City Council - Regular Meeting

Order. Will the recorder call the roll? Councilor Duggar?

I am here.

Councilor Hartmeyer Prigg? Here. Councilor Hassan?

Here.

Councilor Kimmy?

Here.

Councilor Teeter? Here. Councilor Tivnan? Here.

Mayor Beatty? Here. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you for that. I do see we have an honorary deputy member with us today in the back wearing a helmet. So when he comes up here to present, if you need someone to hold him, I'll volunteer as tribute as long as everyone else in the room as well. It's always a good day in council when there's young people. What I appreciate about being the mayor here is the the focus on family and making sure that our kids are visible in public spaces. So thanks Jocelyn for bringing him and if your topic doesn't go well, just blame him and walk out.

It's great. Alright. We have a hefty light agenda today. We have an action item. The first thing that you will witness is the election of the council president that we do at the first meeting in January. We have visitor comments for those that are pre registered. We have a presentation about the county's housing service annual report, a very intensive, consent agenda, an ordinance first reading and work session. So with that, we'll jump in. Tonight for the election of the council president, do we have a nomination? Councilor Teeter, first in the chat.

Yes, mayor. I'd like to nominate Councilor Duggar for council president.

I think we we typically ask if you'd like that nomination, but I'll take the thumbs up as yes. Do we have a second? Second. Oh, a three way fight. I'm gonna go ahead and give it to Edward as the the current council president. So it was moved by councilor Teeter, seconded by council President. Are there any other nominations for the floor this evening? Seeing none, will the recorder call the roll?

Councilor Duggar. Yes. Councilor Hartmeier Prigg. Yes. Councilor Hassan? Yes. Councilor Kimmy? Yes. Councilor Teeter? Yes. Councilor Tivnan? Yes. Mayor Beatty? Yes. Seven yes, zero no. Motion carries.

Alright. I am just, if you are a fan of local government, it took the city of Portland, I think 17 rounds to do what we did in one. So congratulations, Council President. Yeah. All right, We are on to visitor comments this evening. As a reminder, visitor comments is an essential part of local government business. However, to help us stay compliant with Oregon's open meeting log, this is not a time for dialogue. This is a time for us to listen. If follow-up is required, our city manager or our clerk

will take down notes and do it

from there. So first up on deck is Stacy and then followed by Alexis. All right, next will be David Anderson.

Hello, everyone. My name is David Anderson. I'm a long time resident of Beaverton and a local business owner. I want to state that this is not about politics. It is about due process. I'm here today to ask that you take action in response to unlawful ICE activities in Beaverton. On 11/01/2025, a pickup truck was barricaded in the parking lot outside of my business by two unmarked vehicles. They had no front license plates, but their rear rear license plates were the same. Three armed and masked men exited the vehicles and detained the driver of the pickup, zip tying his hands and placing him in one of their vehicles before leaving the parking lot at unsafe speeds. The young man is a United States citizen and was held for twenty three minutes before being released several blocks away.

During the incident, ICE agents told a witness that they could keep his pickup, sell it, or tow it, and that they didn't care what was done with it. All of this was captured on our security cameras and has been provided to Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. Additionally, on 12/23/2025, a member of our community was threatened by more than six ICE agents while standing on the public sidewalk outside the Beaverton Police Department. A video about this incident was posted online, including to the Beaverton subreddit that city councilors have said they used to keep a pulse on the community. Therefore, I'm assuming you've all seen this video and have already discussed it amongst yourselves.

In January 2017, Beaverton City Council voted unanimously to declare this a sanctuary city, which among other things prevents local resources from being used to enforce federal immigration law. Why were ICE vehicles parked in the Beaverton Police Department lot? Why were ICE agents standing in the lot while threatening a member of the public? Doesn't this violate Beaverton's laws barring local police from supporting ICE activity? The abuse of force, violations of constitutional rights and laws, and threats against the public proves ICE is disregarding due process within the city.

Therefore, I ask you now, one, to compel Beaverton police to prevent ICE from any activities on city owned property, two, to compel Beaverton police to monitor ICE anytime it is on city owned property, Three, to compel Beaverton police to respond to and monitor ICE activities when requested by the public to ensure due process is being followed. And four, to compel Beaverton police to issue citations or arrest ICE agents when laws are broken. As a sanctuary city, words are not enough. This is an opportunity for our city to ensure its residents are given due process and respectful treatment. Our city needs your strong leadership now more than ever.

If this is not possible, then what is the purpose of Beaverton declaring itself a sanctuary city at all? Thank you for your time.

Alright. Next up, Angelique. She's online? Okay. Dave Honeycutt. Online? Okay. Can you promote him?

Can you hear me, mayor?

Yes, please.

Alright. I'm sorry. I can't find my I can't find my video button on my but that's okay. You don't need to see me. Dave Honeycutt.

I am a land use attorney in King City. I represent a number of the property owners on Cooper Mountain here today to express concerns with item 6.4 on your consent agenda, the staff proposal to update your engineering and design manual for street widths in Cooper Mountain. There are a number of concerns that that those of us that work on the development side have with this proposal. We're not we're certainly not asking the council to to stop the proposal. Just asking for a little additional time at first for the direction to work with staff to to work with the engineers on the for the property owners and and on the development side to make the to make necessary changes that I think will increase the housing units that that the city wants to build in Cooper Mountain.

The staff memo has some inconsistencies with the proposed cross sections and really the what the ordinance what the proposed ordinance tries to do a resolution is establish new cross sections in the engineering and design manual that are specific to Cooper Mountain. There are inconsistencies between the memo and what the what the proposed changes will will result in. The streets that are being proposed, for example, your collector streets are actually wider under the proposal by 12 feet, which is significant than the arterials. The width the width, which is which is significant when combined with these significant natural resource areas that exist on Cooper Mountain and and are really off not completely off limits, but severely limited on for development will greatly reduce the buildable land that you have up there, and it will require projects that we're afraid won't pencil. That means not that means either less or no housing, which doesn't serve serve any of us well at all.

The housing should remain the priority. The maintenance costs by by requiring such large streets, both actually, all of the proposed streets, but your arterials and collectors, particularly the maintenance cost to the city will be significant. You'll have to raise your SDCs to cover the increased maintenance cost. And, of course, the construction cost for all the projects up there will also increase significantly to offset the cost to construct the street. So this is gonna cost the city significantly more to maintain.

It'll cost the builders more to build. And in the end, I think what you'll end up with is either projects that won't pencil or projects that the public doesn't want, both of which are concerning. So we just ask, we just ask the council to, direct staff to work, with, with engineers, and the and the property owners and the builders out there. Give us a little more time, and I'm sure we can work something out.

Alright.

You from there.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Mark?

Mayor. Congratulations, new Council President Duggar and the rest of the City Council. My name is Mark Farah. I'm with Metropolitan Land Group, and I'm here this evening on a similar note of your of the prior commenter, Mr. Honeycutt.

Cooper Mountain is coming to together. It's coming together nicely. Alyssa on City staff is doing a great job working this plan through. We've just got one thing here, on your consent agenda that we're requesting you pull from the consent agenda and ask staff to take another look, as Dave said, at the cross sections, of the streets is the primary concern that we're seeing in this proposal that you have on the consent agenda. And we feel like the expansion of the cross sections of streets at this point is, frankly, just unwarranted.

It would be nice to have larger sidewalks and larger bike paths on both sides of the roads, but we feel that the successful story that we see in South Cooper Mountain, where Metropolitan Land Group has been a partner developing lands there as well as other areas, other communities around, is a perfect way to look at how we can continue the success up on top on Cooper Mountain and, obviously, down in the lowlands of Cooper Mountain as well. So we just request respectfully that you pull that item from the consent agenda, direct staff to take another look at those cross sections and find out a way where we can continue the success that we have in South Cooper Mountain, not put more burdens on the developers and on the builders and the resulting costs that are going to naturally transfer through to not only the homebuyers in Cooper Mountain, but also the cities, Mr. Honeycutt commented on, the additional maintenance that's going to have to happen with additional infrastructure that is currently in those regulations. So, respectfully request that that get pulled, please direct staff to meet with builders and developers and try to see if we can right size this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mimi, I see is online. Alright. Mimi, go ahead.

My name is Mimi Ducas with AKS Engineering. I'm primarily here in support of the testimony from Mike Ferrer and Dave Honeycutt, if you if council had any questions. I did submit a detailed letter to staff outlining specifics on the concerns with cross sections. There's elements that have been introduced like a frontage zone, which is between the back of sidewalk and the right of way, which is unmaintained, undefined land, that we don't understand the purpose of. And it's it's using a great deal of additional land that could be put into production for homes, commercial uses, any other land uses that you want across the district.

As mister Honeycutt said, the cross sections for the collectors are very wide relative to arterials. A component of that is that it's a a continuous center turn and landscape median. That landscape median is going to be a long term cost to the city. I know council is sensitive to cost budgetary concerns, and infrastructure is a a significant responsibility and cost burden for the city long term. And a landscape median is nice, but it expands the distance pedestrians have to use to get across the street, and that landscape median has an extensive cost to it for maintenance.

So similar to mister Honeycutt and mister Ferrer, we'd like, to continue to work with staff to refine these cross sections before they are adopted by your counsel. Appreciate your time this evening.

Thank you, Paul. Go ahead, Paul.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Hi. My name is Paul Selke. I'm also kind of along I'm also at the AKS Engineering Forestry with Mimi. I'm also kinda here to support, and I answer technical questions from the engineering perspective as I'm a licensed engineer. So I kinda reiterate the same thing that Mark and Mimi and mister Hennecutt said that, the cross sections are very wide, especially, they create challenges on a steep slope like Cooper Mountain. So, I am here to support and answer any technical questions. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. That, concludes our public comment for today. We are going to move into presentation agenda bill two six zero zero one, Washington County Department of Housing Services.

Everyone hear me? Okay. I'll try that again. Good evening. I'm I'm Chad Stover. I'm the community services and homelessness program manager for the city of Beaverton, and I'm here tonight to introduce, two of my colleagues from Washington County who are gonna conduct the Washington County annual report for the Department of Housing Services. With me is Molly Rogers, she's the Executive Director of Housing Services, and Liz Morris, who's the Rent Assistant Division Manager. So without further ado, I will turn it over to them for their presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Beatty and the counselors. For the record, my name is Molly Rogers, and I'm the Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Washington County and the Department of Housing Services. I use sheher pronouns. Join tonight. We're really honored to join you tonight.

Talk about the accomplishments we've to the housing and homelessness crisis. There are accomplishments that we have only been able to achieve because of partners like the City of Beaverton, our other city partners, our dozens of community based. A lot of slides and information, so I'm hoping if there's questions, we can wait till the very end. Next slide. As a Department of Housing Services, we envision a Washington County where everyone has an affordable home with the supports and opportunities each of us needs to thrive.

In our work, our programs are dedicated to serving our mission, which is to create pathways out of homelessness, promote housing stability, and invest in affordable communities for Washington County and our residents. And it's important that we ground this work with the people whose lives we've changed as a result of these new housing and shelter opportunities. Here is Jasmine. Jasmine fled her home with two young kids, and she had just a teeny bit left in her bank account two years ago. A lot of times, people, when they're in their trenches, they want to give up.

Perseverance can get you where you need to be. I'm thrilled to share with you all that today, Jasmine is stably housed in a metro affordable housing bond apartment complex. And since then in housing, she was able to get her GED, and now she's pursuing a degree at PCC. So it's really truly a story of This slide encapsulates really a year in review. This is what we've been for fiscal year twenty four-twenty five.

It's an incredible array of data and metrics you see here, really highlighting the impact we have in achieving our mission. Number is, of a story of hope for the thousands of people, children, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and others who have been assisted in some way through shelter, housing, rental assistance, or supportive services. Overall, we served over 20,000 people across all of our business lines. And for context, that is about the size of the population of Sherwood. We also invested in 26 capital projects, really changing the infrastructure of our community, each in varying stages of financing and development in the last year.

