City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everyone. It is 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4th, 2026, and I now call to order the 2,179th regular meeting of the city of College Place City Council. Madame Clerk, will you please take roll call? Yes. Council member Green, present. Council member Cleveland, present. Council member Stackline, present. Council member Peterson, present. Council member Sherman, present. Council member Bole, present.

And we have an excused absence for Council Member Williams. And uh Mayor Hernandez present is present. And we have a quorum.

Great. Thank you. Will you all please join me in the pledge of allegiance? All right, it's now time for public comment. Madame Clerk, did anyone submit a written comment in advance or request to speak via telephone or virtually? I did not receive a comment.

Okay, great. Thank you. And there's no one in council chambers I'm assuming here for public comment since it's staff. So I will move on to consent agenda which consists of the agenda for tonight March 24th 2026 approving the council regular meeting minutes from March 10th 2026 approving the July 2025 financials. authorizing the city administrator to expend up to $20,000 with Hson Northwest Law Group for legal services associated with supporting and defending the city's urban growth area applications. authorizing the city administrator or his designate to sign supplemental task order number 007 supporting professional planning service for UG for the UG application. Sorry, one moment. Oh, that's everything. Is there anything on the consent agenda that any council member would like removed from the consent agenda to speak for more in regular council meeting at this time? Hearing none. Do we have a motion?

Motion. Second. Okay. Council member Peterson was first. Council member Sherman was second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? The eyes have it. And the motion is passed. Tonight we have one presentation and Mr. Carlton will be presenting on fiscal year 2024 financial and accountability audit review.

Uh thank you, mayor. Uh we just wanted to bring to council uh the results of the audit for 2024. It was uh completed on January 13th was the final exit uh uh meeting in which they talked about the audit. Um, just to go over a few items in here. It's a long document, but I'll just highlight a few spots. Um, the audit, as far as the audit costs, it was uh predicted to they were going to spend $40,900 on the audit for 2024 and it that was the actual amount and budgeted was uh 49,210. So, slightly under budget, which I guess is good. the 2023 audit from the prior year. The total cost was 38,920. Uh, as I said, the audit was completed on 11326. They do three levels of audit when they're auditing. There's an accountability audit which includes things like internal controls, purchasing procedures, allocations, a whole list of items. They usually select two or three areas each year to focus on. Um then there's a financial statement audit which they go through and audit uh select transactions throughout the whole financial system. And then there's a federal audit which you're required to have if you have over $750,000 in cumulative federal contracts in the year. And within that they uh select two or three of the projects to do a complete audit on going through everything through the purchasing process right through payment and uh tracking of all the grants. Um they're

estimating a cost for 2025 audit which they're planning on starting uh probably in the fall so late August early September. and they're anticipating a cost of 37,600. Uh why it's cheaper, I'm not too sure, but maybe they figure we're so efficient and good they'll save us money. Um moving on, it goes to section S1. I just want to highlight what they do. And this is the results of the audit. And down I'm not sure if you're on that page or not. Um during the uh financial statement audit there was no sufficient deficiencies and that's declared this. They also state no material uh weaknesses in our internal control. So that's a good thing. uh federal audit. They also know no deficiencies in design or of our internal control processes and no uh material weaknesses and their and their limit on weakness if there's a dollar value. It could be above $20,000 if they find something that could be material. Um a little later on, sorry these pages aren't all numbered. So um just to hit the highlights of the audit of the financial statements um just to state that they have an unmodified opinion and um when it's unmodified we do have some in that we're cash basis it really isn't in in um compliance with US government gaps so they have to do an unmodified opinion um a little further on was um about the audit

