Snoqualmie staff compile resident feedback on immigration enforcement; council to weigh policy options

Council Member Johnson introduced a staff-compiled list of resident feedback from a Feb. 9 council meeting focused largely on immigration enforcement and related community-safety and land-use concerns. City Administrator Chambliss and Mayor Mayhew told the committee they had reviewed the transcript of the Feb. 9 meeting and extracted unique, non-duplicative requests.

Mayor Mayhew said the city issued a Feb. 10 public statement, coordinated with North Bend's mayor, "addressing a number of these issues that were related solely focused on the police department," and that a further city statement the previous day addressed additional items and internal staff directives. The administration characterized many of the items as already addressed by existing policy or administrative guidance.

Staff said the remaining items are principally policy matters that would benefit from council direction. The City Attorney cautioned that "if you go into certain types of questions that are basically legal advice to the council, you probably would wanna go into executive session or maybe you'd hold those to a council-wide executive session," and recommended care on legal-advice topics.

Council members asked staff to narrow and highlight the items that need counsel's guidance and to provide suggested next steps. The committee agreed to pick up the remaining items at the next Finance & Administration meeting; staff committed to send the grouped list electronically and include it in the next agenda packet.