[0:06] This is a regular city council meeting of the City of Ocean Shores. It is September

[0:10] 22, 2026, and the time is 6:00 p.m. The meeting is being held at the Ocean Shores

[0:17] Convention Center. The meetings are simulcast and archived on KOSW radio. Meetings

[0:22] are live streamed and closed captioning with closed captioning and may be accessed

[0:28] on the city website under council recordings. The meetings will be Viewed on cable

[0:35] channel 68 Thursdays at 12:00 p.m. and Sundays at 10:00 a.m. We have a roll call,

[0:40] please? Council member sires here. Council member Taylor here. Council member Grebel

[0:46] here. Council member Klein here. Council member Scott. Council member Wills here.

[0:51] Council member Julie here. Tom, can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

[1:04] To the

[1:07] One nation.

[1:20] Can I get approval for tonight's agenda? Yes, Denise. I move to amend the agenda

[1:27] to remove item number 15, the executive session. Second Do we have a second, uh,

[1:34] any, uh, comments? All in favor? Aye. All right, thank you. Unanimous,

[1:42] um, I move to approve. I move to approve the agenda as amended. Second, all in favor.

[1:50] All right, thank you. All of. In favor All right. Uh, we don't have any ceremonies

[1:58] or proclamations. Uh, no announcements. We have a board and committee vacancies,

[2:04] 2 vacancies on the radio board, 2 vacancies on the building code board of appeals,

[2:10] 2 vacancies on the parks board, and 1 vacancy on the planning commission. There are

[2:15] no appointments tonight. No other reports, so we'll move right into public communication.

[2:20] Public communication to councils intended for communication to the city council regarding

[2:26] general council business or policy not on tonight's agenda. Address comments or questions

[2:33] to the city council body, not to an individual council member, staff, or audience

[2:38] member. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes. This is not a question and answer

[2:44] time, and the council cannot engage in conversation with the public. Personal attacks,

[2:49] abusive language, slanderous remarks, or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

[2:55] If any If another audience member is disrupting you, please raise your hand, and

[3:00] I will pause the meeting and address the disruption. No person may use the public

[3:05] comment, period, for the purpose of a campaign or advertisement. The time will begin

[3:12] once the citizen has started their public comment. At 2 minutes, you will see a green

[3:17] light followed by a yellow light indicating 30 seconds remain in the public comment

[3:22] period. The red light will notify the reader that the public comment time has ended.

[3:27] So, uh, what do we got, Scott? Alright, we have 3 that are general public comments

[3:34] tonight. The first, Tom Hamilton, duty, honor, and sacrifice.

[3:50] Tom Hamilton, Ocean Shores. Recently, the city had the honor of hosting the memorial

[3:57] for our fallen heroes. Cost of Freedom Tribute, including Vietnam War, 9/11 tribute,

[4:05] and Global War on Terror. What a great opportunity for the citizens to experience

[4:10] this moving exhibit. I first had the opportunity to visit the Vietnam Wall in our

[4:15] nation's capital 40 years ago. It's a powerful memorial to my fallen brothers and

[4:20] sisters. I want to give a, a, I want to give a public shout out to Stephanie Cobb.

[4:27] For bringing together a group of veterans and grateful citizens that gathered on

[4:31] Point Brown. With a flag salute honor our guard during the opening parade. She took

[4:38] the initiative to purchase the flags and encourage people to come out and participate.

[4:42] Lined up on the same locations, the weekly protests that are held on Point Brown,

[4:47] Vietnam and other veterans. Individuals who for 60 years have protested against injustice

[4:54] and against the war, and others stood for more than an hour holding more than 20

[4:59] flags along both sides of the parade route to honor this memorial. These are also

[5:06] among the same people who on a weekly basis protest against the injustices that they

[5:11] see today in our republic. They understand the sacrifices our sisters and brothers

[5:18] made so that they can exercise their freedom of speech, a freedom.

[5:30] Speech that this city administration wanted to take away or at the very least restrict

[5:36] with an ordinance a few months ago. It is unfortunate that the city administration

[5:41] missed an opportunity to include the local veterans in its own flag tribute on Point

[5:45] Brown. Instead, they ignored the chance for a more inclusive flag line, first asking

[5:51] Ms. Cobb to participate and then abandoning when she could provide many veterans.

[5:55] Only using paid city employees on the clock, not even providing each with a full-sized

[6:02] flag, at least two waving tiny flags, including the mayor. Shame on the city for

[6:09] not wanting to be inclusive. The veterans and protesters who understood the sacrifices

[6:13] that our fallen heroes made fully grasp the patriotic duty. Thank you to Stephanie

[6:19] Cobb and all those who took part.

[6:27] Katie Wallace, Public Arts.

[6:44] Hi, I'm Katie Wallace. I've lived here in Ocean Shores about more than 10 years now,

[6:49] and I'm here today to talk about public art. Um, when I first saw the whale out in

[6:53] the median, I was so excited. I thought we're gonna see public art here everywhere

[7:00] and we'll, we'll have more opportunity for that. Um, we have hundreds of artists

[7:07] here in Ocean Shores, so many of them, and of all sorts of different medias.

[7:14] Uh, but, and we keep asking in this town, what is our identity? What should it be?

[7:20] I think like beachy art town, it has worked for a ton of other towns that

[7:34] That are tourist towns and I think that should be part of our identity and we're

[7:39] already adopting that. Um, however, as much as I love to see the wood carvings. Um,

[7:46] there's other forms of media out there. I have a lot of ideas. Um, some of them are,

[7:52] we have a metal arts guy in town. I don't know if you've seen his work at the garage

[7:56] or over at Oakhead, but it's beautiful and that could be something that we would

[8:01] do. Oh, sorry, that, that could be something we could do, um, a giant metal arts

[8:06] display. Uh, we have Gavin Miller who used to live here, who's done some mural artistry

[8:12] here. Um, he's wonderful. Uh, we could do some more murals, uh. Some other ideas.

[8:20] We could make a giant screen here in the convention center and display all of our

[8:25] uh wonderful photographers like Skip Bradcliffe and Matt Cifer and TK Ramsey, make

[8:32] a giant thing. Skip could make a frame for it with his woodwork and that would help

[8:37] promote the nature and the beauty of ocean shores as well. Uh. Uh, we have Gina McCauley.

[8:44] She makes little felting things, but we, we could have her make a giant black bear

[8:50] and put it out there. You know, the lobby of the convention center. These are just

[8:54] a few of my ideas. I'm sure that the um artists here have many, many more. Um, and

[9:02] right now I don't know who gets to choose the art here and if the artists are being

[9:07] paid or not and any information that I've tried to get so far nobody really knows

[9:12] who's, who's choosing it. Um, the arts commission is kind of falling apart. So, um,

[9:19] on that note, I think the city council should try to make an actual arts board that

[9:26] meets and chooses and starts projects that we could do here in Ocean Shores. Um,

[9:34] That way, everyone chooses and more artists will get exposure. Um And we could

[9:42] start more, more festivals, work some of these things into the festivals like maybe

[9:47] we have giant ducks at the jeep thing that people paint. I don't know. Anyways, um,

[9:53] I, I think that that would be time. Thank you.

[9:59] OK, then lastly for general public comment, Taylor Priest, transparency, art, and

[10:03] traps.

[10:13] Thank you, Mayor and council members for this time. My name is Taylor Priest. I've

[10:17] been a Shores resident for about 8 years. And I'd like to start with a quote this

[10:22] evening by Joseph Pulitzer. There is not a crime, not a dodge, there is not a trick,

[10:29] there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. It is

[10:35] high time for a new mayor in Ocean Shores, one who practices transparency and respects

[10:41] the democratic process, rather than one who thinks democracy is owned by one political

[10:46] party. For all his talk of being nonpartisan, Frank Elderwin is anything but, and

[10:52] people on both sides of the aisle are well aware. People in shores who participate

[10:58] less need to be aware and beware. It seems that Mayor Eldwin has plans to place a

[11:04] statue of Poseidon, whose design is entirely inappropriate for ocean shores, at the

[11:09] north gate. Citizens have had no input into this, but they certainly should. Why

[11:15] is the artwork purchased and by the city and displayed here chosen by the very partisan

[11:22] mayor Frank Aldwin alone? Scott Anderson has stood in front of this body and boldly,

[11:27] I believe, knowingly lied about the trapping ordinance which absolutely allows whatever

[11:34] kind of contraption the trapper decides to use, including one that will kill the

[11:38] animal. It's in the ordinance. What Scott is keeping hidden is that this ordinance

[11:45] sets up the fox to watch the chicken house. The WCO, who is in charge of making sure

[11:50] sufficient preventative measures have been taken, only gets paid if they trap an

[11:55] animal. For these problems, William O. Douglas left these perfect words Sunlight

[12:01] is the best disinfectant.

[12:16] That concludes public comment. Next up we have a city administrator's report by Scott

[12:22] Anderson. Pardon me, I'm gonna do, uh, two things cause I'm gonna have to audible

[12:27] one and be prepared because I have absolutely no notes for it. So I'll just do this.

[12:31] Uh, so the first one is Ocean Forest Freshwaterways, and this I do have notes for.

