City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome you to Albany City Council meeting Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 at 6 PM. I now call the meeting to order. Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you for joining us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Can we have a roll call, please?

Councillor McGee?

Present.

Councillor Newton? Yellow. Councillor Thompson? Here. Councillor Van Drimelen? Here. Councillor McLeod?

Present.

Councillor Smith?

Here.

Mayor Johnson?

Here. Thank you. Item three on your agenda is adoption of the consent calendar. Councillor, do you want to do anything with that?

I move to approve the consent agenda.

I'll second it. I have a motion and a second. All those, is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no.

Deeply appreciate you, Mr. Mayor.

I'm working on it, man, working on it. It's been a busy week. Next on the agenda, we have three very special presentations. So there's going to be some conversation. There's going to be two very young people are going to present their work. And we also have Civic Academy Leadership, Civic Leadership Academy is going to do a presentation as well. So bear with us and take any information, enjoy it. And I'll call up to the first, it'll be the presentation of Family Tree Relief Nursery, Renee Smith. Mendeeth Strafer, and it's a verbal presentation. Was it Mendeeth? Did I say that right? Mendeeth?

Meredith. Meredith.

OK, my other eyes are out. OK, thank you. Sorry about that.

My name is Meredith Shretford and I'm the Director of Program Services at Family Tree Relief Nursery. Family Tree has been operating since 2004 and our aim is to reduce child abuse and prevent parental stressors. We just wanted to come and share a little bit about our programming. Since we started as a relief nursery, we've been able to expand our services to really support families in different areas that we were seeing barriers in our We serve and in the community and so I've provided everybody with four handouts and I will talk about the first two and then Ashley will introduce herself and talk about the second two and We started doing outreach with we have a peer mentor team of 18 Outreach workers who all have lived experience being in recovery from substances. I have listed the contracts that we serve and partner with and the different ways that we can access funding for these services. As we all know, Addiction is something that impacts most people in our communities. Everybody knows somebody who struggles. And so with our funding through Measure 110, through our burn, we're able to offer substance use treatment, including inpatient, outpatient, detox, and mad treatment. We don't actually offer the treatment, but we connect the people to getting the help that they need. We provide strength-based services, and we build off of what people can do within themselves and support them on their journey to recovery. All services at Family Tree focus on the family aspect. And so we implement parent education. We support with employment services. We build on recovery capital. Other things that we do is help explore education. We do trainings so people with lived experience can come to our organization and get trained to go into the field. So we're improving the workforce in our community as well. Our second program is the family services program. So these Within that program, there's two contracts, and they are connected through Department of Human Services Self-Sufficiency. And they really focus on health care, mental health, housing, employment, education. Their focus is on budgeting, meal planning, and household organization, and so providing stability within households and helping families find a routine. They also offer parent support. and education, child learning and development, and navigating family relationships. Their focus is family safety and the connection with child care resources so they can go out and enter the workforce as well.

Hello, my name is Ashley Vermillion. I'm the director of our therapeutic early childhood program. The TECP, for short, program provides services to prenatal moms through children age five. We're home visiting based. We go out at least once a month to set goals, talk about child development, get them connected with resources, really anything that they need. Children who are 12 months to five years have the ability to access our classroom programs. We have one in Albany, Lebanon, and in Sweet Home. Our classes are therapeutic and strength based, so our ratios are really small. So we always have at least three teachers and no more than 11 children. We do work very closely with early intervention. So a lot of our friends do have additional needs for support, especially since we focus on social and emotional development. So the small ratios help us provide the support that they need before they go off into kindergarten. The other program is our community pantry. So that is open to all of our clients and community members. We do a food pantry. It opened in early 2026. It's open to the community. You don't have to be a client or become one to access it. It's every Friday. at our admin building, which is getting ready to move. And it's from four to six and you come in and it's really great. It's like a shopping experience. They have little carts and they get to pick what they want. And it's a really great way to connect with people in the community as well. We provide supplemental hygiene supplies as we have them available and diapers and wipes. And we try to meet family's basic needs so that stress doesn't rise and then child abuse and neglect can occur. So just trying to ensure that they have their basic needs met with those items as well.

And to talk a little bit about numbers and the impact we have on the community, the Family Services Program served 450 families in 2025. The Peer Mentor Outreach Team served 612 families. Okay. TECP served over 274 families across our three locations. And the food pantry in 2025 served 4,924 individuals.

Yeah.

And I would say the benefit of a family working with family tree is it's not just a one and done type of thing we really work. With the family long term, and so we have weekly home visits we meet them where they're at whether that be. A houseless, whether it be at a community partner, whether it be at our building, and we really build on what initial goals are and then continue working with that family until they came to a place where they feel their goals are completed. So it's a long-term, more long-term service than some, and it's really beneficial to see people succeed and grow.

So can council ask some questions? Of course. Perfect. I just, my first question is going to be, can you tell us, tell the community that's watching this or will be watching this, what kind of service, what kind of things do you need as far as support from the community?

Yeah, so as part of our early childhood program, we're social and emotional based in therapeutics, so our classrooms are pretty similar. They're neutral colors. We can always use support with classroom items and then just any supplies, diapers, wipes, hygiene items that can support the families in the community.

Yeah, on the peer team, we're always looking for hygiene items, backpacks, and sweats and t-shirts. So we have a lot of families that can transition from being houseless to going into residential treatment where they don't get a leave for 30 days because they're on a, you know, a... get settled period. And so during that time, they're not able to get their needs met. And so we try to put together bags of things they might need for that first 30 days to send them off. So hygiene and stuff like that is always helpful.

Council, any other questions or comments?

I have a question. The food pantry opened late in 25. Is that if I remember correctly? It was a soft opening.

I believe we had our soft opening in late 2025. We officially opened it up to everyone in early 2026. Okay.

So the 4,924 individuals in 2025 is a big number. Mm-hmm.

Are you going to exceed that in 26?

I would assume so, yeah.

So food items or anything like that would be something like canned food?

Yeah, usually we'll post on our website if there's like a couple weeks ago it was needing canned meat products. And usually when there's a need, it'll go out on the website of what things. Oh, okay.

I'm a senior director at Family Tree. I think that 4,000, we had a supplemental pantry in 2025, and then we became a full pantry towards the end of 2025. So I'm pretty sure that, because I was kind of surprised when they said that 4,000. So I think that was a full year of our supplemental pantry support, and then we opened up to the full community in December of 2021.

Okay, I knew it was later in the year. Teresa Fuentes reports at heart meetings, and so, yeah, I've been following that pretty closely.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Any other thing, counsel?

I've had a chance to tour, and I'm just really grateful for the work you guys do in our community. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, you know, the work done with early childhood intervention, these are not only our neighbors, but eventually they become our students in the K-12 system. And the research has shown that that work done, you know, has downstream positive effects throughout their time. So even if you don't or your family doesn't need it, it's absolutely needed because your kids are going to, you know, they're going to be their classmates, their friends.

I always tell people in the community, supporting our organization supports your community because those are the people that make up the community. And just ensuring no children get left behind, everyone gets inclusive, the same services regardless of what they have going on through our program. Thank you. Thank you.

Next. Thank you very much for being here today.

Thank you.

So the next agenda item is one of the programs I really, really appreciate about the Oregon Mayor's Association. It's called If I Were Mayor. And fourth and fifth graders have an opportunity to draw a poster and tell us about what they want if they were going to be the mayor of Albany. Middle schoolers, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders write an essay about what they want for their city or something important to them about the city of Albany. High schoolers, we didn't have any participants this year because of the workloads and things that happened, but high schoolers have to do a video presentation, some kind of digital presentation And what I really appreciate about our young people in the city of Albany, four state championships in a row. And we've also had two people, every year we've had people play second or third for every year of the contest. And so I'm really happy to introduce Alex from South Shore Elementary School. He did a poster and he's gonna tell us about his poster.

Oh yeah.

So Alex is going to tell us about his poster. Sit here. And he's going to tell us. And it's going to be up on the screens. And he's going to tell us about his poster. So give Alex a big round of applause. So Alex, why did you put those items on your poster?

Because I've been lately seeing Albany. need like safety, economic development, recycling, all of that. And one reason I pick recycling is because like, I wanna have like, if I were the mayor, I would like help the environment, strengthen the economy by conserving natural resources, saving energy, reducing pollution, and limiting land use. to waste and making more recycling bin so Albany don't look bad or make it have our crops look bad and to not lead rats.

You guys agree with that? So tell me about the entertainment.

So a lot of people just stay home. Some people don't know what to do inside their houses. Some people might just stay home, but some people might get bored of it. So if I were the mayor, I would like to create more entertainment by doing more parks and activities for kids and adults.

Thank you very much. So Alex, his whole class did a poster. And because the whole class did a poster, we had a pizza party for them and we gave them swag. And when I made the announcement that Alex had won, Everybody applauded and everything and we took pictures and it was great to go to state and I presented this poster at state. He got fourth, unfortunately, but he was in that top 10 group and there was over 100 posters or 150 posters that mayors had turned in. The one thing I really liked about Alex's poster, he captured so many wonderful things. It's safety, recycling, economic development, building. I mean, what else is over here? Oh, clean sewers, clean services, entertainment. I mean, the things he put on here, for somebody that's in the fifth grade, Fifth grade or fourth?

