City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I don't see too much movement, so we're just going to go ahead and get started. Oh, yay. It turned 6:00, so let's go ahead and get started. We'll start um February 18th city council meeting with roll call. Uh Rob here. Uh, Indra here, Rick here, Victoria here, Seth here, Eric here, Joel here, Kathleen here. I know that was in different order that you're sitting, but that was the order on the sheet. So, okay. All right. [clears throat] And, uh, Kathleen, do we have an invocation for tonight? Yeah. I want to invite Janet Shear to the podium to lead us in prayer before we start the meeting.

Thank you. Do I just start? Dear heavenly father, we thank you for this day. Lord, thank you for this group of people. Lord, thank you that they are here to better the lives of um Grants Pass and Josephine County. Lord, I pray that you would give them wisdom. I pray that truth would prevail here. Father, I pray that your truth would lead this group to make wise decisions. Father, thank you for your righteousness here. I pray, Father, that right things would be done, that you would lead these people, that you would cause them to agree and come together for a good purpose. And Lord, we ask that you would just give us peace. Lord, thank you that you are here, that you are watching over us. Thank you that you are leading us. And I just pray that this group would be um good for Grant's Pass and bless them for being here in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, if you can all rise for the flag salute and please remove your caps. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, as you do see we do have a full house tonight on our side of the das. We have a lighthouse in the crowd. We got a few things to take care of this evening. First is a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign amendment 13 with Sladen contract contractor Inc. or Yep. Construction Inc. and for raw water pump station modification to complete the water treatment plant. Nope, that's not on my schedule. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, if I actually read the agenda, I jumped ahead. Um, this body actually opened up the application process for the budget committee for an additional time period. So, we do have um some interviews to do tonight for the budget committee meeting. And we have one online person. Is he on? All right. So, the list you guys have in front of you, we're going to go to um Corey is going to be first up because he's not in the house and he's going to chime in ver via Zoom. So, Corey, can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Awesome. Sir, um you are going to be interviewing for the budget committee and go ahead and start out by stating your name and give us a little uh background on why you want to be on the budget committee and then we'll ask you some questions. So, your turn. Go ahead. Okay. Thanks. Hi guys, uh council mayor. Uh my name is Corey Wy, born and raised local native. Uh my interest has really just come from a stage of life and looking to try to find a way I can serve and help out my community more. This is kind of new to me, but uh yeah, knew that there was some openings to help out and wanting to do the best I could to do that.

Excellent. Thank you, Corey. Um, does council have any questions for Corey tonight? Rob. Yeah. Hi, Corey. Uh, this is council Pel. Um, thank you for applying. I I saw in your application that you said that you had I believe you had owned uh your own small business. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, I would love to. I did. Um, it was a few years ago. I owned a e-waste recycling and computer repair business. And this is back in the early 2000s, first decade of 2000, um where before some of the public and the state handled e-waste. So me and my business partner at the time, what we did was we had a business where we would allow others from the entire road valley to bring everything from like, you know, back when televisions had big large picture tubes full of lead and things like that. We would let them to bring them to us. We would charge a fee and then we work with another recycling facility out of Eugene to help get those things recycled in the most ecological way possible. And then everything that had any value, let's say a machine could be repurposed or the parts were still good. We refurbished computers, resell those as well. Um, and then we worked really closely with the state. This is about 2007208. Um, at that time the state itself was trying to develop its own in-house way to handle e-waste through like the public waste facilities. And so we work really closely with them learning taking all the information that we had learned and helping kind of guide them to create what now we have as like more of a larger body structure. So um yeah that was and in that case of course had experience with brand of business. Hope that helps.

Yeah. How many years did you have that business? Uh about four years total. And what happened was about the time that the state started taking over e-waste, it became a kind of a a crossroads for us where we were going to become just a computer repair shop which was not really the same business model that we had kind of adapted to. So we were have having to restructure and so at that time me and my partner at the time both got just it jobs at other businesses. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? I got uh Eric, Joel, and Kathleen. Eric,

hey, thank you for uh for applying. Uh this is Eric and uh wanted to ask you what is the uh the greatest asset that you can bring to the city of Grants Pass the uh the budget committee. What's your greatest asset?

Thanks, Eric. I would say my greatest aspect is or asset is just the fact that I was born and raised there. I love this town. I really want it to be an amazing place. I want it to thrive. I want it just doing so well. And I can't really word this properly or how the best I can word it is I'm at a stage of life where now I see myself having the availability, the time, the interest to be able to put whatever knowledge I have in a direction to help transp. I live here. I love this place. I want it to just be doing so good. Uh, thank you. Uh, Joel, um, I also thank you for applying, Corey, and appreciate it and appreciate your willingness to serve. Um, do you think it's possible, First one's a yes no question. Do you think it's possible for uh, a group of people to come up with a better answer than any individual?

Yes. And so what is your role in having that happen on the budget committee?

So from what I understand, you know, it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve for me. Really, this would be my first toe in the water, if you will, into sort of getting involved with local government in this sort of way. So what I understand is for starters just trying to understand what is being asked and then at offering a bit of an opinion and an idea of what I would think would be a possible good outcome and then working together to collectively the best outcome happen.

Thank you Corey. I I I do want to say thank you that this would be new for me and it is coming from just a desire to get involved and do something for the town that I grew up in. And so I'm really, you know, in a lot of my own life experiences has been a lot of like, oh, jump in the water, figure it out as you go, learn, become more experienced. And in this particular case, that is where I would be in this very new. Thank you, Corey. Uh, Kathleen.

