City Council - Regular Meeting

Are we ready? Thank you. Abigail, are we ready?

Good evening, everybody. Thanks for coming to your city council. I'm Mayor Blackburn. I'll call us to order for February 9th, 2026. The first thing we're going to do is silence our cell phones. And the second thing we're going to do is we have a special treat. Couple of months ago, I was at the Nissi World War II uh veterans memorial ceremony where we dedicated a new plaque celebrating our neighbors who served in uh World War II even though some of their parents were like in internment camps and stuff. A highlight of that wonderful day was the national anthem by Amy Maddie. So, she's kind enough to join us this evening. So, we have without further ado our national anthem. Oh, say can you see by the dawn early light, what so proudly we held at the twilight. Lights last gleaming. Who's broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight. Or the ramparts we watched were so gallently streaming. And the rockets red the bombs bursting through

the night that our black was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled yet for the land of the brave. Thank you so much. What a treat to have live music. Abigail, I think we have a gift for Miss Maddie.

I do. So, come up here and just say thank you so much for coming today to send a token of appreciation of the city called Thanks. And as we often say to folks who are visiting, feel free to stay and learn about civic government, but you are you you will not offend if you move on with your thank you so much for next. As is our custom, I will read our land acknowledgement. As we gather today, we respectfully acknowledge that the land on which the city of Hood River sits is the ancestral home of indigenous peoples. This includes Anz Purse, Umatillaa, Warm Springs, Yakama, and other tribes who stewarded this land for generations. We recognize the lasting impact of colonialism and commit to working together for a more just and sustainable future. Do we have any agenda additions or correction to Abigail?

Thank you, mayor. We do not. Uh, we have business from the audience. I see the folks in the front row from Hood River reads, Richard Withers. I think Mr. Withers is speaking just as public comment and then I think Ms. Withers will be excuse me, I got confused. I I I conflated my Withers. Dick, thank you for coming.

And that's that's actually usually a pleasant conflict. Uh um my name is Dick Withers and uh uh we live in the Heights and I'm here just to give an open invitation to all in the community to attend the first of the monthly community forums that are going to be held at the Rockford Graange on the third Thursday of each month. This next one, our first one is going to be uh a week after this coming Thursday on the 19th, 6:30 to 8:00 pm. And we are having a forum on free speech in the press. And uh so far uh panelists who will be uh with us include uh representatives of uh the Columbia Gorge News uh Trisha and uh and the publisher uh Chelsea and uh we have Emily Harris from Uplift Local who will be joining us. We have uh Arturo Deva from Radial Tierra uh joining us and we have Susan Hess who is the founder and uh former uh publisher editor of the uh executive director of the uh Columbia Insight and we'll be talking about uh of course free speech and the press which is important these days to all of us. So, I hope you can uh uh make some time and attend and uh we look forward to a series then on uh a number of our freedoms uh in this country in the future. Thank you very much. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Now, Bonnie,

thank you very much for this time to come again before you and tell you about our new Hood River Reads uh book for this year. This is our 20th year, which is pretty exciting. Uh the book is entitled on gold hill a personal history of wheat farming and family from Punjab to California. And I'm just going to read the description of the book and I'm not going to read all the whereasses and the uh in the proclamation because you have that in front of you and I don't need to do that. But um I'll read the the description. Jacqueline Moyer is the author. She gives Hood River County the opportunity to engage in stories that explore identity, heritage, and belonging through the lens of sustainable farming and intergenerational connection. A finalist for the Penn Fusion Emerging Writers Prize, winner of 2025 Oregon Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction. This memoir follows a young South Asian American woman as she reconnects with her roots, uncovering the threads that bind family, land, and culture across continents. She grew up in the Sierra foothills of Northern California, now lives in Corvalis, and she will be with us um on the second weekend in March. So you have in front of you a copy of the brochure of what we'll be doing, the um different programs that we uh have set up to support this book. Um the first one is the kickoff. That's this coming uh Saturday and that's when we'll be uh we're going to show a little video of uh Jacqueline so people can get a kind of a

