Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Well good morning everyone and welcome to administrator issues and updates on July 7th 2026 County Administrator Gary Smith you please call the roll yes thank you chair Commissioner West is out of the office today roll call Commissioner Schroeder here Commissioner Helm here Commissioner Savas present Chair Roberts here thank you. I will now recess as board of county commissioners convene as housing authority of Clackamas county and ask you to introduce our first agenda item.

thank you this is an item for the housing authority of Clackamas county joining you online is housing resident You're there. Let's see.

There we go.

There you are. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioner Leenstrup. All right. Presenting this topic is Delegation to Director of Lease Agreement Signing Authority, Mary Rumbaugh, Director of Health, Housing, and Human Services. Go ahead, please.

Good morning, Chair Roberts and Commissioners. I am here today to request approval to move forward with a resolution delegating authority for the execution of Housing Authority leases and occupancy agreements to the Executive Director of the Housing Authority. This issue was recently identified during a county attorney review of the housing authority lease documents. While this authority has historically been exercised as part of routine operations, it may not have been formally documented through a board resolution previously. the proposed resolution formalizes existing practice provides clear authority for routine housing related agreements and helps ensure housing operations can continue efficiently without requiring board action on individual leases which are a significant number of these done annually. I will pause there happy to answer any questions.

Right to. If our colleagues have questions here. All right. Seeing none, it looks like if there's no objections, this will advance to a future business meeting for our final approval. That's my understanding. Is that correct, Gary? Correct, yes. All right. Well, with that, I'll adjourn as the Housing Authority and convene as the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District. And, Gary, what do you have next? Very good.

Thank you. And thank you, Commissioner Leinster, for being here today. Welcome next you're now meeting as the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District Board This is delegation to the director of special use permit fee waiver Authority Kia Silly is the director of North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District and will present go ahead, please

Thank you, Gary. Good morning, Chair Roberts and Directors. My name is Kia Selle. I'm the NCPRD District Director. I'm here today to request Board approval to delegate authority to the NCPRD District Director to waive certain special use permit fees for free and public events hosted by government and community partners at parks and natural areas that are owned or operated by NCPRD. The district issues special use permits to grant permission for exclusive use for a specified purpose and timeframe in parks and natural areas across the district. Any event not led by district staff requires a special use permit, such as a movie in the park organized by a neighborhood association or a construction project that's done by a public utility. These permits allow for reservation of a specific area or amenity, as use is typically provided on a first-come, first-served basis. It also allows for district management of that special use, which might require mitigation of impacts to other park users, repair to the asset, or even the provision of additional services such as portable restrooms. The district charges fees to recover costs for both direct costs such as those portable restrooms and indirect costs such as the staff time needed to coordinate with the permittee or even coordinate with other impacted park users. I've heard from community groups that would like to host free and public events that waiving some of these fees would make it more financially feasible for them to host those events. And with 1.7 million in recent budget cuts at NCPRD, NCPRD has reduced recreation programming and events across the district. So these community organized events that are free and open to the public are really needed more than ever to activate our parks and natural areas the intent today is to reduce the cost of special use permits by waiving administrative costs such as like the application fee or the processing fee but to continue to charge for direct costs again such as the portable restrooms or extra garbage pickup For reference, last year, last fiscal year, NCPRD on average charged $293 per permit for administrative fees. We issued 45 permits, and 13 of those were for actually free and public events within the district. So the financial impact is not anticipated to be significant, but the community benefit of these events still occurring is very significant. So that concludes my remarks and I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Director Helm?

Thank you, Kia. Just a real quick question. I know that you can waive the special use permit fees for alcohol permit fees. Does that put us at any risk by waiving that fee even though they're still getting the alcohol use permit? Is there a risk for the county at all?

Thank you for that question. No, it doesn't increase our risk because they still need to go through the required process to serve alcohol at the event. So this is just a fee on basically for coordinating whatever might need to occur again between impacted park users and the permittee. It doesn't remove their requirement to get proper licensing through OLCC. Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Salvas?

On this question about alcohol, my understanding was that due to an issue that happened about 10 years ago on a NCPRD facility, that alcohol use was not allowed. Okay. on NCPRD properties. Isn't this in conflict with that?

Mr. Munz, you want to address that for us?

The general rule is no alcohol unless you have a special permit. That's because when we go through the OLCC process, as far as a special permit issuance, we'll require them to obtain insurance as well. So we can cover our risk through those agreements, the special use permit process. But you are correct. Normally, under our rules, it's not allowed unless you have a permit for it.

Yeah, it just seems to be a conflict of policy, right? To say that this is the policy and yet we're going to waive it in of itself. I'm not concerned about the rest of this. I'm just concerned about that policy and the expectation that parks are safe and drug and alcohol free. Because when you say alcohol, you're also saying, not saying, but there's inference that drug and alcohol come together. knowing that the legalization of marijuana and so forth is a challenge. And so I'm sure that marijuana is not allowed on NCPRD facilities.

Not allowed. It's not allowed to use marijuana in a public place. And so that remains the law of Oregon. And so someone can obtain and people can sell marijuana, but you have to use it in your own home. You can't use it in a public place. So we continue to police that at events or have law enforcement intervene if we have a problem. that's where our special use permit process is for is that there is an exception in our park rules for alcohol if you obtain a special use permit which of course includes all the OLCC protections and people have to be licensed and so on if they're going to be handling it that way. We don't want to have just an unregulated party with things that do cause problems for the rest of the public using the parks.

So is this imply that there's that one can by getting, I mean, anyone's eligible to have the alcohol thing waived? Or is it the discretion of the director?

So thank you for that concern. So this authority would provide the director with the authority to waive the fee for alcohol, but would not in any way, the director does not have the authority to waive the OLCC requirement. So we're just not... In this way, the director would not enforce a fee on top of the OLCC process, if that makes sense. But the permittee would still be required to go through the OLCC process and get an alcohol permit.

Any other questions? all right if there's no objection this will advance our future business meeting for our final approvals and thank you as always kia you do a fantastic job. I will now adjourn as the north caucasus parks and rec district board of directors and reconvene as the board of county commissioners. Thank you.

Next is outdoor burning restrictions informational update. You requested this before your recess, if you should do a burning ban or not. Daniel Neibauer, Director of Disaster Management, will answer your questions and give you an update. Go ahead, please, Daniel.

Good morning, Chair Roberts, commissioners, and Administrator Schmidt. So the question and understanding of outdoor burning is definitely a complex one, depending on jurisdiction and type of burning that we're talking about. So we'll kind of start a little bit with type of burning. I'll refer to three different kinds generally here. One is going to be agricultural burning, and that is burning of agricultural products or timber, kind of an industrial commercial type. There's going to be backyard burning, which is going to be, for the most part, personal. I've cut down trees. I've trimmed my trees. I have a lot of extra debris. And then I burn that in my backyard. And finally is recreational. And that's going to be, I want a small campfire in my backyard. I have a small barbecue in my backyard. Those two, three types of burning. Then there's gonna be three general, three to four general types of areas. First is gonna be DEQ, regulation of burning. And so they regulate burning and it's roughly in the metro urban growth boundary area where they say no backyard burning, right? Because there is offering of compost that people could use and put things in their compost bin or not. Outside of that, and again, it's the general area. The borders aren't quite exact. DEQ has a burn season, which runs March 1st to June 15th, and then it's closed, and then opens again October 1st to December 15th. And those closure periods have a lot to do with air quality and the movement of air when things burn. So that's DEQ's burning restriction areas. One, inside the metro area, not at all. AT ANY POINT IN TIME OF YEAR, OUTSIDE IS THAT PARTICULAR TIME FRAME. THEN THERE'S ODF WHO HAS THE REGULATIONS UNDER ORS FOR DECLARING FIRE SEASON. AND THEY DECLARE IT DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE IN THE STATE, RIGHT? BECAUSE EASTERN PART OF THE STATE DRIES OUT EARLIER SO THEY HAVE A FIRE SEASON THAT STARTS EARLIER. OUR FIRE SEASON GENERALLY CORRESPONDS TO ABOUT THAT DEQ area but it definitely has gone earlier or later depending on the weather conditions and ODF monitors that and calls that and that's regulation over ODF lands but we use that declaration for the entire county as well and so once that happens ODF has fire industrial protection levels that they use as well as begin to regulate the different AMOUNTS OF KIND OF RESTRICTIONS THAT THERE ARE. THEN THERE'S THE FIRE DISTRICTS THAT HAVE UNDER ORS AND OREGON FIRE CODE CAN IMPLEMENT BURN BANS OR RESTRICTIONS FOR THAT. AND SO WE GENERALLY FOLLOW AND EMPHASIZE WITHIN CLACKAMAS COUNTY AND THE FIRE DEFENSE BOARD DOES THIS AND DOES ALL THE COORDINATION WITH ALL THE FIRE DISTRICTS WHICH IS GREAT. generally runs it about where the burn season are and it enforces that and you know includes that recommendation this year we started a little bit earlier June 13th June 15th is the typical stop of that that backyard outdoor burning they did a little earlier if you remember that weekend had high temperatures and so the recommendation was let's just close this off a little bit earlier to do that. So then throughout the entire rest of the fire season, the Clackamas Fire Defense Board coordinates at least weekly with ODF, National Weather Service, others to say, what are our temperatures looking like? What are our humidity levels? Where are our fuels, combustibility? They talk about 10-hour, 100-hour, 1,000-hour fuels. Where are they in terms of that, going to that, to whether they want to recommend any other kind of restrictions or recommendations to the public. And there are some abilities there to enforce or not enforce that and that they would come to us if they needed something a little bit more enforceable under an ordinance or resolution to say, hey, we really feel that this period of three to four to five to ten days is going to be particularly bad and we would like the ability to actually extinguish or, you know, kind of enforce that In terms of our neighboring jurisdiction, Washington County Fire Defense Board, very similar coordinates amongst fire districts there. They call it a burn ban. However, it is no different than what we have in terms of closing the fire season, right? I'm sorry, closing the burn season. So we have closed the outdoor burn season. So that means you cannot do any backyard burning, but you can still do recreational burning. Washington County is the same way. You cannot do that backyard burning, but you can do those small recreational fires. Multnomah County is more restrictive and has said no... all the way down to the recreational fires is there. And in talking with a few of the folks, emergency managers and fire folks there, it seems to be more around concern of a multitude of small little campfires and cooking fires that may be in areas like Forest Park or areas that are in public parks, generally by folks that are experiencing houselessness. And they've seen fires pop up for that. And there's a lot of concern kind of wrapped around there. So, you know, in closing, the system that we have right now and working and coordinating with our fire defense board, managing air quality, local operation considers and fire prevention and the fire defense program that works works well. personnel in Clackamas County. I'm happy to take any questions. All right. Questions?