Fifth.

Fifth grade, to have that kind of mindset and forethought and looking out into the future as if you were a mayor, that's a great thing you did. And there was a cash prize, and congratulations.

Is this yours? Is this the one you brought? Oh, that's yours. Here you go.

So by the way, this is part of the permanent record for Albany. We're going to take some pictures real quick.

So when he's in his 60s or in his 30s with his kids, he can actually say, this is me at the Albany City Council meeting.

One, two, three.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

So the next student I'm going to ask to come up is Addie. And I don't use the kids' last names. This is Addie. She's going to come up. And I chose, I have, what, 50 or 55 essays to read, something like that. It was a lot, 64 or something. But I read each one of them at least four times. And I look at it from themes that are in a strategic plan because I show them at the classrooms what their strategic plan is, what the city council does, and answer their questions so they can actually start building their essay. I read Addie's essay four times and it kept coming back to me as this is the one that I should select. Once I selected her, we did the school presentation, had her mom come, thank you for doing that. And then I submitted to state. There were 60 or 70 kids that had essays and there were 49 mayors that submitted. And they had two mayors, we had a tie. And we had a tie and so the board said, tell me about your person. I said, well, I went to the classroom. I showed the kids a strategic plan. I showed them I was in the classroom. Liz Bennett invited me. The other mayor said, I just picked, because I never met the children. I never met the, I don't go to schools. I said, okay, Addie's the winner. And that's what I said. Addie's the winner. A lot of mayors in the city don't, in the state, don't take the time to go out to the schools. They don't accept invitations. And I think Albany is unique in that you invite me, I'm coming to your classrooms. And so Addie, she was in the front row when I announced that she had won state, and the look on her face was priceless. But her mom had the insight. So please, come on, share your essay.

My name is Addie Parker. I'm a 14 year old student who cares deeply about our community. I'm writing to you because I believe we can take significant steps to help people who are homeless in our city this issue isn't just a statistic to me it's personal and something I feel passionately about growing up I learned about the value of community and compassion but my understanding of this issue deepened when my uncle faced a really tough time and ended up living on the streets for a while before he passed away witnessing his struggles his isolation depth Desperation and the sheer difficulty of surviving without a stable place to live opened my eyes to how hard life can be for those without a safe place to go. It broke my heart knowing that he was just one of many facing such challenges. I want to see our community do more so nobody else has to face what he did. As mayor, I would prioritize building more affordable housing and shelters to ensure that everyone has a safe place to stay. By increasing available options, we could... drastically reduced the number of people sleeping outside or in unsafe conditions. It's disheartening to see families, young children, and veterans experiencing homelessness when there are solutions we can implement. Investing in this area can change the narrative for many individuals and families, offering them a pathway to stability. Furthermore, I believe that providing robust support for mental health and addiction services is critical. My uncle battled these challenges and I know from personal experience that with the right help, lives can change for the better. We should have more accessible counseling and treatment facilities available along with resources to ensure that those Struggling with mental health issues or addiction, receive the compassionate care they need. Many people don't seek help, simply due to stigma attached, so we should work to create an environment where seeking help is normalized. Additionally, I think it's essential to instill hope for the future in those affected by homelessness. The city could create job training programs and assist individuals in finding employment. Providing skills training and connecting people with job opportunities can empower them to regain their footing. When people feel supported, they are far more likely to rebuild their lives and contribute positively to our community. It's about creating a bridge towards self-sufficiency, and I believe our city can facilitate that. Moreover, I hope more people will come to understand that homelessness can happen to anyone. Regardless of background or circumstances, if we start conversations about it in schools and the community, we could inspire more individuals to volunteer and provide support. Educational outreach could also help break down stereotypes, leading to a more compassionate society where everyone is treated with dignity. Engaging young people in particular could cultivate a new generation of advocates and allies for those in need. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and for everything you do for our city. I sincerely hope you will make addressing homelessness a top priority so that everyone has a chance to lead a better life. Together we can make a meaningful impact and work towards a community where every individual has a safe place to call home.

Thank you, Abby. So what Addie didn't know, when I was reading her essay, I cried because I had two men in my family. One was homeless for 13 years. The other was homeless for 16 years. One is alive and the other passed away because he refused to go to services. And so your speech reached me and I appreciate you writing your speech and the mayors that read your speech, they were moved by it as well. So thank you very much and congratulations. No, she won a $500 scholarship from the Mayor's Association as well. Thank you. Thank you, Eddie.

What place did she come in? Also, is 14 years old, is that 8th grade?

No, she's 6th grade. She's in 8th grade.

8th grade, oh my gosh.

She went to high school last year. That is truly the fun part of this job. So next on the agenda, let me get back to my pages. It's item three, four C, presentation of 2025, 2026, Albany Civic Leadership Academy participants. Matt Harrington is gonna talk about it a bit before we get started. You're good? Please come on up, please. Hey, it's your program. Hey, your name's on the agenda. Okay. Come on up, please.

Okay. Hi, Council. My name is Leslie, and I'm here today with Coral and Allison. We are representatives of the Albany Civic Leadership Academy, and we're here to present our findings and potential solutions to a very unique issue, which is how does the City of Albany engage community members earlier and more meaningfully in the public decision-making process? Or not. Okay.

There we go.

OK. So our approach to this question was utilizing resources presented to us while in the academy and for group members to go out into the community to conduct research. From the start, we were networked with our city buddies. And each week, a city council member would come in and present themselves and the work that they do. Throughout our project timeline, the leadership members would be broken up into groups to collaborate over research we collected from various sources and locations. And from this research, we were instructed to focus within the realistic and structured boundaries of what the city has already tried to do and the bandwidth to also operate and build upon what the city is already attempting. And so now you'll hear a little bit more about the accessibility piece.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, and city staff. My name is Allison Arsenault, and I'm the marketing manager at the Albany Visitors Association. I'm going to speak about accessibility. One stakeholder we interviewed said, speaking someone's language, simplifying communication, and considering physical accessibility communicates, we see you, you matter. That summarizes our group's focus. We considered how the city can help residents find and understand information, access public spaces safely, and know what accommodations are available. We have suggestions for improvements that we think are attainable. First, accessible language. Another stakeholder said, accessibility is not only about information existing, it is also about whether residents can realistically find it, understand it, and feel welcomed into participation. Even when information exists, it can feel inaccessible if residents have to search through multiple links, navigate technical wording, or struggle to determine whether an update applies to them. We suggest providing plain language agenda summaries before council meetings. These would not replace the full agenda packet, but would help residents identify topics that affect them. The city can also use social media as an accessible communication tool with posts that pair essential details in approachable language. Using relevant photos or short videos is more engaging than text-heavy graphics. Seeing relevant information in a familiar place helps residents take notice and stay informed. Spanish language communication is also important. In addition to automated translations on its website, the city providing translated information in social media posts, newsletters, and other public-facing communication would be a practical next step and communicate that more residents are welcome to participate. Second, physical accessibility and meeting accessibility. One stakeholder described being unable to use an accessible restroom independently and said, it removes my independence and makes me solely reliant on another person. We heard about several barriers that can make it difficult for residents to participate in city meetings. One example is after hours access to City Hall. When the automatic entrance is unavailable, a resident using a mobility aid may need someone to hold the door open. Ensuring the automatic entrance remains accessible during evening meetings and events would help residents enter independently. Restroom doors are another concern. Heavy doors can create a barrier even when the restroom itself meets accessibility requirements. Installing automatic door openers or safer manual doors would improve both access and safety. For residents attending remotely, unreliable audio can make discussions difficult to follow. Reviewing microphone use, audio quality, and internet connection would make meetings more accessible for residents participating online. Third, accommodation information should be easier to find. Residents should not have to search through multiple pages or make additional calls to determine what support is available. Public notices, social media posts, and website pages should clearly explain available accommodations, identify any accommodations that require advance notice, and tell residents whom to contact. Making this information easier to find would help residents plan ahead and participate with greater confidence and independence. Coral is now going to talk about city-sponsored outreach.

Hello, I'm Coral Kulmer, and I've had a lifelong interest in sociology and just the public policy, and have experience in online communication as a hobbyist. So I'm talking about city-sponsored outreach. And with this, there was multiple factors we considered based on stakeholder feedback. In fact, existing lack of understanding in civic processes, where to get started in getting involved, or even how the city works. And there was also what people mentioned was wanting stuff on social media to help understand or just get information around. And that is where the main recommendation for city-sponsored outreach podcast comes in. So podcasts are comparable to radio shows with the auditory component. But in this case, we were looking at more of a talk interview format with production staff being given a topic by the city that the city wants discussed. And the host makes it approachable Well, interviews would be done with rotating guests that are relevant to the topic, such as as like city council members were talking about what goes on with city council or other or staff or people who are knowledgeable in the subject. A good host is able to bridge the knowledge gap. So it becomes an entry level education resource with fun banter. Additionally, it can talk about more current events. It can also have provide foundational information and provide long term relevance as an educational resource and repository. So there's several factors to consider with it being a high effort high reward, especially even if production is handled outside of the city, the initial starting process is going to take a lot of work. But it does address quite a bit of stakeholder feedback, depending on the implementation of it. It's also adjustable based on response, and podcasts are able to be workshopped throughout production, so it's not stuck in one static format or method of getting out. Additionally, it has diverse distribution methods that allows it to be a repository that's accessible to various people, including having the audio and social media clips that can be used to get information around or get people interested in it, in the topics. So while this was focused on the information distribution of information, and the next group focuses on building relationships with residents.

