City Council - Regular Meeting
City Council - Regular Meeting
Mon, April 28, 2025
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summary
Summary not yet available.
Agenda items (28)
Council Business
1Council BusinessPotential Property Acquisition (Stamps, approx. 3 min.)
2Council BusinessPotential Property Acquisition (Stamps, approx. 3 min.)
3Council BusinessPotential Property Acquisition (Stamps, approx. 3 min.)
24511Council BusinessAn Ordinance Amending the 2025 Adopted Budget Reconciling the Differences Between Estimated 2025 Beginning Reserve Balances and Actual 2025 Reserve
24512Council BusinessAn Ordinance Amending the 2025 Budget Increasing Appropriation Authority in Various Funds to Pay for Goods and Services Authorized in the Previous Budget Cycle
24513Council BusinessAn Ordinance Amending the 2025 Budget - Amendment No. 1
24517Council BusinessWashington State Department of Commerce Grant Acceptance - New What-Comm 911 Dispatch Center Building (EF-183)
24518Council BusinessWashington State Transportation Improvement Board Grant Acceptance – James Street Multimodal Improvements Segments 3 and 4 (ES565)
24519Council BusinessA Presentation by Western Washington University's Small Business Development
24520Council BusinessPresentation by the Port of Bellingham's Regional Economic Partnership Staff
24521Council BusinessConsideration of a Major Modification to the Interlocal Agreement for Facilities within the Waterfront District Between the Port of Bellingham and the City of
24527Council BusinessReject All Bids for Federal Building Re-Roof Project (EF-179), Bid #15B-2025
24528Council BusinessContract Award Bid #13B-2024 for the Sunset Pond Loop Trail Project
24529Council BusinessContract Award for Annual Alley Grading Equipment Rental and Services, #16B-2025 Community and Economic Development 1:40 PM
Procedural (3)
4ProceduralBy mail addressed to: City Council, 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA 98225
5ProceduralElectronically: o For a public hearing: https://cob.org/publichearing o For general public comment: E-mail all Council Members at ccmail@cob.org.
24525ProceduralApproval of the 4/14/2025 City Council Committee and Regular Meeting Minutes
Adjournment
30AdjournmentTues. 12 PM: Repeat broadcast of Monday afternoon Committee meetings
31AdjournmentTues. 7 PM: Repeat broadcast of Monday night regular meeting
32AdjournmentWed. 8 AM: Repeat broadcast of Monday night regular meeting
33AdjournmentSat. 12 PM: Repeat broadcast of Monday afternoon Committee meetings
34AdjournmentSat. 7 PM: Repeat broadcast of Monday night regular meeting Online Streaming: The meetings are streamed live at https://cob.org/btv. Online viewers will see exactly what cable customers would see. Video: Video recordings of each meeting are available on the Internet at https://cob.org/meetings within five business days following each meeting.
General Business
24515General BusinessMayor's Appointment to the Bellingham-Whatcom County Commission on Sexual and
24516General BusinessMayor's Appointment to the Community Development Advisory Board (Information)
Consent Calendar
24522Consent CalendarAuthorization of A/P Transactions Issued April 11, 2025 through April 17, 2025
24523Consent CalendarAuthorization of A/P Transactions Issued April 04, 2025 through April 10, 2025
24524Consent CalendarAuthorization of Payroll Labor Cost Payments Dated March 16, 2025 to March 31, 2025
24526Consent CalendarInterlocal Agreement with Washington State DNR for forest land response.
Additional votes recorded in minutes
Approve agenda bill 24517 – Washington State Department of Commerce grant acceptance (Whatcom 911 dispatch center)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24518 – Washington State Transportation Improvement Board grant acceptance (James Street multimodal improvements)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24527 – Reject all bids for federal building re-roof project
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24529 – Contract award for annual alley grading equipment rental and services (Jay Ritter Dirt and Asphalt)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24528 – Contract award for Sunset Pond Loop Trail project (Faber Construction)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24511 – Ordinance amending 2025 budget to reconcile beginning reserve balances
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve amendment to agenda bill 24512 – Amendment adjusting 2025 budget reappropriation by $200,000
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24512 – Ordinance amending 2025 budget reappropriating unused budget authority
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24513 – Ordinance amending 2025 budget (Amendment No. 1)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve agenda bill 24521 – Major modification to interlocal agreement for waterfront district facilities (Port of Bellingham and City of Bellingham)
aye 1
voice voteaye
Approve consent agenda
aye 1
voice voteaye
Verbatim transcript available
74 transcript segments indexed
[Music] All right, we'll go ahead and get started tonight and folks can continue to file dial in and sit down. We've just got the boring regular business to go through first. So, welcome to the April 28th, 2025 regular meeting of the Bellingham City Council.