[12:35] Uh, I live on, uh, the Bell Canals, and I just wanna briefly address the conditions

[12:39] of our freshwaterways. Um, I, I understand that we had a really, really beautiful

[12:45] waterway system up until the last few weeks. And this, we haven't had rain, uh, it's

[12:50] getting dry. And so I understand some of the firsthand concerns that are being expressed

[12:54] by our, by our residents. Uh, the waterways and the ocean shores are one of the things

[12:59] that make us absolutely unique. And when I bought a home on Ocean Shores, I, I made

[13:03] sure it was on the waterways themselves, so I could take advantage of this. Uh, I

[13:07] wanna emphasize the city has been working actively. To improve the health and quality

[13:12] of our freshwater systems in partnerships with our Freshwater Waste Advisory Board

[13:17] and its engaged community members, and the city has undertaken a number of efforts,

[13:21] including installing aerators to improve oxygenation and circulation, uh, conducting

[13:27] aquatic vegetation harvesting, implementing methods to reduce the car population,

[13:32] and is working to reduce phosphorus levels within our waterways. Uh, these efforts

[13:36] reflect an ongoing commitment to improving our water system. I also wanna say a shout

[13:40] out to our Freshwater Waste Advisory Board, which in my time of being here I believe

[13:45] is one of the most active and productive boards we've ever had in the city. So I

[13:49] really thank all the work they do. Now, currently we are responding to cyanobacteria

[13:55] or blue-green algae, uh, that's blooming in our canals. Uh, we're not alone in this

[14:00] section across Western Washington. You're seeing this. Uh, samples have been submitted

[14:04] for laboratory testing, and we expect these toxin results to come in on Friday, and

[14:10] appropriate warning signs have been posted at public docks and boat launches. Uh,

[14:15] until those results are received, however, we're asking everyone to use caution and

[14:20] when in doubt, stay out. Uh, avoid water with visible algae, keep children and pets

[14:26] away from affected water, and do not drink untreated surface water. There is no single

[14:31] or immediate solution to maintaining a freshwater system of this size. Uh, our approach

[14:36] must continue to be collaborative, science-based, and focused on long term improvement,

[14:41] and the city will continue working alongside not only the Fresh Waterways Advisory

[14:45] Board. But Herrera and some of our appropriate experts that we utilized uh to strengthen

[14:50] and maintain uh our this important asset to our community. So that's Freshwaterways

[14:55] update, uh, this one I'm just gonna ad lib because um I've been working on it all

[14:59] day today and since it got brought up, it was about, uh, the arts and ocean shores

[15:04] and what some of the things that we're doing. So some of the things may not even

[15:08] be known, uh, and I was gonna announce this actually at the next meeting because

[15:11] I just didn't want to get announced too much ahead of time. But, um, some of the,

[15:16] some of the art mediums that we're working on are with film. And we have entered

[15:20] into a sort of a partnership with uh Dark and Stormy Productions, which is trying

[15:25] to market Ocean Shores, and I'll try to get this all in as a destination to both

[15:30] shoot films. Um, and to highlight films and to bring in production companies, we

[15:35] have a lot of advantages that people don't have in places like California and that

[15:40] because you can actually drive right out to our beach and shoot. We've got some kind

[15:43] of esoteric landscape around us, and they're sort of been pushing this vehicle and

[15:47] they've received LTAC funding for their film. They have a film festival that's coming

[15:50] up, so I'd like to announce that the.

[15:58] Dark and Stormy Film Fest will be at our Ocean Shore Cinema, and that will be on

[16:03] Saturday, October 17th, uh, and October 18th. They're gonna have a lot of neat like

[16:09] avant-garde horror films. Uh, before that, the evening before, they're gonna have

[16:12] the Rocky Shore Rocky Horror Picture Show, uh, on the 16th, and it's just kind of

[16:18] a fun way to sort of bring the community together through film. We also have our

[16:22] first commitment we've been working on this with the producers of a film that's gonna

[16:25] be called Neverland. Uh, and it's sort of based on Peter Pan. Uh, the, the production

[16:30] company is a legitimate real production company. They're gonna be hiring about 100

[16:34] extras. They're gonna be, first of all, staying in Ocean Shores for a number of days,

[16:37] which obviously brings in revenue to our city, but we're gonna have 100 extras for

[16:41] like a pirate fightout they're gonna have on the beach, Neverland as it pertains

[16:45] to Peter Pan. It's about him as an adult. Um, so if you have your pirate costumes

[16:49] and you want to be a part of that, they are looking for additional, uh, volunteers.

[16:54] Uh, that can participate in that photo shoot. But the whole idea is to kind of cast

[16:58] Ocean Shores as a quirky, unusual place to do some avant-garde filming where we haven't

[17:04] been on the map before. And if we can get this film festival going, and we can get

[17:09] some production companies to come in, uh, we have a lot of kind of ideas that we

[17:13] hope would grow long term. One of the things we sort of talked about today, today,

[17:17] and by, I don't think anyone knows this sitting at the table, including the mayor.

[17:21] Um, because it was just kind of a collaborative discussion we're having would be

[17:25] something like we're talking about, I need to talk to the Freshwater Waste Advisory

[17:27] Board and others, but something called Canalloween. And it would be 2 days before

[17:31] Halloween, the nights before, we would decorate some of the canals. Anyone who wants

[17:35] to put out, you know, their horror artifacts and their lighting or their, and then

[17:38] we would be able to give like boat tours through the Canal Brothers or anyone private

[17:42] like the Ocean Shores Yacht Club. That would do that would just be a kind of a fun

[17:46] thing to do in the October months. It would bring our community together, uh, and

[17:50] add some art and some public participation to some of the things we have here, uh,

[17:54] which might be fun. I don't know if we're gonna have time to get it off the ground

[17:56] this year, um, but we may, uh, it would be a fun thing, but I need to have work with

[18:00] a bunch of collaborative partners to do that. So we are trying to market Ocean Shores

[18:04] the best we can as an artsy touristy destination, and, uh, like I said, this is off

[18:08] the cuff, but I'll have more to come on that. So thank you.

[18:13] All right, thanks. Next up, we got a 2027 General Fund Preliminary revenue estimate,

[18:19] RCW 35A.33.135, and that'll be presented by our finance director, Sarah Logan.

[18:33] Good evening. So in your, uh, agenda packet tonight, you received what's the 2027

[18:40] preliminary general fund revenue estimates. And what we just did on this, uh, is

[18:45] summarize kind of our revenue stream and how it's coming in, in anticipation for

[18:50] 2027. Um, the last, well, as long as I've ever known, we haven't done this piece

[18:56] as a part of the budget, and it is a RCW and a statutory requirement. They typically

[19:02] just will bring the levy documents and call it even because those are the ones that

[19:06] have to be turned into the county. However, In order for all of you to review our

[19:12] operational budgets, you need to see what our revenues are specifically for the general

[19:15] funds. So in your agenda packet, there's just a summary, and then I've kind of written

[19:20] out what that summary goes over and I'll just read it off and then if you have questions

[19:24] for it, we'll go over those. Uh, tonight we have presented the preliminary 2027 general

[19:30] fund revenue estimates in the council's agenda packet. Again, a part of RCW 35A 33.

[19:37] The city is required to develop these estimates of anticipated revenues and expenditures

[19:42] and present a budget that provides council with a clear understanding of the resources

[19:46] available to support city operations. The preliminary forecast that you see tonight

[19:51] is currently projecting 2027 at 0.5% lower than 2026, which anybody that Uh, council

[19:59] member Greble and schools, council member Scott and the municipality all know that

[20:03] that's kind of the trend right now. Several major general fund revenue sources are

[20:08] either declining or projected to remain relatively flat. Sales tax collections through

[20:14] July of 26 are approximately 5% below 2025. B&O tax has been affected by the closure,

[20:23] specifically to the Shiloh because that was a huge B&O tax revenue. Uh, permit related

[20:28] revenues have declined from their 2024 peak, and changes for services have experienced

[20:34] a downward trend for several years. We have talked in length for the last year and

[20:39] a half at finance committee if anybody from the audience or council follows along

[20:43] with those. Uh, about these and specifically to the building and permitting, we are

[20:49] coming way out of our building boom and going back to 2018's numbers. And those you

[20:55] can see in our Our archives, I mean they all show them there. The forecast also reflects

[21:01] the absence of significant one-time revenues that supported prior years. For example,

[21:07] 2025 included nearly 2.2 million in the Department of Commerce erosion repairs grant

[21:13] revenue. That grant revenue went directly into our general fund. We don't see that

[21:17] now, even though it was an expenditure, we were able to project that into our previous

[21:23] budget because we knew that that grant had been awarded and we were receiving it.

[21:27] While the current 2027 estimate contains one time state revenue, in addition, the

[21:33] previous six years have included federal ARPA funding that is no longer available

[21:38] to the city. We have utilized those and we have, uh, closed out our federal grant

[21:44] process, so we're all done with those. Uh, those prior years therefore should not

[21:48] be viewed as a representative of the city's reoccurring general fund revenue capacity

[21:53] going forward. Another significant factor is the city's correction of its cost allocation

[21:59] methodology for enterprise and other funds. I have spoken about this in great length.

