City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

August 17th, 2026 to order at 6 p.m. Will you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

I would like to call on Reverend Steve Starr for the invocation.

Madam Mayor and council, thank you for the opportunity. It's not every community that allows us to do this, so I do appreciate it. Also, I appreciate being a part of a small community. You walk into the council chamber and you wave at a council member, the mayor, and they all wave back to you thinking you're waving to them. Or in some of your cases, Mayor, where you wave at somebody out there and we all think, she's waving at me. So thank you for that. Also, as part of the Rotary Club back, I understand you're going to be discussing the sports complex, part of the Rotary Club when Bill Heath had the idea to put it together with the Mariners and contributions from thousands of people in the community, and just the work of the Rotarians. So it'll be interesting to see what goes on there. Let's pray. Lord God, thank you. Thank you for the chance to come and be a part of this community, to have council members who look out for this community and hopefully make wise decisions. Lord, we pray for those wise decisions, that they do look at the good of the community and make their decisions based on that. Lord, give them strength in this time. Give them rest when they need that time. And just once again, thank you for Sumner. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much. Will the clerk please call the roll? Elfers? Oh, just a minute. Okay, so just stop right there.

No, I fixed it. You got it? Okay, thank you. Thank you.

I'm here.

Thank you. Evers?

Here.

Hochstetter?

Here.

Kenna?

Here.

Malcolm?

Here.

We'll see. Here.

All members are present. Thank you so much. All right, I'm going to ask everyone to please be patient with us, but I am going to adjourn us into an executive session for a period of 20 minutes for the purpose of PER 42.30.110 for the purpose of evaluating the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elective office. Action will be taken on this item tonight. And then, RCW 42.30.110 to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency, the governing body, or a member acting in an official capacity is or is likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency. No action will be taken on this item. so i'm going to adjourn us at six oh three p m

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, I'd like to reconvene the meeting back to order at 625 p.m. Thank you. Will the clerk please read the consent agenda?

Item number one, approval of the meeting minutes from August 3rd, 2026 regular council meeting and the 10th of August, 2026 study session. Item number two, approval of the checks and electronic payments in the amount of $5,705,944.79. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Elfers, would you please make a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to adopt a consent agenda of August 17, 2026.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Seconded by Councilmember Evers. It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Would any councilmember wish to remove an item? Okay, thank you. So, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right, passes unanimously. Thank you. So tonight we have a public hearing on the following ordinance, number 2974, Intergovernmental Transfer of Bill Heath Sports Complex to the Sumner-Bonnie Lake School District. So I would like to open this public hearing at 6.27 p.m. I'll call on Jason Wilson, City Administrator.

Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, we're holding a public hearing on the intergovernmental transfer of the Bill Hays Sports Complex. Before we get to that public hearing, I want to provide some background information for the council as well as those that are attending the public hearing. The Bill Hays Sports Complex was built on land acquired by the city via donation between 1977 and 1983. In the early 1990s, the local Rotary Club raised funds and constructed the park, and it was dedicated in 1998. A few years later, in 2001, the city acquired land from the Catholic Church and opened a skate park. And then finally in 2016, the name changed to the Bill Heath Sports Complex. If you're not familiar with Mr. Heath, Bill Heath is a World War II veteran who was a Rotarian who raised a lot of money to help make this project possible. Little bit about the park, it's seven acres, has a grass ball field, has a volleyball court, which, interestingly enough, is also on the Sumner School District property. The basketball court, 5% is on the city property, 95% of that's on school district property, and the tennis and pickleball court is pretty much a 50-50 split right down the net between the two entities. There's a concession stand, a parking lot, and really the primary users over the last decade or so have been the school district as well as Wolfpack football. There have been some challenges over the years with this sports complex. Number one, it's a grass field in Washington. Those definitely are more difficult to maintain and do not enjoy year-round use. There's also the shared amenities and associated maintenance and operation. Because it does adjoin the school district's property, sometimes We get complaints about school district issues. They get complaints about city issues. A lot of vandalism has occurred at that park over the years. And then the field lighting itself is at end of life. Interesting enough, too, back when this was constructed, they didn't put any lights in the parking lot. So there's no lights in the parking lot or as well as if you go down the third baseline towards the school district property. And then reservation management, the city's worked with the YMCA for the last few years to help us manage those reservations because the city does not have the infrastructure to do so. So when I went through the overview of the park, this is what I'm talking about. The ownership is really split kind of uniquely. I don't know why it was ever done this way, but it has made it challenging over the years. As you can see, the top half is owned and maintained by the school district. That is part of the Daffodil Valley Elementary Campus. And the district already has significant improvements planned for that parcel. The city owns the southern parcels or the ones in that yellowy green. And that includes, like I said, the ball field, the former skate park because we did mitigate that last year after it was beyond repair. And then we own the southern half of the tennis courts. So a couple years ago, the district came to us and said, you know, we really need to improve. We'd like to improve the sports complex by putting new synthetic turf fields, lights, restroom and concession stand improvements, a toddler playground, and tennis and pickleball courts. And they wanted to do this because they are improving the northern half. They are the primary user of the southern half. And really having a turf field is important for high school athletics. Same time, the city for a number of years has been seeking grants for this type of work to do the exact same thing, synthetic fields and new lighting, and we've been unsuccessful in obtaining those grants. So really, we came back to the council last year and we said, this is an option, do you want us to pursue it? Ultimately in 2025, the city and the district couldn't reach an agreement. We started negotiating again early this year and we did reach an agreement. So we'll go over those terms. So an intergovernmental transfer means we're transferring our interest of this property to another governmental entity. There still is a purchase and sale agreement component to that. So for this, the district would pay us the assessed valuation of the property, which is $3.363 million and some change. The Bill Heath name will remain for at least 15 years. A new children's playground will be constructed by the district and will be open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The basketball and tennis courts will remain open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. And the public parking will be available consistent with other district properties. You might be asking, well, what about the baseball field? Will it be open or not? And the district's current practice is to keep the ball fields locked to protect them from vandalism. If you've been around any of the other high school sports fields, you'll find them locked regularly as well. That was something that was the main sticking point of why the deal didn't go through in 2025 was access to these properties and the community amenities. The district has moved quite a bit by ensuring that the playground and the basketball and tennis courts will be open and then they more than tripled the purchase price. So what are we going to do with those purchase proceeds? The deeds require that the proceeds be used for playground or recreation purposes. So the proceeds will be deposited in a parks capital fund and they'll be allocated during the budget process. As we've discussed with council previously, the current staff recommendation is to utilize those funds for a new park development on the Bennett property. For the public, if you're not familiar where the Bennett property is located, it is just south of the Creekside neighborhood along East Valley Highway. The city has several acres up there that we have done a master plan for that park and this will go a long way to helping us get that park into a reality. So the process moving forward, we've negotiated the purchase and sale agreement. We've adopted the resolution setting tonight as your public hearing. Tonight you'll hold your public hearing and then council will consider final action on September 8th. And in that final action will be an ordinance that surpluses the property and you'll transfer the ownership and maintenance responsibilities to the school district via purchase and sale agreement. So mayor, I'll turn it back over to you for the public hearing portion of this.

Thank you. So, Mr. Steffens, do we have anyone that has wished to make comments on Zoom? You see no one? Okay, thank you. Michelle, has anyone signed up to make comments? Yes, Mary, we do have two.

Excuse me. We do have two people who have signed up to make comments, the first being Dee Packard.

Okay, so... I'm going to go ahead and read 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 top 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 one, please keep your comments relevant to the city business and about matters over which the city council has control. 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. 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, boo, or speak while another person is addressing the council. Number four, please speak into the microphone. Comments are broadcasted and recorded via the mic. If you leave the microphone, your comment time ends. Now that I've reviewed the rules that will apply, I invite the first speaker to the microphone. Please start your comments by stating your name and the city in which you reside for our records. You will have three minutes to speak. Thank you.

My name is Dee Packard. I live in Sumner on 54th Avenue Southeast. And I live across from the tennis courts. So I'm interested in... how the community is still going to be involved in using the Bill Heath Sports Complex. We have a large group of people who come in, walk their dogs, and the kids are out riding bikes and playing on the equipment. And the tennis courts, of course, especially with pickleball are always utilized. So I just am looking to find out how we are still going to be able to use the sports complex and where the fence would be. I say there was hours from 6 to 10 and then I Are there going to be locks on gates and that kind of thing? Right now I know that Daffodil is closed. It's been closed since 2020 with locks on it, so you don't have any access to that area. So going to the school district, that would be a concern. And I don't know if there was any other option for the skate park for the kids because they seem to enjoy that quite a bit too. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

We have Randall Adams from Sumner.

Madam Mayor, have we missed an introduction to a new employee or temporary employee as a city attorney that has not been recognized here today?

Not yet.

Is that who that person over there is?

Yes.

Okay. I just thought it might be nice to actually have us know who this is. I'm 100% in favor of the city selling the property known as the Bill Heath Sports Complex to the Sumner School District for $3,363,700. The plans of the school district show they are much more focused in maximizing the functionality of the property both for students and the citizens of Sumner as a whole. What is confusing is the labeling of this sale as an intergovernmental transfer. Could the city please explain why they aren't simply saying we were selling this property to the school district because doing so will result in a benefit to both parties. Instead, we call it an intergovernmental transfer that also has a purchase price. Is it because we can't sell the property or call it a sale because of how we acquired the property? We know that the city does not pay excise tax on the seller property, so that can't be it. Understand that the deed requires the city to spend proceeds on parks like the new Bennett Park the ten million dollar Bennett Park So it'll be a down payment toward that. So the city's going to up comply with that. So what gives? Please have staff clarify if there is an actual financial rationale to saying it is an intergovernmental transfer or is it simply doublespeak not to show that you are selling the property to citizen to citizens who don't have the time to research the whole transaction or instead left to believe that the city simply transferred the property to the school district and

