Overview
Meeting date: January 7, 2026
Included portion: Starting at 5:31 PM (local time) - meeting start
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial transcript provided by a private citizen as a courtesy. It may contain errors, including misheard or misunderstood words. Please refer to the City’s official video/audio, minutes, and other official public records for accuracy.
5:31:13 PM - And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all these have local.
5:31:40 PM - Present.
5:31:42 PM - Here city three moon.
5:31:58 PM - Here. That is the COVID.
5:32:07 PM - Does it are normally our city court on local?
5:32:19 PM - And what is that? I thought you're probably already aware because she probably called, but she typically doesn't take care of the intake portions of it or two minutes or like that. And she doesn't send the table. So she doesn't participate, so she's supposed to be showing up today as a citizen. Actually, in her job description, it shows that she's supposed to be here for these meetings, if I'm correct. And be paid.
5:33:03 PM - So as of now, that's yeah. So you're changing your job description, you're removing her without consulting counsel, is that what you're saying? No. No, this has already been uh looked over to our city attorney and it is 100% off. And we weren't notified that you're changing her job description.
5:33:22 PM - Again, I don't understand uh your you're trying to motivate me to say something I'm not going to say. I'm just asking her an answer because that's in her job description that she's supposed to be here. So when did this change and when was it approved? We did not change the job description.
5:33:33 PM - Well then that would mean that she would be on roll call, even though she might not have a report, she's supposed to be on there and be paid for being there. According to the CDA and according to the city attorney, it she doesn't need to be at the table or to the doing reports.
5:33:48 PM - Joey's the one that does the reporting here and does the endings. Okay, but that still doesn't answer my question. Why in her job description it puts that she's supposed to be here?
5:34:12 PM - I just listened to this. Um Julie.
5:34:18 PM - If you can explain, uh Mrs. Person here, she has tried to figure out why poll is no longer at the you know being paid or at the table right here. And so she has some questions regarding her job description.
5:34:32 PM - I don't have her job description in front of me. Um and my only comment on it with you was if she's not being directed by you to be there, and or isn't providing a staff report, then there's no reason to be paid for a meeting. Now I will say traditionally in a city the clerk is the person that reports the meeting, but because Jody does the meeting reporting, um it's not clear that she needs to do that. But I don't have the job description in front of me, and that was my point of view was if it is included in her descriptions and maybe to talk to her further about whether she has a responsibility and needs. Yeah, that was actually in her job description, Julie. That's why I asked the question.
5:35:21 PM - So who uh otherwise would represent the financial aspect of her meeting?
5:35:35 PM - This is nothing it's nothing personal to anybody. It's just if a city staff person doesn't have a a role at a meeting, they shouldn't be required to attend a meeting. I was asked not to come as a state question that I put them as the residents because I was destructive when I was talking to you. That's the reason.
5:36:02 PM - All right.
5:36:09 PM - No, I think my question was answered. Thank you.
5:36:15 PM - On to the consent agenda, um, I have here if we can add to new business, uh actually we'll be bringing that back to old business, would be um creating a tourism development committee.
5:36:41 PM - You want to add that? Yeah. You need a motion? Yes. I'll make the motion to add it.
5:37:32 PM - Alright, we're gonna move on to Mayor's message here.
5:37:37 PM - We had a meeting this actually was it yesterday with the uh Purple Sage.
5:37:45 PM - Monday. Yeah. Monday we had a meeting with Purple Sage, myself, uh Public Works Director, Mr. Wookiee with GMO of the engineers, as well as our city attorney Julie Norton and Purple Sage Development Team. We want to uh they you know the confirm if there is a new uh representation for the developer, a discussion of uh moving forward with their development. We're changing the aspect of the development to go uh subdivision application. Um they're gonna move towards a stick bill for the city. In a couple weeks, we're gonna be meeting up and discussing uh infrastructure waters to work to make sure that the needs fit the city as well as the developer. So it's gonna be really good. Um if there's any concerns that we're gonna address them, everyone's doing it collective, uh not just uh myself and the developer. It will always be the city attorney and the collective. And uh the things that we do come up with, we're hoping that after they do submit those information that we can come after this next meeting to another council meeting and have them do a presentation on more of an open form to the public, which should be right.
5:38:57 PM - I've also been working uh preparing the local update for the census uh to address for 2030. Um also creating uh updates for the uh VL list, the 911 E911 list, as well as the uh urban growth area management too. Um working on right now, too, with the Grant County is the periodic grant updates, which the deadline is the 23rd. So we're gonna hope that's almost finished, which is the 100,000 dollar grant that we'll be able to get. And I'll bring that to you for the next council meeting so you can approve it.
5:39:32 PM - Um also maybe a discussion of council onboarding to create a procedure so when you come in, you have the ability to we'll set you up a class, we'll get your books and everything like that with AWC. I'll get a hold of here shortly to have you come to the city hall. I'll get you logged in, show you how to navigate through it. There is one coming up here soon, it's online phase. Um they will have um ones in person. I recommend in person more because you have it's more of an impact when we have physical people there because there's more interactions, there's team building exercise and everything. But I will give you the handbook, I'll give you this one. Um it's all over. It could be a Wanatchie, it could be a Spokane, could be a Lacey, so anywhere, but the one online obviously you can log in and do it remote. But I will get that and I'll get a packet set up, AWC's set it up for us so we can do onboarding. And then I recommend every council member doing as a refresher if they haven't done in a year or two, because new laws and stuff like that have changed.
