City Council - Regular Meeting

Right. I'm going to call tonight's regularly scheduled city council meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the role? Council President Duggar, I am here. Mayor Pri here. Uh, I have down that councelor Hassan is absent. Councelor Kimmy here. Councelor Teter here. Councelor Tibon here. Mayor Batty here.

Okay. Tonight we have a proclamation, visitor comments, a presentation um from Laura Media, a city manager report, uh a consent um a consent agenda schedule followed by contract review board and council items. So we will jump in tonight with the proclamation and will councelor Hartm please read it.

Yes, thank you mayor. a proclamation on behalf of the city of Beaverton. Whereas International Transgender Day of Visibility was founded on March 31st, 2009 by transgender activist Rachel Crannle to celebrate the achievements of transgender and gender non-conforming people and to raise awareness of the discrimination they face. And whereas the city of Beaverton is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive community where all individuals are valued, respected, and treated with dignity. And whereas the transgender community is an integral part of our city, enriching our c cultural fabric through their unique experiences, talents, and perspectives. And whereas this day also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges faced by transgender people, including discrimination, prejudice, and the need for continued advocacy for equal rights and protections. And whereas the city of Beaverton acknowledges the rich diversity within our community, including transgender and gender non-conforming residents and recognizes the importance of creating an environment that is welcoming, supportive, and affirming for all. And whereas by promoting awareness and understanding, we build to strive a more compassionate and inclusive city, cultivating a sense of belonging for everyone, regardless of gender identity. Now therefore, the city council of the city of Beaverton, Oregon, do hereby proclaim March 31st, 2026 as transgender day of visibility in the city of Beaverton.

Thank you. All right, we are on to visitor comment. The city requires pre-registration for online in-person visitor comments at council meetings. Registration closed at noon today. All registration was conducted through the city reporters office via email or phone in preparation for this meeting. There are three people registered to comment at tonight's meeting. As a reminder, visitor comments provide an opportunity for the community to speak about matters even if they are not on the agenda. Visitors may state their comments and should not expect the council to engage in back and forth dialogue regarding the comment as this is a time for the council to hear from the community. The city council seeks to be a welcoming inclusive towards all speakers in public meetings. As we strive to create an atmosphere of mutual care and respect. While community members may disagree with each other or the city on issues and may give critical feedback, they're expected to do so respectfully and without disruption. Disruptions interfere with the ability of other persons, other presence and persons or online to participate in the meeting. Council members do not interrupt community members during their public comments and we expect community members to offer the same courtesy to other speakers. Visitor comments are limited to three minutes for each person. If follow-up is needed, the city manager and city recorder are taking notes. And up first tonight is Juliet. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Julia Kai and I'm a volunteer with Oregon Falland Association. We're a nonprofit and a presenter of Shenin in Oregon. Uh I'm here today to invite you to come to our show uh during this

upcoming season. Next month, Shen will perform four shows at uh Kala Auditorium here in Portland. Uh some people assume Shen comes from China, but in fact, Shane is American performing arts company based in New York. Uh it was founded in 2006 and is completely self-funded. Um most of the performers are of Chinese heritage but were born and raised outside China. The 2026 season marks Shen's 20th anniversary. Over the past two decades, the company has grown from a one single troop to a touring company that performs simultaneously around the world. And each year, uh, they produce a completely new program with new choreography, music, and story. And then last season alone, they performed nearly 800 shows in 26 countries, including several in Oregon. Um, so those numbers speaks to how popular the show has become. Um however many people don't realize that Shenin has uh faced pressure from the Chinese government since its founding. Each year Chinese embassies and consulate contact theater managers, government officials, even community leaders in attempt to stop the performances. Um as Shane has grown in popularity, this effort has escalated in recent years. Um, there have been threats directed at theaters, the performers, coordinated online smear campaigns, and even legal attempts to interfere with the company. Uh, for example, in 2023, two individuals acting on behalf of Chinese government was convicted uh in a federal court for attempting to bribe someone they believe to be an RS official in order to strip sharing of his nonprofit status. So to understand why the Chinese government opposes Shen Yunin, it helps to know its origins. Shenun was founded by artists who left China because of their spiritual belief known as Fallong. Um a

meditation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Since one since 1999, the practitioners in China um have faced severe persecutions. Part of Shen's mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture, the culture that exists before communist rule. Some of the dances portray ancient legends and moral values where others depict the modern stories of courage and faith including the ongoing persecution in China. Uh finally, Shen is also a face inspired performance. Many of the stories reflect traditional beliefs in the divine kindness and the idea of good is rewarded. These themes stand in contrast to the communist party's atheists ideology. So by sharing this background I hope um it gives you a little better understanding of sharing and its significance to our community and I hope you if you haven't seen the show uh please you know come and uh experience it yourself. Thank you very much for your time and I also brought uh some invitation letters and flyers for each member.

Awesome. Thank you so much Evelyn. Hi, mayor and city council. For the record, my name is Evelyn Coacher. I use she her pronouns and I'm a lifelong Beavertonian. First of all, uh I definitely need to give credit where credit is due and thank you for allocating the $25,000 that was allocated in excess of the city council budget at the end of the last your last meeting. Um, I am a little bit saddened that it took 6 months after the ICE surge to the Portland area to allocate funds, but I am really glad that these that this money is going out to benefit the community that has been really struggling during this time. As has come out in the past few weeks, um, ICE and DHS uh, arrests in Oregon and Washington increased by precipitous amounts during the last quarter of 2025. It was by DHS dubbed this operation operation black rose. Washington County saw the second highest surge in both real numbers and and and arrests per capita of ICE detentions of any county in the entireties of Oregon and Washington. We went from uh detentions being under 50 per quarter to over 300. For some context, 300 is approximately the same number of people in the county that died of COVID in 2021 when we shut the county down and declared a countywide emergency. I want to commend you for allocating that money and at the same time I want to look more at what can be done and by looking at the city of Hillsbor. The city of Hillsboro took a very similar policy to what councilors Kimmy and

Hassan introduced and they were have been able to implement it by engaging in executive um executive meetings with the police union and hammering it out and prioritizing it for passage. I think that this type of thing is eminently possible in Beaverton, not only because I have faith that we can pass this type of policy to protect our immigrant community, but also because I know it's been done. I know it can be done because it's been done by our neighbors, too. They've allocated $200,000, eight times what we've allocated to help members of the community who've been impacted by ICE raids. And they're currently looking into helping businesses. Businesses are, especially immigrant-owned businesses, have been struggling during this period. Representative Suzanne Bonamichi has met with the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce to talk about the effects that ICE rates have had on local businesses. And there have been numerous news stories that have shown that some local businesses have lost up to 75% of their customers during this period. More aid would be absolutely welcome. An FAQ section on the website would be absolutely welcome because we need more communication about what the city can do to help out its beaver community. I noticed that the multicultural report is on the agenda for tonight and I'm heartened by that and hopefully we can take some lessons from there on how to move forward. Lastly, as a lifelong and proud transgender Oregonian and Bertonian, I look forward to increasing transgender visibility on the day that it has been proclaimed by the city and joining you on the day next year. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for joining us, uh, Antonia. Mayor Bey, during your attempt to raise a false flag of sexism in your statement at the Washington County Democrats endorsement meeting, you once again use my community as a platform. Since you didn't find it important to go to them, I did. I've met with over 24 of Beaverton businesses in your city. Tell the community you champion what Beaverton is doing. Tell them why it took you guys over a month then Hillsboro and Washington County to declare a state of emergency. Tell them if the Beaverton Police Department has already figured out when to implement the code that my team asked them to create for Wacka to document ICE activity. Tell them where is your plan to help the businesses that have strengthened, brought prosperity and benefited Beaverton. During your comment, you seem to be very concerned about offending a woman of color. As a woman of color, an immigrant, a daughter of an immigrant, and someone who carries their passport, I found I am offended that you keep using a platform of my community while absolutely ignoring them. What I did is what grassroots means. Take a good look at me because I am what a Latino community leader is. a title that I am taking on today, not because it was given to me by a white woman, self-appointed Latino community leaders, but by my community.

While you and Felicia play politics, my community has been suffering. Maybe instead of digging up Blaine Solommani's Pearson's voting record, you should do your job and connect with the community. And today I brought you a framed version of the definition of prodigy so you don't forget what it means. Okay. Uh we are on to a presentation tonight. Um or sorry city managers. Nope. We are on a presentation. Agenda Bill 26054, City of Beaverton Multicultural Gap Analysis Finding, and Laura Media and her team. And I'm not sure who from the city is here. All right, let's do it. Good evening, Mayor Batty and members of city council. I'm Dr. Kenya Williams and I serve as the chief equity officer for the city of Beaverton. Thank you for making time this evening to receive the findings of the multicultural gap analysis. Joining me this evening are Victoria Lara and Antonio Lara from Laura Media. The goal the main goals of this analysis were to better understand existing knowledge and identify gaps that could hinder a sense of belonging and connectedness in the city of

Beaverton among diverse and multicultural communities. Victoria and Antonio will guide us through key findings and recommendations. All this information was shared by community members who care deeply about our city and want to make it better for everyone. I'll now turn it over to Victoria and Antonio.

