City Council - Regular Meeting

PFAS so studies have linked PFAS to a lot of health would be would try to maximize grant funding availability and the Anderson Perry guys can talk a little bit about some of the the grant funding that are revolving loan fund that are fairly competitive and that aren't necessarily focused on PFAS and would be more likely in a low interest loan versus grant or forgivable loan

is the future you have the opportunity to choose. Imagine Hermston children developing the leadership, work ethic, confidence, and perseverance that will shape their lives. Then imagine what our community becomes when they pour those skills back into future generations. Research shows that the ages nine to 14 are especially critical in the paths young people choose to take. Those are the years when far too many young people begin making choices that can lead towards school disengagement, addiction, trouble with the law, and homelessness. That future can change when children have another safe place to belong, meaningful goals, trusted adults, and teammates that expect them to show up. We can fill this center throughout the day and keep it running through youth and adult swimming lessons, high school and club teams, U.S. master swimming, water aerobics, rehabilitation, military training, hospital partnerships, and community programs. A pool does not simply build swimmers. It builds a future full of possibilities. Please vote yes to move this project forward in September. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Do we have any others? Seeing none, thank you for your input on that, ma'am. Oh, okay.

Hi, I'm Lynn Hamlin and I live, I swore I'd never live here and I live on East Main, 816 East Main. Swimming has been a huge part of our family. I see Tammy every morning because now I'm teaching the water rowing class every morning at 6.30. You guys should join us. There's 20 ladies, 25, working out at 6.30 in the morning every single morning. There's classes at noon. There's classes at night. Those classes are overflowing. The fact that we started this pool journey when my son was four, and he's turning 32, tells you we're in this for the long run. He's now a game warden in the state of Nevada. He swims because he has to condition. He learned it in the Pendleton pool and in the Hermiston pool. When the Hermiston pool wasn't available, we took him to Pendleton. We've gone to meets outside of town. We've spent our money, motels. We've done everything we can. We are a swim family. My husband was the high school coach, the age group coach for years and years. He teaches private lessons right now at another pool. Swimming is part of our family. Please just move forward with these guys. 28 years is enough, enough time. Boardman's got it. We got to do this. No matter what we do, we've got to do this. We've got to look to the future. We've got to build big because our community is growing. Thank you for that. Thank you, ma'am.

Folks, I realize that you want to express that, but please hold the applause.

Hello.

My name is Becky Hunt, 955 East Main Street here in Hermiston. We always try to swim. I'd like to swim in January, February, March, December. I've filled out survey after survey after survey. Can we just get this done like other communities have it so we can swim in a covered facility and have that as exercise for people that need it and want it? Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Delia Fields, 954 Southwest 1st. Oh no, Southwest 7th. Better think about where I live. And I grew up lifelong Hermistonian and grew up swimming here. And I thought we were getting pretty close to like a regulation pool and kind of a whole facility, not that I don't appreciate what we have, but we've kind of glanced by this before. Let's please move forward with what we need in our area. We're too progressive. We've got too many folks that can benefit. We're a positive community, and this is an area that really benefits, I think, so much more than we realize, both with the day in and day out, as well as, like, swim meets, things like that. It really is just a win-win-win. So please, please consider this. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Any others?

Hello, I'm James appeal 33971 East Falls Road. I have been. past two years, I graduated as head team captain for the swim team. And I just want to say that swim has helped me to build my life. But it has been difficult with Um, not having an indoor pool during the winter time. Um, it's been really rough. A lot of the times we have, um, sometimes we couldn't make it to practice cause we swim in Boardman and it would just be too slick on the roads. Um, and it would be nice that we are able to build, be able to practice in Hermiston and be able to have more hours for that. So thank you. Thank you.

Any others? Go ahead once. All right. Moving on. Consent agenda. We have one item on the consent agenda, committee vacancy announcements. Do we have any council questions? Seeing none. Public comment on that? Seeing none. Council comments? Yes, sir.

I just want to put it out there that that particular vacancies for the East Oregon trade and events center. So if anybody's interested apply.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve. Oh, do we want. Does anybody want to remove that item from That one item. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda item A? Second. Moved by Councillor Roberts. Second by? No. No? Councillor McCarthy. Sorry. And Councillor Hayward on the second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Next up, as we had no items removed, public hearing. Public hearing is on creating a local improvement district number 324, which is attached with ordinance 2383. So to begin with, is there any declarations of ex parte contact or conflict of interest from the council?

seeing none hearing guidelines will now be presented by city manager smith the city council is holding a public hearing regarding the assessment of local improvement district number 324. 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 by assistant city manager mark morgan following presentation of the staff report the city council will take public testimony Testimony will be received by supporters of the proposal first, followed by neutral testimony, and then opponents of the proposal will testify, at which time staff will also note any written remonstrances received by impacted property owners. The council requests that all people wishing to testify approach the microphone and give their name and mailing address before testifying. Council also requests that they identify which property they represent. 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 be accepted from all parties. 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.

