Vancouver City Council

0:00 ♪♪♪ - Good evening, welcome to Vancouver City Council. Today is March 16th, 2026, middle of March. There you go. This afternoon, we worked a little bit on our community forum format, which will be next Monday here in City Hall. And then the comprehensive plan update that we've been working on for many, many years. They're making great progress with that. Would you please stand and join me in the pledge?

0:58 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Ms. Stoller, please call the roll. - Councilmember Harless. - Present. - Perez. - Present. - Fox. - Here. - Paulson. - Stover. - Hanson. - Mayor McEnerny-Ogle. - Present. - I move to excuse Councilmembers Paulson, Stover, and Hanson. - Second. - Motion and a second. Those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. This evening, we have three proclamations,

1:55 and let's do the Red Cross first. Who is here from the Red Cross? Hi, come on up. I'll read a little bit. Are you Shelly? - Yes. - Hi, Shelly. Have a seat. - Okay. - Whereas in March, we celebrate American Red Cross Month by honoring our neighbors who make its humanitarian mission possible in the Cascades region, which covers Southwest Washington and Oregon. And whereas in 2025, they provided relief and recovery to over 900 households, collected over 166,000 units of blood, supported over 5,000 service members through the service to the Armed Forces Program, and trained over 50,000 people in CPR, first aid, babysitting, and water safety. And these collective efforts are a powerful reminder that the strength of our community lies in our shared commitment to one another.

2:52 And this Red Cross Month, for this Red Cross Month, let's celebrate our local heroes and resolve to continue lifting each other up so no one faces an emergency alone. Now, therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Red Cross Month in the city of Vancouver and encourage community members to reach out and support its humanitarian mission. And, Mayor Pro Tem, you have a little message here. Go ahead. - Oh, sure. I just, when I saw that we were going to be celebrating the Red Cross, I just wanted to share that one of the services or missions that I wasn't aware that the Red Cross did was provide humanitarian aid to our incarcerated individuals internationally. And I was able to visit the Robben Island in South Africa. And to better understand that, you know,

3:52 you see these prison conditions and knowing that these political prisoners were there. Nelson Mandela was there for 18 years. And the Red Cross showed up to provide him clothing, books, you know, things to make sure that he stayed, provided some dignity and human kindness to these individuals. And so it just was really powerful to me to know that that was something that the Red Cross provides. So, anyways, thank you. - No, thank you for sharing your story. I appreciate that. - Oh, if you could... - Yeah. - Hello. - There you go. - There we go. Sorry. This is my first time, in case you can't tell. So I'm Shelly Kroll. I'm on the Southwest Washington Red Cross Board of Directors. I've been a volunteer for 13-plus years now. It's embedded in my heart. And I'll just give you a quick little back story. I started with the Red Cross back when my son left for the military. One of the Red Cross's five lines of service is services to armed forces. He left for the military, and I had a friend who said,

4:52 "Hey, you should start volunteering at the Red Cross." He said back in the '80s, when he was out to sea, the Red Cross flew a helicopter to the ship that he was on and said, "We're here for Kevin." He's like, "What?" Loads up on the helicopter. They flew him to the hospital in Seattle, and he saw the last 10 minutes of his father's life. And then after that, the Red Cross flew him back to his ship, and he carried on with his business. Had the Red Cross not been able to find him, locate him through help of services to armed forces, a division of Red Cross, he wouldn't have seen the last 10 minutes of his father's life. So when my son was leaving for the military, it was a perfect fit for me to do so just to begin helping with the Red Cross. Since then, I've been a part of every line of service, so just to give you a little background on who Red Cross is and thank you all, first of all, for the proclamation. I really appreciate that very much. We're grateful for our volunteers and our donors to carry out the mission. Our workforce is made up of 90% volunteers who are trained

5:52 and involve people from all aspects of life helping others. And as a nonprofit, we are completely funded by philanthropic gifts, and 90% of what is given to us is used in funding for our services. Disaster response, I know there's quite a few mentioned there what we do. We respond to an average of two to three home fires a week. We deploy disaster-trained volunteers to large local natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and wildfires. We supply and orchestrate with our local community and national colleagues sheltering and feeding for the displaced and homes that are destroyed, and we provide financial and other assistance for initial disaster. Health and safety services, CPR, as you mentioned there, services to armed forces, and international response work.

