City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

All right. So I call the meeting of August 3rd, 2026 to order at 6 p.m. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I'd like to call on Taylor Ford for the invocation, please.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness over our lives. And I thank you, God, for each and every person in this room today, those on council and those observing. And Lord, I just thank you for just your plan over our city. Thank you for all the good things you're doing this summer in our city. And I pray you continue to Just give our leadership guidance and wisdom on how to lead and discern the times. Lord, I'd be remiss not to pray for our friends on the east side of the state and our neighbors that are struggling today, many without homes and evacuated from the fires. And so would you be their source of refuge today? Would you empower the churches and the local communities in that region to be a source of help in this time of need? And we just ask for your provision over them. Guide this team for the matters that matter to our city today. May we be focused on the things that matter to the people here. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. All right. Will the clerk please call the roll? Elfers?

Here.

Evers? Here. Hochstetter?

Here.

Kenna?

Here.

Malcolm?

Here.

Woolsey? Here. All members are present. Thank you. Will the clerk please read the consent agenda? Item number one, resolution number 1756, authorizing 166th Avenue East annexation petition to be circulated. Item number two, approval of the meeting minutes from the regular council meeting of July 6th, 2026, July 20th, 2026. AND JULY 27, 2026 STUDY SESSION. ITEM NUMBER 3, 24TH EMERGENCY STORM REPAIR CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT RATIFICATION. ITEM 4, BRIER AVENUE TRAIL DESIGN CONTRACT AMENDMENT. ITEM 5, SALMON CREEK CULVERTS DESIGN CONTRACT AMENDMENT. ITEM 6, WHITE RIVER RESTORATION PROJECT CHANGE ORDER NUMBER 5. ITEM 7, HARRISON AND STATE SEWER PROJECT CHANGE ORDER RATIFICATION. Item 8, approval of Councilmember Malcolm appointed to the Public Safety Committee. And Item 9, approval of checks and electronic payments in the amount of $3,767,566.42. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Elpers, would you please make a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I'd like to make a motion to adopt the consent agenda of August 3rd, 2026.

Is there a second?

Yes, I'll second.

SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER KENNA. WOULD ANY COUNCILMEMBER WISH TO REMOVE AN ITEM? ALL RIGHT. IF NO ONE WANTS TO REMOVE ANYTHING, THEN ALL IN FAVOR?

AYE.

OPPOSED? THANK YOU. PASSES UNANIMOUSLY. ALL RIGHT. SO TONIGHT FOR PUBLIC HEARING WE HAVE NOTHING. So that will push us on to regular business. So unfinished business, there's no unfinished business tonight. So that'll move us on to public comment. Michelle, did anyone sign up for public comment?

Yes, Mayor. We have Mr. Adams from Sumner, Washington.

All right. So is there anyone on Zoom? Thank you. All right, so I'll read the rules. The rules for public comment. The purpose of these meetings is to conduct the important business of the city, and that often means the city council is making difficult policy or budgetary decisions. With that said, I want to share a few rules and reminders that I will be enforcing to encourage respectful and orderly public comment. As a reminder, the public comment section of the meeting is a time for the council and myself to hear from members of the public on topics not on tonight's agenda. And while it may feel awkward, this is not a time for the council or myself to answer questions or engage in back and forth debate. At the conclusion of your comments, I may request that the appropriate staff member contact you for further discussion. So number one, please keep your comments relevant to city business and about matters over which the city council has control. Number two, all council members and city staff deserve respect and dignity. Please refrain from disorderly or disruptive speech or conduct, personal attacks, name calling, rude or offensive statements, obscenities, derogatory comments directed at individuals, and hate speech. If you don't comply with this rule, I will interrupt you with a reminder and then may choose to suspend you from continuing or have you removed from the meeting. Number three, we have behavioral expectations. We will all model courtesy and respect. This includes those of us on the dais and members of the public are expected to do the same. Audience members, to ensure every speaker feels comfortable speaking, please do not clap, boot, or speak while another person is addressing the council. Number four, please speak into the microphone. Comments are broadcasted and recorded via the mics. Please start your comments by stating your name and the city in which you reside for our record. You will have three minutes to speak. Mr. Adams.