All right. This hearing is now open. The city staff will now present its report. Mr. Morgan.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this evening we're talking about ordinance 2383, which would create LID number 324 to construct East Jenny Avenue. As I mentioned, ordinance 2383 establishes local improvement district, constructs East Jenny Avenue. This is an aerial image of the area in question. You can see Diagonal Boulevard going diagonally along the bottom, Elm along the top, Northeast 10th Street towards the right-hand side. The improvement specifically is shown there by the red line would extend East Jenny from where it currently terminates with this intersection of Northeast 8th all the way out to Northeast 10th Street. This is that same area in question in 2016. At the time, city staff was working with housing developers to better understand the needs for additional housing in the community. And by far and away, the single largest issue was the availability of developable land. So at that time, we began working with the then owners of the various properties outlined in red there. Because it had been zoned industrial since zoning was originally applied to the city in the early 70s Since that time it had become relatively low-grade industrial land again in talking with some of the Property owners who had owned the property since zoning was applied in the 70s They indicated the part of the reason for applying industrial zoning on that property or that area was back then they weren't sure if interstate 82 would go east or west of the community and And this is obviously on the east side of the community. I-82 went west of the community. Additionally, Diagonal Boulevard through there, back in the 70s, up through the 90s, was a state highway that has since been moved up to Elm. And then additionally, over that time, The community grew out and around the area, so it was really not ideal industrial land any longer. So working closely with the property owners, the city shared costs with the property owners to rezone that entire area to a mixture of residential and commercial. So this is roughly that same area with the zoning overlaid as of now. So you can see the bulk of it is now residentially zoned with a strip of commercial fronting on diagonal as well as on northeastern. So since rezoning the property in around 2017, there's been a number of changes in ownership within the boundaries. One change that's occurred is the property on the west end of the proposed Jenny Avenue extension or construction is there was a fire at one of the three light industrial buildings that's since been demolished on that property. The next one to the east has subsequently sold to a residential developer who is in the process of building out a 200-home development. The property to the east of that has since sold to a property developer. It does not show on this aerial image, but they are actively in the process of going vertical on approximately 276 apartment units. And the property at the end adjacent to Northeast 10th Street is sold to a commercial developer. They've presented a number of different commercial concepts currently undefined what that developable parcel will turn into. So important to keep in mind in Hermiston, as well as most cities across the country, development is required to install the streets associated with accessing their properties when they develop on the property. So this is just an image that I think helps kind of highlight that. This is actually from the intersection of Getman Road and Southwest 9th. This is looking off to the east. This is an image from 2012. And then this is an image from just a couple of years ago in that same area. So you can see as subdivision went in on the south side of what was previously just gravel one improved roadway They were required to install curb gutter sidewalk as well as the travel lanes at the time actually the city was able to facilitate a discussion with the property on the north side of that property and So that property owner chose to participate in developing the full width of the roadway at that time but so The city the taxpayers did not pay for installation of those those improvements the development pays for those improvements and Looking at the Jenny Avenue extension, there are several obligations in play associated with the various properties. The 200-home development shown there, as part of their conditions of approval, when they reach a future phase, a future build-out, they will be required to install their portion of Jenny only along their frontage, so from their western lot line to their eastern lot line. That is undetermined as to when they may ever get to that stage of development. I can remember the Great Recession when there was still a number of undeveloped or unfinished developments throughout the region. So it's never guaranteed when a development will reach that stage of development. So that simply is sitting out there as a future obligation on that development. Additionally, the apartment complex, they will be required to install improvements to their two properties there, their frontage on to Jenny. And then the final property there, budding Jenny in Northeast 10th, as part of a previous land use action, they signed what's called a non-remonstrance agreement, which essentially recognizes that they're obligated to help cover the cost of installing improvements in Jenny. into the future. And so in exchange for them not having to install those at the time, they waived their legal right to oppose the formation of a future local improvement district for the purposes of constructing Jenny. So the LID proposal, given the various obligations along that corridor, but also the varied nature of the timeline, it made much more sense to pursue constructing the entire corridor as one cohesive project at one time in order to benefit all of the properties and end up with a functional street that serves all of the properties. So a local improvement district is a financing tool used for paying for public infrastructure. The city ultimately goes out and constructs the improvements, in this case a road, and then as that project is completed, the adjacent property owners that benefit from the improvements are levied with their proportionate share of the cost. And to date, in the 119 years that City of Hermiston has existed, the city has initiated 323 local improvement districts. So the LID process, we've already been through the first several steps. So the City Council requests a preliminary engineering report. That was done on June 8th. That's a critical component to where we actually define the scope of the project. Having that scope in hand allows us to estimate some costs. Having those costs then allows us to come up with an estimated amount that ends up getting assigned to The various properties and we establish a method for assigning those costs typically and for most of our local improvement districts we assign those costs based on the frontage that each property has on to the improvements and This also identifies which properties benefit from the improvements and their estimated share of the costs Step two also occurred on June 8th. Uh, that's where a city council accepts the report and sets a hearing date. Uh, so, uh, city council on June 8th set this evening as the date for the public hearing on this local improvement district. Um, and it kicks off the official, uh, public noticing process. And so, uh, certified mail notices were sent out to, uh, the owners of the five parcels in question on June 11th. Step three, that's where we're at right now, is the public hearing. At this stage, properties may formally remonstrate, in other words, formally oppose formation of the local improvement district if they choose. Formal remonstrance forms were included in the packet that was mailed to all of the impacted properties. For LIDs that are initiated by the city under our code, It requires more than 60% of the properties impacted to submit formal remonstrances in order to prevent the formation of a local improvement district, if that's what they would like. Those would had to have been received by the city manager by 5 p.m. this past Friday. As of that time, we had not received any remonstrances from any of the five properties. Step four is also where we're at this evening. So that's where the city council would actually vote to create the local improvement district. So this evening you'll vote on whether or not to actually create the LID. Step five then leads us into construction. If the LID is approved, city would then move into finalizing design, advertising for bids this fall, approving contracts, and then we'd roll into constructing the project in the spring of 2027, according to the scope. Step six is reconciling the costs. So everything that we've been working off so far is simply cost estimates. We try to be very conservative in those cost estimates. We never want to come out front with a low number and then end up having to raise costs on the back end. So once we have all of the final costs after completing the project, Then we take those costs, run them through the approved formula for allocating the costs, and those actual costs are the ones that will get levied onto the benefiting properties. So step seven is when the properties are actually assessed. So at that point, city council, probably sometime next summer after the reconciliation process takes place, would adopt the final assessments. At that point, the property owners can choose one of two options. They can choose to pay their assessment in one lump sum upfront or they can pay their portion over time. We would recommend that that payment takes place over 10 years. That's the city's preference. There was some discussion about this back in June when we began this LID process as to whether or not those payments could be stretched out over a longer period of time. But, sorry, backing up, if they choose to go over 10 years, they can do that. It's essentially a loan from the city to the properties, and that LID becomes, that obligation becomes a lien on the property. And in that case, the city goes out, borrows money at the best interest rates that we have available, and we pass those interest rates on directly to the benefiting properties. to the question of potentially longer repayment terms it's possible the city would just simply have to go out and borrow money for a longer period of time generally speaking when you borrow for a longer term given the longer uncertainty banks require higher interest rates so if the city has to go out and borrow money for a longer period of time the interest rate that gets passed through to the benefiting properties goes up Generally speaking, if we were to look at offering something like a 20-year repayment plan versus 10 years, we could do it. It would just simply end up increasing the interest costs to the borrowers by about three times more than if they were to repay it over 10 years. Another thing to keep in mind, generally speaking, if the title companies catch it, when a property sells, the liens typically end up getting cleared at sale and they get satisfied through the sale process. Particularly with commercial properties and these types of residential properties, it's unlikely that any of these properties would be held for 20 years without having some type of action or bank involvement. So it probably be unlikely that any existing owner would hold on to these properties for much longer than 10 years. So they may not avail themselves of that for that reason. The other aspect to is it would become a little bit more of an administrative burden on city staff, ie the taxpayers, longer tracking requirements, but also just having differing terms, add some complexity on the finance staff for for tracking these. So getting back a little bit into what the project is and the project scope. So this is a typical cross section from the city's standard public works plans. So this, to give you a sense of orientation, this is as though we are standing in the middle of the Jenny Avenue right away looking west. So north would be to the right. And all of the properties that would be included in the LID would be on the left-hand side. The vertical line that's labeled RW would be their property line. That's the right-of-way line. And so we would begin building this typical cross-section, essentially from south to north. We would build... Sidewalk on the south side of the right-of-way, we would build a rock-filled infiltration swale, then install ribbon curb, parking lane, standard 11-foot travel lane, and then north of the center line of the right-of-way, another 11-foot travel lane, and then north of that, it would simply be some minor infiltration areas for any stormwater runoff that happens to come off of the north side of the property. So the way that the breakdown of cost allocation shows in the cost estimate, we made that based off of an assumption that all of the properties that are included in the LID, they're on the south side of the improvements, and so they would be obligated to construct essentially the southern portion of the roadway. So everything from the right-of-way line out to the center line of the roadway. With the city of Hermiston's contribution in order to make an actually functioning street capable of accommodating two-way traffic, the city would cover the cost of the improvements north of Center Line, so essentially the cost of building the 11-foot travel lane north of Center Line. And, uh, additionally, um, there's a handful of properties on the north side of Jenny Avenue, um, for a number of reasons. Um, it's unlikely that any of those will, uh, develop at any time in the near future. Uh, but if, and when any of those do develop, uh, they will then be obligated to install again, sidewalk infiltration, swale, and any remaining infill paving, uh, between their property line and the, uh, end of existing asphalt. So cost-wise, total project currently estimated at about $1.2 million. Again, it's an estimate at this point. Anderson Perry tends to be fairly conservative, and this includes a 20% contingency. Given the nature of the existing right-of-way, I feel that that's more than adequate. This cost estimate also assumes 2027 construction, so it takes into account a certain percentage of assumed inflation by next spring. Also important, and I'll touch on this a little bit later, but in order to facilitate the construction of this roadway, there's actually a significant amount of electric utilities that need to be relocated out of the travel lanes. The cost of relocating those electric utilities are not included in that $1.2 million figure, and they are not included as part of what would be expected of the benefiting properties to repay through the local improvement district. So this just, again, break down more on a percentage basis. So in terms of the total LID project, about 76% of the project will be paid for by the benefiting properties and about 24% will be paid for by the existing city taxpayers. So there's a couple of ways of allocating LID costs. These are fairly prescribed in state law and we have additional detail in our local city code. And generally, we need to be proceeding in a manner that's fair to everyone. And so we're required to assign the costs of LID improvements according to the benefit that the various properties receive. It's important to keep in mind that with this project, it's really a very simple project. It's just installing street from the western edge of one property line to the eastern edge of the eastern property. And so in this situation, each property would otherwise be required to build the street directly in front of their property if and when they develop. So whatever usage is taking place on the property is really irrelevant to what the benefit actually is. So the price of oil, rock, concrete, asphalt, all those things, those don't change whether you're putting in maybe just a single law office that gets 10 cars a day coming to it or a smoothie shop or a Dutch Bros that sees, you know, 500 cars a day coming and going. The cost of building that street directly in front of your property is entirely driven by the linear footage of your property frontage onto the street. So we're building it to the standard street cross section requirements and so in this instance the street itself is the benefit and so we're assigning the costs based on the benefit being received which is the street that's being built. There's a number of other opportunities that you could use for assigning the costs. One example that may make some sense is if we took that same area and let's say as part of the LID, we were not just building Jenny as a street, but let's say we were also installing a traffic signal at the intersection of Diagonal and 10th. In that instance, you could say, well, all of those properties ultimately benefit from the traffic signal because it's able to service vehicles that are coming from the entire area, but the traffic signal itself doesn't front onto any one of those properties, but maybe one immediately adjacent to it. In that type of a situation, it would probably make some sense to assign the cost of the street improvements on a per foot frontage basis, but assign the cost of the traffic signal on some other type of metric like area or trip generation or something like that, because it has no direct association with the linear feed of frontage. So I'm getting close to the end here, but this just kind of gives you a sense on the electrical components that are at play here. This is an image on Northeast 10th Street looking south, just a little bit north of the future intersection of Jenny Avenue and Northeast 10th. It's a mess, so there are a lot of utilities going through that area. There are two different electric utilities. There's some transmission... Electrical as well as some distribution associated with Pacific Corps, but there's also Hermiston Energy Services lines going through that area and so in order for Jenny Avenue to ever be built particularly near the intersection of Jenny and 10th Approximately four hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of electrical relocation costs are going to have to to come into play and Out of that, about $450,000 associated with the entire Jenny corridor, about $400,000 of that is directly associated with the intersection of Jenny and 10th that we're looking at right there. And so as I mentioned, none of that cost is being included in the LID, but it's worth keeping in mind that that is a cost that is at play part of the project. So next steps before you this evening, we're having the public hearing. So you'll take testimony. And after the close of the hearing, you can choose to table the issue. You can cease the formation entirely, or you can approve the LID. If it's approved, that's again, where I mentioned, we'll move into final design, advertise the project this fall, construct the project in the spring. And then upon completion, tally the actual costs next summer, and then levy the assessments on the benefiting properties. Any questions?

Okay. Council have any questions at this point? Council Broome.

Thank you, Mayor. In the previous LID that we formed next to Starbucks, there was a contribution from the city. Is that correct?

Technically, in the LID, the city contributed nothing in that one. What we did was we recognized that there were two discrete projects that were going to take place, and we were going to construct them simultaneously. In that instance, the city covered all of the cost of one project, and the property owners covered the cost of the other.

So then would you say is it typical for the city on our end to pay for projects in an LID project?

In the two that we have constructed over the past 20 years, we have contributed some amount.

And this amount, would you say, is this the most, or is this kind of the least?

This is consistent, I would say. And each project is different because of the different scope. But I want to say the project on Northwest Second, it'll depend because they're in the middle of building it right now. So it depends on what the final outcome is. But I want to say we're in the range of around 30% of the cost on that one. Prior to that, the LID that we did on Campbell Drive, the city's contribution came in around 22%. Does the city need to contribute when there's an LID? There's not a requirement to, no.

So the city's contributed because they've seen that this would be an enormous pressure to put on property owners, and so thus trying to help out property owners by having a contribution to alleviate some of that.

I think on this one specifically, there's a recognition that there's going to be some other just general community traffic on the roadway. And so it seemed like an opportunity to help the benefiting properties by covering the cost of that northern traffic lane. Thank you.

I have driven over in that area that you're talking about doing this LID. And I would like to know how is putting a street and sidewalk in there is going to benefit those five properties? Because it doesn't look like they need that.

Yeah, so it's required as part of their development process. So if they want to develop on the property, they would have to install those improvements.

Has anyone of those five properties asked or said that they want to develop something in that area?

Three of the five properties are actively in construction, and one has signed a non-remonstrance to facilitate future construction.

So you said three are building something or developing something at this time?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Okay.

Do we know what year was the non remonstrant agreement signed?

I think it was 2021.

Okay. So it was this property owner that signed the non, it wasn't like a prior property owner that signed it.

No, I believe the current property owners purchased it with the knowledge that this had a non remonstrance on it.

Okay. And then it seems to me that the north half of the street property owners aligning the north half, they're essentially getting their half paved for free. So if they were to future develop, they're getting a benefit that these other property owners are not getting. Is that kind of what I'm seeing there?

