Olympia City Council Meeting - December 3, 2025 (Date per instruction; transcript and minutes indicate November 25, 2025)
Olympia City Council Meeting - December 3, 2025 (Date per instruction; transcript and minutes indicate November 25, 2025)
Note on date discrepancy: The user-provided date for this summary is December 3, 2025, but the meeting agenda, minutes, and transcript all indicate the meeting occurred on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. This summary uses the requested date in the title but reflects the actual content from the November 25 meeting.
The Olympia City Council held a regular business meeting on November 25, 2025, at 6:00 PM. The meeting included public comments on Flock surveillance cameras and other issues, adoption of a consent calendar (including missing middle housing and B&O tax ordinances), approval of the 2026 Final Budget, and a closed session on labor negotiations. All votes were unanimous (7-0).
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes of the November 18, 2025 meeting.
- Adopted on second reading an ordinance adopting Missing Middle Housing Code Amendments (25-0932).
- Adopted on second reading an ordinance amending Olympia Municipal Code Section 5.04.040 relating to Business & Occupations Tax definitions (25-0970).
- The consent calendar was approved unanimously (7-0).
Public Comments & Testimony
Six community members spoke:
- William Cotter (responsible AI expert, former DHS employee) opposed Flock cameras, describing them as an automated biometric and racial profiling system based on Flock’s patents. He called on the council to end the contract, remove cameras, and ban such technology. He noted Flock’s CEO called privacy advocates “terrorists.”
- Courtney Cecale (Olympia resident) requested ending the Flock contract, removing cameras, and adopting protections. She argued Flock data collection conflicts with the city’s sanctuary commitments (RCW 10.93.160) and Washington’s My Health, My Data Act, and warned of data breaches and risks to reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare.
- Paris Lamoureux asked to remove Flock, citing federal immigration enforcement accessing data in 31 cities without warrants, violating the Keep Washington Working Act.
- Apollo Huseny (resident near Lacey border) opposed Flock cameras, noting other cities like Lynnwood removed them. He raised privacy, mental health, and lack of evidence of crime reduction.
- Greg Griffith (President, Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum) thanked the city for partnership on a November 8 event preserving the Legion Way trees memorial to veterans. He recognized Mayor Pro Tem Huỳnh, staff Valerie Roberts, Brittany Gillia, Bruce Moulton, Eric Reiesman, and others.
- David Webb (Olympia resident) spoke on two issues: (1) criticized deceptive crisis pregnancy centers (e.g., Options Pregnancy) for misleading practices, urging the city to act; (2) asked council to use the upcoming Flock study session to learn about operations and prioritize safety for all constituents, not just wealthy white ones. He referenced Boston banning AI facial recognition.
Discussion Items
2026 Final Budget Balancing City Manager Jay Burney presented the final 2026 operating budget, a culmination of year-long discussions. Key points:
- New revenues approved earlier:
- Sales and use tax increase (HB 2015) estimated $3 million annually (half-year 2026: $1.5 million), with one-time REET use to bridge the gap.
- Business & Occupation tax increase: all categories to 0.2% (retail to 0.0015%); reporting threshold raised to $500,000; estimated $1.8 million in 2026 starting January 1.
- Budget additions (ongoing general fund): bunker gear replacement, increased jail costs, emergency manager position, Downtown Alliance Guide expansion, home energy score, flower baskets, Olympia Strong implementation.
- Revenue-neutral enhancements: additional firefighter (offset by overtime savings), climate resilience coordinator (grant-funded), safe housing program, climate fellow, sea level rise collaborative, rental registry support (offset by fees), sidewalk repair team (TBD sales tax).
- Reductions: 8 positions eliminated across departments (communications, city manager’s office, legal, economic development, familiar faces, climate program, federal lobbyist contract, retiring principal planner).
- Utility rates and fees: Water/sewer/stormwater rates increase ~3.5% on average (UAC recommended). Proposed increases to general facilities charges, capacity development charges, and development fees (2.7% for permit fees, new minor variance fee of $1,000, fire inspection permits from $39 to $85). Park impact fees up 2.9%. Parking citation fees to increase.
- Councilmember Cooper asked about water meter replacement schedule; staff confirmed ongoing program funded by rates.
- Finance Director Mike Givens answered a community question about the parks 11% calculation, confirming consistency over 10 years and that the half-percent non-voted utility tax was correctly included.
- Mayor Payne acknowledged the difficulty of new taxes but noted $1.2 million in reductions and community input drove the balance.
Council Response to Public Comment
- Mayor Pro Tem Huỳnh thanked repeat commenters on Flock and noted the December 2 study session. She also acknowledged the deceptive pregnancy center issue and committed to looking into signage enforcement as part of the sanctuary city resolution on reproductive rights.
