County Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Pierce County Council. Today is September 15th, 2026. The time is 3.03. If the clerk could please call the roll.

Council Member Morrell.

Sure.

Council Member Herrera. Council Member Kruver? Here.

I'm here.

Thank you. Wow, Council Member Kruver. I did that before Carrera. Council Member Ayala? Here. Council Member Yambe?

Here.

Council Member Denson? Here. Council Member Hitchen? Here.

You have seven members present. With seven members, we do have a quorum. Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. In a moment, I'm going to ask Council Member Ayala 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 that are serving overseas in our military. Please rise if you're able for 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.

We acknowledge that we are on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish tribes. Coast Salish people have lived on and stewarded 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 Ayala. We are now at section four. We are now at section 4 approval of our agenda. Are there any objections to our agenda as presented this afternoon? Seeing no objections, the agenda is approved. On today's council agenda, there will be multiple opportunities to provide public comment on the consent agenda. You may provide comments on any final action item that does not include items that are placed on the consent agenda for scheduling or introduction. In addition, during sections 8 and 9 of the agenda, we'll take public comment for 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. Pursuant to state law, I will just remind everyone that the Pierce County Council may not accept public comment. comment during this meeting that supports or opposes a candidate or a ballot measure. This includes proposed charter amendments, statewide initiatives, referendums, levies, bonds, or any other measure appearing on the election ballot. And if you have questions, please see one of the amazing staff that are here. And there is more information at the bottom of the first page of your agenda or at the bottom of your agenda. We now have our consent agenda. This includes one set of minutes, one appointment resolution, four grant applications, and one motion to re-advertise and update the residency requirements for the council vacancy on the town of South Prairie. Is there any item that somebody wants pulled? Otherwise, Vice Chair, are you able to do a motion from afar? Okay. Council Member Denson, you willing to make a motion?

For the consent agenda? Yes. I move the consent agenda passes.

Second.

so close i like it there's been a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda as presented um i do want to um first pause and see we do i did mention that we have an appointment uh resolution that is for tricia migra for um i think council district two is the trisha here or in the zoom room you can raise your hand you're being appointed to the birth to 25 advisory board And it is okay if they are not here. Just want to make sure. Not seeing anyone stand up, so thank you. Anyone who says yes to one of our boards and commissions, we appreciate them because very important. For full transparency, I also mentioned there was a motion around council vacancy. I'm going to read the motion because it's just kind of in the fine print here. So I'm going to read it into the record so it is transparent. A motion directing the clerk of the council to re-advertise the opportunity to apply for appointment to the South Prairie Town Council to update the revised residency requirements per South Prairie Ordinance 471 on the announcements and on the council's webpage and to extend extend the application deadline to 21 days from the published announcement date. So we just ran this, the process went through, and then the town decided to change their rules and align with state law. So now we need to re-advertise it and start the process again. So we are doing that today. Any further comments? Otherwise, I'm going to open this up for public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to address the council on the consent agenda? not seeing anyone, Mr. Dominique will go online.

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

No hands raised. I'm going to close public comment, bring it back before the council, and ask that the clerk call the roll on the approval of the consent agenda as presented.

Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morrell?

Aye.

Council Member Herrera?

We'll come back to you, Council Member Herrera. We can see you, but we cannot hear you.

Council Member Kruver? Aye. Council Member Ayala? Aye. Council Member Yambe? Aye. Council Member Herrera?

That's an aye.

Council Member Hitchen? Aye. You have seven ayes, zero nays. With seven ayes, zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you. That brings us to, let me turn the page, messages from the executive and there are several There are several ordinances that were signed and approved on August 27th. I'm going to read through these. The first one is O2026-545, which was updating our code claims and actions by and against the county. Ordinance 2026-547, which was a collective bargaining agreement reached with Pierce County Corrections, a detention center non-uniformed group. Ordinance 2026-548, which is a collective bargaining agreement reached with Deputy Sheriff's Independent Guild Local 1889 Community Service Officers. And Ordinance 2026-549, which is a collective bargaining agreement with the Juvenile Court Unit. And then Ordinance 2026-550, Collective Bargaining Agreement Reached with Local 120 PAO or Prosecuting Attorney's Office. And Ordinance O2026-551, which is a Collective Bargaining Agreement with Local 120, the General Unit. And then, not a Collective Bargaining Agreement, Ordinance O2026-553, which was Reauthorizing the Spanaway Lake Management District Number 1. We're now at section seven, which is proclamations. Our first proclamation today is the council and executive designating September 17th through the 23rd, 2026 is constitution and citizenship week in Pierce County. We'd like to welcome invite the following individuals to the podium as council member Coover reads the proclamation into the record. We have Renee. Crist and Mary Ball, Renee Crist from the Mary Ball Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the Revolution, Shannon Faria, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Sarah Garriott from Moms for Liberty. And Council Member Krueger is reading this into the record.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a proclamation of the Pierce County Council and Executive designating September 17 through 23 as Constitution and Citizenship Week in Pierce County, Washington. Whereas on September 17, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution of the United States, establishing a framework of government founded upon the principles of representation, enumerated authority, separation of powers, and the protection of individual liberty. And whereas the Constitution established a system of government in which power is exercised according to law, and the powers of government are divided among separate branches and levels of government, with checks and balances intended to prevent the concentration and abuse of governmental power. and whereas the american constitutional tradition recognizes that government exists to secure rights and liberties of the people and that the legitimate exercise of governmental authority is bounded by the constitution and rule of law and whereas the constitution and bill of rights protect fundamental liberties including freedom of speech religion assembly and the press as well as due process of law and other protections against the improper exercise of government governmental power and whereas the constitution establishes a system of dual sovereignty in which the 50 states having entered the union with their sovereignty intact are not subordinate subdivisions of the national government but co-equal sovereigns a role the constitution reinforces in the bill of rights and by vesting in the state legislatures the primary responsibility for prescribing the times place and manner of elections And whereas the right of citizens to participate in self-government through the ballot is fundamental to our Constitutional Republic, and the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments have expanded and protected voting rights by prohibiting discrimination and specified barriers to voting. And whereas Washington State and Pierce County are committed to conducting secure, accessible, and trustworthy elections in which every eligible voter may cast a ballot with confidence that election procedures are administered according to law and that ballots are accurately counted, And whereas citizenship carries both the protection of constitutional government and the responsibilities of informed participation, respect for the rule of law, service to community, and preservation of the institutions of self-government. And whereas the Mary Ball Chapter of National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution have long promoted patriotism, preserved American history, supported education and encouraged informed and engaged citizenship, carrying forward the memory of those who contributed to the founding of the United States. And whereas Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, observed annually on September 17 and Constitution Week, observed September 17 through September 23, provide an opportunity for Americans to reflect upon the history and principles of the Constitution, the meaning and responsibilities of citizenship, and the continuing obligation of each generation to preserve constitutional self-government. And whereas the blessings of liberty depend not only upon the written guarantees of the Constitution, but also upon citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities, participate in civic life, respect the rule of law, and remain engaged in the institutions through which self-government is exercised. And whereas Pierce County recognizes that constitutional government is not self-perpetuating, but depends upon the continuing commitment of citizens and public servants to preserve liberty, uphold the Constitution, faithfully discharge the duties of public office, and leave to future generations the institutions of representative self-government entrusted to us. Now therefore be it proclaimed on this 15th day of September, 2026 by the Pierce County Council and Executive that September 17 through 23, 2026 is hereby designated as Constitution and Citizenship Week in Pierce County, Washington. And be it further proclaimed that the Pierce County Council and Executive encourage all residents to observe this week by learning about the Constitution and the history of the United States, understanding the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, participating in civic life, respecting the rule of law, and recognizing the enduring principles of liberty, self-government, upon which our constitutional republic was founded. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Let's give them a hand. So, Ms. Christ, we'll start with you, and I think I'm saying that correctly. Yes, Christ. Thank you very much.

My name is Renee Christ. I am the Regent of the Mary Ball Chapter in Tacoma, Washington, and I bring greetings from my chapter as well as greetings from our member who is also the State Regent of the Washington State Society, Lynn Stalka. The Daughters of the American Revolution, let me give you a little background, is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and is a nationwide, non-profit, non-political women's service organization whose mission rests on three enduring pillars, historic preservation, education, and patriotism. The Mary Ball Chapter was founded in 1894 and for over 130 years we have served Pierce County communities through public service. In 2025, for example, our chapter logged over 13,000 hours of serving Pierce County communities, supporting education and schools, awarding scholarships, recognizing outstanding students, preserving Washington history, supporting first responders and our veterans and active duty military, and promoting U.S. citizenship and our nation's founding principles. Our chapter is one of 38 chapters in Washington State Society. Our members are women who are all proven with lineal descendants from someone who aided the cause in the American Revolution. While our heritage connects us to the America's founding, our focus today is serving our community. Constitution Week, which is celebrated today with your resolution wonderfully written, traces its origins to DAR. In 1955, DAR made Constitution Observance a national project, encouraging chapters nationwide to study, teach, and share the Constitution in their communities. The DAR president at the time petitioned Congress to establish an annual national observance to be September 17th to the 23rd. Congress adopted the resolution, and in August of 1956, that's 70 years ago this year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law officially establishing National Constitution Week. Thank you so much for having me today and having us today and for this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Shannon? You don't have to. They just gave me a list. Okay. He's also a member of DAR. I got that from the title. They said I had three speakers. I'm following the directions that I'm given. So thank you for being here, though.

Good afternoon, members of the Council. My name is Sarah Garriott. I'm the Chapter Chair of Moms Liberty Pierce County, and I brought today my son, my youngest son, Maxwell, with me today. And I wanted to thank Councilmember Krueger for this wonderful proclamation. Moms for Liberty National has given out over 1 million constitutions to 8th graders across the United States over the last three years. Our own chapter here has been giving out constitutions. We have given out over 10,000 and this week we are giving out 2,700 more to 8th graders across Pierce County. We believe that setting the constitution is imperative for the preservation of liberty throughout our land. And it is an honor to accept it today as a fourth-generation Washingtonian, a direct descendant or cousin of 16 Mayflower passengers, and the 11th great-granddaughter of Chief Massasoit. With my youngest son, obviously Maxwell, I am very grateful for this council's proclamation to declare this week Constitution and Citizenship Week in Pierce County, Washington. This proclamation recognizes and reflects the values, commitment, and sacrifices of so many in our community and our nation. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Richard Price on January 8th, 1789, quote, whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied upon to set them to rights." I hope this proclamation sets a clear standard of our values for future generations, informs them, and points them in the direction of everlasting liberty. And I accept this proclamation with sincere appreciation on behalf of myself and all of those involved in creating it. Thank you again for this meaningful recognition.