Hi, Corey. This is uh Kathleen Cone. Um, what is the role of the budget committee? Could you tell us what you think that is? So, from what I understand, and I apologize if you can hear a siren. I'm out of town right now, and there's a ambulance going by. Um, from what I understand is the council has some directives and and and some policies that they put in place and that they want the budget to be used for. And then the budget committee his role and I this is where I'd be like learning is to sort of check that out. Make sure that the eyes are dotted, the tees are crossed and that it all kind of jives out and makes sense and that there isn't anything glaring that should maybe be like in consideration. And then if there was or if everything looks good, just kind of present that information back to the council and let them know, hey, here's what we found by what you guys are wanting to do and move forward. and maybe there's like some more conversation at that juncture, but that is all I know at this point.

Thank you. Any further questions for Corey? Rob, what uh what is your current job? What kind of work do you do right now? And what are the responsibilities? Oh, current.

Yeah. So, um I've been with the Asante Health Care System now for going on almost 20 years. Uh well, I guess it wasn't always Asante. It was different names in the past. Currently I'm a network engineer. I've been doing that for a long time. It is uh IT related work. It's not patient care. So everything the the main infrastructure that makes the hospitals multiple hospitals work from uh the network to telefanany to communication all those things are in my responsibility wheelhouse and some budgeting as well. So we have to every year we have to slate for what we anticipate if it could be end of life equipment or in a lot of cases how the organization's always growing. So if we need to run fiber to a building or this and that or we're acquiring you know another building there's going to be some things are going to be needed. So there's a big bucket of cost, if you will, that's going to be needed and then how we identify more down to a granular level about what those costs will be and how long that investment should be able to last for the com for the company. And this goes into sort of a reoccurring in different the way Asante works is in different brackets. They handle their hospital slightly different than their clinics, slightly different than their ancillary things. So that's a little bit more in the weeds, but yeah, I do handle some budgets I think would be somewhat helpful between that and personal experience in my own life with that kind of thing. But my main main responsibilities are making sure that if it's if you call the hospital or if the hospital's uh EMR system needs to be able to talk to each other from all the way to Ashlin all the way to Grants Pass that that always works and never fails. That's my main responsibility.

Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions? Uh Indra. Hi Corey. This is Councelor Nicholas. Have you I I appreciate the fact that you want to jump in and learn something new. I think that's great. Have you put any thought into like specifically what you would want to learn from the budget committee being on it? Is there a a specific area of the budget you're interested in learning more about or uh something financial with the city that interests you? Have you thought about that?

I have. Yeah, thank you. Um, I do enjoy finance topics in general, you know. Um, I'm actually studying now for my series 7. Um, there was a period of time where I actually had a real estate license. Um, I do like these sorts of things. And so, it's a combination of one wanting to find a place where I can kind of grow in the community and find where I can help. That's me personally speaking from a stage of life situation where I want to be able to provide in a way that's that's new for me. I haven't always felt that way but I do now in the last couple years again stage of life and then um this particular committee having more of what I've heard is that like oh there's a there's a need there we we need more people volunteering for this budget committee. Um, so and and then having that already just grown in desire or in personal interest in finance, budgets, numbers, things like that. They appeal to me. I think they're fun. Um, yeah. And but more importantly, I think, is just really wanting to find a place to serve.

Thank you. Any further questions from council? All right. Seeing none, uh Corey, before we let you go, I'll give you a closing statement. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. Um really just I very much appreciate your guys' time and giving me the opportunity to interview for this, especially remote like this, um being out of town and not being able to be there in person. So, I can't thank you enough for the opportunity. And that's all I have to say.

Thank you very much, Corey. All right. Uh, next on our list is Heidi Nier. [clears throat] Come on up and state your name and give us a little blurb on why you want to be on the committee and then we'll pose you some questions.

I'm Heidi Napier. I'm a retired veterinarian. I was a veterinarian for 40 years, 40ome years. And um I want to be on the budget committee because I'm curious for one thing about how the local government works, where the money comes from, where it goes, and um and I and you and I want to have some input. I have my experience is is working in small businesses. So that veterinary clinics are small business. So um that's given me a lot of exposure to money coming and going.

Thank you. Um any questions from council? Seth? Yeah, thanks for applying Heidi. Um is there any part of the budget I was just curious that you are, you know, you want to focus on more that you're more passionate about? Any part of the budget? Yeah. Yeah. anything that you specifically want to focus on or that you may have more knowledge in? I'm just curious. Um, a actually just the whole thing. Any further questions? Uh, Kathleen and then Joel. Kathleen. So, [snorts] Heidi, what is your experience in group processes and decision making? In what?

Group processes like you're going to be on a committee with a group. Okay. processing and making decisions with.

Right. Well, I was the treasurer for a church for many years and that was um you know, I was on a on a board and that was a a group thing and um it was a little bit of work, but you know, I always I always worked in a in a group that I always worked with people um both above me and and below me. So, um I, you know, have always tried to be polite and um considerate of the people I've worked with. Thank you. Uh further questions, I have Kathleen and then uh Victoria. Kathleen.

Oh, sorry. It was Joel then. Sorry. you you are. And then uh Victoria.

Okay. Um I appreciate you um applying and I appreciate what you dedicated your life to and how you worked because I know that's hard work. Um have you ever experienced a group setting where the uh synergy of the group uh outcome was greater than the sum of the individual parts? So for example um everybody has a different opinion right or or and some of them are the same some are not but when when you work together as a group that you come up with a solution that incorporates the positive things of each each person and then it comes out to be uh greater than the sum of each individual person. Have [clears throat] you ever experienced that?