5:40:34 PM - We move out to until the mirror's message right now. Uh move on to uh reports and city officers. We'll start here with uh public works director Vilnar.
5:40:49 PM - We had a lot of guys on uh time off. They were able to spend some time with their family over the holidays, so that was good. Um so we need to get everything. We didn't get as much now as we normally do. Um Brian and I work pretty extensively on again maintenance schedule set up for the plant. Um the Department of Ecology requires that we have a schedule set up for all the equipment when it's maintenance and how it's maintenance. Um we started repairs on the West Beach bathrooms. There were some water damage in the walls. We continue on vehicle repairs, we're rewinding a tank and the one of the jet trucks that we have uh
5:41:32 PM - The generator to plant went down last week. Our emergency generator, uh the guys caught out, that was repaired, it's back up and going. Uh we had lowered uh manhole cover on 17 and third today. The state was having a problem with it hitting snow plows. Um so we got that lowered. Uh we're gonna start probably next week taking down Christmas lights. We've got the tables, all the tables from the parks up at the plant, and we'll start refinishing those for next summer. Uh the dog kennel, we're gonna start on it. I think the guys are gonna take the roof off it tomorrow. And uh Pat did some work. The mayor got a step $10,000 grant from the Humane Society to redo it. And then uh Pat went down a couple weeks ago and talked to the manager of Marson and Martin, and he actually gave us the materials to redo the roof on it at 50% off.
5:42:34 PM - So that was a substantial savings, and then um as weather permits, we'll get back in the dog park and start trying to get some of the stumps and stuff out from the along the fence line.
5:42:47 PM - Move on lower to uh
5:42:51 PM - when the weather's better, were you talking about striking for the crosswalk out here in front? Well, they went like spring or something. Yeah, I have to make spring. Yeah, I I mentioned that I thought that was in the works, and then I thought maybe I'll speak it out of turns I want to.
5:43:09 PM - Um the fire chief's not here, so I'll remind everybody change your batteries in your smoke alarms. It's the first year. If you don't have smoke alarms, get some.
5:43:22 PM - Officer Smith, who's in the meeting tonight, has his last two check graded weeks and then he'll be on his own. Uh big kudos to the public words for getting our oil changes.
5:43:32 PM - Batteries change down and breaks that saves the city a lot of money and labor costs.
5:43:40 PM - We've been talking about soapbox dirty did that up in Brennan. And I gave you office sheet for the month of December. It shows that we had 113 calls for service for the month of December. Eight of them were dog calls with three citations to the dog owners. Arrest and arrests for custody and citations, we had 29. One DUI and one accident. And there's a breakdown of all the tickets for the month. 94 traffic stops, 12 assists with the county, six assists with the Brady's Police Department, and one assist for EMS Empire. Thank you.
5:44:36 PM - A link that will show the financial reports to the public so that everyone will have full access to it. So if you have questions about staff reports and stuff like that, I know some people in the city have said, hey, you know, we don't know what's on the agenda. So that will be posted on the main city's website. We'll have a link so when the agenda goes out. If there's a staff report for the financials and stuff like that, I'll get that posted for you. So you'll see the optional numbers updated every month. So the current right here, the uh City of Soakley compliance with the 2025 fiscal year is a solid uh financial position as of December 31st, 2025. The total adjusted fund balance across all operating accounts were each one, eight hundred and seventy-three thousand four hundred twenty dollars and nineteen cents.
5:45:32 PM - This report this report provides a comprehensive overview of the city's financial status, um, fund performances and cash position and documents documented in the drafted 2025 year end. The precision report and treasury um December as of December 2025 report. Key highlights right now is the total city funds is one million eight hundred and seventy-three thousand four hundred dollars and nineteen cents. Adjusting and uh ending balance at this as of December 31st. General fund balance is 175,895.02 cents.
5:46:18 PM - 2025 revenue look at 10,316,371 dollars and sixty-eight cents. That's 103.2% of the budget revenue. 2025 uh total expenditures eight million eight nine eight million five hundred and twenty thousand nine hundred and ninety-two dollars and seventy-two cents. That's 107.27% of the budget expenditures. We do see that this next year there's gonna be some dropping down, obviously, because this year we have a lot of expenditures going out, a lot of things have to be repaired, but this year we're gonna be we should be doing a lot better. Obviously, we're gonna be doing a lot better in last year. Um the rest of the stuff, the reports still like that. You do have in your packet. I will be posting this online. Um, so every week I tomorrow it'll be online posted on the city's main website on the main page.
