Renton, Washington

Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Will you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all the roll call here. Council President Perez >> here. >> Council member Van >> Council member Albertson >> here. >> Council member Rivera >> Council member O'Hall >> here. >> Council member Mcuran >> And council member Prince >> here. >> Uh roll call. Mr. Mayor all present. Council member Rivera's remote. >> All right. Thank you. Tonight we're going to start off with a proclamation. National Gun Violence Awareness Month. Right. Proclamation. Whereas every day nearly 130 people in the United States are killed by gun violence and more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 19,000 gun homicides every year. And whereas people in the United States are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high-income countries. And whereas Washington has 950 gun deaths every year with a rate of 11.7 deaths per 100,000 people, Washington has the 39th highest rate of gun deaths in the US. And whereas mayors, council members, and law enforcement officers in partnership with local violence intervention activists and resources know their communities best, are the most familiar with local criminal activity and how to address it, and are positioned to understand how to keep their citizens safe. And whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as we see gun violence continue to impact communities across the country. And whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the hands of people who should not have access to them and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our families and communities safe. Now therefore, I, Arando Pavone, mayor of the rent city of Reton, do hereby proclaim June 2026 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Month in the city of Reton. And I encourage all residents to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic impacts of gun violence and to save lives. And witness thereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Reton to be affixed this 22nd day of June, 2026. Signed, Armando Pavoni, mayor of the city of Reton. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. Council president. >> I move the proclamation be adopted as read. >> Second. >> I moved by council president by council. That's proclamation read. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Nay. And motion carries. And tonight accepting the proclamation is Laura Meyer and she's representing Mom's Demand Action the Rent and Local Group. Laura. Thank you so much again. My name is Laura Meyer and I am a resident of Reton and a parent of two school age children. I am also a member of the local group of Reton Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in America. In addition, every day in the United States, 130 people are killed by guns and hundreds more are injured. These statistics these are statistics that we can no longer choose to ignore. Wear Orange brings attention to the epidemic of gun violence and recognizes the victims of gun violence. Wear Orange is recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics, National PTA, the Human Right, the Human Rights Campaign and National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Students Demand Action, and countless other national organizations. National Wear Orange Day was on June 5th this year. But we as a community and as a country must strive to address the epidemic of gun violence every day. We acknowledge that gun safety is a divisive topic across political beliefs, but we hope that our leaders will make gun violence prevention a priority. From parents to community partners to survivors of gun violence to responsible gun owners who securely store their guns, it takes all of us to keep our community safe. I'd like to thank my fellow gun violence prevention advocates for joining me today. And I'd like to thank you, Mayor Pavone, and the council members for honoring the victims and survivors of gun violence by issuing the Wear Orange Proclamation. >> Thank you. smile in favor. All right. Next up is the administrative report. >> Good evening everyone. Join us for more FIFA World Cup watch parties. June 25th. >> What? That's all. >> Sorry. Join us for more FIFA World Cup watch parties June 25th, 27th, and 28th. If theater is more your style, be sure not to miss the live production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing on June 26. For more information and a full list of the events, please visit renino.gov/events. America is turning 250 years old and Reton is celebrating. Join us Saturday, July 4th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cedar River Park. That's 1717 Maple Valley Highway for Reton's hometown 4th of July. The event is free and includes a 5K run, DJ hot off the grill hot dogs, game zone, and much more fun for the whole family. For more information, please visit rettino.gov/4th of July. Information about preventative street maintenance, traffic impact projects, and road closures happening this week can be found at renw.gov/tra. All projects are weather permitting unless otherwise noted. Streets will always remain open. That is it, sir. >> All right. Thank you. Next up is audience comment. We do have a few people signed up. Um, I want to remind everyone that all remarks must be addressed to the council as a whole. When I call your name, please step up to the podium. Each person will have three minutes to speak. There's a little timer there in front. When it starts turning yellow, please start wrapping up your comments. Um, when you do come up to the podium, please state your name and city of residence for the record. And first up is Lesie Jensen. Good evening. You guys know I'm Lesie Jensen. Uh lived in East Ren Highlands since 2011. Um I came here today to uh read aloud the email that I got from the uh chief of police who was supposed to be addressing my concerns about ALPR cameras. Uh so first he apologizes for his delay in responding and then he goes on here. I do understand that many members of our community have very strong feelings about the use of ALPR technology which I certainly understand considering some of the information that has been circulated as directed by council. The police department has ceased any use of our ALPR C systems. Those systems are not currently capturing or storing any images. I believe in the technology and the value it adds to public safety as an investigative tool. I do recognize that with any new technology there is the potential for misuse as described in the incidents you have cited. For that reason, our state legislature uh was compelled to enact protections for our communities against any abuse or exploitation of the technology. State law has considerable restrictions governing its use to include access audits confirming information prior to any enforcement action and a criminal element for users that are found to have violated state law. I do empathize with your concerns and feel that the rent police department and the state of Washington are at the forefront of policy and laws that can enable AOPR systems to be used while addressing those respectfully. John Schult um so I'd like to challenge anyone on the deis or even in this room to point to any place in in this email where he addressed a single one of my concerns. He didn't even bring up any of the links that I sent him that showed data or told stories of how people have had issues with ALPR cameras. Um, and I found this email to be both um absurd and uh patronizing to me and to the uh citizens of Reton. Um, Flock does not keep data safe. since 20 since November of 2025. That's eight months. They've had three major security or data exposure events. Three in eight months exposing people's data to whoever wants it. Um the cameras are easily hackable. Ben Jordan, who's a journalist, has already demonstrated this in videos. Um and in January 2026, researchers found 67 flock cameras streaming live to the internet with no passwords, nothing. and people could just watch it. Um, I think it's very evident that Flock does not care about keeping people's data safe. It's frustrating and ridiculous that we have to keep pointing this out. Um, and then the last last but not least, any other law enforcement entity with flock contract can look at Renton's data. It's not it's not just Reton police that can look at it. any other police entity can look at it who has a contract with Flock and they can also then show that to ICE or whoever else they want because Washington state laws only apply to Washington state. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Next up is Adrien Higs. My name is Adrien Higs. Uh I am a Reton of a resident of Reton. Ladies and gentlemen of the council, we have entered into an unthinkable business deal with Flock. We are paying Flock to put pump jacks on our city's data and storehousing the result while we pay them. In any other circumstance, Flock would be paying rent in eye watering amounts of money for this data. But why is this data so valuable? Because it is corrosive and harmful to everyone involved. When thinking about data sets like this, it is important for everyone to consider what would be what would my biggest adversary adversary do if I if they had this data set available to them. For businesses, flock data is a gold mine for corporate espionage. A motivated competitor could track freight trucks entering a facility, map out a competitor's entire supply chain, measure exact vehicle traffic to an to estimate a rivals retail revenue, or even track the daily commute of key executives for the city. Aggregating this data exposes our municipal playbook. Private developers could analyze unreleased traffic flow patterns to snap up real estate before we announce new infrastructure. Or contractors could track the exact routes and schedules of city code enforcement and utility crews, exploiting that data to gain municipal contracts. For police, this threat is immediate and physical. Organized crime could use this data to map and pat the patrol route of cruisers, pinpoint the exact timing of shift changes to find blind spots or worse, track the movements of unmarked vehicles to expose undercover operations and identify the private home addresses of our officers. In short, this data cannot be allowed to exist. Even with the best intentions, flock gathering this data together and storing it makes an extremely attractive target to hackers and dark web websites. But also consider that in February, Flock removed lines from their terms of service that explicitly said that they would not sell customer data and granted themselves perpetual rights to keep that data for themselves. Flock is ex Flock is explicitly and unabashedly using this data to train their AI. And if they aren't doing so already, Flock is setting the groundwork to sell our city's data uh or insights gleaned from our city's data as a derived product. This data will either be sold or leaked, guaranteed. The only way to prevent this harm is to make sure the data doesn't exist in the first place by terminating our contract with Flock and letting the data that they already have go. Thank you, councel. >> All right. Thank you. Next up is Michael Westgarden. Hello, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Madam President, council, my name is Michael Westgard, uh, Brenton resident. Uh I'm just uh coming in again uh both to support all the comments that have been made about the flock, but also bring back around that the council has voted on and passed some really important um uh actions for the administration to take on. whether it was on protecting our LGBTQI community, whether it's uh uh exploring a moratorium on data centers, uh what to do next about these flock systems and getting out of the contract or uh completely getting rid of them. Um and then finally, um seeing about the possibilities of keeping ICE officers off of public property and not letting them stage there and holding them to account if they commit crimes in the city of Reton. And I think this is all very important work and I uh commend uh congratulate and really appreciate the support from the council members that uh voted to push this along. But now is the time that we need the it to be publicly open and available. What this timeline is going to look for for all four of these different actions cuz that's going to be incredibly important because we've already seen after the transmemor community was attacked over a year ago. There was supposed to be protections and uh review of uh actions at that time. It was passed along to the administration and we never heard anything about it again. So, uh, I really appreciate all the community members that continue to come out and we will continue to come out until we have a clear public communication about a timeline and action and direct results of what has been pushed along to the administration because this is critical for our community to keep the whole community safe. So, I appreciate your time. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, next up is Cheryl Freeze. >> She's online. >> Yes, she is. >> I'm remote. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Thank you. Cheryl Brenton resident. So, if city council is going to vote to unpause the block cameras, and if there is the possibility that that is going to happen, then we please ask that prior to the city council being asked to vote to turn the cameras back on that a community, sorry, a community meeting occur. As mentioned in the email that we sent to city council, and I want to do a side note, say thank you to Ruth for responding. Um, we had a conversation with Chief Schult, which we also appreciated, and we spoke candidly about the lack of information and transparency, and the result being a lack of trust and frustration, especially when compounded with other issues occurring simultaneously in the city. We recommend that whatever was shared with the equity commission and whatever is now being shared with city council that something similar be done for all residents of Reon. If RPD is being more conservative than SB602 requires than show us. If indeed only the back of vehicles and the license plates are photographed nothing else then show us. If indeed RPD is going to conduct an audit every 15 days versus the annual one required by SB 602, then show us. If indeed accessing the database is purely being accessed for gross misdemeanors or felonies, then show us. If the data is deleted every 21 days, then show us. We reached out to the equity commission today to specifically ask them to make an amendment to their letter and support the community meeting and transparency with all of Brenton's residents. Per Hannah, it sounds like RPD met with the equity commission twice in April and June. Our recommendation is a community meeting soon in an expedited time frame because we think it's crucial before city council is put on the spot and delay continue to happen for voting until that meeting occurs. We also recommend that a commission be formed made up of rent residents to engage with RPD if the cameras are turned back on, especially to stay a breast of the audits and the results of set audits. Thank you for the consideration of delaying any vote on block cameras. >> All right, thank you. Next up is Jack Moore. Hi, Zach Moore, uh, Ren resident. Uh, before I get to my commentary, I'd like to request an update on the three issues that were voted on the last time I was here, namely banning ICE from using city property, a moratorium on data centers, and passing protections for our LGBT neighbors. Uh, having said that, I'd like to speak to the issue of ALPRs again. Recent reports inform us that these units will soon be able to gather data about our phones and Bluetooth devices. Information they don't need, information they can only get if you allow them to spy on us in our own community. My hope is that uh is that that isn't why the council members got into government? Uh is that what you ran on to help us usher in uh fascism under the guise of safety? If so, were you honest with your voters about your intentions? If not, you have an opportunity here today to stand up for to stand up for and protect your constituents from a growing police state administrated by large baseless corporations or an opportunity to sell us out to that police state. So, which will it be? Freedom or fascism? Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, Council President, and council members. Ron Benley of C uh, excuse me, of Renton. Um, speak about uh, Northwest Northeast Sunset Boulevard. As you know, in the Reton Highlands area, we've had a lot of new development in the area where the the new Reton Library, the new apartments in there, and I've noticed there's a lot more density of vehicles and density of pedestrians. I would suggest the city do a study and implement a slower speed limit of 30 mph combined with more speed limit signs and maybe electronic signage to promote voluntary compliance. Slower speeds make a big difference in terms of pedestrian safety but also motorist safety. An excellent example in our sister city of the north, Belleview and Newcastle, they did changes within the last six weeks to Cole Creek Parkway north of uh north of the Cole Creek shopping district. The speed limit there was lowered from 40 to 35 accompanied by a doubling of the number of traffic signs and several electronic uh speed things reminding people. It's made that driving trip a lot safer. It's not guaranteed. Voluntary compliance is critical, but I on behalf of the many people who live there, who drive in that area, pedestrian lives matter and motor safety matters. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is uh Daffany Bair. Good evening, council. Daffany Barrett, resident of Frenton. I'm ditching the script tonight because I want to speak to you on a little more personal level. I am very worried that some of you may feel that the relationship between the council and public comment is an adversarial one. But we are not enemies. Everyone in this room is here to improve our community. All I know about you is what you have said on the dis or in interviews. All you know about me is I show up some Mondays with horrifying statistics. And I hate when people who are doing their best are called liars. And calling them hyperbolic isn't better. But I know we're just doing our best. So please allow me to introduce myself to you. I am Daffany Bair. As a child, I was subjected to some of the most reviled abuses a kid can experience. To the point of proclamation, I have had to hide improperly stored firearms to save my life and my family's lives. As a young adult, I focused my efforts on suicide prevention and have saved lives there as well. But the physical toll of my childhood has caught up with me and I can no longer support my community on the ground. So I'm here. My top priority is the protection of children. All topics I bring to you I bring to you because I worry about the children of Reton. So today, well sorry. This is what happens when I lose script. by I know I only have 3 minutes and I can't convince all of you of everything in 3 minutes. And so every time I've brought data with me to try and convince you to at least make informed decisions, even if you don't trust what I say. And so tonight, I have one question to ask. And that is why why are we so scared of a tiny sales tax increase to support our schools? Our schools are chronically underfunded when education is a more reliable driver of reducing crime rates than police funding is. And I meant to submit studies for your packets, but the day got away with me. I am so sorry. I support any measures that increase school funding just as I increase or just as I support measures that prevent our neighbors from being kidnapped and deported and I support measures that prevent us from being stalked. Thank you. Next up is Alice Lockidge. Hello, I'm Alice Lockidge. I live in Britain and I thank you for the time to speak. I want to I want to talk about two topics, one short. I am one of the few in our community who attended three Junth events this past week and I have some strong opinions about each of them and if the two that the city hosted uh ever have a committee to plan for next year I volunteer to give input. My main topic to talk about tonight goes with my shirt and the picture taken we did uh the impact of gun violence. I hope that none of you have been touched so far in your life by a gun tragedy. I have a personal story to tell about mine happened in November 1957. I was uh had one of the best moments with my daddy that morning cuz he snuck quietly into my room and whispered to me to wake up. I slept with my little sister and he didn't want to wake her up and he hushed me into the kitchen. There was a chair in the middle of the kitchen and he sat on it and he let me sit on his lap as we listened to a radio announcement that was being replayed. A little girl in my class, Sheila Drake, had been shot and killed by her brother the day before in a living room with 10 kids. Boys were playing with guns and came into the room. I still know her little sister, Phoebe, who reached up from them playing on the floor with paper dolls and tried to push the gun away from being pointed at the girls and it shot off part of her hand. There were 24 of us in our class. There were 10 kids in that room. My whole town was affected. My class talks about her every time we have a class reunion. On our 20th reunion, I called uh contacted each of her sisters and brothers that were scattered all over the state and put in foster homes and asked them to tell me about that day. And they did. And they wrote it out. And then they said, "Share it with anybody you want and do anything you want with this story." And what they would want me to say is do anything you can at your locations and where you're passing by at moments to prevent gun violence and to help people that are having mental illness problems or kids that are unsupervised. All of those things went together to cause that tragic moment in December 1957 when Sheila Drake died. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up is Gabrielle Welding. Hello, it's me, Gabriel Widling, city city of Ron resident. Um, I'm here to talk to you about my usual topics. Um, but I'm going to start with part of the proclamation that was read tonight said that he wanted to quote, "Encourage all residents to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic impacts of gun violence and to save lives." And I want to ask the city council and the mayor, who is the one who does the proclamations, why is it simply gun violence awareness month and not gun violence reduction month here in Reton? Why why does our city have a pattern of awareness and not action? And to that end, I want to talk about other patterns of inaction we've had. There's a pattern of inaction around LGBTQ protections. There's a pattern of inaction around giving John Houston's family a commemorative bench to acknowledge their contributions to the city of Reton. It took a long time for us to get a lion dance at the Lunar New Year celebration in Reton. And we've also in that pattern of a inaction not actually done anything about ICE terrorizing our city. Please don't let this become part of that inaction. I get you know what to your credit you did pause the flock cameras and that does go to some extent but it seems as though those flock cameras are going to be unpaused at some point because we are not getting updates and we are getting word from our chief of police and the equity commission that they are in support of this even though there's overwhelming data that shows it's not. I don't come here every week with specific facts for you because to some extent that is your job to do that research. You should know some of those things. You should be doing that work. You are here to represent us. And I think I said it once before, we are not here to do your homework for you. We will though and we have been. Um, I will say to Leslie's point, the data isn't safe with Flock. Do you know that in our own city's policies with the police department that the data has to be removed after 21 days per SB 60002 except in certain instances, one of which is it can be retained for traffic studies. Are you telling me you can't BS a traffic study to retain that data for who knows what uses that is then accessible to who knows what law enforcement agencies and other people and hackers. Come on. So, I'm asking you again for creative solutions to the problem of ICE terrorizing our city. You are all about promoting the watch parties of the World Cup. Are you aware of how much terror ICE enacted on South King County during the last World Cup match in a very calculated way? I don't think you are, but there were multiple inductions that happened later in the day than is the normal pattern and all during match time. So again, if you can't come up with these creative solutions, find a way to help families get their cars towed and get them back to them. If you can't do this, or worse, if you won't, I will again reiterate my point from last week, which is to resign and get out of the way for people who will. All right, thank you. Next up is Gabriel Diaz. Hey folks, my name is Gabriel Diaz and I'm here to speak again about transparency in the in the way city makes the the way the city makes decisions. Now, I do want to start by giving you all some props. I know it seems like we just come up here and we tell you, hey, you're doing this wrong, this wrong, everything. You're doing everything wrong and we don't tell you what you're doing right. So, I will say we are a lot more transparent than we were 2 years ago. Uh, I love the in case you missed it. Big fan of those. Uh, but I also love that we've made uh Kame the whole accessible again to online. I was really I was really really sad to see that. It was uh taken offline a couple years ago. always back and I love that. However, just because we've taken some good steps so far doesn't mean we don't still have a ways to go. A lot of that and being a lot of that is I'm noticing is how decisions are made. I'm a curious person. I kind of like to see what people think about council. And one thing I've noticed consistently in the conversations I've had is it feels like uh the it feels like the full council meeting is the place where we formally adopt decisions that were already made. That whatever we say doesn't matter because it was already decided before we stepped in the chambers. Part of this in my evaluation is that most of the committee committee meetings are doing working hours. We are seeing more and more folks coming to council and committee of the whole than we ever have. And I think there's a public need and I think a public interest to have more accessible committee meetings. I've noticed like it's me interested me it's me interested are the committee members ones going to uh committee meetings. Uh let's see occasion I understand we have that has to be time to do work but maybe occasionally setting more important topics on different days. You know, maybe we find a random Wednesday to throw some important meeting out. Uh it gives more people time to actually hear how this how see how the sausages are made. Right now, this is very this feels very clear with Flock. As we shared today, there's been some presentation to Flock to people in and commissions in the city, but we aren't really seeing that here. We have a large community asking for transparency in how Flock is decided and we aren't really getting that. If this really is as limited as you say, then transparency will only make us more sure. If this is really what you know, if it's really this safe, then showing us this and proving it to us will only feel better. But the less we know, the more we have to fill in with our own gaps. The other part of the conversation, the other part of transparency is conversation with counsel. We need to be able to get in front of you to email you to uh be able to have these conversations to know why you're doing the things you're doing. I heard a line this week. I got to go to uh the Democratic state convention and I heard a line or someone told me, "I would rather you look me in the face and tell me you're an idiot and here's why." Then do just quietly nod, not say a word, and continue to do what you already going to do regardless. The only way we can make change and learn and grow is conversations. And it's hard and it awkward and it sucks. I get it. But sometimes we have to do the hard stuff. We have to do the awkward stuff. We have to do the stuff that sucks. This is another example of what a place I have seen improvement. Those council members who are going out and having those conversations and meeting with people, I really do thank you. It means a lot. To the others, I say your community is asking you to be heard and not only heard, but listened to, which involves more than just the sound entering your ears and going right out. It involves taking action. It involves talking, sharing your thoughts, considering, and finding ways to get the stuff done we want to get done. That's what a true government ran by the people looks like. And that's what we need to strive to do. So, I want to encourage the people in the audience to keep doing what you're doing, talking, listening, fighting, organizing, because we need it. And I want to encourage this council to listen and learn and talk and help us grow into the best city we can be. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Next up is Amy. I don't have a last name. Good evening. I'm Amy, resident of Reton. once again here to ask the council to terminate the city's flock contract by giving the 30 days notice as specified in your contract. The chief of police has asked for a council vote to turn the cameras back on all while ignoring constituents requests to hold a public meeting about ALPRs prior to doing so. Um there's a lot of concerns here. Whether or not Reton currently blocks federal sharing in their flock privacy settings is unclear. Uh it's not stated on the Reton's flock transparency state uh page. It is clear there is a relationship between Reton police and ICE. Despite Reton's ALPR policy to not use flock data for immigration activity, they have repeatedly done exactly that as you University of Washington revealed. Uh we know Reton police are still helping ICE because we have eyes and we have seen it. Um and we also know that ICE and Reton is still using face coverings while abducting our neighbors despite this being illegal in Washington as of March. Um, Dayton, Ohio City Council voted to turn off their flock cameras permanently after discovering one officer failed to configure that flock privacy setting that blocks federal sharing. Um, but because the cameras don't belong to the city, they couldn't actually figure out how to turn the cameras off permanently nor ensure footage wasn't still getting to federal agencies. And the city had to cover the cameras with trash bags to ensure this. So, how does Reton know footage isn't still being recorded and uploaded to the Amazon Web Services cloud? and in turn to federal and outofstate agencies. On top of that, Reton's very own contract with Flock gives Flock the right to use anonymized data for pretty much any purpose, including to train AI algorithms. It's in your contract, but license plates aren't anonymous. They are identifiers by nature. Uh Reton's contract also says Flock can access, use, and preserve footage for third parties that just are not specified. We don't know who those parties are. Flock doesn't even own the cloud service where data is stored. And the contract also says Flock doesn't really care about confidentiality. Do what you want. So none of that's reassuring and ignoring public concerns only adds to the community's dwindling trust. What's crazy is there are much more effective solutions to achieve Renton's stated purpose to prevent and solve crime as stated on the website. Um to solve a problem, we must first understand it. And to believe that flock will help prevent crime is to vastly misunderstand the reasons for crime in our community. In Reton, housing instability and addiction are rampant. I meet with people who are unhoused or facing eviction every single day. Most people don't want to commit crime, but they didn't see a better option to survive or they weren't sober and had an addiction. Desperate people do desperate things. And since we apparently have an $80,000 $80,000 a year to invest in flock for crime prevention, let's invest what we in what we know works, like community mental health, housing, schools, like someone mentioned, even a violence prevention program like one in Chicago that reduce shooting and homicide arrests by nearly 60%. Those are crimerevention strategies. Surveillance is not. And no matter how strongly some people in the city government feel about ALPRs, those feelings are not backed by empirical evidence. Thank you for your time. Next up is Ian Taylor. >> Good evening, council. My name is Ian Taylor. I've been a rented resident since 2019. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. Um, I came with the intention of thanking you for some of your recent actions and I feel a little foolish now having heard my predecessors public public commentary. Um, but I will I will I will proceed. Uh, a couple of weeks ago we raised a pride flag. Um, last week we raised a Junth flag and this evening we did the proclamation about National Gun Violence Awareness Month and I just wanted to uh acknowledge that there are people in the city who may not like any of this. There are people who ignore it. There are people who are actually opposed to it. And for those of us who are in this room and those of us who think this is important, I just wanted to thank you for uh for taking those steps and acknowledging those needs. Uh there are people who say that this is performative or virtue signaling and and other kinds of things like that which are meant to undermine the sincerity of the beliefs and the the very real needs that underly these recognitions, these acknowledgements. And in the case of tonight's proclamation, these warnings that if we don't change, things will not get better. Um, I'd like to just echo something that um, an earlier speaker was saying about the children. All of these recognitions, acknowledgements and warnings are done from from the heart in the interests of the future generations, the children of this generation and the future generations. We want their lives to be full, fulfilled, uh peaceful, safe. Um and the only way that's going to be the case for them is if we deal with these problems. and and that's why we have these kinds of recognitions and awarenesses and acknowledgements and why so many people as you've seen this evening step forward and uh and deliver really good information. I have to say I'm honoring the the council members for your willingness to sit there and listen to this and for all the incredible work that you do. I mean your public service is is phenomenal. All of those meetings, all of those decisions that you make. So I want to honor you for that. I want to honor the my fellow citizens for all of their wonderful contributions that they've made this evening and uh and to say I feel so good to be part of a system that allows this to happen. It's it's how democracy works. It's how people live fulfilled, productive lives. Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. want to say thank you for everybody that showed up uh in person and those that testified online tonight. We heard a lot about flock and uh some concerns for traffic safety issues in the Highlands and then of course for gun violence. So um thank you very much. Uh we do appreciate your time and and effort energy uh showing up to to speak with uh council and myself. So uh with that we're going to move on to the consent agenda. There are five items for council consideration. Are there any that you would like pulled for separate discussion, >> Mr. Mayor? >> Yes, council president. >> Hearing none, I move that the council concur with the consent agenda as published. >> Second. >> Okay. Been moved by council president, seconded by council member that the uh the council approve the consent agenda as published. All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Okay. Carries. Okay. Uh, next we're on to unfinished business. Council President Perez. >> No unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> Council Mayor Van. >> Thank you, Mayor. No. >> Council member Albertson. >> No unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> Council member Rivera. >> Do you have any unfinished business? Okay, next up is council member O'Halerin. >> Uh, yes, Mr. Mayor. The finance committee has four committee reports this evening. >> All right, finance committee committee report. The first is regarding approval of claims and payroll vouchers. The finance committee approves the following payments. Accounts payable total payment of $10,454,330.19 for a number of vouchers including payroll benefit withholding vouchers and one wire transfer. Two is payroll total payment of 2,312,88645 for payroll vouchers that include $724 direct deposits and 10 checks. This is the May 16th through 31st uh pay period. And then municipal court vouchers totaling 44,22966 and KD Matthews vouchers totaling $40,3442. This is signed by the finance committee chair and members. >> Mr. Mayor, >> I move the council concur with the finance committee report. >> Second, it's been moved by council member Howlerin, second by council member McGuran that the council concur with the finance committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I >> I motion carries. The next reporting a uh grant from the port of Seattle. The finance committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to authorize the administration to accept the Port of Seattle's tourism marketing support program award of $20,000 which uh which uh the city must match by uh $10,000 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign the grant agreement. This two is signed by the committee chair members. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> I move the council concur with the finance committee report. Second move by council member Hower and second by council that the council concur with the finance committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose. Nay. Motion carries. >> Okay. Next report is regarding an application for a grant from the uh state recreation and conservation office. Uh, the finance committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to authorize application to the state recreation and conservation office RCO for a $500,000 Washington wildlife and recreation program local parks grant to support the development of Northeast Reon Park. Uh, the committee further recommends that the resolution regarding this matter be presented for reading and adoption. This is signed by the committee chair members. >> Mr. Mayor, I move the council concur with the finance committee report. Second. >> Okay. The move by council member Howler, second by council Gervin that the council concur with the finance committee report. Any discussion? >> All in favor signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Nay. Motion carries. >> Okay. The final report is regarding a grant from Blue Bloomberg Harvard uh city hall fellow grant is what it's called. Uh, the finance committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative fellowship participation and grant agreement of $295,155 that will reimburse the city for costs related to placement of a fellow within the executive services department and to create a limited term employee position of management analyst at paygrade N17 to be recorded with the 2020 26 Q2 budget adjustment. This two is signed by the committee chair and members. >> Mr. Mayor, >> I move the council concur with the finance committee report. >> Second. >> Okay. It's been moved by council member Howerin. Second. Council concur with the finance media report. Any discussion? >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. Council member Howlerin. The purpose of this position and this grant is for us to do a two-year in-depth study of our homelessness issues and our approaches and to compile all the disparit data that we have and to figure out where we have gaps and to learn how from a datadriven perspective how better to respond to those of us in our community who are unhoused. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Yeah. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Okay. Motion carries. All right. Council member McGervin. >> Uh, no. Unfinished business. Mr. Mayor. Council member Prince. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The planning and development planning development committee has two committee reports. >> Okay. uh planning development committee continued pooling of SHB1406 sales tax credit with South King Housing and Homelessness Partners. The planning and development committee concurs with the staff uh recommendation to one continue to pull SHB1406 sales tax credit funds with uh South King Housing and Homelessness Partners under the existing interlocal agreement and to direct staff to provide an update and recommendation if there are changes to the skip organization which the South King Housing and Homelessness Partners organization or function that might cause the city to reconsider pulling uh the SHB B1406 uh funds. This is signed by the committee chair and members. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes, council. >> I move council concur with the planning and development board committee report. >> Second. >> Okay. It's been moved by council member Frank, second by councelor fan that the council concur with the planning and development committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All right. The final report is regarding uh title 4 uh docket 21 uh additional items and new work programs. Uh the planning and development committee concurs with the staff recommendation to present the following additional 2026 title 4 docket 21 items and other new work program items to the planning commission for review and recommendation. Following the review, staff will present the planning commission recommendations to the uh planning and development committee for their consideration for adoption. These items are HB 1096, which is lot splitting. Uh, next is impervious surfaces. Uh, housekeeping HB1 1494, multifamily property tax exemptions, SB559, unit lot subdivision local government procedures, ADU covenant release, city center community plan update and noise variance uh, procedures. This is signed by the committee chair and members. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. Council member Prince. >> I move council concur with the planning and development committee report. >> Second. >> Okay. Moved by council member Prince, second by council member Van that the council concer with planning and development committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos? Nay. Motion carries. We're on to legislation. We have three resolutions for adoption. One ordinance for first reading and one ordinance for second and final. >> Right. The first ordinance or excuse me, the first resolution is resolution 4591. Uh it's pertains to a franchise agreement. A resolution of the city of Renton, Washington authorizing Inter Mountain Infrastructure Group to locate within Mloud USA infrastructure uh which is located in the city's right ofways pursuant to city of Reton ordinance number 6193 and ordinance number 5768 subject to conditions. Mayor. >> Yes. Council member resolution. >> Second. >> Okay. It's been moved by council member Vance, second by council member Albertson that the uh resolution be adopted as read. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Hey. Motion carries. All right. The next resolution is regarding the application for the grant from the state uh for Northeast Reon Park. So, a resolution of the city of Reton, Washington, authorizing the submission of an application for grant funding assistance for a Washington wildlife and recreation local parks program project to the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board for the Northeast Renton Park Development. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> I move the resolution be adopted as read. >> Second. >> It's been moved by second by councelor McGin that the resolution be adopted as read. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. >> All right. Resolution 4593 is regarding uh a setting of public hearing. A resolution of the city of Renton, Washington setting a public hearing date regarding declaring an existing utility easement surplus to the city's needs and authorizing release of said easement. Uh that hearing will be July 20th uh 2026. Mayor Um I move that the resolution be adopted as read second. >> It's been moved by that adopt is read. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose nay. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Okay. And uh next we have an ordinance regarding a franchise agreement. An ordinance of the city of Reton, Washington, granting Inter Mountain Infrastructure Group LLC, a Delaware limited liability company authorized to do business within the state of Washington, its affiliate successors, and assigns the right, privilege, and authority to install communication facilities, specifically fiber, optic, cable related under, along, over, below, through, and across the streets, avenues, and alleys of the city of Reon within the public right ofway of Reon. >> Mayor, >> yes. Council Van. >> Um I move that the ordinance be placed in second final reading at the next uh council meeting. >> Second. >> Okay. It's been moved by Council Van by Council Albertson placed on second and final reading at the next council meeting. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Nay. Motion carries. >> All right. The final ordinance is an amendment to the uh uh city of rent and salary table. An ordinance of the city of Renton, Washington, amending the 2026 city of Reton salary table to reflect the July 1st, 2026 salary grade adjustments agreed to in a May 20th, 2026 memorandum of understanding between the city of Reton and ASME uh providing for severability and establishing an effective date. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yeah, >> I move the ordinance be adopted as read. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved by council member. Second by council >> is read. If there's no discussion, this is second reading. Requires a roll call. >> Council President Perez. >> Hi. >> Council member Vaugh. >> Council member Albertson. >> I. >> Council member Rivera. >> Hi. >> Council member O'Halerin. >> I. >> Council member Mcur. >> And council member Prince. >> I. >> Roll call. Mr. Mayor. All eyes. >> All right. Motion carries. All right. We're going to move on to new business. And I'm going to start um the new business by um saying that I had the opportunity this weekend to go to an event on Sunday. Um Dr. Linda Smith and her team put together a uh Juneenth celebration at our church and had a chance to be there for a couple hours and talk to a lot of the vendors and they did a spectacular job. Um, I believe this is the first year they've done it at this location. Um, I know that there were a couple other council members that that joined us up there. Um, and I just want to give her a big shout out because it was a wonderful event. Lots of people showed up. Um, great event put on by the community for the community. So, thank you very much for your effort. Appreciate it. So, all right. Sure. And next I want to uh call in council president Perez. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. On Monday tw June 29 2026 is 5th Monday so we will not have meetings. And on Monday July 2026 at 5:15 we will have our committee of the hall here in council chambers as well as via video conference. We have two items on the agenda. First vision house introduction. second student health hub update and at 7:00 we will have our regular console meeting here at the council chambers as well as video conference. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Council Van. >> Uh thank you, mayor. Um the utilities committee have a meeting 2026 uh which is Monday at 3:30 p.m. Uh it's going to be at the council conference room or video uh via video conference. You can zoom in. There are two items on the agenda. Uh one, ordinance declaring utility easement surplus and authorizing its release. And two, emerging issues in utilities. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Uh Council Member Albertson. >> Uh yes, Mr. Mayor. On Monday, July 6th, uh we will have uh the public public safety committee meeting at 4:15 p.m. It'll be held in the council conference room and via video conference. two items on the agenda, use of force review and emerging issues in public safety. And that's all, Mr. Mayor. >> All right. Thank you, council. >> Yeah, apolog not coming back yet. And for that reason, we will not be having a transportation committee on July 6th. That is cancelled. And I just want to say thank you to all of our commenters who came and spoke tonight. I do really appreciate every time that you come. I know it's not a Monday night to to share all the appreciation, energy, and effort. I apologize for any adversarial relationships or any kind of negative feelings. I know there's a lot of passion around these topics and I just want to express my appreciation and please keep it up. So, thank you for what you're doing. >> No new business, Mr. Mayor. And finally, Council Member Prince. No new business. Mr. Mayor, >> what is the wish of the council? Move >> we adjourn. >> It's been moved by Council Member Prince, second by Council Albertson that we adjourn. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. >> We'rejourned.

order. Um, this is the committee of the hall and we have two items in the agenda. Uh, we have the first one is going to be the Ronton downtown partnership update and we have Julia Lopez Garcia with us. Hi, Julia. >> Yeah. >> Wait. Um, thank you guys for the opportunity for us to share on behalf of the Ron Downtown Partnership. We have a few board members here tonight or at least a former board president and our VP. Um, we're going to go over just some of the things that we've accomplished so far and we're going to go over things that we're focused on at least short term and then where we're headed as a organization. But I'll give you guys the framework of Main Street uh rent and downtown partnership. Um if you're not familiar with it fully or entirely or you know just it's been a lot of transition in the last 2 years. So it's a lot to get refreshed on and um we're excited about a lot of it. Um so I'll just go over our mission statement again really fast for you guys. Uh it's our mission is to collaborate with and unite businesses, neighbors, and the city to make downtown Renon a thriving, vibrant, and authentic place for everyone. Um, we revisited this mission when I became ED last year sometime in the summer. This was a really good transition from our listening sessions that we got with business owners and then one-on-one feedback. So, it's not too different than what we've had in the past, but we wanted to really refine it and make sure we were addressing some of the concerns with our business owners. And so part of that was wanting to make sure we're a connection hub, making sure that we are communicating what's happening in downtown core with all the businesses, making sure that you're there is um consistency and continuity between the business owners, residents, and city. And it's still an ongoing effort. Everyone knows getting um a whole city on the same comm's page is difficult. So uh we really want to make sure that we're addressing that. And really our our hope right now is to just continue to listen and deliver. So, um, giving you more context to what we are and who we are. We are a Main Street program or community. Um, and really that just gives us the framework to approach downtown with uh well-known and uh proven methods to creating a vibrant and uh thriving downtown. So, that is economic vitality, design, promotions, and outreach. Uh those are our four strategic approaches or areas that we really focus on and we do that with a group of volunteers and we're a small but mighty team but we've got about I think eight right now that are really active and then our nine board members. So uh they get really acquainted with this model. It's pretty uh customizable to what makes sense for your community. But we're really grateful for this framework to keep us kind of in line and make sure that we're able to serve our community through these uh pillars. And so that really just leads us again to our purpose. So to support the downtown where businesses thrive, people gather, and community pride grows. >> Uh sorry, I'm so sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know you can move that microphone so that you don't have to Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thanks. Okay, that makes a lot easier. No, interrupt me all you want, please, please, please. Um, so that is our purpose. Again, it's basically, you know, just our mission, but to get it really refined. These are the areas we serve and how we serve those people. Um, this is getting in the nitty-gritty. So, how we create that impact is business support, community activation, and place management. And you'll see those different bullet point items on how we do each of those things. Uh more recently, some of the things that have been in the forefront of our brain are those facade grants. Um I'll go more in detail with that as well. Um but business outreach, marketing assistance, and BNO tax credit education for our businesses and our community. Uh the community activation piece is the our events and seasonal programming. We've done a really great job uh partnering with other organizations to help lift the load um to get our activations in downtown Reton. Um, and again, I'll talk about how those impacts um, with different partnerships have really proven value to us. And then place management. So, we work on cleanups. Um, City of Rent has done a really great job with our cleanups in downtown. So, sometimes, uh, our cleanups have a little less trash than we'd like, but that's good. That's good. Um, and so we have beautifification projects and, uh, partnership coordination, public space as public space activation, especially with the Legacy Square. We're really excited to be partnering with the city on that and we are working more towards historic preservation as part of our mission. Um we have had initiatives in the past that address some of that but we want to get more involved with that as well. So um this is the facade grant program or example of it. Uh last this one's from last year uh Liberty Cafe needed lighting and so we were able to uh provide the funding and they chose the lighting. They did a really great job. We facilitate um this application process and so businesses provide you know what they want to do for improvement on their facade and we address or assist and assess with what makes the most sense for our downtown core, what makes sense for what the city is looking for. Um and it's a really collaborative effort on making sure we're choosing the right uh facade improvement at the time that makes sense for our community. Um, this year we spent $15,000 on that facade grant improvement and so we got to support New Zen and uh the historical society and I don't have photos of those just with me right now as they're underway, but we're really excited about assisting assisting those. Um, and then we're into our business resource connections. This is another way we help our businesses. Uh, we try and find funding and financial resources like that facade grant program. there's other grants that we want to help support them apply for um and workforce and talent connections. So, making sure that if they're looking for um different ways to for labor and um internships and support and volunteer, we try and connect them with people. Um collaborative marketing and visibility. That's something we've really been able to uh provide support in. we've had a growing marketing uh presence or online presence and so we just really want to make sure that they get to benefit from that. And then tech assistance. So we've had a really great uh board president in the past who knows all the tech things and so has volunteered his time to make sure that you know he can provide help when he can and we have other volunteers that are also really good at that. Um can help when they can. And so the last thing is government and communication navigation or community navigation and um really that's really like permitting process or connecting them with the right people to make sure that they have access and uh get their questions answered by the right people. So again being that that connection and hub for all of our businesses. Uh and then we also try and have sponsorship opportunities that are accessible for all business levels. that collaborative that collaborative marketing we're talking about. Um this is kind of just like quick little numbers on where we're at and how much we've grown in the past I want to say year. And so um we want to make sure that businesses can use us to really amplify their stories. And so as much as it's important for RDP to get that social um identity and making sure that we have organization uh recognition, we want to make sure that it's being used uh that's leveraged to then highlight our businesses. And so if you know we can continue to amplify their voices and maximize our foot traffic that benefits them. Uh that's what we continue and hope to do with our marketing and social media and other comms outlets. And so that's those are just quick numbers. We average about 30k of um our traffic on our socials and then we have a larger following and then our open rate is pretty good and we're really trying to make sure we improve that uh over time and then going into uh event support. So we are creating reasons to visit downtown and so that's community events and those beautifification projects and those partnered e efforts. Um, some of these pictures are things that we've really just been able and and had the opportunity to partner with other organizations who are doing the good work and we get to help amplify or bring them to the right resources. Um, you'll see that mural uh the FIFA mural and um there's purple lights night that we got to coordinate with the um Dawn Rising and then our businesses that want to bring activations to their space. We just try and support whatever efforts that speak to our community to bring them to life downtown. Um, and also support them just with their day-to-day operations. Um, that is kind of everything we've focused on in the last year. Now, this is kind of what we're looking and expecting for summer of 2026. um Legacy Square Sunday series we're going on uh we're partnering with the city on making sure that there is activation beyond FIFA. So that has been something we've heard from our community is that is this legacy Squarespace going to continue to have activations uh beyond FIFA and we are going to utilize it and we think it's a great asset to the community and so by doing that we'll we'll continue to have events and partner with people and make sure that space is continued to be utilized. Um it's been really great to see even when there's no watch parties, kids using that space and um other community members just using it uh as a public park. Um and then during this time also we've had a FIFA welcome campaign um that we just brought Belgium flags to different business owners uh and that was a request by our business owners. We wanted to hear them and how they wanted to do this welcoming campaign. So we have that downtown and then we also have these community calendars that we do partner with Visit Reton on. So we have if you go around you'll see QR codes and windows that go to the calendar and those are specifically for downtown Reton events but then also you can get navigated to visit Ren that has all of Ron. So we're trying to create some continuity throughout downtown while it's still holding its identity of itself. Um and then we're continuing ArtWalk expansion. Um, and that is just an event that's currently happening for our summer and cruise aloop and that uh business promotions campaign of making sure our businesses are being highlighted during Legacy Square. Um, partnerships multiply impact. These are our main partners. City of Reton, Ron Chamber, Visit Reton sponsors, volunteers and businesses and our community organizations. These are the people we work with the most in order to make things happen here. Um, a great example of this was the Purple Lights night last October. We'd never had anything like that or at least the walk in downtown Reton. Uh, we had purple lights that we had hung up, I believe, in the past. But, um, for an event that was probably we I think we planned maybe a month out, two months out at most. Um, and I think we had over a hundred people gathered in downtown walking around um with the Seahawks drum roll team, drum line team and the cheerleaders or excuse me, I think they're called dancers now. So, um I they they brought a really big crowd and without that partnership with Dawn Rising and other events like this um it wouldn't just it wouldn't have the same impact. So, we're we're really um really big on making sure that we're bringing the right people in to continue to carry on those events uh that feel authentic to downtown Renton. Um and have that that torch that they can continue to carry on. So, uh these are our organizational wins right now. Um I think >> my bad. Um, one thing that I think uh we have been talking about throughout downtown Reton, uh, the city and internally is just having org stability and trust. So, uh, we we would like to think that we're a far more stable organization, uh, now than we were about a year or two ago. Um, I think I don't I don't want to miss mis say this, but I think I am one of the longer standing edes, so that that's a win for them. um and just building that trust in the community. So being a person uh that business owners can trust and see and know. Uh that then leads to increased partnerships that then leads to increased um trust to build events out and to get buyin from our community. Um and then we're also establishing this activation partnership for Legacy Square, like I said, with the Sunday series. Uh we awarded our facade grants and then we had these really great beautifification projects that I'll show you pictures of. um last summer they got completed and then of course marketing growth. So we've been head down a lot this last year doing these type of projects. So we got to um lead the design and secured the funding for these banners that you see in downtown. We worked with the city to really design it as well. This was done internally or done with the city, but we got to uh get them at least the initial I think 16 paid for and uh lead the design for it and they were really great to work with and we hope to continue those partnerships doing things like this. Um and then the lighting in downtown as well. So this is on Wells. We hope to get more lighting like this throughout downtown, but at least uh you can see that this is uh this is customizable lighting so we can continue to celebrate uh different events and have seasonal programming that the lighting can really help bring to life. And then these two big murals on Main Street, uh this is on the side of the flower one is on the side of the Rose Cafe and Aztec Boxing if you know where that is. And then this is right across the street. the the FIFA one that we also helped secure funding in partnership with the city as well. Um, but these two I think are the biggest murals we had. Anyway, these continue to bring beautifification to downtown Reton and create space where people want to be and feel um feel at home. And then we also were partners for Legacy Square Furniture. So, uh, the city was, uh, able to have a really great conversation and relationship with, uh, IKEA, and so, uh, we became trusted partners to then secure a contract to get the furniture down here, and we're super grateful for that as well. It would not be the same activation, uh, experience without it. So, our org trust and relationship building has been probably the thing that I'm most um, I I I think is the biggest deal for us. um we just would not be where we're where we are without everyone. Uh especially like the Northran Neighborhood Association, Meredith has taken the lead on all of our cleanups. We've had record turnout for those at least from the past 2 years. Um and I want to attribute that to her leadership. Um we've had different organizations and partners that are really looking to help us activate the space but bring their their flare on it. So this is our future right now. This is what we're going to be focusing on in the next year after we get out of FIFA. Once FIFA is over, we can breathe a little bit and focus on these some more or hopefully 2027. Um we're hopefully going to touch on some workforce development, third place management activation, um destination marketing that really um solidifies our downtown identity and then downtown business growth and activation uh along with community communityled revitalization. And so looking ahead that is all of those things will then bring that vibrant downtown a place where people want to visit, make people feel connected, um create resiliency and uh a collaborative downtown. And so that is all for us right now. If you guys have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. >> Thank you, Julia. Great presentation. I really appreciate it. Uh Council Member Alers. >> Um thanks Julia. I had a couple questions. Um, first one I'm uh wondering I saw the workforce development uh as far as the future stuff. Can you can you tell me what uh what conversations have h have you had about that? What what you have in mind or is that just kind of a placeholder and we'll figure it out later? But I'm just curious what what's even in your mind about that. We want to make sure uh we create opportunities in downtown Renton for for everyone. So, right now it's still uh in conversation, but >> okay, >> it's on our brain. >> Let me Okay, let me be specific. I mean, because um and thank you answer that question, but uh I'm thinking working with businesses as far as maybe apprenticeships or internships or any of those things. Are they kind of in the works there? I mean, not in the works, but just and maybe maybe I'm getting too specific, but >> Oh, yeah. Uh, we'd love to be able to bring internships to businesses, uh, downtown businesses specifically at a, um, where it's accessible for our business owners. So, um, right now, obviously, that is a cost, labor is a cost, employees, and all the things. So, if we can figure out a way to uh, help with that, we we want to figure that out. So still trying to figure out the connections and for it. >> Yeah. >> What is third place management mean? >> Yeah. So Legacy Square is a great example of it. So these public spaces where people are gathering um where they're not necessarily having to come to pay for anything but making sure that uh it's wellkept. Um, yeah, I think Legacy Square is probably our our best example. Uh, making sure that they have the amenities or it's well taken care of and that there is an activation happening and just not a dead zone, if that makes sense. Um, here's why it's called third place. Third place, it's a I think it's just a a term for places that you don't really necessarily have to pay for. So when places that aren't paid for, they usually attract different lots of different types of crowds. And so it does sometimes need like a manager or someone that helps oversee it. So we're trying to help to that. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Uh going back to the facade grant program, I think that's a great thing. I'm curious uh how many requests um have you gotten or maybe did you get in the past year? Is it a steady do all the businesses know? Is it a steady flow of requests that you just have to prioritize and turn down or where does that program stand as far as you know the the the popularity of it and that sort of thing? >> That's that's a great question. Um we had eight applicants this past so we put it out annually. >> Um I think uh I think that is our most we've had for a turnout for of applications. Um, but it definitely is an effort to make sure all the business owners know about it. We have a committee that makes that decision or that like we have a subcommittee that meets and talks about how this impacts uh our historic preservation and different elements of design from that strategic standpoint that I kind of pointed out earlier. Um but they're really we have a really good um lead on that committee that helps uh the whole application process which is the uh the before photos and then how much it costs. So we we go through a really in-depth process to make sure that it um makes sense for our downtown community. >> That answer everything. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> I'm going to follow up with that question. >> Yeah. uh for a solid decade we have been um promoting the the the VAD uh grant because obviously it's something that we have all been invested and constant it's constantly that there are some very oldtimers business that they are there that all of us we can see that they can really use this and for 10 years they have not applied or they have not participated in this so that's when I think uh what is the talent to say maybe you don't think that you should refresh your fet but um how we'll be how we I know right now it's great that you have 10 right you not don't need to go and promote it but there are certain business that we all know that is needed right that we say hey you know what can we do what are the ideas that we we can bring to your business um to improve it and the other thing is that when I walk through downtown and this this we do it to ourselves. A lot of the fads are some of them on the windows they are full of advertisement for paper and we have the farmer marker the wine walk the the car the loop thing and uh we just had the crime through to pre no crime pre prevention through environment and one of the things they say try to keep those windows clean try not to cover the inside of your store and I know again we do it to ourselves right because We're providing the posters for them to put it in the windows and I don't know if we should do better to to try to help them because that maybe some of them don't know how to say no you know like because I certainly there are certain uh businesses they are not doing that I understand better that uh that doesn't look good uh does it's not inviting as as should be and at the same time um you know it prevents crime if you don't cover your windows um So, I don't know. I I'm I'm leaving that to your >> to your creativity and your your networking to figure out how can we help with this. And I said it again, we are part of the problem cuz we are printing those for them to put them out there. So, that's uh that's good feedback and insight, especially just walking around downtown. I think uh right now that we're what we're really trying to do is realizing how much relationship is important in order to get business owners to move and do things. And so the ones that we might not have uh the ones that we see that obviously might need a little help um or we'd like it to look a little different, there's so many other factors like property owner, how involved is their property owner, do they have the funds? And so figuring out what is the barrier and then hopefully addressing it through whatever they're experiencing and it's very specific to each business owner. And so like for example, I think the one that we're most excited to be funding is New Zen right now. She's had she's been a business owner for 29 plus years in down in Reton. Um, and she's never had a any improvement in her facade. And so she's extremely excited. We're really excited that it's right across from Legacy Square. So you have that activation piece um while getting a new that almost like a new business it feels like. So um we we're we're actively trying to make sure that we help the businesses that have been here for a while but also look like they need a little bit justing at the very least. Thank you so much for for mentioning the new scent because I love that business and every single time that I'm there I say what can we do and you're absolutely right. I mean it's now has become a location that is there that we're all seeing it when we're in Legacy Square and it can be so much better in so many levels you know um thank you thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, thank you. Council member O'Hara, >> sorry if I missed this and maybe I should actually know it, but where do you get your what is your revenue sources? >> Yeah, so we um mainly our biggest one is the BNO tax credit program. And so those are businesses that pay their business and operations tax. And so if they contribute to us, they get 75% of their uh up to 75% of their tax credit to the next year. And so um we've had some pretty good contributions from bigger businesses and corporations. And then we have sponsorships. Um we're low on donors, but that is another revenue stream. And then events. Uh we're trying to steer away from so much event uh revenue just because we want to create again those events that are uh accessible in downtown Reton. But that is another uh stream of revenue. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Can you all hear me? Okay. Great. Weather here in Spokan is fabulous. Just so you all know you're looking forward to coming to A tomorrow. It's all going to be great. I just want to say thank you so much for the great presentation. Apologize for being late. Um when it comes to your social media, I just want to give you a shout out that it's been amazing. I've definitely noticed the difference in terms of engagement and outreach in all of that and I really appreciate it. I'm very much um happy to hear about the grant funding as well as the facade and uh work and everything that you all are doing. I've just noticed a lot of work that you've done and I just want to give you your kudos. You're doing really fantastic work and I hope that um we can do our best to support everything that you are doing but I just wanted to give you kudos and shout outs and flowers because I've definitely noticed difference to come to the role. >> Thank you. Thank you. Very fun. questions, but I'll start with one. In terms of the geography, we've had a briefing a few years back from the last ED in terms of the location, which doesn't include the Safeway. Um, but in terms of the number of businesses currently now in the downtown, um, that's within the jurisdiction of the Reton Downtown Partnership. How many do we have currently active? If you know I know we have about like I know I can tell you the business licenses and we have about like 200 a little over 200 business license numbers if I remember that correctly. Um but yeah I don't have the exact like active business number. >> Yeah. And so of those um I wanted to ask in terms of your outreach and engagement for those who are needing in language interpretation translation. Yeah. uh what is kind of your plan for that? >> Yeah, so uh thank you for bringing that up. That's a personally a big one for me. The community calendar that we put out, we at least tried to make those signages that signage um multilingual. So we did Spanish and Vietnamese, especially with our business community because those are the most the two most spoken languages at least amongst our business owners in downtown Reon. Um, and so I've also engaged with the volunteers that are bilingual to then help with that marketing campaign. So some of our social media we some of our social media um support through our committees uh they're also working with us on behind the scenes on how to not only make it just uh readable or you know translate it but also relational to those different groups uh culturally like for example we know like well personally like I know uh family is big in Hispanic community or the Latino community. So making marketing campaigns that make most sense to that uh culture um and getting that impact or uh feedback from those community members. So it's an ongoing effort for sure. Uh but yeah questions you you no you okay keep going. >> Yeah I have one more. Thank you. Um so in in terms of our um diverse communities and and the languages spoken uh and given the ICE rates and all that's happening, have there been uh a plan or a um thought and conversations in terms of how we support immigrant business owners um in the downtown core where you have jurisdiction as well as the u patrons, individuals and so forth. >> Yeah. um we haven't gotten that feedback from our business owners directly. Um and so that's just something we haven't had really on the forefront of our brain currently. Uh we know that they kind of take that under their wing to figure out what makes the most sense for their business. Um but we would you know love to hear what kind of their feedback is and their experiences directly if uh they would love they would share that with us and see what we could maybe do. But yeah, >> thank you too. Yeah, thank you so much for your presentation and and and your thoughtful answers. I want to um point out a couple of things that I love the way you guys are doing it. Uh your art walks are very successful. One day by accident I literally by accident I stopped by drum roll and it was packed and he was like oh your business is doing great and he say these are walks uh are really helping and and I was very impressed uh how many people were engaging and actually patronizing the business just because of the some of those several events that you guys put together. And I know that that is very hard because you run through volunteers all the time and uh and we have wonderful people in during the down part uh partnership um uh working and volunteer. We cannot for forget the the the incredible job that Kim Thai did uh during her time at the downtown partnership. And uh Steve, you are there in the back. Thank you so much for everything that you have done. uh your energy is incredible and how well you you and Julia work together is amazing and um and once again I'm very happy that you are here. We are here to support the the Renton downtown. We have put so much investment to make sure that that the downtown tribes that um that obviously we cannot do this alone. We gonna need all the business to chip in to to because help us to help you. That that is my my motto, you know, >> and um and definitely the North Rental Neighborhood Association has uh a step up uh especially Mer that you said it to help us a lot with the maintenance and cleaning and and doing those incredible partners um that we have. So if there is nothing else, I want to thank you again for being here and for your presentation and good job. you. Thank you. Uh next on our current um committee of the hall of committee of the whole we have a second presentation which will be the 2027 2028 budget update. With us is Krie Roller and Christine Trivalas. Thank you. Good evening again. My name is Carrie Roller. I'm the finance administrator. I'm here with Kristen Talis, our finance director, and we're here to kick off the budget discussion. Um, our finance team's been hard at work at getting that started and rolling, and just wanted to give you a brief update of where we're at. We would like to discuss the timeline um go over the recent community survey and talk about some um revenue projections that we have so far this year. Hand it off to Kristen. >> Good evening, council members. As Carrie mentioned, Kristen Trellis, finance director. Uh we're going to start tonight's presentation with the budget timeline. So the budget timeline highlights the work completed so far and the key milestones ahead before the final budget is adopted. Uh in May, the finance team began by preparing position budgeting for the upcoming bienium. This included updating salary related costs such as healthcare premium increases and cost of living adjustments. Uh we also developed the baseline budget which rolls for the current budget and serves as a starting point for departments as they build their budget requests. And then lastly, we rolled out our citywide budget survey to gather input from our residents. In June, we began In June, we began working with departments uh on both the capital investment program or CIP and operating budget planning to identify some of our future needs. Tonight's committee of the whole meeting is where we're discussing budget priorities, key considerations, revenue assumptions, and the overall budget calendar. In July, the departments will complete their CIP project prioritization, and those recommendations will be reviewed by the executive leadership team for funding consideration. Finance will also prepare a revenue outlook and long-range financial forecast to help determine the resources available for allocation. During the months of August and September, departments will finalize their budget proposals, and that's when we'll see the mayor uh make the final decisions on the proposed budget, and the city clerk will publish the public hearing schedule. In October, the mayor will formally present the budget message and preliminary budget to city council. Uh this will be followed by several committee of the whole presentations from departments. We will also hold a series of public hearings, including one focused on property taxes, and revenue sources. another on the preliminary budget and then a final public hearing on the proposed bianual budget. November and December are focused on budget adoption. During this time, council will consider and enact the legislation necessary to implement the budget. And then once year and financial information for 2026 is available, the final adopted budget will be published by January 31st. A major part of the budget is the city's capital investment program, the CIP. The CIP is a six-year planning tool. It helps to identify future capital projects and it outlines potential funding strategies to support those investments. Uh it also helps the city meet planning requirements under Washington State's Growth Management Act. The CIP includes a wide range of projects focused on maintaining, improving, and expanding the city's infrastructure and facilities. And to ensure resources are directed where they will have the greatest impact, projects are prioritized based on how well they align with city goals and community needs. When developing recommendations and requesting funding, staff will first focus on projects that are investing in the preservation of existing infrastructure as well as supporting essential public health and safety services. Uh they're going to look for uh grant eligibility or other restricted funding sources to support those projects. They will try to combine similar projects to reduce costs and minimize disruptions and avoid future inflation impacts. They will explore innovative or non-traditional approaches to move projects forward. And they will try to defer lower priority projects and reallocate funding if we see inflationary pressures continue. After these considerations, projects are then evaluated and ranked using six key criteria which you can see on the screen here. And these align with the city's adopted business plan. Uh it's in the areas of compliance, safety, economic impact, equity, expansion, and sustainability. And these criteria help ensure that capital investments support the city's long-term priorities and strategic objectives. And the one thing I want to call out about the CIP is two years ago we updated our prioritization matrix to better align with the city's business plan and support this initiative and we were recognized by GFOA um for this enhancement in our CIP planning. So as as we approach the upcoming bianium it's helpful to remember the purpose of the city's budget. At its core, the budget is a plan that reflects the city's priorities. It identifies where our resources will come from, how those resources will be invested, and how we will continue delivering services to our community. It also serves as an important communication tool, helping both the city council and the public understand our plan and priorities. One of our key priorities guiding this year's bianium budget is the focus on reducing vulnerability, limiting liability, and ensuring safety. These investments may not always be the most visible, but they are often the most critical to maintaining reliable city services and protecting the community. Reducing vulnerability and limiting liability will help the city avoid larger costs in the future. When risks are identified and addressed early, we can prevent service disruptions, costly repairs, legal claims, and emergency expenditures that often require significantly more resources than proact proactive investments. Focusing on safety means making sure our employees, residents, infrastructure, and facilities are protected from preventable risks. It could mean addressing aging infrastructure, maintaining compliance with regulations, or ensuring that our workforce has the tools and training needed to perform their jobs safely and effectively. And ultimately, prioritizing these areas strengthens the city's operational foundation. It allows us to continue providing reliable services, protect public resources, and position the organization to meet the needs of a growing community both today and in the future. I'm going to interrupt you for a second. Uh, council member Ria. >> Thank you, chair. I do have a question um in the previous slide if that's all right. >> Thank you. When it comes to um the weight, can you explain to me why they were chosen the way they were? Like just like I'm just I'm trying to understand why I mean I know same here. Um but you waited 554432. >> Yeah. So we looked at many um adopted CIP plans from many different cities and this was really um a similar ranking of priority of these categories. Um as you mentioned the compliance and safety seem obvious. Um, but then we looked at uh these other categories and weighted them based on what the city's business plan looks like, how uh how we've been funded funding things historically, what where the importance is. And so we created the the numeric ranking isn't um it's really just to create a end score for projects. Um but really the prioritization of those is um how we came across the priority order. So, >> thank you. >> So, a strong budget process isn't just about the numbers, as we all know. It's about making sure the community has a voice in the decisions that affect their daily lives. The budget reflects the priorities and values of our community. So, it's important that residents have meaningful opportunities to provide input. Engaging the public not only helps us make more informed decisions, but it also strengthens transparency, accountability, and trust in local government. So, for the second time, uh, the city conducted a communitywide budget survey with the goal to better understand how Renton residents feel about the city's priorities and spending plan for the next two years. The city partnered with a consulting firm um, who specializes in market research to develop a comprehensive set of budget related questions which align with our strategic goals and priorities. This survey was distributed again to a random sample of 12,500 households that represented all neighborhoods across Reton. And the survey ran for a 6 week period where residents were invited to participate through mail, email, and text message. And to make the survey as accessible as possible, it was also offered in several different languages. The results were recently shared with council uh last week and I will be talking a little bit more more about the survey results in the next slide. In addition to the survey, the finance department um also has a short animated video on our external website that explains how the city's budget works. This video is designed to help residents better understand where city funding comes from, how resources are allocated, and what the budget development process looks like. And then lastly, public hearings remain an important part of the budget process. We conduct three public hearings in order to provide opportunities for community members to share feedback, ask questions, and offer perspectives before the budget is adopted. The budget survey results were sent out, as I mentioned, last week to council both in summary form as well as the full survey results. Uh to recap, the survey addressed uh residents opinions on the biggest issues facing the city. It uh had the ranking of budget priorities, progress made over the last 5 to 10 years within these priorities, and how well they align with residents vision and values for the city's future. The survey uh identified residents attitudes toward taxation levels as it relates to services provided and also toward funding specific initiatives related to parks and recreation, new businesses, human services, and public safety. The survey asked about the condition and cleanliness of city-owned facilities and locations and the preferred location of developing new sidewalks. So, I'm not going to go into uh recapping the full uh survey results, but I do want to highlight a couple of key takeaways. Uh similar to the past bienium, respondents indicated their highest priority for the city is public safety. The second and third priorities are maintaining parks, trails, and outdoor spaces and addressing mental and behavioral health, addiction, and food security. Regarding taxation, nearly half of the respondents, about 48% are willing to pay more taxes. Among the and and among those willing to pay more taxes, about 49% would only support a tax increase between $1 to $99 per year. And now I'm going to hand it over to Carrie. Um, I have a question that probably you send it already on the on the email, but um, how many people participated in the survey? >> I have that number here. We had 805 respondents. >> Thank you. So, as we head into budget preparation, we really need to consider some headwinds that we have in front of us um and um use those and some of the decisions we're making. The economy is a little bit topsyturvy as um it has been for I feel like every time I come present to all of you, it's been um very different for the last several years. Um right now we have very high inflation and um that's really impacting us in a lot of the utility costs fuel. I know that we all feel both of those in our own family budgets um and so um you know those costs are just rising faster than we can bring in revenues for um increased costs. We um also have interest rates that are very high um which gives us an opportunity to earn interest revenues. we just brought on our investment adviser to help there. But when um interest rates are high, it also deters people from wanting to borrow money or invest and maybe even open businesses in our community. And so we might see a reduction in our building permits or development fees with interest rates high. So we want to, you know, balance some of those things as we're seeing high inflation. We're also seeing um a softening tax base. And so, um, our sales tax has increased in comparison to last year. And a large amount of that is because we had a tax law change in October that, um, changed some businesses that were service and not subject to sales tax are now subject to sales tax. So, that's really helped bolster some of our increase that we're seeing this year. Um, but we um, I think would be a lot less if we didn't have that tax law change. And so, we are seeing some softening in some of our our tax bases. Um, we also have legislation changes that we don't have control over at the state and federal level that we have to consider as we're we're building our budget. And so, just some of those things um to consider. I I left out rising cost of labor, the CPI when I was um looking to the future and doing the long range plan um two years ago when we were preparing the budget. Didn't think the inflation would be or the CPI would be at what it is um right now. Uh as of April, it was 4.5%. So, um, we're waiting to see what the June numbers are next month. In regards to our revenue projections, this is where we always start when we're preparing our budget. You know, what is some of the new money that we'll be able to count on? So, to really develop those boundaries and guidelines of what can we afford if in regards to new um new asks. And so this is just a picture of what we have budgeted for the general fund, some of our large resources, and what we expect to see estimated. So we're estimating that we'll have an additional $6 million each year over the benium. So a 12 um million for the 2-year period. Um and just to go over a couple of those, the business taxes are the utility taxes, BNO tax, admission tax. Um, I'm estimating that'll be about $2.5 million each year increase or about a 5% increase. Um, some of that is as utility tax um or utility rates increase, so does the tax on those utilities. Um, we also are seeing quite a bit more of our tax even though we've changed our tax structure and we have finally hit that ceiling amount in 2025. Um, that we're still seeing an increase in our beno tax. So, that's a great new revenue source there. Our sales tax, I'm normally anticipate about a 2% increase, but because of this tax law change of some other businesses that are now subject to sales tax, we're estimating about a 4% increase or 1.8 million per year. Our property tax is very small amount that we're allowed to increase. Um, we do have that bank capacity that we could increase more as a city if we choose to. Um, but I'm just allocating the the small amount that we're allowed to of about 500,000. And then the other resources um area is um charges for services, license permits, um fines and penalties and interest. So this line we're anticipating about 1.5 $1.4 million per year increase largely because of interest rates or yeah, interest revenues. um we're bringing on the tax um investment advisor to really help bolster that and because interest rates are so high, we're expecting that to be high. Now, this is not something I would continue because as inflation starts to decrease, we hope so will the interest rates um start to to go down as well. And so that's one line. as we look to the future and we really plan our five-year long range plan um I won't have that as high in the future years because I anticipate the um interest will be going down some of those other categories fines and penalties for example has been decreasing annually each year um so um if we didn't have that interest income it would be quite a bit difference probably a reduction there. This is just a a reminder of general fund allocation. You know, a large amount of our costs, almost 70% are wages. And so, as we look to add new positions as a city, um we really want to um make sure that we consider wages and benefits are are our largest costs and probably the most impacted by inflation and CPI. Um typically we have that small pie that we pull out say this is our discretionary area the the area that we could um have some wiggle room if we needed to add some more programs we can maybe trim in that supplies and miscellaneous this bianium we're probably going to actually increase the supplies and miscellaneous because of the inflation that we're seeing as I mentioned fuels supply utilities are all in that category and and are going up um quite a bit that we're seeing this This is just a reminder of the service areas. These are the six service areas that we have um to really look at our budget in comparison. Um overall amongst those service areas, as Kristen mentioned, safety and health and um parks were, you know, two of the highest priorities in the community that we heard from and they're definitely ranked high in the number of um dollars that we have allocated for safety and health and livable community. Utilities environment, this is our cost for our whole city. So utilities environment is um you know the water, sewer and surface water. So almost $2,400 per year that we have allocated um per resident in our budget. And then just to give you an idea how how are we doing thus far this year. So through quarter 1 um we are actually doing better than budget. So our revenues are trending about $3 million more than um we would anticipate at this point. When you're looking at our revenues overall, property tax is probably um jumps out at you. It's, you know, more cyclical. We see a higher amount coming in from property tax in April and May and October. So, no concern there that that property tax is a little bit lower at this point. Um the largest revenues that we're seeing that are over budget is our utility taxes. Um BNO tax is our biggest one about $1.5 million over budget and interest revenues about $800,000 over budget. We do have our building permits um and our charges for services are laking a bit behind our our revenue budget. For our expenditure side, we are also doing well. We're under budget at this point largely from personnel um wages and benefits just not having all the positions that we have budgeted filled. um that's have a savings through quarter 1 of about 2.5 million. So we have budgeted this year to use our fund balance of about 12 million and um if things, you know, stay the same, I don't expect us to use the whole $12 million, maybe using more of a $4 million. So um definitely trending fine with where we're looking so far this year. So um as departments we're right in the middle of gathering some information about what all the requests. So we bring everything together and everybody comes forward with all their asset needs. Um I had mentioned at finance committee we're still fine-tuning that number because the overall request totaled over 25 million not including capital and so really needing to trim that down. So we're now in the the process of prioritizing what's what's most important that we need to move forward and what can wait until maybe another bianium or if we have savings in one year that we can maybe add through a budget adjustment and so make going through that prioritization right now is is what we're doing outside of those requests that we had heard from some other anticipated needs that I know are coming forward um that we're going to need to be aware of is we have two um union negotiations that are starting in July. And so we have just a placeholder in our budget right now. Don't know how that will end up when we're done negotiating, but um there are two that David and his team will be working on. Again, we've talked about inflation a couple times. We have um capital projects, some significant capital projects that we have at the city. I've mentioned a little bit about a lot of our buildings um needing some significant repair, not only from environmental damage that we've had um over the winter um but just you know some just general maintenance that we need to be handling. We're we're working on quite a few of them right now, but um you know updating um our buildings is is very very costly. Um we have the resource center that we want to implement and get off the ground. So this is not only some costs that we'll be anticipating for building a resource center actual building we have the location but the building but also staffing that so that we can have staff to be able to support the vision that we have for that resource center. Um and then we just have some spacing needs at city hall and some satellite locations. So as we look to add more people and and more positions we also are starting to um run out of room here at city hall. So, what is the next plan? Do we lease a space short-term, long-term? And so, some of those costs will um we're still vettied out of what will that look like and how will that fold into our budget as we um move forward with that. I'm going to interrupt you here with the spacing needs is something that I have have conversations already with. I h how many employees have we have increased to the city that now we cannot feed the city? Uh I don't know if that makes any sense because I don't know since when we have the problem with the space needed with more space needed if this is like the for the last 10 years we have not have enough space or is for the last 5 years I know that we accommodated the fourth floor for the training facility and then u we brought the for the third floor the I know I don't remember which floor we brought the the the city attorney and we we have everything in house but I don't know since when this need for more space have happened and also I see that um for example when I go to the sixth floor all what it used to be for the customer services now that went to the lobby we have all those empty spaces I don't know if it's more expensive to to you know to repair things here I don't know how to say to accommodate for much more space in this building or to lease or move or rent. I don't know where I I'm assuming that all of those questions are on the table because I'm still uh confused since when we cannot fit here. I know that now we have employees in different places, right? And I know that after the pandemic because we were a lot of us we were working from home. Uh then the reality hit when everybody has to come back now we cannot fit here. So once again I'm wonder