Vancouver City Council

0:00 (upbeat music) Here we go. Good evening, welcome to Vancouver City Council. Today is Monday, May 4th, 2026. This afternoon, we had a couple workshops. The first one was on our digital accessibility briefing. Laura Sheppard in communications is helping us with that federal law. And then we talked about PFA in the water and the mitigation for that. So 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,

0:59 one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Thank you very much. Sarah, please call the roll. - Council Member Harless? - Present. - Perez? - Here. - Fox? - Here. - Paulson? Stover? - Present. - Hanson? - Present. - Mayor McEnerny-Ogle? - Present. - Mayor, move to excuse Council Member Fox, I mean Council Member Paulson? - Second. - Motion and a second. Those in favor, say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes, thank you very much. All right, thank you. We're now moving into the approval of the minutes. Councilors, you have the minutes of April 27. Any corrections or changes? Hanson, seconded by? - Stover. All those in favor, say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much.

1:58 Tonight we have a very special presentation. Kindness 911 was founded by lifelong Vancouver resident, Jason Hatrick, almost seven years ago in 2019, and is a program that recognizes people through our first responders for the genuine positive impact on their community by issuing kindness citations, a tangible showing of our appreciation. Chief Price. - There you are, thank you, Troy. Please provide us some more information about the program and introduce who is here today. Good evening, Chief. - Good evening, Troy Price, Chief of Police. Really no, am I? - No, a button. There you go, start again, please. - Green is good, all right. Troy Price, Chief of Police. Very happy this evening to come and talk to you a little bit about the Kindness 911 organization.

2:56 We've been members and in partnership with them for a few years now. Jason Hatrick came and approached actually yourself, mayor, and myself, and said that he had an idea that would actually bridge some of the gaps between our community and law enforcement. And we do it just one kind act at a time through something called a kindness citation. When people in the community are observed doing good things or going out of their way by law enforcement, we have the opportunity to present them with the kindness citation. And it just helps build stronger relationships between Vancouver Police and the community we serve. And we're one of several law enforcement agencies in the Pacific Northwest and beyond who are actually taking part in this program. It has been very effective for us. And tonight we're gonna be honoring one of our officers through the organization. And so I'd like to introduce the founder of Kindness 911, Jason Hatrick.

3:54 (audience applauds) - You have to show me where that magical button is. - There it is. - Good evening, Mayor McEnerny, oh, council members and community guests. Again, my name is Jason Hatrick, lifelong and proud Vancouver member for the last 52 years. We have the honor at Kindness 911 of supporting and connecting 18 law enforcement and fire agencies with the communities they serve over the past seven years. With Vancouver Police Department, as Chief Price said, being one of those, we have the privilege of issuing kindness citations, a tangible expression of people's contribution to their communities. Additionally, because of these individuals, Kindness 911 makes annual donations to charities right here in our community to honor those people who we've cited.

4:53 Tonight, we are here to celebrate Officer Musser with the Vancouver Police Department. Where are you at, Holly? Come, roll on up here. Let's just do it that way. There we go. So I wanna first tell you a little bit about Holly Musser, the superhero. She grew up in Alaska. She loves her Husky, soccer, and loving Jesus. She's been married 15 years and has four children with the fourth adoption finalizing soon. She has also been at the Coast Guard Reserves for the past 10 years, serving out of the Portland base. As a police officer, Holly Musser has been serving with VPD for 20 years and has worked many assignments. In fact, her and I met when she was on bike patrol a very long time ago. Holly truly loves to serve. Officer Musser is not normal. She is extraordinary. She genuinely demonstrates kindness in all she does. She understands that kindness is not merely a one-time event but it's a habit that needs to be built upon daily,

5:53 creating a culture of kindness throughout the community, and in the end, leaving a lasting and powerful legacy. Holly, you are truly the gold standard and the example to every other kindness cop and crew member. Each year, Kindness 911 has the opportunity to recognize the top 1%, the five out of 500 kindness cops and crew for their commitment to excellence, for their participation in the Kindness Citation Program, for connecting with their communities, and for truly being a kindness ambassador to their agency, their community, and beyond. Officer Musser exemplifies these characteristics. Last year in 2025, Officer Musser issued almost 80 kindness citations within and beyond the city of Vancouver. She has touched the hearts of students, teachers, district leaders, city employees, regional professionals, local business owners, and other first responders to name a few. In fact, I learned that the recipient of her very first kindness citation four years ago is here tonight. Where you at, Mark? - Mark.

6:53 - There he is. - Damn. - I mean, she just happened to run into him at the PD today. Even more, in the four years Kindness 911 has worked with Vancouver Police Department, Officer Musser has issued more kindness citations than any kindness cop in our history, seeing the importance of the positive connections between law enforcement and our community. So Vancouver is truly a fortunate community because of this kindness superhero. She has received this distinction of Kindness Cop of the Year from us in 2022, 2023, 2024, and is an unstoppable force in this back again. So it is my honor to present Vancouver Police Officer Holly Musser with Kindness 911's 2025 Kindness Cop of the Year Award. (audience applauding) - There you go. - Thank you.

7:44 - So, let's get some, Chief, you wanna bring Holly and Jason around? And counselors, come and join us right here. It's a little awkward back here. Come right here, I'm sorry? - The first Kindness Award at the end? - Well, I think we might have done that before. So Holly, you get to stand in front of me. - Nice. - For each of my kiddos. (laughing) - Looks like a giant ice cube. Holly, if you'll turn around, Jason, Chief, come on, no, come on in, Chief, there you go. We're doing here fine, we can stand tall. - We'll go on tippy toes. - Okay, we'll, yep, yep. - Right here, one, two, there's three. I've got one more right here, one, two, and three.

8:42 - Okay, got it, did you get it? Thank you. - Thank you, Holly. - Thank you so much. - But the family's good? I know they would be. Ooh, four-legged? Oh, oh, oh, sorry. - The mayor as well. (muffled speaking) (audience applauding) - All right, let's move into the proclamations. Again, this is Anne McEnerny-Ogle,

9:42 Mayor for the City of Vancouver. We have Small Business Week and we have Small Business Month. So let's have Kyle and Nicole and Kimberly all come on up there, grab three chairs there. Let me do a little of the introduction here. America's small businesses make up more than 99% of all private sector employers contributing to opportunity and prosperity across the country. Vancouver continues to grow and thrive thanks to local entrepreneurs who bring bold ideas, take risks, and work hard to strengthen our community. The City of Vancouver's revolving loan fund will offer 1.2 million in loans to small businesses in the Fourth Plain investment area, along with another 1.2 million in matching funds for small businesses citywide that lack access

10:42 to traditional financing. The city's small business resiliency grant program will provide 300,000 in 2026 to support small businesses in the Fourth Plain corridor facing economic development and challenges. That goes on to say for all of this, Vancouver's entrepreneurs reflect a wide range of talents and backgrounds contributing to a strong, diverse, and resilient local economy. The City of Vancouver joins communities across the nation in honoring small businesses for their essential role in our economy and helping to ensure that our neighborhoods remain vibrant and thriving. Now, therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the week of May 4th through 10th as National Small Business Week and proclaim the month of May as National Small Business Month in the City of Vancouver and urge all community members to support

11:41 and celebrate our small businesses throughout this week and the entire month. So, here we go. (indistinct) - Good evening, Mayor Anne and Council members. My name is Kimberly Quiros, Senior Business Developer of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber. It is truly an honor to receive this proclamation on the behalf of many small business owners and service providers who make up the heart of Vancouver's economy. Entrepreneurship requires courage to keep going even when things are uncertain, and that's something that we see every single day in our community.

