progress. Intramural sports keep teens active and connected, while life skills programming like cooking club and financial literacy fosters independence and confidence. Every aspect of our teen program is designed to meet young people where they are and inspire them to see what they're capable of becoming. Next slide. This project directly aligns with HUD's objective to benefit low, moderate-income persons with Pasco's own consolidated plan to prioritize youth services, especially those in the lower-income neighborhoods like East Pasco. And next slide. As far as our organizational capacity, we've served youth in PASCO for nearly 30 years. The PASCO Clubhouse sees hundreds of teens annually and is fully staffed to deliver high quality programming. Further, our organization has experience managing state and federal funding and we're well equipped to meet all grant reporting and compliance requirements. Next slide. This funding request of $30,000 will directly support the growth and sustainability of teen programming at the Pasco Clubhouse, the fastest growing segment of our membership. As participation increases, so do our operational costs. This investment will help us maintain high quality programming while expanding access to meet rising demand. And I just want to say, next slide, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Liz and team. Any questions from the commissioners?

Yes. Okay, thank you very much for your presentation. A couple questions on statements you made. Fantastic program. I'm excited to hear about it. I'm a retired educator and I support many, many of the things that are in there. We'll give that a minute. You said growth and sustainability. So is this program already in place?

It's a program already in place, yes.

How long has it been in place?

We have had been serving teens for almost, yeah, 15 years. In the recent last couple of years, we've really emphasized our recruitment of teens into the program because we know that they are some of our most vulnerable young people in the population. And so we're continuing to grow that and continuing to look for more teens to come to our program.

So the Clubhouse Teen Program is currently in existence?

Correct.

And you are wanting to both sustain and grow it with this money?

Yes.

Okay, very good. Again, I was a high school principal for 17 years, and I was excited to see that you wanted to take a look at attendance because if kids don't go to school, they don't graduate. Absolutely. Ninety percent of club teens... expect to graduate. That's an interesting statement, expect to graduate. Can you explain where you got that number from and why that terminology? Because that's very interesting.

Yeah, absolutely. So every year we do a National Youth Outcomes Initiative survey. So we survey our members and their parents. This is one of the questions we ask is, do you expect to graduate? And so in our clubhouses, 97% of those kids say yes. And that's just part of that connection they have with their mentors in our teen programming that we're able to really produce and provide higher numbers because of that additional mentorship after school.

So you dialogue everything it takes to graduate from high school.

Absolutely.

Grades, attendance, staying out of trouble. There was the statement on there about a certain percentage of your students have not used alcohol. The gang influence, all those things were just spot on as to things that if kids avoid them, they have a much better chance of succeeding.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a huge part of our program. And we also help them focus on a post-high school career, whether that be going to college. We offer free college tours. We'll take them all over the state and really the region to visit local colleges. We also emphasize the traits and expose them to other careers in our community that could be very beneficial for them.

Excellent. And my last statement, I guess, when you said this meets the HUD guidelines about supporting low-income and middle-income, et cetera, I agree with you 100%, because helping these kids helps the community, which is a strong part of the HUD guidelines. So thank you for your presentation.

Thank you very much.

Great program.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Commissioner, is there no more questions? All right. Thank you much for being here, Liz, and team.

Next up, Columbia Industries doing business as Columbia Ability Alliance.

Welcome. I think it must be Michael or somebody else.

