City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] all right let's go ahead and let's go ahead and get started uh today is August 26 and this is a general um meeting for the Bellingham city council I've got a few announcements before we begin um Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act and before we begin the meeting I want to know that were gathered here on the traditional and unseated territory of the Lumi noac 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 and before we go to the next um item I just wanted to provide The Interpreter just a opportunity to [Music] speak good afternoon um w the final announcement is an upcoming special council meeting this is for growth management coordination so work group uh this will be on August 29th 2024 the city council will hold a special meeting to discuss growth management and comprehensive plans with other elected officials of jurisdictions across Walkin County the meeting will be held at 1M at Lyndon City Hall Annex and

cob.org roll call please Hannah Stone here Holly Huffman here skipe Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael liquis here Jay scotton here Dan Hamill here all council members are present thank you all right tonight we're going to start with two public hearings the first one let's read the summary statement here first one is a public hearing on resolution authorizing the relinquishment of surplus utility easements encumbering the Roosevelt Elementary School property at 2900 U Street Bellingham School District has requested that the city Rel relinquish Surplus utility easements encumbering 2900 UST Street to facilitate Redevelopment of the Roosevelt Elementary School public works department has reviewed the request and determined that the easements encumbering the subject property are not needed for utility service and should be relinquished subject to the school district first granting the city a replacement water main easement to cover an existing water M on the property and staff recommends that the um easements be um relinquished and here to take us through is Joel Joel F our interim Public Works director thank you council president Hamill um there has been one uh late modification to the relinquish M resolution uh due to a belated objection that happened after the 45-day comment period that um didn't get um into the into the packet and resolution that's before you um Lumen provided us with a comment after the notice period uh and they have infrastructure that they maintain

within a small portion portion of the relinquishment area um the school district and Lumen are both aware of this and working together to resolve this issue um So based on that we've made some small modifications to the resolution that I'm I'm actually going to read into the um record so the last whereas now reads whereas the city notified all franchise utilities of the proposed relinquishment and received one objection by Lumen who maintains facilities within a small portion of the retained utility easement and an additional whereas that reads whereas Lumen and the school district are working on alternative arrangements to accommodate lum's facilities and then um within the therefore uh the finding um finding one now reads city council uh the finding number one U the section number one reads finding city council finds that upon re receip of a replacement easement to cover this the existing water main on the subject property and upon confirmation that applicant and Lumen have been Al have made alternative arrangements for Lumen facilities the city will have no present or foreseeable future need for the retained utility easement or water main easement and number two authorizing city council uh authorization city council authorizes the mayor to execute all documents necessary to relinquish the retained utility easement and water main easement subject to the following number one receipt of a replacement water main easement covering the existing water main on the subject property

in a form approved by the office of the City attorney and two confirmation that applicant has reached an agreement with Lumen regarding its infrastructure within the retained utility easement area so with that um we staff is recommending that uh we relinquish the easement and hold the and hold the public hearing and then uh consider relinquishment of the easement uh I am joined by uh assistant director Mike Wilson who can answer any detailed questions and we have a location map up here for your reference okay thank you c m list and then Anderson yeah so maybe Mike you can show us through the map the the yellow area on there that odd shape that's the easement we're relinquishing that's the ex but it sounds like we would then be before final approval creating a new easement which would I guess be just be a much smaller shape can you tell me approximate with that smaller shape it look like for the water main it's the uh it's this polygon in blue here if you can see my cursor okay thank you randerson thank you I'm also Al focusing in on that area so um the easement we currently hold the water line goes through there and we're going to take it down I believe to a 20 foot easement um so we'll be replacing the larger easement to smaller given with the work that uh Bellingham School District is going to be doing I believe there's some sheds and some other work that um will be going in is there any Jeopardy that that smaller easement is going to cause difficulty for when we need to go

in and replace or dig up um are they building anything on that easement that we're relinquishing or will we still be able to get into that site because um I'm not sure how big that water man is but 20 ft is not a lot of operable room on a long stretch if we have to go in there and replace it if you have building structure up against that 20 foot so could you speak a little bit more to that yes the so the yellow will be relinquished in total and this blue easement the 20 foot wide easement that you're uh alluding to that's been vetted with the school district and the city's reviewed that that's an adequate width for us to perform what we need to given their proposed development and the structures they'll be building so we're comfortable recommending this forward as proposed okay any further questions before I open up public hearing okay seeing none um Miss gu my understanding is that there's no one signed up for this particular public hearing is that correct that's correct okay all right well I will go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to councel council what is your wish on this counc mquest I would uh move approval of the resolution which would relinquish one easement and then uh condition that upon establishment of a smaller easement second motion has been made by council member list and I'll give the second to council member Williams any further discussion on this one um City attorney Mariner yes I'd just like to clarify that the recommend approval of