Thank you. Do we have anyone else that would like to speak that is out here? No, we'll go ahead and we'll have a deputy. We'll have city administrator Jason Wilson come back up. Thank you. Thank you for offering.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll address the first commenter. She had a question about the tennis courts. As I mentioned, those will be open to the public 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Whether or not Well, where the fence will go is still going to be reviewed during the permit review process. I can't answer that specifically. I'd encourage that commenter to speak to Mr. Goulianis with the school district. He can certainly talk to you afterwards and answer that question directly for you. As far as the intergovernmental transfer, I'm going to turn that over to our interim city attorney, Kendra Rosenberg, who can answer why we have to go through the intergovernmental transfer process.

Thank you.

Actually, I'm going to ask you to come up here, Mr. Rosenberg.

Thank you, city administrator, mayor, and council. The reason it's called intergovernmental transfer is because we're transferring from one public entity, the city, to another public entity, the school district. It's under Chapter 3933 RCW. So there's a specific process for transferring property from one public entity to another. I'm happy to answer any other questions from the council.

Thank you. I think we're good. Thank you.

Mayor, unless there's other questions from the council, I'll turn it over to you for closing the public hearing.

Okay, thank you. So any comments from the council? I am seeing none. So I will close the public hearing at 6.41 p.m. Thank you. All right. That will move us on to regular business. We have no unfinished business, so that will move us on to public comment. So, Michelle, has anyone signed up for public comment?

Yes, Mayor, we do have several people who have signed up for public comment. The first one is Carol Anna... Thank you. I do apologize if I mispronounce anyone's name.

Okay, I will ask, instead of dragging everyone through the rules again, did everybody understand and hear the rules for public comment? Is there anyone that I need to read the rules for?

I think I understand them. Okay, great. Thank you.

It was a little quiet. All right, so we will go ahead and move on. Please state your name and address.

My name is Carol Annable. I live in Sumner, and I'm here to talk about the Plateau Pride event that's coming up in a couple of weeks. if anybody was, I see a few gray hairs here, aware in the sixties our nation was hit with a whole bunch of ugly events that caused our nation to start on a downhill slide on their morals and values. And during that time one of the judges, a wise judge, sat and said, pornography was the topic of the day. I don't know how to define pornography, but I know it when I see it. And here we are with I can't give you a good definition of evil. Everybody has their own definition, but I know it when I see it. A few years ago I went to the Sumner Library and I had heard about these drag queen story hours and I went and asked for a brochure or when they had their drag queen story hours and the librarian was very nice and said, we don't do that here. I was glad to hear that. The most important thing we do is to raise good children. They want to be healthy physically, morally, spiritually, emotionally, and the government needs to facilitate that for parents. Men dressing in drag in scanty women's lingerie with bodacious makeup and feather boas is totally inappropriate for children. And this event is advertised as a family-friendly event. And I just can't agree with that. They're going to have drag queen dance competitions, different kinds of things, if you read their posts. There are many influences that parents have to protect their children from. TV has inappropriate stuff, internet. Even in children's library sections, there are real explicit books that kids can have access to that talk about sexuality and having sex in different positions. So inappropriate for children, especially from 12 and under. I don't think we should really slap parents and children in the face with such inappropriate things when the parents, for the most part, are trying to protect their children from that type of stuff. It's a grooming. I'm sure you've heard the term grooming. There's sexually explicit stuff given to children at really early ages, and they get gender confusion with all of that. They're not mature to handle it. They're innocent. We need to help them maintain that innocence.

Your time is up. Thank you. Is it? Okay. Well, thank you. The next person who has signed up to speak is David Trepp.

Hello, my name's David Tripp, I'm a resident here in Sumner. I've been a resident for approximately 20 years, and I feel like I've been a, I don't know, I would say a productive citizen and such, and really invested in what this community is about. And I take the time to read the newsletters and try to stay on top of the happenings and such here in the city. And one of the things that I actually am quite excited about is Hops Alley. It's the Heritage Park. It's this idea of community gathering. And when I found out that in a few weeks there's going to be this event there that just in my mind, does not exemplify what this city is about. I, quite honestly, really disappointed. You know, this downtown area is small. This downtown brings families into this community, okay? And there's a standard of living in the neighborhood i feel like i know you know the neighbors and and and such and and sumner has never projected itself as as a community that i wouldn't say um isn't fair or inclusive but one in which an event like this should be advertised in public i mean there's going to be families coming around here and there's going to be curiosity things are going to overflow and who knows what you know and Am disappointed in the fact that my tax dollars of being a resident here is Supporting this area are sort of facilitating this this display and you know quite frankly I have a problem with that and I I just hope that This isn't something that's going to continue because it's really not reflective of my values again or or this small town and if we really are doing want to accomplish what we say we do what I hear the city council and that is to bring this city alive and bring it vibrant support the stores support restaurants that kind of thing this is not one way to do it I'm going to tell you straight up right now it's just not because what's going to happen is people are going to go in the opposite direction I know for myself you know I wouldn't be you know around here and just to observe an event like this and i just i just don't understand the need for it it's not i mean there are communities that support this a little more vocally and publicly and uh they're not too far from here if this was maybe in a more private it was down here, okay, fair enough, right? I don't have too much of a problem with that, but I do have a problem with this public display and public use that's going to happen down here. Like I say, not only disappointed, I'm really kind of saddened by it. So I hope you all hear my heart and it has nothing to do with the individuals because everybody has freedom of expression and such, but I just don't think that's the way we want to do it here in Sumner. Thank you.

