Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the June 2nd, 2026 Bellevue City Council meeting.

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

Before I ask the clerk to call the role, I'd like to note that both Mayor Malicoutian and Councilmember Breyer are unable to join us for our meeting.

And I would like to entertain a motion to excuse their absence, please.

Alright, we have a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

With that, City Clerk, would you call the role?

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Here.

Councilmember Bargata?

Here.

Council Member Newman House.

Councilmember Robinson.

Here.

And Councilmember Simon Doria.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Robinson, would you lead us in the flag salute?

Okay.

Please stand if you're able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

It matters that people feel supported, welcomed, valued, and safe.

We are creating a space to come together in that spirit of welcoming tomorrow at our Pride on the Plaza event at City Hall.

I want to invite community members to join us from 3 to 6 p.m.

to celebrate pride, honor every identity, and continue building a stronger and more connected community.

And with that, I'll invite Councilmember Bargava to read the proclamation.

Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning, intersex, asexual, non-binary, and two-spirit communities are integral to the vibrancy of Bellevue, contributing immeasurably to our city's academic, economic, artistic, cultural, civic, and social life.

And whereas the month of June is designated as Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots of June 1969, widely recognized as a catalyst for the LGBTQ LGBTQ plus rights movement, and as an opportunity to reflect on the ongoing pursuit of equality, dignity, and belonging.

And whereas Pride Month is a time to celebrate progress achieved through decades of advocacy, leadership, and community building, while recognizing the continued importance of ensuring all people can live safely, authentically, and with dignity.

And whereas the City of Bellevue is committed to fostering a welcoming community where all residents, employees, and visitors are treated with respect, and all people can feel can fully participate in civic life, and whereas the city remains committed to supporting and respecting LBG LGBTQ community members, including transgender and non-binary individuals, and to fostering a community where all people feel valued, safe, and a sense of belonging.

And whereas the City of Bellevue continues to strengthen community through listening to, learning from, and collaborating with LGBTQ plus community members and organizations to help create an inclusive and informing city for all.

Now, therefore, I, Vishal Bargawa, on behalf of Mo Malakuchin, mayor of Bellevue, Washington, and the City Council to hereby proclaim June 2026 as LGBTQ IA2S Plus Pride Month in Bellevue and celebrate the meaningful contributions and lasting impact of the LGBTQIA to S Plus community members and invite all residents to participate in Pride Month events and opportunities to celebrate inclusion, belonging, and community.

Now we'll have Corina Lynn Gayett, President, Board of Directors for the Eastside Pride Pacific Northwest to offer some comments and then we'll ask if you would just hang around afterwards.

We'll do one more proclamation and then we'd love to do a picture.

Great.

Sounds good.

First, I want to start off by saying thank you to the mayor who's not here right now, but for all council members as well, for inviting me here to accept this proclamation.

It means a lot to me and Eastide Pride.

But my name is Corinna Lynn Gaillette.

My pronouns are she and her, and I am the president of East Side Pride PNW.

I am also a proud member of the LGBTQ Plus community, a mom.

I have my son Richter here with me.

And he sees a lot of the activism that we do, proudly.

But I've been actively advocating for over 27 years, and on the east side, it's been an honor to see all the support that we've gotten over the last couple years.

But on behalf of the community, thank you for issuing this proclamation.

Visibility at the city at the city level matters very, very much, as there's still a lot of people that feel invisible.

Our community is experienced, as you know, a profound challenge across the nation, facing alarming surge in anti-trans legislation, which is targeting violence and coordinated efforts that are rolling back many of our hard-won civil rights over the years that we work really hard for.

And our residents are valued and that we belong.

And I just want to take this opportunity to say, you know, that we look forward to building this momentum.

Um things don't happen overnight, but I've seen so much positive uh support.

And I just want to personally thank um Lynn Robinson, Councilmember Lynn Robinson, for all your support in helping us get Paws and Pride off the ground, one of the largest LGBTQ plus celebrations.

Uh, that event means a lot to our community.

So we wouldn't have been able to do that without your support.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Um, and thank you, Bellevue, for all that you're doing.

I'm excited to be a part of the celebration tomorrow.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um, I'll invite uh Karen Klein uh to come up uh from every town for gun safety and have a seat at the table, and we'll ask uh councilmember Robinson to read the National Gun Violence Awareness Day proclamation.

Okay, thank you.

Whereas public safety and community well-being are foundational to a strong and thriving Bellevue, and every resident deserves to feel safe at home, in schools, in workplaces, and throughout our community, and gun violence continues to affect communities across the nation, causing tragic loss of life, impacting families and neighborhoods, and creating lasting effects for survivors and loved ones.

And communities, public agencies, health care providers, educators, law enforcement, professionals, and local organizations all play important roles in advancing awareness prevention and support efforts that help reduce violence and promote safety.

And National Gun Violence Awareness Day is observed in recognition of, oh dear.

I'm not sure if I want to say this.

Thank you.

Support efforts that strengthen community safety and recognize the importance of working together to create a safer future for all.

We wear orange to demand a future free from gun violence.

This year, we wear orange and we're focused on not only raising awareness, but on the many actionable steps we can all take to protect our families and communities from parents to community partners to law enforcement to responsible gun owners who securely store their guns to keep our community safe.

Hi, my name is Mark.

I am a current middle schooler, eighth grader at Odol Middle School in the BSD.

And I would like to add on about what Where Orange stands for.

So wear orange is about more than just raising awareness.

It's about keeping things practical and local and giving people real ways to save lives right now.

Whether it's through secure gun storage education or showing up for your community, it's time for all of us to take meaningful action to keep our community safe.

Making a difference starts with small small steps, and as we wear orange, we recognize we all have the power to act.

This year, community members across the United States will be focusing on some of the concrete steps they can take to recommit to a culture of responsibility, safety, and power.

El 2025 Markola Violencia con Armas de Fuego in Estados Unidos, the 2026 Nasido Mejor.

Familias and communidades in total pays into Los Effects of the crisis cada dia.

Great, thank you.

We'll come down and have a picture.

Okay, are there any objections to approving the agenda?

Yeah, hearing none, the agenda is approved by unanimous consent.

And we will move on to oral communications.

City clerk, do we have anyone signed up tonight?

Yes, thank you, Deputy Mayor.

There are twelve pre-registered speakers this evening, but we are going to hit one of our maximums.

So before I start going over the rules, I want to mention that the council does appreciate members of the public engaging and contributing their perspectives, and supports everyone's right to express themselves.

However, comments made during oral communications are those of views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the council or the city.

So a few of the rules, the total time for 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.

So with that, I'll call our first speaker.

Um, actually, sorry, one more reminder, um, that in compliance with Washington's state campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities during elections, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure, or may support or oppose a candidate for election, and that includes one's own campaign.

Anyone beginning to speak on those topics will be asked to stop.

Now I will call our first speaker who is Raymond Zhao.

Crossroads mall.

I appreciate the drafted speed limit reductions, especially around the crossroads and Bell Red neighborhoods.

Slower moving cars mean less serious crashes when they do happen because energy transfer during a crash is proportional to speed squared physics.

At the same time, the current design of the roads, wide and straight, does not incentivize people to actually drive more slowly.

Back when I drove a car in Toronto, we went faster on equally wide roads.

Thus, on top of the speed limit reductions, I would like the city to use TBD revenue to invest in additional improvements such as multimodal infrastructure, signal improvements, and road colony measures in order to provide more natural incentives for drivers to slow down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ann Clark.

Hello, I'm Ann Clark.

I am from the Vassa Park neighborhood.

And I'm here to talk about the speed on 34th Avenue, 34th Street South East, and there's a school bus zone there, and people take that as a shortcut and drive really fast.

There's no sidewalk, there's sidewalk at the top of the street, and there's sidewalk at the bottom of the street, but there's no sidewalk where the children are meeting the bus.

And so children are jumping into the ditches in order to avoid being hit by traffic.

And I will tell you, I have a victim of being hit by a car as a pedestrian and underwent four surgeries, two and a half years of physical therapy.

I'm lucky to be here talking to you.

But the car, if the same a child had experienced the same accident, they would be dead.

So it was a long it's been a long, long road for me, and I still have chronic pain every day, and it's a battle I fight every day.

But I'm here to tell you if you don't do something about slowing down those cars coming down that hill, a child will be dead, and it will be something that you will regret for the rest of your life.

So that's all I have to say.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Steve Fantall.

Looks like Mr.

Pantel is joining us virtually.

Mr.

Fantil, can you hear me?

Yes, there we go.

I think your time begins now.

Thank you.

I appreciate it, and good evening.

I've been a Bell V resident for over 30 years, and uh tonight I'm speaking in support of the multifaceted approach to traffic safety that uh encompasses the city's vision zero strategy, reducing speed limits on the majority of the city streets, addressing safe routes to schools, and increasing the number of speed safety cameras are all steps in the right direction as we collectively set our sights on achieving vision zero goals by 2030.

Unfortunately, even with all the work that's being done, the metrics by which by which the success of Vision Zero is measured, continue to trend in the wrong direction.

Large-scale big budget multi-year initiatives alone have not made enough of an impact to reduce the number of serious crashes and fatalities over the past years as Bellevue's population continues to increase.

The pace to implementation of traffic safety programs, like reduced speed limits, speed safety cameras and traffic calming measures is not keeping up.

I really would encourage staff and the council to accelerate the implementation of these things.

In addition, I feel that there are opportunities that are being overlooked, namely for low-cost rapid implementation safety projects.

I personally have asked for multiple years now for a number of bike related safety improvements in the factoria and Somerset neighborhoods, small-scale projects that fit in well with Vision Zero, Safe Safe Streets and Safe Routes to Schools initiatives.

Transportation department needs to have a dedicated discretionary fund for these types of small-scale rapid implementation, safety-related projects in order to complement the portfolio of the major projects.

Overall safety is best achieved when all levels of effort are addressed.

And I just want to say in closing, not meeting the vision zero goals by 2030 should not be viewed as a failure, but rather as a challenge.

It's a challenge to continue to seek out opportunities to increase safety through infrastructure improvements through urban planning and through education and through enforcement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was our third speaker on the Vision Zero or Safe Speeds in Bellevue topic.

So we won't be able to hear any additional speakers on that.

Our next speaker is Alex Zimmerman.

Thank you.

Hi.

I live here for 40 years.

And I think you treat people, minority and immigrant in something like me, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Not legal.

And I explained to you, example what as you did to me.

For last three years, Mayor Robinson gave me trespasses.

Three year trespasses because I'm candidate against her.

And she doesn't want what is a big candidate against her.

So she gave me trespass for three years.

Today, trespass expire.

Yeah, I'm very happy.

I'm very happy.

I'm very happy.

So she with support of King Country Mafia, you know what has been organized criminal, cut my statement for election.

Yeah.

It's never happened before in state Washington history, but everything was to become first time.

