City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Good evening. I'd I'd like to welcome you in call to order the March 24 Port Orchard City Council regular meeting.

You're gonna need to gabble that.

Council members? We're gonna we're gonna start here. Alright. We're good. Good evening, I'd like welcome you and call to order the March 24 Port Orchard City Council regular meeting. I'd like to also remind us of our guiding principles and the actions that we're about to take. Are we raising the bar in all of our actions? Are we honoring the past but not living in the past? Are we building positive connections with our community and outside partners, and it is the decision making process to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America

Alright, council members. We have a published agenda. Are there any proposed amendments to this evening's agenda? And council member Rosa Pepe?

Mayor, I'd move to approve the agenda as submitted. Second.

Motion to approve the agenda by council member Rosemuth be a second by council member Tenere to approve the agenda as presented. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Any

opposed? Agenda has been set for this evening. Tonight, it has a unique order to it because we have a closed record hearing this evening and it's a site specific rezone application and a consideration of the recommendations of a hearing examiner. The council will next hold a closed record hearing on a site specific rezone application, LU 25 rezone o two filed by applicant Sydney Road Investments LLC. I will now gavel the closed record hearing open.

This quasi judicial hearing based on the record created by the hearing examiner at the hearing on 01/28/2026. This is a closed record proceeding and no in new information or testimony beyond the record created by the hearing examiner will be allowed. Tonight, the city council will consider the hearing examiner's recommendation to approve the rezone request by the applicant. The order of the proceeding will be as follows. The city attorney will walk the council through the mandatory quasi judicial disclosures.

Staff will then provide a brief summary of the matter and the hearing examiner's recommendation. The applicant may then provide a statement but must only refer to the statements made to the hearing examiner and no new information may be provided. The city council may ask questions of the applicant. No members of the public testified at the hearing before this hearing examiner. So, no new comments from the public will be permitted.

The city council will then hold a closed session per RCW forty two thirty one forty two, which will which is similar to an executive session but based on different governing statutes. The city council will then return to open session for discussion and may issue a decision. I now invite the city attorney, miss Archer, to review the proceedings that will follow for the hearing and and any initial matters. Miss Archer.

Thank you, mayor. As the mayor mentioned, this evening we are holding a quasi judicial proceeding. This means US council members are sitting as judges to judge a property specific request. As judges, you need to be impartial, review the record established at the public hearing, and review the application through the lens of the applicable standards that exist under the Port Orchard Municipal Code. This also means that the council has to meet certain standards to sit as a judge in adjudication of this matter.

These standards are based on the legal doctrine appearance of fairness, which is set out at RCW 4,236,060. That requires counsel to be fair by avoiding actual bias and also appear fair, meaning even where there's no actual bias, there may be potential conflicts which we'll have to disclose. In addition, the doctrine of appearance of fairness requires that counsel members disclose any contacts that they may have had related to this application. Those contacts are often referred to as ex parte contacts, meaning contacts outside of the judicial proceeding. As a preliminary matter, I would put on the record that all council members have had contact with the city clerk and city staff regarding the meeting materials related to this topic, the meeting procedures, and scheduling of this hearing.

These communications were included in the packet. I will now ask a series of questions of the council members to address the elements of the appearness of fairness doctrine. I'm gonna do this as a group this time as opposed to one by one for expediency, and then I will also be in that series of questions asking a question to identify if there are any ex parte communications that you wish to disclose. Please provide a, let's see how should we do this, a yes, raise your hand, then I have a visual, if it's a yes, and if it's a no, keep your hand down. Alright.

Do any members of the council have a financial or personal interest in this real property or application? If yes, raise your hand. Alright. Do any council members stand to gain or lose financially from the council's decision on this application? Yes? Alright. Do any of you have any reason to believe you cannot hear or consider this matter in a fair and objective manner due to actual or potential bias? No. Have any of you had contact with the applicant, their legal representatives, or any other regarding this matter? Alright, those answers were all no, so thank you counsel.

Now to the public. Is anyone present who wishes to state a challenge to any council member's disclosure or participation in this hearing on the appearance of fairness grounds? If so, please approach the podium. Alright, hearing no challenge. We can now proceed with the hearing. Period for challenging and for the adjudication of appearance of fairness doctrine issues is now closed. Mister Mayer, I will turn it back to you.

We will now proceed with the closed record hearing. As mentioned, only staff and the applicant may testify. No new information may be provided, and the discussion is to be based solely on the record created by the hearing examiner. I understand that city staff has submitted information regarding the notices that were published and sent for this hearing. That information was included in the published packet. The packet also includes all the materials submitted to the hearing examiner, including a staff report application and submitted public comments as well as the recording of the hearing. Next, we will proceed with a short summary of the staff report submitted to the hearing examiner from staff. Mister Bond?

Yes. Good evening. Before the city council is the Sydney Road site specific rezone application LU 25 rezone zero two. This public there was a previous public hearing held before the hearing examiner on January 28. That hearing was noticed with a 300 foot mailing radius to all property owners within 300 feet of the subject property and was advertised in the city's official newspaper, the Kitsap Sun.

Tonight's closed record hearing before the city council also had a 300 foot mailing radius and was also provided to all parties of record, in this case to the applicant and the applicant's representatives. And then the notice also appeared in the Kitsap Sun again. The proposal is to rezone this property, located where Sydney Road, goes underneath Highway 16 from CC to CMU, that's commercial corridor, to commercial mixed use. The distinction between these zones primarily has to do with apartment buildings being permitted outright, whereas in the current CC zoning, buildings can only be part of a mixed use shopfront type building where there is commercial beneath the apartments. And so this rezone would allow the apartment building type in the zone.

The staff recommended approval of the proposed rezone to the hearing examiner. And in the hearing examiner decision, the hearing examiner recommended approval to the city council. The hearing examiner found that the proposal meets the criteria for granting a rezone as found in Porter Tree Municipal Code section 20.4203. And public comments outside of those comments from the applicant during the hearing were not received on the project.

Thank you Nick. Does the applicant wish to speak to the council?

Just a reminder Ms. Rear, the applicant is not required to speak to the just

asking the question, yep. So it appears not. And does so? And then for the council will now begin Let's see. We're actually going to go into the closed session, correct?

Correct. Unless there's any questions related to the application for Mr. Bond, this would be the time for that.

Okay, question for Ms. Go ahead.

Doctor. Bond, could you please explain to me, guess I was trying to understand a little bit more about how there's a substantial change in that. It looks like the applicant's looking for apartments to be covered. And from my understanding, apartments are multifamily housing. And the change in our code happened around middle housing. So could you explain that a little bit more to me?

Councilwoman, are there any references to that concept being, adjudicated in the hearing? Mister Bond is not recalling that. Oh, okay. Well specifically,

the planning department found that there was a substantial change and that it was met because this can now cover middle housing. But the application was for apartment buildings, is multifamily housing, and there wasn't any change to multifamily housing. So I'm trying to understand how the substantial change relates to this application.

You know, I I didn't attend this hearing, and so this was handled by my staff. So I'll I'll full disclosure there. My understanding is that the the CC zone does not allow for apartment buildings as a stand alone use. And the other fact in this case is that the this is in our self storage overlay district. So the intent of this property, this whole area of the city is where we've identified for self storage uses to go.

And I can share that well, stop me if I'm able to talk about a possible project resulting from this, but, there is a proposed self storage, use at this site with colocated, apartment buildings. So they want to do a sort of horizontally mixed use project, but it isn't stacked in the way that the mixed use shopfront building allows. And so they are still meeting the intent of the code with self storage. It's that the apartment use, which would normally be on top of commercial, is next to it. And that's what they're seeking. But in terms of a substantial change, I just defer to what's in the hearing examiner's findings and what's in the record and the testimony provided.

Go ahead, mister Moore councilor Morrisey.

Thank you, mister mayor. Director Baum, I I think I'm I'm gonna I'm adding to her question. There was some, essentially, the hearing examiner had alluded to the fact that there are upcoming changes due to, I believe, state legislation that has changed. Correct me if I'm wrong, council member Demben, but maybe that's where your question's coming from.

That's not where.

Nope. Okay.

So the substantial change according would have been that allowed the application for the rezone was due to the change, that happened with around middle housing, our ordinances that changed in middle housing, which went into effect July 2025. However, from what I was looking at and even reading what the hearing examiner said, all of this relates to apartment building, allowing an apartment building or apartments, and apartments are multifamily housing. Therefore, I don't see any nexus to the substantial change that happened in our ordinance.

I'm kinda going the same way because I think my question was gonna be along the lines of the legislation that came through this year, which wouldn't have been necessarily implemented, but I believe there's going to be some changes coming through from the state that says we're not gonna be able to stop multifamily housing in commercial areas. I guess I thought that's where your line of questioning was going, but maybe No. I was

was saying that currently, under our current the application

As zoning. What the

application, what the hearing examiner specifically looked at, which made this project eligible, I don't see the nexus.

Okay. I see what you're saying. So you're you're saying there shouldn't be a need for this. Yep. Yep.

I don't see how it meets the requirements.

Got it.

That's a good question, and they're better off answering it than me.

Mr. Bond, do we know how many apartments are gonna be there this area with the retails underneath it?

I don't have a copy of the site plan because that's not part of the application that's before you. The the commercial mixed use zone allow does not have a cap on the number of units. It's restricted by building height, site coverage, parking, but the applicant may be able to shed some light on on that. But I I don't know that that's necessarily something that we should be discussing in the closed record hearing because it's not directly related to the rezone application.

It did state it in the rezone application it was approximately 63 units.

Further questions at this point? Okay. Because this

is quite I was gonna say, I might have one more question for miss Archer. Help me make sure I'm understanding this as we go into our closed door that miss Archer, we are taking this as a zoning only proposal, not any potential project that may come out of that because there's no potential project as it stands right now.

Correct. Yes. Thank you. That that gets to the question the councilwoman just asked, which is, you know, we can't consider the potential proposed uses, but we can look at what could be done under the future zoning as a as a evaluation criteria. Yeah. We did find the reference from the planner to the comment about middle housing, and we're looking at that right now. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Alright, because this is a quasi judicial proceeding pursuant to RCW forty thirty one forty two. The city council will enter a closed session for these deliberations. We will return in fifteen minutes unless the council extends the deliberation period. Any extension will be publicly announced. The council may take action following the deliberation period. So now we will enter deliberation in a closed session.

Mr. Mayor, I would request that we add an executive session to this as well. The topic would be 4,231.1 Subpart I to discuss legal risk of a proposed action together with same this fifteen minute time Absolutely.

Matter of counsel.

I believe there's a template motion in the packet.

Mister mayor, I've gotta reload. That's

where I'm at. Computer's back up. Let me know when you're ready.

There is no motion to consider it. Yeah. Okay. Not in Granicus.

Mayor, I move to affirm the recommendation of the hearing examiner to approve the site specific rezone and direct staff to prepare an ordinance consistent with this direction.

Second.

Motion and a second. And any further deliberation? I need to close the hearing though too, don't I? Hearing? Motion and a second. Any comments or questions? All in favor of affirming the hearing examiner's recommendation, please say aye.

Aye. I'll abstain for

now. Point of order. According to our norms, you cannot abstain. You must either vote nay or yay or nay.

I will vote nay.

Okay. So that passes six to one. Alright. We and that was the action item, correct? Miss Archer? Yes. So, we're now we're on to our citizen comment in the agenda. Mike Lawsuits. Alright. We are to the citizen comment period and anyone wishing to address the council, please step to the microphone and you have three minutes to address the council.

