Edmonds City Council PSPHSP Committee Meeting - May 19, 2026
Edmonds City Council PSPHSP Committee Meeting - May 19, 2026
The Edmonds City Council Public Safety, Planning, Human Services, and Personnel (PSPHSP) Committee met on May 19, 2026, at 4:30 PM via Zoom and in-person. The committee discussed four agenda items: a proposed ordinance amending authorized employee positions, a job description revision for a water quality control technician, an introduction to family burial grounds under House Bill 2239, and an introduction to code amendments implementing House Bill 1757 for converting existing buildings to housing. Decisions included forwarding two items to the consent agenda and setting future discussion dates for the remaining items.
Consent Calendar
- Ordinance Amending Authorized Employee Positions (First Reading): The committee reviewed a proposed ordinance reflecting personnel changes, including reclassification of an HR position, adjustments in administrative services, addition of wastewater treatment plant supervisors, and increases in planning department administrative assistant FTEs. The committee unanimously agreed to move this ordinance to the consent agenda for approval at the May 26, 2026, full council meeting.
- Water Quality Control Technician Job Description Revision: The Public Works Director presented a minor change to make a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) preferred rather than required for the position, as a recent qualified candidate was lost due to the CDL requirement. The committee agreed to move this revision to the consent agenda for approval on May 26, 2026.
Discussion Items
- Introduction to Family Burial Grounds (HB 2239): Planning staff introduced House Bill 2239, which allows family burial grounds on private property starting June 11, 2026. Staff presented four alternatives: allow with state minimums, allow with additional restrictions, ban outright, or adopt a moratorium. The committee expressed concerns about flooding risks and the need for public input, with Councilmember Dosh favoring a moratorium (alternative four). The committee agreed to forward this item to the full council for discussion on May 26, 2026.
- Introduction to Code Amendments Implementing HB 1757: Planning and Building staff presented on House Bill 1757, requiring jurisdictions to allow conversion of existing buildings to residential uses. The bill includes energy code carve-outs for new dwelling units in existing buildings. The discussion focused on safety concerns (e.g., egress, fire protection) and the limited applicability to Edmonds' building stock. The committee directed staff to bring the building code amendments to the full council for discussion and possible action on June 23, 2026, and to send the zoning code amendments to the Planning Board for recommendation, with a return to full council in July 2026.
Key Outcomes
- Items referred to consent agenda (May 26, 2026, full council): Ordinance amending authorized employee positions and Water Quality Control Technician job description revision.
- Family burial grounds (HB 2239): Forwarded to full council for discussion on May 26, 2026, with intent to adopt an interim ordinance.
- HB 1757 building code amendments: Directed staff to present to full council on June 23, 2026, for discussion and potential action.
- HB 1757 zoning code amendments: Directed staff to take to Planning Board for review, then return to full council in July 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Hello everyone. It's 4 30. We will be convening the Edmund City Council, Public Safety, Planning, Human Services, and Personnel Committee, also known as PSP HSP. We have an attendance committee member Councilmember Susan Payne. We also have ex officio member uh council president Michelle Dosh and observing Councilmember Vivian Olson. And we will be starting with item 2.1 ordinance amending authorized employee positions, the first reading presented by human resources. And please take it on reading. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm here today to present the proposed ordinance that amends the authorized positions for us to fill. As you're aware, council graciously approved a number of personnel changes that support our operations. And this ordinance, uh amending this ordinance will allow us to move forward with filling those positions. And I can briefly just kind of touch on some of the changes or actually all of the changes that are reflected. One is in human resources. But it'll reflect the reclassification of the human resources position. The next is the decreasing the administrative assistant in the administrative services department, which actually is most often referred to as the finance department now. And we had we'd done an analysis on the job duties, and it's now uh appropriately allocated as a senior office specialist. So that will reflect as increasing the funding for the senior office specialist to one and unfunding the administrative assistant position. Also in the uh public works department, um, we in uh we decreased two operators and we added two additional supervisors to create the three supervisors in the wastewater treatment plant that'll have areas of focus in their operations. Um then last we had the planning and developments administrative assistance. We had one that's currently at 0.9, um pricing that one to full-time, and then one that is part-time or 0.5 FTE, increasing that to one. Um so going from 1.4 to 2.0 on the position ordinance. And our recommendation is to move the uh ordinance to the consent agenda for approval. Are there any questions from the committee? None from me. Looks perfectly. Yay. Any from our uh ex FICIA members. I'm good. Thank you. Vivia? Nope. Good. Okay. And then uh Ryan, I assume that these are all internal promotions and covered within the existing department budgets. Yes, yeah. Um, a couple of the positions we haven't filled yet, like the wastewater supervisor. Um, we'll have to advertise and recruit for those. So we'll see who get those roles. But once we have the approved ordinance, we'll be able to start that process. Okay, wonderful. I see that Andy Ream has just joined us. I don't know if you wanted to comment on that, but I would be in favor of moving this forward to um the consent agenda for the May 26th, 2026 council meeting. Do you agree? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The next one. Okay. So that'll be reflected. Thank you, Rann. Thank you for being so assiduous about keeping the um authorized positions ordinance updated.
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