City Council - Regular Meeting

Councelor Hank, can we do a quick mic check again? Check. Check.

So far so good. Thank you. All right, I have 7 p.m. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the role?

Councelor Irvin here. Councelor Hank here. Councelor Lamman here. Councelor Meriday here. Councelor Settlemire here. Councelor Wilson here. Mayor Sby here. I'll rise for the pledge of allegiance to it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Before I get started, I would like to make a special acknowledgement of the Girl Scouts Troop 20007. Hello, girls. Thank you for joining us tonight. We're so happy to have you here. And uh this is for a Are you getting a service badge? You're earning points towards a service badge. Yes, that's wonderful. And I want to acknowledge your dedication to service. And with that, I would also after the new year like to invite all of Troop 20007 to have a macaroni and cheese lunch with me at my house. and I would love to uh share a little bit why you should get involved in volunteering in Cottage Grove and show my appreciation to you. So, does that sound good? Will you all stand to be acknowledged? So, uh would the troop the head of the troop please contact me? Okay, thank you. All right. And with that, I also have a pre special presentation tonight. I want to give out some awards. If you guys are not aware, we had a mayor's monster ball October 25th, and that was to raise money for a large city project that we have coming to Cottage Grove in 2027. And that is the Wall Dogs. And these are a group of 500 strong. They usually send about two to 300 to a city and Cottage Grove was chosen. So, we're very

honored. So, they're going to come here and paint 15 murals in four days. And the children get to be involved in one of the murals. And so, if you guys want to be part of that, you have to let us know. And uh it it will be a children's only mural. And uh this is a huge honor for Cottage Grove and we will also be celebrating at that same time our 50th anniversary of the filming of Animal House in Cottage Grove. So we'll have a big toga party. We're hoping that the artists will paint in toas. I think they will. And we're going to have music. We're going to have a parade led by our death mobile. Uh Otis Day and the Nights has already showed interest in coming back and so we're very excited about this event and um the Monster Ball was the first of many fundraisers that we're going to have to support this event and it was very successful but not without our community partners in this. And so what we did because we had a very small budget to throw this party this year because just like every city across the United States, our budget has dwindled a bit. And so any of these kind of events, we have to kind of join together as a community. And so I reached out to the restaurants and the food trucks and asked if they would be willing to donate small bites for the community. And so basically it was adult trick-or-treating. They trick-or-treated for their food and the restaurants donated all of the food for this event. And we had 13 restaurants and food trucks in total that participated. And I said I was going to give out an award for the best savory bite and the best sweet bite. And the best

sweet bite goes to Mama Te's Fry Bread for the 2025 Monster Ball. And can we get you to come on up and accept this award? Awesome.

Yes. The best savory bite went to the Grove Bar and Grill and Maggie was supposed to be here tonight. I guess she did not make it. And then also we had Jack Spratz for best presentation. So the decoration of their booth was amazing and Chloe could not make it tonight. And then we also had a contest for best seating arrangement. And so and that went to Mitchell and Associates Real Estate. Can I get a round of hands for Right. Also, I would like to acknowledge the Woodard Foundation and Casey Woodard. Um, they donated $2,000 and that was to fill in our uh silent auction baskets and also to donate towards our raffle. And our raffle was date night for a year. And so it was gift cards to all the local restaurants. We had bowling in there. We had rounds of golf. We actually had a night at the

arcade. There was theater tickets. It was a pretty amazing basket. And uh what was also uh I thought really special was that they made sure the Woodard Foundation really wanted it to be centered on the downtown corridor and all those gift cards bought with that specific donation to give back to everyone that was going through um some hardship with the construction in downtown. So, I want to acknowledge them. And then, uh, our actual report on the mayor's ball is that we made just under $13,000. Yeah. Really proud of this community. And on the way out the door, everyone said, "This is going to be an annual event, right?" And so we're excited for next year and hoping to raise even more money for the mission. All right. Thank you again. 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 action items on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. Individual speakers must be recognized by the presiding off officer. Provide their name. Identify whether they are city resident and if so their ward. Please limit comments to 3 minutes or less with council approval. Comments regarding any matters scheduled for a public hearing may be provided only during that hearing. The council will not make any decision based on public comment. However, staff and council may choose to ask questions or comment following the conclusion of citizen comments.

Donald Nordon. I'm Donald Nordon. I live at 239 Adams Avenue in Ward 3. Um, and I'm coming I I heard uh city manager Sari on the radio this morning and it kind of reminded me that okay, there's this meeting tonight and it's November and I realized the last time I spoke to you it was November and I was saying well I come back and give a um little followup on and I have a particular asked as well. Uh, Councilman Mary Day and Councilman Sedmire participated in this project a little bit last year and we cleared most of the the tall blackberries along the bank of the Coast Fork River on the public owned property. Well, I guess that area part of South River Road is not publicly owned, but nonetheless, there was this whole wall of blackberries that well, you couldn't access the river, but you couldn't even see it in many places. And that had frustrated me for some 50 years living here, not being able to see the river that's right here in town. So I I kind of organized this ad hoc um Penny Hubble project because I remember him being honored for some of the work that he was trying to do, cut the blackberries along the river and there it was on the placard and Benny Hubble Park and I still hadn't been able to make much headway after 30 years since they put the placard up. So, I kind of took it on myself to do what I could and I think we've cocked down the the big barrier

