City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. You have made it to Tuesday, May 19th, 2026. The meeting is now called to order. And I always forget to do. Michelle, can we start with roll call?

Yes. Council Member Brandon Whedon.

Present.

Council Member Angela Jefferson. Present. Council Member Joan Cathy. Present.

Joan, we heard, no, we saw your lips move. Can you test your mic for us? I'm off mute. We cannot hear you, and also we really like your new frames.

My new friend?

We can hear you now.

New frames.

Yeah.

Council Member Joan Cathy?

I was present, and I am present. And I plan to stay.

Council Member Eileen Swartout. Present. Council Member Megan Sullivan. Present. Council Member Peter Agabi.

Present.

Council Member Kelly Von Holtz.

Present.

Mayor Lieta Dahlhoff.

And I am still here. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. We are on to item number four, special items. We have a proclamation, Public Works Week. Mayor Pro Tem Von Holtz.

Whereas public works programs and services for Tumwater are a joint effort of the Water Resources and Sustainability Department and the Transportation and Engineering Department. Together, they provide essential services that are an integral part of our community, such as water, sewer, stormwater, streets, and sidewalks, fleet maintenance, engineering, and geographic information systems. And whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of Tumwater, And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, natural resources, water treatment and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for the people in our city, and whereas it is in the public's interest of the individuals, businesses, civic leaders, and youth in Tumwater to learn about and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs. Now, therefore, Lieta Dahlhoff, Mayor of the City of Tumwater, does hereby proclaim May 17th through the 24th, 2026, Public Works Week.

Thank you, Mayor Pritzker and Von Holtz. Would you two give us the honor of introducing yourselves so those online and those in the audience can know your names? And also, what would you like to share with us about this important week?

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. My name is Jeff Cook. I'm the Deputy Director of Transportation Engineering Division. This is Corey Hale. He's our Utilities Operations Assistant Manager, and we're here on behalf of WERS and TED to discuss public works and accept this proclamation.

Jeff, what does WERS stand for?

Water Resources and Sustainability.

Thank you so much. Why is this week important to you both and your colleagues?

The year, and we have a slide. Let's see if I can click this. Oh. Oh. I know. What?

What?

I was hoping a black light and a disco ball would drop down, but it didn't. I mean, note for next time, I'll talk to facilities. Thank you. So this year's theme for National Public Works Week is Rooted in Service, and powered by community. The theme acknowledges that the roots of service run deep in public works. It's what has propelled public works innovations and has helped our communities evolve into places where people can lead lives of purpose and possibility. Some work, like building roads and bridges, is highly visible, while other public works contributions, like maintaining water and sewer systems, are sometimes and often hidden from view. Together, these efforts form the foundation of thriving communities, reminding us that every project, seen or unseen, powers the connection between service and the people it supports. The residents of Tumwater know that we will be there to help and provide essential services like clean, reliable drinking water, keeping sewers flowing, stormwater treatment, accessible streets and sidewalks, all while implementing climate mitigation efforts and processes to reduce greenhouse gases and press towards our net zero 2050 goal. The theme acknowledges the power of the community of public works professionals working together across numerous disciplines. It also acknowledges the commitment to our community as we build and maintain trust with them, engage directly with residents, and work together for community health and safety.

Public Works Week gives us a chance to celebrate all the contributions and efforts of Public Works employees to support our thriving community. Our Public Works professionals plan, design, build, manage, and operate the infrastructure and right-of-ways that allow us all to enjoy and grow in our community. Whether it's providing services in water, wastewater, transportation, mapping, resource sustainability, right-of-way management, or fleet services, our public works departments are always ready to serve our community where we live and work. On behalf of our two departments and all of our colleagues who work together to provide daily, year-round public works services, we thank you for your support and for this recognition. Thank you for celebrating this week with us and acknowledging the importance of the people that supports the streets, pipes, pumps, sidewalks, plans, budgets, maps, urban forest, climate response, and projects for the everyday quality of life for those in Tumwater. Earlier today, we celebrated by getting together for some fun and recognition of the work that is accomplished every day by the members of the WERS and TED departments. With that, let us thank you once more for this recognition. We are honored to be able to contribute to our community's continued growth and well-being.

Thank you.

Well said, you two. I'm going to open Council's mics, and if anyone wants to give any comments or compliments. So we're going to start with Mayor Pro Tem Von Holtz, and then go to Councilmember Jefferson.

Thank you. And a big thank you to all the public works. You can't go or go without public works. You can take the girl out of maintenance, but you can't take the maintenance out of the girl. So thank you so much for all you do, because really, you know, as someone who works in public engagement for transportation projects, you can get people really excited about building a bridge, but sewer replacement, not so much, but both very, very important. So, Thank you.

Well said, Mayor. Angela Jefferson, you want to go after that?