5:47:11 PM - Absolutely. So it's uh our two hundred two thousand twenty-five budget position um for fund revenues for the legislative, it's
5:47:36 PM - Yeah, so it happens at the beginning of the year, at the end of each year, that number will match the beginning of the next year. And then they cancel themselves out, so you have to start. So you basically you spend all your revenue, that's your not that's your number. And then you start that next year with that same number and you bring it back down again. So you'll see the number repeat itself. You'll see it repeat on top, and you'll receive it, um, also see it again at the bottom. Okay. We have that form, um, the full express spreadsheet that Mr. Ballanton had up in the forum. So you'll see it everybody getting it every year. Everybody getting it every year. Right. But what my question is is for um hundred, so it's 511604601 for insurance. The mount budget is 19,160 and one cent. And the revenues were 12,180.60, 7 cents. And then under 5.3104601, but it's also it's under executive, one's under executive and one's under legislative. That's really there's two portions that the funds we draw from. Um you can pull, you'll be pulling from the same funds to pay for something, uh-huh, but they they are separate according to our budget that we have. So those numbers we just see in purpose, they're gonna be put together. Okay. So if you pull a revenue state larger sewer, if he has a job that he's doing, then those funds we pull from several different things. Like we're gonna pull some off street, we're gonna pull some off of the park cities down there, water or sewer, depending on where they work from. Yeah, it just was curious since they're the equal, the exact equal amount, like that. That made me think that perhaps there was a part of the general fund that got split for insurance and it got posted to um the executive and the legislative, so it wasn't clear. Yeah, it'll so the insurance, the legislation portion too. So you guys actually we have to pay council members insurance well, as a mayor's insurance too, through you know, being through that council. Um and so those portions still come out of the legislation part two as well. Well, I'll do is I'll get that spread Excel sheet and I can I'll take screen captures of it and I'll put it online, but maybe I can sit down with you and I'll open up the graph so I can go through it with you. Yeah, no, it's just when I see numbers that are the same in two different bodies, it's kind of like to be set an error. I'm sure it's not an error because I know we went over this.
5:49:34 PM - All right, we're gonna move on to reports and standing the special committees. Uh lake nation committee, would you like to start first?
5:49:48 PM - Um Friday in this month. Um but I will say that we are still in the process of uh collecting data from the Quincy Irrigation District and data that uh they may have not only collected when they collect uh um take their collection from the lake um but also whether or not they have um detailed uh information about what the minerals would indicate in over time. So uh one perhaps you'll hear me do an ans when I have the data. We are sending all of you.
5:50:41 PM - Um the conservancy um is um posting online the conservative conservancy is the website is the lake.org. Um all of this data that we are collecting, uh both from the Department of Ecology and Spokane, um, if some of you were here for that event. And the city is also requesting information too, because uh it has a heritage portion of it for the city as well as protecting our lake. So I have joined with uh council member to also request the same items too for the city because the heritage portion of it protect our you know our lake and our healing water, so I think that'll be appropriate. So we will be um
5:51:31 PM - having data on the city's website as well as the Conservancy's website.
5:51:43 PM - We have a volunteer who is very skilled at websites and uploading things. But she's also very busy so we'll see. We don't take her. None of us will take. Okay. All right. That's it. Thank you. Thank you.
5:52:03 PM - We wrapping up getting our final logo. It's pretty cool. I can't wait to show it to you that I don't have anything to prepare for this evening. I do have a question from public comment last time and it relates to that. The um was answered by used regarding the word marks or something should you're cure for the ordinary needs permission to be used and she questioned who is giving permission. Remember back back to the put in the next agenda go at the group that you like. Okay. Yeah so
5:52:48 PM - we'll move on to uh chamber of commerce public chamber
5:52:57 PM - um anything from here over
5:53:07 PM - all right we'll move on to uh public comment if you'd like to have a public comment please get up to the podium say your name and address
5:53:29 PM - and today I try to
5:53:31 PM - Get a whole uh and send a public comment, a question through um the address that's located on um your public site uh about today's meeting and it would not accept it. And which portion that was?
5:53:51 PM - Do you know the link or what email that was by a chance? Oh yeah, I can look right at it. Um so let's go back. Um I had to get a hold of Susan because it wasn't just once, it was more than that. But uh what is on there? The HTPPS W W Subflake.gov contact studio so flake. Wouldn't go through. Um I'm able to get a hold of people with the state and the government all the time. She gave me Joji's address, I tried that, that kicked back, I printed everything, I didn't bring it with me because I don't think I need to. Um but I wanted to ask what the progress was of the Passport Center um that you have going on. Um if it is come to fruition, when it's gonna be um those type of things. So I'm obviously not gonna get an answer tonight. Um
5:54:58 PM - yeah, I don't want to get up there and talk every time. I to be honest with you, this back and forth stuff, once again. Personally I'm tired of it. You have good public work. I know you're all doing good things. Figure it out. It's getting old.
5:55:15 PM - Thank you. Yeah, I'll if I can meet with you after I can go over that link if you'd like, and then we can take care of that and create for the records you have your name and address. I should have acknowledged that. Okay.
5:55:32 PM - Yeah, but that's not a good idea. I'm opening that right now, yeah.
5:55:41 PM - Um another addition to the uh library. We have a display of the library now of 13 the posters of the 13 pieces of art located in our public schools. They belong to the Arts and Public Places uh collection owned by this date in conjunction with the school tier. And so take advantage of that. There uh there's a little description, uh, you know, there's a photo of the artwork and a description of the artist and some work uh description to have to put this out there. Um the other thing is um some of the store friends in town are allowing us to showcase art, and um Carl Erickson has been very generous with his free window sale next to the James building. Um it's late at night and he's been very gracious about letting us continue to use that space. Right now there's some um pieces there done by Angela Green, who was part of this community for many years and so enjoy those. Um we've got other people lining up to do that in the future as well. So excuse me. And I want to thank uh you also for removing that dumpster that's been sitting down here for so long and look pretty depreciated. So I'm glad that's on. And um I think that's it. Oh, maybe think about the irrigation because that's coming from thank you.
5:57:17 PM - Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment?
5:57:32 PM - Anyway, once ago I was talking to you.
5:57:38 PM - I was talking to the student cars about a month ago where I can forth. And at the time I didn't realize I suggested her, why can't you guys just talk with amongst yourself before getting to the meeting?