bushes between well from the mill pond to the prospector's park. Anyhow, it needs constant followup. Another part of the project was to try to do something like the little library project of leaving some hand tools along the way of the river so that people walking along the river would be able to access simple hand tools, gloves, um, hand clippers and such so that they could maintain the the blackberry because it constantly grows as we know. Um, and that part we're not able to do because we couldn't get the permissions from the core of engineers or from the city. I mean, the city lenny was doing a good job of doing her job as a planner here, but we couldn't enter into the flood way without another waiver. Now, the waivers are available. I'm more familiar with Mackenzie River Trust, but I know you can go down into the river. And I looked at the uh this the website on the core of engineers and of course you can get these waiverss but it's it's a a arduous task. Uh the the uh plan was it's like nine pages long and then it references other stuff. So it's not something I was going to do as an individual. So, what I would like to do is have the council direct the staff to fill out this form so that u just need to fill out the form and send it in the core of engineers. In 60 days, they should respond would allow us to proceed with this project and continue to kind of keep the blackberries off the river so we can appreciate it. And I I suppose if people haven't been up to Prospector's Park in a year or so and

notice the difference, they should do it because that was one thing that just really impressed me is that wow, you can really see the river here and appreciate what it is. It's not just a drainage ditch behind this wall of dead blackberries. So that's my ask and I hope u can continue with the project again and I once again I'll refer to the uh the staff for direction but I'm hoping they'll you'll direct them to fill out the forms and turn in the thing so we can do this without being in defiance of the core of engineers. So good evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Public hearings. Public hearing for the proposed Cottage Grove urban renewal plan and council's consideration of adoption of the related ordinance. Mr. Stewart.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Council. So, this evening, we're council's holding a public hearing in regards to the proposed urban renewal plan that has been created. share with you that uh this plan has been in the works officially since 2024, but there's dates clear back approximately 5 years ago. Um plans has been to the planning commission. It's uh pres council president Urban and councelor Miday, Mr. Son and myself also present in that presentation to the board of commissioners. Um the urban renewal district approved the plan to be noticed and sent out to the taxing districts um which it has to date. We have not heard back anything from the taxing districts. I'll share with you that Mr. Surin and myself met with the fire chief and deputy fire chief and discussed the district. uh their request to the district was to add in a piece of equip equipment that needed replacement in 2044. Um so the plan is suggested to accommodate that request. This evening we have with us our consultant hower. She would like to give a brief presentation of the uh 101 of urban districts and share with me the information about the district. Recommendation is public.

I'll now open the public hearing at 7:16 p.m. These proceedings are being recorded. This public hearing will be held for the purpose of taking comments for proposed Cottage Grove urban renewal plan and council's consideration of adoption of the related ordinance. Before we begin, the chair and counselors are required to disclose any complex of interest. Does any counselor wish to declare an actual or potential conflict of interest in this matter? I have a potential conflict of interest because my husband does work for uh South Lane Fire and Rescue. We will now have the staff report from public works director Bur. You just said that.

You can just No, no, you just turn it over to me. item on page seven of the four states of the building park three acres is actually and that has been corrected and acknowledged in the Thank you Mr. Stewart.

Thank you. The reason we are repeating information that you all have heard before is because we did do a public notice for a public hearing. So if anyone is watching or did come to learn about the urban renewal plan, we need to go through that so that everybody has information about the plan and we can go through the adoption process. So this is the final public meeting on the plan. If you move forward with the first reading of the ordinance tonight and then the second reading of the ordinance would be at your December meeting. Next, please. We will go through what the proposed Cottage Grove urban renewal area is. Do a little crash course urban renewal 101 next steps and questions in discussion. Next, please. This shows the potential urban renewal area boundary. It is in conformance with the statutory restrictions on acreage and assessed value. We did add in the fire district property to be able to provide assistance to them since we last um looked at this with you as an agency. Um we also added in the park across the street um to the area boundary. Next slide. In urban renewal, the confining feature of urban renewal is called maximum indebtedness. That is the total amount of money that you may spend over a 30-year approximately 30-year time period within the urban renewal area. The maximum indebtedness for this area is 65,400,000 that can be spent on projects, programs, and administration throughout the life of the plan. We've shown that in five-year incremental periods, just to let you understand that the first five

years are typically pretty lean because you are relying on that 3% increase in property tax uh payments and until you get some new development or substantial rehabilitation, that is what you'll be relying on for those tax increment revenues. Next slide. The project categories identified within the plan are economic development, land and at land acquisition, emergency preparedness, and under that emergency preparedness, we did add the $2 million for the fire district, unique district identity, parks, transportation, pedestrians, ADA, utilities, development loan program, and staffing. the uh amount here the 37,331 is year of expenditure cost. So that's what that yo e is and that amount um does not equal what that maximum indebtedness is. uh actually I think those are not year of expenditures those are today's costs and as over time those increase to that 60some million dollar maximum indebtedness next slide um we did say about the statutory limitations what that really means to you is if at some point in the future while this urban renewal plan is going you could through your statutory authority enact a different urban renewal area within your city and still be under that 25% limitation. Next slide. Urban renewal is not a new tax. That's always confusing and especially since your tax bills just came out in November. You don't have an urban renewal area. So, there wasn't urban renewal on that tax bill. Um, and there won't be urban renewal on that tax bill

