Sunnyside, Washington

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Hey, Joseph. >> Hey, actor. Can you hear me? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. >> So, I'm not quite sure. I know I got some email that Juan said he was going to be able to make it. >> He wasn't. He was he was to my knowledge. >> Um and then >> Ki was going to be on on Zoom when she transferred. >> Was that good with Cor? >> That would one two three. Yes. That would be four. Yep. So I think we're just waiting on two more people and then uh then we'll go from there. >> Sounds good. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I know I said I really like >> No, no, no. I'm also very deaf right now because I'm fighting all kinds although I'm not contagious anymore. So >> ask last time I had notes I'd spoken with some high school teachers but then they had before England signed on they had more clarification on what specifically >> they would be a part of. So, you know, that's that's a probably actually a really good question for Joseph because I know that as many areas of focus I would like to see coming through the climate resiliency committee um um we're so stuck on um their efforts. >> Okay. >> With the um >> the grant >> the survey and the grant. >> Yeah. and and eventually, I don't know, Joseph, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that isn't that eventually supposed to lead up to like some funding available to fund some project coming out of this this group? >> Yeah. So, the excuse [clears throat] me, the total grant allocated to the city um and I think it's through like the 2027 2029 bianium is 150,000. this effort to develop the climate element is like 82,000. >> So that leaves you know the remainder for um implementation once the plan's adopted >> assuming funding availability. They've been pushing out a lot of um calls for projects and matter of fact they they did one earlier this year uh to try to get some of that climate money spent but since we didn't have the plan in place couldn't uh implement something that wasn't you know in existence yet. >> Yeah. I just remember some sort of presentation done by your colleague um I can't remember her name. Um, >> oh, Stephanie. >> Yeah. Um, around some monies being available to down from the group decided on a specific project. >> Yeah, it's to implement, you know, things that are identified in the climate element itself. So, >> yeah, >> I don't know. Well, I'll ask a little bit more in pro just because I I contacted a bunch of home school teachers and it was just more like a lot more willing to and open like helping in some way. They just I couldn't give them specifics as to what that would look like and they like >> direction before they commit to anything. So, and last time on Zoom those things I didn't quite hear very well. So, it's like in person this time. >> All right. So, we'll give it a couple more minutes. Um, whoa. believe we have a form now. We may start. Thank you. All right, >> vice chair. I guess I could challenge customizing service on that. Okay. Um, >> you believe Zoom, huh? >> No, she's something came up for her. I wasn't quite sure. So, um, all right. So, it is you may be J. >> Okay. >> So, I just have a question because I know that you're the noteaker, right? >> Yes. >> U, is this roll call right here for the last meeting that we had? >> Yes. >> Okay. And that's why I have on that remove u >> but it also shows that absent >> sorry I'm sorry I think there was one where I did get back to you that was be >> okay I will get that correct >> it shows me is absent too >> I'm glad I did that >> but I got I got happy with the active so >> but the next meeting is different too the meeting. It says next meeting 2025. >> Oh, >> so it should be in the 19th which is day. Yeah. >> Oh yeah, the 19th. >> And then 2026. >> I will make sure to get those corrected. Perfect. >> Um so let's see. So let's start with follow. Um Julia's asset. >> Yep. I am present. You're present. Hector Cody is present. Karen is present. Is present. And the other newly um appointed member is >> Yes. >> So she um so she >> Okay, we're not going to get into we're going through roll call. >> Point of order. Point of order. We're going through roll call and we will save questions for later. >> So Kathy Alvarez. >> Yes. Um I'm not sure what our there any violence to this committee but do we give any a specific amount of time before somebody >> if if someone would like to make a motion to uh excuse and wait till the end to um allow her to show up on Zoom. >> Um then we are able to see that. if you want to wait till the end to do that or >> let's go ahead and wait till the end to do that. >> Okay. So, >> um All right. So, let's take a look at the agenda. Um all in Is there a motion to accept the agenda as is? >> I make a motion to accept the agenda. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I Any opposed? Okay. And I'm sorry about the minutes. It was rolled right over the minutes. Any questions about or discussion around the minutes? Any corrections that need to be made? We just went through a little list of corrections for the minutes. >> Um, >> I have a question. >> Who is the new person on the committee and how they get appointed and how we don't know anything about that? >> So, can you go ahead and review the the last council meeting or they the mayor goes over that? >> Was the mayor appointed the person? the council appoints the person and it's done at a regular public city council meeting. >> Okay. Any other questions about the minutes itself? And if there are no other questions or discussion, um, can we make a motion to accept the minutes? >> I have another question with edits. Actually, how do in the past you always ask if they're excused or unexcused? And then we're not doing that this week. >> We are. We're going to wait till the end. I just >> So, we're going to review everybody that's not here whether they should be excused or unexcused. >> Yes, that'll give her time to join via Zoom. She did send me an email saying she was going to uh come in on Zoom. >> So, that will give her time. And I'm not sure what her schedule is. I think she's a teacher or >> um something. She works for the one of the school district. >> Yeah, she works for various school districts and it through say the the children. >> Okay. Yes. >> So yeah, that'll give her some time and then we go uh at the end. >> Um All right. Okay. So do I have a motion to accept the minutes with amendments? >> I make a motion to accept the minutes with amendments. >> All those in favor? I posted this pass. Okay. The active agenda. Review the document from the workbook. So, Joseph, this is going to be you. >> All right. I'll um since I'm online, I'll go ahead and share my screen. Okay. Okay. Is everyone seeing the climate workbook page? >> Yes. >> All right. [clears throat] Um, we kind of went through a high overview of this at the last meeting, but this is the first step in the vulnerability assessment. So, it's a climate element workbook tasks 3.1 to 3.3 assessments. Can I can I interrupt you just to just I'm really hard of hearing today because I'm getting over bronchitis and so I can't hear very well at all. >> Did you I hate to disturb other people the volume? >> Yeah, I can I can speak louder if that helps. I'm using like a ear that's not coming through. Um [clears throat] so the uh vulnerability assessment assessing sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Um this is where we look at the different asset hazard pairs and then review the sensitivity, adaptive capacity and vulnerability of those items. Uh so to take the first example, a production, packing and distribution or the drought hazard as it relates to agriculture and food systems. We've got high rankings across the board. Um as we discussed at the last meeting, u the uh initial hazard mitigation plan um we it was actually a medium, but we we changed it to high due to the um drought designation for the year. Um so each of these asset hazard pairs has its own um additional information that we pulled from to develop the rankings. Uh we pulled from different documents such as the water system plan, the existing comp plan, looked at census data. Um kind of the the net result of this effort is all of the combination hazard pairs that have a high vulnerability ranking move on to the kind of round two of the vulnerability assessment. Um with the exception of just a few of the asset hazard pairs, they're all either a medium or a high. Um so that means we'll we'll review them further and the the final result of that effort will be developing applicable goals and policies kind of around the the vulnerabil the identified vulnerabilities. Um so I the way I have got these grouped is kind of is by the um specific sectors. So we start with the A and food system sectors uh as they relate to drought and extreme heat. We've got a uh high ranking for drought, medium for extreme heat. Buildings and energy is the are the are the next uh sector pairs. We've got an extreme heat and a wildfire designation. Again, these are the identified hazards pulled from the UDub climate mapping software. Um those those both have uh medium and high rankings as well. The economic development sector um similarly has a uh a medium designation. So that will move forward. Um the first low uh ranking is as it relates to uh parks and open open space and wildfire. And this isn't to suggest that that wildfire is necessarily a low ranking. It's just as it relates to things like a parks and recreation open space. You know, generally those are areas that are irrigated um that have uh facilities in place to be able to combat something like a wildfire. Um emergency management uh fire and police stations and and how everything hazard related relates to those is is high across the board. So um you know identifying goals and policies related to emergency management would be part of the ongoing process. Health and well-being has a a medium ranking. Uh this one, you know, depending on different metrics, it could probably go medium or high. The net result is again we'll be moving this one forward to the next um next stage in the vulnerability assessment. Transportation is where there's a lot of low rankings. And again, that's not to suggest that um hazards won't impact transportation, but it's really more of an acknowledgement that there's already really good process and procedure and policies in place regarding transportation and how, you know, how roads are are built, how they're designed. um things like storm water uh from extreme precipitation events is is covered under the Eastern Washington storm water manual. Um the the type of materials that are used in the construction of streets are u relevant to the climate in this area. So all of the transportation components have a a low ranking. Waste management is the next one that's got um high ranking for uh vulnerability. And one of the [clears throat] things with waste management as it relates to specifically wildfire but other hazards as well is just the ability to remove things like debris um in the event of a hazard. Um, let's see. Actually, I just see this one like this. Um, water resources, um, drought and wildfire have high, uh, rankings. Those will move forward in the assessment. The the final um sector is zoning and development and you know similar to like build the buildings and energy component um precipitation and wildfire concerns with this and uh those ones will be moving through the process as well. Um so that's I know I went through all that really quickly. It's a lot of information. Um, as I kind of mentioned at the top, the net result of this is is that these will be moving uh into the next assessment, which I'll click over to that page. Um, this one isn't completed all the way yet. that we saw are doing a little bit of tweaking, but basically the way this one is laid out and the the state in providing this document included a couple of examples kind of how other cities have looked at this. It kind it it takes um a probability and magnitude assessment to determine whether the city would take action or accept risk. Um so we you know started looking at this um you know and again needs to be uh further updated. The drought definitely needs to be labeled as high. Um so some of this we'll have to update but the basically everything that is take action in this far right column is where we will want to ensure that there is a goal andor a policy associated to address whatever the um you know the probability and indicators show. So, uh this will be the the final updates to this will be the subject of our um the next meeting and then the development of goals and policies from there will um kind of be not the last meeting but you know give us enough direction to finalize the initial draft of the climate element. So, I'll uh I can't really see if anyone was raising their hand or had questions on this. I'm going to unshare my screen. I can pull it back up if I need to. But is there any anything that jumped out as as things you want us to look into further or things you want modified? Um happy to make any changes that you'd like to see. As far as as far as the well like the number one which is we need site needs another well and you have to buy a water ride and that's in the plan like you have it all it's all rated high so then you're going to re-evaluate it or what what what's the next step on that because that's pretty significant >> like >> but what do you do then >> I don't know that I understand what your question is >> where you said it's all it's all rated high so then you will reconsider it again or you put it in the plan again or what what do you do next with that? >> Things that are rated medium or high that then warrant a a take action step on the vulnerability assessment then those will translate into new goals and policies. So >> okay, >> a a new goal to you know explore the possibility or explore locations for a new well obtain you know so all all that information will be developed into goals and policies which you know for something like that would uh you know the idea is that it would be a a good indicator for for grant funding in the future. you know, DWSRF, drinking water state revolving funds, you know, they they fund a lot of that type of those types of projects. Having a kind of a supplemental or a a component goal or policy in the climate element should help further, you know, those efforts to to get funding for those big ticket items like a well. So the the only one I had a question on or I guess I wanted to add uh I think the number nine the transportation infrastructure during extreme heat. We have it all on low. Is there any way that we can move it higher on the list just because our town is growing substantially? Um, we have a potential of having a facility coming in that's going to incorporate over 150 uh about 140 uh semi-truckss a day to our to our already um damaged, you know, aged roads, you know. Um it kind of also falls under the extreme precipitation or >> precipitation. Yeah. Um the reason being is where one of these projects is scheduled to be installed, there is no curb, sidewalk, um storm drains, anything. So all that runoff is going to go right into that that that facility or the property on on that facility. Um >> yeah, those are good points and and yeah, we can we can definitely bump those up, you know, based on that additional local knowledge similar to, you know, with the drought designation that we talked about at the last meeting, you know, >> increasing that. >> Yeah, >> I'm sure in their planning they're they have mitigated um efforts going on or they will be, but I just want to make sure we include them in here in in in our plan so they they don't get passed by. And then we have this road with extreme traffic. Um, and it just falls through the cracks. >> I got that flagged >> and I'll I'll update that accordingly. [clears throat] >> Maybe that's the one. That's the only one I that that I saw that uh you could potentially change. All the all the other ones seem fine to me. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Or one quick question. Is there is there a way or is that not part of this is to designate that particular road a truck route? >> Yeah, that's that's not really the purview of this effort, but [laughter] it is, >> you know, there's >> yeah, there's a a process that the city can can go through. Um, I think it's it's either with uh YVC Cog and or with WASHDOT to kind of designate those those truck routes, those freight routes. There is, excuse [clears throat] me, there is a uh a state freight mobility network that they are they have mapped out and we've got we've actually got some localized maps um for the transportation element of the comp plan. I can see if I can get that pulled up here. >> Yeah. So, just give me a second. I can find that document. Okay. So this is are you see in the map? >> Yes. >> Okay. So this is the this is from the Washington State Department is transportation freight data freights and goods transportation system data set. Um the the T1 T2 T3 those are the transportation you know freight designations T1 being the the highest uh capacity or or highest usage I guess. Uh you see I 82 is a T1. See if I can zoom in a little bit. And then so we've got mostly within city limits. It looks like we've got YVH is a T3 T4 here. Is that >> north? Um I think the one that he's speaking of it's a T2. Yeah. Yeah. and T2 or is it a team five? >> I think it's T5. >> Team five is a green one down. Yeah. >> Yeah. Right there. >> Yeah. >> Right above your hand. >> Yeah. So, >> yeah. >> The yellow I think is a T2. >> T2 T5 >> or T. Yellow is T3. >> Green is T5. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, so between uh exit 69 and exit what's the other one? 67. 67. I mean that those two intersections will be used substantially with the the dairy goal that's there, the LTI, and if that new facility does manage to come in, I mean, that's going to be uh a lot of traffic on that, you know, [clears throat] two, three mile stretch of road. The Sunnyside Mapton Highway has that four-way stop. Getting off of exit 60,000 is very difficult too for trucks because there's so much traffic on that road right now. You have to sit there a long time. It's pretty dangerous. >> Is that where the roundabout is going, Hector? Or is that 69? >> 69. >> 69. 69. >> 69. But 67 >> 67 is where the new McDonald's. And there's more there's a lot more activity going on there to get off the freeway. >> Getting off the freeway from the east, not the west, it's the east. It's along that people. >> Oh, right by >> Yeah. Especially with Especially with trucks. I mean, it's really You sit there a long time and then it's dangerous, too. And that's might be something I can bring up to my kaya for the future. See what we can do. >> If they come out 69, if they they could come off 69 and they go down. >> Yeah. Down and back. >> Yeah. >> But they're going to be a hard a hard right. >> Yeah. >> On semi to do >> on the intersection being for two two semi. >> Yeah. learn possible money. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's something I said I can work with one of the clubs and see what we can do and is there any grant coming out there. >> Yeah. >> On that >> just maybe look at it a little study on it. >> Yeah. >> It's coming. I know um you know Wycog does traffic counts and they have kind of their annual traffic count program. So >> yeah, >> as as new construction occurs, um you know, that would be a good opportunity to get some updated counts, you know, once once the facilities you mentioned, Juan, you know, that are that are slated to happen or possibly happen. um you know once things are up and running to get some some new traffic counters and and then that should help spur uh likely an increase to those freight designations as well. >> Okay. >> Which then >> that that o opens the door for additional funding the the higher the the freight number those T1s and T2s. >> Okay. Also South Emerald if they're going to make a left there. So if they're coming on Midville going south and they're going to turn left on South Emerald that meets Allen, that's going to be a mess, too, because that is just a caution light. So it's been a lot of ruckser over the years, >> but it's going to, you know. Okay. >> Can we just get back to the agenda item in reviewing the documents or are we is there any other discussion on the document itself? >> Not for me. I've got um I've got some highlighted things here based on one's comments and then we'll we'll translate everything over to finalizing that second part of the vulnerability assessment and start putting some draft goals and policies together to address those items. >> Right. So more discussion about the workbook itself. I'll move on to choosing a date for staff to put on the city website to have citizens work with submit a questionnaire. >> So um with the questionnaire I know I done it to everybody. Um we just need to make sure that we are getting it out there. Um I know I want to make some copies, put them up front, put them on in the planning side. Um, we just need to choose a date where I can put it on the website stating, "Hey, if you don't have access to a computer and you want to answer this questionnaire, please come to city hall planning site and uh myself and uh I have Lisa over there now and Omar that can help out u for uh the Spanish speaking uh residents and they can't or and anybody else can't get onto the computer, they can definitely come over there and we can answer the questions. submitted in there. >> I have a question around the survey will be live until May 29th. Is that is that true? >> It's states on there, but I think we're going to have it uh I think we're going to have it a little bit longer, aren we, Joseph? >> Yeah, I can up, you know, since since we kind of, you know, fell short on the um >> concept of getting it out in the mailings because that was going to cost, you know, so much money. Um, I mean there's not like a hard and fast end days just, you know, try to get responses. We could push it to mid June, end of June, you know, whatever you think would be. >> Can we review Can we review that date at the next meeting? Um, because I mean, in addition to that question with that live until May 29th, um, did Julia actually do any tableabling for the survey like she said she was going to do? She said she was going to be at the Mayday event, then she was going to be at Cinco de Mayo to have a table. Did any of that? >> I made copies. I wasn't sure. I know I wasn't able to make it. Um, I know I made it to the college. Um, but no one ever came and talked to me. So, >> um, but he says hello. So, other than that, um, I know that's that's about as much I haven't even had to contact her on those. Um, but I mean we have the date set up for uh the open house. If we need to switch it, I mean obviously we can. Um, just so we can have the live date longer. Um, that is something I believe we can do. Um, so if it is something I mean we can make a decision now. If you know if you want to move the date the open house we can certainly do that. Um, >> the date was the week >> 18th. >> 18th, correct? >> Okay. >> And we have our next climate resilience >> the 19th. >> The 19th. No, [clears throat] 16th or 23rd. >> Hector, we >> we actually discussed that. Yeah. I I unfortunately have a conflict on the 18th. >> Yes. I sent an email to everybody >> the next so the 25th if that works >> that gives us a little more time to you know keep the ser survey open as well and hopefully get some I I just looked on >> online and there's there haven't been any responses >> submitted to date >> okay so can we go ahead and do that and just extend it through to the next time that we meet and we can review like what the numbers are at that time >> and then I also want I have a question around what are you all doing to promote So, I am I'm trying I'm doing the best I can to get access to our um to our website so I can send it in there. I know we're going to be losing it who has the helpful and the access so trying to get him to give it to me prior to him leaving. Um other than that, you know, word of mouth. Um, like I said, I'm going to make copies and have have them on our side and city hall site so people can take one if they would like. Um, and then we >> Is there any way to do like one of those things? I know the school district does where they'll have like a popup when you load up the city's website. >> I believe that he's going to before he leaves. I'm hoping that he can show me how to do that. >> Okay. >> Um, that way I can get it on our website to pop up. Um, so >> and then how you tying it back to not having one person submit multiple surveys, you know, >> that is very difficult because I believe Well, I don't know. I mean, I I have to go on there myself to see if there's an email that has to be put on there prior to >> some kind of control have people pushing a certain agenda through >> and but you know, I'm not sure how that's going to go, but I that's something I can definitely look upon. Um because I you know >> I thought I thought Joe I thought you had something that you were doing. >> Was there is there something on the monkey? >> Yeah in in Survey Monkey once a survey is submitted it it doesn't give you like an IP address or anything but it you know you can look at an individual response and it'll say you know when it was started when it was finished that's about it. It doesn't unless people um you know because the demographic and contact information questions are optional and so you know unless someone was going in and putting their email in multiple times that's really the only way you'd be able to decipher that. >> We not then review the responses because I mean I feel like personally putting identifiers on it's going to limit the number of responses we get anyway, >> right? No one wants to do an email, especially when they're demanding I sign up for something. >> So, I mean, I'm more like I I think like if we're going to I would say personally not have forced identifiers other than name that and then we review them. I mean, I'm sure we can pop out and see when someone's typed the same message in a similar way 20 times if we really feel like that's >> Well, Joseph, you said no, no one has uh submitted one. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, I I think um Karen's statement is hypothetical. Um, it's not. >> Yes. Uh, >> stand across. >> Um, yes. A ser this this survey is just for information. And while I get what you're saying, you're trying to to push a narrative that simply it's it's uncalled for. You have no basis for it other than your personal opinion >> and our own personal agenda. >> Um, so >> that's all that's all I need to say. >> That was it. I just feel like there should be control people submitting surveys so you don't have the same person doing multiple surveys. There's every survey you >> obviously nobody's clamoring to take the survey. Nobody's clamoring to take the survey. Nobody wants to >> Nobody's got an agenda, you know, and and if >> I if people from Sunnyside, I mean, you know how hard it is going to get people to do even do the survey once, let alone multiple times? >> I mean, come on. Let's just be reasonable here. Um, obviously it's it's not even something that people are interested in yet, which is why I asked the question around the motion. >> And you have that's a great question. That's a great question. Um, like I said, I can I can do that and go from there. Um, obviously just need everybody's participation of getting it out there word of mouth. Um, and make clear, you know, like I said, if we set a date, that way I can, you know, I can have my personnel and myself over there. we can have that door open that come they can just walk right in, walk right back out. Um, so we just need to make sure that we have a date, confirmed date. Um, and then I can put it on the website and if [clears throat] anybody wants to stop by, they're more than welcome to. >> Are there any other um city um events that Julia might be able to volunteer if she's got some time? Because I I still don't know if she was at the mile like she said she would be. I >> I couldn't tell you. Um, I know there's uh El Fest that's coming up, but I I don't know how that's going to run. Uh, >> you're right. There's a bunch of knee braided people and I'm trying to talk to or we're trying to talk to people. Um, I >> you could have a survey there. Rotary sponsored function. >> Yeah, I could. >> And you could do survey, but it'd have to be, you know, just plain side residents because there's out of town people there. >> True. And and I think that's I think that's the hard part. mile too >> and try to you know ask for people and you know how people get when they're inebriated people are going to say no but here's my idea and you're here not >> yeah no but you know just just in general I mean I we call >> um I definitely you know we can we we can even set something up ourselves out here on you know I can grab a table and we can go outside and you know people want to stop by maybe put like a little poster you I can have my daughter or something make a post to say, "Hey, please stop by if you want to take a survey, you know, I'd be willing to do that." And that way we can as people drive by, you know, people catches their eye. >> Um, um, Joseph, I know that I've asked you this question probably multiple times and I continue to forget, but um, what is a good sample size for this survey? Would you consider to be a good sample size? >> I mean, to be honest, any response would be welcome. We've gone, you know, in the cities we've done this in, um, well, I can show you, well, I can just I've got it pulled up here. >> Um, we had, I mean, a scientific survey is is one thing, but that's, you know, really more like a direct mailer type of thing. >> So, in Zillow, we had 61 responses. In Clemum, we had 183. In Moxy, we had 28. In Tophenish, we had five. So, it's kind of all over the place. I think so. >> So, and like you said, it's about educating people um you know what we're what we're trying to succeed at the end of the day. Um and that's it. You know, that's that's just to educate people. Um and like I said, you know, there's there's thousands of ways we can educate everybody, but you know, it's the follow through that we all need to do. Um and like I said, myself, I'm willing to say I even put my daughter up there. in school and so she can be out there. >> Be a good school project. >> There you go. >> Why not? When will it be on the city's page? >> I'm doing the best I can >> because once it's there, then we can share it to like the Sunnyside pages >> and most of those have followings of a few thousand people. >> Yeah. >> I I will definitely make it a priority to get it hopefully done by Friday. Like I said, today's his last day, but I have the other IT guy that can help me out and um Jed's also one that can help me out, too. So, um I can definitely make it by Friday, hopefully. Okay. If everything goes as planned, um yeah, and then uh once it's out there, I can definitely send an email to our committee and then we can go. >> Joseph, what was >> for now? Do you want me to just Oh, sorry. For now, do you want me to just take off that sentence on, you know, it'll be live until X8, >> please? Yeah. And then >> just leave it open for now. I'll send you that, Hector. So, >> so what was the largest participation you had by any city? >> That was 163. >> It was Clemum. That was 183. But again, that was one where to get it into the [laughter] utility. Yeah, it was tiny. >> Try to beat them. >> What what's been interesting to see kind of across the different cities >> is um the responses that we got back were pretty well in line with, you know, our committee meeting discussions. >> And so that was pretty pretty neat to see. You know, even with lower responses, the discussion and the type of responses we got back was was similar to, you know, the conversations we've been having here. >> So, [clears throat] Okay. Well, um items from the committee members. >> Um like I said, just for me is uh just a date. If someone can get, you know, say we can all just come together and get a date, you know, then that way I can set it up on my schedule and make sure I'm myself is clear for everything. >> I know Julia likes a good beer. Would you think maybe if you could talk to Julia around setting up at a table at that ale event? We we can ensure that we send her I'll send her a text. I won't send her an email, but I'll send her send her a text and see if she's willing to set up there. >> Okay. And um any other committee? >> Um I got Safeway to donating some stuff to the event. So they'll be donating waters and snacks and treats and I'll also be supplementing stuff. Nice. >> So, um and then as far as the I had asked the question at the beginning about I was asked to contact high school teachers about participating and how they can help. Um I just I through my own malf notes of being on Zoom last time I didn't quite get a clear picture of what I should fully ask them and what they so like my direction which I'm getting the high school teachers involved. >> Um Cody, did you get all of the information that we've had since the beginning including the the bigger workbook that we have? Joseph or or or >> Yeah, I can definitely uh look back and um let's see if I can send it to you. >> Okay. If not, I I'll contact Joseph if you can send me the real quick and updated version obviously >> because we did update it quite I think a few times. So, um, >> and I mean that might be something that maybe I mean I know graduation is coming up that you know teachers want to volunteer that they can sit out there and as people come in hey would you take a quick survey you know and get some of those I mean people are you know obviously there for the high school graduates. So um yeah that might be something we may may be able to do too. Okay. So, okay. >> Um items for the next meeting. So, agenda items. So, review the the final draft of the document for the work from from the workbook, right? Um Joseph. >> Yeah. Final final vulnerability assessment, the final step in that. And then, um I don't know if we'll have it, you know, completed, but I'll have at least some kind of draft goals and policies for for review as well. And and then can we also just like get um put in there like a a debrief around the open house and where our numbers are at and assess whether or not we we feel like that it's a good sample. >> Okay. >> What was it? What was the date for the next meeting? >> It would be >> 25th. That's a Thursday, but Joseph isn't available on 23rd. >> 25th is is the open house. >> In the open house, >> so something's wrong here. So, >> our normal meeting would be like the 23rd. >> I have it on the 18th. Joseph as well. >> No, remember he's going to be gone that >> gone that we want to move the open house to the 25th. I see. Right. >> Yeah. I sent everybody an email um asking if that was okay with everybody. >> Oh, sorry. I didn't see that. >> No, that's fine. That's fine. >> So, yes, our next meeting it's uh would be it would be the 16th, but since Joseph is going to be gone uh >> 23rd, >> we can move it to the 23rd if everybody's good. >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, all right. Right. Does that work everybody? >> Yes. >> Yes. So >> say that last part again. >> So the 16 were supposed to meet but the Joseph is going to be gone that week. So we have we can go to the 23rd if we less >> and the 25th is the open house >> and the 25th is the open house. >> Would it be possible to say the 23rd when we have that second meeting if I bring in the things that I would be that I got from safe? I won't be available 25th. out of >> No, that'd be fine. We can put them on my office. Yeah. [clears throat] >> Okay. >> And after I I emailed you the updated version of the of the flyer. >> Yes. [laughter] Thank you. Great. >> Okay. All right then. Um, so 23rd next meeting and motion to >> we haven't done a feedback. >> Oh, okay. So um, do I get have a motion to excuse Stephie from this meeting? >> No, because we don't have to. >> Do I get a motion? We want to entertain a motion. >> I move that we she has that unexcused absence because she didn't show up and says she was. I think that maybe because it's her first time something like this, then maybe something just happened. Um, so we made all kinds of allowances for juror with no notification. So >> I I make a move to have an excuse absence this time for her because it's it's her first meeting. >> But you don't know that. Can I get a second to put an order? >> So we have to make a motion for Missart and >> Py get a motion. Can I make a motion? Are we excusing Julia or we? >> We are. She did state she did email me and she wasn't able to make it. Correct. She did object. >> I make a motion to excuse Julia and Copy from from this meeting. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> I opposed. >> No. Because we don't know why. >> Okay. We don't need commentary. So, it's just a flatout no. So, the motion passes. They're both excused for this meeting. And do I can I entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> I have a pointed discussion on this last one as point of order. That a motion is done. I'm going to entertain a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> I make a motion to adjurnn the meeting. >> I have a second. All in favor? >> I >> I. Any opposed? >> I think you're showing bias here though because you were really motion passes. The meeting is adjourned. You were hardcore to get me off when I called in with an excused absence and now you're granting another person. >> You were absent many many many um um do you want to go ahead and give the the attendance list over the last year? >> I called so that we know who how many times people have been. >> I think that's irrelevant because the main irrelevance because you're what you're bringing up. I'm just bringing up. >> Thanks. Let me know if you need anything from

When did you say this happened to you? I said to them say The police didn't happen on I was like I don't remember seeing that. No, they're hearing me. So yeah, but I don't think they listen. How you doing? How you doing? Very good. Yeah? Been a couple months. I've just been working. Yeah. The last time I saw you you were even in Mexico the next week. Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah. Good for you. Yeah. About yourself, what have you been Uh >> I'll be right back. I got to use the side. I'll be right back. I'm just going to get me a glass of water. I'll be right back. >> I can hear you 6 years ago. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Shannon, can you hear us? Yeah, I do now. All right, good. Okay. I don't see you though. No, I know. Some the camera is not working. Okay. As long as you can hear us, I'm going to record it. So, uh it's 5:30, recording in progress. Make sure I get this microphone the right distance, right volume, everything. Yes. Welcome and welcome for those visitors who are going to come to the meeting. Thanks for attending. Um we're going to start with a call to order. Uh Vice Chairman Douglas Shannon. Here. Councilman Micah Geary. Here. Councilman Esteban Ruiz. He had to recuse himself. Okay. We'll call that an excused absence. Anastasio Ramos. Present. All right. And now we need to approve the minutes of the previous meeting for March 10th. Do I hear a motion to approve? I make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Motions approved. And then we're going to move on to the active agenda. Do you folks in the audience have a copy of this? Uh yes, someone right there. Okay. Folks need a second look at it or can Okay. All right. Um I will now open the public hearing. This is an open record public hearing to consider the planned unit development preliminary plat of Reese Estates city file numbers uh PUD -25-1 and PLP-25-4 and SCP 26-3. The purpose of this hearing is for the planning commission to consider the record, hear the staff recommendations and testimony from the applicant and the public. At the close of this hearing, the planning commission will make a recommendation to city council. We're [clears throat] going to talk about the appearance of fairness. Okay, this is a quasi-judicial hearing. As such, the appearance of fairness doctrine controls each commissioner must answer firmly and negatively the following questions. Okay, I have four questions for each of you and myself. >> [clears throat] >> Do you have any interest in the property or the application or do you own property within 300 feet of the property subject to the application? My answer is no. No. No. No. Okay. Okay, so we have four nos, we're going to continue. Um do you stand to gain or lose any financial benefit as a result of the outcome of this proposal? Um my answer is no. No. Okay. No. Okay, we have four nos on that. And can you hear and consider the application in a fair and objective manner without bias? Yes. My answer is yes. Yes. Yes. Douglas, I caught it. Yes, thank you. We have four yeses. And have you had any ex parte communication with the applicant or anyone else regarding this application? If so, please place on the record of substance your communications so interested parties may have the opportunity to review the communications. I have not had any communications. My answer is no. No. My answer is no. My answer is no. Okay. Douglas, thank you. We have four nos. All right. So, with the answer of the questions, is there anyone who wishes to challenge any council's members' participation in this hearing on the appearance of fairness grounds? I got no from the audience. Okay. And anyone from the commission or the public can make the challenge. If so, the commission member subject to challenge has the opportunity to disqualify himself or herself from refusing to qualify himself. If disqualified, the commissioner must leave the room during the hearing and cannot participate in deliberations. And that does not apply here. Um This is going to be the conduct of hearing. This open record of public hearing will be conducted as follows. First, the planning consultant will present a summary of the staff recommendations. This will be followed by testimony from the applicant and or the applicant's representative. Then anyone in favor of the proposal will testify followed by anyone in opposition to the proposal. After all the members of the public have the opportunity to provide the testimony, the commission may ask for additional staff or consultant comments. Then the applicant may provide rebuttal statements or provide additional testimony including answering questions from the commissioners. After all the testimonies computed concluded, excuse me, the public hearing will be closed and the commission will deliberate. Does everyone on the commission in the audience understand these rules? Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Doug, I got you. Okay, perfect. To begin, Joseph Calhoun, planning consultant, will present a summary of the staff recommendations. Would the applicant or applicant's representative like to provide comment or testimony? Yes. Let me I'll go first and then Okay. That works. All right. So, in your packet, there's a staff recommendation and all of the associated documents with the proposal. I'm going to go through a a summary of that recommendation. So, this project proposes 12 lots with a mixture of single family, duplex, and triplex units for a total of 18 residential dwelling units within the proposed um application. The subject property is in the B2 zone and is currently vacant. The applications for a planned unit development, preliminary long plat, and SEPA were were submitted on December 4th, 2025 and additional application information was submitted to Open Government in January and February 2026. The application was deemed complete for processing on February 13th, 2026 and notice of application [clears throat] and environmental review was sent to adjacent property owners, SEPA agencies, and published in the newspaper on February 25th, 2026 and the public comment period ended on March 11th, 2026. The SEPA determination of non-significance was issued on March 25th, 2026 and was not appealed. Notice of today's published public hearing was issued and published in the Sunnyside Sun on on both March 25th and again on April 22nd, 2026. The staff recommendation includes several pages of findings and analysis documenting where the proposed plan development and preliminary plat is consistent with relevant codes and codified standards. In review of this application, the proposed lots meet or exceed the B2 zoning district standards for lot size, width, density. The project has existing frontage on Outlook Road and proposes new internal streets to provide access. City of Sunnyside water and sewer utilities will be extended throughout the plat and plan development to serve the new lots. There were no comments received from agencies or adjacent property owners regarding this proposal. The city of Sunnyside has already reviewed and approved civil designs for the street and utility layout for this project. Several Sunnyside municipal code sections are referenced including the relevant planned unit development design standards and procedures and municipal code section 17.52.050B. The various [clears throat] standards include a staff response indicating their applicability and or concurrence with said standards. There are also several design requirements codified code chapter 1632 relevant to the preliminary long plat. The preliminary plat meets the majority of these design requirements as proposed and as shown in the civil designs. There are also improvement requirements in municipal code 1636 applicable to the proposal and this preliminary plat is consistent with those as well. Planning Commission findings are outlined in Municipal Code 16.28.110. Recommendation includes an analysis of each of the five findings noting compliance with applicable criteria. For conclusions, the Planning Commission has the jurisdiction to make a recommendation to Council regarding this planned unit development and preliminary plat. Planned unit development and preliminary plat as conditioned comply with the planned unit development zone, Long Subdivision Design Requirements, and Long Subdivision Improvement Requirements. A determination of non-significance was issued on March 25th and was not appealed. And the proposed planned unit development and preliminary plat of Ruiz Estates serves a public use and interest and provides for the possibility of creating new housing in the City of Sunnyside. Based on the findings and conclusions, the planning consultant recommends approval of the planned unit development and prelim- preliminary plat of Ruiz Estates subject to conditions related to civil plan requirements, stormwater easements, SVID requirements, construction of improvements, and the final plat approval timeline from Council's decision. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. I have no questions. I have uh two questions. Okay. Uh does this uh plat does it uh require a latecomer's fee for the utilities on uh Outlook Road? I don't believe so, and I don't think that one has been proposed. Hector, do you know if there's been any discussion of latecomers? Uh not to my knowledge. Uh I don't believe there is a latecomer's uh proposal right now. Okay. My other question is um uh is there going to be a double fence between the uh mobile home park to the uh west uh and the development? What do you mean by a double fence? Like Is there an existing >> additional fence in Right. Is there going to be a uh if there's going to be two fences between the two properties is there going to be a walkway for vegetation control between the two uh two developments? Between the the mobile home park and the new development, new plat. That wasn't discussed in the application materials, but I believe the uh applicant's representative will be available to answer that after he makes his remarks. Okay. Those are my two questions. I have no questions. Okay. Um would the applicant or the applicant's representative like to provide comment or testimony? Good evening. My name is Shane O'Neil with Clover Planning and Zoning out of Pasco, Washington. I'll just briefly go over some of uh what Joseph already did. Um I'm primarily focused here on the planned unit development, which is effectively a rezone, and um duly I'm available for any questions related to the preliminary plat. Um >> [clears throat] >> this project involves three existing parcels on the south side of Outlook Drive west of North First Street. Uh those three parcels combined total 2.05 acres. Uh, the preliminary plat proposes to divide them into 12 lots for the construction of 17 dwelling units. Um, by way of explanation, after the application was submitted, it was discovered that there is an easement on the northwest corner of the development that caused one of the duplexes to be converted to a single-family home instead. So, effectively, um, we've reduced some of the residential densities down to 8.3 dwelling units per acre and 1.4 units per lot on average. And, um, that change reduces the magnitude of the development, thus would not cause greater impacts to the public. Uh, the project still falls within the scope advertised for tonight's hearing. Uh, I don't see any consistency issues there. Um, so, combined, we're uh, in total, we're looking at eight single-family homes, three duplexes, and one triplex for a total of 17 units. I've prepared, with the help of an attorney, uh, a covenant agreement as required by the code, that outlines the proposed zoning parameters, which are modeled after a typical low-density residential zone, with the exception of the allowance for duplexes and triplexes. So, we got 5-ft side yard setbacks, 20-ft front yard setbacks. Uh recently I submitted uh and uploaded a revised covenant which adds to it a provision for the 15-ft secondary frontage uh setback. So, when you have a corner lot, you've got a primary frontage where your driveway is, and then you have a secondary frontage. Um and we're proposing a 15-ft setback. I get most of this stuff from uh Pasco's municipal code where I was a planner for 8 years. Um >> [snorts] >> and so that is consistent with the way Pasco treats it as well. I removed uh landscaping as a required element from the covenant just cuz I thought it was too granular and I wanted to lighten the burden, the enforcement responsibility on the city. So, effectively we're creating a new zoning district specific to this development, which it would now be the city's responsibility to enforce. So, I didn't want to create anything unique or uh too detailed that would put uh any kind of additional burden on the our planners here. I proposed a separate set of accessory structure setbacks, which are standard 5-ft for a small shed, no more than two on a lot. That way a duplex, each unit could have its own shed. But I thought three was a little much for the triplex, so we limited it to two. Um And so, the reason we are talking about this PUD tonight is because there was a zoning epiphany that occurred late in the development process causing this uh PUD to be on your agenda. That That realization was that uh the B2 zone, which it's currently zoned, does which does allow multi-family developments, uh it has a caveat on that lot size and the age of the lot that can contain duplexes and triplexes. This plat clearly doesn't meet that requirement cuz we're proposing to create lots now. And um otherwise the development is completely uh designed and ready for construction. Uh the development offers fully developed streets with sidewalks, street lights, and underground utilities. The proposed development will buffer the residential use to the west from the commercial yards to the east, thereby offering uh benefit to the existing residential neighbors. Ruiz Estate Estates will be an attractive residential project improving the character of the vicinity as viewed from the surrounding properties and roadways. Uh regarding the fence question, I don't see any uh block walls or fences currently called out on the civil construction plans. Uh that level of detail is should probably be reserved for uh building permit review. It's it's a quite a granular detail to be considering at the time of uh zoning and preliminary plat. But the concern is noted and will be incorporated into the future building permit and site plan proposals. That's generally all I have written prepared for the commission tonight, but I like to remain available for any questions or concerns you may have. I prepared extensive information as part of this application. If you've reviewed it, I don't think there's much more that can be said about it. But I just do want to point out that we've lowered the residential density due to the subtraction of that one dwelling unit. Down from 18 to now 17 dwelling units. Sounds like you've been busy, put a lot of work in this. Yes. It's quite a chore to do it right per the code. But I'm I'm used to it. The covenant is kind of an evolving animal and once the hearing was actually set, I um took some time to perfect it. And uh I also, I guess I neglected to mention, I added uh 12 exhibits to our covenant and each one of those is a an illustration of each lot so that there will be no question what setbacks apply to which property line. Um I wanted to make it abundantly clear to all the future buyers uh what their setbacks are if they're not good at reading zoning information. Um so I start out with an exhibit A that shows the whole development and each building on it and the number of units. And then each exhibit kind of looks like this where we have a bold setback line where if you buy that lot, you can look at it, you see exactly what your minimum setbacks are. You don't need to call Joseph and ask him. I know PUDs are a little bit of a pain from the planning side cuz you get used to memorizing the zoning code but not the PUDs. So you have to go dig that up. I wanted to make it abundantly clear to everybody. And that that has been uploaded to the uh the city's permit portal for your viewing. If there's any questions. Okay, we don't have a copy that in our packet then. What what you're showing us right now? Joseph, we discussed adding that. Was it you able to I I'm I'm just looking for it here trying to figure out what page it's on and It was uploaded late last week. No, it's it's not jumping out at me here in the packet. Especially cuz I have each one of those exhibits. Oh, okay, so we have this covenant. Now, this is the prior version of the covenant is in there. It's only minor modifications, but let me let me hand that to you. Well, well, if it's if it's on the the I will email it to everybody. If if it's on the portal, that's something we can look up to on our own. So, For the record of in your convenience, it's right there. But, really the the revisions are limited to just those items. So, I've removed trees and shrubs as a requirement. Um that way the [clears throat] code enforcement doesn't have to hassle people about the trees. I've added the exhibits that I just described and I added a provision for a 15-ft secondary frontage setback. So, as to specifically corner lots. And I did that because I didn't want to treat those other frontages as a rear and and have a 10-ft setback. Some cities do that, but along Outlook Drive, I thought it would feel a little tight. So, I I made that a 15-ft minimum. >> Nice. Yeah, this makes a lot more sense to me now. I'm going to go ahead and pass this down. If you guys want to look at it, there's some pretty good detailed maps in there that look real good. >> [clears throat] >> It was a lot of work because that doesn't really fall on architects wheelhouse. It doesn't really fall on engineers wheelhouse. I had to get a surveyor to prepare those and that is something unusual to them as well. Well, again, I appreciate your work because seeing a map like that makes a lot more sense now, you know. Yeah, I've got 15 years of planning experience, so I've had every question that can be asked and I wanted to kind of answer them in written form. But we will be careful not to propose a block wall adjacent to any existing fences without working through that with the neighboring properties first. We don't want to create a a spot that's impossible to maintain where you get maybe animals get stuck and leaves and sagebrush, so we won't create a tumbleweed entrapment. Anybody on the commission have any questions for Mr. O'Neal? No. I have no questions. >> [clears throat] >> I have one question. Yes, sir. Um you said something about a uh concrete fence across the frontage. I did not. Okay, I thought I heard that. Uh what >> I'm not I'm not saying that it's won't be proposed. It very well may be along Outlook Drive. But it's just it's a very fine level of detail for this stage where we're just talking about zoning and the preliminary plat. I was just worried about sight distance. Yeah, the the staff will review any walls that are proposed for site visibility clearance. They may actually just make us show it on our submittal plan. Okay. So, rest assured we'll we'll create maintain those site triangle visibilities. Yeah, that'd be great. That's all that's all my questions. Thank you. We'll hang out for a little bit if you have any more. Mr. O'Neal, thank you for your presentation. All right, moving right along. Would any member of the public like to provide testimony in favor of the application? If so, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. All right, don't see anybody getting up. Do we have any anybody from the public online? Okay. Don't want to make it sure I don't want to miss anybody. All right, would any member of the public like to provide testimony in opposition to the application? If so, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Okay. Are there any additional staff comments? No. No. No. I have one for Hector. No, go ahead. Do you go ahead, Doug? Oh, no. I I just had no. I don't have any. Okay, I'm sorry. Cut you off there. I have one for Hector real quick. Um, is the water and sewer lines in that area adequate for this um development? Yes. Uh, off the top of my head, I can't tell you what the the water line is uh or the sewer line, but uh I know talking to uh supervisor uh Morales that uh they did say it's adequate. Okay. That's the only question I have. And is there any additional statements or comments from the applicant or the applicant's representative? Um just that the water and sewer infrastructure is um I believe permitted and underway. So, yeah, so it's it's been reviewed and approved and fully designed. It is just a question I have, you know, with the with the wells and and you know, I don't know the condition of them and but if you say they're good, then Yep. I'm good with that. Okay. Thank you. And does the commission have any other questions of the staff or the applicant? [clears throat] No. Doug, do you have any other questions? Uh no, I do not. Okay. Thank you. Sometimes there's a delay in the in the Zoom. Make sure everything is okay. All right. Well, I will now close the public hearing and open the floor for commission deliberation. >> Now I'll entertain a motion. I'm going to make a motion to recommend approval of the plan unit development of the preliminary plat of Louisa Estates as presented including adoption of the staff recommendation and the finding of the planning commission. Also, um the approval with changes move to recommend the approval of the plan unit development preliminary plat of Louisa >> You only need to do one of those. Oh. Yeah. Okay, I apologize for that. I'm looking at the way this is this is worded. So so we need to make two separate motions here. Approval >> No, just just one motion. Those are those are just examples depending on how the hearing went so that way you would have a a draft motion to be able to make. >> I I I get it now. I'll make a recommendation to approve this. I second. Okay, uh Councilman Digory second. Okay. That's what I caught first anyway. Uh Any other discussion on this? No. Okay, um all in favor say I. I. >> I. I. I also say I. Um motion has passed unanimously. Um I thank you for your time during this hearing. The planning commission's recommendation will be forwarded to the city who in accordance with the Sunny Side Municipal Code will set the date for a closed record public hearing and take final action on the proposed plan unit development preliminary plat of Louisa Estates. Okay. and um the next item on the agenda is a Zarco rezone. Uh R E Z - 26 - 1. And I will now open the public hearing. This is an open record public hearing to consider the proposal rezone of parcel 22 - 1024 - 32423. City file numbers R E Z - 26 - 1 and S E P A - 26 - 1. The purpose of this hearing for the planning commission is consider the record, hear the staff recommendations and testimony for the applicant and the public. At the close of this hearing, the planning commission will make a recommendation to city for council. And there's going to be the appearance of fairness. This is a quasi-judicial hearing. As such, appearance of fairness doctrine controls. Each commissioner must answer affirmatively or negative the following questions. Ask these four questions. Do you have an interest in the property application or do you own property within 300 ft of the property subject in the application? No. Um I'm sorry. When I looked at the uh the file on my phone, uh I did not see this uh proposal. Are we talking about the same property? This is property at 906 Schoon Road. Oh, okay. Yeah, I have no no vested interest. Joseph, thank you. My answer is also no. Um do you stand or gain to lose any financial benefit as a result of the outcome of this proposal? No. My answer is also no. No. No. Okay, we have four no's. Can you hear and consider the application in a fair objective manner without bias? Yes. My answer is also yes. We have four yes votes on this. Have you or at any ex parte communication with the applicant or anyone else regarding this application? If so, please place on the record the substance of your communication so interested parties may have the opportunity to review the communications. No. I also uh no, so we have four no's. Is there anyone who wishes to challenge any council members participation in this hearing on the appearance of fairness grounds? No. Also no. Okay, the open record public hearing will be conducted as follows. Uh first, the planning consultant will present a summary of the staff recommendations. This will be followed by testimony from the applicants and the applicant's representative. Then anyone in favor of proposal testify followed by anyone in opposition to the proposal. After all members of the public have have they the opportunity to provide testimony, the commission may ask staff Excuse me, may ask additional staff or consultant [snorts] comments. Then the applicant may provide rebuttal statements or provide additional testimony including answering questions from the commissioners. After all testimony is concluded, the public hearing will be closed and the commission will deliberate. Does everyone on the commission and the audience understand these rules? Yes. Yes. Yes. My answer is also yes. To begin, Joseph Calhoun, planning consultant, will present a summary of the staff recommendations. This rezone application proposes to rezone parcel 221024-32423 from low-density residential R1 to medium-density residential R2. The subject property is approximately 3.7 acres in size and contains an existing single-family home. This parcel was previously approved for a five-lot preliminary short plat on October 22nd, 2025. The preliminary short plat approval included included several conditions related to frontage improvements, access, utility extension, and stormwater. And to date, none of those improvements have been completed and the property remains a single parcel. The application for rezone and SEPA was submitted on February 11th, 2026 and the application was deemed complete for processing on March 17th, 2026. The notice of application and environmental review was sent to adjacent property owners, SEPA agencies, and published in the newspaper on March 25th, 2026. And one public comment period and the public comment period ended on April 8th, 2026. The SEPA determination of non-significance and notice of public hearing were issued and published in the newspaper on April 29th, 2026. >> [gasps] >> For findings, [clears throat] the recommendation includes several pages of findings and analysis documenting where the proposed rezone is consistent with relevant codes. Surrounding properties include parcels in both the city and county jurisdiction. Adjacent zoning includes R1 and B2 and most adjacent parcels contain either residential uses or are vacant. There was one public comment received during the comment period from an adjacent property owner to the north. The property owner is opposed to the rezone for a variety of reasons including increased density, traffic flow and noise, compatibility with larger properties and public safety issues. And the full comment is included in the staff recommendation. In response to the comment, the applicant provided additional information related to density, access and traffic management and neighborhood safety. And his comment is similarly within the staff recommendation. As a result of the public comment and applicant's response, the staff recommendation is to only rezone a portion of this property which is more or less the south half of the lot as indicated as lot one on the preliminary short plat approved on October 22nd, 2025. And that is outlined on page three of the staff recommendation. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Rezone findings and recommendations include a review of relevant comprehensive plan goals and policies, the effect of on the immediate vicinity, the value of the proposal to the community and potential conditions. For conclusions, the planning commission has the jurisdiction to make a recommendation to council regarding the proposed rezone. The staff recommendation is based upon project documents received from the applicant and uploaded in OpenGov. A determination of non-significance was issued on April 29th, 2026 and was not appealed. And the proposed rezone serves the public use and interest and provides for the possibility of creating new housing in city of Sunnyside. As recommendation, based on [clears throat] the above findings, the planning consultant recommends approval of the requested rezone, which shall be limited to the south plus or minus 273 ft of the subject property depicted as lot one of the approved PSP-25-3 preliminary short plat. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Yeah, I've got a couple. I'm just trying to play catch up. Excuse me if I missed something. Um so, the only lot right now is lot one that these the the city's recommending approval on it? It's Essentially, there there's it's only one lot now, but because of the approved preliminary short plat, which has not been finalized, the recommendation is to take what is outlined as lot one on that approved preliminary short plat and have this rezone only apply to that portion of the property. So, at some point in the future, when the applicant finalizes the preliminary short plat to create these lots, then that lot one will carry the R2 if approved through as if recommended for approval by the commission and approved by council, then only that south part of the existing property depicted as lot one on that map would become R2. The rest would remain R1. Okay. So, if this lot one is approved, what do they plan on building there? I would defer to the applicant on specifics. The R2 zone allows for smaller lot sizes and uh increased density. Um as far as lot uses, both the R1 and R2 allow for single-family and duplexes. The R2 does allow more multi-family uses such as triplexes or or fourplexes, etc. Um but that would be up to uh the applicant as far as the lot layout and design and then, you know, the density considerations. Okay, so we're not talking at this point an apartment building. We're just talking just basically duplexes, fourplexes. That's my understanding, but I'd defer to the applicant on what his long-term plans are. Okay. I'm just looking at everything here trying to I just need to look at the the testimony real quick from the Does anybody need extra time to look at this? I I had a question. Um where do the limits of the city um uh I guess terminate in in respect to this uh property here? The city limits? Yeah, where where the The the north line of the subject property is the city limits line. >> Is the city limits? Okay. >> Yeah. And across Schoon Road is is county as well, so it's kind of runs Mhm. both north and south. Does anybody else have any other questions? No. So the property is on the east side of Schoon, is that correct? This property is east side of Schoon, yes. Yeah. Yeah, Doug, you can when you go to page three and see the the red outline, you can actually see the Scoon Road. Um The Scoon Road runs north and south, and then North Avenue runs east and west, which is just below the southern part of the red red squared off. You can see that on your and what you have. Yeah, I'm not sure. Um Do you need a little extra time to look at it, Doug, or are you good? Uh No, I'm good. Okay. Um moving right along. Um line item six, uh would the applicant or the applicant's representative like to provide comment or testimony? My name is uh Flaviano Zarco. Um just wanted to let you guys know that my plan is not to build any apartments. Um we're looking at duplexes, and the reason for R2 zoning is because it allows for zero lot line, which would make the units more available or portable to people um coming into the area. So, so how many duplexes are we looking at? If we go with the proposed plan right now, uh it'll be 10. Okay. For just the lot one. Anybody have any other questions? I have no questions. No. No questions. Okay, would anybody else associated with the applicant like to provide comment or testimony? Okay. Would any member of the public like to provide testimony in favor of this application? If so, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Hi, I'm Noe Gonzalez, resident here in Sunnyside. Um I've done adjacent in Granby, worked with Hector on developments. And I just want to speak in favor to this because, you know, here in Sunnyside and both in Granby, we need some more affordable housing, which this will allow for, you know, getting an entry-level $300,000 home um built on something that's zoned R2. Um I know right now very very little homes are with, you know, below the $350,000 price range. Um so I just want to speak in favor towards that. Yeah, and and Noe, um as for the record, what's your address? Um uh 912 West Riverside Avenue. Okay. Anybody have any questions for uh Noe? Okay. Anybody else from the public like to provide testimony in favor of the application? Okay, moving on to light item number eight. Would any member of the public like to provide testimony in opposition to the application? If so, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Okay. I hearing none. Um Are there any other additional staff comments? These are going to be duplexes, is what they said? Yeah, just duplexes, yeah. And these duplexes is they rent the duplexes, is that right? It's not like I mean, I know duplexes rent out, but is this people are buying? Well, it can be sold by either or And then and then you could either buy them and then you can most likely have either rental or owner occupied. Okay. And then the the zero lot line basically lets you put a a property line through the middle, so each side could be sold individually. Yeah, cuz there's a lot of those in Grandview right now. So. Is that a Would that be the like the firewall being the um yeah, being the the barrier? Yeah, so there they it creates a a parse separate parcels for each side. Mhm. Well, what are we going to do with the wall? The only question I've got is going to be the same one again for Hector. Since this is way north of town, almost on the city limits line, um is there adequate water and sewer that area? Yes, uh there is adequate water and sewer out there. Um so And then looking at the map on page three, the little red outline is all the other stuff is that the rest of that in the county then to the north of that? No, to the north is is still part of this parcel. So the original short plat I think I had incorrectly six lots in there somewhere, but it was a a five lot short plat. So the lot one is what's in the red outline. And then additional lots to the north one two or two three four and five. And then it is in accordance with the applicants, you know, statements that he provided is potential to remove lot five and some of the traffic impacts that that would require uh, to the north that's in the county, but the um, the property to the east is um, city vacant R1. The property to the south is city um, residential use, but it's actually B2 zone. So the only you're discussing tonight is in this the red part in lot one. Effectively, yes. That's all we're approving for tonight. Okay. I just want to make sure I'm I'm on the same page here. Is there any additional statements or comments from the applicant or the applicant's representative? Hearing none, moving right along to number 11. Does the commission have any questions or staff of the applicant? No. So I've got one. I mean, we're looking at roughly 10 duplexes. Are they each going to be individually privately owned then? Is that the plan or Okay. I have a question. Will there be internal streets or anything there will be. Great. So, also on lot four, he does have a residential house there already. So, so there is residence there. Just so you guys know. Okay. I will now entertain a motion. I motion for approval. Move to recommend approval of the proposed proposed rezone as presented, including adoption of the staff recommendation and findings of the planning commission. I second. Second. All in favor, say I. I. >> I. Waiting for a response for Doug. Oh, I I said I. Oh, that's okay. Okay, I got you now. Okay, it's unanimous. Um, four eyes. Thank you for your time during this hearing. The planning commission recommendation will be forwarded to city council in accordance with Sunnyside municipal pool code will reset a date for the closed public hearing and take final action on the proposed rezone. So, uh, just for the record, uh, first public hearing was closed at 1800. The second is closed at 1822. Right. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Do you have any other additional items from staff? Not for me. On the periodic update, I am I've got the transportation element and capital facilities elements drafts ready, so I'm going to get those to Hector and then to Mike Height in our office so we can look at project lists. Basically, what's in there now is like the 6-year tip transportation improvement program and then projects identified in the current water system plan and sewer system plan, but those are a few years old and so we'll update that with the known projects that have been identified since those plans have been adopted and then move forward with the review process for those those components of the comp plan. Okay. And just to update you, the reason Mike Height is going to be our new project engineer is cuz uh Stephanie Ray has stepped down. Um she is going to another uh the firm. Uh so Mike Height's going to be our uh new project engineer that we'll be working with also with Mr. Calhoun. Okay. Thanks everybody for their time. Um Set a date for the next meeting, June 9th, 2026. Is that okay with everybody? Yes. >> Yes. Yes. All right, we will have the um Catholic Charities project on in between Outlook and Wooden. They've submitted the rezone for the Wooden Road parcels. And so we'll be looking at that on June 9th. Okay. Is that also off of Scoon? It's west of Scoon, 90° off of Scoon. Yeah, it's Yeah, Wooden Wooden Road is running east and west off of Scoon, but it's north of this of this current project. I was just looking for the for the gavel, and I don't see it, but that's okay. Okay, next meeting is going to be June 9th, same time. Yep. 17:30. Okay, I adjourn this meeting at 18:24. All right, thank you. Well, thank you for all your hard work. Good meeting. Hey, let's do let's do four next time, huh? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mhm. >> You ready? All right. We're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order on Monday, May 11th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. For the record, all members of council are here with the exception of Deputy Mayor Hart and Councilman Galvan who have asked for excused absences. Both are not feeling well. Are there any objection? No. No. Okay. So, both um have been excused for today's meeting. Also for the record, all members of staff are here. We have Leo um Hector, Chief is uh uh >> Rob's at conference. Rob Chief Layman is at a conference and Corey's uh still Okay, also under the weather. Something's going around. Hopefully they all feel better soon. And um Japhet is also here. Um do we have anybody online? Do we have Monica online? Ms. Hofstetter? Nobody from council. No. Okay. So, we're going to move on to agenda approval. Could I get a motion to approve today's agenda as is? Move to approve as is. Is there a second? I'll second that. Thank you. Any discussion? Council member Chavez? Yes. I'd goal with Council Vasquez Oh. I was just reading over it. I didn't get a chance to work it to look it over. So, I had a little chance to go through it and everything, but yeah. Yes. >> Councilor Vasquez Yes. Councilor Vasquez Yes. Councilor Dolan Yes. 8 to 0 Yes. Motion carries. I believe we have somebody here for invocation. Mhm. Okay. All rise if you're able to and please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. And you can go whenever you're ready. To pray? Yeah. Okay. Father God, thank you for uh another day. Thank you for each and every one of the people here uh that cares for our community. So, at this moment, Father, we pray for them for the city council members uh the mayor uh city manager and anyone who is involved in this. Father, I pray that you give them wisdom uh how you teach us in uh Second Chronicles 7:14, "If my people humble themselves and seek my face and pray, you will heal this this town, Father." So, you teach us that in in Second Chronicles 7:14. I pray, Father, that you remind each and every one of these people in leadership that it is about you, that also it's about the people, not about ourselves. So, Father, so they can give um guide well well this community, Father. Give the wisdom that they need, Father, but also remind them the purpose they have. It's about the community. So Father, thank you for each and every one of them and I pray that you will give them the wisdom they need. Father, we pray all this in the only name over any other name, in the name of Jesus. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay, up next we have a proclamation presentation and this was submitted by Mr. Mejia. It is National Public Works Week proclamation. May 17th through May 23rd, 2026. So I'm going to go ahead and read actually getting ahead of myself. Um Mr. Mejia just um uh added this to the agenda. He just printed something out for me. Um I am going to ask for it to be reformatted so I can go ahead and sign it. But um as for today, we're just going to go ahead and read it onto the record. If it is approved by council, um is there any is there a motion um or the desire of council for this proclamation? Yeah, I motion to approve the resolution for the city of Sunnyside recognizes that on May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 is National Public Works Week. I second. I got a motion by Counselor Vasquez and the second seconded by Counselor Dolan. Is there any other comments? I have a question. How many um how many individuals do you have working for the publics right now? Public Works. Uh as of right now, I we have a total of 19. We're missing three positions in the water department. And where are most of your employees at? There's a method to my madness. I'm I'm asking for a reason. Uh so, I have streets, parks, uh my water treatment plant, which uh is also with my storm water, and my fog. Um collections is also on waste water, and then water department's on its own. Okay. Do they like donuts? Yeah. They they prefer ice cream, I I was told. Ice cream's better cuz it's getting warm out there. All right. Brownies. Thank you. And brownies. >> [laughter] >> Any other comments? No. Um no, just um thank you, Hector, for submitting this in. Um public works does a lot of behind-the-scenes work, right? They do all the things that most of us don't want to do, and they're always there showing up day in, day out. So, thank you to everyone in the public works department for all that you do, for keeping our city looking the best that it possibly can, and for all the hard work. Thank you to all. And thank you, Hector. You do a good job, and uh they I have a great team. I can't do my job without them. So, I appreciate them very much, and I thank you for allowing us to have the week. Yes. I I wanted to give Lupe a shout-out because I was trying to figure out how I was going to move all that metal around to the new building on Museum, and all of a sudden he pulls in with right behind me with a big forklift. I'll pass it to Lupe. Thank you. Well, thank you for bringing this forward, and um uh and just a special thank you to the unsung heroes of the community. So, very special shout-out to our public works department. They really just keep us all running. All right, so um now I get to read this into the record. Actually, did I do a roll call? Oh my gosh, okay. Hold on. Long weekend. >> [laughter] >> I'm definitely on many pain medication over the weekend. Um I'll go ahead and start at the at the the very end. The Counselor Chavez Yes. Yes. >> Councilor Sathi Yes. Councilor Vasquez Yes. Councilor Dolan Yes. I too vote yes, motion carries. I'm sorry. Um I thank you for your patience as I kind of push through today. All right, so now we get to do this. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services vital to the sustainable and resilient communities, public health, a high quality of life, and the well-being of the people of the city of Sunnyside. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector, who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens civic leaders and children in the city of Sunnyside to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest in and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association, be it now resolved. I have Vicky Fausto City of Sunnyside Mayor hereby designate the week of May 17th through 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. I urge all citizens to join representatives of the American Public Works Association and government agencies in activities, events, and ceremonies honoring our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees and recognizing the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health and safety and advancing quality of life for all. In witness of whereof In witness whereof, I have I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the state to be affixed. Done at the city of Sunnyside, Washington this 11th day of May, 2026. Thank you very much and um I think a big round of applause to all of our public works employees everywhere. Thank you. In particular, my parks supervisor and Keith Booth. Valencia, who's my father. Um They've been a great part of the team and they've done a lot. Our parks can't be any better than Mitch and giving it and you know, he's been here many years and he's been here about 4 years now? 5 years. 5 years. And he's uh he keeps up all of our FOG, which are our fats, oils, and grease. Uh keeping an eye on those restaurants and uh stores to make sure they don't dump down our sewer line. So. Thank you all. And thank you for showing up, Mitch and his sis. Thank you. I think you got to make them come up here. >> Yeah, do you want to make them come up and and take a picture if they wish? Oh, okay. >> [laughter] >> That's okay. They're like, "No, thank you." Optional. Okay. [laughter] We'll get this signed and over to you. >> Yes. Thank you for doing that. Okay, moving on to item six on the agenda, public comment. Is there anybody signed up for public comment for careful there. For the agenda items. Thank you. Okay, I have a few members signed up for comment on active agenda. First on the list is Vicky Ripley. Vicky Ripley, Sunnyside. I saw on the agenda that you guys wanted to talk about the railroad. Um selling it. And I saw that the price was 400,000. It was bought for 500,000 in 23. And there's water rights to the Sunny View Park. And none of that was in the sales packet. And uh you know, it'll cost over a million dollars to drill a well for water for Sunny View Park. And um And another thing is do you all remember where uh the money came from for the for the railroad property? It came from I've got a list here. If you guys want to copy this. It came from uh the local capital men capital improvements the read funds. 75,000 general fund 101,000 water fund 126,000 ambulance EMS fund, 126,000, and local capital improvement rate fund, 75,000. So, um I'm sure that there's a couple enterprise funds in there that need to be repaid. And it looks like all of these need to be repaid. And so, you guys might look into that before you accept a lower bid for this property. Thanks. Thank you. Up next on the list is Jim Stevens. Jim Stevens, Sunnyside, Washington. Uh on the agenda, there was a note here that we're going to annex this area on Swan Road. And as I we drive up and down Swan Road, we see a lot of vehicles, uh it for lack of a better word, it looks pretty trashy down through there. And in our community, I think we want to make these places look as appealing as we possibly can. That's great that we're going to be annexing it because we have codes and ordinances that can help clean these things up. The problem is all over our community, we have codes and ordinances, but we're not adhering to them. We're not making folks adhere to them. And so, as we annex areas, we want to make sure that people are going to use them and that they're going to be profitable. And now we have people here that they'll have a home, and let's say their home is worth $350,000. So, the person next door has 14 cars parked in their front yard. They don't paint it. Um they've got dogs barking all night. And now their house, instead of being worth $350,000 is worth $250,000. And so they're losing the major investment they made in their whole life. And this is all over Sunnyside. So, I think we really need to pay attention to that as we start to annex property. We want to make sure that we're taking care of the property that we have, and that slips over into these areas that we're annexing as well. Thanks. Thank you. Uh last on the list here is Britain Moore. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening, everyone. Britain Moore, Sunnyside. Um I echo both what Vicki Ripley and uh Mr. Stevens said. Both really great comments. Um I know that tonight on the executive session you're talking about a couple of properties. I realize that this is public comment and you we're not supposed to go back and forth and ask questions, but uh one of the properties is um something that I proposed to the city back in November, and it was approved by council and voted and it hasn't moved forward at all. I know that we're in a little bit of a standstill without having uh legal counsel and a few open positions at the city hall, but if you had any questions for me, I'm happy to answer them for you. Um there was a few things that I had uh gone back and forth with with Mr. Haley. Um very much appreciate him being on top of it. Uh but the purchase agreement is a little vague in the description, so it doesn't really describe the property very well. I think for both parts of myself and the city, it would be great to have a very distinct description. I have provided a map. Hopefully you'll have that uh when you go into executive session. And um also the the valuation came back less. Um back in 2006, it was valuated at a certain price, and it's just $1,500 less. So, if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer and I'll be here throughout the meeting if you have any questions later as well. Thank you. Am I allowed to respond to that? Uh per rules and procedures, we're not allowed to respond. Um Mhm. just yet. Yeah. Okay, thank you, everybody. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Yes, go. Moving on to the consent agenda. Item A, payroll vouchers. Approved payroll liabilities numbers 4058 through 4059 and wire transfers as listed for $237,983.40 for the period ending May 8th, 2026. And B, claim vouchers. Approved claim voucher numbers 4008 through 4195 and wire transfers as listed for $246,555.76 for the period ending on May 8th, 2026. Is there any item council members would like to pull? Any comments? Really? No. I heard it was a good session Friday. Excellent meeting. >> Yeah, you were part of it, right? I was. It was uh very good and we got a lot of things uh figured out. There was only one thing I had a question about and it doesn't pertain, so I'm going to ask Leo about it tomorrow. Sounds good. And by session, I mean the finance committee convened on on Friday. Very good meeting. Thursday. Okay, so what is the desire of council? Move to approve. Is there a second? I second. Okay. There's a motion on the table by council council member Dolan and then I got a second by councilor Sisaty. And is there any other questions or comments? Hearing none, councilor Travis? Yes. Councilor Sisaty? Yes. Councilor Vasquez? Yes. Councilor Dolan? Yes. They two vote yes, motion carries. Okay. Moving into executive session. Is there a time? Do I I would say I would say 15 minutes and [clears throat] um our um our agent Russ who I hope hope is here is also attending the executive session. Thank [clears throat] you for that. So, we will recess into executive session for about 15 minutes to start. Siting RCW 42.30.110 subsection 1C to consider the minimum price at which real estate will be offered for sale or lease when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of decreased price. Final action for selling or leasing a public property shall be taken in an open meeting. If I can just have everybody please move into the lobby and make sure you take your belongings with you, please. So, we'll only have Russ And staff can be here, but if Russ is the only a non uh staff member that uh In fact, vacant property was put on the uh on the uh packet for consideration of a second piece of land that was brought up. Uh that was a uh a mistake on my part that put two properties there. I actually just mistakenly put two purchase and sale agreements. The the agenda item addresses just the one property. So, uh, there's nothing taking on the first property that was, uh, listed there in our agenda packet. So, Britain, um, we're still working on that. Okay. Thank you for that, Mr. Haley. So, um, we will go ahead and forego item A on the active agenda for now, which will move us into item B, Swan Road 2 annexation final action annexing property into Sunnyside city limits, adopt an ordinance to annex the Swan Road 2 annexation into Sunnyside city limits. Hector, would you like to address that? Um, so, a while back, the Swan Road uh, number 2 annexation for the property located south of 791 Swan Road, uh, which has already been taken to the planning committee. Um, it's just west of the existing city limits. In the fall of 2025, council passed a resolution of 2025-92 to move forward with the annexation process. On January 13th, 2026, the planning commission held a public hearing where they recommended approval of the annexation and determined that the property should be brought into the city with neighboring businesses zoning consistent with Swan Road Market to the north. A notice of intention was created and submitted to the Yakima County Boundary Review Board for a 45-day review period, which ran from February 9th, 2026 through March 26, 2026. The BRB did not involve jurisdiction and issued its approval of the annexation on April 7th, 2025. The ordinance before you tonight is for the final action for the city to take in the order to complete the annexation. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Mr. Mejia. Council, any questions? Go ahead, Council Dolan. Uh is there did he give you a reason that he wanted to annex that um parcel into the city? Uh at at the time I do not have that. Um but that is something I can bring up to you um Mr. Calhoun. I'd ask him that question for you. Any other questions? Council Vasquez. Yeah, um just because I just recently heard this, but um you know, just to get direction or like some intel from the chief, um you know, annexation we would be annexing this property. So, it is close to neighboring homes, but this would definitely be covered by water and it wouldn't be a deal for the fire department. Correct. At this point, um we have a fair amount of hydrants just on the other side of Swan, um well within our area of reach. Perfect. So, safety wouldn't be an issue here. Correct. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, hearing none, what is the desire of council? I move to adopt an ordinance to annex the Swan Road 2 annexation into Sunny Side city limits. I have a motion by Council Vasquez. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Council Assirati. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Council Chaires. Yes. >> [clears throat] >> I am Oz. Oh, somebody joined in the room. Hmm, okay. Council Assirati. Yes. Council Vasquez. Yes. Council Dolan. Yes. I too vote yes. Motion carries. Okay, that's the end of the items on our active agenda. Moving into public comments. Is there anybody signed up for public comment? I'll do Anya. Thank you. Okay. I will be calling on those who have signed up for general public comment. And the first on the list here is Britain Moore. That Okay. The next on the list is Jim Stevens. Jim Stevens, Sunnyside. Uh the issue that I wanted to talk about was voting. Um I noticed we have some appointments coming up for certain boards. And on one of our boards, uh mayor sits on that board. It's environmental board. And uh of recent, during the last year, uh they had a vote to see who is going to be on the board and one of the candidates was uh uh Maria Fernandez who is or was an employer of Mayor Frosto. Uh this is a direct conflict with city code with the state code. It's a serious violation. This happened twice, I believe. And she failed to recuse herself from that vote and voted for him, Maria Frosto. And you Fernandez. Pardon me? Fernandez. >> Fernandez. Oh, yeah. For uh Maria Fernandez, thank you. And uh this has sanctions with it. Uh the vote needs to should have been and should be uh recounted again. Uh this carries with it the the view this is being so serious that the mayor could be asked to step down from the position. Uh I don't believe she was mayor at that time. But uh this is something we can't take lightly. We have some rules here and they have to be followed. And we have the leader of our council here not following not not going back to recuse themselves. This is it's unacceptable. And so I think we need to decide who we are and who we're going to be. Uh if we have residents in our community that fail to follow the laws uh we expect that there's going to be reprisals for those people. There will be sanctions. There's going to be a citation or something of that nature. But they're not going to have any respect for the law one if they're allowed to get away with it and they're certainly not going to if this is the example that we're setting. And I'd like to have a feedback from this from each one of you as council people as to how you view this and I seriously the feedback. We never get feedback from these meetings, but I want feedback from these meetings. I want to see what you think about this. I want to know uh how you view it, and I want you to go through and look it up to see exactly what this is and how you feel about recusal. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. That was the end of public comment. And we'll go ahead and give that over to you. And next on the list is items from council members. A, mayor's appointments for boards and commissions. Um currently there are none. Um but um we will be convening with the rules committee here pretty soon again, and that might change in the following um in the weeks ahead. Um going on to our next council meeting. So, we will move on to reports, announcements, and or questions by council. And I'll go ahead and start at the end over there with Councilor Chavez. Good evening, everyone. Um we are scheduled for tomorrow to go over to Prosser for the Boys & Girls Club tour, 3:00. Um I did have some uh council members that did reply of being able to go. I know that only three. Now, you did have a question in regards to having more than four council members go um Can you Right. I don't believe that there's a restriction on the OPM related to council members participating in events that are not necessarily city related. You know, if you all go to a festival and I'll see you all there, or if you go to an association meeting, as long as you're not addressing anything related to city business, it's not an open public meeting. You're just there in as a almost as a private citizen um and not necessarily representing the city. Cuz I would I honestly I would like for a lot of us to go to that. That's going to be something that comes in for our community and a lot of you guys' feedback and input's going to be very important. I know I sent out the the email to all council members and our city manager. So if with that, I mean you guys are more than welcome to go. We're scheduled for it tomorrow at 3:00 for the tour. I think it's going to be awesome. Um I would like to see all council be there if possible and I include our mayors. Cuz I do have uh mayor Deputy Mayor Julia Hart that is part of it. I will be going to it and Councilwoman um Sisneros is going to be going to it. So you guys are more than welcome if you guys can see that. Um Council member Hart was putting our names down for us and was supposed to be sending that to you. Because you guys were supposed you guys are Yeah, she was asking if we were going to go and I said, well, I was kind of hoping I could I was able to Yeah, let's let's do it. You know, I'd I'd I'd I'd be great. You guys join us. >> responded to you that >> I didn't get no response. So that's why I want to make sure that we bring this >> has said yes and I'm Let's do it. So since it's open, it's Do we want to meet at City Hall and drive up there together or take our vehicles? It's up to you guys. That was the part that um George felt that We should Okay. Take our own vehicles. Okay, let's do that. Okay. Um now it's it's at City Hall up there? No, it's going to be at the Boys and Girls Club with um the the VP Mr. Ace. What's Where's the Where's it located? >> It is actually right in front of the park. It's where the old high school will be at. I can actually send you guys uh the email I'll email you guys the the physical address to that. Or even off you also if you Google it, I Googled it the last time and it was on there too. But I can send it out too. Thank you, Council Chavez. >> So we just all meet there at 3:00? Okay. Okay. Council Rosales. Nothing to report. Council Vasquez. Yes. So first, um I wanted to share I actually was able to attend the Spirit of Sunnyside event. Um it was really nice to see all the local people who have stepped up in our community. We had a little bit of every um we had like the the um city employees, we had um educators, we had nurses, we had a little bit of everyone and it was just really nice to see. Even like the business person of the year and we just had so many great amazing people um win these awards, so I just wanted to congratulate every single one of you. And I also wanted to just say that I was at the Cinco de Mayo. It was really great. It was really packed. Sunday was crazy and I just wanted to give a shout-out to all the local businesses who signed up and showed up to make the parade extra special this year. I know it's a lot of work to put into decorating and attending and I also wanted to give a huge shout-out to Victoria Hernandez. I saw her like running around everywhere and you know, she did so much for our community and donating her time and also just give thanks to Noon Rotary who put in a lot of effort to make this event possible. So thank you to all of you and that's it from me. Thank you. Council Dolan. Can would it be possible to go back to the Swan Road annexation? Because I did I meant to ask on that. I read this part about it being uh special use permit mini storage. Um this was going to be taken down and a new um like a a house or something was housing was going to be put on that lot or do we have any So that is the question that was brought up. Um I believe Mr. Calhoun was looking into that. So, we haven't gave a definite answer. If If there is a house there, I believe the structure goes with it, but I don't think there is. And if he is going to put up a new house, um there are requirements that he has to The The only structures there are storage units. >> Mhm. Currently. And that's why I was curious about if there was going to be another house going in there instead of the storage units. If there is enough room, um that's That's what I've been told. If there's enough room, then we would have to obviously have to approve the plans, go to the planning, um make sure everything's going to be done correctly. That's all I had. I yield back. You. Okay. Um I'll go ahead and hand that hand up uh the items to the upcoming council meetings to you, Mr. Haley. Okay, we uh 2 weeks from now, we have another council meeting. And um full agenda. I'll be talking about that on the manager's report, one of those items that we'll be considering then. And then of course, our workshop is scheduled for the first Monday in June. And um we will have uh Monica participating in that one. That will have kind of a basically a budget workshop, bring her bring us up to date on where we are financially, as well as other items that she wants to include in the budget amendment. She plans on having that ready for a budget amendment on that workshop day. June 1st. June 1st, right. So, it'll give her time to get things ready and have a presentation for us on June 1st. Okay. City manager reports. Well, let's go down the row here. Leo, anything? Nothing? Okay. Nice shirt, by the way. I like that. >> [laughter] >> Hector, any more? Uh just working on my submitting all documents for the FFA F FFA FAA airport for the fencing um submitting my documents for the comrades to get all the funding that we were received. Uh submitting the documents to wash up for uh the roundabout uh first and first and YVH uh I have many. The Edison Bridge, I know we're waiting on May 22nd. That'll be coming up soon to see if we are past that short list uh for the governor's. Um and then working on the ordinance and SMCs with Mr. Taylor. Um there's a lot that we are working on to revise and bring up updated. Um and then today uh was working with Melissa from the county. Uh I went to the hotel off of YVH um sprung a leak. Well, it didn't spring a leak. Someone put a leak in there. Uh the water's off right now, but we are working with them um to get it repaired. Uh I believe they found somebody that's going to come down and repair it. I just talked to her right before uh council. Um so we'll get that repaired, get the water on, um and then hopefully uh they can find some housing for them. For the [clears throat] residents that are the working in there or living in there. Um also uh YV Tech YV COG meeting I have on Thursday. Um we have interviews for code enforcement. It was open in-house. We have three that submitted uh applications. So, they'll be interviewed here on Wednesday. Um and that's that's all I have. Yes, sir. Do you have uh a date set for the next uh airport committee meeting? I do. It is at the third week of this month. I will get it invitations out to get everybody updated. Want to let everybody know about the T hanger or the hanger that's coming up at the airport, um what they're proposing, and uh have everybody updated. How many How many spots are open on that committee? Uh the I do believe there's only one. There's uh one of the pilots there that I've talked to a few times now. He would very much like to be on that committee. He has a plane there in the big in the original hangers. >> Yes, sir. And and that that has to go to um be I think there's an application that's online that needs to be submitted, um and then it will go to I believe uh Mr. Haley. Council, I think it's the update on on the application. >> So, um if he would like he's more than welcome to stop by and we can navigate him into the application. Uh that way he can have it submitted. Yeah, I'll I'll let him know next time I'm over. Yes, uh stop by, talk to myself or Mr. Taylor, and we can navigate him through. Uh we do have a new uh development technician, um Lisa. Always she came over. She started on uh May 1st. She's uh learning a lot. She's getting thrown a lot, but she's learning and um I appreciate all the help, and I believe she's going to be help a great asset to our team. Um keeping the doors open as that's what we want. Uh customer service is our number one thing. Um so, and she's uh she's helping us out. So, that's that's all I have. Uh, Cameron, and now I should mention that you show no disrespect by wearing a hat because your hair was on fire, is that what I understand? Not quite, but I apologize for the hat. We assisted neighbor agency with a brush fire just immediately prior to the council meeting and I have what we like to call helmet hair. So, I was trying to just keep that under wraps. So, I This is not my normal wardrobe, so I apologize if there's any disrespect from it. So, Um, but recap reports tonight earlier today we ran 97 emergency incidents last week, that's Sunday to Sunday. Last week we did host a instructor one and IFSAC credentialing course at Sunnyside Fire. We had four four Sunnyside Fire members and five other students in there. We did have a 100% success rate on both the written and the practical, so even, which brought us to 256 and 1/2 training hours for last week, so pretty excited about that and then stand for any questions. Is Tony one of your trainers? Sorry. Uh, Captain Castillo? Yes, yeah, he's one of our instructors and he is a certified TCO or test control officer with the state. Chief you got anything? Not at this time, no. Not in many words. Uh, manager's report, a priority that I've been working on over the last couple weeks is hiring a new city attorney. >> [gasps] >> I have contacted colleagues all around various cities that I've worked at in the past and among those that I contacted two were interested in serving the city of Sunnyside. I've interviewed both of them. Traveled met halfway for both of them. I also worked with the city of Toppenish. We have an interlocal agreement to have them advise us about city clerk services well Dan Hyde Dan Hyde is also their city attorney who previously was the city attorney for Sunnyside back in their late 80s and early 90s. And so he is going to review the current contract that they the one firm that I I believe is the best fit for the city of Sunnyside carrying us into the future. We didn't we needed an attorney to evaluate an attorney agreement. So we're going to use Dan through the city of Toppenish. And I should come back with a contract professional services agreement for legal services here at our next council meeting. And you will also have an opportunity to meet that attorney that's going to make a presentation or just an introduction of him of who he is and what his company is planning to do or at least eager to provide services for us. We also have a city clerk that's starting on May 27th. And she has a couple days for onboarding and then we'll be sending her off to clerk school which I believe is in Tacoma somewhere week-long kind of a boot camp. And so we will probably have her officially well, she'll be here onboarding for a couple days before she leaves. But then she'll be with us as an apprentice because she's not certified but as an apprentice she's got experience and background in public sector. And in the middle part or the early part of June. Thank you for the update. Seems like things are moving along. Okay, well we've come to the end of our of our agenda. Is there anything else for the good of the order? No. Okay. Well, I think Council, this is record. We're ending our time together at 7:13 p.m. Only two items on the active agenda. >> [laughter] >> All right, if there's nothing else, I'll go ahead and adjourn us at 7:13 p.m. Thank you.