No, not entirely. So I'm going to go to the cross section. So you can see they would still be required to install, so this only shows what we're building, but you can see on the south side, there's sidewalk, infiltration swale, a ribbon curb, it's like six foot of parking. So they would still be required to install sidewalk on their side, the rock infiltration swale, ribbon curb, and a few feet of infill paving. So additionally, and I mentioned there's various reasons why it's unlikely that they will develop. So let's see if this actually shows up this time. so the north of jenny those white lines are property boundaries north of jenny on the right hand side that's east that is owned by pacific core and that is a i don't want to say derelict substation but it's not serving many new customers anytime soon and so all of that brown area to the left of the developed substation is owned by pacific core unlikely that they will develop on that anytime in the near future. The property immediately to the left of that is currently already developed on. So there is a home there already. And then the two properties to the left of that, they are all part of property that covers what we know as Baker's Pond. And so the vast majority of those properties are covered by wetland and otherwise undevelopable and have some variation of open space zoning on them. So unlikely that any of those properties are going to develop in the near future.

What about the ones to the left of that Baker's Pond property?

So there's only one more to the left of Baker's Pond that is fully fronted there. So that property also already has a home built on it.

So I guess my point is if they ever improved their home to a point that it triggered this curb gutter and sidewalk, they're getting essentially, let's say a quarter of the pavement is already being laid down. They're going to have a lesser cost than the property owners in this LID?

Based on the LID, yes. But and I didn't go into this, but it's important to keep in mind So in this cross-section, generally when properties are required to develop the street in front of their property, you have to end up with a fully functioning street. And so we require you to develop your half of the street plus 10 feet. So we're actually contributing by paying for those 11 feet that otherwise would have been required by those properties on the south to develop. So to your point about the properties north getting a certain amount paid for by the city, if the LID were not in place and we were to checkerboard in the roadway there, just relying on adjacent development to put it in, those properties on the north would still get most of that same paving installed before they choose to develop. Does that make sense? Yeah. Thank you.

Any other questions on the staff report?

Just to follow up, in the schematics I don't see, is there any plans for a bike lane?

So right now it's showing a parking lane. There's not currently plans for a bike lane, but I think there's plenty of space in there. Thank you.

Okay. I think we're at the public testimony portion of this. People wishing to speak are asked to come forward to the microphone, state their name and mailing address, and identify which property, if any, they represent, and limit their testimony to five minutes. We're going to do this again, as stated earlier, proponents first, neutral parties, and then opponents and remonstrances. So with that in mind, do we have any proponents who wish to speak at this time? Seeing none. Do we have any neutral parties?

Hi, my name is Tara Bendixson. My mailing address is 1526 Clear Creek Loop, Twin Falls, Idaho. My husband and I own the property at 992 East Jenny Avenue being affected by the LID. We bought it in 2022 after the remonstrance was already in effect. Um, we have followed this process closely and we appreciate the city's desire to invest in infrastructure and acknowledge its importance as the city grows. My purpose here this evening is to outline how the estimated costs for which we would be responsible would be an extreme financial burden and does not serve the council's goal of supporting all community members. You have the authority to change the methodology and assessing the improvement costs. And I am asking you to do that tonight. We are not objecting to the formation of the LID, but with our nonremonstrance agreement, we respectfully reserve the right to object to how the assessments are apportioned. When we purchased this property, we understood the infrastructure costs would be imposed on us when we develop. We're not ready to develop or anywhere near ready to develop. This LID formation is primarily triggered by the development of the hub, a 276 unit apartment complex adjacent to our property. As it stands, we are being required to pay for the LID improvements based on our linear frontage along East Jenny Avenue. We ask that the council reconsider whether the linear frontage approach to allocation of cost is equitable. As an alternative, we ask that the council reconsider allocating the cost of the improvements based on the square footage or acreage of the benefited properties. Oregon Statute ORS 223389 governs how you can consider how costs are to be allocated. Subsection 1 of that statute reads, the governing body of a local government may prescribe by ordinance or resolution the procedure to be followed in making estimated assessments and final assessments for benefits from a local improvement upon the lots that have benefited by all or part of the local improvement. to the extent that the charter of the local government does not prescribe the method of procedure. Hermiston Charter Chapter 3432 gives you, the council, the authority to determine the methodology for the assessment of the improvements. Perhaps most importantly, Section 2C of ORS 223389 states the governing body shall determine the amount of estimated assessment to be charged against each lot within the district according to the special and peculiar benefits accruing to the lot from the local improvement and shall by ordinance or resolution spread the estimated assessments The linear foot methodology fails to take into account our special and peculiar benefits accruing to our lot from the local improvement, as Oregon law requires. You are not required to make the assessment by linear foot. In our case, to do so would not be equitable when balancing the apartment improvements, the value of their property, and the benefit that the improvements will be to them and their 800 plus tenants and the other large adjacent properties. We ask that the methodology for imposing the LID assessment be based on the area of the properties being benefited. If the linear foot frontage methodology is applied, the cost estimates for the LID improvements would require us owners of a one acre vacant parcel to pay approximately $122,000 for the street and sidewalk improvements. According to the city's own estimates, our property's current value stands at $94,500. This LID would require us to contribute more than our property is worth to fund this project. The total approximate acreage of the properties benefited by the LID is 34.6 acres. Our property area represents 2.89% of the total area of properties impacted by this project. Distributing the cost based on the law area method would result in our portion of expense to be estimated at $27,800 based on the preliminary engineering calculations. We learned from previous City Council meetings that the Hub is receiving incentives in the form of $1.3 million tax breaks over a five-year period from the City. This more than pays for their required contribution to this proposed LID. You must also take into consideration the Hub's special and peculiar benefits accruing to their lot from the local improvement. They will have over 800 or more tenants, staff, and visitors using Jenny Avenue. It's not hard to see that their lot will benefit far more than ours from the improvements. We hope that you can see we have outlined how all other parties, including the city, directly benefit from this project. We hope you can envision yourselves in our shoes. We are not wealthy land developers with millions in funding. We were merely longtime residents looking to invest in a piece of Hermiston. If this LID proceeds as proposed, we would be burdened with paying the city roughly $1,200 a month for 10 years. I don't know about you, but most families don't have the extra funds every month to pay just to maintain ownership of a property they have already purchased. You as a council have the authority to change how these improvement costs are allocated. We respectfully ask that you adopt an area-based methodology which more equitably allocates the costs associated with the improvements. Thank you.

Okay. Any other neutral parties? Seeing none. Do we have any opponents or remonstrances who wishes to speak? Seeing none. With that, this hearing is now closed. Are there any other council questions or comments?

I do have a comment.

Go ahead, Pam.

I want to thank Ms. Ben-Dixon for her statement. I copied it out because I wanted to follow along with it. And it's well done. I wish I was this good. But my comment is that I am in agreement with the assessment, I feel that this LID is going to benefit the developers of the 276 or 276 plus. And if anybody should have to pay for the street and sidewalk, since it's going to be benefiting them, I feel that they should be the ones paying for the full amount of that. I don't feel that five properties should have to have a street and sidewalks put in because now there's going to be a lot of people in that area because of this apartment complex. And if it does go forward, I'm hoping that the City Council members will implement what Mrs. Van Dixon proposes on changing how we assess the payment because having to pay more money than what your property is worth, I feel is just not right. And I was trying to find how she stated it in here. of how we could reassess it so that her, the cost would go down. But she read it in there and I feel everybody probably know what she had said. So thank you.

Other council comments? Questions? Ms. Brown?

Yes, I do have a question and more for Mr. Tuggy, if that's all right. We did hear we got all the counselors got an email regarding it. We heard the public testimony about going based on square footage rather than a linear foot. I guess legality wise is is that is that legal? Is that is that is that OK to do?

Well, under our code, where we have the ability to form local improvement districts, it does say that the City Council will make the decision on a proposed methodology for establishing special benefit and loving assessments. And I mean, that does open the door for the City Council to make discussion and talk about the methodology. I guess with it laid in front of the council, there's been... information provided through the staff report regarding how each property is supposed to develop and the requirements of how they develop. And, and then you have the request in front of you from from the Ben Dixon property, so it is for the Council to discuss and and then, as you work through that we can look at it further.

a follow-up mr tovey uh or in this might even be to city manager smith is the linear footage what the city's done throughout our history is that the most common practice that we've done i would say yes it's the most common okay I guess for me, I am interested in looking at a different methodology for it to being more equitable. I hear the argument and I am sympathetic to it. On the other hand, though, I completely understand when you purchase a property there, especially with a non remonstrous agreement, and knowing that there will be development that this could potentially happen. And so on one end, I believe that, you know, property owners and property managers know that there is a risk of, you know, that there might be unexpected costs, especially when there is going to be future development. But on the other hand, I completely understand and get we have big businesses or in large developers coming in, and then we have a mom and pop type of a property. And I think that that burden is not equal. And so I would be interested in looking more at different methodologies and seeing how that cost allocation comes out. But at the end of the day, I guess for the sake of the public hearing, I am in favor of moving with the LID. I just would like to take a look at different alternatives before I make my final decision.

this side yeah but i'm go back and forth um question and then a comment if i may um question is um if the ben dixons were to um develop outside of the lid this this would have kicked in anyway right under our code they would have had to still pay for the section of street once they develop correct correct okay Um, my comments is I, I agree. Uh, I would like to look at the different methodologies and see what that looks like. Cause there's, I mean, there's going to be a trade-off there though, as well, where the benefits of the Bendixons is going to be passed on to the other developers. And so, um, we need to be cognizant of that and how that's going to impact the projects. Um, um, but I do think it is worth a discussion to see what the different methodologies look like and what their impacts are going to be.

I am interested in looking at the different methodologies, but at the same time, how can our decision that we make based on this particular LID impact the decisions that we have made on previous approvals of an LID?

Sorry, we were conferring. Could you repeat that?

Yes. I said that I am interested in exploring different methodologies, but I wanted to know how the impact that we make on this particular LID, how will that impact the decisions we have made on previous LIDs?

I don't think it would make a difference on previous LIDs, but it would establish a precedent for any future LIDs.

I was going to basically ask something to that nature. So our standard methodology has been frontage. We're considering other methodology. If we decide to go with something other than frontage, does that... give us the option to consider methodologies on a case-by-case basis, or would that be likely the process moving forward? So it's now square footage moving forward or war frontage moving forward, etc., etc. ?