Yes, I will try. As the committee chair, I had the pleasure of meeting you today, coming to your picnic. And I was speaking about morale. And I always want to know, well, how was your morale? And the morale was extremely high. I saw some happy employees. And you always know when it's mandatory fun. You know, when you tell people you have to go and they're just like, man, I really don't want to go. You can just tell that the employees wanted to be there. I spoke to several. One of them was water resources, and he works with the well, and I was asking him his favorite part of the job. And you can just see in his face that he just loves being in Tumwater, and he loves his job. So congratulations, and thank you for the work that you do for us.

Well said, Council Member Jefferson. Anyone else? Your mics are hot.

Council Member Swarthout. Thank you. I think my feelings are hurt now. I was not invited to the Public Works picnic this year. I was just going to say, I was absolutely going to say, actually, I was going to start with Public Works is my favorite committee to serve on, and I didn't want Brad to hear that, so hopefully Brad's not here. But I have learned all sorts of things from Public Works, and I really do enjoy serving on that committee and hope to get invited to the picnic next year. Thank you.

Noted. Administrator Simmons, writing that down. Thank you so much, Council Member Swarthouse. With that awkward moment, would you two be interested in doing a photo together? Fantastic. Let's all go down and do a photo. Okay, john, before we go on to the next time, I just noticed that your frames have changed from red to blue. Am I having a stroke? Or did you just change your glasses?

I just changed my glasses.

Thank you so much for keeping us on our toes. Just wanted to circle back with you on that one.

I'm going to try another color later.

Thank you, Council Member Cathy. Now let's transition smoothly to public comment. Michelle.

We do have four names for public comment this evening. At this time, we will receive public comments. You may comment on items relating to city business not scheduled for public hearing. When I call your name, please come up to the podium, speak into the microphone, and state your name and contact information for the record. Each individual will be limited to one three-minute period to make their remarks, regardless of the number of topics they wish to address. Speakers may not comment upon, promote, advocate for, oppose, or speak against a pending initiative, ballot measure, or candidate. All comments should be directed towards the Council as a whole, not individual Council members. and not to members of the audience. Please refrain from disruptive behavior such as booing, hissing, audible comments, cheering, or clapping. Okay, the first name we have is Maria Bonilla.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Maria Figueroa. I come from FEMA, the Governmental Affairs. And I would like to remind everyone that the last day to register for individual assistance if you were impacted by the December floods is June 10. And you can call the 1-800-632-621-3362 line or apply online, www.fema.gov. I will be sending you periodically information about what we're doing and the places that have been opening up so that people who cannot access the line can go physically and register. Thank you.

Thank you, Maria. Administrator Simmons, do you have a business card available that you can give Maria so we can

She already did.

She's so good. She's so good. Maria, thank you.

And I have sent information over to certain addresses that I got, so I will keep doing that.

You're on top of it. Thank you so much, Maria. Next, we have Dave McCandry. Dave McCandry used to serve on Tumwater City Council a few years ago.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, members of the City Council. Dave McCandrey, 505 4th Avenue South, and a proud member of this body from 1976 or 77 to 87 when this building was built. I was here a couple weeks ago, and it's fitting now that this is Public Works Week, I was here a couple weeks ago touting the effort to salvage some historic elements in a public works administration building, the old highway administration building over on Capitol Boulevard, with a view towards saving those elements for incorporation in a concept that's been developed for a New Deal park in time for the New Deal centennial in 19, I'm sorry, in 2033, Franklin Roosevelt having been inaugurated in March of 1933. And his name was on the building in question. as well as Harold Ickes, who was Secretary of the Interior and the head of many of the relief efforts during the New Deal. My main point at the time and here again tonight is that the Department of Transportation, with whom we're trying to seek constructive engagement, has posed salvaging effort as some kind of extraordinary effort, whereas my point last time when I was here and here again tonight is that this is actually quite routine. The comparable building in Wenatchee had the similar historic frieze and elements, and those were all saved. And in fact, the frieze in Wenatchee is kind of the tableau at the entrance to the new regional administration building in Wenatchee. So the proof of concept's been demonstrated. It's simply a matter of will. And we don't have to go as far as Wenatchee to figure out or to see how commonplace this is. with some degree of celebration this past week, the Olympian featured the attempt to salvage certain historic elements from the general administration building, the mosaic, the seal on the outside of the building. And I would actually argue the general administration building may have a more distinguished neighborhood, but it is not a historically more significant building. And I say that with every bit of authority I can muster as the former head of the state's historical society. So we have a meeting this Thursday with the task force that the Historic Commission, your Historic Commission, has arranged. Hopefully we'll have Department of Transportation representation there. But I'll ask Assistant City Manager Adams to send you a link to the video on the Olympian website if you haven't already seen it. Thank you for all you do.

Thank you, former Council Member Dave Nicandre. And the Assistant City Administrator has given the thumbs up.

Thank you. Next, we have Dawn Baker.