um 26 until next year. But urban renewal will show up on the tax bill and it will show up on every property tax bill within the city. And that is not a new tax but a division of taxes that would otherwise go to the other taxing jurisdictions. Next slide. This is just a little graphic explanation of how urban renewal works. At the point that an urban renewal area is adopted, the assessor establishes a frozen base assessed value. All of the taxes off of that shown in the green area can arrow continue going to all the regular taxing jurisdictions, the city, the county, the school district. Next slide. The property taxes in Oregon increase for only two reasons. There's a statutory allowed 3% increase of assessed values every year. And then if you do any new construction or substantial rehabilitation, the assessor is allowed to reassess your property and that may be above that 3%. Otherwise, your property tax bills don't go up. You'll see maybe your real market values exceed that, but that is not what your taxes are calculated on. They're only calculated on your assessed value. Next slide. When an urban renewal area is formed, illustrated by the blue there, only for that urban renewal area, your property tax payments get diverted into two separate areas. Next slide. One goes to all of the taxing districts, and that's based on the value of the property when it enters the urban renewal area. And then any taxes off of the increased value within that urban renewal area will go to the urban renewal agency to be able to do those projects and programs within

the the plan. So because the property taxes are diverted into two separate areas that is why individual taxpayers don't pay more on their taxes. It comes out of those taxes already paid. It comes from the other taxing districts. Next slide. This just shows the concept of urban renewal and why it is so effective. Because if you rely on investments only calculating that 3% increase in taxes shown by that hatched area in the orange, your property tax revenues will only go up a small amount, that 3% annually, unless you can stimulate additional investment within that community. The orange mark illustrates that if you're able to invest with on projects within the area, that assessed value will increase and allow you to be able to spend more money within that area and cause that assessed value to increase to allow for future both improvements within your community, but also future tax revenues for all taxing jurisdictions. Next slide. This shows the um fact that urban renewal in the future will become a line item on your property tax bill. And I'm not going to walk through this whole slide because it it doesn't feel like everybody here is for urban renewal. But what the bottom line is for people to understand is that if urban renewal went away or is not approved that that bottom number of um 7,805 does not change. That just reiterates that fact that your property taxes do not increase because of urban renewal. If it went away, that money gets

reallocated to those oxing districts. Next slide. There are those impacts to the th taxing districts. If it were only 3% growth over that 30-year time period, you can see that those impacts are about half of what they would be if indeed the assessed value increases within that area and you have more growth. So an example would be Lane County. If you only have 3% growth, the estimated impacts to them are about $3.2 million. If you get that growth that we are anticipating, the impacts would be $6.3 million. But that also means that in the future when those come back on the property tax roles, there's a lot more value that they will be getting back to their property tax roles. Next slide. We did have um taxing district input. The input uh from the South Lane Fire and Rescue was not a formal letter, but it was I end input from uh meetings with city staff and the fire district. We did amend the plan to add in that project for the fire district at their request. Um they did not issue any formal recommendation for any further changes to the plan. And as was noted, uh, your, uh, Chair Irvin and Councelor Mary Day and the city staff went to, uh, and I, Lane County, and made a presentation. And I want to let you know that they were unanimous in their support of what you're doing. They were very positive about urban renewal and what you're able to do in your community with that. So that was really nice to hear from them was the support for your efforts. Next slide.

So your next step would be to finish the public hearing and uh I don't know if you read the ordinance tonight in title only maybe and then have a second reading of the ordinance at the next meeting. And I think I'm done until after the public hearing if you want to ask me any questions.

Thank you. I also needed to back up one moment and declare one more potential conflict of interest. I do own commercial buildings in the downtown taxing district. All right, we will now take public testimony for all persons testifying. Please state your name and address for the record. Do we have anyone testifying tonight? I see none. Are there any questions from the council? Councelor Meridday. It's not a question, but I did want to point out that uh former councelor Dreer did who works for Lane County did also accompany us and voice her support before the commission and was well received.

Anyone else? I'll now close the public hearing at 7:29 p.m. agenda. Council Urban Agenda. We have a motion. Second. We have a motion with the second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed.

Motion carries unanimous. Resolutions and ordinances. First vote on ordinance making certain determinations and finding relating to approving the Cottage Grove urban renewal plan and directing the notice of approval be published. Mr. Stewart.

Thank you, Mayor. So, as we just witnessed, we staff presentation. Public hearing has been deferred with no comment and uh city has not received any additional information formal comment poster plans. This would be exposed. Uh the next step is for city council to approve the first reading and the second reading.

I'd entertain a motion. Council.

Yes. Thank you. This will be ordinance number 32 0. Would move mayor council vote in this first reading ordinance 32000 which is approving the cottage growth urban renewal plan and directing that notice of the approval be published and then setting the second. We have a motion. Do we have a second? We have a motion with the second. Any discussion? I councelor Merid.

Um, could I direct a question either to director Stewart or consultant? Um in in the case that the um property values dis we entered a recession and the property val lowered during the period of urban renewal. How would the district respond to that a downturn in assessed values?

Mayor Council Merid and if I state this correctly um if the property tax values go below the um real market value, the assessed value goes below the real market value, then um real market value goes below the assessed value, then uh less taxes will be collected and that means just less money will be going into the urban renewal district, which will um in effect probably um limit the money available for projects uh during that period of time. But there there would be no penal pen penalty or anything as such just less money to work with.