how many people we have increased that now city hall is not enough. >> Over the last five or six years we've increased I think almost 50 positions. I would have to um confirm that number. I know in our department we actually um removed a big um we had a big file room that we removed because we were moving everything to laser fish and so it wasn't we didn't need all the file cabinets anymore and so we were able to um take down some walls and kind of move into that area. So, I think we've been adapting for the last 5 to 10 years with the space we have and reinventing and reusing things a little bit differently and now it's getting to the point that um we're we're starting to get to the point where we're going to need over the next 5 to 10 years, where are we going to put everybody if we continue to grow at the pace that we are? And so, some departments just don't have enough room. So, on the sixth floor, for example, that you're saying, once we can get um our lobby vision in place, we can be able to close up some of that possibly and and put um cubicles in some of that space is is an idea. And so, we're really trying to reinvent and rethink about what we have right here right now and where can we use it like we did on our floor. We don't need that that um file room anymore. Let's use it for a space um for people to sit there. So, and again, it's not like I'm stubborn that oh, we want all the people here. It's just what I'm thinking. What is uh the funding the what is makes more sense for the kind of funding that is going to be required to do this? >> Well, those are some of the things that we're looking at. You know, do we lease something? Do we use one of the buildings that we have? You know, we have 200 mil. Um who make what what does it make sense? what um departments or what positions do we move if we're in two different locations. Um so that's all some of the vetting that we've been doing and we've been talking about for quite some time is you know what makes sense and how do we develop this and so we can be very thoughtful instead of um making a change and then having to make another change. So, some of some of those things are being talked about, but if we do have to start leasing some leasing some short-term space, that's an extra cost that we, you know, don't necessarily have as we continue to move and grow. >> Sure. Thank you, Council Member. >> The category of capital projects, does that also include our the buildout of our new park acreages that we have uh acquired recently? It's one of the things um that is something that's on my mind as I'm looking at um so one of the things I was going to say is as if we're going to since we only have so much revenue coming in and we want to maybe possibly add more costs than we have revenues, we will need to lean on the fund balance that we have to be able to to balance our budget. And short term that's okay. you know, we we have have savings in the past and we we have a nice fund balance to be able to absorb and that's the point of it, but some of that fund balance needs to be used for some of these capital projects that we have. The we have several parks that um we've been talking about for several years about building out and enhancing that we want to do and we've just recently talked in the last several months about, you know, building new parks and what do we want to do and how do we want the the vision of the city to be. So using some of that fund balance for some of these capital projects will be really important. And how do we balance all that as we prepare the budget? So when we're looking at our revenues and our new requests, we also have these five categories that Kristen and I continually are saying. Now remember, we have all these other things that we need to factor in, not just, oh, we have an extra $12 million. We can add $12 million of costs because we have some other things that we need to be balancing. And so then just next steps we're in that balancing process really um really talking about what are some of the things that we really need versus what what do we want? Um we are having some of those tough conversations. I I know I say it every time is is there anything that we can discontinue that maybe just not be providing the same benefit that it used to have. um some of the cities that aren't doing some of those things are just doing the same things over and over haven't been able to absorb some of these market adjustments that we've seen over the last five or six years. And so I think it's really important to continue not only to say what do we need to add as a city to be able to benefit our community, but also relook at some of the things and say, is this really providing the benefit that makes sense for us? If it does, great. If it doesn't, can we reinvision it and re-shift those dollars somewhere else? And so those are some of the conversations we're having right now um to really fine-tune some of these expenditures so that we can be comfortable with a balanced budget as we move forward. When we get that list more fine-tuned, we will definitely share it with council to get feedback. Um but we're just we're just still in that um infant stage of just really working through some of those things cuz the dollar um amount was much much larger than we were comfortable with. So Oh, so we're balancing the budget. Um, and then we're also just aligning that budget with community feedback. And then, as Kristen said, we'll do the department presentations in the fall and adopt the budget. So, um, you'll see us a lot in the next four or five months as we work through this, um, bal process. So, I don't know if anybody has any questions. We're both here to answer. Um, >> thank you, Carrie. Thank you, Christine. As always, great presentation. Council members, do you have any questions on Corsair? Council member Ryan Mccur. >> Yes. Uh, thank you. Uh, I wanted to go back to that uh, budget survey slide if we could really quickly. Um, I guess I was more or less curious about that 19% like one in five folks. Uh, what would those folks expect us to do there if they're if they're saying none of the above? Um, that's a tough spot to be in. I think maybe it's more of a rhetorical question. Uh, those are pretty big. Thank you, Jerry. I do appreciate it. Um, going actually back to the budget survey, I had a question around um, the lack of responses because 805 out of 12,500. I think if I did that math right, it's like around 6.5%. And that is just I know I that I know that might seem like normal but what are we doing differently to increase that engagement in those surveys just because of the as research it understands like it's hard to get response from surveys. What are we doing different? How are we trying to increase that number? So that's what's very low for me. I agree compared to uh pointedly sending it to households but surprisingly and this is confirmed by the consultant that this is really a wonderful turnout. Um and compared to 2 years ago we had 470 responses and this second go around 805. So we are certainly trending upward. We've had an amazing communications team who has solicited and advertised this on the website through social media just really pushing it out their postcards. We've uh they've done a phenomenal job and I think that's shown in the numbers that increase this goound. So we're still in the infancy of doing budget surveys. It's only our second time, but I expect the number to keep going up. It's just a really wonderful turnout. Even though it doesn't seem like a lot, it's um almost twice as much as two years ago. So that's quite happy. >> Well, I will then stand corrected because to my own things differently and you've increased your turnout. So I mean you're on the right track and you're going the right direction and hope the second mom shows people are still getting used to it and so I really appreciate that. Thank you for answering member and council member Albertson and then council member Van. >> Thank you. Um, did we have we discontinued the mayor's budget committee or advisory committee process? >> Yes, the budget advisory committee was replaced with the budget survey. >> Um, it's on page or slide eight. Um, maybe I heard incorrectly, but it said um where it says increase 6.2. I I thought I heard you heard you say uh per year. >> Yes. >> But I'm I'm having trouble kind of reconciling that with what I see here. When you say per year, cuz it looks like this represents from 2026 2027 estimated and the earnout or the um end result is 6.2. Where's the per year part of things? I'm I'm I'm missing the 2-year. So annually, currently annually, our revenue budget is $150 million. And so if I'm just looking at 2027, just for one a one-year snapshot, I'm expecting it to go up $6 million. Um, just in 2027, >> that just not much more in 2028. And the reason not as much in 2028 is because I am hoping that that interest rate does go down because I'm really hoping inflation goes down. Um and so um maybe it's 6.2 this year, a little bit less and that other category a little bit higher in some of the other categories because you typically do see um sales tax and business taxes go up a small amount each year. >> Follow. >> Yes. >> Um and so given that with the you know you have the business taxes going up but then a couple slides later you or is it no before then? Um the headwinds the softening tax base. Why? Again, maybe I missed that. Uh are we typically softening tax base? The first thing I think about is businesses uh leaving and that sort of thing. I know it's happening in Seattle and Washington state, but is that we seeing that here or or what's what's the softening tax bas? >> Yeah, we're not we're not seeing a lot of businesses leaving, but we are seeing um spending um being stressed. So the consumer with um inflation being higher >> more sales tax. >> Yes. >> So okay got I mean cut you off but >> saw where you're going. Okay. Thank you. >> Go back. >> Yeah. I have a few questions. Thank you for the presentation. Um I have a question regarding the survey and you know it was sent out but are there opportunities for um us to also open up surveys at the uh farmers market and just kind of being community where folks are having more access to put input and then my other question which will ask later. Uh so two years ago we did have a booth at the farmers market and really what we found was a lot of the um people that showed interest were not um residents or community members of Renton which is totally fine. We're happy to um communicate about um Reton survey to non-residents and community members. But um this year we decided to go a different route and um but we may in future years go back and and uh have a booth at farmers market again. via the only opportunity is through the the mail or sent or the the survey itself. >> No, we had it um opened up on our external website uh with a link for 3 weeks. >> So, so those with access to digital means, right? >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Um you have another question. Yes. since the advisory um council >> the opportunity to come to the public hearings to give um feedback that we have in October as well. >> Thank you. Um there's just a lot of gaps right in terms of what I'm trying to see is outreach and community feedback. Well, the number is high. It's just every time we do surveys and opportunities for feedback, we're missing a huge chunk of community um members. Um but my other question is in terms of the equity commission are we going to be um sending them information to get feedback uh as is through a lens of equity um since that's one of the the weight that's um the since the advisory budget advisory council is dismantle. We did go two years ago. Um we were on the calendar, but we've been shifted and so I'm not sure when our date is to go um talk to the equity commission. They were happy with the feedback that we had. We um Kristen had gone over the full survey and talked with us, talked with them about um the avenues that we had chose. Um they they had some some good feedback about um um reaching out to individual groups and they had some ideas and so um when I can get with Christie I can confirm the date we're supposed to be going to them again this year. Thank you. >> Thank you Gary. Uh and Christine, um so I know how hard you have been working with uh different administrators to start putting together the budget and I know that this has been an ongoing process forever because that's part of the process, right? Um and I know that is still in the works in so many areas and u uh but I would like to know if you for seen I I don't like surprises. You know, you know me. I like to to see where this is going and I'm big on transparency. So any big ask any new things that you can see there that is out of our regular budget or is the same you know based on the survey that we have received the priorities that are going to be included. There are budgets that are not surprises. There are budgets that are big ass. their budget that is just your regular b by budget right that departments have to be able to department the departments to do their their their own you already show some of the five things that we are prioritizing among them the the oh service oh how it's called the oh my gosh the resource center among them then the resource center I I I see some of those that are new ads right but anything big that you you again I'm I'm I don't like surprises. I I even though I read the whole budget back and forward I al always like to have a little bit of heads up watch it guys this is coming this is new this is big or it's not that big but it's new so any any that you can anticipate that we can we can to we have to watch for I >> think so I think um some of the requests are around using some of the public safety sales tax we just passed so adding officers and positions to be able to support that I'm adding budget for public defender costs. I'm just kind of going off top of my head with memory. There are some positions where departments are concerned about not having enough staff to be able to get the work done um uh efficiently to be able to have their eyes on the things that they need to have their eyes on. For example, um contract review for city attorney's office um is an area that um could be a vulnerability that we see. Making sure that we have enough um staff on that. Um a lot of it is um the the dollars add up really quickly when we're adding positions because um we have, you know, nice benefits here that add to not only the base wage. And so when you're looking at adding positions, it adds up really, really quickly. And so that was really where we're working right now is trying to trim those position asks to say, is this really needed now? Can you wait and see what you need in the future? Which ones do you need right now? If you do, and let's talk about why. Is there um a revenue source that we can use such as the public safety sales tax to be able to support the adding of those? So, um I'm trying to think what else I think that there was some professional service. Oh, software cost is another big one. That's another big one with inflation, too. So, um I can't think of anything surprising. >> Okay. That I've seen so far. >> Thank you, Carrie. I was uh I wondering when you say adding more positions um is there also consideration to I think David is doing that but to review the positions that we have I mean to check as you said it there are some maybe some positions that we need to add but there positions that we need to move or we don't need anymore uh which is challenging I understand 100% and and obviously I know that you cannot answer just just have to say yes or not we are see looking into those other many many positions that we have that may not make any sense anymore or or that we have to transitions or change. I have these conversations all the time with all department administrators. Um when especially when they're looking to ask to add positions um we talk about other positions and and we do have those hard conversations. Um and there are times where it's like well yeah this makes sense to maybe um convert this position instead of adding a new position. Um because this is the need we have right now. Um so yes we are having those conversations. >> Thank you K. Any more questions or concerns? Are we good? Yes. >> Please. >> Yeah. >> So, from a personnel perspective, do we do any forecasting of attrition through either retirements or lateraling to another city? Do we do we do any of that type of forecasting or >> forecasting meaning that we are expecting open positions? Is that what you mean? Um, no. I'm budgeting for all the positions as if they are 100% filled. Um I think that when we are looking at our budget, it's really important to budget the expenditures as conservatively as you can because the last thing I want is to come forward to all of you 6 months and say, "Oops, we filled all the positions and we weren't expecting that." And so that's I would much rather be able to have some of that savings to be able to say, "Okay, we have some savings. Now we can go ahead and add that to this capital project we had on hold cuz we weren't sure if we'd have enough money." Um that's um in my mind um I sleep better at night and I just feel the more responsible avenue for me. >> I'm I'm sorry. Maybe I maybe I misspoke. Um I I understand that we budget for all of the positions that we have. Um but when it comes to replacing people who are leaving through attrition for or separation of employment for whatever reason, replacing people is far more expensive than keeping people. And so if we do any forecasting about how many people we think we might have to replace, there's all of the um recruiting, there's the training, there's the increased salary if that's appropriate because people want more money these days, you know, all that kind of stuff is more expensive than just keeping the same person in the same position. So that's what I meant by forecasting. >> Yeah. And and we don't we don't do any of that right now. Um a lot of times departments have to just absorb those different you know anytime the learning curve is so steep when you bring somebody on. I agree and um there's a lot of times where departments will have to absorb that work or maybe the department even says well we can't do that this year because you know we're really spending a lot of time on bringing this person on board. So I I'm going to follow up on that but first Council Ria. >> Thank you chair. I do appreciate it. This might just be me a user error and that could be totally fine. I'm not a perfect person. I'm when I was reviewing the budget survey presentation that was emailed to us on the 18th. Um and I'm going through it kind of like reviewing more of the weeds of it. I'm noticing a lot of image issues like the same graph on multiple slides that aren't around the same graph. So like if you go down to um uh the budget survey, I'm trying to pull up both while I have my my zoom up, but if you go to just I'm not showing like condition cleanliness of city infrastructure. Um this the first graph I see is of the previous graph which is the business and the rent. And so if we could get this presentation around the business survey cleaned up or maybe again it could be just me and the user here putting up my iPad or PowerPoint or what have you. But I'm wondering my colleagues also read through it and saw kind of the same image issues under like cleanliness and also under like um demographics. I see some like that some of the things aren't lighing up with the questions asked like race ethnicity has what type would you like to see more and again I don't know if any of you have that same issue but I would I would like that so I look at that a little bit better microphone is not working right now but she will take care of that that was her answer okay um really quick just follow up on what uh council member uh O'haleran said, I I I do think about that all the time, especially well, you have a department that is very steady, very consistent. You you don't lose employees that often. You don't change employees that often. At least I don't see in your department that oh, these already going or left or new, but we are a solid department that pretty much 50% of their employees are brand new and some of the new ones are already leaving. So, do we know how much that cost us? Because the consumer is absolutely right. I mean just the hiring the process, the retirement, the payment, the coming, the leaving, the interviews that is very costly to be replacing employees that often and that fast. And um and and once again, we were talking about, you know, adding a position as hard as it is, is way easier than removing a position. a position ray created to remove it is almost impossible. We can change it, we can move it, we can rea name it, but just erase it. It is it is very challenging and very expensive and I don't even want to go legally how how how this goes. But anyway, it's one of my concerns the way consumer presented. Yeah. I mean, how much of of our revenue is going through the whole process of hiring and leaving and not being able to maintain our our personnel um and and and and losing personnel that fast is is concerning I think for every business not just for the city. Again, great presentation. If there is no more questions, comments, um one once again, I want to thank you both of you to be here. looking forward to see you a lot for the rest of the year and uh and thank you once again.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, can we please start with the roll call? >> Council President Perez. >> Here. >> Council Member Vaughn. >> Council Member Albertson. >> Here. Here. >> Council Member O'Halloran. >> Here. >> Council Member McCurdy. >> And Council Member Frank. >> Here. >> Both Mr. Mayor or President. >> All right, thank you. First up tonight, we have a couple of proclamations, and the first proclamation is Juneteenth. >> A proclamation, whereas when President Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it did not take effect in the territories that remained under Confederate control. And whereas 2 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, freedom was finally granted to African Americans in Texas on June 19th, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, uh [clears throat] uh by executive decree, uh freed 250,000 enslaved people. And whereas in recognition of the remarkable efforts of Opal Lee, leaders, and other activist organization, Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021. And whereas since 1865, Juneteenth has been celebrated as a special day of celebration for freedom. >> Jason, I'm so sorry to interrupt you. Can you please unmute yourself? At least that's what it's saying on the Zoom. We're all looking at each other waiting for somebody to say something, so I'm going to say something. >> Am I muted? >> Yeah, it says to please unmute on the screen up there. Look up top. >> Oh. >> I do apologize for interrupting you. You were doing a great job. >> All right. All right, I'll read it over. So, proclamation, whereas when President Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it did not take effect in the territories that remained under Confederate control. And whereas 2 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freedom was finally granted to African-Americans in Texas on June 19th, 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to end by executive de- two by executive decree freed 250,000 enslaved people. And whereas in recognition of the remarkable efforts of Opal Lee, leaders and other activist organizations, Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021. And whereas since 1865, Juneteenth has been celebrated as a special day of celebration for freedom and the celebration of this day has grown into a day of learning, sharing, and giving respect to the history, culture, and achievements of African-Americans. And whereas to signify this occasion not just in our African-American will be proudly displayed at Renton City Hall. And whereas the City of Renton encourages all to attend the Juneteenth Day Game Day pop-up for a celebration of community, culture, and creativity featuring black-owned brands and businesses on Friday, June 19th at Legacy Square from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. And now therefore, I Armondo Pavone, Mayor of the City of Renton, do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 to be Juneteenth in the City of Renton. And I encourage all residents to join me in the special observance. In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Renton to be affixed this 15th day of June, 2026. Signed Mayor Armondo Pavone, Mayor of the City of Renton. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Councilmember Prince. >> I move the proclamation be adopted as read. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Councilmember Prince, seconded by Councilmember Albertson, that the proclamation be adopted as read. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. And accepting tonight's proclamation Lawrence Garrett. >> Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City of Renton. I'm honored uh, for the opportunity to share a few words about this monumental occasion. But instead of providing facts and figures that you can easily Google or whatever AI tool you're choosing to use, I decided to do something a little unique tonight. Something a little special, something that actually is closer to home for me. Um, just recently I've had the opportunity to learn more about my own history, my heritage. And my grandmother brought us all the way back to Arkansas, Hickory Plains, Arkansas. Anybody from Arkansas? Family got Arkansas? No? No? Okay. Um, there was a little place right outside of Little Rock called Hickory Plains. And this is where my grandmother tells a story about my great-grandfather who happened to be a runaway slave. Or a a person who escaped slavery. And so, I'm going to pass these two out and maybe City Council y'all get it last. Leaders eat last. Um, but these are two pictures of me um, by the tombstone of my great-grandfather. And I just want to share with you all the story that was shared with me by my 91-year-old grandmother. So, I'm going to pass these out. And if you don't mind, I was expecting AC. I'm going to take my jacket off cuz I do sweat profusely. Um, I'm also a little nervous, not because I'm not a certified yapper and I don't know how to talk in front of people, but just the weight of this moment and knowing what my great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather had done. And so this message is for him. This [clears throat] is This is me speaking back to him. Grandpa Jerry, your escape. Story has it you were somewhere between the ages of 14 and 17 when you decided to courageously leave everything that you know and escape slavery and headed into the world of the unknowns. Somewhere in central North Carolina, you're not quite sure where to go or what's next, but you decided to go. And when I heard this, I couldn't help but to juxtapose this reality of a young teenage boy fleeing a plantation filled with people who, if they would have found him, they would have tormented him in un- unimaginable ways. Perhaps even a state uh a state-sanctioned lynching. And so the gravity of that decision juxtaposed to my own reality at 15 years old growing up in Los Angeles, California, I immediately flashed back and thought about how you know what I was doing when I was 15? What I remember, I was on a party line. Anybody remember a party line? Where boys were in in the background trying to deepen my voice so I can sound cool to girls. And I I used that as a comparison to talk about how massively we have come >> [clears throat] >> over the last two centuries. And yet, there are still things that are very still the same. The feeling of wanting a space, a place that I do not have to justify my existence, my basic human need for dignity and human rights, the value that I bring to society, and more specifically, my culture that has enhanced every civilization my ancestors have been connected to, still lingers with me in this background. And the realest Grandpa Jerry, no one living can relate to the level of fear or horror you might have been experiencing. And yet, the connection between you and me is this. >> [snorts] >> And many of folks in organizations, companies, and communities today with the same feeling. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know where I'm headed. But what I do know, it's not this. How many times have folks, because of who they are and how they identify, have found themselves saying that this is not a space or a place for me. I don't know where I'm going, but I know it's not this. Your story picks up with being found at some remote, unoccupied forest-type area by a Cherokee tribe, who brought you in, cared for you, and eventually married a woman from the Cherokee Nation. There's just so much to unpack just with that story by itself. The inclusive nature of the native tribes, the collective struggle we both were under, and the concept of community. But today, obviously, I don't have the time to go into that. The The comedian in me laughs when my grandmother tells a story about the Cherokee Indian in my family. You know why? I'm going to give you a little inside scoop. All black people think we got Indian in our family. [laughter] As a matter of fact, Cherokee's the one that's always often referenced. So, guess what? I fit the bill. I literally have the thing that everyone laughs about actually in my own family. But in all seriousness, this information sheds light on the complexity of race and ethnicity. More importantly, it points to the origin of what is referenced as identity politics. The most significant reminder this story reveals is the non-option many of us to stay out of politics when my very existence in this country is political. Let that sink in. My very existence in this country is political. And many others. My existence, what rights I have, as well as many other identities, are at threat to the original order of set of things by the House of Burgesses in 1691, where they defined what is a white man and all the benefits that come along with that. Side note, we are grossly unaware of what is happening in our country, not just up to 77 1776, but prior to 776 and how things were governed. If escaping slavery and being ingratiated into the Cherokee tribe wasn't impressive on its own, you went on to become a successful blacksmith, carpenter, farmer and word has it around the small town of Hickory Plains, Arkansas, you also were a local veterinarian treating all the livestock in the area that included black people and white people. You later went on to buy 100 acres, dodge the clan, challenge local government to expand rights for black people and intellectually outwit the wealthy white elite who determined to steal your land and put you in debt. Wow. Finally, my eyes gazed towards the church building with your name on it. You were not only the founding deacon or one of the founding people of the church, you were also one of the ones that ensured that people had safe passage coming into and out the church. And due to the government not recognizing your life as a human being, you and many other black folk across America were forced to give have grave sites on the church grounds. Often not even recognized by the state. True fact, when I was there in October, they still did not have it recorded as uh my family in this grave site. And despite all of this, all the pain, the persecution, your tomb your tombstone read this, my trust is in God. In that moment, ladies and gentlemen, I lost it. I can't fathom someone under that level of pain and persecution still holding to a faith and a trust and a belief in a God that they can't see. I called my wife immediately after that. And you know what I said, Mayor? What the hell am I complaining about? Look at my great-great-grandfather. Look what he's accomplished. And what have I been doing? So, I just want to pause for a moment and thank you for this opportunity, everyone. But, I just want to leave with saying this. Grandpa Jerry, I hope you're proud of me. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [snorts and laughter] >> All right. And we have another proclamation, National Go Skateboarding Day. All right. Proclamation, whereas skateboarding is a dynamic form of recreation that promotes perseverance, physical fitness, confidence, and personal growth for people of all ages. And whereas born from an inventive and rebellious spirit, skateboarding has transformed the way people engage with public spaces, blending movement, expression, and community. And whereas skate culture reflects individuality, resilience, and freedom, connecting generations through a through a shared pursuit of progression and self-expression. And whereas skate parks and public recreation spaces serve as gathering places where people build skills, support one another, and foster respect through active participation. And whereas the city of Renton recognizes the skateboarding community's positive role in activating and caring for public spaces, strengthening parks through stewardship, engagement, and presence. And whereas for 25 years, Liberty Skate Park has been a cornerstone cornerstone of Renton skate community, fostering mentorship, youth engagement, and lasting connection connections across generations. And whereas National Skateboarding Day, celebrated annually on June 21st, honors skateboarding as both a recreational activity and a cultural movement that inspires innovation, determination, and authentic self-expression in communities across the nation. And now, therefore, I am Armondo Pavone, mayor of the city of Renton, do hereby proclaim June 21st, 2026 to be National Go Skateboarding Day in the city of Renton. And I encourage all residents to join me in this special observance. In witness thereof, I am hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Renton to be affixed this 15th day of June 2026. Signed Armondo Pavone, mayor of the city of Renton. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Council President. >> I move the proclamation to be adopted as read. >> Second. >> It has been moved by Council Member our Council President Pres, sec'd by Council Member McGarvin that the proclamation be adopted as read. All in favor, signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carries in accepting for the proclamation I, Mark Arnold. [clears throat] >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council President, Council members. I'm Jennifer Spencer, not Mark Arnold. We'll get to him in just a quick second. First, I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity to be with you tonight. And I wanted to recognize the proclamation that was laid out before us here. And I want to tell you that I think everyone in this room knows how proud Grandpa Jerry is of you. And I think we're all better people from having that experience with you. So, thank you very much. So, exciting. Parks and Recreation is delighted to be here. It's our first time doing a proclamation for National Go Skateboarding month and day, I should say. A couple things that we wanted to share with Mayor and Council is that for our event that happens on June 21st, that's the actual day of Go Skateboarding, we have left you with a little parting gift. These are guns out sun's out guns out types of shirts. Wanted to let you know that this design was done with the help of Mark Arnold as well as our team in recreation. So, if you notice on the front left liberty. This is something that meant a lot to us in Parks and Recreation. Why? Well, that's where the skate park is and also what it means. The power to act as one pleases. Individuals should enjoy the liberty to shred Renton. Now, it might not say that in the Webster's dictionary, but we thought it was a good flare to have. I wanted to take a moment as many of you know, we have a long-standing business in the community Gravity Sports. They're celebrating their 50th anniversary. They are the ones that have been outfitting our skaters whether you're roller skating skateboarding doing any kind of wheels activity except for bicycles I believe and celebrate them. They've been a huge advocate for us and are giving us immense amount of support to have our national go skating day. So I wanted to congratulate Gravity Sports on 50 years of serving Renton the decades of bumps and bruises that they've provided to all you parents out there. Mayor you introduced Mark Arnold and I think everybody has probably seen or experienced Mark Arnold whether you're doing engagement whether you're at the skate park but he is very involved in our community and we couldn't ask for a better person to accept this proclamation. The unique thing about Mark is his strong voice. He has a passion like no other whether he's advocating for additional skate parks the ones that we already have or trying to see where we can come together and fill voids in underserved areas. Mark's been there and he's really been a champion for us. Mark's a mentor. So I think the first thing that I learned from Mark was when I went to some of our engagement he was able to have the same communication with a six year old as he was with a sixty year old and that's a really unique perspective to be able to have. He's a he's a complete advocate a lifelong resident and his passion just exudes anything that we've ever experienced for one solid sporting event. So it is my honor to invite Mark forward to accept the national go skateboarding day and to share a few words with you all. Thank you. MARK. >> I'D LIKE TO THANK EVERYBODY, MY FAMILY AND friends for coming. I'd like to thank the council for the proclamation. Um, skateboarding has been a big part of my life and now being a 62-year-old skateboarder, still part of my life. Uh, I've had so many great friendships and experiences from skateboarding. It's always given me something to do. When I'm mad, I could go skateboarding. When I'm happy, I could go skateboarding. Uh, I wanted to recognize some of the people in the room. Uh, Sabin Olsen and Justin Carey in the mid-90s came before the council with varied results and we're looking for a place to ride in the city of Renton. Uh, they worked really hard for many years, uh, along with other people to get Liberty Park built in 2001. Uh, can't believe it's 25 years later. We're looking at expansion of the park. We're looking at building new parks and we're going to be having the big event on June 21st and it's a celebration of friendships, like I said, and memories. And if we build more parks in Renton, you will see people that make lifelong relationships. Uh, like you said, great memories and wonderful friendships. So, I'd like to thank everybody and I appreciate the proclamation. Thank you. All right, THANK YOU. >> YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE PARK? >> I GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE. >> WHAT'S IN TOWN FOR SUMMER? Ready to go out soon to fill the park. to you about everything. >> Thank you, Jerry. I'll keep it very short. Jerry actually skateboards. No, I don't. Don't worry. I I remember I remember that. I did not. That's a thing. Speaking of Thank you, everyone. Did you see it? >> [snorts] >> More layers after this. So, people Before we get started, I want to follow and say that there was a couple few words here. I believe I'm on Mark's calendar. Um I get an email, a text, or a phone call about every 6 months. Maybe it's a little bit longer, but on a regular reoccurring basis, Mark gives me a call um reminding me that skate parks are well loved and that we need more of them in Renton. So, his advocacy goes a lot longer than just Liberty Park. So, thank you for all the work you've done in the community and I really appreciate the fact that the skateboarders showed up tonight and in support of of this. Thank you guys for showing up. um our skatepark is definitely well-loved and it's one of the few parks where the people that use it actually do clean up in their own park. So, thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it. All right, next up is administrative report. >> All right, good evening, everyone. FIFA live watch parties at Legacy Square continue this week including the USA versus Australia Friday, June 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. All summer long enjoy movies, concerts, and more at Renton's newest outdoor venue. For a full list of events, please visit rentonwa.gov/events. Liberty Skatepark is turning 25. Come celebrate 25 years of the community at Skatepark Sunday, June 21st from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Enjoy live music, games, win prizes, and more. This free event is open to all ages and a great way to spend Sunday with family and friends. Visit rentonwa.gov/events for more information. Join us Thursday, June 18th, 3:00 p.m. at the Renton City Hall upper parking lot for the Juneteenth flag raising ceremony. Hear speeches from Mayor Pavone and a community member. Light refreshments will be served. Public is also invited to attend free Juneteenth celebrations in Renton and nearby cities on Friday, June 19th. Freedom Culture and Black Joy Festival will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the downtown plaza. Saturday, June 20th, Juneteenth celebration at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist Church from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. Congratulations to the 26 individuals who completed the Community Emergency Response Team CERT final drill last month. Thank you for your investment you made in taking the time for training and your commitment to responding to during disasters. For more information about upcoming CERT classes, please visit our website at rentonwa.gov/cert. Information about preventive street maintenance, traffic impact projects, and road closures happening this week can be found at rentonwa.gov/traffic. All projects are weather permitting unless otherwise noted, streets will always remain open. That is it. >> All right, thank you. Next up is audience comment. We do have a few people signed up to speak. As always, I want to remind everybody all remarks must be addressed to the council as a whole. When you When I call your name, please step up to the podium. Uh each person will have 3 minutes. There's a timer in front. When you come up, please state your name and city of residence for the record. And first up tonight is uh Leslie Jensen. >> Uh good evening. My name is Leslie Jensen. I I've lived in East Renton Highlands since 2011. Um I came here today feeling like James Baldwin it says on my shirt that I can't believe what you say cuz I see what you do. Recently, it was asked in one of these meetings by a council member, "How do we get people to trust us?" Um and I'd like to answer that you you don't. You Trust is not something that gets given out like a free serving at Costco. It's something that you have to earn and build and foster. And I'm not quite seeing that here. I see people talking the talk but not walking the walk. A couple places where I see the mark is getting missed. On June 8th, the pride flag was raised right here at city council or at city hall. But the same evening, a gentleman came here and played an audio recording of his neighbor where the neighbor apparently tried to run him over in the street, then screamed several homophobic slurs, and then threatened to go get his gun and come back and shoot him in the face. And this gentleman has called the police and said that the police end up showing up, talking to this guy, shaking his hand, patting him on the back, and then saying, "First Amendment." Uh but you don't have to be a graduate from Georgetown Law to understand that that's not necessarily the case. Not every word is protected under the First Amendment. And from Georgetown Law, I have a quote. "A true threat encompasses statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals. The speaker need not actually intend to carry out the threat. The threat alone harms the victim." And I'm not sure which universe we all live in, but in my universe, if someone says, "I'm going to go get my gun and shoot you in the face," that is a true threat. And the fact that the RPD is saying, "First Amendment," is very concerning to me. That's another example of people talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Another example is the ALPR debate. A few weeks ago, it was fantastic. You guys voted to deposit. I was very pleased with that. But since then, it's just simply been crickets. There's no proof that the cameras are turned off, other than you say so. Um there have been no updates. The mayor mentioned that we can email you guys. I've emailed you guys at least four times. The first three times, not a single person responded. Not even an automatic reply. Nothing. I have no idea if you got the email. The fourth time, uh the council president was kind enough to forward my email on to uh someone named John who I'm assuming is the chief of police. Uh I didn't see his email in the in the email information. Might have been BCC'd. Um again, I just keep getting this feeling of people just talking and not walking. Um so my question is, what are we doing here? >> I see it. Uh if if you're not the people to talk to, where do we go and what do we do? I'm not expecting a quick fix, but something, please. >> All right, thank you. Next up is Daphne Baird. >> Good evening, Council. Daphne Baird, resident of Renton. I thank you for your continued efforts to protect residents, the moratorium on ice facilities, and the pausing of flood cameras. I urge you to listen to your constituents and continue to take protective measures. Once is not enough, it has to continue. Before the events of this January, I always assumed that I would uh end up coming to City Hall to the council meeting to ask why Renton Police Department spends so many resources on officers doing loops in the parking lots of Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Target. I would have given you anecdotes on how those patrols take resources away from the community. I would have asked why companies that care nothing for our city are afforded more police response than our residents and local businesses. I would have explained that those patrols cannot prevent incidents like the Walmart fire. Isolated, my observations would have been a single data point. As I have been listening at these meetings, it has become increasingly clear that the stories form a pattern. If I submitted correctly, in your packets are some of Renton's police statistics. People go into law enforcement to do good, and the data shows that our systems are failing them. According to the latest comparative report I could find, Renton PD uses force more frequently during arrest than 78% of police departments countrywide. They are in the 86th percentile for police shootings. They are in only the 6th percentile for solving murders. The murder of a black victim is five times as likely to go unsolved as a white victim. A Latinx victim, seven times. We cannot write these statistics off as just being the nature of policing. These statistics are in comparison to police departments around the country. This is clear evidence of a cultural concern within our police department. The type of culture that focuses on easy arrests, rather than solving violent crimes. A culture that uh that results in officers treating actionable threats like protected speech. A culture that means our immigrant residents do not feel safe calling police when ICE violates their constitutional rights. >> [snorts] >> I ask you to take steps to improve our police department. Mandatory sensitivity and de-escalation training, above and beyond what the state requires. Additional auditing of body cam footage. Protections for officers that report the misconduct of their peers. Better counseling options for our officers. We have a long road to walk if we want to rebuild our community's trust in our police. And I ask that it start >> Let me get a wrap up your comments. >> All right, next up is Diane Dobson. >> Good afternoon, Diane Dobson. Renton resident hat on today. Um actually daughter hat on today. Um I could reach out to you individually, I could reach out to the parks department, um but I'm saving myself the time and energy by speaking tonight. I saw the committee of the whole meeting. Thank you to the parks department, the arborist program, Ian, Greg, Gabriella, everybody that has put in the time and energy on these plans. Um there is a tree map, heat map, or plan in place with potential plantings on trees. I am here again on behalf of my mom. She's 87. When we look at that map, there are two trees scheduled or identified spaces for two trees to be planted in front of her house. And um I'm an activist and I I would admit that at some point I'll probably chain myself to a tree, but my 87-year-old mom is where I learn it from, and she said if you plant it in front of her house, she will go out and take them down. So I just encourage the city um as you have new arborist that are coming in and the potential to really look at the plans that are in existence to be thoughtful in the approach of where those trees are planted. Um no negative uh nothing towards the city, just um this is an opportunity to be thoughtful in approach with the neighborhoods and um residents. Thank you. >> All right, thank And next up is Tristan Koch and >> I'm also here to talk about trees. I enjoyed tonight's come meet the whole. My public comment will be about trees as well. Want to introduce the council into how we can incorporate trees into our streets in ways that you might not have thought of. I'm sure our new urban foresters have thought of this, but I want to introduce the council to do it myself. My first example is narrowing streets to allow for wider tree planting strips and the creation of ones that don't currently exist. We have a lot of residential streets in the city that have speeding issues and the speeding mainly stems from how wide the streets are as well. An approach to that can be narrowing of residential streets in the city to a single lane, making them either one one-way single lane or two-way single lane like in Seattle. We actually do have some streets like that in the North End neighborhood where there's single lane residential streets that mostly one-way though, but they're a lot safer than newer streets in the city in residential areas. My other suggestion is for repurposing some on-street parking spaces into planting strips. There are streets in the city without planting strips that can't be realistically narrowed. Edwins Avenue in the Highlands is a good example. I rode my bicycle down that yesterday when it was 90 out. There is no room to plant trees on that street and the sidewalk is right up against the curb, but we do have a lot of parking spaces on that street and that street doesn't really have much utilization of the parking either. Converting maybe 20 to 30% of those parking spaces into tree spots, you could have a great tree-lined street. And those parking spots converted into tree spaces, you could have a lot bigger trees in those spaces as well cuz they'll have more room to grow. I think losing some parking is worth it to have the important tree coverage that we need in our city. We have converted parking spots into planting strips in the city in the past. South 3rd Street in downtown for about 20 years. Was tree-lined between Burnett and Main Avenue South. The mayor talked to me last year about the history of that. Thank you for that, by the way. I spoke about those particular planting sites a year ago and I'd like to see those come back one day as well and even introduce that into other places in the city. Thank you. >> All right, thank you. Next up is Gabriel Diaz. >> That's Gabriel, but that's all right. Uh let's see here. So, hey folks, my name is Gabriel Diaz and I'm here today to talk about LGBT protections. First off, I have to start by saying how horrible the story was last week of the hate crimes Renton. That should not happen, obviously. I was a little concerned about how that was handled. To not even apologize for it, but just say, you know, wrap it up and talk to the people that this person believes left them out to dry. This is deeply self-concerning and very obviously needs to be addressed. But, this also underscores the need for LGBT protections. Now, I came here a year ago and shared why that was needed and after a year we didn't see anything. In fact, we had people saying, well, you know, Renton's inclusive enough. So, I thought I would share why I personally haven't seen that either. Now, I could talk about the times I've gotten called slurs downtown or the time I got chased into eight-bit because someone liked that I was wearing a dress. But, I've talked about that. So, instead, let's talking about the way it's becoming a safety issue. Now, some of you all know I do pride security. If there's pride events in the area, all over, I'm happy to do security for it. Uh but, this last weekend I was actually lucky enough to do pride security in Marysville where I got this lovely lovely sunburn. Uh it was outside of Totem Middle School. It had a bouncy castle and face painting for kids. It was a very friend family-friendly pride events. During this pride, we had multiple hate groups sneak into the events telling people who were going to gay their who were gay they were going to hell and yelling people and even attempted to fight multiple people. Now, this is actually not that abnormal for pride events we see in areas like Marysville. But, I'm going to show you something else. I'm going to show you a picture of something that is also not uncommon at events in the area, but may be a concern for the safety of everyone there. As you can see, this gentleman has a rag over the back of his shirt where you would very where you would very obviously carry a gun. That rag moved at multiple points to show that he was carrying a firearm in his back pocket. See, I have my script there. Yeah. The man had a gun holstered on his waist and a GoPro on his chest. He accosted multiple queer people including families with children after being asked to leave multiple times. Thankfully and luckily enough, this day went by without incident, but we can say we can see how scary it and how close that can get at times. This group wasn't from Marysville. They traveled about 45 minutes away to go harass people at this pride. Now, we looked we were able to figure out what group this was from and where they tend to organize. They were 45 minutes from Marysville and they're about 45 minutes from Renton. Now, I can hear people folks saying, "Well, that's Marysville, not Renton." So, let's talk about Renton. I also do pride security for the monthly drag queen story hour at Brewmaster's Taproom, which if you haven't been, go. Incredible. But, that same taproom had also a hate group harass them for having a drag queen story hour, even taking a shot at a window a few years back at the bar that is still standing. That bullet hole is still there. Last year, we had more hate groups harass the bar and I joined with many of the community to join in solidarity and support. We have had We have We had nothing that day because of the community's support. Because we had community support and tell people not here, not now. If we tell them if you have people telling people not here, not now, they will think twice. If we tell people that we we are in community that loves the queer community, then they will know this is not the time. We have already had hate crimes against LGBT people here in Renton, and yet we still haven't passed this. We have an opportunity to do the bare minimum and we don't. I fear what type of situation and what type of tragedy would have to take place before we tell our queer community we support them. So, instead, let's take the easy win and do it now. Thank you. Thank you. >> Now we have Gabriel Welding. >> Hello. Um nice to see you all this week. I missed last week. Um I'm kind of winging it a little bit tonight. I wrote down in my subject for what my comments are about, grab bag of bummer, because that's what we've got tonight, all right? Um to uh Gabriel's point, um we had ALPRs active during some of these incidents with hate crimes. During um Daphne's statement, she mentioned the low solving rate for murders in our cities. The ALPRs were active when these statistics were gathered. They did not help solve them. So, I think that's clear data from our own city that shows the ALPR cameras are not helping and should remain off. Like Leslie said, I would like to urge you to give us some proof that the cameras are off. Maybe consider bagging them, so we know when they're off and when they're on. Because right now, all we have is the word of people that have not given us trust to believe that word. Last week, there was a pride flag raising on Monday morning. I sadly could not make it because I was doing rapid response for three ice abductions that happened in the Renton Highlands that morning in the same 90 minutes. >> [snorts] >> Please don't mistake my voice quavering for nerves. It is both barely controlled rage and grief at what's happening in this city. You can all make it to a photo op for a pride flag raising that was up for by the way four days. I thought it was pride month not pride four days. Weird. Um, but you weren't at um the Tukwila DHS building this morning to respond to other people from Renton who were kidnapped and have already had expedited deport and deportations and are already back in Honduras less than 48 hours later. This morning there was a press conference by a group and justice asked for for two child one adult, one a child, 17 years old missing his leg because of cancer treatment. His family is not criminals. So if you think that the ICE actions happening in the city are targeting criminals, they're not. The criminals in the city are ICE. They are wearing masks, which is illegal in the state. So I would urge you to I don't know have the police department care about that and intervene. If you think this isn't happening in and nearby city hall on Friday, if we were in a different room, you could look out the window and watch ICE abduct a man on 405. But you don't do that. You don't care. You aren't passing these protections. Why are you not showing up for things that aren't photo ops? I would urge you that if you are not doing the research on the ALPR cameras yourself, that you should not be on city council. You should resign and let people who are willing to do the work be in this job. If you think the effort of the people in this room speaking every week looks bad now that we are complaining, this is us trying to work with you. I get that it feels adversarial, but we are not working against you yet. We will when the election time comes. Thank you. >> All right, thank you. We are on to the consent agenda. There are seven items for council consideration. Are there any that you would like pulled for separate discussion? >> Hearing none, Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Ms. Preciado. >> Hearing none, I move that the council concur with the consent agenda as published. >> Second. Okay, it's been moved by Council President Perez, second by Councilmember McIrvin, that the council approve the consent agenda as published. All in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, nay. Motion carries. All right, we are on to unfinished business. Council President Perez. >> Unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> Councilmember Evans. >> Uh thank you, Mayor. The Utilities Committee has three committee committee reports to present. >> All right, Utilities Committee committee report. The first report is regarding an agreement with uh OTAC Incorporated. The Utilities Committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the agreement with OTAC Inc. in the amount of $222,267 for the design, bidding, and construction support services of the 116th Avenue Southeast and Edmonds Way Southeast AC water main replacement project. This is signed by the committee chair members. >> Mayor. >> Yes, Councilmember. >> Um I move that the council concur with the Utilities Committee committee report. >> Second. It's been moved by Councilmember Evans, second by Councilmember Albertson, that the council concur with the Utility Committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, nay. Motion carries. All right, the next report is regarding a resolution with McLeod Telecommunication Services. The Utilities Committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to authorize McLeod USA Telecommunication Services LLC, which is McLeod USA, to allow co-location of Intermountain Infrastructure Group LLC telecommunication facilities within McLeod USA's telecommunication conduits and other infrastructure. The committee further recommends that the resolution regarding this matter be presented for reading and adoption. This too is signed by the committee chair and members. >> Mayor. >> Rivera. >> I move that the council concur with the utilities committee committee report. >> With the utility committee report. >> Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Nay? Motion carries. >> All right, the final report for the utilities committee is regarding a franchise agreement with the Intermountain Infrastructure Group LLC. The utilities committee recommends concurrence in the staff recommendation to grant a 10-year telecommunications franchise to Intermountain Infrastructure Group LLC. The committee further recommends the ordinance regarding this matter be presented for reading and adoption. This too is signed by the committee chair and members. >> Mayor. >> Councilmember >> I move that the the council concur with the utilities committee committee report. >> Second. >> It's been moved by Councilmember Van Seconded by Councilmember Albertson that the council concur with the utility committee report. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed, nay? Motion carries. All right, thank you. On to Councilmember Albertson. >> No unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> Councilmember Rivera. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor. We are actually going to be holding the committee report for the transportation committee until probably next week or the week after. >> Okay. Councilmember O'Halloran. >> No unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> Councilmember McGarvin. >> Councilmember Prince. >> No unfinished business, Mr. Mayor. >> All right, we are on to legislation. We did have one resolution. And what ordinances? We're going to just have one ordinance, it looks like. For first reading. >> Yes, that's correct. The resolution is held because of that held committee report. So we have one ordinance. It's an ordinance for the city of Renton, Washington amending the 2026 City of Renton salary table to reflect the July 1st, 2026 salary grade adjustments agreed to in a May 20th, 2026 memorandum of understanding between the city of Renton and ask me providing for severability and establishing an effective date. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Councilmember O'Halloran. >> I move the ordinance be placed on second and final meeting final reading at the next council meeting. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved by Councilmember O'Halloran, second by Councilmember Gerbin, that the ordinance be placed on second and final reading at the next council meeting. All in favor signify by saying "Aye". >> Aye. >> Opposed, "Nay". Motion carries. All right, we are on to new business. Council President Perez. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 5:15 p.m., we will have our Committee of the Whole hearing Council Chambers as well as via video conference. There are two items on the agenda, Renton Downtown Partnership Update, as well as the 2027-2028 budget update. And at 7:00, we will have our regular Council meeting here as well as the Council Chambers and via video conference. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> All right, thank you. Councilmember Van. >> Uh thank you, Mayor. The Utilities Committee do not have any official uh new business, but I want to take the opportunity to thank uh community members coming out to speak and also uh to reflect a little bit about Juneteenth proclamation as uh someone who's a child refugee from Vietnam uh running away from persecution and the shoulders I stand on from the late Margaret Proctor, who was the first black woman council member in city of Renton who was appointed um as well as uh former uh Councilmember Greg Taylor who've pushed the uh Juneteenth uh flag raising a decade ago. Um of that, of course, I also want to recognize Mr. Larry Gossett who has tremendously uh mentored a lot of us young folks in the King County area. Just a little bit reflection on what it means for a child refugee and how liberation is interconnected. Um And and so I also wanted to speak to and um I'm asked the council which I would do a motion. I move that the matter of arresting ICE illegal committing illegal activities to the administration. Second. >> Okay. Can I Can you reread the the motion again? >> Yeah. I move that the matter I move to refer the matter of uh I move the council I move to move to refer the matter of arresting ICE while they are committing illegal activities in our jurisdiction. >> Okay. So, it's moved and seconded >> [clears throat] >> that we're going to arrest ICE the matter to the administration. Any discussion? >> I think Mr. Mayor >> I would I have some questions in regards to this. I'm happy to second the motion because I think anyone who's engaging in illegal activity should face legal consequences. Accountability is not just for the poor and the impoverished. And I do want to explore I believe if they are committing illegal acts and this is my assumption why I'm I'm seconding them is like if they were wearing masks and it's illegal in the state of Washington to wear a mask as an ICE agent while you're committing like civil immigration enforcement, can we refer those matters to charges? It's kind of what I'm interpreting from Councilmember Vance's motion. And I think I think that's something that's worth our attorney looking at. I would explore just because if it's illegal for them to wear a mask and they're doing that and they're arresting people in our area. I'm very, very concerned with how this administration, the presidential administration, and this the federal agency they're acting toward our immigrant community. And so, I think it's something at least worth exploring. I understand the federal government has all the power in the world, >> [laughter] >> but we can at least try to make it difficult for them. Yeah. Mayor? >> Yes, Councilmember Renz. >> Yeah, the reason I I motion this and I think that all illegal activity any perpetrators committing a potential crime should be investigated, right? But, I think there is a issue here that we do have like Councilmember Renz mentioned a state law. And if someone is committing within the jurisdiction, what can we as city council and the city do? And so, I like the city to do research on that. And you know, I think there should not be um two standards of who's committing what crime. Um and I think in in terms of accountability and just being um transparent to to community. Mayor Samayoa? >> Yes, Councilmember >> I just want to clarify the motion because the motion say uh to arrest is investigating or arrest? Yeah, I think >> Arrest was the word that was used. >> Yeah, the arrest is what I was used. So, yes, I say that because you then do the investigation and I can do a friendly amendment to that as well. I think that our Renton PD must intervene when community members reach out and say, "Hey, there is an an issue here with men wearing masks." Right? It's not intervening where they're doing their duty, say if they are having they have an order from the judge to come to someone's house without wearing masks, right? So, if there is a report or a call in from community, we need to treat that seriously. Um and and that hasn't been done. >> Mr. Mayor. >> [clears throat] >> I will say that we're getting caught up in the word arrest and I understand that because it it may be better verbage and more acceptable and this is where I think one of our attorneys can maybe chime in to say refer charges. I don't know. I don't know the answer to this question, but that's kind of if there's concerns around that, maybe that's where we we fix it a little bit. It's just from my understanding. Um but again, that is to the motion maker and that is just my two cents. But again, our attorney can probably tell us better. >> Okay, so number one, you made a motion and you repeated it twice. So that's been on the record what that specific motion was. You seconded it and it's now at a spot to call for the vote, but if you want to amend that motion, then you need to have a motion to amend the motion and vote on that first and then go back to the original one because if it gets amended, then um you can vote on the second on the amendment but not the first one then. So that's the procedural aspect of where it goes and I'm not exactly sure how clear the original motion was if it clearly stated what you were asking and what your point was. So I suggest you you you've got a process that you need to follow. Now to amend it clearly, then council as a whole votes on it. If you want to amend and then if you don't want to amend, you still have the original motion on for the council and council needs to vote on that. >> Yeah. Mr. Mayor. Um I don't know before you vote on anything. I I think I would like to have the understanding uh and whether it's a matter of the communication of the Renton Police Department or whatever it is, have the understanding of what exactly is is done now. I mean, just because we have a couple people seeing this and that and the other, I don't know officially what the Renton Police Department is um is charged with doing at this current point in time to before you send it to administration to research and come back to tell them to arrest people. I'm not sure exactly. Once again, I just don't know. I don't know if it's about getting the the communication and having it very crystal clear to everyone on what to expect and when when there is ICE activity. Is it just because they're wearing a mask and and and executing their their duties or is it or is it when they are doing something that appears to be you know, uh illegal. So, that's my little murky area that I I I would I would just want to know before we basically go and research something that's already happening or just needs clarification because I don't know. I don't know who has the proper clarification on what it what is out there. I don't You know what I'm saying? That's That's my thought. I mean, as far as discussion goes. >> Okay. Well, we have a motion on the floor. So, if there's no more discussion Yes. >> Uh just one additional clarification to make sure I understood the motion correctly. This is not a directive to act. This is for information to come back to us. Is that correct? >> Okay. >> What's the direction direction for the administration? >> to the administration not sorry, not for police ticket. Yes. >> I believe it's to refer it to administration to research matter. That is how I'm kind of interpreting the motion. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> The verbage is to >> refer the matter of arresting ICE for committing crimes. >> Yeah. But yeah, with anything we have to pass an ordinance, right? Um I think to um compromise and hear my uh colleagues' comments and concerns, I think if even the word arrest, if it's uh um allergic to [clears throat] certain people, then we can go with broader to to bring charges upon ICE officers who are violating Renton law in the state of Washington. >> So, Mr. Mayor So, are you up offering right now a friendly amendment of your motion? Yes. >> Well, the yeah, let's not have friendly amendments, let's have amendments. So, would you like to >> But state it clearly for the records, so I move to the motion. >> I got you right now. I got you. She's doing it right now. I got you. >> Yes. That was just my discussion. I didn't really uh so I move to amend my original uh motion to um refer the matter of bringing uh pressing charges against ICE officers violating uh Renton's law and the state law uh to the city administration. >> Second. Second. >> Thank you. >> to amend the original motion to change the words from arresting ICE to pressing charges against ICE. Any discussion on that? Okay, so we're going to first vote on that amendment. There's no discussion, all in favor signify by saying hi. >> Hi. >> Nay? Motion carries. So, now this the the original motion is the matter of arresting ICE has been changed to pressing charges um to the administration. >> Madam Mayor with with the uh friendly amendment being um voted on and passed, then um I would withdraw the original motion. >> Now, we still we still have to vote on it. Do that. We have We Yeah. Yeah. >> We're voting on the amended motion. Yes. >> The motion of the amended >> The amended motion. >> Yeah. I mean >> That's correct. >> I I'm You got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, now we are voting on the amended motion. You guys are all clear on that, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Just voting on the amended motion. >> We No, we voted on the amendment. Now, we have voted on the amended motion, which is the final thing. Okay? >> So. >> The original motion. >> All in favor, signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, nay. Okay. Motion carries. >> Okay. >> All right. We're on to Councilmember Albertson. >> Uh no new business tonight. >> Uh Councilmember Rivera. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor. I am going to take a point of personal privilege to um thank the audience for coming in and speaking to us about not only LGBTQ protections, but immigrant and AOPR protections, and being mindful with our trees. I don't want to negate that as well. So, thank you so much. I do appreciate it. Um I think we need to review how the council how our process is to responding to emails that are sent to all seven of us is addressed and responded. And that is something that I heard tonight because some individuals are not getting responses. Some of them are to our junk or clutter, and that's why I have to check it weekly. And we need to review if it counts if an email comes to every single one of us, who is going to respond, right? Are we all going to respond? Is one of us going to respond? That's something that we need to figure out on our end. And so, I really appreciate that being highlighted tonight. I want to um share that on June 11th, the Equity Commission actually sent us a letter. Councilmembers, uh the most recent Equity uh Rent and Equity Commission, they discussed with Police Chief John Shelton the Deputy Chief Ryan Rutledge their concerns and questions regarding the pause on automatic license plate reader cameras operations in the city of Renton. Following this discussion, [clears throat] the commission unanimously approved a motion to advise you of their opinion. The Equity Commission supports the use of ALPR technology by the city of Renton and advises the council to consider lifting the pause on these operations put in place by the city motion on May 4th. The commission offers this advice this advisory in recognition of the council's recent action to pause and your ongoing deliberations regarding ALPR camera systems. We understand the importance of ensuring that any public safety technology aligns with community values, applicable laws, and the city's equity commitments. The commission encourages the council to consider this recommendation as part of its continued evaluation of ALPR related policy discussions. Please contact our staff liaison, Deputy CAO Kristy Rowland, with any questions you may have. Respectfully submitted by the commission chair, Camille Legrone, and the vice chair, Manami Imako Imake. And I'm really sorry that I just mispronounced that. I'm so so sorry. And I just wanted to share that information with you because that was not publicly shared. They We are also scheduling with the Renton Police Department to review the Flock cameras and to scheduling like to actually go in and look at how these are operating. I'm still working on getting my schedule because I have a very busy schedule. All of that to be said, my question here with the Equity Commission when I first got it is did they communicate with the community? Because they had a meeting with John Shelton, they had a meeting there, but they did not and from the headshakes, that is my concern. Now, your next question is going to be how is the Equity Commission chosen? They apply, they're appointed by the mayor, they're confirmed by the council. Okay? We're all responsible for the Equity Commission, okay? And that report. That is something that we will be taking into consideration. You deserve all of that information. I am sorry that it has not been clear. I know that we can do better. I know that this is a contentious issue that some people are just seeing the same people over and over again and that causes them to maybe discount or invalidate what is being said. I think anyone who comes here on evening, because not everyone can do that, is very, very valid. Your concerns are valid, everything is brought here is compiled. We have repeat people come here and we respect what they say every single time. I take notes, I pay attention, I do not care who you are, I care about your concerns and that you are bringing to us and they are very, very real. I want to again thank you for all of that because I know it takes time and I know it takes energy and I know it's a really exhausting time. Please keep it up and also know that we've done this in the past. You can ask for an extension on your public comment time. It's been granted in the past. So, just take note of that. Thank you. >> Council Member O'Halloran. >> Uh yes, Mr. Mayor. I have two new items. On Monday, June 22nd at 3:30 in the afternoon, the Finance Committee will be meeting in the Council Conference Room and via video conference. We have five items on the agenda. Port of Seattle Tourism Marketing Support Program Grant Award. Application authorization for the Washington State Wildlife and Recreation Program Local Parks Grant to support Northeast Renton Park development. Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow Grant Agreement and Limited Term Management Analyst Position. Vouchers and finally emerging issues in Finance. And Mr. Mayor? >> Yes, Council Member O'Halloran. >> I move to direct the administration to negotiate and return to Council a proposed agreement with the Renton School District providing one-time Ready Start program funding not to exceed $500,000 limited to the 2026-2027 school year to maintain the Ready Start programs at Hilltop, Heritage Elementary, and Talbot Hill Elementary schools and to include any necessary appropriation in the next available budget adjustment. >> Second. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yeah, I think we do. >> [snorts] [clears throat] >> But Ready K serves students who do not otherwise have access to high-quality learning opportunities. Without that access, many children enter kindergarten already behind their peers. Ready K is not daycare. Ready K is a full-day transitional kindergarten program that runs Monday through Friday and follows the district calendar. Ready K classrooms are in the elementary school buildings and have a certified teacher and a classified paraeducator. Student students are provided with instruction on all of the subject areas that typical elementary school students participate in. Data shows that students who have participated in Ready K program outperform other kindergarten students who do not participate in the program. These are reasons that I support this because we are investing in those children who are innocents in all of this process and who are the ones most deserving of getting a leg up in our educational system. Thank you. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Councilmember Rivera. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth. I really appreciate this motion. I do have a question. I I appreciate Could you say that a repeat of a one-time lump sum, right? And my only concern with that is what happens when it runs out. And the other alternative that I have brought up, and I was kind of met with some resistance on this one, but I would like to bring it to the council as well, just to consider right an alternative because I agree with this, we need to do it, but here's another alternative. The state of Washington passed HB 2442, which allows us to increase a point 01% sales tax, right? For children and families. We have done this for public safety. We've done it for our transportation benefit district. We've done this twice for again public safety and a transportation benefit district councilmatically. We can also technically, I think use these funds to help with this ready K and pre-K program and we would actually probably be able to provide more long-term funding over time, especially with what we know we can get from our sales tax. Spoiler alert, our transportation benefit district, we got about like 4.4 or 4.5 million in our sales tax, right? That's quite a bit of money that we get in from sales taxes. If you shop in your city, that money goes right back to the city and it's really valuable. And so I support this motion. I want to pass this motion, but I also want alternatively also also to consider if we can do more. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Councilor Arrington. >> So, uh yeah, so you'd be surprised my um my outlook on this probably won't be popular. Uh let me start by saying preschool, absolutely no doubt, very valuable. I still remember the preschool I went to in Columbus, Ohio. Uh yes, I knew more when I got to kindergarten. Uh it's not daycare. Um I would also but I would also say um that it is not in this instance uh it it is the school district's responsibility um and my fear it is this um and council member Rivera actually brought up another fear. First off, the one-time thing. They say it's just one time. Okay, so let's say they don't get the funding, which was taken by the state, taken away by the state. So, apparently it wasn't the state's priority. Um I think they started something. I think quite honestly, they probably used um maybe started this thing uh ARPA funds where they they to get in some place. They started something that they could not find the funds to continue to operate. That's That's problem number one. That potentially lands in our lap. We set the precedent. We Half a million dollars is not a small It's not a small amount. Um but yeah, what happens next year when they don't because they said, "Look, we'll we'll we'll find the money." I'm I'm not a big fan of the the hope is a strategy uh doctrine. So, what if they don't find the money? And then next year we're in the same instance and then now we say, "Well, kids aren't that important this year." So, that's the precedent we're setting by by saying, "Hey, let's do this one-time thing." That's the first concern. Second, Councilmember Rivera uh just brought up as far as the ongoing, I don't think the public in at large is going to appreciate uh an additional uh tax levied upon them no matter what the cause. There's tax There's There's tax that I know we passed some things. I I'm not a fan of that councilmanic councilmanically putting that into place. Um so, that leads me back to okay, well, we don't have you know, we could be putting ourselves in an instance where uh we're just in this position next time. Once you go to somebody and they give you money, what stops you from going to them again? And then secondly, what stops other taxing authorities like the fire department or the water department from coming to the city and saying, "Hey, we we need some money right now. We'll We'll get it back to you." Um to me that's problematic. Um the school district knew this was to some degree uh that this might be a possibility. And in my household when I um when something comes around where I don't have the funds, I find other places that I stop spending. And I don't know what the school district's done as far as I don't know some of their when when the city has to find my we we pause our capital projects. I don't know if the school district is doing that. I I I just don't know and to come and say, "Hey, listen, can you float us a loan for a little while?" I'm being facetious here, but in in in in in just practical terms, that's what's going on here. I don't know how well they're managing their budget. We all have budgets. And therefore that that causes some concern. I know also from conversations, this isn't necessarily thought of as a good idea by city staff. And why is that? Because we have we run our our finances very frugally. So, we actually have, you know, a funds in the general funds, but you take it out of the general funds. Understand this, it's got to come away it's got to come out of something else. And so, I don't know if that's parks and rec department. I don't know if that's the police department. I don't know if that's CED. But they're asked to run a tight ship as far as what they ask for. And so, when they do that, now I don't know how good a look it is to say, "Well, we're going to take this away. Now you got to be even tighter." You put you add up you connect all those dots and once again, this is going to be the minority opinion. I'm I I feel the vote's going to pass regardless, but I think it's worth commenting and saying and putting those things out there to make sure we're actually being practical about this logical about it and you know, just thoughtful in the way that we're spending the taxpayers' money. >> Mr. Mayor. >> All right, we have Councilwoman Price, then Councilwoman Councilwoman Rivera, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I do respect our partnership with the Renton School District. And I do respect and trust them that if they come to us asking us for emergency because this is an emergency to protect our children. Let's make this very clear. These are not the children of the Renton School District. These are the children of Renton and we are all responsible for them. All of us. So, when they did approach us and ask us that out of the three years schools of Renton, uh they were going to remove the Ready Start program, we we uh listened to them. And I do support investing $500,000 that will not defund the city of Renton, but will help the future of these children because the future is here. Um I also want to say that when we have these conversations and when it's about the taxpayers' money, I'm very conservative in that area. I'm very fiscally conservative because I know that this the hard-earned money of our uh community. But I always have believed that invest investing in our community is always going to be a good investment. And this is for the future of our children. Um I also want to clarify that this uh funding will not be taken from the health health hub program. That is another partnership that we have to do with the city that we're very proud uh to have it. So, once again, I do believe that this is trust. And I chose to trust the Renton School District that they are telling us that they are going to do everything that is in their power to bring this funding at that state level to be able to keep up with these programs or as you mentioned, look into their own finances to see what they can do to not uh keep coming to the city and ask for this money. So, in that trust is the reason why I support this motion. Thank you. >> All All Councilmember Bryant. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. When I first got involved in the city of Renton over 25 years ago, we had the five-legged stool where we had the school district, the technical college, the chamber, the city, and the technical the school and the hospital. And we all worked together, and we all supported each other. We're in a situation now where one of the legs on that stool needs our help. As my colleague said, there are children. And we're when we're always talking about wanting to make sure that we make investments upstream to ensure that kids get what they need, this is an investment upstream that we can see tangibly right away. When my daughter was in elementary school, I remember dropping her off and seeing all the Ready K kids that they were getting ready to walk into the schoolhouse, and how excited they were, and how cute they were. And I remember thinking to myself, what an investment the district was making to ensure that these kids are ready and so that hopefully 10, 15, 20 years from now, they aren't committing crimes, that they are graduating from high school, that they are able to get a job, that they are able to take advantage of the Renton promise, and get into Renton Technical College to continue their education, so they can make a living wage job, and have a and raise a family. This to me is one of our partners asking for our help one time. And as I've talked when I've talked to the district, I've said, "I will support this if it is a one-time thing because I know that you guys are committed to finding the funds to continue the program." Legislature just ended back in April. I found out that this wasn't going to happen, so it's an emergency. And I want to help my neighbor when there's an emergency for the betterment of our kids. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Councilmember Brennan. >> Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly with what has been said. I We know we pay a lot in taxes for our school districts. I don't have kids. I don't know if I'm ever going to have kids. But all the kids in Renton are our responsibility. Every single one of them, right? That is just plain and simple. And Councilmember Prince-Ridley just took the words right out of my mouth. When it comes to preventive care upstream services, like this is something we've seen real results come out of, right? My And this is where we do disagree. Shocking, I know, right? But I do would love us to see like more long-term care with our school with our school district and our kids. And I know that's not what it's up, and I I'm pretty sure this motion's going to pass, but please take note that when it was a 0.1 sales percent 0.01 increase percentage for sales taxes for public safety, that passed was no problem. No problem, no discussion. Okay, that passed pretty easily. Same thing for the transportation benefit district. When this comes to us for children and families, I hope you are all paying attention, right? Because I hope that we make sure that we're for also providing long-term funding, because I don't entirely, shocking to pay everyone, trust the state to properly fund education. #McCleary, okay? So, all of that to be said, I hope that we can consider this one-time lump sum, and I hope we can also consider consistent long-term funding to support our children and families. Thank you. >> Mr. Mayor. I'll just say one last thing. >> Okay, Councilmember Iverson, then Councilmember Brennan. >> So, look, like I said, I can appreciate, and this is not to be cold toward the children or anything like love preschool. I'm It It It There's no doubt about the benefit. To classify it as an emergency, I think is a stretch. Uh to to link somebody going to preschool to them being able to take advantage of the Rent Promise when this program has been in existence for two, three, four years is a stretch. And so to put it in the context like, you know, the sky is falling, this is an emergency, I think is not the not the right thing to do or not the most appropriate thing to do. I can't argue with the help your neighbor. That that that makes sense. Totally get that. Um but I want to put one other fact in in in in the play that everybody should consider when we talk about this. When they say, "Hey, I have faith the school district will find a way with the state." Well, recently the governor said, "Hey, listen, we're going to cut some more funding and we're not raising taxes." I would like to know where they're going to find this when they're talking about cutting more more more more funding. I don't know how it's going to work. All I'm saying is if we're being fiscally responsible about it, I would at least I don't know if there's a deadline here, but I would at least say, "Well, if you can find resources in the future, what is stopping you from finding some resources now?" That's all I'm saying to put it in proper perspective. And and you know, once again, I think children who didn't go to preschool three or four years ago, I think they're probably still doing depending on there's a whole lot of other factors into play. Uh doing well in elementary, middle school, high school. So many things come into the teachers and the parents and that sort of thing. So to lynch or to to lynch to link their whole or the linchpin of their future being this preschool pre-K program, I think is a bit hyperbolous if you you will say, but you know, once again, I just in being fiscally responsible, I think that um, it's just something we're going to we should we should be careful about. That's all. >> Yes, that's right. >> You guys hear me? Okay, thank you, Mayor. Um, I this is a tough decision and I thought about it since talking to Dr. um, uh, McIrvin at our meet and greet and I just think that not think, the fact is somehow sometimes when we talk about children, of course a kid is a kid, it's everyone's kid. I have two kiddos. I have scouts, I have all sorts of um, program that I'm involved with kids with learning differences and a child who actually didn't learn to speak fluent English until she was in fourth grade and thank goodness for those bilingual programs. But when we talk about equity and we talk about systems, why is it so easy that we're able to like let's do this direct right away versus let's do some research. I love as someone as an attorney, I like to do a little bit more data. Um, why did we come with the 500,000? Who are the other partners coming about? I know the written promise we started as a pilot with 250 or 200, I can't remember. Um, and so I have a lot of questions. Obviously, I love the values and I think to compromise with colleagues, um, I would love to I would like to know more information how the 500,000 came to be. Could we be okay with 200? Um, and we are a jurisdiction that govern with public safety in mind with every single other pothole issue in the city and undocumented children and American children getting disappeared. And so it's a hard decision. Um, I want to be able to give money out, but there's certain times when we're talking about certain um, equitable issues, it's not top of mind. When we're talking about certain communities, right? Uh, ethnic, racial, getting a bench. Um, I I just I I want to know more. so if the maker of the motion can elaborate why the 500,000 um and understand what other partners are being um a part of this project. >> Uh, Mr. Mayor. No, it's going to be >> Okay. >> Um, I can answer I can answer some of those questions. Uh, they asked for was for one and I don't have the data in front of me. Unfortunately, I didn't bring that that that piece of paper, but I can forward it to you when it's needed. Um They asked was for 1 million 1 million 300,000 dollars for for five schools to be able to open ready K in five schools. After talking to them, um the school Renton School District came with uh, the two schools that are actually in Renton. There are three schools in Renton, but there are two of them that are the ones that are in most need or serve the the the children that that uh, from communities that are in in in the most need. Um, each each of school to open the program requires 250,000 dollars and and the information is very well described how this money is used and uh, Council Member Halloran kind of um in her explanation said about how many paraeducators and teachers are in each classroom. That's the reason why we negotiated 500,000 dollars instead of the one 1 million 300,000 dollars. Um, the uh, Renton School District is working uh, currently with the Issaquah um City of Issaquah to find 250,000 dollars to be able to open the school that is in Issaquah that actually serves uh, schools from Renton, but they are located in Issaquah and they are in conversations with um a King County Council Members to open one of the schools that is on um Skyway unincorporated King County. So, um there is cuz been a lot of information back and forward. Obviously, this information cannot be disseminated among all the council members when this is a uh motion and action that going to be taken on the floor, but more than happy to send you the information that Renton School District has been providing to all of us. Um and this is the only information that I can provide this time on on on on on less council member Halloran has uh more data than they had. >> Uh you you covered it perfectly. Okay, thank you. >> All right, any more discussion before I call the vote? Mr. Mayor. >> Yes, Councilmember McGovern. >> Yes, uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to chime in also on the value of partnerships and just throw in my support for that as well. I think there's plenty of examples where we have partnered uh particularly with youth. Um Bezos Academy comes to mind as a pretty good example where we have an investment, Meadow Crest, uh Family First Community Center. Obviously, Renton Promise was was mentioned. Like we've taken care of our youth. I mean, even our own recreation programs is under great supplement the district as they've made cuts there um over time. Um so, I think we do program for our youth, and I think this is another area we can invest. I do firmly believe that the district was able to uh raise this money, they would have. In fact, from what I understand, their minimizing of their cuts was to down to five was the best they could do. It's not as as you all know, you can't just shuffle money around. Like it's not as easy to say, "Oh, let's just take this bond money over here for this capital project and shuffle it over there." It does not work that way, unfortunately. Uh it is fixed Those are fixed dollars, nor can they raise uh additional levy dollars because the state limited their levy capacity to a certain authority of what they can self-raise. And so, unless the state changes the definition uh of basic basic education and they formulaically get funded more, or they carve this out and say, "You can raise levy money just for that." And they could do it. They cannot do it on their own. And so, uh while I don't necessarily trust the legislature will get it done, uh that is the best opportunity, I think, right now um in order to move forward to keep this alive because I think that's better than the alternative if the worst case scenario is one more year of this program continues to exist for these schools and we've made the difference in those kids' lives. I think that is a wise and good investment that will pay dividends down the line. My hope is the state can figure out a way to do that or to give the district this authority or or we can revisit the conversation later. I'm not a big fan of it right now, but it but Councilmember Rivera had an idea if we wanted to go to this on an ongoing basis. I don't I'm not in for the ongoing at right now, but I think one time makes sense. All right. There's no other discussion. I'm going to call for the vote. >> Come. Sorry, Mayor. Sorry. I think just for process cuz I'm not sure when conflict of interest arise and I apologize to put you on the spot, Councilmember McGarvey, but the last time when there was petition requested by the school district, you removed yourself. So, I just wanted to ask, will you be removing yourself from this vote? >> I I do not have a financial interest or outcome or stake in this. It has been reviewed since that and deemed that there is no conflict directly. It was really more for the perception of conflict that we removed myself from those proceedings because it had been expressed by members of the community, but there exists no actual conflict as as has been assessed by legal. Thank you. All in favor signify by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Those nay? Okay. Eyes have it and we are moving on to Councilmember McGarvey. >> Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would like to announce that on June 22nd at 2:30 in the Council conference room and via video conference, the Community Services Committee will meet. There are two items on the agenda. First is an update on Henry Moses Aquatic Center and then we will have emerging issues in Community Services and that's all, Mr. Mayor. >> All right. Councilmember Prince. >> Thank you, Mr. Miss. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um the um June 22nd at 4:15 p.m. the Planning Development Committee will be meeting in the Council Conference Room and by video conference. We have four items on the agenda. Arts and Culture Master Plan update. Continued pulling of substitute house bill 1406 sales tax credit funds with South King Housing and Homelessness Partners. Docket 21 and other work program items and emerging issues in CED. That's all, Mr. Mayor. >> All right, thank you. As always, appreciate the community showing up and letting us know what's going on. What is the wish of the Council? >> Move we adjourn. >> Moved and seconded to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. We're adjourned.

