City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to Albony City Council meeting, Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 at 6 p.m. I call the meeting to order, and would you please all join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. maybe a roll call, please. City clerk. Councelor Van Dremelain here. Councelor Mloud, present. Councelor Smith, here. Councelor McGee, present.

Councelor Newton, hey there. Councelor Thompson, Mayor Johnson here. Thanks. Thank you all. Council, uh, next on agenda is adoption of a consent calendar. Council, you have anything. I move to Oh, go for it. Okay. I move we adopt the the consent calendar. Second. Second. Have a motion in a second. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say no.

Thank you, councel. Next is presentations and ceremonies. Uh item A is presentation presentation polywag program of Lyn Benton Lincoln Tras Lean Tras. Page four on your packet. This is different. Okay. Hi. Uh thank you for having me today. Um I was asked to come and give a presentation about um our organization. Uh I represent Polywog. We sit at Lindbenton Community College and we serve families who have zero to five year olds in Lindbenton and Lincoln counties. Uh when a family finds out they're pregnant, their doctors, their nurses, their whoever they're seeing to help them through the pregnancy uh sends them to us and we help them to sign up for prenatal classes. We help them to get hooked up with wick, DHS, duelas, find child care, anything that we can to get these kids off to a good start. We've been doing this since 2017 and we've served about 4,500 families during that time in the three counties. Um, today I thought I would give you just that brief who we are, but I'd tell you about what we're doing right now. Um we have a staff of 11 at Polyblog and the early learning hub. Uh seven of those people in the last year have completed certified health worker certifications. That means that they have trained um to be liaison and patient advocates. Uh it's been proven that trai that these people are able to um come out with better health co health outcomes if they have someone with this training at their side throughout their their health or um and our staff have given a lot of hours to getting that training. Uh very proud of them, me included.

Um another thing that we're working on right now is the Oregon Department of the Treasury gave us a grant. uh they are not doing well with the Oregon college savings plan. Apparently people are not paying attention to that anymore. So they came to us, the only place in the state, which kind of surprised me. Um but they wanted us to help them to get families to start participating in the Oregon college savings plan. Lynbenton Community College teaches about 35 parenting education classes a quarter. All for families that have zero to five year olds. So, we have been visiting those classes and talking to parents. Um, the state has graciously given each of those families a $100 to add to that account. As soon as they set it up, it costs $25 to start the account. The 25 drops into the account. They add a hundred and Polywog is also adding a hundred to anybody whose kid is under a year old. We want that start. They call this program um kinder or I'm sorry, baby grad. Um, and the idea is to get these kids an account started so that they can roll into college. They've also made a change to the program itself. When you take a bottle of cans down to the bottle store, you can now have that money put right into a college savings plan for a child, which is great for grandmas. So, um, that is one of the wonderful things that they've done. The state has been very gracious to give us this opportunity for parents in our three counties. Um, also, uh, a couple of months ago, Amazon donated 6,000 baby gates.

Wow.

To a nonprofit in Salem who then began calling their friends. Luckily, we're one of those friends. And, uh, offered us baby gates. Um, those gates sell for $100 a piece on Amazon and they just gave 6,000 of them to us. Um, not to us. We asked for 200. We there aren't that many Vivig gate needers in the whole state. So uh we took the 200 gates. Um we had a hell of a time storing them in that time. But um next week is a big event in Lebanon called the baby blast and we will have our big box truck sitting in front of the building and handing out baby gates during that time that the event is pl going on. Um we are very privileged to be one of the few to have those gates in this region. So we're handing them out as quick as we can. Uh the last thing is that we wanted to tell you about is we just completed a grant from the Oregon Health Authority. They gave us $300,000 to visit rural communities in Lyn, Benton, and Lincoln counties and to figure out what assets and resources they do have and what they don't have. Um we visited 15 communities uh including many in in Lynn County such as Hollyy and Brownsville and Scio and uh we sat down with families with a giant map and had them put stickers on the map for where they went for services. So for example, the one that had a grocery card on it, we put it on your grocery store. Some of these cities didn't have grocery stores. Um put this sticker on your doctor. Some of them didn't have doctors. Um many communities in fact had no doctors and no dentists at all. Several had no grocery stores. Um the people living in our rural communities that the ones that we picked were all under 20,000 in size. Uh and they all had to have two of three things. A library, a health center, and a g and or a grocery store. So they we were trying to do the apples to apples

thing and be able to compare properly. At the end of each uh session with these families, we came back and wrote a detailed report about what we'd learned. Um our data manager pulled all kinds of data for everything he could about that community and we created reports for each one of those cities um in English and in Spanish. They're sitting out on our website. We also created a summary. It's about 70 pages um with investment suggestions and things that these f these families need in these regions. they just don't have um these were all presented to the Oregon Health Authority and um along with our thanks because they were really great to work with. But um organizations all over the state have been asking for these to figure out what they can do in their communities to figure out the same basic things of what's not available in these smaller communities that they need. Have I gone over time? I'm okay, right? Okay, good. Um, these are the things that we're grateful for, the things that we're able to provide for families in our region, and um, we wanted you to know that we're here and that we are ready to serve if we can. So, please send families our way.

Thank you very much. Are you done? Any questions, council? I'm familiar with Polywog. Um, I like would get the newsletter you guys would send out. Yes. Um, I now have my my youngest is almost aged out, but appreciative of the efforts that you guys do and grateful that baby gates are getting into the hands of people that need them as someone that has a a child at two and a half could figure out the Mortonson lock on our back door. You know, some of those some of those uh safety measures for children are absolutely needed. Also Mloud,

thank you. Yes. When I first moved to Albany, a few uh uh my my my child was um was of Polywog age and I recall um reading up on the classes and services offered by Polywog and I um I took some classes that that are offered through your program and so I wanted to thank you for that. It was a great great learning opportunity uh to to be able to uh to do that and so thank you for the services you provide. Thank you. Any other counselors? Thank you very much.

