City Council - Special Meeting

It was midnight. It was midnight. But you ignited in people things that they didn't know they had, and you brought it out and you made them great. So you were my biggest advocate and my cheerleader. You always showed me how to develop and to care for my people. And I need to say thank you for all the work you've done, and this organization says thank you for all the work you've done. You've truly made RF&ES a better place, and we're grateful.

Thank you. You might not know it, but I'm a little shy. And I will try to keep this brief. All the stuff that Kevin kind of shared with you about my story, my journey, was me trying to live my potential. That is probably the newest leadership thing that I've been talking about over the last three years, is an organization of individuals living their potential. If you want to honor me, you want to honor the hundred people that have come before you, Live your potential. There's three arenas that you gotta live your potential in. The first one, number one, live your potential as a spouse. I can tell you I could have done better. Reflect on that. Can you do better? Because they all play a synergistic role. The second one is live your potential as a parent. That is amazing. As you live your potential as a parent, become a better leader. They come together as a whole. The last one I really want to talk about because it is relevant today. Live your potential as a professional. I go across the country. I've done it with 130 different administrative teams. Guess what the average fire department's potential is based on feedback? 55% say their organization is living at a 55% potential. 55, so out of 100 years of the fire service, the majority of us are only at 60% of our potential, I'm sorry. The second statistic I'm gonna leave with you is 70% are living, 85% are living at 70% or lower of their potential. We have the opportunity to do better, we gotta be aware of that. So if you wanna honor me, you wanna honor all the other people, start thinking a little bit about living your potential, spouse, parent, professional. Let's see if we can move that needle from that 60 and 70% up to about 80. You'll be in the top 1% of the country of an organization that's serving their community and serving each other. That's it. It's very easy. But you've got to think about it a little bit, or you get caught up in the chaos. Live your potential, honor the ones before you, and honor yourself and your family. Thank you, guys.

We got to have some him said stories.

We got a mic. One of those guys that connects everybody in the room and I will say that I probably would not be here almost surely if it wasn't for him as a leader investing into me genuinely. Although he was in many different divisional roles and I was on operations as a captain at 7-2, there would be multiple days that I would come on shift and And he'd be waiting there for me to inspire me, to challenge me, to grow me, right? And as a leader, you, I think, are qualified by your ability to invest into others and not be siloed in and focused on your own development. And so for BC Hempstead, for Hollywood, I will forever be grateful. And I know that the time that he put in to investing me as a leader and growing my potential, he did that with everybody he was around. So, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, and I think the entire organization, thank you Jim.

Yep. I shared this story at the little party that we had for Jim at his retirement, too. But my very first shift that I worked as a brand new firefighter, I was on the engine at Station 71 with Lieutenant Hempstead. And we got our first call with shift, my first call on shift, and jumped in the engine. It was an EMS call. And in the panic of my brain as a brand new firefighter, first call, I thought to myself, it's an EMS call. I don't need my bunks. So I climbed in the engine. We pulled out on the ramp. And thankfully, Lieutenant Hempstead saw that I had left my bunks on the bay floor. And he's like, stop! Stop the engine. He looked back. He's like, hey, kid, you're going to want to bring this with you. In that era, Jim very easily could have written me up. It wouldn't have been out of ordinary. But instead, he got us back to the station after the call, had a chat with me, and coached me through calming down a little bit and bringing my bunks on every call that we go out on on the engine. So it's just another really simple example of the investment that Jim made in helping people grow, not just forcing a correction in the moment. So Jim, thank you. There's so many more stories and so many memories and things that we've done together. I could go on forever, but I'll just say thank you. It's been a great time and a privilege working with you.

There we go, there we go, now it works. So I know Jim by another name of Giggles and Boomshakalaka. We're missing a lot of Boomshakalakas around here, Jim. I'll be honest, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Jim. When I was the union vice president, it was much more of a hate relationship between me and Jim. But the great thing is that we could always have differences and we could always put those aside and really just get down to what this job is really about and that's serving the community. And a common theme that you've heard about Jim is investment. And he certainly did that for me. I can remember as a captain, Jim coming out to station three and being like, Ben Beek, what are you doing? What's wrong with you? You're down in the dumps. You're not living up to your potential. Little did you know, 15 years ago, you were talking about living up to your potential. So I want to say thank you for making me pull my head out during that time frame. And thank you for investing in me. And thank you for seeing my potential. And I guarantee you, like Josh said, I would not be here if it wasn't for you, Jim. So thank you.

Well, lastly, I get the privilege and honor of recognizing our final retirement of 2025 Fire Chief Tom Huntington. I had to manipulate my speech from a couple of months ago, so some of this may sound familiar. Tom, your leadership has shaped more than strategy or structure. It shaped people. Your forward-thinking approach strengthened Richmond Fire and Emergency Services, it modernized how we operate, and influenced our region in a meaningful way. But what stands out most is not simply what you built, it's how you led. You've led with humility, with patience, especially with me, with compassion, and as many of us know, with a very flexible interpretation of punctuality. But your greatest legacy is not found in a program or an initiative. It's found in the confidence you instilled, the encouragement you offered, and the culture that you helped create here at Richmond Fire and Emergency Services. Chief, you leave behind a stronger, more unified

Good evening, everyone. We appreciate you being here on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, to the regular, well, excuse me, this is a special meeting because it's on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. So here we are, and Clerk Rogers, will you help us with the roll call?

