Heat. Heat.
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Heat. Heat.
[music]
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up
here.
Heat.
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Hey,
Heat
up
here.
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Heat. Heat. N.
Hey.
Heat. Hey, Heat.
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Heat. Heat.
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Heat. Heat.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Heat up
here. Hey, hey, hey.
Good evening. I would like to call
tonight's meeting of the Tacoma Park
City Council to order. Would the clerk
please call the role?
>> Mayor Cersei
>> here.
>> Council member Landman
>> here. Council member Dybala
>> present.
>> Council member Schlaggel
>> here.
>> Council member Gilbert
>> here.
>> Council member Hanzac
>> present.
>> Council member Wesler
>> here.
>> Good evening everyone. Apologies for the
delayed start. The council met uh
earlier this evening at an in an
administrative function session um at
6:30 to discuss uh the city manager's
review.
Um and so we're running just a few
minutes behind this evening, but thank
you all for joining us. Um
great. Okay. Uh so in terms of the
agenda, just make sure
the agenda this evening includes two
voting items. The first is the first
reading ordinance approving the FY27
budget amendment number one. Then we
will vote to convene as the storm water
management board and then uh vote on the
first reading ordinance approving the
FY27
storm water management budget amendment
number one. We will then have uh four
work sessions this evening. The first is
options to address unlawful restricted
covenants. The second is implementation
of a community connectors program. Uh
third is a resolution committing to
respectful, constructive and d and
dignified discourse.
Um and then the the fourth is
recommended appointments to city boards
and committees.
on um Wednesday, July the 29th, the
council will meet again at um
6:30 for uh an administrative function
session regarding the uh city manager's
review. And on Wednesday, July the 29th,
the council will meet at its regular
time at 7:30. We will begin with a
number of voting items. Uh the second
reading ordinance approving FY27 budget
amendment number one. Second reading
ordinance approving FY27 storm water
management budget amendment number one.
Resolution regarding approach to removal
of unlawful restricted covenants.
Resolution regarding implementation of a
community connectors program. Resolution
regarding city council's approach to
examining the risk and benefits of
changing to four-year terms. resolution
committing to respectful, constructive,
and dignified discourse during public
meetings. We have our consent agenda. Uh
resolution providing for appointments to
the grants review committee. Resolution
provided for appointments to the
recreation committee. Resolution setting
forth the dates of the city council
summer recess. Um and then we will have
two work sessions that evening. The
first is the public safety task force
annual report and the second is a
resolution ensuring trans and non-binary
protections. Um we have a meeting that
is tentatively slated for August the
5th. Um in the event that we're not able
to complete votes otherwise we will be
on recess from August the 5th until
um Wednesday
um September the 7th.
I'm sorry, September the 9th.
And so with that, we are going to move
to public comments this evening. Do we
have any public comments on voting
items? And again, um, this evening, our
voting items is a first reading
ordinance approving FY27 budget
amendment number one. First reading
ordinance approving FY27 storm water
budget amendment number one. Any public
comments on those items?
Okay.
>> Do we have any virtual public comments
on those items?
>> No.
>> Okay. Um, with that, we're going to move
to general public comments this evening.
Do we have any general public comments?
As a reminder, comments are limited to
three minutes. Um, we are asking for
everyone to be civil. Um, no use of
profanity, name calling, all that good
stuff. But everybody here knows how to
act. And uh
just as a FYI, the council does not
respond to comments provided. So any
public come on down.
Hello. Hey. Um thank you. My name is
Robert Beats. I'm from W 2. Um I saw the
uh general item coming up about racial
covenants and I just had a few um
thoughts to share about that. Um, first
off, I really appreciate that the
council is um taking on this effort and
addressing this issue. I think this is a really important one to um address and
rectify historical injustices. Um, I
believe that's an issue that the whole
public owns and I'm glad to see the city
as um an agent of the public uh to be
leading that effort. Um, I believe
removing racial covenant or racial
language from covenants is uh very
critical and I think it very much helps
um us work with those historical
injustices
um and to move forward as a community as
a whole. Um, I did have some concerns
about the size of expenditures um that I
see and how the use of funds uh or where
it is going. Um, having funds to address
racial inequity uh going to um
publications um that have uh for
outreach uh is a little bit of a concern
to me, especially seeing uh the
Washington Post in there. Um, I have
concerns about seeing that the use of
funds could be going largely to lawyers
and financial agents who may or may not
be uh acting uh with uh racial equity in
mind and the rest of their practices.
Um, seeing numbers at 250 and $450 an
hour um seem to be a bit of an issue and
just something to be very cognizant of
if that is a great use of the funds. Um,
or if there's just options to have that
happen in a little bit less expensive
way. Um, I've got some examples of
seeing that in other communities that
I'll I'll talk about at the end. Um, and
seeing the purpose in the slides. I I I
think the racial covenants is a is a
critical piece of this, but seen um in
the presentation slides that said uh the
city would like to address or the
purpose was to address the lasting
impacts of historic racial inequities
and to advance equity. Um, I really
think there's a lot of behavior uh
aspects. I think there's a lot of
culture in real estate finance and um
and injustices that persist now
especially with a fair housing act that
is kind of based on a colorblind
approach but not really an equity
approach. Um and I think there's a lot
of opportunity to um address this issue
with outreach to real estate
professionals. uh people are selling
their homes and how they address uh
selling their homes to uh an open
market. Um and what different uh home
offers can look like um and really
trying to reduce uh or have an equity
lens when you're looking at offers from
other people. You can get a lot of
advice from from lawyers about taking
cash offers uh and and not taking offers
that have um financing on it. Those are
kinds of things that uh communally and
culturally you can address that help um
really create more equity in real
estate. Um and I just I I love that this
is a large public dialogue uh you know
in addition to the racial covenants um
because um in Madison, Wisconsin, where
I'm from, which is a very progressive
community, but has um a lot of uh
injustice in um in in real estate. Um
they've started a few different programs
that uh has raved about raised about um
$1.4 million of private money to go
towards uh down payment grants and um
helping people buy homes.
>> Thank you.
very much. Do we have any
other general public comments this
evening?
Arthur David Olsson, Ward 4. And I am
still neither an accountant nor a
lawyer.
One lesson from the latest round of
budget work is that it's possible to
increase general fund revenue without
relying on the property tax as witnessed
the utility tax increase.
The good news is that more such
increases are possible.
The city sets up funds such as the ARPA
fund and stormwater fund when there are
restrictions on how money can be spent.
There's a restriction on stop sign
camera revenue. It must be used quote
solely for public safety purposes,
including pedestrian or highway safety
programs. End quote. But as the police
chief noted in advocating for a red
light camera program, there's no such
restriction on red light camera revenue.
Page 58 of the city manager's proposed
fiscal year 2027 budget provides
information on the red light and stop
sign camera fund. That fund receives
revenue from both camera programs.
Alas, mixing restricted and unrestricted
revenue is suboptimal bookkeeping.
The city might set up two separate
camera funds,
but it's simpler to treat red light
camera revenue as general fund revenue,
eliminating the need for a separate red
light camera fund.
To be clear, this will not increase
total revenue. It will though make for
better bookkeeping and will help avoid
confusion about the possible use of red
light camera revenue.
I hope the council will direct a change
in how camera revenue is accounted for.
Another camera matter. Maryland law
allows for stop sign cameras, quote, on
highways located in a school zone
maintained by a local jurisdiction or on
state highways located in a school zone.
There's no mention of cameras being
allowed within half a mile of a school.
and city law has very narrow definitions
of the city's school zones.
The council may want to expand the
definition of school zones in the city.
In any case, I hope the council will
ensure that the city's stop sign camera
program is operated in accordance with
Maryland requirements. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Do we have any
other general public comments this
evening?
Seeing none, do we have any virtual
public comments this evening?
» We were hoping to have um Mary Jane
Machoui, but I don't see that she's on
the line. She's not on. [music] Okay.
All right. We're going to move to
council comments. Do we have any council
comments this evening?
Council member Gilbert.
>> Thanks, Mayor. I amum I wanted to share
a couple of things that I wanted to
discuss last week. But um right as
public comments were ending um before
we had a chance for council comments, I
had a an emergency [clears throat] and I
had to step out. So um I think Mr.
Huber, Paul Huner was was talking at the
time. So Mr. hear me. If you're
listening, I apologize that I had to uh
leave the room as you were speaking. I I
did hear that he was advocating for
racial equity as it pertained to the um
the resolution for um the rent
stabilization
um work. And um I I appreciate both I
appreciate both him and Council Member
Schlaggel for um for that advocating for
um racial equity and and for wanting it
to be in a resolution. By the time I
came back, all my all my colleagues had
spoken already. So I apologize to you
all for not hearing your comments, but I
did hear the mayor um loud and clear.
And I and I and I must say I agree that
um
looking at things from a racial equity
perspective
is probably most suited in this case for
council [music] and staff as uh and I
believe that staff is well equipped. Um
and I know that this council is well
equipped. Um, so and and I've seen staff
in action and how they respond to
[music] things and and how they take
into consideration racial equity. So I
feel confident that
once RSG is done with with their process
that um we can really take a look at
things through that lens. Um,
something else I wanted to share that
um, I had the opportunity to attend an
80 year old birthday party for a former
police officer. His name is Carl Coats.
And Carl came to the city in the mid 90s
and um, from Baltimore City as a retiree
and and really poured his heart and soul
into the community. So, I want to say
just a few words and thanks to him. Um,
for anyone that may have known him, he's
doing well and 80 looks really good on
him. So, um, he did a magnificent job
and had really good balance in his
policing and he ushered in an a
generation of of police officers,
especially black police officers that um
hadn't quite found their voice in in in
the police um department and in police
world in the profession, myself being
one. And he was apologetically himself.
and he really um had good balance in in
between community policing and
enforcement
and um he changed the way we did things.
He really changed the culture within the
police department, kept us together and there are members of our community
who were um involved in criminal
activity back then that [music] are
doing phenomenal work in our community
and around our community who credit him
with
um changing their minds and in their
choice of uh of professions. So um
again, happy belated birthday to to
Carl. And on that note, talking about
former colleagues, I I got a chance to
watch the the walk out for uh Cindy
Williams, Lieutenant Cindy Williams. Her
last day was today. Uh very emotional
day. Um, I worked some years with her
[cough] and [clears throat] um, wishing
her a happy retirement and whatever is
next. And to the officers, I didn't get
a chance to say hello to to the two that
were promoted earlier, but um, one is
Victor Guskov who I served with who was
promoted today uh, would had the
ceremony today, but he was recently
proponented to the rank of lieutenant.
So, I'm really happy for him. And really
quickly, if I can, mayor, share that. I
know I said I spoke a few weeks ago
about um my communications with
Secretary Jake Dave from the Maryland
Department of Housing and Community
Development um um regarding um the
Edinburg, which is slated to be
redeveloped by MHP. And I had some
questions for him in hopes that we could
work on some things to um protect those
tenants [music] who may not qualify um
once they're relocated. And I finally
got I did get a response from him and I
wanted to let everybody know since I
said something publicly that I had
reached out to him and hadn't received a
response. He did respond and I was happy
that he did. He had been given a lot of
thought and he said he will be paying
close attention. So um really happy that
uh Secretary Day Secretary Day [music]
reached out. And that's it for me.
Thanks.
>> Thank you very much. Uh Council Member
Gilbert, Council Member Wesling.
>> Thank you. Um I'll just keep it brief.
Uh, I know last week,
excuse [clears throat] me, uh, last week
I said how, uh, for next week's meeting,
um, we're going to have a work session
to talk about how to better support and
protect our trans and non-binary
residents of all ages. Um, I wanted to
say thank you. I did hear from a few
folks in town um, that were excited that
we would be talking about that. Um, so I
just wanted to say again, um, if there's
any residents that have, uh, feedback or
questions or want to be on the loop,
particularly residents who are trans,
uh, and or have a trans person in their
family, um, please reach out. Thanks.
» Thank you very much, Council Member
Weslike. Do we have any other council
comments this evening?
Okay. Um, so, uh, I want to, um, thank
all of those that came out and provided
feedback. Um, I I definitely want to,
um, thank our W 2 resident that came out
and provided feedback. Um, particularly
as it relates to publication. It has
been a thorn in my side as well. Um, we
have written letters in support of
legislation to try to allow for
municipalities to not be held to the
state well the state requirement that we
post these kinds of things um in u
widely disseminated um news sources. We
have also most recently um sent forward
a legislative action request to the
Maryland Municipal League. Um, and I
have informed their legislative
advocates that these are things we're
planning to fight for regardless um,
asking for a bill um, to again come back
in Anapapolis that would alleviate or
eliminate the need for municipalities to
have to post um, all of these types of
notices um, in um, widely circulated
printed papers. Um so that was something
that was um circulating in Annapolis um
ear this year this session. It did not
pass. Um but we are continuing the fight
because even if it doesn't necessarily
help us with moving this particular um
restricted covenants work forward, we
have to post things quite often um and
so it could eliminate some some
resources um down the line. And so thank
you very much for that. And I also
appreciate the feedback regarding um how
and the approach that we take in terms
of addressing the restricted covenants.
Um and thank you Arthur um for your
feedback. It's always good to to to hear
your um your thoughts on ways in which
we can improve the budget. Um so
definitely look forward to um following
up on that item.
Um I will be in Madison, Wisconsin
tomorrow. [laughter]
Um so I am uh part of the mayor's
innovation project um and they have
their summer conference that is
happening um this uh started today but
it'll be going until Saturday. Um I will
be facilitating a a panel discussion on
building decarbonization pathways for
diverse regulatory environments. And so
be a great opportunity for for us to
highlight some of the work that we're
doing in Tacoma Park, particularly as a
small a small city, relatively speaking
um and the work that we're doing to
encourage um electrification and energy
efficiency within our multif family
housing.
And we'll also have a wonderful time
with the ma mayor of Madison learning
about all of the wonderful things that
they're doing. And there will be lots of
discussions regarding housing. So, um
definitely looking forward to that. Um
and I think those are the major things.
Uh with that, I'm going to turn things
over. Oh, I I apologize
um to um uh uh the police staff that
were recognized today um in terms of
their pro um promotion and um Lieutenant
Williams for missing a walk out. I I was
working in Rockville today. Um and I
just missed them. Um but I do just want
to talk about how important it is to
make sure that we're celebrating our
officers that are doing the right thing.
And um Lieutenant Williams has been um
as Council Member Gilbert noted, a
mainstay in um in our police department,
not only for the wonderful work that she
does serving um in her in her role, but
also the different things that she's
done within the community. So, um, job
well done, Lieutenant Williams, and she
would definitely be missed. And so, with
that, I will turn things over to city
manager Desparo.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor, the council,
and to all our visitors and residents
uh who were uh with us this evening.
First, from the Housing and Community
Development Department.
From July 27th through October, the back
row spaces in the junction parking lot
will be used by construction workers
conducting pipeline maintenance along
Carol Avenue. The construction workers
will be using the spaces to stage
materials and equipment. We ask that
residents please avoid parking in those
spaces during this during this time.
Again, that's July 27th through October.
So, it's a sizable project.
From the police department, the back to
uh back to school backpack donation
drive kicked off yesterday, July 21st,
and will run through August 14th.
There's a donation bin in our police
department lobby here at 7500 Maple
Avenue.
Items needed include binders, scissors,
calculators, tissues, lunch boxes, and
the traditional items of pencils,
crayons, and paper. A full list of
requested items can be found on the city
website. Thank you for making a
difference in the lives of local
children.
Save the date. National Night Out is
scheduled for Tuesday, August 4th. There
will be games, bounce houses, face
painting, and giveaways. So, plan to
stop by and have some fun. This will be
from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in front of the
Piney Branch Elementary School at 7510
Maple Avenue.
From the public works department,
a reminder that Washington Gas will will
be replacing the gas main on Carol
Avenue between Eastern Avenue and
Columbia Avenue beginning next Monday,
July 27th. Thus, the need for the
parking spaces uh in the junction lot.
The work is expected to take two months.
The work hours will be from 9:00 a.m. to
3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The
operation will close a single lane and
flaggers will direct traffic through the
construction area.
The Maryland Department of
Transportation has notified the city
that it plans to resurface Piney Branch
Road between Eastern Avenue and Siggo
Avenue.
The work is expected to start August 5th
and last about 3 weeks.
Work hours are expected to be 8:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m. The operation will close a
single lane at at a time and flaggers
will direct traffic through the
construction area.
From the recreation department, seniors,
join us for a fun-filled day at the
McGomery County Agricultural Fair during
the special senior day celebration on
Tuesday, August 18th. The cost is $6.
Enjoy live entertainment, music,
vendors, exhibits, and festive fair fund
with friends. Spaces are limited. For
more registration information regarding
senior trips, please visit us in [music]
person or online for more registration
information at
tacomaaparkmd.gov/recreation.