[22:05] Uh, the finance committee, along with the finance department have worked diligently

[22:09] in 25 and 26. Historically, others made up this process much more complicated than

[22:15] it needed to be, uh, but it seemed a little intentional on why they did it that way.

[22:21] Uh, money would.

[22:28] Come from the enterprise funds, moved to the shared utility fund, then moved to the

[22:32] general fund, then ultimately some of the money would allocate back to the enterprise

[22:36] funds sometimes. Uh, we referred in finance to that as the money swirl because it

[22:42] was, uh, essentially moving dollars from one fund to another and then moving some

[22:47] of those dollars back sometimes and again rarely ever, um. So we've corrected that

[22:54] as you all know instead of moving those funds through multiple funds, the enterprise

[22:59] funds are assessed their appropriate share costs which all the council received and

[23:05] has been online and in our finance committees our cost allocation plan that was updated.

[23:10] Uh, those amounts are credited directly to the general fund, which will reflect in

[23:14] its own section of the budget the finance committee has already seen. So, uh, instead

[23:20] of seeing how you would have in years past and, uh, to council members that have

[23:24] been on here for years and years, you would just see continuous transfers in and

[23:28] transfers out, transfers in and transfers out, and it's a section like this big and

[23:33] the narrative of, of what's happening. And there's no more calculating depreciation

[23:39] and basing more indirect transfers off of that. So, uh, the biggest point I want

[23:46] to emphasize to council, this is not simply a 0.5% revenue decline story. It's about

[23:52] establishing a corrected financial baseline after removing accounting effects and

[23:58] one-time revenues that can make prior years appear stronger than the city's ongoing

[24:03] operational position. This gives council and staff a more realistic picture of what

[24:08] reoccurring revenues can substantiate support moving forward. The expectation of

[24:14] the city staff and the mayor and city administrator. Given this financial outlook,

[24:19] the expectation for all department heads in 27 will be to exercise significant spending

[24:24] restraints specific to the general fund. And focus expenditures on essential operational

[24:31] needs. Departments will be expected to work diligently to reduce discretionary spending,

[24:36] defer purchases when reasonably possible, and carefully evaluate whether expenditures

[24:41] are necessary during 2027 budget year. The primary exception will be public works

[24:47] capital and infrastructure projects. Where dedicated funding levels are uh sufficient

[24:53] to support the work, where appropriate funding is available and the city should continue

[24:58] moving those projects forward rather than unnecessarily delaying needed infrastructure

[25:03] investment. Specifically because we did the cost allocation correction and the general

[25:09] fund isn't subsidizing more than it should have ever subsidized out of the rate paid

[25:15] enterprise funds, the enterprise funds are now healthy and can deal with our infrastructure

[25:21] and our maintenance. And so that's what, while we heal our general fund, that's what

[25:26] we'll focus on in 27 is specific our water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure,

[25:31] and our road maintenance. Uh, a road maintenance, and I say that that is general

[25:36] fun, but the storm system and the road maintenance that's available to do during

[25:40] that will be a big portion, and I'm sure the public works director will talk more

[25:45] about that later. Additionally, the departments are now told they will not rely on

[25:51] general fund to finance everything that they want current, ongoing, or future. Each

[25:56] department head will be expected to actively identify, pursue, and obtain available

[26:01] grant funding for departmental programs, equipment, capital. Improvements and other

[26:06] needs wherever grant opportunities are available. Grant funding should become an

[26:11] integral part of the departmental planning rather than being viewed as a supplemental

[26:16] effort after a need has already arisen, as the council knows, we've spent a great

[26:21] deal of time and success, uh, um, to Tim, Tim's success on public works grant projects

[26:27] while no other department has looked for any grants specific to their departments,

[26:32] which is a. Uh, quasi overlook on our part, um, and they can do way better. Fire

[26:38] used to write their own grants. Police used to write their own grants, finance. Uh,

[26:43] even the city clerk's office that I oversee, we got our grants for scanning and what

[26:48] have you by looking for them on our own because we know what to look for. I kind

[26:53] of tried to tell them to treat it like unemployment, like if you haven't looked for

[26:57] 3 grants this week. You don't get paid tomorrow. Like, so it's a joke. It's on record.

[27:03] It's a joke. God knows what all the comment will be. The goal for 2027 is not to

[27:10] simply reduce spending from the general fund, allowing it time to heal and build.

[27:15] It is to align ongoing expenditures with a substantial reoccurring revenues while

[27:22] protecting essential city services and continue. And responsible investments in our

[27:26] infrastructure. The primary revenue estimates are being presented now, so the the

[27:32] council and department heads have this information before expenditure decisions are

[27:36] made and can approach the 2027 budget with shared understanding to the city's actual

[27:42] financial capacity. With that being said. As you go through the operational budget,

[27:47] you will see requests specifically from the public works director and not so much

[27:52] requests from those that are generated or paid out of the general fund. We are going

[27:57] to try and find other avenues and allow our general fund to build back up, uh, while

[28:03] we work on our infrastructure at the same time with the, um. I'm excited because

[28:09] those are the funds that aren't being allocated that then demand a rate increase

[28:13] later. So, that's the preliminary 2027. Money. OK,

[28:21] um, Scott, you had something? Yeah, I had 30 seconds more and it wasn't on yours,

[28:25] so I don't know if you were you gonna have council questions first or, OK, so go

[28:29] ahead and you do council questions and I'll go back to mine. Right. Questions? Yes,

[28:34] go ahead, Lisa Scott. I just wanna say thank you so much. I'm so glad we're moving

[28:38] to an annual basis, and it, you've cleaned it up so much, and that's exactly what

[28:43] we asked for, and it's, for me, at least, it's very transparent, and it's easier

[28:48] to understand. So, thank you, and uh I'm glad that the enterprise funds are, are

[28:54] getting figured out. Thank you.

[28:57] Right. Any other questions? I guess we don't have any other questions. I guess, go

[29:03] ahead, Scott. All right, I said this is the problem in ad libbing things, um, I forgot

[29:08] the important part, uh, or one of the important parts. Monday the 28th on Evening

[29:12] magazine King 5.

[29:21] 7:30, uh, that's what they were down here filming today. This is one of the reasons

[29:25] I was working with them and, uh, so you're gonna see something kind of stormy spooky

[29:29] ocean shores. Uh, we're gonna be focusing on the Celtic Music Fest, uh, on the Katala.

[29:35] Um, we're gonna be looking at, uh, some of the other things on our canals. We got

[29:38] some great video of our canals and how spooky they are at night. But I also wanna

[29:42] say this ties into like a bigger tourism strategy that we have. One of the things

[29:46] that George and I are always discussing is that it's very easy to promote ocean shores

[29:50] in the spring and the summer. Uh, it gets more difficult to find activities and what

[29:55] we've always called them fallen back on is, is clam digging and storm watching in

[29:59] the winter. But I think there's more to the ocean shore story to that. And I think

[30:03] by bringing in the arts and bringing in sort of more of an avant-garde film community,

[30:07] uh, we can help focus on that. So it's one of the things we're doing. And then I

[30:11] do not know if this was discussed cause I, uh, had the privilege of being in Japan

[30:16] for the last kind of two weeks until now, where my daughter has been going to school,

[30:20] uh, and studying Japanese. But I did want to let you know that work on the sand.

[30:24] It's actually beginning really in earnest. And just in case it wasn't said, the Shiloh

[30:28] has been sold. So everyone knows and work has already started on that. And that ties

[30:32] into everything that George and I and everyone in this community that's working on

[30:36] marketing and engaging the city, uh, are, are doing because that is our flagship

[30:41] hotel. It's the flagship hotel for this convention center, and I'm really happy that

[30:46] sooner rather than later, we will have the sands back.

[30:51] The shy low back. See, I guess I may be strong jet lag. Sorry. Well, we'll be getting

[30:57] the sands back too, so that's good. All right, uh, next we got council liaison reports

[31:04] and we'll start with, uh, Kurt Dooley.