Good evening. Thank you for having us here. Okay. Thanks. Good evening. Thanks for having us tonight. This comprehensive uh gap analysis was conducted to inform the city of Beaverton about resident insights on how to improve services for immigrants, refugees, and other marginalized communities aiming to enhance their sense of belonging and connectedness. This project is vital for fostering social cohesion, economic vital v vitality, and equitable access to services. Key challenges included addressing diverse needs, collecting comprehensive data, and engaging stakeholders. This analysis is crucial to step toward a more inclusive and equitable Beverton. My name is Antonio. Hi.

And now, um, I want to say thank you for the opportunity that you give us to work with the city of Beverton. is always uh a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to deeply listen to the citizens and the residents of these cities. My dad always used to say, "Victoria, you have two ears and I have two big ears and one mouth." And the only way to learn is really to listen because we all can talk. And I know as uh women of color and immigrants sometimes we don't have voices, but in order to really learn from others, we have to listen. And that's what we have the privilege with this project. We sit and we listen the residents. And one thing I'm going to say before we pass to the video, a lot of the residents, they love this city. They really love this city. And yeah, the city and the people who serve this city can do much better. Yes. And we all can do much better as leaders, as members of the community. Of course. And we have a lot of challenge. Yes. And right now the things are very difficult. Yes, but people are in love with this city for sure. And that we will listen and we learn. And it was very contagious that people are in love with this city. And can we can we watch the video please?

I love living in Beaverton. We moved here 15 years ago from the east coast. It's been a fantastic place to live. My kids have gone to school in the district. Uh we're very involved in the library, very involved in other arts organizations like the researcher and we just think it's a great place to be and a great place to raise our family. I feel very connected to Beaverton. I raised my children here. They're now young adults and we came, my family and I came to Beaverton over 20 years ago. So, it's about 25 years now. And they grew up here. They flourished here. We had a wonderful time.

Yeah. I would say I feel pretty connected to my city. Um, I would say that proximity is very helpful with that. I live very close to the downtown area, so the events and like the farmers market are super accessible for me and my family and attending those has helped us has helped create um like a better sense of community for us.

It's it's exciting to live in uh one of the most diverse cities in the state of Oregon. And um I'm hoping that uh we can continue to grow and uh work with um uh people of color and especially uh business owners. I think that, you know, we have a lot of program that the city hosts and I think, you know, just getting the word out and uh providing more opportunities for the community to get involved and really feel like they have a voice because they are the ones that create our community. It's it's they are the ones that will create our future and and make the city of Beaverton even better than it is now.

I've always loved the way city government was managed here in Beaverton. and I thought they were progressive, intelligent, and caring and compassionate. Um, again, now I find myself feeling a little disconnected because I don't see the programs that I'd like to see for people in my age group and um opportunities that allow me to continue to thrive and enjoy uh the beautiful community and the beautiful city. What I'd like to see is more inclusiveness um opportunities that show the diversity of the city uh conclusively, not separate and apart, which is how it appears. Most times I see specific opportunities for specific ethnicities and I'd like to see something multicultural. I'd like to see Beaverton take it to the next level. If I could change one thing, uh the city of Beaverton um has done a great job of um creating some supports for homeless populations um including the shelters, the new shelters that have um come about. Um I think we shortfall when it comes into sustainable housing with supports for people with substance use disorder and mental health. And I I feel like we need to do a better job of creating um housing programs that are sustainable and create pathways to permanent housing that can be sustained. We need to have more options for folks, especially in family violence situations and in domestic violence situations. And accepting folks in the community that have those different experiences with the criminal legal system with the harm that's been done is extremely important.

And I love this city. I love the people in this city. even if harm has been caused. I would love to see the city offer more places for seniors to gather, more um events that seniors could participate in. LC Stirs events are often unaffordable. The financial aid is really hard to meet the arrange test. Um so just more ways for seniors to meet and get involved and more places for them to gather. Um and I love the farmers market. So please continue more events like that. Um, and thank you very much.

Um, in any city I've lived in, I've always had a multicultural center. I can't stress enough how much I have seen um those centers just become wonderful hubs for community and not just um Latinos, African-Americans, you know, um just you know, BPIC people. um it is just a community hub and they're always really thriving and I think yeah I think that that would be an amazing space that we could um accomplish. I think I would love to see the city provide a little more support to the neighborhood associations. I know that it's a great way for people on a micro level to connect within the community and it's usually all volunteerbased and so outreach is really difficult. I think communication is often a challenge because they don't have resources. So I think some sort of funding on behalf of the neighborhood associations for outreach would be a great idea. And if we want to be a diverse city, we also need to accept that not everyone was born here and that they are valuable members of the community that bring the a richness and love that everyone deserves to be felt. and Beaverton should support that by making it safer for everyone. Um, another way they can make it safer for everyone is to allow for more options um for folks after harm has been done in their community.

We're grateful to the leadership of the city of Beaverton and thank you for what you do to make this a great place for families and a great place to live, work, and play. Thank you. I mean the report is 45 pages. We cannot present all the report in a couple minutes. That's why we wanted to present the video and some of the people who participated. But we going to give you a track a very in a couple minutes just less less minutes than the video. I track of the report and we send you Kenya send you the report that you hopefully have the time to read. I know you're very busy and tired but hopefully you can read it. A slide two please. What we heard and I going to do it very very fast and very simple. Community is a strong institutional connection is uneven. As you hear, Bton is very diverse. Belongings grows where access exist, safety and share power are embedded and weekends where system feel distant and hard to navigate. I mean that is very common, right? When resources are affordable, multilingual, nervy and accessible and people feel safe, participation grows. When there are barriers, cost transportation, language gaps, lack of child care, confusing system, participation drops. That's not scientific or very complicated. That is very common. Trust shapes belonging.

Fear and a consistent follow through reduces engagement. Psychological safety matter as much as programming and people told us sometimes cities console we invest and it's very expensive to invest in programming. We want we are so perfectionist and we want programming to be flawless and be so perfect and we spend so much time discussing and programming because that is the culture of the white culture right but people don't care so much about perfection and programming psychological safety engagement human touch is more important than that and sometimes that is even cheaper. Engagement representation requires power sharing. Celebration is good but it's not enough. Belonging requires voice and influence not just visibility. Communities really request have a voice have influence real influence share decision making. align funding and the most important thing we learned after focus groups, interviews, a lot of surveys and a lot of talking to people was communication. It was not a place, it was not a building. People really wants communication, better communication. Communication is the get way. If people don't know what exists, they cannot participate. They want to know who is responsible and how to engage. As simple

as that. Belonging grows where access plus safety plus share power are built into the system. And if you have a relationship, communication is not easy. I work mama with my three brothers. Communication is easy. No, every day I work with my three brothers. Anton is one of my brothers. Pablo is one of my brothers. P is one of my brothers. We are more than just family, right? And you're married and you have a friend. Communication is not as easy as I saying. But sometimes we think, oh, the building is need. I don't build a building. I just saying people told us what they want is communication and I will pass it to Anthony.

Thanks. Next slide. So Victoria mentioned we we um did some exercises some community engagement and research exercises. We heard from uh Beaverton residents from uh in city leadership. We had five focus groups, 68 surveys and 12 interviews with leadership. Next, this is just some of the data that we that we have. Um, this is how long people has been residing in the city. Most people has been here 15 plus years. The next chunk is five to 10. And the next one is actually no the second one is people that is not resident they come here and work here but they have strong community ties and then five to 10 years and then less than five years. So these are people that really are engaged with the with the city that are known because they've been here for a long time. Next one.