Okay. Good evening. I call this meeting to order. This is the Committee of the Whole and today we have two items in the agenda. The first one is urban forestry update. Welcome MJ. >> Thank you. Thank you, Council Chairman. Um, thank you for giving us an opportunity to give you an update on the urban forestry program. So, just provide an update in terms of the position. The manager position was vacant. Uh, it has now been filled and we will have a new member joining the city starting tomorrow. We'll be bringing that new individual to the next Community Services Committee and bring him around. I think the big thing that you'll notice, uh, we will be reviewing and going over the program, but we are looking to modernize and update the program so it continues to have an emphasis on customer service and environmental education along with compliance. With that, I'll hand this over to John Rub. >> Hey, good evening, everyone. I know there's some extra sound here. So, if you need me to speak up, please, uh, just let me know. Uh, I just wanted to start kind of with where where we've been. I brought a few props today. Uh, this is our 2022 to 2032 urban forestry management plan and everything we've been doing, uh, up through last several years is really based on this this update in this document. What I wanted to talk a little bit about is kind of where we've been up through today. Um, this document here that I said the 2022 urban forestry management plan, it was based on a canopy assessment survey that was done in 2018. And that 2018 survey was based on imagery, lidar imagery that was taken of our canopy in 2017. Something they do about every 6 years. The next imagery update happened in 2023 and so I'll get to that, but this is based off of that that tree canopy assessment and what we showed at that time is we had around 29% canopy coverage across the city. And the goal was to increase that up towards 32%. What we had done in 2025 was we had an updated tree canopy assessment survey completed. And as I mentioned, this was based on 2023 data. So in that 6 years from one imagery set to the next, 2017 to 2023, we saw an uptick of about 2 and 1/2% of our canopy coverage. We're very excited and proud to announce that. So today we're seeing approximately about 31% canopy coverage across the city. Uh when you look at the city as a whole, that equates to almost 4,800 acres of tree canopy coverage we have across the entire city. And one interesting thing to note that they did in this assessment is they identified where can we still plant more trees? In terms of where do we have buildings, roads, etc. And there's about 17% of available land that we still have available for tree planting. So we have a lot more space to go to be able to continue to promote, advocate, and grow our urban forestry and our tree canopy. Another thing I really want to be touch on really proud to talk through is our customer service that we've had through responding to rent response and our customer service there. In 2025, we addressed a total of 165 tickets and all of those were closed out and addressed through our urban forestry and natural resource program. In 2026 to date, we've received approximately 70 tickets, approximately meaning when this data was uh, developed last week. And of those today we have 62 closed. Uh, the remaining ones we were just working through a few things to continue to close those out. But we're on track to have less tickets, uh, this year than we had last year. So, continue to improve our numbers and and uh, address those customer service items. As we look forward, >> I'm sorry. Can you describe the nature of the tickets that you received? >> Well, many of the tickets are of, uh, I'll speak loosely to it. I don't have much details specifically, but I'm aware of some general varieties. And a lot of it has to do with concerns about trees, uh, branches that look like they might be coming down from city trees onto private property. Things of that nature are probably the largest bulk of the types of tickets that we receive. And or down trees from from events. Thank you. So, as we look forward through today, uh, I just want to recall and and remind you that this is our guiding light is the urban forestry management plan. And as we have our our new urban forestry natural resource manager starting tomorrow, actually one of the things that they want to do first is benchmark where we are today. We're almost halfway through that 10-year period. We're 4 years in. One of the things they want to do is benchmark. Make sure we're on track. See how we're doing against the goals that were set forward in 2022. So, that's going to be one of the first things on their target. We're also, as we look forward, we're looking at focusing on our can canopy expansion and preservation. And I think that as you see where we were from the assessment previously in 2018 to now with an uptick of more than 2%, we're well on our way, uh, to meeting the goals that we had outlined in the urban forestry management plan. So, we're going to continue to do the things that we've been doing thus far to manage our urban forest. Also coming up, uh, as part of that, we want to support developer design. And what I mean by that is we want to work closely with developers developing projects to ensure that we can try to keep as much of the trees as we can on developed parcels. Find solutions and alternatives to try to keep as many of the developed and um, I can't lost the term I was thinking of but many of the the trees that are are at Apologies, I lost the word I was looking for. Adult trees. I'll go with that one. Any of adult trees try to keep them as much as we can. We're also have two projects every year, spring and fall projects where we go through and we prune city trees. And that's really important to promoting strong health of our trees throughout the city is by having a strong pruning program. Many of these trees do fall in our right-of-way areas and so the two projects we have in the spring and the fall they go through address the the right-of-way trees. Another element that we're doing looking forward is we're looking at some contractual adjustments. Up through this year, last year and in the several last years we've had multiple contracts that we've utilized to address some of our tree pruning, emergency services, etc. But one of the contracts that we're looking to bring in house in the coming years is our watering contract. And we want to make sure that we bring that watering contract in house mostly focus on quality control because the early years of tree new trees that get planted are the most critical to ensuring long-term success and viability of the tree canopy that we have. >> We have heard council that there's been times where trees have been planted and then they're young and then they quickly die. So the idea is where can we control this better by having staff dedicated and having our ability to water and maintain as well as quality control. So being more selective in terms of what contracts belong external and which ones should be brought in and that's one of those that will be proposing to bring in house. >> Okay, one of the other things we're going to continue to do is push for partnerships. See where we can continue to complement our existing volunteer programs to broaden our reach to work through selective non-invasive or invasive species removal throughout many of our natural areas throughout the city. Talk a little bit about some of the awards and the certifications that the city has received and it continues to receive over the years. In 2025, Renton was one of two cities to be awarded Tree City of the World. Um that was a very special recognition to receive being one of two cities in the entire state. Additionally, we're running on year 18 of a Tree City USA. Very proud about the work that our program has been doing. We're a model at both regional and state levels that they look to us to see what we're doing to continue that 18 years. We also received the Growth Award from the Arbor Day Foundation for the 14th year in a row. And that award really focuses on our dedication to tree stewardship and preservation. And again, I think that's symbolic of the growth that we've had in our tree canopy since the last assessment we did. And lastly, we also are continue to be an Evergreen Community. That award came I think last in 2024. And last thing I shortly want to touch on is collaborations that we're doing. Our Urban Forestry Natural Resource Program has had a strong collaboration with our Park Maintenance Group. And I think it's going to continue to grow even stronger as we go forward as we continue to work better together, find new ways to find synergies, to utilize the resources that we have available within our department to achieve broader goals between the two departments, especially with Urban Forestry. And also our volunteer program run by Teresa Nishi. One of the biggest programs that she runs related to Urban Forestry is our Arbor Day. And every year we see more than 50 or approximately 50 volunteers turn out and planting 20 trees. And I don't have the number to see how many years we go back to see how many volunteers and how many trees planted, but it's a lot. And that's a program that we're actually looking to continue to grow and to broaden as we move forward because of the success we've had. And also the Green Cities Partnership. The Green Cities Partnership really is a volunteer program where we can work to develop stewards to go out and continue to help volunteer within our urban forest natural areas. And it's really focused on the urban forest and natural areas. And this would be a partnership that would complement our existing volunteer program to really stretch the ability to continue to promote and grow our urban forest and natural resources within our open spaces. With that, we certainly invite any questions that council may have. >> Thank you, John. Thank you, MJ. So, during Arbor Day, I um I saw that the city of Redmond has decided that instead of planting the trees in April, May, I don't remember if it's April, May. Um uh that they were going to change that to have uh better success planting the trees in this area in October. And specifically because that we don't have to pay so much overtime to worry about watering and trimming and all of that. Um and during uh Arbor Day, what they do is they get their volunteers together to celebrate the day um taking care of weeds, garbage, and all those other things that bring very clean environment, contribute for our Earth Day. Uh but they have a second day of celebration, which is in October. And that's the day when they plant these trees. I brought this idea to Gabriela because Gabriela was there there, and Gabriela thought it makes a lot of sense because indeed it will have better success. But MJ, you comment that any changes in the city will be hard to to do. I going to suggest to consider this because um once again, this is not just about beautifying our city and bringing life to the city, but it's also about saving saving resources. And if we have so much need of trees, I prefer to put all that money on bringing more uh than expended on trees that maybe going to die because we have to keep watering during the summer, and it's harder for these trees to survive. That will be just my two cents on Arbor Day. Um Gabriel is not here anymore, uh but uh but I hope that the new um the new uh person will will bring also his own ideas. Is he Is it a he? He Yes, correct. Uh will bring his own ideas, and I'm looking forward to hear what he thinks about this idea to have a better success rate with the trees that we plant. Councilmember Albers. >> First off, when did Gabriela leave? Just recently? >> Yesterday was her last day. >> Oh, jeez. >> Or something like that. >> I'm always the last to know. Okay. Um I like Gabriel. Uh separate question though. Um you know, the um 17% potential planning area with the you know, and and uh seeking to um grow the canopy and that sort of thing. How do How do you marry that with uh the you know, the growth I mean, the the the increase for housing and and you know, even if we're talking about density is not all just flat out on places that you know, you can't put trees. How do you How do you marry the idea that hey, we need more housing, we need more building, but also it needs the space for trees. I mean, how does that How do you take that into consideration when you talk about that 17% potential planning area? Is that in the perpetu- not in the perpetuity, but I mean, you're saying hey, there's no way we've identified places that you couldn't build on here if you wanted to. Help me understand that that number and that sort of thing. >> I I I can chime in a little bit. I'd certainly defer to a subject matter expert when he starts tomorrow on some of that, but what I can say is some of the things actually that we we heard during the interview process, and that's really find trying to find a the balance of development and urban urban canopy. And um our our goal is going to be to to work closely to to try to find that right balance. Uh you know, there's there's ways to look at redeveloping existing parcels that are no longer suitable in their current format for perhaps more dense housing. And of course, that's something that some of our partners and other departments here at the city will be engaged with. But I ultimately the short of it is it's trying to find to find the balance and and and understanding that the goals we set need to be achievable, and they need to be balanced with goals for the rest of the city as well. So, I do believe that within that 17% planting area, uh there there really is a balance to be found between development and and trying to continue to to grow the urban canopy. Much of urban canopy growth actually comes from established trees, and that's the term I was looking for earlier. Uh and so, it's not so much from the new trees that get planted. So, that the goal really is during you know, with development is to try to preserve well-established trees because they do make up a significant portion >> Mhm. >> of the [clears throat] of the urban forest. >> Mhm. >> And then I'll add to that, Council Member. There's also heat index where you can see where there's high concentration where we should prioritize either the preservation of mature trees or intentional planting knowing that those will have future benefit, maybe not immediate relief. Um there's a whole strategy in there. So, it's certainly not to um discourage development, but it's just helping them encourage what we can preserve and then really investing in those neighborhoods or communities that have high heat index, especially on a day like today when you have so much hardscape. Um it's really hard to get away from it. >> Councilmember Um first, Councilmember McKerrowan, then Councilmember Rivera. >> Thank you Thank you. Um first of all, uh I had a very similar question to Councilmember Alverson about the 17%. Uh but I definitely want to commend the increase to 31%. That's really outstanding in a time when I think most jurisdictions are going the other direction and at further reasons described with development. So, that's very encouraging. Um I guess I wanted to know 17%. Does that include private property or is that That's just citywide everywhere cuz I think that kind of is that same question then and if so, how are we working with private property owners? Not necessarily this redevelopment, but existing private existing owners to you know, obviously not illegally remove trees and to encourage more planning for exactly the reasons you said that shading provides cooling benefits for for property owners. Maybe less solar benefits if they have solar on the roof, but >> I'll I'll I'll save um and thank you to Gabriella while she was here. She was a huge advocate and proponent of education. She was taking us in a new direction on doing more and that's something we need to build upon and appreciate her efforts in terms of getting us there. Um we had not had as much um because we historically and we still do work with code enforcement, but we really want to do a more concerted effort on encouraging residents, but residents also want to know when they can address trees when it is damaging their foundation, when it's damaging their driveway or it's a trip hazard. So, it's uh working with our partners in CED and code enforcement to strike that balance uh in terms of not prioritizing trees essentially over livability cuz that's extremely important to our residents. I think continuing to be a source of information and responsive and again that I think the thread in human urban forestry has always been providing that. Um I would just say more education. And in terms of the uh question, we understood it to be citywide. We also understood when we were verifying with the state when Ian Gray was here that the increase is really having to do with the temperature change. It wasn't necessarily just our planting. It was as it gets warmer in the Pacific Northwest, It actually beneficial currently to these trees until it we get maybe further ahead and it's too warm, but at the moment um our mature trees are enjoying the warm weather. >> Councilmember Rivera. Thank you. When it comes to how we maintain our trees and kind of this kind of extends off Councilmember Houersons and Councilmember Curbans questions. I'm particularly thinking about like future drive in the construction I've seen around the new sewer access road and everything like that. When there is certain utility or other types of construction happening in the city, is it the process to go through our arborist to kind of consult on like minimal damage, are these okay trees to take down? Like is that kind of standard practice? >> Through the environmental review review committee, there's different processes in which things do navigate the different departments. So we do all work together in terms of providing that input and coordination. >> Thank you so much. I do have a follow-up, but I will follow uh Bill's rules of order. I think that's what we're doing today. >> Thank you. Uh MJ I I wondered about the inter- the interdepartmental collaboration. Uh for example, Legacy Square and the new Piazza Park. How much our urbanists were consulting and what kind of plans, how kind of what kind of trees are should be planted there? Because at the end of days your department, the Parks and Recreation Department that is going to have to maintain all of that alive. >> Yeah. >> And um and when I was asking uh some members of your department about, you know, details, they really didn't know. And I was wondering how much input the urbanists or whoever was in that at that moment maybe was consulted of the kind of trees or or all the landscaping that is going to be adding, especially because it's going to be very substantial on the Piazza Park. >> So, Ian Gray was here at the time. This was well over a year ago, and so he was involved. I think a lot of times his advocacy is about preserving, especially mature trees, that'll always be. And then he does weigh in on tree planting. So, there was the process in which we were consulted and participated. I think it depends sometimes on the lead, on the budget, on the time and priorities. I think those are taken into consideration. Uh from a maintenance standpoint, yes, the team is responsible in terms of contracting and or directly maintaining. There was a tree down today that the park maintenance staff were responsive to. So, from what I know and understand, we did gather that. In terms of internally, we certainly could be a lot better. Uh we do sometimes segment into our own programs, and not everyone is aware of what projects our teammates are being consulted on. We could have better internal and interdepartmental within our divisions of our department of communicating better, so everyone has the same information. >> Thank you, Council President. Council member Rivera? >> Yes. >> Do you have a question? >> Thank you so much. Uh in that same vein, um I have some concerns around the I'm so glad you brought it up, the trees around Legacy Square, cuz I think what I'm hearing is were your the arborist recommendations followed for Legacy Square, and if not, what were the reasons given? >> I don't remember. That was a while ago. I mean, we were at towards the end of construction, so I don't know what those recommendations were, but I do remember Ian being on the walks and providing information and consulting. So, it's been a little bit since that we were in that phase of the project. I would have to look back and see what those were. >> I change my question then. Um how do we feel about the trees at Legacy Square? I have concerns around tree coverage and the trees that were chosen. I think that we preserved what we could by making it as open and accessible as possible. I think on a hot day it feels very noticeable. I'm assuming there's opportunity to add shade from an aesthetic standpoint as well as to provide that additional canopy. You don't really feel it until it's much much wanted and needed. It might feel beautiful come fall and winter when we're activating it differently, but I do think on a hot day they are missed. >> I appreciate that. Thank you so much. >> Mhm. Thank you. >> More questions? Comments? Concerns? Well, thank you very much. I'm very pro-tree person, so um if we had uh the revenue needed, I will be full funding this program every year because I think it's so important, but considering the needs of the city, I think we're doing a pretty good job, but I I will um keep encouraging to to keep improving because I think it's very important for the well-being of the city to maintain our green spaces healthy and thriving. >> Thank you, Council President. I think we're very much aligned in that that goal as well. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. And MJ, can you make sure that we the new person is introduced to the council? Thank you. Good day. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda is investment advisor introduction. And we have the finance team with us to present. >> Good evening, Council members. Uh my name is Kristen Trubela, the finance director, and this evening joining us is our the city's new investment advisor, PFM Asset Management, and they are going to introduce themselves, provide an overview of the services that they will provide the city, and answer any investment questions that you have tonight. So, I will turn it over to Luke and Ryan. >> Thanks, Christian. Good evening, council members. Great to be here. Nice to meet all of you. I'm Luke Schneider with PFM Asset Management. This is my colleague, Ryan Catcher. And we have about a 20-slide presentation to review with you today. We hope to make it interactive, so please ask any questions as they come up. We'll have time for questions at the end as well. We don't want you to hold them though if you don't if you don't want to. This is what we plan to cover, a brief biography an overview of our firm, which is called PFM Asset Management or PFMAM. We love our acronyms in finance, so we have to add an acronym to anything we can. What services we're going to provide and then finally the investment policy statement, which you all have had some time to review, so we're not going to cover that in detail. We'll We'll just cover some of the highlights. So, this is the the primary team that is leading the relationship management with the City of Renton. So, I am the head of the Western Region for PFM Asset Management Institutional Distribution. So, what that means is I've worked my entire career essentially with cities and counties, so about 18 years with different firms. I've been with PFM Asset Management for 11 now. And so, I oversee our states in the Western Region. Austin is based in Denver and is is not here with us today, but he will be an integral part of the team on an ongoing basis, and he has been up until this point. Austin is also a CFA charter holder similar to as I am. He's been with the firm for a little over 2 years, and he's been in the industry for 8 years in total. Ryan actually started his career at US Bank, who now owns PFM Asset Management as I'll as I'll get to in the following slides. He left the the bank for about a decade to do to work with governments and then recently rejoined the bank as of what a year and a half ago approximately a little over a year ago. And so we will be the main folks visiting with the city on an ongoing basis. We're we're backed by a strong team which I'll cover some of the details on. These are some of the main members of the team who are are more connected to our strategists and our portfolio managers who are looking at the markets every single day and actually doing the trades on the portfolio. So we have a centralized team for that based out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for compliance, safety, legal, regulatory type of reasons to keep that all all in one place. Chris Harris leads up our portfolio strategies team. Ridima Hinduja is one of the strategists on the city. She came out for the interviews and met with met with the team when we were in the RFP process and then John Zang will be the portfolio manager for for the city's portfolio once we start investing on the city's behalf. So an overview of PFM Asset Management. We've been in business for over 40 years. So we started out uh in the early 80s with a gentleman who was with the state of Pennsylvania finance department and ended up leaving and realized there was a need for a private registered investment advisor that's a fiduciary for public funds. And so with that same as Marty Margolis started PFM Asset Management. We actually launched the first local government investment pool in the country. So you of you may be aware that the city invests with the Washington local government investment pool. So, lots of public entities have created investment pools. We were the first to do that in the early '80s, and you know, there's a lot of numbers and details on this slide. I would just point out we have over 700 public sector clients. We've been doing it a very long time. We have a a very strong team, and we've built our entire business focused on public entities and the needs of public entities. This is our ownership structure. So, for most of that 40 years, we were a privately held partnership. I was a partner up until we were purchased by US Bank in 2021. And now, the way the way I describe the change is that we're the same exact firm with the same people and the same relationship managers, same processes with the backing of a large bank now. One of the reasons we made the decision to join US Bank is because some of the risks in the market such as cybersecurity, you know, insurance coverage, having the proper safety for our clients became administratively burdensome and and costly, frankly, to administer effectively. So, that's been a big change, and you know, again, backed by one of the largest banks in the country with still that, you know, local presence and the systems that we've developed over that long period of time focused on public sector clients. This is more details on the fixed income investment resources. So, Ryan and I sit on the the table of what's called our distribution team. We have, as I mentioned, folks that are based in Pennsylvania that are focused solely on fixed income investing. So, we have over 45 people that their full job day-to-day is looking at the markets, looking at our client portfolios, trading on those portfolios on an ongoing basis, looking for the best value they can find for our clients on an ongoing basis. That's made up of our portfolio management leaders, our credit research group. Our credit research group includes 10 individuals that are solely focused on credit research. What we mean there is when we're buying investments for our clients, we want to make sure that we're buying the safest investments and they're focused on that every single day looking at the balance sheet of the corporations or the entities that we're making purchases of on an ongoing basis. Because again, we're based on we're focused on public entities and the investment objectives of public entities as you all know since you just went through the investment policy statement and you know from your experience is safety, liquidity, and then return in that order. So, we're very focused on preservation of principle, making sure that we never lose a dollar for our clients, at the same time not losing sight of the investment earnings that's possible and trying to to maximize that. So, finding that balance over time. And so, we have different teams and groups that we've developed over that that 40-plus years because we found it efficient and and the best way to serve our clients, frankly. And you you see more details on those different types of investments and those different groups. So, our approach to you know, working with the city, I'll start to get into. This is at a high level. We have more details on each of these these bullets on the slide, but I'll say that the last thing we do is make a trade for our clients. We spend a lot of time working on strategy and ensuring that we have an understanding of your risk tolerance, of your return objectives, any unique considerations that there are on an ongoing basis. Uh it's our job as your fiduciary investment advisor to make sure that we're always acting in your best interests. And the only way we can do that is to have a thorough understanding of your risk tolerance, your return objectives, any unique, uh you know, type of investment strategies that that may impact you. So, with that the investment policy review, obviously, is the governing document for the investment program. It's a a very important part of the investment program, and I'm I'm happy that we've reached a point where we've updated that, uh and and and that's approved, which is a big step uh with with the city through a lot of strategy and analysis. Uh the cash flow analysis is an important piece of the framework of of how we invest and how we can add value for you all, uh because invest to the extent you can invest longer term, historically, that's produced a lot longer a lot higher return. So, if you can invest in a two-year or three-year, rather than investing in a three-month type of investment, historically, that's added a lot of return. We think that's likely to continue into the future. So, to the extent we can opt help you all optimize your cash flow to invest essentially as much as you can longer without ever getting close to any sort of liquidity issue where you need to sell to sell a security to uh pay a bill. Uh that's that's our goal. So, we have a cash flow analysis, which we'll cover uh in a little more detail uh in a in a following slide. And then, with that, the strategy development uh is looking at what is the proper benchmark, so you all can hold us accountable on an ongoing basis uh relative to the performance of the market. Uh what which sectors are you comfortable investing in initially and perhaps down the road, uh which which, you know, sectors are available to you as a as a Washington public entity. So, we're we stay very close with the Washington State Treasurer's Office and are privy to any updates there as well. And and again we strive for effective client communication and service that we pride ourselves on always being available to answer any questions that the city may have. So with that I'll pass it to Ryan. Cover a few slides. >> Thank you Luke and good evening members of the council. As Luke said my name is Ryan and we are both very delighted to be able to be here this evening. So we started very broad very high level about our organization who we are what we do a little bit of our background and we're going to get a little bit more specific as we talk about services that we do provide and how we interact with you in the city of Renton. So it is important to know as a part of that that our team is in fact an extension of your team. We don't replace anybody but we collaborate with the folks who are already here doing good work and we bring our skills and abilities and resources and add to what you have in place [clears throat] right now. On the slide in front of us highlights some of those processes and some of the keys to that partnership and I would like to just highlight a few of the words that are on the slide up there. The first one is that we are a fiduciary to you. This very important as an advisor. What that means is we have both a legal and an ethical obligation to always act in your interest. Okay, so that's who we are that's what we do and that's very very important and integral to us. It's not only part of our culture but it's a legal requirement to always act in the best interest of the city of Renton. Other thing that I want to talk about is on the slide is education and we'll give more examples of that in the next slide but that's also a very core part of our culture. We're not here to tell anyone what to do or to dictate transactions, but as partners to you, we want to educate, empower, and enable. And ultimately, the relationship is a non-discretionary relationship, meaning as we educate and as we provide information, ultimately it will be the City of Renton that dictates what transactions and trades will be made. Um Luke mentioned already some of the things that we provide an investment policy review. Developing your investment policy has been a very collaborative process. Luke will talk more about that shortly. Um On the slide here, where it speaks to our knowledge and resources we bring is another thing that Luke mentioned, and that is a 10-person team of full-time accredited analysts. As your portfolio grows and develops, corporate bonds will be introduced, will become a component of your portfolios. That represents opportunity for greater yield and return, and that's something that we keep very close watch to with a dedicated team doing everything in their power to mitigate your risks. I will move forward. I mentioned education before. Uh This slide here just shows some of the educational pieces that we provide. We do provide education in variety of formats and platforms for a variety of audiences, but the main message for you right now is that it is a priority for us not only to help you manage your assets, but to help inform you why we do what we do. What are we seeing? What are our analysts seeing? What are our economists seeing? What are our researchers seeing? And we present that to you in a variety of ways, beginning with a quarterly performance report and market update, but by extension as well, there are webinars that are to you and your team. There are in-person seminars right here in Seattle that we partner with PFM advisors in providing and some of these are available for CPE credit which are important for ongoing enrichment and licensing as well. Um Luke mentioned most of these already. Just for purposes of review, I just want to highlight that the process that we follow in working with your finance team is very deliberate. It's very deliberate not only in what we do but the order in which we do it. It begins with the review of your existing portfolios. We go over your program and your policy. Um based on that, we will identify investment objectives specific to each portfolio. Luke referenced a liquid portfolio, a core portfolio short and we'll talk about bond proceeds as well. So, you'll have a variety of different accounts. We want to establish a strategy specific to each account that will lead us to a cash flow analysis with which Luke already mentioned. Um we will talk about duration selection. So, even before we talk about what we are investing in, we want to talk about things like duration and maturities because that will determine some of the sectors and specific investments that we choose. And then ultimately all of this will be um a component of and compliant with your investment policy statement. Again, we'll talk about that further in just a moment. Um cash flow analysis. We talked about liquid, we talked about core. Luke explained very briefly that it's important to distinguish between a liquid portfolio and a core portfolio because a core portfolio presents opportunities for longer investments, which bring greater return. So, it's a very important part of the strategy to determine what is your liquidity requirement. This chart here, just at a very high level, gives an example of where we are. The light blue showing the liquid component, or I'm sorry, the core component of the portfolio, and the dark blue the liquid portion. Okay, as you can see, a very safe, conservative portfolio with very strong liquidity. That yellow dotted line represents a hypothetical of where we could be with core portfolio allocation. So, everything below that yellow dotted line represents opportunity for increased yield. Not to get into the specifics or details of that right now, but only to give you all an example of some analysis that we will do very early on to help you increase yields without compromising the higher priorities of safety and liquidity. Uh Luke, I'll hand it back to you in case there are any details you want to add specific to that. >> Thanks, Aaron. So, this slide gives a an overview of our history investing bond proceeds. You know, of course, issuing bonds is an important part of of most cities, and having an expertise in investing those bond proceeds can make a real difference when it comes down to adding earnings. So, we pride ourselves in in staying very close coordination with our clients on spending progress, getting involved before a bond's even issued to look at what the investment options are, making sure that the official statement is updated properly. We work with the the city's attorney, bond counsel, whoever it may be, to help come up with the optimal strategy to invest bond proceeds. It's one of our specialties because again, it's it's one of the components of that's important to public entities on an ongoing basis. So then finally getting to the investment policy review process and scope. Again, you all have just recently reviewed this in investment policy statement as I understand and so just to give you some more background on on what went into that. Apologies if this is a little bit repetitive since you since you already went through this. I'll cover it at a high level. Initially, we're looking at your investment policy to understand if it's up-to-date with industry best practices. There are lots of different options we have to look at. So one is RCW, the the current state code. Obviously, anything that's in state code needs to be reflected in the investment policy statement. A level down from that then goes to the Government Finance Officers Association best practices, the national association. We also have the WFOA and the and the WPTA here in Washington, the Washington Public Treasurers Association. The Washington Public Treasurers Association has a a sample investment policy statement and they have a review process that I actually sit on as one of the volunteer reviewers for investment policy statements across the state. So we have a lot of experience with with all those entities. We took all of that together combined with our greatest ideas from our research team and our strategists and come up with recommendations for your investment policy statement based on that. So that's that's what we reviewed in in tandem with with your team to come up with the new investment policy statement. It's not just to set it and forget it, right? Market market environments change, client risk and return preferences change on an ongoing basis. So we will be reviewing that investment policy statement annually, even if some years it's just to update the date and put a stamp on it that we all looked at it. Uh that's part of our process is to ensure that that investment policy statement is up to date. That investment policy statement is also coded into all of our systems. So, that's the part that you all don't see, but once we receive a signed uh version of the updated investment policy statement, we upload it to our trading systems so that not only are Ryan and I looking at your investments and to ensure that they're compliant and appropriate with the strategy, the portfolio manager is also looking at at those same components, and we have the systems that are coded to prevent us from making mistakes as a third backstop essentially to ensure that we're again not violating any of the requirements of your investment policy statement. So, we have a, you know, multi-layer system of checks and balances uh that that then that investment policy system investment policy statement is coded into all of those systems. So, some of the key updates, this is how we summarize at a high level, and again, I know you all went through the investment policy statement. Uh we we in terms of policy modernization expanded the scope, updated some of the municipal code, updated some of the titles throughout uh within the governance roles uh and and best practices really in terms of oversight. Uh the advisor and delegation, we needed to allow for uh hiring an a non-discretionary investment advisor. So, delegating some of the the items in the investment policy statement such as the competitive bidding process since we're going to be doing that on your behalf, adding a line in that says not only can the city do that, we an an investment advisor that the city hires can also do that. So, some administrative updates related to that. Uh the best practices in terms of compliance and transparency around employee disclosure requirements and and other regulatory uh protocols. And then some of the reporting and structure to to update the fact that we will we will meet with staff on a quarterly basis to review investment performance, cash flows, and and updated the the policy to reflect what statements and reports we provide on an ongoing basis. And then within the risk and portfolio guidelines, we consolidated the investment tables. We added more detail around what's a permissible investment. Previously, your policy said you can invest in anything that's allowable based on state code, which is great. However, we feel it's prudent to list what is what is included within that in a table with the specific requirements just for clarity in case any anyone from the public is looking at that investment policy statement. So, there's complete transparency throughout. We did update some of those constraints to align with Washington state statute. There have been updates. Most most the most major, I would say, update was in 2016. So, adding some of those those components to the policy and then adding a 3-year weighted average maturity limit as well. That's one of the the main risks within fixed income investing is interest rate risk. So, making sure that the the maximum 3-year weighted average maturity was included was an important part of that risk mitigation. So, that's a summary at a high level again of the investment policy statement. And I believe that concludes our prepared remarks. Of course, we we can't have an investment presentation without a long disclaimer. So, I'm not going to read it to you, though. So, happy to take any questions if there are any. >> Thank you very much for your presentation. Councilmember Alcala. >> Nope. No, I don't think so. Okay. I like Speaking >> Use Carmens or Ryans. Ryans is working. >> Thank you. Hi, Valerie O'Halloran, um, chair of the Finance Committee. And um, thank you very much. I'd like to start by asking in your review of our policy, were there any glaring or maybe not even glaring, but did you find any red flags? >> I would say We didn't find anything that was a glaring red flag. We we found some instances that were surprising in terms of uh, the language seemed quite dated. Uh, that was the but there was nothing that would be a a large red flag in terms of the risk to the portfolio or anything like that. And we have seen red flags for for other public entities, I would say. So, we didn't see any of those major red flags. >> Good answer. >> [laughter] >> Remember, um, Albertson. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so first off, I'll say that um, you know, I mentioned it Carrie and and Kristen and whoever else, you know, hey, fantastic move getting outside of advisors and all that kind of good stuff. Um, and I joke with Carrie about, man, it'd be so wonderful if we can just take some of them city spawns and Vestal video, Taiwan semi, all that kind of Okay, you know, we can't do that. Uh, but on the flip side of um, what Councilmember O'Halloran is saying and and looking at things and um, not so much red flags, but when you think about um, you know, today's market um, and I don't want to just get too much in the weeds. I know, you know, you're your performance managers, your quarterbacks and all that kind of good stuff. Um, I'm curious as to, you know, what opportunities in today's market do you see that it can maximize the return, the yield, whatever term you want to use there, uh, while still minimizing and taking um, uh, being very prudent about, you know, the risk to the to the taxpayer funds and stuff like that. I'm curious how you'd answer that. >> As Council member Albertson, thank you. That's a great question. I would I would categorize it in a a few major components. First and foremost, I would say increasing the weighted average maturity of your portfolio over the over the long run will really help. As you saw, there's a there's a large amount of liquidity currently. >> Yeah, I mean I can refer to that cuz one of you has some ideas cuz that's a pretty big what I see is a line of opportunity potentially, that's why I'm asking. >> That's right. I think that's the lowest hanging fruit and and, you know, city city staff waited on investing some knowing that they were going to hire an investment advisor to help with that, I know. So, that's some of the lower hanging fruit. It's been a It's been an interesting market over the last 5 years because we had an inverted yield curve where those short-term investments were actually earning more than long-term investments for a period of time. So, it was, you know, a difficult time to make those changes. However, over the long term, we're confident that investing longer term will earn more for the city. So, I would say that's number one is is having that weighted average maturity a little bit longer. Number two, I would say is adding some additional sectors outside of government securities. So, historically, the city has invested in Treasury and agency securities, which are very safe. So, agencies meaning Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, government agencies. Historically, they yield anywhere from 5 to 10 basis points more than Treasury. So, you're getting a little bit of additional earnings. In today's market, it's even less than that. It's a basis point or two. So, there's not as much value in agencies today. However, there are other sectors that you're allowed to invest in such as commercial paper or corporate bonds or supernationals as some examples or agency mortgage-backed securities which are also government-backed backed by those same credit quality of Fannie Mae Freddie Mac. So those are a few examples of different issuers that can offer an average of maybe a half a percent over the long term of additional earnings relative to treasuries. So if you think about what you're investing in today is it's generally the two there were some municipal bonds in there perhaps as well which are all all yield right around the same as treasuries. So investing in the commercial paper, investing in the corporate notes, looking at the supernationals, the agency mortgage-backed securities, those all can earn another half a percent more for the city. However, they are complex securities and they do require a focused team that's reviewing them on an ongoing basis. So we think it was prudent that the city didn't do that on their own because as Ryan pointed out we have 10 full-time analysts that that focus on that and that's what it takes really to to do it within the guidelines of safety first for public entities. So now we have that opportunity to gradually work our way toward that again based on the city's comfort level and risk tolerance on an ongoing basis. So I think you know what we're what we've talked about is you know putting a a toe in the water and and eventually get to more and more. So I say that's number two. Number one was invest longer term. Number two is invest in different sectors. Number three is active management. So what I mean by active management is looking at every security in the portfolio every single day. That's what our portfolio manager John Zang is really good at. He's looking at your corporate bond perhaps that you own in Apple and if there's an Intel corporate bond that's being issued, what is the additional yield that Intel could earn relative to Apple and what is our interpretation of the additional risk within that. Maybe there are times where all corporate bonds really perform well and those yield spreads come down a lot and in those circumstances we may move out of corporate bonds and into treasuries or another sector where we think there's value. So we're constantly making recommendations on how to shift the portfolio which can add another 10 to 20 basis points over the long term of return. So between those different components that's how I would summarize the into those three primary categories. >> Good answer. >> Thank you. >> No. >> I can I can still hear you though. >> So I'm curious about I mean I understand about the adding corporate debt as a vehicle. I'm really curious whether municipalities of our size really is there an appetite for repur repurchase agreements and supernaturals? >> So good question. Uh I would say as of late repurchase agreements can they can offer a little bit of additional value over something like the Washington local government investment pool. However, the Washington local government investment pool the state run pool includes repurchase agreements from time to time as well and for your liquidity portion which would be a smaller portion of your total portfolio, you know, maybe something like 50 60 million, it can be administratively troublesome for the city in terms of tracking settlement and that sort of thing on repos for the additional maybe five or 10 basis points. There's not a lot of additional yield for the administrative burden that it would take for the city relative to the fact that the the state local government investment pools always doing that. Now, 15 years ago repurchase agreements were a lot there was a lot more yield there for for you know that going through the process of setting up those repurchase agreements on an ongoing basis. So, it's something that we're always continuing to watch. Right now, we're generally recommending short-term commercial paper over repurchase agreements. However, that that environment may change. There have been times over the last three or four years where we did recommend more repurchase agreements. So, again it's it's something that we could look at and it's something that our team's always looking at and if they become very attractive then we'll we will certainly bring it to the city's attention. >> I'm sorry and the super supernaturals? >> Yes, the supernaturals we do think add value. So, the the supernaturals have very high credit quality. The the downside to supernaturals is that they're they are not very liquid. So, they have a liquidity premium when we go to sell them because there are not as many of them that are traded in the market. However, for the funds where we plan to buy and hold and be less active, that's where we would utilize supernaturals and some of the strategies we're looking at they would fit well within the the city's portfolio. So, you can earn another five to 20 basis points in in supernaturals on an ongoing basis. So, I think they would play a role. They're they're also more near the more narrow end in terms of historical spreads to where they have been. However, we like having a small portion at least in supernaturals almost all the time. So, we would probably right off the bat recommend 3 to 5% in supernaturals even if they're at five basis points of additional earnings over treasuries and we would plan it for the portion of the portfolio that we're not planning to sell. That way you don't get hit with that liquidity premium and that the wide spread when we go to buy and sell. >> Thank you. >> You bet. >> There are not any any questions. I would like to thank you and and this meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you.

feedback is implemented often times on the spot or in immediate action taken um after the commission. After the commission has put their fingerprint on it. So, just as a heads-up and later this year you we will have a couch to and a reception for the mayor's inclusion task force and the equity commissioners to discuss and show you their work over the last year or more and have a chance for you to meet all of them in at one time. Um so, that will be coming later this year. Um moving forward and using none of my notes. Um you will notice or you should have also received just one final comment on the administration. So, hopefully you've all had a chance maybe to flip through this a little bit. The annual report that Hannah Miller put together for us as a department. I just want to highlight that as far as the departments or the divisions that are within this department have to be on the leading edge the of all of their professionals that just or their professional disciplines. We invest a lot in training and we invest invest a lot and support a lot of certifications and growth professionally. So, that we are in sure that we're delivering at the the forefront of technology and practices and leading the way. So, that's something you'll probably notice if you take a look through that report. Now, communications and in engagement. I am going to pretend to be Laura Pettit, our communications director, who I asked to not come in today because she is not feeling well and I asked her to just get some rest. So, if I don't have if you have questions I don't have answers to we'll certainly come back with information, but I'll do my best to share her message that she had planned to share with you. I'm going to revert back to my notes here a little bit so I don't miss anything. Over the last 5 years we've really come a long way. I think you can if you compare now to 5 years ago and what we're doing in communications that capacity and the the amount of work coming through that shop is is tremendous. It took some time to get there to lay some foundational work to even understand what we had to begin with. We did some assessments in early years and just kind of looked at what do we need to improve, modernize, and what kind of messaging, how are we going to be doing that? That is something we've been working on. But then we put the communications division put together strategic plan and you heard about that I think in two 2023. So it was essentially define the framework. How are we going to tell the story, making sure it's timely, and of course the number one goal is to advance trust. When we say something we want people to know that it is the golden truth and they can trust everything we're saying and that is something we work very hard with subject matter experts and do our research to make sure that our voice is people are confident in in what we're saying and that represents all of your work and all of the work of the staff. We take that very very seriously. Um the priorities in place for staff to be doing that work are listed here and I won't read them through but those are just basically operationalizing that strategic plan. Um I'll shift into some examples here. So some of the work you ideally you've seen all of this. Nothing of this will be new to you except for one thing on the screen. We have now a very robust library of project pages on our website where people can actually engage and leave comments and ask questions, reach out to the project managers related to the each project that's underway and all of our departments utilize this tool now. It's very helpful and it's something that you can share if you get asked questions, what about this, that or the other, this is a resource for you to share really comprehensive bit of information to anyone who's asking. Um, you'll note you've probably seen improvement to our YouTube content, just the management of it, playlists and Sam in the back who will wave. Um, he is responsible for that, even including annotating your meetings so when people come and visit the YouTube, they can click right to the information they're looking for versus kind of scrolling through everything else. And we've gotten some really positive feedback about that. Uh, you'll note in the newsroom and that is our replacement of kind of the our weekly or monthly newsletter. Um, this is a shift that's serves multiple purposes. So this this is timely information and the quickest way to get things out. It's also paired with our social media, but we know and recognize not everyone is on social media. And so if they're looking for a bit of information, they're going to go to our website and that's about half of the people watch use social media and the other half uses website. Um, so by putting it in this format, it is not only searchable. So most things now, if you search um, will come up, but even through Google as your the city city as the resource will be your first search result. Um, and that is by design. That is why we've moved away from PDFs. So formally our newsletters were in PDF document form and they were in a library on our website, but if if didn't know the meeting date or you didn't know the the newsletter date, or whatnot, you couldn't necessarily find all the information you were looking for. So, having it in this format, again, it's searchable on our website and by Google, and you'll get all the information. So, the historical look back will start to be much, much more robust and helpful for people. Um in addition to uh we have accessibility changes to law in title six that will be adapting and working towards that deadline is now in April of next year. So, we're working on accessibility um traits [clears throat] and things that are tools that are on our website to make sure everyone has access um to that. And you've probably I just have a little blip down on the bottom corner there, the council, in case you missed it, that's been very popular, so people know what's going on, what the work this body is doing. Um that's shared both on the website and in our social media, so that people can stay abreast of what you're doing. Now, what you haven't heard about, and it'll probably be the first time you've heard, is not everybody is on any digital devices. There's some people who are not on the computer, are not on social media. So, we're working towards a quarterly magazine, a print magazine. We have a draft in hand. The name is pending, so I didn't want to suggest we discuss that today, because that'll who knows what kind of conversation that will result in. But, really, the idea here is we want to make sure you have something you can leave behind. If you're meeting with someone, you want to share the information about what the city's doing, that quarterly magazine is going to compile all the content. We've already done all the work. Staff has already put everything together. The authors are the subject matter experts. It's really just compiling what we have already put out, including a reflection back on the last quarter, and looking forward to what's coming. When we know And that will be something that someone can hold and flip through and flag. You can bring it with you where you go and you can leave it behind. We can have it in hotels, we can have it in um doctors' offices. All the places where people gather and they'll be seeing the good news of the city. So in including the council uh recaps. So it'll be very interesting to see how it goes. We'll see. Everything we do is an experiment, but I'm pretty positive this will be a people will receive this quite well. In addition to that, we've been um looking at how to be more accessible for those that are visually impaired. So we'll be looking at doing large print editions of some of our more regular um releases and this would be similar to that. So it's uh just a small thing we can do to make sure that people can actually see it. So large print edition in particular could go to the senior center. >> Council member Yes. >> Council member Parada >> Um with regard to the quarterly magazine, is that is that a mailer that's going to go out to all of our residences and businesses as well? >> We will have a limited mailing. So we're we're experimenting with what that looks like too. So it could be a distribution and if we have more demand, we will mail it, but that will be expensive. So we'll be looking at if it's maybe a it's available in certain places, high volume, you know, people where people gather um and we're going to have to see. So stay tuned cuz you may see budget requests if it's really popular. It certainly is something that um we know is it's a missing link just because digital isn't everything for everyone. So we'll see. >> Council member Parada >> May I have a follow-up? >> Yeah. Council member Parada and then Council member Rivera >> Thank you. Um So uh I guess my question is would it make sense maybe to just have a page in the written reporter every week? Cuz people love the written reporter. They pick it up, they hold it, they take it to coffee, and I'm just wondering if that's another >> We can, there's expense there, too. So, the cost-benefit of doing something that's more robust. And so, this will be substantial. There's going to be some volume to it. The cost could be similar. Mailing-wise, I think we might have more reach cuz we have access We have utility billing customers. We can send one to every utility billing. It could be that we send a postcard to say here's where to find it. So, we'll think We'll be working on all different angles trying to do it most efficiently, but first we want to see how it's received. So, it'll be a test run for the first one or two. >> Also, I'm not really sure. >> Thank you so much. I'm very interested in the quarterly magazine, as well. And I also think about like our our Rec Guide, which I believe is also quarterly. Would it be cost-effective? Because if we're thinking about having it in hotels and things like that, I think immediately Rec Guide. All the activities, all the things that are going on in the city. Is there an a combination or an idea or the idea to maybe combine them and do them in two in one, or are we going to keep them separate? >> We have discussed that. We've discussed that before. There's something of a different audience potentially because there's the users of our facilities that are really look to that to sign up for things where if we have it at it might get up stale. Um, we don't want stale ones out there necessarily. Also, cost-effective-wise, if it gets much bigger, the mailing would be better. And right now, we don't mail out the Let's Go Guide. That one is just at locations. So, there's It could be a combination. We've certainly talked about having some pages within each one, or maybe there's a a collaboration there, but it has been discussed. So, again, an experiment. >> Thank you. >> You bet. Any other questions? All right. Um just just so you you've probably have recognized that our amazing team has gotten more and more creative over time and done some pretty um fun and engaging uh videos. I think what I would like to highlight here, which they would might be a little embarrassed about, is this award. Um they did get nominated for a national award. This is actually very very cool. We were nominated across the country for our social media in an emergency. Now, of course, that was particularly related to our engineer Joe, which was something we had seeded before the emergency even happened. So, that's a use of put building that trusted voice and building um bringing people and engaging people in um in different ways. And so, Will and Sam and Sheila and Angel and Carrie and Ben and everyone in the whole communications, they all have wonderful ideas and they get to explore those. And I think um hopefully you've enjoyed them as well. But, we're super proud of that nomination. We were beat out by WSDOT, which is fabulous. And so, it'll be a good competition for next year um for them to to keep striving for um >> Madam Chair, >> Yes, Councilmember Rivera. >> If I can just say, WSDOT is some of the best social media marketing I've seen across all social media platforms. I I have friends from other states who will share WSDOT stuff with me because it's so hilarious. So, they're really good competitor to get beat out by, but just to become a finalist is something to be very proud of. And so, I just want to say that's really cool. And I've noticed the increase in the content because I'm maybe a little bit online. And I really do appreciate the effort. So, thank you. >> Yeah, we are very proud. Yes. Um and just a a note here, too. Everything we do, um, whether it's print or video or social media or what, we're always driving people back to the website cuz again, that's the library of all of our information. And so, we don't want to leave things hanging out there. Like, to find something, you don't want to have to search through your Facebook feed cuz I saw it at some point in 3 years ago and now I'm scrolling for hours trying to find something. So, everything points back to the website is kind of that repository of all information. And that's very intentional. >> Christy. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh, seeing uh, how much people look for information on the website, I'm going to emphasize again that we have to keep up with that page with a with a with our website. It's, um, I am the kind of person that I still Google a a lot, but I still go and I want to find the answer right away. So, for me, when I don't remember where they are, Arbor uh, days, in which park is going to be, and I just going to Google Arbor Day 2026, Renton, but this the page that is going to pop up is the 2025 uh, gets me very frustrated because then now I have to go inside and navigate and check and check. And it also happened to me when I did the same with the National Day Out. So, um, the website, I think, is one of those things that, especially now that we see that a lot of people like me, uh, go to the website for the second half of We need to make sure that we put a lot of effort to make sure that we keep maintain because always happen the same with what websites. We launched the first version of the website and looks shiny and great, and then, um, the upgrade will depend on the departments and how department do it, and then these old pages, I don't understand how we remove them and they are not there. So, I think, uh, for me, it's important to maintain and keep and make an extra effort of the website because maybe sometimes I think it's an after thought because I see that so many people are on social media and they do other other things and now with the you know uh you know just in chat GPT or things like that they get the answers right? But those numbers show me that it's a still a lot of people that go direct to the website so it should be one of our uh still one of our priorities. >> It is and I'll tell you we have citywide every department has a couple of people assigned to update their website and there's a monthly meeting for tips and tricks or they have any any challenges but it is a lot. It's a body of work to maintain and so we definitely um strive to do that. Sometimes there might be a broken link but I know as soon as we have a report of that we can fix most everything right away but searchability is absolutely why we've shifted to the certain platform we're on and we're doing the news articles in the way we're doing them so that it is ideally the first thing you pop up and I just wanted to test that out so um in Google like Renton uh content is first to pop up here on a Google search. But it's it's not perfect but it certainly is our goal and so we're working towards that and I can see that here. Um but yeah this the searchability it's improved greatly and we've heard that from our people who visit our website um but it does take maintenance. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I think seeing this too as far as the news articles on the website in addition to social media kind of reinforces that um with people who providing content they understand now the value of that so we're it's it's a habit that's forming. Uh let me get back to this. Not that one. Excuse me. There we go. So, moving on a bit, just a little bit more. Um the other thing that's dramatically increased over the last couple of years um with the the other reorganization of bringing in our communication or community engagement um coordinator into our department is a tremendous increase in engagement that we've been able to offer. We've got the talks on the block with the mayor, what's brewing with the Ed. The Civic Academy, of course, is a is a huge um huge draw. We also have the mini city halls, which you'll see just about at all of the engagement opportunities we can. And I'll say I was at it uh among along with other staff over on Saturday when we had the grand opening and people coming to the mini city hall asking questions uh tells me people are very interested in what we're doing and they're all very curious and appreciative of the work. And so, it's um and the questions are great. They're not They're not bubblegum questions. They're like, "What are you doing about this, that, or the other?" So, it's great to have that face-to-face opportunity at all of our events. We'll be at all of the Legacy Square River Days and other opportunities, but um additionally, the the Seahawks gave us a special uh opportunity to celebrate. Our receptions continue and the revamp of the state of the city has been really well received as far as having all of the tabling out front where people can ask questions of staff. It's just another opportunity for people to learn more about the work of the city than they might not otherwise see. So, we're really proud of that. Um and last, we have some uh communication um metrics and I'd only show these just to highlight some of the things we look at to see how effective things are. Um, there's many different metrics we look at. Um, even every individual post we want to see what was the reach, how far did it hit, what was the sentiment. Um, so we look individually but holistically you can see there's a dramatic increase in um, viewership and our followers and uh, but again, not everything's social media. And the volume of work that has increased over the last three or four years is just been enormous and the team should be just commended for all the work they're doing. I'm very proud of what they put out. Um, I think that is all I have for you. there I'm going to shift over to Young Yoon at my right here unless there other questions about community and we can circle back to questions. >> Any council members have any questions about this presentation, communications? >> No. >> You can go ahead, right? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh, thank you Council President and council members for allowing IT to present this evening. Uh, Young Yoon, IT Director. Uh, we first presented the strategic plan in 2023. Uh, the four These four goals uh, guided every initiative, investment, and process improvement uh, in IT. Uh, the rest of the presentation will show tangible progress and value delivered under each pillar. We established an IT review process. Uh, an example from the repeatable review process we were able to save over $700,000 on the Axon contract. Uh, we worked with HR, finance, and facilities to automate uh, tasks distributed to all the teams for efficient onboarding of new employees. Uh, we hold regular meetings with departments to discuss our technology needs, pain points, current projects, roadmaps, and priorities. We implemented change and problem management internally IT to enable predictable, transparent, and disruption-free technology operations. We also developed an AI policy, policy 100-25, effective June 16th, which was also presented to the Equity Commission. And we're also doing initial staff uh kind of overview training on the R911 on June 16th. We also perform regular operating system upgrades for applications. We have a strategy, kind of a roadmap application life cycle and review process for minimizing technical debt, reducing IT non-value added work, and improve long-term supportability of our applications portfolio. Another example is we moved platforms for mobile device management, which manages our like iPads and cell phones, which saved us $40,000 annually. A few ways IT secures our infrastructure is through awareness training, automated email protection, monitoring, auditing, automated patching, and vulnerability detection. And to support these, we also secured just over $247,000 in grant dollars. We also introduced an IT risk assessment matrix in the procurement process to vet new technologies for security and compliance. A few uh A few ways we optimize and modernize the technology environment is by upgrading the team's phone system. This photo You're probably wondering why this photo is up here, two guys cutting cake. >> [laughter] >> But uh this is uh Ian and Harji. This was a multi-year project that took a lot of careful configuration. Uh each department had their own kind of custom needs that we had to be developed. Uh and we also expanded and added new Wi-Fi coverage at several parks and recreation centers. We upgraded to uh 5G modems and patrol vehicles, which enables faster speeds. We also mapped our technology assets and their relationships. Uh this is the the uh configuration management database, the call it CMDB, uh which gives us uh improved asset visibility and supportability. Uh we recently evaluated our database environment to improve performance, integrity, and security. Uh with your support, we are able to create a data analyst position that has been able to work with several division uh several departments uh providing context and data capturing recommendations. IT ensures access to data is reliable. Uh and department subject matter experts let us know what they need access to. Uh we've created internal dashboards to make sense of the tremendous amount of data that the city has access to. Dashboard serving HR for employee retention purposes, parks work order trend analysis for budgeting. We're also working closely with the police crime analyst to make uh data more readily available for analysis. With uh going back to the uh CMDB, we we are now tracking uh over 350 different data sources between cloud and on-premise systems. Uh we continue to assist finance in completing phase one of their major financial system by the end of the year. Uh payroll phase two will be next after that. Our disaster recovery site is active. We will Our next phase is to have a geographically distant location for our DR site. Look forward to seeing a refreshed GIS hub and core map site on our public-facing website. And we also look forward to implementing recommendations from our evaluation of our database system to just enhance our database system. >> Thank you. Uh what does continue AI governance rollout mean? Means? >> So we've built kind of a team around the city to kind of discover use cases for using AI tools, mainly Copilot. Um and um Brett can probably speak to it better, but uh So it it it's just a a a team of city staff that will be just looking at use cases and what what How can we use it to be more efficient in city process? >> There's going to be a number of I mean there's just no end to what AI can contribute to the efficiency of and effectiveness of what we're doing in the city. Um every department has a unique um reason to either to use it in some manner and certain literally we've already been doing it. It's just getting a lot of attention now cuz it's growing so fast so quickly. Um but that governance is not only related to policy, but um use like Young said, use cases for if you're doing it one way here, can we repeat that in another place or um best case or excuse me, best practices of using AI. So there's just no end to is possible. One thing we have heard and and you I'm sure have heard people worry about losing their jobs because of AI and that's certainly something we hear often. But in those business case discussions, there's usually more of an element of oversight necessary. So it's almost as if there's more responsibility um to have additional oversight that you can't just give away your work to AI. So I think I think Young you mentioned it to me some organizations that had kind of a we're going to replace you with AI sweep have had to bring people back because it requires a human touch to use those tools. And we certainly have no shortage of backlog of work that if we were to make something more efficient, we would be able to fill that time with a lot of other things. So there's there's definitely some value to be looking into it thoughtfully, carefully and that's IT's role is to make sure we're doing it to secure in a way that is does not put any of our information at risk, doesn't put any of our systems at risk, but we can also be proactive in in looking at opportunities. >> Those are my words out. >> We had the conversation about AI. I'm wondering if you can know you've kind of covered a little bit, but kind of share in the way you told me as far as the roll out cuz you said June 16th kind of how it's how it's going how it's going to play out as far as the the overall policies around it and then from there to the department. Can you review that for everyone? >> Sure. So we intentionally made the effective date of our policy to begin the day we provide training. So we want to make sure leading up until to this moment, we've just been providing general guidance like be careful, don't do anything stupid kind of guidance, you know, cuz you can you can be dangerous with AI. But, um now with the policy in place, um Brett behind me, and certainly the whole team has um gone out to a lot of to have discussions with coun- uh excuse me, not council. Um in conferences, in where there's real expertise and different ways of doing things to bring back and pull together a very well-thought-out policy that protects our systems. So, it's about the the bumpers. This is what is allowed. This is what is possible within our systems that's okay to use. Um I they have uh already instituted a list of ex- acceptable AI tools that we already have in place. We have that a list available, but they're vetted by IT before they're used. And and now they're available for any department to use. So, um the rollout now will be estab- establishing the policy. So, whenever there's an AI element, there's a policy to follow, and they will be able to do the risk assessment that uh Young talked about, where they look at every system with these things in mind. We will be able to train staff on the 16th at a Renton 101 to to let them know, "Okay, this is why there's a policy." It doesn't necessarily A lot of things don't change. Public records rules don't change. A lot of using our tools rules don't change. It's just another tool that we have to be careful with. But, AI in particular just requires a little extra parameters because there's new things that weren't possible um just a couple of years ago that are in place. So, um the training will go to staff so that when they're even signing up for something, you know, "Hey, I want to try this out." they know that there is something we have in place that there's a policy. You don't just sign up for a subscription to a tool without thinking about it. So, that awareness will be made um throughout the city as with the rent in 101, which will be available um by they can watch it if they miss it. Um but the other thing, too, is each department will have, like we were saying, different uses. And so, where there's custom or unique needs, the the IT department will be working with them as far as what are what what uh protections do we need to put into place in order to use this tool? Or is it just an awareness or making sure we have um everything logged and cataloged and IT's aware of what we're using. That is really probably the most important thing that we always know what is work connected to our systems. And we have a really robust way of doing that now. It's we're very solid. But general awareness first, the policy's in place, but then as we have the the additional uses come up, we'll start to have more conversations around where do we stand on X, Y, or Z use of uh a certain type of AI. We don't really know what's to come yet, but we already know we're we're already using a lot of tools. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask Yeah. Uh thank you because it's a follow-up of what you said. Um I what we were in uh NLC in in March. It was like a a lot of information to the cities uh about AI and the use of the same. And obviously, they it it it was very comprehensive how it they insisted that the first thing that every city should do is to make sure that our work hard reals workplace. And super important. The second one is to convince your IT department that the use of AI is an advance for the city as soon as we have that and then the policies come. Obvi- obviously every city right now is a different level. I was in a presentation where they say if your city is is still using PowerPoint, they are behind. There are five different AIs that will save hours to staff instead of using PowerPoint. I I was at a moment that I was overwhelmed by all the vendors that were there with these many many things and I say we are in the first step of guardrails that I didn't even know how to pronounce. I keep saying safeguards. So so um I'm very excited about this, but I'm also I am also very like you very uh cautious about protecting the data. They say the data is the most important thing that you have to protect. And also education. That's you said it. Um education staff uh aware about the risks and what data they are using and uh and and make sure that when you guys start using the AI uh your staff knows that it this is not about taking jobs, but this is about making their performance more efficient than it is. So I am with you. It's a lot of education and a lot of progress for also uh I can see many it is already seen the reactive form. So So I hope that one day with all the precautions that are needed and the policies that need to be in place, we we move forward to do it for the greater good of the city. >> We have We have to be ahead um as the the IT department and certainly executive services, we need to be able to be ahead of the game. And so we have people going out all the time to those conferences and hearing from the probably a lot of the same vendors um sharing with you um and we will continue to do that to make sure we're doing this very carefully. >> Thank you. Councilwoman Rivera. >> Thank you. I do have a question in regards to the AI usage. Um cuz I did watch Terminator growing up and I, Robot and all the other fun stuff, but I also use Claude like four times today. So I'm not I'm I'm here where we're like we're navigating this this new fun tool. Are we using I have a couple of questions. I'll start with one. Are we using AI when it comes to our trainings for our um on onboarding and how much? >> I would have to get back to you on that. I don't believe so. Um as far as I guess I would ask in what way? >> Well, just because it was mentioned that a lot of our training have been moved online and I was just curious if any I if AI has been a part of that or if that's different and how much of our NEO or new employee training is online solely or solely like through a computer or is AI assisted? Kind of trying to get more into that. >> I can say onboarding is in person, face-to-face. Um so how they maybe pulled material together potentially we do use Copilot. So if they're pulling that material together that way and in fact you can make a PowerPoint presentation like that. Uh if you feed it the right information and I have actually done that. I didn't do it on this one, but I uh but um no, there's no substitute for some in some areas face-to-face is something we will still highly value. We do a lot of onboarding and a lot of training in person. The Renton 101s are meant to be accessible by different shifts, meant to be recorded. It came about during COVID, so we were uh we got really comfortable with that platform. It allows more people to get information than if we were to have it just online or just um in person. But certainly can't replace that it face-to-face relationship building. >> I completely Councilmember Ruth Hara. >> Yeah, I'm sorry if I missed it at the very beginning of the of this committee of the whole. Who's the audience for this? >> That's an internal document. That's something that we produce for our team so that they can be celebrate their own successes and also for you so you know what we're up to and we share it with anyone who's interested, but it's really a a team annual report. >> So I just want to make I want to I want to be clear. This is not a public-facing document. Okay. >> It certainly be requested, but >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Councilmember Rivera. >> Thank you. I have another I AI question. Um, we've been having a lot of conversations around pilot co-pilot AI systems, all these fun conversations. And I also teach at the Jesuit University and the Pope's most latest um written documentation on the status of AI, his stance on AI has now kind of sparked this conversation around religious exemptions around use of AI. So it's kind of going to be a weird question. Now that we're all very pro AI, which again, I'm not I'm not anti-AI here, but do we have religious exemptions in place or exemptions for those who want to for those who don't want to use AI? Cuz I do I have met some people that are so anti-AI that they're like, "How dare you use Claude?" I actually I'm sure I'm going to get some some hate for even just admitting that I use used it, right? And so it's kind of one of those things, where do we have things in place for employees who don't want to rely on AI? >> I don't think we do. However, I don't think anyone's forced to use anything that they don't want to use unless it's the only tool available. Um, but as we're kind of stepping into these tools, there's going to be thought again, as we said, every unique case, there might be This unique discussion to be had about the tools. >> And I don't And I think the AI doesn't replace the work, it just helps you make uh be more efficient. So, it still requires that human touch. So, it's how efficient you want to be with it. >> Thank you. >> You know, I'm going to be very You are too young to know these, but you just remind me the people that didn't want to use computers. And now everybody has an iPhone. >> You know, I remember my my mom actually taking computer classes at the local library. >> No, but people refusing to use computers at the time, you know, they were going to take over all of us. So, yeah, you are right. Terminator hurt all of us in in some point. Uh any more questions? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much for your presentation. This meeting is adjourned.

