Fireworks at Winterfest, Water and Sewer, along with the city’s budget for 2022, were the main topics of the evening.
This was the first meeting held after the city’s annual budget workshop. As a result, most of the meeting was spent reviewing the budget. Also discussed at length was state law regarding communication of the budget workshop date and time so that council and community members could be present.
You can use the links below to skip to the sections of the video on YouTube. You can also watch the video at the bottom of this article.
Approval Of Meeting Minutes
There was a discussion about approving the meeting minutes from two meetings in one vote versus separate votes. There was a motion to divide the question by Councilmember Schut and seconded by Stapp. The vote to separate the meeting minutes was 2 to 3, with Schut and Stapp in favor and Scholz, Babb, and Cragun voting against it. The vote to approve meeting minutes was 4 to 1, with Scholz, Stapp, Babb, and Cragun in favor and Schut voting against the motion.
Public Hearings
There were a number of public hearings to allow citizens time to provide feedback and ask questions.
The public hearings covered the following subjects:
- Increasing property taxes by 1%.
- The origin of city revenue sources.
- Block grant to improve a city well.
- Wastewater aeration lagoon replacement costing over 6 million dollars.
New Business
The city council members quickly came to a consensus to have the fireworks display at the end of Winterfest in January. City council members also unanimously voted to approve the application of the block grant for improving the cities well on North Dalton.
Ordinance Regarding Increasing Property Taxes
Mayor Verzal performed the first reading of the ordinance to increase property taxes by 1% in Deer Park. There will be a second reading at the next city council meeting on November 17th. The three reading process could be waived during the meeting in November.
Council Member Reports
Because of a miscommunication regarding the date of the budget workshop council members discussed some points of the cities budget for 2022. Councilmember Schut spoke about the city’s cyber security and the Open Public Meeting Act regarding the city’s budget workshop. Councilmember Schut requested that his protest be recorded in the meeting minutes. Councilmemeber Stapp spoke regarding hiring an IT administrator and part-time communications personal. Stapp also spoke about his interpretation of the Open Public Meeting Act. Stapp had a number of other comments about the budget regarding city parks, law enforcement, the city hall building, and city staffing. Councilmember Scholz reported about Graffiti vandalism and the apprehension of the perpetrator.
Open to Public Comment
There were a number of people who shared comments at the end of the meeting.
You can watch the entire city council meeting in the video below.
Save The Dates!
City Council Meetings
- Every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7pm.
- Deer Park Fire Department at 315 E. Crawford, Deer Park, WA, 99006
Minutes from past meetings, as well as the agenda, can be viewed and downloaded at: CityofDeerParkWa.com