sense of what she looks like, how she talks. And uh we'll have the winners of the we always have a poster contest for some students, art students both at um see it's the middle school and also the high school. And we'll be judging those on Wednesday and then we'll have prizes on that day. um and cookies and coffee and um also a special presentation about the fact that it's our 20 year anniversary from the president of the friends. Uh and then I'll just point out one that uh I've been working on on Saturday, February 21st, family farms in Wood River County. Um I think this will be a really fine panel. Uh, we've met with the people who will be there, Lisa Perry, Mike McCarthy, Sarah Sullivan from Gorge Grown, and Leslie Tamura. I'm sure those names are familiar to you. Uh, and we'll be talking about some of the issues that are involved in the book. Uh there's so many from uh issues of organic farming, leasing versus um uh owning. How does how does how do you make it work when you are a small you have a small space? This is something that is covered well in the book. The following week uh is called my journey to Hood River County. And that's where we're looking at kind of the other big thread in this book. And that thread uh I find so interesting. Um our our author Jacqueline her mom was raised in India until she was 18 and then the whole family moved here and her grandmother is very much a part of the story. And her mother really

does very little if anything to introduce her to her Punjab part of her heritage. she just doesn't really have much connection and and the book is about the growing understanding and searching for and coming to that place and she's a beautiful writer. So I brought three copies here. Um you can pick them up of course at the library free. So if you pass them around, we'll see who grabs them first. I hope you're all eager to read it. Um, and then on uh Sunday, March 15th, that's when you can actually come and hear Jacqueline speak about her book and bring some questions that might have arisen as you read it. So with that, I'll pass the proclamation forward for whatever you do next with

I will I will skip the whereases and go to the therefore be it resolved that the city of Hood River establishes February 2026 to March 2026 as Hood River County reads. May it be so. Thank you very much. Thanks. Questions by the way before I sit down. Okay, great. Thanks for your work.

Thank you. Next we have uh twice delayed presentation. We've had some very busy agendas and the bridge authority has been very gracious to text me and say mayor we can come back in a couple weeks. So finally we have uh Mike Mike Shanahan Mike Shannon excuse me and I don't know if Dan Mar will speak but we from the from the B-state bridge authority. Mike thanks for your ongoing work.

Thank you short presentation. Thanks for having us back and glad to finally make it here in front of you because I've had a busy schedule for the last month. So, get this going for you here in just a second. It's a delay. toggle those and it'll all right. Well, thank you for having us here. It's been a while since we've been over to speak to you, but uh it's exciting. We've gotten a lot of things done uh over the last year. Um and happy to come in and tell you about it. So, I do not have to tell this group too much about the history of the bridge or why we need it. So, I will make this very short. Nothing has changed. It's still in bad shape. We haven't fixed anything other than when we did fix the uh impact to the bridge. Uh they did raise our number from a six to a seven. So, we made a slight improvement on the bridge by fixing somebody hitting it. So, few more hundred hits and maybe we'll be back up to a good score.

Sure. So um but uh you know also you all are very familiar with the safety benefits that this bridge will bring. Um you know draw your attention to the to the typical section. There's been a few different versions of this. Uh we are starting to get to the point where we're now producing renderings that are showing what some of the final uh stuff will look like. We're still working on some architectural aesthetics things but the general layout of the bridge. We're going to have two 12-oot lanes with two 4 foot shoulders uh separated by barrier. We will then have a two-ft buffer area and then two uh five- foot bike lanes, one in each direction uh separated then from an 8 foot uh pedestrian path. Um also two overlooks um on the bridge looking down river. Uh so we kind we took you know the authority recognized the difference in speed differential between electric bikes, ebikes and pedestrians knowing that the pedestrian features here are going to be more of an attraction and something where you know we're hoping families will go out and get to see the river and the and the scenic area in a different perspective than maybe they've gotten to in the past. um you know should be some very photogenic uh periods of the year when the sunrises are coming up and and you get to see that now from a different perspective. So uh we think it's a it's a good fit. Um, one of the other things that we're looking at doing is on this um, pedestrian path here is dual purpose. Um, where if there was an incident and the traffic was back up and we needed to get emergency vehicles around, they could actually use this uh, bike lane as a emergency uh, bypass lane as well. So, um, but the the bridge overall will improve navigation. We're going from a 250 ft clearance today to a 450 ft clearance, almost doubling the uh marine travel uh navigational clearance. Uh it

