Councilmember Jessica Merizan

01/03/2025

I hope you’ll consider joining Jordan’s tree dedication and ribbon cutting for River’s Edge Park

09/15/2024

Today was our 2025+2026 budget & legislative priorities retreat at City Hall. We are unanimously aligned on direction and accomplished a lot. I left feeling inspired by my fellow council members & city staff. It’s pretty wonderful to say that I genuinely enjoy spending time with every single one of them. We all have a positive perspective and a servant leadership mindset.

The budget situation we’re in requires short-term tactics to minimize taxpayer burden as much as possible and long-term actionable strategy to improve our fiscal outlook. I will advocate and follow up with updates after the City Manager comes back with recommendations.

Similarly, our legislative priorities for the state/county focus on:

- infrastructure improvements (mainly HW 203)
- public transportation (Increasing SVT capacity & connections to major Metro beyond the Valley)
- financial equity (funneling more grants to SV)
- affordable housing (program support and housing type diversity)
- public safety (disaster preparedness)
- climate resiliency (sustainable development, green energy efficiency, environmental protection, and increasing tree canopy)

I see the direct connection between what we say we want from the state/county to support and what our council goals are for us to achieve at the city level. It’s my hope that the community can see that I’m keeping my campaign promises and translating them into policy.

Thank you Jim Ribail, Adair Hawkins, Ryan Burrell, Brodie Nelson, City Manager Rhonda Ender, and Clerk Lora Wilmes! Go team 😉

Let’s close out by celebrating the new ADA parking in the city, which arose from a unanimously passed bill that I sponsored!! Looking forward to our Goals Retreat on November 3rd to provide staff direction for 2025! 💡

08/06/2024

I am so thrilled to say that the first City of Carnation Green City Policy (“2024-1 Urban Canopy”) and the “Tree Protection and Preservation” amendment to the municipal code were both passed tonight in a special meeting of the City Council.

On the latter, during my time on the Parks & Planning Board, we heard great proposals from the Arbor Day event organizers (Jenn & Victoria!) about both increasing the tree canopy and greater protection of it. I’m grateful to them, the Board, and Mayor Jim Ribail for their work to draft the ordinance that adds Chapter 14.08.

Regarding the former… very smart people told me that a candidate’s name needs top billing, but I decided that “Sustainable Carnation” needed equal weight in all my material. That’s how much I believe in prioritizing it above all else. After I was elected, previous City Manager Ana Cortez worked tirelessly with me to envision a framework to turn our “Green City” objective into a series of tangible policies as key results. This first one that passed tonight includes community benefit provisions such as yearly programs to distribute 4-8 mature trees to residents and free tree pruning services for seniors/people with disabilities. Interim City Manager Rhonda Ender has more than expressed her commitment to supporting this ambitious objective going forward. We will introduce the Green Logic Model (a brilliant creation from CM Cortez) in a future session. It is filled with innovative approaches to build a more sustainable future for our city.

This is a wonderful and momentous day for Carnation. Thank you to the community members who advocated for this work, to the Board for evangelizing its importance, to the current & former executive leadership and City Staff for moving it forward, and to all my peers on the City Council for unanimously voting a resounding YES!

More to come.

📸: Lori Aronica at Carnation Block Party - Solstice Celebration

07/04/2024

As a patriot with unquestionable “Founding Father” energy, celebrating my first Carnation 4th of July as an elected official is a very profound milestone. I was overjoyed to spend time with our incredible Eastside Fire & Rescue crew and King County Councilmember Sarah Perry before I hosted the parade! There are many bigger cities they could spend the holiday in, so I’m grateful that our town has a special place in their hearts too.

04/12/2024

I’m celebrating 100 days in office. Here’s what I’ve achieved thanks to your support electing me:

- Held my first press conference announcing that we are recommending the Tolt Dam be decommissioned and hold Seattle accountable for the dam siren’s false alarms that have traumatized the city, which got us on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and all local news outlets

- Set ambitious goals for 2024-2026, using an OKR framework (an unprecedented approach for any level of government) that I introduced for the creation of our city manager’s logic model for greater transparency and tracking of progress against those commitments

- Successfully aligned our top 10 priorities to include my campaign promises: Green City, Arts & Culture District, and Ecotourism while also showcasing and tangibly supporting diversity in the city

- Was selected as Committee Chair for both Housing & Land Use and Community & Economic Development

- Facilitated increased communication with the Parks & Planning Board to guide their 2024 workload and include their previous recommendations into policies