Hi, I'm Kim Parrott. I'm the Chief Operating Officer of Columbia Ability Alliance, and I'm also joined by Janelle Miles, who's the Chief Financial Officer. Thanks for having us this evening. We're here to talk to you and give you a short presentation about why a block grant from the City of Pasco would help Columbia Ability Alliance. So first of all, our community center serves as a hub for the community connection and life enrichment. We provide a vibrant and welcoming space where individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities learn essential life skills, socialize with friends, and actively engage our local community. 25% of our clients are from Pasco, and we only serve those 18 and older at this time. So we provide life skills development. Some of these things include cooking classes. Learning to cook empowers individuals to take care of their nutritional needs, fostering independence and self-reliance. We also teach commerce activities, managing money for purchasing snacks of items. teaches them budgeting, financial responsibility, and decision making. We provide enhanced social interactions such as fitness program, interactive music sessions. We have Ted Brown music come every Wednesday if you all want to come at noon ever. It livens your day and your week for sure. We have educational outings with trips to the libraries and museums. And creative arts, engaging in art and music enhances cognitive functions like memory, attention, and problem solving. In this whole system, we provide routine and structure, which is very important to people with developmental disabilities. We also provide community integration. You and I have ready access to assets and amenities that make the Tri-Cities an amazing community. Many of our clients do not have that same access. At CAA, we are breaking down those barriers by taking our clients out into the community to enjoy our region, what our region has to offer. Creating accessibility in this manner also enhances community awareness and fosters inclusivity. We do public outings such as regular visits to community venues, help individuals feel connected to society, promoting inclusivity. We participate in events and festivals, provide access to community resources, and of course do seasonal events such as festivals and holidays. And then also we provide socialization to our clients. Everyone yearns for a sense of belonging to be part of, and the same is true for our clients. They want it, they need it, and they deserve it. Socializing is powerful, and our community center offers a venue for this type of social interaction. And the flip side of this is we provide respite for those who care for people with disabilities. As you would imagine, respite care is incredibly important, and this is an essential service. The importance of respite care cannot be overstated, as it plays a critical role in maintaining the health and well-being of both the caregivers and the individuals they serve. Some of the reasons why respite care is vital is it prevents burnout. Caring for an adult with disabilities is often a full-time responsibility that can be physically and emotionally draining. Continuous caregiving without breaks can lead to burnout. Respite care provides caregivers with the much needed time to take a break and recharge. It also improves their health. Also helps provide an enhanced quality of care. When caregivers are rested and in good health, they are better equipped to provide high quality care. Respite care ensures that caregivers return to responsibility with renewed energy and focus, which directly benefits the individuals receiving their care. And then it also helps prevent early institutionalization. By supporting caregivers and reducing burnout, respite care can help prevent the premature placement of individuals with disabilities into long-term care facilities. This allows individuals to remain in their homes and communities, which can be beneficial for the overall health. So why is this block grant important? It will help us to provide scholarships for many of our clients who are private pay and need additional funds to be able to enjoy the community center. As our community grows, so does the demand for our services. We subsidize our fees through fundraising to enable more clients to access service or attend additional sessions. Scholarships are one way we can provide further opportunities for individuals and families, and build a more accessible and inclusive community. And again, whenever we're having a bad day in the admin building, we just go over to the community center. People invade our personal space, give us hugs, and it cheers us up. It's truly the joy and the heart of Columbia Ability Alliance. So with that, I want to thank you for hearing our presentation, and do you all have any questions?

I'd like to ask a couple questions about the respite care if I may.

Yes.

Do you have a facility that you do that out or do you go into homes to relieve the caregivers or how does it work?

Yeah, the caregivers bring their loved ones to us. We have just the whole community center which is one building of our campus. Or dial-right. They can have dial-right or some form of public transportation.

Is that just a drop-off, or do they have to plan in advance to use their services?

It's a drop-off at this point. If we got too crowded where we couldn't do that, we would have to plan, but right now it's a drop-off.

Thank you. Any other questions? Commissioner Crutchfields.

Yes, that was one of my questions about the respite care, but this is tough because this is amazing that our community has all of these services that are really so important, and I'm proud that we have all of these. It's difficult to try to make decisions about them individually, but I really appreciate your presentation and your service to our community.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

All right.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you for being here tonight. Next applicant.

Next, we have Tri-County Partners Habitat for Humanity.

Welcome.

Hi there. I'm Jett Richardson. I'm the executive director for Tri-County Partners Habitat. I'm joined by Noah Dixon, my grants coordinator. He's going to do the bulk of the presentation. I just wanted to say thank you and be available for any questions that you may have about the affiliate or what we're doing around the Tri-Cities. So with that, Noah.