Okay. The top barriers identify our communication gaps. I already talked about it. Language and cultural barriers, limited interpretation and cultural responsive service, transportation, limited transit and events concentrated in a few areas or Beverton. People wants to participate but the events the main events are just concentrated in a few areas. cost and time, fees, work schedules, and lack of child care offer, trust and safety concerns, fear of enforcement, and institutional mistrust, especially right now with everything that's going on. Um, limited civic access, unclear on clear pathways to participate and influence decisions. Next slide, please. what the community is requesting. Residents are asking for access to have a a voice and system that reflect the diversity that exists in Beverton. And I know Beaverton has done a lot to to express the diver diversity. We come to the events, but they want to express it and not just on the events. They want more than that. Again, they want clear communication, more information about resources and more multiple languages. They want youth and family support, after school programs, child care again, and safe spaces for youth. They feel there are some things for there are not enough things for youth. Better access across the city, more events in different neighborhoods, improved transportation access, real representation and voice, more community participations and influencing city decisions, more diversity on that follow through and accountability, clear updates on commitments and progress of

those commitments. Accessible multicultural spaces. They know there are a spaces and there are different ways that they can those spaces to be used because they know those spaces exist but they didn't want to see how those spaces can be transformed to be a more welcoming for services programs and community gatherings. Next we talk to council members and mayor and you give us your perspectives. You have a strong connections to this city. You are very committed and you want a long-term residence and civic involvement. You have deep ties through nonprofit businesses and community leadership. And you know that is very important. You recognize there an equity gap. You know that many residents especially immigrants and bipo community don't do not feel equity connected to city systems. And you recognize that you know the leadership connection has to go hand in hand to community belonging and you know that you are very clear of your role of elected officials to go and engage and hear community voices. Show up and really be a part of in the community spaces and engage with community. advocate for equity and inclusion and steward resources and expand representation. And you identify the challenge there's limited resources and staff capacity, communication and language gaps, fear and mistrust and some communities and structural barriers to participation. And now to the last part almost priority recommendations. We put everything that

people told us we put in recommendations just to close and it's very what people has told us to with the focus groups and everything share power and instit institutionalized community cocreation diverse advisory councils and again I'm going very fast because can you imagine 45 pages I mean I trying to do it in 10 minutes. Um, diverse advisory councils, they know diversity councils exist, but they want to make it more diverse. They say that if you can find a way to compensate people that are part of diversity council, that will be great. And they have to be tied to policy and budgets. They don't want to be performative. If there is a way that they can see that their work can tabby tie or or influence policy and budgets, they will appreciate improve access community navigators and multilingual system. They would like to see the how the community navigators or create a navigator program. They have expanded language access and create and centralized information hub something that the people can have easily access to find resources in the city of Bton. Invest in community and infrastructure. Create a multicultural hub. More equitable funding. Develop a multicultural community spaces. Simplify funding processes. Increase support for community-led organizations.

Make participation accessible for all. Inclusive civic engagement like again child care, hybrid meetings, accessibility support event across neighborhoods. They would like to create more events in some of the neighborhoods especially people with disabilities or people doesn't have uh ne people residents that doesn't have access to come to downtown or other areas transportation and geographic access improvements. And the last is straightening safety, trust and accountability. Community safety and transparency was a big one especially with everything going on. Create a nonp police safety responses. Equity focuses budgeting public equity accountability and dashboard. And the last one we say belonging go grows when access representation safety and accountability are built into city systems. In our report, you can also see some of the uh quotes that participants gave us as well. And the last please if you have I don't know if we have time for questions but if you have questions

council any questions? Council Harter PR. Yes. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. um you did a great job of consolidating that in such a quick time. I'm curious, you talked a bit about um like a multicultural space being both a space and like not a feeling, it's something, right? But do you think there was a clear like does does having more events like having more multicultural connection and community, right? um knowing we're in like a resource constrained environment and to acquire or build a building is very expensive.

Um and not that events don't take effort, they do. Our staff does amazing with them. But I'm curious if that there's like kind of a sense of like that connection can come aside from a building.

Yes. Um people was not focusing a building. They they didn't focus on build or have a building a specific because people were more participants were more focused on creating or building community with their neighbors with the people they were close to them with the people they already feel safe with the people that they already they already are together with. And and in fact um they were more like interesting to use like a building that they already for example go to receive some kind of service and they see this space already there and nobody's using it and they say maybe we can use the space for something else. They were not thinking or telling us oh build something for us to gather. They were saying what about we don't use the space that were already used for something as a child care or for receive classes there or for gathering there or maybe even for zoom like some of our focus group we did it on zoom we did on virtual and they were saying thank you for having this they're not thinking about going to in fact they say we cannot we don't have access or transportation or the need to go to a place they don't.

Thank you. I want to I want to add um about 70% of the people that we talked to, they been to events, the city events, and they they love them. But also, we heard some um vendors saying that it's difficult now to participate at the events because it's getting too expensive. And so, some people already decided to stop coming to events because of that. Yeah. Well, also they told us the Beverton market has become very expensive for a lot of families for example to purchase things there or to participate as a vendor. Both. Both. Councelor Kimmy.

Thank you for presentation was wonderful. Um I think Victoria and I go far back more than 20 years. When I first came up to Oregon, I wanted to reach out to the Hispanic community and I called Victoria to advertise on Hispanic yellow pages. Yes.

That's where I found my assistant 20ome years ago. Um uh this is something I knew since I was involved with diversity of advisory board and every the needs are always there and as a new immigrants come come in their needs are little different than p people who's been here for for a long time but the something that comes up always is the space that they could gather plus the community community gathering comfortable able safety, right? Um, and economic opportunity all the time. So, when I asked for a multicultural center, almost everyone here plus the city manager asked for these needs assessment. We need to show that there's a need that we can use this tool to go get some resources at the state level or wherever we can get. So, I think it's wonderful that we finally have one. Uh I think it's I think we can cohesively work together to get something together to um to help out the immigrant refugee communities and also get them involved. You know that welcome to the city. Our motto is Bibon is a welcoming city and we should be one. Um uh I one thing I wanted to talk about equity is that equity is equity work is when we put ourselves in their shoes. A lot of times I noticed when we put out on program it's in our level and how we operate not as how they can receive it. So I think we have to put more effort into how can we make and and deliver the services of how they want it when they want it when they need it rather than we're going to put out a program and let's apply but we can go out there and help them to apply and help them to participate. So this is a wonderful uh presentation. and thank you for coming in.

Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Tibnon. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I love your delivery. I had a hard time not looking at you reading the slide deck because the passion

really comes across. Um, so connecting some dots between the video that we saw and the feedback in the report and then the presentation, the thing I keep circling back to in terms of communication is the Knacks, the neighborhood associations. And that seems also to be a place that could potentially tie into this idea of multicultural hubs is having a much better understanding of each of the neighborhoods and how we can increase the diversity of the representation on the knacks and make that a welcoming and safe space for people to come, but also use that as a vehicle for communication in ways that I don't think we're currently harnessing. And that isn't something that I had connected before reading this. I really appreciate that. Um, and then just a follow-up question on the Knacks. I know that we had heard it in the the video. Um, can you can you talk more about the feedback that you were getting in the all of the interviewing and the surveys of of that feeling of connection not just within Beaverton, but within the neighborhoods themselves?

Yes, of course. I mean, we also heard I mean, it's it's not using the neighborhood association, it makes a lot of sense because when we talk to a lot of the residents, it it is a very um efficient, comprehensive way to send information. And I remember talking to a mom with three kids. They say, "I don't have other way to get any kind of information because she's very busy." And my neighbor I trust it gives me all my the news, right? Of course, she refer news to what happened in Beverton, right? the other news can she send like resources who she goes to for a doctor she goes for anything that's what work um happening in Beverton um and other people agree um I think using neighborhood association will be great but also that we receive comments especially for some people of color saying that they don't go to neighborhood association and and saying how the neighbors the neighborhood association need to do a better job to recruit people of color because how neighborhood association will work if people see themselves reflected. When I moved to Portland, I live in Guugo and I didn't know any of my neighbors. I think I knew no because my son, he's with me today. He's gonna be 20 Friday. But when he was little, of course, he was playing with all the kids, right? But we were the only

Latinos probably in the whole Wugal area. I don't know. And in hundreds and hundreds of houses. But then when we moved to Portland, three neighbors came and give me things. And I was like after 16, 17 years of living in Guugo, I was like, what's going on? I mean, it was like very new to me. and and I think that Portland is more diverse, more open, more I don't know, more welcoming. But one thing with the neighborhoods I think will be good almost like um Beverton is much better than Portland. I think that training or a way to being more accessible to communities of color is and like a little develop like a little toolkit that say like a very specific like for OA when it was COVID LA media develop one page to kit and how to welcome and communicate for new members that were coming to to the organization. And it was something very simple and then people communicate to others in different languages. You need to do this one, two, three, four, five steps. Maybe something like that developed through the neighborhoods association like something very simple that people can grasp and maybe every neighbor that you get to the to just put it on the on the door like something like that. I think there is very creative unique ways that people can do and then say okay this is a like a copy something like that one page but I think it will be a very effective way to form that knit and

the people say welcome council president. Cool. Thank you for this. I've got a couple questions and a couple comments. Um, can you um Can you I'm struggling a little bit to understand the navigator model. It it's really fascinating to me. Can you just can you expand on that a little bit more so I understand? Are you super passionate? I am not. It's a bingo question. Um, the navigator model come it came for a a couple of ways. Um are you familiar with um promotes the salude? No.

