City Council - Regular Meeting

All over the city and all over the tri-cities, it's super important as a place to build community and a place to go for resources and to connect with your neighbors. So I'm really excited to see this space developed for those purposes. Great day for the library and I'm looking forward to see how our community grows into this new space.

Land the door so fast that Elizabeth almost got her nose caught.

When he dedicated a major battlefield, he began his speech by saying, it wasn't purchased with such a high price, but it was purchased with the dedication and the contributions of hundreds of people of creating this lawn area. And so now today we have the honor of dedicating this area for the library and we're looking forward to everyone who has contributed to the foundation. Our role, unlike that of the Friends of the Library, is really to fund capital projects like this. So anyway, thank you very much, Chris, and everyone else here. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you.

How it's going to work is that it will answer all of our non-emergency lines.

This is a recorded automated assistant. If this is an emergency... What's going on?

My name is Eva. How can I help you? I need to report a dog that's been barking for the last five hours. Let me see what we can do. What's the full address where the barking is happening?

If they are reporting something on the non-emergency line that we have decided should be handled by a live dispatcher, it's going to immediately transfer it into the comm center. If it isn't, if it's one that we've said, yes, go ahead and collect that information, then it's going to ask some follow-up questions. Do you want an officer to contact you about this? No, I just wanted to make sure the dog is okay.

Thanks, Amy Fournier. Is there any other information we should know, like when it tends to start or if you can see the dog?

And then it creates a synopsis, basically, plus gives a script of all the questions that it asks and all the answers that were given. And then there's a dashboard that the dispatcher will see to review that information and then add it to our computer-aided dispatch program.

If anything changes before they get there, call back. You're welcome. Bye.

It really reduces, one, the amount of time that they're on the phone, two, the amount of time that people are on hold waiting for a dispatcher to be done with emergency calls, because those will have to come first. And three, makes it a very quick transition from reading what's on the script to putting it into the CAT system. So what may have taken them two or three minutes before will take maybe 30 to 45 seconds now. So when we're dealing with calls that where seconds save lives, it's a big win for us.

We're not going to stream games, we're going to broadcast games. And the difference to me is a stream is anybody's phone, you know, streaming on Facebook Live where you don't know the score, you don't know who's participating, what the teams are. We're going to broadcast every game we do and everybody's going to be able to turn it on wherever they are, whether they're grandparents or alumni somewhere far away or here in town. They're going to know the score, they're going to know who's participating and they're going to be engaged and they're going to come back and want to watch the next game.

as Woodard gets a screen and a shot and drills it in the top of the knee.

Our big broadcast center around football and basketball here at Richland, baseball is a little bit smaller, and then soccer, volleyball, lacrosse are all mainly one-camera shoots. And normally we have three people at the desk back there running replay, running the switcher, running audio or graphics on the big board and everything.

For me, I'm mainly the replay sort of guy, so I kind of help out with the setting up and all that, and then once the game actually starts, I kind of help identify things that are going on during the preview, get that ready up, and send it out to the producer, so then he can get it on the live stream. We have a producer, which is mainly myself. My role...

Good evening, everyone, to May 19th, 2026, regular city council meeting. And wow, what a perfect day. I hope you guys have been out there enjoying things. And thank you for being here with us and hanging out as we get through this agenda and go about making some decisions for the city. We'd like to start off with a roll call.

Mayor Richardson. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Present.

Council Member Holton. Here. Council Member Jones. Here. Council Member Meyer.

Here.

Council Member Samuel. Here. And Council Member Whitten.

Here.

Thank you, everyone. And Council Member Meyer, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

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

Thank you. May I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? So moved.

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Any opposed?

Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. First up is a presentation from the Benton Franklin Health District, an update with... Everybody wants to get up at the same time. With Amanda Moe and Aaron, thank you. And I think you've given us some handouts as well. All right.

Perfect.

All right. Hello. Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. Thanks for having us out here to give this presentation. This is our first time at the Richland City Council. So tonight, our aim is really just to update the council on a public health issue. that has been gaining a little bit of momentum here locally and statewide, fill you in on some next steps that we're taking as an agency, some of the partnership we've been having with both your city officials and other city officials, law enforcement, et cetera, and to share a little bit of messaging with the public about the issue as well. And then we will pivot really quickly to, we do have a survey that we want to talk about very quickly. Okay, so what were our primary issue that we're going to be talking about today is the unpermitted food vendors. Some of you may have heard about this. We've been doing a lot of news and media on this issue. It really came to light in late 2025. BFHD saw a pretty sharp increase. We saw an increase in 120% by 120% in our complaints related to unlicensed food vendors. over an 18-month period primarily due to what we now know is one single kind of central operation that's operating both in our state but all the way up the western coast of United States. Locations in Tri-Cities are pretty spread out. Here's a map with some pins on all the locations across Tri-Cities where we have seen this fender. So you can see in Richland primarily We've seen them operating at the roundabout down at Steptoe a few times also. I don't think there's a pin here, but up at Vintner Village up on Queensgate, we've seen them operating a few times there as well. Now, when we noticed this increase in the number of complaints, we also started receiving kind of some intel and some messaging from our counterparts are other health jurisdictions across the state that they were seeing a similar pattern. And what ended up coming to light was, they're not just also seeing an increase in unlicensed food vendors, they were also seeing this particular food vendor, the same pop up tent, the same van, the same setup, the same business names, the same kind of business mo, where it's an all cash, kind of under the table type operation, same advertisements on tik tok, etc. So It was at that point when we were able to connect that this is a single vendor that's operating, sending trucks and sending locations out across the state. So again, since then, we've learned by connecting with our other counterparts, connecting with the governor's office, that these unlicensed food operations are most likely all linked to one or a few organized mobile operations. They're moving between cities, counties, and states. So we've heard that they're operating in California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho as well. At a meeting in late 2025, the governor's office shared with us that they had clocked about 68 locations throughout Washington of this vendor, and most are connected to one syndicate in California. So the owner is not local. And that's something that we really want to get out to the public, is that these are not local businesses. These are not mom-and-pop operations. This is linked to a kind of an under board syndicate that's operating in our state. Their operations are cash only. They're tax-free. The governor's office shared that some of the locations can generate $2,000 to $3,000 per day locally with higher earnings in larger metro areas. What we are seeing and public health is seeing is that the food at these locations is often prepared in homes, vehicles, empty lots, or other unsafe locations using often improper temperature controls, no water, no hand washing, no produce washing, any of that. Here locally, my team has found directly health violations linked to these vendors, like storing raw meat that's leaking onto containers of lettuce, storing days old bags of meat at room temperature, transporting meats, beans, and other perishable foods in vans across the state in the summer from Seattle with no temperature control. So some really, really concerning public health violations going on with these vendors. What we're seeing and part of the reason why Amanda, our public affairs officer, is with us here today is through late 2025, what we're hearing from the public is that these are often being labeled as mom and pop, small businesses. The sentiment we get to the health district from the public often is, You know, leave them alone, let them do their business. They're just trying to make some money. So we really want to get that message across that that's not the case with these particular vendors. These are not your local mom and pop operations. And in fact, we've heard a pretty strong outpouring from our local business community that they are frustrated because these vendors are undercutting them and taking from their local businesses. setting up in front of a local Mexican restaurant and selling the plate for half the price because they're not paying taxes. They're not paying permit fees. They're not, you know, doing any of the things that they need to do to kind of shore up their operations so they can sell the food for a cheaper price. So pretty big concern there. Okay. I know that was a lot. So 2026 update, we through late 2025, we started working with some local law enforcement offices, started working on kind of putting together a local task force to address the issue. We have so far in 2026 seen one unpermitted taco vendor that was in Pasco, six unpermitted fruit vendors through both Pasco, Kennewick and Richland. And we have a pending complaint right now. This year, we're starting to see fruit carts more than the taco pop-ups. And fruit may seem kind of unassuming, but in actuality, fresh fruit has been linked to some of our largest produce outbreaks in our country. Sliced melons like cucumber, mango, and other melons have been, again, linked to salmonella outbreaks, listeria outbreaks. including this one that I listed up here in 2011, where we saw 147 illnesses, 33 deaths, and there was actually one miscarriage associated with that outbreak as well. So when we do see fresh fruit and it's being cut, that's when we have a concern. From a public health perspective, vendors don't have to be permitted with us if they're selling whole fruit. You'll see people selling the strawberries and the oranges. But when they start cutting them, like you see in this slide here, that's when it becomes a little riskier and we do want to see them permitted. And what we're hearing this year is some very similar sentiment from these fruit vendors that we've been hearing from the taco vendors, such as employees saying, I don't know who the owner is. I just came into the country last week. I was just told to go work, to go cut the fruit. So there are, I think in working with some of our law enforcement partners through these cases, some concerns that there might be other other things going on with these operations other than just selling food without permits. And so that's where some of our law enforcement partners have taken a little bit more of an interest in working with us to make sure that there's no element of maybe some trafficking or something else criminal going on here. So fruit vendors is what we're really seeing. And as an update, so I alluded a little bit to a task force that we've been working with. So in fall of 2025, the police chief for the Kennewick Police Department reached out and we worked together to kind of pull together actually a singular meeting with some local businesses and the governor's office to talk about this issue. And then that grew into a local task force where we invited all representation from all of our local law enforcement, our sheriffs, our PDs, as well as the city and county prosecutors in to talk about municipal codes and how we can work with law enforcement and code enforcement of cities and municipalities to address this issue. So we had our most recent meeting in April. We're working on public messaging together. We're working on talking about everybody's local ordinances around food vending. So that's something that I think in bringing to the council, I know I have looked in a little bit to the Richland municipal codes. There are some areas I think your section 8.08 addresses food establishments and 8.04 addresses the health district. And there's some references in there that I think are a little bit outdated and could use to be updated. So we're happy to partner if that's ever the case that you want to open that up and look at that language. All right, I'm going to hand it off really quickly to Amanda to talk a little bit about kind of a brand campaign that we've put together around this issue with our other local PIOs. And this is really to kind of address that public messaging aspect of the issue.