The next person that signed up is Joanne Loudon. Thank you.

Hi.

I'm Joanne. I live in Spanaway, but I have been a part of Sumner since 2011 when I opened my first business. Here, anyway. Our store specifically is on Main Street, so Hops Alley and the construction there directly affected our business for many, many months. So we did lose sales. We just, anytime there's construction or there's growth, it's good and bad, I think. But I guess I wanted to bring a part of the retail aspect to it is that we went through all the hops construction and all the other main street constructions and things like that. And we watched our businesses lose sales because there was construction and not parking, and to think that we went through all of that to have an event like the Plateau Pride come in, it's disheartening, especially when our sales are down. Now we have an event that's not bringing people into the retail stores, but it's actually driving our customers away. Sunday is a wonderful family day for Sumner. We see customers all over with their kids in strollers and things like that, and it's not what our store really represents or what we want to attract. We want to attract a family atmosphere and I'm just concerned that this isn't it. So in moving forward, I am just wondering, is there any, will we ever hear about events that are being scheduled back there or is it just going to be like this where we find out on the slide because it's not on the city side or it's not on the main street site. We're just finding out maybe in a way that's hard for us to understand and do what we want for our company. So anyways, just maybe consider it. You guys, I really appreciate the time and I appreciate all your hard work and everything you do to help make the city wonderful. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Jeffrey Grassman.

I'll pass. Thank you.

Randall Adams.

Randall Adams, Sumner, Washington. I'd like to thank the previous speakers and concur 100% with the tenor of what they're trying to tell you. And that stuff doesn't belong here. That can stay up in Capitol Hill in Seattle. We don't need that in Sumner. With the finalization of the bond, for the dryer on the sewer department. We now have the cost of that and that is included in our, we are told included in our billings. Now is the time for the city to disclose what the monthly costs are for each of the recent bonds taken out for the dryer, the new utility complex and the low rate interest loan for the utility complex. These are known costs as we pay those bills, so disclosing how much each of those servicing each of those debts individually contribute to the utility bills should be straightforward math. Simply to find how many pro rata connections there are that we have with an adjustment increasing for the large water commercial users. above single-family homes and divide that number into the known costs servicing the debt. This is an information the City Council and citizens should know instead of saying, don't worry, we have those built into our rates and keep going up. We deserve to know why they're going up and how the City are spending those funds. Regarding best-to. Even though the smaller size lithium battery sites will have only one or two containers full of lithium batteries, they usually, the fires will start from an explosion in one of the containers, not both, just in one of them. And we pour millions of gallons of water on the nearby containers to attempt to stop the spread of that fire. Now you will be considering sites so much closer to homes than what the Derringer site is. That is exactly why California and New York firefighter unions are trying to fight these close in risk to citizens because they have been injured fighting best fires and know that citizens don't stand a chance to control if a fire happens near them. Plus, Sumner sits on top of our aquifer, and the water used to control the fire will not be stopped from going into the soil and may show up in our drinking water, as actually has happened in New York. Please slow walk our best two programs until we get better batteries that are not lithium.

Mayor, there are no further people who have signed up.

Thank you. Oh, we've got a hand, yes.

Tina Burnett Sumner. I, for one, have been looking forward to Plateau Pride. It has been on my calendar for weeks. It sounds like a blast. And what offends me is not the people at Plateau Pride. The LGBT community is part of our community. What offends me is the hate directed toward them. And I'm really hoping that the people who are so upset about people actually having a good time in the park Don't cause a disruption. That's what I'm afraid of because it won't be the community there. I'm not a member of the community, but I have always had friends, family members who are in the LGBTQ community. They're not crazy. They're just human. And this hate directed toward them is so upsetting to me. And I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be happy to be there. It's gonna be a fun time. And I'm very, very happy that it's coming to Sumner.

I see one more hand.