in general. Um just there's some results in in brief is a good thing to go through. Um just stating that we're in compliance with all the things that they were auditing. um closer to the end there's uh what they do is there's if they find an issue there's three levels of reporting they do. If there's a finding then that's uh they issue a finding and you have a chance to rebuttal but um ultimately it appears uh it gets written up and is attached to your audit and goes to the state and it has all sorts of implications as far as funding and future funding of grants. We did have a finding back in I believe it was 2022 in that um it had it was in relation to the federal audit. We weren't in compliance with checking if a if a subcontractor was barred from doing federal contracts and we failed to do that in a timely manner and that resulted in finding. Um they do also do a management letter if they feel it's not really a it's not a finding but yet it's something they have to bring up and bring to council. So they'll issue a management letter. The third level of reporting is this exit recommendations that is on the screen at this time. And you can kind of see through we had a few things that they find weren't findings but we need to correct or address. Um, one of them was the LI we formed for Automeadows in 24. We were told by MRSC to set it up in a particular fund and they did not agree with that and said it was a classification error. So that was corrected. There's a few small errors on the schedule 9 which is the schedule of

liabilities that we have to report. Although we are cash basis, they do require us to to report on what our general liabilities are and mostly that has to do with uh the debt for the city. uh the schedule 16 which is the federal report which shows what our federal grant spending was in a particular year and there was some corrections that were made along the way as we worked through the audit and those four items are identified there and were corrected before submission of the report. Um and then there was a few other presentation errors in the notes which we'll clean up for the next audit. But all in all u a good audit. Um, it took them quite a while. They started late in the year. They didn't start until October. So, it really ran into budget cycle and getting the audit done. And being that the deputy finance director was out on maternity leave, it was uh it was quite a task. So, quite happy with the result. That's all I have. Any questions?

Council member Green, questions or comments? uh just to say that an auditor that doesn't find something to correct is probably not very good at their job. So, as I look through the reports, certainly these are are really minor things that are you when you've got enough things happening, you kind of expect discrepancies like this to happen every once in a while. So, all in all, great great work on this. Thank you, Council Member Cleveland. No questions. Uh I'll just echo the great work. Council member Stline, no questions. Thank you. Council member Peterson, like I always say, the auditors shoot the wounded after the battle's over. So, good job. Thank you, Council Member Sherman.

Um, no, no questions. I got to sit in with um in on the audit review or the exit uh with Brian and the state team and he always does a nice job. So, thanks Brian. Thank you, Council Member Bole. No questions. just I'll echo everybody else's um great job. Another great year of of no major findings which is which is what we want. So great job.

Y absolutely congratulations on that Brian. I do have one quick question on the exit recommendations for the financial statements. The very last line says that they recommend that the city strengthen their internal controls to ensure financial statement preparation are performed accurately. Are there going to be any changes? I mean,

well, yeah, that relates to, you know, there wasn't an administrator there for 6 months, so maybe it was longer than that, right? June till December. So, there was no secondary review after I completed it. And usually Mike Rizichello would have gone through it and at least caught some of the if there was any spelling errors or anything like that in there. Um they recommended trying to get into a group with other cities the small the same size to try to have somebody go through your audit or your submission, but to be honest uh being that we were short-handed, I just didn't have time. So timing was the issue and not being able to get enough days to review and catch some of that stuff.

Yeah, understood. It was it's that's fine. I was just wondering if there was any Well, yeah, we do. We have a plan in place. It's just we don't have the resources last year to fulfill that. So that'll uh change now that day is back full. Yeah. Well, no, that's great because it doesn't require any changes in the plans. It's just the capacity is the issue. So, understood. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. We have three action items on our agenda this evening. Um, first, Mr. Rickard's going to present on the climate climate change plan contract authorization with JUB Engineers.

Thank you, Mayor. If you recall, I think the last council meeting, you guys accepted the uh grant from Commerce for $150,000. This is the work plan and contract with JAB to implement that. Um it'll run in conjunction with our comprehensive plan update because it's a sub element within the plan and so it'll the completion of this would be this fall um for the end of the year. The deadline is the end of 2026 for completion. Um we've assembled a it's not called a tag, it's called a CPAT, it a climate policy advisory team um from the community and it's a a really great diverse background. I should have put the members in there, but I'll read them off to you because I think a lot of you um will recognize the names on this list. Mike Denny, so he's a local environmentalist. Kurt Everett as a Walawal University student. Um Joan Kels Cleveland, uh a resident of of of the valley here at College Place.

