City Council - Regular Meeting

I feel like someone called 911. My heart is racing. Okay. Uh and we're live with that. Thank you. Welcome everyone to Tuesday, April 28th. And what you all missed before we started this meeting is that our microphones are working. Thank you so much, Tracy, for starting the meeting. We are going to start with roll call. And I see council member Agabi drinking coffee and not sharing with us. Yeah. Okay. Hello, Angela. Megan, Kelly, Eileen, Brandon. Uh, we John Cathappy I assume is going to be joining us because we have not heard otherwise. She may have reached out to Oh,

I don't like it. And it's okay. We still have a board. Uh, so for our guests, we our work sessions are more informal. We use first names and we like to have discussions. So please feel comfortable having a regular old discussion with us. Um so and you are both on for our item number three and we thank you both for being here. So our legislative session review do you know everyone in this room? You two should we go around everyone? Yeah. Uh B3 would you like to start? Uh it's Brandon Hicks, transportation and engineering director for the city also known as B3. Uh Brad, committed to director.

Angela Jefferson, council member, position number two. Megan Sullivan, she her position five council. Kelly Von Holtz, position number seven, mayor 10. I am the mayor as of January. Hi. Nice to see you both. Also, we didn't council position one. No, I'm took B1 from Yeah. been here the longest

Adams assistant city administrator and can we check the microphones on the back let's not let's not start with Tracy let's start with

Meer finance director information.

Sorry for we don't apologize. We are we are ready for this meeting. Okay. What are we talking about today? Oh, and council member Kathy circling back with council member Kathy who's present.

Okay, you two have the floor. Oh, we do. Take it from here. Great. Well, I'm Katie Wood here. I am your lead lobbyist here in Olympia. I'm assisted by the one and only Brian and for having us. Really appreciate your time. We're here to give you a little recap on what happened um at the other part of town earlier this year. Katie, I have a question for you. All right. So, are you consultants just for our city or for several cities? A variety.

Yeah. A variety of clients. Some are cities for me. Some are cities, some are uh counties, some are other types of folks. Um Brian has a ton of expertise with cities helpful because city issues, I don't know if you've noticed, are somewhat complicated and have long histories. um want to introduce yourself a little bit more.

Sure. Yeah. Um thank you for the question. Uh my first job was after college was answering phones governor's office and I've had an opportunity to work for a couple different governors uh as well as being a budget writer for help. So I came up as ST worked for the counties association for seven years and then after that I went out on my own. I do represent a handful of municipalities by and then I also have some work do some work in the crisis system and Medicaid system as well as doing some like program work families tax coalition and things like that. Okay, thank you. I just want some background information because Katie is always here so but I didn't know. Thank you.

Happy to provide any additional information anytime. All right. I also like coffee. So, we and we both are local. So, happy to meet with you. That's good to know. Thank you very almost two years now. Okay.

This slide will look a little familiar if you were here last year for our preview. Um, so I wanted to return to it and just remind you of where we started out. I can move there. Uh we did have big majorities in both Senate and the House the Democratic majorities which allowed certain things to move quicker and other things to winter a little bit which we saw more of this session than we did in 25. There was a lot better alignment this year between the executive and legislative branches last friction with the new governor and the legislators trying to get used to somebody new around. A lot more alignment this year which did allow some big items to move through 60-day session. It's just a supplemental budget. There's not a lot of time to do a lot and yet there's a lot of ambition because the last line here it's an election year. Everybody wants to be able to fulfill some promises of home. So it was a lot of pressure for 60 days and then we had the unexpected flood event in December. We already knew we were in kind of a deficit situation. It was going to be a tough year and then there were there were emergencies on that that needed to be dealt with uh during session. A lot of um a lot of complication. How do we fare? 205 bills were introduced in this session alone. So 60 days is a not a lot of time to to consider a budget bills like that. Um bills that didn't become law or didn't get exed last year could technically pick up in the second year of the the banil um budget. And so some did some so in total there were 3110 bills introduced over the course of two years. 267 made it to the governor's desk this year. That was a mix of leftovers from last year that continued on and new bills that were introduced. Relatively small number, right? There's a lot of a lot of things that died at cut offs this year. Um, nothing was vetoed except for there were a few small vetos in the budget. Um, real real minor unless it was your program that got vetoed, which it wasn't. Good. Um, fiscal context, you heard a lot about the deficits that uh that we're facing. We'll continue to face for a while. You know, from a city perspective

what the inflationary pressures are like. obviously true for the state as well and there's been a lot of new policy coming out of the legislature of the last several years um which were cost as well. Um we also had a big federal change with the one big beautiful bill that passed last summer um and so safety net programs for those where the federal funding went away that put more pressure on the budget. We had some good news. The revenue forecast in February, that's the revenue forecast that the budget is built on. Uh it came out better than expected, which was great because the what was it November forecast was pretty scary. So there was some good news. Um the climate commitment act funds, the uh CCA uh those um auction revenue um funds were higher than expected. put a lot of pressure on that uh particular account but it did offer some solutions in a type budget year that we wouldn't up um on top of that there were challenging challenges implementing some of the 2025 taxes the new tax especially the fail tax real complicated and it didn't go into effect until October 1st so they didn't even get to iron out a lot of problems in time and or see much benefit from it yet um it was just it was challenging and then you probably saw some news about the estate tax being after last year's session, just really an outlier nationwide for how large it was. They knew they needed to address that as well going into session, and they did.

Um, pause and let Brian fill in on anything I may have skimmed past. No, I'll check in at the end of this slide.