My name's Teresa Newton and I live in Sumner. It's not about these people's sexual orientation. It's about their demonstration to the people around them and the people in them. My daughter is gay and I have two other that profess to be. And that's not what this is about. This is about introducing this kind of stuff to our children and making it be too simple and too easy and too comfortable for them to really learn what's out there and what's happening in that place. So that's what I'm seeing. I'm not directing hate towards these people. They have a right to be happy. Take it inside where our babies aren't going to be. I have grandchildren. And I have two grandsons that live with their mother who's gay. I don't have a problem with that. She does not do PDA for me. I don't go out and do PDA. And I feel like, can I get those kinds of clothes on and dance around? Can we have a heterosexual thing going on too? I mean, I don't understand why it has to happen like that. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you.

One more.

Can I revisit the Daffodil sports complex?

Wait.

No? Okay.

Yeah, it's kind of, we're past it.

The public hearing is closed.

The public hearing is closed.

It's a letter. Will the council members read that at some point?

Okay, hang on one second, please.

If you submitted a letter, we have distributed that to council. You are welcome to provide public comment. You just wouldn't be part of the record for the public hearing.

So basically, in essence, we're telling him he can get up and speak now. It just won't be part of the public record on, okay? Thank you.

Sorry, I wasn't really prepared to speak, so this is kind of winging it here.

You have three minutes, so wing it fast.

Yeah, yeah, I will. Absolutely. So Dan Hoyt, I live off of Daffodil, right on the top of the sports complex. A couple things, and my kids are exiting the school district, so I just want to see it used more and better. So it's really not all that concerning to me, other than we kind of look at what... the Sumner School District has that have been kind of pared down over the years that are no longer available to the citizens of Sumner. When you look at the middle school, there's no longer lighting there. There used to be. The track isn't at the correct size so they can do track meets there. The high school, the stadium's locked down. It didn't used to be. It's supposed to be open during daylight hours. It's not always. The Ballparks at Daffodil Elementary are closed and locked. The big toy is closed and locked. The play shed is closed and locked as well we're losing i think valuable resources to the community and so if this goes to the school district as well what's to prevent them from closing and locking this or some of their middle school and and we essentially won't have any field space for our kids in so that's that's a concern the other one is just the it seems like the city has a better maintenance standard as far as landscaping is concerned, compared to the school district. And for us, we're a little bit concerned with this more looking like just an open field than what it now looks like, a park. And if you look at Sumner Middle School, the landscaping there, it's been tough the last few years. It really hasn't looked good, and neither really the high school either. And so we're concerned about how it will look, the park, eventually when it's when it's finished. So those are some of just kind of our concerns with the new part going into what they're proposing anyway. So that's it. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Okay. I see no hands. Up. No hands are up. All right. I see hands. They're just not up. Do we have anyone on Zoom? Mr. Steffens? Okay. There is no one on Zoom. All right. So that will move us along to new business. The Design Commission appointment of Mr. Chris Albert. So Council Member Hochstetter, could I please get a motion?

Yes, I'd like to make a motion to appoint Chris Albert to the Design Commission.

Can I get a second? I'll second that. You touched your button. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Elfers. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded to approve the appointment of Chris Albert to the Design Commission. So I call on Scott Waller, the Senior Planner.

Great, thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm Scott Waller, Senior Planner in Development Services and staff liaison to our Design Commission. The Design Commission wears a few different hats and has a say in different areas of development and design in town. Their primary role is shaping the design standards and the aesthetics in Sumner and how those relate to individual projects as they're proposed to staff. They also do a great job of balancing the demand for growth, as well as ensuring that developments achieve a high level of quality. We have an applicant in for the design commission up for tonight, Chris Albert. He's been a resident of Sumner for about 16 years. He has experience in storytelling and placemaking, branding, and communication. Staff feels that Chris's background will provide a valuable insight that we don't currently have on the design commission. with a strong background in kind of storytelling and placemaking. That's very important as the development comes in and how it orients to the street and how it is designed and how it feels and fits into Sumner. So we're excited to have this applicant in, and staff recommends his confirmation.

Thank you. Are there any comments from the public? Do we have anyone on Zoom? Okay, thank you. Are there any comments from the council? Deputy Mayor Elfers.

Scott, can I ask you a question real quick? Sorry, I'm not really familiar. Is there a technical term like storytelling and placemaking? Is that like a design technical term or is that just like telling stories, like reading books?

That's more of a, you know, in design I look at placemaking or storytelling as how does a project fit and relate to the street or relate to a trailer or relate to a park kind of. or even installing the history. In Sumner, we use a lot of brick in downtown. That is, in a way, storytelling of the past of Sumner. Some projects use different materials and play in with the brick to kind of show the history of Sumner and the future of Sumner by using different materials. So that's kind of what we mean by placemaking and storytelling, both creating an interactive space that's inviting, that feels like Sumner, as well as uses materials and design to create that. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Any other comments from the council? Okay, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? Elfers?

Yes. Malcolm?

Yes.

Wilsey? Yes. Evers? Yes. Huckstetter?

Yes.

Kenna?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, unanimous.

Thank you. Mr. Albert, would you care to say anything?

