City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the work session. Tonight, we're gonna be talking about Hillsborough's legislative agenda for 2026. And I know we have Ariel Nelson and Andy Smith here to do a briefing, but I'll turn it over to Ravi to start us off.

Thank you, mayor, and happy New Year to everyone. As mayor mentioned, tonight, we're gonna be talking about the 2026 federal and state legislative agenda. Maybe just a little bit of context, why this is important for us. As we get into the legislative session, whether it's a short session or a long session, things move very quickly. There's hundreds, if not thousands of bills, I think, last last session that, we have to go through that staff goes through. And so what this does tonight is it gives us the ability to have confidence that we have, direction from the city council about what areas we wanna support, what areas we don't wanna support. And so that's what really tonight is about is our proposal to you all. It's very similar to years past. You'll see lots of common themes. There are a few that we made this year just based on, obviously, new things from the federal government, for example.

So with that, though, I'm gonna turn it over to Ariel and, and Andy, and and they can take it from here.

Thanks, Robbie. Good evening, everyone, and happy New Year. Just for for the record of those listening, I'm in. I'm Ariel Nelson. I'm the city's government relations manager, which includes both federal and state relations.

Joining me today, to take all the hard questions is Andy Smith, one of our contract lobbyists on the state side, and we also have our federal contract lobbyist, Jeff Markey, here joining us virtually from DC. Also, any hard questions for him. But we'll, we're gonna go through, the agenda today. It's, currently in draft form until we get some feedback from you, and we'll also cover some political context in the process. Alright.

So just to give you a sense of what we'll cover, we're gonna talk briefly about the federal dynamics, the state legislative session, and those dynamics, both the process and political context. And then we'll dig into the actual draft agenda, which is structured similar structure to years past. But you'll note this is the first year we've had a formal federal agenda on paper. So you'll see that reflected, and we'll go into more of those details. Welcome your questions throughout.

We will have I'll ask that you leave your feedback for the agenda to specific moments that we'll pause for. So diving right into, the federal dynamics and the context as we head into our federal advocacy for this year. This is obviously, we are in uncharted territory. Last year, when I presented to you, we talked about a major theme for the state legislative session was federal uncertainty, and we're experiencing that. You've been experiencing that.

And, so what that really has meant is that we're really approaching our federal advocacy and engagement in kind of two separate tracks. The first, and, this is largely informed by a lot of your discussion, a lot of what we've experienced with, federal changes at the administrative level is, there's a clear commitment to push back against federal overreach and provide support and protection for members of the community that are being targeted and harmed by undemocratic and discriminatory federal actions. We'll get into more details about where that's in the agenda. And then second, city of Hillsborough is going to continue to engage as we always have on a wide array array of federal issues, that help us deliver core city functions and services to meet the needs of our residents. And, you know, approaching that collaboratively, positively, but they you there's know, been some uncertainty and challenges there as well.

And we'll get into the specifics of of what that means. So, any questions there? I mean, this is kind of just a broad general statement and lens of how we're approaching the engagement. Yes.

I do have a question

on that real quickly for you and for Andy. As those two fracs just discussed potentially could conflict with each other as far as outcomes. I'm assuming you're taking that into account as you strategize on these two tracks.

That's right. And it's there's congressional advocacy with our delegation. A lot of the work when we're looking at congress is approaching and and is is the budget process, what's being funded, how that funding is coming to us regionally or directly, what we're able to apply for. Well, I'll get into some more specifics. A lot of that relates to infrastructure funding. But then there's also what we've seen federal actions with immigration enforcement and will you're very familiar with and go into more detail.

Yes. The point, I guess, maybe I didn't make it very well, is that pushing on priority strategy number one here. We've seen an administration who has significantly abandoned typical policies and practices seek retribution against organizations that have taken a strong track on number one. And I just want to make sure we've thought about how that approach will work over the next 12

Yes. I think I can think so. I think, Ravi, if you can speak to it's a balancing act as we as we work through different grant processes and agency processes.

Agreed. I I would say it's very similar to the last twelve months that that as we if something comes up, and Jeff is on line as well. If something comes up at the federal level that we feel we need to advocate for, yeah, that we we would need to weigh it with, against current priorities, the current, services that we have in the city. And so far, that's worked out okay for us, but, certainly, it could change at any time.

Yeah. There's legal risk involved with, you know, consulting with general counsel, all of that. Thanks for that question. So moving into the state session and dynamics, start with the process. This is a short legislative session. That's every, even year. It's a short session. So, we'll be you'll see the timeline we're starting with today with this council work session. We'll be in Salem next week for legislative days. That's, interim committees will meet and do informational hearings.

We'll get some deeper previews what to expect, what bills might be coming in the short session, but we haven't seen a lot of the bills. A lot of this is still in progress. So that's why, typically, our agendas are are higher level so that we have the ability to respond to what's coming and what we also are expecting. We do have bill limits in a short session, thankfully. We're not approaching 4,000 bills this session.

Each legislator is limited to two bills for personal bills and committees get three bills. But it does move very, very quickly and at much, much more rapid pace, less time for, amendments and conversation and discussion than in a long session. This slide shows the political balance of power in in the senate and the house and the legislature. So going into this session, we don't see a change in the balance of power. The Democrats still have a three fifths supermajority in both chambers, which allows the party to pass any bill, including revenue raising measures, new taxes on party line vote.

There was one change, from last session. We had a a Republican, representative Cyrus Jahi switched to the Democrat party, after session, and so the we've got 37, blue members in the house, but that didn't shift the the balance of power there.

Ariel? Yeah. So you said that the bills are limited. Is it just specific to this short session, or is it a new rule?

I'm sorry. The bills are

The number of bills are limited?

Yeah. So short sessions have have different rules than long sessions. So, yes, for every short session in in in an even year, they are they are limited. The lecturer can choose to change the rules for any session. They've had discussions.

There was a bill to change and put the limits for the long sessions. Didn't didn't pass, but I think there's still some interest in that. On on this slide, we can just talk about the the legislative leadership dynamics. So, what you see is a, the folks across the screen from left to right is the the speaker of the house, Julie Fahey, senate president, Rob Wagner, house majority leader, democratic leader is Benjamin Bowman, and then we see some changes. These are these are the same leaders from before, but we saw some shifts in republican leadership, and it's kind of a musical chairs there.

So starting with the house house leader as we have new leader with senator Elmer. And then next on the screen is I'm completely Senator Jaycee Senator Casey Jama, thank you, from youth Portland, is the senate majority leader, and then we have a new republican, leader in the senate, Bruce Starr. And this was just a a shifting of seats. The former republican leader in the senate, Daniel Bonham, stepped down. He now, has taken a a federal appointment as a deputy labor secretary at the federal level.

So with the vacancy in his seat, the former house republican leader, representative Christine Drazen, has then been appointed to his senate seat. Also, she's running for governor, as you may be aware, but she is now in the senate. So that left the vacancy for the house republican leader, which rep Elmer took. And then, the vacant senate leadership seat position that Bottom had left has now been filled by senator Bruce Starr. So a shuffling act, but it you can kinda see the domino effect when you have folks switching between chambers.

Next, we move on to major issues we're expecting in session. The biggest one, I think, going into session and and actually I should back up and just say it's it's unclear from legislative leadership what the priorities or what the the the full commitments are that they say they really wanna walk out from session with, in this short session other than we know that we are facing a budget cut scenario, and this is significant. This is the first time that the legislature has faced this in over a decade, and it also we only have a handful of legislators who were in office the last time the legislature had to make cuts. This is because of, the revenue forecast, which determine this showing, that we have significant deficits at the state level. And so that's gonna be, a major, major lens over everything that the legislature does this session.

Another big impact is transportation funding. I think you're all aware that the transportation package, which the city was supporting last session, did not pass in the regular session. And as a result, the governor called a special session, and the legislature ended up passing a, a trimmed down version of the original proposed package in October in special session. That has since been or portions of that bill have since been, are being referred to the ballot, not the entire bill, but the the revenue increasing tax increasing measures around increasing the gas tax and fees and registration. So, that was largely a Republican led effort.

Those signatures, still have to be certified, before they're put on the ballot, but they are expected to go forward. And in the meantime, the state has paused, implementing the bill and collecting any revenue. So there's a big question mark on what, if anything, legislative leadership will do. They could if they do nothing, and the signatures qualify as they're expected, if the, referendum will be on the November general election ballot, They could, legislature could choose to repeal parts or all. The legislature could choose to, put the recall on the May election, ballot to to move it up and and kind of separate it from when there's a lot of people on the general election ballot.

But it's really unclear, and, it's so that's gonna be a big question mark. It's gonna be a big partisan converse you know, a very partisan, influence there. So that will impact a lot of the dynamics around other issues that we're watching. The other piece, that's related that's a little bit more behind the scenes, but definitely relates to available revenues is the federal federal disconnect. So this relates to, the Oregon state tax code.

Oregon is one of several states who the Oregon tax code mirrors the federal tax code. So if the federal tax code changes, it automatically changes at the state level. And there are significant changes in h r one, also known as president Trump's big, beautiful bill, that, will bring additional, budget deficits to the state. And so there's a a conversation going on about whether to disconnect fully as some are advocating, disconnect in part, or remain connected. And, again, that will be something that will have repercussions and influence how much funding is available to spend or to cut in other policy conversations.

You know, what what do you mean by disconnected? Is it like a proportional? Like, what what does that mean?

So, this is a overgeneralized, oversimplified example. But if you're paying you know, when you pay your taxes as an individual, you pay a federal income tax and a state income tax, and they're typically, like, the same rates, the same amounts if you're connected. And so if the federal changes and it says you're gonna, you know, pay less, then the state automatically follows. And so that means the state's bringing in less revenue. And so that's that's oversimplification, but, essentially and, you know, same for corporate different levels, if it's if there's a federal parallel to the state then.

For this one in the transportation funding, is there a timeline or a deadline for decisions to be made on that?

Just the legislative session.

