Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Pierce County Council. Today is July 14th, 2026. The time is 301. If the clerk could please call the roll.

Council Member Morrell.

I am here.

Council Member Herrera. Excused. Council Member Kruver. Here. Council Member Ayala. Here. Council Member Yambe.

Here.

Council Member Denson. Here. Council Member Hitchen. Here. You have six members present.

With six members, we We do have a quorum. Thank you all for joining us. Today, in a moment, I'm going to ask Councilmember Yambe to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and read a land acknowledgement. Following the pledge, I'll ask that you remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of the men and women serving overseas in our military. Please rise, if you're able, for the Pledge of Allegiance.

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We acknowledge that we are on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish tribes. Coast Salish people have lived on and steward these lands since time immemorial and continue to do so today. We recognize that this land acknowledgement is one small step toward true allyship, and we commit to uplifting the voices, experiences, and histories of the Indigenous people of this land.

Thank you, Council Member Youngbay. We're now at Section 4, which is approval of our agenda. Are there any objections to approving our agenda as presented? Seeing none, we will consider the agenda approved. On today's council agenda, there will be multiple opportunities for public comment on the consent agenda. You may provide comments on any final action item. This does not include items that are placed on the consent agenda for introduction and scheduling. During sections eight and nine of the agenda, we'll take public comment on each ordinance and resolution individually. And then finally, under community forum, there'll be an opportunity to address the council on any topic that was not up for final action on today's agenda. Pursuant to state law, the Pierce County Council may not accept public comment during the meeting that supports or opposes a candidate or ballot measure. This includes proposed charter amendments, statewide initiatives, referendums, levies, bonds, or any other measures appearing on an election ballot this year. For more information, of course, there's fine print on the front page of your agenda. Please review the bottom, and if you do have additional questions, please look for one of our staff. We're now at the consent agenda. On the consent agenda today, we have two sets of minutes and one grant application. Did anyone want to pull any others? We pulled the one grant off Councilmember Krueger. So it's under other business. So it's just the first grant. Yep. It's all good. We took care of it. Yeah, one grant. Okay. Not seeing anyone. So we are going to look to Council Member Denson for a motion to approve a consent agenda.

Thank you, Chair. I move that we approve the consent agenda.

So I moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Not seeing any other questions and we don't have any appointees because there's none on this. So we're going to open this up for public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that wants to address the council on the consent agenda? Again, this is only, the only items up for conversation or comment would be our minutes in the single grant application. Not seeing any, Mr. Dominique, we will go online, see if anyone on Zoom.

Good afternoon. For any member of the public who would like to provide comment on today's consent agenda, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. There are no answers this time, Madam Chair.

No hands raised. I'm going to close public comment, bring it back before the council. Is there any further discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none, can the clerk call the roll on the approval of the consent agenda as presented?

Council Member Denson. Aye. Council Member Morrell.

Aye.

Council Member Kruver. Aye. Council Member Ayala. Aye. Council Member Yambe. Aye. Council Member Hitchen.

Aye. You have six ayes, zero nays. With six ayes, zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you. That brings us to section six, which is messages from the executive and other county elected officials. There's several here, so I'm going to summarize these, but on June 29th, 2026, the executive transmitted the following ordinances, which were approved and signed to the Council. The first is Ordinance 2026-519, which was ratifying the 2026-28 collective bargaining agreement reached between the Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers Union Local 313. Ordinance 2026-521, which was ratifying the 2628 collective bargaining agreement reached between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 483, Traffic Signal Team. Ordinance 2026-523S, which was approving the comprehensive plan policies to expand housing options, including cottage housing. Ordinance 2020, ah, Ordinance 2023-27, Is that a type? She 26-527. Okay, so it's Ordinance 2026-527, which was ratifying the 2025-27 collective bargaining agreement reached with the Pierce County Corrections Guild. And then Ordinance 2026-529, which is ratifying the 2025-27 collective bargaining agreement reached with the Pierce County Deputies Independent Guild, Local Number 1889. And finally, ordinance number O2026-530S, which was adopting a new manual titled Pierce County Stormwater Management and Site Development Manual. So that brings us to the end. We have no proclamations, so we will go right to resolutions. We now have proposal R2026-168 before us. I'm gonna go to Councilmember Ayala for a motion.

Thank you, Chair. I move proposal number R2026-168.

It's been moved and seconded. Can the clerk please read into the record?

Proposal number R2026-168, a resolution of the Pierce County Council approving the Human Services Department and the Birth to 25 Advisory Board for Infant, Child, Youth, and Young Adult Developments, 2026 to 2027 funding recommendations for the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account.

