City Council Regular - Regular Meeting

Hi. Hi. I didn't know they were going to make a mess when it went on.

I didn't know you'd be sitting there all day.

Oh, what was that?

Oh, I think Large had a...

I will clean it up after the meeting.

Do you need a Clorox wipe?

Do you want us to get a... Better, it's fine.

Don't snort. Okay.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Steve. Here. Kalarich.

Here.

Maskew. Here. L.J. Price.

Here.

Fine.

Here.

And Councilmember Knorr is trying to get logged on. I'm back on, I think.

Thank you.

There we go.

Yeah. Um, first up is that, uh, we will have, uh, opportunity for public comments. Uh, if you want to, uh, have make three minute public comments, please step forward. If you're in the chamber or raise your hand, if you're on the zoom app, uh, And is there anyone that would like to step forward and make three minutes with a comment, please?

Mayor, I'd note there is a public hearing today on e-bikes. And so if you're here for that, please hold off until that time of the meeting. Thank you.

Amen, city. So, Brad Richardson, Canvas Washington, and I'm here in my capacity as a commissioner for the Port of Canvas, Washington, just to provide a friendly update on what's happening at the port. So, July, we're pretty excited. On the 31st, we're going to have our summer concert that is happening from about 7 to 10 p.m. We'll have five guys named Mo playing. It's an actual band, not just five guys. They're a little... little jukebox style music. And before that, from about four to six, we're actually going to have a heritage fair. So our local history organizations are going to be out. We've put those two events together, the Parkersville event and our summer kickoff together this year so that we can have the history part at the beginning. And then we have the wonderful music in the afternoon. And then on July 23rd, it's going to be a pretty busy day. We're going to have our technical advisory committee for the Grove Field Master Plan, Airport Master Plan. So please come and check that out. It's open to the public. It'll be between 11 and 1. The actual spot is still to be determined where that's going to be at, but we want the public to come and see the process out in the open as we're doing that. And then that evening, it's just Grove Field all day. We're for some of the stuff that we've already put together based on the survey that we did with the community. And just to remind everyone, on our website for the port, we have our marine advisory and our airport advisory committees with all the schedules listed. Anyone is free to attend at any time, both of those committees. There are also free to attend the technical advisory committee. And then if you want to keep up on the Grove Field Airport Master Plan project, there's a full page, 100% dedicated to that, where you can get updates, events, contact, and you can still provide feedback. It's an 18 to 24 month process and we've just kicked it off. So we want the community to continue to engage, provide their thoughts, come to the open house and be a part of the process. So lots of good things happening at the Port of Camas, West Sugarloaf. Thanks for a few minutes and You get a minute back.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to step forward in the chamber and make up to three minutes of comments?

Wow, quiet group.

Are there any hands raised in the Zoom app?

We have Dan Derringer with us, Andre. Dan, are you unable to mute your audio?

Can you hear us, Dan? I think we're okay now. Can you hear me? Okay, good. Okay, let me just get back to my notes here. So good evening, council. My name is Dan Derringer. I'm a resident of Camas. I'm here tonight to speak about the proposed change in our form of government. While serving on Mayor Hogan's committee, one point was expressed there and also elsewhere that either form of government can work. A strong mayor system depends on electing a capable mayor. A council manager system depends on hiring an excellent city manager and electing capable council members. But I believe there is another essential factor that deserves equal consideration, the residents themselves. The form of government we choose influences how citizens participate in their own government. An engaged community may value directly electing its chief executive. A less engaged community may be more willing to delegate that responsibility to appointed professionals. As I've studied the literature on municipal governments, I've noticed something interesting. Hybrid systems are often praised because they combine the strengths of different models. Camas already has one such hybrid. We elect a mayor who is accountable to the voters while the city also benefits from a professional administrator with delegated operational responsibilities. That provides both professional management and direct electoral accountability. By contrast, under the council manager model, professional management remains but the degree of direct accountability depends greatly on whether the mayor is elected or appointed. What I find especially interesting is that while many cities retain an elected executive working alongside a professional administrator, comparatively few council manager cities choose to preserve a directly elected mayor. Currently only Olympia and Washougal. If citizens naturally value having a mayor that they can elect and hold accountable, why do so few cities use an elected mayor in the council manager form of government? My concern is that proposals to move towards council manager government often originate within government itself. rather than from widespread public demand. Over time, communities can gradually shift more responsibility from elected officials to appointed professionals. That may improve administrative efficiency, but it can also reduce citizens' sense of ownership and responsibility for their local government. The question before us is larger than administrators structure. It is about what kind of civic culture we want to encourage in cameras. I encourage I encourage council to preserve our current form of government. One that combines professional administration.

Thank you, Dan. Is there anyone else with their hand raised in the zoom app?

There we have no other hands raised to be in Zoom.

Okay, that's one more try here in the public.

Anyone else want to step forward to the end of the table and make three minutes? Okay, that's a surprise to me. Okay, so next is a consent agenda, right? What would the council do with the consent agenda?

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. It was moved by Elzengray and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? Yes. Thank you. Councilmember Eske.

I promise it goes quick. On the item in the agenda for Lacamas Lake treatment, first of all, I really appreciate we are doing that. We all need water in our lake. For my knowledge or public knowledge, this treatment that reduced the contamination and what would be the next step?

I don't know how much it reduced contamination. I know it was clear and we're trying to reduce the phosphorus, right? And the algae blooms that we get in there. We had no blooms last, last year. We did two treatments. We're proposing the same two treatments. The doses change based off of the specific type of treatment. As far as long-term, we did submit a water request, basically for a grant opportunity for long-term permanent treatment option. That would be kind of like a development of a wetland area as lacrimus comes in or permanent BMPs upstream. was pushed forward with Senator Cantwell. So we get on a short list of applicants for a potential project that's estimated at $5 million is what we proposed. So we're still a little unsure because as we do treatment, or not treatment, as we're doing the testing with the Nearwater Resources, our consultant, we're learning more and more, right, about what our next steps with the Algae Control Grant are looking upstream to find where phosphorus is coming in. So I don't know if I answered the question fully, but.