Right. Well, that's that's kind of the nature of a small business. A lot of the um decisions are made, you know, in a veterinary clinic usually by the vets who work there. And so, um, you know, I've [laughter] been involved in a lot of discussions and arguments and decisions of of that sort. So, so that that's just sort of how I've always worked what you know the way I've always worked always in groups. And what attributes do you bring to this group to to have that kind of dynamic? And uh how are your listening skills?

My listening skills. Oh Lord, good. I spent 40 years listening [laughter] to listening to people complain. Um, [clears throat] so actually my listening skills are pretty good. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Further questions. Sorry, Victoria.

Hi Heidi, thanks for applying. Um, the the question I wanted to ask was the expectation of the budget committee is that you come familiarized with the budget which you would get beforehand. How are you dealing with um large packets of information and absorbing them and coming ready to get to work before the budget committee starts? How do you feel about that expectation of learning about the the the budget of the city?

Right. That the information that you get beforehand. I don't think I asked you as clearly as I should have. So, uh, the budget committee works best when people come knowing the information which you would get beforehand. How do you feel about on your own familiarizing yourself with that information and what do you think about that expectation of the budget committee? Well, it seems re excuse [clears throat] me, it seems reasonable that I should have to learn how the budget works and where where the money comes and goes and you know that's something I can do. I've spent most of my life studying acquiring information. So

maybe tell us a little bit more about that then. About my studying?

Yes. Oh. Um, well, it's something I always had to do for work. Um, I mean, I had to, you know, I had to meet meet uh expectations, uh, pass tests, um, be licensed for things, answer questions, and I'd better know what I was talking about if I was, you know, if I was asked a question about an animal. So that's, you know, that's what I've spent my life doing, looking up information.

Thank you. Any further questions from council? Eric, thank you so much for applying. Uh, so the budget committee typically meets at least three times in April and May on, uh, Tuesday and Thursday nights. Additionally throughout the year uh there may be a special meeting typically [clears throat] on a Wednesday at which uh your attendance could be beneficial. So are you able to make such a time commitment? Are you been able to do you think that is that is going to be something that you're able to do?

Yes, I'm retired so I don't really have um a a lot of commitments of places that I have to be at a certain time. So yeah, Tuesday and Thursday evenings are that's not a problem. Thank you. Any further questions from council? Joel, I just had one more question. Um, how is your ability to assimulate large sources of data and numbers and make sense of them? We're talking about a book about this thick.

So, you're talking about numbers like budget numbers. Oh, I can do that. Okay. Okay. I I sense a lot of confidence. Pardon? I sense a lot of confidence. Yes, I can do that. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions from council? All right. I'll give you uh some parting words and then we'll move on. Any final statement? I don't really have that much else to say, you know. I'm willing to work on it. Thanks. Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.

All right. Um Kurt, come on up, Kurt. State your name and then give us an opening statement why you want to be on the budget committee and then we'll throw a couple questions at you.

My name is Kurt Needhammer, mayor and counselors. Thank you for the opportunity to interview. Uh a little bit about my background. I graduated Grants Pass High in 1976, left uh the area in 1978 to seek better opportunities. Went to Northern Nevada, went to school, graduated UNR. Um worked in corporate America down there. My background is generally in supply chain management, operations management, project management. I also successfully ran a small business for eight years, taking it from basically zero money to a million-doll enterprise, including hiring eight employees. process about eight years. Um, I'm retired. I returned back to the area two years ago and I wanted to see if I could contribute to the community with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that I acquired throughout my corporate life cycle.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Any questions from council? Rick? Thank you, Kurt, for applying. Certainly. So, the budget committee usually meets three times in April and May on a Tuesday and Thursday nights. Are you able to make such a commitment? I'm retired and single. I own 100% of my time. Thank you. Any further questions for Kurt? Uh, Indra. So, you stated on the application that you want to help address um the budgetary challenges that Grants Pass is facing. What do you view as the budgetary challenges?

Couple of budgetary challenges. The fact that, let's be frank, Josephine County has low economic activity. We simply do. I mean, um, we we're not attracting or nor retaining businesses to the area. So, we have to manage with what we have. Um, the majority of the, um, public safety comes from, um, property taxes, which is always a contentious issue. We also have a large enterprise fund that we rely upon. Um, it's just merely a sense of, uh, using the best efforts and the best policies and technologies to use the funds most effectively and efficiently. Any further questions? I got Eric. Thank you so much for applying. Certainly.

Um, you your your resume is pretty extensive and uh I just wanted to know what uh what is your greatest asset that you bring to the table uh on the budget committee? what what what do you consider um your your greatest uh strength

in project management as well as supply chain management and um operations management you have to really rely on the numbers so um I I'm extremely wellversed in datalytics um being able to look at data see where we are see where we're going see if we're meeting our internal metrics um on some of you know I've worked on projects $10 million And you certain you know you don't wait until the end till the last day to say guess what we just can't do this. So it's an ongoing process of reviewing where we are and where we want to go by using data. Any further questions from council uh Victoria. Hi Kurt. Thank you for applying.

Sure. Um what do you believe is the role of our budget committee? role of the budget committee I think is uh effectively a good bridge between public input and the d and the direction that the city council wants to go ahead and um and achieve. Um I do see that there is a public um input uh component to that and I think it's a good bridge between uh with the public um views as the role of government how they can go ahead and you know curate that into a budgetary um construct and then present that to the city council. Thank you.

