City Council - Regular Meeting

Tell us there. Not bad.

You want me to try to promote you again? Oh, is that what it usually does? 20th.

I think we're fighting with Zoom. We're fighting with Zoom. any motions and Mr. was specifically six. Any luck? Maybe I think since um Ryan's remote, Melanie, we'll go ahead and get started while you work on it. Okay. Thank you. Mayor uh Mayor Silsby, when you're ready, uh to get started, feel free. Uh our first applicant is virtual and um community development manager will continue to work to getting this camera to function. Right now, it's fighting us. I think it's almost there though. Yeah. But we're ready when you are.

All right. I have 607. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Irvin here. Councelor Heine here. Councelor Lamman here. Councelor Meriday here. Councelor Settlemire here. Councelor Wilson. Mayor Solsby here. Thank you. All right. So, we will proceed with our budget committee interviews. Our first one is online. On online, Ryan Birdsy. Good evening.

Good evening. All right. So, we will go around with our questions and uh we'll rotate each time. Same questions. All right. We'll start with uh councelor Mary. Thank you for joining us, Ryan. Um the first question, why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove budget committee?

Can you hear us, Ryan? I would like to point out that uh Ryan's joining us from outside of the states, so we anticipated there could be difficulties. We can hear you now, Ryan. Thank you. Although I didn't I didn't catch.

Maybe Ryan, you might want to I don't know if we should try to have you call in. I think he's going to maybe log out and then log back in. lock. Of course, it worked perfect before the meeting. It sounds like he did not understand the question.

Didn't catch the question was his words.

Everyone received the questions beforehand. Okay,

everyone gets the same questions. Well, we could skip you. I'm sorry. I wonder if we should go down the line back to Ryan just for the sake of time. Let's do that. All right. We're going to go ahead and come back to Ryan and we'll now interview Amy Mary Day. Go ahead and start with you then, Councelor Lamman. Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Mrs. Mayor Day, can I call you Mrs. Mayor Day? Okay. Just didn't want to say anything wrong. Um, why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove budget committee? um most uh importantly to preserve the civic qualities that existed in the community when I retired here. And um I believe that a budget kitty committee um can um guide a city and represent its values as it moves forward, what the goals are for the city. And uh just as a joke, I'd like to

say that I think all spouses should work on their budgets together. That was a joke. Thank you.

What unique skills and perspective could you bring to the position?

Uh well, unique is a pretty hard high bar. I probably would be the uh only person who had gone and graduated from a women's college. But um uh furthermore, I was paid for by federal grant funds for over two decades and I was expected to review those budgets and make suggestions as to what um could be cut when that was needed. And um also I'd like to mention that I have a union background and understand that the protections that are asserted for employees and uh believe strongly that the city works because of its employees and uh that would be an example of the values I um um mentioned as a a board watcher um years ago when my kids were in school of the school district in California that um had 35 elementary schools and five high schools. Um I watched u participated in um uh as a board watcher when they um cut more than 10% of their budget which was a long and grueling process and um I think that experience really let me uh realize how broad um the obligations of a board are. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective?

Um, I think the biggest challenge is to increase revenue uh rather than simply cutting uh services and what what we already provide. And of course that's because of measures five and 50 which make it very difficult to increase tax revenue. And um typically um typically uh budget committees are not um charged with the obligation of finding new revenue sources. But I think at this juncture um a wide um cogent effort should be made to um determine in uh additional sources of revenue for the city.

What questions do you for the council?

Um I have a few here. Um, will you be reviewing the efficiencies and the consequences of last year's budget cuts? Are you considering across the board department cuts? Will we be reviewing department by department efficiencies and their internal um individual budgets? I believe transparent transparency lives in the making of these budgets available. And um will the council make an effort uh to raise revenue or will the committee be charged simply with cutting waste? Madame Mayor, thank you. Uh, Mrs. Mayor Day, I I feel personally it it is a duty of of council to look at the ways when we're presented the budget to try to figure out if there's a deficit, how can we lower that deficit? If it means that some funding might have to be moved or uh lowered some from some areas, I I think that's definitely a duty we have to look at other than strictly just okay, how can we increase the amount of revenue that we bring in? Um, as you know from last year, we had a $1.5 million deficit. I don't know if enough was done to shorten that deficit. And I think that's

something we're going to really be having to look at again this year. And I don't know if we can just simply say, well, how can we generate more revenue and not look at why the costs are so high. I know obviously we have inflation, we have all that, but we definitely need to look at how we can wrangle in some of that spending and why we are so upside down in my opinion. Servin,

thank you mayor. Thank you uh Amy for asking those questions. They are relevant questions indeed. I think we're going to have um probably an illuminating meeting tonight. Um that it may be premature to um assume that we know too much about the effect of what we did last year um and and what we might be facing coming budget cycle. So we're going to just have to take take things as they come. Um but we do I think I can speak for the council certainly speak for myself that we do care about the efficiency of each department individually. Um do care about the culture of the um it's so loud um the culture of the uh staff as a whole and because that leads to efficiency and and less turnover and and all the factors. Um, I agree that it's not just a cut. There's no getting yourself out of a hole just through cutting. Uh, you have to address the revenue side to uh to create a fix to the a revenue problem. And although I do think that the cutting is more immediate than the revenue in most cases, unless we've just got streams of revenue to turn on that I'm not aware of. um that are palatable to the community. So yeah, I think it's just a balancing act. Um and thank you for I you know I've had uh copies of the budget for a number of years and have um watched the budget committees and I don't recall a real review of previous years cuts and

their efficiency. And I mean maybe it happens in some way that is not a public forum but it it makes sense to me to um instead of each year being a standalone thing with new members of the budget committee who get you know their first understanding of the complexity of the city's job. So that's why I asked it. Thank you.

And so to address that that's something that is new with Mr. Sour Wine's leadership of periodic budget updates to see where we're tracking throughout the year and I think made available by the software uh that we're using to be able to do internal analysis rather than waiting full budget cycles and having that. So it is it is getting to be a lot different than it used to be in the pattern. I think that's a positive direction. Councelor Hank.

Um, to answer one of your questions, I'm always a fan of preserving staff and employee and positions because I think in the long run it ends up costing more money to cut and rehire and you know all that stuff. So, and the resources that that that involves. So it's always for me I'm always looking at preserving that um but also you know looking at efficiencies and do these things make sense still and um you know I'm with councelor Urban I'm looking at all the ways you know like whether it's increasing revenue or you know I don't like the word cut um but I like you know looking at all the angles and going from there.

Yeah. I think um what I've observed um is that um cutting um very often um comes upon the backs of employees. not in this um agency necessarily, but what's occurring now is that the costs of supplies and equipment and what we need to do the things we have to do, whether it's sewage treatment or the roads or whatever, those costs go up in a way that this small little city can't really fight, right? And so I'd just like to end by saying that um in all my uh years of u watching various boards um the idea that we're going to cut the inefficiencies and cut the waste and look for where we're not um you know what we can get rid of that um it's become very clear to me in my uh decades that um we've kind of cut the things that are truly wasteful and that we're down to the bare bones operations. And in some way that's um what I'd like to see uh recognized in the efforts of the employees that we have that it's really they're not wasting what they are what they are doing is trying to get by with things that have been cut and cut and cut and cut. Not because you necessarily, you know, it's just the consequence, but the illusion that uh government is too big and that we have too much waste, I think is just like a red herring at this point.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mary Day. Councelor Satire, did you have something? You're still muted, counselor.

Sorry, I lowered my hand instead of turning on my audio. Um, I was just um felt it appropriate to address the idea of looking at what we did last year. I was definitely brand new and I don't feel that I have a lot of background now but I was very intrigued at the idea of not talking about budget deficit but budget gap and the um attempts that we're doing now under the leadership of um city manager Sour Wine um to look at possibilities that aren't just hacking but look at at the end our evaluation is going to be where are we now through perhaps finding some ways that we end up with extra revenue and such. Um so um that was one of I believe um Mrs. Merida's questions about are we going to look at more than just hacking away at things.

Thank you. All right, let's move on to applicant Ryan Bernie. Good evening. My apologies. I lost connection here, but ready to go. Fantastic. Councelor Mary Day.

So, thank you for joining us, Ryan. Um why the first question why would you like to be a member of the cottage grove budget committee? Well, three reasons really I think one one of them is understanding the budget process uh source of revenue and and how those funds are allocated is important to our understanding of how local government works and I do have a general sense of obviously from the the revenue and the revenue allocation side of it but how it works from a municipality or municipal corporation perspective I think I don't have a lot of experience with that and I think that's important to know I believe as well when understanding how this process works then also provides some useful insight when sharing with others and I've been asked part of the planning commission there's a perception that we know about budget issues and that really isn't the case but I'm asked a lot by friends and so forth why are we doing this or why is the city doing that I don't have really a good answer because I'm not really involved but I think it's imperative that we understand the the budgeting process to the extent we can share information that's publicly available uh when those questions are asked and have a good solid answer to the question. And I think third, it's a civic responsibility that we share to uh help our community make these very important decisions. So those are the three main reasons why I want to be part of the budget committee.

Thank you, Councelor Hike. Hi, Brian. What unique skills and perspective could you bring to the position?

