Vancouver City Council

0:00 We spent the afternoon getting an update on the comp plan and the biennial forecast and the policy direction and then finish it off with the interstate bridge replacement update. We've come out of executive session. Would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? 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.

0:59 Ms. Stoller, please call the roll. Councilmember Harless? Present. Perez? Present. Fox? Here. Paulson? Here. Stover? Here. Hanson? Present. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle? Present. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's move into the approval of the minutes. Councillors, you have the minutes of April 13th, 2026. Are there any corrections or changes? Hanson? Second. Seconded by Fox. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. There are two proclamations this evening, and the first one is about Volunteer Month. Sherry, are you here with us? Sherry, hi. Yes, please join us. Let me read a little bit, Sherry, while you turn on those microphones.

1:57 Whereas volunteers make a difference in our libraries, neighborhoods, schools, churches, faith-based organizations, community and civic groups, and government agencies, they are an invaluable resource and are at the heart and soul of our cities, counties and nation. Volunteers help communities provide basic human services, spiritual support, neighbor to neighbor assistance, and assist and empower those who have been marginalized. Whereas volunteers have played an integral part in this city's proud history, they are at the foundation of our community life. Volunteers are key to assisting the city to meet the needs of its community and accomplishing our community goals. We acknowledge that volunteers help unite our great country through their selfless service. Now therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the week of April 19 through 25, 2026, and the entire month of April as National Volunteer

2:57 Week and Month in the City of Vancouver, and encourage all community members and organizations to help us thank, celebrate, and recognize the contributions of all of our volunteers. Let me catch you right over here and I'll give you a proclamation.

3:27 ¬Thank you, Mayor, and all of our Council members. We appreciate your support of all the great volunteers that do so much for the City of Vancouver. I am Sherry Brega, as has been stated, the Volunteer Coordinator from FVRL Libraries, Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries. In 2025, we had 862 volunteers that gave 38,000 hours. We honor these generous donors of their time over two Saturdays during this last month of April. These volunteers help with our Read to the Dog program, which promotes reading among our youngest citizens. Other great volunteers lead our language programs, our art programs, from practicing ASL, Spanish,

4:25 Japanese, French, or English, to line dancing, yoga, and a lot of other programs as well, and for all ages, may I add. A lot of our youthful volunteers lead our gaming groups, and our friends in the library also manage our youth bookstores, keeping all those books, recycling back into homes where they'll be loved and cherished and read over and over, and all across our service area. They are dedicated volunteers, and they have hearts of absolute gold. Washington State is a top performer in volunteering as well, frequently ranking within the top 10 nationwide according to 2025 data. Approximately 32.8% of Washingtonians engage in formal volunteering, which is much higher than the national average, and we know that the City of Vancouver plays a big role in that.

5:22 Our state ranks eighth for both total volunteers and per capita volunteer rates. These statistics are collected by Peace Corps. We are also ranked 14th among the most charitable states in the 2025 Wallet Hub analysis, so I think we can be really proud of that. I know that the City of Vancouver is definitely a big supporter and help to those numbers, so we just want to thank you for taking the time to honor not only our library volunteers that we love so much, but the volunteers all across the City of Vancouver, and today I'm sure you recognize Haley Heath, who is the volunteer coordinator with the City of Vancouver. Hello, good evening mayor, council member, community and staff, Haley Heath, volunteer coordinator with the City of Vancouver. Thank you so much for this honor during National Volunteer Month and Week. I'm so glad to be here to celebrate the volunteers that shape Vancouver.

6:19 In 2025, park volunteers supported 113 events, including habitat restoration, cleanup, education, and special event support. In collaboration with community partners, more than 6400 people participated in environmental education, and nearly 1500 volunteers contributed direct service hours to our parks. Together, they removed 532 yards of invasive plants. That's nearly 50 big old dump truck loads of English ivy and Himalayan blackberry, and if you've ever done that, you know it's quite a chore. Guided by the vision of our all-volunteer pollinator subcommittee, the city also achieved BCDUSA affiliation status last year, strengthening our commitment to pollinators and biodiversity. Altogether, this work represents nearly $200,000 in volunteer value through the parks program alone. It's really just a snippet of the total impact made by volunteers.

7:18 These numbers matter, but what matters most is what they show. Stewardship in action. People invest their time in the communities that they care and that they love. Volunteers illustrate our values every day in all of their actions. They don't just help the city, they strengthen our entire community. They restore and protect ecosystems, they deepen connections between people, they innovate and share new ideas, and they help foster a stronger sense of belonging for all across Vancouver. And so tonight, to every volunteer in the city of Vancouver, I just want to say thank you. Our city is greener, it's stronger, it's more resilient, compassionate, and connected because of you. Happy volunteer month. All right, we've been working a lot on housing. This is a fair housing act proclamation, we have a couple individuals with us this evening.

8:15 Whereas the Fair Housing Act was enacted on April 11th, 1968, as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act, affirming the principle that access to housing is a fundamental right and prohibiting discrimination in housing related transactions based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, and family status. And the Fair Housing Act reflects our nation's enduring commitment to equity, dignity, and opportunity and serves as a cornerstone in the continued effort to eliminate barriers to housing choice and promote inclusive, thriving communities. Whereas the observance of the 58th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act provides an opportunity to reaffirm our shared responsibility, to uphold the law, advance fair housing practices,

9:14 and ensure that all individuals and families have equal access to safe and affordable housing. And whereas real estate professionals play a critical role in advancing the goals of fair housing by adhering to ethical standards, complying with federal, state, and local fair housing laws, and fostering inclusive practices within the communities they serve. Now therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as the 58th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act in the City of Vancouver. And we encourage all community members, institutions, and housing stakeholders to join in reaffirming their commitment to fair housing, to learning about their rights and responsibilities under the law, and to working collaboratively to build communities that are inclusive, equitable,

10:08 and welcoming to all. Good evening, Mayor McEnerny-Ogle and members of the Vancouver City Council. My name is Anthony Stroud. I am a managing broker with Professional Realty Services in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I also serve as the President of the Clark County Association of Realtors.

