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[3:01] » I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[3:06] republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[3:12] justice for all.

[3:16] » Ryland, would you like to take roll call, please?

[3:18] » Thank you. Heather Watland? >> Here.

[3:20] » Rob Thayer? >> Here.

[3:21] » Yvonne Gallardo Van Ornum? >> Here.

[3:23] » Michelle Bleich? >> Here.

[3:25] » Nathan Senn? >> Here.

[3:27] » Tim Abrahamson? >> Present.

[3:28] » And Alicia Novak? >> Here.

[3:30] » Mayor Vani, I move for approval of the agenda.

[3:34] » Question. All those in favor? >> Aye.

[3:37] » Any opposed? None heard. Motion carries.

[3:41] Okay, we'll start out tonight with our public

[3:44] comment period for members of the public who wish to speak to the council. Please

[3:47] limit your remarks to 3 minutes and step up to the podium, state your name and

[3:51] address. Looks like Jay Lindbergh.

[3:57] » [clears throat] [laughter]

[4:01] » Jay Lindbergh. I'm kind of in a county pocket, so anyway.

[4:05] Um I've I'm

[4:08] I've done a lot of research. I'm an author. Um

[4:12] a lot of I've been involved in a lot of what I call strategic planning over the

[4:16] years. And when I describe strategic planning,

[4:20] what we do is we basically look into government institutions like the war on

[4:25] drugs, nuclear weapons development, stuff like that. We

[4:30] figure out whether or not it's a good investment. And we And if it's not, we

[4:33] figure out how to deal with it now to sometimes shut it down.

[4:37] And um I'm looking at this Well, one example of

[4:43] what I what I've been involved in was about 30 years ago,

[4:48] I was involved in a project with Public Citizen, and we were looking at

[4:53] how much water was being used in energy production in this country.

[4:58] And the reason that's relevant today and it the numbers were just way more than

[5:03] what we expected. The amount of water and the best example of water usage in

[5:08] energy production is a dam. Dam, you've got this huge lake right behind it. And

[5:15] you've got the evaporation coming up up from it. And these big lakes, you

[5:19] know, burn up many acre-feet of water every day just in the in evaporation.

[5:25] You know, there's other parts of the process that use it. And the reason I'm

[5:28] bringing this up is because these data centers, you know, they're talking about

[5:34] the energy that that the water it's going to take to cool these data

[5:38] centers, but the water that's going to be used to

[5:42] produce the energy for these data centers

[5:47] is you know, they're talking about a 30% increase in the amount of amount of

[5:52] of of you know, power on the grid just to meet

[5:56] the needs of these data centers. And um

[6:00] you know, that like I said, that's part of the process. Uh there's a there's an

[6:05] old quote that I like to use that a government with money to burn is a fire

[6:10] waiting to happen. And I bring that up because, you know,

[6:14] if we look at some of the things we've done in the past like Nixon started a

[6:18] war on drugs with a couple hundred million dollars and 50 years later, you

[6:23] know, he said, "It'll be taken care of in five in five years." 50 years later,

[6:28] it cost him $10 trillion. It was a bad investment. Those are

[6:32] you know, and I'm looking at at this this

[6:37] these data centers and I haven't been able to find a lot of

[6:42] research on the real long-term impacts of these data centers. Like, how many

[6:47] jobs how many jobs are they going to replace, you know, with like half of

[6:53] these people in here, you know, a really good AI program can probably take your

[6:58] job. Who knows? Maybe everybody in here. So

[7:02] » Time. >> Look into it.

[7:04] » Thank you. >> And figure it out before you spend your

[7:07] money on it. Thank you. >> [snorts]

[7:10] » Mayor Vianney, motion for approval of the consent agenda.

[7:14] » Second. >> Question.

[7:16] » All those in favor? >> Aye.

[7:18] » Any opposed? Motion is approved.