This is the the big one, the takeaways from the session. You all heard about millionaires tax. This was a huge win for Democrats. It is um a move toward having an income tax. in this case income tax on high earners in the state. Um it doesn't come into effect and it's not considered into the budget until 2028 2029 time frame. They do anticipate legal challenges. We are already seeing those play out or starting to play out um potentially ballot initiative as well. Um that said, it was the thing of session, right? You heard it going into session. You saw it all throughout session and it did pass. Governor did sign it. There's um there's a lot to it. Uh it started out I would say on kind of an optimistic note when it comes to local government funding the first 5% of the tax in the first proposal first 5% of the tax would have gone towards publications for counties great solution right across the board but cities need some of that money too. AWC worked pretty hard to get included and there was a proposal floating around at some point when seven and 10% of of the tax would go towards public spend split between these three counties. when it passed, all of that was gone. Got stripped out um entirely. And that's a huge hit because part of the tax relief that is included in the millionaire's tax would it hurts your bottom line, right? So suddenly cities and counties are also not getting the sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter medications, deodorant, shampoo, those things. So, it does hit your budget and yet there's no relief for you for that sales tax hit, right? Um the state will get the income tax revenue. What do locals get? Included in that final package, the final version of the tax is some language on the four-year budget outlook that $200 million will be set aside starting next

year or in the four-year outlook next year at some point. $200 million to provide relief to local governments that cities, counties, and transportation benefit districts. $200 million is not enough. For example, cities, I think they're looking at what it's about 180 million to replace the lost sales tax. Uh, counties is over 200 million on their own. I couldn't tell you what the transportation benefit district impact is, but $200 million is greater than zero, but not nearly enough. And it's just intent language. it is not written into anything. So this is a big fight in 27. We want to make sure that that's still on the table. We want to make sure that we can inch that up and and get the relief that we need for local government. All of this is dependent on the tax actually happening though, right? And so in some ways it's still theoretical. It did pass to survive to become

um data centers and AI. Yeah, I understand it's hypothetical concession loss that we don't know if there is are if there would be set aides would that be a one time set aside those numbers you were just speaking about doubles in the details right that's what we have to hammer out that needs to be ongoing because you're going to feel the impact ongoing every single year so it needs to be ongoing how that tool will end up playing out has to be negotiated the other big question implied in that is it $200 million flat or is it connected to inflation because the tax will grow right over time and therefore

is it a flat 200 200 million so we have to go back and beg every time we want to see an increase or question so is that milling unit test the first in the nation um to be that specific probably not

I mean you know and I these are the only ways I know you know this but these are the only ways the words are gonna Right. Other states have income tax and then and they have differential rates. So conceptually we're establishing an income tax in Washington similar to it just so happens that our differential is no tax for anyone under a million dollars in gross receipts and then a 9.9 for tax above. So um you also perhaps you recall but during the um New York election in New York City one of the major kind of campaigns. Okay, thank you.

Second home New York. So if you have the $16 million apartment and you have another five million apartment getting you're going to get taxed on the extra. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Um, you know, Katie alluded to this. It, you know, there will be two challenges. Uh, there will be legal challenge that will ultimately be heard by the state supreme court on whether our constitution allows millionaires tax and then of course the ballot. Okay.

Both of them right are you know, anyone's guess as to whether the courts will uphold it and whether the voters will and how long it will take for that to play out. I would say 28, but I've been wrong. So, we shall see.

Any other questions on that one? That's the big one. Council member, your question about like the 100 million one time or not is really, you know, the legislature is not allowed to bind future legislators, especially in the budget. And the budget, it's it's funny in Washington, we we have a two-year budget. We have this legal requirement to have like a document that says how we balance over four years, but the only thing that's actually legally uh that actual is actual um is the two-year. So this whole notion that there's this mitigation fund four years in the future it you can only kind of speak to it but you actually can't

it's not I mean they could like theoretically they they could have created an account they could have put money in an account money that they don't have because because they need they're and we'll talk about it more in the next slide. I'll I'll I'll mute my enthusiasm. So, it's very complicated. A lot of moving pieces there and we have to be vigilant on all of it.

Um, data centers and AI turned out to be a very big topic this session. I expect that to continue and probably ramp up in these future sessions. Um, there was a lot of talk within the last 24 hours of session that the data center bill was going to hold up session. We go into a special session over it. The log jam broke around 6 pm and we were able to adjourn on time March 12th. Um so big big issues um in the tech sector. Um obviously a lot of talk about taxes generally highway and bridge maintenance was the big uh focus with transportation budget. Uh there was quite a bit of focus there on on this but it's all state level. It's all state level infrastructure. Very little for locals. Talk a little bit more about that. Um it's unfortunate but it's state level infrastructure. We do want to see those investments. They do help our communities. We also need local infrastructure investments too. Interestingly, they um had been moving had been on a pay as you go model and had really wanted to stick to that. It's a recent move in the last several years. They had to go back to a bonding model to afford a lot of um what they need to do, right? So, we're back into more of a traditional bonding model for the infrastructure and that is a change. Um there was um no action that passed related to legal liability liability reform the state. There was a proposal there was um I think a good step in right direction which would have helped with liability issues with at city level city level as well and the county level. It just didn't go very far. It would have um promoted more arbitration as a solution instead of everything going to hopefully that I mean it will have to pick up again next year um and hopefully with some other proposals as well. Also, paid family medical leave. That program is really close to its cap and it needs some reform. It needs some change. I expected I hoped to see a little bit of movement on that this year. So, we didn't have to wait till next year for bigger conversation. There just wasn't any conversation, no appetite to touch

it this year. It will be coming up in 2027. Challenging year for government, local governments overall. It was uh there were a lot of battles to fight. there were a lot of I mean it's very clear to me that even for legislators who came from a city council background or a county commission background that uh they're losing sight pretty quickly if and then there's plenty of legislators who have no experience in this right of the the careful partnership that needs to exist between states and local governments. you you all don't have the same tools that the state has um to be able to fund your programs and yet you have so much of the responsibility and you are front line when it comes to communities.