Uh any further questions? Kathleen.

Hi Kurt. Thanks. Um, what is the most important financial issue facing the city and why is that important? Well, I think [clears throat] um I I would really know better in the more granular activity of the actual committee process, but from what I could tell from from the budget and my personal observations is just the fact that um you know, we kind of have a high floor and a low ceiling that we're dealing with. Um in terms of, you know, personnel costs are 58% of the budget. We know those costs are going to increase over time. They just do. Um enterprise funds again on a you know that's a big component of it. Um we rely heavily on that. Um the budget is the mast upon which all government radiates from. I mean let's be honest about it. No budget no government. And so, um, in terms of that, it was just, it's just being able to to look in, you know, into the budget more granularly and be able to see exactly where's, you know, where the money's going, if we're meeting internal metrics and how we can get go ahead and improve upon that. It's I'm not an expert into the grants pass city budget. I only know what I wrote what I've read from from online and studied.

Thank you. Uh, further questions, I got Rob. Yeah. Um, you have a extensive background in your um, in your resume and I couldn't pick out because you mentioned earlier that you also started your own business from the ground up. I couldn't pick out which one of those was your own business. Could you elaborate? Own business was company called Discount Blinds. It was a window covering business in in Northern Nevada. Are they still in business or

No. When the housing market crashed in Nevada, it crashed and burned. Um I had it from 2001 to about 2008. And um uh the B it was an excellent business. Um I worked um the first two years that I was in business, I literally worked every single day. When I say that um I mean that I worked literally every single day. If I wasn't selling, I was installing. And the first year that I was in business on Christmas morning at 1:00 in the morning, I was 60 mi outside of Reno installing window coverings for my customer to make sure that when they showed up at 8:00 in the morning, their house would be complete for them. But however though, when the when the uh when the bubble blew up, it really blew up. Reno, at that time, Nevada had a 16% unemployment rate as a result of the housing crisis in in uh in Nevada.

Thank you. Certainly. Any further questions? Uh, Indra. Um, so for your business, did you do all the financials, the P&Ls and all of that?

Yeah. The only the only thing that I offloaded was strictly taxes. That's not a good spend of my time. There's a difference between working in your business and working on your business. And after I got to the point of two years of actually hiring hiring and onboarding employees, salespeople, installers, um I didn't want to be responsible for their taxes. So I offshored that. But everything else, vendor management, AR, AP was strictly strictly me. Any further questions? All right. Uh we'll leave you uh leave us with some parting words.

Oh, I just appreciate the opportunity to go ahead and interview for this position. Um, even though I've been out of the area for a long time, I always considered Grants Pass to be home. And if there's anything that I can contribute to, go ahead and build upon that, I would really enjoy doing that. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Okay. Now, now we will proceed forward um on our agenda with a resolution resolution authorizing city manager to sign an amendment 13 with Sllayton constructors uh Inc. for raw water pump station modifications to complete the water treatment replacement water treatment plant. And we will have a presentation.

We will. Thank you, mayor. I was all excited. I thought I was going to get to go first. Yeah. So, I do have a brief presentation. This is amendment 13 to project WA6207 replacement water treatment plant. And this is the um final amendment for the intake raw water intake uh construction. Come on. There we go. So, by way of background, in January, on January 15th of 25, council did review and approve the GMP, which is the guaranteed maximum price of the replacement water treatment plant and the tenative financing plan. Adoption of the GMP provided council with cost certainty and locked in pricing of over 90% of the project and only the intake structure modifications were in question at that time. And the reason for that is the design needed to wait until all of the brick requirement uh had been worked out with FEMA. On February 5th of 2025, there's some digits missing there. Council did approve amendment 9 to the design build agreement and that was to perform the preliminary design work related to complying with the brick grant conditions and ensuring the intake operations. Subsequently, the brick grant was cancelled in April of 2025, shifting the focus of the intake structure modifications. This eliminated elevating the pumps, elevating the generator and the electrical gear. Um, but an initial analysis that was performed previously did indicate that there were some hydraulic flow issues through the intake structure that required several improvements to be made.

[snorts]

Amendment 11 to the design build agreement performed um would performed detailed design work for the raw water pump station including vertical turbine pumps selection electrical gear generator and SCADA modifications as well as screen wash and delilt modifications. And desilt is a system of pipes and nozzles in the bottom of the intake structure that prevents silt from building up and so it periodically cleans itself as well as transferring key existing systems at the treatment plant that must remain in operation even after the treatment plant is closed off. And that's mostly sump pumps on site to handle site drainage as well as all of the procurement activities and uh to generate the guaranteed maximum price um for that modification work which is what we are considering tonight. [snorts] Also, uh, in August, and that was in July, in August of 2025, council approved amendment 12. Um, and that was for the electrical cost increase. And as you recall, uh, amendment 12 was required because of the delay between the approval of the GMP and as we were continuing to negotiate with FEMA on the grant, um, we weren't able to release all of the electrical gear to manufacturing and the cost of that increased dramatically in that time period. And so it required a uh an amendment to the original agreement and that increased the price of the overall agreement by 810,733. So as a project update, um the project is well underway. Construction is flying. They added another five people to the work crew today, which was amazing. So you're starting to see even more people show up. Um they're scheduling concrete pores weekly almost. Uh this week we got in concrete today. I don't think they're pouring the rest of the week, but they have several pay planned for next week. Um, they are