Good evening everybody. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee of the whole. We have three items on the agenda and we will start with the crime prevention through environmental design uh update. Welcome Chief John Schult. >> Thank you. Good afternoon council president, council members. My honor to be here Chief John Schult. Um and to start the first presentation on SEPTED will be one of our very valued um staff members who is celebrating her 16th anniversary with the police department today. Um Sandra Havtick. >> Uh thank you for having me to talk about SEPTED. So thank you council and council president. I appreciate being here. This is my first time presenting Rick House, so I hope I do well. Um so SEPTED uh crime prevention through environmental design that's what that stands for kind of a multi-disciplinary approach um to deter crime. So I thought I would go over just basics on the main elements of SEPTED first so when we're talking about it we're kind of all understanding um the language maybe that I'm using. So the first uh element is access control and it's literally what it sounds like controlling access in and out of a space. Uh so we can do that um many different ways. Uh many of us who are just naturally guided through a space when whether it's landscaping, pedestrian pathways, uh signage, think of IKEA, they do a great job of wayfinding to get us through that store. Uh I always think IKEA is a great example of wayfinding. And then natural surveillance. Uh another term we use for that with Sept is called eyes on the street. It's really about opening up sightelines, uh making people visible in a space. So most people with criminal intent don't want to be seen or identified. So if we can make a space more visible, uh we can do that several ways by just adding more glass. Um uh opening up visibility like like a parking garage for example, if I'm approaching that parking garage with a picture you see, um I get a chance to see maybe what's in that stairwell if there's anybody kind of hanging out there and it kind of gives me a chance to turn around and make a decision maybe to go somewhere else. Uh, same with bringing in natural light with cutouts that are done in buildings today like parking garages. That one you can see like if I'm walking through, I can have a lot of natural light. Uh, which helps then I don't have to, we're talking about cost and things. We're not having to pay to bring in a lot of lighting after if we can do it set it up to to naturally occur. Uh, we can do it mechanically through cameras organized. You can either hire security to watch a space or naturally we'd have um you know patrol, police patrol going by a building or just natural passerbys that could be our eyes on a space for us. Uh territorial reinforcement that's really about staking a claim to a space. Uh this is really important when you want to establish rules and how that space is going to be used. Um so we can like I use an example of the landing. I think they do a great job of kind of staking a claim, having points where they celebrate their entrance, putting their name around that property and really wellmaintained. Um, thinking when you you really want to establish private space versus public and semi-public so people know where to go and then with um and you can do that with gates and fencing and things like that. Um, but signage is really important. And if you think about a park, like say our city parks, having rules up there, establishing what you can do in this park, what you can, it's the same way with any type of property, you can establish rules in the space, if you want to have it enforced, that really gives police officers, right, that extra tool to enforce those rules if they're clearly posted. Uh, so people kind of understand what those rules are. Uh, same with parks maintenance staff, right? They need to know the rules of the park and they can help enforce that, too. Uh maintenance and landscaping is what I tell people is one of the most important um one of the least expensive things that you can do as business owner or residents is just really maintaining your property well. When you have a well-maintained property, it really sends a message that this space is cared for and looked after. Uh which really helps if someone wants to use that space has maybe criminal intent in mind or they want to hang out there. If it looks unckempt, um, then that's maybe somewhere they would go hang out. Um, but if it's well-maintained that tells someone that, hey, someone's really watching this property. This isn't maybe where I want to hang out. Uh, we have a rule in Sept for like bushes no higher than 2 to 3 ft. Uh, tree canopy 6 to 8 ft. And that's really about opening up lines of visibility. If I'm walking down a sidewalk or in a park or in one of our public spaces, you really want to be able to see about 25 to 30 feet. Um, again, that gives you that chance to see down the road if something doesn't look right or feel right. We all have a chance to kind of turn around or just, you know, hesitate for a minute and wonder if we should continue on into that space. Um, most people have heard about the broken window theory. Um, if you know, graffiti begets more graffiti, broken windows begets more broken windows. Uh, we really have a rule about graffiti that it should be cleaned up within 24 hours. Uh, I know our graffiti abatement, um, they they work on that. I encourage business owners and people to clean it up and and we'll help them if we can um because that's really important. Uh social management. The first four we talked about are uh more kind of physical elements of SEPTAD. Social management is uh more about bringing community into a space and I know I've heard this term throughout our city which always um I love to hear it. It's when we say activating a space. This really is what that is. Um it's you know when you think about Legacy Square I've heard that thrown along. We're just really activating that Piaza area and all the way across Logan over into Legacy area. Um, so I'm really excited about this project. Uh, crime prevention I I think and uh crime reduction I think will is going to be important factor down there with how this this space has all been redeveloped. So I'm really excited about it. Um, so how we use the space, if you have a space that's maybe underutilized or there's negative activity, you want to find a way to bring in positive activity generators. Um, so that's you could do that several ways, right? The pop-up markets that we're doing, the farmers market, things that we already do. Um, continue neighborhoods to have neighborhood gatherings. Maybe they have a space in their neighborhood that's underutilized or it's attracting crime. This is maybe where they just pop up even a community garden. It's just things like that. Bring in a barbecue, bring in people. Again, it's the intended users you want to try to bring into the space. So any uh get rid of the unintended users that maybe are attracted to that space. And so why does this all matter? Um well, it's not just about policing. It's not just about crime prevention. It's really about um our business districts, activating those um helping our business owners. Um if I'm my family, if I want to bring them downtown, if I have a perception that it is an unsafe area, I'm not going to go. Oh, I'm not going to bring my family and I'm not going to spend money. So, we really want to support our business owners. And so, if we can apply SEP headed down around these businesses and our streets and alleyways and parks, we want to do that. Um, it really does reduce calls for service. If we can design an area even before it's built and with crime prevention and SEPTA in mind, uh, then later on it's that's less police calls maybe for service, right? There's less criminal activity happening there because we thought ahead in how we design the space. Um, again, opening up visibility, having our signs in place, the uh rules and engagement for the area. Um, and just perception of safety is big. There's real there's real safety of course, but perception is what it really comes down to. If people don't feel safe, again, they're just they're not going to go. So, we really want to um change that perception of our areas. And then it just adds another service. So, if we can go out and make recommendations to our businesses, our residents, um to help them be less of a target for crime, uh that's just another service that we can provide and um that I'm really in support of. And then, of course, just long-term revitalization. If we think of the downtown projects that are going on right now, that is long-term. That's really something that we're going to go beyond um even just soccer, right? We're going to keep that space going and that's going to be a really a good attraction for our community. So, how I use it in the police department, I do security surveys. Um, I we do offer those free to our businesses and our residents. Um, I do plan reviews. So, any of the city permitted projects that go uh through are passed on for police comment. So, I do make recommendations on looking at a layout of a facility, building, uh, parks, how that um, maybe I can and give recommendations on ideas how to reduce crime, whether it's pedestrian pathways, adding more lighting, maybe turning some bathrooms around, things like that. Um, I'm a SET adviser, so on various city projects, I'll sit on meetings and or in person and and we'll meet or at sites and make recommendations. Uh, I create a set educational brochures. So, I do have some examples for you guys if you want if you haven't seen them. Um, this covers residential and multif family and then I have one just for businesses. And what's great about these is it's actually what I've been doing for over 10 years going out to businesses. And so, just I created these a couple years ago as a tool I can just hand to people. We can give out at community engagement events when they're talking about how they can reduce crime. These are things they can walk through and do checks themselves where it doesn't take me to have these the same things I'm looking at. the cameras, the locks, the lighting, the, you know, landscaping. So, these are checklists that they can um take really quickly back to their own homes and and businesses. Uh so, I love those. And I do SEPTA training. So, throughout uh Washington State, I'm on the Washington State Crime Prevention Association. I'm the region 2 director for King County. Uh we do SEPTA training. We certified uh a little over 3 years ago or over four years ago. So, I've been doing training across the state, which does include our city of Renton participated in 2024. You guys hired our board to certify about we had about 17 city employees. I just traded at Ellensburg a couple weeks ago. The city sent over a planner and a code enforcement person. Um and then I do uh Sept 101 for our patrol officers. Sept is not taught at the police academy even though this is over 50 years of crime prevention tips. Um I feel like if our city is very supportive of SEPTED then I want our officers to understand what that is too. And so when they're if they're dealing with a victim of crime or a business community, they can make some small recommendations themselves. Of course, they can always refer them to me. I'd be happy to meet with these people, but it gives our officer something else, you know, um adding the septic kind of understanding. So all the projects we've talked about that I've been on, um city facilities, taken several looks, walked with our facilities department maintenance. Uh one focus was even just our backside of city hall where officers come in and out uh every day. Um there's a lot of overgrowth there where they kind of had some ambush points. That's the way I look at it. Um that's not the most positive term, but I that's what I'm always looking at, right? Where can people hide and how can we kind of reduce some of that um vegetation we had going on so we could actually visibility even just pulling in and out of city hall safer for them, safer for pedestrians, anybody passing by. Um and then lighting. So adding some lighting back there that we did not have. Um parks and community centers for years done that with our city. um murals and artwork, graffiti abatement, you know, the murals and artwork. Um Jesse Katarsski's paint for purpose program and she was in our SEPTA class. Um she came up with that and it's a fantastic besides offering beautiful murals to put on buildings. You're a lot of times those are covering the backsides where the space of that building that's underutilized and that's where a lot of time your users go hang out um or graffiti hits it or things like that. So, I'm very much behind the paints with purpose for crime prevention even uh program. I love it. Uh working on our main streets obviously legacy square. I've looked those projects in the piaza several times. Um and we deal with encampments of course you know we have across the city. saw work with our debt teams and then on encampments. Uh we have traffic control, traffic calming, um downtown Reton partnership, done SEPTA training with them and presentations and um a grant proposal that I sent up to economic development. I think it's living there right now that I would like to help our small businesses with maybe some SEPTED grants um that they can utilize. maybe not. They can apply it to put SEPTED things in like cameras or better lighting um before they're a victim of crime instead of maybe after. Um or if they are a victim of crime, then I'd like some maybe SEPTA funds available to where they could use that to repair maybe their broken windows and things like that where it's costs our small businesses a lot of money, right, that they don't have. Um so our next steps kind of seeing um and I've l worked a lot with our CEO Eden Bailey on this um kind of integrating sept into onboarding for key roles. Of course my focus is on your planners, your code enforcement and parks and facilities staff first. Um and then we want to strengthen uh collaboration amongst our departments. So it uh the idea was to create a SEPTED group that would meet. So if we had a challenging property in our city, if um maybe there's a new project, we could have a group that's focused on putting SEPTED kind of eyes on it and we can make recommendations. Um and then continue to put just principles of SEPTED in our planning u maybe our codes uh like said working with some of our small businesses on it. And then um I'll just continue to serve as a supporting role with Sept. So an adviser or training um subject matter expert however uh you know the city needs me to to do that. So any questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Great presentation. Any questions? Council member Prince. >> Thank you so much Sandra. Uh thank you for the presentation. In a past life I did sept work for a nonprofit in Seattle. So >> Park Solomon. >> Yes. >> Yes. Um and so my question was you mentioned the um residents being able to get so does that include our neighborhood associations or how would someone get in touch with you if they wanted to get uh SEP learn more about SEPTAD? >> Yeah, one of the best ways is working with our neighborhood associations. So, if we do um since we're out there in neighborhood groups and doing um meetings with them, uh we'll usually bring these and if they want, we'll set up a walk through of their neighborhood and community. So, whether it's multif family or it's a a neighborhood of 20, 50 homes, we could do a walk through and we'll make recommendations and I usually give them the tools and start to talk about let's look at your landscaping. Let's cuz you know even like your neighbors like who's keeps their lights on at night? Could someone add some photosensitive lighting? their trees and bushes are kind of like a little, you know, over uh maybe hanging over the sidewalks and hiding some hiding spots. So, yeah, we'll definitely do that. >> Thank you. And I know that um several years ago we had some problems in the natural walkways, not the the paved part, but the natural walkways through the wooded area and came through and did some septad, raised the the the tree limbs and cut back some of the blackberries. Um, and I'd just like to throw out a special request that we do that again because it's starting to get pretty overgrown because the the activity level behind the scenes really calmed down and now it's starting to pick back up again. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Any more questions and concerns? Council member, >> thank you so much for the presentation. I really do appreciate it. Um, when [clears throat] it goes back to the slide around natural surveillance, I just want to clear the air in terms of like when we see cameras, those aren't flock cameras. Those are very particular cameras that we see at intersections, but the other cameras that we may see around the city, those are a closed network system. Correct. >> My understanding. >> Okay. >> I don't look at them. [laughter] >> You mean you don't go on your lunch break and check them out on occasion? No. Okay. Okay. I just want to ensure because I know we I do appreciate natural surveillance around windows and apartments and things like that, but I'm getting other questions around different cameras now around across the city, not just our ALPRs, but all types of surveillance. And um me and Harden have had these conversations, but just for the public's consumption to know that those are closed systems. Those are not connected to any kind of big cloud device that's accessible to anywhere else, >> right? Um, and when I make recommendations for cameras, um, you know, with systems in place today, my goal is to work with the business on what are they trying to capture on that camera. >> Now, residents most like they're talking about ring system something in their front door, which is fine. So, let's businesses uh, if you're looking at a parking garage, for example, when we I did recommendations at our own parking garage, when you have cars come in and out, most likely you want to capture those license plates um, that are coming in and out. And then maybe at the checkpoint if there's a gate then that you're going to capture the face. Think of a bank when you walk up to a teller window. The bank's going to want to capture that face at the teller window or you're using an ATM. So I ask the businesses, you really have to um cuz I won't make recommendations on a specific company or what to do. I guess give them the the tools to decide, you know, you know, or ask themselves what are you trying to capture when you're doing this. You let's say it's employee and they have a problem with employee theft or they have a lot of inventory in their facility and they really need to cover that the inventory. So, more things like that for loss prevention. Um, those kind of concepts. >> I appreciate that. I think I I misspoke and I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. I'm talking more city ran surveillance if we have any other cameras around the city. >> Oh, I I couldn't answer that. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. Sorry about that. >> No, no, don't be sorry. It's okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. But I do have a couple couple of questions. Um so during our consult retreat we have a a a how to say um a long conversation with uh CED regarding uh code compliance and more important uh maintaining a group vegetation to a level that keep us all safety and landscaping looks great. uh thanks to public works we actually we say that if they request more funding to maintain the city to the level that should be to please put it in this budget because it was a priority for the council to do that. However, I have always said that coming back to what council member uh M Ohal has said, I think it's very good to help business and homeowners to help us with the landscaping because we cannot do all the city. Uh but we have at least keep our own. So in this case, for example, how do you work together with other departments that are the ones that are doing the cleaning and the maintaining to tell them, hey guys, this bush is way taller than should be and is a city property or is uh you know right away that we're supposed to take care. I I wonder what is the role of of your department to go and and send an email monthly. I don't know. I'm trying to understand how is the chain of command on this. So everybody will know that code enforcement I'm assuming they are doing their own and then they pass a to public works but your role your role on this on keep keep uh an eye on the things that we own the things that we should take care uh how how is your role your role on the city to make sure that that happened >> uh that's a great question because I I would say after 24 when we started taking some of the departments through the septed training Um that was really helpful because even when having code enforcement in there I mentioned planning and parks and develop you know parks uh public works has been extremely always great to work with. Uh I've walked parks with them or community center and downtown because you're right years ago I you know parks maintenance that would come through and clean a park but if you come behind them it looks all trimmed and nice but then I this is applying crime prevention. eyes to it and I go, "Well, that looks nice, but to me it doesn't fit my rules of SEPTED. Now there's the years have passed and Sept has gone through different departments and there's now a greater understanding of okay, now we understand what that means." So, I think when we apply it to downtown, even walking through um some of the parks, the community center down here, uh like I said, there's always a willingness to talk about and use SEPTED now when they've applied it to the landscaping. So, I don't think it's a challenge. I think it's getting better and I would love to see more parks and maintenance come through sept training so then when they are out there trimming it's naturally comes to them that they understand what they should be doing uh for safety in mind right before it was all about how pretty does it look and clean. Yeah, that's great. Uh specifically more because Brenton is way larger than downtown, right? So we need to make sure that that everything that we have to take care. That's the reason why we told um Martin during the retreat, you know, it's budget year. This a priority for the council. So and for the residents obviously. Um if you guys don't have any questions, I have more. Okay. Um, talking about the working with businesses, um, I have always think if you want your business to thrive, I I I assume that you think that having your environment around your business clean and landscaping is more appealing that not doing it. Well, I'm very surprised sometimes that that's not the case. So, you say that you're working with different businesses. Um, how do you, for example, in 108 Avenue, uh, do the side where is Benson Plaza? Benson Plaza normally if you inside of a plaza they the business owners and the plaza had maintain the landscaping pretty good you know h um beautify the area and though they put across the street from 108 we have couple of businesses that the overation is so big that they even cover their own businesses and I am saying this is not just not safety but also it's not appealing for their business and you cannot even see that the business is there how do you approach these businesses and say hey for public safety purposes but also for other reasons because it's not with our code to tell them and I don't know if they don't do it because they think that that's part of the rightway and or it's part of the city is the to do it and they don't understand that probably that is for how do you deal with this? How do you work with businesses that is still confused or they don't know they don't know that trimming or putting a little investment is the responsibility or is the city responsibility? I am assuming that they are not doing it because they think that is right in between the sidewalk and they enter on the business and the business in the back that probably they think that this belong to the city and the city should take care of that. So I was wondering about that. I well I come across that a lot and I think a lot of times um you're right there's several different things why and number one you're right they may think the city does it. It's not my job. Um, number two, they just sometimes they like the overgrown bushes. Think of someone with their private house who lets the bush grows up in their window. They don't want people seeing in and they they kind of feel like it puts a barrier around their property. Um, they're kind of protecting it. But in But you're in marketing and business, right? Like you mentioned, that's the last thing you want to do. You want people to see your business when you drive by. Um, and I think the solution would be e I mean I work with code enforcement a lot and sometimes code enforcement is a good way to get in the door because they go, "Oh, we need to talk about this might be a violation and they they'll they're out and about kind of looking for those things." So if there's an area we um want to try to make some recommendations on um I'd be happy to tag along with them that I have before. I work really well with them. Um, so for that example, I think code enforcement and myself could team up. And I sometimes when we educate businesses on just making improvements or it seems so basic, trim your plants down or don't cover all your windows with posters. We want to be able to see in and outside your store. It's they, you know, some of these things are so simple, but they're not, it's not simple to them or it's not, they didn't understand like, oh, that makes sense. You know, a lot of times we hear, "Oh, it makes sense." I'm like, "Yeah, it makes sense." Um, but they just maybe things are not thinking of them. So sometimes if it's just brought to their attention, it's an aha moment and they go, "Okay, I'm going to try that, you know, and then it it works." So that's what how I would approach that. >> Thank you. Thank you. And and and um and council member >> um I have a actually a specific question on slide number nine, which is why does it matter? And the second bullet point is strengthens credibility with businesses and property owners. Can you help me understand how that plays out? Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying about the credibility with business and property owners. If we can advise them, if we can make these recommendations as a city or, you know, whether it's council or myself or parks or code, someone making these kinds types of SEPTAD recommendations for design to make their business safer. Uh that's going to attract more business for them too, but that's an extra service that we're providing, right? So, I think that's where that strengthening that credibility comes from. But we're strengthening our credibility with them, not the credibility of the business owners. >> Right. Correct. Thank you. Thank you very much. I will um if there are no more questions. I um the broken window rule. Um again, I'm assuming that is a city property that is something that we have to maintain. We will fix it right away. We understand that this is not safe for appearances. We should start at home, right? Uh but I have said this several times. how many windows need to be broken for the city to be doing something specifically when it's a business and we have 500 and park as a perfect example right I have seen so many of them that have the you know they they put this wall I don't know how do you call it board it the window again is the business that owns the building is kind of like this part of the is my business why the governor has to do something about it I know that is tricky uh how do we walk around this how I understand that is it's is it's a fine line with especially when you're a homeowner and your and your window is broken, right? Yeah, I understand that homeowners associations uh have certain rules and and and regulations that probably they can help the neighbors to understand the safety concerns, but business for me is again one of those ah you know your your your business has a broken window and you don't put a priority on fixing it. Um how do we navigate this? How do we collaborate with businesses to help them to understand that this is a safety issue and and like you say, I'm always surprised by all the posters that are around and things like that because I think it's a safety issue as well. But but how do are we working with businesses around these kind of issues? Are we bringing education to them or or or walk me through to understand better? Uh, I know if it went over for a long amount of time, I think code enforcement gets involved. But when I have worked with businesses that for the maybe let's assume the reason they have the board up is because they were a victim of crime, whether think a few years back when we had Kia driving into buildings and destroying these glass fronts. Um, or if someone woke walked by and just threw a rock in their window. This may be the second, third time it's happened to them. And so dealing with their insurance is is one thing. Maybe they're going to pay for it out of pocket. It's become a financial burden on them. Um but also I ran into business owners for a while gas, not gas, glass, uh because of so many businesses needing replacements because of vandalism that glass was taking an extremely long time to get. So unfortunately and that's me talking to these business owners about just what you said like you know it's been six months since you you know something happened and they're like we're still waiting for class and that was amazing to me but that that was a real thing. Um I think it's improved now. Um, I haven't seen as many. Um, how we can help though too is I'm a real fan of offering a septed grant to our businesses because if it is a, and I'm not talking your, you know, big stores, I'm talking your small mom and pops. Um, that being hit with the 2,000 to 10,000 to replace glass. Um, and maybe this is the second or third time. They don't want to go through their insurance. They're worried about being dropped. So, they're going to financially put this, you know, cost on them. Um, if we had a septed grant that if you're a victim of crime, um, we're talking about sept, they have to kind of check a septed box. This is to replace my glass. This is to add ballards maybe in the front of my business so then someone doesn't drive through it. Um, this is to improve lighting out front, maybe the facade, which kind of ties into improvements. We want businesses to look more attractive, too. Um, but that that money if it was a few thousand up to a few thousand a year or something they could apply for it could maybe be a quicker process because it's checking a septed box that maybe it goes through a little faster and then maybe they'd get some funds to help them replace the window or things like that that we would ask them that we want them to improve. So then as we're meeting them on both sides like we're telling you we want you to do this but here we're offering you a solution that we can kind of help um to maybe help them do that a little quicker than than might be happening. Thank you, Sandra. I appreciate it. Council member Albert, >> I I really like that idea. I'm in my mind, I'm thinking, how does that get around public gifting of funds? I mean, if it's going to I mean, conceptually, you say, "Hey, you're helping the whole in the grand scheme of things, the SE TED, it helps everything, but really it's helping that business." How do you get around that? You can't just slap a grant on it and say, "Okay, well, there you go." Or or maybe I'm just way off base. >> Uh, no. you're there's um several cities. So, in my proposal, I know uh the chief approved it, loved it. It's um gone up a couple levels. I believe it's over in econ economic development. Um there is Tacoma. Um I believe uh Seattle has a program, Tacoma has a program, and there's another city I listed. So, there's actually several examples of how they're running those programs. Uh and it's uh through economic development. And then I don't know if there's somewhere maybe grantf funded and they could use it until that money runs out or this you I'll setting a m you know money aside septed funds that could be used you know every year for that program so that you know I'm not the money person I I can't figure that out but I do I in that proposal there are other city examples. I'd be happy to find those for you if you wanted to kind of look into that. >> You have to look for I was just just kind of curious if it's done been done before and done well. I'm I'm good with that. Yeah. >> Council member Murin, Council Member, Council Member Prince, you have a question. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh that prompted a question for me as we're talking about how we can uh uh possibly use grant funding. I was thinking similar to residents. Is that something that could potentially excuse me in any of those cities be available to I'm thinking through our neighborhood program if that would be more like a group project versus like individual homeowners or something like that. Is that something that we would see potentially having value there or is it more focused in those areas more on the the business districts? >> I think it could be valuable for uh residential areas that need some improvements, especially some that maybe don't have a good lighting. Um, and you know, a lot of those maybe they have an HOA, maybe they don't. So, where does that money come from? uh when they want to improve lighting or maybe they have a little park area for you know kids and they they want to make some improvements there because maybe that's a space that's kind of again negative and they want to bring in some positive activity to the area. Um so I think you could apply it to residential [clears throat] >> um actually I have two thoughts about well three thoughts about the the SEPTA fund. I think it's a fantastic idea. Um it doesn't sound too unlike our housing repair assistance program where we are in fact using public funds for individuals. But I was also thinking that um at the community foundation we have a fund called the buttkiss fund that pays for um senior or otherwise needy people's vet bills. When their vet has an e when their pet has an emergency and they cannot afford the vet bill, we they go get the services and we pay the vet, not them. We don't reimburse them. We don't pay them. They go get the services. the vet sends the bill to us and we pay that bill. So that would might be another >> um my last comment. Um a couple of years ago, council member uh Albertson and I we went to one of the shopping centers that was having a lot of vandalism nearby downtown. Um that was the time when the cars were uh running all the way to the stores to break the windows and stole. I don't know what because nobody does cash anymore but whatever. Um since that in that time you guys work with them to give them some tips and some advices. Uh the police department was there to let them know more lighting here, more lighting there, maybe you put some planters in in front. Uh we were talking with the manager and and we were brainstorming about the ideas that you brought to them and cameras here, cameras there and and I was a little bit brutal honest and I say if you would beautify your your your area uh like the police say basically chances are that you will uh give a different appealing uh for the for for for the for reduce crime in in that area. I was talking about a little bit more vegetation here, a little bit more this and a little bit trying to say you know to since then I have seen that three or four businesses move out of that place. Um obviously they were not happy. We were talked to all of them. Some of them were furious. Some of them decided that we were not providing safety for them. And when we were walking about the things that they could do, it was hard because they wanted the management of the place to to add those to change the lighting, to put the cameras, to add the vegetation, and it was not a negoti was not a good negotiator. We know that the landing looks the way it is because the rent of the landing is very very expensive, but they put you know all these things to protect the businesses. Not everybody has uh that level of investment and a lot of these um owners do do not live in Renon. So how could we how do we work around this this these I don't know if they are called shopping malls like how do you will you call it a shopping mall? >> Um no it's a um strip mall >> strip mall and we have several of those here around in the highlands and strip malls um are a challenge. I like to use them as an example why I support um because you look at strip malls close at night, right? A lot of them 5, 7, 9:00 p.m. they're closed for the night. They sit vacant. They attract negative activity then sometimes in those parking lots and around those businesses, especially if there's some hidy little holes and places for people to tuck in. And I think you were talking about Bronson Square Village down there. I work really a lot with Eric Trent. You I love the property managers there. They they do a lot. Um um that's they have made a lot of improvements. They've lost a couple businesses unfortunately. Um but we still do some work down there. And so in that case in other cases um I work with our patrol, our debt team. They go down. We kind of do a little emphasis oursel because you're right. I ask a lot of them. I say, "I want you to do this landscaping. I know I'm asking you to probably put money in your property." and they're like, "Sander, we're doing all these things. We're doing this." I'm like, "I know you are, but here's okay, here's what I can do. Let me ask patrol to do some extra emphasis. Let me have my debt team go down." And they, you know, I've done a safety tenant meeting for them trying to get tenants to come in and let's talk about safety and things you you can do and why you don't put those posters in your window and why you don't leave the tip jar out, you know, front where someone can grab it and things like that. So, and leave your back doors propped open, right, where someone can come in and any time of day and burglar. So, I will do those extra things for them and try to like meet them halfway cuz I know I'm asking some of you. Um, and when I So, strip malls, you know, we can't change a lot of those. I think going forward though, what we're seeing is the multi-use properties when you have the retail at the bottom and the residential on top. This is a great example of bringing natural surveillance into an area because again, those all those little stores closed 5, six, seven, right at the same time. That would have been your strip mall sitting there. Now you've added all this residential where now you have natural people coming in and out. They take ownership of the space. They're the ones calling 911. It it's keeping that place activated. It doesn't give the chance for a negative user to come in and kind of take over that property at night. Um or want to commit crime there because all throughout the day there's activity. Um so I think multi-use is a great crime prevention um design. Um but again we do have strip malls that maybe that's not going to happen. Maybe in the future we look at like developing Cascade area. I know that's that's a big plan. I mean, I would love to see the multi-use there. Um, but anyway, that's some things I would do with these strip malls. We have to keep on just working with them. And sometimes I look at actually what tenant they have in there. Is there a tenant that's attracting uh negative activity? In the example of um, you know, laundry services are great. Some of us need those. Maybe people don't have laundry services in their home. But when you have a laundry, I'll use that one as an example. that was for years a negative activity um generator because it wasn't staffed. They had a monitor and there was no employee in there. So, people got to come in and use that space how they wanted to, which majority of that was negative. And after a couple years, they did not renew the lease on that. That took a big chunk of those problems away. Um and for Eric, I still monitor that property crime stats every month. We like to kind of see what's happening with that one going up and down. So that's something to all offer them is to just kind of check monthly crime stats with them and see how we're making a difference. >> Thank you, Sandra. Thank you for your presentation. This was great and thank you for the great work that you're doing in your department. This was wonderful. Uh thank you. Uh our second item uh for today is the police department community engagement update. >> Thank you. And I think at the start I said what a valued employee Sandra was. I think I really understated that and and talking about the importance of having a subject matter expert that's actually on our staff and and what a resource that is for the city is absolutely incredible. So, um we're fortunate to have her. Um so, next up is going to be um Megan Black giving our presentation on our engagement. >> Thank you. >> Welcome, Megan. Hi. Um, it's not queued up there. [snorts] It's It's >> okay. It's just It started in the middle. I apologize. Hello. [laughter] Um, thank you for allowing us to present on our community engagement efforts. Um, Sandra Havick or not Sandra Hav, Stephanie Hines is the guru for our community engagement. Unfortunately, she had a uh competing uh commitment today and so I'm going to pinch hit for her, but she is really the brainchild and does an amazing job. In fact, um those of you in the public safety committee where we did this presentation before heard that she is an all-star and is sought after um regionally for the work that she does that people want to emulate some of the programs that we have here in the city of Brenton. So, we're very fortunate to have Stephanie. So, um, what we're going to do is start off looking at what we're doing in 2026. Some of our programming is a bit abbreviated because of FIFA. We've had to do some adjustments given the demands on the staff. But even with that, we have 19 proactive engagements that um, we have on our schedule. Those are different individual events and many of them have multiple days components to them. So, we actually on the calendar to date have 52 engagement dates within the police department and we are continually adding these every single month. Uh we have more and more. We just got another request in today. So, we continually add to these. Um these are organic um and impromptu ones that come into us and then we have our planned ones. um our goal is to reach all demographics to reach um as many pockets and areas of the community. And so I'm going to talk about some of the the events where we invite the community to our event and then where we are also proactive and and go out to the community and get into the neighborhoods and talk to people proactively as well because that's very important to try and meet people where they are. So, one of the uh events that you might not hear about quite as often is Red Ribbon Week. We partner with the school district and the um Federal Drug Administration to reach three third to fifth graders. Um and it's all about um education about living and celebrating a drug-free life. They create posters and they enter contests and then Stephanie will post those online and the community will vote on them and then they get a recess with officers and they bring the cars or a motorcycle and it is fabulously popular with these kids. They absolutely love the engagement and they get the education about living a drug-free life as well. Um the other thing is is that we have our master bingo collar over here also known as Chief Schultz. Um, and uh, this is super popular with our senior community. So, we will head into some of the uh, assisted living facilities or uh, the senior center and hold bingo. Sometimes they'll decorate cookies or we just hold different events and engage uh, some of the community members at that event. We do that a couple of times a year. Um, we also have our communitymies and we have a whole plethora of different events. This year we are doing a senior public safety minisseries where the seniors were able to um go to one of the four or all of the four and we partner with the fire department. We partner with um all different kinds of agencies so that they can ask questions and we do crime prevention tips. Um elder fraud and scams are huge and so those are some of the topics that we talk about this. Uh and normally we'll do a senior academy, but that's more of a traditional and again more resources. This year we're doing an advanced community uh police academy that's undergoing right now where we take um graduates of the traditional police community academy and they get to go a little bit deeper into some of our partnerships. So, for instance, the Federal Reserve Bank is here in Reton and most people don't know what the Federal Reserve Bank does. And so, we had about 38 people go over to the Federal Reserve and they hosted us and they took us around and showed us the money. They showed us counterfeit money and real money and they went through the police department and they really engaged everyone and so it's our way of offering um an insight into some of our other law enforcement partners. Tonight, in fact, is um or is it tomorrow night? Excuse me. Aphus. So, it's all about fingerprinting. And Reton is the agency in the valley that uses APHUS the most. Aphus is the county um fingerprinting experts and they do uh crime processing. So, when we have a huge um incident, they will come out and do fingerprinting. And so, again, this is one of the agencies that supports the Reton Police Department. We partner with them and now our community members get an opportunity to learn about some of these things. So it's really a great program and it often [snorts] people will do themies and then they want more. They want to know more because they had such a great time and they enjoyed the education. So this is a way for them to do that. And similarly with the youth academy which is traditionally um four full days and we accept applications from all throughout the city. Stephanie makes sure that we have um students, middle school students represented from every single middle school and from all regions of the city. She makes sure that we have a very diverse group of kids that come up. Well, this year because of staffing, we can't do the whole one. So, we're doing um a youth academy alumni meet and so we're going to have a couple of different events where they again get to do some u more indepth uh type exploration into public safety careers. And so again, we partner with different agencies and uh different public safety services. And so um that is going to be happening a little bit later on this summer. We also, as I mentioned, have the youth academy, the traditional police academy, and then sometimes because people can't always commit to those types of things, Stephanie will hold a one-day academy where we'll hit four or five different uh topics and people get to spend a day with us and learn about the police department as well. This is a new um event uh program that uh our officer um detective uh Jonathan S uh Selbert uh came up with and that's he's a um self-admitted Dungeons and Dragons nerd. And so he thought it would be an awesome idea to have officers play Dungeons and Dragons with middle school students. And so we currently have two of these sessions going on right now. They're anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. The kids come and they meet, they create their board. um police department and it have um it has just jumped in on this one. They've partnered with us and so they become the dungeon masters and they lead these kids on these adventures through Dungeons and Dragons and it is an amazing opportunity again to meet kids where they are to have fun with them and they get to know officers as just these Dungeons and Dragons nerds, right? Just normal people. So, it's really it's a great program and it's a lot of fun. Scout night we just had where we partner with the uh fire department. Um we bring in you know the DEA will come in. We've had marine units come in. We've had um [snorts] Mr. Yuck is still around and Mr. Yuck came in poison control center. So we um we co-host it with Ron Regional Fire Authority. It's for young kids really all the way from kindergarten through fifth grade. It's geared towards scouts because they get to earn a badge when they go through all the booths and they get to um get that patch on their um on their vest. And so we have, you know, they get to explore and again it's just an exposure to all the different types of public safety um careers that are possible out there maybe to plant that seed. And we have a a future police officer, firefighter, or Mr. Yuck campaigner. So it's really a fun night and the families love it. They bring all the little kids all the way on up to the bigger kids. So, it's it's a great evening. Uh the shredathon is something that we offer every um se April with uh the drug takeback in cooperation with the drug takeback and that's where we collect sensitive documents and and provide shredding free of charge. We also collect unwanted prescription drugs because we do know that when you have um unused medications um at home left unattended that that's where some of these addictions start and that's where some of the abuse with these drug prescription drugs start. So we do that. We also combine that with a food and um a donation to support um the uh >> Salvation Army. Thank you very much. Um and that's held every spring in uh April. And of course our marquee event um the battle of the badges. So please take note of this now. It is December 12th, 2026 5:30 to 8. Last year we had roughly 4500 people walk through the event up at the Renton Technical College. It is absolutely fabulous. We have up to 30 different law enforcement agencies and public safety agencies who decorate their vehicles, their canopies, you name it. We've got music, we've got lights, we have food trucks. It is really a lot of fun. So that is um pretty much our I would say the biggest event that we do every single year. So in addition to those planned events that we host, we also engage we do outreach within the community and we like to go to where people are at. This year we launched the let's talk series which um the chiefs are um at every single one and we have neighborhood associations so that um anyone who requests us to come talk at their neighborhood association or they have any questions about crime in their area they can ask us to come and present with them. We just call it let's talk because we're just there to talk with you. Sometimes we have five or six people show up and sometimes we'll have 15 people show up and they have all kinds of questions. we become come prepared with different crime statistics for their area. Um, uh, Sandra will have SEPTED stuff or crime prevention materials. We'll have different ways and it's a great way to get people together to talk about maybe creating a blockwatch program or just to answer their questions and have that one-on-one facetime with the chiefs. We try to get a commander in there and we also try to bring a district officer or sergeant who actually works in that area so that they know the community and they can come in and have conversations with them as well. We started out um basically asking folks because it was a brand new program and you put it out there. So we the the associations we knew about and slowly but surely we've been averaging about two a month now and it's people are asking us now to join their association meetings because they've heard about it, we talk about it and it's really been uh received favorably by the community and it's a it's a service that we're really happy to be able to um support. Uh Sandra talked to you about the business outreach which she is constantly meeting with businesses. The chief's community council meets bimonthly and that is a diverse group of civic and community leaders and they come um and we talk and we it's a two-way conversation. The chief leads it. We bring in um we talk about policy procedures. We talk about issues that are happening or an incident that happened and it's a great way to get this diverse group of people to talk about these and how are they perceiving it and what are they thinking about um how the police department is doing their business and why do we do the things we do and then we get to hear from them any concerns they have or perhaps they love this idea. And then the whole goal is is that since they are natural community leaders, they go back to their community members and they talk about these programs with a greater understanding and education and then we are informed with our policy, with our procedures on how this is landing with our community. So, it's an amazing two-way conversation um that we're having with our community members on a bimonthly basis. And then um the barber shop is something that um Deputy Chief Rutled has really spearheaded and this is a program. It's Mentor Seattle and they they're headquartered here in Reton. And what they do is they bring people who have been um impacted um by law enforcement. They've been perhaps incarcerated somehow involved in the criminal justice system and they bring law enforcement in again to have a conversation in a safe setting where you don't have this good bad crime, right? There's no accountability. It's let's talk about what's going on. Let's talk about how they perceive us and how we can be better at it. And so if Ryan wanted to add anything else, it's just a lot of our officers and our command staff have gone through this to be able to talk um and break down barriers and really get to know people and they get to know us again on a human level when you take the law enforcement element out of it. So um in a nutshell, we have lots of [clears throat] little ones that also pop up, but that those are the ones that um are our big ones that we're doing. >> Thank you, Megan. Great job. Wonderful information. Uh, Council Member Prince, >> thank you so much. Thank you, Megan, for the presentation. And following up on the barberh shop, Council Member River, I attended the barbershop session a couple of months ago, and I would encourage all of my colleagues to attend them. They were really, really informative and uh looking forward to going to another one here in the not too distant future. >> Excellent. Thank you. Any more questions or comments? Council member just very appreciative of all the work in terms of community outreach. I really do appreciate particularly the Dungeons and Dragons of it all. I just introduced myself to Dungeons and Dragons last year and I'm quite the fan and it's just it's really it's really fantastic and I know you all are doing a lot. I know there were some feedback around um some events and I know you are juggling a lot and I just want to say you are doing a fantastic job. >> Thank you. Um I do have a couple of questions. So the first one is the let's talk series. Um did that replace the coffee with a uh with a cup or or do you still have both? >> Replace coffee with a cop. It's we have both. What we have found um is that coffee with a cop you have the same five people that show up to every coffee. And so while we will do it particularly we'll do the national coffee with a cop and partner with a local business. Um we found that it really wasn't effective. Um we weren't in the middle of the day with coffee not that many people are available. Um and they don't we we saw the same people showing up over and over. So we're trying to think outside the box and we're trying to like rather than asking them to come to us, we are volunteering to go to them. We want to lower the barrier to having communication with us. And if that means that we're going to go at 7 o'clock at night and go to your community meeting and and your association meeting and talk to you, then that's what we want to do. We want to be available. >> Yeah, that is great. And anything that will build bridges and we'll uh break barriers, I think is amazing, especially with our diver diverse community. Um I want to understand a little bit more how the last uh uh talk works because I want to know how community can engage in that. So I see with the um mayor conversations that is a link on the web where neighborhood associations or neighborhoods that even are not neighborhood associations can invite the mayor and it's a list when you raise and put I would like the mayor to come with my information this and that. Is this something that you guys are thinking I know that right now you must be working with the neighborhood program. I'm assuming that that's the reason why you're invited with but I'm assuming do correct me. Okay, we have it online. People can we've we've promoted it. Um we talk about it everywhere we go. Um we have you can apply online. You can send us an email. You can get a hold of us anyway. And and what we found is when we initially we have our own neighborhood um so Sandra does um outreach with businesses and then Brooke Lamoth who is on maternity leave right now. She does the neighbor neighborhood associations. And so we have relationships with neighborhood associations and multi-use family dwellings and all all of that. Um and so what we did to kick this program off was contact the ones that we know are robust and working so that then we could get out and start this and then promote it. And then more and more as more and more people are learning about this opportunity then more and more people have been requesting these meetings. So it is word of mouth at this point and social media which you know that's what that's what we're doing. >> So it's a link click click click your register and we will be there. Okay. Thank you. In case that no some people have missed it because I did miss it. Um council member Albertson >> um actually to to uh go a little bit deeper in that so I just jumped to the the site where it's not obvious to me where this link is to do the talk. I'm just at city of Ron. [clears throat] Uh what what do you click on after? So what do you click on to get there? >> Just do a search. I just >> So you just have some Well, but somebody has a search specifically for that. So there's no >> It should be right under >> That's what I'm asking. >> It It should I I'd have to pull up the website if that's >> okay. I didn't know if there was if it was plainly obvious because I mean >> I am happy to throw it somewhere else. I uh >> just curious. I mean, if it's I was hoping maybe it would jump out or whatever. I mean, I'm thinking of the average average resident >> if it's friendly on the website of the city. People don't have to do too many clicks to get there. >> Yeah. >> Uh to figure it out if u cuz sometimes I do that. I go to the website and I go click click click and I thought, oh, it's going to be an events or something like that. It takes too many takes to get there. almost even in the short run just to if you know to make it very very obvious to get some traction or whatever it is that just to make sure. >> Yeah, we can throw it out front. It's right it's the first on our community engagement page. >> You got to go to >> You got to go to community engagement. Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. >> That's >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Uh council member has questions. >> We do. >> Council member. >> Yes. Um, one it's let me gather my thoughts with the chats. Um, I I personally for seeking feedback would find it helpful to have them at a different variety of times. I find that they um I haven't seen a lot of diver and maybe that's all my own fault and I think it's kind of hard cuz I'm not on social media like that. that I post and I run away like I usually do and then I'm not on the website and so I'm trying to think of how we can get this out for more people but also diversify the times and dates a little bit so more people can attend the chat. We come when they ask us to >> There you go. Well, who asked us to? I'm so sorry about my followup. >> The people who ask us to the let's talk events when they request us we come. We whenever when they ask us to come we come. >> Understood. Okay. Set the time and location also. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We work out a time and a location that's agreeable and we go. >> Thank you. Council member, >> um Sandra, I would love to get one of your little September. >> Yeah, thank you for your presentation. Great community outreach. I have a question regarding the Let's Talk program. Uh so far, how many have you done as a department? And also, have there been a request um or if there hasn't been, would the department be entertaining uh an opportunity if a community group wanted uh the less talk um event, but not in uniform, not officer in uniform. [clears throat] >> That would be up to the chief. >> Yeah, we'd be open to again, it's all about engaging and and meeting them where they're comfortable to have those conversations. So, I don't think that would be beyond We do that. We've done that for other meetings that we've um hosted with some of our community members. So, and a number that we've had. >> Yeah. So, I I would have to go back and add them up. I know we started in December and we've had at least >> So, December, um January, >> March, April, May, June, July. >> I was going to say about a dozen thus far. >> Yeah, we've had we've had at least 10 and that was since the beginning of the year. So I mean we've doubled up was it a April, May and June? So it it's I I don't know I don't have it committed to memory. Thank you. Um I'm I I'm going to tack along with this question really quick and I am assuming and I I'm assuming but I know that I have already been on those that if you can offer in a different language you will offer it. I have seen Jonah White many many times do it in Spanish and I am assuming that these days it's the same case. Thank you. Thank you. Um, something I'm not seeing on here and I think is an excellent aspect of outreach is are you also opening your ride alongs to the public? I'd >> say that's more of a case by case basis. >> Is it a case by case now? Because I always thought that was such a as other cities are not allowing ride alongs I think as accessibly. Brenton has always been one that has opened her department up and I really appreciate that and I was just going to identify like that's another aspect of community outreach I think it's really beneficial because I have students that you know or community members that want to do ride alongs and they can't get in with Seattle or they can't get in with another department but Reton is always available to them >> right I will say you know to to your point if it's someone that's looking for a career in law enforcement anything that we can do to help them advance in that um if there are community members um that there's a purpose in them coming out obviously we can't open it up to just everyone in the public. There's certain um you know regulations around when we can have someone out there policies in place. Um but yeah, we we try to do our best. >> I think it's a great aspect. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um let's talk about the one I out when um I Google it and I search on our own website >> the n national I'm sorry national night out >> the national out um it comes out and it's not just department it comes out when it's going to happen is not published. What they have is what happened last year on August 5th. When is this year? Do do we know the date and when and how it's going to happen? What's the date, Senator? >> Tuesday, August 4th. >> Tuesday, August 4th. and the uh the city's website archives some and that's something that I need to get in touch with Angel about because that is that's that's not that's I I maintain our website and then that is a city thing so we need to go through and figure out you know some of these little things just crop up and so um it's not I understand it >> I just don't I don't know how to get rid of that so that would be an angel questions. >> I was googling farmers market and appear all the time. Last year's >> something else came up today where last year's a still it's not on our page but it's still active and I don't know how that happens. >> Yeah. Okay. So it's on uh August 4 this year and are you planning to do it where do we have more information about that? So yes, um we are going to be uh similar to the years past, we work with the neighborhoods um group and we receive um people can register. So we'll promote it and then a lot of different associations. We get five or six a night that um they hold community meetings and barbecues and then we will bounce around to each of those. Um we bring swag bags and we engage with them and last year chief was doing dips. I think it was Yeah, I had >> was doing a pull-up. I was say I I have video if we want to see it again. We can. [laughter] Sorry. >> Are we doing a a big one and then going to neighborhoods or this time we're just going to neighbors? >> We're going to neighborhoods. We are talking about doing a big one, but again with FIFA this year um it's really a drain and a lot on the department and so um we're trying to be smart with our planning and so this year we're going to it's just easier if we spread out and go to different events. Do we know if um we have more engagement, more neighborhoods try participating or less than in the past for the national layout? It I think you know before co there was a lot with co there wasn't many and we're slowly grow growing again. The first year I was here we didn't have that many and then last year I think we doubled the number we have. So it you know it it kind of the world takes over sometimes and dictates whether we have these events or not. So, um, we would love to do a a centrallylo one again. That's in the plans, but this year was just not the year to pull that off. >> Thank you. Um, any more questions or comments uh once again for all the effort uh to engage with the community? This is great. Good job. Great job, everybody. Um, there are so many places that you guys are that I know that is not here every single time that I go to um different events. Like, for example, I saw you on the fair for the Highland Elementary School. all of you were there and and the children were running with your best everywhere in the school. So I do I know how much you in every weekly basis are invited to different places to engage with the community and and it's not fair because in this presentation uh you highlight some but it's not fair. We are always in rental river days the SWAT team and everybody is there. I'm assuming that this year is going to be the same. I'm just promoting something that I know I don't know. I'm assuming rental river days. I mean let's talk about river days. Yes. We I mean I have a whole list of all the little ones but I you know it it gets >> Yeah. We have a lot. >> Yes, I know. I I always have seen you guys and you're always there and and and and this is very important. This is very important for earning the community trust. And this idea of you going to them instead of them going to us to us is something that we have talked many many times, especially with our diverse community to the level that they feel safe and comfortable. I think it's important for them to know once again that we are here to protect them and not otherwise. So, Council, >> Council Member Rea, >> thank you. Um, you just reminded me actually, um, and I know Pelty, if you talked about this earlier today, but how are staffing issues impacting our community outreach? And the reason I asked is because I was at a career fair last week for Mcnite Middle School and the RPD table was empty. And that was and I had found out earlier that it was because of low staffing numbers. Um, they were short staffed that particular day. with some day last week and I was just kind of curious if that's become if that's becoming more of a pattern, how we're doing with staffing, how can we best support with that? >> I don't think our staffing has affected our engagement at all. And I I'm I'm sorry that we weren't there. It's the first time actually hearing of it. Um and if we don't have the staff, one of us always breaks free and make sure that we're there um to be able to engage. So, >> okay. Okay. Any more questions? I still have 45 minutes now. [snorts] Um, okay. Let's move to the next item is workup safety plan. So, our next uh event is at 6:45, right? No, 5:45. >> What time is it? 50 minutes before 451. >> 5:45, right? We have to run the speed at 5:5. >> Yes. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just I'll make it quick then for you. >> No, no, no. We have plenty of time according to me. [laughter] We have plenty of time. So unless anybody's bored. >> Wait, FIFA. Um and and I will say if I was if I when I was planning to talk to you last week, um I would have said this will be a very short conversation because up until Wednesday, we hadn't received any um correspondence from um the local organizing committee or FIFA in regards to having a contract in place to ensure that we would be reimbursed for services that we're going to be providing. Um, Wednesday afternoon, um, they the local organizing committee did send over their grant agreement for us. Um, and I will tell you it was a lot of hard work on behalf of our city attorney, the city clerk risk. Um, we're great at reviewing that and being able to get it before you guys this evening so we can get approval of that grant prior to us um, starting with our security services next week. So, I I believe that will be on your agenda this evening um at council. Um so, with that and we're making some assumptions that that you guys will see the grant and um hopefully approve that and I was asked by FIFA when they knew that I was going to be here to kind of give keep it at kind of that 60,000 foot not go into too many details on the operations that we're going to be providing. I know. Um, one is they request, you know, part of our security will be at the hotel that the, um, [snorts] World Cup team that we're going to be housing is going to be staying at. They asked that I not name the hotel, um, as as one of the pieces, but we will have 24/7 security at that hotel when the team is in residence there. So they will be traveling to different venues depending on where they're playing, but as long as they're within the city of Reton, there'll be a contingent of officers doing the exterior security there um 24/7. So that'll I think be three officers for most of that time um just protecting the exterior of that venue. We'll also be responsible for um escorting them between um where they're staying, the hotel and the practice facility. So, those won't be dynamic escorts like we do for the Seahawks. Those will be escorts where we they're still obeying all the um rules of the roadway as they go between the two venues. I I I don't imagine there's going to be much of a disruption for the day-to-day commute or or much interruption of business for anyone during those escorts. Um then we will also be providing um the exterior security at the Sounders facility for when they are practicing there. So, we just got a uh their practice schedule and so during the times that they're there, we'll be there ahead of it and and immediately after um but providing the exterior security around the venue for their practices. Um Commander Swain will be the operations commander for uh the department, oversee all the police operations for the FIFA events during that. When we talk about the Legacy Square is different, that's city sponsored event. So that'll be internal on our part, but Chandler will be responsible for for all the FIFA planning and operations. Um part of this we we have 500 individual extra duty um signups um that will be involved with with all the different security um throughout the city as we go through it. So, it's quite a lift and a big job for Chandler to take on during the whole month of June and into July hopefully. Any questions? So, okay, Chief. So, we have two resolutions tonight that have been advanced uh uh and and this is interlocal agreement with the city of Renon and another one with Dquila to assist the Renon Police Department. Um there are questions around the community obviously about uh using taxpayers dollars and staff of the city has been clear with the community that this is um being financed by the by the FIFA that we're not paying or you know you know that we are not providing services with public uh >> with our public funds and that's that's why I said up until a week ago I wasn't sure we were even going to be providing any services to them. We made it perfectly clear throughout the planning of this that if it wasn't going to be funded through that grant, then we weren't going to be able to provide the services because we knew it wouldn't be right for the citizens of Reton to bear the burden of funding um all the security for FIFA, the the team coming in. So, yes, 100% all of that will be funded through the federal grant that's being organized through the local organizing committee at out of Seattle. >> Thank you, Chief. And the other one is um I heard um some people having concerns that um if the department will be so overwhelmed if they dial 911 this will uh the response to to the city. I'm assuming that's the reason why we're asking assistance from toquilan. So people none of the services that rent on the police department provide to our residents will be in any form or way alterated because this event. >> Absolutely. And that's when I talked about having those 500 individual signups. Um understanding that we wouldn't be able to fill all those and continue our level of service the community. That's why we asked some outside agencies to assist in filling those extra duty spots. the our minimum staffing um for rent and patrol and all of our other divisions hasn't changed during this. So, we will continue to have our same staffing model um throughout this. So, the same level of service will be there for our community members and not be impacted by any of the um other FIFA um assignments. >> Thank you. This is going to go back to my my question around staffing and hopefully I can get a little bit more out of you this time in regards to how we're doing because I'm a little concerned. Um, how much overtime are we expecting and will that be coming out of this grant in particular? >> So the grant is covering the overtime for filling all the FIFA positions. >> I'm talking about additional overtime outside of FIFA. >> So no. So again, no, that doesn't get covered out of this grant. >> Got it. when when we need to fill minimum staffing that's covered out of our budgeted >> and have we anticipated that is my follow-up question. >> Well, we wouldn't anticipate I mean people can't sign up for positions uh for a FIFA spot if they're already assigned to like a patrol spot. So, they can't you take a take a day off and then fill a FIFA spot and then us have to fill overtime into their regular assigned spot. Okay, >> member McCiri. >> Uh, thank you. Uh, my question is on the escort being provided. Um, did you say that was only occurring within run city limits? I know with Seahawks, we've gone outside before, and if so, are we handing off to another agency or if that's too operational or not? >> I didn't say. Um, but yeah, it'll be between the hotel, the practice venue, and then I believe we're also escorting to the airport when they go for away games. I believe if it's a I think the the team we have Belgium um they only have one game in Seattle through the initial and I think another organization is going to be escorting them to that right >> yeah to a match day >> yeah match day they'll Okay >> thank you council member >> I can hear >> you know how many um more officers we'll be able to hire between now and hopefully this summer. How many more officers are being onboarded between now and this summer? >> So, we're working on onboarding four right now have conditional offers of employment. Okay. I know I have another interview coming up next week for but probably be a fifth that we're going to be onboarding >> uh again and and as you know ma'am just onboarding is just the start of the process until they can get on solo patrol. So, it's still >> I still then I have a followup. Do we have any fresh members coming out of the academy? Do we have any more numbers coming into our into our a lotment? >> Currently, like I think I I briefed at public safety today, we have 10 that are in different phases of training right now. We have five that are at the academy currently or about to start the academy and we have another five that are have completed the academy and are in our field training. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, finally, chief, I was in a neighborhood uh uh meeting uh on one of the neighbors that is close to the Legacy Square and because all of the excitement of the opening of the Legacy Square, um um I don't know how many people are going to be there, but I say this is not the first time that we have big crowds in that area. The farmers market is very po popular. We have had in the past uh you know the car show, we have had movies, we have a lot of events. I don't know how many people are actually going to be there but they want to reassure that uh people are going to be safe during that day and that we are prepared depending how the crowd how big how small it's going to be. Uh I always have say that for that day every single city is going to have an event. I I I and um but anyway I don't know how popular it's going to be next Saturday but I I I hope that it's a very successful event. Don't take me wrong, but I always want to make sure always want also want to make sure uh that the residents know that we are prepared, that we're ready, and even if you live in one of the neighborhoods that is close to the Legacy Square, it will not be a big uh >> No, I I would hope not. I hope it's very successful also. Um but our directed enforcement team is going to be responsible for the Legacy Square, for all the viewing parties. They'll be responsible for providing security to that area. Um so we think we have a pretty good plan in place and you know judging from those first few we'll see what the impact is and and how big of um crowds we're looking at then we can adjust accordingly. Um if it is having some other kind of negative impact on the community around there then we'll we'll figure out a way to um address that whether it's through staffing or streets or however whatever we need to do. >> Thank you so much chief council member. Yeah, just for um perspective, do we know how many people run through the city uh over River Day's weekend? Anybody have any idea how many people pass through? >> I do not. We could probably find out from you from the parks department, I think, keeps a pretty good tab on on >> just I'm just curious from a perspective point of view because that's really our largest single event >> downtown Corp. Absolutely. >> So anyway, just a thought. There are no more questions. I want to thank all of you. Great work um and wonderful presentations. I learned a lot today. So I hope all my colleagues did as well. And um and thank you very much for being here. This meeting at your Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you.