5:57:52 PM - She'd take you guys for it, but come to find out I didn't know at the time, but I do now that's a legal called serial meeting. And the three of you guys I feel happened for the last two meetings for the simple fact the way some of this stuff went through really bam, bam, bam, bam, really fast with you guys weren't even answering the questions the way you guys were looking at each other and talking with each other. It made it feel like a s serial meeting. Which, you know, you guys can't do that, but figure it. You guys are gonna have the ability to go after the mayor and uh employees because of your position. You guys gotta also live right now. And you guys weren't.
5:58:35 PM - No, you weren't in my turn a bit in because I still have the text between me and you see you were doing this. So that to me is good enough to take it to the court and let the courts figure it out. If they say no harm, we'll tell, no harm, no tell. I wish you guys could work it out. Well if not me, you're gonna sit here and take the head more like home you know I that's bullshit. And that's that's the second time you broke your oath. You guys are starting right here up too.
5:59:04 PM - Thank you.
5:59:30 PM - That do come up to the podium are respectful. Council is respectful and we are respectful to them as well. Um so we try to limit the interaction between both of them. Alright, we're gonna move on to uh old business, the appointment of the board member to the GTA for 2026.
5:59:53 PM - You have the interest uh of sitting on the board for GTA and went to the last meeting, they said you gave them a couple calls, so yeah, there's you were showing that interest then you have the biggest thing that I've had was my city computer that I have for six months today was the first time I've been able to actually walk onto it. And that's the uh that's the old lab, right? The from the position. Yes, yes. And so we spent today we're the entire day going through six months of city emails and trying to make heads or tails, and I I let Jody know as well. But um, yeah, I I've got an interest in it. Um I know you said you wanted me to participate. Um it kind of goes hand in hand with what I do. You know, I I work in transportation, so I I definitely would like to express my interest to sitting on the board. Um, make sure you're playable with it so you can handle some more pressing matters. They actually created an executive board, so I'll be still there with you, but now I'm glad you want to participate, but I do appreciate that they have the other person lead down in uh in your freeda, so they're they're looking to have the motivation for that too as well. So it'll be good to have two of us out there. That's good. So we have council have a motion to uh appoint uh Mr. Arnold there to the GTA board. Yeah, I I make a motion to approve uh Andrew Arnold to the GTA board. Yeah, second. Sorry. All in favor? All in favor? Thank you. And I'll get you set up in all the emails and stuff like that, so they'd start with you know, talking to you and let me know what's going on.
6:01:31 PM - Right now we're going to move on to item B here, the discussion of the new position of employment for city planner, and we're going to put this over to Mr. Carlson.
6:01:40 PM - Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I uh asked for this agenda item to be uh put on tonight's agenda, um, which is basically a poll from our last meeting. Um I'm gonna I put together a kind of short statement here that I'll read that way I don't forget.
6:02:05 PM - At the last council meeting, council considered two job descriptions for approval. The first description was a part-time position for the senior city planner with a salary range of $70,000 to $80,000 per year, and full-time assistant planner with a salary range of $70 to $80,000 per year.
6:02:30 PM - Closing this discussion, it was decided the council would table this until the union can review these issues.
6:02:39 PM - I've met with the mayor a couple of times this week, so I could uh get the latest status about the union's review and any other developments that I could share with the council. As of this afternoon, these job descriptions have been under the review of our attorney, Julie Norton. After our Julie completes our review, the job descriptions get forwarded to the union for every interest in these new proposed positions is my opposition against them. I feel that for a city the size of Silk Lake, these positions would be better served by contracting a planning service. I feel that hiring these positions at a component cost of over 200,000 per year, including benefits and taxes.
6:03:30 PM - is money that should be saved or pay help pay for the approved city administrator finance director position that a council has has approved at salary range of 135 to 155 thousand dollars or just under 200,000 dollars including benefits and taxes.
6:03:52 PM - I propose that to council that we contract with a new planning agency for the balance of 2026 and monitor the performance of this new contractor council can have another look at adding these positions that the planning agency rather than working we can readdress this at close of 2026 so um I'm asking to um let's close this discussion until the opener for discussion.
6:04:26 PM - Jody didn't we approve that job description for that position we approved it in the budget but didn't we approve that when we approved the other position and it was all just pending review for the job descriptions I got my information from
6:04:57 PM - you approved the city administrator finance director job and tabled the other two so the council
6:05:21 PM - well my concern is that
6:05:29 PM - We need to definitely get better representation than we've had because it's been that that was uh informing us of some of our decision making. Uh we didn't feel like we were getting any satisfaction at all from Moses Lake, and so the idea of a full-time planner was appealing. And to me it still is, but um that was why we went in that direction. And I also think we need to consider that we have some major projects in the wings, ready for development or getting ready for development that are gonna involve a lot of planning decisions. We also have the car plan to finish, and we also are hopefully gonna have lots of building permits and that sort of thing that needs to be managed. So that to me suggests intel.
6:06:17 PM - So just that
6:06:24 PM - I would agree with that. Um I know the people building in our builders here in town have been complaining that they can't walk into City Hall and be able to talk to a planner. They've tried to get a hold of Moses Lake, they lose a slake planner is dropping fall left and right. Um we with the growth and the developments that are gonna be going in here, we need someone who is physically there, it's already grouping the budget, they can go ahead and when we have the different builders of developments or meetings with purple sage and want keeping us out of trouble with that. We need to have someone who's actually here and here for us. We didn't go with a full-time position, we went with a part-time position, but the department head for that. That person would also be the building department and the head of the assistant planner code enforcement person, which would also help us because.