12:39 Business owners continue to show up, adapt, and grow even when facing challenges. At the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber, we have the privilege of supporting entrepreneurs in navigating systems, building connections, strengthening their businesses. Last year, the Chamber provided one-on-one technical assistance to 621 entrepreneurs across Oregon and Southwest Washington. We had over 6,550 direct one-on-one meetings with our clients. We were able to leverage 1,68,279 in match savings accounts and grants awarded across our services in Oregon and Southwest Washington. This proclamation is not just recognition. It is a reminder that when small businesses succeed, our entire community thrives. On the behalf of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber, thank you to the City of Vancouver for this acknowledgement and for your continuing support of small businesses. And to entrepreneurs and service providers, this recognition is for you. Thank you. - Thank you, Kimberly.

13:38 Kyle, go ahead. - I have to echo what Kimberly says. Thank you so much for inviting the SBDC to be a part of this this evening. I'm happy to represent the SBDC here in the City of Vancouver where I also live. And thank you as a city for being so invested in the success of your small businesses here. You obviously understand how important the success of the small business economy is to the stability and growth of a city. So thank you for that. I passed out some quick stats on the work that we've done here in Vancouver since I was here last month, last year at this time. We had the opportunity to work with a total of 67 individual clients in the City of Vancouver over the last year. 43 of them were brand new thanks to our ongoing collaboration

14:37 with the City of Vancouver. And many thanks to Julie Ahrens for setting this up. And also for our partnership with the Vancouver Downtown Association. We saw a variety of business types through our work with those 67 businesses in the city. We helped them achieve almost 400,000 in capital infusion dollars into their businesses that allowed those businesses to create 13 new jobs out of eight new businesses that were started over the year working with us. And many of our businesses reported really good numbers in their changes in sales despite the ever challenging economy with $1.7 million change in revenue over the last year for those businesses. There's additional demographic information on the types of businesses that we saw,

15:37 who the business owners were. If you have any questions, I'm happy to field those. But thank you for including us in this discussion and this proclamation. And I look forward to another successful year with the City of Vancouver. Thank you so much. (audience applauding) - Tawana, please join us. Whereas on May 5th, we remember, honor and take action for the lives of indigenous women, girls and two-spirited individuals whose lives have been taken as a result of the ongoing missing and murdered crisis. And whereas Washington State has the second highest rate of missing and murdered indigenous and the risk of rape or sexual assault is 2.5 times higher for indigenous women than the rest of the country. And the City of Vancouver is committed to spreading

16:37 awareness of our indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, transgender and gender nonconforming relatives who have gone missing or have been murdered. And whereas we act in solidarity as we recognize National Day of Awareness and action for missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirits seeking to build upon and support our indigenous communities to stop this epidemic and heal within our communities. And we must continue to bring awareness. By doing so, we will increase the accountability and bring justice to the families of the missing and murdered. Now therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the fifth day of May as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Persons in the City of Vancouver and urge all community members to act for all our missing

17:35 and murdered indigenous women, girls and two-spirit relatives as we work to end violence.

17:47 [ Pause ] >> There we go. Might help if I unmute myself. It always makes me emotional. Wow, this has been a journey. I appreciate each and every one of you city council members and Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle. You've been alongside me since 2020, and I appreciate that so much.

18:45 It speaks volumes, and this is the reason why I can call Vancouver home because me and my kids finally feel safe. For those of you who don't know me and those that are watching, I am Duanna Ricks Johnson. My pronouns are she/her. I'm a Colville Lakes tribal member, a proud disabled US Navy veteran, single mom of four, and now proudly a grandma of two. I am learning to own that I am a DV and an SA, a trafficking survivor. And I'm sitting before you again in red. It's the color that my ancestors see.

19:43 And we hope to call back the missing and murdered spirits of our loved ones to unite them with our ancestors. It has been my passion to speak to the MMIWP and housing disparities that we face here in Washington State. Doing this work with MMIP advocacy and housing justice has been incredibly healing in my journey from victim to survivor. I know all too well without your help at the local, state, and federal level, along with these yearly proclamations given by you, our city council, by bringing attention to this ongoing genocide, those indigenous persons who are fleeing from DV, SA, and trafficking

20:41 will continue to be targeted, victimized, and exploited by those who would seek to do us harm. As I sit here, there are 108 open missing cases just in Washington State alone. And that was as of April 27, 2026. While I applaud the efforts of the Washington State MMIP Task Force for being the first of its kind in America, we need to do more at a national level. I am committed to keep raising my voice for those affected by MMIWP. I will help our community go full circle through connecting the vital parts needed to build a strong community, focus on bringing awareness

21:32 to this ongoing genocide that does not discriminate between blood quantum, age, or gender. The best way we can do this is by actively working towards creating a safe, well-informed community that provides affordable housing so our hurting people can heal. It is paramount that I actively work to bridge this gap. And I'm so proud that I've got a council that's doing the same. You can help raise public awareness for MMIWP and their families by heeding the call to action and following these steps in our community.

22:29 This is what you can do to help MMIWP cause. Acknowledge and bring awareness to May 5 every year. Work with local indigenous communities to uphold awareness and wear red and displaying a red dress in your windows. Reporting and reposting missing flyers on all your social media pages. Help conduct-- help by contacting local legislators to lobby for quicker implementation of the feather alert promised by Washington State Patrol. Support local MMIWP nonprofits. They help our hurting families with missing loved ones. And it also addresses the prevalence of violence against indigenous women

23:28 with their searches and needs. Speak up against violence against indigenous people in our community by creating safe spaces and being aware. If you see something, say something. And in closing, in this current political climate by our current federal administration, as an indigenous woman, there's a target on my back. If I should ever go somewhere and I do not return when I said I would, know that I would not just leave my family or my loved ones. I would never do that to them. If I ever go missing, something is wrong. Please look for me.