And I did bring with me our a copy of our capital projects report that I'll leave here if you want to take a look of how we are changing how Washington County looks each day. It really shows how geographically diverse our affordable housing and homeless system of care is becoming. And the rest of these are metrics supporting the 20,700 of unduplicated folks. So, won't read all of these out loud, but I do want to make a note that the vast majority of those who are served were supported in long term rental assistance in permanent housing. So, that's really, truly successful.

That's truly the success we're trying to see here in our community. The first component of our mission is creating pathways out of homelessness, and I just want to applaud your mayor and all of you who have really taken this up and been on this journey with us in opening your first year round shelter that we all got to celebrate not too long ago. Truly an incredible milestone for Beaverton. My appreciation for all of you. So in Washington County, we divide the county up in nine geographically assigned outreach teams that really proactively catch people who are experiencing homelessness.

And last year, 80% of the folks who we found were supported by these teams in shelter, housing, or were reunited with their families. And, by note, Greater Good Northwest is your Beaverton's outreach provider. Last year, Tigard was really the first one out of the gate to open an access center, where people can go for showers, meals, services, navigation assistance,

and

as well, it will serve as an overflow for inclement weather. We're hoping to have all three more being planned in Cornelius, Hillsborough, and Beaverton. And, of course, our housing liaison program connects those who are experiencing homelessness identified by other systems, such as health care or community corrections, to housing and other supports, and last year, they assisted six eighty two households. Two core components of our essential homeless system of care are shelters and transitional housing, which are really meant to be temporary places of respite, where people can go to be warm, dry, safe, and to be able to heal, and really make a plan for permanent housing. Last year, we funded and maintained more than 400 shelter beds across Washington County.

As you recall, you opened, as I mentioned already, you opened your first year round shelter here, as well as one in Tigard. Hillsboro just broke ground on its own first year round, permanent shelter for adults and couples. These shelters are already making a difference. Just in one year, over 700 individuals moved from shelter to permanent housing. We also funded two transitional housing projects last year, one with a focus on mental health stabilization, the other focused on recovery, with close coordination with Washington County's newly opened PAT.

That's really exciting. We're now in the predevelopment and construction phases for those two. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Liz.

Thank you, Molly. Good evening, everyone. As Molly mentioned, my name is Liz Moore, sheher pronouns, and I'm the Rental Assistance Division Manager. I'm to transition into some of our housing stability. Next slide, please.

Starting us off with our rental assistance, what we are proud to do not only to serve so many people, we help impact economic with having partners, nearly 1,500 landlords, to provide that rental assistance, throughout the county. $89,000,000 are spent annually on those rental assistance, and with these funds, we are supporting over 5,300 families with long term rental support. 800 are being supported with short term support. So, hopefully, they cannot get into the long term need as they just might have that moment where they need some assistance. Of these, nineteen seventeen of those families out of the 5,300 are supported right here in Beaverton.

And over 2,000 households with eviction preventions received assistance so they can continue to live in their homes without having to go into our long term assistance system. We're also proud of our Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program, where we partner with the VA to serve nearly two fifty veteran families within Washington County, and over 30% of those veteran families are served here in Beaverton. We do have some federal cuts that we'll continue to monitor around this, like the sunset of one of the long term rental assistance programs, the Emergency Housing Voucher Program, is ending nearly four years earlier than we were told. Next slide, please. While we still have funding constraints, we appreciative of the local investments for that are more critical than ever.

As the government has recently decided to sunset that program, the Emergency Housing Voucher Program, we look to blending multiple sources so we can help support our community in many different ways. We also have those landlord partnerships with the Housing Choice Voucher. It is a huge, large housing ecosystem that provides guaranteed payments to landlords so they can support for other people who might be in their properties not receiving rent assistance, and again, helping that economic support through the community. Next slide, please. We're going to transition a little bit into some of our affordable and supportive communities.

Next slide. This map shows the spread of multiple different highlights of shelters, access centers, transitional housing, properties from the regional affordable housing bond and county owned affordable housing. As you can see, some of the housing that is reflected right here in Beaverton It's spread throughout Washington County, and we're proud of those communities that are, being supported. Next slide, please. Speaking of the Metro Affordable Housing Bond, we were allocated at Washington County over $192,000,000, and we are proud to say that we are on track to exceed our goal with five hundred and nine fifty eight homes open or underway, and we're wrapping up those funds from that bond.

So we're seeing that it's been a long journey for us and for all of you as well. The bond spans 12 communities throughout Washington County, and the communities like Altura Project, which is located in Southwest Beaverton, And many residents, like Jasmine, who you heard about her story, are housed in these new communities. Next slide, please. While it's important to build new housing, it's also really important for us to preserve the housing that's already here. And so we are excited that we are trying to invest appropriately into our aging properties.

So the affordable housing preservation portfolio rehabilitation project renovated almost 600 affordable homes across 10 properties, investing $113,000,000 back into the community. This includes Holly Tree, which is also located here in West Beaverton. Affordable home ownership via our Section 18 it's a HUD term disposition of federal funded public housing, went underway. So after decades of federal underfunding programs like public housing, the Housing Authority of Washington County made the difficult decision to launch the Section 18 Disposition Initiative, which had approved in December 2023. This is giving the opportunity for those residents to, purchase their home, which we did have several homebuyers from that initiative, and those who did not were given a protection voucher so they can continue receiving assistance, and we're going to be investing that money back into portfolios and the community from the sales.

Next slide, please. As we go in, there's a lot of braiding of finances through Washington County Department of Housing. We are going to give a one slide overview of it. As you can tell, it's probably going to be really comprehensive. So next slide, please.

As you can see, we have many different funding resources from federal, state, regional, and the local level, with all different reporting requirements. So, we navigate a solid foundation through these different changes with the federal funds that might be waiting for resolutions to come through and understanding how that funding is going to be impacted, we are continuing to leverage, provide services with those flexible local resources where we can. And as you can see, we're not going to go into every single line item here, but it is it does take a lot to put in to all of the work that is able to serve those 2,700 people. I'm going to pass it back to Molly.

Molly All of this work really does take partnerships and collaboration, especially of Beaverton. Sorry, my bad.

Molly Sorry, you have to leave now.

Full disclosure, I did come to Washington from a city of but I'm thrilled to be here. It's been two years. Very, very thrilled. Very grateful. I'll put it that way. And so the first collaboration I would like to highlight is really between our healthcare and housing operation with our what we call healthcare case conferencing. It's really a practice that integrates healthcare and housing through weekly meetings that triages needs for program participants. Also, we have four advisory bodies that guide and advise our policies and budget recommendations. We're grateful for them. They're mostly volunteer work.

And we now host, we've been hosting several community listening sessions to learn more about the unmet need in this community. And just wanted to do a quick thank you to you all, because we have done one of them. Another significant and notable collaboration is with our city partners and first responders. So we have our liaison program, like Chad, that really connects all these various resources with other systems that where you are experiencing, where you find people are experiencing into the systems. Our emergency shelter beds are dedicated to first responders so that they don't have to wait for a shelter to open up.

They can directly put someone in a bed. And we look forward to future collaborations to open an access center in Beaverton. What's really next? This is capturing our point in time of what we did in one year. So future, is really, this next slide is showing that we have made tremendous impact and progress, but there is still need.

Identify and count people experiencing time counts. Incomes of our most vulnerable populations remain out of reach to be able to afford the rents we see here, especially when we have one of the highest rental rates in the state. And our vacancy rates remain low to be able to soften some of those rents. But I'm not going to go into each of these, but just indicating that the metrics are showing the need to be able to continue investing. So what's on the horizon is a lot of, as Liz already mentioned, a lot of federal uncertainty, early sunsetting of programs, lots of dynamic, changes we see all the time, and it really, for us, has been, this past year, a moment of really understanding that it's about our local partnerships and investments that's going to make all the more than ever.

So for us to be responsive to these changing and how we navigate and align all of our resources as much as possible. And our homelessness work, we're going to a local implementation plan two point zero, so that's working with various stakeholders, getting input, thinking about how we are moving from a launch up, essentially a build up system, to now what is going make sense in terms of business, do we have the right investments in terms of permanent strategies. So and then also, we have our two transitional housing projects underway. Cornell Road Recovery is slated to open this fall. And we are going to be completing our final two affordable housing bond projects.

With those, we're going to be closing up. Slide. Just a reminder of who we're really serving through all these resources. This is Pierre who transitioned to full self sufficiency and just survive without this hope, I would not have been able to get where I am. Served by shelter, temporary rental assistance, and career connections, demonstrating that these time limited resources can really make a difference of someone back to stability. With that, I'd be happy to take.

Awesome. Well, I'm glad you're here in Beaverton is how we pronounce it. Thank you for the presentation. I do wanna know how Kim Marshall makes it into every slide deck the county does. So

is

she just around a lot? Oh, wait. Oh, there she is in the back here as well. So I I would say just thank you thank you for the report. I know this this work is challenging with the federal government cutting so many resources for HUD and in partnership with what we're doing with the SHS funding and affordable housing.

I just I really worry about the future of our county when we look at these numbers and how we're going to manage over the next decade. As somebody with young kids, I really worry that we're creating a region where young people aren't gonna be able to move back into, and I think this is a major piece of it. So I I thank you for the presentation. There's no asking it of us tonight. I appreciate that. The work you're doing is very difficult. So thank you for joining us this evening. Counselor

Hartmeyer Prigg. Thank you. Thank you for being with us this evening. I was I had a question about, like, eviction prevention or, you know, like, someone is nearing eviction or they need rental assistance, is there a way or how does that process work? Right? Are they able to get assistance early enough to even keep them out of the pipeline, or does that assistance kind of come in, like, the final minute?

I will just say eviction prevention really did ramp up with COVID resources. Unprecedented amount of resources because there was an eviction moratorium, that did expire, and then there were thousands of households who were unable to pay them. Those programs have essentially those federal investments have essentially been those were very much proactive and preventative, and so we were able we've been able to supplement some of that with SHS money, but we haven't been able to be at the full level of what we were seeing with federal investment. So, we have had to do a little bit more triaging, a little bit more getting to the folks who are at the brink of obviously, folks can go and they call the, community action organization has a hotline and they talk about their eviction proceedings. Obviously, we want to catch people before they're so there are resources for folks as well.

But I'm just providing a little bit of context of how we were able to do a lot more during the time of COVID. Addiction prevention as a core part of our homeless system, we want to have that as a base core part of our of the essentially, this don't want people to experience homeless.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

Didn't the county commissioner just recently reinstate some of these funds? Can you tell us a little bit about where that funding came from?

So that came that's also supportive housing services resources. Trying to encapsulate a lot of the budgeting challenges we have with SHS. Essentially, it's a very volatile income, tax stream that we face, that we faced a 15% reduction last year from the forecast that we had put out in budgets, so we had to make shifts in real time. That's why there were some reductions in eviction prevention, but then at the end of the year, what we do is we recalibrate our spending ability and what we essentially, we create carryover, carryforward funds, turns into one time only funds, and we're able to kind of reinvest back up into eviction prevention. So, we're trying to carefully calibrate our ongoing services with what we expect to get from Metro, but we're going to always have a little bit of some we're going have to create some budgeting cushion that we don't have to go through a 15% reduction again.

Well, and just for a future, I mean, the SHS levy is scheduled for five more years, so we're going to be facing a very similar cliff that we did with COVID if we can't figure out how to do that. And I think what's challenging, from my perspective is I understand the budgeting perspective and why we're doing that. And a lot of times, some eviction prevention is intended to be one or two or three times use, but, that's really challenging, I think, for community action and members of our community to wait until the budget recalibration to see how much money is left in that pot. Councilor Husson.

