City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] right okay we'll go ahead and get started uh good evening everyone this is the uh August 12th uh Bellingham city council regular meeting uh as you can see we've got a few members that are not with us tonight one of them however theoretically is online I just texted him so um Michael list um in theory will be present and voting on on things we we'll find out I guess um I've got a few announcements here to make before we begin uh Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public public meetings act uh and then before we get into the um into the agenda um I'd like to acknowledge that we're gathered on the traditional and unseeded territory of Lumi nukak samish and samyu people who have cared for and tended this land since time IM Memorial truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connections 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 past and present and 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 I want to make an announcement on language access the Bellingham city council provides Spanish interpretation at all regular evening meetings interpretation can be accessed by in-person attendees by utilizing the headsets that are located in

that black box at that corner of the room uh remote viewers can log on to cob.org CC zoom and click on the language icon at the bottom of the screen to listen in Spanish um and then last announcement um sorry um last announcement then I'll I can bring you forward sorry about that um on August 26 uh uh 2024 the council will hold a public hearing to take comment on a proposed resolution providing for the city to relin relinquish a surplus utility easement and a a water M EAS been encumbering a portion of the property at 2900 UST Street go ahead thank you okay roll call Holly hman here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist I'll say here thanks Michael Jas scotton here Dan Hamill here all right we have five council members present with council members Stone and uh Williams excused okay thank you we'll go right into the mayor's report good evening members of council members of the City Community um it's great to be here tonight I have a few appointments to lead off uh the mayor's Advisory Board this evening several are for your approval and the first is for the Justice project finance and facility Advisory Board and for information this board is authorized by an interlocal agreement with watcom County this board will advise on matters related to public health safety and the justice sales tax they are responsible for monitoring our project our progress on the Justice project implementation plan and developing programmatic updates per the Ila that was signed the mayor and the county

executive bring our joint Community member appointments to this board to approval to both the Bellingham city council and watom County Council County Executive sidu and I are bringing forward Jan Rose ottaway Martin to a term that ends on January 31st 2027 and Jacob hener to a term ending January 31st 2028 these appointments were approved by the County council at its July 23rd meeting and I'm seeking your approval tonight move approval second motion's been made by council member Huffman second by council member Anderson any further discussion I don't see any all those in favor signify by saying I I is there a vat from cquest on this one if you don't mind I'm going to abstain this evening unless it's uh important okay we we'll go to regular business after the mayor's report and perhaps you can chime in then motion carries uh 4 uh Z with list um Stone and Williams excused from the vote the next appointment for your approval tonight is to the Greenways advisory committee and I'm seeking appointment to Zach cook for his first partial term which will expire on October 28th 2025 move approval second motion's been made by council member Huffman second by council member cotton any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exstension recusals motion carries uh 40 with three excuse the next appointment is to the planning and development commission and I'm excited to announce that I'll be seeking reappointment for Rose lrip to her final term which will

expire on August 24th 2028 approval second motion's been made by Council M hman second by council member uh cotton any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carries 43 excuse last for uh appointments this evening uh and this is for information only I am reappointing Annie sorich as the Sunnyland neighborhood's primary representative to her final term which will expire on August 16th 2026 addiction touches the lives of many people in our community every year we hear about it we experience it but we don't often talk openly about it or many in the community are curious to know more in honor of National Recovery month in September the mayor's office will be joining the Bellingham Public Library wam County Health and community services and multiple other partners in hosting a free all Community program the program's title is what is addiction Plain Talk for our community will be held on Thursday September 12th at 700 p.m.