For last three years, they prosecute me three times, trespassing for government, government trespassing three times.

Each case goes for two years.

In my life, I never see misdemeanor case.

What is go for two years?

In Belleville, we judges, what is we have?

Adory crook, everything possible.

It's very interesting because this involved a thorny public defender who makes this two years.

So we pay for these two years.

Yep.

Who money?

My money.

People money.

Bellevue policeman give me for three year Tory traffic ticket.

And I bring each ticket in court for hering.

Is heing cost four thousand dollars?

Yeah.

So Tory ticket multiplied by four thousand.

There's come to 120,000.

In everything, what they did to me before, you know what is mean.

So I'm calculate approximately 500,000 city spent with fighting with Alex Zimmerman.

Can somebody answer me very questions?

Answer you know what is mean who pays this half million dollars?

I am.

I'm here.

You can give me another trespass.

It's up to you.

I'm not too much care about this.

Half million dollars for 40 years they spent for fighting with Alex Zimmerman, only because I'm talking about something that is very important for everybody for America and make America greet again.

It's very interesting, guys, because I don't understand.

For example, Mayor Mayor Robinson make 400 per hour.

You know what it means.

We pay her 400 per hour.

Where is money come from, huh?

Where is come for half million dollars for Alex Zimmerman?

Where is money come?

For Mayor Robinson's salary for a hundred thousand dollars per year.

Viva Trump, we have a new American revolution, stand up slave and happy cow.

Stop and steal us money.

We steal it, you're stealing from us a billion and billion dollars.

Wake up, idiot.

Remember your time has expired.

Our next speaker is Guillermo Rivera.

Also, Heather Kelly will be joining him at the table.

Thank you.

Should I just arrange my thing first?

It's the look tonight.

Hello, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

My name is Guillermo Rivera.

I'm here today on behalf of Eastide for All and Safe Heaven.

An informal coalition of 35 organizations and more than 160 individuals across East.

In May of 2024, we create RISE, a community response network to share information, coordinate support, respond to immigration enforcement activity, and jointly advocate for impacted communities.

We establish an East Side Community Hotline for residents to report ICE activity in the east of King County.

We have given more than 17 presentations about these efforts, reaching over 600 people at the community organizations and churches who now have a better understanding of what's happening in the east side and how we can address this challenge hyperlocally, neighbors helping neighbors.

Thank you to Councilmember Hamilton and Councilmember Sama de Rugia.

Um to attend the welcoming in action event where more than 65 people came together to discuss what we need to do to support our neighbors, our strengths, our responses, and our community.

Hopefully, you all receive my recap that I sent with the summary needs and concerns and ideas.

Today, more than 100 concerned residents are actively involved in our rapid response efforts, volunteering to support our communities to the front lines.

Since October 2025, we have documented 120 incidents, included both confirm and suspect immigration enforcement activities.

January 2026 saw the highest number of reports in the month with 25 incidents.

Bellevue have experienced the highest level of activity, particularly in the crossroads and South Bellevue.

We have documented at least 40 confirmed detainees in East King County.

At least 40 families have been broken in our neighbors.

Just the last two weeks, we received 12 reports from Bellevue with 13 documented detainees without counting what happened last this last weekend and yesterday.

Our communities are organized and responding to this emergency.

People are looking to one another, sharing information and stepping to help.

We ask you to think about what other ways the cities can help to protect people and keep families safe.

What policies do you need to make?

What how do you need to work together with community organizations that already know support and help families every day?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I'm sorry, your time.

Yeah, that's fine.

Hello, my name is Heather Kelly, and I am a long-term, almost lifelong resident of Bellevue.

I'm here to speak about the fear and disruption that federal immigration officers are causing in our city.

Unless you are working in community with our immigrant neighbors and the local organizations that support them, you are likely not aware of the scope of immigration enforcement in Bellevue.

In just the last two weeks, at least 12 of our neighbors have been detained and taken away, all in the Lake Hills, Crossroads, and Samamish High School neighborhoods.

The people who were detained were on their way to work, the grocery store, and one man was even taken from his car right in front of St.

Louis Church during Sunday service last week.

Many of our neighbors who are detained are parents and have been separated from their children.

With a threat of deportation hanging over their heads, parents are being forced to make plans about who will care for their children if they are detained.

I have personally notarized documents for dozens of parents.

Just yesterday, I notarized documents for a mom who was about to go to an immigration check-in with her two-year old and needed to make a plan for her little girl in case she was deported.

You see, following the rules and going to your immigration check-in is not an assurance that you won't be put in the detention center and deported.

Without a plan, this mom's toddler could end up in foster care.

People tell us they are afraid to leave their homes to buy groceries, attend appointments, or participate in all the ways in community life.

This climate of fear affects not only individual families, but the health and well-being of our entire community.

On the Friday morning before Memorial Day, the dad of a Samamish student was taken outside his home.

And this news spread quickly.

Students pulled out their phones to track their parents' locations, afraid for them.

In many classrooms, teachers felt compelled to address the fast-spreading rumors and concerns.

Instead of focusing on school, teachers and students are worrying about their fellow students and whether their families will still be together when they get home.

These impacts ripple outward to schools, workplaces, employers, neighborhoods, and local businesses.

Our entire community is affected when neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and friends live with constant fear and uncertainty.

Children who are U.S.

citizens worry about whether a parent will be there when they come home from school.

Teachers, counselors, faith leaders, and service providers see this stress and anxiety firsthand.

When families are afraid to report crimes, seek medical care, attend school events, or participate in community life.

Everyone is impacted, weakening the sense of trust, safety, and connection that strong communities like Bellevue depend on.

I urge the council to recognize the human societal consequences of federal immigration enforcement and support all members to make them feel safe.

Expired.

The next speaker is Lynn Franson.

Good evening.

My name is Lynn Franson, and I want to speak to the safety of pedestrians on Southeast 34th Street.

We have lived in our present location on 34th Street for 49 years.

Safety improvements have not changed since we were annexed.

Enforcement of speed limit almost non-existent.

We were told at the time that we would have sidewalks all the way up 34th Street.

We actually have about a hundred yards.

So we end up having to walk along the side of the road, which there's not much room.

What we need to start the process of making Southeast 34th Street safer is a reduction of the speed limit to 25 miles an hour.

Which I understand will allow the city to build sidewalks, crosswalks, speed bumps, and speed cameras.

Pardon?

I apologize.

I believe you're speaking to one of the items that we've already hit the maximum of support on.

I'll look to the mayor if you want to make a different decision there.

Well, I'm about done.

I think I detect a slight difference here, so we'll just let you continue.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so we have been waiting a long time to see any improvement.

There are more young families moving into the neighborhood with children getting off school buses and trying to cross the road and not having a safe place to walk along the street.

It's time for the city to make needed safety upgrades.

Thank you for your attention.

I think we do have some VASA neighbors in the audience.

So raise your hands if you're in that group.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Verinder Sadio.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, Council members, and members of the community.

I'm here on behalf of our neighborhood regarding safe pay parking program proposed in our neighborhood.

My name is Dr.

Varinder Karcedu, and I want to begin by saying that I have devoted my career to caring for others.

We highly support this program, but this program has never been implemented in a location quite like this within our neighborhood setting, and many residents are concerned about becoming a test case without fully understanding the long-term consequences.

Traffic is another significant concern.

Our neighborhood neighborhood has limited access points, and vehicles exiting the area already face challenges because there is no traffic signal at a key exit.

Additional vehicles will cause create a long congestion.

This is not a statement against helping people.

It's a request to find a location that better balances the needs of those receiving services with the needs of the residents who live nearby.

Compassion and careful planning can exit together.

We can support individuals without placing a significant burden on a residential neighborhood that has expressed serious concerns.

As taxpayers, we have invested in this community because it's safe, peaceful, and family-oriented.

We support responsible solutions to difficult problems and also believe that residents deserve meaningful consideration when a proposed directly affects their homes, property values, and quality of life.

I'm also concerned about the disproportionate impact on nearby residents.

While the program may serve a broader public purpose, but the burdens will fall most heavily on the families who live directly across from it.

Some homes, including mine, will experience the greatest impact every single day.

As a veterinarian, I'm also concerned about animal safety.

Many families in this community walk their dogs daily.

Increased vehicle movement without adequate fencing or protective barriers may increase the risk of pets being injured by traffic.

These concerns may seem small to some, but may many families' pets are beloved family members of them.

It'll be a big problem.

I am a veterinarian, I face this problem like when any residents uh area uh like there is a traffic um without any fence when we are going to see that there'll be so many hit by car cases.

I already face this, I have my own practice.

I see this all the time.

So it's going to be a big challenge.

Uh, I believe this program we support fully, but it should not be in a residential where it's like going to be located in the center area of this residential area.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Janice Clark.

I do not see Miss Clerk here.

Ms.

Clark, if you're online, if you could raise your hand so I can identify you.

Okay.

Um, I do not see any hands.

So at this point, we do have a few minutes left in oral communication.

So I would ask if anyone is joining us here this evening, uh, or anyone online joining us who would like to speak to the council.

Please raise your hand.

Again, we have reached the maximum in support of the vision zero item.

I do see one hand online, and that is Joe Kunzler.

Mr.

Kunzler, can you hear me?

Can you hear me?

Yeah, we can.

Your time begins now.

Why thank you for the service?

I'm calling you founding more.

Because I was deeply disturbed by Alex Zimmerman's troops, misrepresentations, Mrs.

Janine.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Please, if you would just uh keep your comments related to city business, please.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um, I would like to inform the city council that uh number one, then Mayor Robinson excluded Zimmerman after he waived the sign instructed multiple meetings.

Number two, he was removed off the borders pamphlet because of a complaint.

I made.

And because I've been asked to leave this at city business, I have to leave it at that.

I will email you the details when I get home this evening, I guess.

But I want to thank you for your public service.

I hope you'll exclude Alexander.

Thank you, and good evening.

Thank you.

Okay, Deputy Mayor, I did not see any additional hands so I'll turn it back to you.

Okay, great.

Uh certainly we appreciate all the comments that people took the time to make tonight, and just want to assure everyone that the council is listening and that we'll follow up uh if and when appropriate.

So thank you for that.

Um now moving to the report of the city manager.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

I have two things I'd like to highlight tonight from your um packet material.

The first is in the um the consent calendar, and that is we have three items associated with the Grand Connection Crossing project with the council moving forward with the tax increment financing being established.

We are moving forward with the project.

So there is a contract for the uh design component and also for our general contractor construction management to begin work on the preconstruction work.

So thank you for that, and we will continue to bring you highlights of how that project is moving along.

Uh the second item is under the written reports.

There is a report that provides um findings for the 23 and 24 years of our community crisis assistance team or CCAT program.

This program is very successful.

It began in 2021 with a pilot that was initiated by the police department and then uh was joined by our fire department, our fire cares, and they work in collaboration and they have been very successful ever since.