Thanks, Erin. It's been really cool to see how our team has really come together and also inspired work with law enforcement and, as you mentioned, the small task force. So it's been fun to be a part of that project. So you might look at food a little bit different after this meeting. Hopefully this doesn't make you hungry, but we are looking at some marketing goals. We want to protect public health. That's number one. Our focus is to support permitted businesses. We really want to make sure that they're being heard as well. and also building that coordinated response. When we're looking at the inspiration, we're trying to figure out what's going to help, what's positive, what's going to be catchy, what's going to be something that people can see and go, okay, I can resonate with that. We were looking at no code, no confidence, having a QR code there. And it just sounded kind of negative, so we really wanted to find something positive in that pause and that verify. Look before you walk, look before you dive, whatever the situation is, and empowering our residents and your constituents and the people out there on they know who they can trust and how to actually go about that to protect themselves and their loved ones. And it's also on the bottom left-hand side, you'll see the Washington State Foodborne Illness Notification System, known as AKA FINS. So this will be a nod to Finns as well. And it did it again. We're just being really interesting here with our Canva account, learning sometimes that it doesn't always translate into our PowerPoint. But if you were to look at it really closely from the side, you will see that it says, look before you bite, eat with confidence. I promise it looks a little cleaner than that. Sometimes the formatting on our computers definitely has bitten us a few times once or twice. But what we're seeing is the goal is the hamburger, right? We're looking at something that's inviting, that's hopefully tasty. I will give credit to Erin. She came up with the lettuce and the tomato and the cheese. So we are making sure it's a delicious hamburger. What restaurants have to do, and hopefully this one might give us... Ah, there we go. bottom right hand corner is a better image. I promise it will look really good on those cards, four by six. We want to be able to have the code that says that you have to show your permit if you're a licensed vendor and also a QR or at least like a a place where people can go to read the current inspections. So we wanted to have something that was inviting, that is going to be long-lasting, so evergreen for the next five years, and something that we could all get behind that seemed to have some bright, fun colors, but then also meant safety and importance. So if you can't find that permit or that QR code, some of this is going to be part of the public education. You want to ask your vendor why. You want to be able to ask some of those questions. So we're not saying, we're not basically targeting all vendors. We're just giving an opportunity to empower the customer to ask some questions to make sure they're getting from the right vendor. So we want to make that as positive as an experience as possible. So this is what that marketing campaign is going to be about. Again, I promise it will look great. We are looking at making sure that we talk to all the PIOs. So I have been in touch. We are going to do a joint PIO meeting coming up and we still have not scheduled it quite yet, but I'm getting all the contacts and then that way we will make sure that everything that's re-shared through your social media will be approved. And I will turn it back over to Erin. So we have more exciting things coming up. Thanks for your patience and for the mom brain on some of those slides.

Yeah, thank you to Amanda. So just to kind of emphasize that the campaign we're going with that she showed you is really just to make sure that we don't accidentally confuse the public on what is a permitted vendor and what's not a permitted vendor. Our state food code requires that licensed vendors post their permit for public viewing. But the last thing we want to do is unintentionally undercut those businesses that are actually operating above board. So we're hoping to get those out to those food businesses so they can post those for kind of public consumption. Okay, really quickly, as we wrap up here, I'm going to shift gears very briefly. And I want to kind of brings me to a little bit of a larger effort that's underway to better understand our environmental health priorities across our community. So while licensed food vending is one of the issues you heard us talking about, that's one of the issues we respond to. But what you know, the food vendor issue also reflects a broader reality is that public health really is there to learn about how people interact with food, neighborhoods, economic pressures, public spaces, and those are constantly changing. And so one of the things that we're doing right now to kind of better understand environmental health in our community is launching this environmental health assessment survey. So the survey will be open Through the end of June, we're inviting any community member, anybody who lives or works in Benton or Franklin counties to please take the survey. The link is on the Benton Franklin Health District website. The online survey takes about five to ten minutes to complete, so I'd love to hear everybody's voices. And what we're aiming for is to get community interviews and input to gather that input for residents so that we can look at future environmental health efforts. We can look at how we use our resources and how we can be more responsive, more data-informed, and more aligned with our community priorities. So ideally the results of this survey will hopefully kind of bear a set of priorities that we can work into our community health improvement plan or environmental health improvement plans in the future. And again, it's open until July 2026. So here's Amanda put some screenshots of the survey. Very simple. It's in English and Spanish. So for those that need it in Spanish, it is available and very simple to follow. So we would invite you all in this room to take it, please, and then love it if you'd share with your family and friends as well. All right, so wrapping up there, questions, any feedback or any questions you have about either of the topics today?

Thank you for your presentation, Erin and Amanda. Appreciate the update. Council, I see Councilmember Holton first.

Yes, it seems like the fruit drinks would be really popular this summer. I was just curious, what would it take for them to get a license?

Yeah, if you want to get a license, if you're going to operate in kind of a mobile fashion, then you do have to have either a cart, you'll see like a hot dog style cart, or a mobile food truck. So if you're operating like some of those vendors we saw there where it's a table and tent type setup, Under Washington State Food Code, those are only allowed when they're run in association with an event, like a farmer's market or a festival. So often when people come to our office, if you want to do that stuff, I would recommend people start by trying out temporary events. Go to a farmer's market, go to an event, try it out a few times. You can get a temporary event permit for relatively cheap with our office. 10 food inspectors, so we've got people on call all the time who will sit down with that person and walk them through the process.

Thank you. Council Member Meyer.

Thanks. You mentioned a sort of joint task force. Is that, I assume that's specifically for looking into this recent wave of issues. Has there been any discussion within that group about recommendations they might make out to municipalities for what tools are missing in the enforcement and regulation areas here?

Yeah, I'd say there's kind of three angles that we're looking at through that task force. One is, how do we come up with a somewhat consistent enforcement approach? So we've kind of evaluated what tools each law enforcement agency has, because everybody's got a different municipal code that says maybe Kennewick's able to cite them on trespassing or not having a business license, whereas in Benton County, they don't have business licensing standards. So we're evaluating those local codes to see how we can partner on enforcement. One of the priorities through that group has been let's try to all work in lockstep, right? So we don't just take them from Pasco and push them to Richland or take them from Richland and push them to Kennewick. So trying to hit it kind of all together so that we're presenting kind of a consistent approach. The other arm of that is the attorneys, kind of the prosecuting attorneys that have been involved in the group have been doing a little bit more of the looking into code language. We would love to see maybe a model recommendation. I'm also taking part in a state task force related to this issue where the governor's office, state patrol, there's several entities involved. And right now I know we're meeting again in June. And they are hoping to engage like MRSC and a couple of state-level agencies too to be able to make some recommendations to municipalities. So it's still building, but we do hope to be able to have some packaged recommendations to bring back to cities and counties around this.

Great. That's about the answer I was hopeful for. Yeah.

And we do have, I'll say, if anybody wants to contact me outside of this, offline, we do have some really good models, I'd say, we can point you towards to say, this city has done it this way, and they're doing a really good job with this. So we have some good examples already to go off of.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Jones.

Thank you for the presentation. I did see a lot of those vendors in Seattle last year when we went to see the Mariners game. Yes. And we were kind of disgusted to see some of the things that were happening at some of those locations. So thank you. I didn't even know that was happening here, but it's good to know. But question for you is, you know, obviously they have to have a sign that says that they're permitted. But is there a location where they're required to have, you know, like when you go to the beauty salon, they have to have a certain location where it's obvious and you don't have to ask where is your license. Is there such a rule? Yeah. Or is it by the city that determines where these actual license needs to be placed?

No, it is in the state food code. In our state food code, it requires the permit be posted in a conspicuous location. So it has to be somewhere where the public can see it. That doesn't always mean that happens, but it is a requirement.