Good evening, Mayor Dahlhoff and Tumwater City Council members. I'm Dawn Baker, the president of Thurston County Realtors Association. We appreciate the opportunity to attend the city's study session process and to meet with Tumwater staff regarding the proposed home energy score ordinance. We also appreciate the city's willingness to hear stakeholder concerns and consider revisions to the proposal. While we recognize and appreciate those efforts, we must reiterate that TCRA remains opposed to the ordinance in its current form. This policy is still being advanced with significant unanswered questions related to implementation, compliance, enforcement, market impacts, and long-term administration. Although revisions have been proposed, many of the core operational concerns raised by housing professionals remain unresolved. Housing policy has real world consequences for homeowners, buyers, sellers, and the broader housing market. Policies tied directly to the sale of homes should be practical, predictable, and fully understood before implementation. Unfortunately, this ordinance still relies heavily on assumptions about how the market may respond, despite the reality that every housing market is different, including differences between neighboring jurisdictions within our own region. We are particularly concerned about adopting a policy framework first and attempting to resolve operational details later. Tumwater residents deserve housing policy that is clear, workable and fully vetted before new mandates are imposed. TCRA supports energy efficiency, consumer education and thoughtful conversations around sustainability. However, we believe voluntary tools, incentives and education-based approaches are more appropriate than a mandatory point of sale requirement that may create unintended consequences for housing affordability and housing mobility. We respectfully urge the council to reject the ordinance current form and continue working collaboratively with stakeholders towards solutions that are practical, transparent, and locally appropriate. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Dawn. Appreciate your time.

Next up, we have Courtney Holthaus.

My name is Courtney Marie Holthaus. I was the federal pro se plaintiff in case 3-25-CV-05257-TMC. People told me you'll get in trouble as if my truth was a sin. I was a child holding a pink hairbrush filled with my own hair, ripped out in clumps from the root, while adults stood around translating violence into softer language. Stress. Misunderstanding. Kids being kids. Funny how abuse always gets a rebrand when people are desperate to avoid accountability. Then came the baseball bat. Then the drowning attempt. At 10 years old, I ran screaming down the street because a boy chased me trying to grab my body. An adult watched and walked away. That was the day I learned something important. Most people do not lack awareness. They lack courage. So years later, when I worked for the Washington State Department of Corrections and watched repeat violent sexual predators cycled back into communities through policy dressed up as rehabilitation, I recognized the pattern immediately. I didn't hesitate and spoke up right there and then because systems protect themselves the same way predators do. Deny, minimize, reframe, repeat. And when I spoke, suddenly I became the problem. So they tormented me. Because institutions can tolerate almost anything except a woman who documents everything. They told me to keep it within the department, as if my silence would make the problem just disappear. They told me they didn't make the rules, but the Department of Corrections is far too powerful to act like a helpless bystander. I learned that people saying we're worried about you usually means we're worried you'll keep talking. And I did keep talking. No legal army, no powerful last name, no institutional shield. Just a woman by herself. And while they were busy calling me too much, I was building a record and a data redundancy plan of over 10 flash drives. Every contradiction, every redaction. I'm still asking the big questions because I know exactly what happens when people stay silent. I lived it. And after surviving childhood violence, retaliation, bankruptcy, humiliation, and isolation, people with big fancy titles do not scare me. Because I learned very young that some of the most dangerous people alive hide behind professionalism.

Thank you.

Thank you, Courtney. Thank you for coming tonight. Michelle, is there anyone online? There is none. Anyone else like to make public comment? Okay, no pressure. Keith, you don't wanna say anything? Ryan, you don't wanna say anything? Okay, all right, I'm just saying, okay. We're gonna move on to item number six, consent calendar. Are there any items that council would like pulled? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion. You gotta let me know so I can unmute your mic.

I'll move to approve.

Council Member Jefferson, I have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Von Holtz, second from Council Member Jefferson. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. The summary of consent for those who were unable to read it all, The three things I'd like to highlight is the South Sound Green Regional Partnership. And the gist of this one is this is one of those quieter investments that shapes the next generation's understanding of environmental responsibility in our region. The second item I'd like to showcase is the emergency communications with the Port of Olympia fire and rescue radio equipment. The takeaway from this is when emergencies happen, communication between agencies matter. This agreement helps ensure responders can coordinate quickly and effectively across jurisdictions. The last one I would like to highlight is the second avenue pedestrian and bicycle improvements. This is important because this is about making everyday travel safer and more connected for families and students and walkers and cyclists and drivers alike. So taken together with all the other consent calendar items, these items show Tumwater is investing in long-term priorities, safer infrastructure, regional environmental stewardship and stronger emergency preparedness. Moving on to council considerations. Number seven, ordinance 2026-015, Tumwater Municipal Code 2.10.040, chief of police appointment duties. Who? I will be presenting that one. Oh, wait, Michelle, are you going to leave this position and go to the, oh, this is amazing. Let's do it. Let's do it live. Let's see what happens. Is there anything I can assist with? I love to push buttons and see what happens. I mean, with technology, not with people.

