City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll blame Paul. He's not here.

We'll elect him to a committee. Nominate him to a committee. That's what happened to me once or twice or three times. All right. Yep. Everybody ready? Okay. Okay. We're going to call the regular meeting of the Hermiston City Council and Urban Renewal Agency to order on Monday, June 8th edition with a declaration of a quorum, barely. Councilors McCarthy, Barone, and Meyer are excused. So at this time, everybody join me with the flag salute. 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. Mr. Smith, do we have any changes in the agenda?

No changes.

Outstanding. OK, citizen input on non-agenda items. Do we have any to speak?

I just did want to mention, all of you received an email earlier today from Ms. Wilson concerned about an increase in her water bill. Yes.

And everybody did receive that and had a chance to review it? Yes.

Thank you. And just to let you know, there was a substantial increase in usage that was reflected in that water bill.

OK. I appreciate you looking into it, sir, and providing us with that information. Okay, seeing no other citizen input on non-agenda items, I'm going to write that down. All right, consent agenda items. Consent agenda items A, B, and C. Do we have any council questions on consent agenda items A, B, or C? Seeing none. Do we have any public comment on consent agenda items A, B, or C? No. Okay. Council comments? Seeing none. Any items A, B, or C that need to be removed? None. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A, B, and C? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. I've been moved by Councillor Hayward. and second by council roberts roll call yes yes yes yes yes motion passes unanimously five zero five wow okay no items removed from the consent agenda public hearings 2026-2027 budget for the city of hermiston And it does affect resolutions 2429 through 2432. Okay, so do we have any declarations of a conflict of interest from the council? Seeing none. Hearing guidelines will now be presented by city staff. Mr. Smith.

The city council is holding a public hearing for the 2026-27 budget of the city of Hermiston. The City Council will take public testimony on this issue and make a decision at this meeting. The hearing process will begin with a staff report followed by public testimony. The Council requests that all people wishing to testify give their name and place of residence before testifying. People wishing to testify should limit testimony to not more than five minutes unless a longer period is provided by the City Council. Written testimony will also be accepted. After everyone wishing to testify has had an opportunity to speak, the City Council will close the public hearing and enter deliberations. Once the public hearing is closed, no further testimony will be received.

Mr. Mayor. Okay, this hearing is now open. City staff will now present its report. Mr. Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, I know all of you... Chair Merrilees, Endured the budget committee presentation on the budget but i'm going to do a kind of a more detailed recap than I normally have just to make sure anybody who wasn't able to attend can get a basic understanding of the budget so. Chair Merrilees, we're going to start with it just a brief overview we're going to look at the enterprise funds, then the general fund. And then we'll have any discussion or questions kind of on the numbers, anything in that realm. And then I'll walk through the four resolutions that will be before you later on the agenda and what they're for. So again, we talked about the city of Hermiston is a conglomerate. We have a wide range of business lines, if you want to think about it from a business standpoint. So the police department, the library, wastewater are all very different, and we do different types of work within there. It's very similar to Berkshire Hathaway, where they have things as varied as Dairy Queen and the Burlington Northern Railroad. And so that makes our budget a little bit more difficult sometimes to understand just because of that. And that is a touchy button. So first, the budget's based on a number of assumptions. First, we try to pay close attention to the vision, the values, the goals that are established by the council. This budget contains a 3% wage increase cost of living for all employees. It also contains 2.16% PERS rate changes. And we're in the second year of PERS established their rates on a two-year schedule. This is the second year. We're hopeful that the next biennium is not any worse, but we don't have any indications at this point. Property and liability insurance increased about 4%. Health insurance rates are going to increase by about 27% starting in January. Our plan year is a calendar year, so this budget only has to absorb about half of that increase, but we will be doing some deeper look into what our options might be going forward. In particular, what our obligations are under the collective bargaining agreement with our police association and then how what can we do to try to get a hold of these costs then it also includes costs for a longevity pay and a 401 a plan again like i shared at the budget committee these are numbers just put in place if the council chooses to put them into our employee handbook which will uh... planning to bring before you in july uh... if the council said no then we just basically save money within the budget uh... going forward uh... all funds budget as down from is that one hundred twenty three million down from one twenty eight most of that is uh... due to project completion of the library in the and both safety center as well as Again, because of double counting things in a fund accounting system, that creation of a building department fund really kind of pumped our budget up a little bit last year more than normal. Okay, so there are a few proposed staffing changes in the budget. It refunds. Both all the frozen positions in both library and the parks and recreation that that we had to freeze a few years ago. It adds a three quarter time records clerk position, so that we can. digitize all of our historical records and have better access to them we've talked about this a little bit at the at the goal setting and then it adds a position each in the water and recycled water departments. So now going through the various funds, IT fund, it's a $1.7 million operational budget. We have seven employees there with a, there's actually eight employees funded in the budget, but we've only utilized seven and just have that in case we add contracts mid-year that would justify the additional expense. Street Fund, $2.9 million operational budget, then a couple of capital projects, Gear and Harper, about $1.7 million, and then the southeast 10th culvert for about $500,000. Operational budget for the recycled water departments, $9.7 million. Here's the highlights of the projects that we'll be working on throughout this year. We won't finish all of these within the year, but we'll be working on them in different stages. On the water side of the utility fund, a $10 million budget, and then another list of projects I would highlight the orchard water main replacement that one's been coming up this summer and it's going to disrupt traffic, especially for those of you who work at the district office just.

You were told.