And then the other question that I have was in regards to, you know, obviously the main concern is food illness. that is due to the lack of sanitation within those facilities or by the individuals that are handling the food. Have we tested some of that food to, you know, just to kind of also educate the public and say, hey, we tested some of this food and we found fecal matter, you know, because that's very likely to be the case. And have we done that? Because I think that would be very helpful to really create the awareness. When you do have this popping news, people are going to start listening and really asking questions of these vendors. Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good thought. We have not done that. That's typically when you look at food testing. Food testing would typically follow an illness or an outbreak situation. So most laboratories won't just test food. You have to know what you're testing for. So if, say, I had an outbreak of salmonella and I know five people have salmonella and they ate at this restaurant, then we could send that food and say, please test this for salmonella. Otherwise, it's kind of like a shot in the dark of what you're testing for, and you're not likely to really pull anything up. So we do know we've had some illness complaints linked to these. One of the issues that both we're having, but also we've heard... I know that we've got the chief of police here, so you can probably speak to it a little better than I can. But I have also heard that some of the law enforcement has had some issues with the fact that they change their business names constantly. So it's difficult to trespass them. It's difficult to, that also makes it difficult for us to investigate food illnesses. They've got an MO where the banner will change, the uniforms will change, everything changes. They're staying one, two, three steps ahead. And that also makes those illness investigations difficult. We do know that there was a verified, I think it was an E. coli outbreak in Idaho last year that was linked to these vendors. So there have certainly been confirmed illnesses linked to this operation.

Okay. And then the other, you know, Council Member Myers touched on this, and it's the standardization of our codes that we actually, it doesn't matter which location they may be at, the code may still be the same, so they can actually be punished, per se. or taken out of circulation. Is that something that you're going to be working with our city to ensure that we're actually doing the right things and making sure that all the cities are on the same page versus, like you were saying, maybe one city has one code that doesn't match the other.

Yeah, I think getting them exactly the same is, you know, maybe challenging, but what we are, we're available if, you know, if a city or a county says, hey, we want to update our code. We've had a few who've come and said, we don't even have a code related to vending or food vendors. So, you know, provide some advice open to that. What we would advise is there's certain elements of the code that can be helpful. where your code doesn't need to be exactly the same, but if you have something referencing, you need a health permit. If you have something referencing business licensing and directly referencing food vending, that seems to help. But for the most part, we have a standard code. So we are able to go after them and enforce. Our ultimate mode of enforcement, though, when it comes past voluntary compliance, is due process. And so in this case where we cannot find out who the owner is, they're in California. We don't want to prosecute the employees working at these. you know, those are not the people that need to be punished. So it's been very difficult for public health districts all across the state to enforce because often their enforcement mechanism is the courts. So that's where bringing, having partnership with code enforcement and law enforcement has been very helpful on this.

Now, you also mentioned that that could be potentially human trafficking, or at least what appears to be in some situations based on the questions that were asked and the individual saying, I just got here last week, and now here I'm working. Is that something that we're also exploring

I don't know that I can speak to that. I think that is why at both local and state level, at the state level, why they've brought in other entities like law enforcement, other entities than public health. That's not my realm. I certainly know that that's been thrown around a lot as a suspicion. So I can't, obviously that's not our area to investigate. We know directly that our inspectors have heard those, that tone, right, of I don't know who the owner is. I got here last week. I was put in a van and told to work. So it certainly sends a certain message, but I don't know that I can You know, I can't say that I can confirm that that's happening.

Yeah, and the last question was mostly to our city manager. I know that we have a lot of locations, businesses there is that do have, you know, food trucks and food kind of locations, are we required to have those businesses to verify that there is a license before they allow those food trucks to be on their side? Or how we're working towards that goal to make sure that the business can just say, yeah, just come over here. We have a space. Go ahead.

So we do require a business license, which also, I believe, requires a license for food handlers permit and so forth in working with Benton Franklin Health District.

Yeah, and I can confirm that. When I started at the health district, I was in the food program for 15 years. Richland was my territory. So your business licensing office works very closely and very well with our office. Awesome.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Erin. I was first made aware of this problem at a Law and Justice Commission meeting. And I think it was mentioned also the safety of your inspectors sometimes is challenged because these people may not be on the up and up. And then it was helpful to be made aware of this with all the jurisdictions in the same room so that when this vendor would maybe go a few blocks into another city, we were all made aware that this is an issue and this is part of the way they operate on things. So thank you for being here tonight, and we wish you well. Thanks for your presentation and update. Very good. Thank you. Thank you all. So next we have Tri-Cities National Park Committee presentation with Becky Burkhart, Brent Gary, and is Riley, are you presenting as well? No? You're keeping everybody together. OK.

And then just use the arrow keys to advance.

All right. Thank you, Mayor Richardson, council members. Appreciate your giving us the opportunity to come and speak with you this evening. And before we get going, I'm going to ask Becky to go ahead and give an introduction to our presentation that we're going to have for you this evening.

Good evening, Mary Richardson and council members. So I'm here to share Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park was established in 2015 to share the sites, stories, and legacies of the Manhattan Project. It is the only national park service that is co-managed with the Department of Energy. It is also located in three places here at Hanford, the Tri-Cities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Those three locations were the primary centers of operation for the Manhattan Project. And so that's an overview. So the park just celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. And so now back to...

Okay, so I want to share a little bit about the Tri-City National Park and when it started to begin its meetings back in 2015. And our Visit Tri-Cities with Riley and her team are kind of the gatekeepers for the organization. And we work in conjunction with the National Park Service as well as the Department of Energy. So some of the accomplishments, oops, did I go? There we go. Okay, so this is the real important slide here. Our committee members. If you take a look of all of the different organizations that are involved in this committee, it's quite vast. And Mayor Richardson, she represents the city of Richland. And for a number of years, I represented the city of West Richland. But it's not only for the mayors and all the other individuals that are a part of this committee, but we invite all of the city council members to also participate. It's very informational. You get a lot of collaboration and good stewardship with all of the different people that are involved with it. the committee. So do take advantage of it. We'd like to see more and more of you come into our meetings because it is the committee that the mayors and the council members help guide the National Park and DOE in the mission forward of our committee. Some of the accomplishments you have in your packet or handout that we have accomplished, the World War II Heritage City, only one city in the state of Washington was eligible, and we were successful at securing that, obviously with the Manhattan Project, kind of puts us up at the top tier, right? You know, that's the secret cities. So shh, don't tell anybody, that's it. So take a look at those in your pamphlet. I want to make sure that we give Becky plenty of time to go through her presentation. She has a lot more to talk to than I do. So with that, I'll go ahead and let Becky take it from here.

Right, so the Tri-Cities National Park Committee is a real support network for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, because we are a community-based park. It was through the grassroots efforts of here in the Tri-Cities, as well as Oak Ridge and Los Alamos, that really helped push the park over the edge and get it established. And it was a multi-year. Well, the Bee Reactor Museum Association started back in the 1990s. preserving the B Reactor then ultimately helping get the park established. So the Tri-Cities National Park Committee really helps us be part of that community and coordinate seamlessly with the Gateway communities. So a couple of the goals for this upcoming year is planning the B Reactor grand reopening. It is currently closed for a roof replacement project. So we're working to plan festivities once that roof is replaced. Promoting the World War II heritage city designation, as Brent mentioned, the Tri-Cities, all four cities and the two counties were designated in Washington as a World War II heritage city, and Visit Tri-Cities does a lot of work to promote those World War II heritage assets in the Tri-Cities. We are potentially working with a National Park Service program called Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program to better collaborate on all of the STEM assets we have in the Tri-Cities and how do we elevate those into a more cohesive visitor experience. And then we're also, the committee is also working on preservation of the pre-Manhattan project assets. We'll talk a little bit about those in just a minute. And one that has been out there is boundary expansion. Currently the boundary of the park is the footprint of the buildings and there is some interest to expand the boundaries, beyond the footprint of the buildings. And what I mean by the footprint of the buildings are the actual historic properties that are out on the Hanford site. These are properties that are actually included in the naming legislation of the park. So we have the B Reactor. How many of you folks have been out to the B Reactor? Well, that's pretty great. Amazing resources. The world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor. And it is a National Historic Landmark. So it is a really great historic asset and tourism asset here in the Tri-Cities. There's also the Hanford High School, the Allard Pump House, White Bluffs Bank, and Bruggerman's Ranch. There is a preservation project that just wrapped up, a stabilization project on Bruggerman's Ranch. So these are actual properties that are out on the Hanford site, and they are part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. But I just stated that this is a community-based park. And that is truly what it is. So when I mentioned that this park is co-managed with the Department of Energy and the National Park Service, roughly how those duties break down is the Department of Energy manages the historic facilities out on the Hanford site and access to those facilities. Because it is a secure nuclear reservation, the public just can't drive up and go in. like you would with a normal national park. The National Park Service focuses on the education and interpretation, sharing these resources. And this is where we lean into being a community-based park. We collaborate very closely with community resources. Because Brent mentioned this is the secret city. Richland was built to house the Manhattan Project workers. A lot of Manhattan Project workers also lived in Pasco. So this is where the social aspects of the Manhattan Project happen. This is the community building. You had a lot of people coming here and converting this town from a small rural agricultural setting into an industrial complex. And you needed to house those people. And when you get a lot of people together, those community connections really form. So like the Richlands Player Theater grew out of the Manhattan Project, the Richlands Players. The Mid-Columbia Symphony grew out of the Manhattan Project. So these community resources that we have today is how the Manhattan Project workers established a sense of community when they were also working on the secret project, because it was really difficult. You're working on a secret project, you can't tell your neighbor what you're working on, but you have to build community. And so the way we use that is the community resources, like right here in Richland, we have Howard Amon Park, that was a piece of the community well before the establishment of the Manhattan Project, but has also been a community focal point since the beginning. It was a key part for building that sense of community during the Manhattan Project era because it was a great place for community gathering just like it is today. We also work really closely with community partners. So we've partnered with Richland Parks and Rec on a number of projects and we do programs in the parks and it's a great way that working with using those community resources partnering with the city on these projects. We've also worked with the Richland Library for communities. And so there's a lot of ways that we elevate the community resources and help share that history of what we call hidden in plain sight. We offer Ride with a Ranger program in partnership with Bike Tri-Cities and the Reach Museum. And it starts at the tennis courts at Leslie Gorves Park, goes to the Reach Museum. We stop along a couple ways and make a couple stops and share the social history. We do hike through time up Candy Mountain, sharing the long human history here in the Mid-Columbia River region. And so those are just a couple of examples of ways that we partner with community resources to help share and elevate this history. These partnerships are also expanding. So Tri-Cities is home to four national parks, or four federally recognized entities. So Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, and Hanford Reach National Monument. Those are four federally recognized areas set aside to share the history, the ecology, and the geology of this area. And they're recognized at a federal level, meaning that they are significant to across the country. And bringing these resources together, we're partnering with the Reach Museum to help elevate these stories, create a heritage hub where there's one central location that we can integrate all these different stories, because they're not isolated stories. Ice Age Floods isn't isolated from Lewis and Clark or from the Manhattan Project. They are all tied together. And it's that history that we weave together on that program, Hike Through Time. So in partnership, we signed a memorandum of agreement of intent with the REACH Museum and those four federal entities last year to be able to work more closely together and leverage those limited resources and elevate these resources in the community for tourism and for community benefit as well. So that is a quick run-through of the park, so we're happy to take any questions that you might have.