Please be advised that the Lee Jordan
Field will be closed for renovations
from July 20th through August 21st and
Ed Wilhelm Field will be closed for
renovations from July 27th through
August 21st.
During this period, the fields will be
inaccessible to the public to ensure the
safety of all visitors and to allow for
necessary improvements. We appreciate
your understanding and cooperation as we
work to enhance these community spaces.
Regular use of the fields will resume on
August 24th,
weather permitting. If you have any
questions or would like additional
information, please feel free to contact
John Webster at 240-6872202.
And from the city manager's office, our
staff shout out this week is from our
recreation department. Congratulations
to Rayquan White on being named the
Maryland Recreation and Parks
Association Member of the Quarter.
Recognized at yesterday's summer general
membership meeting, this quarterly award
celebrates a member whose involvement
and accomplishments have helped move the
association forward. And Rey's uh
contributions this quarter made him a
clear choice.
Ry was instrumental in getting the MRPA
Conference annual golf tournament off
the ground. From the planning meetings
leading up to the event to being
hands-on the day of, helping with
registration, general coordination,
lunch, pictures, and everything else in
between. His dedication and willingness
to jump in wherever needed helped make
the tournament a real success. After the
golf tournament, he continued helping
wherever needed during the state
conference. this past April. So, thank
you, Ray, for representing Tacoma Park
so well and being a huge asset to the
state parks and recreation association.
This concludes my report. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Okay, with that,
we're going to move to our first
presentation this evening. It is the
Youth Council annual report.
Good evening. Thank you, mayor and
council for having me here this evening.
Uh I have the pleasure of letting you
know how busy your youth council has
been this past year and have how many
projects they have taken on and um just
how amazing our our local students are.
Uh my name is Christine Haidider. I am
the executive assistant and the special
projects coordinator for the city
manager's office as well as the adviser
to the youth council.
Advancing.
It's not advancing. Sorry.
Okay.
>> So, as a reminder, uh the council was
created in 2017 and um the charter
includes um the goals of the youth
council to be um
uh multiffold um with participation in
the um system of local government being
our top priority. Um and then uh helping
the council address problems and
accomplish the goals um in the community
by working directly with the
representatives of the youth and to
serve the youth of Tacoma Park in a
multitude of ways.
Our 2025 2026 youth council members
include the names that you see before
you. I went ahead and colorcoded the
wards on the list so that you can see um
the representatives from your awards.
[snorts] As you can see, WS one and WS
four and five, uh, we only had one
representative, and so I would love to
see more youth from those wards apply to
be on the council for next year. We also
had the pleasure of having an exofficio
member this year. So, I thank you very
much for um, discussing that at the
beginning of the year and including him.
Uh, he had been a member last year and
uh, his family had moved just outside
the bounds and uh, he was really
interested in participating once again
and you made that happen. So, thank you
very much for that.
Our 2025 2026 projects for the year
kicked off by assisting the police and
the fire departments uh with a toy
drive. We then broke into small groups
and uh tackled three different projects
uh including participating with the
sustainability team on their multif
family compost project.
uh we hosted a youth town hall and uh
there was to be a report uh to the
council uh with a request and there will
be more on that in just a moment. We
also then uh interviewed nonprofits in
our area. We interviewed 11 different
nonprofits and uh city TV assisted us.
Uh so those will uh actually be
appearing on city TV and these were no
small interviews. These are going to run
20 to 30 minutes each. Um so some very
good questions asked.
We also were working on planning a
soccer tournament. We participated in uh
legislation and uh tableabling events.
And then we had um a big plan for our
July 4th parade which we will also
discuss.
The first item uh was participating with
the police department and volunteer fire
department on their toy drive. Uh this
is something that the those two
departments have worked on for multiple
years. They realized this year that
there were many more families in need.
uh just due to the uh different
uh financial things that have occurred
in our area recently from uh parents
being laid off uh to just uh the price
of everything going up. And so they
doubled the number of kids they wanted
to serve to 400 uh and they reached out
to the youth council and asked if we
could assist. We put out uh collection
bins at some local businesses and at the
Blair High School and we were able to
collect over 40 different toys to
participate in that with this ties uh to
the purpose of helping to instill a
feeling of positive self-worth and
esteem, teaching respect for the rights
of others and promote promoting
community pride.
Next was our small group projects. The
first being um uh partnering with our
sustainability team to help promote the
pilot program for the multif family food
waste collection. And I actually just
received an email today. There is one
member of our youth council still
working on this. They have developed a
sticker that they want to um
mass-produce and send out to help
continue getting the word out. So uh
this was clearly something that um
struck home for her and so uh we are
working on seeing if we can't continue
that.
The second was a very successful youth
town hall at McGomery Blair High School.
Uh we had three different topics that we
uh approached and it was youth voting,
the impacts of ICE and immigration on
area youth and youth incarceration.
Uh the youth council invited u our
local, county, state, and federal
speakers to share their experiences. And
uh many of you were able to participate
with us. Thank you so much. And u a big
thank you if any of our other
participants are watching this. Uh it
was an amazing day. Uh we had over 80
students from McGomery Blair participate
in each um portion of the day. So we
thought it a huge success.
Finally, there was to be a presentation
before me. Um
a small group, a small subcommittee had
wanted to approach you and ask about
extending the hours that parks can
remain open. They had realized that with
everything becoming more expensive in
the area that youth were having a hard
time finding things that they can do and
they thought, you know, if if the parks
could stay open a little bit later that
might be of benefit. Uh currently the
parks close when it gets dark and in the
summertime that's not as big a deal, but
fall and winter uh it's five o'clock and
it's dark. [snorts]
So they had done research. They had
spoken with our public works director.
They had spoken with um some of our
council members for their experiences in
the past and were ready to ask you if
you would consider um looking into that.
They knew that this wasn't something
that was a flip of a switch and and
could just auto automatically happen.
So, this was more an exercise in
approaching the council and seeing if a topic could be addressed over the long
term.
why it didn't happen.
And this one's hard for me.
As they spoke to people in the
community, they heard negative feedback
and it silenced their voices.
They didn't think they had the support
to come before you and share their
desires.
And so that opportunity was stolen from
them.
What it has told me is that this next
year, that is one of the things we are
going to discuss is that it's okay to
have an idea that is not necessarily
popular. It might kick off a
conversation.
We might find three parks that can stay
open until 900 p.m. in the winter. Who
knows what could happen? But the council
cannot take action if they do not know
the desire. And so we're going to turn
this into a learning opportunity.
Our next item that I am very proud of
because I come from a nonprofit
management background is our interviews
with some of our local nonprofits.
We included um places like the dance
exchange, our community food forest, uh
Crossroads Community Food Network,
Educare, Small Things Matter, and as I
mentioned, these are about 20 to 30
minutes each, a very deep dive. City TV
has actually put together a small um
promo. So, if we can take a moment and
see what might be happening.
Taking care of the community is a big
part of what we do. People come to
volunteer. People come to learn. People
come to teach. We offer mental health
services, mental health treatments,
housing stability, food. Our primary
goal is for children to have childhood
>> is to teach teamwork. With teamwork
comes friendships and that's really the
goal.
>> We just figured out how to help people
and it just kept going. The need didn't
go away when the pandemic. By doing
these small acts of kindness, you can
affect big change in the world. What is
the biggest challenge?
>> We have so many people that want our
service and more than we're able to
serve at our current capacity.
>> As a nonprofit, um funding and access to
resources. Last year there was questions
about whether the farmers market should
even open without hesitation. We're
like, "No, we're going to continue to
show up."
>> The infrastructure expansion,
infrastructure limitations, [music]
limited fundings and grants, finding
partnerships
>> for the department itself. Have a lot
more active members and a lot more
people who find a love to help people.
>> It's really physically and mentally
[music] exhausting, but they always go
above and beyond.
>> How do you measure success? We gave 60
to [music] 70 rides to individuals.
We've worked on 160 or 170 [music]
different home repairs.
>> We've worked with a lot of community
partners.
>> The fact that we've gone from 13
households to 360 that didn't happen
overnight.
>> I get the joy out of helping people.
Going to somebody's worst day of their
lives and I make it better. That's the
best feeling in the world. Living in a
place like Tacoma Park, it's very easy
to take an idea and then find people who
can gather and support that. This is a
hard what is it? 60 minutes. That's very
Um the that this project tied to our
purpose of helping to instill a feeling
of positive self-worth and esteem,
teaching respect for the rights of
others, and promoting community pride.
And there is so much to be proud of in
this uh community. Um, I got to to watch
over each of the interviews. Um, and I
was floored by the intelligent questions
that were asked. Um, and as I mentioned,
I come from a nonprofit background. And
this was something that was very
important to me because so many people
don't understand how their nonprofits
work. And so I thought if we can start
our youth off with a full understanding
of the things that they are up against
every day and how they are a huge
component of the things that a city can
achieve. Um they go forward and they
will bless their communities in the
future with that understanding.
Next we had been planning a World Cup
style soccer tournament. This was
something that we had spent almost the
entire year on. Um, and you might know
we did not host a World Cup soccer
tournament.
What we did find out, however, was how
important it was to be able to research
and find out the legal and insurance
ramifications of having a number of
youth involved in something as physical
as soccer, finding space um for such
games, and being able to then market and
encourage as many participants as
possible. And so while we did not
actually achieve the event itself,
planning a large event uh was something
that they had much experience in much
conversation around and um perhaps we'll
be able to do something along these
lines next year now that we've got some
groundwork laid. Uh this ties to the
purpose of planning and implementing
social, educational, cultural and
recreational activities for the youth
legislation and tableabling. Um, we uh
were pleased to be able to submit
testimony on Maryland HB0486,
the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. Um,
I don't know if if you had had an
opportunity to hear what our youth
council had put together, uh, but they
put together an eloquent argument for
the that case and that was a lovely
thing to get to see them participate in
at a state level. Uh, getting to have
their voices heard. Um, tableabling. So,
uh, one of the other things that we are
trying to do is encourage more students
to participate in our, uh, voting rights
as 16 and 17 year olds in the city, uh,
as well as to possibly consider being on
the council next year. And so, we
participated at the old school new
school basketball tournament at the
Flower Avenue together and at Junth. Uh
so I would like to take a moment and let
you know that applications are going to
be available online hopefully within the
next week and that you can share them
with anyone's entering the grades 7
through 12 who maintain a 2.5 GPA. And
just as an extra incentive uh this next
year uh 2006 into 2007 is our 10th
cohort for the youth council. And so
this is a kind of a a lovely thing to
see that we have been able to continue
for this many years.
And finally, our July 4th parade event.
I'm going to take a moment and bring up
a couple of friends. One moment.
[laughter]
May I introduce Bob the Yeti and Harry
the Alien?
I didn't name them. It's how it
happened.
These two gentlemen were going to assist
us in encouraging mo more folks to
participate in their voting rights. Um
sometimes what we have learned is that
people think that registering to vote
and participating at that level is a
very complicated uh process and so we
wanted to make it easier for them to
realize that it breaks down into pretty
much three easy steps. Registering which
you can do through uh our city clerk. uh
the forms are online. Education,
educating yourself on the candidates or
the topics that are before you and then
making sure that you get to your polling
place and voting that day.
We had created this one uh because we
thought that uh voting as to see whether
or not yetis or aliens were more likely
to be real would be enough of a topic to
get folks to talking [gasps]
and enough controversy around it. like
what do you think you're actually going
to find first? And it's been kind of fun
because uh if you were to pull amongst
yourself now, I bet you're going to find
three people going one way and three
people going another way and two people
going I just I don't know. [laughter]
Uh so it was uh meant to en encourage
those types of conversations and then be
able to be transferred into that concept
of now see how easy it would be to vote
for your award um and participate and
make sure that your voice is heard. One
of the things we were going to do after
a person voted was provide a little yeti
or a little alien. [laughter] So I
currently have a thousand
And as adorable as they are, I don't
need a thousand. So, one of the things
that we are working on is reaching out
to local businesses and seeing if we can
still continue this idea, possibly buy a
scavenger hunt. So, if they enter three
different businesses and learn a step at
each business and then come down to the
community center, they can collect their
uh reward.
Uh so, we're going to continue to work
on that over the summer as well.
Are there any questions?
» I just want to say thank you so much.
Um, our youth council has done a
tremendous amount of work. I am just so
in awe at all of the work that they've
been doing and all of the work that
you've been doing with them. Um, hearing
all of the the the the joys and the
pains that they've experienced. Although
sometimes they can be a little
disappointing. Yes. Um they sound a lot
like a an adult council where you have
some wins. You have some ideas that are
great and everyone boo you. [laughter]
You do a lot of leg work only to pass it
off to the next council to build.
[laughter]
So, it it is one of those things that is
um
such a vital life skill for our youth to
learn um in terms of how to keep
pressing forward and persevering. Um,
and in terms of the idea about parks
being open longer, I was actually in
some conversations with folks about
lighting [music]
at some of our parks, not just as it
relates to kids play, but also I think
some lighting could also help with some
safety issues. Um, because I got caught
in the dark at the old school new school
basketball tournament and I was like,
why is it why don't we have lights? Um,
so I have I have spoken to council uh
council member um Stewart and I will
follow up with her and her folks again
about what are all of the hoops we have
to jump through in order to get some
additional lighting in some of our park areas. Um so thank you very much uh
Christine and to the youth council for
continuing to keep us focused on our
youth and the things that they need in
our community.
Uh, Council Member Hanzac,
>> if I can just pile on, [laughter]
>> I I just this is so amazing. The youth
council was so very active this year
under your leadership and guidance and
counsel. Um, and a couple things just
caught my attention that I just wanted
to lift up. I mean, one is your
unbelievable and unwavering enthusiasm.
you clearly threw your whole self into
it and it shows and um and um and that
nonprofit video was just spectacular. I
hope that it makes the rounds in our
community. I hope we can have a link to
it so we could like click on it and send
it out on our various lists. Yes, maybe
that would be super cool. Is that
possible? Um once the videos on YouTube
>> once the videos are completely um edited
together uh they are going to be on
YouTube and each of the nonprofits will
get to post it on their socials or on
their web page to help um get the word
out about all the work that they do.
>> Cool. It was just so neat to see our
young people in our community um you
know like Howard Khan in a chair like
looking like he's on 60 Minutes
>> [laughter]
>> um or you know Roxan or Omar. Anyway,
all the wonderful all these wonderful
amazing leaders in our community. Um,
and then I loved seeing Leslie Romangh
from the um from the uh purple I call it
the purple school. Sorry, Leslie. Um, I
know the Tacoma Park Cooperative Nursery
School, TPCNS. Um, that says, "What is
this? This is the hardest. This is like
60 minutes." and um she's got that great
sense of humor. But I actually remember
that three years ago, the previous youth
council had some of us up here and they
asked us questions that even our most
challenging community members wouldn't
have the bravery to ask us on an open
mic and we were like, [clears throat]
uh, are you sure you want to ask that
one? You know, and so um I just think
it's fantastic. This is what youth bring
to us. And uh and I just want to say
congratulations to the youth council on
all the incredible things you you do. It
is not every day that we can even boast
that we helped to pass legislation like
Ruby Bridges walk to school day. So well
done. Well done. and um and an appeal if
your youth would like to come back to
council on this issue or any other but
particularly since they put the work in
our community communities everywhere can
be a hostile place we will stand beside
them I am certain we will walk them into
this space our mayor will be a beast I'm
sure about keeping everyone in line to
respect their rights to be heard um as
she does all the time. But I really I I
am positive that we can make them feel
safe in this space. So if if it would
take a word from any of us to come be
their allies, please encourage them to
think about coming again.
>> I will make sure that they hear that.
>> Thank you, [laughter]
>> Council Member Lamman.
Thank you so much for that report and I
want to especially thank you not only
because it was very, you know, wholesome
and full of really great projects, but
that you did include the projects that
did not get over the finish line and
that tells me first off that people are
setting their sights very ambitiously
and I really think that that's
remarkable and they they should be
congratulated and secondly it gives us
insight into where we have more work to
do. Uh and um I have a question for you
about the participants. Uh I think one
of the really wonderful features about
our youth council is the broad age range
of of eligible participants. And so do
you have a sense of um of uh who is how
many people are starting really young
and then sticking with it for multiple
years versus only doing this for one
year? Are we recruiting um across the
age spectrum and are we retaining people
for more than one year so that they can
benefit from what they learned in year
one to try and move it forward in the
subsequent years? If you have any
insights on those, I'd appreciate it.
>> I can speak to my experience. Um I've
only been their adviser for two years.
Uh but I do know that a number of uh
members currently have served for three
to four years. Um we also had two
seventh graders participating with us.
And actually something that I really
appreciated that I thought was going to
be uh one of those behind the-scenes
kinds of things that an adviser has to
do was to make sure that the seventh
graders got to have their um questions
answered and and voices heard as well.
They were right in there.