at the Mount Baker High School's Performing Arts Center local physician Dr Shannon basted will be talking about addiction science followed by a panel of community members in recovery talking about their lived experiences all are welcome and no registration is required please save the date for this important event lastly I have some updates on some priorities for my Administration and one is about the downtown it has been nearly six months since I signed the executive order to address some conditions in downtown Bellingham and we continue to receive much positive feedback from many community community members about the changes they are seeing and experiencing in fact someone came up at dinner tonight with a message um of support and as we approach the six-month Mark we are preparing a progress report for the community about all of our combined actions since February I'm excited to share about our early progress and importantly where we are headed from here we will also be inviting uh members of the community to participate in several engagement and feedback opportunities in the coming months I also want to share an update about uh lobbying efforts for the city as we move forward it is important to let Bellingham know that I as your mayor and the city leaders that sit up on this dis are serious and passionate about providing resources for the community's priorities we are eager and committed to increasing the city's participation and representation in the State Legislative

process our request for proposals for a state government Rel Rel ation contractor closed at the end of last month we look forward to interviewing three firms next week to serve our lobbying near needs for the year ahead and I would like to express my appreciation to the council members Stone Huffman and council president Hamill and other staff members involved in the valuation process for helping to select our important contractor for this work we expect expect to bring a contract forward for Council consideration in early fall similarly our selection process is underway for the Strategic initiatives manager with a Health and Human Services Focus this key new position in the mayor's office will add much needed capacity to better support the city's Health and Human Services priorities and programs now handled in various departments and across our partner agencies interviews are scheduled for next week and I look forward to having this position filled by this fall and last but not least tonight I'm very pleased to announce that we have appointed Melissa minin who's here beside me to serve as the city's communication and community relations director Melissa has been serving as an assistant communication director for the past year she joined the city during a time of significant transition she's earned the trust and respect throughout this organization and has been a key contributor to expanding our City's Communications efforts prior to joining the city Melissa had a successful

career at the wam County Health Department where among her many achievements she served as leader of the County Joint Information Center during the covid emergency she also brings to this role valuable experience managing Communications and public relations campaigns for state and local government clients at a respected Communications and marketing firm Melissa will play a key strategic role in my office alongside Janice and Forest as my Administration continues to take shape please join me in congratulating Melissa End of mayor's report thank you mayor um that'll take us to our Council standing committee meetings and we had a couple of them this afternoon the first one was public health safety uh justice and equity and that is chaired by council member Holly huthman thank you council president today I was joined by council members cotton and Anderson we had one agenda item agenda Bill 24201 it was a presentation from the watom county health and Community Services Department on the progress of the healthy Children's Fund Anne Beck Community Health and Human Services manager for watom County gave a presentation on the healthy Children's Fund she actually turned it over to uh Sarah Simpson the family program supervisor to give the majority of the presentation um so this is a presentation of how the uh how our county is using these These funds um and it was a very very long list of accomplishments and um initiatives that are rolling out with with the help of these funds and the

work of our our County um I think it's it's absolutely worth watching this presentation from the afternoon meeting if you if you're curious about the work that's going um that's being done uh and one point that I thought was really important of course we all want healthy healthy kids we know a lot of the reasons why that's important for our society as a whole but I think one point um that it Bears repeating uh is that for every dollar invested in early childhood programs between 7 and $13 are saved through benefits like lower incarceration rates and lower healthare health care costs um and clearly right now we're dealing with a lot of challenges in our society that are preventable and uh it starts with investing in our littlest ones we can make a huge difference um in the future of our community so um yeah again would definitely recommend looking into what those funds are are going towards the funds that you yourselves are paying into uh to make these prog programs happen so with that end of committee thank you for information discussion only next two items we have are um there were votes taken this afternoon this is for the committee of the whole first one was an ordinance related to the establishment of identity theft prevention me measures for registered Residential Properties throughout the city establishing a requirement for secure locking male receptacles in chapter 6.1 15.50 in the Bellingham Municipal Code identity identity theft and discarded bills can have a

significant impact on the financial well-being of an individual and our household in an effort to support the need uh for safe and secure housing for all residents the city uh is establishing a requirement for locking male receptacles for all properties registered through the rental registration and safety inspection program this afternoon the committee voted to for approval and ISO move second motions been made by the chair and seconded by council member Anderson any further discussion on this one Council M Anderson I just wanted to share a little background um for those who didn't watch the day session um this is a perfect example of where a Community member brings something forward of concern the Genesis of this started actually um next to my property um I was having a meeting with um uh Mr Lusty at my house and on his way he he had found a whole bunch of mail that had been stolen from um a mobile home um site on samish way and it had bills um credit card information ripped open and so the discussion started about how um unsecure some of our older neighborhood and older apartment complex um they mail bins and nationally there is so much male theft and that could lead to Identity Theft credit issues because if you don't pay your bills you end up um having to pay extra fees or being sent to collections and so some of our community members who could least afford to have things like that happen often are people who rent in some of our older neighborhoods so this is an