Yeah. Thank you all for having us. So we are seeking support for home repairs. So we've been doing, we've been working towards affordable homeownership for over three years. across Benton County, Franklin County, and Walla Walla County. And we've built 193 homes which were sold at affordable prices to low and moderate income families. These are working class families who otherwise would not be able to afford home ownership and we're just helping to fill the gap and get them into a home that they can call their own and that they can flourish in. As part of this mission to provide affordable home ownership, we do want to rebuild our home repair program so that we can, again, provide home repairs. We see this as a critical part to providing affordable home ownership and to upkeeping the affordable stock and the quality of the affordable housing in our community. And like I said, this is something we haven't been able to do in a while, so it's been over ten years now since we've done it. We shifted our focus away from home repair primarily just because of funding shortages and wanting to focus on building new homes. But now as we build our team, we want to get back into home repairs. Just like we did previously, like I said, over 10 years ago, we want to start doing ramps, stairs, walkways, siding repairs, roof repairs, all sorts of things surrounding accessibility, surrounding weatherization, energy efficiency, and just making the home safe and affordable and functional for our homeowners, especially those in Pasco who are already paying what would be considered housing cost burden over 30% of their income or even there's a good portion about 23% of low moderate homeowners are paying over 50% of their income on their homes. So we want to help bridge that gap and help them keep their homes safe, functional, And so the minimum eligibility requirements for this program, of course, is to own the home, be in PASCO, if we're going to use these funds. Also, the home needs to be considered modest. The homeowner needs to be below the 80% AMI to be considered low and moderate income. And then, like I said, again, the repairs, we want to do repairs surrounding the safety and the functionality of the home. Additional priorities, we want to prioritize also when possible, aging in place, accessibility, weatherization and energy efficiency, and then also families with young children. So whenever possible, we do want to prioritize those projects. Like I said, this is a very critical part to affordable homeownership, not only building new homes, not only placing affordable homeownership, but also up keeping what we already have and keeping people in the homes that they already have. We are going to do it based on a zero percent interest loan to the homeowner. Once we find an applicant who meets the eligibility requirements, We will process them and get them interviewed, get there, we will see their home and then we will look at what do they need done, how much is it going to cost, what can they afford each month and then build out their loan to see how can we keep this as affordable as possible for each homeowner that we work with. And then, of course, it's going to be a revolving loan fund. So as they pay back their loan, these funds are going to go back into home repairs. So like I said, we want to do ramps. We want to do stairs, driveways, walkways, windows, doors, siding, all those things, even modifications to bathrooms and kitchens when it applies to safety and functionality. And you guys have a handout. You can see some of the stuff we've done before. These are all pictures of homes we've done before. You see the top two are ramps that we've installed for people who needed ramps. These pictures below them are a floor we redid to fix water damage. So even the subfloor was working, so we fixed the floor. And then we got a couple other pictures surrounding weatherization and fixing the siding and keeping that so it protects the home.

that's thank you thank you any questions any question um so this um i'm assuming this these go strictly to like old or their previous habitat humanity built homes or is it people who apply through habitat humanity that stuff that applies yeah this would be open to anybody um whether they were a previous habitat for humanity family or just another low-income

individual or household in our community. One of the things that Noah, Noah mentioned, but I would like to just kind of elaborate on is we used to have this home critical home repair program, and it was a program that we actually did the home repair projects. It was an incredible, it required a lot of resources. And so particularly before COVID, but COVID especially, we had to scale back focus really on our homeowner our new construction homes we get probably two or three calls a week for critical home needs especially after a big windstorm roof repair siding we also know that family is just struggling with energy efficiency we really want to be able to serve families in this capacity and so to bring back our Brush With Kindness or our critical home repair program, we're starting with the revolving loan program. So these funds, we can at least, if we can't allocate volunteer time or labor resources, we can at least provide funding for them to get the critical home repair that they need. And then as they can afford and pay it back, those funds go back into a revolving loan fund for critical home repair.

Are there time or I guess any sort of assessment as people's capability to pay that back, that revolving fund to keep that so it's kind of flowing through you guys and revolving through the community? Right.

As part of the application process, just like for our homeownership program, we would vet the families and their ability to pay back a 0% interest loan. That may be difficult for some, but we would certainly take that all into consideration. Cool. Thank you.

