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2023-04-25 Regular Meeting Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 1 EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL MEETING APPROVED MINUTES April 25, 2023 ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT Mike Nelson, Mayor Neil Tibbott, Council President Vivian Olson, Councilmember Will Chen, Councilmember Diane Buckshnis, Councilmember Susan Paine, Councilmember Dave Teitzel, Councilmember Jenna Nand, Councilmember STAFF PRESENT Mike De Lilla, Senior Utilities Engineer Jeff Taraday, City Attorney Scott Passey, City Clerk Jerrie Bevington, Camera Operator 1. CALL TO ORDER/FLAG SALUTE The Edmonds City Council meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Mayor Nelson in the Council Chambers, 250 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, and virtually. The meeting was opened with the flag salute. 2. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Councilmember Nand read the City Council Land Acknowledge Statement: “We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Sdohobsh (Snohomish) people and their successors the Tulalip Tribes, who since time immemorial have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water.” 3. ROLL CALL City Clerk Scott Passey called the roll. All elected officials were present. 4. PRESENTATION 1. ANNUAL REPORT - SOUTH COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE Thad Hovis, Fire Chief, South County Fire (SCF), introduced Bob Eastman, Assistant Chief, and Leslie Hynes, Communications Director. Fire Chief Hovis presented: • South County Fire by the Numbers o 15 neighborhood fire stations staffed 24/7, including three fire stations in Edmonds o 300+ uniformed personnel o 70 firefighters on duty during the day and 64 overnight o 36,891 incidents in 2022, including 6,038 in Edmonds o Most 911 calls are EMS - 84% in the City of Edmonds o Serves nearly 300,000 people across 53 square miles in south Snohomish County Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 2 o Mill Creek annexed into the regional fire authority in 2022 o Brier and Mountlake Terrace, currently served by contract, are voting on annexation on April 25 • Staffing o An additional 24-hour EMS transport unit was added effective March 1, 2022. • Serving Our Residents o Fires o Medical emergencies o Motor vehicle collisions o Hazardous materials o Rescues o Marine / Water o Other hazards and emergency situations o Community health, safety and risk reduction • Emergency Medical Services o This is our most requested service o All firefighters are emergency medical technicians or paramedics o 84% of incidents in the City of Edmonds were dispatched as EMS in 2022 o South County Fire is the first agency in the county to carry whole blood to provide in-field blood transfusions for patients with life-threatening medical conditions or trauma injuries o Cardiac arrest saves  South County Fire’s cardiac arrest save rate across the RFA is consistently well above state and national averages o Community lifesavers  ACT First Aid provides free online training in hands-only CPR  AED partnership with Edmonds Police, Edmonds Police Foundation and South County Firefighter Foundation  Photograph of two Edmonds residents with their driving instructor who took ACT first aid training and performed CPR and resuscitated an individual • Regional Training o Benefits of regional training  Sharing instructors and expertise  Reducing duplicated efforts Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 3  Breaking down borders with neighboring fire agencies allows us to work together more effectively on mutual aid incidents o County Fire Training Consortium  South County Fire, Everett Fire, Marysville Fire, Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue, Snohomish Fire District 4 and North County Fire & EMS o Snohomish County Fire Training Academy  119 entry and lateral recruits completed training in 2022 - Winter: 49 recruits from 8 departments – including 19 from South County Fire - Summer: 15 recruits from South County Fire - Fall: 55 recruits from 7 departments – including 19 from South County Fire • Edmonds Fire Prevention o Development Review & Construction Inspections 2022  850+ maintenance/follow up inspections*  474 construction inspections  366 compliance inspections  20 special event inspections  396 plan review  91 pre-development/development meetings • Community Outreach o EMS Week Fire Station Open House  Saturday, May 20th – 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.  Edmonds Downtown Station 17 – 275 Sixth Ave N, Edmonds o Community events in Edmonds  More than 6,100 residents reached at events including Fire Camp, Fourth of July Parade, Kids in Transition Oktoberfest and National Night Out events in the city. o Free online classes  ACT First Aid & CPR  Disaster Preparedness  Child Car Seat Safety  Virtual Car Seat Checks  Home Fire Safety  Aging in Place  Child Safety & CPR o Distribution of lifesaving devices  Child car seats  Smoke alarms  CO alarms  Infant safe sleep sacks  Bike helmets  File of Life • Community Resource Paramedics o Non-emergency service to help reduce 911 calls and hospital use o Serves older adults, mental health patients, disabled people, homeless and veterans o Breaks down barriers and creates access to care o Edmonds by the numbers:  Enrollments: 132  Contacts: 600 This includes home visits, phone calls, emails, etc.  51% reduction in 911 calls throughout the South County Fire service area Assistant Chief Bob Eastman reviewed: • Emergency Responses – 2022 by the numbers and contract required metrics Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 4 o Number of Calls  2018: 5,555  2019: 5,486  2020*: 4,977  2021*: 5,461  2022: 6,038 (9.7% increase from 2018) *Due to COVID, 2020 and 2021 not considered in data trends o Type of calls  Emergency Medical Aid: 84% - Basic Life Support: 54% - Advanced Life Support: 30%  Fire: 9%  Other: 7% • Response Times o Looks at 8-minute response time in four categories o This measures Sno911’s call receipt to arrival o Comparisons of data for 2018-2022 o Response times have varied  80% of calls received by 911 center are via cell phones  Cell phones increase dispatch time due to need to confirm address; land line phones automatically provide address and phone number o Percentage of calls within 8 minutes or less  2018: 75.72%  2019: 73.45%  2020: 56.19%  2021: 68.41%  2022: 79.58% o Response time on 90% of calls  2018: 09:29  2019: 09:42  2020: 10:40  2021: 09:59  2022: 09:16 • Turnout Time o Measures the time from when Sno911 call is dispatched to the time the apparatus leaves the station o Includes time to put on bunker gear and other safety equipment such as body armor when necessary o The reporting standard in the contract is different from the city’s adopted standard in the 1756 compliance report: 2:15 (contract) vs. 2:45 (compliance report) o South County Fire meets and exceeds the city adopted standard of 2:45 (90.44%) o Turnout time percentage at 2:15  2018: 75.44%  2019: 82.34%  2020: 81.28%  2021: 77.66%  2022: 78.07% o 90% Turnout Time  2018: 2:49  2019: 2:34  2020: 2:34 Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 5  2021: 2:42  2022: 2:43 • Neighboring Unit Utilization Factor o What it evaluates: Response of units across jurisdictional boundaries. o What the numbers mean:  100% = an equal balance of cross-jurisdictional response  Contract considers 90%-110% to be within balance range  Over 100% = units from neighboring jurisdictions are responding into Edmonds more than Edmonds units are responding outside the city o Why does this matter?  