6:50 We provide relief, saving lives around the world. Thank you very much for this recognition of the Red Cross and throughout the proclamation. Oh, my goodness, you'd think I've never spoken public before. Shelly, that's absolutely fine. We are just honored that the Red Cross is such an asset to our community, and you've made such a difference. Thank you so very much. Thank you all very much. You bet. Thank you. Let's talk about Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and we have Angela and Heather with us this evening. Yes, okay. Oh, you have all sorts of people. Well, pull up a couple extra chairs. There are only two chairs there. Grab some of those others while I read a little bit. Whereas developmental disabilities are lifelong conditions, and people with developmental disabilities are valued members of our communities

7:47 whose voices, talents, relationships, and lived experiences enrich the social, cultural, and civic life of Vancouver. And individuals with developmental disabilities thrive when support is person-centered, grounded in self-determination, and shaped by the goals, preferences, and identities of each person as they grow and change across the lifespan. Creativity, innovation, and flexibility strengthen access, foster belonging, and allow people with developmental disabilities to participate meaningfully in community life in ways that reflect who they are and what matters most to them. Whereas Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is an opportunity to recognize services and systems, but also the relationships, shared responsibility, and lived experience leadership that make true inclusion possible.

8:45 And the City of Vancouver affirms its commitment to equity, accessibility, cultural responsiveness, and belonging that support the full participation of people with developmental disabilities in community life. Now, therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in the City of Vancouver and encourage community members, organizations, and institutions to promote awareness, celebrate inclusion, support collaboration, and uplift the voices and leadership of people with developmental disabilities. All right. Yes, of course. [applause]

9:34 [indistinct chatter] Thank you to the City of Vancouver for this recognition. I'd like to thank everyone that's joined us here today. So we have some board members from Peace Northwest. We have a board member of the Clark County Developmental Disabilities Board here, Kevin. And then we have a lot of the team from Stevens Place here today, and we're so grateful that everyone was able to make it. Yeah. The Developmental--or, sorry, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is an opportunity to celebrate the many people who make inclusion possible, individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, their friends, their educators, advocates, the community partners who walk alongside them across the lifespan.

10:32 It's also a reminder that disability does not exist in isolation. People with developmental disabilities are part of many communities and identities, and understanding those intersections helps us to build supports that are more equitable, culturally responsive, and truly person-centered. True inclusion does not happen through one program or one system alone. It happens when communities come together with creativity, collaboration, and commitment to supporting people in ways that honor who they are and what matters most to them. And Anjali would like to add something. And it's also when our community were to remove, Barron and Cray belong for people with disabilities, we built a stronger and more inclusive Vancouver for everyone. Yes, we do. Thank you so very much. Absolutely. Thank you. [Applause]

11:32 All right. Our last one is Women's History Month. And Tracy Riley Kelly and Sally Hale have joined us this evening. Hey, Tracy. Hi. All right. Sally's going to get some pics. I'm her official father. Whereas 2026 is the celebration of the 250th semi-quincentennial year of the United States, and women have been key players in its history since our earliest founding. And for all 250 years and since time immemorial, Native women have been here, stewards of community life in southwest Washington. And it's a time to celebrate women who led by example, demonstrating a commitment to uniting and elevating others,

12:30 embracing diversity of thought by valuing the ideas and the viewpoints of others. And whereas women have unfailingly safeguarded the values of liberty, equality of rights, due process, and the opportunity to pursue their hopes and dreams, and whereas when we understand the achievements and struggle of women, we gain a fuller and more inclusive understanding of our collective past to hand down to our future generations. Now, therefore, I, Ed McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Women's History Month in the city of Vancouver and call upon the people of Vancouver to honor this observance with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. Tracy, here you go. I'm going to take a moment here.