Mr. Selbert, Sumner, Washington. Actually, I live right downtown. I guess to clarify for storytelling and branding, so my experience is actually in marketing communications at a Pacific Lutheran University. So I've been doing that for about 20 years. And actually prior to that, I was actually a reporter at the Herald covering some things like city council meetings and the Sumner School District, so things like that. First off, Council and Mayor, thank you for this opportunity. How a city looks helps show the story of the people and the place. And how do we have continuity with room for variety? How to respect our past but prepare for the future because we are stewards of this place. And although change is an inevitability, it isn't as frightening when it is done in community. I look forward to listening to learning and sharing my perspective. I'm excited to get to work and look forward to helping shape the vibrant community we all know and love. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Next, we will move on to the Council Vacancy. So I call on Jason Wilson, City Administrator.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. I'll be walking you through the appointment process for the Council Vacancy. As a reminder, tonight's process is governed by state law as well as your own council rules under resolution number 1695. This is what we consider a short term, so whoever you're appointing tonight will be up for election next year and will hold the seat until the November 2027 general election is certified. So where have we been? We advertised. We got applications after 30 days. You conducted interviews at last week's study session, and tonight you'll go through the appointment process, and we'll swear in whoever you appoint at next week's special counsel meeting. So as a reminder, we received eight applications. Two have withdrawn, so you're left with six active applicants for your consideration. So the nomination process, the mayor will call for nominations. Each council member may nominate somebody. No second is needed for that nomination. When nominations are concluded, somebody will need to make a motion to close nominations, a second, and then a majority vote of council will close the nomination period. After that happens, the public will be given an opportunity to provide public input on the candidates that were nominated. And that is limited to two minutes per person providing testimony. The voting process will be done by roll call vote. And the appointment requires a majority vote. You may vote as many times as necessary to obtain that majority vote. However, in the case of a tie, the mayor does have the ability to cast the deciding vote. At any time, you may go into an executive session to discuss the qualifications, but no straw voting may occur. And then if for some reason you want, you could also postpone the election to a date certain if a majority vote is not received, and if you do that, we do have some other legal requirements that we'll be talking to you about because you have to appoint somebody by mid-September. And as I mentioned, whoever you appoint will be sworn in at the next regular council meeting per your rules. And next week we'll be holding a special council meeting where we'll be asking you to suspend your rules so you can get this person sworn in before we start our budget process next week. So any questions about the nomination process before I turn it over to the mayor to start this?

Council Member Evers.

Just a quick question. If we have, say, two people, are we voting yay and nay, or when it comes to us, are we just giving their name?

You will state the name of the person you would like to appoint. Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, I'm going to attempt to be crystal clear with my questions. All right, I'll do the best I can. So would any member like to nominate a candidate? Okay. Council Member Kenna.

Zedek.

Deputy Mayor Elfers. Isaacs. Would any other council member like to nominate a candidate? Okay. Deputy Mayor Elfers, would you please make a motion to close the nominations?

I'd like to make a motion to close the nominations.

Is there a second? Second. That was Council Member Evers. Okay. Are there any comments from the public? Yes.

Mayor, before you take comments, I notice this is missing from your prompt sheet, so it's not you, it's us. Can you ask the clerk to call the roll, please, to make sure we have a majority vote to close nominations?

Will the clerk please call the roll? To close the nominations. There you go. Hockstetter?

Yes.

Elfers?

Yes.

Kenna?

Yes.

Malcolm?

Yes.

Wilsey? Yes. Evers? Yes.

All right. Well, thank goodness. Six are out. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Now, are there any comments from the public? And please remember, your time is limited to two minutes. One hand at a time. Mr. Bierman.

All right. Is it on? Okay, good. All right. All right. Thank you. Well, first of all, let me just say thank you for the opportunity to apply myself. Um, but I would like to state that I've met both.

Could you please state your name for the record?

Oh yeah. Nick Berman, uh, Sumner Washington. Um, I would like to say that for the record, I have met both of these candidates and I think you have done a great job of narrowing it down to the two best candidates for the position. Um, I have worked with Mr. Isaacs on the Planning Commission for the last few months in my short time so far on the Commission. And the more I've gotten to know him, the more that I've heard him talk about Sumner and how much he cares about the community, the more I feel he's a great candidate for this position. And I haven't really known Ms. Zedek for very long, but in the short time that I've talked with her, I find that she cares very deeply about the community and also would be a great choice. So I think you've done a great job narrowing it down, and I applaud you. Thank you.

Thank you.

You had quite a few. Tina Burnett, Semner. You had quite a few good choices to choose from. And I've never worked with Mr. Isaacs, so I don't know him very well. And I've only barely met Ms. Zedek. But This council is a little testosterone heavy. And I think appointing a woman would be a really good step. We need a little bit of diversity on the podium there. So anyway, either one would be a great choice. But yeah, that's just woman power.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Are there any comments from the council? Seeing none, I'm moving on. So I'm going to ask the clerk to please call the roll. When she does that, the council will be stating the name of the person they wish to appoint from the nominations. Is that clear? All right. Yes, ma'am. We'll see.