working on both the pre-treatment sections as well as the main building. Um, the main building, I'm going to grab my laser pointer. The main building is this section over here. And what you're seeing formed up here is actually the pipe troughs. the floor of the building will be at the ground level here, but there's a lot of the building that's actually deep underground. And so that's what we're seeing. And then they're just building it up as we come out. And then looking ahead, and this schedule is in your presentation. It's probably much more clear than on the screen behind me, but that's looking at So, we had one concrete pour today and then looking forward, there are uh three scheduled for next week and one the following week and two the week after that as they continue to to develop the site. So, a lot of work going on site. So, amendment 13, which is before you today to the design build, will construct all of the needed improvements that were identified um in the previous design work. And the cost for the amendment is 9,185,938,000, making the total cost for the project with SlenE Constructors 124,83467. It also um will add 22 28 days to the contract length. Um in our internal discussions, we didn't feel that this was a real issue. There's currently I want to say 1,50 days allotted from the very beginning of construction to the end. Um we are adding these 28 days largely in response to the recognition of delays related to permitting as well as the delay between issuing the contract and the notice to proceed. Um, as well as, uh, we had to do a bunch of work complying with the Build America by America Act, which would have been a

full-on requirement under the uh, FEMA grant program. And so, as we bid, we had to go back and renegotiate with a bunch of the vendors. But under when we lost that grant, um, there is a lesser a lesser bar to to meet with Build America by America. We still want to use America products where we can, but it it eliminated a lot of the requirements for those. So, looking at a detailed uh cost estimate of what the work is, you can see that the actual work is the 7.5 million with the uh estimate and construction contingencies. They are carrying an additional 7% um which brings us up to the 8.4 and then with the fees on top of that. So, I wanted to give you an update because we um have gone over a lot of amendments to the design build agreement. So, I went back and kind of built this table which shows all of the decisions that council has made. So, the original agreement and amendments 1 and two uh are all for engineering, preliminary engineering and design and those were resolutions 217103, 227207, and 227245. um and those totaled 7.13 million. Amendment three was for the purchase of the membrane system itself and that was for 7 million uh 7.17 million and resolution 2472. The guaranteed maximum price was amendment 8. Um and that was the big one. That was the 99 million446 and that was resolution 257520. Amendments nine uh we talked about was the intake alternative analysis which identified several areas 257534. Uh amendment 11 was the engineering and know 12 was the electrical price increase and this is amendment 13 and it represents the last major price uh deviation that we believe for this

project unless there's some kind of major change order which there is no expectation that there will be and that is would be under resolution 26. um whatever and that brings our total price to the 124. It is important to know that amendments 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10, which aren't on there, those were all non-cost related amendments, mostly changing contract language, adding um little bits and pieces to the contract. And this number does represent a 1.427 uh million increase above the estimate presented to you on seven of 25. And that is largely because of the increas the the intake structure was slightly higher and the electrical work was not figured into the last estimate the extra electrical cost. So there was 800,000 of that 1.4 million um in addition to the uh additional cost for the intake work. So the total cost implication is an additional 9.185 million. Uh this does bring the total contract to 124 billion830. the funds are budgeted, available, and allocated within the project um the water treatment plant replacement. And with that, I would take any questions that you may have.

Any questions for Jason? Uh Rick, thank you, Jason. When we looked at the project as a whole, I think originally the main feed line was to come down J Street and Mill. Now we're going down the state rightway. Is that correct? Did that produce any savings of any sort?

Yeah, it did. That was in their original proposal. It was much cheaper um and easier to construct. As you can imagine, trying to get a 30 36 in waterline down J Street with all of the potential conflicts was going to be difficult and very disruptive to all of the businesses. Now, we're able to run up the the parkway essentially um in the median. And unfortunately, we did have to take out far more trees than what we had originally anticipated. Um, but it is a big cost saver for the project. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? Eric,

thank you. Jason, had a question in terms of uh can you bring up any other examples of cost savings um off the top of your head or any other big ticket items that you think that uh um the city was able to save on? Yeah, there quite a few um you know a lot of value engineering when we go back and that's really moving back that was part of the cost that we had presented earlier. We did a lot where we consolidated pumping. So instead of having six pumps we we put in four um things like that. Now what that did is means you have a little bit less redundancy maybe down the line but you're saving money on both electrical gear at that point and you're also saving pump costs. Um the other thing is by consolidating one of the early changes we made we had a more campus style layout um and we've consolidated everything into a single building. While that building is much bigger than a campus style layout and maybe uh offers us a little bit less flexibility because it's a single building with single slabs and everything's in one location. We save quite a bit of money um by doing that. Those are a couple of them that really spring to mind. Um, and then we work very collaboratively. So, as an example, uh, the dirt that's being hauled away, that was originally intended to go to a location that was very close to us. Um, and that location unfortunately fell through. Uh, those dollars are actually coming out of the monies that are already allocated to the contractor. So, there's no additional cost for that to the city. So, those are some some very key examples.

Thank you. Any further questions, Indra? Hi Jason. Yeah. So you you said it's an additional 9 million, but really it's my understanding that this amount was held budgeted in the original um budget that we approved last year.

That is correct. I've been reporting that number. We've been holding a placeholder. We had an estimate of what we thought it was going to cost and it's been a little bit higher or lower. It turns out it is that 1.24. 247 over the last estimate that I presented to you, but largely that was in the electrical cost increase and then the additional engineering work that we had to do as we went down the road to design for the brick grant and then kind of had to unwind all of that work. So, so just for the public to be aware, it's not changing the bond amount or the rate increase amount. We're not going to do that. No, these are the numbers that we use to project those.