Never heard of her. Yeah. Uh Allison Crowley, Walla Conservation District, um as well. David Lopez, former council member and a wall university professor. Um Rebecca Francik, I think basin disposal. Um so that's nice. Um Nick Valza Valzi uh Walawa Community College. So uh and then Kirk Anthank uh Wala University professor of biology. Uh Stanley Green, uh previous planning commissioner and uh engineer and local um rabble rouser. He was on our he was on our historic preservation. He keeps us all in line.

Uh love Stanley Stanley.

Kevin Wilpert who's our water quality specialist. Uh monitors our wells here for the city. Um he's also participating in that. So, I think we'll have three um of these uh CPAP meetings um with the group. They'll be helping us through the process. Um of course, um there'll be public involvement. There will be a survey that's going to go out shortly. Um so, keep an eye out for that. It's not a real long one. Um we'll be looking at climate impacts, policy audit, uh vulnerability assessment. Um and we'll develop a climate resiliency goals and policy section for the comp plan and then final you know elements and whatnot um for completion. So uh exciting project it is required. So um fortunately this is one of those situations where they actually gave us money to do the work. So um so this this will be the foundation because you know in another 8 to 10 years we'll have to update it. So um and they'll probably won't give us any money for that. U it's usually how it works but um so any questions?

How did you compile such an amazing team? Uh you know well there are a lot of great people in the valley and in college place in general and we know them and we just I think it's fantastic every one of those on the group. That's Yeah. No, it's awesome. Such a big confidence builder for sure. Yeah. And great great feedback and involvement there. Council member Green. Uh, cool project, great team, and in a world of unfunded mandates, I'm just glad it's paid for. So, well done. Council member Cleveland, no questions. Thank you. Council member Stline, no questions. Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I haven't read all the way through this. Does this group down the road or at some point um address issues like recharging a aquifers and things like that or is this so much out of their scope that um I don't believe they will address you know how to solve those problems but I think it'll be a there'll be um go goals and policies that'll be set in the plan to that could be you One of the a goal is how do we address our our um aquifer aquifer re whatever you know there won't be a solution necessary in it but it's kind of the groundwork to

to it lays the path for further studies um you know you would you could use what what they come up with as you know in the process of applying for grants um uh to support um funds that would help a study and things like that. So yeah, it's intriguing. I think Walaw Wala is working on something um correct. Yep. Yep. They have to do it too to re recharge the deep aquifer. I believe they're working on that.

There are some aquifer recharge projects in the valley and I don't know the details on all that. Robert and and the reason I ask, you know, I remember leadership wallal there was a there were statements made that there are certain 48 hour periods at flood stage on the tushi that would supply all the water that this valley needs for the entire summer. Um and um it's it's interesting in that uh I know I know it's a complex issue as far as making sure that it's clean that you know how to how to work this um but I think um as our snow pack potentially um diminishes in the mountains uh how how we start to address capturing the runoff um and getting that back into the ground. I don't know. you know that I'm talking down the road obviously but I I hope that's on their radar you know

um just to speak to that real briefly one challenge that we'll have with that in college place is we do not have a surface water right we're entirely groundwater um meaning all of our water comes out of the aquafer which is different than wallala different than milton free water different than our surrounding communities so those communities that have surface water rights can do aquifer recharge because they can take surface water and essentially put it into the aquifer with all the permitting and it's complex. It's not that simple, but we can only pull water out of the aquifer. So, we wouldn't pull it out and then put it back in if that makes sense. So, that's a challenge that we're going to have here in College Place.

And that can't be changed. likely not. Water rights are very complicated. I don't want to definitively say no, but the chances of it of us getting a service water right are slim to them. So, we're dependent upon other people recharging it and hopefully it ends up in our neighborhood. Correct. Or making wise decisions about our usage. Yeah. Right. Well, interesting. Thank you. Council member Sherman, no questions. Council member Bole, no questions.

