City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] good evening everyone welcome to the regular meeting of the Bellingham city council this December 9th 2024 uh call this meeting to order uh Billingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act couple statements and announcements before we begin uh we acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional and unseated territory of the lummy Nooksack samish and seamu people who have cared for and tended this land since time and Memorial truth 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 the their 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 the 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 cob.org frcc zoom and click on the language icon at the bottom of the screen to L listen in Spanish and I'll let our uh interpreter um repeat that for us person thank you and finally on January 13th 2025 the council will hold a public hearing on an interim ordinance eliminating parking minimums the interim

ordinance would eliminate the minimum number of spots required to and allow property owners and developers to provide parking as necessary as an interim measure it would provide immediate relief on to some projects and allow staff time to collect Community feedback and prep prepare final parking regulations a draft interim ordinance is anticipated to be published for public View and city council consideration in the December 16th 2024 Council agenda more information at co.org FRP park- reforms roll call please Hannah Stone here skip Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist here jce cotton here Holly Huffman here all right we have six council members present with Council president Hamill excused and up next we have May's report good evening Council staff and members of the community that are here this evening I have a few appointments to start off tonight the first two are for your approval I'm seeking approval tonight to appoint Sarah Burch to a partial term for the Transportation Commission move approval second motion by council member Anderson second by council member Williams any any discussion see none all in favor say I I any opposed extensions that passes 601 excused thank you the next appointment for approval tonight is to the Civil Service Commission and I'm seeking approval to reappoint Colin loen to his first full term move approval second motion by council member Williams second by council member cotton any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed or

extensions passes thanks the other two appointments are for information only and that is I'll be reappointing Sarah holiday to her fourth term and Mark Blake to his first full term on the tourism commission and also I'll be reappointing Karen Jones to her first full term on the community devel velopment Advisory Board there was a lot of conversation at the committee of the whole meeting today as it pertained to housing so if this is a topic that's important to you I encourage members of the community to watch both the beginning and the ends of our meeting today and as we said earlier we all recognize that quality affordable housing and Equitable neighborhoods are foundational factors for health and well-being they are critical for fostering stability prosperity and opportunity for the people who live here and since the last council meeting I issued an executive order directing actions to address the urgent need for more housing in Bellingham the order commits the city to achievable meaningful steps to expand housing options we have a critical housing shortage in Bellingham we have not yet caught up from the de deficit of thousands of housing units that resulted from the 2008 to 2012 economic recession and we aren't adding enough new housing to meet today's demands we need more housing overall and more options that are in reach for everyone the executive order directs action in three broad areas the first is diversifying and expanding housing options in all neighborhoods

through priority and solution oriented development review and proposed interim legislative changes the second is streamlining the city's permitting process to Spur Housing Development and reduce housing costs and the third is by incentivizing funding or partnering to create more housing opportunities that are harder to develop such as permanently affordable housing or traditional housing transitional housing options like tiny home Villages my order is focused and directs accelerated actions to reduce barriers to expanding housing that are within the city's control these are some of the achievable smart fixes that we can Implement now I join with members of this city council and the community who feel an urgency to invest in this work ahead of required changes that will come as the result of new state laws I look forward to working alongside the council to pass interim ordinances to move this work forward and then make adjustments and improvements as needed in the Years ahead I encourage everyone who is interested in more details to watch the video of this afternoon's meeting and also visit the city's website and that's the end of mayor's report tonight thank you may and moving right along uh we have committee reports um first this morning was Public Works and natural resources and that was chaired by council member Stone thank you very much president protim hman um I was joined this morning on the public work and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and

lillquist we had one item before us this was agenda bill 24351 so it's a contract award to SNS Concrete Construction for the Portland cement concrete repairs this is an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity um bid number 55 b-224 the city solicited bids for an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for on Call port Portland cement concrete repair service work will be scoped and performed under individual work orders on an as needed basis over a maximum of 4 years subject to a not to exceed contract amount of $3,600,000 the city received two bids which were publicly opened on November 12th 2004 SNS Concrete Construction from Bellingham Washington was the responsible bidder who offered the lowest responsive bid of 1,279 1812 .10 which was based on a hypothetical work order for bid comparison purposes the contract is not subject to apprenticeship utilization requirements because individual work orders are expected to be well under $1 million however over the course of the next four years if there were a project that met that $1 million threshold the apprenticeship hours would be required um so at this time it's for a 4-year um again a 4-year contract with an amount not to exceed $3,600,000 um which again the individual projects would be much less but in totality um adding up all that's needed over the next four years that would be the maximum threshold and if we reach that over the next four years the city would then come back um and reopen for a new contract but at