24:25 And that is on behalf of all MMIWP. Thank you for this. Thank you. - Thank you, Joanna. [APPLAUSE] - All right, counselors. Again, Anne McEnerny, Ogle Mayor. That concludes our proclamations. This would be the opportunity for community communication, not the forum. We do not have any pre-registration, nor do I have any cards for the community communication portion of our agenda. So we'll move into the consent agenda. This is the opportunity. We have nine items. Counselors, are there items that you would like to pull? Counselor? - Council Member Stover, I would like to pull item number eight.

25:24 - Item eight. OK. Any other items? - Item five. OK. All right. Then I will accept a motion for items one, two, three, and four, six, seven, and nine. - This is Diana Perez. Move to approve. - Perez, seconded by? - Fox. All those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. All right. Counselor Fox, item number five, the interlocal agreement with WSDOT. - Yes, do we have any staff to-- oh, we do. There's Aaron. OK. All right, Council Member Fox here. Just reviewing this particular interlocal agreement, I do recognize that it seems very clear that it's

26:19 about providing the city some way to be reimbursed for doing basically outreach activities in our right of ways that are not ours, I guess WSDOT's right of ways, to our homeless population. But I'm wondering, there has been quite a lot of email traffic and other concerns about the trash that's left behind with these encampments. Will this interlocal agreement reimburse us for cleaning up those encampments?

27:00 - Yes, so good evening, Mayor and Council, Aaron Landy, Assistant City Manager. And I'm joined by Tyler Chavers from our Homelessness Response Program. We're going to speak more to the details of our work with WSDOT on these WSDOT properties. My understanding is that the work that we conduct for WSDOT and that we are reimbursed for is limited to the outreach. WSDOT does not want us doing cleanups. And so that is not part of this work. That's not work conducted by HART. So if there is cleanup occurring by the city on WSDOT property, that would be a separate conversation, I assume, with Public Works. Tyler, I don't know if you have anything to add there. - No, nothing further to add. This might be out of your scope for this particular item,

27:58 but are there other agreements in progress for WSDOT reimbursing us for doing any cleanups within their right-of-way? - I don't know, I apologize. - Maybe we can bring that up. - This is Tyler Chavers, the Homeless Response Coordinator for the city. I know there have been some discussions over the years about cleanups with regards to the solid waste along the freeway system within the city, but it's never reached a point of WSDOT contracting with the city for those services. They still maintain the control and the maintenance. - I'd say that we're not getting really good marks for how well they're keeping up with that end of the bargain. Okay, I don't have any other questions on this particular item unless other council members do. - Other councilors? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion, item number five. - Move to approve item five. - Fox, seconded by?

28:56 Perez, those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes, thank you. Let's move on to item number eight. Councilor Stover, go ahead. - Thank you, Mayor. So I think this is a conversation with the city attorney. So city attorney, when we set out in March, one of the things we wanted to do is to clear up ambiguity. Am I correct there, is we wanted to clear up ambiguity. So as I read this, I'm left still with some ambiguity. And so I'm gonna relate this to something else. I'm gonna relate to our city charter. And years ago when I was on the charter review commission, I wanted to get rid of or redefine crimes

29:55 of moral turpitude. - Turpitude. - Yes. And two things came up with that. One is realized that was a $4,000 question and at least a $4,000 question. And second, there is actually, that is a term of law and there is a clear definition that goes with that. So I recognize that sometimes words that may not be in the common vocabulary can still have very clear definitions associated with them. So I'm gonna run through three words in this revision and wanna hear if there is clear definition or if there is still ambiguity in those. And I'm gonna focus in on independence, integrity and impartiality.

30:51 And can you tell me, are there clear legal definitions of independence, integrity or impartiality? - No, Council Member Stover, there are not clear legal definitions of those three terms like there is for appearance of impropriety but those three terms, even though they don't have a specific statutory definition, they have been interpreted in case law in the state of Washington. So if we wondered what the term independence met as it relates to code of ethics, we could find cases in other jurisdictions where that was an issue and where the court defined

31:49 that word as it related to that action. - Okay, so I am, so that's great, that's great to know and I would want to have it cross referenced into here. I want somehow that a bridge to make it very clear where people go, so an allegation comes forward and these still seem ambiguous to me. I would love to be able to have in the policy some place saying, here's where it's been interpreted

32:43 by the courts, here's where, that's, okay. So that's where I'm coming from in this is that I really want, I don't want there to be ambiguity. I want it to be very clear exactly what is the standard and that it is not, that we don't leave it open for interpretation. Yeah. - Councilor Ann McEnerny-Ogle, that strategy would be true for every policy, every RCW, every WAC, the entire set of laws and policies that we have. So it wouldn't be just for this particular item. If anyone had any concern about ambiguity, they could go to court cases in the state of Washington for everything.

33:42 - What do you say? - If I might, Nina Cook, city attorney, that is true and it won't be a surprise to you, Council Member Stover, that we can do that. I could get a definition from a case, but another case could define it a little differently. So if that is, because that is a concern, 'cause clearly it is a concern and a legitimate concern, what I might suggest is, as you know in section nine, the mechanism by which this policy is interpreted is the first level of analysis goes to the city attorney and the city attorney would apply those laws, cases, definitions, interpretations to the action,

34:40 the alleged action of the council member and include that in her report to council in which she's recommending either a dismissal or further action. - Any other comments from councilors? Councilor Perez, go ahead. - Thank you, just to-- - Please identify yourself. - Thank you, I will, Diana Perez, Vancouver City Council. Nina, thank you and just to go along the same conversation to get clarity really where the concern is about the objectivity and how this can be weaponized and used against anyone really, staff or us or city manager or city attorney. So what processes do we have in place to really meet that threshold and fairness?

35:37 For example, what level of evidence should be required before an appearance that triggers a formal analysis or a formal review? So that would be one question. - So if I might add, or did you wanna, should I answer that one first? - Yeah, and then the other one is are we treating optics the same or differently? So that's that difference of evidence and connecting and anchoring it to legal definition as far as who makes the determination of what triggers it, a formal complaint. - Okay, let me see if I can answer it and you'll tell me if there's some follow-ups. This is Nina Cook, city attorney again. So there are, as you see, we've always had conflicts of interest and appearance of impropriety. The problem we encountered last year,

36:37 council struggled with last year was what the heck does this appearance of impropriety mean? It has used that term throughout this policy since 1999 and it wasn't until last year when the issue became front and center when we're like what does that mean? So getting to I think your next level of inquiry, what does that mean? That definition that you see that I've proposed in section 5.0 for the first time in our policy defines what appearance of impropriety means. And again, further to your point, it's based on an objective standards. So there are two ways to look at a complaint. Subjectively, if I think you did something wrong, just based on my personal belief, and the objective standard which is what would

37:36 a reasonable person in this situation think if you did something wrong? So the bumpers, I've been speaking with some council members about this, the bumpers are the boundaries, the parameters are a reasonable person. So if I have an unreasonable expectation that if you sneeze, that violates the code of ethics, that's my subjective belief. But an objective reasonable person would not believe that, then that's your legal standard. And one of the other clauses I added, you'll recall Council Member Perez in early March when we discussed this rule and others, we talked about being alert or aware of cultural biases and guarding against those.