I call this meeting to order. Before we begin, we acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional and unseated territory of the Lummy Nooks, Samish, and Simyamu people who have cared for and tended this land since time and memorial.
Truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. We begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth.
We pay respect to their elders elders past and present. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together here today. And please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events.
Bellingham City Council provides Spanish interpretation at all regular evening meetings. Interpretation can be accessed by in-person attendees by utilizing the headsets located at the front of the room.
Remote viewers can log on to co.orgccoom and click on the language icon at the bottom of the screen to listen in Spanish. And I'll go ahead and let our interpreter repeat that. regular assistant assistant.
Thank you. Roll call, please. Hannah Stone, here. Dan Hamill, here. Skip Williams, here. Lisa Anderson, here. Michael Liiloquiz here. Jace Cotton here. Holly Huffman here. All council members are present.
And first up uh we have the mayor's report who uh and tonight mayor prom council member Lilquist will sit in for our mayor. Yeah. So Maryland is away and so as uh mayor prom I would like to deliver uh news of two uh appointments the mayor is making.
First for the Bellingham Watcom County Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence. The mayor appoints Terresa Hin to her first term and this is for information only. the city council does not need to take action.
The second one is for the community development advisory board. The mayor appoints three community members to the community development advisory board. Um those people are Nina Roman, Lola Thompson, and Matthew Maine.
Again, no city council action is needed for these three appointments. That's the end of the mayor's report. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Prom Lilloquist. And next up we have our uh afternoon committee reports.
First up is public works and natural resour resources and that is chaired by council member Stone. Thank you President Hudman. So this afternoon I was joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson who's joining us remotely and council member Cotton.
We had four items before us. The first was agenda bill 24517. This is Washington State Department of Commerce grant acceptance. So, new the new Watcom 911 dispatch center building is project EF-183. The city received an appropriation of $1 million um which actually is $970,000.
We're rounding up in the 2023 to 2025 state capital budget for the new Watcom 911 dispatch building project. The project funding will be administered by the Washington State Department of Commerce through the Capital Community Facilities Grant Program, resulting again in a net grant award of $970,000.
The grant will help fund construction of a new 8,000 square foot dispatch center building. The project is currently in the construction documentation stage and will be ready for bid in the fall of this year 2025 with completion currently anticipated in December of 2026.
So I just wanted to make one note from what was in the packet today. I know it included the grant proposal um and project outlines which at that time I noted this afternoon was $8.5 million but my understanding is that this project is now estimated to be $12 million.
Um the other part of the project funding will be secured essentially through bond. So that will be discussed um and come before council at a later date. But at this time, there was a motion to approve the mayor entering into the grant funding agreement.
There was unanimous motion from the committee this afternoon and I so move. Second. Motion was made by the chair, second by council member Williams. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I.
I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Okay. The next item before the committee was agenda bill 24518. This is a Washington state transportation improvement board grant acceptance is regarding James Street multimodal improvements for segments three and four ES565.
So the city has been awarded a Washington state transportation improvement board grant. This is for the James Street multimotal improvement segments three and four. the construction phase in the amount of $950,000.
The project will install a multi-use path on the west side of James Street from Telegraph Road to King Avenue, followed by bike lanes and sidewalks to Gooding Avenue. This project is planned for construction next year in 2026 and improves connectivity for walking and biking in the area.
It's being designed to integrate into the James and Baker View roundabout which is currently under construction. So this afternoon there was a unanimous recommendation from the committee to move to approve the mayor enter entering into the grant funding agreement and I so move second motion by the chair and a second by council member Anderson.
Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Thank you very much. The next item before the committee was agenda bill 24527. This is actually a motion to reject all bids for the federal building re-roof project.
This is project EF-179 bid number 15B-2025. So, the interior light court roof on the federal building has begun to develop leaks and has been patched as needed. This project was initiated to replace the aging roof and prevent damage caused by water intrusion.
The city publicly opened three bids on April 9th, 2025. CDK Construction LLC was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 533,010 including any applicable sales or use tax. Engineer's estimate for this project was $323,83355.
Because the lowest responsive bid was significantly higher than the engineer's estimate, staff is recommending rejecting all bids at this time. The project can be rebid once adjustments are made to the scope and budget of this project.
In the meantime, staff, city staff will continue to do patching and minor repairs on the roof as needed. So again at this time there was unanimous motion from the committee to move to reject all bids for the federal building re-roof project and I so move second motion by the chair and a second by council member Williams.
Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Thank you. So the last item before the public works committee was agenda bill 24529. This is a contract award for annual alley grading equipment rental and services.
So this is number 16B-2025. The city issued a request for bids for annual alley grading equipment rental and services to be performed under an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract. The city received four bids which were publicly opened on April 8th, 2025.
Jay Ritter Dirt and Asphalt of Everson, Washington was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $42,250, including any applicable Washington state sales or use tax. The engineer's estimate was $65,000.
This bid amount is based upon a hypothetical set of jobs for bid comparison purposes. However, the contract itself provides a three-year term and a not to exceed amount of $375. And these type of um indefinite quantity indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts allow the city to basically have a um a contract on on record in order to respond to the need for grading as it as it arises um without having to go out to bid every time.
And so at this time there was a motion a unanimous motion from the committee to move to award the contract to Jay Ritter Dirt and Asphalt of Everson. And I so move second motion by the chair and a second by council member Williams.
Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Thank you very much. With that end of committee and I'll send it back to you, President Husman. Thank you, Council Member Stone.
Up next, we had community and economic development and that was chaired by council member Cotton. Thank you, Council President. Uh this afternoon, we had two agenda items. I'm joined on that committee by council members Hamill and um Williams.
Uh although all members were in attendance today. Um our f first uh agenda item was bill number 24519. This was a presentation by Western Washington University's Small Business Development Center. Um, executive director CJ Sites, um, joined by team members Deck and Eric Grimstead, provided an overview of the Small Business Development C Center's 2024 activities and accomplishments, including assisting 572 local small businesses.
Uh, would encourage people to check out um the report in our packet um about some of the current challenges in our um uh business environment, including tariffs and reduced Canadian visitors. Um, and if anyone in the room is interested in starting a small business, I would encourage you to check out the small business development center as a potential resource.
Um, that was for information and discussion only. Our second agenda item was a presentation. One moment from uh the Port of Bellingham's regional economic uh partnership staff. Um, since 2011, the city of Bellingham, Wakom County, and Port have been funding regional economic development activities through an interlocal agreement.
In 2018, the port expanded its focus on economic development by creating the regional economic partnership and region regional economic partnership staff. Um, in this case, Tyler Schroeder provided an overview of recent outcomes and, um, an overview of their 2025 work program.
Um it's a interesting um presentation. I encourage people to go visit that um recording as well. Um that was also for information and discussion only. So back to you council president. Thank you council member Cotton.
And next we had park and rec park parks and recreation and that was chaired by council member Williams. Thank you President Huffman. Um, we had one item on our agenda today, which was which was agenda bill 24528 having to do with the contract award bid for the Sunset Pond Loop Trail project.
The city of Bellingham designs and constructs parks and recreation projects to enhance recreational opportunities, foster community enrichment, and improve natural habitats within the city. Construction of the Sunset Pond Trail project aims to meet the goals of the parks and recreation open space plan by closing a very critical trail gap connecting three neighborhoods to a regional trail and other park destinations.
The project itself will extend the existing trail system to link with the east west segment of of uh of the Squallum uh Squallum Creek Trail leading to connections to Bellingham Bay and a Northwest connection leading to the Barkley Trail, Railroad Trail and beyond.
The key components of this project are number one, a trail extension along an upland slope to Sunset Drive, a boardwalk trail through the flood plane, two new bridges, one over Squallum Creek and another over an unnamed tributary, and a complete loop trail around Sunset Park, which makes this the Lake Patton of the north as someone said the only thing it doesn't have is a golf course.
So the uh construction timeline is uh scheduled to begin in June of this year and uh the inwater work of this project will be completed by September. The project, however, may span two summer uh construction seasons with a final restoration and planning scheduled during the fall and winter planting window.
The final completion is anticipated by February 2027. The engineers estimate for this project was 4,421,115. The city received four bids and Faber Faber Construction was uh determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder with a total bid of $3,730,44 which in includes the applicable Washington sales tax.
The project meets the funding threshold established in Bellingham Municipal Code 4.94. Therefore, it is subject to the requirement of 15% apprenticeship utilization for project labor hours. The uh staff recommendation was to award this contract to to to the Faber Company uh to the Faber Construction Company in the amount of 3,737,44 and a motion was made and passed by the committee to ex to accept the recommendation.
And I so move second motion B made by the chair and a second by council member Cotton. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. And seeing how there was no further business before the committee.
The meeting was adjourned and I'll send it back over to your way, President Huffman. Thank you, Council Member Williams. Up next, we had budget and finance and that is normally chaired by council member Anderson who is virtual with us today.