Um next is item B is presentation public schools Foundation uh executive director Peggy Barers. Sorry, my computer has decided it wants to go to sleep. So, we're going to plug it in real quick. I have a presentation and I don't start my time yet, Mr. Mayor. I don't have control of time. She does. As

long as I'm here with you. I don't on camera for us.

Okay. Do you mind? No.

So sorry. Yeah, there we go. Perfect. All right,

it doesn't matter which tab. No, I think I think they're the same. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you all so much for allowing me to be here tonight. Mr. Mayor, Council Peter, I appreciate the opportunity. I am Peggy Burrus with the Albany Public Schools Foundation and we are a nonprofit in town that supports our teachers and students. We've been around for almost 43 years and we're kind of that nobody knows about us. So, I'm here to share all the great things that we do. The great things that we do. If my screen goes, um, it's not going.

So many great things. I'll start telling you about them. Okay. Click on this. Okay. All right. So, we have a lot of different programs and I'm going to go through each of these and since time is limited, I'm going to skip the main screen here. We offer enrichment grants to our principles in our schools here in the school district. And these grants can be used for anything that um the principal feels they need for their school. It can be for um I'll show you what it can be for. Okay, we're going to skip ahead. principles. I'm going to come back to um classroom grants. Principles can apply for things such as um different um um field trips that come to the school like OMSI will come down. They will also um get playground equipment, not the structure, but things like balls, things that um can be used um for for the school itself. This last year, we gave out $72,900 to the schools through enrichment grants. Classroom grants, which I missed the first screen, but you can see two examples here, are grants that our teachers can apply for. And they can be anything from what to enhance what they need to enhance the the learning in their classrooms or as you can see on the screen there, Meadow Ridge applied for a school garden grant. A lot of schools are applying for grants for school gardens and it's great because then they can teach the kids on how to grow healthy food and then we also have some teachers who then apply for how to uh equipment and uh things to cook that healthy food. So they're teaching the kids on how to grow healthy food, how to prepare healthy food. Um one of my favorites is their Memorial Middle School did a seventh and eighth grade science DNA lab. So their grant request was for licorice, little mini marshmallows, and toothpicks. so they can make DNA. Um, and so it's a real

tactical thing. And proud to say in classroom grants, we gave out $94,500. Timber Ridge G um asked for money for their archery club. And then Oakrove Elementary asked for equipment um for indoor recess time so kids just aren't sitting around playing board games are actually getting up and being physical. Peely Teacher Supply House is something brand new for us. We started this last year as a pilot program and um we opened it up just K through 2 grade to see if we could handle it. And uh first of all I should say we're located out at Clover Ridge Grade School. We're um in the back building behind the main building. And so if you go in there you're going to see one of our rooms which is teacher it's Peely's teacher supply house and we have all the classroom and school supplies that any teacher could need. And the idea is that teachers can um order just like on Amazon. They can go in and they can shop for pencils and glue sticks and band-aids and hand sanitizer, all the things that they need once a semester. And they are able to also supply those kids that may have run out of their pencils. Um and teachers usually have always bought this out of their own pocket. And our goal was to have that stop. So this last fall we opened up to all grades, all schools. And um it's going amazing. The school district is great because after the teachers place their order, we have volunteers who come in and fill the orders and then the school district's courier delivers it to the schools and so the teachers are getting it very quickly next day most of the time. Um, this screen is outdated because I'll tell you as of um last August, we have given out $42,36243 in school supplies. That would have come out of a teacher's pocket. And so, we're very excited about that. I am very proud

to say there are only two teacher supply houses in the state of Oregon. We are one of two. The other one is the Portland Public School District. So, we're very proud that we're we're one of two scholarships. We give out a lot of scholarships. This um spring, we'll be awarding $150 scholarships worth $275,000 to our three high schools, Albany Options, South Albany, and West Albany. This wouldn't be possible without the community support. Um we have Rotary um in that has started um their scholarships with us this past year. We have a lot of service clubs, individuals, people who have lost family members and they want to start a memorial scholarship. Anybody can have a scholarship. Um I'm proud to say um since we've um started tracking since 1991, we've given out $1.7 million in scholarships. These scholarships can be used at trade schools, community college, and universities. So very proud of that. And these pictures are just some of the wonderful students who were awarded this last year. You might recognize Matt Bennett there at the top. He has a scholarship he started last year with us. It is for best attendance for a West Albany student. So they don't apply. They're chosen because they've shown up for school. And Matt was um named this scholarship up after Bill Carr who was a mentor to him when he was growing up. And Bill Carr always said, "If you show up, you succeed." So Matt um and Janelle Bennett give out a $10,000 scholarship. Wow.

To a student from West Albany with perfect attendance student assistance program. Um first of all I failed to say my board president is here Joanne Alfred and Ed Boach is on our board and she's going to say you say this at every presentation and I will again. This is my favorite thing that we do at the foundation. Our student assistance program is very unique. the high schools choose um this spring they'll be choosing two students from Southwest and Albany options. These students are chosen because the school knows that they come from maybe a background where they're going to be the first to graduate high school, let alone the first to go off to college and they may not have the family support. So these students are chosen because they know these students want to move on and go on to further education. So they are paired up with a mentor from their high school their very first year. The mentor and the student are given a a $1,500 grant and they that can be used to buy laptops. It can be used to buy dorm room supplies, registration to get into the college. It can be used for clothing because some of these kids have have had to share their clothing with siblings and now they're out on their own. And um they're also given a $2,000 scholarship that's renewable for four years as long as they stay in school. I love this program and I have to tell you we have a really great success story that just happened this this past week. Um, one of our students who's third year at Oregon State and he's also one that I'll tell you. He did an an ask video for us and he talked about all the great things that we've done, but he was most excited that he was able to buy out of his grant money a laundry basket. It was life-changing, he said, to have his own laundry basket. Well, this kid, this student was just accepted into um Boeing's internship program, and this is huge for him. And he he said to us, "I am so thankful for everything you have done for me. I would never been