Go ahead. So, as I'm looking at this, it looks like Willamette County went farther than anyone else on the ban, and, you know, the part that jumps out to me that I think we have vulnerability, again, it's not our say, apparently, but is just the aspect, the last sentence here about the reduce the potential for human-caused ignitions, including recreational fires and fires used for cooking or warming for individuals who may be experiencing homelessness. So knowing that we have a lot more fuel probably than Multnomah and Washington County combined, right? We just think about our vast forest land and everything else. coming off the 2020 fires, I'm hypersensitive about this. Again, it's not our call. I just think that it seems to be a concern that's been raised here about that. Fires are happening for people that are experiencing homelessness that are doing, it's not necessarily for warming, but it is for cooking.

Yes, yeah, yeah, certainly not for warming when it's this warm. For cooking, it is, and I think, and I'm happy to have, I have the opportunity COUNTY FIRE DEFENSE BOARD CHIEF DAN MULEK HERE WITH US AND HE CAN ADD SOME DETAILS TO THIS BUT I THINK WE SEE LESS OF THOSE COOKING FIRES IN THE MORE ROLLER AREAS WHERE MULTNOMAH COUNTY IS SEEING THEM IN FOREST PARK WHICH IS A BIG DANGER FOR THEM. THEY DO SOME FUELS REDUCTION UP THERE BUT THEIR BIG CONCERN IS THERE HAS NOT BEEN A FIRE THERE FOR QUITE SOME TIME AND THEN IN SOME OF THE EAST COUNTY AREAS THAT ARE CLOSER TO THE URBAN THEY SEE THAT WHERE WE SEE LESS OF THOSE types of campfires, and it's a little bit less of a risk. We're also in a period of time right now where our fuels aren't particularly dry, so we're not at a significant risk. And we've had a couple of barn fires, or just yesterday there was a lawnmower fire that happened out in Malala from someone mowing the yard, and the fire did not spread very quickly, right, our fuels are not, the grasses are kind of there, but our larger fuels are still, have enough moisture content in them that they're not burning that quickly. And that is where the Clackamas Fire Defense Board is meeting with ODF, and they are actually going out and looking at these fuels to see where they are, and if it reaches the point where they are particularly dry, and we get those east winds that are desiccating out the fuels much more rapidly, then they're going to be, one, making their own, you know, announcements and putting out that messaging, which is the most effective, right? We can do different bans that are enforceable, but it's difficult to have that enforcement. Whereas we get that messaging out and we remind people the impacts of having those, that it becomes more powerful. And that's certainly where we have partnered with the Fire Defense Board in the past in getting that message out that things are particularly dry, the weather is apt for quick fire movement, and please, you know, we don't even want to see someone with barbecue briquettes, right? Like, let's even keep that down. Even propane, any chance of any bit ember moving anywhere, we want to minimize. And we've seen our most effective just on really collaborating on that messaging.

Yeah, I'll just close with that statement. You know, I know that compared to Multnomah and Washington County, we have a lot more hilly terrain as well, and fires accelerate going uphill and also create drafts and things and breezes and winds in areas where otherwise it was flat, it wouldn't be as significant. So I just, we're just more vulnerable overall. That's my concern.

Thank you. Just a couple of questions. You know, one of the concerns that's brought to us seems like more frequently with the short-term rentals up in the Welch's government camp area and backyard burns there. So just to kind of be clear, I mean, would they at this particular time, from what I understand, that could be a recreational burn right now, is that right? Like the backyard, if they want to have a little fire, they can do that or not? I want to be clear on that area.

That is a great question, and I'm going to ask Chief Mulek to come up and talk about that. And Forest Service Land also has regulations around that, and if I am correct, they have stopped campfires on the Forest Service Land at this point in time, I believe. Why don't you introduce yourself for us?

Yeah, good morning, Chair Roberts, directors. Dan Mulek, I'm the Emergency Services Chief of Clackamas Fire. I'm also the Clackamas County Fire Defense Board Chief. Yeah, a lot of really good conversation with this. And the small campfire component, like the recreational fire, and you mentioned, Chair Roberts, just like those vacation rentals, the people start up something within a fire pit or something in their backyard. At this point where we're at right now that we've just closed burning season, All that stuff is still good. Everybody can still do that, have their fires, they're in a controlled pit. We've done our homework on the amount of the fuel moistures that are out there, the wind. Daniel had mentioned that things just haven't quite turned yet. We just got through the Fourth of July and we didn't have a fire run on the landscape within our county and it just kind of is a testament to Where the fuels are out right now in this part of the region on the west slope of the Cascades But once those become a threat it's looked at a little bit differently what we have in within our county we cannot we do not have the ORS to actually extinguish a confined legal recreational fire what we can do is we hit the messaging we've been very very I think successful with that within our County within all the players that Daniel had mentioned that fire defense board and in with ODF really hit the precaution side of it. There's also there's we control what we can control right so if you look at when we go into an extreme fire danger or a high fire danger and we know we're late in the season the fuels are primed the winds coming up the east wind we know that those hundred hour fuels have been exposed and that the chance of ignition if something was to strike on the on the fuels the chance of ignition is extremely high. That's all predictable for us. That's a good thing The bad thing is that we just don't know where that is gonna where that's gonna hit and it could be from a campfire It could be from a lawnmower. It could be from a logging operation that was supposed to be suspended It could be from anything so a car wreck or spark any of that. So We do a really good job of controlling we can control within our jurisdiction within the fire defense board within communication all that and then some things we just have to are not going to know that they're doing something or not be forecasting the negative impact that that could have. So ultimately, there is always going to be a little bit of a risk. Our goal is to minimize that risk. We're never going to eliminate it, but our job, and we take it very seriously, is to do everything we can to minimize that for everybody.

And I will add there, even with the recreational burning, there is a size limit to that. It's not you can't have a backyard little fire that's, you know, 10, 12 feet across and 10 feet high. Right. There is actually a defined size for what that little fire is. So up where the short term rentals are small fire. in the backyard is fine. But once you start getting larger and you start having embers coming up and larger fires, that's when you are in that backyard burning criteria that has where burning season has closed.

So it sounds like you have some limitation on kind of backyard burning, recreational burning. Unrestricting that is kind of what I hear you saying a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, to really put it down, the recreational burning is really the one area that we don't have an ordinance for that. However, if you look at what actually happens out there, people are... burning their debris, and then when they get called on it or something starts, they pull out the hot dog and say that they were having a recreational fire, right? We don't have a history of having major issues from a controlled legal system. you know fire pit or something in the back it normally is some sense of carelessness or something that's associated with that. And so that's yeah, I mean if you look at Oregon Department of Forestry at the end of their year they go and they pull out a big report and they look at all the fire starts that they had within their area and they look at how many were manmade how many were naturally caused. And the majority of them are started accidentally by a lawnmower or a logging operation. An industrial start is what they call the logging operations. And so we really try, and ODF as well, and the partnership really tries to limit that. That's where the threat is. There's not a whole lot of threat in a contained, legal, far away from the structure, far away from trees, somebody just recreating in their backyard with their family. That is not the big threat.

Thank you. I think that I just want you to kind of be aware. I mean, we've been working with the short-term rental owners in the Welch's in that area. There's a lot of them. And so part of which we can have some of the discussion. I mean, if you're recommending, hey, no backyard burns, I mean, maybe there's some conversation we can have with those owners or help emphasize that, hey, Right now, you know, the humidity is such, the weather is such, and we strongly encourage. And I think a lot of those owners would follow suit with that. The other thing I wanted to kind of touch on, which I commend kind of the partnership with PG and the forecasting of high winds and turning off power before those potentials. So you might just talk about that a little bit because I think that's a huge preventative effort. I know that sometimes people don't like their power cut out. I look at Nancy Bush in the back of the room, and we had conversations in 2020 how power was being cut, and just it sounds like there's really a good coordination between both of you and PG. Maybe you could talk about that.

Yeah, no, thank you. I'd love to make some comments on that. Every year, PG comes to us, to the fire agencies, and asks for us to look at their fire map. at their shutdown map and they asked us this year to look at data on where is the biggest threat for us and does that align with where their maps are. So we put our GIS folks together with PGE this year and kind of compared our data and are really collaboratively working towards accuracy and when we do the public safety power shutdowns. I do want to go back to the Milo McIver fire that was shortly after, just outside of Estacada, just after the 2020 wildfires. We had PGE on our collaborative meetings three or four days before that fire took off. And we had those discussions with the disaster management, with the fire defense board, with our local agencies, law enforcement, everybody to really kind of have a good game plan of situational awareness of what the threat is. And so we get kind of, we look at it through a whole lot of different lenses and the PGE component, bringing them in is great. The other part of it is PanoCam. They have the pano cam if you're not up to speed on what that does, but it's the fire detection cameras that are set up all over the region and they can pick a column of smoke and activate the camera and they can pinpoint exactly where it is and we have access to those within our agencies and there is a lot of times that we will get Smoke indication before the alarm actually goes off for example when Timberland Lodge caught on fire We had pictures of that that the lodge was on fire confirmed well before Anybody I mean even got out of the fire station We've had multiple fires in East County last year where those cameras have activated and we could see the column We could see the wind direction. We could see the rate of growth. We could see all that and that is all because of the partnership and With PGE and the panel cam program and everything so the technology the collaboration is out there And we have made in the last six years. We have made tremendous progress in detection and in getting ahead of the shutdowns and and thankfully in 2020 they had shut down power on the corridor and we were the only corridor that that didn't burn. So yeah, it's been very successful and we'll continue that.

Fantastic. That's great to hear. And I know I have a couple of commissioners have some more follow-ups. Commissioner Savage, you want to go first?

Yeah. First of all, thanks for being here today and thanks for all the great work you do and all your colleagues and keeping us safe. So it's much appreciated. Thank you. You mentioned a couple of times earlier that we don't have or you don't have an order so we don't have an ordinance is that ordinance that if you did have it was something to be enacted by the fire district or that be enacted by the counties who would enact that ordinance that you referenced earlier.

Okay, yeah, thank you for that question. That would be city every city would have to have their own ordinance including those are in the unincorporated areas and that would be a county level component so we would have to go in and we'd have to get the legwork with those all those individual partners and be unified in that and then and go through that process to get that in play for example right now like the city of milwaukee during the fourth of july they did their own specific individual ban on fireworks city of happy valley has their own ordinances that they have related to when you can actually burn and things that are a little bit we would have to go individually to all of the players in the county and do a lot of legwork only to hit the component of the recreational fire everything else is regulated by the

Okay, so just a one quick follow. I think you already answered it, but can the county unincorporated do their own with the cooperation of Clackamas County Fire?