Thank you. Yeah. Any further questions for Jason? All right. Thank you very much, Jason. Thank you.

Um, at this moment, uh, we open up for public comment. Is there anybody that from the public that would like to comment on this specific resolution that we're talking about? All right. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to council for further deliberation andor action. Rick like to make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the city manager to sign amendment 13 with Sllayton Con constructors Incorporated for raw water pump station modification to complete the replacement water treatment plant project. Uh with a second from Kathleen. All right. So we have a motion on the table to approve the resolution with a second. Is there any further discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll go into a vote. Um, you will be voting on a motion to approve this resolution. Rick,

yes. Um, Indra, yes. Uh, Kathleen, yes. Eric, yes. Joel, yes. Um, Seth, yes. Victoria, yes. Rob, yes.

All right, it passes. Thank you very much. Um, at this point on the agenda, we come to general public comment. Uh, this is an opport Oh, sorry. Geez Louise. I guess if I could read this, this agenda. Sorry. Since we interviewed um new candidates for the budget committee earlier in the evening and you also remind yourself, you did interview two other candidates uh last three other candidates last time. And we have four positions available on the budget committee. So you have a purple paper. And if you want to mark your preference and sign the paper and pass it down, we'll tally up preferences. Yes, sir.

So the ones that we uh interviewed last time were Tom Bradar, Nancy Lester, and Nicholas Stark. Is that correct? Correct.

Thank you. Do this.

Okay.

Okay. All right. So, I'm just going to go down through the list here. Um Tom Bradir um got four four counselors that prefer him. Uh five. Oh, five. Sorry, your your pen was running out of ink there. Um same with Nancy Listier. Uh Heidi Napier got four counselors as a preference. Um uh Kurt got got eight counselors to prefer and Nicholas got six and then Corey got three. So, your high preferences are Tom, uh, Nancy, Heidi, and Kurt. So,

Kurt, Kurt, and Nicholas and Nicholas. Uh, so I would be looking for council for any further discussion or some nominees. Can you I'm sorry. Can you read that again? Sure. So, you have a high preference for Tom, uh, Nancy, Kurt, and Nicholas. You mean Nick Stark? Is that what you mean? Yeah, it says Nicholas Stark. Sorry. Oh, okay. I just wanted to be certain that's we were talking about the same person. Thank you.

Correct. Tom, Brad, Nancy, Leier, Kurt. Oh, I'm going to Neither Hammond Hammer and Nicholas Stark. So, I'd be looking for counsel for some nominees. You have four positions to fill. Uh, Indra, I will make a motion to um appoint Tom, Nancy, Kurt, and Nicholas to the budget committee. Nancy, and Kurt. Okay. So, you have a nomination for to appoint Tom, Nancy, and Kurt to the budget committee meeting. And we have a second from Seth and and Nicholas.

And Nicholas. Okay. So the four uh preferenced ones we have a nomination or a motion to nominate those four that would be Tom Bradir, Nancy Leier, Kurt Neither Neither Hammer and Nicholas Stark. And we have a second from Seth. Any further discussion? All right. Um we'll go into a vote to nominate all four as listed. Indra, yes. Um Kathleen, yes. Uh, Eric, yes. Joel, yes. Seth, yes. Uh, Victoria, yes. Uh, Rob, yes. Rick,

yes.

All right. So, Tom Bradier, Nancy Lier, um, Kurt Neanhammer, and Nicholas Stark have been um, appointed to the budget committee for this session. Thank you very much. Now we will go on to public comment. General public comment. This is [clears throat] an opportunity for the public to address the city council on items not related to a public hearing or council action items for the council. The intent is to provide information that is pertinent to the city's jurisdiction. Each speaker will be given two minutes to address the council as one body, not two individuals. At the conclusion of public comment, com council will have the opportunity to respond. This meeting will proceed in an effective and courteous manner. Citizens and council members will be allowed to state their positions in an atmosphere free from slander, threats, and other personal attacks. Signs or placards, outbursts of applause, campaigning for public office, or other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. If you have a question regarding any government provided service or a current city policy, please contact the city manager's office in an attempt to resolve that matter. I have two cards tonight. Um, we'll start with uh Fitch. Come up, state your name, and you have two minutes. Mr. I legally redressed your criminal behaviors regarding a hit list, a pattern of bad habits involving fabricated fears, and being involved with a vigilantic domestic terrorist group inside of a courthouse on 8:25, 2025, and you screamed for a stalking order. I must have scared all of you elected

officials with my vocal 357 statement of our United States federal code that you all screamed as a battered woman verbally, but I beat the hell you to hell and back. Meaning a stalking orders made for a battered woman, not for a man. At the same time, you're stalking our social media pages, searching for anything to claim is disturbing your wives and children, knowing you can PRIVATIZE YOUR PAGES. YOU can block and you can unplug social media at any time and stop resisting being a self-fabricated victim on social media and a fabricated fear of fitch. THE BIGGEST JOKE I PUBLICLY I the biggest joke is publicly slandering my name is being involved with KKK or a sovereign citizen. AND EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA POST is about you fools. Shows a level of psychotic 3D of distractions that you commit to slander a constituent just to get your vigilante followers to believe that I'm the bad guy. THE FACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS and top paid officials elected officials have weaponized our courts with fabricated fears of privacy.com filled with baby tears to file another twiddle stalking order. Shows me there's a deep-seated corruption within Josephine County and the city of Grants Pass financing vigilantic domestic terrorist activity involving Mr. Barnett and the sheriff's department including you, Chief. And when you conspire to deprive any American of their rights, it equals treason. And that United States federal code, ladies, comes with a death sentence. Thank you. Tell them why Twitter has a stalking order.

