[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] 7 o'clock, call this meeting order, please join me for the flag salute.
[0:24] Thank you. Maybe you have the roll call please.
[0:29] Make a motion to excuse council member, D.
[0:31] Second, all those in favor.
[0:33] Hi. The post. Motion carries.
[0:38] Thanks for your meal soon.
[0:41] Uh, customers, customers are neals and did reach out to me about an hour or two ago to let me know that she would not be attending tonight.
[0:48] Okay.
[0:49] They can motion to excuse some member neals and sign up.
[0:53] The only is in favor.
[0:54] Hi. The post.
[0:57] Motion carries.
[1:21] So next we need to review and approve the agenda, spending one wishing to make the changes with the sign.
[1:32] Like a motion to approve the agenda as presented.
[1:36] It's like a.
[1:37] It goes in favor.
[1:38] I think the pose.
[1:43] Wait, can there, are we going to still leave Sarah's items on the agenda?
[1:47] If she's not here.
[1:49] Yeah.
[1:49] Okay.
[1:55] Okay.
[1:56] Brenda, you're good.
[1:57] Got the vote.
[1:58] Thank you.
[1:59] So that brings us to our public comment session.
[2:02] This is for people wishing to address council regarding items of new business.
[2:05] You may do so at this time. There's a sign-up sheet over there. If you didn't get to it, no worries. Raise your hand to either physically or electronically online when you're called upon. Please come to the podium, state your name, city of residence.
[2:21] Please let me in your comments for three minutes.
[2:27] Thank you, sir.
[2:29] First up, we have Kelly Souscois.
[2:35] Good evening, council and Mayor Adler.
[2:39] I thank you for the opportunity to come and address the council this evening and my
[2:43] fellow comment.
[2:44] I'm my name is Kelly Cisco.
[2:45] I'm a member of the Black Diamond City Planning Commission and a resident of the city of
[2:49] Black Diamond first 31 years.
[2:51] And my public comment tonight is about the strategic plan.
[2:55] When I was reading through the strategic plan as it's written, I found a couple of things
[3:00] that seem a little bit at a character with the way I believe we want the city of Black
[3:06] Diamond to develop.
[3:08] In the plan, it does not provide specifically for public comment or public input to guide
[3:16] the themes of the plan.
[3:18] It says that the city staff will select themes that the city council might select themes,
[3:25] but no place in the plan does it show public participation
[3:31] in guiding the themes of the plan.
[3:34] I believe this is out of character with the type of city
[3:37] that I choose to live in,
[3:39] and I feel it's out of character with some of the other things
[3:45] that the city has implemented lately
[3:48] to not allow the public participation.
[3:51] That's one of the things that we have been working very hard
[3:54] on at the Planning Commission.
[3:56] And there have been hundreds of public comments
[3:59] that have been turned in in the four years
[4:03] that I have been on the Planning Commission.
[4:05] And I believe that needs to be a larger part of this plan
[4:09] for public participation and that there needs
[4:13] to be actions taken on the comments that are turned in,
[4:17] not just decisions made by the staff.
[4:19] My recommendation is that this plan could be tweaked
[4:23] and maybe account for public participation in a broader way.
[4:28] And there were other things in the plan that hit me as not quite consistent.
[4:34] It makes mention of the Lakeshore Regional Park as being potentially a future asset to the region.
[4:42] I can tell you that when I was participating in the development of the pros plan,
[4:47] the Lakeshore Regional Park all ready is a major asset to the region and there were dozens
[4:56] of people who came out to speak on behalf of the Lakeshore Regional Park and how they like it
[5:01] pretty much the way that it is and there should be a strong curb on development planned for
[5:08] Lakeshore Regional Park. It is one of very few places where you can go and walk your horse,
[5:15] ride your horse, ride your little battery powered dirt bike, go fishing, go and have a picnic,
[5:23] and hike over five miles of trails that are within the city when it's a black dime.
[5:28] Please consider that. Thank you. Thank you.
[5:34] I'm next up. I have Stacey Lyons.
[5:42] Hi there. My name is Stacey Lyons. I am a resident of Black Diamond. I'm here tonight to raise
[5:49] publicly an issue that I think is a traffic safety issue in the city of Black Diamond.
[5:55] And it's regarding the intersection of 2016, then, to 88th.
[6:00] As you probably know, there has been a very extended period of time of building traffic signals
[6:09] at that location for what was really, I think, a traffic issue and safety issue at the time.
[6:15] So I acknowledge the need to do something,
[6:19] but now we are fast forwarding several years.
[6:22] And there has been a lot of infrastructure built there,
[6:25] including several mechanical boxes
[6:31] on the Northeast corner of that intersection,
[6:35] which from a line of site perspective
[6:37] offers no ability for a driver to be able to assess
[6:40] if there's somebody coming up that hill
[6:42] before having to chicken their way
[6:44] into the intersection and hope that they can make it through and still manage what's happening
[6:49] on the left-hand side of that intersection. So I did reach out to public works today and while I
[6:56] understand what the long-term agenda is at getting those operational and I even understand what the
[7:02] concerns or the issues have been that have slowed that construction. There has to be an interim solution
[7:09] to make that a safe place. I go through there every day to and from. And frankly, I feel like I sometimes put my life in the hands of someone not coming up too fast on that hill.
[7:21] And I have had several close calls, and I've seen several close calls, and I think that we need to ask the engineers within.
[7:30] The black diamond city to figure out what an interim solution could be until we get those operational, it's been years that we've been waiting.
[7:40] And frankly, now they're sitting at a state where some of those signals the covers are starting to wear off. And if you're a new person driving there, you're not sure if you're supposed to stop, not supposed to stop.
[7:53] The person behind you doesn't know whether they should stop or not stop and I just think it would be neglectful to not have a solution before some kind of casualty happens at that spot.
[8:03] So, as just a resident, I felt like I was implored to ask you for your guidance and leadership in this situation.
[8:14] So, thank you.
[8:16] Thank you.
[8:20] Next up, we have Kristen Bryant.
[8:31] Good evening, Mayor.
[8:32] Council.
[8:32] My name's Kristen Bryant.
[8:33] I live in Bellevue, and I grew up in Black Diamond.
[8:36] I have comments on your strategic plan.
[8:39] I'll go kind of fast that I wanted to comment on three areas item one, the first element is basically about land use.
[8:50] It has, it divides black diamond into seven opportunity areas.
[8:54] One concern, an opportunity area has a more specific legal definition is used in King County.
[9:01] They even from a common use perspective.
[9:03] It's a term that invites an assumed significant growth in each area, which is really a comprehensive plan decision,
[9:10] not a thing to put lightly in this short strategic plan.
[9:17] It also item one talks about developing a vision and land use plan for those areas of the city for each of the seven.
[9:26] That belongs in a comprehensive plan process.
[9:28] It's a vision in land use.
[9:30] That's what a comprehensive plan mainly deals with.
[9:33] How do you decide a vision without the traffic
[9:35] evaluation, the environmental impact evaluation,
[9:39] and the capital needs evaluation that comes specifically
[9:42] with comprehensive planning?
[9:45] I noticed in that section there was also a change
[9:48] from your August draft to tonight's draft.
[9:50] That's not noted, but there's a bullet
[9:52] about commercial and light industrial use.
[9:55] It used to be two bullets between commercial and space
[9:58] for meat, small manufacturing, and light industrial,
[10:02] but tonight it's all lumped into commercial development,
[10:04] the blah, blah, blah, and provide space for small scale
[10:07] light industrial.
[10:08] I noticed you had to take an anonymous comments on this,
[10:11] and one of those seem to be really clearly
[10:15] from a developer who might own some light industrial land
[10:18] and be seeking a reason to commercial,
[10:21] because they use words like highest and best use
[10:23] that developers tend to use, not your everyday resident,
[10:26] but we don't know because those were anonymous comments.
[10:30] You're item two in the plan.
[10:31] Lake Sawyer Park, from the beginning,
[10:35] it was the goal of some people
[10:36] that Oak Point's ball fields would be developed
[10:39] at the regional park.
[10:41] And that's really why that became a priority
[10:43] and ended up in this strategic plan,
[10:45] even if it doesn't say ball fields,
[10:46] I think you should consider
[10:47] that that shouldn't be there at all.
[10:50] And then a strategic plan item four talks
[10:52] about enhancing city capacity.