able to get through the hardships of these past few years personally while staying connected in school without your guys' support. And because of that support, I'm now doing the hardest part of being in this major is breaking into the industry." We are so proud of him. We just it's like a proud mom with these these kids. So, our student assistance program is amazing. This um program we've had to cut back along with a lot of our grants because our grant funding has decreased for coming um this next year. And so, anybody can s support this program. You just give me a call and we'll make sure we can get more kids into it. Water awareness. Our third and fourth graders in our school district learn how to swim. Um I get the privilege to let Kim Leane know. I don't know if she's back there or not. Every year how much money we're going to be able to give them for that program. We have an endowment that is set up with us that is to fund water awareness. And so um we're really proud to be a part of making sure kids in our community um are are getting um swim lessons. So to support all the things that we do, we have to hold events. And our first event that I'm going to mention here is our I celebrate. It's a gala auction um and a paddle race. and that will be held October 24th and I would love to see you all there this coming fall. It's going to be held at the um Lynn County Fairgrounds this Saturday. I'd love to see you all show up for Saturday. It's our I run for kids and a little leprechaun dash. It's going to start at 900 a.m. at um West Albany track. We'll start out with our 10 mileers going out on the route and then um at 9:15 kindergarten through 2 grade will be able to run around the track twice. They'll start out with all the mascots we could get to show up. Um the middle one there is Peely. Um that's our mascot and LBCC's mascot will be there and the kids have a blast. These pictures are from last year when the rain was coming down sideways and it was

crazy. We're hoping this weekend's better. Um and then our 5K um will start out at 9:30. Our ice swim for kids is an oldfashioned swimathon. We're having that on o on April 25th. We really don't consider this a fundraiser for us because all the money we raise goes back to this the kids via classroom grants, classroom parties. If if you're a a student that has raised the most in pledges, um you get a Dutch Bros cho chocolate party and then we award the school that had the biggest increase over last year. Couple years ago, we started looking at our title one schools and wondering why are they not showing up for this I swim? Um it's totally free, but it does cost $40 worth of pledges um to get a free t-shirt. And we said we're missing that. we need to move remove that barrier from those kids that don't have the means, the grandparents or the parents that can sponsor these kids. So, we went out and started getting um public support. For $40 will get a kid in the pool. For $100, a business can sponsor two and a half kids. I'll find the other half to get the rest of that child in the pool. But the idea is we wanted to break down that barrier. So, last year we had enough to do three schools with 10 sponsored students and this year we want to add a fourth. So again, if you're interested, give me a call. And here's some pictures from last year. I'm sure I'm running out of time and I don't see a clock. So Oh, I see it. It's down in the corner. I got to talk. Okay. Um, our I retire. This started out as a lunch and learn a few years ago when we moved it to an evening edition and we offer this I retire. Yes, you can. Totally free to the public. This one's going to be held May 7th and it's for the general public and I have a wonderful speaker who will come in and talk about all the things you need to do to prepare for retirement. The one that we do in November is for our um teachers, administrators, staff in the

community that work for GAPS that have to navigate PERS. And so the same speaker will tell them what you need to do to prepare to retire using your PERS, social security and all of that. So that is also free and that will be held in November and um we're really excited to offer these for the community. We try to be out in the community as much as we can. We were at the downtown twice around parade. We do community events. We're at Pride. We're all the places we can to get out and let people know we are not the school district. We're here to support the school district. And then Peely the Apple, quite the celebrity. Uh it's our little mascot. And everywhere we go and the Peely is there, the kids, oh Peely. It's very exciting. Sometimes they think he's a tomato, but he really is an apple. Um, and so we get Peely out into schools quite often. Volunteers. We have an amazing volunteer base and I couldn't be more happy. Um, the middle picture there of the gardening is HP. They just contacted me today and said they want to come pull weeds again. I said, "Great, we'll have you." Um, you can see the uh students, we have tons of student support for our iron. And then we had the Wamut Valley Jaguars last year counting laps for us. Unfortunately, they have a game this year on the 25th, so we're not going to have them. But if you ever want to volunteer with us, we'll put you to work because we have a lot of opportunities. I went really fast. I apologize. There's so many other programs that we have supported and we hope to continue to support them as soon as we find more grant funding.

Thank you. Any questions? Council questions for Peggy. No questions, but thanks for what you're doing. Um I'm a PEL grant recipient. My parents didn't go to college and it was actually my um where I grew up it was our fire department that actually because I surprise volunteered the most out of my high school. Um and they recognized that and they pulled together and they actually got me money so I could get my dorm set up. Great. So thank you for the work you're doing. Yeah. It it really means a lot. Thanks. Thanks. This is really big in the community. So thank you very much for doing what you do. You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. And please invite us to your events. You can send it to Eric or you can send it to

We should We should plan at least for next year to do like a team 10K or whatever it is. The 10 mile or five. The 5K is a walk run and the 10 mile we do ask you to run because it's a ways out there. 5K or one mile. You know, we whatever. We'll take what we can get. But it'd be fun to do like a council jog jog. Just come to the uh the paddle thing. Yeah. Okay. We'll invite you to Yeah, we'll invite you to that one recently. I've been there before. Yeah, the gayla would be great. So, I can bring my wife to that. So, the gay Yes, definitely.

Um, last year my kindergartenner did the ice swim and she swam all 20 laps. She didn't want to stop swimming. She loved it. So, thank you for that event. She really enjoyed it. That's awesome. I love to hear that. And water safety is huge. I mean, when I grew up in El Central California, it was dippy duck because all the canals. So people were drowning in canals like falling in or going fishing. So I think water safety is a wonderful thing and actually being an ex-Navy guy. Um I think water safety is amazing because I went to boot camp and half the boot camp company could not swim. Oh my gosh.