I appreciate it. What I'm hoping actually we can freely and safely swim, people and animals can swim in the water after this treatment. So it sounds like after treatment we do more testing to confirm yes or no.

Any council member else? No, just response. I would encourage you to go to the Lackamas Watershed Council's website. I'm on the board there. And we do publish data about the Clintons. So in fact, do like technically, Thursday of this weekend, we'll have new data. And it has been clear because I do the session disk where we look at how clear it is myself has been clearer than in years past and assuming it's due to the treatments.

Great. Thank you. Thanks for sharing.

Any other comments or discussions? Okay. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay. Are there any abstentions? The motion passes. Thank you. Next is the mayor's announcements. Start off with a pretty good one here that I want to announce. Sydney Baker. has just been certified as a municipal clerk. And thank you for your work for all these years. And now you're certified.

Thank you.

I think with all these people here, we do know that we have Crown Park that's been reopened. And thank you for everyone involved. And it's well attended. So do you have any words to say about that?

I will hold my Crown Park comments till staff update because these people are here for the Parks and Rec proclamation. They don't want to hear me talk. Well said. Yeah.

The library renovation has begun, and you can take, I believe it's up to 150 books out, just so they can make room for the construction. And you will have to return those books, but it's what happens. Really. The car show in Camas was delayed until September, and so my car shows... look on the DCA website. You'll find the dates. I had an email come to me and perhaps other senior staff members about a misplaced wallet that John Cole notified me on. And it was on a table in a park and He picked it up and didn't know where to take it to the police or the fire. And he left free down at the end of this table. Seemed to be in, I don't know which fire station you were in, but he came to that fire station as you were walking out, he said, and gave you the wallet. I don't want to make any other comments about what took place.

Turned it to its home?

Yeah. Well, anyway. Thank you for taking care of that. He got a text from the person who owned the wallet. And thank you. Gamma stays are going to be here pretty quickly. And this council, you guys need to step it up in the bathtub races. You'd be doing more practicing at this point, and that's just all I'm going to say about it. John, that includes you on the off-site on Zoom. Okay. With that, I'm going to read a proclamation, which is Parks and Recreation Month Proclamation. So, with that... Who is going to be here to pick this up? I'm going to give it to you when we read it.

Let's read it, and then I'll say a few words, and then we're going to have just one or two, a few speakers. It'll be short, and then if you can take a picture with a few folks with the proclamation, that would be great. Cameraman?

Yes. Okay. You're ready. Okay. Proclamation. Proclamation. Whereas parks and recreation are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the city of Camas. And whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving physical fitness and positively impacting mental health for our community members. And whereas parks, playgrounds, trails, open spaces and public gathering spaces make communities attractive and desirable places to live, work and play. And whereas parks and public gathering spaces provide opportunities for people to come, gather and experience a sense of community through fun recreational pursuits, And whereas parks and recreation programming and educational activities such as after school and summer break programming, youth sports and environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation are essential and adaptable and make our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas parks and recreation programs increases a community's economic prosperity through higher property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Park to Recreation Month, and whereas Camas recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, I, Steve Hogan, Mayor of the City of Camas, do hereby proclaim July as Park and Recreation Month in the City of Camas and encourage all citizens to join with me in this special observance. And with that, I will sign this.

And while you're doing that, Mr. Mayor, I would just say thank you for the recognition for the proclamation. As you know, I can go on a lot about Parks and Rec. I've already given you a half hour of my time earlier. I won't talk about asset management or staffing. Rather than me just talk about the benefit of Parks and Rec, I'd rather council experience it, which is why everybody's here. So I would like to ask Kylie Houck and Tammy Connolly to come up to the edge of the table. Tammy is one of our recreation coordinators and Kylie Houck is one of our fitness instructors. She runs the Pacific Peaks fitness class. Taking Kylie's classes, she works you hard. It's no joke, but she also, we also have the mountaintops program. The Out on Tops program is a special program for neurodivergent athletes. And what's really spectacular about this program is that this started four or five years ago? Four years ago. So it was an idea between Tammy and Kylie. And at the time, Kylie had no experience working with anyone with neurodivergent issues. But she has turned this into one of our popular, most popular programs, maybe our most popular program. And by the turnout tonight, you can see the support that she has. So I would like tonight to be the recognition of Kylie and her Pacific Peaks and mountaintops. Kylie, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

I was definitely expecting the microphone. I'll have to project. I'll do my best. First of all, this is a showing of Pacific Peaks classes. These guys mainly, volunteers, parents, and then these are my athletes. So we got 15 of them to come out for you guys tonight and about 15 volunteers. And then These guys. Okay. Anyway. So I would like to just say a few things about what Mountaintops has personally meant to me. Our athletes and volunteers have, in my opinion, perfectly demonstrated what it feels like to experience unconditional belonging and emotional safety. And I'd like to explain what I mean by that. So. At Mountaintops, we don't have to perform or change anything about ourselves. We don't have to mask a smile or make anyone else feel comfortable at the expense of our own authenticity. And we're not trapped in rigid rules, any expectations or societal norms. Over the years, these individuals have shown me that it is safe to be our truest selves, that we are free to change and change our minds without any judgment. They've taught me that while learning new movements can be challenging or uncomfortable, it doesn't have to be scary, and it's actually really quite rewarding. Most importantly, they've reminded me that joy is meant to be celebrated without hesitation, and accomplishments are meant to be shared. So, again, thank you for all coming out tonight. It really means a lot to me. Now I'm going to cry. Okay.

Perfect.

It has been wildly impactful for me to belong to this community, and I am endlessly excited to get to know and learn from all of you going forward. And then I would like to say just a really quick thank you to Chris, Jackie, Susan, Tammy.

I'm going to look right at you.