Good evening. My name is Ian Bear, and I'm here on behalf of the Western Washington Center for the Arts, currently located at 624626 Bay Street. I'm calling to coming in rather to add on to what was said at the last council meeting regarding the DCD issues. We are a five zero one c three nonprofit community theater that has been in Port Orchard for twenty five years. If you look out that window, you can see the pile of rubble that used to be our building that was under the Port Of Bremerton.

If you turn and you look out that side, you can see the building we are currently in. In that building, when we moved in, we had a 25 person occupancy limit. I've spoken with council member Fenton, and I've sent an email to council member Ward regarding this. We were operating under an assumption that had been given to us by the DCD at the time that we moved in that for fundraising events, we'd be able to continue to do those in that building in that situation. We received a stop work order on the 626 Portion, which is a storage unit that does not normally have anyone in it. It is just containing twenty five years of theater goods. We contacted the city saying, we understand we have a stop work order. We don't wanna make enemies with the city. We wanna play by the rules. What do we need to do to get this fixed?

What happened was that, you know, miss Garcia came in and immediately shut us down due to some confusion over a class b versus a class a one occupancy permit. After we shut down, we were told, well, go ahead and contact us if you have any questions on how to gain a class a occupancy. So we did. We were told, I won't talk to you. We need to have an architect drawing. So we proceeded as a nonprofit that is now not making money. We are not able to do shows. We do not have income coming in. We are still paying all of our bills. We proceed to pay almost $6,000 to get an architect to lay things out.

That took three and a half months to get any confirmation from the DCD. Every single day of the first six weeks was given. Every time we would call, it'd be three to five days before I'd hear anything back. I would either get a very terse email informing me contact your architect, or I would get an email saying, I don't know. We'll get back to you on that, which would then restart the clock. Finally, we got our approval done. What they want for a 50 person occupancy is four bathrooms, men's, women's, ADA, and employee for occupancy. They want a $100,000 of renovations there. After twenty five years, we will not be able to be a theater in Port Orchard, which we have prided ourselves on. We are the only community theater in Port Orchard.

We no longer have the option to be here because the city does not want us here. They've made that abundantly clear. As my time runs out, I would like to draw your attention to the third guiding principle of your own agenda. Are we building positive connections with our community and partners? I think it's very obvious both from the last meeting and this one that that is not happening. I walked down Bay Street. There are multiple empty storefronts. There are multiple owners who are telling me, wow. I regret having a business here. I will get out of Port Orchard as quickly as I can. And I know you all have heard this before. I'm not blaming one person. It is not one person's fault. It is a systematic issue with the DCD. There is no way to say that 501 C 3 needs a bathroom for every 12 people and that we need to be held to the same standards as dance clubs and 16 screen multiplexes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to address the council?

My name is Steve Segoe. I'm a resident of South Kitsap and a property owner and building owner here. In fact, I'm the landlord for the previous speaker, who we just keep alive there with a minimal amount of cost to keep them going hopefully with a plan to someday succeed. So I don't know if anybody is going to share any good news or positive messages tonight, but I'm going to. I just want to start by saying I've worked in this community for almost fifteen years, had a lot of challenges, a lot of disappointments, lot of progress.

But I want to point out the VCD department and my relationship with Nick Bond and Jim Fisk and Stephanie and Jackie when she was with the water department. A lot of challenges, lot of dead ends, but in the end, every step of the way, every process included a collaborative discussion. And I remember last year with Jim, I got a call and I have these are uncompensated roles I've taken to help some support some of our folks in the community and they were panicked, this applicant, and they were going to be turned away. They thought had a day to fix it or they were gone. Vesting was going to be gone. And I called Jim and he returned the call. I told him what the problem was and he said, yeah, they got a problem. But they're doing the wrong thing. If they did this, they wouldn't have a problem. And I called him and told him, the next day they were fine.

So the point is there's a collaborative discussion that took place constructively, right? And it wasn't just to say you're wrong or we're not going to tell you what the solution is, we'll help you. And that's changed. That's just the fact. It's the culture that's changed.

And Mayor Patanzio, you know how I feel about it, is feels like some something's descended on us that wasn't here before. And I told you the story last time about the application that's now been successfully permitted for the apartment above the Polaris Theatre, and that was just a few weeks ago. But we had a meeting, and and mayor Patanzio was was on that on that call, and and Angela Garcia and her staff, and my team, and Joshua. At the end of the day, we we were told and very politely but inaccurately that there was a form that we hadn't submitted. And this has gone back for six months, a mechanical permit should take six weeks.

Six months. And we were told that the form that was submitted by BJC, our consultant and contractor, was wrong. They were not using the right Washington State University approved form for HVAC, for power or for our HVAC system. So we went back to the drawing board and BJC came back, called Washington State University at the direction of the city. And Washington State University staff who managed this said, that's the wrong form.

In fact, that's obsolete. And that form is actually for a new not existing building. So that's how this went. And it was bring us another walk and we were told over and over again, no, they're wrong. Angela's team's wrong about mechanical drawings that were need to be submitted and the cycle just went on and on. So we have a permit now. Do Do I feel good about that? Yeah, I'm thankful that we're gonna have a place for our kids and grandkids to live. But I think what happened isn't necessary. There's a way to work together. And I think the city council, you know, you're responsible too for that. It's not just listening to people like me yammer on. It's to engage, to give direction to the mayor, to agree together.

See if your time's up.

My time's up?

Yep.

Okay. Should I change my name and come back? No. Well, thank you very much for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Clancy Donlin. I'm a former city council member. After this February 24 council meeting, both mayor Patonsu and DCD director Nick Bond acknowledged there were issues with the department. However, the comments focused on problems with the city's software without addressing the core problem, which is the behavior of the field employees and the overall culture.

While the software is problematic, it's clear that the root cause of most complaints stems from the aggressive and punitive actions of DCD field staff. The staff working at the permit center are known for their normal, helpful attitudes, and they have privately expressed frustrations with the department's culture. Software may be difficult to navigate and confusing, but it does not possess an attitude. The real challenges originate from two field personnel who have been reported to insult, bully, and humiliate individuals who are simply trying to build homes and start businesses. These employees appear to relish placing impossible hurdles in front of applicants, issuing contradictory demands, and transforming initial optimism into feelings of hopelessness.

The field personnel responsible are Angela Garcia and Aubrey Wilson. These two individuals have recklessly created an atmosphere of fear regarding the permitting process. Consider the imaginary experience of a couple planning to build a new home in Port Orchard. The excitement grows as they approach the permitting process, and after jumping through many hoops, their optimism remains high. However, once BCD becomes involved, the situation quickly deteriorates, and initially, they are asked to make a few fixes which they accommodate.

Then unexpected demands arise followed by a series of contradictory and expensive requirements. If the couple does not respond promptly, DCD imposes a stopped work order, which you've heard before many times, escalating the punishment. The resulting despair and financial strain are overwhelming, and it is unlikely the couple blames software for their problem. Mayor Patonsu has stated that he is somewhat aware of certain issues, but aware of unaware of the severity of scope and the problems caused by DCD. What has presented the mayor from being fully aware and fully informed about these issues?

Is it possible his involvement in multiple committees, boards, and groups has diverted his attention? Perhaps it is time for the mayor to reduce his external commitments and focus more closely on his day job with the city. Director Nick Bond, the leader of DCD, is ultimately responsible for its culture and behavior. Although it's well known Nick possesses strong skills in land use and other technical issues, interpersonal skills and fostering a positive departmental culture are not his strengths. The department needs to add a new leader who brings both background in construction and a commitment to customer service.

This individual should develop a plan to transform DCD into a department known for exceptional customer service and correct its current anti citizen, anti business, anti growth attitudes.

Mister Donlin,

you're should embrace a culture centered on helping to inform and partnering with those who seek to build

Mister Donlin,

your time is

up. Businesses or remodel. A model for this approach is Costco, which prioritizes its member in every decision.

Mister Donlin, please take

a seat.

Please keep your remarks to the allotted

time. Will do my best.

Thank you.

Hello. I am Sue Ann Martin Smith, I've had three businesses here in the city of Port Orchard since 2012. I've lived here for twenty six years, and I've been a volunteer in Port Orchard in Port Orchard throughout my time here, including being a planning commissioner for the city of Port Orchard. My small businesses, Homemade Cafe, Holy Water, Heavenly Lounge, and Dottie's Place in Airbnb have helped to bring thousands of guests and dollars to our community for many years now. COVID was a very was very hard as a small business owner to survive.

Those of us who did survive came out stronger with renewed vigor to make a comeback within our community and to help life feel normal again. In doing so, I got, I had to get permits in the twenty one, twenty twenty two year for a small overhaul of Homemade to become holy water. I'm a rule follower, and I have all my paperwork saved from when we opened Homemade in 2010. I have worked with the health department and the liquor board without any problems whatsoever. Both organizations are very clear about what they need and expect from us as business owners so we can move forward and open our doors.

Working with the DCD, however, became challenging because I was adding an eco friendly dishwasher to my already complete commercial kitchen. The dishwasher was professionally installed in our already existing commercial kitchen. I reported this change to the DCC, and Doug Price, what is the inspector, was the inspector, said I had to have a commercial hood fan above this dishwasher, which was really shocking as you can imagine. I contacted Ecolab Company, which was founded in 1923. They they changed their name in 1988.

In all their years of being open, they'd never heard of such a thing. This is the only piece of equipment that we rent in our kitchen. The rest we own. Doug Price said, I couldn't open without it. Apparently, the rule was signed into code during COVID, and it was meant for new construction of housing so the black mold the mold issue would not happen in laundry rooms. To have proper ventilation, which makes complete sense. To open my bar, I had to spend $5,500 on a hood fan for no reason. I have since asked the city who else had to do that, and they said no one. And they literally said to me that people just don't tell when they make changes, and I felt that I was being punished because I was being truthful. I had to so when we had him do the inspection he said this is it and we said yes.

He'd let me know he'd lost my paperwork. He also let me know he'd never seen one before and he went, oh, that's what it looks like. I was livid. I was super angry because I knew more about this than he did. I had to hire a professional HVAC person to come in. It took another five to six weeks and I lost about $45,000 in business. That's a lot. I've already established that I'm good at what I do. We survived it. We moved on and we've worked really hard and we flourished in this community.

I love Port Orchard. I believe in this town, but I also believe that people who wanna support our community need to be from here or leave in our live in our county maybe, have some investment in it. John Robinson, the old inspector, phenomenal. Speed dial. He'd answer questions.

We don't

get that anymore. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll still address the council.

Good afternoon, good evening. I mean, Robert Baglio, BJC Group. We're a general contractor and developer in the area And, you know, last night, I was rolling around 03:00 in the morning and was thinking about this. And to be honest with you, it's not very pleasant for me, but I felt that it's time to go ahead and and speak and hear my voice or let my voice be heard. So I'm here also to talk about working with the city of Port Orchard, the difficulties and the problems, and this is specifically around the building department.

I know four weeks ago, there was a group of people that came and testified in front of the city council expressing the same frustration dealing with the city of Port Orchard, once again, seemed to be centered around the building department. I listened to the tape. I found their stories incredibly compelling. The one thing I found striking was the similarity of the stories. The never ending request for additional information, the lack of consistency, the time wasted jumping through bureaucratic hoops, the lack of trust, the amount of time it takes to get answers, and the one common denominator once again is the building department.