Good evening, counsel. You have as coming attractions the topic of best twos, which the planning commission is now considering. That identifies four different sizes of lithium battery sites placed right here in the middle of our neighborhoods. What we have not addressed is that California firefighters unions are fighting against these smaller lithium battery sites because they have had the experience of fighting the large best fires and the firefighters who did have damaged lungs, rendering some of them not being able to work for a year, others permanently disabled. Knowing this and them having all the up-to-date safety equipment didn't properly protect them, what chance do we have? Why can't we just push pause on best two sites in the Sumner? Snoqualmie placed a 12 month moratorium on best sites so that they can do studies to go against possible wrong claims by the developer. Not just to say no, they're saying we want to educate and that's what we should be doing also. They are spending $500,000 to ensure that they protect their citizens and get unbiased information. Instead, we spent $250,000 just for the opportunity to demolish the Ryan House. I guess priorities. I don't know. Time is your ally because technology is advancing quickly, and the next generation of storage batteries will not have the highly volatile lithium as a part of them. The market is moving properly to correct this huge risk. Let's help it by doing our part in waiting till the next generation of batteries come on board. In New York, a county water authority is suing Best Developer there because their water supply has been contaminated from a 23 fire as the toxic metals that fell on the over a million gallons of water that were poured onto the adjacent battery stacks to keep them from overheating too have ended up in their aquifer and forced them to shut down their wells. As we all hope, that never happens to us. But that's the exact scenario that we could be looking at. It's right on top of our aquifer, and that water's got to go somewhere. And it's either going to go down the Derringer ditch or the ditch behind Derringer to the flue from the White River or, yeah, from Puget Sound's plant that drains into the White River Reclamation Project, or it's going to go into our aquifer. That's what your options are. The bottom line for us is that we're going to make approximately $1 million in taxes in exchange for playing this game of Russian roulette with our water supply and citizens where the toxic fallout lands. At Moss Landing, it was over five miles away from the site. I'll just go there. Thank you kindly.

Thank you. All right. So we will now move on to new business. No audience members want to speak. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to new business. Ordinance number 2973, updating the development fees. Oh, Council Member Hochstetter. No?

I'm just preparing for the next.

Okay. You're just ahead. All right.

You know me, Mayor.

I know. You're ready to go, man. All right. Ordinance number 2973, updating the development fee service schedule. Council Member Hochstetter, would you please make a motion?

Yes, I'd like to make a motion updating the development fee service schedule.

Is there a second? Council Member Kenna.

I'll second.

Thank you. It has been moved and seconded to approve ordinance number 2973, updating the development fee service. I'd now like to call on Development Services Director Doug Beagle.

Great. Good evening, Mayor, Council. I'm here tonight to introduce ordinance 2973. As you know, we had a previous study session on this going over development services fee and you received information from our consultant about the various things that we were trying to accomplish to get back to full recovery. So I am here to introduce Introduce this and the other thing that words is also will do is create a new development services fund and an establish an effective date With that I'd be happy to answer any questions All right looks like there's no questions Oh deputy mayor offers I Was just curious

Right now, just curious on the question that came up on the public comment. So is there the opportunity to recover fees on everything? I think on the email we received that they said, oh, what if we recover fees on parks, people using parks? Is that even a?

Yeah, that's not even in our purview. Okay. For development services, you know.

Yeah, I just wanted to just make sure I understood that, because I think that was some comment about a slippery slope, and I think this is quite a bit different than the .

Council sets park fees separate from development services fees, so.

Okay. Yeah. Okay, perfect. I THINK THE OTHER QUESTION I HAD IS, SO RIGHT NOW, CAN YOU JUST RECALL, SO RIGHT NOW OUR FEES AREN'T COVERING OUR COSTS, IS THAT CORRECT?

CORRECT. RIGHT NOW WE'RE ON AVERAGE COVERING ABOUT 75% OF OUR EFFORTS.

SO IF SOMEBODY GOES AND GETS A PERMIT TO DO A REMODEL OR DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, SO THE COST OF THE STAFF'S TIME IS NOT BEING COVERED.