Thank you. And this afternoon, we have Carrie Waterland, our Policy Director, to brief us on this item. Ms. Waterland.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Council, for the record, Carrie Waterland's staff. What you have before you, as the title implies, is a proposal to approve the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account 2026-2027 funding recommendations. from the Pierce County Human Services Department and the Birth to 25 Advisory Board. By way of some background, the Puget Sound taxpayer accountability account was created as an amendment to the 2025 State Transportation Revenue Package and can be found in RCW 43.79.520. Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account, here too known as PASTA, proceeds are distributed to King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The PASTA fund was created by Pierce County Council through Ordinance 2018-61S and is codified in Pierce County Code 4.48.020P. Allowable uses are found in the revised Code of Washington and direct PASTA funds to be used for educational services to improve educational outcomes in early learning, K-12, post-secondary education, and specifically on efforts to improve educational outcomes in early learning, K-12, and higher education, including but not limited to, for facilities and programs for children and youth that are low-income, homeless, or in foster care or other vulnerable populations. The Birth to 25 Advisory Board was created through Ordinance 2019-6, which created the B25 Advisory Board for Infant, Child, Youth, and Young Adult Development, to propose a long-range plan with policy systems and environmental change recommendations to ensure the successful development of infants, youth, children, and adults from infancy to age 25. The board, along with its purpose, is codified in Pierce County Code 2.43, and it states that the board shall make recommendations to the county executive and the county council on the funding and monitoring of projects and programs that receive funding from the PASTA. The taxpayer accountability fund projects and programs recommended for funding by the B-25 Board shall be identified and reviewed through a request for proposal process administered by the Human Services Department and shall be subjected to the requirements of Pierce County Code. In accordance with this, Human Services is submitting along with the B-25 their recommended funding recommendations to the Pierce County Council for approval today. A little bit of summary, two requests for proposals for the 26-27 PASTA funding were released in January of 2026, and they closed in February of 2026. They were originally the Early Learning Access Program, which was originally advertised at around a million dollars, and the Out of School Program, which was originally advertised at a little bit more than $1.7 million. After both RFPs closed, PASTA revenue projections were revised. And due to lower than anticipated PASTA revenues and updated Sound Transit projections, applicants were notified that there would be a 30-day pause on funding recommendations on April 30th. So this RFP did go live, it closed, and then folks were notified that there was going to be a pause while they were finding out exactly how much money they were going to be giving out because those original projections needed to be downgraded. So applicants were again contacted on May 26th with that updated figure for a total of $960,000 and that is to be spread across the two PASTA RFPs. So to align with available funding, the decision was made that $510,000 would be allocated to the ELA or Early Learning Access Program and 450 would be to the Out of School or OOSP programming. Based on the total scoring and within the available friends for all projects, eligible agencies along with their program information and geographic areas served are listed in rank order in Exhibit A. Current revenue projections led to a limited number of applications being recommended for funding, so more were received than were able to be funded. This was done to support sustainable awards and reduce the risk that awards may later require contacting applicants and letting them know that their funding would be decreased. So they were doing this out of an abundance of caution. The recommendations come before you with a recommendation for approval. This did receive a public hearing in Health and Human Services and a due pass on July 7th, so it's coming to you that way. The estimated distribution of these funds is $960,000 and there is a community impact note available. With that, I've concluded my presentation and I am happy to answer any questions that I can or Julie Murray is also here if you have any questions for the department.

Thank you. I will pause and see if there are questions from my colleagues. We will go to Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm wondering if the lowered amount, the expected versus what the anticipated receipts were, is that a pattern or is this a one-time thing or we just don't know? That's a great question.

I am not sure. I will ask Julie Murray if she knows that information.

So for the record, Julie Murray, Council to Executive, it is going to be the pattern probably for this year and the next two years. So the monies that we receive into the Puget Sound taxpayer accountability account is based on the sales tax that is being paid by Sound Transit for the Sound Transit 3 voters package. And so it's kind of based on their construction schedule. And what they are currently in sort of I would say like a low we had two of the major projects completed the east sideline and then north to Northgate as well as then south to Federal Way and so they had their whole you know their own budget issues and rescaled their project array for their upcoming capital plan. And so we do expect the same amount of money, but it may be in a different time period. But right now the time period they're in is sort of the design phase and the bidding phase, not the construction. So the sales tax happens on the construction side. So we just went through this big hump Now we're back in a lull, and we expect to come out of that, but it will be a couple of years in the making.

Okay, and when does the fund expire?

I believe it's 2032 or 2034.

I'm going to say 2032, but I will do a check.

But it's eventually, like, yeah, it's sort of the, there's both the dollar amount cap, you know, and then there's also the year. So it is, eventually, this is a fund source that will be retired.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. We will go to Council Member Morrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I've got a question. On the $450,000-plus that goes to the OOSP out-of-school program, how is that dispersed, and how many school districts are included in that?

So in that RFP, I think we awarded to, was it three, three or four entities. So it doesn't go directly to any school district. They actually, it was out of school programming and school districts were not prohibited from applying. But I think I'd have to, I don't have my notes in front of me, but for both RFPs, we had, know more demand than ever had it been anticipated there are some direct allocations that the council did that are to a few school districts so we have clover park bethel school district and tacoma school district for their summer teen late night programming and so that is being done directly to them but in this competition it was a mix of non-profits school districts others and then i believe we did Three in the out of three or four and out of school programming. I wish I had that in front of me. I don't know if you've got that.

Yeah, I'm looking at it right now.

Because eventually, you know, despite the fact that we had, you know. Over 50, at least between the two, we ended up only funding 7 projects. With the lower the lower revenues.

Okay. And. I would assume that it's the county that gets the pasta money. Cities don't get any allocation.

Right. It's just to the three counties in the RTA boundaries.

Okay. And I guess, Ms. Waterland, do you have any of this other than I know Bethel is considered a rural school district. Is there any other areas in the rural area that got funding?

am looking right now and I will get back to you

So on the scoring sheets that I have up, so the first one that was fully funded is Communities of Schools in Tacoma, but their programming is for the Puyallup School District, and then Hilltop Artists, which is working in the Tacoma and the greater area, and then Tacoma Boat Builders, which is pulling from students from lots of different school districts, including, it'd be Bethel, Roy, well, Roy is Bethel, Roy is listed. And then also Puyallup, Edgewood, JBLM, Sumner listed because they'll take youth who want to engage.

So this is a program that's a little bit different. Like, you know, with like the violence prevention program, that money is collected from another sales tax that specifically goes to the unincorporated areas and has to be directed there. I don't believe in this procurement that we gave any higher or lesser scoring points based on geography.

Okay. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Any additional questions or comments? Not seeing anything. Thank you. We are going to go to public comment on this. So if anyone would like to address the council on our 2026-168, please come to the podium. State your name for the record. You have up to three minutes. Nobody's jumping up. So Mr. Dominique, we will go online.