So I'm constructing the Bay Street Apartments downtown. It's a great project obviously, but it's a fairly good size, 68,000 square foot project. You can take the problems expressed at the council meeting four weeks ago and multiply them by about 20, and that's what I'm experiencing on the Bay Street project. One consistent theme is the amount of time that is wasted dealing with ridiculous and frivolous request. Those delays cost money, real money.

The time and effort we spend jumping through hoops and performing gymnastics is absurd. Not to mention the additional consultant fees that must be paid to respond to what seems to be the never ending city's request. Many of these requests are things that I've never experienced in my thirty years plus in the business. On this project, these delays and additional consulting fees have amounted to nearly $250,000 and that is not an exaggeration. With all the stories and experience that the public has expressed to

the city

council, it's blatantly obvious due to the sheer volume and consistency of the concerns and frustrations that the problem is not the citizens who are simply trying to get a building permit. The common denominator once again is the building department. Unfortunately, people are starting to question and no longer want to do business in Port Orchard. I've heard this firsthand from many developers. I myself have reservations as far as future projects in the city of Port Orchard.

This is a very serious situation. The frustration level is high. Steps need to be taken right away. Listen to the citizens that elected you and solve the problem. The problem is not them. It is staff. It appears to be a culture of no. Something needs to be done and needs to be done soon. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Also wishing to address the council. Is the first citizen coming online? Is there someone online ready?

Yep. There's somebody online.

Wish to draw online, wish to testify, please use the raise your hand feature and the clerk will bring you into the meeting.

Hello?

Yep. Please go ahead and please identify yourself for the record.

Sure.

My name is Ray Klein. I was one of 17 to speak a month ago at city council. No personal animosity toward you, mister mayor, but we take to this forum since you seem to deny that a problem exists. And in your recent posts online, you indicate a lack of understanding or simply a denial of the problem we're trying to highlight as was highlighted by many before me just now. The problem will not be solved by sensitivity training or by hiring more staff.

The problem is that the staff are trained to do exactly what is not needed, create more fake work in the Department of Community Development, the DCD. That's incredibly shortsighted. It's so much better to encourage business and grow the tax base. Currently, there is a culture implemented in d c in DCD to harm small business. I don't know if this is deliberate or not or who does benefit, but the impact on the city is negative and dire. The stories outlined here at council seem too bizarre to be true. If they were fictional, it would be funny. But it's real. It's not funny. People suffer.

For years, this malfeasance has been festering among among our business community. Most are too afraid to speak out for fear of retribution. We found our voice, the best disinfectant in the sunlight, so we tell these incredible stories. Even now, for every one of us speaking, there are many more who have given up, too broken, or afraid to speak. This is easy to fix, and we're willing to do our part to help. Surely, you can't truly believe that what's currently taking place is appropriate. Right now, you're failing. I would much rather you succeed as that's what's best for Port Orchard. It's time to try something new. The solution is common sense.

What we need is a positive attitude toward businesses, not more detailed process. You were wasted steps, not more staff. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else online or in the audience wishing to testify before the council or provide comment, I guess? Raised hands, Brandy. Close the first citizen comment period. We have a published consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Mister mayor,

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. Motion

by Council Member Diener, a second by Council Member Morrissey to approve the consent agenda as presented. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing nothing, the consent agenda is approved. We have two presentations this evening. The first of which is from our contract lobbyist, Shelly Helder, who's in the audience. And she's gonna give us a post legislative session update. Thank you for joining us tonight, Shelly.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Shelly Helder and I have the privilege of serving the city as your contract lobbyist. This evening, I have four sections to my presentation. I will provide an overview of the twenty twenty six state legislative session.

I'll review outcomes from the city's legislative priorities. I'll provide a brief overview of some additional legislative outcomes, and then we will wrap up by talking about next steps and where do we go from here now that session is over. Do I click or do you? Do I just say next slide? Perfect. Okay. So I'll just tell you when I go next. Okay. Next slide. So the twenty twenty six legislative session was sixty days.

It was a short session, the second year of the biennium. Similar to the first year of the biennium, Democrats held strong majorities in both chambers, and they set the priorities for the session. Some of the major themes that, we saw throughout the session were responding to federal actions, affordability, and, reforming the state's tax code. The primary objective of a short session is to adopt supplemental budgets, which are intended to make small but time sensitive changes to the state's biennial budgets. And then in addition to the budget, the legislature also considers thousands of bills.

There were, 1,238 bills introduced in sixty days and 268 passed into law. Next slide. The legislature adopted three supplemental budgets, which is a success. That's not something that always happens. It's not a guarantee that they do adopt supplemental budgets, but they did. The most challenging of the three budgets was the operating

Kelly, I think we're a slide behind. We are.

We are, yes. That went back. Can we go forward one more? We Perfect. Thank you.

The supplemental operating budget was the most challenging, and that's due to rising maintenance level costs, mostly driven by increased caseloads and new obligations from recent state programs that have expanded their scope. The supplemental operating budget increased spending by $2,400,000,000 bringing the total two year budget to $80,200,000,000 Roughly $880,000,000 of that amount is from the state's budget stabilization account, commonly referred to as the rainy day fund, which is essentially the state's savings account. The largest expenditure in the supplemental budget is roughly a billion dollars to cover the state's self insurance liability premiums. The other two budgets, the transportation and the capital budget, are traditionally developed in a bipartisan fashion, and this year was no exception. The supplemental, transportation budget adds 1,200,000,000.0 to the spending authority, which brings the total two year budget to 16,600,000,000.0.

The singular focus for the supplemental transportation budget was maintenance and preservation of the state's highway system, which does include the ferry system. And then finally, the supplemental capital budget authorized an additional $889,000,000 in spending, which brought the total, budget to 8,500,000,000.0. So as you can see on the slide, the budgets get smaller as we go. Next slide. So before jumping into some specifics about the city's priorities, I wanted to provide a perspective on the outcomes for cities across the state.

And I would say the key takeaway for cities across the state is that, generally there's room for improvement. There were more unfunded mandates that passed this session, though there were far fewer than there have been in recent years. There were no additional resources distributed to cities or relief from the demands placed on city budgets, but there was some additional flexibility for existing fiscal tools. And then in spite of the state having a challenging budget year, they did retain most, though not all, of the state shared revenues. There was a reduction of 5,000,000 from the cannabis revenue sharing that gets distributed to cities.

The legislation that authorizes the millionaires tax includes an elimination of sales tax on select products. And so if that, does end up taking effect, that will result in a decline in local sales tax collection. The the legislation acknowledged this and, included in the intent section that there will is an intent to offset some of those impacts on local governments. That's reflected in the operating budget, which has $200,000,000 allocated in the four year outlook, and that's because, again, there's a delayed or delayed effective date for the millionaires tax, and there's kind of broad understanding that it will be challenged both by voters and by the courts. So in short, it wasn't a terrible session for cities, but again, there is still room for improvement.

Next slide. So the city identified three priorities for the short session and one priority to put on the horizon for the upcoming biennium. So the first priority was a million dollar capital budget request for the Old Clifton Road water intertie project, and that request was fully funded in the supplemental capital budget. This success was possible because our delegation, the 26th District Legislators, all prioritized this request. Them prioritizing and advocating for it, we don't get that kind of result in a short session without their support.

It also helped that this was an infrastructure project that will ultimately reduce the amount that the city has to borrow for the project and limit the impact to ratepayers, which touched on one of the priorities for the session, which was affordability. And so I I mentioned this just to note that in considering what priorities, not only is it incredibly helpful to have your legislators supportive of it, but also to have something that aligns with the priorities that would be adopted by the parties in control. And then just to provide some context for other types of awards that were distributed in the district, There was $200,000 for the Bremerton Food Line, dollars 50,000 for Key Peninsula Community Services Food Pantry, and $500,000 for upgrades at South Kitsap Regional Park. The city's second priority was an $8,000,000 request for new roundabouts at the intersection of SR 16 and Sedgwick, and this was a priority we did not expect there to be funding allocated to a project of this size in a supplemental year, but we wanted to keep it top of mind for budget writers, and we wanted to kinda keep our our place in the queue.

And to our surprise, the senate transportation budget included the full $8,000,000 for this project. And this is in no doubt because senator Krishnadasan was promoted to be one of the transportation budget writers in the senate, and so she had much more influence over development of that budget than previous members from the 26th District. The House budget was really adamant on funding no new projects, prioritizing investment only in maintenance and preservation of existing systems. And so the through the reconciliation process, there was no funding for new projects. But simply being included in the senate proposal really elevates this, and the fact that senator Krishna Dawson is expected to continue to be a transportation budget rider moving forward, means that we have really good opportunity, moving into

the new

biennium. To take advantage of this opportunity, one of the things that I think we need to be really diligent with is reaching out to WSDOT over the interim and making sure that we're on the same page with them about the importance of this project and what the benefits would be to the state and the region. The third priority was to maintain funding for the derelict vessel removal account and to streamline the process for removing derelict vessels. Representative Richards was the champion for this, not just for the city of Port Orchard, but for the region. He introduced house bill twenty one ninety nine, and this bill's now been signed into law.

It takes effect June 11. It modifies the definition of a derelict vessel, and that expedites the process for removal. Something as simple as a definition makes a big difference. It it makes a couple other changes as well, but that's the simplified version. And then additionally, the governor's proposed budget and the senate's proposed budget as a way to help balance the state's general fund, they proposed sweeping funds from the derelict vessel removal account.

Ultimately, the final operating budget does not do that. It keeps the account whole, so the money is there to address derelict vessels. Next slide. So in addition to the city's top priorities, there are other important topics that you've identified in your legislative document, and several of them came up this session. Infrastructure funding is an ongoing challenge for the state as well as local governments, and the public works assistance account is one of those vital tools.

However, the account is really attractive to as a source to borrow from the state when they are short on cash. The supplemental operating budget takes $375,000,000 from the public works assistance account to balance the state's general fund. They backfill that account with $279,000,000 in bond funding and ultimately it ends up meaning being that there's actually additional capacity for projects funded through the Public Works Assistance account, but it's with bond authority as opposed to with cash. So it doesn't projects are still gonna be able to go out the door. Public Works Board will still be able to solicit projects.

It's just funded in a different way. The next thing I wanna mention is the city's support for Senate Bill 6,262, which would have expanded what vehicles are subject to transportation benefit district fees. It would have had the effect of generating roughly $90,000 for the city to use on maintenance and preservation, and it would have affected vehicles that are heavier in weight, vehicles that traditionally have more wear and tear on city streets. The bill passed the senate with, bipartisan support, and it ended up dying in the house. I do expect the bill to return next year, so it's just something for us to have on our our radar.

The legislature continued their focus on the regulation and citing of step housing types, which are shelters, transitional housing, emergency housing, and permanent supportive housing. In 2021, the legislature adopted house bill twelve twenty, which required cities to allow these housing types in any areas where hotels are permitted. However, local regulations that were adopt that have been adopted throughout the state have varied widely, and in some cases, the occupancy spacing and health and safety regulations have been narrowed so much that it's essentially prevented these housing types from being sited in communities. So to address this concern, the legislature passed House Bill two thousand two and sixty six. The bill requires cities to allow permanent supportive housing and transitional housing in all residential zones and, emergency housing in all zones where hotels are allowed.

It also narrows the types of spacing, occupancy, and health and safety regulations that a city can impose. One thing that I'll note for the final version of the bill, it does allow cities to, require a form based code, and that was something that, was incorporated into the bill as a result of feedback from the city of Port Orchard. It was heavily amended through the process. They took into lot of into account a lot of feedback from cities to try to make the bill workable, implementable, enforceable. Though it is a mandate, it does have a lot of city, fingerprints all over it.