CORRECT. AND SO WHO'S PAYING FOR THAT? IT'S BEING SUBSIDIZED BY THE GENERAL FUND.

GENERAL FUND. SO THE WHOLE CITY IS PAYING FOR IT EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT DOING PROJECTS. CORRECT. JUST SO THAT, OKAY. AND SO THIS, OKAY, I GOT IT. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. So, Council Member Kenna, I understand that you have an amendment.

Yes, I do. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I move to amend Section 4A to read Development Review Services shall target full 100% cost recovery for commercial permit fees and 85% cost recovery for residential permit fees through the adopted fee schedule.

Is there a second? Council Member Malcolm.

Seconded.

Okay. Let's see. Do we have any comments from the public?

Madam Mayor.

Yes.

Can you have Council Member McKenna speak to his motion?

Yes.

Yeah, got it. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, so I'm proposing this amendment tonight. If you've been following the discussion about development services fees, as Doug has articulated, I think we all understand the need to recover more of our costs associated with both commercial and residential. I think at this point in time, based upon the numbers that we've been talking about, discussions with some of my fellow council members as well i i really would prefer to stick with a full cost recovery on commercial and try to step up that residential burden a little bit but not to the full amount at this point in time i know city administrator jason wilson also intimated that this is something we should look at you know five years down the road or so and so In my mind, this is kind of a way to baby step us there on the residential side of things, ease the burden on people that are improving their homes, converting their garages, doing AD conversions as well. remodeling their bathroom. And I do understand concerns about those fees being carried by other residents that are not making those upgrades. There's a lot of services that the city provides that the public sector as a whole provides that some people don't use. Some people don't go to our parks. Some people don't go to our libraries. Those are still community goods and services. And I think if we can increase the livability here, and allow people to stay and live here. Maybe that requires a bathroom remodel or a conversion of their garage or whatever that might be. I think it increases the value of people's homes and the livability here. So that's why I'm proposing this. Again, the intent is to get us most of the way there. As I understand it, commercial is the biggest piece of the pie that we're missing right now. And I do believe it gets us most of the way there. And it does allow us to just ease the burden on the residential increase. And then I would encourage staff to bring this up five years or so down the road and see how we're doing and what we're missing out on there.

All right. Thank you. Any comments on the amendment from the public? Yes. Council Member Kennes. Yes. Yes. You have a comment? Would you please let Mr. Adams come up and speak? Thank you.

Prior to his, so I'll include those if that's all right on this.

Yes.

On his comments on his, just on his, just on his, I think that's a great idea.

Okay, that's a great comment that you made there. Thank you very much. Do we have anyone on Zoom? Nope. Okay, thank you. Any comments from the council? Nope. Okay. Deputy Mayor Elfers. Thank you.

I just, I appreciate the amendment. Um, I think that the dollar amount is so minimal that it's not really providing a lot of relief for residential permits. And I also think it, it doesn't, it just, it's simpler just to cover, recover all the costs on this. I just think it doesn't, I've never heard of anybody having a project that, that was impacted by this, this specific permit because it's just such a small part of the project cost.

Thank you. All right. So, um, Before we vote, we're going to, on this amendment from Council Member Kenna, if by chance this is a tie, can you tell me what happens here, City Administrator Wilson?

Thank you, Mayor. First off, you need to vote on the amendment, and if that ties 3-3, then the amendment would fail, and then you'd move on to the original ordinance that was before you for consideration.

So we're going to vote on the original amendment?

Right now, you're going to vote on the amendment that Council Member Kennard just made. Yes. And if it ties, it fails. If it passes, then you vote on the ordinance as amended. If it fails, then you just vote on the original ordinance. Got it. All right. And Mayor, just from a procedural standpoint, After you take the vote on the amendment, I would open it back up for public comment because I think Mr. Adams had comments that were not related specifically to council member Kenna's statement.

All right. Okay. All right. So is everybody clear on what we're voting on? All right. Well, the clerk, please call the roll.

Kenna?

Yes.

Elfers?

No.

Malcolm?

Yes.

We'll see. Yes. Evers? Yes. Hochstetter?

Yes.

Passes 5-1.

