Community Livability and Public Safety Committee Advisory Body Interviews - March 6, 2026
Community Livability and Public Safety Committee Advisory Body Interviews - March 6, 2026
Note: The meeting minutes date the meeting as Wednesday, March 4, 2026, but the user has specified the date as March 6, 2026. This summary uses the specified date, but the discrepancy is noted.
The Community Livability and Public Safety Committee (CLIPS) of the Olympia City Council held a special meeting on March 6, 2026, from 4:02 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. to conduct interviews for several city advisory bodies. Committee members present were Chair Dani Madrone, Committee Member Kelly Green, and Committee Member Yến Huỳnh (who joined at 5:50 p.m.). The committee interviewed candidates for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), Utility Advisory Committee (UAC), Planning Commission, Olympia Metropolitan Parks District (OMPD) Advisory Committee, and Heritage Commission. The committee debated the candidates and voted on recommendations to the full City Council, with the exception of the Heritage Commission, which was postponed to after the second day of interviews on March 5, 2026.
Discussion Items
- Advisory Body Interviews: The committee conducted 10-minute interviews with each candidate, with questions from CLIPS members and the respective advisory body chairs. Candidates were asked about their interests, perspectives, and approach to the role. Chairs of BPAC (Tom Dylan), UAC (Melissa Cover), Planning Commission (Greg Queaton), and OMPD (James Redick) participated and provided feedback.
- Deliberation on Candidates: After the interviews, the committee discussed the candidates for each body. For BPAC, the committee considered four candidates: Justin Stang, Yelena Miakasheva, Audrey Perry, and Katie Wellington. Chair Dylan noted that all were strong, but highlighted Stang's experience with disability access, Miakasheva's perspective as a substitute teacher, and Wellington's focus on equity. The committee agreed that Perry was a stronger candidate for UAC. For UAC, the committee recommended Audrey Perry over Maddie Haynes, citing Perry's stronger technical background. For Planning Commission, the committee favored Samir Ibrahimovich and Elle Burger, noting their passion and community-focused perspectives over Heidi's technical planning approach. For OMPD, the committee selected Marcella Volcontesta over Corey, citing her clearer connection to the compliance role and her experience with budgets and data.
Key Outcomes
- Recommendations to City Council (approved by a vote of 3-0):
- Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee: Appoint Justin Stang (3-year term), Katie Wellington (3-year term), and Yelena Miakasheva (1-year term).
- Utility Advisory Committee: Appoint Audrey Perry.
- Planning Commission: Appoint Samir Ibrahimovich and Elle Burger.
- Olympia Metropolitan Parks District Advisory Committee: Appoint Marcella Volcontesta.
- Heritage Commission: The committee postponed a recommendation until after the second day of interviews on March 5, 2026, to consider additional candidates.
- Next Steps: The committee's recommendations will be forwarded to the full City Council for final approval on March 31, 2026. Candidates will be notified by staff (Don) within the next week.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Hello, everybody. This is the community livability and public safety committee of the Olympia City Council. We have an evening ahead of us of doing uh uh interviews of candidates for our advisory bodies. So a few hours ahead of us of interviewing individual people for these positions, um, both tonight and tomorrow night. I am joined by uh my committee mate, Kelly Green and Yang Huen will be joining uh a little bit later this evening. Um in the first 15 minutes here, we're just gonna be preparing for uh the uh first round of interviews with the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee. Um and so um in that vein, just so everyone is aware um at the start of each interview, I will go ahead and uh introduce uh the uh the committee members and also the chair, just to so that we can do that quickly. Um and then we'll go straight into the interview with folks. Um, you know, they'll know that we have all of their information um in front of us. Um and so uh we have three questions from the committee. Um uh I'll ask the first one and Kelly will ask the next two until Ian is on the call. Um and then Tom, you are here for bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee. So thanks so much for being here. At that point, you can ask the uh the question that is specific to the committee. Um and um and there's one community, there's one community member that's also interviewing for the planning commission. So I'll just jump in and ask the planning commission uh specific question at that time. So um Tom, are you having um some uh video issues? I noticed you looked like you were frozen for a bit. Yep. I am and uh let's see. I just installed Zoom on this new computer and the blur is messing up. So see if I can get it figured out in the next couple minutes. Okay, well, you know, see we we've got uh the first interviews at uh actually in 10 minutes. So um kind of a long 15 minute period for uh for prepping. So so go ahead and take your time and if ultimately it doesn't work, we can just share that with folks. You are here, just the disembodied voice. Yep. Kelly, did you have any questions? Everything looks pretty well organized, which uh speaking of that, I just want to give some gratitude to Don. Uh the all of the communication about this, which is a very big and hefty process has been so well organized and so clear, and even the the packets like I I could not feel more ready to go. So thank you, Don. I will I do my best to mitigate things going sideways one way or another, but that's just what it is. So you are welcome. And Tom, I see that you're there. Oh, you're moving now. There we go. Okay. Looks like I just need to use the uh the other camera. There we go. Okay. But before you blurred, I saw that you were at the climbing gym, or is that just a background that you use? Uh no, I have a climbing wall in my garage. So well, that's super cool. Nice. Yeah. Excellent. Um, um, we we can um we do have 10 minutes before our first interviewee is here with us. Um if he pops on early, we can get started early with him. He's the one that has the additional question for the planning commission.
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