Thank you for your comments and being here. We're going to go to Council Member Kruver for comments first. I'm going to do it that way from now on, everybody, and you're going to help me remember. Council Member Kruver. Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is always such a meaningful thing, and I want to thank you all for raising your children with these values. Renee, I'm not certain that you have children, but... Okay. Then they'll have those same values to carry forward. But I just want to note that the Constitution is more than just a historic document. It is the framework that limits government and protects individual liberty, establishes that authority of government ultimately that it comes from the people. and that to understand the Constitution, that we have to remember the Declaration of Independence, that it was the Declaration that gave us the why, why government exists, why our rights matter, why government must derive its legitimate power from the consent of the governed, and that it was the Constitution that gave us the how, that how those principles would be put into practice through representative government, separated powers, defined authority, and checks and balances. So the Declaration establishes the cause, and the Constitution is the government. I got my Declaration scarf that I got when I was in D.C., and I thought, well, today's the day I get to wear that. And then I did want to say something about the Citizenship and Citizenship Week, because that really does deserve our attention in that, you know, I'm going to call that we need to have this Office of Citizen. that we often talk about offices that are held by elected officials, but citizenship itself carries responsibilities, and that we are not merely people who receive the benefits of the constitutional government, but we are the people that are entrusted into keeping it and preserving it. And so the artifice of citizen means understanding our rights and understanding the limits and responsibilities that come with them. It means voting and participating in civic life, staying informed, listening to the people with whom we may disagree, respecting the rule of law, serving when called upon, holding office. and holding office officials accountable, recognizing that self-government requires more than government doing its job. It requires citizens willing to do their job. And that every generation inherits the Constitution, but no generation owns it. That we are its temporary custodians. The responsibility of citizens is to understand the liberties that we have inherited, exercise them responsibly, and preserve the institutions of self-government that can be entrusted to the generations that follow us. I just want to thank you for your dedication and for coming down here in the words. And, you know, having the Boy Scouts here is... and so well, well versed in the necessities of life. So thank you for taking the time to be here. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Krueger. Other comments from my colleagues on this before we organize a photo? So I will just bring up, I have a pocket-sized constitution that I carry around in my purse. It's been a hot topic of almost contention in the last couple of years. And sometimes it's just good to be able to go fact check with the actual facts. So I appreciate they're giving out constitutions. I think one of the things that the founders really settled on was that we needed to have separation of powers and that we needed to have no one person in charge and so the supreme court's recent um overturning of um or just basically the ruling around requiring mail-in ballots not being used and we as a state we we vote mail-in it works and we oppose that we we did what we are allowed to do we contested that along with many other states it went through the processes and that is our way of putting checks on one branch of government and that is why this system as messy as it may feel works so well because we have these checks and balances that allow us to call on our elected officials and then when the elected officials aren't doing what we want then we use the legal side and we go to the court And if the courts aren't what we're doing wrong or aren't working, then we look to the people and we have this great mess that seems to continue to work. It all comes from that Constitution. So thank you for being here and celebrating this day. We are going to take a picture. Mr. Dominique, do you have some suggestions on how to arrange? Because we don't quite have a large group, but we have...

You may have to stagger a little bit. Can we shift this way just a little bit? That's good right there. All right. One, two, three. And hold fast. I'm going to take a couple more photos and then you're good to go. All right. Thank you.

Let me keep it.

Yeah.

Okay, so we actually have two proclamations this afternoon. So for those of you that are here for business, we are going to also recognize and celebrate by declaring September 15th through October 15th. 2026 Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month in Pierce County, and I'd like to welcome and invite the following individuals to the podium as Council Member Ayala reads it into the record. I'm going to turn her mic on. So we have Aiden Espino, I always say your name wrong, who is a member of the Me Centro team and a fierce ally. And then we have two students that are joining him. We have Aleda Gutierrez-Cabrera, Cabrera and Fatima del Carmen Hernandez Perez and I apologize if I misspoke on any of those but close enough okay so uh we have more folks we have tons of folks that we're gonna have up but like they can come but these are my three speakers do you sure yeah We can have everybody come surround them. It's a long time to stand. So if you all want to come up, be behind them and enjoy and celebrate and be part of it. Yeah, you all can come up.

I won't look so skinny.

I'll begin. Thank you, Chair. A proclamation of the Pierce County Council and Executive designating September 15th through October 15th, 2026. as Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month in Pierce County, Washington. Whereas each year, Pierce County joins the nation in observing National Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month from September 15th to October 15th by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of U.S. residents whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. And whereas the theme for 2026 is Unidos Somos Mas, Together We Are More, which calls on neighbors far and wide to recognize that communities grow stronger through togetherness, shared humanitarian purpose, and solidarity across generations. And whereas the Hispanic and Latino community has helped build and strengthen our society for generations at every level, including but not limited to, our national economy, with a contribution of nearly $4.4 trillion to the U.S. GDP, making it about 15% of the overall GDP, and to the sciences, such as work from Joanne Trejo identifying mechanisms for controlling cell behavior and potential therapeutic targets for cardiovascular disease. And whereas the Hispanic and Latino Americans of Americas of Pierce County continue to enrich our communities through small businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups, and cultural traditions, including the long-lasting leadership of Mi Centro and Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood, bringing cultural awareness, arts, education, and essential services to Pierce County. and whereas the University of Washington Tacoma has supported its own students through the Latina Student Union, which then extends its services to support the overall Latina student population through its annual graduation celebration, and UWT has supported the overall community through the Celebrando Comunidad, which recognizes local Latina efforts within the world of business, professional emerging leadership, youth leadership, social justice, arts and culture, healthcare leadership, and education. And whereas Washington State continues to see growth in Hispanic and Latino representation, including members of the Latino Democratic Caucus and the Washington State Legislature, ensuring that the voices of this vibrant community are heard in shaping public policy, And whereas the observance of National Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was extended by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting September 15th and ending October 15th, becoming law on August 17th, 1988 with the approval of the Public Law 100-402, And whereas September 15th is significant because of its anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, followed by Mexico's independence on September 16th, Chile's on September 18th, Belize on September 21st, and Ecuador on October 9th, all falling within this 30-day period. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on this 15th day of September 2026 by the Pierce County Council and Executive that September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month in Pierce County, Washington. All community members are encouraged to participate in this observance by attending community celebrations, cultural programs, and educational events.

Thank you. Let's give them a hand. So thank you for joining us, Mr. Espino.

My name is Adan Espino or Aiden Espino, pick whichever one you can pronounce. I am very privileged to be here. I am the Director of Education and External Affairs for Mi Centro, which is the sole Latino-focused servicing organization in Pierce County. And I'm surrounded by many other Latinos that are cooler than me. And this is a very special month and a special day. It's Fiestas Patrias, which I like to remind people literally translates to Patriot Parties. And I think it is special to be invited yearly by you guys in the Pierce County Council to receive this and have a little bit of time to be heard and talk about us. So, you know, Mi Centro, as you know, we've been around since the 90s. We've been historically in the hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma. And we are currently planning a second office in Lakewood, which the opening will be sent to you guys soon. But we've historically been in Tacoma and have served the county writ large. We've had all sorts of programs, but at the core of them is always education and self-empowerment. Our Family Support Service Center, which is our biggest program, supports individuals fleeing crime, domestic violence situations, or just down on their luck. And we work to empower them, make sure that they can live on with their lives. are the program that I run, the Dolores Huerta Institute, which will have a couple of wonderful speakers here to talk about their thoughts. That is about civic engagement, empowerment, and knowing how to engage in this wonderful experiment we call the American Republic. So it was kind of fitting that the Constitution Proclamation was just before us. And then our business program, small business program, help small business and aspiring entrepreneurs to get the education they need, the help that they need to make sure their papers are in order, they're paying taxes on time, and that they understand the laws so they can succeed by themselves. And of course the arts and cultural program is for the community writ large to learn about all various Latino communities. But I think you can see at the center it's education and self-empowerment. We want people to take Sort of our culture and the lessons of our culture, which is to do right by yourself do right by your family and do right by your country. So, with that, before I hand it off, I always like to share a couple of facts about the Latino population, because people might not know we're everywhere. We're in all sorts of positions and. I think it's important to just kind of learn. So for Pierce County, I think you would find interesting that between 2010 and 2025, one in three of all new residents are Latino. To that, one in three of all Latinos are under the age of 35, so very young demographic. 85% of Latinos are English fluent, but 65% speak Spanish regularly. So the majority of the population is bilingual. Three-fourths of all Latinos are citizens. One in five have a college degree, but the most common occupation is occupational services, 23% of all Latinos. Currently, Latinos in the national electorate comprise 15%, but are projected to reach 20% by the end of 2030. And of another fun fact, this is less about Latinos, but more about, I think, the relationship we have with the country at large. Did you know that 90% of all Americans live within five miles of a Mexican restaurant? Seriously, seriously, even in Alaska. So there's this special relationship that we have being here. There are many Latinos that say the border crossed them. They didn't cross the border. There are many Latinos that did cross the border. My family was one of those. But overall, I think our history is intrinsically tied with the birth of this republic and the many other republics that we're celebrating in the home countries, both from our indigenous roots, the European roots, We are all mixed mixed race who are make very diverse racial population that come together under a broad banner of. But here as well, in our specific context, we're also proud Americans. And. Are just very privileged to be here. So with that, I'd love to show a couple proud Americans off that attended me Centro civics program. And I think we're some of the most smart. No offense to all the other students, but the most smart students we had, and just very good at articulating. I think this interweb that we have. So.

Hello everyone, my name is Fatima Hernandez Perez. I'm currently representing Mi Centro and also U of Tacoma's Latinx Student Union as our president for this year. When I was a little girl, I never really saw representation within the media or within politics. So truly being here is a very big deal for me and for my family as well, as a first generation college student as well. And so to be here representing such a beautiful and hardworking community is a very big deal and it truly feels like it envelopes what being Latina in the United States really is. And to be a voice for a marginalized community that has been silenced is what Little Fatima would be proud of. Regardless of what laws are put in place to try and keep us down, Latinos always say no and step up to the plate to overcome these challenges. In a place like Pierce County, we have the resources and opportunity to grow and to learn and to represent our roots and to have a say in what happens within our community. So thank you for having me and I'm very grateful to represent Mi Centro and all of my other communities that I do represent just by being here and by standing here. And non-profit organizations like Mi Centro truly help us not only gain more knowledge, but to also gain more freedom over our own rights as

um latinos within the united states of america so thank you for having me and thank you for having this event thank you hello everyone my name is aleida gutierrez cabrera today i'm speaking on behalf of me centro as a student leader i'm in my senior year of college to which i will have earned my bachelor's degree in law and policy and i hope to become a part of the three percent of latino lawyers in the united states I am also a first-generation Latina, which, of course, as many may identify with, comes with certain hurdles that one must overcome. One of my major obstacles during my early semesters of college was my lack of knowledge, not knowing what steps to take next. Thankfully, I've become a part of Las Monarcas, and I joined friends as they founded the Women in Law Society at UWT. and have met so many wonderful and intelligent people this year i was elected as president for the women in law society club which is an opportunity that i will face head-on with slight fear but diffuse with resilience acting with the same resilience that our predecessors have held throughout the lifetimes as they fought for so much of what we as Latinos have today. A big turning point of Latino history in the United States includes the walkouts of 1968. Throughout the initial fusion of Latin American youth into the American educational system, these new students faced discrimination, cultural cleansing, and systemic oppression. The students were denied the ability to express their culture, but taught to assimilate without aspiring too far. An example being that teachers at these mostly non-Anglo institutions would discourage Latino students from even considering post-secondary education, often encouraging them instead to shift their focus strictly toward vocational and domestic jobs. Ultimately, students, teachers, and local activists sparked a movement with their organized school walkouts to protest the injustices they faced. Even when all odds seemed against them, these students persevered and continued their journey through organized protests. They never gave up, and thanks to them, I have had the ability to speak Spanish throughout my school years. I've been able to fearlessly connect with other Latinos around me, which has encouraged me to strive for my goals even when things may seem obscure, demonstrating to us that improvements are possible. So with that in mind, I call for Latinos to remain in a state of hope. I want us as a collective to understand the power we hold within us, with Latinos consistently ranked as the fastest growing demographic. We must become aware of the immense power and opportunity we hold today to become what we aspire to be and help our community continue to spread this beautiful sentiment among the nation. Let's not forget all that we have achieved and all that we have yet to do. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I didn't read all the way to the bottom of the page. So our ERG, Juntos is here. We have some staff that are part of that. Does somebody want to speak? Is there any member from county staff? There we go. I should read at the bottom of the page. I should know about it as a teacher.