Okay. So we'll now vote on Ordinance 2973 as amended. Will the clerk please call the roll? Oh, public comment for Mr. Adams. All right, Mr. Adams, do you have comments you'd like to make? Thank you.

In regards to the increase in the permit fees, there are a lot of unanswered questions going back 20 years using that as the benchmark to compare and contrast against what we do now. How many permits were issued that year and what was the gross revenue from them? How many employees were in that unit and what's the total cost for those employees? What increases in wages should we rightfully calculate moving forward for the last 20 years? How much of the shortfall is from an increase in wages, employees, or permits issued now? Did we operate at a surplus or a negative balance back then? With us proudly stating that we offer free advice in consulting for potential permit seekers, what is the cost of that service that is included in the $350,000 shortfall? Before seeking to reach 100% in revenue costs, we should roll up our sleeves and answer all those questions to determine if this shortage is simply due to wage increases over 20 years or more employees due to increase in permits, or if there has always been a shortage for that department as a part of the city's process. Today, we don't have those answers, and those should be answered. Keeping the free advice service means that everyone who gets a permit will pay for that service regardless of if they use it or not. When somebody else is paying when it's 100%, there is no free lunches. My remarks are not to be interpreted as an attack on Doug. He is the director overseeing this department and rightly supporting and fighting for those who work for him and under him and is commended for doing so. I greatly respect his efforts. This is questioning the lack of information provided by our paid consultant who gave you a sales pitch to come back rarely to stay on top of this. Please remember that Sumner is at 75%. There were only two other cities that were higher yet none of them at 100% in those numbers were not disclosed. There were five or more cities significantly lower than us and those numbers weren't disclosed to you either. We did see that Edgewood is making huge money in permits, yet we all know all we have to do is drive up Meridian from Puyallup towards Federal Way to see the abomination of apartments that have instantly popped up on Meridian to see where they got all of their revenue from. Hopefully that's not what we have in sight for Sumner. Let's take a short break and get more relevant facts so you can have an informed decision. For the city that is squeezing 350,000 here, 0.1% sales tax last year and wanting 0.1% sales tax this year for police, it seems that we have no money. Compare that with staff telling you that they will pay for the $29 million phase three and four of the canal block park with cash. Something doesn't add up with squeezing for money left and right, yet we're told we're flush with cash. Those two things just don't fit.

We will now vote on Ordinance 2973 as amended. Will the clerk please call the roll? Ophirs? Council Member Ophirs?

I had a question.

Can we pull it back for a second? Yes, I'm happy to pull it back.

Okay.

So who do you have a question for?

Doug, maybe? I think Doug. I was just going to ask you a couple questions about it. So since we did the amendment, I just want to make sure I understand. So the amendment... Does that, does this ordinance include us making this into an enterprise fund, or is that? Oh, not on. I was on.

You're now.

I'M JUST CURIOUS, DOES THIS ORDINANCE INCLUDE, WE TALKED ABOUT AT THE STUDY SESSION, TURNING THIS SERVICE INTO AN ENTERPRISE FUND. IS THIS SEPARATE THAN THE ORDINANCE OR IS THAT INCLUDED? IT'S PART OF THE ORDINANCE.

IT WILL CREATE AND ESTABLISH THE ENTERPRISE FUND.

THAT DOESN'T CHANGE WITH THE AMENDMENT. WE'RE STILL DOING THAT. OKAY. AND THEN IS THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONAL STAFF TIME TO DO THE AMENDED ORDINANCE?

THERE WILL BE A LITTLE BIT, BUT NOT MUCH. We have the fee schedule currently at 100%, and we'll work with our consultant to reduce the residential permits down to the 85%. So it's two, three hours maybe I would expect from a consultant, and then some staff time, probably half a day, to make sure that it's in the system correctly.

Okay, so not a significant difficulty to change it to 85%. Okay, perfect. And then Jason, I had a question for you on the – on the amendment, if we vote on this amended ordinance and it was a tie, how would that work?

Yeah, if the vote is a tie, it fails. So if it's a 3-3 vote tonight on the amended ordinance, it's a fail.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else? Questions? Good. All right. Now we will vote on Ordinance 2973 as amended. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Ulfers?