I say city family, not just city of Port Orchard. On the flip side, there's House Bill twenty four eighty nine, and this would have limited the city's authority to regulate or remove individuals that are occupying public parks or public rights of way. This bill had really strong opposition from cities, and it it died in its chamber of origin. So that's at a where the city's concern was heard. So next slide.

So now that the session is over, I know some people think, well, now what do you do? Actually, there's a lot of work to do between now and when, the next legislative session begins, but I'm not even gonna think about that yet. First and foremost, the thing that I would encourage the city to do is to express gratitude to your delegation. The 26th District legislators, and for that matter, every legislator put in countless hours, debating and adopting laws and budgets to help our state run, and no matter what side of the party political aisle you're on, they put in the time. And so for that reason alone, I think expressing gratitude is warranted, But as you all know in an elected office, gratitude goes really far, especially when you do something that, you know, constituents have asked you to prioritize and you're able to deliver on it.

There's no shortage of gratitude that can be delivered, especially when it's sincere. So if that's a groundbreaking, something as formal as that, or something just as informal as thinking them when you see them in the community or at an event, I can't communicate how important that is. The next step is to implement. Of course, the city is already working on implementing the projects or the money that was received in the first year of the biennium. Work is already underway on that, which is excellent.

I know city staff is gonna continue to do that with the funding that was awarded, for the Intertie project. There are also, as I mentioned, 268 bills that passed. Not all of them impact city government, but a lot of them do. And so there's a lot of work for cities to comply with the laws that the state just passed. And so I mentioned that to you all because city staff is gonna have a lot of work on their plate coming up as the effective dates for these bills hit the calendar.

And then as we look to the next legislative session, one of the best things that you can do as a city is start to identify what are some of your biggest struggles, and what can the state do to help address those struggles, and then educate legislators on those those topics. We already know Orchard Street Plaza is a project that's on the horizon, that's something we've identified as needing the state's support to help get across the finish line, so that's something that we can start to work on now. And then I said I wasn't gonna talk about it, but I'll just mention the legislative session for 2027 starts January 11, and you all know we like to have the priorities adopted far before then so we can do our homework in advance of session. Before I close, I do just wanna mention that I am part of a team. I know I get to interact with you all, and you mostly see me because I am your primary point of contact, but I do have a colleague, Holly Synabria, who provides just exceptional support for me, and so I wanted to mention her and just note that I will be taking vacation at some point this year, and you will always have a backup at GTH if I'm not available.

Shelly, questions for Shelly?

Thank you.

Councilor Deener?

Yeah. I'm sure it's a question that other people are thinking about. What are the unfunded mandates that the city is facing?

Yeah. One of them I mentioned, House Bill twenty two sixty six. There is quite a bit of implementation that's required, and there's not funding for the city to update city codes, so I use the term unfunded mandates somewhat loosely. It's work the city has to do, and funding is not accompanied with it. One of the other bills that passed this session that actually doesn't apply to Port Orchard because of your population threshold, Senate Bill sixty twenty six, and it's a similar land use mandate that requires cities to update their ordinances.

Thank you, Shelley. It was very informative.

Oscar Warden. Thank you for coming tonight. What sales tax items are no longer sales taxed?

Diapers, hygiene products, and over the counter medicines will all be exempt from sales tax if the legislation that includes the millionaire's tax is upheld.

Thanks. Not yet, but if it's upheld. Councilmember Dedmon?

Something about a form based code. Can you explain that a little bit more to me?

Yeah, so form based code is a type of code that is an option for cities. It kinda creates a standard for builders or developers to know, hey, this is the expectation across an entire city. Cities have the option of whether to adopt a form based code or not. And so as the STEP housing bill was originally drafted, it would have essentially provided an exemption from form based codes for permanent supportive housing, emergency shelters, if a city chooses to have a foreign based code.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you for your presentation tonight, Shelly. It's very well received. Thank you for your time spent down in Olympia on our behalf. I know the group of us went down there for one night. I know I spent many days during session, the short sixty day session, And I believe every one of them, I ran into Shelley down there working on every half. So thank you. Additionally, thank you personally for the opportunity to testify on 2199 for rep Richards. Think you did a great job getting that across the finish line, and your support helps.

I just wanna thank you for your work against unfunded mandates for the city. As you know, that's our our biggest risk here. I believe that what we do as a city should come first despite what the what the state says. So I wanna appreciate that on your work there. I also wanna call out to I guess she was going by rep Valdez this year versus Caldier, who I think kinda led the charge for a million dollar on her water intertie project.

I know we had some conversations about that personally to thank her for that. But anything you can do as you continue to work on our behalf for the city of Port Orchard, the people need to know, you you know, the it's not just the revenue that you bring to the projects that we're going to do. It's the things that you fight as well. Right? I see in the audience tonight our one of our county commissioners.

I think he would join us in saying that the state just needs to work on staying out of unfunded mandates. And for those of you who don't know what I'm saying there, that's about putting policy on a city or a county that requires money that they didn't provide on our behalf. It really, handcuffs us on our ability to do what we need to do for our community. So thank you for that. Keep fighting for that as you go into next year.

I am most interested in your thoughts. I know you don't wanna talk about next year yet. But to get to my question after all that is what do you think that's going to come back from this year, next year that didn't pass, that we should be keenly aware of?

That's a really good question. Man, I try to block all dead bills out of my head, I think it, I'm like, oh, Delver comes back. One that I think will come back what was referred to as the mobile dwelling bill, hospital fourteen forty three, and that's trying to get at this issue of creating additional housing units in a short timeline, recognizing that there's a small amount of land within buildable areas. And so I think there is a path forward there, but the way that the bill's been brought forward the last several years is is an unfunded mandate, and it significantly limits city's ability to enforce mobile dwelling units that are not following city code and are creating health and safety risks. So I think that will come back.

In what version, I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's others. There were a handful of like personnel and HR related bills that I didn't track closely. The Association of Washington Cities is a really good resource for that. There are a handful of those that would have cost cities, and those are like a bad penny. They always come back. Whether they get over the finish line or not is just dependent on the legislature at that given year.

Thanks, Shelley. I think my last question, and it's not a question, it's more of a comment, is I would like to see our ability to get that thank you and planning done maybe in district with our legislators so that we have another meeting prior to going into session this year.

Shelly, I just want to thank you for your hard work. I think our million dollar award was one of the larger one, if not the largest one I'm aware of. And unfortunately, and appreciate your efforts in this, many times we're paying defense as much as we're playing offense to prevent bad bills and things that are unfunded mandates. So I appreciate all the hard work you provided on that front too.

My pleasure, thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Shelby.

All right, we have our next presenter is Tony Ives from Kitsap Community Resources, and we partner with Tony for rental assistance in the city of Port Orchard. So I'm certain he's here to talk about that.

I'm here to talk about a lot of things.

Alright, Tony.

First first of all, thanks for inviting me. I appreciate being here always. I think the last time I was here, we were talking about data after our community needs assessment. So we're doing another needs assessment. We're gonna be very active in that this year, and I expect to be back to talk about the data once we finish the study.

So, really, most of you know who we are, but for those who don't, we've been a community action agency for about sixty years, so we don't do this alone. We work with a network of 30 other community action agencies around Washington State. That includes Central De La Raza, Metropolitan Development Council out of Tacoma, and Pierce County, many others. So, again, the more I appreciate your lobbyists that just left because we also lobby on behalf of our communities. One thing I do wanna say is collaboration and and leveraging relationships and and and resources is one thing we try to do always.

Here's next. Yeah. There you go. So you know where our office is over here, Jackson and Lund over in Rain Chattel Court, and it's very active these days. Recently, we signed an agreement with kids of mental health. They're gonna move in, rent a couple of spaces, and we're gonna be working more closely together collaborating on projects. We were talking earlier about that. So I'll just briefly discuss some of our initiatives. Housing and community services, of course, is one of our big ones. We serve the needs of families and individuals in Kitsap County who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

We provide those services that could help you prevent eviction, find affordable housing, and and we work to help stabilize families families in crisis. And that's all done through coordinated entry and the housing solution center. Of course, that's also energy assistance, weatherization, veterans. I'm gonna talk broadly about this and hopefully get to the specific data that that deals with the city of Port Orchard. So I'll move quickly. Early learning and family services. We don't really do that here in Port Orchard. Our Head Start team doesn't work here. However, there are 20 Port Orchard families that do use Head Start, and they go to Bremerton or other areas around Kitsap County. I thought I'd note that.

Employment and training. Okay. We offer free career placement and training opportunities for adults 18 and all over. That includes our best program, financial decision making, and free GED tutoring. Just keep in mind that our best program, we do that in Spanish now. It's been pretty pretty successful. Next slide, please. Christmas angels is probably our largest Christmas angels ever. We served 900 families and more than 2,300 kids, and that includes Port Orchard. So in general, this is a slide of some of our impact.

I did hand out great. You can take your time and read that because that data is there, but I just wanted to note some some key things, the 3,663 families that we serve every month for for our WIC program. WIC went through some problems in the last budget shutdown, and so I just wanna note Virginia Mason really came through for us, and and they donated $70,000 so we can keep our WIC program active. We worked very closely with the with the food banks around Kitsap County, especially the one here, and we're all working together to make sure those families didn't suffer. Next slide, please.

So this is specific impact for for South Kitsap and kits and and Kitsap County and Port Orchard. Excuse me. So I know council former council person Fred Cheng, he was a big supporter of the rental assistance program. As a result of that, we moved a navigator here in on our Jackson and Lund office. They're here at least two or three days a week serving Port Orchard and South Kitsap.

So through that initiative, we distributed about 18 almost $19,000 to help maintain housing stability, then another eight other South Kitsap residents were were helped with other other funds which brought the total to about 25,000. I wanna note the housing services through coordinated entry again and case management, it supports individuals and families at risk for homelessness. Our current caseload is about a 121 individuals and families, and that's as of February month. That's compared to about 40 individuals from the previous year. So all I have to say is I note that's probably the state of the economy, number one, but it's also more exposure and more outreach here in in Port Orchard and in in in South Kitsap.

I really wanted to note this. The scholarship entrepreneur and small business growth. So we ran an eight week business education support and training program. At the end of that, we had contest and commissioner Root was there. It was funny. No. No. It was funny. It was cool. Right? So so I just wanted to mention some of the businesses that won that competition. These are some of them in Port Orchard. And shout out to these businesses in Port Orchard. Okay? Fair Propane, Nextgen Contracting, Crow's Curiosities, Foggy Acres Farm, Reliable Adaptive Dirtwork LLC, and South Sound Con Constructing LLC.

Each of these firms presented a business plan after learning how to do it. There was a competition. Commissioner Root was one of the judges, and and and that was that. That was great. It was one of the best competitions we've ever had, and we're about to do another one. Yesterday was the Spanish speaking best competition. It was too bad I wasn't there. I was at the twenty sixth event yesterday, so but it was it turned out really great. Financial education, of course, we we basically had a 150 105 participants with this is at in Port Orchard. 105 participants in Port Orchard.

22 students were enrolled in our g GED program, and we helped 29 families file their taxes. Of course, this is what we're doing right now. We're we're we have a tax service around Kitsap County, We travel around the county on certain days to help families file their taxes. Weatherization, of course, is always important. We served 14 units.

This is in South Kitsap. 31 individuals completed 10 weatherization projects. We usually try to do four a month, and they're quite complicated, so I just wanted to note that. And for HEAP, which is heating, energy, and assistance program, in total, we invested about $263,000 into projects. 1,630 families, 30 households were served with our energy assistance program.

