City Council - Regular Meeting

He's ready. All right, it is 7 o'clock. Therefore, we're going to start the November 10th edition of the uh Hston City Council and uh meeting with a declaration of a quorum. Um we have uh councelor Meyer who is not with us tonight. Can I have everybody uh rise for the flag salute, please?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. See, Manager Smith, do we have any changes to the agenda? No changes.

Right. Well, started out right from the beginning. Do we have uh this is the uh time for the citizen input on non-aggenda items? Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council that is not on tonight's agenda is asked to please do the following. Please limit your comments to not more than five minutes. State your name and address and direct your comments to me. Anybody wishing to do so? Seeing none, moving on. Consent agenda item. All right. So, we have consent agenda items A through I. Does any are there any council questions on consent agenda items A through I? Seeing none, public comment on consent agenda items A through I. Council comments. Does the council wish to remove any items? Councelor Roberts.

I would like to remove item I please. item I to be removed to later. Okay. Uh any others? Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A through H? Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Been moved by councelor Hayward and seconded by councelor McCarthy. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion carries. All right. Um moving to consent agenda item I. Councelor Roberts.

Uh item I is about the cancellation of the December 22nd, 25 uh 2025 council meeting. Uh, I just figured instead of uh quietly passing that through the consent agenda, I wanted to make sure it was publicly announced uh if if approved that we would be cancelling that meeting. Other council comments. Okay. Uh, does public have anything they want to throw out at that one? Okay. Um, council comments. All right. Uh, so motion to approve consent agenda item I. So moved. Second.

Moved by councelor McCarthy, seconded by councelor Linton. Hang on here. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Council motion passes unanimously. resolutions. Resolution 2396 initiates the comprehensive plan map amendment and annexation process for 19.5 acres of land located at 1835 East Airport Road. City Manager Smith.

Yeah, Mr. Spencer. Uh, tonight you have a resolution in front of you to begin the process to bring into the city a 19.5 acre parcel that's located at 1835 uh East Airport Road. The property is owned by Farm City Pro Roo. It is directly adjacent to the access road for Eotech and the Heroes Complex and currently lies within our urban growth boundary and has an F1 zoning designation with the county which is a farm use. Uh in order to develop this property, it needs to be in the city limits to receive water and sewer. And in order to bring it into the city limits, we need to change that F1 farm designation to a city designation. This resolution in front of you tonight directs staff to set hearing dates on those questions. Uh no other action is taken tonight, but city would then schedule hearings on this in January.

Okay. Council questions. Seeing none, public comment. Anybody in the public have anything to say? Seeing none, council question or comments? None. Okay. Can I get a motion to adopt resolution 2396 and lay upon the record? So moved. Second. Let's see. Again, tie goes to the runner. We got a motion by councelor council. Councel. Yeah. I'm sorry. And councelor Hayward on the second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Resolution 2397, master fee schedule recycling rate. City Manager Smith.

Yes, Mr. Morgan. Yes. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. This evening, we're asking you to update the city's master fee schedule to add a fee for uh curbside recycling service that we expect to add next year. Uh so again, this uh resolution simply establishes $8 per month fee for curbside recycling. Uh important to remind everybody uh that we're well past, you know, the point of deciding whether or not to implement curbside recycling. Uh that decision was made for you by the state legislature in 2021. Uh so they're implementing um this statewide requirement for all communities to have curbside recycling. And it's a new program uh where ultimately the producers of material and recyclable material that gets sold into the state of Oregon are responsible for paying for a portion of the eventual cost of recycling those materials. So that was approved in 2021 and now we anticipate being able to finally roll this program out uh here next calendar year. Uh so it's a new uh curbside recycling mandate ultimately for all cities in the state over 4,000 population as well as the urban growth boundaries. And so uh that mainly impacts communities in our area. So Hermiston has the distinction of being uh the largest community in Oregon that did not previously have curbside recycling followed closely by Pendleton. Uh but also it'll impact the cities of Umatil and Boardman. uh technically will not impact um cities of Sanfield, Iran, Echko, some of those other smaller communities uh because they're still not at that 4,000 population threshold, but it will impact a number of communities in our neighborhood. Again, uh the city of Hermiston, we've generally just been along for the ride as this program gets rolled out by the state. Uh that required a lot of different steps uh to go through. uh the state uh ultimately finally landed on establishing a statewide recyclable materials list. Uh as you can imagine,

you know, one of the the reasons for this program ultimately was also just simply having consistent recyclable materials all around the state. So it was not uncommon over in the Portland area uh for different communities to you know allow different types of materials to be recycled. And so ultimately that just creates an inefficient recycling system. So uh that was one major component of this process was establishing you know what is even going to be allowed uh to be recycled. Uh depending on establishing that list ultimately makes a big u impact on uh what the uh recyclable um recycling haulers like our provider sanitary disposal. You know what types of trucks and carts they even need to obtain uh depending on what those materials would be that we would be required to collect. Uh, so we've been waiting to get that recyclable materials list for a couple of years. Then ultimately having that nailed down, then that leads to the following questions of, you know, if we're going to go out and buy these half million dollar trucks and, you know, a couple million dollars of carts and those types of things, we need to make sure that we're actually going to get reimbursed uh for those through this this new system. And then uh finally this summer uh came the inevitable lawsuit from the material producers against the state uh alleging that the entire system is unconstitutional. So, uh, it's been an interesting, uh, past several years in implementing this, uh, program from the state. Uh, but we're now at the point where the rubber is meeting the road. So, uh, the trucks and carts for our area have been ordered. Uh, so, uh, those have been ordered and now, uh, sanitary disposal is asking all of the communities uh, that have to be implementing this program to actually establish a rate in order to guarantee uh, the financing uh, to back up uh, the purchase of uh, all those capital assets. So, uh, without further ado, the proposed rate is $8 per month. Uh, and that would be for a 95gallon cart,

95gallon recycling cart. Uh, and that would be picked up every other week. Uh, so that's fairly common in a lot of places to have uh rather than a smaller cart picked up every week, have a 95gallon cart picked up every other week. So, uh, that's really the the very basic uh components of the price. Uh so now we'll kind of I think we need to it's important for uh council and everyone to kind of understand um what this is going to mean and and I think a lot of that gets back to just simply understanding what we mean by solid waste in general. You know I'm probably using um incorrect terminology uh to a certain extent. Uh but generally speaking, I think a lot of folks should probably consider solid waste to be an umbrella term uh that includes both garbage and recyclable materials. So, uh important to keep in mind if you're thinking about your own household, um prior to tonight, your household is going to generate, you know, a certain amount of waste in the household that you ultimately need to get out of the household every week, represented by that, you know, black plastic bag. After tonight, your household is not going to be generating any more or any less solid waste. Uh, this will just simply give you another option for how you remove that solid waste from your household. So, um, you're not going to be generating any more any less as a result of this. You're just adding an additional line of service. So, uh, currently, uh, in Heriston, uh, the single most common, um, garbage service, uh, that we offer is the 90gallon garbage cart emptied once a week. Uh but now we will also be uh offering or being required by the state uh for every household uh to also have that 95gallon uh cart uh in addition to whatever their garbage service is. So again, you're still going to have the exact same amount of household materials that you're going to try to get out of your house. Uh you've just simply added additional capacity uh to the tune of

about 47 and a half gallons of disposal capacity every week on top of whichever um garbage service you choose. uh to subscribe to. So that then kind of leads to the question, you know, if uh the state is requiring uh everybody in Hermiston to have an $8 a month recycling service, is that really a cost increase or, you know, depending on how you look at it. Again, we're we're really just expanding the options. So, uh a lot of it comes down to what your household chooses to do in terms of removing the solid waste from your your household. So, this is just an example from my household specifically. So on the right hand side there you can see that is our existing uh garbage service. So you know we had a lot of diapers rolling through the household there for a while. So I simply had to just get an additional garbage can because there was just too much stuff going through the house that I need to get out of the household every week. And so uh we have a 90-gallon garbage cart that costs $29 a month. But additionally we also have a 35gallon garbage cart uh that costs $17 a month. So in total we have about we have 125 gallons a week of disposal capacity and that costs our household $46.51. Moving forward uh once we add the recycling service on the lefth hand side uh I fully plan on just simply eliminating the 35gallon garbage can. So I will still have a 90-gallon garbage can won't have the 35gallon garbage can. So that eliminates $1746 a month in garbage costs. Uh but now we will have access to 47 12 gallons a week of recyclable capacity and that's going to cost $8 a month. So in total, now I recognize my household is in a very unique situation. Uh but on net, my household will actually end up with a net increase of about 12 gallons per week of capacity to get solid waste out

of our household. And our total cost each month will actually go down uh by $946 under this uh proposal. Now, I know uh some folks were, you know, questioning me and saying, "Oh, I don't know. You're really going to be able to divert some of that recyclable material into your recycling canister?" And I was looking at my garbage can in my um kitchen this morning and I noticed in my garbage can there was a plastic milk jug, a plastic uh butter margarine container. Uh there was a a ketchup bottle and there was a like a big gallon sized uh u vinegar container. My wife thinks vinegar cleans everything. So literally, you know, that takes up a lot of space. um you can crush some of those things down, but ultimately it takes up a lot of space and every single one of those will be able to be diverted into a recycling container moving forward. So, I really do believe that in you know our uh situation uh we'll easily be able to convert u eliminate that 35gallon garbage uh service and have that replaced by the recycling uh service. So that's my household, but as I mentioned, a lot of this is going to be choose your own adventure, and it comes down to, you know, each individual household's needs, uh, and really what they value more. So, you know, there's another example of, you know, a different type of fiveperson household. You know, you could have a household that has a bunch of adults or teenagers. You know, they very well may, you know, need to have two 90-gallon garbage carts. You know, that's becoming common. You know, I see it a lot out in the the neighborhoods where you'll see households with two 90-gallon uh garbage carts. So currently their total cost is $58 a month. You know, it very well may make sense for them that maybe they couldn't quite squeeze down into before having a 90 and a 35. Um they really needed that 90 and a 90. Um but so adding that recycling cart, you know, they may be able to just reduce one of those 90-gallon garbage carts down to a 35. Um, in this instance, they will see