We have a regional emergency delivery system  This evaluates if level of service decisions in one jurisdiction negatively impact a neighboring jurisdiction • Neighboring Unit Utilization Factor 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Mountlake Terrace 133% 130% 157% 111% 41% Lynnwood 202% 210% 280% 253% 147% RFA 148% 162% 197% 178% 92% o In 2022, the Neighboring Unit Utilization Factor varied greatly from previous years. o As a result of longer wall times at hospitals, made operational changes o This is due to the deployment of an additional aid unit that was operating out of Station 20 for the first part of 2022 and Station 16 for the remainder of 2022.  Mountlake Terrace units: 58.55% less into Edmonds  Lynnwood units: 47.33% more into Edmonds  RFA units: 8.32% less into Edmonds • Unit Hour Utilization Factor (UHUF) o What it evaluates: Percentage of time a fire unit is on a call o What the numbers mean: The higher the number, the busier the unit is  Unit Hour Utilization Factor is up for Edmonds stations, but within compliance with contract standards  This number is up at all Edmonds fire station  20% is the trigger to start looking at deployment options and additional resources o Unit Hour Utilization 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Station 16 15.10% 15.06% 14.72% 13.79% 14.96% 18.46% Station 17 14.60% 13.11% 11.75% 10.79% 11.72% 12.61% Station 20 16.30% 17.36% 17.40% 15.94% 17.45% 21.59% • Transport Balancing Factor (TBF) o Looks at the balance between:  Edmonds  Outside City - The number of times Edmonds-based units are doing transports outside the city  Outside City Edmonds - The number of times South County Fire units based outside the city are doing transports in Edmonds o In 2022, the factor was under 1.0 - Outside city units transporting in Edmonds less than Edmonds units transporting outside city - A factor of 1.0 means = in balance  Transports 2021 2022 RFA transports in the City 575 595 Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 6 Edmonds transports not in the City 460 794 Transport Balancing Factor (TBF) 1.250 0.749 • Other required metrics o Transport fees billed and collected in Edmonds and Esperance Edmonds Billed Edmonds Collected Esperance Billed Esperance Collected 2018 $2,374,490 $1,013,928 $135,776 $53,080 2019 $2,310,729 $973,880 $118,595 $48,838 2020 $2,164,260 $896,643 $85,807 $34,927 2021 $2,314,119 $870,562 $68,059 $27,601 2022 $2,500,700 $995,040 $79,605 $33,188 o Shoreline units into Edmonds (measured in incident responses)  2018: 103  2019: 119  2020: 56  2021: 97  2022: 16 o Edmonds unit into Woodway (measured in seconds)  2018: 164  2019: 5,288  2020: 5,544  2021: 4,713  2022 287 • Standards of Cover Compliance (1756 Report) Standard 2021 2022 Turnout Time in Standard of Cover 2:45 2:42 2:43 Turnout time in contract 2:15 2:34 First arriving engine company to a fire 6:30 6:38 6:39 Full first alarm assignment at residential fire 7:45 8:15 10:55 Full first alarm assignment at commercial fire 9:00 12:35 9:16 BLS response 5:15 6:33 6:25 ALS response 6:45 6:13 6:20 o Works starts with first arriving units, do not wait for all firefighters to arrive. More work is completed as more units arrive. o Additional standards measured in compliance report include (information in packet):  Hazmat responses (operational and technical)  Rescue technical response (operational and technical)  Marine response Assistant Chief Eastman recalled during the 2021 annual report, a question was raised about acquiring the former Value Village property for a fire station. A reportable release quantity was reported to Ecology from the site based on its previous use. There is a 10,000-gallon tank near Highway 99. SCF has been working with Ecology and Hospital District 2 to determine the extent of the release and what cleanup will be necessary. The most recent funding SCF received from Ecology needs to be spent by the end of June; he was hopeful enough information will be available by then to determine how move forward. This process takes time and has been underway for about two years. Ecology has been a great partner, about $284,000 has been spent to determine what needs to be done before moving forward. He anticipated more information would be available after July. With regard to a question about firefighting foam, Assistant Chief Eastman explained SCF stopped using that foam in 2018 when they were notified of the issue. The RFA currently has 16 five-gallon sealed and secured containers of the foam at their headquarters. SCF and other agencies are working with Ecology; Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 7 Ecology has a formal process that includes public hearings regarding how to dispose of the foam. More will be known about that in December once Ecology gets through their process. Council President Tibbott thanked SCF for their complete report, expressing appreciation for the slides and photographs that represent what SCF is doing in Edmonds. As SCF will return in a few weeks to talk more broadly about the contract, he requested councilmembers limit questions to the report provided tonight. He inquired about a term used in the report, “wall time.” Assistant Chief Eastman explained time is measured from when they arrive to the hospital to drop a patient off to when they are cleared and available for another call. Council President Tibbott recalled Assistant Chief Eastman mentioning that they have experienced six hours of wall time. Assistant Chief Eastman said units have experienced up to eight hours of wall time. This has occurred in California and Oregon in the past, Washington is just now experiencing some of those challenges. Some of it is infrastructure, not enough healthcare including behavioral health, hospital staff is tired and there are people in the hospital who shouldn’t be there. For example, there are 125 people at Providence Everett who do not need to be in the hospital, but there is no place to take them. There were times in December where the hospital was at 30% staffing in the ER; if the fire department was at 30%, they would close 9 stations, but the hospital stays open and continues to see patients. He acknowledged 6- 8 hours sounded horrible, but he commended the hospital staff at Swedish Edmonds and Providence Everett for the amazing work they do. The problem of extended wall time will continue; SCF is doing its best to manage it from an operational point of view. Councilmember Nand thanked SCF for the work they do at the front line of a lot of the challenges facing society, basically doing triage due to a lack of funding and resources and putting a bandaid over the gaping wounds facing society. During the budget process last year, she and Councilmember Chen proposed an amendment to fund a study to locate a permanent police substation on Highway 99. She asked SCF to comment on whether it would make sense to combine that with a firefighter/EMS presence and how that would affect NUUF. Chief Hovis answered that would be a good question when the commission meets with the council next month. Having a multiuse facility that can address law enforcement as well behavioral health and fire/EMS makes sense. Grid 157, the hospital area, is the epicenter of the City’s call volume. With what is happening in Edmonds with the reimagining Highway 99, it makes good sense. However, electeds sign interlocal agreements, not him, and he would be interested in their thoughts. In an initial conversation with Verdant Health Commission, they also thought it was a great idea. Councilmember Paine was not surprised by the six-hour wall time as hospital infrastructure in the Puget Sound area has not grown to keep up with the population. She thanked Assistant Chief Eastman for answering her questions, particularly the one about the fire extinguishing foam with the forever chemical PFAS. She was glad to hear it was not in active use. She asked if there was anything the City could do to assist the community in having their cell phone provide their home address. Assistant Chief Eastman said the public can sign up for SMART 911. Mayor Nelson said the City is actively involved in SMART 911 and have signed up 5,000 residents. Chief Hovis said having location