Council - Regular Meeting

meeting to order at 700 p.m. for Monday, April 20th, and ask the secretary to call the role. Council President Briggs here. Councelor Barryentos here. Councelor Blosser here. Councelor Fitzgerald here. Councelor Holesapple here. Councelor Jance here. Councelor Schilling here. Councelor Shane here. Councelor Spivey here. Right, everyone's present. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. have any introductions tonight, Brian? We do not. All right. Well, uh, first thing on the agenda is we have one public hearing uh on the proposed supplemental budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. I'll declare the public hearing open at 7:01. Uh, this is a public hearing on the city of Dallas supplemental budget for fiscal year 2025 2026. Can we please have the staff report?

Great. Uh, Cecilia, do you want me to give the staff report or you going to come up? All right, I'll do the staff report. So, um, Oregon budget law requires a supplemental budget with a public hearing, um, whenever a new appropriation, uh, for authority is needed, and that change changes the fund by more than 10%. And so that is happening tonight. Um, what we're proposing to do in this case is to, uh, create a new fund. Um, and it's the inter it's the facilities and equipment fee fund. The city council approved this fee at their last meeting and so we're creating a new fund for the revenues and the expenditures to come out of that fund. So, um you'll see that the revenue we're putting at $2.11 million and the expenditures is matching that at $2.11 million. that will include um $60,000 in revenue um from the fee that we're going to collect in this first month and a half as well as the interf loan um for the renovation project through the building next door. Uh and then also um we're also looking at the interfund loan for the um the ambulance. Um, so we're doing an inter fund loan transfer uh later tonight by resolution and we're increasing the general fund revenue by $730,000 and also the expenditures to pay for those ambulance and the remount um in the equal amount. So those are the two items that are being changed. Any questions? Council have the questions for staff. If not, does anyone from the public wish to testify at this time? All right. Is there any further discussion before I close the public hearing hearing? None. I will close a public hearing at 7:03 p.m. any deliberation?

If not, then I entertain a motion. So, we won't do a motion. We'll do the meeting. Yep.

All right. Thank you, Brian. All right, now it's time for public comment. I have a script I need to read before we do that. Uh, for the record, please provide us with your name and whether or not you live inside the city limits. You have up to three minutes. It's your turn to talk and ours to listen. You are responsible for the content, even if it was written by someone else. Please direct all comments to the mayor. Do not direct your comments to individual counselors, staff, members, or the audience. Defamatory or lialist comments will not be accepted. It is expected that you'll maintorum and respect for each other. A wide variety of viewers watch these proceedings. Therefore, we would kindly ask that you refrain from the use of offensive language and name calling. Distractions take attention from the speaker. The audience, city council members, and city staff are asked to focus on the speaker during their time by being respectfully quiet. And the first person I have up is Christina Oldberg.

Sit or stand. Just set the sit or stand either way. Christina, I I use this as a timer. So, the yellow light will come on at Oh, I'll go fast. We're all right. Good. Okay. Just so you know, if you see lights flashing, it means time's running out. It's like red light, green light. Okay. Go ahead.

Okay. So, um just wanted to introduce myself and my husband. I'm Christine Olberg. This is David Bert. Uh we recently purchased the West Valley Tap House from Sam Duffner. And we are excited that we are kind of revitalizing it and kind of bringing it up to the new century and making it very female friendly and guy friendly. So both so the girls want to come and the guys want to come so everybody can come and bond and have fun. And with this it's going to be basically a facelift. So it's not a remodel, it's more of a revitalizing. And in that it's going to open a soft open on June 1st for all mug club members. So, if you're already a mug club and you want to come back as a mug club, then June 1st is kind of your happy place, June 5th will be the hopefully the true bringing it forth out to the public and we'll have some fun events and activities and just kind of bring it back up into the community and bring it back to people. So, that's kind of our goal and yeah, I told you it'd be fast.

Exciting. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. You too. I'm All right. Next up, I have Annne Herd.

Well, they can come to the pool first and then come over there.

I don't know if I told you last time I wasn't here the first meeting, but we had a fundraiser that Salt Creek Cider House put on for us. They do it for nonprofits twice a month and they just told us, "We're having this fundraising for you." Fundraiser for you. So, why don't you come? So, Kylie and and Gretchen and her mother and her sister and Jennifer and I and my husband went and it's musical bingo. Hardest thing I've ever done. Uh, you know, they had songs from the 80s, 90s, and the 2000s. The only song I knew was Who Let the Dogs Out. Gretchen knew all the songs. She used her phone, but it was it was good. We didn't win anything. Anyway, we made $542. Carter brought a check to us before we left. It was the easiest money we ever made, so that was cool. Um, we have another fundraiser coming up that's totally Every penny goes to the pool for Moonfall Theater on May 30th. If you've never been, you have to go. It's hilarious. It's country music is the theme this time. And I have tickets, so just call me or call the pool or something and I'll get you tickets. $20 each. We have 21 left out of 50. Um uh a couple weeks ago, we reimbured the pool $160 for 32 free swim passes that got redeemed. So, we're happy about that. There will be a lot more because we've given out a lot more. Um spring swim lessons have started. There are 10 private swim lessons that are going on right now. Um school field trips to the pool are running rampant. They've already had in the last two weeks they had two and Dallas Community School rented it out for a hundred. That's $650 um for a hundred kids and their parents to go to the pool and have fun. Um we have increased memberships this year because of Christy Broofphyham's core in class. She she has aerobic classes like

all day, not really just in the mornings, but three or four times a week. And all these people come and they buy membership so they can, you know, just come in. They won't have to pay the daily free fee and they can also go into the pool. It's just incredible what she has accomplished in her short time is moving her with moving her aerobics classes to the pool party rooms. And there are all sorts of plans to upgrade the equipment that she uses. And um this week we have five rentals. Three are school f field trips and two are parties. And those parties range from $450 to 600 $400 to $650 each. Uh there's a swim meet this weekend. They pay $1,000 to rent the pool and I'm sure they'll have fun. It's not the end of the swim meet season, but there'll be a lot of people at the pool this weekend. So don't plan on going Saturday. So that's it. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Ann.

Do we have anyone else in the audience wants to testify tonight? Do we have anyone on the phone? If not, then we'll close um the public comment and move on to the consent agenda. We have four things on the consent agenda tonight. The public safety month proclamation, approval of the April 6 work session minutes and approval of the work April 6 council meeting minutes and the March 2026 financial report. Does anyone want to bring anything off the consent agenda tonight to approve? Second by councelor Schilling and seconded by councelor Shane to approve the uh consent agenda. All those in favor? I.

