City Council - workshop

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They go all the time. Oh my God, it's the best. We're ready. All right. I'd like to call to order the study session of August 10th, 2026 at 6 0 5 PM. All right. Thank you. So study session business tonight. All members are present up here. So a study session business is council vacancy. So I call on city administrator, Jason Wilson.

All right. All right, good evening, council and mayor. Tonight we're going to be going through the appointment process review for the vacant city council position. Tonight is the oral interview phase of that. So as a reminder, this process is governed by state law as well as your own council rules, which are adopted under resolution number 1695. Uh, in order to hold elected office in the state of Washington, you must have continuously resided within the Sumner city limits for a minimum of one year prior to the appointment. And you must be registered to vote in the city of Sumner. Uh, this is what we consider a short term, which means that this position will be on the ballot in November of 2027 and we'll, uh, whoever you appoint will fill the role until the election is certified generally, uh, right around Thanksgiving of November. So the process, we went through an advertisement. We collected applications. Those have been disseminated to the public as well as council for review. And tonight is the interview. We'll go through the appointment process next week and then swear the new councilmember in on August 24th. So we did receive eight applications. Ms. Petetto did withdraw after the application period closed. All of the remaining applicants do meet the minimum qualification under your rules and state law. So under your rules, the interview is to be held at the first available study session, which is tonight. The order was set by random draw. We do have one applicant. The first one, Ms. Grassman, will be participating via Zoom. So she'll be online here with us in just a moment. The applicants not being interviewed may be asked to leave the room, but they're not required. They all are staying in the adjacent council conference room for now. And the questions were provided to the applicants in advance. The interview questions are listed up here on the screen, and they are also included in your packet. Each applicant will have 10 minutes to respond to these five prompts. It's not a question and answer. They'll just be going down and responding to each one of these prompts in that 10-minute timeframe. Council is allowed to ask follow-up questions. I will just caution Council that if it's a follow-up question, it should be based on some unique set of circumstances for that candidate. If it's a general question, it should be asked to every single candidate. You are allowed to have an executive session to discuss the qualifications of the applicants for public service. However, it is limited to just qualifications. There is no straw voting in that executive session. We do have an executive session scheduled for the end of this meeting. Next week, you'll go through the appointment process, and as a review for that, you can have another executive session at the beginning of next week's meeting, once again, just to discuss those qualifications. Then we'll do a call for nominations. No second is required, so each of you could nominate one person in theory. Nominations are then closed by a motion, second, and a majority vote of counsel. And then there will be a public comment period where the public can speak to the candidates that were nominated for up to two minutes. And then there's voting, and that's done by roll call vote. It does require a majority of vote, and you can vote as many times as necessary to reach a majority. In the case of a tie, the mayor does have the deciding vote. And then swearing in is scheduled, per your rules, it's supposed to be at the next regular council meeting. That would put it all the way back out into early September. We will be recommending to council that they actually waive their rules temporarily to appoint or to swear in the new council member at the August 24th special council meeting ahead of the study session. Any questions before we get started?

I guess you can go ahead. I don't have control.

Okay, thank you, Mayor. Are you going to share the order of candidates? I will, just a second. Okay, thank you. I think that was the only question I had.

Yeah, it looks like all of the council members have control.

Yeah, we'll switch that. Okay, thank you. So the order is Gratitude Project, Gibson, McFarland, Isaacs, Behrman, Medford. And I can read those one more time if council would like.

Please.

Please. All right. Grassman, Zydek, Knutson, McFarland, Isaacs, Bierman, Medford.

And that's the philosophy that I'd be bringing into this position and the experience of doing that that I would be bringing into this position. As far as community service is concerned, I talked a little bit in my application about my work on the Maple Lawn PTA. That's been very gratifying. I was an art docent this last year and that was out of my comfort zone because I'm not necessarily an artist, but that was a lot of fun doing that. And of course I've done other community events through the school. On a broader level, I have a lot of experience working on kind of statewide commissions and task force. As you've seen from my resume, A lot of my professional experience is focused on child welfare, and it's just an issue that's near and dear to my heart. I was a court-appointed special advocate for Pierce County before I went to law school, where I'd been representing children in the foster care system since I was licensed as an attorney in 2013, up until I joined the Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid, where I run their statewide representation program. And in case that wasn't clear, my program provides attorneys to children across the state, children and youth who are in foster care. And we train and kind of oversee their performance. As part of that work, I'm on commissions that work to elevate the care and quality of life for children across the state. Of course, that includes children in Pierce County. My application materials didn't mention the work I do with the Mockingbird Society, which is a nonprofit organization. that works with children who have experienced the foster care system, or I should say young people, they're young adults at this point, who experience the foster care system or homelessness. As a chapter advisor for the Pierce County chapter, I'm also a coordinator for their Youth Advocacy Day events down in Olympia. Even in my time in private practice representing these young people, I had many clients in Sumner. I had many youth who were homeless or experiencing abuse and neglect who had been placed in foster homes in Sumner, who went through the Sumner School District. And it really gives one a kind of firsthand look at something that's kind of hiding in plain sight, that a lot of folks in our community don't realize that this is what's happening even in our own community of Sumner. There was sort of a full circle moment for me in my practice where I was representing a young woman who was at Sumner High School, and we got to bond over a teacher in common that I once had and that she had. And it just brought forward for me just how my investment in this community and my care for this community can be expressed in so many different ways. So that's, again, I think kind of a perspective and a demonstrated commitment to the quality of life that some of our most vulnerable in our society are experiencing, my commitment to elevating that. As far as making unpopular decisions or things that I don't agree with, I kind of chuckled when I was preparing this question because that feels like my day-to-day life as a program director. Again, I'm working with many, many attorneys across the state, and folks might not be surprised to learn that lawyers can be difficult and unpopular and difficult to work with. And the reality is that I have to make tough decisions that impact a statewide program, a statewide panel. I'm in commission spaces and decision-making spaces where I have to be cognizant of different federal regulations and rules, state law, my own agency policy. And it might conflict with what I want to see personally happen. I think the name of the game, especially in government work, and you just, as I mentioned, you just you have to accept that that comes with the territory. When you're a council member, you're serving a greater good and finding, again, where's the commonality? Where's our values? Can we find alignment? Can we push that forward? And that might mean making decisions or taking positions that you don't like. And I think it's important when we make a decision, when there is a final kind of order or decision that's made, then we stand behind it. I think that's also important as members of a council that we're not undermining what decision has been made, but that we're standing behind it, even if we don't particularly like it or agree with it. I have 30 seconds. I don't know that anyone cares to know much else about my personal life, but I love to bake, and I'm always looking for people to eat my baked goods, because my husband does not much of a sweet tooth, so I would... be playing many meetings with baked goods. I also just got into line dancing with my husband, which is a silly thing I never thought I would do, but very much enjoy. And I believe if folks have questions for me, I'm happy to entertain those. Thank you.