11:05 Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight in recognition of Fair Housing Month. April is a time to celebrate progress. It is also a time to recommit to the work ahead. This year marks the 58th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Its purpose remains as important today as ever. As a Realtor, fair housing is not just a concept, it is a responsibility. I carry it into every client interaction. It means providing equal professional service to all. It means ensuring buyers and sellers have access to the same opportunities. It also means being intentional. I stay educated. I hold myself accountable. I advocate for the practices that promote inclusion in our community. Fair housing protections help ensure that housing access is not determined by a person's

12:04 characteristics. These protections include race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. In Washington State, they also include marital status, creed, sexual orientation, sexual identity, veteran or military status, and certain health conditions such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. At its core, this is about fairness. It's about making sure that everyone has the opportunity to find a place to call home. I am proud to stand in support of this proclamation. I remain committed to advancing fair housing in our community. Thank you. Thank you so very much. All right.

13:03 This is the opportunity now that we will move into our testimony on the consent items. And so let's go ahead and have Tabor Kelly come and join us at the table. And Josh Harmon, please join us at the table. And if you'll hit that microphone with the little face there, your microphone will turn green and you're ready to go. So Tabor, go ahead. Good evening, Council. There are a few things that I wish had not made it into the comp plan. They include open space minimums, impervious surface maximums which include residential structures, buffers between zones, and quite a few overlay districts. All of these will increase housing prices during a housing emergency.

13:58 With that said, the comp plan is far better than the status quo and I encourage this Council to get it over the line since it is essentially six years late at this point. Additionally, I would like to commend the Council for the support of the light rail all the way to the library as this transit connection will be used for many decades to come by this community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Josh? Hi, I'm Josh Harmon, resident of Vancouver, and similarly I wanted to share my continued support for the work that's going into the comprehensive plan update. I've been watching some of your guys' deliberation and some of the nuances that you guys have been working out in the code, and to me at least it feels like it's becoming much closer to reality as those details get ironed out, which is exciting. I'm also excited to see that, at least by my reading, it doesn't seem like the city

14:56 is falling into the trap of as completely replacing things like parking requirements with other onerous standards that suppress actual good use of land, like design review that some other jurisdictions have chosen to do. And so that gives me significant reason for optimism that Vancouver is well positioned to address the challenges our city faces, whether it be affordability and housing supply or climate action. I continue, though, to believe that one thing that the city will have to continue to iterate on after this significantly is transportation policy. For example, in the final environmental impact statement, there was only approximately one percentage point change in the percentage of vehicle mode share that was allocated to single occupancy vehicle trips.

15:50 And I think, you know, with our goal under the climate action framework, to me that seems at odds with coming anywhere close to those goals. And so while that's kind of my remaining concern with the city's plans, I think this is an awesome starting point, and I'm excited to see it get across the line next month. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Next up, Jason Cromer and Shabana McEwen, please. Jason, go ahead. Sure. Yeah. I also want to commend city council on your work and deliberations on the comprehensive plan. It's nice to hear the support and really common sense reasoning around the plan that's been presented to you all. So thank you. I really appreciate that.

16:47 And it's already been said, but, yeah, there's a lot in the comp plan that really pushes the city forward and modernizes a lot of our standards. And a really big one is actually the removal of parking minimums, which from many points of view, especially economic, really create space for the city to build more housing, more green space, more density, better walkability. It's one of the core fundamentals and what makes a city livable is the lack of parking minimums. So I really want to say thank you for that. And also to support the support of your decision to extend light rail. Really looking forward to that, myself and my family, because that will be the point to where we sell our car and go car free. That's going to be our catalyst to no longer having a car. So these are the type of things I think more people will switch to and change as we get

17:41 more advanced forms of public transportation in addition to the continual increase in density, walkability and bicycle networks. Makes some big differences in people's lives. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. Shavonda, go ahead. >> Good evening, mayor and city council members. Thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. As you know, my name is Shavonda McEwen, I'm the executive director of the Southwest Washington Equity Coalition. I know I've come here many times and had some really critical things to say. Tonight I just want to offer my gratitude specifically for Rebecca Kennedy, Dominique Martinelli and Meredith Herbst. SWEC has been working with these folks for the last three years to really try and involve ourselves in the comprehensive plan. I know that tonight in the workshop it was shared that over 2,000 people directly shared inputs on the plan, there were over 2,000 ideas that were both shared and included in

18:38 over 150 public small meetings, in public meetings. And I just have to say, at SWEC we say that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. And I couldn't be more impressed with the team from the city in the work that they did to go out and really hear from as many people as they absolutely could. I know that there's been a lot of feedback in the Columbian criticizing some of the work of Vancouver staff, maybe not being inclusive enough. And I want to say that personally in my experience I've never seen a city entity go out and do as much groundwork with as much intention and foresight to really try and create a plan or a program that really was truly inclusive and reflective of as many community voices as they possibly could. So I just want to share my appreciation and gratitude for those staff especially and encourage

19:33 you as we get close down here to the final hour for the comprehensive plan to kick that sucker across the finish line because it's been done just exceptionally well and I'm excited to continue to work to see Vancouver become an even more equitable and prosperous and diverse city. Thank you. That concludes our community communication. We'll now move into the consent agenda. I'll be pulling item number six. Are there any other items that you would like to pull? Item three. Last call. I'll entertain a motion to approve items one, two, four, five and seven. Moved to approve. Stoeber. Stoeber seconded by? Perez. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

20:32 Motion passes. Thank you very much. Item number three, mayor pro tem go ahead. Item number three is about a landscape service that is landscaping and janitorial services for the waterfront area and I'm recognizing that there's been multiple amendments to this and I don't remember and I feel like maybe I've asked this question before so it's all right to remind me that I have but what is our obligation, how many years of obligation do we have to pay 70% of the landscaping fees along the waterfront? So I'll take that, Dave Perlich, director of parks, recreation and cultural services. This arrangement is established in one of the development agreements with waterfront partners LLC. There is not an expiration on it. We would have to go back and have a conversation to change that.