So it's clear there needs to be a lot more education education with legislators uh to really bring them along in this sphere otherwise these battles are just dragging our face in the mud. I mean it is it it is tough. All right let's talk about the good news. No, budget balancing was real tough this year with the deficit was a heavy reliance onetime transfers from other accounts. Uh the big one almost a billion dollars out of the bump budget stabilization account. That's our rainy day fund, the reserves that you hear about. Um we still have money there. It's just not much bunch of it came out. It's there to balance budget there. 95 million came from the capital gains tax that would otherwise have gone through the common schools account. That's concerning. um a sort of defunding in schools, balanced operating budget for the state, big one for local governments, 275 million swept out of the public works assistance account. This comes on top of 288 million swept last year. So over 600 million out of that account. These this account funds low interest loans and sometimes grants depending on the circumstance for local government infrastructure.

A lot has taken advantage. Yes. Great for waste water. It's just it's because it it's self-sustaining with payments back on those loans. Makes it a very tempting pot to steal from and it is routinely swept. Yeah. And not because they started this level such a high point. That was some of my questions of the historical context of like how much money is left in these accounts. One of them you said there they brought it close to

in this case uh for public works assistance account they backfilled that 320 of the 375 million. I'm not 100% sure on where the actual end number was. So they backfilled it but they backfilled it with other bonds that are at a higher interest rate. They're still going to make good on the loans and continue to grant loans, eventually grants, but probably of those um at the low interest rate, but that account will be set up at a loss for or be able for a little while because it is funded by uh state capital um general bond general general construction bond. Oh, not true. It was CL it was in the final budget was climate committee. Yeah. the details.

Yeah. Anyway, higher interest. Um, so it sets it sets the program up in a loss. The public works board. They're the ones that make the decisions. They feel like this is probably the best solution for now. Um, in part because it makes it a less tempting account to raid if there's not actual money in it. However, it is not a long-term solution. So, uh, we'll see how that plays out. Hey, I have I have a question for you.

So, is this because of cuts in federal funding, the 1% sales cap? Why do we have a deficit that we have? It's a huge complicated question that I can only begin to scratch at, but part of it is um we had some a good amount of federal funding that came through during the pandemic. We had a lot of legislators that turned over between right before the pandemic and then the who got really used to being able to have money for anything they wanted and they grew services at a kind of a unprecedented rate. They want to keep those services. They seem fairly popular. They're expensive and we're definitely not getting federal funds. I mean, there are federal cuts and that is an impact, but it's also just less pandemic level, you know, support funds that were kind of an emergency. Um, but they uh they got spent on more permanent programs. Part of it is overspending. Part of it is the economy a little bit slower now. A lot of it is inflation. A lot of it is being able to keep pace for state employees on their benefits and uh their compensation packages. A lot of factors all at one. It's an excellent question. You get a PhD on it and still be learning.

Okay. the left $1 they didn't get access to but there was a proposal for the left $1. Is it billion or a million? So billion a billion and then I heard that they their proposal was to share it with the local governments to help offset costs for our charges that we have for our um to pay our our medical fees or whatever. I'm not sure how. Yeah.

Yeah. and but they stopped short of that. But that's what they want to do. But you know that that's not what's going to happen. They'll probably end up sweeping it and using it like they do public works. But AWC was trying to fight to get the money to go to I don't apologize just going down a dark path but I just wanted I was wanting sorry to know because they were trying to get the money for the local governments. That's what AWC has been fighting for. though nothing happened. Um uh no I the dark days

I I believe that the Orange bill was 20 uh 24 I think it was or did they get it?

They did. Yeah. And and largely I don't think they covered that in the PWC wrap up. So, I think one of the things that we're concerned about as we talk about this is um it's um it's two-year budget. It's there's kind of the um current expense state uses general fund expense is about 80 billion. So, it is a pretty significant base, but you start adding these things on top of each other. So, so they took a billion dollars out of the capital budget, public works assistance account. They took a bunch of climate commitments and they funded it. So, they used what traditionally was capital money and they funded operating dollars, ongoing expenses with with one-time transfer, right? They took um so for level setting the the law enforcement um law enforcement and firefighter pension LEP one um uh is um is a robustly funded pension system. A whole bunch of balance there and then we have fewer and fewer members that are still alive and receiving benefits. Many of the eligible left one beneficiaries are like spouses this point you know like survivor not all um cities at time when this was created in the in late 60s7s uh thought it was great that the state was going to help kind of chip in and pay the the um you know the the pension benefit and At the time, cities agreed that we would pay then the medical. So, it's a pretty rich benefit. Now, flash forward where we are today where

we're on the hook for long-term care of an individual which may cost 120,000 150 year. It adds up pretty quickly and we don't look as smart as we did in like the 60s and 70s when we cut this deal. much like Whitman and Walaw Wala when they were fighting over the college or the prison and Wal Walla won and got the prison doesn't look the same. You know, it just wasn't as good as a deal, you know, time. And that's kind of what happened with lab. Um there's always been this debate about whose money is it? Um is it the employees money, states money, city's money? And I think there's, you know, some some really strong CA course case law that as long as you provide the benefit, you agree the contract you had with your employees and that extra money and the public's money or the state, the city. So that's kind of the conversation. But in this case, they they used that bonanza, that one-time benefit

to backfill the money that they took out of the budget stabilization account. I mean all of these things that are kind of coming to like this is a really unstable financial plan that is predicated on being bailed out in three years by a windfall from the millionaire's tax. Okay. Right. So in the short term for the two years it's all balanced on this onetime money from the letters money from the capital budget money from okay from the rainy day and their plan actually creates this huge hole that then gets my words rescued by all this additional revenue. Yeah. So it's challenging and then it creates challenges.

