Welcome everyone.

Thank you for being here and for taking the time to engage in our work.

We are glad to hear from you, uh City Clerk.

Are you ready for the roll call?

Thank you, Mayor Melcutian.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Bargaba.

Here.

Council Member Bryan.

Here.

Council Member New Enhouse.

Here.

Council Member Robinson.

Here.

Councilmember Sumadoria.

Here.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor, would you please lead us in the flag salute?

Yes.

Please stand if you're able.

Indivisible with liberty and justice world.

We do have four proclamation tonight.

The first one is Earth Day.

Councilmember Robinson would read that and Barb Braun from Kurt Alert and Don Marsh on behalf alert and Don Marsh on behalf of 300 Trees would receive that.

Could you please come and join us on the table?

Yeah, please.

There are four seats, so then the rest are going.

And whereas Bellevue's identity as a city in a park reflects its longstanding commitment to preserving and enhancing natural spaces, ensuring clean air and water, and promoting biodiversity.

And whereas the City of Bellevue continues to advance sustainability through the sustainable Bellevue Plan with goals focused on addressing climate change, improving energy efficiency, supporting suitable mobility, reducing waste and conserving natural resources.

And whereas Bellevue is taking proactive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy, expand green infrastructure, and grow the urban tree canopy and build climate resilience and protect future generations, and whereas community engagement is essential to achieving Bellevue's environmental goals with residents, businesses, and organizations participating in tree planting, habitat restoration, litter cleanup, and climate action initiatives.

And whereas we, the City of Bellevue, encourage all who live and work here to take part in Earth Day activities, volunteer efforts, and environmental education opportunities throughout the community.

And whereas the city proudly celebrates Earth Day at its annual Earth Fest event, taking place April 18th at the Belleby Botanical Gardens, and is open to the community to join us in celebration.

Now, therefore, I Lynn Robinson, on behalf of the Bellevue City Council, do hereby proclaim April 22nd, 2026 as Earth Day.

Please.

And with recipients in 37 King County cities.

In addition to our giveaway, we are now helping to run municipal giveaways in Bellevue, Redmond, Issoqua, and for the first time this fall, Samish.

In partnership with Samamish High School and the Eastside Audubon Society, we've planted a thriving mini forest on the grounds of the high school.

This mini forest joins similar projects in Issaqua in Seattle, helping to educate kids and building new habitat for our wildlife.

Thanks, Benny.

I'm Don Marsh, co-founder and vice president of 300 Trees.

And it's my great pleasure and honor to serve with Benny and our other fantastic 300 trees volunteers.

In addition to all the work Benny mentioned serving King County, we are also very engaged in the tree protection policies that have been developed and continue to serve Bellevue.

Your focus on tree planting and tree protection benefits benefits not just our city, but it provides a great example and leadership for our region.

We are grateful for that, because trees are integral to our quality of life and the health of our ecosystem.

The physical benefits are well known.

Cleaner air, reduced noise, mitigation for deadly heat islands, and storm water retention.

But did you know that trees have documented mental benefits as well?

Trees can reduce crime, improve property values, calm traffic speeds, and simply improve our state of mind.

And for the environment, they provide food and shelter for birds and animals, shade for young salmon, and carbon sequestration to mitigate high levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

Besides all that, trees are just wondrous and beautiful co-inhabitants of our city.

On Earth Day, we want to thank you for helping us to help the trees.

Thank you so much.

If you guys hang out around, we can take a picture after the Fourth Proclamation.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And I, although we love trees and we love Earth, please keep the clapping hand to zero.

Thank you.

Councilmember Breyer is going to read that.

I invite uh Dr.

Dr.

May, the president and you to the table.

Thank you.

Please go ahead.

It's my honor, Mayor.

Thank you.

Whereas Bellevue College was founded in 1966 as a small community college serving fewer than 500 students and has since grown into the third largest higher education institution in Washington, serving more than 600,000 students over six decades.

And whereas Bellevue College provides accessible, high-quality educational opportunities through a wide range of programs, including bachelor's degrees, associates' degrees, certificates, and workforce training that support lifelong learning and career advancement.

And whereas the college's mission to be a catalyst for lifelong transformation that drives social and economic progress reflects its commitment to well-being, collaboration, accountability, agility, curiosity, and integrity.

And whereas during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, Bellevue College served more than 21,000 students and continues to support student success through strong faculty engagement and a diverse range of academic and professional pathways.

And whereas Bellevue College is recognized as a leader in student outcomes, ranking first in Washington State for a 10-year return on investment among public institutions and among the top institutions nationally for graduates earning and career success.

And whereas Bellevue College enriches our community through its media programs, including KBCS 91.3 FM and BC TV, Channel 28, and continues to invest in the future through campus expansion and new facilities such as the interdisciplinary arts building opening in 2027.

And whereas the city of Bellevue is a hub for education, innovation, and talent with a highly educated population and strong partnerships between educational institutions, employers, and the community.

And Bellevue College plays a central role in preparing the next generation of leaders.

Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Noreen Breyer, on behalf of Mo Malicotian, Mayor of Bellevue of Washington, and on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim the 16th anniversary of Bellevue College and Bellevue and celebrate six decades of impact, innovation, and opportunity, while recognizing Bellevue College's enduring role in shaping lives, strengthening the regional economy, and building a more connected and prosperous community for the future.

Thank you, Councilmember Yarr.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Breyer.

Excuse me.

I want to say that the college deeply appreciates the long-standing partnership with the City of Bellevue.

The City of Bellevue was about 15 years old when Bellevue College was founded.

And so while you are the older sibling, we have really grown up together in this region as this region has expanded and grown.

And it's been an important part of the mission of Bellevue College to continue in partnership with the city and others to ensure that we're continuing to meet the needs of not just the city of Bellevue, but the region.

We're right now on Bellevue TV, which is hosted on the Bellevue College campus and has been for over 30 years.

And so that long-standing idea of partnership, but also currently, as we're working with the city to develop an innovation exchange that will be hosted on the Bellevue College campus, as we are investing with the city in digital equity and other issues that matter to the city and to the citizens that we serve.

And so thank you very much for this.

And I know that I am looking forward to the next 60 years and what we can do together.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

If you stay around, we can take a picture for short after the fourth proclamation.

The third one is National Arab American Heritage Month.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, as Arab Americans have long been an integral part of communities across the United States, including here in Bellevue, contributing to the city's culture, richness, economic vitality, and civic life.

And whereas Arab Americans have made and continue to make meaningful contributions across many fields, including business, education, health care, public service, art and culture, helping to shape a vibrant and thriving community.

And whereas Bellevue is committed to being a welcome city where people of all backgrounds feel a sense of belonging and are respected, valued, and able to fully participate in community life.

And whereas recognizing and celebrating Arab American heritage helps foster greater understanding, appreciation, and connection among neighbors while countering misconceptions and harmful stereotypes.

And whereas Arab Americans, like all members of our community, seek a peaceful, inclusive society where every individual is treated with dignity, feels safe, and has opportunity to succeed.

And whereas National Arab American Heritage Month provides an opportunity to honor the history, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans, and to reflect on the importance of diversity in strengthening our city.

Now, therefore, I, Claire Summa Diaria, on behalf of Mo Maluku Town, Mayor of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as National Arab American Heritage Month in Bellevue and encourage our residents to learn about, celebrate, and recognize the contributions of Arab Americans to our community and our nation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, uh Mayor Mo and Council members for making us feel welcome.

And yeah, thanks again.

Thank you.

Please hang out.

If you can take a picture.

The last one is Sikh Heritage Month.

Uh, Councilmember New Enhaus will read the proclamation, and I will invite uh Shirog Vir Singh Saro and Nihal Vir Singh Soro to the table.

Thank you.

Um, whereas the city of Bellevue celebrates the rich cultural diversity that strengthens our community and recognizes the important contributions of Sikh Americans to the fabric of our city and of our nation.

And whereas Sikhism, founded over 550 years ago, is one of the world's major religions and is rooted in values of equality, of selfless service, justice, and faith.

And whereas April is recognized as Sikh Heritage Month, a time to honor the vibrant traditions, spiritual heritage, and significant contributions of the Sikh community, as well as to acknowledge their resilience and ongoing efforts to advance equity and inclusion.

And whereas this month also includes a celebration of Vasaki, one of the most significant holidays in Sikhism, commemorating the founding of Khalsa in 1699 and celebrated as Khalsa Day, marking a time of renewal of community and shared identity.

And whereas Sikh Heritage Month offers an opportunity to reflect on the core principles of Sikhism, including the pursuit of truth, service to others, and the protection of human rights, which align with Bellevue's vision of being a welcoming city where all people feel they belong.

Whereas King County is home to one of the largest Sikh communities in the United States, reflecting the deep roots and continued growth of the city community in our region.

And now, therefore, I, Councilmember Newhouse, on behalf of Mayor Malik Chutian, as the city of Bellevue, Washington and the City Council to hereby proclaim April 2026 as Sikh Heritage Month in Bellevue and encourage all residents to join in celebrating the history, the faith and contributions of the Sikh community and to continue to build a more inclusive and connected community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Please go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, and respected community members.

My name is Chirag Singh Sarau, and it is an honor to be here today as we recognize Vasaki and Khalsa Day.

Visaki marks the start of the harvest season in Punjab.

But for six, it holds a deeper meaning.

On Visaki in sixteen ninety nine, Guru Gobin Singhji, the tenth guru, established the Khalsa, a community committed to living with courage, discipline, and service to humanity.

At a time when injustice and oppression was widespread, this was a bold call.

To stand up for what was right and live without fear.

Here in Bellevue and across the Puget Sound area, you may see sick families contribute as students, educators, professionals, and volunteers.

This spirit comes directly from the teachings of the Khalsa.

On behalf of the Sikh community, I thank the city of Bellevue for recognizing Visaki and Kalsa Day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda.

Second.

It has been moved by Deputy Mayer and seconded by Councilman Newtonhouse.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

City Killer, can we go through the speakers that sign up for tonight to oral communications?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

There are seven pre-registered speakers.

So before I start calling names, I'll go over a few things with folks.

But first I want to thank everybody who has signed up this evening, and the council appreciates members of the public engaging and contributing their perspectives and also supports everyone's right to express themselves.

I do want to note that uh comments shared during oral communications represent the views of individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or values of the council or the city.

And while the council does not respond to individual commenters during this portion of the meeting, please know that council or staff will be following up with those if and when appropriate.

So I will go to the rules portion of this.

And the total time of oral communications is for a period of not more than 30 minutes, and all topics must relate to City of Bellevue government.

People speaking to items on tonight's agenda will be called first, and then if time remains, people speaking to items not on tonight's agenda will be called.

In both of those categories, the presiding officer is authorized to give preference to those who have not spoken to counsel within the last 60 days or who will be speaking on topics that will come in front of the council within the next 60 days.

And finally, I want to remind folks that in compliance with Washington state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during elections.

No speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for election, and that includes one's own campaign.

Anyone top speaking on those topics will be asked to stop.

So with that, I will call our first speaker who is Randy Banneker.

Welcome.

Good evening, uh Mayor Melakutian, Deputy Mayor Hamilton, and members of the city council.

My name's Randy Banneker, and I'm here on behalf of the Seattle King County Realtors.

Uh 7,000 of them in the county, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to comment in support of the draft sign code that you'll be briefed on this evening.

Our members place a very high value on the opportunity to work with home buyers and sellers in the in the city of Bellevue, and we consider it in our mutual interest to support the city's efforts to maintain the high quality of life that your residents enjoy.

We appreciate the allowance to post on premises temporary real estate signage that advertises a home for sale, rent or lease, and off-premises, those A-boards, uh, open house signs that are posted during open house hours.

And we appreciate the opportunity to do that without a required registration or permit.

Signs can't discriminate.

Real estate signs remain important for buyers and sellers in the transaction process.

They reduce market time, and they give buyers an opportunity to just kind of drive the neighborhood and get a feel for what uh what the city of Bellevue offers.

Um the importance of signs, uh, real estate signage continues even as online platforms play greater roles in the home selection process.

Now, we have worked with many cities in King County as they've updated their sign codes to align with the Reed versus Gilbert Supreme Court decision.

Sign codes are beasts.

Uh they're complex, they're detailed, they're high stakes, and difficult to balance the many interests.

Most cities struggle to get them right.

Uh Bellevue's process, however, is a standout.

Uh it's a model for responsiveness to the public, uh, to the community, and to end up uh drafting a code that's that's effective.

Development services staff has been engaged with sign users, helping us understand the direction of the code rewrite and taking seriously our questions and concerns early in the process.

It's good work and it means the world.

The draft before you complies with the Supreme Court decision.

It streamlines and clarifies the code, makes it more uh user-friendly.

Uh, works for sign users and preserves the aesthetic of Bellevue.

Um I'd urge your support of it, and and I want you to know if you have any questions regarding real estate signage.

I hope you'll consider me a resource.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Matt Chak.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

My name is Matt Jack, and I'm here on behalf of the Bellevue Downtown Association to share our enthusiastic support for the Bellevue Ready Kickoff Initiative.

This city program is helping local organizations activate public spaces, which aligns perfectly with what the BDA strives to do.

As a result of this initiative, we have been able to challenge ourselves to pursue bold ideas and produce new types of programs, strengthening our ability to be a placemaker.

So I just want to say thank you to council and city staff for helping us push ourselves to do cooler things.

Since late last year, we've been working hard on some exciting activations that celebrate soccer and bring the community together.

We're excited to see this work unfold in the coming months, and we want to let you know that we will we will be sharing more details about these programs.

Thank you for your continued support and leadership.

The BDA remains a committed partner to ensuring downtown is an amazing place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Linda Hoffner.

Welcome.

I'm a little shorter.

Okay.

Thanks.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the council.

My name is Linda Hoffner, and I am here representing the Spring District.

Uh also in support of the Bellevue Ready kickoff.

So we also, in partnership with the BDA and the city staff have been working on activations for the upcoming World Cup games.

Very exciting.

So we are also excited after having a very successful light rail to uh cross lake connection opening celebration in the park.

We feel very ready for what we can do to really celebrate the cultural cultural diversity that will be here for World Cup and looking forward to activating the Spring District area of Bellevue and welcoming the world to Spring District via our light rail and all of the many wonderful businesses that we have in and around the Bell Red area and really showcasing um different cultural types of food with our food trucks and food vendors, uh bringing in DJs from all over the world.

So if you're looking for a rockin' party, it's gonna be at the Spring District.

Uh we have some amazing soccer jerseys that we'll be wearing.

I will I'm gonna compete with Emile on his jerseys that he's creating and really hoping to have a very cool fashion show about with jerseys involved.

So looking forward to welcoming you all to the Spring District to celebrate soccer together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Santiago Potenciano.

Welcome.

Good evening, uh mayor and council members.

I thank you for the opportunity to voice uh my concern as a business owner.

Uh my name is Santiago, and I am the owner of Andiamo Restaurante, which is located uh about three blocks north from here.

Uh I'm here today because while the data might show that crime is going down, the reality for small businesses like ours tells a very different story.

Over the past year, our restaurants' windows have been shattered twice by the same uh mentally disabled individual, resulting uh in over 40,000 in damages.

This is uh not just a statistic, this is uh real financial loss.

This rush some disruption to our operations and stress to our staff and customers.

We understand that situations involving mental health are complex, but as business owners, uh, we are left asking uh what are the protocols when the same person repeatedly commits property damage.

What protections are in place for business facing uh repeat incidents, and what is the city doing to prevent this from uh happening again?

We do appreciate the work of our police department and the air force the city has made, but right now it feels like small businesses are carrying uh the burden financially and emotionally without a clear uh path uh to protection or uh resolution.

We're not asking for punishment without compassion, but we are asking for uh accountability uh with solutions.

That means uh coordinated uh response between law enforcement and mental health services, clear uh follow-up when incidents are reported and proactive measures to protect businesses before it happens again.