Good afternoon. For any member of the public who would like to provide comment on proposal number R2026-168, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad. There are no answers this time, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Seeing no hands raised, we'll close public comment, bring it back before the council and see if there's any further discussion. So I know that I said this during committee, I want to thank the birth of 25 advisory board and the human services staff that work to score the dozens. There were many, many different funding requests. The overall ask, just doing some quick math here was, Over 16Million dollars and asks for program for early childhood and out of school supports. So the less than 100 or the less than 1Million dollars that we did allocate, it's highly needed. And as we continue to figure out how we manage and support youth. The pasta dollars is a, it has an end in sight and it assumes that the. State continues the funding of this program. So that's another little thing to kind of. Be out there, because they could just change their mind and make it go away, which would be really problematic. So, but it is 1 of the things that is out there. So, thank you to the staff and the birth of 25 advisory board and to all of our partners that applied because I know it was. stressful and a lot of work. So seeing no other comments, I'm gonna ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of R2026-168.

Council Member Yambe.

Aye.

Council Member Denson. Aye. Council Member Morrell.

Aye.

Council Member Krueger. Aye. Council Member Ayala. Aye. Council Member Hitchen.

Aye. You have six ayes, zero nays. With six ayes, zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you. That brings us to our next section, which is Ordinance. We have Proposal O2026-528 before us. Council Member Denson for a motion.

Thank you, Chair. I move for approval proposal number 02026-528. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Can the clerk please read it into the record?

Proposal number 02026-528, an ordinance of the Pierce County Council granting a non-exclusive franchise to Easy Fiber Texas LLC for a wireline telecommunications network on certain county-owned rights-of-way and authorizing the county executive execute said franchise.

Thank you. And this afternoon we have Mr. Tom Swanson, one of our policy analysts, to brief us on this item.

Thank you, Chair Hitchen. The proposal before you would authorize the executive to execute a 10-year franchise agreement with Easy Fiber Texas LLC, allowing for the construction operation and maintenance of a wireline telecommunications network in the county's right-of-way. Easy Fiber provides high-speed broadband service within several Pierce County jurisdictions and is requesting a countywide franchise to expand their service offerings into portions of the unincorporated county. The county engineer has reviewed this application, does recommend granting the franchise. The proposed 10-year countywide agreement contains several provisions that protect Pierce County's interest. Easy Fiber would be required to obtain utility right-of-way permits and comply with the manual on accommodating utilities in the right-of-way. Easy Fiber must also relocate or remove facilities at its own expense when necessary for public improvements or safety purposes. and remove abandoned facilities and restore the right-of-way if facilities remain out of service for more than 180 days. The agreement requires Easy Fiber to repair damage it causes within the right-of-way, maintain specific insurance coverages, and provide a performance bond and restoration bonds as required. The company must also notify the county of significant ownership changes and install facilities underground where existing utilities are already underground. Finally, Easy Fiber must defend and indemnify Pierce County against claims arising from its operations and provide facilities information, mapping, and assist with public records requests upon being asked to do so. A public hearing was held on this proposal at the June 22nd Rules and Operations Committee, where the proposal was forwarded with a due pass recommendation. The applicant has paid the $2,500 application fee that has been received. And with that, Madam Chair, both Council and Planning and Public Works staff are available to answer any questions. We also have a representative from Easy Fiber in the chambers, and we do have one amendment.

thank you are there questions from colleagues before we take up the amendment not seeing any um so this is my amendment and so i can go ahead and move it miss call yes even though i can move my own amendment okay i'm gonna go ahead and do that so um i would ask uh of the body, I'd like to move Council Amendment Number 1 for O2026-528. There we go. It's been moved and seconded. It's been a while since I had to do that, everybody. Yeah, that was hard. So it's been moved and seconded. Mr. Swanson, can you tell us what this amendment does?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. The amendment's very straightforward. It takes the 10-year period, the term of the agreement, and shortens that to five years. We do that by doing a couple things. First, we're going to add a recital that does cite the Pierce County Code that shows that while 10 years is our standard for these franchise agreements, that code language does say no more than 10 years, so it is well within Council's purview to go any period shorter than 10 years. 10 years serves as a maximum. We then go in the actual proposal itself in Section 1 is where the 10-year period is stated. That would get changed to five. And then in the exhibit, the actual franchise agreement under the section term of franchise, also, again, it states that 10-year, that would be changed to five years.

Thank you. And I know that I spoke to this a little bit during rules and we asked some good questions. We did receive a response to the questions that were raised around what has been done in our community as far as. The concerns around some of the damage that was done in other communities that have easy fiber franchises, they have continued to work with those communities and write them. It is in our packet. And for those of you that want to read it, it's on page 115. But I continue to just be concerned because in other communities, this particular corporation has. struggled in some cases to do well by the community. And so since they are new to doing work in our county, my thinking was we would just do a shorter amount of time. It's not a significant impact and it is in our purview to do that as the council. And then in five years, whoever's sitting at this dais can go to 10 years or if the rules change, whatever the rules are in five years, I don't know what they will be, but just felt more confident with this. Just to kind of give a little bit of a. A window in case things are not going well, so that is the reason behind the amendment and the thinking just wanted to give a little bit of thought and we'll go to councilman morale with comments or questions.

Thank you. Not being in rules, this kind of caught me, my curiosity. As it was said by Mr. Swanson, most franchise agreement are 10 years. Are we going to hold other companies to this five-year agreement?

great question um i had already worked with mr swanson potentially doing this with any of our new fiber companies that don't currently have working franchise agreements with this county there's some that have changed names so we're trying to figure those out but if they have never done business it is my intent to offer this amendment in each and every one Okay. For Pierce County unincorporated, because many have franchises in other parts of the county.