- Councilmember Gilman highlighted that the December 2 study session is primarily about OPD’s implementation of Flock, but he hopes to create space for discussion of privacy and civil rights concerns. City Manager Burney confirmed the police chief will attempt to address community questions in her presentation.
- Mayor Payne noted the city cannot stop businesses like Options Pregnancy from operating, but the city manager will follow up with code enforcement on signage and deceptive practices per the sanctuary city resolution. Councilmember Madrone agreed the focus should be on signage authenticity.
Key Outcomes
- Consent calendar adopted unanimously (7-0), including missing middle housing and B&O tax ordinance amendments.
- 2026 Final Budget approved unanimously (7-0): Council adopted the City Manager and Finance Committee recommendation for the preliminary operating budget, utility rates and fees, special (dedicated) funds, and capital budget. Staff directed to prepare ordinances for final adoption on December 9, 2025.
- Closed session: Council recessed at 6:51 PM and held a closed session from 6:57 PM to 7:44 PM pursuant to RCW 42.30.140(4)(b) to discuss labor negotiations. No decisions were made. The meeting adjourned at 7:44 PM.
- Upcoming: A study session on Flock cameras is scheduled for December 2, 2025 (Tuesday following this meeting) at 6:00 PM. No public comment will be taken at the study session.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, November 25th, 2025 regular business meeting of the Olympia City Council. For the record, we have a quorum with all council members present tonight. So before we move on to adopting our agenda, I just want to mention the fact that there has been quite a few accidents involving automobiles lately in our community. And with the holiday season coming up, I just want to stress the importance of vehicular safety and traffic and pedestrian safety in general. Particularly as we approach the holiday seasons, our roads will be very busy. And there'll be lots of our community members traveling to their loved ones, both family and friends alike. And so I can't stress enough the importance of being safe, whether you're walking, biking, driving, uh however you're commuting to get to where you need to, please do so safely. So with that, I need a motion to approve tonight's agenda. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the agenda signify by saying aye. We have an agenda. All right. So we do not have any special recognition on our agenda tonight. So we are going to go ahead and move right into public comment. And I do believe we have uh some folks that are signed up for public comment. I do just want to mention and remind everyone that you have two minutes for your comments. Uh if you have not uh spoken before, you'll hear a ding uh sound at about 30 seconds uh with about 30 seconds remaining in your comments, but feel free to wrap up your sentence. Uh and we're gonna begin with our first public commenter, William Cotter. Thank you. Just to make sure, can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Great good evening. My name is Bill Cotter. I'm a responsible AI expert, and I'm a former Department of Homeland Security employee. Tonight I want to tell you briefly what Flock's technology actually does. The cameras that Flock has installed throughout Olympia are typically referred to as automated license plate readers. But based on Flock's patents for the camera and their technology infrastructure, that's not really an accurate description of what they do. The patents describe using neural networks that are trained to identify, and I'm quoting from the patents here, classes of people, male, female, race, etc. The patents also detail algorithms that are designed to gauge a pedestrian's height, weight, and specific clothing types. Note that they're talking in the patents about pedestrians, not drivers. Flock is actually admitting in their patents that they're capable of capturing data from anyone on the street at any time. The patents also describe a feature that Flock calls object-based query, which would let users of Flock's nationwide network search by physical description, gender, race, etc. Essentially a Google search for people across the Flock network. As an expert in AI, let me really clearly tell you that this is not licensed plate monitoring technology. This is a company that's operating a nationwide automated biometric and racial profiling system. And it turns every sidewalk in Olympia where there's a camera into a police lineup. I also want to touch briefly on who the city is actually doing business with. Two months ago in an interview, Flock CEO Garrett Langley called privacy advocates that are concerned about flock cameras terrorists. The man controlling the surveillance grid in our city thinks that anyone who questions his technology is a terrorist. So those of you on the city council who noted last week that you had reservations about Flock or that your views may be changing about Flock, as far as Flock is concerned, you may be considered a terrorist as well. Welcome. You're in good company with the rest of us that are concerned. As an AI expert, I can tell you that when you build an AI-powered database of gendered movements or racial movements, you're building a weapon that can be used to arm people. The city council can't claim to protect residents while the city is actually using a system that's trained to profile both you and your constituents. This technology violates our civil liberties, and I'm calling on the city council to vote tonight to end the contract with Flock, remove the cameras, and then pass an ordinance that bans this type of technology from being used by the city ever again. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have Courtney Secal. And if I'm mispronouncing your name, please uh correct me.
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