Well, I've got 34 years of experience in the uh land development consulting industry and why that's important to the budgeting process is first. I have experience developing uh proformas for land development project and and proformas are essentially project budgets that lay out the specific or the anticipated costs associated with land acquisition and engineering fees, architectural fees, the development impact fees and so on and so forth. And to the extent that you get down into the construction costs and how do you allocate funds to ensure that you're meeting your demands for uh delivering housing within as an example within that specific time period that you've uh promised the jurisdictions and your investors. So one that's an important component of it that I have experience with. uh consulting as well has uh provided a lot of opportunity to work with project budgets. Uh developing budgets, tracking budgets to meet profitability goals uh has been an important part of my job over the number of years and certainly the last 12 years uh I've owned my own consulting business. So I've even approached it from a even more uh detailed perspective in that regard. uh you know the bottom line is the bottom line essentially as I as I like to say it when people ask about the budgets we can't operate a business or a a private consulting firm or any business or a municipal corporation at a loss you we have to figure out how budget development uh and and and how do we track and allocate funds as I said to to the extent that we're operating either at no profit or with some uh certainly in the ideal case we have some funds left over for allocation.

But I bring that the sense of, you know, 30 plus years of of budget development and management experience to the the budget committee. Right. Ryan, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective?

Well, we talked about a little bit here. The previous applicant mentioned that and I think we we've discussed it in other forums as well, but this the budget gap that we have as uh councelor settle settlemeer mentioned earlier is a big a big issue and big issue for a small town and as I said before we can't operate at a loss. I mean it just doesn't work that way. So there's some difficult decisions that need to be made. do we cut or where are there additional sources of revenue and I think we've talked a little bit about that and certainly members of the council provided some insight on that just here this evening that's an important issue I think forensically though when we dig into the budget it's important to understand you know how did we get into this situation but most importantly it's how the team the committee you know going forward works together to resolve this issue And if there are cuts, then cuts will be difficult. And I think explaining that to the public is never comfortable certainly, but I do have experience working with uh uh through various commissions, councils, and boards of supervisors and so forth, sharing information that may not be too popular. So, I can provide some insight there. But I think most importantly is rolling up our sleeves to figure all that out and how are we going to share that information. uh as it's developed when the appropriate time is to share that information. So I I think the the the issue is the def the deficit or the gap but also how that information is conveyed to the public. What's the solutions? People are going to want to know what are you doing to solve the problem. And I think that's really important to nail that down tight and then understand how it works across the entire committee and then be able to articulate that to the public who are

going to want some very specific answers to those questions. Thank you. Thank you. Well, what questions do you have for us as a council? uh one is the expect what are the expectations for the citizen members of the budget committee uh two I think from the council's perspective what is the key budget issue facing the community and I think three what do you believe are the top one two three solutions to this particular problem.

I I wish I knew the solutions. We wouldn't be here.

Councelor Merid. Well, um I I believe that our law enforcement is one of our key um budget items that both needs additional funds and to function at a high level and retain their their staff at fully supported but all that applies to all city departments. The costs have increased dramatically. We do have to find additional revenue regardless of how much we have to cut from the budget. We cannot the the we're locked in on a losing battle with our property tax. Um we can't we can't keep up with the incremental um restrictions. So we do have to find some other way to increase our budget in as well as balancing what we can save through through cutting.

Calvin,

thank you mayor. I appreciate the questions expectations. Think read read read ask questions. I mean be up to speed uh in as much as you can to come to for and this would be for any uh committee member. um to come prepared with questions, to come prepared with ideas, having an understanding of the budget, um be involved, I would say, in the process of paying attention to council meetings where we are discussing these things, um especially the budget, quarterly budget updates. And I think we're looking at potentially three maybe three meetings uh to to get through that process where we can as a budget committee make the recommendation to to council uh for a budget. Asked about council's perspective on what the leading budget issues are and what perceived um solutions can be. So from my perspective uh we uh we do have a revenue problem um and one of the primary ways that I see this may be more medium and long-term but is to focus first and foremost you focus on your core uh responsibilities as a city. you do the things that um you know you're chartered to do excellent in an excellent manner um so that you don't have um I guess the term would be technical debt that you're fighting um you know mopping up messes behind you you can focus forward um I think we're doing that largely and uh under great leadership within our city and then we're charting forward to make Cottage Grove just generally improve improved quality of life. And uh that comes uh with the intention of inviting um those

that would bring uh industry and and in um innovation essentially, you know, capital injection in many forms uh because people want to be here. They want to start businesses here. They want to hire here uh because it's a great place to live. I think we need to lean into that. And um we do have a state statute limitation on taxing, but all of that's reset on new construction um and and if there's sufficient reconstruction. So redevelopment um at least in the maybe you know shorter term uh will address a lot of that. I think this urban renewal district is aimed at aimed at doing that. Um and and just generally leveraging the assets that we have. We have location. Uh we have proximity to the freeway. We have strong fiber network. Um we we have proximity even to the coast. I mean we're a coastal state. There's a lot of things that we live in the forest. There's a lot of things that we should really just uh leverage and and really not um not look back. Thank you, Ryan.

Thank you, Linda Olsson. Oh, councelor L.

Madame Mayor, Mr. Birds, I uh first off, I just want to uh thank you for applying. uh couple of my expectations from uh community members who want to be on the budget committee is just understanding that it is an arduous process. There's a lot of information to go through and download and try to understand. And on top of that, there's just in the committee side, there's 14 different individual brains that you have to work with, not counting the city manager and the other department leads. Um, and just uh being able to understand that everyone has to work together and it's not just well, we're doing it this way. Um, that way we can all come together and try to give the citizens of our community the best possible outcome. And once again, I I appreciate you uh filling out an application and being here with us tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Linda Olsen. Good evening. Good evening. Why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove budget committee?

Because I love this community. Um we retired here believing that we would be part of a small community. I continue to be a voice of not why can't we but what can we do differently what can we do um I believe it's our civic duty at each stage in our life we have children raising areas and we have times when we have to make wages but at this stage in my life I believe that I have the time and the ability to communicate with people and find solutions um and if it's it's getting to yes when the answer is no so it's not what we can't do it's what can we do with what we've got. So I believe that um I'm ready um to be a part of the solution and based upon previous experiences both private and the public sector as employee I think that uh we can do this. It's going to be a challenge but I think we can do it.

Thank you.

What unique skills and perspectives would you bring to the position? Uh, as I previously noted, I had public um and private sector administrative um background um both in budgeting and fiscal responsibility and working with what we had um based on what our needs were. So, it's not a matter of of not getting something. It's finding out what we can within a budget. Um we're not like the federal government. We can't just make more money. So, we have to live within those means. And yes, we're struggling. Um, but what can we do with the funds that we have? And I know that every year the rates go up um for employees and that type stuff, but I do believe that there are some measures that need to be supported and some that are less um functional. Um, but it is finding out what the community needs, what's going to benefit the community best. So, um I've got business administration and management, state and city budget experience, private organizational administration and management and um HR responsibilities. So, I've got some experience with budget and the funds and orgs. Councelor Sunmire, do you have the questions in front of you?

Would you like to give Linda number three?

Certainly. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective? From a budget perspective, um the biggest challenges is filling all of our vacancies. Our businesses are missing in the last 10 years. We've lost a lot of industries, not so much big industries. We lost Pack West. um we have the capability to pro to promote our space as middle of the state. Um so what do we what can we do to encourage them to relocate here or start fresh here with a family wage base. Um we're building houses. We are building we've got the 120 apartment complex which is going in. We've got housing going in. But the challenge is the people that are going to be living in those are going to be working in Eugene, Springfield, the the surrounding communities if we don't provide an industry that keeps them here. That industry is go also going to um bring in taxes on the houses they live in and hopefully wages they'll spend here and that'll keep them here. So, one of the biggest challenges is how do we increase the desire to move industries here? Defend us.

Councelor Mary Day, thank you for coming tonight. Linda, um, what questions do you have for us as a council?

One of mine was the benchmarks. How often do you revisit the budget during the year to see if we are on on track? Um and currently what are the plans um in each of the departments dealing with the deficits? What is what is the largest funding draw from that? Why are the cuts needed? So is it something that's um is it a need or it does or is it a want? Is it something that we can live without? we need the people, but if we don't have the material to work with, then then what do we they're going to be doing? We can pay wages, but if they're not doing anything, why are we paying wages? So, finding that balance. Um, preventative, proactively addressing infrastructure. Um, I know that we've had some maintenance in the past or 20 years, the last 20 years, and bringing those into alliance with the funding that we have and the needs of the community as it grows. I I'm curious as to how we're going to continue to um reinforce the infrastructure we have and maintain it preventatively, proactively. So, I'm wondering what the plan is. I'm I'll be listening during the budget process to see where um when you when you submit a budget, it's it's basically supporting the dream of the department. So, what are their plans to to live within that means? I can't overdraw my checkbook. We can't do it the same thing here. The federal money, the federal government doesn't allow us to print our own money. So, um, I'm looking forward to it. So,

anyone? No questions. Council me. So, we receive a quarterly budget updates. Perfect. So that's the that's one of the innovations sour city manager Sour Wine has implemented. Um again are there the the deficit it keeps being used. We do actually have a balanced budget. It's just it's not we're not in deficit spending. What is happening is our expenses have eaten into our um carryover funds. So we're not we're not ending up with as much money as we had hoped. reserves, right?

The well the it's not the res the reserves are another fund. So we have reserves but the the surplus money that's not um spent that you have to wait for uh your tax money land property tax money to come in that gets you through that gap and that has been eroded. So that is what we're facing is a budget gap that the expense the expenses is they've exceeded the amount budgeted so that we're not in a deficit situation. We just have less money left over than we want. And that's where we have to get that we keep talking about the gap the gap between the

the reserve the carryover funds and the um the actual budget. So the baseline budget. Yes. So we we have to try to squeeze that gap away. So are we having difficulty gathering taxes, property taxes from the current residents in in Cottage Grove? Are we are we collecting less? Are they going into rears? Is that part of the problem?