a net reduction in weekly capacity by about 7 and a half gallons per month. But that would also save that household an actual cost about $359 a month. So that's where I make the point that some of it comes down to the individual household choices and individual household values. You know, if they value more having that additional capacity, uh, then they don't have to, you know, downgrade their service. they could keep the 290galon carts in which case they would value that capacity more uh than the financial cost. So that's an option for that household. On the complete other end of the spectrum though I'm not going to say that everybody's going to save money. So um there are uh certain households that they are completely I guess what you'd consider to be optimized in terms of their solid waste um service currently. Uh so think of you know the single widow or you know myself when I moved to town. when I was 24 years old and there'd be weeks where I'd have like maybe one bag of trash in my my trash can. Uh so some of some households they're already at just a 35gallon garbage cart and it works just fine for them. Um but the state is now requiring them to also add a uh recycling service. Uh that is, you know, they were they had plenty of capacity before. Now they're being required to add additional capacity for that type of a household. They have no other choice. uh the state's going to require them to to add about $8 a month uh to their solid waste services. And then last example, I mean, there's again lots of examples, but you know, there's other examples of, you know, the empty nesters. People just get used to having a certain type of service. You know, if you have a couple of kids and then they end up, you know, going through high school, they leave. Um, you may be used to having a 90-gallon garbage service, but if you have a couple of uh adults who work outside of the home, you know, they're rarely at the home, you know, they may very well be able to just simply downsize their 90-gallon cart to a 35gallon cart. And so, again, they would probably they have the option to save uh actual financial uh costs if that's what they choose to

do. So, next steps moving forward, um adopting this resolution this evening would set those rates effective immediately for recycling. Uh but important to understand no customers are actually going to get charged for recycling immediately. Uh nothing will be charged until the service actually begins. Uh we're just adopting this rate so that's there once the service begins. Uh and that will begin as soon as the trucks and carts are um uh received and and put into service and commissioned and we hire drivers and those types of things. Uh a lot of that depends on when they actually get delivered. So at this point we're still just using the very generalized 2026. So, uh, more details to come when that actually arrives. Uh, also important to know, we're not just going to suddenly drop, you know, these recycling bins out in front of everybody's house and expect them to know what to do. So, there will be significant uh, public outreach in the months leading up to when we actually roll this uh, roll this system out. So, with that, I would stand for any questions. Also, I would point out that Kevin Miracle with Sanitary Disposal is in the audience here this evening, and so he could answer some additional questions if you have those. Council questions. Council Hayward.

I got a couple of questions. Um, one is what right now our recycling does get recy our trash gets recycling as it gets to wastage management gets put on a truck then goes to a separation place. Am I correct? Yes. So with this there's no benefit for a citizen to say, "Hey, I need to have this." Can they opt out of not having this bit? No. Well, the state's requiring every uh residential customer to have rec curbside recycling.

Well, I I think there was just a little misunderstanding in that question. Nothing Everything that goes in your current garbage can is going to the landfill ultimately. It's not being recycled. Everything that goes in the garbage can is going to the landfill.

Yes. Yeah. Garbage can, landfill. stuff it like gear road that's the stuff that's source separated and and is taken to different vendors to have them go through it. So the glass goes a glass of glass in Portland or cardboard goes to a mill in Toledo and so like say a company decides to throw cardboard trash plastic and everything in a trash can and just send it to the dump that's not getting separated. No, no. Once it goes in the once it goes in the garbage truck, it's not getting separated. That's why we're going to have a separate cart on the curb so you can put that material into the other cart because that's going to be processed different and also tipped in a different location at the transfer station.

I do see alcohol that citizens are not going to be happy with this $8 fee and be like, "Hey, I didn't sign up for this and I don't want to do it." Other questions? So just for my understanding there will be a 90-gallon cart provided by sanitary disposal as well as a 35gallon cart. No.

No. So um 90gallon cart is one option for garbage service. You also have the option for a 35gallon cart. What is new is a 95gallon recycling cart. And so, uh, residents will still be required to maintain garbage service, however they want to do that. So, if you currently have a 90-gallon garbage cart, you may choose to downgrade your garbage service down to a 35gallon cart or, you know, any mix or match of those types of things, but you'll be required to have the 95gallon cart that's serviced every other week for recycling. And this is something that came about because of the legislature,

correct? Not because it was something that we the city dreamt of, but something that passed back in 2021. Correct.

Yeah. I can I can give you just a little quick background. I won't go into too too deep, but back in uh 2017, China, who used to buy all of the material, um they basically said they were done. So, they stopped taking the material. And that that left the recycling programs in the state of Oregon and across the country just scrambling from, you know, from us the haulers to the facilities that are, you know, we were just completely blindsided by it. So this what what the um what Oregon did, they decide to make sure that the end market for every single thing that that is on the list um make sure that it actually has an end market. So it's just not going to China and they you know they burn it or throw away or you know even stuff you know gets thrown away that's mixed with it. So this is one of one of the main reasons and to get every community in the state of Oregon to have the same it's the same if you go to Medford, if you go to Portland it is to come out to Eastern Oregon. So everything's going to be the same. one of the, you know, with the the price for, you know, every other week at eight dollars, the, you know, for our for the trucks to be paid for, the carts to be paid for, the educational material, the outreach, um, and even the, um, contamination education, all that and and the trucking from when we dump it at sanitary and take it in to Portland, you know, a lot of that stuff's paid for, so none of that price gets pushed on to the customer. So the pricing that you see in Irma or in eastern Oregon is a lot cheaper than it is in the Portland metro area because a lot we have a lot of the upfront capital funding

and I was simply just asking the questions. We have had you present before so as the council we were aware of the price increase. Uh, so this is I'm just asking for clarification for those in the audience or those that may be tuning in on YouTube. Thank you,

Dr. Kel. So, was your Okay. Um, I know we established there's the 95gallon um for recycling, but um for people who are interested in kind of going the zero garbage route or who end up producing more than 95 gallons of recycling, will there be options for either additional um containers or what is what is their option? Yeah, and I I need to correct something on that. If somebody wanted a second cart, we would give that uh free. So, if they're producing more recycling than that, then we would we'd allow them to have another recycle cart. Okay. Thank you. I'll mark I'll fix that in the in the fees.

Council,

so I I come from the west side where I live for a long time and we've done this for a long time and I hated it then and I'll probably hate it now, but um we had these red buckets where we put glass and motor oil. Is that the same here? Are we going to be tossing motor oil in the bin as well? So glass is only going to be available at the depot. The depots are going to look a lot different as we kind of transition through this because there's going to be a there's going to be a lot of other material. It's a harder recycled material that's going to be available to be recycled at the depots wherever, you know, wherever city of Hermanson decides to put the depot. But from the green propane bottles to styrofoam, film plastic, stuff like that is basically what it's going to look like at at the depots. And they will be manned and they will have um they will be fenced and they we will also um somebody somebody will be there the whole time in order to watch what people are bringing in so it doesn't turn into kind of a big mess. The oil um you I don't have we're not doing that now. You know we take it at the transfer station. It's I I'll have to look into that. you know, putting oil on a truck sometimes is kind of bit of a nightmare.

Yeah. You know, they don't always seal and then you end up leaking on the street. So, y um but I'll definitely look look into that piece. Okay. My second question is, and this is for the public, I I I think it would be good to have your affirmation that this $8 increase is not going in any way to increase your company's profits. This is simply to meet the state mandate. Is that correct? Yeah. I mean, we still have to pay. You know, what we're going to get is um any profits would actually go to paying for drivers, mechanics, um whatever it costs to maintain the trucks, health insurance, and stuff like that.

Those are all costs associated with the mandate. Those are not going to your bottom line to your to your profit. Is that correct? Um I I will find out that for you. I'm sure I'm sure that there has I'm sure there's a profit in there a little bit for your company.

Mhm. Wow. Okay. Councelor Hayward. Uh, wait. Nope. Councelor Roberts, I have three questions down. Um, first of all, um, I'm curious about apartment buildings. Um, are they going to need to do curbside recycling and how does that work? Yeah, we uh we have the option uh that they can have a 300galon cart and so we can put that um that that'll be part of this first transition is doing curbside residential and ult and ultimately multifamily also the commercial businesses will fall in a little bit later as as a program kind of advances.

What is the fee for for the apartment the 300galon? Oh, what is it? Is it 24? I think it's so it's not $8. It's It's Well, when 90 times three, it's Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's the same. It's the same price. It's in the volumes the same. Okay.

Um I know I I was reading um kind of the background. You gave a little bit on it on the legislation from 2021. Um the proponents uh who you know ended up passing this bill basically were saying that this was not this was in intended to uh have the cost borne by the producers of the the recyclable materials and industry and not so much the the rate payers. Um I guess I'm I'm curious especially in light of of there being a profit margin there. Um, what is preventing sanitary disposal from absorbing this cost so that the rateayers don't have to?

Well, it's not anything that we're requiring to do. It's the state of Oregon that's doing it. So, as us just being a service provider, we're not going to absorb that cost. And then, uh, and this is u as much for for staff as anything. Um, what happens if this fee increase is not adopted? what is the the penalty from the state or what is the recourse the state has?