Well, I think, again, the vast majority of our LIDs that we've created have simply been for installing roadway improvements. And so in the example that I showed where if we were doing something like a traffic signal and trying to apportion that out, we already would have taken the approach of looking at something like trip generation or something like that. So because we already do have the option of doing those other things. those other alternatives. I do think one thing to keep in mind, you know, we have had direct contact from a couple of the other properties that are included in the LID, one of which being the manufactured home park. They don't like having to pay for the cost either. They let us know significantly. They did not remonstrate. They had the ability to remonstrate against it, but they chose not to. And so I think we laid out the fact that under the state law, we have to apportion the cost based on the benefit. And we pointed out that the benefit is the street itself. And that doesn't change based on what's built on the property. And so I think based on that, I think the other impacted properties in the LID are may have a case to be made that now they're being inappropriately targeted through the LID. So I would keep that in mind.

Any others down here real quick? First time.

Are we up against any timelines on this?

Just inflation. I suppose I would say no short timeline. The longer we wait, the more expensive it gets. The longerish timeline, I would say, is we'd need to... It's best for us to advertise these projects at least by late fall. We'd probably need three to four weeks to take the plans from where they are now to a point that they could be advertised for bids. We probably don't need to be... From the point that the council adopts an ordinance, we'd probably need three or four weeks, so we'd probably have a month or two before we'd need to be hitting that bidding window, keeping in mind that it may take two council meetings to actually get it approved.

Okay. I have a question on that. How much would it cost if we just delay it for a month or so? Just an estimate. I'm just guessing.

That it wouldn't make any difference because we're not going to construct any sooner in the spring of 2027. That's where I was saying, if we can hit that window where we're advertising in October, November, whether we advertise in September, October versus October, November, they're still not going to construct any earlier in the spring. So my comment about inflation was if we were to wait like multiple years or something like that.

Thank you.

Councilor Kelso.

Yeah. Investments come with risk. We all know that. And so my question of city staff is, has anything that the city has done changed the risks that the Ben Dixon's have incurred by investing in that property over the last four years?

I think the costs are associated with the LID, which they purchased the property with the knowledge that they had an honor monstrance against an LID. So there hasn't been any changes other than that.

So it's quite possible that the day after they purchased that property, the development could have occurred and then they would have been obligated to participate in the LID, correct?

Correct. Okay. Thank you. So I have a question in regards to the process. Because I know there's obviously there's going to be a bunch of discussion in regards to the monetary part of it, which the apportionment of it. Are we able to move forward with the LID at this point in time and then in the later phase, is that where we would work with the apportionment, or does that have to be done at this point in time?

So within this ordinance, the ordinance actually does set the methodology. So it will need to be all in one package. okay that's that was that was the question and i guess from just from uh the reminder of each one of these properties under the development code is required to build their own frontage uh from from our development so okay all right council bro

Thank you. If you could please remind me again, out of the five properties that we have here, how many of them have a non-remonstrance agreement?

Currently just one.

Any other second questions? Yes, ma'am.

I just wanted to add my comment of... Normally when people buy homes or property, you can't, unless you have a crystal ball and you're good at it, can figure out if a company, a big cup corporation, a big developer is going to come in and build something close to your vicinity. Unless you have a crystal ball to tell you that you would not know that. And so this company, most likely has multi-million dollars if they can afford to build something that's 278 apartment complexes and or houses. I don't know if they're building houses or not. And in my opinion, I'm not going to vote for this. I think it's undue hardship on a family and I represent the constituents, not the developers. So I don't want to see someone have to sell property because of having to pay for a street that they cannot afford to pay for. And if they could afford to pay for it, don't want to pay for it at this time because they're not, they haven't said they was going to develop anything anytime soon. Maybe down the road they are, maybe not.

Any other council comments?

I just want to make sure i'm understanding a little bit of the process here, so I know it's been brought up in question the size of the lots being affected, but assuming every lot was the same square footage. the frontage cost would still be the same per lot based on how much of the street they actually align with, correct?

Yeah, the frontage is literally the distance from one side to the other. So you could have a really long and skinny lot or a perfectly square lot, but it's all based on how long your frontage is on the street. Okay, thank you very much.

Any others? Okay. At this point in time, I need a motion to either A, continue the presentation or to Ordinance 2383 for possible adoption, continue the hearing to a specific date, or suspend formation of not less than six months, or terminate the formation of the LID. I'll accept any motion at this point in time.

I motion that we suspend this LID. OK.

I have a motion from Councillor Linton to suspend the LID for not less than six months. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, motion and a second. Roll call. No. Yes.

No.

No.

No.

Yes. No.

No.

Okay, motion fails. Do we have any other motions. question question.

What would the appropriate motion be if we wanted to consider other methodologies at this time.

I believe we need to turn on the microphone.

So move it works better, yes.

That would be a continuation to a specific date and time where that could then be discussed.

Perfect. I'm not sure of a time, but that's the motion I would like to make.

Do we need to make that specific date and time here for the motion? Yes. You could add that time, and we could look at the next date. So you're requesting a motion to continue the hearing until our next council session?

So moved. Second.

OK. Roll call?

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

No. No. OK. Motion passes 6 to 2 for continuing the hearing until the next council session. OK. Well, I guess that takes motion 2383 off the agenda now, right?

OK. Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

OK.

Regarding that.

we what we voted no on was on the public hearing or the ordinance well the for for the ordinance to be voted on we would have had to have moved it forward and so we had so because the motion was to to suspend the hearing then this motion then the ordinance can't be vote can't be done anything else at this point i guess would it have been appropriate to have gone forward with the public hearing and then voted no on the ordinance or suspended the ordinance for another time Oh, the motion was made. And so we're going to go with that.

Okay. That's all right. Sounds good. I was just wondering on that, like procedurally wise.

Yep. Is there anything the city needs from us so we can give you guys better direction so you guys can bring back what we need?

No, I think we have an understanding of some ideas that we can bring back.

Thank you.

All right. Moving on. Resolution 2437, a resolution authorizing the purchase of six police vehicles. Mr. Smith.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, so we, the police department is in need of replacing and adding to its fleet with six new vehicles. This was a planned replacement, and the expenses were adopted as part of the 26-27 budget. These are five Chevy Traverses and one Chevy Silverado pickup. And they will replace some there'll be some shifted around and then some of the vehicles will be disposed of. We what we're looking for tonight is authorization to borrow the funds to purchase these vehicles, we have a quote for. a six-year loan at 6% from the Bank of Eastern Oregon, and the payments are listed in the staff report, and those amounts are budgeted to be covered within the adopted budget. Are we happy to answer any questions? Council questions?

Council Member Brown?

my question was more i think a couple of years ago we did a like a lease program with the vehicle so is this a part of the lease or so a few of the vehicles that we are getting out of are part of the lease program after working within that lease program for a little while we would like to move another direction okay so we're not doing the lease program anymore Well, we currently have vehicles that are still under leases that are in that program. We do not want to add more vehicles to that lease program.

Okay.

Thank you.

Other questions?

That was the question I was going to ask as well.

Just on the lease part, why don't we not want to continue that anymore?

Well... We feel like the terms that were explained to us were not the terms that the lease company is now enforcing on us. And so we do not want to further the program. We're going to honor the commitments that we've made, and we're going to exit as soon as we can.

Okay. Thank you.

Go ahead.

As soon as we can. It's going to be a little while because particularly with police vehicles, we've spent a lot of money on top of the lease costs to upfit them to be police vehicles. And so we're going to have to just kind of work through those and do it kind of like this. Every year or so, we'll cycle out some and go through that. So I can't give you a definite timeline.

Any other council questions? OK. Any public comment? Seeing none. Public comment, or council comments? Councillor Roberts?

Having dealt with this myself. The, the lease happened before I was on this council, but I, I fully support moving away from that program. I, I understand it completely. And I just, I, I, I know what Mr. Smith is talking about. So it's a good thing in my opinion.

Any other council comments? I will say that having driven the Chevy Traverse multiple occasions, good car. So got plenty of room. Good choice, sir. Okay, so can I get a motion to adopt Resolution 2437 and lay upon the record?

Motion to adopt. Second.

Okay. You know, because sound travels fast and Ms. Duran is closest, I'm going to give her the motion and Councillor Hayward second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. That's new rigs coming, sir. Okay. Updating the employee handbook. Mr. Smith.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, um, We as staff take a look at the employee handbook pretty much every year looking for making sure we're current on state law and other items. We're also wanting to stay competitive with our benefit package and pay system. And so this year we did a little bit more of a deeper dive into it than we did last year. So there's a number of changes that would change the benefit package, as well as a few changes that are dictated to us by changes made by the state. So I'm gonna do a brief summary. If you wanna hear more detail about any, please raise your hand. I can stop and do that. And then at the end, be happy to address any questions. So the first, I know it's a little bit odd, but we're proposing to remove the EAP program from our handbook. The program hasn't had any use in the last two years, and our insurance company is going to start itemizing our costs for that, and so we're proposing to remove that at this point. Hopefully, we can find some other options for us in that way, but at this point, we're looking at it as a cost-saving method. uh... we proposing to change uh... policy on the use of city on vehicles for city related travel we're trying to encourage that it's a less expensive option for us and so just changing as some of the language related to that uh... paid travel time uh... were clarifying that if if we're asking employees to go on uh... to do some training, that it doesn't matter whether you're driving the car or not. You're going to get paid to go there. Right now, BOLI only requires you to pay the driver of the car. The passenger who's the vehicle does not. So we didn't feel like that was a fair... So we've clarified what our policy will be. We're clarifying some of our bilingual pay policies, just that employees that are receiving it, they're required to use those abilities as we need them. And then also clarifying that they're required to maintain that language capability to continue to have the incentive. And then the state law change in this area is that we're now required to pay someone bilingual pay if they are proficient in American Sign Language. So that's proposed. The next one, longevity pay. This one establishes a rate of incentive for employees with 10 years, 15, or 20 years of experience, and that goes two, three, and 4%. And really, this is a way that we can show we value our longtime employees, many of whom, once you reach that 10-year, aren't going to receive anything other than a COLA because of our pay structure. And so this hopefully will help people stay with us for longer periods. Clarifying some vacation policy related to employees that are new. That that supervisors can grant unpaid leave if there's some you know pre planned vacation or something, even though it wouldn't be allowed to take paid vacation, they could have unpaid leave if if the supervisor were to approve that. Sick leave, these are some state law changes. So just some definitions related to what a family member is. And it also now we're required to allow employees to take up to four hours of sick leave a year to donate blood. So that's gonna be in our policy. clarifying some workers compensation really it's it's just getting the language to match what our practice and policy have been which is for the first 90 days the city pays the difference between the workers comp payment and and what their pay their normal pay would have been after that after the 90 days the employee needs to use some kind of leave if they continue to want to match what their former what what their normal rate of pay is based on the workers comp payments just changing the name of employee days to personal days it's easier understood proposing to add two new paid holidays the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve day in practice we've those have been The day after Thanksgiving, we've never been open, but we've required employees to take vacation or some other form of leave. And that was due to some overtime challenges in some of the departments, but we're now just proposing to leave it as a holiday and go with that. And then Christmas Eve day, almost every year that I've been here, we've shut down at noon on Christmas Eve. And so we're just proposing to make it a full holiday. Donated leave, this is a change related to the paid leave Oregon change that comes a little bit later, but we're reducing the amount That an employee can receive as donated leave from 600 to 120 and the those numbers are because under paid leave Oregon you get 480 hours of potential leave, and so it really we're leaving it at 600 available, but just. We're just trying to limit, I mean, try to put some sideboards on that amount of leave. But it also, it still allows discretion. If there's a circumstance that we need to help an employee out, we would still be able to go over that if needed. OFLA, this just clarifies that, The usage can be related to a child under the age of 18. Paid Leave Oregon. So Paid Leave Oregon allows us to do a self-funded, self-administered program rather than one through the state. And we just watched a number of employees try to utilize this program, and the state's bureaucracy was very tough to deal with. And so this, without really costing us any money because we are budgeting the full amount of their pay, it allows us to administer it on our own and be able to help them move much more quickly through the process without it costing the city any more money. And then there, now we're not making the contributions to paid leave Oregon. Both the employer and the employee would be retained. Deferred compensation, this is a benefit that matches what we bargained with the police union about, and this is that the city would implement a 1% contribution to a retirement plan for every employee. It would not be a match. It removes the match language that we had in there before. We're hoping that this can encourage a little bit more retirement savings by our employees. And it also saves some additional benefit costs of paying PERS and other things on top of a match.