Okay. My concern is that they're, again, we're penalizing companies by shortening the franchise agreements, because I would assume to have another extension, they would have to pay the same amount uh as the first agreement is that not correct the 2500 application fee is consistent okay for yeah yes 2500 is not a big deal but you know when you have 50 states all competing for internet uh Utility companies, um, I don't want to get into an adversarial position thinking that everyone coming into Pierce County is. speculative as far as what their performance can or cannot be. So I'm a little concerned about setting a precedent and sending a message because I would assume that these companies talk to each other. via whatever method you communicate with um like i say i just don't want us to be blackballed um to saying well i can go over to kitsap county and get a 10-year agreement and work over there So I guess that's my concern about constricting this down and making sure that there again, and everyone who's been in business knows that you have good days and you got bad days, but try to get more good days than bad. So my concern is there again, restricting this down to a five-year timeframe and making sure that from here on until eternity that I guess every utility that applies gets the same treatment. So that's more of a comment than a question.

Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm sorry you felt like caught off guard. We'll go to Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just curious. Did I understand correctly that because it was a fairly new company, there was concern that in case things weren't working out, there was the shorter term? Well, I'm wondering if it could be in the sense that barring any issues, there is an automatic renewal without having to go through paperwork. Because what I'm wondering is, are other companies, if things go haywire, we can't terminate within that 10 years if they're messing things up badly?

Thank you, Council Member Krueger. We have all sorts of remedies within the scope of enforcing these contracts. The first layer, obviously, is that any actual—we approved the franchise on the front end, but any actual work that gets done in the right-of-way requires a separate permit. Part of that permitting process is the approval of a plan of work that gets done. So there's a regulatory scheme that the work being done gets approved for that specific permit. If work is done outside of that scope of work, then there's a series of remedies the county could go to. Ultimately, under any of the franchises, the ultimate, obviously it's not the first step, but the ultimate remedy the county does have is canceling franchises to do that. The other kind of layer we have in all of this is we have our utilities in good standing standard, where different rates are paid for the work permits based on whether you're utility in good standing or not. Companies new to Pierce County Currently, we have two positions. We have you're a utility in good standing or you're not a utility in good standing. We don't have a third category of we've never done business with you. So right now, we have the two positions. You start out in the not in good standing position. After a year, the franchisee can then apply to be a utility in good standing and then get those lower rates. based on the performance that has occurred in that year, assuming there is a performance that has occurred in that year. So those are some of the mechanisms we have along the way leading up to termination of the franchise, but ultimately, the county reserves the right to terminate franchises.

So with that being said, if they were messing up, we could cancel the contract in two years. And not wait for five.

We being the county as an enforcement mechanism, not the council.

Correct. So there really isn't a relevance to this since it can be altered, canceled by the county. Correct? Without this amendment, it can still be terminated. Correct. for the reasons of what I'm understanding the concern is.

That is correct. What would be different is that in five years, the council would need to re-approve and all the parameters in the contract would come back before the council for approval in five years, which would not occur until 10 years without the amendment. But the enforcement mechanism of the county terminating the franchise would remain the same, whether it be five years or 10 years.

Has there been a history of bad actors that have been terminated? Is there very often in right-of-ways for these franchises?

I would default to either Mr. Baker or Ms. Ross, but I don't know of a specific example of a telecommunications franchise that we've terminated.

Thank you, I'm John Baker with planning and public works my understanding is we have never cancelled a franchise or terminated one once they are Franchised they can continue to operate in Pierce County so the work has been

I mean, okay.

Yeah, with all work in the right of way, there have been issues, but we've been able to resolve them through other means than terminating the franchise.

And so none of the issues were intentional. It just was something odd happened. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

I will add that some of our franchisees will just pay higher rates, like pay the we're not in good standing because, and then just continue doing the work and without really thinking about how they could improve their work to meet our standards. So there are ways that it kind of work around the system, which is problematic if you have constituents that continue to reach out and there's concerns because. Has that been a problem? We chat.

Okay.

Councilmember Morrell, we're going to go back to you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think you covered some of it. The utilities that are in bad standing, I mean, that does happen. does occur yes I've got one in my district and they continue to pay the higher rates which is unfortunate it's not because of their poor performance it's another issue but there again it just gets passed on to the to the utility payers, rate payers. But there again, I would rather go through that method than arbitrarily shorten franchise agreements. So, thank you.

Thank you. And I literally may be the only person that does this because I went through a rabbit hole looking at this, but continue to see reports from both local and across the country on repeated incidents of issues with this particular entity. And while they have made it right— locally I Wanted kind of a catch-all to figure this out. And this was this was my thought process again may not pass but it was just the way that I Processed thing as an individual and we're gonna go back to councilmember Cooper.

Thank you manager I can understand the concern but I'm I'm wondering if if there is a history We don't have to grant the franchise in the first place, correct? because it sounds as if This isn't just because we think it should be there just in case. It's because there is a history of bad actors, and we just shouldn't give them a franchise in the first place.

we don't have to give them a friend because they hadn't done business in the county in unincorporated Pierce County I didn't feel like that was as far as I was willing to go and I was almost there so yeah so this was this was my way of kind of threading the needle of allowing the to come and prove that they could do work in the county and work well with our county officials And there's this desire to get broadband and fiber access across unincorporated Pierce County, having competing companies could be beneficial to our residents. And they've hit a couple gas lines. They've been, yeah, there's just stuff.

That is kind of, I get that, but I guess I don't want to treat everyone else or the other franchises as if they did something wrong because of one or two other people. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions? Anything from department staff? Okay. So I'm going to open this up for public comment. And I know easy fight. Oh, yeah, we are on the amendment. We should probably try and pass an amendment that I just defended.

Well, we could move on.

So thank you. So amendment number one for O2026-528 is before us. I'm going to ask all those in favor of approving council amendment number one say aye. We're going to do roll call on this to make it clear. Let me turn on mics. So can the clerk call the roll on the approval of Council Amendment number one?

Council Member Krueger? Nay. Council Member Ayala? Aye. Council Member Yambe?

Aye.

Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morrell?

Nay.