That's LIHEAP low income heating and energy assistance. And then early learning, like I mentioned before, 20 families from Port Orchard are enrolled in our programs, but not here in Kitsap out in the South Kitsap. They go to Bremerton and other areas. I wanted to note this last statistic here. 102 families Portaertiuk families are served monthly through our WIC program.

It's very very important for us, and these aren't unduplicated families. Families come back into the office when they need help, and we try to support that. So one thing I wanna say there here. Can you go back to that slide for a second? So you can see Grocery Outlet.

There's Greg and Deanne over there and Rachel Beeson. She's our the head of our our our meals program downstairs, and what I wanted to just mention briefly was we had an issue with with getting a grant or a specific support. So about a year and a half ago, grocery outlets started donating food to us, food that they couldn't use, our old food, and we turn it into soup or whatever it is, and then send it out in Mills One Wheels. It's a really great program. Well, about a year ago, we ran into an issue, but all the food banks came together.

So Kitsap Harvest now picks up food from grocery outlet, and they they give us what they can. We we make the soups and process, package, label, freeze, and deliver it back to food the Brimmerton Food Lion, and they distribute it equally to all of the food banks, including the one here in Port Orchard and Kitsap County in South Kitsap. That's just emphasizing the collaboration that we have and and and leveraging the resources and relationships that we have. Even in the hard times, we all come together and try to support each other, not just families, but but but the nonprofits that we that we have here in the strong community. So just the next thing, the strategic plan, basically, we're gonna do we do that after we do the community needs assessment.

We're working with K PhD and Virginia Mason to basically duplicate not duplicate, but not create the same will twice. Is that the right way to say it? Create no. No. No.

Recreate the will.

There you

go. Recreate the will.

So so Saint Michael's has already rolled out their their CNA. We're next. And then KPHD is gonna do them at the beginning of the year, but we're gonna compile that data together. Remember the last time we received 4,200

Responses?

Thank you. And and it was great. It basically tracked the census across demographics, across zip codes, and we're trying to recreate that and also share data. So that's that's been key for kids of transit, for ourselves, for St. Michael's, K PhD, so again, all trying to work together.

So the last thing I want to say is we're looking for board members and we need elected officials, so I'm gonna reach out to you a couple of you guys just to consider if you if you have the time. There's one person I wanted to note here, my pastor Jesse. He's a pastor at United Methodist Church. So we run the the church runs the the closet, the closed closet for the high school, which is really great. No questions asked. The counselors know. That kids can come in. They need a tie or something to look nice or just whatever it is. No questions asked. The other thing is the church does also run the emergency shelter.

So when we when it's needed, pastor Jesse and the team steps up. I wanna also just say how strong my team is and how proud I am and how we always try to serve this community. I'm from here. You guys know I graduated in 1980, so we're always here to serve. So thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Questions? Councilmember Rose Peppen?

I just a comment.

Tony, I I learned something new tonight. Now you've you've presented here before, and I really appreciate the showing us about the GED because it's always tough for kids in the community who don't finish school to find an avenue. So I appreciate that and then learn something new.

Thank you. Appreciate the appreciate you. Okay? Thank you.

Council member Diener, you have a question?

Yeah. Tony, thank you very much. I'm amazed at the diversity of products that you have for people. The navigator program that you mentioned is staffed part time in Port Orchard. I think I used to understand what a Navigator program was. Is is it still for people who are under immediate duress?

That's that's part of it. If if I come in or a couple comes in or whatever it is and there's a housing issue, whether whether it's eviction related or perhaps it's behind on your rent or or section eight even related, we try to steer people in the right direction. What I failed to mention was also the the relationship between that and our veterans program because we also have a veterans manager and a navigator there, and we try to work together. That's another pool of funding. Thank you.

Comes from the county, but we serve try to get that demographic for Port Orchard, I couldn't pull it out as quick quickly for this meeting. But the next time I come, I'll tell you exactly how many veterans that we support with that program. But yes. Yes.

Thank you. Okay.

Pastor Morsi.

Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you, mister Ives. Thanks for inviting me. Oh, absolutely. You know, as a former board member, you know, I have worked and there's been some great leaders that came up with this. Larry or Jeff and and and and the folks that have come here. And the former council member Chang still on your board? No. Oh, okay. Alright. Alright. He should be. I see him in the office audience tonight. But I'd like to invite any of my peers. I've been on that board.

I would I I would highly suggest if you don't have something to get involved with, there is so much that this organization does for the community of is our county. Right? And whether it's weatherization, head start, not not running start. I always get that wrong. And and whether it's energy assistance, whether it's housing, Your team is amazing.

They they see oversee everything from WIC to our I'm I'm I'm not with it tonight on on my morning AmeriCorps. It varies from one end to the other on the services that you provide, and I think it's a really cool business, and they're always adding more to it. So thank you for what you do I'm on top of I'm trying to get some some additional folks that come in behind me that I I spent some time on that board, help you out that way. What are you seeing, or what are some new services that may be coming that we should know about? And what are you struggling with today?

I'll tell you. There there are some big things that I didn't mention. And last year, it was an experimental program. We we received about a million dollars from the Department of Commerce, and it was a community redevelopment money. And we were able to do down payment assistance, $600,000 for 40 families.

It's really a powerful, impactful program that also ran some of the projects in Spanish. It helped develop the Kitsap asset building coalition, just reinvigorated it. And now, you know, Kitsap Bank is one of the key and Kitsap Credit Union as well. There it's a probably got about 40 members now, and it's really doing a lot across the community. And, again, the more the more footprint you have, the better.

So on Thursday, I'm bringing a friend of mine. He's one of the managing directors for the Department of Commerce, really, with the CSBG and community redevelopment projects. He's coming to Kitsap County. He loves Kitsap County, so I always try to take him around, introduce him to people so people I just shut up, you know, not say anything, and people just start talking to him about the needs of the community. So that's another thing that we don't really talk about, but we try to bring people and resources here and then leverage that all together. So that those are cool things that are happening.

So what what what mister Ives doesn't tell you is that Tony and his team are known for what they do for our underserved communities, and that spans way more than what we I think we traditionally know. And what I'm trying to get at is they do housing. They do WIC. They do early learning. They do business education support and training. Right? So it it it it varies throughout. It is the most underutilized organization on our entire community. Thank you for what you do. I I just I wanna bring more people's attention to it because I don't think what was your last cohort in Best? Was it 20 people?

Yeah. It

was. There are almost 300,000 people that live in our county. There's a lot of people that have ideas for businesses that they could bring to this business, and there's way more than 20 of them. So I just wanna highlight some of the great things you guys do.

Thank I I definitely appreciate you saying that. I mean, I can keep talking, but I'm not going to. Alright? So I definitely appreciate you guys. I know it's a long night. Okay? Yeah.

And, Tony, I wanna thank you for the partnership we have on the rental assistance. Get the rest of that money deployed because we'd like to give you more.

Can we okay. That sounds great. I I was I was actually asking my team about that today, so I'll pass on the good news.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony, that was wow. Very impressive presentation. I didn't even realize exactly how much you guys did. I learned a lot. I think we all did, and it's really inspiring too that you even work with the veterinarians. Not the veterinarians.

That could be we could, though. That would be great.

We could.

Oh, yeah, maybe. I'll hear that next year. No. I'm sorry. You know what I meant.

I do.

Yeah. Councilman Ward?

Yeah. Just want to thank you for coming out. You're for sure Thanks calling for in inviting the most genuine person that I talk to, so I really appreciate all that you do. The year end review that you show, that's one of the most impacting things that when people come up here and show everyone that they touch, and it's pretty staggering for our community. So I wanna thank you. The GED aspect, how do you get that how do you get that word out?

Well, part of it is our marketing team, and we work very closely with Olympic College and also with we try to work with high schools. You know the event that they have in the at the armory every

Mhmm.

So we go there as well. Last week, the principal was there. She and we talk about what we do, and then they they they talk about it as well. That's why I show at the school track of events. You know? That's where I see you.

I enjoy seeing you there.

Yeah. So that's what we're doing. It has grown over the last two years. It's it's everything has changed, and the Department of Commerce sees that change. So, hopefully, we can take advantage of that. And, again, that's why Cecil Daniels is coming so we can talk about that. My team's gonna talk directly about not the successes, but the opportunities. Yeah. Alright. So Thank

you. Yeah. Wow. Alright. Thank you, Tony.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you, Tony.

Thank you.

I'll be I'll be calling some of you.

Alright. We're on to our next public hearing, and it's a public hearing for a petition from Kitsap County to vacate right of way. Miss Wallace, this is you.

Don't know why I switched sides here. Having mouse issues. Hold on just a second.

Okay. Oh, I'm terrible. Sorry. I forgot about you guys. Yeah. We have two Gitsap County employees that are going to recuse themselves.

We've we've also lost a member here for a minute. Can we take a five minute break?

I think, Brandt. Sure. Okay. Maybe three. Three minute break. Just use the facility.

How often? What?

Our next order of business is a public hearing on a petition from Kitsap County to vacate city rights of way. Miss Wallace, are you ready?

Yes. Good evening, mayor, council. Petitioner Kitsap County has filed a petition to vacate city right of ways as the owner of several Kitsap County parcels, and I'm gonna describe those to you here in just a moment. The, parcels together owned, combined are more than two thirds of the abutting property owners as required by RCW thirty five point seven nine point zero one zero and our Port Orchard Municipal Code Chapter twelve point zero eight point zero one zero. So what is being presented to be vacated is 10 different sections.

The first section being a portion of an alley off of Taylor Street, which is near Sydney Avenue, identified in section two. And as soon as I get done reading this, I will provide a map for the visual for the public and members viewing online as well as the council. That section two has been identified as approximately 2,450 square feet. Section two or item two, which is most of Austin Avenue from Taylor Street to Smith Street identified in section eight, which is approximately 8,434 square feet. Item number three is most of an alley off of Austin Avenue from Taylor Street and Smith Street, identified as sections six and seven with approximately 8,434 square feet.

Number four is a portion of an alley off of Division Street near Sydney Avenue, identified as section three with approximately 3,054 square feet. Item number five is most of an alley from Smith Street

Cookies are not enabled for this web sorry.

Five is most of an alley from Smith Street to Taylor Street, which is identified for section nine of approximately fifteen forty square feet. Item number six is a portion of Sweeney Street off of Sydney Avenue identified as Section 4 with approximately 4,667 square feet. Number seven is most of an alley from Klein Street to Austin Avenue, which is identified as Section 10 with approximately 3,897 square feet. Item number eight is a portion of an alley off of Street and Sidney Avenue, Section 5 identified on the map, with approximately 4,667 square feet. And last but not least, number, nine, a portion of an alley off of Klein Avenue near Taylor Street, identified as section one on the map, approximately fourteen ninety eight square feet.

The rights away and alleys proposed for this vacation is totaling 38,641 square feet. The petitioners own all adjoining property owner the petitioner owns all adjoining property. Therefore, they own the petitioner owns a majority more than two thirds of the adjoining properties. Therefore, they have met the two thirds of the abutting property owners as required to move this forward, RCW 35.79.010 and Porter Trim Municipal Code 12.08.010. And Porter Trim Municipal Code 8.017 and Porter Terms Code 12.08.050 authorizes the city to obtain an appraisal for the proposed for vacation.