Just the By the Yeah.

Though they have from February 2 until the last day they have to convene session for constitutional. Sinai die is March 6.

So March 6. Yeah.

And the procedural hurdles to pass bills and make decisions. And then so next, this is a more positive, topic on the screen, economic development. So this has been a priority for the city for several sessions. It hasn't changed. The specifics change in terms of what's what's on the table and what the legislature is considering, And we're seeing a real a real interest and and prioritization from legislative leaders, from the governor.

The governor announced a prosperity road map, just ahead of the business summit a few month a couple months ago, and will be, is expected to be appointing a new, Oregon business council and chief prosperity officer with some long term work, but also, is expected to introduce a bill this session, which details will be forthcoming on. And, we've also been, senator Solman has also been a leader on this issue for several sessions starting with the Oregon Chips Act and senate bill four, and we'll get more to those details. But we're seeing a lot of, energy around that and opportunity. But, again, that comes back to what are the opportunities with budget cuts, what does it mean, how does that relate to the other things on the table. We'll get more into those details and what's on the agenda.

Last on the screen is immigration enforcement response. It's really unclear what the legislature may or may not do. We know there are several efforts underway and opportunities and some legislation we could support that we'll get into, but this could also be an incredibly partisan conversation as well. And with limited funds and facing budget cuts, you know, what the state's options are, is a little unclear. So it's something that we're certainly watching closely.

And then last, you know, the other priorities that we've seen the legislature take up and the remain state state focuses, housing and homelessness, behavioral health, health care funding, these are still major priorities and focal points in the legislature. It's gonna be through that lens of of budget cuts. So now we're gonna transition, into the draft federal and state agenda. And I wanted to I'm gonna be going through the you have two documents and materials. I'm going through the text version.

There's also a draft brochure. It's the same language just to kinda show you what it will look like all finalized. But I'm going through the text version in that order, so that might be helpful to follow along. And it starts with Hillsborough's legislative principles, and I just wanted to quickly remind, the council, we have principles, and we have priorities. And this the city's principles are the foundational lens and kind of evergreen core issues that the state brings to our engagement, at the state and federal level.

The, content of those principles is largely unchanged from from last year, although we have added and expanded to include federal, so as we as we have incorporated a federal agenda. So those are largely the same. I'll go through them briefly. Home rule, promote safe and inclusive communities, encourage coordination and partnership between federal, state, and local government, and support economic growth and investment infrastructure and services. And then, then we are we'll go into our federal and state priorities, and we'll stop after the federal, for for comments and feedback, and we'll do the same after state.

And our priorities are are focused on what are the specific issues that we're going to engage on in this specific session in this year. That's based on what we expect to be coming, what we know there's a political path for, what where there are bills being brought forward. And so that's where we get into specific priorities. Any questions on the differences there? So we have three, federal priorities in the agenda this year, and this is kind of where you can see that kind of dual track approach.

So the first one is prevent federal overreach and protect targeted communities. That's gonna be more of the pushing back. Right? And then we've have a priority on infrastructure, specifically transportation of water, and housing and homelessness response. And that's where we're, again, looking at the city's core, services and how we're supporting residents.

So for the first, prevent federal overreach and protect targeted communities. This is, I've the full text is in your document. We've kind of I've kind of highlighted some of the key messages from here and bulleted those out. This is really a reflection of your council discussions, the resolution that you all passed, and the city's action plan. So that's, you know, opposing federal actions that infringe on constitutional rights, increasing safeguards to respect civil rights and promote public safety, opposing administrative and legislative actions based on sanctuary status, that retaliatory actions we've seen.

And, you know, there's different ways to do that that that you've discussed. And comprehensive immigration reform, which is also something that the council agreed was kind of foundational to addressing this issue. So I don't know if you have any questions on on on that one before I move on. Next. So I've split infrastructure into the two pieces.

So under transportation, this is really about long term stable funding for roads and public transit. We're also seeking to see restoration of some key sustainability funding that was cut recently and protect regional funding. A lot of our transportation funding comes at the regional level through ODOT, through Metro, and so it's really important to our connectivity and livability. For water infrastructure, similarly, we're protecting and strengthening federal investments with a focus on emergency preparedness, seismic resilience, reliable municipal water supply. And we also wanna ensure that, we're able to see completion of federally funded projects where we've seen some funds, delayed or frozen.

That's a big part of our advocacy as well, both at the congressional level with our, delegation partners and as well at the agency level. And Jeff is a a big help in that. We can share one positive note. In the current budget process and the budget bills moving forward in congress, congress is close to approving, what was a 2025 earmark for the city, a community project. Now it's 2026 because the budget was was delayed. But it would it would be a million $92,000 for, our seismically resilient water treatment plant. So really good news there. Hoping to see that move forward and pass in the next week.

And, Ariel, when you're talking about reliable municipal water, that's a part of that infrastructure you're talking about.

Yeah. Alright. And our la our third last federal priority, is focused on housing and homelessness response. That's primarily focusing on the, housing and urban services department, HUD, to maintain our core housing, homelessness, anti poverty resources. Some of those don't come directly to Hillsborough.

Like, example, our the Hillsborough shelter is funded through the metro regional funds. But our partners at Community Action at the county really rely on those funds, and it's really important to, how our community is served and the stability of folks. And, where it is direct to the city is the Community Development Block Grant Fund, which is a a direct city resource that we use for a variety of housing stability programming and resources with community partners. All right. Before we move on to state priorities, I'll just pause. Any feedback on the federal priorities?

I have a question. So I know the CEO doesn't have it, but I'm just curious. Regarding education, the Department of Education funding, is that so does does the school district have do this as well? Have legislative

Yeah. So our educational partners will typically have agendas either they may not have as an individual district, but they may in partnership with other school districts, school board associations Okay. And go through similar agendas and advocacy.

Okay. And do do does the city work with with them, or is it is that an independent?

So we typically, as a city, as it's not a a city function and and city direct funding, we don't typically advocate in that space, but we have definitely partnered in the past where there have been, like, workforce development opportunities and funding. There's been legislative opportunities in the past where we've partnered in advocacy and shared agendas and things like that.

And then, Ariel, when you're talking about on the federal legislative side, particularly in securing funding for priority seating projects, can you give us some examples of what that highlights?

Sure. So part of the typical regular budget process when it's on track is they're commonly referred to as earmarks, but they're community funded projects that, both our, U. S. Senators and, U. S. Congressional representative, Panamichi, advocate for. And those are those are specific direct funds, grants to cities that go in specific, like, agency budget bills, at the federal level. And so, in the past, like, we received some money for the Hillsboro Shelter. We've used them for water infrastructure projects. I can probably think of what's that?

Yeah. The inclusive playgrounds. So, depending on, and not all depending on which budgets are allowed for earmarks, it's a process we go through with our delegation and and put in for, and and that's a a major role that they play on behalf of of Hillsborough, and it's greatly appreciated. So the one I just mentioned, the, Seismic Resilient, grant for the the water, treatment plant, was one that we went through that process last year. If the the budget hadn't hadn't been a continual resolution, we would have seen that earlier, but it's carrying forward.

You bet. So moving on to state priorities, we also have three, state priorities, going looking into this session. Federal immigration enforcement response, economic development, housing production, and homelessness response. So we'll get into more detail. So for when we're looking at federal immigration enforcement response at the state legislative level, this is I think this the state or at least some legislators are going through maybe a similar exercise to what you have as a council, which is how can they be strengthening the existing sanctuary promise act for the state, whether it's a codification or closing loopholes or, that.

So that's kind of the lens. We're we're you know, working with legislators and partners, and I think we're, in good company with neighboring cities and, county partners and regional partners, looking, community partners on what how how we can support the state. So that's kind the lens we bring to this priority. So what are the options the state has? Certainly, similar to the city, they could make investments for impacted families and small businesses, you know, in the form of rent relief, utility relief. In the current budget climate for the state. Again, not clear what will be possible, and if that will be prioritized, but it's certainly something that is included in our priorities to support that investment similar to what we've done at the local level. They could also look at protecting sensitive information. Right? You've talked about data.

We do know that there will be a bill coming forward, that this priority would would support, which is automatic license plate readers. Right now, those you someone could could request that data for a public records request, and there's a bill that would simply just exempt that data for a public records request because that could be a loophole to sharing that information with the federal government immigration information potentially. So that's that's an example of kind of protecting sensitive information considering data. And then last, you're also familiar with the issues of the use of masks by ICE officers. So we know there will be a bill that, when we you know, once we've seen it, we would like to support that would require law enforcement to both be clearly identified as law enforcement and limit masking.

And, we don't say ban masking because there is this nuance where law enforcement does need to use some forms of face covering for, like, a biohazard air filtration or a, like, a hazmat situation. So we don't wanna inadvertently ban the use of those those measures. So that's why the the use of the word limit.

I have a question on the protective sensitive information. I know the text isn't ready yet, but is it just limited to license plate readers, or is there other protections for other information? Because the DMV is not the only agency that collects data and sells it to third parties. So Mhmm. Are there plans to protect other data that's out there at the state level?

That's a great question. We do know because that bill has been previewed that that one is coming. And if there are others, what this priority for the city says is we would we would look to support those as well, so if there are other efforts that come forward.

So is it limited just to license plate readers and DMV data, or does it expand it to other agencies that collect data at the state level?

Right. So the bill that I'm aware of is focused just on automatic license plate readers. There may be other bills. I I you know, we'll we'll know more in

a Okay. And if we wanted to, I guess, advocate or encourage for them to expand the scope of that protection, how would we go about that as a council, or is that something that you know, how does that look like if we wanted to have them expand that because there is a lot of state agencies that collect information, sell it to third parties. And so that's kind of what we're reading is that that's that information is being accessed by people that might not be responsible with that data. Right? So I think it's an opportunity to just protect everybody's information generally, right, not just undocumented people, but

Yeah.

The general public.