Council Member Hitchen? Aye.

You have four ayes, two nays. We have four ayes and two nays. The motion is adopted. Um, okay, so now we have the item before us as amended. We'll go back to what I started to say and see open stuff for public comment. I do want to start 1st and invite easy fiber. If you wanted to speak, you have up to 3 minutes. And then we'll move on to anyone else in the chambers that would like to address.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Eddie Abreu. I'm the Senior Vice President of Operations for Easy Fiber. Thank you for the opportunity speaking here in front of you guys today. I just want to tell you guys this is a private investment that Easy Fiber has made in the Puget Sound area of a commitment of about $400 million the company has committed. To bring it high speed internet to most of a lot of the communities that have been starved from this product, not having access to high speed internet. We are proud to be the first multi gig provider, meaning that our lowest speeds is two gigs and above. No other provider in the area is doing that right now. So we go two, five, and eight gig symmetrical speeds. Most of these communities have had only Xfinity Coax service and legacy CenturyLink service. So I just want to say that. And also let the council know that we are actively in construction in Clark County down in Vancouver. But we've already built in unincorporated parts of Clark County more than 2,000 homes. We are also approved in King County as well to permit. We received our first set of permits and building will start soon. So some of your neighboring counties have already approved our franchise agreement in Clark County. King County, we already have our franchise number and have received approved permits. So I want to just say that to the council before you vote. That's it. Thank you for your comments.

Questions for me? Not usually, but since, can we take questions in the middle of public comment since this is a provider? Can I do it as the chair or should I close public comment?

Typically you can, but if the body's in agreement, you can do it.

While he's here, I'm not going to make him stand back up, so Council Member Murrell?

I just want to say thank you for coming to Pierce County and remember District 1 when you're looking at a map. But I think there again, we have a lot of technology, internet deserts out there that are running coaxial and one of the companies that you had mentioned had mentioned is not helping out at all in some of my rural communities so if you could do better and provide a better service i'm all for you guys so thank you appreciate it

Thank you. Council Member Krueger, you also had comments? Yeah, thank you, Manager. I just wanted to give my bid for District 3, Mount Rainier. So there's a lot of need for perhaps search and rescue things, and they need to communicate. And having that out there, those folks have been isolated. So thank you also for coming to Pierce.

Yeah, we're very proud of our investment in the community. Some of the parts of unincorporated that we're starting off is Parkland, Spanaway, South Hill. We're currently in construction in Lakewood and the town of Steilacoom right now in Pierce County. So we're active across the Pacific Northwest in 16 cities in parts of unincorporated counties in Clark County and in King County as well. So we're excited to get started in Pierce County.

um and partnering up with the public works team uh make sure that we follow all of the permitting requirements uh and anything else that we need to to be good partners with the county thank you thank you appreciate you being here thank you okay anyone else in chambers want to provide public comment we'll go kind of go back to our normal okay not seeing any so we'll go online mr dominique

Good afternoon. For any member of the public that would like to provide comment on proposal number O2026-528, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad. We have one hand at this time, Madam Chair. Angelyn, please state your name for the record, and you have three minutes.

So, good afternoon council members. Um, my name is Angelina from Pierce County district 2. I have a comments for, um. Not specifically the 1 amendments, but for the proposal itself, um, the number. This is the ordinance, uh, 2026, 528. so for easy fiber, Texas. Um. So I have more of like pros and cons that I've been trying to construct between what is on the agenda and then what was presented along with some, the additional amendment information, um, issued by Janie Hitchens. Um, so I have pros that I'm understanding that are more wifi access for, um, for potential more opportunities for individuals and students to be successful in completing day-to-day tasks while out and about from outside of the house, which is something I've mentioned previously having an issue with that I see happening for the unincorporated Pierce County District that we have in Pierce County District 2 in order to have achieved that access that's part of the goal from Easy Fiber. And then I also see that if there is um as stated also by amy krueger um if there's suspicious activity um like within the county upon um infrastructure construction that's the it's possible for a termination of the franchise contract to be within two years upon issuance if something's bad instead of five years. While that seems like an improvement, it's also a concern for a possibility of other things occurring as So I'm not sure, but it's good that the timeline has gone down just in case. I have seen other companies doing suspicious activity towards the middle of the night, like during the midnight hours of outside of adding additional things in a lot of areas when it comes to my cons list, which is the structures in random areas are not uniform, nor do they look non-hazardous. So it looks like you can be like entering like, so much metal in one corner that it's like we might have to wear, like, those aluminum foil hats, so to speak, to not try and get zapped by those lines. And then there's also neighborhoods and streets look like we are being trapped into an outdoor dinosaur cage in Jurassic Park that are caged into, like, a spider web of wires. so i have an article that i wrote um on my website called blurred and suspicious lines a couple years ago and we have a lot more cables than what's featured in my article for my pictures and i mentioned what in the world is happening in these cross wires looks like a tangled web of mess that is painful each time i take a drive outside around town it's changing where it's more difficult to see up into the beautiful natural amendment thank you very much

There are no more answers this time, Madam Chair.

No other hands. I'm going to close public comment, bring it back before the Council and see if there's any further discussion on this item.

Council Member Ayala. One quick question for Mr. Swanson. In terms of a renewal, typically, is that understood to be a five-year extension renewal or a 10-year extension renewal?

Thank you. And yes, it's a 10-year initial and then a five-year renewal based on the code. What's coming before you, even for companies, this is outside of easy. This is for our upcoming ones. All are being considered as initial franchises because of when that rule was changed. So even companies currently operating in unincorporated Pierce County will be coming to you as initial 10-year franchises. And then the five-year renewals...

assuming no changes are made to the code if there were no changes made to the code in the meantime would then be coming up with the next round got it thank you thank you chair thank you for the comments any additional comments or questions seeing none i'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of o2026-528 has amended

Council Member Ayala? Aye. Council Member Yambe?

