City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] welcome everybody to the regular meeting of the Bellingham city council this September 30th 2024 I am president proem Holly huthman uh substituting for uh President Dan Hamill who is excused tonight uh call this meeting to order um announcements uh before we begin we acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional and unseated territory of the lumy Nooksack samish and seamu people who have cared for and tended this land since time immemorial 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 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 uh 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 at the front of the room remote viewers can log on to cob.org CZ CC zoom and click on the language icon at the bottom of the screen to listen in Spanish and I'll pause uh for interpretation and I have two announcements the Bellingham city council will hold a public hearing on October 7th 2024 to take public comment on the Bellingham Police Department's application for a grant through the

Department of Justice B bja FY 24 Edward burn Memorial assistance grant the police department would like to purchase six wrap restraint systems and add four new team members and equipment to the B bike Response Team uh also the Bellingham city council will hold a public hearing on October 7th 2024 to take public comment on the proposed 2025 budget the proposed 2025 budget has been filled with the city clerk and filed with the city clerk and is available to view online at https www.c.org goov SL budget hard copies are available to view in the finance department at City Hall roll call please recording in progress Hanah Stone here Holly Huffman here skipe Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist here jce cotton here all right you have six council members pres with council president Hamill excused and next up we have mayor's report good evening Council good evening to the many members of the community that are here this evening uh I have a few appointments tonight and the first one is for your approval and that is to the Bellingham Arts commission and I'm recommending that we reappoint Amy chalup to her final term on the Bellingham Arts commission move approval U motion by council member Anderson second by council member Williams uh discussion see none all in favor say I I any opposed abstentions that passes 601 thank you the next is for information only and that's that I'll be making an appointment to the mayor's neighborhood advisory commission and I'll be appointing

Jake Charlton as the Happy Valley neighborhood primary representative to his final term and I'm going to do my best this evening with the length of our committee meetings today to keep the mayor's report brief this evening but I do want to highlight that I was able to present my proposed 2025 budget to the committee of the whole this afternoon and I encourage all of you as community members to watch that presentation when the video is posted we will have the opportunity to continue to talk about the budget and City finances throughout this fall and Beyond and your voice and feedback will be important my Administration began developing this budget with a multi-million dollar ongoing general fund deficit and flattening and declining revenues for five of the last nine months have exasperated this Gap and so to produce a more balanced budget with minimal deficits our prop proposal leverages creative uses of existing resources and employees targeted reductions to provide short-term budget relief while allowing for strategic investments in priority programs and minimally impacting the delivery of our services however it is important to emphasize that this budget is yet a temporary bridge to a more financially stable future many of the revenue strategies that it employs are not long-term Solutions and the careful considerations and the hard decisions that are reflected in this budget will likely extend into 2026 going forward my Administration the council and the community will need

to work together to establish new sustainable and flexible Revenue revenues or make the difficult decisions that aligned city services with our existing Revenue sources and that my sincere vision is that we Endeavor to be an excellent government creating enduring public good and service to the community we love and right now excellence in governments mean being means being responsible stewards of our constrained public dollars and maintaining our existing assets while continuing to make progress on Key Community priorities and much needed in ongoing investments in the people that go to work here every day and I want to close with a reflection from Michael McAfee and Ashley gardier they're the co-executive of policy link and they're the organizers of the Nationwide Equity Summit to which I and a couple other key members of wam County had the chance to attend last month in Atlanta and that reflection is that moral leadership requires acknowledging difficulties considering objections and demonstrating a willingness to do what is right and just and to take responsibility for the consequences and I want to say that our reflection and our many conversations in the committee of the whole today I think really reflect that spirit and I was proud to be part of that robust conversation alongside all of you and that is the end of marage report tonight thank you mayor uh we now move on to our standing committee reports first up this morning very early at 8:50 early for us uh we started