Those opposed passes unanimously. Um reports and comments from mayor and council members. Councelor Blosser. Um Chief Wallace. Um I had a message from you from my neighbor. Uh Saturday before last. their seven-year-old daughter um went into Grand Mall for about 20 minutes and dad was having a really tough time and he wanted me to extend the message to you of how much he appreciated uh your people that came up to respond to her. Um it goes speaks volumes for the culture you've created and the training and everything cuz he was having a rough time with it and um he really appreciated me extend his gratitude for the work that they did when they were there with her uh transporting her to the hospital.

Thank you. I can give you the address if you want to know exactly who it was, but Anyone else? You'll go ahead. Councelor Shilling.

Wasn't going to say anything after that cuz that takes the priority of all of our hearts. Um, but we did have a good meeting impromptu with our house rep, Selenus. Um, and I think the biggest thing that we can take away is make sure you talk to your elected leaders. doesn't matter if it's local or federal or state. Um, I'm encouraged that they might look into helping us with our dam project, our reservoir project, as far as putting some pressure from the federal level on our state agencies, reaching across the aisle, working with the Republicans since she's a Democrat and working to reduce some regulations on the state side. So that hopefully we can build a reservoir that is much needed in the near future, which could be 4 to 10 years. It's good news. Anyone else? If not, we'll move on to reports from the city manager and staff.

Thank you, Mayor Slack. So, um, just a quick note for the counselors that, um, I didn't get to ahead of the meeting and for the people in the audience. Um, we did have on the agenda tonight a public hearing for a zone change uh at 103 Southeast Harter Street. Um, we pulled that from the agenda tonight. Um, there was a a staff error in an aspect of that application and that application has to go back to the planning commission for a decision and a recommendation um if the applicant decides to move forward in a certain direction. So, there was a a thing that wasn't caught by staff and error on our part that um we're just going to resolve. So, it wasn't appropriate to have that hearing tonight. So if you're wondering why that wasn't on the agenda, that's why.

So the earliest we would see it again would be the second meeting of May.

Yeah. Um so but the item that is uh on the report tonight is the proposed fee schedule for 2026 heading into this next fiscal year. Um so that starts on page 133 of your agenda. Um so the city does have a fee schedule. It encompasses most all fees of the city. It does not include things like our utility usage rates. So, your water, sewer, storm water fees, uh, and rates are not included. System development charges are not included in here. Um, as well as like the public safety fee or the the facilities and equipment fee. Um, those are kind of one-off fees that are not included in the in this fee schedule. Um, all other fees of the city are included. Um, it includes things like your aquatic center charges, ambulance uh fees and charges, um library uh fees, uh planning and land use uh fees, building permit fees, um any other general fund and uh public works um fees are are all included in here, including some of our fleet charges. So um the the fees for our building uh division are um tied to the consumer price index uh U of Pacific cities that specific index we use um that was propos the index increased by 3% this year. So the building fees in particular are adjusted by 3%. Um other fees uh the city decided not to adjust at all. So some fees that um and then many of the other fees though were increased by 6%. Um so those fees are included in here. Any fees that were adjusted um if you go to the schedule itself starting on page 135 you'll notice uh the current fee is in black and the changed fee is in green. So, for example, the first fee under the city manager's office on page 135 is the

appeal of a license denial, suspension, or revocation would change from $82 to $87. Um, and again, fees that are proposed to change are in are in uh green. Um, the aquatic center fees is the other thing to kind of note. Those fees would not go into effect until January 1st of 2027. Um uh but all the other fees if they're proposed to change would be effective uh July 1st. When was the the last time we did a a broad scope um review like this?

We do this annually. Um and so uh last year most of your fees went up I believe it was 2 and a half% roughly. Um so uh again not not all fees get adjusted every year. Um so we do look pretty specifically to to see. do we do compare against other communities um when we're doing this as well to see are we you know in alignment um are we out of balance um it's hard to really do a sideby-side comparison because not every city provides the same services and the same fees um but I say in general when you look at your fees um the fees that we're proposing are still competitive and in line with what we're seeing with our neighboring cities. So tonight's really the opportunity for the council to, you know, make any amendments, suggestions, ask questions. Um, that's what we're here for tonight.

Brakes. Are we uh moving the fire to uh the same for resident and non-resident? Is that the way I read this? Um, can you ref uh what page are you on, councelor Briggs? 143 says $100 for first household member plus 25 per each. And it appears to be for both.

So that's a change. Um uh so yes, the fire med um currently we charge uh $75 if you're a resident and $85 for non-resident and that includes every member of the household. So what we're proposing is to go to a $100 fee whether you're inside the city or outside the city, right? You're still within our um medical response area, right? So our ambulance service area whether you're inside the city or outside the city. So, we felt just because you're outside the city doesn't mean you're outside our service area. And so, we felt it appropriate to charge just the same fee. Um, we are structuring it different though, so that it would be a $100 fee for the first household member. And then if there's additional household members that were added to Firemed, they would charge $25 for each additional person.

So, for a twoerson household, it' be$125. Yes. Two two person 125. Four would be 175. So on and so forth. And with Firemed in particular, um we saw about uh a $30,000 delta in the red. Um with the current fees, um our analysis going to this fee, we would um kind of reverse that and we would be in the black by about $20,000. Was that primarily just because of cost increases or is there a sharp delta between last year's usage and this year's usage?

Uh it's it's it's really case by case, yearbyear. Um uh those who have fire med um I I think you know tend to be like hey if I need a ambulance right I'm going to take it because you know there's no cost to me um because I had the fire membership um but I don't think it gets abused by those that have fire med. I wouldn't say that. Um I wasn't implying there. No I'm I'm just saying that for my own statement there but it's uh I I varies yeartoear. It's not um there's not like a straight line. This last year was really expensive versus the other years. It really depends.

Spivey think I have two questions. Um one is how did we land on 6% for the broad um increase and then the second question would be um how do we determine which ones would get it and which ones wouldn't?

Yeah. So um the first qu the first question how we land on 6%. So uh we we looked at the CPI which was around 3% this year. Um we also looked at our comparator cities nearby neighbors you know where are their fees. Um in general we're still lagging a little behind. So this helps us to kind of catch up to those other cities and still be in alignment. Um and then with our uh squeezing in the general fund, this gives us the ability to um sustain that a little bit better. So that's why we landed on 6%. It's one for just some additional revenue generation. Can I follow up? Yeah.