You know, that's an interesting question that I don't know that we've even really looked into. Uh I'm sure we would eventually start to get fined by the state if we're not rolling this out because again, you know, we rely on sanitary disposal. They're a private for-profit company, you know, so uh like every uh private for-profit company, they need to have a a profit motive. They're not doing this just for fun. Um you know, we're paying them just like we would if we were doing it ourselves. And so if we don't approve a rate, um, then they can't, you know, follow through on the requirement that we're asking them to do and go collect for us. So then we, the city, we would ultimately be the the ones that would be out of compliance as far as DEEQ's perspective. So the city would be the ones that starts to acrue fines down there. Yes, [clears throat]

I had a question regarding the recycling bin size, but I think I might have answered it myself. So, the this recycling, it's 95 gallons, but it gets picked up once every two weeks. Yeah. Is that right?

Okay. And so, that's where the 47 and a half comes in. Okay. I was wondering if there was a smaller because I see that the recycling container is bigger than the even the the garbage container, but if it's getting picked up every two weeks, that makes sense. I guess something smaller if people are opting to have a smaller size that they're wanting to recycle to pay less of a bill. And as opposed to the garbage, we actually have to have the recycle. Does every customer have to have a recycling container then?

So in our current code, every residential address is required to maintain adequate solid waste service.

So we don't have a good definition of what that means. And so our intrepid city attorney is developing that for us. So uh but uh yeah, so you're required to have adequate service. And so ultimately I think where that comes in is if you have a residence that is constantly, you know, overflowing with garbage, they have garbage, you know, that gives the city the ability to site them for lacking adequate, you know, solid waste service. So it's a roundabout way of saying it's not expressly required that you have to have that um service if you're somehow managing to take care of your waste yourself. Understand? Thank you.

Okay. So, any others that haven't talked already? Okay. I talked already. Well, I mean questions. Okay. I'm good. Yeah. Um my question is now is what's going to say if somebody does get this and just choose not to use it and just use their normal garbage, is there a fine for them throwing stuff in the trash or what's the incentive of making somebody use this? because there's they're still gonna have it's going to be a mandatory service. They're still going to have to have they'll still pay for the service regardless if they use it or not.

I think correct me if I'm wrong, counselor. I think he's Were you getting it? If somebody's just putting garbage in the recycling can. Well, say I have the can. I have to pay for $8, but I don't put it out every week, but I just throw everything in the trash can. There's no incentive me to use it. You're studying. That's what I'm getting at. I can see somebody doing that. It's not helping. It's being the purpose of what the job that's there for. Now, I gotta pay $8 for this can. I don't want the can. I just want to throw everything in the trash can. I can see a citizen saying that and complaining that to the city. That's what I'm saying. Is there a fine for me throwing not recycling? That's what I'm getting at.

Well, I don't think there's a fine, but you you regardless if you use a card or not, you still have to pay for the service. You can't opt out. Council Kelson, thank you. Um, so I'm curious about the guy who just throw throws all his garbage in the recycling bin. What are we going to do about that?

So there I can touch on that. So um, you know, we have educational programs. Uh, some of the trucks are going to be equipped with a version of AI. So it'll be a process of educating the customer as we kind of go through because you don't we don't want to throw trash in there. It completely defeats the purpose. And not only is it mess up the recycling itself, when you send it to a processing plant, the safety aspects of throwing trash in there, people are sorting it are bad. So, you know what? I've been doing this for quite a few years and I kind of grew up in the Portland areaish. And I'm familiar with kind of some of the certain areas that are um a little difficult when it comes to having clean recycling. One of the things that, you know, my plan is to make sure that we have one of the cleanest recycling programs in Eastern Oregon. Um, you know, I I'm I'm tolerant to a certain extent when it comes to contamination, you know, educating the customer. Um, so I I'll be boots on the ground to make sure that everybody's doing it right and, you know, having a conversation. If if I have to go out there and have a conversation with somebody about, you know, why why we need to do this correctly, then I will, too.

So, what is the recourse if they're obstinate? Well, I I think you're just going to get to the point where if if they're going to keep doing it, then we're going to have to stop, you know, taking the recycling, then I mean, I think we can probably work through it and get it figured out. Okay. And my second question is a follow-up to one of my first questions, and that is that now that we've established that part of this $8 increase goes into your company's profit, can you tell us what percentage of that $8 will be your company's profit? I don't have it off the top of my head, but I can tell you on average between 8 to 12%. Okay? And that's, you know, for franchises in the state of Oregon, that's about average.

Okay? Thank you. Okay, my turn. Um, couple of questions in regards to you've you've talked about I've heard you you speak about it um to a certain extent, but talked about the cleanliness part of things. Is that going to be a requirement? Is is that it has to be like milk jugs have to be rinsed out and you know if you're putting paper plates in there is you know if food is on the paper plates is that going to be an issue? these type of you know that type is that you know is that going to be an issue?

I mean it it I mean eventually yeah it will be an issue but you know if if you're doing your best to rinse it or you know say you have a pizza box with you know minimal stuff on it that's not going to be an issue. There's a certain amount of food that you know that we're going to see not everything is going to be 100% clean. So, I would be more concerned about somebody actually throwing a plastic bag into the recycling or, you know, trash versus, you know, maybe having a little bit of tomato sauce on a on a pizza box. So, you're not wanting like say, oh, I know in my house, you know, we put everything in trash bags and then it goes into the garbage. You're not wanting trash bags with the recycling holding the recycling going into the

recycling bin. Correct. Everything needs to be loose inside the inside the bin. That's something that's going to have to be very very well Yes. put out. Um, next question is for Mr. Morgan and Mr. uh uh Smith. Um, currently we offer a subsidized or a lower cost uh for low income people that that qualify to have a a lesser charge for for uh garbage pickup. Correct. I Yeah, minimally.

So, is that something that could be looked at? It could be. It's it would have to be subsidized by all the other users. I you know I I understand. I mean you know the the amount I can't imagine the amount of people that we have that get the lower rate.

I don't have that off the top of my head. This this is something that I would I would I would like personally I don't know about the rest of the council but I would rather you know take a look at is you know if we if we're if we're charging a lower you know the lower income or paying uh you know a lower price for their regular garbage you know like you know like um you you had the widowerer up there that was getting a you know getting charged for this for the 35gallon container and they qualify for a a lower rate for that garbage container, that garbage pickup. Would that translate to a possibility of being able to uh paying a lower rate for the uh the uh uh recycle bin as well.

The rates as proposed currently would not include, you know, that for the recycling piece, but it's something that could be considered in future rate adjustments. So, if this was something that we were interested in accomplishing instead of passing this today, would that be something that you could bring to us in the future?

Yeah, I think where I was going with that is in future rate adjustments, that's something that could be added in and considered. So, if that's something that the council would like us to look into, we could probably come up with a rate. Um, knowing that that's probably going to adjust the rest of the It probably won't be $8 a month for everybody else. It'll probably raise everybody else's rate by a certain amount, but that's something we would have to bring back to the council. I would I would like to know how many people currently qualify at for the 17 and as opposed you know for the for the smaller the smaller amount the smaller I would like to know how many people that that accomplishes because you know if the if the number is small enough I don't see a need to pass that on. It's not you know it's not going to cost us that much. It's I don't you know sorry but you might have to eat that. But uh that's a uh you know we I I me personally I look at things how are they going to affect my mom. My mom is single income lives by herself. She doesn't have a whole lot of you know she doesn't have a whole lot of trash. And you know adding adding one more thing to to her bill you know it can it can be an issue. And so I think we should be you know we should be looking at that type of a thing. But that's those were those are my questions. So, all right. Um, any other council questions? Mr.

I didn't know that with a recycling container things needed to be loose. Uh, currently I have a 90gallon cart. On any windy day, I often have to go pick up my garbage can from the floor because the the lid itself is not a closed tight lid. So, that can be a mess if if the lid is the way it is now with the green garbage carts, uh, with all of these recyclable items being on the streets because it tends to be windy in our area. Have you what? How are the cards going to look like?

They're going to look I you know they'll just be blue a blue version of what we have now. And it is going to be challenging. Um but we can't you know bagging the material. It it kind of defeats the purpose when it goes on to the sort line because it needs to be loose in order for the machines to read it. So it it is going to be challenging. It absolutely will, especially with the wind out here. Thank you.

I wish I had a better answer for you, but it's it is going to be tough. Other Okay, thank you, sir. Um, now it's uh time for public comment. Any members of the public comment? Seeing none, step up. Yep. Step up to the mic. Give your name, address.

Sure. My name is Christa Vanv and my address is 764 West Alder Avenue here in Heriston. Um, apologies if these are not the appropriate kind of questions for this type of of composting discussion or uh recycling discussion, but I'm curious um will composting be part of this program? No. And what will be recycled? Is that established yet or is it the state that establishes that?

Yeah. So, we do have the recycling. I'd actually ask Kevin to come back up and he can explain a little bit more in detail the recycling list. Um, another question that maybe you can answer at the same time is who's uh doing the sorting of the materials that are going into the bin? The sorting.

You're welcome. Um so the first questions uh paper plastic tin aluminum um flower pots uh newspaper junk mail that will all go um you know like your your margarine tubs I can sit here and rattle everything off that but that's that's the majority of what goes into the co-mingle piece and then you know cardboard and then the glasses is separate. I've actually everybody in the community will start seeing the progress because we are going to rebrand all of the the depots with the new material because we're going to start taking them the new material at the depot prior to the trucks landing. So, I think probably within the next couple weeks, assuming I get the the signage and everything, we'll change everything. Um, there'll be QR codes, so you'll be able to zap your phone. It tells you exactly what's going to be recycl recyclable. What they've done in on the other side of the state is that they used to put everything on the cart. The problem is is that the the recycling is ever changing and so they want to using the QR code. It's an easier way for them to kind of change the material or adjust it as needed. So hopefully that answers your question. And then as for the the sorting, if I just want to make sure I got this right, because everything that you do at your house, you just throw it all in there. That gets dumped in the truck and then it gets transported to a facility. They basically pick it all up, they put it on a machine, it fluffs it up, and it actually goes through computers and lasers, and it actually can read what the material is. And I've been out of the post collections for a few years now since they've got robots. But I know that like the tin or aluminum gets zapped by like an eddi current and it

shoots like the aluminum can one way, the tin goes the other way and then they separate the suction cups with the robot separate the like the milk jugs and the plastic. And so it it all gets source separated. Hopefully that answers your question. Where will that facility be located? So, the one that we're going to be taking our material to is going to be Pioneer and Clakamus. Okay. Um QR code that's going to be on the trash bin itself.