Um the findings in the report show that um this program has produced very strong results for our community and the individuals that they have contacted.

They contacted over 1,300 individuals in the years covered by the report, and also um handled over 3600 calls in 2024.

As you know, the program relies on having a very robust follow-up program, and so those initiated calls um turned into 8,600 follow-ups, helping to stabilize individuals.

The 2025 data is in the works now, and you will be receiving a report on 2025 later this year.

Overall, CCAT has been significantly improving crisis response, helping to stabilize individuals in the community that have complex problems or issues, and reducing our emergency service responses needed.

So I want to thank Chief Tate and Chief Shirley and Natasha Grossman, who is a program manager for CARES, for helping to really take this program and make it into something that is unique and robust and very very helpful for our community.

Porter, Telier, Rodriguez Melendez, and Hemsley.

Uh, you next week we'll receive a report on public safety from the chief.

So you'll hear a little bit more about CCAT and its current program next next week.

Thank you.

Very good.

If we could get a motion, please.

I move to approve the consent calendar.

Second, all right.

It's been moved and seconded any discussion.

All in favor of approving the consent calendar, say aye.

Any opposed?

All right, the motion carries.

Thank you for that.

And we can move on to our study session items, our utility bill assistance program.

Takes the lead here.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

So our first study session is on the utility bill assistance program, and we are joined by some of our staff from the utility department.

Our director, Lucy Liu, our Deputy Director Scott Edwards, our fiscal manager, Matt Hobson, and then also the chair of the Environmental Services Commission, Ken Wan.

The Environmental Services Commission has been developing and evaluating options to potentially expand the utility bill assistance programs for water, sewer, storm, and surface water, and also for solid waste services.

And they are bringing a recommendation to you this evening, which our staff will highlight and explain.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Director Liu.

Thank you, Ms.

Carlson.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Tonight we are sharing the recommendations for expanding the utilities bill assistance program.

These recommendations are aimed at providing rate relief to our community members that are most in need.

So tonight we are asking for your direction on how to expand the bill assistance program to more households.

You will see that the need for assistance in our community exceeds the resources and the eligibility requirements of our current program.

These recommendations focus on preserving the assistance that we already provide to the community and provide meaningful relief to more households.

At the same time, we recognize that utility costs are part of every household budget, no matter how small or how large.

And our community members are facing rising costs across all utilities, not just those provided by Bellevue Utilities.

These recommendations balance the need to provide assistance to our most vulnerable community members while managing the impact to all other households that pay utility bills.

Our agenda tonight will cover four areas.

First, we will provide an overview of the city's existing bill assistance program, and as a part of this background, we will talk about the gap that exists between our current program and the need for rate relief in our community.

Next, we will summarize the policy options that the Environmental Services Commission explored to close the affordability gap.

Chair Wan will then present the commission's recommendation and the key factors that influence that recommendation.

And following his comments, my team are available to answer any questions you may have.

So our existing bill assistance program.

Today we offer ongoing utility rate relief programs to serve seniors with low income and residents with a permanent disability.

This program provides a 70% discount to customers who receive a bill directly from Bellevue utilities, and it provides a 70% rebate to uh households that receive a bill indirectly from us.

The 70% discount is also available to qualify households that receive a solid waste bill from Republic Services.

The rebate program is currently not available to households that pay their solid waste bill through their housing provider.

Currently, for low-income community members who do not meet the age or disability requirements for long-term assistance, we have the short-term emergency assistance program that provides bill relief for customers facing financial shock.

This program waives up to four months of basic utility bills for qualified customers.

In addition, we also have our newest program, which is the neighbors helping neighbors program, which waives up to two months of basic utility bills, so households that are passed due on their bill.

This program is funded by donations from the community and to encourage donations, utilities matches up to $50,000 per year in donations.

A tax rebate program paid by the general fund.

Altogether, almost 1,100 households take advantage of these programs each year, and we spend over a million dollars per year to support residents in need.

While this is good support for the community, Scott will next speak to the need for expanding assistance to serve even more community members in need.

Thank you, Lucy, and good evening, Deputy Mayor and Council members.

Considering the need for assistance, households in Bellevue and across the U.S.

struggle to pay their utility bills.

A recent study by the EPA estimated 12 to 19 million households in the U.S.

do not have access to affordable water and sewer utility services.

And while there's no universal approach to measure affordable utility services, we can learn from other regional entities or in our utilities, neighboring utilities, as well as the assistance Bellevue provides for housing and recreation services.

Many of these services rely on income guidelines established by the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services to determine eligibility.

Households with an annual income of 50% or less of the area median income or AMI are considered very low income.

50% AMI in Bellevue is equal to about $79,000 for a family of four.

Households with an annual income of 50% to 80% of AMI are considered low income.

80% AMI in Bellevue is about $121,000 for a family of four.

80% AMI is consistent with how the city's human services need assessment defines community members in need.

We estimate there are 15,000 households in Bellevue that have annual income at or below the 80% AMI threshold.

The current long-term utility assistance program is available to seniors and individuals with permanent disabilities with annual income at or below 50% of area median income.

We estimate the current program is available to 4,000 households.

The program supports our most vulnerable community members, but it falls short of matching the need for bill assistance in Bellevue as measured by the city's other assistance programs and similar utility assistance programs in the region.

We estimate there are 11,000 households in Bellevue who do not qualify for long-term bill assistance.

These households include seniors who have incomes between 50% to 80% of the area median income, and individuals and families who are under the age of 62 who have incomes up to 80% of the area median income.

Providing multilingual communications helps reduce language barriers and improves awareness of available resources.

Partnering with trusted community-based organizations strengthens relationships and helps us connect with residents who may not typically engage with city programs.

We have expanded outreach into more community spaces to meet residents where they are, making engagement more accessible and convenient.

These efforts support a more equitable approach to outreach and help identify barriers residents face when seeking assistance.

We also use a variety of outreach and engagement channels to reach a broad and diverse audience across the community.

Community Connect sessions create opportunities for direct conversations with community members and staff.

Participation in community events such as farmers markets and block parties allow us to share information in trusted and familiar spaces.

Social media and news releases help increase awareness and provide timely updates to the public.

Bellevue TV produced a segment on the utility bill assistance program for the February Lake to Lake episode to help amplify information on the program to the community.

Community newsletters provide another consistent way to share program information and updates, and the city's cultural outreach advisors help ensure communication and engagement efforts are culturally responsive and accessible to diverse communities.

Before we review options to expand the assistance program, I'll highlight briefly some of the guiding principles city staff and the environmental services commission considered when evaluating the different options.

In total, the commission evaluated six unique options for council's consideration.

We were mindful that about 1,000 households are already receiving long-term bill assistance.

Most of the options considered by the commission preserve the level of assistance that is provided to these households.

We believe all of the options you'll see tonight will have a meaningful impact on a household's ability to pay for utility services both today and into the future.

With the anticipated rising cost of utilities, these options provide sustained relief to customers, ranging from about $500 to $1,600 per year.

Asking for help can be difficult for many of us, and for this reason, many of these options align with eligibility requirements with other regional utilities and with the recommendations from Bellevue's Women Services Needs update.

This can help streamline the application review process, providing quicker assistance to those in need.

And finally, the bill assistance programs are primarily funded by utility rates.

The options balance the need to provide assistance while managing the impact to all other households that pay utility bills.

Next, Matt will review the primary options to expand the long-term program and how they align to these guiding principles.

Great.

Evening, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

As Scott mentioned, the commission studied six options to expand assistance.

I'm gonna highlight four of those options that they focused their study on.

The other two options had higher rate impacts, and you'll see of the four options tonight.

The table on this slide provides an overview of a couple of these options.

I'll provide an overview of the third and fourth options on the next slide.

And just to orient the group on the layout here, the left side of the slide describes each option based on how it expands eligibility for assistance, as well as the estimated impact to utility rates and the equivalent impact to a typical single family residential monthly bill.

The middle section provides an estimate of the number of eligible households, and then we we estimate that about 25% of those eligible for assistance would apply in the initial years.

And then the uh right side of the slide demonstrates how each option aligns with those guiding principles that uh Scott previewed in the previous slide.

So for the first option, it expands the program to more seniors and to those with permanent disabilities by increasing eligibility up to 80% of AMI.

That means it would be available to about 6,000 households, and it would maintain the existing discount level at 70% of basic utility costs.

We expect that based on a 25% participation level that about 1,500 customers would apply and receive assistance initially.

The annual assistance amount would be $900 and $1,600 per year for the rebate and for the discount programs respectively.

And then funding this option would require a four-tenths of one percent rate increase to the water, sewer, and stormwater bills utilities next year, and that's equal to about 93 cents to a typical single-family residential monthly bill.

The second option broadens the umbrella and expands to all households up to 50% of AMI, and it would be available to 10,000 households.

This is the only option you'll see tonight that decreases assistance to current enrollees.

It would decrease assistance from the current 70% discount down to 50% discount, and that would be equivalent to $700 and $1,200 discount or rebate.

Funding this option is would require a 1% rate increase to all three utilities, which is about a $2.33 cent monthly impact to a single-family residential bill.

While both of these options advance the city towards closing that affordability gap, uh the commission identified some trade-offs for these two options.

One, option A does not close the affordability gap for individuals and families who are under the age of 62.

And option B is the only option you'll see tonight that reduces existing assistance for folks who are already on the program.

It also does not close the affordability gap for households with incomes between 50 and 80 percent of AMI.

So staff developed two other options for the commission's consideration that expand the existing program to all households up to 80% of area median income and does not lower the assistance to current enrollees.

The third and recommended option, option B1 here on the screen, expands the program to all households up to 80% of AMI, and it does so by introducing two levels of assistance.

Seniors and individuals with permanent disabilities with incomes up to 50% of AMI would continue to receive a 70% discount on basic utility costs.

Seniors and individuals with permanent disabilities with incomes between 50 and 80% would begin to receive an assistance of 35% of basic utility costs, and that's equal to about 480 dollars for the rebate per year and $830 for the discount program per year.

All other eligible customers would also receive an assistance at 35% of basic utility costs.

Funding this option requires a 1.2% rate increase across all three utilities, water, sewer, and stormwater, and that's equivalent to about a $2.79 bill increase on a typical monthly bill.

The fourth option is similar to the third option, option B2 on screen here.

The key difference is that it increases the discount amount from 35% up to 40%, and that would require a 1.3% rate increase across the three utilities, which is equal to about a $3 per month increase to a typical bill.

This table on screen summarizes those four options.

So you can compare how one with another based on income eligibility, the households reached assistance levels, and the rate and bill impacts for each option.

Just to orient the group here, the first column describes each option based on how it expands assistance.

Second column provides an estimate of the number of households that would be eligible.

Again, we assume that about 25% of eligible households would participate in the first year.