And Hermiston Energy Services operational budget almost 14 million. We're just working through the construction work plan, which is really replacing some of the old wire and other electric appliances. And then just another again a re iteration of the warning I gave you at the budget committee, because of the drought conditions, we could see a rate increase given to us from bpa. we don't know what that would look like we don't know how long it might last so probably by the end of this calendar year would when we bring it forward if we needed to make any adjustments to to our rates based on that from the bpa uh building inspections the operational budget six million but really that's about a two million dollar budget they This is a very strict statutory requirement that we spend building department revenue only on building department activities so They and this happens in many cities they build up quite a big reserve because It doesn't typically cost a lot when you have a lot of construction activity Necessarily, so we'll just see how this goes and We were able to use some of it to help with the construction of City Hall and things like that, but they just are going to have a large reserve until we need to spend it on their department activities. That means we're getting good interest off of it, right, Mr. Palacios? That's right. EOTech this year, the total budget is 6.6 million. Again, it really is a million dollar budget in operations. The RV park construction is in that this year. So it's artificially higher than it would be on a normal year. Enterprise Zone, so this is the second year of our AWS Enterprise Zone payments. The budget we're talking about will be the second year. And again, what we're budgeting for is only from a single campus. The other revenue source is also Lam Weston in that fund. And our expenses in that fund, we have some internal projects that have been paid for by that. And then our external payments that we are making each year to the county, the fire district, and every other taxing district that is impacted by that enterprise zone. General fund, it's really flat from the last fiscal year, about $23 million. Revenues, we're seeing slow but steady property tax growth. more of a sharper increase on franchise fees from UEC in particular, and then the second year of in lieu tax revenue from the Enterprise Zone Fund, and then traffic fines have been staying pretty strong this fiscal year, and we look to see that next year as well. City manager legal. It's a little higher than it has been because we have a full year of the new safety and risk management position. And then a number of computer replacements came up on the schedule this year within our department. planning department, major project they're working on. Basically, the budget's about the same, but they're working on finishing the transportation system plan, and we anticipate that being completed during this fiscal year that we're talking about. Transportation, there's a slight reduction in cost for the taxi contract. The airport, we anticipate some impact from Life Flight moving their operations down to the new building they constructed at the Good Shepherd campus. And so we anticipate some of the fuel sales to go down as they move there. Parks, recreation, the pool, community center, Harkenrider. outside of the additional restoring those positions just anticipate hopefully some increased rentals with the harkenrider as we have a full year of the the enhanced partnership with the senior board some of those activities the library i've put that back at the prior staffing levels we'll see A full year in the renovated space we continue to see good strong numbers of people coming through the door circulation of both physical collection, as well as the electronic collection. And there is some extra funds in there for the recruitment of the new library director that we're starting now, but will be completing in the in the next fiscal year. Court is a pretty significant decrease due to the elimination of misdemeanor prosecution Police we this should be kind of what we see Kind of going forward at this point We we are fully staffed and hope to be able to maintain that through the next fiscal year Any questions

Council questions? Ms. Linton?

On the cost for longevity pay, I would like to know how is that going to, how's that set up? Is it by every 10 years, 20 years? Yeah, it's 10, 15, and 20, and it's 2, 3, and 4%. And that's on top of the 3% yearly raise that... That would be. Okay.

Because most of those employees, they're topped out in their wage scale, so that longevity pay would be a one-time extra increase.

Okay, so... they will still be, even if you didn't have the longevity pay, they'd still be getting the 3% every year, which would increase their income.

They would increase their base.

Okay. And your 401...

401A.

Oh, that's what it's called, 401A? Yes. Okay. Is that something like a 401K? Can you explain?

Yeah, so it's another public retirement plan. So we currently offer what's called a 457K, and we have had it set up where we were matching employee contributions What this does to move any of our contributions to a 401 plan gives the benefit that those don't come under PERS calculations. So we don't have to play PERS on top of that. But if under the 457, we have to play PERS contributions on top of the amount that goes in the retirement that matches the retirement. And it has to do, you know, I'm not a tax lawyer. But it has to do with the matching versus what we will talk to you about next month would be that the proposal would be that everybody gets a percent that goes into this retirement account. And that's the difference in the way PERS treats it.

Okay. I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. So a 401A... would be like a separate retirement pay from the PERS?

Yes. Okay. This would be more controlled by the employee, not by, you know, the investments would be controlled by the employee, not by PERS.

Okay. So you would be getting rid of the 457K?

Those would still be available, but that would only be available for the employee contributions.

So the city won't match that?

Right. The city won't match the 457, but the employees can still participate.

Okay. Well, will you be matching the 401A then?

That will just be – that will only be city contribution in the 401A.

Oh, just the city will be paying and the employees won't have to put anything in it?

Correct.

Okay.

So what would be the percentage that the city's – It's 1%.

1%? Okay. Of their gross pay?

Of their base.

Of their base in there? Okay. And – okay. That's all I have on that one. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to know, because you said that UEC is going to increase its fee. Do you know how much that's going to be?

No, it's just that the UEC franchise fees are going up. It's not that, in fact, you just lowered the rate that residents or businesses pay on their franchise fee, but those revenues are going up substantially because there's an increase in electric consumption by the data centers. So a franchise fee, let's say my bill is $100, the franchise fee is 4% or 7% or whatever. You pay that, so I pay $104, UEC keeps the 100, and they give us the 4%, the $4. And so those fees are going up because more electricity is being used by the data center campuses.

Okay, so the data centers are, is why the fees are going up, you're saying? Right. Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure I got that right. Thank you.

Is that it? Yes, sir. Okay. Other council questions? So...

If there's no other council questions, I'll go to the four resolutions. All right. So resolution 2429, according to the state's budget law, we have to elect to receive state revenues every year. I'm not sure why we'd ever elect not to, but maybe somebody did sometime. Resolution 2430 is the actual adoption of the budget and the actual imposition of the property tax rate on all the properties within the city. And 2431 is establishing reserve funds. So reserve funds are our savings accounts, basically. That's like if we're putting money away for, like we do for, for example, the recycled water plant, we know we're going to replace certain things. So it goes into an account in the reserve fund until we save up enough and we pay for projects out of that fund. And so this lists out all the different reserve accounts that we have, the different types of projects we're saving money for. Then the last 2432 is what establishes our compensation plan. So it is both our listing of all the positions, but also what all of our pay ranges. And we now have three appendices to that one. So we're capturing our full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees with those different schedules. and with that i'd be happy to answer any other questions and we can move forward other council questions The resolution probably with the most pages would be 2430, I think.