services enabled on a person’s cell phone so it can be pinged also helps dispatch identify a caller’s location. Councilmember Buckshnis thanked SCF for their presentation and for their service. She asked about houses with alarm buttons, such as an ADT alarm where someone can push the fire button. She noted her family got rid of their land line due to that expanded alarm service function. Assistant Chief Eastman answered it depends on the alarm system and service. Typically, the alarm service sends all the information when an alert is activated for fire or EMS. Councilmember Buckshnis commented the extended wall time is costing someone money, probably SCF. She asked how that could be mitigated, commenting if someone is held up for eight hours, that could be their entire shift. Assistant Chief Eastman answered in working with all the hospitals in the county including Skagit Valley, six-hour wall times are small blips, not every call takes six hours. Wall time of 1½ hours Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 8 during peak demand times is not unusual in all the hospitals in Snohomish County. Using a procedure developed for disasters, all providers call Providence Everett who maintains a real time dashboard of the status of all the hospitals and ERs, incoming transports, how long units have been there, etc. and using that information, patients are routed to hospitals to bring wall times down. There are efforts to formalize that system which was designed for disasters like bus accidents and plane crashes, to be the model for the state because extended wait times are happening everywhere. Providence Everett who gets most of the transports in Snohomish County, has a contract with Northwest Ambulance to provide EMTs who become temporary hospital employees and can take care of three patients which allows fire personnel to leave. A lot of creative things are happening to get fire units back in service quicker, some of which required state approval, which takes time. The goal is to take care of people SCF serves; the byproduct is patients move through the hospital faster and SCF units get back in service faster. Chief Hovis advised SCF has worked with the union to have up to five peak activity units on duty during daytime hours; about two-thirds of calls come in between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. That also allows the fire engines and ladder trucks to get back in service because, although there are not a lot of fires, there have been some significant events over the years in Edmonds so peak activity units help address that. The community resource paramedics have been at the hospital to “sit on patients” as the nursing staff tries to find beds for them. Councilmember Buckshnis expressed interest in having a joint partnership on Highway 99. Chief Hovis agreed there was great potential for expanding vertically on that site. Councilmember Buckshnis inquired about the use of body armor. Assistant Chief Eastman explained dispatch will inform when there is a scene of violence and crews will don the appropriate PPE including body armor and helmets either before they leave the station or occasionally enroute. He recalled in 2019, an ambulance in Marysville had a bullet through the windshield. It doesn’t happen often, but crews have the PPE available and a defined protocol regarding when to use it. Councilmember Chen expressed his appreciation for SCF’s service. The presentation provides the council the insight and knowledge they need. The fact that 84% of calls are EMS makes sense for Edmonds because of its 20% senior population. He referred to the transport balance factor, recalling a year ago Edmonds was over-utilizing neighboring cities’ services and now that is reversed. He asked the implication of the $1.5 million that Edmonds paid to correct that imbalance. Chief Hovis asked for clarification, whether there should be consideration on the cost if the unit is moved. Councilmember Chen asked whether that could be considered or were there other factors that caused the imbalance. Chief Hovis answered Mountlake Terrace has one fire station, Station 19, and in the 4.2 square miles of Mountlake Terrace with all the growth they are experiencing, they had 2900 incidents. When the TBF and NUUF was discussed previously, Mountlake Terrace was a piece of that. As fire chief, he cannot add staffing. If Mountlake Terrace voters decide in tonight’s election to annex into the RFA, he will propose adjustments in the staffing at that station to the commission for next year. Mountlake Terrace has the same staffing that existed in 2001. Another piece in the TBF and NUUF is Lynnwood; Station 17 has the greatest penetration into the Edmonds bowl area. If a unit is moved to Station 16, it will serve Lynnwood and Highway 99, as well as North Edmonds. Station 20 Esperance is the busiest area, but until something different is done in Mountlake Terrace, it will provide extra service. The intent was to provide data from all three Edmonds fire stations, that year of data will be used to determine the best location for that unit. Councilmember Chen commented the reverse trend makes sense with the tremendous growth in Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace. If the trend continues, consideration needs to be given to appropriately adjusting the funding. He noted there was a workshop in the Brackett Room today regarding SMART 911. Chief Hovis advised as part of SMART 911, people can indicate if they are trained in ACT and/or CPR and be notified of a nearby medical emergency. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 9 Councilmember Teitzel thanked Chief Hovis and Assistant Chief Eastman for their presentation and for the good work they do for Edmonds. In Edmonds, like other cities, more large apartment and condominium buildings are being constructed up to 75-feet on the Highway 99 corridor. He asked where a ladder apparatus to fight a fire on the top floor would come from as none of the three Edmonds stations have one. Chief Hovis answered there are ladder trucks at Lynnwood Station 14 in Blue Ridge and another at 156th & Highway 99. Councilmember Teitzel asked if a ladder apparatus would be added at a new station at the former Value Village site if that came to fruition. Chief Hovis answered due to Sound Transit, consideration is being given to moving the ladder truck to Station 15 and if the Verdant property is secured it could be located there or at Station 10. Councilmember Teitzel observed calls are up 10% since 2018, but even with more calls, performance has improved; percentage of calls within 8 minutes or less is up about 5% 2018 compared to 2022, the response time on 90% of calls is down compared to 2018 and 2019. He asked what that was attributable to. Chief Hovis answered a highly motivated workforce and the remedial measure the council approved. Councilmember Teitzel referred to the TBF, observing since Swedish Edmonds is the only hospital in the Edmonds/Lynnwood/Mountlake Terrace area, it would be logical there would be more transports into Edmonds. He asked if the numbers were adjusted or normalized to take that into account. Assistant Chief Eastman answered the TBF is only calls that are generated within in Edmonds or calls outside Edmonds and specific units going out and coming in. It doesn’t take into account if a unit happens to be at the hospital and is dispatched because it is closer. Other analysis has been done to ensure that is not happening. Councilmember Teitzel clarified his question was if a Mountlake Terrace EMS unit responds to a Mountlake Terrace incident and transports to Swedish Edmonds, is this data normalized somehow. Assistant Chief Eastman answered yes, the calculation is not based on where a patient ends up, it is where they are picked up. 5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA COUNCILMEMBER TEITZEL MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER PAINE, TO APPROVE THE AGENDA IN CONTENT AND ORDER. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 6. AUDIENCE COMMENTS Mayor Nelson described procedures for audience comments. Ron Wambolt, Edmonds, referred to the city attorney agenda item and the first question, should legal services be contracted for as they are now, or should the city attorney position be a staff member? For the last 32 years of his business career, he worked for two corporations that had in-house attorneys. As the officer responsible for worldwide sales, he also had an attorney on his staff. No single attorney will have the breadth of knowledge to deal with all issues so one of the major duties of an in-house attorney is to manage the work handled by the contracted attorneys. There will always be a need for outside attorneys, but not a need for an in-house attorney. The second question for the council is if the City continues to contact for services, who should the City contract with? He recalled about 12 years ago, after more than 24 years with the same firm, the council decided to test the market for the possibility of less expensive services. While it was a given that at least one proposal would be a lower cost than the current cost since a lower cost was the real purpose for seeking bids, Lighthouse Law offered a lower cost and the City contracted with them. The cost for their services was known, but the quality of the services was unknown. For about half their tenure, Lighthouse went through what was probably best described as an apprenticeship of City business. In recent years, they appear to be doing a good job. He has read and witnessed their annual reports and believed they were objective and unbiased. In his opinion, it would be a waste of the City’s time and Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 10 the taxpayers’ money to go through another bidding process for legal services because a lower price will obviously be received for services of unknown quality. The Einstein quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” somewhat applies to this situation. Lee Kimmelman, Edmonds, referred to the city attorney issue on the agenda and information from Shoreline provided in the study about maintenance of a law library. The cost of in-house counsel needs to include the cost of a library and historical background. He suggested the council consider whether they wanted to take a long term or short-term view. If the council was considering that Edmonds was growing and its legal problems will also grow so the legal team also needs to grow, in-house counsel makes sense and will provide a foundation. He thinks of Edmonds like Mayberry, a small town with small town problems that cannot anticipate or plan for the big town issues. He preferred to have an experienced legal team that has the infrastructure to adapt to whatever comes their way. In his opinion, in-house counsel may be more than the City can handle. Another issue with in-house counsel is contract attorneys are still necessary which reduces the predictability of cost. With regard to the MOU with WSDOT that the council discussed last week, he said sometimes things need to be simple. In reading the MOU, there is nothing that obligates the City. If the City ever enters into a contract to purchase the property, all the due diligence can be done, and he did not see why the council would object to signing the MOU. 7. RECEIVED FOR FILING 1. CLAIM FOR DAMAGES FOR FILING 2. OUTSIDE BOARDS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 3. WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS 8. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS COUNCILMEMBER PAINE MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER NAND, TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. The agenda items approved are as follows: 1. APPROVAL OF SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES OF APRIL 18, 2023 2. APPROVAL OF REGULAR MEETING MINUTES OF APRIL 18, 2023 3. APPROVAL OF PAYROLL AND BENEFIT CHECKS, DIRECT DEPOSIT AND WIRE PAYMENTS 4. APPROVAL OF CLAIM CHECKS 5. 2023 APRIL BUDGET AMENDMENT ORDINANCE 9. COUNCIL BUSINESS 1. AWARD CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR THE 2023 UTILITY REPLACEMENT PROJECT Senior Utilities Engineer Mike De Lilla reviewed: • Scope of Work o 1,870 ft of 12-in, 8-in and 6-in Watermain o 310 ft of 8-in and 6-in Sewer pipe o 710 ft of 18-in Sewer pipe o New Sewer Structures o 1,180 ft of 8-in & 10-in CIPP Sewer • Bid Results Contractor Amount Shoreline Construction $2,638,969 Rodarte Construction $2,661,789 Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 11 Laser Underground $2,708,421 Marshbank Construction $2,879,012 Colacurcio Brothers $3,859,802 Engineers Estimate $2,852,346 • Proposed Construction Budget Proposed Budget Amount Contract Award – Shoreline Construction $2,638,969 Management Reserve (15%) $395,845 Const. Mgmt., Inspection & Testing (15%) $395,845 Total $3,430,659 • Construction Funding Funding Source Amount Water Utility Fund $1,792,019 Sewer Utility Fund $1,638,640 Total $3,430,659 • Staff Recommendation o Award Construction Contract to Shoreline Construction o Authorize a 15% Management Reserve of $395,845 Council President Tibbott pointed out Shoreline Construction has done a lot of work in the City. Mr. De Lilla answered staff has been extremely happy with their work, they are very responsible, responsive, and look ahead to things that may be a problem; everything one would expect a contractor to do, they do and do it well. He was very glad they were the low bidder. COUNCIL PRESIDENT TIBBOTT MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER PAINE, TO AWARD THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT TO SHORELINE CONSTRUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,430,659. Council President Tibbott commented he has seen Shoreline Construction’s work firsthand and was glad they are a company the City can rely on. Councilmember Olson said she also feels good about the contract award; four of the five bids were in line with each other as well as with the engineer’s estimate. She referred to the narrative that states this project was a combination of the annual water and sewer replacement projects and asked why staff was confident they would receive multiple bids. Mr. De Lilla answered the market has been pretty interesting. With the pandemic there has been the great resignation among engineers and many jurisdictions are having difficulty keeping up with projects. Edmonds was lucky to retain its usual timeline for going out to bid but many cities have not been able to do that so more contractors looking for work. The goal is to go out to bid in the timeframe of January - April/May when everyone is building their backlog. Doing that usually results in more bidders and a more favorable bidding climate versus going to bid later in the year when the construction season is a bigger consideration such as delays due to weather. Going to bid earlier results in a better chance of doing the work during dry conditions although the weather this spring has been an anomaly. Councilmember Olson said she felt lucky the City had the engineers it does, and she expressed appreciation for the competent estimates they provide. Mr. De Lilla said the engineers have a good idea about costs, the biggest challenge has been the economy and inflation, but engineers keep in touch with contractors regarding material availability; for example, sometimes pipe can take 4-8 weeks to be delivered. Having contractors like Shoreline Construction helps with that as well. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 12 Councilmember Chen commended staff for getting so many bids and the lowest bid from Shoreline. He asked about equity and inclusion in the selection of contractors. Mr. De Lilla answered there are state laws that have to be followed that include inclusion, apprentice utilization measures, etc. He was not familiar with requirements related to minority-owned businesses. With regard to Shoreline Construction, they are a minority-owned business, the main owner is Doug Suzuki. Federal contracts have requirement for minority businesses, but the City’s purchasing policies do not. A lot of consultants the City deals with have minority, women or veterans owned statuses. The City tries not to always pick the same contractor, but in accordance with state law, the City is required to accept the lowest bid. There may be ways to increase inclusion, but it would need to fit the requirement for the low bid, the one true selection item that the City is required to follow. Councilmember Chen asked with a big project like this, the engineer must have quality control in place to ensure work is done properly. Mr. De Lilla answered this project has been 1-1½ in the making. Engineers coordinate with maintenance and operations staff regarding the projects and sites and compare that to the sewer, water and stormwater comprehensive plans. Once sites are selected and preliminary alignments done, the fire marshal is consulted to ensure hydrant coverage is adequate for the project and verify necessary fire flows. Various models are consulted for water and sewer to ensure demand is met. For example, last year’s sewer project was constructed due to increased development near 239th that may have caused issues downstream for the sewer system. From there it is an iterative process with numerous discussions between public works, engineering, and maintenance and operation. The public is involved whenever possible, especially with regard to placement of fire hydrants. Councilmember Chen commented the scariest thing would be to install pipe that ends up not being large enough. Mr. De Lilla said so far, the modeling has been good, but the comprehensive plan update will reassess things, more than likely sewer related, because the water system is in pretty good shape. Councilmember Teitzel commented this was reviewed by the Planning & Public Works Committee. He referred to bills that were passed by the legislature and headed to the governor that will result in more density in a non-standard trend line. Council President Tibbott raised a point of order, requesting councilmembers speak to the motion. Mayor Nelson ruled point taken. Councilmember Nand said she has questions about the information presented and was not be comfortable voting on the motion until she gets those questions answered. She was surprised Shoreline’s bid was $200,000 below the engineer estimate. She asked whether the management reserve of approximately $400,000 was adequate in view of labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and fuel cost fluctuations or should it be higher. Mr. De Lilla answered he anticipated 15% should be fine. For projects like this the management reserve is usually 10%. The reason this project has a 15% management reserve is the water main site is closer to the bowl area which has historically had a lot of interesting underground features that records do not typically show. This is similar to the Dayton replacement project which was accomplished with the budget provided. Councilmember Nand said she had a comment related to the issue of DEI that Councilmember Chen brought up, but she would wait until after the vote on the motion to ask those questions. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. Councilmember Nand said she has a minority and woman-owned business but chooses not to seek an OMBWE designation because as a lawyer she does not want to be typecast, a decision a lot of other minority and woman owned businesses make. She asked if it would be possible to do a voluntary self-report for the REDI manager and engineering to track that demographic information. Mr. De Lilla said that could be Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 13 considered; he did not see any issue with tracking, only having the staff and time to track that metric. Councilmember Nand said that may be part of the REDI manager’s workload. Councilmember Teitzel continued his earlier comment, anticipating there will be more density per square mile in the next 5-10 years; however, infrastructure planning has been based on previous projected densities. He asked if there were plans for larger diameter pipes or had that been considered yet. Mr. De Lilla answered the exact locations are currently unknown and will occur based on the new zoning. City staff is definitely looking into reassessing the sewer and water models in the near horizon. It may be harder to make that determination for the sewer model as the City takes effluent from other entities to the WWTP. He concluded stay tuned is his best answer. 2. EDMONDS CITY ATTORNEY DIRECTION DECISION - CONTRACT OR IN-HOUSE? Councilmember Paine explained tonight is when the council will make a decision whether to remain with the contracting model for city attorney services or to bring city attorney services in-house. Council has had an opportunity to review and ask questions about the materials in the packet. The subcommittee has been working on this since the beginning of the year and have endeavored to present all the information in a neutral but complete manner including pros and cons for both models, summary information and financial summaries for the nine comparator cities as well as an assessment of the contracted city attorneys’ hourly rates. Per the subcommittee’s work plan, if the choice is to continue with contracted services, the subcommittee will propose a draft Request for Proposals/Qualifications (RFP/RFQ). If the decision is to bring city attorney services in-house, the administration will be asked to start the process of developing a job description and ultimately publishing the job bulletin seeking applicants. Councilmember Paine pointed out the administration will have an opinion about this and the subcommittee invites the mayor to speak on the issue. Mayor Nelson began his comments and Councilmember Buckshnis raised a point of order, suggesting the council vote on whether the mayor should speak first. Councilmember Paine commented before the council votes, it is important for the council to hear the administration’s opinion because this is a big decision that includes a lot of the administrative staff who use the city attorney services daily. Therefore, it is important to have the mayor and administration’s voice in this discussion. Councilmembers will make their own voices heard during the process and this is an opportunity to hear the administration’s opinion. Council President Tibbott raised a point of order, commenting it sounded like Councilmember Paine was making a motion and discussing the motion. Councilmember Paine said she was making a motion. COUNCILMEMBER PAINE MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL PRESIDENT TIBBOTT, TO HAVE THE MAYOR REPRESENT THE ADMINISTRATION AND OFFER THE ADMINISTRATION’S VOICE AND OPINION. Councilmember Buckshnis said she will vote against the motion because she preferred the council discuss this first followed by the mayor weighing in rather than him providing his opinion first. UPON ROLL CALL, MOTION CARRIED (5-0-2), COUNCILMEMBERS TEITZEL, CHEN, OLSON, PAINE AND COUNCIL PRESIDENT TIBBOTT VOTING YES; COUNCILMEMBERS BUCKSHNIS AND NAND ABSTAINING. Mayor Nelson said as someone who was a councilmember who had the opportunity to see how the city attorney operated from the outside, now as the mayor and seeing how the city attorney operates from that Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 14 perspective and how staff interacts from the city attorney at a level he did not see when he was a councilmember, he could say a majority of the workload is with a variety of city staff, most of which is unseen by council as well as by the mayor. There are regular reports, meetings, advice, etc. where all Lighthouse’s contract attorneys are constantly