[7:24] Okay, we'll move on to our first item of new business tonight, the 2027 lodging

[7:28] tax distribution. Shelby. >> Good evening, Mayor Vianney and council

[7:32] members. Um so, I'm going to present to you

[7:34] tonight uh for your consideration the lodging tax advisory committee's

[7:39] recommendation for for awards of the 2027 lodging tax grants.

[7:43] The city received 15 lodging tax grants this year with total funding requests of

[7:48] approximately 221,000. The available budget um for this 2027

[7:53] grant cycle is 185,000. So, the committee um was required to

[7:58] develop a funding recommendation that reduced the total request by 35,000

[8:03] uh while still supporting projects and events that best align with the lodging

[8:07] tax objectives. Um as has been in past years, the

[8:12] scoring matrix is included in the application material so that the

[8:15] applicants understand what the criteria criteria that they will be evaluated is

[8:20] based on. And in addition to the scoring matrix,

[8:23] the committee considered the following priorities: new funding requests, the

[8:27] timing of events including whether they occur during the off-season,

[8:31] multi-day events that are likely to generate overnight stays since the um

[8:36] overnight stays help replenish the lodging tax revenues, and projects or

[8:40] events that are included um with other funding sources such as admission fees,

[8:45] sponsorships, or grants. And so, with all of that, the committee greatly

[8:49] considered um need as one of the major criterias of the funding request, and

[8:54] then the anticipated impact on tourism as the overarching values.

[8:59] And um the committee grouped the

[9:03] applications into scoring brackets based on each individual application and how

[9:07] they scored on that matrix. And this year, the committee decided um that any

[9:13] applications with an average score of 80 or higher out of 100 um was reviewed um

[9:19] in a separate bracket, and that included 10 of the 15 applications. And then,

[9:25] they went to the next scoring bracket between 70 and 80 on the scoring. And

[9:29] then, the lowest scoring applications um and then we looked at all overall the

[9:34] differences in our scoring to see if there was any anomalies, if there was um

[9:39] distinction between types of requests like a one-time

[9:43] um purchase for a tangible project like a sign versus an event. Um and then, you

[9:51] know, combined all of those scores and those averages um and came up with the

[9:55] recommendation. So, based on this review, I'm asking for

[10:00] council's approval of the lodging tax advisory committee's recommendation for

[10:03] the 2027 lodging tax grant awards. >> Thank you. Any questions?

[10:12] Heather? >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I have a question.

[10:16] Um I don't know if you know the answer to

[10:20] this, but I did see a couple of the applicants are

[10:24] um expecting to have a quite a large and I guess in my opinion, cuz I'm not very

[10:30] sure, marketing um cost. It Do you know what type of

[10:36] marketing some of these applicants are looking for or um about what the average

[10:42] marketing cost would be? I guess that's my question.

[10:47] » I don't have the answer to the average marketing like what that would be, but

[10:50] in the application, they're um put a detailed description of what marketing

[10:54] they're requesting from the funding if they're requesting marketing. Um it is

[10:58] one of the major components of what is eligible from the funds um since

[11:03] marketing, you know, promotes the tourism and the whole thing, but there's

[11:06] a section in the application all based on marketing and then from there how

[11:10] they think that those marketing outcomes will correlate to

[11:15] um the impact on the number of, you know, attendees and things like that or

[11:18] what impact it will make on their event. >> Okay. Um cuz cuz what I saw was that

[11:24] some of the marketing um was pretty large compared to to

[11:30] average of um a lot of the applicants and um,

[11:35] they also were a lot larger than they projected last year, so I wasn't sure if

[11:39] you had any extra information on that. Thank you.

[11:43] » Yeah, it varies based on the different applications. Some of them are

[11:48] um, I don't know if good word is hiring or

[11:51] using some type of marketing firm to promote their event. Others, you know,

[11:55] just um, having the capability to post on social media, print materials. It

[12:00] varies. Um, we've had kind of a little bit of everything over the years, but

[12:03] then also a little bit of everything in these applications, too.

[12:06] I don't know if that answers your question, but yeah.

[12:09] » Good. Okay. Any others? Rob?

[12:14] » I feel obligated to ask why the downtown sound system didn't get any funding.