My understanding is yes, and it would not just be Clackamas Fire. It would be those jurisdictions that are out there, and we could help coordinate that through the Fire Defense Board, but my understanding of that question is yes.

Okay, thank you. Any other comments? The only thing I wanted to say, I know that I saw this on the news, three firefighters were killed June 27th on the Utah-Colorado border fighting that fire. And just want to say, you know, our thanks to what you do. And we recognize it's a dangerous job and just appreciate the work that you do. last thing we want to see is any firefighters lose their lives. So anyway, our thanks to you and all the fire departments in our county. So with that, if there's any other questions, Martha, did you have something you wanted to add?

Well, I think actually Paul's questions helped answer what I was saying, what the coordination was between the local fire departments and incorporated areas. But what we haven't mentioned, the last 2020 fire, I just mentioned this, there was some issues with the differences between people who are out there, the forest, fighting the forest fire versus people local agencies because I know that there had to be a pullback at one point and there was confusion with people as to why some of the urban folks who like they saw houses burning and they didn't understand why they had and it's largely because my understanding was because it's in a highly forested unincorporated area and that firefighting and urban environments is quite different than what you have to deal with in a forest environment and

Thank you for that remark. There's a lot to that, but you are very right. There are different types of firefighting that occurs. The wildland fire side of it where you have the Forest Service and Department of Forestry who are very specific to the forest. And then you have the urban interface which that is when the fire is moving into the structural component where now you have lives and property and In key infrastructure that and that falls on the structural fire departments. So when you look around our County When you get into the Malala, Colton, Estacada, parts of Clackamas Fires districts, and can be a lot of that is ODF protected land. And so they are very particular to the land. We are very particular to the structures and the life and the infrastructure. So there is a little bit of a divide there. And then on the 2020 remark, that was a... tactical pause with a combination of How fast the fire was moving where it was moving? the Beachy Creek fire head coming very close to the Riverside fire head and a major event called the plume collapse and which would have been catastrophic and potentially fatal if the firefighters were in that position. It's very unpredictable of exactly when it happens, but things were aligning for that to happen. And so with all the partnerships that we had with Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office, the local agencies, the Forest Service, ODF, that is the reason that that was initiated was to regroup and to get accountability and just get into a safe place while this, and process what was coming. So very extreme fire damage. I hope we never have that again. But for the peace of mind for everybody in this room over what the work that has been done since the 2020 wildfires, the initiation of the Clackamas County Wildfire Collaborative that has done a lot of work in the Welch's area, firewise communities, fuels mitigation projects that are happening in Happy Valley. We just finished up with two major projects that were sponsored by Oregon State Farm Marshal's Office that were grant funded. There's been a lot of work and education out there. The Bull Run is another area that the CPO group is very involved. So we have done a lot of work, not saying that a fire's not going to move Quickly on the landscape, but I think that our our public our taxpayers are very well prepared Thank you.

I did this on a personal note. I worry living in Lake us We had lived in Camby and of course that was more rural and fire issues there, but there's quite a robust tree canopy there and I've always been concerned that like you said a Grilled or something could really I don' t think it would cause an issue but I imagine everyone would coordinate if something like that would happen in an urban area.

thank you. thank you.

tension here in my head, and that is regarding just the change in the climate, right? Things, we haven't had an ordinance, probably didn't need to, but look at what's happening around us. The area's a lot drier than it's ever been, less rainfall, and maybe that's seasonal. I'm hoping it's seasonal. But my question is, the Multnomah County and their ordinance, is it, is there a trigger that it's, it's not a ban 365 days a year is it is it or is it something that's more it can be implemented I'm just curious about how that mechanism was it and the last part of this question is is that something that CCFD or the fire just was bring to us and ask us to do an ordinance or do you think is it come upon the county to ask and partner with you all

Two great questions, Director. The first one is I'm not completely familiar how Multnomah County initiates their ordinances, so I don't want to give false information on that, but we can get that information and bring it back to you. The other question was as far as like us changing or having an ordinance and get is that what your question was on getting on top of that within our yeah is that is that something you would bring to us or is it incumbent upon us to bring it to you that would be I have to I think that if we recognize that there's a problem we will come to you we don't recognize that our system is is problematic I think our I think at this point arts our system that we have with the communication in the levels of fire danger and in the everything that goes along with that Think that our system is in a good spot right now If to hit this would just be hitting the next level we could come to the We could come to the council and and do that or have that communication I just I've never actually truly done that before so I'd have to do a little bit diving into it But I think that collaboratively we could get that accomplished. I

And I would say we work very closely with the Fire Defense Board, so certainly I would be looking to Chief Mulek and others to come to me. But we also are monitoring and talking with the National Weather Service and others and listening to about fuels and weather. And if I felt nervous, I would give them a call and say, hey, is this something we should implement? And we would have a discussion about it. So I think it's mostly they're going to be pushing it our way, but I would certainly pull on that string if need be.

My last comment, we went to a retreat up at Sisters, and I drove through the San Diego Pass, and to see the devastation up there today, it was a stark reminder. So it's really fresh in my head how many thousands of acres are still there, scarred, and all the trees that were lost. Yeah, very much so.

One last question, and that is there's a way for folks to sign up on notification and just some kind of ways to be prepared. Daniel or either one of you maybe talk about that. I'm trying to have them kind of pull that up for us to kind of let the public know you can do something now to kind of prepare.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. I encourage everyone to go to search Clackamas County Public Alerts. It is clackamas.us backslash DM backslash public alerts to get there. And you can sign up for notifications. And this is the easiest, most effective way. for the county to give our community members a notification that there is a life safety incident close to them and with providing them whatever protective measures they need to take, whether it's evacuation, whether it's shelter place or something else. But we have seen a lot of our community members sign up for public alerts and we always encourage people to do it. Being informed is the greatest, best first step to doing that. Then knowing your evacuation routes And having a kit packed in case you do need to evacuate are the next steps after that. Thank you, Chair.

So the message is don't wait for an emergency. Do it now. So thank you, Gary and Andrew, for putting that up for us. So this has been information only. I want to thank both of you. It's been very informative. So great work. Keep up the great job. And I appreciate you taking time to be here today. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Gary, what do you have next? Thank you. Next is Kellogg Creek Bridge Replacement Project Letter of Support. Presenting is Nancy Bush and Trent Wilson. Nancy is still the county operating officer, and she's interim director of public and government affairs for a short period of time, and Trent Wilson is government affairs manager. Go ahead, please.

All right. Good morning, commissioners. So, yes, this is my second day's interim. So I have brought Trent with me because I've been updated a little bit on this topic, but will not be able to answer in-depth questions. So that's why Trent is up here today. So today we're bringing you a draft letter of support for the Kellogg Creek Bridge Replacement Project, which is led by ODOT. ODOT is seeking funds through the Federal Highway Administration culvert aquatic organism passage program which funds the projects that improve fish passage for certain species. ODOT speaks construction fund seeks construction funding to provide a fish passage past the Kellogg Creek weir and box culvert and replace the bridge atop of the weir. The project will also restore lower Kellogg Creek and provide a safe off-grade crossing of Highway 99E between downtown Milwaukee, Oregon and the Willamette River in Milwaukee Bay. CLACMAS WATER ENVIRONMENT SERVICES SITS ON THE PROJECT'S TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE. AND ALSO FOR THE BOARD'S AWARENESS, THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOP HAS CULVERT REPLACEMENTS THAT WILL OPEN ABOUT TWO AND A HALF MILES OF THE FISH HABITAT. AND I BELIEVE YOU HAVE SOMETHING BEFORE YOU ON THURSDAY OF THIS WEEK REGARDING THAT PARTICULAR ITEM. And there is a draft letter and project map that are in your packet. And we're happy to have any comments or answer any questions.

All right. Colleagues, any questions? Go ahead, Commissioner Helm. I see you reaching there.

No, just one comment. I had the opportunity to go on a tour with Mayor Beatty and another counselor and saw this project. old, old. It's fascinating that people drive over this every day and don't realize it's there. And the vision for this is remarkable. And I fully support this. And it's long overdue. And it's going to change a lot of things, just not the fish habitat, too. But it's going to change the overall, I think, feel of that whole down, you know, kind of old town Milwaukee area. So... I just want to say that if anyone is driving through, stop at the park and go look underneath and see what this project is all about because it's going to be amazing when it's done. So hopefully we'll get some money out of it. Thank you.

All right. Commissioner.

Yeah, similar thoughts, but a little bit nuanced here. As I'm reading the letter, it doesn't obligate the county or any of its districts to fund this. It's solely going to be funded by the city of Milwaukee, the state, and ODOT. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. That's what I want to just get clarification on because I know it's an expensive project and I know that we don't have a lot of money. If those other agencies can do that financially, that's great.

Or as Andrew would say, no county general funds are involved.

Well, we also have park districts and we also have the west district. So I just want to make sure that I don't want to pass any cost on to them that they can't really afford, parks especially. Okay.

All right. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there a motion for this? Would you approval for the letter?

Second. You got two seconds on that one.

It was pretty close. Commissioner Savas is moved to approve the letter of support as presented. I believe Commissioner Schrader won the second. Any further discussion?

We can do it mutually, right?

Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the poll?

Commissioner Schrader?

Aye.

Commissioner Helm?

Aye.

Commissioner Savas? Aye. Mr. Chair? Aye. Motion passes four to zero, Mr. Chair. Thank you both very much.

Thank you. All right, Gary, what do you have next? Thank you. Next is advisory board and commission appointments. Bill and Drew, go ahead, please.

Mr. Chair, the first of two advisory bodies to the board's consideration today is the Clackamas County Community Health Council under the staffing of the Health, Housing, and Human Services Department, which currently has open recruitment for two seats. The recommendation is as follows. Joshua Owen to a first term ending July 2028, and Jacqueline Arnn to a second term ending July of 2028. The board could select other candidates or require further recruitment, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Okay, is there a motion?

I move to appoint Joshua Owen and Jacqueline Arne to the Community Health Council. Second.

Commissioner Helm has moved to appoint Joshua Owen and Jacqueline Arne to the Community Health Council. Commissioner Schrader has seconded that motion. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the poll? Commissioner Savas.

