City Council - Special Meeting

Okay, good evening. I'm calling this meeting to order. This is a special meeting of the Redmond City Council held on Monday, August 3rd, 2026, commencing at 7 p.m. I'll be chairing this meeting as Mayor Pro Tem. This is the one and only meeting of the Council for the month of August. Following tonight's meeting, the Council will be in recess until September 1st. I will call the roll, starting with Council Vice President Nueva Camino.

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Let the record reflect that all council members are in attendance. I do not yet see Mayor Bernie online. She may choose to join us later in the evening. Additionally, as you may have already witnessed, we are having a little different technical setup tonight. So we do apologize and thank you for your patience. Additionally, this meeting is not being live streamed as was announced to the public, but will be posted on the following day. The first item on our agenda tonight is items from the audience. I have the sign-in sheet for members of the public to speak. When I read your name, you'll come up to the podium and have three minutes to address the council. Council members generally won't respond to comments or questions directly. Members of the public are welcome to email the council anytime at mayorkouncil at redmond.gov. The views stated by members of the public do not represent the opinions of the City of Redmond. As a reminder, RCW 29B... .45.010 prohibits any public comment during the council meeting in support or opposition of ballot propositions, measures, or candidates. All comments must pertain to the City of Redmond business as indicated on the sign-in sheet. There are two people signed up to speak tonight. The first is Dr. David Morton followed by Davisha.

Good evening Council members and Mayor Pro Tem, I'm David Morton. I'd like to offer two funding requests for your consideration as you begin the 2027 to 2028 biennial budget process. First, soil and groundwater PFAS testing at 8504 192nd Avenue NE. This 4.7 acre parcel currently owned by United Ventures, Inc. and previously operated as Allwood Recycling and later DTG Recycle, was the site of a three-day fire in August 2013 that required six fire jurisdictions to extinguish. The Department of Ecology tracks this property as an active Model Toxics Control Act cleanup site awaiting cleanup. with 12 confirmed or suspected contaminant categories on record, including metals, solvents, and petroleum. PFAS is not among them, not because it's been ruled out, but because the site has never been tested for PFAS. Given the scale of that fire, given the likely use of PFOS-based firefighting foam, And given the site's location within a critical aquifer recharge area and up gradient from city drinking water wells one and two, I'm asking council to budget for soil and groundwater PFAS testing at this specific parcel. This builds on the testimony I've already provided on the PFAS contamination in wells one and two. The fire history at this address gives that contamination concern a testable source This testing will close a real documented gap before the nearby Evans Creek relocation project moves forward, not after. Second, a city employed arborist. As council knows, the tree code update currently underway. relies heavily on qualified tree professionals, or QTPs, to assess trees proposed for removal. These QTPs are hired and paid by the applicants seeking removal of trees. Many of these same applicants also have a financial interest in the outcome. I'm asking Council to budget for a city-employed arborist position who can independently verify or, where warranted, dispute the findings of applicant-hired QTPs. This isn't a criticism of any individual professional's judgment. It's a structural fix. Right now, the city has no in-house technical capacity to check the work in forming its own tree retention decisions, and that gap will only grow as canopy goals tighten under the tree code update. I recognize that the formal budget hearings begin September 15th and I'll follow up with written material on both items before then. I appreciate council's time and consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Devisha, welcome.