Thank you, Mr. Fitch. Um, next up we have Ra Brown. Ra Brown, 1415 Southwest Bridge Street, Grants Pass. There is a movement among some states to make our oil and natural gas providers pay for wildfires when cities have dried themselves out over the last 40 years starting in 1986. Cities, states, and the EPA bought into a conjoined hoax that started in ' 86. The idea that fresh water is a scarce and precious resource that must be conserved, ignoring both the water cycle and normal cost accounting. The same year we heard about global warming. I think the financier started the hoax but needed proof. He started the scarce and precious water scare. What could go wrong? Cities overcharged their rateayers for their use of water and undercharged them for overhead. A system designed to jack up the price of water use. In Grants Pass, water unit rates carry 40% of overhead and increase 5.28% over inflation every year. It's the only way they can pay the overhead. Mankind has changed weather three times and it has always involved water.

Killing beavers who kept water in the land. This caused country and cities to burn and turned most of the west into desert. Cities built water plants to keep cities from burning by piping water into every occupied building. People gardened. The water was cheap to use. Sprinklers evaporate half of what they throw. This is not waste. Thank you, Ra. All right, that concludes our public comment for the evening and we will move on to the consent agenda. Can we get that on the screen, please? Um, I received no notice to start any items or ask for any additional information. So, consent agenda is as presented. bring it back to council for action. Seth?

Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right, we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed and we have a second. How do you vote? Seth, yes. Victoria, yes. Rob, yes. Rick, yes. Indra, yes. Kathleen, yes. Eric, yes. Joel, yes. All right. Consent agenda passes. Thank you. Uh now on to matters for mayor, council, and staff. Any counselors have anything to bring up tonight? Kathleen.

Well, um kind of in response to uh Ricky, [laughter] I um had a talk with uh Jason and I'd like to ask for a a workshop on water incline rate. I think Jason could explain that better. [laughter]

Well, I think what we were having was just a discussion about the um incline block rate that it's one of the tools that we do use in the water rate structure. Um, and it does it is there to encourage conservation for a number of reasons, but we could definitely hold a workshop and discuss how the water rate was formed because I know that that was kind of new to um this council that the last council went through it in depth. I want to say for probably nine months when we were going through the rate structure, but we could provide a workshop and then maybe you could then decide whether or not um you wanted to take action on any of those items. Okay. Does that cover it?

Do we have any other counselor's interest in that? Victoria, anybody else? Eric. Um, Andre, do you have a question?

I do. I do have a question. So, would would studying this in a workshop uh possibly help us discover a way to lower water rates? What would be the point, I guess? Yeah. So I I don't the short answer I'm going to give you a really this is going to be a blunt short answer and then and then I'm [laughter] going to back up. No. Um the your rate your revenue requirement is really set where it has to be now with the construction of the water treatment plant and the debt that's being offered. What you may be able to do is move around the components within the various rate pieces. um and shift the rate burden around if that makes sense. So you could shift it to more business related by moving the different tiers or by changing the base rate or something along those lines, but the revenue requirement is is really fixed at this point. We have now move forward with taking on debt. Um we cannot uh really lower the rate. What we can do is restructure it which might provide relief for some groups but at the cost of shifting it to another group.

Eric, so what you're saying is essentially it would be an informative thing for the public to understand what this water treatment plant is about is what it is. and how the rate was really developed where you know why we have developed a structure that puts so much into the base so much into the replacement fee and why we have an inclined rate structure um which is there to to really kind of encourage conservation but also you know to help um generate revenue. So we could go into that in detail. Um, we might even be able to try it with a memo to start, but it it's it's a pretty complex subject that it might be more it might be more inclined to a to a workshop to really go through all the pieces and parts.

Any further questions on this topic, Rick? So Jason, I could see this could be very informative and just know how we c got there since I've sat on most of the city council going through all the procedures trying to make sure we had the right numbers. Yeah. But um I'm teasing a little bit too. You said there would not be an opportunity to lower the rate, but if we had somebody that benefactor um and I won't say who gave us $50 million, we would have the opportunity to change the rates. Yes, you would.

Thank you. Okay. So, I got at least uh three counselors that would that showed interest in this. It does seem like from Jason's statements that this would be a pretty indepth um addition to a workshop. Uh just looking at our packed up schedule, I'm kind of thinking it won't even be available open spot till almost in May. Would you entertain a memo first? Yes. Go ahead.

I was just going to suggest because of what we've got going with budget and everything else, I would request that this be scheduled for after budget adoption. So, May or June, um just with the current workload, I I wouldn't be able to do it justice for you. Okay. Okay. So with the what we'll do is we'll go ahead and I'll go ahead and put this on the back of uh agenda setting and I'm curious paper here to be scheduled in the future and we will look to push it into May because I'm just looking at the workshops through March and April and I don't have any bandwidth to pop it in there. So uh pushing out to May will give you enough time. Well, June

or June. June. June might be better. Okay. Yep. All right. So, we'll push it out to June. Okay. To be announced and determined. Anybody else on council? Indra. I just wanted to address Rico also. Your your talks are so calming and thank you. I appreciate that. And I too would like water to be free and I would like to look at ways to reduce it. So, thank you for your input.