Yeah. Yeah, it'll be on the trash bin. And then I've I've also I've ordered um a whole bunch of mailers and flyers, you know, for Hermiston, Umatillaa, and Boardman. Um and then we'll also have stuff on our website. And then I'll also give Mark um the the links to everything too. So I want to make I want to make sure before we roll this out that everybody is super educated, you know, on on what is recyclable. Okay.

And I'm available anytime. Mark knows I answer my phone when he calls. So if you guys want to talk, Mark's got my number and I'm available to talk recycling. I love talking recycle. This is your last. This is my last [laughter] one of those.

That's my job. Do I need to repeat my name and address? Okay, thank you. Um, do you have a sense once this is passed and and it's enforced or in action, do you have a sense of job creation in the area because of this? So, we're looking at um we're looking at about three three drivers that we're going to have to three and a half drivers that we're going to have to add. Um and then so that that'll be at least for that piece, we'll absorb some of the maintenance with our team that we have. And then something that's not going to be attached to us will be trucking from Hermiston to Portland um as we kind of go through this because right now we don't have an infrastructure for the recycling and you know one one of my concerns is the wind and where we put our cardboard now it the cardboard just blows all over. So what we're going to do when we start the depot is we're just going to topload it. So, right when we dump it, we're going to put it into the truck, which I'm assuming with all the depots that we have around here, we'll probably load a trailer probably a week and then we'll transport that. But as as we go to curbside, our volume is going to increase significantly. And, you know, so I've got I've got um bids out for trucking companies to get the trailers to and from our location. Any other public comment?

All right. Council comments. Council Brown. Just thought it'd be worth mentioning since um Mr. Mary, you brought this up earlier, but we do have uh for utilities uh water and electricity in case uh there's any constituents or citizens interested in trying to get some financial assistance, we do have it for those utilities. Uh I would be interested in a conversation for this utility as well. Council Roberts,

this may be a little bit wordy, but bear with me. Um, I thought a couple things were interesting. Um, the first point was that uh we're not generating more refues, but we have to pay more depending on on our household makeup and and the decisions we make. Uh, I can respect the sanitary disposal is, you know, kind of between a rock and a hard spot like us, but um they are a for-profit company. Uh, and one of the biggest complaints that we have in the city that that I hear anyway is the city's always trying to raise rates. And so I went uh in light of of this issue, I went back and was just kind of looking and I found an article from Oregon Public Broadcasting. It's uh dated June 25th, 2021 titled, "Oregon hopes to revamp its recycling system by charging packaging companies." The article discusses Senate Bill 582, which is now known as the Recycling and Modernization Act. And the article quotes one of the proponents which uh was then representative Janine Solomon of Hillsboro. She said quote we must have producers share their responsibility to help with waste reduction. Then later in the article is quoted Richard Solomon who was then and may still be director of Oregon DEEQ. Um the added cost to producers under Senate Bill 582 would roughly be $83 million a year beginning in 2028. Says quote right now the cost of dealing with these materials is borne by somebody. He goes on to say, "Frankly, it's borne entirely by Oregonians and by local government. This bill would bring producers into the system and have them pay a portion of the cost in handling materials." Um there is uh portions of the article which rightly point out that this is likely going to get passed on to rateayers. Um, but in my view and and I don't know the long-term uh solution to this, but Senate Bill 582 was another u pretty much unfunded mandate on the taxpayers by the state. Uh, while it was maybe in good intention and hoping that producers would bear the brunt of the

cost, the reality is um we are now looking to in my opinion unfairly pass these on to the consumers and rateayers uh who absent this legislation would not have any rising costs at all. We wouldn't have to change anything. And uh since [clears throat] the intent of this bill was for the producers to pay, I in good conscience am not prepared to vote to pass the cost on to our constituents. Uh again, I don't know what the outcome of failed vote would mean. Uh I don't know what the the penalties would be. Uh as Mr. Morgan said, that's kind of uncharted territory. I think um but I don't think, in my opinion, we should just simply capitulate and tell our constituents that they need to pay more of their hard-earned money uh simply because they're told to do so. uh when the legislation was designed to be paid by industry and not the rateayers. So that's kind of my stance on it, my comment. Thank you, Councelor Linton.

Well, I um look at this as being unfair to our constituents. I don't feel like we should have to pay $8 for the same trash that we're already be that's already being picked up. That size of a can. I don't even need. I'm single in the household. I have like maybe a couple of bags and that's it. And I'm reminded of a a senior that sent us an email last year, I believe, where her income was only $500 a month. And now she's going to have she was having problems with paying the extra $5 that we needed. And now $8 for something that she may not even need. I know I don't need it. So I I'm definitely would like to know. I hope that you would look into what would be the penalty if there's a penalty or financial penalty and come back to us and let us know what it is. I'm I'm interested in knowing. Thank you. Council McCarthy.

Um I just want to make a comment that um I'm actually a little bit disappointed that we have a sanitary disposal committee yet. We didn't have the opportunity to meet about this uh price introduction, rate increases, um anything like that. I know councelor Hayward and myself are on that committee. Um I'm also kind of shocked at the lack of information that we have for some of the questions that were answered. There was a bunch of surprises on the council tonight with a lot of hemming and hying and not shuring and I never really feel good about putting a yes vote with that many whatifs and may out in front of the um and passing passing new fees onto our constituents that way. So, um I I just feel like we're a little bit illprepared and I think we need some more time to consider alternatives. Okay,

Professor Hayward. I'm kind of right there with McCarthy and Roberts. I I don't see us pass pass passing the fee off to voters because that's the number one thing I hear from our voters. We're trying to raise the rates, increase pay from them. I truly think this should been sent to the voters as a city and have the voters voted say yes or no if they wanted the curbside recycling. I know the state passed it. I think the voters should have voted yes or no here in town saying yes or no. beset of us. But I think a lack of information, like you said, didn't go to our committee. I think it should. I think we need to look at it a little bit more before we get a yes or no vote and see what the fee is and stuff and get all the information.

Council, unfortunately, I see this as a byproduct of living in the great state of Oregon. The people in control in Salem have never met a tax increase they didn't love. And this is a perfect example. Not only do you have the blatant tax increase of the increased cost to the garbage collectors who then pass it immediately on to the consumer with some profit, but you also have the insidious and unseen tax where they're going to tax the producer. Well, guess who the producer really passes that cost along to? It's you and me and everybody that buys anything in this state. So, while inflation is already bad, now it's going to be worse because you've got producers passing this cost along to the consumer. So, this is a it's an unfortunate situation, but the way I see it, it's part of living in the state that we live in. Um, we're never going to be able to stand up to the big guys on the other side of the state and say, "We don't want your taxes. Thank you very much. they pass it, they're all in favor of it and we're just going to unfortunately reap the consequences.

Counc rate increases at all. Um I think it comes at a very bad time. It's something that the city has no control over at what is happening at the federal level with health care costs possibly going up. um SNAP also getting cut but at the same time this is something that we have known about for over a year. This is a discussion that we had over a year ago. We knew that the prices were going to go up. We knew that recycling was the mandate. Um, and I think if there were concerns back then as far as costs or um, you know, the possibility of creating some kind of program for those that uh, are not able to pay the full amount. Um, if there would be any subsidy programs, I guess that's the catchy word that I was looking for. I think that is something that um we could have talked to uh the city manager, the the department heads so that they would be looking into it. I think this is not a surprise because we've been talking about it. Um, and I I don't like the fact that, you know, a lot of the what the state does to small cities, especially rural areas, is that they do pass legislative things that are not fully funded at all. And we have to be the ones to pay for it. Um, I think we're putting the city in a hard spot because we will be going into unchartered territory. I don't know. Would you be able to safely come up with

an amount of what the city might be uh charged if we don't meet this mandate? Um have you heard of any other cities that are saying, "Wait a minute, our constituents will not be able to pay." Have you heard of any other cities that maybe are coming up with other programs like some of our council members have suggested and what they're doing about it? Um, I think I would be interested in knowing that. Um, but I don't know that you guys would fully have a clear picture of what the cost will be. Do you think that would be something that would be attainable so that you know we can have a discussion about this at a later time?

Yeah, I'm sure at the next council meeting we could have an answer as far as what the actual financial penalty would be. I know DEEQ is watching right now. um if they're on Zoom, they could probably add that into the chat if they're aware of what the fee would even be or the fine would be. Um but uh also additionally in terms of what other communities are facing this um you know the the list of cities that I put on the screen that constituted almost the entirety of the impacted cities in the entire state of Oregon that are going to be impacted by this. I mean, you're literally talking Hermiston, Pendleton, Boardman, Ontario, Baker City in the entire state that it this is really affecting. So, uh, all of the rest, um, of the cities that are over 4,000 in the state already do curbside recycling. So, um, yeah, I we could pretty easily call all of those communities, but frankly, we already know, I mean, we already talked with Pendleton and Umatilla and Boardman. Frankly, uh, waste connections or sanitary disposal serves and will be serving, um, Pendleton, Hermiston, and Um, Boardman. So, um, yeah, we're kind of it.

Okay. Well, everybody's had a chance. Uh, all right. One more time.