Aye.

Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morrell?

Aye.

Council Member Krueger? Aye.

Council Member Hitchen? Aye. We have six ayes, zero nays. With six ayes, zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you all. So we have next on our agenda under item 10, community forum. Community forum is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council on any topic of significance to or affecting Pierce County government that did not appear on the agenda for final action today. There is a three-minute limit. And again, RTW 29B.45.010. says that using public facilities for anything regarding elections is prohibited. So you have up to three minutes and we're gonna have you state your name. If you'd like it on the record, we'll start in the room. Is there anyone in chambers? I see a couple of people potentially here.

Hi, um, I'm here to talk about the, uh, pedophile powered system also known as flock security. Um, and I put security in brackets because it isn't here for security, especially since it's ran by pound tier, who was a big contributor to Epstein, uh, law passed in Washington, limited the use of, but it doesn't go far enough. Um, I've also read from the different police and sheriff's. Public social media and public press conferences about them trying turning off, but also from the law that was passed. They made it to where data isn't able to be asked for through public request or also known as FOIA and other jurisdictions. If we aren't able to ask for information out through those 2 requests, then how do we know it is really off along with this if we aren't using them anymore? Why do we still have them up? Flock is a dangerous step towards creating a state sanctioned police state. If you are take a number count of how many of these cameras are in Pierce County right now, you have 1800 plus with Tacoma having 260 right now by themselves. Flock cameras don't just read a license plate. They take photos of everything about the car and put that said into a database for any and all 5000 different agencies throughout the country to use to their benefit. Not to ours. Um, with these flock cameras taken down everyone's information and tracking people, I feel as though we're all being doxed. If you don't know what doxing is, I encourage you to look that up. Um, seeing as anyone can be docs, not just government agencies or cops and I would ask just this last question. Would you be okay with me or any person taking video or photos of everything you are doing and where you live or where you are going with no information how they are using that information, especially if it's ran by a company that supported Epstein and all of his dealings?

Thank you for your comments. And I'm not seeing any other members of the public here in chambers for community forums, so we will go online, Mr. Dominique.

For any member of the public who'd like to participate in community forum, please press the raise hand icon and zoom or star nine on your cell phone keypad. We have one hand at this time, Madam Chair. Angelyn, please state your name for the record and you have three minutes.

Good afternoon council members. Once again, this is Angelina Scato from Pierce County District 2. I have a few mentions from what was on the agenda for today. So I have comments on items that were introduced and scheduled operations in the operations section. Proposal number 02026546. I support this proposal. So thank you for adding it onto your agenda. I like that you I like that there's an opportunity for recognizing the hard work of each member for you to have the adjustments within your salaries and reflection to your hard work. I've witnessed each and every one of you working so, so, so dedicatingly in chambers and out. And I also see you around the neighborhood as well. So thank you for all your hard work that you put into, all that you do every single day for the community. It is very visible. And it's a treat to see, um. In real time now, rather than having to wait years later. There's also for proposal number are 2026174. I support this adoption of the new organizational chart for the Pierce County Council. because it will help the community find council member information a lot easier to access even in the event of not having a computer and can keep a printout of this essential information of members when it wasn't possible before in this way without internet access or Wi-Fi access while in different parking lots, especially even for the homeless community too. having to be able to have the library access to achieve a printouts and be able to have that information to keep on hands for any tasks that helps improve the community further. And then last notes, thank you, Councilmember Iombe, for recognizing the Coast Salish Tribe achievements as well. I've done some work with them in the summer of 2018, assisting them in a parade in Seattle, downtown Seattle, near the Space Needle. They're very, very good down-to-earth, uh tribe they um love their culture they love to share it with other people and they love to incorporate others so they're giving attitude and open well-rounded characters it's a it's very cool to actually have a sit down with and um and see all that they can do and especially the neat clothes that they make too so thank you for mentioning that thank you thank you for your comments

There are no more answers this time, Madam Chair.

With no hands raised, I'm going to close community forum. Thank you all for spending a few minutes to share some thoughts or concerns. We are at other business. Behind the scenes, we had a second grant, but there was a request to pull it off the consent agenda. So we did that behind the scenes so that it was smoother. So we're going to move to that grant. Mr. Boki, if you would like to tell us a little bit more about the grant so people understand what's going on.

Thank you, Chair Hitchin, Paul Bocchi, council staff. The grant application that you're considering is a 2026 Puget Sound Energy Gas Decarbonization RFP. And the requested grant amount is $10 million. It is a three-year grant running from 2027 to 2030. And Puget Sound Energy is seeking proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from PSE's natural gas distribution system. This RFP intends to identify and fund projects that would reduce supply side and or demand side emissions from PSE's system. The, and that's the office of resilience and climate action intends to apply to the 2026 gas decarbonization RFP to provide rebates and low interest loans for low income households to switch from gas to high efficiency, electric heat pump and heating and cooling. The project will include various forms of energy efficient options for households such as hybrid water heaters, ducted and non-ducted heat pumps, and weatherization improvements. An education campaign component is also part of the project proposal. This project supports Action EB3, residential heat pump pilot. pilot program that makes it easier for homeowners to purchase and install heat pumps for space and water heating and develop a peer-to-peer energy coaching program in the adopted sustainability 2030 plan. The project will boast the county goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support residents in adopting more energy efficient options. And Mr. Ryan Dix from our Office of Resilience and Climate Action is here today to answer your questions.

Thank you. Are there questions on this grant? Council Member Krueger, I can't. Okay, there you go. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Because we had questions earlier, are we looking for new questions or an opportunity for Mr. Dix to share that or kind of cut to the chase and get to... to comments, because part of what I want to talk to are in response to questions that were asked earlier.