Whereas if we're just making a contribution, it doesn't count in the other areas.

This animals in the workplace, we're just clarifying what our policy is on that. We are also adding some language, the ability for managers to designate where they would like employees to park at various buildings under whatever circumstances might be important. And then increasing the cell phone stipend from 40 to $50. It's been at that $40 for about six to eight years. Also just clarifying that we can, Make inspections of the workplace just just as kind of just updating our language, making sure it's clear, particularly in regards to cameras that are now more common throughout our buildings. Then also a basic artificial intelligence use policy. Again, we're right at the beginning of what this is gonna look like, so this is very basic, but we're trying to get started and then we will make adjustments as we learn more and as things develop. Just wanted to mention in the packet was a letter from the Hermiston Police Association supporting the longevity pay and the deferred compensation changes in particular because that was something that we did in the union contract. They feel like it's an important way for us to stay competitive, particularly in their industry, but they feel like it would be beneficial for the rest of the city as well. From a financial standpoint, I'll just highlight the two, longevity pay and the deferred compensation are the two large dollars Both of those are covered in the budget, but $124,000 for the non-union longevity pay and the $89,500 for the deferred compensation for the non-union employees that would be affected by this handbook. The paid leave organ, the total, all the employees' contributions would be about $881,000 that they would be saving as a group, and then the city would be reducing our costs by about $55,000. So those are the large dollars. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Council questions?

Councilor Roberts? Page 41, adding the ability to take four hours of sick leave for donating blood. I'm curious. Have we thought about allowing just on-duty time for that so they don't have to use it crudely? Because giving blood is important. Is that something?

This was a change we were required to make, but we didn't really look into that. Okay.

And then page 46, allowing the city manager discretion related to allowing more donated leave. Are we concerned that

we do that for one person we're setting a precedent then that might get us in hot water if we don't do it for others I definitely consider that okay when I make those decisions okay thank you Tesla okay I think this is on page 33 I'm looking in the short version so with the longevity pay It says if you have 10 years, you'll get extra 2%. That's on top of the 3% that everyone gets a year. Is that correct with the 15-year, 3%, 24%?

It is on top of their base pay. So if they got a 3% raise in July, they would also get 2% on top of whatever their base pay is.

Okay, and... What is the reasoning to want to even start a longevity pay?

kind of like I explained earlier, the trying to encourage employees to stay with us for a long time. And after, you know, eight years, our pace classification system is about eight years, you would only be getting a cost of living increase, there's no more step increases after that. So we're just trying to help encourage them to stay.

Okay, and what is the pay for the bilingual?

It's 5%.

So they get a 5% per year for this?

It's 5%. I mean, it applies to every check. I mean, it's 5% on top of their base pay.

Okay. So if a person come in there and they speak Mandarin,

No, the policy states that it has to be a language spoken by at least 10% of the community. So if we got to the point where we had 10% Mandarin speakers, then yes, Mandarin would be eligible.

So is the city keeping track of how many people that are here to speak a particular language?

I mean, we're watching as closely as we can, yes.

Okay. Well, with an individual that only speaks English, would they still have the opportunity to be hired if they qualify for the job?

Absolutely. We don't restrict that. It's just an incentive. If they do speak Spanish, then they can get a 5% bilingual pay.

Okay. Thank you. Okay.

My question is, I know that the police have their police union, but do city employees, are they unionized? No. And so in looking at kind of the contract and everything, it seems to me like that the police union was able to get the deferred comp through the negotiation and longevity pay. And so that then thus benefited all the other employees. Is that right?

Well, it's been a practice of the city for many years that we try the best we can to match the things that the union gets to what, so that the rest of the employees get similar benefits. We aren't always able to financially make that work, but yes, because that was on the, I mean, that came up in those discussions. That's why we looked at implementing it for all the employees?

Well, I think, quite frankly, it's fantastic that we're implementing these things. I know, at least at the school district, we try to get some deferred compensation. But I completely agree. I think it's going to encourage a lot of employees to contribute towards retirement. And I think that overall is a really good thing. I'm also a supporter of the longevity pay. I like the employees that we have, and I think it's good to treat our employees well and to pay our employees what they deserve. I think that makes happy employees, and that's going to make employees that aren't going to stay here a lot longer.

Thank you. Any other questions? Council Member.

In regards to the bilingual pay policies, what are the languages that we recognize? Is it just Spanish and American Sign Language?

Currently only Spanish. If or when this policy is adopted, then it would include American Sign Language. And that doesn't follow the 10% because the state says we have to do it no matter what.

I do have another question.

Make sure everybody else has a chance first. Any other questions? All right, Councilor Litt.

Excuse me. I would like to know how many people are getting paid the 5% a week or what are the paid?

How many? How many employees get the bilingual pay?

That's a lot. I'm just kind of wondering. Oh, you're counting the police force as well. I just want the city.

Well, I mean, I mean, that's part of the city. Thank you. I mean, but I would say that's probably they probably have six or eight of those maybe 10 police officers. So that means a third of that's about 10.

Okay, not counting the police department.

So another 10 to 15 employees. Okay.

Is that the ones that work on the front desk here or just through the entire department?

I mean, it's spread throughout the department, so we have a lot of street or water, wastewater staff that it really benefits as they're out working on a project and somebody's concerned and they don't speak English, they're able to address that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, public comment. Anybody? Council comments? None? Okay, I'll bite. No, I think I firmly agree with the longevity pay as a means of retaining good employees. You know, I... I know the value of retaining good people. And, you know, in this environment, it's difficult sometimes to do that. People like to move around. People want to go someplace else. And if, you know, they get a better deal, they're going to go someplace else. So if we have the best deal on the table, absolutely, let's keep the people we've got. You know, maintain the institutional knowledge maintain the the the base that we have you know people when people show up at at the front desk they want to you know they like being able to talk to the same people that they know and so. and Yeah, yes, absolutely. And so, and I'm glad to hear that we're getting, it looks like we're getting ASL included in that, you know, again, having that deal and spreading the I know that we do spread the uh Spanish speaking staff throughout the throughout the agency because again like like was brought up you know having somebody that's working on the street department or the or the road department or water department or the front desk you know obviously law enforcement That's beyond, I mean, it would be great if everybody could, but that's difficult at the very best. So I think what we're doing here is a good thing. So yay us.

And I would say I think every department has, almost every department, I guess, not quite, but almost every department has a Spanish speaker.

We encourage that as well in our job advertisements and such.

We have some who have learned Spanish. It's not their first language. They've learned it and are able to get to the level of proficiency to qualify.

I have a question. Is there anyone that speaks ASL or will you have to hire someone?

We won't have to hire anyone if we do hire someone who does speak use ASL, then we would have to give them the incentive, or we would give them the incentive.

All right. Thank you.

And I would, I'd also want to give a special shout out to Crystal Inners, our HR manager. She did a great job in helping us get these HR policies organized and put together. Good job.

No, we don't.

And she usually doesn't have to come to these meetings, so she's, you know.

All right. Way to go. Okay, so action. Can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2438 and lay upon the record? Move. Second. I'll give McCarthy and Hayward the dynamic duo on that one. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-1 with Councillor Linton in absentia. Opposition. Opposition. Thank you. Thank you. mess that up every single time. Okay, next up.

Carnegie.

Carnegie Building Process Update. Mr. Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, first I'll invite Cassie to... Cassie Hibbert to come up from the Wenaha Group. This is just kind of another check-in as we're going through the process. And I'll let Cassie kind of walk us through the building items, and then we'll go from there. Welcome. Cassie, it's going to be a minute before we get your presentation, but it'll be here.

Blink, blink. We get on hold music for this?

Jeopardy, see? I was with you.

If only we had a DJ.

It'd be for my Toyota Highlanders versus.

Oh.

Oh, not a good thing to say up here. Lily.

You want to click the click?

used to be F5.