Do we have any questions? Deputy Mayor Elfers.

Hi. Hi. Thank you for coming. I appreciate hearing that, and thanks for being a longtime Sumner person. That's great. Yeah. The, uh, two questions. I just, one of them, I just was curious on number three or involvement. I just was curious on the participation and just being aware of the city council. Uh, have you been, could you follow the meetings and have you been familiar with what we're doing lately and what kind of stuff is going on at council level?

So one of the things I've, are you asking for specific things that I'm currently following or just general awareness about the councils?

Well, similar to the last applicant, I just asked, so I think a lot of times people used to come in here to watch meetings and now you can watch them virtually. So it's just hard to know how aware and if you're already watching and paying attention to what we're currently doing and what a council meeting looks like and what things we talk about just generally.

Yeah, so I've watched some council meetings. I have some familiarity with kind of the process and certainly in my line of work, I've had to use like Robert's Rules of Order and those things. I will also say that I've greatly appreciated just as a citizen and my experience of the city as a citizen, the newsletters that get sent out and just kind of all the work that's been going on. As I kind of touched on earlier, that's been part of kind of the inspiration is just seeing, um, laid out before you, uh, quarterly, like what's been going on, the work that the city is doing, all the things that go into it. Um, it, it, it makes one appreciate, um, the level of care and commitment and just hard work that goes into, um, running the city.

Okay. And one more question, just a clarifying question on your written application on number two, you had said, what are the highest priorities? Number one, you said meeting mandates of the state. uh, of the state, a slate of housing laws that went into effect in 20, that was your number one priority. I'm just, can you elaborate a little bit of what, what do you see yourself as a council, but that being your top priority, what does that look like?

Sure. So, I mean, I think for myself and probably most citizens of the city, the growth that we're experiencing is, um, one that needs to be met with, um, you know, great care and thought and concern. And I understand that there's... What I was trying to touch on when I listed this one as kind of a number one priority, there's what the state says we have to do and there's what the citizens might want. And can we find ways to reconcile where there might be tension in those two mandates? I come into this... of the belief and mindset that there's only so much I know as a private citizen. And so my hope would be on the council to have a deeper understanding of all the different kind of pieces that are at play and to be able to identify ways in which we can do what we're legally obligated to do, but in a way that preserves the kind of charm and character and the things that make people want to live in Sumner and make it a great place to live. Is that responsive to your question? Yeah, no, I appreciate that. That's helpful.

All right. Council Member Kenna.

Hi, thanks for joining us tonight. I wanted to hone in on a response to one of the questions. I think it was number three, which is, and I think you touched about it in a little bit in your talking points, but about budgets and said you had mentioned you kind of are responsible for a $20 million budget. I was wondering, especially as you articulated your programs and just the children that are served and how important their needs are, how do you balance the different needs and priorities when there is so many important things at stake with that. So I'm wondering how you can walk us through some of those difficult decisions about what gets funded, what gets deprioritized, and how that works.

No, thank you. That's a good question. And it's one I'm feeling quite deeply because I'm in the throes of working on my biennial budget right now, which I'm sure you're all familiar with and dealing with currently. I approach it as, I mean, there's gonna be certain operating expenses that are non-negotiables. I mean, you have to be able to, I will use the program as my point of reference. I have to have staff, I have to have infrastructure, right, to be able to administer the program. And then you start getting into the bigger questions of what is my state mandate? So what does the legislature say I have to fund? So I go through and I kind of identify what are the, I have no wiggle room, I have, you know, the non-negotiables. Then when it comes to places where I have a little bit of discretion in how I'm going to allocate my funding in this sort of programs or initiatives that we are going to fund in our effort to meet our legislative mandate. One of the things I've instituted as a director of this program is a lived experience advisory panel, the eight things. I have what I think you guys might need or want when it comes to this program, but what are you as the people who are the impacted community feeling about that? And so that is kind of an unprecedented initiative that I have developed as part of my program and my tenure at OCLA. So that helps inform a little bit more of that kind of discretionary spending. I also need to look at, we're a Title IV-E federal reimbursement program, and so that kind of factors into the sort of flexibility that I might have for new programs and initiatives. I also seek feedback from my team. I'm big on collective wisdom and just getting, you know, I rarely come to a situation thinking I have all the answers. I really value the kind of the experience and perspective that my colleagues bring. And so I use that in my decision-making as well. Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

All right. Anyone else?

