Vancouver City Council

0:00 Good evening, welcome to Vancouver City Council. Today is Monday, August 10th, 2026. Two workshops this afternoon. The first one was an update on the affordable housing fund and the second on the multifamily tax exemption code changes brought on by House Bill 1491. We went into executive session to discuss collective bargaining. We're now in our regular meeting. Would you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Ms. Stoller, please call the roll. Council Member Harless. Present. Perez. Present. Box. Here. Paulson. Here. Stover.

0:54 Hanson. Present. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle. Present. Move to excuse Council Member Stover. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Councilors, you have three sets of minutes in front of you. How about the minutes of July 20? Are there any changes, corrections? Move to approve. Fox, seconded by? Harless. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Minutes of July 27. Corrections or changes? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve. Fox, seconded by? Harless. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. And the minutes of August 3rd. Hanson.

1:49 Seconded by? Perez. Are there any corrections or changes? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. We'll now move into community communication. I do not have any cards for this. I do have one person. Kimberly Elbon from Liss Center. Not here. Close that. I'll move on. And we have the senior patrol leader from troop 358. Please come and join us. Tell us a little bit about the folks in your troop, please. Asa is my assistant senior patrol leader. Our troop was founded and chartered by Vancouver

2:49 Church about 20 years or so, a little bit more. We meet every Monday and have campouts every third weekend of the month. During our meetings, we cover a large range of topics focusing mainly on scout skills such as fire building, first aid, and knots. We also cover a range of life skills such as internet safety, like leadership, which is more of a scout skill. Then during our outings, we'll go on hikes, do trash cleanups, and complete requirements for the various ranks. This helps the scouts rank up because you have to get the ranks in order to get Eagle, which is the goal of our troop. Each summer, we also have a week on camp. This year, we went to Camp Meriwether for their 100th year anniversary of being a camp. It was an absolute blast. I had a ton of fun, but not only that, we also had four scouts advance to the next rank, which is a pretty big deal. Very big deal. You completed your Eagle? I did. What was your project?

3:49 I built a stage for Royal Ridges Camp up in Yakult. Congratulations. Thank you, Nate. Good job. We gave all of them. Many of your scouts are working on either citizenship in the community or communication tonight. Great. Thank you so very much. Thank you, guys. I'll close the communication, bring it back to consent agenda. Counselors, I have item number six being pulled. Are there any other items you would like pulled? Item two, hearing none more, I will entertain a motion on numbers one, three, four, five, and seven. Motion approved. Fox, seconded by Perez. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Counselor Fox, take item number two, please.

4:46 Item number two is the construction, acceptance, and release of retainage for the Northeast Underneath Fourth Avenue extension. It was the first part of ... It's on Southeast First Street, first part of section 330, Subarea Plan. The contractor was Rachi. This contract, we had a lot of discussion from counsel, worried about some safety of workers, and we added some additional provisions to this contract that were new, and I was asking staff for a bit of an update on how some of those new provisions and inspections were implemented, and I guess the results of that, I did get an email response from staff, but I actually, when I read the response, I thought maybe the rest of counsel should benefit from hearing what staff had to say about this. It was all good news, actually. I was pleasantly surprised

5:43 to hear the response from staff. You said staff was here? Mayor, members of council, deputy city manager, Jeff Tower, I do believe we have staff support in the room. There's Bailey. Thanks. Hello. I'm Bailey Pohl. I'm one of the engineers within construction services, and I followed up with council member Fox. I'll just give you guys an overview of what we said. Yes, we did add some additional inspection resources beyond our normal staffing approach for this project. The additional staff time was charged directly to the capital project and was accounted for as part of the project's construction inspection costs. This was a project specific

6:39 measure and was different from our typical inspection staffing on other projects. The approach to additional staffing did not transfer the responsibility for contractor safety to the city. The contractor remained responsible for its employees, means, methods, site safety and compliance with additional safety requirements. It's also worth noting that after award of this project, staff updated our inspection approach on all projects. The new standard includes consistent staff review of site safety plans, enhanced safety training for staff and continuing use of the state's experience modification rate, EMR among other factors. Yeah, all really great feedback on a project where we were a little concerned about it and not only did it successfully complete, but under budget and also with, it sounds

7:35 like a better safety rating has affected other safety outcomes for other projects. I'm really pleased. Thank you. Okay, I'll entertain a motion for item number two. Move to approve item number two. Fox, seconded by Perez. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Item number six is an ordinance rendering findings and issuing a decision on the Mount Hood zone change from R9 lower density residential to R17 lower density residential and an 82 lot subdivision and providing for severability and an effective date. Okay, Councillor Hanson