13:29 [applause] The League of Women Voters is honored to be here today, marking Women's History Month, recognizing women for our vital role as full partners in community building, in representation, in the arts, family life, and in every corner of public life. And my, the representation of four elected officials, wouldn't the women of history glory to be here tonight? As we note the extraordinary founding of our democratic republic 250 years ago, let's renew its commitment to natural law and basic human dignity,

14:25 due process, freedom of speech, and religion, the sanctity of our homes. These are the foundation of our society. In this pivotal moment of history, we are called to confront a range of overlapping global challenges, from climate change to economic insecurity to basic safety. These issues are deeply intertwined, and women, particularly from marginalized communities, often experience their impacts most acutely. Let us remember and celebrate our ties with each other, and to the courageous and smart women who came before us,

15:16 collaborating with their neighbors in fierce commitment to recognition, justice, privacy, and freedom. Thank you so much. That concludes our proclamations and brings us into community communication. No preregistration, but we do have one card for one individual who came this evening. Daniel Woods would like to talk about item number seven. Come on up, Daniel. Join us here at the table. Yes, and push the little button with the face on it. There you go. Good evening. Good evening. How are you? Well, thank you. Go ahead. You wanted to talk about number seven.

16:13 Yeah, my name is Daniel Woods. I live over in northeast Vancouver, 136th Avenue. The bill, I think that's what it is. It's a good start, but a lot of the streets in Vancouver are really bad. At one point last year, I ran over pothole, and I had some issues with my car. I tried filling out a claims notice for you guys, and it got denied. But it's a good start for you guys to kind of start resurfacing the roads. But maybe a little bit more urgency on it? We just have to wait for money and good weather. So we will be resurfacing. Item number seven is the Mill Plain to Fourth Plain project.

17:05 We do east, central, west, and rotate it throughout each year and wait for good weather. And it looks like the frost might be over with yet. So we got off easy this winter with a lot of snow and ice, thank goodness. But our crews will be out soon. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. You bet. Thank you. I don't have any other cards, Councillor, so we'll go right into the consent agenda. We have 23 items. I do need to read a couple of them into the record for titles. Hang on. Item number 20, an ordinance relating to management of the public rights-of-way grant team to Fat Beam LLC and its affiliates of Washington LLC,

18:05 a non-exclusive and revocable franchise to install, operate, and maintain a telecommunication system on, in, over, upon, and across the public ways of the city of Vancouver, Washington, establishing certain rights, duties, terms, and conditions which, with respect to the franchise and setting and effective date and conditions, grantee and city are sometimes collectively referred to as the parties. Item 21 is the first supplemental budget, an ordinance relating to the 2025-26 biennial budget, and making supplemental appropriations in various funds needed to meet certain necessary expenditures to be incurred in 2025-26, which were not and could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time of the adoption of the 2025-26 budget, declaring an emergency, and providing for an immediate effective date.

19:04 Item 22, an ordinance of the city relating to changes to the bylaws of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, adopting an amendment to Section 2.09 of the bylaws, clarifying the employment status of the executive director. So, Councillors, are there any items on the consent you would like to pull? No? Item 21 and 22. I'll accept a motion of approval for items 1 through 20 and 23. Move to approve. Perez, seconded by? Harless. Harless. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Pass. Thank you. Councillor Fox, supplemental budget, item 21, please.

19:57 Yeah, in reading the staff report for this item tonight, I know we had several questions that Council had brought up at our workshop, and I didn't see really -- I didn't see any of them addressed in the staff report. And I know an item that I had brought up specifically was related to kind of the -- I don't know if we need to see an additional staff member, but maybe having the issue addressed, where we have seen kind of that, I guess, workload impact of losing a staff member last year, and how it's affected our communications to the public. And so I was hoping that would be addressed, whether or not you would say we could shift some of this work, kind of bring back this ability to communicate on the dashboards back to the -- and responsiveness on that particular issue, because we can delegate it somehow,

20:57 or show us how we might be able to incorporate an additional FTE. But I know there was other items that were brought up as well. Yes, Councillor Fox, Lisa Brandl, deputy city manager, interim CFO. Yes, thank you for the question. We are looking into that. We are analyzing the impact to that, and we will be conferring with our department directors, and seeing how we can address the impact. We do have one staff member on our budget team that performs some work like that, and so we will be conferring and addressing that and returning back with some information to all of you,

21:51 either through a memo to the city manager and possible recommendations, or explaining how that work is being integrated. So the initial response that you have right now is that you will be delegating this work within existing staff, and you're not recommending at this time that we add additional staff capacity? That's correct. We're going to try and address it with our existing resources, and if we can't, we may come back with a request in the new biennium budget request. But it's too soon to address that. We just didn't have enough time to confer with all of our department directors to really assess the impacts of your question. There was a lot of information to gather. Okay. I appreciate that. Are there any other questions that others had?