All right, we'll begin with Mayor Richardson. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Present.

Council Member Johnson. Here.

Here. Present.

Council Member Whitten.

Present.

Thank you.

Thank you. We don't have to excuse any council members. Thank you for all that. And now we're on to Pledge of Allegiance. At the last minute, I'm going to ask Council Member Samuel, would you be willing to lead us? Thank you. Thank you Now may I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda I move to add an item of business to the agenda concerning the extension of public comment time Okay May have a second on that adjustment second All right. And now could I, well, and we have a consent vote. All those in favor of adjusting the.

Real quick, Mayor, I think.

Mayor.

I think we need a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Yes, that's what I was just about to say.

We got to vote for this one first.

Vote for this change. Okay, we got to vote for the amendment. Yeah.

Yes. Okay.

Pardon me.

May I have, this can be a consent vote. So all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Nay. I oppose. So, may I have a motion to approve the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda as amended. Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. Next, we have presentations. We are going to introduce the video of new hires and retirements with Lacey Paulson, our HR director.

We would like to recognize our new employees that were hired and those that retired during July. On July 6th, we had three new hires. Esther Lee was hired as a Parks and Recreation Aid with the Recreation Division. Christopher Jimenez was hired as a Utility Crafts Worker with the Waste Maintenance Division. And Rachel Montgomery was hired as an Accounting Specialist with the Finance Division. on july 13th we had two chad robey was hired as a journey line worker with the power operations division and phoebe trask was hired as a library supervisor with the library division on july 20th we had three new hires james wilkinson was hired as a plant operator with the Wastewater Operations Division, Kendall Klein was hired as a Police Records Specialist with the Richland Police Department, and Olin Malalin was hired as an Electrical Distribution Engineer 1 in the Electrical Engineering Division. Welcome new hires to the City of Richland. We have one service retirement to recognize this evening. On July 5th, Emergency Communications Dispatcher Colleen Jackson retired after 26 years of service with the City. Congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your many years of public service.

Yes, congratulations and welcome new hires. We now ask Clerk Rogers if she would read the script for the public hearing and public comments.

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. If an item is marked as closed record, no new comments will be allowed. 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 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 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. 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 their 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, Council asks that you do not duplicate comments already made by another speaker. Instead, please confirm your agreement with statements previously made. Council also asks that speakers conduct themselves respectfully so that all participants feel welcome and have an opportunity to be heard. Please avoid interruptions, personal attacks, or disruptive behavior. 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 attribution. And the purpose of tonight's public hearing is to consider the proposed amendments to the 2026 budget to provide additional appropriations and various city funds. Ordinance number 202618. Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk Rogers. I hereby open up the public hearing at 6.06 p.m. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to provide testimony on this item? Seeing no one, this public hearing is closed at 6.06 p.m., and we now open it up for public comments. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to provide a public comment? Please raise your hand and I'll call on you. Yes, in the black.

I live in Richland. don't mean to be disrespectful at all. I'm realizing what a hard job you all have approving or denying certain requests that come across your desk. But the one thing I'm really concerned about is the AI data centers. And I think what I would ask you, and please don't, I'm not trying to insult anybody, but do you have the expertise to really approve this? Or do you have the funds in your budget to get outside people to help? research it and do your due diligence before anything is approved, especially this week with the horrible fires in Spokane and the thought of that happening to our beautiful cities over here and the water resources. It just is something I think requires a really long, hard look and experts to be consulted. So that's all I have to say. Thank you.

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

Hi, I'm Natalie Williams, and I'm from the city of Pasco. And I'm just coming again to give an update. I went to the Walla Walla City Council County Council meeting, and something that struck me was that 77-year resident there called in and said she was worried about water, and she was worried about having water for people and crops. And then she mentioned about the McNary Dam. I'm sorry, McNary Wildlife Refuge. And so I hadn't even thought of that until then. I mean, we drive to Walla Walla, and we see this beautiful refuge. So I was just like, I thought maybe we could all hear that that is something that that is going to be happening in that area. And then I realize that we're worried about a lawsuit and that's why we can't put a moratorium in. But if you could make public your, I guess there's going to be a plan for Atlas Argo that's going to guide them through some steps of how they can safely build our data center. So if that can be the experts can be like told to us and then who's paying for those and and then if we could see that document we would just like to know and then if they're going to be doing an environmental impact study before as soon as possible. I just didn't know what's going to happen there. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. Is there anyone else that would like to speak at this time? In the back row.

Hi there. My name is Cassandra Tran. I live in Richland. I just want to support the comments that I've heard so far about the data centers. We live in the hot desert. It's honestly ridiculous to think that we have the water or resources at all to support this. We really, really, really need experts to pay attention to this before we make such a potentially existential decision for people like my kids. So, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Tran. Anyone else? I don't see any further comments at this time, so Clerk Rogers, would you please read the consent calendar?