Okay.

Thank you very much. Thanks so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you. The next person is Robert Knudson.

Hi, I'm Rob Knudson. I'm here to speak with these questions that you gave us for over a week now. You've given us opportunity to potentially rehearse. Why do I want to serve on City Council? It's because I'm vested in the city. I've only lived here till 2023, but my family are all in Sumner. My wife's been a school counselor since 2003. My daughter's a teacher in Sumner School District. I work in government too. I've been City of Kent employee since 2001. been in front of you guys like yourself and Kent lots and talking about subject matter. It's important serving the city council. Why is serving on council important to you? I just said that. It's an opportunity. It would be an honor. Great opportunity that I think I could help out and use my subject matter that's an expert in transportation, engineering, and also public safety with police at the camp and stuff like that. As a council member, you only have the legal authority to cast one of seven votes. The four is a magic number on that. The philosophy behind that, how it would build consensus and majority support for the program, policy, and regulations. The philosophy has been my consistent listening skills and to understand and to bring constructive questions, possible criticism, but hard thought questions to the person that's presenting so we can make a good decision. Please describe any form of public or community service you have, expanding on your written responses you provided with your application. Most of my experience so far has been vested in hard work at the City of Kent. But as I mentioned earlier, my wife's been a school counselor at Southern Middle since 2003. I've been helping her out ever since, working with the kids. organize pick up games during lunch times because they needed someone to communicate with and have some fun time with. I've worked with my daughter recently. She's going to be a fourth grade teacher this year at Donald Eisenman. Helping her out too with many things beyond my responsibilities with the city of Kent. So that's part of it. And then my My subject expert is in transportation and even most recently in development engineering. I'm kind of the permit expert on a lot of things, wet utilities, dry utilities, that process, land use, critical areas, stuff like that. I've been exposed to a lot. So I have a great diverse skill set that I think that you could I could feed off you, obviously, and you could potentially feed off me. Number four, council matters sometimes, meaning making hard decisions that may not be publicized popular. Go against staff or council recommendations or even your personal perspectives. Can you describe your approach of these difficult decisions by providing any similar examples from your experience? Going back to my days in transportation, we had a program called Traffic Calming. program. And that's when, and we recognize areas of pockets of residents and they were like a recognized council, a neighborhood council. And a lot of the subjects were, Hey, there's speeding going in our neighborhood. We, or we need pedestrian facilities or something like that. So we had this program that it started, I ran it in the early two thousands through about 2013. And the challenges that we had going in front of council is we wanted to continue this program. And its involvement gets people involved. But we didn't have any dollars identified for it. I had to convince the groups that came forward, met out with them, saying, hey, we still need to follow through through the program. and you'd get on a list and potentially when money was identified, you'd be on the list to get maybe like a speed bump or something like that or a traffic circle or some kind of pedestrian facility improvements, stuff like that. So that was tough because I had to motivate them to stay focused on what city could provide and also have a heart of wow, We're doing this for what? And one, it gives them a chance to be educated. So I try to put a good perspective in it to give them an idea of when a car speeds by this window here and you see your peripheral vision, they probably would say it was going 35, 40 miles an hour. And then when we put the gun out in front of the vehicle, it ended up being a little bit less. But again, it gave me an awareness like that. So that was a fantastic program. I'm not sure if you guys have that, but it's something that is really a benefit. So that was my one thing that I could do that I thought was kind of challenging. So Number five, is there anything else you would like to add that would help us get to know you a little better? So yes, there is. It's probably my experience also with public utilities. I worked for Washington Natural Gas, PSE, for about eight years before coming to the city of Kent. My experience with them. And then moving into the transportation field, again, my experience there. Currently, with my development engineering skills, which with all about permits and franchise utilities, I'm a subject extra on franchises with utilities. I know we're all hoping to get more opportunities, maybe a cheaper payment towards internet. And we know Ziply is in here right now. They're putting in their infrastructure. We know we have Comcast. But it's the future. Everybody wants faster speed internet. It is a franchise in Kent. I'm assuming that Ziply got their franchise here now as a utility. They're working the right way, put their infrastructure in the right way. So I've been a project manager for that work that's booming in Kent. We got... We got that. We got, if you heard of Easy Fiber, they're really, they think we're a gold mine. But Zipley's in our area too. So it's my skill set in permitting, transportation, public works, operations, police. I do all the special events at the City of Kent. So I'm aware of temporary traffic control. I'm a certified police officer. flagger instructor for the city. I instruct all the operations, parks, departments. Uh, and I also do a lot of, uh, working with the police with special events. We got castle day parades, a big event every year, show wear center. I organize all those things, make sure there's traffic involved. If police is needed, all this temporary traffic control, I'm a subject expert on. And then, um, It's just my exposure and then, of course, my family. Even though I have skill set, I rely on others. So I have a son that's an officer in Pacific, just north of us. He's a dedicated officer for 10 years. Like I said, my wife. My daughter is in education. And my daughter is going to have her first child, which I'm going to be a grandpa. It feels right. I've always public servant my whole life. Uh, as you can tell, my family is too committed to helping out others and community and stuff like that. So I'm hoping that that leans towards your favor to consider me. And I appreciate your time with everything. Do you have any questions?

Okay. Any questions? All right. Deputy mayor Elvers.

Hey, thank you. It was great to hear about you, and I appreciate your family and all that they do in the community. So I just wanted to ask you a question about your number three as far as your involvement in the community. I think our council meetings are kind of available online, and you can come in person. I think I'm always just kind of curious, as you're getting onto council, it takes a little bit of time to kind of learn how we work. So can you tell me what your experience is watching the council meetings or being here in person? kind of what we're doing?