That's correct. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? We have a motion with a second. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Hank. Councelor Lamman. Hi. Councelor Settleer. I councelor Mereday. I councelor Irvin. Hi, Councelor Wilson. Hi, Mayor Solsby. I business from the city council. Item A, Cottage Grove shower trailer. Mr. Sarowine.

Well, good evening, your honor, members of the city council. Uh, back in December of 2020, the city purchased a shower and restroom trailer for 59,200 or excuse me, $929. And then in August of 2021, the city signed an agreement with Community Sharing to use and operate the shower trailer. Now, that agreement has expired and it hasn't been renewed. Um, the shower trailer is currently housed at Community Sharing's office and provides free shower services once a week. City staff and community sharing have been discussing options for an update to the expired agreement and I would just acknowledge that Mike Flick from uh community sharing is here this evening um can answer any questions. So we've really been exploring two main scenarios. Uh the first would be to simply renew the agreement between the city and community sharing and the second being to transfer ownership of the shower trailer and the liability uh to community sharing. And so we'd like to discuss those options with the council this evening and also hear any options that you may have and other ideas you may have uh for this. So with that I just open it up to the council.

Councelor Wilson. Yes. Um probably Mr. Fleck could answer this question best. Sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Um how often I mean you do showers once a week. What is the um use of that? Is there a a large use of it? Is it a

It's um it's well used. In fact, we are looking for volunteers to add a second day of the week. Um we have not achieved that yet. Um I would say um most days are somewhere around 15. So a little below, a little above. Um so we're open from 11 to 3 in the shower trailer. So, I mean, we only have a 4-hour window and 15 minute showers, um, you know, with two rooms. So, there is kind of a limit to the number that we can do. Um, I will say that, um, most of the folks that are using it are unhoused, but there are um, several community members that I can think of that are. We have one lady with four children that come in to use it, another senior that uses the ADA bathroom. Um, so it is getting some a little bit broader use than than most would think. Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else? Councelor quantify city. Quantify the upkeep section, the major repairs. On Friday, you mentioned there was a retrofit some of the plumbing, but we anticipate lifespan of the trailer. Uh, the expected ongoing costs are concurrent. arrangement where the city would be responsible for insurance and maintenance.

Well, really the largest ongoing cost is the weekly cleaning as we do have city staff that about two to three hours a week uh that are cleaning it. Uh it's a little difficult to quantify, you know, any sort of ongoing maintenance issues. If you know something breaks and needs to be fixed, um that's certainly a cost that would that the city as the owner of the owner would be required to uh maintain it. Uh to date, I don't think there's been any any significant uh maintenance other than just the general ongoing maintenance.

The the one repair was uh when it was used at uh the community center with by the Red Cross and they allowed pets in it. Um the ADA um bathroom is lower than the tank and so it has a pump with an impeller in it and that got all jammed up. So that was that was the one big expense, but I mean we've replaced little stuff uh paper dispensers, you know, little stuff like that. But um no, most of it it's actually been it's pretty well built. We have not had a whole lot of problems. So the meaning is that after the after 3 p.m. on the on the day is somebody comes in and cleans it. Yeah.

And that was not part of our original agreement. Um that was uh something that was added later. Uh we're using a chemical that kills all the germs but it doesn't actually clean up the grime. And so was felt that that need that's needed. That is something that we could take on if necessary. Anyone else? Councelor Lamman.

Madame Mayor, council. Uh, so there's on page one it's showing a couple expenses the for the current physical year $366.77 and then another one of 17175. Is that total cost or the employees going over cleaning any other things for the fiscal year? Th

those are not the cleaning costs. Uh the cost the the cost for insuring the the shower trailer for the city is $366.77 a year. Now understand that we have a long list of city assets and a dollar amount for our insurance carrier that goes with every one of them whether it's a vehicle or a shower trailer or something else. So this is the cost of having it on our liability insurance and uh the uh volunteers workers comp hours um you know since they are volunteers under state law we are required to provide them with workers comp insurance and again that's the cost for providing uh the volunteers with workers comp insurance.

So other than insurance and the workers comp insurance is is a city putting out any other monies in related in relation to it? Th those are those are the out-ofpocket costs. As I said, the the biggest kind of ongoing uh costs both, you know, time in time of our employees and cost of paying the employees uh is probably the weekly cleaning. Do we have any ballpark numbers of what that might be looking like?

I mean, I can get I can get you the exact the exact salaries. I I to me it's it's less money than it is that it's the the ongoing cost of operations with having our employees there doing it every week. If you could give me those numbers, that'd be awesome because uh I think that'd be a little bit more beneficial in deciding what scenario I wanted to go with personally. Anyone else? Councelor Wilson. And you mentioned, Mr. Ple, that your staff could do the cleaning.

I would probably have Janet King come in and do it. Um, we have added bathrooms in the pantry since and it's I mean it's an expense but it's one that we could cover. Um, I do want to also share that we are also ensuring that trailer for 1 million 3 million worth of coverage and we are also covering workman's comp on all of over all of the volunteers. So that is something we're actually already doing.