But we will be discussing each one of these resolutions separately. We're not going to be passing all of these at once.

Okay.

yeah okay okay so yeah that'll give you that'll give you time to look it up because right now this is this is just in a hearing for to make the decision whether we're going to listen to those or do those so all right um public testimony have anybody that wishes to speak is asked to state their name and mailing address limit testimony to five minutes are there any persons present that wish to speak Seeing none. Do we have any online? Do we have any written communications in regards to this? Okay. With that, then we will consider this hearing now closed. Any further council discussion in regards to the hearing? Seeing none. This item will be presented again during resolutions 2429 through 32 for final action. So with that, we will move to resolution 2429, declaring the city of Hermiston's election to receive state revenues. Mr.

Yes. As I explained, I don't see any reason why we would not want to take the state's money. So I would recommend adoption.

Council questions about taking state money?

None.

Public comment about taking state money? Fair enough. Council comments? Councilor Roberts?

I like taking the state's money.

One of the few good things.

Noted.

Councilor Roberts likes speaking statement.

Okay. Motion to adopt Resolution 2429 and lay upon the record.

Motion to adopt. Second.

I've been moved by Councilor Hayward, seconded by Councilor Duran. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously 5-0. Next up, adopting the city of Hermiston budget, making appropriation, imposing and categorizing taxes for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Mr. Smith?

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, any further questions on the adoption of the budget and the imposition of the property tax?

Okay. Council questions? Okay.

This part of it does not include the 401A and the longevity pay in this part of it.

Yeah, all of these numbers would include the funding for that if they were to be approved.

Okay, so I'm a little confused here, too, because I am... The longevity pay part of it. I'm not for that. So the 401A, I don't have a problem with, but the other one I do.

So, I mean, like I explained, the numbers are there to fund it, but we will bring, but they haven't been approved by the council as the benefit package for the city. So in July, we'll bring that. And I think that would be the more, appropriate place to vote in opposition. Not to tell you how to vote. I'm not trying to do that. But because that's when the policy says whether we're going to do those or not. This provides the money if you said yes. That's all the budget does. And so I know it feels a little backwards, but at the same time, we didn't want to propose and then have to come back and adjust the budget the month after because of the timing. We weren't able to get these other changes ready in time to present before the budget.

Thank you.

Any other council questions? Okay, seeing none. Hang on here. Public comment? No? Okay. Council comments? None. Can I get a motion to adopt Resolution 2430 and lay upon the record? Motion to adopt. Second. Moved by Councillor Hayward, seconded by Councillor Roberts. Roll call.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Motion passes unanimously, 5-0.

motion resolution 2431 establishing reserve funds for the city of hermiston for fiscal year 2026 through 2027 mr smith yes again these reserve funds are the savings accounts for various projects and and things that the city works on so this just lists out the different areas that we are working to save money towards projects and other things okay

Council questions? Seeing none. Public comment? None. Council comments? None. Motion to adopt Resolution 2431, lay upon record. So moved. Second. Been moved by Councillor Kelso, seconded by Councillor Duran. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. And 2432, establish city compensation plan for the city of Hermiston fiscal year 26-27. Mr. Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. So this establishes our pay scales and positions. And I'd be happy to answer any further questions. Council questions?

Seeing none. Public comment? Nope. Council comments? Nope. Motion to adopt resolution 2432 and lay upon the record. Motion to adopt. Second. Okay. I thought we were going to have a problem there. Okay. Moved by Councillor Hayward, seconded by Councillor Hayward. Well, I didn't know. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right. That takes care of that part of the money thing. Congratulations, Mr. Smith. You have money to run the city again.

Thank you.