You know so we had to simulate jumping off a ship, abandoning the ship and you drop into a 15 foot deep pool and you had to tread water for five minutes and a lot of folks we had to pull them out of the water. So yes. So thank you for doing that. Yeah. You're welcome. You're welcome. I'll leave these over with Eric. They're just the same thing I kind of talked about if anybody wants one. Thank you so much.

So, um, two weeks ago, I recused myself out of an abundance of caution and concern. can see on some of the folks faces. But since then, I've cons consulted with the city attorney and um I'm going to unrecuse myself for the next portion of this meeting. So, next on tonight's agenda is the ordinances for planning files A-01-25, CP- 03-25, and ZC-03-25. A city initiated annexation of 11 properties on the East Omnitown Center EATC project. This public hearing was closed on February 25th, 2026. The first reading of the ordinance was held on the same evening following the meeting. City staff was provided with a hard copy of testimony by a member of the public that was alleged to have been sent to the city prior to the comment uh comment deadline on February 25th meeting. The the this item was attached to the revised council agenda in the packet for tonight's meeting. Before we begin, I would like to request a report from city attorney Shawn Kidd and community development director Matthew Rogers on the handling of the action item tonight. So Shawn and Matthew meant to be ah there he goes. I think Matthew's gonna say something first. Good evening, mayor and council. So, I did want to address the testimony that we received and kind of and first off, I'll apologize to, you know, kind of the confusion that was surrounding this, but do want to provide some explanation there. So, as the mayor indicated, as you saw in the emails, we did receive notification that there was a piece of testimony that was that we believe that we had missed. And the initial reaction there is uh I hate to use the term again, but out of abundance of caution,

we always heir on the side of engagement. So that's why we developed the plan to basically reopen the record to admit the testimony and then close the record again. Um but I don't just stop there. You know, when when I hear that we've missed something, I look into it and I want to know why did we miss it? Are we going to have this problem again? So, in checking with the staff member, David Martell, the planning manager, that's where the emails were supposed to go. He actually did not receive the email. So, then we set our uh fantastic IT team out to investigate a little further and understand what what happened here. Um they spent some time looking at this, doing the forensics, and Sean Park is here if you want to get into the the ones and zeros on this, but um essentially the report that came back to us was the email that that was sent um from Mr. Settle never hit our system. So it didn't come into any of our email servers. He equated it to as you drop a piece of mail in your mailbox with the stamp on it, that doesn't mean it's going to get to its its recipient and we can tell even if it was considered spam or anything else. We we log that it actually came in and touched our system. And in this case, we have no information that it ever was received. So, obviously, I have a couple duties here. One of my duties is to make sure that we've got all the testimony that rece was received by the time that by the deadline is incorporated into your packets for consideration. I also have a due a similar duty which is the opposite to make sure that we're not admitting testimony into the record that was received after that deadline was hit. So, all of the information that we have indicates that that email never was received by the city. And I think it's important um obviously we could have

just accepted it, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't have a bigger problem. like if if we truly had a process problem on our end by we received an email and it didn't get processed. That's the reason we investigate further. Um determined that our processes are true and and they're not um at fault here. You know, we we didn't actually receive the email. Now, I'm not suggesting that Mr. Ottomire didn't send it. I'm just saying that something has occurred between him sending it and it getting to us and similar to back in the day before email existed. Um we used to receive this, you know, one of the an example is I'm on my way to testify at a public hearing and I get a flat tire and I miss the hearing. Do I get an opportunity to still provide my testimony? The answer to that question is no. Um and that's what the law will tell us. It's very similar when we talk about even electronic submittals for us. We have to hold true to that deadline that's posted with it. And that's make sure that it's fair for everybody, fair for the applicant, which in this case is the city. Um, and also fair for the people wanting to submit testimony. I felt it necessary to kind of give you a little explanation as to to why because it certainly and I again apologize for the confusion. Our initial reaction is always to error on the side of accepting the the testimony, but we also like say have a duty to make sure that we're not admitting something that would be um against the law essentially. So we the testimony that was received, we have no evidence to that suggests um that we've ever received it. Therefore, we can't admit it. I'm happy to answer any questions. If you want to hear the more technical answers to that, Sean Park, our IT

director, is here to help answer some of those questions. Council, any questions for Matthew Ruckers? Director Ruckers, thanks for letting us know. Yeah, hopefully this is a one-off and it won't happen in the future. Yeah, I I hope that as well. Yeah, appreciate the thoroughess. Thanks. Thank you, Sean. Do you have any comments?

No. Nothing. Nothing. Unless you'all have any other questions. I mean, I would I would just say at this point that the testimony you do have in your packet, similar to if you were in a trial and you're watching if you're watching Law and Order and you hear the the judge after an objection that's sustained, you hear the judge say, "Disregard that testimony, you're you have it. You've read it. We understand that, but you shouldn't consider that in your decision tonight." So,

thank you. Uh we will now move to council action on this item. Ordinance proclaiming annexation. Would the city attorney please read the ordinance proclaiming annexation a second time entitle only? An ordinance proclaiming annexation of properties identified on Lynn County Assessor's map number 11 S03 W09D. Tax slots 600700 701 702 800 801 901 902402403 2500 2700 and 2800 amending ordinance number 4836 which adopted the city of Albany comprehensive plan map and amending ordinance number 4441 which adopted the city of Albany zoning map by amending the Albany zoning map and adopting findings of fact and conclusions. Would the council like to make a motion to adopt the ordinance proclaiming annexation?

I'd move to adopt the ordinance. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion, council?