21:32 So this arrangement where the city takes responsibility as lead to contract and deliver those services and the developer pays 30% does not have an end date. And is there a limit to that 30%? Is that 30% of the costs only for maybe landscaping around those particular buildings or the janitorial services around their specific building area or is it for the entire waterfront park? It is for the entire waterfront park. Basically all of the billings we receive we pay those and we send an invoice for 30% to our partners. And my final question, although I feel like it might be an obvious one, are there cost savings to the city with this arrangement moving forward versus whether or not we do the same level of services using our permanent staff?

22:32 >> In a prior amendment to the contract, we synced it to the city's biannual budget process. While no decision had been made, we wanted to make sure that we could understand our budget situation. You received an update on that today. And could make those decisions, one of those could be insourcing. We certainly need to have a conversation with our partner and we would. But we'll be looking at that in the second half of 26, which is exactly why we wanted to sync up the contract to again any changes could be approved through an amendment that would be part of the updated 2728 city biannual budget. >> That's really helpful to know because I do think about the equity of our parks throughout the city and just concerned that we spend, could be spending, I don't know so I won't

23:29 put it out there, but an extraordinary amount of funding on the waterfront but perhaps not at some of our other parks that are equally well loved. So I look forward to that discussion with the budget then. Is that what I was hearing? >> Yes. Yeah. So again, if we're just at the very beginning of that conversation, but we can look at alternatives and options both insourcing and continued outsourcing of that, again we want to be respectful and have that conversation with waterfront partners as well because they're a partner in this, but we should be looking ongoing at both cost methods and appropriateness of methods as we continue to evolve our approaches as well. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Nope. All right. Thank you so much. I'll move to approve item number three. >> Fox seconded by Stober. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye.

24:29 >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Janie, will you join us for a little bit? This is not something we usually do. We usually make an appointment. People sit in the back of the room. It's a consent agenda item. It moves on. But you are in a unique position. You were on one of our other committees. And you made a decision and asked subcommittee one to change why the library. >> So I have loved libraries as long as I've loved parks ever since I was a child. When I had kids, both became very relevant. My husband started working from home and needed us out of the house as much as possible because he was telecommuting. And so I discovered parks and libraries. If it was nice out, we went to the parks. If it was rainy out, we'd go to the libraries. And fell in love with both of them.

25:27 My friend happened to tell me about prac. And that was how I ended up on prac. I've always loved libraries. It's amazing. I'm a nonfiction favorite fan. So I will absorb and read as much as I possibly can with regards to nonfiction. My kids just -- it was -- it's wonderful to see kids in park spaces and in libraries because their curiosity is just piqued, their creativity, their imagination in both places. So both parks and libraries hold a very special spot. >> You do realize this is a five-year commitment. >> I do realize that, yes. >> Bless your heart. Thank you so very much. >> You're welcome. >> I move approval of item number six. >> Paulson seconds. >> Paulson seconded it. All those in favor say aye. >> Mayor. >> Discussion? >> Yes. Thank you.

26:21 So I also wanted to pull this because there's some confusion in the memo and staff -- the staff memo and the two documents were included. It starts and ends with council -- with council subcommittee one. And in the middle of the document, it talks about council subcommittee two. So just wanted to give credit that this was council subcommittee one all the way through. >> Thank you. >> Subcommittee two did not play a role in this. Thank you. >> But they so wanted to. Going back to the motion, I have a motion and a second. Those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Jamie. >> Thank you. That concludes the consent agenda, brings us into the public hearing.

27:17 This is an ordinance relating to management of public rights-of-way granting to fat beam LLC and its affiliates, the Washington LLC, a non-exclusive and revocable franchise to install, operate, maintain a telecommunications system in, on, over, upon, along and across public ways of the City of Vancouver, Washington, establishing certain rights, duties, terms and conditions with respect to the franchise and setting and effective date and conditions. Grantee and city are sometimes collectively referred to as the parties. How many of these have we done? Is this number nine? Every time we turn around. >> Tough report, Aaron, how many of these are lined up waiting to put this in our dirt? >> So well, good evening, mayor and council, Aaron Landy, assistant city manager. I don't actually know the answer to how many we've done, and I can tell you we've got another one coming next month.

28:16 So, I'll see you again soon. But just so you all know, and just a little bit of background for those who are joining us. In its stream, the city recently received a request from Fat Beam LLC and its affiliates for the city to grant them a telecommunications franchise for their fiber system. Fat Beam has agreed to the city's standard non-exclusive franchise, including for a ten year term with a mutual option for five additional years. The language provides ample protection from damage for city right of way assets and will provide additional broadband connectivity options for our citizens and businesses. There was a first reading of this proposed ordinance on March 16th. Tonight's the second reading and the opportunity for public hearing before council considers the ordinance this evening for adoption. The proposed ordinance establishes the mandatory terms and conditions under which the franchisee must maintain and operate its telecommunications facilities within the rights of way.