Um small businesses are part of what makes Bellevue uh vibrant, but we cannot continue to absorb repeated losses like this.

We need to feel that the city is not only aware but actively uh protecting us, and uh that's all I have to say, and then I really thank you for your time and for all the great job you have done to our community.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I think our next speaker is Christian Matoy.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Mamma Mia.

Uh good evening, everyone, good evening, mayor, everybody.

Yes, my name is Christian, and I'm the co-owner of Andiamo Itania Restaurant here in Bellevue, located in the 110th Avenue Northeast with the 10th Street.

Tonight I'm here with my partners, Santiago and Rosendo, to talk about the damage we had faced in the past four months.

We we had uh our windows broken in by the same person in our restaurant.

We know he struggled with the mental uh health, and this is very sad.

I'm not happy about this at all.

The damage he caused, it was very expensive, somewhere over 40,000.

And right now, with this uh difficult economy, people losing their job, everything getting more expensive.

I feel it.

I know you all can see it too.

Our restaurant is down 30, 40 percent compared with uh a year ago, better or better, like two years ago, I'm sorry.

So, on top of this economic struggle, we don't want this person to come back and break again our windows.

We are a small happy family restaurant.

We work together, we eat together, we communicate together, we love together.

Our amazing customers feel that great energy when they come in, and we want to keep our restaurant happy with a happy customers.

That's why we are still surviving.

We are here tonight to ask for protection from the city of Bellevue from uh Bellevue police to help us to keep this person out, actually, to keep this person away from our community from our so please help us.

Yes, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to be here.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, thank you, Mr.

Jarrett.

We are you are amazing, and uh yes, let's hope for the better times.

Let's stay healthy, let's stay happy, let's be positive.

Thank you so much for listening to me.

Unbelievable.

I'm so thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Maria Hudson.

I want to acknowledge several things up front.

We need to have a meeting, and one of your council members sits on the board of LifeWire.

I was advised by Sergeant Marin yesterday that in fact child sex trafficking video had been destroyed by violation of the retention schedule on Bellevue Police Department server and LifeWire, and even the city council record.

And even this city council record.

I advised you guys, all of you, to collect that video.

And I sent the case number for child sex trafficking.

But let's just think about this for a second.

You were advised by me because your officers violated the Adam Walls Child Protection Act that day.

They should have shown up, being the name Security and Patrol, knowing that there were videos on that property, they should have watched that video and found my daughter and those sex traffickers that day.

She went missing September 6th, 2024.

When she returned, and Sergeant Carly did not secure that video.

Sergeant Mirrin says there are no criminal charges for anyone involved.

And he actually pushed off the accountability onto LifeWire and their retention schedule.

And what's even more disturbing is they lied to NORCOM.

They did not disclose for an Amber Alert that my child was taken by sex traffickers that day.

Prosecutors have declined to prosecute these sex traffickers because your officers have routinely racketeered evidence by not collecting it.

That includes Hurley, that includes Halstead, that includes Sergeant Carly and anyone else who came in contact with us.

And they've actually destroyed evidence.

From the October 2nd, 2025 incident, Hurley told me he was going to throw away a bottle with the fingerprints of the perpetrators on it.

So what you're going to need to do is cause a criminal investigation into felony suppression and destruction of evidence.

Because now the child sex traffickers are untouchable because of the mismanagement of my daughter's child sex trafficking case.

And check your servers.

Welcome.

Good evening, counsel.

Am I being heard?

Yes.

But hearing the uh problems of the restaurant owners and the breaking of windows, I should tell you a little bit about, you know, that I house homeless people and that some of them sometimes have mental health problems.

And I don't know if you knew, but within the last two months, one of my residents had a psychotic break, and the police did a good job of getting him arrested, which produced getting him in the psychiatric ward that he needed to be in.

And I'm working with his defense attorney and his mother, and we'll be producing a restitution thing when he completes everything and is discharged before he can come back to my house.

And so this might be something you guys could help these people with this person who is obviously a danger to the community.

And under the law, could possibly be detained and put in psychiatric care.

Now I only have a minute and 23 sentence to talk about parking.

But it's very important that you change the ordinance so that people that live on steep hills can park on the wrong side of the street with their wheels into the curb.

That's one thing, and that's just for public safety.

And the other one again is to grandfather and all of us who owned houses and homes before 1994, when you changed the parking regulations to make people move their car every 24 hours.

Um, you know, when I bought my home, parking in residential areas was free, and it needs to be free.

And stop supporting towing companies by allowing them to tow cars, get your own tow truck, and when that tow truck is not towing cars, have it a multiple thing that he can do something else.

He can be a double person for you.

And I want to compliment the uh street maintenance people, but there are still two big potholes on Southeast 2nd, about 153rd that need to be addressed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is the end of our pre-registered list tonight, but we do still have a few minutes, so I'd ask if there's anyone else joining us tonight who'd like to make a comment to the council that goes for those in person as well as those online.

I do see one hand online.

I'm assuming this is Miss Dean.

Is that you?

Yes, it is me.

Perfect.

Your time begins now.

Great, thank you so much.

Good evening, council.

Um I I had meant to send in a letter signed by eight different neighborhood associations, but of course I don't get paid to do this, so I ran into a roadblock.

But you will be receiving a letter from eight to twelve neighborhood associations about sign code.

We are asking that you exempt neighborhood associations from the temporary sign code registration requirement.

Um, we have neighborhood associations that use both A boards and yard signs.

Um we use them for meetings and events to get that information out to our our neighborhoods.

Um, and you'll notice that in the uh stakeholder survey and engagement, neighborhood associations were not mentioned as um problematic signs.

Um, you know, and unlike other types of temporary uh yard signs out there, you know, candidate uh signs, small businesses, youth sports.

We actually have a stake in making sure that our signs are placed in appropriate places within the right-of-way, that they're maintained while they're being displayed, and that we remove them in a timely manner because we put a lot of time into creating these signs.

Um, and for example, Newport Hills has spent close to $2,000 having multiple sets.

We have about eight sets of signs that we've printed for our events and our meetings.

So requiring neighborhood associations to register and place that registration on signs each time creates unnecessary extra work for associations that are already struggling to function due to declining volunteerism.

And I would point out that for anybody like us that's using corrugated plastics signs when we have to repeatedly attach and then detach registrations, it ruins our signs.

Um, but you know, creating barriers to easy communication between the neighborhood associations and those living within the neighborhood actually conflicts with the uh NH5 in the which is social connectivity section of the comp plans neighborhood element, um, and then also creating additional burdens for neighborhood associations as they attempt to engage with neighbors conflicts with the thriving people and community objectives of the council um 6.6 and 6.7.

But more so I'm just looking at the enforcement issue because it doesn't seem like enforcement of this temporary sign code is the best use of limited staff resources.

Um, and that again that kind of conflicts again with the high performance government section of the council vision.

What I'm hearing from code compliance when I spoke I talk to them about short-term rentals is they're having a hard time because they're understaffed, just trying to right now address codes that are in existence, you know, short-term rentals, tree codes, building codes, all that stuff.

So you know, just adding additional layer to that is it just yes, thank you.

Sorry, your time has expired.

Um, I will do yep, one additional call out for speakers or for hands.

Um Miss Lopez, please come forward.

Welcome.

Okay.

Good evening, council members.

I'm Loretta Lopez, and I'm a board member of the Bradle Trails Community Club.

We haven't had time to have a board meeting and um make a decision on a um a Bradle Trails position, so I'm speaking for my uh self personally.

I attended the first meeting about the sign code, um, and I made comments to Charlie.

Um, and I explained that for neighborhoods, we put out our A-frame signs, and I didn't think, and that registration uh was not a good idea.

The city did make some adjustments to the sign code.

From a practical point of view, I think we should regard the neighborhood associations as helping with the neighborhood outreach because we are the ones who are out there informing our neighbors, hauling the signs out, hauling them back in.

I think they should be exempt.

Um, I think we should be regarded as partners in what we're doing and trying to educate the residents about what the council is doing.

It's a big job to keep track of you all.

It is a big job to keep track of everything that's going on in the city.

So I, from a practical point of view, I think it would be best to regard us as exempt from this type of registration.

And the other comment I have is that it would have been a good idea to have had a had a how shall I say um I just pause you for a second?

Yes.

Can we not have a conversation over there?

And they are pausing your time.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Go ahead, please.

Yes.

I think in the future, um the city when it's going to adopt uh codes that affect neighborhood associations in this way, it would be good to start by asking us for our advice first, because there is a lot of um experience and wisdom, and we want to all work together to make Bellevue even better.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, that does bring us to the end of oral communications.

Mayor, I'll turn it back to you.

Yeah, thanks everyone uh who took the time and shared their comments with us.

Uh while we don't respond to individual comments during this portion, uh, please know that we are listening and staff will follow up if and when appropriate.

We are at the exciting segment of the tonight report of the city manager.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Um I have two items.

The first one is a presentation, so I will ask uh Sabra Schneider, the director of our information technology department and our chief information officer uh to come on up.

Uh she, along with Julie David, uh, who's our business operations manager in the department, are here to share their experience and the results of a pilot uh program that is intended to expand technology access to our residents by providing um free equipment and internet connection.

And um, this is part of the innovation forum's digital equity um effort, and they have uh some good things to report and also would uh tell us a little bit about the partnerships that are really important to making this happen.

So, with that, I will turn it over to Sabra.

Thank you so much, City Manager Carlson.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council members.

We are excited to be here tonight to share an information-only update about the innovation forum's work as a quick reminder.

Um we were last before council on this topic in February of this year, um, talking about the advancements in the innovation forum work plan.

We are here tonight to talk about one of the items in the innovation work plan.

Um, as you all may recall, about a year and a half ago, the community helped us prioritize three areas of innovation for the city to work together with community private sector startups and nonprofits to advance one of those areas was augmenting policies and priorities.

Um that work led to you all adopting an innovation resolution.

Um it led to the city's AI policy, and that policy work continues.

Um, another one of the um segments that we've been working hard on is growing thriving innovation ecosystems.

We work very closely with the economic development department and private sector partners across the region to advance thriving ecosystems.

But what we're here to talk about tonight is supporting and enhancing digital equity.

Um, and we're thrilled to present to you information about our first device pilot that Julie David sitting next to me was instrumental in bringing forward.

And I also want to acknowledge the one city efforts of this.

We worked very closely with the legal department.

We worked very closely with procurement and especially the folks at Mini City Hall to help us do this.

So we want to thank them, even though they're not here presenting for you.

And I will turn it over to Julie to talk more about the pilot.

Thank you, Sabra.

Good evening, City Manager, Mayor, and Council members.

2023 state broadband office data showed that more than 1200 Bellevue households lacked either internet connectivity or working device, underscoring a clear digital equity gap.

The innovation program's digital equity subteam identified this device access pilot as a key first-year action, prioritizing it to respond quickly to community needs and demonstrate early progress toward broader digital inclusion goals.

In response, the city of Bellevue launched the digital equity device pilot program to help bridge this divide by providing eligible low-income households with refurbished laptops, essential accessories, and 12 months of prepaid hotspot connectivity.

This pilot distribution was held earlier this month with distribution of 60 complete device kits to income eligible residents.

Participants also have access to technical support through PCs for people to help them use their devices with confidence.

To measure impact and guide future program design, participants will be surveyed at three and six months to understand how the devices are supporting daily needs and digital engagement.

The pilot aims not only to meet immediate access needs but also to expand opportunities.

So connecting residents to jobs, education, essential services, and community resources.

By partnering with PCs for people and integrated many city hall support, the program is testing a scalable model that strengthens digital inclusion and ensures more Bellevue residents have the tools they need to fully participate in today's digital world.

So the pilot has already offered important learning.

Demand was immediate and strong, confirming that access to devices and connectivity remains a real barrier for many households.

Mini City Hall's hands-on support was critical, amazing, instrumental in helping residents understand the program, complete applications, and navigate language access.

This level of personal assistance proved essential in assuring residents could participate, and the program intends to replicate this model support in future digital equity initiatives.

And the survey results come in.

The program will refine the model ahead of a planned second round later in 2026.

Thank you so much, Julie.

I also want to just emphasize as Joe Todd, I believe, coined innovation should work for everyone, and we're working very hard in our innovation programs to try to make sure that that is true.

And this is a key component of making sure that's true.

We just want to close this evening with letting you know about the upcoming innovation exchange.

This will be our second annual uh innovation exchange on June 3rd, and we are having it at Maidenbauer Center this year.

We outgrew City Hall after just one year, and that will be from 8:30 to about six o'clock.

Uh and we've got three uh kind of breakout themes that we're putting together for this event.

One of those is advancing regional AI leadership, um, another one is accelerating civic innovation, and last but not least, empowering community and small business AI.

Um, so there's a little bit uh in it for all of our target audiences, uh, and we are very excited to do this for a second year in a row.

Um, sponsors this year include Bellevue College as well as our partnership, emerging partnership with King County IT and WATEC at Washington State.

Um, so we're excited to welcome all the partners to the table, and this time across the street, and thank you very much for letting us talk about the program this evening.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um, I would like to call out one item that's in the end of your packet under written reports for primarily for public awareness.

Uh this past year the city changed the way that we are performing our performance measure and budget surveys.

We're going to a quarterly cadence with a different focus each quarter.

So, in your packet tonight, um, we have a new addition to the to the survey overall, and that's the inclusion and engagement survey.

It was conducted in um the third quarter of 2025.

And later this week, we will be publishing uh a full report on that.

So the public can look forward to receiving more inquiries once a quarter from us, but um with more manageable um bytes for for each quarter.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the consent calendar.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by councilmember New Enhouse.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

City manager, would you please introduce that to us?

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Mayor and Council.

Last month you received a proposal from the staff to establish a pretty narrow development agreement pathway for projects that involved public-private partnerships, so where the city is involved.

This new authority would be helpful immediately to us as we are currently working on three specific public-private partnerships in the Wilverton and the Bell Red areas.

So tonight staff will provide you with a brief presentation to overview the proposal, hand it back to council to hold a public hearing on the proposed land use code.

And then we'll come back for your potential consideration and action on the proposed code.

With that, I'll hand it over to Nick Whipple.

Great, thank you.

And uh good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of the council.

We are excited to be here tonight to talk about the public private partnership development agreement land use code amendment.

Um P3DA Luca is how we're addressing this one.

Um, as mentioned tonight, we are seeking direction from you all to hold the public hearing on ordinance 6911 and following the public hearing consider uh adopting this ordinance tonight for our agenda.

Um, we'll have Charlie touch briefly on the background as noted.

We were here on March 17th, um, got some questions from you all at that meeting.

Um, did provide more detailed responses in the packet, but Charlie will provide some responses here tonight as well.

Then we'll cover what's in the land use code amendment, the review process that we've taken for this code amendment.

Uh then because this is a land use code amendment, there is decision criteria that has to be satisfied for you to take action.

So we'll um describe that and then uh turn it back to you all for discussion.

So turn it over to Charlie.

Thanks, Nick.

Good evening, everyone.

Um, as Nick mentioned, we were just here back on March 17th, so a little bit of a refresher on what is a development agreement.

It's a voluntary um legally binding contract between the city and a property owner or developer.

These are authorized under the local project review act and set clear standards for development regulations and conditions for a specific project that ensure kind of regulatory certainty for developers and also allow the city in exchange to secure public benefits.

Uh, these are reviewed and approved on a project level basis by city council and run with the land.

Um as we mentioned, this is the last time we were before council with this project on March 17th.

There was overall general support from the council on establishing the P3DA pathway for these public-private partnership agreements.

Um there was additional discussion on what are the potential impacts.

Some of the short-term benefits include making sure that we can take action on getting development going for the city-owned sites, um, as well as in the future developing a tool that allows us to get creative with implementing policies.

