The Yakima City Council met on May 12, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments on fluoridation, surveillance cameras, and affordable housing, a public hearing on a moratorium for halfway houses, a discussion on fluoridation ballot process, and updates on the Mill Site corridor project. Consent agenda items were approved, and several resolutions were adopted.
I call this uh council meeting to order. Uh clerk, roll call, please. Bird. Here. Brown? Here. Buyers. Present. Glenn? Here. Gonzalez? Present. Patrickis. Here. Roy? Here. All right, stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. I believe we have interpreter services somewhere. Perhaps maybe not. Okay, well, I'm I thought we would have interpreter services, but I'm not sure they're here, so maybe we don't. But we will move on to uh public comment. So there'll be thirty-five minutes tonight allotted for public comment with two and a half minutes per speaker in order to allow as much opportunity as possible for audience participation. Written communication and email messages are also strongly encouraged if we don't get through everyone tonight. I urge you not to put removal of fluoride on the ballot. Yakima already faces serious oral health challenges, and our community simply cannot afford to lose one of the few preventive tools that reach everyone every day. As dean of the School of Dental Medicine, I see firsthand how limited access to dental care affects families across our region. Too many families in Yakima and the surrounding area already struggle to find routine dental care. For many children, seniors, and working adults, prevention is not something they can count on through regular dental visits. This is exactly why community water fluoridation matters. It reaches everyone regardless of income, insurance status, transportation, or whether they can get to the dental office. Fluoride and the public water supply is a basic and proven public health measure. It helps protect teeth from decay, especially for those at greater risk, children, older adults, and those lease at least able to access regular dental care. If fluoride is removed, we should expect more cavities and associated infections, more emergency room visits, more missed school days, more missed work days for parents and caregivers, and greater strain on the already limited dental services at a greater cost to the community. Yakima and the surrounding area needs greater access to care to address our community's needs. This is exactly why PNWU started the School of Dental Medicine. We're here to recruit and retain local men and women, and some of them you may have seen on billboards around town recently. We're here to train future dentists, have them stay in our community and meet their needs. But even with more providers in the future, prevention will still matter. Fluoride helps protect people now before they ever need a filling, an extraction, or an emergency room visit. Approximately 25 years ago, Yakima approved adding fluoride to the public water supply with over 60% of the voters approving the ballot measure. Please keep this proven equitable public health measure in place and protect the health of Yakima's children, families, and seniors. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Karen Young. Good evening, Council members. My name is Karen Tridinger Young. I live inside the city limits. I'm a general dentist, private practice owner, and president of the Yakima Valley Dental Society.