[10:54] But if you lock yourself into three-year funding commitment for a civic campus now, you're artificially
[11:00] restricting other options that you might want to fund with City Money and there's a lot of
[11:05] examples I know you can think of them. One thing is they always postpone fish passage projects.
[11:10] You've got blocked fish passage all the way from Lake Sawyer on up to where Washington's finally
[11:15] going to make the fish be able to get under 169. But where's the money going to come from to help
[11:21] environment there. You may want to put money towards new staff. You haven't had a city engineer
[11:26] for the better part of a decade. You may need experience planning staff because you're doing
[11:30] a comp plan. I know you've got how he seems great, but you can look at other funding because
[11:36] you can pass a government facilities fee on new development. I know you can get money from other places
[11:47] for a civic campus. You may be cutting that off by committing it now through this process.
[11:53] Thank you. Is there anyone else online or in person wishing to address council?
[12:05] Last call. Seeing no one, I will close this public comment session.
[12:13] It brings us to appointments and also the proclamations and presentations. First up,
[12:18] Any reports? Does anybody have any committee reports I'd like to share?
[12:28] Okay.
[12:32] As you know, department reports,
[12:35] shout-outs, chief check-in this first.
[12:37] Any first in today?
[12:40] You haven't seen that.
[12:40] It's in your email.
[12:44] And then we have Mr. Mason with the second quarter of financial report.
[13:10] Good evening, Mayor. Good evening council.
[13:12] So, it's easy when I set up.
[13:52] I have to see me like that.
[13:53] It's not too long.
[13:53] I'll be guarding the second quarter by the entry port for the city of Black Diamond.
[13:59] That's a real brief report.
[14:01] However, in your packing materials, see the actual report.
[14:04] It's about.
[14:08] 44 pages long.
[14:10] If there's somebody I'll provide to see me.
[14:12] Probably close here to five minutes.
[14:14] I went over it last Tuesday.
[14:18] During the budget finance and administration committee, I would say there's nothing to
[14:26] have in norm, however there are some important developments that occurred during the second quarter.
[14:33] The second quarter report goes up until the end of June 30.
[14:37] I've been going over the actuals for the operational funds, the investments,
[14:47] and the fund balance
[14:47] specifications for each of the funds, both for the entirety of the city action.
[14:55] First, general fund.
[14:56] The general fund has reached a surplus as a...
[15:00] June, a good portion of the reason a good reason for that is because if has strong revenues in property taxes, sales taxes, utility taxes, and investment earnings, so you see a surplus of about a hundred thousand dollars there.
[15:17] We were, of course, anticipating a budget deficit, however,
[15:24] seeing that we do our very conservative, when it comes to our revenues,
[15:28] and also conservative, when it comes to our expenditures,
[15:31] how to say this deficit in the surplus is very welcome.
[15:37] Looking at the percentage of where we at our,
[15:39] in terms of our revenues in terms of the percentage,
[15:42] we have 48 percent where we are budgeted for the year,
[15:45] and 46% were a budget for the year as well for expenditures.
[15:49] So we're rather target in terms of we're expecting to be half way through the year.
[15:55] Again, revenues are a bit stronger due to those revenue streams I mentioned earlier.
[16:01] And part of the reasons because utility taxes in particular,
[16:04] we see a rise in those during the third quarter months due to usage of different utilities.
[16:12] For the street fund, this fund is heavily supplemented by the general fund, which we made a budget amendment at the end of 26 to provide at the end of $200,000 to keep that fund afloat.
[16:25] addition to your read funds and TDD funds. So you're looking at a deficit about 336,000 dollars.
[16:33] That is there because we have yet to make those transfers. This fund was still in added with
[16:38] a deficit. However, it would not be as big as you're seeing the seeping.
[16:46] The water fund is
[16:47] dropping. Well, at least since 2024, since you've paid off that debt in May, this has been our strong
[16:55] utility fund. And as you'll see, there is a large surplus 253,000. What you'll see as a year
[17:02] progresses is that surplus will continue to grow. What will happen at the end of the year,
[17:08] that surplus will drop significantly because it will be transferring a good portion of that
[17:12] amount towards capital expenditures, which are budgeted. And going towards the other funds,
[17:20] sewer and storm water, you'll see a slightly different story that you do want to hone in a
[17:28] little bit on this evening. I would anticipate an anticipation of upcoming meetings regarding
[17:34] the budget and of Italy race setting. So you do see a surplus for the sewer fund. We'll also see
[17:42] a surplus in the storm water fund. The difference between this and the water fund is that these
[17:47] pluses are not, say, large, large in the sense of that we cannot transfer funds from these
[17:59] different utility funds towards our capital funds, because the funds that are the surface
[18:04] that they're building up are needed to keep their operating fund afloat.
[18:09] A Councilmember Peterson, I recall you, you know, about a year ago, is a question regarding
[18:14] widening that have a set percentage amount of our revenue is going towards capital funds and that's
[18:21] part of the reason nearly 100% of the revenue that these two funds generate are used to keep the
[18:27] offering up on stable. Storm Mar on the other hand is not very stable. As an enterprise plan you need
[18:37] to fund the operations as well as capital and for about two years now we've been, I don't see
[18:43] neglecting, but strategically holding off on those transfers, then keep their
[18:48] operating fund afloat.
[18:51] So as in sewer, you see a surplus here, 70,000, which of
[18:55] course makes the operating fund stronger. However, it's not enough to keep up with
[19:01] the capital expenditures that requires this fund operate. A stormmarker, you see the
[19:06] same thing. For those who've mentioned or heard me speak before, stormmarkers
[19:12] one back, but a lot of attention aren't just because of versus it's very limited in terms of revenue
[19:18] generation, expenditures are growing and some revenue is like the grant, the CERMOAR capacity
[19:24] grant, and under $20,000 is good for operating however, it's not an annual grant. It happens
[19:30] on an 18-month cycle, and next year we're not expecting to $120,000, and so you'll see that
[19:38] We discussed the budget in the coming weeks and so that again affects this fund's ability
[19:46] to to provide income for capital expenditures to increase capital planning a bit harder
[19:52] to do.
[19:55] Cash and investment balances over all season pretty good has been increased from the December
[20:03] 2025 to the June 30th about about 1.2 million overall, good 100,000 in the general fund, about
[20:13] 300,000 or so in the REAP, so overall pretty good. Everything is in the black.
[20:20] Here's a quick chart detailing how the flames have grown throughout the years in 2018 to present.
[20:28] A lot of growth, a lot of growth is good because you never know when the needle is fun for a rainy day.
[20:36] Back behind the best and portfolio, as mentioned earlier, we were doing very well in comparison to what we were expecting during the budget process last year.
[20:45] A big part of that reason is we were expecting the Fed rate to decrease.
[20:49] As you may have watched the news lately, they have not decreased in fact, since expecting a high tomorrow.
[20:57] So that may our interest rates may be a little bit better in the future.
[21:03] Here's just a chart detailing interest rates or interest investments or investment earnings over the years from 2020 to present.
[21:15] And, conclusion, find the balanced classifications.
[21:23] We're looking about 4.6 restricted at 1.1 and committed about 6.3 in a sign.
[21:31] And, I'm a sign which is primarily the general fund 9.145.
[21:35] And it's a little 21.2 million as of the end of last year.
[21:43] Are there any questions regarding the second quarter financial report?
[21:47] I do have a question.
[21:49] I was just trying to get right my head around there,
[21:53] so I could be saying that the storm and sewer
[21:57] are in a positive fund, but you can't transfer
[22:00] into the capital of expenditure.
[22:02] What does that mean?
[22:04] Where's that money though?
[22:05] What's the capital expenditure?
[22:07] Okay, so, good question.
[22:09] So, there's different.
[22:12] There's a water fund within the water fund,
[22:14] We're going to say it's super fun. Within the circuit, there's two points. The sewer reserve and capital and the sewer operational.
[22:22] So the sewer operational point is what generates the revenue and most of the expenditures. And what happens is that.
[22:30] Over time, or maybe on annual basis, you'll see this through in the budget process,
[22:35] can you may not see it because we're not being transferred. Is that a portion of the reserves
[22:41] within that operating fund are transferred to the capital fund from which it's expenditure
[22:48] is capital projects. And when the reserve or the fund balance of the operating fund is so low,
[22:54] to say, for example, I believe around February or March, the stormwater fund was near $20,000,
[23:03] you can't make a transfer to capital without making that fund go underwater.