In 2021, Tammy, you worked with me to build this fitness program, and six months later, with only five athletes, one volunteer, and a million questions from me, you encouraged me to teach this adaptive fitness class, and you believed in it from the start. So thank you. I should have given you my person. This department has continuously... prioritize our fitness classes, especially mountaintops, supporting this community in a way that I could have never done on my own, which is very cool. So I am forever grateful for the opportunity this team and department has given me. And I'm honored to continue to grow this program. I would like to just ask a couple of our athletes what they enjoy most about the program, if that's okay. Is that okay? Okay. I'm going to come over there and talk to you. So Ryan, you want to tell, you want to stand up? You want to stand up or stay seated? You want to stand up?

Yeah.

What is your, can you tell everyone what your favorite part of Mountain Top is?

Yes. I like to work out and all of the people.

You like to work out and he likes all the people.

I want to tell everyone, what's your favorite part of Mountain Top?

My favorite part of this awesome, huge gym class is that I love to help people to stay on task and keep them focus on the things that they missed.

Right in front of me.

One more person. Grant wants to say something. What's your favorite part of mountaintops?

Well, it's hard to pick just one thing because there's so many things we do in mountaintops. i on thursdays i like when we go for walks by the lake um when it's sunny out and um i like on tuesday i like all the workouts that we do we always do different ones every uh every month yeah and um and i love lots of the people that we um that i that we work with like kylie of course and gypsy and uh tiffany and um and lots of the kids here i've made so many friends and some of them some of the kids i already know because we went to school together at chemist high school and we were in the transition program so and yeah we've made lots of i've made lots of new friends so like i'm amazing thank you i'm so pleased

Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Mayor.

Where are we going to take this picture?

Well, that's up to the photographer. I did the introductions. I don't do the photography. Oh, my God. Thank you. Why don't you take us to a few athletes and maybe we can do come up here and them all.

You can fit them up.

Let's fit them all. He's coming down here.

He's going to come down here.

Okay, all right. So can we, we'll sit here. Stand up. If we get all these people, we can at the end of this picture.

You guys can take the chairs. Put them in the chairs.

Sit in the chairs.

Sit down. Sit down.

Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.

Thank you. Thank you. Nice. Yeah, that is. Yeah.

They're not loud though. Right. Thank you. Thank you.

July 23. Thank you.

Next item I see on the agenda is the resolution number 26-0 Dallas Street and Loading Center is for other groups.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. Resolution 26-010 establishes one parking stall on the west side of Dallas Street between Northeast 4th Avenue and Northeast 5th Avenue as a loading zone from Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. This space was requested by the owner of the Red Door Gallery. The request was presented to the Parking Advisory Committee on May 12th and to Council on June 15th. The times and days specified in the resolution are recommended by the Parking Advisory Committee. Staff recommends adoption of Resolution 26-010. I'm happy to take any questions that you might have.

Any questions, comments, or motion? Council Member Sinescu.

Mayor, I move to approve Resolution No. 26-010. Do it.

Moved by Senescu and seconded to approve resolution number 26-010. Any discussion? Read the resolution. It's being read by title only.

Resolution 26-010, a resolution establishing a loading zone parking space on the west side of Northeast Dallas Street.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Say nay. We have any abstentions? Motion passes. Thank you. Next. This is going to be unique. Many people in here. Three minutes ago, we will have a public hearing on ordinance numbers.

Glad I made my pronouncement. What do you just don't say anything yet. Just hold it.

Yeah. Yeah. Do your announcement.

Yeah.

This is Chris's show.

Oh, you're ready.

Okay. Yeah. John Potter, Public public hearing and ordinance number 26 dash 00 he likes in parks presenterowski and our director.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council. I presented this topic at the June 15 workshop agenda, workshop meeting. Just a quick overview for e-bikes. We have three classes of e-bikes, Class 1, Class 2, Class 3. For the purposes of getting an echo somewhere now, for the purposes of this uh ordinance we're just focusing on class three which is an electric assisted bicycle where the motor provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and when it can reach up to 28 miles per hour of speed and is equipped with a speedometer then there is a distinction between e-bikes and e-motorcycles motorcycles have a 750 watt output. They have foot pegs instead of pedals. They can go at much higher rates of speed. We are asking to come into parallel with state statutes and asking that Class III e-bikes be classified as motor-driven vehicles, thereby not be allowed in our parks. And then also clarifying that electric-assisted motorcycles, that motor-driven vehicle is also defined as a battery-powered device, not just gas-powered. Right now, all motor vehicles are not allowed in our park system. We want to just add battery-powered to the definition just to enforce that, that these e-motorcycles are currently not allowed in our parks. So with that, staff recommends Council adopt ordinance number 26-004. I don't have an answer. Any questions? Any questions?

Council Member Hines.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll just have one problem to you, Jones. How, if this is asked, how will you get it in?

So on the communication part, we'll do social messaging, we'll put stuff on the web, and we'll be putting signs up.

Enforcement, it depends. We get calls for things all the time where people think something's unlawful, and it may not be when you're talking about the classes of these different vehicles. it takes some research and engagement by our team. So they would have to establish if it fit the ordinance or not. Um, we do strive to educate first when we can and enforce as an alternative. Um, and you know, we have discretion in that our officers do, but if it's something that you're just then, um, take enforcement action, but they're definitely at least initially to just let, um, realm of time where people need to know that there's a need to change. And then we also have to educate our staff as well. The e-bike and e-motorcycle phenomenon has been challenging in many ways for our team and the RCWs are still catching up. And so are ordinances. So we've had to do a lot of internal education because not all of us operate these devices, and a lot of parents don't even know what they're seeing.

I guess just a quick addition to try to clarify at the workshop. I'll clarify again. This is not the cure-all for e-bikes and e-motorcycles with smarts. We are getting probably the most amount of calls I get prior to this weekend was about e-bikes and e-motorcycles. I know council was getting a lot of calls too. So this was the first attempt to just try to curb some of the use and regulate some of the use in the parks. Both Chief Jones and I have mentioned about trying to form a committee or have an ad hoc committee from the mayor to look at this from a community-wide perspective with staff involved, council members, some community members. Yeah, this is not going to be the cure-all.