Yes. Malcolm? Yes.

Wilsey? Yes. Evers? No. Hochstetter?

Yes.

Kenna?

Yes.

Passed 6-0. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Moving on to Ordinance Number 2972, Code Text Amendment, Food Truck Pods. Council Member Wilsey, would you like to make a motion?

Yes, I would like to make a motion for Ordinance Number 2972, Code Text Amendment, Food Truck Pods.

Thank you. Can we get a second? Deputy Mayor Elfers.

I'll second that.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance number 2972, code text amendment, food truck pads. I call on Braden Shannon, assistant planner.

Thank you for that. ALL RIGHT. HELLO, COUNCIL. I HAVE MY SLIDE SHOW PRESENTATION TO TALK ABOUT ORDINANCE NUMBER 2972, WHICH IS AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND OUR FOOD TRUCK CODE AND ADOPT FOOD TRUCK PODS AS A LAND USE CATEGORY. SO IN HERE, WHAT IS PROPOSED, PRIMARILY IT IS TO IMPLEMENT THIS FOOD TRUCK POD CATEGORY AS WELL AS PROVIDE AMENDMENTS FOR FOOD TRUCKS THAT Currently we don't have very clear ones. And we would like to aim to lessen and support food truck, the burden that's presently on for temporary food truck operators. So what else is happening for this? There is a draft program guideline for temporary food truck operators working within city limits that we are putting together that will basically provided an administrative process to streamline temporary operators. So these changes are proposed because as of now, current regulations have been shown to be minimal and confusing with only two sections in our code that gear towards food truck operations. And presently, if you're looking to host a temporary food truck on private property, it would require a temporary use permit, which having gone through the process, or seen it go through, it is not a very efficient process for that business model. And as we've reviewed this code, it has opened the door to look into that land use designation for food truck pods and introduce that land use category. This slide is simply just to expand on that program guideline and talk about the amendments made for temporary food trucks. Going through this, changes that have been made are distancing requirements from restaurants and the proposed food truck pods as well as from special events and putting in different surfacing or amending the surfacing requirements for temporary food truck operations to, again, lessen the burden for these business models that are intended to be temporary and not permanently set, as opposed to the food truck pods, which are seeking to implement this land use category. And these would be, food truck pods would be these developments that are there semi-permanently and go through the permit process to have those developments pretty much be effectively permanent. but those food truck pods may come and go. They have hookups built in and developed, and the sites go through a process similar to any other site development permit. We do have one part of the code putting in was the parking that had some discussion within prior meetings. We did land on two parking spaces per food truck on the site, as well as just an emphasis on utilizing the cooperative parking facilities presently within our code. essentially would mean that if they have two sites, it's an accessory use food truck pod. The existing business can apply and make some sort of movement to be like, hey, we want to reduce our parking requirements. Could we apply the cooperative parking facility? We have two similar uses on the site that may go by the sum of the greater use rather than adding them all together. Otherwise, moving in, another big part was what zonings it would be shown to be permitted in. And as proposed, it would be outright permitted for principal and accessory in the commercial districts, industrial districts, and the town center, with an additional allowance within our East Sumner Urban Village overlay for multifamily developments with 100 plus units as an accessory use, just as a potential amenity option for this. And that would also only be within the medium density residential and high density residential where those are permitted. Other than that, these last couple slides are just on food truck pod examples. So a principal use example is at Oak Tree Station in Camas, Washington. This was a 7,000 square foot park that was developed to host 20 plus vendors. They provide utility hookups on the site. And the site is just a place where they host events. They have the food truck diverse options. no other use on the site besides these. Otherwise, an accessories example, which might be more commonly seen, is Midtown Yacht Club in Bend, Oregon. They have six to eight food trucks on the site, and the food truck uses accessory to the principal taproom on site. Allows for the outdoor dining combined business model that usually has people interacting with both uses on site, and seems to be a popular business. Otherwise, just where we're at in the process, we recently had the Community Development Committee meeting on July 22nd with the public hearing with Planning Commission on July 9th. Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval to City Council for this option, and Community Development Committee voted do pass on Ordinance 2972. That's the end of the presentation. I'll hand it back to you, Chair, for questions.