Um, another impact or impact or positive benefit of this pathway is that by providing certainty and clarity through the development agreement, um, that will overall lower the project cost for development.

There was also a request and an emphasis and to ensure that the review of these P3DA pathways uh are transparent with the public and making sure that both in our process and in the way that these are reviewed.

Um, that's very open and honest.

And part of that is uh embedded in the submittal requirements in order to review the development agreement.

Uh, the applicant will need to clearly show what the differences are, and as well as the public benefits in exchange.

Um, and then there's always going to be an underlying land use entitlement that requires process for noticing, which includes um publishing in the weekly permit bulletin, so the public will be notified that way as well.

Um, and of course, there's always the option for council to direct staff to do any specific engagement or um outreach activities necessary to make sure that this is as transparent as possible.

Another thing that came up was transparency in the framework of how to determine a public benefit, making sure that we don't get too prescriptive with our regulations in defining how much of uh height should be allowed per affordable unit that might restrict us more than we would like, and further limit the creative possibilities that could come from open flexibility for being able to define the public benefit based on the city's policy priorities at that time.

Um moving on into the LUCA components.

So, like we said, this establishes a new DA pathway for those public private partnership agreements.

This is when the city either owns the property or serves as a major funder, and the threshold for major funding is at least 10% of the project cost and at least five million dollars.

Um these will grant greater development flexibility to support those key city policy priorities.

Some examples include affordable housing, sustainability, and economic development.

Some other components of the LUCA include consolidating the existing provisions.

There's um DA pathways in Bell Red downtown East Maine and a few other places in the code now that are scattered about to make it easier to use.

They've been consolidated in one area of the chapter.

And the Luca also sets clear parameters about when a P3DA is authorized, what that process looks like, um, and other things such as how to modify these agreements in the future if so necessary.

And in general, I think we had mentioned in the last meeting as well that typically this will look like a three-touch process with council, the first being initiation where the project is introduced, and council can decide to enter into a negotiation or not.

The second study session would go over the agreement more in detail, work out any um additional components of the agreement, and then the third would be action, and that's typical, but of course, you could always add more study sessions in between initiation and action.

So for the LUCA process, we followed the process for noticing requirements, which includes publishing in the weekly permit bulletin.

We had the study session on March 17th, which brings us to tonight for public hearing and potential action to hopefully have the P3DA path available soon.

Um these are the decision criteria that must be met for land use code amendment.

Um the more detailed information on how this LUCA complies with these decision criteria is in the agenda memo.

Um, but the staff recommendation is that the LUCA meets these three components.

With that, we are asking for direction from council to hold the public hearing and consider adoption of Ordinant 6911, and I'll turn it back over to you for questions.

Thank you so much, both.

Uh, do I have a motion to open the public hearing?

I move to open the public hearing.

It has been moved and seconded.

Um, any discussion.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

The motion passed.

We already the public hearing.

Thank you, Mayor.

There are no pre-registered speakers this evening for the public hearing.

I will make a note for the record though that the council did receive two written comments in your email on this public hearing.

So at this point, I'd ask if there's anyone joining us this evening who would like to make a comment, please raise your hand.

That goes for those online as well.

Okay, mayor, I don't see any hands.

I'll turn it back to you.

Uh thank you so much.

Can I have a motion to close a public hearing?

I move to close the public hearing.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

Any discussion.

All those in the right.

Um is this too late to see.

We are just closing the public hearing.

No discussion.

Let's close it.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

There is no oppose.

Uh now we are closed.

Now it's time for discussion.

Councilman Robinson.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Um, so I really like what you're proposing.

I appreciate the work on this.

I think a good DA is really uh a win-win for the community, and I love the opportunity to define the public benefit based on council policy priorities.

I think that's served us well in the past, and any way we can make it easier to do things like this.

I appreciate my one question is we talk about the different applications to this, and one of it is homeless service homelessness services.

And I was wondering if we are able to apply a good neighbor agreement for a DA to somebody who's applying for home uh development for homelessness services.

Yes.

So the process that applies to our homeless services uses has been retained through this update.

Um what we've done is pulled out the provision in our homeless services section that authorized a development agreement pathway for permitting such a use.

We we consolidated that into this new chapter.

And with that, you know, the underlying code is gonna say a good neighbor agreement is a requirement, a baseline requirement.

The DA gives the flexibility for council to say, you know, follow that code, and we'd like to see some other things, or you know, maybe we don't want the good neighbor agreement.

Um we'll put you in this pathway with other things, or you can certainly direct the council can direct um for a homeless services uses that's being negotiated through a DA process to include a good neighbor agreement under this proposed framework.

That's that's good.

I just, you know, it it can't it can be a positive thing, it can create again another win-win situation.

I just hope that if we have an application like that, that you provide an example of the good neighborhood agreements we've used in the past so that we can have that option.

Sure.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Robinson.

Councilman Newenhouse.

I am good.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Samodavirya is good.

Oh my this is great night.

Uh Councilman Bargava.

Wow.

Councilmember Briar.

Okay.

Definitely having the time.

Oh, good.

Thank you.

Wow.

Uh this is amazing.

Great job.

Uh, this is a very good example that we are trying to be practical.

Uh the tool give us that flexibility and also give us a way to negotiate for public benefits.

I am very comfortable, but I also encourage that we should uh be very clear that's what we are giving to the public and in return what we are getting, and we should be that should be very transparent for the public.

Uh can I have to motion for the ordinance adoption?

I move to adopt ordinance number 6911 relating to public private partnership development agreements, amending the land use code to establish requirements and standards for public private partnership development agreements.

So it's been moved by Deputy Mayor Hamilton and seconded by Councilwoman Newenhouse.

Any discussion?

All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

There is no opposed.

The motion passes.

Congratulations.

You guys did such a great job that we postponed the break and we go to the first study session.

Uh City Manager, would you please introduce council members?

So this is the Bellevue Ready for Kickoff event here and the study session tonight.

We, as you know, are one of many cities preparing for the 2026 World Cup this June and July.

And we have staff from three departments here this evening to uh share with you uh some of the work that the city has been doing with our many partners and organizations who are working to both provide programming and plan events and also how we are approaching uh safety and transportation, both in the city and across the region.

And uh, in order to be ready for this World Cup event so that we can welcome the world.

Leading off the presentation will be Jesse Canado, our chief economic development officer.

He's joined by Liz Flores, cultural tourism specialist from the community development department from the city manager's office, Anthony Gill, our Grand Connection Corridor Manager, and then from our fire department, uh Carl Lunek, who is our uh emergency manager.

So with that, I'll hand it over to Jesse.

Carlson, uh good evening, Mayor and Council.

Yes, Bellevue is definitely ready to welcome the world to our global innovation hub.

Uh tonight is part one of a two-part uh conversation about the summer's tournament.

Uh, the regional local organizing committee will be here on April 28th to give you a regional look at the tournament.

Tonight we'll be focused very specifically on Bellevue.

Um, in 2025, we briefed the council on our uh approach for this special summer that was uh inspired by both the local organizing committee's focus on creating a lasting legacy beyond 2026, and by our very own Tim Motz and his uh lasting memories from the LA Olympics, where he said, let's make local memories, lasting memories, even if you don't go to a game.

So we've been executing that with our partners, uh, some of whom are in the room tonight in the intervening months.

Our agenda tonight's gonna be in three parts that Bellevue specific programming and what our visitors and residents, workers, and and learners can expect during the the high season.

Uh, we'll talk a little bit about Bellevue specific mobility and public safety, and then again, a little bit about that beyond the station areas, beyond uh the July timeframe, what will we be creating for our community?

So, what should we expect?

Uh, Bellevue is the second largest hotel market in Washington State.

Last year, we hosted over 2.4 million visitors here in Bellevue.

And we have a summertime occupancy rate in the 85 to 92% range.

So that means we are used to hosting a lot of very large, uh large amount of visitors, overnight visitors through the city.

FIFA, we're expecting to deliver about 15,000 additional visitors in that time frame across the whole month.

If you average those out across the six local games, that's about an extra 2500 people per game overnight in Bellevue.

There will be a different type of visitor that we'll be welcoming and introducing to Bellevue, so a lot of new audiences.

Yes, some new uh some soccer fans, some soccer players, some soccer officials.

And also what we're starting to see is as the room rates in central Seattle spike, our cruise visitors, the summer cruise visitors are starting to look at Bellevue and book over here.

And that's also a fantastic win for Bellevue because as you all know, cruisers love to cruise.

So if they've cruised once, they will cruise again.

And when they come back, they will know Bellevue and we will welcome them back to this side of the lake.

So visit Bellevue's deploying a special uh cruise shuttle that will take people from the cruise terminal direct into the heart of the city.

So all of those new audiences they're uh spending at our hotels, our local restaurants, our local shops, and our visitor attractions.

We expect about a 23 million dollar impact over the course of the tournament.

Uh and our goal is to be energetic and elevated, but not frenetic.

We want to welcome people, but not scare them when they're here.

So, what will we be expecting?

So we have the six weekday games in at Lumen Field.

Uh, it's a mix of four midday games and Monday Friday games from a transportation and mobility perspective.

That's fantastic.

The games will happen, you know, we'll have peak morning commute.

Games will load into the stadium, you'll have the game, peak a load out, and then the evening commute.

And also Monday, Friday, there's a lot of work from home.

So that's just a really good spread for the region.

Uh and let's be honest, Lumen among all the stadiums.

Boomen is one of the best sites for public transit connectivity.

Everything converges there.

Link line one and two, the first hill streetcar, Amtrak, sounder, ferries, bike share, scooter share, it's all there at Lumen.

So there will be a lot of opportunity to help people move from the stadium uh and in and out.

And the Link system is really well suited.

On the during the Super Bowl parade, it hosted over 200,000 riders on Link.

On an average day, it hosts about 110,000.

So there's a lot of surge capacity in the system as people are coming and going from Bellevue.

On the screen, you see a little bit of high few highlights from some of the game day activities that are going to be produced by our partners at the Downtown Association, the Spring District Association, Bell Red, and visit Bellevue, pop-ups on the plaza, a Grand Connection viewing party, uh summer market and concert series, a whole host of things that again, people will get to experience as they're coming and going, whether they're a visitor, a worker, a resident, somebody can pop in from Bridal Trails to experience Linda's fashion show and then pop back to their neighborhood if that's what they want to do for the evening.

We're expecting that the USA versus Australia game on the 19th will be the most popular among the preset games.

Um we will, there are two games that will be decided during the tournament.

So we don't know the countries for those last two in July.

Um, and there will be a lot of opportunities for our everybody who's experiencing Bellevue to engage.

Um, there's been a lot of work internally and with our partners to build a package of repeatable programs, improved city processes, and new communications channels that we can repeat in future years.

We really wanted this to not be a one and done, but how do we build this as a uh muscle-growing opportunity for our community to host an elevated level of programming?

In addition to the game day activities, there will be some always-on or multi-day activities.

Uh, each of the four activated stations will have a selfie station that'll be custom to that station.

Uh, the BDA will deploy some outdoor foosball.

Grand Connection will get a special uh international uh visual treatment for the summer, and some additional wayfinding along the Grand Connection across downtown to help everybody as they are coming and going.

And this is this is the baseline.

There will also be public privately produced programming.

For example, Quiz Kids Quest will be hosting a science of soccer activity during the tournament month that will also be helping our visitors and our residents connect to this once in a generation opportunity.

And from here we'll move into mobility.

Uh again, Bellevue is the state's second largest hotel market.

So we have been planning to host big crowds for a while.

Uh, fun fact on April 1st, our hotels hit 92% occupancy, which is the normal summer range.

And I think we worked pretty well on April 1st.

So we are ready to host those crowds as they're coming and going.

Um, on March 28th, the day that Cross Lake service opened, Link carried over 200,000 passengers, and that was a busy day.

Not only was it the opening day, there was also their protests in downtown Seattle, and there was a Mariner's game.

So as people were coming back from their Seattle adventures, there was a whole host of people in Mariner's gear going across the lake to go into their evening activities.

And people are already using it for those kinds of activities.

So I think we are really well prepared with the additional uh prep that we're doing for FIFA.

And on the screen, you'll see a little bit of a sample specifically from Sound Transit of some of the additional services that will be happening during the game days.

So link lines one and two will have late evening service to about 1 a.m.

for those uh evening comings and goings.

The sounder trains, both north and south will have an elevated level of service to help people move to and from the games.

If you're down in Tacoma, the streetcar again will have an expanded level of service to help you move through that city.

And uh the express bus routes will be ready to help people move to and from the games with uh more frequency.

And Sound Transit is also preparing an additional set of uh private coaches or other supplementary service in case there's an unexpected uh service disruption on the two line, they will have supplemental service ready to kick in.

So they know it's coming, the region knows it's coming, and so we'll hand it off to Carl to talk a little bit more about the public safety and other elements.

Thank you, Jesse.

Appreciate it.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh so on the public safety side, uh, obviously planning for an event like this uh began as soon as we heard FIFA was coming to the region.

Uh primarily with police and fire, uh, really leaning into the regional aspects of it.

Uh, we know that when there is large events in in Seattle, we are often called to help support that um with additional staffing.

And we knew that would be an impact to our community, and we needed to also be prepared to have wonderful events here uh within the city and not let go of a lot of those uh key vital resources.

So planning has been underway for a long time.

One of the key elements that we determined was a need was as community development and economic development were working with the business community.

We needed to have a united one-city approach to all things planning around FIFA.

Uh different departments were having lots of conversations with uh their service area of expertise.

And so we formed a planning team uh here at the city so that all those people were meeting together.

Um, and the Office of Emergency Management kind of took the lead just to facilitate that, which is kind of our normal role anyway.

So uh all the departments have been invited to that planning meeting.

We kicked that off basically around the beginning of this year, and we're meeting monthly at this rate.

Uh, we set up a designated teams channel just to share documentation and presentations from the various different meetings that we're all having independently, so that again everyone from different departments can share and understand what other agencies um around the region are planning from sound transit to you know regional hospital care and patient movement, all kinds of subject matter experts and one landing page for all that for city staff.

Um, in that we've also invited some of our other key stakeholders around the community just to understand, you know, what other summer events are going on.

And with planning in general, really leaned into we're Bellevue, we have large events here all the time.

Uh we took a look at our July 4th planning, uh, where we see about 50,000 people descend upon downtown park that doesn't take into consideration how many are in surrounding buildings, private residences, uh, enjoying that event.

Um, and that works fairly smoothly year in, year out.

So we use that as kind of a baseline uh for considering how we were gonna handle surge capacity with with FIFA related um events.

Uh with that, lots of regional coordination on the Office of Emergency Management side.

We've been in a lot of conversations with the county, um, the state, and of course, Seattle and the FIFA representatives through Seattle.

Uh obviously all official FIFA related things that are happening uh at Lumen Field.

Uh, we're involved in those conversations, but not directly because there are no officially sanctioned FIFA events that have landed in Bellevue specifically.

Some of the regional partnerships include things like King County Office of Emergency Management is going to facilitate a joint information center throughout the FIFA events, meaning a single location for all communication.

So we can share information of what's going on in our community as well as know all of our neighboring jurisdictions what's going on and official word from FEMA about our FIFA about specific uh events and things related to the matches themselves.

Moving on, uh, one of the other elements that we've been working on is to set up a series of exercises just to practice and look for gaps in our planning model.

Uh so back on April 6th, just a week ago Monday, um, Bellevue Office of Emergency Management in partnership with the City of Redmond, Kirkland, King County, some of our other uh regional partners like Sound Transit, Norcom, and uh the regional hospital network, uh, did a tabletop exercise and walk through uh kind of some of the potential uh disruptions to our summer calendar of events and how that would impact our community uh and how our plans align with with that.

Uh in that process, we we uncovered a few things that we're gonna improve upon in our coordination and communication plans uh and uh we're taking some of the policy level discussion that came up, and we're hoping to sit down with city leadership uh and the management team at the city uh in May to do a tabletop exercise with them specifically around some of the policy issues uh that arose from that.