22:50 Yes. Thank you, counselor. I can address one question that I have, but do my colleagues over here on the right have questions of the budget? Lisa, during the year people promote, they move up in rank. You're hiring a number of full-time employees who are coming in. Some may move from coordinator to manager or supervisor. Are all of those promotions accounted for in this supplemental budget, or do we have to wait for each supplemental budget for those promotions to happen? Thank you for the question, Mayor. We have started a new process internally where we are processing requests for promotions or changes internally with review with myself and the other deputy city manager,

23:49 and then they are coming forward in a supplemental request, so you will see them addressed administratively in the supplemental request because we have to account for the changes in the position changes administratively in the attachment B. Correct, Shannon? Yeah, any re-classes that don't require any additional budget, so any additional funding, or have been administratively approved by the city manager will be shown on our attachment B, but not necessarily called out specifically in a decision package or listed on our FTE chain sheet that we show during the presentation. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Go ahead. Yes, just to clarify, so it's not a net increase in the number of employees.

24:49 It's just a change in a position classification, and we're making that administrative notation in the attachment B that you'll see in your supplemental request. Good. Thank you so much. All right. No further questions. Councillors, I'll go ahead and take a motion on item 21. Move to approve item 21. Fox, seconded by? Perez. Boy, you're good. Harless. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you so very much. All right. Item number 22. Mr. Towery, thank you for joining us. Thank you, mayor and members of the council. Jeff Towery, deputy city manager. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Councillor Fox, go ahead. On this item, I just want to, I guess, address a few of the comments that we received in advance of the meeting tonight,

25:47 and what I'd characterize, we received letters from several individuals, but one of them was from the elected members of the DRA board and from their legal representative, Dan Lloyd. And one of the things that caught my attention from both of these letters was them stressing that city council should not be interfering with the day-to-day operations of the DRA. And they're interpreting that we would be interrupting or, you know, inserting ourself in these operations by merely this change to how the executive director is established. And I want to clarify that when you look at the proposed changes that we're putting forward tonight,

26:42 there is nothing in those proposed changes that mention anything about us taking on more of a day-to-day responsibility or changing the duties of the executive director. So I want to make that clear. So it's kind of interesting because we've also heard testimony in previous conversations along those lines as well. And I thought we need to highlight that tonight and make it very clear that that isn't what we're trying to do. I also wanted to mention another piece that I found a little concerning was the proposal that was put forward in the comment letters and the reason for their proposal of another change that they might find acceptable. But it was, again, focusing on ensuring that they have choices when selecting their executive director.

27:39 And I'd say that the interesting thing about the choices we've observed in the last month by the Downtown Redevelopment Authority is that they have selected an executive director, but they did that without advertising the opening. They did that without doing a recruitment process. So there was no competitive process. There was no pool of applicants. So I do find that very interesting that the actions that they're asking the city to make sure that we don't prevent them from doing are exactly the actions that they have taken. So I just want to make that clear that we are moving forward with this proposal tonight that is just clearly establishing our city's ability to continue

28:36 to ensure that the DRA is seated with individuals that we select that serve in their capacity as prescribed in the charter and the bylaws, that we merely select them and they go forward and carry out their duties and the day-to-day tasks that are part of their charter and the city doesn't have any new interest in taking on those duties or overseeing those particular responsibilities. I think that's all I wanted to say tonight before we take action. Thank you, Councillor. Any other comments? Yes, Councillor Perez. Thank you. I appreciate the dialogue that took place at the last meeting where there was some work that was remanded back to staff to look at a more amenable language, right? But that still safeguards the public's interest. And for me, that's where my priority is, is safeguarding the public's interest.

29:35 And so at the end of the day, our job is to make decisions that do protect the public interest and this ordinance strengthens the transparency, clarifies accountability and safeguards of significant public investments tied to the convention center and downtown redevelopment. And so that kind of clarity is exactly what the public expects from us. Thank you. Any comments? Jeff, we all know that it's governed by a seven-person board that's appointed by the City Council. For some reason, in the back of my mind, I'm recalling state auditors call us on the carpet if there's any problem with the DRA. Is that correct? The DRA's annual financial statements are bundled together with the city's along with the public facilities district.