Thank you for the presentation. I think this is a bit of a follow-up to what councilor Hartmeier Prigg was asking. I've I've been working a lot with the immigrant community that's been impacted particularly right now this last few months, and so we're seeing evictions go up in our community quite a bit. And community auction does not have funds for these families. And maybe you don't either, but can you talk a little bit about what resources are available, if any, and how we can be thinking for that,

if you have thoughts?

So we we actually part of the additional, funds that we were able to recalibrate is trying to make sure we're capturing folks who have been economically impacted by a variety of federal acts including. We haven't been able to get those straight into contracts quite yet, but we're working on that as soon as we possibly can. Households can be immediately the current networks of providers. But we have to make sure there's still access to the Supportive Housing Services measure. It's not a special carve out, but, but, obviously, if families are affected to have housing instability

Is there a future where because I know community action is really dependent on a community member calling, right, and, like, having to advocate, and these are typically families who are already kind of living on the edge. Is there a future where we fund, like, similar to what we did in COVID, like, more of a landlord reimbursement? I imagine this is just gonna continue, and I know we don't have money, so I'm not gonna act like we have a lot of money. But if we did, is there a future that looks like that at all?

That's what we're trying to roll out is what we call a housing resolution fund, is going to be for immediate needs, helping people, or like a flex fund. It's like an eviction prevention that we can get out to our 25, like Centra Cultural and other providers that work with those families however they

Last question or comment. Is there just a a way for you all to share some of this with the city council? Because I feel like and maybe, Chad, I can ask ask you. Like, I just feel like, you know, I'm getting these phone calls, from the community, and we're trying to send people in the right direction, and I don't really know where. And I imagine the others are too. And and then you're like, hey. Call community action. And they're like, well, they didn't you know? So it's it's been a bit of a round robin, and so any any resource support you can send to us, so that all of us have that, I think, would be really appreciated.

If I may also encourage to continue just to, ask people to contact 211 hotline. We inform 211 hotline when our, like, resources open, like, a wait list, or other, and I know a lot of other community service providers as well. So in addition just to calling out one of our service providers, I would also ensure that because sometimes it's maybe faith based organizations are reporting if they have like a one time fund or opportunity, but that might be one of the resource if you haven't been giving that to your constituents.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Councilor Tipnon.

Thank you. Going back to slide 21, it just had the need for housing support remains high. I was just curious about the numbers here and I know that point in time counts are just by nature difficult to do. So first question I had was when was the twenty twenty five point in time count done?

January. A point in time in January.

Okay. Okay. So we're just about due to do it again?

2025, and they do it every other year.

Got it. I wish it was every year. Okay. So I understand that the in the point in time count, sheltered homelessness increased by over a 150 people and unsheltered homelessness remained steady. And then right underneath it, there's this awesome figure about over 3,000 people that were served in shelter or received outreach last year, an increase of 800 over 800 people.

So I guess what I'm looking for is is insight or just your theories on how we can see the increases in folks that are receiving, support and also see those numbers of unsheltered homelessness remaining steady? Is it just more people are within Washington County are falling into homelessness? Or is it that people are just migrating into the county? I know that it's it's very migratory in nature to to not have housing. So, are your what are your thoughts on that?

I think Kim Marshall also have her own thoughts, but I would just say generally point in time counts, at least for the sheltered homelessness, is really a reflection of the system you're building. People you can find and numerate and count. And so that is a reflection, I think, of the success of us being able to building out. So that I think is that's a success story. So I don't think of these things, of these More people coming into the system?

We are tracking those sort of numbers. When you look at a point in time, that is, what was really indicative to us was that unsheltered count remained steady, and that was still very low. It actually was a reduction of about 35%. So that, to us, is we're catching people.

Just an idea for the the next go around of this is it would be really helpful to see a visualization of that, just a chart of what those point in time counts have looked like over time, especially post COVID. Yeah. Just an idea.

And that

way, we'll get

that for you for sure. Thank you.

I I will just comment on the the wishing that point in time was every year. It it is a massive undertaking that takes out so much of our service providers. And, you know, I was at Virginia Garcia. I participated in point in time, and I would really encourage elected officials to go out and kinda see the tedious work, but it also it is it is often unrepresented of, like, what the numbers actually look like, and it's a really flawed system that we're basing a lot of our stuff off of. Councilor Kimmy?

I think councilor Tibnall asked similar question because when I ran for city council three and a half years ago, the number used to be 817. Then last time I Metro was here, they said it was 830 some something. Now I see 915. So somehow we're with all the housing that we're providing, our homelessness population is growing. I just learned that it's tedious work to find the people to count.

But we are throwing not throwing, but we are investing money into the homelessness, trying to solve the problem and shelter, but numbers keep increasing. And as you just mentioned, that there's many people entering the system or the program, but then not many people are exiting. So, and then we worry about possible bond, SHS bond coming along. It's just worry. What's your plan or is there any way to don't think we can solve the issue, but we're giving much help as possible, but not many people are exiting the program and beyond their two feeds.

So, what are your thoughts on that?

There are hundreds of people who are exiting, but there really is progress that is happening and truly ending. Hard to create these kind of moments in time and look at a larger trend line, but someone who is out in what we know have been camping out for a long time at Pod Village and are more likely to go to Pod Village or they might need different types of they're still considered homeless, but they're getting served. And then you kind of move through it. Someone's going have a different journey and maybe they need transitional housing for two years. They're still going to be counted as homeless, but they're being served.

So it is complicated to show the impact. It is very much a qualitative and a quantitative element that we do need to track. Like if someone is seeking shelter, do they have a place to go? Right now we're showing yes, they have a place to go. These are some of the other indicators we're going to look at.

Obviously, there's a huge challenge we will find of supportive housing services. We've invested six projects that we need to find places for. And there are people in our community who are on fixed incomes who can't keep up with these rent increases. So we're going to need to continue to invest in affordable communities, especially with people on fixed income that are here already.

And I just

want to Okay.

Thank you. One other question I have is we have a lot of senior population in Beaverton, and they tell me that they have to wait five to seven years, possibly ten years to get into affordable housing unit. So some of the advises that they're getting is that why don't you just go into homeless shelter, you got fast tracking at six months, you get you you will be in somehow offered affordable housing. So just have a concern with the people who's looking for to get into affordable housing as a senior citizens and they just cannot get in, have to wait five to seven years. So so how's the process that works?

At our current wait list. But but just to be clear, that's for federal funds. We have to have wait list that we open up, and we just recently opened up. Unfortunately, we've been not given additional appropriation, our housing choice voucher program to be able to move more federal appropriations.

Also, it's the federal versus the county.

We've also ramped up with the supportive housing services measure. We have invested over 2,000 regional long term rent assistance vouchers. Essentially, it's local vouchers that has been one of the highest amount of vouchers that we've that's been able to really move more quickly, folks who've been able to provide assistance. But that's generally for people who have to have a nexus to homelessness.

Yes, and so with our recent of the project based waitlist that was open across the county, it was zoned for each jurisdiction, so if somebody who's living in Beaverton only wanted to live in Beaverton, they could sign up just for that waitlist. And they will be open again coming up, and that will be forever open, and people will just confirm. We had about 4,500 people in the week, across all of the wait list, So some signed up for just one, and some signed up for all four of the zones in Washington County. And we know that that's not reaching out the entire need because we're seeing that across the system, so making sure that there's that access. But what we do have with our project based vouchers and some of these affordable housing is when we've been able to partner with, like, the City of Beaverton on some of the City of Beaverton's metro funded projects, like the Mary Anne, we are able to put Project Besaucers in there, so that's affordable housing, where we only have maybe eight units there, but then the rest of the building is low income, so then house like, it's blending that ability and that access.

And with that, we definitely would encourage to your statement, I do want to say that we don't encourage people to feel that there is one way to go, because a lot of the times, it's about the placement. If we only have X amount of placements left, we're not ramping up, and people may not still meet those definitions for those services, and then they might have put themselves into a place where they thought that was the solution, and it's very complicated.

Thank you. Thank you.

I have two quick follow ups. Do you guys work with the McKinney Vento programs at all? The school districts? Okay.

No. Not the school districts. Sorry. That's Oh. That's it's a we we do the continuum of care, which is McKinney Vento. But McKinney Vento also funds the schools.

So has is there any collaboration between your work and, like, understanding what the districts are saying is happening? Because they have numbers. I know that because I can And ask

we do. We do collaborate. We don't have a lot of blended programs at this time, but we do definitely connect on, a regular basis, and see where the program overlaps so that we can connect. So exactly for that reason for for data and, coordination of what we're seeing in the schools.

Okay. I just imagine, like, not that you wanna do more point in times, but it'd be it'd be curious to do a McCanivian like, just to check with the school districts. One more question.

But they do come here. They come to your homeless meeting. I see them in the building when they're doing it. They are coordinating with McKinney Vento. So I I these the county might be a little bit different, but they're here all the time working with our staff. I see them in the building once or twice a week.

I attend a regular meeting with the schools.

Okay. But, I mean, at the county level, the same level. I would would imagine we would have the same level of coordination, but thank you, Chad, for attending those meetings. For your shelters and access centers and transitional housing, I know that there's been ICE activity in Portland shelters or centers, something. Have you have has any of that happened here in Beaverton or Washington County to our knowledge?

We have had ICE activity in.

Okay. That's what I thought. I knew that one, but the other okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for Coming today. I also do want to point out that Beaverton is hosting the no place to grow old documentary on Sunday that is specifically talking about the aging population as the fastest growing homeless population So I'd encourage council to attend that and learn more, which is why the city's had such a focus on a, like, a senior housing as we're we're going forward. It's our number one growing population and the one that we're finding the most challenging with. So thank you for joining us tonight. I know the work is hard and challenging, and please, know, I talk to you guys often, but reach out anytime. We could be helpful. And if you find yourself with excess money, Beaverton is a great place to spend it. Thank you.

Appreciate your time tonight.

Thank you. Read these reports. Good job. Alright. Council, we're, council president, your first official act will be the consent agenda. And if you would pull 6.4 agenda bill two six zero zero six so we can talk about the Cooper Mountain update separate from the consent agenda, please.

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda, obviously, without. 6.4 agenda bill 2,000 twenty six zero zero six.

Second.

It's been moved by council president, seconded by councilor Husson. Any discussion on tonight's consent? Yes, mayor. Councilor Teeter, please.

So I know we'll talk about the Cooper Mountain cross sections in in a minute, but there is a lot of other there are a lot of other items on this consent agenda that are incredibly meaningful, like our federal litigation framework that will allow us to join more lawsuits more quickly against federal overreach and harmful actions. We've already joined two this year successfully, and there may be the opportunity to join more with this framework. There are other transportation items here on the consent agenda, like crosswalk improvements along the Westside Trail, our traffic calming update, and signing a downtown loop, IGA, that'll keep that moving forward. There's a lot that's really good here that can often go under the radar being on the consent agenda. I just wanna celebrate it.

So thank you staff who have worked on this.

With that, will the

Please call the roll. Mayor Beatty? Yes.

Councilor Tivnan? Yes. Councilor Teeter?

Yes.

Councilor Kimmy?

Yes.

Councilor Hassan? Yes. Councilor Hartmeier Prigg? Yes. Council President Duggar? Yes. Yes, zero no. Consent calendar passes.

Awesome. I think council, given the amount of testimony we've had about the design, our conversations with housing, I really take stock. You know, Mimi that testified tonight served on our planning commission for quite a long time and rarely interjects with the city. And when she does, I definitely take stock of that. And, of course, everyone's testimony tonight, but, you know, Metropolitan Land Group as well has been an ongoing partner with the city.

And there are times where they have won arguments with us, and there are times when they have not won arguments with us. But I think in the the spirit of more housing, understanding a little bit more, and I just you know, there's a lot of times when it comes to our rules, like undergrounding. We decide when it doesn't benefit us, we don't do it. If you look at the Menlo Street project, which was the largest investment in sidewalks the city had done in twenty years, we could only afford to do one side of the street. And so I don't I don't feel super comfortable moving forward tonight without a few more conversations on this topic.

