City Council

TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 1 CONVENE: 7:00 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Pro Tem Michael Althauser and Councilmembers Peter Agabi, Joan Cathey, Leatta Dahlhoff, Angela Jefferson, Charlie Schneider, and Eileen Swarthout. Excused: Mayor Debbie Sullivan. Staff: City Administrator John Doan, Economic Development Program Manager Austin Ramirez, and City Clerk Melody Valiant. PUBLIC COMMENT: There were no public comments. CONSENT a. Approval of Minutes: City Council, October 18, 2022 CALENDAR: b. Payment of Vouchers c. Intergovernmental EMS Contract (ALS) d. Tacoma Community College Affiliation Agreement e. 2023 Community Human Services Program Funding f. Department of Ecology Grant Agreement OTGP -2022-Tumwat- 00102 g. Interlocal Agreement with Department of Enterprise Services for DEI Pilot Training MOTION: Councilmember Jefferson moved, seconded by Councilmember Schneider, to approve the consent calendar as published. A voice vote approved the motion unanimously. Mayor Pro Tem Althauser reviewed the items approved on the consent calendar. COUNCIL CONSIDERATIONS: 2023 LEGISLATIVE Manager Ramirez reported the City annually adopts a Legislative AGENDA APPROVAL: Agenda to guide the City’s policy and funding requests to the State Legislature. Since the Council’s last review of the Agenda a few changes have occurred to include the addition of projects, updates to projects, and the addition of a new category. Two existing categories of the Agenda include Tumwater specific legislative requests and the Shared Legislative Agenda developed through a regional partnership with projects focusing on economic vitality or regional quality of life issues. A new category is proposed of Community Projects comprised of projects falling outside the two categories that benefit the Tumwater community. New Tumwater additions include promoting the Tumwater Craft District by development of an Integrated Malt System and Storage (IMSS) to connect local high quality grains with brewers and distillers locally and regionally to fill a fundamental gap TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 2 in the brewing and distilling ecosystem in the state. A second addition to the Shared Legislative Agenda is in response to discussions during the Council worksession on the Capitol Lake/Deschutes Estuary restoration project for Budd Inlet restoration for remediation and habitat. The project has been identified as an important step prior to removing the 5th Street Dam to fulfill the estuary restoration goals. The Port of Olympia will lead the effort with support by the partners. A project under the new category of Community Projects is a legislative request for Family Education and Support Services (FESS) to secure a capital contribution of $2.2 million to help secure the remaining amount of a 15-year lease in an effort to sustain critical service delivery. None of the requests affect the City’s 2023-2024 biennium budget. Councilmember Jefferson inquired about the timeline for securing the legislative capital allocation for FESS. Manager Ramirez advised that staff continues to work on the request in addition to the climate change response with Shared Legislative partners. The challenge was identifying specific and tangible needs to fund recognizing the need to fund both efforts. Councilmember Dahlhoff stated her support for the Legislative Agenda. She serves on the Board of the Family Education and Support Services and plans to abstain from voting for that reason. Manager Ramirez requested the Council’s approval of the City’s 2023 Legislative Agenda. Staff will work with the Shared Legislative Agenda partnership to refine and finalize the scope. On December 6, 2022, the consent calendar includes a request to execute an agreement for continued Shared Legislative Agenda services with the Thurston Chamber of Commerce for two years and another agreement for legislative advocacy services with Strategies 360. MOTION: Councilmember Swarthout moved, seconded by Councilmember Schneider, to approve the 2023 Legislative Agenda. A voice vote approved the motion. Councilmember Dahlhoff abstained. COMMITTEE REPORTS: PUBLIC HEALTH & The next meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 8 SAFETY: a.m. Agenda topics include the revised 2023-2025 School Resource Leatta Dahlhoff Officer contract, District Court services contract, and Ordinance O2022-024, Tumwater Municipal Code 6.04 on dogs, cats, and other pets. GENERAL The next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 at 2 TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 3 GOVERNMENT: p.m. to discuss the Comprehensive Plan Update scope and format, Michael Althauser multifamily tax exemption for the 350 North Apartments for an eight- year multifamily tax exempt and an eight-year tax exemption for the Tumwater Craft District. PUBLIC WORKS: The next meeting is Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. Eileen Swarthout BUDGET AND At the October 19, 2022 meeting, the committee approved meeting FINANCE: minutes, designated Human Services Program funding, and forwarded Debbie Sullivan the third amendment to the 2021-2022 budget to the Council for consideration. MAYOR/CITY City Administrator Doan reminded the Council that the regularly ADMINISTRATOR’S scheduled meeting on November 8, 2022 will move to Monday, REPORT: November 7, 2022 because of the general election. COUNCILMEMBER REPORTS: Joan Cathey: The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency is working on changes to rules for recreational fires. On Wednesday, Councilmember Cathey and Mayor Pro Tem Althauser met with representatives from Habitat for Humanity to discuss the City’s plans for housing and to receive an update from the organization on its housing efforts. Councilmember Cathey attended the last Regional Housing Council meeting in conjunction with Mayor Pro Tem Althauser. Leatta Dahlhoff: Upcoming meetings include a meeting on sea level rise followed by two LOTT Clean Water Alliance Board meetings, a Tumwater Public Health and Safety Committee meeting, and the Tumwater General Government Committee meeting. Peter Agabi: Scheduled meetings include Joint Animal Services Commission on Monday, November 7, 2022, Tumwater Public Health and Safety Committee on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 and the Transportation Policy Board meeting