This is the first step in trying to solve something very pressing. Thank you.

Council Member Burke.

Thank you. Dr. Witkowski, thank you so much for this comprehensive report. I have a question. I know this is specific to e-bikes and motorcycles. I recently had a resident walk a person on a motorized scooter at 35 miles an hour. So I know HAB-Masyn Moyer- It was some one place related to HAB-Masyn Moyer- Know, this is not that I if you could find that information. I'd like to share.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, Yes, there is an ordinance around motorized scooters. I don't know it off the top of my head, but I will find it and email it to you.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Absolutely, absolutely.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, I can share with all the council.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Second, HAB-Masyn Moyer- Jen. which is related to communication. I see in your report that, and you mentioned you'll place signs in parks and trails that explain the classifications, et cetera. And then this statement, the city will also have to communicate that some areas such as Lackamas Regional Park and school grounds are not city parks. So that will just be through messaging ISO.

Yeah, that'll just have to be part of the messaging. A lot of the comments I get, not so much around school grounds, but I do get a lot around Lackamas Park. So I have to clarify to the father that you do not have jurisdiction over the regional park. And I won't let Chief Jones answer this wrong, but I don't know that we would have jurisdiction enforcement jurisdiction over this ordinance in Lackamas Park.

We won't sign up. The rules do not apply here. We won't do that. We'll see what the county, you know, frustrate us one day.

Maybe we'll just, you know, get them back. Council Member Sonescu.

Thank you.

Thank you, Grant, for reiterating. This is a start. My concern, I'll reiterate from workshop, was this is a difficult thing to enforce. And I want to give law enforcement the ability to enforce ordinances or things that we've asked. And this is pretty excessive noise, disturbs the peace, endangers or likely to endanger the property or another person. So those are things that are pretty subjective. So I know that we're going to hone those in. So thank you in workshop for explaining that this is just a step forward.

Thank you. I just want to thank Chief Jones, Director Bukowski, and our city attorney for taking this this far, working on it. I know that this is an evolving issue that all communities are facing. But this is the number one thing I hear about from community members for the last nearly two years. So recognizing there's a need to address it and bringing something forward is much appreciated.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. With that, we will open the public hearing. The hearing is now open. It's time to state your support or opposition to this item. If you are in agreement with the previous speaker's statement, simply state that as your entire comment. We will take the in-person comments first and then the comments from those attending remotely. If you are here in person to comment, come to the table here in the chamber, state your name and your city of residence. If you are remote and want to comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom app Sydney will enable your audio, unmute yourself, state your name and city of residence. Is there anyone here who wishes to comment? Please come forward and state your name and your city of residence. Okay. And seeing none, do we have any hands raised in the Zoom app?

Hands raised via Zoom.

Thank you for your comments. I will now close the public hearing. Do we have a motion?

I move to adopt ordinance number 26-004 and publish according to law. Second.

It was moved by Burke and seconded to adopt ordinance number 26-004 and publish it according to law. Any discussion? The ordinance will be read by title only.

We're for 26 or just 0, 0, 4. It's amending chapter 12.2 of the chemists will code to the use class 3 electric assisted bicycles and city parks. And then the regulations related to the operation of the goals and city parks.

All in favor say aye. I say nay. Are there any abstentions. Motion passes. Okay, now we have another, this is an opportunity for the public to make comments to the council. While you may supplement your comments with printed handouts, electronic or digital aids will not be permitted during the public comments. Please state your name and your city of residence. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole, instead of individual members, staff or audience members. Please come forward or raise your hand in the Zoom app. Please remember that public comments are not a discussion. Public comments are to inform the council of your views. Is there anyone in the chamber that would like to step forward? Is there anyone on the Zoom app?

We have no hands raised via Zoom.

Okay. And we will now move on to the non-agenda item, staff comments.

I have three opportunities for you to get some more from the staff. I'm going to start with Chris, since you were the last one to speak. We'll start with you regarding some RECI.

Hey, probably the last time you'll hear from me tonight. I feel like I've been talking a lot.

Paid by the word here? Yeah, by the visitor.