Two more.

Okay, for our last suggestion, we wanted to create something that's more approachable and relationship-focused for residents to connect with local government through a monthly series called Connect With Your Counselor. So these would be informal gatherings hosted at local businesses like cafes or restaurants and on weekends or in late evenings where residents could meet with one advisor, a city employee, in a more casual setting. We chose this idea because one of the strongest themes that we saw in interviews and survey responses was that many residents want to participate, but they just don't know where to start and feel intimidated by kind of formal meetings and feel disconnected from the process in general. Many of the people we interviewed shared that they only spoke at a council meeting when someone encouraged them and walked them through how it worked. One interviewee said, don't just put information out there passively, look for the places the community gathers and share the information there. At each session, the counselor would share a little bit about themselves and their role and answer questions, but focused more on having a shared space for community building and creating connections between counselors and residents and spaces where residents want to meet. Another thing we repeatedly heard was that residents feel overwhelmed trying to find information and that traditional communication methods are easy to miss. People want some more simpler, more direct ways to stay informed. So the City of Albany text system would focus as citizens could sign up after an event, a city meeting, or online, and they would get an initial greeting text telling them what the alerts they would get and if they would opt out for any other language. the tech system would then send out reminders live stream links to meetings and also provide an Upcoming brief topic sessions that way residents know if they want to participate in that meeting or not or if they want information from elsewhere and the tech system would allow the city to pull residents in real time for feedback and What the community wants to know or what concerns matter most to those residents?

In conclusion, this brief presentation shared a condensed version of six weeks of work. While we highlighted our key findings and methods today, you'll find additional information and recommendations in your agenda packets. Overall, we found that Albany residents are interested in what is happening in their community politically, recreationally, and financially. They want to stay informed, and that is a positive sign for Albany. We also identified practical opportunities for the city to strengthen its interactions with residents and stakeholders. We encourage you to consider these ideas as you move forward. City staff have responded positively to our findings, and all 13 members of our group believe that continuing communication among residents, stakeholders, city staff, and council will support informed decision making. Thank you for your time and consideration. We're available for questions.

Council, I'm glad I see hands. Thank you very much for that. I saw yours first. I'll go with you.

The accessibility issues, that was so alarming. Do you guys have a list of places where folks were experiencing some of their biggest accessibility hurdles? I do know that we don't have as many automatic doors. The automatic doors don't work after hours as well. But do we have any other places that maybe could be like low-hanging fruit to just make

The three things that one of the people I interviewed talked about was that sometimes when they came after hours, the automatic doors were, it was closed down because it was the end of the day. So I don't know if there's an automatic system that can just be overridden. So when there's going to be a council meeting or...

other things that it could just be open otherwise they can't get it open without help you can look into that right maybe it's just like an easy programming thing that'd be so easy number two um love the idea of text message alerts um i'm big on transparency and demystifying like what happens at the local government level i think that's awesome i'd love to get be able to it Also, it would help qualify the text messages to know who's going to be checking. You see the open rate, right? And then we'd be able to more easily poll those members as well or let them know community action alerts or something that's going on. Wonderful idea. Love that. Would love for us to look into a text message platform. I'm not sure what that would cost. Then also, I don't know what staff's bandwidth is for staffing with Coffee with the council or whatever. But I'm so into that. And maybe I'll just staff myself. But I'll do that.

I think the city already uses MailChimp for their newsletter. And so MailChimp just added a thing where you can enter your phone number. But it would take some collection, like, up front. Because everyone didn't enter their phone number yet. We have some from, I don't know, everyone's water bills. But you can't give it to everyone. They have to give you permission.

They'd have to send out, like, an opt-in alert or something. Yeah.

Exactly.

FABULOUS IDEA, THOUGH. I THINK IT'S WONDERFUL. THANK YOU.

I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. THANK YOU.

ANY OTHER COUNSELOR? VERY GOOD. I WAS IMPRESSED. I REALLY I WAS JUST HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE A COUPLE DAYS AGO ABOUT THAT WE NEED TO HAVE A BETTER ONBOARDING PROCESS FOR NEW FOLKS THAT COME TO OUR COMMUNITY. SO I THINK THE THINGS THAT YOU ALL NAMED WERE REALLY, REALLY GOOD AND INTERESTING. SO I WAS LIKE, WE'RE ON THE SAME WAVELINTH. And I like this year's, and last year's was about a youth advisory council. I'm hoping that staff is listening to our civic academy folks because they have some really innovative and creative ideas. And youth advisory council, getting more folks connected with the city and what we do, the text alerts, all these things are things hopefully that if we don't see them right away that at some point they will be up and running because I think they're really good ideas. Good job.

And for me, I really like, like we have PulsePoint that I'm logged into. So there's a crash, there's a fire. I get an alert, stay away from Gary and Queen. Nixle also we get from the fire department, police department. I think this is a great idea because if Councilor McCloud's gonna do a talk somewhere, it'd be nice to people that wanna hear her speak. If Councilor Vanderma's gonna do a talk somewhere, Councilman Jim was doing this talk about whatever.

Sharing a map, most likely.

But it does make sense, especially as fast as this world is moving right now. I think that having the smartphone, basically it's a computer. I mean, when I grew up, computers were that big. Now they're this big. So it'd be nice to see something like that come about. At least we'll look down the road for that. Other than that, any other thing, please?

I really like the idea of the text message alerts also, especially the feedback in real time or the polling in real time. Sounds like a great idea. As far as the accessibility goes, I... I did notice that the the accessible door did not work after hours and I don't know why I never said anything, but often, often I use those for various reasons, usually just my arms are full, you know, and I wanted to note that requiring someone to say, hey, can you help me out and open the door for me? That's not okay because it does not allow someone to be independent. And so while we have a... security person here who I'm sure would be happy to open the door for anyone who he saw struggling. I don't want that to be the go-to. I would like to see that button work. every time the building is open. So thank you for that. Also, the accessible restroom doors, that's important. That is something that I've heard in the past from other residents who come to City Hall. And I have heard that before, and I would love to see that change as well with the restrooms. So thank you.

Councilor Thompson.

Yeah, you know, real quick, one thing we didn't mention in your material, I really leapt out at me as someone who goes to local government meetings. The idea of a plain language description, summary, or whatever, of the packet of the meeting, to me, that really... would be a helpful thing, I think, for people who are not used to acronyms or whatever or processes. I think it's funny that Matt Harrington was very much involved in creating this mission. And I think you guys are this civic academy. And I think a lot of this that you created is going to be more work for Matt if we choose to. if we choose to go down that road. Thank you. Thank you, though.

Thank you, Council. Council Smith, anything?

Yeah, I made a couple of notes when I was going through the packet and read through all of the raw data that you provided. I just wanted to point out Someone had expressed that they are concerned that it takes two weeks or longer to post approved minutes on the council page. The video of the meeting is up the next day. And in my mind, that's better than minutes because it's live action. So maybe we need to get that word out more broadly. The other thing is I'm curious to know where the things that you've brought up about the accessibility issues in City Hall in particular, probably the restroom things happen in other city buildings as well. If those things are on our master plan for accessibility, we put together a master plan for accessibility in city buildings and on city properties a couple of years ago, and it was very detailed. And I was just wondering if those things are on that list.

Some things will follow and check the mark for ADA accessibility, but it won't necessarily be accessible to everyone. So I know that our restroom is ADA accessible, and it does fulfill that need. It has a way to get in. The bathroom door opens wide enough for a wheelchair to get in. The problem is the outside doors that people are struggling with.

I can understand that. Thank you.

Great research, nice job, and a lot of data, it was a long read, but thank you for putting it together, and I really appreciate the rich presentation, so thank you for that. Thank you, thank you for your reading.

Matt, do they get street signs?

What's that?

Oh, they do.

They're right in front of me. We have a little presentation. So for those of you who don't know, and I don't mean to turn my back on you guys, but you know. Please do. Because you were there. Like, each one of you. Well, OK, sorry. Yeah, you didn't do a week. Not to single you out, but anyway. You're a very busy guy. It's the same night as my class. I know. Yeah, you're very busy. But our Civic Academy, this is our second one that we've had. Last year, we had one in the fall, and we decided to switch it up and go in the spring. We made some... which I think were very beneficial. This class was stellar. We ended up with 13 participants. Normally, it's limited to 12, but our good friends at Portland State University, and I have Turner back there from Portland State repping. Thank you to them for putting the core of the class together, but we were able to extend that to a lot of students city information this time. And I think that made the program a lot better. It made their research a lot better. And we're just happy at the suggestions that you provided. I think a lot of them are attainable. And so without further ado, we have some thank yous for you. So first up, Allison, and if you could come up and then stay up here.