Good. They're good. We have a quorum now. Good evening. >> [clears throat] >> I call this meeting to order. Um this is this is the special committee of the whole and we have uh one item on the agenda, which is WSDOT I-405 Sound Transit updates. With us today, we have first the WSDOT presentation and with us is Lisa Hodgson, program administrator. Thank you for being here. Great rule. Okay. Well, good evening and thank you so much for having myself and Sound Transit here tonight. We It's been a while since we've been here and very excited to talk to you about the program and what's going on uh from WSDOT perspective and then how we interact with Sound Transit as well. Um again, my name is Lisa Hodgson, program administrator for 405 167 program. So, tonight I wanted to talk to you a little bit about uh a little bit of overview on the program um and share our latest project updates both from construction and design. Um I'll also going to talk to you about the 167 implementation plan that we're working on and then uh there'll be plenty of time for questions as well. And then I'm just going to do a little bit of a refresher for the program. So, the master plans for 405 and 167 are our foundational documents that guide our program. The main purpose of our program is to deliver a comprehensive strategy. So, we're looking at reducing traffic congestion, also improving mobility and safety performance for all of our users, uh accommodating regional growth, and then enhancing the quality of life not just for the environment, but the communities that we serve. So, together this is a 50-mi corridor, and it is a viable alternative to I-5 for a north-south commute. We're looking at moving people and goods throughout the Puget Sound region. And just for context, uh State Route 167 is designated as a T-1 freight line. So, it plays a really important role in uh supply chains, port access, and then we have a large volume of traffic uh for freight on 167. And then, on Interstate 405, um it's part of our strategic highway network for the Department of Defense, and it also has one of the highest traffic demands in our state, uh supporting many tech industry companies along 405. We have a vision for a dual express toll lane system on the corridor, and also looking to um uh provide that system management, so that high-capacity transit or bus rapid transit uh uh is able to manage their uh route through the program as well, through the corridor. Um and just looking to reduce congestion and improve the traffic flow for all lanes. We're also looking at direct accesses and interchange improvements supporting the system, and enhancing multimodal needs and connections throughout the corridor. And just wanted to recognize that when WSDOT does deliver these large programs and projects, uh we have the opportunity to improve our roadway state of good repair. We're also enhancing the environment including fixing fish passage barriers, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well. And it is wanted to recognize collectively we as a whole, not just WSDOT, not just Sound Transit, but our local partners are all making progress towards that master plan. So, while I'm going to present today I'm focusing on what's ahead of also important to acknowledge what's been behind us. Um we're currently delivering over $4 billion worth of investments along the corridor. We've had 20 completed projects since 2005. And also includes significant investment from our transportation partners with Sound Transit. And at the same time that we're planning and advancing this, we're also doing some pre-design work that sets the stage for the next phases of multimodal improvements on the corridor. And all of this work is aligned with WSDOT's highest priorities, which is preservation, maintenance and operation, and fish passage. I like to bring this slide. It's a really good reference slide cuz it lists the projects that we have. It gives an alphabetical um identification on the left. And then the color coding um talks about the funding that we have. And so there's a tremendous amount of red and purple up there, which is our toll revenue. And then the blue is the Sound Transit uh investments into the program as well. Um I want to recognize too that we have a lot of work going on right now. You'll see a little bit of a gap and we have some future work that's out there. I'm going to talk about that today. Um we're really looking forward to the projects that we currently have out there. As things start to transform, it'll be dramatically different for folks once we are through the projects, uh particularly the Renton to Bellevue project that I'll talk about tonight. And then when Sound Transit has bus rapid transit on our corridor. Um as we look at that work ahead of us, I want to share what it looks like in the relationship for allocation of toll revenue. Um we've been working with the office of the state treasurer to update our program's toll revenue capacity. We're using the latest updated information that was in November of last year. And looking at the projected toll revenue and our projected cash flow needs. We did ask the office of the state treasurer to evaluate some scenarios based on that current toll policy assumptions. We also looked at two sets of project cash flow assumptions. And so the first one here is about $750 million. It's related to our active and committed projects, the work that we're doing now, and then the projects that are associated with the work that might be phased in to meet our commitments for permits. We also have an additional $800 million in future funds that I will cover in just a minute. But this slide shows a breakdown of the toll funded cash flow for our active and committed projects over the next 6 years. And I also want to note this is a snapshot in time, and we will continue to update as our projects advance. And so as we look into the future, our second set of projects uh has funding assumptions that covers future projects. And that totals about $800 million in toll funding. And so together phase one and phase two, so active and committed and our future, represents about $1.5 billion worth of toll revenue attached to that. In the past, we've used the 1.8 million, but in 23-25, we actually spent about 242. So that's the difference if you've heard that 1.8 billion from the past. And then I just wanted to talk about what does that look like from our enacted budget that just came out of the 2026. So this graph shows projected cash flow for each biennium. Um and as I noted in the enacted budget, so the orange shows uh the total funding for active and committed projects. And the green is our future projects. And then the black line that you see there is how the legislature appropriated those funding in the next 6 years and then into the future. And you can see that our phase one and phase two projects generally align with the enacted budget. The difference we have in the enacted about $50 million from what we did with the treasurer's analysis and then what was in the enacted budget and that's that little bit of green that you see in the two future bienniums. Um let's see here. And then I mean the remainder of the future toll funded projects reside beyond that 6-year outlook in the the tall green. Um but I did want to note that in the orange box below that in this session, the legislator noted legislature noted that beyond 29-31 biennium, there is a commitment to complete these projects, but the timing will need to be determined. It's kind of a lot of information to understand or grasp, but what I wanted to make sure everybody takes away [laughter] is when you look at the 6-year enacted budget and what we're delivering, that looks financially feasible. Um we did work with the treasurer and he did identify that when we look at the future plan that we need out there, there's about a $430 million gap. And so, we'll be working in partnership with our folks up and down the corridor and we're planning uh how we plan for those long-term needs and updating our uh program's financial plan. We intend to do that before the 2027 session and we will continue to update that in in years beyond. And then looking at where we are at in construction, you're all very well aware of the construction outside this office here or this building, and that is our Renton to Bellevue project. That project is funded with Connecting Washington and Sound Transit. Um the construction is continuing to build our dual express tolling system. It also has a full rebuild of the Northeast 44th Street interchange. Um recently we've started to work more in the median area, which is part of the system that is installing the drainage, the fiber, the electrical, the things that go with the toll lanes, and we've started to do our turnover to the toll vendor. So we started this additional work function out there with another [clears throat] uh uh contractor. And what I wanted to note is that um uh one thing that's just around the corner is we're working on the new structure that is 44th, which is our southbound structure. We will have traffic moved from where it is today onto that new southbound structure in the next few weeks. So it'll be a different thing out there, and you will really see that median open up, and that's where that direct access and the future express toll lanes will reside. So the project is forecasted to open in summer 2027. We still have a lot of work to do. We have weather-dependent work to do on that as well. To get there, we're going to have to do some additional uh impactful closures. Uh we've listed them on the screen. Um again, looking at things that really will show visible work that's done during those weekends. One of the things that is uh on the the schedule for completion this year is to start uh that paving component. We have a lot of paving to do. Almost all this roadway gets new overlay. And so we have over 100,000 tons that we're anticipating starting uh through the end of the year. And then I just wanted to recognize up to the north we have our Brickyard to 527 project. That one's funded by toll revenue, Move Ahead Washington and Sound Transit, and that's looking at expanding from a single lane system to a dual lane system where we get that real system management and also the support needed for bus rapid transit. Um we've been doing a lot of structural work up there. It's uh and we will continue to do that work. Uh that work will continue through 2028. I think the really exciting thing to note about that is when that project and the Renton and the Bellevue project is done, we will have about 50 mi 50 plus miles of system in place, and a large portion of the 405 corridor will have its planned dual express toll lane system. Looking at our planning efforts, we've been working on the 1 uh SR 167 corridor improvements project. Uh oh, this one is just finished. I'm sorry, this is our substantial completion that just happened on that project. That was all about updating the toll system out there, modernizing it so that it matched what we had on 405 for a consistent experience out there. And probably one of the biggest things that changed out there is destination pricing. So on 167 when you used to enter in there, you would pay one price if you went 2 mi, 5 mi, 10 mi. And now we have destination pricing with um different locations along the corridor. And then in uh our planning efforts, so we are working on the 167 southbound extension [clears throat] project. That is in design right now. That is funded with toll revenue >> [clears throat] >> and also some federal grants. Um in this area there currently is just two general purpose lanes. So this is the project that will extend uh the HOV Express toll lane system from where ends in the southern end to about State Route 410 512 area. It also is a project that connects to the Puget Sound Gateway program. And so, this project is about bringing congestion relief to the southbound travelers and also that 50-mi managed system from Linwood to Puyallup. I also wanted to note So, the city of Renton had received some funds to do some study improvements on Rainier Avenue. This was about helping to facilitate better access for transit to and from Sound Transit's new South Renton Transit Center at Rainier Avenue and Grady Way. It was a really a collaborative effort between the city of Renton, Sound Transit, King County Metro, and WSDOT. Those efforts kicked off in June of '24 where concepts were developed. We presented those and have gone under undergone evaluation on those. There were four concepts that were uh developed. It really had a wide range of potential investments from lower cost signal improvements, operational improvements which is noted in concept one, to full direct access for transit in the median of 405 which was concept three. So, last summer we shared those concepts with four different public audiences in a series of 2-hour discussions to collect their input and their concerns. We're looking at wrapping that work up pretty soon. It's in the reports in the final stages and when that report is finalized, we'll be publishing that on our website. Overall, based on the evaluation and partner feedback, each of the four concepts included in the study had merit. These concepts are not mutually exclusive and each provides its own distinctive benefits that could improve traffic operations in that area. Of the four concepts, one concept was uh move forward concept three as the preferred alternative and we have moved that design through so we could look at what uh potential acquisitions of uh property would be needed to build that. So it's kind of one of those bigger impact ones and that's why that concept was chosen to move forward. The initial cost estimate uh indicated that those improvements would exceed $200 million in a 2025 uh year. Sorry, can you repeat that? Uh the cost estimate for concept three was over 20 200 million dollars in the year of 2025. So it's not progressed out uh for inflation. Thank you. Madam President. Yes, Councilmember Zahara. Um thank you. I just I want to clarify. So these concepts are for transit only, right? They're not for the your standard 405 user. Right. This is about the connection between the 405 and the Renton Transit Center. >> Okay, so not even um HOV? Not for this study. I mean, concept uh three with the direct accesses is also part of the master plan vision, but this was really a study that uh had funding for a scope that was about that transit connectivity and how to help with um as the transit gets off and gets back on, how that could be improved. >> Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. >> Yeah. Um and then in terms of next steps, additional funding would be needed to advance to a preferred alternative uh for preliminary engineering and construction. And then I want to talk to you about our 167 implementation plan. Uh we've been working with our partners to identify a package of projects and their funding needs. This will go into the legislature for their consideration at the end of the year. Uh we are taking those master plan recommendations and doing enough work to provide a preferred funding and phasing strategy for the initial package of projects associated with that. And then um in those series of workshops we've been doing briefings and meetings with our partners. We began level setting in November of last year. We did some project screening in February and we really narrowed it down to two different packages. We're continuing to refine those. We'll be doing a workshop in May and hoping to find a recommended package that we will work on this summer and as I noted a final report in December. I did want to note that this is focused on funding and phasing the WSDOT specific project. So when the implementation plan for 167 or the 167 master plan was created there was 185 projects and strategies in there and of those 185 projects 15 are WSDOT projects. They fall into three main categories which are lanes, direct access ramps and interchange improvements. It also has an emphasis on freight mobility and active transportation improvements at key locations. And from those 15 we went down to five and now we're looking for one recommendation. This shows what one of the package highlights is. So it's about improvements to the express tolling system. So how we get system management, looking at our interchanges and local access for freight and active transportation modes and looking at improving speed and reliability for general purpose lanes for transit and the express toll lanes. So, when we get system management, all lanes get an improvement. Um we're looking at delivering regional benefits that include improved freight access and reliability. Um when we look at this package four in relationship to the next package five, they're very similar. The difference is that package four looked at um improve missing links at SR 18 interchange. Package five looks at how direct access in Kent would work. Um I want to note that all the direct accesses in the plan have merit, but this package does prioritize Kent to be the first to advance. Uh again, we're still looking at interchange improvements for freight and system performance. We're looking towards getting more of this out to the public, so we have uh started working on our engagement plan, which will go through the end of this year. Really looking to build awareness with the communities along the corridor in the coming months through some fairs and festivals. Also, continued outreach via email to our interested parties, and coordination and touch points along the way with our equity advisory committee, our interagency working group, and our executive advisory group. Thank you for the opportunity. I would also like to thank Council Member O'Halleran for all the time that you spend with our executive advisory group and the great and thoughtful feedback that you bring to the table. So, I appreciate that and wanted to open it up for questions, too. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for being here, and thank you so much for your presentation. I'm going [clears throat] to open the floor at this time for questions or comments. Ask any questions? We're good? I have a comment and a question. [clears throat] Uh when we um have an advocating so hard for making sure that the money that is collected in 167 is stays on 167. I remember those days when we were making sure that that was going to happen. More now that we have you have now the toll lanes and we're making sure that that money is used there and and that that money didn't go anywhere else because we understood the needs of 167. We also need understood the need to to end the 167 and to prioritize the south of the 167. However, we brought up our voice saying that on our side is the beginning of the 167 or the end, however you want to see it, but it begins and ends in downtown Renton. And now that will begin and end also on a future transit center. Um the traffic at that because of that is a nightmare. So, we have been advocating for when all the other projects are finished to keep a pri- a priority that 167 has to be improved to that area so that way doesn't matter how many improves we make is people are not stuck in traffic all the way on 167 because you are going to end on a red light in Renton that people going to work, right? So, I just want to bring to the table once again when we're talking about these future plans with 167 that this is still a priority for Renton to consider. I know that money is an issue. I know but I now I know that also we're collecting more money with new tolls and and I also want to keep it there as a priority for Renton to consider. What are we going to do in the future specifically specifically that now that the transit center is going to be a regional transit center and we respect more people to come and use the 167 and we want that um uh in is as SR. English is my second language. SR regional state route a state route a state route uh um a is fluid. I mean, keeps moving, right? So, I'm not an engineer. I don't know how to do that, but I I I drive that that all the time and I can recognize the problem that is today. So, I just got want to make sure that it's in the black board and that and and you heard our voices. Yes, and it's it's a good voice and we need to keep saying it because SR 167 implementation plan assumes that that interchange, at least northbound and the 405 connection, is there. And that also relies in the [clears throat] 405 master plan. So, it's not forgotten. It's just in the 405 plan. It's captured there and it will be noted in the report as well. Thank you very much, Kelly. Uh Councilmember Market. Yes, thank you, Madam President. Uh thanks so much for the presentation. Um so excited to hear that that southbound uh side uh Northeast 144th and Lake Washington Boulevard is going to be open soon. I've been wondering on that. So, um excited that I'll be able to drive on that side soon uh when I'm driving. Um the question I had was on the the gap in uh revenue, the shortfall you had mentioned. Was the if I'm sorry if you said it, I missed it. What is the primary driver of that? Is that more on the the cost side, like things are more expensive, or are we not seeing the numbers we were seeing earlier on as far as people using the tolls? A combination of both. And so, when COVID hit, the revenue went down. Uh it came back up and it normalized, [clears throat] but I don't think it ever got back up to what we had planned in uh prior. The other thing that is out there as we look at this is that when we started thinking about toll revenue and bonding against it, we never went over about a billion dollars. And so, there was always a thought that, you know, we had more projects and that we wouldn't be able to do it all with toll funding. And now we've just kind of put a finer point on it and said, "Here's what we can afford and here's where we see the gap. I think the window of opportunity for us is once rent in Bellevue opens, we start to see what's collected, we're modeling it right, you know, and and making predictions off that. Once we see the proof of performance, then there can be some more conversations about that, but we just want to make sure that all of our stakeholders up and down the corridor understand that there is a gap, and how will that look? And one of those future projects is the North 8th project. So, it's one of our future ones, but I thought it was really important that they noted that they were keeping that there, but they just didn't know when we would have the timing to do it. Yeah. Thank you. Any more questions [clears throat] or comments? No, we're good. Thank you so much once again. Thank you for all your work. Thank you for your advocacy, and um we're so looking forward for this project, too. >> [laughter] >> Uh um we have been waiting forever, and and and and I know that our community has been very patient with all the closures on 405, but because they understand the great need at the end of the day of having this project done as soon as possible. So, thank you very much once again. Uh next we have with us the Sound Transit presentation. Uh here with us is Paul Cornish, strategic project director of Bus Rapid Transit. Am I okay with that? Yeah, that's great. >> Fantastic. Thank you for uh having me here at least uh tonight, and as I go through my presentation, we'll see how well BRT is going to perform. It's because of Lisa and her team in partnership with us. So, again, I am the strategic projects director for the Bus Rapid Transit program, which which is named Stride. It's it's a little more fun than Bus Rapid Transit. So, what I wanted to cover today was uh and the project milestones, a review of the program itself, and then a 2020 20 2026 look ahead. And I want to note that the board is going through our enterprise initiative right now. I think last week the board chair came out with their proposal to to work with the affordability gap and I know the city of Renton has provided public comment to the board and there's very much appreciated. But what I wanted to focus on tonight was the actual BRT program. So [clears throat] this is a great picture. This is a great day for the BRT program is when we broke ground down here in Renton for the Renton Transit Center. We made a couple of references to earlier that was good to get that going. It's going to be a big big facility for Sound Transit and and the bus rapid transit [snorts] program. And so not to be outdone on groundbreakings, last August we had a groundbreaking for a bus operations and maintenance facility that's up in Bothell up in the North Creek area which when we get to the schedule it's the first thing we want to finish cuz that's where we're going to take the buses. That's where we're going to run run the system out of. The operators going to come out of there. So that would be That's a big deal to get to get that that system going. And then we had the Stride 3 line which is the north end of Lake Washington from Shoreline to Bothell. They broke ground in February as well. We broke ground for the 2 line a couple years ago as our big North East 85th project. So that's that's the last of the groundbreakings. Now it's time to start serious on the construction and getting to the eventual ribbon cuttings. And speaking of ribbon cuttings, this year last 6 months on transit in the region had a couple of big days. We opened the light the 1 line to Federal Way. We connected the 2 line across Lake Washington Lake Washington. That was a huge milestone for the for the region as we start to connect all the light rail systems and I reminded the BRT system actually ties in the four light rail stations. So it really helps bring the whole system whole high capacity system together. That being said, the next big opening will be Stride. So now all the eyes are The focus is now on Stride. Focus is on the BRT program and Lisa and her team to perform so we can get to the stride program opening. So we are we are now we are now in the pole position for the next opening and that's very exciting. So that I'd like to give you a quick overview of the program and I want to preface this with everything in the program as far as the capital work, the buses, the station, all that is funded. That is not subject to any of the enterprise initiative, whatever wherever that may be. All this work is funded and all this work is for the most part under construction. So we're we're very excited to be in that position. So a quick overview of this system and on the on the map on the right, we [clears throat] have from the top to the bottom Lynnwood City Center down to Bellevue coming down up the 5 and down the 405. That is what we call the S2 line, Stride 2. And Bellevue Transit Center down the Burien, which is the S1 line and that's where a lot of this work that Lisa has just talked about with Renton to Bellevue Northeast 44th, that's part of that. And then the Shoreline South Shoreline station to Bothell is the S3 line that goes along Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and Bothell. And then we have the bus base. So those are the big the big pieces. Um the bus base up in Bothell, we're going to have our zero emission bus fleet. Sound Transit has not had any battery electric buses to date and the BRT program is all going to be entirely electric buses and we're very excited about that. Um the S1 line from Bellevue Burien, that's 17 miles, five stations and I like to show these bars cuz that gray bar existing ST Express, that's the 560. It basically takes it 56 minutes to to cover that distance. And when the BRT is built, that time is going to go from 57 down to 38 to 42. A good portion of that is our stations, our platforms, shorter dwell times, and things like that. But, a major portion of that is actually the additional express toll lanes that we'll be running in with with Lisa's with Lisa's help. The S2 line, Lynnwood to Bellevue, 20 miles, seven stations. The 57 minutes, that's the 535. That should get down to 33 to 38 minutes. So, again, we're almost cutting these times in half with express toll lanes and our stops at BRT stations in the middle of the 405. Shoreline to Bothell, there's not a lot of improvements up there, but we are making some. We're We finished some I don't know why it says no improvements. Oh, without improvements, it's about an hour. With improvements, it's 35 to 39 minutes. We're putting bus only lanes up there, putting bus queue jumps up there. We're doing through a whole series of of smaller improvements to make, including up at the University of Washington campus, making that happen. And when all is said and done, we expect about 26 riders a day on the the S1 and S2 line, and about 8,900 a day in the S3 line. That's in 2042 numbers when the whole system is envisioned to be built out. We're going to be running 10 to 15-minute headways. That means a bus every 10 minutes during the peak, every 15 minutes during the off-peak, uh 7 days a week, 17 hours a day. So, here's a picture of our in the upper right, this is one of our stride stations. And if you notice, all of our light rail stations, they'll look a little different. The stride stations will all look pretty much the same. Now, we we know we're in different environments. Some are on the freeway, some are on the highly in 522, some are inside a transit center. So, we have what's called a kit of parts, which means we'll have the same colors, the same look, but we'll make it bigger or smaller depending on how many rides we're going to have, and where that facility is going to sit. So, it's kind of it's kind of nice you will always know when you're at a straight station and we right size it for your stop. Again we have a first all electric buses we're going to start taking those buses delivery in 2027. We're going to store them down in Kent because our bus base will not be open yet. But we have a place for those buses when they come online. Um we're going to have our uh our art at the passenger station. I know you know Sound Transit has a very robust art public art program and we're going to have art at all of the stations. We'll have bike racks on the front of the bus and then we'll have what's called charging infrastructure throughout which means at the end of the bus line in Burien or downtown Bellevue or South Shoreline, the buses will actually sit on a pad to recharge themselves to make sure we got plenty of and we this is a boots and suspenders approach. We have lots of lots of um on-site charging to keep to make sure these buses can get the route that they want. And again here's a picture of the buses on the lower left on the S1 and S2 line that's the 405 routes. We have double-decker buses and then the S3 line which run 522 and 523 that is the the more classical articulated um bus that that bends in the middle. So here are the site program status and I love this map because everything in green means it's either out for construction, we've awarded a construction contract or we're we're in construction or we're getting ready to finish construction. And so everything you see in green is what we call in construction. On the 405 S2 line we got a little project up there in Lynnwood which is a on-ramp at Poplar Way that project's going to go out for ad pretty soon ad being to solicit a contractor. And then the pink you see on the three line at Shoreline Lake Forest Park those are ready those are just about to go out the door again for a contractor. So we're turning this whole map whole map green which is great It means we're getting all these projects in the construction. Right now, we have about $650 million worth of work with uh the 405 team, and we're trying to get another project out the door that I'm going to show you in a couple minutes. Um we've finished some construction in Bothell. We actually finished a little some bus lanes with the city of of Bothell few years ago, but again, the bus maintenance facility is in construction. The Renton Transit Center is in construction. We have all these S3 lines are in construction. And we have our contract service provider, which is kind of a wonky term for we're actually going to run our own service. Right now, the King County runs regional express in King County, and Pierce County runs it down in Pierce. We're actually going to have our own owned um maintenance folks and and drivers for the for the BRT system. That's That's a big step to get that contract out and get that award and get those get those people on board. So, there's a picture uh of the Renton Transit Center. They've They've been in in construction that long. They started the dewatering system, clearing excavation for utilities, working on the storm drains. Kind of the first things you do is getting the dirt and get the dirt moved around and get get it where you need it to be. Um construction will be complete in time for S1 service, which starts in 2028. Um there's a couple couple pictures, little more detailed pictures of what we're doing with with the storm drains and putting in drainage tile. And I'd like to let everybody know that we love giving hard what we call hard hat tours of our sites. Any of the council members like to go out on site and get a tour of the construction, we would be more than happy to accommodate you that with that. That would be great fun, and we would love and we would love to do that. And finally, this last picture uh of the completed transit center. This is a rendering. Um it shows that we have the We have eight bus bays, six for King County Metro, two for ourselves, an interim parking lot of 150 58 stalls. We got the core buildings, we got the security, restrooms, electrical communications, storage, so all that infrastructure that needs to come with a a site like this. And we have layover for 13 King County buses. And then we're doing some street improvements. We're adding a signal at Hardy and Rainier and doing some other roadway improvements around around the site. Excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. Excuse me. Okay. When you show the photo of the rendering, is all this vegetation and landscaping is going to be there? Yeah, that's there's a lot of where those big huge power lines are, there's nothing we could do underneath them except landscape it. So it's it's really heavily landscaped. Council President. Yeah, Councilmember Rubel. I have a question regards to that. I love landscaping. I want it to be beautiful. I want it to be as beautiful as all the other spaces and I think it's absolutely fantastic. My understanding though is that this is supposed to be a regional park and ride, right? One of the the big hitters from my understanding. And if my understanding is correct, um I'm curious because the most recent resolution 2611 for the which is going to be up for that full board board vote on May 28th from my understanding would cancel the park and ride improvements at the Renton stations, um including the our parking garage that we were promised. Is that correct? Right, this is correct. >> I'm sorry. It was correct in the original project had this 700 stall parking garage which was as all our parking was deferred when it came out of COVID. And now that parking has been deferred again and and gone into this other option which is why I got the folks back here from the Enterprise Initiative. If you have some more specific questions for them on that, they would be more than happy to I'm going to proceed with my question then cuz um when it comes to this parking garage, it's one of the this is one of the few things I'm I'm going to out myself. I'm going to be 37 on Sunday. I'm really excited about it. I was 8 years old when Sound Transit started collecting taxes in 1997. I've lived in the city my whole life and I have seen uh this much of benefits from my tax dollars when it comes to Sound Transit. And now I'm hearing that we are going to be possibly losing our parking garage when this is supposed to be a regional park and ride. And I'm just trying to understand um when it comes to these like renderings, are they going to be accurate for the number of parking spots that we're going to need? Are we going to be able to have all that nice little vegetation when there's no actual parking garage? Are they just going to turn into a a concrete parking garage because sometimes we don't get as pretty of things as like the other cities on the Eastside or North End. So, that's my question because as you can tell I'm very frustrated that we are again being deferred as a city Right. when we've been historically left behind. Understood. As far as far as the land >> your colleague is right there ready to go. All right, which one is that? Oh, here we go. Hi, Ariel. But as far as the landscaping goes, that's all we can do with that area. So, that's what that will end up being. Now, I know that I know that you're going to answer, but I want to tell you that >> [clears throat] >> um having a a landscape and all these things that beautify the neighborhood is are very important. And um I normally when we go to these these cut, the first thing that goes is landscaping and things like that. So, when I appreciate the renderings when they look so beautiful, I actually look closer what is the reality is going to be. That's the reason why I brought the question if it was going to look exactly like that. However, consumer member um Rivera had a more important question, which is what is the garage here? So, And if I may Council President to add Yeah. um I have a hard time trusting Sound Transit. You've made a lot of promises that you've not fulfilled for us, right? And so, as you're on the record here today, please be honest with us about that. Hello council member, thank you for the comments and the questions. Just for the council's awareness, my name is Ariel Taylor. I'm the director of government and community relations here at Sound Transit. We were expecting some enterprise related questions tonight because there is a very significant effort underway at Sound Transit to rethink our system plan as we move forward with expanding our transit system. The proposal put forward that will be up for a vote on May 28th that you referenced is put forward by the board chair. So, it has not been adopted yet. Absolutely, so it's not something that will be set in stone as of right now. There's still a lot of time to advocate as a city. I actually saw council member McIrvin at the Sound Transit board meeting last week. Thank you so much for your comments, as well as Mayor Pavone and of course board member Prince and council member Prince on the Sound Transit board. We have heard this loud and clear. Renton prioritizes and needs parking. That is why I think the board chair has not only not like actually cut the parking here, but what he's doing is proposing to do a parking fund. So, it's not What's the word I'm looking for? It's not actively cutting the parking, but more trying to make sure that we are putting the parking where the demand is most needed. So, that would be a next step after this and that's the board chair's proposal. We as staff are here to take the direction from the Sound Transit board and we will be evaluating based off of that board direction where that parking money will be going. Thank you, President. Thank you. Council member Balducci. So, as discussed at recent board meetings in response to board member questions, it was noted that a racial equity analysis was not conducted as part of the development of the chair's proposal. Was any level of equity assessment considered when evaluating projects for advancement, partial funding, or deferral? And I say this because you know, we are the 16th most diverse city in the country. We are the fourth largest city in King County. And we're job-based. We have set over 70,000 jobs. People mostly who are coming in here to work at in Renton, most not living in Renton. And I I'm just wondering if any of that was considered. Um thank you for your question. My name is Alex Krieg. I work at Sound Transit um leading this thing called the Enterprise Initiative. Um we have uh received this question from board members as well. Uh we did not use the racial equity toolkit in the uh Enterprise Initiative. Um all of our capital projects have been deploying that racial equity toolkit as part of their uh project development process. Um and we have been following specific board direction uh from a motion that they adopted in um August of 2025 that established principles and process elements guiding the work of the Enterprise Initiative. And that is what we have been using to do the work. Other president? Uh yes. Okay. Um um what [clears throat] Paul, I really appreciate your presentation and we're going to keep going and keep talking about the BRT. But since you put the rendering of the parking uh >> [clears throat] >> transit Sound Sorry, the Renton Transit Center, obviously this ignited a lot of the questions since this is now a question mark for Renton. And as you see, it is very important for us to make sure that that Sound Transit finally delivered to Renton. And again, guys, thank you so much for being here and thank you for helping us understand, but this is more than frustrating for Renton. And we are here for that to advocate it for our residents. So, once again, we appreciate your work, but we have to present the questions to understand better what is happening at that level. So, 10 years ago, I was in front of the board begging them, begging them not to leave Renton behind, to say why we're not having a light rail. Our residents are asking for a light rail. And they told us, "No, the only thing that you're going to have is a BRT and a transit center with a parking garage and a study for a light rail." For the last 10 years, we kept being keen coming to the table every single day to ask them when light rail to Renton. Go back to the blackboard. Your job is to represent the region. Your job is to make sure that the region works, that is effective for everybody that lives here. Nobody should be left behind. You make mistakes, go back and decide if you can fix it or not. This is what way before that we knew how expensive and all the problems and the costs and oversell and the under budget and all that. Renton keep coming to the table saying, "Please, take into consideration that this is a regional solution. It's not just for Renton, it's for the region at the end of the day, right?" Um I grew up in a very, very large system and I know perfectly that mass transportation doesn't work if you don't have the tools that get you where you want to be in the fastest way. My commute was 3 hours a day if I would have to ride if I have to drive. But if I took mass transit transportation, it was going to be one. But I need to make sure that the system work because if the system is really expensive and that system provides certain parts of of the mass transportation, but not the other other parts, it doesn't matter how much money we spent. Because if it's going to happen what happened to the Moins, that they have light rail, but people have to drive because they don't have where to park their cars, or they have to use Uber to get to the parking the transit center, obviously the system is not working. So, with Renton it's the same thing. Well, we're waiting for the light rail, when the light rail comes, we should because I'm going to keep pushing for that, uh where people are going to park? Where how this going to work on the region? If this is going to be the service that we're going to provide to to region, I cannot believe that I'm here now begging for they to fund the garage, when we should have been discussing when the light rail is coming to Renton. Once again, this is a regional solution. This is not about Renton. Why we are talking about new funding for garages? I understand that they are extremely expensive. So, if they are that expensive, why we are not investing in a system that actually works? That we do not need those big parking garages, but transportation that bring us to point A to point B to be able to to ride the the BRT, or to ride the light rail rail. So, while I understand completely your job and how hard it is and that you have to work with a board that has to understand all of this, keep considering when you are way under budget, I also will feel that I'm betraying my residents that ask every day when are we getting light rail, if I don't bring these concerns to the table. And again, Paul, we're going to go back to the BRT and I promise you that, but I needed to say this so you understand the level of frustration of Renton uh because of the lack the serious lack of investment in our city after all the money that our taxpayers have been contributing to this system. Thank you very much. Councilmember, do Do more questions, comments? Councilmember Rivera. Yeah, I really appreciate that you just owned up to the fact that a racial equity lens wasn't conducted when it comes to this because when I'm looking at what's being proposed, I'm seeing let's just compare Issaquah to Renton for example, right? They have about 40,000 residents where we have close to 108. 57% of those residents are white, 41% of our residents are white. About the median value of an owner-occupied housing in Issaquah, $963,000 in comparison to Renton, $673,000. Very interesting to me, median household income 2020 to 2024. $154,000 in Issaquah, $100,000 in Renton. Total employment, 29,000 in Issaquah, 70,000 in Renton. So, clearly there is no racial equity when it comes to Renton and the projects only when it best suits Sound Transit. And so my question are these renderings, can Sound Transit guarantee today that these renderings are going to be fully funded and stay intact, we're not going to lose any of the spoilage even though we may need more parking? Sure, also I'll go ahead and start the answer to this question and I think Paul may have some project specific answers for this. And I just want to say that I I hear you and I hear this frustration and I absolutely hear your frustration. I actually remember you advocating 10 years ago for the on behalf of the people of Renton. We have heard this for a very long time, so I want to acknowledge that. And also, I would like to also offer that we are delivering two very massive BRT stations and spending millions of dollars on that infrastructure here in Renton. >> [clears throat] >> Now, the parking itself is definitely an issue and access to stations is part of that. >> Madam President, I'm very >> please don't interrupt. Please don't interrupt. I want to Yeah, give you this. You got me on that one. It's millions of rent, and finally It It's my understanding that the parking lot on Grady is funded by federal dollars, not ST. So, it's It's not an investment from our taxes back into our community. The 700 South parking garage? No, the parking the the Sorry, the transit center. is Not the entire parking or Excuse me, not the entire transit center. There is some federal grant in that, but it is not the entirety of that facility. Also, the improvements along 405 that we are making for speed and reliability, those are also hefty dollars that we are putting into that corridor for speed and reliability, both up to Bellevue to that transit uh facility, getting people up to the two line and to the job centers up there, and back down here in Renton, and also uh further west into Tukwila to connect with the one line. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh >> [clears throat] >> I think they the point that we are all trying to make is that when we add the numbers of services that other cities are receiving compared to the money that we're putting, obviously, I have joke about this many, many times, but it is very painful to say that well, at least Issaquah can put a plague there recognizing the taxpayers of Renton for having their light rail. Um it's nothing against Issaquah. Nothing. As I said it again, it's that regional voice. It's the people that are looking for the region and saying how this is going to work for everybody. Not for one, not for two, for everybody. And it's very painful to hear that equity was not taken into consideration for this, because it's important. I'm not talking about race or ethnicity. No, I'm trying for all the cities and town in King County in Pierce and in Snowhomish get served to a level that everybody deserves because we are all paying for for the system. But once again, I do appreciate your work. This is not about you guys. This is about because you're here and you're the voices and we have these frustrations and questions that we have to ask. Regarding this, can we continue or do you have any questions? Okay. Paul, please, you can continue. Thank you. Well, um I am almost done. Thank you. [clears throat] Are landscaping. So, yeah, that this the the landscaping we we show you that's all that area that the site is dedicated for landscaping. There's no there's nothing else we can do under that. Cuz of those very high very high wattage overhead lines. Okay. Is it Is it I would move on from the landscaping. Okay. >> [laughter] >> I really would. So, this next this next slide is Northeast 44th. The picture on the left that's a rendering that shows we've circled in yellow where the BRT stations are going to be there on the the ramp south of Northeast 44th. And the picture on the right, that was taken by the field inspector last Wednesday. So, it's a pretty new picture and you can start to see where the platforms and curbs and things are going to be built. And the handover date, what we call the handover is when Lisa and her crew finish the parts where it comes over to Sound Transit where we have our station fit-up team go out there and start their work. And that station and that station handover will be this spring. So, we will start bringing in our contractor who will build the BRT stations that I showed you some pictures of earlier. And then the last project to get out the door, and this has been approved by the board, and we're still working with Lisa and her team negotiating the funding agreement. And this will follow through model for everything on the 405 where either we find a portion of it. In this case, we find all of it. And the 405 team actually manages design and construction cuz this this is what they do. They do this very well. They've been doing this a long time. That makes all the sense in the world having them do this. So, we'll have two platforms in the middle of 518 adjacent to the existing light rail station. There'll be a pedestrian bridge connecting into the mezzanine level of the light rail station. And there'll also be a pedestrian bridge to the south that eventually will work its way up to State Route 99, which connects all those neighborhoods to the south. And so, we're we're hoping to get the request for qualifications out this summer, which is we put it out for the design builders to look at and consider and start building teams and see if that's a project that they would like to pursue. So, let me understand. So, they they the BRT platforms are going to be ready and also the light rail to Tukwila will be ready in this summer? 2026? Or am I am I totally misunderstanding this? I would come to the project out. It's going to take a few years to build it. Oh, okay. Well, Yeah. totally confused. >> Yeah, actually I have a little schedule that cuz this this is actually behind um S1 by a by about a year and a half. Okay. Okay. Okay. But yeah, that was just to get it out to start getting the soliciting design builders to actually come in. >> Okay. Thank you. I was confused. >> Oh, no. That's that's fine. That's fine. I just have a 40,000 foot question. Why is Renton the only non-inline station? I well, >> [laughter] >> I can do it too. You can do it too. Well, I mean it's it's actually it's a little You're right. It's the only inline station. And we sat there and we tried to figure out how could we bring all that closer to the to the 405 cuz it is only one. And that this one was came to us and we worked with the city about which site they want us to buy and put the Renton Center on. It was the Fortin site, right? That what it used to be? So, we kind of worked that that out with with previous um council here about what what site they would like us to buy and we were asked to buy the Sound Fortin site and put the Renton Transit Center there. That's why I've been trying to figure out how to actually improve that access to and from the from the freeway. Yeah, I'll go ahead and just add to what Paul said. Um the size of the transit center here that we're building in South Renton, which will actually be called the Renton Transit Center because we're moving the existing transit center down uh to this new facility. Um we need a bigger space than something that's in the middle of the freeway uh to accommodate more metro service, to accommodate park and rides, to accommodate all of those other things that we need to serve this area. So, that is why it is just off of 405 and not in the middle. Thank you. Yep. Then um as part of our construction outreach, we do a lot of public engagement. We've been out meeting with uh the senior center. We give a presentation on Sound Transit. Evidently, we There's a game called Transit Bingo, which I heard went over very well. We've been going to We've been to the Renton Highlands Library, the Renton Library. We've been doing a lot of what we call tablings. We set up our booths and talk to folks about about what's going on. A lot of the questions are transit connections to through King County Metro to the to the BRT, the high high capacity system. Um how we address folks with mobility issues, how to get your ORCA lift pass, um the time of the construction and the opening of the of the Stride line. So, that's been We have a great outreach program and and Allison is just over the top engaged with communities. So, that is something that we go go through our whole life of a project, particularly construction, cuz that's when things really start to hit the road when we're actually moving some dirt around. So, that that is going on and that is a very robust program that we run. So, to get to to your question, um here's our here's our milestones. We're going to open the bus base north fourth quarter 27, which has to has to come first we can start setting up to run the buses. Then second quarter of 28 the S3 line, that's the South Shoreline to uh Bellevue piece will open without the Lake Forest Park piece. That's going to That's going to follow. Uh we've highlighted in yellow Q3 2028 S1 line starts, that's bearing the Bellevue without Tibbs. Tibbs is going to come out in about a year later cuz we had some we had some issue there some structural issues with the the culvert under 518 and so we had to work with WSDOT and get that sorted out. So, it's it's a little late. But, we do have an interim solution to serve the the light rail station once we open the S1 line. And then Q2 of 29 the S2 line, which is Bellevue to Lynnwood and the Lake Forest Park piece of S3 line opens. So, we'll have it all all open and running and that's one of the kind of the beauties of of BRT system. You can actually open things in pieces. It it's not all or nothing and and so we're taking advantage in the flexibility that we have in a BRT system and timing our our openings to meet um where at with construction. And so, that's that's as actually a nice benefit to the BRT. And then our look ahead Can I interrupt you Oh, absolutely. And you will understand why I'm asking this. When is [clears throat] the light rail to Tukwila projected to be ready? The light rail to Tukwila? Uh-huh. It it's already in operations. The Tukwila International Boulevard station. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that that is operation. I forgot that. So, if if I want to use BRT to go to downtowns, yeah. How long is it going to take me to take the BRT to Tukwila from Tukwila to Seattle? Is it faster to go Tukwila or is faster to go Bellevue to get to downtown Seattle? Do you have those timelines? I don't know the answer, but if it was >> a reason why I'm Let me If it was up to me, I take the BRT to Bellevue because it's only going to stop at 44th between there and Bellevue and then you can hop and it's going to stop right kitty-corner from the the downtown Bellevue station. >> to tell you this is a caption question. This is a caption question. Because the reason why I want to know how long it takes is because I want to know if my residence is more convenient for them to using the same metro system that I have been using until today to go to downtown because it's going to be faster than the downtown Seattle. I I would concur with Paul. Um if I were in Renton and I wanted to go to downtown Seattle, I think I would take the Stride Line north to Bellevue and then from Bellevue to downtown Seattle, there are fewer stops um to get to downtown Seattle on the two line than there are from the one line at Tukwila to downtown Seattle. It stops much more frequently uh through the uh the south end of Seattle and through Tukwila. So, it would probably be faster to go over the I-90 bridge. Okay, but we still don't know if that is even faster to keep using metro. Oh, than using metro. Um that's a good question. I don't know. I just wanted When I was talking about mass transit being effective, that's what I'm talking about. Okay, can I continue booking? Okay, so I just I have one final slide. So, in 2026, we have a work for construction of the Burien Transit Center, the Lake Forest Park missing the later piece of the Bat Lines. We were up here Tibbs and I'm like, well, I think we will have short listed the design builders for that Tibbs and Line station project, but we won't actually open the bids until early next year. I'm not going to look at Lisa, but I think that's going to be her answer is we'll actually open the bids early 2027. But, again, under construction is the Renton Transit Center. A whole bunch of work up on 522 and 523 on that S3 line. The bus operation facility that's that's they're going gangbusters up there. The Brickyard project 527, that's a picture that Lisa showed you that has four BRT stations, three for the two line and one for the three line. I know that's confusing and we're going to have we're going to have an induction a charging station there for the for the three line buses and and that is well under construction. Lisa had some great pictures that she showed you about that construction. Um Northeast 85th, which has always been the the by the biggest project in the program, and Kirkland where we've gone from two levels to three level interchange, that project's on schedule. And we're going to get the handover to start building our station up there um later this year. And then the 40th and over and then next in '27 the the buses will start coming up. So, all of the BRT is is funded. Without whatever you have you want to whatever you want about the parking at the at the transit center, but everything I've shown you and all this is funded and we're full bore ahead. We are in construction. We're finding homes to take delivery of the buses in Kent while the bus space gets completed. And we're very excited to um start another project in Tukwila with with Lisa and her team to really get those travel times I shared with you earlier. Thank you, Paul. I really I got to interrupt you here because we have 5 minutes for questions before our next meeting starts. So, so thank you again for the three of you to be here. Any more questions or concerns? Councilmember McIrvin that had not spoken. Was that Um Rivera. Okay. Thank you so much for being I was waiting patiently for mine. Uh Just want to chime in really quickly on the landscaping. I think it's beautiful. I think having the experience of having that green space while you're waiting for transit is something that's going to be make people want to ride transit while they're waiting. So, I would appreciate the the creativity with that. The question I had was more Well, actually to answer also Councilmember Perez's point too, I would also go north. I would say I found I can bike to Bellevue or as fast as I can drive there right now. So, that slide that you showed showing the time difference between the express service right now if I bike to Bellevue and take the the 535 versus when that Stride 2 line comes on is night and day. And so, I hope people really, really recognize and appreciate that. Recognizing you're all here, the message is here and I'm chiming in for sure that parking garage is needed because it takes me three buses to get to Bothell Bothell given that you have to transfer in the other not in-line station in Bellevue. The question, sorry, I'm getting to the question that that I have Sorry, I lost my train of thought. What was going on there? Um Sorry. Maybe come back. Um Yeah, I have my question ready. I have my question ready. Thank you so much. I will make it pretty quick. Um so, much of the community that we have relies on personal vehicles, right? And that is because we have been so left behind when it comes to Sound Transit and public transportation. I'm not going to put on kid gloves. We're all adults in the room. You understand what's been happening here, right? And so, many people and me and I think Councilmember I we we really rely on the public transportation really heavily. But at the same time, the community have high transit needs and ridership showing that they will use their cars to get out of transit because transit just isn't effective. How has Sound Transit evaluated potential ridership impacts? Again, I'm going to repeat that. How has Sound Transit evaluated the potential ridership impacts associated with not delivering the planned and promised parking facility as well as um the Boeing Boeing access road and uh station Tukwila. Like, have you How have you evaluated the impacts to ridership on that? Um we've evaluated ridership impacts from um the set of investments identified in the um board's uh the board chair's proposal, uh specifically looking at rail boardings of the investments being made. Um that is what we reported on um because that's what uh our ridership model puts out. Um and at least in the current version of the proposal uh the ridership performance relative to the ST3 baseline, again for rail boardings, is approximately 92% of that ST3 baseline. Um it is certainly true that um not delivering parking investments will have an effect on ridership. Um and uh we also believe that there are uh other means and methods for uh creative partnerships to deliver uh not just parking investments, but working with King County Metro, with our other transit agency partners, um through their other uh products and tools like MetroFlex, um to get people uh to transit centers and other transit facilities. Uh Councilmember McDermott, do you remember your question >> [laughter] >> I lost my train of thought. >> This is the last question. I'm sorry because we have to The question is with um the of the services coming online, is there anything in Sound Transit 3 that's coming on before we're getting bus rapid transit, or are we pretty much first in line of what's coming next? >> You are first in line. The next What are the next up? The next project that will open will be the S1 line connecting Burien to Bellevue with those two stops in Renton. Once again, thank you very much. I have to wrap up this meeting because we are late, but of course, thank you very much for being here once again. And this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

[music] >> Hey everyone, I will go ahead and call the uh Committee of the Whole meeting to order. And we just have one item tonight, and that's the Benson Hill Community Plan update. And with us here tonight to present, we have Matt Ferrara and Paul Hinz. Please take it away. All right. Thank you uh Council President Pro Tem McIrvin, members of the City Council. Uh both Paul and I are excited uh be in front of you tonight and talk about the Benson Hill Community Plan. I believe this is the first opportunity uh that staff's had the uh chance to to brief the Council on this uh plan that was passed back in 2013. So, before I hand it over to Paul uh to talk specifically about the the Benson Hill Community Plan, I just wanted to talk a little bit about community planning in general. Um our city's comprehensive plan does contain an optional element titled community planning and identifies 10 community planning areas within the city and portions of the potential annexation area. And uh community planning differs uh from our comprehensive planning efforts as it's more of a bottom-up instead of a top-down style of planning. Um as you recall as we were updating the comprehensive plan, we had a lot of requirements uh to comply with the state GMA. You know, we had to have elements such as land use, transportation, economic development, capital facilities. All important, yes, but not as community driven as community planning is. What we're able to do with the community plan is go straight out to the neighborhoods and ask them what's important to them. Now, obviously, the community plan needs to be consistent and in line with our comprehensive plan, but we're able to identify those needs and wants from the community that are important to them and incorporate those into the plan. And that's what Paul's going to talk about, the four strategies that we call it that were identified by the Benson Hill neighbors as what they wanted incorporated in their plan. So, after adoption of a community plan, it then transforms from a CED led effort into a citywide effort for implementation as many of the strategies are that are in the plan are incorporated into other city department plans and programs such as the transportation improvement plan, the parks recreation and open space plan, and the trails and bicycle master plan. So, we take these strategies, they kind of spread and go out into other uh city departments. And I do have a mea culpa here tonight for the committee as well as as our colleagues in the parks department. I did request to Judith that we pull slide 17 from your packet tonight. Um we are excited to talk to you about the tapeworm trail and what's going on in the planning stages of that, but we included a graphic inadvertently that might misrepresent the scale and scope of of what that looks like. So, we're going to talk about the tapeworm plan and we'll follow up with the committee on actually what that looks like graphically. So, we did pull it. Again, we'll talk about it, but uh, you know, like I said before, CED, we we create the plans, the plans get spread out over city departments, and, uh, we don't attempt tonight to represent those plans or take credit for those plans. I think we're the idea people, and, uh, and then it's up to our, uh, friends and colleagues in parks and in public works and facilities to actually do a lot of the hard work as far as finding money and, uh, refining those plans and getting them actually built. So, without further ado, oh, I did want to mention, um, uh, just a plug, uh, we are under, uh, a planning process that we talked to the planning development committee tonight actually about the Valley Community Plan. So, our third plan, uh, that we're working on right now is at the beginning process. I just wanted to put in a plug for that, and would really be thrilled if the committee would have us back later in the year to talk about how, uh, that process. And then, finally, before I hand it off to Paul, I just wanted to talk about, uh, briefly that we are going to be updating the City Center Community Plan, which was our first community plan adopted back in 2009. We were informed by the Puget Sound Regional Council that, uh, we do need to recertify our regional growth center before the end of 2027. So, uh, it's likely going to be the end of this year, beginning of next year when we start that planning process to, uh, update that plan. And without further ado, Thank you, Matt. So, as Matt alluded, uh, animation here. Our community planning efforts are intensive with community engagement, and this graph here, uh, represents the feedback that we heard during that process. For those of you, anyone, that's, for that matter, unfamiliar with Cascade Village, it's a small shopping center located on 116th Avenue, just north of Petrovitsky Road, and it once was the hub of commercial activity in Benson Hill, and it boasted a bowling alley, a grocery store, and and great businesses that were cherished by the community. So, when this plan was developed, uh long-time residents were very fond of this Times, and overwhelmingly we heard support for enhancements to Cascade Village. We also heard requests for better sidewalks and paths in general for walking, uh community center to support recreational activities for the youth, uh more or better shops and restaurants, uh more visually attractive streets, and traffic calming just to name the top priorities of the community. Based on that feedback, we organized we established goals and then organized those goals into four elements: community and economic development, multimodal transportation, parks, recreation, and natural areas, and a strong, livable, and safe community. CED's tasks were to create a focus in the Benson Hill and to support a strong and vibrant Benson Hill community. These goals can be furthered by support for small businesses, and to cite just a few of uh our efforts in recent years, our economic development division have engaged the community, and the business community at that, to offer help for those small business owners in marketing and other means of improving their businesses, and also to bring residents uh to events to make these busi- businesses more well-known to the community um through fun activities. While economic development conditions at Benson Excuse me, Cascade Village have improved over the years, we have yet to see any new development since the plan was adopted. And while of course development is really market-driven and a major uh financial decision by any landowner, we can possibly incentivize redevelopment through uh zoning amend- amendments or rezoning Cascade Village altogether. We also can support economic development uh by supporting a business association, and we continue to assist businesses with marketing, and maintain our connections with those business owners and residents as well. The plan recommended uh considering attracting a urgent care facility or a technical or vocational school, or other facilities that fill Renton or Benson Hill service gaps. And a lot of the strategies in the plan also relates to placemaking. Placemaking is the act of transforming public spaces into functional and places with distinct identities. And a lot of the means to do this are often with tools such as landscaping or public art installations again, to lend identity and to improve aesthetics. Multimodal transportation, we sought to build on the existing trail system and to support a strong and vibrant Benson Hill community, also. Um, these priorities for multimodal transportation highlighted the need for better and safer connectivity throughout the entire area. 116th Avenue Southeast bisects the Benson Hill area almost the entire length from north to south. However, much of this roadway lacks our city standard frontage improvements, or front frontage improvements altogether. Um, our public works peers continue to to find funding to make those incremental improvements, but it is very dependent on on that those funds. Every once in a while we do see new development occur on 116th Avenue, and therefore we see new frontage improvements installed. Expansion of the trail network was also heavily carried on the idea of utilizing these utility corridors that transverse most of the area. Providing opportunities for non-motorized connections, but also recreation, both passive and and active recreation. Um, again, this area was mostly annexed in 2008, and so most of development here was developed under King County regulations, and so most of the areas that do have sidewalk or bicycle lanes are insufficiently sized and really don't meet our standards for an urbanized area. So, again, the community asked us to improve those street conditions throughout the entire area. They also asked us to improve access and usability of transit and to improve the driving experience throughout Benson Hill area to be safer and more user-friendly. A lot of these goals and strategies are furthered by the transportation improvement program shown here. Tip number 5.1 will improve a segment of 116th Avenue with sidewalk, curb, gutter, drainage, curb ramps, and a rapid flashing beacon for safe passage across the road. This project is funded or partially funded. Tip number 21 is also funded or partially funded and will add protected bicycle lanes, as you can see in the top left graphic, uh throughout 168th Street. And tip number 25, um while shown here just on a segment of 116th Avenue, will eventually make improvements the entire length of 116th uh to add a number of improvements. And as you can see here, the Benson Hill Community Plan is referenced in the tip um as recommended to a phased approach for these based on neighborhood needs and also, of course, funding. And you can see on the right-hand side those different phased approaches and what they might look like. King County Metro's I Line will soon provide bus rapid transit service uh through portion of the Benson Hill area uh stretching all the way from Auburn's Transit Center to our future transit center providing improved headways and increased frequencies for bus riders. Construction permits have been issued and we are expecting to see service in in 2027. For parks, recreation, natural areas, we were requested to improve access to and quality of parks, recreation, and natural areas, especially for the youth. Most of the strategies here revolve around the creation of a new park um or a redevelopment of existing parks. And as you can see on the map here, uh the PROS Plan uh recognizes that much of the area lacks sufficient access to parks. Another strategy was to establish a community center, which was fulfilled by the Family First Community Center on 116th Avenue. Trail development was another uh heavily favored strategy, and as Matt talked about, uh Tapeworm Trail Network um is something that we'll we can speak more about at later time, but at this time what I can say is that this is a long-established network of mountain biking trails that were actually built by users on Puget Sound Energy's property, located just next to Phil Arnold Park. And so we are attempting um through the help of Gina to um formalize these trails and basically be the be the facilitator between a mountain bike alliance and Puget Sound Energy to allow these trails to be upgraded to more um contemporary standards for mountain bikers. Uh these are actually cherished routes and um offer really technical rider um experiences for mountain bikers. Um and among a number number number of improvements such as uh recreational opportunities, um trails like this help to improve local economies, boost um uh environmental stewardship, and even reduce crime in areas that are often unseen. Again, the power lines offer opportunities for uh walking paths, picnic areas, uh dog parks, and uh community gardens to name just a few ideas that can be had in these utility corridors. And another long-awaited um project is the completion of the Soos Creek Trail, the missing link um that is ongoing right now with King County. And again, uh an increased call for youth programming and community programming across the area. And as the PROS Plan shows here, um much of these needs still persist, but our peers in Parks and Recreation continue to seek uh solutions to them. Again, the Soos Creek uh finally after quite some time, we are nearly nearing fruition of this missing link of the Soos Creek Trail. And while it is outside of city limits, it does offer Benson Hill residents more opportunities for recreation and connections for non-motorized transportation. Under the elements of strong, livable, and safe community, it was simple, improve the sense of safety in Benson Hill. Sounds simple, but it's sometimes more difficult than it is. The ideas here and revolved around expanding support for neighborhood cleanup efforts to maintain property values and spur a sense of pride. Continue forging personal relationships between RPD and residents and business owners. And continue police representation at events. And since the plan's adoption, RPD has actually established a number of programs that aim to do this citywide. And we once in a while see incremental improvements to physical conditions as you can see here in the lower left by the murals that were recently painted on the Benson Bruins shipping containers. Again, this kind of revolves around what we call placemaking, which is creating identity, ownership of of a place, and making sure that it is >> [clears throat] >> a sense of pride that can be instilled in the community. And with that, I'll hand off to Matt to talk about new projects. All right, thanks Paul. Uh since the adoption of the Benson Hill Community Plan, we've had uh several new projects come to fruition. Some of the plan action strategies that were important to the Benson Hill community were design guidelines that weren't really in place when it was under King County jurisdiction, as well as improving the pedestrian environment. I think one of the great projects, although a chain restaurant, was the Wendy's. Staff worked really hard with the Wendy's franchise here at this location to make it more pedestrian oriented, to provide those outdoor seating areas and actually push really hard to get them to put the the drive-thru at the rear of the building instead of between Petrovitsky and and and the building. So, using the Benson Hill Community Plan as a nexus, we're able to actually do site-specific conditions when we're doing land use permits, point to that plan, and add conditions if needed. Uh the recent conversion, I I believe that was a Bank of America and now a Chipotle, we were able to again get more contemporary architecture with that conversion as well as provide some pedestrian amenities, some outdoor seating, as well as uh some pedestrian pathways through the parking lot. And then the updated Slice of Italy, I believe that was the old Romeo's, that outdoor seating, I know has been there for quite some time, but just again, just adding more pedestrian amenities and walkability. Uh I wanted to show these examples because through incremental development, we're able to get some of those capital improvements, namely along 108th here, that that top left photo is looking north if if you're standing where the Firestone is. And 108th there with a 5-ft wide sidewalk and a speed of 35 mph, but a design speed probably closer to 50, it's it's scary walking along that sidewalk there. But as we uh entitled the Firestone building there and just south of there the new Dental Arts building, we were able to have the new 8-ft wide sidewalk and 8-ft wide planter strip put along there, providing a safer walkable space for pedestrians. And really, that's what that that street section look should look like. And actually, I it's not the greatest picture uh on the bottom right of the Chipotle, it was taken across the street, but even with that uh renovation of that old bank building, we were able to have the Chipotle install those uh capital improvements along there. And then I wanted to uh the bottom left there, I wanted to put in uh the rendering. This is uh a new uh credit union that is in building permit review right now. It's already entitled, but this is going on the northeast uh corner on the intersection there of um 108th and Petravitsky, the old uh tow truck gas station um and garage. So, that is going to be uh redeveloped here in the in the short term. So, again, that building permit under review, they'll be putting in those pedestrian improvements in that improved building. So, we're excited to see that corner get cleaned up. And then finally, uh the closing thoughts here, again, just want to reiterate, you know, although this plan was approved and adopted uh back in 2013, these strategies and ideas are ongoing and other other plans and programs throughout the city, as I mentioned before, as well as when we're uh reviewing individual land use permits. Um another thing I I think about, as well as as I know the city council is aware um about the passage of Senate Bill 6026 this year by the legislature. Um what that bill is going to do is preempt the city's ability to require uh mixed-use development in commercial zoning districts. So, right now, in most of our zoning districts, commercial zoning districts, if you want to provide residential um development, we require you to put some semblance of commercial, because it's a commercial zoning district. Um what the legislature is doing, and we're still analyzing the effects of the bill, is taking away our ability to do that. Um I should mention right now uh the Benson Community Planning Area, although in the plan it talks about uh having a a mixed-use district in both the Benson Hill Plaza and the Cascade um shopping center. It's no longer a mixed-use district. Um actually, we do not allow uh residential or mixed-use in the commercial areas. So, um I think uh after we kind of analyze uh Senate Bill 6026 and maybe think about what that how that's going to look, right? How how how do we want the mixed-use areas in the Benson to look? Um so, we'll come back to council with some recommendations with that. And really continue lastly to support the updates and renovations and redevelopment of Cascade Village. Um if you remember from uh I believe it was the third or fourth slide, what we heard from the community, the top the top thing that we heard, the top item concern that we heard was was Cascade Village and how important um and how how how how much the community wanted to see that improved and and be really kind of the center of the area as well as obviously pedestrian connectivity. So, um we'll continue to support um any ongoing efforts or redevelopment. Again, as as we analyze the impacts of SB 6026, I think we really want to think hard about what Cascade Village can and and should look like in the future. And with that, Paul and I are happy to answer any questions. Mr. President. Yes. Uh thank you, Matt. Thank you, Paul. Sounds like Councilmember Prince has a question. You go for it. >> I do. Uh thank you guys so much for the presentation. So, a couple of things. One, um I'm so glad there's something going in where that old tool yard junkyard used to be. It's such an eyesore, so I'm happy that there's something going in there. Uh secondly, has anyone had any conversations with the members of that Benson Hill Advisory Committee? Uh just kind of to catch up and see how they're feeling about how things are going. Really um our meetings ceased in 2020 with COVID pandemic. Um and I think just since then we've been a little bit uh lacking in staff to run that board back up. Um every once in a while I do run into some familiar faces. Uh I'm sure you all do as well. Um but no, there's not been any formal uh communications except for just uh recognizing their their participation and appreciation of their help and support during our times together. Mr. President, yes. I think even if it's not formal, following back up with them um and finding out how they're feeling about the things that are happening in the plan would be an excellent idea. I know that so many of them gave put in a lot of hours to making sure that they're able to um close that feedback loop to you guys would be important. I do. Thank you. Additional questions? Councilmember Albertson? Uh yes. Um thanks, guys. On uh slide 12, the uh tip number 25, I just want to make sure I understand what uh cuz I think when I first looked at it, um it seemed like the one, two, and three like, okay, we're trying to figure out which which one we're going with. But now as I look at it, is that I mean, is that already decided the one is that section, the two is that section, and three is that section? That's that's where we're going with that or or um are we saying, "Hey, we're going to pick one particular design here and and basically check with community or whatever"? I mean, explain that for me. Just I'm fuzzy on that for whatever reason. I got it. It's a little confusing. Um these are showing different phases and conceptual um, ideas about the different cross-sections for different sections of this portion of the roadway from 168th to Petrovitsky. Mhm. Um, and there's a little bit of overlap there as you can see. Again, these are concepts and and not really, you know, well well developed. Um, but yeah, the idea was is that at certain points there the cross-section would morph a little bit into a little bit different of a >> [clears throat] >> of having different elements. For example, having a median in in between. Um, we're having a turning lane where it is necessary, like in front of the commercial area. Um, so people can turn into the the commercial area without having to block traffic from moving on their way. Well, like I said, once I looked at it again, I was thinking, "Oh, okay, hold on a second. This is going to be transitioning uh, in some way." So, I wanted to clarify that. That's all. Questions? Not, I'll ask one. Since we're on that slide, I'll stay right there on uh, tip 21 looking at the uh, bicycle lane um, improvements that you mentioned there. Uh, my question actually isn't about that one, but more what it connects to. So, uh, as we were talking about the importance of pedestrian connectivity and whatnot, uh, are we stressing as much how folks are getting down the hill, too? Cuz I know we've done that with like Sunset, like Sunset Trail. I think improving those access points to get to downtown or to get down Car Road are both pretty uh, critical improvements I could prefer folks on bike. Uh, you mentioned a lot going along 108th for sure, right? So, with that narrow sidewalk, it's kind of the same deal with cars. And so, uh, I know it wasn't explicitly called out in the presentation, but I'm wondering if you could elaborate more on where that feedback kind of ended up, too. Um, I do appreciate some of the trails that we focused on in there as well, too. Those just but kind of as more of the local routes, I guess, if those are the highways. Sure. Um, I can make an assumption here. Again, these are public works projects that um, CED is isn't really involved in the formation of. Um, but this is a a relatively level road. Um, it doesn't really have present much uh, elevation grade or decline. Uh, and it connects a bunch of schools to a bunch of schools in the from east to west. And so, I think that was the idea of of having this uh, pretend to bike lanes um, in this area. Uh, there's also a lot of uh, a lot of uh, bus routes that go through here as well. And so, I think just making sure that bike bicyclists feel safe was was the idea there. >> [snorts] >> As far as getting up and down uh, Benson Hill Road to lower elevations, um, that's something that I would I would encourage uh, discussion with public works about. Um, Carr Road is uh, a very challenging road. I mean, honestly when it snows or rains heavily, I avoid that road just in my car. So, um, I can imagine why it would be a little bit of a lower priority um, given that there are very few cyclists who would endeavor to go up or down that. That's it. Yes, Councilmember Prince. Um, and again, realizing that what I'm going to say is more of a public works issue, but we have four schools. You know, we've got Renton Park, we've got Cascade, we've got Benson, you know, we've got Nelson. Um, and I thought about this cuz this afternoon when I was driving to pick up my daughter from school, there was a kid walking from Nelson. They were walking on the wrong side, but there's no sidewalk on either side. So, just making sure that we're real cognizant about trying to make sure that uh, sidewalks are important. I if I had been distracted or anything, I would hit that kid just cuz he was coming the wrong way. So, just, you know, making sure that we talk about uh, sidewalks and the importance of sidewalks in the Benson Hill area cuz when it was unincorporated, obviously the county was not prioritizing making sure that there there was a complete sidewalks uh, system. But now that we've been in the city now for over 15 years, just trying to make sure that we uh, close that loop too. And again, knowing that's not CED, knowing that that's uh, public works, but just making sure that I get it on the record. Absolutely. And And I know our colleagues in uh, public works, they have their sidewalk master plan that they continue to develop. And again, I don't want to speak for our colleagues in parks, but I know that we'll be coming up soon on uh the update to the parks and trails master plan. So, I think Council President, as you mentioned uh about biking and and trails, I think the update to that plan will also include updates to what you see here as well. Yes, Councilmember Payne. Thank you, Council President. Um thank you for the presentation. I have a question regarding the Cascade Village, the economic aspect of it. And I know it's kind of um you know, not not that you have the answer, but um as far as the engagement of businesses, um do we have interest? I know that that the team goes out and try to generate interest from different businesses and small business to um be able to um start there in the area, but do we have any that um have we been communicating with? >> Yes. I I can uh I know our economic development team in CED uh is active and uh acts as that facilitator. I know we have two new businesses that just opened up. I believe one is a is a um a boba tea shop, and I believe uh gosh, one other one. >> Is it a Venezuelan or Yes. >> Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. And And And you know, and then a more substantial recent development would be um the Black River school. Um so, really it's, you know, as I think about it too, as a planner, you know, you want to be able to nurture some of those areas that have uh low barrier entry, but But the same time, you also want to update these areas as well because you know, you've got you've got this area within within the heart of the Benson, but it it was developed in the mid-century. It doesn't have a lot of those pedestrian kind of enhancements, but yet but you're also balancing a low barrier entry into business. So, you know, these are things that I think about. I think we're really going to have to have that conversation as as we incorporate some of the preemption legislation next year. Um what I would love to do I've thought about this. I've talked to Paul is is maybe next year have have a three or four-day intensive kind of charrette. Maybe if the bowling alley is still vacant next year, go inside, get some design professionals, get the community out there and talk about what their vision is for for that and maybe we can actually create a graphic and and really go out and um and find somebody that can redevelop that that area. Oh, I see we have Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Perez. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here today. Okay. What I What he said and I What I What I wanted to make sure about giving you the same Uh I make my Thank you. Uh for the great presentation. I am going to speak about the issue of the Cascade Village. We have a an opportunity there. Um I would not let you say that you maximize it. This is what I I would say that this is a peculiar area. And say that that I suppose saying that the Cascade Village um is something that we can uh not just bring back water to to help that will help a lot to get killed when you to drive. Uh not just for businesses, but also for services and that's something to do with also. So, I just wanted to bring it to your family and to bring it to you. all of that. I think we can do a lot of improvement development in that area. Thank you again and I look forward to the action again. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll chime in on Cascade Village while we're chiming in on things. I for sure for a long time thought there was a lot of opportunity there since we first moved to the area. I would love to see housing be part of it, but definitely one good point as far as the number of startup businesses that are able to locate there. And I I might even say it might be the most occupied in recent memory that I can think of as far as this activation space. So, from that standpoint, that's super positive. So, glad to see the community still invested in seeing that improved as much as possible to be that heart of the community there. Uh I had one other question and I'm apologize if you answered it when you said on the slide the community survey work that was done without I'm assuming it was Was that relatively recently the public engagement or is that older from before? That was in the plan development stages. Yeah, that would be 13 to 14 years ago. >> guess my question on that is that something we'd want to go out and make sure that's still what the community is looking for and wanted and kind of measure it against some of the things we've done. I I I think so, yeah. Yeah. As I mentioned, you know, this is the first time that I can remember that we've brought this plan in front of council since the adoption. You know, it's been some time again going back to uh council member Princess' remark about since we visited with the advisory group. So, yes, I I you know, I have an idea of doing a charrette, but that's my idea. I Again, community planning is about hearing what the community wants. So, yes, ensuring that we know what what updating that uh that outreach I think is would be important and first step. President Yes, Council member Heller. I just want to uh mhm maybe follow up or not follow up, but just tag on to that because if that if that feedback is as old as that it's quite likely that the number of old-timers that you mentioned who loved the community hub maybe are not with us or not still living in that area and and the consensus may be leaning younger. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. Not not not not an easy thing for me to figure out how to politically correctly ask the question. Message received. >> [snorts] >> It's well, if we may have run out of questions, I'm looking around. I'm not seeing more questions or comments. Looks like everyone's chiming in. I want to thank you for presenting this update. It is good to see some of the progress that's been made. Obviously, we want to keep seeing that moving in the right direction. I'm hopeful that at some point in my lifetime the Sue Creek Trail will extend all the way to Petrozvky and maybe even beyond, but we'll see. So, thank you very much. If there's nothing else for this committee, we are adjourned.