Hey, good evening, everyone. I'm Cassie Hibbert, Senior Project Manager with Winnaha Group, and we're going to talk a little bit about your Carnegie building. Next slide, please. Okay, so the plan for tonight is we're just going to run through a few quick items here. Just to give ourselves a good introduction, we're going to talk a little bit about Carnegie Libraries in general. I promise that won't be too detailed of a history. And then we're going to talk about the recent building condition assessment for Hermiston's Carnegie Library. And then we're going to switch gears a little bit and we're going to talk about your current historic protections for historic buildings within the city of Hermiston and then a potential for a National Register of Historic Places opportunity and then talk about next steps at the end. uh so uh talking about carnegie libraries just a little bit in the uh in the beginning so these were libraries that were funded by andrew carnegie and then his corresponding corporation the carnegie corporation of new york intending to expand literacy education and access to knowledge so there were about 1700 carnegie libraries built in the u.s more constructed worldwide and we have 31 here in the state of oregon Any communities that were receiving Carnegie funding had to apply for it, and they had to provide a building site. They had to commit a local match for their funding, and they also had to commit to ongoing maintenance for that library. You'll see with Carnegie Libraries, they have somewhat similar designs, but they all had local control in how those designs were finalized and incorporated. So if you've seen any of the Carnegie Libraries in Oregon, they have some commonalities to them, but they all reflect the local character of their community. So about York Carnegie Library, which is just across the street, it was built in 1918. I covered some of that already. One of the things that's a little unusual for this building is it's a wood frame construction building with a stucco exterior, so it is not a masonry building. and it would be classified as mission revival style. The building does retain a lot of its historic character, including its original window openings, the original double hung wood windows. There has been some modifications to the building. On the front side, replacement of the entry doors, and then the ADA accessible ramp on the north side or the back side of the building. And then finally there was an addition on the building. We look we're not quite able to determine that date But just based on construction 1950s 1960s kind of in that time range the building served as your library until 1986 when the library moved next door and has since then been used for various purposes city offices and some temporary library services and So as part of this effort, the first thing that we did was to get out on site and take a look at the building with what's called a building condition assessment. So the assessment team was made up of different disciplines in the building industry. Winaha Group serving as project manager, Slaba Architecture and Consulting as architect and architect with a specialty in historic preservation. walker structural engineering as the structural engineer morris and mayor lee serving as mechanical electrical and plumbing engineering and then finally a separate site visit from apex who provided hazardous materials testing and both of those assessment site visits were during the month of june So what did we find in the building condition assessment? And I'll say good news is that your building is in good condition and it has been well maintained by the city. So you all can give yourself a pat on the back for taking good care of your building. There was a roof replacement done on that a few years ago, and as everybody knows, having a good roof is really important, and that was crucial to keep that building sound and protected for years to come. So good news overall. Everything I'm going to talk about for areas of concern and deficiencies are kind of one relatively minor in the scheme of things. So on this slide, we have some damaged and missing lath and plaster. We've got some ADA challenges in the building, not only on the front side, but on the backside. That ADA ramp is old. It is not compliant with current code. Your wood windows are not operable because they're painted shut. We've got a little bit of water damage on your roof eaves and your fascia. We were not able to figure out how to get into the attic, so we don't quite know what's in there, but everything else in that building was really dry. So, I mean, that needs some further investigation, but really should probably not be a problem. Next slide. So moving on to some structural and some hazmat, there is a beam in the 1960s addition that is deflecting a little bit. It's not a big deal, but needs to be addressed. The north side is pictured here because of those windows in the Claire story, it's lacking in some sheer wall from a seismic perspective. The downspouts need to get connected to drainage. We've got some minor hazmat. I've seen a lot of older buildings. This is really minor from a hazmat perspective. We've got a little bit of asbestos in the glue underneath the flooring and a little bit in some plaster down on the basement. And then it is an older building, so it does have lead paint that's super characteristic of that time period. Next slide. And then finally, out of the minor items, I'd say the ones that are on the larger end of the minor spectrum are related to electrical and some plumbing. So you've got some galvanized piping in that building, again, from that 50s, 60s edition that can be problematic at this age range. You've got a limited three-quarter inch domestic water supply, an old water heater. um electrical is kind of the big thing you're really at capacity for your electrical service and because it's been kind of added and changed over the years it just is lacks clarity in how that electrical panel is operating old fluorescent lighting lack of egress lighting you've just got regular on off wall switches you don't have any occupancy or daylight sensors There aren't any fire sprinklers in the building. Your fire alarm is operational, but it's an older system. And then, finally, your IT and your security cabling is pretty disorganized, though still operational. Again, all of those pretty minor, nothing in there that is a really big concern in that building. Okay, so that's what we saw when we did the buildings. So switching gears here a little bit to what you have for current historic protections in the city. So your code section 155.144 covers historic buildings and it's back from 1994. And there are five buildings in the city of Hermosin that are listed in that code as worthy of protection. the Hermiston Irrigation District building, the Carnegie building, which we're talking about today, the Skinner building, Donovan Bland building, and the Bliss building. So the current review process regarding those five buildings are that if you want to do any exterior alterations to those buildings, you have to get a conditional use permit. As part of that, the conditional use permit or the CUP application gets provided to the Hermiston Heritage Association and they're requested to provide a recommendation. My understanding is the Hermiston Heritage Association is maybe operating at a very minor level right now yep um so that cup application then goes to the planning commission and then the planning commission is responsible for determining if those proposed changes are compatible with the historic value and architectural integrity of that building Then there's an extra level in here if that building is proposed to be demoed that has i'm not going to go into that be too much here it's here for your reference, but that just has a much higher level of due diligence related to it okay next slide. oh i guess i have the clicker thanks okay um okay so um carnegie library now moving away from local protections and on to current state protections so oregon chippewa reviews historic properties under that ors code is listed here And that initial consultation happens for any building in the state, any public building in the state that's greater than 50 years old, whether it's on the National Register or not. And SHPO's request is that modifications to those buildings is made in alignment with what's called the Secretary of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation, which is kind of the gold standard in the preservation world. And I'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. okay so i'm looking at the national register of historic places this is the federal national register and right now in hermiston in the city of hermiston there are not any hermiston buildings on the national register so it is the official list of the nation's historic places and it can include districts like a downtown commercial district it can include a site it can include a building it can include archaeology it can include objects in legrand we have a clock that is part of our national dis or national register district engineering or culture. National Register properties have significance to the community, the state, or the nation, and there's more than 100,000 of these listed across the nation. So how this, I'm gonna skip this last one and kind of go on to the next slide, because I'll talk about it there. Okay. So I was trying not to do a too detailed flow chart here, but this is how the nomination process works to get on the National Register. So the very first step, and this is Oregon specific, is that you do a consultation with Oregon SHPO to determine if your property is eligible and that's already happened. So that's the green check mark here. So we submitted this to SHPO and they said, yes, we think that this property could be eligible. And I'll talk a little bit more about what they advised on that in the next slide. So then the next step after that is whether or not the owner of the property, in this case the city of Hermiston, would like to pursue a listing of the property. So if the decision is to pursue a listing, then a nomination document is prepared. It's a very detailed document. It's a deep dive into the history, and it gets submitted to Oregon SHPO. The next SHPO submission deadline from now would be in November of 26. Then there's about a three month period that involves public comment in the state of Oregon. And then there is the, I'm trying to remember my acronym here, we'll go back to the previous slide. I don't know if the clicker likes me. Okay, let's go back to the previous slide here real quick. Uh-oh, I think I broke it. Okay, I'm trying to remember my acronym. State Advisory Commission for Historic Preservation. Okay, so we'll go back. So they're the ones that actually review the listing document and then they make a recommendation on whether or not they think it is also eligible. From there, it goes to the feds. It takes about 45 days in the federal review done by the National Park Service. And then if the feds approve, then the nomination is officially listed. okay i think i still need help okay so um okay so what qualifies a property to be listed on the national register so i mentioned it had significance to the community but here this is in a little bit more detail so first a property has to be at least 50 years old only in very special cases can a property younger than that make the list It has to have demonstrated historic significance, and then it also has to largely retain its integrity to its original construction. So that would be original historic materials, appearance, and associations. And then over on the right side, there's four criteria as defined by the National Park Service. And the way I like to describe those is events, persons, characteristics, architecture, or artistic values. And then finally, the last one is information, which is more kind of about archaeology. So on the next slide, in our initial consult with SHPO, this is what they thought about it. So they said, yes, it meets all three of those over on the left, 50 years old, significant, retains integrity. And then over on the right, they thought that it had a potential to be associated with events because it is a Carnegie library. and then also potential to be associated with characteristics or architecture due to the mission revival style. Okay, I am not gonna read this whole slide here. It's here for your reference, but I mentioned the Secretary of the Interior has their standards. These are the gold standards for preservation, and it provides guidance for exploring modifications or additions to properties. Okay, so next we're gonna talk about just quick benefits for listing a property and then what you can do for modifications. So for the benefits of listing a property, we've got a few different buckets here. Cultural impact, connecting us, our heritage connecting us to the people and places around us. economic impact, preservation being a driver of heritage organizations and tourism, non-economic and sociocultural values, historic, cultural, social, spiritual, and aesthetic values. Next slide. Tax incentives, so this is more of a motivator for private owners, as this is a public property, it doesn't contribute to property taxes, so this would not be an incentive in this case. Grant eligibility, so with National Register designation, you can be eligible for State of Oregon grants. I've listed a few here, Diamonds in the Rough, Oregon Heritage, and Preserving Oregon. The Roundhouse Foundation grants, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has their own grant program, and then finally the Kinsmen Foundation. So National Register status does unlock some grant funding. And then finally the last one on here is building code leniency so if you have a historic building there can be some leniency on Code areas related to historic features, but that's really a conversation with your local building department Okay, so then the thing everybody always worries about being listed on the National Register is what are the restrictions? And the restrictions are really related to if you want to make changes to the building. So what we've done here is just listed what would be the changes from your current level of historic building status at the federal, state, and city level. So at the federal level, there's basically no changes unless you were using a federal funding source to do your improvements, and then you would be subject to some federal requirements. On the state level, you would have some very slight changes. So as I mentioned, ORS already requires that you consult with the state for buildings greater than 50 years old. So you'd still be doing the same consult, but SHPO would just be looking at that building through the lens of the community as granted a national register status. And then over on the city side, really no changes there. You've already got a process in place for review of your historic properties. But one thing that we noted when we were looking at this is it's not explicitly tied to the Secretary of Interior standards, which is the gold standard for preservation. So this is not part of tonight's conversation, but a couple options here could be to amend your current code for your historic properties to bring it in alignment with the Secretary of Interior standards. And then another more robust option is some Oregon communities have a certified local government program, which is a preservation-focused program. It's administered by SHPO, and it kind of unlocks some other grants, training, and technical assistance. And Pendleton, the Dells, and La Grande are all CLGs, as well as a number of other communities in Oregon. Okay, so two questions left to resolve for a potential Carnegie Library nomination are what we would do about the historic significance of the 5060s edition. It is more than 50 years old, so therefore is technically eligible, but it would need to have some further research on if it was a contributing part of that listing. So it could or it could not be part of that listing. And then the second piece is the building interior. So it is really common for exterior features to be part of a National Register listing, but interiors can also qualify based on their architectural merit. So it really depends on how that listing is written. Does it include the interiors or not? Okay, so next steps on this project in general is that in October, the plan is to bring back some budget options for building improvements, and then we'd like to have some council discussion on if to pursue a National Register nomination process. And at this point, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Smith.