[23:11] But we're really talking about a bigger problem. Our rates are not set properly, right? Because
[23:15] we're not factoring in our capital needs and we're not setting aside enough money. So help me understand
[23:23] and how far we are on our rate study and how that's been included this time around.
[23:29] Yeah, the rate study, they're progressing along very well. I think they're near completion
[23:34] in almost for a few percent of the council. Will you be including these rates in next year's
[23:40] budget or does it have to go through us first before you can even contemplate it or what?
[23:47] So, during this budget process, I have worked with them to help determine the revins.
[23:56] And they have similar expenditures, so they can have like, no, be apples or apples.
[24:00] So, during the budget process, I'll be presenting to you all rates as they are, because they've not been approved by council.
[24:08] However, during the stand-tocks presentation, they'll have the status quo at rates as they are, as well as rates as they can.
[24:14] as they are suggesting them to be, if any at all, I need to change this at all.
[24:20] And then what will happen is, be paying our encounters, decision,
[24:27] else it depends on how fast that process is because the budget,
[24:31] and stand-taker are not necessarily on the same voting time table.
[24:37] But ensure what we'll do up the rates to reflect whatever counsel decides needs to be.
[24:43] And then I know because we've all read through our planning documents that we have a six year and a 20 year capital improvement plan for each one of these funds.
[24:55] So, and I'm assuming that all of those things are being factored in and it's been my experience that a body like this might determine maybe a percentage of the rates that they want to go to capital that's how my board does it.
[25:10] or maybe it's the amount of projects we want to complete or however we do it, but that's where
[25:20] during this budget process we want to be informed. Okay.
[25:30] Thank you. Thank you.
[25:35] Great. Next up is the consent agenda.
[25:40] We'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.
[25:43] I got to. All those in favor. Opposed. Motion carries. No public hearings. No unfinished
[25:55] business. Wingsams to item seven, which is the hometown of heroes banner program.
[26:02] Presented by Councillor Nielsen, proxy by Mr. Nielsen for Mr. O'Neill.
[26:10] Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and if it's all right with Council, I'm just going to kind of combine these two items, the purple heart city item as well as the banner.
[26:20] There's no, there's no action requested just mostly information, not mostly. It is informational.
[26:27] So, first since we have it on the screen, I'll start with the banner program. She Councilmember Nielsen has been working with Mr. Glenn Boji, who, if I said that correctly, I'm sorry if I didn't.
[26:39] to kick off this program, what's been,
[26:43] this has come before council before and what they've decided to do
[26:47] as just a initial trial is two banners.
[26:51] They cost about $100 each, so very, very low cost.
[26:57] And we will put them on Robert on two of the light poles there.
[27:02] Just as a trial run for this year,
[27:05] the two people we would like to honor this year
[27:06] our is Mr. Boji as well as the purple heart recipient that we are honoring on the next item,
[27:14] the purple heart city. So those will be the two that we start with and then we'll
[27:19] from there we'll have to figure out a process in terms of, you know, we have limited light poles.
[27:23] How do we select the number people, what's the nomination process, how do we handle the cost,
[27:28] all of that kind of stuff? But at this point I'm just kind of looking for a head nod. This is
[27:33] generally sound okay and and we'll we'll move forward with purchasing them and try to have a small little ceremony
[27:41] where we can we can get them installed and before Veterans Day what's that before Veterans Day
[27:47] we're going to try to yeah and then how long do we think we'll leave them uh mean um
[27:54] kind of a trial to see how they look see how it goes I maybe I don't know exactly I think that
[28:01] will kind of have to see how they stand the weather.
[28:04] We start to do the individual's disservice when they're up there and they're weathered
[28:10] in there.
[28:10] That's what I'm wondering.
[28:13] So, we don't have any experience with the vendors, so maybe they'll look great for a month,
[28:18] maybe they'll look great for two years, I don't know.
[28:21] But certainly, it'll be something we'll be coming back to council on as we build out the
[28:27] program.
[28:29] And then on the purple heart side of things, we have ordered the signs.
[28:35] We have determined where they will go generally, rather than trying to have them at each entry point to the city.
[28:41] We want to focus on the northbound entrance on 169, as well as the southbound entrance on 169, just on both ends of the city.
[28:49] The two most traveled areas, somewhere around the cool cars.
[28:52] You know, we don't want the, you know, the cool cards are so cool. We don't want it to track from them, but with the same time we want, you know, the purple heart recipient.
[29:00] To, you know, get the their do attention as well. So it'll be somewhere along there.
[29:06] The idea at this point is to do a small ceremony honoring Mr. Sakato who is the purple heart recipient that we've identified in the city.
[29:16] That will likely happen on October 3rd of Saturday. I'll send a confirmation.
[29:21] And what we're thinking we'll do is we'll have a small ceremony here and then bring
[29:26] him out to where one of the signs will already be installed and just do a quick little
[29:31] photo-op and it's a little bit of a little dangerous on the side of the road.
[29:34] Thankfully, the southern and cold car, there's some good area there, so it shouldn't be too
[29:39] bad.
[29:41] But certainly, all council will be invited to that and then we'll get the second sign installed
[29:48] and then northern portion of the city. So that's where we're at with those two items.
[29:56] Do you have a time on the third?
[29:59] Not yet.
[30:00] At he, Mr. Chicago's family is coming in, like the first through the fit. There's something along those lines, we'll be working with them to make sure that they can attend. I think if I had, I don't know, we'll still have to see either morning or afternoon.
[30:15] Yeah, that's safe way opening.
[30:17] Oh, I said my name or report.
[30:20] We will work around safe way.
[30:21] All right, that, that, that I didn't connect that dot. So yeah, well, we'll figure out a good time.
[30:29] Or maybe we'll all just carpool from one to the other.
[30:31] There you go.
[30:32] Don't have the bus.
[30:35] All right.
[30:38] All right.
[30:38] All right.
[30:38] Cohen's a pilot.
[30:40] Thank you.
[30:40] I'm a question too.
[30:41] Sure.
[30:42] I'm Scott Sandal.
[30:43] For the home town hero, Banner.
[30:45] Sounds like Robert Stride is where we've been in places.
[30:49] we do have a grant to reconstruct or strike a section of it with the sidewalk. I'm sure this
[30:56] can be street lights and that or those poles are going to make sure the poles are adequate with the
[31:00] banners. Yeah, yeah, the poles will work. The banners themselves have basically brackets for
[31:07] straps and go around them. Okay, they don't have the arm like we did down at the bakery.
[31:18] So there's
[31:19] here, Mr. Hannes. He basically said there shouldn't be an issue. Yeah, shouldn't be an issue.
[31:25] And are you happy with the design?
[31:27] You're good. Yeah. Yeah.
[31:29] Yeah, I can't remember, Nielsen took the lead on the design. I think she's done a fantastic job on both of
[31:34] these two initiatives. It's really exciting to see the process start and now get to the point where,
[31:40] you know, we've had the meetings, we've made the decisions, and now, you know, we're getting
[31:45] over the finish line. So, um, excited to see that happening. So, kudos to her.
[31:53] That's a
[31:53] mystery. Thank you. Um, you're back up again for a 26-118 resolution adopting
[32:01] city strategic plan. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. So, uh, I am going to share a quick PowerPoint,
[32:09] um, and then handed over to Brian Murphy, who's been the, um, one of the consultants that's been
[32:16] helping us through this process.
[32:19] Excited to be here at this meeting.
[32:22] And I'll just add before I hand the microphone over.
[32:27] We have received a lot of comments the last few days.
[32:30] We've had people come up and speak and Brian and I have touch base.
[32:34] If there are two weeks we want to make tonight, we can do that on the fly.
[32:38] He's prepared to pull it up and we can kind of do some worksmithing.
[32:41] And if there's some items that are not quite comfortable with.
[32:45] So that is an option. I just want to lay that out first. So with that said, Brian?
[32:56] Yeah, good evening, Council. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for letting me join you.
[33:02] And I do wish I was there in person, given the interest in the strategic plan.
[33:05] But I would join the panel to this. Can you hear me, OK?
[33:13] It's a little low volume, Brian. We're trying to make some tweaks here maybe.
[33:18] I'll bring you my just a little bit closer. Is that better?
[33:22] Yeah, that's a lot better.
[33:24] Okay. So it was error on my end. So hopefully you can hear me now.
[33:27] I just want to say good evening.
[33:29] I'm really glad to be with you all and which I was there in person actually,
[33:34] but I'm up in our Seattle office and glad to connect with you about this strategic plan.