These are literally the envy of the council. I want one and I'm so jealous you guys get these.

Agreed. And, oh, boy. Wait, hold on. Yes. Thank you. I got to get this, too, at the same time. I need more hands. Alicia, yes. I was like, wait, part right goes to what?

Was it Alicia Korn or what? Was it a screen or a Korn? What does it say, Alicia Korn? Quarrel. Okay. Yeah, just, yeah, kind of stupid.

Is that the next one? Is this Brandon's? Brandon.

Brandon?

Yes, we are very fortunate to have our sign shop at Public Works who graciously allows us to make these at a cost. All right, Emily. This is my favorite. Jason, please place.

Nice.

This is Leslie.

You want to slide around?

Go ahead and slide around.

Oh, there we go. Okay, saved. All right. And Keith. And I will point out, you voluntarily said, I don't want to sign. We'll hide you in the back. No, just kidding. All right.

Lana?

Lana? Lona, sorry. I forgot the line over the O. Dang it.

There were even people telling me, like, again, and reminding me. I know. What is it, Lona Way or what? Lona Lane. Lona Lane, okay. I love that.

Oh, Moshta.

Trista.

See, we just went with first names, it's all good. And Ruth. Okay, she doesn't know it, but I'm gonna call up Turner, first of all, from PSU, who is here representing himself, and Kristen Wright, who is also one of our program people. You're gonna get in this, yeah. And then I'd also like to call up Kinsey McIntosh. She's our communications and engagement specialist. And she put in a lot of work to this year's session to bring a lot of the city components to life. So thank you for your efforts.

Now I'm going to have to get closer like the mic is down there.

Even more. Matt, it's you.

But somebody's gonna not be looking.

Thank you.

They're so awesome.

Give them a second to leave, and then we'll... I'm looking to see if they want, but someone's really leaving. OK, next on tonight's agenda is public hearings. Next on tonight's agenda is a public hearing for the Community Development Block Grant CDBG 2026 Action Plan and Community Needs. I declare the public hearing open at 6.49, 6.50. Do any councillors have any declare conflict of interests?

Sir, I'm not doing it again, but I just wanted to mention that there is a potential conflict that I would like to declare. One of the members of my Campaign Committee is a board member of one of the recipients of one of the grants, and I'm still able to stay neutral in this hearing.

I don't think it's a conflict, but my daughter attends a summer program for Boys and Girls Club.

City Recorder, your thoughts? Because of my agenda, my packet says if there's a yes, they should disqualify themselves.

I think that would be for City Attorney Sean Kidd.

Yeah, so far I haven't heard an actual conflict of interest. So there's nobody needs to be conflicted.

I did not vote when the Albany Partnership for Housing, because I'm on their board, when they received a grant. So they're a grant receiving entity of the CDBG funds. So I'm just declaring that. But I think it's okay for me to.

Yeah, if you didn't participate, yeah. So I'm also on the executive director of, the Albany, not Albany, Ocox, Kaskade West Council of Governments, and CSC. They've merged, I think you all know that. And I think that's the only organization I'm affiliated with, and they did a small grant, and I wasn't part of that discussion either. Matter of fact, we all got removed from it, so yeah. Anybody else? Okay. At this time, I'll call on the staff report from project planner, Caitlin Martin.

Kinsey, can you let me in? Oh, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. For the record, Caitlin Martin, Development Programs Analyst. And this is Anne Catlin. And we are required as a community development block grant entitlement community to hold two public hearings. And this is on the 2026 annual action plan. So this is our award amount. They have a formula, it's a formula grant. And so we found out this amount. We utilize a competitive grant process. Our Community Development Commission evaluates, they come up with the criteria for evaluating the grants and they evaluate them all. And we also need to identify how the funds are used to address goals that are identified in the consolidated plan, which is our five-year plan. So these are just our public service grants that, in the proposed amounts to award, we are limited to 15% of our total allocation to public service. This is generally where we have the most competition. Any other ones?

Can you go back, please?

Oh, yeah, of course. And please let me know if you guys have any questions.

This is the first year for Young Roots to be a recipient, is that correct?

Yes, it is the first year that they've applied for funding.

Thank you.

And this one's a little, if you guys have any questions about how this one, they're not getting as big of a direct award for... The 2026 funds, we had a housing rehab program through Dev Northwest, and basically how that worked is they were awarded funding, and then upon the sale of a property, those funds would then go back into the program and it would basically cycle through. They've dissolved that program, so those funds now are going to be coming back basically to us, which we are then going to funnel towards the Habitat for Humanity housing rehab program. Question.

Question there.

Did Dev Northwest dissolve that program, or did HUD do it?

Yeah, they said it just didn't pencil out financially, so they decided not to apply for any more funding. And this was kind of an exciting one. Albany partnership is going to be awarded funds, they are actually going to be adding an additional supportive housing unit. So they'll actually be increasing affordable housing beds in Albany.

Excellent.

So this really is just an opportunity for the public to provide any input. We did receive one comment, which we forwarded to you today. And then just to answer any questions. And we're hoping to be able to submit this.

Councilman, anything? Councilor Thompson.

Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge the work of the Community Development Advisory Committee that has to make the decisions on this funding. As we know, on the council, it's difficult to, when you have worthwhile projects come before you, it's difficult to go back to your stated goals and try to, you know, divine what is the best course of action. So I commend them for their work. And this is the way I just want to emphasize this is the way that the city, these funds are how we directly help the homeless as a city, and it's a, it's a great program, and it's good work that's being done.

Councilor Smith?

I've said before that I like to see the senior companion program included, and it's really nice to see the award for young roots as well. We're covering the age spectrum this time, and they're worthy programs, worthy of this investment.

Councilors? So you got something over here?

No, it's just fabulous.

Okay. So first and foremost, I want to commend the commission and also the work that you guys do in support of this program. You know, being a part of it in the past, I know how much work goes into each of those grant requests and then the presentations you sit through, the hours involved with that at home studying and asking questions of staff. So please let them know that we all greatly appreciate the work that they're doing, and we definitely appreciate your work as well. So thank you. Thank you. Oh, we got a fence report. So we have counselors. We will now be taking public comments. If anyone wishes to enter an exhibit into the record as part of your testimony, please briefly describe the exhibit and provide it to the clerk. Virtual attendees, please email it to the city recorder at omniorgan.gov. Those who register to speak during the meeting will now be called upon first to give comment. That was a sign-up sheet.

So no one signed up to speak virtually or in present.

We will now be taking comments for those who did not register to speak. Does any members of the audience wish to speak about the proposed plan or community needs? If so, please state your name and make any comments you have to the city council and provide your state to the city of Albany, Oregon. And we can also add you to the sign-up sheet. Anybody in chambers? Anybody online that did not sign up? We're all good there? Okay, thank you. If you're attending virtually, nobody's about to read a statement. If anyone's attending virtually, turn on your camera and raise your hand to be called upon. If you're attending by phone, please unmute yourself and state your name and please wait to be called on to speak. Does any staff respond to the comments received? There's none. I declare the public hearing closed at 6.59. Wow, that was fast. OK. Does the council wish to discuss any of the plan or any additional comments or questions for staff? Hearing none, do I have a motion? The resolution is on page 27 of your packet.

I move to adopt the resolution on page 27 of the packet, adopting the City of Albany's 2026 Action Plan for the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Second it. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Thank you, council. NEXT UNDER TONIGHT'S AGENDA IS PUBLIC COMMENT Public comment is a time for Albany residents to speak and for the councilors to listen. The council won't discuss topics, respond to questions, or make decisions during public comment, but will take comments and requests under advisement. All persons in attendance at a public meeting should avoid conduct which is unreasonably loud, disruptive, or profane. Rude and slanderous or threatening remarks will not be permitted. Whistling, yelling, of foot stomping or clapping and displaying the signs or speaking out of order is also not be permitted. Speakers are limited to three minutes and must follow the council's rules and observe the same standards of decorum. If unable to do so, they will be asked to step down and take a seat in the audience for the remainder of the meeting or be removed from the meeting. When you get to the microphone, please state your name and whether or not you live in the city of Albany, Oregon.

Bill Root? Or is that Roast? Root, okay. Thank you, Bill, for coming in.