Okay, next up, Resolution 2427, initiate a local improvement district for East Jenny Avenue. Mr. Smith. Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this evening we're bringing to you Resolution 2427, which would initiate the process for creating a local improvement district to build East Jenny Avenue. So what this resolution does specifically is it calls for having an engineering report developed to do a bunch of things outlining the scope, estimating costs, those types of things with this project. I know this process kind of feels a little bit cart before the horse type, but ultimately a lot of the questions that ultimately would end up coming up really can't be answered until we actually have an engineering report. So first step that we always have to take in this process is to actually call for an engineering report, and that really kicks off the process. So this is the area that we're talking about. You can see diagonal road cutting through there. North-south, you can see Northeast 10th Street, Elm Avenue along the top, and you can see Sandstone Middle School on the right-hand side. So this is the area in question in 2016. And at that time, that entire area had industrial zoning and actually had industrial zoning for the previous roughly 50 years. And for nearly 50 years, it had exactly zero development on it as the rest of the community began to develop around it and so Going through quite a bit of outreach with the local development community and around that 2016-17 timeframe City staff began working with the property owners there to go through the process of rezoning that entire area from industrial to residential So all of the property owners at the time were supportive with rezoning to residential and since then it is now residentially zoned So this is still the area in question in 2020. So you can see by that time, the zoning change had just recently taken effect, but hadn't had any development occur yet. And then this is the area in last year. So you can see quite a bit of development has occurred. Lots of housing off to the east, as well as you can see Santiago State's mobile home park has begun developing and is about 15% complete as of last year. And so within that red outlined area right there, there's right now that aerial is from last fall. That does not include all of the activity that's begun on the 276 unit hub apartment complex. So within that red area between that and the Santiago Estates Manufactured Home Park, there's currently approximately 475 housing units under construction, which for, you know, a sense of reference, that's, you know, like two City of Echoes combined. So... Quite a few folks going into that area, which are going to generate quite a bit of traffic. So part of what needs to happen there is making sure that we're dispersing traffic throughout the community. You can see on Diagonal Boulevard so far, there's already ingress and egress from those developments that allows for dispersing traffic to the east and to the west, or the northeast and to the southwest. Punching Jenny Avenue through along the north end side will allow for additional dispersion of traffic to points elsewhere to the northwest as well as to the east and mainly providing access back and forth with Highway 395 as well as north first place off to the west. So ultimately that blue line there is the area that we're talking about specifically punching Jenny through from Northeast 8th Street to Northeast 10th Street. And so there's been quite a bit of work over the years in preparing for this extension of Jenny Avenue. So this property here recently completed its sale of the necessary right-of-way for constructing Jenny Avenue. So the city now controls that right-of-way. Additionally, the Santiago Estates mobile home park, as part of their development agreement, they have agreed to dedicate the right-of-way for Jenny Avenue. So they're in the process of working with the city on dedicating that right-of-way for developing the road. And then the hub apartment complex property, as well as the property that furthest east property, they both actually have what we would refer to as a non remonstrance agreement where in exchange for avoiding some other requirements through the life of the property, they have agreed that in the event that a local improvement district is formed in the future, they are waiving their ability to formally oppose that formation. So for background, for folks in the audience who are watching online, a little bit of background on what a local improvement district is. Really, it's just a financing tool specifically for public infrastructure. Generally, the city, after formation of a local improvement district, the city goes out and actually constructs the improvements, in this case, a road. And after that construction is complete and we tally up all the costs, then we assign the proportionate cost to each of the benefiting properties or the adjacent properties. And so far, in the 119 years of the City of Hermiston, we have initiated 322 local improvement districts. So there's a number of steps, and this process is very prescribed in our city code, so very systematic process for forming these LIDs. So step number one, this is the step that we're at right now, and that is where the City Council, if you approve this resolution, That would be you formally requesting to generate an engineering report that specifically defines what the scope of the project actually is and what the scope of the project is directly impacts what the costs are. And then additionally, it establishes what the method is for assigning costs to all of the benefiting properties. In most cases, that ends up being just simply their cost. frontage onto the improvements. And then also it identifies the actual tax slots that actually benefit from the property and it identifies what their share of the ultimate costs would be. So step two, which is also on your council agenda this evening, that is the step where the city council will potentially accept the report and then set an actual public hearing date in the future. And that actually begins the official notification process for all of the properties. Step three is when you actually hold the public hearing and that's where properties will appear before you and they have the opportunity to formally remonstrate if they are opposed to the development. And if more than 60% of the properties involved formally oppose it or remonstrate against the project, that would effectively block the formation of the local improvement district for a period of time. Step number four, if they go through that process and the council chooses to form the LID, city council will then at that time vote to create the LID. After that, city goes out and constructs the improvements according to the LID scope. After the project's complete, we reconcile all the costs and assign the cost to the appropriate properties. And then after we have that, then we actually assess each of the properties with their share of the proportionate cost. And owners have two options to choose from. They can always just simply pay their entire assessment upfront, or they have the opportunity to avail themselves of the city's credit rating and essentially receive a loan from the city and have the ability to repay their portion of the costs over the course of 10 years. The cost becomes a lien on the property and ultimately the cost of interest for that, the city would just simply pass through whatever our interest costs are, whether we choose to go out and borrow the money or just simply it's what we would have otherwise made in investments. So what step are we at right now? Resolution 2427, we're at step number one, which is to actually call for the development of a engineering report. Important to understand, however you vote on Resolution 2427, has absolutely no financial impact to the property owners. This simply directs staff to generate the engineering report. So with that, I'd stand for any questions.

Council questions?

Thank you for your report. You said that if more than 60% of the property owners opposed it, it will block the LID proposal for a block time? What would that block time?

Yeah, it's for a period of time. I believe it's six months. Yeah, so it would mean that the City Council wouldn't be able to bring it back for up to six months.

Okay.

Thank you. Councilor Kessler?

Yeah, I noticed that the LID, the properties involved in that are all south of the new Jenny Avenue. Is there any reason why we wouldn't include the properties north of that avenue as well? Because they would benefit too.

Yeah, so let me see if I can pull up a map here. Because there is a reason. Yeah. So you can see on this map on the north side there, there's the Baker's Pond property. And so that is formally a wetland area, so it's very unlikely to ever develop. A couple of the other properties, it's questionable as to whether or not they are also wetland. It was felt that since the extreme development pressure has been from the properties on the south side That it makes sense for us to go through develop the property in its proposed alignment Which is develop half the street plus ten and so then if and when any of the properties on the north side of the street do choose to develop then they would be Responsible for doing the infill paving and building the curb gutter and sidewalk in front of their property at that time So because the LID process is, if anything, it's inherently very fair because it assigns the costs to who benefits from it. We kind of thread that needle between those properties to the north are some of them likely to never develop. And so we would otherwise be putting a cost onto them when they probably would never develop. And so this allows us to move forward with helping out the properties to the south, helping traffic flow through that vicinity without burdening the properties to the north.

Okay, but if the properties to the north ever did develop and they found a way to drain the swamp and build a huge mega plex or whatever, they would be responsible for improving that street as well.

Yeah, and when we get to the next resolution, I have a street cross section that I'll be able to show you and kind of show you the portion that they would then be responsible to develop.

Okay, thank you.

Other questions? Okay. Yes, sir.

You were saying that it's going to benefit the people that own that property. If there's a street and sidewalks going through there, can you explain to me how it's going to benefit them? Because I drove through that area up East Jenny and all the way as far as I can go. And basically you have a on the right side is some type of company. It's just a bunch of weeds. there. So nobody's, there's no houses, no apartments, no anything there. So how is it benefiting the property owners?