Yeah, I I I have discussion. Thank you. Um, at the last council meeting we had where we discussed the East Albany annexation, I misspoke and I would like to thank councelor Smith for correcting me in that the city of Albany is not growing at an unprecedented rate as I had thought. The city is however growing at a rate that is uncomfortable for many residents as evidenced by the National Community Survey results. I would like to take a few minutes to talk about how those results relate to this proposed annexation. Wellplanned residential growth and wellplanned neighborhoods in Albany were rated lower than their respective national benchmarks at 24 and 34% down from 38 and 42% two years ago. Additionally, overall quality of new development is down 28% from 39% two years ago, which is also lower than the national benchmark. Land use planning and zoning also came in below the benchmark down 15% in the last seven years. This means that people in Albany are not happy with the amount and type of growth and development that we are seeing. Nor are they happy with the decisions that we have made about what we do with our land. The quality of services overall provided by the city of Albany was rated lower than the national average and was rated almost 10% lower this year than in 2023. Criteria two of the staff report speaks to infrastructure. I disagree with the findings of fact indicating we have adequate emergency services and water services for this annexation as well as the finding of reasonleness. The quality of police services in Albany is rated lower than national average and the rating is down 10% from 2023. Emergency preparedness is rated lower than the national average, down by 12% from two years ago. Additionally, the findings of fact do

not even address street infrastructure findings. Even though streets is indicated in the definition of the infrastructure criteria, we all know residents are unhappy with our streets. Street repair rated much lower than the national average at only 14% this year compared to 27% just two years ago. Without raising taxes or receiving an infusion of financial resources into our police services and street maintenance, if this property is ever developed, satisfaction in these areas will continue to deteriorate further. I believe we're not utilizing all the criteria relevant to this issue and not giving particular attention to input provided by the public as we are instructed to. I feel it's in the long range best interest of the general public to not approve this annexation. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other counselor? Councelor Thompson.

Yeah. Um, I want to add to u or I want to dovetail on the excellent um comments from councelor mloud and and add that something I didn't bring up at the last hearing and that's um within the staff report of February 13th which I believe is on page 93 in the packet um it goes through I'm highlighting the comprehensive plan amendments that would happen if this were approved and it talks about at one point at plan amendment 1.9 it talks about the housing needs assessment I believe that's the acronym HNA calculated Albany um would need concluded Albany would need 1,328 acres to accommodate projects um up until 2040 and then right below that number 110 it estimated the building lands inventory estimated the city had within its city limits right now 1,397 buildable acres uh for residential development and that was concluded if they were built at the uh lowest density if any of them were built at a higher density you would have more acres. But uh my point being by this own statement there is land available for building within the city limits right now and creating this significant annexation is putting the cart before the horse. Um that that's what I wanted to add to my testimony uh from last time.

Any other counselors? Council Smith. Council German have a question. Council Smith has a question. I didn't hear the source of the statistics that you were quoting. That was the uh national community survey, the results of which we were presented with a few weeks ago. Thank you. Okay, we've had discussion. Will the recorder Oh, excuse me. We've had discuss first and second and a discussion. Do I have a um All those in favor say I

say no. No. No. Roll call, please. Councelor Vanlan, I. Councelor McCloud, no. Councelor Smith, yes. Councelor McGee, I. Councelor Newton, no. Councelor Thompson. No. Looks like we have a tie. So, the mayor can vote.

So, I'm voting yes on this project on this particular vote because several years ago when I took office as mayor, one of the first things I started initiative initiated with staff was a housing affordability task force. Because the city, the state of Oregon is short of housing. We only built apartments, lowincome, and single family homes. This project is going to allow for multifamily. It's gonna be point of order. We're we're voting, not discussing. Yeah, I'm telling people why I'm voting yes. Well, you should have said that as that is proper for discussion, Mr. Mayor. I mean, all right. I would have done a I got you. I'm voting yes.

We're done. Thank you. Would the city city attorney please read the ordinance withdrawing? Well, maybe please would the city attorney please read the ordinance withdrawing the property from Al Fire District Protect Protection District Entitle only? Yes, mayor. I just want to make sure we didn't have a if anybody needed to come up and and talk about that if Well, I'll just say read the ordinance and then will the council like make a motion?

Okay. They don't I didn't know if David wanted or anybody was coming up or if there's any questions on why we do this, but I'm happy to do it. An ordinance withdrawing territory identified on Lin County Assessor's map number 1103 W9D tax lot 6007007172 800 801 90192402403 2500 2700 and 2800 from the Albany Rural Fire Protection District. Would the council like to make a motion to read the ordinance a second time and title only? I'll make that motion. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Was there any discussion? Thank you. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say no. No. No. Thank you. Um, we have to bring it back for the next meeting for Yeah, it'll come back to the next meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Return to the normal agenda. There's actions. Uh, excuse me. Public comment. Public comment is a time for Albany residents to speak and for councilors to listen. The council won't discuss topics or make decisions during public comment or but will take the comments and requests under advisement. Speakers are limited to three minutes and must follow the council's rules and observe the same standards of the quorum. If unable to do so, they'll be asked to step down and take a seat in the audience for the rest of the meeting. When you get to the P microphone, please give your name and state whether or not you live in the city of Alb, Oregon. How many we had? Four. Anybody online? Zack Draper. Zachary Draper. Excuse me. Good evening, Zack Draper, Albby resident. Good evening, mayor and members of the council. My name is Zach Draper and I'm the commander of the BFW post 584 here in Albany. I'm also a fourth generation Albany resident, a husband, a father of two, and this community means a great deal to me. Our post is very active organization, works hard to support our local veterans and stay engaged in the community. From honoring all of our fallen heroes to supporting fellow veterans and their families, we take pride in continuing the mission to serve long after the uniform comes off. Unfortunately, our current building is very old and no longer allows us to fully support the programs, events, and outreach we want to provide for our veterans and our community. Looking ahead, we focused on the future of the VFW Post584, creating a space that better serves veterans, brings people together, and strengthens the connection between the veteran