8:23 recuses himself. Councillors, any comments, questions, concerns? Councillor Fox. Just a question. Did you pull this because staff was going to? No, because Councillor Hanson wanted it pulled. Okay. I mean, other than the fact that this reviewing this development proposal and the hearings examiner record, unless other council members have come up with other things, but it would seem as if we have a very narrow ability to really make any particular mitigation measures given that they're following every code we have. So they're not asking for additional concessions for this project. And so just yeah, I thought

9:22 we were going to have maybe a presentation on this particular project tonight. City Attorney Nina Cook. Thank you, Mayor. A reminder to council that this matter will be subject to a quasi judicial hearing next week, at which time we'll go through the question and answer process to confirm and assure the applicant and the public that you have not yet made up your minds until after you hear the evidence and after the hearing next week. Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Deputy City Manager Jeff Towery. Thank you, Mayor. One item to add, we did get a request from Councillor Stover for information to be presented at the public hearing at your next council meeting. I'll just highlight that for you. The question was about the zone change, because this particular zone no longer exists in the newly implemented comp plan. Staff will give a more detailed answer, but just a reminder that this application

10:21 was submitted prior to the new comp plan being approved and going into effect, and so it's actually being processed under the rules that were in place at the time. And there'll be more details during the staff report next week. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. So Councillors, I'll entertain a motion to advance the ordinance setting the date for the second reading and public hearing for next Monday, August 17th. So moved. Paulson. Paulson seconded by Fox. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Councillor Zach concludes the business of the city. We'll move into communications. Councillor Harless. Hi, Council Member Harless. I wanted to bring to the rest of council and see if there was support for

11:19 putting on a future consent agenda a resolution that would express our opposition to the two ballot initiatives in November, IL26001 and IL26638. I already chatted briefly, and my one-on-one with our city manager just about, like, what does our future agendas look like, and that he confirmed this would be an easy lift, and we could even see it on the agenda this month if the council would like to see that. I feel like it's definitely in alignment with a lot of our values and statements that we have made, and the City of Tacoma just did this recently. I'm looking for support from others to put this on a future consent agenda. This is Councillor Perez. I support us looking into this further and bringing

12:14 this back so that we're better aware of what these initiatives actually mean to our children so that we could have a more informed discussion about what it means. Councillor Harless, what are the ballot measures again? It is IL26001 and IL26638. Two members of the council have asked for an agenda addition. We will find the opportunity to make that happen. Just to clarify those two initiatives, it's the No Hate in Washington State campaign effort. These two initiatives are really about respecting our children, the dignity of our kids. Most

13:14 importantly, I don't believe that our children should be subjected to physical touch to just confirm their gender. I think that is absurd, and so I just wanted you to get a little more information on what those two initiatives are when you do your homework and we research on it. I look forward to our discussion on where we stand with that. Other than that, having so much fun introducing the summer concerts in the park. I know we've got one last summer concert coming up this weekend, Sunday. Really sad to see those come to a closure, but it's just been a delight to see so many people really come out and enjoy the park system and music and get together and really thank our sponsors for helping us make that happen and, most importantly, to be able to provide those for free. I know

14:10 there's a lot that has been taking place in our great city, so I just want to make sure that I'm very thankful that we love our city and that we're out there enjoying all the events and that our staff is working really hard to provide all those opportunities for our families. So that is it. Thank you. Councillor Foxx. Councillor Paulson. You were busy this weekend. Councillor Hanson. Let's talk about Furcrest. Is that happening tomorrow? It is. Go ahead. So national night out? It is. Furcrest. Is there anywhere else that's going on tomorrow night? Not tomorrow night, but Wednesday night, Airport Green. Okay. Yeah. Those were all the national night outs that were cancelled because of smoke and everything else. So this week, Tuesday, tomorrow night, Furcrest, big one, and then Wednesday, Airport Green. Excellent. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Oh, okay. Thursday also is Open House Ministries block party in the middle of the day, which

15:10 is always a wonderful event. So we'll be looking forward to that, but we had a heck of a time at the Art and Music Festival this weekend. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, it was packed. And again, free concerts to the entire world. A little Gershwin last night. That was lovely. The breeze was blowing through. No smoke, clear skies, lots of fun activities. And 50,000 people probably found a place to park and walk into all of the exhibits and all of the sculptures. And the dragon had his parade with all the little dragons behind it. And Vancouver Symphony had a huge turnout all three nights. Gosh, we had high schoolers up on stage too. They did a beautiful job. Anything that I forgot, Councilman?