I can do that. Thanks for asking that question. My time has been invested in the evenings with Kent. So a lot of presentation, a lot of prep work. I have seen the process. I prep. I meet with leadership. We go over what we're going over, whether it's a grant or a program or monies that we want to invest in infrastructure, right-of-way improvements and stuff like that. So I do think I would have obviously a I want to get to work with you guys. I do. I think, you know, you estimate 18 to 20 hours a week. Not at first. I expect to be absorbing a lot more, try to get there, to be a sponge. And then I want to feed off you guys for advice. And, of course, I think I can fit in right away. And because of my presentation skills with the city council and the process I know it takes to do that. So hopefully that helped answer your question. Thanks.

Council Member Kenna.

Hi, thanks for joining us tonight. Just a question, a follow-up about your application materials. You were talking about continuing to innovate and create additional revenue opportunities for the city. And one of the, I guess, solutions you had posited there was about surveying residents to get their suggestions. So I was wondering if you could tease that out a little bit more. It doesn't have to be about that particular topic, but just how you view the relationship with The citizens, I know you gave an example of working with neighborhood councils as well, but how you envision your role on the council in engaging with citizens and getting their input?

So I've only been a resident for three years. So that's why it's a hot topic for me that I don't see as much, at least, unless I go dive into the websites and try to research myself. So it has to be on my radar. I think it's important to do more awareness and do not campaigning, but opportunities to do quarterly things, that you tell the residents, it's a hard day. I had a 10-hour day. We still have dinner plans. We've got events we're going to. So it's really important, I think. My three years' experience here, I haven't seen a lot that's gone directly to my residency. And so I'm hoping that I can improve that by getting the word out better, and that means probably using kind of a door hanger opportunity that we would do in this area. And we would do, you know, we'd maybe create like we did at Kent, create neighborhood boundary limits to get targeting questions and answers because their opinions on the other side of Valley is different from our side versus north and south where we got congestion at 410 that we're dealing with. but yet we have, you know, people traveling too fast through the school zones north of us. So I think if we target certain areas and really dissect them, identify they're different, and then that would help us really get the questions and answers and then solutions that we could come up with. Appreciate it.

Anyone else? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

The next person is Eric McFarland.

42% for this. I'm here to help.

What percentage per person is it?

That's $2,000. Mayor, council members, I would like to serve on the council because

One of my greatest values is love of neighbor. If government is a system by which we determine how to live together, then participating in government, especially on the local level, is how I can most broadly love my neighbors. I love what Sumner is, and I see real potential in what it could become. I also bring a genuine capacity to listen and understand, which I believe is one of the most important skills for anyone representing a community and one of the reasons why I think I would be a great part of the team. An area of interest for me is business retention, especially downtown, and filling vacancies like the old QFC building. I would be interested in exploring what can be done to make filling such places and keeping businesses in Sumner more attractive to interested parties. Doing so can increase revenue for the city, create local jobs, bring vitality to the city, increase public safety, decrease downstream costs, and contribute towards the civic and social structure of the city. Another area of interest is the projected rapid population growth in Sumner. Specifically, what issues such an increase would present to the River Grove neighborhood residents at Sumner's southern end. More people mean a denser bottleneck at the 410-167 intersection, which River Grove residents would still need to traverse to access any other part of Sumner. And in the Lahara event, evacuation is impeded as well. I would be interested in furthering the mission for funding for the River Grove pedestrian bridge. My philosophy on how to build consensus for a program, policy, or regulation has three components. First and foremost, as much as it is possible, build genuine relationships. We are not robots or computers. The same input into two different people can produce entirely different outputs. Government is a system that deals with people. We should have to engage with people to be successful at it. Half the battle in persuasion is simply understanding and being understood. When we understand the concern of people behind a program, policy, or regulation, and they feel understood, there are fewer walls and more open minds. The second component is to build a vision, painting a picture for stakeholders on what the problem is, how the new regulation solves it, and how the future is better with it. And then third, strongly tied to a vision, where possible, Build a prototype, something people can get their hands on, try, or experience for themselves. This is the approach I took as director of academic advising for Western Seminary, both when implementing a new metric in student care policy that wasn't initially received unanimously, and when pitching a plan to replace the school's long-held academic planning tool, saving the school nearly $40,000 a year. My public or community service experiences include the following. I've long volunteered at churches I've attended throughout my life in the organization and execution of events and weekly gatherings, whether in helping with audio visual aspects, set up, tear down, childcare, bus driving. I've been a leader in my church's youth group and young adults group, those especially giving me experience in making group decisions, even with those I disagree with, facilitating discussions and event organization, whether that be a simple game night for the middle school boys to helping organize the annual summer camp. One experience that stayed with me that I've gone through. I once traveled to Denver, Colorado, as part of a group serving local churches and their needs. Part of that trip involved simply walking the streets and talking to whoever we encountered, asking them directly what they believed the city's greatest needs were. It was a simple approach, but it taught me something I still carry with me. that you learn the most about community not by assuming you already understand its problems, but by asking the people living in it and actually listening to the answer. I also spent several years doing work professionally for adults with developmental disabilities, first in in-home support, then as an employment consultant. In both roles, I acted as an advocate for my clients in their efforts towards independence and self-fulfillment in life and work. This included things like support and coaching in meal preparation, grocery shopping, budgeting, interpersonal conflict, searching and applying for jobs, interview preparation, and on the job coaching. Those years taught me much about the dignity and needs of those historically at the periphery of society. I bring those experiences and knowledge with me in whatever role I assume. My approach to making difficult decisions is as follows. First, listening and seeking to understand the need or concern. Second, considering my position, what vows or oaths do I take in adopting the position I'm in? In other words, what do I commit to doing? Third, maintaining respect in word and deed towards those who oppose or disagree with me, acknowledging their needs and concerns and not taking anything too personally. Fourth and finally, ensuring a clear presentation of the why and maintaining consistent communication for what the real win is, not what is most beneficial to me or to my interlocutors, but in this case, what would be most beneficial to the city of Sumner. I face this directly in my role as director of academic advising. Coming out of the COVID era, there was a push for employees at the institution to return to the workplace on a consistent basis. And it fell to me to determine my department's policy on this. I listened to and affirmed my team's concerns, especially regarding the financial burden it placed on those living outside the city, while respectfully pushing back where appropriate. I weighed my own role as an implementer of institutional policy against what I believed was right. I considered how my decision may set up the next director for success or not. And as best I could throughout, I kept coming back to the real win, what best serves the students. Other things of note about me. Having a grasp of basic statistics and experience building KPI dashboards, I understand the importance of quantitative and qualitative measures and how numbers tell a story. But I also know data can be an imperfect measure of what matters. It's important to check whether or not one is chasing numbers for their own sake. Another thing I would like to share is that I spent three years learning and studying American Sign Language. Learning a second language does not make me better or worse candidate for this position. But in the process, I did learn much about those whose native and primary mode of communication, through no fault of their own, is not even on most people's radar. A population that is born here, it's not even an issue of immigration, and is still a linguistic minority. That to say, I also bring a heart bent towards those often unseen and unheard, which again, I take to be an important quality for a council member. Finally, other things that would help you get to know me better. I enjoy running, reading, cooking, baking, and fountain pens. In closing, my family and I have grown to love the city. I think I would be a great addition to the team, and I am excited for Sumner's future. Thank you so much for the opportunity to stand before you today and for your consideration.