Yeah, so first, if you have any questions City Council Chambers, John Pimentel, Cassie on any of the building assessment or anything can do that now or later, but as far as the nomination for national register status. City Council Chambers, I have in the staff report recommended that we do pursue that. City Council Chambers, Frankly, the fact that we don't have any buildings listed it'd be nice to have one maybe. Maybe we can build a little bit. We don't have a lot of history in that way. Even that limited list of buildings is really the historical buildings that are out there almost. There's maybe a few others we could find. So that's my thinking. And really, Cassie and I talked about this. There's really not a lot of change of what you can do with the building or not when you get it listed. A lot of people are really scared of that. But most of the limitations are if you're getting federal funds to do the project. Other than that, you can now you could change the building enough that somebody could come back and say, hey, that's not historic anymore. You changed it and it has to go off the list. That's a risk if you don't try to follow the standards and do those. But if we want to keep it as a piece of our history, I don't see the community kind of drastically moving away from how it looks. So happy to have any further discussion on that.

Questions? Mr. Kelso?

You mentioned that having it listed on the National Registry might get us out of some code requirements, perhaps, maybe-ish. Do those include maybe ADA requirements or seismic upgrades that might need to happen?

So like I mentioned with the code flexibility, that's a conversation with your local building official. But I believe that the Secretary of the Interior Standards do prioritize ADA access to that building. So that's not an area that I would recommend skimping on.

Okay. Just for the record, I wasn't recommending that. Thank you.

Other questions? I did. So this is for Mr. Smith. Who's on the Hermiston Heritage Association?

I'm not sure, Clint. Do we even know? Yeah.

Can we find out and get that back to the council? I mean, we should at least, this is something that we should at least know about.

I mean, the last time it came up was the the omg or the prior to that you know renovation and we really had a hard time even pinning down somebody but we'll do our best and i mean frankly we really ought to alter that ordinance to maybe find something out some other way to get some community feedback on that because we have a local historian that sometimes weighs in a little harder than we might like.

So, you know, as long as we're doing that, you know, at some point in time, you know, we have the five buildings that were listed. And, you know, I, for one, think that, you know, we should continue to look at that, especially like the irrigation district building. That's, you know, that's probably the... kind of the coolest, one of the coolest looking old buildings that we have in the city. So, you know, it's almost a waste that, I mean, and I don't mean to say anything bad about them, but it's almost a waste to use that building for something other than what it is. I think, didn't that used to be the library at one point in time?

No, I think it was built for the irrigation district. Was it?

Yeah. Oh, okay.

That's what I've been told.

Yeah.

Okay. Public comment? Seeing none. And then can I talk a little bit about the future of the building? So we've had a lot of really good meetings with the interested groups, and some of them are here in the audience. And so as I stated in the staff report, the historical group wants a little more time to kind of organize themselves and get ready to kind of have some more organized displays and things. And so the thought bubbles and the arts person are kind of working together. And so kind of that's their plan is that those two groups would start offering services in the building with the amateur radio group having a room in the basement to store and then be able to utilize other space in the building for meetings or different things. And so that's kind of the two items. One is, do we want to move forward with the national register? And then if I could get a, you know, a nod of the head or a motion to kind of go forward with putting together an agreement with the groups based on that outline of how we're going to go forward.

All right. So, okay. Now we're ready to start talking. All right. So council, we'll go with questions or comments. We're not ready for motions yet. Okay. I thought you said you're going to make a motion. Okay, go ahead.

smith apologize i missed what you said um what you just previously said about putting something together for yeah just getting kind of a more formal agreement with the groups that are interested in using it almost like a lease or something like that so that we can kind of move forward as once we've kind of made the improvements we need to then they can step in and start utilizing the building

So is it going to be with all three of them?

Yeah, so Thought Bubbles and the arts group will work together to provide some programs within the building. And the amateur radio group would like to utilize a room in the basement to store their equipment and then be able to have meetings and things like that.

And the other group was...

The oracle group, they're not ready to. They want to... Um, I mean, the game plan we talked about is potentially in about two years, uh, they would be ready and, and thought bubbles thinks their hopes, their program is going to grow and move forward and maybe need bigger space. And we'd be able to kind of switch out, um, at that point.

Okay. So then will that be in writing to then in the group, the historical group, and then, um, where are we going to have a motion on tonight? Did you want that tonight for, um,

the what was that national register yes so both looking for guidance on both of those okay all right thank you others

Councillor Hayward. I just have a comment. I think it's a great ideal for citizens to have this on the National Registry Registration. We can say everybody that's graduated from Hermiston and came from Hermiston can say, hey, we actually have something on the National Registry list here in Hermiston. I think it would be something to make citizens proud of their town.

Councillor Roberts. i agree and i i like the fact that it opens up grant funding that we can utilize because we know that we want to keep that building i i don't think anybody disagrees with that and we know that it's an important part of our town and so if we can get the funding then to help keep it in good shape and spruce it up i i think it's a wonderful opportunity for us okay others

Seeing none, try this again. Public comment? You sure? Okay. All right. Have a couple of actions. Staff recommends approval of both of these following decisions. One, to direct the city to work through the nomination process to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places, and to direct staff to move forward with agreements to formalize the plan for the use of the building. Can we do that as one motion, or do you need it?

I move that we take both.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. you calm down two motions two motions okay all right so can i get a motion to direct staff to work through the nomination process and place the building on national registry second of historic places you let them finish body to finish been moved by councillor linton seconded by councillor roberts roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes okay second Can I get a motion to direct city staff to move forward with agreements to formalize a plan for the use of the building?

So moved.

Second. Okay. Moved and seconded by Councillor McCarthy and Councillor Hayward. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Both motions pass unanimously.

Go get them, Tiger. Thank you.

Okay, good job. This is a great thing. Again, I'd like to see us move forward with maybe placing these other buildings on the registry if at some point in time in the future too, because they're cool. That's a technical statement.

Mr. Mayor, point of privilege, please. Okay. Permission to leave the dais.

Okay. All right. July 26th quarterly investment report. Mr. Smith. Mr. Palacios, please.

Good evening. I need my clicker, though.

Well... Oh.

Good evening, Mayor and Councilors. Tonight I have... Thank you. I have the He's catching me off guard, my apologies. So for you tonight, I have the June 30th, 2026 quarter ended June 30th, 2026 investment reports for the city of Hermiston. So total investments ending at the end of June were approximately $35 million, this included $24.8 million held in the local government investment pool, the treasury account. of that was about 1.9 million dollars was moved over to the lgip that's just um activity and as part of my cash flow i try and move as much into the treasury as i can to earn a little bit of interest even if it's only for a couple of weeks or 30 days We are at the end of the fiscal year for 2020-26. Interest earnings for this quarter ended were $378,000, of which $124,000 were from the Fidelity investments, and then the LGIP earned approximately $254,000. The fiscal year to date, at the end of the fiscal year, were $1.44 million between the two investment portfolios that we have. The Treasury pool was approximately $968,000. And Fidelity earnings were just a little under half a million dollars, or an average income. annual earning rate of 4.2%. I would like to point out that the pool account earned on an average right around 4% or investments that were held in the investment portfolio were just a little north of 5% at 5.1 in that range for the year. So the, and then for the fiscal year at the end of 2026, the total investments held were $34.1 million. And so with that, I'll take any questions.

Council questions? Public comment? Council comments? Welcome back, Councillor Barone, with your jacket on. Okay, can I get a motion to accept the July 2026 quarterly investment report? Motion to accept it. Second.

Second.

And moved by Councillor Hayward, seconded by Councillor McCarthy. Roll call. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, shoot.

Yes. Leave the room for a second and get all ahead of yourself. Motion passes unanimously. Next up, the monthly financial report. Mr. Smith. Mr. Palacios. Yes.

Good evening again. For you tonight, I have the monthly financial report sent in June 30th, 2026. So I will begin with the Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency. Just in case you didn't know, the fiscal year is now over at June 30th, 2026. Revenue and expenditures for the Urban Renewal Agency did meet expectations or exceeded them. Primary revenues in the Urban Renewal Agency are the property taxes. We had one large project that is now underway and started a little bit in fiscal year 2026, which was in the North Hermiston Urban Renewal Area. And that right-of-way acquisition is complete, and we are moving forward on getting that project going. For the general fund, monthly revenues ended over projection by about $1.8 million. All the revenues met or exceeded the budgeted amounts except from other agencies, which is primarily the vehicle for accepting grants from other agencies and other entities. The reason that that mean did not meet expectations was due to the one one of the state grants that we got for a traffic study that was paid directly from the state, instead of passing through the through the city so that's the only that's why those came in a little bit under expectation. oops. For general fund monthly expenses, we're under projections by about $380,000, but for the year ended under budget by approximately $1.3 million. I would point out that two departments were over budget, city council and public safety center. And the reason we left these, we could have come back and done a supplemental budget request, but we wanted to... wanted to just indicate that one of the reasons for for the over expenditures were training and so we wanted we took care of that in this current fiscal year and then the same thing with the public safety center which is now rolled up into public safety the police department operations um those were for single-time purchases that we just didn't want to um We didn't want to finance those with the, with the building project. So those were for computer and furnishings and things like that. So single-time purchases, but overall the general fund did come under a budget and under expend planned expenditures or goodness sakes. Special revenue funds, the observation here is for EOTech is that we are still underway for the RV project. It would just take a moment here. So that we are about two-thirds of the way through with the project out there, the RV spots. So we, the revenues reflected in that. and at the end of June 30 are the reimbursement for those construction costs as that ongoing project continues through the end of the last fiscal year and then now in the current fiscal year. For I'm happy to report the utility and the street funds are well ahead of revenues and under expenditures for ports, so there's nothing to highlight for those. I will say that for the regional water fund, we did come under revenues by about $234,000. This was due to an unanticipated maintenance and repair that shut us down over the winter and spring months is my understanding. But on the flip side, we are about $188,000 under projection. And so those offset each other almost entirely. And what's not reflected in here is that um we had our cash carry forward that that comes forward in the regional water system it was much higher than anticipated so that is offsetting that under revenue portion and then the under expenditure portion so we're we are ahead of where we plan to be anyways so um with that i'm happy to turn it over to mr morgan

Yes, there's a lot going on capital project wise right now. So geared Harper, again, through the end of June, they'd started construction. Northwest Second Street, that project is underway, moving along quickly. Regional water backup generators, they've poured sites to accept the generators. We're mostly waiting for delivery at this point, which will still take quite a while. The ASR project, we're getting near the end of wrapping up with what we'd consider to be Phase 1, which is everything we need to be injecting water, and we're getting close to bringing some agreements to the Council to begin moving forward with Phase 2, which is installing some of the improvements to actually pull water back out. That'll be a project coming up for... Uh, this next year, uh, the orchard, uh, waterline replacement project, uh, also moving along, uh, just this week. I think they're starting to do some of the line replacement work on the, the short little ninth street, uh, section of that project. The well six chlorination structure, it's gone vertical. I think they're going to be closing that in and start working on the interior here in the next couple of weeks. Dogwood, that's tied to the Northwest Second Street project. No major delays or concerns with that project. southeast 10th Street bridge project is continuing to proceed we're beginning to get into the kind of the aesthetic design component of that but still heading toward construction this winter the East Evelyn gravity sewer line project is being run by the same contractor that's working on the second dogwood project and they're kind of working those two projects in tandem And then Lift 7, just been working through some contract documents. They should be mobilizing here probably this next month in August to begin on that project in earnest.