Yeah, so it's an intangible benefit, I suppose, in the sense that whenever a property goes to actually develop, it would be a requirement of them to actually construct these improvements as well. So having these improvements installed now benefits the property in the sense that they would have to pay for them anyway.

Other questions?

Not right now. Yes.

Assuming that, uh, we formed the LID, um, do we already have the right away then? Or if we had uncooperative property, would we be looking at like eminent domain type issues?

We have all the property controlled.

Perfect. And then at the exit point on 10th street, There's not a lot of distance between that and the intersection of 10th and diagonal. Are we at all concerned about the traffic flow? Or I suppose that's part of what the engineering report would show.

Yeah, I mean, we can get into that with the engineering report. But at this point, it meets our spacing standard.

Councilor Litton? He was saying, I would like to know if any of these property owners contact the city to say we want to build a street through here so it will benefit us down the road?

So, as I mentioned, all four of those property owners have engaged with the city on leading toward developing this property. So, the one on the far west sold the right-of-way to the city to develop Jenny's. Uh, the, uh, mobile home park, uh, agreed to dedicate the right of way to the city, uh, as part of their development agreement. Uh, the apartment complex has also agreed to that. And the property on the far east side, uh, has agreed, uh, to support an LID for future construction of Jenny Avenue.

Okay. So you've basically talked to all the owners of the property and they have agreed.

No, That's not what I said. So we have worked with the property owners over the years. And so this is what I was mentioning where this LID process can generally tend to feel like it's a little bit cart before the horse because the question always comes up as to whether or not we've reached out to the property owners. On the LID itself, we have not. And that is because what we need to do is we have to scope out the project in its entirety first. then we go if the council chooses to have us develop the engineering report that's then when we have a consistent document that shows exactly what the project is and so if the council approves the two resolutions this evening that would start the outreach process thank you council could you explain the difference between selling the right away and dedicating the right away So selling means that we paid them for it and dedicating means that they gave it to us for free.

Okay. Thank you.

Other council questions? Seeing none. Public comment. We do have the, does the written that we received here.

I was going to announce that at the second.

Okay. So that's, that'll be on the second one. All right. Just want to make sure that it was brought in. All right. Other public comment? Seeing none. Council comments? Seeing none. Can I get a motion to adopt Resolution 2427 and lay upon the record?

Motion to adopt.

Second. Been moved by Councillor Hayward, second by Councillor Duran. Roll call. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. No. Yes. And it is... Motion passes 4-1 with Councillor Linton against. Okay. Moving on. Resolution 2428. Declare intent to form LID for East Jenny Avenue. Mr. Smith.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'll turn this over to Mr. Morgan after you received also via email a comment from the property owners who own the far If you're looking at it on the far right, it's the small parcel that abuts 10th Street, and so they have submitted a comment for you. Okay.

Sir.

All right, Mr. Mayor, Mayor of the Council, now before you is resolution 2428, which is step number two in the LID process, which is to declare the city's intent to form an LID. So that most recently resolution, that was step one, which was to call for an engineering report. And so that has actually been generated already and was included in your staff report for resolution 2428, which is step number two. So you've had a chance to review the engineering report that was included in the staff report. And so if you approve this resolution now, it will declare your intent to form an LID. It does not actually form the LID. So it declares your intent to form and it establishes a date for a public hearing and a vote by the city council, which would be on July 27th. So providing about a month and a half of notification time to work with the property owners. And so if this resolution is approved this evening, then beginning tomorrow morning, staff would mail out notices and information on the property to the property owners. So in the engineering report, you can see the scope of the project. This is a little bit more detail compared to the last resolution. You can see the yellow outlined area. Those are the now five properties, actually, which are included. Since the images that I showed you with the last presentation, those are pulled from the county assessor's website. They've apparently not been updated yet. Quickly enough, this image here is the most up-to-date mapping and so you can see actually the tax lot where the Hub apartment complexes has split or subdivided into two tax lots. So that's why here you see five tax lots. On the previous slides you might have only seen four. But this is what currently on the ground the number of tax lots are out there and what is included in the engineering report. So the scope of the project will be to install street and sidewalk in between Northeast 8th Street and Northeast 10th Street and construct the southern half of the street plus 10 feet of paving. So this is getting a little bit to counselor's question about only building half of the street. So if you're looking at this cross-section here, this is as though you were looking to the west. So on the left-hand side, that would be the properties on the south side. So all of the properties that would be included in the LID would be on the left-hand side of this. Again, you're looking to the west. And so what's being proposed is to develop really just our typical city street section, but simply by building it from the left-hand side to the right-hand side, and we're building it to the center line of the right-of-way plus 10 feet of paving. And so the reason for that additional 10 feet is to end up with a street that is functional, at least through traffic, but we're not doing the entire street all the way in terms of adding the parking lane or the stormwater facilities or the sidewalk on the north side. So you can see we'd start on the left hand side, build the sidewalk, we install the rock pocket swale, we install the ribbon curb, then we install the parking lane, 11 foot roadway, 11 foot lane, another 11 foot lane, And then after that, it just goes into a borrow pit on the north end side. So if and when properties on the north side ever develop, they would have to build that additional parking lane as well as the sidewalk on the north side. So total cost of the project estimated at about $1.2 million as in recognition of the fact that just the general public is likely to utilize this route to get through the area, as well as to just help compensate the property owners for this process. The taxpayers of the city recommended be contributing about $293,000 towards the project. which is about a quarter, about 24% of the overall project cost will be paid for by the city. And that is essentially equivalent to that 10 feet of paving north of Sutter Lane. There we go. So resolution 2428, if you approve this evening, it would set July 27th as the public hearing date. Beginning tomorrow, we would officially mail notices to all five impacted properties, along with information about the project, a copy of the engineering report, as well as remonstrance forms. And then additionally, approval of this resolution does not actually create the LID. That would be voted on at the July 27th meeting. So with that, I'd stand for any questions.