38:34 The way I've crafted this is with the help of other jurisdictions, so I didn't make up the definition in 5.0 out of nowhere. I included it from, I did a survey, maybe that's too strong of a word, but I looked at other cities of comparable size in the state of Washington to come up with this language. And some of the bigger cities included this other clause that says not only does it have to be a reasonable person, but it has to be a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts so I know those just seem like words and they probably seem like mushy words at that, but it actually really tightens up the focus on what appearance of impropriety means. So even if objectively people would think your sneeze violated the code of ethics,

39:32 if they had knowledge of relevant facts that say you're allergic to dust and we just got a new council chambers that's full of it, now we have somebody that the objective standard is more informed by that particular fact. - Okay, thank you, I appreciate that clarification and so what I think is needed is this clarification of a definition of a reasonable person. When you said words, they seemed just like words, but they're really defined I think in some legal terminology to help further tighten that ambiguity. So defining what reasonable person is and then I think there was the next subject that you added to that term. So is there...

40:31 - So much like council members, this is Nina Cook, city attorney again, much like council members Stoeber mentioned earlier, there are, and it sounds like his unfortunate experience with charter review, there are some legal phrases that mean something just based on that phrase. Reasonable person is that phrase. That phrase is used more often or most often in a legal context when there's negligence or if there's an injury to someone. Was that, usually it's the reasonable person standard. Was it reasonable for that person to leave the ladder out in the middle of the hallway so somebody could trip over it? So I guess that's my way of saying it would, I would be hard pressed to find more of a definition of reasonable person because courts just say it over and over, reasonable, as if we know what that means. But it's these other words like the one

41:31 you were referring to earlier with knowledge of the relevant facts. So in law, the term reasonable person means we are using an objective standard of this fictitious reasonable person 'cause who really is, I mean, we'd like to think we are all reasonable. But it's generally what a reasonable person would think as opposed to my subjective standard which could be really off the mark. And then again, guided by whatever that complaint is, that first level of inquiry, because reasonable person is a legal term, the city attorney who's charged with doing that initial review would look into case law that would apply reasonable person in a similar situation.

42:28 So not in a situation where somebody's injured, but in a situation where a council member in another jurisdiction was allegedly engaged in the same behavior and what did that council do or what did that court do? So that's probably as close as we can get to reasonable person as there is. - Okay, thank you. And I know that examples always help if there was a way to be clear on that definition such as you articulated with an example that can help. But the intent in all of this really is to reduce that vulnerability to abuse of the appearance of impropriety. So that's what I'm basing my comments on is how do we reduce that vulnerability of abuse for that?

43:24 But I think that if we clarify the definition as you articulated and use an example, I think that would help. - Any other comments? Councilor Harless. - Just to add on more to that, just, yeah. Adding some definitions would be incredibly helpful. That's a lot of legalese and it is a assumption that councils of the future would take the time to really invest and read through everything, the real due diligence that would be required. And it's a lot of responsibility that isn't always guaranteed. And it's not guaranteed through the way that it's written. So it still gives the option

44:23 for councils of the future or others to potentially misuse for other ulterior motives. It just, because those definitions aren't there, because it's not in layman's terms, it's really reliant that councilors of the future fully understand to that depth. And that's just not a guarantee when it comes to these kinds of decisions in the way that it's written. And so piggybacking off what's kind of been said already, it seems like there's a need for further putting it in simple language. And although these legal definitions have that somewhere else, we need to really make it as easy as possible for councils of the future to truly understand what it is, instead of having to deep dive in that way. - Councilor Fox.

45:21 - Sure, I guess I'm listening to the three previous council members provide thoughts and introspection, but I'm not hearing actual suggestions for changes. And I feel as if this is perhaps not sending any actual direction to staff. I'm not in agreement that we need a definition for a reasonable person. As our city attorney described, that particular term has a lot of legal basis in many places, let alone our own law enforcement, where we have reasonable use of force is another term. Reasonable is used a lot. And I also understand a lot of construction of our legal documents rely a lot on the standard definition found in a dictionary as well. And so I guess before we send this back to staff,

46:20 I'm not hearing an agreement as particular terminology that needs to be further defined, especially after our city attorney explained why we wouldn't be recommended to define the term reasonable person. - Thank you. Councilor Hanson. - I think staff did a great job, but point of clarification, Mayor Pro Tem Fox, to send it back to staff, were you-- - There is not a motion. - Okay, 'cause you said-- - I am not sending it back to staff. No, I'm asking-- - You said. - It sounds as if there's three council members that wanna send it back to staff for additional definitions. And I'm not hearing the specificity of what those definitions are. And so I'm asking for clarification here before this is kicked down the road some more. - Well, then let's put it in the form of a motion. Do we have a motion from the council on item number eight?

47:19 - Move to approve item number eight. - Fox, is there a second? - Hanson. Any further discussion? - This is Diana. Diana Perez. - Just a moment, Councilor. I had Councilor Stover there first. - So one, anybody can come forward and make an allegation, no matter how the definitions are not.

47:57 Anybody can come forward and nothing that we're gonna do is gonna stop somebody from doing that. I am satisfied, I'm maybe not fully satisfied, but I am satisfied with the city attorney's explanation of process in this term, so I'm fine. Thank you. - Councilor Perez. - Just a process check. This is not a discussion to send it back to staff. This is discussion amongst us. So just to clarify, Councilor Fox, we're not asking for action. We're actually discussing what is above us here before us. So every discussion we have isn't just about action. It's about sharing our thoughts on what is here for us to vote on. So my comments were about sharing where I'm at in my thought process on this.

48:56 It's not to send it back or ask for action. So I just wanna clarify that. Secondly is I believe that there should be a definition on reasonable persons, and I believe that there should be an example. And that doesn't mean that because it's not there that I am against it. My thought is that I think it should be included. I appreciate a lot of the work. I think you did a great job articulating and doing the research on this, and it's a better improvement than what we had before. And that doesn't mean that I'm not going to approve it or ask for it to go back. I'm simply sharing my thoughts as a councilor here, ready to make a vote. So thank you for that. And my comments stand as they are. - Any additional comments? Councilor Harless.