No, we just want to thank y'all for the proclamation. Rosia Ayala has been a great sponsor for our Pierce County Juntos ERG group. And I think Mi Centro. I think we all identify with the stories that they have shared with us today. I think we all share the same experiences, but we are grateful that Pierce provides the employer resource group that they do, and there are a lot of Latinos across the county, and I think it's a place where we can reflect and be in community right and not only that but also expand our culture with our peers right so um we have a couple events coming up this month and we hope a lot of our pierce county employees can join us but thank you so much for inviting us thank you would you mind saying your name and maybe which department you're with oh yes uh my name is sandy jacome and i'm with the assessor treasurer's office thank you we always like to get a shout out of you know our county staff who work behind the scenes to make all this stuff happen so thank you yeah well like i said we're everywhere so um

I mean, I think that's just the end of it, just to really close, you know, like, it was mentioned on a panel earlier, separate from this, that a lot of us feel like you're not from here, you're not from there. And I think the stories here are really us trying to grasp with everyone and say, we don't feel we're from here, we're from there. We feel like we're from both. We're just on this land. You know, we love our ancestral countries. I love my family's Mexican, and I love visiting my family in Mexico. But I was born and raised here, and I love the United States of America, and I love everyone here and all the support that everyone's brought in me and the great privileges I've had. In this country, but that also comes with a lot of costs, you know, for many populations, many immigrant populations that have. Traverse to get here from the Irish and Italians in the early 19th, 20th century to now our, our populations that have had the privilege to come here. So, again, I just kind of restate that to. to say this is a great honor and a privilege. And this is a little off script, but I am going to invite everybody to do a very culturally Mexican thing, and that's every time you go to start a party, they do what they call an el grito. So before you read and we can invite it up, I'd like everyone to do a little gritito, huh? Ready? One, two,

All right, we're done.

Okay. So, Councilmember Ayala, I'm not sure if you participated in that. I couldn't hear, but do you have any comments?

It's how the party gets started.

That's how you initiate. You're feeling loose now, right? Yeah.

I want to take a moment just first and foremost, there are so many people that showed up for this. So thank you for being here. But I think the speakers articulated this a lot better than I could have, where there are so many varied stories around what it means to be Latino. And no matter what your story is, there is a strong community and sense of almost siblinghood. Like we are all family at the end of the day. And so just want to say thank you for showing that here, but also showing that out in community and how how we just work with one another. And in many Latino cultures, you show love by being very honest and sometimes critical to one's hurt feelings, but it's because we want to see the best of one another. And so that is translated into our workspaces and into our love for country and into our love for family and so many others. So thank you so much for being here and showing up.

Thank you. Any other comments from council members? Council Member Yambe.

So I want to thank everybody for being here and I want to thank Council Member Ayala for this year's proclamation recognizing Hispanic and Latino heritage month. But I just want to give another shout out to Mucentro for all the incredible work that you do to build community and it doesn't matter what the political boundary is, it extends to everyone. whether you're Latino or you're Afro-Latino or Indigenous, just the amazing work that you do that transcends all of our districts. And your new director, Priscilla, has been a great call to leadership in the last couple years, and you've been doing incredible work for our community. And we see it, and we... Absolutely value your contributions, and thanks for being a great resource. So thanks for being here.

Thank you. And then I think we have someone from the University of Washington Tacoma staff. We had students speak, so I was confused.

We have students here. We have professors. We have staff.

Is there one person who would like to speak, or are you here just to celebrate and enjoy the...

I gotta figure out how. And I'm sorry. Well, one, I just thank you for inviting us and having us here. My name is Abel Hernandez. I'm actually an assistant teaching professor at the University of Washington Tacoma in the Milgaard School of Business. And my main focus is I teach leadership. I teach undergraduate classes in managing people, managing organizations. And I also co-advise the lab student union along with Ashley Ramirez, who is here. But what I would wanna say, it's really about the students. My job, we talked about representation, is how can I help change those small percentages that keep getting thrown out all the time? We're always talking about the 1% this or 2% that. What I want to do every day is help students hopefully get to the point where they can be productive citizens, be leaders in their community, and hopefully that it becomes the norm for us to go to college, that it becomes the norm for us to graduate, that it becomes the norm for us to be business owners and leaders and community members and just give back to the next generation. So thank you again for having us here today. Appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And again, apologize for the clunkiness of going through this. It's all me today. Mr. Dominique, we have a lot of guests. How would you suggest that we potentially set this up?

my recommendation is we have our speakers come up onto the dais with the council and have you guys up there and then everyone can fill in down here in between this space okay so speakers up here including those that I called at the end because I failed to read my own direction

And then, do we have Priscilla with us?

Do you wanna go up there?

Just wanted to make sure we... That's good, yeah, I like that. Let's all do that.

Yes.

I think the back row, if you can move forward. Step forward just a little bit. Next time you come along, I promise. Is that better? Okay.

Bling bling is really good.

Ryan, am I going to mess everything up if I go to the other side so we have three and three? Or does it not matter?

You're good. Go ahead. Go ahead.

All right, there we go. All right, I'm going to take a few photos. Awesome, thank you. Just one more, just one more. All right, one, two. Thank you. A huevo.

Thank you so much for having us. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

okay i was like we can put it in the script Okay, so Section 8, we actually have no resolutions this afternoon, so we will go directly to Section 9. We're now at Proposal O2026-526S4. Councilmember Denson, for a motion.

Thank you, Chair. I move Proposal O2026-526S4.

Hold on, my mic is not on.

Thank you, Chair. I move proposal number O2026-526S4. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Can the clerk please read it into the record? Proposal number O2026-526S4, an ordinance of the Pierce County Council adopting amendments to the Pierce County Code, Title 18 Development Regulations General Provisions, Title 18A Development Regulations Zoning, Title 18J Development Regulations Design Standards and Guidelines, implementing comprehensive plan policies promoting renewable and distributed energy sources, establishing regulations for battery energy storage system facilities, requesting a report to the council, adopting findings of fact, and setting an effective date.

Thank you. And this afternoon we have Mike Kruger, our principal policy analyst, to tell us what this is doing and walk us through several amendments.

Mr. Krueger. Good afternoon, Chair. Good afternoon, Council Members. As the title of this proposal indicated, the regulations before you would control the permitting process for solar electricity generating systems and battery energy storage systems. It's taken us a little bit of time to get to where we are today. So I would like to refresh the council regarding the public process that has taken place thus far. This proposal was initially heard by the Community Development and Environment Committee back on June 15th. The committee adopted several amendments and forwarded the proposal to the council without a recommendation following the committee meeting The council considered this proposal Several times first on July 21st and then again on August 4th the council held public hearings to consider amendments to this legislation on On August 4th, the council referred the proposal back to the committee for more work. And so on August 31st, the Community Development and Environment Committee conducted an additional hearing and adopted several amendments, including a substitute proposal, which is before the council this afternoon. And so what you have before you this afternoon is the fourth substitute to this legislation. And I'll run through really kind of at a high level what it does. So the proposal before you would adopt definitions for solar energy systems and battery energy storage systems. it would create several categories for battery energy storage systems based upon the energy that they're storing. And so there are three levels proposed. The first would be battery energy storage systems that are two megawatts or less, and they would be allowed throughout the county, in some cases requiring permits from the Planning and Public Works Department related to fires and life safety issues. The second category are batteries between two and five megawatts. They would be allowed as an outright permitted use in all industrial zones. In mixed use zones, commercial zones, rural commercial zones, they would be allowed through a conditional use permit process. These size of batteries, again, between two megawatts and five megawatts would be prohibited in urban residential zones and rural residential zones unless they are accessory to civic uses or on an existing electrical substation, then they would be allowed through a conditional use permit. And then finally, battery energy storage systems that are five megawatts or larger would be allowed through a conditional use permit in mixed-use commercial and industrial zones. They would be prohibited in urban residential zones, rural farm zones, agricultural zones, and forest resource zones. And the proposal also includes specific regulatory standards that apply to battery energy storage systems. And so with that, Madam Chair, there are eight amendments that have been prepared for your consideration this afternoon that I'm happy to walk you all through and could also take questions if you have any questions about the underlying legislation.

Okay, so I know we spent quite a bit of time the last couple months, it feels like, on this, but I'm going to pause and see if there's any questions before we take up amendments. not seeing any, then I am going to look to Council Member Morrell for a motion on Council Amendment number one.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move for approval Council Amendment Number 1 to Proposal O-2026-526S-4. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it will do?

Yes. Council Amendment Number 1 would modify the description of energy storage systems by increasing the energy storage capacity between Level 2 and Level 3 battery energy storage systems um raise it from five megawatts to seven megawatts and there would also be an amendment to the findings of fact to provide consistency with this change thank you thank you um council member morale to speak to your amendment

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think as the council has learned a lot about megawatts recently, I think this is a modest increase, moving it from five to seven. And I would urge the council to approve amendment number one.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions on council amendment number one? not seeing any then all those in favor of adopting council amendment number one say aye aye all those all those opposed say nay thank you motion passes thank you that brings us to council amendment number two council member thank you madam chair i move council amendment number two it's been moved and seconded mr krueger can you tell us what this one does

Yes, thank you, Chair. This amendment would modify the use tables in the zoning code that describes where and how battery energy storage systems are permitted. In a nutshell, what this amendment would do is it would preserve a requirement to allow utility-scale batteries at 7 megawatts or larger through a conditional use permit. Generally speaking, for battery systems that are smaller than 7 megawatts, they would be permitted outright if they're allowed in the zone, meaning that several zones prohibit batteries that are larger than 2 megawatts. In all cases, these changes that are contained in Amendment 2 would allow batteries up to 2 megawatts as a permitted use countywide in every zone. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Morrell to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we're all aware that we're behind on clean energy in this state and we need to play catch up. I think this eliminates another layer of process. It also eliminates another layer of cost and unpredictability to utility providers. that need to have predictability and a timeline. So as it was indicated by our fire marshal in study session today, the evaluation, whether it's a permit or a conditional use permit, the evaluation's gonna be the same. and the fire marshal can deny a permit at any time if it doesn't meet safety standards. So I would urge the council to approve this amendment so that way it would streamline the process and we can get these clean energy battery systems to our utilities in a timely manner, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Other comments or questions on this one? Council member. Denson, sorry.