Thank you. Do we have any comments from the public? Anyone on Zoom? Thank you. Any comments from council? Deputy Mayor Elpers?

Yeah. Thank you, Braden. I appreciate it. I was just curious. I saw the Planning Commission and it sounds like they supported and CD Committee did as well. I'm just curious if you had anybody from the public or from the industry have any comments or any concerns that were brought up in that at all?

Yeah. At some point in April, we had a board member an open house and we brought the food truck plot ordinance just there and it seemed it seemed we only had a few interactions and one portion that came up was geared towards the temporary food truck operations which I believe it's like section one of the ordinance that talks about business license requirements whether people pay additional fees to get specific city requirements for these temporary operators or it seems to be a differing decision made by differing jurisdictions that kind of took that into account of having kind of Pierce County regulations versus other ones on top of this and applied that there. But the only real discussion revolved around those.

Is our current code have different or conflicting requirements in Pierce County?

I'm unsure, but it's kind of the overhead costs that were the thought there. Okay, thank you.

All right, Council Member Kenna.

Yeah, thank you, Braden. Can you explain, go back into the parking element of it? Specifically, does on-street parking count for those two spaces that are required?

Depends, I believe, on the scheme designation. Can you tap his lectern on?

I don't control him.

Okay, somebody control. Sorry, do I keep I keep clicking the button? I think I'm conflicting. I'll not touch it. Yeah. I believe it would only apply in the town center. But somebody please correct me if I'm wrong for on street parking, counting towards that. And he's pulling the microphone.

Good evening, Council. Ryan Windisch, your Community and Economic Development Director. The parking requirement would be for off-street parking. Okay.

So can I just ask a little more detailed question? So I'm trying to envision a couple lots that this might, you know, work in. And I don't, like, there's a couple lots that are like undeveloped. They're just kind of, there's one on Main and Valley there in particular. And I don't really see any specific parking. Would they have to then provide parking and designate and stripe certain parking spaces there, just using that as a hypothetical example? Like a gravel space that's not marked or whatever would not necessarily count, even if there was area for it.

I mean, they would come in for a permit and provide us with a site plan showing where they're going to park and then showing where the parking's going to be.

Okay. So as long as they had a plan for that, that would be adequate. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Council person, Wilsey.

Hi, how are you doing?

How are you?

Good. Um, I was in the CD committee and we did a do pass. Um, so I just wanted to clarify what you're asking for tonight is just the change in the code verbiage, correct? So we're changing the code to meet the, what your, what the food truck pod, will look like in the future. Correct. Yes. Yeah. We haven't established anything else. It's just the code.

Yes. Perfect. It's all code regulation. Okay.

Yeah. And then I wanted to say thank you. Being on the front end of, so we're starting to use our public spaces for some of these fun projects and community event spaces. And so this actually will preemptively create a positive. We're already ready for all the food trucks to come in. So that's great. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other? Oh, Council Member Hockstetter.

Thank you, Braden. I just like Nicole, I sit in the community development committee and all the information you shared with us, I think I asked a lot of questions as far as how attitudes have kind of shifted as far as the food trucks. I can remember Way back, there was a real concern of protecting the brick and mortars and people who've invested in this community and built their restaurants, and a lot of them put their lives into it. And as far as a food truck rolling up close to them, that was something that I asked in our meeting, and it sounds like there is... some guidelines as far as how close you can park to other restaurants and things like that that are mindful of that. What we've seen is food trucks, food's a common language for so many people as far as an attraction and a draw and we're looking for economic development and food trucks are such a draw. So, you know, when I was with our, I coached tennis at the high school and I took the tennis boys over to a state tournament in Kennewick and they built this beautiful like covered area and then they had like 20 food trucks come park around it and that place was hopping which is hundreds of people such an attraction. So I think I think it's a good time that we reduce some of the red tape because a lot of these food trucks is there they're operating on like razor razor thin margins and if they come in and they just get hit you know with more fees or it takes some more time to get in a lot of times it's not worth their time so I'm in favor of this.