Council questions.

There we go.

Councilor Hayward.

I'm just wondering why we're not going to put a sidewalk on the north side since it's so close to the school. I know students would walk down that way, especially since we're building apartments. There's apartments being built. I can see a lot of students using that, walking, taking bikes and stuff.

Yeah, the short answer, I suppose, is that sidewalks are extremely expensive. I'm trying to find the line item for the cost in the engineering report. Yeah, so in this project, the sidewalks alone look like they'd represent about 20% of the project cost. So the additional sidewalk would cost approximately $200,000 if we were to put it in on the north side. But we wouldn't be able to just put the sidewalk in. In order to put the sidewalk in, we would also, in order to make the grades work, we would really have to put in the paving at the same time as well. So ultimately, we really would have to build the entire rest of the The street through there. And so the only way of covering that additional cost, which at that point would probably be pushing more like four or $500,000 of additional cost. The only way to recoup that would be to potentially require the property owners to the north of that to pay for it or have the taxpayers of the city to pay for it. Also, one thing that we know, at least this is how things get scored in the state Safe Routes to School funding formula, is that you score very poorly if you're asking for funding to put in sidewalk if there's already sidewalk on the other side of the street. Because they recognize that, let's say, you're a student walking from somewhere to the northwest of this area trying to get toward Sandstone. The state routes to school folks have figured out a long time ago that a lot of those kids, they can just cross to the south side of the street and walk on that side of the street for most of the way. So the potential benefit, you know, combined with the fact that we would be having to push that cost onto those property owners to the north is why we left those out.

Other questions?

Yes, I wanted to go to table 5-1, page 16. Okay. On here, you have the assessed value and then the real market value. So the estimate LID assessment, is that calculated by the real market value?

I don't understand the question.

The percentage where you come up with the estimate LID, say for like, we'll look at the first one, it would be $257,276. And then the assessment value of that property, it says $434,830. Now, are you coming up with the assessment estimate? Is that from the real market value?

Now, so the estimated LID assessment, that's the amount that the property would actually be charged for, is we take the total cost of the project and we measure out the entire linear footage of the project. And then we look at each one of those tax slots, linear feet that they have, where they front onto the project. and then we charge them their cost per foot that they have onto the property. So the only reason that Table 5-1 appears in here is because it's a requirement of state law. We don't actually, the LID assessment, the amount that they get charged, has nothing to do with what their property tax assessed value is.

Okay. The loan is that it can be paid off as 10 years. I am wondering if that could be extended longer if the property owner asked that it be extended for the simple fact of the estimate total of, well, do the first line. $257,000 and some change there. uh say for instance they can that's almost like buying a house up close to it um and most people have like a 30-year mortgage and then you want this done in 10. so i'm wondering if they were to say okay can we extend this another five years if that is the option for them to do

So I don't know that it would be a matter of them asking. I think it would be a matter of if the city council chooses to make that option available to them. I guess that's something that we could look into. I'm not aware that it's actually precluded from offering that in our city code, but that would be a city council directive as to whether or not you wanted to allow that.

Okay, thank you.

other questions oh and for the record uh counselor barone did join us at 7 50. welcome sir okay any other council questions council roberts the letter received into the record uh owners um were they the one of the uh lots that had a non-remonstrative agreement

Yes, they have an honor monstrance agreement. So if they submit formal opposition, it would not count towards the 60%. Okay. Thank you.

Other comments or questions? Seeing none. Public comment. Council comments. Seeing none. Can I get a motion to adopt Resolution 2428 and lay upon the record? Motion to adopt.

Second.

And moved by Councillor Hayward, seconded by Councillor Duran. Full call.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. No.

Yes. Yes.

Motion passes 5-1 with Councillor Litton in 6. 5, 6, 7, 1. We have missing. I took my shoes off just to make sure. All right. All right. OK. So 5 to 1 with Councilor Litton against. Motion passes. OK. Order 26-1, affirming the decision of the Planning Commission in Henry K.'s subdivision, Phase 4, Preliminary Platte, 4N2813, Tax Lot 210, 1200 Southeast Columbia Drive, Mr. Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this is the official order that would enact the decision that was made at the end of the public hearing last meeting related to which irrigation district is this property in and the appeal of that discussion by the irrigation district. So this just formalizes the decision that you made last time.

So are there any council questions or comments at this time? Councillor.

Yeah, my questions on again, we kind of actually asked us the last council meeting, uh, about resolution or ordinance and I see this as an order. So what's, what's the difference between this and the resolution ordinances?

Mr. Tubbeck, would you care to handle that?

I would. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So it's been rare. I've been with the city now just under, well, four and a half years or so, and we haven't really ever seen these before. But if you remember, as we've gone through our charter review, uh in on charter we actually have uh ordinances uh resolutions and then we actually have orders that relate to quasi-judicial hearings and so the the hearing that we held at the last meeting which was an appeal of our planning commission was a quasi-judicial hearing and so out of that then the council made an order affirming that decision and so we're now using our orders.

Using our quasi-judicial authority.

Something that we haven't got to use very often. And so as the number shows, 2026-1, this is our first one we're putting together this year.

Awesome. Thank you. If I may, please. And my question, I don't know if maybe city staff knows the answer to this, but obviously with the last hearing we had, it was a hearing and there was a person that agreed and disagreed. And so I guess is HID still continuing or I guess moving forward in their appeals? Is that something I guess that the city, or did they drop it because I don't see them here?

I could kind of address that. So at the end of the hearing, the city council made a tentative decision and directed staff to prepare this order. Preparing this order is actually the next step in the process. So should the appellant HID choose, once they have this order in hand, they have 21 days to appeal to the next level should they choose to.

Thank you. Other questions or comments from council? Councilor Hayward?

What would be the next process? Would that involve us at all? Sorry, I just figured I'd ask.