the resolution as amended yes sorry the resolution as um amended and read read into the record by Mr fun okay any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 moving on to the next one this is also a public hearing uh on a resolution authorizing the relinquishment of a public utility easement located within um vacated Bennett Avenue that is a a surplus to the city's need needs um the attached resolution provides for the relinquishment of a surplus utility easement that encumbers real property known as uh 750 samish way the proposed relinquishment comes to city council for decision upon application of the property owner to facilitate development of private property public works department has reviewed the request and determined that the portion of the easement that encumbers the subject property is Surplus to the city's needs and is not needed for utility service and staff is recommending that it be relinquished Mr font thanks thank you council president um this one is much more straightforward it's a small easement um on top of a couple of existing Parcels that are going to be redeveloped and uh staff has not determined any necess necessity to maintain it and um so we're recommending uh relinquish relinquishment of the easement um and Mr Wilson is here to answer any further questions okay Council M lest yeah another map question for you Mike there's a green line running through there I assume

that's utility service of some sort and it appears to touch or like go right on the edge of the easement so I mean what what easement do we retain for that green line and what surface is that good homework so good question there's a the green line is a sanitary sewer line and we've got an existing 20 foot easement there and that in the documents as you studying this 20 foot white easement that's shown in the blue cross-hatching it uh parallels the utility equid distance on both sides and we would keep the light the blue easement and and surrender the green yellow one the separate easement in this case is already an easement that's in place other questions okay this gots my understanding is that there's no one signed up for this public hearing as well is that correct yes okay then I will close public hearing and bring it back to council council member Anderson move approval second motions made by council member Anderson seconded by council member hutman any further discussion on this matter seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusal motion carries 70 okay thank you Mr Wilson thank you Mr font okay next it item is mayor's report mayor is uh away on a trip on behalf of the city so I'll go ahead and just read this this is a information only uh this is an appointment or reappointment pardon me to Community Development Advisory Board uh the Community Development Advisory Board is authorized by ordinance 2.4602 mayor reappoints Josh Sanders to

his first full term which will INSP which will expire uh September 7th or pardon me September 10th 2027 that's it that concludes that report um and now we will go to our standing um committee meetings the first one was this morning it was public works and natural resources and it was chaired by council member Hannah Stone thank you president Hamill um so this morning I was joined on the public works and natural resources committee um normally by council members Anderson and lillquist lillquist was not with us this morning so council member huthman sat in on his behalf we had two items before us this morning the first was agenda bill 24214 this was a contract award for the neighborhood overlays es 559 bid number 5 3 b-224 so the neighborhood overlays project proposes to Overlay specific Street segments in the Silver Beach and samish neighborhoods in order to help preserve the city's pavement assets the project will also include installing a new water main along Northshore Drive Ada ramp upgrades and a rectangular rapid flashing beacon on Electric Avenue near Flynn Street the city publicly opened two bids on August 7th 202 4 Granite Construction Company um is the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 1 million 2386 including sales tax the engineer estimate was $2,280 the project is subject to apprenticeship program requirements per BMC 4.94 so an apprenticeship utilization requirement of 15% of the project labor hours has has been included in this

project um and so this morning it was we heard from interim Public Works director Joel fun um we were also joined by Mike Wilson um assistant Public Works director and just wanting to note that within the presentation and discussing the pavement condition index the PCI method used within the city just that we are currently um undergoing an assessment of the road Citywide to assess the um the different types and quantities and severity of you know cracks or other items in the roadways around the city and so we're expecting for that assessment to be completed at the End by the end of the year and at that time um we will receive additional information about maybe next steps in areas of priority around the city um but this particular bid is with respect to work specifically in the Silver Beach and samish neighborhoods and is expected to um yeah move forward in advance of completion of that study but also just wanted to highlight again that this project being over a million dollars does include apprenticeship hours um so there was a unanimous recommendation from the committee this morning to move to award the contract for bid number 53 b-224 to Granite Construction company and ISO move second motion has been made by the committee chair and second my council member Anderson any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I opposed extensions recusal motion carries 70 thank you very much so the next item before the committee this morning was