Test test test. [cough] going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 6 PM. U for the record, all members of council are here. Sorry for not speaking into the mic. Um with the exception of Julia of of Deputy Mayor Hart, um I have not heard from her. Uh neither has Mr. Haley. Oh, thank you. So, seems like she's she's coming right in um now. So, um we'll go ahead and Okay. So, for the record, uh Deputy Mayor Hart has arrived. Uh so, items for discussion. Uh Mr. Haley mentioned that Norma Gene Rios who was going to do the MRJN presentation for item D um is not feeling well so she won't be able to join us today. So we will have to strike item D from today's discussion items um and we will go right into E as our final item for for discussion. Um please note that um Mr. Haley uh has added public comment to this agenda. Uh we typically don't have public comment during workshops. Um he did um you did send over an RCW that talks about public comment uh during council meetings. Um I read that and it's my understanding that it's regular meetings um after reading that RCW. I don't know if y'all have any other input irregardless since it's been posted on today's agenda. I would like to honor it. I don't know what y'all sentiments are. Um, but go ahead. >> I feel if there's going to be action items, as I believe there are a couple today, we should have public comment. >> So, yeah. And if there [clears throat] are going to be if there's going to be action items, we should leave. I believe that's what the RCW stated. >> Are we taking any action on any of these tonight? >> Don't believe so. I I >> the Oh, >> since I think that would probably be the only one. >> It doesn't >> Well, there is a sign on agreement for the for the team. That's the first one. Number eight. >> Um I think that would probably be the only item. >> Yeah. >> For for um Yeah. to take action. So we will leave the public comment for the agenda items and then at the very end we will call up uh folks to do public comment for general comment. Okay, moving on to public comment. Is there any public comment for today's active agenda? Hector, would you mind? Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, um, just to confirm for members of the audience, there's no one doing public comment for the active agenda. And I still ask to make sure since we're kind of getting into this rhythm. Um, Miss Ripley, I just saw you approach the podium. Did you sign your name? Is there another document on there? Oh, okay. Thank you for that clarification. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anybody. Okay. So, no one uh for the record, nobody has signed up for to uh to do public comment for the active agenda. So, we can go ahead and commence this meeting with the first item for discussion. Um and I believe action will be taken on this item. A sunny shark swim team agreement presentation. Miss Agiri. allow the interim city manager to sign the agreement for the Sunnyside Shark Swim Team to use the city pool for practice and events. Hello. Hi there. I sent in a presentation as well. Okay, so I'll just start while he gets that going. Um I'm Janet Degary. I am the president of the Sunnyside Road Swim Team this season. Sorry about that. and I'm also um the Mid Valley Swim League vice president. Um prior to those two positions, I've held various positions on the Sunnyside Sharks um board. Um and the whole time being a parent, that's kind of how, you know, they roped me in to being on the board. So, um I'm hoping with this presentation that I'll be able to answer some questions that I wasn't here to answer on Monday. Unfortunately, we had already had our information meeting scheduled when um we were put on the agenda. So, I had to carry through with our information meeting for parents first and then you guys had agreed to table it by the time I was finished. So, I hope that I can answer some of those questions for you tonight with this presentation. Um if at any point you have a question, if you'd stop and ask it then so we can get it clarified. Um and if I plan to cover it later on, I'll just let you know that. Okay. So, um, you can go to the next slide, please. Our beautiful pool. All right. So, um, just starting off with a fun fact. Um, the first written record of the Mid Valley Swim League, uh, was actually recorded at our Sunnyside Pool in 1975. So, just a fun fact. Um, and the Sharks are part of the Mid Valley Swim League, which governs the activities of the Sunnyside Rotary Swim Team. Uh, there is a Mid Valley Swim League board, and then we actually have our own for each team. Um, and swimmers are allowed to swim for any team bordering their school district. Um, there's a couple caveats to that and I'll cover that here in just a second. And, um, we are a nonprofit. We do have nonprofit status. Um, this season our Mid Valley Swim League teams are Nachis, CILA, Sunnyside, Grand View, Proer, and Oll. Um, you might be asking like where's the Yakama team? There is not a Yakma team. They either go to Nachis or they go to Cila. And so those teams are usually made up of almost 200 swimmers each. Um and unfortunately this year Toppish will not be having a swim team. They do not plan on opening their pool. And their board decided even if the pool was going to open, um they wouldn't have enough time to form a team without having an actual set date for opening. Um so that actually leaves us open to accept swimmers in Tophenish, Zilla, Granger, Sunnyside, and Mapton because of that um school boardingering rule. Since Topnish doesn't have a team this year, they can actually come to us and usually Zilla would go to them and again they can't. So they're going to come to us because Nachis and CILA are completely full. Like they just can't take more swimmers. and as a league um it was discussed that it'd just be beneficial as a region if they had somewhere to go and obviously we do have a cap um for that. So if we were ever to reach that we couldn't accept outside swimmers as well. >> Okay, any questions on that slide? >> Yes, Mr. Dolan. >> Um when you have the the swimmers from the other >> uh swim teams, are they covered are they covered under our insurance? Oh, I actually get to that here in just a bit. I'll I'll answer that one here in just a second. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. [clears throat] Thank you. And so our swim season runs from June 1st to July 30th this year and we practice Monday through Thursday. I know that was a question during the board meeting um if we went 5 days a week and we do not. Monday through Thursday our swimmers have Friday off and so a nice three-day weekend for everybody. Um and our practices are divided by age group. Um in the contract that we're proposing and has been in the years past, um there's a cap at 85 swimmers per session. So we have a cap of 170 swimmers across the board and so we divide that accordingly um so that we never have that max in the pool. Um we've never reached that. We usually have about you know 50 in the first one, 50 in the second or you know kind of similar in those numbers. um depending on where we cut off the age group. Um and we do have one home meet per week this year. Um we have a very interesting and kind of awesome schedule. Um but we only have the one home meet per week. Um and our registration is open April 1st through June 1st. That first day in the water, we cut off registration. Um, just because some people are on the fence and they're not sure if their swimmer is going to pass the swim test that they have to have in order to be on the team. They have to swim that short distance of the pool without touching the bottom. And so sometimes that leaves them like should I register, should I not? And so we allow them to register up to that day. Um, and that was another question like hard numbers, right? That's just something um we don't have until we close registration. So all right, next one. Oh, I'm sorry. Counselor Galvan, >> what what times are your are your practice sessions? >> Oh, okay. Sure. Um, we actually start our first practice in the water at 6:00 a.m. This is um during regular, not the first two weeks. The first two weeks um I'm sorry, the first two weeks we're still in school. So, those are evening practices and that starts at goes from 5:30 to 7 and those are split in two. And our younger swimmers go first during that and then our older swimmers go last. Um, and then when we switch out to not being in school any longer, we still have the two sessions and it starts at 6:00 a.m. and ends at 9. >> 9:00 a.m. >> Mhm. And then our older swimmers come in early and our younger come in later. >> Yeah. We swap them because when they're in school, it makes sense, right? When they're out of school, get the older kids up and going. So, yeah. >> So, the public has access to the poll from 9:00 a.m. up. >> Correct. So in years previous um they've had swim lessons and so we're always out before swim lessons would start um you know so that's how that's always worked out. We've never um taken away from swim lessons and that is also u part of the contract we usually have. We don't compete with swim lessons. We don't offer swim lessons. We take the swimmer that already knows how to swim. Right. Yeah. >> Okay. Um and so in the past 5 years we've had between 100 a little 80 to 100 swimmers. Um there was that time during COVID that was very interesting. Um but we've kind of hung out around the hundreds mark. Um and registration always spikes that week right before the season starts. It's like oh no I got to get my registration in. Right. So that was one of those other things where like hard numbers are hard to give. And I'm I'm not just saying like a little spike. We're talking like over half the team registers the week before. Um, and here's where we cover insurance. So, each of our swimmers must have an AU membership. Um, and our insurance goes all the way through AU. So, um, everyone that registers has to have an AU number before their registration is complete. And so, we make sure that's all covered. And that's covered at a $2 million insurance that we carry. Okay. Um, and then last year we did host the AU Central Washington Swim Invitational and we do have the opportunity to do it this season, but that's not part of this regular contract. Um, I know that was some people were unsure how that worked, but that is not part of our regular season contract. Just so everybody's clear on that one. Um, and that is an extra cost to our swimmers to participate in those things. Um, champs and invitationals are an extra cost to the swimmers to participate. It's not part of regular season. Okay. Any questions on that one? Did I cover your question, councelor Dolan? Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Excuse me. >> Yes, of course. Um I was just thinking when back to uh the kids are swimming. >> Currently they're 5:30 to 7 and and then but >> and then later after school is out, it'll be 6:00 a.m. to 9:00. But also, do you have regular swim meet nights? >> Um so that depends on the schedule. I did already give that one to Mr. Mia and it's already posted on our website so families can plan. Um we actually determine that after our championship meet at the end of like this season. Um we all pull numbers and that decides uh what order we go in. Um but there's always that chance like you know Tophenish had to pull out. So then we had to rework it. So it was something that I waited to present to Mr. Mahia until the beginning of the year once we knew that for sure. So yeah. All right. Next slide. Thank you so much. Um, so we're now the only 50 meter pool from Yaka to Proer since Topish is closed. It was us and Topenish. They're closed. Um, so that really does leave us open for um, additional swimmers that want to swim in that 50 meter. It probably doesn't sound fun to you guys, but as um, athletes or racers, that 50 meter is where it's at. That's Olympic size. So, we get swimmers that are very competitive and they want to beat their times. So then they can do um league after our season and you know qualify for like pre-Olympics and things like that. Um and our meets are 100% volunteer ran. All of our um families have to volunteer in order for their swimmer to swim. We can't make it happen any other way. Um it, you know, takes about 40 people just to run when we meet because we have our timers, we have our runners, we have our stroke judges. And it sounds like a lot of people, but once everybody's on deck, you notice it's really not because there's so much going on. Um, and I always say it's a family sport because like I said, if you're a swimmer swimming, you're volunteering. So, it literally takes the whole family. And sometimes it's not just like the parents. Like we have cousins out there. We have, you know, aunties and uncles and we even have, you know, younger siblings that are timing because maybe the parents don't want to. And so, younger sibling volunteers or just somebody that represents their family comes and volunteers. So, it's very much a a family sport. Any questions there? Nope. Okay. And then our fees. Um, so we do charge $150 per swimmer and that covers our contract with the city and then helps pay our coaches and that doesn't cover all of our cost obviously. Um, so we do ask we are asking that you keep our fees as low as possible just because we are a nonprofit. Um, and we'd like to continue to have a swim season and right now costs are already kind of hard for the families. So if our fees raise, which we understand, you know, every year there's usually a little bit of a change, um, then that's something that we would have to pass on to our families. Um, we do offer things like sponsorships to those families. they can go out and ask businesses for sponsorships. Um, we've brought on several fundraisers and that kind of helps offset um the expenses with donations and we also have our Shark Shack where we do concessions and we brought that back last year. It had been closed for a couple seasons um and that does help with some of our costs but honestly it's really hard because we want our families to go out and get those sponsorships. So, as a team we also can't ask for those, right? because everybody's kind of topped out at some point. Um, so if we can ask that the city keeps our fees as low as we can, then we can continue to keep that fee lower for our families and more affordable. >> Yes. >> Have Have you been able to keep it at the 150? >> So the 150 has actually been we've had that now since after a little after COVID. So the last three seasons we've been at the 150. We did have to raise it because we had a jump in swimmers and so we needed additional coaching. And so that's where it kind of gets tricky, right? Is like the more swimmers we have, the more coaches we need, and then like the cost just it's really hard for us to balance that. Um because we want to keep everybody safe and in the water. So yes, did that answer your question? >> It did. I mean it it's really important to keep them affordable. >> Exactly. >> And that's why we offered more um fundraisers this year than we have any other year. Um at the end of the year we did a feedback survey for our families and you know asked what we could do better or what we did right and one of the things was like the cost please like if you could do anything with the cost. So we have offered several fundraisers already before the season started to help um raise money for that registration fee. >> And I believe you offer um businesses right to >> Yeah. So that's under our sponsorship. We call that our banner sponsorship. And um you know the swimmer can take in we've got a sponsorship form they can take in and ask uh businesses uh to sponsor a banner and um that pays for their registration fee and then leaves a little bit for us and that usually helps offset some of those costs as well. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So you mentioned something about how it's been a little bit challenging if there's more swimmers. You know there's more coaching requirement and demand. So yeah what do you predict as like now knowing that top finish will be closed. Do you think that you guys will grow? >> So, last year, Topish was closed as well. Um, but that started a little different. It looked a little different last year. They actually went as far as getting their team to register last year before they were told they wouldn't have a pool open. Um, so they were all those swimmers were anticipated to swim and then they were offered refunds and they could come this way if they wanted to, right? Um, so we only had about a handful of top finishers last year. This time now, they already knew that starting. So, we've already had some Topish swimmers um registering with us, which is nice because they were prepared for that move and knowing, hey, there's a nice 6 a.m., you know, practice time cuz that's some travel for those families as well. Um, so knowing that, I see our numbers growing a little bit, but like I said, we usually hang around that 100. I don't see a huge jump happening, but I might be surprised. You never know, right? Um, at this point, I'll be honest with you, we have like 12 swimmers registered, so like I said, we'll see that spike. It hasn't happened yet. Okay, >> that's good. Thank you. >> Uhhuh. Is that >> I just another question regarding the the registration. >> Yes. >> Include all of their gear. >> It does not. >> So that is a separate issue. >> It is. Yes. Uh-huh. And during practices they can swim in whatever they like obviously swimwear. Um but during competition they have to have a black swimsuit. So that's another fee as well. And that's not something that's covered in the registration. That's just to pay for the cost of us renting the bull and for, you know, coaching staff. Any other questions on there? Kate, >> of course. >> You know, you've been doing a really good job doing this. You've done it for a while. My kids wins, you know, and u we appreciate a lot of work that you put into it. There's a lot. People don't realize how much work there is to organize all the parents and all the and the swim meets, but I want to give you kudos for that. You've done a good job with it. >> And we have a really great board. It It's literally not just me. I know this year I'm helping drive that ship, but honestly, without a great board behind you, it's really hard. Um, and that's always learned, right? So, I appreciate those behind me this year. Do you guys have any more questions that I can help clarify? I know you're going to be talking about the contract itself. Um, and I just want to make sure there's no outstanding questions. >> Any other questions? I know there was questions particularly about the numbers. I think it was asked. >> It was and I tried to cover that like I said, but it's just really hard to know. >> Mhm. >> So, it's not something we can actually, you know, project for this season just yet. >> Said you're also having a cut off, right? >> Um, we always have our cut off on June 1st. um that's registration cut off and we do allow our families um within the two week start time if for some reason it's not for them, it's not for their family, it's not for their swimmer, they get a refund, but we've already paid the city for them. [clears throat] So, we're out that cost as well. Um but it's something in our contract that we've agreed upon giving our numbers and so we do and we pay for them in good faith and sometimes it just doesn't work out. >> Mhm. >> Or you pick up another swimmer somewhere. >> Oh yeah, we did actually. I think uh last year we had like I said, you get those couple that come the first day and they're not sure they're going to make it. So I think last year we paid our bill in full and then we had eight swimmers that day that passed their swim test and then we had to pay for them additionally. Yeah. >> Good. Um what what does the city charge you? >> Um so we're part we're charged the season swim pass. Um whatever that rate is for um on the fee schedule, that's what we always go by. I want to say it's 6250 this this time >> $62 if we're in >> oh [clears throat] 62 sorry exactly 62 I don't know where I got the 50 but $62 and that's what we're charged and that's just for a regular season I want to make that clear that doesn't you know handle any of the other events we may hold like invitationals that's over a couple days that's completely separate >> one thing about this too is that uh every swimmer also gets a season pass right >> so they get to swim on the team. Plus, they get to swim after on the weekends and all that, >> which is pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> And they usually bring friends with them that maybe aren't part of the swim team, but want to have fun in the afternoon. >> So, yeah. >> Any other questions for Mr. Giri? >> Is there anything you'd like to add, Hector or Mr. Haley? >> Um, we are working [clears throat] towards to uh we have a manager now. It was the offer was given today. Um next week we'll be working on getting our lifeguards. So we are working towards everything to make sure that we are ready for the swim team and all of the schools at the end of the year that uh have reserved the pool. Um so they're we're I'm working diligently to get it all taken care of. Um um and this year we will be having u our camera set up our computer. um now that we have a new uh development technician on site, she she is very knows about the pool. She's ran she's done the pool prior um and uh we're excited. >> Good, too. >> So, there's um [clears throat] >> action on this item. >> I could read the motion. >> Yeah. Okay. What's the desire of council? I move that we allow the interim city manager to sign the agreement for the use of the city of Sunnyside pool with the Sunnyside Shark Swim Team. >> I'll second. >> Got a motion on the table by councelor Galvan and I got a second by councelor Chavez. Is there any further discussion? No. Okay. Um, Councelor Chavez, >> yes. >> Councelor Zati, >> Councelor Vasquez, >> yes. >> Councelor Dolan, >> yes. Councelor Gwin, >> yes. >> Deputy Mayor, >> I two vote yes. Motion carries. Okay, thank you for that. Um, moving on to the next item on the agenda is B. change an ordinance from 2023 granting Ziply Fiber Pacific LLC and Ziply Wireless LLC to NFC Northwest LLC or instruct staff to rewrite a new ordinance and bring it back to a regular council meeting. Instructs staff to rewrite or make a new ordinance for NFC Northwest LLC. Kind of what I just said. >> A little repetitive there. It's okay. We all know what we're doing. >> Yeah. make sure it's clear. Um, Mr. Haley >> Hector, go ahead and >> Yes. So, uh, back in 2023, obviously, Ziply Wireless came into, uh, the city of Sunnyside and asked if they would be allowed an ordinance for them to bore underneath so they can get their wireless cable into their fiber optic lines. Um, come to find out NFC is now or has been part of Zipley's uh, wireless, but uh, they so what they want to do is allow NFC to take the ordinance and make it their own under Ziply's, but take out Ziplo's name because somehow they're conjoined together. Um, and they just want to make sure that NFC is on there and it states that they're able to do the same process as Ziplies. Um, on your guys's documents, uh, was the letter from NFC, uh, stating that Zipley and them are together. Um, they would just like NFC to be stated on the ordinance. Um, and I can answer any questions uh, if council has any. >> Council, any questions for Mr. Mahia. >> So, um, >> councelor Vos. Okay, go ahead, councelor Goodwin. >> Simply fiber, there's there's still a active company. It's going to stick around, but this is just like like it says, right? An affiliate. >> This is their parent company, I believe. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> And just for clarification, so you said that we will be adding NFC Northwest into the language of the ordinance, but we will also be removing Ziply fiber or can that remain? So >> that be remaining in the >> that would be remaining on there. I would just be adding the NFC. >> Okay, perfect. That's where I just wanted clarity because it's I think it'd be cleaner if we just add it and not remove any. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? So, would staff like me to uh just add it to this ordinance or would you guys like me to rewrite it and bring it back to council for a updated uh ordinance? >> I think if we're not removing any language that's already intact right now, then we could move forward with just adding that that new name. >> Okay. Then I >> Were you changing anything else or just adding that that was it? I >> that was just adding their name. help. Yeah, >> I agree. >> Okay. I don't think we need a motion for this if this is just instruction, >> right? Instruction. Yeah, [clears throat] the contract remains the same. >> It's just a adding an affiliate name to the ordinance. >> Ordinance. [clears throat] >> I will do that. >> Thank you. >> Sounds good. Thank you, Mr. Mia. Uh, any other questions before we we move on to C? No. Okay. Moving on to item C on the discussion. um municipal court presentation. I think we have some guests with us here today. >> Good evening. And I think you had a presentation, right? >> Um I think uh Jeff might work to to get that up here. >> Is it turned on for you now? >> It is now. Got it. I should have known that. Is that put these pieces of paper? >> While he's pulling that up, I I know a lot of you because I've been here before, but I'm Judge Lee, Troy Lee, and so I think there's three new members, >> I believe. Right. >> You're correct. Dolan audience, Mr. Chavez. And if we can't get it up, that's fine. Honestly, we did a PowerPoint point presentation for some who I just like talking to people, so I'm a little bit different anyways. And so I almost viewed this as more of a question and answer. I think it's coming and we also have it on our packet >> whenever you're ready. >> All right. And Miss Anquist was kind enough to do this PowerPoint presentation and I have the slides right here and so I'll talk a little bit about each slide. I think it works better if after each slide if there's questions because I think there's a lot of questions. I guess that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have this meeting. Um, all right. So we can go to the next. Let's just All right. Um separation of power slides. And I think we all know this, but there's executive branch, legislative branch, judic judicial branch. They're all separate. And you know, this is the that whole judicial independence, separation of power is something that's a hot topic every year, every time a new city council comes in all across the state. Um the general gist of it is is the court is the court and a city council and the executive branch need to be very careful about you know they control the budget and I understand that um but be very careful about intruding into the court's affairs just simply because it causes issues. I think those who were on the city council before recall a situation a couple years ago where um I think what happened was one of our cir clerk positions got terminated. We didn't know anything about it. And behind the scenes, just to let you know, um, somebody, an anonymous person, I I know who it was, went to a judicial independence committee and tried to get Sunnyside um, essentially in trouble. And I ended up having to talk to the judicial committee and ensuring them that I've talked to the then city manager and everybody knows what's going on. But they wanted the the state attorney general to get involved. >> Um, that was behind the scenes. I handled it, but be careful about those types of issues. Um, that being said, I kind of get it. I mean, I I I do get it. You have a position where I'm a contract position. Um, the court um there's a lot of expenses to a court. And so I do get that the flip side of that like why can't we control as much? Um I I do get that. Now the one thing uh people who have been here before and um I've said this before I view my position as the court as part of a team effort and I think I've even said that before. I I see the executive branch. I I worry about the jail costs. I worry about how things are benefiting them. So, I am looking at the these things. Um, I've never ever taken the tact of we're the court don't don't talk to us about things. We just do our own thing. Um, that also being said, uh, from the get-go, so I started here in 2022 for those that haven't met me before. And when I started, right when I started, I I invited everybody if there's any questions. I had an open door policy. I'm always available by phone or email. Um, not many have over the years taken me up on that. Um, but I am one that if there's issues with the court or people have issues with the court, I I'll address it head on. Um, and I'll find a solution. But all right. So, that's enough about the separation of powers. Does anybody have any questions? No. So on some of these I'm instru I'm I'm you know educating on some of these I know there's questions as well. Okay next slide I flipped it. So this is self-explanatory. Um the population uh that we're serving that are indigent it remains the same. It's maybe a little bit less in 2024. We don't have 2025s up there, but there's never going to be a huge change in people's indigency level here in the population we're serving in in the number of of defendants. There's you're never going to see a huge surge in those numbers. Right. Next slide. Um screening because I know this was one of the topics and so I imagine there's questions here. So, it's I model my screening after other cities and counties and dis and maybe more specifically district court, Yakma municipal court, but it's courts that I'm used to to practicing in. So, there's a screening form and it asks questions and the general idea is people answer these questions. There's nobody checking these answers. And so we when I first came on board we did that like the jail would do that. I think recently the jail was like please do we have this is take too much time. Do we have to do this anymore? And I changed the policy there. Um people coming into the courtroom would fill out those forms and I can tell you the great great majority of people based upon those answers qualified for public defenders. the now I changed it um partially for court efficiency and partially because it's not changing any of the assign basically changing the numbers is I will simply ask them do you can you afford an attorney no now I will say this I'm doing that on the record I'm even pushing it so what courts around the state now are doing and it's gotten to this point is with the screening of indigency is simply asking. There's courts there's many courts that simply ask can you afford um are you asking for an attorney? Yes. Okay. The court's going to appoint one. And there's many reasons for that. Number one is many many judges have gotten in trouble for even trying to ask questions about financial situations you cannot simp you can't ask on the record. That's what those screening forms ultimately are for. The uh second reason is because it seems like each year um something else the the state put something else out that you know allows somebody to el be eligible for courtapp appointed attorneys several years ago. What it was is if they receive any type of state assistance, it's automatic. you just it doesn't even you can't even ask any other questions and there's really no point to asking any questions because as soon as that state assistance such as um food stamp programs food assistance it's over they qualify under the state the as I was saying I was you know in creating those procedures I was trying to figure out well what is the difference if we do these screening forms is it has it really made a difference between how many people got assigned attorneys and I can tell you it was zero difference between those two. Some cities like King County, and it would have to be a bigger city. King County, their court system is huge. They do day court, they do night court, they just have way they just have a lot of cases. They actually pay staff people to verify information that people put onto forms um to see if they qualify. It's I'm always willing to try something out with the court. I can tell you it it's going to cost money. Number one, you need a staff person at and I'm just going to throw out figures, but 60 70,000. I think you would see that the costs you would save on the appointment of attorneys, especially in this community, um which is has a high indigent population and poverty level, >> the um the costs are going to be just a small fraction of what you're paying somebody to do. And so, you know, it's one of the ways which courts are are handcuffed in a way by the state of Washington. Um but I'm always willing to try things out. I I don't think it would work that way though. Um does anybody have any questions about that? This was one of the topics that I know was addressed and so that's why I was [clears throat] >> I have a a couple questions. Sure. >> Um so the form, right, the most of the most of the courts and and and the cities used um I was looking at the MRSC and and some of the cities, you know, kind of changed it a little bit around, but it still follows that RCW10.101 101.020. Um, and and when when my comments were, you know, why why aren't we doing this? And it it wasn't more I don't expect all of them to be screened for for accuracies. Um, but just the the the fact of having something like this in my opinion um would probably I don't know um deter somebody from from lying um just because I I know of a few individuals that um based on on their on the to you know 2026 federal poverty level they don't qualify but yet they were appointed uh an attorney. Um, so I'm not asking that we check them all. I'm just asking that, you know, there's there's a few questions in here on this on this form where it's a simple as, you know, what what your income is and just basing it off of the of the poverty level, you could probably catch a lot of them that will be lying. Um, and I understand that more more staffing, right? That's if if we're going through and and checking each of the forms for accuracies or any proof of documents, you know, that the court might suggest. And like I said, I'm willing to go back to the form. It just didn't make a change. Um, part of part of what I'm looking at, too, we're struggling. We have been struggling on under huge dockets. And a lot of that part of that has to do with how many defense attorneys we have and what their contract has said. So there's quite a few dockets. If anybody's ever been in here, it's not uncommon to have a 100 cases on in one afternoon. And so I have to go very very quickly. >> Um arraignments, we've had 60 arraignments in the morning from and trying to get done, you know, by noon. Sometimes we don't get done until 1 and then the other docket starts over. Um, I guess I'll get into this more with the indigency and and I know there's questions about the public defense contracts and things like that. Um, but there is a push for me to get court streamlined as long as possible. If if some of you recall when we first started trying to get that up and running and try to get the court more efficient, it wasn't uncommon to intrude upon the the city council time. So, I think there was a couple times where at come at six o'clock at night, we still had court going on and so I had to manage that a little bit better. Um, you know, I've been doing so some of my background, I've been an attorney and and most of the time a defense attorney, but I've also been a prosecutor, but I've been doing law for 26 years now, going on 26 years. And so, in that time as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, we see it all the time. And I I see I see the concern there. There's a lot of times that any defense attorney is, you know, you you get clientele that have you free of charge because I've done a lot of public defense work over the years and then they get in their escalade and then drive off. That everybody who's been practicing law knows that happens. Um, I will say as I as I told the interim the other day is there's some reasons for that and some reasons we can't even ask questions about. Um, some of those people have income that isn't reported. Some people have income that can't be reported. Um, guess I won't get into it any more than that, but um, that's stuff that we're never going to find. um that's not stuff they're going to report on that sheet, but I'm willing to use it if if not only just to show that see here's our numbers here and here's you know with this sheet and it's you're going to kind of see that it's it's the same. The only difference I think would make um but I again I don't think it would make that much of a difference would be if we had somebody actually verifying information then you'd have people say oh they're verifying information. However, uh with another caveat there is how do you verify the absence of information? So, if you have somebody that that isn't working and you can't verify information, how do you verify that's not correct? The only thing you can really do is verify that receiving state assistance, which I think a lot of the population at least that we deal with, um they are. I will say this too that any any judge any court knows this that the kind of the criminal element so to speak that's a pretty small percentage of any population of any city of any county that you're dealing with. It's the same people over and over again. Um so you get to know those people in fact where they stand and if they're working and things like that. Um, in my experience down here, actually the people that end up hiring attorneys, because that's one of the other things that I look at, they said they were hiring an attorney from the get-go. They didn't want anything to do with public defenders. And usually those people are the ones that end up hiring. >> The flip side of that, I haven't you don't see that many occasions, and Miss Quist can correct me if I'm wrong, >> where somebody says, "Yeah, I want an attorney. I'm eligible." And then hires a private attorney. It doesn't happen too frequently. Um, but the reverse is definitely true. Um, any other questions, right? >> Wanted to add anything else, council? Well, >> I'll let him continue with the rest of the >> Okay. Um, this is what I was talking about earlier. I mean, this at least is what we got from 2024. It's it's the poverty level. Um, I looks Sunnyside 18.5 city of topenanish 18% I maybe that would be flipped but again we're dealing with the poverty level in a community overall we're not dealing with the poverty level of these um the individuals that we deal with on a routine basis in the courts so all right um next slide um criminal cases filing this is I guess what I I draw from here what I was talking about earl earlier is even with everinccreasing criminal cases. So 2023,400 2024 little less than that 2025 all the way up to 1700 and we're probably on par more with that although with some changes to driving with suspended thirds made at the executive level. I think that'll dip down trying to save case loads. I'll get into that um when we get to that slide. Um criminal hearings held. That's where you start to see me trying to limit the number of criminal hearings to limit those docket sizes is 400 more cases from 2024 to 25 but not that many more hearings. So um trying to limit the number of hearings just to limit the time and the expense. [clears throat] >> Right. Question >> any sure. So when we talk about case loads, right, we're use we're using the number uh on the on my left, I guess the 1770 for 2025, not necessarily the the the hearings, right? Cuz not every hearing needs a an attorney, per se. >> It it's more that if you have a case, then there could be four hearings, there could be five hearings because you deal with a lot of pre-trial hearings. Mhm. >> Um it it's very rarely probably that a case gets filed and then it's over at the next hearing. Maybe more so if people are in custody. Um I suppose just because there's an incentive for for people to want to resolve it. But um the criminal hearings held, it's always going to be much much higher than uh those criminal cases filed. And then as far as those criminal cases filed, understand that um not all of those have public attorneys. I mean, the great majority do um but some of those have private attorneys as well. Might might be a good time. I don't I guess I don't want to skip ahead in slides or anything like that because Miss Anquist took time preparing this but it the I think the hot topic right now and this is the hot topic in the state anyways is public defense and case load rules and things like that that is just it is it is destroying cities to be blunt and counties um with the expenses. So maybe this is a good a time as any to talk about that. Um, can I skip skip? That's probably what everybody's interested in more in anyways. I >> think you're right about that. I Yeah, those cases are because we're that's what we pay the attorneys is based on their case load. So, >> right. So, number one, um, we have this top onish contract that I think it's very good for the city of Sunnyside. I think they do pay their share. Now, over the years, it it's kind of I mean, let me give you an example here. When I first came on in 2022, I think it it wasn't until later 2022, 2023, where I was looking at things and I realized that Topanish actually wasn't under contract for the last like 5 years, 6 years, something like that. Nobody nobody bothered to look at it. So then I I did a lot of efforts to get it back up and I actually modeled it after other places contracts and I I do think it it's good for the city of Sunnyside. Now, in that I will also say o over the years when we were kind of dealing with that and I know there's a lot of turnover in Sunnyside now um there has been for quite some time um you know but there was things such as well no we deal with it like individuals in Sunnyside telling us no we deal with it like don't worry about it to at times saying like oh we weren't billing like we were supposed to um so that's kind of finance's job to do that ultimately so I do think that city of componentish contract is is definitely profitable um and helps with the budget. So case loads so many years ago uh the state of Washington passed case load limits that it it it hurt it didn't hurt as much like it was perhaps a good thing. I I I definitely have my views of it. As I said, I I op I've operated under those contracts and those these same public defense contracts for probably about 18 years. So, probably nobody knows better about these contracts and what needs to be in them than than I do. Um, another my third caveat, the the court can't be involved in contract negotiations and can't and has to stay away from from public defenders and these public defense contracts and defense case load and where the numbers are at and especially financial issues just because court rule says we can't. they seem to always pass new and new rules saying don't don't get involved in that stuff and so we have to kind of stay side that being said I've always talked to people generally about how these these contracts and how these case loads numbers are supposed to go so kind of to get back on track um last going into effect this year is where things really are starting to hit with the case load numbers and that's why you're seeing it be a hot topic for cities and counties across Washington um that's has a 10-year plan to limit cases all the way from uh last year one public defense attorney could handle 400 cases to where the state of Washington wants it in 10 years at 120 which is is ridiculous. It's it's ludicrous. It's it would take so much money. I think um it was Yakimma Municipal Court or Yakima County said we would we would need 20 attorneys um to kind of deal with our case load at that limit. Maybe it was 22 that um you have to couple that as as I as I said in the meeting the other day with there is an attorney shortage and it's real and it's it's very profound and it's hitting this area especially the lower valley very very hard. Um there's not as many people coming from law school. um there's not people coming into this area anymore to be attorneys. So, one of the things with with these public defense contracts and these public defenders, you have to be very very careful. Um because as I've said, if if cities are like, "No, you're going to do this, this, this, this, this." Or any court who's like, "Nope, it's going to be this way. It's going to be this way. It's going to be this way." Guess what they're going to do? The path of least resistance. And there's many pe many other jurisdictions waiting to kind of scoop them up. I mean, it's a fight now over getting public defenders to handle case loads. Um, even though I I'm you know, I wasn't involved in the contract negotiations or I don't I don't even know hows are set up, but I can tell you how things things should be done. Uh with those defense contracts, there has to be an independent person to count the numbers to make sure the numbers are being counted correctly. Um it's very easy um for I mean attorneys are human. Attorneys mess up anyways, but it is also very easy to double count numbers, to double count cases. I mean there has to be somebody that watches that stuff. And by by and large what I've seen from cities and counties that that employ those types of contracts is there isn't a lot of accounting. Nobody's checking and so um that that's creating issues. Um go ahead. I have a a question and in looking at you know the public defense services where I understand the it prevents a conflict of interest for you to manage you know the public defenders and whatnot but and Mr. Haley's been here a month month and a half. So who who's handling those right now for sunny side who's handling those numbers? That that's a good question. [laughter] >> I agree. So, I mean, it depends upon who's checking at the city level. Um, I I I believe Sunnyside is much like every other city that really there wasn't there isn't a lot of oversight. I know attorneys are supposed to do here's my cases for the month. I don't know if that's being done, but I don't know where they'd be going cuz again, I get over get to this a lot of turnover. And so, it seemed over the years since I've been here that it's this person, then it's this person, then it's this person doing it. Um, but each each attorney should be submitting monthly reports saying these are my numbers this month that can be checked. Not not quarterly, not yearly because then that's too hard to check. It takes too long to check. Um the court what the court's required to do and where it stops as far as I suppose what the court can do is we get number one quarterly reports from each attorney um saying that they're in compliance. Now it doesn't give numbers. It just says I'm in compliance with the case load rules period. As of this year, each attorney is now required on each and every single case that they do to put a little declaration at the bottom saying, "I'm in compliance with the standards." And I know what that ultimately is setting up. That's why attorneys have to be careful with those things. >> Speaking of the ster, >> I have a question. So, what is average case load for the attorneys? >> Um, average or maximum? >> Average and maximum. So maximum it was 400 last year. This year then it's gone to 20 300 >> 31. No it's not at 300 yet. It's it equates to it's a weird formula that the Supreme Court came up with like 10% of each mean. So this year it's supposed to be at 31 cases less than that. So 369 I guess would be what those numbers would be at. Then next year it drops down another 31 cases or whatever that mean is getting at the 10th year to that 120 cases. I don't think our contracts are structured that way. I I think the Sunnyside contracts are for 300 period. >> Um so they're they're contracted under those maximums. Um whether they get to those numbers, I don't know. Um >> uh Mr. So >> um at the end of each month, I do provide a report that is generated through our court database. Um and it gives a breakdown of how many cases were assigned to each attorney. Um based on that report that's given to the city, the attorneys are responsible for also providing their own report that that needs to be verified with the monthly report that's submitted. Um how that's being done I'm not sure because that would be at the executive level but those those monthly reports are being provided >> and the executive being city hall somebody at city hall. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So I mean and and I'm with you right Sunnyside has has a broken system with everything that we do. Um we don't we don't have accountability. We don't have any any procedures. Um you know talking about standards. We don't even have a does anybody know what our adopted standard is? Um, you know, there's an RCW that that that says uh RCW10.101.030. The city is required to have adopted standards for indigit defense, including case load limits, qualifications, and oversight. I don't think we haven't I haven't voted for any standards since I've been here. Um, councelor Hart, you've been here a little bit longer. Have you ever uh voted on a standard, you know, for for the city to to operate? I don't I don't think so. I don't I didn't see anything >> probably long longer ago than just more you know more recently probably in the last 10 years sometime I'm sure >> and I think >> but I don't know it hasn't been addressed more recently >> and and given that the this the you know Washington state supreme court um gives one direction and then there's a different direction from um the uh Washington state board association which which direction is our defense group following, right? Are they following the 10-year plan or are they being aggressive in and in and you know limiting their case loads a lot sooner and following the the the other one, the WSBA? I don't know. We don't know. Well, the so the WSBA, they are the ones who proposed and on both occasions they proposed case load rules to the state supreme court. Um the state supreme court is the one that came up with these case loads and said courts shall do this. Um cities shall do this. Counties shall do this. It applies equally across the state. Um the WSBA didn't have any power other than lobbying for the state supreme court to do that. Now, it's a it's a probably a legit question or you know to ask does ultimately the state supreme court have the power to kind of legislate from the bench and say this is what we want. That's a different question. Um and I I don't know if there's any lawsuits. My guess would be some some would be forthcoming especially when we start getting into that second year, third year when numbers keep dropping a little bit more and then it keeps getting costly. Um, I I'll be blunt. I [clears throat] was against the case load rules, especially this second goound. Um, because it it's really limiting the power of cities to protect. I mean, is how I saw it. Um, I've been do, you know, I've been doing this a long time, like 20 years, probably 21 years doing public defense. And there was a time when when there was no case loads that attorneys were fine. We were fine. I mean, you you budget your time. You you work and sometimes you work to be blunt your ass off, but you were fine. Um it's Yeah, I you know, I I'm I'm not a a big fan of the case load, but it's something we have to deal with. Now what happens if a city doesn't h my guess is remember when I said each number one the attorneys are going to um on each of their notices of parents have to do that designation saying I'm complying with the case load. So that now gives a case uh for the state to go after and individual attorneys to try to get a little bit of money and say oh we could sue the city of Sunnyside for this. We could sue the city of Yakama for this. They're the courts involved in this. They're letting people go over numbers. So, you want to be very careful about that. Um, it's it's a problem. It's an issue. And if I I'm acting like there's no good answers, there's not. Um, I think you just end up having to to deal with it at some point. Um, maybe the court re-examines that. I think it that rule itself called for I think at a five-year term saying let's reexamine it and see if this is actually workable and there's been a lot of outcry over it and you might see it kind of start repealing back at that point but >> you know I'm I'm I'm with you right it it's Olympian it's it's the Supreme Court giving us unfunded mandates for cities um you know and and where does that leave a city you know where where we have case loads overload, right? We have a we had invoices come through from from attorneys um for 2025 for for case load overloads. That money has to come out of somewhere and and unfortunately the first pot of money that cities dig into is is is for the youth, for the pool, for parks and wrecks, right? That's the first thing that that that we reduce. So I think if if if at the same time we're able to do some of these other things like you know doing the form making sure that they they do need the the the defense attorney um you know coming up with adopt some standards right um so that way the defense attorneys that we do have know how to operate know what's going on right another question that I had is the the billing forish who's who's in charge city hall or or you guys here. >> The the bidding >> a [clears throat] billing cuz we >> Billing >> we build topish >> that's city hall >> city hall does the building >> has to be that's where point I think last year year before we were told oh this we just learned this wasn't being built correctly >> and it's it's it's I'm looking at the contract right now it's complicated right you got so many percentage so many cases it it's a comp complicated system so now my question um to interim city manager these invoices that came through for the case over the case overloads. How much are we billing that to to topenish? How much is the contract allow allowing us to bill Topenish for those extra um cases if you could find I mean I'm not expecting an answer right now but >> I have contacted Topenish uh to warn them that there's some catchup that's necessary particularly with the increase to the new defense attorneys. Another thing that we are addressing is uh city uh court security and that has to be addressed because we are using city police department for court security and that's usually means overtime. So we're going to try to modify that as well. So they're cooperative. They're saying we understand we're in agreement with this. You'll just have to give us a proposal. We'll have to talk more about it. I did have discussion with uh Chief Layman this morning about that >> and um I had mentioned to him in the in the records that I was able to obtain for I think it was 2025 2024 there were expenses that were coming out of the court budget to pay for the court security um since I think September. I don't think we've followed up with it all the way but it is a discussion that we've had. So just to clarify, there was a portion of their wages that was taken out from um from the court's budget >> that and that's my understanding. Usually with court security reason corrections I think there was a police officer just because nobody was available or something happened. Um but that for the court time we paid a portion of that salary and that for the court time >> and council I I just have a so >> go ahead may I um a minute ago or so you mentioned how the process works as far as the billing when you fill out the billing that goes to to city hall. You said that it was um what did you say that it was um the quarterly complaint uh uh what quarterly reports were then sent to the city hall? >> Um that was going to be for the cases that are assigned to each attorney each month. Right. >> Yes. Those are submitted on a monthly basis. >> On a monthly basis. >> Yes. and provided to um well at that the last person I was providing it to was Monica but every finance supervisor director at that point was being given those monthly reports. >> Okay. So that should have been showing up. It shows up where where the bail goes to somebody or refund of bail or or things like that. But I was more interested right now in the the attorney's uh case load. >> Right. >> Yeah. So how that works. But you don't have anybody that you're actually turning it into. It just happened to be that that was going to offset her. >> Yes. Um today I just submitted um there was one still sitting in her box. Um but I gave that to somebody over in the finance department who would said who said they would give it to Mr. Alamido. >> Mhm. Mhm. >> Okay. Cuz we want to make sure that they're getting reported somehow. We just need to know where that that that breakage is. >> Deputy mayor, is this something that um the finance committee has began discussing or plans to discuss? >> I think it's something we're planning on discussing to kind of figure out how how especially how it's coming how the how the reports are coming in, how they're being dispersed and being recorded, and how we're billing for them, how they're being built. So, so the first time that I saw that reporting was after our first uh invoice that came through for the case overload invoice. >> After that, that's when that's when Monica uh gave us somewhat of a of another report. >> Um I don't remember what she had said for 2025 and and why the reasoning was that we didn't catch it. Right. We >> Yeah, it was it wasn't a very good explanation, but it would have been because it was >> there wasn't a good answer at that point. So >> yeah but that is something we are looking into. So that conversation is really important. >> I and I will say this because this was the recent and sinquist said this is what what's being discussed. So to try and limit the case loads and trying to limit the costs u Mr. Everett the prosecutor was amending suspended thirds which are criminal charges to infractions. That's probably still met with resistance. you're always going to have one the the police or other sides having disagreements over that, but it really was to save costs. I I think what ended up happening and what the court found out about is attorneys were still counting those as cases at the arraignment stage of things, which probably leads me to believe that also what's happening is attorneys are counting those cases at arraignment, then it's going to somebody else and that same case is counting as a case. maybe K to because I we wondered about that >> about the the arraignments if if that was a separate and I think when we talked to um >> those just recently we had a conversation about that um so yeah we don't need that to be happening >> a a case so a case is a case is a case a case is through completion you know of >> you get the case >> go all the way through >> it doesn't happen in stages so the arraignment is one case and then the same case but it's not at the arraignment stage. >> Um, >> also those things though are you know what is a case is a creature of a contract. So I suppose a city is always I don't I've never been privy to those defense contracts but a city is free to say well >> we're counting as a case >> case agreement and one cases this you I as a practice pointer a city needs to be very very careful and specific about those contracts as any contracts >> um you know you are dealing with attorneys on the other end of it that can be nitpicky about those um going back to case load counting and those things, you know, I I would always always think a city or a county would want kind of a database or an Excel spreadsheet every month about these are the case numbers, these are the cases, >> and then you can see like, wait, the same case is popping up on here and then you have that answer. I I think it's just a a matter of not enough oversight and not enough probably being required under those contracts as far >> Vasquez has a question and then I'll come to you. >> Yeah. And you know like you said you going back to the case loads you know the attorney case load you said that max right now would be 369 around max and is this monthly? >> Oh no per year per year. >> Per year. Okay. Per year. And then you also said that you get like monthly you you see the monthly reports right of cases that are being signed to these attorneys. Um more or less do you do you see that they are hitting their max? Is is it pretty close to max or more or less? Like if you had to give an estimate, >> that's the tricky part is the court's not allowed to be uh at in a position where they can say, "Okay, you're >> I I don't have the ability to come back and say, "Okay, you're this is what your numbers are." I believe each contract does indicate for each attorney that they are responsible for u maintaining their case load. So, if they're getting close to a case load, it is their responsibility to contact the city and let them know, hey, I'm getting close. Let's figure out uh what the plan of attack is going to be there. >> Okay. Yeah. And like you said, judge, you know, like maybe it's just a fact of like figuring out an operation or like a system, but we definitely need to like have something where we can see and see those numbers. >> No, I I agree with that. And then, [clears throat] you know, it those that are always safe contracts need to be re-examined. However, again, we're in an attorney shortage. >> Yeah. So the minute places start doing that, it's like I'm just going here. >> Um >> and and that's not going to go away, then you're left with no attorneys. Um, >> yeah, >> you know, contract, I guess contracts that >> why an attorney would want to contract for 300 and I'm sure that was the push because then it allows them a portion of time to do private stuff and it doesn't put them up against the cap of now 369 cases a year because at that level, what the state says, which >> again, I guess makes no sense, is oh, you're you can't work anymore. You can't do anything. You can't do any private stuff outside of it. Um, however, if if the contracts, which it sounds like they kind of do cap, you know, say, okay, you do 300. However, if you do more than 300, we're paying you 150% of the value of a case, then that's going to give incentive to kind of get to get to that level because you start getting the more. >> Um, >> so just to clarify because I I' I've read different different articles. Um, for 2025, the case load per attorney was 400. >> 2025 it was still 400 because this new round of limits hadn't hit yet. >> So, >> for misdemeanor. Yeah. And that's what we handle here. So then in and and basing that off of your of your clip u up there for 2025, we show 1770 cases with five attorneys that should have given us 2,000 cases. So there shouldn't be a reason for a case overload in 2025. So then they build us two different attorneys for case overload 2025. >> That's Yeah. I mean, we're not privy to >> Yeah. No, I I mean that's things there should be oversight especially when something begins and >> Mhm. >> Councelor Cecati has a comment. Just a comment uh for Jorge and I think that's where um like you mentioned there's uh the billing that gets submitted and it's I don't know if it's the finance department you know supervisor director's job to um cross reference the cases with um the billing because I think that would help out a lot on exactly why they're charging you know the overload when the numbers are not numbering the math is not mathing I guess >> but And that's one of the reasons that I pulled that item um from the consent agenda because I I wanted to know the numbers. I I you know, we're here to approve, you know, $20ome,000 and and not have any any sort of backup or any sort of numbers in front of me. I I just that's the reason I I I pul it. And you know what, we're two months after that. Um I know it's already been paid. I know that the city I wish that we we had a system to where you know we approve the consent agenda then the checks get sent out but unfortunately it it's not working out like that but um you know we do need a better system we we do need more accountability um and it shouldn't matter the the turnover if if there's some sort of you know set procedure to where the new person comes okay this is the procedure that we're that that's that's been happening this is the procedure that we're going to follow. It shouldn't matter who's in that position. >> So, what's the proposal? How could we work towards that >> in terms of implementation? >> Well, this is largely a finance department component and I guess at one time we did have some oversight on that and personnel changes uh that was eliminated or or diminished. Um, and as Troy has said, you know, uh, there's a tipping point where they could just say, "Well, I'm not going to work with you anymore, so I'm just going to go down the road." And now, now we're in trouble. So, it is a tight spot here between giving them what we think is right and them basically demanding what they're going to do it for. And so I I'm not sure that there's an easy way of solving that uh under the current labor [clears throat] or uh attorney shortage, which I've had other attorneys say that that is a with AI that might start changing here in the future. >> I guess AI will probably change all of our [laughter] >> Yeah, >> but in the short term, this is the life in the long term. So, I'm not dismissing the question, but when we do have a kind of a rebuilding of our finance department, which we're in the process of doing right now, that this will be an item that will be included in that so that we can have some better uh um double-checking accountability of court cases as they relate to actual fees that are being charged. >> And and I I think it's also a product of of telling people, telling attorneys, this is what's required of you. Usually, those are written out in a contract. this is what you shall submit and I don't know if it's in those or not but um the the double you know any double counting of cases like wait I counted this as arraignment because it's mine and this that shouldn't be happening at all um that's giving two cases for one case now most places will and I think we I think the contract does this anyways to be honest will um you know pay this is what you get for an arraignment day or an arraignment hearing. And so that's what the attorneys are doing. Now, I will say this that usually the attorneys come in twos and there doesn't need to be two attorneys. So, city's paying for two attorneys to sit there on each arraignment docket when all there needs to be is one. Um, I don't know how it got that way that it's just they work they the two sets attorney works in tandemss. So on Thursdays, every other Thursday you have Mr. Andrews and then on >> No, he's every Thursday. Mr. Andrews is every >> Oh, every Thursday as far as arraignments, as far as docket, it's every other Thursday. The um every Tuesday is either the McKinley's or Mr. Gesler and then his partner for the arraignment calendar. They usually come in twos and so I my guess is there's they're both filling out double time for those but I don't know what their contracts are either at the end. >> And the question is is it really necessary to have two there? >> No. So, >> I mean, no, I don't [clears throat] think so. But >> I pulled one uh also and it had uh I asked what was going on with it because it had everything exactly the same all the way across the line item and the only thing different was the husband and wife's middle initial. >> That was the same paid. >> All everything was the same amount for both. You know, you say they come in Tuesdays. That's Is that what we're doing? Is we're paying two attorneys the same amount for the same cases, the same >> I hope not. [laughter] >> Contractor. >> Well, it sure looked like it to me. That's why I pulled it. >> Contracts are written individually. So, um >> that's what I keep hearing. >> Right. So, the fee is >> to the penny. >> The fee is the same. Should be the same. It's a retainer that's averaging 25 cases per year at $300 or 377 now. And the 25,000 we spent for 2025. Where did that come from, too? I mean, that was that was incredible to see that come across the table. >> I mean, it's like >> it sounds like how it's build. It's built a little bit different. So, it sounds like the city pays not in per case where you submit your cases for a particular month, but it's build at the 300 for the entire year in the installment. So, I guess if you >> 300 * 377 divided by 12, that's the retainer every month. Now, if it's the same amount, it tells you that they're both charging out the arraignment. I mean, they're both >> that he's paying for two attorneys. >> And so, the idea is that there's some of this action going on with the amount of cases per month. It's not an exact 25, but that's what the average is of 300 / 12 is 25. So, some months they might have more, some might say might have less. And so, then there's a true up at the end of the year when they've exceeded that number. And that's multiplied by the case rate. >> I mean, I'm I'm and I'm I guess I'm because I have been getting into [laughter] negotiations. I'm trying not to, but that's probably not the best system because then if you're under at the end of the year, you just got, you know, >> well, there's 300. >> There is a a qualifier in there that if we checked it and they and then and they actually did less, then they owe us back. But then that requires the checking. >> Yeah, >> that's one of the reasons, >> you know, and and more recently we, you know, this council voted to to increase their pay and I I that's the reason I voted no because I didn't have a full contract in front of me. And Mr. Haley, I haven't received the a full contract from, you know, from from your office um for city the defense attorneys. Um, I really think that, you know, going forward, council really looks at what you guys, you know, we're voting, um, and not just vote just because they're saying, you know, we need an increase and there's a a limit of attorneys, right? Because then just everybody's going to come to the city with with the handout and I want more. >> Well, what what they were addressing was parody among the attorneys. So, one attorney was being paid higher than the other four. And so, they were saying, "Hey, what gives here?" You know, why is that attorney making more? And so, if we uh the attorney that brought the issue up was saying, "Listen, if you don't give me parody, then I'm just going to go down the road and do business with another county." Well, that would have been, you know, catastrophic for our case load. So, we were really kind of stuck at that point to give them parody. So reviewing the contract wouldn't have really done anything because there's nothing in the contract that addresses that we could change. It was just saying the rate was not the same as the others and we think we should have the same rate. So that's what we did with the with the pro uh the provision that at the end of this year we're going to relook at all those and make some corrections and some clarity specifically uh defining what a case load is versus a arraignment and make sure that we have some real specific points in there that can guide us through this process beyond this year. But that's that's how we got to that decision. It wasn't necessarily a fun decision, but we didn't have a lot of other choices. We didn't >> I will say that what happened there and and it was I know that Bernie you're talking about um but it was the then city manager just kind of was asked and said, "Okay, here's your here's your contract. Here's your race." >> Um so not many people were involved in my face process. The good kind of the good news is for us though is those contracts with five of them, >> four of them, >> four of them are up for renewal this year. So maybe we can have a better go through the process to do a better job of seeing just how many cases, you know, what the bottom line is, you know, of course the the amount and all that, but we're really interested in keeping track of them not going [snorts] over their case loads if possible because then we don't have to pay them. We we don't get any information to go over anything. >> We're just handed a we're handed the bill and say, "Okay, everybody vote for this." >> And then you started out your presentation with be real careful about asking questions because that could be real dangerous. >> Well, not questions. I Let me I guess let me give you some context. So, in Yaka, I run a law firm and I tried to hire I can't hire anybody. Nobody can hire anybody. um I couldn't hire people for 130,000 plus benefit plus um a bonus. So 140,000. Mr. Everett tried to get somebody out of law school and even from law school. Mr. Everett recently tried to get somebody out of law school. They wanted 130,000 plus a bonus plus full benefits and so he couldn't hire anybody to help him out either. So that's kind of the backdrop of why I say that. I think it's good to ask questions. I just and you I guess you can only cater so much I suppose. Um but just be prepared and it's like he just said the immediate answer was I'm just going to go somewhere else. They have people have those options right now. These attorneys have these options. >> So you you but you have to you know you have to monitor these things and they have to be required and they should be required under their contract to provide monthly reports. I can tell you the things to look for. It's the arraignment doubling those. It's also always inevitably doubling up of cases once there's a warrant and somebody appears again. Is this now counting again? Is that person being rearrained? Are they counting it as a case again because they're at the arraignment for this person that they So, you can see how those numbers can start drastically going down. But it all starts with information and requiring information. And no matter uh which public defense attorney goes where, every jurisdiction is going to require that stuff. So they're not going to get out of that. Um so I don't think >> Mr. or sorry, councelor Galvan and who's who's in the finance? It's councelor Sati yourself. >> Yeah. >> Is this something that you can arrange to Leo or is it Monica? So just to do some cross referencing >> I think with with Leo taking a little bit more charge it might be might fall under Leo. >> Yeah >> cuz he's he's also talked about talked about that too at our one of the meetings we were talking about the defense attorneys and so forth because we did ask about the different arignments and how that breaks down. It was like, "What? That's just one case? That's one person. Why are you charging me for a brand new case? Every time he shows up in court, I have to pretend that's a new person." >> You know, that's what it was feeling like. >> The whole counting of cases. Usually, >> um, a couple things happen with arraignments to get around those those case loads and even counting as a case. either a paying somebody hourly to do the arrangements, having a dedicated arraignment person, >> paying for each arraignment, which the city is, but then they're also somehow it's turning around in cases and that, you know, that per docket amount. Um, [clears throat] you know, there's very rare occasions when something at arraignment can count as a case and there's just one occasion when it resolves. >> Somebody ever pled. Typically, we're not pleading people at arraignment and I've had it zero times here, but um that's really the only time because you just completed the case from beginning to end >> and so that's the one occasion where the state would say, "Oh, that's a case." >> Well, I think that's something to your to your question, Mayor. I think that is something that the finance committee is really wants to dig into as we're coming into these new new contract language just to kind of verify what it is we want to look for. who might call on you for extra help on that. >> No, that >> and Vanessa, >> that's fine. Like I said, I I try to give >> much as I can general information. >> Sure, General's good. >> Go too far contract. Yeah. >> Um because we are trying to deal with these court rules that >> all um >> but yeah, if anybody has questions, just call me, email me. >> Yeah, thank you. >> And I think I'll go maybe more constructive. >> No, I just had a question. Did we finish the presentation? I think we're >> you know what we got off topic and never should have waited on that that >> defense thing. Um I wanted to I guess I wanted to go into one more thing because at least it's what I heard and and >> be upfront with all this stuff. I think >> somebody had said well fine you know just close the court. You can't do that. City a city needs a court. And so there's two options for a city really. Uh number one is have their own court or number two have the county. And it's not that the county just takes it over free of charge. They bill what they want to. Um, one of the big buring costs over the last couple years is the probation department. So, if you look at that, probation services skyrocketed. What was it five, six times as high one here? That's because everybody, a lot of places contract with Yakma County probation and they decided we're not getting enough. We want five or six times as much. And you see that on probation services. I guarantee if Sunnyside didn't have a jail and just contracted with the county, you would see that at the the county jail at some point would be we want like triple the money now because they got you. >> Um courts court's no different. So, you know, you have to have a municipal court. Um Topanish used to have their own municipal court. Then Sunnyside took it over. Now, I will say that they got in trouble because they didn't do it the right way because it takes months and months and months to get all that process going. There's statutes that apply to it. You can't just say we're done they're handling which is what they did. Um, I've talked to the county, by the way, because I always do my homework and so I I I talked to the county about, well, what if you guys took it over? All they would ultimately provide as a judge, but at our case load right now and what I'm dealing with and what I'm trying to manage and doing well, I think is um they would want one full-time judge, if not a judge and a commissioner, if not two judges. And they wouldn't provide a courtroom. they would still use this courtroom. They would still use everything else. All you'd be doing is tripling up the judge costs at the end of the day. So, that's not really an option, but I just brought it up as somebody said sometimes people think, "Oh, we'll save whatever our budget is. We'll just get rid of a court." Yeah, can't do that. >> Can't do that. >> Um, does anybody else have any questions? I got way I knew as soon as I started talking and as I as soon as I start got >> Well, is that that that particular PowerPoint is available if we want to just take a look at and maybe >> it's in our packet and [clears throat] we can just give you some calls if we go. >> Yeah, sure. A better question is I it it's probably more beneficial if somebody one-on-one talks to me about these things and >> very direct and >> I had a question on the on the graph funding. Um, does that include both the cities top and and sunny sign? And is it a yearly application that the the courts have to fill out or submit? >> Yes, it's a a yearly and I think you have to do one every quarter as well >> for the OPD midterm. Yes. >> Um, we have to reapply every >> Well, it reups every year, but you also have to do a midterm question report. I'm sorry. mid yeah midyear one um it's always the same um I think it's capped out why you keep saying 66,000 it's capped out at 66,000 [clears throat] um there's not a lot of funding with OPD and you brought it up earlier that you know they pass these case loads and and this huge public defense costs but there's no funding for it >> yes the state has not increased OPD's grant money um there was a bill to require the state there was a lawsuit. There was a case uh where they were trying to get the state to say that the state had to help out with defense costs. That was that was struck down. >> Um there was a bill in the legislature to kind of fund this what the state supreme court wanted and the state of Washington punted and said no, we're not [laughter] gonna >> So, it's a fight between the the state supreme court and the legislature, state of Washington. >> No, I get it. It's frustrating. you guys are trying to do the best that you can for for a city and you know >> there's only so much you can do. >> Oh, I to be honest I've never liked it because I've >> I've [clears throat] been doing it a long time and to me any kind of case loads is telling me that you know what we have to have case loads on you and caps on you because you're just not as smart as private attorneys who can do 10 times that amount. You just really need some caps on you. And that's why one of the big reasons I never liked it. M [clears throat] >> Mr. Gavan, it's every two years for that grant application. >> You have to resubmit every two years, but do like a yearly report. You said like a >> I believe it's um I midterm >> I believe might so once a year. >> Once a year report? >> No, twice a year. >> Yeah, I thought it was every six months. >> Okay. >> It's a shorter report, but there's [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> Okay. you know, so with the grant money, I do see that it helps also like improve quality of like interpreting services for the defenders or clients. So, I'm assuming like a lot like a portion a good chunk of this money goes directly to them. Um, has that been working out smoothly from what you've seen? >> Well, they have separate grants for language assistance. I mean, we >> This one's all in one. It's >> Oh, did you include it in there? >> Yeah, that's what our grant falls under public quality of public defense services as well as interpreting services. So that's more than OPD's >> public defense grant. It's also including that language services. >> And I guess my question is more like interpreting services. I I'm I'm assuming it they're required or requested very often here. And has that been working out pretty smooth? >> I think so. I mean it's [laughter] >> I just received the invoice and send it to accounts payable. So >> Okay. Okay. I mean, it's it can run from I've seen reports where it's like four people have been requested for um interpreting services up to at least 12 people. So, it just kind of varies monthtomonth. >> Okay. >> But they're supposed to do it independently and coordinate that with the interpreting services um company. >> What what she's talking about is so we have the court interpreter and we pay for those services, but apart from that then you have defense attorneys um billing for those services as well outside. And so it should go >> we've seen those go into >> we've seen those budget >> okay on our register >> some of this I will say that I I was looking at the budget numbers earlier and at at times I guess I couldn't make headtotails and we were told that oops this was going in the wrong place now we corrected it and it's here and that's where a lot of the chaos was lying and so it's hard to look at this and I might get an accurate accounting I Okay. >> Well, thank you and sorry that we didn't allow you to finish your presentation. >> Oh, it should be Miss Inquist put it together. So, >> yeah. >> So, it seems like finance committee will be coming together >> and trying to troubleshoot this. If any of us have any questions, you prefer a one-on-one discussion. So, any one of us can reach out to you. >> Yes. Ask me questions. camp >> either um me or Miss Anquist. If if it's questions about the board, if it's questions about me or what I do, if it's questions about public defense, >> we'll follow up on that. >> Make this as smooth as possible. And anybody that knows me knows that I want things to get done and I'm efficient as humanly possible. >> What's the average cost of that? >> Of who? >> Of meeting with you. [laughter] >> I know you have billable hours to turn in, right? >> With my contract. I don't have I don't double up. [laughter] >> There you go. That's That's the right >> good answer. >> That's the right answer. >> I like that answer. [laughter] >> All right. >> Thanks, Troy. >> Nice meeting. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Judge and Vanessa. Thank you. >> It's next. >> Okay, moving forward. Um so, um MRJN is not gonna happen today. Think Mr. Dr. Hilly, you said you um you're putting it on the next workshop, >> correct? Uh I think it's June 3rd or something uh is the next workshop. >> Third is a Wednesday. So maybe the first >> in June. The first workshop in June. >> First work the June 3rd is a Wednesday. >> So um >> I'm assuming it be Monday. >> Yes. June 1st. >> Whatever the first Monday is. >> Okay. So, uh, since that won't be happening, we'll go down to what is e consideration of policy revisions to residency requirements. >> And there Mr. Haley, >> I had a larger discussion with the mayor on this and and so in addressing one item that was brought up at a last council meeting regarding residency as it relates to committees, the uh city attorney uh mentioned that there's some ambiguity in that as to define what committees might uh have some boundaries as it relates to residency. So uh I've submitted here some issues that have come up with other cities as they've tried to define what residency means and [clears throat] there's a I suppose a strict interpretation or there's a a broader interpretation. So the second half is saying uh some items that we might consider as it relates to creating a policy as it relates to what residency means and how that's defined. But in further talking with the mayor, there are other items under committee assignments as it relates to uh who how is voting members of council uh who sits as chairs and so forth. and it might require a larger revision. So, it was proposed that maybe a subcommittee of the council could be created to review several of these so that we're bundling them all together and having them all reviewed and having a little bit more continuity among all of the committee assignments and responsibilities. Uh, so that's that's where we could leave it here or we could go into some detail that I presented, whatever you prefer. >> Um, well, I'd like to know what you gathered. Um but um this came off the heels of a conversation I was actually having with councelor Vasquez I think last week. Um I was doing a uh out of a conversation from the rules committee. We were doing a quick audit of um some of the boards and commissions uh and I wrote down some of the existing vacancies on some of these boards and that's not reflected on our website. So, um I got a call from someone wanting to submit an application to the parks and wrecks, but only saw like a youth vacancy. Um but after talking to the chair, um Amy Rubio, um she mentioned there's three vacancies including the youth. So, there's one staff, one school district staff vacancy available, one general vacancy available, and a youth uh vacancy available. And then there's like two on planning. I emailed Mr. Haley, I think I copied you, councelor Vasquez, on that since I had the discussion with you. And um and then per my discussion with councelor Vasquez, all members of the economic development commission are coming up for renewal in June. Yes. So, um I in the email I told Mr. Healey if we can try to work on updating these vacancies to reflect um accuracy um especially given that one com commission is about to have all members expired. Um and then in having these conversations um there's been some confusion with some of the chairs of these um like the um for example Amy Rubio um mentioned that um I I believe it was you Hector that maybe showed up and then councelor um Chavez showed up and there was some conversation about who chairs that committee or that board and Um, in ELTC, for example, there's a chair, right? Um, in the climate resiliency board, there's you're you're considered a member as well because I think there was there was trouble trying to um fill in that board at the time. So, they considered her position a member >> with voting rights, right? >> With voting rights. Um, B parks and Rex. Um, uh, councelor Chavez, you're just a liaison with no chair permission or authority or voting authority. Um, weird. >> So, it's very, it's not cohesive at all. Um, the language around um, the SMC language on the existing boards and commissions is kind of all over the place and it really has given way to a lot of confusion. Um, you um, you you said on the economic development, are you a member? So I'm also like liaison. So I have no voting rights. However, recently I'm I'm like new the new chair right now only up until June until we get new members to apply and then we get to vote on who's going to be chair. But the only issue with that is that I have been able to witness that a lot of these new chair positions, they actually come in fairly new without any knowledge on how to run a meeting. and they do feel very um like it's a a big task and they have no tools like the city gives them no tools. they're kind of just given a title, but they're not really given the education or the steps on like what I need to do to do this correct or how do I do roll call, how do I and I, you know, Julia Hart's also been leazison on that committee and I know that she's seen um that it's been a little bit challenging and I was also speaking to mayor and I was telling her that I do believe that moving forward even like with getting new chairs in all of these committees, it would be very nice if we can get any resource like free resources from like MRSC see um anything from AWC any free resource that's that's we at our hands to kind of create like a workshop for the new chairs new members to do kind of like a welcome session because even coming into these boards myself and I I know mayor you know we we started coming into these positions and we we didn't really know how to start and we we felt like we were left out in the dark and we had to learn everything ourselves so even having that experience for ourselves I really wouldn't want new members, especially volunteers who are donating their time to have to navigate so much just to volunteer and just to do work. But I think that we should be putting um something together so that all of this can work more smooth. >> Yeah, the language Yeah, the language on these SMC's are is all over the place. So for example like adding residency to this like there's an there's a definition around res residency and then it still leaves off well at the discretion of the council and then for example the point of conversation last time was the climate advisory board and it lists like a few components of who should be filling in this board. Um and it doesn't list residency requirements. So on top of having conversations around um making these SMC's a lot more unilateral for example, a lot more cohesive like you know the residency could also be a point of conversation on this because all of these are all over the place and um the conversation ended with could we establish a subcommittee to start looking over the language and get it to a place that reflects where the council wants to take this moving forward. Um, since I believe it's going to take some some time to delve into into this and then bring it back to council and redline and add and take away so >> is it a subcommittee? Is that like a submotion? [laughter] >> It's not. >> Just just curious about that. Now you say you say Do you have your fun meter on tonight? >> No, because I'm not having fun yet. [laughter] >> Sorry. I I Councelor Galvan had his hand up. Are you >> Yeah. So, I'm still talking. Sorry. I just That was just one question. I'll be done in just a minute and I will >> I will uh you you just said that these this is all over the place and I've read it over and over again. I don't see where you're talking about it. I don't see where it's all over the place. It says very clearly unless otherwise provided no advisory board or commission may contain a majority of non-resident members. >> The ones that came up at that for it's that's what it says and we are breaking we're not even following our own rules. I don't see where that's out of out of place or all over the place. So I I uh I don't And then you mentioned something else about the city is makes a decision. Where does it say any of that? I don't see in that >> again probably why we need to do a >> I'll go to councelor Galvan. He had his hand. [clears throat] >> Is there a reason that the rules committee isn't isn't handling this? >> It could be the rules committee. I I wanted to open it up to see what y'all wanted to do with this. Um councelor Vasquez did mention a subcommittee. So that's if that was an idea, we thought I'd bring it back and figure out what it is the collective wanted to do. >> And another thing on the on the chairs, I know that Eltech is the only legal requirement to have a council serve as a chair, but I I really do believe that maybe um having the council member in that committee or board serve as as a chair. um you know there is resources uh councelor Vasquez there's AWC MRSC and it's just as much information as you as as you as a counselor want to want to take want to intake um you know there's there's free courses on there uh anybody can take not just not just a council member anybody you know the public can take um so that would be my suggestion is if possible maybe the counselor serve as as a chair just to maybe learn how to handle a meeting. Eventually, you know, one of you is going to be a chair um a mayor up here one of these days and and I think that experience uh really does help um when you're, you know, put to the task. >> There was a couple pen. >> Yes. So, you know, mayor um mayor, you know, um councelor Galvven. Um so, yeah. So, I actually volunteered myself to become chair for that committee. I volunteered myself because everyone kind of um just were they were looking at each other right like wait who's going to be chair so I just volunteered myself and I definitely personally I enjoyed running the meeting um you do get experience and it's pretty nice however I was just kind of like talking more on the basis of moving forward right moving forward with all these committees there are people who you know who get to be the chair of these committees and have no experience on of being on council have no experience with any OPMA or anything Robert's rules of Orders, no experience whatsoever, and there's no like no resources. And I have and I have received feedback from many of these volunteers that they would have appreciated, you know, maybe a packet, maybe um some direction, some guidance, and not just leave it heavily on a council member to always have to like do or or step up. And that's what I did. And I I I'm enjoying it right now. But [clears throat] but I just mean and you know and maybe that's another conversation. What if a council me member should chair maybe in the beginning to help the to help the upcoming chair, right? Kind of like give some direction. Maybe that would be nice as well. But I did talk about creating a subcommittee just because you know to give to share a little bit more insight. We were also talking about how these positions that are actually going to be expiring the 1 of June um they actually served for four years and four years is a big commitment. you know, we we we are up here for four years and you know, you guys are barely half not even halfway in one year. And sometimes when you volunteer to do something or you're ready to do something, you don't really take for account like the responsibility, the time and some of these positions are there permanently for four years. And what if and then you know throughout year two comes, year three comes and then some of these members stop showing up. some of these members of a family emergency occurred and they're not able to donate or volunteer their time and there's just so many things that have affected these committees that has not been able to that has hasn't been of help for the community for the city and I do think that maybe even going back and like streamlining maybe even the time the time the year the year amounts of like how long these people would be sitting on there and I was kind Even giving an an example of four years is a lot would be divided in half you know two years and if they want to continue to serve then they just reapply. And we were also discussing the topic of many of these people on these boards have been on these boards for many years and even like maybe kind of giving preference to people who want to come on in because I have also seen some members who have been wanting to become members of certain groups but the same people reapply and then it's kind of like um the the ones who reapply get kind of like dibs sometimes and not letting new people come on in which >> sometimes having fresh faces is >> which is very important to bring in new people so we get new ideas and maybe a new direction. So there's just like a lot that has been just ignored and a lot that's just been the same and and it's been staying the same and I think that maybe creating a subcommittee which I definitely am very interested of being a part of um these conversations um is very very needed. [clears throat] Oh, and then um >> and that this was just to share some insight of our conversation. >> Thank you. And then um just uh something you missed the um and then I'm going to come to you. I know you had there was no there's no language or at least I didn't see any language in there about how many if there's a limit to how many committees or boards people can participate in. So I I didn't see along with term limits um also committee or commission limits. [snorts] >> Go ahead. I think a good idea would also be it's our council maybe jot down what we want to see everybody because we all have different views, different perspectives of things and um you'd be surprised at how much we can come together and see that we have a lot of our own same things of hey maybe a new face uh maybe somebody that's has uh business here in Sunnyside just different things. I think that would be a good idea if we all jot jot it down, maybe put it out on our and table it at some time. >> Council Lean, you had your hand up. >> Um, yeah, but I forgot I lost my >> You had your hand up? >> I I do. >> Okay. Somebody had that. >> I don't know how. [laughter] Just just jump in there. Um, one of the things I'm thinking about too and and the subcommittee would be a good place to start. I think it really needs to start at rules and then I think a larger conversation [snorts] before we go to rules, before we start a subcommittee, before we do that, I think we need to sit down and have the strategic meeting and have it at there and say what do we want our boards and commissions to look like? Do we want if you have more than one person, you know, I have I have me on this committee and I have me on this committee and I have me on this committee. Am I not going to be influencing everything to be just like what I want? So if you're if you have just if you're only and it's really difficult, I've got to say to try to serve as a committee member on more than one, you know, that's why we're just supposed to be layons and occasionally a chair um as as council members. But I'm also talking as far as volunteers wanting to be on more than one committee. It's lovely and God bless them, but that's a lot of work. It's a lot of work to keep focus on on one committee, but I think we should do that at some sort of strategic plan meeting where we could just talk about some of these ordinances that we've been talking about with the business of the residency uh requirements or how we want to do that, who's going to be the chair. those things have been set a long time ago and they are due for a review and I think we but we need to really donate some actual time to it. So that's why I'd kind of like to do a retreat on it and just that one topic >> and even like a lot >> those S u SM9 C's. >> Yeah. And like how Julia is saying a lot of that language is outdated and it's not very specific. There's a lot of room for confusion within a lot of those. You don't want to make it too strict because you want to give yourself a little bit of flexibility, but it it's time for that flexibility to have a re-examination. I I totally agree on >> Okay. >> So, >> so what do you want to do? >> How do we want to move with updating and editing this to reflect what we want to do? Go ahead. >> I think that uh making this plan's great. We should start with number one and start working our way down and look at each each item. Uh when I was first looking at some of these, I thought, well, this one this one's pretty good already. Should we move on or should we change something in there? There was a the ones that I was looking at first were the ones that were changed by a previous uh administration and and I noticed that and I did consult some other people about it, but I noticed that the changes that were made changed and cut out voices from these people and put just what they wanted all the all the real estate contracts will stop at my desk as an example. Mhm. >> So the things like that to me, I don't know if that works for me, but I think if we start at the top, you know, the first one I see on here is citizen advisory boards that commissions created. >> We that was that was actually a ordinance that we that that was I think one of the first things we had to have. >> I have have copies of them. >> Yeah. And so you look at that and you say, "Well, maybe some of this wording is, like you say, outdated and we should look at it, maybe tune it up a little bit." >> But every time we have a workshop, dedicate the lion share of that workshop to doing nothing but looking at these and fixing them because there's a lot to do there. Um, I yield back. >> Can I just bounce in on what you're saying? I think you know redlinining going through and like we do redlinining things and saying okay this >> is this really what we want to say is this pertinent for the way we're doing business today. I think if we did that we could bring it back and then and then go forward you know making any changes if we were all looking at it that would make it a little bit better too. I I I like the idea of being able to to plug it in to a workshop, you know, where we're just going to work on advisory committees this week and then we're going to work on commissions and then the planning planning commission is a whole another a whole another egg. It's a whole another omelette. It's a it's a force within itself. So, you know, that's a different one you got to look at. Yeah, >> that's going to come up real soon. >> Yeah, it's going to come up too. So, >> but if you look at number two, >> excuse me for interrupting. >> No, no. >> Um, if you look at number two, governing law, every one of these has to be in line with RCWS. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, >> yeah. And there are >> you have to go slow and take a look at and say, >> and there are RCWs. >> Can you even say that? Does it align? And for that, I feel like we need um some legal advice on a lot of this stuff. And uh I wouldn't touch it until we did have that. Just uh >> just the other and if I may, one of the other things too is looking like uh George did here talking about the um the MS MRS >> MRSC >> uh talking about that and because they have a lot of that language too and we could use them as a as a resource. >> They're they're just a wealth of information. >> Yeah. So, am I hearing that the way that you all want to proceed with the um initial review and amendments or uh redlinining is bringing some of these back to workshop and looking at it together versus this coming to the rules committee. >> You think that's a good idea? >> Yeah. And I was about to say, you know, I guess it's it's up to all of us. I don't know how we all feel about that, but I do hear, you know, like councelor Chavez says maybe we should all jot down our ideas and maybe there's a lot that we have that we all have in common on what we want to see like taking like these committees towards a new direction. Um, so if everyone's up to it, I mean, it's going to be work, but >> it's work that hasn't been done. >> We could be a committee of seven. >> Mr. Haley, is this something that like each council member like if there are certain ideas that they have that they can email you directly and this would help you prep the agenda for that given workshop? >> Exactly. Yeah. You know, I mean, I kind of broached the subject here, so I'm just throwing it out there saying, should we look at this? And I hear you saying, "Yeah, we should." and and I was just dialing in on one of them, but then as you discussed, there's several more that need to be addressed. >> So, I'm just floating the subject out there and it sounds like it's a topic we want to address. >> I think so. [clears throat] >> Just like any other either now or never, right? >> Really? >> Is there any anybody who objects to this? >> Let's do it. the company that holds these and makes the changes to these. I forget what which company it is, but they they govern this and they once they change it, it's like there you go. Now you have your SMC's. >> What was that? What wizard are you talking about? >> Well, [clears throat] when you change an SM if you have an SMC and you change it, they are the ones that reward it and change it. You have to submit it for them. But then they change it and then then it becomes part of your city documentation. It's that this one won't be there anymore. It'll say what what the count what our little >> group >> group of seven came up with. >> We've done a bunch of stuff on that when we were doing rules and procedures. >> Remember George? If you change your count, if you change your CMC or SMC, it's it's going to be done by an ordinance and the attorney is going to draft the language for that ordinance to change. >> There's a one company that actually switches things over and keeps a record of each one and you have to apply. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Publishing. Yeah. Something [clears throat] >> code publishing. And then they hold the record of it also that you made that change. [clears throat] That way any anybody in Sunnyside can look at that and say, "Hey, we it's on our website, right?" Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I yel back. >> What? Whatever. >> That's nitty-gritty. We We're trying to just set up a >> Okay. >> Is there anything else that you need? Um, Mr. Haley, or you wanted to add? I know you said that you had >> No. Um, I I'm giving you financial report that just was done today. Uh Monica told me today that she has cleaned up 2024. So that's records of 24. So she is targeting uh I think the end of May, maybe early June to 25. But this was this is a transition period with our software with Springbrook and introduced all sorts of complications. Took a lot of work for them to kind of sort through and compile it. But here's the final numbers for 24. Um, doesn't tell you where we're at now because she's working on that. So, but just to give you a hooray, she got her done >> uh for 24. Um, there's there's where we stand last for last year. [laughter] And then I just wanted to affirm that u making progress on um attorney search. Uh my goal is to have uh three attorneys to uh choose from. Uh my authority uh allows this decision to come through my office through my research and and um evaluation which I will bring to the council then for contract approval. um the uh city finances and the city clerk is starting uh uh the and I use the word apprentice so that she could know that she's still has a lot of training to go through. Our apprentice city clerk is scheduled to start May 27th. No, >> she will then um be a city employee and qualify for um a boot camp as they call it for city clerks that's put on by the uh Washington clerks association and that'll be a week-long uh activity in in I think Tacoma. Yes, Raymond. >> So, you said she's starting on the 27th but won't be here for another week, correct? because she she has to be a city employee to go to this thing and this event is held once a year and it just happens to be in June. So, you know, we we got her squeezed in as a city employee um uh so that she can attend she will be no she won't be here but in the meantime we have uh interlocal agreement with the city of Tapenish who are providing us guidance and clerk work. Uh Heidi Rios Rios is helping us with that. She's also assisting us on uh public records requests and kind of guiding us through uh clerk activities. She has a computer uh that gives her access to the city and so she can do work from her desk in Tapenish. It's really helpful. Yeah, it's thanks thanks to Tapenish for helping us out. They're also providing uh a resource through their attorney because we don't have an attorney to review an attorney contract. So, uh they're providing that service as well on our behalf. >> You answer that one. >> Well, I think he answered that my question. That was my concern as to who was doing the the city clerk uh job right now because I know that if if we miss a a request, it could be $25,000 uh in in fines [snorts] um that we could get. Um so, want to make sure that we do have somebody that that that's going through the emails and and doing the the public records. I guess the initial the initial response for now. >> I'm I'm monitoring the previous city clerk's uh emails. So, I send those off to Gabino and I believe that they are also coming directly to Heidi. Is that right as well? Heidi now has access to um our public records system and she is uh now monitoring those and uh responding to some of them. >> Right. >> Heidi. >> So Heidi Real House of uh >> Topish along with Cababino along with Cababino and >> he is over fire station. >> He's in the fire station. >> He told me at dinner he he wouldn't do that job. [laughter] >> [cough] >> knowing how hard it is. >> He did get citizen of the year or whatever award for he did. >> I told him he has to he can't just lay it on his law. >> I did my best to talk him into it, but he he [clears throat] wouldn't touch it. >> Oh, thank you. Um, so there's nothing else. We can move on to the final portion of the of today's agenda, which is public comment. >> [clears throat] >> while he's getting that. Are we going to do agenda on Thursday this week for next week? >> There's no council meeting next week. >> There's no Yes, there is 11. >> Oh my goodness. >> Hang on, girl. >> Yes. >> So 9:00. >> I think it's on my calendar. Right. Oh, no. It's actually not on my calendar. >> May 11th. >> It was on the agenda. >> Yeah, it was on the agenda. >> Um, no. Um, she's talking about the meeting before the >> Oh, >> before the agenda. Yeah, >> that sounds >> But yes, the other one was on the agenda. >> Yeah. >> So, in the >> Okay, >> go ahead. >> Um, >> uh, so com public comment um for non-aggenda items and we have a few people who have signed up. I'll go ahead and start us off with um Tony Sto. >> I'm here concerning the shooting across my street park. I'm Tony Sodto from Sunnyside. I want to commend the police department for being there so quick. I was on the phone to dispatch explaining to her what was happening and those people were there in a hurry and then all of a sudden this guy comes out running in the back of my fence and out the other property. Uh they did an excellent job. They were out there finding evidence uh looking for stuff and talking to people. Unfortunately, when this incidents like this happen, it becomes a circus. And then along comes the clowns and the gawkers. I mean, come on. You know, they were picking up evidence from from right there in front of my house. They had put those little things that they put up there. Well, you know, it so happens that we one of your council members was up there and he went right through that street and those policemen was still looking for those bullet casings that were out there. I mean, they were all over the place. I mean, people should be more aware of what is happening. Those those policemen were trying to get evidence and stuff that happened there. And it was a kid that was shot. The people that were right next on my street, that was the parent of the kid that was shot. That's a human being. And it becomes a circus. And even worse than our council member was there. So it's awful. People should not this person should be recommended for that. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's bad. Um, don't be concerned for me or for for what happened, for empathy or for concerns. Be concerned for that parent that that got shot and that's a human being. And if this councilman should was thinking that he was it was his neighborhood and um he he wanted a gawk fine, but then he should have been more concerning to that parent that his her kid got shot. So what I'm saying more empathy and more concern I don't want it from anybody but that lady needed it. It was her kid that was shot. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up on our list is Vicky Ripley. >> Okay. >> Next up on our list is Teresa Hancock. Yeah, Teresa Hancock Sunnyside. Um, uh, I just want to say that while I was on still on council, I got many, many complaints from people about kids riding their motorcycles without helmets up around the hill. I watched as we were helping Mr. Dolan, uh, Sharon, Vicki, we were out helping a a senior citizen rehab her property so that she wasn't in violation of city code. And here comes these kids on these motorcycles, no helmets, as fast as they can, curvy roads, and and I have called and I have talked to Rob, and I will continue to talk with Rob. I know Rob cares. I'm not saying that this is Rob's fault or anything else, but today or um I guess it was today. Yeah. 6 10 hours ago, somebody posts on there, they have pictures of these kids on these illegal motorcycles on the road riding and these kids don't have helmets on. Some people are excusing it, saying, "Oh, it's just kids being kids." It's breaking the law. I don't care what the what you want your kids to do or how much you don't want to parent. If someone is, say me, if I'm driving on on Crescent or what one of these roads and I hit one of these kids, I've got to live with it the rest of my life. Their parents didn't get them off the road so that I didn't, you know, that I didn't have this accident. We need to enforce these laws. There's pictures of these kids. They're identifying themselves on Facebook. We need to do something about that. They, you know, they're saying, "Well, would you rather they were shooting people or gang banging?" Those aren't the two alternatives. It isn't writing and breaking the law or being a gang banger. There's other things. And hopefully we get a Boys and Girls Club here, but in the meantime, the parents still need to be parents. So, um, I hope you guys take this seriously. has been going on for over 5 months, lots longer than that, but for 5 months I've been advocating for this and and and and to get this stopped before there is a real tragedy. And there's going to be a real tragedy here. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Up next, um, and the final person on the list is Sharon Dolan. >> Is there anybody online? >> Hello, council. A lot of my questions were answered in the court stuff, but one question I have is when the budgeting was going on for 2026 at the end of 2025, the court gal did a presentation and talked about the revenue and the funds coming in, but she a a former council member asked what are the court's expenses and she didn't have that information when she was doing her presentation. and the election happened and that council person wasn't on council anymore. The so that information I don't believe council was ever given. Maybe I missed a meeting about what are the expenses of the court. Where do we stand? Are we losing a lot of money? Are we making money? Where do we stand? And so I think the finance committee needs to ask for that report. what what was the year-end expenses of the courts? What is the city looking at? That's one thing. Another thing is um and I don't remember if it was at the end of the year um or at the beginning of the year with the new council, but it was because of all the financial woes and we don't know where we are. It was stated that um and Monica Hoffetter agreed to it that a quarterly report would be given to council and I'm wondering finance committee do you have that and when will that be available to the public because I would like to look at that that's all I have you maybe answer that sir that particular about the quarterly report because we are working on having that soon, >> right? >> We make every effort to get that reporting towards that. >> It's uh it's on my list. [laughter] >> Leo's a busy guy. >> He's a busy guy. [clears throat] >> Okay. Um there seems to be no one online wanting to make a public comment. Um is there anything else for the good of the order? I confess. Uh >> oh. It was me. I went up there. One of my constituents called me. I had her >> Oh jeez. >> Had her son in my class and they called and said, "Oh, there's somebody shooting up here." So >> I did. I went up there. I did not cross any police tape or any police lines. I stayed in my car except to talk to one of our officers because I know him pretty well. And you know, I got I don't have pockets full of casings anywhere, so I don't >> I didn't know. >> She's kind of uh she she gets excited sometime. I told her I I told her that she when we were sitting together one night at a council meeting, I said, "Tony, you need to write a book and I'll be your first customer and buy that thing because she's great. She's very entertaining sometimes. I I love sitting with her. She's just And I I saw the scare on her face when we drove past because she was out in her yard. We were going to I was going to stop and see if she's okay. I used to live across the street from the house she lives in now. And that was a crazy crazy thing that happened up there. There was over a hundred markers in the street down this on the north side of the park. They had all their markers and all the casings everywhere. And and when I talked to the officer, he says, "Yeah, they were down here shooting each other 20 yards away and nobody got hurt." >> I don't know if she's talking about somebody getting shot, but um there was >> didn't indicate anybody was injured. >> Oh, there was well over 150 casings and no one got killed. I was thanking the little Lord for that. >> [snorts] >> So, I just wanted to see what what the possibility is to update our our website with some of the contact information, numbers, email addresses. Um, even for for city staff. Um, I was just at a an appointment earlier and and they couldn't get a hold of anybody and and um code enforcement. Uh, they had a concern and I emailed uh you, Mr. Haley about a a fire hydrant that's being blocked by some fencing and so it should be in your email. So I was just wondering what you know what we could do to update the the the city website to have those phone numbers and emails updated. So if there is any code enforcement please uh if you guys are directing to me and then I will uh direct them to uh my building official and my building inspector and myself to take care of those. Um, we haven't received any calls or anything for the uh fire hydrant. So, if if it is a concern, please please uh allow me to be able to rectify that and get that taken [clears throat] care of, >> you know, and I forgot that you were in charge of code enforcement, but I just >> and that's okay. And I shoot it to him. >> Yeah. >> So, but yeah, there is a lot of outdated information and um I did include that in the email to Mr. Haley, too. >> Brought brought that up too. >> Yeah. So, >> and and we are working on uh getting the code enforcement. Uh we have it uh posted in house. There are uh three applicants uh that will be interviewed and um and if that those three applicants don't work out, then we'll post it out to the public. So, just to give you a heads up, >> we're required by contract to do that. >> Yes. >> All right. So, um, >> I I just want to throw a shout out to this guy right here because he put our numbers up there for our constituents to constituents to call us and I've been getting a lot of calls. I got to start wearing my phone around now. >> You were getting calls already. >> Lots of them. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. Without ado, um we will um wrap up this meeting at

We'll call the uh staff who are here. Need a pencil. Um So, we'll start down at the end with uh uh Leticia Cesati. Here? >> Here. >> Uh Karen Vasquez. >> Present. >> Uh Tom Dolan. >> George Gavan. >> Present. >> I got to put down Letty here cuz she was first on my uh Angela Hart, so I'm here. We do have uh ex- excuses from both um Ramon Chavez, who asked for excused absence from tonight's meeting, and Mayor Vicki Fosco. Um do I have any objection to excusing those two? They both called ahead. They both had valid excuses. >> No objection. >> No objection, okay. All those put all those the same? Yes? Okay. Get that down. Not used to writing and talking at the same time. Just writing usually, you know, so. Write Chavez. Um First of all, we have agenda approval on the list. Um I think if everybody has had a chance to look at the agenda, the only thing that I think Let me see. We got Nope, everything's there. Um Do we have any objections to uh uh accepting the uh consent agenda? >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> So, I I noticed that it looks a little bit different. Item nine is missing. Uh maybe three lines. And then the public comment is only one segment. I mean, did we change did we change anything? >> Let me see. No, I'm sorry. Number nine? >> Number nine, yeah. >> Oh, there's a line missing, yeah. >> There's three lines missing. There's three lines missing there. Um, they probably it just got left off. Uh, we'd have to look at an old agenda to to see um, what goes in there, but I know one is from the mayor boards and uh, commission appointments. >> Mhm. >> That's the first one. >> And then uh, council request status report. >> And request status report. >> item C, it's the one that's listed there. And then upcoming council meetings, item D. >> Yes, we talked about that in advance of uh, this preparation and we uh, intentionally left those two off, particularly the last one because we felt um, the second and fourth Tuesday of every month is pretty regular. So, I'm assuming that people have those in their calendars already. And it was just a redundant item that you would have on your council agenda. >> Okay. All right. That was uh, which item? >> Item C, upcoming council meetings. >> Yeah. You use the the agenda status report um, is one we do want to make sure that we put in there. So, status report and mayor's appointments. I think we'd add that back in. And is that a Oh, yes. >> yes, yeah, and personally I would I would like if we could have item C, the upcoming meetings. It's just a really nice reminder um, on to update our calendars. Personally, I really like it. >> Any any others who who would just like It's just one of those things we have to be reminded many many times. >> Just efficiency, that's all. So, I would thought, you know, gosh, council members don't know when their meetings are, I think. >> Did this come before council as a whole for the changes or is it just somebody just the mayor that decided that she doesn't want it >> No, this was a decision that I made as we prepared the council agenda. I was asked okay, what items need to be on here and I saw that and I thought well, is that a necessary item to have on the agenda that council members need to be reminded? I've just never seen that before, but that's okay. If you want it on there, we can remind you every week or every council meeting when the next one is. Um, it's just I've never seen that before and I thought it was a redundant effort, but if you want it on there, we'll get it there. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Is everybody in agreement then? >> Yes. >> So, uh, what is the uh uh >> So, the next council meeting is April 27th. >> Okay. Just so you know. >> It's the fourth to a Monday of the month. >> There you go. Um Then um, is there any other What is the uh this What is I'm trying to think of the right word here. What is the uh feeling of the uh council regarding the consent of agenda with those additions? >> Move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Okay, motion by Evan, second by Vasquez. All those in favor, to signify by saying I. >> I. >> I to Spode I. Okay. Um Do we have someone to do invocation tonight? Um, seeing no one, then we will stand and do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice all. You may be seated. Um if anybody is coming up to do any kind of public uh comments, if you'd come up and go ahead and sign. Give you a second for that. Do we have a proclamation we're doing tonight? >> No. >> Okay. >> There is one before one. >> Just flip it over, put on the other side. >> Is everybody doing uh prior? Prior? Okay. >> So at the end of the meeting? >> Oh no, oh no. >> All right. >> Cuz are you talking about topics that are on the agenda tonight? So you're talking it about past events then you would do it the the the public comments at the end then. Just make sure we got that. I know we have one for the beginning of the evening. And just hang on a minute. >> There is one before prior to the meeting. Okay. >> There is one. >> There is one for prior. We were bringing that one forward as because of the timing of the later later public comments. Um so if the there's some people here who would like to talk to us, some young people who'd like to talk to us about a fundraiser and we'd be happy to have them come up, introduce themselves, what city they're from. And uh please say your names. Don't be afraid to speak into the mic. >> I'm Natalie from Sunnyside. I'm Angelina from Grandview. Uh So good evening. Uh thank you interim city mayor Pat Hale, mayor Vicki Frosto, and deputy mayor Hart, and members of the Sunnyside council city council. Um I'm Natalie Morrow from uh Bob's Drive-In. I'm the store manager. Uh we wanted to invite you guys to our fundraiser on the 22nd of April. It's to gather some money and help donate towards the police canine unit and uh I'll leave the rest for Angelina. >> Um so like Natalie said, we are going to be having a fundraiser on the 22nd. Um all the proceeds are going to go to the canine unit at the Sunnyside Police Department for Joker. We're going to be doing things like raffles, games with prizes. We're going to be having face painting. We're also going to be all like the pup cups, which is like whipped cream and bacon for puppies. Um all of that all the proceeds will go to Joker. We'll be asking customers if they would like to round up as well. Um we're also in the works of trying to get like a dunk tank so we could put like the cops in there or something cool like that maybe. Maybe with the right price we could put a Brit in there but like you never know. Um we're also going to >> Save your dollars. >> And then we're also going to have like a paw wall so like if you donate you can buy like a little paw and then like write your name on it so you know it makes you feel good. You donated. And then um we're going to possibly Joker maybe making an appearance. He may or may not. Um but yeah, that's pretty much overall. We just hope that this inspires other businesses in the Sunnyside community to do something the same for um Joker. But yeah, um I have some flyers for you guys for whoever wants to take these. Yep. Um yeah and then that's all I have for you guys today. So thank you for having us here. >> Uh Bob's also wanted to thank Chief Layman for letting us work with the Sunnyside PD to help welcome our canine unit Joker to Sunnyside. And that's all we've got. >> Thank you very much, girls. >> Okay, if there's no further public comment for this part of the meeting, we will move on to the consent agenda. And that would include the payroll vouchers. Um I said fun reading these. Approve payroll vouchers numbers 2614 through 2863 wire transfers as listed for 542,532.70 for the period ending March 8th. Also claim vouchers approved that claim vouchers numbers 2775 through 3346 and wire transfers as listed for 497,823.25 for the period on March 8th. What is the council's um decision on this? >> Council, so if I may >> Council Council Galvin, yes. >> Yeah, so we had a a finance subcommittee meeting last week and um Deputy Mayor Hart and myself were there. Um so I think I think the idea that Pat interim city manager and and staff would want to see council I guess kind of trust the finance committee. My opinion I the more eyes on this the better. I mean I'm in the in the finance subcommittee you know there's three of us well Councilwoman Satie unfortunately wasn't able to be there but and it's my opinion that the more eyes that see this the better. You know I I'm pretty good at numbers. I'm pretty good at looking at if something's different but if I miss something or if if one of the other council misses something else I would sure like them to to speak up. I know that the reason that we want to do this is is to save some time and and possibly not go through this, you know, a whole 30 minutes, but it's really important for the rest of the council to also get involved in in in stuff like this. So, that's that's just my opinion. Um you know, I'm if I wasn't in the sub in the finance subcommittee, I I would still have questions myself. Um it's not that I don't trust my fellow councilors, but that's our job as as councilors to to go through these numbers and um you know, I think if in the past if if they would have done a lot better, we wouldn't be in in the financial situation that we're in, but that's just another that's another discussion. So, uh with that being said, um I'll throw it over to Deputy Mayor Hart. >> Um as it is, we spent a several hours going over each of the items. Uh looking at each item, we have added now in in addition to looking at the different items uh as the um voucher numbers, we are also looking we're starting to process looking at invoices, matching invoices to the to the vouchers so that there's no So, you know, we sometimes have we had some question about there was one for B and B that was quite a bit of money. I think it was a What was the number How much was that? Do you remember, George? >> I >> 300 something? It was 3,000 something. I can't off top I I read the numbers and I forget them until I absolutely need them and then I forget them again. But in any case, we figured out what that was. Uh uh I Leo, our our finance >> What's his >> Help me out, Leo. What's your finance What's your title? >> Uh finance director. >> Finance supervisor. Yes, and he was very helpful. We had Monica on the line. She She over each item with us as well. And we had the city city manager uh with us in the room and we did do a very thorough job and uh I would just turn it over for a moment to uh the city manager for any other comments before we do the vote. >> Well, I can appreciate the thoroughness that we're trying to do um and it is just a recognition of the time and energy that three council members are putting into reviewing the finances along with the city manager and the finance director. So, there's five studied eyes on the on the finances for the city. So, if we're going to go over them in council, maybe we don't need a finance committee because it's redundant. Uh because it's either one or the other. Uh so, if I'm just trying to create efficiencies with everybody's time and energy and respect for the work that uh that is being put in on that committee. It's very aggressive. And a lot of detail is provided as background as to what the cause or what the justification or what the purpose of that funding is. So, uh that explains a lot once we have a chance to go through it with the finance director and ask those questions. Uh that's an opinion and a practice that I've seen in other account other cities where the finance committee reviews the finances, signs off on it, and the other council members uh trust their judgment. >> And I we made a motion on that, did we not? >> No. >> Okay. So, we're going to we should probably make a motion before we continue. Uh but wait. Um uh Counselor Vasquez. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to share that I too I've been on the finance committee before and I've gone through everything and it's definitely time-consuming, but I would have to agree, you know, it's I think both are quite just as important. And I do think that we should be able to have a time to have all of these um transactions available for all council members to ask questions, to just get clarity, and to be able to ask questions like specifically in meetings. And that way we're able to just all be on the same page. And if there is anything that looks maybe like an accident or something that that then we have an opportunity to clear the air and share that all together. >> Thank you. Um uh Miss Sis- Sis- Sis- Stahli. >> Thank you. Um I don't think we're saying like you can't ask. I think we have the agenda like the Friday before the meeting. So, I think it would be fair to you know, email the questions. I think I think we've done that before or that has been done before. I mean, if if the whole purpose is like uh Pat said, five eyes already on it. And if you guys have or we have further questions, I think an email is valid. I don't know if we need to wait until Monday's meeting to ask the questions. I don't think Pat's saying like we've done the >> Don't ask questions. >> Okay. All right. Oh, Leo. >> I should say there's six eyes on it cuz we have Leo as well. >> Yeah. >> Okay, you guys hear me? Okay. Um I want to um say that um you going to start uh trusting the finance department. Uh we're because we're conducting due diligence on every single invoice. Um everybody in our department is a professional. Um we're in the process also of um establishing a purchase order system based on the resolution that was passed back in February of a cap of $10,000 for every purchase that will have to be um approved by council. So, in the process of establishing that, and after we do that, we're going to become more efficient and you're going to be able to trust us more. And we won't be spending as much time analyzing all these invoices because they will be pre-approved by the council. >> Yeah. >> Can Can I get your name real quick? >> Yes, Leo Altamirano. >> Well, wel- welcome. >> Oh, muchas gracias. Thank you. >> And you know, on that topic, he actually mentioned something very interesting and important. So, he said trust, right? That we're going to start trusting. And quite frankly, we've had many different finance directors. We've had a lot of change. We've had um just a lot of movement happening and it takes time to trust. So, I personally don't feel comfortable with making this change. I I would like it to stay the same at least for a while until that trust is built. And definitely, you know, I wish you the best and I I we just want Sunnyvale to succeed and we want that stability and I'm cheering you I'm rooting for you, truly. But, I do think that we should keep it the same for right now. >> Okay. Well, what is the uh wish of the council regarding the uh the pay the uh consent agenda? I'm looking for a motion. >> Before um the motion is made, um on for the record, I'd like to correct um it's 497,828.25. I mean, 38.25. You said >> sorry. I reading reading numbers. >> Just for the record. >> Yeah, just for the record. Thank you, Karen. Okay. Yeah. And the motion, please. For the consent agenda. >> Move to approve. >> Okay. Motion to approve. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. And all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Okay. And I too vote I. Thank you. And I kind of think and as there will be kind of a a mixed kind of situation going forward. So, we you know, if anybody is there looking through the agenda, letting the the committee know ahead of time if they're able, and if we need to bring it up at a meeting, we missed something, we can still have that as an option. I think Don, we had agreement in that. >> Can I Can I um make one comment? >> Yes. Oh, Monica, welcome. >> As the person who has to answer these questions, it's very helpful if you email. Even if we have our laptop, that does not provide us with any invoice information. So, you can ask questions, and 90% of the time we're going to tell you we have to get back to you in an email. Because when we're in the office with the finance committee, we have all the invoices, we have all the information. When we're at the council meeting, we have none of that information. We have the exact same information that you're looking at on that piece of paper. There is no document control, so there is no invoices, there's nothing for us to look at. So, if I have to refer back to something, or if Leo has to refer back to something, we're going to have to get back to you in an email unless you've emailed us prior to the council meeting, we're not going to be able to respond. >> And thank you for that comment. Okay. Um so then, moving on if if there's no other comments on this. Moving on to the active agenda, uh resolution to initiate the annexation of two parcels south of West Wooden Road. Uh request is to move to approve resolution to begin annexation process to both parcels south of Wooden Road. I believe that would be >> Referred to uh Hector for that information. >> Thank you, Hector. >> Yes. >> Yes, so this resolution is for the parcels that that is south of West Wooden Road. Um Mr. Calhoun is online with us also for any clarifications on questions that we have. Um So, back in February 24, 2026, Catholic Charities Housing Services represented by Todd Lundgren and Susan Wilson on behalf of Paul and Doris Verma, property owners, submitted a notice of intention to commence annexation of the property at 350 West Wooden Road. Parcels 221-023-41404. The property is located just into the city limits within the urban growth boundary, the UGA. And in accordance with RCW 35A.14.120, this initial process is determined. Number one, if the city council will accept, reject, or geographically modify the proposed annexation. Two, if a stimulus adaption adoption of proposed zoning regulation is needed. And three, the assuming of all or any portions of existing city indebtedness. Sorry if I'm butchering that word. By the area to be annexed annexed sized. Um At this time, if you have questions, Mr. Calhoun and myself would be more than happy to answer. >> I think we have Stephanie from APL. >> is Stephanie Reyes also on here? >> And uh >> Joseph >> Joseph But whichever one is going to be speaking, you have questions for them. Yes, Mr. Calhoun. >> I have a question I I brought it forward to Hector at a public works subcommittee meeting, and just the language was kind of confusing. First paragraph just mentions one parcel, then the third paragraph mentions a different parcel, which doesn't belong to Catholic Charities. So, then the recommendation is to include both both parcels. So, I just had that clarification. I asked Hector, so >> Correct. And that's why Mr. Calhoun is here to clarify the question that you had. Mr. Calhoun. >> Sure. Thank you for the opportunity to provide some additional background on this project. So, the reason why there's multiple parcels listed is the initial notice of of intent to commence annexation was only for the one parcel at 350 Wooden Road. As Hector mentioned, part of this process is for Council to decide whether to accept, reject, or geographically modify the proposed annexation area. So, in this case, after reviewing the area, the the primary parcel 221023-41404 is south of Wooden Road and includes the vast majority of that road frontage. And then there's an additional parcel 221023-42404 that's kind of surrounded by that initial parcel. And so, in review with staff, we decided that it would be prudent to recommend that both parcels come in, so it doesn't create kind of a keyhole that would be left in the county should just the one parcel be part of this annexation proceeding. So, at this point in time, Council can take the action to include both parcels on the petition, which would then be circulated for signatures and move forward in the process. >> I have a question. >> Any other questions? Yes, Mr. Calhoun. >> So, does the owner of that parcel there in the the keyhole, as you call it, do they have an idea that this is going on? >> From my understanding, and there is a representative from Catholic Charities. They're aware of the process. They did not choose to sign on the initial notice of intent to commence annexation. The annexation process includes the certification of petition signatures by the county assessor's office. And the RCW requirement is that the annexation petition has to be signed by no less than 60% of the valuation of the annexation area. I have those numbers in front of me. The total valuation of both parcels is just under 1.4 million. 60% of that value is 835,620 835,620 dollars. And the Burma parcel who did sign the notice of intent, the valuation of their parcel alone is nine over 936,000. So, from a signature standpoint, the county assessor would be able to certify that a sufficient percentage of the valuation is signed if only the Burma's sign the annexation petition. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> I can have a follow-up. I mean it just it it just seems crazy that this property owner can wake up one day and now they're within city limits without them knowing. I mean granted we have to send out the letters, but I mean if if Catholic Charities is is wanting to get this property annexed, I don't see why we need to touch that other parcel if if they're not involved with this. It is okay to leave the keyhole right there. I've seen plenty of different scenarios where it is like that. We just can't leave an island and this is this wouldn't be creating Well, this isn't this isn't an island. This is a it just kind of chops it off to where that other parcel stays in county. Um I mean if if if that property owner doesn't want to be in city limits, I I think we should just move forward with the with the property that the Catholic Charities owns. >> So so so you're saying that you only are um you think we should Are you asking to send this back to the uh planning commission then? >> Um >> To re- to re- to re- acquire it or something as far as eliminating the keyhole? >> I don't see why we're including that other that property there. >> Is there any explanation? Oh. Oh, that's Camille. >> I didn't want to interrupt. >> No, but that's fine. Camille, would you say your name first and last, please? >> Camille Gallegos with Catholic Charities Housing Services. Um we are obviously a part of this petition. Um it's it's completely up to you. The Martins are aware that this is part of the process and we told them that it would be up to the county and city to decide if they stay or go. Um we've had a lot of communication along the way. Um Mr. Galvan, has he voiced anything specifically to you about this because we have not received anything that was in contrary to this. >> No, well then that's why I'm asking the question if they're fully aware. >> Yeah, no, they are aware. They know what our intention is for the site. Um and it's just kind of an odd piece. There are some benefits for them if they get annexed um as well, but that that that's up to the city and county. It is beneficial to have that whole road be one way or the other. That's the feedback we got from the county. Um Joe, you might be able to speak more to it, but I don't want you to think we're blindsiding anyone. That's not >> No, yeah, that's that's the main goal here. I didn't want somebody be blindsided, and if they're fully aware, then they know how to voice their concerns, and I just want to make sure that that >> If I can add as well that there will be a hearing opportunity as part of the annexation process. So So signing the petition doesn't necessarily mean they don't consent, or not signing the don't consent to the annexation. There will be a public hearing as part of this process, which will be their opportunity to come through and and say that they don't consent to this on the record, and then you can further decide when you formalize the annexation whether whether or not to take the whole the whole area. >> Got you. Thank you. >> Tommy, you had your arm >> Yeah, Camille, I was looking at that plat map was was I can't remember which of the two parcels was going to be the single-family homes. >> I don't think we're to that point in Tom, I'm definitely happy to meet with you outside of council to talk about where we're at in our planning process, but the parcels that we're talking about about are the big field and the Burmes home, and then the Martins home that's located you know, right next to the Burmes. >> By looking at the plat map, it was the furthest one out I thought was going to be the single-family homes, or was it just the reverse of that? >> I don't think I understand your question. I'm sorry. Are you asking >> You had two sections, and one of them had single-family homes, and the other one had uh the low-income >> You're talk You're talking about north and south. Is that what you're There's single-family homes on both north and south plant. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, I I'd like to say something. And Camille >> Excuse me, who who Vasquez? Yes, go ahead. >> Yeah, I'd like to say something. So, since you're in communication with that family, could you um, like notify them of when this hearing will be held here in council? That way they're aware and if they want to come, then they can come. >> Uh, do you want them >> Well, excuse me on that. I believe that anytime we're posting for public hearings, that's our duty to take care of that. Is that not right, Hector? >> Yes, and I I can reach out. I can definitely stop by and uh, myself or Mr. Taylor can stop by and hand them a letter. >> And that's definitely right, but however, a lot of people do not stay updated to our meetings, our regular meetings and >> things are those things are posted and we're we can't help it if they don't read them, you know? But we do post them and they do get them in the neighborhood, do they not? >> Yeah, and we do mail them out. We do mail out the the obviously if there's going to be any public hearing. We will be mailing out letters also, so but I'll I'll definitely hand one off myself to notify them and let them know that there is going to be a public hearing on that date and they would be more than welcome to stop by if they have any objections. >> Okay, and it's definitely not our job, but it would be nice. It's courtesy, especially since it's going to be affecting them. >> Sure. >> Public hearing notices are also required to be published in the newspaper. >> Perfect. >> I think it would be on all of our social social media, it'd be posted on all our social media, newspaper, I don't know about radio, but certainly our Facebook and our website and all of those different places. >> Plus the letters. >> Yes. >> Plus the letters. It's about what we can do, so. Okay. So, what is the wish of the council regarding the resolution to begin annexation process? >> Move to approve the resolution to begin the annexation process to include both parcels south of West Wooden Road. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> All right, Mr. Dolan seconds. Um, just for the sake of I'll make sure we got everybody's vote. I will do a roll call vote. Uh Miss Susanti. >> Yes. >> Uh Miss Vasquez. >> Uh Uh Mr. Dolan. >> Yes. >> Mhm. Mr. Gavan. >> Yes. >> And I too vote yes. Motion carries. All right. And we will be hearing about a hearing public hearing at a later date. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. Uh next item is the emergency wastewater treatment plant biogas piping system replacement recognition of award. Let's hear about that. Who's got that? >> Me. Hello. Hello again. Um so um this is for the emergency wastewater treatment plant to the biogas uh piping system that needs to be replaced. Um we uh went out for bids and uh we received a bid uh for this project. Um it was B&B. Uh they came in Oh, I can't remember off the top of my head. Uh for 686,888 and 52 cents. Um so we are I am asking for the council to allow me to uh recommendation of the award for B&B to uh start the project. Um this is all through the seed money um that we were awarded and um this is was declared an emergency at the wastewater treatment plant. Um public work boards uh meeting of April 7th, 2025. And um on October 13th, 2025, City Council took action to amend the declaration to include and required RCW language governing an emergency related to public procurement. And I am here for and myself and Ms. Ray are here to answer any questions if the council has any. >> Any questions regarding this project? >> Yes. Oh, sorry. >> Uh Mr. Gavan. >> Um >> It's okay, just talk to >> The one $29,000 um it it it came in over budget, so are we Is that what you're asking to >> Yes, I am asking to amend the budget for $29,000 um We had a million dollars and at the end we'll be $29,000 over. >> And what uh fund would that be coming out of? >> That will be coming out of uh believe the wastewater treatment. >> Um >> Monica might know. >> Um Do we know how Is it healthy right now, that wastewater fund? >> Um Let's ask Monica. Do you remember if it is? >> Um the wastewater fund. The the um new rates have only been in effect for 3 months. So, we're just now getting those prior to that. Um the general fund has been covering most of the enterprise funds, so no, the wastewater wasn't doing okay prior, but I believe that um we're hoping that with the new rates that it'll start helping itself. >> Okay. Um you mentioned uh something about the seed money, the SEID money. >> Well, we we we were awarded the public works board money. >> Mhm. >> Uh the seed money was awarded to the ninth and ninth and Lincoln >> project. >> Mhm. >> So. >> Was there any left over that we were going to be putting on to this this emergency money? >> Uh, no. We were just uh, awarded a million. Um, and with um, everything that came to a total, we were going to be 29,000 >> Still 29,000 over. Okay. >> If I may, um, >> Yes. Oh, Stephanie, yes. Stephanie Ryan. >> Mayor, city manager, uh, public works director, thank you. Uh, to clarify that question, uh, for clarification, the seed money is specific to the ninth and Lincoln lift station. Uh, that project also had a bid opening which you will hear about next council meeting and it did come in under. However, uh, we cannot use um, they're two different completely different projects. So, we can't take an award that we competed for for one project to use that funding for supplement another project. >> I I I'm always bummed about that, but I understand. Okay. So, what are you we're looking at then, um, approving a >> budget amendment. >> amendment. That's what you're asking for? >> Yes. And >> Mr. City, huh? >> And the award. >> And the award. Uh, Mr. City Manager, is there anything you want to uh, add to this? >> No, I would just the resolution or the the motion would authorize uh, the interim city manager to sign the agreement. >> Okay. Okay, the agreement with uh, B&B for the uh, piping replacement project. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, is there any other questions to come before us? So, what is the desire, that's the word I wanted. What is the desire of of uh, council? >> I guess I hope know this miss this didn't I didn't see your hand before. Sorry. >> So Monica so so technically you said it's already been in effect for 3 months. So Um This will be also coming out of general funds right now. >> Um I haven't been given any information on what this how much this would be or the breakdown or the budget adjustments. Nobody has asked me anything about the finances like how much what what the amounts are and what's coming out of what yeah. >> Okay Leo do you have something you can add? >> Uh not >> You look like you were getting ready to say something but okay. >> I think Stephanie may be wanting to say >> did you have something? >> I can I can at least talk to the project timeline in that uh So the project if if proceed forward tonight would be under construction within the next few weeks. The contract duration is 50 days. So it's approximately 3 and 1/2 to 4 months out is when the project would be completed. So if that helps that gets us into the second into the third quarter. >> The quarter so there should be some money in that enterprise fund then at that point at least with any with any luck at all correct? >> Correct. The enterprise fund isn't up to cover the operating so it's not like there's a bunch left over to >> So we'll just have to be >> capital. The plan was for because you can't have a too much excess that'd be charging the taxpayers a lot. And so the operating funds are what's being covered currently. >> Okay. >> Um if there is any excess excess then it would need to roll over and it would take about a couple years for it to be substantial enough to start covering um any capital costs. >> Okay. >> So what it sounds like is this will definitely be coming out of Well, that's that's what it sounds like to to us here. >> It'll probably have to come out of the general fund, which is in a $2 million deficit currently. Yeah. >> Well, we'll have >> So, do I understand it's 29,000 that's going to come out of the general fund and the rest of the money is sufficient >> Already sufficient, already secured. >> Right, so it's just 29,000 that's in excess of what was budgeted. >> And that's what we're looking for um a fund signed the contract with B&B uh Mechanical LCC LLC for the emergency. And remember, this is an emergency replacement project. So, um how we got to get find some money for that, we uh Mr. Govan. >> So, it's not like we could just ignore it. It needs to be It needs to be done. It needs to be paid. I mean, granted that we wish it our funds were a little bit healthier, but if it needs to come out of the general fund, then you know, we it's a it's something that we definitely need. We can't say it's an emergency and then uh >> not fix it. >> You know, fix anything. So, with that uh I approve to I'm moved to approve resolution to authorize the interim city manager to award and execute a contract with B&B Mechanical for the emergency wastewater treatment plant biogas piping system replacement project. >> Okay, is there a second? >> I second. >> Okay, so Sadi seconds. Um I think we'll just uh All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed, same sign. I two vote I in in favor. Motion carries. >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> Just um don't forget to ask for debate or >> I forgot to ask for debate? >> Yeah. >> You want to go back you >> No, we could we could move forward on the next one. >> You're right. Let's see. I got to write this down. I had a note on my other piece my cheat sheet about vote, first motion, second, debate, then vote. Right? >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you. I have my cheat sheet up to date. Thank you. All right. So, the next item on our agenda is LTAC reconsideration for award. And I guess I can unless you want to speak to it. >> No, this is that committee and along with Monica. >> Yeah. So, we they the LTAC committee met Friday a week and a half ago. 2 weeks almost maybe. And we had request to revisit two awards. And we did what we did do is we declared a to to um approve the um the resolution and declare just to to fund 2,000 excuse me, $3,000 for Sort for the Cause. And for the from LTAC money. And I would they asked it for reconsideration. So. Um I don't know. I think we need a council vote to approve that. >> You do, but I have a few questions. >> Okay. >> So, it looks like LTAC committee did not fund the Miss Sunny Side committee. >> No. >> Um can you speak as to why not? >> Um Monica, can you help me out with that one? >> Um Mr. Galvan was Counselor Galvan was on the committee prior to you, so he was there the first time they voted no. And it was for the same reasons. They didn't feel that it was um gathering enough people with heads in beds 50 miles or further to fund the amount that they were requesting. >> So it wasn't for the same reason the the first time around >> And it also for the float. >> um stating that they were going to use the money for um like some sort of a sponsorship or or scholarship which is not permitted and they came back with a revised application that they were going to use their uh trailer of some sort to to do some sort of advertisement. They they travel, you know, throughout the the state and it's more than 50 miles at a at time so I don't see why that project wouldn't fall under L tax money. >> on this decision of the count of the L tax advisory group, the members. They felt that that wasn't significant enough. >> Mhm. So >> So that's why they they didn't uh um So that's why they didn't offer any money for that. Um Monica Nehemiah, would you come to the podium? She was on the L tax committee. Maybe she can give a clearer explanation. >> Hopefully Yeah, the two of us together. >> Well, they're clearer. >> Um Mr. Galvan, yes, uh they did redo and turn their application. However, they didn't meet the criteria needed for um the going um how they were going to market themselves um once they were outside the 50-mile radius. That was something we did talk about in the original meeting. We said, you know, we just need to understand how you are going to show when you're outside that 50-mile radius, how you're going to um promote Sunnyside to meet the criteria. Um I myself personally talked to talked to Kim Frank. I did I kept my word. I said I would give a donation and I did. I think it's a wonderful organization, but when we went over the um the I guess the criteria, the the checklist, it just didn't happen to meet that in in the aspect of marketing and promotion. I very much do think it goes outside the 50-mi radius. Um and I think that's really just the part that they need to show and that they need to to to talk to ELTAC about about how they were going to do that. Um to add, we did talk about um that the current applicants seemed a little um confused on the application. Remember you and you and that was something as a committee we thought we'd outline and discuss with them more so they could better understand the criteria and better and to better understand and meet those requirements. I believe that that was something we talked about as well. We absolutely do think that there's a lot of organizations that we could um help out as an ELTAC committee to refer on to the city, but there are required like a checklist they have to meet. And it was the opinion of that committee they just didn't meet them. The the need is there. Um I think they deserve it. That's just not enough in the criteria. So, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's kind of what we talked about on Sugar Land. >> And >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Monica. >> Good morning, Connie Newmeyer, for the record. Uh um so uh let me see here. So, what is the desire of uh council regarding uh the ELTAC's recommendation to for the serve for the cause and it was in the amount just for the record of $3,000. Open Yeah. Do we have a motion or desire of the what What What What is the desire of the council regarding this issue? >> Be- Before that, can Can I ask another question? There There was a another um recommendation, wasn't there? On funding the Yes Wasco? Or what was >> Yes. Yes. You're right. Thank you for for one. That was on a separate uh, and that was for we had, uh, um reduced the amount of money that we were going to, uh, fund them for. Believe it was, uh, to 25,000 instead of the 32 or 33 that they were asking. Uh, cuz we needed a little bit of money so that we could give, uh, some to the Surf for the Cause. We were looking for some money of initially for, uh, the bed and for the, uh, Science Side board as well. Um, I don't know if we've heard back yet from YESCO if whether they will approve that contract. Do you happen to know? >> I I can give an update on that. >> Okay, Monica, if you'd give us an update, please. >> So, I know that Sierra had been reaching out to, um, advertising for Cinco de Mayo and that was part of the reason why, uh, they were going to do a reduction, but, um, come to find out Sierra was actually talking to YESCO and didn't realize it. >> Oh. She was at the meeting. She didn't say anything about it. >> She didn't realize it. The person she was talking to, cuz it it's, um, the emails, uh, pixel something pixel. And so I think there was some confusion cuz that organization is also associated with YESCO. >> Oh. Oh. So, there's So, where are we at on that then, Monica? >> So, the advertising that they thought they were not going to be getting from YESCO is actually coming from YESCO. >> It's the same company. >> Still the same company. Okay. Okay. >> So, the reduction would not be able to be made. >> Right, because you >> Because you're actually getting everything in the contract. >> Right. So, the same people are You were You were You were going to reduce it because you thought somebody else is doing the work, but the other person that you is doing the work is actually the same company. So, >> That's a bummer. >> You can't ask him to do something for nothing. >> Ah, we may have to we're going to have to go back to the drawing board, I think or for the L Tech Committee to make sure just double-check that there is the 3,000 for the start for the cause. And then when we look at the amount of money that we are doing for Wasco, Yesco, Yes Wasco, Yes Wasco and Pixel apparently. Let's take another look at that real quick before we sign that contract. I don't I don't know if it's already been signed or not. Um. But we need to re-look at that, I think. So, maybe we should hold up on on that approval. >> Yeah, I was about to say so maybe should it be wise for us to just table this until we get that information. >> You mean table both the sort for the cause and the Yesco? >> Yes, Yes Wasco. >> Is that agreeable to you, Mr. Galvan? You may >> So, I have I have a question and if you could clarify you also Yes Wasco I guess the contracts is that they're they're going to be doing advertisements for the Cinco de Mayo and and some of these and some of these other events that were already awarded money to do their their their advertisements. So, in a sense you're paying or you're wanting a contract Yes Wasco to do the more advertisement for those events? >> No. >> So, what's the what's the what's Yes Wasco going to be doing? >> Very good question and then in the contract and Monica's got a better eye for that than I do right at the moment. >> And I can also clarify >> So, for the work that they >> the two Monica's so you go ahead >> Yeah, there there needs to be clarification that the the contract goes from April until May. So, this May they're still under contract for the previous year and so in April it starts over again. So, they the whole time they were in contract with Sierra, it was under the premise for this the contract they're already under. >> There's mud. >> Could Could this be clearer than mud? >> Um and you know actually um a deputy not deputy Mr. Council member Galvan, um he brings up a good good point because we actually didn't have the contract of Yes Wasco in front of us. So, I think what you're what you're saying Mr. Galvan is are we being redundant in the services that we're paying? One being provided to the city and then we are awarding LTAC funds for them to do promotion. So, I think we we do need to go back and look and we actually didn't we didn't catch that. >> Didn't catch that. >> Um and that's a good very good point. I think another thing was at the end of the meeting Monica, didn't you say that she had found some some funds as well? So, maybe tabling that to look at her Remember I don't remember the amount though. Um >> Sorry, this is so confusing. >> No, I we found out a lot that day. >> Yeah. >> So, I yeah, I think maybe Deputy Mayor going back and looking at what Monica has, looking at the two contracts and maybe um for future reference looking at the services that whoever's going to do our marketing provide versus the service the money that we're paying to the organizations and taking a better look at that so we're not maybe being redundant in our charges. >> So, maybe that money that was has currently been used for marketing by the Cinco de Mayo is coming out of our current uh the the one that ended in April, that that contract. >> Mhm. Well, I'm I'm I think >> Let's make sure that I'd like to if we could uh >> table it? Yeah. >> a table um take this and table this particular. Would you Would you like to do that in some fashion? We'd I think you need to have a vote. Ask you if you would like to table this particular motion till we can get a better clarification of what we are dealing with here cuz now I'm totally confused. >> Yeah, and again I think council member got on and saying if we have been we've been if the city has been paying Yesco for these services of marketing and promotion and the L Tech is giving a recommendation for these organizations to receive funds for an event and promotion then >> the entire time it has only been coming out of the hotel. >> over the we were giving the amount to the organizations. >> Thank you. >> I excuse me. Yes, Mr. Chief Laney. >> Okay, so Yesco. So I'm I'm involved with the L Fest. They came out and and shot like a video, a promotional video of the L Fest. So they took pictures of people mingling and things like that. But as far as promoting that actual event as far as here's where to buy tickets and here's our new sponsors, here's the the vendors that are going to be there and all that kind of stuff is that's relying upon Daybreak Rotary to do throughout the year. What they did was just came and shot a video. So they're not doing continual advertising for the event. That was on the Rotary. >> Okay, so then I'm thinking that fills in the piece. So we're having a difference with and I can't speak for Sierra, but I believe the they were the Rotary is utilizing in that way. So maybe looking at the contract and all the recipients understanding the services rendered and how they're going to perform them and what they're getting is a good thing cuz I'm I'm on behalf of the Farmers Parade and we were under the understanding that we go through Pixel Soft for all of that. We weren't Yeah, so I think we're recipients are getting a different different understanding. >> Well, I know Daybreak Rotary has their own page for that event. >> Mhm. >> They manage that page themselves. Now as far as anything you want on the city website, Yesco I guess does that. >> Yeah, and And what they said they were Yeah, reaching out to and but they thought they were Pixel Soft, but >> Okay. >> There is I I really would like to >> to table this item. >> Okay, thank you. >> Second. >> Oh, and what we will do, wait a minute. We were going to table item C, correct? >> Yes, motion by Galvin. >> Okay, so and and uh the second on that? >> Dolan. >> Dolan? And are you okay with us tabling that, Vasquez? >> Yes. >> Okay, cuz we need that okay as well. So, let's table that. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Me, too. And we will be reconvening the L Tech committee to uh and get that contract out and go over it with a fine-tooth comb and see just who's paying for what and what we're paying for and make sure to get the money that we need to give the Sertifer cost. Okay? Good. Okay, so we're clear on that. That was kind of getting murky there, guys. Thank you for helping us sort that out. So, item D is adopting findings of fact to justify the continued imposition of 6-month uh moratorium and to adopt an ordinance on findings of fact to justify continued imposition uh imposition imposition of 6-month moratorium. Um Mr. Galvin, I believe that was your um >> I think this is the last piece of the the puzzle uh for the moratorium to to take effect if I'm not mistaken, Julie. >> Yeah, that's correct. So, this is you adopted the emergency moratorium, but the condition of doing that is that you had to have a public hearing and then adopt after the public hearing um the moratorium that enters the findings of facts and conclusions to support the to actually support the moratorium since it was an emergency measure. So, this this um ordinance makes formal the 6-month moratorium, so it will expire September 2nd, I believe. Um you will have one opportunity to uh amend it for another 6-month period if if your planning regulations are not done by then. So, it can be extended up to 1 year. Um but this is just the final piece to make sure that it's legally in effect. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um just just on that we we had our uh public hearing on that. >> Um >> just recently, wasn't it? >> Yes. So, the public hearing was on March 23rd, 2026. >> March 3rd? >> Yep. And the moratorium was brought up to you the emergency moratorium was brought up on March 2nd, 2026. Um as of right now, we are working on our um zoning ordinance uh with Mr. Calhoun from HLA. Um we're hoping to have it all uh done. And what we're doing is just adding language into the ordinance to make sure that we are making it harder um so uh >> specific >> specific people cannot uh resident around make it harder for people to be specific people to be residential um areas. >> Resident in those areas, yeah. So, um I'm I'm I'm just assuming and but are we also taking this to the planning commission to make sure that the zoning areas are being looked at as well, the possible zoning areas? >> Once everything gets done, once we all uh get the whole planning >> Mhm. >> uh year plan done, that will definitely go to the planning uh committee. >> Okay. So, then let's say uh >> Move to approve. >> Okay. Let me get Can I get a fine another place to write that down on there? >> Second. >> Okay. So, the motion is to adopt an ordinance on findings of fact to justify the continued imposition of the 6-month moratorium. Motion by Galvan, I believe. Uh seconded by uh Dolan. Um is there any debate on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I two vote I. Motion carries. All right, move ahead with that. Thank you. Okay, now we're down to items on item nine, items from Normally we'd have some reports from the mayor. She's not here tonight, so we'll move to items from council members. Are there reports, announcements, and or questions by council? Anybody? Can we start with you, Letty? >> Uh just um I want to give a shout-out to the Arts Commission for their first event. Um I wasn't in town, but I did see some posts on Facebook, and it looks like there was a pretty good turnout and a lot of support from community. Also, uh another shout-out to the community who went out to support the Lower Valley Youth Empowerment Project uh car wash this Saturday, I believe it was Saturday. And uh just I'm excited to support the next uh next week's college and career-ready event on the 22nd at the community center from 3:00 to 7:00, so I've seen quite a bit of advertising, so that's pretty awesome. >> Okay. Um I Letty I and the rest of council, I'd like to ask for your uh patience and forgiveness on this, but we did have some folks who did want to talk on the public record. If uh somebody can help me with um timing for 3 minutes for each speaker. Is that something Leo you can handle for us? Or is that all right? So, the first Are you okay with that? And then we'll come back to the rest of the council for your your comments for this for the past week. Um so, the first person I have on here is um Jose Uyola. Jose Uyola? And state where you're from and uh what topic you're going to be talking about. >> Jose Uyola, Wapato. Social equity cannabis retail. >> I'm sorry. Again, would you say that? Social what? >> Social equity cannabis retail. >> Retail. Okay, go ahead, sir. >> Good evening, council members. My name is Jose Uyola. I was raised in Wapato and live there today. Here in Yakima County. I have worked in Washington's regulated cannabis industry since 2008 across medical, retail, and producer-processor operations with a focus on compliance and responsible management. I am here to address a straightforward issue. Cannabis is already legal, regulated, and actively being purchased in Sunnyside by Sunnyside residents every day. That activity is not hypothetical. It is already happening. The only difference is that today, the revenue, the jobs, and the economic benefit are leaving Sunnyside and going to Yakima, Prosser, and the Tri-Cities. So, the question in front of the council is not whether cannabis exists. The question is whether Sunnyside chooses to participate >> participate >> in a regulated system or continue to export that opportunity. At the state level, cannabis has already established a controlled framework through the Liquor and Cannabis Control Board, including a social equity program designed to allow qualified operators to participate. My family and I hold social equity cannabis retail licenses allocated to this region. And we are prepared to deploy one here in Sunnyside. I bring nearly two decades of direct operating experience in this industry, including building, scaling, compliant retail operations in Washington state. This would not be an uncontrolled expansion. This would be a single regulated, locally governed business implemented under standards set by this council. I am prepared to invest, build, hire locally, and operate a fully compliant retail location under state and local law. I am not asking for approval tonight. I am asking, respectfully, a question. A decision to move forward. >> Excuse me, sir, you have 1 minute left. Or 56. >> Specifically, I ask the council to direct staff to draft and bring forward an ordinance for consideration that would allow cannabis retail in Sunnyside, including a framework that can prioritize prioritize social equity license holders. If there are concerns, I am prepared to address them. If there are conditions, I am prepared to meet them. If there is a process, I am ready to follow it. But what I need now is a clear next step because the demand already exists, the system already exists, and the opportunity is already leaving Sunnyside. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. And um you can tell that I haven't sat here in the mayor's chair for about 6 7 years, and so I forgot to mention to read into the um But you did really well, so you're okay, uh Mr. Yula. Um but anyway, citizens are advised that they must limit their remarks to the city council to 3 minutes. Council may refer items to staff to review and/or research for a presentation at a future council meeting. Recorded comments and meeting sign-in sheets are public records subject to disclosure under RCW 42.56, and the name of speakers are recorded into the minute meetings. Okay. This is part of the want to make sure I get that in there so we don't have any discussion about that later. That she forgot to do that. But okay. So next for public comment is Maricela Santana Wally. Is that right? Wally? What? Mhm? >> Wally. >> Wally? With a W? >> Yeah. >> Okay. That's me. >> Yeah. That's all good. Thank you. So good afternoon council members. My name is Maricela Santana Wally. I have been a Sunnyside resident for many years, over 25 years. And today I really want to say my thanks to the Sunnyside Arts Commission here for such wonderful events that they conducted this last week. Um you know, growing up in Sunnyside, I really was grateful for some of the events that the city of Sunnyside has done, but seeing that the events that they've done last week really showed how much they put into the effort to bring children and family together. I really want to specifically thank Diana for all her efforts in outreach community and leading this event. For Jessie who put on beautiful art for the flyer. And then Sandra and Chelsea for helping put this event together as well. Um and because of their efforts, a lot of children were able to experience a relaxing atmosphere, enjoy the art, and really be there with their families. And I was happy to share this event to a lot of people I knew, a lot of families. I also work with children, and I was able to really to ask them about like their experience of like how they enjoyed the event. And they came the children were telling me that they really liked it. And I was so grateful to, you know, to see that those resources are being put back into the community. And so, I really want to, you know, share my message to the council for to please continue supporting these events and supporting the Arts Commission. I really want to see my tax dollars going to towards these towards these events and allocating towards resources back to the community because the community really sees that they're being supported. Obviously, they're being supported through their basic necessities, whether it's through the public works or, you know, resources, but actually being on the ground and showing that there there people are really going to come out like Julia. Thank you so much Deputy Mayor for coming out as well. People really need to see and connect with people, you know, face-to-face, so >> I'm sorry to interrupt, but you have 50. >> Yes, absolutely. But yeah, but seeing being able to connect with you guys, you know, one-on-one in the community is really going to show the biggest impact and get people out here to these council meetings and get them to be more involved. So, I really hope that as the City Council continues to support these committees and more community events. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, thank you. The next person to with public comment this evening is Diana Gutierrez Gutierrez. Okay. In the corner. So, just so you know, sometimes people don't know it, but up there in the corner, the little red box, not the one that says record, but the other one, that's actually a blue box. >> That the time? >> That's got the time, so say your name and the city you're from and what your business is before the council. >> Okay, so my name is Diana Gutierrez and I'm a Sunnyside resident. I'm also the chair for the Arts Commission here in Sunnyside. So, I'm here to discuss uh the event that we well, we did two events last week. Um like Mary Salas just mentioned, it was a really great turnout. Um a lot of kiddos had fun, even adults. They were explaining how relaxing it was to like just be out in the park and do some art. So, I wanted to just come and personally um say thank you for you guys allowing um part of the budget to be approved through the city funds. Um we did end up getting some donors uh last minute, but um we will be allocating those uh funds to future events, potentially for the America 250 um stuff that we want to coordinate with the city. Uh so, I look forward to hearing suggestions from the council on what you guys would love to see um for the city events um regarding the Arts Commission. I know that Julia um the deputy mayor Julia Hart uh is our liaison, and she does bring a lot of insight, but if you guys could communicate with her some ideas, you know, I would love to hear them. Um I I'm always trying to be more open to um public comment about what what the you know, what we want to do. Um So, yeah. Anyways, um we do I do have a parent that couldn't make it, but did want to emphasize that um they do they they appreciated the event because um they have an autistic child, and so it was a really great um opportunity for the for the child to, you know, have a like something that they could do and and you know, just be out in the park and interact with other kids. So, that was always nice um to hear from the community. Um other than that, I just wanted to give thanks to my fellow commission members, and which is Jessie Mendoza, Chelsea Dimas, uh Sandra Cesati, which she's here and yeah, and then to our sponsors, which was Ag West Credit Farm. Um La Paleteria La Nortena um A A A and then uh oh, Moon Construction. So, yeah, shout out to those those donors and then obviously the city of Sunnyside. Shout out to you guys. All right, well, that was it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And last on our list of for public comment, Sandra Sati. Name and city. >> Good evening, everyone. My name is Sandra Sati. City of residence is Sunnyside. Um while I do make my comment, Hector, can you do you mind passing these out, please, to council? Um these are the flyers, the official flyers for the event that we have next week. So, I just want to say thank you to the city of Sunnyside for sponsoring this event. Um this is a college and career ready. So, it's apply financial aid and advice. And this is tailored for our current seniors um that are getting ready to graduate and still need to finish off steps to school and then specially also for those that have already graduated and need support in getting into any of the institutions that are on this flyer. So, we have nine that have already confirmed that will be at this event. Um and as you can see, it's like U-Dub, Eastern Heritage, CWC, CBC, Perry Tech um Wazoo and then we have Columbia Basin Electrical uh Training Alliance and I have still some that are still confirming. Um but this is open to the community and not just Sunnyside, but all our surrounding communities. I think it's awesome when we have the knowledge to help our um students um you know community members to get into higher education whatever that may be a trade technical school um university and so we are bringing our staff from YVC into the community center along with our partners which is um Sunnyside School District and then also Yakima Valley Partners for Education so I would love to see you all there. I would love for the city of Sunnyside to have a table too since we have some vacant positions in these committees right so even if it's a QR code for people from our community that don't know of these vacancies it'd be nice to have a table there for the city of Sunnyside showing what what committees are vacant and maybe a QR code to the page that would that would be great right so we can start getting some of these vacancies filled. Um and so for those that are watching online there's it's been shared on social media. I know that I'm going to continue to share it but there's a save the date for April 22nd from 3 to 7. This event is totally free for the community to come um and the support's going to be there for applying to colleges financial aid and next steps in the process. So I have 29 more seconds. I do want to say thank you to the the community that came out for the arts commission event. It was really nice to also have the blow up screen and families were able to you know sit out there with their kiddos and watch Zootopia too so again thank you for the city of Sunnyside for supporting our our first event and thank you to our donors and so we're excited to continue to move forward with events for our community. So thank you. >> Thank you. And just as a point of privilege I just want to add that I even painted a rock. It was pretty ugly. It was pretty ugly. I was trying to use sunflowers. I don't think they even looked like sunflowers by the time I got done with them, but we had a lot of fun. It was fun. So, okay. So, thank you for the public comment this evening and uh and if uh we'll move along on that. Great. Okay, so then, go back in going back now to items from council members, reports, announcements, and other questions. Uh Letty, you'd had you had some comments there about the Arts Commission. You heard some a bunch more about so that's good. Anything else from you? >> No, that was all. Thank you. >> Karen, do you have anything? >> Yes. >> All good. >> First, I wanted to um update you all with the Economic Development Commission. I am the liaison with that. So, um we just finished we just wrapped up our English session of the business classes that we were able to provide for the city of Sunnyvale. And it was a our first experience um hosting that event at the community center. It was a pretty like low turnout, and we discussed it within the group as to like why and what we could do different and what we can better so that the second time around it could be better. So, the second time around it will be classes, but they will they will be held in Spanish. So, it'll be more for like catering Spanish speakers, which is really amazing, and I really have high expectations of this having a greater turnout. So, um thank you, Sandra Susati, for the for the invitation to table at your event. So, we were actually discussing that um your event happening, and we were I was talking to the group and I was telling them, you know, maybe we should put a table there and kind of like introduce who we are as a group, and not only that, but kind of talk to community members and say, "Hey, by chance like and with the parents, right?" and saying, "By chance, have you guys ever considered opening a business or have you ever wanted to, but you never knew but you don't know how to navigate or how to start the process. So, we definitely want to kind of just like put the word out there that we will be having a second round and when it would be best to hold these next classes. And that way we can connect with community. And I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to put a table out since there will be families coming out already, young adults, young kids, and parents. So, we will be holding we will actually be tabling at the community center that day. I will be there. So, if there's anything else that I can do, kind of like provide a QR code and do an introduction of the other boards, committee boards, I'm more than happy to do that um on behalf of the city. And so, I wanted to update you guys with that because this second time around I'm really we're really going to put in the work to get a really good turnout because they're free classes, it's free education, free resources, and for those who do, it's 5 weeks, 1 day a week. Um it's about like 2 3 hours. So, if they participate in all days, then this um organization who's actually providing these classes are more than happy to pay for all the business, like the starting business licenses. And that's you save a lot of money just by that and any money you could save and any free resources, classes, and trainings, I think it's more than it's it's literally a gift. It's and it's something that we should share with others and especially with our community. So, I wanted to update you guys with that. Um on another note, we have three new businesses coming to Sunnyside this week. And I thought that was pretty exciting news. So, I'll share that. So, this Wednesday, April 15th, um Valley Beauty Supply will be opening up. They will be having their grand opening at 4:00 p.m. Valley Beauty Supply, April 15th, Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. They're actually located in downtown. And then this Friday, Dulces Antojitos um will be having their grand opening April 17th at 3:00 p.m. Then, Saturday, The Beauty Loft, April 18th, will be having their grand opening at 2:00 p.m. So, that's pretty exciting. You know, three new businesses and three grand openings in the same week. Um so, if you guys can attend, I encourage you guys to um I will be there. I'll be helping out. And yeah, I just wanted to share that with you all and with you with you all. It's something exciting. >> Yes. >> And I also just wanted to say good job to the Arts Commission. I saw pictures. I saw a lot of um like on Facebook, everyone was posting stuff and I was like, this this looks fun. Like, wait, what? How Like, I wasn't there, but I was busy working, so I couldn't go, but good job, guys. Literally, like 4 years is first event, good turnout, and I can't wait to see how much more you guys grow and are able to do for our community. So, thank you. Okay, that's it for me. >> Thank you, Karen. Uh Tom? >> Uh well, that's a hard one to follow. >> I know. I know. >> I uh I was really looking forward to this uh college and career ready. I've been in having been in education for quite a while, I was involved in quite a few of these. I think that the parents having get the word out to the parents, that's where it really makes a a big difference is because they want to know what these what these people do. And when they're sitting there at a table with a display out there, it it tends to bring them in and they look and they say, "Wow, I didn't realize you taught so many things at that place." Perry Tech was one of my favorites, but um I was just seeing the Columbia Basin Electrical Training Alliance, that that be really big because we really need some electricians. So, that's all I have. >> Thank you, Tom. George? >> Yeah, so last week uh Counselor Dolan and I attended a public works subcommittee meeting. And we went over a few things, but I'm going to concentrate on the on the needs that the city needs. Um we really need a water tower and a and a new well. Um we're we're pretty much running out of water. And I think uh one of the main things that I've talked here before was um educating the public uh as to when they have a leak in their in their system. Just because those gallons count against this. Um There there it's real easy to check if you have a leak. Um just turn off all the faucets, everything in your home. And if the gauge is still running outside, then you have a leak. Um hopefully that could uh help us out. Uh we do need a tower and it's I believe $10 million to build a a new water tower. Um and the well, I believe is another 4 to 5 million. So, it the there's a lot of needs that the city needs. And um ultimately if if we all do our part in conserving that water and make sure that we don't have any leaks, it's going to go a long ways. Another item that was talked about is the the fencing at the airport, which is fully funded. That's hopefully going to start soon. Um but yeah, that's uh there's there's there's quite a few other items on um that we went over, but those were the the more important ones. So, just uh Yeah, go ahead. >> I just had a little add little bit to add to that. And and since we had that meeting uh I did talk to several people. Um They told me that they um would take another look at well 10 as far as um possibly bringing that well back online. Uh they have a little bit of experience here, so just I throw that out for you. >> Can you help that uh you know help us out, that'd be great. Um and we are looking into that uh to get that added back onto our uh system. >> Anything else? >> No, yeah. >> Okay. I guess it's my turn. Um busy week. You know, been in council for a long, long time now, and it you know, I think this year has been the busiest I've ever been on, you know, not that I wasn't busy before, but this looks like the load is like tripled or something. But it's all good stuff. We're all doing good stuff. We're working really hard on each of in uh each of our uh committee meetings and making sure we're bringing back that information. Um and I I really appreciate you guys doing that because that's something that the community needs to know as well is that we're not just here on uh Monday nights uh to to uh pass resolutions and ordinances. We are actually working behind the scenes doing quite a lot of work as well. Uh just like with the LTAC, we need to go back now and re- look at the LTAC. So that was a meeting I had. Um obviously I was a little rusty at that. There's a little confusion there, but we're going to get it sorted out. That's That's my theory. We'll get it sorted out. Um really happy to have uh been able to meet um the finance uh committee as is got meeting. Um we're going to be meeting the uh the Thursdays before council meetings so we can go over the check register, and we're going to have uh we will have uh Monica for a while still to help us with that, and also uh uh Leo >> Alamedano. >> Alaleno? >> Uh aha, okay. >> Thanks to you, >> Okay, I'm I'm going to get that one. It takes me a little while. Um, I'll probably mispronounce it for most of the year and then I'll have it next year, you know, who knows. >> You're good. >> But in any case, we are planning to uh, one of the things we're adding to our when we do our inspection at the finance committee and I think Alvin I mentioned it earlier, too, is a purchase orders. Uh, we're going to start using those purchase orders. I think I don't know why we didn't weren't in the past. I think it's in been in our in our roster of things to do to be able to match up um, uh, what the invoices are to the purchase orders and then matching uh, those those same numbers in the check register. Um, can you explain that a little bit, Leo, for us? >> Yes. Um, the purchase orders system will be um, a process of uh, approvals. For uh, under certain amount, the department directors are going to approve a certain amount. Then, the following amount will be approved by the city manager uh, and the city council. >> Mhm. >> Uh, the purchase order system will provide confidence in our processes, in everything that is paid, money going out, disbursements. Everything uh, will provide due diligence. It will be compliant with um, the uh, the state auditor's office. >> Mhm. >> Um, and it would just, you know, provide confidence in our system, in everything that is paid out. So. >> Right. And >> that's the purpose of it. >> Yeah, and we're looking forward to to uh, working with that um, very much. So, um, you know, you go through those and we do have questions and any of the council members can always, you know, email those those questions to to the finance committee when you get to copy of it because we it should be available Thursday um, afternoon, I believe. You know, we can >> any I think Thursday afternoon or at least by Friday, but still let get a hold of us if you see something that looks a little off for you. Maybe we'll be able to answer it. Uh maybe we'll have to go back to the the experts and ask them, but >> You know, in the >> it'll help a lot. Yes, sir. >> Yeah, um into add to what you're saying, you know, it uh questions don't end and as soon as the meeting ends when the meeting ends, you can ask us any questions at any time. We're here to help. At any time any invoices that you might want to look at, you know, we're going to go ahead and fast forward send them to you. So, it doesn't have to end at the end of the meeting. >> Absolutely not. >> You know, yeah. >> Okay, super. Well, I just that one and can't remember what else I did last week. Does anybody know? I'm trying to remember. Uh we do have rules committee. We were going to have one tonight, but um we've rescheduled that for tomorrow afternoon. Um the rules committee so we can look and see who we've got some of those vacancies we were talking about. Um also um I know there's something else. EL Tech And this coming week we have the climate resiliency meeting coming up tomorrow, Tuesday. And Oh, it's next week. Hot dog going to I was all set to get up early and be ready for that one tomorrow. It's not till the 20 Uh 21st. We'll have climate resiliency on the 21st. That'll be part of your meeting, guys. Think about that. Um so, that's that's about what I did except for that I did I didn't go on the first Tuesday during spring break to do for the the rock and the movie. I got to say when I got out to South Hill Park on Thursday night this past Thursday night, that park was rocking, guys. I don't think that I've seen it rocking that good and last year was a whole bunch of uh baseball kids out there. >> Was it cold? >> It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't really cold. I think it was colder on Tuesday. But, um we had people playing pickleball over in the courts. We had people just sitting around I think they were courting. I'm not entirely sure. You know the old-fashioned word courting. They they were doing that. They were having dinner out in the park. And there was kids on our playground the great playground equipment that we have out there at South Hill Park. That thing was loaded. There were just I don't know. There wasn't space for another kid to climb on. There was also a birthday party going on there. I thought it was the baseball kids. It could have been baseball kids the T-ball kids getting ready cuz they're going to be starting their their uh uh games pretty soon, I believe. And uh so then then the art commission and we attracted people who were at these other events to come over and paint rocks with us. I I some of them came over. And it it was it's always fun because you get to start asking people why are you tiny rock? I swear to you no bigger around than that. And she put a salmon on it and a water. It was beautiful, but it was just a tiny little rock. I was just like going Marcella, how could you do that? It was beautiful. It was beautiful. But, that was really fun and I I know that we're going to be doing some more more art projects. Of course, we want any kind of anybody have some ideas for us, you know, take them to the commission and they're willing to they've got they've started a arts registry so we know who the artists musicians and and all of those guys are. So, anything you guys can think of. We're even we're we're we're up for it. Our committee is up for it. I'm very proud of them. You can tell. Okay. So, that's all I have. So, city manager, um you have something something for us tonight? >> Well, first of all, I thought that maybe in addition to coloring rocks, we could go to a campaign that I remember back in the '70s, '80s was a pet rock. It came in a little box and it was, you know, and it was it over >> on selling these rocks. >> Hey, maybe it's a, you know, new fad. Pet rocks. You know, they're not familiar. I forgot about that. >> I think they had I think one of the things the commission was talking about was some of those rocks might be ending up in the park at various locations. So, you might want to be on when you're doing your walk around the parks, you might be want to look for for some of those painted rocks. >> I'd like to take an opportunity to have staff members kind of provide an update report so that we can have uh some full description of the activities that are being managed by the city. So, Hector, do you have anything that you want to contribute? Um >> I got plenty. Uh so, yes. Uh we uh Mr. Galvan and Councilman Doman uh and I and Corey did meet. Um As Mr. As Counselor Galvan has stated, uh water's my number one priority right now. As you guys know, um Department of Health uh regulates our ERUs, which is equivalent residential units. Uh that With that being stated, that means how many connections we can actually produce here in in city of Sunnyside. Um right now, we are getting to the mark. Um myself and Ms. Ray uh did reach out or I reached out to DOH with Ms. Ray and we did meet with uh Andy Cervantes, our Department of Health water uh representative. Um we let them know what's going on and what is our plan to fix it. And as Council member Galvan stated, our number one thing right now is, uh, storage. Uh, we are working we will be working hard to get an, uh, a tower up. Uh, granted, uh, the tower and well are about five, six years, uh, behind the eight ball. Uh, this is something that should have been done five, six years ago, but uh, it fell on our, uh, our lap. Um, and, uh, Miss Ray and I are are going to work hard to get a new city tower here. Uh, we are thinking of 2 million gallon tower, correct Stephanie if I'm wrong. Um, and then, uh, work towards, uh, a new well. Um, um, at that time, you know, also have, uh, the 9th and Lincoln project that will be, um, be going forward. Um, next, uh, council, uh, I will bring, uh, a up an update with you on, uh, which uh, which construction company was awarded the bid. Um, we've had we had many out there and one of them came out under the cost. Uh, so I'll be, uh, bringing that forward to you, uh, a resolution to award that contractor. Um, and then we've also been awarded, uh, here in, uh, fiscal year 26, uh, the community directed spending grant, which is 2.1 uh, million dollars. And that will be going towards, um, the R10 community grants, which is a a new well for us. So, we have money in for that. Um I am also working on uh the Washington State Department of Commerce. Found where all our money's at. Um I have a lot of documents to fill out and sign and turn in so we can get that using that money also. Um uh planning committee. Well, we were supposed to have a meeting tomorrow. Uh unfortunately, we do not have a quorum. Um so, if rules uh will help us out by uh allowing us to get two more uh empty positions filled, that'd be great. Um we got a lot of developments coming in and our planning committee uh is going to be working very hard and very busy looking those over. Um if anybody has any questions on that, you guys are more than welcome to stop by and visit myself or Mr. Taylor. And we'll be be happy to update everybody. Um I got the climate resilient uh that's coming up next week. I've had economic uh I also will be out there with uh uh Counselor Vasquez um with the ribbon cutting. Obviously in uh working with the community and economics. Uh I'm going to do my part in help out and welcome the businesses. Um keeping up on my public works. Uh we are very busy changing meters, flushing hydrants, fixing streets, uh sewer, rodding, uh parks. They're They got the parks ready and um we're we're doing our best to get the pool ready, too. Um working with Mr. Anderson to hire a uh pool manager and then hire some lifeguards and get them right into the pool safety. So, uh lots to do. Um >> And you also have parks and recs this week. >> I do have a parks and recs, correct. And I also uh uh turned in the census uh documentation that I was working on um uh with the help of Mr. Taylorey and OpenGov. That that really did help me out a lot and I I appreciate Mr. Taylor. Uh shout out to him because uh he did make it uh a lot easier for us to a lot easier for me to get the numbers that I needed. Um it was my first one so and they said I did a pretty good so I was very happy about that. Um they did have a few questions um but I am updating them on uh the questions that they had. >> Do we have an official update? Or not? >> On the census? No, we haven't quite finished. Um they're they're tallying all the numbers and I just this is just uh form 1A as they stated. Um see what's next so um yeah, I'm busy guy um but I'm I'm here to uh meet with anybody at any time. So uh if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer. >> No, just wow. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you're doing. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. >> Cameron. >> Uh good evening. Um sent out my report earlier today and so I have to say there was a typo, my apologies. Um so the typo is our last week call volume was not 69 calls, it was 89. So my apologize for the for the typo there. But again we did have 89 emergency incidents. Um 85 and a half uh catalog training hours. Um I was gone on vacation but in my absence crews were still very busy. Um we participated in the last uh section of the active shooter training with the with Grandview as um uh went through initially through a table top exercise, um an extraction, and then reunification, and then pretty much uh this last weekend was the kind of putting it all together. So we participated in that. Um if you happen to drive by the fire station and it looked like uh people were out there throwing tarps or tents, we were doing our wildland refresher training, which we do every year. Practice throwing our shelters, so we're out there doing that. Um our C shift was able to go out to the uh Sunnyside Senior Center and put on a uh fire safety and evacuation training. So, we've been um working with the director there to put on um regular trainings and and uh I wouldn't call them seminars, but little uh workshops with them on different topics. Um previously we did um uh kitchen safety, stuff of that nature. So, it's been well received. And um then we had a cruise out at Walmart for their large uh Easter celebrations. We were out to uh you know, hand out some sticker badges and helmets and uh engage with the community, so always have a good time doing that. So, oh yeah, got to love the helmets, so um that's uh been the fire station in the last week in a nutshell. So, I'll stand for any questions. >> You I I did want to uh say uh one of your your younger fire There was There was a picture of three men, I think Chris Mears. I can't remember the names of the other two guys about they got their third part of the certificate finished. >> Uh we actually had uh three of our individuals were uh at their at their three-year anniversary. >> Oh, that was their three-year anniversary. That's what >> Well, yeah, they were all hired at >> I did I did I did congratulate them on, but I didn't know what it was for. >> You congratulate them on making it for 3 years. >> There There you go. But the middle guy, I think um with the glasses, the younger one. In the picture In the picture, Tony. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. Was in a photo we saw on Facebook for But anyway, I saw him a couple of weeks ago. I was doing white canes in Safeway in Grandview. And sitting there on my lion gear, you know, collecting whatever money people wanted to give us. And this young man came by me and said, "I know who you are." And I'm looking at him going, "Okay." I didn't expect to get recognized in in Grandview, right? But he introduced himself and I I bless his heart, I can't remember his name. Nice young man. Huh? >> Did he donate? >> He donated. >> Okay, here we go. >> He donated money to the white canes, yes, and I just introduced me to his wife or girlfriend. I can't remember which it was, but he was just so enthusiastic. I was just kind of put back a little bit, but it was fun to for one of your firefighters to say cuz I don't know all of them. I used to know all of them, but they're they're all new now, so but that was really fun. I just thought I'd pass that along how enthusiastic he was, so. >> Perfect. We appreciate it. >> Thank you, Mayor Kamin. Rob. >> Council members, um I sent my report out earlier today, um but a couple things we're working on that weren't in the report, I guess. Um we're working on our funding for the canine, so we're plugging away at that. We do have an event coming up um that was mentioned earlier, so we're looking forward to that. Uh the foundation is sponsoring the Sunny Side car show. Uh the foundation is also sponsoring the Cinco de Mayo soccer tournament. Um and the foundation has a golf tournament coming up. It's their annual fundraiser on July 16th, so if anybody wants a registration form, I can get you one. Um this week is telecommunicators week, so it's a week uh annually that recognizes the dispatchers up in the dispatch center, so um we got a I gave them a gift card today, so we've got some stuff going on with them. Um just today in the mail I got our uh letter from the Criminal Justice Training Commission. We met the compliance with the state training requirements for 2025. It recertifies all our corrections and police officer staff. Um just it annually you have to send in these reports and then they recognize you with a certificate and I attached that to my weekly report as well. Um we also participated in the active shooter uh training in Grandview and the week prior at uh Pacific Northwest University, so that's good training when they put on these large exercises because it gives us a real world opportunity to put together what we're learning in the classroom. Um and then I know that the clerk previously was setting things up, but I need to probably have a public safety uh committee meeting soon. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's Mr. Chavez, Mr. Dolan, and Ms. Vasquez, correct? >> I mean, maybe. >> I believe so. Cameron, can you help me there? That's right? Okay. So, I'll >> Yes. >> I'll send an email to each of you uh with uh Cameron and we we can get it dated. >> Yeah, I don't know. So, that's all I have. >> Excellent. >> Thank you, Rob. Monica. >> Yeah, you. >> Hi. I'm trying to unmute. Um >> What time is it there? >> Almost 10:00. >> Okay, hang in there. >> I am. Um so, ELTAC I was at the ELTAC meeting on the 8th and one of the things that they had brought up was they would like to go out for RFQ and get a um tourist um consultant to come in and work with the city to discuss where the city would like to head in trying to obtain more tourism to come to this city. So, that's one of the things that um we're going to be looking towards um here with the ELTAC committee. Um for the work that I've been doing, I'm happy to announce that I believe by the end of this week I should have all the bank wrecks completed for 2024. It's been uh quite a task, but it's almost it's getting there. Um and then um for one of the things I'm going to request from the council is we have these budget amendments and I fully respect that we need $30,000, but I also need advice on where we're going to be taking that out of in the general fund. So, that's something that I'm going to need advice on is where you will be reducing $30,000 in the general fund if the general fund will be paying $30,000 for another item because we can't just it doesn't come from and it it has to be reduced from somewhere. So, that will be something that I'll send an email out and um let you know what departments fall within the general fund for us to be reducing. >> That's painful, but necessary. Thank you. >> Reality. >> Yeah. >> Fire department, police department, courts, jail, and city hall. >> Okay. We'll be We'll the finance committee I think will be helping out with that probably to do some where we can find some places to trim as well as working with the department heads and so forth. Correct, Mr. >> Yes. Mhm. Speaking of reality, Julie, do you have anything? >> I I don't have anything. >> Okay, that's great. You're you're good about reality. Uh I just want to say it's been This is the beginning of my fifth week here and so far nobody has run me out of town and grateful for that. Uh it's been great working with the staff. Uh we've getting to know each other a little bit more comfortably and so um my peculiarities and mannerisms haven't bothered anybody, so I'm grateful for that. Um we are in the process of selecting uh a clerk. We had some awesome candidates. I'd like to hire all of them. I mean, I like, wow. Uh, but the review process for these applicants have gone through um, staff interview committee, which consisted of um, as me and Vanessa, myself and Heath. And they're also going to be reviewed by two um, senior city clerks, which is uh, Deb Esparza and Debbie Zabel. So, we have a thorough assessment of the skill set of these people so that when we pick this person, they will carry us into the future. So, um, I'll have um, some more discussion on that, but I just wanted you to know that we are moving forward with that priority of getting a city clerk here. Uh, I've also been working with staff on training. You know that I invited you to all to watch a video on uh, the ideal team player by Patrick Lencioni. Um, and he invites us to evaluate three qualities of a team player. Do you know what they are? Humble, hungry, and smart. Humble, hungry, and smart. And smart isn't about being intelligent, it's about having uh, emotional intelligence and knowing how your behavior and how what you say affects people. And those are the three important qualities for a team to work together. Um, the also thing that I I'm kind of instinctive towards and that is the culture of an organization. And that culture represents how we work together. What are our values? Um, maybe I have not looked in all the right places, but I could not see that we had any values. And so, values are kind of the foundation of how we work together, how we treat each other. And something that I put together that I'm going to pass out to all of you here. If you'll just pass this down. >> Take one. Take one. >> Take one and pass it down. Uh these values that I worked with in another city represent uh an acronym. And that acronym is called traits. And traits is uh represents five values that I'm wanting the city staff to work as a team with. And I invite the council to consider how they might work with each other with these traits. And the first letter T stands for trust, which is the foundation of all of our traits. If you haven't got trust, you haven't got an organization. The second R, letter R is for respect, which is generally just the application of the golden rule. The third A, letter A stands for accountability and taking responsibility for our actions. The letter I is for integrity, staying honest with our values at all times. The letter T represents teamwork and working together for everyone's success. And we are in the service business, which is the letter S, prioritizing public satisfaction with all city operations. And each letter has a definition of what it means under those categories. And so, I'm just presenting this as a way of saying these are our core values. And um you'll find that they're pretty pretty uh common sense values that you would have in any kind of organization or any kind of condition that you'd want to have trust, respect, accountability, integrity, teamwork, and service. So, that's uh our current situation. And um thank you again. Any questions? >> I do have one more, sorry. Just to give you guys an update. So, uh Mr. Morales and I took a two-week course um on construction inspection. So, we completed those courses and I also took another four-week course for APWA grounds and facilities and took the test and hopefully I'll find out that whether I pass or not to get that certificate. So. >> I'm sure you passed. >> I hope I did. >> I Okay. I did have a quick question if there was any just talking about any items that from council and or from the departments that might be full coming up for the next uh next council meeting on the 23rd, no, 20 >> 27th. Do we have anything kind of that you're aware of right now or >> I'm working towards items as it relates to the workshop, but we'll just have normal action items that I don't all have ready because different staff departments might have something that coming up. This is going to include um and agreements with our defense attorneys. We've talked about that as it relates to adjusting their current contracts to have parity among all of them. That's one item that's going to come up at the next council meeting. On the on the May 3rd, which is a workshop, we will have the judge come and talk talk to us about the court activities including case assignments and financial screening that occurs giving the council a chance to more deep get get a deeper dive into how the courts work and ask any questions of the judge. >> Awesome. Okay. Anything from council that you have a burning desire to have on the next agenda or to be considered? Off the top? Nada? Probably need a proclamation for Cinco de Mayo. Just was thinking about that. Cuz that's coming up. We can find one. And we can do that at the 20 27th one. >> Yeah. Um, I guess I'd like to put something on the record. So, I'm not sure if you guys um remember if you guys came across it. We got an email from an organization called MRJN as um associates here in Sunnyside. And they wanted to they were requesting to do a presentation um to share their resources and what they have to offer Sunnyside residents. >> Yeah. >> And so, I'd like to put that on the on the upcoming um study session. Yes, but I >> Would you Would you get that information to >> Yes. Yes, and let me I'm actually going to contact with them to see if that day um our upcoming workshop will work with them. Yes, May 3rd. If that day will work with them. If not, then um we'll push it to the next one. But, let me just confirm with them because I know that they've been eager to come and do a >> I saw that email. >> Correct. Um, they've been eager to come and present a presentation before council and to share it with the community. So, just putting it on the record that way um I can follow through with that. >> Awesome. Anything else? Anybody? Anybody? Nobody? Okay. Motion to adjourn. Ah. We have a motion to adjourn. So, if there's no further business to come before the council, we adjourn at 7:55 p.m. This

We are going to All right. So, calling this meeting to order at 5:59. I'm going to wait right till 6:00. Yes, I have a copy of the presentation. Yes. PDF was sent as a part of the presentation. >> Okay. You don't have no PowerPoint or anything? Put it up on the screen. Okay. PDF? Uh didn't get a PowerPoint version of it. We got a PDF. Okay. Can you explain that? All right. So, calling this meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. For the record, all members of council are here uh ex- with the exception of Council Hart. Have you heard from Council Hart? Mr. Haley? I have not heard that she wanted to be excused. Okay. I haven't either. So, um are you all okay with giving her a few minutes to get here? Yeah, we can give her till the the meeting, I guess. Okay. Um and then uh Council Sesati is um online with us. Did I say Council Hart? I meant Deputy Mayor Hart. Apologies. And we have uh the city attorney on the line, Julie Norton. And oh, there's um Council Hart. For the record, Council Hart has arrived to the chambers and is making her way up to the dais. Um I think no staff are here other than Japheth and Leo. Um I heard that they were dismissed for the evening. Okay. And uh remind me of your name. Rob Rosca. Rob. Okay. Thank you for being here. Rob is here with us from WCIA who will be doing a presentation here. Um we did have an email going on about I'll wait for Mr. Haley to make his way over. Sorry. I count or Deputy Mayor Hart. Excuse me. Thank you for being patient with me. Yeah. So, before we go into the agenda, um I think the first item that we have is a presentation from WCIA. Um there's a couple of things that I wanted to go over. Um a couple weeks ago during our a a council meeting, um there was um Sandra Sesati who works for YVC did a public comment um inquiring um about a collaboration with the city for a college fair career fair um event hap- on April slated to happen on April 22nd. Now, that day um the collaboration didn't come forward to a vote. It just seemed like we had discussion around it and it seemed to be a consensus from the council that people were open to the collaboration. Um she was asking if there was a collaboration if we could forego the um the fees to the community center if the city um sponsors it. Now, it didn't come to a council for a vote. Um I don't rec- I don't recall seeing it in uh and please correct me if I'm wrong. Uh council members, if there if there's anything that um uh regarding situations like things coming to a council vote. I'm not against it. I just I I haven't seen it or on uh or in any of our SMCs. I know we've um things like this have we have voted on them in the past just for the record and because it has to do with the fee schedule. So, I wanted to bring this forward to us and then we can have a conversation about it because if if we do want it to come to a vote, we'd have to uh make a motion to um Add to our agenda to amend it and add it to our agenda today. Yeah, I'm okay with the with adding it for for tonight. For tonight, yeah. As an as an item. I I think that's I agree. I So, his motion I'll second. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion by council member Galvan Yes. to incorporate it would be item Let's see. Um if we could incorporate this onto item C and then maybe we can have the um interim city manager's update be the last thing we go over today. Uh so, we can uh officially vote on the potential collaboration with YVCC for a college fair career fair on April 22nd sponsored by the city of Sunnyside. Okay. And then I got a second by Deputy Mayor Hart. Um okay. Is there any discussion? Okay. I'll start at the bottom. Uh Council Chavez? Yes. Uh Council Oh, Council Sesati? Yes. Council Vasquez? Yes. Council Dolan? Yes. Council Galvan? Deputy Mayor Hart? Yes. I too vote yes. Motion carries. So, this will be added as item C. Julie, I I didn't hear from you about needing an executive session. Do Do we need one or do we not need one? Uh yeah, I responded back to your email that we um you'd want one either way. So, under RCW 42.31.110.1f or 1i, this would be to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency um matters of agency enforcement. So, we do need one. Okay. Yeah. It's there. Okay. So, I'd like to entertain a motion to add an executive session at the end of the agenda. So move. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. Discussion? Council Chavez? Yes. Council Sesati? Yes. Council Vasquez? Yes. Council Dolan? Yes. Council Galvan? Yes. Deputy Mayor? Yes. Okay. I too vote yes. Motion carries. We'll We'll go ahead and add that executive session at the end of the agenda. Okay. So, we'll go We'll go on with item A, receive a presentation from the Washington Cities Insurance Authority on council dues and don'ts. And that will be provided by Rob. Thank you for being with us here today. Is there anything else that we need to prep up for him? Japheth? Okay. Great. Okay. No. Well, good evening. My name is Rob Rosca. I'm the Deputy Director of WCIA, which stands for Washington Cities Insurance Authority. Excuse me. Could you turn on your microphone? Oh, sorry. Yeah. How's that? Is that better? Yeah. Deputy Director of Washington Cities Insurance Authority or WCIA as we like to call ourselves. Um WCIA initially when I tell people where I work, they think it's like Washington Central Tele- way more exciting than insurance. Once I say insurance, I lose them and it's like there they go. All right. But again, I'm here to hopefully answer questions you guys may have. So, please feel free to fire them out at me. Uh this is why I'm here. Uh I do this throughout the state of Washington. Uh and just give you a little bit background. I've been involved with WCIA now for 26 years. I started in 2000. I left actually went to go work for a member city. So, I actually worked for a city for 12 and 1/2 years. So, I know what it's like to be a member at WCIA as well as work for it. I was on the executive committee and I think I asked way too many questions cuz my background is in insurance and risk management. So, my boss wanted to shut me up. So, she brought me in-house. So, I've been back at WCIA now for uh a little over 8 and 1/2 years. So, I'm glad to be back as a Deputy Director. Uh we provide the city's liability insurance coverage as well as property, auto physical damage, and we group purchase some other policies for the city including cyber, premises pollution liability, equipment breakdown, all sorts of different things that could go wrong with either city equipment city operations that you want insurance for. We're here to help provide you for that. Uh we do provide $20 in liability coverage. We are one of three risk pools in the state of Washington. We provide the most in coverage and limits. And I will tell you it is getting very hard out there. You can advance the slides, too. Um it's [sighs and gasps] a very difficult market and I'll go over some of those issues as to what's going on with that. One of the nice things about WCIA though is we are not an insurance company. We are a risk pool and there's a big delineation about that. One, we are an interlocal government agency created by our members for our members. We were created back in 1981 primarily because, believe it or not, government agencies are not a very good insurance risk. And the insurance market were charging an exorbitant amount of money and not having a lot of control over how claims are being handled or being litigated. So, a bunch of cities decided to create their own and that's where we are formed through an interlocal government agency. So, I'm a public employee. I carry two phones, one work phone and one personal phone. I do not mix the two up and I'll go over why you don't want to do that a little bit later. Um but the other big distinction is I don't underwrite for a profit. I'm not trying to make money off of our members. If we do make money at the end of the year, that's great. That means it goes into what we call our undesignated reserve funds, which help offset future rate increases. So, the more money we have, the less money we have to charge our members for rates. So, that's the good news. The bad news is it's getting very hard to have money left over at the end of the year due to the litigation environment that we're in in Washington state in particular. We are one of the worst in the nation. Um But, the other good thing about being part of WCA is coverage decisions are decided by our executive director, Ann Bennett. Uh she's been involved with WCA now for 30 years. All we do is insure municipalities in Washington state. We do not insure any counties or state agencies. We do insure interlocal government agencies like Yakima Valley Conference of Government, uh as well as 911 dispatch centers, wastewater treatment facility or sewer district plant organizations, entities. They have to provide a municipal function now. So, uh a lot of times, I get called from especially right now with this market, a lot of agencies looking to join. Uh we don't just take any municipality in the state of Washington. You have to qualify to be a member. Once you're a member, you're in. And we will work with you. We will try to help you in risk manage your exposures and try to keep controls in place to help reduce those uh losses or the potential for loss. But, those members coming in, if they don't have a good loss history, I'm not going to take them into our pool because their losses impact your rates, just like your rates are impacting all the other members' rates as well. So, we are in this together. We do try to help our members out. That's where we're very good with training. We offer a lot of trainings for staff. We offer risk management advice. We have pre-defense. We try to give the membership as much information as possible before they make those decisions. We don't tell you how to run your city. That's city manager's job. Your job as legislatures to look at the budget and the legislative issues confronting the city, ordinances, resolutions. We're not going to tell you how to do that. We're going to tell you about the potential impacts of what you do, as well as make recommendations to put some controls in place to help limit those exposures and reduce the potential for loss. Unfortunately, you can do everything right and still suffer claims and litigation. Uh that's just the nature of the business of what we do, and that's why we exist. So, I can't complain too much. You can keep going. You can keep going. One more. Insurance market. Insurance is a very cyclical cycle. >> [sighs] >> You can get some very large ups and downs. Unfortunately, the past 5 6 years, all it's done is gone up from a liability perspective. We haven't seen any slowing down of that cycle. And what that means is it's harder for me to buy what's called reinsurance. I insure the first five five million dollars of every loss. Comes out of WCA's general fund. Then I buy reinsurance above those layers up to 20 million dollars. And 2022, there were two large reinsurers that pulled out of the state of Washington. They basically said no more public agencies. Uh we're not underwriting in the state anymore, and that left a huge hole for us to try to fill. Uh we got creative. We had to do some co-insurance, some deductibles. We had to get really uh creative in 2022. After that, we did we were able to backfill and bring in some new reinsurance partners. And that's We call them partners because it is a very partnership-related business. They want to know what we're doing. They want to know the exposures. So, I meet with underwriters on a regular basis, uh especially at renewal. And it's getting harder because last year we insured the first 4 million. This is what I mean by a hard market. I was forced to raise myself insured retention up a million to 5 million because no carrier would underwrite me below that amount. So, I didn't have an option. So, right away I'm at 5 million dollars. Now, you think I would get a break on costing? No, my rates also went up. So, my attachment point went up a million, plus my rates went up a million. Just to give you an example, in 10 years, my rates have gone up over 700%. Now, we try to keep our members' rates a little bit more stable than that. Um not saying we haven't had rate increases. We've had to, just because that's the nature of the business. And if my rates have gone up 700%, it's going to trickle down to other members eventually. Now, we do some stabilization. Um we do some rate capping. But, unfortunately, it's just getting very difficult to insure in our state. We don't have any tort caps. We have joint several liability. And I'll go over some of those issues a little later in the presentation. But, it makes us very vulnerable to those increases. Now, the good news, give you a little bit of good news, too. Good, bad. Property. Property's been really good. Uh we've had some really good property rates the last 2 years. I've been able to keep our rates flat. I'm actually looking at a rate decrease for next year. So, that's some good news is we're at least going to be able to give a rate decrease on the property side. Property's pretty easy, though. That is dependent upon how the hurricanes uh go, where the wildfires are at, and what the global environment's doing in a property market perspective. But, the last few years it's been relatively calm. We've had some really good rate renewals, and that means I'm able to give some back to the membership in 2027 from a property perspective. Uh you can go next slide. This is just kind of giving you some headlines. State of Washington got hit with a $100 million lawsuit for the wrongful death of two children that were being supervised by Department of Social and Health Services. Susan Powell Cox, uh it got national attention. Her body was never found. The ex-husband was suspected of murdering her, but it was never proved. He was never arrested, never incarcerated for that. And the family, uh the dad had some court-ordered supervision for his children. So, DSHS was forced to bring the children over to let him see the kids. Unfortunately, he then took the kids, locked them inside his trailer, brutally murdered them, and set the trailer on fire. Jury came back with a $100 million against the state of Washington. Now, the state of Washington, the DSHS did not obviously want to see that happen. It was a criminal act by a third party, a deranged dad who had obviously mental health issues. Uh that led to that murder. We thought that, boy, maybe this might be a time for the state to start looking at some tort reform. $100 million is a lot of money for the death of two children. Now, mind you, I will have my two children any day of the week. I don't care about the money, and every parent is going to probably think the same thing. You can't put a price tag on a life. But, unfortunately, that's what the courts are assigned to do. And when they came up with $100 million, we thought, well, maybe the state would be looking at maybe putting in some caps or some tort reform in place because the state was only like 2% at fault. But, because of joint several liability, where the kids when you have three or more or two or more people at fault, and you have a fault-free plaintiff, children, who they did nothing wrong. They were just doing going to see their dad. And if you're found at least 1% at fault, you could be on the hook for any entire judgment if that other party doesn't have the money to pay. Well, guess who the deep pocket's going to be. Nine times out of 10, it's going to be the public agency. It's going to be the city of Sunnyside. It's going to be the state of Washington. It's going to be Yakima County. It's going to be that responsible party that has that insurance, unless you're dealing with a company or a large corporation that has assets and insurance to back up those losses. But, because of that, they're going to try and say you did something wrong. And here, if you did at least 1% at fault, and the plaintiff, the children were fault-free, the entire judgment you're now responsible for. So, we thought maybe that would get some discussion on it. No, they just did a bunch of amendment. And the Supreme Court actually upheld the verdict as being non non-excessive. So, that just tells you the climate that we're in. Um >> [clears throat] >> You know, state of Washington's been hit with multiple uh lawsuits. The city of Seattle just this year had a 30 million and a 28 million dollar verdict. Chop, the individual that died in the city of Seattle at city didn't shoot him. He died, and they couldn't render aid. And therefore, the city was held liable. It's on appeal, but that was $30 million. Then there was the injury with the individual in the crosswalk, where an officer hit her in a crosswalk and made some very inappropriate comments on the radio. $28 million. So, these are very expensive claims and lawsuits that can arise out of agencies. Uh next slide. There was a study done by um Chamber of Commerce Institute, and you can Google this. It's out there. Uh Washington state, we were the third worst per capita in the nation. And that was in 2021. I think [clears throat] if they did that same study today, we'd rate a lot higher. Coupled with the fact that Florida, Georgia, and New York have all done some legislation on tort reforms, Washington has done zero. We try every year to get our lobbyist involved with the state legislature, and it falls on deaf ears. It's really difficult in our state to get any sort of headway because they're very proud of their position of being victim advocates. And I can totally appreciate and understand that when someone is hurt and harmed, they need to have just compensation for that. But at the same time, you end up punishing and hurting the same agencies that still have to provide services for the community in which they reside in. This is coming out of public funds, these monies. Uh frustrating part, out of Spokane County, there was a sheriff's deputy who was on the radio using inappropriate language. He ended up getting terminated by the deputy. He then sued saying wrongful termination. He sued for Not just No, it wasn't wrongful termination, it was libel and slander. He libeled me and slandered me with that derogatory comment. Jury came back with $20 verdict. He wasn't a quadriplegic, was not a paraplegic. This was libel and slander over derogatory comments. And he won $20. Now, the frustrating part about that is you read the Spokane Journal Review over that, and they start talking about how well the county has a self-insured layer of $3,000, then the rest is covered by a risk pool and insurance money. So they make it seem like, well, that's okay then because it's not coming out of taxpayer dollars. Uh it is coming out of taxpayer dollars. One, they're part of the county risk pool, which is another public agency, just like WCA is a public agency. And two, those reinsurers that ended up paying are going to charge more for future assessments, so you know who's going to have to pay for that, our taxpayers to fund for those. And that's where it really is a fine line between justice and preventing future harm and eliminating resources that you would have to provide for your residents. So the best thing you can do is not have claims to begin with, and that's what I'm here today to talk to you about. It's to try to prevent those claims from ever emanating out of the city. Uh next slide. So things you can do to avoid liability. Well, first of all, thank you for your service. I know being an elected official is not the easiest task. I worked for a city for 12 and 1/2 years. I used to have to go to city council all the time. I know how much much work you have to put in if you're going to be educated on the issues. So thank you for doing so. Know that our coverage document protects the city of Sunnyside, employees, volunteers, and elected officials, as long as you're acting within the course and scope of your duties for the city. So you do have $20 liability coverage with WCA while you're acting in that elected official capacity. Now, some things to watch out for though is there's some good defenses. We don't see a lot of city council members being sued individually anymore. We used to see that a lot more back in the early 2000s, late '90s, where plaintiffs would name individual council members. Now, with some land use petition, the LUPA Act, and some other situations, we don't see individual council members getting sued. Good news is there's some good defenses anyway. As long as you're acting as a council as a whole, you have some discretionary immunity for the decisions that you're making as a legislative body. You have some legislative immunity as well, as long as you're acting as a council as a whole, not as an individual. Once you step outside of the council and start acting from the desk of, that's where you start creating some potential exposure individually for what you say and what you do. So just be cognizant of that fact and try to limit your comments to the committee as a whole and not as an individual. That doesn't mean you can't have individual opinions. You certainly can, and you can certainly talk about those, but just be careful about stepping outside of that role as a council member. Cuz once you start acting as an individual, you start opening yourself up to some further scrutiny and some potential litigation. Uh next slide. I mentioned land use. Uh hearing examiners are best friend. You guys use a hearing examiner here, do you not? Yes, I thought you do. Hearing examiner? You guys use a hearing examiner? We use it so for um different different events that we have. >> Yes, it'll takes the council out of acting out of the in a quasi-judicial role, where you have to act as a judge and make rulings. And that's a difficult role to do because you get a lot of public comment. You get a lot of people coming up to you about their opinions on issues. And sometimes those opinions and those comments are not part of the record, and you can't rule or act based upon those comments or those opinions because it's not part of the record, and it leads to arbitrary and capricious decision-making. One of our worst claims resulted out of a claim from the city of Burien. Newly incorporated, they had Westmark, the Burien, and it was going to block some nice views of the Puget Sound. It was a multi-family residency. Uh and it was vested under King County, but the city took it over when it incorporated. And they were using King County rules at the time of their review. However, it was delayed multiple times, and the developer finally sued. And I think there were three or four different litigations over it. Lasted close to 8 years. Uh long story short, the city lost the tune of $10. Plus some attorney's fees. So these things can be very expensive and very prolonged litigation, especially when there's big money involved with development. That's where hearing examiner is a very good resource for our members. And any city that doesn't use one, I'm a big advocate to try to change their code and incorporate those hearing examiners to extricate you from having to make those quasi-judicial rulings. Not that you can't do it, it just creates a little bit more of a hurdle and scrutiny. I had one council member where I worked before we changed over to a hearing examiner, who in open session said he did not want to hear any or did not want to have any more SHAG senior housing in the downtown area. The problem with that was there was a development that was being reviewed for vote on senior housing in the downtown area. Now, council ended up rejecting it and denying it due to some density issues. However, because that council member made that comment, all the developer heard was he didn't want it because of the type of use it was. So they ended up suing, and they ended up winning quite a bit of money because of that comment being taken out of context. So that's kind of the pitfalls over what Cuz it got rejected, and because that council member made that comment in an open session, it was used against them. So it's things like that that can really be problematic for us and for you as a council member. Development agreements, I have to caution you about that. You may have heard about city of Elum. Um Yeah. Yeah. That arose out of a development agreement. Development agreements [snorts] are a creative way to go outside of your zoning codes, your local ordinances, and get something from a developer, this for that. It's usually in a contract. That's the agreement. You have a development agreement, you're going to do X, Y, and Z, and we're going to get A, B, and C. Problem with that is it can sound good today, and they can be binding for quite a few years later. And you have new council coming in, and they say, "Well, why do we have this development agreement on the books? This doesn't look good." And the next thing you know, they're kind of against it, and it's going contrary to what the developer wanted. Now, that was in Cle Elum's problem. Cle Elum's problem was it was a large development, and the developer didn't think that they were playing by the terms of the agreement. And unfortunately, in that development agreement, there was a mandatory arbitration clause that forced them to go to arbitration rather than to superior court. And when you go to arbitration clauses, a lot of times those are funded by Master Builders Association, uh whomever, you know, the general industry, per se. I'm not saying it's a bias right off the get-go, but it's not going to be as favorable as if you just went to straight district court. So right there's a hurdle. The other hurdle is it's binding. And the develop the here the arbitrator found that the city had violated that agreement. Now, WCA provides $20 in liability for your tort claims, your civil litigation, not breaches of contract. Breaches of contract are not covered by any insurance company, cuz that's a performance requirement. You need to do X, Y, and Z or the legal requirements of that contract. So, that breach of contract was not covered. Now, we did end up giving the city quite a bit of money, $5 million for our sublimit on some land use exposure and recommended they settle it. They thought that they could win it and they lost and the arbitration award was $22 million. Now, the city is looking at bankruptcy council. That's going to affect their bond rating for future years and it's very problematic. So, my cautionary tale on that is be very careful about your utilization your utilization of those agreements. They may sound good today, but they can bind future councils and we've even had one city that had an agreement, it had expired, so they thought they didn't have to honor the terms and conditions. The developer sued and said the only reason it expired was because staff and council delayed it so much that they let it lapse and the court agreed. So, here they thought they were out, but the court brought them back in. So, that's where it just cautionary tale about your utilization of those tools. >> [snorts] >> Go ahead and next slide. Uh personnel, I won't spend too much time. I think you guys are pretty aware of some personnel exposures. Uh my main plea here is let city manager deal with staff. You do not want to insert yourself in personnel related matters. There are a number of laws on the books designed to protect employees, not employers. They're not very favorable to employers. They're there to protect the employee. My plea for you is if someone comes up and tells you to avoid certain behavior, do not argue about whether or not it was offensive or derogatory. Just stop the behavior. Your intent is irrelevant. It's how it's impacted by those that are uh impacted by that behavior and by those comments. So, you may be not intending intending to be offensive or harassing, but if it's being perceived by those that are impacted by the comments and you're told to stop, please just stop. That's all you need to do. Do not look at the staff directory as your personal Tinder account. We've had that happen before where all of a sudden councilmember got a divorce and now he wants to start dating romantically, so he goes through the staff uh directory and starts calling up members to go out on dates. Not okay. That puts staff in a huge awkward situation because you come from a position of power and authority. Now, if two coworkers are engaged in inappropriate behavior, city manager has resources that he can take to effectuate a change in their behavior. He can investigate it. If it's found that someone's violating policy, they can take administrative action. They can discipline, they can uh suspend, they can do written reprimands, and they can even terminate. Can I terminate elected officials? No, that's my problem. That's where you can create kind of that exposure that city manager can't rein in. So, your conduct can really escalate very quickly. And that's where I say, if you're told to stop and you don't stop, remember, you have $20 million in liability coverage as long as you're acting within the course and scope of your duties for the city of Sunnyside. If you're told to stop certain behavior and you don't stop it, you could be acting as an individual outside of that role of that elected official. Therefore, coverage may not attach if we find out you've been doing that intentional behavior. Therefore, your own assets could be exposed and that's my scared straight speech. So, again, please, please, please, if you're told to stop something, don't argue about it. And if you witness something, you do have an obligation to forward that on to the executive. Let the city manager know that somebody made some inappropriate or staff was being subjected to some inappropriate conduct or behavior because once you have notice, the city has notice and that begins the city's administrative process to investigate it and hopefully put an end to it if they can. So, they have an affirmative duty to those employees and if you witness something, you need to make sure that you report that accordingly. Now, if something goes wrong and you get called and yes, maybe the city made a mistake, but please do not say, "Oh my gosh, we're so sorry. Don't worry, the city will take care of everything." Uh everything is a very broad statement and even fault is a legal conclusion that we need to do a proper investigation on. Now, here's what I mean by that, too. Be careful about your comments. Don't be afraid to say, "I'm unsure. Let me forward that on to the proper department and let them review it and get back to you." Uh we had one situation where uh downtown uh city has pretty strict downtown codes about how they have uh siding on their buildings. Joe wanted to redo his hardware store. Called the mayor up and said, "Mayor, I want to put stucco on my building. Is that okay?" Joe, that looks great. Sounds great. Good luck. Uh hope you get a nice good quote. So, he hires a contractor. He goes out there, starts putting stucco on the building. Code enforcement comes by and red tags the building saying, "You cannot put stucco in the downtown. It needs to be cedar siding." Or whatever the code called for. Is that a problem? Yeah, that's a problem because he called the city up and the mayor told him he could do it. So, I get the claim for damages. I call the mayor up and say, "Mayor, did you tell Joe he could put stucco on it?" "Yeah, Rob, I did. I probably should have looked at our codes a little bit closer." "Well, Mayor, we're going to have to end up paying for that and paying for his contractor and the cost of his building materials that he's already expended because that's something that you then committed the city to." So, just be careful about taking matters into your own hands and directing staff as well. I talked about defamation earlier with the city of Spokane. This can be very expensive. Um as public officials, you have to have thicker skin. Even public employees have to have a little bit thicker skin. But try to avoid getting into personal name-calling. Uh calling out people by name, especially if you have a certain area that is impoverished. Uh you don't want to call people slumlords. That can get personal. Uh you can say you need some code enforcement and you need to do some cleanup activities, but don't start getting into name-calling cuz that's where you things can cross lines very quickly. Uh be careful about that. Now, truth is a defense, but even that we don't want to have to defend if we don't need to. So, if you can avoid getting into that derogatory name-calling in the first place, that can go a long way from preventing those claims from ever arising. And unfortunately, we do see those every now and then. I do have to spend a little bit of time on public works cuz this is one area that we definitely see council >> [sighs and gasps] >> uh creating some potential problems and it's not intended to. It's well-intended. A lot of times you're trying to do good. You're trying to make change. You want to make things safer. However, in our state because of joint and several liability, remember, if you're 1% at fault and someone did nothing wrong and there's someone else at fault, they can collect the entire amount from you. This comes up a lot with public works, with crosswalks, with roads. Um you'll get uh a situation where there's not enough insurance to cover the damages for the accident. So, they're going to look for a third party to blame and guess who that's going to be. City of Sunnyside. So, if someone's injured in a crosswalk, we're going to defend the city. We're going to say it met MUTCD Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices standards, AASHTO American Highway Safety Traffic Organization standards. It met all these engineering criteria. It was well-designed. It turns into engineering malpractice cases. So, we're going to look to the city engineer or the city contractor to make sure that it met all those warrants. If it was put in arbitrarily because a number of residents complained and thought it was a good idea to put a crosswalk here and you said, "Yeah, okay, we'll do that because crosswalks make roads safer." Without those traffic studies, that limits our ability then to defend the city. So, be careful about that. Or if you refer to roads as being unsafe or this is a dangerous situation, I actually had a councilmember refer to a traffic circle as a circle of death. Again, I can't make this stuff up. He called Now, that doesn't mean the traffic circle is inherently unsafe, but now if someone's injured in that traffic circle, do you think they're going to try to say that it had some issues that the city knew about and should have made it safer? Well, their own councilmember refers it to the circle of death. Well, what we're going to have to then do, and we've done this unfortunately one too many times, is then depose that council member, ask him where he got his traffic engineering degree at, and say what in your engineering opinion led you to come up with He had none and it was just his opinion. Okay, that doesn't mean it's unsafe. So, just be careful about the terminology you use. It could mean you might want to do additional studies and see whether things may warrant additional measures or controls, and that's something that staff can assist you with. But, don't just flat out say, "Well, this is a dangerous situation because there's poor lighting here." Poor lighting is a judgment call that's best left to the engineers. And again, it's nothing that we want to then have to try to counter in a call and have you deposed in open session because I guarantee you a plaintiff will take what you say and run with it and try to use it to the best of their ability to try to say that the city was at fault. So, be very careful about that. And that's where joint several really comes into play cuz again, we we see it a lot with crosswalks where kids get hurt in a crosswalk and they're fault free. They did nothing wrong. They're in a crosswalk. And then we have to justify why that crosswalk is where it is. And if meets those engineering criteria, we can do so. But, if it's just done arbitrarily based upon neighborhood complaints about putting that in there and the road doesn't justify it, that's where it can be problematic for us. Uh executive session, well, I heard you're going to executive session. Executive session's a great tool. It's a very good tool for you to have those frank Um it's one of the few times that you can have that without um fear of everything being coming public. Uh you can have those candid frank discussions dealing with personnel, uh contracts, union contracts, real estate contracts, as long as it qualifies. But, please please please remember, what goes on in an executive session needs to stay in executive session. You do not want to talk to your spouse, your neighbor, your significant other about what happened in exec session cuz once you start doing so, you can erode even some potential attorney-client issues. So, please please please do not leak what is said in exec session. Uh we've had situations before where we're in mediation and the other side knows my authority and the only way they could get my authority number was because I prepped council 2 weeks earlier on it and they had a leak at council member to the plaintiff. So, if we suspect that you're leaking executive session information to the other side, then we'll take you out of the equation because we can't trust it then. And we don't want to have to do that. We like to work with our members, talk to our members about what's going on with the claims and litigation, but we have to be able to trust what we're saying is going to remain in exec session. And if we don't have that trust, that's where we'll take it out. Uh question I have a question to that. So, it's when somebody's violating the um executive session, what are the what's the consequences to that immediately? >> Yeah. Uh that's a great question. You'd have to look at your own council rules and procedures and govern yourself over that. I've had council members that have been sanctioned by council over their conduct and their behavior, but this is where you have to govern yourselves over that conduct and look internally as to what your procedures say if you suspect something is happening that's violating those issues. Now, the consequences could be we could jeopardize our litigation and we could even erode attorney-client information that then has to be disclosed that wouldn't otherwise have to be disclosed to a third party. Rob? Yes. Uh to executive session again, to the content that you are we are authorized under the RCW, doesn't mean you can talk about things that you don't want the public to hear. Correct. You have to stick to the topic on hand. And so, you can't pull another subject out of the discussion. >> No, and that's where I would look to your city attorney on because obviously they have to be involved in that exec session and your city clerk to make sure that they're informing the public on the time frames and making sure that you're staying on task, on point with that topic and not going outside of that. You don't want to be violating the OPMA, Open Public Meetings Act. OPMA is a fine and penalty that WCA does not insure because that goes against public policy. If we were to indemnify you for violating the law, obviously you're encouraged to follow the law and do everything above board. So, if you don't, you can be fined and fined and penalized for those violations, but it's nothing that we would cover under a tort because it's not a tort or a civil action. Does that make sense? Same thing with public records. If you have a request for public records, you're encouraged to follow the Public Record Act and make sure that those things