Aye. Commissioner Schroeder. Aye. Commissioner Helm. Aye. Mr. Chair. Aye. Motion passes four to zero, Mr. Chair. thank you so we have a second advisory body it looks like. yes Mr. Chair the clackamas workforce partnership is recommending three appointments recruitment was not open to the public as positions are open only under requirements of the workforce Michelle Lacroix as a business representative to a second term ending July 2029. Tracey Rumka as a business representative to a third term ending July 2029. And Tim Cook as an education representative to a first term ending July of 2029. The board could select other candidates or require further recruitment, Mr. Chair.

All right. Is there a motion?

I move we appoint Michelle LaCroix, Tracy Rumka, and Tim Cook to the Clackamas Workforce Partnership. Second.

Commissioner Schrader has moved to appoint Michelle LaCroix, Tracy Rumka, and Tim Cook to the Clackamas Workforce Partnership. It's been seconded by Commissioner Helm. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk, will you please call the poll?

Commissioner Savas. Aye. Commissioner Schrader. Aye. Aye. Commissioner Helm. Aye. Mr. Chair. Aye. Motion passes four to zero, Mr.

Chair. Thank you. Gary, what do you have next? Thank you. Next is review of your board business meeting agenda for this Thursday, July 9th, 2026 at 10 a.m. You will have public communication, housing authority consent agenda, a public hearing, which is the first reading of an ordinance to remove sections of the personnel code from the county code to replace with the policies instead. and a consent agenda for the Board of County Commissioners. If you have any questions on any item, would you please let me know and I'll answer it for you or ask staff to be in the room on Thursday to answer your questions for you. Next, small grants program discussion. Chair Roberts asked this be on the agenda. Chair, do you want to kick it off or would you like me to kick it off?

Whatever you prefer. Yeah, go ahead and kick it off, Gary.

All right, Chair Roberts and I have been discussing with all the amount of local nonprofits that are asking you for money, which is constant, do you want to reinstate the small grants program that Clackamas County did for many, many years here? where in the past you have provided a set amount of money available to nonprofit organizations mostly in the social services or human services or vulnerable populations that they could apply for money and that you would allow then a award of a grant for one year only. The county did use general funds for this program. It varied between $200,000 up to I think one year we got to $350,000 a year total. We ended that program as part of the courthouse replacement cost to accommodate for that. The board decided by request to end that program. But the question is, do you want to reinstate it? You could reinstate it for one year only as a test. As you recall, you do have approximately $980,000 of funds available, ongoing funds that you could use for any program or purpose you decide. You did not make a decision yet how to spend those funds. But do you want to use a portion of that to reinstate the small grants program? It does relieve some pressure from you of all the bombardment you're getting from nonprofits for some financial assistance. where this program then would be a competitive process where they would apply, staff would make recommendations, it would then come back to you for final decision-making. So Chair Roberts and I talked about it. It might be time to reinstate it, but he wanted to have that conversation with you to see if that's something you'd like to pursue or not. If you did, we'd bring it back to you at a formal policy session with more details. Chair, did I miss anything?

No, I think that we... have some really important services out there that are struggling at times, and I think this is meant to be like a one-time. This is not to be necessarily just a reoccurring fund. It's really to kind of help people get through the crisis of the situation. I know Commissioner West has one group. It's a home for pregnant women that they need some one-time assistance. We've had Patricia from Malala Community Center, Blumen Boutiques, kind of list goes on and on. Obviously we can't help everybody and I have talked to staff where they would apply for this. They'd evaluate the need of each of those and really try and do the best job at selecting those that are in most need of some urgent services. So I think it's from what I heard from staff it was it was money that was put to good use it made a big difference in the lives of a lot of people and and I know that as Gary we've talked there there is there is some money that could be used for this I think that I wanted to both turn to commissioners that have been here a while and ask them what their thoughts. I might start with Martha. You were a part of that program before, so was Commissioner Savas. I want to hear from both of you. So, Martha?

It was a program. I think it was Commissioner Bernard who instituted it at that point, again, because we constantly get requests from non-profits. And we don't actually make the decisions on them. I mean, we make the final decision, but we take very seriously a staff recommendation. And if I recall, it was Caroline who would do a lot of that work and come forward with a list that we could approve. I'd be more than willing to reinstate it. My only concern is this. Is this a one-time reinstatement? Because, again, will we have this money in the future? So the question I would have is if people needed a one-time, my understanding with Commissioner West's issue is that they just need it for a one-time in order to improve a yard, enhance some things. So if we were careful with the criteria... You know, I wouldn't be against doing it, but I also want to make sure that people would need to know that the future is the future. And we have money right now, but that doesn't mean it's always going to be there. Gary I'm kind of looking to you. What are yours? I mean, I mean if that's that's the only issue is it right?

This might just be a one-year program If you did it would be for one year only a one-year pilot Okay, both the program but also those who were awarded the funds would be one time only no expectation that it would continue beyond one year so I'm sorry.

This isn't in our reserves or in our contingency.

Is it this is separate from that?

Okay, okay I'm curious what my colleagues think. Yeah, Commissioner Savas.

Yeah, well, I too live through that. I would say that if the rationale to do this is to take the pressure off, I would argue differently. I would say that it actually added pressure in my experience because... You're saying yes to a few, and you're saying no to many. And during the process, I know it's independent. I know that, for example, our staff did it. Caroline did a great job with that. But still, there's that indirect pressure that comes on us and also the aftermath of those who were successful. So I think... As I recall, it left some people disappointed and felt that it was still political or favored and whatnot. So that's one concern. I agree. And also the other thing about one time, is that every one time, and then pretty soon you're giving someone a safety net, then they count on it. And then sometimes that turns on to say, oh, now you're cutting funding. You gave it to us last year, now you're cutting. So I'm always reluctant to be in that position to say, when we say it's one time, sometimes it's forgotten that it's one time and they expect it ongoing. I appreciate having some financial cushion, but I would almost... like to have that in there and I'll say a reserve as a policy but for some emergencies that are like Incredibly a one where you know it's a one-time emergency and we've got those funds available as opposed to depleting them altogether or or significantly impacting them so that that's chair that's my response from my experience and Just knowing again. We did this because the how tight the budget would be for the courthouse and everything else affected it. So I just think that that strain has not gone away. That strain's still there.

Commissioner Helm, your thoughts?

Well, I'm just kind of thinking out loud here, so just bear with me. It's not a bad idea. And it sounds like it's a lot of staff time. And I'll be really selfish. Caroline is my staff. And if she has to read grants all day long, I don't know. Maybe I'm not willing to share her. It doesn't have to be Caroline. No, I'm joking, but not. Because it is going to be a lot of staff time, right? Because just to institute a program like this, there's going to be a lot of paperwork involved. We do get asked. buy a lot of people for a lot of money over and over and over again. And I'll just say, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but there are so many more nonprofits out there nowadays than there used to be. And they're all vying for the same money, right? And I think in some cases we can consolidate some of those and, you know, pool their resources and have a larger voice when they go to ask for funding. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is because... I like having a cushion. I'm that person who has to have that cushion, be it $250,000 for the county or $900,000. We don't know what's going to happen. And we know that money is getting tighter every year. So to say it's one time, I don't know. It's kind of tough. I'm torn. I'm going to say I'm not for it. I'm not against it. probably see more cons than I do pros at this point. So but I understand your your reason for bringing it up.

Yeah, I think that what I'm also trying to avoid too really is a lot of us get lobbied to support a particular effort and to redirect it to staff to a process that can screen out those and I think that The priority, I believe, on this should be just like in our spotlight videos. We're not going to go back and do the same thing to a business we already spotlighted in a highlight. We're moving on to the next one. And I think when that information is clear up front and you follow your guidelines that this is a one-time deal, that they acknowledge that, And that I do believe like right now in this tough economic time There can be things that come up that are literally a crisis that that there isn't particular money for and Then it has to come to us and then we're discussing it and and really to be nimble where Where the staff has that ability? You know, they can make the decision as, look, you know, we don't feel like we received somebody that meets our qualifications. And they might not give the money away. It just really gives them the ability to screen and look. And where I kind of consider is, you know, whether it's... Helping a senior out or on a one-time deal. There's a lot of other resources through h3s I understand that I can just give you one example that made a big difference for us on the public safety side and that was with Clackamas fire the emergency services foundation and we had the ability of like cash on the spot to provide to somebody in the field and And it was, this is how it used to be. You'd just get money out of your own pocket. And that's how, the old way we used to do things. And eventually the Emergency Services Foundation came back and we raised money, we put it into a pot, and then officers had the ability to kind of hand that out. And really I see this as a similar kind of program, having the ability on a, need by need basis making sure it meets that kind of I would say critical criteria and Just gives us some options. So I think you know one suggestion I might just have is perhaps having staff come back with some recommendations of guidelines and this is this is what it could be used for and and seeking our input for those kind of particular emergencies. It's just kind of my thoughts. Commissioner Schroeder, you had a comment you were thinking?

Well, I'm thinking, should we, you know, if we, should we wait for Commissioner West to be here so he can join the conversation? That might be a suggestion I make. Is that all right with people? Paul, is that okay with you?

Yeah, I think it's fine to have that. Probably a good idea to make sure that Commissioner West is here, all five of us are here. I do have a question, though, to Gary. The $984,000, that's new to me. So my question is, do you see that recurring, or is this just one time $984,000 in a bucket you got?

we discussed this at the budget committee and it may have gotten mixed up with all the other stuff going on you have based on the financial forecast there was approximately 980 000 still available ongoing that would not cause any of the 30 years to be in the red okay but you as a board decided not to take any action on that to wait and have a further conversation later on all the possibilities you could use for that money. So how about, I'm hearing there's a big maybe from all of you. How about we come back at a policy session when Commissioner West is also here with more details on how we did it before, what a structure would look like, and various costs of that program, and you can then make further decisions from there. How is that?

Yeah, well, yeah, I think that's a good idea. At least I do do that.

I think that's a great idea.

All right. Sounds like a direction that you will get some more information. Yeah, we'll bring it back to you. All right, thank you. Final item today is Commissioner Communications.

All right. Martha.