with Committee of the whole executive session we had five items uh first was a potential property acquisition staff provided information on a potential property acquisition I will now entertain a motion to approve the real estate purchase described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Pacific Northwest Credit Union with a purchase price of 1, 260,000 and with closing to occur on or before November 10th 2025 move approval second motion by Council May Williams second by council member lillquist any further discussion council member lillquist this property is adjacent to the land we own for the tiny home Village it will be used for a long-term affordable housing anything further all in favor say I I I any oppos that passes 601 next up we have a potential property acquisition staff provided information on a potential property acquisition it's pretty redundant I'll now entertain a motion to approve the purchase of the 3.4 acre parcel located at 1492 Telegraph Road described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with the property owner lyanna nulan with a purchase price of uh $1.6 million move approval second a motion by council member Anderson second by council member cotton any further discussion council member is for parks and trails on the North End okay all in favor say I I I any opposed extensions that passes 601 excused uh we then had a labor relations item staff provided information on a labor relations matter for

information and discussion no action was taken uh next up a potential property acquisition staff provided information on a potential Lake W Lake wcom Watershed property acquisition from information and discussion no action was taken and finally we had another potential property acquisition staff provided information on a potential Lake wcom Watershed property acquisition for information and discussion no action was taken next up this morning was uh Public Works and natural resources that was shared by council member Stone thank you very much president proam Huffman um I was joined this morning on the Public Works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and lillquist we had two items before us the first was agenda bill 24249 this is approval of an interlocal agreement with watcom County for Lake watcom Forest management plan partnership so the city of Bellingham Public Works Department in partnership with the watom County Parks and Recreation Department seeks to develop a comprehensive Forest management plan for the lake wam Watershed the plan will include the city of bellingham's watershed acquisition lands and watcom County's forested Parklands in and adjoining to the lake watcom Watershed the purpose of the Lake watcom Forest management plan is to create an actionable and implementable document that serves as a long range tool for the coordinated management of city and county-owned Forest land the plan will improve forest and Watershed Health climate and

Wildfire resiliency water quality and overall ecology and so this morning um we heard from Public Works director Joel fun as well as Mike um perlson who's the natural resources field operations manager and Renee lroy joined us assistant director for public works and natural resources um this morning there was a unanimous motion from the committee to move to approve entering into an interlocal agreement with watcom County to create the coordinated Forest management plan for Lake watcom Watershed and ISO Move Motion by council member stone and a second by Council member Anderson any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I I any opposed extensions that passes 601 thank you very much the next item this morning was agenda Bill 24250 this is a resolution adopting elements of the 2024 fiber Network comprehensive plan in order to imp improve fiber Network redundency and resiliency to support the city's needs in the future so the city has concluded Ed work to inventory existing conditions identify resources and opportunities and perform financial analysis in order to develop a fiber Network comprehensive plan this work effort is intended to address the ad hoc Broadband advisory committee observations and recommendations which were adopted by City Council in May of 2023 as part of the planning process funding opportunities to serve unserved and underserved areas in the community were evalu valuated and market research was conducted in both the residential and business

market segments the fiber Network comprehensive plan includes a long-term City fiber needs map as well as next steps for fiber testing and infrastructure upgrades that the city can Implement to increase redundancy and resiliency in the city's existing fiber Network plan as well as support the city's future needs so this morning we heard from um again interum Public Works director Joel fun we were also joined um by John Gavin who presented the presentation um he's our fiber optic network engineer here at the city and Steve Hogan who's the Public Works superintendent for traffic parking and fiber here at the city um so this morning with respect to the presentation there was robust discussion um and concluding in discussion of the resolution that was presented which outlines sort of what the next steps would be for the city because unfortunately much of the um work needed within the city to achieve sort of a carrier class um fiber system to provide um public um Fiber service to the community something that's would be very expensive and costly and something that we can't undertake at this time um but there were some areas related to fiber testing um so to test all terminated fiber strands that are owned by the city um and as well as the infrastructure upgrades in handholds and conduits here throughout the city potentially at 845 different potential upgrade locations in the city um as well as additional infrastructure upgrades related to fiber augmentation to um address the