agenda bill 24215 this was a resolution of the city of Bellingham adopting a revised rate schedule to add a bike Locker user fee so during development of the 2023 2024 City budget city council requested the addition of funding to install bicycle Lockers in downtown in order to provide more secure storage options for people biking and rolling to implement the new bicycle Locker program the city's parking rate and enforcement schedule needs to be revised in order to establish hourly Bike Locker user fees so these user fees help to ensure a convenient and efficient experience for people using the bike lockers um wanted to note that this morning we were joined Again by interim Public Works director Joel Funt um as well as um Steve Hogan so superintendent for traffic parking and fiber Communications as well as has um Mike Wilson and Natalie Monroe so Natalie Monroe is with the public works department in communication and Outreach um and so as a part of this program just wanting to highlight that within the proposal there's available funding in space to allow 14 bike lockers The Proposal is to have six near the Commercial Street parking garage and then eight near the WTA um Bellingham station downtown and so with those lockers um the propos which is outlined in the resolution specifies I was going to highlight that that the rate is 5 cents per hour up to 10 days and then after 10 days it's 12 cents per hour um for days 10 through 14 and then there's a cap on 14-day maximum um stay

or usage in the Bike Locker at one at one time obviously you can utilize The Bike Locker and then come back and utilize it again um just wanting to note as well that as a part of this Pro program it is through an app that you would download on your phone and utilize to access the lockers and to pay the fee it's initiation um fee or to establish that that connection and to set up your account of $5 but then you would charge against the 5 Cent per hour rate for those bicycle lockers um so this morning there was unanimous recommendation from the committee to move to approve the resolution adopting a revised parking rate schedule to add a bike Locker user fee and I so move second motion's been been made by the committee chair and second by council member list any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 thank you very much um those were the two items before us and with that we adjourned and I'll turn it back to you president Hamill thank you committee chair Stone the next um committee was public health safety Justice and equity and that is chaired by Council uh member Holly stone or Hol hman sorry wouldn't be the first to mix this up um thanks council president uh today I was joined by council member Stone and will uh Williams it's agenda Bill 24216 an interlocal agreement for First Response Emergency Medical Services the city has been a part of countywide agreement between wcom County and all five fire

service agencies for providing first response to emergency medical incidents the agreement confirms our commitment to provide First Response basic life support services in our service area for providing these Services the County agrees to pay for all EMS related dispatch fees provide a countywide report writing reccord management system and funding to support BLS Services the previous agreement contract number 2018-14 expired at the end of 2023 the new agreement is retroactive to January of 2024 and will run through December of 2029 this same lifespan as the countywide EMS Levy uh the committee unan unanimously recommended approval and I so move second motions been made by the committee chair and second by council member Williams any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carries 70 and uh that was a three minute committee and uh that's all we had with that end of committee report all right thanks committee chair uh our next committee was uh community and economic development and that is chaired by council member jce cotton thank you council president uh we had two uh agenda Bill items to for us today uh the first was Bill number 24217 amending the interlocal agreement between wam County and the City of Bellingham to operate interim shower program uh the city council authorized uh a budget expenditure of $320,000 um last uh year on September 11th to contract with the opportunity Council to operate an interim Community

shower program um just right over there at the rear parking lot of City Hall and um uh on the 16th of October last year the council approved an intercal agreement that memorialized um an agreement with Walkin County to pay for 50% of the cost of that program that action um this action today um will authorize the mayor to enter into agreement to extend um the interlocal to now expire at the end of 2024 and this corresponds with the um Extended operations of the community shower program which will continue for um an additional few months due to um the delayed opening of the way station project um which will replace the shower program um we heard that um uh this program has um uh served over 486 discret individuals which is um rather a sad number but shows the um importance of this program um we had a unanimous recommendation today to um uh vote to approve the amended interlocal agreement and I so move second motion has been made by the committee chair and second by council member huin I need further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries UH 60 one excuse our um second agenda item today was uh bill number 24218 um which is a modification to the housing Levy administrative financial plan for low-income home buyer assistance um Sam y let our uh housing and services program manager um presented a proposed modification to the low-income home buyer assistance funding guidelines um as reflected in the housing Levy