There are that's a that's actually a budget line is uncollected taxes and there are there are some people that do that. There's a number of uh derelic properties that are have not paid for four three or four years. But um it's again that we are locked into a 3% increase on our our allowable assessment and that is not what the rest of the world is locked into. It's much higher. So the the costs are exceeding faster than our our revenue through advalorum taxes. Okay. Okay. Anyone else? Thank you Linda. Okay. Thanks,

Joyce Settlemire. Hello. Hello. All right, we'll rotate around. Council,

good evening, Joyce. Why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove's budget committee? Um, I submitted my application so I could offer um my input and in the challenging process of the allocation of a limited amount of funds and I wanted to be part of a diverse group from the community that is on the committee to offer different perspectives and um to help make these tough decisions and look at uh things going forward. And I have um just last year coming to the budget meetings made me realize the importance of kind of having those diverse voices included.

Councelor Merid, thank you. Mayor

um Joyce, what unique skills and perspective could you bring to the position? So, I have some background in banking and some budget management in um different educational settings. I worked at the University of Oregon where we had budgets that we had to propose and maintain. Um and I think um my longtime residency in Cottage Grove and being involved, like Linda referred to earlier, different phases of life. When my kids were younger, I was pretty involved in the school system, wanting to be involved with where our family was in different um stages. And so, um, this is a a newer part to look at, um, being involved in the different groups, um, that I am in the community to see how that then plays a part in, um, what the city does and what we do as a community for the different needs. Um, and again, having different voices represented in that 14 member committee that we put together to do this process.

Thank you, Councelor Lamman. Madame Mayor, u Mrs. Settlemire, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective?

Well, we've had some pretty eloquent applicants, so it's kind of tricky being this late in the game to come up with some nice way. I I really appreciated some of the answers the future of the previous candidates have given. Um, I think looking weighing in on all the programs and services that the city does and I've certainly learned in the last year attending meetings more about what the different departments do and having that understanding to deal with the gap and the difference of, you know, what it means to deal with the gap and and the shortfalls. And so working together as a committee again with different perspectives of how um, you know, that balance is achieved and going forward. I feel like um city manager Sour Wine is looking to do more regular updates of kind of where the budget's at throughout the year and then uh understanding, you know, going forward how we follow through with some of the things the city has put into place with new building new houses and homes and businesses in the community to bring in more income. So, it's kind of that I think several of our previous candidates referred to that, too. just making it um looking at how to bring in more income and then how to spend the income that we do have wisely.

Hi Joyce, what questions do you have for the council? Um I think I heard in one of the earlier meetings uh when uh city manager Sourine laid out the schedule that we are planning to do a city like a town hall where people in the community will be able to have conversation with I'm assuming that would be council members not necessarily the committee. I I guess I'd like clarification of where that is in the process of the budget meetings that going forward. Good evening, your honor, members of the council. Um, our plans are to have the first meeting of the budget committee, all 14 members. And at that meeting uh city staff will present um basically an outline of the budget um budget manager's message and then also we'll go through each of the uh departments um starting with the general fund and then we'll look at the utilities and then uh that'll be on a Tuesday night uh followed by on Thursday night we'll be having the uh town hall meeting and after the town hall meeting we've scheduled two additional budget committee meetings so that you can take what you've learned from the town hall meeting and apply apply it to the budget uh before the budget committee's asked to approve the final uh document.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Joyce. Thank you, Christopher Wagner.

Hello.

Hello. Thank you for being here, Councelor Smire. Why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove budget committee? Um, part of it is for my edification. I wanted to learn a little bit more of what's how the city is run um financial financially and just basically to see how the sausage is made. Um, also just to be able to provide some insight from what I see so we can, you know, possible solutions to any issues we might have. Councelor Merida,

what unique skills and perspective could you bring to the panel?

Um, first off, I've lived in this town for 36 years. Um, I've worked in the private sector, so I know how how a company has to survive what they need to do. And um, also a long long time ago in a place far far away, I somehow managed to get myself a BS degree in business administration. So I have a little idea how things need to operate. Madame Mayor, uh what do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective? Well, to me it's it's getting to where we can come up with a budget that's balanced. We can't afford to have deficits and it's going to take a lot of insight into probably every nook and cranny of how the city is running now and what are we paying for what and ultimately we we have to come to a solution that gets us gets us to a balanced budget somehow. Hi, Chris. What questions do you have for council?

I don't really have questions for the council now. Um, I can see where as we get going on this, if I were on the committee, um, I'm going to have questions about things. I I did take some time to look through the budgets online and there were things I I saw there that I want to ask questions about but u as for tonight I have no questions. Thank you Chris. Johanna Z,

greetings. Good evening. Thank you. Councelor Merid. Good evening. Um, good evening. Why would you like to be a member of the city of Cottage Grove budget committee? Thank you. To repeat pretty much what Linda said too, I love this community. been here a little over five years. I feel very rooted here and I started last year on the budget committee and I want to be engaged in the process. I want to continue what we started. I think it makes sense for continuity and I have a lot of ideas that I and a lot of opinions that I can offer um and solutions.

Councelor Lamberman. Madame Mayor, uh Mrs. E. uh what unique skills and perspective could you bring to the position?

So, as you know, I'm pretty highly engaged. You know, I'm inquisitive. I'm curious. I ask a lot of questions. I've lived in a lot of different places around the country and the world. And so, and I've had a number of different careers. And so those experiences, those broad experiences I think give me a really good perspective because we have here we've got the staff over here and then we've got the governance and then we've got the citizens and if we focus too much on one area then we miss out on on other perspectives and those broad perspectives. So I've sat on a number of committees and boards and have had a lot of experience in a lot of different areas in life. So, I think that's that's helpful.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Cottage Grove from a budget perspective?

Thank you. Um, as Ryan uh mentioned too, we have um, you know, we have issues and we have work to do. We do have to roll up our sleeves and it's not always easy. So, how can we do what we need to do and something needs to be done? something different needs to be done. We've got to roll up our sleeves. How do we do what needs to be done with integrity and compassion, focusing on the needs of the community as well as those individuals in the community, whether it's staff or citizens. Um, I think we've got to pay attention to that. Um, there is work that needs to be done and the question I like to ask is not can it be done, but how can it be done? Because if we ask can, then we have a yes or a no. But if we say how, then that just stirs up all these different ideas. And if we come with that attitude, I love the phrase necessity is the mother of invention. We need to do something different. So let's figure out what needs to be done and to do it with integrity and compassion.

Well, you beat me to my question. Okay. What questions do you have for the council?

Oh, okay. I actually did have one. Besides being the um legal requirements to having citizens on the budget committee, the invitation here is to explore what value do you guys see as um for having citizen budget committee members because if we if we don't see the value in bringing forth this other um part of the population, then we're just kind of placeholders. And I have seen way too many budget members, budget committee members out there not engaged in the process, just rubber stamping budgets, just going along to get along. And I think those times are over. At this point, we need to all sit down and, you know, and take a look. And it's not so important necessarily that we have um budget process experience, but that do we have the heart of the process within us? Can we move forward from from that um perspective?

I would personally agree with you on that and I would like to commend our city manager for making sure that we get the budget much earlier especially for new people joining the budget process and because I think it's very important that we have that ample time to go over it and in past years we just have not and and I love that I love all the questions that came up from the applicants tonight. I mean this is a very important process and those are really good questions and the timing of the town hall is going to be it's going to be great. It's going to be fun.

Value I think is diversity. It's not necessarily having expertise and budget but just having that perspective as a citizen. you know, you're the boots on ground here, going walking down Main Street and going into the businesses and the neighbor show, listening to what people call in, you know, and yeah, driving and all things. So, I think that's what why where the value is is just different perspectives and asking questions and being engaging. Thank you, Council Irvin.

Thank you and thank you for being here tonight. Um, I think it is a good question to ask. Why do we have the public involved? Why is it a joint meeting? And I do agree it is uh because where you can come up here and speak three minutes and public comment where you can review agenda items when you actually apply well this is what we're going to allocate financially to it. That's that's really where you you chart out the next year um of what what what we're going to do, what our priorities are. So um we're in the weeds so to speak um in this. So having uh that perspective of I live this daily. I come I come I have my routine. Can I do this? Um that hopefully will be brought to bear in the conversations uh so that we're not um looking myopically about well nobody nobody uses that resource right we can um just so it's it's broader and that's why I think the town hall was also crucial uh to that process.

Yeah. Thank you Miss Cy.

Thank you. Well, council wants to thank all of our applicants tonight. It's going to be a hard decision. Thank you. All right. With that, our work session is adjourned. Yeah. Mr. What should I

Hi camera. interest. Okay. together. Excuse me. Well, that's first.

Oh, Bernie Bernie Donn Bernie Donner is the other one that's coming back. Um we're Father There's five positions. I It's true.

message.

Oh, it's me. It's not there. Goodness. See, it's not

you can All right, I have 709. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the role?

Councelor Irvin I. Councelor Hank here. Councelor Lammerman here. Councelor Merid here. Councelor Settleer here. Councelor Wilson. Mayor Solsby here. Thank you. I'll rise for the pledge of allegiance. Justice for all. Thank you.