Any other questions?

all right thank you for being here our next applicant that is actually it for all the outside applicants the the only ones that are left are the city of pasco and from parks recreation department nobody did come so um i'll just kind of explain a little bit about their applications the psk which is the pasco specialty kitchen they're requesting funds to replace some of the equipment in the kitchen again. They're also requesting funds for Peanuts Park North. Of course, you guys know where Peanuts Park is, which is across from PSK. They're wanting to do the other side, kind of make it more Beautiful for people to be down there. They're looking at replacing lighting. They're wanting to pave the whole thing, put in more trees and benches, stuff like that. Also with the playground equipment, they're wanting to put ADA improvements. A lot of our parks around here do not have any equipment for somebody who has some kind of disability. So that is for them. Then for our department, we are looking again for code enforcement officer funds. This person does only go out into the low and moderate income census tracts. Here in Pasco, they actually do help with number three, which is my chip minor rehab program. So kind of like what Habitat does, I do the same thing. I do owner-occupied rehabs on homes We can replace roofs. I can do hook up somebody to sewer with the city water Stuff like that also we have our facade improvement program that is to help the local businesses improve on the exterior of their building Currently this year. We are on number three we had some additional funding left over from last year that we actually put into the pot and so um a1 refrigeration which is on 20th we repainted the outside of their building and replaced the signage on the building uh we have one for the burger ranch on oregon street we are actually replacing the signage as well as painting the building and doing some landscaping and then there is a restoration on third street where we are painting their building Then, of course, we have the Section 108 debt payment, which is an automatic payment that has to come out of here, and then the program administration funds. So if you guys have any questions about them.

Yes, if I may. Under Parks and Rec, is there a breakdown of those three items as to what the request is for each one of them? Like for the PSK equipment, Phoenix Park, and the ADA improvements?

Yeah, so for PSK, they are asking for $50,000. For the Peanuts Park North, they're asking for $100,000. And for the playground equipment, they're asking for $100,000. Thank you.

I have a question. Just to clarify, so the ADA improvements to playground equipment, so is that access to the playground equipment or ADA?

It's to install ADA equipment, so like stuff that somebody who has a disability would be able to use at the playground to go on the merry-go-round or whatever they have out there.

I was just trying to visualize what that was. And then another question was for facade repair, some of the things you outlined. So I guess to clarify my understanding, that's kind of addressing, I guess, kind of private business issues Where they're unable to improve the facade or improve the appearance of something and we're addressing it from the city? Correct, yes.

And so with that program, it's actually a 75-25 match. So the city will pay up to $25,000 with the 75% match and the owner of the building has to come up with 25%. So they do have to put some input into it.

No, that makes sense. Thank you.

I had a question. Go ahead. That answered one of them. You mentioned the Burger Ranch. Excuse me. So that is the private company, but they're putting something forth as well. Yes. Okay. And then the code enforcement, this is another officer added to what we have already? No, this is just to help with the two that we have. Okay. Going to this. specific areas that you mentioned. Correct. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think that's all I had on that. Okay. Thank you.

Excellent. Anyone else?