[12:20] » Yeah, so the downtown system was um, a big conversation as of all of them are,

[12:26] but definitely that one. Um, so the hardest part with the funding

[12:30] is, especially with that one, it was a request for multiple years of funding,

[12:34] and this was just the first phase um, to get the electrical work done. And it's

[12:39] hard with this type of funding to think about long-term and be able to fund

[12:43] something for many years because of the sustainability of the funds, right? And

[12:47] so we're getting these funds every year, and what if we don't get enough in

[12:50] future years, and would the project ever be able to continue then if we only paid

[12:54] for the electrical and not ever got the actual sound system and things like

[12:57] that. The other thing is that's really um, in consideration is the correlation

[13:02] between that sound system and how is that really how can we track that it's

[13:07] bringing in tourism? You know, are people going to say, "Okay, now I'm

[13:10] going to come to Arlington because they have this nice sound system." And maybe

[13:13] that is the case, but it's really hard to put that down as a, you know, a

[13:16] metric or how to um, uh, you know, justify that or report on

[13:20] that. Um, but also we're looking at other sources of funding and um, Polly

[13:25] you step in if you want to, but >> No, I just uh

[13:29] Shelby and I were talking about it after we saw the scoring and stuff and I just

[13:32] think maybe this project isn't right for the L tag. It's been on there a few

[13:37] times and hasn't scored very high. So, um, we were just chatting about

[13:41] different um, funding sources coming up. So, we're going to look at other grant

[13:45] opportunities to see if we can get this project done in the in the near future

[13:49] by other means. >> Thank you.

[13:53] » Michelle. >> Um, so I thought it was really neat that

[13:56] we were able to fund everybody that requested funding and but something that

[14:00] did stand out to me was the Summer Days um,

[14:04] that they were only given 10% of what they requested when in prior years they

[14:10] were given like 20,000, 10,000, 18,000, right? So, um

[14:16] is there a primary difference as to why they're the only one on here that did

[14:20] not get um, what they were asking and I know

[14:25] it's money, right? But it still could have been worked out, but that's such a

[14:28] big difference to um, it's like what is it? 15, 17,000 less

[14:33] than they were asking for when everybody else got 100%.

[14:36] » Yeah, and so the committee went through all of the applications and in the

[14:39] scoring they were unfortunately the lowest scored of all of the event type

[14:44] expenditures or requests, I guess. Um, and for one reason is it seems like the

[14:50] event is very um, specific to the Glen Eagle neighborhood

[14:56] instead of a centralized area. And so we looked a lot at like the definition of

[15:00] the funds and um, the recommendations from the state and all of that and they

[15:05] had said that it's hard to fund these um, fund an event where it's not in a

[15:10] centralized location. So, that was something that we looked into, but then

[15:13] also the numbers that they're reporting is that they're not attracting as many

[15:18] visitors as some of the other events. And so those other events that are

[15:21] getting higher numbers, that was considered also. Also, it didn't seem to

[15:25] have as many overnight stays. And so, um and then they've been funded for um the

[15:31] last couple of years, and that was definitely a consideration.

[15:34] Um to be honest with you, we also checked they were the only um applicant

[15:38] that was not a um non-profit. And so we checked to make sure that that was

[15:43] something that we could is still eligible for funding. Um and it is, it's

[15:48] just um being a for-profit, they have a ways of generating funds in different

[15:53] ways. Um and so we didn't know if, you know, maybe they need to look at

[15:57] restructuring. Is there other ways to come up with the funds? Um this year we

[16:01] asked for profit loss statements, and it seemed that they had more funding than

[16:04] others. And so that was really considered in the need um this year over

[16:08] other years as well. I don't know if that completely answers,

[16:11] but >> Yep.

[16:13] » Okay. >> Thank you.

[16:13] » That's how I remember it, too. >> Okay.

[16:16] » Any other questions? Okay. None seen.

[16:22] Do we have a motion? >> Yes.