Yeah. And I'm happy to take that direction from council, and that's why the, you know, the full I use the ALPR, the license plate reader, as an example, but the full priority is kind of broader to give us that opportunity to to make that kind of advocacy.

Okay.

So if there are are other opportunities to protect that data, then we would advocate for that.

Yep. I get what you're saying. If there's other opportunities, we'll advocate for it. Is there a way for us to influence them expanding that scope?

Potentially. I would you know, we'd wanna talk about other specifics and, work with our partners and see what we wanna put forward.

Okay. If we wanted let's say we had a consensus here or the majority that wanted to expand that, how would we go about it? We'll just email you and say we would like to see it expanded to these departments or, you know, what does that look like for us? I think

I think there's a couple of steps here. First is once the bill is introduced and we kinda see what's in it, then if the council wants to add to it, then what we would do as staff is we there's a a few ways we could do it. Right? We could we could send a letter to the the legislator that's sponsoring the bill. There's an amendment process a lot of times, so there's a few different angles we could take. So we could we could certainly do that. It really just depends on who the legislator is. Do we have a relationship with that legislator? You know, about how much influence we could have, I I guess, is my point. But we could do that once we have a better sense of what's in the text of the bills. And, and then, yeah, if the council wants to advocate for more, that would be our approach probably is trying to through memos or or letters to those legislators.

And it's the timing is a little tricky right now because it's before session. This we want your early feedback so we have strong direction going into session. But once we see the universe of bills, Robbie and I have talked about the potential to come give you updates once we know a little bit more about what's in play and what the opportunities are and where where the opportunities to advocate are.

Okay. Thank you.

I just want say I absolutely support Councilor Salgado's suggestion and look forward to hearing more about once the session's ended. Great.

This is counselor Alcare. I have a question.

Hi, counselor.

Hi. So can you give me an idea for the funding for impacted families and small businesses? Can you give me an idea of a possible timeline for that? We have I have people contacting me pretty frequently asking when are we gonna be able to provide support, and I'm just curious about state level.

Great question, counselor. So the timing would be, you know, they would need to authorize identify and authorize the funding during the legislative session. It would go into a a budget bill, and, you know, that would pass at the end of session. Then the governor, there's a procedural time limit that signs the bill before the the funds are released. So if if funds were made available, they would likely go through a state agency through an existing program is typically the fastest way to get funds out.

That could then go out to community

partners. And so, you know, it would be the it would be the spring, probably April, May, before funds reached the the direct funders in the community and and folks on the ground.

So in the meantime I mean, it's a lot of time to wait. It really is. In the meantime, as a city, we are considering what kind of funding that we can provide to people, and it would be great if we had state support in this. So this isn't just coming from our city funds. And, you know, additionally, I'm thinking about our budget for public safety, and we're not equipped to cover all the things that are happening right now.

And we are doing more reaction limited reaction than than real prep. So I I would encourage, and I try with legislators, to consider what this kind of timeline and how it affects people and families because this is a long time. I I get it in government timeline. And for us, as a local elected group, I understand that, but we're talking about people's livelihoods and, capacity to thrive. So whatever can happen that can push that more and see some actual funding come about, that would be great.

Thanks.

Counsel, this is Robbie. I just I wanted to just say I agree, and I think our hope is that the state will recognize that as well. I think local jurisdictions like the cities and counties, metro have put together pots of funding to do exactly what you just mentioned, but that's a finite amount. And and, frankly, it's not it's never been enough. And and cities, like you mentioned, aren't equipped to to continue that.

And so we hope that there will be funding at the same level. And as Ariel mentioned earlier, the the real challenge right now is because of the the budget cuts that are coming, it's just gonna be a challenge. We're gonna keep our eye on it. And if there's ever any opportunity to advocate for any type of bill that would do this, then that was that's what the city of Hillsborough would do.

And I I I just wanna mention briefly, mayor Peace had invited me, to a West Side, immigration response coordination meeting that took place, online and that had Metro and numerous local leaders present. And I wanna emphasize to ditto counselor Alcare's sentiments about accessibility to funds for livability for our impacted immigrant and refugee and Latino communities. That was a heavy topic of conversation and direction that we heavily support that and encourage that to congresswoman Bonamici.

Thank you. K. If I move on so our second, and I it it states in your draft agenda, but these are not listed in order of priority just for consideration. So our second our next, priority to focus on is economic development. This has been a long standing priority for the city of Hillsborough.

I think it's been on most agendas in previous years. What we're talking about this session, I mentioned there's kind of a renewed, invigorated interest, as Oregon as a state has not really taken, leadership or satisfaction in a number of years. And so there's a real focus on wanting to regain competitive competitiveness and a focus on the importance of highway jobs, retaining those jobs in the state, and the impact that has on over, Oregon's overall economic well-being, revenue that we used to support and pay for essential services for Oregonians. So with that lens, I mentioned, you know, the governor has a prosperity road map that we're still learning the details on. She, will be establishing a new business council, and we'll have a bill discussion.

And we also have senator Solman who has been leading on on economic development for some time and is bringing forward, a a a bill. I believe she's calling the Oregon Jobs Act with a broad focus on economic development. And that's a bill that Hillsborough's been working on in coalition with a number of other partners, statewide associations like Oregon Business and Industry, Oregon Economic Development Association, Oregon Life Sciences, biotech, community, excuse me, industry. Let me see. League of Oregon City is is engaged, and we have a number of other thought partners at the table, regional chambers, and others, working on this.

And, she really wanted to focus on, you know, recognizing the budget scenario what are the issues or the policies she could put forward that were least cost to the state and that, were appropriate for a short session, noting that this the short timeline and, you know, things that have previously been identified. And she brought it from the lens of, looking at sites, incentives, and regulatory reform. And so what's included on the page here is, largely senator Schulman's bill, and, many of these were identified in recent state task forces, Oregon Chips Act, and and state reports that have come out. So these are, previously identified kind of known, items. So I'll start from the top of the list.

The first one, she's looking at sites. You know, in in previous sessions, we've advocated for site readiness infrastructure funding. That's not really reality, or we feel like that was a challenge for this session. So really looking at the land in Hillsborough. This is land that, I believe you all are familiar with, that date back dates back to the Grand Bargain.

This was land that was previously planned for and as urban reserves for the city of Hillsborough, and a piece of legislation in 2014 switched that to rural reserves. And so efforts since then identify that land is still really important to economic development, not just for Hillsborough in the region, but for the state, and what that development of that area would mean, for the state's, jobs and economic well-being. And so that was this is the same land that was part of senate before, that, could have come in through executive authority and did not. So, that was left, and this bill would simply, with legislative authority, just bring that land into the urban growth boundary. It's fairly straightforward.

The center's home has also included some sideboards. The bill, we don't have the language yet. We'll be sharing details when they're out. But her intent is that the land is for advanced manufacturing and associated supply chain. It is not for standalone data centers. But it is specifically for when we talk about advanced manufacturing, that is the semiconductor industry, that's biotechnology, clean tech, you know, industries associated with jobs, and it's, really supporting us with the silicon forest we have here in the region. So that's the land piece. The next, moves into kind of the incentives piece. And so the bill looks at expanding the state's research and development tax credit. The state didn't have one for some time.

They stood up a narrow tax credit for the semiconductor industry, that's been building up. That was part of Senate Bill four. And this bill would expand it to, other advanced manufacturing industries like I mentioned, biotech, clean tech. Next would be a a capital equipment tax incentive. So this is property taxes.

It would be a local option as city or county could choose, and it may not be the right tool for every city or jurisdiction, to provide a property tax incentive on the, equip the high-tech equipment cost for advanced manufacturing. And this would be an incentive for both attracting new businesses but also retaining existing, manufacturers here. Her bill would also strengthen the existing program, the enterprise zone program. And, there's another piece in here to strengthen a a a rural, regionally significant program, as a request from the city of Pendleton. And then she focuses on state regulatory reform, and this is specifically around agency permitting timelines and certainty.

And we see there's a number of bills that we expect this session also focusing on that. It's a bit I think it's a a focus of the governor's efforts in her bill. Senator Salmon's bill would require state agencies who are in who issue permits that impact businesses to, set deadlines for those permits. And if they don't meet those deadlines, they would refund the permit fees, and there's some additional transparency, and certainty measures in the bill. And it's modeled after an executive order that the state of Washington's governor put forward kind of in a similar effort. This is a legislative version.

Any questions? Questions about this? Okay. Two things, I think. One, the governor's counsel, I know, Andy, we talked about this a month or so ago, and we didn't know who she was gonna be or kinds of businesses or geographic. Do we know anything more? Do we know anything yet?

Our understanding is she will be announcing the council next week.

Okay.

So we should hear more. We believe it's business professional CEOs, leaders in the business community, and their personal capacity and expertise, but we have not seen the membership.

Okay. That sounds good. The five year property tax exemption, because every time we talk about gain share and SIP, my head explodes. This is different than that, obviously, but is there any sort of incentives for the city or anything in in that regard with these, or is it just It's just sweet deal for the business

Yeah. It's it's just it's just a straightforward property tax assumption. And, again, at at the option of the city or county. So whether that is appropriate for there.

Anyway I will add to you on that. That it's something that we've talked about a lot

of staff as well that, you know, we have our gain share program that's incredibly important to the city because it goes back to all those property taxes that were essentially foregone by the city of Hillsborough. Right? So any new tools that are allowed, we would also wanna talk about things like gainshare and making sure we're strengthening that as well because, it's great if we can you know, the the more tools we have to bring businesses in the city, that's great. And we have to also be able to share in that, foregoing of taxes with the state. Right?

So that's something we will continue to advocate for with all of this. Probably, this is not probably gonna be the only thing that's in in in session. And so we we know this one's gonna happen, but there could be others. And so we'll we'll do whatever we can to advocate, for continuance with gainshare or whatever it is if those opportunities come up.