Nice presentation. Thank you, Becky. Thank you, Brent. Council, do you have any questions or comments? Council Member Mayer.

I appreciate all the work that you put into this presentation. This has always been a topic of interest for me, and I think the main piece of feedback I want to give you is I'm really envious of your job. You have a really cool job.

Thanks. Councilmember Jones.

Thank you for the presentation also. So I know the City of Richland does the walk through time which is the alphabet homes. I don't see that part of these and you know some of those are actually walking through some really pretty areas within the City of Richland. Is there a reason why that is not part of these being that is alphabet home is also kind of a walk through time in a way?

Yeah, great question. We've coordinated with Richland City Parks and Rec for that because Nancy Dornan, who leads those tours, we do not want to compete or step on her toes. She is an amazing resource. She is an amazing subject matter expert for us and has helped us. We were then leading two different programs, walks through Richland. We had one that went through, it was downtown, it was kind of a parkway area, and then we had another one that went into the homes. We call them the blue collar homes. So we had two different programs, and we offered those in 2023 and 2024. The ranger that was leading those programs, she had an amazing promotion in October of 24. And unfortunately, we're under hiring freeze, and we have not been able to backfill that position. So I'm currently the only, you're looking at the entire staff of Manhattan Project National Historical Park here in the Tri-Cities. We have an amazing cadre of volunteers and that community support that allows us to leverage the very limited resources. But hopefully, if we get that park ranger position filled, we'll be able to restart those programs. Okay.

Okay. And then the final question, not question, but I want to thank you for actually getting the Richland Public's facility as part of that partnership because it's a great organization and obviously this just fits perfectly. So thank you.

Oh, you're welcome. It is great. I mean, the community resources here in Richland really do make my job a lot easier and partnering with the city has been great. So definitely appreciate the partnership and look forward to future partnerships.

I've had the pleasure of going on a tour with Becky and becoming much more aware of Parkway, the housing, the different buildings, Howard Amon Park and its history. Council, if you have a chance to do that, it's really worthwhile.

And I'll go ahead and throw one more pitch out for the city council members. We used to have a meeting every month, and it's sometimes difficult with everybody's commitments and their day jobs and all the things that you have going on. So we've moved it out to once a quarter. So it'll be a little easier for all of you to take an opportunity to participate. I know you have liaison positions in the city council. So if Mayor Richardson is not able to attend or if multiple of you would like to attend, we certainly invite you to do that. It's very informational and you get up to speed of what's really going on. And Becky really does have three different people in her department. It's me, myself, and I. So... Thank you for everything you do, Becky. Thank you. And thank everybody that has reached Museum, Burma, everything that you guys do to participate in the organization that makes it beneficial and worthwhile for everybody. So thank you guys for what you do. Riley, your team's awesome. You know, gatekeepers keep us focused. So thank you, Becky, or Riley.

Yeah, just one, sorry, one last plug. We do have some ranger programs coming up. They start on Monday. We have the atomic explorations programs. And so there is records included in your packets. So check out our summer programming coming up because we're excited to share this history with our community and with our visitors.

Thank you for a very nice presentation. We appreciate your work. Thank you.

Now I've got to go open up my lemonade stand.

Make sure you get a permit. OK. Next on the agenda is public hearing. Acting city clerk Follett, will you please read the script?

The purpose of a public hearing is to give the audience an opportunity to address council members concerning the subject for which the hearing is convened. This process is an official on-the-record communication geared toward giving City Council information and opinions to consider in its decision-making process. While Council welcomes hearing from you, please know that the public hearing process is not designed for interactive dialogue with Council members or for posing questions expecting an immediate response. Many questions require an opportunity for research and deliberation. For this reason, Council will not provide immediate responses to comments, questions, or concerns raised during the hearing. To provide an orderly process, audience members who wish to speak should raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged by the Mayor. Approach the lectern when invited to do so, and begin by clearly stating your full name and address for the official record. After speaking, please write your name and address on the record sheet. To ensure every participant has an opportunity to be heard, public hearing comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker. the public comment period where the audience is allowed to comment on agenda items or other topics follows the same guidelines with the slight difference that speakers are to announce their full name and city of residence before speaking for this section each speaker will be limited to two minutes to present their comments The time prompter placed on the lectern will alert each speaker with an amber light when 15 seconds remain. To signal the end of a speaker's time to speak, a red light will flash and a buzzer will sound. In the interest of time, if your point has already been made by another speaker, simply indicate your agreement with previous statements instead of repeating the comment. When appropriate, the Mayor may refer certain topics raised during the public comment period to the City Manager for additional review and action. Please note that if a speaker intends to provide counsel with any documents as part of a presentation, the documents must be handed directly to the City Clerk for distribution. The purpose of tonight's public hearing is to consider proposed amendments to the 2026 budget to include the 2025 budget carryovers. Ordinance number 2026-12.

Thank you, Acting City Clerk Follett. This item for public hearing, again, is the proposed amendments to the 2026 budget to include the 2025 budget carryovers, ordinance number 2026-12. This public hearing will open at 6.47. Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this item? Please raise your hand. Seeing none, we close this hearing at 6.48 and move on to public comments. Is there anyone who would like to speak on any matter that's on your mind? Yes, Ms. Muniz. Munoz. Munoz.

Microphone.

Microphone, if you can turn it on. And could you state your first and last name?

I'll say my first name, but I'm not going to state my last name. I'm sorry. I'll write it on there, but that's... That's fine. I am speaking against these data center proposals as they are currently written. Here is the bottom line. These data centers will use enormous amounts of power and water. Atlas Agro is paying BPA to expand their transmission lines to the project so it's connected to the grid. But does the grid have the capacity to power this facility? Its power draw is equal to half of the city of Seattle. Where is the power going to come from? They tell us that this won't impact our electric bills, but I'm not so sure. But here's what bothers me the most. The community does not get a vote on this. There is no referendum. There is no ballot measure. There are deals being made in the backrooms with code names and non-disclosure agreements, and we are told to trust the process. That's not democracy. That's a done deal pretending to have public input. I am asking for three specific things tonight. One, make the data center companies pay for their own power lines and grid upgrades. Do not raise my electric bills to subsidize multi-billion dollar corporations. Two, require a decommissioning bond before you approve anything. That means that the company puts money in escrow to tear down these buildings if they leave. Otherwise, we're stuck with the mess. Three, release all non-disclosure agreements and secret deals. The public has a right to know what was promised. You sit on this council. You get a vote. We do not. So we are asking you to be our voice. Please do not trade our water, our power, and our future for promises made in secret. Require the bond, separate the rates, show us the contracts, or vote no. Thank you.

Thank you Connie. Is there anyone else that would like to speak at this time? Yes.

Good evening. I'm Edward Munoz. I live in Richland. I'm here to talk about the Pollen House again. I'm going to keep bothering you guys about that. I went by there the other day, and the mess is actually covering the entire sidewalk. People can't use the sidewalk anymore, and it's pouring onto the roadway, and it's encroaching on the neighbor's properties also. And my understanding is that person who is creating that mess has other properties in the city of Richland and those are starting to fester also. So we need to get a handle on that and control what's happening there and get them to clean that mess up. I heard that the Seattle Times did a story on that thing a few months ago, and that's not what I want Richland to be famous for. We have so many things to be famous for that are positive. We've got Iron Man, the boat races, we've got beautiful parks and trails, and we've got that, the Manhattan Park now. We have a... We have a gravitational wave observatory. What other city has one of those? I don't even know what it is. But that's what I want us to be famous for, and I don't want this property to become like the one that was on Simons and Thayer. There was a house there that burned, and it just sat there as a burned-out hulk for years before it was finally removed. I don't want this to go on for years and years, and people point at Richland and say, oh, you're the place that has the hoarder house. It isn't right. That really needs to be expedited before the other homes in the community that belong to this person or group don't become like that one. It's already bad enough it's in one place. We don't want it in four or five other places. So thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak at this time? Please raise your hand. Yes, in the back row.