Okay, questions. Deputy Mayor Elfers.

Hey, thank you for coming. I appreciate hearing about it, and you're very organized, so I like that. Thank you. A quick question on number three in regards to just being involved in the community. I just was curious, can you just tell us, elaborate a little more specifically on how much you're, are you attending city council meetings, watching them online? Are you tracking what we're doing currently? Can you be more specific on that one?

Yeah. I've been watching city council meetings for the last couple months at least and then going back even further so I can catch up on what's going on of late. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

All right, anyone else? Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Mark Isaacs.

Do you have a cold?

I'm telling you, my allergies were killing me this weekend.

And then I started getting a sore throat.

I thought, okay, this is ridiculous.

It's going away. I mean, I can still smell it, but it's not like it was. My eyes, my nose, my head. Yeah, I'm sure it is. I can't wait to get in there. I'm going to play with my doctor and then I'm going to play with my other doctor. It's kind of crazy. Just in the last two weeks, like, There's like three of you guys. And there's Halos and Blind Dot. And it's like, this is irritating. I just need to take a nap. Well.

Good evening, Council. Thank you for this opportunity here today to revisit and see some new faces. I'll start off with the questionnaire. It's asked why do I want to serve on the City Council? And The next question was if there was anything personal. And I don't think there's anything personal as far as policy, procedure, or regulation that I want out of serving for the council. What comes to mind is serving, learning, continually to be educated, being directly involved with the community. It is meaningful work. It's purposeful work, connecting with neighbors and community members at the same time. as well as the city council. Serving has been in my DNA for over 25 years. I've served as a teacher, I've served as a coach, active community member, and part of the servant leadership model is going above and beyond what you think you're capable of doing for the interests of others. And that is a true passion of mine, not only professionally, but I find it drifting over into my personal life as well. It's really important for me as a servant where actions meet words. I know words are powerful, but actions speak louder and more volume than any type of word can be. I wouldn't expect to have all the answers. I think of my job as a servant on local government, is to listen to the residents, understand the facts, work with other council members as colleagues, and to make decisions that I believe would be in long-term best interest for the future of our city. And even when those decisions are not the easiest or the most popular, which flows right into question number two, my philosophy for that is to first listen and then seek to understand why people might disagree. I think there's a lot of components within that. Emotional intelligence involves with emotions. start identifying what the actual goal is and use the facts to evaluate different ways to reach that specific goal as a council, whether it's a policy or regulation. I don't think the consensus means anything if everyone gets what they want. Sometimes finding a solution To be fair, it might not be what you exactly want, but what is best for the community and whatever the decision-making at that time. I wrote a list of virtues that... Okay, it's counting down. I thought it was counting up for a second. I'm sorry. I wrote a list of virtues, so it looks like I have some time for that on working together as a group Listening genuinely listening to residents including the people that might disagree with them Having a heart of empathy trying to understand how the city decisions affect people and neighborhoods Acting with humility don't assuming that I might have all the answers that I might be able to learn something as well Integrity being honest and transparent with clear communication extremely appointment important accountability, taking responsibility for actions, collaborating with a group of team, the council members, city staff, businesses, and residents to solve issues that might arise in the city. Stewardship, treating taxpayer money, public resources, and authority given to the council as responsible, not treating it as our own finance pocket, and commitment to developing others. I think good leadership, Iron sharpens, it's kind of a cliche term, but iron sharpens iron. And so when you have a collaborative group together, strengths might incorporate to enhance the group as a whole. And long-term thinking, considering what decisions might mean for years to come, not just now, what might make me happy or other people happy, but the future generations that will be here in Sumner. Public Community Service. I've been on the Planning Commission since 2000, and the chair... Oh, that was my timer. I'm sorry. I've been served as the chair for the last two years. I've been trained in parliamentary procedure training, not only with Planning Commission, but I also served as a building union rep for the last 11 years for the Sumner-Bonnie Lake Education Association. And so I'm familiar that that gave me a little ease into the planning commission as far as understanding parliamentary procedure. I attend the state rep convention every year in Spokane. This year, I started volunteering at a food bank. I have a friend of mine, Richard Boyle. He's out of Puyallup. I have a men's group. And he volunteers every Thursday. So this summer when I had some summer off, so I got to go with him over in Puyallup and volunteer at the food bank in Puyallup. Making hard decisions. I got to experience that at serving as a commissioner on the planning commission. The first time when I had to vote no, my heart was racing. I didn't know who else was going to vote no. And it was a learning experience and comfortability too, because standing by your own thoughts and not being persuaded or intimidated by pressure from anybody else, even as an adult, it's easy to share that with students about peer pressure, but then also as an adult, the circles you run with, the committees you're on, the people you're involved with, I think you have to stand as integrity and be confident and be willing to change in case you might not have read all the facts correctly the first time or you might have a change of heart. I found out at 54 next week and things that I