Good evening and welcome.

I will call together the Aquaman City Council special meeting of July twenty second, twenty twenty five.

We'll start with roll call, please.

Here.

Brown?

Here.

Glenn?

Here.

Herrera?

Here.

Roy.

Here.

Thank you.

Next, uh on the uh agenda's executive session.

So we have a motion by Deputy Mayor Brown and a second by Councilman Berg to move into executive session as well by RCW forty two point three zero point one one zero.

One I until six PM.

Um all of that all of this in favor say I.

Welcome back.

I am going to reconvene the special meeting back to order.

Next on the agenda is public comment, which put tonight we will allow fifteen minutes for public comment.

State law prohibits excuse me, state law prohibits electioneering at city facilities.

During public comment, speakers cannot campaign for or against candidates or support or oppose any ballot measure in the upcoming election.

Um I call your name for uh public public sharing, please come to the podium.

You have two and a half minutes to give us your first name and actually your whole name and the city in which you live.

Thank you.

Okay.

The first person is Yashu.

I think he left.

He left.

I think he left.

Okay, great, thanks.

Next is Kenton Gartrell.

Ken Gartrell, I own property both in the county and in the city limits.

Uh I have given you a resolution uh to look over and to consider in your next meeting.

This resolution actually has to do with you creating a permit.

I know I'm usually the last guy to actually advocate for permits.

Um, but within city limits, uh, within Washington State, ten percent of your drivers actually will refuse or are not renewing their tabs since two thousand nineteen, which is a national statistic, which is done by the state of Washington as well.

You're losing over two hundred thousand dollars a year.

Um in just car tabs because people are uh protesting them because obviously on a ballot in the past, it passed, and people feel that is their right to actually have a thirty dollar car tabs.

So a resolution that I'm proposing to you, which I called the thirty dollar car tabs, is actually a permit which allows the peace officers of your city, the office the police officers of your city to abide by state law, to abide by their city laws, and allow the public that wishes to protest peacefully, nonviolently, as they're driving down the road with legal insurance, with legal car plates, with a legal car, um to pay thirty dollars for a permit, which they can then show the officer upon being pulled over, and the officer can do his job, smile and be happy and know he's created a safer environment for the public of his citizens.

This just this alone will create over 200,000 a year in your city, assuming that 10% of that population, which is currently in uh peaceful protest, actually would pay that to drive around.

Now obviously it doesn't work outside of the city limits because you're only in charge of the city at the city limits of with this permit, but other this would show that other cities can do the same thing.

It does not interfere with law.

Uh pass case law.

Actually, the city of Seattle has lost three lawsuits in the last three years, uh, all having to do with the peaceful with the right to peaceful protest involving the Seattle PD.

Um and your your legal staff will also be able to go to case law all the way back to 1969, which has to do with the city and a county or a municipality or a state has the right to regulate peaceful protesting through permit processes, but cannot infringe or obstruct them.

Uh so you are actually helping your citizens by giving them a way to peacefully protest without punishing them for adhering to their rights and their rights to our democracy.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Gartrell.

Next is Gina Hernandez.

Gina Hernandez Yakima resident.

This council has spent tremendous amount of time and funds on priority-based budgeting and on the budgeting issue over multiple years.

The cost to send two distinct levies to the people and to the voters costs less than you have spent in budget and prioritization efforts to this point.

While I don't believe city council should be in the business of party politics, which Republican, which Democrat, which independent would seek to deny the opportunity for voters to speak on an issue of such magnitude as our budget.

Would any of you truly assert your authority or your wisdom over your constituents collectively?

This is not about you imposing or raising any form of tax.

This is about you putting a stop to this city's habit of spending dollars to save dimes and letting the voters determine their priorities.

Members of this council approved cutting firefighters in a relatively recent budget cycle, which led to about 1.5 million dollars in overtime in our fire department.

That was preventable, though I was not heeded when I said so.