And I would like us to send it back to staff and bring it back in a couple weeks, but I'm open to hear what the council has to say as well. Councilor Duggar? Oh, I'm sorry. We can

Yeah. Come on in.

Sorry. Yep. Councilor Duggar.

Yeah. I'm a little two things. I I have him when we had a briefing on this, I was pretty comfortable with it. I I think the testimony is moving me a little bit, but not a whole lot. So I I think we've gotta make this pretty quick. I don't want this to fall into a black hole of, like, discussions back and forth. So I can support a temporary pause. I think I think the mayor's comments are reasonable. I think the testimony was reasonable. This needs to be wrapped up pretty quickly though because we you know, I don't want this to fall into a situation where, in general, this council has been very supportive of bike and ped infrastructure, particularly in in green green spaces where we we we know it's going to kinda be costly and and and stuff like that.

But I could support a temporary pause if if if the council would go would go along with that.

Councilor Teter, did I skip you? Were you on this topic?

Okay.

Councilor Hudson?

Yeah. I would be inclined to want to hear from staff before we went that route, personally. I totally acknowledge all the testimony that we've gotten, and I hear that. I'd like to hear staff's perspective before we were to completely table it.

Councilor Teeter.

I was gonna say something similar to councilor Hudson. City manager, when should we call staff up during this conversation, or how should we handle that if if at least two of us would like some more information or have ask a couple questions?

At the concierge service here, turning on my mic. We are prepared to provide you a staff report and some background, leaning into this conversation. And if council still feels like that we need to do some more work offline, we're happy to do that. But I would recommend that you hear from staff this evening.

Well, bring them on up. Let's do it.

I'll follow-up with some questions afterwards.

Hey. Good evening. Kara Hall, assistant city transportation engineer.

Melissa Maxwell, capital planning project manager. Okay. We did put together just a few quick slides here, if

that's okay, to provide some background context for you, and then we're happy to take questions, after that, if that works for all of you. Okay. So, the proposed cross sections in front of you, were developed to support goals identified in the Cooper Mountain Community Plan and reflect what we heard from council and community members about priorities for Cooper Mountain. Cross sections also reflect feedback that we heard as we completed the update for the engineering design manual that's in front of you. That included a thirty day public review period from November 20 to December 21, with opportunity for review and to provide input.

The opportunity to do so was shared with interested parties, both that followed the updates on the engineering design manual and CooperMountain communication channels as well. During that time, we received one written comment and had conversations with agency partners, including THPRD, TVFNR, as well as some of the stakeholders working on potential development in the area. That's all summarized in the public review summary that was included in your packets this evening. We have heard the concerns documented in the public review summary and shared this evening, and we understand that there's a cost associated with providing more right away. And because of that, we've developed these facilities to achieve multiple goals, not just transportation specific goals within the community plan to ensure that

Next slide.

This investment benefits everyone. So goals and priorities being supported by these proposed cross sections include transportation goals focused on creating safe, comfortable, connected facilities for people traveling within Cooper Mountain as well as providing space for large, healthy trees that provide shade and support the city's climate goals. These cross sections have also been developed in coordination with THPRD to support the planned trails network in Cooper Mountain, And staff have also developed constrained and restricted cross sections, which do narrow the required right of way in areas where we need to protect our natural resources because we know that's an important goal for Cooper Mountain as well. Next slide, please. So just a quick overview of kind of how we're achieving all of these goals with these proposed cross sections.

So first, we have our separated bike and pedestrian facilities, which provide safe and comfortable space that can accommodate things like e bikes needing to pass people, at much higher speeds and families that may be riding together in this area. This is also an area where we made changes based on feedback that we heard from THPRD through this process, and that included locating the bicycle and pedestrian facilities behind the landscape strip and directly next to each other because our collectors are where our regional trail follows our alignment. So the hope with this change was that this would allow for these facilities to function as that regional trail as well. So if that were to be the case, we'd be eliminating the need to provide that trail, along properties, on our collectors, so hoping that we could achieve multiple benefits there as well. And the eight foot landscape strip that's shown in these cross sections was developed to support the larger trees that are needed to provide shade and achieve the goal of 40% tree canopy.

This also allows us to eliminate some of the requirements for tree plantings on private property to meet that goal, moving that into the public right of way. So while Cooper Mountain is a greenfield, meaning we have fewer constraints to work within and providing us an opportunity to build the transportation system that we want, we recognize that there are still situations where, our ideal cross sections may not work, and where we need to adapt. So to achieve that, we have developed the constrained and restricted cross sections. Those do narrow the right of way, while still providing facilities for people driving, walking, and biking. And those can be applied in specific areas, specifically where we have natural resources without any additional process or need to navigate our design exemption process, as that development occurs.

And then I will just note that that design exemption process does remain in place, and that allows us to work with folks as individual development comes in and to consider the constraints and the needs on a case by case basis. So if development comes in and we need to explore further adjusting that, that design exemption of process exists and allows us to have that conversation. Lastly, we did compare these proposed cross sections to what development is being asked to provide in our neighboring cities and found that these cross sections are largely consistent, specifically with what was being considered as part of River Terrace 2 just across Shoals Ferry. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Okay. Thank you. There's a question we received about the frontage, that's set aside on each of these designs. Can you talk about what that two foot or three foot frontage would actually be used for?

Yeah. So that frontage is intended to provide, a number of benefits. The primary benefit in area where we see that frontage being important is in areas where we expect to have, mixed use retail, specifically ground floor retail. So that three and a half foot space is shown there in the community access. That is a cross section that will be used in those mixed use areas where we might have that Ground Floor retail.

That's intended to provide space for those businesses to be able to interact with the public right away without, infringing on our pedestrian space. So that could be things like a bench or a table outside a cafe or signs, so that space is there. In other areas, it'll be kind of a case by case basis, and that's an example of where there could be some flexibility. If there's not, active uses right along the Ground Floor, we may not need all of that frontage. There may be other constraints that we're trying to navigate by having that two and a half space, additional infrastructure, things like that that that we may wanna allocate that for.

K. Thank you. There's another question we received about the medians and for the designs that include a median, would that require a median be built along the full extent where it's unconstrained, or would it be median where necessary, I think was the language of the question we received.

Yeah. So, that is a big change in our constrained and restricted cross sections. That median does go away. So that is one area where we do reduce when we're in those areas of natural resources. In other locations, the consistent the language that we have in this is consistent with how we've approached medians and center turn lanes, historically with our street cross sections, and we do consider that, as development comes in. So if those turn lanes are not needed, and we don't think that's a future consideration we might wanna make, we can consider addressing that and having that conversation at that time.

Okay. That helps. And then the design Mayor, did you have something you wanted to add

I I just have a just kind of a follow-up question on this because your opening comment was that a lot of this was intended to be used, like, instead of, like, trails, and we had worked with THPRD. Whose SDCs will be paying for it If it's intended to be a trail, is this where park SDCs are going?

We the transportation SDC that's being proposed for Cooper Mountain, that'll be on the following council meeting agenda, and that has accounted for these wider cross sections. So the cost estimates for projects have been, accounting for the proposed wider cross sections because the bike and pedestrian facilities are a city goal, not just a THPRD goal. So in areas if if, we were not building a cross section like this and the trail is gonna go off street and they're gonna have a separate right of way for trail, then that would be part of the THPRD funding plan. But when it's going to be part of street right of way, then we're accounting for it in our funding plan. So what that means is that development that builds these wider cross sections can get additional credits against their SDCs when they're building those larger facilities.

But against our SDCs, not the 33% of SDCs represented by the park district. So we're gonna build infrastructure to save THPRD money while they still collect their full SDCs, and we give away credits from our SDC transportation fees here. Is that fair?

Well, I think I would say not entirely because these facilities. So we've been I

don't think it's a matter of want. It's a matter of we have a special district that represents 33% of the fees, and we both want it. So how do we reconcile that with what people are telling us that it's gonna drive up housing because they're gonna take their SDCs and spend it somewhere else, or are they gonna contribute to lowering the cost of the infrastructure we're trying to build?

That's a fair question. And and I do think that when we looked at the funding plan with THPRD two, their SDCs in this area are going toward the park facilities and things like the big community parks. So there's not a lack of, park facilities that they would be funding through the SDCs that they collect in that area.

Well, of course, they're excited for us to build it and pay for it, and they get the benefit. Sorry. Go on.

Okay. I appreciate that diversion. I think that was a really important thought line to follow. Got a question about the design variance process. We've mentioned this a few times for instances when this these exact designs might not be the right fit. Does that process add significant expense to projects or timeline or difficulty getting approved? What's that look like?

No. So that process is gonna include some documentation about what what's the constraints, what's making it infeasible, what what is kind of driving that need to deviate from the standard, how are we meeting the city's goals, policies with what we're proposing instead of the city standard, and confirming that we are addressing things like safety with what's being proposed. Essentially, that's a memo and a form that need to be filled out and signed by the city engineer. So there's typically conversation with staff as part of that, process, but it we are working to make that so that it's not a cumbersome piece to navigate.

Okay. Thanks. I've got one question, and then I'll close with my comments. So if we table this for two weeks for staff to work with the community organizations that have provided some comment, maybe other people too, what could we expect to change within two weeks? That feels very fast, but also I want to move fast. What do you all see for the timeline there?

Yeah. I mean, I think we would we would appreciate then having some direction from counsel about which of the goals we would want to reduce out here. We've had we have had the question asked, you know, can we only have a sidewalk on one side of the street? Well, we're that doesn't make sense. Right?

So, we are trying to balance all the goals that we heard through the community plan and through the work that you guys are doing on the transportation system plan. And so with the changes that can be made, we're looking at what what would you want to eliminate. And so things like the wide wide landscape strips for trees, that's part of the Cooper Mountain Community Plan that's in the comprehensive plan, so we can't really make that change. Eliminating the frontage, making the frontage or setback narrower, that's probably something that could happen relatively painlessly. So if we're going to make major changes, would want to know, you know, which of these facilities are not a priority.

Okay. Thank you. So I'll close the mic with my comments here. I shared similar concerns about just the width of the streets with my briefing with staff. I didn't have any great advice for what would change because there's a lot that's really good here, and it is in our comprehensive plan and community goals for that area. So I would be comfortable supporting this tonight. Like, I hear the public comment. I think we're doing a lot here, and we're trying to fit a lot in. I think, like, the median space with trees and street trees provide some flexibility that we don't have to put on individual properties. The cross sections include the constrained constrained and restrained designs that I think will help.

I do think our timeline moving quickly is really important so that we can get this ahead of developers before a whole bunch of development occurs or want wants to be wants to occur this year. I would be comfortable approving this tonight. If there are changes that council wants to see over the next couple weeks, I could hold off for a couple weeks. I wouldn't wanna go much longer than that. So I think we need to be very clear tonight with whatever those changes would be. That's all I've got. Thank you.

Thank you. This isn't a question for staff. I'd already put my name in before that. I just I'm reflecting back on the five years that I've served on council, and this is we've been working on this the whole time I've been on it, fingerprints all over the thing. And what we've been envisioning and asking of city staff for this area is a lot.

And we have extremely high aspirations across the board of what we're hoping to see here. And but I it's the rubber meets the road part of this. If we're hearing from the folks that are actually going to be the ones developing it out that are voicing concerns that is the thing that's giving me pause on this. And the pause isn't just like, oh, this is gonna make their jobs harder. It's is this going to impact our ability to get the houses built, essentially.

So I, I am comfortable with this taking a pause to the, mayor's first opening comments on this. Two weeks does sound like, what what can you really get to the bottom of in two weeks when it comes to something this complicated? But that's kinda where I'm landing right now.