And understanding though that if it needed to be moved to another location for disaster relief situations, your insurance wouldn't cover that. Yeah. And so we uh had a real weird wrinkle this year. The state increased our abuse and molestation insurance from 100 300,000 to 1 million3 million. Um our current carrier would not carry that at all. And some of the requirements of the new carrier um in fact was to put anti-slip um in both of the showers which we've already done. Um but there's other um practical uh impacts from that too. Um, I'm not sure what the limits were. We're We were 24, we're now 13. So, I just wanted to kind of clarify that because that was one of the other weird things is they dropped our overall liability requirements. Um, should be more than adequate and cost us about a little over $15,000 a year.

Anyone else? Are are Councelor Wilson, did you have anything else to add? No, I think uh I think I know which direction I want to go. Councelor Settlemire.

Um Mr. Fleck, um could you explain essentially from your perspective? Is it an advantage to have the partnership with the city? Would it be a more advantage for you to feel like community sharing had um more control over this? We we would prefer the relationship with the city. Um the the problem for for us is funding is is um how do I say this? Uncertain at the moment for us. We have many state and federal funds which are not um increasing and in some cases are decreasing. My fear would be that in the event of a big uh catastrophic problem with the trailer, we would not be able to keep it going. um that would be a challenge for us. The other part of it is in a natural disaster, we would want it being available for the community and clearly our insurance company said that wasn't going to happen. So, uh we would prefer to have an MMO with you with you and and in that I'm sure you've read we're providing all of the cleaning materials, the you know, we're washing the towels, um we're doing all of the, you know, operational expenses of running the trailer. Um, uh, the water was supposed to be reduced. Um, although I don't know that that actually ever happened. Um, that's being said, uh, our water bill, no offense, is already over $400 a month. So, yeah, not that I'm poking at you guys over that because I share responsibility. Councelor may

um just what I see makes sense. I like the idea of city maintaining ownership, having the ability to deploy um that trailer at its discretion under emergency situation. Um I would like it to see the agreement renewed but to have the cleaning uh burden that the city is currently bearing uh transferred over to community sharing and continue there and that that's obviously

I actually have a little different view. I don't think the city should have ever purchased this. I think this should have been a community sharing purchase. I think it belongs in the hands of community sharing, but because the city purchased it, I think it should be available to us in an emergency. And if we transfer ownership and we have an emergency, just like the city has always partnered with community sharing, community sharing should do the same. I can get you my insurance agents number, but they said they absolutely would not cover it in that event. The problem that she was explaining is that the underwriters can't understand what liability that could incur. And so there's no way for them to bill a rate for us because they have no understanding of what the risk is in doing that. Uh so they pretty much said, "Yeah, that's a non-starter." Um, so we would not be able to ensure it.

So what you're saying is that if the city did gift this to community sharing, you would have to stay with us. Yeah. You would not if we had an emergency, we could not take on that liability. So if there's a mechanism where we cannot end up being in jeopardy of, you know, serious dollars, I'm certainly open to it. All I can tell you is what our insurance agents told us. Councelor Satomar,

it seems like the outlay of under $400 a month for insurance as the one fixed cost that we um share. And the idea if the other major cost of weekly cleaning um until such time perhaps that maybe you would return saying our funding is cut off. can you help with something and we could re-evaluate that. Um that I mean we talk about a safe and thriving community. You've explained at least one family that benefits um and others potentially may we hear with potential future finances unsure for more than just community sharing. That that sure sounds like a good investment for the city to continue. Well, not necessarily continue. Yeah, under Yeah, under $400 a year. I'm sorry. I did I just said $400. Okay. Yeah, under $400 a year. Um, I just kind of give my support to putting together something like the expired agreement between the city and community sharing.

Councelor Hank,

thank you. Uh, I have big concerns about the city's liability should something catastrophic happen uh with the trailer and that falls on us. And um especially, you know, hearing about the Red Cross and how they step in with showers, you know, we wouldn't necessarily need community sharing to transfer it over to us should should we need it. I'm actually leaning towards um transferring ownership to community sharing so that we're not held liable for anything should it happen. Councelor Lamman.

Madame Mayor, council. Um, so we have two scenarios. Scenario two is basically transfer ownership over to councelor Lamman. Is your mic on? Maybe I just need to be closer. Is it working? Yeah, that's better.

So, we have two scenarios. Uh, scenario two is basically transfer ownership over to community sharing. Is there a way we can do that to where in case of an emergency that we might potentially be able to utilize the shower trailer but cover it under the city's insurance during that time period but then it be able to go back to community sharing on their insurance when it's not needed.

The short answer is yes. uh we could certainly, you know, add something. We could, you know, have a contract that if we use that, we use it that we put it onto our own insurance at the time as a city asset. Um, I'd also just point out that, you know, as we've discussed previously, the city was able to stand up uh a shelter at the community center fairly quickly in a matter of a couple of hours that could have housed up to 50 people. And that was working with uh our partners at Lane County and also with the Red Cross. The Red Cross has their own shower trailers. Uh, you know, in the case where the Red Cross would be, you know, handling the food or something in an emergency situation, I'm thinking if there was a fire, so we're actually going to be housing folks who've been evacuated from a large fire or something. Uh, the Red Cross has those assets. So, you know, if having a shower trailer on site became an issue, that's certainly something we could look to other sources to provide. I I have to say it's amazing to me that Red Cross can do that, but our community partner can't. And so I'm confused by that, especially when we bought the shower trailer for

they're moving their own equipment. So this is having somebody else, if it becomes ours, this is having somebody else moving our equipment at that point. And that's where our liability comes in. And that's what they were saying. I mean, I'm happy to try to go back and see if there's a solution. I just, like I said, it was pretty emphatic. Nope, we're not going to be able to do that. But Mr. Fleck, you you the community sharing has no one from your organization that can move that. We cannot move that trailer. That trailer takes I think the city is it a ton and a half that pickup that they move it with? I think a one- ton truck might do it. I have a little half ton Tacoma. I can't move that trailer. There's no one in your organization.