Thank you, Mayor. My name is Bill Root. I live at 2634 Valley View Drive in North Albany. The reason I'm here today is to talk about my sewer system. Currently, in December, I had my septic tank pumped, and in the process, they discovered that it was full of tree roots. I had the company remove the tree roots and install a baffle. And while the distribution box was uncovered, I had Roto-Rooter come out and root out one of my drain pipes. They were able to root out approximately 50 feet of my drain pipe. Apparently the drain field does not work properly because now, after six months, my drain, my septic tank is full. It is overflowing. I have tried to get to the city sewer, which at this time is ended at my eastern property line. The city said that I cannot attach my sewer to the existing city sewer because it does not go across my property. They want me to pay approximately $200,000 to extend city sewer across my frontage. Yesterday, I talked to Manny Kurtz. He is a engineer And I told him what I was going through, and he says, oh, you should talk to Steph Newton, which I did, I called her yesterday, and she will talk later. The company, A&B Septic, they work on my septic tank before, will be out to my property tomorrow to look over what the problem is. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to have my septic tank pumped again. The last time it cost me $500. It'll probably cost me at least that much again because it's right now overflowing.

Thank you, sir.

and I'm gonna have to have it done. Thank you, sir.

So far. They're all done, sir. Councilor Newton said she'd bring it up during business from the council. I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Well, Councilor Newton will be speaking during business from the council. So your time is up. My time is up? Yes, sir. Thank you. Next is John Byrne.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, council members. I'm John Byrne. I live at 705 6th Avenue Southwest. But I'm here as the chair of the Albany Public Library Foundation. And I'm here because, oh, I see your timer. I'm watching that. I'm here because last week I delivered three checks to the city through the librarian. A check for $51,000, a check for $10,000, and a check for $5,000. They're to be used for acquisitions, general acquisitions, the $51,000, for specific acquisitions to help the Carnegie Collection, $10,000, and for acquisitions to improve the material for rehabilitation and preservation of buildings and structures in Albany, that's the smaller one, the $5,000. THIS IS WHAT THE ALBANY PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION DOES ON A REGULAR BASIS AND I'M HERE TONIGHT TO TELL YOU BECAUSE SOMETIMES I THINK THE FOUNDATION FLIES WELL UNDER THE RADAR AND IT SHOULDN'T. IT'S BEEN AROUND FOR DECADES AND IT IS USED, HAS BEEN USED AND USED ITS MONEY FOR MAINTENANCE IN THE CARNEGIE DOWNTOWN LIBRARY FOR ACQUISITIONS, FOR LANDSCAPING, FOR SPECIAL PROJECTS, FOR LIGHTING, FOR cooling and this is all in the last five or six years for cooling in the carnegie and other things and if you walk into the carnegie and see the the furniture or see the bookcases a lot of them were bought with the foundation money the foundation is a private um that exists because the person who provided the money for the foundation wanted to maintain the Carnegie, which is every now and then, I'd say misguidedly under assault from the city as not being an addition to the city, which we think is an addition to the city. But my primary interest now is to wave the flag around a little bit and say the foundation is here to help and wants people to know that and wants to know the extent to which we help. In addition to which, the foundation is running special programs, art programs, history programs, walk programs and things like that throughout the year to encourage the use of the Carnegie and also to have a good time. So separately from that, I'm going to invite you all to the next event, which is a musical instrument petting zoo, wherein you can come and be a bass player or a hammer dulcimer player. We will have all those instruments at the Carnegie at 11 o'clock July 11th, 2026, at the downtown Carnegie 302 Southwest Ferry, and I'm out of time. So thank you for your time and your interest tonight.

Thank you very much. Next on tonight's agenda is seven ordinances A and resolutions and three or two other resolutions. Next on tonight's agenda is an item of for consideration adopting the ordinance amending the Charter 2.08 of the Albany Municipal Code relating to nomination and election of officers. Does the staff have a report?

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Eric Glover, City Recorder, just for the record. In your packet tonight is a proposed package of amendments to the Albany Municipal Code. This particular chapter relates to candidate elections, so City Council. In 1958, the city passed Ordinance 2799, which established our elections deadlines as August 5th and August 20th, and they've remained that way since that time. There's been some relatively recent changes to Oregon election law, specifically House Bill 4024, that provided a whole suite of changes to campaign finance committee rules and election rules in the state. One big change that came out of that is that incumbent filers for, in our case, city council have to file one week sooner than new filers, which also includes appointed candidates. And with this particular change, it would result in a very compressed filing period for us, given, again, we have a filing deadline of August 5th to August 20th. So in our case, that would be August 13th and August 20th, with how it stands right now. Under the proposed changes of this new ordinance, incumbents would have approximately 18 days and non-incumbents would have approximately 25 days. Each year, the Oregon Secretary of State releases an elections calendar. The calendar establishes elections deadlines for all aspects of elections in Oregon. Staff is proposing to adopt the Oregon Secretary of State calendar for candidate filing deadlines for general elections. This helps to ensure consistency between city code and state law and provide one set of deadlines for candidates. Staff is also proposing to modernize the AMC with an amendment to the newspaper notice requirement. This notice was initially added in 1958, again with ordinance number 2799, and has had various amendments in 1992 and 2012. Since that time, the range of communication platforms that the public uses have changed. There is no requirement in state law requiring newspaper notice for the opening of candidate filing periods. Newspaper legal notices, in addition, can be quite expensive with a staff estimate of around $1,000 to $2,000 per election. Staff is proposing to retain the AMC requirement to physically post the legal display case or bulletin board within City Hall. Additionally, it seems as a matter of practice that posting could take place at other public facing facilities, which might include the Albany Public Library and Riverfront Community Center. In addition, press releases could be distributed to the media distribution list and across the municipal social media platforms shortly before or upon the candidate's filing period opening. A big thing with this language incorporates the new state mandated filing deadline for incumbent candidates while clarifying that individuals appointed to an elective office are not subject to the incumbent filing deadline. Overall, this package of changes is intended to expand access to the candidate filing process, provide clarity in elections deadlines, and assure alignment with state law while maintaining clear and enforceable deadlines. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Two questions. Councillor Smith. Can new candidates file during the incumbent filing period?

Yes, they can.

Okay.

Yeah, so there is no separate filing period for incumbents or new filers. What it is, it's a different deadline. So under this proposed ordinance, it would open on August 1st and close, in our case, based upon state law, would be August 25th. would be the last possible day. That would be for new filers, and incumbents would be seven days quicker than that, which would be August 18th. But I mean, if a new filer came in and wanted to provide us their completed elections paperwork on the second of August, they could certainly do so.

Okay, thank you. So, Councilor Newton and then Councilor McLeod, Councilor McLeod had something? Okay.

So, two things. One, it'd be really cool if we could look into also including a city-run voter pamphlet.

County, yeah.

Well, because sometimes I just think that that would be great, especially since we have maybe some folks, like for my ward, I file in two counties for voter pamphlet statements. And then also I'm wondering with this, as we know, Ward 1 is the most populated by like couple thousand people. Ward one has the most constituents. Ward two has the fewest. Ward three, you're catching up, girl. What you guys are. But if, you know, suggestion, carve out, I forget what precinct it is. Yeah, if we could look into more boundaries to more easily... you know, balance things out. Like if we took the Hackleman District, add that to, that's one precinct, add that to Ward 2. I'm not sure if we've looked into potentially, you know, rebalancing things, but it would be just a suggestion.

So let me get the hearing first, and then we'll go to the council discussion. Cool beans. Thank you. Does any other staff have questions, please?

I just kind of went off on a tangent. Following the 2030 census, jurisdictions will have the chance to rebalance their election divisions, wards, districts, whatever it may be. And I just think we should just kind of hone to that process.

That is when we normally do it. Yeah. After the census.

And I don't know how long after the census, but a period after the 2030 census, that will happen. The rebalancing will happen.

Thank you. So I might be reading this incorrectly, but it looks like there might be a typo on page 101 of the packet under the section that says filing nominations. It says nominations shall be filed on and after August 5th and before 5 p.m. on August 20th of each year of the biennial election.

You just mentioned the first.

Isn't that what we're changing?

So we are. We are establishing the elections deadline as August 1st, and then whatever the deadline is as set by state law. What is that? Which in this case, it's August 25th for new filers, and it's August 18th for incumbents.

But then it looks like page 101 of the packet should be corrected. Correct.

Okay, I'll take a look at that. I do know that our existing code chapter was added in there as well. I don't know if that might be that attachment, but I'll look at it.

Right. This is the only place it looks like where it shows the old dates.

Okay.

Okay. We haven't put out all the questions from council. Does the city council wish to discuss the ordinance?

I think this makes a lot of sense.

Yeah.

I think that leaving it the way that it is would put a really tight deadline, especially on incumbents, but also I favor a more expansive deadline for everybody that this provides anyway.

Okay. All right. There's an ordinance for your consideration on page 96 of the council packet. Will the city attorney please read the ordinance in title only?

An ordinance amending Chapter 2.08 of the Albany Municipal Code relating to nomination and election of officers.

Okay. Is there a motion to read the ordinance a second time in title only? So moved.

Second.

Excuse me. I have a motion and a second. Will the city recorder please do a roll? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Thank you. Will the city recorder please do a roll call vote?

Councilor McGee?

Aye.

Councilor Newton?

Yep.

Councilor Thompson? Yes. Councilor Van Drimelen?

Yes.

Councilor McLeod?

Aye.

Councilor Smith?