The third column is the level of assistance provided to participating households as measured as a percent of their utility bill.

And then the fourth column is the estimated rate impact to all other customers to fund the expanded assistance program.

And then the fifth column converts that rate impact to an equivalent monthly bill.

The recommended option is emphasized in the middle of the table.

And because we reviewed each option already, I'll just speak briefly to the key differences.

Option B1 is the recommended option because it achieves the four key guiding principles that Scott referenced earlier.

It expands eligibility and closes the affordability gap for Bellevue utilities while also maintaining the current level of assistance for current enrollees.

It provides a tiered and meaningful assistance amount to those who are participating, ranging from around $500 per year to up to $1,600 per year.

The tiered assistance approach also helps to minimize the impact to all other ratepayers.

By comparison, option A limits expanding assistance to more seniors and those with permanent disabilities and has the lowest rate impact of all the options.

Option B expands the program to more households compared to option A, but less compared to the recommended option.

Once again, option B is the only option that decreases the level of assistance for current enrollees.

And then finally, option B2 expands the program to the same number of households as the recommended option.

The key difference is the discount level increases from 35% to 40%.

Last slide.

So to provide a consistent assistance level across all of the utility assistance programs.

The commission also considered two other changes.

The first was to align the short-term assistance program requirements with that of those changes being that would be adopted from the long-term changes.

As Lucy mentioned, the short-term assistance program, we actually have two of them.

An emergency assistance program, which waives up to four months of basic utility bills for qualified customers, and the neighbors helping neighbors program, which waives up to two months of bills.

The other change the commission evaluated was expanding and aligning the solid waste long-term assistance program with the water, sewer, and stormwater programs.

The city through its solid waste collection provider offers long-term bill assistance, but today only to folks with a solid waste account.

The proposed change would expand assistance to multifamily residential households who pay solid waste services as part of their housing costs and would provide a uniform assistance program across all of the city's four utilities.

At this time, I'll turn it back to Lucy.

Thank you, Matt.

Before I turn it over to Chair Wan, I want to thank the Environmental Services Commission for their thoughtful study and deliberation on the options to expand utility bill assistance.

We're fortunate to have a commission who took the time to study different options over three meetings between January and May of this year to consider the needs of our community members needing bill assistance while being mindful of the impact to all the other households that pay utility bills to arrive at their recommendation.

The commission's guidance and feedback was instrumental in creating a strategy to close the utility bill assistance gap by offering meaningful assistance to low-income community members while managing the bill impacts to all other households.

This point I'd like to invite Chair Wan to speak to the Commission's recommendation and the key factors that influence their recommendation.

Thank you, Lucy.

And good evening, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

As Lucy mentioned, the Commission spent significant time reviewing affordability impacts and evaluating how utility bill assistance could better serve Bellevue community members facing rising costs.

Commissioners carefully considered both community needs and long-term utility stewardship throughout discussions and carefully weighed multiple perspectives before advancing this recommendation forward.

During our discussions, the commission felt that maintaining the status quo was not a viable option given ongoing affordability challenges facing some residents.

Therefore, the commission supports expanding the bill assistance eligibility to all low-income households so the program can reach more community members who may be struggling to afford essential utility services.

At the same time, commissioners felt strongly that households already participating in the current long-term assistance program should continue to receive the same level of support while also broadening access to additional eligible community members.

The commission also recognized the importance of creating a more consistent and customer-friendly experience by aligning the short-term and solid waste assistance programs with other utility assistance programs.

Simplifying the structure reduces complexity and makes the program easier for community members to understand and actually take advantage of.

Because of affordability concerns in our community, the commission discussed the estimated bill impact associated with the recommendation and felt that the $2.79 monthly residential bill impact, that for option B1 represented a worthwhile trade-off given the meaningful benefit it would provide to households in need.

Overall, the commission believes this recommendation strikes an appropriate balance between affordability, equity, and responsible utility stewardship while helping ensure essential utility services remain accessible to Bellevue community members.

The Commission appreciates this opportunity to consider the utility bill assistance program, evaluate program expansion options, and provide our recommendation to the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

So in conclusion, staff is seeking direction from council this evening to expand the utility bill assistance program to all low-income households beginning next year.

Based on the commission's recommendation, the program would be modified to first maintain the 70% discount for seniors and individuals with permanent disabilities with income up to 50% of area median income.

Second, expand the program to seniors and individuals with permanent disabilities with income between 50 and 80 percent of area median income with a 35% discount.

Third, expand the long-term assistance program to all households with up to 80% of area median income.

These households would receive a 35% discount on utility bills.

Fourth, align the short-term assistance programs with the income eligibility requirements of the long-term assistance programs.

And then finally, align the solid waste long-term assistance program with the eligibility requirements for the water sewer and stormwater bill assistance programs.

Collectively, these changes would open the long-term assistance program up to 15,000 households.

And that concludes our presentation, and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Great.

Thank you, Lucy Scott.

Matt, Chair Wan, thank you for being here.

Appreciate the efforts from the Environmental Services Commission and bringing this recommendation forward.

Start off with Council Member Newenhouse, please.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor, yeah, Lucy Scott, Matt, and Chair Wan, thank you for being here tonight.

Really appreciate uh all the work, uh, the thoughtful work that's gone into this.

Uh, I know you met what at least three times on on this topic.

And personally, this just means a lot to me that uh the commission came up with such a solid uh recommendation that is really going to help residents in our community.

Um, because it's not just it's a cumulative effect, right?

It's not just the fact that um our utility rates will continue to go up dramatically as we do a lot of pass-long uh costs associated with that, but at a time when so many families are experiencing um uh negatively the impact of higher groceries, higher gas, etc.

etc.

It is harder and harder to maintain their residence here in Bellevue.

So I think Chair One, you hit it right on the head that it's a trade-off.

Um, and uh I don't think um very many folks in this community will have uh much of an issue with uh increasing their bill by what was it, two dollars and some odd cents, 79 cents.

Um, in order for 15,000 people in our community to be able to hopefully stay in our community and hopefully get some some relief.

So I want to um uh again acknowledge the extensive work of of the commission um that you've done over the several months um uh and and how you went about evaluating our current programs and serving the residents over a whole range, um, and I appreciate you walking through the the four different uh uh different options, and I bet there was even more discussion about other options that kind of didn't get windowed down to the top four.

Um, but um I think the analysis really highlights um you know those those important uh realities again that a significant number of households in our community are facing those those challenges.

Um, 15,000.

That's a lot.

Um, but they're all experiencing affordability difficulties, and I think it again really underscores the importance of understanding how this program functions today and going forward and um really the gaps that that might exist that I think um uh in walking through the different options you really covered really well.

Um, you know, second, the I think the commission really reviewed um a lot of those several policy choices in in involving the eligibility levels, the assistance amount, the benefit structures, the potential implementation on on the timing, how many are taking advantage of the program right now, really good information and all of this being considered under the kind of the financial implications of each option, the projected uh program cost, the rate impacts, and the balance between affordability and that long-term utility um system affordability and sustainability is is is really important.

Um, I'm all in favor of the recommendation for all the reasons I've listed already.

Um I think it's the right thing to do for for our community.

I think it is sustainable, um, and I think it's gonna give um again those low uh income households uh another option um uh to hopefully lessen the burden that they might experience right now.

Um a couple couple quick questions.

Um, first, Chair One, I want to you know give you an opportunity to just talk a little bit more, maybe go into a little bit more color in terms of all the things that you are considering in terms of criteria.

I would like to also just hear a little bit.

Did you hear much from the community?

If so, what were some of their biggest concerns going into this?

And also, I think it'd be just great to hear my colleagues and anyone listening tonight about some of the things that um that were that were discussed or went into your decision making uh through this.

And the second part of it, maybe more directed towards staff, is what do we have right now?

Um I know there's there's some, but in terms of assistance for those that might be applying for the first time and might need some help walking through the process of signing up, or maybe English as a second language just might need some additional help there.

What it what do we have in that regard right now to help um people get signed up if they haven't signed up previously?

So, Chairman, I'll go to you first with your question, then I'll have staff.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember, for the opportunity.

Um I would say the commission was very eager to hear the proposals from the utility department.

This is a topic that we've been wanting to discuss for quite a while.

Um I would also say that uh all things being equal with no other consideration, we would have voted for option B2, actually, the broadest coverage for the most um assistance to our uh community members.

And I think the thing that we also were trying to keep in mind, and you may recall this when I was last year at City Council was the rising costs of utilities within Bellevue, and you know, especially as we're getting passed through from King County and whatnot, um, things that we may not be able to control, and how much can we put onto the other uh utility customers that are not part of the utility systems but they're paying the $2.79 extra, right?

So we wanted to expand it as much as possible, but keeping that discussion.

This is the budget season, and after this meeting, we'll be busy meeting with Lucy and her team on the rest of the budget recommendations.

So we were keeping that in mind, and that was really uh a difficult trade-off.

We had some really hard and long conversations at the commission about it, and that's why we landed where we are at uh B1.

Thank you.

Regarding your question about how we reach those in need, especially those that have English English as a second language.

I would say that we have a fairly robust communications strategy around this program.

I think it goes without saying we are we are communicating in the top seven languages, but we are, I would say, and I would use the word enjoy.

We have enjoyed over this last year a more active presence in the community, working individually in person with individuals and walking them through the application materials in the process, doing whatever we can to personally handhold them, and I do use that intentionally.

We handhold them through the process, and so we do take advantage of multilingual uh uh services and assistance and and communicating in the top seven languages, but it's that personal touch, quite honestly, that we've enjoyed over this last year that we think going forward with an expanded program, we're really going to double down on it.

Uh we're looking to uh as you would expect with with council's direction and an approved expanded program, we're going to reach more community members.

That increases volume of you know uh applications, review processes.

That's an impact on staff, and so there are additional staff resources that are necessary to accommodate that.

But what comes with that is an increased presence in the community uh where we can actively engage personally and try and just walk folks through and just take care of them uh through the process, and that's really what we're focused on through this.

I don't know if that answered your question fully, but walking them through or the white glove service, if you will, to um to get them um uh acclimated and and and and and signed up if they meet the requirements.

But I think that's where that's really important.

It's one thing to say we have this program, is another thing, making sure that they understand how to take advantage of it and sign up and and get enrolled in in the program.

So thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

Councilmember Bargama.

Yeah, thank you, uh Deputy Mayor.

And thank you uh uh all three of the staff members as well as the the commission and the chair for uh really really incredible work here and deep deeply studying the opportunities and balancing out the the needs of the community.

You know, utilities, people don't put attention to utilities uh often, and when they really pay attention is when things don't work or when the bill comes.

And so um it is uh a really really important aspect of affordability with all the pass throughs coming and everything else that we're doing.

Broadly, I really support uh the work you've done and the recommendations you bring to to council.