Mark Isaacs.

Kenna.

Zedek.

Hochstetter.

Mr. Isaacs.

Evers. Mark Isaacs. Malcolm.

Zedek.

Elfers. Isaacs. Mr. Isaacs, four. And Ms. Zydak is two.

Okay. So with that said, I will congratulate Mr. Isaacs. Thank you. All right. Pretty good. All right. Thank you. So we'll move on to reports. All right. We will start with the council. We'll start with council member Evers.

I would just like to congratulate Mr. Isaacs. I know it's – I always tell everybody that Mark is a dying name. My son's 29, playing sports, everything, no marks. And now we have three marks on the council. So we'll have to – I think that should be mark one, mark two, and then mark three. We'll figure that out. So congratulations and congratulations to our new person on design commissions here. Welcome aboard.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor Elfers.

Yeah, I just want to thank everyone for coming and commenting. I think we prefer the really quiet meetings, but it is nice to hear from the public and Really want to thank Mr. Albert for being willing to serve on the design commission. It is one of the ways that as a council and as a community, we get to know how you work with people and that you're willing to serve the community. So thank you for your willingness to do that. And then to the folks that applied, we had a really good group of people applying. And I always feel like one of the things I come away with when we do it, I've gone through like five of these in the last year. So it's been in the last two years, I guess. it's been a pretty big turnover in the council. So one of the things I enjoy about it the most is just being able to see, uh, see people who are interested in serving in the community and hearing, we had a lot of talented folks. And I think the only thing that saddens me is, well, I would sadden me, I guess I'm going to say is if, if the folks that came and applied didn't get involved in one of the commissions or somehow, um, so we could enjoy your talents. So thank you very much for applying. Uh, appreciate that. And I hope that you continue to get involved in the, in the community. Um, uh, and then, um, Again, for the comments about the Bill Heath and the event, we do appreciate the feedback. We are tracking both of those. They've both been things we've talked about in the past. So it's always nice to hear community feedback on those things that we're discussing. So, again, thank you.

All right. Council Member Hockstetter.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to congratulate Mr. Isaacs and I would like to congratulate Mr. Albert. I echo what Deputy Mayor Elfers has to say. I think service is so important. I think service is where we find ourselves, service is where we add value to our community. And I know the council takes that really seriously as we reviewed the considerations for the appointment. I would really love the people that applied to find ways to continue to stay involved. I know we just filled the seat for Mr. Greg Reinke, and I think he applied like five or six times before he got his chair on the council, and he was such a valuable voice on this council and had a servant heart. And so I just want to extend my gratitude to everyone who applied, and please don't let this discourage you in finding your ways to serve the city.

Thank you. Council Member Wilsey. It is now.

Yeah, I just want to, again, mirror congratulations to those who were appointed tonight. And thank you for those who applied. Yeah, we love having more people get involved. That's how we keep our community solid and engaged and keep other people's perspectives in the mix. I want to remind everybody, summer's not over, so it's still middle of August. Most of the events are done, but I want to encourage everybody to get out and check out our parks and enjoy our community spaces. The city's done a lot of work on them this last year, and so we still have time to go enjoy that. So I just want to encourage everybody in the community to enjoy our town. And that's it.

Thank you. Council Member Malcolm.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for all of those that applied for the position. It's a stressful and difficult thing to do. And we had so much talent. It was a hard, hard decision. And we really appreciate all the folks that put themselves forward. And congratulations, Mark. Another Mark. We're going to have to figure that one out quick. And looking forward to serving with you up here. Congratulations to Chris for coming on board. I'm an ex-director and designer, so I know what storytelling is. I can help with that a bit. So glad to see someone coming in with that point of view and perspective. I think you're going to do us proud. I'd also like to just comment a bit. I attended a couple weeks ago the AWC budget conference. gathering conference in Leavenworth with four of our staff folks and it was a really great insightful meeting with a lot of other towns of similar size, some bigger, some are smaller, a lot of them with the same problems and it was really kind of nice to see how well we're doing compared to how some cities are are handling kind of these rough times around budget and trying to figure out their priorities and funding them. So it was a very great, good conference. And we were proudly and well represented by Carmen Palmer. She actually led a session on communications, so it was kind of cool to see that. So a very good conference, and except for the 400-level AQI smoke inhalation we were all going through, it was actually a very worthwhile time. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Kenna.