Items to be added to the agenda. I see none. Appearance of interested citizens. This is a time for citizen comment. The council will first take comments addressing items not listed on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. The council will then take comments addressing actions action items on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. Individual speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer, provide their name, identify whether they are city resident, and if so, their ward. Please limit comments to three minutes or less with council approval. Comments regarding any matter scheduled for a public hearing may be provided only during that hearing. The council will not make any decisions based on public comment. However, the staff and council may choose to ask questions or comment following the conclusion of citizen comments. Linda Olsen. Thank you. I'm Linda Olsen, Ward Three, and I am a resident of Cottage Grove. So, a couple weeks ago or one of the last two council meetings, a person came and spoke about what he expects the city to provide for the homeless folks and the drug addicted or the substance of addicted people. My concern was that um they believe that we have a obligation to supply the needs that they believe will um um help them exit that program. if they want to get out of that situation, they will. That's a choice. Um, I am an I am adamant about the fact that if they really want to go and get treatment for addiction or mental health issues and we cannot provide it um through their medical coverage that we should consider a one-way bus ticket to a community that can provide in those services, but if they return back, it's not offered

again. Um the idea is if they really require that service, somebody is going to provide it. We don't have to do that. We're too We tried it. Um we didn't meet the needs, but um we cannot drag them screaming and kicking into sobriety or um out of the situation they've chosen to live in. So, um I was really caught off guard as long as he went on on that. So, thank you.

Thank you, Art Lancaster. Okay, it's on homeless. I was surprised when the last at the last meeting when that guy stood up too. And I am so tired of them blaming us for the situation they put themselves in. These people are adults better. Okay. They're adults. They put themselves they chose the life they're living. If they're in need of mental health, we can try and find them mental health. We have a mental health place for them. How many of them actually use it? We We need to stop putting it on the public and the city because it's not our job. We didn't put them there. They chose to be there. And these people keep saying they're locals. Never seen them before in my life. I've been here 30 years and I don't know these people. So, and income. We need full-time jobs back in Cottage Grove. You've got a lot of jobs out there. Yes, but they're all part-time. How do you live on 20 to 26 hours a week? You can't.

This town used to be full of full-time jobs, good paying jobs, but because of people who protested and wanted to save the spotted owl, which has now been a mistake because There's more spotted alowl and the bardowl came in and now they want to hire people to kill the bardowl because of the spotter which killed this timber industry. It killed all our revenue just about more and more people are leaving every day to go to places that have full-time jobs. It's It's too important. If we want to survive, we got to get jobs here. Jobs that people can live on. That's all I got.

Thank you, Don Norton. Our

council. I am Donald Nordon. I live in Ward 3. Um I spoke last time uh about um perhaps expanding the purview of the urban forestry committee to become the urban forest and rivers committee. As all of you know, at least one side of every ward in this community is bounded by a river. And I feel like should have some oversight on that. I've been doing a lot of blackberry cutting along the river basically as civil disobedience because I can't get proper permission to do this. And yet I think if any of you go down and walk along South River Road, you'll see an astounding change from the way it was last year. I I can remember talking to Nolan Nelson about the way Cottage Grove was in the time and she said she could run down the river barefoot. And I looked at that situation, I thought that's so implausible. I swear if you go over on the river now, you can see 20 or 30 yards of a space where you could run barefoot along the river. That's only by cutting the blackberries for one season. Well, actually, I did it for five years, but you know, basically got serious for one season. So, again, I just want to know I know uh councelor Wilson um endorsed the idea last time. I just wonder if there's any more discussion or if there's going to be any action in the urban forestry committee, any kind of action or discussion. And that's essentially my request is um just lobbying for that idea and seeing if anybody else wants to respond at time. Thank you,

Councilman. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um I'm curious h have you had any conversations with the urban forestry committee? If you would come back up, please.

If you can come back up to the mic, if you could if you could please come back up to the mic. No, the idea actually came up to me last time considering the you know what I was feeling as obstacles and looking for a a possible solution. And so that that was the first time I even mentioned it. I was just thinking of it that day and I thought, "Oh yeah, I should call, you know, a couple members of the committee and then I have to get on the website and find out who they are and what their numbers are." But, you know, I could do that. I haven't yet and probably that's what I'll do next week at some point. So I suppose you'll all be getting some letter or something from me in your mailbox somewhere.

Thank you.

So I generally support a cleaned up river. I do think it's one of the things that uh enhances a community. Um it is an asset that not many communities have. Um, and so of course there's private property considerations that you know I want to make sure that there's not invitation of of trespass where it's unwanted. Um, but of course the banks I don't know the exactly the legal requirements of where in the waterways I think maybe the high water mark or something are navigable um by the public in Oregon. Uh but certainly if there's a way that the city can can be helpful in the process of an application um and it's it's something that um fits in with scheduling, I'm supportive of it.

Council me.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh what what would be required to reformat the urban forestry commission to include rivers? Oh, good evening, your honor, members of the council. Um, to answer your question directly, I think you just start with a conversation. Uh, most of our committees have been created by a resolution or some sort of council action. So, ultimately it would take a council action, but you know, I I think it may be worthwhile for folks to have that conversation with the committee, ask them if there's something they're interested in expanding. Um, you know, we have other organizations within the city that deal with rivers and, you know, perhaps uh, you know, it would be better if they continued in that role, but I I think a conversation with the committee uh, whether by council members or by the public be a good starting point.

All right. Thank you. All right. Public hearings, I see none. Consent agenda, there's none. resolutions. Oh, go ahead.

May looking on our committee sub appointments. Do we not have a representative to the urban forestry committee? Maybe maybe we should start there. Okay. Okay. Resolutions and ordinances. Resolution amending the comprehensive fee schedule. Public works director, Mr. Stewart.

Good evening, mayor and counselors. This evening, I'm bringing before you a resolution to amend the comprehensive fee schedule. Um, we have staff is recommending in section one of the government is proposing re rei revision to the debit credit card usage fee structure and that would establish a flat 3% rate for each transaction replacing the current tiered system for everywhere except for the court's credit card usage fee will continue to use the tiered structure. Um the credit card fees would be used um applied at the golf course and at the with the future uh reservation system that is going to be established for the community center and the armory. The second area is uh section number two is improvements. Uh in Miss Clemer in reviewing the street alterations uh fees uh is proposing was worked with the engineering staff and is proposing to increase the curb cut sidewalk permit fees cover the actual costs uh that staff incur for the inspection and issuing of those uh permits. And the last item is um one we do every year is we uh uh adjust the system development charges to reflect the cost of living increase or the construction increase um each year. And this year um the engineering news record magazine for the 20 cities shows that the cost index rose 3.6% 6% from December 2024 to December 2025. So this resolution reflex a and SDC increase of

3.6%. At the uh work session on Friday, there was a question posed as to how does the SDC's in Cottage Grove compared to other jurisdictions. Um, I was able to find the 2025 League of Oregon Cities STC survey survey they do. They do it every three years. And so this is pretty fresh. They use um a 2,000 ft 3-bedroom house with 16 fixture unit count and with a 3/4 in meter and 1,000 square ft for impervious service surfaces. uh 89 cities responded to the survey. More than half of of the respondents had population greater than 10,800 and 20% of the responded um six of them were in region 4 which is L county. um in the information I found. So for the 10,000 population, which was uh region 4, the average parks SDC fee was 4,554. The average uh sewer um SDC was 9,239. For water, it was 15,770. For storm, it was 4,546. And transportation was 24,442. for a grand total of 38,486. To narrow it down specifically to the South W Valley and Lane County, the parks SDC's was 6,295, sewer 5,864, the water 5,60, storm SEC was 463, and transportation was 5,09

for an average total of 18,355. Uh, Miss Clemer um ran a SEC number on a home recently that was permitted. It's a three-bedroom, 2 and a half bath and I would note that it had a 29 fixture count units instead of 16 and that would have increased uh the prices of sewer and water uh significantly in the valley um example. But for before the fees increase that's being recommended the charge was $17,58167 and with the proposed 3.6% increase it would be 18,21473 which is a $6336 increase still below the mic south valley average for SEC fees. I'd also share that it's really difficult to compare each city because their SEC's are based on what their capital improvement plans are. So what what your parks improvements would be or your water system or your transportation really is what sets the STC's. We really operate independent of the cities. It's kind of nice to know are we, you know, high or lower than our neighbors. Is that a is that an advantage or a disadvantage for us? But really, we try to set the SEC's based on what our improvement requirements are for us to provide our citizens and meet the future demand.

Right. Any questions? Councelor Lamman. Madame Mayor Councel U. Mr. Stuart, just uh for my information in SDC, is that a onetime fee or every year kind of thing? Oh, it's a onetime fee when you build a um get a permit for development to build to construct something.

And then uh with the uh meter size uh charts you have in here, who's the primary users of a a meter 6, 8, and 10 in? Um I believe uh mayor councelor Lman I believe the I'm speaking off the top of my head I will send the the exact um information typically 3/4 is for residential and small businesses. Uh we'll have some we have a few 2-in meters. Um I believe the um Village Green either has a four or six uh in meter across the way at the apartment complex I believe is a 4 in water meter and I think Warehouser or Kimwood may have the biggest meters that we have and I believe there's 6 in. Um we have to my knowledge not um issued anything larger than six that we have out there. um the development on Harrison, I don't remember how many apartments that is, but I believe they were able to accomplish that development with a 2-in meter. So, out of out of general curiosity, what exactly are they getting for this fee?

So, these fees are based on what the value of our infrastructure is today. And when somebody comes in and builds something new, they're buying capacity that we've already built. So they're paying for the capacity that the city has invested in the system, which gives us resources to make more investments in the future to improve our system to be able to meet future demands. Okay. Thank you.

