The Yakima City Council held a regular meeting on September 16, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments, a proclamation, consent agenda items, department items, and a discussion on the Yakima Valley Trolleys operating agreement. Key votes included approval of several resolutions and ordinances, and a six-to-one vote to extend the current trolley operating agreement through December 31, 2025.
Proclamation – Yakima Freemason Day
Items Removed from Consent Agenda – Traffic Safety Grants
Item 7H – Opioid Settlement Allocation
Department Item 9A – Lodging Tax Fund
Department Item 9B – Affordable Housing Fund
Department Item 9C – Bond Reimbursement Resolution
Department Item 9D – Yakima Valley Trolleys Operating License Agreement
Other Business – Affordable Housing Study Session
Good evening and welcome. I will call the Ackham City Council meeting of September the sixteenth, twenty twenty-five to order. We'll start with roll call, please. Bird. Here. Brown. Here. Present. DCO. Here. Glenn? Here. Here. Roy. Here. Thank you. Before we move on this evening, um, the council likes to take a moment of silence for some of the tragic things that have occurred in our nation over the past week. Deputy Mayor Brown is asked to share some thoughts. Yeah, I just think this last week has been difficult for our country and um for a multitude of things. And so I think it would just be good for us to take a moment of silence. Thank you. So when you come to the podium, please uh give us your name in the city in which you live, and you'll have two and a half minutes to speak. I want to remind everybody that state law prohibits electioneering at city facilities. During public comment, speakers cannot campaign for or against candidates or support or press oppose any ballot measure in the upcoming election. Does any council member wish to pull an item off the consent agenda? Public comment. Pardon? Public comment. Oh, I've skipped the space. Okay, let's start with public comment. The first person is Paul Edmondson. If you've uh oh you're going to okay. Would you like Ken Johnson to go first? Is that your request? Yes. Okay. He wants to go second. Okay. Okay, thank you again. No take backs. Paul Edmondson, Vice President of YBT. I urge the council to adopt the uh negotiated contract to operate the city trolleys. Ten year contract. Uh it's been a long negotiation. The contract's very favorable toward the city, especially compared to previous contracts. And uh city is very well protected from their uh vantage point, maybe a little too protected for some of our members. But in any event, uh it's uh it's a contract we can live with and uh operate with. As far as I know, there are no uh other groups which have come forward or even expressed an interest in operating the trolleys. So basically it's YVT or no trolleys. Uh we do have two exceptional grant writers uh on our uh board who have uh secured hundreds of thousands of dollars for the trolleys to the benefit of the city.