Pertaining to the tax abatement, specifically in reading about the enterprise zone, I am concerned when we talk about budget cuts and transportation funds and federal funding for projects. My fear is with the tax abatement, a lot of people are hurting right now and indirectly our residents subsidizing those abatements and filling the gap for that revenue. That is what my concern is. Will we have opportunity once we learn more after session to have a work session on this together before moving forward?

Absolutely. So one that I I mentioned before, and I'll repeat it for the rest of council as well. Earlier this past year, we did a a work session specific to the enterprise zone, but we can also come back and take a deeper dive, to the to talking about the enterprise zone and the benefits of it. And, typically, when we're talking about foregone, property taxes in our enterprise zone, it doesn't, it's not really that our residents are, subsidizing. We're still seeing big increases in tax revenue.

We just see it in different ways during that time frame. We get a, what we call, a community service fee, for example. And that money is a significant amount of money that can go into workforce So it's not usually that, any other businesses or or residents are subsidizing, those companies. But, yes, to answer you that was a long answer to your question, but we can certainly come back and do a deeper dive into the enterprise zone if you all would like.

Yes.

And I'll just add, you know, this is a a package. This is a very large bill with a number of pieces that were brought by different stakeholders. I I don't know that Hillsborough would necessarily adopt all of these things if they passed, right, of whether they they would be the right fit for for the community. So and whatever did move forward, to your point and to Robbie's point, would be a council conversation.

Before you go, Rob, I want to just do a quick time check. So keep in mind, as we're asking questions and moving through slides, go for it, Mr. Harris.

Thank you. Looking at the UGB expansion area bills that are have been drafted or in draft form at this point, the bills provide a zone overlay for the entire area as for the usage of the manufacturing industry, what or does it allow the city to go in and zone some of the property, for instance, on the Southern Park high density residential office commercial because we do have low density residential right on Evergreen and that transition right to manufacturing industry might not be best practices, I think, from an urban planning standpoint. And I would like to see the city have the flexibility zone at least a portion or some maybe up to Weibel Creek area even because my other concern is if all 1,700 acres or whatever is designated as a particular usage and it takes ten years to build that out, We have ten years of fallow land in a lot of that property. That combined with our needs for new housing development units in the city on our housing production strategy and the goals of the governor. I would love to have the flexibility to be able to zone some of that high density residential, office commercial as appropriate and compatible with the manufacturing industrial and as appropriate best practices as far as stair stepping usage on the property.

That's my comment on it. I'm really reluctant to rezone that entire piece manufacturing industry unless I'm convinced it's the way to go and we have proper usage for it in a reasonable timeframe. I'm not saying next year, I'm not saying we have to have it all under contract. I just want to make good use of that property for current, present and future residents and workers here and businesses here in Hillsboro.

Thank you.

Councilor Harris, I appreciate the comments. And we designated it North Hillsboro Industrial Area. Stop me if I'm getting off track. We have had requests in the past for people to have residential, to have housing in that area. And we have seen in the past that when you have industry next to housing or housing next to industry, it doesn't go well. And so I definitely understand what you're saying about the housing production strategy, and I would rather have flexibility than not. But just keep in mind that when you have housing next to industry, it doesn't always go well for either party.

I 100% agree with that. That's why I mentioned high density office commercial, maybe even green space. That's why I mentioned Weibull Creek, which is East to West bisects that property as well, which would give you a natural buffer as well.

I have a question. So SB4 is just bringing that into the urban growth boundary. Like, that that's what it's proposing. Not not what it's, not not how Not and and then then is it up to Hillsborough then to then, zone it whichever way?

Yeah. I'm not sure if I'm gonna get this right or not. Ariel, go ahead.

Yeah. I can take that. So senate bill four was passed in the 2023 session. And what that did was it, gave the governor executive authority to bring land in or a portion of that land in. That authority expired at the 2025, so it's no longer an option. Yes. This bill would just that same land or the the 1,700 acres that was considered as part of part of that would just come in, if the bill passed. It would just come in. In terms of the zoning, we don't have the exact bill language yet, but, again, the intent was for advanced manufacturing. So likely industrial zoning, the city would have the ability to do within that category, do zoning within that. It wouldn't I don't believe it directs beyond that. Okay.

This is counselor O'Kear. Workforce development is something that we have, always look forward to in this relationship that we have with North Hillsborough. But I I'm concerned about the long term sustainability of workforce with layoffs that Intel has had over this past year. And concerned about, well, are we setting people up for failure to wanna come into this kind of industry where we provide that access as a city funding that opportunity and then, not really fulfilling that promise of guaranteeing access to more jobs in workforce development. Has there been any thought about the layoffs and what impact that has, perception as

far

as the viability of North Hillsborough businesses?

Council, this is Robbie. It's a it's a great question. I think, with companies like Intel and other high-tech companies, we see cycles. Right? This is another cycle, and this was a big cycle where there were a lot of layoffs.

I think the workforce development, is probably more important now than ever in these types of climates, when we have businesses that are potentially looking at coming to Hillsboro by being able to offer them, working with them with our local education partners, with, our own funds, with this workforce development funds. I think we set ourselves apart from other other areas by being able to do that. I don't think it'll ever prevent, though, to your point, it'll never prevent, you know, future layoffs. I think that's, again, kind of a part of the cycle, unfortunately, with a lot of types of businesses. But I think the workforce development does provide some level of safety net that we can use as a community as we attract other businesses to come to Hillsborough.

I was present for the QuickStart graduation. I think it was last summer, but the QuickStart graduation. And that in the audience that day, what I was told sitting next to somebody from Analog was that some people were gonna get offered interviews and that not everybody will get a job. And it's a two week program. It prepares people to do specific things.

I'm not sure if those skills that they're gaining are transferable skills to another job where they could get hired. So I I I appreciate that program, but it's got it doesn't have enough jobs to promise people to go through that program. And so I would like to see what can be developed where people can have that access and then it's not a closed door and that they have no other way to grow towards a job in that in what they just trained for. And two weeks is not a lot of time, but it's enough to train them to do something.

That's a good example, counselor. Thank you.

All right. So in the interest of time, I'm going to move this to our last priority, housing production and homelessness response. This is also a longstanding housing and homelessness has been a longstanding priority for the city. What we're really looking at here is through that lens of budget cuts, we'll be, advocating to preserve funding for housing production, affordable housing, housing infrastructure programs that were recently passed, rent assistance and shelter. We're also going to continue to support policy and program improvements, recognizing that the legislature continues to make, more and more, detailed policy changes in the land use and housing realm and that those have been very, been a lot for cities to implement.

And so there's continued work needed to refine and ensure that we can implement efficiently and and achieve our shared housing goals with the state. Last, there are, several bills this session that are expected related also to urban growth boundary expansions. The governor governor Kotick had a priority bill in 2024 that passed senate bill fifteen thirty seven that included kind of an expedited one time pass so you could use it once within the ten year authorization for the program to bring in a limited amount of land, for housing if you met certain criteria. And they found, in since it passed in '24 that there's only three cities that actually qualify that that would need have the ability to use this, and so they're looking at making some tweaks to those eligibility criteria. The governor is also looking at adding on to that program to allow additional land to be brought in specifically to serve, to call it age restricted, essentially 55 and older, older adult communities as well as manufactured housing.

And so, we're we're still learning the details of that bill, but, this priority would support, kind of lifting some of those barriers and and the changes to the eligibility that will allow Hillsborough and other cities to consider using this tool.

Yes. Any other questions?

Thank you, Ariel. Thanks, Andy. And Jeff, you're up. It's ten almost ten on the East Coast. We really appreciate you being here to answer Absolutely.

You. Maybe if I could

just add really quick. We will, in a short session, it is a little tricky to come back in the middle of session because it's so fast, but we will figure out a way to do that. We always do it in the longer sessions. We come back in the middle of the session, but we'll figure out a time to come back and give you an update mid sessions. It'd be sometime in probably late February.

Thanks, Robbie. Thank you. 01/06/2026 City Council meeting. Happy New Year everyone, and thank you for joining us this evening. For translation services, please use our QR code on the poster on the left hand side of the room.

Excuse me, the right hand. The right hand your left, my right. Okay. Or on the front page of the agenda to begin this meeting, I invite you to join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. Amber may we please have a roll call.

Mayor pace here. Councilor alcair councilor alcair is virtual tonight. Councilor sinclair here. Councilor case Here. Councilor Harris?

Here.

Councilor Ambry? Here. Councilor Sagato? Here. Thank you.

Moving to item two presentations and appointments I' like to invite clean water services interim CEO and General Manager Rick Shanley and Chief Utility Relations Officer Joe Gaul to come forward for our state of our partnership presentation. Thank you to Rick and Joe for being here this evening. Press the center button when the light turns green you are alive.

Mayor and council, thank you for allowing us to spend some time this evening. My name is Joe Gaul, and I'm the chief utility relations officer for CWS. I'm gonna introduce Rick in a second here. We were going to be here back in December, but we understand you had some long meetings, so we deferred this to the beginning of the New Year. So, New Year to everyone.

We've been making the rounds to all of our partner cities over the last few months. Basically, taking a look back over the last fiscal year and just kind of reinforcing how we do the work together in terms of the work that CWS and the City of Hillsborough does and just highlight some things. Many of you have been through CWS essentials, you have good basic understanding of clean water services. Some of this may be repeat for some of you as alumni of that program. I also want to acknowledge director Willie for Clean Water Services who represents Hillsborough is in the audience.

Has been attending the cities that is within his district. And, my understanding is that chair Harrington, our board chair, is also online and couldn't be here in person, but is watching virtually tonight.

Great. Thanks for letting us know.

Thank you. So, as many of you know, we have a acting interim CEO general manager that's new, and that is Rick Shanley. He's probably a new face for many of you. I'm not gonna read all the slides information, but you can see his background, and I'm gonna allow him the opportunity to say a few words before I get into the bulk of the presentation tonight. So, Rick, go ahead.