[31:09] I attended the Public Safety Committee meeting and signed warrants. All right, thanks,

[31:16] Richard. None of my liaison committees met since the last council meeting, so I have

[31:20] no report. Thank you. All right, Lisa Scott, ditto on that. We do have finance, uh,

[31:27] committee meeting on the 24th and public works on the 28th of this month. All right,

[31:33] uh, Denise Sires. I attended a gender review. I signed warrants. Uh, Lisa mentioned

[31:40] we do have finance upcoming on this Thursday and, uh, for the public who's interested,

[31:45] we do delve deeper into the budget at that particular committee. Uh, LTAC is coming

[31:52] up for the 2027, uh, start of request and that's on October 6th and the

[31:59] council budget study session. That was uh scheduled for this coming Saturday, September

[32:06] 26th, has been rescheduled to November 10th prior to council, so we have uh more

[32:14] information. Right, thanks, Allison. I signed warrants. I attended the Public

[32:21] Safety Committee meeting, agenda setting, and our ad hoc committee for your home,

[32:27] our city, and then I had a training session with about half of the members in the

[32:33] pool for the ethics committee, and we'll be setting up a training for those who are

[32:39] unable to attend. For that, and then I have finance coming up this week and public

[32:45] works next week. All right, thanks, Lisa agreeable. Thank you, Mayor. I attended

[32:51] our ad hoc committee meeting. All right. Tom Taylor. I

[32:59] attended, um, public safety. And uh got some news on that. Um, one of the clerk that

[33:06] they're hiring. Is

[33:11] That report's coming up. OK, yeah. All right, thank you. All right, so we're gonna

[33:16] move on to council ad hoc committees, and, uh, this is, uh, your home, our city ad

[33:21] hoc committee report, and that's presented by council member Lisa Grebel. Thank you

[33:26] Mayor. Our committee met and interestingly enough, the public comment tonight and

[33:32] our city administrator's report both tied into our committee meeting. Our discussion

[33:38] was how can we promote our city to be welcoming and. Inclusive of everyone who lives

[33:45] here and visits here and the what we landed on was a a way to do that was through

[33:52] art and public art and the conversation was how could we develop a clear way of um

[33:59] commissioning art. Determining what the budget is for community art, different mediums

[34:06] that could be reflected and making sure that we're spreading that community art around

[34:11] to a variety of artists and so we talked about having some, uh, lots of cities do

[34:17] public art. Tests that uh the local artists submit ideas and and how what the art

[34:25] would be what while the city has a theme for that and so that's what we talked about

[34:29] and we'll I'll talk about that later at um future agenda items for perhaps having

[34:34] that as a discussion. All right, thank you. Uh, salary review ad hoc committee, and

[34:42] that'll be presented uh by Alison Klein. We met the uh council member Julie

[34:49] Wells and myself met and reviewed all of the documents that HR had provided for us

[34:56] and we have made recommendations to the mayor. All right, thank you. Um, next, uh,

[35:04] consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? Yes, salad, um. Motion to approve

[35:11] the consent agenda. 2nd. All right, all in favor? All right, thank you. Unanimous.

[35:20] All right, we'll move on to the finance standing Committee. We have a resolution

[35:25] of the city council of the city of Ocean Shores, Washington repealing and replacing

[35:29] resolution number 760 establishing a plan for disposal and sale of accumulated beach

[35:37] approach sand, and that'll be. Presented by our public works director, Ricardo Victoriano.

[35:45] Uh, good evening, counsel. So what I have for you is The oh, I'm missing a page here

[35:53] we go. All right, so, uh, in the past we've done these sand halls, um, I'm not sure

[35:58] how the price was set historically, uh, but what I did was, uh, kind of what we do

[36:04] for, um, you know, establishing rates for meter installs and everything like that

[36:09] and make sure that we're not losing money on, you know, our typical work and things

[36:14] where it's just a set price and, you know, we use our work orders to, uh, just double

[36:19] check that and make sure that we're. Not, um, you know, being negligent in that,

[36:24] that, uh, Case, but so what I used was uh FEMA equipment rates uh for charging our

[36:32] our uh. Let me see, is there a In the back of the section of the agenda packet here,

[36:40] section 9, we have a work order that I drafted for um. It'll be an equipment operator

[36:47] and a spotter in a truck there to make sure that the contractors have tickets and

[36:52] make sure that they're staying in an orderly line, no one's doing anything dangerous

[36:55] and, you know, going up into the staging area without being asked to do so. Uh, and

[37:00] so we're billing a pickup truck. It'll be a 4 wheel drive half ton pickup truck and

[37:05] then a front loader to load the sand, um. And so kind of one full bucket of our front

[37:12] loader is about 3 yards of sand and so that's what we're basing it on is uh 2 minutes

[37:16] to load one full bucket of sand, uh, divide that by 3, charge that out per yard,

[37:21] um, so this work order is a total of 1027 for 3 yards, divide that by 3 and that

[37:27] gave us the price that we put in for 342 per cubic yard.

[37:35] And that's about double at least of what we were charging before on that. So what

[37:40] was going on prior to me getting here was the fact that uh the guys would get loaded

[37:46] up with sand and then they drive by the office and tell us how much sand they. Cook

[37:53] And um we changed that now where they gotta pay ahead of time for a ticket. Ticket

[37:58] goes to one of Ricky's guys, and then they load them up. And so we got better control,

[38:03] and we'll be uh receiving better funds out of that effort. So, that's, that's what's

[38:08] going on.

[38:13] So council discussion. We got any questions for him? Yes, Richard. Do you have any

[38:19] idea around ballpark figures how much revenue the sale of sand it should bring in,

[38:25] may bring in? Uh, just because it hasn't, it's only been tracked once. I don't know,

[38:29] you know, it could just be that we haven't done it in, I think, a year or two, but,

[38:33] you know, we get double the turnout than we did last year, so I, I don't think I

[38:36] could responsibly make an estimate. You know, at, at $10 a, a, a scoop, uh, you know,

[38:45] Just a wild guess. Do we sell 100 scoops? Do we sell 3 scoops? Wild guess. Yeah,

[38:50] so it, it, it's really different every time we get a good mix of contractors and

[38:54] private homeowners that will come out and want a trailer loaded up or a truck bed,

[38:58] and so, um. I, I would have to look at, at what the revenue was last year and, and

[39:04] base it off that. Not worth it. Thank you. Yeah, Richard, what, um, what kind of

[39:10] Makes that uh popular with the contractors is how many houses we have going in, and

[39:15] housing is slowing down on that. So, um, It's, it's hard to say. We stopped for the

[39:22] last couple of years because of the berm issues, and we did not wanna run out of

[39:27] sand if we needed sand, so we sat on that for a couple of years. Now we've got more

[39:31] than enough. Um, yeah, go ahead and then Kurt. My, my, my comment is. This is not

[39:39] gonna be a big revenue for the city, but I'm actually very glad that we are taking

[39:44] control of, and it's just not a free for all and giving it away. I promise I only

[39:49] got one bucket. So, thank you. Go ahead, Kurt. Just to clarify, we're, we're only

[39:56] trying to recoup costs, not make a profit, right? OK, thank you. It doesn't hurt

[40:01] to make a little bit. Yes, go ahead, Lisa. Um, I'd like to go ahead and make a motion

[40:08] to, uh, pass the resolution of the city council.

[40:13] Thank you. Sorry, we jumped to council questions, so sorry. Yeah, somebody changed

[40:20] the order on this thing on me. Um, do you got any other questions down at this end

[40:25] of the table? No? Any others? Oh, go ahead, Denise. I, I just wanted to comment with

[40:31] a, a big thank you. Uh, it is so nice to see actual, uh, time and material analysis.

[40:39] Um, it, it, it, it's amazing compared to the way it was done in the past. So thank

[40:44] you.

[40:46] All right. If we have no other council comments or questions, we'll go to public

[40:50] comment. Any public comment out there? Yes, go ahead. Yeah, go to the mic, please.

[41:09] Sylvia Fain here. I'm just wondering, I've, I've kind of heard about this before,

[41:15] but I really never knew about it. So we sell sta sand to residents, if, if they wanna

[41:22] buy it. Like, is it a specific weekend or something, or is it specific days and

[41:31] It's uh Ricky, it's you can't answer me. That's right. I'm sorry. Anyway, I would

[41:37] like to know, um, Yeah, you know, how this works, when it works, uh, it's

[41:44] never really been. I, I mean, maybe people that are really active here know about

[41:51] it, but I don't think the community has known that much about it, so. If you're selling

[41:56] sand, I wanna know about it.

[42:01] Any other uh comments out there? Yes, go ahead.

[42:20] I'm Medina Ridge. I have nothing to do with the sand. Um, I remember a few weeks

[42:26] ago I read that, um, a lot of corners had a problem with gravel being all messed

[42:33] up from whatever the case may be. Um, that we're talking about the sand purchase.

[42:39] We can't talk about anything else, right? That should have been done during public

[42:44] comment, general public comment. OK, I'm sorry. That's fine.

[42:50] Anybody uh out there wanna talk about the sand purchasing? I don't see any Richard,

[42:58] so just uh for clarification. If a homeowner wants a couple of scoops of sand, you

[43:05] know, 36 yards of sand, that's a purchase. If I want 25 gallon buckets of sand, am

[43:10] I breaking the law if I go down to the beach and scoop up 25 gallon buckets? That's,

[43:15] uh, yeah, so I mean we're, we're not gonna have anyone out there with buckets while

[43:19] we have equipment on the beach. That's, that's not my question. So am I breaking

[43:23] the law because I just, hey Richard, uh, Rick, Ricky's not really, uh, um. Ready

[43:30] to make that kind of a determination. Legal question if you want a legal answer for

[43:35] that, email me and I'll get you one. Thank you. All right.

[43:40] Lisa, did you wanna go ahead now?

[43:45] I'd like to go ahead and make a motion to approve the resolution of the City Council

[43:49] of the City of Ocean Shores, Washington, repealing and replacing resolution number

[43:54] 760, establishing a plan for the disposal and sale of accumulated beach approach

[44:00] sand. Second,

[44:04] All right. Any other comments from the council on that? All right, I guess not. Let's

[44:08] go ahead and vote. All in favor? Aye. All right, unanimous. Thank you. Thank you.