Okay. The concept cames for a long time ago. You you familiars came is it's a it's a old concept because I'm a health promoter that before my son was born he's going to be 20. Can you imagine health promoters came from teas but it wor very well and it's here work very very well too but help promoters came uh an idea that it was training trusted a good neighborhoods it was it pretty much work with moms really moms they were home or they work part time but you train you you got women Um but also maybe because Antonio become a health promoter everybody they wanted and we we start training health promoters a long time ago but you train and it was for health but then then Latino no pro uh education promoters but you have people from the community you went to the community and you trained them and any issue you thought was important the training was one hour two hours And then people because we want to help the community and you say, you know, we need you to make this city better and these are the five things we this is our goal. This is the five thing we want to do or the three things we wanna define your goals. And the navigators go and visit your neighbors or your friends or your commanders your whatever and say this is our goal and together is the only way we going to do it. And they start inflicting others and others and others and others and others. of course health promoters then all of

the sudden they were doing vaccinations. They all the sudden uh start doing a very serious program. Providence has start investing on it. But the navigators it can be we I I have a lot of information I can send you. But it become like a something very established and serious. But if it start with one goal train this these neighborhoods or these women and they start others and others and others and all everybody has okay this is our goal. We gonna share it with everybody and we gonna and we gonna meet once a month or every two months and everybody has the same goal. I love that. No, thank you. That that's so much like

Let me help translate in a way that you might understand. You would call them influencers and they would try to sell you things like creatine and weighted vests but in a very more serious way with like health outcomes. Thank you. Yeah, she's much younger than Um, can you can you also provide if you if you know of any um want to move on? You said nonp police safety examples too. I'm curious what your what you're thinking there too. Like um do you have any examples of other cities and and kind of what that might look like too? I didn't hear you first. Um it said public safety nonp police public

safety. I mean, Poland has kind of one example of that that instead of calling the police, you call other respondents. Okay. And they go and they are trained. But yeah, there Portland is one example. You may know more about it. Yeah. Can you because he work in Portland when this was established. You want to answer that? I think um Portland street response response and that's the only one I knew about. I just want to make sure I was thinking along the same. Yes. And I think also what's important about that is the uh re uh resource drain.

You know, you don't have the same resource drain and law enforcement is able to actually take care of law enforcement, but someone may be in need, someone may be having a different type of crisis like mental health crisis. So, you can have a well-trained team that actually focuses on that crisis versus uh sending, you know, a sworn officer to take care of that. Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. So, I just wanted to make sure that's the only one I knew about and I was like, I think that's what she meant, but I wanted to, you know, the person who mentioned it, I'm going to check my notes, but I think the person who mentioned it mentioned Seattle, but I'm going to check my notes and I I can get back. Yeah, that would be super helpful because um couple comments. Um,

stop waiting for a I thought you were waiting for a bingo response. Um, we have a lot of special districts here in Beaverton, right? Like like when when I think of serving our residents, we do it here at the city obviously, but they're also served by our parks districts, right? They're served by TVF&R, our fire, the separate fire district, obviously our school district. And I think this needs to get to them, too. I've already thought about the phone calls I'm going to make after this because

we all have a responsibility to to implement this work um and to you know make progress where we can. So that's been on my my mind. Um my other let's see the other thing that really resonates with me um and and I went to the climate action task force celebration last night. Um I think there was a pilot model on some compensation for the board members and that that has always been on my list. You know we are in a fiscal crisis right now but like when we ask people for their time it seems only fair, right? and and my fear if we don't do something like that is we're going to get the same view few voices to show up. Yeah.

And and our our opinions that get expressed are going to be skewed. So that really resonated me with me too. So um thank you for all the work. This was this was I I'm going to keep this with me pretty much uh everywhere I go because I want it front and center and I really appreciate this. This is to me is this is far more than a multicultural analysis uh and a a gap study. This this is really insightful. So, I'm really grateful. Thank you. Thank you.

Um I think I probably have to start with how long I've known Victoria, not 20 years, but probably over 10 from my work at Virginia Garcia and then um when you filmed me in the height of like right in the beginning of COVID trying to teach me Spanish and just kept saying just do it. They'll appreciate it. I'm like this is going to come back to haunt me if this video pops up somewhere in the future. So now my political future is in you and your three brother's hands and your 20-year-old son in the back that was probably 12 at the time. So I appreciate all the work that went into this. One of the things that I found really interesting that we're struggling with with the city intersectionality with aging and that our largest growing population is over age 55. I know one of the things that councelor Kimmy talks to me a lot about his community is where do the elders go uh during the day when um everyone that is taking care of them and their community is working. And I think that's one of the things that we're really struggling with here at the city is like how do we um plan for aging in place gracefully. I mean we're breaking ground on two of the issues in this document which is going to be affordable senior housing and daycare on the bottom. And that's just like a drip in the bucket. Later on in the agenda we're approving property tax waiverss for 14 buildings in the city that have all been built in the last six years. And so what I really took away from your messaging here was communication. And it's something the council has been talking about so much that I think my job as the mayor um is not just an idea factory, but the chief communication officer sometimes about telling the message of the city because it's not just the city. like even though um John is passionate about every topic we talk about tonight um he really I think the idea that special districts do have a role to play like we they run the majority of the events in the city. I think the other thing that I took away from both the video and what is written in here is that we have to get out of city hall and

our events that are here when I was a baby city counselor we had events in every single neighborhood and they weren't lavish. They were literally the council making hot dogs and handing them out. And I think you hit it spot on that our events are wonderful and fantastic and they are executed up here. But I miss the days of serving hot dogs in a park in a in a bouncy house. And how do we get back to some of those things where natural gathering is starting to um to happen? And Beaverton is really large and every event can't happen in the core. in our downtown is really important and it has growth and I love hanging out at the first street dining commons but I also like hanging out in South Cooper Mountain. We also need to communicate not just about what we're doing but what our partners are doing too. Um we have a an Opair that lives with us and I'm making her take spot which is a new microtransit in our neighborhood and she's my test bunny of figuring out how easy and it it is but how do we tell everyone? It's not a program that the city is running, but it's something we advocated for and it's a microransit that's happening. And so I think for me what I heard loud and clear was communication because some of the things in this document we are actually doing

but like if nobody knows it's not happening and we've invested a lot and I think the other piece and I know we just hired this staff person and I don't know how long I'll call her the new Alexis Ball but that position is so pivotal that was reaching out to communities and that was the lifeline to the city. She knew every community. She knew, you know, I just would call her and she'd be like, "Oh, this is what the um Ukrainian community thinks about this and that." And I I think I see this through this document that that chief like person that connects is really important. We could call it a navigator, we could call it an influencer, we can call it lots of things, but how do we get back to that? And I know the city manager teams recently hired that position. So going through this, I'm interested in in how that works. And so thank you so much for the work your brothers and you did. And it's just so awesome to see that you're always the front and center and your three brothers listen to you. And someone that's Greek, my brothers don't shut up. So you're going to have to like teach me the ways to make sure they listen to me because your brothers seem to have it unlocked. So thank you for this wonderful report. Thank you for spending time with us this evening and we look forward to the next opportunity when you're at the city council.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Y thank you. You too.

All right. And before we get on to the city manager's report, I do would say that while it's not the Oscars, I do have a gift for our city manager. Um, this is her last meeting with us today. And if you didn't know, we've been playing bingo in the background with councilisms, city managerisms, things that have been happening. And so hopefully we're able to give you a few more of these things on here. But I did want to say before we moved on to your item that in your honor, we did have this piece of art commissioned in the shape of a beaieber. And when you get close, all of the words in it are things that you worked on in the last 5 years as the city manager. And things like super sexy, north transmission line, uh, Sexton Mountain Pump Station, uh, Keer Pumper Station, Be Sover, Budget is written here like a thousand times. inclusive, equity, recycling, emity, orchard, housing. Just I think that your touch on the city is wide and I on behalf of the council, we just want to thank you for this last meeting. And while you have two more weeks with us, we also had department heads sign on to it and I know we have an event in your honor in two weeks, but with me and the council, we'd love to take a photo with you and give you this gift tonight on your last meeting with us. By the way, I have bingo.

Demon hunters in case you need help. Thank you. Nice. I know. I am disappointed. And those of you that know our city manager, her favorite word is not on this bingo card. Um, I'm a little disappointed in that. So, I'm gonna use it as my blackout space, and that's poop. So, you're welcome.

Oh, I thought you were gonna go with a four-letter word, but not in the other fourletter word. All with that, we will take the city manager's report.