Yes.

Motion passes. Six to nothing. So will the city attorney please read the ordinance a second time on title only?

An ordinance amending chapter 2.08 of the Albany Municipal Code relating to nomination and election of officers.

Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance?

Mr. Mayor, as a point of order, just as a reminder, if your intention is to call for a roll call vote, regardless, you don't have to take the voice vote first. You can just direct the city recorder to do a roll call. It's more efficient. Okay.

Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance?

I'll move.

Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor?

Sir, I think the motion needs to include the corrections that I requested.

Who made the motion?

If I can comment on that. It looks like what is before us there, from page 101 through 103, that's the existing ordinance.

And we're changing it to the first to the 25th.

Changing it to what's in the staff report. Right.

Yeah. But it had reference to what we're changing.

Yeah. Okay. So that does not need to be.

Yeah. So page 97 through 100 is what's being adopted.

Yeah. Thank you for that clarification. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't something that needed to be corrected.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

That was it.

Okay, thank you. Motion and second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Thank you, motion passes. Okay, next item on the agenda. is a resolution, award of the contract for W-26-03-Charlie Charlie, North Albany Water Pump Station Study in the amount of $67,500, Nolan Nelson and Stacey Belcastro, pages 104 to 108 in your packet.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Councilors. For this item, staff is requesting that council approve a contract with RH2 Engineering. This is for pre-design in the amount of $67,505 for pre-design services for the North Albany Water Pump Station. The 2024 Water Master Plan identified replacing the North Albany Pump Station as a high priority This was due to capacity, seismic, and condition concerns. Funds to complete the design and construction of the new pump station is included in this biennial budget, and the project is also identified in the current capital improvement program. A request for proposals was publicly advertised for design services, and we received five proposals in response. A review committee consisting of engineering and operations staff along with procurement evaluated the proposals and determined that RH2 engineering provided the most qualified and complete proposal. This pre-designed contract normally would not require council approval because the amount is under the $250,000 threshold. However, council approval now allows staff the flexibility to continue working with RH2 on future phases without having to go out for another request for proposal. So after the pre-design is complete and we select the preferred alternative, staff will be coming back to Council with the cost proposal that RH2 will develop for that preferred alternative to get Council's approval to move forward. So we are recommending that Council approve this contract with RH2 Engineering. Are there any questions?

Councilor Thomson.

Yeah, so you mentioned the 2024 water master plan identified this need and you listed some areas, including capacity. So what did it look like whenever we had a previous water master plan identified?

The previous master plan was completed in 2004, and so at that time it didn't identify a need to increase the capacity of the .

So my question is, is this need driven by new growth between 2004 and today? And if so, I think a large part of this should be paid for by SDC charges. But I don't know how you pay for, I don't know where the funding comes from, but that's just my.

Yeah, the project is funded from water capital funds. It would be eligible to be funded partially from systems development charges, but we don't have SDC funds to cover the costs.

We don't have SDC funds because they're used elsewhere and we just don't have?

Currently, with the level of SDC funds that we collect, it's able to cover debt payments. And there's really no funds left over to cover projects that would be eligible.

Just as a side note for future reference, I know our SDC, the various charges, one or two of them are not at the maximum allowed by the state legislature. Is water one of them?

I forget what. I believe so. I would need to talk with. Okay, just something to think about, yeah.

Anyone else? Okay, council, is there a motion?

I move to award the contract as specified in the packet. Second. Is there a motion and a second? Any discussion further?

Okay, with that, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Thank you. Motion passes. Next, item C, 7C, resolution, request the city water service for a property outside of the urban growth boundary. Juan Carlos Orozco and Luz Maria Lopez, 4714 Spring Hill Drive. Stacey Belcastro and Aaron Heimstra will be speaking today.

It's just me again.

Page 109 to 118 in your packet.

Okay, so this memo, I guess first I want to point out that I believe Mr. Orozco and Ms. Lopez are attendance along with their representative Candace, I can't remember her last name, but they are are attending the meeting. The memo and the attachments provide information on the request for city water service outside the urban growth boundary that was submitted by the owners of the property at 4714 Spring Hill Drive and The existing well on the property is 385 feet deep and it went dry at the time the owners purchased the property. For the past two years, they have been getting water from their neighbors by running garden hoses between the two residences and more recently, my understanding is they've had to rely on trucking water offsite from family members that live elsewhere. The owners have worked with a local well drilling company to pursue replacing their well and they were advised that drilling a new well on their property would not be a reliable or a practical option. And we did include a letter from the well drilling company with the council memo. City policy generally does not allow extending water service outside the urban growth boundary unless approved by city council. If council approves the water service, then the owners will be responsible for all costs, permits, and easements. And after installation of the water service, they would become city of Albany water customers. And then there's a 10% surcharge on properties that are located outside the urban growth boundary. Staff is asking council to consider approving this request for water service outside the UGB. We have provided a sample resolution that council could adopt by motion, and the resolution defines the conditions that staff would recommend council approve the request under.

OK. Councillor Smith. Question.

How far? This looks like it's going to be a long water line. How far is it?

I don't have that information. I know I've measured it, but, I mean, we've looked at it with operations, and so it's definitely doable.

It's a long way outside the other growth boundary.

Oh, yeah. It's between Countryman Circle and Spring Hill Drive. Yeah.

So using the City of Albany's Info Hub GIS, I can actually approximately measure, now this is from the nearest line to their property line, so I don't know if this would actually be the engineered route, but that's about 250 feet. Okay.

Wow, that's a long water line. Council, any other discussion, any questions?

Thank you. So just for clarification, is this going to cost the city any money?

I mean, water distribution actually supports the installation. It's going to help with water flow on the outer service areas. And so it's It shouldn't because the water main that they're tying to, we're already maintaining, and the city doesn't maintain private water services. So there shouldn't be any additional cost.

Thank you. So question, going future-wise, say somebody else says, well, they have water. would they cover their portion of it? Because they weren't gonna try to tap in possibly to the same, their water line. So would they pay them to tap in or would the city cover that? How would that work?

If somebody else wanted to, I mean, it would be a case by case basis, they wouldn't be able to tap into the private water service and extend it to another lot.

Okay, that's all. I want to make sure that they're paying for their water, nobody else's, basically. Okay, thank you. Councilor Thompson?

Yeah, could you guesstimate how many potential, how many folks are in that area that could come up with a similar problem at some point in there and look at this and say, well, I'm going to ask the same thing?

We have a map that we actually use to assess these properties. So a lot of the properties that have frontage on these water lines that were constructed outside the UGB, formally managed by the North Albany County Water District, we have a policy where the lot as it existed when Albany took over the system is allowed one service. So we follow that policy, and then on a case-by-case basis, we have to evaluate the other ones. Generally, unless it's a hardship, in the past council hasn't approved additional services, but that's not to say that it couldn't happen.

Yeah. So since they get a water bill, would they be getting the city service fee?

I don't know. I know they do get an additional 10% charge on top of what somebody located within the UGB is charged, but I don't know about the city service fee.

We'll check on that, but I don't think they get assessed a city service fee outside the city.

If anything, the cost and the 10% surcharge, wow, much better than a hose and trucking and water. So I don't want to prematurely say this, but welcome to the city of Albany water.

Yeah, it seems like this qualifies as a hardship, especially if their lot is not a good candidate for drilling another well. They don't really have a plausible alternative.

I've been watching water... feverishly over the whole country. And my home, San Joaquin Valley and the Imperial Valley, there are water tables shrinking. And San Joaquin Valley in 20 years has dropped 25 feet. It's not good at all. Anyway, so council, we have a resolution in front of us. What would you like to do?

I'll move to adopt the resolution on page 117. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this topic? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no. Thank you, council.

Unlimited hot showers. Imagine. Thank you.

It's the next item on your agenda, item 8D, or 7 Delta, adoption by motion, contract award, ST-26-03, Hill Street Overlay. Wait, wait, wait. Hill Street already?

Mm-hmm.

Hill Street Overlay, Highway 99E. to Queen Avenue Roy Houck Construction LLC to pave an asphalt overlay and construction storm drain pipes in the amount of $1,413,000. Stacey Belcastro and Chris Serlowski. Page 119.122 in your packet.

All right.

I remember getting yelled at standing on the corner of that Queen Hill because the road was taking so long to get put in. Time flies.

Yes, it does. So staff is requesting council award a contract in the amount of $1,413,897.50 to Roy Houck Construction to construct the Hill Street overlay project. We received three bids for this project ranging from the low bid up to 1.56 million The engineer's estimate was $1.5 million. So that's what we really like to see. All the bids were within 10% of each other, which means that the plans were clear and the contractors were seeing the same thing. So this project includes repaving Hill Street from Pacific Boulevard to Queen Avenue. This section of Hill Street was reconstructed in 2004 which it doesn't seem like it, but that was 22 years ago. We paid for it.

I specifically remember standing on the corner of Queenie Hill getting yelled at about the curves and all that stuff that were being done, and they had to put the new road down. So, wow.

22 years?

No, it wasn't 22 years ago. I was on council.

