City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] okay we'll go ahead and get started this is the February 12th meeting of the Bellingham city council and announcements in upcoming meetings Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act and on February 26 2024 the city council will hold a public hearing to take public comment on the Bellingham police departments proposed Grant application to the Department of Justice for the purchase of Rapid DM a machine and consumables for up to 3 years uh roll call please Hannah Stone here Holly hman here skip Williams here Lisa Anderson Michael lillquist here jce cotton here Dan Hamill here all council members are present okay so we'll go to our next item of business and that is the mayor's report good evening Council and members of the community that are here this evening uh I'll begin with a few appointments the first two are just for information only and that is that I'll be appointing Scott prasher to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board the second appointment is to Joan Drinkin to the Sehome Hill Arboretum Board of Governors and for your approval is I'm requesting an appointment for Deborah Garrett to the Bellingham Public Library board of Trustees move approval second uh we got two ties Council or council member Williams uh made the motion to approve and council member Lilo Quist made the second on that one any further discussion uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose okay my apologies thank you um motion

carries uh 70 Maran anything else thank you yes I wanted to speak tonight to a matter that is of interest it's before the council and I recognize some of the community members here that have spoken on this matter before and it's in regard to the immigration Advisory Board uh I want to assure the council and the community that the conversations and work are continuing and I want to advise you on some of those next steps and the first step will include bringing forward a shared expectations framework that will be applicable to all community members that are serving on a board or commission this will be I believe a helpful and valuable starting point for all of our advisory groups offering greater Clarity to the import important Investments of our volunteer time and local expertise as they seek to advise us on policy and concurrently conversations about how and when to convene a work group are underway as well and I want to provide assurity that this topic will not languish and that we will be reporting back and keeping you all informed on progress as we go I wanted to advise Council about a a meeting that we had with lumy nation at the end of last week I was grateful for the opportunity to be hosted and meet with lumy chairman Tony hair and Council member Nick Lewis we share many areas of interest but as you know the fenal crisis is significantly impacting tribal communities chairman hair described to us the ongoing impacts their efforts to attend to this issue and the

heartbreaking work of caring for their families I'm very grateful for the opportunity to connect to have heard more about this work affirm our support for their efforts and discuss ways our organizations can collaborate moving forward I also want to spend just a moment talking about delivering excellent government for Bellingham and many of the steps that I'm taking early in my term are designed to establish a strong foundation for the city to consistently deliver excellent government and service to Bellingham and daily I go to work to provide the tools and the culture to deliver on that high standard of performance and to that end I'm pleased to report on my first meeting with the leaders of our three branches of government I enjoyed meeting with Municipal Court Judge Deborah love and council president Dan Hamill last week these regular tribe Branch meetings are intended for City leadership to be able to collaborate strengthen our relationships and streamlined Communications between our three branches of government and in addition I'm gathering City leadership level staff in March this is another step in this ongoing work and it will be an opportunity to share my framework to ensure that we are doing lasting good for our people and our planet and how we are having a shared framework for approaching our work with courageous transparency and accountability and if you are interested in attending this meeting I encourage you to reach out to office manager Jackie Lasser and we

will determine a process for you to attend either this meeting or what will be an ongoing series of quarterly conversations and if you're interested please let Jackie know and we'll work to make it happen for this March meeting or another one in the future and lastly on a fun note I just wanted to say that I was able to join in the fun last Thursday night at the spirits and cider stroll in downtown Bellingham it's one of the many events that is put on by the amazing team at the downtown partnership and I I was able to visit several of the popups in the tasting rooms downtown sipping local Regional Spirits Ander and importantly celebrating our downtown business community and I hope to see all of you at a future downtown partnership event and that's the end of the mayor's report thank you thank you mayor um we'll go to our standing committee meetings we had two excuse me go ahead May or go ahead I ask a question to the mayor sure go ahead um mayor Kim I'm just wondering we've been tracking certain bills an important one is House Bill 2114 can you let us know where that is and if you see an opportunity for us to reconvey the resolution we passed yeah I've invited director Blake Lions to speak to that good evening uh Blake lion director of planning and Community Development so uh as you're aware we were tracking a number of different bills through the legislative short session this year House Bill 2114 is currently in the house rules committee um so as you those that may be