Wow. So they did obtain an appraisal for the area proposed for vacation to assist the council in evaluating proposed adequate compensation for the proposed vacations. Compensation can include in lieu of transfer of real property as well as other contributors of monetary value. Following an appraisal, Kitsap County provided a statement of proposed compensation for the areas to be vacated, including the payment of, $30,000 to the city, the transfer of Veterans Park, which is approximately 48,000 excuse me, 48 acres of real property located within the city limits of Port Orchard, and dedicated public parking on the county campus for special event parking where an event is sponsored or promoted by the city. A copy of the county's, proposal to compensate the city, is included in tonight's packet, for tonight's meeting and can be acted upon until after the public hearing and associated action by the council, if any.

On 02/24/2026, the council adopted resolution number 19 dash two six, setting the public hearing on the petition to vacate the city's right away. On 03/03/2026, the city posted the required public notice in conspicuous places near the alley and street sought to be vacated, and also on 03/03/2026, placed a copy of the adopted resolution in the three most public places in the city, one being the City Hall Bulletin Board, secondly, Kitsap County Administrative Bill, Building Bulletin Board, and third, the Port Orchard Library Bulletin Board. As required, notice was given to the, all of the abutting property owners, of which are all mostly majority owned by the petitioner. These actions meet the posting and noticing requirements outlined in RCW five point seven nine point zero two zero and Porter's municipal code twelve point zero eight point zero two zero. As of today, staff did receive one, written objection, to this vacation and was circulated to the city council and the mayor, later this afternoon.

And it is the attorneys representing mister Lackey, who is one of the adjacent pro property owners, adjacent to the petition, which is 709 Smith Street. So pursuant to our c w thirty five point seven nine point zero two zero and Portage Remissible Code twelve point zero eight point zero three zero subsection one, the council is prohibited from proceeding with this public hearing if 50% of the abutting property owners file written objection to the proposed vacation with the clerk prior to the time of the hearing. Therefore, since it does not meet the 50% threshold, the council shall proceed with the public hearing. With that, staff recommends that the mayor open the public hearing to take public testimony on the petition to vacate portions of the right of way, as mentioned, and I will pull up the map.

Once she pulls up the map, I will open the public hearing on this matter. Anyone wishing to testify on this matter, please step to the microphone and provide your testimony.

Alright. Good evening. Port Orchard City Council, great to see you. I appreciate I appreciate the opportunity to just congratulate all the work that's been done up to this point. Let me identify myself. I'm Orin Root. I'm the chair of Kitsap County Board. I I represent District 2 South Kitsap, Port Orchard included. I have a sincere gratitude towards mayor Patonsu, the the City Council, and especially council members Morasi and Tierney. Thank you very much for your time and dedication coming and having a a robust conversation and really working through a lot of details that we need to work out and put some past to the past and and look forward to the future.

I also wanna thank the the team of staff that took the time and really worked through a lot of the details here. The important next step for the county's ongoing efforts to construct a safe and accessible modern courthouse facility for all Kitsap County residents that resides here in the city of Port Orchard. It allows us to first on our phase zero is to really create much needed parking lot improvements. If you get a chance, go to the Commissioner's Corner. We just did a big comp courthouse complex video on it on this current status of our courthouse, which in turn is a a different phase, but that's why we're doing what we're doing.

Demand is currently exceeding, existing parking spaces. A new lot will serve will serve both daytime and events for the city of Portage and the residents of South Kitsap, specifically easing that congestion. Long term, this project will ensure an access to justice services and maintain those essential safety functions for residents countywide as stated. Addressing easements and everything, we have a lot of a lot of property that, we look at very extensively. We are addressing that and in in the pull it up here.

Sorry. We've addressed that on page three ninety six that all easements separate from the right away are all honored. And upon approval, this will be in an agreement with the city of Port Orchard and Kitsap County to honor that. This will, drive the local economy, during the construction process over a period of time, which, is a good thing for everybody involved. But most importantly, in closing, I wanna thank you for the intensive intergovernmental cooperation and the ability to have a conversation and and we continue we look forward to continuing that partnership going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. As for others wishing to address the council or or testify in this matter actually.

Good evening, John Lackey. I own property in this area and I will be impacted by the taking and the taking of the city right away that that's gonna impact my property. There's a couple things that are factually incorrect in the presentation that miss Wallace read to you. The petitioner does not own the property. There are four parcels that the petitioner does not own and those, landowners will be impacted by the taking of Austin, the taking of the alley between Sydney and Austin.

Resolution nineteen twenty six is confusing because it indicates that some of the, property will be partially they uses the qual the word most of and partial. But if you read carefully read the description, and this is in the letter I sent to you, they are taking all of that property. They're taking all of Austin, taking all the alleys in between Austin and Sydney. So I don't wanna read the whole letter. You should have that.

Mayor and council should have that letter. But I do wanna read page two. While the city may have authority to vacate public rights of way, that authority does not extend to the impairment of vested property rights. Under Washington law, a street or alley vacation terminates the public's interest, but it does not eliminate private ownership interests or easement rights without due process and just compensation. Any action by the city to vacate these rights of way in a matter that eliminates or materially interferes with our clients' fee ownership or easement rights would constitute a taking or damaging of private property under Article one, Section 16 of the Washington constitution.

Washington law expressly protects against property being taken or damaged without just compensation. There's a footnote which I'll get to. The proposed vacation results in the loss of existing access points or utility connections serving the Lackey property. The city will have affected a taking or damaging as a matter of constitutional law regardless of how this action is characterized. The city cannot avoid its constitutional obligations by proceeding under the guise of a street vacation or by characterizing the resulting impacts as incidental.

Once a taking or damaging has occurred, Washington remedies may include but are not limited to fair market value of the property interest taken, consequential damages, litigation costs, and statutory remedies. Should the city proceed in a manner that infringes upon his property rights without due process and fair and full compensation, mister Lackey expressly preserves the right to pursue all available remedies under Washington law. It's our understanding that the Kitsap County Department of Public Works transmitted a purchase offer to Lacky and corresponded to December day 12/08/2025, my client is willing to enter into further discussions with Kitsap County or the city in connection with the sale of this property. However, in the absence of a purchase and sale agreement, any infringement on my client's property rights will require full and fair compensation, including the cost of relocating utilities serving his property. Accordingly, we request that the city suspend any action affecting the alley or Austin Avenue until these issues are fully addressed and coordinate with our office to discuss a potential resolution.

We look forward to working with the city of Port Orchard in this matter. And the footnote is citation of case law, and I encourage the council to thoroughly read this letter before you take a vote tonight. The first portion of the letter, which I didn't read, is a legal description. I have utility access coming from either side that will be impacted. My utilities run east to west to Austin if Austin is closed or city grants street vacation and gives that to the county.

I will lose access to my sewer and water connections. And I look forward to either talking to the city or the county about relocating those utilities but until that time, I recommend you postpone a decision on this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Else wishing to testify on this matter?

Are we limited to three minutes? No.

Oh, okay.

Hi, my name is Fred Chang. I live at 319 Sydney Avenue and I have a short statement. I urge the council to apply the street vacation process consistently and uniformly for all city property owners and applicants, individuals like you and me. The process has generally been threefold, applying for a street vacation, getting an appraisal, and then payment. Applicants also have the option to get their own appraisal and then decide whether or not to pay.

We've already mentioned the letter of November 13 memorializing the October 24 meeting between council members Trenari Morrissey, the mayor, and the county commissioner. It's on pages four zero seven and four zero eight of tonight's agenda. And this mentioned the county's proposed compensation of future veterans park transfer and future county parking for use. I believe the proposed compensation is inadequate. These are intangibles with no current dollar value.

The parking lot does not yet exist. It does not provide the city with just compensation in terms of cash, which the city can no doubt find uses for. The appraisal is not in tonight's packet as it is a protected document, but once the transfer of property is finalized, it will be a public record. I'm sure the council will want the city residents to know that they received full market value for the property. Please do not bargain with Kitsap County unless you're willing to do so for all others who request a street vacation. And if the county does not want to pay fair market value, they should not receive the property. So in sum, please make sure the city receives full compensation that matches the appraisal. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to testify, is anyone online? If you use the raise your hand feature and the clerk will bring you into the meeting. No one else approaching the microphone so I'm gonna close the public hearing. We're onto our business items. The first of which is the adoption of an ordinance vacating city rights of way. And based on the letter that we received just today and the testimony we received this evening, I would recommend that we postpone action on this item to our next council meeting until staff has time to research and evaluate the materials that we received today.

Second that.

I think we would need a motion.

We can do it by consensus. We can move it to a date certain if council's comfortable.

I think we'll be prepared at our next council meeting and we would put that business item on that agenda. So it appears we don't need a motion as long as everybody's comfortable with that action to postpone. Am I seeing heads nod? No? Councilmember?

Am I gonna get a chance to comment? Certainly. Okay. So I just wanna take the opportunity to comment. I am in agreeance that we should wait.

We were guided that we got some additional information, new information just today that we need to process and find more information about in order for us to make that decision. I'd like to take the time to thank those who came to testify today. I'd also like to just take the opportunity to remind my my commissioner here at the county. We have two people not here at the dais. While this is a particular instance where they would probably have to excuse themselves rather, I would use this as another example for the county to look at their HR policy because this happens way too office often at this dais, and I would like to see that change.

Additionally, to, former council member Chang, good to see you here again tonight. I hope you feel that the city is getting the best end of this bargain. We work through that. I would be hard pressed not to find that the value of just the park alone wouldn't remedy the right of way, but, I hear what you're saying there. So would those comments will be taken into consideration at a future meeting. Thank you. Provide a comment?

Is this information that's

going to be provided to us?

Yeah. It's in your packet.

Oh we're gonna get new information. I thought the

The letter was emailed to you today.

No but I mean what

former council member changed. It's in your packet.

It's in the packet.

I thought we were gonna get information on what the value of the property is

You've had that information.

Mayor I call for the vote.

You may not. There is no vote. We're just take it up at our next council meeting.

Would you grab them? Thank you.

Alright. And we can bring the other folks back.

If possible, I'd like that information. Thank you.

So councilmember Denman asked for that information. She may not have been privy to it because she wasn't part of the previous council,

and that

happened before first of the year. So I would like to see that she got that.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Maybe just email it out to the entire council so a refresher for everybody.

I'd like to get that, yes.

Alright. We're on to our our remaining business items. Item B is an adoption of a resolution approving purchase of furnishings for downtown beautification project. Mister Ryan, this is you.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. The city council previously adopted the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six biennial budget, which included funding for the downtown beautification project. The project is part of the city's long term effort to revitalize public spaces and include the installation of new outdoor amenities such as picnic tables and benches. In accordance with the city's procurement policies, any purchase over $35,000 or more requires city council approval.

To procure the needed outdoor furniture, Public Works issued an invitation to bid, publicly advertised in the Kitsap Sun and the Daily Journal of Commerce on March 5. The deadline for submission was March 19, and the city received one responsive proposal. After reviewing the bid, staff recommended awarding the purchase in the amount of $42,244.45 to Smith Metal Works. This purchase includes seven picnic tables and five inches that meet the project's requirement for durability, accessibility, and design. I believe we have a picture to bring it up for your consideration.

Maybe. Maybe we'll bring

up a picture.

It's thinking.

In the amount of $42,244.45

Second. Council Member Fenton, a second by Council Member Rose Pepe. Do have any questions or comments? Council member, go ahead.

Yeah, I think it's I I don't call me out if I'm in the wrong here but I think most of the time we see the contract in the packet and I don't see the contract in here. I just see the did I miss it? I see the resolution.