All right. If there's no further questions or comments, do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to authorize community development director to execute the professional service agreement with JB Engineers, Inc. for the creation of the climate resilience sub element plan of the comprehensive plan. Second. Council member Cleveland. Great. Thank you. You have a first and a second. Any additional discussion? Hearing? None. Let's vote. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. The eyes have it and the motion is passed. Now, Mr. McAdrews will present on the Southeast 8 Street road widening from Larch to Elm Street project.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council. Um, we have talked about this set of projects on Southeast 8th Street several times. Um, if you recall, um, there we kind of have what I'd like to call one project broken into three separate projects. So, there's a Southeast 8th Street sidewalk from, uh, Birch to Larch, which you may have noticed has, um, essentially been completed. A few punch list items left, but that part's done. And then there's the piece that's just kicking off from college to birch. Um separate funding. So those pieces got separated. And then the third piece is what I'm here to talk about tonight. Um we went for funding. It was not funded. It was not awarded. Um but to widen Southeast 8th Street from Elm to Larch on to the north. So if if you recall that section of road used to be really really narrow. Our sidewalk project widened it a little bit to the south. Um, this project widens it the rest of the way to the north. So, we'll have one smooth segment through Southeast 8th Street. Um, we have the right of way. The utility poles, I believe, have already been moved. And uh we were able to fund this through our block resurfacing program which was budgeted for um and run it as a change order with the contractor that completed the um the portion of sidewalk from birch to larch. And so that said, uh, tonight we're asking for approval to, um, or authorization to approve a change order in amount of $294,75868 um, which will widen that road and then overlay it from Elm to Larch. Any

questions? Council member Green. Uh, two questions. curious just how much it widens it just for the sake of curiosity. But also the other question is um while there may be funds in that block resurfacing uh accounts to to cover this does that create deficiencies for us since this wasn't uh maybe foreseen you know when we were looking for funding.

Um no it shouldn't create deficiencies. What it will mean likely is uh we will not run a chip seal program this year and it uses uh we had $350,000 in that block resurfacing program slated for 2026 and this is going to use a bulk of that so it leaves very little um the remainder will likely to be honest with you wouldn't surprise me got put towards another project um which is often the best way to leverage those funds. you have a project, utilities are funded or sidewalks funded, but the roadway isn't. And we always try to include do as much on one road segment at once as we can so we don't have to come back and impact the neighborhood again. And so that's really our goal here. Um, and first question on how wide it was going to be. Is that what you said? Um, to be honest, I don't have that in front of me. I believe it will leave with parking on both sides right about 20 feet of travel way. That's what it is the rest of the road segment. So it should be the same. I apologize I don't have that exact information.

Oh no it like I said mostly just curiosity. So I guess the only other question then is you know it seems like good use of the funds considering this project is is a pretty impactful project needs to get done. We're really trying to make that space a safe and a you know highly utilized space. Um, it still makes me wonder, you know, deferring maintenance that needs to be done in other areas obviously potentially causes, you know, more expensive work to come up because we haven't been able to maintain at the level we want. Do you see this as a project that pushes us out far enough that that we get into that territory? I mean, obviously, I know you don't have a crystal ball, but you know, just just sure processing.

Um, if I understand your question, it's it's will doing this potentially set us back somewhere else essentially. Yeah. I mean, using the money for this means we can't chipill and if we can't chipill and maintain but chip sealing effectively is maintaining existing roads and and to keep us from having to make larger, more expensive repairs from not maintaining them. So, I'm just curious if if we're worried at all by spending this down, does it delay us enough that there's some risk there for us?

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I wouldn't say I'm worried. I never like to defer any sort of maintenance and so it's it's not a I'm not excited about not being able to do chip seal. Chips seal is a coste effective pavement preservation program. It's also not always popular with folks in the urban areas and I understand why. Um and so in this circumstance I feel like it's it's money well spent to end up with a new road essentially. Um, and if that means we're unable to do chip seal this year, I think it's worthwhile. And and we've been we've kept up on the chip seal in the past and our preservation for the most part that um I don't have any areas that I'm overly concerned about at this point.