29:14 The city has granted several similar non-exclusive telecommunication franchises to different companies. And federal law requires that the franchise terms not put one or more other franchisees at a competitive disadvantage relative to other providers. As such, these franchises tend to be very similar over time. Perhaps you can tell that the legal wrote that for me, not me. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time. >> Okay. Uh-oh, hang on, Erin. Council, do you have any questions of Mr. Landy? Nope, nope, nope, nope. I'll open the public hearing. I have no cards. I'll close the public hearing. Bring it back for discussion from the council. Councilors, anything you want to say? Councilor Stover, go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor.

30:05 Always when we have these things come before us, I like to point out that the -- because we have a lot of people who will come and complain to us about what we're doing. And it's important for everybody to know, the city has next to no authority over granting these things. The FCC has very much boxed us in and what we're able to do. And outright denying any of these is not in the cards. So don't yell at us. If you don't like it, call the FCC. Thank you. And with that, I move to approve passage. >> We have Councilor Stover. And Councilor Stover, I have a note here from Ms. Dollar. Make sure that the council member states the motion clearly.

30:59 Was that clear enough for you, Ms. Dollar, or would we like him to give the entire language? The entire language, no. It's fine. It's okay. It's not a relief. Who will second the motion? Ask the little red head. >> I'll second. Harless. >> Harless. Thank you so very much. Roll call vote, please. >> Councilmember Harless. >> Aye. >> Perez. >> Aye. >> Fox. >> Aye. >> Paulson. >> Aye. >> Stover. >> Aye. >> Hanson. >> Aye. >> McInerney-Ogle. >> Aye. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Let's move into communications from the council. Councilor Harless. >> Yes. I just wanted to share real quickly an update on last week's Ending Community Homelessness Organization panel that we had.

31:55 We had a landmark panel bringing together law enforcement leadership from across the region that included our Vancouver Police Department, Clark County Sheriff, Camas PD, Ridgeville PD, Clark County Jail Services and Clark County Fire Cares. And the whole purpose of it was to hear directly from our law enforcement leaders on things that are happening on the ground related to homelessness and some of the issues and gaps that they're experiencing and some key takeaways that I wanted to share with my colleagues was that, you know, law enforcement can out solve homelessness and they clearly know it. And the current cares model that we have which is mobile integrated health team that pairs paramedics with mental health providers and social services, you know, there's only one for the entire Clark County. And it is at its breaking point.

32:53 So clearly there's some support that we need to look at. And that we're cycling people through jails and emergency rooms without solving anything. I think there's some room such as a community court model that shows promise as an alternative accountability mechanism. The biggest on the ground barriers are ones that we can fix and several of the law enforcement officers shared that our systems are siloed in ways that cost lives and money. And a better look at that and working with our state legislators who were somewhere in attendance can help with that. And that there are already collaborative meetings happening but our law enforcement folks don't know about those collaborative meetings. So just this is a part about ensuring that we're all sharing this information and avoiding the silo approach.

33:50 And I think this conversation proved and confirmed to many of us what we've suspected but rarely hear or stated so plainly by the people who are actually doing the work on the ground is that we do have dedicated compassionate first responders doing great things but they don't have the adequate tools and that the systems don't talk to each other and obviously funding is always a big issue. So I'm really excited about what Echo is going to do the next step. I think one of the suggestions was to have a solution centered work group amongst the law enforcement across the region to help us pivot into the next role. So it's all recorded on CVTV Echo April 14th where you can go and listen to what others have shared. And I wanted to make a shout out to our our police officers that were there was Assistant Chief Darren McShea and Corporal Shawn Metivio.

34:50 Thank you. Councilor Hanson. Pass. Councilor Paulson. Pass. Councilor Stover. Thank you Mayor. It was a very good session at Echo. Really appreciate that opportunity. Last Monday night I took advantage of us not having a meeting went out in my role as AWC board member to battleground to present some of their council members with their certificates of municipal leadership. The training program that AWC puts on but it gave me the opportunity to listen in and see another council in action and was great to hear their council member Frere talk also glowingly about that program.

35:42 So I think it's great that we are building relationships across the county on this council tonight I wonder to to bring up what I view as how how are we living out our values of equity in our community. Right now we have a long overdue project of repaving fourth plane between Main Street and the and Fruit Valley Road and in doing that I'm just concerned about the impacts that it's having on local residents. That is a while we see a lot of trucks traveling down fourth plane fourth plane in that area

36:38 is a residential street and people who are living in that area are doing so because it's probably where they can afford to live. Not necessarily where that they have a billion places that they can choose from and I can almost certainly assure you that people living on fourth plane do not have second homes to go to and I bring that up because it was chosen by staff to prioritize traffic come out of the port over local residents so that construction work is happening overnight. I live about four blocks off of fourth plane and it was it was very noticeably loud in

37:32 my house and the folks they're living on fourth plane don't have a way to get away from that they're being asked to endure that weekdays overnight and my my concern I have several concerns with that. One is people coming out of the port have mill plane and have 79th that they could use as alternate routes during the few days that that is going on. My concern is also that there could have been this work could have been done on the weekend but during the day rather than disturbing people's sleep overnight but there's but there are a few properties in this corridor that I am especially concerned about because the

38:29 work that was done to put in the stoplight at fourth plane and Franklin Street took months probably took four months at least maybe even more in order to complete and we were heavily impacting the homes at those four corners. I believe we need to be doing a better equity analysis about about our projects and who's getting impacted more heavily and what are the ways that we can mitigate those those impacts and really do a values analysis on who are we going to prioritize through that process. And I would really love us to be able to to dig in as council member Perez says have an

39:28 after action to talk about what can we be doing better in situations like that. Thank you councilor I just wanted to remember Mayor may I be called on call me please. Councillor Perez. Go ahead. Thank you. I just wanted to agree with council member Stover in his statement and as far as some type of equity impact analysis on all of our implementation programs and contacts in the community and neighborhoods. I believe we had mentioned that quite earlier in the beginning during some previous iteration. I remember us mentioning something like that but now it's like rubber rubber to the ground and an actual implementation and support what council member Stover is requesting. Thank you.

