Redmond Public Safety and Human Services Committee Meeting – March 17, 2026
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Redmond Public Safety and Human Services Committee of the Whole Meeting – March 17, 2026
The Public Safety and Human Services Committee of the Whole met on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 4:32 PM (scheduled for 4:30 PM) in Redmond City Hall and remotely. Council Vice President Prakriya presided. The meeting covered four action items, one feedback item for a future staff report, one informational presentation, and one read-only report. All action items except the body-worn camera fee resolution were forwarded to consent agendas; the fee resolution was held for additional language.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Washington State Opioid Settlement with Remnant Defendants (CM 26-1791): The city will receive $1.2 million as a lump sum from a $97.6 million statewide settlement. Funds must be used for opioid abatement per Exhibit C. The item was moved to consent for April 7, 2026, with no objection.
- Acceptance of $1.5 Million Washington State Department of Ecology Grant for an Electric Fire Engine (CM 26-1902): The grant requires a 25% match from the city's apparatus replacement fund. Redmond seeks its second electric fire engine. The grant acceptance deadline is March 20, 2026, so the item was placed on the March 17 business meeting consent agenda (expedited). No objection.
- Authorization to Accept Grant Funding from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (CM 26-1943): A $3,000 grant for a replacement LIDAR speed enforcement device. The item was moved to consent for April 7, 2026, with no objection.
Discussion Items
- Resolution Amending User Fee Schedule for Body-Worn Camera Video Redaction Fee (CM 26-1964): The police department proposed an 88-cents-per-minute fee for redacting body-worn camera videos for public records requests not directly related to the requester. Council members discussed adding exemptions for journalists, researchers, and advocacy groups. Council President Stewart urged careful balancing to maintain cost recovery. The majority supported adding clarifying language; the item was held for further refinement and is expected to go to consent on April 7, 2026.
- 2026 Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Overview (CM 26-1881): Staff presented an overview of the Go Redmond program, including commute trip reduction, school pool, Lime scooters, Metro Flex, Red Link, and community van. Council members requested additional details for the April 7 staff report, including: service area boundaries and feedback mechanisms for Red Link and Metro Flex; communication strategies to inform residents about all available options; performance targets and year-over-year reductions; bike locker locations near ride-share pickup points; potential e-bike giveaway education programs; QR codes in presentations for app downloads; and data privacy policies for app-based services.
- Housing and Human Services Overview: Get People Housed (Presentation 3 of 4) (CM 26-1851): The presentation covered federal, state, and regional homeless response structures, local numbers (796 sheltered and over 1,000 unsheltered in East King County in 2024), the gap between housing targets and available units (15:1 for emergency housing, 46:1 for permanent supportive housing in East King County), and city investments. Council praised the outreach team and noted upcoming strategic planning and budget discussions. Several members expressed interest in another touch base with federal advocacy team.
Key Outcomes
- Opioid settlement: Moved to consent for April 7, 2026.
- Electric fire engine grant: Approved on consent for March 17, 2026 (business meeting).
- WASPC LIDAR grant: Moved to consent for April 7, 2026.
- Body-worn camera redaction fee: Held; direction to staff to propose exemption language for journalists/researchers; item to go to consent on April 7 after language review.
- TDM staff report: Feedback incorporated for presentation at April 7 council meeting.
- Housing presentation: Informational; no vote taken. Council requested continued updates and a federal advocacy team check-in.
- Quarterly overtime report: Read only; no action taken.
Meeting Transcript
I'm calling this audience order. This is the public safety and human services committee of the whole meeting for March 17th, 2026, commencing at 432. Council members in attendance are Council Vice Pres Council President Stewart, Council Members Parsi, Forsythe, Sony, Kritzer, and joining us online is Councilmember Prakriya. Today we've got a pretty packed agenda. I'm going to try and keep things nice and tight because we do have another thing afterwards at 6 p.m. Um, make sure that we've got time to eat. We do have four action items to discuss today, one item looking for feedback for upcoming study session, and one read-only item on the agenda today. The first item that we have is the approval of the Washington State opiate settlement with remnant defendants. And joining us to present this today is uh COO files. Wonderful. Hi CEO files thanks for joining us online. I was just in the room. Apologies for being online. Um so really quickly, the state of Washington has settled another opioid case. This one was worth 97, about 97.6 million dollars. As council might recall, um, back in June of 2022, the council approved the one Washington memorandum of understanding, which gives us the right to participate in these opioid settlements. Um so far we participated in five. This is the sixth one. It's called the settlement for remnant defendants, and I put in the memo the exact companies that have settled. Um for this, Redmond will receive one point. Should we sign the participation agreement? I should say redmond will receive 1.2 million dollars. Um, and it will go towards um all of the um human services and public safety needs that are outlined in attachment C of your memo. I'm asked asking council to uh approve this on the four-seven agenda and to sign the participation agreement so that we might receive those funds, as well as um this this will come as council might recall. The dollars for all of these settlements are between we either get a lump sum or we get it over 17 years. This will be a lump sum to us. Um we do need to sign the participation agreement by uh May the 4th. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Wonderful. Um, council, any comments or questions on this item? Council President Stewart. Uh thank you so much, COO files. This is really consistent with um prior decisions and conversations that we've had here on this body. I just want to also flag for our newer colleagues that um this is the best way for us to receive these kinds of dollars, and um having received them does free up some other dollars in our it makes our human services dollars go faster, and that was uh a big part of conversation in our last budget cycle. So I support moving this forward. Thank you. Wonderful, thank you. Uh council member kritzer. Uh following up on the on the comment around the last budget cycle. So just to be clear on this, um, I know that we we did uh in the last budget cycle um budget assuming uh a certain amount of funding from opioid settlements. Is this um additive to that or is this um funding that that we were projecting when we made that budget? This is additive to that. So in order to spend this money, we do have to do a budget adjustment and put it in the budget. Okay, great. I'm in support of moving this to consent. Wonderful, thank you. Other council members? Councilmember Sony. Um so I see that these agreements were set in the 2022. Um there any limitations or exemptions from that time that may not be reflecting today's local needs or like you know, valid for today.
openpublica.com