All right. Thank you. We just need a moment to get some slides up. I just have four uh quick announcements and then a subsequent report to give you. All right. If we can go to the uh next slide. just taking the opportunity just to give us a thanks to the community who was able to come out to join us for the state of the city event that we had in early March this year. It was fantastic. And if you did not um have an opportunity to attend or watch it, you can go online and uh watch the whole entire um evening. Next slide. We wanted to just remind the community that the your city will be hitting mailboxes around April 1st and it lists the city's accomplishments and I just wanted to take a quick moment to just share a few highlights with you. Um in the addition we note that we've kicked off the Cooper Mountain Community Plan which paves the way for 5,000 new homes. Our specialty court was named a national model. Uh we also celebrated be sober graduates with a community mural. We secured nearly $160,000 in grants to strengthen recovery and justice programs. Uh we expanded photo radar and upgraded signals to advance big projects like the downtown loop and the Allen Boulevard design. Uh we funded 12 neighborhood projects, planted 400 trees, improved water quality sites, and installed 5,000 advanced water meters to save millions of gallons every year. Um, we also celebrated the main library's 25th anniversary with 15 million visitors in counting. So, that's pretty amazing. So, if that um makes you uh bring a smile to your face, please take a look at that addition when it hits uh your mailbox. Next slide. We also wanted to take the opportunity to remind you um how to identify City of Beaverton employees. So, really quickly, here's what we think is important for you to know. Most city work happens in public

spaces or near your water meter at the curb, not inside your home. So, um, just to let you know, city staff or contractors will only enter your home or business. If you've requested it, you've scheduled an inspection or arranged a visit in advance. Uh, from time to time, we will come and knock at your door. We may leave leave a door hanger to let you know that we're working in your area. Employees also wear clearly marked clothing or safety gear. Uh it says clearly the city of Beaverton logo. We drive marked vehicles including police, code enforcement, public works, and other staff. Uh city employees will never demand payment on the spot or ask for your personal details. And if you're ever unsure, please don't hesitate to call us at the number on the screen. And if you ever feel unsafe or threatened by anyone on your private property, always call 911. And next slide. And this is the final slide. Uh we want you to join us for the next belonging speaker series event. I think this is a great announcement on the heels of the multicultural gap um analysis that we just heard. Uh this is going to be held on Wednesday, April 8th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Beaverton uh main library. And we're going to be focusing on getting to know your neighbor. So that concludes uh my update. And then um at our last council meeting um councelor Tibnan had asked that we provide an update on our response with respect to um federal activities that are happening in the city. And so I want to do that for you this evening. And I do have a few slides uh and so I'll try to move them uh through them quickly but it'll take just a moment to get those slide decks up. All right, if we can move to the next slide, I'll cover a few things under legal and operational improvements. And I'll just kind of note um the things with a little bit more clarity of what

we've been doing. And this is over the past several months. Um, as council knows, we did streamline access utility billing assistance and we removed those assistant caps uh for qualified residents so that they can have uh continued support even after the federal benefits were restored. 13 individuals have taken advantage of the removal of the cap uh through the fiscal year to date. As you know, we ratified a declaration of a state of emergency related to immigration activities. Uh we incorporated the Oregon sanctuary promise law into city code. This means that we codified state safeguards that prohibit city staff from assisting federal immigration enforcement, sharing non-personal information, denying services based on immigration status uh unless it is legally required. Uh we also require training and documentation to make sure that we have consistent protection of residents privacy and rights. We also adopted a legal framework for the city to expedite our participation in relevant litigation. Uh this is really important. And I wanted to remind the community and the council that we've uh signed on to four cases that involve ICE and anti-dei policies. And I'll just briefly list them for you. Uh Amicus and Newsome versus Trump which challenged deployment of military in Los Angeles. Amicus in Minneapolis versus Gnome challenging ICE invasion of Minneapolis joined city vers city of Fresno versus Turner challenging anti-dei and immigration conditions and HUD um department of transportation and EPA grants. Join the city of Fresno versus Gnome challenging anti-Dei and immigration conditions and US DOJ grants. So, it's really important to know that the framework that the council adopted is producing good work and allowing us to join on these um lawsuits and amicus briefs. Uh, next slide, please. Uh, this next slide will be covering community and staff outreach. Uh, so I

wanted to also remind the community we've launched ongoing communication efforts to educate residents about Beaverton's role in immigration and enforcement. And as I noted in my previous update um a while ago, we published a web page and printed flyers in both English and Spanish detailing how to identify Beaverton police officers. We also shared this information with our partner organization in the community. And of course, it's all available at our public facing uh facilities. We developed FAQ guidance uh around ICE response for our staff and our supervisors should we have an issue at the work site. Uh we also hosted a series of uh internal staff virtual dropin sessions for both staff and supervisors just to clarify our FAQ guidance and to address any questions that would come up for staff. Uh this was an important uh topic that came up for council when we were discussing the ordinance that was recently adopted. We also continue to provide economic development support to impacted businesses uh not only through our own communication channels but also in partnership with the chamber uh which we deeply appreciate to help facilit facilitate video series and other direct outreach support. Um, and as you know, we've partnered with um other organizations such as Central Cultural, um, the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition and the L and the ACLU uh to participate in the evening of impact. And of course, as you know, this focused on training and dialogue to provide essential information and skills about how to uh safely show up um for our immigrant community. And next slide, legislative accomplishments supported. This is really important because as you know in the short session um there were a number of bills that were passed to provide greater protections for immigrant and refugee families. Uh many of these bills which the mayor also can elaborate on after I'm uh done uh really helped to strengthen privacy protection for personal information. It limited the use of u masks by law enforcement,

required officers to have easily recognizable uniforms and set boundaries on law enforcement conduct in private property. But specifically, Beaverton worked alongside Representative um Chaichi to pass uh HB 4138, which limits the use of masks by law enforcement officers. But what's more important about this piece of legislation is that this bill will allow the state to pursue an injunction against the federal immigration for violating masking and identification standards while operating in Oregon. It was very strategic. Next slide. And then finally, wrapping up, what's in progress? Um after discussions with Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency, which is WACA, um I do want to thank um uh Council President Duggar for this. Uh Wacka will now provide monthly reports to Beaverton regarding dispatch calls uh that involve some level of federal activity. So we'll be giving um some of those uh updates to you probably in the next month or or so and then get those up on our website for folks that are interested. Um the other is that uh related to the previously mentioned codification of the state sanctuary promise promise act uh we do want to remind you that the council subcommittee is actively working with police leadership, union leadership, the staff and our legal experts to basically refine and update um a policy resolution that's going to identify what the city's actions are, what we're doing now and what we will do as it relates to immigration um enforcement activities. This will also include review of Hillsboro's ordinance as well. There's other um good things that we want to put into our resolution. We'll make sure um that we investigate and research those and add them as appropriate. Uh we'll continue to assess all of the legal and legislative responses. That's also in motion now. Um similar to the cases that I outlined earlier. And then right now,

per council's direction, we're actively scoping out um a scope of services so that we can provide mutual aid uh to those that need it in the community. And so we anticipate, and at least our goal is to get that money out the door uh to people in hand by the end of the fiscal year. Uh so happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Sorry, Councelor Teter. Thanks, Jenny. I just want to highlight a couple of parts about the lawsuits that we've joined. Uh we ran through this very quickly. Uh but those have had some really dramatic benefits for Beaverton. One of them with the city of Fresno, it's protected at $600,000 each year that we are able to apply for that supports low-inccome housing support, uh maintenance, things like that. Services that keep people housed. This is really, really big. And then the lawsuit with the city of LA and and Newsome and California that helps keep the National Guard and the military off of city streets doing law enforcement. Like that's a really big deal, too. And we don't have the staff capacity capacity to to lead these things, but we can join on as a support with all the other cities that are going through a similar experience. So, it is really good work. I'm proud of what the city's been able to do here. Um, it's really meaningful. So, thank you. Councelor Tivon,

thank you for pulling that together. Um, you can tell just by the list of everything, there is a lot of work being done by the city staff on this and the city attorney's office and it has been going on. And so, thank you for bringing it forward. I I'd encourage that there be an update in pretty much every single council meeting um just because we've heard it from the community. They want to know what we're working on. And even though we are working on it, sometimes it's it's it's work that goes unseen. And so even just through a a brief presentation like that, it it it I'm hoping provides some reassurance that the city is vigorously exploring every avenue that we can right now. Thank you,

Council President. Yep. Just want to say thanks real quick to you and the city staff and and Scott and team and everyone who's worked on this uh and our partners at Waka Tube. Like that was not an easy lift to get them to, you know, and and it wasn't just me. A ton of people working on that with the coding, the staff, everything. Um, one of the things that's sticking out of my brain though is we just heard about communication. So, I I kind of want to second what councelor Tivan has asked. And then I want us to explore additional ways we can get the word out to people because it's it's hard enough for me to remember all this stuff, much less like people in the community that are that are scared to go and get groceries and things like that. So, I I hope we can explore communication and let them know of all the really good work that's happening. Thanks.

Uh thank you for the update, city manager. And I would say that um I think one of the hardest things about a job like this is that there are times when you stand with a bullhorn and and you're with the community and there's times where you're quietly doing the work behind the scenes. Um there's a lot of work in the legislative list that you produce that we do behind the scenes. Our government relations team has been very actively working in Salem. Um, we were often the only city testifying on behalf of immigration bills like the anti-masking bills, working with our legislature, having our police chief meet. Many meetings went into that. I mean, there's so many um victories uh that it takes a whole village to get stuff like that accomplished. The city has worked in openly worked with Centro and we have quite often meet with Perk. We've we've been the coordinators of regional conversations with other mayors. We h work with ACLU very frequently and so some of the work can be communicated and some of the work is just the work of the city that we have to do and um we are the government closest to the people and and we hear it the loudest and I think you know as this job I I often think you know if I could just explain and go doortodoor and tell everyone what we're doing when we have these one-on-one conversations. We are doing work through Impact Beaverton and the chamber for impacted businesses. The majority of money we give are to Latinoowned businesses. the fact that we were the first sanctuary city in the state. We we're we're doing the work. Um communication continues to be I mean we could say it in a hundred languages as much as possible if you're not paying attention. It's difficult. I think getting to people is a challenge even with the best of intentions and it's something since my days as a volunteer on the vision advisory committee we talked about like how do we get to people and we often don't hear from people when they are enjoying city services and so thank you for this uh report on the back of the multicultural it's given us a lot of places to work from so I appreciate that uh we will um

move forward for the consent agenda I am pulling um from consent the contract review board on a downtown parking enforcement. So, council president, uh, which number was that? Uh, 8 or 26016. Uh, I move to approve the consent agenda minus, uh, 20 2601. I'll second.