Yeah. I want since everyone was saying their piece, I kind of wanted to say mine, which is I I I mean I agree with everyone here up on the council that to get an unfunded mandate and have to pass that on to our constituents is well, it's not a desired uh outcome. And I mean, quite frankly, uh we we have a lot of other things that are on our plates. to have something like this thrown on our plate, something we didn't ask for. Um, though it's a noble cause, it's it's it's very defective and it's left our constituents kind of on on the front end of things. And so I am not a fan. Um, I I do agree with the cause. I think it's a great cause, but uh I just hope that it's uh well thought out and from this vantage point, um it doesn't seem financially that it was well thought out of. Uh as far as the cause, I I agree with the cause, I think it's a great cause. Um but uh as as a as a counselor to have to pass a mandate that you know as councelor Don has said that we've we've known about this mandate for quite a few years. It was passed in 2021 with a lot of cities trying to grapple with what the consequences were going to be. And up until the last couple years we really didn't know what it was going to be. Uh I think everyone's kind of dealing with it as it's coming out. And so, um, if we're going to table this, I I'd be fine with tableabling it, uh, as to voting against it. Um, it's a it's something that's mandated. So, I don't think it's, uh, it's a good idea to to do something like that without a little bit more, uh, plan behind the mo the movement. So, if we do want to table it, I'm fine with having a tableling it,

having another discussion about it. But, uh, I also don't want to do something that's against state law or something that's going to put us in a bad position. So, I'd be fine with tableabling and having a further conversation about it. And so, if if the council is interested, then I would be fine with making a motion to table if the council would like to move that way. Okay. So, can't do that yet. We got to go through all the whole thing, then we can get to that part of it. So, all right. Any other council comments? All right. Now, we're at the motion section. Do I have a motion?

I have a motion. Let's table this. It's for more conversation. I'm thinking maybe a month so they can get information. Okay, we have a motion to table for how long is that? For a month so they can get information. One month. Wait, can we let them tell us? They can tell us.

Okay. All right. So, a motion to a motion's on the on the floor to table. I'll second that. Okay. A motion to table and a second. Motion by councelor Hayward to table. Second by councelor. clarifying question or what's that can can I have discussion on that motion? Yeah, discussion.

Uh, so question regarding this particular motion. If we bring it back um for discussion later, all we're really deciding is whether or not to adopt this motion as presented, not making any changes to the policy if we feel there should be changes made to it. Correct. at that meeting. I think at the next the next meeting could be the next meeting could be to adopt whatever changes are made to that policy. Is that correct? We'll get on mic here. Let's make sure Yeah. Can't hear your head rattle. Correct. Because this meeting is the same.

I cannot see the color. I apologize. Uh yeah, the motion would table till the next meeting. Uh at that meeting again the information be brought forth where then the motion could be to uh accept the resolution as written or with any modifications. Okay, that answers that question for any other questions on that. All right, so we have a motion and a second. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes.

Okay. Motion passes 61 with councelor Kelso in opposition. All right. Looks like you guys got some more work ahead of you. Okay. Uh next, renaming basketball court uh basketball court at Newport Park. Manager Smith.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, uh, at your October 13th meeting, uh, Council Baron proposed consideration of naming the basketball courts that are a part of Newport Park, and you approved that, uh, as an item to come back for consideration and discussion. So, um, you know, in March of 2024, there was a policy adopted of kind of how to go through renaming or naming facilities, uh, that the city owns. And um so part of that process is to have that go to the appropriate or related city committee which would be the parks and recreation committee. And so, um, our recommendation tonight is, uh, is seeking a motion to, uh, refer this to the parks and recreation committee to come up with a a proposal and a recommendation to the council related to naming the basketball courts at Newport Newport Park. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Council questions. Seeing none, public comment. Seeing none, council comments. Seeing none. Okay. So, uh we have two options available to us. Option one, refer the item to parks and rec committee for discussion and recommendation or two, rename the courts tonight. I move that we either way I move that we refer this to the parks and recck committee for a renaming of the basketball courts at Newport Park. Second.

Okay. It's been motioned by councelor Kelso for option one and seconded by councelor McCarthy. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Options for additional court funding for public defense services. City manager Smith.

Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, at our October 13th meeting, we were we were discussing this topic and uh the council had some concerns uh related to this, asking us to go back and do some more research and provide some different options. first related to kind of better uh picture of what's going on related to um Pendleton, which is really the only other city in our region that that currently handles criminal cases in a manner similar to what we do. And so I had a conversation um with the city of Pendleton related to that and um they are probably just behind us in the same kind of a process. They do have their currently contracted defense attorney uh has a contract that would be about double what we are paying defense and they have requested an increase and the city is saying the city hasn't uh focused on this issue. They've had a couple others that took have taken precedent, but um they're concerned that they can meet that kind of a budget related to court services. So, uh I I don't know exactly what they're going to do, but I would say they're they're in the process of considering a similar situation that we are uh talking about tonight. Another change in the situation related to our court operations is that the we shared with you before that we had a part-time um uh defense attorney. uh there been some ethical considerations and challenges with that attorney and so uh that attorney no longer um is representing clients in front of the municipal court

in Hermiston. So we um we're kind of in a little bit of a different situation than we were last time but not really. Um, we're back to um, how can we provide service? We don't currently have a defense attorney and nobody has responded at our current rate. Um, that is it is uh, lower than what the state is mandating for circuit court defense attorneys by a substantial amount. And so our estimation to bring our services to that level and and I and I recognize last time we were talking about it kind of in partial years, but just so we can talk about it all in the same terms, I really put it out to a full fiscal year so we can just talk about it using the same terms. So, it's approximately $500,000 for us to get to on a full fiscal year basis to get to where we're paying what the state uh is paying defense attorneys. And so from a we took a look at it from two two sides. There's always two sides. So, expend expense cuts. So, first you could do approximately a 3% across the board cut to all general fund departments and get around $600,000. So, you know, we could tweak it and get it closer, but that would be approximately the the amount. Uh some individual positions again that you know, you're going to have to stack these up to to get to the $500,000 level. Uh we just put out there a traffic officer, senior library assistant, parks maintenance, a recreation coordinator, or a code enforcement officer. All have slightly

different salaries, but stacking them up to get to some level close to 500,000. If you wanted to look on the revenue, uh enhancement or increasing revenue, uh every dollar of the public safety fee generates about $73,000. So that that gives you a picture of how to get to two ways to get to a mixture to get to the $500,000. And you know, really doesn't change all of these discussions, this information doesn't change the staff recommendation. And like I've shared, I think, with every one of you that I talked to about this, this isn't what we would want. This isn't the best situation, but in the sit but it's the situation it's the way we feel is best to deal with the situation we're in. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions, have any further discussion.

All right, council questions. Council Linton on here on Let me see your second page. Um recommended action emotion. You want to send all misdemeanor cases to Pendleton C uh circuit court to circuit court. Okay. We don't decide whether they hear the case in Hermison or Pendleton.

Okay. Because this is the same as when the public the district attorney came and they were saying that they're short for uh for lawyers. So why wasn't this separate so that we could vote on the first part of the money fiscal information part and this being separate instead of on the same thing?

Well, I mean it it's it's really the same it's the same question. So we currently cannot prosecute criminal cases in our municipal court because we don't have a public defender for those criminals. And so we need to I mean we need to have somewhere to refer those cases. So we need to send them to circuit court because we can't prosecute them. I understand that. But then at the same time when he was here he was also saying that they are having the same problem that they're not able to because of their shortage of four lawyers.

That's correct. And that's on the prosecution side. he's the prosecutor and he said he's behind in you know not able to fill all the positions because it's our stuff but that's I mean that's pro that's that's an item that's outside of our control and outside of um our purview whether and but I think it's a it just shows that everybody's having a hard time getting attorneys to do the work right

so that um unfortunately it impacts his office for us to make this decision but it's something that We we need uh from our standpoint, we feel like we need to do McCarthy. Um please correct me at any point if I'm wrong about this, but I just want to try to ascertain where we're at in terms of the situation. So, we can't prosecute cases right now because we don't have the attorneys to do it. Correct.

Just straight up. The option that the staff is recommending is to send things to circuit court where they're effectively not our problem as far as the case is concerned. But potentially they won't be considered as well potentially, but they at least have the opportunity to prosecute the cases there whereas we do not. And so the only other way that we would even potentially have the option and this still potentially a gamble because we don't know whether or not people will go at the state recommended level for Hermiston is to increase our expenditures by almost $500,000 to afford an attorney at the state rate and then still potentially

right that's why the unknown I mean it's unknown what what would happen if we put it out at that level. So, we're really kind of deciding who do we want to not see the cases for at least temporarily until we can get either more funding or

right now there's at least some chance it would get prosecuted. Um, probably not a great chance to be honest, but there is some chance whereas where it's at right now we we we can't. But what I would like to leave open is that we, you know, we would be continuing to search and try to get an attorney and as soon as we were able to do that, we could come back with an opportunity to bring, you know, the prosecution of those cases back. Thank you, Mr. Roberts.

Let's say that we win the lottery and we we we get a defense attorney. they say, "Yay, we want to come to Hermston." Um, can the cases that get referred to circuit um be remanded back to the municipal court or once they're in circuit, are they in circuit? I'm going to look at my experts for that. Once they're in circuit, they stay in circuit.

Okay. All right. And then as part of any motion tonight, can we uh uh talk about uh having staff look at the matter, make it a priority for funding in the 2627 budget? Um because we're going to start budgeting talks here soon. Um I I think it might be wise potentially to to see if we could increase maybe not as high as OPDC rate but some type of increase. Can we can we look at that in our in our budgeting discussions? Sure. I mean you you can include those kinds of things in your motion if you'd like.