Good evening, council members and city staff. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Davisha Arora, and I'm a high school student and the founder of Know Your Ride, a youth-led bike, e-bike, and e-moto safety initiative based here on the East Side. I've always seen Redmond as a community that values youth, families, innovation, and safe mobility. I started Know Your Ride because I noticed a simple but very important gap. The way young people are riding is changing faster than the way many families are being helped to understand what they're riding. A student can see an electric bike or a similar device online, a parent can purchase it, and within days that rider may be using something much faster and more powerful than a traditional bicycle. But many important conversations about classification, speed, Route awareness, helmet use, passengers, visibility, and responsibility often happen after the bike is already in the garage. Know Your Ride is trying to move that conversation earlier. Our message is simple. Clear rules, safer rides. E-bikes are not the problem. Confusion is the problem. When families are unsure what they're buying, when riders do not fully understand speed and responsibility, and when rules feel scattered or difficult to understand, safety education becomes harder to access. Through Know Your Ride, I'm creating youth friendly and family friendly resources to help students and parents understand the ride, ask better questions before purchasing, follow official rules, and make safer decisions before the wheels move. We've created student and parent guides, bike classification resources, local rule information, safety videos, and interactive education. We've also gone directly into the community, talking with families and young riders and listening to the questions people actually have. And one thing has become very clear to me. Most young people do care about safety, but not every rider has been given the information in a way that they can understand, remember, and use. When concerns are raised about unsafe riding, that is exactly why education needs to start earlier, before habits are formed, and before riders enter shared roads, parks, and trails. Redmond is a community where this really matters. Students, families, pedestrians, cyclists, commuters, and trail users all share public spaces. Clear, practical education can help turn independence into safer decisions for riders and everyone around them. My goal is to be a healthful youth partner by bringing practical, family-friendly resources that can support Redmond's ongoing efforts around safe riding, shared spaces, and community awareness. I'd be very grateful for the opportunity to connect with any city staff, schools, or community programs to explore how Know Your Ride could support youth education, family resources, and responsible riding awareness in Redmond. Before a young person enters a street, there's a decision, a bike, and a rider who needs to understand what the ride carries. Know your ride, clear rules, safer rides. Thank you. Thank you so much.

And I will offer just a little bit of additional information for the council. Debisha was actually here earlier in the day and was able to connect with our communication staff about how some of the resources that youth in this organization have already developed might be able to be shared out by the city and those connections are in the works. So thank you so much, really appreciate it. With that, items from the audience is now closed. No one has signed up to speak remotely. Our next item of business is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. It has been moved and seconded. Are there any items to be pulled? Okay. This will be a roll call vote, starting with Council Vice President Nueva Camino. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. And the chair votes aye. Thank you so much. I will read a couple of ordinances into the record, and then we'll have an opportunity to welcome a new commissioner who was just appointed through this consent agenda. So ordinance number 3266, an ordinance of the city of Redmond, Washington, amending chapter 3.38 of the Redmond Municipal Code to implement 12-year exemption extension options, providing for severability and establishing an effective date. ordinance number 3267, an ordinance of the City of Redmond, Washington, setting the framework and conducting concurrent review of the cumulative effect of all proposed amendments to the Redmond Comprehensive Plan and related amendments to the Redmond Zoning Code for the 2026-2027 Annual Comprehensive Amendment Review Docket Code for the 2026-27 annual comprehensive amendment review docket, including new and amended policies, concurrent zoning amendments, and new and amended functional plans. So with the passage of the consent agenda, we have appointed a new Human Services Commission member, Austin Aschenbrenner. Please come up to the podium to be sworn in by the clerk. Thank you.

Do you, Austin Aschenbrenner, having been duly appointed to the Human Services Commission of the City of Redmond, Washington, solemnly swear that you will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of this office as prescribed by law and to the best of your ability, and that you will support and maintain the ordinances of the City of Redmond, the laws of the Constitution of the State of Washington, and the United States of America?

I do, and I will.

Go ahead and sign right here. Okay.

Thank you.

We have no public hearings tonight and no staff report. The next item of business is the ombuds report. We'll start first with Council Member Parsi to close out the month of July and then go to Council Member Procrea online. Council Member Parsi, take your time.

apologies just a second um as i stepped out my computer um locked you know what we'll skip ahead and come back to you so uh council member procrea would you like to tell us what's been going on so far in the month of august yes uh and we haven't had that many emails so far we've had uh one email um that requested we budget in our upcoming budget for increased pfas testing as well as the city employed arborist um we had another email that uh provided uh an example budget proviso for a city council legislative policy analyst. We had a constituent reach out to ask us what we're doing to remediate the quality of pavement between Northeast Union Hill Road from 178th to 188th streets. And finally, we had an organization reach out to request funding in our upcoming biannual budget.

Thank you. Council Member Parsi, would you like to wrap up July? Thank you. Yes, we had a request to expand CPR education in Redmond. We heard some concerns about noise regarding Blue Angels. We heard some concerns about application for using progressive design builds for teen center, including questions about leadership expertise, lack of stakeholder engagement, and the stated completion date of 2031. Um, we also heard about, um, uh, the intersection about, um, intersection between Redmond way and Eastline central parking driveway, um, which was, um, slightly dangerous and they have been connected with staff. Um, so that's my onboard report. Thank you so much. Council member Forsyth.