[33:41] So, I'm happy to just give a recap of kind of the planning process and where we are tonight.
[33:47] Just a few high-level remarks about the strategic plan as it sits in front of council.
[33:53] And then as Kevin said, I'd very glad to take feedback and final refinements and hopefully, you know, see council adopt tonight.
[34:01] Can you go to the next slide please?
[34:06] Yes, on second.
[34:13] Thank you.
[34:13] So just a brief recap of the journey we've been on.
[34:17] We started the process in April, April 17th with Council retreat.
[34:23] We then that was staffed to take some of the ideas that have been talked about in a vision
[34:27] that have been talked about in that Council retreat.
[34:30] And workshop that a bit and came back and spoke with Council again in person on June 8th.
[34:36] We're back to staff, so kind of used staff as a sounding board for some of the ideas
[34:40] accounts were raised, then did a very brief public review process and some additional staff engagement,
[34:48] and then my colleague, Maddie and Molini were down with counsel on August 18th, and had a
[34:55] version of the plan that was fairly close to the version that's in front of you this evening.
[35:00] I'm happy to recap the changes that we've made, some wordsmithing, and also some, I think,
[35:05] that it's a bit more substantive. Next slide, please.
[35:09] I'm
[35:12] not going to talk through the whole plan.
[35:14] I know everyone's had a chance to kind of review that and look at it.
[35:18] I will say it's a high level document.
[35:20] It's all of 10 pages.
[35:23] So it's got a high level direction to it.
[35:27] It is not nearly as long as comprehensive or as technical as a comprehensive plan.
[35:33] We'll be for you.
[35:35] I will say it does talk about growth, but it does not establish a growth target.
[35:40] And it is not meant at all to preempt any of the land use decisions that would be made in a comprehensive planning process.
[35:50] So it talks about the need for visions and land use designations for areas of your community that are subject to change that you all want to achieve.
[36:01] To be a particular thing, it talks about the idea of a walkable downtown, for example,
[36:06] But it does not presume to say where that downtown should be or how that exactly should function.
[36:12] That's clearly something that should be developed in the comprehensive plan.
[36:17] In addition to growth, it talks about other things like enhancing communication with the public.
[36:23] It talks about a fair bit actually about internal city capacity and operations in the fourth priority.
[36:30] and helping you, like I'm not about as your community does continue to grow, how do you make sure you're providing quality services, and how are you
[36:41] staffing appropriately, not getting over your skis, but also not sort of under-capacity to the demand that are placed on staff.
[36:48] It talks about other things like a community brand or community identity so quite a lot here
[36:55] but it's meant to be a flexible document that gives counsel and staff some direction
[37:01] but constant process of engaging with a community and with one another to set that annual implementation plan.
[37:10] So it's so high level, it's not meant to lock you in.
[37:13] Just to recap some of the changes that we made prior to this final version, we removed a projection of population that we have pulled from the comprehensive plan that has since been put on hold and we added just some brief narrative to this.
[37:30] Say that back time, it is very likely to continue to grow, but we don't know, and the purpose of this document is not to say how quickly or how much.
[37:41] We generalize the approach to Lake Soyer Regional Park. Under Priority 4, we added a focus on developing strong internal systems and processes, as well as being a learning organization.
[37:53] Having the chance to sit with staff, we see that there's a real need to invest in city services,
[38:01] city systems around their processes so that they're more robust and more stable and more resilient
[38:08] to increase demand for services.
[38:11] And then the last thing we did was at Request of Council, we really fleshed out the annual implementation cycle.
[38:17] So if you could go to the very last slide here, I'll have to sort of walk through that.
[38:26] There we go.
[38:28] It looks better in the planet itself as it's more portrait orientation.
[38:32] But the idea here is that the strategic plan is it's very high level.
[38:37] It should be updated every two years.
[38:41] So every two years Council would look at the strategic plan and identify where there should be a focus in the coming
[38:49] two years. As with all things that are driven by council, that would be with like a strong
[38:54] public process. So we're showing down in the green area ongoing public communications and
[39:01] town hall events so that you as council will be elected officials are getting input from the community
[39:06] about how you are going to govern in the coming two years. So the strategic plan would be the
[39:13] focus of the strategic plan would be updated every two years and of course your budget
[39:18] would be updated every year, and we're trying to make the connection between the strategic plan and the budget to make sure that
[39:26] the budget is a good representation of your overall strategy and where you want to go with a city and get the priority investments that you want to make in the coming years.
[39:36] But I'll just close by saying the strategic plan doesn't make you to any budget decisions and similarly it doesn't come to you to any
[39:43] and use decisions or capital facility decisions for that matter.
[39:48] So it's putting in front of Council and staff priority items
[39:53] for additional discussion, as you would forward.
[39:57] So that's all I would hope to share with you.
[39:59] Happy to take questions, of course.
[40:02] Happy to take suggested revisions,
[40:05] and would love to hear Council's interest
[40:06] in whether you'd like to adopt this plan.
[40:22] Questions?
[40:22] I don't know.
[40:26] I don't know.
[40:27] There's somebody else's.
[40:28] He also wants starts.
[40:31] I'll start.
[40:33] You know, we were in the meetings.
[40:36] We could go.
[40:37] We want to express how we want to listen to the public.
[40:41] We need to get more public involvement.
[40:43] Oh, we got a lot of public involvement on this topic and no one supported us adopt
[40:48] in this plan tonight.
[40:50] Not one.
[40:51] And I don't know what the urgency is adopted.
[40:54] that I know it doesn't lock us into anything. It's a high level plan, but without the
[40:59] comp plan being done, I think you got the wagon before the horse and there's plan. I just
[41:04] don't see why we would want to adopt this now. We have the comp plan done. To me, it doesn't
[41:11] make any sense. We look at the wagon three times already. Nobody brought up any objections
[41:17] and tell today.
[41:20] And that's true.
[41:21] And there was a lot of objections.
[41:24] And I don't see why it would hurt to just wait till the
[41:27] Concland's done.
[41:29] Make most of the table, but it's saying till we get the
[41:31] Concland done.
[41:32] And then we can address any issues that come up out of this.
[41:37] And, you know, a lot of a comment was done on the civic plan.
[41:41] You know, there was a document that wasn't studied done by the
[41:44] papers on the facilities and what we should be charged in and previous counsel, previous
[41:51] previous quick.
[41:54] They decided not to adopt that plan in all over the fees, which we would already have like
[42:00] 10 million and 12 million in the fund for a city hall right now.
[42:03] It has to make it that we should be charged in some place about 50, 800 per hour housing unit
[42:10] in $2.80 per square foot, so we could start addressing
[42:14] our needs of City All Matt.
[42:18] And tell we start doing some of this stuff.
[42:20] I don't see why we need the street in Atlanta
[42:22] and that one adopted that we get the car planned on.
[42:25] I think that's my opinion.
[42:29] Council Member Sorsia see you every end up online, Nick.
[42:32] Yeah, I do.
[42:33] I come, I have the same concerns that Mr. Del Sano has.
[42:42] We're going down the road without a comprehensive plan and the makers put together and it's unfortunate that the council
[42:49] away back when didn't adopt it because I believe we should have
[42:55] sure that we need facility funding which can come in within the comp plan. We do adopt facility fees
[43:07] We still have a lot of houses that are going to be built in 10 trails as well as the rest of the city.
[43:13] That will generate a capital facility fund for us so that we can build the capital facilities.
[43:20] Cash that we currently have in our reserves can be used for other things within the city to improve that.
[43:28] Everywhere from streets to water quality to fish, as you heard,
[43:33] We need to reprioritize and look at where our money is going to come from.
[43:38] I believe capital facilities should be funded from growth because that's what's driving this.
[43:45] And we need the comp plan so that we can adopt the capital facilities plan.
[43:50] So I don't think we should adopt this.
[43:52] I think it's good work.
[43:53] We can keep it on our back pocket and look at it.
[43:57] But I think we need to get working on the comprehensive plan and get that done.
[44:00] So we can start generating revenue for capital facilities.
[44:07] Mr. Mayor.
[44:10] So maybe I think what might be helpful is, if I remind it, I just kind of brought up some
[44:16] of the context of what led us to this plan.
[44:21] And I, you know, I freely admit that this plan was a bit of a selfish project for myself
[44:27] Because if you were called the beginning of the year, we had two new council members on the
[44:34] dias.
[44:35] I think three additional council members who had just been reelected, when we kicked off
[44:41] this process at the retreat, even our now council member Reed was even there.