I saw who did it. I mean I read it, the contract. Believe.

Brian Hovland. There's no contract. It doesn't follow the resolution.

Yeah. So under

Apologize to

the Under normal precedent, right, that that we'd normally see the contract right behind that, and I didn't see that here tonight. So I was just confused on the why, and I hesitate to move on any motion until I see it.

Yeah, absolutely. The contract, my recollection from this packet preparation was that's entirely simply an administrative oversight. This is a standard contract that the we have a suite of templates that the city utilizes, so we will utilize something of that nature where the invoice from the vendor would be an attachment. The motion should say in a form acceptable to the city attorney. If it doesn't, we can add that and then be assured that I will ensure that we utilize that template to the extent the council's comfortable providing that.

It's our template contract that it will be executed.

Okay. I just that was not normal procedure. I wanted to double check on that. And then two, we're a small community. I'm pretty familiar with what's going on, so I'm gonna vote for it here, but that's something I would and actually That's an anomaly I wouldn't like to see moving forward.

Absolutely. And this this furniture is actually a tremendous value. We we

were looking at purchasing wrought iron furniture at at a cost greater than this wooden furniture. So it they're they're Additionally, just as a completely side note, aside from my first comments, you know, we've seen the presentation before from mister Smith. I got to spend some time with my mother-in-law and her sister over in Seattle on Sunday. This is exactly what we're looking for. This is exactly what they did on their waterfront in Seattle. I'm all for it. I couldn't speak more highly for the design, the layout, what we're doing. I wanted to call out the anomaly in the packet. Thank you.

Councilmember Patton?

Yeah, when I was reading this, it's like seven picnic tables and five benches. Yeah, I think we're getting a substantial good deal and it's gonna be amazing.

Great. Councilmember Dedden.

So this is for the design only, I apologize.

No it's for the So

it's like installation as well?

There's no installation, that would be public work. It is the manufacture of the seven picnic tables and five benches. And then our public works department will install those.

Is there Woo hoo.

So I was okay. So it's about approximately so if there's seven and five, that's, like, we'll just say 12 pieces. So that runs us about 3,500 each piece.

Oh, really? 3,005

really That's fair.

Okay. Because I

said, okay, so it's 7 picnic and then like five benches, right?

We did do comparables. There were several and our high prices that we received were $75,000 We looked at several different styles. Some of these exceeded 7,000 to $8,000 per picnic table for a public park fixture.

Go ahead, finish What's your the maintenance obligations?

We'll have to do marine verifying. I think once a year I think I heard. If there's carving like in Seattle, it will be sanding. I mean there's portable

Belt sander?

Yes.

Knock it off and then that square?

Yes. So you can always rotate it.

You can always rotate it and flip boards, right? That's common in parks. You flip the bad side.

I believe the ones that Josh is doing there is like six to eight feet

there. Do you have

a picture of the picnic tables?

Yes. Just had it up there.

I didn't see it.

Randy can go backwards or not. And this is what the merchants were asking for on

the waterfront. Okay.

And that plan that we came to you guys with.

So these are the existing concrete pads that are downtown in the overlook. So where those it's kind of a mismatch of picking tables that are down there currently. We'll have two of these per concrete pad, and then our viewpoint will be our accessible one, the accessible option for all users.

The new observation deck will have one in the center of it. Councilmember Rose Pepe?

Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna ask Mark, since he's the latest one, to know this. When we were looking at cost of items, I believe that the benches that the Rotary Club purchased for there, they were running like 4,000 each, if I remember correctly. So the cost that we're talking about here is not unreasonable and pretty much in line with what we're seeing for equipment. Is that correct?

Jay, it's been a few years since you and I chatted about this. But the most recent memorial bench that we installed on the waterfront ran $5,600 Now that's a wrought iron powder coated bench with a memorial plaque inserted into the back of it, but there's quite a substantial difference in cost here.

Just wanted to point that out. Thank you, Mark.

Any other questions? Alright, you'll be voting on a resolution approving the purchase of furnishings for the downtown beautification project. All in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed?

All

right, that passes unanimously. We're on to item C, approval of utility relocation agreement number nine with Kewitt Infrastructure West Company for design and construction of city water utility location the vicinity and the Ghorst Vicinity Fish Barrier Removal Project. Mister Ryan, this is you.

Thank you. This

item relates to the state's ongoing effort to comply with the federal injunction requiring the removal of state owned fish blocking culverts. As part of that work, WashDOT is advancing the SR 3, SR 16, SR 166 Gorse Vicinity Fish Barrier Removal Project. You'll see this referred to as the Gorse Fish Removal Project. Contains existing city water utility. This location contains an existing city water utility facilities located within the Wash Dot right of way.

To complete at the highway and the culvert replacement, those city water facilities must be removed and relocated and reconstructed when they do the bypass to keep SR16 moving. The council previously approved the MOU with WashDOT enabling the city to coordinate the utility relocation with KeyWit Construction. Building on the framework, WashDOT has assigned the certain rights and obligations to its design build contractor KeyWit Infrastructure West. As a result, KeyWit is the only vendor positioned to perform this relocation work within the city's, or sorry, the wash dot right of way, and on its required project schedule. To carry out the necessary relocation, the city and Keywit have negotiated Utility Relocation Agreement number nine.

This agreement outlines each party's responsibilities for design and reconstruction of the city's buried water main at the site D. Kiwit will complete the engineering and construction while the city will review plans, ensure compliance with the city standards, and perform inspections. All work must meet both the city water system requirements and WashDOT project standards. The agreement sets a design completion date of 03/20/2026, with construction to follow on a schedule coordinated by WashDOT. The city's cost responsibility is a lump sum payment of $85,000 for design portion and $515,000 for the construction portion.

Location agreement will allow the city to meet the obligations under the previously approved MOU. And just some further background, this is the emergency intertie for our water system that provides emergency service to our two eighty pressure zone. This goes down, we won't be able to meet the fire flow need in case of an emergency.

Council Member Deener.

Mayor I move to authorize the mayor to execute utility relocation of agreement number nine with Kewit Infrastructure West Company for the relocation of city water facilities associated with the Gorsch Vicinity Fish Barrier Removal Project. The amount of 85,000 for design and 515,000 for construction for a total authorized amount of $600,000

Second. Motion by Councilmember Deener, second by Councilmember Trinari. This isn't something we want to do. Unfortunately, our pipe is in there right of way and we impose this requirement on the gas company, the phone company, the power company quite frequently when we have a project and we're changing the right of way. So they're required to move their utilities at their expense.

So we're on the other end of that type of an agreement at this point. And if you're wondering how we're paying for it, we just recently got $3,500,000 for the Bay Street project and we had some dollars in that project that we're clawing back. And that's like so you'll likely see, you will see a budget amendment obviously here soon to move the monies to pay for this contract. Councilmember Morsi?

Yeah. Thank you mayor for trying to address some of my concerns around the budgetary side of this because this is a project that we didn't budget. And so it's going to absolutely need a budget amendment. Director Crackler's online tonight, maybe?

I'm not certain.

But I I I just might have some questions around that because, essentially, when I read it in the packet, it sounds like we're looking at two different funds that either overperformed or underperformed, overperformed in revenue and underperformed in expenses. So sounds like based off of if we wanna make that budget amendment, we can make that happen, right? But that is I I just wanna completely verify that that's based off of the fact that we're not using other funds that were budgeted elsewhere.

Yes. We really don't have any choice to

that matter. Is Again, case is gonna get back to a future conversation I have planned around contingency budgets for the city. I just wanted to make sure that I fully understood.

The question, Councilmember Trenary.

Yeah, this is, as it's written, it's a two year project. I'm just curious and very interested in the type of traffic disruptions that our citizens may expect

I think

during it's this time just like what we're seeing at Blackjack Creek. The reason they're moving our waterline is they're building a bypass. And so you'll see a reduced speed limit likely because it's on the freeway. And then they build the bridge and then they move the traffic back and remove the bypass. Did I get that correct, Mr. Doran?

That's correct. This is the same series of projects that's affecting Mile Hill. They really pushed hard to try to close Mile Hill. We didn't accept that as closing that, so that's also going to be a bypass. There is no anticipated long term disruptions to our traffic.

So nothing on city streets, just the freeway?

No. A total free flowing bypass.

All on Highway 16. Thank you. Other questions? All right. Let me find it here again. On approval of a utility relocation agreement number nine with Kewitt Infrastructure West for the design and construction of a city water utility location engorged vicinity fish barrier removal project. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? And the resolution passes. Alright, we don't have any discussion items. Council committees. Economic development tourism, have you met since you have a report? I don't believe so. Utilities, have you guys met?

No. We had it. We reported out last time.

Okay. Finance you met last week. Anything to report out?

That's last week. I slept since then. Yeah, we discussed the sales tax and REIT revenues and as we've noticed the last couple of months revenues are down overall, but we are still with the great financial work that we do in the finance committee, we are over budget, 2% over in sales tax revenue and about 19% over in REIT revenues. We did a brief 10,000 foot level view of the treasurer's report, the preliminary treasurer's report. We looked at the city fleet of vehicles for ER and R.

So he's got right now currently 97 vehicles in the fleet. Police department has 35 vehicles including the marine units. Our city vehicles are on a ten year replacement cycle. Some exceptions are considered mileage, wear and tear, these type of things. We looked at utility policies, which this will be coming back in front of full council for Low Income Credit Program and the Waterloo Credit Policy.

The Low Income Credit Program, the city feels like there's not enough citizens taking advantage of this. So after verbose discussion, we decided to increase the low income threshold from 125% to 140% of the state recognized poverty level, trying to draw more folks in to take advantage of this program. And we're also making a point of trying to increase the awareness of this program because we've only got currently 24 accounts taking advantage of this. So we're hoping to bring more people and more homes into this program. Our water leak credit policy currently was capped at $100 Well, 100 in today's world doesn't buy much, let alone a plumber to come in to even look and see, give you a cost estimate.

So we had some great discussion on this as well, and we've put forward a request to modify that to bring it up to a little more current level of what's accurate. The information that we agreed on has is going back to the department, and then it will come back before full counsel for ratification and approval. The other thing, last thing we did, we discussed the modifying the current 10 permit fee, which we saw on the consent agenda tonight. Our next meeting's April 21.

Thank you for your report.

Chair, might add about the only other thing I'd add to your great report by the way. We're going to do a wholesale review of ER and R over the coming months. So we got our first look at what's in our fleet, but we're gonna be talking about that policy as it moves forward.

Transportation didn't meet this evening. Land use, did you have a meeting since?

We did. We met last week. We had a robust discussion, and even though I was president in the meeting, got re elected chair, so don't know how that happened. Our meeting consisted talking about a we've seen a change to the municipal code for final plat approval. That was something that was discussed at a previous meeting.

It will help with the timeliness of Platts moving forward, and we'll be out of the picture and that will be handled by DCD, and that's a good thing. We had a discussion on window display standards for adult retail uses, and we'll be coming back with some more information on that. That was a good discussion. We had a discussion on notice rules for public hearings. We wanted a little bit more information, and as we get a more robust website and our pages, we're hoping that that will improve our basically public hearings going forward and people finding out about them.

And then we had a discussion about Givens Park master plan, and Dennis talked a little bit about that and the group they're putting together to discuss it. So that was it in a nutshell. Scott, Sharad, you have anything else?

I'll just add that the importance of removing counsel from final plat review is that's at a point where it's got the highest holding cost for a developer. And it can take a long time and they don't have any control over what the council's business looks like. And so it just RCW allows it. It just makes good business sense.