Mr. Chairman, I have a philosophical statement that I want to share, and this is the, I believe, the best point to share, if I may. Sure. Thank you. So having participated in this process many times in other places, I remain challenged by the fact that we have city offices, city projects competing against our local nonprofits. I think it's important that our citizens really think about and realize what it costs to run the city and the city programs because everything that our city staff is asking for on here is legit. and needed and would play a very important role in the betterment of the city of Pasco and yet because we don't have enough money to pay for things these departments are coming forward in a quasi competition with mostly very worthy non-profits and we have to make recommendations and ultimately the city council has to determine who gets what So I hope that we can get people to think about what it takes to fund things, both city and nonprofits, and really realize where their tax dollars go. Their tax dollars, I mean, the CPD grant is tax dollars from somewhere, federal, state, all of our pockets one way or another. However, it's not money that the city has to budget towards these specific expenses. And it's always been frustrating to me that these forms exist where we have to decide which is more important, Peanuts Park North Improvement or the YMCA. or the court enforcement officer or one of the other, the Boys and Girls Club. Every single one of them is deserving and makes our city better. And so I've always given this speech every time I participated in this kind of a process in hopes that maybe one or two more people in the community I've been in at the time will realize what it takes to run programs, it's expensive, and realize what a good job that our city officials, our elected city council members, our employees do with the funds and resources they have in making Pasco such a tremendous city. It's a beautiful place to live. It has tremendous services available to the citizens, and services cost money. So I share that. Thank you. I feel better.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner Jones. In fact, you weren't here last year, but you would have thought you were preaching to the choir last year because we all had the same comments. In fact, last year, I believe, we made a recommendation to the city. I hope it was last year or the year. It's been an ongoing issue for us as well. and we made a recommendation to city council that uh city council should pay for things that need to be paid for out of city council budget and the cdbg should be used for things that cbg should be used for now again city council only takes recommendations from us and they can completely ignore that recommendation and advice but that was And I would recommend that we probably, if we all feel the same way this year as we make those recommendations, that we also accompany our choices and recommendations to the council along with that statement that we did last time because it absolutely 100% agrees with your feedback. Any other comments? All right. I think at this point we would close the public hearing, correct? Correct. So we will close the public hearing if there are no other applicants or comments from the public. Going once. Going twice. And going three times. The public hearing is now closed. All right, after that, we are now in workshop mode. Thank you for all the applicants that came and presented tonight. The workshop, the first topic on the workshop is our county-wide planning policies, and I assume we'll turn it over to staff to cover that, or Haley to cover that.

Thank you very much. So tonight we have two workshop items related to public, or comprehensive and public engagement and outreach plan for you. And I believe that one's first on the agenda, so we'll just get right into it. And I'll just, in the interest of time, run through the presentation and then get questions at the end, if you guys are okay with that. Next slide, please. So here's the purpose of the plan here on the screen, and then note the timeline for the comprehensive plan for CASCO is due at the end of next year. And here are the engagement goals for PASTO. We have a goal of having 50% Spanish participation, knowing that PASTO is more diverse and has Spanish-speaking participants in the process. And we have some exciting ideas to share with you later on in the process. And we'd like to, of course, connect with a wide variety of stakeholders in the community and try and get participation from the folks we don't typically hear from and be creative in how we're doing outreach to the community. Here is an overview of the strategy. This is all outlined in your packet. Next slide, please. And the phases for the spring, we will be doing a lot of outreach starting this fall. And that will carry into early next year. And we have a variety of outreach methods that I'll touch on in the presentation. Phase one, education and awareness. We will be going to different events that are listed here on the screen and using multiple platforms and activities. And the Hidden Gems mapping activity, because you're looking at that one room that it is, it's an activity where folks can go online and on the web page that we will be creating and they can mark and they can do this in person too at events and just mark where we find maybe they're a secret and they don't want to share but if they do want to share they can mark hidden gems throughout Casca so we can begin highlighting and celebrating these different areas in town. There's two of the programs serving visioning. This is where we want to hear from the community and what their vision is for possible over the next 20 years and what they would like to see. And we will hold visioning workshops. We do plan to hold at least two in-person events that will be only in-person and then mix in some private events or maybe even invite an outreach event to the planning commission, one of the planning commission meetings and have the public come and share their thoughts with the planning commission. working through that and one of the workshops will be fully in English and the other workshop will be fully in Spanish and this is so it doesn't really break the flow of the meeting where you know you have a translator that follows up after the first person that speaks so we're just going to try and separate the meetings and I haven't actually done that before but I think it's a fabulous idea and in our department we do have several staff that are Um, in Spanish, I am not, I would like to be someday. Um, but we will have our own staff there sharing ideas for the comprehensive plan in Spanish, which will be super meaningful. So as we get through the process and we collect all the input from the community, Then there will be doing online engaging tools and piecing all of this together and then checking back in with the community and have open house tables that relate to different topics related to the comprehensive plan and the various elements in the plan. As far as review and adoption, that will be at the end of next year, if all goes well. And there is a CEPA review that stands for State Environmental Policy Act. And so that will be near the end of the process. And there will be a formal public hearing for input. And we're doing what we're doing simply along the entire way so that the public hearing shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone what comments we're receiving if we do an outreach check. Engagement tactics here on the screen. I sort of mentioned this already throughout the presentation, just a mix of materials and platforms and different ways we're reaching out. Breakholder groups are listed on the screen. This is not an exhaustive list. However, if you do have suggestions at the end of this presentation of groups we may not be thinking of, go ahead and let us know and we can consider adding that to the list. We do want to reach out to the variety of the community, including the youth, and I've already been in touch with the school district and will be presenting through their student council and getting their input on what their dreams are for basketball. Hopefully we can talk to the younger kids as well. I feel like they have a very unique insight for the city and we'd love to hear their input as well. So all age groups, all demographics, we're trying to reach out to as many people as we can during this process. So metrics here for success on the screen are looking to engage with a quarterly engagement group dedicated to the Spanish-speaking population and then 10% of the population using the website and QR code activities online. And that is all I have today. I'm happy to answer any questions or solicit feedback. We are not necessarily asking for a formal approval of this plan. It is not required. I do plan on running some of this by city council next time I touch on the conference plan. I did touch on it, too, during the kickoff. So at this point, we're just bringing it to the Planning Commission to look at. And if you have questions or comments for us to consider as we go through the engagement process, Please let me know. Our department is being assisted by a few different consulting firms, but I'm hoping we can do most of this outreach organically and in-house with the staff we have, so we can start getting out in the community, putting a face to the name, and just really being there for the community and allowing them to use this as a resource.