It could have been the southern, yeah, the south end.

Okay, that's probably, I'm like, well, I'm confused. I drove the road today. I'm like, the paint's still nice. I mean... Okay, I'm sorry.

So this section of Hill Street was reconstructed with the last of the proceeds from the 1998 general obligation bond. Constructing an overlay at this point will preserve the pavement at the lowest long-term lifecycle cost. This project also includes construction of about 1,000 feet of storm drain pipe. on 12th Avenue from where 12th Avenue intersects Hill Street west to Lafayette Street. These streets lack drainage and experience frequent flooding. Construction of these storm drain pipes was identified in the Stormwater Master Plan. The street improvements will be funded from the Street Capital Fund, and the storm drain improvements will be funded from the Stormwater Capital Fund. These projects are both identified in the current capital improvement program and are budgeted in the biennial budget. So the memo does identify that the project is over budget by approximately $355,000. This overage is primarily attributed to the storm drain improvements. There are adequate reserves in the stormwater fund to cover this overage. And additionally, the Front Street storm drain project, which was just completed, we saw a cost savings of $200,000 on that project, which will help offset this overage. So staff's recommendation is that council approve the contract.

Council? I have one comment. This is an example of keeping good roads good. I've seen comments online about how that street looks great already, why are they wasting money there? Well, they're wasting money there because it's not a waste, it's a preventive measure, and that street gets a lot of traffic, and we want the traffic to be smoothly carried from one end to the other.

Any other discussion, questions for staff? Now that I know where you're at, because I remember there was the other side of it, so yeah. So we have a motion.

I move to award the contract as stated in the packet. Sorry, I don't have the page number in front of me.

Okay. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this topic? Thank you, council. All those in favor say yes or aye. Aye. Aye. Those in favor say no. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Next is business from the council. I'll start with Ward 2 first, and then we'll go to Ward 3 and then Ward 1. No, Ward 1 went last last time.

We went last last time, yeah.

Okay, so we'll start with Ward 2, Ward 1, and Ward 3. Councilor McLeod.

Thank you. Happy Pride Month, Albany. Pride Month is about recognizing the dignity and safety that every person deserves, and it's also about listening to the lived experiences of residents who continue to push for inclusion and understanding. And I just wanted to... SAY HAPPY PRIDE MONTH TO EVERYONE CELEBRATING. ALSO, A COMMENT ON THE REQUEST FOR CITY WATER SERVICE FOR PROPERTY OUTSIDE THE URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY. I ALSO WANTED TO SAY THAT CLEAN WATER IS A NECESSITY FOR HUMANS EVERYWHERE, AND I'M GLAD THAT WE ARE ABLE TO ASSIST IN THIS SITUATION. THAT'S ALL I HAVE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. COUNSELOR VAN DREMELEN?

YEAH. I did not come prepared for this, but I did want to point out that so bad news first. Last time I pulled a data apportionment on Albany's wards, it does look like as of 2025 estimates, Ward 3 may have pulled ahead.

What? Yeah. Oh, yes.

I could have told you that. I had no idea. I was going off of like the 2022, I think, 2022.

Yeah, using 2025 numbers, it may be as many as a couple thousand people ahead.

Okay, I'll quit my kvetching.

That's not to say that you're not still much more populous than Ward 2. So still got that going for you. So the one thing that I wanted to bring before the council tonight in all seriousness, I would like to see this council talk about the transportation utility fee again. After our discussion about what to do about the gas tax measure, I gave a great deal of thought to what we talked about in relation to the local fuel tax and particularly counselor smith's comments related to the street maintenance fee or transportation utility fee or. communities in Oregon call it various different things and having done a bit of a dive into the data, as I am want to do. There are a number of communities that use this to fund particularly local street maintenance. It won't be a surprise to anyone that I pulled the city's water meter layer from our endpoints to get a rough number of how many utility customers or utility accounts that might be applied to and just. Just from a rough perspective, so Philomath, right down the road, has a street maintenance fee of $875 per residential account. And if one were to apply that in Albany across our just under 20,000 utility accounts on a flat basis even, which is not something that I'm advocating doing, but I also like to keep my math simple, That would raise just over $2 million a year for local street maintenance. It's a far cry from the $12 million a year for the next 40 years that we would need to bring things out of the red, at least based on the numbers that we were last quoted. But it's something. Any revenue stream would be a start. And I don't feel great about the idea of waiting until 2028 to even float a local fuel tax and wait for that to get an up or down to do something. This is an issue that when I came onto this council, folks from all parts of the political spectrum asked me, what are you going to do about the streets? And since I've come on the council, I've tried very hard to listen more than I talk, and sometimes that's hard for me. But listening to the community and what folks are saying, they're continually talking about the streets. And so what I would like to request is that the public works staff bring this issue back before us because I remember a conversation that we had to the effect of what would your priorities be for a street maintenance fee? What could that look like in terms of how that's distributed across different types of locations, residential, single-family, multifamily, and then the various type and number of buckets that we could divide non-residential into. I would like to see that come before us again. I would like to take a look at that before the end of this calendar year, to be perfectly honest. I think that... gas tax is or should be a resource with a revenue source with a limited useful life as our economy transitions off of fossil fuels. And gas prices are already high. And people in the community are also saying that. And while I acknowledge that placing a 5 cent or a 7 and 1 half cent or a 10 cent local fuel tax at the pump pales in comparison to the two plus dollar shift that we've seen because of the global oil market that has nothing to do with anything that we do in this chamber, um, or rather we can't directly affect that. Um, Folks are already painfully aware of what they're paying at the pump. I'd also like to point out that there are places around Albany that have no local fuel tax, and their gas is consistently higher priced than ours. And it has nothing to do with fuel taxes, but it doesn't always make sense. I think that treating the streets as a public utility that folks benefit from, whether they drive on with a personal vehicle or not, does make a certain amount of sense. And the recent debacle with the state transportation package just reaffirms to me something that I said from the very beginning, where we need to expect a self-rescue. Nobody's coming to save us. We can and we should do this. So I move that staff bring the street maintenance fee back before us with potential plausible options.

I don't think we need to vote. I think you just give a thumbs up. Oh, sure, yeah. If that's... Did I give you that direction?

Yes, we'll get it calendared.

Thank you. I did have a question. I like the proposal. I like the idea of that. Will we index it to inflation or to set it to the flat number?

I mean, that would be a decision for the whole council to make. But if I were the king of street maintenance, I would recommend that we index to inflation the same way that we do with the city services fee. Because my take on it is that we're doing future... City Councils and the city staff a disservice by not indexing it because we know costs will rise in the future. I think that that has to do with being honest with our constituents about what things cost to run a city. And while like I'm a paying utility customer in the city of Albany as well, and I don't like seeing my bill go up, but I also like seeing the services be provided and work correctly. And I think that as far as the streets go, people are fed up with the status quo.

I agree. I think we all agree. Some level. Okay, we have direction, staff. Are you done, sir? Yes. Councilor Newton.

One thing to piggyback on there, as you all know, I'm not a fan of the street maintenance fee. But if we're going to be bringing this back, there's something I mentioned previously, which was to do research on a prepared foods tax to fund the roads instead of a street maintenance fee or prepared foods fee.

Utilities.

It's based... I can send you over the documentation on it, but I wanted to see that research done as it would be applicable to the city of Albany. But I'll forward that over to you, Mr. Trotson. Okay, but first, a few things. I'm sorry, guys. Buckle up. No worries. I wanna quickly follow up on a few ideas from the Albany Civic Leadership. I just wanna reiterate, I want staff to look into the feasibility of the text messaging alert system for city communications, whether, and also, I brought this idea up a little bit ago, but whether there'd be an opportunity to provide like a welcome postcard with maybe, or a resource guide whenever there's a new utility account opened with information like maybe about city services or ways to get involved, something like that. I'd also appreciate some future conversation about staffing support, maybe for Coffee with a Counselor. I thought that was a great idea, as well as an overview of those accessibility concerns. I just want to make sure we're getting those on the docket. Donate answers tonight. Appreciate having those come back later. Second, I... thought a lot about our meeting on Monday and about what we heard from folks in Ward 2 and kind of the pain points with 53rd. So as we all know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? I would So we heard everyone about the traffic impacts when we add over 100 new apartments with that in mind, I would love for staff to evaluate whether there may be an opportunity to acquire the Snyder easement. or right away needed for future lane expansion on 53rd it doesn't mean we have to expand it right away, but have it in our back pocket, I think we'd be able to get like a smoking deal on it now. cheaper to buy it now and also show good faith effort towards the constituents on 53rd and say, hey, we hear you. Yes, we're going to be building a lot more out here. We can get an extra lane out here potentially in the future. So if future traffic conditions warrant additional capacity, we could build it, right? I think it'd be just much more cost effective to secure necessary property now rather than as additional development occurs, right? So if staff could look into that and see a practical path forward, I would appreciate that. Third, thank you, Bill, for coming tonight and for chatting with me yesterday. You caught me power washing my kids' play structure. for council to let you guys all in on our conversation. So we had an opportunity to chat with Mr. Root and I also had a chance to email with Manny earlier regarding this matter. So as council heard earlier from his public comment, Mr. Root is facing a significant to the tune of $200,000 matter challenge related to a failing septic system and the requirement to connect to city sewer if that's needed. That cost is really a hardship. I was really glad to hear the update that AB Septic is planning to come out tomorrow. I'm excited to hear what they say, to take another look at the system. Hopefully there's gonna be, I know we talked maybe about if they have insurance to cover the failing, because they weren't able to properly seal it. If they have insurance that maybe cover the cost of maybe either repair or connection to the city water, I don't know. Hopefully we'll have some additional information from that about what's happening or if there's any alternatives. And I do understand staff's concerns relating or regarding to like setting a precedent and the fact that we do not currently have a funding source established for situations like this. However, I would really appreciate it if staff could explore whether there are any tools or options available that could help residents facing circumstances like these. Specifically, I would be interested in understanding whether there are any grant opportunities, low interest loan programs, utility financing mechanisms, assessment programs tied to the property, hardship deferral options or any other approaches that could help make sewer connections more affordable. I would also appreciate any review of whether there may be alternative ways to accomplish a connection at a lower cost. And I'm not asking everyone, I know that $200,000 is, Quite a lot of money. I'm not asking council right now to commit to funding or to take action tonight. Rather, I would just like us to better understand what options may exist, both for Mr. Root and for any future residents who may find themselves in a very similar situation. And Bill, thank you so much for bringing this issue forward. I'm really looking forward to continuing the conversation and seeing what we can do to help you guys out.