Um, you know, it's um, but that said, I do think there is a couple of questions I have on understanding what we're gonna do address to address the root causes for the affordability challenges here.

May not be uh what we talk about here today, but that's a really important aspect of of this as well.

Um the long-term cost implications as we consider this are really important, and you've talked about some of those implications, and what we'll do to measure ongoing success.

So that's where the three areas where my questions will land today.

Um, my first one is really um how confident are we in the data for the 10 to 15,000 affordability estimate that we put on the assumptions here?

Sure.

Uh so for the estimate of 10 to 15,000, we actually looked at it in two different ways.

Um, one as Scott mentioned, uh looking at how the city of Bellevue and other utilities in the region assess or determine need, which is as a function of area meeting income.

The second kind of triangulation that we used is the EPA recently published a water affordability study, which set benchmarks for um the level of income folks across this country should be devoting to water and sewer bills.

And so we applied that that methodology to the city of Bellevue's um households and came up with a similar range of 10 to 15,000.

And so I'd say that our our estimates are fairly confident in in that range.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Um, and also just quickly, I know you talked about the monthly change in the bill to the other ratepayers for what we're putting out here as a recommendation, but how does this expansion affect maybe the long-term rate trajectory?

Um, given our infrastructure and possibly our regulatory obligations coming as well.

All right.

Uh so uh the the estimate we have now is about two dollars and three-nine cent in impact um to fund the expansion, and that's a one-time increase to the base rate.

Um, so we uh unless participation rises above that 25% assumption that we're making.

Um the base amount that we're requesting as part of this recommendation would be sufficient uh to fund the program in the long term.

So does that answer your question?

Yeah, I guess where I was going with this was more to understand, you know, if we have to continue to do this over the next five, seven, eight years, would this be a sustaining cost?

And I think you're saying yes.

Yeah, yes.

Okay, that's reassuring.

Um important.

And then lastly, and this is more straightforward, maybe.

How will council measure the success of whether the program is delivering its intent on affordability or not?

What metrics will we use?

What possible mechanisms for review will we come back to, and at what cadence?

Well, we would measure based upon engagement and active participation.

I think we've currently reported that we are assisting about a thousand households in the long-term assistance programs today based upon the eligible uh households that we have based on 50% AMI.

Expanding the program as we've talked about, expands it to 15,000 households potentially, and that's upwards of you know, 3800, I believe, eligible households based upon a 25% absorption rate or participation rate.

So we would use that as a primary factor in measuring effectiveness and how effective are we in not only engaging that those community members, but their level of participation, applying for the program and actually enrolling in the program and actually receiving assistance.

That is one of the primary metrics that we would use.

And I can obviously defer to Matt if he has other thoughts on it.

Uh yeah, and kind of referring to some of your you had mentioned root causes in utility services.

Kind of the the end game is when we have to go shut off a meter.

Um, and at that point, things have cascaded to a degree where um there's a it's in a crisis.

These types of programs we would envision reduce or hopefully eliminate in the long run, getting to that point for our residential customers.

Yeah, so I appreciate that.

I mean, I guess the metric you're suggesting there is the number of, I don't know what they call them, account dominations or such reached, which should should hopefully die down to zero.

That would be the long-term vision of this process.

Do we know what the baseline is for that today?

I can just speak that that we recently reinitiated the our um shutoff policy.

So we're establishing a new baseline right now coming out of COVID.

Okay, and just the last closing comment for me is to uh the staff as well as to the commission.

I really did uh appreciate the level of rigor and thoughtfulness that you brought forward uh in our recommendation.

So uh really applaud the work you've done.

Appreciate it.

Great, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you.

Very thoughtfully done.

Very good uh recommendation.

I appreciate the work that you've done on this and the staff help as well.

We all know that utilities are just going to get more and more expensive in the next 10 years, and I know that we are as a city advocating for federal assistance in some kind of infrastructure program to help pay for the infrastructure that we're all paying for, and rather than taking it off the ratepayers, so um hopefully maybe down the road we might get some grants or something that'll help us uh with our paying for these bills.

Um my question for you is I know that there are utility assistance programs already out there.

I think PSC has one for energy, and I believe that the Human Services Commission provides funding to agencies that do some utility assistance, and so um I'm just wondering how we're combining those resources.

Um they're complementary, um, and so we our programs are part of the solution.

There are certainly a number of other uh resources in the community uh uh in in energy companies like DSE that also have programs is hopefully the collection of these different programs will provide the assistance that's needed to the community members that are in need.

I would say the one of the reasons why we also uh looked at selecting at 80% of area median income is that actually is a common um benchmark for measuring communities in need, and so with the recommendation uh we are um looking at similar eligibility in uh income eligibility requirements, and I think that will certainly make the application process easier.

Yeah, I agree with that.

So I'm just wondering if there's a uh human service agency that provides um util, you know, bill payment support, like for water bills, and that person applies for that, can they also apply through the city?

So they're so the city is basically funding it in two different ways one through the agency and then one through uh this program.

We certainly uh we'll be looking at those, and also to make the application process easier, we would be looking at reciprocal uh application opportunities for reciprocal application approvals now that the eligibility requirements are more aligned.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, great, thank you.

Councilmember Summit, we're again.

Thank you, David.

Um plus one to call my colleague about how amazing job you did, and thank you for chair for explaining the rationale behind it.

I believe this um approach is really well balanced, where um it's a I think is an affordable way to help everyone in the community.

So thank you for doing that.

Um I just have a few, like one or two questions just to clarify a little bit.

So I'm looking at a website.

It was saying that the long-term rate relief usually takes about 10 weeks or longer to um get information to process.

Um, for the emergency program, usually what's the turnaround for somebody applying online and get something that's get uh hearing something back.

You know, I don't know that I can speak to that uh quite honestly, and we can certainly follow up.

But I would say someone that is experiencing an emergency situation, a financial shock, if you will.

I think we would do everything we can to provide immediate assistance to the extent possible.

I can't guarantee the timeline involved uh we have an exceptional program administrator Hannah Abdul Roman uh who could probably answer this very easily so I apologize but I could follow up with that but I would just tell you this that by its very definition emergency uh it would get all the attention that we could give it honestly to get folks the assistance that they need yeah I think yeah I'm not gonna um I think like hold against your word how long it's gonna take right because it's really outside our control sometimes by the volume we're gonna be receiving too I would say just for a family that's um a responsible family want to take care of the people they care about the longer more notice they get in the mail that's passed you I think the more stress it creates to able to feel good about taking care of what they care about.

Please follow up I would I would love to know like what the range I think it would be helpful.

And then I'm looking at website this is purely clarification.

So for the donate to neighbors helping neighbors is a donation tax deductible it's not a 501c3 organization so we would not qualify uh for a tax deduction as is that type of organization okay just just clarify I'm just wondering because I think people might want to know maybe the range of how much donate would change too right um another last question I would want to say that um I think the $2.79 it's really uh I think it's a it's it's a good number that I think most people can afford to help the neighbors right so for the family who are paying for that rate how are we educating and bring awareness how much they are changing somebody's life.

I appreciate that question I think something I I think I mentioned before that we have a fairly robust communication strategy around this program and I would think actively going forward we would look to uh to the extent that we can highlight some of the benefits of the program and how those in the community are truly being changed for the good I think that's an excellent idea if I know that we speak to uh the level of assistance that we provide in any given year currently it's about a million dollars in assistance but we don't provide I don't think much more insider visibility into the how that changes a life so that is absolutely something we could consider going forward.

Well let me rephrase this a little bit I think um I wasn't asking about how it changes life how are we acknowledged the family can afford to help somebody else I think when we have a positive reinforcement thanking the family that's helping somebody else maybe in a statement or something like highlighting you know the $2.79 it is changing somebody's lives it makes more um more empowering for me to do know that you know for me to make a coffee at home versus buying outside is changing something impactful.

Thank you I appreciate your comment thank you that's all my comments okay great um thank you um I definitely agree with my colleagues here I think the recommendation is balanced I think it will be impactful I think it appropriately expands our assistance programs at a time when the community is going to need additional support we're likely going to see higher than average rate increases of many that are out of our control in every utility category in the near term and considering that it's a previously mentioned uh we already have 10 to 15,000 residents in Bellevue experiencing a utility bill affordability challenge I believe now is the time to provide some additional financial support.

I'm pleased to see that the ESC recommendation includes an increase in eligibility to the utility rebate program.

We need to be sure to continue to take care of the folks who we already know need additional support and of course we need to be ready to help folks who know who we know will need additional support.

So for me bottom line I think this is very good I'm certainly supportive I do have a question for you so I'm just curious if the council it is there a way for the council if it chose to do so to use some one time money from the council contingency fund to enhance the utility bill assistance program.

And I think too, this kind of gets at what Chair Juan was talking about.

It may be a way for us essentially to go from the B1 recommendation to the B2.

But you know, would it, for one, you know, is that kind of possible and would it make sense again if you know this is very preliminary, but if we decided to, maybe we would add some money to the neighbors helping neighbors fund or or how might we just deploy some one-time money effectively?

And if you don't, you could this is something you could come back.

Of course, you know, it all has to be explored.

But if you had some thoughts to share tonight, that would be great.

And if not, uh, would love to have a follow-up.

Appreciate that, uh, Deputy Mayor.

We'd be happy to work with our finance and asset management team to come back with some uh perhaps complementary program options, uh, with a one-time contribution of council contingency funds for your consideration under separate cover.

Um you mentioned certainly one option to consider, maybe that it is possible to make a one-time contribution or a donation into the utilities neighbors helping neighbors program.

But again, we're happy to come back uh with our uh FAM team with some options for your consideration.

Okay, great.

I just would be interested, of course.

We we, and as uh Councilmember Newenhaus mentioned, we're we're well aware there are a lot of uh uh cost increases coming for all of our utilities.

So I think maybe just something for us to keep in mind as we kind of work through the budget year.

And uh, Councilmember Newenhouse, if you might uh be kind enough to make the motion.

I move to direct staff to incorporate the commission's utility bill assistance program expansion recommendations into the submitted budget and utility rates to be considered by the city council as part of the upcoming biannual budget.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, we could, if anybody wanted take a break, or we could keep cooking along.

I'd like to do that.

Okay.

If you would uh introduce our next study session item.

Deputy Mayor and Council members.

This next study session has uh two components.

This is the Vision Zero Progress and our Safe Speeds Bellevue Program.

Um the first update on Vision Zero is providing you uh information on the road safety trends, and that is in support of the council's vision zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injury collisions on Bellevue streets by 2030.

Uh, the second component is the safe speeds Bellevue program, and that's the city's efforts to evaluate and adjust speed limits on both city streets, which you are aware of and have participated along the way.

Um, and from our transportation department, we have our Chris Long, Franz Lowenhurst, uh John Murphy, and Benjamin Wright.

Um they're here to uh provide an overview of all of the information and then to seek your direction related to the safe speeds program.