Good evening. Uh, welcome everybody. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee of the hall and we have one item on the agenda is the parks and recreation summer events update and with us is Jennifer Spencer and Mary Jane Van Clever. Thank you for being here with us tonight. Tonight, yes. >> Thank you, council president, and thank you council members. We're excited to um provide this update. We are excited for what's to come this summer. U most of this focus will be primarily on the recreation division as they're the team that's responsible for the majority of this effort. This is done though also with park maintenance as well as several other divisions and team members within the division. >> Good afternoon. Uh I'd like to thank uh Council President Perez for actually stopping by the pet gala. That's one of the first things that we have here. She was a phenomenal judge to our our first through third place uh costumed uh dogs. So, luckily no cats were involved, so we we lucked out this year. Um I'm going to jump right in here. Um yes, it's past, but I wanted to bring it up for attention. This was uh I don't want to use the word first annual, but this was uh years ago we had a uh program where it was um a I can't think of what it was. It was a pooch palooa. Um and then it it just sort of morphed into um other things. So we brought it back in a different capacity. It was uh wellreceived. We had about 84 registrants that brought their dogs. Uh it was at the community center. Um, the neighborhood program did a phenomenal job hitting all the the bells and whistles when it comes to what a gayla should be like. Um, I'm not so sure that the dogs were as impressed as the humans were though. Um, so again, it was uh well attended with 84 people. We had some lessons learned and some takeaways and we think that we'll keep working uh towards the sweet spot uh as we move forward in in the future. Um also this month in May or I want to go back actually Sunday we had a all comers track meet. So uh pretty phenomenal uh beautiful day and all 90 residents decided that they wanted to spend it running at uh Reton Stadium and that was really a a sight to see. Um in fact our recreation manager Alex Lee told me uh that it was one of those moments where you actually remember your why why we do what we do. and um I think it was that there was a a a runner that was about 30 yards back from the pack, but he was running with the biggest smile on his face and that's how we know we've made it. So, um but yes, 90 participants for that, all ages, uh all abilities and and skill levels. So, it was uh extremely successful and that leads us into the spring track program uh in our youth athletics. >> And I do want to thank council member O'Halerin for also attending the pet gala. she was able to witness firsthand as well. Um, I think the big thing we heard from that, it was very clean. It was very safe. Um, the company across the street, what is the I can't think of their name right there. >> Rainineer, uh, the Rainineer dog >> pet resort. >> Yeah, pet resort. >> Resort. Well, that goes with a gayla. A resort. So, um, absolutely phenomenal. >> First class. So, um, one thing that you'll notice new, if you could just, uh, on the neighborhood program this year, they That's okay. Um they started a program called Hello Neighbor. It it's taking part in our uh park buildings uh at Kennydale Lions, Tiffany Park, and Teasdale. And this is a time where you can just drop by. Um right now it's from 9:00 a.m. to 1. And as you can imagine, we're not seeing a lot of uh people passing through. However, we think that that's going to change when school gets out and summer schedules become, you know, um apparent. But um what we are meeting are people that are going through the parks, walking their dogs. Um and it's a it's a fun thing because actually they are more of our senior population. So it's nice to meet them where they live, where they are, and actually give uh time to them to explain other activities that we do. And I would add to that, it was um a request of the neighborhood program if they could work with those immediate neighborhoods on how to best program those buildings. Um we don't want to do that without their input. It's a they're very small and they're very close to the neighborhood. So, we wanted to get their input. So, this is them kind of creating that rapport, getting to know the neighbors as well as getting that feedback. And then, of course, you'll uh see us at Gleno Park on the 13th. That's fine. The 13th is the kickoff to the neighborhood social. Uh Gleno Park this uh on May 13th from 4 to 6 o'clock. >> All right. Council member Albert, >> I'm sorry, Jennifer, before you go on the Hello Neighbor um thing. When is that every day all day? What what's what what are the parameters around that? >> Thank you. I I kind of went too quickly there. Um Kenny Lions is the first Thursday of each month. Uh Tiffany Park is the second Thursday and Teasdale Park is the third Thursday. So, it's only once per week. And to MJ's point, and once we start building relationships and cadence, we'll see what we can do past that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And what Jen's referring to is it's in our recreation guide if individual, you know, customers or the public or residents are interested and we'll do our best, but we're really trying to get those neighborhoods that are in that area um to give us their input. >> Sure. Council member, >> I really appreciate this very much. I am hopefully uh hopeful that the Hello Neighbor program is different than the very creepy video game that my nephew plays called Hello Neighbor. >> Oh, >> I am not a gamer. Noted. >> I think the comma makes it different. But yeah, it did make me think about that one as well. So, the kids might be familiar. Anyone who plays the video games, it's a very um interesting one. >> We just aged ourselves cuz we did not know. So, >> maybe a new name coming soon. >> Yeah. So, just to clarify, we're having four picnics uh this year. >> Yes, correct. >> Uh that we are hosting as the city. The neighborhoods are still eligible to apply for grants to host their own experiences. And so, this is us fully owning the experience. So, those are the ones that we're advertising. >> President Council member Prince, >> thank you. Uh real quick, are we worried about weather in October? >> Yes. Do we have contingencies just in case? >> Uh, umbrella. I I think I think that uh I think that we'll be paying close attention, sir. Um, and yes, we will make contingencies if needed. Absolutely. >> We tend to have canopies, things like that. We will watch the weather if necessary and it's unsafe. We will cancel. But we've been lucky enough that October's still been nice. But we do start watching and we're we will communicate if we do need to cancel. >> Yes. Council member O'Hara seem to recall um either last year or the year before when we switched to the uh 4 to six format from the 5 to7 format. There was some comments about um the weekday uh socials that um parents weren't able to get there and you know at 4:00 and so their kids missed out on half of the fun and did did we did we do an evaluation of attendance based on the two time formats? We did um and it was I want to say that it was 50/50 um in in some of the the outcomes. Um the a lot of a lot of the parents are ones that have the luxury of being able to be at home with their so you're you're seeing a response from them. And then um the other half is that they felt that it was worth having it not on a um weekend or in the later part of the evening where other activities might uh be a conflict of interest. But what I can do is actually get the information uh from Remy to make sure that I have it 100% correct. But I I I do think that it was for later commitments from um families that had older kids. Thank you. >> We already uh mentioned the the track and field, but some continue advent uh events for May is uh the Mother's Day lunchon at the Reton uh community center. Normally would be held at the senior activity center. These are just part of the specialty lunches for our um 50 plus community. Um refill your ride. Uh that's us recognizing uh ride everywhere u month or uh bike month as as many call it. So we will actually be out on the trail and when I say we, we're talking parks, recreation and I believe other um departments are well as well. I believe our public works department is coming. I've also heard that there might be participation from CED and it's to meet people on the trail and you know just uh have a photo opportunity but also to um hear the buzz of what cyclists or or trail users are looking for as well as giving them information uh to where we're at with our trail system. Um but mostly just uh to be out there in support for people uh using their their bikes for transportation. And then of course our uh veteran or memorial day event at Veterans Memorial um park that will be um on the 25th. Uh there was a beautiful uh volunteer project that just uh I mean they they made the the the park look phenomenal. They were cleaning all the the plaques and everything that just recently happened. So we'll be quite prepared for that ceremony. >> Yeah. And thank you. I stopped by on Saturday and oh it was amazing. the families, children, adults, young people, all of them cleaning play by plate and doing the gardening and mulching and that was just so beautiful to keep it ready. So I I do appreciate the families that do that and volunteer to to maintain the memorial park. >> Yeah. To that it was it was phenomenal and thank you for recognizing that they they did a phenomenal job. >> We do have another plaque coming in. So families do take this very personal, very serious. So, we have a new family who has purchased a plaque to have. So, that'll be added for this event. >> Thank you. Farmers Market. So, Carrie Olsen uh has been working diligently at getting everything back in order so that it can be uh landing right back into the Piaza Park. Um also uh this year so we will be having uh vendors uh at the market on Logan Avenue South as well as the um Legacy Square side of things. So Carrie has been working uh well with our CED team. They've been going back and forth and talking about all the excitement that's coming to Legacy Square as well as the matches. So, uh, there's been complete coordination with, um, Carrie and the team about who's doing what and when. And, uh, I think everybody has just decided that it's, uh, the more the marrier and the way that, um, they're just moving through things is pretty organically and and extremely purposeful. So, I think that you'll see success on on both. Um uh just to kind of give you a heads up if you will, the majority of the vendors, about 50 of them will be on the Piaza Park side. Um there is about 40 vendors that will be on Logan Avenue South. Um and then there's about 25 vendors as well as food trucks that will be on the Legacy Square side of of the park. So, um I don't have any updated information uh when it comes to the farmers market, but you can expect to see things that you're used to seeing uh light entertainment. Um I do know that that that will not be happening on the stage uh at Legacy Square. Um it'll be happening on the Piaza Park side. Uh I don't know if there's going to be any conversation to bring something to that stage uh throughout the summer. So that's a a little bit unknown. Uh the SNAP program is uh prepared and ready to go as well as the kids patch. So um just just as if we didn't miss a beat from um being on the the street last year. >> Jennifer, um how many maybe you don't have this information, but how many vendors do we used to have just in the piaza? Are we increasing or is the same amount of vendors that we will have here just we will have more space between vendors or how? about the same. >> It's the same vendors, but they're going to be more spread or >> um actually I have I have a map. Uh it's preliminary. Uh CD's been working hard with Carrie to get her the map, but um it's uh so if you think in in front of the pavilion uh that what you would consider the uh the front entry off of third, you're going to have the same amount of vendors that are outside of the uh the structure itself. uh as well as uh along the sidewalk that would be against Logan. Uh so um it's it's very familiar. It's it's very familiar to what you're used to seeing. The the part that's a little bit different is they have put a seated lawn inside um the park and that's where a smaller stage will be. And um I I if I was to give you the best direction is if you were looking out of the um pavilion facing south, it would be right in the middle right there. And that's where you're going to see additional um entertainment. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. So, continuing through June, our Highlands Neighborhood Center has uh the family fun night. So, this is a registered event. So, if you're not busy on June 5th, we'd love to have you join us. Um, this is ran by our um recreation coordinator Hannah Dillingham. And uh she does a phenomenal job. She works with our youth council. They do all the planning. And so, basically what you're seeing is a game night through the eyes of uh teenagers. So, um that sounds a little bit wild, but we promise we keep it PG. So, um it's it's it's a lot of fun. a lot of bingo, a lot of um interaction. Um and it's it is really open for all ages. Um Teresa Nishi's up on June 6th with another uh summer green and clean and I believe that's a TBA. I don't know that we have a a exact uh uh spot or project area for that one. And then on the 14th at IPAC, you'll see the um Reton City Concert Band uh strike up the band uh doing their summer concert. Uh, one cool thing that we've asked for this year is, uh, filming. We've had a lot of concerts and we've, uh, had a lot of opportunities, uh, you know, go by, but this time we're having, uh, we're working with communications to do, uh, videography so that we'll be able to air that on channel 21 as well as on our um, screens throughout our facilities. Uh, there will be the specialty lunchon for Father's Day at the community center for this um, 50 plus community. And then June 24th after Retland School District is uh out of school, that's when your summer meals program and recre recreation activities will start um uh gearing up for the um the weekday lunches. >> Again, those are free lunches and that's in partnership with the Reton School District. We've been doing this for many many years now. What we try to do is just provide normaly. Uh we don't try to exploit anybody in terms of need or want. It's just something for families to come and gather. The can the turnout continues to be steady if not increasing. And so I thank the team for being out there and they also provide recreational activities for those who don't or have the means or the ability to always um have transportation or the ability to pay. So this is a free activity, a free meal and a lot of parents um really do appreciate the assistance. And are the locations the same or they are bringing new locations or you are not aware? >> The locations are Heritage Park, Kuanas Park and Sunset Park. So, uh the same but um you know uh very needed. And then Teresa has a wonderful relationship with King County uh for the KCLS with the library and they're bringing entertainment out as well. They bring books as well as entertaining activities. So, it's interactive and again, this is one of those that is still very true to parks and recreation in terms of us believing in doing the right thing for the community and offering this um valuable service. >> I'm curious um MJ or Jennifer um then do we have an average number of of meals served historically per day? Uh and it is it pretty even at the different locations or what have you seen? Uh, great question. So, we do we have attendance records and you know, I think that that would be something that we should share out. Um, and I do think that um where our attendance was uh not as high is in a really popular area, Sunset Neighborhood. Um, so I want to say that Heritage and uh Kowanas have been overall the the uh where the majority of the families come. Um, but I will definitely get you that information and MJ can forward that on for for um >> reference. Theresa Nishi has that. So, we have those numbers. We have to report those numbers to the school district as well. >> So, we're happy to provide that and we've been doing this for I would say actually decades. I'll see how far back we can go, but we can provide that. Madam Chair, >> yes. >> Um, I think I I remember at Heritage Park we had a a pet um day last year. I I can't remember um exactly what it was, but >> believe it was through pets >> picnic with pets and I believe that was through the neighborhood program >> and and and they had microchipping and all kinds of stuff going on. Um but I also I noticed that at that time and I mean there very various reasons why but the people who usually frequent the park um largely the Maplewood apartment uh people who live there um were not in attendance and I'm I'm wondering if there's a way that we can encourage people from the immediate neighborhood good. Make them feel wanted, make them feel safe, make sure they know that this is their park and their party. >> I think that that's a phenomenal idea. And we often will work with our partners in CED. Uh I've worked with Aaron Raymond on a number of mailings or um getting addresses for specific programming. Um, and I agree and I think that that is something that Remy with the neighborhood program has been working on. Um, to be a little bit more specific. However, when you put it in a in a guide, it it looks like it it is open for everybody, but I I we also agree that we want to make sure that when we're in that neighborhood that people are understanding. We're basically there to celebrate the people living in the neighborhood. Everybody's welcome. But yeah, we can we can definitely do that. Thank you. >> We do have A-frame signs, but we can try to do better job advertising when we're out there. So, we do try to put some signage out so people just walking by or walking their pet or anything, but we can, to her point, look at potentially some targeted mailing or postcards as reminders of what's going to happen in their park. Madam >> Chair, multiple languages. Yeah. This is new this uh for us. Uh recently our uh recreation supervisor uh Jeff Hagen brought this to our attention. We were reached out to uh by the concert truck and what a fun opportunity. It actually looks like a food truck but um it has music uh inside of it. So uh he ran it by uh Alex and I and I said, "Yeah, we need it. We uh so as you see the park days are sounding a bit sweeter or just sweeter. Um there's two opportunities for a lunchtime entertainment. Liberty Park on July 1st and then Gin Coulan at the South End. So the South Beach on July 6th. Uh it's free. Um so I'm hoping that there's going to be lots of uh families at the playground. We'll we'll you'll see more marketing going out um for this. It was sort of a last minute thing. did not make it into our guide, but um hopefully uh it'll be it's extremely successful and um uh quite interesting. So, they're not selling anything. They're just playing music. And then, uh our Reton's hometown Fourth of July. So, um this is a recreation effort. It's uh what I would consider a little bit low-key, but also uh packed with enough fun for families to enjoy. Um that morning we have the hot dog hustle. It's a 5K. It'll be on the trail um very similar to the run uh for the K9 candy cane fun run that we do in December. Um we have a um baseball style um event. It's called the hit uh or pitch hit and run and that is free. So the that it you don't have to pay, but you do have to register. And then parks and recreation will be um putting on a free hot dog lunch um out of uh this is all at Cedar River Park. Um we will have some music as well as um lawn games. So those the the things that are free will be the hot dog lunch, the uh pitch hit and run as well as the lawn game. So everyone's welcome. Um the unique thing, so the first session of Henry Moses Aquatic Center has been turned into an event style. Typically, you wouldn't see those on um during the day or the first session. You would normally see those on a Friday evening. Um we felt that it was a good use of uh time uh to really do something for our community. For the 250th, you'll see that we have reduced the fee. It's going to be an event style, so it won't be a traditional uh swim session, so you might get a little bit of extra fun. What I mean by that is things that we don't typically uh allow in the pool, beach balls, swim noodles, things like that. Um it's just a little bit more loose. Uh same same restrictions on guarding and attire, things like that. But um so we have our littles coming in for 250. Uh paying tribute to the 250th uh birthday of USA. Um the date is July 4th. So um we have our youth coming in on 74 or no actually that was adults as well. Um 5 to 12. And then uh the fund run is 1776 to we tried to hit all the bells and whistles on that. So >> there are no fireworks if that's a question to be asked. Um this is a way to celebrate our uh 4th of July during the day so that folks um however they choose to celebrate the 4th um and also in consideration for um sensitivities for various issues including pets. But we do want to recognize the holiday. We wanted to offer an option to the community and so we're hoping uh folks come out and join us. Um this is another holiday that the parks and recreation team does work. So we will be out there in uh full fourth of July regalia and attire. >> Madam chair. >> Yeah. >> So uh foreign under 5 to 12 and 13 plus are those registration fees? >> Yes ma'am. >> Those are the for the event. Um that's for the event at the aquatic center. So you don't have to participate in that. we just used the opportunity for the first part of the morning where we wouldn't be able to hold a 5K on the campus to include the pool um after the run. So yes, that is the registration for the um 1776 that is uh for the um >> hot dog 5K >> the hot dog 5k. Okay. But that's the price. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yes. All right. Does anybody know a little bit about the Reon River days here? Has Have you heard of it? So, no. All right. Well, 40 years and um I think that um I couldn't be more excited uh for for River Days than I am for this one. So, uh we've been so it's been back in our in our planning and execution for it's it feels like forever, but it's only been a short few years. And I think every year we get better and better. Um, so 1986 to 2026, there's a there's a lot that's happened and I hope that um we're able to um really uh hit it home for our residents this year. So, as always, we're starting it off with the um the senior day picnic. Um many of you attend and serve and are a significant presence at that. So, we hope to see you there with us. Um that will be at the community center. So, that has officially changed back. We're not going back to the senior center. So, you'll see your 400 seniors um and and that uh picnic happening. Uh Friday night will be the uh a band and the drone show at Koulon. Uh not can I? >> Yeah. I have to make Jennifer a little bit uncomfortable for a few moments. Um the drone show. So every element that's designed that is placed in the sky from the color, the font, the story, the music is Jennifer. She has designed every bit of that. So every time you see drone images used for other publications, promotions, powerpoints, that's Jennifer. She's chosen all the imagery and is very um attention to detail on wanting to tell the story of Renton, wanting the city to to laugh and to smile and to have pride and enjoy, you know, our community. So again, every drone image you've seen and we use them everywhere. We love them. We're all very proud of them. I always just think that's Jennifer. So anticipate a very thoughtful designed experience um this summer. Thank you so much. Thank you. I I know I know Jennifer artistic side and it's amazing >> and especially her love and passion from Renon is also something to recognize. Um this show you don't have the times at what time is supposed to be to start uh at Colon Park. >> Uh the band will start at 7:30 and the drone show will start at 9:30. We've already worked through the FAA. So, as soon as we turn into what the I believe it's called a uh G rated uh flight pattern, we'll go right at at 9:30. So, um we have done a little bit of changing and I'm still working this through with Sky Elements, the the company we consult with. Uh we are going to try to bring the drones a little bit closer to the water. And last year, we had a a quick little snafu that uh put the band in a different direction. It actually uh went behind Ivor's Ivor's restaurant and we heard on our surveys that people actually liked that a lot better because the the music came up from the water and it was a better uh uh audio experience for people than up at the picnic shelter. So, that is still getting a little bit of finessing. Um and I think that we'll have that done within the next couple weeks. But, uh, to to your point, Council President Perez, I would love to be able to give that information out, uh, to our guests so that they know exactly where to look and where to visualize it. It even sneaks up on me as the coordinator of the program. I don't know. It depends on if the wind is blowing in a certain uh, direction at a certain speed. So, um, we've had to pivot. Um, but yes, I would love to be able to pinpoint it much better for for the participants. >> Thank you. Thank Thank you so much. >> And um, so then we kick off uh the next morning on Saturday uh down Third Street for the parade. And what we're hoping for is that people that want to participate in the parade are as excited as we are. Um, again, this is through the decades. We're asking people to tell the story even though it feels like it should have been a long time ago. 1986 just as seems like yesterday to us. So, we're hoping to get some good participation with people um celebrating a specific era or a pop culture experience um you know that you can resonate with. Um I'd like to shout out Rent and Pride who's already put it out that they're doing '8s themes. So, we encourage our local organization and groups to please sign up as well. If everyone wants to go '8s, please by all mean we are not going to stop you. completely >> 80s. >> '8s. Oh, yeah. >> They're bringing it 80s style. >> So, appreciate >> it. We got some of those old outfits, right? >> I know. >> You weren't even plann Oh, I wasn't planned at all, but I was born in ' 89. I don't think it's appropriate to say on the DIS. What happened to my birth? >> One quick thing I wanted to visit for all the council members is I know that we've had some confusion in the past. Um so Brotherton Cadillac has always been an amazing sponsor to us for the vehicles and um there was been uh communication done um internally or externally with other departments and it was like oh no you can only have EV vehicles. we get uh we've put in a request early um and uh what we notice is the the people that are aligning the streets don't want to have to peer through a small window or look in the trunk to find a a a council um member. So, >> nor does the council member want to ride in the trunk sometimes. >> No. Um and then >> I don't mind hanging out the window. I really don't. >> And then we had some that just went on their own and walked it. So, uh yes. Uh I'm I'm I'm looking at you. So, uh, so we're we're we will keep you informed, but I I don't think that we're going to have that. >> I got my steps in. >> I did. I do know I do appreciate it and and again, I I highly appreciate our partners and sponsorships. But, um, in this case, even we were commenting we can bring our own vehicles if needed. Some of us, you know, um, if that is the intent, uh, because last year was a a discussion. I mean, who do you want to walk? And I want to walk and and at the end of the day, two council members end up walking, but both of them say, I couldn't have brought my my own car and I couldn't have used my uh sunroof. Uh, you know, and again, this is in any form any disrespect, but totally appreciation for our sponsors, but I do understand the compromise that that it is. So, so we want an event that is very inclusive and everybody participating in a in a comfort zone. I understand cons feel very comfortable. I have osteoporosis obviously I will not take any chances you know but uh but but it's a different different level of comfort and this is about the people not about us 100%. And I I want the people to see the best side of everybody trust us. So we will keep you uh well informed prior to the date. Um, I want to just make mention that, um, the pickle ball tournament will not be at Liberty Park this year. Actually, we're activating the um, beautiful uh, renovated Tabat Hill um, Reservoir Park. So, um, that the the registration is is going like gang busters for that. So, we're going to have an amazing uh, turnout. So, that one will be uh, one of our off sites. And then, I'm not sure and I I can speak to it, but I might have to get back to you. New this year is River Nights. It's a been a dream right after uh Rent and River Days kind of winds down. You know what else? What else is there? Well, this year with Legacy Squares opening as well as the amenities that are down there, they're going to be providing River Nights. So, you can look for continued um activation. So, um we learned the first year that we did the drone show downtown that um that is one thing that people will do is walk. It's just a few blocks down Third Street. And so after uh Liberty Park kind of closes up, uh they'll be able to go down to Legacy Square and listen to um the entertainment that has been planned for River Nights. >> Council President Council member, thank you. Um going back to the slides, are we going to have any other type of tournaments besides pickle ball? just because I have received feedback from some of our youth that, you know, they would love to see like a basketball tournament or something of a sport that is um that is maybe that they that they're more familiar with or is more popular um in their area. And I'm just curious if there was any kind of youth feedback solicited um in regards to to this. >> So, couple things and thank you for asking. So, um there's going to be more to come and I'm hoping to put that together at a community services uh committee to bring that up. One thing that we are working on right now is our team is uh getting ready to permit a threeon-ree basketball tournament that will be happening the weekend after Reton River days. Um if there's any life left in us. I'm just kidding. Um and that will be at Liberty Park. However, I did want to give you feedback um to our survey and I can dig deeper into that. It is also nice for us to have some unactivated per purposely unactivated spaces for people that just happen upon the park and are able to come and play basketball, tennis, and that's kind of what we're going to be able to go back to. Um, that was the most feedback is not having to pay to participate. So, yes. All right. And the summer concerts, uh, much anticipated, um, shows at Ivers. So, um, that one will be kicking off in August. So, there'll be four of them, the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th. Um, we have a variety of music. Um, so some of it is familiar, some of it is actually or just one is actually new. Um and then um continuing into August with um our our uh summer meals program, the mini golf family fund and uh family dance in the park uh with in those are both in partnership with KCLs. I just want to add about Ivers. They've been a phenomenal partner to the city for many many years. Um we do get requests sometimes about people wanting to have food trucks or food concession at Koulon Park. We do not allow that due to our lease and agreement with Ivers having two restaurants there. Um we have had some years where people are trying to vend and have some popup um dynamic. Um it's just a challenge. Not only do we have in the city, but we do experience that even in our busiest parks. Um staff is well aware of that, but just um I have continued to be a great partner. and they really do appreciate and love this event as well as all of our uh events that we do in partnership with them at Koulong. >> Um two questions is the Tiffany Park uh mini golf is a new thing or who have done it in the past? I don't remember it. >> Uh that is um uh no that is a new thing. Um I want to say that we did have something similar at Sunset Park but um this is new for that area. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. look like on. >> And then I wanted to just highlight Maplewood um golf course. So um you've heard a lot about the um PGA Junior League. So we started out with um 24 participants in 20 in 23 and now we're serving over 150 youth um annually. What it's really done is it um it's become a cornerstone in our recreation programming. So, it's almost like we added an additional element to um what parks and recreation are are actually um known for. So, it's been a phenomenal program. Um in one of it was our last uh Let's Go Guide, we actually featured one of our um uh athletes from there and uh I know that there's a story coming out through our communications team that when it is released, I'll make sure that I share it with share it with you. um the gentleman uh Mason, the young athlete that is um you know being featured. He's just um this is something for him that has just been life-changing in being able to participate in something that takes so much self-discipline and uh it just goes to show you that um the amount of focus, concentration, and uh dedication that it does to become a golf player or it it's it's it's something else. So uh it's phenomenal. Um it, as I said, it's it's just helping shape successful, confident young people. Um >> we'd love to share with you council um data on where people are coming from. As somebody who's been there for these um this season that's underway right now, we are hearing people coming from West Seattle, people coming from Belleview in the east side, a lot of people are driving cuz not as many courses offer this and are willing to do this. But we genuinely are growing the sport and the interest and um encouraging young individuals to slowly become like council member Rivera and play in high school. But we really do hope and just the access is incredible and so we're really proud to offer this council president. >> Thank you so much and I appreciate the shout out. Um I wish this had been around when I was younger cuz my dad used to drive me to Jefferson. Well, and it's no longer called Jefferson. It's been renamed. Excuse me. I'm showing my I'm showing I'm dating myself. Um, but he used to drive me there um before work every morning to drop me off at golf camp when I was young and before I knew any better about the evil sport of golf. Oh, did I say that out loud? It's a lovehate relationship. But this is really fantastic and awesome and I just I really really appreciate it cuz it is a fantastic sport. I would argue one of the best in the world. So, thank you. And then our recreation centers. Um, this is kind of where the rubber meets the road. So during our summer season, um we everything that we presented to you today is in addition to. So those are the the fun things that if you're out and about, you're seeing, but what's really happened seven days a week is um the what's in the recreation center or or what's in this 55 56 page um parks and recreation guide for things to do. But um Highland's uh neighborhood center uh will become dedicated to our home to summer camps. Uh the Reton Community Center, we have successfully started operating as a dualpurpose center. Um has there been nerves? Absolutely. But the amount of success has been unmeasurable. Um and just the bringing everybody together just shows you that um people appreciate what we're doing and the the time and dedication that it took us to get everything uh smoothly in uh working together. um the aquatic center on May 12th that will open up all the registration for our um swim lessons uh the the splash and play those programs. So uh we did do a offset so that we didn't overload our system. I don't know if anyone remembers this but last summer during our registration we crashed our our our system. Uh so May 12th that is opening and then um while we're doing uh the the work of recreation professionals, we're also uh doing the work as facilitators. We're renting our spaces. We're working with um outside organizations and private um interests to rent our spaces and and help them uh move through their uh needs. And then um I think that what this does for us is that we've learned is that this is where our customer focus really comes into play is I'm sure we we we like to play, we love to provide, but also it's it's where our business operations shine and we uh give access to the people that need it the most and um we're an affordable choice for for many of the the decisions that they're making. So, we do perform all our own stunts, but in order to do what we do, we also hire. And we're super grateful for the people who choose to work for us. It's not always the youngest, but sometimes this is their first job, but this is also working professionals who are interested in another job, but we are well into 150 to 200 individuals just to do all of these um uh to have our buildings open as well as offer these other activities. um someone will always be meat uh with an individual um and to provide that customer service. So, we don't rely exclusively on phone calls and emails. And a lot of people still really very much appreciate being able to walk into a building and talk to somebody in person. It's kind of becoming more challenging um to provide that sort of customer service and we're uh very proud to be able to do that for our community. With that, I just want to thank you all for the support. Um, our success is felt because of your passion. So, um, we appreciate it and we hope that we see you a lot with us, uh, May through September and after, but I'll come back with more for after. >> Thank you so much both of you for your presentation. I I always love the summer because how busy it gets and and and people love to get out and and enjoy it. And you guys have done a lot of work. Um questions and comments. Council members, council member McCary. >> Yes. Uh thank you, uh Madam President. Um so I covered some of this I think in community services, but I'll rehash a little bit for the group here. Uh first of all, a great presentation. Very excited to see what we put together for the summer. I think our residents will agree. I mean, there's a lot of programming, a lot of activities to do. So, uh really looking forward to that. Uh first off the bat, I got to say I'm I'm heartbroken I was unable to participate in the allcomers track meet. I had it circled on my calendar and there was a prior family engagement because otherwise I would have been out there uh competing for my age group for sure. So I hope this becomes an annual thing cuz I will I will definitely circle that date as I lock it in on the calendar for next year. So um >> I I think we learned how important those types of uh uh activities and commitments are to our community. I mean out the gate 90 uh registrants and we we had a wait list. So, um, to your point, yes, I I'm I'm pretty focused on the second one. >> Fantastic. And then the the comment I wanted to make was on the, uh, River days and fourth lineup. Um, very excited to see us activating for Fourth of July. I think that's really important to the community. Uh, the one thing I shared in committee, which I wanted to reshare here, uh, which I'm very excited to learn that you had a part such a part to play in the drone show. I think that's spectacular. So, that was a nice little nugget. Um, I will say I think if you ask our community, I think there might still be interest in having a drone show potentially on the 4th of July versus on on River Days Night if we had to choose. I mean, obviously both would be better. Um, and I just think from this standpoint of giving folks that visual display versus having them lighting off stuff in their neighborhoods is that's one of the reoccurring themes I think we all get up here as far as folks not wanting fireworks because I do agree not doing the fireworks show is a safer and more sustainable option for the city as well too. So, but but I don't want to put a damp on anything. I love the everything we got up there and I'm excited for uh to celebrate both our 250th and then 40th and I'm going to go '9s I think. I don't know. Um >> and is an ebike allowed instead of a car if we use our own? I don't know. >> Yes. >> Yes. I I love that. Roller skates, whatever you feel like. >> Back to council member adverson council member Ria, but I want to chip on a little bit on baby. Yeah. um you know, fourth of July and I totally agree that that that that we move to the drones for for a purpose. Um and I do understand that part of the celebrations Americans has to do with the the the the how do you call it fire firework show but in this case will be the drone show. Um but I understand the logistics and the complication of doing this at Jino Park during the 4th of July because we will be serving for the region instead of just our residents. So I do understand that we can bring it in a different day on cooler park because it's more manageable for our local community. However, uh kind of brainstorming with with Ryan, I think that if maybe we do it another side that is not the Jin Kum Park for the 4th of July, some I don't know, call it Liberty Park, call it another park that you know that has a space, you know, but but you know, it's more local. It's just like a brainstorming just so people feel in Drenton that in fourth of July we have also something uh but but this is not a priority. It is just a little bit of feedback just chipping in on what we heard from the community, you know, missing those days. But I do understand totally why Jon Gold Park becomes something that uh was not manageable anymore. And I I think that you're on to something and I think that we could uh with good uh communication and surveying, I think that we could really find the best place for that. We we know that we can successfully do one in certain areas. what we uh really have a hard time with is the freeway of uh but we can also drones they've changed they change in a matter of a year of their uh capabilities. So um you know I I've thought about also lining the the banks you know the walkway of where we can see it from the river. So think from the community center all the way down to the senior center. Maybe we'll be able to get something in there that is not flying. So, I push the limits everywhere I can. Um, I won't break any rules cuz she doesn't have enough bail money. So, um, but we will definitely keep that. >> We will definitely keep that in mind because we too agree. >> Thank you very much, Jennifer. Council member bloggers. >> Uh, yes. I have a complaint about July 4th as well. I'm just joking because it sounded like that. No. Um, the concert truck I think it's a great idea. I'm just curious about uh where else where else that um that they've done this if anywhere else. What other feedback I'm curious if I you know if I were to call Redmond, hey you guys had the concert truck. How was that? What's the history of it? >> I actually might have someone who can answer that here. Uh so if you don't mind I can have uh uh recreation supervisor Jeff Hagen. >> He can use the microphone MJ. You can use that mic. Forgot about that one. >> It's going to be Oh, >> hello. Um yeah, uh we we did get fortunate with the um reaching out with the concert truck over to us and um did um look up they've they've worked with city of Seattle before and I believe a couple of others are wonderful to work with. We took a couple of site visits and looked at various um options as far as where they could do uh the event. Uh we think it's going to be relatively small cuz it's a daytime thing. Um but it's also another conversation about how they can get involved with us in general. So we've already had them out to our some of our own programs up at the Highland Center and it's been a really nice success so far. So, a little background in other park systems, but also we've we've been able to kind of vet them out at our own sites already as well. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Ria. >> Thank you so much, Council President. I really appreciate everything that has been put up and on here. The recreation division does a magnificent job. I couldn't help but notice um that Junth was missing from the presentation. And then I have heard some things. I reached out to MJ earlier today and I got an email back from Gina. I don't think she's in the audience, but shout out to Gina um for her amazing work as well. But just for people out in cyerspace and those who might be watching cuz I know there's been a little discourse online. What are we doing and how are we supporting Junth this year? Because it's a beautiful opportunity and I would hate for us to miss a celebration. >> I I I'm sorry. I don't think you guys are in charge of that, right? I think is a Christy depart department. I know what is going to happen. I need that I I know that is in coordination with the some of the events that are going to be happening at the legacy square but I can ask uh the department to to come back to all the council members to let us let you know what is the plan but it's a plan in place already for an event that is going to be happening actually at the pasa but at the same time it's in combination with something else that is going to p that is already um uh happening at the legacy square. >> Can I change my question? >> Huh? >> Then can I change my question? >> Yes. What what how do you all decide what events y'all do? Because I would assume like Junth would be a collaborative event. So like how does I guess recreation pick your pick the events that you all organize versus what CED picks the events? How does that work out? >> This is not CED. This is uh outreach and coordination that what is is Christy? >> Okay. Same question though. >> So many of them you'll see that are just I don't want to use this as uh loosely but it's um carried over from year to year. your Rent and River days, your um uh many of those, but a lot of times we do it through our surveys. So, every time we put out a activity or a um an event, we ask the community where what would you like to see? What would you like to do? But also, um just being mindful of trends also and where we can get the most event access possible. Um, and then again, I love every event we do, and I I do them 7 days a week, every day, but it's also has to be in conjunction with this 56 page um recreation opportunity can allow us to do so. And then money. >> I I'll add in terms of River Days, that was a separate nonprofit that the city heavily supported. Um, a lot of wonderful volunteers that were part of that. Um, there was a transition. Um, we're happy to be as responsive, hence this threeon-ree basketball tournament that was brought to us as well as an opportunity. Um, honestly, it just it I think Legacy was an opportunity to showcase different events and experiences and I think it'll be interesting to see uh what continues because it's an opportunity to continue new traditions at that location as well, just as much as we have in recreation. Thank you so much. And I think I may have actually just summoned Gina here with my magical powers. I don't know if that was possible though. >> Yeah. >> So, so um I will forward you an email that I just received but I receive it because of course um a um a resident was specifically asking about this as every year Jun is is is supported by the city of Renon but it's a a group that organized Jun with the partnership of the city of RTO. So they make the the choices and decisions of how this going to play. Uh, once again, Junin is um I don't see Christy here. Christy is the one who knows more about this. Do you know about Jun? Okay. We've been working with the Junth. There's actually a watch party that night. So, we've been working with um the Elevate, the team that's been doing the Junth for the last few years. Um we are working with contracting with them to do an event at Piaza Park. CED is Yeah. Yeah, that's what I knew. I more I don't know. I also don't know more. >> There's a lot of moving pieces this summer and we're all just trying to work through them collaboratively so everyone kind of knows what's going on. But yeah, we are working with them on that. >> Yeah, thank you. The information the information I I know is that city initiated Jun will take place first with a flag raising at the city hall and proclamation be being uh read at the city council meeting on Monday before the holiday and then the public the city will continue to sponsor and support a public private partnership event in coordination with legacy square events. That's the only information that I have. Okay. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> And but I will make sure that that all of you receive an email with information exactly when is happening and what is happening. I think they're still working on the details. >> Thank you. You know, I I really appreciate it. I know you're always on top of these things and I know some of us on this DIS are very passionate about Jun. So, I was a little surprised I was the first one, but I wasn't. It was you. So, I appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um Laura, I saw that you were coming to the microphone and I really want to ask you something about it about um the summer programs. First of all, I want to tell you, let's go. Incredible. The programs that you guys put put there amazing. I appreciate so much the feedback of the community. I saw that a lot of the new senior programs have a lot of the voices that we present just this year and I was like wow. I mean I already signed in for one of those and registered for one of those. Thank you very much. Today I met with the senior advisory board and they are very happy about how the transition went very smoothly. Uh they they they they don't they didn't complain about anything. On the contrary, they were super excited that seems that nothing happened and uh and seniors are very happy with the services that been provided. Uh but my question is about uh all the items that they just presented, all the events that they presented. Um I'm I I'm a big fan of letting the community know as soon as possible what is going to happen so that they have the opportunity to plan their summer. And I saw that you guys uh your department already posted all the events that are going to be happening in the legacy square and events that people can start figuring out. I I hope that this is going to happen also with the parks and recreation department because I know that you have your own social media thing going on, but I think that the voice of the city is way larger to make sure that the community knows about all these details, all these events and they start planning their summer and where they want to go and participate. It looks amazing and especially we're going to have so many events with the Legacy Square and the parks and recreation. And I want people to be able to enjoy everything that we're offering depending of what. So do we have a plan for advertising and promoting? >> We do. We have a very robust plan on how we're marketing and advertising and uh approaching media as well. So you'll see us on broadcast, you'll see us online, you'll see us on social media. You'll see us in print. Um you'll see us all through the city and in the region. Uh in a wonderful just moment on social media today, I saw someone from planning a road trip across the country to end in Seattle and they were asking their network. It's someone who used to work for the Sounders, so very very engaged um on what they should do in and around Seattle, and they said, "You've got to check out Legacy Square." So, yay. Thank you for somebody remotely for knowing that Legacy Square has great programming already. And we'll continue to put those things on our city calendar. Uh if you've been to our website recently, you can see all of the layers that we have. You can search just for Legacy Square events. You can just search just for parks and wreck events. And as we get information, everything is uploaded and available. We want everyone to plan their summer out. uh in all detail and be here in written. >> Thank you very much. Um any more questions or or comments? Uh the only thing that I going to ask Jennifer if you can coordinate with Judy to make sure that all these events are in the agendas of council members so also we don't miss any of the excitement. Um and for sure >> and we have it there. So with that if there are no more questions or concerns this meeting is a jour and thank you very much again. Thank you.

Good evening. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee of the whole and today we have two items on the agenda. The first one will be the intelligent transportation system master plan of date and we have with us today to present uh Flora Lee and Wontana Miller. I hope I didn't do too bad. Welcome and thank you for being here tonight. Today, Wontana Miller, our consultant from DKS Associate, will be helping to present the ITS Smart Mobility Master Plan. Uh we'll address any questions or comments from today's presentation into the final master plan. Our next step is we plan to request council to adopt the master plan when the plan is complete. I'll turn this over to Wontana for the presentation. Thank you. Yes, Councilmember Mark O'Hara. Please move the microphones closer to you. Just bend them down closer. Yeah. Thank you very much. >> hear me better? Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Can you hear me, okay? Great. All right. So, today yes, thanks thanks everyone for time today. We're presenting on the city's ITS uh and smart mobility master plan which is essentially a roadmap for the city on how to manage the traffic more safely, efficiently, and reliably using modern tools. And so the key idea here is you know we can't build our way out of congestion. So instead we need to operate our system smarter. This plan touches on how we do that using technology to improve safety, reduce delay, and helps helps staff respond faster to real world conditions. So first when we say intelligent transportation systems, we're talking about using data and technology. Things like traffic signals, cameras, communication systems to actively manage traffic in real time instead of reacting after problems happen. I'm going to the next slide. And what is the purpose of the plan? So really the plan gives the city a practical phased roadmap to identify and identifies what we need to improve, what we need to modernize, it prioritizes the investments, and lays out what we can implement in in near term, mid term, and and long term. And it's you know it's not just a vision it's meant to be implemented. An implementable roadmap. Right, why why are we doing this plan now? Well the rent is growing and congestion is increasing and we have limited ability to expand the roadways physical capacity. So and at the same time the expectations are higher. People expect reliable travel times, safe streets, and better coordination during incidents. And this plan really allows us to get more performance out of the system that we already have. So, we're looking to modernize. So, what what does that mean? What can that look like? When it comes to our signal system, right now a lot of a lot of the system is pretty reactive. So, we respond after an issue occurs. Changes as we move forward, but with tools like adaptive signals, we can respond in real time to track to changing traffic conditions. And without building additional Again, without building physical capacity, we can really enhance what we can do with what we what we have in the in on the road today. It really reduces unnecessary delay, smooths traffic flow, improves reliability, especially when conditions are unpredictable and they change from day-to-day or hour-to-hour. Go to the next one. This one's dealing with remote access. Right now much of our the system requires staff to be physically present to make changes, make updates, and respond to issues. So, allowing for secure remote access will allow staff to respond faster, reduces costs and and operation, enhances operations during emergencies. So, this includes supporting and the emergency operations center operations as well. Next one. Um So, this is looking at how do we improve resilience? So, we have communications to our field devices, but today the the system has single points of failure. So, like one one failure can take out the net it could take out the communications network. So, this plan it looks to improve redundancy so that one outage doesn't take out an entire corridor, for example. You go to the next one. Yeah, really the plan also helps Renton see what's going to come next and prepare for things like the next generation of transit signal priority, which is already being requested today. Looking at improving freight movements along key corridors and tool safety tools that can help us identify risks before crashes happen. So a lot we can do by modernizing the system. So if you go to the next one, yeah, what are our next steps? What does implementation look like? So we'll next be looking to to adopt this the ITS and smart mobility master plan. And looking at we structured the plan as with a phased approach looking at kind of near-term focusing on foundational investments like cybersecurity, communications, signal improvements, which really lay the groundwork for smart mobility capabilities. And then kind of in the mid-term focuses on system performance and redundancy and then long-term kind of preparing for those next generation technologies. If we go to the next and and so the plan is also just organized into um major groups, major categories for the different types of projects and um really focusing on how how these things build upon each others. Again, things that we need to do in the near-term and the mid-term and in the long-term. So if you go to the next page, so so we can start walking through some of the near-term priorities. We're looking at network security. So as a foundation, we want to start with the network security and remote access. So these are critical steps that without them we we can't safely connect to our systems and enable remote access and operations or support kind of regional coordination. So uh and these these initial efforts are actually already covered in the 2026 ITS program budget. Um so then kind of moving on to the what's next in line. Uh if you go to the next page here, yeah, traffic signals and communications. First with the for signals looking at um how do how do we expand or improve our signal operations by expanding the adaptive signal coordination corridor corridors. So, first looking at um Northeast 3rd and 4th Streets, and then looking next to Sunset Boulevard, and then Grady and Main. The Grady and Main uh project has gotten pushed out a little bit further due to the current um planned construction associated with Sound Transit and um the King County Metro I-Line projects that are on both Grady and um and Rainier there. So, those are that's one's pushed out to 2029 now. But in order to support those, you can go next. Um we also need to improve uh our fiber communications and throughout make sure we have we can connect and communicate with our traffic signals and the ITS devices that are out in the field. Um so, this is uh how we start We have a couple of projects listed here um starting just kind of with a plan for what how do we build out the this the network, and then some near-term projects that are already known. We know these are kind of low-hanging fruit when it comes to communications, and the communications plan will kind of help us see beyond those immediate needs. So, if we go to the next slide. Um so then, yeah, once once we have those kind of foundational things in place, then we can start moving to the TMC modernization. So, this is again about giving the staff the tools they need to monitor the system in real time, to manage incidents, um and make data-driven decisions. So, looking at performance and asset management plan, continuing continuing the track or improving the traffic count system, and looking at the back backup to our traffic management system. All right. So, generally, yeah, so we're we're looking for you supporting the plan and and moving forward with some of these near-term investments. Again, these are all kind of summarizing what we're looking at for 2027 and 2028. Really, again, foundational for everything else in the plan kind of rest on getting first a secure system that would provide access and is reliable. Um, and also just pointing out that there are multiple sources of eligible funding to support to support this request. And then for just kind of wrapping up, this is the kind of the the why slide. What's the benefit of all of these investments? So, first really, it's about improved mobility and reliability. This plan helps move traffic um, more smoothly and predictably, especially along these key corridors, um, without needing to widen roads. And it's about getting better performance out of the system that we already have. Um, next, safety. So, with with better detection and data, the city can identify risky conditions, um, and and behaviors earlier and take action before crashes happen. Uh, and this supports a more proactive kind of data-driven approach to safety and aligns with the Vision Zero goals. Um, next, resilience. Emergency resilience. So, with with modern communications and with remote access capabilities of your staff can monitor conditions and and adjust operations in real time during emergencies, um, whether that's you know, a major incident, um, an evacuation, or some sort of system disruption. So, just being able to be more responsive and have better coordinate with your emergency operations center when it's really critical. Um fourth on our list is just more efficient operations. Today, many tasks at the operation that the staff do require them to be in the field or or to be at the physically at the TMC. And so, with these modern systems in place, a lot of that can be done remotely. Uh so, we're reducing response time and staff hours and and your long-term operating cost. And last, better coordination with both the public and with our partners. So, with these upgrades, um it allows the city to work more efficiently with partners like WSDOT, King County Metro, and Sound Transit, and to share information real-time information with the public as well. Um so, yeah. So, generally, this you know, helps the city move towards, you know, away from a reactive system and more that's towards something that's more proactive and data-driven and more resilient. I think that's That was it. So, yeah. Hopefully, this plan is looking to position Renton to manage its system more effectively and safely and efficiently and we welcome any questions you might have. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation. Great presentation and great work. Council members, do you have any questions or concerns? Council member Zahara. Thank you very much. I just want to clarify what How are you defining near, mid, and long-term? Is that the 26 through 29 that's listed on uh slide 12? Correct. The Well, those those are the near-term projects, Lisa. And so, as we've developed the draft plan, which will make its way to you along with the an executive summary of that plan, we have identified kind of the highest priority projects as kind of the the near-term. I think the, you know, definition of what when all of those things get implemented will be discussed as you continue to develop your budget budgeting, but I think it when it comes to near-term, those are the ones we wanted to highlight today. Yes. So, are we are we thinking that near-term is like the next 1 to 3 years, mid-term is 5 to 7 years, and long-term? I mean, I'm just trying to get a a idea of the scope of time we think we might be looking at. The near-term is 2 or 3 years, and maybe 5 depending on the schedule or other projects. Um, the mid-term will be 5 plus, and then the long-term will be longer due to the cost and and budget. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any more questions or or comments? No? Oh, can someone repeat that? I just want to say thank you for a great presentation. I um met with Martin before this to kind of also run by questions, and one of the big ones I I do want to bring up and have a little concern around is the cybersecurity and AI component and kind of how we're going to um be more proactive around that. Again, I love all of this, but I can't help think about that scene in The Italian Job where they shut down, you know what I'm talking about, where they shut down all the lights and everything, right? The Napster. Um, I don't want that incident happening written. So, how do we avoid such a matter? I mean, that's that's why we're doing what we're or why we're we're the projects that we're recommending, right? It's to provide that that security. Right now, the system uh is separate the transportation system is is network is separate from the city network, and that's an important part of the security. Um but as in order to respond to some of these new um technologies that are out there, there there is some more um communication that needs to happen. So, the firewall getting the firewalls in place and security in place is really a critical item in order to do those next kind of future things that introduce cloud. I Yeah, one of the things I wanted to mention that AI is really starting to make some advances and is uh a lot of the citizens actually ask us, "Well, why aren't you fixing something at an intersection?" And we look at the accident data and we don't really see a lot of data there, so we think there really isn't a problem, but with the new cameras, they're showing near misses, so that's what people are reacting to. So, with this AI technology, we're learning more about things like that. Not necessarily surveillance, but just what is happening uh that, you know, we potentially could be more proactive instead of waiting till there actually is accidents occurring more often. I appreciate that. Thank you, Jim. Thank you. Those are things to explore with these new technology these days. I mean, again, uh I love these plans. I think you're doing the right thing, but I know that technology is advancing so fast that we're really catching up every day, so I know that more things are going to be coming. And I'm at the same time, yes, keep the guardrails that were needed, but also let's take a I mean, let's take advantage of these new technology, how much is going to help us to collect data that in the end of the day is going to help us solve one of the biggest problems that we have all around, which is traffic, and and and uh specifically, how can we keep people moving in the mornings and and during their commute daily because it's very frustrating to be uh spend more time at the car in your car than with your families or with things that you want to do. So, if there are no more questions and concerns, I'm going to continue with the next topic in transportation and I want to appreciate the two of you. Great presentation and thank you so much for all the work that that that your department does. >> Thank you. Uh the next topic on the COW tonight is sidewalks sidewalks and street maintenance update. To present is going to be Alan Talbott and Bernardo. And if I'm pronouncing your name incorrectly, I'm sorry. Ebi? You see, that would have been way easier for me to try to Americanize your name. Beautiful name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, council members. And um thank you very much for your time tonight. My name is Alan Talbott, transportation planning manager in the public works department and I'll be walking through the latest update on our comprehensive walkway program. Um just to kind of jog back on where I feel like we left off, which I think it's a bit of a while ago, but still nonetheless um I want to say around 2024. Um I brought to you the draft plan then of the of the walkway plan and where we ended up with the network and um this is what we have largely continued with since since then. So, just kind of refreshing um and I I know this map may be a little difficult to see, so I'll walk through it, but um we went through a very data-driven We used a data-driven process to prioritize um how to get at infilling as much of the missing sidewalk network as much as possible because there is quite a bit, but actually there Renton does have quite a bit of existing sidewalk, as you can see here in the in the green on the map. And so, the rest of the map that's not green pretty much reflects what is missing either on one side or both sides of the street in the city limits. And um again, using that data process uh data-driven process to assign a a series of criteria and waiting in the criteria um so, for example, things like connectivity and near proximity to schools, connectivity and proximity to transit connectivity and proximity to um uh walking destinations, such as shopping hubs and parks, and etc. and also uh giving a higher weight to um intersections, segments, or areas of neighborhoods that experience that have experienced a high crash and severe crash rate. And so, combining all of that got us to this level of weighted streets. And so, um that's why there's this tiered network of tiered one, two, and three streets with essentially the tier one, two, and three streets being more of the kind of local neighborhood streets that we um that that are that typically haven't come with sidewalks in the past largely because they came from they were either um kind of we've inherited them from the county uh from the county's possession at one point, or the old the old city street standards didn't put sidewalk on those streets. They are narrower in width. They often lack um uh modern drainage, and so they become more uh feasible or more um more complex to install uh simple curb, gutter, sidewalk. Um however, uh standing out from all of those streets are uh priority segments that you see in the yellow and the blue on the map, and the blue segments representing those highest at least on this at least for now 18 segments in the blue and remaining uh 63 segments in the yellow. So, um so total there's quite a bit to try to get at. But moving forward, um we propose uh using our Well, we we adopted the transportation benefit district for the purpose of of solely having some level of funding to be able to dedicate towards sidewalk infill on these blue and yellow, and also those tier one, two, and three segments. And so, dialing further into that, um so here are those uh first prior 18 pri- priority sidewalks, as I've mentioned, and um we have some sidewalks on right now under construction, which are noted in the little cone um seg- icon there. Um the 172nd water quality retrofit project is actually a utilities project that uh we in transportation benefit from in the sense that they are helping us complete sidewalks on on those streets, um and 116th will begin soon, and Maplewood is under construction. But for the 2026 or I it would actually be the 2027-2032 TIP cycle, uh we've selected We've identified some projects here on this map. So, um, number 11 down here uh, near the city limits. We want to coordinate uh, being able to put some sidewalk on this segment in front of the um, planned future Cleveland Richardson Park. And, um, also this also this segment aligns with feedback that we hear from residents about just a desire for better safety and and uh, ped circulation in that area as well. Number 55, which is not uh, which is labeled on the map is, um, up here off of Aberdeen, uh, where we, um, have heard some resident feedback from accessing, uh, Kennedy Lions Park. And we are also working in coordination with utilities right now on the segment of of sidewalk in front of the park, but Aberdeen Ave itself, uh, needs sidewalk as well. So, we'd like to get that in design somewhere in the 27 to 32, um, cycle year. And then on 164th, uh, connecting essentially middle, um, sorry, Nelson Middle School to over to Lindbergh High School. We heard feedback from the community uh, a couple years ago from our uh, SANDS project, our our, um, Safer Access to Neighbor Destinations pilot project, where the the kids from, uh, Nelson walk to the Family First Center and, uh, really are in need of sidewalks down there. So, uh, we chose this segment to include in this TIP cycle as well. And then finally, Hokum Ave, um, number four there on the map, um which is runs in front of Hazen High School from uh Sunset to Hazen and then south of Hazen from 10th to Northeast 8th. So, I just I wanted to touch on some of the common challenges of implementing sidewalks. So, let me just go back to this map for a sec. These 18 segments uh represent segments that we've prioritized at a planning level. So, we've taken the the planning criteria and the connectivity and such, and we've put them in a ranking system at least at a planning level to guide, "Okay, which segments make sense from all these different connectivity standpoints?" But, we still need to go in and do some really the preliminary engineering work at understanding what what is in the right-of-way that helps us determine how feasible and how complex it really becomes to build these segments. And so, that's why I put these just a a smattering of these photos together to help to help walk through that. So, like in this top picture here, this is along Talbot. This is an example where on the signpost, we put a signpost that said we put a sign that says walkway to indicate that it's okay for people to walk on the shoulder of the road. But, to actually put sidewalks on the shoulder of the to build to put a sidewalk here, um we run into then having to relocate or underground utility poles. These are transmission lines, um and down here, these are transmission lines along Talbot Road in front of Cleveland Richardson Park. And so, this presents a cost challenge for us where then we have to make decisions about about how strict can we adhere to our to our construction standards and how can we where and how can we make decisions to maybe deviate from those standards so that we can still get the infrastructure and make it safe for for folks but bring our complexity of the project down to a scalable and real realizable size and cost. So so presence and and types of utilities in the areas is a factor. Slopes in the right-of-way. This is a segment along this top photo is a segment along Taylor Way in Westhill where there is sidewalk on one side but if we want to get it on the other side, we are dealing with section of slope that we have to deal with that probably is in the right-of-way but accommodating and building for the proper type of drainage and retaining retaining that that dirt if you will and then similarly down here on Sunset where in order to get the multi-use trail, there's quite a bit of what you can't see in the photo is quite a bit of slope where getting the trail and cutting into the width will require some complexity and some conflicts with with with things about the project that just that that make it a very in some cases cost prohibitive. And then for example, we also in Renton, we are abundant with stream crossings and all of this triggers special environmental mitigation and so we will run into this on Hoquiam and potentially on Aberdeen where we do need to be cognizant of the environmental factors that we're running up against as far as how we need to mitigate particularly build in the the the drainage and mitigate it in such a way that it doesn't impact adversely certain certain crossings. And so all of these this is all just to say that that again going back to this map that this all just to say that these are lines on a map for the purposes of of planning but once we dial into the engineer the preliminary engine engineering characteristics is where we really start to parse out what and how and best how to fit curb gutter sidewalk versus a safe asphalt walking path or or some or something else that can accommodate and serve the purpose of of getting peds and being able to circulate safely. And so where we are now in the process is as I mentioned we uh we are in construction and so these photos are fresh from last week hot off the press. Um but but on the right side of the screen here uh we are trying to make way with developing a concept for Talbot Road in front of the park and so we've begun to just lay out some simple schematics to understand and get a sense of of what the complexities are um as far as utility conflicts or or environmental conflicts and such um along that segment and then also the same for Aberdeen Ave. Um Our team is working with uh our utilities on like I mentioned the 24th uh segment but we we hope to begin on Aberdeen Ave sometime in the near future. So, with that, I will keep it short uh in in spirit of time for my other colleague, but I can answer any questions as well. Thank you very much. Um A A Ellen Uh thank you for so much for your presentation. Sorry, I was paying attention because you know how passionate I am I am about sidewalks, so I'm trying to keep all my comments on questions on on track. But, thank you. This is a great presentation as always. Thank you for the great work that you guys have done. Uh any questions or comments? Council member O'Halloran? Um yeah, on slide number four, where you were talking about the common challenges, and and maybe this is digging too deep into the woods, but I think the the lower middle picture was says addressing slopes in the right-of-way, and I thought I heard you say that that was Sunset. This is Sunset, yes. So, isn't that SR 900? Uh yes. So, why are we building there and not This is the segment of Sunset between Edmonds and um Monroe. You're My project? >> Yeah. 10th and Edmonds. 10th and Edmonds. Thank you. And so, this is the segment that is part of the multi-use trail that is planned to be in that segment anyway. And so, we we had received some grant funding to start design, but I'll defer to Director >> Yeah, I think what your question is is that why are we responsible as a city for it? Uh it's because it's a managed access highway. Uh when any highway runs through a city like that, like a main street, like in Sunset area there, that actually is called a managed access highway, where we manage basically everything uh for the state except for pavement. They're responsible for the pavement condition, but everything else the city is responsible for the channelization along the corridor, everything behind the curb of the city's responsibility, which just has its pluses and minuses. For example, we redesignated the downtown area as our local street versus SR 900. It gave us a lot of design flexibility to build the streets that we've done on Wells and Williams. So, there's pluses and minuses minuses to it, but if you're in limited access right-of-way, it's all WSDOT like 405 and some other areas, but when it's a managed access highway like Rainier, Sunset, and Talbot Road is for example SR 515, those are all our responsibilities with the exception of pavements. I know that. Thank you. Thank Thank you so much. I am I'm going to start with one of my first comments. And it's slide 21. I'm so excited about these. You have no idea. I'm beyond excitement when I see these projects because they're projects that I have been advocating for the last 12 years and some of them for the last 20 years way before I was council member when I moved to Renton. Um I love the city. I love the place. I love everything. Uh it's slide 21. I said There's only 16 slides. What you said Well, it might computer say 21. Well, the one that has the 18 priority locations based on weight criteria score. Those those That's That looks pretty really pretty. Uh the one of the things that I was very frustrated is that I couldn't walk because my my my cul-de-sac had sidewalks, but outside of that, you go whatever you go Talbot or Snake Hill and it's not sidewalks. So, it was very dangerous and and I start advocating even way before I was council member on the benefits of having sidewalks not just for saving, for exercise, for all the beautiful things, you know. So, when I became a council member, that was my first cry for help. I say, "Where can I speak louder about this?" There are couple of projects here, specifically the 11 one that I'm very excited that is the one of double that you just mentioned about the park. And the other one where I see the purple light that finally is a local priority for me since I walked that is a famous snake hill that nobody knew where it was when I came here and I say, "Gosh, that is so on safety." So, I'm very very happy to see that and definitely number 13 where is where the elementary elementary school is right there. I know the challenges because that presents a lot of challenges because it has the like you say, the D cover you call this that thing between the street and the the drainage ditch. >> Yes, that I that I know the challenges that that area represent, but but but again when Benson Hill was a next annexed to the to the city, there were a lot of areas around that area in Cascade and and Benson that were lacking and we have put so much effort that when I see how yes, there is still a lot of missing in that area more than in the other one. At least I feel like I should I I should I used to call the other Renton um a having certainly identified now the real priorities. Number six is also another one that that that is so much needed. So, so I'm very happy. I I advocate for all Renton in general, but obviously this is a resident very familiar with and and I have been saying this is a need. So, I'm very excited about this. Helen, great job, great work and and also um the sidewalks are looking very good. I was wondering about the utilities poles because um today I was driving uh on 104 and I realized the new Chipotle had built the new sidewalk and they put these three trees there, but I realized the utility poles the cables are so low that it doesn't matter how many trees they plant there that they have to chop them because they are all and I was thinking about that I say to is really expensive to move them is really expensive to yes I see Martin saying yeah got the trees because Okay, thank you Martin. I really appreciate it. Thank you again Ellen for all the priorities. Any more questions or comments council member McCurdy and then council member Rivera. I have a comment and a question since we're naming our favorite ones on the list. I was going to say I like 76 because there's a horde of kids from Nelson walking down that road and they don't always stay on their side of the line. Sometimes they're on the other side of the street. I'm not sure if they're going to stay on the sidewalk either but at least they have a pretty clearly defined space. So that one's a huge need. The question I had was also around utility poles and I I think it more or less got got answered but the question I have is when we don't is is the challenge of whether or not just to underground it because it's our standards or is it a practical limitation like we have to weave the sidewalk around them or is it both? Um it's more it's more it more has to do with our standard. So our construction standard technically speaking is that we when we run into the when we run into these transmission poles especially we are they are supposed to be undergrounded. Now however we can depending how we I think dance with the utility providers and how we honor mutually honor our franchise agreement we can look at ways to deviate from that in some cases. If I can ask just to follow up right on that and then Jim go jump right in. Like one of your slides showed it looks like new sidewalks and there's still abrupt poles on the Maplewood one the slide right before the the thank you slide. That was why I was asking if we got such a deviation for something like that. Um I yeah I don't know if these poles were relocated or if they stayed in place. The issue with the relocation is that's what our preference is because it's totally on the PSN E. We have a franchise agreement. So, if they're in our way, we have to move it. And from a practical standpoint, since I've been here, we've never really undergrounded any power because it's just too expensive. It's I think it's 70% on the city to for the cost and 30% on PSN E. So, it it takes a lot of time. It has a lot of impacts. So, for the most part, like for 7th, for example, we did not underground the utility poles there. It would have taken us a lot longer to do the project. So, in practice, we typically in this council would direct us to underground utility poles. By practice, we've never have done it because of cost. And as we move forward, I just want to preface that I'm trying to get staff to talk about walkways versus sidewalks because we want to look spread the the TBD dollars as far as possible because when you look at 18 projects, it could be very expensive. So, we need to look at the scope of what we're going to build and we we're not going to always be able to meet standards. Sometimes asphalt walkways might be what we have with some type of protection because that's what's important for people is they feel safe where they're walking. So, we'll look at protected walkways for certain, but it won't always be a sidewalk. It'll be a a safe walkway is what we're going to focus on. For example, Snake Hill, we have actually city half property just to the south of that. And there's been some talk about a soft surface trail through that property. I don't know if that's feasible or not, but it would kind of come out right at the entrance to the park. We could put a hawk signal there for people to cross, but we need to think out of the box because we can't build complete streets on all these projects. There's It's going to be enough money to do that. Thank you. Councilmember Rivera. Thank you so much for the great presentation. I'm also very excited for 76. Um, particularly for our our school-age kids. I'm really looking forward to Puget Drive one day. And I And I And I don't want to get too much in the weeds, but I do want to hear when we're going to see Puget Drive in the near future because I just feel like that one is a huge light. And I love the the poles that got put up in in between time and interim is great. Um, but that's my first question and then I have another one, but I'll start with that one. Er, I think So, I I I won't say when we are going to do it. I will say I will say the reason why we didn't prio- include it in this package in this priority prio- priority package for now is because at this point we were trying to stay near to schools because we were looking at higher crash rates and just circulation ability and safety for peds in and around schools, but also because we know bec- because of the conflicts that Director Sites just talked about um, and also just cu- you know, cutting the red tape on as seamlessly as we can through conflicts associated with these projects, we were trying to um, prepare projects to be a little bit more grant ready. And so, positioning those walkways around schools kind of helps us compete a little better in that's in that sense, but um, we can certainly add that project in the next tranche of of of projects. And of course, as the body, you can you this is this is your plan and this is how you you know, how you choose to influence this plan is absolutely your prerogative, too. I appreciate the explanation. Thank you. Thank you. That's it? I was going to bring up that I have more questions. I have one more. When it comes to the smaller, more narrower streets, is it a common challenge when it comes to maybe after adding the sidewalks or adding walkways, excuse me, around street parking? Because something I I've been noticing is an increase in street parking and and vehicles and I'm the na- the street's getting narrower and more narrow, especially when you add cars on both sides. Yeah, that is that is that is also another conflict um getting on to so once we get to start working with the local streets is street parking because um it is allowed on local residential streets and or in some areas where it's not allowed, that's where people are parking anyway because that's that's where they that's where they have left to to go in the space and so um I think the bigger challenge is it's really hard. So, a standard sidewalk the city's standard sidewalk is 8 ft wide. But, when we aren't able to accommodate 8 ft at minimum um by law under ADA law, a minimum sidewalk width is 5. And so, on those on those smaller, narrower neighborhood streets, it's even difficult to get 5 ft on either side and so that's where we start being having needing to be very I guess selective of about how feasible it is and how feasible it will be to uh work with the residents to get construction in the in their neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now, we can move to the next item of the agenda. Which is pavement management program update. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Abeba Bernardo. I am one of six project managers in the transportation design section. And I'm here today to talk about our pavement management program, which basically outlines activities on projects to maintain our roadway network. Um for the next uh program, which includes the 5 years, we have identified three major um maintenance activities, which are seal projects that includes um three different activities, but we will focus on slurry seal. Um overlays, which are the 2-in grind and overlay, and the curb ramp retrofits, which are required on all segments of road that have a sidewalk, and we will be overlaying over that uh crosswalk. What those activities or projects are selected based on the current PCI of the road segments. Um the PCI ranges between 0 and 100. 0 is the the worst scenario possible, and 100 is the best. Um to put it in perspective here, we're seeing a PCI of 100 on the farther left. This is an asphalt that is recently just placed. It has no alterations. Next, we see a PCI of 75. It's in good condition. We can see some tear and wear, but it's structurally sound. Um next, we see a PCI of 50. This is the critical point. This is where we should really pay attention and do all remedies to prevent it from failure. And then, we see a PCI of 25. This um road segment is at the end of its cycle. It needs to be replaced and um repaired. Um we had Street Scan scan all the surfaces of the roads in Renton, and that data was incorporated into Street Logic. That provided the PCI for all the roads in Renton. So, we can see here in the map that we have 327 miles of road that were surveyed, and the average citywide PCI was 73, and the goal is to maintain the city above 70. The first um activity that we have completed, and we've done this for 2 years already, is slurry seal. It's a layer that is um placed on roads that have a PCI above 70, actually above 75. It provides an extra layer of protection of the to those roads. Um it's a fairly inexpensive um treatment. It costs about 300 $3.50 per square yard in comparison to what an overlay would cost. We would be closer to $12. Um it is just a quarter inch of mix that um is mixed with sand and water and some uh binders. And it adds extends the life cycle of that road by 10 years. Um it's a temporary inconvenience to the residents because for that day, they cannot use the road, and they cannot drive, and they cannot receive deliveries, and parking seems to be a a concern. But, um we're actively working with our residents to get the word out on the schedule and what's happening um because we are finding that it can extend the life cycle the life duration of that pavement. So in here we see that in 2024 we completed 4 uh 0.45 miles. Those are shown in yellow. In 2025 7.7 miles. And in 2026 our goal is 3 and 1/2 miles and those are shown in blue. Uh the next activity or pro- projects that we will have is um overlays. So between 2026 and 2030 we're planning on overlaying 5.6 miles. The cost is estimated the total cost for the 5 years is estimated on $16.8 million. dollars. In orange we see the segments that are proposed for 2026 and I tried to keep them outside downtown Renton so that we don't have any construction in the summer. Um and then in purple we see the areas that um are to be completed between 2027 and 2030. In 2026 we're planning 2.41 miles of road to be overlaid. No sidewalk improvements would need uh curb ramp improvements sorry will be triggered. For these segments of road these are segments that don't exist don't have cur- don't currently have any sidewalks so no curb ramp improvements would be necessary. And in 2027 we're planning on uh 0.94 miles of overlays and approximately 20 curb ramps because these overlays will extend over crosswalks that are already in place and that existing really have um curb curb ramps on sidewalks. And with that, I would gladly take any questions. Thank you so much. This is wonderful information. I really appreciate it. Any comments on I'm just out of curiosity, you mentioned some of the folks that don't necessarily like it they can't drive and on it and park and all that kind of not get their Amazon deliveries of course. How much advanced notice do typically do they get to prepare when you're going to do that sort of thing? Out of curiosity. So usually when I get the project out to bid, we start up uh along with our communications team, we start getting the information out. And our website is updated. And then we mail out flyers to the residents. So between the time of that we know the project is going to happen to the where the actual construction happens is about 6 to 8 weeks. And then they get a 3-day notice that their driveway will be impacted and a 24-hour notice. So it's a heavily active communication between the city and the residents. And the contractor is also required to provide a notice. Yeah, on that just for comparison, if we weren't to do the slurry seal, would it be more of an inconvenience if we were to have to go back and do more of a major repair on the road just by comparison as far as what the impact would be on residents. This this slurry seal's preventative, right? So if it got to the point where conditions degraded and we needed to do like a re-pave of that, right? Would that I'm assuming that would be more disruptive to their Amazon deliveries and whatnot. Well, at that point I'm assuming they would keep at least one lane open. Okay. versus closing the entire road. I am assuming that uh um that obviously if anything that we need to this is the maintenance of the of the streets, but but we know that there are some streets that have we have to do it more often than others uh because they have more traffic than others, but in in the small neighborhoods or the ones that the city own, uh the plan is considering those as well. Not the main avenues, but the small streets. Yes, so yes, the plan considers every um segment of road within the city. And so based on that PCI, we're deciding whether or not it needs to be it can be a slow a candidate for slurry seal versus an overlay or crack seal or it's just depending on the damage that's occurring in that segment of road at the moment. And this is very pricey, right? To to to do this. I can see the cost. That's the reason why we have to do it uh disperse the projects around the city, right? I'm assuming cost involved. >> Yes. Cost drives the activity and the plan. Oh, yeah, cuz I'm a parent. Follow up on this thing cuz I'm I'm thinking I'm feeling sorry for these people. It's like, "Look, you can't your driveway is you know kind of off limits or at least something coming out of the car." How for how long typically? I was just going to make sure that I clarify. Um it's open the same day. So the road of it's closed at 8:00 in the morning and it opens by 5:00 p.m. And that's a hard open. So the mix is placed in the morning and it cures in 4 hours. I would also say, "Hey, look, I really can't go there." Well, usually we work with we've worked with some uh neighborhoods and we can push it to say, "Okay, we won't start working until 10:00 in the morning to make sure everyone can get out. And then we have to absolutely stop all work by by 1:00 p.m. so that everyone can come back by 5:00. So, we've been able to successfully coordinate with our contractor two specific segments of roads. Okay, thanks. Okay, Martin. I just wanted to clarify the comment in regards to cost that you brought up. Yes, slurry seal is the most cost-effective treatment that we have. It's probably the only one we're going to be able to do on residential streets because of the cost as you as have made said $1.50 a square foot for um overlay versus $3 a square foot. That's like quarter of the cost. So, you multiply that by the size of the square foot times the roadway any any particular block it becomes a couple hundred thousand dollars, which is why you see or a couple million dollars, which is why you see we have very limited amount of overlays, but more slurry seal because that's where we actually can get bang for the buck on this. And again, back to preventive maintenance trying to make sure we make those investments now so we don't have to make those large investments in the future. And then one thing we hadn't even talked about is the streets that need to be reconstructed, which is a whole different matter and a whole hugely constructed area. But this point in time we're really trying to keep preventive maintenance and look at the system as a whole to try and keep the system as as solid drivable and passable as possible. Was that a little harder? Thank you. This is a more of a 40,000-ft question um with regard to potholes. And uh I'll use a specific example when you're westbound on 1 69 uh under 405 turning on the southbound entrance to I-405 wh- which is where all of the the landfill trucks get they come off of Cedar Grove, they turn west, they go under the freeway, they go up the ramp onto 405 and there are two consistent major pot I mean, jaw-dropping potholes that continue to recur right where those giant semi-truck wheels land. And in the number of years that I have lived here coming down the hill and trying to get on that freeway um I swear they've been filled and and and un filled and unfilled, if you will, through activity hundreds of times. Who owns that? Do we own that? Uh, I'm not quite sure that Is it on the ramp that you're referring to? Uh Yeah, it's >> So, it would be washed out there. And and I do remember your former comment that you thought it was really bumpy along Is that the same spot that you were referring to? No. Okay. Is that Is that's the part of the project that's currently happening right now? They'll repave all that and it'll it'll smooth out eventually, but it cuz I noticed that this morning when I drove in, but I didn't see the pothole, so it must be down further on the ramp then. No, no, this is if you're if you're heading west at the terminus of 16 I where it meets up with 405 and then there and then go under the bridge. Go under the under the 405 and you turn you have the double lane turns to get on the freeway and the big rigs are always in the outermost lane cuz they have the widest turn range range and right where their wheels hit at the when before you actually start to climb the ramp, right there Yeah. there's just potholes that are a good 4 in deep and you know, this big around. >> we'll investigate and have our maintenance crews work either work with washed out or work do it themselves. I'm just wondering if there's a way to strengthen it so that we're not just fill and uncover and fill and uncover. Yeah, that would probably be a major construction project. Obviously, it's better if we could do those in concrete where you have, you know, either heavy buses or heavy trucks. You prefer to have that in concrete, but you basically have to build a base up quite a bit. So, it'd be a major reconstruction project if we were to do something like that. >> may The reason I ask is just because that's where the truck wheels hit consistently over and over again. When you're actually trying to get on the ramp in your regular normal person car people are dodging those potholes and it can become an issue if two people decide to dodge you know. Well, let us investigate and we'll get back to you on whether it's washed out or our maintenance crews that need to address it. >> Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. This was a great representation. All of them were great representations. Transportation is a priority definitely on our community and and you guys have been doing a great job. So, this year is this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.