So uh really exciting just walking through and practicing uh well in advance of seeing visitors here.

Uh, some of the other public safety things just to highlight uh is that again using kind of our July 4th as an event that is done in a large scale and done fairly well in the community.

Uh all the different departments are sharing out their plans and the ways that are effective uh to manage large crowds, um, and also bringing information from subject matter experts that they deal with.

Our department of transportation is a great example of that.

Uh, they share it out through our planning structure, uh, how they use the existing systems that they have to monitor traffic, traffic patterns, um, and adjust lighting controls and things to get people in and out of the city, and then how they're partnering with Sound Transit, King County Metro, and others uh to move people in and out of the city effectively.

We are very beneficially uh getting some favorable game times that shouldn't impact uh most of our regular commutes as well.

So uh it's good to be lucky every now and again.

Uh we also have reviewed some of our mutual aid agreements, uh and I know PD has had a uh a good discussion along with uh FIRE on regional assets, um, knowing that uh normally during normal operations when we request regional assets if something very bad were to happen in in our community, uh a lot some of those come out of Seattle during this event.

Obviously, they're not gonna let a lot of those key resources go from Seattle.

So, how do we depend on our our neighboring jurisdictions on the east side?

Um, everywhere from down south all the way up north.

We've talked with Renton, Snowhomish County and others about the process of sharing and coordinating some of those key resources and how that's gonna work during this time.

So a lot has taken place in the in the planning sphere uh in preparation for this.

The Office of Emergency Management is planning to open our emergency operations center for game days.

Um we're figuring out the best staffing model for that now to determine you know how many folks we really need to again just do what we do best, which is coordinate um messaging as well as resources, and that's what we anticipate uh the need is gonna be.

So uh we are looking forward to to doing that at some level for for match nights.

Okay.

So pivoting a bit uh to what's going on beyond the station areas and the event days.

Uh I want to share a little bit about how small businesses uh and retailers in particular can take advantage of the audience that uh the global audience, in fact, that the World Cup is going to bring.

Uh and specifically I want to share a little bit about two of the resources that have been produced by our regional partners at the Seattle Chamber and the local organizing committee.

Uh the mega events readiness playbook is a really great guide for business owners in thinking about how exactly they'll modify their operations, uh, plan for surge, surge at specific event times, planning watch parties, uh, preventing human trafficking is a major component, and we'll get into more of that in a minute.

Uh and it's uh just a really great resource for businesses of all industries and sizes.

I would encourage all businesses to take a at least take a peek at it and take advantage of it if they can.

The other component is that the local organizing committee and the community business connector, which is a program of the Seattle Chamber, are providing free one-on-one advising to help business owners strategize and get access to additional resources.

So we have the QR code on screen, we have the web address, we encourage business owners to take advantage of those assets.

In addition to the activations that Jesse touched on at the launch, we are also supporting a wide range of community programming across the entire city through our community programming fund, including a number of programs that are soccer related or internationally focused.

And these are taking place downtown in our business districts like Spring District, Crossroads, and across the city.

This year I was very excited.

We received over a hundred applications.

Our team reviewed 100 applications totaling a million dollars of requests.

We are in the final stages of reviewing those applications, but we do expect to award about 300,000 of grants, and we will be announcing those in the next two weeks on the city website.

So keep an eye out for those.

We have a number of programs that are specifically either timed or specifically themed around the World Cup.

So it's going to be a great surge this summer in terms of additional programming.

So we've really been hard at work over the past few months on some physical improvements that will live on beyond the tournament.

And a few of them will be rolling out in the next couple months.

So along the Grand Connection, we've painted light poles.

You may have seen them repainted along the transit center and in a couple other spaces.

We've installed new banner brackets, and soon we'll be pressure washing and restoring old benches.

The cleanup work also will restore power outlets along the Grand Connection, which is gonna allow power access during special events like Arts Fair in the future, which is a great amenity that's gonna live on.

In the arts district in particular, you'll see a new large scale scale mural that's slated to be installed prior to the tournament, and you can see snippets of that on screen here.

This will be actually Bellevue's largest mural, and I believe it is one of the largest in the region.

So this is going to be a great showpiece for the community that will live on even after the tournament.

Finally, we want to provide some ways for community members to plan their own programs this summer.

So we're excited to share that we are making a number of permitting improvements for community activations that will be rolling out later this month.

So for small events, we've created a new checklist builder that helps organizers understand what types of permits may be required for their activities, and it consolidates information from many different city departments all in one place.

So they'll no longer need to chase down information across multiple departments.

Most excitingly, we're deploying a simplified approach to hosting neighborhood block parties, which is going to allow community members to host small community gathering spaces or community gatherings in public spaces near their home.

So for example, we've moved to a notification system for neighbors instead of requiring signatures.

We've created a new video walkthrough for residents to be able to find their way through our permitting system.

And we've developed a site plan tool that will pretty significantly reduce the cost and time required to plan a block party.

So that's going to be a big improvement.

As always, all of this will be wrapped in with robust support from the city's neighborhoods group.

With that, I will pass it to Liz.

Thank you.

Oops.

There we are.

Don't want to skip ahead too much.

Marketing and communications are a key component in getting the word out.

When visitors are in Bellevue, they have several opportunities to know what's going on in the city.

In addition to visit Bellevue's paid and organic marketing, there's also an event calendar that keeps people up to date on what's happening in the city.

Event organizers can add their events taking place during the World Cup to visit Bellevue site, and then that'll be available online and in hotel lobbies at Welcome Kiosks around the city.

Visit Bellevue has also worked with their partners at Visit Seattle to develop a Bellevue-specific sub-brand of the SEA 26 community branding package.

This is going to allow Bellevue businesses and event organizers access to visual messaging and imagery for free and without fear of copyright infringement.

This community brand is going to allow Bellevue businesses and events to show up in a way that is regionally aligned, but also be distinctly Bellevue.

Our small businesses have many ways to be to help them be successful during the tournament.

We're providing information via flyers, websites from the cities, and access to visit Bellevue's partner portal, which will uh help give them access to free marketing to marketing free of charge.

And our next steps.

So as Jesse mentioned before, uh the Seattle Local Organizing Committee will present an at Bellevue City Council on April 28th.

And this is going to offer an overview of the regional context during the tournament.

The city is also going to be providing anti-human trafficking training to our businesses, and this is going to ensure that Bellevue remains a safe place for all during the tournament and beyond.

And we're going to continue business readiness support to ensure that everyone is successful.

Thank you.

And that just we'll give a quick thank you to our partners at the Downtown Association, Bell Red, visit Bellevue at Spring District, and uh open it up for question and answer from the council.

Thank you so much, Jesse, Carl, Anthony, Lee's, and um the whole team and all of our partners that they are sitting on the back.

We are also super excited.

If you go around the room, Councilman Yoonhouse via Star V2.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate it.

Uh great presentation, lots to be excited about for sure.

You know, beyond just that we're gonna get um uh a wonderful experience of seeing world-class uh football played here in uh in our backyard.

So um uh a couple of quick quick questions I that I just had, um, but um uh really appreciate you just kind of laying out the full breadth of all the activities and and and just the many ways that our city is preparing for this um you know, once in a in a generation uh probably experience that we're going to have here.

Um first one um uh going back to the hotel rooms.

Um are we hitting our expected numbers on that currently right now?

I I did see some reports from other cities that were that were cutting back some of their economic um uh I guess benefit or uh number of hotel rooms that they expected to see in their in their city um for a number of different reasons, um uh be it be a price considerations, um uh not just of the hotel but of the the tickets, etc.

etc.

Have we seen that at all here in in Bellevue or are they at the level that we expected, or maybe even a little bit higher?

Great question, Consort.

I'll answer a little bit and then ask Liz to give some details.

I think uh as you're pointing out across the whole tournament in the US, there are cities that are experiencing some different uh uh occupancy or pre-bookings uh because of of course a lot of things happening in the world.

Uh we are seeing maybe some lowering of international visitors, but they're being replaced by maybe some more domestic travelers.

Okay.

Um so one of the things for our our business community is they want to make sure that we are continuing to welcome everybody, whether they're coming in from uh San Diego or from Spokane.

And so Liz, a little detail.

Yeah, um, I think hotel rooms have been a little bit slow in the beginning, um, but they have recently been picking up.

Great.

As we've gotten closer to the tournament, we've been able to capture a few more visitors.

Okay, great.

That's great to hear.

Thank you so much.

Speaking of um kind of geopolitical considerations whenever you have uh an event like this, not just uh a huge event like a Super Bowl, but this is a worldwide, you know, um uh uh event.

Are we working with uh our our federal partners, state partners, regional partners on this to ensure, especially given so some teams more than others might uh attract some more uh uh attention on unfortunately either or or or maybe positively uh you know it really it really depends, but um uh but uh how are we working with those um uh federal partners to ensure the safety of uh of all beyond all the you know the core things that we'd be doing already, but given the extra perhaps um consideration given what's going on in the world right now.

Yeah, I can speak to that a little.

Um so as soon as we found out the teams that were were coming, um the the FBI provided uh background information about the teams, um incredibly detailed about their fan base, their likes, dislikes, about um some general background information about previous uh tournaments, um, you know, travel rates, uh just some amazing information that they shared out through law enforcement.

A lot of that has been shared with our planning team because it is all declassified information.

Uh, there is obviously other information that we're not privy to uh that is shared with law enforcement, but that's why that planning effort has been continual um from the beginning, and as we're seeing you know things change month to month in the the political climate um around the world, uh obviously that information is being updated and shared um throughout the region throughout law enforcement.

Okay, okay.

And you you feel we're ready for it?

I do.

I feel we're we're in a good spot.

Thank you.

Um the uh I I love the simplified approach to hosting neighbor neighborhood parties.

Uh I hope the answer is yes when I ask you, will that remain intact after the the World Cup?

Yes, that is designed to be permanent.

Fantastic.

The um the the uh public utility uh wraps, is that gonna be citywide, or is that just gonna be in the downtown core?

It's an additional set, I believe that they are citywide.

Yes, there will be citywide, there will be uh some of the box wraps that are currently unwrapped.

So there will be probably about maybe 10 to a dozen of them.

Okay.

But it won't be every box where you have a long-term deployment for every box in the city.

Okay, but definitely some are gonna be beyond just downtown and around the okay, fantastic.

Um I think that's my questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Bargavo.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, again, uh fantastic presentation.

You covered a lot of ground, super excited about the World Cup.

Uh so this is really great.

Um, I've got a couple of things I wanna just say, really great thinking, and then a couple three really simple questions.

One, I really love the idea of the cruise shuttle.

Like this is an opportunity which will bring people spilling over from where they would not have typically been and give us an opportunity to showcase and hold in some ways uh folks host uh folks who would not have been here otherwise.

And the idea of making that really really easy to go back and forth with the cruise terminals, creates some level of maybe longevity in that in that idea.

So I really appreciate appreciate that.

Uh great idea.

Uh I also um love the one-stop shop uh thing you laid out, which is uh making sure the permitting process and all of that is really simple.

You don't have to go around and ask for events, and maybe that's what Councilmember Neonhaus was saying, but maybe that's something that you know can be a best practice for us going forward.

Um couple three really quick questions.

One is um on that uh idea of small events and block parties and things like that, permits are required.

Are we making sure that we're not going to be backlogged in any way?

Because that could be a spike that we see.

So how do we make sure this is a time-bound thing that we will be uh ready and not backlogged in any way?

Yeah, so that's uh one, we don't anticipate that being an issue this summer uh in particular.

Uh but it is something that we want to watch.

Uh so we have a number of improvements that we're making to the small event organizing process.

Uh and one of the things that we actually are are looking at as well is uh maybe not everything needs a permit in the future.

Uh there are some things that happen that currently today do require a permit uh that maybe it isn't necessary in the future.

Uh that is one way that we can reduce the the burden on city staff as well as make the process easier for uh organizers uh for those events where it does make sense to do that.

Okay.

I mean it'd be really good to sort of think before the event and before a spike of what your game uh playbook is gonna look like um for something like that.

Uh the other thing I want to touch on is Bellhop is another opportunity here.

Are we thinking about anything in terms of increased circulation capacity there to help move people around?

How are we thinking that we will utilize that to its best?

Yeah, uh Bell Bellhop is gonna be uh running to and from uh the light rail station in downtown um and other light rail stations, I believe, um within its geofenced area um more frequently.

So when people get want to go to the light rail or when they get out of the light rail and they want to go around the city, we're gonna have that um there, stationed there.

Okay, great.

That's the highest frequency you expect.

So that's that's great.

And then uh the last thing for me is I think the one of the most fundamentally important things we have to be ready for is safety.

And so uh whether it's you know uh extra crowds coming in or just general sports fanaticism or more serious issues like human trafficking and the threats of other kinds of um unplanned events that you can see from a public safety standpoint.

So uh, you know, that would be an area that we would really want to pressure test ourselves many times over, and like things that we don't think of, many things you're already thinking of, which is very clear, like evacuation plans in case of an emergency or shelter in place or signage for things like that.

How are we thinking about things like that that are highly unlikely, but better be prepared?

Yeah, thank you for that.

Um yes, it that is the basis of our tabletop exercises, and the reason we made it regional is knowing that if we had an incident in Bellevue and we needed to move a lot of people, um, the best path may be you know to push them into a neighboring jurisdiction or get some support and help to house those people temporarily if we were doing some sort of evacuation.

Uh that tabletop exercise series that we did um just just a week ago really helped us do some of that planning um for those extremely unlikely, rare type of scenarios, but it just allowed us to walk them through in a casual conversation way uh to really see where our plans are robust and where there may be some gaps that we can close between now and and the days the events actually take place.

Okay, that's great.

So you're gonna have a playbook, no thinking required sort of situation.

That's the plan.

Last question very quick.

How are we gonna make sure there's no price gouging in place?

Oh, that is a really good question, council member.

Um so we are working really robustly with our small business community to get the word out.

And I would say from us, particularly for our small businesses, there's some concern uh just about they want to make sure that we're not scaring uh potential visitors away.

So they're cognizant of pricing, they're looking at doing specials and other things during the tournament to help bring more people in.

Uh, I think because of where we are with some of the the teams and and uh visitor numbers, they're they want to make sure that they're as welcoming as possible and not price gouging.

Yes, my uh well, I'll just double-click on that once more.

How do we make sure that there is reporting and enforcement?

Like that is something we don't want.

Nobody wants like the simplest example is nobody wants to play for the 40 drink or worse.

You know, that's something we'll we'll do some more thinking about uh and and check in with our regional partners what they're thinking about price gouging.

And we can we'll we'll be sure that it's a fine solution for that.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Baracalvo.

Council Member Sumodavero.

I'm so excited.

There's like excitement is like beyond, and also I think price gouging, depending on supply demand as a business owner, it's depends, right?

So avocado is expensive.

Um but I would say like I'm so grateful for this like you know preparation for our business community, and especially I think with hospitality industry, that the more we are more prepared, the more focused we can focus on taking care of customers, make sure Bellevue is so welcome.

That's the biggest priority.

Um I just have a few questions.

Um is talking about public safety, right?

Um, so even though we have less of international travelers come in, when we do, how can we make sure the information is language accessible?

Or you know, somebody who's traveling who doesn't speak English well, um, how can we help them?

Uh yeah, we've spent quite a great deal of time talking with um both FIFA officials uh as well as I earlier mentioned the joint information center that's being opened up to run throughout the the time of all of the events, and that is um to provide additional language resources um for all the the languages uh frequently spoken by by our visitors uh and then have that available to all of us as staff to be able to reach out to them.

We've also been uh talking directly with FIFA, they're pretty confident in their game day um phone app that translation um into top languages there for emergency messaging and other critical information um that they'll be responsible for doing that.