Yeah. Homer we can't hold our Yeah. Right. We still got to balance our bud. Yeah. So, I thought some of it was going to be that the cities would see this all cont.

So, there there was some language around examining using some of this money in the future for to offset local. Okay. It's there's some direction to the treasurer to and I and I think one of the things that we talked about is this overall environment that you know the state made changes to the sales tax bill last year and right great why does it make sense to tax so and other community assets but at the same time and part of the things they said is well we weren't but we weren't we hadn't it only been a quarter we hadn't like spent it but like you had already done your your your budget projections based on it It was it was real money to the city.

Yeah. That then is gone now and might come back in like three years. And then when you think about putting something like, you know, like something on the ballot, the fact that the state has done this, this, and this, it makes it challenging at the local level to access the tools that we do have because of the overall kind of climate around I think we have about fiveish minutes to get through the slides. I can't remember how many slides are on the presentation. We don't apologize. Don't apologize. This is why you're here because you're genius. And this is the only slide I was allowed to talk on. So

switches already from these. You probably saw the news that Moody's is one of the credit rating agencies that determines what our bond rating looks like. Um, it already changed our outlook from stable to negative. It's not an immediate impact to our our interest rates, but it certainly is trouble. If uh if things aren't fixed, we can definitely expect higher interest rates for public. So, big picture for 27, it's going to be a tough year. Um, we talked about what AWC's priorities were going into session. I could go through all this, but I feel like we want to talk about Tumb Water mostly. So, I'm going to skip right on the head. Same with her area. We're just going to go into which we start off with uh restoring the habitat conservation plan money, the $2 million that disappeared in 2024.

John, you have a question for Katie.

I had a comment that I wanted to make about one of the uh things that happened this session. And just to show you how uh quick and responsive government is. Um about 20 years ago, um Sandra Romero was one of the uh of the House members of a group of women who wanted to um work on this issue of taxing women's hygiene products and possibly talking about how um we could somehow set a national direction for includ including in SNAP, which I don't know is there such a thing anymore, but uh in SNAP um um hygiene products and um of course it didn't go anywhere,

but the beauty of it is we keep having people who care about all of these things that we've been talking about and these things that seem small or just issues that affect only a few people that happen to be uh women's issues and um then later and so it's been at least a decade or a little bit longer that Karen Frasier and I uh picked it up and um wrote a bill for including um hygiene products in in in the SAP program and in the in the programs that we thought it might it might fit to to do this. So, it has been over 20 years of different lawmakers and people in the community here to keep picking this up and saying, "Here is a here's an everyday thing that can make a difference in the lives of the people of the state of Washington and of right here in your district." And so I just wanted to say uh it's been a long long road and a lot of these different things have had long roads to get to uh passage and um I'm sort of thanking when I saw that all of the people and men who have have worked and said yes to things. So if we lose a little bit of uh of tax money to help the the state of Washington, we will adjust.

Thank you. Thank you, J.

And persistence is probably a good word also for talking about this first budget item of the $2 million. We were real optimistic all throughout session that we would be able to restore that $2 million. the end of the day, it wasn't in the budget. Um, I'm heartbroken about it. Um, it we checked in many times with Representative Parley. She worked really hard on it. She ended up being in a vice chair role on the capital budget committee, just ideally positioned to be able to get this money across the finish line. She felt great about it. We were assured multiple times. And then at the end of the day, there just wasn't money. And that's what uh we ended up finding out. I I tracked her down. I'm like, "What happened? Is there anything we could do? what you know what ended up happening. She had some really interesting insight. What she said is number one, it just wasn't money and she didn't think that a fraction of it would actually make a dent. So, she would have rather funded something else and that is what she ended up doing with the plan action EIS um at $258,000. Um she's like I just I didn't think that that would go very far with the HCP. She also said um when she's talking to other budget writers because thirsten county is where the state budget or state everything is, right? So all the a lot of money for state projects ends up in this legislative district and budget writers have a hard time then seeing that there's a difference between that money and local governments needing the money too. So it's a really big battle to be able to point and say, "Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's LD22, Legislative District 22, but also like that's not the city of Tim. not the city of Olympia. Those are my locals. Um and sounds like she's having a hard time getting heard on that level. That's something that we can certainly help with um educating in the future. We can have conversations, you know, going into this next legislative session if we want to continue if we want to be persistent and continue pursuing that money or if we need to kind of figure out where where else we might be able to look for that fund action e little bit of money to get us hopefully started. I do think going back next year and asking for the rest. We wanted to get 550. I think that

that is within the realm of possibility if it's still, you know, ongoing at that point. Um, I think that's certainly a possibility. The East Street connection design phase, we didn't, there was no opportunity to seek local transportation money at all. I could go into a lot of detail about the transportation budget, but it just wasn't going to be a conducive year for that. So, we will continue working and and see if we find better opportunities in the future. Mindful of time. So, since we're time constrained, I'm going to say let's go over the priority bills. Yep. And then um we will take the 2027 information and we'll put together an email and I'll get that to council. That sounds great. All right.

How much time do you need for your presentation? We'll give you 15. You got two more minutes. Oh, thank you, Brad.