Resolution number resolution number 2175. um resolution. It might be good to ask the members of the public if there's any comments. There's a there's a recital in the resolution that says we gave them that opportunity. And I know there was one already, but it's good to just ask. Is there any comments or questions? You councelor. Thank you, Mayor. Well, I move that the council adopt resolution 2175 amending the comprehensive fee schedule as presented. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second. We have a motion with a second. Any discussion? on Friday, we talked about a future meeting to talk about how our goals and priorities match up with the various levels of system development charges um and how that might be reflected and I would look forward to um having that uh discussion uh in the future. Thank you. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Settlemire. I. Councelor Meriday. Hi. Councelor Lamman. No.

Councelor Hank. I. Councelor Irvin. Hi. Mayor Solsby.

I. Motion carries. Six. Seven. Five. Five. Six. One. Not here. Five. All right. Yeah. Budget committee appointments. City manager, Mr. Sourine. Well, good evening, your honor, members of the council. Um, included in your packet is a memo uh which details, you know, the positions that need to be filled. There are actually three three-year positions, one two-year position, and one one-year position. Of course, that was created by the fact that we had people resigned. Uh so those are the positions that uh you have the opportunity to fill this evening.

All right. Before we rush to motions, what I would propose is that everyone gives their top five nominees for the budget committee if we go around. Councelor Hank,

I'll start. Um and I was sort of going off of how we do recruitments with ODOT. We I you know I scored along the way and my top five are Ryan Berie, Johanna Z, Linda Olsen, Chris Wagner, Joyce Settlemeer, and Amy Merid. Councelor Merida.

So, I just had a question um before I reflect on the the current applicants. U we Alex Strayer did apply, but she withdrew her a nomination. Okay. I missed that part. All right. So I was impressed with Ryan Bird's eyee, Linda Olsen, Joyce Settlemire, Johanna Z. Is that four? That's the four that I could recommend. wish to express an opinion on my wife. So,

okay.

Um associated with a budget committee position. It's just a a personal choice. So, which also a conflict of interest is as well, but it's that one has some legal connotations. And um voting on filling a committee membership is different than voting on awarding a contract that's going to have pay associated with it. So So real quick, if he were to if councelor Merid were to vote for Amy Merid to be on the committee, it would not be a conflict.

It would not be an actual nor a potential conflict of interest under Oregon government ethics laws. The reason I ask is because the mayor had to recuse herself last year for Danny being on it. I don't think she had to remember. Um she But again, it's a personal choice. So, I'm just trying to make sure I have my ducks in a row and understand it properly. A better example of a recusal was when the mayor did recuse herself on a contract that was being voted on that her son worked for the um the bidder, right?

That was an actual conflict. Um this this isn't a ethical conflict. It's just a personal choice. And and when it comes to a vote, should she be advanced as a candidate, I would recuse myself or will recuse myself on the vote. you you had done the same thing when we actually voted to recuse yourself.

So actually what I did was um we have never as a council all voted on budget. So this is very different. And so now every single one of us is up here listening to applicants. and I knew that my husband was applying for budget committee. So I chose not to be on the committee to choose candidates to be forwarded. And so I that that was my personal decision not to be on that because I just think perception of the public it's just better to air on the side of transparency that I was not involved in.

No, I I completely sympathize with that. I was just trying to clarify that it was or was not a an actual conflict. Thank you for asking. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Uh, Council Lamman, we're voting on five. Five positions, correct? Yes. Top five. And so, Right. Well, realistically, we only have the five, right? No, we have there's six. Well, didn't two of them with Well, we've got uh Birdsy, Mary Day, Olsen, Settlemire, Wagner, and Z.

1 2 3 4 5 6. Well, then yeah, I'm gonna have to go with uh uh Mr. Ryan Birdsy, uh, Johanna Z, Linda Olsen, Christopher Wagner, and Joyce Settlemire, Mayor, uh, Ryan, Amy, Linda, sorry, Ryan, Linda, Joyce, Christopher, Johanna are my top five. Councelor Settlemire. I will go ahead and give mine. Uh, Mr. Birdsy, Miss Souls, Miss Seter, Christopher Wagner, and Johannes. My understanding that uh Mr. Birdsy is interested primarily in the position ending uh the end of 2026. Um, so I'm prepared to make a motion if the council is interested in entertaining one. All right. I would move that the council appoint Johanna Z, Linda Olsen, and Joyce

Settleer uh to the budget committee for the term expiring 1231 2028. that the council appoint Chris Wagner uh to the term expiring uh to the budget committee for the term expiring uh 1231 2027 and that the council will appoint Ryan Birdsy to the budget committee for the term expiring 1231 2026. Second. We have a motion with a second. Any more discussion? Right. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I.

I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimous. Thank you. All right. Budget update. City manager Mr. Sour Wine and interim finance director Eric Kola. Good evening, your honor and members of the council. Um, I'll wait till we pass out the uh PowerPoint here and Well, good evening, your honor, members of the city council. Uh, what we'd like to do this evening is present to you our quarterly budget update. And as always, we begin with our goal. Our goal is to make data-driven financial decisions that are in the best long-term interest of the city. I want to be very clear that the numbers are what they are. Um, we strive to be as honest, transparent, and open as possible uh with the council and with the public about the city's financial situation. So, what we'd like to do this evening really is three things. Uh, first of all, I'm going to provide some background and some context. U talk a little bit about the budget review process. um our uh budget financial policies regarding a balanced budget and also start talking about the gap between our operating resources and our operating expenditures uh which we're trying to reduce that gap so that we can potentially fund some reserve accounts. Um I'm then going to turn it over to Eric and we'll be talking first having the second quarter budget update be similar to the update that you got uh

for the first quarter and rather than just looking at a bunch of numbers uh this is really more akin to the kind of presentation that you get um at a budget meeting. And then uh Eric's going to do more of a deep dive into the gap. We're calling it our gap review. Um and he's also going to be taking a look at some of our beginning fund balances. Think of this as really your first look at the 2026 2027 budget. Uh so as we've previously discussed, we've made some changes to our budget process. Uh we're inviting the budget committee members to be at meetings like this to also be uh involved in the audit processes going forward. Uh I'm going to be having a meeting next week with the uh calling it the leadership team of the budget committee. U making sure we include them in that process. have some additional meetings with them as necessary. And then in April 21st, we'll be having our first budget committee meeting. And we're really moving that up from midmay when most budget uh year start. Uh this year, I think we're going to try something different and try to give a lot more information up front. As was discussed earlier this evening, our goal is to try to get the budget notebooks uh to all the budget committee members and the city council more than a week before that first meeting so folks have an opportunity to review them. If you'd like to have one-on-one meetings with Eric and I and go over go over what's in those budget notebooks, we want to give you time to do it. Uh and then we'll be moving on to our budget town hall, our community forum where the public will have a chance to key in. And as I said earlier this evening, then we'll have two budget meetings. uh where you know we can apply what we learned uh from that uh community forum. So just taking a quick look at our budget financial policies. What is a balanced budget? Well, according to our our budget financial policies says the requirement of a local budget law is such that the sum of each fund's

resources equal its appropriations and unappropriated ending fund balance. That's a lot of words to say something very simple. That a balanced budget is the appropriated funds. That's our annual revenue. That's how much we get in each fund each year plus what we call the cash carryover or the ending fund balance. That's a balanced budget. Now, the cash carryover, especially in the general fund, is needed so we can meet our expenses. Anybody who's ever run a business understands the concept of cash flow. um a big part of our general funds revenue doesn't come to us till December. So we've got enough have enough money in the bank on July 1st so that we can meet our expenses uh through the rest of that year and calendar year until we uh get the revenue in December. We've also talked about the gap. Now our goal is to reduce this 16% gap that currently exists between our annual expenditures and our annual revenue. In other words, that's how much the the ann the annual uh money that we have to have in our cash carryover so that we're able to meet those expenses. If we can reduce the amount that we have to have in our cash carryover, we can put that money into a reserve. And that's exactly what the city council voted to do. Uh last July, the city council voted to approve a motion that was put forth by the budget committee for us to work to reduce that gap by reducing our expenses and potentially increasing revenue. And Eric's going to do a much more deep dive on this uh in a few moments. So again, what we're going to do this evening uh is have Eric give you that second quarterly budget update and then we're going to do this deep dive into our gap analysis and take a first look at next at this next year's budget. With that, happy to take any questions you might have or I can just turn it over to Eric.

to it. Uh the first thing is we're going to look at the quarter 2 revenue, the tax revenue. Um the first graph is the property tax uh of which we've received 91% of the property tax for the year so far. Uh we're at $5.7 million received. Um next we have the local fuels tax and the state highway aortionment which are both on track. Uh local gas tax actuals are a little less than what was budgeted. Um, marijuana tax is right on the dot with 51% of it earned by the end of the quarter two. And the liquor tax is trending over what was budgeted. And on the expenditure side, we're just looking at the um proprietary funds, the water, wastewater, and storm water. Um, we've got the personnel budget there just showing how much is spent in each of the three funds for personnel. Water is at 1.95 million, wastewater at 2.1 million, and storm drains at 343,000. Um the M&S budget for each of those is shown there on the right with wastewater being the fund that uses the most materials and services. Um and then we have the budget to actual box there showing that in whole uh 41% of what's been budgeted to be spent has been spent. So uh less than the 50%. Then the breakdown there shows the personnel budget which 46 has 46% has been spent across the three funds and

materials and services budget 48 has been spent across the three funds. Any questions on the sheet before I move on? Yes sir. A question on the previous sheet. Can you remind us, do we budget for 100% tax collection or do we