thought I was right about when I was in my 30s, I find out I'm definitely wrong. So having the opportunity to be willing to change is important. I recognize that not every decision will be popular, but believe in a decision necessary that's responsible for the long-term health of our community. And I'm willing to make that commitment and those decisions, even when it's difficult. At the same time, being willing to disagree doesn't mean that you're not refusing to listen to people. And I think there's power in that. Setting boundaries and, I don't wanna lose my place, I'm sorry. Setting boundaries and reconsidering your position in mind in case of need. And in my experience, difficult decisions were always best handled by separating my personal side from the context at hand. And ultimately I believe city council members responsibility is to not make every decision that's popular, but to make decisions with integrity, listen with respect to opposing viewpoints and be accountable for the decisions that we make. And a little bit about me that might help you know me better. Um, I graduated from Sumner in 1991, I moved back here in 2006 and been married for going on 22 years. Both my sons graduated from Sumner High School. My oldest son, Steele, he is working with aerospace fabrication and working on becoming a firefighter. My other son, Elias, just graduated. We move him into the dorms tomorrow practice for football starts on Wednesday in Oregon. He's going to George Fox. Um, my wife loves to roller skate and the summer she just acquired a new part-time job. She loves garage sailing. So she was able to connect with a few people and she had her first estate sale this last week. So she was pretty excited about that. I'm an avid golfer. I love to play pool, AKA billiards. And if you ever see me at one of our local establishments, you might see me pick up a microphone and sing a few karaoke songs. Is there any questions or follow-up?

Okay, Council Member Hofstadter. Yes, questions. Here we go.

Hofstadter. Thank you, Mr. Isaacs. There is a microphone in front of you if you want to sing a tune a little first. I said there is a microphone right there in front of you if you want to sing a tune. Just to follow up here, so you've served on the Planning Commission and you talked about times that you may have held an opinion and once evidence and facts and arguments and discussions have happened, then it gave you a different perspective. Can you share an example of when that's happened and maybe it's even happened on the Planning Commission?

Yeah, the most recent one I can think of was the community over in the industrial district when there was public comments. You know, I was a little unfamiliar of empathy on the viewpoint of the residents. And so a turning point was to actually listen to all the residents and listen to their heartfelt concerns and take that at face value. And then when I went over to the community and started visiting, that's when I started really starting getting, I call it field experience. You know, it almost felt like I, I, I got out of my car and talked to a few neighbor members, uh, neighborhood community members there. And, um, it was a transition to actually take voice from the community and a voice from the council, and then actually go out into the community and witness it myself. You know, my wife said, are you going on another field trip? I said, yeah, I need to see what it looks like at 11 o'clock. So, uh, Does that help at all? Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Elfers.

Yeah, hey, thanks, Mark, for your service on the planning commission and just involvement in the community for such a long time. So we appreciate that. Just my question, I guess, is more in line with number three. can, and then just, just kind of trying to figure out where we're, uh, the city council's doing a lot of things. And so I'm just trying to get a, get a good feel for like, are you tracking the things the city council is talking about? And are you, have you pretty familiar watching meetings online or can you just give us a little more specifics on, uh, how familiar you are with the city council meetings as far as specific projects or Well, I just think just more along the lines of kind of stepping into we have a lot of things kind of already going. So I'm just asking everybody the same question.

Right off topic, the BESS 2.0, I know that is on a forefront for a new presentation. I know that things are going to be changing with zoning regulations as far as the battery energy storage systems. I'm familiar with... trying to not get too specific. I know budget's coming up. I know that's a big, that'll be new for me to be on either a committee or being involved with the budget decisions of the city. I guess part of my voice would be to be more impactful. I know that on Planning Commission I'm serving and I'm serving a purpose for the city Um, but I want to be on the other side of the fence. Uh, I always kind of look at it as the rough draft versus the final draft. And, um, with my experience of writing stuff, I've gone through several rough drafts and sometimes it's nice to be able to have the stamp on there. And so to be on that side of the fence, uh, and be an impact. To get back to your question, I'm starting to drift, I'm sorry, is I know that the growth management in the city is really important. Hearing it from the resident side, there's a lot of complaints of why does the city keep building apartments? And I defend the city by saying it's not the city's decision that they want to build this mass and flexible apartments. We're saying within the regulations of our Growth Management Act that's from the state. And so for the city to be in accordance and alignment, um, that's, that's the city's job to do. I know from a perspective of resident, they just see buildings going in. Um, but staying in a line, especially with our growth management act and reaching goals to provide affordable housing for, for community members that are either existing in the community or who want to join the summer community as well. Um, I know the East side is, is a, is really important to get more growth and substantial use of, of the space over there. Town center coming up with the projected plans for the town center. Heritage Park still of importance. Of course, our downtown to preserve that small time feel of community and the local shops. I know there's a push that people want more restaurants and vibrant stuff, but is that what is purposeful right now for our projection growth? I don't know. There's a lot of space.