They uh whenever they wanted to like
make sure that their opinion was heard,
they were they just jumped right in. And
they were talking to 11th graders. Um
and I remember being very scared of 11th
graders when I [laughter] was in junior
high. So, um, but as to actual data and
numbers, I I couldn't give you that. I
could do a little research though for
you if you're interested.
>> Thank you.
Uh, Council Member Schlaggel.
» I just wanted to thank you. Sorry, I
might echo.
>> We don't hear an echo on our end.
I just wanted to thank you for your
approach when initiatives didn't make it
across the finish line or faced
obstacles that you you treated the
entire process as a learning experience
that they can carry forward with them.
So, thank you very much for that.
>> Thank you.
Council Member Schlaggel,
Council Member Wesley.
>> Thank you. Um, thank you so much. It's
really, really impressive and exciting
to see so many different things. Um, I
will just uh share that ever since you
showed the alien and yeti including the
little figurines, my mind has been
churning. Um, knowing that we have an
election day coming up, I don't know how
much how much their rent has been to
keep them stored wherever they
[laughter] are. Um, but wondering if if
there's any way to engage with folks at
our polling places
with with youth voting, but also a way
to connect that with kids. I know I
always go to vote with my kids and
they're just kind of sitting and
standing around and I would love some
way to some kind of activity. This is
not youth council specific. So, um, but
anyway, just if, uh, you want any
creative thinking on how we could still
get those out there and do some kind of
voting process, uh, I'd be happy to
help.
>> I would be a big fan of that. And before
I forget, I know that I had printed it
on the slide, but just to say it out
loud, we were able to do these because
of the July 4th committee's weird and
wonderful grant. So we thank very much
the the July 4th committee for uh
accepting our grant proposal which by
the way uh they wrote a wonderful grant
[laughter] so many
>> thank you uh council member Gilbert.
>> Thanks Mayor um [clears throat]
and thank you for
being um there for those young men and
women who are
[clears throat]
obviously well beyond their years. I had
the pleasure of sitting in on a meeting
with them a couple of months ago and I
mentioned and [clears throat] happened
to be there and was um and sat down with
the subcommittee that um wanted to to
look into the lighting for the parks and
the additional hours and it was my
recommendation that they they go out and
speak to members of the community. Um,
so I'm flattered that they took my
advice, but at the same time
disappointed that they uh feel so
discouraged and I'm hoping that they'll
bounce back. I'm sure they will.
>> Um, but I just wanted to also make clear
for the for those who are listening
community, the exeicio member does not
have voting rights. Is is that correct?
Just so so people know.
>> But um does have an opportunity to
participate in and has a voice in during
the conversation. I was also there when
they voted down the idea of the World
Cup and the disappointment of those who
really wanted to push forward but just,
you know, they swallowed it as a part of
the process. Um, and it was special to
see him in action on that day. So,
thanks for inviting me.
» Thank you, Council Member Gilbert.
Council member Dala. Yeah, just just
very briefly, thank you for being there
for them and and helping to support them
in this. And thank you to all of the
youth council members for for stepping
up and doing all this. Um, every year
the council delivers. It's just so
awesome to see every 10 years doesn't
sound like a long time, but it when I
talk with other communities, I find that
actually in the life of youth councils,
it is. And I'm really proud that we have
a continued active group of youth that
want to want to join and want to and
want to participate in this kind of
thing. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
very much. And thank you uh
Christine again for all of your work. Um
very appreciative of the youth council
and uh thank you so much. We will
continue to to work in collaboration
with our youth council going forward.
>> Thanks very much.
>> Thank you. Next, we're going to move to
our voting session this evening. The
first is a first reading ordinance
approving FY27 budget amendment number
one.
Going to kick off to staff to see
whether or not there are any points of
clarity or discussion
on this item. [snorts]
>> Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. We uh we
do have some in the staff report
publicly posted um some further expl
explanation of some of the uh more last
minute additions to this proposed budget
amendment number one. Uh it's
highlighted in the staff report and uh I
would uh like our director uh Susan
Chung to uh walk council through what
those uh adjustments were about and
we're prepared to answer any questions.
Uh there's also cross reference to the
uh tables uh in the uh budget amendment
itself.
» Council and mayor, um I want to uh point
out there are actually three changes
after the uh council word section on
July 15 and these three changes are from
the city clock uh division. Um, we added
$90,000 in the general fund and this is
a reappropriation
uh reappropriation from last year. It's
a $40,000 for the temporary assistance
and 50,000 for the contract and this is
to use for the unlawful restrictive
competent project.
So um the second item is presented by
public works and they added 70,000 is
also a reappropriation
uh to the general fund for the purchase
of a leave vacuum. Um and this le vacuum
was already ordered in fiscal year 26.
Unfortunately it was delivered late. So
that's why we have to move the money the
budget from fiscal year 26 to 27 to pay
for it. So again it was something that
we budgeted for 26 but because of the
delay delivery that we have to use the
money in 27. The last item is the police
department. They're transferring
$24,000,
which is a budget increase originally in
the general fund for the motor roller
equipment contract. And this money is
moved from the general fund and to be
paid for from the uh stop sign camera
fund because they have sufficient money
in the stop sign program to pay for that
additional cost. So these are the three
items that is included in the changes
for the first reading and these changes
were not in the original first um
word session. Okay. So because of these
changes there were some changes made to
our final um general fund unassigned
reserve as well as the fund balance.
So, these changes include an expenditure
reduction of $5,000.
An expenditure re reduction will um make
our unassigned reserve balance increase
because expenditure reduction is uh
almost
similar to RA revenue addition. So um
the design reserve has changed slightly
increased to 5.98 million and bringing
the reserve ratio to 18.15
where the total fund balance is close to
$17 million
at the end of this uh first budget
amendment. So these are the changes. Uh
it's highlighted in yellow and in the
table also um we highlight every item
that changed in yellow as well as in the
um funding sources. The changes were
also highlighted in yellow.
Um I'll be happy to answer any
questions.
Great. Um, I do just want to make sure
I'm clear on the um
unlawful restricted covenants um item
and how it was budgeted for. I just want
to make sure that I am
remembering this correctly. So I thought
during budget reconciliation we included
um a set amount. Is it was that set
amount split between these these two
categories? I'm just trying to make sure
I understand.
>> In the fiscal year 27 budget, there was
a budget uh included in the city manager
contract line.
>> Okay.
>> And these two items here, it is in the
26 budget and being reappropriated to
27. So they are two different um
different things but is with the same
program.
>> Okay. So um
yeah cuz I'm looking at the budget
services and charges total 5,000 a
decrease of 40 or 90% compared to prior
fiscal year fiscal year 26 budget
includes funds for advertising related
to the removal of unlawful restricted
covenants.
So, the restrictive covenant um in the
contract of the city manager was about
$55,000
and here is another 90,000 being moved
from fiscal year 26 to 27.
>> That's what I'm trying to make sure I'm
understanding that it's on top of
>> Yes.
Can I just provide clarity? Um so
the 90,000 was in FY26.
Um, and it was broken out 40,000 for
temporary assistance and uh 50,000 it
says contractor but it says newspaper.
And then this year we in FY27 we added
additional 55 to help uh pay for um
legal review that we may need. So we
have a total of 145 to work with in
>> between the two. That that's what I'm
trying to get a handle on because I I I
[clears throat] was like no I knew that
we had budgeted the 95k in 26. however
that was allocated. Y um and I knew we
put a placeholder hoping we wouldn't
need it in the 27 budget, hoping that
the the things in Annapolis would pass
and we wouldn't necessarily need to add
all of this extra money, but just in
case.
>> Okay. I just want to make sure I'm I'm
clear because I was getting a little
twisted around. Okay.
>> Yeah. The idea was if we didn't if the bill passed, that would have
allowed us to go with a banner, for
example, because banner is much cheaper.
then we would have had additional money.
Maybe we would not have needed um all of
the 55,000.
>> Right. Thank you for that.
Any other questions, points of
discussion? Okay. Seeing no more
additional lights. Um would someone like
to move the first reading ordinance
approving FY27 budget amendment number
one?
>> So moved.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dybala. Do I
have a second?
>> Second. Thank you, Council Member
Hanzac, for a second. Um, any additional
points of discussion on this item.
Okay,
Council Member Lamman, is that a Okay,
ready to vote. All right, so with that,
uh
would um we are virtual this evening. Um
would uh the clerk please call the role
on this one.
>> Council member Ladman,
>> I. Council member Dybala,
>> yes.
>> Council member Schlaggel,
>> yes. Council member Gilbert,
>> yes.
>> Council member Hanzac,
>> yes.
>> Council member Weslec,
>> Mayor Cersi,
>> I.
>> Um, next we're going to vote to convene
as a storm water management board. All
those in favor of convening as a storm
water management board, please say I.
>> I. You have any opposed?
>> I.
>> Any abstain? All right. We are the storm
water management board. Um, now we have
the first reading ordinance approving
the FY27 storm water management budget
amendment number one. Um,
are there um any specific items related
to the storm water budget, Director
Chung, that you would like to highlight?
>> Um, there's no change for the storm
water um budget amendment.
>> Great. All right. Any questions before
we move this one?
» Okay, no worries. All right, seeing
none, would someone like to move it?
>> So move.
>> Thank you, Council Member Lamman. Do I
have a second?
>> Second.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dybala. Any uh
points of discussion?
>> All right, seeing no lights, would the
clerk please call the role on this one?
>> Council member Landman,
>> I.
>> Council member Dalo,
>> yes. Yes. Council member Schlaggel.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Gilbert.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Hanzac.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Wesley.
>> Hi.
>> Mayor Cersei.
>> Hi.
>> All right. We're going to move to our
first work session this evening.
>> Thank you.
very much, Director Chung.
Um, so this item is options to address
unlawful restricted covenants.
Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so this
item here on the uh restrictive
covenants, uh, before I launch into the
presentation, I want to thank the
council members uh, for the opportunity
to brief with you all. Not everybody,
but with those we were able to. Um, and
I also want to thank those who sent
emails. um uh asking for a clarity. Uh
we hope that the briefings and the
emails um provided the clarity you were
seeking. Um I also want to acknowledge
uh Jim Douglas who is here from historic
Tacoma. Um
and um and then uh just an overview um
in this presentation in this proposal uh
staff is seeking to provide council with
a balanced approach um to carrying out
the task of removing the unlawful
restrictive language from um identified
deeds and um declaration of covenants.
Um the presentation is going to take me
about 10 minutes. I will zip through it.
um and then turn it over to the mayor uh
to open up the floor for discussion and
questions.
So with that, I will launch. Um these
are the there are three decision points
for the mayor and council. I'm putting
them up uh first because I want you to
uh um have these in mind as we go
through the slides. Uh the first
question uh the first decision point is
the um interpretation of resolution
2040. Uh in the resolution uh the mayor
and council directed staff to remove the
unlawful discriminatory language from
all deeds within the city. Um uh in our
proposal what we are saying is removing
the unlawful restrictive language from
those identified deeds and declaration
of covenants. Um the second option uh
the second uh decision point is
notification option. it is um either
Washington Post or the daily records
with additional outreach efforts. Um and
the third item is the assignment of the
project to either historic Tacoma who
has done a significant amount of work
already or to uh legal firms um outside
entities um who would need to do the
work uh need to do the research um from
the beginning and they would be um at a
much higher price. uh the scope if uh
whoever gets assigned the scope would
encompass making the modifications would
include the research the modifications
to the deeds and declaration of
covenants uh tied to subdivisions as
applicable.
Um why can't I move this? Okay. Um the
just brief background, you guys know
this, you guys have lived it for the
last several years and my apologies in
advance if it's uh repetitious. Uh but
I'm also thinking of the um uh viewing
public. Uh so the purpose uh it's the
addressing the lasting impacts of
historic racial inequities. Uh
acknowledge the harm caused by
discriminatory practices embedded in
property records and affirming uh
affirms that local government has
significant roles uh confront its
history and advance equity. The approach
is by exercising enabling state
legislation to remove unlawful
discriminatory language from deeds and
declaration of covenants. Um by engaging
a third party uh to conduct the
necessary review uh research,
documentation and modification uh
process to remove the unlawful
discriminatory language. Uh the
deliverable is uh amended deeds and
declaration of covenants covering
approximately 1,200 units uh that have
been identified. um containing this
offensive language and uh an amended
document posted in public record tied to
each property.
Um again I my apologies in advance if
this is elementary um but uh just
historical context uh deed is one of the
most important documents associated with
real property as it serves as the
instrument that transfers ownership from
one party to another. Um for example in
sales uh transaction uh deeds contain
restrictive uh language um exclusionary
language that run with the land uh
meaning that they continue to apply even
after the property is sold. Um such
restrictions um such as declaration of
covenants which are typically at the
subdivision level can include uh
easement granting um others the right to
use part of the property dedication of
public uh purpose public way and or
conditions or reservation by the grtor
the seller. Um, this was exclusionary
language that was uh designed to keep
people of color and others based on the
basis of religious uh and ethnicity out
of certain communities. Um, unlawful
restrictive languages were common
throughout the United States and the
early 20th century. Um, while the
unlawful discriminatory language were
ruled illegal and uninforceable in 1948,
some properties still include
discriminator discriminatory language in
their historic records at the property
level or the subdivision or both.
Uh, just again background some state and
city actions to date. uh effective
October 2025th, the state of Maryland uh
streamlined the process of removing
unlawful discriminatory language by
allowing counties and municipalities to
do it themselves. Before property owners
could do it um um and you'd have to get
their signatures. It was a bit more
cumbersome. Uh this made it easier for
uh communities like Tacoma Park to um
take up the project uh on their own. Um counties and municipalities have to
provide uh public notice. Uh this was
also a change. Um before before the
change, uh properties uh I'm sorry,
communities had to uh identify and find
each property owner uh property of
record uh owner of record. Um so that
was really cumbersome and and
significant amount of work. So this uh
change allowed cities to publish um four
uh four newspaper articles um basically
notification legal notice um four weeks
in a paper and local newspaper of
general circulation. Uh property owners
then have 30 days uh before the um
submission of the modification to
decline.
um Tacoma Park in 2024 adopted uh
resolution 24 202440
and the language in quotes is uh an
exact lift. It's verbatim from the
resolution which says um reaffirming
that restrictive uh covenants are
illegal and commits to take steps to
taking steps to address the city's
history of racism by the expeditious
removal of unlawful restrictive
covenants from deeds associated with the
residential properties within the city
limits. Um another action the city took
was uh adopted a uh approved a budget of
90,000 that we just discussed in FY26.
Um, and then just this past year in FY
for FY27, the council approved another
55 uh,000 to help pay for legal cost and
allocating a total of $145,000
for the project. Um, just a very high
level uh scope of work. Uh, the scope of
work consists of primary two components.
One is the public notification and the
other is the deeds and declaration of
covenants uh declaration of restrictive
covenants modification. Um the
modification component includes um five
subcomponents which is identifying the
impacted properties identifying the uh
restrictive uh covenants
or the deeds um containing uh the
unlawful language. amend the deeds and
the declaration of covenants uh
restrictive covenants as applicable by
striking through the unlawful
restrictive language in those documents.
And then it's completing the form. It's
the intake form uh CC-087
and submitting the modification package
which includes the original document um
the amended document which is like the
strike through and then the completed
form uh to the county's um uh attorney's
office uh for final review and
execution. And then once the county
attorney approves it, uh they they then
submit it to the um to the McGomery
County Land Records which is within the
circuit court to uh um for for
recording.
Um this is just an example uh this is a
great suggestion uh that we received
during the briefings. Um an example of
what a correction or modification looks
like. So, uh, this is an example of a
deed. Um, and so the struck language.
Um, you can read it, but it's, um, so
this is what it would look like. It's
not a new language. It's literally
striking the language, uh, that is, um,
that is, uh, unlawful. Um, if there was
to be an overstrike, uh, it would just
be deemed um, null and void anyway.
Um, next slide. The approach, costs, and
timeline. Uh, the implementation work
would be assigned to a qualified
thirdparty entity selected by the city
uh upon mayor and council approval to
conduct the necessary review,
documentation, and modification process.
Um, staff reached out to title
companies, law firms, and uh, Historic
Tacoma, a local volunteer historic
preservation organization, as potential
entities who may be assigned the
projects. We did learn that title
companies do not provide the service and
in fact they typically outsource the um
this type of uh deed modifications. Um
and through the title companies we
received um recommendations of the two
law firms. Um the cost uh based on our
research ranges from $42,000 to over
half a million depending on various
factors um including the uh entity
selection complexity, the city's uh risk
tolerance and other related
considerations. Um if the council was to
direct us to move forward um the the
work would commence uh in early 2027
with an anticipated completion period of
24 to 36 months potentially longer uh
again depending on on various factors.