Um trying to catch up to our neighboring cities and their fees, don't we want to maintain some sort of uh competitive advantage when it comes to attracting businesses or developments? Yeah, I I think that you're um that's a great point. Um we're not uh we're not ahead, which is good. Um but we're also we're we're just in alignment. I don't think that we're going to lose business. Um particularly because we don't have business licensing. So the the fees that we're charging are more related to like land use development. Um, I don't see unless we are way out of character that we're going to lose out to our our neighboring cities. Um, you know, if they want to come to Dallas, we're going to come to Dallas for a variety of reasons. Uh, a a difference in $50 on a fee, I don't think is going to make make the difference.

I'm just going to say the one thing that jumped out to me was the taxi cab increase on the fees when we have no taxi cabs. And uh I don't know if it's we're trying to keep tax cabs out by raising the fees or if we're wanting to I mean no I don't think we are. Um but if you feel that's a a fee that's too high and would be prohibitive from a taxi service wanting to provide service in town then that's a fee that the council could minimize. Um yeah that's not going to you know make the bank or break the bank if that fee is adjusted or even reduced. Didn't we have a taxi service?

Yeah we used to have for a long time. Yeah, Squirrels was a really long um longtime service provider. He retired out of doing that. Um we've had two taxi providers, I believe, since then um that you know started and then said, "Ah, this isn't for me." And and ended their service. So, I just called Firing Road. Same thing. That was a joke, right, Council Br? Yes. All right. April, for the record, that was a joke. Um can I ask a followup to that whole discussion? uh because you touched on it just briefly in passing. Um how many of our neighboring cities do have business licenses if any?

Um that that is a good question. That's not something that I necessarily looked at or paid attention to again because in in comparing to our fees, I tried to look at the fees that we have. Um yeah, I it's not a vital point. I just wondered if you knew. Yeah,

I know. I know the last city I worked in had a business license fee in the state of Oregon. Um, and there are cities that have them. Uh, some choose to have them, some don't. Um, we choose not to have a business license fee. And there's there's pros and cons to business licensing programs. Um, one, you're able to kind of capture that business on the front end. So, cuz there are other requirements when a business moves in. Like West Tap House is moving in. There's tenant improvement requirements, some building permits they need to get in order to make that happen. Um, and if you have a business license, um, those issues often get caught early on as opposed to a business just saying, "Hey, I moved into this place and I opened up and then we have to come in kind of retroactively and say, well, you needed some permits and let's work through that." So, um, that's an advantage to having a license program. But the disadvantage is businesses sometimes just see that as an added tax and an added hurdle. Um, and so, you know, we as a community have chosen not to have that program. Um, and it works works pretty well. You know, we do a good job of trying to just be proactive in our communication with businesses as they move in.

Yeah. When I have occasion to tell people that we don't have a business license fee, they often register surprise. Yeah. Officer Berentos.

Yes. I notice a substantial difference on the critical care trans um transport. So can you let me know what is the um rationale or the basis's knowledge of the um the big uh jump from 2860 to 332 our fire chief come up and talk about what that type of transport is variant. Uh so our critical care paramedic actually is a higher level um in the paramedic uh certifications. Um they can do a more interventions. Um they can provide um just additional critical care. Um they also have to go through a different training uh more advanced training than um just our basic paramedics. Uh and so we are allowed um through our billing to be able to bill that amount. Um, and a lot of times we can use um that particular critical care paramedic when we're doing interfacility hospital transfers where we don't need to have a nurse. We can actually use our paramedic to be able to assist with that transfer from one facility to the next facility.

Can you just give me an example of what type of critical care what are we talking about? intubated patient or No, it would be more of um medications um just different interventions um that this critical care paramedic would be able to um administer uh blood administration um gosh uh just different medications just different interventions I don't I'm sorry I can't really like the level of care it's greater thank you a heart attack victim being transported critical care typically. No, but our medic

Yeah, our paramedics would be able to transport um a person that was in uh that kind of situation to Salem Hospital just fine. Um this would be more of um in place of maybe nursing staff coming with us. Um there's a lot of times where the hospital will send a nurse with us. Uh we can utilize uh that critical critical care paramedic. Um, it is a pretty extensive course. We have one on staff currently. That's great. Lucky paramedics like that or we get off of that. Yeah. Thank you. Thing you brought up is that it's a billing procedure mainly that insurancees will cover the higher rate.

Correct. Uh, and we go at the recommendation of what our billing company um recommends. There's also um and I can include that um with um city manager Lada as far as what we're looking at for billing. We have I have the ability to have what other organizations charge for billing. Um and when you look at our rates in comparison to other EMS providers, we're at the almost the bottom half of that. Um in fact when you look at um providers within the Wamut Valley area um our rate is substantially lower than most of the other providers around us. So um there at one point we were only doing a small intimal um incremental increases um but that has really stifled us and has put us very far behind um in what our billing rates are. So when you look at um like Salem Fire, Kaiser Fire, Marian County, um Southwest Pulk, when you look at those other providers, we're still in that lower half. Let's

get this closer. Correct. Is this maybe an opportunity to catch up a little more than these numbers?

Uh so we we did look at the ambulance charges in particular and thought about doing a 10% increase. um even at 10% we would still be below the other um agencies for the most part. Um but we felt at 6% it it gets us further than what we would normally propose which would be something in the 2 to 3% range. So it gets us closer. It still keeps us you know uh well below the you know the average and on the bottom half of that range of all the other providers. So yeah, if you wanted to increase the ambulance fees um even at a higher percentage you could do that. What you will um you what we run into even with our current fees though is with most of our patients which are Medicare, Medicaid um there's caps on how much the federal government will pay and our current rates are above that cap. So um raising the rate by you know 10% wouldn't leverage any additional funding from Medicare or Medicaid um but it would from our private insuranceances and our people that pay you know cash. So that would just simply increase the write offs we have to write off.

It would on the Medicare Medicaid patients. What are the footnotes here that I don't see a reference to that? Yeah. So um we didn't include the footnotes on uh on this particular document. Um we apologize for that. It will be on the resol on the document with the resolution. Um but like the footnotes for the building fees that you see those reference the CPI index. um that CPIU Pacific Cities just saying that we'll use that index based on a December on on a December to December basis, a 12-month basis. Um so that's one of the footnotes. Um there may be another footnote that I'm

Oh, yeah. And there's a the current footnote for the EMS um that was old that was actually repealed from a previous resolution. So that footnote will go away on the EMS ones. Yeah, that's the that's the the number three. The number three footnote is the one that was repealed by previous resolutions. So that will go away. Res uh footnote number one and number two are both in the building department. One is a technology fee and then the other is the CPI reference. So those those two footnotes will be retained and will be included with the resolution copy of this that you see. Yeah. Straight out of state code, aren't they? Most of these fees under building.