Okay. Thank you. Um, councelor McCarthy. Oh, wait. No, not yet. Hold on. Make sure everybody else has a chance first. Anybody else? Okay. Following councelor Hayward's question, if we were to go that route, could a potential option be to until that time send court cases to circuit court and which and then after budget was approved, new cases back to municipal court. Well, Because right now we're trying to decide what we're going to do until the

budget could be approved, but until we hi can find an attorney that will come and work for us. There's no reason to bring him back, right? So, but we could send them out to circuit court, find an attorney, and then entertain a motion to bring them back to Mina. Correct. Okay.

Any other questions for counselor or for Mr. Smith? Uh I do have one question um in regards to this. You know if if we do look at this in the you know as a as part of it as in the future where you you are able to to uh find somebody we were to increase our budget next year to make that more palatable. Would it be possible also maybe to look at working partnering with Pendleton as as a you know a means of of uh sharing the sharing the load, sharing the cost?

I'd be open to any kind of partnership. Um but like I said, they're kind of down the same road we're going. That's and that's and that's what made me that's what what that brought that to my mind is is that you know if if if you know our our pulled resources were enough to create a a palatable position for an attorney to look at it and say well I can yeah I can do that. The the challenge is when you add our cases and their cases together you're talking about probably another whole attorney right on top of it. So I don't know that we made money but we can we can work at any kind of possible partnership. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

So, I just want to make sure if we do not go with the recommended motion that we have before us, that means that the options that you provided where um departments are cut, positions are cut. That's that is what would happen now before during during this fiscal year

before I put out an RFP with an increased salary. I need I would need the council to identify the potential cuts that we would make if we were to find that attorney at the higher price. But these would be

these are just options. If you don't like these, we can look for more. But these are examples of positions because, you know, I I took a look through all of the capital outlay. You know, that's usually an easy cut. That's $170,000 in the general fund this in our current budget. So, it doesn't get you very far um towards the full amount. So, um that's why, you know, it's never pleasant to talk about cutting positions. I I I don't like that. I don't think any of our department heads like that. But if you if you're looking to replace this kind of revenue, this is the only option that really gets to that amount.

Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead. One, what would be the increase to u the lawyer's fee? It would be 450,000. That's what the lawyer would be being uh paid 450. Yes, for a year. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? I got I have one more. All right. In the event that we uh choose to forward cases to circuit court, that's going to free up money.

Yeah. I believe it uh 50 to 100,000 in our next budget or was it that was next year's budget. Okay. Um but for the rest of the year, um we we have to figure out a way to get rid of the the cases that we have. And so working through that, we didn't see any increase in the next but in the next budget, we anticipated a decrease.

Okay. I'm not sure that we the money that we have allocated for that is allocated to pay for a person right over the next six months. So yes, I mean that we would not be spending that. That would go to um to the the forward the cash forward the the beginning fund balance of next year's budget if we do not spend it. Okay. All right. Councelor Roberts,

if we're looking to bring cases back at some point, we wouldn't want to reduce our budget in those line items in the next budget. Though, I wouldn't think because if we eliminate it and and reallocate it somewhere else, it becomes increasingly difficult to put that back in that line item. So, I

I that would I mean, like you mentioned, you'd like to have that discussion. I think that would be a discussion of of the of the budget. Okay. Uh any last chance for questions here? None. Public comment. Anybody? Okay. Seeing none. Council comments. Council Broom. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And honestly, appreciate the discussion. St. Andrew Smith, this was my concern. Uh, the last time we had this conversation about tableabling this is knowing that if if we didn't have a prosecutor, a public defender, then while we spend in limbo trying to figure this thing out, there are cases that are not going to be prosecuted in the meantime. And so, I do recommend uh that we move forward with the staff recommendation. Uh in my c in my conversation with city manager Smith, I did have a couple uh comments and ideas that I wanted to throw out for the future um which would be if cities our size in this area partnered together to try to fund uh another attorney whether that might be to send to the county to make their pay for their attorneys more competitive uh and thus getting more attorneys in this area. Um, I also was wondering uh maybe this is something that we as a council can do uh whether it's in our own city or asking the state, but having some sort of attorney program uh in which maybe we have a a brand new uh student that comes fresh out of college and we can offer them uh like a student loan payment. Uh something that would make it a little bit more enticing uh if they complete, let's just say, three years of service. uh then they have their loans forgiven.

That gives us at least three or a couple of years for uh a law student or someone that's looking to settle in to be here. Uh in in essence, it's uh time time of service in exchange for loan repayment. Something to at least make things a little bit more enticing for someone that maybe just graduated out of law school and wants to take an opportunity or a chance to come out to urban or to rural Oregon. And so that could be something that we can do as a city. That could be something that we could propose to the state for um this rule attorney crisis that we have going on. But um I I I am not in favor of making uh these cuts to traffic officers, uh maintenance, uh recreation, code enforcement. These are all essential services that we need. And with that being said, also understand the the situation that we're in and not having uh in-house attorneys. And so uh at this moment, I'd uh entertain the the recommended action and having a conversation maybe in goal setting about what we can do for the near future. Other council comments, council council,

I agree with a lot of what councelor Baron said. I think this is in my short time on the council since the beginning of the year, this is probably the biggest no- win scenario we've faced together and none of us want anyone to go unpunished for any crime. I'm pretty sure of that. Um, but going with the city manager and and the city's recommendation on this issue is the only course of action I think that we have that gives some hope of prosecution even no matter how slim it might be because currently we can't prosecute any cases as a city and um cutting the making the proposed cuts or the the optional cuts to reach $600,000 or $500,000 to fund a defense attorney just as unpalatable. unpalatable to me. So, I'm going to recommend that we go forward with the recommended action as well. Thank you.

Any other council comments? Council Roberts.

So, I mean, obviously, as a city council, as just a citizen of this community, I'm I'm kind of sickened that we're in this situation. Um I I find it kind of haunting that we're we're in a no-win scenario. like uh councel or councel said that um we we may not see these especially these low-level misdemeanor these livability crimes prosecuted to their fullest extent. Um I was one of the ones most adamant at the last meeting we discussed this to say hey we need to try and keep them here local. Unfortunately we went from limited options to really no options. And uh rightly said uh if you don't have a defense attorney you can't prosecute cases. the courts essentially shut down. And uh you know, I I really do hope that we can continue to try funding uh maybe not to the highest, you know, OP OPDC rate, but at least enticing enough that we can get these cases back to the municipal court at some point, but uh we really just don't have any other options. And so I agree. Um I think we we have no choice but to to refer him to Circuit. I have to agree with Kelso Bron Roberts on this the same way. Um I do think we need to keep looking and try to figure this out, but we're at a no- win situation. [clears throat] I do recommend we do what the staff says. test room.

Um, I agree with everything that has been said and I think it's uh it's a really tough situation that we're in uh along with the other small cities and I hope um I don't know if that is something that where the county can can help or how we can take it up to our legislator legislators um to seek help from them as well. Um I think this is beyond our capability. But, um, I certainly appreciate, you know, you bringing up the idea of partnering up with other small cities so that we can share the cost and hopefully be able to pull our monies together to bring a defense attorney. I know that $450,000 is a lot of money. Some people may say, "Wow, they're overpaid." I don't know. Um it is a lot of money but um I think coming to uh a small city especially young people you know they they they want other attractions um and so it's hard to compete with bigger cities um so we also have to be creative I guess in in ways that we can get them to our city um so that they are able to help us keep our community safe. So, I appreciate all of the comments that have been shared and and uh I also would support the recommendation that the city manager has brought before us.

Linton, I feel like we we are in between a rock and a hard place with this. We can't do it because we don't have the necessary lawyers that we need. Pendleton has already told us that they mo most likely might not be able to do it if we send them all over there. And so it's like we're taking our problems and we're just giving it to someone else to say, "Okay, you figure it out cuz we we aren't able to do it." That's how I feel. And uh I would like to hear Chief Edmmon say make a comment on this cuz you know the police officers that they they're doing their job. They're going out and they're arresting criminals which is their job. But then for these criminals to be released because there's no one that can pro do the prosecution, you know. So I need to hear a little bit more to make a decision. I want to be informed and I want to make the right decision for Hermanston.

So, I don't want to try to sway you. Um, as far as the officers, they will continue to do their job. And having said that, to go to what uh I think it was councelor Roberts that brought up um there is a a percentage of the population that is committing these livability crimes that are already in both courts. And so, you know, I'm optimistic that, you know, perhaps we can see some some global uh deals, if you will, of you know, taking some of the lesser crimes and handling them, handling the bigger crimes through circuit court by doing away with some of the lesser crimes. Point being, uh, I think it was 2013 when we started having this conversation and I you, you know, was talking about chronic offenders and how one chronic offender is has six attorneys around them, two judges in each court or, you know, one judge in each court, prosecutor, DA, and then two defense attorneys. And so I don't know what that population is or that percentage is, but um a lot of people that we deal with are already involved in both courts. Any other council comments? Seeing none, um throw my two cents worth out there. Um, you know, this is a this is there's no two ways about it. This is probably one of the I mean, we didn't have an easy night tonight, no matter

what how you look at it. So, um, one of uh one of my ancillary duties in the state is I'm I'm on the uh uh uh House of Delegates for the Oregon State Bar. And I know that that's one of the things that's been brought up in past meetings and and I'm going to speak towards that one in the future to see about, you know, maybe them having some sort of a resolution on their side of things to try and, you know, as as councelor Barone brought up, you know, maybe looking at a way to uh have them help push forward uh a way to get things onto this side of the state, more get more lawyers on this side of the state. Um, you know, it's livability is is it's it's the number one thing that we have to, you know, we as a council, it's it's it's our it's our bread and butter. It's what we're supposed to be looking at. And so, we need to find ways to to do that. I know as as you know we all have been told under the number number of times and as I've said over the past years you know being a law enforcement officer myself I know that the sooner you get somebody in front of a judge and get get a a case adjudicated the more you know that that timely that timely uh I can't even think of the word but anyway being being timely is more towards will bring you more towards the uh the stoppage of of crime. You know, anybody that's had kids, assume, you know, you you know that you know, you get after the kid when it happens, not two weeks later. You know, that doesn't doesn't help stop that behavior and stopping that behavior is is a reason for bringing him before the court. You know, it's not for revenge. It's for, you know, the whole idea. The same

reason for writing a citation. It's the education piece of part of things. It's, you know, to remind you that you're not supposed to do that. It's not an I got you. It's this is so to help you remember not to do the thing. And so, um, you know, it kills me to think that, you know, we have to that we may end up having to put some of this stuff on hold because we don't have that um, you know, because the defendants or the citizens who've been arrested, not necessarily criminals, okay? Because everybody's, you know, per per the way things are written, you know, they're innocent until proven guilty. and by having an attorney that helps assure that one way or the other. So, what we do here tonight is going to have some some uh far-reaching implications and I'm and I don't I don't don't like don't like it. Don't like it at all. But with that, I need a motion for motion one, recommend a combination of $500,000 cuts enhancements to increase pay for public defense and release an RFP with an updated compensation amounts or two, send all misdemeanor cases to circuit court with or without continuing to seek public defense services at or near current compensation amounts. Council Roberts,