[44:46] The reason I wanted to do this plan is because it's not just the document, it's the process
[44:54] in which all of you worked on this. We saw a lot of great synergy between
[45:00] In the seven of you, a lot of excellent conversations, back and forths that have led up to this meeting
[45:08] where you're considering adoption.
[45:13] And, and, you know, the process is almost as valuable as
[45:16] the document itself. But the other big reason that I felt this was important was because on the
[45:25] we have a 20-year comprehensive plan and we have a one-year budget and there's six, a six year TIP,
[45:34] six year CIP but even those for the most part they're just parking lots for projects because we just we don't have the funds to do very much.
[45:41] And so what the vision for this was that it would help us bridge that gap between the two the two big documents.
[45:48] And I completely recognize that the situation has drastically changed with the repeal of the
[45:55] comp plan.
[45:57] However, from a staff perspective, I almost see this as being even more important at this
[46:04] time.
[46:05] And the reason for that is because we will likely not have a comp plan, a new comp plan.
[46:09] We do technically have a comp plan.
[46:11] It's the one from 2019 that we, I don't even know, you know, Councilor Deity is certainly
[46:16] the only one on council. That was that on council at that time and I don't know how many other
[46:21] times that your seats have turned over since then. But we're at least probably a year away from
[46:27] adopting another comp plan. And we are deep into the budget process this year. We're excited to present
[46:35] that budget to you. But by doing this exercise, by adopting a strategic plan, it helps give me that
[46:44] stop gap from the 2019 plan to whatever this new plan is going to be because it comes from
[46:51] the 7 of you, the 2019 complaint came from one 7th of you and the next complaint might not
[47:01] even come from all 7 of you, you know, we're going to have an election in a little over a year,
[47:06] where I think if I'm, I can't remember, I haven't looked at the date, I think four seats are up
[47:10] re-election or not re-election, but up for grabs,
[47:17] and so I would just ask you to consider it from
[47:21] from that lens. The resolution even says such, you know, nothing in here is binding, every item
[47:28] that we, we budget for or we come for approval will come before council and like every document
[47:35] it's a living document. We know it's going to change. It's just part of the part of the cycle of things.
[47:42] So I just want to add that a little bit of perspective because, you know, we find ourselves in
[47:47] uncharted territory with repealed a comprehensive plan. I don't think there's a single city in
[47:52] or county in the state that is operating off of a 2019 complaint. So I see this has been a help not a
[47:59] But, again, that's just my perspective on that, on the matter.
[48:07] Question.
[48:09] Can we move on?
[48:11] So, I know that a lot of the public comment was about the phrasing of the shared vision and investing
[48:19] in Lakeshore Regional Park to establish as a major asset to the community in region.
[48:26] I think a lot of the concern was that I've read in my email,
[48:30] this is around both fields, and this is a more directional statement. It would seem that maybe
[48:40] a planning committee or future council decision could decide what happens there, but it's not
[48:47] locked into both fields, so a potential outcome would be to enhance the trails that are already there,
[48:54] or as I think one of the people said last time years,
[49:00] I was just asking about a disc golf course out there.
[49:05] So I just want to like caution that I think
[49:08] those are also potential outcomes.
[49:12] And I don't necessarily think this locks us
[49:15] into any sort of ball field or any sort of
[49:18] point agreement or it really kind of gives us
[49:23] you know, as a community, we want to do something there, and we don't have that necessary,
[49:29] necessary. That plan necessarily lined out right now, but it does, through parts of the other
[49:35] plan, say, that we should work together as a community and figure out what that plan is. So,
[49:41] I mean, from that standpoint and thinking about, you know, optimism of my community, I think that
[49:48] it makes sense to lean into that and work with everybody because we could have a really cool
[49:53] orstrail out there. We could have a really cool electric drip like that out there. You know,
[49:58] I mean, I just want to caution that saying no to this, are we saying no to those other things too?
[50:08] Right. And that I guess less of a question, but maybe confirm my assumption that that is a potential
[50:16] It's a really nice question, but it's a nice question.
[50:19] Why thought this?
[50:20] We did a council of seven of us work on this.
[50:23] It is a working document that we all set down
[50:26] and meetings and meetings and meetings on this.
[50:32] We're not locked in to anything.
[50:34] But there's no public comment on any of that.
[50:36] What we decided either.
[50:38] Sure, you know.
[50:39] And it was what we thought of as a whole
[50:42] would be good for that community.
[50:44] And I know we're elected and we represent the people.
[50:46] But we never got to really hear a lot of people know what they do not.
[50:49] It was our vision of what we think the population of people want.
[50:55] Now, we're learned in that,
[50:58] a lot of them don't want the ball fields of the park.
[51:00] You know, how do we say, okay, that we won't do that?
[51:04] But we might do this.
[51:05] How do we
[51:08] have a public comment on every issue we're going to decide on?
[51:12] I mean, you know, that's why I think,
[51:15] I think we should just table this till the conference done and make sure we're all in the line and everything lines up and then I'm not saying our work goes away.
[51:26] I'm just saying when they will it all begin.
[51:31] Some key issues addressed.
[51:38] So I have a lot of feelings about this and I think that we're in a unique position as a city where we've been a little city for a long time.
[51:48] and we're trying to grow up and become a bigger city.
[51:51] And trying to plan for the city of not today,
[51:54] but 20 years from today.
[51:56] And what will we need then?
[51:58] And just as you guys brought up,
[52:00] why didn't we do it and adopt that plan
[52:02] those years ago, and we would have had the impact fees,
[52:05] you know, by doing nothing.
[52:07] And by saying we have to have all this other stuff done,
[52:10] all we do is stagnate.
[52:12] But problem is we have so many choices
[52:14] and so many priorities that we could focus on,
[52:17] but we don't know where to start. The point of this was to say, what steps do we need to take to
[52:27] grow up as a city? Because we don't start somewhere.
[52:30] Because there's a proliferate of complications and challenges out there. So this is a planning document that says, okay, we're going to pick these five things to start with.
[52:43] And it doesn't mean that we are committing to ball fields.
[52:48] In fact, it says developer shared vision for the park,
[52:51] which inherently includes public comment.
[52:54] It doesn't change the studies that are required.
[52:58] The public meetings that are required,
[53:00] the capital budget process that you have to go through.
[53:03] It doesn't change any of that.
[53:06] It gives us a framework to say,
[53:09] We know in 20 years, 15 years, whatever, we're going to need a proper campus, and a lot of us are tired of paying rent, a very high rent.
[53:19] And for that amount of money, we could have something with, you know, adjacent to a park, or maybe there's ball fields there, or who knows.
[53:27] But the point is, we want to start to focus our energy so that we can create something.
[53:36] So that we can have something that we're proud of.
[53:42] A strategic plan is not a comp plan.
[53:45] It does not require that there be a comp plan.
[53:48] We can do both things at once.
[53:50] A lot of these things, we're not making development decisions.
[53:54] We're not making land-to-use decisions.
[53:56] We're talking about, where do we focus our energy?
[54:00] Where are we going to have discussions about the future?
[54:02] We want to talk about these things we said we want to walk a little park.
[54:08] Well, how do we make that happen?
[54:09] We make that happen with making it a goal.
[54:12] And then every two years you review that goal and you tweak it.
[54:18] So I think it would be a shame to set this work aside.
[54:23] I think that the public has had input.
[54:26] I have some language I think that we could change about the park specifically.
[54:31] But it would be a shame to set this aside and continue to be the rudderless city that we have been for a while.
[54:41] And I would hope that we would honor Kevin's request really begging for us to give him some direction and the staff some direction.
[54:50] And that's what we're trying to do with the stocking that.
[54:54] Let's move on. Yeah, I see this as trying to write a term paper. And I've done both things.
[55:07] I've written an outline so then write a very long, you know, 15, 20 page paper. I've also winged it.
[55:15] And I'll tell you what, working off an outline allows you to have a focus through way through it.
[55:22] Things can change. You can change the ending.
[55:24] You can change different things.
[55:25] You can put different things into it.
[55:27] But having that through line that I want to be able to follow it
[55:30] and change it as you want to is so much beneficial.
[55:34] Then just like winging it and like I'm just going to start writing.
[55:38] And also, you go on the tangent and you're going this way.
[55:40] You're going that way.
[55:41] And you've wasted so much time and effort.
[55:46] And money, you know, if you want to get a quick list of things,
[55:50] that's not necessary.