49:53 - I would like to propose an amendment for discussion, and looking over the information that's been presented as some ways to fix it, something that has arisen as another possible option to make this policy better. And spoke with Nina, thank you for your time to kind of figure out and go through what's been proposed and all of these definitions and all the things. So I really appreciate your time. But something came up and was that there are other jurisdictions that have ethics commissions. What if we approve as is, but then bring it, have something come back to us and that could be in the form of a sub quorum that comes together, that could be just staff that comes back to us about what do I look like to go to an ethics commission instead

50:50 with appointed public individuals like many other jurisdictions have. So it takes the politicians out of it and brings it to the people to make that decision on what a reasonable person is. And so that is something I would like to propose. - Mayor. - Just a moment, Council. I don't have a motion. - No, I do not have a motion. - She moved to amend, didn't she? - Yeah. - She proposed. Are you putting that in the form of a motion? - Yes. - Please state your motion. - I move to amend the motion to add, I mean, it could be an ethics commission. It could go a number of different ways. So I'd love to, Nina, what those possible options are

51:49 for an amendment if we were going to be, I don't know if that's appropriate right now to amend it to add an ethics commission 'cause they're really an either or thing. I just didn't want this discussion to conclude before being able to have this discussion. - So I still do not have a motion. - Point of clarification. - Yes, Councilor Hanson. - Thank you, Mayor, Council Member Bart Hanson. If just a friendly suggestion might be to say that we would have staff investigate what it would like to come back with a sort of ethics commission. And that would be a form. - Yeah, I'm just not sure how that's an amendment to the motion that's on the table. So I was asking for some assistance. - Mayor. - Yes, Councilor Fox. - Yeah, the way that this particular idea

52:44 would have to move forward would be to have something as far as pointing to a section that we're reviewing tonight and saying that this ethics commission would somehow fit within this policy, which would take some time to develop. So building upon Bart's suggestion tonight would be that this would be something that should be brought back after some work of your fellow council members and staff not worked out on the dais tonight. - So if anything was meant to be an amendment to the motion that is at the table, I do not have a motion.

53:37 I guess it'd be amend the motion to include that staff investigate what having an ethics commission might look like. - Motion fails for a lack of a second. - Point of clarification though, going back to Mayor Pro Tem's point, it would have to tie back to something in the policy itself. So would it be more appropriate to decide on the motion, the original motion, and then to come back and direct staff to do exactly what the council member Harless is trying to achieve in an amendment? - Yes. - Good answer, that was quick. - And if I might elaborate, Council Member Harless and I did have a chance to discuss this earlier.

54:37 So the reasons Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Fox and you and others have mentioned, it's hard to tuck it into this policy. So one thing that she and I discussed is having this policy stand or fail on its own. And then the second thing we discussed is reviewing or researching or looking into the possibility of having an ethics commission. What I recommended with her request of mine was to have a sub quorum of council join me in that work because it would help guide it just like we did with redistricting. We had a sub quorum that looked into the different ways, different jurisdictions did districting, put together a memo for council to consider. So it would be helpful if we have council members and Council Member Harless is obviously interested

55:35 in sharing with me and that research or whatever we would bring back to council on the ethics commission idea. - Thank you, I have a motion and a second that are on the table. Any further discussion about the motion? Hearing none, roll call vote, please. - Council Member Harless. - Aye. - Perez. - Aye. - Fox. - Aye. - Stover. - Aye. - Hanson. - Aye. - Mayor McInerney-Ogle. - Aye, motion passes unanimously. Now, is there an additional motion to be made? - I would like to make a motion that we form a sub quorum to look into creating an ethics commission. - Second. - Motion and a second for the discussion. Councilor Stover.

56:34 - I'll start off. I have a long list of additional commissions I would love to form. And this adds into the very bottom of that. Yeah, there's so many things. I would love a human rights commission. I would love a housing commission. I would love, there's a lot of commissions I've been advocating for for nine years. And this is very bottom on my list. Thank you. - Additional comments. I have a motion as second. All those in favor of the motion as stated, would you please state it, Sarah? - Yes. A motion to create a sub quorum to look into an ethics committee. - Commission. - Thank you. All those in favor say aye.

57:34 - Aye. - Opposed? - Nay. - Motion passes. Thank you. Councilor? - I think what Council Member Diana Perez, I think what Council Member Tystover brought up is a very important piece because it ties into our process across the board and perhaps we can use the opportunity to see where there's some overlap with like the Human Rights Commission and other types of commissions. So maybe Council Member Tystover, if your list of commissions, given your time serving on city council, I think would add information to this effort. I don't want us to lose the opportunity to be smart about the overall list of commissions as we look at improving the overall systems that we have. Perhaps there's an opportunity here.

58:34 Any other comments? - We can look into that, thank you. I will talk with Joy Fowler about the overall context of these other commissions as well. Thank you.

58:54 - Oh sorry, Deputy City Manager Lisa Brandl, apologies. - City Attorney. - Thank you Mayor Nina Cook, City Attorney. I'll work with the City Manager's Office. I understand they are preparing, maybe Deputy City Manager Brandl has more information, a list of priorities for council to consider in terms of resources and staff time. So I'll defer my role, if that's okay with council, to the City Manager's Office to coordinate with Joy Fowler and priorities, if that is acceptable to council. - Yes, thank you very much. All right, that concludes our consent agenda and it brings us into the public hearing. This is a resolution relating to the adoption of the city's Community Development Block Grant, CDBG and Home Investment Partnerships,

59:53 Annual Action Plan for the 2026 program year authorizing the City Manager to execute agreements on behalf of the City of Vancouver, consistent with the CDBG and Home Annual Action Plan providing for severability and effective date. And we have staff, good evening. - Good evening, Samantha Whitley, Housing Programs Manager and I'm joined here tonight with Tasha Slater, Housing Coordinator and Victor Saldana who is our Small Business Program Manager and I believe we have a presentation to share. Thanks, Sarah. So we will talk about tonight our timeline. Oh, where's my slide? Timeline, how the community has participated with the development of the plan, the resources and funding we have available from HUD and how we expect to award it

1:00:49 and what those funding resources will, what outcomes they'll have in the community and then at the end we have a substantial amendment to our 2025 plan that we would also like approval on before we submit all of this to HUD. So our annual timeline, we start every year with a notice of funding availability in October and this is a long lead up to when we actually get the funding which is July 1st. So even though it looks like a short timeline on the slide, you have three months where we have the funding availability we are helping applicants understand the funding and what all of the federal requirements are. We're looking at pre-applications before any applicants spend a lot of time on a full application so we review the pre-applications in November and then we provide feedback to the non-profits and the community partners that are proposing funds,

1:01:47 proposing to receive funds because we wanna make sure that what they're proposing is gonna be eligible and it's gonna meet all of the HUD and federal requirements. So after the pre-applications are reviewed and approved to move forward, they submit a full application which is pretty extensive. I think we have between 15 and 20 questions about their program, their capacity, their other funding sources and so we review these full applications as staff and then we provide feedback on the full application to the applicants because we wanna make sure that they have the strongest application possible before they are reviewed by our committees. So between January and March, we're reviewing these with our committees. We have a specialized housing and social service committee that is made up of people who have a lot of experience in that realm and then Victor's team is made up, we have a business assistance review committee that's specialized in that kind of work,