Okay, so let's pause and see if anyone has questions first, and then we'll do comments. So you don't have a question, Councilmember? Okay, Councilmember Krueger, we'll stay with you, and then we'll go to Councilmember Rowe. For Mr. Dix? Oh, Mr. Dix, are you willing to come be in the hot seat here?

Hello, Ryan Dix, Office of Resilience and Climate Action.

Thank you for being here.

Yeah, no problem.

Do you have a projection of the savings or the reductions in the greenhouse that is expected to occur after a $10 million investment?

I mean, I think it's significant. One of the challenges I think people, homeowners and property owners are dealing with right now is doing this sort of work is expensive. And I've looked personally at upgrading to heat pump and it is a lot of money. And so what this opportunity is for us is to try to reduce the amount that our taxpayers in Pierce County pay for this kind of an upgrade. We are looking at pretty significant greenhouse gas reductions, and that's why, long story short, the Climate Commitment Act has given money to Puget Sound Energy to find the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pretty much for the least amount of money. And they also want to focus on a few communities, Gig Harbor being the only one in our community, where if we can get reductions there, it's going to save Puget Sound Energy money, which will then save ratepayers money. And I know that's a confusing triangle of thoughts here. But this money, I'll just read this. Puget Sound Energy's priorities for the gas decarb RFP are as follows. Identify and fund projects that reduce emissions for PSE's natural gas distribution system. Reduce costs to Puget Sound Energy natural gas customers by reducing PSE's Natural Gas Climate Commitment Act compliance costs. so if we can do this successfully it should result in lower rates for puget sound energy customers and i know i think i know on the electricity side their rates are a little bit higher than tpu and the other bpa hydropower utilities so this is um it's a good project i think it's a way to reduce costs hopefully certainly for the 900 or so folks we're hoping to work with in our community

$900 for $10 million?

Yeah, it's, I mean, that's a portion of the program. Yeah, it'll be probably more than that, but it's certainly 900 people that we're talking about and up to like a $5,000 rebate on a heat pump installation.

So what does the heat pump run? So $5,000 and what out of the pocket then to change something that doesn't need to be changed?

Heat pumps, I could speculate, but they cost probably between $15,000 and $25,000, depending on the house and a lot of other factors that go into it. This would be, you know, depending on your income level, there's different rebates associated here. So this would be trying to buy down that cost, also helping people finance at a lower rate. And so that's also an important piece of the puzzle.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Murrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Dix. Hello. Hi. I wasn't in study session when these questions, so I'm just kind of curious. You did mention that this is to, one, reduce greenhouse gas and to save... constituents or customers money. My concern is that there again, in making sure when the advertisement goes out, based on what I see, especially with PSC's rate increases that are coming down the pike, I don't know if this is really going to be a savings to customers. And the other thing is I didn't know, and I'm not involved in the residential thing, this is for residential heat pumps. And does that mean that they have to quit using gas on their stoves, on their hot water heaters also?

I'm not aware that that is an aspect of this. This is for people switching out from natural gas heating of their house to both do electricity through heat pumps. So heat pumps do two things. They both heat and cool. Um, when you're usually a natural gas system only heats right? And so. As we all have witnessed over the last decade, it's getting a little warmer here in the summers. So the cooling aspect also provides a resilience aspect, which is less people going to the hospital or less people going. Uh, for he did born illnesses, et cetera. So, um, but I, I am not aware that there's any, like, you have to get rid of all your natural gas stuff. This is a rebate. Uh, for people who are already looking to make this change.

Okay. And this is for gas only.

Yes, that's that's what the money is for. So the money is coming from state climate commitment act dollars is my understanding and Puget sound energy is using taking this 40Million and looking for the best way. To reduce greenhouse, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also. Improve their systems, how their system functions. And that's why they want to focus on areas like gig harbor where they maybe could see a big savings if we could reduce natural gas use there.

Okay, and you just said 40Million.

40 million is for the entire service area. And so we're a pretty big portion of their service area. So that's why we're looking at this bigger number, 10 million, up to 10. King County, I think, is probably their biggest county besides us.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any additional questions before we go to comments and potentially questions? We're going to go back to Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was wondering, will you be collecting or the agency collecting data like the CBA on the work that is being done and the results? Yeah. Because I'm looking at since like 1990 or whatever. We haven't decreased. We've spent billions, but greenhouse gas really hasn't decreased. And so here comes this big investment, Climate Commitment Act, expensive to everybody.

Yeah. There's absolutely compliance, which is speaking to how many get switched out, and it's pretty easy math, I would say, to explain how much greenhouse gas emissions you're reducing.

Well, that and... how much their bills were lowered. And I understand this would be like weather stripping the house as well and improving those things. So the better insulation to go with it, isn't that part of this as well?

We will work closely with our weatherization team because the weatherization team is often working with people in this situation where they need to switch these out and these rebates will actually make some of that work more affordable. But mostly what we're looking at is rebates for contractors doing work for folks within Pierce County.

And then, you know, the loans aren't going to reduce the greenhouse, but it's just the... Okay.

Okay, we're going to go back to Council Member Murrell.

thank you madam chair is there any income verifier on this or is it open to any one of any there is an income verifier and that's uh we're basing ours programs similarly to what king county is doing so that when we have advertising which is across both markets it's not different but what we are able to do is go up to i think it's 150 percent of ami which without this grant, it would just be for, it would just be for, I know. No comment. Okay, so there is a qualifier. Yeah, yeah, there is. There's some income verification piece. Okay, great.

Thank you. Okay.

Not seeing any additional questions come up. Don't go anywhere, Mr. O'Rourke. You can sit down, but don't run away in case more are inspired. So we don't take public comment on this at all, Councilmember Kruver. So I know you said you had some comments. So I'm going to see if anyone has any final comments before I ask if we are approving this. So do you have some final, okay.

I do, but if the others want to go first, that's fine.