[16:25] Um I move to approve the 2027 funding distribution as recommended by the

[16:29] lodging tax advisory committee. >> I second.

[16:32] » Question. All those in favor? >> Aye.

[16:35] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[16:37] None heard. Motion passes. Thank you, Shelby.

[16:39] » I'm sorry. Don, can I >> Oh, sure.

[16:42] » wanted to say thank you. I'm sorry, I meant to say that before and got caught

[16:44] up in the questions, but um thank you, Shelby, for all your hard work on this.

[16:47] And then the committee, too. I know there was it takes some hours to do all

[16:51] of this, and you kept us on track. So, thank you so much for your time and

[16:54] effort on this. >> Thank you very much. We'll let them

[16:56] know. >> Thank you.

[16:58] » Okay, we'll move on to our next item, the WSDOT agreement for water and sewer

[17:02] utility relocation costs for the SR 531 widening project. Jim Kelly.

[17:07] » Thank you very much, Mayor Vanni and council members.

[17:10] Um believe it or not, after all these

[17:14] years, the SR 531 widening, at least a portion of it is going to get widened.

[17:19] » Getting closer. >> It's it's a it's a tough uh boulder to

[17:22] push up a hill. So, anyway, uh

[17:25] » What is that? >> This agreement that is before you is uh

[17:29] is for WSDOT to make the necessary adjustments to the city-owned utilities

[17:34] that are within the WSDOT right-of-way that are going to be

[17:38] impacted by the widening project. There are four gate valves and three sanitary

[17:43] sewer manholes that need to be adjusted. The total cost for the water is $34,728.

[17:51] The cost for the sewer manhole relocations is $21,345.

[17:57] This money will be included [clears throat] in the 2027-2028

[18:00] budgeting process. >> Me?

[18:03] Thank you. Any questions? Tim?

[18:07] » Yeah, Tim, remind me again what's the length that this is going to

[18:11] be done? Is this from 43rd to 59th or >> 43rd to 59th.

[18:16] » Okay. Thank you.

[18:18] » Okay. Any other questions?

[18:21] Okay. None to see. Do I have a motion? >> I move for council to authorize the

[18:25] mayor to sign the agreement with WSDOT for utility relocation costs associated

[18:29] with the SR-531 widening project. >> Second.

[18:35] » Question. All those in favor? >> Aye.

[18:37] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[18:40] Done and heard. We're one step closer. >> Thank you very much.

[18:47] » Okay, at this time open it up for any comments or reports from council

[18:50] members.

[18:53] Anyone? >> Um I just want to say

[18:59] I just want to remind everybody about tomorrow. I I'm not sure if you're going

[19:02] to talk about it. Sorry, but um National Night Out.

[19:05] Um and was that your thing? Were you talking about it? Okay. I just want to

[19:08] remind everybody about it. And then um uh the

[19:12] Fiesta in the park in September just cuz we don't have any

[19:16] Just reminding folks to uh September 12th Saturday September 12th or 13th.

[19:21] We're also don't forget come on out to Fiesta in the park. It's going to be

[19:25] live music loteria and and food trucks. So I'm just really excited about that

[19:31] too. >> Good. Cool. Thank you. Any other

[19:33] comments or reports? Michelle?

[19:36] » Um, thank you Jim for a lovely 188 roundabout. That was a really nice

[19:42] ribbon cutting and it's beautiful if you haven't been there.

[19:45] Um, and then I was wondering if I could just get a nod or

[19:49] okay from council if we move forward with the animal welfare updates and

[19:54] making sure they are in line with Washington state cuz I think it's been

[19:58] 15 years or something. So if we could if just raise hands if we're okay to

[20:03] move on or just nod. >> Yeah, if anybody on council

[20:08] has a reason why we shouldn't look at that. We have not looked at our animal

[20:11] ordinance in in quite some time. So it would be an opportunity to look at

[20:17] kind of whole the whole uh animal ordinance.

[20:24] » It just I just want to you know

[20:26] » We're good. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure that

[20:28] nobody says [clears throat] no head no we don't want to talk about this.