There's a formula that the state gives you and they provide you documentation that gives you your actual recovery. I don't know what um Cottage Groves is offhand, but they're usually like 95 to 97%. So that's what's in the budget is just following the state formula. So not 100%. Okay. Thank you. Your honor, kind of the rule of thumb that we've always used is that you're going to have somewhere between about three and 5% of property taxes that you're not going to receive generally because properties in the process of transitioning from one owner to another. And sometimes taxes do or don't get paid. Okay. Um, I'm not going to spend too much time on these sheets of numbers, but the first one is the uh general funds budget summary for expenditures. Just a bottom line showing that 61% of the funds haven't been spent yet. And then the next three, if you guys want to review these and ask me any specific questions at another time, I'm happy to answer them, but this other packet is kind of the focus for me tonight. Um, as far as the revenue, um, each one of the revenue lines has, let's see, for the water fund, uh, we've collected 54% of the revenue that was budgeted so far. Wastewater Fund has collected 52% of the revenue that's been budgeted so far and Storm Drain Utility has collected 54% of

the revenue collected uh that we budgeted. So we're we're doing well on the revenue collection. It's way over what not way over but it's over what we had estimated budgeted rather. Okay. They're going into search this whole thing PDF of this. Oh, this is the PD. says it's a PDF. Okay. All right. So, uh this is what we're going to be looking at. The first thing we're going to look at is the um

the gap from the budget. Um, when we had the adopted budget last year, there was this $1.7 million gap between the operating resources, which was 9.171 million, and the operating expenditures, which was 10.914 million, a gap of 1.7 million. Uh, we were advised to reduce the gap. So, I've gone back and done some review of the revenue streams a little closer and uh as revised an estimate. So, there's $125,000 more in revenue. Um I looked at the personnel costs in the general fund um and it was at 43%. And the M&S uh materials and services, sorry, in the general fund was at 41%. So, with the increase in revenue estimate and uh trending below what was estimated budgeted for rather, um it's looking like we're going to come in about $900,000 less in expenditures than is in the adopted budget. And the 900,000 reduction equates to closing the gap by 52%. So much more than the 33 and a3%. Uh next we're going to talk about the beginning fund balance. I'm going to talk about how I would normally estimate the beginning fund balance. So the normal process we're going to uh use preparing the 26 budget as an example. The 26 budget um is July 1st of 25 through June 30th of 26.

Normally would start that on January 1st of 25 has to be adopted by June of 25. Um I would begin by using the audited financial statements from FY24 which would have been completed on December 30th of 2024. So, one day before the budget prep starts. Timing issues with this are that we're preparing a budget for 26, but the last audited numbers we have are from 24 and there's actual activity happening for the year you're in, which is 25. Um so the audited financial statements from 24 are documents that confirm an audit team agrees with assertions made by the city. One of these assertions is this is how much ending fund balance we have. Ending fund balance can be different things. It can be unappropriated, assigned, committed, restricted and non-spendable. Ending fund balance are unspent funds that the city uses to start the following year. So part of figuring out the beginning fund balance for 26 is trying to figure out what is going to happen by the end of 25 because it's occurring while you're doing this. So if we start in January of 2025, I would compare actual revenue and actual expenditures to the adopted budget values. I would find anything that was out of the ordinary and go research it. Um then I would estimate or project the remaining activity for the year that we're in. So I would take the actual ending fund balances from 24 and replace

those estimated beginning fund balances in 25. I would work with directors to estimate the remaining activity in all the funds all the revenue and expenditures there that are expected. And this would give me an estimated ending fund balance for all accounts. I would use those estimated ending fund balances to um as the beginning fund balances for 26. So beginning fund balance problems that can arise. What can adversely affect the beginning fund balance estimations? Audits that are years behind. If you're lacking actual values for a certain number of years, that's not good. Um, if there are poor estimations and projections that are done when you have to estimate what's going to happen during the year, that will be a problem. Uh, making mistakes can be a problem. Obviously uh transferring resources between funds didn't get completed like overhead allocation, debt allocation, inter fund loan repayments, transactions that are entered wrong into the accounting system, incomplete work, and sometimes overly optimistic estimations find their way into the budget. Like if you think you're going to get a loan and you put the loan funds in there and the spending of the loan is in there, but you never get the loan. That wasn't a great estimation. Um I'm a very big advocate of depart uh documenting departures from the budget. I think it's really critical to document the variances between the actual activity and the adopted budget when they happen. Um, it needs to be electronic, not written down handwritten notes, uh,

that can get lost on a desk or recycled. You need to explain the variance. You need to explain why it happened. The solution in the and the plan to deal with it needs to be described in detail. Um, all the parties related to the issue need to be identified and whether they worked with you in figuring out what the solution was or not. um all the accounting changes need to be planned and executed and by that I mean that the stuff in the software has to be done and those potential ramifications of the changes going forward need to be expressed in this document so that the next person that works on it has a heads up so they have a chance to deal with it. So, there were some problems that surfaced uh about the beginning fund balances during the FY 2026 year. Uh they're not right. In September of 25, after the 26th budget was already adopted, um I started working on the FY25 24 audit preparation and found some mistakes. uh these mistakes are adversely affecting the fund balances and the size of the mistakes are substantial. I reviewed the data a bunch of times before bringing it to the city manager and the directors. Um, as soon as I brought it to them, we uh started making adjustments to all the affected funds and uh the changes were making are going to reduce the negative effects that are right now in our face. Uh, and these the mistakes are going to roll forward into 27 for sure. We we are not able to resolve them all this year. So FY2022 was the last year that there were audited financial statements. I

realize you guys have got the 23 audit now, but that wasn't the case when I was writing this up. So the audits are years behind schedule. While preparing the 26 budget, the last audited financial statements were in 22. So that's two years of missing actual data that should have been there during the budget prep. um by September of 25, this last September, the 23 audited financial statements are what are were in draft form, which means that the person had drafted the statements, but the auditors hadn't signed off on them yet. But it's fairly certain that the auditors are going to agree with what was there. So I was starting to use those numbers to look at the beginning fund balances. Um so yeah in 24 preparing the audit I started looking at the data to give to the person that's doing the audit work. Um yeah so again because the 23 audits were in draft form that was a good place for me to start. Um I found substantial critical accounting errors. Uh the first one being only portions of the supplemental budgets that were passed in 24 were entered into the software. And by that I mean sometimes uh as you guys might know in accounting you have balanced transactions. So there's always numbers happening in two accounts at the same time and some of the supplemental budgets only had a number happening in one. So the balance was unbalanced. Um, and when you ran the revenue and expenditure reports, the budget column wasn't balanced, which was a very clear indication that the supplemental budgets had not been entered into the software all the way. Um, that also means that every director

looking at their revenue and expenditure reports was looking at data that was wrong. Um, my solution to that was that I entered all the supplemental budgets into the software. In the future, we really need to make sure that all the supplemental budgets get entered in the software when they're passed, that all the parts of the supplemental budget are entered and the budget column is continually balanced and not out of balance. Um, some other things I found were debt payments were not made in the accounting software. The actual debt payments were made. We paid our creditors. But for instance, with this PERS UAL debt payment, we'll use that as an example. Debt is paid out of fund 817, which is the debt service fund. But in order for 817 to get dollars, an accountant has to sit down and create a journal entry that moves funds from eight different accounts into fund 817. Um, if those if that journal entry isn't done, the dollars are not transferred out of the eight accounts to debt service. So, it makes it look like those eight accounts have more money than they really have. And just as a frame of point of reference, the city pays about $3 million a year in debt. Um, one of the other things I found, and this was the big one, was there was a $2.9 million loan that was used to purchase some land, and this was not recorded in the software correctly. $2.9 million was recorded as revenue, but the purchase, the expenditure was recorded as an asset. It was never recorded as an expenditure. So, the general fund was showing $2.9

million less in expenditures than were real and the ending fund balance was inflated by $2.9 million. So, this is the accounting equation. Uh, private world focuses on this top line, assets, liabilities, owner's equity. government focuses on expenses and revenues. So when $2.9 million comes in as a revenue and gets recorded, but the purchase of the land is recorded over here as an asset, it's not in the revenue and expenditure reports that come out and you don't record the asset over there without recording the expenditure. Um, so the $2.9 million mistake was invisible to me cuz I was not looking on the balance sheet accounts when I was running revenue and expenditure reports cuz you wouldn't look there for expenditures. Um, the city manager and the public works director both expressed extreme reservations at my guess of $4.57 million when I was prepping the budget. and I assured them numerous times that I had run the reports various different ways and it looked correct to me. Um, so I do want to know that you to know that people warned me, but I just didn't see it. Uh, so this loan and purchase entry was created in September of 23 and wasn't caught until September of 25. So for two years it was in the wrong spot. Uh, so where are we at with the beginning fund balances? The 25 adopted budget has a larger beginning fund balance than the actual ending fund balances for 24.