Items on a 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. Starting with the minutes, we have the approval of the July 21, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes, the July 24, 2026 City Council Retreat Meeting Minutes, and the July 28, 2026 City Council workshop meeting minutes. There are no ordinances for first or second reading under the consent calendar. Resolutions for adoption, we have resolution number 2026105, authorizing a consultant agreement with JUB Engineers Inc. for the systemic stop controlled intersection safety improvements phase two project. Resolution number 2026106, ratifying a grant application to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office for Columbia Park West and Y Park Planning. Resolution number 2026107, ratifying a grant application to Giza Community Foundation's Local Heroes Grant Program. Resolution number 2026108, authorizing change order number one to contract number 34721, with Axon Enterprises Inc. to add auto transcribed minutes. Resolution number 202610 setting a public hearing date for vacation of a portion of right away located between 2555 Harris Avenue and 2603 Harris Avenue. Resolution number 20-26-110, ratifying a grant application to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's fiscal year 26 pathways to removing obstacles to housing grant program. And then lastly, we have the appointment of Yesenia Galvez to the Tri-City Regional Hotel Motel Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Council members, do you have any items that you would like to pull for further discussion? If not, may I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar as published?

I move to approve the consent calendar as read. Second.

And a roll call vote is required.

Mayor Richardson? Aye. 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.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next on the agenda is items of business and this is to discuss ordinance number 2026-17. I have a script here to read. This evening's closed record review hearing concerns a request to rezone approximately 10.26 acres identified as Revised Parcel 2 of the Record of Survey for Boundary Line Adjustment No. 6250, From Agriculture to Suburban Agriculture to Retail Business. Since this review is to be conducted on the record produced by the hearing examiner, it is important to note the materials and information that comprise the record. The record for this matter consists of all documents and testimony that was presented to the hearing examiner prior to or at the public hearing held in person at Richland City Hall on May 11, 2026. Specifically, the application materials, staff report, and attachments to the staff report, all correspondence, the exhibits, the testimony accepted by the hearing examiner at the public hearing, and the June 2, 2026 recommendation of the hearing examiner comprise the record for this proceeding. The city's adopted ordinances and comprehensive plans applicable to this project are included as part of the official record. These documents have been made available through the posting on the city's website. Now please give your attention to our city attorney who has additional statements to share and instructions for tonight's closed record review process. Thank you, Mayor.

This closed record review is a quasi-judicial matter in which the counsel will render a final decision on the material that has been presented to them for consideration. A quasi-judicial action is defined as an action in which the counsel determines the legal rights, duties, or privileges of specific parties in a hearing. This hearing must be fair in three respects. substance and appearance. In other words, the review must not only be fair, but it must appear to be fair. In light of the information that has been provided to counsel for review, all council members should consider whether they have any potential conflicts as follows. A demonstrated bias or prejudice for or against any of the proceedings. Any direct or indirect financial interest in the outcome of the proceeding which would affect council members personally. whether there have been any has been any prejudgment of the issues prior to hearing the facts on the record or whether there has been any ex parte contact with any individual excluding city staff with regard to this issue prior to this closed record review. If any council member does have any of these concerns or issues, now would be the appropriate time to make your disclosure. I see none. Based on the information shared, does anyone present object to any council members participation in this closed record review? I see none. And are there any objections on jurisdictional grounds? And I see none. Thank you.

Under state law, there is only one open record public hearing allowed in this proceeding. That hearing occurred in front of the hearing examiner on May 11, 2026. The City Council will base its decision on the record developed at the hearing before the hearing examiner. Therefore, no new evidence is allowed at this time. Only those persons who participated in the open record hearing before the hearing examiner may address counsel on this topic. Comments from speakers must be in the nature of summary argument only, based on, and limited to facts in the written and oral record developed before the hearing examiner. In other words, anyone who testified in writing or in person before the hearing examiner is eligible to make the same comments to the City Council. No new evidence is allowed. If any speaker presents comments that are not based on facts in the record, anyone may make an objection. If an objection is made, the person speaking will stop until the issue of the objection is resolved. Council will hear comments in the following order. Staff's report on the application, applicant's comments on the application, public testimony on the application by eligible participants. Anyone intending to speak shall first be recognized by the mayor, and then shall come to the lectern when invited, speak into the microphone, and give their name and address, and indicate his or her participation in the hearing examiner hearing. And after speaking, write his or her name on the record sheet. Public testimony on this matter is limited to three minutes per speaker. Representatives of groups may be granted up to five minutes at the mayor's discretion. Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk Rogers. I'll be opening the public hearing now at 619 and invite city staff to present, I believe, Ryan Nelson. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Council. My name is Ryan Nelson. I'm one of the senior planners here at the City of Richland. Before you is a rezone application for 2155 Keene Road as address in the city system. And as we've Description of revised parcel two of record survey number 6250. The map you see before you right now is the vicinity map of the current parcel as it sits in our GIS system as the parcel ending in 1009 as described in the hearing examiner report. This site fronts Keene Road. And the current land use of this site is commercial. And the current zoning of parcel ending in 1009 as shown is agricultural, but revised parcel two of the record survey is suburban agriculture and agriculture, which is the light green to the left and the green to the right. I'm not sure how to describe that green. So the pros zoning for revised parcel two is C2, which is retail business. Sorry if I'm stuttering a little bit. And then here is what the revised parcel looks like. And this is revised parcel two to the north. So going from a north-south orientation to an east-west orientation. And then next slide I have is from the application material. And this is provided from the applicant. And that shows the revised parcel number two of the record survey, which shows that both sides of this site will be commercial or are commercial, and then the proposed zoning is within the suburban agriculture and the agriculture zoning. Do you have any questions?

Council, do you have any questions at this time? Seeing none, is that the conclusion of your presentation?