No fighting over seconding. You guys are disappointing me on this bingo card. Uh it's been moved uh by council president, seconded by councelor Hartm Prag. I do want to make a couple notes. Sometimes when we do consent, there's a lot on it. Uh tonight we are approving the contract for our interim city manager who is over working in the wings. um tonight, Elizabeth. And we are also signing on to a resolution um or we're signing on a lease agreement for Community Action, which is housing community head start, which is lowincome daycare for a 5-year lease in a building that the city owns. We are giving property tax waiverss to over uh 12 um 14 housing complexes. The Barcelona, the Bridge Meadows, the Cedar Grove, Elmon Monica, Furrest, Alter, um Alura, Menllo, Amenities, Spencer, the Maryanne, the Henry. All of these have been built since we've been uh um as this compression of the city council. These are housing seniors and families and uh foster families. Like this is a remarkable list. We've produced more affordable housing for about 10% of our population. Tonight's consent agenda is um small but mighty. So um you know $90,000 of for um housing incentive projects on top of it. This is a good night for the city council. And so I think I hope when we talk about the work that we're doing, we are quietly doing the work. We are addressing homeless services. We're addressing housing. We're working on inclusivity. We're going as fast as we can. I think the work on behalf of the council is getting our special districts involved. Um, we've not seen a match from any of our special districts on the work that we're doing with ICE and immigration. And as a reminder, we own the least amount of property in the entire city. Our special district parks and schools own more buildings than us by probably 25fold. And so, um, we have some work to do on

coordinating a response with other people as well. With that, um, will the recorder call the role? Council President Duggar, yes. Councelor Hartm, yes. Councelor Kimmy, yes. Councelor Teter, yes. Councelor Tibnon, yes. Mayor, yes. Six, yes. Zero, no.

Awesome. Um, I pulled agenda bill uh the contract for downtown parking. I don't need a presentation. I will make my um comments short. Um I've have voted against this contract every single time it comes up. I have hosted a downtown parking roundt with businesses, bringing them together, asking what the city could do to address parking. As somebody that actively visits businesses all over the city, that takes my uh family to restaurants that my entire world is located here, I cannot sit down in any place in Beaverton and not be um uh addressed by the community members, sometimes in vigor, about parking and towing and where we're at. And I do not think for how much we are spending on parking enforcement that the juice is worth the squeeze. It is not making it better. We gave we the downtown Beaverton business owners gave us example after example after example of what we could do to make parking better. We've not moved on any one of those given the budget constraint. And I understand the majority of this is coming from Bera, but that's not like a magical pot of money that is different from the rest of the money. It is a different pot of money. And we promised, as somebody that worked on Bureau before I was an elected official, we owe it to our special districts to return revenue and value to the city. This does not accomplish that. I understand that we want parking to be better. We're talking about a very small radius of downtown Beaverton and the cost of this contract is astronomical. So, I will be voting no on tonight's contract. So, we can um Councelor Hartmmy Pri,

I guess I have a follow-up question for you, Mayor Batty. Um what is the alternative?

Well, we we have a staff of people. We had parking come and talk to us a few months ago. We all talked about how things weren't going well. We've seen no no major monumental shift. We have parking enforcement and I I know understand this is a new contract, but they're spending their days writing tickets for expired tags. U we're not seeing turnover. We have people we have apartment buildings that are parking in the rightway. We're giving um those people the ability to violate uh the our two-hour parking. The parking enforcement only goes till dinnertime. The majority of turnover we need is after dinner time. And so I don't know what the answer is, but I do know it's not this because like in government when things don't work, we don't just approve another contract to move forward. I mean, I've heard arguments that some of the turnover is better. Um, but we need better, you know, shared parking agreements for downtown lots. There is a lot of parking in downtown Beaverton. A lot of parking in downtown Beaverton. since Kevin, and I hate to say it, since Kevin was on the downtown BDA, one of the first meetings we had with him was working on shared agreements in downtown parking. And so for me, I think the answer could be us. I mean, we we had a consultant work on this. We have two city staff members work on this. We have a BDA, a chamber, businesses. Parking hasn't gotten significantly better, and there's not been more turnover. And so we are spending more money to enforce parking in a couple block radius. We could have taken this same amount of money and did like probably 20 flashing beacons with it.

Yeah. And so for me, the amount of money we're spending and we're going to go to the community and say we're in a a tight financial year, I don't feel good as the mayor making the point, well, this is bureau money. That's still taxpayer money that should be used more efficiently.

Yeah. And I and thank you for that. And also I I guess I wasn't asking you to solve it. I was curious like you know is your thought then we shouldn't renew, we should pause parking enforcement and you know like cuz cuz I think that like there's multiple options in front of us. One is we can move forward with this agreement. Um there's a reason that we we chose not to continue with S&P right like so there this is a whole new provider. Um but I mean I think the there are alternates there. So, I was also just curious like aside from a no vote, is there is there something else that would be maybe moving more towards what we want because this is a multi-year contract and so I wouldn't want us to pass it tonight if we're feeling like it's not needing meeting the needs of our community.

Well, I think I've met with staff. I've been very vocal about the problems, but this is almost $1.3 million. $1.3 million to enforce parking. And I get that some of this is the parking garage. Um, but I feel like I've given staff every opportunity to address my concerns and they haven't. So I I I mean to me I would say pause it, not approve this contract and come back with something, but I am one of seven.

Okay. Um, I'm seeing my my fellow counselors in the chat, but I also, you know, would love if if our parking team wants to come up and talk and like I mean maybe it would be helpful for us to ask some questions. Um, but I also want to give my fellow counselors a chance before I I move that list that way. And I I just want to be clear that this parking thing that we're approving tonight does not include the staff costs that the city is incurring. When we add that in, this is quite a monumental amount here. Councelor um Teter.

Uh, thanks. And I do have questions for staff. So, Jenny, I'm not sure if this will go to you or any of our other staff here. staff's prepared to answer your questions. Okay, great. Thanks.

Hello. Do you three need to introduce yourselves for the people watching? Yeah, the person. the person for all those watching. Uh, for the record, I'm Andy Varner, community development department director. I'm Molly Revenovitz, parking manager. And I am Casey, operations manager. Thank you. And the five people watching appreciate that, I'm sure. Um, I do have some questions about this. So, I'm not surprised that we're having a conversation like this about the contract because this has been a topic, it's been top of mind for people for a long time. Um, if we don't renew the contract, what happens?

If we don't renew the contract, then our proactive consistent parking enforcement in downtown stops. And well, what happens with garage operations? That is a separate contract that was approved last year. Okay. Okay. Got it. Thanks. I'm going on back to my list. Just a second. So, part of the purpose of parking enforcement was to get turnover in spaces. Have we been seeing that turnover in spaces?

Yes. In fact, um we've seen a an average length of stay go from over two hours to one and a half hours and our average occupancy has increased from approximately 55 to 57% at the beginning of our enforcement program to approximately 67% um and reaching the 85% capacity in certain sort of hot spots. Okay. I feel like I see a lot of residents, well I'm assuming residents, long-term parkers near some of the larger apartments that are on the street for long periods of time. Is that an actual issue that I'm actually seeing or are they not actually there all the time?

Well, yes and no, if if you will. Um, so right now because our regulation hours are what they are and the pilot was designed to ex to enforce our existing regulations, um, with them ending at 6 p.m., residents can come home at 4:00 and then they start again at 7:00 a.m. They can stay until 9:00 a.m. So there is a long period of time where somebody, resident or not, can park without um in in in a two-hour zone without staying for those two hours. being able to stay longer. Um, we also still have our permit program, um, which is on our short list of things that we would like to adjust since it was, uh, last modified in 2002. Um, we put a cap on it because we had a cap on the number of spaces available for permit parking. Um, we have reached that cap. We've had a wait list on and off. Um, but we also have a we we admit that there's a revenue issue. Parking costs money and our current residential permit is $0 a year and there's no cap on the number of permits somebody can apply for unless we've hit our cap, in which case they would be put on the wait list. Um and Casey and I um we've discussed previously and would be more than happy to bring back some options for permit revenue for residential permit um as well as looking at that differentiation between residents and employees because those have very different needs.