16:08 I think you covered it pretty well. Other than to say, I think that we should take tremendous pride in our symphony and the fact that ours is the only free outdoor performance of its kind in the entire Pacific Northwest. Nothing in Oregon and nothing up north of us. Right. And last night during the introduction, the mayor did an informal poll of our audience members and I would say close to 30% indicated that they had come from south of the river. So bringing a lot of people in from a pretty wide geography to enjoy our great city. And I think all of us got an email this morning from somebody who complimented us on having come here recently and appreciated the changes that our city has undergone and complimented us for that. So we have a lot to take pride in. Great partnership. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. Deputy City Manager, any additional updates

17:06 from you? Thank you, mayor, members of council. This is my favorite part of the agenda because I get to delegate upward. There's a couple of homework items for the city manager to follow up on. We've got, we'll provide some detailed information on the projects for affordable housing that have been committed but have unspent balances. We'll also provide the council with the makeup of the housing review committee. And then we will also bring forward an item for discussion of a resolution related to the two ballot measures that Councilor Harless identified during her news report. This point, we have a report to you from the Commission on Aging and like to invite Mike Anderson and Julie Donovan forward to provide that presentation for you tonight. Thank you.

17:52 Come on up. Hit those little buttons and the green lights will go on. Good evening. Julie, your ears went off. There we go. Now we can hear you. Thanks, Mike. Okay. Sorry. Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council, city staff and residents of Vancouver. My name is Mike Anderson. I'm the vice chair of the Clark County Commission on Aging and I'd also like to introduce Julie Donovan, one of our esteemed members of the commission. Tonight we will explain to you our actions during 2025. The Commission on Aging also known as the COA is into a second decade of providing leadership, developing community awareness and guiding positive change toward

18:50 an all age friendly livable community. We are so pleased to be able to share a brief annual update with you. Next slide. Can we control the slides? >> Yes. You have the clicker right there. >> Great. The purpose of this work session or this meeting is to update the City Council on the Commission on Aging's work in 2025. Today we'll be sharing some background information about the Commission on Aging. Giving you a high level overview of the aging readiness plan, providing an outline of the commission's 2025 focus on healthy communities and civic involvement. Acquaint you with the 2025 silver citizen award winner and share a summary of a few additional commission achievements in 2025. To start off we'll give you some background on the commission and review the work completed

19:44 by the commission in 2025. Clark County is everywhere in the country. Is anticipating a surge in the number of senior residents 60 or better. By 2035 one in four Clark County residents will be 60 or older. With the knowledge of this coming change the county council approved the original aging readiness plan in 2012 and form the nine member volunteer commission on aging. The commission's charge is to provide leadership in addressing the special needs of the aging population to manage and assist with the implementation of the county's aging readiness plan and to update the plans as needs change. The aging readiness plan is a long range planning document that assesses the county's readiness to serve as a home for growing number of older residents. The recommendations focus on topics such as

20:39 missing or lacking public infrastructure, support for social services and zoning and planning standards that encourage an age friendly community that older adults can thrive in. The ten year update of the ARP was adopted by the county council in September of 2023 to ensure that the plan reflected the community's needs, public engagement was the focus of the update of the ARP. It centered on what makes Clark County an age friendly place and what opportunities and hurdles there are for making improvements. Engagement activities included a survey of older adults, focus group meetings with service providers and agencies, online input opportunities and three public workshops to evaluate existing strategies, brainstorm ideas for new strategies and prioritize the strategies for improvement in the community. The commission was honored to learn that the

21:35 updated plan was awarded a 2024 governor smart communities awards from the Washington state department of commerce. The governor smart community awards highlight effective implementation of the state's growth management act and other local or regional planning procedures. The plan received the judge's merit award which recognizes success in more than one judge category. >> The ARP includes 18 goals that are implemented through 67 strategies. These strategies are intended to improve the community's capacity to support the growth of older population and ultimately benefit all ages. The housing chapter provides strategies to address the various housing needs of the aging community such as multi-generational living options and affordable units. It also supports construction that enables people to age in place which generally means staying in their own home or community as their abilities change.