deficiency between downtown and and Fair Haven here in the city and so with respect to the resolution that was presented today there was a proposed amendment um that was accepted by the committee and brought forward by council member Lio Quist um and that proposed change was in the resolution under number two to change the title of the presentation that and document that came forward um so section two would read as follows dependent on the identification of necessary available funding and the need to balance these priorities with other City priorities the city will implement the following next steps for fiber testing and infrastructure upgrades as contained in the fiber Network Comp comprehensive report um so substituting the word plan for report because at this point we don't have a comprehensive plan but there was a report out from the work that was completed by the um the consultant and contractor that was helping with um that evaluation in the city and then the other Amendment going to read since I took a picture of council member L notes was to add a section three which is to develop a fiber Network comprehensive plan based on the forging outline of work and and containing the insights of the fiber Network comprehensive report which was included in the in the packet um and so with those amendments the committee did move um unanimously for approval and I so move second it's been a motion by council member Stone second by council member lillquist any further discussion

council member Anderson thank you um council member Stone covered quite a bit but I wanted to add a couple more elements um some of us really supported the um research with a hope that we would be able to be a carrier to provide um fiber to the community but we're looking at an infrastructure cost of anywhere from 40 to 90 million and never quite breaking um even after 20 years with a certain percentage of um clients and we would have had to supplement um the overall cost of about 2 million a year out of the general fund and so I know for myself the priority is if we have an extra $2 million in the general fund I want it to go to affordable housing um and uh services to the community um which is most needed fiber is needed but we do have Carrier class uh providers uh we missed the boat by about 20 years if we would have started this 20 years ago we might have been able to be a provider um early on we don't qualify for any of the federal money coming forward because we do have Carrier class um providers so had we been able to get some of that Federal funding we might have been able to offset that but we just can't justify spending public funds um when there's so much other need to spend those funds towards so just a little more reasoning go to the day session or go online and take a look at all the slide deck it has a lot of really good data if you're interested fur disc council member Stone so one other item I thought council member Anderson might address it but was um with

respect to the long-term fiber needs map um and I know that it comes up for discussion routinely in our Public Works committee whenever the roads being open throughout the city question about is that an opportunity to lay new fiber or to you know add the conduit necessary to make those connections um and so I think it was encouraging to see that that map and that the the city will be you know looking every time there's a project and the roads being opened is within you know one of those links that we're trying to to connect and um and so taking that work on so all right call the question all in favor say I I hi any opposed extensions that passes 61 excused thank you very much um with that it was end of committee I'll send it back to you thank you council member Stone uh next up this morning we had Comm community and economic development and that was shared by council member cotton thanks president Pam uh we had one agenda item before us today that's bill number 24251 um it um was presentation by Lighthouse Mission Ministries about the Oldtown base camp um Lighthouse Mission Ministries um staff particularly Britney Hargrove the chief program officer uh provided an overview of the new enhanced shelter Services located in Old Oldtown um will provide support at various stages um of life and recovery and up to 300 guests may be served per night with allowance for additional capacity during severe weather events um if you're interested in learning more about that um feel free to

tune in um to the recording which would be available tomorrow of the um committee um thanks so much with that that was for information discussion only so I'll turn it back to you president PM council member cotton and then next up this afternoon uh we had Committee of the whole shared by in part council member Hamill in part by me uh we had quite a few agenda items see how many times I trip this up but first off we had a presentation of the 2025 proposed budget the mayor and staff presented an overview of the 2025 proposed budget which the mayor touched on briefly um you're probably sensing a theme if you want more information uh the meat of our conversations happened during uh the afternoon committees those are online um meetings.

cob.org uh if you're interested in learning about budgeting uh for the city and what's in store for us this year uh next up we had agenda Bill 24253 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham relating to landlord tenant relations adopting a new chapter in title six of the Bellingham Municipal Code prohibiting landlords from charging tenants unfair or excessive fees in residential rental agreements and leases an increased concern in our community and many others is the proliferation of various fees associated with residential dwell dwelling unit application applications lot rental rates leases and or purchase agreements examples of such fees also referred to as junk fees include movein fees rental application fees pet fees and various administrative fees some exceeded the actual cost of a given service are not linked to an expense are misleading or not disclosed in advance federal state and local governments are taking actions to support consumer interests regarding junk fees the proposed ordinance seeks to address junk fees in Bellingham including defining fees that qualify as unfair or excessive establishing fines and other civil penalties and prohibiting retaliation against those attempting to exercise their rights um we had a presentation with some conversation from council member cotton who's done quite a bit of work on uh these this ordinance and the next um that I'll speak of uh as well as as our some input from our uh Attorney James herb um and um we had a a great