6:07:29 PM - The public is constantly competing complaining about a lot of stuff that has to do with people and conditions and people doing a bunch of legal stuff and things like that. This would allow for that other position, which would not necessarily have to be a union position because building departments don't always have to be union positions. But with the senior planner, it makes it so the senior department senior planner would be reviewing everything. It would also make it so Tanya is not the go-to person walking in and having to try to figure this stuff out and fielding all these phone calls from developers and all these upset people. And that was part of the agreement during our budget meeting about the fact if we had that that would take that off of Tanya's plate because she's a valued employee in this town. She does our utility building, and it's a very difficult situation. And a lot of time is spent rather than dealing with that. She's having to deal with stuff that she's not only not trained for legally not trained for and licensed and insured for, it would just make it so any of you that have a question of line mod adjustment or whatever, they would be able to go ahead and walk in that office because that person would be there between those hours constantly, and it wouldn't be this local gotta wait for that contractor, and when they get back to them, and it could be a week, could be two weeks. You know, we need consistency. If we're going to grow as a community, we need to start treating this like a business and make it so it's friendly for building and contractors to be here. I mean, we have the big development, not just purple sets. We have McCays going, we have this other one going in, the huge one up behind the hotel. We've got other stuff. We have other builders buying properties right now that have more than just onesie twosy houses. And we need a professional who's licensed, bonded insured, who can go ahead and has the skills and knowledge to represent the city so we avoid any future.
6:09:29 PM - Litigations. So that's just my two cents.
6:09:33 PM - I don't know if if you don't mind. So Mr. Carlson here, he had the ability to come in and have a sit down with Mia Tanya to show you know her opinion of audio and stuff like that. We first started Moses Lake, some of the things it was a rough patch. 100% rough patch. Obviously, if we didn't have things that are our ducks in a roll on we give them our we give Moses Lake our cuts, now both of our ducks are not enrolled. So we did they did hire a new person. So things are hatching out a little better than they did before. Obviously, they're not up to speed where we want them. Um by you know, Tanya does feel comfortable still doing the job that she's doing, intake. The other stuff, yeah, she should be responsible for doing that, and the goal is to remove that off and replace that extra stress. Um but we I have taught and met with many other consulting firms that oh, we'll need to come in and do the job. I'm collecting that speed with four right now. I have another meeting tomorrow when I compile all the information. I'll bring it to the council and have a couple come do a presentation for you to show what they offer. They do work in this area daily. Um size that we have right now, regardless of uh you know what people might think well we need an off you know on call person. They might be busy two days a week. They can be on call whenever we need them for planning, or even like you know, as far as you know, the the GMA, all that stuff or planning. Um they they do work in uh E Freight as well to get their things for the end of the year if that was, you know, so to have someone here at all time, one our facility's not set up for it, where are we gonna put them? Um we need to get me out of that building quickly somewhere else so the girls can have a larger break room. Right now they have the common area and a kitchenette. But by hiring a contractor, then you have the ability to use not just that one person but the agency. You have more than one person that you're dealing with, opposed to one person to rely on. Um
6:11:29 PM - Yeah, that's a good. The issue that I have with, I I I do agree with Haley and Susan on the in the aspect of it. I I I believe we have this for quite a while when he retired, correct? And my concern is I've been here, we raised my daughter here. Um she's 20 now. We've seen substantial growth in soap like especially over the last 10 years. I I feel if it is in the budget and we budgeted for it, at least a part-time, you know, these contractors should be able to get a hold of somebody no matter what, rather it's Wednesday through Friday or Monday through Wednesday, because there's substantial growth in soaplake. And to me, I see a lot of things that kind of get pushed to the wayside where I feel if we had that position filled here, you've got somebody running around, they're doing the inspections, they're they're they're holding these contractors accountable. Because you know, I saw up the street on Fit where a couple houses were put in and they trenched across the road and they fixed it. Whereas it was like three months later and developed a sinkhole. If we had the person on staff that was going out and making sure that this stuff was fixed properly, I feel like our our city department wouldn't be chasing their channels. So I I mean in that aspect, I agree, especially with the growth, especially with the developments, having somebody here that's dedicated to that, instead of having a firm from elsewhere where the ball can continue to get dropped and pushed off to somebody else, because it seems like that seems to be what happens here a lot. I appreciate that.
6:13:06 PM - So we have a planner before, and then we oh Daryl Pheasant. So Darrell Pheasant has worked for the county. And he speaks, yeah, here's the and then so.
6:13:28 PM - He also recommended the same thing. We need to hire an agent because then you're not really relying on one person. It would be great to have one person here all the time. Everyone wants that. But you're not buying just the one person. You want all of their agency. You want all their assets, all their resources, 100%. And that person can still be here two, three days a week. That's not a problem. And to have the cluster of, you know, the fact that something comes up where they're out doing something, another agency or another agent from their agency could be on the other side of town, going over the plans for Stephen's uh, you know, assets up here that's building the public works and the chief of police, as well as a developer from Wenatchi, went up there, we did a full walk around that entire ground with everyone. So that's gonna be really nice for the city if we're talking about even you know continuing that road up. Um we're doing another meeting here soon too, aren't we? I think we are in a couple weeks.