Thank you, Chair. I co-sponsored this amendment, and honestly, I 100% agree with what Councilmember Morrell just expressed. Policy-wise, I think this amendment is absolutely fine, and as Mr. Krueger explained at length to us during the study session, and he went over a little bit here, I think Some of the concerns that we've heard have been about residential communities, and I'll remind folks that in residential communities, other than those small systems to power things like cars, right, under 80 kilowatts, the only systems that would be allowed in residential areas would be those to support existing civic uses, like a school, and those that are attached to or adjacent to an existing substation. So I think the policy is fine and sound. However, I have a lot of respect for our department staff and folks that they have heard from with concerns that maybe we are maybe we should be airing a little bit more on the side of caution in regards particularly to our residential areas. So after talking to a number of my colleagues on this, even though I do like the policy, I'm okay with voting no on this amendment today, knowing that the department is going to be coming back to us in a year with tweaks, recommendations. I'm sure we're going to learn a lot about what works in practice out in the field, what we need to tweak to make things easier, to promote clean energy, maybe things that we need to tighten up when we're having consequences that are not what we anticipated. So I'm a no on this amendment today for that reason, but I just I wanted to express that I did initially sponsor this and still think that it's where we need to end up ultimately. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Ayala.

Council Member Denson took all my talking points unexpectedly. I do think we need, I mean not just do this, but I think we need to do a lot more than this. I don't believe we're quite there yet and my trepidation around this is that Um, I wouldn't want us to get too eager, have an accident of some sort and then have to backtrack and also deal with, um, some severe consequences. So I, I do want to move in this direction, if not more ambitiously. Um, but to do that with a bit more caution. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments. So Council Member Denson, I appreciate your comments and was going to speak along the same lines of I've kind of, not waffled, but learned and reassessed. And I do want to thank both Mr. Krueger and the clerk's team, because I know there was a whole lot of tables that you've been messing with for this one. So, but I'm just, I feel like initially in this first year, for a public process more public through the conditional use permit will allow us to see what the concerns are so that we can really design the policy when we come back and create it again in a year when we come back and hear this again and we will have learned a lot and even if only two or three get set up the learning that will happen at the department level the fire marshal level the community level will really help us craft well well well founded um legislation the next time so um we are going to ask my colleagues i'm not seeing any of the lights so all those in favor of approving council amendment number two say aye aye all those opposed say nay nay motion fails so that brings us to council amendment number three council member morale i'm going back to you

Thank you Madam Chair. I move for approval council amendment number three. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what this one does?

Yes, Chair. Thank you. This amendment does a couple of different things. First, it would clarify that the general standards that would be applicable to battery energy storage systems apply to commercial installation The commercial installation of those facilities, so the larger facilities would be subject to the standards versus smaller residential facilities would not be subject to the standards. Secondarily, there's a change in our use prohibition that relates to citing. batteries within the flood hazard area. This particular amendment would indicate that if the battery energy storage system is larger than seven megawatts, it would not be permitted within regulated flood hazard area. If the battery is proposed that's smaller than five, excuse me, seven megawatts, it would be allowed through whatever permitting process is applicable. The next item would eliminate kind of a separation requirement between batteries and buildings that was initially proposed. And then finally, there's a requirement in the underlying legislation that would require a fence with a self-locking mechanism that would be eliminated in a situation where the battery came in a container. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Council Member Morrell to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is, of all the amendments, is probably the best amendment. So I urge the council to support amendment number three. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Denson.

Thank you, Council Member Morrell. I also sponsored this amendment and I'm supportive of this amendment. I think this is a great example of the many times the department actually, as well as our staff and some of my colleagues met with stakeholders to to. really go through the nuts and bolts of this ordinance and see, in real life, does this work? In real life, does this make sense? And stakeholders gave us some great tweaks that are gonna make this just a lot more logical in real life. Mr. Krueger explained that a lot of these batteries come in like conics containers, big sealed boxes, and they're all locked up tight because these things are very expensive, right? So do they also need a locked fence? Now, likely there's going to be one, but we don't have to mandate that. That's up to the operator. And then we've gone back and forth with our wonderful fire marshal, Ken Rice, and his amazing staff about the NFPA 855. and our compliance with that. We heard during study session how the international fire standards are very flexible and they change and they're updated as we get more information and more science and we should be aligned with those standards, not putting additional standards that could be confusing in our zoning code where really they don't belong. It belongs with the fire code and we know that mr rice's team is is all over making sure these these installations will be safe um and being flexible to to address the kind of battery the kind of structure that the situation at hand and we want to give them the the ability to do so so i urge support thank you thank you additional questions or comments on commit council amendment number three

not seeing any um i too appreciate the the level of detail that both the stakeholders have been doing behind the scenes to get us and then to the members of cdec uh you really dug into this uh multiple times um and appreciate where we've landed with this so um seeing no other comments all those in favor of adopting council amendment number three say aye aye any opposed Motion carries, thank you. We are now at council amendment number four. We're gonna go to you, Council Member Cooper.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move amendment four for adoption.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what this one does?

Yes, thank you, Chair. This amendment would modify the definitions in Title 18 related to battery energy storage systems. It would replace a proposed definition of battery energy storage system, and it would add additional terminology related to this technology. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you Madam Chair. This amendment corrects a technical weakness in the ordinance by distinguishing the power capacity and energy from the energy capacity. That megawatt and megawatt hours measure different things. That a best facility the megawatt rating tells the county how much electrical power the system can deliver versus how much capacity that is actually stored. And I would say that the difference can affect the number of battery containers, the size and configuration of the facility, how long it operates at full output, the emergency response requirements, and the potential consequences of an accident. And I would also note that Washington State already recognizes both measurements for different purposes, including using energy capacity in its ESS safety code and the megawatt hours in its 2026 storage tax framework. So it's not terminology that's new. It's already in Washington state policy, and it is just helping to redefine at future times that they can be tweaked when things come back from the department. So I would urge adoption for clarification. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there questions or comments from my colleagues on this?

Councilmember Ayala. Thank you, Chair. One quick question, and please forgive my ignorance on this. I'm curious if the use of this language is consistent with where we see best definitions in other spaces, not just in the county, but in the state and in industry.

Is that a question to me?

The differentiation, so considering what our definition was in the original ordinance and how it's redefined, just want to make sure that we have alignment with definitions across industry and in other spaces.

So the definition of battery energy storage system itself is it's much broader as related to the systems than what's in the underlying proposal. But as to the rest of these definitions and the alignment with definitions in other jurisdictions, I really can't speak to. the majority of these terms aren't used in our code. And so staff hasn't looked at them from an implementation perspective because it's not relevant to the legislation that's in front of you.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Council Member Kerber.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I did a search on the terminology to look and see how that is in... I see different policies or codes within the state, and yes, they are used in it. It may not be on this particular ordinance that we are working on. However, it is, I would say, a forward-looking in having these definitions here, which I said they can still be tweaked to that point. But yes, there are some that are used in energy storage systems, the aggregate, the abandonment, that Washington has abandonment concepts and other regulatory concepts, but maybe not specifically for BESS, but having the megawatt hours, that capacity and such are all within the scope, I would say, of what the state has in terminology in it in regards to energy systems. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Council Member Murrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I don't know if there's anyone on staff from the department that could comment on this language. I've looked at it, and it is new to me. I think everyone else, all the other jurisdictions that I've looked at, They don't use this type of language. So I'm just kind of curious if anyone has come across This type of language in any of the best Proposals Planning and Public Works staff to the rescue

Good afternoon, Chair and Council Members. Tanner Fuller, Senior Planner with Planning and Public Works. Thank you for the question, Council Member Morrell. These terms are, certainly many of them are familiar terms within BESS. As I mentioned at the study session, having the opportunity to attend the Greenwater BESS tour of that facility in Sumner, they discussed the augmentation zone. We were able to see what they're describing as far as that. I would say in regard to the underlying legislation, staff sought to provide definitions that were necessary for the ordinance being proposed and that were used in a regulatory manner in the implementing regulations of that ordinance. And that's, I think, continues to generally be the staff's recommendation that the reason for adding a definition would be when it has a specific regulatory purpose or use elsewhere in the code. I think that would continue to be our general recommendation that definition should be then connected to a standard or a use somewhere.

Okay, then I guess my follow-up question is when you come back in roughly about a year, this terminology may be more familiar to you and at that time could you implement some of that language into some kind of ordinance or some kind of a guiding document?

Sure, I think, of course, I can't speak to what may or may not happen within a year from now as far as what permits may come in or what the result of those may be. Certainly, as county staff implements the ordinance that's ultimately adopted, hopefully today or very soon, providing customer materials will include, you know, trying to aid customers and permit applicants with understanding what's in the ordinance. And certainly anything like you've mentioned could be considered as needed as part of future reports.

right right and there again a lot of this terminology as you said working with grid works and those engineers is way up here versus kind of the language that is universal right now so um yeah i just don't want to get too far ahead of us on that so thank you thank you madam chair thank you thank you we're going to go back to councilmember cooper

I'm wondering, do any of these definitions impede or create an obstacle?

I would say I haven't had the opportunity to necessarily determine if each individual definition presents a specific issue within code implementation. I go back to what I said originally that Our recommendation was to add definitions that would then be used in a regulatory manner in the code. And I think that continues to be our general recommendation, that when we add a definition, it should then be used, not just added for the purpose of defining it.

But wouldn't it make sense to have a definition if the occasion comes up and they're like, oh, we didn't anticipate that this would be needed in our code? our policies and does it not also create kind of a, oh, I've seen that word before and now I have an idea of what it is. So wouldn't it be more prudent to have the definitions there for when and if they come up and if it doesn't happen at all, then they can be removed at the next opportunity.

Sure, I appreciate your comments and it's certainly the council's prerogative to determine what definition should be adopted. I would also mention that we do have in Title 18 or thereabouts of the code, In acknowledgement that not every term will be defined in Pierce County's code, there's a list of other sources. Many terms related to Bess are defined separately in the fire code where they may not be in our zoning code or land use code. So all that to say the absence of a definition in the county's code doesn't necessarily mean that the county or staff when reviewing a permit couldn't use authoritative definitions from other sources such as the fire code or other professional sources or legal sources, for example.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you.

We're going to go to Council Member Ayala. Thank you, Chair. I appreciate it. I'm a huge fan of defining terms, especially when we talk about regulatory work, because we don't want to put staff in any position where something is misinterpreted in any way, but as you stated, nothing precludes us from using terms in other spaces that exist, not necessarily in the code. I'm in a where I can go either way on this amendment, but I do feel if this does not pass, that at least there's an internal document that does inventory the terms and we have some reference point for quick support of staff, whether or not it's in the code, but very much handy. Thank you, Jay.

Thank you. Council Member Dunson.