Yeah, that's all the slides I have, and they also had a property use and development agreement that was attached to us. And so I just recommend that you follow the hearing examiner's decision and approve the rezone.

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. I'd also like to invite the applicant if that person is available or here in this room at this time. I don't see that person. So council, one last time, do you have any questions or comments for the staff? Seeing none, this public hearing closes at 622. And I'll entertain a motion and a second to begin deliberation on this item.

So motion. Second.

Council, do you have any discussion? Seeing none, a roll call vote is required.

All right. Mayor Richardson? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke? Aye. Councilmember Holton? Aye. Councilmember Jones? Yes. Councilmember Meyer? Aye. Councilmember Samuel?

Aye.

Councilmember Whitten? Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Now we move on to ordinance number 2026-18, amending the 2026 budget to provide for additional appropriations in various city funds. This is a first reading and presentation with Finance Director Allen.

Yes, thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have a budget adjustment for your consideration today. In total, and as you see from your screens, this is just a breakdown by fund, but we're looking to amend. There's a grand total in appropriations of just over $2 million. Of that, about $1.6 million is from fund balance as a source and about $470,000 from new revenues or transfers. I just wanted to walk through a few of these real quick. In the general fund, It consists of four items, two larger ones and two smaller ones. The first one is $120,000 to implement a new what they call a learning management system. We're converting from the one we're currently in to the one that goes with our payroll and HR system workday. This will allow us to do that implementation in the second half of the year to go live with that for a new year in January, and so we're moving that forward. Also, there's roughly $117,000. This is for an employee that was originally budgeted in the industrial development fund and decided it was better, they were a better expense than the general fund. And so this is moving money from the industrial development fund into the general fund. So it's obviously, you'll see there's a negative there in the IDF fund right below. It's just moving from one fund to the next fund. And so it's a transfer. And then the last two smaller ones are seven thousand from a it's a restricted police reserve fund We have they want to use it for some joint police and fire leadership development and lastly around eight thousands for an anticipated renovation of an office in City Hall We're looking for In the wastewater fund, there's 171,000 being appropriated to complete the wastewater management plan update this year. And then roughly 24,000, it's to pay for some unexpected equipment repairs. These will be reimbursed to us from the design consultant. There was some damage done that they will be reimbursing us for. And so this is to allow us to fix that equipment and they will reimburse us. And so that comes with some additional revenue. In the water fund, there is roughly $285,000, and this is reimbursement funds to Costco for development for some infrastructure that they, infrastructure costs they incurred that we, by agreement, have reimbursed them for as part of the development. And so that was contemplated in our agreements going in. Secondly, there's roughly 920,000. This is to fund an intertie connection and it will convert the Rialto Ridge subdivision from Badger Mountain Irrigation District potable water to the city system. Again, this is something that's been on the horizon for a long time. We knew it was coming at some point. We hit some trigger points and so we need to move forward with that now to convert them into the city water system. And then lastly in water, there is just over 31,000 to accelerate the replacement of what's called the water cross connect software. We're beginning to have some failures on that and not receiving adequate vendor support. And so we need to upgrade that to the new version. In the Streets Capital Construction Fund, we're appropriating $450,000 for systemic pedestrian crossing safety improvement project. Of this, there's two pieces of this. The first piece is $338,000, which is WSDOT grant funds that we're needing to carry forward from our prior year. And then there's an additional $112,000 from WSDOT that we're going to be receiving to pay for those as well. So those are both WSDOT grant funds that we're looking to spend. And then lastly, in our equipment maintenance fund, we're looking to bring forward just roughly 52,000. This is to replace a vehicle lift. It was budgeted in prior years and just have not been able to get to it until this year. And so looking to replace that this year. And that is, that's everything we're looking to, that's included in this ordinance, but I'd be happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Thank you for your presentation. Counsel, do we have any questions or comments? Council Member, Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Thanks, Brandon. Just a few things. I was happy to see the investment in our public safety staff and leadership. That's fantastic. always support any investment in our city staff. I'm a big fan of an integrated LMS. It can make that kind of barrier to entry of training that can sometimes be painful, a little easier for staff to get to. So that's great. I also wanna, I guess, commend John and the rest of staff to, taking a really good shot at being flexible to adapt when, you know, budgets are a guess, usually an estimate's a guess, and trying to, it sounds like there's great things that you're trying to do and get ahead of things for the city, so those variations, addressing those can be fun, and thanks for the hard work you've done to address those. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Not seeing other council member questions or comments, I'd like to make a motion to amend 2026 budget ordinance number 2026-18 to provide for additional appropriation in various city funds. May I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, and a roll call vote is required.

Mayor Richardson. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Aye.

Councilmember Holton. Aye. Councilmember Jones. Yes. Councilmember Meyer.

Aye.

Councilmember Samuel.

Aye.

Councilmember Witten.

Aye.

Thank you. Thank you. The vote is unanimous. That leads us to the additional item that Councilmember Meyer wished to add. Councilmember Meyer, would you like to comment at this time?