Anyone else have final comments?

just really quickly i want to thank the department for for hustling and submitting this grant and the money is available so we want it in our communities and it's going to make for a healthy pierce county and i mean i feel bad i'm very very grateful that you're doing so much work in my community so thank you for that i know it was based on

analytics the analysis of the cost-benefit analysis but i'm grateful and i look forward to spreading the news in the community of the opportunity especially to our lower income residents thank you now we'll go to councilmember kuber thank you madam chair i guess if i could figure out how to make that bridge a green project and have the 10 million go to that that would be much happier and take care of facilities that we need or transportation issues I guess part of the issue of the conundrum of how the power company has been put into a position where they have to spend this money for this purpose for which we're not getting results on it. And they have the two problems, the Climate Commitment Act and then the CETA, the Clean Energy Transportation Act, Clean Energy Transformation Act. And they keep changing the goalposts and the rules and it just gets more difficult for getting results for spending this money. And there's also the administrative part of this that is very tedious for people to have to do. And when we're looking at historically, we've declined like 32% since 2000, ranking 25th nationally. We've spent billions to do that, yet other areas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, all did better than Washington State, and they didn't spend the money. When you look at the metric tons, it sounds so big, 50 million metric ton equivalent. One gigaton is equivalent to .128 parts per million. One million metric ton equivalent is .128. zero, zero, zero, one, two, eight parts per million. It's nothing. And yet, we're having to spend all of these dollars. Plus the rates, as Councilmember Morrell had mentioned earlier, about the PSE having to raise, what, 9% and then expectation of 30% in three years. And here we're switching out things that work fine for something where we know the rates are going up. And this war on natural gas is kind of a war on our taxpayers. And while I understand that the company must spend these dollars, maybe it's my protest where the state needs to take a second look at what they're requiring, and this Climate Commitment Act, plus I couldn't find the report, but I'm thinking 67% of the dollars on that did not go to projects that reduce greenhouse gas. And I just find this a poor use of dollars for what our constituents are going to pay in their rates, and it's Puget Power is kind of stuck. Back when they passed the portfolio for greenhouse gas, I remember getting an email from someone who said, this is so disingenuous when they advertise that hydropower is not renewable. And I had to go, no, that's true. It's not being called renewable. And the pattern was set from there on. And I guess it's principle. I am not going to support this. Even though, you know, the dollars are going to be spent, they say, why not spend it here? I think we're creating more liabilities than we are being helpful. So that's why I had my say. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for your comments. Any additional comments? Well, I will add, in my little home in Parkland, I added a heat pump. And really appreciate having air conditioning. I had not had air conditioning for a very long time, but after the heat dome several years ago where I had to flee my home with my dog to someone else's home who had air conditioning. I realized that I need to make that change. I had the means to do that and I did it and my power bills. even though i now have air conditioning have gone down so um though i have not made up what i invested in the thing yet but i think if i add it up in probably another couple years i will um but i really love my air conditioning right now so it is very nice to come home too and i know that we have community members that will also appreciate that especially if if there's some support so i will urge support councilmember cruver we're going to go back to you okay

You just reminded me, though, of, you know, I haven't had air since I moved up here in 85, and I came from Arizona, and try driving a firebird on the floor with a sheepskin, and your air doesn't work. I went to my constituent, I smelled like a sheep. I'm like, what? It's so hot. So I get it, but we survive. And if you can afford to do that and have that, great. But up here, you know, it isn't the same as in the desert. So thank you, Madam Chair. I'm done.

Thank you. So I'm gonna ask we don't need to do a roll call unless you'd like a roll call councilmember Cooper I'm just gonna ask ahead of time or if we can just doing all those All those in favor. Okay, so all those in favor of approving the Puget Sound energy gas decarbonization grant submittal say aye aye any opposed Motion carries. Thank you very much. Is there any other business before us or announcements? I'm going to remind Council Member Krueger she wanted to announce tickets. So I'm going to go to you. You always remember. I wrote it down. That is how it happens.

The Pierce County Fair, the sponsored fair by Pierce County is August 13, 14, 15, 16. And this year the tickets were late in getting printed. And so we are working to make sure everyone has the opportunity to get their student a ticket. They are free of charge. It is ages six through fifteen and you must scan the little picture here but a qr code and it will give you the opportunity to buy one ticket at zero cost and then you can also get an accompanying adult ticket at five dollars off there will be discounted tickets through the day before the fair and there will also be wristbands because this year there was a carnival they were able to find an organization that was had that weekend free and so it's going to be a great time and i just Email the county office or my office if you are looking for bulk tickets for one and we'll see what we can do to get them to you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate the announcement and reminder of that great local fair. It's a lot of fun. Last year I practiced evacuating a house. A couple other, any other comments or announcements? I just wanted to do a quick shout out to our Parks Department, especially Andrea Clay and the group that run Sprinker Recreation Center. This Saturday, they celebrated their 50th anniversary of that building, and they put on a skate show involving both young people and former skaters, all to delightfully disco-y 70s groovy music in costumes and everything, and did just a really nice job of bringing community together, both inside and out. So thank you for their work. Council Member Kerber, do you have anything?

When you mentioned parks, you reminded me, and that sounds like a lot of fun. But it's kind of cool. Also at Frontier Park, they are going to be ripping out in the playground the cushy stuff. Gosh, what do you call that? The mat. And replacing that. And this will all be done in time for when the fair starts. And there will be a ribbon cutting for the arena cover coming up as well.

The arena cover that we've been working on since 1980.

I mean, 1980. 1980. 2018. Feels like 1982.

so um okay so lots of cool stuff in the summer with parks which is always fun um the other thing i will just add uh election ballots mailed today um so check your mailbox your pamphlet should have already been received so if you have any issues our auditors team with the elections team is at the ready to support any questions um and uh hopefully everything is arriving in your mailbox in the next couple days so you can For those that do vote, they can vote. Any other business before the council? Seeing no other business, we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.