22:34 The mobility chapter includes strategies based on the transportation and mobility needs of older adults. It outlines ways that older adults tend to travel and areas that could use improvement such as public transit, ADA accessibility and others. The final chapter is on emergency preparedness which was added to the ARP during the update process of 2023. This chapter provides strategies that outline how older adults might be affected by natural and human caused hazards and outlines ways the county can improve the health and safety of older adults and methods to prepare them for these hazards. Aging readiness plan implementation efforts in 2025 focused on healthy communities and civic involvement. The healthy communities chapter provides strategies

23:34 that encourages opportunities in Clark County related to access to healthy foods, parks and recreation and goods and services related to healthy eating. It includes strategies to improve and expand access to resources by creating a welcoming and age friendly built environment that serves all ages and all abilities. The civic involvement chapter establishes strategies based on increasing older adults civic involvement within the county. It reviews ways the older adults can engage with their communities like working, volunteering, attending community events, participating in local government or advocacy work. The commission began their forum series which the commission on aging calls fireside chats to guests and experts focusing on providing access to healthy food resources which included information related to food and other resources

24:30 offered by our local food banks and community gardens. They continued by hosting a meeting with experts from the Clark Calitz fire and rescue, the national alliance on mental illness and hope dementia support to find better ways to raise awareness of available services and support for those experiencing mental illness and those in a caring role. The partnership with hope flourished in 2025 and the commission on aging is looking forward to fostering this connection in the future. The commission on aging also invited staff from the city of Vancouver to discuss opportunities for social connection and fitness. They shared resources and information about opportunities for older adults at the marshallupke and community centers.

25:24 The commission partnered with staff from the area agency on aging and disabilities of southwest Washington for discussion about wrap around care options for older adults who wish to maintain independence and age in place. This discussion included input from design doctors and included information on how older adults can continue to live in their homes comfortably and safely. The commission also explores social connection through a special joint meeting with the Clark county youth commission. The two commissions discuss cross generational challenges around mental health and formed relationships that carry through the school year and concluded with the youth commission art show. In partnership with the area agency on aging and disabilities of southwest Washington, neighborhood associations and other partner

26:18 agencies, we shared and distributed best practices for reaching older adults. The commission on aging also hosted a fireside chat with members from the humane society of southwest Washington and explored the value of social connection between people and animals. Commission members also teamed with hope dementia support and participated in the stand down event in October. These events occur locally all around the U.S. and are meant to connect homeless and at risk veterans with comprehensive support services in one location. The local event is organized by the Clark county veterans assistance center and is open to all veterans and their families. Commission members connected with visitors, provided a listening ear and gathered feedback about the challenges facing veterans today. Early in the year, the commission on aging welcomed area experts from both the private and public sector to discuss housing options

27:14 for low income individuals. And in the fall, commission members benefited from a presentation provided by the Clark county assessor's office regarding a special tax exemption option for seniors. In addition to the focus on healthy communities and civic involvement, the commission on aging presented its annual civil citizen award to encourage and support older adults for their contributions. The Clark county commission on aging established a civil citizen program to recognize older adults who go above and beyond in service. The award recognizes the valuable contributions older adults make to the vitality of a community and is open to any county resident 60 years or better who has enhanced the community through their life's work, engagement of others, volunteerism or other impactful acts of service to the community for any age group.

28:11 Recognition for 2025 was awarded to Sharon Warki, president of the board of directors for the battleground senior citizens inc. She has actively served this group since 2018 and under her leadership, the group has expanded their roster from 90 to over 700 participants. I talked to her today, it was over 900. And serves up to 200 lunches to area seniors each week. >> And finally, other commission work included members and staff giving presentations at several local community meetings in 2025. This included city and town council meetings, neighborhood groups and advisory bodies. Commission members also provided a presence at meetings for the Washington state council on aging, community health access resource team, it's now known as chart, formerly the ADRN and the area agency on aging and disabilities of southwest Washington advisory council.

29:11 They also co-spondered a county council proclamation for older Americans month. That is the end of our formal presentation. We would now like to open up for discussion and answer any questions you may have for us or discuss topics of interest for you. >> Thank you, Mike, thank you, Julie. Councillors, do you have any questions? Yes, Councillor Hanson. >> Thank you, mayor, council member Hanson. Just wanted to say great report and thank you for coming in and letting us know what you're up to. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I hope to see you at the fur crest national night out tomorrow. That's my neighborhood. >> That's always a huge event out there. >> We expect anywhere from 300 to 500 people. >> Are you starting at 5 or 5.30? >> 5 o'clock, groups should be -- the groups that are having booths there will be set up by 4.30.

30:07 >> Sure. And parking at the school district? >> Yes. There's two major parking lots right next to the park. >> Thank you, Mike, Julie. Good job. >> I also do have copies of our annual report for the Councillors. >> Yeah, Mike, just leave them with Jeff. He'll take care of them. Pass them out. Good job. Okay. Mr. Towery, do you have any other items from the city manager's table? All right. That closes communication. This is the point in our evening where we're done with all of the agenda items. We open it up to the public to talk to us about anything that they would like to talk about. And we do not videotape this. We do audio tape it according to the RCWs. So we'll go ahead and ask staff to go ahead and turn off the cameras.