So this evening, we bring forward a change to one of Tumwater's municipal codes. It's specifically an ordinance amending municipal code section 2.10.040, which is the chief of police appointment Duties section of the code this was brought to the Public Health and Safety Committee on May 12th 2026 and they recommended it for Considerations at this council meeting so what this ordinance the change to the ordinance Would do it would ask that the council adopt this model to promote increased transparency Because in changing this ordinance, it is requesting that the chief of police also get confirmation by the council. And from that confirmation, the mayor would then be able to make an appointment. So this does increase transparency across the city and the community in allowing that council confirmation.

Michelle, who is actually doing that on the screen? Because that's really impressive if you're doing that.

Oh, Lance. Okay. You know what?

I was like, that is amazing, Michelle, that you could do that all the way over there.

There you go. Thank you, Lance. Thank you, Lance. This is the change in the language here. Section A says there is created the position of chief of police for the city. The chief of police shall be appointed by the mayor, and the change is highlighted in green. Such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by a majority vote of the city council. So that is what we are seeking approval for this evening.

Before we go to council, I see multiple fingers up. So I'm going to go to City Administrator Simmons.

Thank you. Just wanted to make sure I was on. Paul Simmons, City Administrator. I just wanted to add, just for context, there are currently three positions that require confirmation from the council. City Administrator, City Attorney, and the Finance Director. This would add the police chief as a fourth position to that.

Thank you, city administrators. So I had Councilmember Jefferson. Do we want to hear from acting police chief Carlos Gilles? Did you want to say why this is important? Why this is important to you? Actually, you know what? Acting Chief Gillis, we would love for you to come up to the podium next to Michelle and just explain why you and I are asking for council support with this change.

Thank you, Mayor. Acting Chief Carlos Gillis. The reason why I support this is the Chief of Police is a pretty high visible position in the city, has a lot of responsibility, and works with both the community, the council, and inside folks, and the business community as well. And I'm a firm believer that to be in this position, you have to have the support of the council, you have to have the support of the community, you have to have support of the business community, and you have to have support of the folks inside the organization as well. So this allows, in my opinion, everyone who has a, allows them a say. And for me, I wouldn't want to, you know, be appointed to this position if I knew there were people out there that didn't support that decision. I just took a job because, you know, someone just said, it's yours. So I'm in favor of it. I think it's important. I think everyone should have a voice. Their thoughts and ideas should be heard. And I'm 100% in favor of this.

Thank you. Acting chief killers. I saw council member Jefferson. Did you have something?

Yes. Um, for increased transparency, which we all want. So the decision maker for choosing the chief of police was the mayor previously. So now it looks like the council are going to have some involvement or with some approval of that. Is that what I'm hearing? Okay, so we're just kind of blessing off on what the mayor chooses.

Okay. It's important for me serving in this role that we work together and that we are aligned, right? So I'm about unity, not uniformity. But we have a lot of things coming our way that are going to be some heavy decisions that council needs to decide. This is one of the situations where I think it's imperative that we we show that we could disagree, but when it comes to this and what we want and how we're working together, this is really important to me that council can contribute to this conversation.

Okay, what about neighboring jurisdictions? Is it like that in our neighboring jurisdictions in Lacey? No. Or just unique to Tumwater? Is that what I'm hearing?

I'm looking at our city attorney.

Tumwater's form of government is different than either Lacey or Olympia, so this is structured differently.

Okay.

And I will say there are other organizations across the state that do work with this same model that we are proposing as well.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member Weedon and then Council Member Agave.

I would just like to highlight the fact that in today's political environment, anybody that has power, it seems to be consolidating it. And for you to go ahead and give up some of your power or the mayor's power in the future, it just speaks to your character that you're willing to go ahead and listen to everybody on this board. And I'd just like to say that I really appreciate your leadership and your type of mayorship and bringing everybody in instead of building borders to keep people out.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Agape.

So once you amend the, so this is our government laws and has been for quite a while. So once you amend that, you change the structure of our government. And then once this is done, you bind the next mayor to this particular amendment. While I think it's good for transparency and it's good for good governance, I think we need to look at the ramification legally, what that means going forward. Because in order to change the way there has to be what unintended consequences that we are not even talking about right now. So I will very much counsel that Karen give an opinion if that does not in the future cause a problem once we amend our charter.

Thank you, Council Member Burberry. City Attorney Kirkpatrick.

So the way the statute is structured, the mayor is given the power of appointment for directors. However, there are also statutes that allow the council to maintain some of that power by confirmation. So what this does is operationally allow both of those things to happen. So the appointment still... The mayor still makes the appointment, but the council has the opportunity to confirm or not confirm that position. If the council did not confirm it, then the mayor would need to go back out and choose a second candidate. And you'll go through the process again. We currently, as city administrator mentioned, we currently already have three positions where the council has maintained that ability to confirm. So this would just be adding one, additional position that would require confirmation, but you are correct. It would, it goes into the future until the council decides that they want to change that.