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

Thank you, City Manager Carlson, Deputy Mayor Hamilton and Council for the opportunity to provide an update on Bellevue's Vision Zero efforts and present the final safe speeds Bellevue recommendation.

These two presentations were originally scheduled as separate study sessions, but we recognize that they are closely connected and chose to bring them as one.

The Vision Zero update highlights Bellevue's safety challenges while Safe Speeds Bellevue focuses on one of the most effective strategies for addressing them.

What you'll hear tonight is how Bellevue's Vision Zero efforts are evolving from targeted pilot projects to broader implementation with speed management playing a central role.

Recent pilot projects, including reduced speed limits on arterial streets have demonstrated positive safety results.

Tonight's discussion focuses on expanding those benefits across more of our transportation network.

Lowering arterial speed limits is an important step towards Bellevue's Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

Safe speeds are a cornerstone of the safe system approach because they reduce both the likelihood of crashes and their severity.

So tonight we're asking council to uh consider directing staff to return with an ordinance to alter Bellevue City Code 11.32 to adjust speed limits in accordance with the Safe Speeds Bellview recommendation.

Our agenda for tonight will begin with Franz providing a review of the Bellevue uh road safety trends and uh followed by a summary of our safe system activities, and then John and Benjamin will conclude the presentation with a summary of community outreach and the final recommendations for speed limit changes on our streets, currently posted at 30 miles per hour or higher.

Franz.

Thank you, Chris.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, Council members.

In 2020, Council adopted the safe system approach to advance its vision zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030, following after which staff developed the Vision Zero Strategic Plan approved by the city manager, which establishes a one-city framework for uh cross-departmental coordination on road safety efforts.

And to maintain momentum and monitor progress, annual action plans are approved by department directors to guide implementation.

This chart reflects fatal and serious injury crashes per 100,000 population from 2016 to 2025 for Bellevue, Peer Cities, and Washington State.

While Bellevue, shown in orange continues to outperform peers, recent increases in severe crashes underscore the need for additional action.

In 2025, Bellevue recorded three fatalities and 38 serious injuries.

Compared to 2024, fatal and serious injury crashes increased for vehicle occupants and motorcycles and decreased for people walking and bike bicycling.

Overall, 2025 fatal and serious injuries were 61% higher than the prior 10-year average when accounting for all modes.

This chart reflects crash contributing factors in 2025 shown in orange compared to the prior tenure average shown in blue.

As indicated, multiple factors are seen worsening.

Speeding became the leading contruding factor in 2025 with 12 incidents compared to 3.9 on average in the prior 10 years.

This slide reflects representative Vision Zero activities in 2025, including securing over 1.8 million dollars in grants, implementing safe routes to school, and updating micromobility regulations.

In total, 41 tasks were advanced last year and are documented in the 2025 Vision Zero Progress Report, included as attachment A in the agenda memo.6 miles of sidewalks, 1.5 miles of bicycle lanes, and 3.3 miles of shared lane markings to improve walking and bicycle connectivity.

Additionally, the city implemented 48 safety treatments and 17 signal upgrades, which collectively improve crossing opportunities, reduce speeds, and reduce conflict points.

In years past, our Vision Zero work focused on targeted deployments.

In 2025, this included piloting lower speed limits on four arterial streets with documented safety benefits.

In 2026, our focus shifts towards scaling those proven strategies through system-wide implementation.

Tonight's council discussion and direction on arterial speed limits would extend those safety benefits across the transportation network.

And at this time, I'll hand the presentation over to John Murphy and Benjamin Wright to speak to the safe speeds recommendation.

Thanks, Franz.

So here to talk about Safe Speeds Bellevue.

This is our city's program to comprehensively evaluate speed limits on our street network that are currently posted at 30 miles per hour or more.

The reason we're focusing on this segment of our transportation network is uh these streets represent just a quarter of our street network mileage, but share a disproportionate share of where our serious injuries and fatalities are occurring.

So as mentioned, speed is a contributing factor to a lot of our serious injury and fatal crashes in Bellevue.

And as such, safe speed strategies really are a cornerstone of the safe system approach within the vision zero lens.

And we know when speeds go down, the frequency and the severity of crashes also go down.

And this isn't found in other cities, this is found in our community.

When we tested for lower speed limits last year on four corridors posted at 35 miles per hour, we measured speeds and found reductions of upwards of 42% reduction in high-end speeding, which is the most dangerous uh type of speeding and and has that direct relationship to serious injuries and fatalities.

I want to note that on those four corridors, we didn't do any other design changes.

We just simply changed the speed limit and added additional signs to increase the awareness.

So simply changing the speed limit in Bellevue has been proven to alter behavior.

So our timeline, this is our third discussion with you all to talk about this initiative.

It was launched in May of last year when we received direction to go evaluate lower speed limits on those four corridors.

We returned in January with the results in a little more detail showing those reductions in high-end speeding.

And we also shared with you at that time our draft proposal for what lower speed limits across our arterial network would look like.

That was the first time that you saw that, and the first time the community saw that.

Should we receive the direction to advance this work tonight, we would move toward implementation in 2027.

A hallmark of our work on this program to date has really been to ensure that we're bringing the community along, to ensure that they understand why we are pursuing the speed limit evaluation and trying to create that direct link to the safety outcome and benefits that we are we're seeking with trying to get people to slow down more.

So since we um last visited in January, we've continued this uh community conversation and engagement and outreach.

Um during our first phase of outreach, we engaged with our network on aging.

Um, since January, we met with our youth link council, really trying to talk and speak with as many of our community members as possible.

We've tried to emphasize attending in-person events, uh, meeting the community where they are, hitting our communication channels, both digital and print.

These number not in the hundreds or thousands, but tens of thousands of people in terms of reach, really trying to publicize this proposal.

And uh as part of that communication strategy, we did host a survey out to the community in the springtime of this year.

Like to talk a little bit about those themes that we got into what we learned from the community, uh, but I want to baseline uh first with what we heard during our first phase of outreach, and that's broad sentiment and agreement that the community understands the link between the speed at which people drive and the safety of people driving, walking, and biking.

So there's understanding and consensus that speed is a concern.

Um, I think what we found out is that there are a lot of different perspectives in how we actually go about solving that conundrum.

So, what we learned during the second phase survey is that there continues to be a strong desire to have our current and future speed limits enforced, which makes sense, and we've been working with our colleagues in police to ensure that they're aware of this proposal and that they'll be ready to go out and enforce these changes.

Um there's strong desire to pair speed limit changes with design changes, add physical measures, add speed safety cameras, and some of those efforts are in the pipeline for for this year.

And we realize that setting speed limits is not a panacea.

This is not a set speed limits and walk away.

This is just the first phase of this program, and there's a lot more work to do once we set those speed limits.

There continues to be strong attention to speeding, agregious speeding and distracted driving.

We know that you know changing a sign will not impact those people that choose to drive at a high rate of speed.

That's where those tools like speed safety cameras can really help dissuade that type of activity.

And then there was a concern that this might lead to added congestion.

We know that congestion is not caused directly by speed limit setting.

It's set or caused by slowdowns at intersections and our signal system and slowing down for people, you know, turning into driveways and businesses and things of the like.

That said, we do have ways to measure if there is congestion occurring on our city streets.

We have some data that we can tap to evaluate whether there are changes on our network, so we're we're ready to measure that moving forward.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Benjamin.

Great.

Thank you, Jean.

Uh, with that, I will present our final proposal for the speed limits from our study.

Um this map is largely unchanged from the one we presented to you in January.

Uh, one notable change is through our community survey.

We did hear a lot from our bridal trails residents, especially, uh, who wanted to see lower speed limits in their community in their neighborhood.

Uh so we we reviewed that, and we are recommending uh lower 25 mile hour speed limits in on some of those streets.

But yeah, largely unchanged from the proposal in January.

To quickly recap, this proposal is based on looking at uh both conflicts and activity on our 30 plus mile an hour speed limit streets that exist today.

So with conflicts, that's looking at the density of crossing points like intersections, driveways, mid-block crosswalks, as well as the infrastructure we have available for people walking and biking, you know, where sidewalks and bike lanes are missing, for example.

And we also looked at our activity level.

What is what is the density and type of land use along each of these streets, where their transit routes, things of that nature.

Um, generally speaking, you can see that we are proposing a 20-mile 25 mile an hour speed limit through much of our urban core with a pocket of 20 mile an hour speed limits around Old Bellevue and our downtown park that have a especially unique uh pedestrian-oriented character.

Um, to break those speed limits down.

Uh, we're recommending about 64% of these streets be reduced by five miles an hour, 20% be reduced by 10 miles an hour, and no change to about 16% of streets.

As far as implementation with council direction tonight, we will bring uh these speed limits back for council action on June 23rd.

Um, we'll continue to work on some handful of streets with the city of Redmond.

There's some council action that needs to happen jointly on those for our design work.

Uh, we've already started looking at what design looks and implementation looks like, and we'll be begin that design work.

Uh, we will also implement these speed limit changes in two to three phases, as John said, starting in 2027 with a focus on our urban core, second or high injury network, and on the remaining streets in Bellevue.

And then, yeah, following council action, we'll continue to coordinate with our police department to make sure that they can enforce these speed limits.

We've already been doing that coordination.

After we make the changes, we will uh monitor and adjust signal timing as needed.

Uh we will continue community outreach, informing the public that we are making these changes and why we are making them to support a safer transportation system.

And we'll continue to monitor speed and crash trends.

We've seen in Bellevue that these speed limit changes are effective in reducing high-end speeding, and but we will continue to monitor.

We know in other cities that they reduce crashes, and we'll continue to monitor those trends over the appropriate period of time.

But it's also important to note that reducing speed limits is just one of our three safe speed strategies.

Another is to leverage technology to manage speeds, things like radar signs and speed safety cameras to reflect the public's concern about enforcement, and also design changes, implementing traffic calming measures like speed cushions and mediants, race crosswalks and intersections to to help reinforce that these streets have a lower speed limit.

And with that, I'll return to our council direction to consider directing staff to return with an ordinance to alter Bell V City Code 1132 to adjust speed limits in accordance with the Safe Speeds Belf recommendation.

We're ready for questions.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh Chris Franz, John Benjamin, appreciate the presentation.

Also just appreciate all the work you do in support of achieving our vision zero goals, and thank you to the work you have done in support of Safe Streets, Bellevue and the potential lowering of speed limits that we're considering tonight.

Also a little shout out to the Vision Zero steering team.

Really appreciate really we really need to have a lot of collaboration to reach our traffic safety goals, and we're lucky to have uh all of their effort.

Um I might just mention or make a few comments before turning to my colleagues as uh liaison to the Transportation Commission.

Um, you know, as you pointed out, the data shows a troubling trend over the last 10 years or so.