Well, thank you Joe and thank you mayor and council members for inviting us here this evening. We really appreciate the time. I don't know everyone, so really for me it's just an opportunity to do what my board has directed and is to get out there and make sure to get some face time with our co implementers and strengthen what we have already a great partnership with Hillsborough. But some background, I also won't go through all these bullets. But my former job about a year ago was chief engineer and water technology officer.

So I am an engineer by trade. I had responsibility for all the engineers that do our conveyance system, our water resource recovery facilities sorry, we used call them treatment plants and I'm still getting used to that new term our research and innovation group, as well as all the operations for our conveyance and also the treatment plant. So it was about half the FTE. So I felt real comfortable stepping into the role with a lot of the internal needs of the district. But this is a new experience for me in some sense.

I've done a lot of work with Hillsborough projects, with your planning group, your engineering group. And I can say, as you already are aware, they're top notch. But this type of role has been something I've really enjoyed since June. So I've been in this for about six months now. Prior to that, was a consultant for twenty years.

And this was really the only position that I said, if Clean Water Services ever had that opening up there for treatment plant services manager, I'd take the job. So that was about thirteen years ago. A little unexpected journey to where I am today, but it's been a great ride. So I'm going to turn it over to Joe to really walk us through the presentation. But thank you for allowing me to

introduce myself tonight. Absolutely. And welcome, Rick. Thank you.

And if there are any questions at the end that are more technical that an engineer is better, I'm going to defer to my friend because I am not an engineer, as many you know. So, just wanna touch on for the public and just a reminder, you know, who is, what is Clean Water Services. We are the wastewater and storm water utility serving all of urban Washington County. Over 600,000 residents and the businesses in that community. There's 12 partner cities.

You're one of those partner cities. You happen to be the largest of those cities and a very important partner for us. Then the county is also another partner because we do provide services in unincorporated urban parts of Washington County. You get a sense of our budget. It's about $750,000,000 currently.

One of the unique factors about cws is that we hold the nation's first integrated watershed based permit. Prior to having that we used to have individual permits for each of our four treatment plants and then another permit basically for the storm water permit. And that's now all combined into one permit that provides us a lot of flexibility. It's very unique and we're very proud of that fact that we have that that watershed base permit. We work very closely with Washington County.

Sometimes folks get confused because we share governance with the County. So, we are a separate utility, separately managed, funded and financed under RRS five four fifty one, but we have a board of directors that wears that hat and also the county commissioner hat. And, I think that sometimes confuses the public and they think that we're part of the county. We also have a very important advisory committee called the Clean Water Services Advisory Committee. They meet every couple months.

They have a variety of stakeholders who we work with. So, there are two representatives from the environmental community. There are two representatives from the business community. There are two representatives from the development community. And then, two representatives from the agricultural community.

And then one representative from each of the four commissionerdirector districts. And, they provide a lot of feedback on the work and the programs initiatives that we do, because we affect all those different stakeholders. They are advisory only, they do not have any authority to make decisions, but they are an advisory commission. And, we currently have four sixty eight employees or FTEs in the organization. Quick map we' going to talk about regional and local services because depending on what city or where you live in the county you get different levels of service from clean water services.

So, for our largest cities, such as Hillsborough, we provide the regional services, and I'll talk about that in a minute in terms of what regional means. And, you, as our partner, do all the local services. And you can see the cities that are listed there that provide regional only. And the smaller cities and then the urban unincorporated, we do both. We provide the regional services but we also provide those local services.

As you can imagine a city like North Plains doesn't necessarily have a fully public works department that can handle everything so we provide that local services for those smaller communities. And then there are certain industrial customers that we permit separately. The intels of the world have a separate permit from us because they send us very unique discharges from their facilities and we serve them differently. Hillsborough, the document that I hope you have in front of you on the back, you'll see all the industrial permit partners. By far Hillsborough has the most in that category.

We have about 90 industrial customers across the county and I didn't do a quick count, there's easily the most here in Sherwood or not in Sherwood, in Hillsboro, just to give you a sense. They are important customers to us as well. So I mentioned regional services and I want to touch on what that means. So the four treatment plants that we operate, that is a regional service. Two of those plants are actually in Hillsborough.

Our River Road plant, Rock Creek plant is one of our largest facilities and an important facility. And then we have a very small plant up the street from here, our Hillsborough facility that also is within your city. And then we have one in Durham and then one in Forest Grove. Regional is also the large pipes. You can think of the pipes that are 24 inches and larger.

The main trunk lines, those are our responsibility as a regional provider. We also do all of the reporting and oversight for our NPDES permit, is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which also contains our MS4, our storm water permit. That is a permit with DEQ, a federal permit, that we are the ones responsible for basically making sure we're complying and reporting to them. However, you have a role as the city partner. On the inside of this you see a lot of data in terms of the information that goes into the report and significant amount of work that the hillsborough team does gets incorporated into that compliance reporting to deq.

Local services and in the case of Hillsborough this is what your hillsborough team does. You are responsible for the smaller pipes 21 inches and smaller cleaning those pipes, inspecting those pipes, making sure that they're working. You also do your own local storm water program, sweep your your streets, maintain water quality facilities, cleaning catch basins, certainly water quality manholes. So it is a partnership. This is the work that you do at the local level on the smaller scale pipes we do the bigger pipes and we do this together.

I mentioned this five year watershed based permit you can see all the things that it covers it is a very important part of our work When I was the city manager at the city of Sherwood before coming to CWS, I thought I understood CWS and what they did as a partner. I really didn't understand until I got into the organization. And this permit and how important it is to our work I also did not understand. So any opportunity I have to talk to city leaders elected or appointed I always go to this to talk about this drives our work on a day to day basis is all the work that we do is generally tied to that permit and we are held responsible for complying with that permit. It is a five year cycle and you can see on this chart we are starting the process to think about the new application which is going to be in June it's due in June 2027.

And in addition to planning for that next permit application we are also looking out over the next two permit cycles to try to anticipate what is coming in the world of wastewater and storm water. You've heard about PFAS that's something that we're very concerned about and trying to stay on top of that. You just had a work session about state and federal legislation. We're following that very closely because those potential new requirements that EPA or DEQ could implement would impact our work. So we are always looking out trying to make sure we are prepared so we are not caught off guard with some significant investment that we weren't prepared for as part of the permit.

This is a quick snapshot of projects that we have done last fiscal year in Hillsborough. Some of these projects are multi year, so you might see a small amount of money. Minter Bridge sewer upgrade, for example, dollars 6,400. That's a multi year project. So, this is what was spent in Hillsborough last year.

Most of this spending is by CWS because these are regional facilities. Some of the projects are fifty-fifty projects. So the Minter Bridge sewer upgrade is actually a project that we both contribute 50% to the costs. Some of the inflow and infiltration abatement projects, which address some of your oldest infrastructure are also projects that are fifty fifty funded between the district and the city of Hillsborough. You see the big amount last year, almost $18,000,000 was spent at the Rock Creek wastewater facility on River Road and that was the clarifier project that primarily was done last year.

I wanted to touch on an important process that just wrapped up our West Basin master plan and you can see on the map this is for sewer for wastewater we have basically two basins Hillsborough is in the green West Basin area. The wastewater flows to either the Rock Creek facility or the Hillsborough facility. And then the orange area is the East Basin. What we just wrapped up and just got approved was the West Basin Master Plan, which is a twenty year plan for our regional system that was developed very closely with the City of Hillsborough and the other city partners. Because what we are looking for is what is the city of Hillsborough's community aspirations and goals for the next twenty years?

What do you want to see your city develop and how do we fit into that picture, into that puzzle? Because we want to make sure our infrastructure is there, ready when it is needed. And we could not have done this plan without very, very close coordination with your city staff and then the others. The East Basin master plan was done a few years ago and now we have brand new updated plans for both basins. And this is not as many planning process processes a one time plan that sits on the shelf we pull this off every year reconvene with our cities what's changed has anything changed in terms of your growth aspirations is growth expediting is it slowing down do we need to make adjustments in terms of when we're going to do projects?

So it's an ongoing iterative process. So the results of the West Basin Master Plan, I just want to give you a sense of scale. So, for the West Basin, which is including Hillsboro, we've identified $1,400,000,000 over the next twenty years of various projects that are regional. These are CWS primarily regional projects invested by CWS. And you can see the two different categories conveyance basically our pipeline projects, the big pipes, and then almost $05,000,000 on the treatment plan improvements Rock Creek and Hillsborough and Forest Grove.

Just to give you a sense of scale, the East Basin Master Plan, not as much money. One of the big differences, there are three treatment facilities in the West Basin. There's only one treatment facility in the East Basin. So about $400,000,000 has been identified in the East Basin Master Plan. So, if you combine the two, that's nearly $2,000,000,000 of investment that we are planning for with you as partners and the other cities for investment over the next twenty to twenty five years.

This is a list of, in the West Basin project, next five fiscal years, about a 191,000,000, actually. I always say million, it's it's a big number. A $191,000,000,000 to be invested in your community. A lot of that is in the treatment plants. You see $87,000,000 or billion at Rock Creek.

But there's a lot of significant projects, trunk line projects, that we have identified to be invested within your community. Another project that I want to highlight, you see Springer Street facility improvements at almost $25,000,000 is a new facility that's going to be another operations center for us. We have our main operations center in Beaverton. We're planning a second one here in Hillsborough, and that will likely also be our emergency operations center as well. So a very important project for us and it' in your community in the next five years.

Another topic that I wanted to make sure the Council was aware of and the community, We're about to launch a very in-depth billing feasibility study. As you may know, we have a pretty complicated billing structure that has been the way it's been done for close to twenty years. We haven't looked at how we do billing since 2008 it' time to take a deep dive for the city of hillsborough you bill on our behalf so your residents and your businesses get a bill from the city of hillsborough and on that bill is a portion of cws fees that basically go to cws and you keep the local portion. In some of our smaller cities we do the billing And, TVWD bills in a lot of areas that includes the CWS charges in the urban unincorporated area, for example. We want to take a look at, is this the most effective way to do billing in 2025?