So the building fees are um they need to be approved by the state building division. um but they're proposed by us and so we can modify those fees uh in any way that you would like. Um and then the state would just acknowledge those and incorporate them into their online system. I do have a question under planning. I quickly page number

uh page number 137. I just quickly looked just wanted to know where we were at annexation and zone change. Looked up Salem. They're about a thousand bucks cheaper. and I went down several of them and we're running do we compare to other cities. I just I'm not it. We've covered a lot of what I was already going to talk about, but h how's that compare for a just the annexation zone change? Annexation zone change was high compared I mean I just compared to Salem because it it popped up easy and looked in their codes. I'm familiar with Salem a little bit.

Yep. Yeah. So your your higher level fees um again it really varies from city to city. Um, you know, you can find some cities where your annexations and zone changes are $8 or $9,000 um and others that are $1,000. So there's a wide range in spectrum. Um, so what I do when I'm looking at like planning fees in particular is I'll pull up our competitor cities. So those include um city of Newberg and Gladstone and Monmouth and Independence and and we'll kind of look at all of those cities and say okay you know plus or minus are we in the range as I go down from annexations the conditions permits the site design review and some are higher some are lower overall I think we're in the ballpark right when you look at those fees in aggregate questions for staff a quick comment Brian And uh and this might kind of dovetail in with Michael's comment. Don't need to change anything this year. Next year, feel free to not just do a blanket six. If you think it needs to go a little bit more, a little bit less. Doesn't need to be a blanket. I know that's more work. Um but again, um you do good work and uh I like how you think and so I think a little bit of an adjustment. You have the freedom to do that.

Yeah. Well, that's that's great. And I think it would be good um for also you know as we go into this next year to um you know take even a deeper dive and analysis and show you those numbers from the other cities to be able to do that. Um you know there's a good amount of work that goes into what we present here that that you don't see. Um in a way we don't want to just inundate you with a whole bunch of paper but um I think it's good for you to be able to see that um on on a you know every few year basis and so we'll provide that next year as we do that work. I think we'd greatly appreciate that just so that we don't look like we're just following because I know that I know there's a lot of research that has gone into it. Yeah. And we like doing our due diligence ourselves.

That would be great to um perhaps bring that to you our committee next year like the admin committee as as we prepare for this. So I think it would be helpful to have that as context. Yep. As context.

Okay. Any further discussion on this? Not we'll move on to second reading of ordinances. Ordinance number 1921. Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance 1921. This is a second reading of the ordinance and the ordinance title is an ordinance repealing municipal code section 9.850 development fee waiverss. Further discussion on this? Not. I'll ask the secretary to take a roll call vote. Councelor Jance, yes. Councelor Schilling, yes. Councelor Shane, yes. Councelor Spivey, yes. Council President Briggs, yes.

Councelor Berentos, yes. Councelor Blosser, yes. Councelor Fitzgerald, yes. Councelor Holesapple, yes. All right, resolution passes at second reading.

Ordinance passes second reading. Thank you, Brian. Let's move on to resolutions then. Resolution 3564. Thank you, Mayor Slack. Uh resolution 3564 is a resolution adopting and appropriating a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2526. So, this is the uh resolution which um transfers the um from the storm water SDC uh loan of $730,000 to the fire department capital outlay for vehicles. Um it also uh does a transfer from the water SDC interfund loan um to the facilities and equipment fee um and also allocates the resources of that fee for this year um and uh amends the system development charges um for those interfund loans.

Discussion on that. I had a question regarding the next resolution which is related to this one. Are we going to vote on this one before we talk about the next one because they're related in the issue that I have is something that we can certainly talk about the next one first. I I

Yeah, it's fine with that. Yeah. So yeah, so my question was specifically directed to Celia regarding um how much is being uh identified in the budget resources uh for each loan and where the interest is going to be coming from in the next resolution because we're talking about principal amounts only in this resolution and where does the principal amount or the interest amount um come from in in the next resolution that she's supposed to present. So, I was wondering if she could provide sure some information, some background that before we vote on this. That'd be great.

Sure. I can understand that a little bit little bit better. the the actual the the supplemental budget transfers only relate to the principal because that that'll be the purchase of say the ambulance the principal that's what we need to transfer to do that. So where the interest will show up would be the upcoming budgets. So for instance you'll see in next year's budget because on the inter fund loans it starts 71 of 26 the repayment. So you'll see the transfer going back to the storm STC um with the principal and the interest in it. So the so the payment out of those um funds that are borrowing it to purchase will be paying that interest in future budgets.

Does that make sense? Okay. Yes. It'll be including Okay. Thank you. All right. Any more questions on resolution 3564? Not. I'll ask the secretary to call a roll call vote. Councelor Schilling. Yes. Councelor Shane. Yes. Councelor Spivey. Yes. Council President Briggs. Yes. Councelor Berentos. Yes. Councelor Blosser. Yes. Councelor Fitzgerald. Yes. Councelor Holesapple. Yes. Councelor Jance. Yes.

Says unanimously. Resolution 3565. Brian. Thank you, Mayor Slack. So, resolution 3565 is a resolution authorizing an interfund loan from the storm system development fund to the general fund for new ambulance and remount of existing ambulance. Any discussion on that? If not, I'll ask the secretary to call a role. Councelor Shane. Yes. Councelor Spivey, yes. Council President Briggs, yes. Councelor Bantos, yes. Councelor Blosser, yes. Councelor Fitzgerald, yes. Council Hoappel, yes. Councelor Jance, yes. Councelor Schilling, yes.

Right. Passes unanimously. Uh, resolution 3566. Resolution 3566 is a resolution authorizing an interfund loan from the water system development fund to the facilities and equipment fee fund for building renovations at 147 Southeast Court Street and 187 Southeast Court Street. Questions or discussion on that? If not, I'll ask Secretary to have a roll call vote. Councelor Spivey, yes. Council President Briggs, yes. Councelor Bantos, yes. Sir, yes. Councelor Fitzgerald, yes. Councelor Holesapple, yes. Councelor Jans, yes. Councelor Schilling, yes. Councelor Shane,

yes. This is unanimously. All right. Is there any other business before we move on to uh the urban renewal meeting after this hearing? None. I will close the council meeting at 7:38 and open the urban renewal agency board of directors. uh meeting at 7:38 on April 20th, 2026. And can we go with the same role? All right. Well, uh first thing on the agenda is approval of the minutes for the March 16th Urban Renewal Agency director's meeting. Move to approve. Second.

Been moved by councelor Shane and seconded by councelor Blosser. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. Uh, next thing on the agenda is the urban renewal grant program.