Um so there's a layered approach to it.

I don't say I have all the answers, but uh we're definitely aware that that is a potential challenge.

Okay, and uh when we have more information, is it possible to share with the council as well?

Yeah, absolutely so we can actually answer community questions.

Um says in May, would that include the council as well?

Or like what is it like who's what that who are the humiliated leaders involving the exercise?

Yeah, that one is we're we're scheduling with basically all the directors of the departments across the city to just walk through as as they would be the the primary policy guidance there.

Um the original vision was once that is completed that information of the those policy level decisions uh would would be briefed to council so that you would all get some understanding of of what came up through those tabletop exercises, the type of questions that that were faced, um, and and what city management you know decision points are and and where they're they're looking potentially for guidance.

Thank you.

That would be really helpful.

Um, and then my second question, my not my third question, sorry.

Uh it's about small business readiness, right?

So we see those two great websites in front of us, and I think these two are like a year-long support for small businesses.

Um we have that, how um what kind of maybe this is a visit Bellevue BDA um question?

How can we have um place making navigation that's actually making the visitors easier to find and connect with their need in a small business?

So, for example, if there's somebody's like have dietary restrictions, Gutenfree celiac, and then they desperately need, but they don't speak English at well, they don't know how to explain it.

Like, is there any way that we can help the visitor feel like they're welcome, not only on the language, but also in their special needs, and you know, it could be um somebody who has special needs need a special support.

Um, how can we is there something resources we are doing?

Liz, could you maybe speak a little bit about some of like the kiosk and other work that Visit Bellevue is doing to prep our hoteliers for our visitors?

Yeah, um Visit Bellevue has the hotel kiosks that have been translated into additional languages, and so when visitors um are at the front desk and they want information about what's going on in the city, not only events but also places to eat and things like that.

The kiosk is actually translated into those uh six total languages of the most popular tourist uh languages that we have.

Um there's also um they hold uh Bellevue um the name is escaping me right now, but there's uh a small business um group that's a networking and information sharing uh group, and businesses around the city are invited to join that.

I think it's like every other month, and that provides resources and it could provide language resources as well, um, information on where to find trainings.

Um I know they've had accessibility trainings so for people with different kinds of disabilities, uh physical disabilities, and you know, other um they help disseminate that information in the business community, but um, I think dietary restrictions and things like that can also be included very easily.

Yeah, thank you in their connection.

Because I think you know, when I was listening to the restaurant owners, the sales are going down, that's overboard our restaurant.

So I think this is a great opportunity for us to showcase what our community offers and can track long-term uh visitors in the future as well, right?

Uh, my last question is um about human trafficking.

You know, I'm gonna ask that question for sure.

Um CSC, there's gonna be um provided training.

Um then would there um is there any cost for business to be part of it?

No, it's gonna be free to our business community.

We've uh we're going to purchase a number of training spots available that should cover um most or all of the businesses who want to participate, and we also hope to have an in-person training session for those who wish to attend in-person where that might be more helpful for them as well.

Who's the training provider uh best?

Oh, okay.

Thank you so much.

That's my question.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Smot de Virgo.

Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you.

Um I'm excited too.

And I really love hearing all the planning and how the whole city is going to be activated.

It's really it's exciting.

Um the one question I have is with short-term rentals.

So I know that Bellevue has a policy of not allowing short-term rentals in our single-family neighborhoods.

And I imagine that, you know, uh lodging is gonna get really tough, and there'll be an opportunity for people to rent out their houses or rooms during this time.

And I wonder if we are going to do more enforcement or maybe go the opposite way and actually uh allow it, wave it for a month or something.

I don't know if you thought about it.

For the moment, we are not looking at um loosening the the regulations around short-term uh rentals, uh, but we are providing more information for the community through our our outreach and through our city websites about the current regulations.

Uh and Visit Bellevue has been keeping an eye on uh the kind of demand for short-term uh uh vacation rental by owner type occup types.

Liz, did Brad provide any update on that by hands in the last meeting?

Um not off the top of my head, but I can look into that and provide more information.

Okay.

Yeah, I'd be interested.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Briar.

Yes, thank you.

Um this is sort of like the less exciting part, but just seeing notes about the civic improvement that were that's happening right now is just incredible.

It's the important work that's maybe perhaps a little bit thankless.

So I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate that.

Um I think if memory serves me correctly, the community uh grants that we had provided was up to 200,000.

So the fact that we've got a request for one million pouring in is just fantastic.

Uh I know anecdotally that I don't know how, but there is communities mobilized for the first time that have never gotten mobilized before.

I was getting calls and asked if I could put in internal references.

I was like, that's unethical.

No, I can't.

Stop asking.

Uh, but that is incredible.

So I mean, this work overall is just fantastic.

I think one last thing is I don't see the opportunity for me to personally meet any of the soccer players that are coming.

So if we can go ahead and work that into the plan as well, I'd really appreciate that.

Um, and then Ditto on safety being top of mind.

Um I'm wondering if maybe perhaps you had just mentioned this as well, but if there's any coordination with our medical uh entities as well.

Yeah, um, there is the uh exercise that we just did.

We we invited Overlake Hospital to participate in that as well.

Um, and then there is a very robust network of hospitals, and they are already talking about patient movement, um, even during very difficult transportation capacity issues.

So uh a lot of that planning is already underway.

So fantastic.

Thank you all for your work.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Great.

Uh I have uh two questions.

The first, oh, sorry, Deputy Mayor, you go first.

I can go away.

No, no, no, you go first.

You're too kind, Mayor.

Thanks.

Uh thanks for the presentation.

Um, and thanks for all the work uh that you've done on creating a World Cup programming plan that will make the World Cup experience fun and meaningful for community members and visitors.

Of course, the World Cup is a chance to showcase our city.

Uh, someone recently said Bellevue is better in person.

Uh World Cup visitors will have a wonderful experience of our city uh when they get here.

Much of the positive connection to the city will be obvious to visitors, our parks, trails, community spaces, restaurants, and shopping, but they'll also connect to and enjoy the city in ways that are meaningful but intangible, like our friendliness, safety, and cleanliness.

The feel of our city, the reaction that people have just from being here will last.

That's why it's so important for us to be welcoming and accommodating for our city to be safe and clean.

I think what you have planned will do all of that well.

I would like to see some additional attention paid to encouraging visitors to return, letting them know what they might have missed, what they should return to see, and what's ahead.

Folks should know that the Wilburton Trestle opens to the public next year.

We will have a new food hall on East Trail.

We run garden delights each winter, winter grasses in February, and so forth.

Well, we have them on the line, let's set the hook.

Also appreciate all of the effort you are putting into making the World Cup a celebration for our residents.

The viewing party, soccer themed fashion show, World Cup multicultural celebration, pop-up pop-up on the plaza events and more will help make the World Cup fun and meaningful for our community.

All of the community building I know is really gonna be amazing.

So I really like what you have planned.

It's very exciting.

Look forward to uh what's ahead this summer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Great job.

I knew I should go to you first.

Uh two questions.

What's are some of our metrics that we going to look at and say everything that you guys did is successful?

Except the number of visitors, except the number of events and activation.

Great question, Mayor.

So uh one of the key new measures that we'll be looking at.

So we are uh in the process of getting a new uh location-based service called placer that will help us understand and measure foot traffic.

Because a part of this is bringing people together, creating foot traffic for our small businesses and for our uh hospitality amenities, and so we'll be able to look at did the activities lead to an increase in foot traffic or an increase in dwell time that signifies people were enjoying spaces, enjoying events, enjoying connectivity.

So that's one of the additional pieces.

And then we'll be looking at on the back end some of if there's an opportunity to see spikes in sales or other things, kind of a post-survey with our small business community to see how they benefited during the time.

Thank you.

Is there any way we can see like Deputy Mayor just mentioned, you mentioned that you want to people come back?

Can we find about that that people came for FIFA, and then one year from that moment they come back because they miss something or they realize Bellevue is better in person or something like that?

Liz, can you speak to that?

Yeah, so Visit Bellevue has a pretty holistic uh marketing and communication strategy.

And part of that includes retargeting, it's called retargeting people who come to the city.

So let's say you go on vacation to see the World Cup, and you use your device for anything to check the weather, to check something.

Well, when you go home, you're going to start getting messaging about Bellevue.

So you might get messaging about Snowflake Lane or about other things that are happening, and we'll be able to keep track.

Um it's not obviously like you don't know exactly who that person is, but um we will be able to keep track of return visitors in that way.

That's great.

Thank you.

Uh the my next question is about small businesses.

And you mentioned Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce, you said the great job has a um mega event playbook.

How many pages is that?

They actually have a version that is only 12 pages and is formatted like a graphic novel, which is kind of fun.

So you saw that the cover of that on the screen.

Um, but they they have a number of resources.

They have put out at this point, I think four or five different playbooks uh with a significant amount of resources.

Um I think one of their goals has been to try to get things out in as many different modalities as possible.

Uh so that's one of the reasons you see them offering a significant amount of one-on-one support as well.

That's awesome.

And that's my concern because how many business owners, a small one that they are working 15 hours a day, like to just go home and say, Yeah, let's just read because the version I saw was 66 pages.

Yep.

Just read 66 pages and see how we can improve our operation based on this amazing uh playbook.

And I'm happy that they have this uh one-on-one advising, but I again I don't think they implement any help.

They just say, hey, based on so what and how many months do we have to about 62 days out?

62 days.

Um, and on that question, Mayor, about uh additional support for small businesses.

That's where at the local level we have some additional support to help our our business community in Bellevue implement those ideas.

So, as Liz mentioned, there's a Bellevue bound program that's coming up on May 13th, sponsored by Visit Bellevue, where that will dive into uh a lot more about the specific logistics around your business for the World Cup.

And then we have our small business, our small business staff doing their business walks to help make sure both our businesses have the information and that they can connect them to resources if they need help to uh implement those ideas, and then we have our small business advisor at the SBDC that can also help the businesses figure out how to implement and operationalize that advice.

And they know about all of this.

We share it as much as we can.

Absolutely.

Okay, great.

So my that was my those were my questions.

My kind of the biggest takeaway would be that they are a lot of great parts and strong on transportation, station activation, and safety planning.

I think we just nailed them down.

To me, the biggest risk is, and this is coming from previous Ward Cup, that because we don't have an actual event in Bellevue, people come and maybe they use our hotel asleep, but then they go to the game, they hang out and stay in near the stadium, and then that's it.

Like we don't actually get the traffic and the benefit of people that stay in Bellevue and hang out in Bellevue and do and then just uh bring all of those benefits to us, uh, spend money and again come back.

And I know there are lots of good stuff in the document, but based on Olympics even and based on previous World Cup, we will see that's the trend.

They just um come concentrated around the main activity areas and nearby the cities don't automatically benefit.

How are we going to be the exception and actually get the benefit of the people who are coming for the football and watch those games?

You touching a really important uh area, Mayor, and we've seen that with even locally the uh the world series, number one series.

The all-star game.

All-star game, there we go.

The all-star game a few years ago, where businesses around uh around T Mobile Park did not necessarily see the foot traffic.

CID, China International.

Exactly.

You didn't get any benefits.

Exactly.

So we are definitely learn, trying to learn from that and take that lesson learned in how we're deploying uh and positioning Bellevue.

A couple of the things that we're trying to do are well, one is that we don't have the stadium, right?

So we don't benefit from the incredible foot traffic that's drawn coming in to to see the actual game.

We're trying to position Bellevue in partnership with our uh place management organizations and visit Bellevue that this is the elevated experience.

Um we will have great restaurants, we have great bars, we have other great amenities.

That if you're after you've finished uh the very large chaos work in uh Seattle Center, you come back to Bellevue for the elevated dinner for the quieter but meaningful experiences.

Um, and then we are also working with uh our small business community about how do we make sure that people just continue to come.

I think one of the big concerns out there in the in the small business community is that during this period, people will have a sense that it's too busy.

Bellevue's too busy, nobody's gonna go there.

And we want to kind of manage that message and say, yes, still come in for your morning coffee, still have that uh that brunch with your friends at Gilbert's.

We don't want to scare people away.

That is one of the balancing things that we need to do is make sure everyone understands Bellevue continues to be open for everyday business because one of the hardest things would be for our businesses to experience a drop in traffic during the World Cup.

Great.

Thank you so much.

We are very excited, and we appreciate you giving this presentation.

So we can, I think, uh have a break is great.

We have our second study session.

City manager, would you please introduce that to us?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Deputy Government Council.

Tonight we have staff joining us to present uh what is a major overhaul to the city's signed code.

Some of the goals for this work included uh alignment with court decisions, also addressing business and community interests and concerns.

Um the staff will highlight uh the goals in more detail tonight.

They did conduct multiple rounds of engagement with the community and also um multiple rounds of opportunities to review the draft code, and that uh both of those have shaped the proposal that you have in front of you uh tonight.

So um they have incorporated a lot of the key themes that they heard from the community and their proposed um approach to engagement also um would likely follow the um council's final action on this, and they'll describe that as well uh in terms of what they're uh proposing for a delayed implementation timeline.

Uh Nick Whipple, our code and policy director returns uh to cover this, and Charlie Engel, our senior planner from development services.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Nick.

Great, thank you.

And uh good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council.

Um, so we are here tonight um with uh exciting milestone, and we have in uh before you a draft ordinance for uh rewrite of the city's sign code.

Um and we are seeking some direction from you to prepare the ordinance for final action at a future meeting.

Uh for our agenda tonight, we want to touch on the background for this project.

As noted, there is some Supreme Court rulings that really guide how we are updating our code.

Um, we also had a pretty extensive phased outreach approach.

Um we have kind of moved through phase two.

There's another phase after council takes action.

Should you decide to do that tonight?

And then uh we also want to do a refresher on some of the themes that we heard from that phase one engagement and some of the project goals.

We'll touch on the components of the draft, the timeline and schedule, and then end with some uh ask for direction.

Um so first on the background piece.

So I wanted to note that this process was initially um started with council back in August of 2024.

Um, there was some guidance that you all provided at that initiation, um, looking to provide some simplicity to the code, make sure that we're supporting the needs of both residents as well as our business community, so ensuring there's enough flexibility there, and then of course, um trying to get some more consistency in how we're drafting our code.

So ensuring there's enough flexibility there, and then of course, trying to get some more consistency in how we're drafting our code.

Also, acknowledgement that we may not know every sign type that might emerge in the market.

And so making sure that this is forward compatible or certainly flexible enough to accommodate evolving signage needs.

And then that's really what develops some of those project goals or refine the project goals.

As mentioned, this is a rewrite of our sign code.

This is largely based on a Supreme Court ruling.

So that image or diagram that you're seeing on the side of the screen there is describing all the sign types that are commonly found in people's sign and cities' sign codes that are no longer compliant with the emphasis of that Supreme Court ruling, which is to have content neutral signage.

And so you can see, you know, and we've heard tonight from homeowners' associations in particular wanting to have different treatment, perhaps with our sign code.

You can see that's actually one of the examples of a sign type that doesn't meet that content neutrality standpoint.

So again, we are support, we support our neighborhood associations and getting the word out, and we know that they also have unique needs, but we also do have some constraints in terms of how we address those unique needs.

So it's been a lot of intentional outreach with those groups to try and understand how can we best support those community associations as they're trying to promote events, they're trying to really bring community together.

We don't want to be a hindrance to that.

So it's certainly been a kind of a series of conversations and an evolution of the code, which Charlie can get into in trying to address that complicated challenge that the Supreme Court ruling presents for us.

And with that, um, we'll have Charlie walk through our outreach and then the draft code components.

Thanks, Nick.

So here is the outreach approach overview.

Uh Nick touched on it a little bit.

Phase one was really guided to gather perspectives and from the community and see what everyone wanted to have happen in this update, um, really expand awareness of the project and make sure that we have a really unique opportunity with the complete rewrite that we get all the perspectives captured within that scope.