are properly disclosed in a timely manner and withheld according to your exemption log. And any violations of that would be a violation of the law which isn't indemnified then by WCA. It's a fine or penalty that you'd be exposed to through the state. And that's why you have two phones. Exactly. That is right on point because you do not want to be conducting city business on your personal laptop, on your personal computer, on your personal phone. If you were to do so, there have been court cases that have ruled that you have to then turn your phone over for judicial review to get the metadata on that phone cuz it is a public record if you start conducting city business utilizing your personal resources. And you don't want to have to disclose your personal computer's hard drive to a judge for a review. Same thing with your phone. That's the last thing you want to have to go through. So, use your city-issued equipment for those issues. And that that was kind of that written communications. That's where um I will talk to you about Facebook, Nextdoor, um utilization of social media for conducting city business. You do not want to use your own personal Facebook account or your own personal whatever social media account you have to conduct city business. If you do, turn off the public comments. You do not want to then screen and censor public comments because that you're creating a potential public forum when you start conducting city business on like a Facebook account and you start talking about relevant issues in the upcoming session. If you do that and then someone starts making racist, homophobic, whatever comment that's inappropriate and you want to censor that and delete it, you're violating his First Amendment rights. We've actually had cases that we've had to pay those offenders because council had done just that and the court ruled against us saying that is a First Amendment violation. You create a public forum by allowing people to make those comments on that Facebook post. You then can't turn them off. Now, if you had them off from the beginning, that's fine. Then it's not a public forum. This is you commenting. But, if you allow public comments, you have to allow them all, even the offensive. And that can be very difficult. Uh next slide. So, with that, any other questions for me? I did a lot of talking. Uh I'm not that interesting, so I'm sure you guys have to have some questions. If not, I think for your time. But, I'll Sure. Um You said earlier in your presentation you do training for employees or not. Do you do training for counselors? For individual council members? Or as a I mean, you're here as a group, right? Yes. We just do it more as a a group in the session, but we do a lot of trainings and we have a lot of resources for staff to call up. Uh we do a lot of different training topics on, you know, anything the city's doing. We have a liability build a resource manual that staff can utilize to help them with their day-to-day jobs and their interactions to help prevent those claims cuz again, the best thing we can do to keep our costs down is to prevent those claims from ever occurring in the first place. It's hard to justify the checks you don't write, but when you don't have write them, you're saving money. And every time we do have to write a check, everyone's feeling those pains. And another one if nobody else does, is is it ever appropriate for a counselor to to contact you guys directly? Hands on the situation, but nine times out of 10, no. Typically, we want to go through staff depending on the issue. If it's a related to cuz we have worked with some city councils when your role as a council dealing with um hiring or firing, termination so to speak, that's where we then sometimes work directly with a legislative body just for that role, not for the employees per se, but more for the city manager. Got you. I just want to make a comment real quick. You know, your your information that you gave to us today wasn't boring at all. It was very useful for >> Oh, thank you. Um I I took in a lot um and I um kind of took some notes and everything, but thank you for coming out here and giving us that. I appreciate it. I do this a lot um at Richland tomorrow. Uh so, I go all throughout the state of Washington. Um it's what we do. It's why we exist is to provide these services uh for our members to hopefully reduce those exposures and try to keep costs down. Nobody wants to have to pay a large insurance bill every year. Uh that's taking away your money to provide services to your community directly and we don't want to have to raise rates if we don't have to. So, thank you for your time. I just table Good. question. Um So, one of the things that we get scared or I get scared by, maybe I should just put it that way, [clears throat] is that every time that something leaks from from an executive session or every time um people start talking about uh any topic that's supposed to be confidential, I keep seeing s- liability suits. I just see them. I mean, it's with selling of [clears throat] land. It it impacts the the sale of land. I it you know, even anything else where things, like you said, could get misconstrued, taken out of order, but if the things are said, then when you get back to slander and defamation, uh with uh and liable, I mean, all of those different things are there's money attached to that. Unfortunately, there can be large dollar amounts attached to litigation. It's a industry in and of itself. There's now third parties that even fund litigation that take away from plaintiffs. We we went to the legislature to try and uh get some disclosure uh information on that and it got shot down, but it is a very lucrative industry. So, be very cognizant about that and be careful and that's where we say um call us if you need assistance. That's what we're here for to provide those tools for our members and give you those resources to the best of our ability. Does have me up follow up there on one of the ones that uh you were talking about um the Well, I I understand about social media. I try to be really careful about that, but the one thing that you said is that um when those leaks get out there Mhm. and um we have to sanction ourselves. Well, you got to look at your own rules, council rules and procedures and what's in play here at the city. I know at a city I was at, they had the ability to sanction uh individual members for leaking that information. We did some. So, that's something that you have to look internally on and self-govern based on your own rules of conduct. And just [clears throat] on that, but on on the other side, I just had a quick question also about there was a there was in your in your slides about monetary. Uh but that that you said that um there's not as many um suits against council members themselves, but there's still the council as a whole could be sued. Yes, council as a whole can or the city. It's more more likely the city's going to get sued, not the council because council you have some very good defenses. For example, you have discretionary immunity when you're allocating resources through your budget. And you say, "We're not going to fix ABC Street this year because we don't have the money for it." Technically, that's discretionary immunity for not making that fix. Now, if someone's then hurt, that doesn't mean the city won't still get sued >> [laughter] >> c- cuz we will, but council individually or as a whole has defenses, but the city has to then provide additional defenses on top of it. Okay. Anybody else? Anybody else? I have one more on the OPI, the open meeting um We we've had [clears throat] a couple of of special sections uh sessions here in the past month, 2 months, and ev- we get frequently get um we have disagreements whether it's an open meeting or not an open meeting. Executive sessions are not open meetings. No. You have to come back into public if you're going to take action, correct? That's my understanding, but I would Yes, that's how we've always operated, but you I would definitely defer to your city attorney on any sort of violation of a OPMA act because we do not come in to defend or indemnify any of those allegations, but it's my understanding that yes, if you then take action, you have to come back out in open announce it. Announce it. And come back out, but again, I defer to your city attorney on that one. So, but my main point is is that anything that's in executive session, if we're not taking action, it stays in executive session. Yes. It doesn't leave. >> No, keep it safe more secret than Vegas. So, >> [laughter] >> What stays Vegas? >> That's right. Okay. Okay. All right. So, those were my questions. Thank you. Well, thank you for your time. I do appreciate it. And good luck. Thank you. You bet. We're probably going to need that, too. >> [laughter] >> We all do. We all do. That's right. And I thank you for sending the the slides along so we could go back and review them. I I kind of took it I read them over and I was like going, "This is going to be interesting stuff." So, again, thank you. >> Glad I could help. Have a good night. You as well. >> Have a good night. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item B on the agenda, it's discussion about defense attorney agreements. I'll pass that over to you, Mr. Hill. Okay. We have um five attorneys that represent the city for uh >> [clears throat] >> defense services, public defense services. And um we also have contracts with other cities that provide that uh service on their behalf. So, those five attorneys individually have contracts. And those contracts have different time tables on them. They were not all written at the same time. Uh some of them were started back in uh from what I'm looking at, 2022, others in 2024, and that seems to be the most recent. One of those contracts, uh which I believe is the earliest one, um was uh renegotiated and uh approved for a higher rate, and their contract was amended at that higher rate. So, in successive years in the contracts, we do have a provision for CPI adjustments. It's a range of 2 to 5%, whatever the current CPI is, based on the criteria for what um what the zone is that we're using as CPI. So, the rates have gone up, but not as a result of any kind of renegotiation. One was renegotiated, and that rate is higher than the others. So, as you can imagine, the others are saying, "Hey, what gives? So, you know, we should be at parity." And so, um that's the the question I'm bringing before staff. The options are uh to go ahead and approve that rate increase for the other four attorneys uh at the [clears throat] so that they'll all be at the same rate. It represents about $500 a month per the other four. So, about $2,000 there total per month Hm. for the other four attorneys. Um most of these contracts, actually all of them, No, I'm sorry. Uh four of them expire. The term is over at the end of this year. So, we would then be in a position of renegotiating uh these contracts and to make them consistent all the way through. So, that's a decision that we could you could guide the staff on drafting uh the change order or if you change of payment to each of those attorneys. The other option is that we could deny them. Say, "No, we're not going to raise your rate." Then we run the risk of them choosing not to do service with the city of Sunnyside. They have a clause in there that says that they can give notice and they're they're done. At which case, now we don't have public defenders for our own city, plus the contract obligations that we have with and I haven't verified which cities they are. I apologize for that. I didn't have time to do that today, but I think it's like Toppenish and Grandview. Toppenish only? Toppenish. Toppenish only? Okay. So, we would leave them hanging and then of course, they would come back and say, "Hey, you're you violated a contract." Uh the the context of the attorney environment right now is that there's supply issues. We just don't have attorneys. And so naturally the demand is very high and you can expect that when the demand is high price is going to be high. So if we go out to the market with an RFQ which is saying we're soliciting for attorneys to represent the city we may not get any responses to that because there's not cities that want our attorneys that want to take us on. And which case we now we're in violation with the contract with our other cities nor do we have sufficient enough attorneys to defend who we have ourselves. So it's it's not a preferred place to be but staff recommends just going ahead and saying well that's just the way it is the market right now the demand is high we run the risk of not having an attorney to represent us. Do we want to take that chance? Probably not. The safest risk and to just go ahead and and pay the additional $500 to the other four so now they're all at parity and then at the end of the year we will reconcile all of the contracts and bring them into full cooperation. We do have a provision in there in the agreement that says if their service calls or their case count goes down by 10% then they can adjust their fee. So part of my job is going to say okay what is our total case count so that we can take that into effect if it's necessary. Um Julie do you have any other comments on that that I pretty fairly represent the situation that we're in right now? Your mic is off. Sorry. There you go. Just to be clear we are only talking about the public defenders so this isn't any general city services and whatnot but but yeah we we had a conversation this morning about it that you don't have to do anything but chances are they may give notice and move on so there's nothing in the contracts that requires you to make the adjustment now but it is a fairly modest adjustment we're not sure how the first one was ever approved or um how it ended up a little bit higher than the others but um you know we will be coming up to the end of this year and I I've talked to the manager about um reviews that we should do of comparable contracts to see what what the market is really doing for the future so we we in theory will get them back on track but this would would make sense for for an adjustment versus losing the potential service and defaulting on your contracts. Right. What hill do you want to die on? >> [laughter] >> So [clears throat] I have a question so with the the added fees can we put that added fees to the cities that we're serving to? Yes it'll be a pass through for the increase to them. Yes. Would they have to would they need a notice for all that? I would imagine but this is a cost of service they're paying the rate that we're currently charging them and if our rates go up it's going to affect their rates. >> I'm sure I haven't looked at the contract but I'm sure there's a provision in there that accommodates that kind of rate increase. And my second question is do we need all five of the attorneys? I believe we do. Um Just just based on the number of case loads. Yeah. I think I'm wrong. There's waiting your life. Excuse me I'm Right. I I believe we need all five. I mean at some point this decision was made to have all five based on the case loads. And keep it keep >> And that's why we have five. Um Um we're going to do a little bit deeper dive as to how these agreements are drafted because typically you hire a firm and they have staff people that handle that case load or that quantity. In these cases it seems like it's individual contracts with individual attorneys and and and one of them is a husband and wife team so they're getting the double double the increase. Did her husband wife? >> Well there's two that are joined as a as a firm but not necessarily listed as a husband and wife. They but generally when they have the same last name I can just assume that they are husband and wife. So that's you know it's not again the tipping point became when the one was increased now it pretty much opens the door for the others to ask the same. Um And and and to kind of touch on on Chavez's question as do we need all five I I think over the years the the city has done it on has done a poor job uh you know having having these defendants even sign an affidavit that that they even can't afford an attorney right? Um We don't have any sort of procedure any sort of any sort of form that they need to sign. Yakima County does. Other other courts do have it. And if we're just taking the word you know to the defendant hey can you afford an attorney? They're always going to say no. And that's where the city is responsible in having some sort of procedure in place to kind of verify some of this some of this stuff because now we're spending you know thousands of dollars each year and and and defending and you know providing defense attorneys to individuals that quite possibly might be able to afford it. In in the state of Washington does have some RCWs in place that say you know it's it's 125% above poverty level you know wages or whatnot. And we're not doing that right now. Right now the way I look at it we're gifting public funds by by providing these these attorneys just to anybody that comes before before us and and just says I can't afford it. I recognize that I'm sure there's um safeguards that others have adopted that we could take a look at and and would be a part of our evaluation policy. Um To to address the problem I I haven't had a chance to look at it and so I'm not sure how we authorize public defense and how what the what the um validation is. >> The the the state of Washington does provide a form that the cities can use as a template that where they fill out and we don't do that. What I was going to ask Julie Go ahead. Julie what do you advise for for process? Do you know what the what the form requires them to fill out? I forgot what the name was I No I don't have it in front of me. >> I'm under the I was under the understanding too that in the state of Washington all you have to say is you can't afford but is is are there other documents that um have to be submitted like an affidavit or how could we improve process? >> There's there's a form but it's a very a very limited form that's basically taken on oath by the individual. Um I would have to look into what specific requirements are because it's a little outside of the scope of what what I typically work on um but it's pretty easy to get a public defender and now with case load with case load requirements um changes now we're going to need more public defenders because because attorneys are now limited on the number of cases that we can do. Were you going to Is there any guidance that the council would like to give me? Are we going to move ahead with the increase that we're you know justify uh or are we going to go out with an RFQ and start from scratch and let these pass? Go ahead counselor Dolan. I was curious if we can get some kind of a record to show us uh >> [clears throat] >> what are these? Like we get we get we were paying overload for a couple of different years on cases that happened two years ago and a year ago and and then we are we just supposed to accept it oh this happened? We don't have any kind of of proof that says oh well yeah we had this many cases. There's no there we aren't given any kind of a record of the of what took place in those courts and Correct. And [clears throat] that's one of the things that Julie asked me about is our current case load count what that what that number is. They do have what I call a true up at the end of the year that if they exceed that amount which is under contract 300 cases per year that's what they're allowed for that fee. If it exceeds that amount then there's a true up that makes up that difference. Um because this is just a flat kind of retainer fee for the year and so we would observe by knowing the number if it's dropped down if it's you know 10% or less then we would say hey there's got to be a compensation return for serving less than the 300. Go ahead. Um >> [clears throat] >> thank you. One of the things and and Julie can maybe help help out with the answer on this but it takes sometimes it takes a while to get what looks like it should be a simple case through the court. But the attorneys, I don't know that they do, but it's it seems to me like it might be a loophole for them to keep adding that one case and every time they work on it it's a new case. I'm pretty sure that's not okay. I could be wrong, but seems like that most of the time they take longer than you know, you got arrested today and you and you get to go to court tomorrow. Well, you might get to go to court tomorrow for guilty or not guilty or or a bail being put on you. But that's not solved that doesn't actually um address the whether the court dates that they have and then those things run on and [clears throat] on and on. >> Right. Just to back up a a little bit on the decision process. One of these well, two of them are saying if we don't get the rate increase Mhm. we're going to move on. Mhm. Because there's a demand for additional attorneys and there's options that they have to go to other locations. We don't like to be in that no choice kind of situation, but that's kind of where we're at. Um the risk is going out to find a replacement attorney and then not being able to find that. And the demand is such that we so pretty significant probability [clears throat] that we could not find additional attorneys. And you said that in when you um we could renegotiate. Right. At the these contracts end largely in 2026. So, we're going to start all over here in at the end of this year. And um because they all expire at that time. That was kind of Thank you for answering that cuz I was I was going to just ask if that There's one there's one that extends to 2028, but if we're going to change the rate for one, they're going to expect that everybody's going to be the same. So, that's what we want to do. I think that's that for me, you know, just talking about it, I think we might as well just do that. Just go ahead and bring them all up to the same the same level so nobody's getting more than the other. And then look at it at the end of the year if we can figure out a way to uh renegotiate Yeah, and if I could Miss Hart to your comment about what is considered a a case or what they're working on. Mhm. The the attorney's standards weight the cases based on misdemeanor and felonies and things of that nature. So, it's not per time you work on it like a bill hourly billable. It's it's actually the times you're engaged in defending this particular claim, this citation, this whatever. It's all considered one case. Um the new standards they adopted don't adopt the waiting. So, these attorneys are now by 2030 six, we have to have all the attorneys down to 120 cases regardless of whether they're misdemeanor or felonies. And felonies used to be weighted at like 75. So, a an attorney could have 75 felonies or 120 misdemeanors, you know, not to exceed a 300 total count. So, they didn't adopt the waiting. So, everything is the same, but we're going to be no defense attorney will be able to have more than 120 cases um by the year we have to phase it down. So, by the year um 2036. Which is why you need all the attorneys. So, so just for the record, Sunnyside Court doesn't handle any felony cases. They just handle the misdemeanors. I believe that's correct. We don't handle felony cases, just misdemeanors. >> yeah. So, And and going back to the the increase, what a few questions that I would like to know, right? I'm I'm giving a scenario right now is you know, when when they come in here and they get assigned a public attorney and and I'm I'm saying because I recently talked to somebody that was assigned a public attorney. Person couldn't get a hold of this public attorney for about a week. So, now he decided to get his own attorney. So, what happens does that count as a as a case? Cuz he got assigned to it at the the beginning of the of the court case. And and if it doesn't count, who's holding them accountable because in 2025, there is a website where you can go in there and you can look at all the case case counts per city, per county. Mhm. And I looked at the one for Sunnyside for 2025 and we're we're golden, you know, we we didn't go over it. But now we have these invoices of attorneys that, you know, giving us an invoice for case overload. From last year. For 2025. That's something I would definitely have to look at your contract because every time they they get assigned, they could count that as a case, but they are going to have situations where there's either conflicts, they're conflicted out. So, they so they have to give it up. I don't know well enough based on their contracts when it's considered a case. I think it's just if they have to go to the arraignment on them, they get to consider that. And then if they switch counsel later I I would need to look into those those contracts. If we wanted to go down to that level, but that was one of the things that Pat and I talked about was getting a better understanding of what the the Sunnyside total case count is. >> [clears throat] >> You know, that there may be I understand what you're saying and and and I'd like to believe that that's a little bit of an outlier for what attorneys do that, you know, they have some integrity that if they don't take any case, they're not billing you for it. Uh and so that there may be an outlier that would do that, but I don't think we should judge all attorneys as having that No, and I'm not >> compromise of anything, but I mean yeah. That you know, people would get lost, get a mile, whatever they whatever happens happens. Okay. I think I understand you want me to move forward. What is the direction? I think that's >> Mr. Haley's awaiting. I personally think you should just go ahead and move ahead with the changing of the contracts. I agree for now until like again, we're going to have to they're going to expire anyway, so take look back again. We can reevaluate [clears throat] it at the end of the year. Can can we get a copy of the contract? Or can we get a copy of the contract not right now, but you know, once it it does Do do we need one? Just check it out. >> Contracts are all the same. So, I could give you one, but they all basically say the same and they're it's kind of a template contract. Yeah, the rate is listed there, the case load and the term. It may be different when when their term expires, but they're basically the same. And and I have a kind of a spreadsheet that talks about what their current rate is and and they're all uniform up until they were all uniform up until this one attorney got his increased. And by that step it just invited the others to say, "Hey, what gives?" you know, and so that's why I'm here. I don't know who made that decision. Well, it was made at an executive level, but I don't know what the authorization was for that increase. Julie, do we need a vote or do we just need to provide Mr. Haley direction? You can just provide him a direction because then when these result in amendments to their contracts, then you'll approve them through a vote. Okay. So, it seems like the consent At next council meeting, I'll have an agenda item for that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. [clears throat] So, moving on to item C. And per the amendment, this has to do with the collaboration getting a passing um a vote to enter into a collaboration with Yakima Valley College and the city of Sunnyside's for a career fair as slash job fair. Um tentatively happening on April 22nd and I say tentatively because I'm not too sure of the date. I'd have to Oh, here it is. It is for April 22nd. Um per the discussion a little bit earlier, if this is voted on and approved, then the city of Sunnyside sponsors um and um YVC won't have to pay for um the rental fees for the community center. What is the desire of council on this item? For the collaboration with the Yakima Valley College. I move to approve. I'll second. Be Ramon. I think I think if we state what we're doing, it might be a little bit cleaner. Um you can steal my you can steal the Do you have one I I have one He he wrote one down. I just wrote it real quick. But Want me to read it to the record? Mhm? Yeah, go ahead. Let's read it into the record. We got a We got a motion and a second. So, who who is second? >> As written. Okay. Who is this? So, um I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the city of Sunnyside sponsoring the sponsor the event of the community center with YVC for the costs of the rental fee. Yeah. Is there there was a motion? >> There was a motion by Tom Dolan seconded by Chavez. Okay. Is there discussion? >> Ramon Chavez. No discussion? Um I'll initiate a roll call. Counselor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Sesati? Oh, you were Read her lips. Yes. >> [laughter] >> Councilor Vasquez? Yes. Councilor Dolan? Yes. Councilor Galvan? Yes. Deputy Mayor Hurt? Yes. I two vote yes. Motion carries. Okay. And then item D is um the interim city manager's report. Just want to keep you updated on the tasks that I'm working on. Uh, we have two of our IT guys in here and I I'm sure you know Jafet, but Leo is part of our staff and he is um he's a backup. So, Jafet is his backup cuz he's going to take a larger role in handling the IT components. You need to know that he's not a clerk. >> [laughter] >> And he can't give any kind of input on clerk activities or formalities or documentation. He's just running the IT equipment. And I'm grateful for that because that's a big deal. Very important. Just to give you a progress report. We are connecting the staff. I'm connecting with the staff and we got great people we work with and my heart is with them. You know, I'm trying to um give them some sense of okay, we're we've got sunny side up here. We're moving on. We're going to stabilize things and uh providing some [clears throat] leadership. One of the things that I I want to talk with the council is that in addition to providing a good team effort on the [snorts] part of the city staff is to find ways of making this council work. One of the questions was asked by the insurance agent, do you provide training for council members? And I think I heard him say yes, maybe collectively. But I would like to uh submit to the council members uh some a training that at that you would do individually uh on being an ideal team player. Because there's some challenges that we have here and and some appropriate views on things, but we need to work best as a team because it's we've had a big transition in significant leadership roles. And and not to put it too dramatically, it's had some impact on staff cuz it's kind of demoralizing when you you don't know who's next or who's going to be calling the shots here and and they're wondering, what's my future like? Um and and you lose this this esprit de corps. If you if you want to understand what I mean by that term, you just lose the spirit of the group. You know, it's like where we going to go here? Who who's going to lead us? And so um [clears throat] one of the videos I am a big proponent of, I showed to the staff and I got tremendous response from them and it's called how to be an ideal team player. It's by Patrick Lencioni and he's an expert in the area of teamwork and um he's written several topics on this subject as it relates to leadership. So, I'd like to provide you with a like a 35-minute YouTube video. You can watch it on your own and it's called the ideal components of a team player. How to be an ideal team player. And it really lists three things that make a person or an organization a ideal team. One, humble. Two, hungry. Three, smart. Humble is what you would imagine the definition to be, the opposite of pride and arrogance. Hungry has to do with how hard you put how much work you put into your job. Are you a slacker? Go soft or do you really do your job to the best of your abilities? And then smart has nothing to do with anything related to your intelligence, but how you manage your words and understanding the impact of what your words are on other people. Because what we say has an impact and it can create tension as a result of being unconscious of the of the reaction of that. You can't have just one of those things and be an ideal team. You have to have all three working together. For example, if you have a guy who's really hungry, but he's not very humble and he's not very smart, he's just a bulldozer. He just plows through people, runs over them and doesn't really care about the impact cuz it's all about him. But I think if we paid attention to some of this stuff, we would find ways of working better together. So, I just propose that. I'll send you an email link to that. You guys can watch it on your own time. It's about 35 minutes. I can assure you you will really benefit from it. Not only as a council, but you can take this home to your family, your work, your kids. It's has massive cross application. So, that's the update. We are going to be interviewing what we're calling executive assistants, deputy clerks on Thursday. We've got five applicants that we think are well qualified for the position. The clerk role is a >> [clears throat] >> more significant role. I I what my hope is is to find somebody who can serve as a kind of a mentor or an intern, I mean interim, so that they know the ropes and with these new people they can kind of nurture them along because they won't have the certifications, they won't have the clerk certification or the public records officer certification that's required to be a clerk. It's training that you have to go through, so while we go through the search process of finding somebody with that classification, we'll still have somebody to handle some of the paperwork and things that are going around uh the city hall to respond to agendas and communication and all that stuff cuz right now everybody's tapped or doesn't know what to do. So, that's the strategy that I have right now at this point is to look at the interviews, still go after permanent city clerk. Quick question. Yes, sir. I know that with with the city clerk you had said that maybe you were going to, you know, take the social media component away. >> Right. Is that something that the assistant city clerk might be picking up just because I know from [clears throat] from Yeah. beginning, you know, the council was big on having, you know, social media posts and make sure that the public knows, you know, Right. The communication component isn't commonly put together with a clerk position. That's almost a separate skill set. Uh right now we're mark we're we're we're um we're farming that out. We're contracting that out to provide that service. Um it would be nice to have it in house. It's usually under the title of public information officer {slash} communication director. Some cities have a public information officer. Uh but you're right. Some of these deputies might have enough savvy in that background. The clerk is really the legal components of operating a city. That that's really got to pay attention to. You know, public records requests, filing ordinances, records retention, all that stuff. Somebody needs to know the ins and outs of that. I'm sorry. So, I got a question. So, I know that we had quite a bit of people apply for the positions. Right. >> Have you guys uh as are the people that applied for those positions pretty sure some of most of them are local. Are those the ones that we're looking at for our for interviewing? Uh Heath, our human resource person is the filter for those applications. Many of them are just people looking for jobs and they work at McDonald's and they think, oh, secretary position, I can do that. And so they uh and you get some people who are on unemployment and have to put in, you know, three applications per week and you know, so you have a lot of uh stuff that is is pre-filtered. So, uh to get back to your question and let me ask you one more time so I can make sure I answer correctly. Your question about who we are interviewing? Well, my question is really are we taking account to the people that did apply? Did we contact them and ask them if about the procedure of what's going to happen or are we just filtering the five from the the pool that came in? We are filtering the five and and these are not for a clerk job cuz none of them qualify. All of them will say, hey, we'll go I'll go through the training, but you know, we we have to have that's why we need to have an interim clerk to make sure that we're not filing that responsibility up. So, they'll that interim will serve as kind of the mentor, coach, instructor. Doesn't have to be full-time. Can be like one or two days a week just to kind of carry the ball so that we don't have anything fall through the cracks. So, the people that we're interviewing now are what we would my title >> [clears throat] >> an executive assistant or administrative assistant {slash} deputy clerk. They could move into that, but they still have to go through a significant amount of training and certification to get there. And none of them have that right now, so um we're still going to look for a clerk, but we're going to do something to keep things moving smoothly along cuz I I don't have any background in being a clerk. And so I don't know what to tell anybody what to do. Yes. I just wanted to say a comment. I just want to say I know that we've pretty much all felt the immense absence of not having a city clerk around. Like all of us have. And with that being said, I just want to say thank you, Jafet, for like helping out with the IT and doing even like more things above and beyond your scope of work. Just thank you for that. But just I just like a reminder for us all, you know, like we just need to remember that he he's not a city clerk. Like he has no experience in that role whatsoever and um as even though he's helping um let's just like remember that and and I say it for myself because I've had so many questions that I've had that I would usually turn to Jackie for or an example like our phone numbers changed, right? And the are the numbers updated on the website or certain things with the agenda like I just sent an agenda to Hector um and I just wanted to make sure that it was all posted. For economic development, I would always go to Jackie and now I've been kind of stuck and wondering who do I ask and I automatically want to ask Jafet but then I right away remember wait like I'm like I'm not going to put extra workload on him cuz I'm sure he's very busy as it is. So um but with that being said, I just want to say thank you Jafet for just going above and beyond and for doing things that maybe you you probably didn't expect to do but thank you for that. It says a lot about you. I should also mention that uh we utilize technology for our a lot of our uh agenda preparation and and things like that. So we have software that does that work. However, if you've never used that software before, you usually bring in a trainer to show you how to do it. So once you know how to use it, it's piece cake. But if you have no idea even guy like Jafet had a hard time figuring out and if something if it's hard for him, you can imagine what anybody else would have to deal with. So And the old ways of just typing up something and you know, throwing it out in the paper there but we've we've moved beyond that with the advent of technology and technology is great if you know how to use it but it can be a little slower if if you're just having to figure it out yourself. So I just question oh No, go ahead. Um so uh counselor Chavez, I met with the interim city manager Mr. Haley on Friday and I I asked the same question cuz um there's been people that have applied that have reached out and um not people that I personally know or even told about the job posting but um they know that we're on council so they reach out and um uh some I haven't gone back to um but I did ask like who I direct them to cuz I did have that same question what happens with everybody else who has applied uh now that um the search is looking a little bit different um and question for for for Julie um so um just to understand the city clerk position cuz Mr. Haley and I were having this conversation on Friday about the city the new city clerk needing to have the city clerk certifications. Uh is it a a requirement to have to for them to have city clerk certifications uh in order for someone to be hired? I know it's ideal, right? But is it a requirement? I'm not aware of a legal requirement that they have to have the certifications but they certainly should be working for them and going to all of the trainings and whatnot. Um you know, if you can find somebody with the certifications, they're going to be at the top of your applicant pool. Right. Um so I it would be something I would put as a desired quality but no, it's it's not there's nothing in the RCW that says you must be certified. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> I just don't know like if is this going to put us in any liability for us not responding to them because we they don't have the clerk certification when they're not necessarily required per state statute or Well, there's I mean there's no requirement to respond to them anyway. I mean I maybe I'm not following the question. Um so you're No, I think you are um because so I there's a several people that have reached out either um via email or you know, I run into them um at the store and they're asking or if it's on the internet and they're asking and I haven't referred them to anybody until I talked to Mr. Haley on Friday cuz I was wondering what the process was. So people are awaiting an answer. So we are not required to answer back to them but it would wouldn't even be it should be at least common courtesy for us to respond to them uh and let them know that we've moved on with a different approach but the fact that we're forgoing the people that have applied because they don't have a city clerk certification I'm wondering if that's also okay to do. So my understanding was that that there was a communication going out uh because originally the the posting or the advertisement went out for the clerk communications role and per the last meeting, the city manager said that we were going to split the roles and just be re- change the salary and just be advertising for the for the clerk position and that there was going to be some form of communication that this change had been made and so if those who had already put in an application were still interested in the new position, they'd have the ability to apply for the new position. If you are getting questions out in community about the requirements, I would just defer them say, "Hey, we've posted the information on our city webpage. You know, I don't want to misspeak on what the qualifications we're looking for now are. Go go there if you're interested and it'll tell you you know, what the requirements are, who to apply to and and what the deadlines are." Okay. And I've refrained from from answering anyone because I don't want to overstep because I'm not the one overseeing the process. That's the city manager. Um so I did pose that question but now that I know that those other folks haven't been reached out to, I feel like we should at least let them know that we've moved another way and if now if they're wanting to reapply, then that's another option for them but [clears throat] it's going to look a little different. Correct. We had decided that that those who applied for the previous version which is clerk {slash} communication director we would contact them and say, "We have redefined that position now that we're advertising cuz we thought it's not fair for them to apply and then change the wage rate because we changed the wage rate." So you said you did call them and let them know? Uh that was the intent. So I haven't checked to double-check with our human resource director to see if he's actually done that. I will make a note to that and if he hasn't, I'll make sure that he will. Thank you. Mr. Okay. Anything else? You had a question. I don't remember now. I think it's been answered. Anybody else have any questions? Nope. Um Or Mr. Haley? I've already his report. Oh, I know. I was going to jump on to something else but um so you'll have some some kind of an update on that for us at our Monday night meeting, did you say? Possibly? Correct. Um as I said, we are going to interview some applicants here and that's for our current clerk position. It's at a different wage structure but it's our current clerk position. Get somebody here. We're going to try to find the most qualified of those applicants. Preferably somebody with a public sector background. And there are some that are in that category, not necessarily municipality but in another public sector which is close enough, you know, we'll we'll take that. Uh so far nobody with the certifications that we would hope to have uh especially [clears throat] for a city our size with the volume of things that go on here. Um So anyway, uh that's I'll have that information. We won't hire anybody without your without your knowledge of that. All right. There's no more questions for you, Mr. Off to executive session. >> Okay. Could I just before we go into executive, could I just ask uh one question that's not related to what we've been talking about but it's certainly something I um um was hoping to to talk uh George over here regarding the uh the moratorium on the uh sexual uh offenders registry and where housing was going to go. Is that and and [clears throat] you is that something that we probably should send to the planning commission to start looking at what zoning uh might be compatible for whether it should be load in dense high density residential, low in in density, those kinds of things. So you have you have codes [clears throat] right now representing certain housing requirements. And so if this is um a departure from those codes, they would have to submit a variance. And a variance is decided by hearing examiner if whether or not it complies with city code and doesn't have impacts on the city. So ultimately they would make the decision if it's outside of what currently is within the code. Okay. Cuz I just keep thinking of not in my backyard scenarios. >> Well, you know, that's That's probably going to come up. That's why you have codes uh so that you don't put semis next to residences, you know, you have a you have a a gap and so um and that's what a hearing examiner will do is they'll look you over and and make a legal decision that they either have to they they you're allowed that variance or no, it's denied. There's there's one more similar but different and that's one of the hotels out in the near where the burger is that the Burger King? Yeah, the Burger King is turning its instead of being a motel there. They're turning their housing into for H2A housing for workers for farm workers and I'm just wondering if any variances have been made because I believe that's light light commercial some sort of commercial in there. There's no industry in there but there's a lot of commercial. Is that is that a proper place for that kind of housing? Do they need a variance and some different permit Well, if if I don't know if that's happened. I'm Planning Department should evaluate the code compliance and if they're outside of that I'd like to call for a point of order. Is this on the agenda? No, it's No, I just I asked if I could It's a workshop so I can I asked if I could bring up those two topics but yeah, if that that's just something I've been kind of concerned about but And I may be able to help you answer answer that one when it there's a state statute that allows each hotel to be used or converted for H2A housing as long as hotel motel was previously permitted there. We're struggling with it in some other cities that aren't quite as amenable to to doing that. They want to try and treat H2A housing more like group homes but there's a specific statute that allows you to to do that. So even outside your own planning process but I think going back to your your first question, part of the idea is is to update your codes with respect to the essential facilities in the sex offender housing. Part of the issue is your codes right now are fairly silent on where they can go. So the exercise needs to be it probably does need to go to your planning commission to work on language that will help appropriately site them in the future so that when you do they likely will need some type of conditional use permit depending on what zone they're in and then you will get in front of the hearing examiner with all the conditions that say is this going to be an approved use here? But right now for the moratorium just freezes it all but in the background and you'll adopt an ordinance next week that formalizes the 6 month. But in the background the planning commission should be working on on drafting and I've I've seen I think some proposed amendments. They were part of your whole package even though they're not really part of the moratorium but some some proposed language that one of the counselors had drafted to suggest changes. So that should be going on in the process as well. Yeah. So so counselor Hart, is this is this something that you're you're asking the city manager to look into? Do you want to Yeah, I think connect with the planning commission? I think ultimately it may will end up with planning commission. I just wanted to to ask the city manager if he would check into that and see if they are working on that yet or not. Thank you. And thank thank you for allowing me to just a couple questions there at the at the end before we go in exact. On you anybody want more help? Chris Easter candy? >> [laughter] >> That was all that noise. You want some more? No? Right on there you go. I'm just writing some some sugar. I know you guys are trying to keep your That's why I'm getting rid of it. >> [laughter] >> I'll send some down to Leo in that way here in a minute. So all right. Well, let's keep moving forward so it's not a longer night. Okay, moving on to um executive session. So now we're going to recess to go into executive session stating RCW 42.30.110 subsection 1 I into the record. Um This take about 10 10 15 minutes. Julie, do you think you'll need more time? Let's start with 10 and see where where you go. Okay. And Mr. Haley could be excused? Yes. Okay. All right. So Mr. Haley Madam Chair, can you read that RCW into the record, please? Yes, it's 42.30.110 subsection 1 I. The the And then I don't have the [clears throat] language in this one. I have it right here. Yeah, it says to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency matters relating to agency enforcement actions or to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency, the governing body or a member acting in an official capacity is or is likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency. Okay, well that's a different >> Okay. Okay. This one's a little different. And I subsections there that I also didn't read but that's the main part. Okay. So we're just for 10 minutes. What was that? That's sneaky. It's Swan Road. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Ready? Okay, we're back in in session. Um >> [clears throat] >> no action will be taken without anything else for the good of the order we will go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 8:03.