Well, that nothing else will mean a few less uh angry emails to the city from chip sealing and people not being happy about it. So, I guess I call that a win. Council member Cleveland, no questions. Thank you. Council member Stline, no questions. Council member Peterson, no questions. Thank you. Council member Sherman, no questions. And Council Member Bole, no questions. Thanks. All we're good, right? I Any idea why we did not get funding for it?

Um, I don't know. It's we reached out or we put in for funding through TIB, Transportation Improvement Board. They had recently funded a lot of projects for us and I'm speculating that with them. They decided to fund somebody else. Yeah. Funny. I'm getting that in the nonprofit world as well. Okay. No, just wondering. Um I I appreciate that. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve this change order in the amount of $294,757.68 and issue to the contractor ESF Solutions that is installed the sidewalk on the south side of 8 Street to widen the road and install curb and gutter on the north side of the road between Larch and Elm. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. All right, we have a first and a second. The second was from council member Bole to motion to approve the change order. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions. All right, the eyes have it and the motion is passed. Thank you very much, Robert. Um, and third, Mr. McAndrew will continue to present and he's going to speak on well number three investigative work project.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Um you may have rec you may recall we've talked about and uh at a previous council meeting got approval to fund design efforts for our well three project. Well 3 is the well down on um large near lamperty kind of kitty corner from the hop thief. It is our um one of our most dependable wells. It produces high producing. It's also old and outdated. Um and so we have a project going with our consultant engineers for design of essentially what will likely be a new wellhouse um with all new well equipment. Um through those conversations, we started looking at historical data on some of our older wells and we've had a couple that have had failures in the well casing itself. So, we decided that it would be in the city's best interest to hire somebody to do some investigative work to um essentially pull the pump and put some do some cleaning of the well casing down inside the well, put some camera equipment down there and get as gather as much information on the condition of the well casing itself before we move forward with investing potentially millions of dollars into a new wellhouse. Um, so this is um essentially having a contractor come in and do that work. It it's timesensitive because we don't want to take that well offline during our peak season. So, we'd like to move forward with this ASAP. Um, Holt Industries was our low bidder. They do great work. They've done work for us before. Um and so for $145,842,000 um we they will come in and do that work and complete it before the peak season. So we'll have a better idea of the

condition of the well casing. Um, if we find something that might trigger us to, you know, not move forward with the wellhouse design, um, or give us better information or at least give us peace of mind that our investment will be a solid investment for that well rehab. I guess with that, I'll open up for any questions. All right. Thank you, Council Member Green. No questions. I appreciate the proactive look at this. It's a smart way to protect our funds moving forward. Thank you. Is this the well that we've had the uh pump rewound twice already?

It is. Yes. And so part of the the what's funded as our design engineers are are designing, you know, wellhouse rehab that will include all the equipment and everything to bring all of that up to current standards and align with our other newer wells. Um but again we didn't want to move forward with that significant project without having a better understanding of the condition of the well casing itself. We've had um in the past our our old well one had a failure where something broke in the well casings is before my time so I don't know all the details but they started sucking sand which is not good. So that well's out of commission. And then we have another well that is still online. Well, too, we've talked about a few times in the past where the actual well casing and wellhouse itself have risen out of the ground. Um, and over the course of several years, it's come out of the ground about 10 in or so. So, there's movement. There's there's things happening underground that are impacting these casings. There's no sign of any of that at well three, but the best way for us to get gather more information is to complete this work and get some camera footage of what's going on from the inside down in into the well itself.

Will we keep the freshly wound uh pump on the shelf in case we ever needed? Well, yeah, this the pump will go back in the plan. Oh. Oh, okay. We're not replacing as part of this project itself. They'll pull it, do the investigative work, and then put it back. Um, the other project that the engineers are in design on will replace all of that equipment, assuming that this looks good and makes sense for us to move forward. I'm thinking, do we want to keep it uh in reserve? Uh, we can. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Assuming that it fits and works with our new well, the equipment and may or may not be compatible. So, um, anything that is, I would agree with you. Let's keep it on the shelf.