community and the Albany as a whole. I'm excited to see the East Albany annexation could provide an opportunity to make this future possible. Growth and expansion of the East Albany would also provide many opportunities and resources for our community. From new services and gathering spaces to increased support networks for veterans and their families, it's an opportunity to strengthen Albany while continuing to honor those who have served. As a member who grew up here and is raising a family here and plans to be here for many years to come, I care deeply about ensuring our veterans continue to have strong place in a strong place in this community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Kevin. Cornerstone, please refrain from clapping. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Kevin Coverstone. I've been a resident for 43 years now. Grew up in Albany. Um, my dad was law enforcement for 25 years, retired. Um, so the thing that I've seen a lot of and I'm actually happy to see um is the protesters that protest between uh third and fifth on Elour Street um usually once a month or so. Um I actually had the opportunity to get to know one of those um protesters and she said that um they're really for um making sure that they're following all the laws and rules um of like public safety. And I was like, "Oh, okay. That's good to hear." And um because you see a lot of stuff, you know, on the internet and stuff and it's really I'm really grateful to see that people um want to do peaceful protesting but still get their point across. Um so they're very big on public safety. Um but the thing that I've also noticed is um so the people that I'm talking about first is people actually doing organized protesting. The people I want to talk about second is people that are not doing organized protesting. Um, and that's where I've seen some problems um with public safety. Like for example, people like um impeding traffic on Ellsworth Street and acting like somebody's going to cross the street and then you know they're not. Um so and then laying their horn on really aggressively and for a long period of time. And I can tell that the organized protesters at those unorganized rallies, that's a word you want to use, um are not happy about that. Um that's not what they want. Um, I've also seen How much time do I got? Um, so there's been a couple problems. Oh, I there's been a couple problems. Um, for example, like um I've heard

complaints from people that are in city hall that are employees that couldn't leave work on February 20th um because people were blocking the entrance over here that were protesting actually on Fourth Street, not on Ellsworth. I've seen some other issues too, but I want to just I want to say because this is obviously city hall and I heard that from the security guard that um that works here most of the time. So I just want to address that. But anyways, I want people to keep protesting. I want people to keep exercising their first amendment rights and concerns of how they feel. So thank you.

Next is Cameron Cameron Solomire. My name is Kire, Alb resident. Um, I just want to add a little bit of uh my side of the stories and stuff you heard before. Um, and talk about uh the public process, the public hearing and uh trust in government. Um on the on the previous land use hearings you heard uh I sent an email concerning it on Tuesday, February 24 uh at 8 uh4 the evening before. And I know that because I've got the the email right here with the full email header on it that I got directly from my server. When you submit testimony, you expect the government to receive it and to let decision makers know about it. And when I found out that didn't happen and I tried to rectify the situation, instead of the city trying to make it right, they doubled down on it. They failed me. They're not they're not holding up fairness. They're not allowing public testimony that was submitted during a legal time frame. And that's very disappointing to me. The other thing that should be noted is if I was going to submit something here during business from the public as written testimony, I get an email back right away from the city saying, "Hey, we got your testimony. If you submit during a public hearing, be it land use or any other public hearing, that

doesn't happen. It goes off into a black hole and you have to assume that the city got it if it doesn't bounce back. So for the city to say, "Oh, well, the process was there." They don't have a right process set up. And when it's pointed out, they don't fix it. Thank you, Mark Stewart. Good evening. My name is Mark Stewart and I'm an Albany resident. Uh I came here under the working understanding that the annexation piece was going to be completely reopened uh and there was going to be further opportunity for public testimony. So, I I I wrote a whole big thing down and uh primarily concerned with the VFW and I've since handed that off to them. And may maybe it is for the best that it's it's just between me and them that they get this. uh but also as much as what I wrote for them and for the city uh wrote for the public as well. Um, you know, Monday when I walked down here for the meeting, uh, I had a woman drive by in a truck and she came to a complete stop to roll down her window, stick her head out, and thank me for my service. And I felt horrible.

And the more people keep thanking me for my service, the worse and worse I feel. In the course of the testimony that I intended to provide tonight, I was also I I intended to essentially shatter an illusion that I think is the current relationship between the public uh the military and veterans. Because every time someone thanks me for my service, as I am actively watching our Constitution be trampled, I have to wonder how long is it going to be before people no longer come up to me in public and are thanking me for my service and rather they start demanding where were you. Where were you when my neighbors were dragged off? Where were you when my children were kidnapped by the government? Where were you when we were fleeced for millions of dollars? Billions of dollars at this point. Where were you when Habius Corpus died? And I don't have an answer for that.

Thank you. Thank you. Next on tonight's agenda is um item seven action items. I item A is U 7 A is resolutions award a contract to Brown and Caldwell for the Vine Street VI viability study WTP-26-02 Stacey Belcastro.

We can wait till everybody departs. Pardon? We can wait till everybody departs. Okay. They're not going to stay for my staff report.

Okay, we can go ahead and go. Thank you. Please proceed. Good evening, mayor and counselors. For this item, staff is requesting that council by motion approve a resolution that will approve a contract with the consultant Brown and Caldwell in the amount of $757,470. This contract is to complete a viability study for the Vine Street Water Treatment Plant. The Vine Street Water Plant is one of two plants that currently supplies the city's drinking water. Built in the early 1900s, it has been making drinking water for Albany for over a century. The second treatment plant, the Albany Millersburg Water Treatment Plant, was constructed in 2005. Today either a plant operating alone can supply the water demand that the city needs. But when you look ahead in an estimated 20 20 years plus or minus based on population growth um this will no longer be the case. The water master plan that was recently adopted just in 2024 recommended completion of a viability study to on the vinewater plant. Um this was because the plant's over a century old. It's aging. It's seismically vulnerable. A number of the buildings are are historic and it's in need of major investment in order for it to continue working long term. Because of these concerns, this study was identified as a high priority in the water facility plan. It is in the capital improvement plan and also