Thank you, Director Miller. One thing, by the way, I think probably all the commissioners, I don't know how you're going to announce some of these workshops and community engagements, but I suspect many of the commissioners would love to participate. So if there's a way you can also email us when they're happening, that would be awesome.

Yes, and we plan to make, and I've done this by the consulting, but we'll have some sort of a list there that we're just grabbing on throughout the process. So anybody we meet, talk to about the conference, if they're getting added to an email list, and if they don't want to be on it, they can let us know. But it will have sign-up sheets and the rest of the way that'll just be notifying the community through our normal protocol, but then also that email list I think is very important to keep up to it so the people very interested can Thank you.

We have a hand. Rachel Gonzalez.

Hi, I'm a resident of Pascoe. I wanted to make a public comment and I didn't know if that was okay.

Yeah, I'm sorry, this is not a public hearing. So public comment, you'll have lots of opportunities and workshops and public hearings for this. But right now, it's not a public comment or public hearing option.

Thank you.

Any commissioners any questions for you from you all any about the presentation? All right, do you want to move on to the next topic? Did you have two?

Yes. And we'll move on to the next topic and, oh, let's see here. Let's see it on the screen. There you go. Okay. So this is, this is the, a workshop on the Franklin County County Road Planning Policy. Sorry. It's getting late and I'm stumbling on my words here. Um, so this is another kickoff item that is typically completed between cities and counties prior to embarking on the comprehensive plan process. And the process does require some very good coordination between the cities and counties so that we are creating different policies that are in conflict with each other. So the county-wide planning policies, you can look at these as a big a blanket of policies that the county adopts formally that receives input from the cities and it's meant just to guard the process and put priorities in place so that we have some general goals as we're moving through the process and then even after the process. Next slide, please. Thank you. Some timelines here. First, county-wide planning policies for Franklin County, adopted in 1993, adopted and updated in 2019. So this is the third update, and the cities involved in the process are listed there on the screen. yes thank you and it's required to be updated with the periodic update for several reasons most of it is just to be up to date with the state regulations and if you've been following the regulations at the state level for the last two or three years you probably know there's been a lot moving through the state level as it relates to cities specifically related to Climate change initiatives, those have been pushed through quite a bit over the last few years. Also housing bills, specifically related to affordable housing and then addressing all income levels of housing. Whereas before in the last update, it was really focused on, you know, here are the number of housing units and the number of people you need to accommodate within your city in the next 20 years. And this go-around, it's that plus on top of that, With the housing units that are allocated to PASCO, we're also supposed to show our work that we can accommodate various income levels, all the way down to housing for people who do not have permanent housing or maybe homeless in the community. So that's an additional requirement to the state. And the state is also requiring that cities highlight equity, especially as it relates to climate change and climate change hazards that may affect the community. two things that are listed here on the screen. And these would actually apply also to the city's comprehensive plan. So these are all the big topics we will be looking at. And for those of you that are new to the planning commission, you get a fine two years' worth of work to do on this plan. So we'll be going through all of these different elements of the city, what makes the city a building system. And it'll be, I think, fun. to look at all of these different elements, and these are also listed in the countywide policy. And this appears to be a similar slide here, so I'll just skip on to the next slide. Also within the county road planning policies we have defined urban growth areas for each city and then we're looking at the capacity for the growth inside the city boundaries and we need to be aware of the agricultural lands protection and the dynamic between county and city growth. And other highlights within the policies are listed here in the screen. And this is just joint development standards within urban growth areas. That really helps with coordination between the city and the county. If there is an area identified by the city as a future area where we'd like to expand their city boundaries into, we'd like to work with the