Knowing the data shows that people walking and biking are disproportionately represented in fatal and serious injury crashes, and that higher speeds significantly increase that risk, makes it easy to understand that when speeds come down, we see a safer and more comfortable environment for everyone, whether you're driving, walking, or biking.

Uh I think you know, as mentioned, uh we should continue to rely on our data and that from other cities that shows that lowering that lower more consistent speeds can help traffic flow more smoothly by reducing differences in how people are driving.

Smoother flows also help cut down on stop and go conditions, uh which really are the cause of delay in busy corridors and can improve how reliable travel times are.

Um, I understand that the majority of the streets are only slated to receive the five mile an hour reduction.

I think even if some trips take an extra minute or two on the road, that's a small trade-off if we can prevent serious injury or loss of life.

I just did a little test on my own, and so for me, just as an example, a five mile an hour reduction in speed would equate to less than two minutes of travel time from my house in Northeast Bellevue to Bellevue Square.

Certainly, for me I think that's a trade-off that is worth it, and I think our community also supports that.

And two, just looking at some of the troubling data that you mentioned, you know, in 2025, our was the worst year for traffic safety in the last decade.

And we weren't just sitting back last year, even with all of the investments we made in safety, we still really had an alarming year.

That makes sense uh to me to take additional action now and to continue to focus on safety in our new budget.

So tonight's action seems very appropriate and necessary and timely with all of the growth coming to the city over the next uh 20 years.

I think the outreach effort was really good.

The 800 survey responses is really helpful.

Um, so very solid, and I appreciate too that you incorporated that feedback into your work as quickly as possible and as the project move forward and certainly agree with the community members focusing on enforcement, congestion impact, street design, and unsafe driving really resonate for me and obviously for our community members.

So I'm definitely anxious to uh hear from my colleagues, but appreciate uh the presentation.

Councilmember Robinson, okay.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, I appreciate the work done on this as well.

Just have two questions.

Um, can you first of all describe how we are coordinating with Redmond?

Because we share so many streets, so um just to like a little more detail on that.

And then my second question is how are we going to avoid cut through traffic from cars that are avoiding the slower streets?

We had heard one of our residents bring that up about uh I think it's 164s, and I'm just um curious if we've thought about that and how you manage it.

Sure.

Um, yeah, for the first piece about coordination with Redmond, the City of Redmond is actually currently undertaking a study of their own speed limits this year.

Um, and there are some streets, for example, 148th Avenue in our over in the like overlake neighborhood, um, as well as um a portion of like Bell Red Road and a few other streets in that over lake area where it's really important that we are in coordination with the city of Redmond on the speed limit changes, so they will complete their study later this year, and we anticipate having joint council action on those speed limits early next year.

Okay, great, thank you.

Yeah, I can tackle the cut-through uh question.

As mentioned, we we don't think that there's going to be a lot of extra congestion that's going to cause vehicles to cut through into neighborhoods.

Um, that said we do have Benjamin mentioned that we're going to adjust our signal timing system to kind of eke out as many efficiencies as we can to make our arterial network um be as optimal as as it can be to try to keep people on that arterial network, and if there is any of that cut through that does occur, um there are kind of some known hot spots around the city that I will keep tabs on.

We have a lot of good background data on what current conditions are to measure against future conditions, and we have employed some successful um cut-through projects in in the past and keeping people uh out of the neighborhoods and on the arterials where we'd like them to be uh for the most part if they're commuting or getting across town long distances.

So the community members who are experiencing any cut through traffic if it goes up, there's somebody there's a way for them to notify staff to maybe ask for a uh increased study on their neighborhood.

I know when I lived in Woodridge that happened, and it was really interesting, and that it was a it was a long process, it took like a year of data collection, but then there was a solution that was um unexpected and it very effective.

So I just wonder if there's a path for the community to follow if something like that's going on.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, I do manage the neighborhood traffic safety program that does uh take in those types of requests.

Um, and the project that you mentioned in Woodridge, there's a lot of community consultation on that because there are trade-offs when we're trying to address cut-through traffic.

Um the key for that project in particular was trying to get navigation apps to not get people into the roadways, and that was a great good solution for Woodridge and kept people on Richards Road.

Okay.

So, do you want to describe the process for how a community manager would reach out to you just so people know?

Yeah, you can um re use our My Belleview app to submit a concern, or um you can email our TR reception at Belleview.gov, and it'll get to the right person.

Staff will follow up and articulate that process, and if we need more data, we'll we'll collect that and we'll work with the community because we want to make sure any proposed solution is aligned with what the community wants.

Great, thank you.

Councilmember Sumaterial.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, thank you for the presentation, and I just want to give a big praise to John.

So we were in the ring with Vasa neighborhood.

It was we were in a ray, I think at least over almost an hour, and you didn't have umbrella.

He just listened the whole time.

It was amazing, and I feel bad having umbrella actually.

I was like, so I'm sorry, but thank you.

I just I think that's a big praise because we do really listen, and you know, and then the police was there too, and I think different element of our team is all coming together, making sure the communities heard is very special, and I don't think that we see every city.

So thank you for doing that.

Um, so I have uh just two questions to ask.

Um, one of them is with the high injury network um and the downtown core.

So we start starting at a downtown core first, and I'm just wondering how come we're not doing the high injury network first.

Well, um, so we're gonna start with our entire urban core, and uh the urban core represents a very large chunk of our high injury network already, and so the the second so that would really be addressing a large part of our high energy network already, and then so the second phase would be only to capture um and focus on the high energy network that isn't captured in that initial phase.

Okay, thank you.

And my next question is okay.

So, my next one about engagement.

Um, I am really impressed at how much how much engagement we've been doing, but by the phases.

Um, just for clarification, for the engagement, uh can you give me like a category?

Like, are they mostly homeowners, drivers?

Like, how is there like a like a proportion of the people we've been um communicating?

Or like I see Bell um uh Vidal Federal Trail has a really high proportion have feedback for the engagement, right?

Like, what about other neighborhoods?

How can we reach make sure every neighborhood is reached?

Yeah, we do have a more detailed engagement report that I don't have committed to memory.

So we'd need to we did ask a lot of um kind of mode choice and demographic questions.

We'd have to follow up on that though.

Would like to share with us would be great for the engagement because I think that you know I feel like a lot of the engagement like the neighborhood we were working for, um, because there's very small on the work sideway.

I think as a young mom, have a stroller or like the kiddos getting off school at the intersection with multiple buses.

I could I could see that be very dangerous to go through, um, especially very low visibility where it's like raining, right?

Or and when it's dark, and if there's a ditch, it could be really dangerous for somebody to see it.

And I I couldn't I injured my knee recently, but it was not something silly like that.

But I would say, like, if I were that I'm probably the first one getting injured, I'm very clumsy and I cannot see.

And not everyone have the habit of wearing a reflective gear as well.

Um, so I would encourage our teams when we go out to the community, we can talk to more people who walk, and then you know, with strollers and bikes and in the neighborhoods we have it able to reach and finding more creative ways to try to reach out to them just because I think every neighborhood's experience are very different, and um also the way they are using transportation could be completely different depending on the age group, but and also maybe like cultural differences too, right?

Yeah, so I'm looking forward to learn more about how we're gonna engage the phase three differently.

Thank you.

Councilmember Newenhouse.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Uh thank you all for being here.

Thanks for the great presentation.

Um, of the 251 serious injuries and the 22 fatalities that you mentioned over the last uh decade, and this is kind of a follow-up to Council Member Summit Wario's question.

What proportion of those injuries and those fatalities happen on the high injury network?

And what characteristics do they share?

Or what characteristics do the corridors share?

Yeah, I so uh I do not have the um the actual stat for the high injury network.

Do you, Chris?

No, I don't know.

No, so I can get that back to you via email.

Okay, yeah.

That would be great.

I just because just further curious about what areas of the city we're tackling first.

What are the I guess should be what I would consider to be the the high priority areas where we're seeing the most amount of fatalities or injuries, etc.

So, and I would expect they would be on that high injury network.

So I would appreciate the the follow-up on that one.

Next question uh the memo mentioned 19 to 42% reduction in high end speeding um after the speed limit reductions on those evaluation uh corridors so far.

So, what percentage change have we seen so far in overall uh crash severity?

Have we been able to track that data?

We haven't at this point, um, we can certainly, it's been not quite a year, and a lot of our trends are borne out over a longer period of time, especially with okay across four corridors, it's going to be a little more um sporadic than across our entire transportation network, but I think as we're coming up on our one-year anniversary of that the deployment on those four corridors, do you think it's worth taking a fresh look at the data, what has happened out there during the past year?

Well, I think so.

I think it might be kind of a key metric that we start uh uh tracking.

Um and not just injuries versus um actual deaths, but do we, but just like the severity as well, or does it all get lumped into uh one category, any type of injury, which of course we never want any type of injury, but do we look at the severity?

Um we do look at that, okay.

Also, I can follow up.

I did find the statistic.

Um, great.

So for the high injury network, it reflects 2015 to 24 crash patterns, and it covers 8% of city streets, but accounts for 68% of fatal and serious injury collisions.

Okay, okay.

Thank you for that.

Um a follow-up on the on the previous question regarding the uh uh the coordination uh with the police department, uh could you go into just a little bit more depth on that?

Because I think the the vast majority when when we reduce speed by five, they're they're gonna follow it, and I think that's why we start seeing some of these reductions and safer conditions, which is great.

Unfortunately, what we also know is that sometimes um be it a car rally, which we see occasionally across the city, um, or certain clubs that you know have um uh an interest in very high performance motorcycles, for example.

I don't see any other way we're gonna reduce that type of activity and speed, like insanely fast speed that unfortunately has led to some deaths in our city, unless there is real consequences to that type of uh of behavior um in in our city.

So can you talk a little bit about how that coordination with BPD is happening to um really set an example um uh with some of these you know just outrageous speeds that are taking place in our city sometimes?

I know that the police department has launched a new campaign uh on this topic, and it might be worthwhile having them come and speak to it.

I know that high visibility enforcement campaign is upcoming, actually, it'll be hosted here at City Hall in June.

Um, that is really intended to uh get out there and um build that level of compliance that you're you're speaking to.

Okay, but you do see a part of this overall effort though, right?

That we're okay, good.

I wasn't sure if you saw it's two separate efforts, but I see it all as one, correct?

Okay, good.

Uh on the uh the great outreach and the number of responses that we received.

Um was there any um uh themes there?

I'm I'm I'm curious in terms of um did we hear a lot from schools or businesses or neighborhood groups?

Um were that were there any themes there from some of some of the uh more impacted uh groups or businesses or schools in there?

And did that impact any of our decisions in terms of where we might want to see some reductions?

I don't believe that we've heard we any of the feedback we received was specifically from a school or organization or presented in that way.

Um I think that the survey we did, for example, we did offer to come and share with a number of different neighborhood associations across the city, and I just don't think that we got any uptake on that offer.