included in the bienium budget. The study will compare the long the cost and long-term viability of rehabilitating the Vine water treatment plant versus constructing a new water plant at another site versus expanding the CA capacity at the city's newer water plant um the Albany Millersburg. The study will also evaluate how these different alternatives impact the related ancillary facilities. Um this includes the hydroelect electric facility that's located at the Vine plant and um the water rights, the non-conumptive water rights and then also the Sanam Albany Canal. The results and decisions that are going to be made during this study will have long-term impacts on the community. And because of this, Brown and Caldwell's scope of work includes a communication plan to discuss key milestones. There will be at least three times that we check in with council. It will be to provide an overview of the project purpose and approach. We'll discuss the screening and evaluation of alternatives and results. And then we will also discuss the outcome of the evaluation and next steps with council because this is probably going to be I mean it's important to the community. The work's also going to be include information that will be developed to share with the community. This could be flyers, website contact content, and FAQs. So, while we only received one proposal in response to this RFP, Brown and Caldwell is very qualified, they were a

subconsultant on the recently completed water master plan and are very familiar with the Vine Street plant. Um staff recommends that council by motion approve the resolution that will approve the contract. Are there any questions? Council, any questions for Stacey? Can you explain the explain the source of funding for this study? The study will be funded from water capital funds. So funds water rates. Water Yeah, water rates. Thank you. Yes. So, it's already we already have the money. Yes. Okay.

Thank you. Any other council have any questions, concerns? I just know that the Vine Street water station is very beloved in my neighborhood. So, I do I had some uh neighbors reach out and they were very concerned. They're like, "Oh, no. They're going to get rid of our, you know, people people feel very attached to it." So, I don't think that this is um a a step to close it. I think it's a step from what I'm reading, um, a way for us to, you know, look at future investment decisions, you know, potential upgrades, improvements. So, looking forward to hearing the results of this of this study.

Are they going to be talking about seismic investment in that seismic? Um, yes, absolutely. That's a concern for all of us. I think people are worried about the the Cascadian earthquake and, you know, seismic retrofitting is going to be very important for that project. If I can add I was going to ask about that too. We did some seismic word work on the Vine Street plant about a dozen years ago.

We did with the FEMA grant and that grant was limited to um retrofitting key key parts of the the water process so that we could make water within 72 hours. But it didn't retrofit the facility to make enough drinking water for the community. It was just to to make enough within 72 hours if there was an emergency. Thank you. Any other counselors have anything? I do. I have a motion. Oh, you got something, please. Oh, I I move to adopt the resolution for the viability study. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I.

Those opposed say no. Thank you. Um resolution as this items B as exemption from competitive bidding to purchase a fire engine using competitive purchase competitive purchasing. Kevin Venning or Vining. Did I say it right? Which one was right? Yeah. Vining. Vining. Okay. Thank you. This is your first time before us. I think um I think it's my second time. Second time. Okay. Yeah.

Good evening, mayor and council. Uh, the Alb Fire Department is requesting this evening approval to purchase a new Pierce Fire Engine from Hughes Fire Equipment out of Springfield, Oregon using an existing cooperative purchasing agreement through NPPGV and Pierce Manufacturing. We initially attempted to secure funding for this purchase through an AFG grant that we had previously received, but were unsuccessful this goound. The cost of the new engine is1,444,639,000 after a $94,000 $94,269 prepayment discount. There are several reasons we would like to continue purchasing Pierce Fire apparatus, but I would like to highlight two key considerations. The first is emergency response. Four of our five current engines as well as our truck company are Pierce. In a profession where seconds truly matter, having standardized apparatus allows for maximum efficiency and effectiveness on emergency scenes. Our crews have trained extensively on Pierce engines and have relied on them during real realworld incidents. Our apparatus design committee has also thoroughly evaluated our apparatus specifications over the years to create a design that emphasizes emergency response performance, simplicity, and reliability. The second is maintenance and vehicle downtime. Our mechanics are highly experienced with Pierce apparatus and standardizing our fleet enables them to keep common parts in stock and remain familiar with all vehicle systems. This streamlined approach shortens repair times and ensures engines can be returned to service supporting our community as quickly as possible.

Council, any questions? Any feedback? Anything at all? So, we're getting like a $100,000 almost like 95,000 prepayment discount. Mhm. Okay. And we've already budgeted for this. It's going to come out of the fire department's equipment replacement budget. Sounds great. I'm just curious, how does that compare? I mean, the everything that you've said about the the Pierce equipment, the standardization, that all makes a lot of sense to me. I'm just curious, how does that compare with like other types of fire engine that we could purchase? I'm not familiar with this.

Yeah. So, there's there's really three like leading manufacturers of fire apparatus uh in the United States. uh Rosenbower, the Rev Group and um Pierce out of Oshkosh. Um they offer somewhat you know comparable lines of apparatus. Um cost is similar amongst the groups. Um so it's really like the some of the biggest driving factors for us have to do with that that reliability that you know the the famili familiarity with equipment um that that sort of thing. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. with council. It's probably helpful that the dealer is in Eugene as well.

Yes. And then they have a local shop here in Albany that that we contract with for maintenance. I love that. Um also from order to um delivery, what kind of time are we looking at? The lead time for this is going to be 28 to 33 months and that is on their accelerated build program which um if you select a a apparatus spec that has like limited customization it puts us into an accelerated build line which is what we did last time and we're very successful with that. So that's You happy with that? Yep. Very much so. New new engine won't be here for like three years essentially. Is that what I'm hearing? Correct. Okay. Very cool. We wear them out pretty well, I'm sure.

Yeah. What's the average lifespan of our engines? Uh, so NFPA recommends that it is 15 years frontline, 10 years reserve. So roughly a 20-year duty cycle for that apparatus. Okay. What are we going to do with our old one that's going to be going out to pasture? This one is actually uh being purchased to replace one that burnt up in a field last year. Um, so we actually reduced our number of apparatus that we had in our fleet by one uh back in the summer of 2024. So this will bring us back up to having two reserve apparatus. Wait, wait, burned up in a field. Did we get insurance money for that? I just wanted Okay, cool. Good to know. Michael,

good question. All right, nice. So, council, do we have any action on this? Um, I'll move that we approve the purchase of a fire engine using a cooperative contract for1 million and 4400,639 after $94,269 prepayment discount. Second. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. Those opposed say no. Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Next is business from the council. All

Mr. Mayor. Mr. If I may, my apologies. I should have uh caught it for you, but um we are talking about it now that we missed the appeal pro process for at the end of the hearing. So, the city attorney's equipped or ready to uh to read that out for you now. Sorry, Sean. No worries. So, yeah, this would have been right after the decision. Oh, you're right. Right there. Yeah, I just missed it. No worries. Go ahead, please.

