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[1:59] » Mhm.
[2:13] » [music]
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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.