Yeah. Thank you. Uh this new contract talked about office space in downtown for customer service. Uh can y'all talk a little bit about that? I I'll I'll mention it, but I might let Casey also. Um, so one of the uh things that we have found is that um our current contractor, their contract ends on March 31st, receives a number of complaints, emails, phone calls. Um, and we believe that as ambassadors for our community, they should be forward- facing and they can also take some capacity of the issuing permits. It goes through their system anyway so that it's all trackable um when they're out in the field. So, it would be um an opportunity for them to take some of the things that come to our front desk um as well as like issuing permits, taking contests. Um those hours would be determined um based on what we've seen at the fourth floor front desk as well as what they as uh experts in in their field uh determine would be appropriate for the city. So, it wouldn't necessarily be a full-time office.

Okay. Got it. Uh, one of the comments at the downtown business parking meeting that the mayor mentioned that surprised me was that there were a couple business owners who had mentioned uh being supportive of paid on street parking or parking kitty just because it makes it simple. Is that something that we've looked at or is would that be like an alternative or on top of this? How does that fit in if that was an option? So paid parking I've I've said for nine years is always an option for parking management strategy. Um but talk about capital investment. There's there is a large lift there and ultimately it would be council's policy decision if they are ready to implement paid parking.

Okay. The capital investment would be for the machines on the street or

so okay thank you. Um so um so yes there'd be the capital investment for machines as well as software. Um, Parking Kitty has a Passport, who is actually the software citation system, is the developer of Parking Kitty. Um, but they have subscription costs and development costs. Um, and so it's there's still there's there's management fees and all of that fun stuff. Um, paid parking still requires enforcement, whether it's this much or even more depending on what the regulation hours are. If people know they can get away with not paying for parking, they're not going to. Um, in fact, one of our business owners that put paid parking in his own loted when without enforcement there was only a 20% pay rate. Um, so that's not overly helpful. Um, if we went away from machines in the street and just with the online app, we would have to consider accessibility, payment options. Um, the city has always prided itself in providing as many payment options as possible. Um, which is why we have one of the old-fashioned cash machines in the garage.

Got it. So an option but enforcement would some enforcement capacity some you know in some in some measure would still be needed. Yeah. Okay. Um does this new contract include different enforcement hours? It was something we talked about some too.

It actually includes more services. So right now our current contract, sorry I have this written down. Our current contract is for approximately 6,000 hours of service from our from our vendor. Um, as of January, we have been charged for 2,257 hours of service. Um, this one is an increase from 2.5 FTE of ambassadors to 4 FTE because we have heard from the community that there is inconsistent coverage. And so by increasing the number of ambassadors, we would allow for any gaps that happen in staff turnover. Unfortunately, we actually had one ambassador pass away on his way to work a couple of months ago. Um, and so this was an unexpected loss obviously and and very hard on our team. Um, but it's an increasement in enforcement hours. This contract, like our SP contract, is only going to charge for actual service hours. So, the amount listed is a not to exceed. Um, while we know that our contract numbers are high, we have never exceeded the budget that has been approved based on the number of hours we've been charged from SP plus. We've had extensions and things like that, but the number of hours has has stayed

consistent. And if we don't vote to approve the contract tonight, uh, I assume we would pause and reassess what the next steps would be. We don't know what those would be yet, but okay. Uh, I think that's all the questions I had. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Tipn. I don't have any questions for staff. If there's any other counselors that want to go first, if they do. Councelor Duggar, do you know how much revenue parking tickets bring in? So, parking tickets, Susan sent me that today. Parking tickets last fiscal year brought in approximately $50,000. So, if I

That is Oh, sorry. No, no, it's a I was gonna say that is with our Z warning system in place. Twothirds of our citations that were issued were warnings. You only receive a monetary citation right now if you have a second citation. So that is considering the fact that of the approximately seven to 8 thousand citations that have been written over the course of the pilot, only about 2500 to 3,000 of those were actually monetary citations.

I see. I think that's what gives me pause. Like that is a massive like like and and here's what I would do with what what I do with that pause, right? Is like I think if I gave Molly 30 $66,000 for parking. You could probably do some pretty cool things. And but that's what we're doing. We're essentially we're we're not giving you that money. We're giving a private company that money. And we're not we're clearly not solving parking. We're we're costing taxpayers a lot of money. And um and in my mind, this was always marketed as a pilot. And I think we've we've gotten a lot of good information out of it, but to me, pilots end and you pause and you think about what comes next. And that's where I'm at personally. Um I didn't know the gap was actually this is actually even more eye eye openening to me than it is because I support the work of the parking program and figuring that out. But if there is like a capital ask or something like that, it's going to be pretty big and like locking us into a multi-year contract doesn't feel right to me. I I don't think we should wait a year or like a long time for this, but I I think I I think I'm ready to support a pause on this. That's all I have.

Councelor Kimmy,

I don't have a direct conflict of interest regards to downtown parking because I have my own parking. So, um, as somebody who has a business in downtown, um, I'm afraid that if without any enforcement, we're going to have people parked all day. They already do. That's why I noticed this cars always parked at two-hour zones. Um, they're not my patients, don't worry. But especially school school zone area, they're parking all day. When they know that parking enforcement is not coming by, they could immediately notice it and they park all day. If you want to really help out the businesses, um I think we need we still need enforcement. I think the new contract is an improvement from previous. So, it's improving uh to solve the parking. It's not Yes, enforcement plus more available parking. So, um having no enforcement is really not an option for me. Uh but as long as we're improving enforcing and then issue tickets and collect the funds uh while we're trying to figure out available parking uh I think that's the key. I mentioned today at the meeting um that we need more signs to navigate the people who knows where the public parkings are. So when they do three or four times turn near where they want to go, you know, they're going to give up and start using the public parking which is only two or three blocks away, but they don't want to walk two three blocks. But uh as a business owner uh in downtown area, I it is crucial that we have enforcement while we are making it better. Uh so that's I'll be voting yes on this. I might be different, but that's my input. Thank you,

Counc. I've been lukewarm on this one every time it's been brought up. I think that we're we're applying a solution when we haven't fully explored the existing ones that we've gotten. And you mentioned the the public parking lot that's just a couple of blocks off that I have never at night in in my own time of circling the block until I finally remember that it's right down the street have seen that lot full. And until I see that lotful, I don't think that we have tipped and spilled over into a place where uh we need to be spending this amount of money. I would rather see that type of money go towards improving lighting and putting in signage and directing people that there is a lot filled with spots that they can access, which ideally people will. Um, and to the the folks that are staying there all day, I'm guessing it's either residents or it's people that are working in the downtown. And I can't imagine there would be another reason unless you're just leaving a car for some reason. Um, so I I I I am very open to exploring the idea of pricing the permits, creating programs for the employees, maybe even incentivizing employees using the public lot and walking to work. Um, there there's other things that I think have been on the table that we haven't fully explored that I would really like to reopen the conversation to do so. And so I with that I would just like to echo comments that other counselors have made and say that I'm probably going to be I will be voting against this.

Council Hartm Prague. Thank you. Uh I'd like to ask city attorneys for some help here because my thinking is that um we would just not make a motion. I don't know that we have to disapprove something, but I'm curious if that assumption is correct. Council, I think you're act you're acting as the contract review board. Okay. And I think your options are either to approve or not approve the contract the contract. And if it's not approved, then it would be up to staff to come back if appropriate with something else.

Okay. Thank you. Um I've I really appreciate that you brought up like the solution options too and I think we've heard a lot of ideas. I even think from some of our multicultural conversation there's there's these this is a solvable problem but it's a hard one because we have had signs up for forever and we try to pilot right and so I want to acknowledge that this is a really hard moment to for council to say we don't think this is the right next step right it's a hard moment it doesn't mean that the pilot has failed by any means it actually means hey we've learned some things from it and we know we have got to adjust right to kind of get to that next face. Um, but the other thing, I was with some residents this weekend. Um, they were seniors and they complained about parking and I'm kind of like you. I'm like, "Go to the lot." And she's like, "I have balance issues. That's not a good option for me, right?" And she's like, "But look at these giant spaces. Like, they could fit more cars here, you know, and then I could park up front." Um, and I think there's some of those options too that are things that we've talked about um or that you know have come from the round table and the business um the you know the downtown business feedback. So, and I kind of love that y'all are ideulating on these like well what else could we do with that money? Like you could probably be pretty darn innovative with that money if we looked at investing it differently than in a investment program that like I think it's I think a lot of times in city government we don't necessarily look at our return on investment, right? we know that there's services that we want to we want to provide and we we do that and that's an investment that we make in our community. But this is one where like oh that's a losing contract right there and I I do think that it would be interesting for us to look at it differently. I think as the mayor, if I were to go tell my neighbors that we approved a $1.3

million contract, plus we're talking about two fully loaded staff FTE to enforce parking down here. I think they would be pretty pissed. I think that I um have come along for the ride for parking for a long time. I've been very consistent in my voting from the day we created the position for parking management. So, this is not catching staff off guard. I met with them last week and told them all of my same concerns. Government can't just continue to action contracts because that is not in the best interest of this community. I am voting no. I hope my council goes along with me. We have to think about more than um downtown Beaverton businesses with this money. This is also the park district's money. This is also the fire district's money. This is also the school district's money. This is also every resident in Beaverton is paying for this enforcement. and is this the right tool? So, I would hope if it goes down tonight, you regroup and come back to council because the last time parking came before us, we were also very critical and we also gave a lot of feedback and I'm not seeing it tonight. Um, so I think we're ready. Um, councelor Teter.