And that's simple question that we're going to be asking. We're going to do that study in close cooperation with all our city partners. And we're going to develop different alternatives and look at the pros and cons, the costs and benefits. And then hopefully in early twenty twenty seven make a decision with our partners about where we're going in terms of billing in the future. We appreciate the partnership we have with the city of Hillsborough, but there may not there may be a new way of doing this a different way an improved way of doing this so I wanted you to be aware we' going to be doing this study this year.

Two other requirements that are pending that I have been reminding all of our city partners we by 11/01/2026 have two key components that certainly keep me up at night in terms of getting accomplished on time. One is we have to update some very specific storm water sections of our design and construction standards. We're just starting that process. Again, we're doing that in conjunction with all our co implementer cities like Hillsborough. It's a fairly narrow scope to meet the permit requirements that we have to do and we're just launching that project now and we'll be working with your city officials and staff as we do that.

And then all of our operating IGAs with all the cities in Washington County have to be updated by November 2026. You were actually the first city after about eighteen months of discussions and I don't like to call them negotiations it was more conversation about why do you do this? Can we do this? Can we do things differently? And that took a long time for us to have those conversations.

They were very fruitful. And I think our relationship with your city staff is stronger now as a result of that. So we have a new IGA which is great because the old one was outdated, but I'm more proud of the relationship that we have and the partnership with the city of Hillsborough that kind of came out of that whole process. We have a number of cities that we have to complete that task. Hillsborough is not one of them so we appreciate you being first.

And I think that quickly covers my presentation. Rick and I are both available for any specific questions you might have. And thank you for your time.

You, Joe, and thank you, Rick, for being here. We do have some questions. Counselor Ann Verey and then Counselor Salgado.

Thank you. Hi. I have a couple questions. What is the criteria of deciding when a city does local or you do or CWS does end to end service? Regional versus local?

I don't think there's a clear decision point. I mean, you have provided because you're a full service city in a large city, you've provided that local service for many, many decades. And we've provided the regional. And that relationship with our current list of cities has been pretty consistent. At some point Yeah. North Plains Yes. King City come to mind. As they grow over time, they're gonna be at a point when they're they're gonna say, maybe it's time for us to take on the local services. We're ready to do those local services because we have the finding the funding and the staff and the capability to do that. And that would be part of a conversation and a transition.

You are now doing the local services and we're going to strictly do just the regional services. It doesn't change very much at all because taking on those local services for a small city is a heavy lift. Yeah. Okay. Those two cities I think are probably next to do that. But I think it's gonna still be probably five to ten years out before they say it's now time for us to take that out.

That that was one of my questions. Are they part or or other cities, is that incorporated into your plan?

For them to take on the local? As far as the plan, the master plans, no. We Okay. It doesn't affect because that really isn't the regional. That's the stuff that we're responsible for. So we're planning for that. Okay. We're also planning for the local services in those communities, those smaller communities in conjunction with And they're aware because they know what projects need to happen to meet their community aspirations. So we don't do it in a vacuum, we do it together. It's just at some point, they're gonna be ready to take on the challenge of taking on the local services. Funding is a big thing.

Yes. Just a couple of questions. So the so for Hillsboro Hillsborough Hillsborough does the storm water management, but is the permit under CWS? Is that is that how it's set up?

Yes. So, the NPDS permit

Yes.

Which is a wastewater permit, the MS four is rolled Yes. Within it. That's not usually the case. Usually, there's a NPDS permit and a separate MS four storm water permit. This is all wrapped together, and we're the permit holder.

Yeah. Okay.

You, we've heard the word co implementer. You co implement the permit with us. You implement the programming at the local level. We do the regional. It's a partnership to meet the the permit requirements.

Two two other questions. For for the industrial consumers, do CWS does end to end, or is there also a regional versus local division there?

Do you know how that I mean, it's a separate permit, basically, an industrial discharge permit.

Yeah. I don't I've never seen it thought of it as distinguished between regional and local for the industrial permit. T is the major contributors in any case.

Let me get back to you with specific answer because I I believe when we collect that revenue because we bill intel, there may be a portion that comes back to the city of Hillsborough. But I don't want to give you inaccurate information and I can get back and share that with the rest of council.

That'd be great. Thank you. And then last one, what what is an operations center? You were excited about it. I don't know what it is, but I'm happy till this is gonna

be In your Lingo would probably be your public works facility. Okay. So

So the so the next one is which might be the emergency one would be in Hillsborough?

Yes. On Springer Street near the airport.

Great. Thank you.

Yep. Councilor Sogado.

Good evening. I have a few questions so bear with me. It's about the billing feasibility study and sorry if I missed this. What's the problem you're trying to fix in that? What's the main problem with the current system?

Depending on who you talk to, you might get different answers to that question. Okay. Some of our city partners basically who have been billing on our behalf have raised question like, why don't you do your own billing?

Okay.

We have other responsibilities and other priorities and that's one of the things that we've heard. We need to evaluate there's pros and cons to that. Right now your residents get a bill jointly billed for both organizations if we took on billing for the regional services they get two bills and both bills would have sewer and storm water rates on it and that would be a new level of confusion because people would say why am I getting double billed after so many decades of getting one bill where it' combined there' some efficiencies obviously for you as a city to do that. Utilities are getting very very expensive all utilities. It' not been looked at for so long and it' time.

Think that' where we' decided and the board has decided look we' got to take a deep dive it' been since 2008. What are the pros and cons of taking on all our billing? What are the pros and cons to stay with the system we have? Can we improve the system we have? Just because it's been done the way it's been done for so long doesn't mean it's the best way of doing it or the most efficient.

So I think there's just been a lot of questions that we received and it's time to take a look at it. And it's somewhat confusing for customers. They get a utility bill and sometimes they think it's their sewer bill. And as you know, it's not just their sewer bill or just their drinking water bill. Most of the city bills are utility bills and there's other fees and other things on there. And it's becoming more and more expensive for our residents. It's just a good time to take a look at what we're doing.

Yeah. On the cost side of it, is there any risk that, know, getting a new system is gonna increase the cost for the customer? Because that's the main main concern for me anytime you hear something new, right? That's that's what I would like for you all to consider long term impact.

Right? That's part of evaluating each alternative because if we were to take on our own billing

Mhmm.

And change the system that we do now, there's probably going to be the the study will dig into the details. So probably new costs to CWS. We probably have to hire more customer service utility billing folks to answer questions. We would more than likely need a new billing system. That's not inexpensive. So there would be costs. What would those costs be? Same thing in terms of sticking with the current alternative. So all of the costs associated with the different alternatives will definitely be evaluated as part of the decision of which route to take.

Yeah. So that cost will probably be included in like the proposal to increase rates for future Potentially. Yes. Yeah. I would just encourage that you look at ways to reduce costs at CWS so it doesn't translate to increasing rates for people because I really think it's unfair to put it on the on the customers, know, to put them on new system when when there could be potentially ways to re budget the current budget. Because on one end, you're talking about investing billions of dollars and on the other end, we might increase cost because we want to improve the billing system, Right? So just consider that because I think it would be unfair to push that cost on to the customers.

Of course, counselor.

Yeah. Thank you.

Counselor Sinclair.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation tonight. I've had the opportunity to partake in the essential course with clean water services, and it was very enlightening. A couple of questions. One of them is, with the projected upcoming projects with Hillsborough for the water and sewer projects, which are driven by industrial demand? What's the percentage roughly on average, the industrial demand versus residential growth?

Rick, I'm going to defer more to you on this one.

Yeah, I'm going to have trouble thinking of it exactly in terms of a percentage.

High level.

I'm trying to do math in my head. Mean maybe 20%. I will say that the projections include a variety of industrial growth scenarios and those are built into the planning. So we worked closely with your planning folks to develop those high, low and medium growth scenarios. So we're able to make adjustments to that. But that's part of where we're at today. We had assumed a higher percentage and things with where things are today have gone down somewhat.

Thank you. And the second question I have is for major industrial users, what percent of total lifecycle infrastructure cost is recovered through system development charges? Is that through you guys that I asked this or is it with staff that I asked this?

Any I'm not quite sure I understand the question, but we So have new development for yes, any capacity increases. They are SSSDCs. They're in terms of equivalent dwelling units is the current STC setup is formulated. Did that?

It's probably something we can talk more about and do I

can have staff also respond from a city perspective on We can send an email to counsel.

Yeah. Okay.

No. I think that's important, especially as to echo councilor sallagado' concerns and think it' important that these costs of infrastructure and growth don' fall on our residents it' tough and so thank you for the presentation and I look forward to learning more.

Thank you. One thing I do want to give you a heads up we will be back probably in the March timeframe if we can get some time with you to talk about rates I think it' very important one of the things we' heard from our city partners is we don' understand how you develop rates can you come spend some time talking about how you develop your rates kind of gets to some of your questions I think councilor Sinclair and what is your rate proposal going to be next year and we' going to be also coming with we do a ten year rate projection in terms of what rates will be looking like based on 2025. We've revisited every year but we will be going around to all of our cities. Our CFO Kathy Leader who's been with the district for twenty years and is very knowledgeable in the financial world, and we can maybe touch on some of these questions that you raised when we come back and visit you in a few months, hopefully.

That's great, Joe. Any other questions? Great Joe thank you for the presentation. Thank you Rick for being here and congratulations on your new position. Thank you.

You.

Moving to item 2.2 annual appointments and reappointments. Do I have a motion to approve the annual appointments and reappointments?

So moved case. Second sinclair.

Is there any discussion? May I please have a roll call.

Councilor zalcare? Case? Aye. And very? Aye. Sinclair? Aye. Harris?

Aye. Thank

moving to item 2.3 appointment for the metro policy advisory committee to have a motion to approve the metro policy advisory committee appointments. So moved the case. Second?

Discussion.

Yeah. Is there any discussion?

Just a question why didn't we do this with the others?