administrative and financial plan um basically this um will lift the um assistance for um uh uh property purchases that are held the where the property will be um subject to resell restrictions so this is permanently affordable housing and this is extremely important to our um important Partners doing great work in the community particularly um C and Community Land Trust um so um there was a unanimous recommendation today to um uh adopt the resolution and I so move second motion has been made by the committee chair second by council member Williams council member another question um I will definitely be supporting this if you look at the Bellingham Home fund we have exceeded all of our expectations in terms of the number of people helped and owner rental units produced but the one area where the program really hasn't been performing is in home buyer assistance and it's just because it's so difficult and so um I'm very pleased to see that we're increasing the necessary subsidies so that part of the program uh can also start meeting its goals thank you any other comments questions okay all those in favor signify by saying I I I post exensions recusals motion carries 70 with that end of committee report thank you committee chair cotton the next one is uh Parks and Recreation and that is chaired by uh council member skip Williams thank you president Hamill we had three items on our agenda today one of which was a very generous contribution to the Parks and Recreation uh

department and the other two to had something to do with um the development of the little Squalicum Park so the first item was was agenda bill 24219 which was an ordinance accepting the donation of real property to the city of Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department from David and Carol Robinson David and Carol Robinson have generously offered to donate two Parcels of uh property totaling 7 and2 Acres to the city of Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department one of the properties is in Happy Valley on 32nd Street um adjacent to uh the conle U sorry Conelly Creek Nature area and the second is on California Street adjacent to a roal Park pursuing a due a due diligence review of the properties um that was approved by the Greenways advisory committee Parks and Recreation advisory committee uh in uh February of 2023 and the city council concurred approving the due diligence procedures on February 27th 20 23 as a result as a result of the title review and the phase one environmental site assess site assessment these were completed and no concerns raised the Robinsons have re requested a permanent deed restriction on the property stipulating that they'll be used solely for parks and open space purposes on a final note Mr and Mrs Robinson were in attendance at our afternoon meeting and we thank them profusely and with deep uh gratitude for their contribution to the future of our Parks and Recreation program there was no previous Council uh action uh regarding this uh contribution

and the value of the property has been designated at $680,000 so the Parks and Recreation Department recommended accepting the donation the committee agreed this afternoon and I move that we accept the donation of the property second motion has been made by the committee chair and seconded by council member huthman any discussion on this seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose extensions recusals motion carry 70 okay so the second item on our our agenda was a naming of the peer at little Squalicum Park and that was agenda Bill 2422 in accordance with the city policy p01001 the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is recommending that the city council adopt an official name of the pier at little Squalicum Park um the pier was included in the little Squalicum Park master plan adopted in 2010 as well as as the shoreline Master uh program and the Parks and Recreation open space plan a public process was launched on social media and through the city's engaged Bellingham website and sent to local media interested parties neighborhood associations boards commit misss and many others names were solicited through July 12th 2024 and over 1,000 Community individuals visited the project web page and over 900 I idea submissions were received some were quite uh clever but I won't go into detail you can look it look those up um on on our website but there was one that stood out to me calling it the peer of subdued excitement so anyway all the names were

reviewed and the Parks and Recreation staff uh pres uh presented their options to the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Advisory board at their August 14th meeting and after extensive discussion the the committee's final recommendation was to name the pier little Squalicum Pier go figure uh but but it it makes the peer naming consistent with the name of the park so as a final note for the Public's in information the renovation work on the paer is is an is anticipated to start in the in the Perman work window from August 2024 through February 2025 and it's expected to be open to the public in the spring of 2025 um and the previous Council action was approving the lake the little Squalicum master plan and there is there is and there is no fiscal impact the Parks and Recreation Department recommended that the city council adopt the name little Squalicum Park uh uh little squal and pier and the committee this afternoon agreed and I'll make the motion to adopt that name second motion has been made by the committee chair and second by council member hman any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 and our last item uh which also had something to do with uh little uh Squalicum Park was agenda item 24221 which is um awarding the the contract for the peer renovation to boss construction which was bid number 46b 2 uh 2024 uh the project in includes Redevelopment of the pier structure at little Squalicum park for