We also great comment council member. We also, you also approve board and commission members, right? That we interview. And then we bring to you all and you also do those confirmations. So great question. Council member Gabby mayor pro tem Von Holtz.

Thank you, Mayor. I am really proud that we're doing this because transparency is very important. And especially it seems like Tom Water has been a little bit more newsy lately. And so we need to be transparent as possible. These decisions are important. And I also am appreciative. It could just be the Mayor's call and the fact that she wants the entire council to be a part of this decision-making, as we are with city administrator and city attorney. It says a lot about the direction that the city of Tumular is moving, so I'm very appreciative of this.

Council Member Swarthout. Thank you, Mayor.

I appreciate that it was initiated by Acting Chief Keylasu as well, how important this was to him and also to you as mayor. And I echo the words of Council Member Boyden, just that we are leading with, you're leading with transparency and your communication and all. And so I think this just is very refreshing and I appreciate this ordinance and we'll be in support of it. And thank you for bringing it forward for us.

Council Member Sullivan.

Since others have weighed in, I just wanted to say I was part of the committee that discussed this and am echoing what others have said, that this forwards many of our goals, which include transparency and bringing forward all of our perspectives and making sure that we all consider the many nuanced pieces of high-level roles and can carry our perspective into decision-making. And I am very much in support of this, as others are. So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sullivan. If nothing else, I would entertain a motion, and your mics are hot because I can't see all of you. So moved.

Second.

And a motion from Councilmember Sullivan, a second from Councilmember Whedon. And before we vote, Councilmember Cathy, did you want to contribute or anything? Did you have any clarifying questions?

No, I did not, other than I join with all of my colleagues here in saying I would like to gather up all the positive things that have been said about your leadership and our chief of police and how we're going to go about it from here on out. I think it's the way to go.

Thank you, Council Member.

Good for doing it.

We have a motion on the floor. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Acting Chief Kalis. We will wait for Michelle to get into her first role. We are moving on to the Mayor's and City Administrator's report. We will start with City Administrator Simmons. What is good?

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Dahlhoff. I just wanted to acknowledge that last week, Council Member Sullivan, Mayor Dahlhoff, Chief Keylace, and Chief Hurley and myself had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Chehalis tribe, including Tribal Chairman Kletush, as well as a few others. And it was great dialogue. It was a great chance for us to catch up and talk about our shared values and shared vision. And we were excited to share also that we are going to continue these meetings on a monthly basis so that we can keep our relationship up with the tribe. So I thought I would acknowledge that. And that's all I have tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, City Administrator Simmons. For my report, we have budget and finance committee meeting this Friday at noon where we will be getting a monthly budget update from our finance director and also talk about a budget amendment discussion. Let's start with council member reports and we're going to start virtually with council member Kathy. What is good, council member Kathy?

I forgot to change my glasses. Well, I had a couple meetings since last we were together and one of them was ORCA that you heard from at our work session and They really appreciated coming to our work session and having a chance to brag about everything at ORCA and all of the good questions that our council asked. And this last meeting was pretty well taken up by the budget. So there were some changes that we needed to make. So that was the main thing. And then I had a meeting of the Solid Waste Advisory Council known as SWAC. And we had a guest presenter and speaker and a woman who gets her hands dirty doing some of the stuff that has to do with recycling and with, you know, landfills and so forth, you know, exciting things like that. And she's from King County. And there it is, they call it their circular economy program, which is You know, trash and recyclables and compost and all of that. And what they do with it and how they do it. And it's a very good program. It's overwhelming, all this stuff we throw away. And thank goodness we have people making an effort to reuse and recycle and all of that. And it caused me to think about how much we we collect here. I don't mean here at the city per se, but in in Thurston County and in Tumwater and The landfill actually is receiving less than they have other months of the last two years. So that's kind of a concerning thing. The average that we collect in a month, just to give you an idea, is anywhere between 19 and 20,000 tons of garbage. And Some of that includes recyclables. And then we have, but we have increased some of the use of what we call Hazel House. And I do believe our mayor sometime back before she was the mayor had to talk with them at, am I right about this mayor? You had to talk about paint and

That is correct.

And so forth. Right now, paint and the materials that go with painting are two of the most recycled things at what is called Hazo House, where all of our hazardous waste goes. So you were ahead of the time in talking about needing to up our, I don't know, our letting people know where to... recycle paint and paint materials. but they didn't get as far as your request, I think was, can we think of another place other than just having to go to the landfill? Was that, am I correct on that?