Okay. Just within 5 days of the decision of the community development director Oh, excuse me. The community development director will provide written notice of the decision to the applicant and any other party is entitled to notice. A decision of the city council may be appealed to the land use board of appeals by filing a notice of intent to appeal not later than 21 days after the decision becomes final. Thank you. Now we'll go to business from the council. Uh Councelor Smith, please start us off. I don't have anything this evening.

Council McGee. Okay, sorry. Um, lately, and I guess it's probably been more than lately,'ve been see receiving a lot of emails regarding things that are out of control of the city council's sort of purview. And during our strategic plan meeting months ago, um I asked and requested that we have some sort of bulletin, like just really plain language of what city council can do and what we can't do because constantly replying to people with the same information. I don't think that it's getting out to everyone. Some things are out of our control. our power is limited in certain areas and I think it would be very helpful to have something on hand that we could respond to constituents with hey this is you know not in our purview this is not what we do however we do do this etc etc it it will cut down on the multiple emails that have to go out about things that are just out of our purview out of our power um not saying that we don't want to do it and sometimes times I think our constituents feel like we don't want to do it or we we we're responsible for it when in actuality that is not the case. Um we want to help the best way we know how. But there are things again that is out of our scope and out of our depth and breath. And I do think that we need something that can really plain language. I'm an educator. I don't know fourth grade. Let's make it real clear and real simple for folks. And I know right now we're going through the ADA thing with the website, so I'm not saying it can pop up right there, but at some point it should, but if we could get something through for us to just be able to have at our fingertips because it is um becoming a little overwhelming and I don't get overwhelmed easily. Um

but it is I think sometimes people are really really confused about what our position, what our job is, what our scope is. And I think it will be really helpful for us to have that at our fingertips. Thank you, Councelor Thompson.

Yeah, I have um kind of a process um item on So, last Friday, the city manager puts out a um kind of recap of issues and uh news going on and it comes to us. It's addressed to us, but I know it goes out wildly. widely. Um, and this last Friday he did a recap of the council's decision to put a pause on the license plate readers reader cameras and his comments seemed to just reflect it was like a continuation of the debate. It went through the details of how many times they are used and concluded with those actions will not be able to be taken by the APD which completely factual. I get that. But there was a very important however I think should have been part of that which is however a majority of the council decided to pause them and they did so because I mean I would offer we we had some questions about the trust in the uh the security of the data. So, I just think that was an an action of just frankly undermining the action of four members of the city council. I mean, I read that and thought, well, boy, that was pretty dumb, even though I was one of the four that voted for it. And uh I believe that same paragraph or paragraphs is re repeated in the city bridges newsletter. So, it goes out wildly. And I don't know how to how to deal with this. I would just say that there are times when the council

uh takes action and dissemination of that action should be um reflected. you know, I I'm many times I am on these losing end of votes and I try to take uh hold to the fact that the council decides something and I don't go around I don't have the ability like the city to broadcast wildly but um you know the council took an a decision that I was on the losing side of and so I just I just would wish that there are times when the city manager has a clear argument or city staff has a clear argument if the council decides that's the statement that should go out the council's decision.

Thank you. Thank you. Um who do I have next? Councelor Steph Newton. Council Newton. Um I don't have anything really today. I did hear I ran into uh one of the members of the Oregon Law Center and they mentioned they were going to come and see us on April 20th. Is that confirmed? Okay, cool. It's April 20th. We'll hear more about the data. Thank you. That's it. That's all I have. Stay healthy, guys. Okay, Council Mloud. Um, I don't have anything more to add. Thank you. Thank you, Council Vanlin. No new business tonight.

Thank you. Um all I have is um I spent the day half of the day with um middle high school students at uh West Al High School and um I had two things to talk about my business and also the city. One group picked my business, the other other group picked the city, other two groups picked the city. These young people were very bright that today's was any indication of what's happening in the future or city is going to be in good hands and I'm really happy to talk with those children. Um, the tiny art is coming up at the at the library. So, please go out and judge the tiny art. I'm excited about it. I know my wife and I have a good time doing that. Um, I think I think the dire one of the directors uh employees sent something out about the tiny art festival and the mid mid midw Valley Jaguars have their first home game the on the 13th at LBCC at 6:30. So, I hope we'll see you there. And then the if I were mayor contest. I want to thank Matthew again for Matt Matt for collecting the information. Um I have the posters and essays with me and I'm going take I have to be back by the second. Correct. Yeah. So I have judge them and select the winners by the second and then get them before you guys when I pick the winners. So thank you again Matt for another great year. And with that I'll turn it over to city manager.

Thanks Mayor. The only thing I have is uh in response to councelor McGee uh there is a city councelor a city council 101 page on the website that goes into a fair amount of detail about what councilors can what the role of the council and counselors are and it's pretty it's prominent on if you go to the your government tab it'll tell you it'll direct you to city council 101 and that's a that's a good thing to to uh forward to people also you're always welcome to send them my today and uh we'll connect them with whoever needs to to address their issue or or provide the information that they need.

Thank you. Is that it? Um so next the meeting dates March 23rd and 25th city council and work session have been cancelled. The next meeting active meeting will be Monday, April 6 at 2026 at 4 p.m. for a work session. Um and Wednesday, wait a minute, why is there a skip there? Mayor, it was never scheduled during the annual um establishment of the calendar. The council made a decision to not schedule that meeting. April 8th. Okay. Thank you. And then Monday, April 13th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m., a joint meeting with the Albony Planning Commission. And with that, I'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you for being here.