this time there was a unanimous motion from the committee to award this contract SNS Concrete Construction and I so move second motion made by the chair a second by council member Anders further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions that passes 601 excused thank you very much that was all the business before the committee this morning and we adjourned and I'll send it back to you thank you council member Stone and next up we had community and economic development and that was chaired by council member cotton thank you president for time um we had three agenda items on our committee today I'm joined in that committee by council members um Huffman and Stone um the first was uh bill number 24352 which was consideration of an interlocal agreement between the city Wacom County and Port of Bellingham regarding um a coordinated approach to funding countywide Economic Development since 2011 the city county and Port have been funding Economic Development activities through an interlocal agreement in 2018 the port expanded its focus on economic development um to create a department and hire a director and more staff um staff uh recommended today continuing this commitment um to funding the Western Washington University's um Small Business Development Center and the ports um Economic Development Department um by approving uh the interlocal agreement we just had a few minutes in discussion today but um uh Tyler Scher from the report um will be coming uh to

address Council soon and um uh we'll look forward to that uh there is a recommendation 30 um to uh move to approve the interlocal and Isa move second uh motion made by the chair second by council member Stone any further discussion see none all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions that passes 601 our second item uh was Bill number 24353 consideration of the lodging tax advisory committee's funding recommendations for downtown activation proposals as part of ongoing revitalization efforts um a second request for proposal um was issued in October for projects to activate and beautify downtown and um the lodging tax advisory committee uh has recommended approval of three projects to be funded using lodging tax revenue including um Children of the Setting Sun Productions um which will be um installing a co- Salish interactive mural uh the pford film Center and Bellingham Symphony Orchestra which will be putting on a silent film with a live music event and and makeshift kzx presents radio forever which will be a multimodal um installation um and I encourage folks to listen to that um committee session to learn more there was a uh a unanimous uh uh motion and to approve the ltac recommendations and I move second motion made by the chair second by council member Stone any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I hi any oppos or extensions passes 601 and our final agenda Bill item was Bill number 24354 which um was a resolution to update the housing Levy administrative

and financial plan um staff uh discussed uh proposed changes to the housing Levy administrative and financial plan that modifies the current plan to incorporate um our current Consolidated plan goals incorporate um the affordable housing sales tax into the plan uh update the budgets increase loan amounts and make some other important changes um that was reviewed by the Community Development Advisory Board and proposed by staff um I won't attempt a complete summary um but I encourage folks to listen to that um committee uh uh uh presentation uh there was a unanimous uh uh recommendation to approve the resolution and IA move second motion made by the chair second by council member lilis any any further discussion see none all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions passes 601 and that is end of committee thank you council member cotton and uh next up we had public health safety Justice and equity and that was shared by me we had one item was a me memorandum of understanding with the Federal Bureau of Investigation the Bellingham Police Department would like to enter into anou with the FBI to maximize the inter agency cooperation and assist with the mission of identifying for prosecution criminal Enterprise groups responsible for drug trafficking moneya laundering robbery crimes of violence such as murder and aggravated assault and financial crimes such as fraud Billingham police officers who are designated per this agreement will still be held to our own policies and laws

with regard to immigration violations policy 417 and the keep Washington Working act say state state engrossed second substitute Senate bill 5497 um the uh Chief Mig explained that this uh rather complicated looking document has mostly to do with um technology cellular analysis technology um that we can share with the FBI um there's some cost savings uh in here um using this technology which is becoming more and more frequent uh an example given was um an incident at Boulevard Park where the cell phone analysis was was very instrumental in um solving that crime so uh that was for information and discussion only no action was taken all right and then we moved on to Committee of the whole we had seven items so bear with me a lot of words um up first we had a very lengthy discussion uh agenda Bill 24356 mayor's executive order expanding housing options in Bellingham um Bellingham mayor Kim Lund issued exe executive order 20242 on November 21st 2024 committing to intermediate steps to address our community's urgent need for more housing the order directs City departments to take administrative actions to increase housing opportunities across the housing Spectrum these actions raise is range from directing our development review team to adopt a solution oriented approach and remove inefficiencies in the permitting process by continuing to pursue investments in low-income housing and seeking a new site for a tiny home Village the order also asks the city council to consider three