6:14:22 PM - Yeah, yeah. So they have a firm too that they deal with. So if we have a firm here, I'm just saying if you gave them one year, what are you gonna lose? They're already familiar with our area, they already take care of Efreda, they take Fred Quincy, they take care of East Winathe too as well. They have our code, they know it. So they're familiar, so they can be here and then take care of everything as we need it. And if they yeah, yes, we have um, you know, what we're looking at is hiring a position for 200,000 a year. Um yeah, two positions for 200,000 a year. And um, once that that position's hired, uh yes, we're in it for as long as we let them go. So I mean, once they're hired, it's it's um it's pretty much they're there for life, I guess. Um that's one of the reasons why I like to see us um try this contractor thing uh for a year and see if we can make it work. You know, the big, I I guess the biggest rub here was the fact that we contracted with Moses Way, um, and we're still contracting with Moses Lake.
6:15:28 PM - They're not responsive to us.
6:15:32 PM - And they have that that's caused builders to go to City Hall, ask questions that they can't answer because it's in the hands of Moses Lake planning.
6:15:37 PM - And and it's it's it has not been affected.
6:15:43 PM - So Eli, Tanya, Peter, they all went to Moses Lake. They visited, they talked about talk about the concerns. They talked about the lack of communication, tried to come up with solutions for that, which includes getting their city manager involved to help with this communication problem.
6:16:11 PM - So we're gonna see some improvement there. I talked to Tanya this afternoon.
6:16:20 PM - She says that they're still having problems.
6:16:23 PM - Peter's now heavily involved though. And as well as our turn, using her as well to um so they understand the seriousness of our needs.
6:16:38 PM - As a long-term solution, Moses Lake is not it.
6:16:42 PM - But Peter's reached out to four different agencies. He's been interviewing them. We have apparently our attorney has resources as well for contacts that we need to explore.
6:16:59 PM - I think we really need to hold back from this $2,000 or $200,000 investment.
6:17:08 PM - Find the right contractor, planning agency, work with them to make this a success. And I think we can do that.
6:17:18 PM - After a year, if it doesn't if a whole thing's falling apart, then let's shift gears and leave a goal different path. But anyway, that's my position.
6:17:34 PM - You know, I have a lot of experience working with with smaller cities like yours and hiring a full-time planner would be a unique situation for a city of your size. My what we usually see is you have a clerk position that is a permit tech that will do all the intake of of documents and be the point of contact for anyone that comes in that will be responsible for either scheduling inspections if you have a separate building inspector and or sending them to your planning agency um who likely works with multiple other cities and has the capacity to do your work. So I think there's been some breakdown in that process, but I think this city would would be in a good position if they explored that a little bit more, whether it's Moses Blake is providing the site or somebody else. I do know their new planner, Nate Pate. Um he's from the East Ranch Human Authority area. I've worked with him before. He's pretty reliable. Um it just depends on what Moses Lake also has going on, but we have contacts for other planning agencies. But I think you're right, you need a hybrid of a person in the office who can intake the paperwork, but I think your money ahead if you are outsourcing your actual planning functions to contract agency. And that's how you've always said Daryl was contract, Alex was contract, um and I think you you we just need to find the right contractor.
6:19:05 PM - I agree with um the basic premise then that you wanted quite well.
6:19:15 PM - Um listening to Julie and what I've heard Peter, the mayor say, um uh Julie the attorney. Would you offer it?
6:19:28 PM - Um I think we need to slow down and allow ourselves to be able to evaluate how things are going and what the problems are and be able to move forward before we spend the 200 commit to a $200,000 plus
6:19:59 PM - budget. And we have to understand that this amount of money was added because the I mean I voted against it, these two positions, but um where we are now because they are on the budget.
6:20:19 PM - Um I think we need to slow down and see and evaluate and move with what the attorney has suggested and John has laid out pretty clearly. Um I think probably the worst portions of it with Moses laid from us is our codes are a little different. So if we're having a little pushback between a BLA or November law adjustment or a short plot. So basically we have a the city party that has that background of land management stuff like that. So like hey, these things should be happening this way. So they're coming around. So it is a little heavy, but it's doable for now. And I want to add, because this was a point I wanted to make that we are starting out with a new girl was with us for a number of years. And and we need to evaluate how it works for us.
6:21:22 PM - And that takes time and patience and
6:21:36 PM - I apologize. Yeah, so what we're losing sight on this is for one city council meeting, City of Moses Lake made it perfectly clear that was just gonna be a temporary situation. I watched the YouTube video. So we knew we were dealing with that, but before that we had no wind because Alex was let go. So we've been up in the air for quite a while on this situation. And we did have some problems with having contractors and people, contractors, you know, going ahead and being able to get a hold of them, and this was a problem, and it didn't matter if it was, you know, there's different times, different people, the whole situation. But it keeps being said $200,000 for this. Okay, well, it's a part-time one position that's $80,000 that we approved because this person needs to be licensed and insured that will be there and is trained for this. The other position that people are leaving out in this equation is is a full-time person that's not only going to be the assistant to the planner, but it's going to be doing code enforcement. It's going to go ahead and get rid of all the other issues so our law enforcement can deal with the stuff on the streets. When it comes to the building issues and things like that, that everybody's been complaining about for years, even before I was on council, we haven't had that. So this is actually two positions. You're getting a full-time person who's there constantly, they can do the intake of the permits and do all of the other stuff, and we'll be reporting to this senior planner. And the senior pet planner will be the one to review it because they have the training and the knowledge and all that.