Great thank you anyone else. Okay. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Elfers? Yes. Malcolm?

Yes.

Wilsey? Yes. Hockstetter?

Yes.

Kenna?

Yes.

Elfers?

Yes.

Pass 6-0. Thank you. Thank you, Braden. Thank you. All right. We will now move on to reports starting with the council, so we'll start with Council Member Wilsey. There we go.

Thank you. So good evening. I am the head for public safety now. So just a quick public safety report for the month of July. Everything's looking good. Our numbers are pretty steady. There hasn't been a whole lot of changes to our police or fire as far as higher calls or anything like that. The 4th of July was actually, you know, right on track. We only had four calls in the city. So that was good. One, unfortunately, hurt and a couple of fires. So, yeah, that was good news because everybody got to celebrate without any damage. I want to remind everybody about the Chalk Art Festival coming up August 8th. Super fun Saturday at Loyalty Park. And then Sip Sumner is coming up, and it is the Urban Cowboy edition. So that will be August 15th, 4 to 7. That's it for me. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Alpers.

I don't have anything to report this week.

Thank you. Council Member Evers.

Nothing to report, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. I think I serve as chair on the Community Development Committee, and we just discussed that. Braden, Assistant Planner, went through everything on that. I do just want to commend everyone who's working on the concerts downtown. Every time I've gone, I've had such a blast. My kids are having a blast. How Pops Alley is now incorporated with it. It's just been a win-win, I think. So, you know, everyone who's worked on it, from Carmen to Lana to the staff, um to everybody who's presented before the bands to kind of get everyone excited i think i think we've got good momentum and i hope we even take it further next year great thank you council member malcolm thank you mayor

Just wanted to echo Council Member Hochstadter's comments around Music Off Main. That was a wonderful series this year. It was cool to come down and see so many people. Great coordination with Main Street, Sumner Main Street. Great coordination with the vendors. It was very fun. And shout out to Lana for pulling off a great event. Shout out to our operations folks. Every night I got to say goodnight to them as they were rolling up their sleeves and doing their second shift. And great work by our police. It was good to see the police presence walking around and being there. So it felt very safe and very fun and well attended. Also, I wanted to just shout out to our sister cities in eastern Washington with the fires going on. I have a brother in Omak and a brother in Spokane and a nephew who's a firefighter over there. And I know it's just a difficult time for them over there right now. So I just wanted to

just publicly comment that you know all of us even here on the on the west side our our hearts are out for them so that's my comments thank you great thank you council member kenna sure thank you mayor um yeah i'll just on the back of that say that i'm i'm from spokane um spent uh 25 years or so growing up there a great community i have family and friends that are you know, waiting for evacuation orders and dealing with smoke and, you know, air quality, livability, those types of things. So, yeah, let's hope that things die down a little bit. They get some relief in terms of weather and firefighters can kind of catch their breath because it's pretty hairy over there. So please keep them in your thoughts. I'm going to report out on the Public Works Committee. This is kind of one of those things that's always kind of funky because we pass a lot of things on the consent agenda. We have been talking about them for a little while, but I'm going to just give you a quick update on some of those. So we approved emergency repair funds retroactively for 24th Street. That's kind of up in the warehouse area off of 142nd. That was as a result of the storms in the winter. We had a storm main collapse that needed immediate repair, so we did kind of make that happen. make funds available for that quickly because we had to fix it. The site was initially secured in late February and work was completed in early May. We also received some federal funding through the Puget Sound Regional Council to fully fund the design and construction of the Friar Avenue Trail. That project is scheduled to be advertised for bid late this year and construction hopefully complete by the end of 27. And then update on the White River restoration project. With the current phase of the project only partially constructed during the December floods, there was some early critical flood relief that it did provide us, even though we had only really just started from those storms. But the partially constructed project area experienced some flood damage that necessitates repair and further protection along the affected areas. Requiring additional funding so the city has to fund this repair effort But city staff members are currently working directly with FEMA to determine what costs are eligible for federal reimbursement The current phase of the White River restoration project will be fully operational by this fall With a future phase design and construction scheduled for the next three to five years And then lastly as we met last week We always have the Public Works Committee And then right after that, we would follow on a quarterly basis with the joint advisory committee. That's kind of our partnership with the city of Bonnie Lake on wastewater treatment that we share. So we discussed the biosolids modernization project and its progress, including the history and the growth of the plant over 70 years. It was built in 1956. Construction on the biosolids modernization project began in June of this year, and it's estimated to be complete in early 2028. We're going to get a brand new dryer, get an upgrade to the UV system, and there's some other elements in there to help ensure we're properly treating our waste and meeting the continued standards required by the state. And Bonnie Lake is a great partner in this effort, and they came down here and visited with us and asked lots of good questions. Yeah, we're moving forward with them on that project. So that's all I have, Mayor.