[20:30] » Rob. >> Go away. [laughter]

[20:33] » Okay. Everybody down here good?

[20:36] Okay. >> And then I just have one more thing is

[20:38] that cool? >> Um, so um

[20:43] Um, we acknowledge and recognize so many people and so many groups like public

[20:48] works and um, fire and police. We recognize just

[20:52] about everything everything and everyone except we haven't really done a lot of

[20:57] recognition on Paul Ellis yet. Paul's favorite night is going to be

[21:02] tonight cuz we're all going to tell you why we appreciate you one by one.

[21:06] » [laughter]

[21:09] » Should I be worried about something?

[21:13] » I may have to do Rob's for him. He's not totally prepared.

[21:16] » [laughter]

[21:19] » So, we'll just can we start down at your end, Lisha? All right.

[21:23] » I I appreciate Paul. One of my things that I love about you is that how

[21:27] transparent you are and that you immediately get back to people and not

[21:31] alone just everybody that you have to get back to you, but you also get back

[21:35] to us and you make it very important. So, thank you very much for how much

[21:38] time and energy you put into that. Appreciate it.

[21:40] » Oh, thank you. >> Yeah, Paul, I just want to echo again

[21:45] being new to the council. It was great to just be felt invited in, you know,

[21:50] and understanding that we can come to you and make sure that we get our

[21:53] questions answered by the different directors and and again, you were always

[21:58] very quick with getting those responses back and letting us know that

[22:03] our citizens who have asking these questions are getting those responses.

[22:07] So, and then appreciate you keeping us all on that on that track so that we are

[22:10] speaking one voice as a city. >> And I was just going to say I I've grown

[22:17] up seeing you in this community doing a lot of work and there's a hard work to

[22:22] be done to lift up our whole community in times of

[22:26] crisis and times of good rapport, lots of events and fun

[22:32] things that happen, but I've grown up here and I've didn't know that

[22:37] this job for you is is so complex, but you do a wonderful job at everything

[22:42] that you do through different mayors, through

[22:46] different times of need. There's always you. You you give us the guidance, the

[22:51] steering. You help us with our attorneys. You help us with how things

[22:56] work. Also, I'm new to city council. So, if I have questions, you do get back to

[23:02] me in a wonderfully timed manner, and I just appreciate that you

[23:08] do such a great job at such a hard job at the same time. So, I thank you very

[23:13] much.

[23:16] » Um >> [snorts]

[23:17] » sometimes I wonder if you really want to pick up the phone when I call you

[23:20] because >> [laughter]

[23:24] » You can say that, too. Um because for 6 and 1/2 years now, um

[23:29] you've been the person that um I, and I think everybody else, can trust.

[23:36] Um we go to you with so many different issues and challenges and just sometimes

[23:40] to vent. Um there's so much that you do that people

[23:45] don't even know about. Um

[23:48] every single email that comes in from the community, you respond in such a

[23:51] professional manner, and I'm so glad you do it and that we don't um because it's

[23:55] so much more professional, I'm sure, when you do it. Um but, um I just want

[24:00] to tell you you're an amazing person, um an individual, personally and

[24:04] professionally, and I appreciate you, and um I would not have learned the

[24:09] things that I've learned without you being there. So, thank you.

[24:14] » I echo everything everybody has said. Um but, I just um I know

[24:20] I just think thank you. Uh you've always made it so much easier to be able to

[24:23] come to you and ask you for help. Um and when I do ask questions or am concerned

[24:29] about something, you never have made me feel stupid or dumb or like, "How do you

[24:33] not know that?" Um and I really appreciate that. There's so many

[24:37] different leaders out there, and the kind that really stand out are the ones

[24:41] that really are not afraid to like, just explain it to you and talk to you and

[24:44] respect you the same way you want to be respected. And you are so good at that,

[24:48] and I just really appreciate all the time and effort that you put into this

[24:51] community, and it and it's true, you've been here for

[24:54] so many years that we've seen all the ups and downs and you I don't know how

[24:59] you do it and you not to say you make it look easy but you just do it really well

[25:03] and you manage it really well. So, thank you.