Uh so we had a couple handful of bills that we were tracking more closely than some of the others. Um uh we had mostly success on these things in terms of the ones that we really didn't like didn't pass and the ones that we hoped would pass kind of moved along or improved as they went. Uh vulnerable road users was a tricky one from a city liability perspective. Essentially it it moved a lot of uh the responsibility for an accident, a pedestrian car accident onto the car owners, but also in some cases ended up being a city liability if they couldn't track down the car um the driver. So problematic. Uh tried to get amendments at the end of the day. It didn't pass. I'm not sure that it will come back next year. Um I'm not sure that the sponsor necessarily understood all the impacts of them and now probably does. We'll see. Possible. Um automate automated license plate reader bill. The flot camera bill you probably heard quite a bit about. It did pass. It got some good amendments from a city perspective as it moved along. keep us posted if you're experiencing, you know, challenges implementing that bill. A lot of cities are implementing right now and making big decisions about which cameras are even worth preserving. Um, so we're gathering feedback for AWC that how this implementation is going. Potentially, we'll need to fix some things in the next uh next benium too. So just keep us posted on that.

Yeah. Do you Sorry. No, we do not does not. Olympia does, but no license no license plate readers for um parking enforcement. Okay. Okay. But not get a parking ticket. That's great. Okay. Perfect. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh 1592. That was a bill from last year that would have um 25 that would have divvied out money for public defense. Should the state ever fund it? It got wrapped up into the millionaires tax compromise and then you know what happened with that public defense funding? He went away. So good model. I expect to see that language back at some point in the future, hopefully next year, but not move forward this time.

And there is um there is an active lawsuit from the counties association against the state um for indigent defense. Um it had originally been dismissed at the lower court um based on standing and it essentially said like you're not a defendant so you haven't been harmed but you don't have standing. it was revisited and pulled back. So there now is um you know an active case in front of the courts questioning the state's level of funding to local government for independent defense. So more to come on that.

I'm sure that that pressure led to the first 5% in the first first millionaire's budget or tax proposal. Legal pressure helps. The speculation on why the Senator Peterson and this is idle specul rampid speculation was twofold. One was to perhaps encourage the courts find it legal and two was then to kind of like buy off this lawsuit or create an amount of funding that was sufficient to like be equivalent to a seven. Didn't work. Good work.

Hey, here we are. Um 1717 a bill again from last year that picked up some steam. It would have um helped with some sales tax for affordable housing. It didn't end up progress. It had like one gasp of life this session and then it was gone again.

Uh 2489 is the camping bill you've probably heard about. It's pretty controversial allowing camping in any public space unless certain um shelter provisions are met in a community. Um it would it got kind of worse this year. It was introduced also last in 25, but it was kind of worse this year and it did not make it out of the house. I think it'll probably come back next year. It's one of those things that just probably will keep rearing its head, but the more people know about it, the less they like it. So, I I'm not I'm not thinking it's going to be a huge battle if it does come back next year. Be wrong. We always are vigilant. Uh step housing 2266. It's been on on the docket for years. Lots of bills, different bills have been tried. This one passed. There were quite a few um positive amendments for city implementation. Um but it did pass. So hopefully that's the last we hear of that for a little while. But again, as you run into implementation challenges, let us know. There may be um fixes that we need to pursue.

Yeah, the area that we worked the most on was on the operating agreement side. Um I think from the conversations we've had, you know, the perspective is is a lot of times the operating agreements are what bring the neighborhood to Yes. and um initial drafts or original drafts um really hampered our ability to kind of put together um you know something that helped create a a sense of ownership and so um we kind of worked to get that back and I think the final draft does reflect that cities do have a certain level of and communities themselves of influence on affordable housing developments

in their areas uh 1626 will not impact you yet, but very soon cities of 30,000 uh or more people uh will need to start allowing residential and commercial zones um residential in commercial zones. So, you can prepare for that. For now, you can keep your commercial zones and I would definitely recommend beefing those up in preparation for hitting that 30,000 threshold. Then, the big win, public facility districts for uh aquatic centers. We got that deadline entirely removed. I'm not even going to say we. That was Paul. He did it. He did it 100%. And here's the proof. Yep. Absolutely. He did it. We have very, very happy constituents here. Yeah.

So, the original draft was only extended for two years. Years, which keeps the pressure on, but also is maybe not practical. So, the final draft having Yeah. Yay. Moving. Super exciting. like here we go. Now, I was just reflecting on the the fact that you mentioned legislators that don't have local experience, and we're really fortunate in our district to have fantastic legislators with local experience. So, Representative Partially Dolio, Senator Baitman especially, and then also the support of Marilyn Strickland. It's really nice to have a good team.

Really great. Yeah. partially her voice on the local government committee is really helpful. So you have her voice on capital budget and local government like it is just a sweet partnership and she's yours. So it's like

ideal. I think those are the highlights. We'll follow up with email on what's coming up for uh 27. Obviously we have time to prepare but also it'll go fast this interim and it's campaign season so there are other distractions along the way. The more prepared we are going in the more success we will have. Um, you should get an email from Department of Commerce for your EIS funding probably by mid July at the latest. So, if you don't see something, please reach out. We can help push that along, get that under contract, and then um start getting reimbursed for any of the work that you're doing.

We should think about things things we could do, ways to thank your delegation for their support and continue to build those relationships, especially with partially support all this year. But also, um, Baitman had some really good proposals. she reached out for uh come feedback on she incorporated that feedback like really really good partner and then um just to make sure that represent Dolio doesn't forget about us too much get distracted by other loud voices in the area um and yeah preparing for the 27th session which we have a lot more to talk about there thanks so much for your time it's a lot to talk about

thank you so much um you did say you had some good news. Some good news, but mayor, do you think that um we we need a briefing to the community, maybe from the finance manager? What does this look like for Twater? I almost feel like the snowball, you know, from the federal government is just rolling downhill and it's about to impact T order. So, what does that mean for our budget in the next four years? You know, increase taxes. you know, as a homeowner, I'm just like, you know, my taxes are about to go up. You know, what does that mean for soda taxes or whatever type of taxes? Because I think that's what it's going to come to. It's going to be increased taxes for us here. So, what does this look like for Tom?