Hi, good evening. My name is Christine Williams. I wanted to use the public comment tonight to raise concerns about the long-term impact of the large-scale data center development in Richland and the Tri-Cities region. I want to be clear, I am not anti-AI. I use it every day throughout the day in my professional work. But supporting innovation does not mean moving forward without fully understanding the long-term impact on our community. My concern is the enormous demand that data centers place on water, electricity, and public infrastructure, especially compared to the relatively small number of permanent local jobs that they create. Across the country, communities are already dealing with the strain on water systems and power infrastructure tied to the hyperscale data center growth. I moved here recently from California, just a couple months ago, where I personally experienced rising utility pressures. I had a brand new home with a $30,000 solar system, and my monthly bill was $650 a month, year-round, with the solar system. That did not include water or gas. many people move to communities like Richland because of the affordability and quality of life Residents deserve reassurance that future projects will not create long-term utility pressure for local families and small businesses. Water and power are strategic resources in Eastern Washington. I believe we need ecological and economic solutions that responsibly accommodate future data center growth before committing massive long-term resource capacity to private infrastructure projects. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. And welcome to Richland. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Seeing none, we'll move on with the agenda. Clerk, will you please read the consent agenda?

Items on the consent calendar have been distributed to the City Council in advance for reading and study, are considered to be routine, and will be enacted by one motion of the Council with no discussion. Council members may transfer individual items to items of business for deliberation before voting. On tonight's consent calendar, approval of the May 5th, 2026 City Council regular meeting minutes. Under ordinances for first reading, ordinance number 2026-11, amending Richland Municipal Code section 5.20.040 related to occupation tax on manufactured and natural gas systems. There are no ordinances for second reading. Under Resolutions, Resolution Number 2026-68, authorizing a designation application to the Washington State Department of Commerce nominating Census Track Number 53005010204 for Opportunity Zone 2.0 consideration. Resolution number 2026-69, awarding commercial facade improvement grant funds to West Building LLC for property located at 1307 George Washington Way. Resolution number 2026-70, authorizing a grant application to the United States Department of Transportation for funding from the Safe Streets and Roads for All program in support of the SR240 Air and Drive Complete Streets Improvements Project and Blood on Board Program. Resolution number 2026-71, authorizing award of bid to Doolittle Construction LLC for the 2026 slurry seal project. And resolution number 2026-72, authorizing a grant application to the U.S. Department of Justice for funding from the 2025 Physical Year Rural Law Enforcement Violent Crime Reduction Initiative. Under items of approval, appointment of Eric Damberg to the Utility Advisory Committee. And under expenditures, expenditures from April 1st, 2026 to April 30th, 2026 for $38,790,456.25 including travel checks and account payable checks.

Thank you, Acting Clerk Follett. Council Members, is there any item that you would like to pull for further discussion? Seeing none, may I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar?

Move to approve the consent calendar as read. Second.

And a roll call vote is required. If you could lead us in that.

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Aye.

Council Member Holton. Aye. Council Member Jones. Yes. Council Member Meyer. Aye. Council Member Samuel. Aye. Council Member Whitten.

Aye.

And Mayor Richardson.

Aye. Thank you. Next on the agenda for items of business is ordinance number 2026-12, amending the 2026 budget to include the 2025 carryovers. Presentation with Finance Director Brandon Allen.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council. This is our annual carryover ordinance. So every year, once we close out the year and everything, we carry forward, it's mostly projects, open POs at the end of the year for our most year projects into the next year. So in this case, it's carrying 2025 into 2026. I'm just going to kind of go over it in high level and then kind of work down maybe just in some details what's in there. So it's a big number this year. Our overall adjustment is just under 127 million, which is the biggest we've ever done, but there's reasons behind that. So I'll walk through some of that. Last year we were roughly around 77 million total. Of that amount, 4.8 million is tied to grant funded programs. A lot of times what that is is that we've got grants that may have a different fiscal year than we have and so they'll always carry over between our year and their year. Most of those are in the home and the CDBG programs. We also have 5.1 million in encumbered goods. That's usually our purchase orders, that kind of stuff. That's fairly close to what we had last year. The largest category is for CIP projects. That's roughly 117 million. Of the total amount that we're looking to carry forward, about $42 million of it is coming from transfers, revenues, grants. Then about $85 million of that is from fund balance in those projects and in those funds. I'm just going to want to work my way through this. I'm starting out with the encumbrances, which is this is the one that's about just over 5 million. Like I mentioned, this is mostly tied to open POs, projects, small projects that were open at the end of the year. In that 5.1 million, about 3 million is the general fund. And two of that consists of two large items. One is about 700,000 for our comp plan upgrade update we got through this year. for the two years we're working on that. And so that's the outstanding amount for that consultant. And then we have about 1.4 million for a large project to do our work order asset management system software and we've been working on. And so that's just a carry over for the implementation and of that software. It's a large, large software. Then I'm gonna skip the CIP and come back to that later. So the second largest is our carryovers for what we call non-CIP grant. The bulk of that is sitting in the home fund, which has a lot of caregiver money from what they call the home ARP funds that came during COVID. So we're still carrying some of that forward. These are all grant, mostly grant funded type stuff that comes through those two programs that we administer. for the for the region. The largest area in this carryover is for CIP and like I mentioned before it was about 116, 117 million. Just to point out a few the large items in here. We have roughly 780,000 for our neighborhood safety traffic safety program that we are carrying forward from the prior year as we're working through those projects. Within the industrial development fund we have some project road projects and also the north north horn rapids sewer extension that's going up into the north horn rapids area there and also roughly 3.1 million in some rail extension and railroad extension up in that same area in horn rapids There's also some things in here as I'm going through this that we've got roughly about 11 million of this is transfers from one fund to another. A lot of times we're budgeting in one fund, but we're using the money in a different fund. And so you'll see about 11 million of that is essentially doubled up in this ordinance because we have to move it from one fund to the other. So you see it going in and out a couple of times. So it's about 11 million that are just transfers. We have several big street projects. I'm sure that... None of these will surprise you. We have roughly 38, 39 million carryover and just street projects. The Richland Loop is a large one at roughly 16.6 million. We have another 5.7 million for the Dupertale Street quarter improvements up by Queens Gate. We have some other ones, other large ones. There's again some economic development road projects up on Battelle Boulevard. And so a lot of those road projects are quite expensive. And a lot of them do also come with federal funding, fortunately. So CARDO does a great job of finding that money for us. And so we also have roughly 10 million in parks and recreation projects. The largest one there being the Rivers to Ridges Trail, which has a large donation tied to that potentially. And so until that donation comes in, that won't be spent. So we carry that forward as we're working through that. We have several parks and expansions that we're just working through. One up at West Village that's a new park that will be going in this year. So things we're excited about. Just our general construction fund. We have a few projects in there. Parking lot improvements out here. Nexus City Hall is an example for that. And then the last, well, one of the other bigger areas is in the water fund, we've got several large projects that we've approved in the last couple years that just are multi-year projects. So as we, we can't get them all done in one year, so we get to spend what we can, and then those usually carry over until we finish them in about two or three years. Let's see here. Another large one is $6.8 million in the solid waste fund for the landfill expansion. That is, I believe, mostly completed at this point, and so we're carrying the money over into this year, but it's already at this point gone and spent. But that was one of the big projects we knew we'd been working on, so that will come over as well. That is roughly, I mean, that's the big projects. Don't wanna go through everything. I guess one other thing, we're seeing a little bit of improvement in this area. We have about a million dollars in carryovers for vehicles as we're waiting for those to come in. We saw really large lead times as we were in the 2021, 2022 years. And that's getting better in some areas and getting worse in others. Where we're seeing a negative effect is in our large vehicles like our ambulances, fire trucks, garbage trucks. And some of those can go out 30 to 40 months at least. And so we're having to order those things at least a couple years in advance now just to even get them here. Our smaller vehicles, we're seeing that improve. We're getting those pretty quickly. But the big ones are the ones that take a long time. And so we have to get in line early to get those. I'd be happy to answer any questions if there are any on these. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Brandon. It's a lot to manage. So thank you for your work. Council Member Van Dyke, or Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Thank you, Brandon. I completely understand carryover is a normal part of business. You get to live that all the time. Maybe specifically in capital improvements, are there any significant escalation that we're paying for for anything that's moved out to the right of schedule that we're either adding to or accounting for as part of the carryover?

Not that I'm aware of. We have a few. You've seen a couple come to you in the last probably six months we've had a an adjustment to a project here and there for either unexpected or cost inflation. We don't have any known I wouldn't say any known built-in just escalation just from escalation we're carrying the projects forward as we budgeted them you know if as we get into those budgets or in those projects further that doesn't mean that in a year or two something comes back we have to come back to council for but we don't we're not anticipating that at this point.

Thank you. Council Member Jones. Thank you for the presentation.

So the River to Ridges Trail, will they be doing a presentation for us to kind of, who is doing the project? Is it the City of Richland, the Friends of Badger, or Top Tail Greenway?

I believe this is Friends of Badger. I may ask for an assist here.

It is Friends of Badger, and it's probably time for a presentation as well.