40:28 Councilor Harless. Yeah. Also supportive of this analysis and it reminds me of some of the conversations we've had over the last year plus about noise pollution and how to take that more seriously. So there's also the opportunity for a broader conversation after doing that sort of after action on this one. Thanks. OK. Councilor Fox. Sure. I'm going to shift gears and talk about trees. I know that's a big one for you guys. I'd be surprised that I talk about trees but I got to go to Lincoln Elementary School last week for Arbor Day. I was there to accept our tree city USA award but I also was out in the field with a bunch of our forest city forestry commissioners. There was about three of them out there with us along with our Clark public utilities commissioners

41:28 Sherry Erickson and Jane Van Dyke. And we were out there planting twenty five new trees in the in the out there in the yard and of the school. And so I just wanted to say it was a pretty amazing day. We had good good weather and everything but also just was quite a joy to be out there with the kiddos. And then also to say that I was a student at Lincoln Elementary School when I was a kindergartner and first grader and I don't remember us having a school song and they do now. Oh yeah. It involves lots of yays during the song. I wish I could have sang along but I wasn't prepared but I am really grateful that our urban forest or forestry commissioners showed up to join in the event and also our public utilities commissioners. Well they were also receiving an award but anyways it was it was a great day so I'm just reporting that back.

42:26 Perfect. And several several things. Eric thank you for taking care of Sakura festival I know several of you attended that. That was a huge event. Many of us were with Lieutenant Governor Danny Heck. He was down to have a discussion about housing. And then senators Lovick and Cleveland were down talking about the Southwest Washington Training Academy. We had our community salutes which is the opportunity to celebrate those individuals who are high school seniors who have chosen to enlist in the services so we honored them and their families at Skyview. Congratulations to James Fitzgerald the longtime lead over at Fish Pantry and he's retired. It was bring your child to work this last week and we had children all over the place

43:23 so thank you to Cheyenne and Tawny and Tatiana for hiding Sasquatch all over City Hall. It was fun to find them. Had the opportunity to attend Hope Dementia fundraiser. They are the individuals that are helping caregivers through that journey of dementia with loved ones and friends. And then the Nez Perce came in for reconciliation. We did a special Oregon white oak tree plant at the National Park Service in honor of Scott Scottie and Bessie and the Nez Perce tribe and then pow wow at Clark College. What a great opportunity. A lot of wonderful experiences and we're so pleased to have those opportunities here. Councilors you heard that C-TRAN has made the decision for four representatives from

44:22 the City of Vancouver, three from the county and two from the small cities and Councilor Harless has mentioned that she would be interested in serving on the C-TRAN board. I'm wondering if there are any others that would like that opportunity for the fourth seat. And we will need an alternate. Is there anyone who would choose? Mayor I offer to be the alternate. Council Member Stover. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve Councilor Harless as the fourth representative on the C-TRAN board of directors representing the City of Vancouver and as Tye Stover to be the alternate. So moved Paulson. Thank you. Seconded by Hanson. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Let's move over to the city manager Jeff. Thank you for jumping in tonight. Thank you Mayor Jeff Towery, deputy city manager.

45:18 Very briefly Mr. Landy wants you to know that your previous action was the ninth telecom franchise and we'll have a tenth one in the queue and while Jamie Spinelli is making her way forward if you have not gotten a chance to view her appearance on straight talk, you have a link to that in the communications memo that you got from Laura Shepard on Friday and I would commend that to you. Ms. Spinelli did they send you home with a new coffee cup with their logo? We'll work on that. There you go. There we go. Okay. Good evening. Jamie Spinelli, homeless response manager.

46:09 So we will be covering both February and March tonight. I'm going to try to do it quickly because I know that I'm at the tail end of this meeting. So since mid-December, since the homeless memorial in December, we have lost a total of ten folks connected to the homeless community, one of those in February, three in March. Update on the fire department, the data we usually get from the fire department, so there's a delay in that in getting that information because they have implemented a new kind of software data collection program. They are hoping to have the ability to get me that data by the end of quarter two. So more to come on that.

47:03 The police department, number of events that law enforcement are responding to are hovering at a little over 8% of total events that they respond to. So kind of standing steady there. And then the number of hours that makes up is right around 15% of their total time. So again, pretty consistent with how it has been lately. For cleanup activities, for the larger cleanups that utilize operations, close to 35 tons were removed from encampments. And then for our smaller kind of rapid response crew with Sheila, that was nearly 21.5 tons. So we're year to date, just over 100 tons of solid waste. First day stays in Safe Park.

47:59 We have had 17 people move into housing over those two months, and then another two transferred from shelter, no, two shelter from Safe Park, and another six people have been referred to housing. They have a voucher. They're just kind of looking for housing at this moment, so very close to housing. Fourteen people are engaged in mental health and/or substance use services, so detox, medication assisted treatment, some have gone to inpatient. That's a big number, so I'm pretty excited about that. Two people in particular celebrating 90 days sober, one celebrated 30 days sober, congrats to them. Seven people obtained employment, kind of a note on employment efforts and supports. I don't know if any of you heard the SNAP benefit changes federally.