public use the city acquired a portion of the paer through a donation from the leeh high Hansen heidleberg Cement Group and this project is is located adjacent to little to little Squalicum Park in North Bellingham the city owns portions of the park and manages other adjoining properties in the park Park through a lease from uh watcom County the work includes new pedestrian wood guard rails a new grading over the existing decking to make the pier um accessible for all and a new pedestrian lighting that is powered entirely by solar and wind the project is included in the city's comprehensive plan Shoreline master plan and the city council approved the little Squalicum master plan the city publicly opened 10 bids on August 14th and boss construction is a responsible bidder who submitted the lowest bid of 1,627 2.90 in uh including app um applicable fees and uh the use tax the engineers estimate for this work was 2, 37,2 40 uh $42 which you can see the bid was well below that figure and because it's over a million dollars it does have have apprenticeship hours added so the previous Council action was to approve the 20023 24 budget with a fiscal impact of one uh 1,61 12,719 which will be funded by the Greenways fund this year so the Parks and Recreation Department recommended that the city council award the contract to BOS construction for little Squalicum pier and uh the committee this afternoon concurred with that recommendation and I will move adoption second motion been made

by the committee chair and second by council member lillquist any further discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 and uh that was the end of our meeting and I I adjourned it and I'll pass it back on to you president Hamill thank you our last committee this afternoon was committee the to uh we had two items the first one was an ordinance amending the 2023 2024 banal budget this is amendment number 14 the ordinance will amend the 2023 2024 Bal budget to add $600,000 to the transportation fund for sidewalk improvements for w Western Washington University's House of healing project to be built at the SE home Arboretum this project was identified in the 2025 to 2030 Transportation Improvement program and was planned for inclusion in the 2025 budget however the project is ahead of schedule and the university has requested the funding for this calendar calendar year and this afternoon the committee voted to approve that and IO move second motion's been made by the uh committee chair and give the second to council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 final item for the committee to whole this afternoon was the budget 101 presentation uh this presentation provided a brief overview of the budget process and policies the city's funding structure and the revenue streams that support

governmental services within the general fund well I'm not going to try to recap the presentation given by our finance director which is excellent this afternoon I will say that if you're interested in how City finances work this is um you can go back and watch the video of the presentation uh it should be posted I think tomorrow morning I think is when that usually goes up um it's fairly interesting if you're um so inclined all right one second here okay and that takes us to old new business okay seeing none we'll move along to Executive session uh we had four items this afternoon the first was again Bari versus City of Bellingham this was with attorney Mike good staff provided information on a litigation matter and I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to enter into a settlement agreement with the following terms dismissal of the lawsuit and resolution of all claims related theto for the payment to the plaintiff for $225,000 with approval motion's been sorry second second U motion been made by council member huthman second by council member um cotton any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries Mr Hamill 70 if I may I don't public has no idea what that was about we had a a police officer injured during training and this is paying for the injury and the loss of his ability to work thanks for the context on that one um our second item was um also litigation langon versus city

of Bellingham also uh attorney Mike good staff provided information on a litigation matter and I'll now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to retain seark Law Group to represent former police Lieutenant Chad cristelli in the pending litigation move approval second motions made by council member Anderson second by council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 um third item was Labor Relations this was with Sullivan staff provided information on a labor relations matter and this was for information and discussion only and no no action was taken uh fourth item was potential litigation this was with City attorney Alan Mariner staff provided information on a potential litigation matter this was also for information and discussion and no action was taken uh consent agenda move approval second motion's been made by council member Williams seconded by council member Huffman any further discussion and related to the consent agenda seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose extensions recusals motion carries 70 we have no further consideration of ordinances tonight so that will take us to the public comment period And I just have a statement to read a couple few statements actually we're going to have to um we're going have to switch Technologies here this will take a minute so that concludes the regular business of the the meeting we'll move into

public comment session so if you're watching live online or on BTV the broadcast will now end end however you can continue watching via Zoom at cob.org SLCC Zoom or listen uh via phone by dialing 253 21587 A2 and entering the meeting ID 820 824 45 2733 and the password is nine the number nine again that's uh c.org SLCC Zoom or dial 253 215 8782 and enter the meeting ID of 820 8 uh 245 2733 and again the password is nine to continue to watch or listen live if you are watching a recorded version of this meeting you can view public comment videos at cob.org um CCU comment and that's all one word [Music]