Thank you, Mayor Slack. I'll invite our economic development specialist, Tyler Ferrari, to come and discuss the updates to this program. As you'll recall, you looked at this previously and referred it back to the the advisory committee for some updates. And so, Tyler, take it away. Thank you, Brian. Um, as Brian had mentioned, um, when this was previously heard, um, at the agency board meeting, we had a great discussion. um the board um had some great suggestions and referred it back to the advisory committee and so we are here tonight to present to you an updated program based on your feedback and some additional feedback from the advisory committee. Um so in the interest of time I'll get right into it. Um so in the staff report there's a bulleted list that highlights the changes that we made um between the previous um iteration and tonight's iteration. Um so first the first change that we made was we clarified that any of the work related to structural safety um of a building must be work that is deemed required by a building official. Um so the city's building official for example, the fire marshal or an architect or engineer licensed in the state of Oregon. Again, that's an additional clarification just to make sure that when folks are applying for the grant based on that criteria that we're able to verify that um based on the word of a professional. Second, um the table on page two of the grant guidelines was updated to highlight the minimum project cost for each grant. Just an additional point of information to make it easier to read for the applicant. Next, um the minimum scores for each application um were changed for technical assistance grants. the minimum score is now 50 points. And for construction applications, the minimum score is 75 points. Plus, the application must score at least 30 points in the following categories: building improvements and economic impact on downtown. Um, the reason those

two categories are the ones chosen um is because those are the two um where the most interpretation can be made based on the score. Um whereas the other two following categories are pretty clear um whether or not that applicant is getting awarded those points based on the monetary value of the project and the monetary value of the matching funds. Next um the scoring rubric now shows the minimum points needed in each of the applicable categories rather than the maximums. And then the private matching fund category on the construction project rubric now has additional point tiers for more equitable scoring. Finally, each scoring rubric now includes a scoring box that will be used by the scoring scoring committee members. It's included in the application packet so the applicants can self-score before submitting the application, making sure that they're submitting the strongest application possible. And that summarizes the changes um before you tonight. And I'm happy to answer any questions y'all may have. Any questions for Tyler? See none. Thank you, Tyler.

There's a recommended motion, I think, for the programs to be approved, right? That's on page uh four, page four, your packet to approve the 2026 2027 urban renewal grant program as presented. Second move by councelor Hollesapple and seconded by councelor Spivey. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Passes unanimously. Next thing on the agenda is a hotel market study. So, I'll turn the time over to Tyler to discuss this potential project.

Yes. Uh, thank you, Brian. Um, so just for the background on the project, staff's continued um to work to find the best path forward for the recruitment of additional hotel in the Dallas community. As the board may recall, um the preferred option um of this body um for the 791 project was a hotel. And so staff recognizes that and wants to continue to work on attracting a hotel um development either at that site or somewhere else um in Dallas. And so we've consulted with some professionals from the hotel industry. Charlie and I had a great conversation um with some folks from Windham Hotels and they talked us through essentially what the process is of when they're looking at expanding that that particular brand into a community. And one of the first things that they look for um is a market study essentially. Um and so they recommended um that we get in contact with HVS Consulting in Valuation. um they're an international um lodging and hospitality firm um to learn more about those um types of services specifically. So the study that we discussed with HVS um includes the scope of work um outlined in the staff report and this would take about four to six weeks to complete. Um so first they would do a chain scale and brand analysis. Um this is essentially an evaluation of what type and scale of hotel the market could support along with identification of particular hotel brands likely available within those recommended um scale segments. They do also supply and demand analysis. And so they'll be looking at the market as a whole um for Dallas and the surrounding area, looking at what our supply is of hotels currently, what those um types of hotels are, whether they're lower range, middle range, higher range hotels, and figuring out where exactly the gap of the mark market is.

They're also going to be doing a market area analysis, which is a defined assessment of the primary market area, what generates demand and the economic drivers that influence hotel performance now and in the future. They would also do a 10-year income and expense forecast um of a hotel operating based on the product recommendations from the study. Um and staff would like to move forward with the market study completed by HVS um because it believe because staff believes that it will give us a better picture of what type of hotel um could be drawn to the community. It gives us a better target of who to target for recruitments. Um and this information also gives us more evidence when approaching um those potential hotel developers that we have done the work um to show what this community can support. um rather than asking them to kind of do that work on the front end. Um and so the cost for the project would be about $20,000 total. Um and staff is proposing $10,000 from each of the urban renewal district budgets to fund the project.

Yes. Um we have a couple of hotels. Do we know what their occupancy tends to their average is or do we have to do the study to find that out? So, we've we've built a relationship with the management over at Best Western. Um, and we've received some occupancy data from them and their occupancy ranges around 50 60%. um as it relates to the um the other hotel in town, they don't necessarily track the data like a corporate hotel would. Um

yes. And so it's a bit more difficult to get that data. Um and so that's kind of where that that's kind of where the best western is is around 50 60% depending on the time of year. Councelor Spivey and then um we had a rather large consulting project done on that site if I remember correctly. They were looking for developers to come in and either put in a hotel or do condos and there was a lot of decision-m around that. Was any of this work done or similar work done for that? No. So this work wasn't done specifically for that site. Um, and what we are looking at with this is this wouldn't just be sight specific. This would be community specific. Um, so when we talked with HVS, we we asked them, could we identify potential sites in the community? Um, but then could you also look at the community at large? Um, and they said yes, that's something they're able to do. So, a site like 791 would be included in this. Um, but another aspect of the of the study is they'd also be able to tell us where is the best location in the community based on um what the market demand is um and other and other aspects like that.

Councelor Holtzapple.

So I I have concerns of spending tens of thousands of dollars to do a market study during the current market. um specifically because we just had an exclusive agreement where they backed out and said this is a spectacular program. The timing is completely wrong. Um and then we also have programs like the new Seven Stars building hasn't even started. Um the old Hong Kong that hasn't even started. The old Write Aid that hasn't even started. It seems to me the timing is wrong for this to be spending tens of thousands of dollars when the economy isn't in a position where somebody's going to invest in it. I think it's a great idea. I just don't know that the timing is right and I have reservations about spending this much money from our SDC's to do a study that may be irrelevant in the time that it becomes an option. That's a really concern. Councelor Holtzapple. Um, Tyler, can I ask you a question? When you talked with HS, was it HBS or

HBS? HBS. Um, did you talk with them about kind of the the relevancy or the duration of the study? Like, you know, how long would that be like last? Is there a time or is it just it's you know because markets change and and community changes and so how what's like the shelf life of that study if it gets completed now which I think councelor holds Apple has a point right the the market's a little volatile right now there's things going on on a national and global scale that are impacting you know development opportunities um you know some of the projects he's identified are still in the works it's progress is being made it's slower than we would like to see it happen but it's still going um Is there a shelf life to a study like this?