So we go back again to those decision um
uh points that we discussed earlier. Um
so again the uh interpretation of the
resolution 2020 2022 24-40
uh staff recommends moving forward uh
with removing the language from all
identified deeds and declarations of um
containing such language and this would
cover about 1,200 could be less could be
more but about 1,200 units which is what
um we have been discussing for the last
several years. Um, again, the idea here
would be it wouldn't be all um it
wouldn't be all deeds. Um, a deed can um
a property can be sold and resold a
number of times and sometimes the same
language can be carried over into uh
into a new deed and sometimes not. But
what this would do by just going to all
the identified deeds is that it would
each of those properties would have at
least um a recorded document that
strikes the the language. Um
notification options uh it's the
Washington Post or the Daily Record. Um
in the staff report we discussed uh we
reached out to the banner who's uh they
only have an online version. We also
looked at Washington Examiner. Um the
Washington Examiner wasn't that much
cheaper than Washington Post. Um so
staff recommends moving forward with the
daily record and in addition we would do
more outreach. Um uh a council member
recommended um in one of our one-on ones
um uh reaching out in addition to what
we've said we would do, reaching out to
the title companies that are local to
this area so that they're aware of this
also. Um and so we would we we would do
that as well. And then the third um the
third uh decision point is uh who to
assign the project to. Uh staff
recommends assigning the project to
Historic Tacoma. Uh Historic Tacoma has
done a significant amount of work on
this. Um it's a it's a local uh
volunteer-driven organization, vested
interest. Um and they're um much cheaper
uh compared to the law firms. And with
that I turn it over oh one more thing
sorry next steps are council should
provide us uh direction on the following
the three decision points the attached
resolution um and then the next step
will be uh staff will bring a final
resolution for council consideration at
[music] the next meeting which is July
29th. So with that I turn it over to the
mayor.
>> Thank you very much. Um can you go back
to the decision point slide?
Um, so, uh, I just want to make sure,
um, that everyone's clear in in terms of
the distinction of the all deeds versus
the all identified deeds. Um, and so I
just want to make sure that we're clear
that we're talking about um, the most
recent deed of record where the
information exists or are we talking
about doing a retroactive like all the
way back? Come on up, Jim.
» Hit it one more time.
>> There you go.
>> It was already on. Okay. Um, so Jim
Douglas from Historic Tacoma. Uh, just a
little bit of a clarification and and I guess the last time I was here it was
a prior council. So almost two years
later, we're we're making some progress.
Um,
so as uh the deputy city manager and I
have been talking about this over the
last several months and working through
some of the complexities and and finer
points, one of the issues that came up
is um what it what the all deeds term
means. And so just to to slightly modify
what um the deputy city manager said,
when we did the initial research, we did
not look at every single property in the
city of Tacoma Park. We looked at the
properties where covenants are likely.
And just a a quick sort of historical
note, this uh idea of restrictive
covenants emerged in the early 20th
century. interestingly enough in
Minneapolis and Chicago and Boston not
in other cities where you might expect
it and it was driven by the real estate
industry and driven in sort of the
development process. So the the typical
way the covenants were imposed was
through um subdivisions, reubdivisions,
development projects and so on in which
they put either on individual lots or
often on the whole subdivision a
restrictive covenant. So the work that
Montgomery County Historic Preservation
Office started a few years ago on their
mapping segregation project started by
looking at subdivisions in Montgomery
and down Montgomery County and then we
followed up on that work and so our work
was focused on looking at subdivisions
and looking at those subdivisions that
occurred in the time frame that we are
interested in which is early 20th
century through mid 20th century. So
those are the properties we looked at.
So when we use the language in um in
these documents here about identified
ones, we're looking at those where
there's the highest likelihood as
opposed to going to some of the other
parts of the city where it's extremely
unlikely that there would be a covenant.
It's technically possible that somebody
somewhere along the line could have put
a one by one covenant on it. That would
be an extremely tedious and probably not
very productive set of work. So we have
I think the 1,200 or so depending on our
final count is where the the high
likelihood locations are because of the
time frames in which um the subdivisions
are created and that use of the
subdivision as the mechanism for inst um
creating the covenant as opposed to
individual property owners one by one.
So, um, that's that's kind of the, um,
when the deputy city manager brought to
my attention recently the sort of all
deeds and thinking that we were looking
at that we didn't want to leave the
impression that we've looked at every
single property in the city of Tacoma
Park. We've looked at those where
there's the highest probability that
there are problems and issues.
And and so um I [clears throat] feel
like this is a loop dloop because one of
the first approaches I thought of to
address this I said well why don't we
just ban these in the city and force
people at the point of sale to remove
the title company to remove the
information. I mean you're already
signing your life away when you buy a
house in Tacoma Park. They're promising
to never cut down a tree or promising to
do a lot. So
why not just
there's nothing wrong with it but I'm
just saying we have a lot of stuff that
we require people at point of sale and
so that is unique to us. So
if if the desire was to say okay we want
to we've gone down the path of education
not really not really fruitful.
[laughter]
Um, we don't want to necessarily want to
wait until everyone kind of these
properties change hands because that
could be 20, 30 years. We want to target
these properties that we already know
may likely have it. So, that makes
sense. But if we eventually as a council
wanted to say, you know, we really do
want all deeds. So maybe we have this
slower burn in place for those
properties that were outside of the
scope and and the likelihood of what you
all were considering, but over time if
they just so happened to be there at the
point of sale, that language could be
removed. So that would be a slower burn,
probably be be pretty cheap to do, but
it would allow us to still say all
deeds. It's just we're not addressing
the high likelihood ones over time.
We're we're rushing to address those
now. So, I I think um the issue with
that is that when
um a title search is done and when when
people go back and I'm I'm no expert as
you know a title company, but my
understanding is when they're looking
when they're doing a title search on
sale of a property, they're not going
back to the beginning. They're going
back, I don't know, 30 or 40 years or
something like that. Um, and so as as
the staff report points out, these
covenants ride with the property. So
your deed today will say subject to
existing restrictions and covenants.
Okay? Every deed says that it's a cut
catchall term that says if sometime in
the past some restriction was put on
this property, a racial covenant, a
driveway easement, a WSSC right away,
anything like that. It's not necessarily
and usually is never repeated in
subsequent deeds. It's covered in this
catchall language in um in current deeds
that says subject to any ones any rest
issue uh covenants or restrictions that
exist in the past. So our work had to go
back to the beginning on each one of
these to find those because if you look
at the current deed on anybody you won't
you all you will see is that catch all
language. So I think um it's from a
practical standpoint if uh if you know
we where I am up on Maple Avenue out in
the original BF Gilbert subdivision um
which was not which was done way before
any of this covenant stuff happened um
if that property sold you would never
unless somebody was really diligent
about going back to the first deed that
from BF Gilbert to the first buyer and
then following every deed forward they
would never see that and that and and
the likelihood of it being there is
infantessimal because people didn't do
that as vind people didn't impose these
covenants as individuals. The covenants
were imposed by developers. So um
>> I think just to comment mayor on on the
point that we discussed uh a couple
years ago about doing removing them at
time of sale. I think the a practical
problem with that is how do you enforce
that? We we could publish a a register
here's all the places we know of of
covenants, but then it would be
incumbent upon
>> the real estate agents, the real estate
attorneys and so on to pay attention to
that. And if they didn't, what what do
you do about that? So, I think um
accomplishing the goals that that the
staff report laid out in terms of making
a community commitment to racial equity
and and addressing the wrongs of the
past is really fundamentally best done
by by the city saying let's let's
acknowledge the past and let's deal with
that rather than having it bits and
pieces. So,
>> thank you. Thank thank you for that. Oh,
go right ahead.
>> I was just going to say that enforcement
would be the the hardest part of of
doing the point of sale. uh we would be
relying on people doing what they should
be doing. And as Jim pointed out,
you know, they're they're doing these
and they're not the likelihood of them
going back to previous um uh records
would they just don't have a vested
interest in doing it.
So, so in theory what we we would be
talking about is
all identified deeds based on
information provided from the county.
>> Well, basically the the the research
work we that we've done over the last
few years to find where where the
highest probability are and again it's
these
just a little bit more detail. So
started looking at subdivisions and then
you pick up a few names. So there's a
couple people um whose names appeared.
They were did they did small um sales.
They maybe subdivided a couple
properties and and when they did that
they um put a covenant on. So then I
took those names and said, "Well, I want
if they did it there, maybe they did it
someplace else." So I I checked all of
the work that they did. So um that's how
[clears throat] we you know find a few
odds and ends but but um it's really
these you know largecale property
transactions that were done. So
>> yeah, thank you for that. And and the risk I know that um you explained
the cost differential but also
highlighted um the risk associated with
the um varying approaches of
implementation from historic Tacoma
versus an outside legal firm. Can you
explain what some of those legal risks
are and what has been done to mitigate
them with the recommendation that you
are proposing with historic Tacoma?
>> Sure. So there there are a couple of
risks. One is um again you know not
[music] having identified all the um
properties with with the restrictions
but again I think Jim just explained the
approach. The other risk is the
potential for overstriking. So
overcorrecting
um in which case if that were to happen
it could potentially it doesn't
necessarily challenge the underlying
ownership or transfer of ownership uh
but it would it could delay somebody
from selling their unit because somebody
has to clarify that oh they didn't mean
to um to strike out this language. So
that's where that risk would be. Um so
if if uh historic Tacoma is to uh be
assigned this uh this project um
historic Tacoma has or will be procuring
um indemnification uh insurance coverage
um it's not indefinite um it has a term
um but that's how we we're um we're
proposing to uh mitigate
>> and so um and what is the term?
Uh, so we looked and then when the when
staff asked us, you know, what we what
coverage we have and what coverage we
could get, we talked to our, um, our
broker. So, we can get something that's
called Arizona missions coverage, um,
which is over and above our regular
directors and officers liability
coverage. and that covers um there's an
annual performance period. So my
understanding is that some there's a period under which from an act
from from the time the incorrect action
was taken there's a a limited period of
seven or eight years or something. I
don't know the exact number in which
somebody can challenge that. Okay. It's
sort of a statute of limitations type
thing. So, uh what what we can do is we
can get coverage for the period of
performance while we're doing the work,
which um ought to be far less than the
time that's in in here, but we don't,
you know, we don't know exactly what
we're going to find. So we and then we
can buy what's called tail coverage
which then has at a a somewhat reduced
rate for uh a few more years after that
continues to keep us covered which I I
don't think takes us to that full um
period in which somebody could could
challenge us but it it comes very close.
Um, and I think I I mean I understand
the concerns that have been raised in
the discussions over the last year about
um about this. I personally think that
it's a pretty straightforward process
and the chances of errors being made are
pretty limited and I think wasn't wasn't
built into the presentation just now,
but there's going to be some oversight
of the work that we would do um to you
know sort of spot check and so on to
make sure that our work is um is
correct. So I think I think we're doing
a reasonable job of um minimizing risk
for something that
you know these these covenants are not
enforceable anyway. And so we're we're
taking
what's largely a symbolic and um sort of
statement of of policy and perspective
rather than um actually modifying the
significant part of the deed. So I think
we're in good shape on that. But that's
the insurance that we would we would u
procure.
>> Great. Thank you very much. And
>> madam mayor, if I can just add one more
other thing. Um so uh part of the
$55,000 that you all approved um uh this
past uh budget season was to allow for
spot check um sample size review by
attorneys. Um so that's another built-in
um uh um I guess um built safety safety
valve. uh they wouldn't look at
everything, but they would look at at
sample. And this is the way that another
Maryland community, Washington Grove,
approached it. It was all
volunteer-driven. Uh they had their city
attorney do spot review. Um they have
much less unit count, but that's how
they approached it. Um so, and and
again, the the state uh statute, the law
says if if you struck more language than
you're supposed to, it's automatically
invalid. So,
>> okay.
>> If if I may, the your original question
was what's driving the cost difference.
I will say also we per the earlier
citizen comment, we're not charging
$2250 an hour. So, there's a there's a
big there's a big issue right [laughter]
there.
>> Great. Thank you very much, uh, Council
Member Lamouth.
Um I uh thank you very much for the all
the work that went into this and um I am
good with all the staff recommendations
myself. Um I just am want to flag in
discussing just now the potential risk.
The risk is not that we strike this
provision. It's that we accidentally
strike something that goes beyond the racial racially restrictive covenant
language. And you know, I know, for
example, in my own deed, which had one
of these uh in the subdivision, the same
um sentence that had the racially
restrictive covenant language also
forbade gambling and the use of of uh
drink on my property. So, I mean, it's
all within the same sentence. So, you
can see why um there is an issue there,
but it's not about the striking of the
covenant. It's about accidentally
striking something else. So, that
doesn't change my view that this is
adequately protective. I did just want
to also indicate it seems like there are
several people that will be looking at
this before it goes into the recorder of
deeds. In fact, the final stage is
conducted by the at you the county
attorney's office. Correct. So that even
if we accidentally were to make a
mistake, which I'm sure is very
improbable because historic Tacoma is
getting ready to be very careful, there
would be several other opportunities
before it goes into the final record for
somebody to identify and catch the
mistake in addition to the spot [music]
checking that you're proposing to do. Is
that right?
>> That that is correct. Um, so and I think
what uh what gave us a little pause is
in the form the uh the modification form
there's little tiny um print there that
says um while the and I'm paraphrasing
while the county attorney is signing off
on this if there are any mistakes it's
uh it goes back to the uh municipal government. So
>> actually and and this I was not aware of
this when we last talked about this um a
year or so ago and learned in the course
of our discussions over the last few
months actually the state law at the
very end of the state law after it does
all the substantive stuff about who can
remove them and request them and so on.
There's a, oh, by the way, is the very
last line of the law that says neither
the the county attorney nor the the
court clerk um are liable for any
mistakes made, which strikes me
personally as odd. When the county
attorney is signing the bottom of the
form saying, "I've reviewed this and
find it legally sufficient." Then the
state law says, "Well, you can make a
mistake and we're not going to hold you
responsible for that." Well, it just it
might refer to personal financial
liability as opposed to, [clears throat]
you know.
>> Yeah. So, anyway, I think um
one of the reasons it's taken longer
than I think than we thought it would
take to get to this point tonight is
that we began to uncover more and more
of these little subtleties and nuances
that we had to kind of work through and
manage the the as as uh the deputy city
manager said, sort of a balanced thread
the needle approach to get to the right
place on this.
So, Madame Mayor, um I thank you, uh uh
Jim. Um there are a number because
there's a a desire to get this um
through next week um uh when we meet for
the final time before the uh break. I
did would just want to flag that in
looking at the draft resolution, I did
identify a handful of um clarity and
typographical things that I think should
be corrected, none of which I think are
uh substantive at all, which I could um
maybe just share with um the staff. I
could go through them if you want or I
could just share them. Um but um anyway,
>> you can um if you wouldn't mind um
sending them to um Deputy City Manager
Hupy and if you also wouldn't mind just
copying the council on on the edits and
then that way we'll all we're all aware
of them.
>> Okay. Um um is it okay if I resort to
photocopying the handwritten version and
Okay,
>> I'll I'll work with the city clerk on
doing that. None of them are sub
substantive. They're but they're just
for clarification purposes. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Hanzac.
>> Thank you so much for all the work
that's gone into this and for um
continuing to champion this historic
Tacoma. And uh Mayor, thank you. I think
it's just really important. I happened
to have the opportunity to go through
the African-American museum just today
um with Teach for America and um and was
reading about Black Code after the um in
our history in our nation's history and
I if you haven't been there lately uh
it's it's it's quite you know it's a
good reckoning about why this is so very important because as we can see
there's an erosion right now of a lot of
things that we always thought were
sacrosinct but anyway I know we all know
that. Um, so I too support the uh the
all identified deeds from what I
understand. [music] Um, I would support
frankly the lowest cost option for
Washington Post or Daily Record. I'm not
sure whether it will really reach our people. Um, or maybe it's which one
whichever one is most politically
comfortable for us. I won't pretend to
be an expert on those things. I did
appreciate the commenter earlier tonight
from W 2. I didn't catch his name. Um
and the um and I would strongly support
the assignment of the project to
historic Tacoma. I do have one question.
The mayor asked about risk related
questions, but also could you just
comment quickly whether you have
attorneys on your board or are you an
attorney? We
>> I'm not I am not an attorney. We do have
an attorney on our board who has
reviewed these kinds of things. So
>> and would be involved in this process as
well. I'm again no personal liability
implied. I'm just curious.
>> Yes. and and and he actually was very
helpful in guiding us towards this error
and emissions errors in emission policy
which is you know he's he's a general
pract retired general practice attorney
so he's got a lot of experience in this
so yeah that's fine I will say just
quickly that um I think we anticipate in
it the state the law requires this to
publish in a newspaper of record but
there are many other ways that we can
also publicize this too in the city's
website, um the city newsletter, our own
outreach and so on. So I think there
will be many opportunities for people
who don't read either the Washington
Post classifies or the daily record
classif uh classifides to learn about
this um project and process that we're
going to follow. So for um you know
getting the word out kind of thing. So
>> is there is there any and this is I
think more for the city staff. Is there
any reason that we wouldn't send out
1,200 mailers to the the households in
question just to make sure it gets right
to the address we have on file or is it
difficult to get those addresses from
the getgo?