Thank you. I appreciate Council Member Krueger's thorough thinking and investigation and research. I really do. But I used to draft legislation for the state and we would never put a definition in if we weren't using it in the statute. It was just not good practice. And I remember many times amending a statute and removing definitions because all of a sudden probably the code reviser looked at it and said you're not using this term anywhere so we are going to learn a lot this year and not only us but other counties and other states are going to be learning a lot and i have no doubt that the department is going to come back to us with their report and if we need to include a definition then then they will ask us to do to do so i'm absolutely confident so i'm a no on this amendment i think this is one of the many things that we we will look at as this statute or as this program evolves but at this point i would never recommend putting a definition and somebody's going to be looking for how it's used and it's going to be very confusing when they can't find it and i think fire marshal rice has something to say

A quick comment on that, if it puts your minds at ease a little bit. In the adopted codes, the fire code, the building code, all of those codes, if something is defined, it is italicized in the code, and it sends us back to the definitions. So, I mean, outside of the county code, all the adopted model codes have definitions and when we're going through the code whatever chapter and if we see an italicized word that tells us this thing is defined in code and typically the code will dictate if there's conflicting ordinances or codes the most restrictive will typically apply so all the 855 that's going to have a ton of definitions in it for all the things that are commented in there and they're probably going to change several times

Thank you. Any other comments on this one? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Council Amendment Number 4, say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, say nay. Nay. Motion fails. Council Member Krueger, we're going to you for Amendment Number 5. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move Amendment 5 for adoption. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you explain what this one will do?

Yes, thank you, Chair. This amendment would modify the description of energy storage systems. It would amend the purpose and applicability sections of the chapter of code that's proposed that would include development standards related to these facilities. It would also clarify fencing and height standards that apply to battery energy storage systems. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Kerber to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This one does align with code terminology with the physical reality of the modern battery storage project. So a modern best site is not simply a box that's containing batteries. It can also include the transformers, inverters, switchgear, power conversion equipment, HVAC or thermal management equipment, fire suppression and life safety equipment, communications and monitoring systems, and interconnection equipment. And the distinction eliminates uncertainty whether a particular development standard applies only to batteries or to the entire facility. And we need to be clear about what we are regulating that, you know, if the codes just says that we have a minimum setback of 10 feet on all sides, it's like 10 feet from what? The container, the transformer, the inverter, the fence. And this lets the code specify precisely what a regulation applies to. So you've got battery spacing can apply to individual battery equipment. Fencing can apply to the facility perimeter. Noise can include transformers, inverters, and cooling equipment. Setbacks can apply to particular components or the whole facility. Fire requirements can apply to particular enclosures. And utility transmission lines outside of the facility do not accidentally become part of the regulated best site. And so we're defining the difference in the best and the best facility. Because they've got the best unit itself that's sitting inside the facility, which includes all of the other equipment. So I would urge adoption of amendment five. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there other comments on amendment number five? Not seeing any, so while I appreciate the research, I feel like, oh, Council Member O'Hare, are you just turning on your camera so you're ready to vote? Okay, I appreciate the proactiveness. That, again, we're setting forth this code with all of this research and the work we've done and the stakeholdering, and thank you, department staff, and thank you to our staff and the committee members. But I think we need to kind of leave it approximately where we're also tweaking it but leave it where it is as far as some of these definitions and some of the the rules that have been established through the fire code and i think it just confuses the issue so i'll be voting no on this one um but appreciate the thought any other comments seeing none all those in favor of adopting council amendment number five say aye All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion fails. Thank you. That brings us to item number six. Council Member Krueger, or Council Member number six.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move. I'm just going to withdraw the amendment. I like that one. Okay, I'm going to say it again. I'm going to move amendment six for adoption, please.

It's been moved and seconded that you approve council amendment number six. Mr. Krueger to tell us what it does.

Thank you, Chair. This amendment does a couple of things. It would clarify that battery energy storage system capacity thresholds that are located on the same property are part of a common project need to be considered as a single facility. And it would also indicate that properties that contain these systems cannot be divided or phased in terms of build out in such a way that you would circumvent the standards that are applicable to these systems based upon capacity thresholds. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is looking at the project as collectively of all of the pieces there, and it is establishing clear definitions for the regulatory classification, the accessory versus grid scale use, the expansion, continued operation. Well, it's improving consistency and closes potential loopholes in administering the code. And so... It's distinguishing systems intended for primarily on-site use, but without a clear definition, applicants could disagree on what primarily means. And so it's basically counting everything that is within the system towards how it is being used so they can't like daisy chain different operations to each other to kind of overcome some of the obstacles. So it's kind of finding a back door. And so this is closing that loophole.

Thank you. Council Member Ayala to speak. Maybe. There you go. Sorry.

Thank you, Chair. I do like the amendments. I do... One particular aspect of this around being phased, I'm curious about whether or not this amendment would prohibit someone who maybe is unable to afford the whole project and maybe is trying to do project phase one. today and project phase two next year, let's say for financial reasons, I'm interested in making sure everything is put together and we're not necessarily looping those as two separate systems, but they're two separate projects of one system. Would this amendment prohibit someone from phasing a project?

No.

Okay, thank you, Chair.

It's a nice and simple answer. We like that. We didn't get a lot of those today. Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was trying to find my main sentence, which is, it prevents one large project from being divided into smaller pieces simply to qualify for a lower regulatory category.

Perfect. Thank you. Any other council members on this one? so i know um i too support this one this was one of my concerns when we were putting them in residential areas and i know that people can lease part of their parcel and then potentially larger entities could lease six different homes in theory and put them and i know that our code would the fire marshal probably have a lot to say about that, but I just want to be clear that it's not allowed. And so they don't go chasing that down as a potential pathway. So Council Member Krueger, I appreciate it. And I continue to just call it the daisy chain amendment whenever I talk about it, because it's fun. So any further discussion? All those in favor of adopting Council Member number six, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. That brings us to Council Amendment number 7. Council Member Kruber.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to move Amendment 7 for adoption. I do have an oral amendment to that.

Second.

it's been moved and seconded uh mr krueger can you tell us what it does and then we'll go to the amendment or however sure thank you chair this amendment um would simply modify several of the recitals in the ordinance to change the context of the description of what's happening here there's three items you can read them yourselves see if you agree with the with the new language that's proposed and that's what this does not sure about the oral amendment

Okay. Then Council Member Kruber, we will go to you first.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With my oral amendment? Well, to speak to your amendment. The amendment is to improve... Because there are three recitals. It's to give clarity to the whereases and... more precision to align with what is in policies with the wording. Mainly in that the source statistic concerning emissions attributed to electricity use in buildings is confusing. And that is not the same as saying that 14% of Pierce County emissions came from electrical generation. I'm like, well, what does that mean? And so then I was defining what that actually meant. then in August of 2022 the Puget Sound regional emissions analysis found that in 2019 14 what I crossed out was 14% of Pierce County emissions came from electricity generation the actual terminology is 14% of Pierce County's community-wide greenhouse emissions were attributed to electricity use in buildings and that is just for clarity purposes that it wasn't electricity generation, it was electricity use in buildings. When I think of generation, I think something's being created where it was actually just what was used. And then also, it avoids potential misinterpretation of electricity generation, which is what I was saying. What was the other? One, two, three. Yeah, it was defining the community-wide greenhouse gas. Just clarifying. what that actually is into the sentence that I put it into. Electricity use in buildings versus electrical generation. Those are like the two things that are changed. And the third one on CETA, that it's indicating that BAS is required for meeting greenhouse gas when actually it can be included as opposed to mandated the way it is worded. So the ordinance is distinguishing between a policy, a state policy requirement and one technology a utility may use to satisfy or manage that requirement. So that, yeah. so that it's keeping the county from presenting BAS as legally inevitable when the cited recital does not establish that conclusion. It can be used, but it's not a mandate. Thank you, Chair.

Okay. So you said you had a potential amendment. I'm not seeing anyone. Well, do you want to amend your amendment?

Yeah, I wanted to strike recital number one. So it would just be two and three.

Okay, so the language change that was happening in number one would not happen if this is adopted? Correct. Is there a second to that? Okay, it's been moved and seconded that we amend the amendments. Council Member Krueger, do you want to speak to that?

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's just an item that didn't need to be in there at this time. Okay. And then we're just leaving it with the clarifying community-wide greenhouse gas and its definition. And then the CETA. Okay. That it is not a mandate.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions on now amended Council Amendment No. 7? So I believe we have to vote on amending the amendment first, and then I'll ask that question again. So all those in favor of accepting the amendment to the amendment, which is removing the change to section one, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. So we now have council amendment number seven as amended. Is there any further discussion on this particular item? Not seeing any. While I appreciate the thoughts about kind of tweaking some of this language, I feel like it was done with intentional thought by the department staff in putting this together and Mr. Krueger's eyes and CDC's work, really looking at how this was playing out and some of the purpose and the reasons. So I will be a no on this, but again, appreciate the level of conversation around this. And I'm going to ask all those in favor of adopting Council Amendment Number 7 as amended, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Nay. Motion fails. We now have Council Amendment Number 8. Council Member Morrell, we're going to you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move for approval of Council Amendment Number 8.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it does?

Thank you, Chair. And this is your last amendment this afternoon. This amendment would include a requirement for the Planning and Public Works Department to provide notification to local fire districts of proposed battery energy storage systems that are subject to commercial installation standards. And I would note that due to the council's adoption of committee amendment number six, the item should be renumbered as item G at the very beginning of the highlighted section of that amendment. It's a Scrivener's thing. If you wanna make note of it now, it might be helpful, but that should be a G if this amendment were to pass. Thank you.

Okay. Council Member Morales to speak to your amendment.

Thank you Madam Chair. I think this is just common sense that we put in there that the fire districts get notified. I think there again and with this type of technology they need to be aware of what's going into their communities. So I agree with Council Member Denson on this one and urge your support.

Thank you. Council Member Kruber.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Would that simply mean just signing up to be on the notices of, because I believe you can sign up for notices when things are applied for and then emails are sent out to that. There's a public list. Would that just be a matter of being on that list or is there another step that has to be created? Does anyone know?

This is not establishing a notification list that fire districts need to sign up to be part of. What it would do is it would just obligate as part of the permitting process for any of these batteries that are at a commercial scale be routed to the fire districts for notification purposes to let them know that the county is considering a permit that's been submitted to install a battery.

But isn't there already a system set up like notify me that when somebody applies for or this subject comes up to let me know of anything that's being applied for?

I'm not aware of that specific sort of notification sign-up list as it relates to permits. The council has notification sign-up lists that are available for notification based upon subject matter, and the council provides notification via email to interested parties that are curious about a huge kind of range of topics and so that's so that's what the council does pierce county code does have a notification requirement section of code dealing with development permits and notice of application notice of application completeness there's a various types of notification that occur based upon the permitting type that's obligated under county code. As an example, if a conditional use permit is being submitted to the county, the county notifies residents that live within 300 feet of the of the property that's subject to the conditional use permit no one signs up for that in advance that's just something that happens based upon an application that is received at the county this would be similar to that in that if an application is received at the county for a battery that will be installed at a commercial scale that the county would then notify the fire district that they're considering that application, but that's all that it does. It doesn't require the fire district respond, indicating that they've received the notice. It's not asking for comments. It's simply just saying to the district, hey, FYI. Right.

I don't object to it. I was just thinking there was already a system set up that when applications are made, interested parties that sign up for that are notified. So it would just be a matter of the department Signing on an interested parties list and they would be automatically be notified and it was kind of already done You know, that's not how that's not how it works currently.

Okay. Yeah, fine.