Yeah. Would we have to do it again a year from now? So, in terms of the shelf life, we did discuss that and it's in the um it's in the follow-up email that they sent us, but I'm not able to recall it off the top of my head, unfortunately. Um, but the shelf life is, from what I recall, generally longer than some other market studies that we might have done in the past for general commercial development and other things like that. else. Councelor Shane.

Yeah, assuming for the sake of discussion that this study produces uh something that we can look at and say, "Yeah, yeah, that that's doable. We can move forward with that. What then would be the next step?" So with with a study like this in particular, again, what the results the results are going to give us is it's going to give us what the demand looks like for the community and what types of hotels are the demand. Um, so right now we can send cold emails. I can cold call every hotel chain in the country. Um, but that might not be the most effective use of staff time. So with this project, it's going to allow us to really target what the study projects as the right fits for the Dallas community and we can build those relationships with those brands that are going to be the right fits for Dallas. Um rather than essentially kind of doing like a shotgun method or shooting in the dark and hoping that we hit hit our target.

Maybe I didn't refine my question quite specifically enough. I get all of that and that's all good and valid. Um assuming that that again that that the study produces a set of recommendations that we can look at and say yeah that's workable. Um that's worth proceeding. What what then do we do next? Do we start calling those people? Is that the next step?

Yeah, I think it it would depend on the specific results of the study. Um, now again, if they were to come back and say some a specific site was a good fit for a specific type of hotel, we would start building a relationship if we don't already have a relationship with that property owner, share with them the results of the study um, and then begin um, contacting potential brands that would be a good fit. Now, if the results were to come back that it's very sight agnostic, um, and they say that this type of project could work anywhere in the community, um, then we would begin that active recruitment with those hotel brands that they identify.

So, part of what's going to come out of here is going to be an identification of potential brands that would be a good fit. Yes. And so and so again, you know, I can if I was really adamant on the staff level of like Dallas needs a Ritz Carlton, but again, the market doesn't support a Ritz Carlton, then the staff time there isn't well spent. And so this will identify exactly where the gap in the market is for the hotel industry and we'll be able to specifically target that type of brand. Could you uh follow up w with uh independence uh city of independence and I believe they have a new hotel that's relatively new within last 5 years and do comparables and do a case study there see how that has turned the uh the city's economy over or how that's worked. Is that something that is possible we can we can do a comparable?

Um I want to say that Independence has likely put out some work related to that. Um so we can check in with our colleagues in Independence and see what that looks like. I know that their population is substantially less than ours. So uh but more so I'd like to see you know the uh occupancy ranges, how how many rooms they fill up. Obviously, they do better probably when they have graduations or stuff like that, but I I would just like to see I think they it's a good comparable uh more so than you know Salem or what we have here right now.

So, I'll I'll just add a comment um and this is more anecdotal than anything, but um you know, the developer that was looking at 791 Main Street was involved in the Independence Hotel project. Um and so uh you know there was conversations that we had with them um uh you know around hotels uh they they decided based on their own study and research that um a a boutique hotel at that at that site was not the project that they could continue to do here at this time. Um so they they had some you know experience in hotel development in our area in PK County. um and you know decided at this time that that site's not the right project for what they were able to do today in today's market. Um my my understanding of speaking with some others is that the the occupancy of the Independence Hotel um is falling short of what they had initially studied what they were hoping for. Um and so I think that also made the developer a little gunshy on doing an additional hotel development at this time. Again, that's kind of anecdotal. It's not data driven or that my statements tonight. So, I've not looked into that, but that's just in some conversations that we've had. So, preliminarily,

they're also their second or third ownership of the restaurant in that hotel as well. Uh, that I don't know, but yeah, councelor Blosser. So, I'm with Director Wholesapple on this one. I know my father worked for many years in the hotel industry, major hotels and resorts across the United States. They had teams of people that did this research and looked for where they wanted to put their hotels. And I agree with you that right now is probably not. Let's continue working on the projects we have to make Dallas more attractive so that we don't have to do the work. Councelor Shane,

uh, yeah, I'd just like to talk about the money for a moment. Um, and maybe this is overkill, but just to make sure we are all on the same page and looking at the same apples versus oranges. This is not city money we're talking about spending. This is urban renewal money, which comes from the urban renewal district, which is a separate taxing agency. zero impact on the city budget here. And in connection with that, I would presume that assuming for the sake of discussion that weight decided to go ahead with this proposal tonight, would you then have to go to the other board of directors and get them to sign on as well?

Uh, no. Um so the agency's responsible for making fiduciary responsibility and decision making and so um the agency tonight who each of those advisory committees just advise the agency um but you can make decisions with or without their recommendation or advice. Um so if you wanted to decide that you did want to move forward with this study um you could just make that decision to uh use those funds for this purpose. That being said, um I'm starting to incline towards the uh view expressed by Wholesapple and uh my colleague over here about the timing. Yeah, it just this maybe isn't, you know, timing is everything in life and I'm not sure this is the right moment for this. Councelor Bertos.

I think what we're looking at is a long-term investment uh that's going to sustain the city, that's going to reduce tax burdens on the citizen. And uh I don't see how this ends up being a long-term um investment for right now for the next 10 years. So yeah, there's a comment there. Go ahead. Uh

so the study is going to partly show um the demand for a new hotel. Yes. Um where is the original belief that Dallas needs a new hotel? Where is that coming from? So, I'd say the I'd say the feedback that we get um from residents is that they is that residents don't feel that the two hotel options that are in Dallas currently meet what they would expect to want to be able to recommend to friends and family if they're visiting Dallas. And so we I have heard again anecdotally that when folks have family visiting from in town and they can't house them in their own home, they'll have them stay at the hotel in Independence or at hotels in Salem because they don't believe that the hotel type um would meet their expectations for what they'd want their family to stay in. Um and again the market study that we're looking at would better identify, you know, that if that anecdotal information is correct and the market would support a different type of hotel that would better meet the needs of residents. Um and so that's one aspect of it. And then when we've spoken to some of the wineries in the area um that are also event venues um they have also um indicated to us that the weddings that book on that property. Um the folks that are booking that will often not stay at a Dallas hotel because it doesn't meet kind of their expectations for a hotel that they'd want to stay in for a wedding. Um, you mentioned the 791 site. Is there any other sites that we have ideas of that don't need waterways moved or PL, you know, uh, major construction to get

to it?