>> So this is where we were.
>> Yeah. um two years ago which I do recall
the state law you had to do a a uh first
class letter and so the the publishing
in the newspaper of record was the
alternative to um sending out a a first
class letter to uh everybody
>> to meet the legal requirement. Yes. But
to in terms [clears throat] of just
attempting to blanket um the
notification process,
honestly, I think I'm more interested in
notifying people in the name of I'm
going to call it racial reconciliation
to get people to pay attention because
it's addressed to them seems important
to me. Not really for any legal reasons.
And I just isn't it is it is it
expensive? Is it difficult? I know I
know we might get to the wrong person
etc. But
>> I'll defer to the staff on the expense
and so on. I will say it's it's possible
to do because we will need
>> in order to do um the work we will need
to right now we've identified the legal
descriptions the subdivision the block
and the lot. We've not yet associated a
name or street address with those. um in
order to do the work that's ahead of us,
we will need to do that. So, we will
have at some point a comprehensive list
of the legal description of the property
that appears in the deed, the owner of
record, and the address of that person.
And so, it's pos it's it's feasible to
um send a uh a letter to each of those
people whether you want to do that or
not. That's not my call. That's that's
your collective call on that. So,
>> so I will just remind um remind council
that the the original um bill language
that was passed um included
um requiring us to I believe send
certified um letters to all of the
impact house impacted households and
because of the process it would have
required a couple of passbacks and um we
determined that that would be extremely
cost prohibitive um to do and the result
of that was going back to Annapapolis um
in which I testified um to to get that
language removed from the from the um
the the state law um requiring the
exchange of the certified um certified
mailers which was cost prohibitive. Um
so then um it was replaced with okay you
can post it in um a newspaper. Um and
then this session we went through the
process of trying to not force us to
have to go through places like the
Washington Post. Can we just post it on
a website? Post it somewhere else. That
failed. But the reason we went down this
path was because sending certified mail
and interacting with someone via mail um
to reach a resolution or have them
respond and didn't send a follow-up was extremely cost prohibitive.
>> Right. No. So I'm I'm 100% aware of it.
Thank [clears throat] you for reminding
the the public and anyone who wasn't. I
was like I said I think the value to me
it it clearly would be much more complex
if if that which is why we didn't go
that avenue for the legal reasons but if
it's if you if if a further goal is to
help make individual property owners
more aware of the work that we've done
as a city to change things to transform
things knowing that frankly many of the
property owners who are there today may
not really be fully aware of what's in
their deeds. I think there's great value
in that if it wasn't a big lift and
knowing that many of them wouldn't reach
the intended recipient because maybe
they really aren't the p maybe they're
not alive maybe they're not the person
who owns the deed anymore maybe they
aren't living at that address what you
know the many reasons but many of them
would reach them and in a more
personalized way that I think would have
value anyway I'd be interested in
knowing if it wasn't certified mail if
it was basic straight up mail and at the
end of the day we had the addresses is
whether that's something that we might
consider doing um for for the purpose of
um you know educa community education
and awareness and really building that bridge all the way to its
destination as much as possible. Anyway,
that's that's just a further thought
that I have um that just came upon me as
I was looking at all of this and what's
the purpose of doing all of this? Um,
and I think I think that covers Oh, I
did. I am I can I just in case I use
this statistic for later in case anybody
has questions. So, the total cost of the
process that we're going through as we
see it now over the two years or the two
years that we imagine would be about
145,000. So, I just did a quick back of
the envelope which would be about $120
which is nothing per property. Um, does
that sound like about right if someone
should ask? What are we spending on on
this? I think it's worth an infinite
amount of money, but obviously there
will be questions and I would like to be
able to answer them coherently.
>> So, that is what we're we're we're
anticipating at the moment.
>> Okay.
>> Um, yeah. And Madame Mayor, may may I
just um answer the question regarding
the uh sending out letters?
>> Yeah. Um so sending out the letters um a
it's it would be costly and b the danger
we deal with that is not identifying the
correct or the not the correct not
identifying all of those folks that have
um ownership stake. So, the law, as
Madame Mayor mentioned, the law was uh
was changed to make that easier to
streamline it. Um, so that we just
posted on a a newspaper. And we actually
believe that we would do a better job
than the Washington Post, even if we
were to go with a Washington Post.
>> You know, you could argue that
readership isn't what it used to be. And
really uh think outside of land use
attorneys um you know real estate folks,
regular folks aren't going to probably
look at the legal notices. So we are
actually counting more on the city
manager um weekly report to council on
the gym's website historic website our newsletter. We're relying on
those more to inform residents than
anything else than any other medium.
If I if I could just I don't know if my
meaning though if either I'm missing
something or I haven't communicated
clearly. I I am suggesting that this
would be a pathway if if it's not that
much to send basic mail knowing that
there would be a lot of inaccurate you
know or not all the people etc that this
had nothing would have nothing to do
with the legal side of things really
that this would simply be hey this even
after this this has been done um this is
why this is the history behind this this
is why you know this is what it looked
like be this is what it looked like this
is what it looks like now or something
um And then I don't know whether there's
liability involved in doing something
like that. But um if it could be done
without any liability risk, it would be
an interesting pathway to me to getting
more directly. I think people many
people who we might like to reach um to really deeply more deeply reflect on
these issues rather than just seeing a
blanket statement in the paper. Uh I
think it could be somewhat
transformative. Frankly, uh I I as a
white person who owns a home in this
city that happened to have been
redlined, this has all been very new for
me to learn about restrictive covenants
and the role that they've played during
my lifetime. And I think it is deeply uh
important that we really go deep on
these issues and not just sort of gloss
over it particularly when we're taking
the time to invest in this as a as a
part of our racial reconciliation
process as as a city.
>> Yeah. And just if I can add
clarification. So, the publication that
we would put um is actually it's it's um
it's the street address um and you know
a brief description of what we're doing
and it's um we're probably going to do
it by block. So, it might say you know
impacted properties include uh Maple
Avenue blocks 5,000 to, you know, 7,000.
Um that's what the notice would be. And
then on our uh website and which we are
required to do per the law posted on the
website the notice on the website and
[music] then the city manager's report
for example it would say um he the city
manager would say oh city of Tacoma Park
is enga has engaged blah blah um and we
will be undertaking this and property
owners will have 30 days uh to reject uh
or object to the modifications. So,
those are the kind of notices that would
go, but I hear you. Um,
>> and I hear you too. Yeah. Yeah. Thank
you.
>> Yeah. I mean, I think um after hearing
council member Hanzac, um it might be
useful for us to estimate or to include
um a cost for a onetime once we have the
actual addresses.
um a one-time information mailer, not in any way related to what is legal
was legally required to do because that
would have just like that's a whole
different thing. Like sending people
forms and all of that just adds to the
bulk. But if we could send one mailer to
the impacted households that would
simply state your home has been
identified as part of blah blah blah and there will be
modifications made to your deed to
remove restricted covenants language.
This is what it is. You have additional
questions, please contact historic
Tacoma, city of Tacoma Park. And then
that way I don't know if that would be
useful or not because then you might
draw people in to where they actually
>> do themselves. Again, just speaking to
the feasibility as opposed to whether
it's a good idea or not. Um I'm not
taking I was not not going to take a
position on that. From a feasibility
standpoint, we will have a list of
addresses. It's somewhere between
probably a,000 and 1,200 at this point.
So, you could multiply that number times
whatever a first class postage stamp is
um and the cost of a little bit of paper
and envelopes. If it was a generic
um statement that said, you know, dear
property owner or whatever, um that
would be you could just stick one of
those in everyone. If you if it was
dear, you know, Sam and Mary Jones at
XY, then you get then you're going to
start talking about cost because then
each one of those pieces of paper would
have to be individually um you know,
produced and put in the right envelope
and everything. So, a generic would be
um from a feasibility standpoint
relatively easy to do. Whether and how
to do it, I think there's some pros and
cons on that. I understand um Council
Member Hanzac's rationale um and I'd be
happy to talk about it at some point
whether that's something that's worth
doing. We will I will just say it will
take a while to once once if and when
you approve um moving forward. Um then
we've got some work to do in terms of an
actual agreement and then we've got to
get some work to do from you know um
ramping up the project. So it will be,
you know, some months into next year
before we really have detailed
information which at which point that
conversation could be had with whoever
wants to have a conversation about
whether it would make sense and when in
the process it would make sense to move
forward on that. So yeah, I think it's
something that can be talked about in
the future if you want to talk about it.
>> Excellent.
>> Madame Mayor, if I can just before just
to manage expectations, I do want to run
this by uh the city attorney to make
sure that it doesn't violate anything.
So before I uh commit, can I get back to
you guys on that one?
>> Okay. Yeah,
>> I'm riskaverse. [laughter]
>> No, you're not.
>> These options are all full of [laughter]
risk.
>> Well, some levels of risk.
>> U council member Dybala.
>> Yeah, just very briefly, I support all
three of the staff recommendations.
I agree that um more outreach
uh beyond the ones that have been
identified should be explored. Um and I
want to thank historic Tacoma in
particular for your persistence over the
past couple of years and hanging in
there till we got as far as we are now
and to the staff for working on this. Um
and I think that's it.
>> Thank you very much, Council Member
Wesle.
>> Uh thank you. I'm basically ditto what
uh council member Dybala said. Um I
agree with the three staff
recommendations. Thank you for the staff
working on it. Thank you so much to
Historic Tacoma.
>> Thank you very much. All right. Uh
>> oh, Council Member Schlago, I'm sorry I
did not see your hand.
>> Thank you. Thank you to
uh Deputy City Manager Up and also
Douglas. I agree with all the
recommendations
and um I just had one suggestion and one
quick question. My suggestion is in
light of the recent thread of
conversation,
maybe we already since we already mailed
a newsletter to all addresses, we could
serve the educational
goal of this by doing a headline once
the project is done saying, "Did your
property have a have a restricted co
restrictive covenant?" Look it up. and
then we could publish maybe across two
pages of the newsletter each address or
each block as needed.
Um, and my question is just to make sure
when the strikethroughs are done for for
when a strikethrough is done for each
property, will it be done to the most
recent version of the deed on which that
restrictive covenant appeared?
That's
so um let let me go back again to say
the the covenant
I will say I won't say
always but I will say 99.9% of the time
the covenant only appears once and it
[music] occurs in the first deed that
was when the essentially the developer
sold it to either the developer created
a subdivision and covenanted everything
in the subdivision or they sold the
individual properties. So the covenant
language appears there and then
subsequently every deed after that says
subject to existing covenants. So we
need to go back to that first deed where
it appears which is really the first
deed in the in the subdivision or or the
sale. uh and that in the example that um
was provided um both as the attachment
to the presentation and then the
Washington Grove example that was in the package um you will see I I think
some of the language is blocked out on
that but but it it well the attachment
is there the Washington Grove one you
can see the attached um uh covenant
language is struck through and that
would be at the time and whenever
Washington Grove did this and when they
were done in Washington Grove, which is
out of 30s or 20s or something, that's
when that deed was. So, um, it would not
be the deed that you have today. It
would be the deed that
where that covenant appeared the first
time in the 20s or 30s or 40s. That is
that
>> yes clarification. Okay. Yeah.
And then and then what's just to be
clear what that you know every time a
property is um there's a transaction on
that property that action is recorded.
So both sales which are deeds but also
mortgages are recorded in the property
records and it's part of the chain of
title of that property. This struck
covenant
adds to that chain of title. So it gets
recorded as part of the land of the
record of that property. So anybody
going and looking at you know doing a
title searching working backward would
see explicitly in 2027 2028 um that
property that covenant was restricted.
So it will be very explicit to anybody
looking at a modern deed or a modern
property record that that covenant has
been been struck. You don't have to go
back in time.
>> Thank you.
very much. All right, seeing
no more lights, um I just want to thank
uh our staff and historic Tacoma for all
of the work that you all have done to
get us to this point. Um I am I am in
support of the recommendations by staff,
but I do think there's some
clarification that's needed um in the
resolution. I'll provide you all with
some language to make it some of the the
points that were raised tonight clearer.
Um, and uh definitely look forward to
getting this thing done. It's been a
long time coming,
multiple trips to Annapolis by multiple
people. Uh, so we are excited to see
this move forward. Um, and uh, uh, look
forward to bringing it back for council
vote next week.
>> All right. So, we're going to move to
our um next item, which is
implementation of a community connectors
program.
Hello. Hello. There we go. Good evening,
Madame Mayor and Council. Um, we are
back for another week in community
connectors. Um a little bit of recap
from last week's meeting uh last week's
work session and uh a work session
tonight on the resolution regarding the
uh potential option for implementing
community connectors program. Um so I
want to just start us off by um doing a
quick revisit to what some of the
discussion was about in last week's work
session. Um one of the major topics week
we're joined by uh Lawrence Abbees from
um National League of Cities. Um
highlight this highlighting the city's
participation and progress through the
community engagement academy through the
National League of Cities. Um we I
talked about the identified emerging
priorities and recommended related
objectives and strategies that could be
addressed in the community connectors
program. highlighted some outreach for
original highlighted that outreach for
some of the original program objectives
um related to housing, social services,
economic development matters is already
occurring through existing staff um
proposed
the recruitment of a contractor to
provide necessary staff capacity to
implement recommended objectives and
strategies and suggested some next steps
for council direction. based on the
feedback that we received in the July
15th um work session. Um we wanted to
just highlight some of the feedback that
we that we heard um just as a little bit
quick note um these were comments that
we heard and do not necessarily
represent a consensus from the council.
Um but one of the one topic that we
heard um in the feedback was revising
the position description um to something
that that uh mirrors something like
change management um pure curring a
contractor to train city staff with
public facing roles on more impactful
communication strategies evaluate the
city's current engagement practices with
the community and suggesting new and
improved methods developing appropriate
metrics and key performance indicators
for a community comm community
connectors program specifically and
assessing the progress in community
connectors program and recommendations
on next steps regarding how or um or how
to continue postcontractor.
Um so one of the other things that we
heard was continuing ongoing community
engagement. Um that includes housing,
social service, economic development. Um
uh we heard from council that we wanted
to work within the staff's current
capacity or some council members to work
within staff's current capacity
utilizing training and best practice and
strategies to be more effective in the
community engagement that uh we do in
the in the city. Um artic one of the
other things we heard was the need to
articulate council's role in community
engagement as well as um the focus on
addressing the needs of those
historically underserved or un
hard-to-reach groups.
So, also based on feedback, we are
offering a revised contractor role.
We're proposing, sorry, a a revised
contractor role. Um, we are proposing an
18-month assignment for a contractor
with a narrower scope of work. Um, the
compensation in order to uh better
attract a qualified candidate, we are
proposing a rate of $100,000 a year um
which would total $150,000 over 18
months.
The contractor in the narrower scope of
work would work collaboratively with the
city to conduct internal staff training,
evaluate the current community
engagement practices, collaborate with
staff to propose and implement new
community engagement practices um and
expand engagement practices with our
various community organizations that are
doing um great community engagement work
at already um and have that
pre-established trust. develop civic
education efforts and create metrics for
this specific program.
And then um we are also uh proposing the
contractor would then provide
recommendations for continuity um beyond
the 18-month scope of work.
So to go into some additional details on
the revised project scope and some
potential deliverables,
the first um major point that we want to
address through this project and the
revised role of the contractor is
training city staff and public facing
roles on more impactful practices and
strategies. A potential deliverable is
increased capacity for staff um for
effective interdep departmental
collaboration and outward community
engagement practices.
A second point that we want to address
is evaluating the city's current
engagement practices and suggesting new
and improved methods for conducting
community engagement. Um so among what
staff are currently doing, can a
contractor come in, work collaboratively
with those staff members and um propose
new and improved methods and techniques
to better reach um especially those
historically underserved residents. Um,
a potential deliverable would be report
highlighting city's engagement practices
and recommendations for long-term
sustainability of those practices.
Implementation of new techniques for
community engagement as well as best
practices and appropriate metrics and
performance indicators for determining
the success and progress of community
engagement practices.
A third item in the project scope um of
this revised uh contractor position um
and project over the 18 months would be
to identify and support community
organizations to encourage participation
in a community organization network such
as providers council. So helping the
city identify organizations that may not
currently be part of an or community
organization network like the providers
council and inviting them to the table.
Um, a potential deliverable would be an
expanded expanded network of community
organizations that represents a broader
portion of the community such as tenant
associations, um, grassroots groups, um,
and, uh, religious organizations and, the like.
Also another deliverable or another
project scope item will be continuing
the ongoing community engagement work
with current staff capacity utilizing
those new best practices and strategies
to be more effective in the engagement.
Some deliverables could be oper
operationalized best practices for city
staff and staff that are trained in
effective engagement with the community
for those city initiatives.