In the 25 budget, there is 12.7 million in beginning fund balance, but um, what I'm calculating is 10.3 million, so a difference of 2.2 million. Um, what does this look like? These are some of the worst offenders. Like the but street fund had a beginning fund balance of a million dollars, but it's calculating at half a million. Water fund had 410 in the budget, but there's only 130. The industrial park had 390 and it's uh negative 164. Um, general reserve had 139, but it's only 28,000. Wastewater reserve had 1.3 million, but it's only 630,000. Storm drain reserve had 650, but there's really only 405. So that leads to the next problem which um the city uses the adopted budget as a guide on how to conduct business and plan expenditures. So if the all the expenditures are written in there and the the directors know like this is the plan and they're spending along with the plan but the beginning fund balance numbers are wrong. Um, it puts us in this situation. The street fund is going to be a -270,000, water fund minus 9, the industrial park - 98, general reserve at a negative 187. And because the fiscal year 25 has already passed, the last day was June 30th of 25, we can't go back and do supplemental budgets to fix any of this. So, this is going to be an issue with the audit. Um, there there's nothing we

can do about it. Um, so the 25 ending fund balance summary and the adopted budget, the 25 adopted budget has $13.9 million of ending fund balance, but I'm really calculating 11.7. So, a difference of 2 million. Hopey you can see this screen but the beginning fund balance summary for 26 because of all these errors what I estimated as the beginning fund balance for 26 is not right. Um that it should

Can I interject and ask a question? Yeah. A couple slides ago, you're talking about each of those different um funds being being short. Was that because those payments were not recorded and they were all coming for that land purchase being split out among those funds or was there something else driving No, you said there were supplemental budgets that were passed and all of that data wasn't put in. There were debt payments that were made, numerous debt payments, and the the debt money that needed to be transferred out of numerous funds into the debt service funds were never done. So, this is just a snowball.

Yes, there's multiple things that are like feeding into this. It's not it's not just one one thing. Like, as an example, the admin overhead allocation was done on the last day of the year in the past. And so I don't know how directors would ever know where they're sitting with revenue and expenditures. I've changed it so I'm doing it every month. So that at least it's, you know, up to date. But like like the supplemental budgets not being put in is not good. The debt payment transfers, they should be those journal entries should be done the same day that the debt is paid. I don't know why they weren't done, but they weren't. and we're doing it much different now. The debt's paid, the journal entries are made that day, you know, so all of these things kind of compounded into a big problem, which is what we're looking at. So the result is that there is 5 $4.5 million less in beginning fund balance than is shown in the adopted budget. So bringing this to Mike and Fay, we started working on this right away. So I'll just tell you what I did. The first step I did was to take the adopted budget documents and I replaced the the beginning fund balance numbers that were in there with the recalculated ones. And then we looked at the bottom line in every fund. Were they overspent? What was the situation? Um, if we needed a reduction, we did it in order. We started with the contingency dollars, which as you know, you use those when you have an unexpected thing happened in the fund. This is unexpected, so we use

those. Um, we reduced ending fund balances if we could. Then we cut out capital outlay and materials and services. Um technically spending less than what was adopted doesn't require approval like a supplemental budget or anything. And uh likewise the unappropriated uning fund balances in funds are not uh part of the appropriation process when the budget is passed. So those can change without approval as well. But we um do have corrective action that's going to require council approval. Um, if any expenditures increase, we need to get approval from the council. If there are additional inner fund transfers, we have to get approval from the council and contingency increases need to get approved by the council. the results of all of this uh all the work we did and the reductions and looking um we're going to need to do some short-term loans to these three funds here and these amounts to make sure that the 26 ending fund balances are not below zero. So I don't have the supplemental for you today, but I just want you to know that this stuff's going to be on there. So, this last sheet that I have um shows the adjustments we've done. We have all of the funds right here. Um this BFB adjustment is the beginning fund ballet beginning fund balance adjustment that um is a result of recalculating the beginning fund balances. So, it's showing it's $4.5 million less. And then these are all the things that we've done to make adjustments. So in revenue, we had a little bit more revenue. We have these

interfund loans. Uh there were no adjustments in personnel. Very slight adjustments in M&S. All there were $2.5 million in capital outlay adjustments. There's some interfund transfer adjustments happening and then a reduction in contingency of 600,000 and an end ending fund balance is decreasing by 1.2 million to make up the 4.5 million that we got to deal with. So that's where we're at. So this is a lot to take in guys and I know this is the first time that you've seen it and this is the beginning of the conversation not the end of it. The balanced budget that we present to you for the 2026 2027 year will attempt to resolve these issues. So when we get to July 1st, um the mistakes of the past will have been dealt with in next year's budget. That means some significant cuts, guys. That means the balanced budget we're going to bring to you is going to be different than the budget that you have seen previously. But as I started out this conversation by saying, the numbers are what they are. We're not sugar coating it. We're not doing, you know, we're not cherry-picking the data. Uh we're bringing you the facts as we have uncovered them because of the fact that the audits hadn't been done in the past and we're catching up. Let's be honest. Uh this management team was brought in, this financial management team was brought in to clean up a mess. This is what cleaning up a

mess looks like. I want to recognize the fact that if these errors had not occurred as Eric started the conversation, we have reduced the 16% by well over 50%. Um, which is certainly more than the uh 30% we were aiming for. So, you know, there is there is some good news as far as the work we have done in the last year and a half. you know, and I think we can be proud of that, but understand that we will be having to make some significant changes in next year's fiscal year budget compared to this year's fiscal year budget. Now, when you find yourself at the bottom of a hole, first thing you do is stop digging. Well, we've stopped digging and you know, more to come. Um, uh, I would ask that you would review the information. Of course, you have questions, please ask them tonight. uh but that you review the information and as Eric concluded, we're going to have to be bringing back some changes to this year's budget to you. Of course, a budget amendments and that'll be the time we will continue this conversation as we go through and catch up on audits. Uh there'll probably be additional information that we'll discover. So, I just want to finish this by saying thank you, Eric. Thank you for all the work that you have done and your team in the finance department. You know, I really appreciate just how d how far you have dug into this uh to be able to get us to this point where we can fix this. With that, we'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

I I question how finance and the city manager at the time wouldn't question that large of a number difference like how does that happen? I mean none of us are sitting there with the numbers in front of us. That's not our daily job and and so I'm for people that it is I it's alarming to me how that could go under the radar. It is alarming.

Yeah. I don't know how I know that the I know that one person that wasn't the finance director wrote the journal entry for the $2.9 million and the finance director should be reviewing that stuff. So at least two people should have looked at it got the mistake

serving

uh where do we stand in terms of that that 2.9 of imagine is for project sparrow is that the land purchase where do we stand in terms of recuperation of um on that investment? U Mayor Councelor Irvin, we have sold 4 acres and received the uh resources for that. I believe that's $557,000 that the city was able to um receive for that. And then uh we are currently um in the closing stages of phase one of the um Hayden um purchase and sell agreement which they will pay $9,000 for I think 52 lots that are in phase one once the um uh lots are recorded and that should be in the next four to 6 months and then they'll start building homes and phase two my understanding is they're going to be right on the tail end of the dose starting phase two. So we should receive another approximate a third of the um total purchase sale to them um probably another 6 months later. So that's actively in in the works. Um, our development team is working on um doing lot line adjustments so that we can create the final part of partition lots and be able to advertise the affordable/lomin housing partial of approximately 5 acres as soon as that's completed once we have a a um lot to market. and we have been actively working to sell sell the um 26 acres or yeah 26 acres of industrial uh property across the river. Um we've been

actively engaged with an individual that says it'll be ready to move forward on a purchase sale agreement at the end of this month. So this week it's it's coming quickly for him. And I have also um submitted that piece of property up there for two other uh business Oregon leads that have are looking for parcels. So I'm not just counting on selling it to the one until we have a you know sign purchase sell agreements. We're actually working diligently to get the money back from these project, get that debt service, and hopefully have some resources to um the council to consider investing elsewhere.

And th those sales would not be something that would be reflected in the budget that we're working with, correct? Because you can't predict that. So, those are all on the right side of the the ledger. Thank you, Councelor Settlemire.

I would like to concur with city manager um Sour Wine. Thank you, Eric, and your staff. Um we strive to have transparency and educate the community and you have um educated us in a way that I find amazing. Um and then the whole concept of moving forward. you've given us a kind of solid ground even though it isn't the solid ground that we were seeking to move forward. Um, I really hope that um moving forward we can um do that representation for the community um of what we're not paid to do essentially since we're all volunteers, but we are doing it um educated and transparently as we move forward. Councelor Hank. Thank you, Eric. Um, I'm still processing this information. It's um, the adjective that I have to describe it as embarrassing, but I'm really grateful that we have the leadership that we have now and um, optimistic going forward. uh cautiously optimistic, but um I'm sure glad that we don't have that leadership in place anymore.

Yeah, I feel like we caught it in a early enough time that we're not going to be like in a lot of trouble this year. You know, we didn't find it in May and then are scrambling. So, I think it we had enough time to uh correct a lot of the issues. Councelor Lamman. Madame Mayor, um out of curiosity, I was curious if we could make these handouts available to the the budget committee members. That way when they start looking at uh the budget coming up, they kind of have an idea why things might be changing or severity.

Hey, council members and mayor. uh as a practical matter, they will be included um in the council meeting minutes. Um but you know, I was planning on providing copies to the leadership of the budget committee when I meet with them next week and we certainly can expand that to you know, all budget committee members. Counc

one of the things that struck me in the audit process in the audit presentation that we had was I mean that's a process that is stipulated by state law is looking at particular things for purposes like this setting setting budgets but there's things that aren't viewed or inspected um that may may need to be added to the procedure of checks. Um what have you recommended any anything that you're seeing in in terms of uh gaps to policy about how the department going forward? I know we're you know we'd be looking to get some permanent positions um that we can be cogitating on um to learn from our past. Yeah, I mean I'm constantly revising the processes in finance and making more people involved in it and just trying to make things easier. Like the thing I brought up before about the interest allocation and someone having to hand type in like a hundred account numbers into the accounting software to get the journal entry in there. We're not doing that. we have like a document that we use to build what the allocation should be and then it's an import into the software. So we're I'm always trying to add extra layers of input, right? Like making things efficient and making more people look at it like what I told you about the two somebody wrote the $2.9 million entry wrong and the finance director should have caught it. Um, right now with all journal entries, two people have to sign the journal entry. So, someone creates the journal entry, another person looks at it, reviews it, okays it, and puts it in the software. So, there's two people

looking at every transaction that's getting put in there. So, especially an entry that large. Yes. Yes. Mhm.