All right. Thank you. Absolutely. Council member Stline. Um, how old is this? Well, like you were kind of going through one, two, and three. And that's a good question. It's just older. Is it's older. Um, no wood pipes. No wood pipes. Okay, that's we learned about that. I really apologize. I don't have that information in front of me. I was just curious. I want to say in the 70s, but I could be wrong on that. So, okay. I can get back to you if you'd like. Some of us had a primer on pipes this evening. This evening? Yeah, we had a a lunchtime pipes. Yeah.

I seem to recall Marge Nihagen called that her well. I think she donated her one. Hers is over on board. Oh, okay. It's one in somebody's backyard. Oh, okay. That's okay. I was just curious. Council member Peterson, you know, I think this is a a a great thing and I would do it. I always worry about letting sleeping dogs lie, you know, and uh and uh you know what I'm saying, but now it's been talked about it's going to happen.

I I do know what you're saying and we've had some internal discussions about what that looks like and yeah, you you make a good point. There's always the chance that we pull this pump out and have a problem getting it back in or find something we don't want to find. Um, I don't anticipate that being the case, but we will address that and move forward accordingly should that happen. I I I would still recommend this work because it's it's one of our strongest wells and in order to keep it moving and functional for us in the future, we'd like to rehab what's above ground, but we want to know what's underground to make sure that investment is worthwhile.

Council member Sherman. Um, no. I think that Lauren's question or musing is is more of mine because it feels like so much money knowing how much money we've put into pumps and emergency pumps and all of the other things that um is $150,000 better spent uh is that right

um on the repairs, but I also like the proactive nature of it. So, I'm not like opposed to it. On these ones, on the um the other places that they list as prior projects, are are they getting good information out of these investigations in order to like I mean, did you reach out to any of the other people that they worked with to see if they were satisfied with results and things that they could fix? And as far as checking references on hold, you mean and who they've worked with?

Yes. Sorry. Um to my knowledge, no our our project capital project management manager did not. But we have had discussions with our engineering team who is very familiar with these projects, RH2 engineers, and um they have also done Holt has done work for us on Well, I mean not Holt specifically, I guess like the results of of what you're going to get. You're looking forward to this report that tells us what Lauren's saying that we have to basically like redo the whole thing. Um or it's going to say like here are five things that you could do that are going to extend the life.

Um well, what it's going to do is tell us what the condition of the well casing is to the best of our ability. So I mean there's a chance there could be a crack or something and they don't see. But what the idea is they're going to identify if the casing is still straight, if things are looking like they're failing, if there's excessive buildup or something that they're unable to clean. Um, so it's it's going to give us an idea of the condition of the inside of the well casing. Um, I don't know if I'm answering your question.

I think so. I mean, I'm just if it's if the investment is in the way in is done in a way that we get sorry if the information that we get from the investigation provides us with that kind of um things to be aware of, right, which is what the point would be. Mhm. Well, then I can see that that would be worth it. Yes. Right. But well, it seems like this is mostly about whether or not we choose to spend a lot more money in the future on this well. And so really, it's about that future investment and whether or not it's a feasible investment or if we need to make other moves. That that is correct. This is I know it's a lot of money.

It is a small chunk of money compared to what we will otherwise be investing in this. And what I don't want to happen is put two or three million dollars into a new wellhouse and all the equipment only to have the casing and everything underground have an issue in the near future and then that money will definitely not be well spent. And so then reports that Holt or other um contractors like this have done have provided good information to like go off of and it seems reliable. Yes, according to our engineers. Great. Thank you. I'm I'm going to go back to council member Peterson microphone. Robert, can can well casing be received?

Yes, it's that's kind of a loaded question. Um there are my understanding is there are ways to line well casings. The problem with that is once you do that,

it narrows up the size of the casing, meaning the size of the pump you can put in there changes and so the same size pump may not be able to go back into that if we decided to line it. Um, so so the answer is yes, it can be done, but the trickle down effect of that may make it not worthwhile. But this report will give us some of that information. And if they the recommendation from it was that we should sleeve it, then we would engage those conversations with our engineers to figure out if there's a pump that would still fit in there that would give us the yields that we need, give us the the the amount of water, the gallons per minute. So the short answer is yes, they can be Yeah.