[55:51] not necessary for this. So the fact that this is like a strategic plan that's not beholden.
[56:00] It literally just gives us a little bit of focus. Now there's things that we can potentially improve on this great.
[56:06] But there's other things that we can give city staff a direction to start going down the road.
[56:11] And then they come back to us and we talk, we do public comment, we do town halls, all these things.
[56:15] We're going to have our retreat, probably, in February or March.
[56:22] It's a sensible.
[56:22] Or November.
[56:23] Try city in February.
[56:24] Well, try city in February.
[56:25] But we're going to have that retreat sooner than later.
[56:28] It's not a year from now.
[56:29] We could even potentially say, hey, you know, what?
[56:31] We've had a few months.
[56:33] We've had people reach out to us and set a waiting two years.
[56:36] Let's tackle some of these things now.
[56:39] It gives us and it gives the city staff an outline to work from.
[56:43] because right now we don't have, we've, we submitted our paper and we retracted it.
[56:50] And so I feel like that's the right way for us to go because otherwise we're just going to be
[56:56] going down the road and not having a direction to go.
[57:00] And if we want to campus and we want impact fees, how do we start the study to know what those should be?
[57:07] They did the study. We probably spent $20,000 for the way of the city to spend money. We did a study and then nothing happened just like to do.
[57:16] It did happen. Then the council voted not to, I mean, the price is there.
[57:23] Is there a whole thing? What's that?
[57:26] How old is it?
[57:27] 2014, and it was adopted and everything, but then they decided not to implement impact research.
[57:37] It was very successful government facility plan, which they said at the time, they looked at,
[57:44] to do all police, not fire, and public works, and said, you're going to have to do a minimum of $40 million,
[57:51] guys, a minimum. You guys gonna have to have that in home. Yeah, that was all done. And then for some reason
[57:59] I won't mention names. Orston decided not to do it.
[58:04] That sounds eerily similar to wanting to table and item the city's already spent $36,000 on.
[58:12] I don't think so. Not even finished.
[58:15] Council Member Cersei, I see you have your hand up online.
[58:19] Yeah, just want to comment.
[58:22] My greatest fear, if we want to go back to the term paper, is this council has created
[58:29] the outline.
[58:31] And as we go forward, I read this as we're telling the comp plan and the citizens.
[58:36] This is the direction we want to go.
[58:38] you guys fall in line.
[58:42] I don't like to work that way. I think it was a good exercise. We spent
[58:48] the money. We have some direction. We don't necessarily have to adopt this, but there's no reason
[58:55] why it can't be a working document on the side where you can take the pieces you need. But you
[59:02] adopt something like this. We're basically telling the planning commission, this is how you're
[59:06] deal when you're working with updating the
[59:09] compound and citizens of black time and this is what
[59:12] you're going to have to fall in line with. I just
[59:14] don't like that.
[59:18] I'm not sure it actually says in your
[59:20] bit but it's a bit. No.
[59:23] Customer Peter said you said you had some suggested
[59:25] language for the first I was going to ask data that if
[59:29] you can confirm for the record that adopting the
[59:32] strategic plan does not replace or amend the
[59:34] comprehensive plan and that any actions requiring formal
[59:38] planning, environmental review, public process or council approval will still have to go through those processes.
[59:44] Yeah, there's an extensive process that you went through to adapt the client, you're going to be going through that same process this time.
[59:51] Perhaps even a little bit more elaborate process than you would through at least,
[59:57] more focused process.
[1:00:00] To read out the complaint. So even if something you adopted in this strategic plan turned out to be 180 degrees from what you initially want to put in the complaint, that doesn't stop you from putting in the complaint, what you want to put in the complaint.
[1:00:14] The strategic document, I think, is Mr. O'Neill was saying, staff needs some direction to do something to know that they're not wasting their efforts when they're sitting and seeing all trying to figure out how they're going to spend their day.
[1:00:25] If they're doing stuff, doing things that the Council is not going to support, I think this helps
[1:00:29] give the staff some confidence that when they're spending, you know, they're weekly,
[1:00:35] when they're planning their weekly schedule, they know they're working on something that actually has
[1:00:39] council backing.
[1:00:43] Thank you.
[1:00:46] Yes, I do have some potential language. I think, you know, we learned
[1:00:49] very clearly that the Park is a sensitive spot and that, of course, nobody wants to
[1:00:54] to carve up their paradise.
[1:00:57] I think there is a section of the text that says,
[1:01:00] right now, it says develop a shared vision
[1:01:03] and invest in Lakeshore Regional Park to establish it
[1:01:06] as a major asset to the community and region.
[1:01:09] And I think that that's a little bit of the hesitation
[1:01:12] is that it feels like we're opening it up to everybody
[1:01:14] and people are going to come and groves
[1:01:16] and we're going to get overwhelmed
[1:01:18] and traffic is going to be crazy.
[1:01:20] And I think the intent is more that the city
[1:01:24] It has grown and the people in 10 trails have as much right to enjoy this wonderful asset as the rest of us do.
[1:01:31] And there are things that maybe will make that easier, safer, whatever we consider.
[1:01:38] But those things need to be planned and discussed in public hearing seem to be held all of that.
[1:01:43] But I think that we can soften that language and change it to develop a shared community vision for Lakeshore,
[1:01:51] regional park that balances recreation, public access, access, environmental stewardship, and preservation
[1:01:58] of the park's natural character.
[1:02:04] And I have that written if you'd like to have it.
[1:02:07] Did you get that, Ryan?
[1:02:10] I got some of it. I'm happy to share my screen if it's helpful to see the
[1:02:14] edits and I can capture them here. I think that'd be helpful.
[1:02:21] Let's see if I can do that.
[1:02:31] So
[1:02:31] develop a shared community vision and invest in, like, sort of regional part, or sorry.
[1:02:37] For, like, so our regional park, yeah.
[1:02:40] That balances recreation,
[1:02:46] public access,
[1:02:51] environmental stewardship,
[1:02:55] and preservation of the park's natural character.
[1:03:26] Was that the only suggestion you had to consider Peterson?
[1:03:29] So, maybe before we move on to the rest of the council, do you agree with this modification?
[1:03:39] Would you prefer, was originally there something different?
[1:03:44] I like it.
[1:03:45] Should I do it as a motion or does it matter?
[1:03:49] I think motion was to be just as amended motion.
[1:03:53] When we get to the adoption piece, just to do the motion to adopt.
[1:03:58] So, the other thing that I would consider is that we're missing two councilpeople.
[1:04:06] So, rather than being forced into a no decision tonight, I would rather wait till we have all seven of us.
[1:04:17] So, that would be a motion to table until the next.
[1:04:19] That would be a motion to table until the next meeting.
[1:04:22] All
[1:04:29] those in favour?
[1:04:32] Composed motion carries.
[1:04:46] Yep.
[1:04:47] David, I just heard a speech about adding fees to new development of houses and hand trails.
[1:04:57] Is that something that can be done or are we the part of the development agreement or those houses to be built?
[1:05:04] I would be happy to send you the confidential attorney client memo or email on that subject.
[1:05:10] Thank you for the specific and executive session if you prefer.
[1:05:12] Yeah, I got an answer. My question.
[1:05:15] And to be clear, it wasn't just announced a plan. It was throughout the city.
[1:05:20] Yeah, no.
[1:05:20] I just heard the details.
[1:05:23] That was the process.
[1:05:24] That's why.
[1:05:26] Let me comment.
[1:05:27] I'd like to comment.
[1:05:28] I'd like to comment.
[1:05:31] Marius, try to say something.
[1:05:32] Yeah.
[1:05:33] I'd like to make that quick comment is that we can't speak specific to 10 trails or loss
[1:05:38] and hills, but we can be specific to citywide adding this, which means every house built
[1:05:45] anywhere within the city limits of Black Diamond would get a facilities charge.
[1:05:51] So there would be nothing exact within the city limits of Black Diamond.
[1:05:55] And I think the city attorney would probably confirm that that is correct that we can charge
[1:06:01] everyone we can't be selective on who we charge.
[1:06:09] What's that little
[1:06:10] gentle?
[1:06:19] So next item on the agenda is the mayor report. I'd like to invite everyone
[1:06:26] out to the Black Diamond Museum this Thursday at 1230 the daughters of the American
[1:06:32] Revolution will be hosting a ringing of the bells ceremony in order to honor the
[1:06:42] 139th anniversary of the draft as a constitution. I'll be reading a proclamation. And so it would be great to see a number of residents out there,
[1:06:56] a couple of two weekends ago. I attended the Labor days. I just want to give a shout out to all of the residents, the vendors, all the participants, they came down.