So phase one included listening sessions with a few different stakeholder groups, including signed industry professionals, um, neighborhood associations, and the business and development community.

Um, many different stakeholders, all with different interests in signs.

That's why it's such an exciting topic.

Um, we also launched a questionnaire that was available in Bellevue's top seven most frequently used languages to kind of capture a broad outreach approach and as well as like newsletters and social media posts.

So that was phase one.

And then we took all the feedback from that and put the pen to paper and really got into drafting for the code and the um in that process.

Once we had a first draft available, we were able to close the gap with those stakeholders from phase one and present a draft for review and take feedback on actual code language.

Um there, uh, that's wrapping up right now, and we've received a lot of great feedback from the community.

Um, and we've also taken into account that feedback and revise the draft further, which is the version that you actually have in front of you guys with the packet today.

Looking ahead with action and implementation, we anticipate a delayed effective date of January 2027.

We know that this is a big change, and there's gonna be a lot of system changes as well as community education and awareness that can go into updating this code and making sure that everyone is on the same page and aware of any changes that I'll touch on more specifically later on in the presentation, but just making sure nothing's a surprise and allowing us enough time to get that education and awareness out there and make sure our systems are capable of supporting the code update.

This is a refresher on the key themes and priorities that were emerged from phase one of outreach.

We know that aesthetics uh matter to folks at Bellevue, making sure that we find the balance between allowing for signage, but making sure there's not a lot of visual clutter.

Um we also heard a lot about temporary signs and enforcement.

That was probably the most volume of uh feedback that we received, um, which we'll talk more on later.

And of course, making sure that the new code streamlines regulations, increases flexibility, and is easy to use and apply from you know uh our internal reviewers as well as um signage professionals or someone who's just for the first time looking to get a sign-up.

Those priorities were able to form the goals that have been guiding this project, and this is just a refresher here that we do want to strike that balance between the need for signage for businesses as well as the aesthetic desires, making sure it's not visually cluttered, simplifying and streamlining regulations, making sure that we encourage contemporary design and technology for the forward looking code and also making sure that we align with the key court decisions.

So now getting into the draft components.

So there's a whole new organization setup to make it a little bit more user-friendly.

It also starts to kind of fall into these categories naturally, and we'll dive into each of these more into detail.

For the first section, the general, this includes definitions, measurements, and just kind of catch-all intent and purposes provisions.

We also worked closely with the graphics department to come up with new figures to help support unique sign area measurements that will help users of the sign code know how to really use it.

For the dimensional standards, there's additional guidance for removal of signs as well as requirements for maintenance and safety that have been added in there just to really streamline and clarify.

Same for in commun commercial and mixed use land use districts.

We currently allow for high-rise signs, and that's been carried through the updated draft as well.

So a lot of reorganization, a lot of streamlining, but some of those key policy decisions from the existing code carry through the draft as well.

So there was also a need to accommodate unique signage needs, which pose an interesting challenge given all the context of the sign code and the legal framework that we're working under.

But we are proud that we were able to come up with some solutions to support these signage needs, such as a poll banner program that is supportive for in the Grand Connection, and then also extending possibly down throughout downtown, as well as coming up with standards that accommodate iconic signage such as Dick's Drive In, for example.

Also making sure that there's an adequate amount of signage for hospitals and that they're not limited in their ability to use their signage allotments.

And then also with a new type of sign that kind of supports the forward-looking code, electronic message center signs.

This would support digital kiosk signage that is for tourism, wayfinding, and activating the downtown.

And of course, there are some area-specific standards such as smaller sign heights in old Bellevue that are in the existing code that remain in the draft as well.

Moving on to more dimensional standards this time for temporary signs and signs in the right-of-way.

The temporary sign section got a large refresh, being very clear about the different sign types, the allowed sign area, height, number, location, and duration for all of those, so that the standards are very clear and streamlined, easy to use and apply as well, and additional standard and clarity for signs that are in the right of way, having its own section for all signs in the right of way, just so it's user-friendly.

One thing to note here is that there is a safety concern with having temporary signs and roundabouts and mediums, going and placing those signs often can cause a safety concern because it would cross multiple lanes of traffic, and then of course, when it's time to pick the sign up, retrieving them as well.

So in the draft that proposes to limit those in those areas, but still place them in other places in the right-of-way, such as in planting strips and wherever else might be suitable.

There's the special cases.

This is your non-conforming, prohibited signs, variances.

We've worked closely with the city attorney's office to streamline our nonconforming section to align better with the citywide approach.

Prohibited signs, not a ton of changes there.

We currently prohibit billboards, and that remains as well in the draft.

And just adding clarifications for any sort of confusion for variances that reviewers have brought up or we heard during feedback or community engagement.

So for administration and permitting, one of the new proposals is a temporary sign registration program.

First, I will touch the temporary sign permit.

That is an existing program that we have right now.

This is when temporary signs are reviewed by staff, and this will remain a requirement for larger temporary signs.

And you can see in the chart there, that's the left column with the wall banner and the kind of larger temporary sign for construction signage.

You often see those types.

They range from 30 days to a year for the allowed duration.

And since they're just on the larger scale, keeping those still as a permit makes sense, just to make sure that our review staff can check for compliance.

For the new program, that's the temporary sign registration program.

Right now, in the draft that you have in front of you, this is only proposed for temporary yard signs.

We had initially followed other jurisdictions where we've seen this work for them as well, and had all of the temporary signs, the smaller temporary signs in the registration category, but based on the community feedback that we heard in phase two and that you heard tonight, it was became clear that for like A frames, this registration program isn't necessarily effective, and it's a lot to ask of neighborhood groups.

So we actually revise based on that feedback and only are requiring the registration for the yard signs since based on the feedback we received in phase one, those were really what we're trying to target as far as proliferation goes, and making sure that those are placed thoughtfully and cleaned up at the end of their life.

So to get into more about what is the registration program, this is something that we're still figuring out the details of and hope to also figure out during the time that we have between action and the delayed effective date for implementation.

But ideally, this would look like a simple process so that it's easy to achieve for applicants, you know, kind of like an online form where you would put in your name and your phone number as well as the sign type and when you plan to place it, which would give you an issue date as well as an expiration date based on how long that type of sign is allowed to be up.

So for the yard signs, that's 90 days for commercial signs and 120 days for non-commercial when they're placed in the right-of-way.

And then the idea would be that you would print out the registration and attach it to your sign face.

There's additional considerations such as you know, is there a way that we could do a batch registration for multiple signs, like say 50 to kind of save time, and also is there a way that we could incorporate the sign registration into the design of the sign itself rather than having to actually print it out and attach it to the sign.

So those are all things that are in consideration for this proposed registration program.

And then there are exempt signs from permitting and registration.

They still have to comply with the standards that are laid out in the applicable code section for size and placement, that kind of thing.

But if they're placed for less than 24 hours, or if they are one of the exempt signs listed, like you see on the right there, feather banners, A-frames, they're not required to get a permit or a registration.

So enforcement is another big topic of discussion for this piece.

Again, the purpose and intent of the registration program is to really limit the visual clutter.

You can kind of see on the picture on the right there.

These temporary signs, these temporary yard signs often stack up in that's like a planting strip, and are placed all around the city, and after their useful life, are generally not picked up and disposed of rather than just left.

And we heard a lot from our community cleanup groups about the difficulty that they have with these types of signs and cleaning them up as well.

So one scenario that we've kind of outlined as to how enforcement might look under this temporary sign registration program, is a resident would call our co-compliance department to make a complaint, and then our staff could coach the resident through the registration requirements.

You know, did you check the sign?

Is there a registration attached?

If yes, um the resident can verify, and then our staff can also coach them to reach out to the applicant and kind of come up with a plan for pickup or disposal of the sign if it's you know out of um the date for registration.

Um the city can always provide additional guidance as necessary, and in the case that there is no registration attached or it's expired, um, then we can obviously take the co-compliance complaint along with any other type of complaint.

It would just have to be then prioritized in the list of all city complaints that come into our department and evaluated as far as resources and staffing go.

So for the project timeline, we wrapped up phase one, which was focused on gathering all those perspectives that I talked about.

Um with this study session, we're wrapping up phase two and moving towards phase three for action and then launching that community education and awareness campaign under the um assumption that we would have a delayed effective date of January 1st, 2027.

This is the project web page, which includes information to date and background information on the project as well as my contact information for the community to stay involved.

And with that, we're looking for council to consider directing us to prepare the ordinance for final action.

Thank you so much again, Neek and Charlie and the team.

Um let's just go around the doyes.

Councilmember Briard, we'll start with you.

Yeah, this is incredible work.

Thank you so much.

I think one question I had was about the uh enforcement contention, particularly surrounding residents having the capability to maybe not enforce but maybe uh reach out to the applicants.

Has this program been tested and tried anywhere else regionally or in other uh neighboring states by chance?

Yeah, we've seen um this kind type of program work in other jurisdictions.

Gig Harbor is one example.

They seem to have pretty good success with the temporary sign registration program to get at the same goals that we are getting at is um limiting that temporary sign proliferation and making sure that they're cleaned up after their useful life.

Okay, have there uh excuse me, have there been any issues with that in terms of like uh I don't know, potential conflicts that might come up between residents and those who place the signs up?

Not that I'm fully aware of um, but I haven't been involved like in the community, like to really I guess my only concern would be uh uh perhaps making sure this isn't a catalyst for further conflicts in the community because it can sometimes happen.

But um uh I I don't know if I you know unfortunately I don't think I have an alternative to propose instead.

But I think that's just one concern that I have, but all else seems fine to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Of course, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Borgavel.

Yeah, I've got a few different questions.

So I can also just hold my second half to go around the room just to make sure.

So I um appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Good presentation and uh uh really good summary.

I really like I'll start with what I really like.

Uh the easier you're making understanding our code and simplification and enforcement, the better it's going to be.

So I really appreciate that mental model that you brought forth.

Content neutrality, I think is an underlying principle.

You have to also align with that because of the mandate that we have.

So that's going to be the sort of the way to think about structuring our code because I think that's important.

And there is already some segmentation that you're doing even in your proposal today.

So one of my questions is going to be how can you make sure that that segmentation is very, very clear for all exemptions without making it complicated?

Um I also think uh broadly, I I want to state up front that I'm generally supportive of the idea of a registration, which I think is uh a powerful way to do uh what we're trying to achieve to avoid clutter and to make sure that there's some accountability for people who actually put up the signs.

Um so that's important.

Um a few questions for me.

Um is uh when you do the registration, how did you come up with the 120 days for non-commercial the 24 hours?

Like, is it just based on other codes, or is there a rationale to that?

Yeah, it's a combination of looking at a lot of other jurisdictions and seeing their updated sign codes and what they're doing, as well as there's lots of great resources for cities that are updating their sign codes that are kind of the industry standard and norm from the International Sign Association and some other partners that we're able to reference and use as well.

Are they renewable?

I think that right at the moment that's something that we can think about as far as implementation, but it's not proposed to be renewable now, rather than just um kind of an easy process to uh fill out another form.

And so if somebody needs to put up a sign for four months and then needs to put it up for another month, they cannot.

So right now, under our current code, um that is sort of the practice.

So there is an expiration, but there's nothing that prevents someone from applying and getting another kind of uh temporary sign permit.

So that's a feature under our current code.

Um it's a challenge that we have in terms of kind of barring the door.

Um if somebody wants to come forward with another temporary sign, we can't look at the message and say, Did you switch up your message?

Do you have something different to share?

Um, so that's again another challenge that's sort of um that presents itself with having to be content neutral.

Everyone's entitled to a temp sign permit.

And so then, you know, once they've ran their course with the first approval, it is possible that they can ask for another approval.

Okay.

That that's really what I read it like, and so I'm curious, and it's I'm glad that we're talking about it now, because then we can have a clear point of view.

I don't know right or wrong yet, but uh clear point of view on that would be important to have.

Um I do think one code that I want to reinforce going back to what I studied, one quote for all temporary science is the best outcome we can have for simplification, because then you're not trying to determine based on content whether it's exempt or non-exempt or what is happening.

So I would encourage us to think of it from that lens.

Uh otherwise it's just complexity for enforcement.

Um I also really support the idea of sort of a complaint-based enforcement that you laid out.

I think it's a really smart way to do it.

Uh, but then what happens to uh compliance when there are no complaints.

It still leads to clutter.

Yeah, um, I mean, that is the policy um is that we are a complaint-based enforcement operation at the city.

Um so we do kind of only get activated when those complaints are registered with the city.

Um so that's not unique, I guess, to science.

But yes, that is a challenge.

Um, some of these items, if not reported, um, could just fly under the radar.

Okay.

And the reason I was going there is just uh, and I'll stop after this.

Um, uh, is that maybe there might be some thought given to the idea of if you're going to have a registration and you're gonna have a time period, and if there is no complaint, there could still be some, I don't know whether it's a penalty, but I don't know what that action is for enforcement.

Um for non-compliance.

Uh not just only reactive, but there could be some proactive enforcement.

I'm not sure what that is yet.

Uh but but I do think that's a gap that we should think about.

Okay, I'll keep going.

Thank you, Councilman Borgabo.

We definitely come back to you if you have further questions.

Uh Councilwoman Robinson.

So I really appreciate this process.

It seems so thorough and responsive at the same time.

Um I know that my canary in the call mine was Dick's drive-in.

And so it's nice that you've done something that uh suits their needs.

Um I'm really concerned about election signs because I think that the way it's written right now, it's almost going to be impossible for people to keep up with if they have to put a um a sticker on every single sign.

Um and so I hope that we can incorporate registration information into sign design.

I would be all for that.

And I think that as much as you can, we should delay the effective date so that we have more time to uh really uh examine how to address some of the tricky sign use and um uh policing that we we will need to do with this code.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilmember Robinson.

Councilwoman Ewanhouse.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, some great uh great work here for sure.

Sorry, I I just moved where I was in the PowerPoint.

I'm gonna go back to it.

Um, but it was a slide that you mentioned uh the Dick's drive in.

Can you go to that?

Um that slide.

Well I think you went one too far maybe.

There it is.

So overall this is uh you know from my perspective very balanced approach.

Uh I appreciate that you um looked at other cities um um see what's working what's not um you know is it apples to apples maybe maybe not but I'm uh you know there's always things that we can learn what uh what other municipalities are doing um uh you know the the the feedback that we receive too from residents you know does doesn't surprise me I mean I've I've I've driven in seeing uh people walk up and like collect like 20 signs and just walk off with them and I'll I'll ask them what well what are you doing with that it's like I don't like the clutter and uh unfortunately they don't always if they are if they are going to dispose and I encourage them not to they're not actually disposing in the right way but I think they don't understand that um that uh um you know in in some way these are people's livelihoods um you know uh real estate agents or um maybe um uh uh a recent immigrant who's starting up uh uh a business who uh has zero marketing budget and this might be one of the few ways that they actually get the word up out there uh about their business um I guess where where I'm going with that is that this is tricky and I appreciate uh the the kind of the the context on that um as as you know as much as we want to reduce the clutter and believe me I've been on so many keep I beautiful outings and those signs are difficult because they don't fit in the bag very well they rip it or you know they're awkward for sure.