1:02:46 finance and small business assistance. So we are doing presentations with all the committees. We're doing risk assessments on other applications. We're looking at each agency's capacity, staff turnover, legal issues, their ability to actually meet all these federal requirements and carry out the activity throughout the year. So that is, even though it's represented by two little slides, two little dots up there, it's six months of work to look at these applications and bring them forward into our action plan that we draft and I'll say this, I'm saying as we, this is Tasha, drafted the whole action plan. It's an extensive HUD template document that we shared out. We have to share it for at least 30 days for public comment. So that's been underway this past month and then we bring it forward to you for approval. We have to submit it to HUD by May 15th

1:03:45 because they have 45 days to review it. They'll give us feedback and sometimes ask for adjustments and then that takes that full time before the July 1st program year begins which is not to say that we always get our funds from HUD then but some of our programs can begin based on funding that we have on hand and then it's, yeah, and then the full cycle starts again. So with, I mentioned that we shared out this action plan for public review. We have a extensive email list. We also work with communications. They help us with social media and the press release. It was advertised in the paper. We want as many people as possible to review this plan and give us any feedback. We don't usually get a lot of feedback but we offer infographics and trying to make it easier for people to understand what we're proposing and what we're funding.

1:04:43 So that's part of what we're required to do with HUD and part of what we're happy to do to get people's input. - We'll turn it over to Tasha, thanks. - Okay, Tasha Slater, Senior Housing Planner. In 2026, we have three major funding sources with CDBG which is our Community Development Block Grant. We have an estimated award from HUD for about 1.3 million and then another 350,000 from prior year resources for a total of about 1.7 million. For home funding, we were awarded a little less than 700,000. We are expected to receive about 50,000 in program income

1:05:38 and about 250,000 in prior year resources along with about 213,000 in set asides for community housing development organizations which I'll talk about in a little bit. So that's about 1.2 million for home funds. And then for our home ARP funding, we were awarded about 2.1 million in 2021. Those funds we were given and they must be spent out by September, 2030. And we are spending about five, we will be spending 500,000 of those funds. So the agency is awarded. We were awarding Janus Youth. We are awarding Janus Youth and SHARE. They're each getting 270,000

1:06:35 and we awarded or we're putting aside 5,000 each for implementation for staff time. For our capacity building program, we partner with the Community Foundation of Southwest Washington to work with five organizations in our community. And they're receiving for year two, 250,000. 5,000 of that will be implementation. And then the 500,000 that I talked about with home ARP is going to go to Council for the Homeless for their coordinated outreach program. $200,000 is going to them. 200,000 is going to Outsiders In for their Hope Outreach and Housing Stability Program and Live Levels receive 100,000 for their street outreach. - Good evening, Victor Soldana,

1:07:33 Small Business and Entrepreneurship Program Manager and I am here to talk about our agency awards for the microenterprise. I do believe some of the information for the memo was disseminated fairly late. So I will be here to answer any questions that you might have on that as well. But we have recommended for awards for Business Impact Northwest, Fourth Plain Forward and the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber as they are clearly aligned with our strategies to promote small business and microenterprise programs as well as this year aligned with our five-year economic development strategy to support childcare and construction trades businesses. - Thank you. - Tasha Slater, again, Senior Housing Planner. For Public Services, we are awarding 140,000 to Council for the Homeless.

1:08:33 They'll receive 75,000 for their Dynamic Diversion Program and Foster Full will receive 65,000 for their Heart and Home Services Program. And then there is a Home Ownership Program with Proud Ground where they will receive 250,000 with $5,000 of implementation. We also have some funding set-asides that we set aside each year. We have a Home Ownership Rehab Program that the city and our department run and we are giving $429,500.06 to that program. About 266,000 will be CDBG funds and then 161,000 will be home funds.

1:09:27 We also have a set-aside that HUD requires for us to set aside for at least two years for community housing development organizations. It's a percentage of our entitlement funds. So this year, for 2026, it will be 318,000. We also have 2024 and 2025 a allotted amount set aside. So this year for 2024, since it will be the second year, we will ask for HUD to release those funds so that we can include it into our entitlement. We also are paying for 340,000 for the Section 108 Loan for our Fourth Plain Commons. And for admin, we also have another percentage that we can set aside that HUD allows us to.

1:10:23 And so that will be $345,171. About 275 of that will be, 275,000 will be for CDBG and then about 70,000 will be for home.

1:10:41 Our proposed outcomes with this funding is that 324 people will receive services through our public service programs. 312 people experiencing homelessness will be assisted through our home ARP funding. 45 households will receive rental assistance. 10 homeowners will receive home repairs through our Home Ownership Home Rehab Program. Five community-based organizations will receive technical assistance and capacity building through that program. And then 176 businesses, microenterprise businesses, will receive technical assistance. As Sam mentioned earlier, we also have an action plan amendment to our 2025 action plan. We received cancellation of a program, our public service program with Friends of the Children.

1:11:39 That was $70,800 of CDBG funds. So we ask that that substantial amendment be accepted and then we will reallocate those funds to our 2026 awards. So next step is this public hearing. We are wanting 2026 annual action plan approval, 2025 substantial amendment approval. We will have open public comment until May 14th. And then I will submit our finalized action plan on May 15th to HUD. And then hopefully on July 1st, our funds will become available. Okay, thank you. - Thank you. All right. Sam, just to kick this off, you talk about the committee

1:12:37 that went through the scoring and selection. Could you tell us who's on that committee? - Yeah, we have about 15 people on our housing advisory committee and we'd be happy to provide you with that list. And then Victor's business assistance committee would also be available. - Yeah, Victor Saldana. And we have eight people on the scoring committee. They're made up of small businesses, providers for small business in the city of Vancouver, as well as individuals working with small businesses within the city of Vancouver. And I can provide that list as well. - Yes, I'm aware. But Sam, let's go back to the advisory. Who selected the advisory for the housing advisory team? - We put out a request, an open request a year ago and took in applications for people who are interested. And then our housing team chose the advisory committee. - Okay, thank you. Yes, all right. Councilors, other comments?