county to ensure that the development that occurs in the UGA, if it does, is to city standards and that we're just coordinating on different items. Otherwise, if developments are built and then the city goes into that area, we include that infrastructure system, and if the roads are built to standards, there's missing sidewalks that are not required in the county, for example, or other ones, we just want to make sure we're coordinating being very transparent with each other. And I did forget to mention this at the beginning of the presentation, we have been working very closely with Franklin County, specifically, Russ McCart, who is the new planning and building director there, and Russ and myself have agreed to meet so that we can hopefully improve, you know, better relationships between the county and the city and just better communication, at least that Delaney is pointing out also. I'm excited to work with Gus on this, and he was really helpful putting this together as well. Housing policy updates are listed on the screen. I already noted the requirements related to affordable housing based on income band. Accessory dwelling units standards will also be more flexible as we go through this process. There's been a few house scales that have required cities to update their ordinance, for example, allowing two accessory dwelling units on each property. The owner occupancy requirement, which previously required the owner to live in either the home or the accessory dwelling unit, will be lifted. And then there's some other additional mechanisms to allow folks to have an easier time owning those. It says we're doing units by watts building and other mechanisms. So it's really aimed at addressing the housing shortage at the state level. And the state has stated that there's a housing shortage. I'm sure it's gone up since it left the data of 300,000 units statewide. So the state is to address housing. pretty aggressive fashion with some of the mental housing regulations and, you know, maybe the best for every city in Washington. But regardless, we have those standards and we will be required to comply with those as we go through this process. In economic development and transportation, we have some highlights there in that planning our planning process to diversify the economic base and infrastructure and then ensure a level of service requirements on our street system are being maintained as we grow. So it's just a way to get us to continue planning, and this does dovetail nicely with our comprehensive plan approach as well. And fiscal and public facility considerations have different considerations here listed on the screen. Can we look if there's something I haven't touched on yet? School setting is noted in there. That is also something we need to look at as we're going through the plan. And we will be having the outside organizations and agencies that have a stake in CASPA involved in the process, too. And public and tribal participation. This is also noted in the policies as well. And that is the end of the presentation. I did fly through that just because I know it's getting late, but I'm happy to field any questions. I know I threw a lot of information out there, but the takeaway here is that this is a county document that is prepared by the county with input from the city. Generally, our deputy director, Raymond, and myself did go through it with a fine-tooth comb. And we did have feedback and asked for a series of edits in this process. So we have vetted this thoroughly. I do not feel that there's anything in here that would be detrimental to PASCO. There was some language in there that we thought could be revised, and we worked with the county on it. So as it stands now, this draft, we see community economic development staff support And I'm happy to answer any questions at this point.

What is the DOCC? I didn't catch that.

The Board of County Commissioners.

Oh, okay. That's what I was going to ask. The process is all the cities kind of review and feedback and then eventually the county commissioners approve?

Yep, that's correct. And it is going through a public hearing in I believe two or three weeks, so that would be a great opportunity tonight to share any angst, concerns, feedback, positive feedback. If you have anything that you'd like me to share, I do plan on attending that hearing just to ensure that, you know, we're still on board with it and hopefully, you know, if there are changes that may be possible. If the auditor doesn't support it, I can provide that comment at some point during the meeting. So either Craig or myself will be attending that. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think we've seen this before because it doesn't get updated that often, but it seems awfully redundant to the comprehensive plan policies anyway. But I guess that's because it is a countywide construct instead of the city's comprehensive plan. But it seems because the comprehensive plan has to go before the county as well, right? Yes, that's correct. Commissioner, any questions on your side?