So I just want to give you a Crown Park update. Let's start with the high and then slowly work our way down the ladder. We had our grand opening event on Thursday, July 2nd, which, in my opinion, went really well. We had a very good turnout. It was a very good day. Looking at the data, we had 1,200 people that came out that day. That was for the whole park. I can't guarantee you for that particular opening, but A bunch of people throughout the whole day on July 2nd was great. We had 850 out there on July 3rd and July 4th it isn't available yet, but very good turnout. The The festival during the day went really well. We had a lot of good feedback on that. Again, good attendance. The concert at night has drawn a little bit of comment, so I wanted to address that tonight. I know I've heard from Judy already. First off, there was a social media post critiquing the event. No problem with that. That's their right to do that. It touches with the territory of working in this business. However, the post did specifically critique one of my staff members by name, and I didn't find that very appreciative. I wasn't very appreciative of that. If there's an issue with the department, I'm more than happy to talk to anybody about it. I don't think the staff member needs to be called out by name for doing her job. More so, there was a reference in there about her volunteer work as well that had nothing to do with the event that night. It seemed to me like it was put in there a little bit to vilify the staff member. And I just want to clarify, I just want to mention to you that if we're going to talk about volunteer work that she does that's not relevant to the project, let's talk about the work she does cleaning up community gardens, cleaning up Ivy Pool hole, working with the local youth, generally doing a lot of community building. So I want that staff member to be recognized for all the work she does, not just for her work on the Pride Committee. So just a little backing from my staff member. In terms of the concert itself, there was some, there's been some, there was a Facebook post and then I had one, one, email this morning. I've gotten a lot of calls on this, but because it's kind of taken a life of its own on social media, I want to address a few things. The concert brought to my attention some people thought it was anti-American. It was anti-gun. There were just a few comments on there. So just to address a few concerns. So I was there for part of the concert. I was not there for the whole thing. I didn't find anything offensive, but I was kind of focusing on the splash pad and on the playground at the time. There was a poem that was read that I've been told is criticizing America. The poem in question was actually the inscription that is on the Statue of Liberty. So there was no, nothing... changed about that. It was just what's read right off the Statue of Liberty. So I'm not going to go any further than that. There's one song that seems to be generating some discussion, which was the song Ohio by Neil Young. Stan, there's some reference to, I mean, it's a reference to a protest movement and some fatalities in there. Yeah, and if there's some folks who are upset about that, I apologize, but that is the most I can find about gun violence, which was another accusation. Well, the song does not reference guns in particular. I got the set list from the musician today. A lot of them are from local artists, but there's a few from Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan. Brought to my attention, why are we doing 60s protest songs? This land is your land. I don't know. It's each their own, I guess. For me, we had a group of veterans that sat in the front of the stage for the whole time. Nobody commented. Nobody got offended. Nobody got up and left early. So we didn't get any negative feedback on site that day. So I just want to... Just want to clear that up about the concert. It's always a challenge when you're finding music. Doug and I were talking today. Music is about love or politics. And we weren't talking a lot about love. We weren't singing love songs that night. But we're trying not to get into politics either. So I apologize if anybody was offended by the concert. Splash Pad went down on July 4th. It's been on and off. This isn't a surprise. This is a brand new system to our crews. It takes a little while to work out the kinks and figure out what's going on. I definitely would have liked to have opened it a few weeks before the July 4th so we had a chance to work through some of this, but it kind of just didn't work out that way. I was there on July 4th. We had Public Works come in on July 4th to try to troubleshoot this thing. So it's not like we just left it. We were all there trying to figure it out. There was just some settings. There's certain thresholds. I won't get into all the particulars, but it just kind of kept dipping below one of the thresholds. And we were trying to change the threshold a bit, but it has an automatic shut off. And we were just struggling with it. Holiday weekend, the contractor was out of town. trying to get ahold of them, but we are actively working on it. It's just a matter of working out some of the kinks. This splash pad is also getting a tremendous amount of use when it's running. And so even though there's a lot of filters built into it, that still gets into the drain. It still comes into the filtration system. So what we're finding, we were being told that probably once a week we'd have to do what's called a back walk, which is just a way to kind of push off all the debris off the filter. We're getting so much use that now we're determined we're going to have to do that backwash every morning. So that's kind of what tripped it up today was it just had too much stuff coming in. So we're going to start backwashing every day. We're probably still going to have a little bit of ups and downs over the next week or two. We work through the system, but we will get there. It is functioning. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just a matter of work outside. It's a brand-new facility for us, so we're just trying to work through it.

Thank you, Chris. I'll take any questions. Any questions? Hello. Council Member Deny.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All the updates and the details.

Thank you.

I just want to say that I really enjoyed my time on July 2nd. I know social media is for expressing their opinion, but I hope a few of you have not received a thousand good comments from each other. So I really appreciate your time. Staff, I was there Thursday morning and I came back. It just happened. I came back Thursday about 8 p.m. because my younger woman came two hours in the morning. So your staff was still there. They were cleaning after everyone. The full set was done and they were cleaning and unfolding all the tables. So I had the chance to appreciate them. I just want to recognize the hard work they have.

Yeah, those staff members put in about 14 hours that day to run that whole thing.

Yeah, very appreciative.

That's hard. I was fortunate enough to get to attend on the second. That's flashback. At the end of the morning, it was 60 degrees and there was kids that were soaked to the bone. It made me shiver just watching them. I know the day picked up. It was perfect, but again, Let's not let people vilify your staff. It's just wrong. It's a great event. From the time I was there, lots of hard work done, but me, I just got to stand there.

Any other comments?

Okay, next. Yes, I'd like to ask Scott Collins to please address some issues around wells and pits.