Thank you. Thank you manager. Thank you I have a couple lights up that fire marshal Rice wanted to speak any my colleagues instead of asking questions Can I go to him and then maybe he'll answer your questions or concerns? fire marshal rice

Good afternoon again. So a couple things. My staff, we have a very good relationship with the Pierce County Fire Chiefs Association. So if this is something you wanted officially, I'll just draft a policy for my staff. If any of these come in, we contact the applicable fire district. That's easy. We do it with almost any strange or weird project or issue that's happening. And then I brought Greg as my backup in case you guys get crazy. No, Greg worked probably the last year on an inspection software called First Do. It's used by most of the fire agencies in the US, predominantly a lot of them in Pierce County. So what we can do when we do an inspection is we now have a software where we can plot hydrants on it, we can add notes and say, this house has a battery energy storage system of 80 kilowatt hours. This business just put this in. So it's not only for the fire district that might respond because they could be, it could be any fire district coming in. If the other people are gone, they can open first, do up, look at that pre plan and understand that there's a battery energy storage system or any other like. weird thing or unique thing on the property. And then with these, we did it with plug power at the floor and decor. They put a hydrogen regeneration plant over there. So they made it available and I'm sure industry's always welcome for each shift to come through. Like they made it so we could have all four shifts there. every rotation to learn about that system like don't cut the red wire don't cut you know what i mean all that so these systems that are coming in we'll be right there we'll let fire know we'll go look at them and then we'll get them into first do so everybody not just central pierce if east you know it's there and how to deal with it or how to not deal with it that makes sense So there will be notification and I can do a policy. So when I relinquish the office, then the next one has to abide by that policy. We'll get our director to sign off on it.

Good?

Thank you. Okay, so I still have two lights up. So we'll go to Councilmember Morrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, with the notification. We're telling you to notify. So anyway, procedural process, is the Scribner error okay, or do we need to make a verbal amendment?

No, we'll correct that.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

thank you and councilmember ala thank you just wanted to make sure from a amendment perspective and a legislative perspective um knowing and thank you so much for addressing that that was my original question around what it looks like when the first one responding is not of that jurisdiction do we need to do anything to our amendment knowing that amongst the different districts there will be a policy? And I don't know who that question should go to.

I'd be happy to draft a policy for the Bureau of Fire Prevention, the fire marshal's office, to say that these notifications will happen, you know, depending whether who's ever in the office. So that's easy to do, and we love to do it. We love to work with all the industry partners and stakeholders, and we never know what fire department's gonna come in, and there's so many new recruits, so I'm happy to draft any kind of policy to say that these things, they'll be noticed on any of these systems coming in, because I think it's important.

Got it. So regardless of Tacoma gets it, if West Pierce gets it.

Tacoma uses first do, East Pierce uses, a lot of them use, most of them use first do, but we can always send out a notice to the Pierce County Fire Chiefs. They have an administrative person. We do that often. Like when we want to back down the burn ban, we'll send them a note and say like, hey, what do you think? This is what we think. So we have a very good relationship with the Pierce County Fire Chiefs and Any policy you want us for notification, that's easy to do. And it's not a bad idea to put it into your attempts that the fire marshal's office will notify when these systems happen to do it.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Any further conversation on this one? So thank you, Council Members Morrell and Denson for working on this. I think this is one of the things with new technology. I appreciate making sure that we're letting our fire chiefs know because it may require them to respond in a different way or with a different type of engine. And once they get there is not the time to find that out. So that was, I appreciate making sure. And again, as we look at this policy holistically over the year, we may think of a different way of doing this. Don't know what it is yet, but appreciate that we are highlighting this so that we are good partners with our fire districts because it is more than a house fire. So seeing no other lights up, I'm going to ask all those in favor of adopting council amendment number eight, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Seeing that, the amendment number eight passes. Thank you all. I'm gonna pause and see if there's any additional questions or comments before I open this up for public comment. Not testimony for supporting, but just questions. Not seeing any so we're going to open this up for public comment. Um, I do have the sign it sheet. You have up to 3 minutes. We'll start in chambers with those that signed up. If you did not sign up, you can still speak. It's not required. And then we will go on line. Um, so I'm going to go in the order of the sign up. I have Zach. Followed by Barbara and then, um. I have two for community forum, but potentially also want to speak on this. So Sally, just in case. So Zach, we'll start with you and then Barbara, and you have up to three minutes and address all comments to the chair.

Chair Hitchen, members of the council, my name is Zach Pannard and I'm here on behalf of Clean and Prosperous. We work to accelerate Washington's clean energy transition. I first just want to start by thanking the council and staff for all of the hard work that went into this ordinance. This proposal reflects more than a year of engagement with the fire marshal, fire districts, Puget Sound Energy, Department of Commerce, a long list of industry stakeholders. And after all that work, we urge that this ordinance be passed tonight. We would like to offer one request for future evaluation in the implementation report due on December 1st of 2027. The current proposal requires a conditional use permit for level three best projects in the employment center and community employment zones, whereas the third substitute included all best levels in the electrical facilities category and listed them as permitted outright in these zones. These areas are precisely where utility-scale storage is most compatible with surrounding uses and could be seen as best opportunity areas. Neighboring King County permits such systems outright in comparable zones, so we encourage the Council to direct that the implementation report evaluate whether level three systems in the employment center and community employment zones specifically, warrants restored permitted outright treatment. We at Clean and Prosperous have been very vocal in our concern that our state ranks dead last in the nation for renewable energy growth. This is why this ordinance matters beyond Pierce County. As a result of your work, not only will Pierce County residents benefit from essential grid resilience assets that can supply clean power during an outage, but the entire state of Washington will also benefit from meaningful progress towards our ambitious clean energy goals. So thank you again for your sustained work on passing this ordinance and clean and prosperous urges that it be passed tonight.

Thank you for your comments. Barbara followed by potentially Sally. Okay, not Sally. So then Jonathan, not Jonathan either. Okay.

Okay, my name is Barbara Mena and I have lived in Pierce County for over 30 years. My background is in the geosciences and I support the workable solar and battery storage ordinance before you today. And solar is one of the most reliable and cost effective means of energy production. cheaper than coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. Solar and battery storage will result in multiple benefits to our county residents, including the energy cost savings, improved public health, and better grid resilience. So I support moving to streamline access to solar and BESS. And actually, I primarily came today to here because I want to especially thank the Council Committee for bringing this proactive ordinance forward. And I've watched the extra effort and time that has gone into making changes and getting this right, particularly by pausing to solicit input and listening to the public and business concerns and then making corresponding adjustments. So I and others appreciate your due diligence in crafting this organization, including today's work. And this workable ordinance promises to improve Pierce County's economic future by creating jobs and boosting county tax revenue. So I thank you again for your thoughtful work and urge you to pass it in its updated form today.

Thank you.

Thank you. And then Maura?

then anyone else that's here for best you're next you didn't sign up and it's okay let's just state your name for the record good evening council members thank you for your leadership in bringing this ordinance to consideration today my name is maura white i live in tacoma i've lived here for 10 years i spent nearly 20 years working in public affairs and communications the last 10 focused on community for community benefit and more recently in solar and renewable energy. During that time, I also worked at the Pierce County Chamber, where I coordinated a panel on the energy transition. Some of you may have been there. I'm here to voice my support for a workable solar and battery storage ordinance, one that delivers on promises Pierce County has made. Clean air, reliable electricity, and a thriving local economy, and progress towards the county's 45% emissions reduction goal by 2030. Speed matters here. Every month of delay and permitting solar and solar projects is a month. We fall further behind towards our goals and our targets while extreme heat, wildfire, smoke and grid strain only intensify a workable ordinance should move projects through review quickly and predictably not bury them in uncertainty. I'd also encourage the council to find a workable middle ground on scale. As drafted, the 100 kilowatt hour threshold for major installations captures small community serving systems at schools, clinics, and libraries. The same review meant for utility scale facilities. A higher threshold would keep strong safety standards in place for larger systems while not freezing out community scale resilience project. Thank you again for the time and for considering this path forward today.

Thank you very much. Anyone else on this item?

Hello, my name is Andrea Ornelas. I am a resident of Pierce County, a parent, and a Laborers International Union of North America member. I'd like to start off by saying thank you to you all for all of your work that you've done, your due diligence, and your thoughtful consideration throughout this process of developing the battery energy storage system ordinance. As a Pierce County resident and a proud member of Laborers Laborers Local Union 242. I appreciate the Council's commitment to listening to the residents, to the community, and considering the public comments and concerns of the working people towards this ordinance that reflects the needs of Pierce County. The development of this best projects can help support grid stability and reliability while also creating family supporting wage careers for skilled people across Pierce County. Again, I want to thank you for taking your time of engaging the residents and carefully considering the input of all that you've received and hopefully pass the BESS ordinance tonight. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in chambers to speak on BESS? Okay, we're going to go online, Mr. Dominique. I see we have a couple hands raised.

For anyone who would like to provide public testimony on the legislation before the council, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. And we have two hands at this time, Madam Chair. The first is Breck Lebeug. Please state your name for the record. And you have three minutes.

I have just unmuted. My system is slow. Can you hear me now?

We can hear you.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, as I have done in the past and done to the Planning Commission. I'm Breck LeBeg from Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, speaking in favor of the BESS ordinance before you, as studied extensively and amended before you. BESS provides the buffer between the implementation of renewables such as solar and wind power and the need for peaker gas plants when power needs are not met by current generation. As a physician, we take the Hippocratic Oath first, do no harm. And in this case, we know the harm caused by fossil fueled electricity generation. It causes the lung and brain and heart disease that we've all heard about before. And if we can use renewables, as we should, And you've heard that Washington is dead last. I just Googled it just now and it still remains true in the uptake and the growth of new renewables. Although we get most of our electricity from hydro as you know. Best solves that problem that provides that buffer. You've heard some objections. The major objections I've heard as I've listened to, frankly, hours of testimony is fear, fear of what might happen. The Farm Actual is in the room, familiar with the past fires in other locations, and you've also heard that the technology has now progressed. If we rejected all failed technology, we've rejected the chance for progress and particularly progress in meeting our goals toward reducing greenhouse gas and reducing the health harms of those gases. Finally, I would urge you to not make the perfect the enemy of the good. In this case, you've got a good ordinance before you. You've carefully considered it. We thank you for that consideration and urge its abduction. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Next, we have Terry Hurd. Please state your name for the record, and you have three minutes.

Terry Hurd Adam Chairman, I'm Terry Hurd. The Growth Management Act established the LUACs to bring in the people's input. Hopefully, I'm not wrong, but I don't remember seeing it going before the various LUACs that are very much in touch with their communities. Do that as it may. The worst thing I've ever heard used to be calls with, I'm from the government, I'm here to help. And now, after working with the LUEX for a number of years, it's permitted outright, where the people's voice was taken away by permitting outright. We didn't give that voice up. It was taken away from the people on the input. now the need for supplemental power is obvious we don't have the infrastructure that's necessary that's done ahead of time no matter what part of the infrastructure we speak of to handle the needs as they come up i'm glad the fire departments are being actively pursued in this because there's very specialized equipment that's required in fighting electrical fires we've seen this on the roads with the automobiles and other things when they light off you just can't use water you have to have the right equipment which brings up the number of different fire departments that we have spread throughout the county and where you're planning on putting these supplemental power storage devices this has got to be one of the biggest subjects that got so many different I was in the fire. I'm glad you got the year ahead of time to continue going back and revisiting and looking at the various amendments that are coming up that are bringing up there. Needs to address in detail. I'm going to say as a member of the military, I dealt with definitions a whole lot. Acronyms were horrible. So when you're talking about the definitions that are to be used when you put this together, I think you're almost establishing a new program. You need it. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

And next we have Morgan Zirung. Please state your name for the record and you have three minutes.