Thank you. I have had a couple of conversations regarding, uh, the emergency management emails and we. Got some information from a community member about how they looked like phishing emails, and I believe some implementation happened with making those look a little more official. Had some conversations with folks around public permanent supportive housing and how they're very much in support of that and talking about when that program is coming online next year. Conversation around traffic calming measures at Bell Red Road and Northeast 46th Street and responded with some information for those community members. And then I was reached out to about our flock cameras and a local community group wanting to purchase them for an HOA and inform them that the city does not own those cameras. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Kritzer? Thank you. I had quite a few different discussions with folks in community. Had some questions about road conditions in one part of Redmond and wanting to know when those roads would be updated if they're in poorer conditions. So I'm going to follow up with our public works staff on that. Also had some follow-up around tenant protections. Also had some discussion about police technology, some additional ideas that residents have about police technology, and some questions around the vote that we took around the flock cameras. Also had some discussion around helmet safety and e-motos. So our public comment actually that we got tonight, very relevant to some discussion I've heard from other community members, as well as wondering about helmet laws and enforcement of helmet wearing. And then also got a question from an event producer about safety procedures for public events, especially in light of the very tragic event that happened at Seattle Center and how we're approaching that. And they had written to myself and Council Member Soney, and we made sure to pass that along to the mayor's office and the staff that does events as well for us to think about. And I think that's all. Thanks.

Thank you.

Any other ombud reports? Council Member Soni.

For me, I attended 5K Walk for Kaira Foundation, which is supporting cancer research for younger children. And I attended along with Council Member Christer for this one. This was very special because it was just happening in Redmond and the cause was very special. I did answer a couple of questions and then emails about the tenant protection. And there has been some questions coming in the city in terms of the safety in general from a lot of our residents after all the events that has happened in Seattle Centre. So did answered a lot of them. And, you know, the best part was to attend Derby Days. I think that should be the kind of an on-board report for each one of us. That was such a great event. It was good to get connected with all the community members out there from right from the pancake break fast where a lot of conversations were also happening with our community members to our parade event. I have walked in the parade for almost 10 plus years as a community member. And this was the first year walking as a council along with our commissioners and having spending some time during our meter council at the table along with our staff and other commissioners. That was great to interact with all our commissioners. community members. Thank you so much, everybody, those who came that day and, you know, participated in Derby Days and made it successful. And the day ended with great performances in the evening and a phenomenal drone show.

So that was from my arm. Thank you. Council Vice President.

Thank you. Going back to Derby Days, which seems like so long ago, but yet we haven't. It was just the last meeting. Starting out with the pancake breakfast, it was wonderful to see community coming out and saying hi and supporting foundation, but also an opportunity to connect and have some really great conversations, even though they were brief. As we were there on the serving line, talking about quick questions about flock, when the cameras are going to be coming out, questions around when are we going to see the Criterion bike race return to derby days. Even things that are beyond city council scope, like school going back early this year. And the kids not looking forward to that, but the parents are. And continuing on the conversations at Derby Days here on the steps with my colleagues as well as the commissioners, which was wonderful to have. Some quick conversations around Recology and the service transition that we've seen, and giving a little bit more backstory about had we stayed with waste management, what those fees were going to look like. I also met with one Redmond, and just hearing and continuing to build the relationship and hearing what their priorities are in this next year. I also attended this past Saturday evening with my colleague, Councilmember Procrea, the inauguration of the Indian Cultural Community Center. And although it is in zip code 98053, it does have that Redmond address and it does involve and impact a great deal of our community. So more to come on that at a later date. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'll go ahead and chime in with just a couple of things. Again, big kudos and thanks to everyone who participated in Derby Days. I also wanted to share that Council Member Forsyth and I went out to the Velodrome on Friday night and the feedback from the team out there is once again, second year in a row working with our team to list the summer camps in the city's portfolio of summer programming which resulted in the camps selling out for the second year in a row. So just to say we had a great evening but also can report back just really great feedback. They're happy to be in relationship with the city and we're of course happy to have them in our own backyard. I had several great conversations at my most recent office hours. We discussed e-bikes and e-moto safety and how you can learn more. So be sure to check out Know Your Ride. I also heard some feedback on police technology and a bit more feedback about life in downtown Redmond. I did want to let folks know that due to the council recess, I will not have office hours on August 13th. I am planning to host them at the end of the month as long as I don't get selected for jury duty, which is in the realm of possibility. So be sure to check out my council bio on the council website for any preplanned updates. The council will be having our next council conversation on September 10th in the Spiritbrook Park neighborhood. Really looking forward to being out there. We will also be in the downtown Redmond Art Walk on September 17th, just the very following week. Two more things that are timely for this week. You may have noticed the heat and the smoke. The Redmond Library will be open from noon to 8 p.m. for each of the next two days. And, of course, the Redmond Senior and Community Center opens at 8 a.m. And be sure to consider coming to one of these public facilities if that would best meet your needs as we kind of endure a rough weather week. Additionally, since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I was hasn't been mentioned yet by my colleagues, but just did want to recognize once again, Director Carol Helen. This is our last business meeting with her. She's made an incredible impact on the city, and we look forward to celebrating her a little bit later in the month. But this is our last meeting with her. So thank you so much, Director Helen. OK, the next item of business is our committee reports. Are there any committee reports tonight? Council Member Forsyth.