[44:13] Thanks, Ricky.

[44:16] All right. Uh, next, uh, public, uh, safety standing Committee. Um, Report and that

[44:22] will be by council member Taylor.

[44:32] I attended the Public safety, uh Meeting and uh we're, I liked what

[44:40] our Department's doing they're they're doing a lot more action with in

[44:48] uh holding people responsible for speeding and and violations and. Um Things

[44:55] and, and it, it's good to see them out there making contact. Um, they're warning

[45:01] people and not just citing people, but they're doing both. Um, so, uh, for

[45:10] They had 992 stops during the month and um They also

[45:18] had 25 citations. And um So that was, that's, that's a

[45:26] lot, that's good traffic for the officers and for the citizens, both uh residents

[45:32] and visitors. Um, it's, it's a balance actually, uh. Being a former law enforcement

[45:40] officer that tells the citizens that they're actually getting their service for for

[45:47] it so that looked that looked good. Also, um, the station clerk will be starting,

[45:53] um, in October about the 21st so that that seat be filled.

[46:00] I think they can hear me. They can't. OK. Um, so she'll be starting about, uh, October

[46:08] 21st and that's I have somebody.

[46:16] October 1st, I'm sorry. Um, so, um, police department is doing good.

[46:24] All right, thanks. Um, next. What? Oh, OK, I'm sorry, um.

[46:32] Oh, you had a question, Lisa? Go ahead.

[46:43] I just had a question if there's anything about fire.

[46:53] Did not document that. I can answer that if it's allowed. Absolutely. Um,

[47:01] Allison and I were also there and uh the fire department mostly just talked about

[47:06] their own statistics, um, and what was going on with the South Fire Station, which

[47:12] is now manned. And uh and then toward the end I asked. She's heard about the

[47:19] overtime costs and Let him know that uh the council and the citizens are paying attention

[47:25] to that, and he needed to get a handle on it.

[47:31] All right. OK. So we'll move on to, this is under Public Works Standing Committee,

[47:36] but we will uh recess this regular city council meeting at 6:47.

[47:45] And convene into a special meeting of the Transportation Benefit District. This will

[47:50] be presented by our project manager, Becky Leach, and Public Works Director. Ricardo

[47:58] Victoriano.

[48:02] Hello everybody. We have a really exciting, much needed project for the transportation

[48:07] benefit district tonight to bring before you the, um, it's an asphalt project and

[48:13] it's taking place all over the city. We're doing asphalt repairs at the Overlake

[48:18] Bridge. If you drive on that, you know that that is really needed. 23 additional

[48:23] locations throughout the city that is in the agenda packet and then there's also

[48:26] areas of payment needed to be done at the Ocean Shores Airport, um. Project went

[48:32] out to bid. Low bid was $585,736 and that is from Puget Paving.

[48:45] All right. And any other, uh, you got any questions or? Yes, Richard. So, um

[48:53] This paving project is for all of the paving that needs to be done throughout the

[48:58] city, and my question specifically is, in the past we had an ordinance, I believe

[49:03] that we were supposed to tunnel under the asphalt instead of trench across it. So

[49:07] how much of this paving is a result of having trenched instead of tunneled or or

[49:13] piped under whatever the right word is. So, um, in some cases we, we have no other

[49:19] choice but to, uh, make a road cut. So, um, you know, times where equipment gets

[49:25] stuck under the road where we're trying to bore or push through, um, and I believe

[49:30] there is. 2 or 3 of those road cuts that need to be done. So, uh, the, the, the bore

[49:38] insulation and really, uh, Limiting factor on that, especially in our area, is that

[49:44] we can't get contractors that will bore anything bigger than 4 inches across the

[49:48] road. So I think any culvert that we have to install to improve our storm drain,

[49:52] uh, we have to cut that open 4 ft wide and, and get that installed. Thank you. That's

[49:57] a good answer. Thank you. Yes, Lisa Scott. I have a quick question. So the um

[50:05] On chance, you have the sewer installed. Is that the last bit of area that hasn't

[50:10] been paved yet? Yes, yeah, that, that's the one trench across the road there. Yeah,

[50:15] thank you.

[50:19] Any, uh, anything else? Yes, uh, Denise. Uh, I, I was, uh, I'd, I'd

[50:27] like you to explain there has been a lot on social media about individual areas that

[50:32] Need to be fixed. Uh, can you explain why we, um, put them all together? In a bid,

[50:40] yeah, so, um, I, I guess I'll do my best. I'm not a, not a lawyer, but, uh, so we

[50:46] have, uh, bid laws that we stick to and so when we know that there's a, you know,

[50:51] a certain amount of work that has to be done, which in my mind this was starting

[50:55] out somewhere around 1000 to 200,000 and then we added the Overlake Bridge that desperately

[51:00] needed to be done, uh, the area in front of the elementary school is gonna be completely

[51:04] removed and repaved, um. And so you know that puts us over the $300,000 mark. And

[51:11] once we're at that point, we have to have an engineer's estimate for the work to

[51:14] be done. And at that point there's a lot more that goes into the bid information.

[51:19] We spent probably close to a month going back and forth with engineers, um, working

[51:23] on, uh, the load calculations for the Overlake bridge, and so, um. The grinding equipment

[51:29] that's gonna be used for most of the work can't be used there. It has to be peeled

[51:33] off with an excavator for the majority of the day, sadly. But um back to the, I mean,

[51:39] you know, Doing everything at once versus splitting it up. If we were to split it

[51:43] up and do it in 3 sections so that we didn't have to do all the extra steps, then

[51:47] that would be bid splitting and they would kind of point that out in our audit.

[51:52] Well, it'd be a lot more money also that you know because you gotta pay for mobilization.

[51:57] People are already there now to do the work. They gotta come back out and you probably

[52:03] double the cost on that. Anybody else got anything they'd like to say?

[52:10] I guess not. So I guess we can, uh, hold on. They, they need to make action. They

[52:15] have to approve this request. That's not in here. Yeah, it's, uh, it's because it's

[52:22] a special meeting within a meeting. It's on page 25. 2626 yeah I don't have that

[52:29] page of your big agenda.

[52:33] You got that. Thanks. OK, so I'd like to go ahead and make a motion to approve a

[52:38] request of the City council of the City of Ocean Shores awarding the citywide paving

[52:42] project to Puget Paving. Nope, wrong one. You gotta in the agenda packet you gotta

[52:48] approve the request for the TBD uh board to approve the 2026 budget request number

[52:55] 4 as the TBD board. OK, my bad. I flipped the page. Sorry, let me try that again.

[53:02] So I'd like to make a motion to approve a request of the Transportation Benefit District

[53:07] Number 1 board to approve the 2026 budget request number 4. Second

[53:15] All in favor. Aye. All right, thanks. Unanimous. So, um, we'll close this special

[53:21] meeting in the Transportation Benefit District and reconvene the regular city council

[53:25] meeting at 6:52.

[53:32] All right, so next up we have a request to the City council of the City of Ocean

[53:36] Shores Washington awarding the citywide paving project to Puget Paving presented

[53:42] by project manager Becky Leach and Public Works director Ricardo Victoriano.

[53:52] I'm going to read down through the agenda bill which covers pretty much everything

[53:57] that I just said, but since we have it, I'm gonna go ahead and cover the agenda bill.

[54:00] The city has identified asphalt pavement repairs at multiple locations requiring

[54:04] corrective work to preserve existing infrastructure and maintain safe and serviceable

[54:09] roadway conditions. The citywide asphalt paving project includes asphalt repairs

[54:14] at the Overlake Bridge, 23 additional locations throughout the city, and designated

[54:19] areas of pavement at the Ocean Shores Municipal Airport. Prior to solicitation, the

[54:23] estimated project estimate cost was $603,493. Following the competitive bidding process,

[54:31] the city received two bids with Puget Paving submitting. The lowest responsive bid

[54:35] in the amount of 585 to $736. So, it's always nice when our projects come in with

[54:42] a lower bid than what the actual estimate is from the engineers. The proposed work

[54:46] will address identified pavement deterioration, improve roadway conditions, and help

[54:51] prevent further degradation that could result in more extensive and costly repairs

[54:55] in the future. Staff recommends that the city council approve the citywide asphalt

[54:59] paving project and authorize the award of the construction contract to Puget Paving

[55:04] in the amount of $585,736.08.

[55:11] All right. Um, any comments or questions from the council? I see none. How about

[55:18] from the public?

[55:21] No public comment. All right, um. You have counselor Oh, sorry. Yes,

[55:29] Allison. So, I'd like to make a motion to approve a request of the City council of

[55:34] the City of Ocean Shores awarding the citywide paving project to Puget Paving. 2nd

[55:40] 2nd. All right, we have a 2nd. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye. All right,

[55:46] thanks, unanimous. All right, next up we have a request to the city council. Of the

[55:53] City of Ocean Shores, Washington to approve groundworks to perform repairs on a failing

[55:59] city-owned culvert in the IGA parking lot. And that is presented by Public Works

[56:04] Director, Ricky Victoriano.