I'll just add, like like because you you guys asked a good question, like, what will we be willing to give up? I think the only thing in order to reduce the right away would be the medians. Like, I I do I feel like there might be some flexibility there. I obviously want more trees. Right? But, like, in areas where it makes sense, would I trade off a little bit of that in order to get more housing and more affordable housing or or as affordable as possible housing? That would be the one area I would give you feedback.

I want you to hear that you you gave us exactly what we asked for. So this is not a critique, and I know this is a a challenging conversation, and I really appreciate your points on, like, we did what you asked. I would remind the council, this was very similar with the loop. Right? Like, what did we want? Everything. What did it come down to funding? We had to to start cutting and moving back. You know, I'm I'm I'm my in my comments about THBRD were not a reflection to you. It's just a reality of the housing work we've been doing for a long time.

We have special districts that represent very large percent of fees in how we're operating, and we have dwindling transportation SDCs to get things done. You know, when I'm I'm looking at this, it's very ambitious, and I would say the the length or the width of the roads, having extra buffers, those are really, really awesome nice to have. And I for me, I I need I if this moves forward, I'm a no vote tonight. So I'd like a little bit more time because as the champion that gets a lot of housing built, I don't feel comfortable in the to go out to our community and say, like, this is what I want. This is exactly what I want, but what do you want and what are you willing to pay for?

Two different things. And I need a little bit more understanding of the SDCs, how this is coming together to make sure that we're putting the burden in the right place because housing will be built here. It'll be $1,500,000 single family homes that could afford the infrastructure that's going in here and our dreams for affordable housing and middle housing will go right out the window because middle housing will become very expensive housing. And this is a moment where we can look and ask where can this road have a road diet? Where can we bring something a little bit more in line? So I would appreciate to to take a little bit of a pause and go back and look. But if the council wants to vote, like, I'm happy to move forward with a vote tonight as well, but I would vote no. Right. I think what

I'm Yeah.

Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah.

I actually was gonna say I'm very comfortable with the way that this plan is. I heard the concern. I feel like you guys have addressed the concern. If this council if if we're going to go back, I hope that we can give really clear direction because I I hear pieces, but I wanna make sure we're giving that clear direction. I mean, I'm comfortable saying, please go back and work with some of some of these individuals and stakeholders, but I believe that you are doing probably god's work trying to build something that we want.

I want the connected stuff. I mean, we talk about con connected transportation. So I just I wanna ask us to pause for a second and say, this is this really what we wanna do? You know, I I support this agenda bill as it is, and I appreciate the feedback that you guys provided. I I think if we're really gonna hold off, I think we really need to be thoughtful about giving the right direction to staff so that they can move forward.

Councilor Hartmeyer, Brayden.

Thank you.

When I read the agenda bill, I felt like this is very comprehensive. Like, you know, everything to me really makes sense. And so then starting to see some of the comments coming in, I was like, did we not talk to the right people? We did our due diligence. And so I do struggle a little bit with getting a lot of the last minute. I mean, even since our meeting has started, we've received, you know, comments to us, and that's really, really hard. That puts us in a hard place. This has been a multiyear project. I especially love the medians because it gets our canopy goals and allows us to build the other housing. Right?

Like, it it means that, like, you may actually be able to fit in more housing because you took it from the right of way. So, like, to me, this is everything we asked for. And I hear you. It's gonna be extensive. I don't have specific direction on what I could say should come out because I think this is actually reflective of all of the plans, all of the conversations, and everything that we've built get to this moment of the cross section, hearing that there's an exception process that you could apply for the variance and whatnot, where it makes sense, I think we would apply that.

We would really take into the context because we're also looking at that of Greenfield. Right, it's not that there's a predetermined road already there that in most places, right, that we're gonna be working within, and so it allows for that exception to be made. So I I'm I'm feeling comfortable moving forward as is and not taking a pause, and I I there have been times I think that we've said, oh, we we heard from people late. Did we not reach out? Did we reach out?

I feel like we did our due diligence here, and it's really unfortunate to have so much coming in so late. And it's not that it doesn't matter. It does matter, and I'm glad to hear it, but I really wish that this could have happened months ago when we were developing the cross sections versus tonight when we're being asked to make a decision. And now it feels like we don't have a good choice ahead of like,

we would be we would

be compromising on all of the things that we said we wanted in this plan, I think, if we were to pause at this point. That so that's where I'm at. Councilor Kimmy.

I'm for pause just to talk to the developers to what could be compromised and what we could make it maybe a little better, more feasible for construction and what could what we could live with. This is beautiful plan, but if it's not buildable, it's going to prevent builders to build homes and develop the community. I like I like to at least have one more conversation and give us a make it better better compromise that maybe we can all digest. I like to say at least one more chance, but not not too long. Like, two weeks might be too short, but then anything, don't wait, like, three to six months. But I'd like to hear it back soon rather than later.

Where are you at? Yeah. I'm just I'm trying to be a month. Okay.

That's as far as I can go.

Okay. We have three for move forward right now, four for a pause. So I think what we're gonna do is take a brief pause. I'm happy to meet with you guys. I think I understand where the council's at to kinda talk about what I I'm hearing, but what I think we need to understand a little bit more is more in the exception and the cost in the SDCs.

And, what I would like to hear from everyone that testified is what would be a compromise recognizing where the council's goals are, and we'll have to reconcile. If it comes back, we want two lanes each way, no bike lane, no canopy. Like, I'm sorry. That's not gonna be helpful here. And so we're we're giving you an opportunity to tell us what you could live with, and I'm looking out at you, and I'm looking out at other people. If we can't get something we're not experts. We don't do this work. You guys are experts, so we need a little bit of help and guidance. But I'm happy to kinda meet as the council person to move it forward. So let's get it done.

So thank you. And I know this is this is, again, not a reflection of your work. This is not a reflection of of the work product you put forward. It is really great. And I'm sorry that we're gonna ask you to take a little bit of a pause here on this work, but I'm confident we can have it back really quickly.

Yes. Mayor, just for the record until we get it right, is there a motion to postpone to a particular date I mean or a motion to table or what what

are We we pulled it from consent. So we're gonna take a vote. That's why I was counting votes. I could what you would you like from us because it's pulled from consent and not voted on? Can can Usually, direction is sufficient, but what would you what do you need?

Motion to postpone to a particular date or a motion to table something that, documents what what happened.

Is it possible I mean, I'd like the record to reflect that we a couple of us were supportive. Is it possible to do that and then do the postponement? Because I feel uncomfortable doing a postponement when I'm comfortable today.

No. I mean, you could vote against moving forward, but you're outnumbered, it's not gonna be well, you could take a vote

if that's Anyone can make a motion.

Yeah. Go ahead, councilor Teeter.

I would just ask that whoever makes a motion, if you're comfortable providing the detail of those areas that you would like changed, that would really help, just provide some clarity if you're comfortable with whoever makes that motion.

Okay. I'll make a motion tonight since someone's jumping. I move that we postpone agenda bill 6.14 for two weeks, our next available council meeting in the interim. What we would like from staff is a review of the STCs. We would like staff to work with the groups that came forward and testified to make sure that we, understand their concerns and any recommendations. I've heard from the council a variety of things, like what would a smaller road look like? What would the cost of removing the median look like? What would give us some options? I can pinhole you or you could be creative as stuff. How much more detail do you want from us, city attorney?

I'm trying to give you some bandwidth to be able to do staff job and not do it all directive from the council dais. Is that sufficient?

Sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry.

I'm asking

the attorney.

Well,

the question the detail question, I think, should be directed to staff. As far as a motion, my only request, Mayor, was that there be a motion. So, you know, if someone wanted to move to adopt it, they could have made that motion, or if someone wanted to move, as just did, Mayor, to postpone to a definite date, that that be done. And that that satisfied what I was looking for. I defer to staff on whether they have direction.

Do you

feel like you have sufficient direction?

I understand that you would like us to come back in two weeks with some sort of modified proposal. And, yeah, we would as you said, it would be great to hear from those that provided comment today what they would recommend. In our previous meetings, we did ask them to give us some ideas, so we'd love

to hear what they hope to see.

So I move that we move agenda bill 6.4 agenda bill 26,006 time forward in two weeks. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. Will the recorder oh, sorry. Councilor Hudson?

Yeah. I mean, I just wanna let the record reflect. I do think that there's exceptions in this process, and so that is where I pause to hold. So I will be voting against postponing because I support the agenda bill as it is. Thanks.

Alright. Will the recorder take the role?

Councilor Duggar? Yes. Councilor Hartmeyer Prigg?

No.

Councilor Hassan? No. Councilor Kimmy?

Yes.

Councilor Teeter?

No.

Councilor Tivnan?

Yes.

Mayor Beatty? Yes.

Four yes, three no. Motion carries. All right.

Okay. Alright.

The next item on the agenda is first reading of two separate ordinance. Reading the regarding the first ordinance on 01/20/2026 during a regularly scheduled city council meeting. A public hearing will be held regarding an ordinance amending Beaverton code section three point o seven related to transportation system development charges. And with regard to a second ordinance on 01/20/2026 during a regularly scheduled city council meeting, a public hearing will be held regarding an ordinance amending Beaverton code chapter five by adding Beaverton code 5.19 codifying Oregon Sanctuary Promise Act and declaring an emergency. This concludes the first reading of the two ordinance.

All right. With that, we are on to our work session, Agenda Bill 26,014, twenty twenty six State and Federal Legal Framework, Legislative Framework.

Eric, there were two first readings. Sorry. Did you not hear it? Okay, sorry. Just double checking. You know, we like our lists.

Evening, counsel. For the record, my name is Jocelyn Blake, government relations manager. I am joined today by our associates from CFM, our lobbyists in both D. C. And Salem, and I will let them introduce themselves. Joel, would you like to?

You bet. Thanks so much, Jocelyn. Joel Rubin with CFM Advocates. Just flew out from Washington, D. C, so really appreciate the opportunity to present tonight and talk a little bit about what's happening in our nation's capital. I'm probably going to go about a millimeter deep because a day is about a year in Washington, D. C, but look forward to presenting the successes for the year for the City.

And Rayann Gleason with CFM Advocates here to talk about the State Agenda.

And can we go next slide? So we have a very simple question straightforward for you today. We're going to present our draft State and Federal framework, and there we're proposing to bring it back for adoption on January 20. So at the end, our question is if you would have anything today that you would like to see added or changed, to the framework as is before we bring it back for adoption on January 20. The twentieth date does allow us some a little bit of flexibility with the short session the short state legislative session starting February 2 and lasting five weeks into the March.

Next slide. I'd like to start off on some good news. So we're going to do a recap of the, twenty twenty five legislative long session. As a reminder, long session, six months. And we had a landmark of a year.

We had a record 3,466 bills introduced, the most bills in a session that we've ever had. Of those, six thirty three were signed by the governor. A little internal, seven eighty eight bills were flagged by staff as having some sitting nexus. Of those, 37 were deemed a high priority and were actively, lobbied or engaged on, in a very intense way. And then there were many others that had, medium or low priority assigned to them.

For successes, to start off and this is kind of going with the theme of the night we secured $3,000,000 for the Meadowlark Senior Affordable Housing Complex to make sure that construction could continue on schedule for this year. The Senior Affordable Housing, Complex is going to be located across from the library, and it's going to be a beautiful blend of a head start on the bottom and affordable units where our aging senior population can age gracefully in place in Downtown Beaverton. Also, we played a large role in partnership with the Governor's office on House Bill 3,031, which created a new housing infrastructure financing program that's modeled after the city's WIFIA program in the hopes that, this program will be a long lasting funding system for us to dip back into, maybe on Cooper Mountain as we get closer to that. It is both for site specific housing and, large scale capacity increasing projects. Senate Bill 179 codified recreational immunity, so it allows local governments and landowners to continue to provide recreational facilities in our outdoor spaces.

And then finally, House Bill 3,991, which raised about $700,000,000 in a biennium for, our state highway fund for the maintenance of our transportation system. And I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into that in the next slide. You'll see a timeline here. House Bill twenty twenty five was the original transportation bill that was proposed. It was, a ten year transportation, look, a full package, if you will.