The Woodies might be able to. Um, but yeah, that is not something I can guarantee and not a community volunteer. Once again, I don't have one identified. Um, and in an emergency, you would want to have somebody identified to be able to move stuff. Um, once again, and then I also have to now go through and do driver's records of people who are driving for us. Um, and I have to have ins copies of insurance. I mean, I'm I'm just It could be done if you had a volunteer. Quite possibly insurance,

but I don't know that the insurance would cover it with somebody moving it for use. I don't know. That's a good question, though. But like I said, they were pretty emphatic. Um I can go back to them and see if they'll go to the So, it's kind of weird. we have a um a broker. So, I'm dealing with um Able Insurance and then they're going to now Philadelphia insurance. Um and it's their interactions where it was pretty clear uh nope, we can't do that.

Okay. Okay. Settlement.

It sounds like if anything short of an earthquake should happen, the city has something outside of this trailer to call into the community to go ahead and have showers available for people for emergency situations. Um, I will say that means except for the earthquake and I'm sorry I've a lot of people don't pay much attention to that being a science teacher for a while. We've heard a little bit about that if you've um watched those science um things and if you believe in that science stuff of prediction um it will happen sometime maybe not in our lifetime but the idea of if there is an earthquake that that would prevent some other um service from coming into our community with showers. Maybe the only place that shower has a prayer of operating whether we had in town transportation or not is right where it was. So if you're talking about the idea of community response, I think we'd have to say, you know, just be grateful that there's potentially something that is in our community that can serve the community. But I still go back to the idea of safe, thriving community. We put in wonderful attractions for some members of our community. Waterworks in Bohemia Park. I think they

are absolutely wonderful. We've got other waterworks called showers that some fewer members of our community, but some very real members of our community um can benefit from. And it sounds like you you compare they're not the same thing, but we're not spending more money supporting the group cooperation with community sharing for those members of the community than we are putting together the Bohemia Park kinds of support. So, I just I I do know we're we're talking about um there's all sorts of things financial sustainability. We're talking about some dollars. I would like us to balance it with the safe and thriving community goals that we have also. And is it worth those dollars?

Councelor Urban.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'd like to understand better the risk exposure the city has under the current arrangement. Sounds like we got a double covered trailer. Um if there is a an event, a slip, something where there's an injury, whose insurance is gone after first? Who's the you know the first line? How does that work? uh under under the arrangement I guess that that would that would sway whatever you know direction we'd want to go if we bear a lot of risk then then I can understand the you know get out from under the risks um situation but if there's really minimal and it's serving as a community asset purchase price has already been made then really the options are we try to sell it where we am or transfer ownership. So I I guess I need to know more about that risk.

Councor Wilson, some familiarity with insurance and double coverage and um the primary insurance coverage is who's they go after first, which is who owns it, which would be we go after the city's insurance first in a liability situation. Well, excuse me. in theouou if we're the ones who are operating it if it was a liability from the operations that that would be on us. Absolutely.

Maybe um generally they go for deep pocket and the ownership is is who generally speaking is going to be they're going to look at first. Now they might decide, you know, basis off of a percentage of liability and they may go split the split the liability partially one way or the other. But generally speaking, the first thing they look at is who owns it. So if we don't own it and we don't have to move it for any reason and if there's a disaster, where do we normally set up our disaster relief? it's at community sharing unless that's where the disaster is at

and and we would be happy to operate it on our site uh in that case. So right now we're using funds um that folks have to income qualify for but we do have our own funds and that would not be a significant expense. We are more than happy to post it at our site. What I'm hearing is the the challenge is if it's driven somewhere else. Councelor Hank. Oh, I just wanted to confirm what councelor Wilson was saying also having experience in the industry it goes they they first go after a primary owner primary insured and also whoever has the deepest pockets unfortunately. Mr. Sar,

one of the things they teach in city manager school is to always assume that the city is going to be the deep pocket. Councilman

just I just have an anecdote manage an RV rental and there's a primary insurance on it and then there's insurance that the renters purchase separately and they do try to go after they do make the claim to the you know the renters's insurance first. when it's denied, it gets picked up by this other insurance because that's what it's designed for. So, I just think is there an an apparatus an insurance um policy that can be applied to where it doesn't affect the primary. It's it's not for that that it, you know, it would be denied and it would go to whatever policy community sharing would cover. That's what I'm I'm wondering. is it it does exist these these situations, you know, common place in the market and I'm wondering if there is a solution here that would be investigated.

You know, I mean, I could certainly reach out to city insurance services, our insurance carrier, and try to get, you know, a definitive answer from them. But, you know, as was pointed out by council member William Wilson, council member Hike, that's been my experience is that, you know, plaintist attorneys like going after city def because we're the deep pockets. So, the question for the council, do we need one more meeting to get a little more research done on this before we take this to a vote or do you want to take it to a vote? One more meeting. Councelor Lamberman.