So we have three different updates. Surprise, surprise. But as you know, the day after council had some well issues. A few of you were on some of the reports that came in from the public. I know a couple of you wanted just some specific details about it. Go through that. The event happened on 16th. It was a combination of different events. It wasn't a single system. Four wells were down. Two had pre-existing issues. And then two were more recent over the weekend. And that Monday or Tuesday kind of caused the catastrophe. It wasn't a catastrophe. It was concerning to us is what it was. So reason being is our reservoir levels were depleting more than what was going in it. So that's what the cause of concern was. We were always able to sustain fire capability, just FYI. But it was a concern to us if we weren't going to get the issues fixed. We got all the wells back up and running eventually. I thought staff did a great job, especially the water crew. They had shutoffs that same week, so they were very busy that week. But I also appreciate CPU responded very quickly for us. Mather and Sons, a contractor at the school district, shut off their irrigation. So I just want to make comment. There were a lot of people involved that did help us tremendously. But going into the specifics, well nine is a seasonal well. We were having electrical issues. That was about a month prior. We had a variety of different electrical contractors out there trying to diagnose the issue, pointing to different things. It still wasn't up and running. Finally, the last electrical contractor did determine it was a fan issue. We had ordered the part. We were just waiting on the part to come in. That well eventually got up and going on June 22nd. So that was about a week after. The other three we did get up within the next day or two. Well 13, which I know all of you are well aware of that well, that is our largest producing well within the city that you're aware of. Issues we were having on that, when we wanted to start up, we have to flush the well, release some of the water before it can go into our system. We were getting surcharge from the construction site because it releases to the sewer. I don't know when they put in the new sewer line. If it's too small, we're working with the contract and designer on that fix. We didn't want to flood their site. It also needed a flow control. Basically, it identifies our flow meter. It identifies the dosage that's required when we're treating the water coming in. That's why it's needed. We had ordered a part, but we were waiting for that to come in. Once we had issues, which I'll get into the next two, and saw that we were getting into issues, that well got up and running on June 16th. We flooded the site. It is what it is. We had to get that well up and running to get, as I said, the largest producer to get the water back into the system. And then we did steal a flow meter from well eight, which I'll get to, to replace that on well 13 to get that up and running until we got the part to come in. The third well was well five. That happened over the weekend, I believe. It was a blown fuse from CPU. We reached out to them. We told them about what the issue was going on. They actually responded that Monday to come out and correct the issue, which we really appreciate. That well got up and running on June 16th. Last well was well eight. That's our second largest producing well. So you can imagine once that went down that Monday or Tuesday, that's what caused some of the issues going on. That was a maintenance-related motor failure. It was really hot, as you were aware, and so we have to cool some of the electrical equipment in buildings. Water actually did get in and damage the motor. We had Mather & Sons, a contractor, come out. They replaced the motor. They grabbed a different size motor, a 200-horsepower motor, and had to upgrade the use an electrical protection equipment to get that motor up and running at that horsepower, but it did get up and running on June 17. So all in all, we did get the wells up and going. Some of the major concerns were stemmed around development. Obviously, we wouldn't have development going if we couldn't supply the capacity of water going in. Me thinking about it, development obviously contributed to a certain extent because we are growing. Every city is growing. And so what does our capacity look like? We will be bringing this to you in our water system plan update, right? With the COP plan update of the growth and what that looks like on our water system plan as well as our sewer system plan. But in 2030, that's when our projected firm capacity reaches capacity. And that means when one of our wells are offline, that's our limit. So if a well goes off online, what's our capacity limit at? And we run that out in 2030. And then in 2034, that's when the projected demand exceeds our total capacity at that point. However, what you'll see is the consultants identified, we have numerous wells that can actually increase our pump capacity and increase the capacity output of our existing wells in place now. One of which being well eight, which would actually be If that happens, it would be almost double what well 13 can produce. And so it does push us beyond that limit. And we're hoping to make those updates when we do some of PFAS development down below our well field. But we'll have more for you on that, obviously, when we come. But definitely want to go into the specifics. So if you guys have any questions, happy to try to answer them, I guess. Any questions?

Appreciate the detail.

Mayor Mrakas, Council member hi thank you Mary if I could just make a comment invaluable details Scott, I was out of town at the time, and that proved to be a detriment that's just because the amount of questions and stuff you know I sure we all got hit and so. Mayor Mrakas, The updates in terms of what happened, you know what happened, what was getting fixed when. Mayor Mrakas, It is just extremely. So thank you.

Any other questions? John Noor, any questions?

No, I was going to save them for my comments to actually just say thank you. This is the reason why deferred maintenance and all those things add up over time. Not saying it's specifically here, but providing water, sewer, police, fire, roads, it's the most important things we do. And so I appreciate that staff got right on top of it and was able to resolve it in a reasonable time.

Two more, sorry. See you in a week.

I promise.

I'm an engineer. I like it. Repeat the first story. Well, 13 notification will be going out. We just had to do testing on that. Well, I did test a little over 16 for PFAS just recently. Not uncommon. We know that well was going to test on PFAS, but the new state mandates didn't match federal mandates. And so it drops it down to four, even though we were above that. So Before where we only had to notice or notify residents when it went over 10, the state now matched federal limits. So anything over four now we do have to notify. It does take the 12 month running average, but obviously being over 16, that would trip us anyway. So notifications plan to go out June 14th or July 14th. Sorry. So I wanted to make council because I'm sure residents will be commenting after. And then the last is we have a Watley decant facility interlocal agreement with the county. They basically have to update their rates. They have an updated rate since 2021. Basically, it's decanted street sweepings. That's where a lot of our material go. We have a small, I wouldn't really call it a decant facility, but we do house some of our street sweepings there. Basically, it's an incurred cost from a lot of the cities in Clark County with just the rate increase. I think it went from $85 per ton from decant to 100, and then street sweepings went from 50 to 59. So if there's any specific questions, I can also have the county come in. But they provided the data. They have a consultant coming on board to evaluate. One comment that the cities did have was just that if we could get these rate increases, you know, annually, rather than four years apart, because it does take a hit potentially on budgets, right? When you have to, when you have to Mark Warren, utilize the facility luckily our tonnages are too much in each category, so it shouldn't affect us too much to go around and it won't go in effect until we actually sign the interlocal. Mark Warren, Just wanted to provide you an update.

David Ensign, And then I have I just down to my last two he has a July for updating.

I didn't think I'd be bringing you good news with fireworks, but following these two, it very much seems like good news. No, this was a very quiet year for us, which is fantastic because it's related to the safety of our community. Our fire calls were down. We did lots of running around, putting out spot fires and bark dust fires. But one of the nice things about the 4th of July is that everybody's out. see these things right away and small fires are easy to put out and plenty of citizens out and about doing that as well. We did have one significant brush fire in Southwest that was caused by fireworks, but we were able to put that out. And that was really our only fire casualty of the night. On the EMS side, we only had one substantive firework injury. And it's a tragic story that probably will involve the loss of a hand. That's not fully clear yet, but it is a life-changing injury. It's a tragedy in person that doesn't need to happen, especially not for a bang for a nanosecond. But that was our only injury for the fourth. My impression in just looking at the The horizon between 945 and 11 was that it was, it felt diminished to me. That's just my opinion. Fireworks stands did well, but I think the reason the call was so low was in part with the law enforcement. trying to secure a lot of the problem areas that we have. People coming in, securing the skate park, getting security into the property on the west side of Lechner. Really doing a good job of barricading, keeping people out of the schools and parks. It just seems like maybe the appetite has waned a little bit. And then also in the last few years, we've of made a hard stand uh and it takes years for those things to you know have us to change um our fire marshals were out i was out uh law enforcement was out we made lots of of contacts the public and cul-de-sacs and pre-fire barbecues and um guessing about 50 contacts at various times during the night, which doesn't sound like a lot until you're doing them in real time. That's a lot. And we did find a few of the now illegal fireworks, which are not all mortars, right? There are mortars that are legal. These are the refillable tube mortars. And, you know, We'd worked out with law enforcement that if the people using them were belligerent or recalcitrant or non-cooperative, that we'd bring law enforcement in to help us navigate that situation. And we did find a few of those and every one of them was right. and apologetic and we shared information and they just continued to use and we gave them information for how to dispose of illegal fireworks. And, you know, and I think that really speaks to the vast majority of our community. These are, you know, they're good people trying to have some fun doing what's legally allowable. And, you know, if you give them some latitude and explain to them, because people don't sit in this room, they don't hear about these things. Some of the complaints that I went on, they were like, I thought you banned fireworks and they're going on all around me. I mean, that's how tied into what happens in this room the average person is, right? They hear something. And so, I mean, this is also a take-home point for what you guys were talking about early and how to communicate with people. But, you know, it's a great community. By and large, they want to do the right thing. They also want to have fun within legal balance. So, yeah, great, great evening.