That failed at the very, very end of session. However, the governor called a special session. House Bill 3,991 was passed. It is a mini transportation bill, if you will. It raises the gas tax 6¢, which would be about $700,000,000 in a biennium.

For Beaverton, that would look, about $2,300,000 for our State Highway Fund, which is specifically maintenance and operation of our roads. However, referred back to the ballot, specifically the gas tax increase. So that will be on the November ballot, and all revenue has been paused. If the referendum fails and the gas tax stays in place, revenue collection will continue, and we will likely see that increase starting in 2027. And next slide, please.

So lastly, we talked about the senior Meadowlark. Just a little update on some of our other State funded projects, as we've been successful over the last handful of years. So this year alone, we completed the nonprofit incubator, which received $500,000 from the state legislature in 2022. This winter, we're going to be completing construction on the Kemer booster pump station, which received $3,000,000 in 2024 and the Purple Pipes project that received $2,500,000 in 2023, both I believe Purple Pipe is already completed, and Kemra is getting the booster the pumps actually installed as we speak. And then finally, the Meadowlark Senior Affordable Housing, will start construction this year.

Next slide. So shifting, looking at this upcoming session. The short session is largely for budgetary items and technical fixes. They always find a way to slide in a few policy proposals. The large topic at hand, as with the City Council, as with the State, it's going to be the federal response.

It's going to be ICE and support for our immigration and refugee communities, as well as trying to hold our federal partners accountable for what they're doing, in while operating in Oregon. The, City Council directed, previously, about a month ago, for a memo of a full a fuller picture of what's happening at the state level regarding ICE. So that is short coming to you shortly. That will have a fuller summary of all of the, immigration related bills that are expected. This is an ongoing conversation, obviously, and we'll have more concepts after the drop deadline on Friday.

So you'll receive another update, and you'll receive continued update as session goes along. But, we do know the kind of broad concepts, and I'll touch on those as we go along. But the other piece, too, is, the Federal response to H. R. One, which was the Federal tax bill, that provides new tax incentives.

It has about a $15,000,000,000 implication for the state's revenue over the next five bienniums. So this short session is the start of that conversation of how is the state going to balance their budget. They've been asking for 5% reduction scenarios across all agencies, so we're going to be working hand in hand with our agency partners on what that would look like with state shared revenue and trying to mitigate the impacts, on the city. Next slide. The other two high level concepts, that will be priority economic development.

The Governor recently released her economic development plan. We're, likely to see those concepts being introduced by legislative leadership through the form of bills. You'll see workforce development, tax incentives, and also permit timeline increases to just try to get businesses as quickly as we can entering and sustaining in Oregon. And then the continued focus on housing this I have overlapping with the immigration and refugee, in that there's been a lot of conversation around how do we keep people housed in Oregon, housing preservation, rental assistance, and then the added conversation of how do we make sure that those resources are available for immigrant and refugee communities as well. And then a last note that there is a ref both a ballot measure and a bill that would repeal House Bill 3,115.

Beaverton has been very vocal in opposition to repealing time, place, and manner restrictions around homelessness since our ordinance has gone into place and that we're seeing progress on our streets. So that's going to be a primary focal point for us in the, short session and around the ballot measure. And with that, next slide, I'll turn it over to Joel to talk about the federal.

Thanks so much, Jocelyn. As I mentioned at the outset, CFM advocates, Joel Rubin, part of your D. C. Federal team. And just want to say at the outset, thank you to the mayor and counsel and staff for all the help, in putting together a successful federal agenda for 2025 and, looking forward to another successful year in 2026.

So next slide, please. What we typically like to do at the end of the year, and I know this is the beginning of the year, and Happy New Year, is to review some of the successes from 2025, and talk about your federal agenda moving forward in 'twenty six. This is the kind of the first touch, and it will be finalized the agenda will be finalized later this month by counsel. Talk a little bit about the Transportation Reauthorization Bill in D. C.

That happens every five years. It's the major transportation bill that Congress works on, and it's going to be really important year, as it funds a lot of transportation programs that you all can take advantage of, including the LOOP project moving forward. So we'll talk a little bit more detail about that. And then do a little preview about what the elections look like in 2026 or in November. I know it's a long way away, but it gives some context to what folks are thinking about in Washington, D. C. As they're working on legislation moving through Congress. So next slide, please. I just wanted to give a quick, refresher on some of the things that we do in Washington, D. C.

For the City of Beaverton. One of the primary, objectives that we have is to bring federal resources back to the community, and that takes the shape of grant applications and federal community, projects, which is earmarks funding. So on the grant side, we help you all, determine which projects fit the federal parameters, all the requirements that go along with it, help you write those grants, submit them, and then advocate for them with your congressional delegation and with the agencies. And the mayor and team have come back to Washington, D. C.

To specifically advocate for those. Similarly, the appropriations side or the earmark side, putting together projects that are competitive and submitted to your congressional delegation that are included in appropriations bills, you've and had a really strong success record of doing that. So we help you formulate that strategy and ultimately submit them to the congressional offices and then again advocate for those projects as well. Supporting legislative initiatives, coordinating with state and local entities to make sure that we're elevating your projects, but also policy items, relationship building you all have very good relationships with your congressional delegation, and we try to complement that by being boots on the ground in Washington, D. C.

And then just overall strategic positioning of your projects to make sure that your congressional delegation knows where your projects stand, the successes that you've had. You all have an amazing track record of delivering projects on time and on budget. And whenever there's key moments to demonstrate that to the congressional offices, we try to take advantage of that. And I think you see them here quite often, as projects are there's groundbreakings or ribbon cuttings or just progress being made on the ground. Next slide, please.

So this is the fun part, in talking about the successes for Beaverton. Beaverton is doing, really well in terms of the number of projects that have been secured or about to be secured in Congress. So in 2025, the numbers in green have been secured. The yellow ones should be secured by the end of the month as Congress finalizes their appropriations process. They typically do it in December, but because of the government shutdown, longest shutdown in history, forty three days, it's taking a little bit longer to get these appropriations bills done, but we're feeling pretty good about where those stand now and that these, items in yellow will be, secured here the next couple of weeks.

So a Brownfield Assessment Grant for the city was secured by through the Environmental Public environment Environmental Protection Agency, in the spring, dollars 500,000. We were a little worried at the outset of the Trump administration that they weren't going to fund as many projects in blue states or blue areas, and so we were pleasantly surprised to see that the city was successful in securing the $500,000 Brownfield grant. And I'd also say I've been pleasantly surprised about the overall allocation of awards from the Trump administration about the awards that he's allocating. I will say I've always been concerned about anything that was awarded by the Biden administration has either been frozen, cut, put on hold, or there's just been a lot of questions about those previous awards being made. And so the administration is going through those relatively slowly, and those awards are being scrutinized more.

But the new awards, I've been pleasantly surprised at the distribution. So looking forward to 2026, the grant opportunities, I think are real, and there's opportunities for success in the grant space as well. The next three items are congressionally directed spending, community projects, earmarks that your congressional offices have secured in House and Senate bills for the City Of Beaverton. The senior housing project by Congresswoman Bonamici is a little more than $3,000,000 and that should be finalized by the end of the month. The North Transmission Line project was secured by Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden at $2,000,000 and that, again, should be secured by the end of the month.

And the Behavioral Health Court was secured by Congresswoman Salinas for $500,000 so totaling round out all of the grant awards and congressionally directed spending for $6,000,000 for the City Of Beaverton in 2025. So really just proud of that record and your team, great work on that, the leadership from the Mayor and the Council, and putting together a strong list of projects. We typically like to get one or two awards, so getting four in one year is just something that we're really proud of in D. C. That builds on the previous successes since 2021.

There's a list there, the number of awards for the Loop, the shelter, the WIFIA program, which is your water infrastructure. There's just a lot of successes the city has had at the federal level, and we're looking to continue to do that moving forward. There's also been some policy successes terms of securing and making sure that so you had a RAISE grant for the loop that was awarded under the Biden administration. There was concern that the Trump administration will be pulling some of those back. We worked with the congressional delegation to make sure that that award, is intact, and we're gonna be signing a grant agreement here shortly on the RAISE planning grant.

And then supporting the infrastructure package that passed in 2021, that, like I mentioned before, is part of the Transportation Reauthorization Bill. We're going to be trying to work to make sure that those improvements and those programs that were created in that bill are sustained moving forward. The transportation package, basically, there were three main competitive grant programs at the Department of Transportation before that bill passed. Now there's 23 programs, including the BUILD program, Safe Streets for All, Reconnecting Communities, that you all can take advantage of have been taken advantage of and will be taken advantage of moving forward. Next slide, please.

Here's the draft agenda that we've been working on with your team on for 2026. We'll be going after funding for the loop again. You all submitted a RAISE grant in 2025. You were one of the few projects there's about 100 projects nationwide that were considered projects of merit, but it ultimately wasn't funded, in that round. But it sets you up for really good in a good position to be funded in 2026.

So going after a pretty big chunk of funding, dollars 25,000,000 in the build it was called RAISE, now it's called BUILD. Trump likes to rename everything. So, we're going to be going after that program in 2026, and then also going after a $4,000,000 earmark request to your congressional delegation to continue to build out those developmental projects section by section, as we get additional federal funds. The Laurelwood Avenue Neighborhood Access Project is a safety project, that helps folks, with bike, ped, complete streets, getting to school safely, in the Laurelwood neighborhood and seeking $1,800,000 for those infrastructure improvements in 'twenty six. The Oregon Startup Center, which builds on the success previous successful earmark for the nonprofit business incubator to continue to develop and help fund some of the operations at the Oregon Startup Center for $500,000 and then Aquifer Storage, which is a key asset that you all have unique to Beaverton.

There's a few other communities that have that in Oregon, but it's a really good water infrastructure project that we're going be putting forward for the congressional delegation to support in 2026 as well. That can address some of the water, needs for the community. On the policy side, we're gonna be looking there's a number of policy items here. I'm not gonna go too far into the weeds, so just reference them briefly, but happy to answer any questions on them. Protecting the safety and civil rights of the immigrant and refugee community.

I think that we want to keep on elevating this issue with your congressional delegation so they can bring these concerns to the administration as they're implementing some of their policies. It's really important that your congressional delegation understands the challenges and the issues that your community is facing, and bringing that awareness to that to your congressional delegation will help them have a voice in D. C. To reflect some of the needs that you all have as a community. Protecting funding from federal overreach, under existing contract language, the administration is trying to implement sanctuary jurisdiction restrictions on federal funds, DEI provisions, and others that would limit, certain grant agreements that you all sign as a city when you're entering these Federal grant and earmark, agreements with the Federal government.

We're trying to make sure that the administration isn't doing too much overreach on that front. Ultimately, I think the courts are going to be making a lot of those decisions. They've already put a hold on the sanctuary jurisdiction status, to allow communities to continue to operate or secure to implement Federal funds without meeting the executive order requirements of the Trump administration. Next slide, please. And I'll try to go through these quickly because I know we have the State side too.

Supporting that robust transportation reauthorization bill that's up this year, really important to get that infrastructure package passed and have it a robust funding source for you all to go after projects like the Loop moving forward. Affordable housing, obviously, is a critical need here in Beaverton and throughout the country, supporting and protecting the key federal programs that were talked about today at CDBG, the HOME program, and a lot of homelessness initiatives that are funded at the federal level, making sure we're protecting those in appropriations bills, that need to pass every year. There's regulatory concerns about the FEMA biological opinion that is underway right now that would significantly hamper development within the City Of Beaverton and working with FEMA, to try to limit the impacts or delay some of the impacts of those biological opinion results. Tax reform, restoring advanced funding, this was eliminated in the Trump tax cut of 2017, where basically if the city took out some bonds at 5% and you wanted to refinance them at 3% as rates go down, you're not allowed to do that anymore. You used to be able to do that, but to pay for some of the tax cuts in the 2017 tax bill, they eliminated that to pay for, some of the tax provisions.