Sure. Thank you very much. I wanted to add this to the agenda. It's kind of a small issue, but it's one that's been consistently brought before me as long as I've been on council. The fact of the matter is Folks in the area are accustomed to a three-minute rule. I have yet to hear a compelling reason that Richland citizens should have less time to express themselves to their council than surrounding communities. I don't feel it's appropriate for us to put arbitrary barriers in front of our citizens in the interest of saving our own time or encouraging them to become better riders. I've seen members of this very council read impassioned from scripts that lasted more than two minutes and I think that it would be well for us to extend the same courtesy to the folks who take the time to come down here and address us. So I would like to see council direct staff to bring forth an ordinance changing the maximum public comment time per citizen to three minutes instead of two. Thanks for your consideration.

Councilmember Holton.

I don't want to get in front of somebody else that wanted to speak, but I did do some research on the topic and what other cities are doing. And so it doesn't, it's not that we don't care. We do care. We want public information. Other than some small towns like Benton City, I think that's been pointed out, West Richland that had three minutes. The only major cities that I could find that have three minutes with no limits are Everett and Pasco. Kennewick has come up numerous times, but they have a total limit. And what usually comes hand in hand with three minutes is a 30 minute or some kind of limit. So for instance, three minute plus total limit of 30 minutes include Bellingham, Kennewick, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Sammamish, Redmond, Vancouver, Yakima. Spokane Valley. Two minutes, we're not the only people that have two minutes. Olympia is another city that has two minutes and no fixed. And the other one with two minutes is, ironically, Seattle, but they have a total of 20 minutes. So I think if we look at it, as having the two-minute limit also allows us to have unlimited speakers rather than a limit. I think that changes the perspective that we're trying to cut people off. We're trying to get in as many people as possible and getting them to comment. And I think it's important to keep that perspective and not potentially have a 30-minute limit for the people that are speaking, which would pretty cut off a lot of people.

Thank you. I don't see any other council comment or question. I would like to just add.

Madam Mayor?

Yes.

I wish to comment on this. Okay, thank you, Mr. Sam. So I'm in favor of what Councilman Myers proposed. I think a three minute limit, an increase of a minute to really signal to citizens of Richland that we want to hear from them. We value what they have to say. I would be completely opposed to any limit on how long we have the community input. But increasing from two minutes to three minutes, I completely support it. MS.

Thank you. Councilmember Van Dyke.

MR. Yeah. I'm glad we're talking about it. In general, I would be supportive of a three-minute with an overall constraint or a two-minute with no constraint.

MS. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Then I'll comment. Oh, Councilmember Houghton.

Yeah, as much as you say, yeah, we want three minutes, I think we're putting ourself in a situation where it will move to limiting because sizable cities, just to include Pasco and Everett, are the only ones that have three minutes with no limit. Other than that, the tendency is to put a limit on it. And so I think we need to be cautious. I think one thing we could consider is postponing. And I could make a motion on that to the next meeting, taking a vote to get feedback from people.

Pat, are you making a motion to postpone, or are you just putting it out there?

I would like to move to not take a vote tonight and put it off to the following meeting so that people can talk to people and get feedback and vote on it the following meeting. So, yes, Attorney Kinsley.

You have a motion and a second that's pending that needs to be voted on. One way or the other, you can't really make a motion on top of a motion for something different. So if council likes the idea of pausing, then what probably needs to happen is that the motion that's pending is voted down. Like, you know, it doesn't pass in order for there to be no change and an opportunity to readdress it later. In order to reintroduce it, the winning side of the motion has to reintroduce it, which...

Okay, thank you for that, counsel.

Well, you've got this weird posture of it pending. So even a table takes a motion, so...

Okay, so...

So it would be like a tabling...

Yes. Before I go back to Councilmember Holton, Councilmember Meyer.

Yeah, I think that trying to put an overall cap is trying to solve a problem we've never had. The whole time I've been on council, the highest number of public comments we've received the difference between two and three minutes for each of those comments wouldn't have been that big a deal in the circumstances where there are a ton of comments being made I think that we can be a little bit more insistent procedurally about folks just saying they agree with the previous comment rather than taking the whole three minutes unless they have a substantive addition to make And I just don't think that it'll be an issue. I mean, the way I would prefer to prevent us from having folks lining up here for hours is to govern the city in such a way that we don't have an angry mob waiting to yell at us. So I don't think that this is a problem that we are going to have. It's not one we have had in the past and i've been here for some pretty contentious evenings with a pretty big line and we got through it and i don't think the difference between us getting through it and us not getting through it is 60 seconds per comment um so that's that's where i'm coming from with this i just i don't think i think that in the three years i've been on council ish i There's been a consistent request to extend this time and there has never been an event where I felt like things got out of hand and council couldn't conduct its business because we had too many public comments. So I'm interested in fixing the one and I'm not interested in trying to fix the one that doesn't exist. So I would stick to my original suggestion of just increase it to three minutes and otherwise the rules are the rules.

Councilmember Whitten, I saw you wanting to press your button, so I don't want to go through repeats until everyone has a chance to speak.

I'll just say that I seconded the motion because I wanted to make sure that the people saw us have this conversation because it's been brought up multiple times and they deserve to see this. Personally, I could go either way. I think two minutes is quite a long time. I think it's sufficient there is also no limit to the amount of length that you of a comment you can give us via email that link is on the website we can send us I've read very very lengthy detailed emails you can also print out your statement and give that to council so if you don't get all the way through your your statement you can give it to us so we can read it later There are ways to get around it, but at the same time, an extra minute really isn't that big of a deal, in my opinion. We don't need to put a limit on it. There are two other cities that don't have a limit. I'm okay with it either way. I just wanted to have the conversation.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Meyer, I've already come back to you twice, so I think we need to let other people speak, to be fair. That's fine.