Yeah, hi. Thank you to everyone with the public comments tonight, particularly on the Bill Heath subject, the sports complex. It's been something since I joined council about a year and a half, two years ago, we've been discussing. And I can just share that the place we're at today is vastly different than where we were when I joined. I think staff should be commended for their willingness to negotiate and get terms that are appropriate for the community. And you know, again, the school district has their way of operating and that they're the other party in this transaction. But I think the community will still benefit. It is the intent of staff, as Administrator Wilson expressed. It's also the intent from council at our council retreat to use those funds for park purposes, for the Bennett property. We've been talking about that and that's kind of where we are zoomed in on. So we will continue to work through that and kind of move in that direction so that the community can benefit from it. Congratulations to Mr. Isaacs for joining us here on the council. Look forward to serving with you. Thank you to all the other applicants as well that served or that applied. I myself went through that process. It is a grueling process, the weeks building up to it and not knowing where you're going to be at and how difficult it is. I can tell you it was, you know, I respect all of my council members and the discussions that we had and just we all were aligned in terms of what we wanted for this city. Normally it's left up to the voters and this is one of those opportunities that we are left to kind of make our best choice and best call. I will say that I think it's really important to state that the way you serve this community does not have to be uniform. Commissions are a really valuable part of your service to this community and I myself served on the Parks Commission for three years and took some time off and came back and applied for council. But whatever way you do choose to serve this community I think is really important and I don't want to understate that and that you have to go in some linear fashion. So I just wanted to make sure that folks heard that and understood that council respects all forms of the way you show up for your neighbor. Thank you to Mr. Albert as well. Speaking of service, you know, look forward to having you on the design commission and everything that you bring there. Placemaking, storytelling as a planner. I know those terms. I love those terms. And we have some great places here in town. So I think that is all I have, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. I will call on City Administrator Jason Wilson.

Thanks, Mayor. Coming up at next week's study session, we'll be talking about the community partner fund allocations for the 27-28 budget. I encourage you to check your email, council. There's some information that will be published in our packet later this week to help prepare you for our discussion next week because we will be looking for input from council on those fund allocations. August 31st is actually a fifth Monday. We typically cancel those, but we are holding a budget retreat. So we are going to be meeting from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the YMCA. There will be some virtual, not virtual, but some tours that will be going on as well. More information will be forthcoming to you. September 8th is a regular council meeting, and it's on a Tuesday because Monday is Labor Day. So Tuesday, September 8th, you'll be considering an ordinance authorizing the intergovernmental transfer of the Bill Heath Sports Complex. and approving the transfer agreement to the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District. You'll consider an ordinance related to e-bikes and e-motorcycles, provide some additional enforcement mechanism for our police department. You'll consider an approval of the annual Microsoft license as well as the Tyler Tech subscription. On the commission front, the Planning Commission continues their discussion regarding Battery Energy Storage Systems 2.0, and there will be a public hearing at the Planning Commission on September 3rd at 6 p.m. here in this room, or virtually. Speaking of Planning Commission, with Mr. Isaac's appointment to Council, there is a vacancy on Planning Commission, so I encourage anybody listening to this that is interested in maybe serving on that commission to visit our website and fill out an application. On the personnel front, today we welcome two new employees to the city. Kendra Walls is a senior planner, and she joins us from the city of Puyallup. Always happy to have some local talent nearby. And I'll just give a shout out to Katie for helping recruit her. Good job, Katie. And then Christian Davis started as an entry-level police officer today. He'll be attending the academy starting in September. Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Looks like you're free to go. Thank you. All right. With that, I just want to thank the staff for being here. You guys are probably going on 13 and a half, 14 hours for a Monday. So they're long days. And so you guys do a good job sticking with it throughout the day. So I appreciate that. We do have some exciting news though. So we have FOX 13 coming to town to do their Zip Trip. Is everybody aware of what Zip Trip is? So you can YouTube it. It's a FOX 13 Zip Trip and they come in and they do a live session here. They'll be here filming their Good Day Show live from Sumner on Friday, August 28th from 10 to 11 a.m. We're putting them right at the point of Heritage Park Yes, right behind the Sumner sign, of course. And we want a big crowd of people to welcome them to Sumner. So we're asking everyone to please join us. So tell your neighbors, yourselves. I don't know if the kids are in school by then. Are they in school? Does anybody know? Bring your kids because that park is great. We'll have a food truck out at Heritage Park. We're bringing out the Sumner High School Marching Band and the Kenworth Fire Engine. And part of this is also a school district supply drive for the Sumner-Bonnie Lake School District. So come join the fun and bring some of the school supplies with you. It's actually going to be a great time. We might have a surprise guest. We were working on it today. We might have someone join us there for a few minutes. So it might be pretty exciting. And then I want to thank the applicants that applied for Mr. Reinke's seat. That's kind of an emotional thing, but I would thank everybody for applying. I didn't get to vote myself. I only get to break ties, but I did witness some great dialogue and a lot of really good conversation amongst the council up here. Their hearts really were in the right place, as were yours. So I would congratulate you, Mr. Isaacs, for applying. And then I will congratulate Chris back there for applying for the design commission. So a lot of good things going on here. So with that said, I will, with no further business before council, I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 7.24 p.m. Thank you.