Madame Mayor, the only thing holding me up right now is the fact that there's a lot of back and forth going on, but I can't get a even just a small amount of idea of where the other counselors are sitting. Um, so we might need another meeting just simply to figure out where everyone's sitting because I I know where I'm at, but I can't get a feel where anyone else is at. We have some unanswered questions.

I think we have some unanswered questions that need to be addressed as far as the insurance, you know, liability situation. uh and and assets that are available to the city in case of a disaster that happens where it can't be moved or we don't want to move it. Um, what would be the the options that the city has if we transfer the ownership?

Because it sounds like the only cost savings that we have in either scenario, if we if we retain ownership, we're we're going to have the roughly $400 plus dollars per workers comp and and u just generally insurance on the on the asset. um $4450 a year roughly. Um that would be the really the only cost savings transferring the ownership because the rest of the expenses are already being done by a community sharing as far as the cost of the um cleaning materials and then your the willingness to actually do the cleaning. So, we're not the only savings we're really talking about here is is somewhat minimal, but every dollar counts when when you're in a tight budget situation. So, but I think we need to do some more insurance investigation on both sides.

Defer this to the next. Sure. Yeah. All right. We have council, right? Uh, councelor Mary Day.

So, um, yes, we do need more information on insurance. The I do like councelor Irvin's idea of transferring the cleaning responsibilities to community sharing. So, that would be removed from the city. Um the other only potential cost savings I can see by transferring would be the future maintenance issues that could develop and that could as community sharing has said that could put the commit it could destroy the investment if it was beyond them to repair it and then I guess they would have the option to sh sell it in if it was is inoperable. I don't know. I guess that's another question we'd have to consider.

So, let's defer this to the next meeting. And I just want to um clarify that normally I see some hands going up in the audience. And that's not a normal that we take questions or um comments from the audience. I I was thinking that there there might have been a volunteer to move the the trailer and so that's why I called. So, Sure. Go ahead. emergency phone call our watch when we need to move if we need to move to point B point you're covered

true thank you Mr. Councelor Lamman. Madame Mayor, uh, real quick. So, in 2020 and 2021, we spent 55,000. I'm I'm rounding up there. Uh, for the trailer, do we have an idea of what the current value of it is now, four years later?

You know, a number of people have asked me that, and we've tried to go online and find a number. I mean, it's basically a 5-year-old used car. And as I've jokingly told other people, there's not exactly a blue book for these things. So, uh, it's really hard to put a value on it. You know, if we were to, you know, like that's the reason why most of the time when the city, you know, disposes of an asset, whether it's a pickup truck or something else like this, uh, we send it to an auction. Uh, because for us to put a dollar value on this, whatever number I give you is going to be wrong. I think on Friday we we talked in terms of maybe 10 $15,000, but really the the trailer is worth what somebody would be willing to pay us for it.

What's an insurance valuing it at right now? Well, we we we insure it for the full val for for replacement value. So, it's insure it's insured for what it would cost us to buy a new one.

Could I offer one other thing? you know, we also invested quite a bit of money into this project as well. So, we actually um we did have some help from the city doing the wastewater piece, but we put in uh the water connections and the electricity and then the paving. Um I know the the concrete work alone was about I'm trying to remember 12,000 I think it was. I think we probably have $15,000 into this ourselves. Uh, we just added a uh uh oh I'm sorry I'm tired. Uh we've added an area for folks to stay dry and warm. Um so we had an electrician and we've uh so we've put ongoing expenses into this ourselves and I just share that with you so that you know it's not that we don't have any skin in the game and we're certainly happy to keep putting skin in the game. Um, I would love to have CIS talk to, you know, Philadelphia and if they can work something out, you know, um, you know, we could take that on. The only language in theou that'd have to change if that if there was a major repair and we couldn't do it. Um, that that, you know, that might preclude, you know, emergency use. And I only say that down the road. We're fine right now. We have good reserves. Um, but for the last three years, we've been $100,000 short of where we need to be. In the previous two, we've been fundraising, um, writing grants, and we've actually received more than that. But, uh, the problem is we're not getting that this year, and it has me worried. And so, like I said, we're not in trouble now, but 5 years down the road, you know, if this is still in place and something major breaks, are we going to be able to fix it? It's a it's a big question mark.

All right. So, let's defer this to the next meeting and uh meet with the city manager. Any questions that you may have if we can get answers on that. Sure, that'd be great. Absolutely. Right. Thank you.

Council of city council meeting, Mr. Sarine. Well, good evening, your honor and members of the council. Um, as you all know, our charter requires that the city council meet at least once a month. And uh in December, our second council meeting is scheduled for uh the 22nd. And uh 3 days before Christmas, I wonder whether we'd even be able to get a quorum. Uh so it is city staff's recommendation that the meeting on the 22nd be cancelled. I'd entertain a motion. Council mayor, it would be my pleasure to move that the council not hold that second meeting in December. Uh given I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second.

I have a motion with a second. Councelor Wilson. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Concerns from council. Councelor Lamman.