48:59 There are some pretty significant changes to that that will certainly impact, I mean, a ton of the community, not just the homeless community, but certainly the homeless community. However, I will say that that has helped us get more folks engaged in employment support, employment activities, employment support. So you know, lemonade out of lemons, but seven people obtained employment, that's a big deal. PICP, Partners and Careers, has come out to 415 West to provide kind of a workshop on the services that they offer related to employment, DSHS Mobile, they have a mobile vehicle that comes out and they can do, they can help people apply for benefits, they can reissue or issue new SNAP benefit cards for folks, so on the go, bringing people the services they need.

49:55 They've also come out to 415 West, and then I think some of our other sites are also connecting with Goodwill Job Connections, I think like five people from Safe Park enrolled in that, so that's something. Some themes across all sites that I noticed while reading all the reports over the last couple of months, some of these are going to be repeats from what I've said previously, kind of higher level of healthcare needs, like more significant medical and healthcare needs, certainly we are experiencing and observing some additional hoarding behaviors, very general life skill needs, running laundry machines, things like that, doing dishes, basic life skill things, conflict resolution, communication skills, those kind of things, pet care needs, so we've got, as I mentioned, many folks interested in treatment, whether that's going to detox

50:55 or going to inpatient, and many of the folks that we're serving right now have pets and treatment doesn't take pets, so it can be challenging trying to figure out how to get that need met. Also have some pets with healthcare needs, the Humane Society is actually really great at helping with those kinds of things, every once in a while we have like curve ball where like a dog needs an amputation, right, we've gotten it figured out, but that tends to be a barrier, however, to address at least some of those things that I just mentioned, I'm pleased to announce Columbia River Mobile Health is back up and running. I know, very exciting, they are not fully staffed yet, but they are staffed enough to be a presence at the safe stays and community court weekly, as well as responsive to the Fourth Plain Corridor and other places as needed, so as of the end of March, they've

51:54 got a nurse practitioner, a peer support specialist and a program coordinator, still recruiting for an MHP and an RN, but they are able to do mental health assessments, treat some more minor-ish medical stuff, they had about 20 clients on their caseload at the end of March, treating things like wounds, local and systemic infections, chronic health conditions, providing and continuing to schedule out mental health assessments, I don't know if any of you have ever heard about what it's like to try to schedule a mental health assessment, a lot of times you need that because you have to have a diagnosis in order to be eligible for something like permanent supportive housing, but it can take two months or more to get one of those just scheduled, so their ability to do that is very helpful, they are providing

52:54 all of those services at the safe stays, safe park, community court, various resource events that have taken place, and then just kind of out in the community as I mentioned, something else I'm actually very excited about, part of their contract with the city is in addition to providing direct service to clients, they are supporting the city's homeless response programs with kind of some training and capacity building across all of them, so as a system, in February they did a really excellent motivational interviewing training, which the heart team, safe stay staff, safe park staff, as well as some newer mobile health staff participated in that, the idea being we kind of just need to raise our skill and our capacity up a bit to meet some of those enhanced challenges that we are now experiencing, another one

53:49 of those trainings will be done in the fall for bridge shelter staff, new bridge shelter staff in anticipation of that opening soon, and then we are working on building out with them, building out kind of a curriculum for system wide training to ensure that we all have kind of a shared language at a minimum, and just make sure that kind of across the board our skills are increased a bit to meet those challenges. Okay, community court, 62 citations into community court, we had six graduations, three people referred into shelter, by the end of March, we are at a bridge shelter now, by the end of March all the site work needed to receive the two structures that were being brought in, the materials for the two structures was complete, so that's like the underground work,

54:44 the slabs, et cetera, the dorm building was received, an erection of that began, and I will just give you a spoiler alert because now we are near the end of April, both buildings are into erection work, and I'm very excited about that because that was the first time I had actually seen the property since it was flat, so it's very cool to see actually the buildings going up. And then special appreciation for both months, I'm going to read these because we have two different months and I don't want to get them all messed up, so for February we specifically wanted to thank Ana Quantrell, who dedicates countless hours assisting folks who contact the city for a wide range of needs, she serves as a liaison to our community, connecting residents, businesses, neighborhoods and leaders with the city manager's office, city staff, and other city services, I also personally know she spends a lot of time hunting down

55:43 the answers to things that are not simple, they're complex, and it's true for people who call in from the county who really need county support answering those things, so she's incredible, and I hope she sees this, she does such an amazing job with everyone who calls in, so thank you Ana, and then for March we wanted to thank Nikki Chen and Jen Duggar Spaulding from the city's engagement and access department, so Jen has been very helpful in supporting the HEART team specifically with ADA related concerns, offering guidance that really kind of helps us to balance the needs of everyone involved, so including the folks who are living outside as well as everyone else to ensure that we are remaining compliant, but needs are still getting met, and then Nikki has helped foster some very meaningful

56:42 conversation with folks who are passionate about supporting our unsheltered neighbors, even when their perspectives are perhaps a little different from ours or others, and that I think helps us to remove some barriers to building the inclusive city that we are forever working towards, so big thank you to Nikki and Jen, and then I think record time. That's all I have. I'm open for questions. >> Yes. Counselors, do you have questions? Counselor Fox, go ahead. >> Quick question. That training that you'll be rolling out for staff, will there be an opportunity for perhaps that I could join or other council members if they're interested in being part of that training? I'm really interested in having a better understanding of how to respond to some of the situations

57:41 from folks that are struggling on our streets. >> I would say that it's very likely. I don't see why not. The limitation would just be how many people do we have signed up for it, and can it -- I don't see why it would be an issue, if I'm being honest. >> Could you share those with us then? >> Yes. Whenever we have them actually scheduled, I will. I can tell you that the one that's happening in the fall, the same one that happened in February, is a motivational interviewing training. That one's actually done by Casey Jackson, which he's done a lot of training for law enforcement as well as many other things. Really phenomenal trainer. And then we plan on bringing him back out in the spring to do kind of an advanced version of that for everyone. So if you get in on that one, it's going to be good. >> Okay. >> I have literally watched my team and other safe stay and safe park staff put that stuff into practice.