Yeah, I think so. I think with this dollar amount, we definitely would like to hear from them, what they're doing, and give us an update. That would be great. Thank you.

Yep.

Thanks, Jill. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the council members? Seeing none, thank you for your presentation. A roll call vote is needed on this matter. Clerk Follett, can you help us?

Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Aye.

Council Member Holton. Aye. Council Member Jones. Yes. Council Member Meyer.

Aye.

Council Member Samuel.

Aye.

Council Member Witten.

Aye.

And Mayor Richardson. Aye.

Thank you. Voting is unanimous. Next item is Horn Rapids Solar Storage and Training Project Transition for Discussion Only, presented by Energy Services Director Clint Whitney.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. The purpose of this item is to provide an overview of the Horn Rapids Solar Storage Training Site as there is a potential transition of owner for the infrastructure at the project that will provide an opportunity for expansion of the site. And with that, there comes many players that are involved in this. and potential agreements, multiple agreements that could come forward to council in the future. The city currently purchases about 99.5% of our power from Bonneville Power Administration. The other half percent comes from this Horn Rapids solar training site. The new developer on this site is proposing the expansion that would add approximately an opportunity for the city to purchase 1.8% of our power from the site. The city has requirements from the state as part of the Energy Independence Act to purchase increasing amounts of renewable energy. Our first step is 3%. obtain that now through the Horn Rapids site plus energy credits that we receive from Bonneville on their system. The next step is 9% and that goes into effect starting in 2030 time period. And so then four years after that, it steps up to 15%. So we have an increasing need to obtain renewable power. This is a site that is potentially going to be expanded, and I'll go through a little bit of the players and components that are involved in it. Here's what the site looks like. The south end of this site is along Horn Rapids Road, which actually is the city boundary. And then on the eastern side is also a city boundary. And on the west of the site, you can see portions of the Hammer facility. Up north, you can see the existing solar panels. That's roughly 20 acres. And then the red area is the remaining acreage on the site that the developer thinks they can get about 10 megawatts from. Believe it or not, that infrastructure has five different entities that have to come together to make the solar, renewable solar be built. And that's not including permitting or construction. And I've shown a sixth entity on here, which would be Whetstone Power, which is the proposed developer who's proposing to expand the site. And I'll talk a little bit about the roles on this next site, and then where the city is involved in it. So here's a flow diagram of the various components and the roles. The city shows up four different areas, and so there'll be four agreements that council would be considering. They include a lease, a power purchase agreement, and then two subleases to various entities. The four agreements that will come or could come forward to you is the existing site lease would be transferred from Tushi to Whetstone. The second agreement is a power purchase agreement. And there is an existing power purchase agreement for the existing solar out there. The recommendation is that we combine that with a new power purchase agreement. So we have one agreement to be working from. And then that would be a term of purchasing the power over a 25-year time period. One of the advantages of a power purchase agreement is it gives us price certainty. We lock in the price. We lock in the escalation. We don't have that luxury currently with the Bonneville Power Administration. While the prices are very attractive... And Bonneville is a very good wholesale provider for the city. We don't have that price certainty that you can get with a power purchase agreement. The third agreement that would be coming forward for council's consideration is the sublease of the site. The first agreement would be recommending that the city transfers the lease into the city's name to where we can control the destiny of that site and the development of it. With the lease, we'd also be able to better hold the developer accountable for making sure that production is maintained. So with the city having the lease, we would be subleasing back to the developer, Whetstone. That's the third agreement. And then currently, Energy Northwest operates a battery energy storage system at the site, and it provides a benefit for the city with that operation. we would recommend continuing that sublease from what would be the city's lease to Energy Northwest. Timeframes on this, there is a timeframe coming up for the developer. One of the benefits of this project is tax credits that sunset or lose their safe harbor status starting in July 4th of 2026. And so that developer needs to meet certain milestones to be able to achieve that safe harbor. And he's working with, that developer's working with the current leaseholder to ensure that safe harbor and those tax credits could be realized. And the timeframe on this would be potentially these four agreements coming in second quarter, which basically June timeframe. And then if council approves those agreements, And we continue to wrap up the negotiations. The developer would begin construction third quarter with coming online in the fall of 2027. With that, I'll stop and pause and see if there's any questions on this high-level overview. And I just don't want you to be surprised when you see four different agreements potentially coming in the future, but they're all related to support this cause.

Thank you for your presentation. Could you also clarify for us, Hecate is a different project altogether, correct?

Yes, absolutely. Hecate has a lease from Department of Energy for, I think it's 7,000 acres on the Hanford site. And so it's the area well north of the city's urban growth area and outside of our city limits. It's the Hanford site is where Hecate is at. And they have are transitioning their ownership to a company called Savion. And I've met them and that's hopefully they continue to do their development work, but it's fairly quiet.

Thank you. Council Member Holton.

Yes, I just had a tour of the Hanford area. And part of the problem there was there was no plan for what happens afterwards. And so I looked up AI to what are the plans to deal with solar panels that are no longer useful. What's going to happen?

Well, one of the advantages on this is we don't own them. And so we would not be responsible for the disposal of them. And that would be the the developer's responsibility to recycle them potentially or dispose of them, but they would have to be, part of the lease is the removal of them, and it would be the developer's responsibility for handling those. This term of this agreement is 25 years for the power purchase agreement. That's kind of the life of the panels. And it's hard to know what's going to be available in the future for, I'm going to say recycling or disposal options. Currently it's disposal, but people are very creative in finding ways to recycle elements and find the value in products.

But that is part of the agreement. I know we're dealing with tires and all sorts of different things that get left.

Yep. And the leases, we would own the lease. They would have to remove this.

Thank you. Council Member Meyer.

If this expansion doesn't go through, what's plan B for meeting our requirements for renewables?

We're working on other projects as we speak. One of them is Ruby Flats. It's in the, if you looked at our 1641 acre area, the ET head, sometimes people talk about that, the very north end. That site is being planned for 120 megawatts, 120 some odd megawatts. Energy Northwest and a developer and we've come before you have come before you in the past with recommendations to purchase between five and ten megawatts there and There's renewable energy credits. It's like the dollar cost averaging you get a little bit here You get a little bit there and you keep working your plan towards the 2030 timeframe Okay, and are there any other facilities in our vicinity that are you doing grid storage?

the battery systems

Yes, there are. And you want me to name them?

No, I just want to confirm that they exist.

Yeah, there's for sure. There is. And California put on, I want to say it was five gigawatts of grid storage batteries over the last five years. And that was instrumental in preventing rolling blackouts based on their technology. shortage of baseload power sources. But yes, grid storage is there. Typically it's four hours. And it's the next development is to try and get a 24-hour or longer grid storage. If you think about if we were relying on renewable energy, there are some days in the gloomy parts of January, February that we may not have generation for day or two or three. So right now it's four hours from from typical energy storage. Thanks.

Is there any discussion about combining some of these data centers with solar on top of them?

Well, that's a great question. Washington State's code, energy code, requires various energy conservation methods to where they have to increase their... conservation with really efficient HVAC. Sometimes it's solar. You'll see solar on new residential houses, and that's why some of these developers are choosing to include solar to achieve that energy code compliant. compliance, and some don't. And there's various ways to achieve that. Our new Costco that constructed up at Queensgate, it has solar on it as part of their energy code requirements. And so there could be a nice flat surface that data centers or others could look at. Our federal building has, I think, 50 KW on top of its rooftop. So it's increasingly happening. It won't power the full data center, but it's a contribution towards it.

Thank you. Council Member Whitton.

These solar panels are not eligible for disposal in the Richland landfill, are they?

I'm not sure of that question. I'd have to phone a friend on that. But I'm not aware of where they can be disposed of right now.

I don't see any other questions, so thank you for your presentation. We appreciate the update, and we'll keep looking into the future presentations.

Thank you.

Next, we have America 250 Celebration Update with, says Chris Waite, but I think you are not Chris Waite. Julie, congratulations. You recently got an award, I understand. So good job.