The next level would be the state land use board of appeals.

Okay. Thank you. Any others? There is no public comment because the hearing was closed on May 26. So this is just a, this is kind of like the jury coming in and giving our deal. And this is us officially making it. So can I get a motion to approve order number 2026-1? So moved. Second. Then moved by Councillor Roberts. Second by Councillor Hayward. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes. No.

Yes.

Yes.

Then motion passes five to one with Councillor Linton and against. Okay. Wow, we got this far and it's still daylight outside. That's nice. City committees and liaisons. Do we have any city committees or liaison reports? Okay.

On the third, I attended the airport advisory meeting. Um, they report that life flight is continuing to buy and few, um, to buy fuel from us, which is a good thing. Um, of note, we are about a dollar 25 cheaper here than airports in Washington due to Washington taxes. And so, uh, for the foreseeable future, um, they're going to keep flying down here, uh, planes and helicopters and whatnot and buying our fuel. So that's a good thing. Um, With that, summertime is coming, and they said people are starting to really fly a lot, so that's good. We discussed, again, the alternative landing strip, the pros and cons and hurdles to doing that, and so that discussion's gonna continue as to whether or not that's feasible for us. And then there is, we were introduced to the Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team, or ODART. And that has to do with disaster response. And the local council, council, help me the name, the radio. Amateur Radio Emergency Service. Thank you. For Umatilla County. Is involved in that. And the idea being that if something were to happen and all communication and stuff went down on the west side, there would be a network of communication set up regionally to help fill the gap until we could get things up and running again. If you want to talk more on that you're welcome to here because it was it was quite fascinating. And then. Mr. Morgan mentioned to us that things are starting to line up for possibly getting our 500-foot extension of the runway, looking at possibly 2031 as being a target date for that, that there's work underway to find funding to do that. So now I put this in quotes. It's potentially viable, I think, is what he said at the meeting. Um, that's, uh, that's exciting. So, um, and then finally, I'm going to put this out there. Hopefully there's people listening online or anybody in the public who wants to take this out and share. Um, we still are getting people scammed, um, and coming to the airport and waiting for people to show up because, um, they sent somebody money and, and whether it was going to be Willie Nelson or whoever, like, um, There's a lot of internet scams out there. Um, this one had to do with a gal who, uh, paid $200 for, um, a meeting to buy a ring. I think it was, it was worth like 30 grand. And so thank goodness she was only out a couple hundred bucks, but I throw that out there not to embarrass anybody, but to say these scammers are disgusting people. They're, they're dirty and, uh, if you're told on the internet that you're going to have to come to the Hermiston Municipal Court to pick up something that you've paid for online, that is not something that we do up there. And so please don't fall for it.

I'm assuming you meant the Hermiston Airport, not the Hermiston Court. Did I say court?

Yes. I'm sorry, the Hermiston Airport. Nor the court. The Hermiston Regional Airport. So, yeah. And the court also will not call you and request, yeah. Yeah, or they won't ask you for, you know, use the whatever gift cards, the Xbox gift cards to pay for your warrant or something like that. They don't do that. So just know those are scams, people.

Okay. That's it. Thank you, Josh. Any other council committees reports? Seeing none. Next up, Mayor's Report. That's me. So we just recently had the graduations from Hermiston High School and all the area high schools. Congratulations to all our graduates and our seniors who are now moving to their next step in their lives. Welcome to adulthood. Get a job. Uh, no, congratulations to all of you. And, and, uh, you know, here's looking to your future. Um, we had last week also on the second, we had the dedication at the, the new bridges as constructed by the high school students in the, in the metal shop class. Um, it is a fantastic structure. Um, I was, I was very, very pleased with the work that they did and, and, you know, we took the, and, uh, uh, Brandon took the opportunity to also make sure that the original constructor of the original bridge that was across there was present as well. And Abe Wright, yes. And so it was a project that was only supposed to last 10 years, I think you said, and it outlived that. And I was on the council when that first came through, and it was a really cool project. project and i'm glad to see that you know what's there now will probably outlast those kids so congratulations on that um also had our, our, uh, mayor and city count or city manager meeting, which went quite well. It was not super well attended this time, but you know, I mean, this time of the year, people get busy. So, but we were able to get, you know, ask, ask and answer a few questions. It's a nice, nice opportunity for us to, to get together. Um, Coming up, we have this weekend, we have the Car Fest? Cartoons. Music festival going on up at EOTech. There is reported is that Mr. Eric Estrada from the TV show Chips and a few other shows is going to be present. So that's... Kind of cool. Also this weekend at Wild Horse is the Veterans Stand Down. And it's from 9 to noon. So it's a good opportunity to support our veterans. Flag Day also. And then on the 19th is Juneteenth. Coming up. So I think that's everything that I have. So since our council president is not president. Council reports. Anybody out of care to share? I called you first. You're first.

I have a couple questions. There was an explosion. I think everybody's heard about that over in Washington. And they said that those chemicals are going into the Columbia River. And we have talked about getting water from the Columbia and putting the aquifers. So I was wondering if there's going to be testing before that happens.

Is this the explosion in the Vancouver area that you're... It was Longview.

Yeah. 200 miles to the west. Right. Water goes that way.

The water's going out the other way.

It won't get to us at all.

Yep. About archives, I wanted to know how far back are the city council archives? How many years does it go back? So if I wanted to, or anyone else wanted to go 10 years back to see about what city council was on and did, how far back does it go?

I mean, basically as far back as the city, except maybe some years that are missing.

Sorry to put you on the spot. Councillor Linton, do you mean what's available online or what we have available in this facility?

What we have available in this facility, say, if I want to look at city council meeting that happened 25 years ago on a subject, would I be able to look it up and read it for myself?

Yes, you'd have to do a public records request, and then we would get those documents because there's hardly anything, probably the last seven years that are online. Everything else we would have to dig out of archive.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

But that's what that new position is to digitize all those records so we can search them online.