discussion about the next steps in terms of how we moveed forward with um work on this ordinance uh there were no votes taken it was for information and discussion only um and the the next agenda item was related but specifically uh concerning mobile home man manufactured in Mobile Homes um but a similar discussion about junk fees um anything council members like to add on that one okay we will move on next up uh agenda Bill 24267 renewal of an interlocal agreement for inmate housing at South Correctional Facility score other known as wise known as score uh Bellingham Police Department would like to continue its relationship with South Correctional entity for inmate housing this contract will allow the Bellingham Police Department to transport arrestes that will not be booked in our local jail to South Correctional entity in De Moine for Correctional Services essential to the preservation of the public health safety and Welfare of our community and there were some questions that came up um that we did get answers to let me look here real quick um council member Anderson had some questions for chief Mig um who let us know later on that um that we do not have a bed guarantee as part of our contract with score that's why it was left blank in the packet and we we book into to score approximately 10 to 15 times per year so relatively rarely um we use a high level of discretion to book into score um due to the Staffing and travel impacts so um I didn't take notes on this one but I

believe the the committee voted voted to approve I don't need to I don't need to say that know okay voted to approve and I so move second um okay motion by myself second by council member Brans any further discussion seeing none I'll say I all all in favor I I any opposed extensions one AB that passes 51 with one excused I don't have a lot of practice doing this so thank you for humoring me um next up we have multi family tax exemption program evaluation the city has been evaluating the current multif family tax exemption program in an effort to help balance the city's goals and targeted Housing Development and affordable housing production with the goal of better understanding the challenges and constraints in the local housing market and overall economic conditions City staff is considering several modifications to the mfte program and is requesting policy direction from the city council before completing additional analysis and drafting code revisions uh that was for information and discussion only no vote was taken council member loquist yeah just for the public let them know there are basically two flavors of this tax exemption to encourage housing um one is for just regular housing apartment buildings been very successful over 1,500 units that you've seen around town they've been supported by that and the second version is for affordable housing if you build one this you get a greater tax break but you build affordable housing that's the part that hasn't yet worked in

Bellingham so the majority of the discussion was about ways we could modify or apply or or change how the affordable version uh can work so we can actually get unit production that are fit in that category as well thank you uh next up uh two related items uh first a resolution directing the administration to create a limited term keep Washington Working act advisor work group to study the ACT advise the city on compliance and recommend related policy considerations city leaders are committed to ensuring that Bellingham is a place where the rights and dignity of all residents are maintained and protected this item proposes the creation of a limited term advisory work group to examine the city's compliance with the keep Washington Working act also known as the kww established in 2019 to honor the vital role of immigrants in the workplace and our state's economy and ensure Washington remains a place where the rights and dignity of all are protected the purpose of the proposed work group is to research discuss and arrive at a shared understanding of the city's actions to achieve and maintain ongoing compliance with the kww and report findings and recommendations to the city the work group would include community members with lived experience and or connections to the Immigrant community in Bellingham and people with experience and training in specified Fields relating to the goals and requirements of the a ww the committee voted to approve and ISO move second um motion second by

council member Williams any further discussion council member list I would just mention that um one of the major areas of activity by The immigr Advisory Board was this body of work on compliance with the keep Washington working working act and this will basically reestablish that same body of work but uh via a different mechanism so that aspect of the ib's work would would live on in this uh new uh citizen Advisory Group thank you any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I any opposed extensions it passes 601 excused next up uh an ordinance of the city of Billingham Washington dissolving the immigration Advisory board and repealing the Bellingham Municipal Code chapter 2.26 the Bellingham city council is considering a proposal to form a keep Washington Working act and we approved that uh work group the proposed purpose of this group is re to research discuss and arrive at a shared understanding of the city's actions to achieve and maintain compliance with the kww which was an area of interest and an ongoing intention for examination when the immigration Advisory Board was formed this related proposal recommends dissolving the IAB and repealing its enabling ordinance BMC 2.26 this action would provide def this action would provide definitive clarity about the status of the IAB especially for current members rather than leaving the IAB on pause until 2026 this allows members to apply to participate on the kww working group another city Advisory Group or lend their