I'd make a motion to send all misdemeanor cases to the circuit court for potential prosecution while continuing to seek public defense services to return them to the city uh when the city is able to adequately process the cases. Also adding that uh we include this in our our budget talks for the next fiscal year to attempt to increase funding. Please don't ask me to repeat that back back. Back in I think is there anybody that didn't second that one? Councelor Councel. Okay. All right. Uh so an updated version of option two to a certain extent. Updated of the recommended action on the staff report. Yes. Okay. [clears throat] Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. I wish I could uh I wish I could feel good about that one. All right, [sighs and gasps] number three or C. Options for additional funding for the Harkin Rider Center. City Manager Smith.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, boy, our last meeting, October 13th meeting was quite uh uh had a lot of action. And so, uh, again, this is an item brought up there by councelor Linton to to discuss, uh, more fully in a council meeting. So, just to give a little bit of background, the city has been in partnership with the Hermiston Senior Center Board of Directors, Inc., that's their official nonprofit name, for many years. That part that partnership started in February 2014. And at that time we we entered into an agreement to develop and then use a potential future facility. So this agreement really grew out of the effort to um move the EOTech facility, move the fairgrounds to the EOTech uh facility and to um to need then that gave the need to replace the senior center facility which was located on the on the fairgrounds. And so the city stepped in. We were able to apply for a community development block grant that was secured to build uh the Harkin Rider Center and you know that agreement started in February of 2014 and a lot of things have happened since that time. U first we decided after that point to add the basement which added additional square footage to the building. We then decided to build out the basement. After that we also had uh the co 19 pandemic uh happen which really has impacted both their kind of their operations and mostly I think because of their uh relying on so many volunteers uh that co 19 has really uh impacted everybody's um ability to

attract and keep and utilize volunteers. So all of these factors really um have made that current that agreement that we have at this point um outdated and in need of review. And so we started budgeting money um to assist the senior board in their operations in the fiscal year 2018 2019. We really didn't start spending a lot of money out of that area, but our current budget has $132,46 for the Harkin Rider Center. Uh most of that about 75,000 is allocated to staffing to assist them. Um, and so it was uh requested to look for ways to add 30,000 to the Harkin Rider Center's budget. And so I have um, you know, we we looked at some larger scale potential areas to cut or move money. These are smaller, so you could see uh would have a lesser impact um, but still an impact on other other things. throughout the city. And so, um, but what what I'd like to do out of this rather than tonight allocate funding, I would like to, uh, I would ask the council to direct us to go back to the senior board and work out potentially a new agreement that we could look for ways to help them improve um, provide the programs and the things that they're doing and that the city could be more of an um, assist more in that. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Council questions. Yes. Council Linton.

Uh you you were saying that you want to go back and like renegotiate a contract or something. So what things would you want to re renegotiate? Well, there there are a number of pro provisions in that contract that are not that the senior board is not in compliance with. For example, they under the contract, they're supposed to provide a meal 5 days a week, which they don't do. Um they're also um they're supposed to be paying all the expenses for the building, which the city pays uh the expenses. And I'm not saying we didn't agree to do that, but it's just not reflected in the agreement. And so I'm just saying we should go in there and just make sure we're up to date and and frankly look for ways that we can help them provide a good program to to the seniors in our community. Um, I probably go over there on an average of a couple of times a month and I've looked at their program and I have a I need to get my paper out, but I would that that was given to me and I feel like the programs and what they're doing is outstanding at this time. The problem is that when I was asking that we have a discussion for the 30,000, it was to go towards the mills because I'm pretty sure that they would love to do a five days a week if the money was there. Um, they have people that food is taken out to them. They can't even afford the $5. There are people that come there twice a week. They go to other small towns that may have uh uh food services. They go over to churches that are serving food. And uh

so I think that um we should I'm hoping that we as a city council would consider uh increasing the funds. Also, I do have a question. I know that um the city pays for 20 out of $20 million to Amazon. We fix it, pay for it, then they reimburse that money. So that money is going here, coming back, going out, coming back. I think that out of that, I don't know if we can make a motion to do that, but take $30,000 out of that. I don't think it would hurt if we were to take that out of the the $20 million.

Okay, I'm finished. [laughter] Okay, any other council questions? Councelor Brown, let me get

My question was uh just sheerely on the on the figure. I'm really happy with where staff is looking to where they feel like they can assist the senior board. But in terms of the request, the 30k um I guess just to what specifically that would be going to I guess is that rendering like like we said, is it now going to be five five days a week because of this amount? It just kind of seemed really random to me um the amount. So I don't I guess I don't know what that amount amounted to. I guess what it was able to produce. Um, I have the paper. No, sorry. Counc.

My question is I would like to know where 30 thou where the 30,000 going is like Bron says, but what stops any other nonprofit coming in here asking us for another 30,000. We start giving it out to one. We got to look at all of them. Um, question is, have we thought about this with other organizations? that might come and ask us since we do one.

I I have not considered that. I mean, that's obviously something that could happen. Um, my recommended path would I mean, this is a relationship we have with an agency. There's not many others like it that we have a relationship with. And so I I don't see if we were to re work our agreement and find a way to help them through that agreement, then I I don't see other agencies being able to come back to us with that kind of a request.

That's true. I appreciate um that you come to us letting us know that with the work that the staff has done prior years with the senior board that you feel confident that looking through the use agreement um there might be some ways to look at what resources might be available to them. I think looking back in into history, we know that uh you know a lot of help has been provided. So do you know do are there other senior boards that meet or they have the level of support from the city or do they get together? Do they have any way to get together as boards to see like what is going great for the Stanfield Senior Center, the Irrigan Senior Center to see maybe what lessons also can be learned by their by this particular board.

Yeah, I'm not aware of them doing anything like that. Um, so I I would have to ask them. Okay, other questions.

Just so I'm clear, if by going back to renegotiate potentially um through that process, our assistance could free up resources that they're allocating. Now, we won't know until we renegotiate, but that is a potential. Correct. That's potential. Okay. Question. Well, actually, if it's if it says comment, it's it's for comments. We have questions right now. I'll wait for comment.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Public comment. Do we have any public comment on this matter? Okay. All right. Council comments. Thank you, Mayor. Um The uh total meals for September, this is September meal on wheels delivered or 399 takeouts served in house 306 for a total of 818 meals for the month of September. And I don't think that park and writer is a non nonprofit. Is it a nonprofit? I don't think so.

The Hermiston Senior Center Board of Directors, Inc. is a registered nonprofit with the state. Okay. And the grant that is given by Parks and Rex, that's open to any nonprofit that asks for money for No, the the budget that we have allocated to the Harkin Rider Center is to help us operate a city facility that we want to operate well and to hopefully assist them to provide programs to seniors. Okay. So, it's both the nonprofit and also part of the city. Is that correct? We own the building.

We own the building. Okay. We have an agreement with this nonprofit for them to operate certain programs within our building. Okay. Thank you. Other council comments, councel.

Yeah, I I I understand and seniors have, you know, I hold a special place in my heart for the seniors, but this is a legal entity we have a contract with. The city has a contract with. They've contracted for to perform certain duties in exchange for a certain amount of money and the city manager has stated they're not performing all of those duties. We've not made an issue out of it, but that's only because again the seniors hold a special place in our heart, I assume. So I I I think it's a dangerous precedent as councelor Hayward said to throw money at a already underperforming contract partner of the city. I don't see us doing this for any other entity that we contract with, whether it's a nonprofit or or a for-profit uh corporation. So, I just don't I don't see the wisdom in taking from other parts of the city budget in essence goring somebody else's ox to throw money at the seniors who already aren't performing. That's my two cents.

Any other council comments? Councelor Brew,

I concur with the counselor. Um, which is kind of to my first question of the $30,000. What it what does it quantify uh specifically in this request? And so I I'm really happy of the opportunity of having a conversation with the senior board. I don't think any one of us up here uh would reject uh an amount to you know to people with a good cause. I mean who wouldn't want to give more of something to like seniors or kids. Uh we do have a budget to operate and I think that is important to remember and so if there is something that we can do to support our partners uh I think that's a great thing to do. Um, but as far as you know, making random allocations, I think this sort of conversation is reserved for goal setting. When we decide what's going to what we're going to budget for, what we're going to fund, uh, every single one of the agencies, nonprofits, departments that we allocate are very worthy causes. And so I would be curious and uh would like to entertain the staff having a conversation with the board and seeing uh what good can come of it.