1:13:36 Councilor Perez, go ahead. - Thank you, Sam. I have a couple of questions. I was sad to see Southwest Washington Child Care not funded when they are directly adding 10 new child cares versus the other organizations, which I think are doing great, doesn't seem like they're gonna add new child cares. So that was one question I have for you. Do you have a little more information on what child care outcomes the other, the organizations that are funded compared to the loss of 10 or not having 10 new child cares? - Yes, thank you for that, Council Member Perez, Victor Saldana, Small Business Entrepreneurship Program Manager. Although the other programs

1:14:35 don't list specifically child care, I can discuss previous production. So just an example, the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber over their recent CDBG funding have been able to support 10 child care businesses as well as 20 in the construction trades businesses. So although they might not have specific child care within the name of the program, 'cause it is a microenterprise program and that's what they're serving, they do have that support for those businesses as well, both startup as well as established. - Okay. Is there any way to move the 70K or allocate the 70K that you got returned from the cancellation to support the Southwest Washington Child Care Consortium? - So we knew that this, this is Samantha Whitley, we were aware that the 70,000 was canceled last year and we planned that as part of the awards that we put forward already.

1:15:34 - Okay. I'm just finding it hard to not support the Southwest Washington Child Care Consortium which if you look at slide, what's the slide nine? Is it nine? Yeah, slide nine proposed outcomes from these awards. You could put 10 new child cares in deserts, child care deserts and continue to address that whereas it's not clear in the other ones that are funded. So just wanna understand the logic why the Children's Consortium is not being funded when you can address a real child care crisis with 10 new child care centers. - Sure and I can-- - Oh, sorry, Victor. - And just to add to that, I know your advisory committee, were there any child care providers or somebody with that level of experience and knowledge in that so I wanna add that question too.

1:16:34 - And I appreciate that, Council Member Perez. Victor Saldana, small business and entrepreneurship program manager. We do have individuals on the committee that support organizations that start child care and fund child care but not specifically running child care. So that will answer that question. As far as the reason of picking or having the committee choose the organizations that they chose, they chose the ones that would support a broad range of individuals and businesses to make sure that we were staying true to the consolidated plan that was done but also to make sure that child care as well as construction trades, which is one of the five year economic development strategies that we were working on to allow that within that. So not to say that they're not supporting five or 10 or 15, just like even with Fourth Plain Forward,

1:17:33 who's also on here, has supported six in the previous year with their funding. They just don't have specifically a number in there. They do have a larger number of businesses that they're gonna support, whether it be child care, construction trades, as well as the 20,000 other businesses that we have. - Okay, well I think you know where my preference is to ensure that we support the Southwest Washington Child Care Consortium. Councilor Fox? - Sure. Yeah, I'd sent some comments and questions earlier and I was also focusing on really better understanding the criteria for the scoring of these awards. Since we didn't have the criteria to review before this meeting, that is something that I would like. I will be making a motion on this item. I know we still have the actually open,

1:18:31 do we have anyone for opening the public hearing? But we have a public hearing here but there, I will be recommending to my fellow council members that we need more information on this item and one of them is the criteria and the scoring for evaluation of these applications. I do appreciate that staff got back to me. I know I tend to do all my homework on the weekends and so it doesn't give you much time to prepare for Monday. So I do appreciate that. The information you returned to me was information I'd reviewed. It had been sent to us during a weekend or a weekend update by the city manager. But that wasn't really a way for us to give you any advance feedback before this meeting tonight and when I had read it at that time, I had actually talked to the city manager about it as well and so it isn't that, so I don't think any of those concerns got to you

1:19:28 in advance of tonight beyond me reaching out again on Sunday so that is a hole that needs to be fixed as well as far as our communications through the city manager's office and to staff. But it is, I read through the entire action plan and have some comments throughout it and it's not something that I know we wanna walk through tonight so I'd rather share them with staff but they are things around being more prescriptive and here's the conversation part with staff is as I hear you saying that you're linking it to our strategies, our council strategies for business development in the construction trades and in childcare, I'm not seeing that reflected specifically in the plan. It's very general as to what our focus areas are for funding so that might be a strategy of the application

1:20:26 to the federal government but that part I need more understanding around why you wouldn't be more specific. That would also then be reflected in the criteria and the scoring criteria if you're more specific about those particular activities that we wanna fund and then just focusing in on the plan itself. There's also, this is just one item I'll just raise up so that I'm being specific with my fellow council. You mentioned one of the agencies that you reach out to to help develop the plan and you mentioned the Department of Commerce. I work for the Department of Commerce and I thought it was interesting that it seemed and I can't imagine this can be true that you only reach out to the Broadband Office of Commerce when this plan touches on so many other things and the Department of Commerce has units specifically devoted to housing, homelessness,

1:21:24 business development and so I was wondering if there is a need for some more connections within the Department of Commerce and I can help you make some of those connections as well. So I will wait to make a motion obviously till that timeframe. - Thank you, any other comments? So Tasha, it's May 4th, public comment period doesn't end for another 10 days. Why are we talking about it now?

1:21:58 - I do have, so we leave public comment open so that the public is able to send in any comments that they have even after this to get more kind of information and accessible way through this rather than in addition to reading the 45-page document but HUD does require a 30-day comment period. Along, and then it is due by May 15th, if it goes past May 15th, it could delay our funds or their approval to our application. - If what goes past May 15th? - Our submittal to them. - So we could not submit this at the end of May or May 20th? - We could but it would just, it could potentially delay our funds and their approval for--

1:22:58 - Okay, because I believe in previous times we have and it did seem, but as you know, different administration. Counselor, I understand your concern. I guess part of my concern is the community still has another 10 days to send us comments and they don't just send them to you, we get them also. And so I think it's a little bit early. - Lisa, we have a council meeting next week. Counselor Fox, what specifically would you like to see as soon as possible? - I would really like to review the criteria and the scoring for these applications.

1:23:58 I would like to vet that it is indeed reflecting our priorities. I do have some concern that organizations that are not specifically focused on childcare are able to truly support new and emerging and sustaining the childcare businesses that we have in the city. I don't know how strong this application was, so I would hesitate to fully say I am recommending that this organization be added to the list, but I would like to see how these other organizations address this particular aspect of our priorities as well. And as I was hearing tonight, there was some examples of how some of these organizations have had a history of supporting the businesses around construction trades

1:24:57 and childcare, that would be helpful. If those aspects were part of those applications, I'd like to better understand that as well. - City attorney, this just needs one touch. This is not a first reading, second reading. So if we added a public hearing and moved up, item number 10 to next Monday, that makes it the 11th, it still meets all deadlines and it gives us another week of public comments. Okay, any other comment on this before I open up? Go ahead, Councilor Stover. - Thank you, Mayor Tai Stover, City Council. Why isn't the 30 days already closed?

1:25:52 Hi, this is Samantha Whaley. So it's very difficult and takes quite a long time to put all the information in the IDIS system, pull it down, format it and get it published. So when we got the recommendations from the committee in March, we immediately started drafting the action plan. And as soon as we were able to publish it and have it reviewed and ready to go out, was April 15th or April 14th, so that we could have the full 30 days. - And why did we not get the recommendations from the committees until mid-March? - Yeah, I can share with you again, the timeline about all of the review and the back and forth with the different agencies. So even though we open applications in October, it does take us through March to review all of these, as well as the agencies. We do presentations that take about a full day and we wanna give our applicants plenty of time to submit all of their information. We wanna give our review committee plenty of time to review through all of these applications.