Okay, Councillor Smith. Thompson. Oh, sorry, Councillor Thompson, my bad.

You know, I didn't really have anything to say. I just want to jump in on this discussion about Mr. Ruth's property in North Albany, Valley View in North Albany, which is part of the city, always been part of the city. And so the question in my mind is, what was the cost many, many years ago when properties in that area, when North Albany was annexed, Is that just a one time? Did you get one chance to connect and you have no chance ever in the future? I mean, you certainly would not be the 1990 whatever number. You have to be indexed for inflation. But was that your one chance to connect to the back then?

I don't believe so, but I'd have to research it a bit more. But from what I heard, he was told that it would cost the $200,000 to connect. So you can do it. It's just a question of the pretty high cost to the property owner to make that happen.

I'd be curious what it was back then. It must have been high back then, too. Yeah, anything that we can do, liens on the house to make it, that's a huge number. And to me, a distinction between a family facing hardship, I understand, but a family, a property outside the UGB versus someone who has always been within the city is a big distinction.

I have to point out that the family outside will pay all the costs associated with the water service.

True, and I think we're trying to figure out ways to alleviate the cost for Ms. Rohrer any way we can, and so I'm supportive of that.

That's it. Okay, Councillor Smith.

I want to thank Councillor von Dremelin for bringing up my favorite topic and apologize for my snarky tone in describing the upcoming overlay to Hill Street. It is such a... common refrain in online in person in the grocery store in my dreams everywhere I go and everything I read in here is fix the streets anytime we spend money on anything it's fix the streets instead can't you fix the streets I've been hearing it for six years and And I want us to take this step and move forward and get something done. Anything is gonna help. And $2 million just sounds like a birthday present to me. And that won't be the final number, of course, but it's equitable. The people who are are paying for prepared foods to be delivered to their house will be paying this fee. if and when, and I hope we do, get this going before the end of the year. One other item I wanted to bring up today, and it's a little thing, but it's a neighborhood livability thing. I have had concerns from two constituents in the last couple of years about storage pods being rented and placed in people's driveways. The development code says they can't be there for any longer than 30 days. They stay there for however long. The most current one I had a complaint about today has been there six months. And it's okay if they're used for temporary storage for a temporary period of 30 days or less, but this is an extension of the house. The property already has storage buildings in the backyard and they're full. And this is just an extension of the house. I think when it gets to the beyond 30 days stage, There are options that are probably cheaper than having a pod in your driveway. There are storage units everywhere. All over town, there are storage units. And the request from the person I... That's Marilyn's opinion, so let's move on. The request from the person I spoke to today was, can we... Can we cross-reference this in the municipal code? She spoke to APD earlier about what the rules were and so on, and two different people who she spoke to didn't know. And that's because that's in the development code, and they don't enforce the development code. Code compliance does, but that's one person, and there's been a transition in that position, and Not everybody knows all the codes that we deal with all the time. Just something to let people know that you put it in the livability section of the municipal code or just a link to where it is in the development code to let people know because it is an issue around town. Okay, I'm going to say this. I've been just putting this off for so long. On my way down here tonight, we're coming down Washington Street and there was a pickup ahead of us and the pickup pulled across the other lane over to the curb and parked. facing oncoming traffic. I see this in my neighborhood and all over town all the time. There's a street not far from me that has seven cars that park on one side of the street and five of them are facing the wrong way every day. It's against the law. It's unsafe. That's why it's against the law. And I don't know how we change that behavior. It's a chippy thing to give somebody a ticket for parking on the wrong way on the street, but it's dangerous. And I just wish there was some way we could tell people, we don't do that here, and this is why. That's my, I got it off my chest, I'm done.

Councilor McGee, thank you. Two things. One, had a constituent reach out about the smell that is happening yet again with ATI over in Ward 3. There were smells like cat piss. They sent me a couple of emails. I did get some email back from Kayla last year from what they said last year. But this... I don't know. Some people are worried that even though they're saying that it's not anything to worry about health-wise, older people in my ward have been reaching out about feeling suffocated around their allergies or their throat or just the smell. So I don't know what it is that ATI needs to do or what language we need to have or what needs to happen over there. But every year this happens. And this year, I'm getting more and more emails. So if we could get something about what is happening over there. I know the season is changing. I know that it's getting hotter. But it is affecting folks in my ward. So please get something from them so I can be able to tell them. And not a statement that they've sent previously. We need some updated information about what they're trying to do or what they are doing over there. Number two, I think it would be very beneficial for the council to have some type of parliamentarian procedure refresher. I remember when Allison was our city recorder, she came, she was on the agenda, gave us kind of that refresher. I think it would be very important to do that, as well as a review of our charter, specifically key things that we need to know, as well as information regarding the council manual. All of that is continued professional development that we as counselors should have and should know and should be aware of. So I think it would be beneficial to us at some point to get that information on an agenda.

Thank you very much for that. And I echo the street maintenance utility fee. I think that's something we should bring back and talk about. And I've heard things about ATI, the smell already, because I have people out there. But I did something this week that, with the Infra-Ober-Mare contest, this kid, the second grade class at South Shore Elementary called and asked me to come. My eastern right was here earlier. And I went out and spent two hours with those young folks and those kids had some great ideas. I wish the program was before the fourth grade mark, but the kids had great ideas and they actually have letters for the school board and the things they'd like to see changed at their school. Before the pandemic, they were using stainless or steel utensils. Well, now they're using single-use plastic, and they're concerned about that. And the kitchen still has the machines and stuff to wash the dishes. So I'm going to deliver those on Friday. The very first school I went to when I became a city counselor, Lafayette Elementary School, they had their fifth-grade promotion. So I've known these children since they were in the first grade. and they had their fifth grade promotion today, and they invited me to watch them parade and attend the graduation. It was really sweet to be invited to Lafayette. The Mennonite Village, I think several of us here attended that groundbreaking. I think it was a lot of fun. There's a lot of great work going out there, so please enjoy working with them. And if they have questions for you, please respond in a timely manner. And then Simpson Timber Area, is that correct?

It's a Simpson property. It's a private property.

I've gotten a lot of emails regarding that property, a lot of emails, text messages, and phone calls. So I'll be talking about those tomorrow with you, and we'll figure out what messaging we're going to put out. Other than that, that's all I have. Sir, would you give your report?

I'VE COME AWAY WITH A LOT OF THINGS TO LOOK INTO AFTER TONIGHT'S MEETING, BUT ONE THING I WANTED TO BRING TO YOUR ATTENTION IS YOU DO HAVE A STREET MAINTENANCE FEE. IT'S ON THE BOOKS. IT WAS PASSED IN 2024. IT'S IN 14.30 OF THE CODE. And it does say, and I'll quote from that code, that the rate for street maintenance fee shall be established by city council resolution. So at this point, it's zero. It also says, several of you expressed an interest, that the rate of the street maintenance fee shall be adjusted annually for inflation as determined by the city council. So that work has been done, it's there, but it requires now the council to have a discussion about a rate. And we will, Public Works Director Trombino will bring back further discussion on that. We'll get that on the calendar for you. And it'll include the discussion about a fuel tax as well. Other discussion, because you have had many discussions.

Yes, we have. And that's all I have. Thank you very much. I'm really happy to tell you this. Next meeting, item 10, next meeting is Monday, June 22nd. I'll be 61 years old that day at 4 p.m. And Wednesday, June 24th, 26th at 6 p.m. for city council meeting. The meeting is adjourned.