important um adjustment to our um rental registration it's a small cost to bear for any landlord to help secure um the security and well-being of some of our renters in the community so I'm really proud this came forward but it's also a good example of how a Community member can bring something forward to council U Mr Legacy had worked with council member lillquist um to uh help bring this forward and Steward it so really proud that this was done and I'm happy to support it further discussion on this one seeing none all is in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals Mr liquis going to be chiming in here or do we know okay let's let's pass it forth four um zero with three excused okay next item is interlocal agreement for the management of the remedial actions of the Cornwall Avenue landfill cleanup and modifications to existing interlocs between Port of Bellingham and the City of Bellingham related to the cleanup and asking my mayor or my um president proem to uh read the summary statement because I forgot my reading glasses at home tonight sorry it's a long one it's a long one yeah all right uh pursuant to a consent decree the Port of Bellingham and the City of Bellingham are jointly responsible for the cleanup of the Cornwall Avenue landfill site the port has been the lead Agency for the cleanup effort and the city has reimbursed the port pursuant to the 2006 interlocal agreement for the AC acquisition of the Chev and Colony Warf properties and the

remediation of the Cornwall Avenue landfill site and Central Waterfront site over time the city acquired the non-state-owned portion of the site and plans to develop the area into Salish landing park because of the city ownership the plan Park and the city's adjacent concurrent cleanup of the RG Haley site the city will conduct all three the port has agreed to transfer its cleanup management role to the city since various agreements describe the port's management role they two need to be amended this afternoon the committee um moved to approve and I so move second motion's been made by the chair and seconded by council member Anderson any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carries four with uh three excused uh old and new business council member hman then cotton uh so I just have a report out report out on an event that council member Lila Quist and I and DC Don Almer were able to attend on Friday it was a really interesting event uh that the Chuck net Health Foundation sponsored they brought to us um a program of a a re-entry simulation so folks who've been incarcerated what it feels like to re-enter into the community after you have been incarcerated so there probably 70 80 participants um all who had some kind of connection to uh the system and um we were all given new identities we were given a story and um some requirements that we had to meet and uh try to meet those requirements like

somebody who was re-entering into the community um and we were able to uh we we were able to uh experience that challenging situation um including you know how difficult it is to find Transportation how difficult it is to um plan out your day find the time to do everything that's required of you uh find the finances to to to meet your obligations um and you know do all of this and try to stay out of out of jail um again so it was a pretty pretty eye- openening experience I think for most and um we got a chance to listen to a panel about uh specifically what it's like in County including from uh listening to people who had been involved in the justice system here locally and uh have conversations and discussion and hopefully take away some some ideas and thoughts and um and ways that we can influence the the upcoming reimagining of our justice system through the Justice project implementation plan so um great experience and thanks to the cheet health health foundation for uh putting that together for us thank you C member um so I'm seeking support tonight for some next steps uh for a body of work um that I think I've been working on for like the last nine months and um that's to um take some um some steps as a city to prohibit excessive and unfair fees in uh residential rentals and manufactured home parks um council member liist and representative Alex ramble and I met with a group of probably 60 manufactured homeowners and renters last month and um the list of of really just

um uh surprisingly long the over 60 fees that people had experienced in that room alone and so um this is an area where many other jurisdictions have taken action and um worked on producing some some rough drafts that's been circulated to staff and some initial feedback and so I'd like to request tonight um uh staff time um from our policy analyst Iris not and um ISO move second motion been made by council member cotton and second by council member hman any discussion on this Cil um we SP spoke a little bit and I do support it um do you have a kind of a rough estimate I'm I'm assuming you've talked with staff and do you have kind of a rough estimate of uh the body of work and time for it yeah thank you council member Anderson uh the I think the ideal time for this to come back to council would probably be um the first meeting in September so we can potentially move on on this before we get really busy busy with a with budget uh discussions um and so um I think the request for for um from our um for our policy analysts would be to produce a uh a memo and some background research and work out some of the Kinks and policy design so we've had some initial discussions about that and seems within the scope of um their capacity yeah motion's been made uh by council member cotton and second by council member Huffman any further discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed extensions recusals go ahead Council M um and I'd also like to request