You can come when everybody else goes.

Okay, then I'll speak and then you'll be able to speak again. When you say the whole time, I've been here a little bit longer and there have been two occasions where the meetings could have gone on for a very long time. Council chambers were full and so that has happened. I find it interesting that Tonight, for example, everyone got in what they wanted to say in less than two minutes, and I find it curious that we have a history with staff members that have been here for over 26 years. The issue has never been brought up. I have canvassed and spoke to over 7,500 homes in the Richland area, and not once was this topic brought up. So I'm curious, why is it happening now? And I too would not want to put a cap on it, because people that take a time to be here and take the time to speak. If you have a cap on it, and it really surprised me that Seattle had a 20-minute cap in two minutes, that seems really restrictive. And you go all the way down to council meeting, and then it could be jammed up with people wanting to carry out one voice, and you never have a chance to speak. So I do not favor a cap. But I think that we're just fine with the two minutes. I would not change it. Council Member Meyer.

Thank you. I was chatting with our city manager and he brought up a point which I believe we have discussed before, but another element we can do to compromise on the amount of time taken up by lengthy public comment. Currently, and I don't want anybody to feel called out, There is a bit of a habit of either applause or jeering after certain public comments are made. And if we instituted a rule kind of limiting how much post-comment festivities occurred, we may be able to reclaim a little bit of that time and efficiency without having to institute a cap. I would also be open to, for instance, a decorum rule saying that once one comment ends, the next comment begins. If we can all be polite and give each other the mic, it shouldn't be a problem, and it should speed things along a little bit. uh but yeah i i just think it's it's such an easy thing to ask for i've had a completely different different experience knocking on doors i've had people straight up tell me they don't come to meetings because they don't think council wants to hear what they say and i think as long as we have rules limiting uh their expression that they're gonna feel reinforced with that so i would um I would be open to, like I said, a little bit of modification of the decorum rules so that the comment process itself is more efficient and that way we're not filling our schedule up unnecessarily. Thanks.

Councilmember Holton.

I think those decorum rules are already in place and we haven't been enforcing them and it's very frustrating as a speaker. when you have people commenting when you're trying to speak. So I think they are already in place, is my understanding. And as much as I agree with you, we'd like to have everything nice so that we don't have a lot of public comment, we are looking at a lot of people having a lot of strong opinions about AI. And you see that everywhere. And it hasn't been a specific item on the agenda. But I think if we have that on our agenda, I would anticipate a lot of people being here. And I think having the two-minute will get a lot of people through and give them an adequate time to speak and still get the most people able to speak.

Thank you. Councilmember Meyer, excuse me, Samuel.

Yes. You know, it's been brought up by, so I just went through a campaign, visited over a thousand doors. Three topics came up over and over again. One of those topics was why is Richland two minutes and Pasco and Kennewick are three minutes. You know, I did not have a good answer for that. So I said I would bring it up. And so I really just feel like it's an easy thing for us to signal to citizens, you have as much time as people in Kennewick or Pasco have. If you're here in Richland, we care about your input. We want to hear from you. We don't want to limit that input. It's very, very valuable to us. And so it's just such an easy thing for us to do. It's what our neighbors in Kennewick and Pasco have done. I totally support three minutes, no limit.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

sure I'm glad we're having healthy debate on this coming back to my thoughts would be a two minute with no minimum but when I say a three minute with a minimum or a constraint I agree I don't think 20 minutes is reasonable at all I would say something that would be reasonable let people go through things of something like 45 or 60 minutes that there should be plenty of time for people to get through and I don't know that we've had a lot of trouble with that Coming back to the enforcing the after party, if you will, I don't think that is plausible. I don't know how that could be done reasonably without maybe upsetting the citizens that want to come and talk, and that's not something I would encourage that we do. For example, one of the guidelines we have already is if you want to support what's already been said, please just voice your support. There's very few times that people would do that. I'm not sure that that would help that much. I just want to clarify, what is the motion right now? Can we just clarify that?

The motion is to extend the public comment time to three minutes. Okay. Now, next in the queue, I have Councilmember Holton, but I'm not sure if you just left your light on. No, I turned it on. Okay, but Councilmember Holton, I'd like to get through the others before we have you speak again. So, Councilmember Whitten, you're up next.

I'd just like to echo what Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke stated in that we do have these rules on the books already, and they're not very well enforced. Even the two-minute rule has been repeatedly extended for people who are in the middle of a comment that they needed to get out, and I think the mayor has been very polite when she's reminded them that their time was up and to finish their thoughts. And so even this two-minute rule, as it sits right now, I think is more of an informality. And I'd rather it be the way it is than extend it to three minutes and put a cap on it and then try and, you know, micromanage everybody's comments in saying, you know, we're going to be more effective at enforcing our rules. I think things are great the way they are. Obviously, there are channels where citizens can get their full thoughts to us if two minutes isn't enough, and I do acknowledge that two minutes isn't that much time when we're talking about certain subjects, but as Van Dyke mentioned before, we have sat here and heard people reiterate the same point over and over and over again and we did not enforce the rule on that so I like I like the way it is now and I'd kind of like to keep that but Honestly, three minutes isn't that much more either. So I would be willing to extend it to three minutes and see how it goes. And yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Okay, I see some lights coming on and off. And so, Joanna Jones, Councilmember Jones, we haven't heard from you. We'll take you next.