on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. Charlie Schneider: Councilmember Schneider attended the Tumwater Chamber of Commerce retreat. Members discussed chamber membership and agreed to pursue efforts to increase the current membership of 40 businesses. Councilmember Schneider attended the Tumwater Education TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 4 Foundation breakfast with Councilmembers Swarthout, Dahlhoff, and Jefferson. Councilmember Schneider volunteered during the East Olympia Elementary School Harvest Festival. The Tumwater Parks and Recreation Department sponsored the annual pumpkin painting event hosting 250 participants at Old Town Center. Angela Jefferson: The Transportation Committee of the Thurston County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Council continues its work on reducing the number of dropped calls and no-loads. Private ambulance companies and fire stations work together to respond to medical emergency calls. In some cases, fire stations respond to calls and upon arrival, they contact private ambulances after the initial assessment. For serious calls such as strokes and heart attacks, the procedure is different as ambulances are immediately dispatched. Dropped calls occur when no ambulance is available to respond to calls. Those calls have been reduced to approximately 30 from a high of 300 to 400 calls. A no- load situation occurs when an ambulance arrives at the pick-up location but no patient is loaded. Those calls were reduced from 60% to 30% representing a significant reduction by both parties. A decision is pending on whether to maintain the current procedures until the end of November. Members also discussed issues surrounding patient care reporting. The lack of updating has been identified. To resolve the issue a training plan has been developed. With the expiration of the Governor’s COVID mandate, members discussed COVID waivers and its impact on staffing constraints and rehiring of personnel. The decisions will affect hospital bed space and staff to patient ratio. CPR certification class training has reduced in the region. To date, only 1,900 individuals have received training from a high of 4,000 individuals previously receiving CPR training. Individuals are encouraged to enroll in CPR classes at Thurston County Medic One’s website. On October 20, 2022, Councilmember Jefferson attended the Thurston Thrives Breakfast followed by attendance at the Law and Justice Council of Thurston County meeting later in the day. Members re- elected the Chair and Vice Chair. Members approved meeting bi- monthly rather than quarterly beginning in 2023. Members discussed Thurston Thrives and ways to improve better connections and the type of engagement with Thurston Thrives as members of the Law and Justice Council. Thurston County initiated a health initiative 10 years ago. The debate at that time was whether the Law and Justice Council should become a member of Thurston Thrives. At that time, membership was supported. The Chair of the Law and Justice Council supports the Council’s membership as Thurston Thrives has TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 5 been reinvigorated after losing focus prior to the pandemic. The new director is energetic and has a clear focus to address equity, healthcare, and physical, mental, and behavioral health in the community. Members agreed to continue to participate as members of the Thurston Thrives Action Team. Moving forward, members agreed to form a subcommittee to identify strategies for the future. Councilmember Jefferson volunteered to serve on the subcommittee. Michael Althauser: The Department of Enterprise Services released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Capitol Lake/Deschutes Estuary project. The next step is for DES to begin advocating to the Legislature to secure funding to invest in some of the capital costs necessary to implement the project. At the last Regional Housing Council meeting, members continued discussions on governance. The Council established several subcommittees to inform the work. Members debated whether it would be possible to offer compensation to individuals who serve on advisory committees. The City of Olympia offers compensation for individuals serving on city boards and commissions. The city provides a modest stipend to increase diversity and representation of lived experiences on advisory committees and boards. The Council is reviewing the possibility with Thurston County. Members discussed funding necessary to convert the Franz Anderson property into supportive housing units and tiny homes. A recent article in The Olympian newspaper featured information on the City of Lacey’s commitment to use some of its American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds on the project. The City of Lacey reiterated and confirmed its plan to contribute $3.5 million to the project. The City of Tumwater has approximately $550,000 in remaining ARPA funds that could be contributed to the regional project. Members discussed progress on whether to form an advisory committee on camp clean- ups and whether a regional policy should be considered in terms of how to handle outreach to people who are experiencing houselessness and living outside. One component of the proposal is forming a team to meet weekly to discuss outreach efforts. Mayor Pro Tem Althauser supported a regional policy to ensure all actions are evidence-based public health perspective. He acknowledged the difficulty of initiating the team given current staffing capacity. Eileen Swarthout: At the October 19, 2022 Tumwater HOPES meeting, members continued discussion on identifying a new coordinator for the program and soliciting additional boardmembers. Councilmember Swarthout participated in the selection of families moving into Habitat for Humanity new townhomes located off Henderson Boulevard. The organization received 35 applications. TUMWATER CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF HYBRID MEETING November 1, 2022 Page 6 RECESS TO Mayor Pro Tem Althauser recessed the meeting at 7:28 p.m. to an EXECUTIVE SESSION: executive session to discuss Collective Bargaining pursuant to RCW 42.30.140(4)(b) for approximately 20 minutes. RECONVENE & Mayor Pro Tem Althauser reconvened and adjourned the meeting ADJOURNMENT: at 7:48 p.m. Prepared by Valerie L. Gow, Recording Secretary/President Puget Sound Meeting Services, psmsoly@earthlink.net