um the assistance of the city attorney's office and reviewing um those draft ordinances and um with uh assistance to to bring something solid before Council so ISO move okay uh any objections from the from the legal department uh no objections we've already met and I've we've done a preliminary review of the ordinances and so uh no problem we can meet that time frame okay so we don't need a motion for this one do we no I think I think it's you've got you've got the direction okay great anything else for old new um and I'll just say to anyone in the audience who has experiences with um any of those fees feel free to get in touch um your stories are really valuable and um would love to hear from you so I see more than a few people who were at that meeting last month and so hope to stay in touch with you all as well so thanks again C Randon I just wanted to make a comment because it might seem a little odd that we're making motions to utilize staff time when staff works with us but um anytime we're requesting a significant amount of time that might um take them off a project that they're currently working on for other counselors or the city um if we're going to redirect them substantially for a period of time uh we often will get the support of other Council to make sure that if someone's project is being um set aside for a short period of time that Council knows this is how staff will like our direct staff that report to our office manager that they um that they have the

support of council to do that so it's not typical to see this kind of motion but I just want to give a little background that it's not new but it's often negotiated thank you any other items for old new okay I just want to re reiterate the the thanks uh um and appreciation that I have for our fire department and our Police Department was able to do a couple of ride alongs with the one with Community paramedic um Steve Larsson and Grace program manager Hadley apprentice and then also with our downtown um beat officer uh Nick Parker um and I just I just want to express my appreciation for I think it's very important that council members go on those ride alongs so we're seeing what's happening uh with our First Responders um out there on the street so I just want to say thank you for that any other items for old new okay uh that'll take us to Executive session we had five items first one was uh litigation South Bay Suites LLC Jean Shannon and Connie Shannon versus city of Bellingham that was with um City attorney Mariner staff provided information on a potential litigation matter and that was for information and Direction second was potential potential litigation that was with uh chaplain uh staff provided information on a potential litigation matter that was for information and discussion and no action was taken on that item third item was potential litigation that was with cram uh staff provided information on a potential litigation matter uh it was for information and

discussion however I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to ENT enter into a settlement agreement with the Port of Bellingham regarding the port's contribution to the cleanup of the RG Haley site in the amount of $3,500,000 to be paid over the course of four years approval second motion's been made by council member Huffman second by council member Anderson any discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed exensions recusals uh motion carries four with uh three excuse uh fourth item was potential litigation uh also with Mariner staff provided information on a potential litigation matter was for information discussion but I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to execute all documents necessary for the city of B inham to participate in the settlement of the opiate lawsuit brought by the state of Washington against Kroger which does business as QFC and Fred Meyer in the state of Washington move approval second motion's been made by council member Anderson second by council member hutman any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carries four with uh three excused last item was potential uh property acquisition this was also with um Alan Mariner staff provided information on a potential Watershed property acquisition but this was for information and discussion and no action was taken that will take us to consent agenda move approval second

motion been made by council member Huffman second by council member cotton any discussion on consent agenda seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries four with uh three excused okay that takes us to public comment period yeah okay I saw a little movement over there I wasn't quite sure what's going on okay so that concludes the regular business of the meeting and we will now move into the public comment uh session if you're watching live online or on BTV the broadcast will now end however you can continue watching via Zoom at cob.org G SLCC Zoom or listen via phone by dialing 253 215 8782 and entering media meeting ID 2733 and password nine the number nine again that's CCC Zoom or dialing in to 253 215 8782 and entering the meeting ID of 2733 and pressing uh password uh nine to continue to watch or listen if you're watching on a recorded version of this meeting you can view public comment videos at cob.org slccu comment and that's all one word and we're just going to pause here for a second to get set up