Yeah, I'd say in terms of, you know, right now shovel ready sites, 791 would be one of them. There are parts of the lock real node that we think would be able to be developed fairly quickly. Obviously once the um sewer project there is com is is um closer to completion then that would unlock more parcels. Um and so though and so the locker node will be another area um that this study would potentially look at as well. Um as well as other areas in the South Dallas urban renewal district to see if you know maybe there is some type of unmet demand in that area. And again, this is a holistic communitywide um study because again, rather than just focus it solely on one site where we've already received feedback, it may not be the right site for a hotel, we want to make sure that we're doing what we can to have that full picture of what exactly is the market for a hotel in Dallas. And even if we were to do the study and the feedback we got is, you know, Dallas is already fairly saturated in hotels and there isn't really a market for a new hotel, then that's at least one place where we know that we are meeting the demand and then we can shift to meeting other demands like new grocery new grocery options, new retail options, those types of things. For

me, I think those are the most important for Dallas personally. Yeah,

I again I I think it's a great idea for in the future. I I think honestly at this time a hotel study thing would be better served in something like a grocery store study or something like that. um just based on what you can see in the economy right now and the development that's happening in town and that uh I think we're going to have several years of struggle to get into an economy where somebody's going to be willing to build even if the Independence Hotel is struggling to uh fill their rooms uh to bring one here um that's going to be sustainable um things are going to have to change economywise and things change a lot in the business district. So, you could have a hotel chain that's viable that doesn't exist when it's a a a realistic uh proposal to do development. So, for that reason, I have my reservations on this. Council Schilling,

since I'm on the board of directors for the urban renewal agency, how can I vote for this when it's a holistic outlook over the whole city where I'm representing the urban renewal agency, which is the downtown and the mill site only. How can we use $20,000 that for that to do a study? Not that I'm against doing a study. Um, I want to be able to equip our community development staff with the tools to do proper recruiting. I think that's extremely important to do, but I don't understand how we can use this money blatantly to look at the Lockerall node or the Barbar node or any of those other areas. Yeah, I I don't I think that you would have to focus in your attention on properties within the boundaries of the two districts, right? So, the area um around the mill site um the some of our industrial areas as well as the um the downtown. Um, I will say that I think that um, you know, studies like these are important for a city or urban rural district agency, a redevelopment agency to look at and to look at the time when the economy is not the best, right? Because as the economy becomes better, you want to be prepared before the economy is good. Um, so that way you're hitting it, you know, when uh, you know, developers and, uh, companies are looking to make those investments. You want to be ready. Um it does feel I think what you're getting at Council Holap and others is that we're sliding into a time of economic uncertainty and we might be a little too early. Um and if we do fall into you know a slowdown in the economy and a recession that lasts, you know, a year or two, you know, maybe a year in to the recession is when we would want to do this study, right? Hey, we're we're in a recession. We know as we come

out we want to be prepared. Um, but it feels like maybe we're just sliding into that econ economic uncertainty right now and if we don't rebound right away, this study might be done a little too soon. That's what I'm getting at. But I do want to recognize that I think staff is on to the right concept. Um, and that uh we want to be prepared and doing this work before the economy becomes robust again, right? Because you want to be prepared at the time that the economy is clicking to say, "Hey, we did the study. We made the contacts. We built the relationships. Now's the time to build and we're at the front of the line instead of doing the study when the line is already forming.

And I want to bring that up. I'm sorry to interrupt. Uh a point that was brought up by councelor Hosapple. As a developer, we I will take a hat and switch to a developer. This is the time development companies are looking. It's when the deals are to be made. this is the best time to enter on the ground level and that's where this is is an important study to have done and give you the tools for that. Forgot what my train of thought that I was going to address something that you said when that happens councelor Shane.

Yeah. Um hotels are intimately connected to uh the economic development equation. Um you you want hotel you want a certain level and quality of hotel capacities to help you attract certain businesses to town. Um the businesses want to see that there by the same token to convince somebody to build the hotel. They want to see that there's enough demand being generated by things like new business coming to. So there's a chicken kind kind of a chicken egg dynamic going on here. And it's the only way you break out of a chicken egg dynamic is for somebody to perform an act of faith on one side of the fence or the other. That being said, um I'm still leaning towards towards the the the view that this isn't the right time. Um according to this report, this whole study would only take four to six weeks to do. So this isn't something where we need a year lead time or we're going to miss miss the boat. Um, my gut feel said, you know, timing is everything in life. My gut feel is just telling me this isn't the right moment for the to strike this iron. It's not hot right now.

Council Spy,

um, I'm I tend to be in agreement, but what I'm struggling with is when we would identify the right time. What are the key indicators that this is the time to fire this thing off? I I think and and obviously it's one of those things where it's like which once you start seeing some development happening in the economy. Uh what we're seeing is housing is slowed. We we have multi-dwelling housing units that are coming on and that uh but housing has slowed. uh business development is is slowed and until we're actually seeing some of those projects actually start investments with the actual construction and that I have a hard time going out and spending taxpayer money whether where it comes from irregardless it's it's the responsibility of us as the the body to

and I responsible with it and what I heard you say was when we start seeing some of the things that are in the pipeline that coming to fruition not just not just the building projects itself, but also the economy as far as uh the rates and that and the cost of building supplies and things like that. All of that stuff um goes into the equation. I just from what I've seen right now in the economy, I don't even if we had a study that that identified something, I don't think it would be of value for a few years the way things are going. Shane,

on this subject of of uh the economy um that you guys are talking about, um I would just add that in in the in the broader picture outside of Dallas and outside of Oregon, um there's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now um because of things that are going on that we have no control over. And one of the things you have to think about when you're looking at an uncertain picture like that is it could go south or it could go take off like a Roman candle. You don't know what's going to happen yet. And that's part of why I don't think this is the right moment to be doing this. Um because uh we don't know what's going to be happening to the broader economy over the next 6 months to a year. And until we have a better handle on it, this could be just shot in the dark.

Chilling. How long does study take? Four to six weeks.

Four to six weeks. Um with that being said, so in development entitlement usually takes two to three years. So a project even if you were to start was going to take two to three years before you would see anything. So the economy is going to be a totally different place. So yes, as a developer you have to use your crystal ball and you're hoping the best. I would like this is me personally. I would like to see us delay the study for just a short period of time and meaning I would like to see this study done by the midterm elections. That's when the uncertainty stops. We know what our leadership is going to be at that point in time and that's the time that the recovery if we don't have the tool for our staff to pursue somebody to start a project within two to three years. You can't wait until the economyy's turned on these type of projects. You have to be the entitlement takes place during the slow times. Um, one of the things that was brought up that uh, councelor Hall H Hallapple brought up was the right aid building. I believe the right aid building is proceeding and it's on track for uh, its interior remodel. The exterior portion will be taking place later, but that one is on track. it the due diligence by AutoZone for the Hong Kong. They didn't do their due diligence. They were way out over their skis and proceeded did not understand what construction costs were at this time. Knowing where a sevenstar is, I don't have a clue. Uh private money is hard to judge. There could be all sorts of things. I are we seeing any movement?