[56:09] Um, yeah, so this is a, um, I'm sure, uh, the barricades have been a hot topic. Um,

[56:15] so we actually set up cones and we had delivery drivers that were moving them to

[56:20] get through, so we brought barricades out. Um, we have, uh, detected, I guess, um,

[56:26] the best way to put it, a large void under the road measuring about 25 by 45 ft.

[56:33] Uh, as deep as 12 ft in the center, uh, so there's a hole in the culvert, the aluminum

[56:39] culvert going through the, uh, or the galvanized culvert, galvanized steel, um, going

[56:44] underneath the parking lot there, um, carrying the Oihut ditch into the north end

[56:48] Grand Canal. Um, and so what that does is kind of like the tide, it liquefies the

[56:54] sand and kind of turns it into a slurry and pulls it with it. Um, and so two things

[57:00] that we'll fix here is we'll, uh, stop pulling sand from the ground, putting it into

[57:05] the North End Grand Canal, and we will, um, fix the void, seal the pipe, and re-support

[57:12] the foot thick asphalt that's there because I guess it's been a problem for a while

[57:16] and they just keep paving over it. So, um. The uh The I don't

[57:24] know anything about this work. Um, I've watched videos. I've listened to, uh, the

[57:30] crews that were out here, and, uh, I think that this is the best way to fix it. We

[57:34] don't have to open anything up, um, you know, when, when you're talking about something

[57:38] that big and that deep, uh, especially with the soil that we have, you know, you're

[57:41] sloping in a 1 to 2 slope to make sure that, uh, you're not having anything cave

[57:46] in, and that is a huge work area where we would have IGA move all of their shipping

[57:51] containers. Remove their fence, hopefully put it back the right way, and this is

[57:56] a non-intrusive way to fix it with cameras inside the culvert to make sure that we're

[58:02] Fixing it the right way.

[58:07] All right, thanks. If any of you have been on the uh east side of uh IGA you've seen.

[58:12] The Jersey barriers were brought in. And uh the reason was, is uh Ricky had that

[58:18] all coned off and flagged off, and the truckers moved it and drove over it anyway.

[58:22] So, we had to do something a little more serious with that. Um, anyway, uh, council,

[58:28] have any comments or questions? Yes, uh, go ahead. I don't, I don't wanna make an

[58:35] ignorant question, but isn't this private property? It is private property, but it's

[58:40] our culvert. OK, created the problem. Got you. OK, yeah.

[58:47] All right. I can see nothing more from counsel. Any public comments out there?

[58:53] Seeing none. Um, Yes, Lisa. You got it. OK. I'd like to approve a request of

[59:01] the City Council of the City of Ocean Shores, Washington to approve groundworks to

[59:06] perform repairs to a failing city-owned culvert in the IGA parking lot. Second. All

[59:13] right. Any other comments from the council? All in favor? Aye. All right, thanks,

[59:18] unanimous. All right, thanks, Ricky. Thank you. All right. Uh, under special agenda

[59:24] items, uh, we have an ordinance of the City council of the City of Ocean Shores amending

[59:30] the Ocean Shores. Municipal code section 5.10.050 sensitive use

[59:38] buffers to reduce certain cannabis retailer buffer distances from 1000 ft to 300

[59:46] ft providing for servability and establishing an effective date and this will be

[59:51] presented by our city administrator Scott Anderson. All right, so this is a kind

[59:56] of 3rd time the charm, although it actually relates to something we did a while back.

[1:00:01] Um, so a while back we, uh, decided we were gonna follow state regulations with the

[1:00:04] licensing of cannabis retailers and allow basically as many as the state would afford

[1:00:10] us, uh, before we had a limited one. Um, and that was, that was when they first came

[1:00:16] in with regulations from the state to allow marijuana or we should say cannabis retailers,

[1:00:21] uh, that has since changed. The state has allowed more than one per community under

[1:00:24] 10,000, um, and so, you know, competition never hurts and obviously you can see,

[1:00:29] you know, one can go out of business and then suddenly we're left with none. So the

[1:00:32] original idea was to allow that and that passed council, I think like almost 3 months

[1:00:37] ago or so. Uh, and then we had to look at some of our distances. We kinda have some

[1:00:40] unique challenges within the city of Ocean Shores and that we have to limit it to

[1:00:44] the sort of our commercial, you know, commercial B1 zoning, um, where to put them.

[1:00:49] But we have a number of problems with that. We have, uh, the skate park, which is

[1:00:53] part of our golf course parcel, and I'll go into a little more detail on that. Um,

[1:00:58] we've got Playtime Family Fun. We've got the Pacific Paradise Arcade, we've got Tugboat

[1:01:03] Grammys, and it just makes it so there's just not really a lot of places where you

[1:01:08] can put a marijuana or cannabis retail outlet within the city of Ocean Shores and

[1:01:12] keep it in our business. District, uh, there's just restrictions on it. If it has

[1:01:15] a 1000 ft buffer and almost everywhere you go, you're kind of blocked. It would be

[1:01:19] like a, you know, kind of a classic video game where you, you really can't move out

[1:01:22] of the position that you're in. So we started looking at it and eventually we went

[1:01:25] to the planning commission and we said, well, let's, let's move it to 500 ft. Um,

[1:01:29] and we kind of went through that process and it looked great until then we realized

[1:01:33] that once again, that because of playtime, family fun, because of others, um, we

[1:01:37] were still blocked out of almost every location. So like, what could we do to do

[1:01:41] this? So, there's a couple of things that I just have to have some facts before we

[1:01:45] do this. And one is that the method of measurement is really important in Washington

[1:01:49] state law. So this is the WAC 31,455,050, and state law requires buffer distances

[1:01:56] to be measured as the crow flies in a straight line from property line to property

[1:02:01] line. Part two, local municipal authority states set the default rules of a 1000

[1:02:07] ft buffer in local municipalities, but they're explicitly empowered to pass ordinances

[1:02:12] relate reducing non-school, non-playground buffers down to as low as 100 ft. That's

[1:02:19] the lowest you can go under state law. Um, elementary, secondary school, and public

[1:02:24] playgrounds, which our state park is considered, must permanently remain protected

[1:02:28] at 1000 ft. Um, then we have the classification of commercial entities and, um, that

[1:02:35] is so Playtime Family Fund, Playtime Family Fund Center, and Pacific Paradise are

[1:02:40] classified by the state as restricted commercial recreational entities due to their

[1:02:45] central positioning. The 1000 ft radii overlap and effectively lock out any business

[1:02:50] that wants to relocate, uh, in that part of the city. So that we have to have a buffer

[1:02:55] reduction for and that the state does allow for and then. Two more of these building

[1:03:00] structural standards and restrictions. This is from WAC 31455086. Uh, retailers are

[1:03:07] legally barred from operating in multi-tenant buildings with shared interior walkways.

[1:03:13] So Driftwood Plaza, another place that you could potentially put one otherwise, cannot

[1:03:17] be used. So you're trying to see we'll just get locked out as we go. So the only

[1:03:21] real solution we had to allowing, um, more than one cannabis dispensary, and frankly

[1:03:27] might only be allowed one, because of some other information that's come to light,

[1:03:31] uh, even if it is only. One that ever gets in is we have to adopt at least a minimum

[1:03:36] of a 300 ft buffer for non-school, non-playground entities, and that would resolve

[1:03:42] the overlapping commercial radii, uh, and the and allow viable commercial sites,

[1:03:48] uh, on Point Brown as well as one of the places people have looked at is the Martin

[1:03:52] Bruni liquor location and then that would be allowed even though it's somewhat adjacent

[1:03:56] playtime family fun, but it's not 300 ft away from that. So those are really kind

[1:04:01] of our only options in doing that is the 300 ft um it's not an entirely, you know,

[1:04:07] a number that is uh 500 didn't do it the lowest we can go is 100 so we filed this

[1:04:13] under our business licenses and changing our business license and regulations we're,

[1:04:17] we're viewing this as a business, uh, regulatory change and not a zoning change and,

[1:04:22] and obviously you have the amended language that's in your packets, uh, and with

[1:04:27] that I guess I can turn over to council questions. Right. Any questions? Yes, Lisa?

[1:04:33] Wouldn't the um liquor store property be considered a multi-tenant building? It's,

[1:04:38] well, here, here's the cure language, yeah, and yes, you are right, but there's a

[1:04:42] second clause in that, and it says retailers are legally barred from operating multi-tenant

[1:04:48] buildings with shared interior walkways. So that's what Driftwood Plaza has, as you

[1:04:53] can go through it, but that's why the Martin Bruni location would be allowed. OK,

[1:04:56] thank you. All right. Any other questions from council? Comments? Yes, Lisa Griebel.

[1:05:04] Thank you, Mayor, and uh Well, I, I wanna be supportive of community members who

[1:05:10] access cannabis for medical reasons, I guess my question is, what is our benefit

[1:05:15] to the city by having a, uh, another cannabis business? Well, right now we have none,

[1:05:21] so there's one that's located outside the city, um, and so obviously the city's benefit

[1:05:27] is, uh, you don't have to drive outside the city on a slightly dangerous intersection.