We're already seeing it a little bit where we had toly reduce our sales tax projections a little bit. starting to see some of those impacts and to the extent that continues into the next benium that's where it's going to directly impact. You're sitting right in front of Troy. I'm like, Troy, could you as you're preparing all the budget meetings we're having to note have that linking state and federal, right? And how you use that to calibrate your range. Yes. And to kind of prepare, you know, the populace.

We learned that from mayor for 10. Okay. Thank you. That's all. Perfect. All right. Does that make sense? Is there a document do you guys have like you know when you go like a document that shows like the I'm sure you do but like the um like the taxes that have been implemented or then and who they affect you know it's like the cities and stuff that he would have like a list of master and stuff. Good question.

Find out what they don't find out. So they find out like when you found out about how the the interface thing how it affected our our development programs or community development that until it hit the ground it hasn't been vetted. You found it. So I just wondering if there if it's been down to the level yet we don't have to find it that he has to find it. if there's a place that you can look for it centralized location.

Um I I suspect MRSC has that data that we can we can compile it for you. you know, as you were talking, the other piece I think that um that is it's not not a tax um but um I think the general public thinks of it similarly is utility bills

and you know at the end of session energy just quietly snuck in a we're going to raise your rates by 30% and you know people are looking at utility bills that are equivalent to mortgages and I you know again I I I just think the average Tomar citizen and and I'm not trying to you know like just think of that as of a government cost whether it's a sales tax, property tax or or just my utility bill. I don't know if they granularity and that and that's again going to create a lot of pressure on members of the community.

Well, we already heard that last time because we had to raise our rates and then we also raise tax on rate and that's the first time we did that since the 90s. So yeah, we're feeling that already. Out for 10 years. I mean like all our utility rates are already we already know but when we do it then it feels like and you combine it with PSC doing there. Yeah, next is natural gas. This is all contextual information that we can put in the beginning of the budget narrative to set the tone and make sure

we a lot of money. Are you gonna stand up? And amazing service. He's gonna stand up. I would, but council members have probably had trouble. Okay. I'm going to encourage you to

continue to project so that the folks online can make sure to hear your voice. And also if you actually you can say it. Uh so next slide.

So this is uh uh a housekeeping ordinance. We do this on an annual basis when we can. Uh the intent is really to cover small changes to the code in one place. Uh the request is uh for the council to conduct a work session to discuss the ordinance. I can answer any questions uh and then place this on consideration at your next council meeting on May 5th. Next slide, please. So during last year and this year, uh we've been gathering information for some proposed minor changes uh to be collected considered collectively this year. Uh again, the proposed amendments are intended to make only minor corrections to the development regulations. We have other ordinances that are coming forward that are single topic ordinances that cover some broader changes later this year. Next slide please. So there are four sets of amendments. Uh the first deal with housing and responses to the state department of commerce comments. Uh second set are child care center related uh amendments. Third is signage and last is essential public facilities. Next slide please. Uh so the housing related amendments are dealing with uh some commerce comments we received in January after we submitted our comprehensive plan and ordinances uh updating the the development regulations. Uh they wanted to make sure that our development code reflected some very specific state uh requirements. Uh first of all ensuring that ADUs are considered as consistently uh consistent with single family and other uses. They're not by themselves. They're evaluated by the same standards. Uh we needed to be more explicit in how we stated that 28US are allowed with a principal structure.

Yes. Yes. Council member. So I keep finding a adus but there is no definition. What what is ADU? What does that mean? A sensory dwelling unit. Okay. Where did you um where where within this document did you make that declaration? I keep I see ADU but I'm flipping through 10 pages. I can't find ADUs anywhere. Within our zoning code, we have a a use that is known as an accessory blowing unit which we in the slide.

I know what I'm saying. Do you have a data dictionary of all these terms that you're using? It it pays to have them up front so that people like me don't scroll through going through multiple pages trying to find something that is not there. Oh, okay. Are you looking for a definition of accessory drawing unit? Yes. Okay. In the in the ordinance, there is a section under definitions 1804010 that defines accessory dwelling unit. That definition is derived from the state law. Oh, nice. See, that's what Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

I apologize. I can try to find it for you through 58. Yeah, I find it. Okay, I find it. Go ahead, please. And then lastly, the change was to clarify that our zoning and development reviews requirements for ADUs are not more restrictive than for other for those of the principal units. Next slide, please. Question on the the number. They pick two. That's just random. Why two? Why not four? Why? I cannot answer that question. I would like to, but I can't. We did chickens. We got to pick

it is what the state legislature thought was appropriate. So, they thought one wasn't enough. Yeah. And then three was probably too many. There's some science behind it, but Okay. Not that I'm aware of. But the city is able we can go four, five, six, or is it We can Yeah. So, so we're not limited. choose if we ch so ch show choose to do it. So there's there's a couple things at play on this. There is the total number of housing units that are allowed on the lot. Now, which again is a state requirement, right?