Yes, I still haven't let that go. I'm still hoping that Administrator Simmons can work with the port to find a location for a seasonal paint drop-off on port property to then refurbish that and reuse that and hopefully to sell for revenue, of course, for a habitat. So I haven't let that go. Joan Cathy, you inspire me to be persistent.

Okay. Well, I'm proud of you. And, uh, and you know, that kind of engagement from, uh, cities is, um, is what this, this board, uh, is all about is making sure we're keeping up with what the community needs and wants. So I'll keep you up to date, uh, on that and, uh, Keep recycling, please, please. And also your organics. That has increased. So that's good. Thank you. That's all I have.

Great report, Council Member Cathy. We're going to start from the left and go to the right. Council Member Swarthout, what is good?

Thank you, Mayor. This time I wrote notes, so I do have some pages. Pages? No, sorry. You never say sorry. Since our last council meeting, I do want to thank Todd Anderson and his team that came down and delivered chairs and the podium for the Olympic trials ceremony that we had on Saturday. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we had a number of people attend. And it was very successful. So again, I do really appreciate. We had several people that really needed to be accommodated, so the chair was very much appreciated. And then I also attended the short course on local government planning along with Council Member Whedon. I've attended this course before, and it was a good refresher on Growth Management Act and more. So yesterday I chaired the quarterly meeting for the Thurston Climate Mitigation Collaborative Executive Board and two topics of interest. The first one is for Council Member Cathy. First one was a presentation from County Commissioner Menser on the status of Thurston County's push to preserve the legacy forests, which we can't call them legacy forests any longer. We're supposed to call them structurally complex forests. I took pages of notes, which you'll be happy that I'm not sharing with you this evening, but at some point, perhaps Commissioner Minster would be willing to share this presentation at an upcoming work session. I think it might be of interest to Council. So I'm going to begin the whole complicated story about the Legacy Forest. I'm quoting an article from October 13th, from the 2024 Seattle Times. So for more than a century, this has been a way of doing business in Washington, cutting forest owned by the state and today managed by the Department of Natural Resources. But in an era of climate warming and growing climate activism, there was a new war in the woods. This fight is not over old growth. The trees sprouted before 1850 and never cut since settlers came here. Those ancient monarchs are already protected by state and federal policy on federal lands in three states within the range of the northern spotted owl. The conflict now playing out across Washington is over the old growth forests of tomorrow. These are the second growth forests originating before 1945 and never sprayed with herbicide or replanted to a dense monoculture of nursery-grown seedlings. A large number of those forests are in Thurston County in the 110,000-acre capital state forest southwest of Olympia. Here comes the... Complicated part is the Department of Natural Resources oversees 6 million acres of state public land, including 3 million acres of trust lands that produce revenue, mostly from logging, for schools, counties, and other parts of government. Washington's forest trust lands raise about a hundred and eighty million dollars a year for schools and local government services including hospitals libraries EMS and more in addition to 63 million used to manage more than two million acres of state forest lands and maintain 14,000 miles of roads So this is where all gets messy here we are trying to balance the need for funding and the need to address climate change and meeting our climate goals and so There's a lot of information on that, and I can provide articles, but Commissioner Menser has been working to postpone the auction on parcels in the Capital Forest, two called Cabbage Patch and Carrot, but has not been successful. There is one called Radagus, where he has had some success there. He did warn the committee of another forest that has not been on the list, that is a concern for all of us on its own, but is coming up for auction called Bears, which abuts the McLean Natural Trail. Earlier this year, the executive committee explored having the jurisdiction send letters to DNR, but Commissioner Menser said at that point it was too late to have any impact. At this meeting, when bringing up the Bears sale, we could have an opportunity to initiate a letter-writing campaign. Commissioner Menser agreed to have staff provide more details and information for jurisdictions interested in this project. So on the second, we talked about, I sent this information, had you forward information that we received. We received information presented at the Climate Mitigation Committee as well on the steps for the Home Energy Score Program, the step-by-step, how the staff has come together and developed the program. the process and how the steps that be put into place to how the program will be administered. And so I hope you guys will find that information useful. It'll be part of the packet at some point for committee review and then for council review as well. So I just want to say again that this executive meeting was very impactful. If you have any more questions, we can talk about this later, or you can also reach out to Alyssa Jones-Woods.

Thank you, Council Member Schell. Great report. We're going to move on to Council Member Sullivan. What's good?

Can I ask a question?

Joan, I would never say no to you. Ask away.

Okay. I just wanted to ask Eileen, just for people to be clear, when you say, let's just use the bears area, and you say it's coming up for auction, who is auctioning off this and for what purpose?

The Department of Natural Resources will put it up for auction, and then it will be logged for funds that they receive that will go to the Department of Natural Resources.