Thank you. We had our quarterly East Trail meeting in person this time, and it was down in Renton. Great meeting, and we always do a site walk, and that was really interesting to see the complications around the BNSF Trail and where the East Trail needs to connect through Jean Coulon Park and the navigating of conversations around still needing some of those rails to for Boeing fuselage down there. So more to come on that. Renton has been working really hard to make all those negotiations work, but that is a section that is missing and it's kind of a critical hub, as we're calling it, in that area to get a lot of like the Green River Trail and a lot of the trails down there fully connected to the rest of the biking system. So really interesting to see that. We also got to see a visual representation of the signage And I still shared some similar concerns to what I shared here on our wayfinding with the color palettes and just making it level up that next level to make it more friendly for people who don't speak English and colors that can be designated as wayfinding destinations. So the King County Parks crew is working on that. Um, a little preview tomorrow or Wednesday, I will be attending the working waterfront with the port and the tour down there. And then on Wednesday, council member and I have our disability board meeting, um, that I'm sure we will is just business as usual. There's one new item on there, but a lot of just very typical things that we usually see on that committee. Thank you. Council member Kritzer.

I actually had an item for ombuds, if it's all right for me to add that in. You reminded me to just note for the public that because of our unique schedule this month, my office hours are not going to be happening on the first and third Tuesday, but anyone who wants to meet with me, I will have some more flexibility and happy to meet with you by appointment. And then I'll be back to the first and third Tuesday of the month at 3 p.m. at the Redmond Senior and Community Center. So please reach out to me if you want to meet this month by appointment via email and also look forward to seeing you there in the future. I will also just second what Council President Stewart mentioned. And I just want to deeply thank Director Helland for all of her incredible service to our city. It has been a true honor to be able to work with her. And I just believe that the work she has done will impact our city for generations to come. So thank you, Director Haaland.

Thank you. And Council Member Kritzer, did you have any committee reports tonight? I didn't actually. We are breaking history tonight here, folks. I say with complete admiration for my colleague who works very hard on behalf of our city, Council Vice President.

Thank you. Actually, we were joined earlier for the Community Facilities District Board of Supervisors meeting with my colleague, Councilmember Kritzer and Council President Stewart. In that meeting, we had approved three invoices. We also welcomed new appointment with Jordan Rash and reappointments of myself, Angie Nueva Camino, and Chair Don Marcy. And we also got a presentation of some of the CFD project updates. That's the end of my report.

Thank you. Are there other committee reports? Council Member Soni.

I joined ARCH meeting with elected officials along with Council President Stewart and represented Redmond there. There were discussions. There was a good presentation that was done by Rick Jacobus, which is author of Inclusionary Housing, Creating and Maintaining Equitable Committees. This was all about the inclusionary zoning. Then ARCH draft of 2027 legislative priorities has been shared by all the council members. If there is any feedback, please do provide that by August 21st. And the ARCH executive board is going to approve these priorities during the September meeting. So it's a good time if you want to add any other priorities for affordable housing as a part of this packet. Then there was a discussion on crediting investments in ARCH and what's the objectives of that is to communicate the impact of each ARCH member's investment in affordable housing and also to strengthen our commitment to regional collaborations in funding affordable housing and to support local jurisdictions compliance with GMA requirements to plan for an accommodated housing affordable to all economic segments. And how this analysis will be done is basically they will be calculating each city's proportion of the total local investment in the project and allocate a proportionate share of affordable units from each project to each contributing city. So if there is, you know, please do share your feedback if you have any on this analysis. And yeah, I think this was all for Arch. Thank you. Thank you.