[1:05:31] And we're collecting the tax revenue by opening it rather than them and we're affording

[1:05:35] a business license and bringing jobs into our community. Right, which is what my

[1:05:39] question was. What was the benefit to the city? So you're saying, uh, business license.

[1:05:44] I'm saying, yeah, the business license is jobs, business license, and taxes. That's

[1:05:48] hopefully I answered that for you.

[1:05:52] Alright, yes, go ahead. In addition to the medical needs of our community, sorry,

[1:05:55] because that's a very important part of it. There are a lot of people who are veterans,

[1:05:58] seniors who really do rely on and or people have had chronic health conditions that

[1:06:03] really do rely on it. So that's another part of it. Just a quick, we did already

[1:06:08] vote on allowing more additional. This is just for the reduction of the actual square

[1:06:15] footage or the actual that is correct. Thank you. Yes, Richard.

[1:06:22] Details are in the weeds and so I'm in the weeds a lot because you can't build a

[1:06:26] structure without details, without the weeds, without structure. My question is,

[1:06:31] and this is very closely related, isn't the Washington RCW that uh uh if you have

[1:06:37] a cannabis store that if you walk into the lobby of that store, none of that cannabis

[1:06:42] product and and perfume and all of that. Stuff that can't be in the public access

[1:06:48] you have to go behind the counter behind the door is that is my memory correct? You,

[1:06:52] you are correct. It's not addressed by what we're doing here tonight, um, because

[1:06:57] there's a whole host of ordinances and wax that come with, you know, the licensing

[1:07:01] and distribution of any cannabis retailer, um, but that is more or less correct.

[1:07:06] That's a liquor control board issue. That's kind of what we did is we turned it over.

[1:07:12] The first time we voted on this, we turned it over to the Liquor Control Board to

[1:07:17] monitor and, and to make the rules up for that, so the city will be out of that.

[1:07:21] Thank, thank you for the clarification and the, and, and my point was, is we are

[1:07:25] not just putting up a street corner marijuana and come on down, get your drugs like

[1:07:29] they do in, in, in, in, in Holland. No matter what we do here, it still has to pass

[1:07:35] the Liquor and Cannabis Control Board regulations and so that's this is just saying

[1:07:40] this area can be used, but you will still have to meet all their requirements.

[1:07:45] All right. Anything else? Yes, Lisa Scribble. So, but Scott, there are other areas

[1:07:52] in B1 zones that if there weren't, if we didn't lower the restrictions, there are

[1:07:57] still other places in our city a business could go in. I think according to our own

[1:08:02] city code, the only places they can go is within that box. That's not an RC that

[1:08:07] is not the state regulation. That's according to our city code and how we've zone

[1:08:11] it. So the places they could go are from Ocean Shores Boulevard to Point Brown Avenue,

[1:08:16] um, to, you know, you could go as far south as, uh, Chancellor La Mer and the south

[1:08:21] side of Chancellor La Mer and then obviously as far north as where Ocean Shores Boulevard

[1:08:24] loops around. I'm not sure there are other places you could relocate that within

[1:08:28] the city under. Our current, our current zoning laws.

[1:08:34] Right. Any Anything else? All right. Uh, no. Hang on for that. Um, we've got,

[1:08:42] uh, public comment coming up and, uh, AJ Peters, if he's here, he can come up and

[1:08:47] speak. And then uh anybody else in the crowd that would like to comment, OK, you'll

[1:08:52] be next.

[1:08:58] See if I can speak loud enough at this time. Good evening, Mayor, members of the

[1:09:02] city council. My name is AJ Peters. I am a resident of Ocean Shores. I'm speaking

[1:09:07] tonight regarding the proposed cannabis buffer zone regulations. I urge the council

[1:09:11] to reject that 300 ft buffer and instead adopt the 100 ft buffer. The city of Pacific,

[1:09:18] small, brought it down to 100 ft. Um, I personally, uh, been working on this for

[1:09:24] about a year. Finally, the cap's been lifted. And Have a Heart is now being bought

[1:09:31] out by Cannabis 21, which is the other one on Hogan's Corner, which is the other

[1:09:35] one in Hoquiam, Aberdeen, so they're kind of getting the full stretch. I'm not opposed

[1:09:41] to that, but at that same time with him getting that or them getting that store location,

[1:09:48] they're also shopping for real estate now as well. Um, I'm guessing that inflicted

[1:09:54] with the, the buffer issue. So whether or not they stay there or they go elsewhere,

[1:09:59] if they go elsewhere, we're not looking at a whole lot of places that we can put

[1:10:03] a cannabis store. Um, as far as, uh, I kind of wanted to pick on your little question

[1:10:10] there. You can't have anything visible from outside for cannabis liquor control board.

[1:10:16] Um, however, like have a heart, you'd walk through the door and cannabis is clearly

[1:10:22] visible. I think that if that is something for our community to be looked at, that

[1:10:28] there should be some kind of an entryway where nothing is, which was kind of my idea

[1:10:33] in general, just to keep our community and visitors and guests from walking into

[1:10:38] such a situation like that and make it to where you come in, you're greeted at a,

[1:10:42] a medical, like a medical office and invited into the back. I think that that would

[1:10:46] be something that council might think about enacting um whether or not it's for me

[1:10:51] or for somebody else I don't really care but at the same time 100 ft to a 300 ft

[1:10:58] as a crow flies it would be nice if it was just take out a tape measure and go you

[1:11:02] know but they don't do it that way and with this being such a small little. Nook

[1:11:07] and cranny, they're literally real estate. There's none. Um, the way that it's looking,

[1:11:12] uh, I put a lot of time and, you know, stress, mental and physical time and all this,

[1:11:18] um, but I'm not seeing really a, a, a factor where we can accommodate a second license

[1:11:25] at this point. If we keep these buffers the way they are, I mean, we, we're a family

[1:11:31] fun town, um, yes, we all want to keep it that way, so you know if we have one, we

[1:11:36] have two, it's, it's great, but at the same time I think that it needs to be a 100

[1:11:42] ft buffer to make it work if we're going to actually try to get another store in

[1:11:47] here, otherwise it just makes it to where have a heart can reopen under cannabis

[1:11:51] 21 under that 300 ft rule and it still kind of kicks everything to the curb. Thank

[1:11:56] you.

[1:11:59] All right, next. Yeah, go ahead.

[1:12:09] Uh, I just wanted to mention to Lisa's, uh, comment, a real benefit that I think

[1:12:15] would be to have one in town. So far since Have a Heart is closed, I've seen many

[1:12:20] people walking out to Cannabis 21 on 115 and I don't know if you've ever walked on

[1:12:27] 115, but it's dangerous and so that would be an immediate benefit to stop people

[1:12:33] from walking out there. That's, that's my only thought on that.

[1:12:40] All right. Any other uh public comment out there? Uh, seeing none. All right. Uh,

[1:12:47] yes, Lisa. I would like to go ahead and make a motion to approve an ordinance of

[1:12:52] the City Council of the City of Ocean Shores, Washington, amending Ocean Shores Municipal

[1:12:56] Code Section 5.10.050, sensitive use buffers to reduce certain cannabis retail buffer

[1:13:03] distances from 1000 ft to 300 ft, providing for severability and establishing an

[1:13:10] effective date. I have one more question if I can before we go to the vote. You can

[1:13:17] do that after 2. All right, we have a second, uh. And so then I do have another comment.

[1:13:24] I have another question, and this is for Scott. Uh, you have obviously done a lot

[1:13:29] of research on this and understand better, so I'm thinking about the gentleman who

[1:13:33] just spoke about the 100 ft buffer is. Is that something that the council should

[1:13:40] uh uh discuss and consider uh is. As I understood that comment, it was more about

[1:13:48] providing the opportunity for competition. And if the one available property is bought

[1:13:52] up by Pony One, then we have a virtual monopoly from here to, to, you know, Am I

[1:13:57] making any kind of sense? No, I do know what you're saying. And like I said, you

[1:14:00] know, the difference between 300 ft and 100 ft, it, it is arbitrary. You are allowed

[1:14:05] to go down to 100 ft. Originally, like I said, we'd had the planning clinician look

[1:14:09] at 500, determine that would not be enough. Uh, 300 would allow, allow for actually

[1:14:14] multiple locations within the city. There would be at least 3 to 4 options, um, that,

[1:14:22] that could use that, that I know of. Uh, there, there might even be more. Uh, it

[1:14:26] just sort of solves our problem and with that, the planning commission was happy

[1:14:29] with that number. I don't want to speak on behalf of the planning commission and

[1:14:32] have them change that at this point. Your answer that there are multiple potentials

[1:14:38] at the 300 ft answers my question. Thank you so much. All right, thanks. Any other

[1:14:44] comment? Questions by counsel? All right, we have a motion in a second. All in favor?

[1:14:51] Aye. All right, unanimous. Thank you.