May I add to that? I wasn't sure if I'd have the information yet since I just returned today from being out of town. We also had a very low-key night. It's Friday and Saturday night. When I hear my police officers say they were bored, know that it was a safe weekend. So that's a good thing. On Friday, the 3rd, we handled two fireworks-related calls, and on the 4th, 16. The majority of those were people thinking that we had safe and sane rules, which we don't. And so that was education. They thought they were unlawful. So We made the decision that we were still going to respond to or handle our works related calls and continue to assess because a lot of jurisdictions don't continue to respond unless it's something that's like a life safety. And given that we had so few calls and it was the opportunity to help educate the public. I feel like it was the right call to continue to have. We did have increased staffing. We normally have seven officers throughout the day. And that includes sergeant's patrol. We had nine on Saturday and eight on Friday. And it was still an appropriate number. I agree with Chief Free that I think the last two years are proactive efforts to identify the chronic or historical problem areas and shut those down so that we're not getting that influx. Has been a continued successful strategy that's increased safety, especially in our communities. parks and areas near green spaces that are more vulnerable to fire hazard. So we did not end up making any arrests or having to do any citations related to fireworks. We had a lot of positive community contacts. And so overall, very successful holiday weekend.

One last Councilor McPherson has an update for you all.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor, Council. So I just wanted to announce that this was in fact her first day. I have a new associate and assistant city attorney at my office. Her name is Sophie Webster. Very impressive resume. I didn't want to throw her into the deep end of the pool and have her come to the council meeting on her first day. She brought her to the department head meeting this morning. The department heads were able to meet her. A Camas High School grad. She stayed home. She didn't have to. She has a really good resume, so I'm glad to have her. She's actually interned with me a couple years ago as well, summertime. So she'll be handling City Court, which I've been covering. Kind of had to put that hat back on over the last six months. I've enjoyed it, but I'm ready to pass it on. to someone with less gray hair. So she'll be taking care of that. And anyway, at some point, I'll bring her in and introduce her to the group. I just want to make that announcement that we have a new attorney at the office. Thank you. Mayor, that was all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council.

Council comment.

I'm going to keep it really brief. First of all, thank you. Keep free. Police department and i didn't see any issues i'm glad that that's mostly the again chris uh i think that you guys are doing a fantastic job and in spite of what social media might say i will say you guys thank you very much i thought the crown park opening special was not and uh you could pass on to whomever had to comments that I think everything is. So thank you very much. That's all I have there. Yeah, thank you. Council member. Hi.

Thank you, Mayor. Chief Reed, Chief Jones, glad to hear it was a quiet weekend. Thanks for the updates. Scott, your updates as well. Chris, thank you for your updates and please pass on to your team. The second was an excellent event. Even with the obstacle course challenge. None of us got hurt on that. Uh, so, and thank you for taking the time to dive into some of the details on some things. So thank you. Um, another CTRAD update for y'all. I know you can't wait. Um, We're going to be getting a presentation from CTRAN on the three proposed options of service because we've got to make some decisions. CTRAN has a structural deficit approaching 2029, 2030, so there's going to be action that needs to be taken. And so we need more information. We all need more information. CTRAN needs to get feedback. Because ultimately, we have a course of action that we need to discuss and take action on. So you get that, that request being made for the agenda there sometime in the next few months. We need to make a decision by the end of the year. But that's forthcoming. Community engagement, there's been a ton. We could tell we've been gone for three weeks, but Crown Park mentioned a great event. Form of government feedback on that. motorcycles addressed. I attended and participated in the ribbon cutting for the Arts and Cultural Black Ribbon Cutting on Friday. That was a very cool event. Some really distinct, unique artistry that reflected the theme was What's Your American Story? I recommend you go down on 5th. It's really cool. Well done. And That's really all I have.

Okay. The former pictures were taken down. And we have obtained ownership of those. But anyway, they are pretty cool.

Yeah, first, thanks again, city staff for running all the great services we can provide to our community and I mean, safety, so we all can enjoy our city. My updates quickly. Port of Camas, we heard the great updates already. As I promised last time, I did a lot. I brought some chocolate to share from the open house, the airport open house. And these are some flyers that if you want to participate the same way. Here's your code and I believe the website address here. So I'm going to just Leave it here. I don't know where to leave the chocolate. Can I trust you with chocolate? Alright, thank you. Alright, so we're excited about that master plan. The school district board didn't have a meeting as the school is not in session. RTC, Regional Transportation Council, just received some updates and I asked you to copy. I brought some copies to pass on. This is from presentation in May about what is included, the budget, and also I encourage public, if you want more information, check the RTC website for the May agenda. So the presentation is included there. But what happened, shared the email with Council Member Hine, the program, IBR, received NEPA approval. It's an environmental permit that is actually a very important milestone, God knows, to secure the grant funding. So about $6 billion of the grant funding, that's a very important milestone to have NEPA approval. What coming next is the Washington and Oregon DOTs, ODOT and WSDOT, they have to identify contractor to bring on board and secure permits, permit requirements. We haven't been this close to get the bridge done, so I'm excited about that. There are a lot more work to be done. Um, so as we go to the construction phase, uh, just to remind everyone, the construction would take about 10 years to be completed. So it's not really one year or two season. It's a long process. Uh, but we are getting closer as ever to have it done. Um, if you need, if you're interested to have more information, I'll be happy to share the email I received yesterday from our Oh, did I? Yes, I did.