Okay.

Did we allow for that at all?

Or did we did we, I guess, position the survey or the interactions where we just didn't really kind of track from like what perspective they might be coming from in terms of what was impacting them and their neighborhood or their school or their business?

Uh so for example, some of the questions that we asked, there's like the relationship to Bellevue.

Do you live here?

Do you work here?

Do you come and shop here?

Okay.

Um so that was one question.

There were other questions we asked, like um, you know, what what what activities do you do on Bellevue Streets?

Do you walk, do you bike, do you take transit?

Okay, so they were more generic in in general, but I'm just curious maybe in in the future um if we hear specifics that we're able to maybe track that if um we get a large number of kids maybe um that are walking to Stevenson uh elementary or something like that that we can that we can track that and maybe put that as a priority um as as another as another data point.

I mean, I I appreciate the approach.

I'm just thinking if this is an opportunity to get some specific areas that we know, um, like we've heard from uh folks coming down um uh over a number of different weeks about some of the issues on uh around Lake Samamish, for example.

I think that's important uh for for us to hear.

Last question.

Um because I think this is a great plan.

I'm fully supportive of it.

Curious on the implementation, what does that look like once fully funded, how long to being fully implemented, and then how long before getting back to the data question um before we start getting some data back in terms of is this working the way we want it to work?

Is that is that one year?

Is that two years?

What does that look like?

So as far as implementation, um, as mentioned, we currently plan to implement this in about three phases, and we'll start as early as possible in 2027.

Right.

Um, I I think our our plan is certainly to get this all implemented within two years and hopefully much sooner.

We'll see what we can do.

Sorry, within two years?

Yeah, okay.

With the speed limits, yeah.

Yeah.

And um, I'm sorry, could you remind me the second part of the question?

Oh, the how long can we really start um getting some good data back in terms of what you are is this being successful and are we really getting the uh the kind of data back that we we expect or or if we need to pivot?

So, in terms of in terms of looking at at speed data, for example, um we can do speed studies um to measure the speeds um on certain streets and we can deploy that.

Uh we have tools um at looking at like GPS data from cars to measure speeds.

Um we haven't found that too.

Let me start with a second.

I know you've got those.

I'm talking about what's the amount of time before we can really trust the data that we're getting that it's solid and it shows us A, we're on track or B, we might need to pivot.

Yeah.

Um, you want to go ahead?

Yeah, I was just gonna say the timing would likely occur when we do these annual updates.

Okay.

So you know, there would be a lag in the period of time from implementation, but we would time it for these updates to you annually.

And our our first uh the pilot corridors were all we reported back to you on those after four months of deployment.

Is that right, John?

Yeah, four to five.

Yeah.

So we we generally are getting good, uh, we you we feel like traffic is settled into a pattern you know after about three months of implementation, and then that's when we were doing new data collection shortly thereafter.

So uh just to look at just the speed portion of it, um, you know, as we talked about the the crash data does take a little bit more time to see if we're seeing any.

I was gonna say, yeah, I think you do need it.

And that was part of what I was gonna ask about.

Like, is that a year?

Is that two year?

Like, we look at crash data quarterly.

So yeah, well, for fatal and serious injury crashes.

So that that is something that we are uh we do stay on top of and um but to to get back to report to look at system wide, yeah.

That'll be we'll be looking at that once a year based on our on the results of that data.

Usually takes us about three to four months after the end of the year to know that we have accurate data from the previous year from Washtaws.

Perfect.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Councilmember Bargaba.

Yeah, thank you, Devin Mayor.

Um so appreciate the the presentation, appreciate all the work that's gone into making the recommendation uh broadly supportive.

Let me start right there.

Uh safety is super important.

Uh pedestrian safety, bike safety, vehicular safety, safety in general on the streets for Bellevue.

Um, and it's what's underscoring me, just reiterating that is the trend we've seen in the last decade.

2025, if I got the data right, was the worst year in the last 10 years in terms of incidents on the streets.

So I'm glad we're taking strong action to address what I think is a real um issue for our community.

So appreciate that and appreciate sort of the collective will for the city to do something about this.

Streets are also not a um the right-of-way, is a shared um commodity, if I can say it that way.

It's for streets, the streets are meant for cars, they're meant for pedestrians, they're meant for bikes, and collectively, we need to make sure that all of those multimodal needs are addressed and well thought for in our community.

That cannot be less underscored, too.

So those are two really important sort of tenets of how to think about this from my standpoint at least.

Um the other thing is I uh and I think this is this is resonant in the community feedback as well as your presentation, but uh I'll say this that limits are speed limits are just one of the actions, it's one side of the equation, is the way I think about it.

It's really important because we have to make behavioral change here, enforcement, and then physical design changes, both of which came out in your community feedback, are really important, sort of the three-legged stool on which we have to build this um plan out to try and reduce the incidents within our community.

And so uh I can't, this is just one and would really want to see, and and I think my peers in the council have also said this, would want to see clear and uh time bound plans around those other two elements of how we can do this.

Um I have two really quick questions uh beyond those three comments.

Uh the first is actually building on council member Robinson's question, which I think is really insightful.

Umintended consequences of changes in speed limits can be things like cut through traffic in places where we don't expect it, or can be congestion points in places.

I know congestion is not a direct coral not directly correlated to changes in speed limit, but I'm talking about generally unintended consequences.

So, what is our mechanism going to be to identify that?

And then I think it's just as important that we have really good, you know, I'll call it ears on the ground to listen for those signals from the community proactively.

And so I know you talked about the second part of that in response to Councilmember Robinson's question about what you're gonna do to try and get that input from the community, uh, but I'd be really uh curious to know what that mechanism is for us for us to look at those unintended consequences.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Uh the, I think the uh uh a component of this that we need to consider in in our deployment is that follow-up with the community.

We got great feedback, you know, 800 responses through the survey that we uh had originally done, uh, follow-up survey would and further further outreach as after we've done some of these deployments certainly makes sense to get that uh get the experience from the residents on on how that has changed.

We we use a lot, we use our signal system and the in our various data tools to do the best we can to get some of that quantitative information, but is that qualitative understanding how they experience it that is important too?

And we can't be everywhere all at once, and those that drive the same route every day to go to school and go to work, they they see things we don't, and so we definitely want to listen to those folks too.

Yeah, so I mean I would encourage us based on that just to incorporate that into your quarterly and annual sort of channels of review, and then, of course, reporting back on what you're hearing would be really important so we can you know double down or pivot as necessary.

Um at least we have the inputs for doing that.

The second question I have is around um uh how do we how are we going to make sure as we make these?

I know this is not implementation right away.

This is a 2027 implementation.

If I got that right.

How would we make sure that we are making folks keeping folks informed within the community of these changes?

Like enforcement should not be the first way I learn about a change in speed limit as it has in the community.

And so, like I, you know, I put myself in those shoes.

I drive set patterns within the city to my kids' school to my activities to work and to blah, and I drive almost mechanically at speeds which I'm used to.

And suddenly I'm not noticing a posted speed sign anywhere, and I get a ticket.

Um, I'm like, what happened here?

I didn't do anything.

And so, how do we make sure that we're engaging the community and keeping folks informed of changes like this, that we expect changes in behavior from its scale?

Yeah, um, great question.

We have a great communications team on the staff side, and there is a lot of work that is happening in parallel on the speed management side.

So arterial speed management, local street speed limit reduction, speed safety cameras.

There is a lot of change that we're about to encounter in our community.

So we're working with our comms staff to package this kind of as a campaign.

It's not just going to be a news release, we're really trying to uh put all of these speed management efforts under an umbrella to make it front and center and visible to the community.

So there are no surprises.

So on that's one piece of it, and then the other piece is we are planning to increase the number of signs.

Um that is what we did on our evaluation corridors and saw those reductions in high-end speeding.

Um, roughly you would see a sign about every 30 seconds is the rule of thumb and best practice.

So that is not currently what is out in the field in our community, so the signs themselves will be a little more visible, and on our bigger roadways, they will physically be bigger.

They'll be a little larger in size as well to help reinforce and make more visible the changes.

And one last thing, every one of those new signs will include uh a flag or like a bright orange flag or something like that to draw attention to that new sign that we put out there.

And I'll just add, John did a great job of articulating kind of the combined activities, the three elements of our safe speeds work specific to speed safety cameras, which we're still on track to roll out.

Um there will be targeted mailers to the nearby residents and businesses.

There will also be a 30-day warning period before the cameras go live.

So there's gonna be multiple uh rounds of uh outreach to make sure everyone is aware for those specific locations.

Yes, appreciate it.

Anything we can do to keep folks informed and and engaged on this process would be helpful.

It also helps in changing behavior proactively as well.

If I can take 30 seconds more on one more uh last question, really this is triggered by the public comment we had earlier about the idea of lower cost, faster moving opportunities, which may be physical design changes we can make, uh, you know, speed bumps are not that expensive to install, uh, or there could be that's just an example.

Shake, like you can think of many.

I'm not the expert for transportation and traffic calming measures, but um, what would be some of those uh that we could move faster on potentially?

Is there anything like that in a playbook that you could describe?

We are pursuing uh some of those, you know, speed cushions is an example uh are uh uh uh a better application on our arterial network.

It's so a good example of that is what we recently did in the Newport neighborhood on a hundred and nineteenth.

Uh we do, it does take, even though it is like the individual speed cushion is relatively low cost, there is a lot of labor cost involved in doing the outreach and making sure we're positioning those properly and getting buy-in.

Uh, we've we have proactively uh started that effort with some of the corridors through in preparation for a grant that we recently applied for.

Uh that includes multiple corridors that we're looking to do uh speed cushions on to help you know kind of start building out that network of traffic calming along with the signage changes.

So other temporary uh more quick build solutions are uh you know, we we we are very cautious with those because although they're easy to build, they're challenging to maintain, and so we we do try to make sure that we aren't putting our maintenance staff in a position where they can't keep up with that, and we're and we suddenly have uh equipment on the street that that's not serving the right purpose.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

All I the point I will reiterate here is that there is no silver bullet, and and um speed limit changes aren't definitely it.

It's one of those many, and so we need to continuously evolve that playbook to have a more robust approach that takes many of these into consideration and look for real changes, um, and see where we can double down quickly.

And that's I think uh, and I'm not sure, uh I'm sure we're not the first ones trying to achieve these lower outcomes or safer outcomes, and so learnings from data that go beyond the city is a great way for us to learn and and iterate as well.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Great.

Uh thank you, council member.

Would you make the motion, please?

Yeah.

Uh so I move to the next staff to finalize the Bellevue City Code 11.32 amendments to adjust speed limits in accordance with the safe speeds Bellevue recommendations.

So, we've got a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

Okay, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, the motion carries.

As the city manager said earlier, we do have a written report um from the CCAT team that is in your packet.

And having completed the agenda, we are adjourned.