Absolutely. Council member Bole. Um I don't have any questions, but I'm just impressed that we didn't have any issues with there not being a map. How are we supposed to know? Is there Did I just miss the map? But not in the thing. Okay. Well, why don't I see it? That's mine. Mine's mine is Oh, right. I didn't look through the whole thing. I was look Maybe Yeah, I were you looking for the map that has all the wells identified or No, it's I was I was mostly harassing because Lauren always wants a map.

We We are trying to do a better job providing images. So next time for for council member Bole if you it needs to say in the file name always renaming them right apparently I double the other one asking for a well map and so Robert finally started including a well map so it's a running joke now. All right. No I didn't have any questions though. Any other questions or comments? All right hearing none. Do we have a motion?

A motion to award the well number three investigative work to halt services in the amount of 1400. No. Yeah. 145. There we go. $145,000. Thank you. $842 and authorize the public works director or designate to sign notice of intent to award and all project to award and all project contract documents. That did weird to read a little strange. Okay. Council member Peterson was second. Any additional discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

I. Any opposed? And any abstensions? All right, the eyes have it and the motion is passed. Thank you all so much for that. We're going to move on to administrative reports and our city administrator, Troy Rabburn, has uh a well an update to provide. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council members. Um the following is just a sample of what's going on. There's a lot going on, but this is just kind of some of the highlights. I'd first like to introduce Amber Brooker. if Amber could say hello. Amber is our new HR director. Um she started yesterday and um so welcome aboard. Welcome. Yes.

Just dove in and I periodically check in with her and every time I'm checking in with her, she's waste deep in all sorts of paperwork and requirements and everything. So she's doing a good job.

Yes. Thank you, Amber. Um, just so you folks are aware, um, I think in a previous, um, city council meeting during my updates, I very quickly briefed you on an a memorandum of understanding for the community center with the library district. I don't know if you folks have, um, acquaintances or um, folks you might know on the rural library district. Um, but that draftou um, is now in their possession and they're reviewing it. So, if you get asked questions by people you might know on their board, you have context or background information. Um, community grants. The community grants program closed last Wednesday. We received a total of five applications and the applications are from Peak Northwest Fitness um to provide exercise programs at Sunbridge and for better living in Lions Park. Kowanas Club um to purchase um three place pieces for children's play music equipment. Uh communications and schools um to establish two school-based food pantries. Wala Wala Kindi Music Festival to provide high quality professional music um performances during the farmers market for kids and YMCA for their um summer um youth camp.

Just a quick corre correction. It's communities and schools.

Communities and schools, excuse me. Thank you. Um so those are the five that we received over a fiveweek period that we were noticing and advertising. Um the mayor and I have started the review process and we're just continuing to go through that process. dot dot thet eyes and cross the tees. Um, city attorney advertising, public noticing. We have been advertising and public noticing um for a week and a half now for a new city attorney. Um, and so that process is going on. Um, congressional appropriations for our existing projects. Um Brian and myself and the mayor have actively been working with our congressional lobbyists um to provide information and costs um associated with the projects to our congressional delegation so they can take that information and meet with our two US senators and our congressmen and I think that is a good overview. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Um, yeah, and I do want to mention that, well, first of all, Brian, I see you on screen. Thank you for all the work you've been also helping in getting the information for us for the congressional um, appropriations that we've been working on. So, I wanted to thank you for that. But also um I did want to mention that city administrator Rayburn has been actively working and keeping in communications with um developers um housing along with um John from our community development to try to make sure that everybody remembers that we're still here and we still want them here. So they've been doing a really good job of keeping up that communication. Um, and I think that's that was something really important for everyone to know because sometimes we wonder what's going on with a project that nothing's moving forward. Well, they're keeping on it so that people don't forget that we want it to move forward. So, thank you for that. Yes.