familiar they'll go through initial committees they'll go through Appropriations it'll get then into rules committee um it will then go through uh and try to pass through the Chamber of origin which in this case is the house and then be moved on to the senate for their consideration so at this point in time it's in the rules committee for the house again do we see a key point where city of Bellingham might like I said reconvey our uh resolution on stabilization we can certainly look for those opportunities there's none that have come forward at this point in time okay any other questions for the administration okay seeing none we'll go on to our our committee meetings from this afternoon the first one was uh Public Works and natural resources and that was chaired by council member Stone thank you president Hamill um this afternoon on the public works and natural resources committee I was joined by council members Anderson and lillquist we had one item before us this afternoon that was agenda Bill 2411 it's a proposed Grant of telecommunications franchise to zipley fiber Pacific LLC so zipley fiber Pacific LLC has applied to the city for a non-exclusive franchise to install and operate fiber optic Network facilities in City rights of way for the provision of voice and data communication services to Bellingham businesses and residents the City's franchising Authority is contained in chapter 13.15 of the Bellingham municipal code and article 11 of the city Charter state law

precludes the city from charging franchise fee for telecommunications franchises therefore the purpose of the franchise is not to generate Revenue rather its purpose is to coordinate the franchise's use of the right of way with other approved uses and to allocate risk the attached franchise ordinance has been negotiated by City staff and the applicant and in accordance with applicable city code is substantially similar to other telecommunications franchises granted by the city we were joined this afternoon by a representative from zipley fiber um and so she was able to speak briefly that was Jessica Epley um vice president for Regulatory and external Affairs again with zipley fiber Pacific LLC um and this afternoon there was a motion to approve the Telecommunications franchise and ISO move second motion has been made by the chair of the committee and seconded by council member Anderson I wanted to just clarify that the um the name of that company is zipley fiber Pacific LLC just yeah just making sure that we got that correct any further um discussion to that motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions accusal motion carries 70 with that that was end of committee okay we'll go on to to the next committee that was Committee of the whole we had one item before that committee and just bear with me there's a fairly long um summary statement with a lot of uh numbers in it so this was an ordinance relating to the rental registration and safety

inspection program amending uh Bellingham Municipal Code uh 6.15.18 6.15 40 6 6.1 15.50 6.15 6.15 180 and 6.15 uh 170 and adding a new section to chapter 16 or 6.5 rather and so following a staff presentation on December 4th 2023 the council directed the administration to take several actions with respect to the rental registration and safety inspection program Council directed Administration to bring forward an ordinance that would one eliminate Declarations of compliance and instead require that all rental units in the program be inspected by a city inspector or private inspector as a condition of registration and two require private inspectors to provide more detailed information about failed inspections to the planning department and Grant the planning director the authority to require up to 100% of the property owners's rental units to be inspected if at least one of the owner's rental units fails an inspection this afternoon um the committee voted to pass the ordinance and ISO move second is there any discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstentions recusals motion Carri 3 70 that will take us to that will take us to uh old new business any items for old and new this evening we had several this afternoon but anything new tonight okay go ahead I just ask you to maybe report out the two related items on parking minimums uh yes so the council instructed the administration to um come up with um work sessions uh in relation to

that particular item and that was uh uh by council member Huffman and cotton and that was fully adopted by the by the council and that Pro that process will will begin uh in Earnest here um and there's also another item under old and new that was related to Bringing forth the um Port of Bellingham for add work sess work sessions and a different capacity um as well as Labor uh and then council member Anderson also made uh a motion that was accepted um by the council to bring forward other stakeholders that would could could and would include uh neighbors basically so we're trying to basically hear the full picture uh when it comes to um Economic Development job development uh labor concerns Mr list does that cover what your well we also directed our uh new policy analyst to begin background work on uh what is known about the effects of removing or reducing parking minimums especially unaffordable housing thank you um any other items for old new business okay not seeing any so I'll that'll take us to the executive session um we had several items we had four and then we had two added the first was a potential property acquisition with stamps staff provided information on a potential property acquisition that was for information and discussion only no action was taken the second was a potential property acquisition with stamps again staff provided information on a potential Lake Wacom Watershed property acquisition totaling 4.10 Acres with one potential development unit uh unit

rather and so now I will entertain a motion to authorize the the mayor to close the real estate transaction described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Burton J marital Trust property with a purchase price of $184,000 and with closing to occur on or around February 23 2024 second moved I need a I need a motion or not a I make a motion to approve the recommendation and that was seconded by council member Huffman okay I'm sorry Anderson okay so motions been made by council member Williams seconded by council member Anderson any further discussion on this one seeing n all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carries s whoops sorry about that um the next item was potential litigation with good uh staff provided information on a potential litigation matter and I will now entertain a motion to file a nuisance abatement action against the property located at 298 Stewart Road parcel number 38371 97 36300 place a lean on the subject property for the city's cost to Abate the nuisance and foreclose upon the lean if necessary so move second motion's been made by council member Williams seconded by council member Anderson so further discussion on this item not seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed exensions recusal motion carries 70 uh the fourth item was litigation this was de bruan at Al versus city of Bellingham also with um Michael good staff provided information on a litigation man