We have to allow at least two dwelling units on every residential lot. If they provide a uh one of those is affordable, they can provide up to four on a single lot. Those in turn can also have accessory dwelling units. So we start to get a lot of lots on what in two years ago was a single family lot that may have allowed one ADU could allow potentially six to eight instead. So I wouldn't necessarily recommend increasing the number of assessor

but they're not they could do one they could do two. I mean that's we have to allow at least that or they could exceed if they wanted to exceed that. Our our code allows them to even do more. I mean that just you're saying that we have the ability.

It depends on how again especially going and it's only two but the primaries can go up to four provided one of them is affordable. Second set of amendments relate to child care centers. Um and this is addressing uh state legislation from last year uh saying essentially that child care centers and the conversion of existing buildings for use as childcare centers have to be an outright permitted use in all zones except industrial zones, light industrial zones and open space zones. Uh in the case of oh in child care centers you're defined as a uh person or agency providing care for 13 or more children during a 24-hour day. So, no overnight stays beyond 24 hours. All all derived from state law. Um, next slide, please. Currently, child care centers are conditional use in all our residential zones. Uh, they're permitted outright in all of our commercial zones and they're also permitted as conditional uses in light industrial and airport related zones. So what this change is to allow uh child care centers within residential zones to be a permitted outright use rather than a conditional use. Next slide please. Uh also we made some name changes as this has sort of evolved over time from the original state requirements. U multiple different terms have been used and so we scrub the code and and make sure that we use the same terms throughout. So that's why you the length of the document is the way it is.

So the only thing I had with the whole mini child is like mini horse mini donkey. And so I I we were stuck either on the mini child or the mini child care or the mini child care center. So So what's a mini? Under under 13. So 1 to 12. But I and I was I'm not trying to be funny. I was trying to think of what other word you could use and I get it. But it just seems kind of like is there a better better way to term it? We would uh in my suggestion is just to follow what the state law says they use. So they use yeah it I mean a term of art I can

it was the child mini daycare center. Okay. But I I like many children. So we could I was one of many. Um next slide, please. You're adult now. I don't want to follow that.

Well, too much for either of you. Um the third amendment is related to signage. Uh there are a couple changes made. uh first of all to narrow the type of conditional exemptions to the code. Uh that means uh there were specific things that fall under that. The other one was to clarify where we allow uh additional square footage for wall and monument signs. Uh specifically for larger uses that are adjacent to I5. Uh the issue being that uh currently the number of wall signs and square footage are really not related to the size of the building or uh the location relative to I5 and so we're trying to address that through these changes. Next

is signage a thing. Is this signage our thing or is that a state thing? Signage is us. I don't signage was a big deal. Let me go back to that. That was a huge deal. So I remember doing this on planning commission and getting to it with Terry Kurpatre for a couple years

and I still that's one of my questions is I think of a specific example Mountain View Church because of the zoning of Mountain View Church. They couldn't have a wayfinding sign painted on the side of the wall as a wayfinding for the freeway but Toyota could because of a different zoning. And then I keep seeing the 300 300 300. Do these does this update fix that issue? And then I'm also thinking about Costco, the painted sign. Does this update fix those examples? It fixes the Costco issue and larger retail uh establishments and multi- thing, but it doesn't fix the church issue

because it's tied to the zoning. how if we are looking for some other tweak going forward and we're willing to consider that as part of I would like to add that because when I look at this I keep going where's the reference Y300 are these arbitrary numbers?

No, they're they're not necessarily arbitrary numbers in the sense that we we did some research to arrive at them and some support to arrive at them. I think as we're going through these kinds of things and also in other ordinances going forward through the year, if you as a council member or mayor identify particular issues, please email us. Uh we keep a ongoing list and so when we're putting together work programs and other things for next year and we have our list of things to add and do. uh is part of our process in the 18.

I like to add this because it still doesn't make sense that a church can't paint on the side of their wall on the freeway to acknowledge that the church or whatever is there because of the zone. It makes zero sense to me. Just makes zero sense. Why? So those feel like those are lowhanging fruit of adding logic to those examples. I mean, I was fighting about that when I was on city commission and council, right? And I was fighting against it the entire time. But I think we can go forward. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you were on planning commission, right?

No, but again, I think the broader issue, we're going to have other things like that. And the important thing for me is we'll have one example. Oh, by the way, in this particular thing, we did this. I don't always keep track and memorize those things over time. So that's why the record and adding it to our list helps. So So when you're saying we're gonna have other things like that, I'm thinking, okay, if we have the church do it, why can't we have the marijuana stand do it and why can't we have the liquor store do it? Is that what we're thinking? It's part of a larger discussion. So if we want to explore that against the law, then we then we start to look at what does it mean? What are the what are the implement implications? Marijuana is

proximity to a school or children are used. It's not against the law. I thought you could do you couldn't do it in the city like you can do it in the county for the marijuana one. We have it proximity to a school. Yeah. The boundary just think it's a thousand feet. Yeah. So they can't like the whole deal with the the giant poster one that's right there. We don't allow moneies that advertises. They don't allow new. We shouldn't. It's not We're not really supposed to have that one there or it's it's a they get away with it because it's a non legal non-conforming use. So, until the sign itself goes away or we make an offer to buy it or some other thing happens,

it's it's legal for them to continue. We don't allow new ones to be put up. You and I talked earlier this year about a potential thing to go into that work program that seems like maybe lowhanging fruit that I don't I didn't see in the pack and I don't see here and I'm wondering if it's still in the hopper and it's about food trucks. Is that like still in the hopper for later? That is probably still in the hopper. Okay. I'm saying I think it's still in the hopper because we have a couple more similar ordinances coming forward that deal with that. Thank you. I will. Yeah, but adding it to the list. I have my notes