30:33 Both are considered component units of the city. I'm not aware that we have had any specific findings related to either of those agencies. I do know that more broadly, the state auditor's office has opined about the general lack of appropriate oversight for such redevelopment agencies across the state. So it's something they're always on alert to. But it falls under our audit. That's correct. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. Councilors hearing no further questions, I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Fox, seconded by? Perez. Perez. No additional comments. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Towery. All right. That concludes the business of the city council. We are now into communication from the council. Councilor Harless, comments? No additional comments. Thank you. Okay. Perez.

31:33 Yes, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight about 30 folks or so that received awards and recognition from the Vancouver Fire Department when they had their awards ceremony last week at Clark College. And one thing is to read an incident that happens in the newspaper and how our first responders were there. And another thing is actually hear all these lifesaving occurrences that our first responders did. And so I just want to acknowledge those who received the award. They did an outstanding job and I was so proud of our first responder. The second person I want to acknowledge, especially as we're in International Women's Day, is the Vancouver Police Department Sergeant Tanya Walstein.

32:30 And she was honored with the 2026 spotlight for the Justice Award recipient by the National Women's Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation. And so she has helped strengthen response to domestic violence crime. And she plays a key role in developing and implementing the department's assessment protocol and advancing sexual assault investigation practices. So her her work is a deep commitment of of our city to our residents safety, survivor safety and accountability. So a shout out to all those who there was like 30 names from the Vancouver Fire Department. I'm not going to list all those, but you know who they are. And I don't know if the city plans to highlight Sergeant Tanya Walstein and the awardees from the Vancouver Fire Department. I think an acknowledgment of the great work that they did to our public would would be nice to see.

33:29 Thank you. Councilor Fox. Sure. I just wanted to share that on Thursday I attended the Greater Vancouver Chamber's Inspire Her conference that was held at the Hilton. I think this was their third year of holding this particular all day conference. And it's intended to really have workshops that are focused on developing executive women's leadership skills. And I'll just say I have never regretted taking a day off to be there and to hear and learn from all of the women that attend this conference. I think this year they had over 600 folks participating. And I just wanted to say for those of you again, we're celebrating International Women's Month, but I would say put this on your calendar for all the women out there that would like to be inspired next year.

34:26 And the luncheon was delightful. I learned a lot. And congratulations to all the IRIS award winners. And you're right, Councilor Perez, those the stories of our first responders who have saved lives is absolutely tremendous. It's enough. So many of the awards were given to citizens, not in uniform, but they came upon an incident and they jumped in and volunteered and saved that life. And then our responders came and if it hadn't been for our own citizens, we probably would be talking a memorial rather than a celebration. So congratulations to all of them. We have a couple different items, Councilors. Wednesday, March 18th, Furstenberg 430 boards and commission recruitment.

35:22 So we have nine boards and commissions that have vacancies on them. And we will be recruiting our folks to come and join us in that decision making process. The tomorrow is a big day. The governor will be announcing and the IBR will be announcing where we are with the I-5 bridge. And so that information will come out around 11 o'clock. If you have any questions, feel free. I don't think Katherine Kelly is in the audience, but she'd be happy to help fill in any gaps. It's also Hauk Patty's Day Parade down Main Street. Let's hope the rain holds off. And then on Sunday at Magenta Theatre at one o'clock, we have the 15th Poetry Moves. Those are the poems that are written and then displayed inside the C-Tran buses.

36:16 So we have a great opportunity to look at the creativity, read the creativity of individuals in our community as we ride the buses. So, City Manager, do you have communications? Nothing from me tonight, Mayor. City Attorney? Nothing from law. Mayor, thank you. Okay. Then that concludes the business portion of the City Council meetings. Sarah Dollar will have CVTV turn off all of our cameras. We will record audio, but we need to move into our community forum right now. Unfortunately, I don't have any preregistration, nor do I have any yellow cards. So, Sarah, go ahead and we'll close the city business meeting at 706.

37:06 Wait a moment and have CVTV turn everything off.

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