Good evening, Mayor Richardson and Council. Thank you for having me. I am filling in for Director Waite. He had a very important child's award banquet to go to, and so we're really excited for that. I asked for pictures. Normally I don't wear tennis shoes today, but I had to wear my red, white, and blue ones for today for this. I dressed for the occasion. I also expected it to be dark out by the time I got up here, so good job getting through your agenda. It was a big one. I'm here to talk about America's 250th celebration and the initiatives that staff are working with partner agencies and what you can kind of preview for what to come for this year. So objective today, introduce the America 250 initiative, give you a little background about the national and state commemorations, summarize our participation, highlight some planned community events and activities, summarize some smaller events and programs. And I will say this is a preview. Things are still in the works. We, even in the last week, got notified by a group of Toastmasters who are putting together America's 250th themed Toastmaster event in the park. Some small, sweet ones that are happening and you're just going to see more and more shared as the summer comes up. So just know this isn't everything. So what is America's 250? It's a nationwide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 2026, it's a year-long initiative occurring across the United States. There's actually a website if you wanted to check it out, america250.org, and there's also a Washington website, which the city of Richland's listed on, and I'll share that in just a moment. It's focused on history, civics, culture, community, and reflection, and encourages local communities to share their own stories and contribution. Washington State's America's 250. That's america250wa.org. And I believe you might have a sticker. to preview. We've ordered quite a bit of these to share at our 250 themed events and programs throughout this year. So you'll see these around. If anybody wants one, if you're still here, I'd be glad to share it. You'll also see this branding. This is actually one of those sweet little yard signs. You can order these. Anybody can go online and order them if they want to put them in front of their homes. We've ordered quite a few of these and plan to put them in front of city facilities, fire stations, near entrances as folks walk in. to let folks know we're a partner agency. The initiative for Washington State encourages local participation, which we are excited to be a part of. It focuses on Washington's role in the American experience. And as I said, the city of Richland is a participating agency. So our participation this year, we've got activities coordinated across the departments, quite a bit in recreation as well as the library, and I've got Chris Nelf over here if I need to phone a friend if you do have any questions specific to the library. So library, parks, recreation, arts, history, civic engagement components. Like I said, we'll have some signage on display throughout municipal facilities and events designated to encourage participation across all ages, and backgrounds. So some major events to look forward to. June 14th is Flag Day. It's a week-long celebration. We'll be handing out many American flags at all of our public-facing facilities, so City Hall, the library, and the community center. We might even hook up some of the police officers and the fire department if they want to hand them out in some community outreach opportunities. The library will have their beautiful, massive U.S. flag on display. And then we'll be doing some children's activities at the community center, likely like a coloring project, more of a passive activity but available the entire week. So kids can do takeaway sheets and bring them back and we'll put them on display for the few weeks after that to keep celebrating. On July 3rd, this is the biggest event and this is where a community partner comes in. Yes and Productions, I believe you have a flyer up there as well and I saw somebody in the audience also had it. So this is a larger version of what you have, is putting on an event in partnership with the City of Richland and we're working really closely with them. They're excellent as a production company at putting on musical productions and theater And they were so excited to come and talk to us about putting on this event on July 3rd. They're calling it Party in the USA. Not to be confused with Party in the Park, which is a week before, which is for cool desert nights. Just throwing that out there. We're partying two Fridays in a row at John Dan Plaza. And it's commemorating the celebration honoring America's 250th birthday and the spirit of the Tri-Cities. Yes, and Productions, Jill Madison and Megan Johnson, who we've been working with, are phenomenal human beings, and they are just two people of a huge team who are putting together a really spectacular performance. Live Orchestra, I think 40 people strong. Or maybe it was a choir of 40 people. I'm not sure. It's lots of people. Some, I think a Jimi Hendrix-esque... Star Spangled Banner, like they've got some stuff in the works that you're going to want to be there for. So we're really excited to work with them and also the parkway businesses and trying to support them to encourage folks to pick up a meal to go and bring that into the park. And it's a new model we're working with to try to engage those businesses to join the fun of the thousands of people we bring to them at that park instead of being sad when their parking spaces are full. So we're really trying to work together, and we've got some excitement coming from them as well. And I want to give a shout out to Economic Development folks for letting us come to some BID meetings with the parkway. Thank you, Mike. Another event, September 17th, Constitution Day. This has happened, I believe, for a couple of years, Chris? It was last year or the first year? Last year was the first year. But it was well-received, and we're going to continue at the library to hand out free copies of the United States Constitution, and I believe we're going to expand to the community center and possibly City Hall as well, so folks can pick up not the full version, but a mini version of the U.S. Constitution on September 17th. Other activities and programs that we're finding ways to incorporate America's 250th themes, Parks and Rec's Pop-Up Play Days. There's some events happening at the library, Moments That Made Us. It's an exhibit actually tying the Declaration of Independence to historic events in the Pacific Northwest. That's an America 250 Washington themed event and display. I believe that... if I unlock my phone, is June 12th through July 17th. I got a nod from Chris, so I'm on the right track. And then Tumbleweed Tourist, which is an amazing program that the library has, is supporting Museum Day. Their Storytime programs will be incorporating some America's 250th themes or patriotic themes, Washington State, Tri-Cities type themes, as they typically do. And then the Maine by Manhattan Oral History Project, which Becky mentioned, is a partnership between NPS and Richland High School. That's May 23rd. That's coming up this Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. All of these events and activities are on the library's calendar. They're amazing at putting those things out there. And you'll see our pop-up play days pop up on our calendar soon. Short, sweet, it's not yet 7.30. I'm here to answer any questions for you.

Exciting presentation. Thank you for all your work. And I've got to give you kudos from Jill and Megan, who absolutely love working with you and the Richland staff. So it's a great partnership. Appreciate you working with them, and it's going to be an exciting evening for sure. It is. Thank you. Council members. Council member Jones.

Yeah, so I saw a picture with fireworks. So my question is, are we going to have a fireworks show?

I think that's just a clip art that got put in to celebrate. We don't have any plans for fireworks for this 3rd and 4th of July. I think our community members do a pretty darn good job at that, as well as our neighboring communities. We like to do our fireworks in December for our big celebration in Winter Wonderland. but great question.

It was a good, I was thinking the same thing. She was quick. Good answer to say we do ours in December. We do, and we do it really, really well. Yeah. Other council members, comments, questions? Not seeing anything at this time. Julie, thank you for your presentation. Thank you so much. Very well done. All right, now we move on to reports and comments, first with our city manager.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I did want to highlight Julie Piper's award tonight. At the recent Statewide Parks and Recreation Conference, there was only one professional citation of merit awarded statewide this year, and Julie Piper was the recipient of that. So congratulations, Julie. In addition, Mandy Wallner went through a multi-year process, a significant certification. She is now what is deemed a certified economic developer from the International Economic Development Council. And so that is one of the highest credentials in economic development and recognizes professionals with demonstrated knowledge, experience, and commitment to community advancement. And then finally, when it comes to bragging on staff, let me scroll down here a minute. I wanted to also highlight that this last week at the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, our police department was awarded a law enforcement accreditation. And that's also a multi-year process, a very significant endeavor that they've been going through. Chief Pilcher will be the first to say that Lieutenant John Raby was very key in this endeavor. I was looking over some of the qualifications earlier today, and there's roughly 150 standards that you have to demonstrate that you are a best practice in each of those standards to receive accreditation. Accreditation is not something that every police department receives. And so it's something to be very proud of and appreciate the level of commitment and hard work in attaining that accreditation for police. So wanted to congratulate them.

Thank you.

And last item I had, sorry. I was basking in the glow of those items and lost my place. Next council meeting is our next workshop on Tuesday, May 26, right after Memorial Day. At this point, we have three items. We have a 505 Swift property discussion. That's the former city hall site. It's been a while since we've had a discussion and just wanted to get Council's pulse on that and what some of our proposals are. Next, Carla will be presenting the 2027 through 2032 Transportation Improvement Program presentation. And then last item is kind of a part two on historic preservation ordinance discussion. This is a follow-up from an August 26th council workshop regarding one of our strategic plan items on developing attainable housing strategy. And so just wanted to inform you of what those upcoming workshop items are. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Thank you. Let's start off on this side of things.

Thanks very much. Start off with the report that yesterday I and some member of my family were in Kennewick for the unveiling of this year's art bus. For the first year, Ben Franklin Transit has also dressed up dial-a-ride transportation as well, so it's not just fixed route. This allowed them to double the number of artists honored in that program. So those buses were touring the various high schools of the winners today, and you'll be able to see them on the streets for the next year until we run the contest again. The other thing I wanted to highlight was an item in today's consent agenda which was the ordinance number 2026-11, currently there are two tiers of tax on natural gas in the city of Richland. If you use natural gas, that's taxed at 8.5%, but if you use enough of it, then the higher end of that range was only taxed at 1%, if I'm reading this correctly. So, What that means is you get a real good deal on natural gas if you use a lot of it, which seems like not the sort of thing we want to encourage within the boundaries of the city. So that item changes that so that it keeps the 8.5% tax, and that's just the tax on natural gas no matter how much you use. This is an approach that I approve of in order to mitigate some of folks' concerns about rampant resource abuse by a specific project. I know there's a lot of folks concerned about what data centers are going to do to the local power costs, to local water supply, et cetera, et cetera. But the problem is that, you know, what's a data center? It's not necessarily even legally defined. So how do you ban a data center? A data center is any building somebody packs with computers. I worked in a data center in Indianapolis once that was a mall. Someone closed it down, filled it with computers, and it's a data center to this day. So in my opinion, it's a much wiser course to identify these concerns and then mitigate them through actions like the one we've started today. If we're worried about a single customer using so much electricity that it's going to alter the local market then we as the utility need to and the city need to tax that at an appropriately progressive rate so that if they do alter the local economy we're making enough money on the deal to have our say in the purchasing market as well. And the same goes for stuff like water. If we're worried about water consumption, we need to address the idea of a single customer consuming too much water. And if we're concerned about the water output, we need to establish standards for what anybody's allowed to put out into the environment, much less a data center. So this is a great first step toward sort of building that structure to make things look like we want them to look without having to nitpick about the definition of what a data center is or try to ban one specific kind of business or heavily regulate them that way. I think it makes a lot more sense and is a lot more even-handed to say the same rules apply to everybody, no matter what you're doing with it, and then structure those things so that they are sustainable. And doing the wrong thing, being abusive, would be too expensive to consider. So I just wanted to highlight that because I really support this approach toward that, and I think that it's a positive step forward, and I look forward to seeing more of them. Thanks.