I think as we work on these things and the comprehensive plan, they are all intertwined in some ways or another different parts of it and so on and i think we're really going to be counting on director miller and our city staff to make sure that as we move forward with this we we don't step outside of the lines of what needs to be done or what can't be done or what should be done and make sure they all are kind of going the same path these are uh between the two things presented tonight and the conference plan. These are three big boats floating down the water, and we need to make sure that they all kind of stay on the same track. And that's a lot more than a lot of us laymen are going to be able to do. So we're going to be counting on you all to help us steer the ship and keep things afloat because they all intertwine greatly, at least it seems to me.

Anyone else? Thank you, Director Miller.

Thank you. I appreciate the comment about steering the ships. I think that is one of the things about this process is just collaborating with everyone and making sure it works out. I believe we have a very good consultant team that is here to help us. Thanks to the state grants, and I appreciated that the state issued grants because of all the changes at the state level, it would have been difficult to do in-house. So we have consultants helping, and just for some peace of mind, I did, um, you know, I'm going to threaten for punishment. I'm going back through a comprehensive plan process. I just finished one at the last city I worked at, so I'm very fresh and up-to-date on all the regulations, and we do have a very good staff helping with it. So it's a team effort, and the community is going to help, too, with the public participation. But thank you for that comment, and that was certainly something we will be watching for to make sure that it all intertwines and if we don't get it completely right you know in some areas we can always you know look at it later so it let's you know turn the shoot to get it right but just realize there's so many pieces if there is something we can always do a comprehensive plan amendment the next year if for some reason there's an issue that comes up thank you much all right that's our workshop items i think we have one other

item, which is other business, and I believe probably, Director Miller, you wanted to talk about the iPad discussion we had.

Yes. And this is minor and it's late, so I'll just be quick. If any of the planning commissioners are interested in converting from paper copies of the packets to using iPads, similar to how cancer uses it, are they willing to do, like, a trial run for a peer review? I know that paper is You know, some people do really like using paper. I know that you're going to, so I don't want to require that everyone switches to iPads, but it would be, you know, over time something to consider as we go through the process. So if you're open to getting an iPad issued to you and redoing your packets on your iPad and then maybe writing your notes on the side and bringing them to the meeting, that would be much more efficient for our department as we embark on becoming completely paper-free. However, if you do want a packet, that's okay. I think for those days, we'll just maybe issue it to a few of you. So if you are interested, maybe we'll share now, and then we can go from there. Or at the next meeting, I can just ask you guys to maybe give it some thought. We can talk about it at the next meeting and hopefully transition a few of you to iPads and test it out in that fashion. So I hope for that, Adam.

Yeah, I think it's a great idea for those that are interested. So the way that would work then is rather than receiving a packet in paper in the mail or dropped off, we would just be sent the link and then we would open it up on our iPad, the PDF or whatever. And then can you tell me one kind of detail? Will the iPads have an iPad pen where we could take notes correctly on the iPad or would we just then have to do it on a notepad beside the iPad? So that was a question that I had about whether there would be iPad pen or just the iPad.

The pen can come with it. You can mark it. It's really based on your comfort level. I had a planning commissioner at the last city who just did not want to mark that electronically and write the notes on the side. You can do that. There's highlighter tools, markup tools. It's just what you're comfortable with. It is a little tricky in the meeting to try and find your comments if you've marked up the whole document, but usually if, you know, we can show you on PDFs and then you can click a button and it only shows your comments. I mean, I don't want to get too overcomplicated with it, but we can... After training for the group and really tailor it to your needs, I am also looking at the cost difference between a Microsoft Surface and an iPad. Microsoft Surface is really just like a mini laptop, and those work really well, and I think most people think those are easier to use than an iPad. So if there's not a huge cost difference, I'll be looking at that as well. But just pointing the bug. We don't have to make any decisions tonight. I'm just, you know, looking at ways to make this more efficient.

Well, commissioners, think about that, and we can talk about it, and you can, in more detail, any questions on that before we move on from that. All right. Well, with that, we have no...