Well, I had a really fun Fourth of July. I got to walk with the, I was at the parade and I had my two, I had Ginger and Little Dog, my Pomeranian and my Little Dog's the palm. She's a little yappy thing. And then Ginger, my Labradoodle, with their, you know, with their scarves on, you know, their Fourth of July, you know. flags around their neck. And I was standing and watching. And it was really kind of fun because the Chamber of Commerce was coming by. They all started to yell, Martha, Martha, come walk with us. So even though I hadn't planned on being in the parade, I got to be in the parade. And it was really funny because we passed the lady who I got in my Labradoodle from and with her whole family. And it was kind of fun because the dog, you know, Ginger recognized him and literally jumped over the barrier where she got a very warm reception from her previous family. So that was kind of a fun day for me. And I want to thank Jeff Goodman. I know my colleagues, we went to his. He always has his Fourth of July kind of due. And I know both Commissioner Helm and Commissioner Savas were there. And And I went with Ben's husband, Paulie. He was there with me, and we had a nice time. Jeff Goodman is a great guy, and we can always depend on him for a 4th of July event. Okay. And coming up, I wanted to let folks know I'll be heading out to the National Association of Counties and become involved with the women of NACO. And I'm going to be, I'm kind of their nominating committee chair at this point, where we will be choosing a slate of officers for the 50th anniversary of the women of NACO. And Commissioner Helm, I don't know if you're going or not. No, I'm not. Okay, well, I'll get to do that, and then I'll have the exciting time to see who is going to be the next president of NACO. There are three candidates. Now we have a fellow from Virginia who knows all about data centers. We have a young woman from Arizona who is very, very competent and a very fine gentleman from Illinois. And that's going to be a race for me to keep an eye on and see who moves into leadership. So thank you.

Thanks, Martha. Commissioner Savas.

Yeah. It was great to have a little bit of time off to get some things done around the household and the property that I haven't been able to do because I've been working on so many things. I made the mistake, I guess, maybe not, of not turning my phones off, so I actually still was busy. Gary was sharing his week off, and he was smart enough to turn his phone off, and I was not. So the issue still came at me. But it was nice. It was nice to have a little bit of time off and have a little bit more relaxed environment. But the issues are still out there, and people are passionate about it, and And we are too, so it was a great Fourth of July. I appreciated that. That was nice. And a lot of parades. I wish I could have attended a parade. I normally have, but still recovering with my lower back thing, so I can't walk long distances without resting. So that said, Chair, I don't have much to say. I'll turn it back to you.

All right. Thank you. Commissioner Helm.

Well, first, the beginning of last week, several of us attended the AOC legislative conference. That was great. Which I did not know what to expect, and it was not at all what I expected. I felt very in over my head. There's a lot of wordsmithing going on with their principles and their values and their goals and everything. But it was interesting to see what the legislative priorities are coming up. So that was good. And there was a lot of really great people from all over the state of Oregon there. So I... So yeah, I didn't do a parade. I worked at home. I was on my tractor most of the weekends. So I got a lot of long overdue chores done. So it was a little nice to have some time to kind of pick up around the house and get some things done that were much needed. And I appreciated that. And my phone was still ringing and I was still answering emails and still working. So there's a lot of stuff in our packet to read for the meetings this week. So anyway, happy 4th of July, everyone. It was, I will say I have... I have a view off my back patio that looks to the east of Damascus, and I have never in my life seen so many fireworks. of the not legal kind. And I'm, you know, I'm no shade on anyone who did it because it was a pretty remarkable display. And I think people were very celebratory and were really into their explosives that evening. But I will say I respect them because I think it all kind of shut off about 11 o'clock at night, which was really nice. So That I could get some sleep, but anyway Anyway, I had some trembling dogs.

Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard on the animals.

Yeah right well Just a couple of quick comments. First of all, I thought it was a great presentation regarding the fire Issues and where the fire departments are all working together with emergency management it was just great to hear and some of the new things that they're doing and With this heat, as I know Commissioner Helms out riding her tractor often, just a reminder in this heat to stay hydrated. It's easy as the temperature increases, particularly seniors and others, it's easy to get dehydrated. And so just a warning on that. Follow-up on AOC, I think all of us were there. So, yep, except for Ben, I think. But it was also a great time to network with other commissioners, met with a lot of the other commissioners around the state, hearing about their issues and concerns. I will say it's pretty unanimous financial struggles. And we're not the only county that's really watching our dollars and doing the best job we can with them. So I think that was it. And I met with the Wilsonville mayor yesterday. Got a lot of great information about what's happening in the city of Wilsonville. A lot of great things going on and kind of where their future is in a number of projects. And so that was beneficial. And I just, the last thing I wanted to close with, and it's somewhat in recognition of Martha, it's World Chocolate Day, Martha, and I know you like chocolate. I love chocolate. And that celebration, the introduction of chocolate to Europe in the 1550s, promoting the enjoyment of chocolate treats. So anyway, I thought I'd pass on. Thank you. That's July 7th, you know, in honor of you. So we'll get some break before we come back at 1.30. So thank you all for joining us this morning. We'll return at 1.30 for the policy session. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to our policy session for July 7th, 2026. County Administrator Gary Smith, would you please call the roll?

Yes, thank you, Chair. Commissioner West is still out of the office today. Roll call. Commissioner Savitz. Present. Commissioner Helm.

Here.

Commissioner Schrader. Here. Chair Roberts. Here. Right Gary, what do you have for us first session today is statewide transportation improvement funds fiscal year 2028 to 2029 project list Presenting is Health Housing Human Services. Why are they presenting? They're gonna explain that aren't you? Health Housing and Human Services deputy director and Christina Babcock transit services program manager. That's the key right there transit. Go ahead, please fill up Christina

Thank you, Gary. Good afternoon, Chair Roberts and commissioners. Glad to be here this afternoon to bring before you a proposed project list for fiscal year 2028 to 2029 statewide transportation improvement funding, which goes by the acronym STIF. STIF was established by the Oregon legislature through House Bill 2017 intended to expand and improve public transportation across Oregon. The funding is generated through a statewide employee payroll tax. and it's intended to support transportation services that improve access to employment, healthcare, education, and other essential destinations. These funds are really intended to enhance and to preserve transit services. For Clackamas County, these investments have become a really important piece of support in the work that we do, specifically in our health, housing, and human services departments. to assure older adults, people with disability, low-income job seekers, and residents who are living in rural and underserved community have access to transportation. Today, our discussion, it's part of a larger statewide approval process that needs to happen. So we're seeking today the board's concurrence on the proposed project list before it then moves forward to be presented to our county stiff advisory committee. Then it goes to the regional advisory committee that's convened by TriMet before ultimately it is approved by the Oregon Transportation Committee. And with that, we do have our subject matter expert here, Christina Babcott. She is our transit services program manager, which is housed in our social services division of H3S. Christina's gonna provide a high level overview of the proposed projects for FY28-29. Go ahead, Christina.

All right, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Christina Babcock. As Philip said, transit services manager in health, housing, and human services. So as part of your packet today, you guys got an Excel spreadsheet. It has lots of little tiny words on it and writing, so I'm gonna kind of go through it at a higher level. One thing to remember is that these numbers are still preliminary. It's all based off of payroll collection projections, and the last projection we had was from November of last year, and we should get a new one any week. So once we get a new projection, the numbers may change slightly. We don't anticipate that they'll change significantly. But payroll collections have been noted to be down across the state of Oregon. About 3% is what I'm being told. So we'll go from there. The first attachment in your packet is what we call our regional coordination programs. And those are... I'm sorry. Those are the programs that run our last mile shuttles. So that's the Oregon City Shuttle, the Clackamas Industrial Shuttle, the CCC Express, and the Shuttle to Estacada. That program is going to remain largely unchanged with one thing to note. The Oregon City Shuttle is actually going to change its route to match the service cuts that TriMet is making through Oregon City, Gladstone, and up to Milwaukee. So starting at the end of August, we will be updating our Oregon City route to fill a gap that was left by TriMet service cuts and so it will serve from the Clackamas Community College up through Gladstone and then hit both of the Milwaukee Community Center locations and ultimately end up at the NCPRD Community Center to help with transportation up there. It's kind of a Zigzag through those areas filling a gap that try that's going to leave the next attachment is Our formula programs and those formula programs are broken down into kind of categories if you will So the first three are related to transit service that's related to Mount Hood Express partnering with our other service providers here in Clackamas County and to ensure that they can expand and provide service and then our lifeline services out in boring that we committed to helping try met originally committed to helping provide when boring pulled out of the trimet service district and now we continue to help provide transportation services to older adults out in that area The second kind of goldish hue if you will is our planning and capital projects. Those really have to do with maintaining vehicle fleets, matching federal grants, purchasing new vehicles as needed and then technology upgrades. Over probably the last three or four years we've been on a really aggressive campaign to get all of our transit services up to the 21st century with real-time location arrival signage passenger counting reporting things like that less paper more electronic side of things when it comes to transportation the third section which is green is really the bulk of where our spending comes in and this is our community-based transportation programs and So this is what funds all of our elderly and disabled transportation programs that we offer within Clackamas County. And then it passes dollars through to our senior centers who help provide additional elderly and disabled transportation services. This encompasses our volunteer program, our Medicaid program, and a number of different match requirements that we have on federal funding, and we use the state funds to do that. And then the final section within formula funds is kind of like the administrative overhead, if you will. Pays for my time. We're required to do an annual audit. And then we have a category called program reserve, which is basically a catch-all if something kind of goes over budget. if maybe a vehicle costs more than we thought it was going to, or a senior center wants to take on a special project, we have some reserves that we can kind of flex around to handle our projects. And then the last, I mean, we have totals there and I'll come back to the totals, but the last one is 5310. 5310 is not associated with STIF, but the process gets involved in STIF because it goes through TriMet. So 5310 is actually a federal grant, but it's administered through TriMet. We get the money directly through ODOT, but that is what we use to pay for all of our vehicle maintenance for both the Mount Hood Express and transportation reaching people. So as you can see or hopefully see on the spreadsheet, totals for the 28-29 biennium are about $6.8 million, and that's encompassing both the formula and the regional coordination, with regional coordination being about a third of those total dollars. So I think that's, you know, a high-level overview of that spreadsheet. Obviously, I can get into more specifics, but essentially what we're seeking here is, you know, do the commissioners and the board agree with where we're putting, you know, the majority of these formula funds, and is there anything else that they'd like to see done differently so that we can move forward with presenting this to the HB 2017 Advisory Committee?

All right. Questions? Go ahead, Commissioner Salvas.

Thank you, Christina, for all the work you've done on this. your staff I appreciate it looks like an expansive or expansion of service in some areas I appreciate the senior center connections that you're mentioning and from sounds like Gladstone through Oregon City Gladstone up to Milwaukee Community Center that's awesome Yeah, that would be a great connection. I appreciate that. I was just wondering, in regard to that, if there is anything that the existing services that Oregon City Senior Center and the Gladstone Senior Center, they provide services to connect people. I just wonder if there's any way that, or do they already... help complement the services that you're providing, you know, or because if we're making connections that they are currently connecting with, I'm just talking about duplications or opportunity maybe to expand that a little bit farther so seniors that need to get to the store or like a big shopping center like Fred Meyer in Oak Grove, that's in between that area. things like that. I know you have limited funds, but I know that when that community talks about connections because of the terrain, it's hard to walk, especially for seniors. So for that particular age group, I think the services that you all offer is going to help them quite a bit. So that's one. And then the easy one is how are reimbursements going with that QE?