A fifth project item in the project
scope that we're proposing is
researching proposing opportunities for
civic education efforts with the
community. This deliverable would be the
guiding of an implementation of civic
education programs that could lead to an
increased number of residents um
especially those historically
underserved residents with the to be
provided with the skills and knowledge
to be able to better navigate local
government services. Ideally, this would
then allow those residents to be more to
more effectively access resources which
meet their daily needs. Some examples
could be food, clothing, legal aid. We'd
want to hear from those residents to to
um develop [snorts] civic education
programs that best meet their needs and
best allow them to access those. Um and
then this civic education could lead
these residents to be to be more um
active participants in civic life.
A sixth item is that council will foster
relationships among city staff and
community groups, broaden the city's
outreach and with residents, providing
city with feedback on engagement
practices and assisting with civic
education efforts, recognizing council's
uh relationship with the community. Um
we want to be able to leverage that
council's reach and uh be able to extend
our comm community engagement efforts
with um our council members. potential
outcome would be better informed
residents about the resources available
to them, engagement practices improving,
and residents benefiting from the
perspectives and expertise of council
members, especially in those civic
education efforts.
Finally, um beginning to de develop
metrics and key performance indicators
that will help us measure the impact of
our community engagement practices. Um
and so the deliverable would be the
city's measurement of those community
engagement activities and then taking
the metrics that we have and
implementing improvements based on the
results. Um and then at the end of the
18th month period well be before the
18-month period we this contractor along
with city staff would present regular
reports to council highlighting progress
key takeaways and the need to improve
community agent practices with the along
with a report at the end of the 18month
period.
So, um there is a resolution um before
you today. Um and next steps for council
would then include um questions and
discussion on the uh proposed resolution
and the uh revised slides.
[cough and clears throat] Direct uh and
in the resolution, we ask council to
direct staff to proceed with proposed
scope of work. direct staff to carry
over $150,000 in allocated general funds
from FY26 to 27 and directing staff to
recruit a contractor.
And that is the end. So now I'll open up
the floor for discussion, comments,
questions.
Thank you very much. Uh,
Council Member Dala.
>> Yeah, thank you for this. Um,
I didn't hear last week uh and I didn't
hear you say now that there's really a
lot of disagreement on the council about
what we want to do and why we want to do
it. It's a question of how. And so last
week we were talking about
a a a temporary contract employee to
facilitate this work. And this week
we're we're more handsoff a contractor
uh to to focus a little more on building
it into the if I've got you right
building it into the existing staff
rather than adding adding a temporary
staff person. So those are two choices
about how we go ahead. Um, but I'm not
hearing a lot about whether we should
like we don't we don't need to re reach
out to people who have been underserved
and are not well connected to civic
life. I'm not hearing that. So, [music]
um, so I I am personally comfortable
with with this. Um, I I think some of
the verbs like research and report are a
little a little contractor-ish for me.
Um, and I'd prefer,
you know, identify, build in, I like
train,
uh, I like s like evaluate and suggest
improved methods, you know. So for me,
there's some language that that I might
play with to get it a little more
activist, but I but I still I still
personally still like the idea. Um I am
curious about the um the thinking behind
increasing the funding because when I
asked this privately my impression was
well you know you're going to pay a
contractor therefore you have to pay
contract fees and all this other stuff
but that's actually not it right. So why
what did you what were the thoughts
behind going to the to the $100,000
because it wasn't hire an expensive
consulting firm. It was something else,
>> right? Yes. Thank you for your comments
and uh earlier your your questions and
observations uh to staff.
We heard concerns, staff [snorts] heard
concerns uh expressed by some council
members at the last meeting that last
discussion we had last week with respect
to whether $75,000 which was the initial
uh concept would be adequate to attract
a uh contractor
uh for the amount of work that is being
contemplated in various ways. So we
thought about that. We felt that uh yes
uh perhaps a a a larger uh sum would do
the job better. Uh that of course we're
working within the parameters of what
council has budgeted. So that's why that
would take that to 18 months with an
opportunity to reassess at some point
shy of that. uh but in order to recruit
is the quick answer for why in the first
year and basically the the basis for the
contract would be uh on 100 on the basis
of 100,000 a year. Um I would say to
your other comment uh which we
appreciated hearing we really try as
staff to strike a balance. We we we
understand that while there is a very
big mission and an important mission
here, there's also some limitations with
respect to funds and uh we want to and and a desire to not necessarily uh
just add permanent staff. So, we're
trying to find a middle ground that
accomplishes a lot of these things. One
of your concerns I believe I heard you
mention uh a moment ago was about
whether
this position would be more of a
consultant than a uh a worker so to
speak and that is not our intention. We
don't use the word consultant here
purposefully. uh a contractor coming on
at, you know, with this amount of funds.
You know, this is somebody working all
week long, every week, and this is
working with staff, working with
residents, uh working with uh
stakeholder groups, uh trying to help
build networks. uh we see this as
somebody who would uh in many respects
just be working shoulder-to-shoulder
with all of the parties that I just
mentioned, not sitting back and writing
reports and just doing more pure
consultant kind of things. I think there
is some review of for example our
current engagement practices that would
be very prudent for us to do because I
think we we need to sort of take measure
of what we're doing presently and it
doesn't hurt to have some outside uh set
of eyes look at that and say well you
know you're doing this well you're doing
that uh this not so well and maybe
there's some things you aren't even
doing that you could be doing or should
be doing and it gets to best practices
and other things. So some level of
assessment is a good place to start but
that is not the sum total uh by any
means of the type of work that staff is
envisioning for a contractor. Uh as we
say uh in the in the report revised
contractor role details includes u and
we don't get into all details here but
we say u expand engagement with
community organizations. Well, the
manner in which you do that is not for
the contractor to come in and say,
"Staff, you should do more of that."
It's actually, you know, rolling up
their sleeves and working alongside of
staff and those that particularly do
engagement presently, but to work then
with these uh outside groups, trying to
make a special effort to uh appro uh
focus on those who have been underserved
or hard to reach historically.
uh but to really do some fieldwork in
terms of understanding, you know, why are they hard to reach and why have
they not been involved in civic life to
the ex or knowledgeable about civic uh
affairs to the extent that they are and
you know try to be sensitive and and and inquisitive about what uh they
need uh what needs to be done and try to
arrive at some honest to goodness
solutions for some of those things and
come act ultimately to the mayor council
with recommendations, but also we're
going to think there's going to be some
common sense things that could be
perhaps implemented rather quickly and u
efficiently. Uh just just in the course
of the city doing its business, maybe
there's some things we could do better,
some things we could do differently. Um
maybe there's some practices that are
ineffective that we should stop doing.
So all of that uh would be a big part of
how the time is spent by the contractor
in our view.
>> Yeah. So if I may three three things
really quickly. So I appreciate that you
heard what folks said about the
deliverables and if a per you know
because whoever it is and they they're
not there after two years a year and a
half what's left. Appreciate that. Some
of the second thing some of the a couple
of the points beg the question of who's
going to pick it up when the person
leaves. Uh so continue expanding the
continuing expanding the ongoing ongoing
community engagement work uh supporting
the community organizations that that
those are things that somebody else
would have to pick up and I think you
alluded to there are existing staff who
are doing
this kind of work as part of their job.
Maybe they're not doing it as
effectively as they could and maybe
they're available to but that's just
something that's hanging. Yeah, we
imagine doing an assessment at a certain
point to say, you know, to what degree,
you know, could staff just kind of run
with the football, so to speak, at that
point. Okay. And uh or and in
conjunction with our partners in the
community. It doesn't [music] need to be
exclusively city staff,
>> but that would be an assessment to come
and ultimately a potential budgetary uh
decision to make by council uh you know,
at a later date as we get further into
the program. And we've got some that's
why we emphasize the wisdom of having
periodic reports to council so that you
have ongoing information about uh what
we're working on, what type of results
we think we're seeing and and frankly we
could very much use council as a
sounding board for all of that
information.
So my which leads to my third point
which was just to remind folks that we
actually had another model origin. Well
we more than one but the the one before
this was to identify a nonprofit
community organization in the in the
community and basically turn this over
to them and that didn't work out with
that particular group. So we have been
through a number of of of trying to find
the right approach. Um but again back to
but we know we need to do this.
>> Um
>> I'm sorry if I may just add too I think
one of the major points that we heard
last week as well and rightly so was the
concern if you have someone starting to
go out of the community on a temporary
basis doing that direct outreach and
then you leave that could actually cause
more harm. Yep.
>> And the in the in the trust. So I think
what we try to do with this project
scope is take it back and think about
how we can work with the city staff and
the other community organizations to
build their those internal capacities.
Focus on it. It does mirror a lot of
what was talked about last week in the
kind of internal alignment piece. um
building that in focusing on the
internal capacity, get the ball rolling
and so we can see um how city staff can
improve what they're currently doing and
have this person work collaboratively
with them. But have city staff and our
different community organizations be the
ones who are acting as those community
liaison. So the people who we can more
um uh astutely say they are going to be
interacting on a longerterm basis um and
having those related ties and may
already have those ties, have them do
the work.
>> And then my last point, I I promise this
is my last point. Um one of the things
you heard last week was focusing on the
needs of residents who are historically
underserved or hard to reach. Um
building that in even more would be
would would I think help
focus the proposal and also focus it on
what what the what we need.
>> Um but also it would really focus the
proposal to an area that we're already
committed to
>> in terms of racial equity and that might be a very nice um blend.
Um we sort of talked about that last
week. You especially you uh council
Hanzac um but but it didn't it didn't
quite get fleshed out. Um so thank you.
I'll let somebody else talk.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dybala.
Council member Hanzac,
>> thank you. Um, I feel I feel I'm
starting to feel more comfortable with
the direction of travel. So, I really
thank you for for hearing the council.
That means a lot to me to to feel heard.
in particular, and I particularly
appreciated your verbal articulation
just now about um because I was going to
compliment you, but I I like hearing you
say it in your own words. I I feel that message has resonated with you and
you've reflected on um the fact that it might not be very sustainable for
this person to be the outward-facing
presence. So, I I wasn't able to feel
that 100% in your other language, but
you've got it. That makes me feel more
comfortable. Um, and I think that that's
important. So, um I think that one one
way that the the verbiage and perhaps
the thought process could be tweaked to
make it even more effective, it would be
even more effective if some of the
outcomes that you've listed on your
slides were a little bit more
a little bit further along the pathway
of what I'd call deliverables to the
city. So um that so that so that the so
that the person who fills this role for
one thing is really clear and the people
who are engaging with them on staff
understand what is their mandate because
if we want sustainability we've got to
have a vision for what that's going to
look like. So I mean for one thing I
would I would maybe move point two up to
0.1 because you can't train city staff
before you've evaluated.
Um, so the evaluation process, I mean,
hope we I don't think it would be a good
use of resources personally for them to spend an excessive amount of time
doing an evaluation because I think all
of us would like to see the rubber hit
the road as much as possible. And as um,
manager Despir said, you know, we sorry
um we want to Sorry, that's distracting.
Um, there's some there was some radio
for those who can't hear. um um that we
would want to have the person really uh
look at look look at different metrics
maybe and and information we already
have to say maybe this is pragmatically
a you know a good place to start and not
a good place to start. we might want to
get rid of this and take that. But
anyway, so starting with the evaluation,
maybe even going department by
department, but where even within each
department, there could be some specific
metrics that this person can focus on
creating even for sort of like new
methods will be adopted by each
department to you know increase and
improve make their engagement reach
further to new audiences to reach at
least two new audiences to blah blah. you know, something where each
department holds some kind of um
tangible deliverables that they would be
working towards. Um, and I'm looking at
the cover sheet if that's by any chance
what you guys are discussing. Um,
and uh, and then also I I want to be
this is linguistics, but again, I think
it's really important that this person
has a strong mandate from upper level
management. Um, again it says, "Evaluate
the city's current engagement practices
with the community and suggest new and
improved methods." I I personally would
like to see this person go well beyond
suggesting. It would be recommending and
then supporting the institutionalization
of during this time period. And that is partially going to include
training. But I think if you had some
metrics around what that
institutionalization would look like and
that each department holds themsel
accountable to that that would go far to
helping this be more, you know, having
some meat on the bones and keeping the
person from spending too much of their
time um doing the evaluation part and
not doing not I mean you might for
example want them to create as they go
around to the community. I would think
your department might want to
uh have them create help you build out
your database, your address book for the
new community organizations. Who's the
point of contact? Naming that person,
what's the best way to reach them? I
mean, those would be work then that you
don't have to do later, I I would think
in your department that it may not exist
now. Um, and and very very tangible.
Anyway, so I I know those are not in the
form of questions, but that's my my
primary um my primary feedback and I
thank you also for putting the council
in. I think we can help refine that just
a little bit more maybe about um not
making it just that we're a sounding
board that we are a channel that you can
use a two-way channel um and figuring
out how to make leverage that uh
appropriately. [music] Thank you. Thank
you for your comments.
>> Uh, thank you, Council Member Hanzac.
Council Member Wesle,
>> thank you. Um, thank you so much for
this. Um, I just wanted to share my
perspective. I I I really appreciate
that it I can feel that this as a
position feels much more aligned with it
could be a shortterm thing. Um, I think
there's definitely a few places where
I'm not really sure where it would fit
into current staff. Um, particularly the
um, civic education programs, but it
might depend on what that is. But like,
you know, a lot of these I can kind of
think, okay, if our list goes from 50 to
75, that staff can manage that going
forward. You know what I mean? But if
it's some kind of new program,
who who is driving that that that feels
like more something that a staff person
needs to own. But um but generally I'm supportive of this and I think um
this could be a good way to kind of
improve what we're doing.
>> Thank you, Council Member Wesle. Um,
thank you so much uh for for the work
that you all have done um over the last
week or so to kind of clarify the role
um because one of the concerns I had was
I felt like we were kind of yo-yoing and
I understand that contractors can sit
alongside you and do work um alongside
you. Um
but um I do think that it is
in this particular case where the role
would be air quotes a new role um that
is only a temporary role but should have
a
longstanding
um work stream that's embedded
throughout our organization. It was
really hard for me conceptually to um to
have it so that it's just a two-year
contract term, but the person is doing
work that's similar to what a full-time
person would do. And so what would
happen after the fact? So I do think
that you all have have gone into the
contractor piece a little um more
strongly and I appreciate that. Um I
agree with council member Hanzac that
some of the things that are labeled as
deliverables are actual goals.
So um you know training city staff with
public facing roles on more meaningful
impactful engagement practices and
strategies. If someone's here for only
18 months how many trainings are you
expecting them to do? like is the goal
to hold at least five trainings over the
next 18 months on topics of their choice
or for them to develop a um a training
program and what that looks like. Um and
then the the goal or the I'm sorry the
outcomes I said goals it's outcomes the
outcomes of those trainings you hope
down the line is increase capacity for
effective interdep departmental
collaboration. So, your your your
consultant, your contractor would need
to know that part of their job is to
develop a training plan for staff. They
would need to get that thing together
pretty darn quick because you only got
18 months, get it approved by everybody
and actually start training folks. Um
the um
similarly um the um
identifying community organizations and
encourage participation. Um, so there's
one of the things that I do want us to
make sure um
that we are having this person do it
that we're not having them do and that
is put in a lot of time into an
infrastructure that already exists and
not devote enough time to creating
infrastructure that's missing. So you
have the um providers council which is
building up and we have lots of
nonprofit organizations within the city
that's constantly applying for our grant
programs and things like that. So we
have a clear avenue to direct people to
the providers council. what we don't
have a clear avenue to get people
engaged in and that is in our multif
family housing in um what was the
original kind of purpose um which is to
try to direct people and and kind of
building that social service safety net
within the community so that there's
points of entry where people can go. I
think the providers council can do that
because they often have these windows
and they can help with that. But I I
think it is also important that um
our
um staff like an HCD
um are also fully aware of and know how
to bring information in an engaged way
in into the um into the buildings or if
there's some other not providers council
but other type of entity like bringing
together leaders from various tenants
associations um and then using them like
just trying to encourage creativity
where it comes to gaps in information
like gaps in a network that we know we
need, right? So some of our our folks
that are tenant advocates and and um on
um boards and things, they do talk to
one another, but not all of them. And I
think it probably would be useful to
kind of bring them together so they have
a network and they kind of know one
another and they get information and
they can share and they can talk to one
another. Um but that would be an HCD
thing. So, I just want to make sure um
like this is a such as, but I I want to
make sure that we're not um when we're
talking about identifying and supporting
community organizations
um that we don't inadvertently continue
to
put a lot of the 18 months worth of time and
planning into organizations and networks
that are kind of already solidified, but
we make sure that there's some time that
this person has some time to really fill
the gap that we know is missing if that
makes sense.