interm ordinances one remove parking minimum Citywide two allow the infill tool kit Citywide and three streamline design review uh in this information presentation mayor Lun and the staff discussed the items in the executive order and timelines for in implementation as the mayor mentioned um there was quite a conversation that is certainly not over but if you are interested in housing issues and parking minimums um definitely uh check out that video it's at meetings.

ob.org um we will be having more conversation about parking minimums in particular next Monday so um I see there are some folks in the gallery that might be interested in that one uh that was for information and discussion no action was taken moving on to agenda Bill 24357 inter agency Grant agreement with the Department of Commerce to fund City County electrification program in 2007 the city adopted the climate protection action plan as official policy in response to the growing global climate crisis in May of 2018 city council adopted the updated 2018 climate action plan as policy with the new emissions reduction targets electrification is a critical component of meeting the city's climate goals the city in partnership with watom county has applied and awarded a grant from the Department of Commerce uh the uh inter agency Grant will provide just under a million dollars to expand the city's home electrification pilot program um Council voted to approve and is so move second motion made by the chair second by council member Williams uh further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed for abstentions passes excused moving on agenda Bill 24358 an ordinance amending the 2023 to 2024 banial budget increasing expenditures and authorizing an interfund loan of up to $600,000 from the general fund to the workers comp fund amendment number 16 uh this final budget ordinance of the year as you can see there are 15 others um makes adjust adjustments in the general fund to

the museum library and legal departments which are marginally close to their budget Authority this ordinance also makes budget adjust adjustments in the cemetery Gulf and parking funds to recognize increased economic activity and related expenses The Medic One adjustments uh recognize all contracted Revenue with the county and adds budget Authority for interfund loan debt payments retray increase increases in overtime lastly uh for the workers comp fund the ordinance recognizes the 2024 rate increases increase authorizes an inter fund loan up to $600,000 and increases expenses for claims payroll and insurance payments quite a bit of discussion about involves some of the complexity of these funds and where things are going from and coming to um uh the council uh voted to recommend approval and I so move second count uh motion made by the chair second by council member Williams any further discussion see none all doesn't fa say I I opposed or AB extensions passes 601 just a couple more genda Bill 24359 uh contract award for the North Haven tiny house Community project bid number 54b 2024 the North Haven tiny house Community project includes site improvements and utilities to prepare the city's recently purchased property at 33000 Northwest Avenue to host a new tiny home Village the city publicly opened nine bids on November 6th 2024 Summit Construction was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $434,900 including any applicable sales or use tax the

engineers estimate was $821,000 15 therefore the project does not include an apprenticeship hour requirement um there was also some conversation of note uh about the the total cost which in the um in the in the memorandum wasn't quite right the um paid by the city uh was estimated to cost around it it shows $900,000 but that was corrected to 1.4 million um that in and and that does not include the $1.2 million property purchase uh so council member liist did some quick math and figured out that that equates to about $60,000 per tiny home that right which huh it depends on the number of units depending on the number of units which yes so uh some some interesting comparisons on on value there but a project definitely well worth doing um the council voted uh unanimously to recommend approval to award the contract and is so move second um motion made by the chair second by council member Williams any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I I any opposed or abstentions that passes uh 601 and apparently I talk a little fast so I'm going to slow down just a tad um next up we have agenda bill 24360 this is an ordinance of the city of Bellingham repealing sections of the Bellingham Municipal Code that are obsolete preempted unconstitutional or otherwise enfor unenforceable um and I'm not going to repeat the summary statement because essentially it is redundant City staff uh presented some some code revisions for code that was obsolete preempted unconstitutional or