- Voted in a Residential Moratorium which will not only meet existing requirements that other cities established for sustainability but will also generate even more ambitious “Green Standards” to set a new bar for others to follow, which will leverage best practices of the Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement

- Worked in our State Capitol (Olympia) with Sen. Brad Hawkins and Councilmember Sarah Perry among others to urge Sen. Marko Liias and the members of the State Transportation Committee for a 2025 budget allocation to build a Highway 203 roundabout, replacing a dangerous intersection

- Proclaimed February 24 as “Twin Peaks Day” in Carnation as well as established a proclamation that “Every Month is Black History Month” with tangible programs outlined to do what we say

- Approved the budget and building materials for a playground park in an awful empty lot on the Eastside of the city, which is currently underserved (yes, this is the thing I’ve been pushing for since I moved here; it’s the origin story for my Leslie Knope energy)

- Sanctioned development to activate the overgrown “triangle lot” downtown in the Tolt Plaza into a community gathering place that promotes ecology via the inclusion of native plants, interpretive signage, and a living roof over a patio in consultation with the horticulturist of the Amazon Domes

And on Tuesday, I will introduce my first agenda bill (thanks School House Rock) to turn what was supposed to be a temporary parking lot into a pocket park with an already planned beer garden for a local brewery and the inclusion of ADA parking, which is currently non-existent in the city. This legislation will open the door for me to recommend a study that leads to an overall Parking Master Plan, serving our businesses for the long-term (to create, for example, potentially 100+ spots instead of using an ad-hoc lot for 15 cars).

I couldn’t have done any of this without the encouragement of the community and my network of friends/family who got me to this point. My leadership style directly contradicts the typical slow mechanisms of government, and I will proudly continue to prove that visionary ambition (mine, the council, and the city’s incredible staff), relationship building, and positive perspectives can be effective anecdotes to red tape.

100 days down - looking forward to the next 1361!

03/28/2024

Everyone, from the newest newborn to the eldest elder, deserves to live in the City of Carnation without fear. That is why, after the 8th false alarm of the Tolt Dam Siren in 4 years, enough is enough.

We have a long road ahead of us, but I, along with the other members of the Council, have taken the first step towards draining the Tolt Dam by proclaiming our opposition to its upcoming relicensing. Our children’s children will not be raised in the shadow of impending terror.

Additionally, we are taking action by: seeking legal council; demanding the faulty alarm system be deactivated in favor of a 24/7 policed “dam watch” system (that we will not be funding); and investigations into better alerts from King County. What can you do? Call and email representatives at the county, district, and state level.

Today, I took the hand of a resident (for whom this false alarm is yet one more trauma) and said, “We don’t just hear you, we are aggressively fighting against this systemic injustice for you”. This is my promise to everyone who calls Carnation home. 🍓🖤

02/16/2024

02/14/2024

🩶🤍🩶 Happy Valentine’s Day. I love the City of Carnation and spent this morning at the Capitol advocating for the construction of a critical roundabout at the 203 x Tolt Hill intersection. It was a collaborative presentation that included Mayor Jim Ribail, Councilmember Sarah Perry, Remlinger Farms, the Snoqualmie Tribe, SnoValley Chamber of Commerce, and Sen. Brad Hawkins for the Senate Transportation Committee (Sen. Marko Liias, Sen. Curtis King), 12th District Representatives (Rep. Keith Goehner, Rep. Mike Steel), and Legislative staff.

Here is my statement from the session:
“Two risks urgently necessitate highway improvements for evacuation. Carnation is a one-road city next to the Cascades, and a deadly fire like the 2018 one in Paradise, California is a serious possibility here. We’re also at the confluence of the Snoqualmie and Tolt Rivers. On the south fork is the Tolt Dam, built in 1964 and operated by Seattle.

“In 2020, we had a false dam failure alarm indicating we’d be underwater in hours. The entire city attempted to flee, but it was completely gridlocked. Mass evacuation was impossible. We’re reminded of that every Wednesday at noon when the test sirens echo throughout the Valley. This caused lasting trauma and nationwide news coverage.

“Constructing a roundabout enables people to effectively evacuate in an emergency and will be a healing force for Carnation.”

—
It was incredible to witness the shared conviction of many stakeholders who are united and determined to get this done. I was grateful to be at the table, and I will continue to advocate alongside the Council.

I’m a little late for Galentine’s Day but I think Leslie Knope would approve of how I spent the time! 🖤🧇🖤