That's actually the harder one, but we'll just say reimbursements are going fine. We have worked up some plans with TriMet, and thus far we have not had any major issues we get. This is a little bit different in terms of it's not your classic reimbursement. We sign a grant, and then however much we have in our plan is kind of set, and then payroll collections come in, and as payroll collections come in, there has to be math done to see like are we collecting on pace are we not collecting on pace and then we get a quarterly check from TriMet basically you know Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 based on what they're collecting in payroll and then it's up to me and then my team to take that money and make sure that it's getting distributed to the projects that are of highest priority so you know If we are projecting on something up on the screen here, we have that we're going to put $481,000 towards the senior centers. If payroll collections came in less, like let's say they came in 10% less, we'd have to make strategic decisions about how we reduce where we... spend money and I have some projects in there that would allow us to that would not be one of them we would reduce from but there are other projects that we might reduce from to make sure that we are fully funding those programs. So reimbursements are going fine to answer your question on that. Your other question about duplication of service we try really hard to make sure we're not duplicating service right we only have so much funding and so one of my primary goals is to make sure that we're spending that funding in a way that we are making sure that the most people are served right so part of the Change related to the Oregon City shuttle is to fill a gap To help with topography in Oregon City along South End Road in those neighborhoods that don't have trimet service But coming down into downtown connecting into downtown right connecting at the Oregon City Transit Center where people can get on many other routes including trimet and And then also coming up into the Milwaukee Gladstone area and making sure that we have shared stops with TriMet along the way, but that we are not duplicating TriMet's route, right? So serving a different population, but giving them the opportunity to connect to other providers. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah, it does. Thank you for that. I saw the one here, the boring services, that boring lifelines, is that new? No.

That is not new many many many years ago boring withdrew from the TriMet service district and when boring withdrew from the TriMet service district There was a commitment to ensure it's actually up in the top gray section Attachment a there you go all the way up. Keep going There we go. Second one down. When Boring withdrew from the TriMet service district, there was a commitment to put STF population funds, which you might remember STF population funds, towards ensuring that service was still provided for older adults in that area. So in the highlighted blue box there, the $173,386 is still those old stiff population funds that we get for that service, and then we take an additional $25,000 in stiff formula to just bolster it because the demand out there actually keeps growing. And that service is done actually through the city of Sandy.

Thank you. Commissioner Helm.

Thank you. And this is a really comprehensive list. I really appreciate it. But for me and for those watching, what are T19 rides?

T19 are waivered non-medical rides or Medicaid rides is what most people know them as. And so it's a Medicaid contract through the state of Oregon. for non-medical rides and they pay a rate per ride and then we have a match that we owe and so it's like a distinct carve-out it's like a distinct grant and because they are considered federal funds we have to have match for those and we use the stiff formula funds to match those.

Okay and then second question and it's not really related so much to this because I know this is for this is for the the stiff funds, but knowing that TriMet is going to have another round of cuts in the fall, I keep hearing like October-ish, I want to make sure that we're nimble as far as we're going to have to be adjusting again, kind of like Oregon City is doing, picking up the slack for Milwaukee Gladstone. And have they given us, I haven't heard it, maybe you have, have they given us any indication

the first round of service cuts that coincides with their fall service. I have information on that. Further cuts past that I don' t have a lot of detail on because I think they' re waiting for a lot of different things to come to fruition to put out real solid plans on that. August 23 is the first cut and we' ll see the first cuts through redesign the Oregon City Shuttle to fill that. This plan that you guys have is somewhat nimble. I'm constrained by what we put in the plan, but if you read a lot of the descriptions in the plan, the project descriptions, they seem very vague. They're vague on purpose. No, that's good. To allow me to kind of nimbly move money around. As TriMet makes service cuts, we potentially lose service for our Lyft riders, which are their paratransit riders, which puts a higher rate of burden on our elderly and disabled transportation programs. Which is why you see a bit more money being funneled into those projects in general to try to help fill some of that gap Yeah project descriptions are vague, but they're intentionally vague to allow me to kind of move money around because if I put them real Detailed then I'm you're locked in I'm locked into that okay cool.

Thank you All right any other questions All right, so is there a motion on this project list I?

I move to approve the project list as presented. Second.

Commissioner Helm has moved to approve the project list as presented. Commissioner Schrader has seconded that. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk, you'll please call the poll.

Commissioner Savas. Aye. Commissioner Schrader. Aye. Commissioner Helm. Aye. Mr. Chair. Aye. Motion passes four to zero, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Great presentation, by the way. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, Gary. Thank you. Next session is Data Center Potential Policy. This is a request by the board, and this is an update of that. Presenting is Department of Transportation and Development, Dan Johnson, the director, and Cheryl Rebell, the assistant director. Go ahead, please.

Okay. Chair Roberts, commissioners, you apparently are looking at the data center experts for Clackamas County. I want to thank you so much for the time to come before you today. We know this is a topic that got brought up in discussion from the board and you were requesting some information, general information around what the county's role primarily might be within the development of these kind of facilities. We're not aware of any data centers currently within Clackamas County, but there's been a lot of discussion, as you are very aware, in the media and a number of media outlets. So with that, we're going to kind of run, Cheryl and I, she's joining me today, we're going to run you through kind of where the county's work touches this data center discussion. We are going to discuss with you kind of some pros and cons that we're hearing in some of the materials you had. And hopefully answer any questions you might have, or if not, we don't have the ability to answer them, we will research them and get back to you. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Cheryl.

So good afternoon, Chair Roberts and Commissioners. As Dan noted, no way an expert in data centers, but we're happy to support the conversation today. You will be. learning, right? To frame today's conversation, I think it's important to kind of just talk about what data centers are and some of the conversations going on. So a data center is a facility that contains an organization's centralized information technology systems supporting digital environments. So these buildings tend to be industrial in nature, and they hold servers, routers, and other networking equipment that supports various technology needs, such as cloud-based software, data storage, crypto mining, AI generation, and digital data storage. Data centers are becoming more and more prevalent as society's use of digital and AI systems keeps increasing. Our policy session worksheets has references to some really good information about usage. Approximately 6 billion people, 74% of the global population are online, representing an increase of over 46% since 2010. On average, US households have a total of 22 internet-connected devices. I think my house probably has 30, and there's two of us. The average monthly home internet use has increased from 150 gigabytes in 2018 to more than 750 gigabytes per household in 2025. Data centers provide important daily functions for our community, and organizations like the Economic Development for Central Oregon consider these facilities important for long-term economic development and growth. There are also increasing concerns around data centers regarding energy and water usage. The equipment stored in data centers generates significant amounts of heat during its operations, and so data centers require significant cooling systems to dissipate this heat so the equipment can run at the optimal conditions. These cooling needs result in two important impacts. One is energy and one is water. As noted in the policy session worksheet, two studies found that the U.S. data center's energy usage in 2023, excluding cryptocurrencies, was approximately 4.4% of the U.S. annual electricity consumption for that year. It's expected in 2028 that this could jump to 12% of all the electricity consumed in the United States. And looking at water, according to the EPA, a data center uses five million gallons of water every day, which is as much as 16,000 plus average U.S. households. So data centers, as Dan noted, and their place in Oregon has been a topic recently in the media and especially in advance of the 2027 long legislative session. Last week, Governor Kotak gave a press conference about data centers and the Power Act, which is legislation that passed last year that requires data centers to pay for the cost of the additional power that they are using. To conform to this new law, Portland General Electric is the first to propose raising power rates for large data centers and their proposal is for 29% increase in their rates. A smaller decrease would come to residential and small business customers. This is in front of the Public Utility Commission this week for that proposal. Last week, also Senators Wyden and Merkley wrote a letter to the Oregon Data Center Advisory Committee to convey the priorities and concerns they're hearing from constituents around data centers. The senators didn't recommend specific steps for Oregon to mitigate data centers, but urged the committee to consult tribal governments to protect water supplies and to make sure that the public is fully informed about data centers and their operations. The Data Center Advisory Committee, which the governor and the senators both referenced, was convened by Governor Kotek to develop recommendations for a comprehensive regulatory framework for data centers. The committee's been meeting since February to evaluate the impact of Oregon's rapidly growing data center industry, and they plan to issue draft recommendations estimated next month. They have meetings coming up on July 31st and August 4th. So I think it's important to note with all the work underway at the state level in advance of the 2027 legislative session, it appears that waiting to consider any local policies appropriate as the state may be developing policies and legislation based upon the work underway. And especially as we wait the data center advisory committee report that's going to be out possibly next month or for sure by the end of the year. So in turning the county's role, if a data center is considering located in unincorporated county, we would serve as the permitting authority. Data centers are primarily housed in warehouse and industrial facilities, and they can be of various sizes. Data centers are allowed in the general industrial, light industrial, and business park zones, and there are other commercial zones where they would be an allowed use. As with any structure of this nature, land use entitlements are required. If locating in a zone in which this isn't outright allowed use, land use review would be limited to review of the structural design, site circulation, landscaping, and associated development standards found in our zoning and development ordinance. Submittal requirements for land use application would include preliminary statements of feasibility for water, sanitary sewer, and surface water management providers. These statements are provided by the applicant from the provider to ensure sufficient level of services available for the providers to support the development. Additional comments of conditions of approval can be added based on those provider letters. Development review would also include any surveying development engineering building permits and those would go through standard practices as there's nothing specific for data centers in those permitting functions. As Dan noted we have no applications currently for any kind of data service and we don't believe that there are any in Clackamas County at this time. So I'm gonna hand things to Dan to talk about economic development incentives.