on the side one. Can we have like pictures? It's hard to imagine how big these are and they can be stuck on the like on if you're at Westgate like you're coming on the they can be stuck on the wall there. That's the kind of signs you're talking about. Correct. So, it's both monument signs meaning the ones that are separate from the buildings and the ones that are mounted on the buildings. than anything along the freeway too. Those uh cement walls, they can put advertising signs along those as well. They don't have to go through DOT. They have they have to get a permit and do all that

and they have rules on what that can be other than the tribe. So like when you go past Emerald Queen Casino, it's all that's because that's tribal land and can't we have our laws and Yeah. So yeah, there will be areas in the city that aren't under subject to our registry. Yeah, it'll be good to see photos like she said when it comes for So that goes to what Kelly has been mentioning in the past about a way to track using technology more for council to be able to input, right? And so minimizing emails but allowing them to go in to SharePoint or something to do some type of tracking

or website portal like city of Lacy may have. something like that to track it, right? Because there's this we have a never- ending list. I mean, we just got more things to say. I want this to thank you so much. There could be a way to give you counter more autonomy when you're hearing things and you're seeing things. I'm like, "Oh, snap. What about that?" That you can go in right now posted somewhere. Hey, Megan, keep that on your list. So, without violating open public, remember our city attorney who's not here. Thank you, Tracy and Lance. Tracy. Oh, thank you. And Peter. Peter, you have your hand up.

Yeah. So, Brad, I want to simple um distinction. Does the state and the city does the state and and any city, pick one, have a differences in allowable signage along the I5 corridor? I think it depends upon the individual cities or counties on what they allow. I believe the state has some overarching highway beautifification standards for billboards and other things like that, but I think it ultimately comes down to the local jurisdictions when you have examples of the

next. So um so if you if you're going to sar you get to five and um in federal way along the five you see a bunch of very high neon sign advertising a various uh product can we have such signage here w within our bandwidth

thank you for that question I'm going to jump in uh Kelly von Holtz noted that like the emerald the emerald queen casino those signs that's on tribal land so that would not be allowed in Tom Water but if Squawken or Nquali or Shahalas bought something then our municipal codes don't apply if their land is in trust okay so right so it could be right so so that then there is there is the uh auto shop the two uh the two dealership left and uh well that would be eastern and west of the of the freeway, they all have similar signs. But if if my memory serves me right.

Yeah. So if you're talking about the signage that is on the car dealerships in F, that's what the city of F has decided is appropriate. But the larger uh flashing billboards that are mounted, those are under tribal trust along that corridor. So it's a mixture of two things. Okay. Okay. Does not the uh uh the tribe own some landing within Tom Water or don't we have a some kind of work relationship with them?

There is trust land within the city of Tumblr bound and it is owned by tribal nations. They have multiple properties. Okay, I didn't want to hold us up. Go ahead. I'm just thinking out loud. Great question, Peter. I appreciate it. Valid, right? So, yeah, there there are spots in some water. Some are along the freeway and some are not. Yes. Thank you, Peter.

You're welcome. The the last set of amendments are uh to our essential public facility regulations. Essential public facilities again are those things that everybody needs but nobody wants near them. Uh that could be a jail, university or some other large facility. Uh there have been changes in the state law about this. Uh adding some additional uses like the opioid treatment facilities. Uh they've also updated some of the naming uh uses that they have. uh and also added improvements to high-capacity transportation systems which we currently don't have in the county uh but for example would be light rail or or bus rapid transit. Um so all those changes are incorporated. Next slide please. So we have finished the environmental review uh policy act uh review. The determination was issued. No appeal was filed. Notice of intent ended yesterday. Uh so we received no comments back from the state planning commission held a hearing on the 14th and recommended approval of the ordinance. Uh and we're having consideration on the schedule for your meeting on May 5th. Next slide please. So the request again is that you place this on your consideration calendar for your next meeting with a recommendation to approve.

How does everyone feel? I'm getting a face nod for my lean. Brandon, feel comfortable going on consideration? Got it. Kelly, Megan, Angela, Joan, Peter, feel comfortable this going on consideration? Yeah. Next week. Yeah. Thank you for me. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate it. Of course.

Okay. Thank you, Brad. Uh, mayor, city administrators report. All I have is just uh some space for that. Uh Sam Hunts recently passed who was our LD22 representative in the House and the Senate for decades. So just wanted to make some space that he represented us very very well, was a strong supporter. Um so I just want to make some space and acknowledge that and Eileen worked for him for a bit. That's all I have. Thank you for that. We have an exec session.

So, we have an executive session next. So, I need to see Peter and Joan virtually in the room next door. Council will now meet in executive session to discuss real estate acquisition pursuant to RCW42.30.110 parentheses B. Council be in executive session for 30 minutes. until 7:40. We do 30 minutes till 7:45 and give everyone a couple minutes to hit the bathroom. Okay. Maybe not. Never mind.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. 7:45 with a bio break right now. The council is not expected to take further action following the executive session. She won. She was against

Okay, we are going to extend executive session for another 5 minutes until 7:50.

Micros are hot. Now we have to wait two minutes. Remember microphones are hot. Microphones are okay. So microphones are hot. We can't start till she's talking about I was just talking about this little bug thing. It's for next week, right? for next week. I was joking. I got this from the Arbor Day Earth Day temporary tattoos that for all council to wear. Okay, got it.

Put candy in their desk. Is there candy in your desk drawer? I picked them up. So I have them. Okay. Oh, mine does. Yeah. Oh, can you give me some? I just learned they have drawers up there.

Try to leave me a note. And it is 7:50. No decisions were made. We are now journed. Thank you everyone. Thank you Peter Gabby. Thank you Dr. Cav. Bye. Good night. Good night. I don't have a lacquer or you have to sit a little