The Public Safety and Human Services (PSHS) Committee of the City of Redmond met on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 4:30 PM at Redmond City Hall (15670 NE 85th St.) and remotely via RCTV, Comcast Channel 21/321, Ziply Channel 34, Facebook/YouTube (@CityofRedmond), and phone at 510-335-7371. Council Vice President Angie Nuevacamina presided as presiding officer for Councilmember Vivek Prakriya. Council President Melissa Stuart (the transcript renders the name as Stewart) and Councilmembers Sayna Parsi, Menka Soni, and Vanessa Kritzer attended in person, while Councilmember Prakriya participated remotely. The committee took no final votes, but reviewed the FD34 Emergency Services Operating Agreement second addendum, the 2027-28 Human Services Funding update, the Redmond Fire Impact Fee update, the Fire Department Quarterly Overtime Report, withdrawal from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), and the 2026 Technology and Information Services (TIS) Business Solutions Division update.
FD34 Emergency Services Operating Agreement - Second Addendum (2026-2029 Extension) Deputy Fire Chief Ahmed Varrell presented the second addendum to the interlocal agreement between Redmond and King County Fire District 34. The addendum is a straight two-year extension, moving the agreement end date from December 31, 2027, to December 31, 2029, to ensure uninterrupted fire suppression, fire prevention, EMS, and emergency preparedness services for District 34 residents. The requested action is consent on October 6, 2026.
2027-28 Human Services Funding Update (Study session scheduled October 27, 2026) Human Services Manager Brooke Buckingham reported that the city opens its human services grant process every two years; the commission will review proposals and present recommendations, which council will adopt as part of the city's 2027-28 budget. Councilmembers requested that the study session presentation include:
Redmond Fire Impact Fee Update (Study session scheduled October 13, 2026) Deputy Fire Chief Varrell presented the proposed fire impact fee changes and is seeking council approval before December so the fees can be consolidated with other impact fee updates this year. Council dialogue addressed:
Fire Department Quarterly Overtime Report (Informational)
Deputy Fire Chief Varrell presented the quarterly overtime report and noted the fire department is essentially right at budget when all personnel costs are considered. The agenda packet lists the period as January 1 through June 30, 2025, while the oral presentation described the report as covering January 1 through June 30, 2026; the discrepancy was not discussed. Varrell explained that when fire personnel are absent, positions cannot be set aside, so overtime is necessary, and the department analyzes whether overtime at 1.5 times pay is less expensive than hiring additional staff. A councilmember noted Redmond firefighters work 48-hour shifts. Councilmember Kritzer asked for written memos or brief slides in advance for future informational items so council and the public can prepare meaningful questions, and for plain-language explanations of tools such as Lucidity and related applications; Council President Stuart agreed, noting council leadership has been working with staff through the agenda-setting process on meaningful packet material.
King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) Withdrawal (Informational) Human Services Manager Brooke Buckingham reported that KCRHA is being reorganized and the contracts it currently administers are being transferred back to the City of Seattle and King County, so Redmond needs to withdraw from its interlocal agreement with KCRHA. A councilmember asked why the item is informational only; staff responded that the original agreement authorized the executive to withdraw without additional council approval. Council President Stuart asked for additional communication to the council and community about changes going into the winter weather season, suggested discussing next steps at the upcoming housing and human services action plan refresh study session, and asked if the Mayor could join a future discussion. She stated she understood and supported the action and that regionalism still matters, and noted the point-in-time count results are still pending.
2026 Technology and Information Services (TIS) Business Solutions Division Update (Items from Other Committees)
The TIS Business Solutions Division update was presented to PSHS because the full council agenda was full. The division is organized into three groups: one supporting parks, planning, and public works; one supporting human resources, finance, and executive; and one supporting police and fire. Staff described how the division identifies underlying needs, tests solutions, rolls them out, and supports them beyond launch. Examples included Public Works' CCTV pipe inspection program for asset condition assessments and VSAL's implementation of a vendor solution with the public works team. Councilmember Kritzer asked for future memos and slides that explain unfamiliar systems such as Lucidity in plain language, with metrics tied to outcomes such as the CCTV and water AI technology. Council President Stuart agreed, and Councilmember Prakriya voiced support for the feedback.
I am calling this meeting to order. This is the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, the whole meeting for September 15th, 2026, commencing at 4.30 p.m. Council members in attendance in person is Council President Stewart, Council Members Parsi, Sony, and Kritzer, and myself, Council Vice President Nueva Comina as presiding officer standing in for Councilmember Prakriya. Joining us online is Councilmember Prakria. Councilmember Forsyth will not be joining us as she is on a housing policy tour with housing development consortium in Vancouver, BC today. Is there a motion to excuse council member Forsyth? So moved. Second. It has been moved and seconded. All in favor. Aye. Aye. And that passes unanimously. First item on our agenda today is FD34 Emergency Services Operating Agreement. This is a second addendum to the 2026-2029 extension. And here to present this first item is Deputy Fire Chief Ahmed Varrell. Welcome. Thank you very much. Good evening, Council. Today I'm presenting this second addendum to the emergency services operating agreement between the City of Redmond and King County Fire District 34. This addendum provides a straight two-year extension of our existing interlocal agreement that we have, moving the end date of the current agreement from December 31st of 2027 to December 31st of 2029. The extension ensures an uninterrupted delivery of our fire suppression prevention EMS and emergency preparedness services for the district residents. With that, I'll turn it over to Brooke. Great. Hi, good afternoon. Just as a quick reminder, the city opened the human services grant process every two years. Um in what's available and what's being asked. The commission has been very busy over the last five months reviewing all of these applications. And they are finalizing their recommending recommendations so that they're prepared to come to speak with you at the next joint study session October 27th. As part of this study session, staff will be sharing an overall overview of the process, both what we did leading up to the application cycle opening, how we supported our agency partners through the process, as well as how we gave the commission tools to do the review process. The commission will then cover an overview of their review process and how they evaluated each proposal. And then finally the process for determining how much money each agency should receive. After these recommendations are presented to council, they will be adopted as part of a city's overall 2027-28 budget. And we have received some questions from Councilmember Parsi. So we'll be sure to include those in the presentation or as part of a discussion matrix, but we just wanted to ask council if there were any specific items that you wanted to cover as part of that presentation or any questions that you have. Wonderful. Thank you, Brooke. Always one of the more difficult tasks for our commissions is this one that they have been working through for the last five months. So we're grateful for their work on that. Council, questions for the study session to get for it to come back. Present Stuart. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the team and the commission for their hard work on this. As has been said, hearing the recommendations at our study session next month. And know also that the need is always greater than what we are able to invest in, but we've taken some really good steps. So I'm very much looking forward to the conversation. And I appreciate that council member Parsi has already sent in some questions. I wanted to acknowledge that because as we head deeper into budget season, that's exactly the practice that all of us will need to participate in. So thank you so much to my colleague. I'll add just one question, which is um it occurred to us in the last cycle that about a third of the investments were actually in housing stability and homelessness prevention.