will be a fixed span, so no more lift span, unfortunately. Um it'll be about 90 ft. Uh and we may have a picture in here of it. Uh if you see me on a meeting, it's my backdrop, but it shows the new bridge overlaid on the existing bridge. And basically the roadway surface for the new bridge will be about the top of the arch of the uh lift span. So it gives you kind of a perspective of where it'll be. It's about 40 ft higher than what it is today. Um that's to provide that 90 foot clearance. So it's about 50 foot clearance today and it'll be a 90 foot clearance and that 90 ft is over that uh 450 ft uh span. So, um, we met with the Coast Guard that, um, has been approved by them and meets all the navigational impacts that we may have, uh, on this portion of the river. So, uh, economic benefits, um, as you know, the the load ratings being reduced on the bridge has a big impact to industry, uh, moving back and forth across the the, uh, the bridge, um, and just the everyday delays of the 15 mph speed limits, uh, trying to get to and from, uh, appointments and things like that. Uh also just the economic benefit of having a free passageway, right, with having the bike lanes and the pedestrians to offer a free free alternative if you don't have to drive. Um you'll have that capacity to take uh you know walking or biking across. Um I know do grave roads probably been a challenge in the in the past for for bikes. At least it would be for me.

Um but with eBike ebikes now, I think that will change and you'll see a lot of people doing that biking that maybe even couldn't do that before. um thanks to ebikes now. So, uh we wanted to think about that and really accommodate that with this with this project. So, we're really building momentum. Um as you can see, there's a lot of boxes now checked on this. Um we just finished our record of decision. Uh we were able to have that signed in November. So, that was a long long long long time coming. um they uh we signed off on that and that really marks the end of the NEPA planning stage and allows you to go to final design and construction. So big step for the project um to have that record of decision um and be able to take that big step forward. You also see here in the middle uh box is where we are with our funding. We're still sitting at that $ 1.12 billion project. Um we've been working really hard the last few years to try to drive uh design down trying to find efficiencies. Um we were able to go from four shafts to two shafts. Uh we were able to reduce the number of uh peers from 15 down to 12. So we really been trying to drive um that cost down. And what we've been working on is really building this top box which is your contingency and escalation. And that really is so that when we go into construction, we've got that nest egg that if something does happen during construction, we're not going back and looking for additional money. And we've got that in there. So, we're really trying to think ahead uh and look at how we can make this a sustain a sustainable project and not have issues when we go to construction. So, our project funding, we've got full commitment from both Oregon and Washington. So, 125 million from both states. So, 250 million from the states. Uh we're working through the $ 105 million toll loan. Um that'll be through TIFFIA. Um that'll be backed by the

tolls on the bridge. And you remember a few years ago we did the toll increase that helped to support that. Um so that's really the only money that has to be paid back. So we're getting a $1.12 billion project for 105 million. Pretty good deal. Um so hopefully we'll if we can drive cost down, we can make an impact on that if we at all possible, then we'll do that. Um, but I know that's a number that's important to the communities because that really is going to drive um the toll rates for the bridge. So, the lower we can keep that number, the lower that we can keep the toll rates. Um, initial federal funding, we've got a $200 million infrorant. Uh, we're still working with the feds to uh get that signed. We got some final comments from FHWA's legal review uh on Friday. Uh, we're working on turning those around and then that'll go to the office of the secretary of transportation. uh and they are the next round of review of that. Um once we get through that review, then we can get that grant agreement signed and we'll have that 200 million accessible to the project. Most of that money, if not all of it, will go towards construction. Um so it's a big big starting point for our construction funding. Um as you can see, we're still $532 million uh short. Well, we're a little more than half funded for the project. Um that 532 we're looking at through two bridge investment program grants. Uh so the fiscical year 25 bridge investment program has not been selected yet. Um so we've submitted that application. We had a very strong benefit to cost ratio on that. Um as well as highly recommended coming out of our 24 application. We've also since then submitted under the new administration a fisc year 26 application. uh they modified some of the uh goals and and measures that they were using for that program. We redid our benefit cost ratio. It actually came out just slightly higher. Uh and we were still highly recommended. So what it really says is that our project doesn't really