So this is what people need to really understand, which you have just said, is that our own people are cutting down our forests and saying that, We need to do it for, I think their reasons are weak, but the cost of climate change and the money that any state that's doing this is going to have to spend to mitigate climate change and environmental goals and everything far exceeds what the amount of money that they give back to schools and government and that kind of thing. I think it's, I think this is a horrendous thing and a terrible excuse for continuing to do this. You know, and it's so right. You know, the fourth, the ones they're cutting down are, you know, 80 years old. And there's, Well, there's no need for it if we believe in our goals and our city's goals and many cities' goals around here. And I thought some state goals, it's just counterproductive. Anyway, that's my only going to put in two cents, but I think that's five.

That was one of the points that the commissioner also made, too, that there's opportunities, ways that if we can preserve the old growth forests, and there's other forests that can be logged that we could swap. And so there are suggestions out there, but it just seems that when it comes to these particular areas, sites in the capital forests that they're real dug in on these. And so it's been a very difficult fight, um, to try to preserve these old growth forests. A number of them are in the capital forest, um, seriously in our, they are in our area. So it's just been, um, a difficult situation. So between, uh, department natural resources and then reaching out to, um, Director Undergrove, or is it?

Public Lands Commissioner.

Public Lands Commissioner Up the Grove would be another opportunity to work with, try to let them know how we are concerned, share our letters with them.

moving forward don't we don't apologize it's this great note so administration has already wrote down a prospective work session right so can we also i know we were you know public lands commissioner up the girl was supposed to come to an event but then there was a conflict so we need to circle back joan circle back with uh lance commissioner up the grove and see maybe if staff could come with commissioner menser or some way to get a clearer picture and hear it from Department of Natural Resources and Thurston County Commissioner Menser. I'm getting nods from everybody.

Yeah, and also this impacts us in this area of the Capital Forest because that's also not only used extensively by people. Come here is a tourist thing, an economic thing for this area coming to the forest because they're doing such damage to others roundabout. So we're cutting off our nose to... spider face here.

I'm taking your 10 cents, Joan, and Administrator Simmons has it noted. So more to come and we'll schedule a work session and get the appropriate people to learn more together.

Okay. I'll stop pulling a spit here. Okay.

Council Member, what's good?

Thank you, Mayor. Last week, I attended my first meeting of Public Health and Safety, and lots of those items were on this agenda. As Administrator Simmons shared, I joined a number of Tumwater representatives to meet with Chehalis Tribe and am heartened and excited about the deepening partnership in the months and years to come. I also had the opportunity to join Finance Director Troy at the Old Town Center for a coffee with council, city leadership and learned a whole bunch about Old Town Center and our operations there. the amazing activities that go on there every day. So that was both a joy to meet the folks that are coming there day-to-day and week-to-week and a great way to learn more about what the city has to offer. And there was a lot of interest in the budget process and how Old Town Center services, senior services offered by the city are funded. And Troy from our finance department shared a lot about the budget process. And we invited the folks there to participate in the process and come to work sessions and council meetings and budget discussions. So that was wonderful. And that was I think, yesterday, the week is already feeling long, and it's only Tuesday. Coming up, I have an opportunity to join our Deputy Director of Community Development, Sharon, and Tom Webster from the county to learn more about the housing for formerly houseless folks in our community as a part of my continued learning around regional housing work. I attended a regional housing meeting last week. They had an add-on session to address some of the funding from the state for folks that were previously living in encampments and right-of-ways and to... approved funding for continued operations of some of the facilities that are housing some of those folks and there was additional funds left over after the funding recommendations were made and so the decision at that meeting at regional housing was that close to three hundred thousand dollars that was not allocated is going to be held for a short period of time while staff come up with some additional strategies for what would be the best use of those funds. So we expect to see that at our regular meeting later this month or definitely in June, and I will share more. I will circle back. Thank you, Council Member Sullivan.

Mayor Pro Tem Von Holtz, what's good? Thank you, Mayor. As Council Member Sullivan mentioned, we had public health and safety last week. I also attended LOTT.

I also attended LOTT.

And there was a lot of things happening around capital projects. We're talking about the budget for a lot. That was all good and well. But one of the things that I learned about was there was an incident where alarms at lot notified staff there that there had been a diesel spill into our system and In Tumwater, and Tumwater staff reacted so quickly that they ended up really saving the day. Truly, they saved the day, and they were able to find out where the diesel spill was, how it happened, soak it up, really keep... extra damage from being done. Like, like it really was a threat to our wastewater system. So kudos to some water staff. And I'm just hopeful when things like that happen that we can celebrate them. And, or somehow I get to know about it before I'm in a meeting with Lot because it is very important that we get this news out. Our community needs to know how great our staff are, especially during public work. That is all.

Subtle and well said, Council Member Von Holtz. Council Member Agabi, what's good?