[1:14:58] All right. We'll move on to future meeting topics. Um, if any council members would

[1:15:04] like to make a motion to add an item to a future. Uh, topic list, uh. Yes, Lisa

[1:15:12] Greebel. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, my suggestion from our ad hoc committee is to, uh,

[1:15:18] for a future agenda topic is a council discussion on forming a community art committee,

[1:15:25] and that discussion would include why we would, uh, why we would need one, the purpose

[1:15:30] of that committee, what, who the members would be comprised of, and how they would

[1:15:34] be. selected and then just for the opportunity to um use that community art committee

[1:15:41] to work with our city and our community members to continue to improve uh the appearance

[1:15:49] of our town. Which would, you know, fold into marketing, whether it was the appearance,

[1:15:54] whether it was people attracted to our community to see art, whether it was the increase

[1:16:00] in art festivals or other opportunities, and then again just to try to increase the

[1:16:05] mediums that are used and the um To, uh, the artists as well as a, a

[1:16:12] really transparent way to Solicit art from all of our community members and have,

[1:16:19] have an opportunity to participate.

[1:16:23] All right, Annie. Yes, go ahead, Lisa. Lisa, were you looking to put that on at the

[1:16:29] next meeting, or are, are you like looking for a, a quicker time frame? I just was

[1:16:34] curious, so, oh, I would love to have it on the next one. The reason why is the,

[1:16:40] the miss uh budget issue because, uh, while we all wish everyone would donate their

[1:16:45] art, art to create art is expensive, and the time artists put in to create art is

[1:16:51] expensive, so Or you know, knowing what a possible budget could be or the impact

[1:16:57] as we move into the budgeting process. So sooner rather than later. Perfect. Well,

[1:17:02] I was just on agenda setting. I see our city clerk as a, are you making an official

[1:17:06] motion to add something to the future agenda items, then you need a second. I love

[1:17:11] that. I would like to thank you. I'd like to make a motion to put that on the next

[1:17:17] agenda.

[1:17:20] OK, we have a second. Are you, so is your motion to add it. As a future agenda item.

[1:17:27] Like in the list of future agenda item list. I would like it on the future agenda

[1:17:32] item list and if possible also on the next agenda. Sometimes they still need to stay

[1:17:38] on the agenda list because we may not, if, if it's a discussion, be ready or yeah,

[1:17:44] get anything done.

[1:17:47] Well, I can be brought up uh on Thursday. On that.

[1:17:54] Yes, Richard, I would make a friendly, a friendly motion to put it on the next agenda.

[1:18:01] I think that it really needs to be there. No, she put it on both an option. I would

[1:18:07] amend the motion to put it on the next agenda.

[1:18:14] Um Where the motion was to put it on future agenda items. You've got council members

[1:18:20] Siers, Taylor, and Scott. They can make the, uh, you know, they can put it on the

[1:18:26] next agenda. If the council votes on it, then it's not up to 3 people, it's up to

[1:18:31] the council. So we still don't have a 2nd for the initial motion. 2nd, yeah, we had

[1:18:38] a 2nd already. It was Richard.

[1:18:42] Yeah. So let's uh take one step at a time, Richard. How about that? All right. So,

[1:18:49] um We've got a motion a second. We're done discussing it, I assume. So all in favor

[1:18:55] of putting this on future agenda items. All right, that's unanimous. OK, yes, Denise,

[1:19:04] uh, I'll, I'll just say that I will coordinate with, uh, council member Grebel to

[1:19:09] see whether it is ready for the next agenda or whether it would be for the one following

[1:19:14] that.

[1:19:16] Is that, are you good with that, Richard? I'm good with that with, with, with uh

[1:19:20] uh council member Sire's, uh, input there. Yes, that, that works. Thank you. OK,

[1:19:26] that's good. All right, so we'll, we'll move on to agenda review committee and, uh,

[1:19:32] Thursday, October 1st, 9 a.m. nice and bright and early. Uh, council members, uh,

[1:19:39] Sires, Taylor, and Scott will be on that, uh, agenda review committee. So we'll move

[1:19:44] on to uh go to the order and we'll start with uh Tom Taylor.

[1:19:53] I have nothing for tonight All right, um, Lisa Grebel. Thank you, Mayor. I would,

[1:20:00] uh, just like to thank all of our council for patience as we muddle through future

[1:20:04] agenda items. We'll get, we'll get it figured out. OK. Let's hang in there. We got

[1:20:08] our committees figured out, I think, and our our liaison reports versus committee

[1:20:14] reports. We've got that mastered, and I have complete confidence we'll master future

[1:20:18] agenda items as well.

[1:20:21] All right, uh, Allison. Yeah, um Thank you to the people who talked about bringing

[1:20:28] more art in our city. That was something that council member Greebel and I were very

[1:20:34] excited to hear, um. My other thing is. If you did not have

[1:20:41] the opportunity. To attend the opening ceremony for the Vietnam Wall

[1:20:50] or the 9/11 Memorial, please go online and watch it. It is probably one of

[1:20:57] the most moving um speeches I've ever heard, and. Acknowledging

[1:21:05] our veterans, and I know I cried for a long time and I was not alone, was I, Chief?

[1:21:13] It, it was very, very moving and I was very proud to be able to volunteer with Avert

[1:21:20] to be here and um thank you to all the people that put in all the work to bring that

[1:21:27] here because I know that was a huge undertaking and I know a lot of people lost a

[1:21:33] lot of sleep and went through a lot of stress because they wanted to make sure everything

[1:21:37] was perfect. And in my eyes, it was. So thank you to everyone who did that and like

[1:21:43] I said, please um watch. The mayor made one statement in his speech and the tears

[1:21:50] started and didn't stop for about 3 hours.

[1:21:55] Well, thank you for that, um, Denise.

[1:22:00] I wanted to uh shout out again our public works department and the leadership they

[1:22:05] are showing in getting projects done. Um, I'm not on public works this year but I

[1:22:11] was in past years and uh the number of needed improvements in,

[1:22:19] in the city were, were really um formidable and um uh pretty daunting.

[1:22:27] And seeing our public works go um slowly but surely through the, uh, through each

[1:22:33] of them, um, uh, along with Ricky and, and Becky and getting these projects done

[1:22:39] and uh I thought it was important to talk about going out to bid because people have

[1:22:44] been complaining about the streets, uh, not really truly understanding. Uh, the requirements

[1:22:51] that we have for, for state bids and also the, the most important part of that, it's

[1:22:56] not just the regulations it that we can do it, uh, much more economical if we group,

[1:23:02] uh, projects together. So, uh, thanks to our public works department. Thanks, um,

[1:23:09] Lisa Scott. Just to piggyback off Allison, I had the privilege of attending one of

[1:23:14] the days of the 9/11 or the um Vietnam Memorial, um, along, along with the tribute

[1:23:21] to 9/11 and some Korean War memorial stuff. And it was um very moving, very, very

[1:23:29] moving, a lot of, lot of, uh, a lot of wet eyes around the room. I've had the, I

[1:23:36] guess, the luxury of being able to actually visit the wall. Um, not very many people

[1:23:42] have a chance to do that, and it is, um, It's a testament to the dedication of our

[1:23:49] veterans, uh, most definitely, and thanks to all of the volunteers who made that

[1:23:53] happen. Thank you, uh, Richard. So thank you. Uh, I want to, to piggyback on what

[1:24:01] both the customer sires and customer Greeble said. Uh, I absolutely support the public

[1:24:06] works and the job that, that, uh, Ricky and, uh, Becky are doing, a phenomenal progress

[1:24:12] made in public works, and I'm really excited about this, this discussion, this committee

[1:24:17] about the art throughout the city. Uh, Ocean Shores has, has a bunch of really, really,

[1:24:22] really high quality, very competent artists. And the things that makes a city an

[1:24:28] attractive place to visit is when there's something to do and looking at art is something

[1:24:33] to do and so that will be a major step in improving our, uh, our tourist attraction,

[1:24:39] uh, our ability to attract tourists. So, uh, and the sentiments about the Vietnam

[1:24:44] Wall, uh, I, I mirror those, uh, we owe those veterans a great debt of gratitude.

[1:24:52] Thank you.

[1:24:55] Hurt

[1:24:58] Canalloween is my new favorite word. Do you? OK. Beyond that I have nothing. All

[1:25:05] right, thanks. Uh, the thing about the wall, I just wanna say I was impressed with

[1:25:10] the amount of people that, uh, came out and helped out and it was, uh, from all,

[1:25:17] all different, uh, political sides and, uh, I thought that was really special that

[1:25:23] we could rally behind something like that and not, uh, let our personal feelings

[1:25:29] with our politics get in the way. So, um, it was a great event and I hope, uh. Most

[1:25:35] of you got to see it. It's worth, it was worth looking at. And I'll tell you, you

[1:25:39] know, I went to the, I just wanna say this quickly. I know everybody wants to get

[1:25:44] out of here. But when I went up to the Casino where they had it um and I have a relative

[1:25:51] on the wall and they uh um gave me the the number what what panel you know to go

[1:25:57] find them here when you asked uh for that information the persons people that were

[1:26:04] working there with the computers to find that information personally walked the people

[1:26:09] out to the section and helped them find their name and I thought that was a special

[1:26:14] little touch to the whole thing on that so. Anyway, um Can I get an adjourn? Move

[1:26:21] to adjourn. All right, we're adjourned.

Regular City Council Meeting

Agenda

Transcript