[25:06] » Thank you. >> [clears throat]

[25:09] » Do I need to do it or are you going to? >> [laughter]

[25:12] » For the record, she did not tell me that we had to do this.

[25:16] Um so, I can only imagine how stressful your job must be but one of the things I

[25:21] really appreciate appreciate about you is how you're always cool, calm, and

[25:25] collected. So, I always feel like no matter what's going on the city, I kind

[25:28] of feel like Paul's got it under control which is, you know, huge for us as

[25:33] council. So, thank you for your demeanor and I don't know what happens behind the

[25:37] scenes in your office but >> Don't ask really.

[25:40] » [laughter]

[25:42] » At least in in public, you uh you have everything under control and that means

[25:46] a lot to me personally. So, thank you. >> Thanks.

[25:51] » Okay. I was supposed to go first. So, I would just like to echo everything

[25:57] that everybody else said because again, um I'm new on council but I will say the

[26:02] most um impressive thing for me has definitely been that there have been

[26:06] times that I've called you and I said, "This is an emergency." and you'll call

[26:09] me on a Why why are you calling me? You should

[26:12] be enjoying some sort of time off. So, I greatly appreciate it and you have

[26:20] a vast knowledge that blows my mind because sometimes you just can answer

[26:24] the question so perfectly that I'm like, "Do you just have a library in your

[26:29] head?" That's what it feels like. So, I really appreciate that um as a new

[26:34] council member as well that I can just come to you and know that you're going

[26:38] to be able to help me out. So, thank you.

[26:43] » Yeah, and I'd like to echo all of their comments, Paul. I mean, you've been

[26:47] there from the day one I've taken this office and supported me every day of it

[26:51] but I do appreciate I mean, there's times you probably roll your eyes when

[26:55] I'm bouncing some of these ideas off your head. So, when you're like, "Where

[26:59] did that come from?" But that's that's just me. It's just out of out of the box

[27:03] off thinking and talking out loud. And but

[27:06] that you've been there every day to help me and support me. I appreciate it.

[27:10] » Well, thank you. You know, I appreciate this. You You don't know how much it

[27:13] means to me to hear that. Um I consider myself to be a extremely fortunate

[27:17] person because I love what I do and I can't imagine doing anything else in

[27:21] life. I have a great team behind me and that's

[27:25] the key to our success is um the team here is amazing. Can't

[27:30] imagine working with other people other than what we have. So.

[27:34] And thank you. It means a lot. We have a great council, too.

[27:38] 24-minute council meetings. Can't beat that. [laughter]

[27:41] » Thank you. >> Thank you, everyone. Paul, do you have

[27:45] anything to report out tonight or anything?

[27:46] » Just to say that after this meeting we're on break

[27:49] » until September. >> And so, uh

[27:53] Shelby and I will be working on budget between now and then and

[27:56] » Yeah, everybody get ready. >> Friday in

[27:59] October. And uh our goal is to bring you a balanced budget

[28:04] for discussion. Based on our spring retreat, all the

[28:09] goals we set. So. >> Great. Thank you.

[28:12] I've just got to report just I think Yvonne brought it up earlier. Hopefully,

[28:17] we see a lot of the public tomorrow night at the National Night Out. I know

[28:21] the the police department, Jonathan, and the fire department, everybody there is

[28:24] excited for it. I'm excited for it. I think the the community is is excited

[28:29] for it. We get a great turnout every year. But no, I'm looking forward to

[28:32] that. And yeah, hopefully everybody enjoys their time off for the break of

[28:36] August. That's it.

[28:40] No executive session, so I think we're ready for adjournment.

[28:43] » Motion to adjourn. >> Second.

[28:46] » Question. >> All those in favor?

[28:48] » Aye. >> Any opposed?

[28:51] We are adjourned. Thank you.

[30:43] » [music]

[30:56] » Mhm.

City of Arlington City Council Meeting - August 3rd, 2026 6:00 PM

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