>> Yeah. And actually um I think some
language that was in the previous
presentation that maybe hadn't hadn't
come over in the new scope is
identifying the gaps. Um that is
definitely a focus that we have um in
the original concept of the contractor.
So something that we can translate over
to the project scope. Yeah, I think that
would be really good just so that we can
make sure that we're not doing
unfortunately what we historically do.
People are organized. They know how to
reach us. They know how to come to the
meetings. Like the whole purpose of this
exercise was to really try to get to
those residents in our community that
are not engaged. Um and so we have to
figure out where those gaps are and
identify ways to engage them. um so that
we can get them to do things like be in
the education initiatives and things
like that. Um,
other than that, I think, you know, just
again taking a look at the deliverables
versus the outcomes and making sure that
we're not
>> [music]
>> um missing some of the missing some some
key aspects that were included in some
of the earlier materials that were
provided on the NLC goals of the program
and what you all were planning to do and
the purpose. Um, and just kind of think
about how you can turn that into
something that a contractor
with 18 months of technical assistance
could help us fill. And then the other
big piece is um because I agree that um
we're going to probably end this this
18month experience realizing we need
permanent help, right? Um, this 18
months will probably help us with
establishing the infrastructure for
whoever comes in. They're not going to
come in blind and have to build it
themselves. Ideally, it would be built.
Um,
it gives you 18 months to figure out
where how to shuffle [snorts] around FTE
if you want to bring one in, you know.
Um but it also um so I do think it is
important probably not for the
consultant to do but for for for you all
as managers of this effort to be
thinking about um how this may
ultimately lead to aspects of a a a
position where there's clear roles,
clear work, clear ongoing things that'll
need to be done and how you may need to
address that gap 18 months from now. I'm
going to continue to say it. We talked
many moons ago about having someone um
to work on like race equity to be our
race equity um staff person that would
be responsible for really trying to help
more with um how do we make sure that
our policies and our our work and our
efforts take that racial equity lens
including educating staff and convening
staff and working with engagement and
all of those things. There may be some
novel ways that once you kind of get to
the point where you realize some of the
things that need to happen in terms of
communication and how to fill gaps and
what's needed that you may then say, you
know what, h maybe we could piece
together a position that could solve
some of these two long-standing issues
that we've had as a city. One, how do we
engage more effectively? Because we do a
lot of outreach, we do a lot of
engagement. the question is just are we
hitting the right people at the right
time with the right information, right?
Um
and so you have that piece, but then we
also have the aspects of the need for
addressing
disparities
um across the board, language, race, all
of those things. And and how do those
two may come together and they might um
which then might also increase our
capacity in that other avenue as well.
Not trying to blow up your spot, just
saying that I think from looking at some
of this, it's going to naturally come
out. And so you may find yourself at the
end of 18 months realizing that you need
to fill a couple of gaps. And if and
again to the city manager figuring out
how to shuffle the decks in terms of
your FTE because I don't know if in 18
months we're going to be able to give
you an an increase. So you might need to
move some people around. Um but there
may ultimately um end up once this is
done with a really clear framework for
how um you can address some of our
engagement wos as well as potentially
building some internal capacity as it
relates to race equity.
So with that
I see any more hands. Okay I'm not
seeing any more hands. Um is there
anything I'm sorry I just I just talked
at you. I apologize.
>> No it's all good. No. So, um, next week
we'll come back with the revised, um,
resolution in scope. I do, um, there's a
couple points that I think I'd like to
run by city staff. Um, talking about
specifically the role or some of the
deliverables that will be specific to
departments. I think Council Hanzac, you mentioned this specifically. Um, I
think that might be a good thing that I
can bring up with our internal community
engagement working group. um and start
to think through, okay, if we get in a
contractor, what are some of the
specific department deliverables that we
can start to implement? Um I don't know
if I'll be able to get um a that group
together to discuss that in time for
next week, but it's one thing that we
will definitely take into consideration.
I just want to throw that out there.
>> Yeah, I think those are the things that
you need to worry about the specifics
when you're actually developing the
scope of work for your contract, right?
like as long as there are no gaps in
terms of the types generally types of
things that um the council would like to
make sure that the consultant does um in
the resolution you're fine if we don't
have specifically create this number of
reports and this number of trainings is
enough to say the idea is that they will
provide training and resources for staff
and that can kind of be a little bit
all-encompassing.
Um, Council Member Lamman,
>> sorry to come in late, Madame Mayor. Um,
yeah, I uh I think that you did a really
good job of capturing a lot of the
feedback that you did get. Um, and
there's a reference in here now to the
city council. I I'm not sure we belong
ahead of the city staff on the on the
draft whereas uh whereas clauses. That's
you know, my thought is that maybe that
was um excessively generous to us and
giving us top billing. But um I did as
listening to the comments today it I I I
realized that I was in my mind going
through all the different categories of
organizations, communities of faith,
mutual aid societies, um all different
kind and recreation department, all
these different volunteer groups and
civic engagement groups that are not
necessarily on front of mind for the
providers council, but that the city
council themselves may be able to make
suggestions to the contractor about And
so um in in determining what the the
field of play that that the mayor has
been talking about reaching the people
that are maybe not on our our normal uh
front burners. So, um I hope that when
this project gets underway that there
can be a special um moment given where
you kind of canvas the universe of of uh
knowledge and expertise here but also
among existing organizations that we f
fund, many of whom have those tentacles
out in the community to identify the
groups and help whoever comes in to do
this um to do a good job. And I will
mention that one of the things that I I
was um discussed with the staff in my
conversations with them is uh how
difficult it would be for a true
outsider to step in and really be the
one who finds those tentacles. Um and
maybe there's somebody on our city staff
or somebody in our community who is the
right kind of contractor for this
position. um and that it would really be
incredibly beneficial if the person or
entity that we find to do this already
has deep roots here and wouldn't have to
start by asking everybody now who is uh
Tacoma youth soccer soccer again or but
you know somebody who who uh would have
some knowledge coming into even though
they're a professional in this area.
Thank you.
>> Great. Thank you council member Lammond.
>> Okay, seeing no more lights on this one.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. All right.
Next item is the um resolution
committing to respective, constructive,
and dignified
uh is that what we're calling this now?
I thought we changed the title. Um and
[clears throat]
I don't know, I was writing late. Um and
dignified discourse. That's what it is.
Um, and so, uh, with with that, I'm
going to actually, um, hand things over
to Council Member Dybala. Yeah. Because
you've been serving on the NLC board,
um, to, um,
provide a little bit of of background
and rationale for for this resolution.
>> Yes. Thank you.
So, in the spring as a member of the
National League of Cities board, I
signed a civility pledge with the
National League of Cities. Um, and we
were each asked to bring that home and
adopt a resolution in our community. Um,
that is not the beginning of this, but
that's led more to what you have in
front of you now. Before that, you may
recall at the MML meeting, and some of
you went to the spring NLC meeting, um
several times around here, uh the um
there's been a there's been talk about
the a dignity index and the dignity um
resolutions that were that there um
Shrivever.
Um Mr. Tim, thank you. Get my candidates
mixed up. Um there's so many of them.
Okay. Tim Shrivever um has spoken
several times to different groups and I
think almost every one of us has heard
him at least once talking about the
importance
of civility and respect and dignity in
civic dialogue.
starting with the leaders such as us and
going out through the staff through the
committees through the residents all the
way through. Um and so those two things
have led to the presentation of the
draft resolution and thank you mayor for
doing the actual writing
um which is I understand modeled on one
of the dignity index samples that
National League of Cities uh sent to us.
Um
so I I think that a healthy democracy
especially at the local level thrives on
respect for the individual. Um and this
resolution to me is a commitment to
respectful to constructive and dignified
words and behaviors from each of us even
when we disagree and maybe especially
when we disagree. This to me is not
about whether we allow clapping or any
other kind of activity. It's not about
restricting the freedom of speech. It's
making freedom of speech possible for
all
um by showing respect for others views
even as we own exercise our own freedom
of speech in the public space. Um and I
think [clears throat] we all know it's
kind of in short supply these days. Uh
and in Tacoma Park as a leader in civic
in local democracy, I think we we we
must expect this of each other. Um so so
going back for a minute to to so this is
not new if you will. We've been talking
about this as a council uh since we met
for our retreat when we first all
started together. Um, it also it even
goes further back than that to the
previous council when we were talking
about enforcability of rules for
behavior and that didn't go anywhere
because just by the very statement of
we're going to enforce something that doesn't work. So, um, I hope that's
enough of an introduction to this topic
and um, for sure it's how I feel. Uh,
do you want to take it from me?
>> Sure. Sure. Thank you, Council Member
Dala. Um so the resolution that's before
you is a compilation of um goals that we
as a city have already committed to
previously or priorities [music] um city
processes
um NLC language in terms of um what they
were hoping that local um um local
jurisdictions would be able to
accomplish or or the challenge um and uh
draft language that the dignity index um
uh had put forward in terms of potential
resolutions that communities could
adopt. Um the whereas cl I'm sorry the
resolve clauses are designed to not just
be as it relates to um our council
meetings although there's there's some
emphasis on public meetings but we tried
to make it a little broader to include
community engagement at large. So how
can we make sure that we are encouraging
um so the first whereas is I'm sorry the
first resolve is we're reaffirming our
commitment to make sure that we're
upholding um our public meetings in a
manner that um upholds dignity, civility
and mutual respect. Um the second
whereas I'm sorry the second resolve I
keep saying whereas the second resolve
um is about making sure that it's all
meetings and other forms of community
engagement. Um so this may involve like
some some trainings or things of that
nature but um ensuring that elected
officials, staff, boards and commission
members and all others participating in
city meetings and other forms of
community engagement in public spaces
are encouraged to engage one another
with courtesy, listen in good faith,
express disagreement without personal
attacks. Um and then the um the fourth
resolve is that we're we're supporting
governance practices. um that promote
communicative dialogue, clear
expectations for participation if fair,
consistent um enforcement of rules of
decorum. And then the [music] last
resolve um is that the city um will um
re really affirms and I think this is
really important. So I think sometimes
um there is this misinterpretation
that um enforcing rules of decorum means
that you are suppressing debate. And so
um wanted to make sure that the last
resolve made it clear that um it's okay
to debate. It's okay to differ in
viewpoints um but just do them in a way
um that is um respectful, civil, and you
know continues to strengthen um both the
public trust and the democratic
governance. And so, um, this is not to
be the the, um,
uh, the clap police, so to speak, but it
is to, um, just reaffirm as a council
that we are, um, encouraging and and
will enforce rules of decorum in public
meetings. that we're asking our staff,
our boards and commission members to
also um enforce rules of decorum and the
public as well um to ensure that it is
um a welcoming engagement for um
everyone involved and and so that's the
whole purpose of this resolution um to
really just reinforce um there may be a
need. I think I kind of see this
resolution as like a a a starting point
because um it may become one of those
things where we start to um to uh Ryan's
presentation. You know, if this is
something that we are pushing as a
council, then when you're talking about
community engagement, that becomes one
of the driving factors. Okay, how can we
make sure that we uphold civility
decorum? what are some engagement
practices we may want to adopt
especially when we have topics or when
we're discussing topics that can be
contentious and people can get heated.
Um so what are some tips and tricks that
we as a council or our staff may need to
know as ways to try to through the
engagement forum itself deescalate what
could be um uh contentious topics but
still allow for and encourage debate.
Um, so, uh,
>> are you looking for a motion?
>> No, we're we're voting on this next
week.
>> Oh, [laughter]
>> never mind.
>> So, with that, if folks wouldn't mind if
you take a look, if you have any edits,
thoughts, concerns, uh, please let me
know. Uh, also, please let council
member Dala copy both of us on it
because I will be traveling over the
weekend.
All
right. Any questions, thoughts,
concerns?
Uh, Council Member Hanzach,
>> I just wanted to express my very strong
um support of [music] us moving in this
direction. Uh, I think council council
member um Dybala and I were on a
committee on committees that had been
discussing some of this for a while. I
had the uh privilege like many of my
colleagues sitting here of attending the
Maryland Municipal League meeting at
which we got a full review of the
dignity index and I thought wow this is really something neat. What's
that? Yes, the dignity index which I am
holding here. I I was I was in the back
for a second. So did you speak about
this already? You did, right? Yeah.
So I mean I would love to see this
on the wall frankly. Uh I think that it
is very clear to me and I'm sure to many
of those who are listening that our
country has fallen by the wayside in
terms of leadership all across the board
up and down everywhere you look. Uh my
children my children one of whom is 20
of whom is 16 and one of whom is nine
have told me they don't remember a time
when people were civil with one another.
They don't think that leadership looks
like that. So, you know, it tells me a
lot about the education that we have an
obligation to do. And um you know, I think this is a great step in the
right direction. And I struggle with the
balance of um how do we give it teeth,
if you will, without suppressing freedom
of speech in any kind of way, which is
always the tension that exists in a
democracy. Um but uh I think if we at
least affirm our intention,
our values through a resolution or
pledge such as this, we begin to open
that door to asking ourselves those
important questions when the questions
come up. um when we have that
conversation about the clap, about the
rules of decorum,
about whether or not uh council member
Schlaggel, you said, you know, are we
holding I'm the worst. I talk a lot. Um
you know, have I gone over my three
minutes? Am I therefore dishonoring, you
know, everybody's time? And so I think I
think all of us have to be mindful and
it's helpful to have nudges and um and
agreements to discuss those in a civil
and constructive manner and remind
ourselves when we think that somebody's
not doing that to and and I I would I
would like us to go so far as to talk
about what that looks like. What does a
reprimand look like? What should it
sound like when we think that someone
has violated what [music] are genuine
rules of decorum? What does it look like
in the social media space? What does it
look like on list serves? What does it
look like when we hear that our youth
council doesn't want to come before us?
What happened there? Um, you know, um,
we we really have to think about what
reprimanding looks like or allyship or
something.
I get a step.
>> Thank you. Council member um Hanzac,
Council Member Lanman.
>> Did you want It seemed like you might
want to be
>> I just wanted to say briefly, can we
take this one step at a time um
do this then talk about reprimanding
which as car council council member
Hanzac knows involves the city code and
a whole bunch of other complicated
things. Thank you.
>> Thank you council member Dybala. Council
member Lamman.
>> Um I very respectfully um just want to
say that um I do not think that I'm
going to be supporting this um this
resolution. Um and I I very much
appreciate the spirit in which it was
offered by Council Member Dala. We've
talked about the dignity index. Um and
um I understand that concept. Um I think
that first off uh I just want to flag
that we really we have a very um simply
and clearly worded decorum rule that
I'll quote those present at council
meetings shall respectfully permit
speakers to express their opinions
without interruption. And I think that gives us um really sort of a clear
way of indicating that people should be
allowed to express their opinions. I
mean, Madame Mayor, you mentioned this
is not to be the clap police, so to
speak, and I like that phrase, clap
police. I understand. Um the the reason
I the reason I find it problematic to be
looking at a resolution right now on
this topic is that we have had a lot of
attention paid in this city council in
the last couple of months to the that
whole clap police issue and people feel
passionately about the things that they
are here to talk about often um and um
feel that that we are trampling on their
ability to express themselves when we um
try and silence them except for the
three minutes that they're at the podium
and even, you know, talk about not
having signs or waving hands or or, you
know, um and expressions of of opinion
like that. Um I think it has it has
pushed the envelope too far. uh and and
therefore I think the timing is wrong
for us to be um
reasserting our intention to be looking
at um fair consistent enforcement of
rules of decorum. That's not language
that I think is welcome in this
community right now when people have
felt um that their ability to simply
express themselves courteously
um has been uh challenged. So I I feel
that this meeting is run by you
generally, madame merit with decorum in and consistent with the rules that we
have on the books now. And and I just
think that um uh that this is a little
bit too um
uh I don't know uh
it it it impinges too far on people's
feeling that they should be welcome to
express themselves with passion about
things that are important to them. So it
is with great respect but that's my view
as to whether this is needed right now.
Thank you.
>> Point of order.
Um, council member Wesley,
>> I I just wanted to ask a clarifying
question of council member Landman
because you referenced that this says
fair and consistent decorum.
It was some phrase like that and I I
wanted to
>> I'm quoting from the second to last
paragraph of the resolution which says
whereas
>> clear expectations for participation and
fair consistent enforcement of rules of
decorum. That's what I was citing.
>> That's what I wanted to know. Thank you.
Uh, council member Schlaggel.
» Thank you.
Uh, just very briefly, [music]
I think that we all want to encourage
a positive kind of participation and
deep listening from everybody at all
kinds of meetings and outreach and
things like that.
Um, and I think we will need to be
thinking about whether a resolution
is a strong way to encourage that or
whether other ways to do whatever
culture change seems to be needed. Um, I
do have a question about how how big the
problem is and maybe us sharing some
stories with each other would help me to
understand more.
um where our local community seems to be
mirroring things going on on the
national level.
Um my other thought is just about that
word civility. I have to think hard when
I see the word civility.