Yeah, just one more comment. Um, a lot of the comments that my colleagues have raised have been really, really good and resonated a lot with me. I do appreciate councelor Kimmy's thoughts on if we don't have enforcement, there will just be people who park a long time um students, residents, even business owners themselves. Um and that is a concern of mine if we as we go towards paid permitted parking that people just won't care because they won't need them at all anyways. Uh but maybe that's something we just keep working through. Um, and councelor Tivnan's thoughts about not really feeling inclined to prioritize enforcement until the the farmers market law is really used, I think is also very valid. So, I think my final question here is this is $400,000 a year over three years. Bureau of Funds, would Bureau have the discretion to say, "All right, let's let's do some lighting and infrastructure upgrades to make it better for people walking between these other parking areas." Would bureau have that sort of discretion?

U bureau always has discretion to spend money the way the bureau board asked bureau to spend the money. Um we've done a little bit of that some pedestrian lighting between downtown and the farmers market for those exact reasons. So um yeah, if if we have to pause and look at different strategies, then definitely opening up a toolkit to look at what what what strategies are going to make sense. And um I think we'll probably touch on that a little bit in these conversations that about the downtown parking plan, which is what the briefings are on this week. Enforcement's a critical piece, but I think we may have to just kind of open up those conversations to see see exactly what the council um wants from the strategies.

Okay. I might be might be surprising myself by voting no on the contract. I love I shouldn't say I love parking enforcement. I think it's a really valuable tool for us. a do see value on us looking at the full tool box and then continuing enforcement as we continue developing other part parts of this.

I would also just say that like enforcement can still happen. We have police officers. They can write tickets. They can do these things. We can have meetings with the school to talk about students parking and we could say we're going to have you know we do this all the time if there is particular areas that need it. Like we can still do that. I do think there are issues of mobility, but let's not get caught up in that that if we don't solve that issue, we can't do any issue because a lot of times people can park and walk. They don't know that they can park and walk because we have no wayfinding signs. Something we've been saying from up here for 10 years. And so um I think I will also be um not happy to come back and say we're bringing in a consultant. You've had a consultant. You have two FTE to solve this issue. And so I want to I want to come back with a plan. We've had parking people doing this issue for a long time. Take this feedback and bring us something else would be my suggestion.

Um, and and just to add on, we have the street mural program now and an arts commission and perhaps we could get some really interesting, wonderful art out of it as well. Damn, Allison. Thank you. All right, council president. Uh, so I'm moving that we approve 2601 on the contract review board. Yeah. Is there a second? Second. And a fight over the second. Goes to councelor Tibnon. It's been moved by council president, seconded by councelor Tibnon. Will the recorder call the role? Just so I'm clear, this is to approve the contract award.

Yes. So if you don't want the contract approved, you need to vote no. If you like the contract, vote yes. Councelor Duggar, no. Councelor Hartm, no. Councelor Kimmy, yes. Councelor Teter, no. Councelor Tivnan, no. Mayor Batty, no. Uh, one yes, five, no. Motion fails. Agenda item is council items. Any council items? Council Hartm Pri.

Thank you. I fumbled my mic team. Sorry about that. Usually pretty technology problem. I'm usually pretty good at it. Um

Okay. Okay. Well, um, Jenny, I'm really sad that tonight is your last meeting and I have to acknowledge you and we came on to council about the same time. You were a couple months before me and I remember asking you like, "Oh, how's it going? Have you been here like six months now?" And you were like, "It's like day five, Ashley." And um I feel like we've just been on this journey together and I feel like you've put up with a lot with us and we've been through lots of growing pains and I just want to know I want you to know how much I appreciate you, how fortunate I think the city of Eugene is. I met one of their counselors and I told him I had a bone to pick because he hired you. But I'm really I just want you to know how much I have appreciated working with you. I've learned so much from you. I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable, but I have to publicly acknowledge you because you've been really amazing. Um, it's my first time working with a professional city manager. It's my first time being on a council and um I just have a lot of gratitude for you and I appreciate that you have been a partner to us and you've also been a mentor but like you've also taken coaching and I just really think that there's a lot of admirable traits and we've been really lucky to have you on our team and I will miss you.

Counselor Kimmy, I I miss you too. Uh I listen you need to cry. But uh one thing about the presentation um they um the stress was communication as you said. But one thing I wanted to mention is that when they mean communication that means trust comes beforehand

not just one out there blast emails and newsletters out there but you got to build relationship. So that when they say communication means I need to know you first right. So I would suggest that maybe put more things on your calendar, but maybe quarterly or or semianually have a um town hall type of setting for those uh minority population organizations with you and other counselors would be a great way to build that trust and communication channel. Um, I would encourage counselors to maybe entertain that uh idea.

Councelor Tivnan, just want to join in with councelor Hartmmy or Prag. Jenny, thank you very very much. I think the first time we met, we were still masks and behind plexiglass. We'd also just entered into this new form of government and you helped explain it along the way to to um I think the betterment of everyone on council and also just to that old adage wherever you go leave the place better than you found it. Your mark will remain here. Thank you. And Eugene is very very lucky and I also have a bone to pick with him as well.

Council President. Yeah, I don't think I have time to make Allison cry. So, I will just say I will miss you. Literally, my dog Odin would miss you if he could. And I'm super passionate about it. And thank you. You're welcome, Councelor Teter.

Jenny, thank you. Uh, the first time I met Jenny was during the interview process and we walked down Broadway Street, Main Street, all three downtown. Um, and you were so good at asking questions and that's been a theme throughout your service. I really appreciate that leadership style about you. Um, I remember we had gotten together shortly after I got elected and we're getting together for lunch and you said that you wanted to be a student of Kevin and I really appreciated that personal style of leadership that you brought. um you've been a real grounding source of strength and consistency for the city as an organization and for the city as a community and we've needed that and I think you've helped us grow as a council and as leaders ourselves and helped give staff a little bit more stability throughout all the chaos that's been happening over the past several years and it has been really really hard. Um and there has been push and pull and it's been forward progress through all of that and I running for office running for office again I get to tell people that despite all of the challenges that we've gone through that have been external and internal and budgetary and everything else like despite all of that we have still done incredible work here as a city and it's because of because of you because of the team that you've built um because of the people who we've got who've been working on all of this like it's all come together really well so thank you um we may have uh finance director or assistant city manager positions opening up in the future if you want to come back the lower role. Uh so thank you Jenny.

Wow. If you want to come back to aer job um you your retirement job's waiting for you. I I put um counselor Kimmy says something awkward not counselor Teter.

Yeah. Um, I know that we're gonna have a good opportunity to roast, I mean celebrate you in two weeks at the Reer, I will say, um, sidewalk. Um, having grown up in a city manager or a strong mayor form of government, working with a city manager, Jenny and I lament quite a bit the last couple weeks that whoever the next city manager is, whoever the next mayor is is going to have it in spades because we did the the hard work together and our the off our offices are close, but everyone can hear us. And so a lot of times we shut the door uh we we disagree and we come out in uh unison on on what we're going to do. there's not a lot of leaders that push back on me in a way that makes me better. And so I have appreciated even the tough times together where we're trying to figure it out because what we're both coming from is like this this point of we want the city to be better. We want the council to have the tools that they want. We have these limited resources and I've enjoyed our time working together and I know your husband watches our meetings. Um, so I hope he got a bingo card uh to play along with us tonight. And you know, you're a mom of five. Your whole family moved with you. Your husband sacrificed and came. And I think you gave a lot to the city. And I hope that you feel very proud when you leave here that you are leaving the city in a better place. There are things that are out of our control like the budget, but you created a whole new form of government. You hired staff. You solved a lot of our issues. You onboarded six brand new city councilors that had never served before. As a reminder, the two counselors that wanted this form of government quit midterm and left Jenny and I to bring on six people who didn't know how to do this job. And so, I mean,

historian, I am the historian. Thank you. And I'm the truth teller because Jenny did not realize that when she went from five kids, she really went to like 11. So, um, we've appreciated the work that you've done for us and I hope the next two weeks that you hear from our staff how lucky they were to have you as well. Thank you. So, you're saying that you're going to miss me? I am gonna miss you. All right. I actually said that I was like I said, Arthur, are you listening? I said, "Do I like Jenny now?" That's what I was thinking today. Um, I'm just kidding. Well, always favorite. You are I can say this with all honesty, you are my favorite first city manager at Beaverton. Yeah. All right. So, all right.

That's going to go on the resume. That's going on the resume. With that, Arthur, uh, make this woman a cocktail. She's on her way home. We're adjourned. Recording stopped.