care what the administration is. Doesn't really care what color the administration is. It's a good project. Um so we're excited about that. We really think the project is a good project. it's well supported and uh we're hoping that everybody else will see that and and we'll get our 532 million. Um it sounds like a lot of money but it's actually under the threshold. So bridge investment program is not supposed to pay for more than 50%. Um we're at about 47% of the funding with that and then federal is supposed to be under 80%. We're at about 77%. So we're under that threshold as well. So we feel like we checked all the boxes. Um, we're continuing to show progress and we're, you know, hopeful that we'll we'll see this funding come through. So, so what does the future look like? So, this uh this year, and actually, if you look out on the river tomorrow, uh when you go out, you'll if you notice that maybe tonight, um there's a barge now sitting on the Oregon side of the water, there will be another barge there tomorrow. Um and we will be doing some additional geotech boring. Um, so you know, we did some of that back in 2023, uh, to do some preliminary boardings and looking at the ground under the water. So now we're coming back and getting specific, uh, locations where the drill shafts will be so that we can see specifically where the drill shafts are, what it looks like, and be able to really, uh, refine and and really get into the details of the design of those shafts. Um so you'll see us working across the river um this year uh over the next few months and then we'll move from the Oregon side into the Washington side and then they'll take that information and further use that to refine the uh foundations that we'll use for the bridge. So excited to get that started. Um in July of this year we'll get our 60% design complete. Uh as part of that we'll do another uh estimate on

the project. Uh we'll do that with FHWA uh where we'll go through all the risks, we'll go through the schedule, we'll go through the cost, we'll do an update. Um we will release that as soon as we're finished. Um and we'll see where we're at. Uh we anticipate that to show that we're uh in line with where we are today. Um we don't anticipate or see any major uh changes to that. We've been tracking national trends on key commodities. Uh not seeing any major uh increases. Even everybody asks about the tariffs and what about the tariffs and we really have not seen any major impacts on that yet. Um so we'll see how that plays out in the future but so far um we're not seeing any national indications that that's been a a big impact. So uh we'll continue to monitor that. In 2027 by the spring of 27 we'll complete a design and we'll get a what they call released for construction set of plans. That will be the plans that we'll take to construction. Um we if we have all our funding then by October of 27 we will uh go to work in that first inwater work window in October. So that is our goal right now and what we're moving towards is trying to go uh into construction in the water in fall of 2027. So, and our intent is then four years we'll have the bridge open to traffic by 2031. And then we'll spend the next two years taking the existing bridge down. And uh we'll have the Oh, I did put this picture.

And so this is the new bridge uh overlaid. Like I said, this is a pretty close rendition to what the the um new bridge will look like. We're refining this as we refine the design. So, um it'll change slightly, but generally it's going to look like this with steel girders, concrete deck. Um the girders are going to be what they call weathering steel. Um which is that brown steel that you see up and down the uh the scenic area in a lot of places on guardrail and other things. So, uh that will be the uh the look and feel of the steel structure. And this is my contact information. happy to answer any questions and go back with any details if I went through something too quickly. So, but thank you.

Thanks, Mike. And I'll invite our bridge commissioner to take first slide if there's anything you'd like to add or or Grant, thanks for your work on this co-chair. Hey, um so as we know, roads can cost some money. Um, can you elaborate on some ways that the bridge authority is or is partnering with uh, Benjen, White Salmon, and Hood River to perhaps leverage funds and ways that localities can leverage funds through grants and whatnot uh, in the future perhaps through grants that we've already received.