Yeah, thank you. My name is Morgan. Um. Like, to think that Council on the staff and. For meeting with us, um, I'm a contractor and. All the meetings we had and working through this was great engagement. Our working group is very happy and encouraged with the ability to do that and look forward to. In the future meeting when you guys revisit this and provide our feedback and as well as getting your feedback. And I just like to point out a couple of things just for the last speaker there, the permitted outright. We have to go through lots of permitting for these systems already. So this is just a very small portion of what we have to go through in regards to the zoning codes and just throwing that out there. Um, but as we get. Building these things out more what we're looking at is something like what California is dealing with now where I heard they're roughly 20 times larger than our solar and storage. Infrastructure, you could call it, they're currently providing 25% of their total power through solar and 50% of their peak demand power through solar and storage or. We are probably closer to 3, 4% of our state's power done through solar and storage. Um, so this, uh, this ordinance is going to help with. The long road we have ahead, um, and again, yes, really appreciate everyone meeting multiple times discussing this in the back and forth. It was great to be a part of it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

We have no more hands this time, Madam Chair.

No other hands. I'm going to close public comments and bring it back to the Council. Is there any further discussion on Proposal O2026-526S for as amended? We will go to Council Member Denson.

Thank you, Chair. I am really, really proud and excited to support this ordinance to promote renewable and distributed energy sources in Pierce County. I want to thank again, Planning and Public Works. This has been a huge project for you all and I really, really appreciate all of the work that you've done internally and talking to stakeholders and talking to all of us and going on tours and really digging in to create the best legislation possible. I want to thank the stakeholders, some of which are here or online today to make sure that this legislation, this code actually works in real life to accomplish the goals that we all want to accomplish. I want to thank our fire marshal's office for all of their work in making sure, again, that the codes are what they need to be to keep the community safe and also accomplish our clean energy goals. And I also want to do a shout out to Captain Pfaff from West Pierce Fire. He was with us for several of these meetings. We've had more than we anticipated, and he was with us for several. And he's a national leader in this area, and we should be very, very proud of that and very fortunate to have him also contributing to to the best best minds that put together this legislation i want to thank mr krueger for all of his work he probably thought he was going to be busy drafting comp plan amendments at this point in the year but he's worked so hard digging into this and we really appreciate it and then all of my colleagues that all of us really dug in and had some good thinking around this And finally, I want to thank the advocates. And we have advocates from all sorts of sectors. We have environmental folks. We've heard from health care providers. Thank you to labor for being here. This is going to benefit so many areas of our community. And it's wonderful that it's recognized. And I also love the t-shirts. Those really pop. Thank you all for coming here. Ms. Mehta mentioned that she appreciated the process here, and I wanted to mention that as well. I mean, I think we see that with a lot of legislation, but especially here, we really, I think, should be proud. This Council should be proud that we really showcased a collaborative effort. We really demonstrated our due diligence and our willingness to sincerely listen. listen to folks that maybe knew more than we did in certain areas, and then come together and adjust and make changes where we felt truly needed to be made to accomplish again, to accomplish our goals. Like any great legislation, no one got everything that they wanted here. But I think that we can all recognize that this legislation came a huge way from where we started. And it was a great effort then. But because of all the contributions from our advocates, from our stakeholders in industry, from our own personal thoughts and experiences, It's really, really come a long way. And I am so proud that this county consistently demonstrates leadership in the arena of climate action. But we are really putting our money where our mouth is. We're really taking action in a substantive way. We've heard that this county has a long way to go. That's frustrating. I do not like being last. But this hopefully will help us move forward because, you know, we have been, and with this ordinance, we will be a leading voice regionally on solar and energy storage in our region. I'm very, very proud of that. And this is going to help us meet climate goals while keeping energy affordable, improving our electricity grid. And this is good for residents. It's good for businesses. It's good for our civic uses. And of course, it is good for our environment. So I am Very, very excited about getting here today. I know we all are very, very grateful to everyone who has contributed to making sure that we have the best legislation possible.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments and thank you for your work on this. It was not done alone, but you were definitely behind quite a bit of it. We're going to. Council member is your light on or off? Okay. I go to council member.

So I think Council Member Denson said everything that I could possibly think about and more, and so I will keep my comment brief. I do want to say that this particular piece of legislation got to show, I think, When my colleagues are at the best that we are working together to really bridge some challenges, and I think this got to highlight some of the best of what we can do when we're working together. I do want to say that, like Chair Hitchen said, it was a lot of people doing a lot of work. And I do want to compliment particularly Council Member Denson and Council Member Morrell. On a couple of these amendments, it was, at first I saw and I got to hear Council Member Morrell's skepticism in the early stages of this. And then later, as you can see by one of the amendments, that it swings totally for it and wants to do even more. And that enthusiasm is infectious and I almost ended up supporting that particular amendment. But I think that at the end that this legislation is a solid piece of work and it is good legislation. I have no hesitancy in supporting. I think that this is new to us and I think that people can feel competent in this legislation. Like was said, not everyone got what they want, but I think that these two's compromising and working together really got to show in a couple of these later amendments and grateful for the work and grateful for the thoughtfulness that each person who added their little changes to this really made it solid. So I appreciate being on this body today and I really appreciate the work that was involved.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I too appreciate all of the work that has gone into this. I just wanted to be able to turn on a light switch and know I had power. I never dreamed I would ever be going this deep of a dive into something. But I do want to point out that Washington State is number one in the country in greenhouse gas reduction or usage. It's 68% lower than the national average. And I say that because here we are in having to put battery systems out there because we rely on intermittent power. And that leads me to looking at the system, and I'll point out with PSC, not that they're the bad guy, they perform a service, but they also have a monopoly, and they are an investor-owned utility. So they are having a system that that system, well, They're going to purchase energy from a system that gets charged from them at the low price, and then the system will sell back to PSE at the high price. And I can't help but believe that it's going to translate into higher electrical prices to the consumers. And also they have on record, you know, their applications for rate hikes, and they've already gone through a big rate hike. So I have this cognitive dissonance because we definitely need the energy. We need more power, but yet we're also connecting more things to it. We have more electric cars where they're setting up the systems to put that onto it. So here we need energy. We're putting more onto it, and then what? And we're having to try to make do. And I'm just very concerned, you know, with what the future is of this. And I guess we'll be looking at legislation, I'm assuming, in the future. But in the meantime, this is all that we have with what we have. And I guess we'll have to deal with future repercussions later. But we need energy. And this isn't perfect, as we've spoken, and we'll perfect it later. But I just appreciate all of the hard work. I'm just... um just wanted to point out we mainly we are the cleanest state i never did get response before on where we are on the goals we don't even i don't know are we 95 getting there are we 50 getting there we've had about 30 years in doing this so anyway i uh just had my concerns thank you thank you madam chair thank you for your comments we will go to council member

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think a lot of it has been said from my colleagues, you know, I don't think it goes far enough, but there again, no legislation is perfect out of the gate. Like the comments that were made, I wanna appreciate everybody involved in this process. It's been a huge education for me as it probably has been for you. I still don't understand all the terminology and technology involved, all I know is, you know we we need this renewable energy storage and uh you know it's it's one of the ways that we can move forward and that way we can move our county forward also not only in just uh renewable energy but also economic development the cost of these facilities especially in the industrial part is in the hundreds of millions of dollars that people are investing in these systems And I look forward to having more and more of them in our area. But I just want to thank my council members for being able to jump in on this. I want to appreciate... our policy analysts, Mr. Krueger, because I think they're again, I look to you for a lot of insight and your ability to kind of navigate some of this has been amazing and your willingness to go on field trips with me is much appreciated. I think we learned a lot. So from that standpoint, I appreciate the department's engagement in this. I think there again, like it was been stated, we didn't all get what we wanted, but I think we advance a policy that is good enough to get out there and put into action. And then hopefully within the year time, the department can come back and tell us what we did right and wrong or need to change. So I'm looking forward to watching how this progresses. I will not be here for the report back, but I appreciate everybody's work on that. And also Fire Marshal, Rice, thank you for taking field trips with me also, and I appreciate your professionalism and your advice in crafting this, so I would urge the Council to support this ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you. Nothing left to say, but I'm really excited to get this off of our work plan. We've been working on this for a long time, but I think it's been as council member Denison said, it's been thoughtful. We have done an iterative process where we've gone back and we've looked at instead of like. Off the cuff, just changing something we paused and we did the learning that we needed to do. We did the stakeholdering and that's good policy making. And we're going to go back and we're going to check in and see how it worked. And then we're going to look at it again. So I think that's the way it should work in the real world. And we have just demonstrated it. So we will turn it over to department staff to implement and the fire chief's team or the fire marshal's team and. Hopefully some of our industry partners will take advantage of this so we can actually see one roll out and we can figure out what we need to fix. So seeing no other comments, I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of O2026-5526S for as amended.

Council Member Yambe.

Aye.

Council Member Denson. Aye. Council Member Morrell.

Aye.

Council Member Herrera.

Aye.

Council Member Kruver? Aye. Council Member Ayala? Aye. Council Member Hitchen?

Aye. You have seven ayes, zero nays. With seven ayes and zero nays, the motion is adopted. I feel like we need to clap, everybody. Okay, so item number two is an item that we are going to look at potentially rescheduling. Council Member Krueger, I'm going to go to you to make a motion.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to make a motion to move to continue this proposal to the September 29, 2026 regular meeting for final hearing and action.

It's been moved and seconded that we continue proposal O2026-552 to the September 29th, 2026 regular meeting. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries, thank you. So we are now at community forum. Community forum is an opportunity for members to address the council on any topic of significant to or affecting Pierce County government that did not appear on our agenda for final action today. There is a three minute limit. Please state your name if you'd like it on the record. And I'm gonna start with the two that signed in for this. And I read their names already once because I was not tracking exactly what they signed up for. But Sally Perkins, you are first and address all comments to the chair. It's good to see you walking around.

Sally Perkins, District 4. First, I want to thank you and the Council and the Executive for authorizing the Behavioral Health Strategic Advisor position and work. Second, thank you to Mr. Black for his initial report. An accurate review of the history and the naming of what needs to be done, both essential. Here's a key point from his report. Everyone is doing their own thing. It does not even seem that the city and the county are aligned. Amen to that. Budget and program decisions do not reflect community-wide awareness. I strongly support achieving a more coordinated and robust behavioral health system throughout our county. It is the right thing to do and the right time to do it. But while you move in this positive direction, the City of Tacoma is moving to eliminate their non-police mental health crisis response team, the HOPE team, in this year's budget cuts. While the City Council will make the final decision in November, the HOPE team is on the chopping block now. The HOPE Team is the one City of Tacoma service that would connect to the larger system that Pierce County envisions. The HOPE Team's restorative response includes case management to make sure the person experiencing the crisis gets to the right services at the right time and get the right steps to their return to health, a critical feature that links directly with the crisis stabilization capacity that you are returning to Parkland and Fife. Eliminating the HOPE team is the exact wrong thing to do anytime, but especially now. The coordinated mental health system that you envision would address the system gaps we face now. Services are not available, there's a two-month wait for an appointment, the location is 20 miles away, takes three or four bus transfers to get there. The HOPE team's case manager often refers people to services outside Pierce County because we simply do not have the capacity to help our own people here at home. Three asks. One, continue to invest in the strategic advisor's work. Two, invest in regional leadership like you are for homelessness. Urge your regional partners to link their local services to your regional services and vision. Three, expand your vision. Ask what does our community need in the way of a fully functioning behavioral health system of services? The thing is, any of us, me, you, our loved ones, a neighbor, a friend from work or church, or somebody we just happen to notice, could experience mental health challenges and need help. The issue is not the person's struggle with mental health. The issue is how do we as a community help restore that person to their family or their workplace or their neighborhood or their church. It is about investing in our community's well-being. Investing in our community's well-being through improved mental health services is a human services strategy, and it's also a workforce development strategy and an economic development strategy. Workers, employers, customers, business owners, neighbors, everybody wins when we invest in mental health. Community well-being at its finest. Cast the vision and inspire people to join the work. Thank you.