Um, I remember studying the Greensboro
uh lunch counter sitting and how when
this coalition of students from
um North Carolina ENT and church
leaders, civil rights leaders, when they
approached the quote unquote city
fathers
and said, "These are the things we want
to see changed." The city father said,
"Well, it's it's great that you want
that, but you're being univil in the way
you make these requests." That the
actual title of the book that that
concerned the whole incident over two or
three years was called civility and
civil rights in in in Greensboro.
And so civility is something that in the
abstract we all
love the idea
but civility can be defined differently
in different contexts by different
people and in different cultures. So
there's always a risk when you say we
are fully committed to civility that at
some point in the future someone may say
well on the grounds of our full
commitment to civility you are not
permitted to participate in this
discourse.
» Thank you Council Member Schlaggel.
Council member Dybala. Um, yeah, I was
looking for the section of the council
resolution
from 2022, the our meetings and
procedures
um to but I didn't find it quick enough.
Um,
I appreciate what uh what council member
Lman and and Schlaggel are saying. I find it difficult to accept that
a resolution asking us all to be
respectful of each other is somehow
being confused with stifling people's
passion. It is not this I'm going to re
I'm going to say it again. This is not
about what is allowed or not allowed.
This is a this is about when I speak
with passion, when I speak forcefully
and emphatically about my position that
I am not at the same time undermining
you.
I don't know how else to say it. It's
not about my position. It's about
everybody else in the room, everybody
else in the community.
Um I hope that work. Yeah. Let's let's
just read this one more time with
feeling. Thank you. Um if we can because
it's so small,
uh I will simply refer people to section
2.17
2.165
and I um I will copy it and send it
around at this hour. It's getting a
little bit much to be reading this aloud
so that everybody on the council can
take a look at what we already have in
our procedures and how this may
supplement or in any way unintentionally
differ. Um, thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dala. Council
member Wesley.
» Thank you.
Um,
I wanted to start by saying that um, I
agree with Council Member Schlaggel that
uh, the word civility has always kind of
felt
off to me. Um, and kind of emphasizing
the wrong things, whereas words like
dignity and respect um,
resonate a lot more with me. Um, which
so I I just was looking over the resol
the draft resolution as we have it. I'm
very, you know, the title of it does not
have the word civility and I think the
word civility
is only in there twice and one is about
how NLC is asking folks to adopt local
civility pledges. So, so I feel I feel
okay with this because I don't feel like
it's about drilling down on the concept
of civility. I think that this is more
about respect. Um, and
I also see this as a document affirming
respect. Um,
I also don't necessarily think this is
about the clapping incident, but with
the clapping incident, I will
recall that I didn't think the issue was
a free speech. It was a respect issue.
That is how it read to me. It was pe
people being disrespectful of our mayor
and the authority that she has.
So
there's already been a miscommunication
around what happened at that event. So,
I certainly
I am not inclined to
be wishy-washy about this in any way
with folks that
I'm not sure how to say this. Um,
maybe I'll just stop there because I
don't know if I'm going to say it right.
Um, but I overall I I do support this.
>> Thank you, Council Member Weslick. Um,
I have seen in this room,
um,
people
nearly attack one another.
I've seen and heard profanity.
I've personally been called names. I've heard others be called names.
Um,
and during
air quotes, clapgate, [music]
there was known information that I had
regarding the safety of the individuals
in this room.
And all I asked for people to do
is to move the public comment period
along.
And there was such a blatant disrespect
for me asking that thing
that it became name calling
become it became purposeful disrespect
of the rules that have been requested of
people in this room
and I I appreciate council member Lamb
and you saying I do a good job of
keeping decorum but I shouldn't have to
do it by myself Right. It is a shared
responsibility that everyone in this
room has to monitor themselves
by seeing the humanity in someone else.
Name calling does not
it it doesn't get your point across any
clearer in terms of the policy issue you
want changed.
It just immediately shuts the other
person down and gets them from listening
to what you have to say.
It is not about and what this is not
about is trying to stop people from
being able to come and say your say your
piece in the in the based on the rules
in the three minutes that are available
to people. There's nothing to stop you
from doing that.
But it is about respecting other people
who also need to come up and provide
[music]
comments.
Do you
I'm trying to I'm I'm I'm feeling like
you right now because I'm trying to
control my passion. Do Do you think it's
any easier for us as a council to hear
the message of a person here when
there's 50 signs flying in our faces
about something different? it is
minimizing the voice of the person
that's speaking because it's distracting
us from what that person has to say.
So it it is it is really easy
to say we should let people just do
their thing just do their thing. It
means it's freedom. But
you have your freedom during your three
minutes. And as a person who respects
someone else's three minutes, I don't
want to distract from that. And that
requires you to be to think about
decorum. It requires you to be
respective of others. It requires you to
say, "Hey, we want to make sure that
every person that comes in this room
during their three minutes gets my
undivided attention." And it means don't
heckle the per don't heckle and have
conversations while that person is
trying to speak. It means don't wave all
of your signs saying something different
when that person is trying to speak. It
gives that person their three minutes.
And and so I think that when we're
talking about civility, it is often
being viewed as being as taking away
something from yourself. And that's not
what this is about. It is about
respecting yourself by demonstrating the
respect for others. And so how do we as
a council try to set the stage for
trying to educate our community more
broadly about the importance of that?
And and so I think that this this
resolution,
simply put,
is something one I would I would say,
hey, you know, if it were just us, all
right, maybe it's a but but this is a
growing epidemic
across our country.
And so there is some education that
needs to happen. There is some some
education that needs to happen. I in no
way am I saying a a kitchen counter sit
in is being univil. No. If you want,
you're not hitting anybody, you're not
doing anything. Okay. When we're in
these meetings, if you're obeying the
rules, you come in, you say your peace,
okay? If if you want to uh uh protest
out, yes, do that right outside. You
know, just, you know, there's a place,
there's a time and a place, and there's
a way that we can make that happen. If
this forum isn't the right kind of forum
for interactive debate, I think what
we're modeling here is saying, okay,
let's figure out a way so there could be
dialogue, right, which is being called
out here. But I do think that it is
important for us as a council to take a
stand to join the National League of
Cities, to join all of the other
organizations that have been meeting and
really trying to tackle this this issue
that is plaguing so many um elected
governments across this country to say,
"Hey, we are committed to upholding
decorum, to creating room for discourse,
but making sure that we're able to do it
in a respectful way." Um, so I I
encourage folks to if you have some
thoughts or concerns or language to
please provide some language. Um, happy
to take it. But I I I do hope that you
all will support us and at least moving
the needle forward in trying to
encourage um respectful um um engagement
amongst all. Uh, Council Member Gilbert.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I try to be really
quick and I add my two cents as I was I
was I've been listening to you all
discuss this um especially the
conversation about civility. So I went
to Mr. or Mrs. Google and and and
something struck me from here that I
want to share. Um the definition um
civility is the act of showing genuine
regard for others through polite, kind
and respectful behavior rooted in the
Latin word civilis. It goes beyond
surface level manners to encompass
treating people with dignity, listening
without bias, that's important, and
disagreeing respectfully even during
heated conflicts. And for me, long
before you said anything about clapping,
I would feel uncomfortable
for people when they came up to speak
and three people prior to them
presenting
were clapped for and then they weren't.
And that showed to me as I'm reading
this
that people were not listening without
bias.
And in clapping for some people and not
for others, you're showing that you're
not listening without bias. So I just
wanted to point that out to you all. And it was already obvious to me um that
people were were not listening without
bias. So and this kind of confirms it
for me. So and that's my take and I do
support uh this because it's it's
There's no harm in it at all. Thanks.
>> Thank you, Council Member Gilbert. Uh,
Council Member
>> Dal
Council Wesley.
>> Oh, uh, I just want to add
>> um, one thing that over these last
months talking with uh, friends and
neighbors,
all different situations. this concept
of
discourse
being coarser, meaner,
uh it it's happening in so many places
in different ways. Um
and so
that is something that's really struck
me that there's these examples that all
of us are going through where this used
to not this used to be okay and now when
I went oh my gosh everyone was so mean
and you know all those kinds of things.
So, um I in the context I I think it's
important that we support it um from the
fact that the NLC is supporting it um
and asking us to consider and do this.
Um, and I also think it's just a way to
show an example just to our entire
community um that despite other things
that might be
countering um the idea of being
respectful um of others that that's
something that we think is important.
>> Thank you, Council Member Wesle. Council
member Dybala.
>> Yeah, I just want to close I think we
wrap it up.
>> I just want to close by saying two
things. Um, one is
that when I introduced this, I said
there were we there were a couple of
reasons we were doing this and one was
the request from the National League of
Cities because 40 different communities
across the country, large and small,
leaders from them came together and
signed this pledge. So it's not just us
and it's communities across the country
that see the need for this right now. Um
but I also wanted to uh so so that was
one reason and the other was because we
have been talking about this from the
beginning of our being a council um
about how we would characterize our
norms of behavior. Um, so notice that I
did not say that it had a genesis in
what happened a few weeks ago, whenever
it was um at at any one given council
meeting. But I would like to um close by
reading one phrase from
I'm going to have to find it. Uh one
phrase from the um resolution. So the
res the uh the NLC resolution closes by
saying that we stand united. This is
their result. We stand united leading
with respect, dignity, and civility to
reduce polarization and create an
environment that values shared goals,
increased empathy, and genuine dialogue.
So um just wanted to put [music] that
out there. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dala.
Okay. So, um seeing no more hands on
this, this will come back to us next
week for a vote. Um and so now we're
done with our last item. We are almost
we are at 11 o'clock, but this should be
short. [laughter]
>> Just to remind you 11:00
>> um the recommended appointments to city
boards and committees. So, who's going
to take care of that? Okay.
>> Do your best. My voice will hold up.
Yeah.
>> So, um just to recap, we
um discussed a couple of weeks ago uh
the appointments for all committees but
two. We decided to table um the
recommendations for two committees so we
can have further discussion and um visit the comments made by one of our
colleagues. Council member Dybala
brought brought up a couple of points
that we um really wanted to take a
serious look at out of respect and um
and thank you Council Member Dybala for
helping us see our our blind spots um in
that regard. So, um, we've since
discussed, uh, appointments and
applications for a recreation and
community engagement committee and the,
um, grants review committee. And we have
uh two recommendations for recreation
committee and they are Alex Kyle's ward
three um for original appointment for
the first appointment and a reappoint
for Ken Simler of ward one
and for the grants review committee the
appointments um first appointments for
Sharon Walchick excuse [clears throat]
me ward
and Michelle Durango, Ward Five, and
reappointments for Sarah Michael, Ward
One, and Ryan Lander, W three.
Did I miss something?
My apologies.
Yes, New Haven
for grants review committee as well. So,
okay. So Sarah Michael um and Ryan
Lander for reappointment. Sharon
Walchick ward one uh for first
appointment. Michelle Durango
um Elen
Fabria and New Haven Michael. My
apologies. So those are the six
appointments for grants review
committee.
Did I miss anything? Council member
Hanzac or council member Flego?
Okay. And
>> would you just be able to say the the
awards for the last three or four names
>> for the grants review committee?
>> They are
again uh reappoints for are Sarah
Michael and Ryan Lander.
And the um first um appointments for
Sharon Walchick, Michelle Durango, Elen
Fabrico and New Haven Michael.
>> And do we have their ward their ward
identifications?
» Okay. Eileen's W six. Um, New Haymon
>> two.
>> W two. Anybody know Michelle Durango's
ward? My apologies.
» Okay.
All right. And so we also want to
discuss the
um request for Sustainable Maryland to
um expand their membership
from nine members to and I guess that's
something we could discuss whether or
not we would allow them to um expand
from 9 to 11 or 12 uh members. I'm not
sure, Jesse, if you if we had um if you
have any notes about where we um wanted
that number to be.
>> I I think that um that item is is with
me and I'm supposed [clears throat] to
be having a conversation with Dory and
um Director Braithweight um on that as
well as I believe that committee has a
couple of other um items that need to
come before council. It was my
understanding that they don't need that
expansion right this instant, but there
was something that they were interested
in.
» And did you have that award?
>> Okay. So, so just for the the
working group on committees. Um that is
something that we'll we'll follow up. Um
it'll it'll be after recess. Um but we
will need to have a conversation about
um because that would require a um a
code change. Um and also just want to
make sure that we're all on the same
page in terms of whether or not um the the need of the added um the added
members and make sure that there's an
agreement between the understanding of
staff and what the committee needs and
what we think. point of information on
the on the rule change if I may. If the
rules allow for alternates to be
appointed um they do not have alternates
as an option. No.
>> And they don't have exeicial either. I
believe I think they're all I think
they're a straight [clears throat]
nine. I
>> They are straight.
>> They're straight nine,
>> right?
>> But they could they remember
>> if I may. Point of order mayor. Oh yeah,
you're speaking. So
>> yeah. It is possible for them to for the
code to change for them to have
alternates and/or exeicio. Um and not having
not changing the code. They can have um
unofficial members who sit on work
groups within the committee because
other committees have done that uh with
some success. But but I [clears throat]
that that's alternatives to
>> what they're asking giving them more
>> right
>> bodies. Thank you. Also the the meetings
are open as well to participation from
other community members. I think for all
of them they're am I am I wrong about
that?
>> I like I know that there are several
committees at least recreation where
multiple people who are not voting
members regularly participate. Yeah,
that's what you mean, right?
>> I think that but what they're looking
for is additional Yeah.
>> voting members.
>> Um
>> and compensation presumably the
compensation would only be for committee
members. So that would be a factor,
>> right? Yeah. Um may I add as one of the
subcommittee members and um council
member Schlegel if you have anything to
add as well. Um I in prior rounds I have
had the uh ability to spend time
analyzing some of the data to see how
much progress we've made towards some of
the diversification goals that we've had
um with the council set up prior to the
council that I was on. actually um I did
not have a chance to do that this time,
but I do want to share that um one
broadstroke observation that we have all
had is that we continue to have lower
numbers of um applicants from WS four,
five, and six. And so there continues to
be um you know not as many folks from WS
four, five, and six. I'm looking at
myself and my council members to my
right. Um [music] so, you know, this
could be a key issue actually for our um
community connectors individual to
ponder with us meaningfully. I think uh
we also would love to see more uh you
know um racial diversity on our on our
committees and we don't have any
questions about things like
socioeconomic diversity. We actually
aren't collecting data on anything
except cult about renters versus others
which is a is a proxy, right? Um
>> I believe that now the application does
include uh whether or not home own or
rent.
>> Oh, we did add that. Okay, we did
discuss that. Thank you. Thank you. Um
Secretary Carpenter or Clerk Carpenter,
pardon me. The um I was trying to think
what your title was. Clerk Carpenter. U
Jesse. Um, so yeah, uh, that's great. I
think that that's progress because it
would be wonderful for us to be able to
really collate that data and look back
on our goals and the progress we've been
making over time, especially as we
change out some people and move in new
ones, and we haven't had the chance to
do that. So, um, if my colleagues have
any suggestions for even ways that that
one, two, and three could help us with
recruitment in four, five, and six, too,
we'd be really grateful for ideas. Thank
you.
>> Great. Thank you very much.
>> Uh,
I provide the the ward information. So,
for the rec committee, it's Ken Simler,
ward one. He's a reappoint, and Alex
Kyle's ward three is a new appointment.
And then with the grants review
committee reappointments Sarah Michael
Ward one Ryan Lander ward three Sharon
Walchuk ward one
Michael Durang Michelle Durango Ward
five Eileene Febrega ward six and New
Hamine Michael Ward two.
>> Wonderful. Thank you very much. And so
those um those uh appointments will come
back to us next week for a vote. And so
with that, I think we're done for the
evening. Correct.
>> I had one more question, too. Go ahead.
Um, mayor, um, as we were discussing the
recreation committee that had so many
people step down and trying to figure
out what may be the issues there, I had
a question of whether or not we we had
an exit interview process or provided
surveys to members who had stepped down
or um to get an idea of how the
committee was performing. And I can't
remember if we discussed that or we have
anything like that, but if not, I think
it would probably be a good idea so we
could have some information about how
these committees are performing.
>> Right. Yeah. And in fact, there were one
or two people who were appointed who
never showed up.
>> Oh, really?
>> So, we do have a problem that needs to
be addressed.
I'm not sure how we would approach that
if we develop a survey or something.
>> But you're Yeah, I'm sure we could do
something like that.
>> Council member,
>> so am I I I think I'm correct that
technically speaking, we have a rolling
admissions, but I mean committee
appointment process, but we've been
we've moved it to a higher frequency at
twice a year. Is that I'm looking at our
mayor and our clerk. Yes. Technically
speaking,
>> correct? People can
>> But we haven't been doing that
>> anytime. Yeah.
>> Um but the appointments are limited to
the twice a year,
>> right? Okay.
>> All right. Okay. I think that's it.
Everybody have a fantastic night.
Heat. Heat.