Uh today that was run by council member Hamill. I'm not sure who's giving the report out. I'll do the report. Okay. Council member Hamill, we had three items. Is that okay, Chair Anderson? Yes, it is.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. We had three items before us today. Uh we first was an ordinance amending the 2025 adopted budget reconciling the differences between estimated 2025 beginning reserve balances and the actual 2025 uh reserve balances.
So during the budget uh development process, the finance department estimates uh beginning reserve balances based on anticipated expenditures and revenues for the year in which the budget is developed.
And pursuant to city financial policy, at the beginning of each budget cycle, the city must update the budget with actual beginning reserves and estimate new ending reserves. So this this afternoon, the committee uh moved to approve uh bill number 24511 and I so move.
Second. Motion by the chair, second by council member Liiloquist. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Second item up uh this afternoon was an ordinance amending the 2025 budget increasing appropriation authority and various funds to pay for goods and services authorized in the previous budget.
Uh the ordinance uh increases appropriation for the 2025 budget by reappropriating unused budget authority uh to totaling 104 uh plus million in expenses and $10 million um in revenue from the 2023 and 2024 bianium.
this afternoon uh we needed to make an amendment to adjust this uh bill number 24512 uh in to the tune of um $200,000 and I so move second motion by the chair second by council member Williams any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed or abstensions that passes 70 and then just moving to the main build 24512 uh that bill did uh or that that ordinance did pass and I move second motion by the chair, second by council member Williams.
Any further discussion? I think he just said 512. I think he means 513. 513. No, 512. 513 is next. I thought we just did 512. No, that was we did the amendment first. Oh, my mistake. Yep. No, you're good.
Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? Passes 70. Okay. Now we'll move to 245113 and that's an ordinance amending the 2025 budget. This is amendment number one.
This ordinance amends the 2025 budget to correct budgetary errors, adjust appropriation authority to provide positive um estimated ending reserve balances for all city budgets and add budget authority for items missed during the budget development or materialized after adoption of the 2025 budget.
This afternoon, the committee recommended approval and I so move. Second. Motion by the chair, second by council member Williams. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions?
Passes 70. Okay. And a committee report. And I'll turn it back to you. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Council Member Hamill. And for our final committee, uh, committee of the whole, we had one agenda item was agenda bill 24521, consideration of a major modification to the interlocal agreement for facilities within the waterfront district between the Port of Bellingham and the city of Bellingham.
In 2013, the city and the port of Bellingham executed the interlocal agreement for facilities within the waterfront district which set forth the responsibility for and phasing of certain facilities like streets and streets and parks.
The parties anticipated that over the life of the agreement modifications would be necessary. Staff recommends approval of this major modification to the facilities interlocal because revisions are required in order for the city to develop a skate park under the Rotor Avenue bridge.
So essentially uh all those fancy words uh mean that uh in order to have a skate park under the Rotary Avenue Bridge, the city and the the port had to make some legal agreements um and uh needed to to create this document in order to to facilitate that.
So uh so the uh committee recommended we approve to authorize the mayor to execute the major modification to the interlocal agreement between the port of Bellingham and city of Bellingham for facilities within the waterfront district.
And I so move second motion by the chair, second by council member Loiquist. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions? That passes 70. Okay, we're on to old and new.
Council member Loquist, you guys have a brief announcement uh to describe an event that the majority of all but one, but Lisa couldn't be there. Council members attended and also county council members and the executive and I was there on behalf of the mayor.
Uh today is international workers memorial day and um it's a at that event I read a proclamation which uh mentioned the theme for uh workers memorial day which is mourn for the dead and fight for the living.
Famous quote from mother Jones. It's a somber event because we read a list of nearly 100 names for lives and families who are affected by worker related accidents or disease or exposure to toxins in the workplace.
And these are 100 fallen workers in the state of Washington alone. That's the community report. Thank you, Council Member Liquist. Anything else for Old and New? Okay, seeing none, um move to the executive session report.
Uh today we had three items. All three were potential property acquisitions with stamps. Uh for all three staff provided information on a potential lake Watcom wershed property acquisition. No uh was for information and discussion and no action was taken.
We're almost done. Consent agenda. Move approval. Motion by council member Williams. Second by council member Hamill. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed or abstensions?
Passes. 70. Okay. That concludes the regular business of the meeting and we will now move on to the public comment session. If you're watching live online or on BTV, the broadcast will now end. However, you can continue watching via Zoom at co.orgccoom or listen via phone by dialing 253-2158782 and entering meeting ID 896-98012044 and password 9.
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