That's a great question. Amber do you know why we separated out the m pack? External versus internal boards and commissions. Got it. Thank you. You good? Any other discussion? Okay. May we please have a roll call.

Councilors Alcare.

Abstain.

I'm sorry. Was that an I?

I I believe I heard abstain. Abstain?

Mhmm. Abstain.

Okay. Could you just please state the reason for your abstention?

Ready to go back and find the document. So it's gonna take me a couple of minutes.

Okay. We'll we'll move on. Councilor case aye and very aye Sinclair aye Harris aye Salgado aye okay thank you

are we good okay great Thank you. The motion passes. Moving to item three, public comment. Persons wishing to speak will be recognized at this time. If you are here in person and wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the city recorder, which is Amber Rios right over there.

When I call on you, join us here at the table and speak into the microphone so those on Zoom can also hear your comments. Because of the translation tool, community members can speak in their language of choice, and this city recorder can display the translation on our screen here. We have zero persons registered to speak virtually and the deadline to register is now passed. If you are unable to speak or to sign up to speak prior to the deadline, you are always welcome to email your comments to the city council at any time of day. This is called public comment because it's time dedicated for you to inform the city council about your views.

And comments are limited to three minutes. And we will begin actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna also say some of this in Spanish. Thank you. We'll begin hearing from John Grabski. Mister Grabski, please come forward, and you can depress the center button on the console.

When the light is green, you are heard. And the next person up is Dirk Knudson. Dirk you can take the other seat and the person on deck is Aaron Nichols. Mister Grabski you have three minutes.

Okay. Last year I came before this council and asked them when they' giving out this money at the end of the year to get a vote from the people of Hillsborough you can decline that. I see that you' given out three quarters of the 200,000 to law services is that law services for illegal aliens they' here illegally and you' using tax money to support them and not The U. S. Citizens of the state that I would like to know so if you could put it in your form here next time you send it out I would appreciate it.

It just irritates me when I see money I don' mind the food assistance and stuff like that girls and boys charities stuff like that' fine but when you' assisting people that are here illegally that have no authority that doesn' care about The United States they have no they haven't pledged their allegiance to our our country or government. See, when I see the Mexican flag and other flags being flown in during these little protests, not the American flag. So they're not here for America. So I don't know why people are so against ICE to deporting these people. The previous government was in this country brought in millions of people illegally.

They even flew them in on our tax dollars. And we couldn't do anything about that because of the president was sorta goofy anyways. He didn't have all his faculties. So when I see this still happening in our community because when we had a vote here years ago about being sanctuary city it was a tied vote three three. Was sitting in this audience I come up and speak and people were threatening the city council this city with violence if they did not pass it.

Okay mayor Callaway did decide a citing vote and passed it. Okay mayor Callaway is a nice guy. He believed he was doing the right thing. I still think he he did the wrong thing. So that's that's my comments. I I hope you guys take that seriously because I'm not the only one in this community thinks that we should not be paying people here being here illegally supporting them. Thank you. You have a good evening.

Thank you. Mayor Pace and members of the council tonight I want to talk about two very different Hillsboroughs and how they contrast between them is laying bare the truth about equity and public power in the city. First, I want to acknowledge something we did right. The new community flag process was an example of government actually listening. It was community led. It invited stories, values, ideas. It involved bilingual outreach, a public vote, and thousands of participants. City staff listened, answered questions, and built a symbol that meant to represent all of us. They nailed it. That flag represents the best things from our past.

That's the Hillsborough we're asked to support and believe in. A place that says it values community, nature, history, technology, and belonging. A place that says it's committed to harmony, to inclusion, and to civic pride. That's But here's the problem with that. That Hillsborough is not the Hillsborough residents are experiencing when it comes to land and industrial expansion.

Because at the very same time that we will celebrate this flag tonight and in the future with four green panels of farmland and the trillium that symbolizes harmony and honors our indigenous communities. At the same time we're doing that we are also watching the city pursue a future that looks like metal, concrete, glass, and fenced off industrial landscapes built over and erasing the very same land, greenfields, natural systems that those that flag celebrates. And, the biggest issue for me is the process. If the city can apply meaningful engagement, if we can use equity framework, run a broad outreach campaign and we invited thousands of people to weigh in, Then explain to me why Hillsborough residents are not being given that same respect when the subject is 1,700 acres of pristine land, creeks, woods and permanent changing permanent change to our environment. We told we live in a place that is equitable and is inclusive.

But when it comes to decisions that will reshape our community for generation, the residents are treated like some kind of an audience sitting and watching. They're not at being asked to participate. And I wanna say this plainly, it's harder to accept when the people driving these decisions, consultants, industry experts, lobbyists, and even some of the staff, do not live in Hillsborough. They don't raise their kids here. They don't have to live with the consequences of what'92s about to happen should you pass the 70 to 90 acres you'92re looking to do.

I'ninety asking you tonight do not use the flag as proof that Hillsborough is unified and heard while you move forward with the land and industrial agenda that the public did not meaningfully shape that the public had no involvement in at least not in the last decade. If the flag if that flag process was real then prove it now when it matters most engage us show us the maps Meet with us. And, show us the environmental stewardship and equity analysis that's needed as we move forward. The flag versus industrial parks kinda lays this whole topic bare. And, I ask you for public Your

time is up. Thank you. Aaron Nichols. And calling mcgee you can come up and take the other seat thank you. Erica Halperin you' on deck. Erin go ahead you have three minutes.

Thank you mayor pace. Good evening mayor pace councilors my name is erin nichols 1111000 Northwest Jackson Quarry Road, Hillsboro, Oregon. I farm next door. I came right from work. You can see that I farm, I guess.

I'm coming today because I I saw I have two children who go to West Union Elementary School. I saw there's a battery storage facility going in across the street from that. And I'm concerned about that on a number of levels. One, I'm I'm an advocate for farmland and I worry about it as kind of a continuing and clearly wasteful use of industrial land. We're losing what could be, you know, good job producing and tax and tax producing revenue, producing areas for the city for battery storage, not not something we particularly need.

And this is part of a pattern, I think, that we've seen for about a decade now. We're choosing space extensive industrial uses that provide few jobs and little tax revenue. I understand the city is now looking for, you know, 1,800 more acres supposedly for advanced manufacturing tax revenue and jobs. It's a little bit off topic, but honestly, if that's actually where possible and where the city's plan, we would have done it with the last 2,000 acres and we didn't. So But I think back to the batteries directly, I think all of us probably are aware on some level that in twenty years or at some point, there's gonna be a fire somewhere of a battery storage facility.

It's gonna put toxic smoke into a community, into into a neighborhood, or into a school, and then we'll regulate it. I think there's an obvious problem with that which is that we don't have to wait for that to happen. We can we can choose not to put these across from schools right now. And I I don't expect that the CEOs of these battery facility companies care about the school. They don't think they care about the kids.

I mean, you know, we do a fun run every year. There's a bunch of a bunch of banners of every business that supports the fun run and no data centers, no battery storage facilities around there. But I do think that you guys care and I I do think that you you would like to protect the kids who go to the West Union and all the other schools. So I think that I know I realize it's probably too late in the process as, you know, I I did not see this posted at the school. And so it's it's something to think about for future future schools, future sightings, and and that sort of thing.

And lastly, I wanna suggest that as we move forward with economic development, as we move forward with planning and permitting, I think we need to look at what benefits our community. Battery storage across from schools absolutely does not benefit our community. It only benefits some shareholders somewhere. AI data centers on farmland, they don't benefit our community, they benefit some billionaires somewhere. This economic development that we've done for the last decade has failed. And, I I don't think this where this is where we should be going. It's hurting our farmland, it's, you know, hurting our kids, it's hurting our communities, and I I do hope we can do better. So, thank you.

Colleen McGee. Please press the center button. You have three minutes, but hold on. And then, Erica, you are up. And then, Ruben Halpern Halpern, you are on deck. Colleen, go ahead.

Yes. Yeah. What what kind of spurred me to come here back in October, I had an incident health incident, and it put me out of work and in the hospital for a couple of days. And a lot of what brought it on was a lot of stress. And looking back at a lot of the things, the last couple of years, my rent has gone up exponentially. That's fine. I'm working. I can work. And I've been putting in more work. I'll just work harder.

And, know, working into the night a little bit more. Well, you know, that caused problems and and then I had this issue. And, doing all this, I have time to look at your at some of the other meetings that you guys have and there's no question that the sanctuary status, it is that many people say, you have people in here that aren't that aren't legal. It puts a burden. And, I was talking with my property management company.

They they they agree. It puts a burden on them. They can't talk about moratoriums. Somebody once said here that that you don't want the moratoriums to be a burden on the landlords. It can't help that.

To have I have some statistics here. It's things about the statistics of of legal illegal people that coming in. Some of this crime statistics, the city of Hillsborough, they don't they they the the the police, they don't I'm sorry. I'm getting a little bit bit nervous here. But but they don't record, you know, how many of the illegals or, you know, how much of the crime is happening by them.

But I go to the the federal statistics, about 80% of the non citizen sentencing are illegal aliens. Now that's federal. But, what about what is here? Crimes and there there's different ways, like I was just saying, how it causes housing to go up, the price of the of the cost when when you say moratoriums and you give them aid, you have to give put more taxes on our landlords, on us. We need to have law and order.

It's not right. It's not right in the in the sight of God. The first sanctuary cities in in the bible, they were to for the innocent, to help the innocent, protect the innocent, not to harbor those who might be breaking the law. The ICE people, somebody said, you know, I don't have very little time left. But ICE, you you talk about they're not doing anything to or they're your

time is up. Your time is up. And we'll be moving to Erica Halperin. And then Ruben Halperin, you can come into that seat. You waving me off? Okay. So Ruben now?

Is this on now? Okay.

It is. Wait one second, please. Thank you. So Ruben, are you saying you do not wanna come up? Alright thank you and then my record treris you can take your seat. Erica thank you for waiting you have three minutes go ahead.