Madame Mayor, council. Thank you. Uh first off, uh Mr. reflect. If you need something moved, you got my info, shoot me an email or a phone call, whichever. Uh I can move everything from fifth wheel gooneck bumper pull, whatever you need. Uh another note, uh we've liquidated a couple properties so far this year. Uh I think we're at three different properties. Um, I'd like to see if we can get a report of what those property revenues have paid off in regards to debt services.

Sure.

Um, and anything left over because when we were talking about those, I had asked whether or not we were actually making profit off of it, breaking even or losing money on it. And it was stated that we were making profit off of it. So, I'd like to see where those where that money is going for all those um and how any access is being routed. Uh and then there was previous discussion about the gateway and main street intersection there with truck traffic. Uh what are we doing in regards to exploring options with that intersection at the moment? Are we still just kind of evaluating expanding it or or kind of what were we looking at there?

Mr. Stewart,

thank you. Mayor, councelor Lamberman, I believe it was reported that the traffic hole holds the traffic signals on the north west corner of the intersection there by Vanderb has been hit. The pedestrian activator switch has been uh knocked out regularly. So, we're in the process um due to some um proceeds coming in from insurance that we're able to move the um activator switch uh to the far edge of the away from the street far edge of the sidebar moving approximately 2 ft. Uh the new a pole will be purchased and replaced den and pole. In conjunction with that work uh and working with ODOT, um it's being recommended and we're going to proceed with it to actually move the stop bar in the turn lane that turns off main street on the gateway, we're going to slide it back 20 ft. and uh ODOT has shared that in instances similar to this throughout their jurisdiction that that has um been beneficial and reduce the amount of truck trucking B. So that's the shortterm work. The longer term work is um when we have resources to look at actually purchasing some additional rightway and um creating a little different intersection that would accommodate essentially truck traffic turning off a gateway westbound on the main street. So, as the only truck driver up here, kind of close, but uh I've been doing a lot of thinking with in regards to that intersection, and I I think it would benefit the city the most

to maybe do a an impact study or a feasibility study on declaring that section of gateway up to Maine as a non traffic route. Because other than local traffic to the grocery stores there on Gateway, there's really no reason for a semi-truck to be trying to make a right-hand turn on the main from Gateway. And unless you set back that uh stop line for the northbound on the gateway and the westbound on the main, a 53 ft trailer with a a 25 ft tractor is not going to make that turn either way without taking up turn lanes on all directions. So I I think if we can look at what the benefit versus cost would be to look at at making that a non-truck route, I think that would do a lot more than trying to justify the cost of making the intersection bigger. Can we maybe look at doing that? U mayor counc I can certainly inquire with our traffic engineer and see what their recommendation is like. I will just share you with some quick thoughts here is is that it might be difficult to um declare a portion of gateway road not a truck out when essentially we have a truck stop at McDonald's truck center into there. Um, we've also put up signs uh on Village Drive that goes to the golf course because we find that trucks find their way down there and there is really no way out. We've tried to deter

that. There's like three different no truck traffic signs. Uh, we can do our best to encourage it. Um, but I'm not sure that that's the ultimate answer. And I I would defer to the traffic engineers to tell us what we can do or not do with that legally. I'll I'll do some more research into that, but I I believe we can do that. I'll just Yeah, I'll look more

anyone else. Um interested in learning more about uh if it's feasible to assist Mr. Morton and his request on the on the waiver um makes good sense and doesn't cause any issues. It would support the city supporting that effort gets cleaned up. I appreciate his efforts there and others who have joined.

Councelor Smomire. Um, yeah. I would it help the council to get that information if I volunteered to go and talk to a couple of the um I I am supposed to go to um represent the council on Coast Fork watershed council who has spoken to this issue also and perhaps talk with them and staff and maybe come back and talk with the council about that at a future meeting. Okay. Anyone else? Council me,

uh, tomorrow is former armistice day. Uh, on November 11th at 11 a.m. World War I ended, and um, it has since been named Veterans Day. Tomorrow, the VFW and the American Legion will be uh hosting a remembrance at the Armory beginning at 11 a.m. And um we'd like to invite everyone to come and honor our veterans. And um if you're also still interested in some history at the end of the day uh I will be presenting on the old mill at um ourund 57y year continuous business at the site of the intersection of Silk Creek and Ral um Coastwork um history pub 5 to 7 at the axon fiddle. And um I also participated in a vigil to um recognize that due process is do all human beings this evening. Anyone else?

Well, and actually today is the 250 year anniversary for the Marines, too. And uh there is a celebration going on, but we're in city council. So, couldn't attend, but I hopefully they get a good turnout. All right, report from city manager.

Well, good evening again, your honor, members of the council. Just a couple really brief items. Uh, as we discussed on Friday, we have scheduled the uh city council's retreat uh for Saturday, April 18th. U Mindy sent you out a notice on that. Please let us know if uh that's the weekend you're taking your family to uh on vacation because we really would like to find a date uh that all seven council members can attend in person. And just an quick update on what's happening with next year's budget as we've previously discussed. Um we're going to be starting the process a little early this year. I plan to be uh meeting in January and February with I'll call it the leadership team of the budget committee. And then we've also added a uh town hall meeting uh on the budget and we'll be doing that uh in April. U that I'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

Any any questions? No. All right. There is no city attorney tonight. So with that, this meeting is adjourned. Mindy, I didn't write on it.