Other council comments. Okay. I just want to add that um this isn't money that is going out willy-nilly just to any person out on the street. Uh this is for money to go towards food so that they can have enough funds to um have it five days a week. Uh you can't squeeze blood out of a turnup. You don't have it, you can't do it. And so that is why I ask that we at least discuss it. If nobody here on the city council wants to do it, then you know, we can all vote no and I'll just vote yes to it and it won't pass. Simple as that. Thank you,

Councelor Roberts. I appreciate that everything that's been said here today. Um the seniors are an important part of our community and um we do need to figure out a way to to make sure that they're taken care of. um as a nonprofit um they have the ability to seek donations and fund raise and do things that uh um can increase their revenue. If there's things that we as a city can do to help facilitate that, I think uh that would be wise. Um but uh as was said uh just throwing city money at it uh that may just end up being a short-term stop gap um as the number of meals increase as the inflation increases at some point that may not be enough. And so as councelor Kelso said, if they're underperforming, um, uh, they they need to figure that out and we can partner with them through our negotiations and and see how we can help facilitate that so that their funding is increased. Um, but not necessarily directly tied to taxpayer funds because I don't think that that's going to solve their long-term uh, issue if they're if they're short on revenue overall. Council here, did I see your hand up earlier?

I have a motion. Oh, not ready for that. Yeah, that's all right. [clears throat] Okay. Any other council comments? All right. [sighs] Okay. So, we have couple of motions available to us. One, recommend a combination of $30,000 cuts enhancements to account for an additional $30,000 to contribute to the Harkin Rider Center. Or two, direct staff to work with the senior board to renegotiate our use agreement for Harkin Rider Center for better allocation al to better allocate resources. Motion number two.

Okay, I have a motion for number two, direct staff. back in by councelor Roberts. Okay.

Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes 61 with councelor Linton in absention. Opposition. Sorry. Thank you. All right. You have your uh have your marching orders on that one. All right. Uh committee reports. Have any committee reports for tonight? C Roberts attended the airport advisory meeting on November 5th. Um happy to say that there was full attendance of all committee members and uh as well as two people from the public which was uh nice to see. Um not much to report overall. Budgets on track. Um fuel sales are down a little bit because they're moving into winter. Um we're not quite sure what lifellight moving is going to do to the fuel sales. Um but there are some uh other things in the work that it could increase the sales overall. So stay tuned on that. uh hanger is near completion. Um the electrician uh was due to be uh done this uh this week. I think the utilities are getting all hooked up with a final inspection uh hopefully coming up soon. So uh I'm hoping that at the next meeting I'll be able to maybe tour the new hanger up there uh fully completed which would be uh kind of exciting. So that is what's happening at your airport.

All right. Other committee reports. Councelor Baron. Yeah, we were across the street from you guys at the EOTech. Um, we did not have a quorum unfortunately. So, we are scheduled to meet this December to give you guys a full report hopefully with a quorum. Okay. But we were there. It was great.

You were there. All right. Good. Councelor Hayward. the faith-based uh advisory committee met. Uh we did have two students advisory there, but we didn't have a quorum. So, I'm hoping to report next month fully on everything if they decide everything. Councelor Broom, would you mention briefly um just the name of the committee that didn't get to meet because I don't think that was technically stated just for the For sure. Uh it was the EOTech committee at EOTech. Yeah, I think there was some conf [laughter]

across the street which actually by the way I do have a question on that. Um and for our city manager Smith in even though we did not have a quorum was there is there a vacancy for the hotel years or no? Um there's already somebody who's been nominated to fulfill that. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah, that'll be coming forward here shortly. That's correct. Okay. Well, uh, vacancy review committee, we've we've been, uh, filling and recommending stuff. So, um, some today.

Yeah, we got we got a few today. You're look forward to seeing some committee appointments and reappointments coming up in future, uh, council sessions. So, any other council comments or council uh, advisory? All right. Mayor's report. Um try to make this quick and painless. Uh had a mayor city manager meeting here recently. Had good discussions over some of the stuff that's going on. Um everybody's feeling the same pain we are. Nobody's nobody's exempt from it unfortunately. So uh Stanfield and Ekko are having issues with some deals that we brought up and which rolls into the next thing. Uh the next day I had a meeting with uh uh Congressman uh Bence who listened to everything that uh we all brought to him. Bunch of there was people from the region across there. The main main thing is uh main deal was brought up was water of course um and uh transportation. the uh issue of of uh all the interchanges on I 84, I 82 between here and between actually Boardman and Pendleton are at capacity and unfortunately they ain't cheap to fix and so you know they're we're brought the im information to him and uh you know Cong Congre Congressman Bence I have to give him credit for for the fact but he tells it like it is and he asks he asks the hard questions and I was impressed with the questions that he asked. Um, one of the things that I brought forward in in in our conversation with him was uh, you know, the dealing with the the mental health problems that we're having and what what we can do to uh to help you

know what they can do possibly help us with on a on a national level. and he he turned the question back around on me. And so, um, you know, I'm I'm going to have to be bringing hence some some information as to, you know, what we can do now differently now than what we've done in the past so that, uh, we don't result in insanity, basically. Um, also, uh, um, let's see, we had Halloween in the past. We had trunk or treat. looked I think that went quite well. I got a big thumbs up over there, huh? Beats on Main.

Beats on Maine. That's what I meant. But trunk or treat was also done at other locations. So, yeah, we had a lot of a lot of a lot of stuff. Um didn't sound like we had any any uh mishaps with kidlings. So, that's good. Um I'm going to steal your thunder. Remember, uh elections are coming up. If you haven't filed, if you want to file, you should file. if you haven't filed it. Um, remember, as I always say, world's run by those who show up. So, take your take your shot. Be up here.

Don't be the one that sits behind the keyboard and tells us how badly we're doing. Come up here and show us how it's done. Because all those ideas out there, you know, you might have you might have the idea that just breaks the bank. Oh, wait. That's not how it's supposed to work, is it? We already had those meeting. We already had those motions. So, all right. With that, I'll turn it over to our council president.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Actually, hadn't uh uh remembered to do that one, so you didn't really lose my thunder, but thank you for the reminder. Uh steal my thunder. Um just want to talk about a couple events coming up. Uh tomorrow, the Veterans Day breakfast happening at the community center, uh 8:00 a.m. Thank you to Hermson Parks and Recreation. Um, also coming up with our parks and recreation program on the 15th, we've got the holiday market. Uh, going on here, uh, proceeds going directly to Guardian Angel Homes activity department. And um that's about it except for I do want to remind that we uh the council that we get invitation from the Hermanson Chamber of Commerce the ribbon cutting for Monte Vista Homes happening this Thursday the 13th at 12 p.m.

Yeah what he said. All right. uh council comments or you know coun council reports. One that he forgot to mention on the 18th is the ribbon cutting for Planet Fitness. Yes. Just just got that in the in the email here a little bit ago. Okay. Um I know any others. Council Kelso, I'm sorry.

Thank you. Uh, I was able to attend the Dia de los Muertos event on November 2nd where the Hermiston um Hispanic Advisory Committee members were serving Choco Latte. So, I spent a couple hours there doing that and covered myself in hot chocolate basically. It was a good time was had by all pictures.

Uh, yeah. No, not without money. Um, and uh I had a a great time. Saw a lot of cool things, a lot of awesome cultural things. And I have a list of people I'd like to thank for putting the event on. I thought it was a success and um as I said a good time was had by all but Omar Medina was the main or organizer. Uh he works at the high school and is an all-around great guy. Uh Zyra Flores, Jessica de la Cruz, Sandra Hernandez Aiden, uh Raphael Romero, Alejandra Mesa, Daniela Hernandez, Abdullia Muno Munoz, Maria Duron, Marissa Aila, Nadia Monroy, and Herardo Chavez. So, thank you to all those people for working hard to put that event on. It was a good time and and uh I think a great community event. I had the um privilege of attending a ribbon cutting at Haven Hayden Homes uh at Columbia Ridge on Wednesday the 5th and got to tour their model home. It was beautiful um and reasonably priced for for this area and for Oregon. So, I was thrilled to be there. It was a great opportunity and uh the media was there. Um, I en encourage everybody to attend future ribbon cutings for housing developments because this is what helps our um, middle class families have housing and and enable heriston to grow, which is exciting to me at least and I hope to everyone else. And I would like to mention that today is the 250th um, birthday of the Marine Corps. So, congratulations to the Marines out there. Thank you very much. Councelor Roberts,

I had the honor of being uh involved in a procession or an escort of the American Veterans Traveling Tribute on Thursday. Uh we picked them up at the pilot in Stanfield and escorted them to the uh Tomes Cultural Center out on the tribe. Um this group travels United States showcasing the traveling Vietnam wall and cost of freedom tribute. uh honoring, respecting, and remembering remembering those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. And they will be on display. They'll have the display up at the cultural center through the 12th. And so encourage people to go check that out if you're over in the Pendleton area.

Yes. I just want to commend the um the city. I love the city heriston app. If you have not downloaded it, you need to because you're able to pay your bill, look at all the latest news, um, and see what the city is up to. I I really like it. I forgot my phone at home, so I can't really show it to you guys, but um, I love it. I thank you for doing that because now people can get notifications, uh, for the things that they want to know. I also want to commend uh the Hermiston Police Department for being able to send uh two sergeants um sergeants both Studebakers um to the training um in Texas. I it sounds like it's going to help out um our department. So, thank you for investing in your staff so that they're able to um properly have the skills, the knowledge to be able to make our community safer. That's it.

Okay. Others. Yes. Good job on on from the uh for the sergeants making them better better leaders for the for the future. Okay. Uh see manager Smith. What? Nothing. Okay. [laughter] With that, we're adjourned. Talking to Dave.