Okay. Council Member Samuel.

Madam Mayor, City Council, I just want to highlight a couple things that I attended this past week. I did attend the Community Services Open House at the City of Richland's Police Department. I was really impressed. Over 250 people attended. There was lots of kids and families, great food. You know, the event really represented Richland well. And those involved with the community services open house, my hat is off to you, Chief of Police and Fire. Great job in putting on a really great event that really reflected well on our community. I was especially impressed with the number of volunteers that were there and how long, when I talked to them, how long they had said they had volunteered for the City of Richland. and how passionate they still were after having volunteered six, seven, eight, nine years. Really, that really speaks well. So great event. Thank you so much. I also attended Visit Tri-Cities Open House and their offices over in Kennewick. One of the events that was highlighted at their open house was the Iron Man activity, which we've mentioned before is scheduled for September 18th through the 20th. at Columbia Point in Richland. Last year, the Ironman activity brought in $6.5 million to the Tri-Cities economy and over 7,500 visitors, which I was like, that's a remarkable number. And also last year, Visit Tri-Cities reported that over $643 million in money came to the Tri-Cities economy through tourism, and that tourism is a 6,000-person employer. in the Tri-Cities. Richland alone got $928,000 in lodging tax funding from tourism last year. So great event over at Visit Tri-Cities. They're doing great work for us. I was really impressed with the impact that tourism is having in the Tri-Cities. Also attended the Hanford communities meeting with our regional leaders, talking about the future of the Hanford site. It was reminded again that over 13,000 people work out at Hanford and have a budget of about $2.7 billion a year. And the focus continues to be on cleaning up the Hanford site and immobilizing the waste so that Richland and our community around it continues to be clean and and so I really appreciated the work that they were doing there. I also attended the Benton County Solid Waste Advisory Board, but there was nothing exciting to talk about on that. And I was at the City of Richland's Planning Commission for their meeting where they reviewed the results of a recent Richland transportation survey where they were able to get 344 citizens to respond to that survey. And I thought it was interesting, the key takeaways from the survey was that Citizens commented quite a bit on the need to continue to focus on new and better sidewalks and street striping, improved maintenance of roads, there's still too many potholes in Richland, and that we need to really get our speeding drivers to slow down to make our roads safer for bicycles and for pedestrians. And that finally, a number of citizens had commented that they'd like to see transit services expanded to Badger South and Horn Rapids neighborhoods. So I thought that was really interesting. Final activity I'll just mention was attended the Code Enforcement Board meeting. The status at Pullen and at Haines was once again brought up. Those issues were updated with the Code Enforcement Board committee and of course it continues to be front and center for the city and so I know it doesn't appear like we're making a lot of progress but the city staff once again went over what we're doing there and how that continues to be a central focus for us and so I really appreciated that update. I did have one other activity which is Councilman Holton and I both toured the North Richland Water Treatment Plant and while that plant is over 50 years old it's still being maintained by highly capable and dedicated staff who gave a really great tour. So with that thank you very much.

Thank you. Council Member Holton.

Well, I'll start with the most important things. My husband taught a class, a fishing class at Parks and Rec, and had nothing but great things to say about Julie and the staff. And yes, I was out at the water treatment plant and wanted to bring it to everybody's attention that I was out there 50 years ago with my sixth grade class touring, and not a lot has changed there. But I guess water, you know, we've got some of the best water in the world here, and so we don't need to do tons. Did the landfill today, which was extremely interesting, and we do a great job here out at the landfill. It's, yeah, a lot of technical stuff, selling methane gas and all kinds of things. I did not know I could buy compost for my yard there and also that I can dispose of hazardous waste over in Kennewick. So those were personal takeaways. Let's see, also attended the police station and dittos on that. It was a great thing. did the Hanford tour. We've been working on that for 25 years and have about 50 years to go at best. It did not know that This isn't about storage from a nuclear-like BWIP for nuclear production. It's what's left of the weapons race with the Russians back in the 60s and cleaning that up. There's kind of two different camps, those that want to do some of it with grouting, and those that don't, that want everything to go to glass, and those that are dealing with kind of the reality of what's there, and those that want to put it back to what it was 100 years ago. So a lot of politics involved out there. It's a big, massive... thing, but lived here for over 50 years, first time I've been out there. So that plant, the water treatment plants, you know, tank farms, you name it, got to see all that. Also did visit Tri-Cities, talked to Matt Henderson, who I knew from music, but he's doing a sports program. And Julie, you can connect correct me if I'm wrong on any of my facts here, but out, I think, on South Badger. He's working on a big project out there. Matt Henderson? Oh, that's a different, that's not parks, that's Visit Tri-Cities. The Haynes Avenue house is cleaned up. Yeah, it was amazing. They finally went in and hired somebody to go in with big trucks, and it has gone cleaned up. Very exciting. Attended a park meeting. This is where you can correct me if I'm wrong. one of the highlights is they plan to put a bridge down by for pedestrians and bikes down by Ben Franklin Transit. Correct? Sort of? That was, oh, yeah, that's with Carlos. Am I correct on that? Okay. And then also want to do a crossing at Highway 240 and Airport Way. There's already a light there, but the hard part is punching through the sound wall there. That's a big project. And then an expensive project is a sidewalk improvement on the east side of George Washington Way between Comstack Bradley because they need to build a retaining wall there off the golf course. Also of note, here it is, possibly redoing the wading pool because it's old, it requires lots of maintenance, it's very crowded, might put in a splash pool instead because new requirements would be a lifeguard there. And then Columbia Park West master plan down by Bateman Island. You know that has all changed with taking out the causeway. Yeah, possibly a cover for the pool. So lots of things. Love being on the park and rec board. Love the police department. Love the fire department. But people move here because of the Richland Parks, and they are truly amazing, and they do a great job, and Julie deserves her award.

I think that's it. Okay. Councilmember Jones.

Yeah. Just want to read something that I think is important for us. In memory of Tony Mendoza, my friend's father, who tragically passed away on May 8, 2026, in a head-on collision, I want to remind everyone this three-day weekend to please drive safely, slow down, stay focused, avoid distractions, and cherish the people waiting for you at home. One moment can change the lives of your family and friends forever. Stay safe.

Thank you. Council Member Whitton.

I'd first like to say thank you to the parks coming out and giving us a presentation on the Manhattan Project Parks, and I would encourage everyone to get a B Reactor tour if you haven't done that. It's phenomenal. It's an awesome history. It's an excellent building, and the story of how it was built is mind-blowing, and the amount of the workmanship that went into that building, and also the efforts to save it and preserve it for the future. would absolutely require or encourage everyone to get out there and do that at least once i'm looking forward to doing that again here in the near future i would also like to echo councilman meyer's comments on the data centers we hear the citizens concerns and we share those concerns we would like to make sure that those concerns are mitigated and through our agreements in the future We are not ignoring those concerns. I will say that I have gotten confirmation from Bonneville Power that our energy is not pooled into one cost pool. So the data centers, should they come, will be on a third tier, or a tier that is, from what they said, quote, a little punitive. The data center's energy will not affect local residents' energy costs. I can confirm that. That is not a consideration that we're worried about right now. However, the amount of power that Washington State has available into the future is becoming a little bit... and that's a little bit concerning and data centers are going to be a little bit more of a stress on that. So that's something that I'm keeping my eyes on. I'll also say that the Richland Arts Commission selected the BFT Art winners, which was really cool to see and be a part of. Also, this time of year, mosquitoes can be a little bit of a nuisance, and the Mosquito Control Board is doing a really good job of making sure that that is under control. Not seen a whole lot of the mosquitoes out lately. I've spent quite a few evenings of the nice temporary evenings out of my back porch and haven't been too bothered recently. So that's all I got.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Yeah, I'll be quick. Attended Rich and Shaver Commerce meeting today. They haven't been back up for very long, and it was the largest or the most participated in. There was a lot of people there. It was great. One thing that came out of that is Cool Desert Nights is June 26th. The slow drag is back, and there's a barbecue competition. There's a $2,000 prize for it, so that's kind of fun. And then Chief Pilcher, I just want to address, thank you so much for putting that Citizen Academy back up and on. The people there were not just happy to participate. I got to talk with one of them in the parking lot, and the impact I took away from it was he was excited to engage in the community and help serve in the community. And that's something I just wish that we had more energy on to people to see the great things that happen and how they can give back. So thank you for having an impact on that. My other favorite part is on the community engagement with the police. They painted out a circuit in the parking lot, and they had kids on trikes. But what you may not know was they had demonstrations of radar and LADAR guns, and they were hitting the kids there to see how fast they were going and demonstrating the different technologies. And it was hilarious. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks, Chief.

Thank you. I will say that we have a most engaged city council, and I appreciate everybody going to all these meetings. Also wanted to give a shout out that this is Public Works Appreciation Week. If you haven't seen the video that's out there highlighting our star Pete Rogalski, and just going through the day and the things that we take for granted when the water turns on and the toilet flushes and the roads are clear and helping you get to work. It's really nicely done. Appreciate that. So with that, we have executive session per RCW 42.30.110 to discuss current or potential litigation with legal counsel. Anticipating 45 minutes. And here we go. The time is 8.45. Executive session is over, and no decisions were made. Thank you.