Okay, thank you. Cool. Any other council reports? Councillor Hayward.

I just want to remind the public, I know 4th of July is coming up here in the next month. Just remember, be safe with fire safety, with fireworks and stuff. If there's dry grass around, wet it down before you actually light it. Just try to be safe and not cause fires.

Okay. Others? Seeing none. No, you... Oh, no, you didn't.

That was too long. Yeah, really close. Sorry about that. Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation is having its Scramble for Scholarships on Friday, June 12th at the Big River Golf Course in Umatilla. It's always a good time. I have attended for the last few years and have really enjoyed it. And it's a great fundraiser for the foundation. I'm excited because the Parks and Rec is holding their first golf camp, Birdies and Beyond, for youth over in Echo. And I'm very excited about that event. And Kiwanis is helping to sponsor it, which is why I know about it. But I just think that's a great opportunity for young people to get out and do some athletic activity that they might enjoy when they're older, like maybe my age.

When is it?

That would be on the 22nd of June. And one last thing, sorry. I would like to congratulate the school district for getting its 20th consecutive award from the Government Finance Officers Association. They got a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its annual comprehensive financial report. And again, this is their 20th consecutive year of winning that award. So they're doing a fantastic job in the accounting department. I can't say as much for the IT guys, but at least the accountants are doing a great job. So I just wanted to congratulate the school district on that. Thank you.

Um, um, Yes, I also want to congratulate the Hermiston Class of 2026, especially the students from our city staff. I saw the post, so congratulations to Aspen Inners, Darlene Smith, Isabel Sotelo, Jayden Perches, Jedediah Golightly, Leighton Brashears, Lily Foreman, and Miss Tubby. I don't know how to say her first name. Can you please tell me? Moira, Tavi, Pierce Strong, and Ty Werner. So congratulations to the parents of our city staff members who we saw the students walk just last week, and we wish them the best, and we hope to hear great things about them. And I just wanted to say that on June 18th, the city of Hermiston will be hosting the Oregon Latinos in Local Government, or OLLG, Um, and it will be at the Harkin writer center. Um, that's pretty much all I know about it. Um, so, uh, I, I will be participating in that. And on June 26th, I will be going to Lapine for the LOC board meeting.

Okay. Uh, let's see. Councillor Brown.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to give a little shout out to city staff, city administration. During the budget process, I brought up the need to prioritize beautification here in our town, in our city. And since then, I've already had this conversation with city manager Smith, but I do want to put it on the record for the people that do the job really appreciate the work that's being done. I've seen a lot of mulch out there. I've seen a lot of uh, uh, different cleaning, cleaning things up. I've seen, uh, there being, uh, things for trees, uh, cutting down old limbs, just really cleaning things up. So I, I really appreciate city staff, uh, for that. And it does make our town look better. So thank you.

Excellent. You have an addendum.

Yes. I have wanted to ask the question. Um, not that i'm not that i'm aware of no okay well there was a group that gave out uh diapers for the i love my city and uh i wrote with the individual that gave out um cans of milk the milk is like 22 dollars and so we went to like five different homes and and gave out the milk to five different people. And I wasn't aware. I'm like, milk is that expensive? And I was going to ask if it had been your group, if for next year, whoever did that, and thank you for the diapers, since diapers are high as well. But if they could also do that with milk, whoever did that to donate to families. I didn't realize it was that big of a need. Thank you.

All right. Council Roberts, you're the only one. Just say hi.

I'm good.

Okay. All right. We don't have any youth advisory folks here, it looks like. So, Mr. Smith.

I really have nothing to add.

Wow. Okay. All right. So, coming up, we have the Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency. So, we're going to adjourn the city council meeting and call the Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency to order. uh public hearing 26 27 budget of hermiston urban renewal agency hura resolution number 26 are there any declarations of conflict of interest from the hero members seeing none hearing guidelines will not be presented by city staff mr smith yes mr mayor the hura is holding a public hearing for the

FY 2026-27 budget of the Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency. The HEERA will take public testimony on this issue and make a decision at this meeting. The hearing process will begin with a staff report followed by public testimony. The HEERA requests that all people wishing to testify give their name and mailing address before testifying. People wishing to testify should limit testimony to not more than five minutes unless a longer period is provided by the HEERA. Written testimony will be accepted. After everyone wishing to testify has had an opportunity to speak, the hearer will close the public hearing and enter deliberations. Once the public hearing is closed, no further testimony will be received. Mr. Mayor.

Okay. With that, the hearing is now open. City staff will present its report. Mr. Smith?

Yes. Mr. Mayor, the... The budget for the HERA this year is approximately $6.5 million. The bulk of that is in the north area, which will construct a connector to be called Aspen Drive between Aspen Drive at 4th Street and out to Highway 395. And the rest of the area, there's some funding for reworking, do some looking, rewriting the plan potentially because we've accomplished most of the projects already. So those are the major activities that the HERO will be working on this next year. and the funding related to that. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any council questions? Seeing none. OK. Public testimony. People wishing to speak are asked to state their name, mailing address, and limit testimony to five minutes. Are there any persons present wishing to speak? Seeing none. Do we have anybody online? Any written testimony?

OK.

With that, the hearing is now closed. Any further HERA member discussion? Seeing none, this item will be presented during the resolution process, which is just coming up, for final action. And here we go. HERA resolution number 26, adopt fiscal year 2026 budget for the Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency, Mr. Smith.

If there's any further questions, do you have an answer?

Okay. Any questions from the HERA members? Seeing none. Public comment? Seeing none. Members' comments? Seeing none. Can I get a motion to adopt HERA Resolution No. 26 and lay upon the record? So moved.

Second.

Then moved by Councillor Kelso, seconded by Councillor Hayward, or member. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Do we have any other items for this? No. Any other items for this?