But I love this slide here especially because you know I've had conversations with um uh small businesses and restaurants and um uh you know I think this is a you know you've hit it just right here I love the pole banner program because that is just a lot of fun and a great way to communicate things going on in the city the iconic signage you know uh you know part of this conversation started uh about Dick's drive in and their and their issues working with uh uh with with with the city so I'm so glad we can address that and for everybody else that um uh does require adequate uh signage I mean obviously the first responders and like hospitals et cetera that's that's all really um really really good stuff um I want to ask you um about the neighborhood associations um can you tell me a little bit about how we um actually did that engagement because I'm hearing some conflicting things I'm not saying we didn't reach out to them but based on kind of what we heard earlier and some other messages that I received I'm just not sure that we did reach out to them in in I guess the um holistic way that uh perhaps um could if you can you just share a little bit and in terms of how you did do that outreach sure um I can start out with the just overall the approach and then Charlie can dive into some of the details but um you know phase one and phase two we really were intentional about engaging with our neighborhood associations we reached out to a pretty extensive list um we cannot make people meet with us and sometimes that's a barrier um and so I believe we had one um representative meet with us in phase one okay um to share kind of what their area of interest was okay and they also were really helpful in saying we'll try and get the word out yeah um they acknowledge this is not an exciting topic that people necessarily connect with um so that was also until we get to the point where we're actually gonna take action so it does get into until until that point right um so uh really appreciate kind of that neighborhood leader um doing a little bit of like work for us um because we did uh make those attempts uh and then Charlie can kind of share what was um gleaned from those phase one conversations but then phase two is where we started to hear and that's not uh atypical of our process once people have code language to react to and respond to that's when the details form that's when people actually are gonna be able to engage more more with our our code so that's where we actually were getting more meaningful engagement as Charlie noted too we were able to make adjustments to the draft based on feedback we were hearing specifically from these neighborhood associations.

So yeah did you want to expand at all on on what was uh changed?

Yeah I think also we used kind of at the very beginning we knew that we wanted to cast a diverse outreach approach and make sure we um gathered a lot of different perspectives so part of that was and using as many tactics as possible so that was our delivery lists for both neighborhood associations and neighborhood leadership as well as um city news alerts to kind of capture a broad audience and um different um newsletters that go out from economic development or from development services kind of using our partners and our internal um groups there to coordinate um a large um outreach effort to get the word out and start to gain perspective from the community okay okay um that's good to hear and and and you know no one's gonna criticize you if if as long as you made the attempt yeah um that that's what I'm most interested in is that uh we invite them to the pay to the table to be a part of this conversation and having having said that um uh there was been a couple of requests about uh exempting neighborhood associations um would I like to get your thoughts on that um just because they do play a very important role right in the in

Um that's good to hear.

And and and you know, no one's gonna criticize you if if as long as you made the attempt.

Yeah, um, that that's what I'm most interested in is that uh we invite them to the pay to the table to be a part of this conversation.

And having having said that, um there was been a couple of requests about uh exempting neighborhood associations.

Um would I like to get your thoughts on that um just because they do play a very important role, right?

In the in in in the city, um, that um, you know, there there is a partnership there, and we count on them and helping get the word about about things just like this too.

Um, but uh anything related to public safety or or or or or zoning um or anything that's going on in the city that is going to, in one way or the other, some ways more than others, um, is going to impact those neighborhood associations.

Um they they they play that important role to to further get the the word about whatever that might be.

Um so when when when they're looking for an exemption just because um uh you know that's required extra step.

Um what are what what are your thoughts on that and what does that do to the overall plan, and just in terms of I guess the the the equity piece on on this, or as um my colleague mentioned about having kind of like one standards and make that you know uh consistent across the the whole breadth of the of the temporary sign language, yeah.

Um I mean it's a real challenge because we do recognize there's a lot of importance that they bring to kind of that uh library of information that could be shared on signs.

And the challenge is you know, you are not able under the Supreme Court ruling to you shouldn't have to read the sign to know, you know, how am I gonna regulate this or who is the sponsor of this sign so I know how to regulate it.

Right.

That's the same even for political science where it's um if it's a campaign, you know, if it's a yard sign, it doesn't matter what it says um or who is the sponsor of it.

It's just gotta follow the rules.

And so um when we were thinking about how um these needs could be met, we did start to kind of narrow where we'd want to maybe apply the registration and then even add some flexibility within that.

So we were hearing, for example, sometimes these associations are holding events and they need to just direct people where to park, and maybe the yard sign is the best sign to kind of get that quick message off to people.

That's a sign that's likely placed for less than 24 hours.

That's an exemption that we created in response to what we were hearing from folks, even if they were having just uh like a one-day event.

Again, um the if it's less than 24 hours, um, then they don't need to go through any type of registration process.

Uh one way of trying to address that flexibility.

We're also hearing a board signs um could be more useful for them in some cases.

It's more of an upfront cost, perhaps, um, but it could, you know, prove to have more of a longer lifespan for them.

Um, those also would be completely exempt from the registration requirement.

Those aren't the signs that we were hearing the most complaints about, as you were noting with your keep Bellevue Beautiful Walks.

It was really those temporary yard signs.

So it's trying to figure out how can we um operate within the framework where it's by sign type, but then find ways to support the needs of these groups.

And um, you know, it was it was some good discussions um both with our neighborhood staff, um, our key Bellview Beautiful staff, but as well as some of these neighborhood associations of trying to help them appreciate the the puzzle that we're trying to solve here and and get them to help contribute to some of those ideas.

And that's where I think, you know, honestly, some of these ideas that amended um the code to version three tonight, um, they really came from these neighborhood groups telling us what they need.

Um it's gonna be hard to meet all of their needs um given the framework we have to operate in.

But we do feel like we've made a really strong attempt to address the bulk of those needs.

Knowing that a lot of times these associations uh don't have much of a budget or any budget.

Are we creating um uh uh a not very equitable situation where some might be able to afford an A-frame and then therefore they're exempt versus others that need a cheaper solution, but yet now we're forcing them to take an extra step and they need to register.

Yeah.

Um is that equitable?

Um, because then we might see you know, the more affluent neighborhood associations, yeah, sure, no big deal.

Let's just buy these.

But others might not be able to.

Like not every neighborhood association has do.

Some do, some don't.

Um what what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, that that is uh a very valid point, and that is something that could be one of those unintended consequences.

I would also say the way that we're looking at the registration program, we're not necessarily looking to capture um any sort of revenue from this program, so there's not necessarily a fee tied to it.

So there's not necessarily a fee tied to it.

Sure.

But it is kind of a another step or another process piece that they'd have to navigate.

Um hopefully our kind of guidance and the outreach and awareness campaign will help people sort of prepare for that change and plan accordingly.

But um certainly, you know, we recognize that some people are just gonna have to deal with that registration based on how the code is written.

Okay.

Um switching gears, one more question that I'll yield my time.

Um the enforcement piece, so it's complaint-based, which I completely agree with.

Um it's a better um uh uh situation for the city to have it continue to be uh complaint-based.

Um but um what is if if if we have um um I don't know, certain times of year, right?

Um this year I noticed that um around the holidays, for example, there were we'll put up your Christmas lights signs like everywhere, um like almost overnight.

Um and then, but there was no attempt whatsoever uh after the holidays to to take them down.

Now, if they did that continuously over each holiday or another holiday or whatever, um what and even if it is reported, um, but nothing's done, and or um they continue not to register their signs, etc.

Is there any repercussions to that?

Yeah, so in that scenario, um if there wasn't a registered sign and someone was gonna call and complain, um, we would obviously register the complaint or enforcement officers would do an investigation.

Um, this is all, of course, um, you know, it'd have to be as Charlie mentioned, prioritized with the other types of complaints that we receive.

But yeah, um, you know, we would certainly try and make attempts to resolve the issue.

Right.

Um, that is the goal of the commit of the um uh code enforcement officers.

But yeah, it's uh it's again part of that awareness and education piece.

Um likely connect them to staff that can inform them.

Hey, we actually have a registration requirement, you do need to remove the sign after this period um and try and work with folks to get compliance.

That's always the approach we try and take.

Um, but yeah, that's that's gonna be a challenge for sure.

Enforcement has been, I think, the largest discussion we've had with community and internally as well.

Yeah, how are we going to manage this?

This is a shift for Bellevue.

So no, 100%.

And and again, I'm uh I'm not thinking about the local restaurateur um uh or the local business.

Um I'm thinking of those that blatantly come in and and drop signs everywhere on the city, and they have zero intent on ever picking them up.

Um that's that's that's my biggest concern.

And and that's where if I'm not really in favor at all of any kind of enforcement, but if there is one, it's those that blanket the city, and um and and and they usually it's very clear.

I don't think anyone's putting up Christmas lights after you know January 1st, right?

So if those don't start coming down, it's it's it's clear they're never going to.

Um, and unless there's uh maybe a little bit of teeth in there, I'm not really sure they they ever will.

So I know that's not addressed in here right now, but I just wanted to raise it as a topic point tonight.

I'll stop there.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilmember Smith.

Thank you for the code, by the way.

I think this is equally exciting as FIFA.

I mean, as you know, because I think for business and also for events, like you could be uh make it or break it situation.

So the signs be really helpful, informational.

Um I just have a few questions to clarify it.

Um so for example, for real estate signs, right?

So for the open house will be an A-frame sign, and then but what about so the for sale sign will be the registration for the YR sign?

The for sale sign, I think would fit better under a different temporary sign category.

It's called the quarter sheet.

Okay, and um that has different standards than the temporary yard sign, and it's also in the exem section, so that would not be required to get the registration either.

Okay, great.

Because my question was because it's different market, different times, so I think it costs money for the realtors to actually put on that place.

So maybe like that's why it's good to know the six them.

That's great, thank you.

Um, my next question is um, so there's one part about the permitting and then the wall banner.

Um I don't know if this temporary sign, what about like chalk art or things people write doing um protest?

I think it's like freedom of speech, and sometimes they make it beautiful, sometimes it doesn't.

Like, but since I'm looking at the wall banners, if it's like so big, um what I see is I see our staff work really hard the next day cleaning on their knees in the rain day and shy, and I I feel really sad.

And I wonder if there's any way we can like think about it like that way.

You can express your feelings, and it's okay.

But if there's anything we can like, I don't know.

I'm just trying to brainstorm because I just I feel really sad when I see our staff on their knees just scrubbing it.

Um let me know what you think.

And we reset research, and I think I talked to Diane a little bit as well.

Um I see a lot of them still having one like major three.

So if was the FIFA coming, I think it's gonna affect how our city look like too.

Um I think one last question is um kind of with Jerry.

So on the timeline about the communication with the residents, um, how are we gonna decide the time we are between each steps?

Like the time limit.

Um the time limit between our um so for example, like how many days can we give this person put it a sign where it's no action, then we just I guess you throw it away.

A person this business got a penalty because they leave the sign everywhere, like the Christmas light.

Like, how are we deciding the timeline?

Like we give you like a warning, right?

Like, how would we do that?

Yeah, so the the sign code does lay out kind of the limits um and we tried to describe those on the slide um uh here where it sets kind of the duration that someone can have their sign posted, uh-huh and then what happens when they get past that period.

The sign is now expired, um, non-compliant has to be removed.

Um, and so we will work with the applicant um to remove that sign.

Um the way our enforcement works is that um, you know, for us to be getting to a point where we're ordering someone to remove their sign, you have to take that through like a formal process that's pretty onerous.

So it's not probably the typical path we would be taking with folks.

Um we'd probably be better served just going out there and taking care of it ourselves, um, frankly.

But uh we don't know that that's gonna be kind of how we'll approach the situation.

But we'll definitely be um reaching out to those contacts.

That's the benefit of having a registration program.

Um, you know, regardless of what ends up kind of on the sticker or the label in terms of contact information.

We hope to get at least some information to be able to have that line of communication with the sign owner and let them know when they need to be resolving this issue.

So for unregistered a sign, they would be taking out by default, then is that how um can you help me to understand that?

Not necessarily, um, because again, we're gonna be complaint-based, and then every situation is gonna have a different set of kind of circumstances that have to be looked at.

So our enforcement officers again are gonna try and make attempts to um get those signs removed.

Um, we're not always interested in going out and taking someone's property and then storing it back at City Hall.

I don't know that we have space.

Um we're going through a whole space planning effort right now, too.

Um, so you know, we have to be able to think about this on a case-by-case basis.

Yeah.

Um, we'd certainly probably prioritize anything that's gonna pose a risk or safety hazard that we might address more directly, but otherwise, I think you know it's gonna have to be really dependent on the situation.

Okay, I think like one suggestion I would have, I mean, would be I think making the clear case very clear and very uniform, just because I think you know, a sign to me, maybe is I think it's really hazardous to look, maybe distracted.

I cannot even focus on the street, but somebody maybe they think it's a piece of art, right?

Like, I think it's very subjective.

So I think help us help the people who have the sign.

Well, I think clear is kind.

Um, so make sure that they're not wasting their money putting a sign that's gonna danger somebody's life.

Yeah.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Deputy Mayor.

Great.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation.

A lot of really good work here.

Thank you for that.

Um, I do think it is time uh for a significant rewrite.

So I'm glad we started that process.

Um more code clarity and speedy permitting permit issuing will automatically bring more compliance.

Uh this code modernization will help make sure businesses are easier to find, sign approvals are faster, and Bellevue stays visually first class.

I also appreciate the attention that has been paid to electronic message center signs.

Uh the proposed code effectively and appropriately puts tight limits on the location, size, brightness, motion, and operating hours for those types of signs.

I think that is really important for community members who encounter those kind of signs regularly.

I like the idea of registering signs.

Uh the proliferation of temporary signs in the city has gotten out of hand, and it is certainly something that uh like my colleagues, I hear quite a bit about.

Um having a little bit of struggle though with the registration provisions in the draft code.

And I know there is more work to be done and more details to be figured out.

Um couple of questions here.

Um a sign needs a registration or a permit, depending on type, but not both outside of just kind of like exempt signs.

Would you have to get a permit and register any kinds of signs, or one or the other, or just nothing at all?

Yeah, it's set up as one or the other.

So the larger signs are falling under that permit, and then just the temporary yard signs that are in the registration.

Okay.

Um and then I'm curious about uh the My Bellevue app and if we're planning any updates to make it easier for community members to alert us to unregistered signs.

Yeah, that's one thing that we heard um during the initial outreach is that that had been used in the past for signed complaints, and it's something that we can also look forward for implementation in the future as well, if that's worked well in the past, um, relying on that again.

Good.

Um I do think uh the proof of registration should be very generic, something simple to display and essentially only show the proof of registration and nothing more.

Uh publicly available registration information, as the example on slide 15 shows, uh, could be misused possibly.

Um, but I do think if we're going to have it, maybe it's somewhere where it could be anonymized, maybe on a city web page, uh, but not on the sign itself.

Um also concerned that someone may put themselves in harm's way trying to get the contact information on a sign.

Signs wind up in medions and other dangerous places, and we don't want anyone getting hurt trying to get to the sign.

I think as I mentioned, you know, the personal contact information being misused.

Um I think maybe some kind of a very generic decal or something along those lines uh might be better.

And then to a lesser degree, just looking at this example here, I'm concerned that the city's logo on a sign could serve as a stamp of approval for the content of the sign and not just with the code compliance.

So I again I think this looks very good.

I just think we need to be very careful with the registration program.

And I think your plan obviously, as you've laid out to continue your outreach efforts through the end of the year uh to develop and implement the necessary programs and processes, such as the temporary sign registration program, and then also allowing time for education outreach and awareness.

That makes a lot of sense.

I'm really glad you uh built that in.

Um so look forward to seeing the final code when it's done and ready to move forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor.

Uh Councilman Borgaba, do you want to ask further questions?

Um if you want to go first, I you can No, no, no, you go ahead.

Okay, mine actually I'm gonna keep it really simple because one of my biggest issues was what Councilmember Robinson and then the deputy mayor brought up.

I'm really concerned with this put your name and number on every sign.

It's uh for many reasons I'm not gonna repeat because the deputy mayor laid it out really well.

I feel a lot of uh you know concern for that.

So some simplification there is something that I would really encourage us to think about.

Uh you could take a picture of your sign and put it up with the registration with your phone.

And if the picture is on, that's all you really need.

Someone can go look up the registration to make a complaint, whether it's registered or not or something.

I don't want to solve or problem solve here, obviously for you.

But just the idea of that uh, you know, if I was to put up a sign and I had to put my own cell phone number on it, because that's the only number I have, I would be concerned that I'm putting it out with my name on it.

