The Olympia City Council held a regular business meeting on February 25, 2026, addressing a wide range of topics including community recognition, public comments, and multiple legislative actions. Key agenda items included amendments to urban village development standards, termination of the Briggs Urban Village Development Agreement, and the adoption of ordinances protecting diverse family structures and prohibiting discrimination. The council also acted on resolutions related to immigration enforcement and city property use by federal agents.
Five, four, three, two, one. Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 regular business meeting of the Olympia City Council. For the record, we have a quorum with all council members present tonight. So before we adopt the agenda, I do have a statement here that I wish to read regarding uh the rally that is uh taking place uh just outside. So there was a call that went out to the community for individuals to be here tonight to comment to us on flock cameras. We always want to encourage community members to give public comments on the issues that are important to them. However, I do want to take a moment to reiterate several facts about Flock camera, our flock camera program before we continue with tonight's public comment. So late last year we heard from community members about strong concerns with Flock and a call to shut it down. We heard fears and anger about the federal government using data in other communities for purposes of immigration enforcement, data security and overall privacy concerns, and the expanding use of advanced license plate plate reader or ALPR, which it will be referred to from here on out, and other similar technologies. We as a city responded to those concerns. The flock camera program has been suspended since December. All camera equipment has been removed, and the current contract with Flock will not be renewed. All data outside the 30-day retention window or which is required for local law enforcement investigation purposes has been deleted. We remain committed to providing opportunities for transparent processes with public input before any future movement towards public safety technology solutions. We have also taken action to help community members feel safer and more empowered in response to ICE activities. We're upholding our sanctuary city commitments, educating community members by making available know your rights cards, issuing a mayor's statement, convening elected officials from the region to talk about safety planning, and providing opportunities for community members to take part in or help co-host know your rights trainings. Tonight, council will also take formal action on two items that demonstrate our sanctuary city values and commitment. The first is the approval of a resolution calling for the end of dangerous immigration enforcement tactics by ICE and U.S. customs and border protection, using protection of constitutional rights, urging protection, excuse me, of constitutional rights, and requiring guardrails on Department of Homeland Security funding. The second is an update on the Olympia Municipal Code that prohibits the use of city-owned or controlled property for civil immigration enforcement activities or operations by federal agents. Specifically the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Custom Enforcement. Earning and maintaining public trust is critical to this council, city leadership, and the Olympia Police Department. So with that, um, I do believe we will hear more from our community members during our public comment segment of the meeting. Uh but for now we will continue with the rest of the agenda, and I need a motion to adopt tonight's agenda. Move to adopt the agenda. Second. All those in favor of adopting the agenda as published signify by saying aye. Aye. We have an agenda. So our first item tonight is special recognition, which is a proetry reading from the City of Olympia's poet laureate, Ocean, who was here with us tonight. So I'd like to welcome up Stephanie Johnson, who is our arts program manager to Hi, Stephanie. Hi, thank you. Mayor Payne and members of Council, I am Stephanie Johnson with City of Olympia Parks Arts and Recreation, and I'm here tonight with our poet laureate for 2025 to 2027. Ocean. And part of the work of Olympia's Poet Laureate is to present a poem at a city council meeting near the beginning of each year. And the goals of the poet laureate program are to promote promote poetry as an art form, expand access to the literary arts, connect the community to poetry, promote poetry as a community voice that contributes to a sense of place, and to address the topic of the poet laureate appointment, which is to utilize the power of poetry and language to contribute to thoughtful response and centering around the concept of resilience. Hi. Thanks, Tom. Old tree, breathe with me. Oh, bright child, placenta dug under crumb to feed this seedling. Ye coast pines swung and broken, clawing cliffside over glitter seas, blighting brine. Where under slither tendril through my father's ashes and arch in springtime reverie, or swing in shore gales cackling up through brittling air, strain branches, strain arms in the space lintled between finger and twig, snag wisps of revenants. We breathe each other, have ever breathed through alveoli and stomata, leaves and skin co-evolved to vein the star. We oxygen breathers, we external lungs of our ancient kin, you one-legged gods who rise over us strong of phloem and bast, who sleep bowed in hibernal ice, only to erupt again in seas of verdant foliage, your cycle of rebirth modeled for us, religion, all mothers coil back to you. We peel over skin your bark, sun flare in leaf and palm unfurl to receive star heat, red wing flood and pilgrimage, starling and flutter hawk, chlorophyll boiling in the mammal's loins to make life from drops of sun. All it is is oxygen, mother molded matrices and whirling helices, mammals, but a side role in the drama beyond our reckoning. You old ones sing your story, brushing canopy against canopy, trail we ghosts, mother. I raise my eye waters glimmering on the sky, old tree, breathe with me. We're here a while yet. Just a moment, Ocean, just a moment.