Yeah, that's really good. That's good. So you're pretty aware of a lot of things going on. That's what I'm hearing. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, do we have any other questions? Good. Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Nick Beerman.

All right. Good evening. Greetings council members and mayor. My name is Nick Bierman. As many of you know, I lived here in Sumner for four going on five years now. It seems like such a short time, but while a lot has happened in that time, I could never have imagined all that would ensue and how involved in this community I would become. I first visited Sumner a number of years ago for the daffodil parade and I fell in love with the charming feel of downtown. I distinctly remember seeing the daffodils painted on the street. So when the opportunity came to move here, I jumped at it and really it was a no brainer. For the same monthly rent as I was paying in Seattle, I could get four times the amount of space. I had a washer and dryer, a garage, a driveway, and all the free parking I wanted. The bottom line is that I chose to make Sumner my home. And I never looked back. In fact, more and more I feel like I'm becoming a part of the fabric of this community. And I hope that's a good thing. I certainly think it is. I attend nearly every city council meeting and even the committee and commission meetings. As many of you know, I try to stay involved in city government as much as possible when I can and in the ways that I can contribute. I do it because I care deeply about this community and I want what's best for the community. So why do I want to serve on city council? Well, I'm motivated by that strong sense of community and it means a lot to me to take an active role in making the decisions that help shape our future together. More specifically, I believe in the principle that when you see a need for something that must be done or an action that might see a public service and that characteristic resonates deeply within me. It feels very appropriate to be here today seeking this position and I would be honored to step into this role and grow into this role and follow in his footsteps. I must also say that I am encouraged by the positive direction our city is going in under the current leadership and I want to be a part of the momentum going forward. I feel we have a real capacity to do a lot of great things for the community here. I have a tremendous passion for bringing history to the people and making our local history accessible to the public once again. We don't currently have a museum. We don't have a dedicated teen center, a boys and girls club. We don't have a community shelter. We don't have a true community center. So I feel like there's a lot of work we can do together to make our city even better. I'm ready to go to work for the community and that is why this position is so important to me. As for working together and building consensus with others, the approach I take involves listening first and hearing others out so that you can sit down and have a meaningful discussion about the key points. I truly believe that it's important to focus on what you have in common. You usually will find out that you are both vested in the same general outcome, but you may not agree on the path to get there. So starting with that foundation is key to building consensus and forming a coalition of folks from different interests and different backgrounds who, when it really comes down to it, often want the same thing. For public service, I now have a new role that I can discuss in this topic. I'm proud to say that I serve on the Planning Commission and I take my role as commissioner very seriously. I prepare for the meetings, I read the commission packet beforehand, I submit questions in advance, I come to the meetings prepared to fully vet and discuss the materials that are being presented to us. In this role and in others, I have experienced cases when making decisions are difficult and sometimes facing headwinds when decisions are not popular. Doing right does not always mean doing what's easy. I have found out personally what it can be like to speak up and find your voice in difficult circumstances. But in the end, I still stand by my firm belief that it's important to stand up for what you believe in, even if it goes against authority or attracts a large group of naysayers. Some other things that you may not know about me. One, I am trying like hell to get my partner in life to move here to Sumner, but she works in Smoky Point and that's a long enough drive even without the traffic. So wish me luck and help me make the decision easier for her. Two, I have gone through a great deal of personal growth in the last couple of years. When I arrived here, I was a shy, timid, unknown name, and I would have never originally thought that tonight I'd be up here speaking before city council on, I don't know, I lost track of how many council meetings I've spoken at. I never thought I'd be seeking roles in public service, but here I am. Life has a way of directing you when you follow your calling. I have developed a great deal of confidence in the person I am and the transformation in my time here in Sumner has been amazing. I feel like I'm surprised when I say this, but when I look back, I really shouldn't be. I see many times in life when I've been an advocate for others and I would be honored to continue applying myself in that role here in Sumner. Let me make sure that I didn't skip any pages here. But, oh yeah, I know I covered that. I covered that. Yeah. So I guess I will leave it open for any questions that you have for me.

Okay. Thank you. Council Member Malcolm.

Hey, Nick. Thanks for your presentation today, and thanks for all the, I guess, participation you've done over the years. You've been a real strong presence. And I've seen you in everything from commissions to committees to city council meetings. I do have to ask the elephant in the room question. And please don't take this as an attack at all. But as being a participant in a lawsuit against the city, how are we as a council to think about that as we consider you for a council role? What's your thoughts on that?

Well, my feeling on that is, well, first, that I would say that was a matter that is essentially done and over with, right? There's no more litigation going on. There's really no more grounds to bring that back up. So I don't think that that's a focus of mine going forward. I also feel like the group that I'm a part of, we're doing a lot to restructure, refocus on a different future going forward. So our emphasis is turning from what we turning in a 180, essentially doing something completely different and trying to find a way to bring that history back to the public in one way or another. So it could be finding a mobile museum, another location for a museum, something like that. So our mission is completely different. So if that helps assuage any feelings of like, what happened in the past. I mean, there, there's definitely, um, there's definitely that elephant that you talked about. Um, but I feel like our direction going forward is completely different than what our direction was when we started council member Kenna.