Thank you my name is Erica Halperin and here as an area resident to request the council address the community's concerns about the expansion of the urban growth boundary for the purpose of welcoming more data centers. It appears critical decisions are being made while intentionally excluding public input and community needs with respect to questions around who are all of the parties involved who is footing the bill or will be footing the bill for infrastructure expansion costs such as expanding the electrical grid? What will be the impact on the ongoing availability of clean water long term? And why should the community provide significant financial incentives in the form of tax breaks and shouldering infrastructure expansion costs without any return in the form of long term employment opportunities and franchise income desperately needed to address fundamental community needs. In other words, who's benefiting from the urban growth boundary expansion and why aren't the costs to quality of life, the environment, and community members needs being considered.

And that was all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Myra, to press that middle button when the light turns green, you're on. And then Joanna So to, you can come and take the other seat. And the person on deck is marla or maria? Maria you' on deck. Myra go ahead you' three minutes.

Good evening mayor and city council members As you know my name is mayor Contreras and I' the owner of mayor's cupcakes and more. I wanted to begin by thanking you for the progress you' made providing grants to business affected by ICE informants in our area. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed. They truly mean a great deal to our community. After hearing the timeline in the workshop session today I have to say that makes me well that makes us a little nervous.

I would like to see progress hopefully on the next couple of meetings. That being said, the last time I stood before you, I spoke on behalf of Latino owned businesses like mine. Tonight, I'm here speaking not only as a Latino business owner, but as a micro business owner, What many call a mom and pop business. I' one of many. As you can see here tonight, we are here to respectfully ask that you consider us in your grant disbursement.

Not necessarily first but somewhere on your list. We understand that many small businesses are suffering right now not only the latino ive seen it. We' just simply asking for a chance. When making your decision please remember that micro businesses like ours have a long ladder to climb. Behind each business is a family, a dream.

With your support these dreams become a reality. M unsure whether I' still here in a month or so, but please consider the ones standing behind me. Gosh, I don' wanna get emotional. Each of them are holding a handwritten sign with their businesses. Please engrave those names in your memory. With your help, perhaps one day you'll see those names proudly displayed on storefronts of their own brick and mortar. That'92s all I have to say. Thank you. I'92ve seen so much progress. I'ninety very proud of you guys.

I know pros, cons and everything but from our standpoint you guys are doing a great job. Thank you.

Thank you. Joanna So to and then Maria, you can come up to the other seat. You have three minutes. Yes. And do you want to translate? Yes. Can we have that in Spanish, please? Ready? Use your microphone.

Okay.

Okay. Maria, can we have the translation again, please? The next person is Antonio Mendoza. Please depress the button in the center of the console. There you go.

Hi. Good evening. My name is Antonio Mendoza. I'm the manager for Pisonos Plaza. I'm here to ask some for some serious help. Our vendors are completely struggling with this issue that is currently going on. Plaza is on the edge of collapsing pretty soon. We have two locations. This is the main location, by Santa's Plaza Hillsborough and we have the other location in Gresham. Our other location, I think, is on the edge already.

We're considering closing that location in order to survive. Now, if we don't get any help on the Hillsborough location, it's gonna be our second location to close. And a lot of people depend on Pisonos Plaza. And it seems like nobody's doing much to help us out. A lot of people depend on Plaza.

Family members, they have their families working at Paisanos Plaza. Lots of them, they're unable to pay the rent. We ourselves, we're struggling at the moment. We're not even making half of the payment currently. We're just making it.

Our budgets, they're they're completely drained. Manuel, the owner, he's been going through some hard times in order to make this and make this plaza survive. He has lost his house in order to make payments that he's been getting behind. So currently, Manuel, he doesn't have a home right now anymore. He has he had to sell his house in order to make it, you know, to stretch it a little bit more.

So we're just asking for help, not for just us, but for our vendors and their families because they really depend on us and we depend on them. We don't have no help we don't have no help from that, you know, for our vendors and ourselves. We're closing and we don't wanna do that. Community the community know knows us really well now. And we're that's all we need.

We need some help. Figure out a way to survive us and our vendors. So please help us. Let's figure out a way to make us survive through this issue. Other than that, you know We're closing.

That's time. Thank you, Antonio.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker is Liliana Castro. Liliana, Can we switch it to Spanish, Amber?

Okay.

Do

we have any more public comment mayor?

No there is no more public comment.

Do you mind if I take a few minutes? Go ahead.

Sorry we have one minute please hold. Thank you, Meyer. Alright. Are we good, Amber? This is gonna go from Spanish to English.

Is that all? Amber? Councilor Salgado, you wanted to make a comment?

Yeah. Just a quick one and I'll say it in both languages. You know, this is a this is a very important place right here, the public comment that we give people the time to come and speak whatever they wanna share. Sometimes people get information wrong, sometimes they embellish it. And a lot of times we can look the other way and say, okay, well you know, maybe they have the facts wrong and they need to research things. But when it comes to demonizing vulnerable communities, I think it's our responsibility to speak up. So if you believe some of the things that you heard today about how sanctuary cities encourage criminals to move here and how undocumented immigrants have a higher increase of violence

that's to clap clap.

Research

Fuck, Wayne.

Research you've had you had three minutes to talk. Research the data. If you believe the lies that were told today

Mister Grabsick,

I'm gonna

Excuse me. It's councilor Sargado. Mister Grabsick, I'm gonna ask you to not speak while councilor Sargado is speaking. Thank you.

That's fine.

If you if you believe the lies about the crime rates related to undocumented immigrants, I encourage you to do your research. That's not what the facts say. That's not what the research say. There's a lot of expert researchers out there that have done this work and they tell you undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes for a variety of reasons that I'm not gonna get into right now, alright. So that's what I encourage and that that's why I think it's our responsibility to speak up when people come in here and demonize our vulnerable communities.

Moving to the consent agenda item four do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved case. Do I have a second? Second councilor hears. Is there any discussion? May I please have a roll call.

Councilors Alcair? Councilor case? Aye. Anne Verey? Aye. Sinclair? Aye. Harris? Aye. Salgado? Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. The motion passes. There are no public hearings. There's no unfinished business. There's no and under under ordinances, there's no first reading. Moving to item 7.2, the second reading on ordinances. Item 7.2, consider adopting an ordinance amending subchapter 11.28 of the Hillsborough municipal code to reflect amendments to the 2025 Oregon fire code ordinance number six five one one is available. Do I have a motion to adopt ordinance number six five one one? So moved case. Do I have a second? Harris second. Is there any discussion? May I please have a roll call.

Counselors ou care. Case aye and very aye. Sinclair? Aye. Harris?

Aye. Salgado? Aye. Ordinance 6511 is adopted moving to new business item 8.1 consider adopting a resolution to adopt the Hillsborough community flag resolution 2,909 is available. Do I have a motion to adopt resolution 2,909? So moved case.

So we got all seconds.

Thank you. Is there any discussion? Councilor Serrato, did you have a comment?

No. Just seconded. Okay.

I I do want to make a comment during discussion. I I just want to thank the Civic Leadership Academy and all the community members that gave input to the Civic Leadership Academy for developing this new flag, and I think this is a great day or a great evening that we get to adopt a community flag. I also want to thank mikaela kennedy for leading that civic leadership academy class. May we please have

a roll call? Councilors Alcair.

I'm not abstain. I wasn't present when this flag was presented and the content of what it's supposed to represent.

Okay. Case? Aye. Ann Brie? Aye. Sinclair? Aye. Harris? Aye. Salgado? Aye.

Thank you. Resolution number two nine zero nine is adopted. Moving to item 8.2, consider completing the annual review process and approving a second amendment to the city's employment contract with city manager Robbie Hammond, including any budget revisions and necessary transfer appropriations. Do I have a motion to approve the completion of the annual review process and the second amendment to the city' employment contract?

I have motion.

Do I have a second?

I second.

Is there any discussion? May I please have a roll call?

Councilors Alcair?

I'm gonna abstain. I didn't participate any further than providing the city manager with feedback about performance. This is my ninth year on council and the first time that I'm doing that, that I'm making that conscious decision. And if the city manager wants to have a conversation with me about why, I'm happy to do that. Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilor's case? Aye. Anne Marie? Aye. Sinclair? Aye. Harris? Aye. Salgado?

Aye.

Thank you. The motion passes. Moving to item nine, city manager report. I will turn the time over

to Robbie Hammond, our city manager. Thank you, mayor. Two items that I wanted to share with the council this evening and with the public. First, 2026 is a historic year at the city of Hillsborough. After serving communities since 10/09/1876, the city will celebrate our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary this year.

Our parks and recreation department special events team are organizing a culminating event in October on the Tom Hughes Center Plaza in coordination with the Hillsborough Farmers Market. We are also displaying a special one hundred and fiftieth anniversary city logo, which you can see up on the screen on the city website in 2026. This logo reflects Hillsborough agricultural roots in balance with modern progress and the city's commitment to service. The city's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary web page will share more detail details as the year progresses. And second, finally, the Parks and Recreation Special Events team just wrapped up Lightopia, and our days are away from finishing up Winter Village.

As a reminder, this was Lightopia's final year at the Gordon Favor Recreation Complex, and we had nearly 17,000 cars enjoy driving through those lights. We had about 200 bicyclists that did the same thing during bike night in partnership with the Westside Transportation Alliance and Ride Westside. Meanwhile, many Winter Village ice skating sessions have reached the 50 person maximum. And special events like the Holiday Youth Market and Frosty Fun have served around 2,000 people. One more big event is this Saturday, International Day, which will feature Hawaiian and Bollywood dancers, a Latino a a Latin American guitarist, and Nepalese Mexican and Dutch food. Search for Winter Village to get all the details on our website. Thank you.

Thank you, Robbie. Moving to item 10, advice and information. Community members who want to be informed and engaged on city council matters can sign up to receive happening in Hillsborough email newsletters. Spanish language updates are also available through our crescendo juntos email newsletter. And with that, the city council meeting is adjourned.

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