Last week Wednesday, I attended the Transportation Board meeting And the thing I noticed was we were done within 45 minutes, and that was because our chairperson didn't show. Somebody was taking his place. I'm not saying that was a problem, but I'm just saying that he wasn't there. This lady came in, and we were done within 45 minutes. We made my day. So what did we talk about? Kind of like we did a little while ago about amending our rules. So we had to amend our bylaws because we were going to be having our two new community members. So one community member was taking the position of somebody who had left, and a new one was going to be coming in. So in order for us to do that, we have to change our bylaws, which we did, and then appointed those two individuals. And one of them is Vonnie Turner, which I think we all know. And then we talked about the College Street project corridor. So for Martin, through College, there's going to be a bunch of construction work that is scheduled to happen between now and the next one or 13 months. And then we talked about performance measure data, borrowing stuff. So for the opium abatement, since the RFP, I believe, has gone out, so we are waiting for the applicant to submit the application, and then we'll go to work nominating what is going to happen and how that will work. So that's going to be a lot of work coming down the back. But we don't have any meetings this month, so that's that. I'm done.

Great report, Council Member Agave.

Council Member Jefferson, what's good? Okay, on the 7th of May, Public Works Committee met, and two of the items which are on consent calendar today was the interlocal agreement with the City of Olympia, City of Lacey, and Thurston County, and also additional construction funding request with Active Construction, Inc. Now, we spent a little time discussing our Canopy Equity Program, which is that tree update that we've been asking for, and the The choice was whether we should put it on council considerations because it was just supposed to be an information briefing. And we decided that we wanted council to hear what was said. Because as it comes to our youth, and I know Council Member Cathy is just She loves our trees and we admire her for always, you know, talking about our trees and our green space. So the topic was 480 seedlings was given away on Arbor Day and talked about sidewalk safe trees. What trees should we be planting? There are four trees, specific trees. So I mentioned that we want to get this information out there on our YouTube channel. So for them to to contact our communications manager to start populating our YouTube channel. Imagine that someone wants to know what's a safe tree. They can just go into our YouTube channel, has the four specific trees, and sometimes they don't even have to pay for these trees. So let's get this information out there as we talk about climate change. On Thursday, the 21st of May, we're going to be talking about resolution number R2026-009, our six-year transportation improvement program, and also 2026 drought briefing program. And TCOM meeting on the 6th, on the 7th of May, we recognize telecommunicator Angela Larson as the TCOM 911 Employee of the Year and a Washington State APCO November Echo NA. I apologize, I do not know what that means, but she is Trainer of the Year. Progress continues on the new phone system, still working on smaller non-mission critical items and enhancement features. I, in closing, I would like to refute a statement made at the last city council meeting, council member's report, where a fellow council member, position number three, whose name begins with an A and ends with an I, stated that Tumwater is not the first European American settlement. The first was in Vancouver, Washington. Well, after extensive research, I would like to report that the first permanent American pioneer settlement and what later became Washington State is indeed located in Tumwater. Founded in 1845, the settlement was originally called New Market before becoming Tumwater and then Washington State. Vancouver, Washington is older overall as a non-indigenous settlement. Fort Vancouver was established in 1825 by the Hudson Bay Company as a British fur trade. post. So it's older, but it was joint. So the first permanent American pioneer settlement is Tumwater, established 20 years later in 1845. So in closing, as I continue to discuss the history of Tumwater, let's remember and acknowledge that Tumwater is located on the traditional homelands of several Coast Salish peoples, especially the Nisqually Indian tribe. and the Squaxin Indian Tribe. Let's also remember we are stewards of this precious land as we honor and value our air, rivers, and mountains like those coming before us always have. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Jefferson. Council Member Whedon, you get to bring us home before our executive session.

Thanks for that. On the 6th of May, I joined Councilmember Swarthout on a short course on local government that was hosted here by the City of Timewinter. On May 12th, I actually had a really busy day that day. I went to the Timewinter Hopes luncheon alongside a couple other Timewinter staff. Our SRO was there, and we had a park representative there as well. And continuing on the May 12th, I met with B2 and went over some of his engineering projects, future and current. And then we did our public health and safety meeting on that day as well, which we've already gone over numerous times tonight. So you're welcome for those additions. But that was a good to hear about the ordinance that we passed tonight. So And May 16th, I got to go and present at the Tim Winter Baseball Party in the park alongside our administrator, Simmons, who I got to see rock his awesome sunglasses over there. So he might be right there with your... Great glasses choices. And then I had a, today we did the VCB board, which I have not been able to go ahead and fully write up a full report for, but I will go ahead and email that out later on. That's it.

That's it. Thank you, Council Member Whedon. We are now, council is going to now go meet in that room over there, an executive session to discuss potential litigation pursuant to RCW 42.30.110, parentheses one, parentheses I. The council will be in executive session for 20 minutes until 825. The council is not expected to take further action following the executive session.

Everyone leave your items here, no paper or no pen. No cameras.

No phones. No devices. Council is extending the executive session for a period of 10 minutes until 8.35. Council is back. 8.35, no decisions were made. Meeting adjourned. Okay, who guessed?