I think that, you know, nothing's set in stone. If we change the rules today, and for whatever reason, things just don't work out, we can always change them back. It's not the end of the world. I think that given, you know, conversations that I already have with some people, I think that maybe... For me, I will be voting yes in this case because I want to show the residents that we do care. We want to know. We want to hear from you. And if that means three minutes is what's important to you, that's what we're going to give you just for the purpose of really showing that we do care more than anything else. And so whether people are not following the rules or yes, they're following the rules, humans make mistakes. Nobody ever followed the rules. We can change behavior, but we can show you that we do care. And so I'm very much inclined to say, yes, let's vote on this. Yes, let's change it to three minutes. And if it doesn't work, if things go haywire, we'll just come back, vote again, and change it back to the two minutes.

Thank you. Council Member Holton.

Councilmember Samuel, I would respectfully say if you had, when they had said Kennewick and Pascoe do this, if you had posed the question that Kennewick does have a limit, and if you had to choose between three minutes and 30-minute limit, which is very, very common, the most common thing, or two minutes with no limit, What would your choice be? And I think that is pretty much the choice before us. I don't agree with that. But that's a different question. What I'm saying is that's different than just saying, well, Kennewick and Pascoe do it this way. The good comparison is that's not exactly how Kennewick does it. Kennewick has a 30-minute limit. And we don't have a limit. And if you had posed the question, I'm just wondering what they would have said.

And you don't have to answer me. I actually didn't pose the question. It's just when I asked the question to citizens, when I go up to a door and knock on the door, I said, what's on your mind? And they say, why does Richland have two minutes? I wasn't able to answer that question. Oh, yeah.

I'm just saying, if you had said.

Councilmember Holton and Samuel, I'd appreciate it if you wait until you're called on to speak so that we don't get into a messy argument. Thank you.

I'm not trying to argue. He's my good friend. And I don't want to be characterized as not caring if I don't vote for three-minute either. I do care. I want to hear public opinion.

Okay. Councilmember Samuel, I'll give you a chance to respond to that if you wanted to say something further. You're good?

We're good.

I don't see any other lights. I would just like to say that we care. At two minutes, I am concerned that Kennewick had occasions that it went on very long. And so that's why they added the timeline, the time constraint. And then that bothers me when you do that, you don't have the opportunity for everyone to be heard. So, I don't see any further comment. Let's take a vote on this, and Clerk Rogers, will you lead us? Okay. Mayor Richardson?

No. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke?

No.

Councilmember Holton? No. Councilmember Jones? Yes. Councilmember Meyer?

Aye.

Councilmember Samuel?

Yes.

Councilmember Witten?

Yes.

Okay, motion passes. At this point, we'll go into reports and comments and start off with our city manager, Amundsen.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I just want to thank the public, their understanding and flexibility with canceling National Night Out yesterday. Was yesterday, right? Yes. It's been a long week. And as well as some different parks activities invent events walking events different play dates in the park and so forth recognizing that there is extreme air quality concerns and we're trying to be cautious and do what we think is best as far as protecting the public's public's health and so we have Come up with a new date for National Night Out. That will be August 20. It's a Thursday. And look forward to doing the event on that evening. Other than that, Mayor and Council, staff would like to request a closed session in regards to bargaining unit parameters after the meeting adjourns. Thank you.

Do you have a sense of the time for that? Should we allot 30 minutes?

We don't need to allot time. OK. It's after the council meeting has adjourned.

Okay. Thank you. Council Member Meyer, let's start with you.

Okay, first from BFT, it is no longer July, and so we have exited the fare-free month for America 250. There is a grace period where operators are instructed to remind folks that we're going to be charging and checking passes and so forth again, and that grace period should run through the first week of August, I think through the 10th, but I could be wrong. So just to let folks know, the bus is now no longer fare-free. I also wanted to mention one of the in the very first presentation we got we got one of the people hired on was Phoebe Trask and I wanted to report that library staff is excited she's coming on board she's pretty popular and full of good ideas and so I wanted to double down on welcome to the city of Richland and staff and then an apology because on Tuesday is August's library board meeting but I will be out of town for work so if any of my colleagues would care to attend the library board meeting tomorrow at 530 would be appreciated if not I will follow up with the library manager and the chair of that board to see what I missed, and finally, we are in the process of selecting among the applicants for the library board, so we should have some new members to announce soon. That's all from me, thanks.

Thank you. Councilmember Holton, I know that you wanted to be involved with the library. Is that where your light is on? No. No? I forgot it on, sorry. Oh, okay. Let's go with Councilmember Samuel.