[1:07:07] this is going to meet so many people out there. I'd really like to give a big shout out to
[1:07:15] Hal Hart, who meant the city boots for the entirety of the weekend met with dozens and dozens of
[1:07:22] residents. Also want to give a big shout out to the public works teams, a lot of people don't realize
[1:07:28] that when we have these boots set up.
[1:07:30] These community events, all the tear down and set up and everything goes, um, is done by the public works guys and so I also guilty when I get done at the end and my collapse of tables and the chairs and then just walk away from the pile of stuff, no, and the public works guys are going to go and clean out clean up after us so big shout out to them, um, thank you to all the volunteers that help make the labor day event possible and really just kind of read a little bit of a call the action.
[1:08:01] you know, Mr. O'Neill and I were there breaking down the
[1:08:06] tents and everything at the end of it, and I think we were probably
[1:08:10] the only people under the age of 75 that were there.
[1:08:15] No comment.
[1:08:16] Just being manual labor.
[1:08:18] So if we could get some more volunteers out there to help,
[1:08:21] keep this tradition going.
[1:08:23] It would be amazing.
[1:08:25] And that might have been an exaggeration.
[1:08:27] Sorry, if I just called anybody over 75, that's not.
[1:08:34] And then another thing that's been out and about there is the common area, the food truck area within the 10 trails community has opened up and is being
[1:08:48] occupied by a number of food trucks, if you haven't been down there yet, but would highly suggest it.
[1:08:53] Is that a certain days?
[1:08:56] Yeah, there's a couple of Cornhole tables set up there and ladder golf and a nice turf area, it's also swing down there, late when evening, get some ice cream or
[1:09:13] And wanted to talk a little bit more, I think that's going to become even more at a
[1:09:25] opening ceremony on October 3rd at 9 a.m., they asked me to be there and speak and I will
[1:09:36] send it formally in an email, but wanted to invite all the council members and all the
[1:09:39] members of the public to come on down and join the safe. Pretty big milestone I feel within
[1:09:44] the city would be opening the safe way coming. So yep, that's my mayor report.
[1:09:52] I'm moving
[1:09:53] Hello to the council report.
[1:09:54] It's council member Yoke.
[1:09:55] Thank you, Mayor.
[1:09:56] I have to personally last meeting.
[1:10:01] I did not have my notes from my commissioners meeting with Montenegro Fire, my wife and
[1:10:07] I have swapped cars and my notes were in the other car.
[1:10:10] So I will be giving my reports tonight.
[1:10:13] So at the end of August, we met Call of Allium through July from January.
[1:10:19] So basically it's 1,645 calls, which is up 1% from 2025.
[1:10:25] It's roughly the district-wise 71.4% EMS in 28.6% fire.
[1:10:31] Black Diamond is still right around 1.5 calls per day.
[1:10:35] This year we've had 324 incidents, 74% as EMS,
[1:10:40] and total for the year of ambulance transports is 298.
[1:10:45] We have some incidents on the green river with the rescue and some brush
[1:10:50] We wanted to recognize Lieutenant Nick Fost of 10 years, Matt Cleveland of five years, awesome
[1:10:56] Godwin of five years, and then Chapman Bears was there meeting, and we were celebrating
[1:11:01] five years, and he just really wanted to say that most of you fire rescue has great small
[1:11:07] town feel and six around and puts in the effort. During public comments, the union representative
[1:11:13] reported that by unanimous approval by the Union members, they would like to start contract
[1:11:19] services with Puget Sound Fire and Mountain View of Fire and Rescue. She's got Jenkins
[1:11:25] estated before that that they're they are now working on the transfer of fire services after
[1:11:31] the yes vote for annexation and she said that we will be keeping everyone and there will be
[1:11:36] no layoffs due to that vote. I wanted to remind everybody that we are at a stage two fire
[1:11:43] safety burn van, which that does include that any outdoor fires, including recreational and ceremonial
[1:11:52] fires are not allowed. So you can't have the little campfire in the backyard or anything like that.
[1:11:59] So you can still do gas and charcoal. You can have your natural gas and propane patio heater,
[1:12:04] but unfortunately right now, no outdoor fires. As always, I just wanted to say thank you for the help
[1:12:12] I'm not going to do foreign rescue and for keeping us safe.
[1:12:15] They were actually just down the street for me last night helping one of my close
[1:12:19] neighbors.
[1:12:20] So it's nice to have that support from them.
[1:12:22] So thank you.
[1:12:23] And that's it.
[1:12:24] Thank you.
[1:12:26] Councilmember Del Santo.
[1:12:28] Yeah, I would just like to address some states, the Alliance concerns about 288.
[1:12:33] I've heard a couple citizens talk about 288 and I was good and I asked you to start.
[1:12:41] And I know it was a requirement of the massive plan development and they engineer it.
[1:12:47] It is a very interesting.
[1:12:48] There are metrics reviewed.
[1:12:51] There are designs.
[1:12:53] Because that intersection is pretty inadequate for trucks.
[1:12:56] And especially since.
[1:12:58] It's going to be a teacher.
[1:12:59] If you look at the curves that are all laid up, it's going to be a nature in the
[1:13:02] Niagara Falls city.
[1:13:04] And it just doesn't look like a major arterial level.
[1:13:07] It's engineer correctly.
[1:13:11] So I don't know if there are metrics or engineers or reviews or it's mainly just a sure look tight.
[1:13:21] And if you look at the curve and now it's shoot up and as you can tell, it's not adequate for that.
[1:13:25] It's quite fabric that's going to be going next year or months.
[1:13:30] So, I can answer that, I mean, it's kind of able to as well, but I don't know if it's
[1:13:39] for sure a pair of metrics, but we do have one of our consultants review the plans as does the county
[1:13:45] you know, through the permitting process. So, in this instance, it was reviewed,
[1:13:49] I don't, they would have been a while ago at this point before my time,
[1:13:54] But that is the process, we don't just, you know, take that word for it, then be in
[1:14:00] copoint.
[1:14:01] There's a weird intersection.
[1:14:06] Why is all that equipment right there?
[1:14:08] And for a second, there was a term line.
[1:14:11] Right.
[1:14:12] There's another reason.
[1:14:13] And the right term line.
[1:14:15] I mean, it just does a look as a major arterial to 88 and to 16th radiuses.
[1:14:23] do we have any solutions? I mean, I don't know if we're prepared to do an interim solution like she's
[1:14:29] suggested by our we at least honing in on a solution. Yeah, in terms of the electrification
[1:14:34] problem, which was the last hurdle,
[1:14:39] the county requested the shop drawings for the solution.
[1:14:42] The solution is essentially putting composite poles that don't conduct electricity. We'd looked
[1:14:46] ground in and some other solutions but that's what they ended up finding it was the best solution.
[1:14:56] And so the county engineer to review it again, they requested shop drawings. We provide
[1:15:00] That those, and we are now in standby mode, get again.
[1:15:04] Does that mean they have to rip everything out?
[1:15:08] I don't think that, well, I guess it depends. I think the existing polls are not the ones that are
[1:15:13] causing the problem, but I don't know if they're just going to replace all of them with composite,
[1:15:19] just to be safe. I don't know. So it's going to be another budget years.
[1:15:26] So, no, I don't think it's, I think we're talking a matter of weeks to a couple months, not years.
[1:15:32] Okay, yeah.
[1:15:33] I don't want to add, at this point, with that intersection, I never make a promise when it comes to timing at this point.
[1:15:40] But, I think, I think, fingers crossed sooner or later.
[1:15:43] So, essentially, we're just waiting on King County to give us the green light.
[1:15:47] Yes.
[1:15:48] Yeah.
[1:15:48] The, for those that don't know, the intersection is partially in the county.
[1:15:51] So we have to rely on them, or we have to go through their process as well, since it doesn't all belong in the city.
[1:15:58] Yeah, and the county fire only reviews their reception, not the ready to just go on on 2018 to 2016, that's in July, not even.
[1:16:06] They probably only review what's in King County. I doubt they come in and on what's black diamonds.
[1:16:13] I believe they look at it. I believe they do look at it holistically as do we, because we need to make sure that their sections drive with our sections and vice versa.
[1:16:23] But I couldn't say for sure how thorough or not thorough of a job they do.
[1:16:30] Yeah.