Opposing FCC preemption, there in terms of the small cell towers that are located throughout, the city, FCC is proposing to take away some of the rights of cities and to put in shot clocks that are really difficult to meet in terms of implementing some of those local control requirements that you all have put in place. So pushing back on that and work with your congressional delegations so they understand those concerns. Supporting housing for the unhoused, for disabled veterans. Legislation has been moving through had moved through the House, which we were glad to see that that passed in the House, and it's still pending in the Senate, and we want to try to get that over the goal line. And then Skoggins Dam, there's some Bureau of Reclamation proposals to potentially, limit the amount of water that's available to the City Of Beaverton if some of the proposals by Bureau of Reclamation go into place, and we're going to try to push back against those.

That's going be a long term initiative and partnering with a lot of the cities in the region and the county to make sure that those water rights and those water the availability of those that water resource continues moving forward. So we'll be raising awareness about that in partnership with your other cities in the County of Washington County. That's the overall agenda. We can talk about those if you have questions. I'll just touch real quick on the timeline for transportation reauthorization.

The House was supposed to mark up a bill in November, December with the government shutdown that got delayed, and it's expected to be marked up in February or March of this year. So that we're going to be actively, engaging with your congressional delegation to make sure that there is a robust transportation reauthorization bill. So that will pass likely pass out of the House in the spring, around May. Then the Senate's going to be working on their version. They'll start working on it in May as well.

But ultimately, if there's not agreement among the House and the Senate, or if there is agreement, it could pass this summer. If there's not, which I, at this point, anticipate, there could be an extension, past the election as we're looking at, and this is what kind of comes into play in terms of the midterms. If there isn't a robust transportation package, I think Democrats aren't going to want to support it as much. There's a lot of conservative Republicans that, want to not spend as much on government spending generally, and the, one big beautiful bill, H. One, the big tax cut, created a big deficit hole of about $4,000,000,000,000 over the next decade, so there might be some pushback into doing a significant transportation bill because of that.

And if there isn't an agreement on highway funding, transit funding in a bipartisan manner, then it's likely there would be an extension that's needed by September 30 to just simply extend it, and then the next Congress would have to work on finalizing the transportation bill. And last slide, why I kind of talked about those parameters of an election year is folks in DC always think about elections, and they're thinking about it more than ever now. Right now, we have full control by the Republican Party of the Senate and the House. There's a 50 three-forty seven majority in the Senate, and there's a two three seat, now two seat majority in the House of Representatives. There was a member of California in the House of Republican that just passed away yesterday, and, so the majorities in both the House and Senate are very slim.

It's the slimmest majority in over one hundred years for House and Senate. Democrats are hoping to make some strides in the twenty twenty six midterms. The Senate's a really difficult map. There's 34 seats up in the Senate. They have six year terms, so a third of the Senate is up every two years. Democrats are hoping to they need four seats to take the majority. They're hoping they can pick up Maine with Susan Collins. That's a very competitive seat for Democrats. And North Carolina, Tom Tillis is retiring in North Carolina, and they're trying they're thinking that's an opportunity for pickup for the Democrats there. But then once you get past those two seats, it gets starts to get a little bit more difficult to see how Democrats pick up those four seats.

You're looking at states like Texas and Florida and Iowa, and it just starts to get a little bit harder. So if there is a more of a blue wave, there's hope for Democrats that they could pick up the Senate. But I think most Democrats in DC are looking at the House of Representatives in 2026, where what we saw in 'twenty five, the current last year, was significant overperformance in special elections and governor races for Democrats across the country, from governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, Prop 50 in California, and some other special elections in red states and blue states where Democrats significantly overperformed. At this point, there's a lot of Democrats that are feeling pretty good about it. Republicans are thinking about what their message is going to be, and President Trump was on the house in in, the House of Representatives talking to House Republicans today about what their message is going be, going into the midterm elections.

And I think affordability is going to be a huge issue, and just, democracy, the state of play, and the Trump administration is going to try to change the narrative because of the election outcomes from 2025, where Democrats feel like they have some wind at their back. But we're a long time till November, but this is just what folks are thinking about in D. C. At this point and how it potentially could impact legislation, big legislation like the transportation bill. If Democrats are feeling pretty good about things, they may not want to make a deal that isn't good on the transportation front if they know that they're going to be in the majority, and at least in the House of Representatives in 2027.

So, that, I'll stop there and just say thank you again for all your, help, support, leadership in D. C, and I'll pass it on to the States side.

So that's our entire presentation. We can put back our one question for you, slide up with our one question. But today, we're here to get feedback from you on if there's any changes or questions that you have on the draft framework before we bring it back to you on January 20 for potential adoption.

Awesome. Well, thanks for coming, Joel, and meeting with us today. And of course, your state side team was wonderful in the closing of the session last year, and I would say a master class in what it took to get transportation in cities in the front. And Ryan just ran the map and so well, so I think you guys have a lot to be proud of, of the work that you were able to accomplish on our city's behalf. I think we're heading into a tough state session.

We're heading into a tough legislative federal session. I appreciate the broad policy framework that we're doing mostly around protection. I know the US Conference of Mayors is playing a large role in a lot of these conversations as well because it's not partisan. Right? Keeping state and local taxes and local control is incredibly important, and it was designed in the constitution that way.

So I do just also wanna say the pivot that your guys' team took on the raise or built or whatever we're calling it now when president Trump won and having to change our application in the last minute and making it to a project of merit and going to DC and talking about it was just it feels kind of unreal that we're in this place and still kinda holding it together. So I'm extremely hopeful that we're able to do that. And I know when Joel and I met with Department of Transportation, they loved our library. What I talked a lot about in that presentation was that how you could rent things and how we're focusing on making that a cultural hub and how businesses are growing. So two things can be true.

We can have a really great transportation loop and have really great businesses adjacent to it. So thank you for the work that you do. It's it's noticeable, and, you know, it's not lost on me that we have a really great in house government affairs manager managing kind of all sides while having a baby and still doing it and doing it wonderfully. So just thank you guys. I don't have enough positive things to say about CFM and the work you're doing for us. Councilor Hudson.

Yes. I'm just if it's okay, I'm just gonna go down this a little just to, so I'm on the first page of the twenty twenty six legislative framework, and the support size says greater accountability for federal officers operating within Oregon. Love it. Is it worth saying something like consequences? Because I feel like I've seen some of that in the language of what legislators are working on for 2026.

Yes. We can absolutely, and I know what you're referring to. And, again, for the rest of us, this will be outlined in the memo that you'll receive about the bills that are coming. But there are some proposals that are looking at, when there is federal overreach, what those consequences look like. There's been legal opinions around what is, within the authority of the State and within local governments to mandate.

As we all know, as local governments, we have very limited authority, but we are looking, to help support the State in whatever they can do to provide those consequences. And I'll provide an example of if you're going to break down a door without a warrant, right? That's a pretty typical scenario of what does that mean for the Federal government and how they have to repay back the family to the door that they broke down. So long winded answer to yes, and we are likely to see, to the extent that we can, consequence language in in the bills.

Okay. That would be my one thought to you all. I think accountability is a good first step, but we need to seek a little bit more on the consequence side. And I think what I'm hearing is that's coming is gonna be what we want. And I think just put throwing that in there would be helpful. For the lodging tax reform, can you, like, in one minute, just remind me about that?

Absolutely. So this is going to be, a reiteration of a bill that was introduced in the 2025 session. It didn't pass largely just from a technical standpoint because there were a couple people absent on the floor and weren't able to vote for it. So it's the same proposal coming back. What it would do is provide us a little bit more flexibility on future TLT revenue to go to, community supporting infrastructure, so infrastructure that supports tourism and, tourism related.

So think public bathrooms, public safety. In some cases, some cities were looking at, like, water infrastructure for peak demand, that increases in the summer months. So it kind of expands that umbrella for us and, provides more flexibility on this percentage that we're allowed to spend on tourism.

Okay. Thank you. I love the clear public meeting provisions because I don't even know that we know what our public meeting provisions are, so appreciate that one. I think my only other comment or my last comment, and this is more gonna be directed to the council, is, you know, counselor Kimmy and I have sort of talked a lot about sort of this, like, multicultural center, community center concept, and we're in this moment right now where we're seeing the immigrant and refugee community really struggling. And when I look at some of our specific dollar asks, I'd I'd like us just to to ask for money for immigrant justice work.

Like, I think whether it's a resource center, whether it's a place where people can get legal support, we have been hit very hard. And I don't expect us to get the money, but I think it signals something really big to say, we wanna partner with a community based organization and set aside a million dollars to put this in the framework because we are seeing people get evicted every day. We're we're seeing people get deported every day. And if we wanna shift the direction of what it means to be an Oregonian and in Beaverton, I think that's something that we need to do. Again, like, I'm not having high expectations that we're gonna get something out of this.

I think the idea is to signal that we see this as such a big priority that we're not just saying policy. We're putting dollars to it. I think it's really important to put dollars to it, and I think this current administration has shown us that institutions in their best iteration are not designed to protect all of us. And that has been probably the hardest wake up call for me and a lot of people in our community. Like, telling them to call a 211 or some of these services is not something they feel comfortable doing.

And, unfortunately, federal agents in our community right now have made it completely terrifying to call anyone for help. And so point in time counts and all these things are really low. So I'd like us to give direction to add something around that with language. I think we can be pretty vague. I'm not obsessed with what it says and just more of the idea that we do think that this is a priority for us and that we support that because we know we've had, I don't wanna say numbers, but a high number of people impacted in Beaverton.

Just and you guys could talk about this. This is a short session, and so the the mechanisms of how we do that don't exist. This is about policy. So

Just to add to that, mayor and councilor, we have changed the process for capital construction asks this go around. It is completely new to all of us. They are, limited to two per legislator this go around. This session, we could see limits going into future sessions. We would have to have this, ask sponsored by a legislator. We if that is the direction of the council, we can go forth and, attempt to get that in the next few weeks ahead of session, but I just wanted to make sure you are aware of that process change that we, just found out about a week ago.

This is the state level?

This is the state level.

And it's for capital construction?

This is for capital construction.

So I think I don't know that this is a capital construction ask. I think this is a more general.

So as I'm hearing you potentially on, money to support, like, housing preservation and, you've mentioned evictions, so I do wanna just note, one of the bills that, we're looking at is like a, I'll call it a minibus and omnibus, support for immigration and refugee housing, preservation rental assistance as well as legal support. So the dollar amounts that have been thrown out are $5,000,000 for housing preservation and $5,000,000 for legal support. And so far, that has garnered a lot of support. However, if the council so chooses and wants to do a separate and has a separate type of nonprofit that they have in mind, we can add that. I would just emphasize, to your point, on the expectations with the financial situation and the 5% agency cuts.

The flip side to that is we are seeing proposed, immigration support cuts from the agency's perspective. So it's going to be a very contentious session in what is available for dollar amount. So just to that expectation, it would be an uphill battle, but we can absolutely, talk to our regional partners as well because I think, our surrounding cities, are interested in what that support looks like. So, yes, and, if you will.

And I think and I need to talk with folks because I have I have been in touch with a couple legislators. I just it is 01/07/2006. Just started the New Year. I don't know the details. I think, again, this is a signal to say we're putting this in. I don't think the expectation is we're getting very much. I think the idea is that we are working to put this in, and we're working to put together what it looks like. And putting it in is not demanding it. It's just signaling to you that this is also a priority to us. I will also add the state has funded immigration resources and services, and that money has run out very quickly.

In the state, we have universal representation, which means if you're impacted community, you get representation. They are bleeding at the rate that we are providing legal representation for our community, which is awesome because we are providing that. But I just think having that additional layer of protection is something that we can do and work towards in Beaverton.