It just uh doesn't resonate with me.

Um and then uh very quickly, clarifications.

Yard signs have no matter what form factor they take, don't require a registration in somebody's private yard.

Yes, not in the median, not in the bookway or the right uh the right-of-way or the planting strip or whatever.

But in if I want to put up a sign in my yard, I don't need a registration for that.

You you technically do.

Um so if you wanted to have your proud of your Bellevue High School grad or if you are supporting a candidate and you want to place that in your front yard.

Um the sign code is sort of agnostic to where it's placed, it's based on the type.

Um that's again one of the challenges or constraints of working within the framework.

So this I didn't grok when I went through the materials.

I assume you're talking about everything in the public realm.

Public right-of-way, medians, anywhere else.

But putting a sign in my yard, how do we uh sort of align that with just residential residence freedom of speech?

Like it just I'm not sure.

Maybe it's just me who's not following that.

Uh, but I thought it would be only for the public realm.

But that's not the case here.

Yeah, it's it's any sign, um, and it would just require a registration.

Um, and it would just require a registration.

Again, it's complaint-based, so I think folks would have to manage risk on their own to determine, you know, is this something my neighbors are gonna complain about?

Um, but the city stance would be yes, that sign needs a registration.

Um and part of that is if we only require registration, for example, in our right-of-way, we probably see a lot more people putting signs on the private side just to avoid any sort of requirement of having to go through a registration in the private or in the uh public right of way.

Um so it's a a challenge um in trying to figure out what's the best way to do that.

I appreciate that challenge uh uh from our perspective, and I can see your point of view.

I think it's well taken.

I'm just feeling like we've taken a stance that nobody can put up a sign of any kind, even for appreciation of your high school grad in your yard now without going through a process of registration.

Um feels to me personally a step too far.

Um, but open to other thoughts on that.

And the last thing uh last thing I want to bring up is just the timelines.

Uh I know for example, when we do open houses, and I see this frequently for for realtors, uh, or in in situations like that where it's a weekend.

So uh thinking about a 48-hour window where one doesn't need to take down and put up, or maybe that's just something that can be simplified, uh, might be a consideration.

I'll just throw it out there because I feel like that might be more workable for many instances.

Uh like if you have a weekend event or something like that, a community gathering event, you don't have to worry about things for 24 hours, but you can do it for 48 hours over the whole weekend, makes it simpler.

This is a suggestion.

That's it.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Newhouse.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember uh Bograva, thank you for bringing that up because I too misinterpreted that.

I thought we were speaking of just in the public realm, not on your own private property.

I would be adamantly opposed to having to register a sign that you want to have on your own private property.

Um that's that's that's uh um uh a line in the sand for for for for me.

Um yeah, I completely understand uh you know the the context you're approaching this, and I and I agree we want to have consistency, but I think when you're talking about signage on someone's own private property, regardless of it's graduation or political or what have you, I don't think there should be any expectation that you need to register that sign uh with with the city.

That feels like uh very much an overreach um of of government, if I'm if I'm being honest.

So I I would very much disagree with that.

Um I would like to have that removed from the from the code.

Um additionally, I would also strong uh strongly encourage that uh we do create um an exemption for neighborhood associations.

I think it's appropriate the role that they play.

Um also they're probably uh a a group we at least have to worry about the proliferation of their of their signs.

I mean, these are people who care deeply about our community, about their neighborhood.

If they put out signs, regardless if it's on if it's 24 hours or 30 days, or they're they're gonna they're going to pick them up and dispose of them correctly or or or or keep them for for for later use.

I don't like the inequality there in terms of um exemption or what's not exempt, um, and and and I think we should treat all those associations equally.

Um and and then again, the important role they play play in our city as we continue to uh work with them.

They are a partner, they do disseminate important information uh for us.

We're constant constantly asking for their opinion, etc.

Uh I I just play think that plays an important role kind of in our ecosystem, and um I don't want to make uh these volunteers have to jump through any other hoops what's uh what what whatsoever.

So I would I would hope my colleagues would would support me in that as well.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilman Robinson.

Well, um councilmember Newenhouse brought up some things that he doesn't appreciate in the recommendation.

I would like staff's comments on that about what you want to have removed, whether you that's something you recommend, what the implications would be.

Um so we'd love to be able to get back to you all on that.

Um there's a certain amount of risk that's associated with some of these pathways.

So we just want to make sure we're understanding that and maybe you know appreciate kind of the the nudge to take another look at this.

Um so um I think we'd be able to come back with that type of response.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Great.

Anyone else?

Yeah, go ahead, councilmember Brian.

Um I like to understand the risks associated with the pathways in terms of uh by furricating the public and private realms because what comes to mind is a logical consistency and application of registration uh requirements on these signs because uh what's the difference between like a Seahawks flag that my neighbor annoyingly flies all the time because I'm a Patriots fan versus like a graduate sign or something like that, right?

Thank you.

And so I guess the point is like well, and but in all seriousness, I uh you know you're the expert here, maybe there are some risks associated with that.

I I'd like to nudge you to take a look at those options and potentially come back if that's possible.

Um, but I I think I'd like to understand more.

Thank you.

Great.

Anyone else wants to go and ask more questions?

Great.

I just wanted to appreciate you all.

Like as a simple topic in our brain, uh signage.

First of all, we have all of these questions, and I think you guys had a goal, and your goal was to have a very good balance between not cluttering the street.

Um I'm just talking about this uh yard sign, because a lot of feedback we heard seems to be less about permanent sign and more about temporary ones.

And you guys work so hard, in my opinion, to evaluate all of these different rules, regulation, simplification, court law, and then come up with something that to me is striking the balance that hey, we don't want it to clutter, but also we want business uh or other uh entities does what they want by uh talking about their work or their business or their candidacy.

Great job.

I think you guys have done a fantastic job.

Uh again, I cannot believe how much time probably you spend to come up with this draft that it seems simple signage.

So I just wanted to appreciate you.

Uh great work.

And it seems you guys are coming back with some after hearing everything, you are coming with some uh kind of ideas and maybe thought.

My only question is uh that I just wanted to even maybe add to your to your plate, is and again, just talking about this uh temporary sign.

Do are you guys going to follow some metric that after that hey, we are going to do this registration?

The goal is to uh make the enforcement easier and achieve the goal of not cluttering.

And we do it one year, and then for all of the reasons that we just talked, we don't see any change.

The cluttering is there, the enforcement is not, no one is calling you, or they call you, you give the number, nothing happens.

Are we going to have a checkpoint after implementing that as a pilot or as one year or as a two years?

Yeah, that's that is sort of how we've been imagining this playing out.

Um I think we'll we'll see um kind of how it's working, uh, and then be able to either we would be able to come back and and help you all understand how it's working, or you'll hear from the community how it's working.

Um but we do expect to kind of monitor um what the implementation looks like.

Uh and also knowing that this is a really new approach to Belleview, so just wanting to give us a little space to kind of learn together on what the best approach might be is kind of how we were thinking about this.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Um if I might put Nick on the spot here, but I want to make sure that if he has any questions to ask you about clarifying what you want to have brought back that he has an opportunity to do that.

Do you have any questions?

Um, maybe I can share what I understood um that you all would like to take a look at.

Um so a little more understanding around the registration requirements for yard signs, um, some ideas on what the registration kind of form or process could look like, um, and then questions around more of the like ideological signage um and um signage for uh other purposes and understanding kind of if there's a way to look at those differently.

Or public realm side, you know, maybe actually let's see for you all what I think there are three main four main things.

One is what we put on the sign and how easy it is, and maybe not put information on the sign that can haunt someone easily.

I think the other thing is public places versus private places.

My house is my house yard is different than I think in the median.

The other thing that Councilman Yoon has brought maybe some exception for some group neighbor uh neighborhood association in this uh thing.

And I think Councilman Briar, again, I think we are going to deep into exception exception, and I'm not sure how you're going are going to advise us, but I think uh she brought okay, what is the difference between a sign that I'm just inviting my neighborhood to my child graduation or versus I am annoying my neighbor by being a patriots fan.

Yeah, please.

Yeah, uh I contact numbers it was what I was concerned about, which was understanding the private versus public realm.

And I used a poor example, so my apologies.

So just difference between public and private.

That's what I've heard, and I think if you guys can come back with some great.

Great.

Thanks for clarifying.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council.

Um, and we do look for these opportunities.

Uh, market conditions provide us um a chance to refinance or refund bonds that we have outstanding, and uh we have an opportunity now to do that with um some bonds that were refinanced in 2015.

Um, and in doing that, we have a requirement that they yield that the the action would yield savings to the city and the taxpayers.

And so tonight, um John Risha, our director of um finance and asset management, and our chief financial officer and Michael Chandler, our assistant director and controller, are here to explain um a proposed um re issuance or refunding uh related to those bonds, uh, what it means, and to seek uh potential action um an issuance.

So with that, I'll hand it over to John.

Uh thank you, City Manager Um Carlson.

Good evening, Mayor Melakutia and Deputy Mayor Hamilton and members of council.

Uh tonight we bring before you an action, and I will paraphrase uh to consider adopting an ordinance to issue bonds in an amount not to exceed 90 million dollars for those purposes that are listed here in the action.

Our agenda, uh we have a brief background, um, and we will discuss the details of the bonds as well as the anticipated timeline and what comes next.

Uh so the background, um, the city did issue bonds back in 2015 that became eligible for refunding uh in 2025.

Um typically when bonds become available for refunding, uh the city, along with our municipal advisor, analyze the opportunity and the analysis determines the measure of the savings we hope to achieve and uh determine whether it's a worthwhile endeavor.

Um we have two components of the bonds that will be a refunding uh as well as new money.

Uh and is standard that the cost of issuance uh come out of the proceeds of the bonds.

Uh and then um we have the term refunding that we're using.

So we wanted to provide some context uh for that that might be familiar to all of us.

Um so conceptually, refunding can be thought of as a refinancing if you think of your home mortgage.

If you have an 8% home mortgage and your bank can get you a lower interest rate at say 6%, um you would take the opportunity to refinance your mortgage and you're exchanging one uh debt for another.

Um while um bonds are similar, the bond transactions are a much more complicated transaction.

Uh so we'll move into the bonds.

Um I did discuss savings there in the the background section.

Um, this provides a little more detail.

Um the city policy does require uh a minimum of three percent savings.

Um that's our debt policy for any refunding.

Um our last calculation prior to developing the agenda memo showed a savings of approximately 1.7 million over the life of the bonds.

While that won't be um the final number, um, because there are market and economic conditions that will fluctuate between now and the bond sale.

Um that's the the calculation we made.

Um then the last bullet there.

Um part of the proceeds will be used for property acquisition.

Um aspect um of the process uh for refunding that we didn't put in the slide deck, but I think it's worth noting uh is the method of sale.

We intend to use a negotiated sale method.

We are currently running a competitive process to select an underwriter to work with the city and our municipal advisor.

This method of selecting the underwriter early in the process actually helps us achieve the best outcome for the for the city.

Typically that results in better interest rates and lower debt issuance costs.

Michael, if I might add, um, as we've talked about from a broader economic condition, um the market is like the economy, extremely bouncy.

And the negotiated sale really gives us an opportunity to dial that in and ensure that the savings are in place so that we don't just open bids and come up with a surprise.

We really want to be very careful and cautious in this space.

And so our advisors have been helping us through that space.

Uh and here's some additional detail.

Um, really the most important part of this slide um is in the table at the lower right.

Um, the amount of the bonds that we will be refunding shows us 53.2 million.

Um the actual number is 53 million one hundred and forty thousand.

Um, and so that's the total of the refunding there.

So now we'll move into timing and the next steps.

Uh so obviously we are here today um uh with the authorizing ordinance.

Um the next step is the credit rating call.

Uh that's actually on Thursday.

Uh and so we have this credit rating call with Standard Imports Global.

Uh it's the rating agency.

Um, and a credit rating um assesses the city's ability to pay the debt, the principal and interest payments over the life of the bonds.

Um they will review the city's financials, the economic conditions, forecasted revenue streams and expenses, and along uh as well as many other aspects that come into uh our ability to pay the debt.

Um the city has maintained a triple A rating with SP for a number of years.

Um, as you all may know, triple A rating is the highest rating.

Um, and we anticipate the triple A rating to be affirmed by them uh for this issuance as well.

Um and I guess as an aside, um, in our past rating uh presentations to SP, we've actually pleaded our case for a higher rating tier just for Bellevue.

Um, but uh they've yet to grant that request.

Um then we'll move into bond closing, which is anticipated to be the week of May 25th, and then the final action will be to come back with a bond ordinance that would provide the details and the final accounting of the the bond transaction.

Um before I close, I did want to thank um Justin Monway and his team at Piper Sandler, who is the city's municipal advisor, as well as Stacey Lewis and her team at Pacifica Law Group who serve as the city's bond council.

Um with that we are back to the action, and I'll hand it back to you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Um seems like house refinancing, whenever you have an opportunity to save money for taxpayers, you do refund.

Great.

Any question?

Raise your hand if you have any question.

No, no.

Councilman Borgabo.

Just a quick question for me.

Uh this uh negotiated process.

Uh on that, do we run the risk of leaving any money on the table with a process like that?

Versus an open um you always run the risk uh of leaving the money on the table, but in partnership with our municipal advisor, we're really taking a good look at that to make sure that we're getting the um best deal and the best organization for that for that process.

So um it's not just about the offer of the best price, but it's really about the overall uh debt issuance and because in the end we're gonna we'll be a drop in the market, and whenever we drop that line in is what we'll end up getting, and they're gonna help manage that for us and and manage the risk.

We're just in a really good good position to be able to manage that risk.

Okay, this is more educational for me than uh really a question for you, but it's helpful.

Thank you.

Any more question on this side?

Uh two quick questions, and I you can get back to me later.

Uh I just didn't understand.

So the refinancing part completely makes sense.

Well, I didn't find the whole full picture after like the refinancing and then getting money to purchase and then also the issuance costs.

What is the net impact or net value?

Uh has been there somewhere that I just missed, or you haven't had the whole full picture.

Mayor, you'll actually get another bite at that and see the actual numbers in the next ordinance that will come back at the at that point in time.

So this gives us the ability to go do identify all those pieces, and then we'll bring back the final piece at in an ordinance form.

Great.

Last question is timing.

How did you end up with not waiting more and just start the process right now and be back by June?

Like, do you like uh how are you clear you know that's the right time?

Uh it's a combination of watching the market conditions and our readiness as a city to enter that.

Um we've had some ups and downs and and trying to find the right timing.

We've been working actually with our advisor for more than a year on finding the right timing of when it is that we think it's gonna be be the best conditions.

Um, trying to find that sweet spot in the interest rate, trying to find the the different conditions.

It sometimes is a little bit of a win check, and with as bouncy as the economy has been.

We felt like this was probably the best shot to get things and then we had a little bit more of unstabless.

So right now things actually look really positive.

Let's hope that things hold.

And it's really we've got great advisors who are helping us get through this.

They are helping you.

So there was no argument for waiting more, basically.

Great.

Great.

Can I have the motion, please?

I move to adopt ordinance number 6912 of the city of Bellevue, Washington, providing for the issuance and sale of one or more series of limited tax general obligation bonds in the aggregate principal amount of not to exceed 90 million dollars to finance costs to refund certain limited tax general obligation bonds of the city to acquire property and to pay for costs of issuance of the bonds, providing for the disposition of the proceeds of sale of the bonds, and delegating the authority to approve the method of sale for and final terms of the bonds.

It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Briar.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

I haven't heard any opposed.

The motion passes.

We have uh two written reports.

One is in governmental affairs monthly update as of April 14, 2026.

The other one is the one our city manager mentioned 2025 community inclusion and engagement survey results.

And on that note, I am looking forward to see you all next week.

And we are adjourned.