58:39 And some of our most challenging folks, right, so kind of higher mental health, just kind of -- it requires more skill. We are not clinicians. I have watched them be so successful at now getting people into like some of our sites and staying in some of our sites. It's been pretty impressive, actually, to watch. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Councilor Stover. >> Thank you, mayor. Jamie Tystover, City Council. If we run across somebody in the community that has some health needs, is there a way to contact the Columbia River team, help direct them, yeah, love to know that. Thank you. >> I will get you their contact info. It might be online but I'll get you their info. And I'll try to get it on the website. >> Councilor Harless, go ahead.

59:37 >> Yeah, first, thanks and gratitude to Nikki and the rest of your team and colleagues for having those conversations. It's really greatly appreciated. There's also an article in the Columbia, I think on the 24th it says, covering the cleanups and something that some folks have asked is how can they help? How can they help actually like make help residents that's truly like helping get to the outcomes that we're hoping for for our community? And you have some good quotes in there. And I know but I just wanted to be able to relay that information about what is actually helpful. And when I am asked what I can tell folks, if they want to volunteer, you know, besides meal trains, what are the other options for folks to do that truly helps folks in these situations? >> Sure.

1:00:33 I do actually want to clarify one quote in there. Because now I have the opportunity to. I have never said that cleanups are part of our engagement model. Cleanups are just something that have to occur as long as we have people living outside. Any contact we have with folks we utilize them as a point of engagement. But the vast majority of engagement with the heart team and other outreach happens before and after cleanups. During a cleanup that's not really the ideal situation. That's really a sanitation and health effort. So I just want to be very clear about that. Kind of in that same vein, there are folks who are, you know, more confident and comfortable in different scenarios. So there certainly are some folks who do some mutual aid work or volunteer work literally at camps for any of those folks. Like I've had the conversation with them before.

1:01:32 It's actually much more helpful to spend that time with folks out there prior to a cleanup. Because then we don't have to be out there as long doing the cleanup work. If that's the -- if those efforts are happening, and I know that they do happen with more kind of like formal or official outreach throughout the week. But that is far more helpful than a lot of things actually. Because then we don't have to be out there as long, we don't have to have as much equipment out there. We don't potentially have to have as much enforcement out there. Kind of depends on how long a cleanup is going to occur, how big of an area we have to clean. That's what kind of determines the enforcement presence. That and how much like public works crew we have out there. So for those folks, that is what is the most helpful. And then I think, you know, we are putting so much work into very intentional work into

1:02:29 helping folks when they're at one of our shelters. And that looks like so many things that, I mean, we have people who come out and do craft time because that's really just community building, we have people who come out and help garden. And I am now going to annually -- annually I say this, we are nearing springtime, okay, where planting is about to take place at all of our sites, which I'm very excited about. So seed swaps, helping people garden, teaching people how to grow some of their food or cook some of that food. I mean, there's so many different things that people could do at the shelters that are so helpful, including literally just hanging out with people. People who are -- I said this in the straight talk, but people who are experiencing homelessness, especially those more chronic, have been kind of radically disconnected from community. And we need to -- we need to help people get back into community, right?

1:03:27 You know, there's always kind of the usual stuff, making a meal, you know. Spring cleaning is about to happen. It's already started I think at some of the sites, but, you know, that's always -- that's always an effort. >> And if someone was interested, who would they reach out to? >> You know, Tyler. >> Tyler. >> I'm going to throw Tyler under the bus. Because he's so great at connecting everybody with the sites specifically. Although each -- I mean, if somebody has a shelter they prefer to work at, their contact information's on the city's website, but certainly Tyler's great at sending everybody where they need to be. >> Awesome. Yeah, it's that sort of -- that person that's the hub that knows everything that's going on, the right folks to connect to if they have an idea, or, you know, wherever their passion lies, like gardening, or maybe it's access to certain things that just generally make life have a higher quality of life at these locations.

1:04:27 And so it sounds like, you know, folks should go to the website, and then those specific locations, whichever one's closer to them maybe, and then reaching out to Tyler is another alternative. Cool. >> Yeah. And the easiest way to get ahold of Tyler, honestly, is just the heart team. Heart team email. H-a-r-t-t-e-a-m@cityofvancouver.us. >> Thank you. >> Diane. Councilor Perez. >> Thank you. Jamie, thank you. You said over 100 tons of solid waste to date. Since January. >> Since January. Okay. So just for my colleagues, I'm going to -- 100 tons of solid waste equals 67 Tesla Cybertrex. So I'm equating solid waste to Tesla Cybertrex. So if you think about it, it's -- so 67, that's the amount of solid waste. So -- and then going back to the comment about the article in the "Columbian" that really

1:05:25 highlighted the issue of personal belongings, sensitive documentation, that has been in the solid waste, is there discussion to how to prevent that? Or is this a one-time occurrence for one or two people? Or is this really something that -- I mean, from what I read, I get the understanding that we don't know the magnitude, but it happens. And even if it just happens to one individual, that's really a bad thing. And what are we doing to mitigate that? >> Good question. Certainly people have lost items in cleanups, whether it's because they didn't remember that something was in a tent that they told us we could take because they got in a new tent or because they weren't there during a cleanup, they left it there for a few days. There are reasons that can occur.