And like stuff with the debt payments for example, like you get a bill from the Bank of New York that has like a two lines on it for principal and interest, right? Well, there could be four funds that are paying the principal and interest. And before the AP person would have to go research and find an amortization schedule and then pick the right date and try to allocate between all the funds. And just last week, we built a schedule that has all of the AP's stuff on it. So, she just needs to go in there, check the date, what she's making the payment, and all of the allocations are there. So, everyone's looking at the same information. Finance is looking at the same information. Like the financial analyst, me, and the AP person are all looking at the same exact schedule, you know? So, no one's got to go digging and research for what four accounts are paying how much of the principal this time. In a memory of maybe three or four audits ago about there being there was a note or a comment about an atypical way that I believe it was we were allocating interest or or loans. Um, and it was a change that had been implemented that year. Forget what year it was. How atypical is it the structure that we've been operating under of having all of those um, loans paid out of all the different departments?

I don't I mean, I don't think that that's different at all. I mean, it seems perfectly fine. I've seen it everywhere else I've worked. I can't speak to why this fund pays this much and why this one pays that much. like I I don't have the history behind that, but like as far as just paying out of different funds, it it makes sense. So the difficulty is introduced when it's a manual calculation and entry rather than a

well like say the Bank of New York we I know I'm just going to make stuff up here because I don't have the the details on my face but like if we're paying the 2017 bond payment to the Bank of New York it's actually like five different loans that were refinanced in the 2017 bond right so one of them might be the industrial park and the industrial park is on the hook for the industrial park. Another one might be like the roof on the community center. So then it's the general fund paying that piece of it. But the all those five numbers show is just one number in the BNY invoice. That's what I'm talking about. And if you want to come by and look at any of this or I can like print it out and bring it to council so you can see what I'm talking about, I'm happy to do that. Any other questions?

Well, good evening again, your honor, members of the council. Uh, as I said, this is the beginning of the conversation. Uh the next time that we'll be discussing this is when Eric brings us, you know, some of the changes that the council has to take action on that he's listed in his PowerPoint. And also this conversation is going to continue through the budget. And as always, we encourage your questions. Like I said, this is kind of the first time you've seen this. And as Eric said, if you want to make an appointment or time to come visit with him, uh please do so. Uh you know, I encourage everybody to do that. Councelor Hank, considering all of this, can can we maybe get more frequent budget updates?

Well, uh to answer your question directly, yes. Uh you know, when I started here, uh I talked with the council at the time about doing quarterly budget updates. Um if you're interested in something more frequent, you know, say between now and the end of the year that we give you some give you something, you know, each month, we certainly can do that. Uh understand that there may not be a lot of information uh that changes from one month to the next is the reason we kind of chose the quarterly. But yeah, I mean there's there's no mandatory minimum how much information we can provide. If the council's interested in additional reports and information, we certainly want to provide them. Councelor Sentomire,

I think um based on what you've mentioned here, Eric, and um the idea of trying to see if the numbers are flowing correctly. I I appreciate what you've done with us or for us with this quarterly idea and I hope that um we can continue with that and I appreciate what uh uh counselor Hink is saying as far as um wanting to stay on top of this. But um I have faith in what you guys are delivering to us now. And I' I'd like to see how that plays out rather than um asking you to um pull more things out more often. And I appreciate I know firsthand if I had questions I could come in and talk with you. And I' I'd encourage other counselors to do that in more often if they would like.

Councelor Mary Day. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Um I was going to I was going to ask is would the work be required to produce a monthly statement interfere with the work of No. what you were already trying to do? No, I'm happy to provide more data whenever you guys want it. I know this is probably a shocking presentation that erodess trust. So, tell me what you need and we'll get it to you. Yes. Well, again, as as other members of the council have expressed, we are very much in your debt and thank you for this un unwelcome news but unnecessary.

Yep. Sorry. Yes. Thank you. Counc. Thank you, Mayor. Is it possible with our financial software to integrate with the website to publish uh reports?

Uh I can't answer that exactly, but my uh person that works with me is got a data science degree from the UFO. I believe that's what it is. So, she's got a lot of technical skills I don't have. So, I bet she can make it happen. I think I think if we're providing that information if it's possible um for more ready inspection uh to drive more questions uh that would be a good safeguard. Yeah. Thank you.

Concerns from council. Councelor Hank might seem petty, but I just want to clarify that the proper pronunciation of my last name is Hank. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh. Oh, councelor Settlemire,

I apologize. And um I would like to point out that I am a long ways away and I am amazed at how clearly I've been able to hear everything that the council discussed. Um nice job. um by our staff who are working to make this communication work. And I had a glitch that I could identify here that caused me to leave. And I think that perhaps maybe that's what has caused most of the problems at least recently with the interaction between um the people who are zooming and um the council. So I appreciate the efforts. I am very happy I can be at a distance and participate as as fully as I've been allowed today. Thank you.

Well, now that I'm fully deflated after that news, I did have something I was really excited about to announce tonight and that is we just booked uh the community center. Uh we have a scheduled volunteer roundup for the Wild Dogs Mural Fest in the 50th anniversary of Animal House Celebration and uh we are asking everyone we'll be putting it out on social media and other places on our city website that that is March 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the community center and anyone that wants to come and hear about the Wild Dogs, hear about all the committees, everything that we are going to be doing moving forward, get any input, we would love to have you.

Anyone else? Councelor Merid,

um we discussed in the council, um I believe councelor Wilson had brought it forward concerns with ebikes. Um on chief was it the 23rd you made a posting on bio the police department made a posting uh clarifying electric bikes versus mopeds versus u and the the speed limits on Saturday. There was a pretty serious accident involving an ebike on the bike path. So, um, that was something we had talked about about safety because the these E vehicles have a tremendous amount of power and torque and people are treating them like they're toys and I hope I hope the individual makes a full recovery, but they were pretty seriously injured. Uh, second, um, Art had mentioned the need for jobs. Fully agree. Um, I've been outed as a socialist and been made to think badly of myself for that. Um, corporate America is the one that's destroyed the jobs, living wage jobs, u shipping jobs overseas, replacing jobs with an automation, currently developing a AI to replace even more jobs. So if you want living wage jobs, you have to in make um profit have a conscience. And um I've lived in European countries where socialism does not generate the the evil result that many people view. Uh their quality of life is much higher than our own. um you don't see people uh cast out into the streets because they can't pay their

rent or not receive the medical care that they need. So, um if if we want to really have living wage jobs again, we have to figure out a way to break corporate America's hold on the wages. Anyone else? Councelor Lamman,

I I just have a small rebuttal real quick. We also need to quit legislating them out of business. Oregon is taxing an insane amounts to where a lot of big corporations and a lot of big businesses are leaving to other states. We need to make it more friendly for businesses to want to do business here. And unfortunately, we're not doing this. All right. Thank you. I'm not going to discount your city manager's report tonight, so go right ahead.

Well, good evening, your honor, members of the council. Hey, try going through life with the name like sour wine.

Uh, just a couple of quick items. As we discussed on Friday, due to the fact that the month of April has become much much busier, uh we're going to be moving our city council retreat from Saturday, April 18th, uh we're going to be looking for a date sometime in either uh June, July, or August. Uh have to talk with the folks who facilitate the meetings for us. We'll come back with some potential dates for you uh around the summer. And also, uh, we're going to be interviewing for candidates for our new human resources director. We haven't finalized a date yet. Uh, we're looking till the last two weeks, um, in February. Hopefully, we can find a date that's going to work for everybody. So, what I'd like to get is, you know, two or three city council members who are interested in serving on one of the interview panels. Uh, have one volunteer. Um, if other council members are interested, council member mayor, um, you know, if the three of you are interested in serving on an interview panel, uh, then we will, uh, you know, try to make sure that we coordinate with your schedules as well. And finally, I just wanted to give a quick plug for the Chamber of Commerce, uh, two upcoming events. The Chamber of Commerce's lunchon, um, is going to be this later this week, and, uh, believe it or not, there's going to be a presentation about the, uh, downtown, uh, revitalization project. One year ago, uh, we made a presentation to them. We told them we'd be done by, uh, this December. I think we got some chuckles and rolled eyes and lo and behold, we finished the project. So, we're going to give them a bunch of, uh, before and after photos. And then also, I want to encourage all council members uh, to attend the uh, annual chamber awards banquet. Uh, it's coming up on March 21st. If you're interested in attending either one of these events, uh please get with uh our city recorder and she'll get you signed up and have the city pay your your admission for lunch or dinner at those two events. And that would conclude my report, your honor.

Thank you. Anything from the city attorney? Well, I've been racking my brain to figure out what good news can I give you. Yes, please. And the only good news I can think of is I don't have any bad news. Okay. So, um, but I did have an opportunity to, uh, explore with my son your beautiful new main street and on a sunny Saturday and I was really appreciative of the work that public works and this council and whole city and staff have done and your business owners, right? That was an inconvenience for a really long time and it's beautiful. So, good job. Yeah. Thanks. Well, that was good, Carrie. Thank you. All right. So if there is nothing else this meeting is adjourned.