6:23:27 PM - And that's what's in these job descriptions. So you're getting two people that will be in that office, not just mine for 200,000. This is two separate people. So you get a full-time person that you can walk into that office. You've got a question about code enforcement, about building, whatever, that person can talk to you, and you get a trained license from Congress person who can go ahead and review all this stuff and be able to do our comp plan and things like that. So why do we want to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result? Because that's exactly what you're asking to do in this situation. And that's where I have a problem. We're never gonna move forward if we keep doing the same thing over and over and listening to the community complain about how it is when they try to do something around here.
6:24:19 PM - Ms. Braxton, please.
6:24:22 PM - I just I'm listening to John's comments, and this as well. And there's I think maybe a little bit more of a matter of emergency, because we're talking about hundreds of homes coming in here now. And we're talking about the big McKay expansion. And those are that that kind of puts us in a little different category than a few honor builders building maybe 10 houses a year or something like that. Not on the builders, but um the big scope coming up if this all takes place, and there's gonna be infrastructure questions, and just I can just see it um being a heavy load. So I would possibly entertain the idea of taking a look at it for a while, but it would not be a year.
6:25:17 PM - So we um certainly to even if we were to hire these positions, is it's not uh a um light switch. Um there would you know one would go through the attorney is now looking at these uh job descriptions.
6:25:27 PM - Goes to the union and then it's gonna get posted. There's gonna be um interview process and background checks. Um figure out where we're gonna put this person, or do they get a car? Is the city gonna uh provide them with a vehicle? Um so anyway, all that takes time. Right now we're we've already got the ball rolling looking for um a uh uh a contracted planning agency. Um and it it appears that we're gonna find this agency before we're ever gonna hire somebody. So let's let's keep moving forward with um finding this planning agency. Let's get them on board, let's see how they're working, and um and give it a little time to flush out three months and um see how the process works. Look at the big picture. Yeah, because if you have a lot of infrastructure left, obviously we're not gonna build all the properties at one so we can go through there, but the benefit of having an agency is the collective of everyone in that department or everyone in the agency for large project. There are agencies that um are of one person contract, one person show, there's also agencies that actually have staff. And so that's that's what Peter's getting at here. We're we've got an opportunity here to find somebody that can fit our needs now and for the future as we as the city is growing.
6:26:54 PM - Thank you.
6:26:59 PM - I'll get some compiled list of everything after tomorrow's meeting. We'll have it on the next agenda to uh I'll bring through some of the applications where they have their packages that they can admit everything like that to you for presenting to you. And if uh any of them are available to come and do a presentation, I can do that as well. Yeah, that's okay. Uh just a reminder that we roll this up at the budget meeting. Yes. Um we didn't just create a position that's gonna take two hundred thousand dollars and we have to find two hundred thousand dollars to pay for it.
6:27:27 PM - Worked out in our financial plan that's been considerable not talking about this and um and working for this, so now we're kind of stepping back a little bit now.
6:27:38 PM - And the other consideration is a position has a set salary. When you're talking contractors, it's gonna vary. So it that could end up in the long run cost and there's a lot more for that one planning position, and we're not even touching the assistant planner or the person doing the intake or code enforcement for that amount. We could end up exceeding that $80,000 with all the building going on. So that needs to be taken into consideration too. Because once we have a contract, you know, we can't say, oh well, we cap out a thousand. Sorry, we don't have a planner anymore because we that we didn't budget for it. So once we're in a contract, we're in a contract. So that's something to take into consideration. A really good point maybe you do feel make you feel a little more easy. This person is if you hired, if I hired a full-time employee, and then say, no, I didn't want him here anymore. I'm fired. I don't need any reason that'll be council approval. You hire a contractor, you have the ability to do that.
6:28:40 PM - The contract. So you have the ability to send no over here from us contractors.
6:28:44 PM - Yeah, saying that's I also have the ability to do the same thing too as well. So we both have equal rights for that. So just something to think about. Well, so um my proposal was to uh the council was to um uh close this discussion until um the uh close of 2026. Um so let's go ahead, we'll keep the discussion going, put that on the agenda for um our next meeting, and uh we'll continue. First question, you'll continue working with um applying agencies, which we need to do anyway, and um and then this um uh the review process for these positions can be.
6:29:27 PM - So I want a timeline on this review because it's already been three weeks plus on these job descriptions. So I would like to see a timeline of when we can be uh have that information to us because it you know right now it's like I said it's been over three weeks and we haven't heard anything about those job descriptions, how legalities of it because we also will have to change the ordinances to reflect these as big department heads and mitigating all of the previous job descriptions.
6:30:01 PM - I think John that one of the things that you might it sounds to me like you've put a lot of thought into this and um uh you might be able to do something related to what Susan just brought up, but but I would like to see you take a lead on this and interview each of us and city council talk with and you know keep this moving the mayor, um because putting it aside and even though I didn't vote for these positions, we're on that track now, and I agree with Kayleen around that we need to keep it active. So would you mind taking a lead uh
6:30:59 PM - with Peter and getting having it on the agenda as an update each month?
6:31:17 PM - Yes, okay.