And next we had Jonathan.

Thank you. My name is Jonathan. I live in district 7 and I want to thank the council and executive for taking behavioral health seriously and designating it a priority to the point of designating a strategic advisor for it. And thanks to Kevin black for taking on. That good work, um, your emphasis on mental health, including the regional approach is really heartening. Um, I've organized around mental health crisis response in this at the city level and in Tacoma for a while with my good friend, Sally and the air coalition as we call ourselves. Um, and in that work, we think a lot about. Uh, providing the right kind of help when people need it where they need it. Um, and I'm really heartened by the city's commitment to getting people the help they need. And I do say that with a certain amount of irony as a Tacoma resident, based on the city's current plan to eliminate their mental health crisis response hope team. Um, and so. I think a regional response is a really good idea. More than one thing is needed to help people. We can't just help them at the point of crisis, which a team like Hope is really good at. We also have to ask what comes next. And Hope actually has a case management piece to their team that helps people connect to the resource that needs to come next. Unfortunately, many of those resources have been outside of Pierce County recently. So I'm really excited to hear that the stabilization centers are going to be reopened because we need a place for people to go when they need more help than simple intervention in a crisis moment can provide. Improving these kind of resources helps us answer the question, what kind of place do we want to live in, and what kind of city and county do we want to be? When someone's asking where they want to live, when they're asking where they want to work, where they want to join a union, where they want to open a business, a fair question is, what kind of help is there if I need it, if my family members need it, if my coworkers need it, if my union siblings need it, and if my employees need it? Building health infrastructure is just as important as building transportation infrastructure or electrical infrastructure. Continuing to build a strong infrastructure for health resources, including mental health crisis response, is a compassionate vision for what Pierce County could be. Working for a fully functioning regional infrastructure is really important. I encourage you to keep doing that and maybe call your counterparts down the street at the city and tell them to quit making bad decisions. because hope needs a place to go and crisis stabilization centers need to know who needs them. Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in chambers? Okay, Mr. Dominique will go online.

Good evening. For any member joining us online who would like to participate in community forum, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. And we have two hands at this time, Madam Chair. Oh, three hands, correction. I'll call them off as I see them on my screen. First is Eva Bowen. Please state your name for the record. And you have three minutes.

Can you hear me? We can. Good afternoon County Council. My name is Eve Bowen. I am a resident of Pierce County. I'm here to advocate for Pierce County to move toward a coordinated regional approach to crisis response. The county's approach to mental health services is crucial, especially since Tacoma is proposing the elimination of its own non-police mental health crisis team. Following are two experiences which have influenced why I believe a coordinated regional approach is necessary. Through a loved one who has experienced mental health challenges, I have witnessed the ongoing struggles of one who lived years on the streets with no support finding the necessary resources. Even I had difficulty finding the necessary help to enable him to talk to someone when he had episodes of crises. The resources were either not available or there was such a long waiting list that it would have taken many months for him to receive mental health support or housing support. Three years ago, among other friends and acquaintances, I was involved in supporting an individual who was suffering from a mental health crisis. For four days, this individual was hearing voices, ranting, had barricaded his front door so no one could enter, and was throwing his belongings out of his second floor bedroom window. Though neighbors had called the police, we knew this individual had endured very harmful behavior by police based on earlier mental health setbacks when police had been called. We called the crisis line and kept visual day and night because we did not want an intervention by police. Each day the crisis line was called. There were times when the crisis line dispatchers kept us on hold. Responders were either not available or they would come for a while then leave because they were at the end of their shift. No other responder was available to work after their shift ended at 5 PM. If there was a coordinated regional approach, Tacoma's non-police mental health team, the HOPE team, could have been called to provide emotional stability on the ground for these two individuals. If the county's Parkland and Fife stabilization centers were built out and open, their resources could have been utilized to provide any essential long-term care for these individuals. That said, I ask that you invest in the strategic advisor's work to create a coordinated regional approach to serving those in crisis, especially those in mental health crisis. As this regional approach is considered, it is important to thank the council and executive for their support in the establishment of the Pierce County Strategic Advisor, Kevin Black. Mr. Black's vision and work to create a broader behavioral health system in Pierce County is very much appreciated and admirable. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next we have Terry Heard, please state your name for the record. And you have three minutes.

Chairman, council members, we've got a lot of people are going to be coming and asking for money. The needs are great. We will never have enough money. When I look at my tax statement, I can see that artificial inflation goes up every year. But I want to talk to you about fiscal responsibility of all the things that have destroyed civilizations throughout history is when the public gets a hold of the government coffers and starts spending it. Debt puts you in a position where you're beholding to somebody for something. We don't have to be in debt. Our civilization does not need to collapse by unnecessary or excessive spending. It's all necessary or it wouldn't happen. I know there'd be a lot of people that would agree with that. So please consider the fact that if you have money coming in, that's the money to use. Don't go seeking vast amounts of more money including our state legislature and the national legislatures, seem to feel that there's a piggy bank that's endlessly getting tapped. There's going to be needs that come up that require funding. And if you've already tapped out the debt limit, you won't be able to help. There won't be any help for anybody. And it'll cause our civilization to fail, just like the civilizations that have failed throughout history. Please consider being fiscally responsible. And I don't mean it as a single party. All parties, political parties, need to be fiscally responsible for not adding to the public debt That's going to create a great deal of hardship for everybody. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

And next we have Andrew Lynn. Please state your name for the record and you have 3 minutes.

Good evening. My name is. from Pierce County District Number 2. Thank you for recognizing Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month in one of the proclamations for today as there's much racism still within our states that needs to be corrected and some abolished in those areas where it's acceptable and stable behavior to discriminate against Hispanics, especially Puerto Ricans. When I first moved here to Washington about 20 years ago, Things were tough with much passive-aggressive prejudices experienced in various workplaces, meeting only one or two Hispanics within the first couple of years. Over the years, I am glad that I've seen much changes to the local population, the multicultural way I consider a lot more Latinos, including many countries like hanging inside of people's cars. Our culture is visibly accepted, opening up more possibilities while living here. Speaking of racism, I need to inform you of a pressing matter that is spreading digitally that does affect the city's areas via technology and culturally. There's an extremist group that is racist and sexist, located in every state, mainly from the state of California and New York, but that our country, we have an agenda of legalizing rape and slavery. They're focusing on women, hence the reason why I mentioned sexism. Those are the other characteristics of Hispanic, which is racist, please believe me. They are known as Marvel, with their partners from their official and unofficial roster, not entirely public, who they associate with as they are affiliated to the dark web and also the photography industry. They are wanting to be global dominators and wish to inspire the world as they try and make it as a universe. This affects everyone. It may sound absurd, but I only speak the truth to you on this matter. They are part of a national and international human trafficking ring called Forge Vapors, exercising operations in all of its branches of violence, focusing especially on sexual violence. It is true that they have kept women in restraints, balls and chains, and collars for long periods of time, strangling them, including me, via technologies while being sexually assaulted. I ask that you reject and do not follow through with the legalization of rape and slavery. It is so important for our public safety, our community, and visitors too. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

And next we have caller ending in 075. Please state your name for the record and you have three minutes.

Hi, this is Roxy Giddings. I just went by a property up on 112th and Pacific Avenue, and they've installed a very handsome fence, which has 7,000 volts at the top of it. And it upsets me a lot. I know that people have been breaking in and stealing pieces of the cars, the new cars and stuff that are in there. This is a huge fence and Parkland doesn't have a lot of money and we don't have enough policing to take care of the businesses and keep things like that from happening to our businesses. And so they're taking our electricity and using it that way. And it just makes me sad. And that's why we need to have our community center fully going. And we still need a million dollars to finish buying it. And I thank the council for putting in their ore. They have, and it's been wonderful to have that money. And we're fixing it up and bringing it up to code in every way we can. The fire department's helped us a lot. And anyway, I just wish that there was some better way that we weren't all so doggone poor out here in Parkland, that we can't get enough money to get ourselves a community center, which of course we desperately need so that we give something for our young people and our old people and our middle sized people and so. anyway um thanks for listening i just really i do appreciate what you're doing and i'm so glad we have a way now of hanging on to some of our electricity and um you know solar panels hello thanks a lot bye thank you for your comments

And Madam Chair, there are no more hands at this time.

No, their hands raised. I'm going to close community forum and bring it back before the council for other business. I'm just going to remind, I assume the two council members at each end potentially have announcements. Council Member Kruver, for your in-district, I'm assuming you want to remind people. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I almost forgot.

Next Tuesday, we will be in Eatonville for my annual in-district meeting, and it will be at the auditorium of the high school. I think I have a good lineup. It's on community values. They're small-town values. I forget what I originated as. But we have speakers from the fair, from the Eatonville Business Association, and the mayor and the executive will be there. We have a final presentation is from Heath Heikela, who is from the American Forest Resource Council on the value of the timber that is out there and what that means to the area, to the district and the county. And so be there. Thank you.

Thank you. And I will just reiterate what she said. So we will not be in these chambers next Tuesday. So if you're one of our friends that like to just come show up at our council meetings for fun, we won't be here next Tuesday. We're going to be on the road in Eatonville. We'll still have our Zoom options if you don't want to travel. But just be aware our normally scheduled 3 o'clock meeting is being shifted to an in-district that night. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. in the Eatonville High School. I'm going to go to Councilmember Denson.

Thank you, Chair. And this will be my last time pitching, at least in this chamber, the first annual Pierce County Suicide Prevention Summit and Bridge to Hope 5K. I want to thank a lot of county departments, actually, that have come together, especially Human Services and Parks, and especially help Council Assist—or thank Council Assistants Nicole Jones-Vogel and Cynthia Banuelos, who have just done the lion's share of the work. It's going to be amazing. It's this Friday. It's from 12 to 7.30. That's everything. There's something for everybody, whether you're a provider, community member, or you just want to come out and help raise awareness by running across the bridge. You can register for a variety of parts of this. We make it really easy. And if you have any questions, you can reach out. We know that we're going to save lives and it may be somebody that is supporting someone that is struggling. We may have folks there that are struggling themselves or we may have folks that just want to make sure they know the signs so that they can protect and help and best support their friends and family. Please come. Please share the word. It is this Friday and yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you for your work on that and Council Member Herrera and your two amazing assistants. Are there any other announcements from my colleagues? Seeing none, there is no other business before us. We are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.