Are there other committee reports?

Council Member Forsyth? Sorry, we just had a little sidebar here and realized that we had a alternative crisis response meeting today, and we reviewed the open positions and how those positions are going to be filled. There's more to come around budget, but we are feeling pretty good with the direction. We're looking for juvenile mental health position, supervising position, and another care coordinator to fill those roles that we have already allocated. And those are looking to be filled hopefully by the end of the year, realistically, maybe not so much. But more to be had, more conversation to be had around budget for next year.

Great. Looking forward to having that as we come back from the break in September. Thank you. Other committee reports? I'll go ahead and chime in. As my colleague stated, I was able to join her at the Regional Coalition for Housing's Council of Elected Officials, where Redmond was celebrated for what we have achieved with our inclusionary zoning. And as Councilmember Soni discussed, there were some really important conversation happening there. I wanted to also add on to what I wanted to also add on to what she shared by saying that that she shared by saying that that body will continue to be an that body will continue to be an operation for 2027 and that I've operation for 2027 and that I've discussed this with Mayor Bernie a discussed this with Mayor Bernie a little bit but most cities have little bit but most cities have also appointed an alternate so also appointed an alternate so they have two folks in the room they have two folks in the room and there's able to be some and there's able to be some continuity so we should look to continuity so we should look to that and our our Council does have a that and our our Council does have a study session coming up in study session coming up in September about regional boards September about regional boards and committees so something to and committees so something to think about earlier in July think about earlier in July Mayor Bernie and I attended the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board. This is where we got one of those big annual presentations on local trends related to migration and housing and population change and job change. So there's a lot packed into this presentation, and I have it queued up to send you an email following this meeting, just in case you're interested in taking a look. I also attended the one Redmond Government Affairs Committee meeting. They received a presentation from Chief Lowe on police technology and a presentation from FIRE on sustainability and emergency preparedness. And I attended the Association of Washington City's Legislative Priorities Committee meeting. We are continuing to narrow our focus. At this point, I can report back that when our council comes together on September 8th to look at our Our draft legislative priorities, thank you, by the way, everyone who's met with Amy Tsai over the summer to have those check-ins. There is a lot of, especially when it comes to housing, there is a lot of synergy between our draft, Arch's draft, AWC's draft, around some of the things that are going to be top priority in terms of answers that we're looking for from the legislature. So really looking forward to that conversation on September 8th. Are there any other committee reports? Council Member Soni?

I just want to report for Parks and Environment Sustainability Subcommittee. There was As we have seen in our packet, there was four culture grant acceptance, which is in our consent agenda. And there is park impact fees, which will be in our consent agenda on September 1st. There was a good informational discussions on e-mobility update, tree canopy update, park signage and refining assessment and implementation update. There was a discussion even on our events innovation fund, which has been, you know, there were a couple of different community organizations that came forward to apply for that. And there was a big update that was being provided by a 14 center project update. So if anybody still wants to have a look into some of these discussions and information, please do go back and again, check all the videos that has been uploaded in our YouTube. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much.

With that, the last item on our agenda tonight is an executive session for potential litigation permitted by RCW 42.30.11011 for 20 minutes. Per state law, the executive sessions are closed to the public. Action will not be taken following the executive session, and the meeting will adjourn at 7.55. Do I see a hand up? Yes. Council Member Forsyth?

I wanted to do a go to the order if I could real quick. You may. Thank you. Just want to remind everybody to return your ballots by 8 p.m. tomorrow and give the city of Redmond residents huge props because we are currently the number one returned ballot location in the entire county. So way to go, Redmond. And then also remind everybody of Rocking on the River on Wednesday nights for the next three weeks in August. Great, thank you so much.

And with that, we will go to executive session and the meeting will adjourn at 7.56. Executive session participants attending remotely, please leave this meeting and join the executive session teams meeting.

Thank you.