So a lot of the community concern you've been hearing recently especially for our friends out in the Hillsboro area is mostly associated around the economic development incentives around these particular projects These I just want to highlight the specific tool so essentially These are enterprise zones which are common to tax deferral property tax deferral tools that support economic expansion and growth within Numerous counties and cities throughout Clackamas County Essentially, these are encouraging business investments through property tax exemption. These are in designated areas. Businesses looking to expand within these enterprise zones may be eligible. Clackamas County does operate a three-year tax abatement enterprise zone program. We do not do the five-year, with the exception of the enterprise zone that we help operate within the city of Oregon City. Currently, there are five enterprise zones within the county, including the North Urban Clackamas County area, the Oregon City area, Estacada, Malala, and Sandy. I could go into some deeper discussion on enterprise zones, but I think it's important to understand the fact that in March, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 48, pardon me, 4084, effectively putting a one-year pause on new data center tax exemptions in urban and suburban enterprise zones. On June 6th, 2026, the moratorium took effect, essentially giving time for an additional analysis and policy recommendation ahead of the 2027 legislative session. So as of right now, there is a pause in place until that session takes place. So the likelihood of us seeing, well, any application are few and far between because they aren't available for us to approve at this point in time. So there's no recommendation attached to this. We're here to discuss with you, listen, hear concerns you may have. Obviously, staff will be tracking the conversation as it advances and moves forward through the session. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

Martha. Yeah, just a question here. Our topography is challenging. So it seems to me that the amount of land that is also necessary wouldn't actually put us in a top tier for a data center. It's just an observation. Seems to me that most of it seems to be happening in Washington County. And have we done an analysis to see where these are popping out throughout the state? We don't have that information yet.

We have not done a thorough analysis of that. I can tell you that they take various forms. For example, there are some in downtown Portland that are in old office buildings you would never even know about. They were on a recent study that came out from LCDC about current or proposed data centers. They can be retrofits in areas like that. Honestly, my son's out building them in Reno right now, and there are some up there that are 300,000 square. They are ginormous, and they are in very large lots. There are some that are smaller. Generally speaking, I couldn't tell you if they were under the 50,000 square foot, probably rough estimate of size and square footage for a standard. That's the size of almost a standard industrial building that we have today. Yeah. But yes, as you will see, a lot of the power needs and the data usage there currently with the current business climate is more prevalent within our Washington County partners, and there's been more interest, especially in the near term, to locate them closer to those facilities.

I was listening to OPB on my way into work, and one of the things that they were talking about was data centers and the amount of energy and water they use. And that is becoming a large concern of communities, not just here, but across the nation at this point.

Agreed. That's all I know. Right. Commissioner Helen.

Well, and that's one of the reasons I brought this up too for a policy discussion is A, just to have a conversation about it. So does Honor Radar. I don't want to get blindsided. Not that we have tons of space available, but even if there are smaller ones that pop up here and there, there are consequences to having them out there, both good and bad, right? So they bring in a lot of revenue. They use a lot of energy and water. And I know some states or counties, I should say counties and cities, have required a net neutral for both water and energy use, that they do pay for their own so that it's not putting it on the backs of the surrounding communities. And those are the kind of things I don't want to have conversations about, is even if they're smaller, and I brought this up with you the other day, Dan, was in downtown Palo Alto, California, right? It's Silicon Valley. They, like, there's a historic building down there that it's a data center, and nobody, you know, people really don't even know. They walk by it every day, but they turned it into a data center that is... is functioning, but they had to do a lot of retrofitting in order to get it so that it was not using up so much water and energy. So this is, I think, just the start of a conversation that I want to have and to alleviate the fears that there are out there from people because just saying data center, people get up in arms, oh, we can't have those here. Well, we can. We can and we should because we all like these, right? And when you're, as you say, storing your data, your pictures in the clouds, it's not up there. It's in a data center. And with AI changing so rapidly, this is another reason why they're getting built so quickly, is we don't know where that's even going. So I just want to stay ahead of it, have conversations about it, make sure that We're doing our homework as far as looking at other cities or counties that have instituted some, you know, in hindsight, we wish we would have done this, right, kind of thing. So I don't want to be in that position where we've been behind the eight ball.

So let's operationalize that discussion a little bit. So essentially what will happen is a lot of these, something's going to come out of the session. and it's either gonna have an impact or sooner, pardon me, as Cheryl said. It's gonna come out and it's gonna have some dialogue or discussion around best practices and or things for jurisdictions to consider. We would take that information and apply it into a discussion we would have with you about either changes to our enterprise zones, procedures and policies, or changes to our design standards that we have within our current development code. And that would be a part of our long-range work program that we share with you. Keep in mind there's a lot of things going on, mandates in the state that our planning department are dealing with. So we talk with you annually kind of about, hey, here's the portfolio of adjustments we're going to do this year. Are you good with that? Is there something you want to add and pull off, things of that nature? We come and talk to you about that.

And the fact that there is a pause on the whole thing right now means people were not ahead of it. They were like, oh, stop the presses. We didn't realize all this was going to be happening. And people are up in arms. And we as a county haven't had the conversation before. So we're starting. And we may wait for the state to come out with their new whatever house bill they're going to probably do in 2027. And either A, follow suit or, you know. stitch our own together that suits Clackamas County better. So, and no, we don't have a lot of space, but they don't have to be big. You know, we do have a, and commercial real estate right now is soft. So it's a great time for people to, you know, investors to buy up some of these places and start converting them. So just, I just want it on our radar.

And it's important to keep in mind, I think, I can't remember the exact number, but I think there are at least 12 enterprise zone requests that got in under the wire over in our with our partners um over in the western portion of the metro region so um my assumption if there's going to be any near-term development these kind of additional facilities they will be under those enterprise zones that they've already been approved so there relieves some of the hopefully some of the pressure that we may have been feeling in our region for some of these and I don't want to bet I want to make sure we're clear we're talking about a lot of the impacts associated with it there's a lot of data on the small county side you know there's a lot of these in Prineville these rural communities they there's big assessed value that comes with these because it comes off the real property and the personal property let me think about it it's a shell with a racking system with these facilities in there. And there's a lot of value to those assets that are associated with it. So some of these small communities really see them as assets and ability, workforce improvement for some of the individuals that work in there, job opportunities. And so I don't want to be all the, we want to make sure we're sharing the pros and cons associated with these.

Well, and that's another thing I was bringing up, too, is that one of the benefits is the revenue stream. And for counties that are stuck with the 3% property tax cap as our revenue stream, I mean, we look for other areas to do that. So, you know, again, I'm not opposed. I just want to make sure that we're doing it the right way. So I understand that.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Salvas.

Yeah, I've been following, I think we all have been following this reaction in different communities around the country with regards to these data centers. And they seem to be resource intense, right? And I just wonder if there's areas in which maybe some of those resources, whether it's water or it's power, is something that might have a negative impact on a current community in our area, right? Maybe less so, less impact on other areas, but more so in others. So... It seems to me this moratorium is only on the property tax break. If someone wanted to open up a data center tomorrow, they could, right? That moratorium only applies for the property tax break. So I want to go back to the the benefit that you spoke to and any other benefits we haven't discussed. So assess value. So we have the business property comes under what a personal property versus real estate, right?

Versus real property, correct.

Versus real property, yeah. So personal is what business pays. So they buy a huge piece of equipment. A press, something like that. The state assesses that. Can you remind me, does that, because the state assesses it, where does the revenue go?

It comes to the county.

It does come to the county.

I believe that to be the case.

Every penny?

Yes, I believe that to be the case.

Okay.

All right. I'll confirm that and double-check it with A&T.

Yes, it was on my property tax statements.

Okay. So I guess my question is that I want to kind of understand the scale and what that monetizes out to, right? So, again, weighing the pros and cons. Mm-hmm. But I guess I really am concerned that is there other impacts like is noise an issue, right? Are there issues with a local heat, right? I mean, I'm hearing a lot of stuff. I just don't know what's truth and what's not truth. But I guess if we were concerned about certain areas that we would not want to see a data center, what can our planning department do?

Well, I mean, fundamentally, we can limit where they're allowed. I wouldn't act on that yet because we're trying to wait and see what comes down from the state. But theoretically, you could limit them, for example, prohibit them within some of our commercial zones that have, I mean, because our commercial zones that we have in all honesty allow a wide variety of uses. If I recall, it's been a while since I've been a planner. Sharon and I have never been. But I believe our commercial zones allow high-density residential. They allow wide variety of uses. So I can see us amending our code to say we don't want data centers in those kind of areas where you can have conflict. we probably would like to continue to keep them close within our heavy industrial zones. So it would be our I-3 zones and our I-2 zones. So the heavy industrial, the I-3 and the I-2, the only real difference in those is the I-3 zone allows for more external storage, yards and things of that nature, versus I-2 is less yards, a little bit of parking. There's less external component to it. But for all intents and purposes, the industrial zones are kind of where you want these things located because they're Those are the areas that are making noise, their operations, things like that. They're detached from our residential zones. They have less impact on our residential zones. So those could be some things that could be incorporated for the board to consider, kind of locational requirements.

I just, you know, I want to... if we're to do something, they'll want to be ahead of it, right? Especially in areas that, again, we maybe don't have the resources to provide or it would be such a drain that we won't be able to do other things that we actually plan for, right? And I don't know the scale, going back to the scale of the property tax benefit, what other businesses bring that same level of benefit, right?

Yeah. I just remembered it. So the personal property tax, the reason that goes through a different mechanism, there's a depreciation to that component versus an increase to real property that you see. And so those personal property elements depreciate over time and there's a certain depreciation rate they apply to it. But yes, the investment, I mean, the investment is substantial and has a significant impact on the general fund collections for various government entities. That's why you're seeing some of these rural communities really bolstering them and the economic benefit it has for their community and the job creation. Again, we haven't done a ton of research. We're just here kind of talking about what we know and what we've heard, not know. But those are all things that should be considered when we consider future amendments to our code.

I appreciate Commissioner Helm bringing this forward for discussion, but I do want to understand it. I mean, you know, people that are watching maybe don't realize this. If I'm wrong, just tell me, Dan. But obviously a manufacturing facility loaded full of equipment is going to produce a certain amount of assessed value, and maybe if a neighboring property is a warehouse that doesn't have a lot of equipment, right, let's say they take up a similar amount of space. Yeah. knowing the depreciation level of that personal equipment going down, and then the warehouse probably, for the most part, maybe has very little of that, or it's kind of either maintains its value and goes up. I was kind of just wondering about that fall versus the rise. In the long run, is there a short-term gain versus a long-term benefit? Those are the kinds of math things. I wouldn't want to just sacrifice everything. Yeah. on behalf of that knowing that it's only a short-term benefit.

Yeah, and there's trade-offs regarding the job types and all that. Yep, yep, those are things. I guess I really want to go back and highlight one more thing because you talked about use of resources and partners. So with any development we receive, application we receive, and Cheryl spoke to this, we get a preliminary statement of feasibility. from especially our water providers. And so if there are concerns about the provision of water to meet the cooling needs of a particular use, we will know about it before they even apply or in concert with their application. And that gives a chance for those utility providers to say, hey, time out. You know, we have capacity issues or whatever it might be. We don't have that with PGE, but we know and we'll be in connection with them to some extent. I know of communities in our local region that have power issues right now And I'm assuming that these things are kind of on their radar as well as significant draws for the limited resources they have.