1:06:19 My team, when they're doing cleanup work, in cases where a tent or bags or things like that are not biohazard themselves or covered in kind of biohazard themselves, they do look through to identify wallets, ID, photos, medication, things that can be stored, should be stored. If someone loses something, there is kind of a process. I did actually mention in that article that I've known of two -- in like a, I don't know, seven-year period, two different occasions where somebody's stuff was accidentally taken when it shouldn't be. Somebody had to go to the hospital in the middle of a cleanup, unrelated to the cleanup, and the people down in the block did not realize that was that guy's stuff.

1:07:15 And so a claim is submitted to the city with like the risk management folks. And then for him, for example, a new tent and sleeping bag and tarps were purchased. So there are processes for that. We do attempt to keep it from happening to begin with. And that involves lots of eyes on each camp individually, not just a single person kind of making that call. It's one of the reasons our outreach workers are also around during the cleanups. So that the cleanup folks and the officer, if they have a question, they can always kind of rely on the outreach folks that are there. >> Okay. I'm just thinking that we could probably do better in mitigating that impact and ask for us to do better.

1:08:05 And when we get the shelter, the high capacity shelter built, which is when again? >> We're looking at fall. >> Fall. Okay. I'm assuming that we don't anticipate this large amount of waste collection either or these issues. Okay. >> At the shelter? >> Or just in general. >> I mean -- >> At the current magnitude. >> Theoretically, no. We don't anticipate that. We anticipate 120 people will be able to be inside and not need quite so much stuff. I cannot predict how many people will enter homelessness, you know, and at what rate, right? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Counselor, I would encourage you to go on a little field trip with the heart team on cleanup day.

1:09:03 So if you have not seen how very procedural they are and what they do, yes, we can always improve. But if it's kind of like throwing things out of your refrigerator, you thought you wanted to keep that balsamic vinegar but you didn't realize it was in an unmarked model. >> We do also have still some people's items stored and then they don't come pick them up. >> Yeah, moldy and nasty. Jamie, we've been getting e-mails about individuals who are arrested. And one of the description, this one I'm looking at, unlawful camping. Unlawful storage of personal property in public spaces, criminal trespass, criminal trespass 2 and 1, but all of them have unlawful camping.

1:09:59 >> Are we arresting people just for unlawful camping? >> In most cases, no. In most cases there are other charges, whether that's burglary, sometimes trespassing, possession, there are many other kinds. But in most cases, no. Every once in a while there are people who only have multiple camping usually or camping in conjunction with storage of property. Those are folks probably 99% of the time, if not 100, who we have repeatedly offered shelter and services to, have repeatedly worked with on the amount of belongings they have, how they maintain the space that they camp in, and have been cited in the community court

1:10:56 multiple times, and not shown up in many cases. So most of those are failure to appear warrants that then show up as multiple charges. So they are just not engaging in any kind of forward movement, anything to get them out of the homelessness that they currently experience. So that is kind of our last effort. >> Could you talk about that little bridge between unlawful camping and community court and how do you use community court in that? >> Community court really is like many other therapeutic courts, it is intended to provide services to help with kind of the underlying issue that often exists underneath some criminal activity and things like that, or charges.

1:11:52 So the goal of community court is to connect people to the various services they need, whether it's just a housing assessment, getting ID, getting a mental health eval, like I mentioned earlier, that's a requirement for some housing, same with substance use evals, those are things that pretty much everyone who goes through community court connects with, at least the first time. There are people who participate in community court multiple times, and like with each time, their level of engagement in those things is typically increased, at least a touch. And if they do that, if they do those things, which takes usually about six-ish weeks, then the charge just goes away, the charge is dropped because they have done the things, they have taken the steps. We try as much as we can, certainly capacity is an issue, but we try to, for those folks who do kind of plug in and engage with community court, kind of fast track them into one of

1:12:47 the safe stays or safe park, if that's most relevant, again, to help them have kind of a stable foundation from which to continue working, like all the people that I mentioned earlier that are now employed and moving into housing, engaging in treatment. So I think the bridge shelter will help with that. But that's the intent of community court, it's not to add additional barriers, it does add a little more structure, kind of routine, a little bit more kind of expectation, just behavior-wise. I know a lot of people have strong feelings about enforcement being on our team or kind of connected to anything we do with homelessness, and as an outreach worker, with that being my background anyway, I understand that to a degree, but it's just true that some people

1:13:43 are so disconnected that they need a little bit more kind of a nudge. My mom always used to tell me that I only learn the hard way. That's true for more than just me, right? So we have a responsibility as a city to maintain as much as we can, like expectations for activity and behavior on public property, period. For anyone, whether they're housed or unhoused. And for folks who are living outside on public property, that's something that we have to -- we still have to maintain that. So we try to do that in an equitable, supportive way. They're able to stay there in many cases as long as they're working on leaving there and, you know, keeping it as tidy as they can with some help from the city, right? >> Good. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes, go ahead. >> Just one last thing. I just want -- >> Councillor -- >> Councillor Harless.

1:14:40 It's going to be hard to get used to that. Councilmember Harless, I just wanted to just finish off by saying that I don't envy your role or your team, which is also why I have such great appreciation. There's a lot of different angles and ways of looking at this and things coming from all sides and all directions all the time. To you, it's a very public position and I think, you know, it's just really admirable what you guys do every single day. And I just want to make sure you know that. Thanks. >> I appreciate that. >> Thank you, Jamie. All right. Jeff, any other additional items from the second floor? City attorney, anything? >> Nothing from the legal mayor. Thank you. >> Okay. It is 7.45. We'll adjourn the business portion of our meeting.

1:15:36 We'll now go into the portion where we have the community forum and our policy has us here with the opportunity to hear from the community members. We will be audio recording but not video recording. So let's go ahead and turn off CVTV. [ Music ]