matter for information and discussion only no action was taken the next item was potential property acquisition and sale with uh Alan Mariner City attorney staff provided information on a potential property AC acquisition and sale this was also for information and discussion only no action was taken and the final item was potential property acquisition also with Alan Mariner City attorney staff provided information on a potential property acquisition and this was for uh information discussion and no action was taken and that'll take us to final consideration sorry consent agenda oh I'm sorry I'm sorry uh consent agenda move approval second motion's been made by council member hutman and uh seconded by council member Williams uh any further discussion on the consent agenda seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries go ahead council member Anderson um motion carries 7-0 go ahead my hand didn't go up uh fast enough but I just wanted to provide clarification for those who may not know what the lindel property is that we're moving forward with uh legal action for abatement it's known as the property behind Walmart so um just wanted to make sure that that clarification of location and that the city's moving forward with legal action on that property owner thanks council member for clarifying that one now we will move to the final consideration of ordinances Miss gets agenda Bill 24004 an ordinance amending Bellingham municip

municipal code BMC 1 19.04 130 to clarify the exemption from the payment of Park impact fees when reconstructing or rebuilding an existing dwelling unit that has been damaged or destroyed move third and final second motion's been made by council member Anderson second by council member huthman roll call please Hanah Stone hi hly hutman hi Dan Hamill hi Skip Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael liquis hi cotton I all right the motion carries 70 next up we have agenda Bill 24005 an ordinance amending multiple sections of the Bellingham Municipal Code BMC in Title 20 land use development chapter for clarity and to correct inconsistencies amending BMC 20.

08.20 20.1 0.080 BMC C 2.12.1 0 bmc2 0.12.0 3 0 bmc2 0.12.0 180 BMC 2.14.20 30 0.040 BMC 20. 32.4 BMC 2. 33.4 BMC 2.33 050 BMC 20. 37330 and BMC 20.3 7.34 Z move third and final second uh motion's been made by council member Williams and seconded by counc member Anderson roll call please skip Williams hi Holly Huffman hi Lisa Anderson hi Hannah Stone hi Michael lillquist hi Chas cotton hi Dan Hamill I motion carries 70 next up we have agenda Bill 24006 an ordinance relating to the administration of development regulations amending BMC 21.1 0.04 2 1.2.0 n0 21.1 0.140 21.1 0.150 and 21.1 0.260 move third and final second motion's been made by council member Anderson and seconded by council member Huffman roll call please Lisa Anderson hi jce cotton hi Michael lillquist hi Hannah Stone hi Dan Hamill hi hly Huffman hi Skip Williams hi the motion carries 70 next up agenda Bill 24007 an ordinance amending Bellingham Municipal Code BMC title 23 land division for clarity and Corrections amending BMC 23.04 point0 60 23.0 6.20 23.84 2 3.8.5 2 3.8.0 60 2 3.8.0 70 2 3.8.8 23.1 0.030 2 3.12.0 1 0 2 3.12.0 90 23.1 6.01 0 23.

36.4 and 23.3 0.010 move third and final second motion been made by council member Huffman second by council member Williams roll call please Holly Huffman hi Lisa Anderson hi jce cotton hi Hannah Stone hi Skip Williams hi Dan Hamill hi Michael lillquist hi all right motion carries 70 number five agenda Bill 23993 an ordinance amending the 2023 2024 by anual budget amendment number 10 move third and final second motions been made by council member lqu second by council member Anderson uh roll call please uh Dan haml hi jce cotton hi Skip Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi Holly Huffman hi Hannah Stone hi all right the motion carries 70 and finally we have agenda Bill 23971 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington suspending all future meetings of the immigration Advisory Board and its subcommittees until city council adopts an ordinance resending the suspension move third and final second motion's been made by council member Anderson and seconded by council member Williams roll call please jce cotton Michael list hi Hannah Stone hi Holly Huffman hi Lisa Anderson hi Dan Hamill hi Skip Williams I the motion carries 61 okay that's the end of the final consideration of ordinances we will now take a brief break and transition over to public comment wondering if um miss geter last could put the um the rules back up on the on the [Music] w