Madam Mayor, City Council, one of the committees that I serve on is the Solid Waste Advisory Board. I know that doesn't sound very glamorous, but where the focus of discussion has been on that board has been here recently on the Moderate Risk Waste Facility located over on 1709 Ely Street in Kennewick. That's kind of in the neighborhood of Fred Meyer over in Kennewick. And that facility right now is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 o'clock to 5 o'clock p.m. But effective August the 10th, the facility operating hours are going to be Tuesday through Friday, 8 o'clock to 5 o'clock p.m., and the third Saturday of each month, 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock noon. And you might be saying, Todd, why are you bringing this up? And I'm bringing it up because in Richland, you know, we are really fortunate that our landfill... located out on Twin Bridges Road, kind of near the tire pile, accepts many types of hazardous wastes that many other jurisdictions don't actually have the ability to handle. In fact, they would have to take their stuff over to Benton County. And so our landfill accepts many types of hazardous waste that include motor oil, antifreeze, propane tanks, car batteries. But items that the Richland Landfill do not accept, but the Benton County Moderate Risk Waste Facility does accept include paint, household chemicals like bleach, pesticides and herbicides, solvents and thinners, flammable liquids, electronics, and household batteries. So I just thought, you know, since they're changing their schedule, I would bring it up. Once again, I feel like we're fortunate that we have a landfill that does accept a lot of things, but if you have something that you need to dispose of that is on that list, I just encourage you to go out to the Benton County website. It's kind of tough. It's really buried deep down on their website where the moderate risk waste facilities list is at, but it has this whole list of items that they accept and don't accept. So that's my report.

Thank you.

Councilmember Holton. Thank you. I have paint. Unfortunately, I missed the retreat for the parks and rec. I was out of the country, but one of the priorities is shade structures, and of Richland is shade structures, and Greece has less shade than Richland, and so I took lots of pictures of shade structures in Greece, so I'm a year to bring those back to Parks and Rec. And also they did a tour of many of the parks and so my husband and I have been going through the list and we've found some parks that we didn't know were there and we're able to see activities there. So my husband and I are working on that. I also was privileged to get a tour as Parks and Rec representative to the American Cruise Line. They have many, many ships on many, many rivers in the U.S. We were able to get a tour of the ship and also have a wonderful lunch there. The Columbia River Basin tour that comes here frequently now, is their number one highly rated tour. And you can get tours of Mount St. Helens, Hell's Canyon, and, of course, our wineries. So it was fun to make that connection with, yeah, one of the businesses that come here, eager to check out their other tours.

Thank you. Council Member Jones.

Just want to remind everybody that many churches and organizations here in the community are looking for donations for people in Spokane that lost their homes and everything else. So please locate those organizations, donate to them. They really need us now.

Thank you. Council Member Whitten.

I would like to say thank you to Julie Piper for all the things that she's done for the city and I wish her well on her next adventure as she leaves the city of Richland. She has been a wonderful person to deal with as the city staff liaison to the Arts Commission and she will be surely missed. I'll also be out of town for the next meeting and the national night out and the next workshop. So I'll be attending the next two meetings remote as a heads up. That's all I have.

Thank you, Councilmember. Mayor Pretem Van Dyke.

Sure. Echo words on Piper. She'll be missed. Good luck to her in Alaska. Kurt, I was supposed to go camping tonight, and air quality and 100 degrees sitting in a camper was not something I wanted to look forward to. I'd be happy to cover a library tomorrow. That would be enjoyable. I had an opportunity to spend time with our original police department, voluntarily. Got to go be with them, and I was... very impressed with how respectful they were and how professional they were in both balancing enforcing the rule of law but also engaging well with citizens. Thank you for what you do there. Let's see as far as data centers I'm going to reiterate my stance that look We have to understand what the risks are when we get them in that proposal. And those risks are water usage, effluence, sources of power, backup, noise, vibrations. And we absolutely need experts. And I'm confident the city understands that and is pursuing a path for that. I also want to compliment, I think, the city's efforts on this have encouraged the type of engagement that we'll be getting going forward. Look, as far as the engagement for public speaking, Look, once the decision's been made, which it has, I'm going to be behind it. That's okay. Lastly, for this afternoon, there was an open house and a ribbon cutting for the Lutheran Community Services Northwest, which has moved into where the Amazon data center was, kind of by Chick-fil-A over there. I didn't know much about the organization. It is a phenomenal organization that can make a big difference with mental health in our youth, in our community. It's huge. They care. For those that don't know about it, please, I'm really encouraging you to understand what that resource is, and I hope to help provide them some publicity and encourage our EMS and fire and police to have a chance to go meet with them and look how we can support an amazing organization that supports us and our schools. So thanks to them. That's all.

Thank you. To tie into what we're doing regarding the data centers, I would like to just re-emphasize that we are all doing our homework here. And we want to get it right. We want to be a good steward. We all live in this community. We want to make sure we have good counsel. I think it was Miss Phillips. who had a question about who we're consulting with or what our process is, I would invite her to look again at the city manager's comments at our recent meeting a couple weeks ago. And he outlined that pretty well. And so that could be a good refresher. I had the opportunity today to speak at the WIDA conference. It's here in town, Washington Economic Development Association. This is a room full of people from around the state that are brainstorming together, networking. I had to give Amanda Wallner a shout out because she helped get this convention here and so we had a good time at that meeting and good to have these people here checking out our community checking out the wineries they visited or they will be visiting Lam Weston they also took a tour of a TI. And so they're really impressed, and they love our sunshine, even though it's smoky. So things are going well. Another highlight for me, other than taking the cruise boat tour with Pat, that was nice, got to participate in the groundbreaking for Habitat for Humanity and an additional three homes here in Richland, Badger Mountain South. And many of you know that I just think that organization is a win-win-win. They produce the homes that impact the community. They impact the families. They provide opportunities for people to volunteer, a real strong sense of community, and just really love