Great. Thank you. I call on City Administrator Jason Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a short report tonight. Coming up next week, you'll be conducting your council vacancy interviews. We have eight applications. They are all available on our website currently, and they'll also be included in your council packet that'll be distributed probably tomorrow. On August 17th at the regular council meeting, you'll be appointing somebody to council. We'll hold a public hearing for an intergovernmental transfer of the Bill Heath Sports Complex to the Sumner-Bonnie Lake School District, and you'll consider an ordinance that adds some code provisions related to the use of e-motorcycles on our streets. Happy to answer any questions.

Questions?

Thank you.

All right, thank you. Okay, so with that said, As others up here have stated, you know, my thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues in Spokane. I too lived over there for a length of time. And they're going through a lot over there. We're in communication with a lot of our friends that still live on that side. And even if they're not necessarily impacted by the fires, they are heavily impacted by the smoke. So they're just facing horrible time over there. So just everyone keep your positive thoughts with them. And then I am having another coffee with Carla this Thursday, and this time I'm going to be in Heritage Park over there under the umbrellas, so stop by from 4 to 5 and say hello. It should be a good time. The last one that we just had a couple weeks ago had a great turnout. We'll be posting the comments and questions in the e-news here in the near future. But a lot of great input, and it was really good to see a lot of positive comments. In fact, the first person that spoke up was very positive about someone from the city staff that had been to her house, so it was great to hear. And then road striping. This Wednesday and Thursday, we'll have Pierce County here refreshing our roads. They're going to be striping many of our roads. The map's on our city website, but it's pretty much all of our major arterials, so please be patient. Please don't drive around and drive on wet paint. Just be patient. Last year, somebody did that, and then we ended up dribbling paint all the way from here to darn near Auburn. And when I was on council, I heard a ton about that. So many people were mad about this wet paint dribble down the street. So please be patient. And then last call for our budget survey. So this week is your last chance to take the city's budget priorities survey. There's so many things we'd love to get done in the next two years, but we're going to have to prioritize our limited funding. So if you don't take the survey, that means we're making choices based on what other people told us, not your thoughts and opinions. So please be sure to share by this Friday. So take that survey. It's a great way to get the input from the community. And then finally, chalk art. So as was mentioned, a couple of things. So our concert series was a lot of fun. It was great. I think at least two people up here on the council could do side gigs as emcees. It was really good. Well, I've only heard two so far, you know, but one of them, I thought we were going to have to pull the plug so the music could start, but I'm not going to mention who kicked it off on Friday.

We did. We gave him a full tablet. Yes.

It was fun. And then I added a few things, so he had to get his long list. So it was really good, but thank you guys for doing that and volunteering. And so we'll be looking forward to that coming back with this said though we do have the chalk art festival and I would ask everybody if they can to stop by it starts Saturday at 3 30. It's all ages. We're encouraging anybody with kids. Did you talk to your kids? To see if they want to vote, you know, judge, to judge the different levels. It's really fun. And we've got some great artists that come in and draw with that chalk art. It is really, really cool. So just know that's at Loyalty Park starting at 3.30. And then our last music off main is with a local band. They start at 6.30, Santa Poco. So that's Andy and his group. But just know we have all kinds of creativity with the chalk art So I would just tell everyone have a rest of the week have it be safe and take it easy It's going to be hot so try and stick cool all right, so with that said we have no executive session tonight So I will adjourn with no further business before the council this meeting is adjourned at 6 48 p.m.. I