Any further councelor Eric? This is uh related to um what we consented to on the uh consent agenda with the um development code review task force. We've got two of them there. Uh I had a question in terms of basically how it's going. Um, do we have any updates? I mean, I know this is very important. A lot of [sighs] a lot of the citizens are are uh uh curious as to what we can do to um uh better manage or not manage but to make it more efficient. uh the the process the code development review task force all of everything that they that they came into uh um in the purpose that they even are existing. So essentially uh it's very important. What I'm asking is can we ask for some kind of uh an update or some something that is going on as far as um um progress?

Sure. Um so the seven members that you appointed have met um I think maybe seven times now. seven. Um,

so making good headway, they their first meeting was spent um kind of just setting up the rubric, you know, the kind of how the the structure on how they wanted to tackle this 700page document. Um, they selected uh I think it was about eight different main topics that are in the code, not necessarily restricting them to those eight, but that's certainly what they wanted to start with as the priority. Um they have uh knocked I think three of those off now um in in total and uh so they meet again tomorrow and tomorrow we'll be kind of finalizing the landscaping se section so they have quite a few amendments to that. Uh there are some representatives from the urban tree advisory committee that are going to be attending tomorrow night. Uh because some of the some of the suggestions that the development task force has come up with um are directly related to recommendations that the tree advisory committee made a couple years ago. Um so they wanted to just rather than just change those, you know, they just wanted to meet and talk those through. Um so that's the main topic for tomorrow. But I would say on the whole um you know they've they've been uh um focused pretty pretty well on your mission that you set in the purpose which was streamlining the development process, simplifying the code. Um so they've they've kind of been coming back to that theme. Um they do have several concrete recommendations on how to change the code. Um and we're tracking those. Um the plan is to to to just bring those all forward at one time, you know, there are going to be a lot. Um but rather than just sort of peacemeal it and sort of bring article 2, article five, article so you know, so that you can kind of see the whole package um all at once. So I'm not sure if I'm getting to the heart of your question, but

it it's perfect. But uh what I'm getting at is uh it's it's helpful for the city, right? I mean, you're you're g the city is gaining something from it and the citizens are going to gain something from it as well.

Um, yeah, I I think so. I mean, I think it's fair to say that the um you've acknowledged for a long time that there's uh probably some overly complex pieces of the development code. um as we talked about at the very first meeting, you know, there are a number of things in there that are mandatory um from the state and so those are really not on the on the table. Um but yeah, no, I think in terms of helping save some time uh at the staff side as well as you know for the for the um citizens and folks who own property who want to do some development and building. Um the recommendations that they are putting forward to you are are are going to if they're adopted, you know, would save some some time.

Thank you. Yeah, I think it's great. Thank you. Any further comments from councel? So before I pass it on to staff, I did want to bring it to your guys's attention. Um we did have some preliminary discussion in regards to setting up a um developers grant program uh that would be funded by uh the state mural um funding. And I have heard some words that that grant program through the city through the state is starting to get more advertisement and more traction. I had some conversations with Brad in regards to what they've put forward. Um I believe council's last um direction was to see if there was any developers in interest in that. Um, I would like to bring that forth again to have some further discussion because I want to see if if as a council you decide to go forward, I'd like to get that in place sooner than later just cuz the rumblings I'm hearing is if those funds those funds were weren't advertised as much, but now they are and they might start to get pretty scarce. So it might be a topic that uh I'd like to have you guys discuss in further if that's amicable with you guys. I will try to bring it forth on a on a another US workshop in the near future unless there's objection to that. You guys gave staff great direction and make sure that there was uh that they looked out to see if there was any developers interest in it. But from what Brad was saying, you can correct me if I was wrong. Um, we did have to establish some stuff on our side which staff is already done in almost completion and uh again I just want us to be one of the first people to the table for that uh state funding before it dries up. So I will be bringing that forward on a workshop in the near future unless

there's objections. Okay. Uh any further counselors have anything? If not staff, anything from staff?

Yeah, I just want to highlight an item tonight. You may be aware of it. It was a relatively big deal, but I want to make sure we have some kudos go out to this group. Um, as you are probably aware, the Grants Pass Police Department does partner with the uh Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, and we do so to counter drug activity in Grants Pass. We provide one deputy, I'm sorry, one [clears throat] detective to to help with that process, and they are fully engaged in investigations and combating drugs in in our community. And on February 7th, 2026, uh, our officer, uh, part of the DEA task force led an investigation that resulted in a seizure of roughly 40 pounds of methamphetamines. So, that's a huge amount of drugs. Also assisting in the case was the police, our police department SWAT quick response team, Drug Enforcement Administration, the DA, a Rogue Area Drug Enforcement, Oregon State Police, and other members of the DA task force. I [snorts] just want to thank those groups, especially our our our detective that was intricral part of that project of keeping that poison off of our streets.

Great work, Chief. [applause] Anybody else? I know. I know. All right. Um, if I could, mayor, I I'll take a stab. I did share with you guys all a flyer that I hope you could share with your committees and your civic groups and your church groups. Um we are once again holding our annual drinking water week uh children's poster contest. Um and we'd love to see hundreds of entries. Um we've been averaging in the 50s, but we we'd love to get these and then we feature these in our our mailings and our uh consumer confidence reports and things like that. So uh just hope to get the word out.

Thank you. Uh we do not have an executive session scheduled for tonight. So we are at the end of our agenda and I would be looking for councel to for a motion to adjurnn. Kathleen I motion to adjurnn with a second from Eric. Is everybody ready to adjurnn? Very good. Let's go home. I think so.