You for that update. Only on the committee I see, the ad hoc committee, do you have anything to report yet?

We had a meeting Sunday. We're starting to put together some proposals and we'll bring those back. We're gonna meet again in April. And as we have information, what we're gonna do is put together some proposals and then bring them back to council to work study, either in May but probably June. I'll let Alright. You

Today was a hectic day, so I didn't get to put any thoughts together for a mayor's report. So I'll and it's getting close to 09:00 anyway. Didn't wanna hear me talk anymore anyway. Let's go to department directors. We're crushed. Mister Ryan?

The only update is we are kicking off the Gibbons Park master plan next week. We've got a great group of stakeholders. Councilperson Dedman and Councilperson Warden are going to join us. We have a member from Little League that's confirmed to participate, a member from South Kitsapiwi. We have somebody from our planning team and then somebody from our operations and maintenance. And we're still looking for somebody from the senior center, if anybody knows anybody.

Dennis, I gave you

I didn't get it.

Alright. I'll return But that to

it's a great group. So we're gonna have five stakeholder meetings. I got some great feedback from Councilperson Dedmon about interactive public engagement. So we're gonna try to we're gonna have a public meeting on April 2, and the second public meeting will be in June. We're gonna try to record the first one and make it available on a website that Megan with Communications is going to set up for this project. There'll be, people will be aware, and then we're also gonna do a, some sort of survey for the community so we could poll people that aren't necessarily there. So we're very excited and stay tuned.

Mister Bond?

Just real quickly, council member Warden had reached out to me earlier today about some, vandalized public notice signs, for our our public hearing notices and notices of application. If any of you see more of those signs that need to be dealt with, please contact my office and I'll make sure that code enforcement goes out and removes them. There were five that we took down today. One of them we have to come back with some tools to get that one down. And then there's another one we were made aware of this evening that will also be put on the list to clean up.

Director Bond, I might have your team just drive down Old Clifton Road all the way to the edge of town. There are ones that have been there for multiple years as well as ones that are on the ground.

Ms. Archer.

Thank you very much. Very briefly, last week I provided another training through RMSAAWSC for roles and responsibilities training for elected officials. That is available to you as an RMSA member if you'd like to review that video. I think the training was about an hour, so I can provide a link if you'd like. I believe I've done that training with most everyone, but we addressed some additional questions that RMSA asked that I addressed, so I just wanted to flag that that training is available for you as an RMSA member.

Chief? Yeah. I just wanted to, express how proud I am of deputy chief Brandon. He did graduate last Wednesday from, the FBI National Academy. I wanna clear up for the members of the public, he is not leaving to go to the FBI. This is an international, law enforcement leadership course, so only about 1% of law enforcement on the planet gets to go. And he not only graduated, and he is two thirds of the way to a master's degree from University of Virginia because of that, but he got in really good shape. He did the Yellow Brick Road, is a 10 k Marine Corps obstacle course. He swam 34 miles, and he did the Triple Crown Peak Challenge in the Appalachians, all while taking master's level courses. So just wanted to express that.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Chief, I just wanna show my appreciation to you. Your presentation at Rotary Club today really was well done, and I like the plug for Blue Bridge. And hopefully, the Rotary Club will help you out with that.

Thank you. Yeah. And that presentation will be coming to council once we finalize our annual report, which should be next couple of weeks.

Chief, I was reading some email earlier today, and I think I read you're gonna be part of a roast and toast?

I am. We're still finalizing that with with Chamber, but yes.

Okay. Okay. Hopefully, we'll hear more of that once you have some final details.

Miss Smith and I kinda finalized some more, but that will be June 6 out at Trophy Lake.

Thank you. Toast and toast. Lot of

material there. You doing the tickets there.

Miss Wallace?

The only thing I have is to update who I have for the Saturday Coffee with Council. So full house. So we got Diener, Rosapepe, and Ternary this this month for April.

April.

May have already got scheduled out. So if you want to do June, July, and August, let me know, and I will put you down on the list. Thank you. Notices will go out Thursday.

Miss Wallace, I did also have on my notes tonight to touch base with you the folks who had asked about reopening of LTAC. I don't know if we've you caught our discussion at study session last week.

Correct, and it's on my task list to send them an update.

Thank you.

Alright, we are to our second citizen comment period. Anyone wishing to address the council, if you're online, use the raise your hand feature. I see no one rushing the podium and I don't see any hands raised. Alright, I'm gonna close the second citizen comment period. Is there anything for the good of the order? Councilman Fenton.

On April 4, I just wanna remind everybody that's the first day of the farmer's market to open. Boom.

Anything else for the good of order? Councilmember Fenton.

I was listening to the first Citizens Comments group and I've been really trying to listen and think about what they said. Somebody, I think, mentioned what we as the city council should be doing that it's not just on, I guess, the mayor. So, I was really trying to think about what it is we could possibly do. I think that we have an excellent community development group and I know because I was also thinking about how for the rezone, we probably did one of the shortest turnarounds from when it was effective to when the notice of application went out. And that shows that we are good at what we do.

So people keep talking about what where the where we have problems, and that seems to be specifically the building division. And so with that said, I'm wondering if we as a city council can look at the contracts. So we I know that we contract out building inspections. Like maybe we can look at the contracts and see, do these contracts make sense still? Are we getting our bang for the buck?

Are we are they meeting, let's say, our statements of work or something like that? Like, should we be looking at that since that is how we are spending our hard earned money and our community is telling us that it's not good enough? So that is, what I'm going to put forth is that these are things that we should bring up in a work study, so that we're we're looking at what we can do as city council.

I second that.

Anything else for the good of your art? Councilmember Rose Pepe. Couple

of things. First of all, speaking of good news, if you didn't see the Port Orchard Independent, mayor has alluded to it. 3 and a half million dollars from, federal award for Bay Street reconstruction. So there is good news out there, and it's nice to see this getting in the paper and, online. Second of all, I've been talking with, McCormick Woods the last two weeks about being able to have another representative at the, HOA, coffee with the HOA.

Eric is gone this Saturday. They're still looking at the possibility of allowing somebody from outside of McCormick Woods to attend, a council member to attend. Is there anybody that would like to attend this Saturday between nine and eleven, if we get permission to bring an outside council member? If there is, you know, just

Yeah. I'm interested.

Okay. I'll get back to you if, they they grant us permission to have somebody there this time, and we'll see how that goes. And last but not least, if you wanna talk to a thousand 2,000 South Kitsap and Port Orchard residents, regardless of your political affiliation, there's a rally at London Bethel from noon to two on Saturday, and it's a good time to talk to people and find out what's on their mind. You can just walk up and down the lines, and they'll talk to you about city business, and it's a good time to do it. So hopefully, I'll see you there. Thank you.

I got one more councilmember, go ahead.

I just real quick. Congratulations to my rotary group. This last Saturday was their annual crab feed. The results are still out, but I think the early indicators look as they raised over $100,000 So

Go ahead. So I wanna talk a little bit about the last work study meeting. I apologize I was not able to attend. I had a four hour meeting on a very contentious project and I couldn't leave it. So I watched the video and I what I would like each of us to do, each of you to do is watch the video particularly about the town hall meeting and and try and place yourself in the perspective of a a normal person. Not that you're not normal but you're a little weird but

A constituent?

Yeah, a constituent, sure. And then let's talk about it at the next work study. I'm gonna leave it at that and I'd like to hear your feedback.

And I have all your guys' topics and I'm working on populating. It's gonna be brief bullet points. I'll try to get them out this week. And if you need more than what I'm providing, know Mark's already reaching out to some department heads, so I'm asked the chief for the traffic and I know Noah's getting his financial data. My goal is to get that out to you this week.

Councilman Warden? Yeah. I too watched the meeting last week and I encourage all of us to watch it as well. I think we'll we'll definitely all learn from that. The ad hoc meeting that Jay and myself had yesterday, yesterday?

No, Sunday. Sunday, sorry. It was actually a really fantastic meeting. We bounced up off each other and I don't know, I think we both learned and shared quite a bit and it was a really, really positive meeting and I look forward to the next one. Think we'll bring back to you guys some good stuff that we can build off of. One last two more things. Rotary coffee was pretty good. That was a good time. Okay. Today I met with Angela Garcia and had a really good meeting with her.

It was I'll be honest like I think it was like almost two hours long and it went by really fast. And, she has a lot of good energy for what we wanna do, willing to work with us. I told her we're willing to work with her for sure. I showed her the photos and she thinks it could actually look like that. And from a building inspector that's pretty cool.

Certain things that they'll have to have some permits for, nothing too crazy. But you'll need a right away permit, probably a siding permit, but things like that have to go to L and I if it involves the power to work around that. That will require L and I. That's out of the city's hands. I discussed the materials that I think would be appropriate and like hardy plank siding and stonework.

And she thinks that's a fantastic idea to go with concrete materials in this weather. It's the best bang for our buck lasting for a duration of time. She'll want a pre site meeting and inspection, but she's going to trust the contractors to determine what repairs are needed. Definitely she hopes that in the grant we will put the marquee, some topics on that. It can be improved, but not removed.

There are some concerns with it, but she thinks that we really need to make sure that we have that in the contract. Same with no funds from us will be given until her group signs off all the work, which is pretty standard I would imagine. One thing she mentioned, which kind of surprised me and I was really thankful for, was she asked me if I thought that if any business, any building owners should be eliminated if they currently have code violations. And I didn't quite know how to answer that one. And so I asked her her opinion and she says that she doesn't think they should.

She thinks that they should still be eligible and she thinks that that would actually help motivate them to fix whatever violations they might have. Example, one building has some back stairs that have to get fixed or replaced. And she thinks if they were, example, if they applied and they were awarded, probably fixed those stairs at the same time that they were doing that project. So I thought that really thoughtful and that was really encouraging. My question is to you guys, how do we wanna discuss it and move forward with trying to build an ordinance?

Charlie was tasked with that at the last, right, I think our work, the last work study. I believe the first meeting in April. Correct. We're planning on bringing that draft ordinance before you guys.

Okay. Do we want to, oh just for the ordinance then.

For the ordinance then.

And then we'll discuss possibly the application.

And that'll have an application.

With details in there to follow those. That we agree with. Jay.

Since you brought it up, I think you bring up a valid point about if they have code violations, should they get money? I think it's a double edged sword.

I agree.

I think they should be able to apply. They could get an award, but maybe they don't get any funding until they fix the code violation. So that would be my initial thought process on that. In other words, you can't have code violations and yet get money for something that you're proving on your frontage.

Yeah. I asked her thoughts on how many there are of those, and

there's maybe two. Yeah. Just my initial thought. It's a good So

where we're at right now is gonna bring you guys the ordinance of course then that'll allow us to open up an application period, whatever you guys deem thirty, forty five days or whatever. And then we'll hopefully get some projects and we'll bring them back for you guys to evaluate and hopefully award. So Councilmember

Deansburg I'm gonna add on to what Jay was saying. Think that if it's a life safety issue that's one thing. But if it's not life safety then I don't think they should be held back.

That's exactly what I was gonna say too. It's that because we all want that look, that unified down there and if it's not that maybe that's they still can get that but they also have to fix that. But we don't say no to the frontage because that's our whole goal.

In the perfect world maybe their application solves those problems too and it's part of the project. We won't know till we get But

we can talk about that on

When we get the applications, that's right. Okay, anything else for the go to the order? That's all I got.

Just two pages of it.

All right.

Then, our meeting is adjourned.