otherwise unenforcable um and once uh once the staff actually went through this process there was a lot more conversation about other code that should be considered as well so um this will not be the end of of a little bit of revising and editing uh of our code um but uh but and so we may be expecting some more to come back in the future um the committee voted unanimously to recommend approval and I so move second uh motion made by the chair second by council member Anderson any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed or extension extensions that passes excused the next two uh items were related agenda bill 24253 this is a work session regarding landlord tenant relations and unfair or excessive fees in residential rental agreements and leases Council held a work session on October 21st 2024 to discuss a draft ordinance that would prohibit residential landlords from charging tenants unfair or excessive fees commonly referred to as junk fees Council moved to adopt a revised ordinance as the draft ordinance to share for public engagement and the administration's further review staff have since reviewed the ordinance and made suggested edits in legislative format for ease of review staff also drafted an alternative ordinance that would accomplish the same goal but that would be easier to understand for tenants landlords property management companies and reviewing courts um getting quite a robust conversation there were some uh amendments made um to a

motion the an original motion was to adopt the the staff's draft of the legislation but with several amendments um that were proposed and approved by Council um of course that won't be the end of this conversation it's just what we can kind of fit in the time that we're allotted for today um see and we probably don't need to do we need to vote again that no okay yes and we will be having another work session uh next week though the staff won't be prepared to come back with any edits at that time we wanted to be able to continue to have the conversation um and potentially propose more amendments um and then we also uh the next agenda item agenda Bill 24254 similar but related specifically to Manu factured home uh uh landlord tenant relations so similar there uh Council voted to uh to direct staff to move forward with the staff um proposed draft ordinance but again with some amendments um probably more to come um and we'll have further conversation on that next week old and new all right next up we had our executive session four items first up uh litigation stala versus city of Bellingham at all with good staff provided information on a litigation matter was for information and discussion no action was taken next up we had a potential property acquisition with stamps staff provided inform on a potential Lake watom Watershed property acquisition totaling 1.9 Acres with one potential development unit uh I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the real estate

transaction described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Tien D ton Lee Medi and Elise shafa uh with a purchase price of $225,000 and with closing to occur on or around December 20th 2024 move approval second I've got a motion uh from council member Williams second by council member lillquist any further discussion all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions that passes 61 excused next up is another property acquisition and a little different uh this was with stamps staff provided information on a proposed real estate transaction involving a lake Wacom Watershed property totaling 10.24 Acres owned by Patricia aoto the auto property is zoned r5a with 20 potential development units uh the city currently holds two conservation easements over the property which preclude development of all but five of the potential development units the property owner has offered to replace the existing conservation easements with a new conservation easement that is more protective of the lake watom Watershed effectively precluding development of all but one of the potential development units which is uh preserved for the existing homite the new conservation easement will be granted to both the city of Bellingham and the watom land trust as Co grantees at no cost I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the proposed real estate transaction involving the auto property which will result in the replace M of the city's existing

conservation easements with a new conservation easement that is more protective of the lake wakham Watershed at no cost to the city with closing to occur as soon as practicable so moved second got a motion by council member Williams the second by council member Anderson any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed or extensions that passes 601 and finally uh another potential property acquisition uh staff provided information on a potential property acquisition for information or and discussion no action was taken I believe we are now moving to consent agenda second motion by council member Lilo Quist second by council member Williams further discussion all in favor say I I I uh opposed extensions that passes 601 final consideration of ordinances agenda Bill 24335 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington amending Bellingham Municipal Code chapter 4.76 to increase the solid waste utility tax from 11.5% to 17.25% move third and final second motion by council member Anderson second by council member cotton roll call please Hannah Stone hi Holly Huffman hi Skip Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi jce cotton motion carries 60 with council president Hamill excused and next up we have agenda Bill 24336 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington regarding investment of City funds move third and final second motion by council member Anderson and second by council member cotton roll call please skip Williams I Holly Huffman hi Lisa

Anderson hi Hannah Stone hi Michael lillquist I jce cotton I motion carries 60 with council president Hamill excused and finally we have agenda Bill 24337 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington adopting the 2025 budget move approval third and final second a motion by council member Williams second by council member Anderson roll call please Lisa Anderson hi jce cotton hi Michael lillquist hi Hannah Stone hi Holly Huffman I skip Williams I motion carries 6-0 with council president Hamill excused thank you and if there is no further business from Council we are adjourned