support to the community in other ways and again again very long discussion about um both these agenda items uh at our our afternoon meeting um the committee voted to approve and is so move second second by council member Williams any further discussion seeing none all in favor say I I I all opposed no no any abstentions passes 4 two one excused next up we had the All City climate work plan 2025 uh in 20 in 2007 the city adopted the city of Bellingham climate protection action plan as official policy in response to the growing awareness of the global climate crisis in May 2018 city council adopted the updated 2018 climate action plan as policy with new emissions reductions targets the mayor's climate office will be updating Council on the all the mayor's office updated Council on the All City climate work plan for 2025 specifically the portion of the plan dealing with carbon emissions reductions that was for information and discussion only no action was taken next up old and new council member Stone so I just said one item I don't know if I missed it being highlighted before but if so just to highlight it again um I know that the BTV the team working for the city at BTV is phenomenal and continues to do amazing work especially for I think a city of our size the the caliber of of work that's produced by BTV is pretty amazing um and so this year the 2024 um Awards by natoa so the National Association of telecommunications officers and advisers um for government programming

Awards just wanted to note that BT had a couple of first place Awards as well as multiple other Awards of Excellence distinction and honor um but two of note so one was the public education um for entities with operating budgets under 350,000 so that was for the middle housing and Bellingham piece that was produced by BTV um and also the um event and program promotion again for an operating budget over 200,000 this was an award um for the BTV Channel trailer um for the city of Bellingham and so periodically people note the work that BTV does in just wanting to give kudos to them and their team um for that recognition and just noting that they were competing against you know cities like Los Angeles and Denver and and others so pretty remarkable that's all anything else for old newc member Anderson um it's something that I uh basically requested earlier today but many people don't attend or watch the day session so um this basically I requested the mayor and with support to review our um the mayor's emergency Powers the emergency Powers were established kind of a boilerplate amongst multiple municipalities um back in 1977 and um when the executive powers were enacted a particular segment of it it became aware to our attention that um some of the sections of emergency Powers were against constitutional law so I've requested um the mayor to have staff work on cleaning up uh those emergency powers specifically um that address um distribution or sale of firearms or ammunition and

it was a good opportunity I don't want to necessarily speak for the mayor but just paraphrasing perhaps a good opportunity to take a look at the emergency power hours um and maybe some other contents within uh the city law on things that might be Antiquated and against constitutional law and do a cleanup and it would also be a good opportunity to see if there are other things that because things have massively changed since 1977 the world has changed so perhaps there may need to be some additional um emergency powers or things addressed in there so it's not going to be something that comes forward immediately but at least it's um been requested and received by the mayor staff to do work on it so much appreciated and I'm sure the community members who have been in contact for the last four years to um get some of the Antiquated um components of our emergency Powers cleaned up we'll be appreciative that um the work is underway so thank you further F that consent agenda Mo approval second got a motion from council member loquist second by council member uh Williams all in I any opposed extensions that passes excused final consideration of ordinances agenda Bill 24235 an ordinance establishing a shelter protection area immediately adjacent to the way station located at 1500 North State Street within which certain activities activities that adversely effect the operations and residents of the way station in the adjacent area are prohibited in public spaces second motion by council

member Anderson second by council member lillquist any further discussion seeing none roll call Hanna Stone hi Skip Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi Jay cotton hi Holly Huffman hi all right motion carries 60o and that ends our regular meeting we will now um switch to public comment period takes a moment to switch uh platforms for that uh that meantime I will go ahead and read some ground rules and expectations um so that this concludes the regular business of the meeting we will now move to the public comment session if you are watching live or on BTV the broadcast will end however you can continue watching via Zoom at cob.org SLCC Zoom or listen via phone by calling 8782 and entering meeting ID 820 2733 and password 9 again that's cob.org CC Zoom or dial 253 215 8782 and enter meeting ID 820-8245 2773 and password 9 to continue to was watch or listen live if you are watching a recorded version of this meeting you can view public comment videos at c.org slccu comment all one word