Good evening. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee of the whole. We have two items on the agenda tonight. And it is legislative session of the eighth. We have with us Eric Perry and David Foster. And if you are ready, we will start with this presentation. So, well, thank you, Council President, members of the council for the opportunity to give this update tonight. Eric Perry, government affairs manager for the city of Renton, joined by David Foster, the city's contract lobbyist, here to talk to you about this past legislative session, some of the big updates, and how they will impact the city, and as well as just some things to keep in mind moving forward. So, knowing that there is a second presentation tonight, we will move through at least some of these early slides pretty quick. You've all seen these before and and know this information quite well. So, Don't feel the need to rush, Eric. You know, we have plenty of time. Okay. So, as you all know, this past legislative session was a short 60-day session. So, we started in early January and ended in early March. They considered three supplemental budgets this year along with a slew of policy updates and other considerations. And it was similar to last year, a challenging environment, especially in that budget sense, continued pressures on the state budgets, and continued challenges for the legislators to work through. Um overall, uh I guess sorry David if you had anything to add on that first slide. Okay. Overall, um as you all know, we have Governor Bob Ferguson who's in his second term, um 98 members in the house. You'll see the partisan split there, uh and then 49 members in the Senate and the partisan split there. And we do have elections coming up this year, so those might change somewhat, uh something for us to keep an eye on. Uh and then here in Renton, as you all know, we're covered by two districts, the 11th and the 5th, primarily represented by the 11th District, which is Representative Steve Bergquist and David Hackney, uh and then Senator Bob Hasegawa, and then the 5th District is Representative Lisa Callan, Representative Zack Hall, and then Senator Victoria Hatch. So, looking uh at this past legislative session, you'll all be very familiar with this. This is the document that council approved uh last winter. Uh it is the comprehensive city policy position guide. On the front page, you'll see our top four priorities along with the slew of other issues that uh that we have kind of identified as important issues uh to us either in a good way or in a bad way. Um to dive in deeper, if you had anything. Uh to dive in deeper, uh these are our four priorities cuz I know it's hard to read those three pages, indigent defense, shared revenues, transportation and regional connectivity, and public safety. And we'll take a little bit of deeper dive later in this presentation to talk specifically to those, um but then beyond that, these are all some of the key high-level areas in which our policy positions fit under. Um I won't read each of these off, but certainly it's a pretty exhaustive document um that hopefully uh gives us, David and I, the kind of the the flexibility to go out there and represent the city on the myriad of issues as they come through Olympia. So, looking at the supplemental budgets from this year, um as I kind of mentioned, there There continued economic pressures on those budgets, uh including some shortfalls, some negative revenue forecasts. Certainly, the state is still impacted by high interest rates and inflationary pressures. And then everything continuing with the federal government has created additional strains and uncertainty for the state to kind of plan for and move around. Okay, I will jump in here and just very quickly touch on all three budgets have been a little bit more difficult these past two years. The operating certainly you've you've heard quite a bit about and I think that's going to continue as as Eric was just mentioning some of the issues that are they're dealing with going forward. The capital budget also had some pressure on it this year and and and likely will going into the next session in the larger capital budget process. And the pressure is shifting of dollars and we can talk about that a little bit too. We saw yet again the public works trust account that's been tapped on the operating side and those dollars and that's that's an area generally the capital budget is in pretty good shape except when the the budget writers are trying to find additional dollars specifically for operating but sometimes for transportation. And the transportation budget continues to have its own difficulties even though there was some new revenue that went into it not this past session but the one prior. And I think we're going to continue to see all three of those face challenges as as we move into the 2027 session as they put together the two-year budget for the 27-29 biennium. So, we opted to include just some high-level kind of information here. Certainly, there's a lot more to each of these budgets and we're happy to answer questions as they come up. As you can see though, they did increase in size all three budgets ranging from one and a half billion dollars in growth to 200 million in growth in the capital budget. Identifying kind of what is new spending and versus what they've made in cuts and then as David mentioned you can kind of see the money moving around as they pulled from the public works assistance account to help fund things and then kind of what that entailed on the back end for the capital budget. I will note that they did authorize some new bonds. Uh Excuse my typo there 278 million not 2 billion dollars. Uh new bonds. So excuse my my typo there but you'll see that they they did take on some new bonds as a way to partially backfill that that but that continues to be a a source of concern for our team moving forward just because of the value of the public works assistance account and what it means for local governments. Um in the operating budget I also did note on here that this not include revenue from the new tax on millionaires. We'll jump into that topic in a little bit but they're not accounting for those dollars at this point in time. It also did not include any funding for public defense. Um in the transportation side is is is David mentioned still some pressures there leaning on some bonding to kind of help with that with that issue specifically for Renton. We also did not get funding for our practical solutions process for the Northeast Street direct access ramp nor did we restore funding for the Northeast 44 Gateway project and that is a landscaping project that was initially included two years ago for us. So still some challenges for us as we seek to to return some dollars back to our community as they face those larger pressures that the transportation budget is is facing. And I would again say that I think on the transportation side it was a little quiet this past session. I think it's going to you're going to see a little more activity going in the next session. That doesn't necessarily mean a a new large package the likes of which we saw in 2022 I think it was but I do think there's going to be more activity on the transportation front. And all of these budgets, they are taking into account many of the priorities that you all approved as Renton priorities. So, there's a lot of overlap there. Yeah. I I will also mention to those two bullet points under transportation, 340 million in new funding for maintenance and preservation along with the 180 million in temporarily diverted funding. That's a what I'd probably describe as a stopgap measure. Thinking creatively for projects that are not ready to go, but may have been funded is a temporary diversion of that funding back towards washed-out for maintenance and preservation projects, which is the biggest priority within this supplemental budget. So, looking specifically at what we were able to achieve this year in terms of funding for the city of Renton, we were able to get $500,000 for the resource center or stabilization center. This $500,000 does include reappropriation of $206,000 that was previously allocated for the housing repair and assistance program. If you remember last year, we tried to get same um some carve-outs for that program because it was just a little bit different from the normal Department of Commerce grant programs and how they like to kind of assure spending of those funds, namely, you know, site control, verifying of no liens on properties, etc. Certainly, the intent of the housing repair program is to address those types of properties specifically. And so, we were not able to work through that with the Department of Commerce. And instead, we're able to this year move that money back towards the resource center, which if you remember prior to me starting with the city was initially for 200 Rainier. I believe there was a shelter planned at that site initially. So, this is not for that, but similar intent bringing it back towards uh some uh some programming and services here within the city of Renton. We all Yeah. Eric has assured me since we've moved this money three times now that this will be the last time we asked for the movement and it's going to get spent. So, we're going to we're going to hold them to that. We will spend that money. Um we also were able to resolve a long-standing issue uh related to the Southeast Southeast 168th Street bike lanes and safe crossings project that was included in the 2021 capital budget. Uh and after receiving that award, our teams went out to the community to talk through that project with them in which they received some really good feedback about what they were looking for in terms of bike infrastructure in their neighborhoods. And so, uh in order to accommodate that community feedback, we had to go back and get a scope change from the legislature. So, we were able to unlock those dollars to allow our team to move ahead on that project this year. And then, as I did mention, we were not successful uh restoring funding for the practical solutions process uh for the Northeast Street direct access ramp uh nor were we successful in uh uh reobtaining our Northeast 44th Gateway Improvement Project's funding. We did we did have um one of the budgets. I know it sounds like a it's not even a a a partial fix, but one of the budgets did include funding, I believe, for the practical solutions. Another one did not. Again, as they balance them out, um unfortunately, um one side and one uh was victorious over over the other, but I do think that's one we can come back in 2027 and push for. With regard to the resource center and the and the safe cross crossings, I would say uh I want to let you know that the 11th District members really went to bat for these um frankly three projects cuz there's one piece of new funding in the resource center of about 300,000. Um there's the carry forward of the of 200,000 um 206. Uh and then the 500,000 carry forward for the for the Safe Streets. And, um, they went to bat. Uh, we had a little bit of a snafu in the in the, um, during the session. Uh, and all three stepped up and really uh, really pushed for inclusion of these projects or shifting of these projects. So, a big thanks to the 11th District members. And then, uh, having Rep. Callan, uh, who uh, was acting, uh, and and effectively chair of the capital budget, uh, didn't hurt either. So, um, a huge thanks to all all of those members. So, I've divided these next couple slides, uh, by our priorities. We'll run through just a list of changes here, um, as they relate to those priorities. Um, so, on the public safety front, uh, as you all probably know and as we've we've talked about, uh, here at council, um, the state did pass new regulations on the usage of automatic license plate readers, ALPRs. Uh, there's a pretty exhaustive list of changes there, what we can do, what we can't do, how we can utilize this technology, certain crimes we can use this technology to assist in investigations for, um, that uh, that we can, you know, happily share. I know our police came to, uh, came to community last week to talk about some of those changes. Uh, it also did add in some new, really helpful language regarding public records requests for these types of records, uh, and how, uh, really or how we're not able to share that information just due to the sensitivity of what that information is. Um, so, really really helpful on that front. And and as I kind of described it, uh, when I spoke before council a couple weeks ago, uh, the best way to really kind of describe this particular bill was a bill of compromise and and one that took a lot of engagement from both sides of the table to get to the finish line. And so, really really appreciate, uh, Senator Trudeau's efforts on this one to to hear our concerns, hear our feedback, and work with us and other cities to to get this into a better place than what it was as initially filed. Mentioned there's new exemptions for disclosure of that data. There also are new standards for police chiefs and how our police departments can utilize volunteers. There's new I put in regulations but really it's a it's a new legal action for people who have been arrested by law enforcement officers who are wearing face coverings. It's a it's a civil right of action for them rather than a duty for our own law enforcement officers to um you know, maybe police federal agents who are wearing masks or are out of violation of that law. It's more so a civil remedy. But that was a big one this year and a and a governor's priority as well. And then lastly, another issue that we've been working on for some time is related to liability for jails, particularly for medical liability. We were not successful but had some really really good conversations this year with with stakeholders on that and look forward to carrying forward that work next year. As I did mention on the indigent defense front, this was you know, to put it pretty bluntly for us a really hard year as far as it relates to our priorities. The state did not include any new funding for city managed indigent defense services. They did not pass any policy clarification as to the Supreme Court's authority to define those case law standards. Nor did they create a task force to study what are some sustainability or sustainable choices moving forward as far as it relates to the provision of indigent defense in cities across the state. Certainly will be an issue to move forward, one that we continue working on and and certainly have some time due to the Supreme Court's ruling. It's a decade but one that keeps on ticking so we'll keep working on this issue. There was originally a proposal within the what's called a millionaires tax to include funding for counties and cities for indigent defense. I'm that was in the original version that came out of the Senate. The house didn't much like it. Frankly, they wanted to have more direct funding in various ways. Governor didn't want any directed funding. So ultimately that was pulled out and nothing was added to the to the millionaires tax proposal that would have directed those dollars in a in a in a way that would help cities. Within our transportation and regional connectivity priority, there were some some new investments for preserving and maintaining the state's transportation system as a whole. As I mentioned, new diversions of local program dollars. And as David kind of mentioned as well, we did not make much progress this year on sustainable transportation funding beyond what they passed last year. But we do expect those conversations to really pick up moving forward. There's some hard questions that need to be answered and certainly will continue to stay involved in that. There also are new authorizations for cities to identify crash prevention zones. As I mentioned, no funding for our direct access ramp. And then as it relates to kind of region, I decided to include this in there cuz these conversations are ongoing. But there is no 75-year bonding authority for Sound Transit, which that relates to some of the regional issues that we're working on right now. And then lastly for our last priority shared revenues, we did have some success in preserving most state shared revenues for cities and towns. And then we are also were were successful in expanding some local revenue flexibilities. As well as the state did opt to include a new local sales tax authority for children and families. As well as brought in what you can use House Bill 1590 funds for as well. Oh, sorry to interrupt you. Can you um explain or tell us more details about the new local sales authority for children and families, please? Yeah, I'll have have to follow up with you some additional details as far as what that entails. Um it is intended to be gosh, it's for Do you remember exactly what it Yeah, we'll follow up with you with some additional details. It wasn't one that we were tracking super closely this year, um but certainly is a welcome new uh I guess arrow to our quiver. Thank you. That was a That was a bill I think it was 2242 and that was a piece of legislation that um uh I would say it was a a very broad local government funding uh proposal that had numerous pieces in it, some of which are up there. Um both allowing a little bit of new money and a and a little bit more flexibility for some existing dollars. Uh and I wouldn't be surprised if we So, it was a good piece of legislation to move forward. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some more uh legislation next year similar to that vein of again allowing you all more uh local control. Is the I'm I'm sorry, just follow. Is this was created because the money that they cut in the in the budget for some of the services that that is provided for families? Yeah, you're probably thinking about some child care funding uh for instance and some others. I don't think it was specifically related to that. Um I don't think it was a it was we're taking this so we're giving you this situation. Um I do think there was a recognition that um this is an area that uh um local governments and and and communities have been um uh struggling with and and so it's a way to help out, but I don't think it was one for the other purposefully one for the other. Thank you. So, beyond our priority areas as we kind of alluded to with the how big of our our legislative priorities document is, we do get involved in a whole host of other issues. We'll talk through some of those in this slide. So, the biggest piece of news coming out of Olympia this year was a new income tax on millionaires that was Senate Bill 6346. And as David alluded to, our engagement on that issue was not under the underlying policy of of an income tax on millionaires, but rather if they were to to take on this new revenue, we were asking for funding for indigent defense to support local local governments. And ultimately, we're not successful, but we'll continue to be back at the table seeking options and and solutions for that issue. Yeah. >> If I can just touch base on this one, I know there's been a lot of press about it and a lot of conversations. I'm just as a reminder, uh if the courts uphold uh the the legislation and if it presumably goes to the state voters. Excuse me. And if that's upheld, this doesn't go into effect until 2028. And actually, dollars collected doesn't occur until 2029. So, this is not a fix, if you will, for any short-term difficulties that the state the state budget is is facing as we go into the 2027 session again talking about the next biennium. One of the other big issues this year was Senate Bill 6026, which was related to how local governments can utilize mixed-use developments within their cities, particularly in commercial zones. It was a governor's priority bill, meaning that it was fast-tracked and and ready to pass. But as it was initially filed, was was very challenging for us to kind of wrap our heads around and understand how it was going to help our city. Particularly when we see high demand for our commercial spaces in our community. You know, it's obviously a balance too. There is a huge housing need as well. And so, you know, we've extensively used mixed-use developments here in Renton in all eight of our commercial zones as a way to push in residential development while still fostering commercial space for small businesses. So, we worked really really hard. This was probably one of the biggest issues we worked on this year. Really to making that legislation a little bit better for us. And so, there's a whole host of changes that we were able to successfully get in the final passage of that bill including carve-outs for for cities to protect certain areas for commercial development along with you know, TOD areas, station areas, things of that effect to really maximize how much commercial space we can still offer in our community. You know, at the same time while retaining that ability to provide housing and within our our zoning code. So, That was a really really big one. We'll create some some some changes for us that we have to incorporate moving forward as far as our own strategies and and local ordinances. And and ultimately once we get to it as well, our comprehensive plan. But we will not be required to open that up earlier than we were anticipating. That was a specific call out of the bill as well. This is I think a very good example of a piece of legislation that passed in a manner that maybe all cities didn't still don't like. All 281 I think. But But the Association Association of Washington Cities really goes to bat not just for this one but for a couple of the different bills on this on this page. Carl Schroeder being specifically I will call out as as somebody who has worked on these efforts quite a bit to try to find an agreement that most cities can deal with. Most cities can live with. Recognizing too that these housing uh zoning issues have just been layered one on top of the other on top of the other over the last few years. Uh and playing catch up has been extremely difficult. So, just want to give uh the Association of Washington Cities a a call out for the the great work that they've done over the past couple years as well. Amy, I just going to interrupt you here because the Eric and I we had this conversation just 2 weeks ago with the Sound Cities Association um during the big meeting. Because they were explaining the the um the disappointment of uh some state legislators don't understanding the local level of of uh responsibility that we have and how they are not familiar with um with being with the cities that they live on. So, the advice from the government affairs uh directors are representing is that elected officials local elected officials build a better relationship and stronger relationship with the state uh representatives and and senators to have a better communication to how these preemptive um uh laws are creating more problems than solutions in many many cases and how can we engage them to understand the impact and effect that some of these laws will will create for us, but at the same time taking them they're taking away the authority of of of local elected officials. Uh one of the recommendations obviously was that to engage deep deeply with that. But then was the the the the concern that maybe the AWC, the Association of Washington Cities has lost a little bit of their voice. So, so it's very interesting what you're saying to us that that they're working very hard because this is reassuring that we are as a team. So, it's not that they are not working hard is that maybe a lot of them are not listening as close as they should. Because they don't still don't understand what are the the the the worries that we have with some of these concerning bills. So, I'm very happy to hear from you that you shared that you think that the situation in Washington cities is doing a good job because it was under the impression of some of the members on the board that actually are part of the the board of the AWC. Uh that uh that they're struggling a lot to to make their their their voices heard at the table. Uh um Councilmember, I would say actually I think I would say the opposite and that is that some of these bills the deck was stacked pretty heavily against local jurisdictions and specifically cities going in and you've got a lot of different groups that were supporting them and it it doesn't mean they're they're bad ideas or or or or bad legislation, but you've got the association over here and some cities and you've got everybody else over here and still able to work through some compromise uh to to make what I think started out frankly as a as a bad bill and taking away that local authority into a a better piece of legislation. So, I I would say it's completely the opposite. They've they've their voice is being heard and it's it's being heard in an area that they are starting from from from the bottom and and working their way up. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. It's important. And if I could just you know add quickly to that too, I would say to the point that you raised at the onset of your question about building those relationships and getting your legislators involved locally. Um I think it's it's so crucially important to do that because there are not a lot of people in Olympia right now who we would deem as local champions. Um whereas in the past you might have had more legislators who came up from a city councilor mayoral background who had done this work and had that experience. And so it's a just a different different mix in Olympia now, and people might not have that same level of education and understanding of what it takes to run a city, what it takes to make a city successful. Um and so that's definitely a strategy that David and I will be really looking into this summer and really leaning into is getting people out into the streets and showing them what reality is on the ground as far as some of the challenges we're facing, some of the impacts the laws that they're doing or passing, um and kind of really how that interacts with us and then by extent of us how it interacts with the communities that they represent. So, um something that we continue to work on, but it is certainly um you know, one of the newer challenges that we're working through as well. Yeah, and I think it's >> a good reminder. Um you all are or or many of you actually I think all of you came down um have been down to Olympia at some point um whether last year or earlier this year or the year before it. Um uh that's very helpful, but uh summer and fall uh work during the summer and fall and those conversations and you all you all know each other, so it's not as if you're you're you're trying to learn new members. Um but having those uh conversations and I I I think Eric makes good point. I mean, we should maybe put together some sort of little tour or something. So, here here's what's working, here's what's successful cuz I don't think folks understand uh especially as it relates to housing the success that the city of Renton has had over the last couple of years, last probably decade, and continues to have moving forward. They're trying to say we're often hearing, you know, it shouldn't be one size fits all, uh and we're saying, "Well, yeah, but look and look and see what's happening on the ground. Look and see what's happening in these some of these specific jurisdictions." And we can show that uh to the legislators and not just those that are in the 11th, not only the 11th District, but but broaden that out a little bit, too. So, um there's always opportunity to um work on those relationships. Thank you. Thank you. Adam here. Uh Councilmember Zahilay. Yes. I go so far as to as to suggest one size does fit all if you use our model. Yeah. Fair enough. Uh Council President. Council member Rivera. Thank you. I really love the idea of educating our legislators and bringing them in to help them learn more about the local issues and what we're dealing with. I really think that's an excellent idea on your part and I really encourage you to do that cuz I don't think there is as many as there used to be that have that local understanding and how extensive it is for us to run a city and to get everything to work just right and so I really appreciate that. Actually Bernie is you outside of a couple of areas you get a lot of legislators who do in fact have local government experience but once they get down there they're not local government folks anymore. They're they're state legislators and they're looking at things from a little different perspective. So it's an it's a interesting situation where uh folks were in your position at one time making some of the same arguments. It changes depending on where you sit. I agree David but um I I had the opportunity to work very close with Curren Price and with Marqueece Harris-Dawson from the 41st. Both of them were council members as as well as Herb Wesson that was senator of the 41st. The three of them came as members of the council and the way they were in touch of the local and you mentioned we lost those champions because they did advocate very heavily on the standing local authority and and I do think that that you say some of them probably forget and when there is a state level they always going to you know be more proactive on their state role but there are few like for example Mike Feuerstein was a council member at that time and and once in a while he remembers that he was a local elected official. So I agree with you there. You know some of them completely forgot. But I don't think for example um and I going to Oh my gosh, I going to forget his name. Today is the mayor of Issaquah. Former senator. Mark Mullet. Yes. Uh he never forgot. He can never forgot his local role. So yeah, we lost a lot of champions uh that used to work on see on see government and and I do hear that, you know, that um especially because we have lost a lot of seniority. A lot of seniority and very new members, you know, uh that they didn't went to different steps. They came from where they were to now be elected officials and they're still trying to navigate to learn how they're doing this job. So thank you. If you can continue with your presentation. The uh one of the other big bills uh from this legislative session that will certainly have an impact on our community is House Bill 2266. Um this has been an issue over the past uh few legislative sessions that um requires jurisdictions to allow step housing in all zones that allow for residential and hotel usages. Um going back to what David brought up in in the vein of compromise and working with legislators, um this certainly was not a bill um that as a city we had any uh any particular love with because of it's directly telling us what to do with zoning. Uh but because of conversations and and some compromise to the process, we were able to effectuate some change in that bill to make it a little bit more uh uh palatable um on our end. So um that will be a big impact, but one of those other examples of continuing to have conversations with legislators. Um in a more positive note, uh we were successful um in stopping uh the new version of uh statewide preemption for how cities can regulate urban encampments. This year's version was House Bill 2489 sponsored um by Representative Gregerson um and will continue to be an issue we work on this interim um at direction from the speaker. Um but we were able to kill that bill this year. We are also we are able to have some good conversations on the impacts about what allowing for mobile dwellings in all residential lots would mean for cities. Um We also had some success creating a new statewide work group to address electronic or electric motorcycles within cities and jurisdictions across the state and how to regulate them, as well as new small works roster cap adjustments to address rising labor and material costs. So, a whole bunch of other stuff there, too. If there are any specific questions, we were happy to jump into them, but those are some of the bigger ones that that we talked or focused on this year. And then lastly, just looking ahead, this is you might remember the exact same slide as last year. Did not change a single word except for the date. Obviously, the federal government continues to provide a lot of uncertainty for state and local jurisdictions both on the funding and policy side of things. There are a ton of economic uncertainties out there. There's global conflicts, state and regional tax burdens, resource constraints. As I mentioned at the onset of this presentation, this is an election year, as well. And then we do expect a number of initiatives and referendums on some of these recently passed laws, including the tax on millionaires. So, we'll play into what the environment looks like for next year, as well as what our conversations will look like this summer and fall. But continues to be pretty similar challenging conditions for us moving forward. I'll just jump in here real quick with a little bit of just additional information. As it relates to the elections, you've got of course all 98 House seats members are up for election. On the Senate side, it's 24 of the of the 49 seats are up for elections this year. We've already seen five senators who have said they are not coming back for various reasons. We're up to about 13 House members who have said they're not coming back for various reasons. In some cases running for Senate seats, in some cases running for congressional seats, in other cases just, um, they're they're retiring. Um, I expect those both of numbers on both of those, uh, House and Senate to to as far as people that aren't coming back to grow a little bit more between now and filing week, uh, March May 8th, I think is the last day. Um, so I think we're going to see again some more change. House members somewhere in between 14 and 20 is is not not unusual. Five in the Senate is is pretty high. We actually had nine, I think, over a two-year period, uh, for various reasons, uh, a couple years ago. Uh, so five's a pretty pretty high number. Sometimes it's two or three. Uh, so it should be some interesting, uh, interesting races. The session starts on January, uh, 11th, uh, 2027 and goes till April 25th, uh, next year. And for a number of the reasons already stated, including those that are on the slide here, uh, certainly, I think it's going to be another a difficult year, uh, for, uh, for the, uh, the legislators and and some of us lowly lobbyists. Thank you, David. Um, thank you for mentioning that about the unusual situation of having a a five new position for the Senate. The this isn't hurt. Uh, normally, especially the Senate, you know, uh, they they last a long time there. There is a lot of institutional knowledge and and although we know that a staff carries the heavy lefty work, at the end of the day the voice on the table is going to be always the elected official. In your case, in your profession, uh, how hard or or or easy or difficult is to have to work with people that are learning the ropes, uh, of how to do this? Does it make your work harder? Do would Do you say it or challenging? Sure. As as new people come in, certainly it's difficult. If you In the case of people moving from the House to the Senate, it's certainly easier, right? They're already They already have a good understanding of how the legislature works, how the process works, who they are, what they're down there for. The Senate's a little different than the House and how they how they function, but they learn that as they go. For For So, if you're if you're if you're simply shoot moving over, that makes it a little bit easier. Members that are new to the legislature, I think it's tough for them, certainly in the beginning, the first month or two, as they are trying to find their way, sitting on committees that on related to issues that maybe they didn't care about when they when they ran. A lot of people run to talk about education, and then you're sitting there on the Ag Committee thinking, "This isn't This isn't what I what I came here for." But they are learning as they go, and in in my role, I'm learning with them. I'm learning about them and trying to to build a relationship. I don't I don't know this. I don't think we're going to see I don't know what happens during the elections. I don't think we're going to see anybody from the 5th and the 11th not run moving forward. The two senators don't have to run this year. So, it'd be the four House members. So, I don't I think we're going to see all of them run again, presumably coming back next year. That certainly helps the continuity. You know, working with the the the you all, working with the city, it helps to have those members returning. Thank you very much. Thank you both of you. At this time, I would like to Thank you for great presentation, by the way, and thank you for your heavy lifting job that you have been doing during this session. At this time, I will go open the floor for comments or concerns or questions. Council Member McKerrow? Yes, thank you. Just on the looking ahead, you mentioned obviously this was a year for transportation. The the one that's the idea has been floated in the past, I know it's maybe too early to say, do we expect road usage charge to be coming back in 2027? I'm looking at gas prices right now and thinking a lot of people will be switching to EVs if things stay the same. I think there's need to be a push for that, um especially from the house chair, uh transportation chair. Uh it's it's an area that he has been uh uh uh chair five has been focused on for for some time, and so I think uh yes, it will be back. Uh yes, it will be discussed. Whether or not it passes, don't know. Um but it it it'll definitely come back, and I think they'll be looking for other um options uh for the very reasons you just stated. Uh gas prices are high, uh really high right now. Washington, for whatever reason, has uh generally has a an extremely high one, and it's not because of the gas tax, because um that's static. Uh so, um I think there'll be other uh things looked at as well, in addition to the road usage uh the road the road usage charge usage charge. Council member um Bat. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Um I have a question regarding the interim work. Do you envision um as a council we meet with some of the legislators, or is it kind of your vision is just us connecting with them individually or both? To kind of help speed you the process in terms of preparing for next session. I I would say from from my perspective, um I would say all the above. Um if there's opportunities to meet individually as as in your roles um as council members working with the legislators, that's fantastic. If there's some things that we look at maybe putting together um uh some some type of I don't know what, let's call it a city tour for lack of a better term, where there's a collective um coming together to talk about some of the um great work that's going on here in the city. Uh I think that works, too. I don't think it works if we wait until January, February to have that initial conversation. So, the more we can talk to them well in advance of the legislative session and let legislators know what is working in in the city of Renton and maybe what is not, the better off we'll be. Councilmember Thank you very much. Um can you help me understand the the um 75-year bonding authority for Sound Transit and what what what what is the impact? Does that Does that mean that they cannot bond? No. I can Yeah. This issue was again not not directly related to Renton. More so wanted to include it as we see the conversation with Sound Transit unfold over the next month. That was related to a new federal authority creating for lack of a better way to put it the ability for organizations to take advantage of 75-year bonds. Does require in Sound Transit's case state authorization to do so and so they were asking the state to give them that authority to issue 75-year bonds. They can still bond in their normal capacity. This was an extended lifespan almost to help alleviate some of their financial pressures, but ultimately was not successful this year. And I think that was up to It didn't have to be 75 years, but it gave the the again flexibility for Sound Transit to look at that option above between 30 and 75. Okay. Any more questions for council? Um I will talk a little bit on the transportation area. Um I'm very frustrated. One of the issues with this um because I think um they're moving very house very fast on the housing approach, which is a crisis and I understand that why, but there are communities that we don't have the proper public transportation that is needed for fulfill all these housing demands. So, one thing is not going with the hand with the other one. They are They are making a lot of changes very fast for communities to grow housing as fast as we can, but at the same time they are very preemptive about the transportation or the you the infrastructure for the same. So, people are very frustrated frustrated for the same case because they're not putting the same effort or money behind what is uh a public transportation for cities like ours that is very limited. We don't even Sound Transit for us is just like a in theory a service that we receive, but it's non-existent in Renton. So, adding my money more money to the Sound Transit, what I understand regionally the advantage for that is very frustrating for the for the taxpayers in Renton to keep funding something that we don't see and we don't see a future on. So, transportation is very frustrating and has been very frustrating and I know that that uh representative five is five five, right? is is doing a lot of work, but uh but when we ask and and go and ask for the bare minimum that we need to recollect money for four or five, the answer is not. They don't add it, uh which I think is the bare minimum that we're asking in the city of Renton for that. So, anyway, I hope that next year uh uh we can come back with with different projects and tagging along on what Councilmember Rivera said about touring um some of the legislators. You will assume that because some of them live in the same city that they will face uh they will hear the same people about the concerns. I'm very concerned about um the urban camping bill, not because it should not happen, but I think it should be very realistic of what we're doing locally in Renton. Because uh if we're looking already to create a shelter, we're already to create a resource center, um how this bill can impact and at what level of cities like us that we are already very proactive doing something. I understand that this bill is intended for all the cities that are doing absolutely nothing. But for us, if we're going to have legislators that are going to cosign this bill, I think they need to have the voice very clear about not damaging and affecting the cities like ours that we're already doing something about it. Because again, if it's as punitive as it has been, it will terrible damage our our new resource center or the planning of the future for for for us as a city to to provide more services. So, I hope that we can if not tour them around encampments, at least tour them around the vision of the resource center, about the new shelter, and about around the people that that very human wants to help them, but at the same time they we need to make sure that they are not camping in public spaces for quality of life purposes. So, probably I don't know how we can start that conversation. And as I say, if a tour is needed, but more than happy because because even though you think that they understand, they maybe don't. Maybe they don't. So. Well said. And the thing I would just say to answer that last part is we're excited. They were, you know, as David mentioned, uh fought very hard for us to get funding for that project this year. Um and and very grateful that they did so. And so, we're excited to get them uh into city hall to start talking more about that, showing them the vision in greater depth uh because it really resonated with them um understanding the vision and the the mission behind that project and what we're trying to achieve here. And so, looking forward to future opportunities to keep telling our story. More questions or concerns? Everything okay? Great. Guys, you did a great job as always, you, Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good evening. You too. Um now we're going to our next presentation is going to be Legacy Legacy Square Art and it's Amanda Free and Jessica Tanski. I'm not a friend tonight, too. Okay, good. Welcome. As I was saying that my name is Amanda Free, Academic Development Director. I just want to thank you for this opportunity to be in front of you this evening on the Legacy Square. We've been on this art journey and we wanted to share the process and kind of the preliminary drawings with you just to give some feedback get your feedback on it before we make the final decisions. So, I'll turn it over to Jessica. Just to give you kind of a quick recap of how we got to where we're at now. We did do a very competitive request for qualifications for both of the projects at Legacy Square that are in this current phase one of the public art program at Legacy. This was all based off of the art plan that was put together by a consultant team that we hired last year and independently the two Oh, sorry. Let me go back two seconds. The reason we are here tonight is that we do have a little bit of an urgency in timeline. As you know, Legacy Square is quickly moving as we are approaching our June 6th opening day in time for the World Cup activities. And so, we are here tonight because we are trying to collect as best we can some feedback so that our artists have the opportunity to work to put together a final concept for review potentially at next week's council meeting so that the designs can be approved so we can move forward with a tentative start date on May the 11th so that the artists have time to complete the work by that June 6th date. So, Urban Artworks was the team that was selected independently for both projects. They submitted two separate proposals for both the stage doors and groundwork art and the wall on the church building that is the backdrop for Legacy Square. They If you're not familiar with Urban ArtWorks, they are a non-profit arts organization that works from full-service project management from concept install to coordination and maintenance and beyond. So, for the two projects, they have selected and submitted proposals for two separate artists. Nikita Aries is the artist that was selected for the wall mural, and Toko Valu is the individual who was selected for the stage doors and the ground floor art. So, I'm happy to present here today Alex Nason. She is the project director for Urban ArtWorks, and I'd like for her to present just kind of the concepts and the ideas that have been presented by our two artists, starting with Toko Valu. Well, thank you, Jessie, for that wonderful introduction, and thank you for having us here this evening. It's an honor and a pleasure. I'm really excited to share our concepts in development with you. Um the first concept by Toko Valu is for the stage doors. Um and his concept is um the dual direction Yeah. Yeah, good to look at it. Um the It has been said or he said that the um I'm I'm already butchering his description, but that the Black River um at times has gone in two different directions at the same time and is um known as Mock Slip Push in Chinook, and he um visually described the dual direction of this river uh with the two serpents that you see here. So, that is the narrative behind um Toko's work for the screen doors. And um Sorry. Jesse, screen doors. Explain to me what are the screen doors? Literally they screen that we have. The the stage actually has two sets of doors. One that blocks the LED screen and then another that actually closes the screen or the stage at night. So, this is the outer doors that will close the stage. Thank you. And ultimately I don't know if this I mean, just so you can envision it, but they're they're big doors. They're like 19 ft by 35 ft and it will be adhesive vinyl on these doors that kind of open and close like a a screen up to protect the stage. Um and I will say we've had the pleasure of working with Toka at Urban Artworks um as well as Nikita. Um Nikita is an artist I've really enjoyed working with on a number of projects uh in my time at Urban Artworks and Nikita's work is known for bright colors, kind of this celebratory vibe, um a lot of movement, a lot of play. So, when we saw the opportunity for the large wall um adjacent to the screen or to the stage um on the side of the church facing the square, uh Nikita was a clear choice for our proposal. Um So, here is the design in uh development. So, this is certainly a work in progress. Uh you'll see a serpent that is moving through the water um on a typical day of Seattle rain combined with Nikita's signature style, which is as I said, colorful and playful. And at this point in time, I think our main our main goals are to ensure that the artwork uh feels cohesive and aligned for the project goals while staying on track to feasibly be produced and installed by grand opening on June 6th. So, the main questions here are how are these designs um speaking to and about the place that they're in, the people of Renton, and to each other. So, we are hoping for your uh we're presenting this for your feedback um as Jesse said, so we can go back to the artists um and give them the clearest direction as their next step forward. Mr. President. Um yeah, thank you very much. I was thinking that you were going to say something else. Thank you. Thank you so much for such a great presentation. This is really exciting and I love how beautiful the artistry is. Um I noticed in the beginning slide you're trying to tell a story. I think um the beginning slide was specifically saying that you're um to uh create a cohesive visual story reflecting Renton's identity aligned with the art plan. What story are we trying to tell? So, the the art plan was done through a lot of community outreach to figure out from the community what they wanted to see in the space. So, the artist team that was selected to put together the plan conducted a lot of interviews. They did the crest building, if anybody remembers that activity, trying to engage with the community about what represents Renton and what they wanted to see in the space. So, the plan itself identified a lot of common themes that people responded with, and those tended to veer towards the motion, as Alex mentioned, this idea of play and movement and activity, uh not necessarily soccer themed, but just this idea of let's all come together and have a space where we can be active together. Uh we also saw a number of crests that were dragon themed, hence the serpents and the dragons that I think the artists are really calling out. Uh but truly the the the plan was intended to figure out what what the community thought Renton was and how we could capture that visually in this space. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um So, I have two comments actually. Um the first is um actually three. Um the two serpents, I love the soccer scarf in the background. I think that's very clever. Um but my concern is that if this is the outward-facing stage door art, um to me just just on the surface, it feels a bit aggressive. And um I mean, it's beautiful, but this is going to be seen all the time when the stage is not in use, right? Yeah. So, um I'm I'm also concerned that um it's right across the street from a preschool, which have we talked to them about how the children might react to seeing this? I mean, and just it's just uh these are just vague concerns. Um and then um my other comment, if I may, is that the two of these side by side so side by side is it feels like it distracts from both of them. To me. I'm I'm just talking off the top of my head. Instead of, you know, focusing on one and going, "Wow, that's awesome." And then you go and look over here and go, "Oh, wow, that's also awesome." They're kind of like together. So, anyway, that's all I have. Thank you. Also, remember uh Albert's Uh okay. So, um so, feedback. I'll just give you feedback. Um and and I'm glad you said the part about the community input because as I was looking at this and as you're talking about it, I was thinking, "Okay, what's with all the serpents?" I understand writtenness and we have Erasmus and the dragon and all that kind of good stuff. Um I don't know if we have some kind of link to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or something, but it's serpent-heavy for me, first off. I'll say that much. They're both quite pretty, beautiful, and all that kind of good stuff. As far as it telling the story of this space, totally disconnects for me. Um I think first I think that the kids will you know kids fantasize, "Ooh, pretty dragons." All that kind of good stuff. I'm I That's not my whole thing. I think it's just Rittenhouse more than than this. And this if this is supposed to be I don't know this this centerpiece of, you know, downtown and what the the Legacy Square and you got the piazza the whole thing, I I don't know. I mean, if if nothing else, I mean, one serpent, but not two. And I you know, I don't know if it's about taking it away, but um you there's there's there's there's there's more to me to Rittenhouse than just this. So, I'm just curious what the rest of the community, I mean, they didn't say anything about aerospace or planes or the wizards of the I mean, just this seems very I'm just serpent-heavy. You know, that that's just the one thing that comes to mind. I don't know if it's too late to change gears at all, uh but I'm you know, and of course art is in the eye of the beholder. And once again, good art. I just don't know if this is the place for both of them Um um as they are. My opinion. >> Thank you. Oh. And you go. Thank you. Um It it's all it comes to present it comes to Albert Sun. I I I hope that it's not too late because I think it's important the council opinion all the time. So, if it's too late, they should not bring it late to the council, right? So, I hope that this is not too late because you should have come to the council previous if it's already too late. I was not going to give an opinion because obviously, as they say, art is in the eye of the beholder and I'm very minimalistic. So, you can imagine for me it's like a little bit of I don't really like the first one, but I agree with the comments of the identity of the city. For me, it's a lot very multicultural city that has a lot of to to to offer, but and the serpents don't talk to me, but it's beautiful. Don't take me wrong. The first one I really love it. As an as a and I didn't see the scarf at all at all, to be honest with And then you didn't even you didn't even see that word is serpents. I thought that were in dragons. So, who the heck know how to mush I know, right? But I love the colors. I love the I I really like it. But my biggest concern with the same one as say one next to the other one, how they they're going to look, especially, you know, you want the opinion of everybody that is has different voices. So, again, I am a minimalistic. So, I'm thinking how too much color from both the other one one is going to steal the one from the other one because the way I see it is both of them together. Maybe I'm wrong, right? I'm a very visual person. I like the first one. The second, I don't feel it at all. Uh but again, it's not my voice. It's your real one and opinion, right? So, I'm giving my brutal honest opinion based on someone that has nothing on the walls of her house because especially I'm I'm minimalistic. So, um so so, great work. I love the fact that you guys go out to the community to to to visit with this artist, to bring the input. All of that I think is a great job, well done. But I do feel that Renton is more than more than that. And what is our identity? We are moving towards our identity, right? I mean, we are um in the age of aerospace, then we have moved forward to different stages of what is Renton. But But again, the first one I do like it. I really like it. I mean, doesn't it speak me Renton? I mean, I don't see it and say, "Oh my god, this is Renton." But as as a something that is modern, something that add color and all of that, I do like it. Okay. Uh Councilmember Rivera. I I'm not a minimalist. My house is full of color, lots of bright color. I've always had a thing for artists, as my spouse may tell you. I've had a type. I enjoy the artist community very much. I have a lot of friends in the artist community. When I look at this first one that we pulled up, which is the two serpents that were supposed to kind of mimic the Green River, I love this. I don't see aggression at all, and I think that's actually a little culturally deaf to actually say about a piece of artwork by a person of color is what triggered for me when that was stated. You can laugh all you want. That was my own personal take from it. I see two people playing. I see two creatures playing. I see a lot of bright fun color. I don't see something that children are going to be scared of. Um I actually love it. I think it's a really beautiful piece. I think it's going to be a lot of fun on the front doors. I I'm excited for something that actually looks really um festive. And when I look up I've looked at the story of Aramis cuz I went to a Dragon Days, which was fabulous, by the way. And here, you know, originally in 2016, by the way, in our commission, it symbolized this dragon symbolized the strength, wisdom, protection, imagination, reflecting Renton's connection to storytelling traditions and role hub for gaming. I also got into Dungeons and Dragons this year because we are home to Wizard of the Coast and that's where the dragons actually originate and a lot of the uniqueness here in Renton. I like the serpent heaviness personally. I'm going to disagree with my what was has been said on the dies so far. I'm sure the artist will figure out a way to work together since they both come from the same agency. Urban Artworks does incredible work with Justin involved you so I really appreciate that they were actually chosen for this particular thing but I know that this was just kind of a rough draft. Um but I'm not as concerned as my council colleagues. I don't want you to like kind of be sitting there like, "Oh my gosh." I actually really like the layout for these ideas and what we have in store and I think it's actually better for us to be moving away from aerospace and Boeing especially with some of the connotations of all of that uh politically and also just socially. I think it's more fun to look at maybe the cultural traditions and it also reminds me and I would love to hear from council member Van on this one particularly cuz it does kind of remind me um this first one of maybe some of the artwork I would see in the International District of some of the artwork I would see um speaking to some of our other cultural communities but those are not communities of mine. So I kind of want to bounce off Council member Van if possible. Uh Council member Rubalcaba for a second I'll go with Council member Rubalcaba to request to speak but before that I have to clarify something. This is not that we disagree. These are different voices which is what you want to hear. It's not that we are saying we like some like them, some didn't like them. This is just the council expressing individually which is what we want because our community is so diverse in so many levels that everybody's going to have a different voice and different perspective of what is this. Uh Council member member member Rubalcaba. Thank you very much. Uh yeah, up here with the amount a group of art critics had no idea so um I I like both of them. I had the same question kind of pop up too. Uh I guess the first thing that popped up was more um maybe this is more of the question. Um I I know we had a different vision originally and I'm thinking particularly about the wall because it had uh the way the surface is not completely flat. If this piece works with that one, I mean, and again, I'm not an expert on that as far as I know we talked about like more scarves and stuff like that. I like the theme. I like the tying it back to the Black River. I think that makes a lot of sense. I guess maybe seeing a mock-up of them side by side would help me decide if if they clash or went together or not, but I mean, I don't hate it. I I think a lot of times you just have to like look at it to appreciate it and understand it, and if it's going in a different direction than maybe I had originally thought. Maybe this is the more that the reaction I had originally, but doesn't mean I don't like it. Any more questions or comments? Councilmember Jan? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Can you hear me? Um yeah, I um well, I'll start with saying the vibrancy. I think it's very beautiful. It's There's a lot of motion. So, I'll start with the serpent. I haven't read it or interviewed it, but I think that um energy is there. Uh if we end up taking out one serpent or one dragon, I would recommend in terms of functionality um probably to have two. Um the combination of the uh the different colors is is beautiful. I don't think kids uh having had two kids who have gone to the bilingual Chinese bilingual school there, um they are very much going to be loving the colors. Um but I would like to add, if possible, I'm not an artist, uh perhaps language in there with the motion, if we can do that. Um like a phrase to welcome folks, like, you know, in in different languages, if possible. Um I like the theme of more dragons than serpents, um as the uh Vietnamese people actually are known as the children of dragons, but uh serpent is fine with me. There's just got to be a balance of uh the the fun shredding and I I see that. Well, for clarity purpose though, we're going to have the fish and the the serpent or just one? Cuz the fish is just kind of the first page. No, that's the cuz the the example of the art >> Example of the art. Okay, so the actual Oh, that is just an example of of Toka's work. Um but fish have come up. I think what's arisen through this process that and thank you all for your feedback. It's important. That's why we're here. Uh because we have a lot of stakeholders who have a lot of feedback and we want to give clear direction to the artist on their next step and it felt important to come before you and get your feedback and before doing that and finalizing the design, you know, and not everyone's feedback is going to be heard or reflected in the mirror, but we take it all into account. Um you know, so something that this mirror has evolved from a much more abstract design. Like Nikita's work is very abstract. That's something I love about it personally. And I think personally and part of the reason why we're working with Nikita on this project is the celebratory nature of her work really lends itself to the type of event and vibe like we're vibe, but you know, like atmosphere we're creating in the square even if we're not being very specific about the World Cup, right? And also I can appreciate why something super abstract might not feel like it represents or speaks to Renton and needs to be a little more specific. At the same time, we're balancing honoring Nikita's style as an artist, you know, and and our jobs here early on the process is taking into account feedback, but not like being hyper prescriptive with Nikita and telling like kind of forcing her hand to do something that she doesn't want to do or that doesn't make sense, but how can we marry um the vision of the community, the feedback of the community, and really feel this make it as representative to Renton as possible, and honor Nikita's style. So, all I know we are limited on time, and I won't keep going, but I will say that um something that has arisen with the did like the theme of the river and the riverbed has been um kind of an like come come up a lot, and also the idea of maybe taking the wall and going in the direction of fish or something fish with the river and some other things, and um so, that that's something we were kind of considering as a next round option, but I do appreciate your your insight on that. No, thank you. And and in fact, I have to like make it even the a moment. I was just commenting that in in a meeting uh last week that um you know, sometimes you get to Seattle, for example, that have very intentional, put a lot of heart on the wall, and you are in a parking lot, and you see the wall, and say, "Wow." I mean, you go you say, "Wow factor, right?" Um but if you go from the first stages, when you see it like this, but maybe you will never think that it's going to be a wow factor, right? So, for me again, um it everybody's going to react different to the paint of the art. For me, it's about quality more than anything else, that looks good, that brings more to the city, um that brings more to the city. He's reminding me that my meeting's supposed to finish What time is it? It's like 7:02. Oh my gosh, I didn't realize that. I'm going to wrap up. Everybody else, the email of your questions. I don't know why I'm I was I was really tired. I normally leave plenty of time. I got to see him telling me that 7:00 minutes. Thank you so much for your presentation. Council members will email their questions. This meeting's adjourned, and then

Oh, yes. >> She's going to talk to me on Monday. All right. Well, good evening everyone. I will go ahead and call the committee the whole to order. We have two items on the agenda tonight. Uh first up, we have the Cleveland Richardson master plan and I will turn it over to Betsy. >> Good evening. Uh thank you for having me. I'm Betsy Severson, capital projects manager with the parks and recreation department and I'm here this evening to present on the Cleveland Richardson Park master plan which is before you uh for adoption in the full council. Um through this presentation I'll be reviewing uh some background on the project uh discuss the master planning process um present the design in brief uh discuss costs um outside funding opportunities and next steps. Um but first just a little bit of history um on this project uh and this site. Uh so Edwin and Virginia Cleveland purchased this 24 acre site uh in 1951 and they had a family farm and raised their children here and members of the family are here tonight um Heidi, Carol and Marilyn. Uh the city acquired the property in 1995 for conservation and park development using county and state funding. um rent and housing authority currently uh leases a portion of the property uh the farmhouse since 2012 and we started the master planning process last year. Uh the first step of which was to develop um project objectives. Uh so this property um and areas to the south and east of it were part of the Benson annexation in 2008. And because this was a more recent annexation, uh, South Renon has no developed parks. So, one objective is opening this park would fill this major gap in park access. The site has lovely forest, streams, um, pastures, lots of wildlife. It has a wonderful, uh, farming history and is located in a neighborhood with a great mix of people and uses. It's across the street from the Spring Brook Creek headquarters, which was Reton's original drinking water source. Um, so this second bullet on objectives is all about protecting, restoring, and celebrating these assets. And finally, we wanted to simply create a great neighborhood park uh where everyone's welcome. So, next, I'll talk just a little bit about the location and site characteristics. Um the property is located one mile due south of Valley Medical Center on Talbet Road South. Uh it's just south of 192nd Street and north of the Reton and Kent border which is on uh 200th. Uh and this is a project site map. Um if you were driving down Talbot Road uh to the south, you would know this site by the red farmhouse on the right. Uh that's uh directly across from the fenced city-owned Spring Brook headwaters um forested landscape. Uh this site has lovely fields and forests and streams including Spring Brook Creek. There is a concrete lined pond which was built by the family uh when they lived there. And I wanted to note that this is not uh the Spring Brook trout pond which is actually uh in a property just north of this site. The western side of this property is uh bordered by SR 167. And thankfully uh we have a very steep and densely forested scope uh in between sort of the usable park area um aspects of this property and this highway. And that slope and that forest provides a great physical and auditory barrier. So, except for the faint traffic rumbling you hear when you're on the western field of the site, you feel like you're way way outside of the city. Here's a few site photos to illustrate that. These are photos of uh pasture lands and also a pathway cut through between some of the fields of the site. Uh, as an anecdote, when we were soliciting this project for consultants, I took out a whole gaggle of landscape architects and we walked up to the West Field and one of them said, "This reminds me just like the beginning of the Sound of Music when Maria's dancing around. It's a really beautiful field, really special site." Uh, here are some photos of the house, which is built in the 1930s, and the barn, which was built in 1890. Uh we did as part of this master planning effort assessments of these buildings and uh the the barn is not in the best condition. However, the house is in a pretty good condition. The tenants are taking very good care of it. Um but there's an important note about these about this building. Um we think that the house could support the park. Um but the state funds used to acquire this land and also funding that we could use to um develop this park have some restrictions on park buildings. So these funds would allow for um the following. There could be a caretaker or a ranger residence um using the house something similar uh to Meadowdale Beach Park that Snomish County has. There could be an administrative administrative facility with staff offices, something similar to what we have at Liberty Park now or Mercer Island has at their Luther Burbank Park. Or there could be a maintenance focused building like we have at Koulon. Um so this the state grant funders don't really allow for more public community centers, interpretive centers. It's a little bit weird actually, but um they do allow for these other uses. um further um that if we changed that somehow and made this house um more publicly accessible, it would trigger some major building codes in terms of energy, fire, ADA. Um, and so all this is to say the master plan hasn't settled exactly on this element, but I did want to say there's community support to keep the house. And most importantly, there's a lot of community support to have staff presence on this site for security and programming. It's a really big site and it needs eyes on it. And speaking of community engagement, um, we did a lot of it. Um, I'll talk through the multi-phase process we went through in the next slide, but first I wanted to call out our neighborhood program, uh, Remy, Michaela, and Claire in particular, and really thank them because they really, really helped with this effort. We advertised, we put together events, we came to existing events that the community was already holding. We translated visuals and brought translators to events. We collated nearly 350 of these post-it notes and counted about a thousand little dot votes on on various things as well as online surveys and just had conversations with community members about what they'd like to see. Uh we intentionally went out to the neighborhood first uh then went farther a field to more citywide events like the farmers market and Ren River days. Uh this will be a neighborhood park and we wanted to hear from the neighborhood first and what we heard is that uh the the community would like us to preserve and restore nature and foster ecological stewardship on this site. They want to ensure that it's a welcoming and walkable uh it has walkable access. They want the park to be designed for all ages and abilities. They want it to celebrate culture and community identity. Um there's interest in incorporating edible landscapes and educational features and most importantly planning for safety and long-term care of the site. So moving into the master planning process a bit, there were three phases. The first um started with a site analysis um and the main highlights from this is this site does have a lot of critical areas and that means there's uh lots of neat topography and beautiful nature but it's also very hard to develop this site intensively. Um this early phase also included early community engagement and at that at this phase we asked folks um what are your hopes and concerns for this park and what questions do you have for us and we answered those questions. The next phase uh included coming up with some programming elements and I have a couple boards here um illustrating those. So the programming elements are the types of uses and things that we would um develop there and also two concept plans. One of the concept plans we called our community park. And this uh the sort of themes of this was is a little bit more intensive development, a little bit more active recreation like sports courts, um basketball uh courts and such um and and more intensive development areas. And then the other concept we called our nature park. And this still had development, but it was a little bit more focused on trail development, especially loop trails and um had more nature appreciation and passive recreation uses. And when we went out to the community with these options and all of these program elements, um we went out with the understanding that they didn't have to pick one or the other. It wasn't a binary choice, but we wanted to get feedback on both and hear what they like most. And what we heard is that in general if uh if uh needed they would say well we slightly prefer the nature park but with certain caveats on some of the program elements. Uh the last phase of the process was um taking all of this input um and looking carefully again at our site and some of the constraints and opportunities there and working out some of the tricky things um uh ADA access grading uh other programming requirements, storm water, things like that. All to work out to a feasible um concept alternative for um our preferred plan. And this is it. Um, so this is our master plan with some program illustrations and I just wanted to note that we have slides after the Q&A slides that zoom in on this plan and we can walk through those afterwards if there's time as well. Um, but just to talk about the major moves of the master plan is uh this preferred design has loop trails almost all of which are ADA accessible. There's a number of elements that create a a sort of nearby nature park on this site. Um and we are showing more concentration of more active uses and sort of intensive development at the east end of the site where we um and then in the central and more western areas we have a little bit more uh nature appreciation and sort of just focused on walking and and running and such. Uh at the south uh east end of the site um we're showing a um a play area that um taps into the topography and natural elements that we have here with uh opportunities for embankment slides, cool zip lines, things like that. At the north uh side of the property, we're showing gardens and orchards, including a native plant propagation area, as well as community garden space. We're showing the house retained and providing uh this is a big piece of community engagement, plenty of parking and also safe access off Talbot uh including walkways uh down Talbot which we're partnering with transportation on now. Um so these are all of the capital elements that so the things that uh we would build um but they can also help provide a framework for a lot of the wonderful programming ideas that we heard from the community too. We heard about after school nature clubs, school field trips from the three uh elementary schools we went to. Um volunteer stewardship of forests, um orchard gleaning, maybe through sustainable rent, possibly a tool library, uh utilizing the houses uh garage, outdoor daycares, and many more ideas. The programming ideas uh we heard really reminded me that this is a really awesome neighborhood with a great community and they have great ideas for this neighborhood park and they recognize that this is a site that's truly a jewel and um to both enjoy uh with their families but also to care for. So getting into implementation um cost um our consultants estimate it will cost 10 and a half to 12.5 million for construction of the park. Um that does not include transportations walkway elements. Um the uh range of cost here largely depends on decisions made about the house and what the use would be for the house. Um, the good news is that the project is eligible for a lot of grants. Um, we've already applied for one through King County's Waterworks program and actually I heard about one more grant opportunity through ecology 2 days ago that's not even on this list. Um, but for grant match and to move the project towards completion of the vision, we hope this park will also have strong council and staff support through the upcoming bienium budget. And I should note this project um support is not just for parks but also to add those walkways along Talbet. We cannot recommend opening this park without the installation of walkways on Talbet. It's unsafe to do so otherwise. But thankfully in addition to all the park grants that I listed here, the street project also is likely eligible for many outside funding opportunities. So next steps um I've mentioned that parks and transportation are joining forces. Um we are bringing Talbot Road South design and the park through 30% design and regulatory agency engagement uh going forward. Uh we plan to bring a contract amendment to uh finance committee early next month to move this project forward. There's a number of grant applications due this month and later in the summer. and we both parks and transportation would like to come back to you for a joint cow presentation as we move the process forward. Uh later this year we anticipating uh get getting uh what I would call a vibe check about outside funding. We'll hear how we ranked on one of our state grants uh towards the end of the summer and also have outcomes on some county grants. This plus the bienium budget process will determine the project's funding outlook which will in turn determine our approach to developing this site. Uh in 2027 with funding uh we could finish design and permitting and in 2028 again with funding and barring any major sort of permitting issues uh we could be looking at bidding and construction of of this project. Um so to end this presentation uh staff recommends uh that city council uh later today adopt the Cleveland Richardson master plan and support these next steps towards implementation and opening of this new park. Uh thank you and I'd be happy to walk through any of the zoomed in uh planning slides or answer any of your questions. >> Thank you very much. It was a great presentation and exciting to see what uh was made come to be and all the process that led into it. Do we have questions from colleagues here on the council? Yes, Council Member Howerin. >> Thank you very much. This is very exciting especially for that neighborhood. Um my question is around the um community garden orchard and uh stewardship section to on the north side. Um my my understanding is that we've in the past we've had some hesitancy around doing um orchards because of vector vector. How do you say it? Rats. >> Oh, right. Um >> vermin. Is that what you were looking at? Yeah. And so I'm I'm wondering why in this instance is is it feel okay? >> So uh in this instance for well first of all I should note that we have full support from our um community garden coordinator Carrie uh who's I think listening in. She couldn't make it uh in person tonight. Um and part of the orchards and community garden space um interest on this site is first of all we don't have um we we have some opportunities for partnerships with folks like sustainable rent and a lot of uh demand I think for this type of of use um in the city and so we we see some uh opportunities for gleaning that would help with issues of pests And then the other thing is we um uh don't have uh a lot of heavy development right along the property boundary and we have quite a bit of buffer between this site and um private private development which helps with that issue as well. So >> happy to see it. >> Yes. >> I just want to express how excited I am about the potentiality behind all of this. It's a really beautiful idea. I really appreciate that you went more of the nature preserve route. Um, looking at the area and kind of looking at just how lush and it's so hard to find green spaces these days. And I'm I love the sports and I love all of the sports things. And also additionally, um, I miss just walking in the woods and we don't have that anymore in our neighborhood. It's we have little bits of it but not like we used to. And so I just want to commend you for an incredible presentation and for a really beautiful thought thoughtout idea. Um I do have one and this again I don't want to put the cart before the horse but one question that did um pop up for me. I want to say one more thing. I love that there is a federal and national grant for planting fruit trees. If anyone here knows me I am obsessed with plant planting fruit trees because if you experience allergies it's because we plant too many pollen bearing trees. And I have my whole thing about that. So, I really hope that we can plant some fruit trees in the area and and get some money from that grant. But, um, when it comes to the caretaker, I also really like that. I like the 24-hour caretaker idea. Have we estimated around cost about what that looks like? Cuz I imagine there's some subsidies around them being able to live on the property, but also compensation for security and maintenance. Um, again, I don't want to put the carp for the horse, but it was one of the questions that did pop up for me. That is definitely something we would have to look into in more detail. We have some precedents and we have some folks we can call and say, "Hey, Snomish County or hey state parks, how do you how do you go about doing this or how do you go about some of these other options for that building?" But um that that is next steps definitely. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Additional questions? I had one question on the the history of the site. Are we doing planning to do anything to kind of incorporate the history? Obviously, you mentioned the barn being the the oldest, but not being incorporated in the final. Is there anything else we're doing to kind of honor the legacy of the site? >> Yeah, I think that there in more detailed design, there'll be some opportunities for some really good interpretation of of history. Um, both the farming history and even more, you know, first people's history of this of this site and the natural history. And so I don't know if that would take the you know it could be signage but it could be other things in the design elements that could um u make for a really exciting and interesting um place to visit. Especially this idea of field trips that came up not only from the schools but even one of our first events at Spring Brook Apartments. It came up from a from a parent um that just wants to learn more about this area of the site and and the nature. So I think that um in detailed design we will be looking into that in more detail. >> Okay. Well, if there are no additional questions or comments uh I have a committee report here uh to do as you just said a few moments ago uh the committee the whole recommends concurrence and the staff recommendation to approve the Cleveland Richardson Park master plan and adopt the resolution which I believe is on the agenda later tonight. So if there are no objections I will sign this report. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. All right, that concludes that item. So, we will move to our the second item on our agenda tonight. Thank you, Bessie. Uh and from for the park bond, we'll hear from Carrie Roller, Mary Jane Van Cleave, and John Rup. >> Not so not so subtle. >> If you please. All right. Well, good evening, council. Thank you. Um, this is a followup from our previous conversation beginning around our bond. At our last committee, the whole, we did provide an overview of system needs, capital priorities, and potential funding approaches. We heard your feedback and request for additional information on project options, affordability, and timing. So, tonight we'll be briefly recapping the discussion we had previously, which was looking at modernization, partial tri park, and enhancement scenarios. And then we'll look at also a phased funding that would allow us to advance critical planning and design work so the city is better positioned for future major capital investment. Our goal tonight is to provide clear information on the options, tradeoffs, and timing considerations so council can help guide us on next steps. >> Great intro. Thank you very much, council. Great to be back with you to continue the conversation uh around the park bond. So, uh, just wanted to start off a little bit review what we, uh, discussed with you all and had a great conversation with you all about back at the end of March. Uh, we we came to you, we presented at the time six options covering, uh, kind of a spectrum of different groupings of projects that you may uh, want to move forward with a potential park bond. I'd like to just uh, I'd like to briefly just touch on those real quick. Um, the complete option was really about taking park spaces that are currently underdeveloped and bringing them to full completion. for example, Edund car property, northeast Renton Park, or we just heard the Cleveland Richardson property. The second grouping was a hybrid and the hybrid was looking at the partial Tri Park property as well as Liberty Park. And I want to take a minute just to clarify for anybody who may not have been here for that presentation. But when we refer to the partial Tri Park, we're referring to the recently acquired Stoneway property just south of the Reton Community Center as well as the Narco site or the location of the existing dog park on the other side of the river. The third option we presented was about modernizing. Really looking in at what the the spaces and the facilities that we currently have and looking to modernize those, bringing those up to current standards, transitioning, for example, natural grass fields to artificial turf fields, really expanding the capacity and capability for uh opportunities uh more full-time throughout the year as well as additional hours with lighting opportunities. The fourth uh grouping we brought was core because we titled it core. Really looking at how do we continue to protect our assets and and our core infrastructure. The fifth option was looking at enhancements really thinking about the front porch of our city which many of our parks are and thinking about how we might bring some enhancements to those front porch park areas uh through some landscaping opportunities uh painting ADA access things like that. And then the fifth option or pardon me the sixth option was really to stay the course and continue implementation of projects through our CIP or bianual bienium funding process. Uh so so really a no bond option. As we brought those six projects, we really looked at the the project value indicators that we pre we presented and really created. Thinking about how these different elements from community impact, revenue, accessibility, etc. apply to each of those core groupings and some of those seem to stand out carrying some of the most valued impact uh the most value indicator, excuse me. And as we concluded from that great discussion, the direction we heard from council was really to focus in and come back with some additional detail on modernizing partial trip park design only and the enhancements option. We'll talk a little bit more about that with you. So I'd like to start off a little bit more detail specifically about that grouping of projects being modernized partial trip park design and enhance shorten that title a little bit down to fit. start off a little bit of the details on the next couple of slides about what these three uh groupings of projects really entail. Uh the first is wanted to talk a little bit about the costs the cost that we presented to you and uh referred to in the March presentation uh which we in that presentation we presented $205 and the reason we presented $205 at the time was many of the presentations we given andor um plans that we had recently submitted contain 20 $25. So, we wanted to continue to talk to the same numbers that you've been seeing, for example, from the pros plan. Since then, as we came back to you today, oh, let me let me back up this minute. Excuse me. Um, as we presented those 2025 numbers, uh, breaking those into the three groups, $66 million was attributed to the modernized grouping of projects. Uh, $4 million was attributed to the cost of design only of the partial trip park and $6 million was attributed in 2025 to the enhancements grouping. As we come back to you today, we wanted to look at escalating those forward based on when that work would actually occur uh with what we uh shared last time, meaning that 85% of projects had to be spent within 3 years. And as we looked at that cost, which we also wanted to include limited term employment positions to help uh ensure we could get these projects complete, escalating that out from 27 all the way through 2029 uh brought that value to to 90 million in total. And it's a big jump, but I will say that the majority of the cost of these projects between design and construction really is in the construction phase of the project. And that construction phase is happening much more into 2029 time frame. So of course there's much more escal escalation applied to a bulk a bulk of that cost. Just touching back on what that scope broadly included, uh was really focused on modernizing sports fields, uh bringing those from natural turf to artificial turf. Looking at also at systemwide, uh natural grass uh fields, uh ball fields, uh courts, basketball courts, and also trail improvements throughout the system. It included restroom improvements and upgrades, uh the partial tri park design element, and then the enhancement elements of landscaping, ADA, wayfinding, etc. Next, I wanted to talk a little bit about as we continue on the details of what you asked us to come back for here is looking at the schedule. And as you may know, but I just want to provide for reference some of the details of the various elements that go into uh a project, a design and construction project. And so I'll just briefly start with the top bar, the colored bar there, uh really highlighting what the various stages are. Master planning, it's kind of that orang-ish color. Uh that's the first stage of design much much implied or applied when you have a large project uh with a lot of potential stakeholders and we really need to bring community engagement. Figure out what your alternative is or your preferred alternative of what you'd like to move forward with. The blue bars are indicating the design phases um schematic design, design development, final design documents, construction documents, etc. Those are the the various stages of design itself. For now, we'll just group that as design only. The green is planning uh pardon me permitting and grants. Um some projects we staggered to have um possible grant phases. Some projects require a heavy amount of environmental permitting which much um which mostly is started after the 30% phase of design is complete. We go out for environmental permits which many times can take upwards of a year depending on the project location and engagement of various uh entities such as the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Fish and Wildlife etc. The uh purple category is bidding and contracting. When we go out for um RFQS or RFPs for uh contractors to bid on the project, uh that process and as well as the timeline to go through contract execution. And then the the last colored box there is the gray box. That's really our construction phase. And we added a little bit of a a white box. We call it a holding period just because how we decided to stagger out some of the projects to spread the cost out over time. One thing I do want to highlight here is that no matter which project we have on this list, all of them include every nearly every phase of this project timeline from design, permitting and and grants etc. uh bidding and construction. The reason some of those boxes are much longer in duration is just due to the complexity of the project. For example, uh the design drawings to put together and rehab rehab a ball field or a court are significantly smaller and less involved than to rehab uh and completely revitalize Ron Reges Park, for example. But every project does go through the same design process. It's just a matter of how much time it takes based on the complexity. What I also want to highlight on here um is you see some of these projects are starting in 2026. And the reason for that is due to the duration of some of those projects when we put this together. As we heard last uh last conversation that Carrie shared, uh we have to spend 85% of a potential bond within 3 years. And so in order to do that, we have to start some of these projects in 2026. And so we put together some numbers and requests through the Q1 budget adjustment to be able to start those projects. Uh those particular projects as you see in front of you would be Ron Reges Park uh start the master planning process for the partial tri park area as well as the restroom project uh which is complete replacement of six various restrooms. So those are I just want to share some of the broader schedule that we put together the thought that goes into it. I will say these are broken down into quarters. Um some of these don't take quite as long as a full quarter but it was a generalization at this stage just to help visualize the various elements of the project. So I want to go I guess what did we what did we hear from you? Um we heard various things and great had a great discussion a lot of questions but what we heard was a couple things um as we ended our conversation last time and we heard a desire to really be focusing on shovel ready as well as uh some desire to be delivering confidence in the cost and schedule uh of these projects. And after hearing these various questions and concerns, you know, we as a team with with finance, we we really went back and considered all options. Uh to the point as well as we re-engaged some of our design consultants and we started looking at projects specifically. For example, the tri park uh pardon me, the partial tri park being such a large and involved project, we started working and dialing in a little bit deeper on looking at what a design cost might actually be for that park instead of using large groupings where we might take a percentage breakdown of projects. when you look at a bigger uh grouping of projects, we wanted to look more specifically and make sure that we won't weren't over or underestimating the design value. So that when we come to you and and say that we can spend or do a certain amount, we want to make sure that we're able to follow through with that. But as we walked away from that, we worked hard and re-engaged with our partners in finance with Carrie and the team and we came up with really a strategic uh a strategic shift in um what we would do. And I want to say that this strategic shift looking at a a two-bond approach really has a similar end result where as we look through this strategic approach, if we focus solely on design, we're still going to get all the designs done by the end of the three years as the previous the previous recommendation that we had come with or that you had asked us to look into in more detail, excuse me. So we're pleased that we were able to come up with an alternative here that really again produced a similar end result that with this end result um we're going to fund initial smaller bond that covers all the design for the list of projects and we'll dive into that list of projects here shortly. But as we heard from you in that first discussion, we wanted to create uh an opportunity here uh for shovel ready projects. And by creating shovel ready projects, what we're really doing at this graphic on the bottom right kind of helps illustrate from a first bond uh to a second bond approach is it delivers a higher degree of cost certainty. And the reason is is that we could estimate project costs today that we might see going out to construction for 2 or 3 years. But as we all know, construction costs can change a lot in two or three years based on what happens that are not controllable to us. So, by waiting to go out to construction until we have finished the design and we're ready to go out to construction, it gives us a higher degree of cost certainty of what the construction cost will be at that time when we're ready to go out to bid. Additionally, we reduce risk. We reduce risk by uh eliminating all the unknowns that we don't know today that might come up throughout the course of the project. Because when we create shovel ready projects, the projects are ready to go out to construction. We've already asked all the questions. We've presented all the options to you. we've gotten all the feedback from stakeholders through the community engagement. We much uh we very much know what we're going to be designing at that point. So we reduce the we reduce the risk overall uh to cost and to schedule because at that point we know exactly what we're going to be going out to bid with. What I also want to say is that this option really allows us to put as we I've talked about this for much of my career in design and construction is more time in design is less time in construction. And the reason I talk about that is that the more time we put into design ensuring or reducing the potential for change orders from a contractor, the more confidence we have then in the budgets that we set and ask for uh to fund construction as we move forward. And with that, once we have a complete set of shovel ready design projects, we might come back to you as we see here uh for a construction bond in 2028 with a request at that point that we would fund projects to completion as we have just completed the design of all those projects through the first bond. And with that, I'll turn it over to my partner over here, Carrie, to talk a little bit more about the specifics of that option. >> We wanted to get creative and some ideas about how to approach this and how to fund this going forward. So, we talked quite a bit about going the voted bond route as John said, but there were some other options that we had not discussed that we'd like to bring forward um as some options tonight. So, one of them is to do a councilmatic bond. So, what's in front of you is a list of all of our outstanding debt for the general fund only. This is not citywide debt. We do have water um revenue bonds um that are not listed here. So, um this is just general fund debt that we have outstanding. We have two bonds that will mature in 2028, the 2013 GO bond and the 2015 um GO bond. And both of those in 2026 will be our last year that we'll be funding the reserves. So we um have debt payment reserves set aside for the current year plus another year. And so this year will be the last year we'll need to fund that debt payment. And so one of the options that we would like to bring forward to consider is that um what we could do is issue a councilmatic bond for 10 $15 million and use that REIT payment of $1.24 million that we've been paying on the 2015 bond and use that towards a Councilmatic bond. So this would not be increasing taxes at all. This would just be replacing um a a debt payment with a new loan essentially. Um, the other option that I wanted to bring forward tonight is, um, we could also choose to, like we said before, not do a bond and we could use the 1 almost $ 1.5 million per year that we don't have debt payments for and then really commit as a city when we're um, setting our CIP to say we're going to make sure that we set aside money um, for making sure that we have design costs available over the next 3 years so we can be shovel So, um, John, um, will be able to kind of talk to you a little bit more about that, what that costs, but that would be, um, those two options. There's a cost to borrow money. Um or we could commit and say, you know, we're going to use this money that we have plus some, whether it's REIT or general fund money to devote to making sure that some of this design is funded so that we can be shovel ready, as John said, in 2028 or um a future year so that we can then go out and possibly talk about uh voted upon at that time for some of the larger amounts. >> Mr. President, >> yes, >> hi Carrie. Uh thanks so much for this. So, I know you mentioned that the 10 to 15 million bond would not raise taxes. I see there's also 17 million on there. Would that would that raise taxes? >> Um, no. We can do 17 million as well. 1.36 million would be the debt payment. And so, between those two bonds that are maturing, it's a little over um a little over 1.4. So, just right about there. When we did the long range plan for the general fund, we were assuming that the um payment for the 2013 bond would be part of our long range forecasts and would need to be absorbed to pay for future costs because our costs raise faster than our revenues. Um but we can choose to go go forward and even issue bonds for 17 million if we so choose. >> Thank you. >> Yes, council member. >> Thank you. Um, can you walk me through the um the the two GO bonds that are maturing in 2028? Are are we saying that rather than issuing another bond right now, we'll just wait until 2028 and use the money that we had been spending on these to fund the the project mix that we agree on. we can um this will be the last year we will fund the bond even though we it's paid off in 2028. We have to set aside reserves for future payments. So we would fund this year and then talk about issuing a councilmatic bond either this year or next year. If it was this year we would need to use our fund balance to pay for the first debt payment. If we issued it next year, um we would use these dollars to do the ongoing um debt payments for that bond over the next 20 years. >> May I have a follow? >> Yes, please. >> So, does that mean that we don't actually start any of this until 2028 because the money is still tied up? >> We would if we issued the bonds in 2027, we'd be able to use them right away. >> We So, as soon as we issue bonds, we received the full $15 million to start spending. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm I I I think I'm missing something. I I thought again, maybe maybe let me try to put it another way. Thank you for your patience. If we were to use the Go Bond annual debt payment amounts rather than going out to bond, is that what we're saying? You could do either. You could either issue a council map bond for 15, 10, $17 million and use those payments over the next 20 years, or you could say, I'm going to use the $1.4 million that we're not needing to spend for debt service payments and use that towards the design. But when um John and MJ went through and cost out how much design cost we have over the next 3 years to be shovel ready in future, it's about $15 million for all of the projects. Um, and so what that would mean is if we were going to fund $15 million of three years, we would need to use that 1.4 million plus another 3.5 3.6 from either REIT revenues or our general fund to be able to make sure that we have enough set aside. There's two options to be able to say. >> Yeah. I think we have just a few more slides here, right? >> Yeah. So, I'm just I just think it's a better look to not do two bonds two years apart. Am I mistaken on that, colleagues? >> We're not talking about two bonds two two years apart. I believe >> one being a councilmatic bond that we would do up here and then the other one being a bond that would go to the voters, right? whenever in 2020 and 29 probably that's still two two bonds that we're talking about trying to you know not getting push back from the even though it's councilmatic and we're not asking the public I understand but if we can fund it inhouse with these two go bonds being retired to me why wouldn't why wouldn't we do that >> we wouldn't be able to fund it all with just the um retired >> go bond >> payments we would still need to fund $3.5 million over the next three years to be able to get to the full um $15 million, which is definitely possible. It would be something that we would have to say as a as a council and as a city. Um we're going to make sure that we're focusing our capital dollars on these projects. Um and that's what we typically do when we develop the budget. We go through our list of priorities and what do we need to fund in the next several years? What's um the most important right now based on timing or community ask and then we um prioritize it based on that. >> And thank you. >> So just so that I'm cuz now I'm mildly confused. If we went the way where we didn't do a counc and we ended up in the future there was some emergency and we need we wouldn't have that money at our disposal for something else like the read and everything else. Right. So I I mean I think to me just me would make more sense for us to do something where we are doing a dedicated pot of money for the bond which would be countmatic and I I know I don't think we're at I think we've got a few more slides before we're starting to talk about that but yeah I just wanted to make sure that if we used the go bond money and then we needed down the line needed money for something else. We wouldn't have a read or whatever else at our disposal for those things. >> Correct. >> Okay. Council member Albertson. >> So, I I I was straight on things until maybe you just said something there. Um because council member Howerin said facing, you know, push back maybe two times, but there shouldn't be any push back on the council manning because we're not asking for any additional taxes. We're basically just doing um uh putting the continue to put the money that we're putting into this stuff uh these these bonds into what it's like, you know, I have a car payment. I'm about to pay my car off. I buy a new car. I was paying $400 a month. I continue to pay $400 a month. I'm not taking from the kids allowance or anything like that. It would just do that. So there wouldn't be any kind of tax implication as far as the public um would be concerned. You know, I would think they'd say, "Oh, well, great. They're finding a way not to tax us anymore, but still moving forward to do something nice." >> Yes, there would be no new taxes if we issued a 10, 15, or 17 million bond dollar bond, >> right? we would use what we've been using all along for the debt that matured >> and continue to pay on that for the next 20 years. >> It just that money that we have been putting towards the reserve to do something else. It would just >> right >> be this some this would be the something else. >> Yes. >> Makes sense to me. >> That makes sense to me. >> I'm I'm sorry. It's just the perception. And I know we're not asking for more money, but it's, you know, the public is saying here they go spending money and they just went and they just did this two years ago and now they didn't get it, you know, whatever and they're coming back and this time they are asking for more money and more taxes. So it was just a perception thing. >> Prom president. >> Yes. Council me that I refer to you President Prom. President Prom. There we go. >> Okay, that's fine. >> I totally appreciate that council member Holler if I may address that. Um, for me the perception around all of this, because we first started having this conversation during our council retreat, and I love that we're really getting into this. For me, the perception is when it comes to things like a criminal justice sales tax, no problem. We have no problem increasing taxes for that. But when it comes to our parks and our trails, which is also another public safety tactic and deterrent, there is all that we're getting into so much more conversation. and I see it and I wonder if the public also sees how much more of a conversation we're going to have around a parks bond versus other increased taxes that we have done and I know also perception is concerned because you know there are elections every other year right and that's other another perception and concern so regardless of the perceptions I'm really concerned around our parks and I'm really concerned in investing in our parks because I think regionally we are not quite quite up to date. And so I want us to all keep that in mind rather than the concern and the push back and of what we may or may not We're always going to get push back. We're always going to have that. That's the the point of our jobs, right? And I think it's also our jobs to look past perception and see what's really necessary for our communities. >> Oh, were you going to say something? >> I I was going to say I know that I think the next slide has a staff recommendation. I don't know if we're getting in front of everything and discussing the possibilities first, but >> not necessarily. I mean, I >> but if you have a comment on that. No, I'll you know I I'll say it now. I'll say it then. Um um kudos to coming up with this. I think this is given what we talked about. I think this is an excellent example of going back to the drawing table and saying not can we do this but how can we do this makes total sense to me personally and that sort of thing. As far as the perception um you know there's always going to be perception. I think then the the onus is on the city um and us individuals or whatever to communicate um the the the the right message so that we manage the perceptions so that misperceptions don't you know take take a whole new take the whole thing in a whole new direction or whatever it is but um I just wanted to say you know I fantastic job on actually doing this and coming up with this and you know I don't say fantastic job easily so I do mean That's all. >> Just continue to the next next slide here. So, um here's kind of the revised program that would fall under under this. You know, staff recommendation here is really being able to complete design of all of these projects that you see in the list to the right. I'll just read them off quickly. Liberty Park renovation, Ron Regis, the partial tri park, systemwide sport court, systemwide field, systemwide trail and pavement, recreation facility improvements, and three different restroom programs based on complete renovation versus just additions to other restrooms that we already have in place. What I want to say, and I really appreciate the work that that Carrie and her team have done as part of this this joint effort that we're coming to present to you today, is um really helping to help us understand the different eligibility requirements of different projects because what you'll not see on this list is some of the enhancement projects. And what we learned is that based on some of the more stringent criteria and eligibility for uh capital projects under the bond, um those projects didn't meet some of those criteria levels. So they've been removed from this list in in an aspiration or goal that we would tackle those projects under our our typical bianium CIP process. So Carrie, I appreciate all the hard work to help us get to that point. Um so as we see we have these list of projects here and our recommendation really is to is to have these be funded through either a council manic uh bond or or through general fund to the to the total of $15 million. And Carrie got it got it. Uh the the fun part of it is it's we we as we went back and talked to some of our um consultants after we met with you back at the end of March and we were able to look at more of the project specific cost levels on some of these especially that that partial trip park design. Uh we found that we were able to uh get just under this threshold of $15 million to complete the design for every single one of these projects you see on the list. So, we're really we're really excited about that. We feel we have a little bit of conservatism built in there as well. But we're very excited to be able to come and with the recommendation of this list of projects to be able to complete that for the $15 million. Uh it takes you all the ways through design stopping at the end of design. We would pick back up with a subsequent funding with bidding and construction. The bidding and construction go hand in hand. We wouldn't go out to bid until we're ready to have the construction start work. So, this takes everything through 100% design. and the drawings will be on a on a shelf, so to speak, ready to go. Uh not for very long. We hope as that next phase comes along quickly, be able to implement those construction and bringing these projects to completion. And again, just wanted to reiterate the staff support that would be required to get these projects through design. Uh would be two limited term positions uh on staff starting in December of this year, so that as soon as we hit January of next year, we're ready to be hitting the ground running. One last thing I just wanted to say about this recommended list that and and the effort that we went through to revisualize and kind of create this strategic shift to this approach is that it really uh we feel it really helps relieve the pressure of construction uh with trying to spend all that money in um 85% of that money in 3 years. We while we had confidence in that, what we found through this reimagining of this effort is that we still have that same general narrative to get where we would have been anyways. We yes, we won't start construction, but we're very pleased to kind of be able to keep to the same general story and really be in a similar spot with this alternate uh alternate funding mechanism that that we hear presenting to you today. >> And so with that, uh we can turn to questions and answers. >> More uh I might ask one if I can real quick on there. So with this approach, if you can go back to that last slide, um that was actually pretty um illustrative, I think, of the question I had to ask, which was uh you mentioned we hope it's not on the shelf for too long. Obviously, we can't control the future. Financial conditions change. Uh different council maybe wants to go a different direction by that point or the voters reject it. We still have pretty low risk in the shelf life of what we design. Is that is that what I'm hearing that we're not worried that what we do in this time period is going to come back and be like, "Oh, just kidding. we can't use that in the future if we had to wait too much longer than we had envisioned. >> Certain elements of uh and amenities within some of these designs do have a shelf life before they would require redesign. Uh for example, some of the projects that have buildings associated with it if there's a building code change, then we'd have to go and redesign that building to meet the current building code. Um even though we had permits, the permits would they might expire at that point because the permits have a duration. So once we have permits in hand, that's when we're on the clock for some of those. The other big ones are the environmental permits. Much many many times those also have like like regular building permits, those also have time horizons before those permits time out and you must go back through the process again. Uh they all have various uh and differing timelines and time horizons about which department, which agency those um uh each department and agency has a different time horizon upon which their permit may expire. So there is a shelf life but it for certain elements of certain projects. Not all of them have those elements to them. For example, um projects such as the systemwide improvement projects, um those might might not have those time horizon type permits associated with them. But we can't complete the design, I will say, until we go through the permit process because there's comments that come out of the permit process that might alter us. It require us to alter and adjust the design based on the permit agencies and what they want us to do building departments, what they want us to look at revisions that from the design professionals. So the permitting has to go through and the designs won't be complete until we have those permits. So it does start a clock, but there's a varying degree of of clock. We'd have to come back if if you have additional questions on the time specific horizons for each of those permits. >> I follow up on that if I can. Given given that because you mentioned risk earlier, is this still a lower risk calculus in your opinion versus the other approach we had talked about previously? Because I I do appreciate this one. I definitely agree like going to the voters one time. I would I would not want to go to them twice. Makes sense. And if we're not raising taxes to do it, I think that makes a lot of sense from our end. I just want to know like if things don't go as planned, you know, is it worse in that scenario than the other scenario? >> I I do think that this this approach that we generated and we worked up that we're presenting with you today does create a lower risk to the city to the funding as we move forward. The risk is really associated with the overall project cost and schedule. uh by having the designs complete, we very much know what the costs are going to be at that point in time when we have a final cost estimate that will come along with the final design. It's very much known at that point. And so trying to come up with construction funding today with no design versus being at complete design, knowing every single little detail, uh blade of grass that might go in, nail in a building, you know, you name it. We'll know all of that at the end of completion. So that that risk to cost of the project plus the schedule to complete it will be very low at that point. and know putting these on the shelf the risk to that is how long they stay on the shelf in terms of construction cost changes. So the sooner you can get to those projects the lower the risk. The risk will start to creep up again the longer we wait to implement. But at that point in time your risk is lowest when you're you're done with design and you're ready to go into construction at that point. But it's it's a it's a a slower risk I think horizon and increase than what we would see if we try to go uh then look for construction funding today or try to predict the construction funding we might need today without the designs complete. >> Yes, Council Member Albertson. >> So I'll tell you what I really like about this approach other than the creativity it took to to get here is the fact that you know a lot of times when you go off for bonds and and whatever it is it's you know it can be a bit nebulous. uh in the in the public's eyes, oh, they're going to do something. I don't know what. You know, it's it's conceptual, but going this route, by the time we get to the bond, I mean, you have the proof of concept right there. And so, um you're able to show what you're going to get for this. And I think when you talk about perception, that would be a huge uh a huge lift that uh or take away a huge lift uh because it's right there. You know, especially when you see, you know, the uh partial tri park, you see the sports fields, you see the new Ron Reges Park, you see this and that and the other. Um you're never going to get 100%. Oh yeah, let's raise our taxes. But okay, I can see raising our taxes if we're going to get that. And so if we if this lets us get to that point, I just think it makes the makes the medicine go down easier, let's say. So that's what I really like. >> Yeah. Thank you, uh, council president. Uh, thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions. I'll just start with one. Uh, in terms of your experience, as you mentioned at Council Street, you've done major projects in bond. Is it more of your strategy to do the full package as one or is it having it broken down to two? Either whether two bonds out to the public or a bond through council manic and then one to the public. >> I think it really depends on the work that you're doing. Um, I I can certainly stand fully behind the approach that we're presenting to you today in terms of what we would face from a risk and cost certainty standpoint. Um, and so I guess you can go either way. And I I'm not sure how to fully answer your question outside of I I do support that this is a great approach to provide the city the lowest risk with the highest cost certainty of how we're going to spend public funds. Yes. Thank you. Um I'm going to second council member Albertson. I do really appreciate the creativity of trying to get through this. I was um really excited about a park bond just because I'm really pro parks and I'm more of like let's just get this done in one just fail swoop. I'm about taking medicine. Doesn't matter how it tastes. Let's just get it all done. Big pill, just swallow it. Um, but when it comes to this, I do I I appreciate understand. And so my understanding the first bond 1517 million maybe it looks like we have 15 million for all of the great modernization and revenue eligible projects that we talked about on March 23rd. Um, now I know the second bond is going to be dependent on construction costs, cost, everything going on. Do we have a guesstimation of what that bond is going to look like in 2028 to really get things home? Because I don't want to just kick the can down a couple years and then be like, "Oh, snap. Things just increased a ton, you know." >> So what? Yes, we looked at the the construction cost in 2026 today. I I escalated from 2025, but of the of the list of projects that we shared on that last slide, uh the construction costs that we have estimated right now in today's dollars is 105 million. And if we escalate those numbers out to an approximate midline of construction of 2030, which is an estimation at approximately 5% increase per year, it gets us to about $128 million to construct all of those projects >> from 105 million to 128 million >> in escala in in escalation >> estimated estimate escalation >> estimated escalation and estimated construction cost because again we're zero stage of design. These are conceptual numbers that we're that we're working with. >> That's my math is correct. An additional 23 million >> from today's dollars through escalated to 2030. Yes, >> my math teacher told me I would don't never have a calculator. And look, I did that all in my head. Um, thank you. That's a lot of money to kind of push this down a couple years and I I I have some concerns around that. I'm kind of interested. Carrie as a financeier and professional and all of this, how do you feel around um around that in terms of the two bond? I know it's more creative and now going back to my colleagues um comment around perception. Um if we could do a bond here or like around 105 million sooner versus one couple years for 128 million, is that what we're kind of maybe looking at? >> It wouldn't be a bond now for 105 because that's in today's dollars. So even if we issued a bond today for everything, we would have to do it the escalated amount. >> Got it. So that would be 128 then. >> Yes. Which is quite a big bond. >> And when we do this in 2028, that's when my ask would it be the same price? Then >> it would be somewhere in between. If if if for example we went out for the whole thing today >> with today's dollars of 105, that 105 for construction wouldn't really start to spend until 2028 to 2029. Got it. >> And so they would be needed to that that's the beginning of construction. Some of those could be completed within those years. So it would it would likely be if I understand your question somewhere between 105 and 128. >> And and something >> sorry >> go ahead. >> Something to remember is what we're proposing is to do the design now and then in two years when the design's ready or 3 years come back and say this is what we would like to do and this is how much it's going to cost. At that time, we can do some trimming and say, "Well, we're just going to be doing this one park or just these two parks." But the design that we're doing now can be available for us in the future. We don't necessarily have to do the whole project two years from now. >> I go to council von had her hand up and then I'm going to go to you next. >> Yeah. Thanks, Carrie. My my question is um I guess with what you presented is basically with the um bond money that we have in terms of the um 15 million or so that we would potentially do council man if the council chooses to. Has there been any projects or um talks about other projects besides parks because once we do use it then you know we won't be able to tap back into it kind of similar to what council Marvin Prince had passed earlier and then just the fact that it also breaks Stevens was not a tax increase. the the $15 million that we're talking about, councilmatic, is just around um the design of the parks that were listed on on the presentation. There there are other needs at the city. Um we have other buildings that that need work as well and so that's not part of the consideration this evening. >> Albertson. >> Uh thanks, Mr. President. Um I think we're forgetting to council member Rivera's point. I think we're forgetting the fact that one of the reasons that we're doing this is even if we wanted to going out for 105 million or 90 million isn't realistic because we wouldn't have be able to spend 80% of it in 3 years. So that's that's not even a consideration and I think we kind of drifted away from that. Um and this is which is why I like the creativity to of of how we did this so we can get it going and get the um and then get that design all set and then go from there. I mean, I think we're we're kind of um uh um stuck in the fact that, you know, costs are going to increase. That's just how it is. But as far as being a using the efficiency that we have to make this happen in a way that um maybe reduces the amount of cost long term in the future, I think this is the best way to go that works within the parameters of the bond pro of the u the bond use process and things like that. seems to me. >> How? >> Yes. Thank you. Um I wanted to follow up on something that um Council Member Vaughn alluded to. If we were to do a consummatic bond for parks, is does that mean that we can't do another councilmatic bond next year for something else or does that just there's is there a certain cadence at which our council can do that or what h what does that look like? And and and back to Prince's suggestion that well maybe we need the money for something else. Do we have options at that point or have we spent it all on this councilmatic bond? >> We haven't. So, we are eligible to um do Councilmatic bonds up to 1.5% of our assessed value. And so, that's close to 370 million bonds that we could do >> with no time constraints. Like you can't do it next year if you do it this year. >> Correct. It's just you need to make sure that we can afford the the debt payments. So, council bonds are where we're not asking for additional taxes to be raised whereas the voted bonds would be. Yep. >> Yan. >> Thank you. This is regarding to um the sludge uh in in terms of the six locations for restroom replacement. Um cuz I don't see any for new restroom and I know that you in committee when we spoke it was um community services committee you were talking about downtown restrooms and if one of the ways would be to have a bond in order to be able to have the capital funding so forth. So I guess my question is and maybe we don't know the answer yet maybe staff do. Um, is is there a potential location in terms of having uh restrooms and and having downtown being a part of that cuz it's just a replacement? >> Thank you, council member. I'll speak to some of that. I do know we have purchased for the legacy park some Portland uh portable restrooms that will be going in. I'm not sure about permanency, but they'll certainly be provided restrooms um that will support the activation of that location and I'm not sure about the other ones, but I just know that that's purchase was in the process to be prepared for this summer. Council President, >> yes, >> I'm sorry. I'm looking I'm looking at the slide for revised program and I do see two restroom additions. when I go to my March 23rd presentation, which I also have up, I believe those are going for Kowanas and and Philip Arnold. So, we do have two restrooms coming in. It's just not in the downtown corridor. Uh, understood. Thank you. Um I had a question on the 120 million we'd be going to voters for potentially if if all goes according to plan. Uh we would obviously be asking them to consider an increase in taxes to pay for these hopefully you know amazing parks that would be getting in return and I think a good deal. Uh do we have a ballpark I mean what that would be per res or is that too far out to ask like what we'd be asking people to increase u their taxes by. I just want to know because to know that if we do the 15, I want to know we can commit to the 120. That's what I want to feel good about. >> Uh I had it on the other presentation. I didn't bring it with me, but a $100 million bond would be about um an $8 million debt payment per year. And I can't remember off the top of my head how much it was, but I can send that to council. >> Great. And obviously we weren't set to make decisions here tonight. So I just I just was trying to wrap my head around what that would would So I just want to know yeah that we could do if we did the first one it would still make sense to do the other one practically speaking that we would be biting off and I wouldn't think you'd come with a recommendation if we didn't think so. But >> well then this is really the recommendation to be able to phase this and do the design now and then come back and talk about okay what are we going to do? How much do we want to issue next time? Which parks do we want to do? I mean that's certainly available for discussion. Council Van. >> Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to follow just for clarity uh and maybe I misunderstood in terms of legacy square we just have one portable for the staff usage uh is but as far as like having downtown restroom for the public because we haven't had any the restroom for the transit center closed shut. So am I wrong in that understanding that it's only for staff usage for the legacy square? Um and then are we through this bond going to identify providing you know building a restroom having permanent one for the public in downtown? >> The restrooms in discussion are for the existing parks um identified. Um, I did believe that the restrooms there are when we are activated, we will have restrooms available. I can't speak to the rest of downtown public accessed restrooms. Uh, we would have to get back to you on that answer. Council member President Prom Prince or McVervin. >> You guys look so much alike. You guys look so much alike. I just got you confused for a minute. Um, this is we're talking about a parks bond, right? Okay. Just double checking. Thank you. Well, it looks like maybe we've exhausted our questions or comments for now. I'm sure more to come later. Uh, appreciate all this information. This was a really really good discussion. Um, and again, thank you for the creativity and bringing back um, I think an approach that does make it manageable. Um, and yeah, I'm I'm excited for those next steps on this. So, thank you colleagues. If there's no additional questions on this one, we will adjourn committee in the whole. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Good evening. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee of the whole. We have two items on the agenda tonight. And it is legislative session of the eighth. We have with us Eric Perry and David Foster. And if you are ready, we will start with this presentation. So, well, thank you, Council President, members of the council for the opportunity to give this update tonight. Eric Perry, government affairs manager for the city of Renton, joined by David Foster, the city's contract lobbyist, here to talk to you about this past legislative session, some of the big updates, and how they will impact the city, and as well as just some things to keep in mind moving forward. So, knowing that there is a second presentation tonight, we will move through at least some of these early slides pretty quick. You've all seen these before and and know this information quite well. So, Don't feel the need to rush, Eric. You know, we have plenty of time. Okay. So, as you all know, this past legislative session was a short 60-day session. So, we started in early January and ended in early March. They considered three supplemental budgets this year along with a slew of policy updates and other considerations. And it was similar to last year, a challenging environment, especially in that budget sense, continued pressures on the state budgets, and continued challenges for the legislators to work through. Um overall, uh I guess sorry David if you had anything to add on that first slide. Okay. Overall, um as you all know, we have Governor Bob Ferguson who's in his second term, um 98 members in the house. You'll see the partisan split there, uh and then 49 members in the Senate and the partisan split there. And we do have elections coming up this year, so those might change somewhat, uh something for us to keep an eye on. Uh and then here in Renton, as you all know, we're covered by two districts, the 11th and the 5th, primarily represented by the 11th District, which is Representative Steve Bergquist and David Hackney, uh and then Senator Bob Hasegawa, and then the 5th District is Representative Lisa Callan, Representative Zack Hall, and then Senator Victoria Hatch. So, looking uh at this past legislative session, you'll all be very familiar with this. This is the document that council approved uh last winter. Uh it is the comprehensive city policy position guide. On the front page, you'll see our top four priorities along with the slew of other issues that uh that we have kind of identified as important issues uh to us either in a good way or in a bad way. Um to dive in deeper, if you had anything. Uh to dive in deeper, uh these are our four priorities cuz I know it's hard to read those three pages, indigent defense, shared revenues, transportation and regional connectivity, and public safety. And we'll take a little bit of deeper dive later in this presentation to talk specifically to those, um but then beyond that, these are all some of the key high-level areas in which our policy positions fit under. Um I won't read each of these off, but certainly it's a pretty exhaustive document um that hopefully uh gives us, David and I, the kind of the the flexibility to go out there and represent the city on the myriad of issues as they come through Olympia. So, looking at the supplemental budgets from this year, um as I kind of mentioned, there There continued economic pressures on those budgets, uh including some shortfalls, some negative revenue forecasts. Certainly, the state is still impacted by high interest rates and inflationary pressures. And then everything continuing with the federal government has created additional strains and uncertainty for the state to kind of plan for and move around. Okay, I will jump in here and just very quickly touch on all three budgets have been a little bit more difficult these past two years. The operating certainly you've you've heard quite a bit about and I think that's going to continue as as Eric was just mentioning some of the issues that are they're dealing with going forward. The capital budget also had some pressure on it this year and and and likely will going into the next session in the larger capital budget process. And the pressure is shifting of dollars and we can talk about that a little bit too. We saw yet again the public works trust account that's been tapped on the operating side and those dollars and that's that's an area generally the capital budget is in pretty good shape except when the the budget writers are trying to find additional dollars specifically for operating but sometimes for transportation. And the transportation budget continues to have its own difficulties even though there was some new revenue that went into it not this past session but the one prior. And I think we're going to continue to see all three of those face challenges as as we move into the 2027 session as they put together the two-year budget for the 27-29 biennium. So, we opted to include just some high-level kind of information here. Certainly, there's a lot more to each of these budgets and we're happy to answer questions as they come up. As you can see though, they did increase in size all three budgets ranging from one and a half billion dollars in growth to 200 million in growth in the capital budget. Identifying kind of what is new spending and versus what they've made in cuts and then as David mentioned you can kind of see the money moving around as they pulled from the public works assistance account to help fund things and then kind of what that entailed on the back end for the capital budget. I will note that they did authorize some new bonds. Uh Excuse my typo there 278 million not 2 billion dollars. Uh new bonds. So excuse my my typo there but you'll see that they they did take on some new bonds as a way to partially backfill that that but that continues to be a a source of concern for our team moving forward just because of the value of the public works assistance account and what it means for local governments. Um in the operating budget I also did note on here that this not include revenue from the new tax on millionaires. We'll jump into that topic in a little bit but they're not accounting for those dollars at this point in time. It also did not include any funding for public defense. Um in the transportation side is is is David mentioned still some pressures there leaning on some bonding to kind of help with that with that issue specifically for Renton. We also did not get funding for our practical solutions process for the Northeast Street direct access ramp nor did we restore funding for the Northeast 44 Gateway project and that is a landscaping project that was initially included two years ago for us. So still some challenges for us as we seek to to return some dollars back to our community as they face those larger pressures that the transportation budget is is facing. And I would again say that I think on the transportation side it was a little quiet this past session. I think it's going to you're going to see a little more activity going in the next session. That doesn't necessarily mean a a new large package the likes of which we saw in 2022 I think it was but I do think there's going to be more activity on the transportation front. And all of these budgets, they are taking into account many of the priorities that you all approved as Renton priorities. So, there's a lot of overlap there. Yeah. I I will also mention to those two bullet points under transportation, 340 million in new funding for maintenance and preservation along with the 180 million in temporarily diverted funding. That's a what I'd probably describe as a stopgap measure. Thinking creatively for projects that are not ready to go, but may have been funded is a temporary diversion of that funding back towards washed-out for maintenance and preservation projects, which is the biggest priority within this supplemental budget. So, looking specifically at what we were able to achieve this year in terms of funding for the city of Renton, we were able to get $500,000 for the resource center or stabilization center. This $500,000 does include reappropriation of $206,000 that was previously allocated for the housing repair and assistance program. If you remember last year, we tried to get same um some carve-outs for that program because it was just a little bit different from the normal Department of Commerce grant programs and how they like to kind of assure spending of those funds, namely, you know, site control, verifying of no liens on properties, etc. Certainly, the intent of the housing repair program is to address those types of properties specifically. And so, we were not able to work through that with the Department of Commerce. And instead, we're able to this year move that money back towards the resource center, which if you remember prior to me starting with the city was initially for 200 Rainier. I believe there was a shelter planned at that site initially. So, this is not for that, but similar intent bringing it back towards uh some uh some programming and services here within the city of Renton. We all Yeah. Eric has assured me since we've moved this money three times now that this will be the last time we asked for the movement and it's going to get spent. So, we're going to we're going to hold them to that. We will spend that money. Um we also were able to resolve a long-standing issue uh related to the Southeast Southeast 168th Street bike lanes and safe crossings project that was included in the 2021 capital budget. Uh and after receiving that award, our teams went out to the community to talk through that project with them in which they received some really good feedback about what they were looking for in terms of bike infrastructure in their neighborhoods. And so, uh in order to accommodate that community feedback, we had to go back and get a scope change from the legislature. So, we were able to unlock those dollars to allow our team to move ahead on that project this year. And then, as I did mention, we were not successful uh restoring funding for the practical solutions process uh for the Northeast Street direct access ramp uh nor were we successful in uh uh reobtaining our Northeast 44th Gateway Improvement Project's funding. We did we did have um one of the budgets. I know it sounds like a it's not even a a a partial fix, but one of the budgets did include funding, I believe, for the practical solutions. Another one did not. Again, as they balance them out, um unfortunately, um one side and one uh was victorious over over the other, but I do think that's one we can come back in 2027 and push for. With regard to the resource center and the and the safe cross crossings, I would say uh I want to let you know that the 11th District members really went to bat for these um frankly three projects cuz there's one piece of new funding in the resource center of about 300,000. Um there's the carry forward of the of 200,000 um 206. Uh and then the 500,000 carry forward for the for the Safe Streets. And, um, they went to bat. Uh, we had a little bit of a snafu in the in the, um, during the session. Uh, and all three stepped up and really uh, really pushed for inclusion of these projects or shifting of these projects. So, a big thanks to the 11th District members. And then, uh, having Rep. Callan, uh, who uh, was acting, uh, and and effectively chair of the capital budget, uh, didn't hurt either. So, um, a huge thanks to all all of those members. So, I've divided these next couple slides, uh, by our priorities. We'll run through just a list of changes here, um, as they relate to those priorities. Um, so, on the public safety front, uh, as you all probably know and as we've we've talked about, uh, here at council, um, the state did pass new regulations on the usage of automatic license plate readers, ALPRs. Uh, there's a pretty exhaustive list of changes there, what we can do, what we can't do, how we can utilize this technology, certain crimes we can use this technology to assist in investigations for, um, that uh, that we can, you know, happily share. I know our police came to, uh, came to community last week to talk about some of those changes. Uh, it also did add in some new, really helpful language regarding public records requests for these types of records, uh, and how, uh, really or how we're not able to share that information just due to the sensitivity of what that information is. Um, so, really really helpful on that front. And and as I kind of described it, uh, when I spoke before council a couple weeks ago, uh, the best way to really kind of describe this particular bill was a bill of compromise and and one that took a lot of engagement from both sides of the table to get to the finish line. And so, really really appreciate, uh, Senator Trudeau's efforts on this one to to hear our concerns, hear our feedback, and work with us and other cities to to get this into a better place than what it was as initially filed. Mentioned there's new exemptions for disclosure of that data. There also are new standards for police chiefs and how our police departments can utilize volunteers. There's new I put in regulations but really it's a it's a new legal action for people who have been arrested by law enforcement officers who are wearing face coverings. It's a it's a civil right of action for them rather than a duty for our own law enforcement officers to um you know, maybe police federal agents who are wearing masks or are out of violation of that law. It's more so a civil remedy. But that was a big one this year and a and a governor's priority as well. And then lastly, another issue that we've been working on for some time is related to liability for jails, particularly for medical liability. We were not successful but had some really really good conversations this year with with stakeholders on that and look forward to carrying forward that work next year. As I did mention on the indigent defense front, this was you know, to put it pretty bluntly for us a really hard year as far as it relates to our priorities. The state did not include any new funding for city managed indigent defense services. They did not pass any policy clarification as to the Supreme Court's authority to define those case law standards. Nor did they create a task force to study what are some sustainability or sustainable choices moving forward as far as it relates to the provision of indigent defense in cities across the state. Certainly will be an issue to move forward, one that we continue working on and and certainly have some time due to the Supreme Court's ruling. It's a decade but one that keeps on ticking so we'll keep working on this issue. There was originally a proposal within the what's called a millionaires tax to include funding for counties and cities for indigent defense. I'm that was in the original version that came out of the Senate. The house didn't much like it. Frankly, they wanted to have more direct funding in various ways. Governor didn't want any directed funding. So ultimately that was pulled out and nothing was added to the to the millionaires tax proposal that would have directed those dollars in a in a in a way that would help cities. Within our transportation and regional connectivity priority, there were some some new investments for preserving and maintaining the state's transportation system as a whole. As I mentioned, new diversions of local program dollars. And as David kind of mentioned as well, we did not make much progress this year on sustainable transportation funding beyond what they passed last year. But we do expect those conversations to really pick up moving forward. There's some hard questions that need to be answered and certainly will continue to stay involved in that. There also are new authorizations for cities to identify crash prevention zones. As I mentioned, no funding for our direct access ramp. And then as it relates to kind of region, I decided to include this in there cuz these conversations are ongoing. But there is no 75-year bonding authority for Sound Transit, which that relates to some of the regional issues that we're working on right now. And then lastly for our last priority shared revenues, we did have some success in preserving most state shared revenues for cities and towns. And then we are also were were successful in expanding some local revenue flexibilities. As well as the state did opt to include a new local sales tax authority for children and families. As well as brought in what you can use House Bill 1590 funds for as well. Oh, sorry to interrupt you. Can you um explain or tell us more details about the new local sales authority for children and families, please? Yeah, I'll have have to follow up with you some additional details as far as what that entails. Um it is intended to be gosh, it's for Do you remember exactly what it Yeah, we'll follow up with you with some additional details. It wasn't one that we were tracking super closely this year, um but certainly is a welcome new uh I guess arrow to our quiver. Thank you. That was a That was a bill I think it was 2242 and that was a piece of legislation that um uh I would say it was a a very broad local government funding uh proposal that had numerous pieces in it, some of which are up there. Um both allowing a little bit of new money and a and a little bit more flexibility for some existing dollars. Uh and I wouldn't be surprised if we So, it was a good piece of legislation to move forward. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some more uh legislation next year similar to that vein of again allowing you all more uh local control. Is the I'm I'm sorry, just follow. Is this was created because the money that they cut in the in the budget for some of the services that that is provided for families? Yeah, you're probably thinking about some child care funding uh for instance and some others. I don't think it was specifically related to that. Um I don't think it was a it was we're taking this so we're giving you this situation. Um I do think there was a recognition that um this is an area that uh um local governments and and and communities have been um uh struggling with and and so it's a way to help out, but I don't think it was one for the other purposefully one for the other. Thank you. So, beyond our priority areas as we kind of alluded to with the how big of our our legislative priorities document is, we do get involved in a whole host of other issues. We'll talk through some of those in this slide. So, the biggest piece of news coming out of Olympia this year was a new income tax on millionaires that was Senate Bill 6346. And as David alluded to, our engagement on that issue was not under the underlying policy of of an income tax on millionaires, but rather if they were to to take on this new revenue, we were asking for funding for indigent defense to support local local governments. And ultimately, we're not successful, but we'll continue to be back at the table seeking options and and solutions for that issue. Yeah. >> If I can just touch base on this one, I know there's been a lot of press about it and a lot of conversations. I'm just as a reminder, uh if the courts uphold uh the the legislation and if it presumably goes to the state voters. Excuse me. And if that's upheld, this doesn't go into effect until 2028. And actually, dollars collected doesn't occur until 2029. So, this is not a fix, if you will, for any short-term difficulties that the state the state budget is is facing as we go into the 2027 session again talking about the next biennium. One of the other big issues this year was Senate Bill 6026, which was related to how local governments can utilize mixed-use developments within their cities, particularly in commercial zones. It was a governor's priority bill, meaning that it was fast-tracked and and ready to pass. But as it was initially filed, was was very challenging for us to kind of wrap our heads around and understand how it was going to help our city. Particularly when we see high demand for our commercial spaces in our community. You know, it's obviously a balance too. There is a huge housing need as well. And so, you know, we've extensively used mixed-use developments here in Renton in all eight of our commercial zones as a way to push in residential development while still fostering commercial space for small businesses. So, we worked really really hard. This was probably one of the biggest issues we worked on this year. Really to making that legislation a little bit better for us. And so, there's a whole host of changes that we were able to successfully get in the final passage of that bill including carve-outs for for cities to protect certain areas for commercial development along with you know, TOD areas, station areas, things of that effect to really maximize how much commercial space we can still offer in our community. You know, at the same time while retaining that ability to provide housing and within our our zoning code. So, That was a really really big one. We'll create some some some changes for us that we have to incorporate moving forward as far as our own strategies and and local ordinances. And and ultimately once we get to it as well, our comprehensive plan. But we will not be required to open that up earlier than we were anticipating. That was a specific call out of the bill as well. This is I think a very good example of a piece of legislation that passed in a manner that maybe all cities didn't still don't like. All 281 I think. But But the Association Association of Washington Cities really goes to bat not just for this one but for a couple of the different bills on this on this page. Carl Schroeder being specifically I will call out as as somebody who has worked on these efforts quite a bit to try to find an agreement that most cities can deal with. Most cities can live with. Recognizing too that these housing uh zoning issues have just been layered one on top of the other on top of the other over the last few years. Uh and playing catch up has been extremely difficult. So, just want to give uh the Association of Washington Cities a a call out for the the great work that they've done over the past couple years as well. Amy, I just going to interrupt you here because the Eric and I we had this conversation just 2 weeks ago with the Sound Cities Association um during the big meeting. Because they were explaining the the um the disappointment of uh some state legislators don't understanding the local level of of uh responsibility that we have and how they are not familiar with um with being with the cities that they live on. So, the advice from the government affairs uh directors are representing is that elected officials local elected officials build a better relationship and stronger relationship with the state uh representatives and and senators to have a better communication to how these preemptive um uh laws are creating more problems than solutions in many many cases and how can we engage them to understand the impact and effect that some of these laws will will create for us, but at the same time taking them they're taking away the authority of of of local elected officials. Uh one of the recommendations obviously was that to engage deep deeply with that. But then was the the the the concern that maybe the AWC, the Association of Washington Cities has lost a little bit of their voice. So, so it's very interesting what you're saying to us that that they're working very hard because this is reassuring that we are as a team. So, it's not that they are not working hard is that maybe a lot of them are not listening as close as they should. Because they don't still don't understand what are the the the the worries that we have with some of these concerning bills. So, I'm very happy to hear from you that you shared that you think that the situation in Washington cities is doing a good job because it was under the impression of some of the members on the board that actually are part of the the board of the AWC. Uh that uh that they're struggling a lot to to make their their their voices heard at the table. Uh um Councilmember, I would say actually I think I would say the opposite and that is that some of these bills the deck was stacked pretty heavily against local jurisdictions and specifically cities going in and you've got a lot of different groups that were supporting them and it it doesn't mean they're they're bad ideas or or or or bad legislation, but you've got the association over here and some cities and you've got everybody else over here and still able to work through some compromise uh to to make what I think started out frankly as a as a bad bill and taking away that local authority into a a better piece of legislation. So, I I would say it's completely the opposite. They've they've their voice is being heard and it's it's being heard in an area that they are starting from from from the bottom and and working their way up. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. It's important. And if I could just you know add quickly to that too, I would say to the point that you raised at the onset of your question about building those relationships and getting your legislators involved locally. Um I think it's it's so crucially important to do that because there are not a lot of people in Olympia right now who we would deem as local champions. Um whereas in the past you might have had more legislators who came up from a city councilor mayoral background who had done this work and had that experience. And so it's a just a different different mix in Olympia now, and people might not have that same level of education and understanding of what it takes to run a city, what it takes to make a city successful. Um and so that's definitely a strategy that David and I will be really looking into this summer and really leaning into is getting people out into the streets and showing them what reality is on the ground as far as some of the challenges we're facing, some of the impacts the laws that they're doing or passing, um and kind of really how that interacts with us and then by extent of us how it interacts with the communities that they represent. So, um something that we continue to work on, but it is certainly um you know, one of the newer challenges that we're working through as well. Yeah, and I think it's >> a good reminder. Um you all are or or many of you actually I think all of you came down um have been down to Olympia at some point um whether last year or earlier this year or the year before it. Um uh that's very helpful, but uh summer and fall uh work during the summer and fall and those conversations and you all you all know each other, so it's not as if you're you're you're trying to learn new members. Um but having those uh conversations and I I I think Eric makes good point. I mean, we should maybe put together some sort of little tour or something. So, here here's what's working, here's what's successful cuz I don't think folks understand uh especially as it relates to housing the success that the city of Renton has had over the last couple of years, last probably decade, and continues to have moving forward. They're trying to say we're often hearing, you know, it shouldn't be one size fits all, uh and we're saying, "Well, yeah, but look and look and see what's happening on the ground. Look and see what's happening in these some of these specific jurisdictions." And we can show that uh to the legislators and not just those that are in the 11th, not only the 11th District, but but broaden that out a little bit, too. So, um there's always opportunity to um work on those relationships. Thank you. Thank you. Adam here. Uh Councilmember Zahilay. Yes. I go so far as to as to suggest one size does fit all if you use our model. Yeah. Fair enough. Uh Council President. Council member Rivera. Thank you. I really love the idea of educating our legislators and bringing them in to help them learn more about the local issues and what we're dealing with. I really think that's an excellent idea on your part and I really encourage you to do that cuz I don't think there is as many as there used to be that have that local understanding and how extensive it is for us to run a city and to get everything to work just right and so I really appreciate that. Actually Bernie is you outside of a couple of areas you get a lot of legislators who do in fact have local government experience but once they get down there they're not local government folks anymore. They're they're state legislators and they're looking at things from a little different perspective. So it's an it's a interesting situation where uh folks were in your position at one time making some of the same arguments. It changes depending on where you sit. I agree David but um I I had the opportunity to work very close with Curren Price and with Marqueece Harris-Dawson from the 41st. Both of them were council members as as well as Herb Wesson that was senator of the 41st. The three of them came as members of the council and the way they were in touch of the local and you mentioned we lost those champions because they did advocate very heavily on the standing local authority and and I do think that that you say some of them probably forget and when there is a state level they always going to you know be more proactive on their state role but there are few like for example Mike Feuerstein was a council member at that time and and once in a while he remembers that he was a local elected official. So I agree with you there. You know some of them completely forgot. But I don't think for example um and I going to Oh my gosh, I going to forget his name. Today is the mayor of Issaquah. Former senator. Mark Mullet. Yes. Uh he never forgot. He can never forgot his local role. So yeah, we lost a lot of champions uh that used to work on see on see government and and I do hear that, you know, that um especially because we have lost a lot of seniority. A lot of seniority and very new members, you know, uh that they didn't went to different steps. They came from where they were to now be elected officials and they're still trying to navigate to learn how they're doing this job. So thank you. If you can continue with your presentation. The uh one of the other big bills uh from this legislative session that will certainly have an impact on our community is House Bill 2266. Um this has been an issue over the past uh few legislative sessions that um requires jurisdictions to allow step housing in all zones that allow for residential and hotel usages. Um going back to what David brought up in in the vein of compromise and working with legislators, um this certainly was not a bill um that as a city we had any uh any particular love with because of it's directly telling us what to do with zoning. Uh but because of conversations and and some compromise to the process, we were able to effectuate some change in that bill to make it a little bit more uh uh palatable um on our end. So um that will be a big impact, but one of those other examples of continuing to have conversations with legislators. Um in a more positive note, uh we were successful um in stopping uh the new version of uh statewide preemption for how cities can regulate urban encampments. This year's version was House Bill 2489 sponsored um by Representative Gregerson um and will continue to be an issue we work on this interim um at direction from the speaker. Um but we were able to kill that bill this year. We are also we are able to have some good conversations on the impacts about what allowing for mobile dwellings in all residential lots would mean for cities. Um We also had some success creating a new statewide work group to address electronic or electric motorcycles within cities and jurisdictions across the state and how to regulate them, as well as new small works roster cap adjustments to address rising labor and material costs. So, a whole bunch of other stuff there, too. If there are any specific questions, we were happy to jump into them, but those are some of the bigger ones that that we talked or focused on this year. And then lastly, just looking ahead, this is you might remember the exact same slide as last year. Did not change a single word except for the date. Obviously, the federal government continues to provide a lot of uncertainty for state and local jurisdictions both on the funding and policy side of things. There are a ton of economic uncertainties out there. There's global conflicts, state and regional tax burdens, resource constraints. As I mentioned at the onset of this presentation, this is an election year, as well. And then we do expect a number of initiatives and referendums on some of these recently passed laws, including the tax on millionaires. So, we'll play into what the environment looks like for next year, as well as what our conversations will look like this summer and fall. But continues to be pretty similar challenging conditions for us moving forward. I'll just jump in here real quick with a little bit of just additional information. As it relates to the elections, you've got of course all 98 House seats members are up for election. On the Senate side, it's 24 of the of the 49 seats are up for elections this year. We've already seen five senators who have said they are not coming back for various reasons. We're up to about 13 House members who have said they're not coming back for various reasons. In some cases running for Senate seats, in some cases running for congressional seats, in other cases just, um, they're they're retiring. Um, I expect those both of numbers on both of those, uh, House and Senate to to as far as people that aren't coming back to grow a little bit more between now and filing week, uh, March May 8th, I think is the last day. Um, so I think we're going to see again some more change. House members somewhere in between 14 and 20 is is not not unusual. Five in the Senate is is pretty high. We actually had nine, I think, over a two-year period, uh, for various reasons, uh, a couple years ago. Uh, so five's a pretty pretty high number. Sometimes it's two or three. Uh, so it should be some interesting, uh, interesting races. The session starts on January, uh, 11th, uh, 2027 and goes till April 25th, uh, next year. And for a number of the reasons already stated, including those that are on the slide here, uh, certainly, I think it's going to be another a difficult year, uh, for, uh, for the, uh, the legislators and and some of us lowly lobbyists. Thank you, David. Um, thank you for mentioning that about the unusual situation of having a a five new position for the Senate. The this isn't hurt. Uh, normally, especially the Senate, you know, uh, they they last a long time there. There is a lot of institutional knowledge and and although we know that a staff carries the heavy lefty work, at the end of the day the voice on the table is going to be always the elected official. In your case, in your profession, uh, how hard or or or easy or difficult is to have to work with people that are learning the ropes, uh, of how to do this? Does it make your work harder? Do would Do you say it or challenging? Sure. As as new people come in, certainly it's difficult. If you In the case of people moving from the House to the Senate, it's certainly easier, right? They're already They already have a good understanding of how the legislature works, how the process works, who they are, what they're down there for. The Senate's a little different than the House and how they how they function, but they learn that as they go. For For So, if you're if you're if you're simply shoot moving over, that makes it a little bit easier. Members that are new to the legislature, I think it's tough for them, certainly in the beginning, the first month or two, as they are trying to find their way, sitting on committees that on related to issues that maybe they didn't care about when they when they ran. A lot of people run to talk about education, and then you're sitting there on the Ag Committee thinking, "This isn't This isn't what I what I came here for." But they are learning as they go, and in in my role, I'm learning with them. I'm learning about them and trying to to build a relationship. I don't I don't know this. I don't think we're going to see I don't know what happens during the elections. I don't think we're going to see anybody from the 5th and the 11th not run moving forward. The two senators don't have to run this year. So, it'd be the four House members. So, I don't I think we're going to see all of them run again, presumably coming back next year. That certainly helps the continuity. You know, working with the the the you all, working with the city, it helps to have those members returning. Thank you very much. Thank you both of you. At this time, I would like to Thank you for great presentation, by the way, and thank you for your heavy lifting job that you have been doing during this session. At this time, I will go open the floor for comments or concerns or questions. Council Member McKerrow? Yes, thank you. Just on the looking ahead, you mentioned obviously this was a year for transportation. The the one that's the idea has been floated in the past, I know it's maybe too early to say, do we expect road usage charge to be coming back in 2027? I'm looking at gas prices right now and thinking a lot of people will be switching to EVs if things stay the same. I think there's need to be a push for that, um especially from the house chair, uh transportation chair. Uh it's it's an area that he has been uh uh uh chair five has been focused on for for some time, and so I think uh yes, it will be back. Uh yes, it will be discussed. Whether or not it passes, don't know. Um but it it it'll definitely come back, and I think they'll be looking for other um options uh for the very reasons you just stated. Uh gas prices are high, uh really high right now. Washington, for whatever reason, has uh generally has a an extremely high one, and it's not because of the gas tax, because um that's static. Uh so, um I think there'll be other uh things looked at as well, in addition to the road usage uh the road the road usage charge usage charge. Council member um Bat. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Um I have a question regarding the interim work. Do you envision um as a council we meet with some of the legislators, or is it kind of your vision is just us connecting with them individually or both? To kind of help speed you the process in terms of preparing for next session. I I would say from from my perspective, um I would say all the above. Um if there's opportunities to meet individually as as in your roles um as council members working with the legislators, that's fantastic. If there's some things that we look at maybe putting together um uh some some type of I don't know what, let's call it a city tour for lack of a better term, where there's a collective um coming together to talk about some of the um great work that's going on here in the city. Uh I think that works, too. I don't think it works if we wait until January, February to have that initial conversation. So, the more we can talk to them well in advance of the legislative session and let legislators know what is working in in the city of Renton and maybe what is not, the better off we'll be. Councilmember Thank you very much. Um can you help me understand the the um 75-year bonding authority for Sound Transit and what what what what is the impact? Does that Does that mean that they cannot bond? No. I can Yeah. This issue was again not not directly related to Renton. More so wanted to include it as we see the conversation with Sound Transit unfold over the next month. That was related to a new federal authority creating for lack of a better way to put it the ability for organizations to take advantage of 75-year bonds. Does require in Sound Transit's case state authorization to do so and so they were asking the state to give them that authority to issue 75-year bonds. They can still bond in their normal capacity. This was an extended lifespan almost to help alleviate some of their financial pressures, but ultimately was not successful this year. And I think that was up to It didn't have to be 75 years, but it gave the the again flexibility for Sound Transit to look at that option above between 30 and 75. Okay. Any more questions for council? Um I will talk a little bit on the transportation area. Um I'm very frustrated. One of the issues with this um because I think um they're moving very house very fast on the housing approach, which is a crisis and I understand that why, but there are communities that we don't have the proper public transportation that is needed for fulfill all these housing demands. So, one thing is not going with the hand with the other one. They are They are making a lot of changes very fast for communities to grow housing as fast as we can, but at the same time they are very preemptive about the transportation or the you the infrastructure for the same. So, people are very frustrated frustrated for the same case because they're not putting the same effort or money behind what is uh a public transportation for cities like ours that is very limited. We don't even Sound Transit for us is just like a in theory a service that we receive, but it's non-existent in Renton. So, adding my money more money to the Sound Transit, what I understand regionally the advantage for that is very frustrating for the for the taxpayers in Renton to keep funding something that we don't see and we don't see a future on. So, transportation is very frustrating and has been very frustrating and I know that that uh representative five is five five, right? is is doing a lot of work, but uh but when we ask and and go and ask for the bare minimum that we need to recollect money for four or five, the answer is not. They don't add it, uh which I think is the bare minimum that we're asking in the city of Renton for that. So, anyway, I hope that next year uh uh we can come back with with different projects and tagging along on what Councilmember Rivera said about touring um some of the legislators. You will assume that because some of them live in the same city that they will face uh they will hear the same people about the concerns. I'm very concerned about um the urban camping bill, not because it should not happen, but I think it should be very realistic of what we're doing locally in Renton. Because uh if we're looking already to create a shelter, we're already to create a resource center, um how this bill can impact and at what level of cities like us that we are already very proactive doing something. I understand that this bill is intended for all the cities that are doing absolutely nothing. But for us, if we're going to have legislators that are going to cosign this bill, I think they need to have the voice very clear about not damaging and affecting the cities like ours that we're already doing something about it. Because again, if it's as punitive as it has been, it will terrible damage our our new resource center or the planning of the future for for for us as a city to to provide more services. So, I hope that we can if not tour them around encampments, at least tour them around the vision of the resource center, about the new shelter, and about around the people that that very human wants to help them, but at the same time they we need to make sure that they are not camping in public spaces for quality of life purposes. So, probably I don't know how we can start that conversation. And as I say, if a tour is needed, but more than happy because because even though you think that they understand, they maybe don't. Maybe they don't. So. Well said. And the thing I would just say to answer that last part is we're excited. They were, you know, as David mentioned, uh fought very hard for us to get funding for that project this year. Um and and very grateful that they did so. And so, we're excited to get them uh into city hall to start talking more about that, showing them the vision in greater depth uh because it really resonated with them um understanding the vision and the the mission behind that project and what we're trying to achieve here. And so, looking forward to future opportunities to keep telling our story. More questions or concerns? Everything okay? Great. Guys, you did a great job as always, you, Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good evening. You too. Um now we're going to our next presentation is going to be Legacy Legacy Square Art and it's Amanda Free and Jessica Tanski. I'm not a friend tonight, too. Okay, good. Welcome. As I was saying that my name is Amanda Free, Academic Development Director. I just want to thank you for this opportunity to be in front of you this evening on the Legacy Square. We've been on this art journey and we wanted to share the process and kind of the preliminary drawings with you just to give some feedback get your feedback on it before we make the final decisions. So, I'll turn it over to Jessica. Just to give you kind of a quick recap of how we got to where we're at now. We did do a very competitive request for qualifications for both of the projects at Legacy Square that are in this current phase one of the public art program at Legacy. This was all based off of the art plan that was put together by a consultant team that we hired last year and independently the two Oh, sorry. Let me go back two seconds. The reason we are here tonight is that we do have a little bit of an urgency in timeline. As you know, Legacy Square is quickly moving as we are approaching our June 6th opening day in time for the World Cup activities. And so, we are here tonight because we are trying to collect as best we can some feedback so that our artists have the opportunity to work to put together a final concept for review potentially at next week's council meeting so that the designs can be approved so we can move forward with a tentative start date on May the 11th so that the artists have time to complete the work by that June 6th date. So, Urban Artworks was the team that was selected independently for both projects. They submitted two separate proposals for both the stage doors and groundwork art and the wall on the church building that is the backdrop for Legacy Square. They If you're not familiar with Urban ArtWorks, they are a non-profit arts organization that works from full-service project management from concept install to coordination and maintenance and beyond. So, for the two projects, they have selected and submitted proposals for two separate artists. Nikita Aries is the artist that was selected for the wall mural, and Toko Valu is the individual who was selected for the stage doors and the ground floor art. So, I'm happy to present here today Alex Nason. She is the project director for Urban ArtWorks, and I'd like for her to present just kind of the concepts and the ideas that have been presented by our two artists, starting with Toko Valu. Well, thank you, Jessie, for that wonderful introduction, and thank you for having us here this evening. It's an honor and a pleasure. I'm really excited to share our concepts in development with you. Um the first concept by Toko Valu is for the stage doors. Um and his concept is um the dual direction Yeah. Yeah, good to look at it. Um the It has been said or he said that the um I'm I'm already butchering his description, but that the Black River um at times has gone in two different directions at the same time and is um known as Mock Slip Push in Chinook, and he um visually described the dual direction of this river uh with the two serpents that you see here. So, that is the narrative behind um Toko's work for the screen doors. And um Sorry. Jesse, screen doors. Explain to me what are the screen doors? Literally they screen that we have. The the stage actually has two sets of doors. One that blocks the LED screen and then another that actually closes the screen or the stage at night. So, this is the outer doors that will close the stage. Thank you. And ultimately I don't know if this I mean, just so you can envision it, but they're they're big doors. They're like 19 ft by 35 ft and it will be adhesive vinyl on these doors that kind of open and close like a a screen up to protect the stage. Um and I will say we've had the pleasure of working with Toka at Urban Artworks um as well as Nikita. Um Nikita is an artist I've really enjoyed working with on a number of projects uh in my time at Urban Artworks and Nikita's work is known for bright colors, kind of this celebratory vibe, um a lot of movement, a lot of play. So, when we saw the opportunity for the large wall um adjacent to the screen or to the stage um on the side of the church facing the square, uh Nikita was a clear choice for our proposal. Um So, here is the design in uh development. So, this is certainly a work in progress. Uh you'll see a serpent that is moving through the water um on a typical day of Seattle rain combined with Nikita's signature style, which is as I said, colorful and playful. And at this point in time, I think our main our main goals are to ensure that the artwork uh feels cohesive and aligned for the project goals while staying on track to feasibly be produced and installed by grand opening on June 6th. So, the main questions here are how are these designs um speaking to and about the place that they're in, the people of Renton, and to each other. So, we are hoping for your uh we're presenting this for your feedback um as Jesse said, so we can go back to the artists um and give them the clearest direction as their next step forward. Mr. President. Um yeah, thank you very much. I was thinking that you were going to say something else. Thank you. Thank you so much for such a great presentation. This is really exciting and I love how beautiful the artistry is. Um I noticed in the beginning slide you're trying to tell a story. I think um the beginning slide was specifically saying that you're um to uh create a cohesive visual story reflecting Renton's identity aligned with the art plan. What story are we trying to tell? So, the the art plan was done through a lot of community outreach to figure out from the community what they wanted to see in the space. So, the artist team that was selected to put together the plan conducted a lot of interviews. They did the crest building, if anybody remembers that activity, trying to engage with the community about what represents Renton and what they wanted to see in the space. So, the plan itself identified a lot of common themes that people responded with, and those tended to veer towards the motion, as Alex mentioned, this idea of play and movement and activity, uh not necessarily soccer themed, but just this idea of let's all come together and have a space where we can be active together. Uh we also saw a number of crests that were dragon themed, hence the serpents and the dragons that I think the artists are really calling out. Uh but truly the the the plan was intended to figure out what what the community thought Renton was and how we could capture that visually in this space. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um So, I have two comments actually. Um the first is um actually three. Um the two serpents, I love the soccer scarf in the background. I think that's very clever. Um but my concern is that if this is the outward-facing stage door art, um to me just just on the surface, it feels a bit aggressive. And um I mean, it's beautiful, but this is going to be seen all the time when the stage is not in use, right? Yeah. So, um I'm I'm also concerned that um it's right across the street from a preschool, which have we talked to them about how the children might react to seeing this? I mean, and just it's just uh these are just vague concerns. Um and then um my other comment, if I may, is that the two of these side by side so side by side is it feels like it distracts from both of them. To me. I'm I'm just talking off the top of my head. Instead of, you know, focusing on one and going, "Wow, that's awesome." And then you go and look over here and go, "Oh, wow, that's also awesome." They're kind of like together. So, anyway, that's all I have. Thank you. Also, remember uh Albert's Uh okay. So, um so, feedback. I'll just give you feedback. Um and and I'm glad you said the part about the community input because as I was looking at this and as you're talking about it, I was thinking, "Okay, what's with all the serpents?" I understand writtenness and we have Erasmus and the dragon and all that kind of good stuff. Um I don't know if we have some kind of link to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or something, but it's serpent-heavy for me, first off. I'll say that much. They're both quite pretty, beautiful, and all that kind of good stuff. As far as it telling the story of this space, totally disconnects for me. Um I think first I think that the kids will you know kids fantasize, "Ooh, pretty dragons." All that kind of good stuff. I'm I That's not my whole thing. I think it's just Rittenhouse more than than this. And this if this is supposed to be I don't know this this centerpiece of, you know, downtown and what the the Legacy Square and you got the piazza the whole thing, I I don't know. I mean, if if nothing else, I mean, one serpent, but not two. And I you know, I don't know if it's about taking it away, but um you there's there's there's there's there's more to me to Rittenhouse than just this. So, I'm just curious what the rest of the community, I mean, they didn't say anything about aerospace or planes or the wizards of the I mean, just this seems very I'm just serpent-heavy. You know, that that's just the one thing that comes to mind. I don't know if it's too late to change gears at all, uh but I'm you know, and of course art is in the eye of the beholder. And once again, good art. I just don't know if this is the place for both of them Um um as they are. My opinion. >> Thank you. Oh. And you go. Thank you. Um It it's all it comes to present it comes to Albert Sun. I I I hope that it's not too late because I think it's important the council opinion all the time. So, if it's too late, they should not bring it late to the council, right? So, I hope that this is not too late because you should have come to the council previous if it's already too late. I was not going to give an opinion because obviously, as they say, art is in the eye of the beholder and I'm very minimalistic. So, you can imagine for me it's like a little bit of I don't really like the first one, but I agree with the comments of the identity of the city. For me, it's a lot very multicultural city that has a lot of to to to offer, but and the serpents don't talk to me, but it's beautiful. Don't take me wrong. The first one I really love it. As an as a and I didn't see the scarf at all at all, to be honest with And then you didn't even you didn't even see that word is serpents. I thought that were in dragons. So, who the heck know how to mush I know, right? But I love the colors. I love the I I really like it. But my biggest concern with the same one as say one next to the other one, how they they're going to look, especially, you know, you want the opinion of everybody that is has different voices. So, again, I am a minimalistic. So, I'm thinking how too much color from both the other one one is going to steal the one from the other one because the way I see it is both of them together. Maybe I'm wrong, right? I'm a very visual person. I like the first one. The second, I don't feel it at all. Uh but again, it's not my voice. It's your real one and opinion, right? So, I'm giving my brutal honest opinion based on someone that has nothing on the walls of her house because especially I'm I'm minimalistic. So, um so so, great work. I love the fact that you guys go out to the community to to to visit with this artist, to bring the input. All of that I think is a great job, well done. But I do feel that Renton is more than more than that. And what is our identity? We are moving towards our identity, right? I mean, we are um in the age of aerospace, then we have moved forward to different stages of what is Renton. But But again, the first one I do like it. I really like it. I mean, doesn't it speak me Renton? I mean, I don't see it and say, "Oh my god, this is Renton." But as as a something that is modern, something that add color and all of that, I do like it. Okay. Uh Councilmember Rivera. I I'm not a minimalist. My house is full of color, lots of bright color. I've always had a thing for artists, as my spouse may tell you. I've had a type. I enjoy the artist community very much. I have a lot of friends in the artist community. When I look at this first one that we pulled up, which is the two serpents that were supposed to kind of mimic the Green River, I love this. I don't see aggression at all, and I think that's actually a little culturally deaf to actually say about a piece of artwork by a person of color is what triggered for me when that was stated. You can laugh all you want. That was my own personal take from it. I see two people playing. I see two creatures playing. I see a lot of bright fun color. I don't see something that children are going to be scared of. Um I actually love it. I think it's a really beautiful piece. I think it's going to be a lot of fun on the front doors. I I'm excited for something that actually looks really um festive. And when I look up I've looked at the story of Aramis cuz I went to a Dragon Days, which was fabulous, by the way. And here, you know, originally in 2016, by the way, in our commission, it symbolized this dragon symbolized the strength, wisdom, protection, imagination, reflecting Renton's connection to storytelling traditions and role hub for gaming. I also got into Dungeons and Dragons this year because we are home to Wizard of the Coast and that's where the dragons actually originate and a lot of the uniqueness here in Renton. I like the serpent heaviness personally. I'm going to disagree with my what was has been said on the dies so far. I'm sure the artist will figure out a way to work together since they both come from the same agency. Urban Artworks does incredible work with Justin involved you so I really appreciate that they were actually chosen for this particular thing but I know that this was just kind of a rough draft. Um but I'm not as concerned as my council colleagues. I don't want you to like kind of be sitting there like, "Oh my gosh." I actually really like the layout for these ideas and what we have in store and I think it's actually better for us to be moving away from aerospace and Boeing especially with some of the connotations of all of that uh politically and also just socially. I think it's more fun to look at maybe the cultural traditions and it also reminds me and I would love to hear from council member Van on this one particularly cuz it does kind of remind me um this first one of maybe some of the artwork I would see in the International District of some of the artwork I would see um speaking to some of our other cultural communities but those are not communities of mine. So I kind of want to bounce off Council member Van if possible. Uh Council member Rubalcaba for a second I'll go with Council member Rubalcaba to request to speak but before that I have to clarify something. This is not that we disagree. These are different voices which is what you want to hear. It's not that we are saying we like some like them, some didn't like them. This is just the council expressing individually which is what we want because our community is so diverse in so many levels that everybody's going to have a different voice and different perspective of what is this. Uh Council member member member Rubalcaba. Thank you very much. Uh yeah, up here with the amount a group of art critics had no idea so um I I like both of them. I had the same question kind of pop up too. Uh I guess the first thing that popped up was more um maybe this is more of the question. Um I I know we had a different vision originally and I'm thinking particularly about the wall because it had uh the way the surface is not completely flat. If this piece works with that one, I mean, and again, I'm not an expert on that as far as I know we talked about like more scarves and stuff like that. I like the theme. I like the tying it back to the Black River. I think that makes a lot of sense. I guess maybe seeing a mock-up of them side by side would help me decide if if they clash or went together or not, but I mean, I don't hate it. I I think a lot of times you just have to like look at it to appreciate it and understand it, and if it's going in a different direction than maybe I had originally thought. Maybe this is the more that the reaction I had originally, but doesn't mean I don't like it. Any more questions or comments? Councilmember Jan? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Can you hear me? Um yeah, I um well, I'll start with saying the vibrancy. I think it's very beautiful. It's There's a lot of motion. So, I'll start with the serpent. I haven't read it or interviewed it, but I think that um energy is there. Uh if we end up taking out one serpent or one dragon, I would recommend in terms of functionality um probably to have two. Um the combination of the uh the different colors is is beautiful. I don't think kids uh having had two kids who have gone to the bilingual Chinese bilingual school there, um they are very much going to be loving the colors. Um but I would like to add, if possible, I'm not an artist, uh perhaps language in there with the motion, if we can do that. Um like a phrase to welcome folks, like, you know, in in different languages, if possible. Um I like the theme of more dragons than serpents, um as the uh Vietnamese people actually are known as the children of dragons, but uh serpent is fine with me. There's just got to be a balance of uh the the fun shredding and I I see that. Well, for clarity purpose though, we're going to have the fish and the the serpent or just one? Cuz the fish is just kind of the first page. No, that's the cuz the the example of the art >> Example of the art. Okay, so the actual Oh, that is just an example of of Toka's work. Um but fish have come up. I think what's arisen through this process that and thank you all for your feedback. It's important. That's why we're here. Uh because we have a lot of stakeholders who have a lot of feedback and we want to give clear direction to the artist on their next step and it felt important to come before you and get your feedback and before doing that and finalizing the design, you know, and not everyone's feedback is going to be heard or reflected in the mirror, but we take it all into account. Um you know, so something that this mirror has evolved from a much more abstract design. Like Nikita's work is very abstract. That's something I love about it personally. And I think personally and part of the reason why we're working with Nikita on this project is the celebratory nature of her work really lends itself to the type of event and vibe like we're vibe, but you know, like atmosphere we're creating in the square even if we're not being very specific about the World Cup, right? And also I can appreciate why something super abstract might not feel like it represents or speaks to Renton and needs to be a little more specific. At the same time, we're balancing honoring Nikita's style as an artist, you know, and and our jobs here early on the process is taking into account feedback, but not like being hyper prescriptive with Nikita and telling like kind of forcing her hand to do something that she doesn't want to do or that doesn't make sense, but how can we marry um the vision of the community, the feedback of the community, and really feel this make it as representative to Renton as possible, and honor Nikita's style. So, all I know we are limited on time, and I won't keep going, but I will say that um something that has arisen with the did like the theme of the river and the riverbed has been um kind of an like come come up a lot, and also the idea of maybe taking the wall and going in the direction of fish or something fish with the river and some other things, and um so, that that's something we were kind of considering as a next round option, but I do appreciate your your insight on that. No, thank you. And and in fact, I have to like make it even the a moment. I was just commenting that in in a meeting uh last week that um you know, sometimes you get to Seattle, for example, that have very intentional, put a lot of heart on the wall, and you are in a parking lot, and you see the wall, and say, "Wow." I mean, you go you say, "Wow factor, right?" Um but if you go from the first stages, when you see it like this, but maybe you will never think that it's going to be a wow factor, right? So, for me again, um it everybody's going to react different to the paint of the art. For me, it's about quality more than anything else, that looks good, that brings more to the city, um that brings more to the city. He's reminding me that my meeting's supposed to finish What time is it? It's like 7:02. Oh my gosh, I didn't realize that. I'm going to wrap up. Everybody else, the email of your questions. I don't know why I'm I was I was really tired. I normally leave plenty of time. I got to see him telling me that 7:00 minutes. Thank you so much for your presentation. Council members will email their questions. This meeting's adjourned, and then