And then the kind of the single general fund capital project is Sherman Park. And those plans are actually should go to the plan center and be out for contractors to prepare bids starting this week and then. It was August 18th that they would be due back. So probably the first meeting in September or the second meeting in August, we would be bringing back bids for hopeful moving forward with construction. So that's all we have.

All right. Any council questions on any of that? Councillor Litton.

Page nine. of the monthly financial report. Do you have it?

Yes.

Okay. Where it says miscellaneous and then it says unfavorable of 2.4 million. Could you explain that please?

That's that where we have the fund, the reimbursements for the RV part coming back from AWS.

Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none. Public comment? Seeing none. Public or council comment? Mr. Broome.

Just want to applaud the city. I can remember just a couple of years back, we were struggling to be above the minimum reserve. And I think at one point we even crossed the minimum reserve. And so we're looking really financially healthy and it's a really positive sign. So thank you, Mr. Palacios, City Manager Smith, and your guys' staff. It's great. We're above minimum reserve. We're much higher than that. And I think the city looks in good financial health.

Any other council comments? Only one I have is that Kind of embarrassed almost that we're the ones over overboard. But, you know, I guess we better balance our checkbook a little better there, boys and girls. Okay. Can I get a motion to accept the June 2026 monthly financial report?

Motion to accept. Second.

Second. Then moved by Councillor Hayward, seconded by Councillor Roberts. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously. Okay. We are at almost 930. We do have a few things left to go. So can I get a motion to continue if this goes beyond 10? Motion.

Second.

Okay. Roll call?

Yes.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

yes yes yes yes motion passes seven to one with counselor meyer in opposition thank you lord all right uh let's see committee reports any committee reports none okay that was quick line through that mayor's report, man, I don't have a whole lot to talk about today. Um, we do have, you know, I mean, there's been a lot going on in our region, not necessarily our city, but, uh, you know, with all the fires that are going on, I know that there are at least a couple of people in this room that have been working their backsides off because of it. And I wish to lay out Hermiston's, um, help and good thoughts towards all the folks that are out there working to keep the rest of the state safe during these dangerous times. We do have, you know, just as a reminder, there are atmospheric warnings out due to the smoke, so make sure you take care of yourself. Keep your air filters clean and and stay inside when you can you know it's it's nice we all want to be outside in the summertime but the smoke out there can can do you some damage so please be careful um aside from that aside from that and having to warn somebody to turn their cell phone off uh we'll go to the council president's report

Just want to remind everybody to have fun at the fair.

Oh, Lord.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks here.

Yes, we do have the fair coming up. Wow.

And a meeting that week and the parade also.

Thank you.

Okay, council reports. Any? Councilor Hayward. I would like to put to a motion that we look at electric scooters and EVs, safety, maybe some regulations. I've seen a lot of students, kids out there riding these EVs going very fast, riding on the streets and stuff. And if they get without no helmets or anything, if they get in a wreck, that's a huge, huge danger that they don't see, especially with how much power is behind those things. I've been doing some research. There's quite a bit of power that can do a lot of damage if they're not wearing a helmet and they wreck.

I think it was discussed at the last meeting.

Yeah, I think we did bring something about that. But I know that the city did put something out on that to the people, but Mr. Smith, you appear to have something.

Well... The chief and I have been talking about this after the last meeting, and we're pretty comfortable there's adequate laws addressing this that local regulation isn't going to add a lot. What we want to do is try to make an effort with the officers to get out. The chief's already directed them to go out, start talking to kids, and try to educate them about the law and what it is. In our next meeting, Mr. Mayor, I have a request for you potentially of reaching out to the school district to potentially be a partner in trying to educate and help some of these kids be a little safer. Sounds like a plan. Do we have a plan? We're happy to talk about it again. I would just say we don't really have a recommendation that we think we should add more law. We just need to be better at educating and talking to folks and If we need to, enforcing, but starting with the education piece.

I think I'm good with that. Resend your motion. Resend my motion. Okay, good.

All right. Any other council reports, Councillor Litton?

Okay. First, I want to start off by thanking Councillor Haywood for his questions. Those were very outstanding questions on the resolutions that you had.

Thank you.

Just wanted to say thank you for that, because I think that's what we should.

Councillor Litton, your mic.

Thanks. Sorry about that. We're voting in my constituency, so to see something like that was impressive. And I wanted to say thank you to Chief Edmiston, because I follow a lot of H let me see historically black foundation and things that are happening across the country is stirring a lot of people up and we don't have that happening here in Hermiston. So I want to thank you for your leadership and for how things are going here. I'm not saying the police department is perfect. Nobody's perfect. That's going to be perfect. But I appreciate that, uh, that effort and everything that you put in. And also there were a couple of police officers that went out by the park, you know, and I liked how they, it was homeless people and I liked how they respected and how they respected them when they were talking to them. And so I just wanted to say thank you for your leadership in that area as well.

Okay, Councillor Kelso.

Thank you. I just wanted to take a minute and congratulate the Oregon or Hermiston's little league softball team who got to beat out the rest of Oregon to represent Oregon at the regionals and then beat Alaska before being knocked out. I got to watch that on television and it was a great game and great opportunity for the city of Hermiston. So I want to congratulate that group. And I also want to thank the parks and rec department, the fence. around the play structure at horizon park came down a little while ago and i was able to take my granddaughters up there and have a great time on it and it's a great park and another job well done so thank you that's for roberts i want to take an opportunity to reiterate what the mayor was talking about with the wildfires because i've been quite deep in that this week and um

I just want to put out there that there is a burn ban and please, um, pass on to your friends and family that we don't need extra fires out there. So campfires backyard fires, um, please don't flick your cigarettes out the window or, I mean, just be really cognizant. It is very, very dangerous out there right now. Uh, Hermiston is not immune. Uh, although my focus this week was the 15,000 acre plus fire up on Western mountain. We had quite a fire, a couple of them over here, just outside of Hermiston. And so we're not immune. So I just, I begged the public to look at that burn ban and heed the burn ban. We just, we need a break from all this smoke and stuff. And our firemen need a break. They've been very brave and out there and doing a wonderful job. So that was it. Thank you.

Thanks, sir. Any others? Okay. No youth advisors. Mr. Smith.

Two quick items. The city appreciation picnic is on September 10th. And I think you received a notification about that. If you're planning to come, please let us know so we can plan food. We're not doing it at the pool this year. This was kind of a consensus of the employees. Wanted to do something different, so we'll be at... theater sports park and have lots of different activities to do. So please let us know if you're going to be able to come. And then at your spot, there should be a commemorative coin. Parks and Rec put this together to help us celebrate and also want you to keep your eye out for a September 11th event that we're working on to commemorate the 25th anniversary and as part of the overall 250th. So keep your eye out for that event.

Okay. Next up, we're going to recess for executive session. The City Council of the City of Hermiston will now meet in executive session in the executive session room for the purpose of discussing matters pertaining to litigation with legal counsel. The executive session is held pursuant to ORS 192.660, number 2E, which allows the council to meet in executive session, conduct deliberation with persons designated by council to negotiate real property transactions. Representatives of the news media and designated staff shall be allowed to attend the executive session. All other members of the audience are excluded. Representatives of the news media are specifically directed not to report on any of the deliberations during the executive session except to state the general subject of the session as previously announced. No final decisions will be made in executive session. At the end of the executive session, the council will return to open session in which the audience may attend. Executive session will last approximately 10 minutes.

We're going to do the new business when we come back?

Yeah. All right, got everybody back. Okay, we are going to reconvene the Hermiston City Council and or Hermiston City Council. Do we have anything else to add? No? Okay.

I have a question for Byron, but I can't remember it.

Well, he will be here. We hired him to be here. All right. We're going to adjourn the Hermiston City Council meeting and convene the Urban Renewal Agency and call to order new business. Facade Grant, Christian Realty Group.

No.

Everybody's here. All right.

Mr. Smith. Mr. Spencer.

Mr. Spencer.

So tonight you are considering a facade grant for property located at 396 East Ridgeway. It's the location of the Christiansen Realty Office. They are undergoing some, or planning I guess, some facade improvements, installing some fencing, siding, paint, landscaping, several things. They submitted a proposed budget of $50,000 for their exterior improvements. The Planning Commission reviewed and scored the application at their July meeting and recommended a 50% match. However, they are capped at $20,000 for the match, so they're recommending a $20,000 reimbursement upon completion of the improvements.

Any questions? No? None? Any public comment? No? Okay. Member comment?

I just want to say I really appreciate having the scoring of the committee members. I think there was a time where we didn't. So this makes it a lot easier for me to make a decision. So thank you.

TODD BANDUCCI- OK. Any other comments? Can I get a motion to accept the Planning Commission's recommendation of a 50% match at, or 20, is it 20,000? Not capped at 20,000. Motion. Second. Moved by Member Hayward and seconded by Member Roberts. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously 7-0. Do we have any other business for the Urban Renewal Agency? We're adjourned.