working with staff on a myriad issues. Without that experience, it is difficult to look at it objectively and say an in-house attorney would be better because of X or a contract attorney would be because of Y. He has had the pleasure of working with one contract attorney who he believes has done a great job. He was unsure he could be objective but preferred to keep the contract attorney because of who the contract attorney firm is. To ensure everyone understands the process, Council President Tibbott explained tonight the council is making a decision regarding contracted city attorney services or in-house city attorney. The intent is to discuss how to proceed at the next council meeting. He had an opportunity to review the survey responses from city council, city staff and others and found the reviews regarding the current contracted city attorney were very good. He opined the City consistently gets quality legal input from whomever at Lighthouse is providing legal counsel, whether Mr. Taraday, the labor specialist or other specialists. He expressed support for an RFP process for a contracted attorney. Councilmember Teitzel thanked Councilmembers Paine and Nand for their professional and diligent work gathering information. He stressed the information in the packet is presented by the subcommittee without any bias or spin. Tonight the subcommittee members will be speaking as individual councilmembers and provide their own opinions. He referred to the list of pros and cons, highlighting one of the pros of hiring an in-house attorney is it is intended to be a long-term commitment such that the city attorney hopefully will become a long-term employee and gain institutional knowledge, a pro provided by one of the comparator cities. The term “long term commitment” is important, because if the council were to make that change, it would be a long-term commitment, a choice that cannot be made lightly and needs to be well thought through. Councilmember Teitzel referred to another pro of hiring an in-house attorney, City attorney(s) are generally accessible for in-person consultation and will maintain regular office hours. He noted that was clearly a benefit to be able to go down the hall and talk to the attorney. That pro was also provided by one of the comparator cities. Councilmember Teitzel highlighted a con of hiring an in-house city attorney, as a generalist, the city attorney(s) may not have knowledge of specialty areas of the law, requiring contracting of outside counsel to special legal needs. This can make it difficult to assess the net total city attorney costs (when in-house and the need for ad hoc contracting legal services are considered). Councilmember Teitzel highlighted another con, as city employee(s), in house attorney(s) require full benefits packages, incur professional expenses related to the practice of law (including legal research engines, continuing legal education credits, bar dues, professional association membership, etc.) and office support, which require a municipal budget that is able and willing to support those needs. A city attorney arrangement will likely require multiple attorneys (a single attorney would likely be unable to cover the workload), a paralegal and assistant to cover the range of legal issues facing a city. Councilmember Teitzel highlighted another con, The in-house attorney(s) will report to the mayor, and that arrangement could compromise the independence of the city attorney(s) since the mayor—as the direct supervisor—may exert political pressure on the decisions of the city attorney(s). Councilmember Teitzel assured he was not saying that would happen or was likely to happen but there was the potential due to the direct reporting relationship versus the current contracted relationship. Councilmember Teitzel referred to pros and cons for a contracted city attorney, highlighting the following pros: offers a third-party, impartial, perspective; typically, a contracted city attorney firm has expertise in Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 15 specialty areas in addition to standard municipal legal areas—minimizing the need to seek contracted help from additional firms; and no direct line of reporting to the administration, which can reduce potential for bias and the appearance of political interference in legal decisions. Councilmember Teitzel highlighted cons for a contracted city attorney: lack of cost predictability in the hourly rate model, as opposed to the less common flat-rate model; performance evaluation process can be cumbersome and vague (as opposed to a direct reporting arrangement); City may not have consistency in attorney coverage (e.g., when primary attorney is not available, a substitute may step in who is not as familiar with the current city issues). Councilmember Teitzel summarized each model has pros and cons. He reiterated if the council chooses to go in-house that is a big, long-term decision, not to be taken lightly and will require funding contract attorneys in addition to the in-house attorney. Councilmember Teitzel cited numbers from the data provided. The in-house annual expense for 2022 ranged from $725,000 in Shoreline to $1.5 million in Puyallup; Edmonds paid Lighthouse $647,000 in 2022. He referred to the 2023 hourly rate comparison for current contracted attorneys, Lighthouse Tier 1 attorneys bill at $336/hour and Tier 2 attorneys bill at $253/hour, which is in the mid-range of other 2023 contracted city attorney rates. He concluded Edmonds was getting a fair deal from that perspective compared to the market. COUNCILMEMBER TEITZEL MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER BUCKSHNIS, THAT THE CITY CONTINUE TO CONTRACT FOR CITY ATTORNEY SERVICES. Councilmember Nand said, speaking not as a member of the legal assessment subcommittee but as a councilmember, she was in favor of retaining the contract model as well as bypassing an RFP and retaining the contract with Lighthouse. She did not think the City of Edmonds was large enough administratively to justify having in-house counsel. Funding the RFPs for support paralegal and assistants and managing outside billing of specialty law firms is an endeavor that a much larger city might undertake; Edmonds does not have that level of need. The City’s needs are more than adequately being served by Lighthouse and the contact attorney model. She anticipated the City would be taking on more fuss, expense and headaches than needed with an in-house attorney because basically the City is contracting with Lighthouse to manage that administrative burden. As the 2022 Legal Investment Summary for Comparator Cities indicates, the City is getting a very good bargain. Councilmember Buckshnis commented she takes this job very seriously and was involved with the review in 2014 and saw the fiasco in 2019. She also worked with Ogden Murphy Wallace when she was first on council. She has discussed this with many individuals including attorneys and supports continuing to contract for city attorney services. An issue for discussion is non-biased decisions and whether the citizens still have trust in Lighthouse. Councilmember Teitzel raised a point of order, suggesting Councilmember Buckshnis speak to the motion. His motion was not related to any particular firm but continuing to contract for city attorney services. Mayor Nelson ruled point taken. Councilmember Buckshnis commented this was an important issue due to lawsuits, tort, land use, and everything imaginable facing the City such as 5G and agreed the City should continue contracting for city attorney services. Councilmember Olson commended the subcommittee for the information provided in the packet. She referenced two cons related to an in-house attorney that she was interested in avoiding and she has a strong bias toward a contract arrangement. Those cons are related to potential gaps in coverage should the counsel be ill or on vacation. There has also