Councilor Hartmeyer Prigg.

Thank you.

Like, I think for me, like, the the ask that you have, counselor Hessen, it makes sense to kind of fit it into the public health and safety one where we talk about enhancing social and legal services for immigrant and refugee communities and others impacted. And it sounds like we have a lot of support from the policy perspective. I if there's a mechanism, like, I'm all for it because I think that, like, we should ask. I I don't know I guess, I don't know the reality of if it's possible. Right?

But I I totally appreciate, like, we know we're kind of, well, we know we're more than kind of constrained right now as a city, and we haven't been able to offer any of that direct support right now. Well, we have through services. I don't wanna diminish the work that that staff and that that folks are doing to help address this moment. But I think, like, we can maybe fit something in there. I would be supportive of that.

And and, otherwise, I think the framework is just it's very comprehensive. I think it really meets our our values and our objectives. And I also like that we keep staying focused even when the legislature is often not very focused because I think that's how we get things done and that's how we're successful. And I will say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the federal report. Like, I you know? So thank you. Thank you for the work that that you all are doing to continue to to look out for Beaverton and for Oregonians. I felt optimistic seeing some of that. Right? Just just knowing that, like, we are still finding success to take care of our city in forums that I was expecting we wouldn't really have a chance.

So, generally, love the framework. I'm supportive of adding something. I think it kind of fits naturally there that, you know, even maybe just something as as as simple as, you know, seek funding opportunities that, like, support that same bullet or something like that. Because we have heard so much from our community that, like, legal services are something where they're expensive, and they're you know, there's a lack of resources right now. And and people as as their family members are being taken, legal services are are something that is really critical taking care of or eviction prevention and rental assistance and things like that. So I think you know, you've heard from us, like, what the things are, but I I would support adding something into that section.

I definitely think adding something to the the section here. I I wanna be incredibly realistic with the council. This is not a long session. There's not a lottery fund. There's not this place where we could go in and ask for money. Capital construction is a piece. This is not a capital construction ask. And we you guys need to empower our team for a good enough reason to say, why should you give money to the city and not PERC? Why should you give money not to ACLU? Like, we're gonna be competing against the direct people we want to help in this scenario.

And I I'd this is we need an actual ask and the session starts in three weeks. So I think, like, it's really difficult to go in and ask for something when it's not a complete ask. And, like, what are we asking for? Are we asking money for legal services that are gonna work here? And if it has nothing to do with city services, it will get bounced.

It won't even like, if it unless it has a direct connection or we have a group or something we're funding it to. So I just wanna be realistic that if we add something to the agenda as a signal, then we lose focus, like, then all these other things become secondary, and our ability to actually get this work done on the city's behalf is hampered. So I think when it comes back to us, we need a more like, we can't just I we cannot go to the legislature and say, please give us money. Like, it has to be an ask, and the reason we're successful is we're very disciplined and detailed about how the money is coming. Now, policy wise, we can spend a lot of effort supporting groups that are out there doing, getting, asking for money like PERC, like ACLU.

We can submit letters, we could testify, like that is where we become like a force multiplier. So I just want us to be realistic. This is not a long session. There's not lottery funding out there for us to go and compete against. This is very specific, very short session with very specific goals. I think where something like this would come together is a long session. So just keep that in mind when it's coming back. Councilor Duggar?

Is there something in just question wise, like, does it make sense to add it now and then start building that that kind of framework for, you know, chances are we're not gonna get it this year. Mean, I think we all kinda

I mean, I would just say, like, I think we adopt our framework very similarly every year. So I think to me, it matters to to put something here. I acknowledge what you're saying, and I will say to you, and I said it publicly. I the expectations are low. The idea is that we're talking about this, and we're saying that this is a bit of a priority. So I I just I that to me is, like, how I would frame it. I understand where the mirror is coming from. There are community based organizations. We know about them. They're doing the work here. I'm not trying to name all of that, but I

think it's That's kinda where I was. It's like it's like, you know, we do have groups like just throw on wake up Everton, right, that are operating within our community very specifically doing very specific work for our residents. So maybe there's an opportunity there for us to define that. I don't know if we can do it over three weeks, I would, you know, maybe maybe the I like your language around seek funds. I I think that makes sense. Fully eyes wide open that this is a long shot, but, like, it sets us up to build build on it year after year. So I would support that.

I I think what I'm trying to get you to under guys to understand is that it is a form that we have to fill out with a very specific ask. There's no specific ask. We can't just say we want money to do services. It has to be very specific. And so I think councilor Hartmeyer Prigg's suggestion of broadening the framework so we could go out and look at grants and figure out if there's another way. But if it is, it has to be an ask. Like, I I and maybe Jocelyn can step in here.

Yeah. And from what you were speaking to, counselor Hassan, of, in my example of the minibus around the 5,000,000 and the $5,000,000 I think that there to the Mayor's point, there's not going to be very many opportunities to say, We want $1,000,000 for this very specific. But in that frame of they are thinking about where their money needs to go, they are thinking about allocating money, and where we have that opportunity is to be at those conversations and talking about Beaverton's needs and the community, organizations that we have here and making sure that they're setting up that money so that our organizations that represent us have the ability to access them. And so I think that what you're trying to get at, if I may, is providing that access for our specific groups. And so providing language within that framework that gives me the flexibility to say, It's very important that these types of organizations, and we can have that conversation of Wake Up Beaverton or or, whatever it is, and what they do are thought about in that way when money is on the table.

And if I could add, like, I know this is a work session, so we're just chatting. We're not there yet. In my mind, putting it here is step one to being able to continue to talk about it. I am not throwing out community based organizations because there's many that are doing it, and I don't really wanna say this one, this one, this one. I can name ones that I know, but I think us again, just that first step of putting it there and acknowledging that maybe we're not filling out an application, but we're putting it on this framework.

I do think that because I just got back from a really long time, I I'm happy to talk with some of the organizations or have us talk some of the organizations that are doing that work to see what they would want, like, in the next two weeks so that by the time we get back, I'm also happy to give you that direction if that's better. I just I think it's an important thing for us to try to, again, just signal that this is something we care about. I think we're saying the same thing.

I think we're saying the same thing. And, I'm also taking that as, if we wanna signal as, the session shifts over the five weeks, if opportunities arise, giving the flexibility to be able to jump on opportunities if we see they fit within that, I think is kind of what you're saying. And continuing that long term, goal session after session to build on that, that this is a foundation that we're looking, that we want to see those resources. I'm thinking kind of around the economic development platforms as well because I think they're going to intersect with our immigration and refugee communities, and those are going to be five session worth of work. Right?

I'm just throwing out a number, but we're going to be doing the having these conversations for years of, how do we set the seeds for larger policy conversations in the long session. So and that's what I'm hearing from the Mayor as well is, let's craft a language that, opens that door, has us doing the legwork so that we can jump on opportunities if they arise, but also recognizing, to the Mayor's point, that there might not be a specific path way right now, but we'll be ready for it if there is.

Councilor Tivnan.

Yeah. I'm comfortable adding in language that just continues to help inform how you're viewing and listening to and responding to things is boots on the ground there. So that's all I had.

And there's way less bills for us to filter. Right? Every legislature is limit like, they're limited to what they can carry, so it's easier for us to filter very quickly to kinda know where the session's going. And it's not like a long session where they can add in later, which is what happens in the long session. So it's very disciplined and short. It'll be very easy for us to figure out which way it's going in a week.

Yeah. I I just wanna thank all of you for coming in, putting it together, getting us money that we need. We were very nervous in the beginning of the this year where we're gonna lose everything. Yep. Nothing's gonna happen, but we managed to keep it all on the books and then funding. That's great work. I also wondered how mayor was going to DC and helping you guys, but I guess it worked out for us. So that's great. Don't know how you are helping, but but it turned out great. So glad we got all the money.

I I fully support consular Hassan's point and every everyone that it does matter. And even though we know it's going to be long shot, but to putting in our framework signals to the communities who's in so suffering that we are trying to find the money to trying to find resources. We're doing whatever we can to support the community. When we try to codify the sanctuary city or declare state of state of emergency that we didn't want it to be performative. We wanted to back it up with some kind of resources and this may be one way to go about doing so. It's a long shot but we're trying at least the signals to the community that we are trying. So I fully support that. Thank you.

Councilor Dieter.

I wanted to ask about the behavioral health court funding. So we got funding from representative Salinas, but we haven't gotten it yet. Correct. That funding was underlined. Does that mean we are waiting on it? Does it mean there's something special about it? It was yellow and underlined. The other ones were yellow and not underlined.

It's it was underlined because I added them up underneath the behavioral health court to add up to the $6,000,000 that you secured. So, yeah. Okay. That's the only reason.

So, one of my things on council is asking a very stupid question. No. No.

Not at all.

Not at all. Okay. I'm excited for that.

So, thank you. Yes. Yeah. And and we had a really good and when the mayor goes back to D. C. And articulates the vision and the importance of these projects, she has such a good relationship with them, but she also just messages it really well back in Washington, D. C. In the behavioral health court. She's passionate about all the projects, but she does such a great job of talking about important that is to the community, getting members of Congress to actually go to the what's the last day of the graduation Salinas was there, a number of your members of Congress were there, and the mayor helped make that happen, and they see the impacts to the community members, it really changes people's lives. So I'm really proud and excited to see those funds come back to the city as well.

Great. So I also noticed we are not making another ask this time for behavioral health or mental health courts or treatment courts. Is that because we received funding this last time, so we want to kind of hold off and let that

This

do its 500,000 should last two years, so it's possibly something that we could do in the future. But the hope is that there's a sustainable funding model, either at the state or local level ultimately to come in. But it's such a popular project that in two years, we might consider going after it again. Okay. There's also some other federal grant programs that are available that fund it in three year increments. So it's kind of a bridge to potentially other federal grant opportunities as well.

And I'll just note that, in the last, earmark that we received, they're still working on working through that money process with it. And, to Joel, tee me up on the state side, it is an uphill battle, when we talk about court funding because, we do overlap with the county. However, we are starting to sow some of those seeds across, with our delegation about the great work that our court does and the very reality that we're facing, right, without state funding in the future, in our ability to continue to provide those services. So those conversations are starting to be had, and we'll be, bringing that back to you, I think, in future years as those continue to develop.

And it's really rare to get a earmark for a project like the behavioral health court, and we started by trying to get it funded at the state. So we spent the entire long session trying to get it funded by the state because this is a general fund. This would be general fund if it wasn't funded. Right? And so when we couldn't get it funded through the state, we moved and basically said we need bridge funding to try to go back to the state to get it long term.

So that's why it was a shorter duration, And we're really we're we're we're trying to separate ourselves from the county, but really demonstrate that it's part of the entire ecosystem because if we don't see them here, the county then has to see them. And they don't have the budget or the courthouse or the space or the relationships, but it's unique. And, I mean, mayors from across the country kinda saw the earmark and wondered how we did it. And so there's a lot of conversations around that at the state that we're pushing. So this is one time where we went from the state to the federal government. We're trying to go back to the state to fund it. And maybe we'll know a house member in the future that might help us do that. So no pressure.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. That that's helpful. My final comment is just support adding language about consequences for federal agents that break state or local laws in their work. And then I'm comfortable with adding language about funding for immigrant and refugee needs within, like, our policy framework. I I wouldn't wanna make ask ourselves if there are community organizations that can do that work better and more quickly, but I feel like you all have heard from council about kind of where we're sitting with that, and I can kinda filter that through. That's all I've got. Joel, thanks for teaching me what an underline is.

Yeah. I'm an accounting major, so I do that all the time. So

that's Awesome. Alright. Well, thank you for joining us this evening. It was great to see you guys.

Alright. Thank you.

Alright. A last agenda item. Council new business. Councilor Timnon.

I just wanna give a shout out to councilor Kimmy for serving as our council president. Thank you for your service.

All right. With that, we are adjourned.

Recording stopped.