Yeah, thank you, Nick. And speaking of, you know, kind of recent developments, so to speak, being on planning commission, I'm wondering, I know it's been a little bit of a short time, but I'm wondering if there's something in particular, an issue in particular you've really enjoyed diving into, working with, you know, in a similar setting to council here with other commissioners, and you're kind of grappling with issues in our community, development, growth, and all those sorts of things that are hot topics right now, like Is there something you want to speak to about what you're seeing or thinking about and how, how that, how you're balancing that on the, on the commission level?

I guess, I mean, there's a couple of different topics that we've covered already. We've covered the food truck pods. That was, that was very interesting because that was examining a way that we could bring new business-minded development to the city, make room for more businesses, more opportunities for people to come to Sumner, more opportunities for people to get together in a way that you can bring people together in a way of having a center or a place where you can have these designated food trucks so that everybody knows that at this particular location, you know, it's kind of like having a restaurant except it's not really a restaurant. So it's an opportunity for people to learn, like, different ways of coming together and different ways of, you know, Yeah, I guess just kind of thinking of it, just thinking of it in a more of an outside-the-box kind of thinking, just looking at it like, you know, what can we do that's a little bit different from what we've done in the past? And that's one way that we were able to take that concept and apply. Thinking about the battery energy storage sites, that's, I mean, that's something that I know has been controversial and that a lot of people have strong feelings about that. Um, so that's another thing that we're looking at right now. We just started doing that in the planning commission, uh, last week. Um, so that, that's another topic that as we're getting into it more and more, uh, there's really good questions to ask and really good information to learn about so that we make sure that we're making the best decision for everybody in the community. Uh, and then one other thing that I, that comes to my mind is like development and housing and different options for, um, you know, supporting, apartments and condos and where to place them and what kind of units to allow for and how to go about making sure that a wide variety of people can afford them, things like that. So that's a passionate topic of mine, too.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Overson.

Hey, thanks, Nick, for your service and your participation. I've been asking everyone the same question. So yours is actually, you answered it more directly, so I don't have a lot to add. But mostly just trying to make sure you're tracking with what the city council is already doing. I know that you do attend all the meetings we see here and a lot of the committees. But can you just elaborate on some of the, you mentioned the BESS and the food pods. Are there any specific other things that you're tracking that we're working on that are coming up?

I mean, budgetary things that I think will be discussed later this year. I mean, I had been following the tax district, I think it was. Was it called transportation tax? I've been following that. I forget exactly what it's called. Is it the TIP or the TIF or something like that?

There's the public safety one we're doing now.

And then there's the public safety tax that's also being discussed. So, yeah, following those and just kind of following along with the discussions and hearing what different council members have to say and also hearing what the public has to say, too. Okay, thank you.

Great. Any more questions? Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And the last person is Mr. Medford.

Okay.

Well, hello everybody. It's nice to be here in front of all of you. I guess you know my name, Bill Medford. I've lived in Sumner for about six years now and moved up here from Oregon with my wife and my daughter, Jenny, who lives with us. She's 47 years old. She has Down syndrome and we're fortunate to have her and a lot of my motivation for public service has come from having a child with disabilities. So I certainly like to be somebody in a decision-making process that can advocate for that population of people, for one thing. I'm going to throw you a little bit of a curveball tonight. I've been back and forth as to whether I was going to follow through with my submission for council member. I understand council member Reinke's seat is a big one to fill. And I know all of you had a great deal of respect for him. And I think I kind of represent the same generation as him. And in that regard, I think I would be a good addition to the council. But I've also, I took the time to review all of the submissions of the other candidates. And, you know, honestly, I don't want to take that opportunity away from them. And I've been thinking all week about whether to submit to, Michelle? I got it. a withdrawal of my application. I just couldn't get myself to do it. And I said, hey, you can still do it when you come in tonight. And having read all of those submissions, those are some incredibly qualified candidates. And I think your job of choosing one is made easier by having some very qualified people to choose from. And frankly, at this stage of the game, as much as I'd like to be involved with the city of Sumner in this capacity, I'm going to give it up for one of them. So make your job just one person easier to choose from and respectfully withdraw my application at this time. I wanted to do it in person if I was going to do it just a little old school that way rather than Do it electronically. So anyway, with that, thank you for the opportunity and wish you all the best. And I'll be following you. I'll be here once in a while. So thank you very much. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

All right. Council Member Evers.

Hey, Bill. Mark Evers. Thanks for coming in tonight. I've seen you at a couple meetings, but I've never met you, I don't think. I just want to say I like someone probably similar in your age. This is an old school thing, but I like the cut of your jib. So I just... Thank you. You're a good guy, and maybe someday... You can be up here.

You know, and I came to find out that some of those have prepared themselves well by serving on commissions, and that I haven't done up here. And so if there's an opportunity there, maybe I'll submit my name for inclusion and prepare myself a little bit better to be a better candidate next time. So, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much.

So that concludes the study session business. Do we have a city administrator report?

Nothing tonight, Mayor.

Thank you. Any agenda setting issues, council meeting agenda, calendar changes? Council Member Kenna.

I might just report out that the Community Development Committee meeting, which I think is on the 26th of this month, was canceled. Correct, Ryan? So we don't have anything to cover there.

Thank you. Anything on any committee meetings? So that one's canceled. Anybody have anything else on any of the committees? That's it? All right. So with that said, I am going to adjourn the study session into an executive session. for 15 minutes for the purpose of evaluating the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office per 42.30.1101H. There will be no action to follow, so I will adjourn this meeting at 7.45.