And I'm sorry, mayor, I forgot one other thing. Um, the department directors and myself, we will be going through a team building exercise on April 9th. We've contracted with a gentleman who specializes in team building and he's worked with leadership Walaw Wala. I believe his name is Dave Mitchell. I don't know if you know him or not, but um that's also in the works for a couple weeks out. Thank you. How many of us have participated in a Dave Mitchell leadership? I know I have twice trip to the ER with a trip to the ER. Who you box?

I have a question. Um, how many uh grants are are going to be funded or is that yet to be be determined of the community grants? Is it yet? Thank you. Um, council member, we received a total of five, which is substantially less than in years past. So, in conversations with the mayor, we're probably in a position to fund all five. Yeah, I think that um we can meet the needs of a lot of the grant applicants, but there's one or two that probably won't receive full funding. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comment for Mr. Raburn,

Council Member Peterson? I have a general question. Okay. Microphone.

There we go. So it has nothing to do with sorry more to do with Robert maybe. And so the so the ghost of the blue street lights have arrived again. Uh years ago we had um through some process had gotten rid of them. Um, and I can't remember exactly if it was because they were defective ones that were put in or whether they got old, but I've noticed in the last month or two they're back with a vengeance.

That's because every time they go out at the exact same time because they're the same.

They Yeah, they are failing. So, it's LEDs that are failing and like a particular diode goes out which changes the color of them. um is my understanding public works staff have been reporting them to Pacific Power. They're they're owned and maintained by Pacific Power. Um and at least once, if not twice, staff have come in after hours to go take a survey and identify poll numbers. They can report them. Um Pacific Power doesn't move exactly quickly at that. It may be a supply thing. They have to wait till they get new ones. It may be a scheduling thing. Um, but we continue to report them and that's

so they have to have poll numbers, not just you know the first three lights on. So they're typically mounted to a utility pole and on the utility pole there's a a yellow assuming it's specific power there's a yellow tag with a number on it. Um, and in order to report them we need that number. That's their system for knowing where it is which makes sense. I mean, you say the poles on 12th Street between Myra and Larch, that doesn't help them. That's a broad area that there's some blocks that have two three

better. Um, will those will that transition to uh Portland Electric? That is my understanding is yeah, Portland Power and Gas. Portland Gas and Electric. What? Portland Gas and Electric has is has essentially acquired Pacific Power. Um, I read something recently. I can't remember exactly where I read it, but that implied it was going to be an year-long process for that transition to take place. And in the meantime, everything will be the same. Pacific Power. Um, we've gotten no formal notification from them. Maybe they'll be more responsive.

Maybe sounds very optimistic. Anyway, it's been weird. It has that kind of a They have that UFO thing going on, you know. Yeah. So that said, I mean, we are happy to report them if if you or anybody else sees them. There's a portal online on Pacific P's website where you can report these things yourself. Oh. Um, and I suspect if there's more people reporting and complaining about it, it might speed it up as opposed to here's the city just annoying us with these lists of failing lights.

So, I don't want to put it back on you. By all means, let us know. But it would be reported. Feel free to you utilize Pacific Powers website and report the poll number. Poll number. Yeah. And they'll ask the poll number and it might ask an intersection. It's been a while since I did one myself and what the issue is. And it's a simple online fill out four or five questions and hit submit kind of thing. Pro tip, just tell them it's out. Yeah, that's a good There's a bigger liability if the light is not coming on than if it's blue.

All right. So, um there are twoformational reports in your packets to review from um the police department and Kim Community Development. There are monthly reports. If you haven't read them, please do. Can I point out in my reports there is a survey that was done last uh spring summer for the comp plan in there. So if um please take a look at that. It's kind of interesting. Um so just wanted to point that out.

Oh, thank you for reminding us of that. Helps us understand what the community is thinking. For sure. Thank you. All right. And then where there is no new or unfinished business, but is there any other business for good of the order from any council members? Any staff? All right. Hearing none. Do we have a motion to conclude? Thank you, Council Member Peterson. Is there a second? Second. Council member Green. So, we have a first and a second. So, if there's no objection, the meeting is concluded at 6:53 p.m. Thank you all.