[1:16:30] I could follow the truck the other day I popped in that and you didn't go in the other
[1:16:35] lane, but his trailer was completely over the curve and on the side on it.
[1:16:41] Just doesn't look like the engineering which is quite up to any standard that it should
[1:16:48] be.
[1:16:53] Tell some of the read, your reporter, thank you.
[1:16:57] Council Member Peterson?
[1:16:59] I was going to say I enjoyed Labor Day as well.
[1:17:03] I wish that Sunday had been a nice Sunday.
[1:17:08] And I'm looking forward to a tour with public works this Friday.
[1:17:13] And so we're going to be a fit at the spring source.
[1:17:16] We could.
[1:17:19] It's true. It's a fun work.
[1:17:21] Council Member Sorsy. Yeah, this is personal. Earlier this year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
[1:17:34] After all the scans and everything I selected a radical prospectomy surgery
[1:17:42] and the cancer was confined within my prostate so the prognosis looks good.
[1:17:52] However, I am now dealing with other issues associated with this surgery and that's why I'm online and I will be online for quite a while.
[1:18:06] As I won't be able to, for the next 12 to 16 weeks or more,
[1:18:14] I have to relearn how to control my bladder.
[1:18:16] So I want to make that personal, but I also want to let every male and every woman that loves their father
[1:18:25] husband, whatever
[1:18:27] Get your prostate checked. I
[1:18:31] Followed my prostate
[1:18:34] I was fortunate because I did it constantly. I was able to see that the prostate PSA number was rising
[1:18:45] As you know, medicine moves very slowly, and then I had my doctor tell me because at 75
[1:18:54] Medicare tells all their men, you know a longer need to get your PSA check because if you
[1:18:59] get cancer, it'll be very slow and you won't die.
[1:19:03] That's not the case.
[1:19:05] Cancer is grow very quickly and the thought of dying of cancer should be at
[1:19:09] to anyone. So please, if you're a male, get your PSA test, watch the numbers, never miss a year,
[1:19:20] and if you see the PSA rising, be like me, follow it up, push your physician, make sure you get
[1:19:28] the stands necessary and save your life.
[1:19:33] Thanks. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah, thank you for being
[1:19:37] relationship.
[1:19:41] Do we have a city administrator report? Very brief. So just a reminder, we have the
[1:19:46] Enem Clock joint meeting next week. Next Wednesday, the between our city, the city of
[1:19:53] Enem Clock School District, and then I also just wanted to thank Council for your patience with
[1:20:01] the budget item. We didn't feel like the material was ready for today, and we wanted to make sure
[1:20:06] it was, you know, ready for prime time. We don't want to rush anything. We either, I
[1:20:14] or Brenda will be reaching out to each of you to schedule a special meeting either next week or
[1:20:20] the following week. So please keep an eye on your phones or emails because we'll be giving you
[1:20:26] a call to make sure we can find something that everybody can attend. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.
[1:20:31] Okay, I'm going to turn your report.
[1:20:33] Not tonight, Mayor.
[1:20:35] Well, that's a first.
[1:20:37] I'd like to keep going.
[1:20:39] That brings us to our second public comment session.
[1:20:43] This is sir.
[1:20:44] Anyone wishing to dress council finish final thoughts.
[1:20:49] Anything that came up along the way you want to make comment on.
[1:20:52] May do so at this time.
[1:20:54] Again, raise your hand physically or electronically.
[1:20:58] you will be called a bond.
[1:21:03] Mr. Eckford, okay.
[1:21:09] This is mostly a curiosity.
[1:21:11] Something that seems to have fallen off the platform.
[1:21:16] That is the pipeline road.
[1:21:20] And being nice to have a status report on that.
[1:21:23] Some future accounts are meeting.
[1:21:36] My name is Jack.
[1:21:37] I live in Black Diamond.
[1:21:38] Darcy, thank you.
[1:21:40] That language that you changed in the strategic plan.
[1:21:42] plan, I think will help ease a lot of people's minds.
[1:21:46] It was very clear from the Lakeshore community clubs
[1:21:49] research this week that people feel very strongly about
[1:21:53] maintaining the park as it is, other aside from small changes
[1:21:59] like bathrooms and a disc golf.
[1:22:04] So thank you so much.
[1:22:07] We would recognize how important that is and we really
[1:22:11] appreciate you standing with like residents on that topic. Have a great night. Thank you.
[1:22:18] Andre, I see you have your end up online there.
[1:22:30] Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. Good evening, Council members. My name is Andrew Cook. I'm a resident of Black Diamond. I would like to take
[1:22:37] moment to express gratitude to Council member Doreed and Peter Center, their insightful comments regarding
[1:22:43] the strategic plan. In my professional experience, I have seen firsthand how essential strategic plans
[1:22:49] are. They provide critical direction for staff and help foster your coherence and high expectations
[1:22:55] with in teams. Review industry strategic plan. I agree with the goals of the city. I think it's
[1:23:04] going to empower staff to pursue purposeful work, aligned with those priorities. So I encourage
[1:23:10] moving forward with that action. And I don't. It's clear that the last comprehensive plan it
[1:23:17] took years to create and being rescinded. It just looks like you're going to be starting from scratch.
[1:23:23] And this council will probably not be the council that votes on passing that next comprehensive plan.
[1:23:29] So this strategic plan will give the city direction and the interim.
[1:23:36] I value the comments about the Lake Sawyer Regional Park.
[1:23:41] I am an advocate, but I also have years in heart.
[1:23:44] So I think being wise on that resource and having a lot of voices.
[1:23:52] Could I input in the direction?
[1:23:55] My number one thing would love to see a drop off
[1:23:58] at the end of the road there,
[1:24:00] so people could actually get resources
[1:24:03] down to the lake to enjoy with their families.
[1:24:07] Also, thank you, Councilmember,
[1:24:09] Source E for sharing that really powerful
[1:24:13] story about your cancer experience,
[1:24:17] just causes me to definitely reflect.
[1:24:19] So thank you very much.
[1:24:21] Thank you, council.
[1:24:23] Thank you.
[1:24:29] Yeah, he's great.
[1:24:37] Council and Christian Bryant.
[1:24:39] I wanted to just add something earlier.
[1:24:43] I was bringing up examples that you know you have a lot of a lot of important things that you could be spending
[1:24:49] of the city's budget on.
[1:24:53] And I mentioned fish passage and you know if you were to start making a list you could come up with, you know,
[1:25:01] dozens of things and what the priority is is, you know, it is a council vote and a council decision.
[1:25:08] I wanted to just mention fish passage because you can't pass an impact fee to really fix some of those issues that were created so many decades ago.
[1:25:18] It's very hard to get the money for that. It's very hard to get the money for parks because parks.
[1:25:23] You know, don't really generate a lot of revenue, but everybody wants them.
[1:25:27] So I recognize a difficulty of decisions.
[1:25:30] A fish passage has been put off many times, many years.
[1:25:33] There is, you know, grant funding.
[1:25:35] I know the city may be looking up that next year.
[1:25:37] And I think I want to just express support for that.
[1:25:39] And also to tell you that I did see Baby Salmon in the stream
[1:25:44] on Ginder Creek on Roberts last weekend.
[1:25:47] I tried to get a video, but you can't film these things.
[1:25:50] Like they're this long.
[1:25:52] And I mean, no matter, you know, how hard the road projects have tried
[1:25:56] to kill them off, they're still there.
[1:25:57] So that's encouraging, and they may actually make it, you know, one day under the future fish
[1:26:04] passages that washed out is improving on Highway 169.
[1:26:10] If you want to see them, you park your car on Roberts about it, Diamond Village, and then
[1:26:14] go across and like look over them when they see your shadow, they'll all wiggle around in the
[1:26:19] water, haven't seen any adults there in a while.
[1:26:22] So you could, you know, the Lakeshore or we are the Abrams Avenue cause way and then there's one under Robert's that's up closer to the round about you can go look at these and you can see why they adults can't get through and just wanted to bring some attention to that. Thank you.
[1:26:42] It's going to be your new honey hole, right?
[1:26:48] Is there anyone else wishing to address council?
[1:26:54] Okay.
[1:26:54] Seeing no one, I will close this public comment session.
[1:26:57] We have no executive session listed.
[1:27:01] I'll make a motion to adjourn.
[1:27:03] Second.
[1:27:04] All those in favor?
[1:27:05] Aye.
[1:27:06] Opposed?
[1:27:07] Meeting adjourned.