Thank you. Okay, John Noor.

You went out of turn there. You caught me off guard. It was probably a test. If I get this thing to hold up. Council members, thank you for your patience with me. I wanted to be able to attend this event, but this is also a camping trip that's been on the books for over a year. So just want to say thanks to all the residents out there. who were good neighbors on july 3rd in my little area of town very few fireworks shot off on july 3rd and uh big big booms on july 4th uh but that's what we asked people to do could we could we take it down to one day a year and during this time and so thank you to everyone out there who participated in a safe and respectful 4th of July. Regarding Crown Park, that was a great grand opening on the 2nd. Thank you to staff for everything they did there. Chris, you may have left halfway through the concert, but by virtue of location, I attended the full concert and I found nothing about that concert to be in any way offensive or anything there's always going to be people in life that are looking to be offended by something and we all know that so uh but it was a great concert i appreciate the concerts in the park so much that i put some chairs out in front of my house to be able to participate in those uh just want to reiterate thank you to our city attorney our police chief and our parks director for trying to address the electric bike uh issue and um Also attended a pride event at one of the businesses downtown. It was a great group of people having a lot of fun and talking about the issues that they face and some of the things that they deal with in life. So it has been a good long three weeks there. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Burke.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I had the opportunity to attend the Association of Washington Cities Conference. I want to thank you for your support in sending me there. It was one of the, went there for pre-session and it was Jurassic Parliament, which I had not attended. They actually had dinosaurs. And this is the bad, this is the worst thing you could do. This is a T-Rex. Don't do that. Really, really informative. And I discovered some things about myself. So I'm calling myself out a little bit. I don't know that I have necessarily been following the rules that are required for us to follow. For example, you have to be recognized by the chair before you speak. Sometimes I violate that and I apologize to everyone. And then the rest of us have an obligation to stay silent if we have not been recognized. That was a little nuance that I really appreciated. Calling the question, I've said a couple of times, I don't know how to call the question. Now I do, you make a motion. So Sydney and Alicia were very kind to meet with me earlier because I had a lot of questions after this training. So thank you very much. Point of order, I realized we've used point of order before, but you have to state the rule that's being violated. You can't just say point of order, You have to be able to cite the rule that was violent. For example, you have to be recognized to speak, which I now know, as I said. So that was awesome. And then I went to one on AI policies and procedures, which was fascinating. And I have a meeting coming up with Michelle to discuss our policy, should be there, what shouldn't be there. And that was really interesting. I went to a session on CISN Academy, very interested in doing that. Washougal has that. They've been really successful with that. So I'd like to pursue that in some fashion. I'm not sure how to, so I'm just, you know, publicly saying, how would we do that? One city had done it through the police department. It was a police department, Citizen Academy, where they got to go to the jail and all that, had to write in a column. And then the other one was a city one. I just want you to perhaps understand. I had written congratulations to Sydney, so you kind of saw my honor there, but I read that your certification reflects leadership and transparency, accuracy, service, and values. I could not agree with that more. You and Alicia have been so very helpful. So thank you for that investment of time and energy to do that for us and our city. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Council Members Willard. Thank you, Mayor. follow public comments and say, ditto, ditto, ditto for all of it. I also will agree with both chiefs. Anecdotally, my neighbors and I thought it was quiet. I mean, it didn't hurt that it was cool. It didn't hurt that it rained earlier in the week, but it was quiet. And, you know, it started fading out. It's a pretty decent hour. I mean, you know, there's always something at 1140. All that being said, I walked out of my front yard. Yeah. in my backyard. I found three aerials today. You know, first I thought they got the two in the back and then there was one in the front. And I just kind of had to laugh. I wasn't trying to put a horse's head in Sean's desk over there. But I just picked up. Councilor Knorr wasn't here and he always brings a sack of this stuff. So it was good. We still got, you know, things to think about. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Sonescu.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm last. You guys, I've been taking notes feverishly, so I will keep it short. All I had written to talk about was the Crown Park reopening. Fabulous. And thank you, Councilmember Hine, for not mentioning the obstacle course. When you get off the children's slide, it doesn't pop you up. And Councilmember Hine's like, get up, tag me, tag me. I'm like, I can't. I had to roll over. So he's like, I wish I had a video of that. I hope no one does. So I called myself out, but thank you for not... So anyway, great event. It was a lot of fun. I just want to say I feel like I've been one of those high-maintenance council members in the last three weeks. So thank you to all the directors. I think I've hit every one of them. And I see Administrator Quinn and Mayor Hogan, and they're like, what is Jennifer up to now? So just anything from neon signs at businesses to parking to summer camps to Crown Park, vandalization that occurred in March, sidewalk repair maintenance, concerts in the park. I mean, anything. that residents come to me with, and I'm able to reach out to directors. And thank you, Mayor and Administrator Quinn, for allowing us to do that, because it's really nice to be able to go right to the source. And everybody's so responsive. It's just lightning fast. So that was all I had initially. And I just want to touch base. Thank you, Doug Quinn. When poor Kayla, not poor Kayla, she's very competent. When she was giving her general fund budget outlook, I was going off on a diatribe. So I have lots of notes on that. But I just want to mention, I'm still going to talk about the utility tax and how that's going out. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Are there any other things left on the agenda? Okay.

Well, happy 6th of July.

We are dismissed.