1:26:50 It's not just a one day look at the application and put a score in, it takes them several weeks to get through all of them. - Okay, thank you. And why do we not open until October? - Well, I guess because it already is taking us six months. Our caper is in September. So we finish reporting on the prior program year in September and then open the applications in October. It's kind of full year round work. - Is there a way to adjust things so that this doesn't happen in the future? - We could back up the process even further. Another thing that I would say is that it's a little bit frustrating for nonprofits that are planning and submit their requests for funding in October to not be able to see the funding until July, but we could push it back even further.

1:27:47 It seems like we've got to somehow figure out this process 'cause my biggest concern is we have 10 more days. 'Cause we get yelled at all the time for not taking into account public comment. So this does feel uncomfortable. Thank you. Thank you for the work. Appreciate the work. Appreciate what you're doing. Appreciate the goals of the program. And we need more help from you all. Thank you. - I'm gonna go ahead and open the public hearing, but then turn around and close it. I do not have any cards. No one has registered for the public hearing,

1:28:45 but for protocols that is on the record, bring it back to council. Councilors, you have any other discussion? I'll entertain a motion. Councilor Fox. - My motion is that we bring this back to council next week with the information that we've described in our comments and whatever public comment we've received up to that point. - Motion on the table. Is there a second? - Second. - Motion is seconded. Councilor Harless, further discussion. Sam, we have all of this documentation already, right? - Hi, yes, we do. - So this is Monday. You can throw it out there with the agenda and the materials tomorrow. - Sure. - Thank you. Okay.

1:29:44 Lisa will find a time to put an additional public hearing on next Monday's agenda. - Yes, Deputy City Manager Lisa Brandl. Yes, we can do that, mayor and council. - Thank you very much. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. - Aye. - Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, staff. All right. That brings us into communications from the council. Councilor Harless. - Just may the fourth be with you. - Thank you. Councilor Perez. - Yeah, I was hoping to get an answer from somebody in the urban forestry or park planning, but the article about the large trees being removed on Evergreen Highway and our surprised neighborhood area, leaders in the neighborhood. So was there an effort to communicate

1:30:42 with the residents that this was going to take place? I mean, the surprise factor is the bad feeling here, and I just wanted to know if there was an effort to work with the residents there. - Councilor Perez, Deputy City Manager Lisa Brandl. I can ask urban forestry about that and provide the information to council. - Okay, yes, I think it was quite a surprise to learn about that in the article, and it just felt like our residents were also surprised to see these. Here we are trying to protect our large trees with the mission of that and our large white oaks and such, and I know that every time large trees are going to be cut because of feasibility or whatever, we always hear from the public, so we should know by now

1:31:39 that whenever we're going to cut any trees, we should communicate with the public and our residents, and at least for us to be aware that that's gonna take place. Also, just wanted to thank Samantha, oh, she left. Last week, I attended a webinar series on expanding access to home ownership, history solutions and resources, and speakers were the Department of Commerce and the Washington Home Ownership Resource Center, so I was glad to hear how Samantha was able to add those resources onto our city website for folks and the public to be able to access them easily, so thank you to Samantha for participating in that. And that is it. I'm sure there's more, but that's good for now. - Okay, thank you. Councilor Hanson? - Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Bart Hanson,

1:32:39 wanted to thank all the folks that emailed me about the closure on the waterfront for the street on May 2nd. Sarah, thanks for getting all those to us. I thought that was very interesting that we did receive those emails, and I always love it when we do that as a city. It really sends a message to the pedestrians that are going down there to visit the park and utilize the services that we really care about your safety, and it adds so much more space that's needed, especially when we have big events down there, so thank you to those who sent those emails out. - Councilor Stauber. - Thank you, Mayor, Council Member Ty Stauber. Maybe stealing thunder, but there was recently a big military event, and somebody else can talk about that, I think, or was already talked about, but on Friday morning, joined the mayor at CMAQ,

1:33:38 Community Military Appreciation Committee, and was really struck by a ceremony that took place by an organization called Quilts of Valor, where they presented a quilt to Terry Brown, who served our country in the armed services, but then continues to serve, and it just, I was struck because we are, we have a history of being a military community, and have that strong tradition, and with the base closed, sometimes it's easy to forget that that exists, and that these great military veterans continue to serve our community today, and so it was just a really special experience,

1:34:38 and thank you to Terry Brown, and to Quilts of the Valor, thank you. - Councilor Fox. - Sure, just wanted to say that this week, we have our Children's Justice Center board meeting on Thursday, and so I'll come back to you on Monday, and let you know the things that we've discussed at that meeting, but also wanted to share just kind of, I guess, a personal privilege. I had the opportunity to attend two professional women's sports events over the last week, and it just struck me, I mean, in my lifetime, how, I guess, how much women's sports has grown, but I was at a Thorns game last, I think it was last Thursday night, and just outstanding, and then Sunday, there was a pre-season game for the women's, our women's, well, our, we're calling them ours 'cause they're just across the river,

1:35:38 but the Portland Fire women's professional basketball team, so just amazing crowds that show up for these events in Portland. I feel like every time they talk about the way Portland supports the professional women athletes, it's humbling, and it makes me very proud, so I'm just putting a shout out there that I know that many of the folks that are in the audiences are also just coming across the river like me, so I know there's probably half the crowds from Vancouver, and I'm just gonna claim it, so thank you. - Good job. Councilor Harless and I attended a housing conversation with Hector Hinojosa, and three senators, Monica Stoner, Sharon Wiley, to discuss eviction processes, and particular RCW's 59.18 something or other.

1:36:36 It was an interesting conversation about how many evictions we have going on in Clark County right now, and the lack of process and defense attorneys for them, but there are some wonderful strategies that were discussed. We just need to send our senators and representatives back up to Olympia to clean up a couple RCW's to make it more viable. This Saturday, we have Spruce the Coop happening, so we'll be out cleaning downtown, uptown Main Street, and all the way around, and I think we still have a multicultural festival on 4th Plain from 10 to two, so I'm looking forward to it. I believe it's at Hudson's Bay, but I am not finding it on any of our information, so Ms. Dollar, if you find a flyer or such,

1:37:34 I know things can get lost in the mails, would you send that out to council and we'll make sure it's on our community calendar, okay? Thank you so very much. City manager, deputy city manager, Lisa Brandl, do you have any comments? - No, mayor, thank you. - City attorney. - Nothing more for legal tonight, mayor. Thank you. - Thank you very much. That concludes the business form of the city council. We now go into our community forum, and this is where we have the opportunity to talk to individuals about anything that's on their mind. We audio record it, but not video record it, so let's go ahead and turn off CVTV.

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