been a question raised of whether one in-house city attorney would be adequate or if more than one would be required which makes it a less financially viable option. Under the Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 16 current contract city attorney arrangement, when Mr. Taraday is away, there are other very competent attorneys available to fill that role. She highlighted another con related to an in-house attorney reporting to the mayor and potential for compromising the independence of the city attorney. Those were big reasons not to utilize an in-house city attorney model. Almost all the pros of an in-house city attorney are met with the City’s particular contracted attorney Lighthouse such as familiarity with city issues and personnel, long term commitment and gain of institutional knowledge, generally accessible, focused only on City issues and more sensitive to ongoing issues because regularly works in the City. She had no reservations with a vote for a contracted city attorney model. COUNCILMEMBER PAINE MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER NAND, TO AMEND THE MOTION TO CONTINUE CONTRACTING WITH LIGHTHOUSE EFFECTIVE TONIGHT. Councilmember Paine commented it was clear the council had all the votes needed for an RFP for a contracted city attorney model. With Lighthouse, the City has terrific access to a broad range of legal services with a well-respected municipal services law firm. A contracted city attorney is more cost effective and multi-year contracts offer consistency and easy access to legal advice for both the council and administration. The service provided by Lighthouse is tantamount to having in-house counsel but provided via a contract. Looking from a 30,000-foot view, the City has had very effective counsel who knows everyone, can speak to their concerns and picks up on threads. Lighthouse’s staffing model has been very effective with superb services. She expressed support for a new contract with Lighthouse effective next week. Councilmember Teitzel said although he has had a very good experience with Lighthouse, he will not support the motion because many citizens have said it is time after 12-13 years to see what is available in market. It is incumbent on councilmembers to hear those voices and to respond. He preferred to proceed with an RFP which both the contract with Lighthouse and the ordinance related to the city attorney provides for. Councilmember Olson asked if there were any councilmember who did not want to take a vote on this issue tonight. She did not want to vote if anyone wanted more time to make that decision. To the extent that the council proceeds with a vote tonight, she had the same opinion bubble up through this process. She was thankful for the process and the amount of information provided to council. To the point made by another councilmember about wanting to learn what is available in the market, the council is unlikely to learn that from applications or interviews so that is not a compelling reason. Having someone actually do the work is how one sees how the work will be done. She had compelling reasons for continuing with the current contract city attorney after evaluating this packet. Many of the pros of an in-house attorney have been met with the City’s existing contracted attorney, which may not be the case for other cities who utilize contracted city attorneys per the feedback from comparator cities. Councilmember Olson observed Lake Stevens contracts separately for employment law and Puyallup contracts separately for telecom and cable franchises, areas of expertise that Lighthouse has. Issaquah paid two additional months of overlap between their new and old contracted attorneys when they selected another contracted attorney. Even if the City obtains a new contract attorney at exactly the same hourly cost, they will not have the institutional knowledge that Lighthouse has, requiring more hours for the new contract attorney to gather information. She concluded it would be more expensive to contract with a different city attorney. Based on the above, and crediting Lighthouse for navigating a very contentious few years with professionalism and patience, she will support continuing to contract with Lighthouse. In speaking to the amendment to bypass an RFP process and negotiate a contract with Lighthouse, Councilmember Nand said her philosophy is if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. If there had been serious problems as a result of the review of Lighthouse in January where multiple people who work with the city attorney indicated they were dissatisfied with the level of service, she would have supported devoting time to Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 17 managing an RFP process. However, she did not think that was a good use of the council’s time this year and preferred the City strengthen its relationship with Lighthouse. Although she was unsure the City would ever get back to the incredible flat rate that Lighthouse offered, the hourly rate contract is being managed very judiciously and the City is making good use of taxpayer dollars. She preferred if it was not broke, don’t not fix it and for council to focus on actual issues facing the City and not fall prey to a very vocal minority that have issues with the city attorney. Of the 43,000 people in Edmonds, 99.99% do not have a problem with Lighthouse or the services they provide. Councilmember Chen observed a lot has been said about the wonderful service provided by the current city attorney, but as elected officials, the council represents its constituents in making a decision whether to have legal services provided via a contracted firm or in-house attorney. He agreed with continuing with a contract model given the City’s size and situation and all the pros and cons that councilmembers have cited. However, he did not support the amendment because he wanted to see what’s out there. If Lighthouse continued to be the strongest candidate, logically they would be selected as the City’s contracted attorney. Councilmember Buckshnis said there was a reason the City chose to look at other attorneys in the past when OMW was the city attorney. Like Mr. Wambolt described, the City hired a young firm with a flat rate model and learned a lot. It is important to citizens to be judicious because there has been a long-term relationship with Lighthouse and there have been a lack of trust with some citizens on specific issues. She agreed an RFP process would take a lot of time, but the last few years have been very tedious and troublesome with some things that happened. Councilmember Paine urged councilmembers to support the amendment because the City has been getting high quality service from Lighthouse. The judicial officers who commented on their work said Lighthouse was top of the line and could not have scored them higher. Lighthouse has been doing municipal services work for the City with high marks. UPON ROLL CALL, MOTION CARRIED (4-2-1), COUNCIL PRESIDENT TIBBOTT AND COUNCILMEMBERS OLSON, PAINE AND NAND VOTING YES; COUNCILMEMBERS CHEN AND BUCKSHNIS VOTING NO; AND COUNCILMEMBER TEITZEL ABSTAINING. MAIN MOTION AS AMENDED CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 10. MAYOR'S COMMENTS Mayor Nelson gave a special shout out to Council President Tibbott, commenting he was looking forward to councilmembers and directors attending the budget retreat and having a good discussion. 11. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilmember Buckshnis reported Earth Day at Marina Beach was great. She thanked Robert Ha and the Asian Service Center team and Councilmember Chen. She heard the other team which included the youth commission doing cleanup at Yost Park also had a great day. Councilmember Nand commented the community was struck by two tragedies this week, an innocent man was stabbed to death going to the grocery store at WinCo on Highway 99 and there was nothing people could do to save his life, and a young boy was shot, whether randomly or targeted. Her heart broke that a mother posted on My Edmonds Neighbors asking that anyone with information regarding the shooting report to the police. The council is trying to move police services to Highway 99, and she assured this is not a part of the community that is being disregarded or should be underserved. Edmonds should not be the type of place where people are stabbed or shot. There is violence happening in the community indigenously and coming into the community from other places. People should feel safe to live, work, and visit Edmonds Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 18 and just go to the grocery store or let their son play with friends. She summarized these events were heartbreaking and her heart goes out to those families. Councilmember Paine echoed Councilmember Nand’s comments, the escalating violence needs to be addressed. She announced Edmonds Earth Fair on Saturday at the Frances Anderson field from 12 to 3:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend and volunteer opportunities are available. The Climate Protection Committee has been working on the fair for the last 15 months. It will include providers such as Ridwell and opportunities to recycle plastic, food truck, dietitians, composing tips and tricks, haulers, etc. Council President Tibbott referred to tragedies that occurred this last week, commenting it is very regrettable in so many ways to see this happening in Edmonds, it is frightening, grieving and not reflective of the Edmonds he knows. One of the silver linings for him was to see how effectively the Edmond Police Department worked with other police departments to develop a list of suspects and eventually bring people to justice. Council President Tibbott reported he and his wife recently celebrated their 29th anniversary; the vast majority of their married life has been spent in Edmonds. There were many places to choose from for dinner. He thanked his friends who offered suggestions and reminded anyone celebrating an anniversary, birthday, etc. that there are many great places in Edmonds. Councilmember Olson commented on the recent incidents, finding them so regrettable, and her heart goes out to those families. Even one incident is too many. She appreciated the KOMO story that indicated Edmonds’ violent crime is down overall, the lowest since 2018 even with the addition of these two incidents. She wanted the public to hear that information, acknowledging incidents like these in the community are very scary and upsetting. She hoped everyone could find a way to way to contribute to broken window kind of crimes. It is not coincidence that there is gang graffiti in Edmonds and gang-like, violent actions happening. She relayed a story of someone who used to live across the street from a school in Seattle where graffiti showed up every day. They and the neighbor got permission from the school to paint over graffiti and it became a game to see who could paint over the graffiti faster. If that’s what it takes, she wanted to do that to protect Edmonds and let gangs know that Edmonds is not a place for them. Councilmember Chen said he was saddened, and his heart goes out to the family of the man stabbed to death on Highway 99. There have been many incidences in the last few years in the underserved Highway 99 corridor including the 7-Eleven shooting, the Boo Han Market shooting, a robbery at gunpoint on the Interurban Trail, the Plum Tree Plaza fire that destroyed 14 businesses and now this stabbing in the parking lot of a shopping center and numerous break-ins and thefts, shoplifting, etc. There is a hotel coming to this corridor, bridge housing that will help people in need. Two years ago, he recommended a study to relocate the police substation to Highway 99 which did not get much traction. In the 2023’s budget, he requested $60,000 to study relocating services. He hoped this was a wake-up call for elected officials and the public that crime is concentrated in this area and police services need to be where the action is. The Uptown City Hall provides a presence on Highway 99, but it is not enough to deter crimes. Councilmember Chen thanked Councilmember Buckshnis for her leadership in organizing the youth commission to help with the Marina Beach cleanup. He never knew it would be much fun picking up garbage. He said the people who participated from the Asian Service Center is not the entire team, it is only 1/10th of them. Councilmember Teitzel reported on April 16 a hate crime incident occurred at the Edmonds United Methodist Church on Caspers Street in Edmonds where pornographic and hate filled flyers were placed on car windshields in the parking lot. The images on the flyers were horrific and he hoped to never see something like that again. As Mayor Nelson has said on multiple occasions which he completely agreed Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 19 with, hate has no place in Edmonds. He read from the press release the church posted on April 20 in the local media, “A response and a call to a community vigil. Dear Church and Edmonds Community. On Sunday, April 16, we had an incident at church during our 10:30 am service. A man put double sided flyers on congregants’ cars in the parking lot. The flyers were violent, transphobic, homophobic, racist, and child pornographic. A staff member saw the flyers and removed them from most of the cars. This incident was immediately reported to the Edmonds Police Department. The police were already made aware of the incident from a neighbor and were concerned. The police offered a presence in the parking lot on Sunday evening during the youth group meeting. Our Edmonds UMC Administrative Board met on Tuesday, April 17 to discuss the matter and create a plan moving forward. The Board unanimously agreed to increase our security measures including additional cameras on the property, locked building doors, a buzzer system to enter the building during the week, and additional measures. The Board is taking this threat very seriously and is creating a robust safety and emergency preparedness plan to implement in the next two weeks to adequately take care of our staff, school, and groups that meet in and use the building. The Board also unanimously affirmed Edmonds UMC’s commitment as a reconciling congregation: a church that affirms, welcomes, serves, and loves all people, especially folks who are trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, asexual, and intersex. Pastor Ann will serve as our primary point of contact as we deal with this matter. There is a song written by Mark Miller with the words: We resist, we refuse to let hatred in! We rise up, we won’t back down! We’re in this ‘til the end. Pray for your enemies! Welcome the stranger! Show love to your neighbor! We’re in this ‘til the end. This disturbing, hateful, violent act is meant to intimidate us and strike fear into us. As you read this and learn about this incident, if you feel afraid or anxious, I affirm it. This is a really disturbing event. And I also want to affirm that we are Easter people, church. We resist and refuse to let hatred in!” Councilmember Teitzel continued, the church plans to hold a community vigil “We Side with Love” on Tuesday, May 2 at 6 p.m. in the Edmonds United Methodist Church sanctuary. He encouraged elected officials and the public to attend. Executive Session At 9:04 p.m. the city council convened in executive session for approximately 20 minutes to discuss pending or potential litigation per RCW 42.30.110(1)(i). The executive session concluded at 9:23 p.m. Reconvene in Open Session The meeting was reconvened at 9:26 p.m. No action was taken. 12 ADJOURN With no further business, the council meeting was adjourned at 9:26 p.m. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes April 25, 2023 Page 20 ____ SCOTT PASSEY, CITY CLERK