So do you know of any circumstance in Clackamas County where a water district stepped up and said we don't have enough water? Because I would probably, just being on a water district in the past, I would probably say, well, geez, what if we... If you're on the water district board, what if we did X to accommodate that? And they would look at it from a revenue benefit as opposed to, you know, trying to not declare a moratorium but say we don't have enough capacity.

I don't specifically remember a capacity issue.

I can't think of one off the top of my head.

But I do remember a... We do have... Conveyance issues, though.

Yeah.

So, for example, if the public system isn't in place, then the question is a discussion with the developer on if and how will that get paid for to provide the service you need. And that's a lot of the concerns that we see. You know, what pipe size conveyance capacity. Right. Yep. That's fair.

Okay, just a couple points or questions. I think that this is kind of a good reminder and kind of a thanks to Martha because the last few times I've been to NACO, I think both of us have attended the data center issues and hearing across the United States what are the challenges. And it was pretty resounding, the fan noise issues. having the ability to recycle the water, having self-contained power plants. Actually, out of the state of Washington, there's a company called Tetra Tech, self-contained power. And so that the fees aren't pushed onto the local community, right? And so... Excuse me. So it does appear that some of these other cities have kind of wrestled with that, come up with... And one of the big things, the point they made, I talked to somebody in the East Coast where they put them in, and he warned me. He said, let me tell you, those fans are loud. They carry some distance, and you would not normally think that. And that was one of the concerns they had, even from surrounding businesses. So... So anyway, I think there's a lot to learn and I think again, thank you for bringing that forward. That you want to look at what the concerns are and what are the benefits, right? And so I appreciate staff doing that hard work and we all rely on these. So, unfortunately, that's part of the future. But, Martha, go ahead.

Well, I just wanted to add, yes, we both attended that. And Loudoun County, Virginia, is one of the epicenters. And it's generated quite a bit of wealth. And that's the upside. But when I listened to the OPB this morning, again, the state they mentioned was New Jersey, and they were interviewing people. One woman saw her energy costs go up from $50 a month to $400 a month, and she was shutting off her heat during the winter and just wearing—and, you know, getting— She can't afford that kind of piece. So there's that piece. And the second thing that was very clear, and I imagine we could track down that interview today, was that the grids aren't ready. The amount of electricity. So the other piece of this is the utility infrastructure and what the... what these are doing with the capacity for electricity. And they really painted a pretty grim picture about that. So those are, like I said, I think balance the prosperity piece with, okay, but who's going to pay, you know, who's responsible? Is it the person who is paying 40 a month now up to 400, or is it the companies that are...

going into the business with this because it's not generating wealth all the time it's actually pushing potential of pushing people into poverty that's the more so well I mean our commitment to you is that we'll keep track in the topic and for some information that comes down from the state we'll bring that to your attention and we can have a longer dialogue about how you'd like to advance that moving forward within our programs so great Thank you.

And I'll do some more research too, but I do believe we heard it at the NACO conference that some of the sites where they're doing this have their own power plants on site next to the data center itself. And nuclear power plants, small in nature, but it's another option and stuff. Again, we need to look into those kind of things. So it's pretty complex, but I just want to make sure that we're ahead of all of that.

Great. Well, this has been in promotion information only it's been a lot. So thank you.

There's so much Gary. Sorry, we're not done yet. So Dan explained this is allowed in three zones in the county. So if he receives an application tomorrow Do you want him to pause on it to notify you first? I'll go forward full like we normally would I would like to know about it. Okay I

Well, I have a different question, and that is, Dan, because there's an economic development aspect of this, and there's a land use issue, there's an infrastructure, if you're going to work on this, what resources can you bring to bear other than your general fund, not your general fund, but your department funds? Can you bring in economic development monies for... Or is that restricted on looking into this? I really do want to keep close tabs on this, frankly, to understand the ups and downs. You know, passing on the cost to our rate payers is not a good trade-off.

Yeah, we don't have anything in our code, though, that currently requires, there's nothing in our code that separates this facility from any other industrial facility. And if you want to adopt something into our code, we've got to go through a process for that to adopt that. We would be we will and we would inform you of knowing the board's interests and data centers of any application that we got for one That's no problem whatsoever As in regards to the economic development, we are bound by the state's moratorium that we cannot apply those enterprise zone components to any requests going forward until that moratorium is lifted. We could apply other economic development incentives that we might have. It'd be kind of interesting to see what might apply. For example, in the back of my head, I'm thinking about like CPACE. You know, would C-PACE really be applicable to this? I'm not really sure there's an energy efficiency component to this. I don't think it would probably qualify for their lending. We don't really... small grant wouldn't be something we'd do. So I really don't think there's any real tools there, but we would have the limitations within our current code and our current design standards to facilitate that. And in all honesty, it would start additional conversations. It would be reaching out to PGE, making sure we're coordinating with our local water district, because it would be the first that we would be receiving.

Yeah, I want to make sure that And I didn't explain this deep enough here, and I'm going to do it right now. The reason I say that is because if we have limited resources, someone comes in and builds one between here and Wilsonville, let's just say, right? And they use up all the available capacity, whether it's power and water. There's no other opportunity to do economic development anywhere else afterwards. There's two parts of this. Is that the economic development a positive way or it could be in the future for other industries or maybe it deprives some of our farming or nursery industries of the water they need. So what are the economic impacts, positive and negative, whether it is the applicant or whether it is occurring in existing industries around. That's why I'm wondering if you can use economic development dollars to do that analysis.

That is such a wide open question because your example alone, first of all, it's unfathomable that one would locate between here and Wilsonville because it'd be going off a rural ground supply for water. It's impossible. So then you're looking at these urban service providers and what their capacity is. And that would be part of the conversation would be to reach out and talk about capacity. But I haven't heard of any of our service districts talking about on the water side. I hear the PG discussion at the power cost side occurring. But I haven't heard. And we can do that. We can reach out to them and see if they have any concerns about water supply. But I have not heard of any. And you're talking about economic, because you're talking about supply, supplying one user and the impacts of that supply to one user impacting other development opportunities. That would be the discussion around capacity and essentially a moratorium then that would impact future development opportunities. which would be, again, would be a capacity issue, which we're not aware of.

Well, yeah. And also between here and Willisville is Canby, and they have that industrial area.

And that, I don't want to mention anything, but I mean, they've had some concerns about power supply down there. But it would be within the city limits of Canby. And we would probably be involved in discussions with them because we partner with them. We do building... We do building review, but not land use. Not land use, though. We don't do land use. But it would be a discussion with them about any expansion that might occur in that area.

Well, I know a lot of people know this, but I'll just say it. We have a large nursery industry in this county. And I want to impact them because they rely on water and irrigation. All right.

Any other comments?

All right. Sorry, my question wasn't answered. So Dan will let you know if there's an application, but you can't stop it unless you change your ZDO. So you just want to wait and see, or are you directing us to come forward for you for some sort of guidelines for the ZDOs? The latter for me. Come back with potential guidelines for a ZDO? All right. So that would be the direction then.

And that's before that we're going to do that before the state gives us guidance.

Well, to me, the state is going to look at the tax break issue.

They're looking at both.

Well, I appreciate that clarification.

Yeah, they're looking at the land use side and there's recommendations coming down. I think to deal with some of the specificity around some of the topics you're discussing on certain code development, maybe even model code that we could use. But so it's two pronged. It's the It's the enterprise zone discussion that's occurring, and it's also the land use side that's occurring.

So there's a pause on all of it right now, period? No.

There's a pause on the enterprise zone, and that is it. Right. But not on the zoning.

Not on the zoning.

I don't think it would hurt to do both. I mean, not to act, but to at least look at what it would look like. And then see what the state comes up with. Because the state might not be looking out for our best interest. They might be looking out for theirs.

And I appreciate that discussion. I only have so much capacity. We'll have to talk about that, about how we fund this, because I totally appreciate the sensitivity around the issue I do. Don't trust me. And I know it's probably going to result in amendments to our code. The question is, what am I taking off the plate within that land use program to do that? Understood. And we can come back and have a talk with you about that.

So that's not what the board's asking you, Dan. They're asking you and your staff, and I'll help you, to come up with what guidelines could look like for ZDO amendments. Not that it's being implemented, not that you're staffing it. What would it look like to address the concerns you've heard from the board? That's what I'm hearing you say.

Yes.

Yes, that.

I think also trying to have... full understanding of What kind of time and effort it would take to do this? I think is the other thing I I have no idea And you might say yeah to take 40 hours or it might take two months. I have no idea and so I think that's probably the part of that conversation is because I do recognize you're keeping all these glass balls in the air and something's going to drop and so I guess, Gary, at that same time, I would really like to know what kind of consequential impacts will this have on other projects?

There's a lot of things you've asked for that have consequential impacts. So for now, we'll notify you any time there's an application. For now, there's been none. I'm sure no one's going to be knocking down the door, especially after hearing this session today. But first, we'll notify you if there's any applications. I will talk with Dan offline. about just the impact to your staff to draft a potential policy paper. That's all that we're asking for right now. That's it. I'll come back to you on that. None of this is gonna happen next week. We'll add it to the worksheet.

Let's go ahead. I don't know, Andrew, can you scroll back up to the water usage that Cheryl pointed out? The data's saying you use up to five million gallons of water per day. So when we talk about impacting our water resources, that concerns me because I don't know what size a data center that uses that. I don't know, is that a 60,000 square foot building? Is that a 300,000 square foot building? Yeah, and that was just a reference. Right, exactly. So those are things that... You know, that's as much as 16,000-plus average U.S. households. I mean, yes, that will affect a community, you know, in our county. So I just wanted to be aware of that.

I was just going to suggest all of this is being done at NACO right now. So you can get a lot of information across the United States, and we could be looking that up ourselves. I mean, they're... You know, they're at that level where they're watching it federally and locally.

Probably getting a lot of right.

We probably don't have to reinvent the wheel there's probably models out there You know so I because I worry that this was not one of our priorities, but it's become But it's becoming a priority because it's having such impact that's that's the issue and it's and we and it's the tension between just sticking to what we said we were going to do, but then also realizing that there are Things change pretty quick these days, and we have to be aware of it.

All right. Should I ask you again? Is there anything else? I think we're good for today. All right. Well, with that being said, thank you all for joining us, and we'll now be adjourned.