Yeah. So, with Sevenstar, um they're they're revised their plans. They came in and did a pre-application conference with the city staff um within the last few weeks. Um we gave them good some good direction. They're looking at a phased approach to do their gas gas pumps, convenience store, and then apartments um in three three different structures. Um so, that's moving forward. They're just getting new plans put together, and they'll resubmit and and move forward. So, these projects are are all moving, I think, with the exception of the Auto Zone in the Hong Kong building. Um, but everything else is is moving, you know, at the right pace. I mean, Walmart's doing some renovations within their building as well. Um, so we're seeing commercial activity continue at this time.

Bentos,

I would call what's going on right now, it's an unofficial study that's saving us $20,000. It's based on common sense and it's based on all of our combined exper uh experience in our experience just living here in Dallas. And um I just think it's just going to save us $20,000 this year. Uh what I hear is most of us are in agreement that uh this project um it's not a good time to move forward on this project. And and I just enjoy hearing the conversation and and people kind of like um weighing their opinions instead of holding it close to the vest. How did council feel about councelor Sheiling's last comment about um you know running this study um you know after the election this fall? Um because again I think staff is is correct and Tyler and and Charlie and working with the hotel companies that um you know the entitlement period does take time and it it those transactions occur during the slow economic opport you know periods which is what we feel is happening or going on now in or in the near future. So if we if we do a study around the time of the election, have that in our pocketbook, um you know, know what we're targeting, do the research, make connections with the hotel, uh industries that were that the particular companies that we're wanting to target and developers, land owners that maybe are identified. Um if we want to include areas like the Lock Rail note, I think we would want to contribute some city funds to this project. I think you can still utilize urban renewal dollars, but maybe you're, you know, 15,000 urban renewal and 5,000 from the city to get to the 20,000. Um, does that seem like a

more appropriate time than now? And is that something that the the agency would want to consider 6 months from now? Councelor Filling. Um, state of economy also in housing since I kind of have a little bit of polls. rental. The rental market is absolutely crazy. You cannot build enough rentals right now, which blows my mind away cuz people can't afford new houses. They're too expensive.

That is correct. And how do you keep the price of houses in Dallas less? It's by building projects such as what we're talking about that we don't want to go forward. That's what the urban rural district's whole goal is, is to keep our taxes low and that we have to come up with ideas through the urban renewal district. How are we going to generate funds off of the money that we're set aside off of the increases in property taxes in our area to generate income so that we can keep our taxes low so that we can have housing at a more affordable level. or maybe I shouldn't say affordable, how we just say attainable. Um, and with that, I'm I'm actually going to make a motion or make a stab at this motion. And I'm going to put a timeline on my motion as far as I'm going to table this uh table this request until the third this the third Monday in September of this year to bring have staff bring this back to us at that point in time. The reason for the 3rd September is we have to act on it. Then they have to go out and get get this. And I really think the study should be done before the before the election is completed. Like again,

why why do you feel that? Why do you feel that it needs to be done before the election? One of your one of the big comments that my fellow counselors have talked about is insecurity instability. It is pretty much a proven fact that instability and security doesn't matter which party wins. The knowing who your leadership is at that point in time stabilizes the economy. So why would we do it before and not after the election? I guess is my question then. I if and I agree with what you're saying that the reason

if there's there's there's confidence and there's understanding and there's stability once you know who leadership is. Why would you do it right before an election? and then why wouldn't you do it after the election and the stability is there and we could get the market steady and and understand what the future holds there once there's stability we can talk about that timing at that point in time as far and the reason why I'm suggesting that is I don't think you can go out and get a contract and have them do it how long is the turnaround on having that contract issued and have them actually start the study I would assume a couple weeks at least a month I would say two to 3 weeks 2 to 3 weeks and then it's Another how many?

Four to six to six to six. That puts us right at the election time, but they're in the middle of election when this stud is going on. Is that correct on my time? I think about. So, yeah,

if starting Sep at the 3rd, I was thinking November. Uh, you mean in October? Then I started realizing, wait a minute, we can't even get our ducks in a row and our eyes dotted and our tees crossed by that time. Um, do I like spending the the 20,000? I think there's a lot more conversation that has to happen. I think the staff report has to be completely redone as far as looking at the area and has to be a little bit more pigeonhold or we have to actually bring city funds in which is going to create a whole different issue.

Can I make a suggestion? Um, we've got a lot of uncertainty not only about the things we're trying to forecast but about what we think we should be doing here. we all seem to be tilting towards this is probably not the right time. But rather than rather than than pick a specific date and lock it in like that, I'm going to suggest maybe we should table this discussion until July or August and then decide what we want to do. And if we want to do what you just suggested, we'll still have time to do that. But if that doesn't look good, then we can adjust, speed it up, slow it down, whatever. I I think we need to think about this more than we have.

I think councelor Schilling's motion was to table the request until the third Monday in September 2026. Okay, Mr. No, I said table until Okay, then. Yeah, then we're on the same page. Yeah. So, we're need a second on the table. We're on the same page. Right. Is there Go ahead. There there is a motion to to table the motion. Table the discussion to table discussion. Second his motion. Yeah. until se the third Monday. The third Monday in September by councelor Schilling and by seconded by councelor Holtzapple

discussion on tableabling the motion until then.

So I'll just I'll add a little bit of discussion on what you can expect when we come back on the third Monday in September if this passes. um city staff will come back with uh uh some analysis on um how much of this study should be funded out of the general fund and how much should be studied out of or how much should be funded out of the city's general fund. Um I do think that there is a a value to having the consultant if if hired to look at the entire city including the lock rail node. I believe that's important. So we'll figure out what that looks like um when we bring this back. Um and then the the city council and the agency collectively both the city council doesn't have to make a decision. The agency would have to authorize the appropriation of the funds. It would already just be baked into the city budget. Um uh and we'll if we move forward with the project, we would just do that. Um but we will uh in kind of include some timing and any other things that we think would be important for the agency to consider.

Additional comments. Councelor Schilling. It's basically a comment that was in sidebar while we were here and I need to bring it out into public since it was a sidebar conversation and that's uh the owners of sevenstar are finishing up another project according to counselor talked to them managers and owners the managers and owners go they're just waiting until they finish another project they find so which is exciting for us but that's an apartment any further discussion on table in the motion. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed passes unanimously.

Thank you. That was a great discussion. Um, anything else before we adjourn? up. I'll journ the