6:31:26 PM - But so we'll put that in the next agenda and I'll now keep the UL prize and then uh I'll reach out to you again who has someone coming to you if you'd all have you sit up on them, you know, to meet and greet with them. You're okay. All right, um it's a good discussion, which is really healthy. All right, we're gonna move on to uh next uh old business, which would be creating uh any council approval to create a tourism development committee. Um then I would send this off to Julie and Julie will write up the uh you know the because we do have a certain requirements in our city ordinance. Um what's good about a tourism uh development committee too is um it it's between three and five, so I can appoint either three people or five people. But what it benefits is is that since like the Korea district and stuff like that, they also manage outside of city limits, we have the ability to uh I can appoint someone that lives outside of city limits as long as the majority of the people that are on the committee are inside city limits. So it'll help the collective outside people that do live close by that still participate to be involved. So I think that's really good. So we just need a motion to approve the starting of a tourist tourism development committee. Um I'll send it all over to uh the city attorney, she'll draft it up for our city ordinance, and I'll bring it back to you for review during the next council meeting. So you have the ability to look it over. This looks good, these are the key points, all right. This follows our ordinance, and then you can approve it, and then uh I'll do the established uh the committee, three to five. They will come in then, and then you guys will approve the appointment of them, say, okay, this is our committee, this is how many we have, this is where they live, um, this is their involvement, and try to keep it away from any you know interest or you know, hey, I'm not on this committee, but you know, I do have an interest, I want to be involved. And we do have um I believe there's about five five or six people that do want to be involved, which is good. I have a list of
6:33:26 PM - Some people I remember at the last meeting I suggest if you want them. They're all willing to serve software. All right. So is do we have a motion to approve the creation of a tourism development committee? I'll make a motion. Okay, too. We have a first down here and a second. Do we have any further discussion?
6:33:45 PM - So is this tourism committee description going to be similar to other jurisdictions? Because when I was on the committee, I believe we weren't required to have one because of our population. We are not required to have one. Right. What this will do is just give that E's to the public and the council. So yeah, but if you have 5,000 or more, then you're required. Right. So my question is is will this be similar to other larger jurisdictions? Okay. I guess I would be curious to know what the differences would be. So what's good about the committee is yeah, there'll be some similarities for our code, but the committee itself has the ability to create little laws or whatever ordinance or resolutions for themselves, guidelines that they're supposed to be going through. And that might entail, okay, so we know say you're highly invested in the Korea district, and it's really great. So they have this huge the you know debate or whatever, they're talking about the Korea district. When they come up, they might say, okay, per our you know, tourism development committee, we would like your input, but we want to make sure that you can't vote for this particular one, or the best interest. So they can set boundaries for themselves. And the boundaries can even be set for themselves too, say, hey, they might be interested in or they're participating in a special event. So they would recuse themselves too. So let's create some little laws. Oh, sure, that makes total sense. And they would bring that to you too as well. Okay. Um when are we looking at implementing this? Then if we vote next to me.
6:35:18 PM - Okay, because I know it's not a bit of a. Yeah, there's structure that they have to go through. So eventually we're gonna have to go through all committees that were in the past or present. Because if uh two is not a committee, they have to be appointed, they can't self appoint.
6:35:26 PM - Um there has to be, you know, there'll have to be open public meetings, just like the council meeting, there have to be minutes to be taken. Um has to be open to the public too as well. Open form sometimes too, if they have to need their input as well. And then they have to present also to council. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it'd be really healthy. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
6:35:45 PM - All right. Um this is for down this discussion. All in favor?
6:35:50 PM - All right, thank you.
6:35:53 PM - That'd be for the Tourism Development Committee.
6:35:59 PM - So this would be on the agenda for next week for us to vote. Yes. Okay, thanks.
6:36:11 PM - We're gonna open up to comments for council. Any comments?
6:36:19 PM - Hi, no one. Um so I just want to go back and highlight the fact if you guys didn't catch up today. Is the fact that if our city employees speak to council, they're retaliating against.
6:37:25 PM - So I want you to keep that in mind. Um, this isn't the first instance. It happened several times. We have a lot of whistleblowers out there. And so right now, until it's completely in the public, I just want you to know that I don't feel that our staff should be public uh punished for going ahead and speaking to us when we have questions. Um it's to the point where unless we go to city, go and do a records request to join, we cannot get any records. We're not allowed to talk to just get simple records if we have questions. So you all want to know why why it is that we're doing the things we're doing, it's because of that. And normally I try to protect most of the time I try to protect, so I do records request because I know there's retaliation and this is just proof of it today. What important? Okay, sir. Per council's policy, um, if when we do this next public window, mayor handbook, the council's handbook, when we take the course, I encourage you to come take the next one because comment section for council is not for you know personal attacks or anything like that. Um this particular part of the comment section is for council to to reach out to the community and say, hey, we really appreciate this, or to appreciate they would appreciate public works, or we appreciate you know the chief of police and stuff like that. If you would like to discuss matters regarding that, feel free, we can put it on the next agenda and have discussions with that and go public. That's the best form for it. Um especially during, for example, during uh uh public meeting here when they have a comment, they have the first amendment right. You know, council, we have the ability that you know we shouldn't really get around too much, but that's the third time. Um during common time, our time is to say to talk about the things that we have on the agenda, to move forward, to work together as unity. Um but if you have questions, you have concerns, you can too reach out to me as well. And you can reach out to the city attorney, and then you can reach out to each other as well or put it on the agenda and let council approve that have it on there.
6:38:51 PM - comment section here. We'll put a motion to assert. I move to adjourn. Motion second. All in favor?