Yeah. So, one of the big things and and you may have taken part in this is we got a $3.6 6 million raise grant and that was a planning level grant and in order to get into the construction grants, you have to do a planning grant first. Um, and the construction grants are where the real money is when it comes to raise or build or tiger or whatever the new name is that they call it. Um, so we not in noticing that that had not been completed for the region, the the bridge said, "Well, we've got this 3.6 million. let's get this done, but let's do it not only just for the bridge, but let's make sure we do it as an inclusive thing where we're really thinking about the whole picture, right? And if we get this bridge, it's really going to change how the dynamics of bike ped fit into the communities. And it didn't make a whole lot of sense to do just the bridge and then not have any idea how you were going to get people off the bridge or how you're going to get them to the bridge. So, one of the big efforts has been partnering with our local stakeholders, the cities and counties um to develop plans and to get that established so that the local communities can now use that to then develop construction grants hopefully and we can use this bridge to leverage bringing additional money to um to the communities both on both sides of the river. So, um hopefully that'll work out and that's what we're trying to set the groundwork for is to be able to leverage that to to bring other types of uh investments um to the communities.

Yep. It's a great way that uh Whites Ham and Benjen and Hood River can leverage this project to procure additional funds to build out communities as the localities see fit. That's it for me. Any other questions? Have Thanks, Ben. and then gl

uh thanks for your work on this. I know this has been a long process and uh fun fact my very first story that I wrote for the then white seprize in 2011 was about the bridge and at that point uh the price tag was $250 million. So definitely the sooner that uh we can get funding for this and build this the better because we all know that prices of things just go up. Um, and speaking of prices, you know, obviously the thing that people in the community want to know is how much they're going to have to pay to cross the bridge. And I know that you said that, you know, that's not finalized yet because there's, you know, different a whole number of factors in terms of what the final cost is going to be. Um, you know, I see that there's the mention there of the $105 million uh tollbacked um loan. So, a few questions on like how the toll funding works. um you know uh one is there any you know estimate in terms of like what it's going to cost for vehicles and pedestrians. Two um you know you have this loan um will the tolls continue after the loan? Um you know basically just what what might it cost people to cross the bridge?

Yeah. So the the price that you have now will be there until the bridge um opens up. Now that I say that that's what the authorities plan is, right? The Port of Hood River controls the existing bridge and controls the existing coal. So if they choose to do something different, that's you know their decision to make. But the bridge authority has established what they need to get through opening of the bridge. Um and then when the bridge opens, there will be a slight increase. I think it's 15 to 20% whenever we open the bridge and then it'll be 15% every 5 years. So about 3% and that's really for inflation to keep up with um inflation each year. One of the issues with the bridge that we have today is the bridge was 75 cents I believe it was in 1924 which is about 13 or 14 if you escalated it out to today. So we're getting a deal right now but that deal is the fact that we now can't afford to replace what we need to replace. Um, one of the the positive, I guess if I would say positive things about the new bridge being federalized is that federal law requires all the tolls collected have to stay with the project. So those monies can no longer be used for anything except for the bridge. Um, that loan that we take with TIFIA will be a 35-year loan. So until that is fully paid off, we are obligated to keep not only reserve different levels of reserve for maintenance and and contingencies and other things for the project, but we are are required to do that up till that is paid off and then what happens with it after that is some future generations decision to make. Um but that's the general plan right now. Uh and that is if the 105 holds. if for some reason that that has to increase or that goes down, then the bridge authority may go back and revisit that. But we'll have to kind of see. There's a lot of factors also in that with the interest rates. So, it kind of depends on what the interest rates though uh traffic and the amount of traffic going over the bridge.

If there's a big change in that, that would also change that. Um, but there is a plan that the authority has kind of laid out as to how what supports that $105 million line. So, I believe all of that is on the website. I know they're working on revising the website, Dan. And I think there's going to be a toll specific section on the new website where you can go and get a lot of those details. That's probably the biggest question we get. Um, so we'll have those details there for for people to be able to see and and uh try to be very transparent in what they're going with that. Gotcha. So those details aren't available now in terms of

on the existing site now. Um there if you you might have to go back to old mimics. They've done a couple board meetings where they've walked through in detail what the tolling plan is to support the 105. Um, but if you want, I can get you that information and send it to you as well. Happy to do that. Great. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you. And appreciate the question around tolls. That is something that I I know I get asked uh quite often as you're talking about projected short long-term um financial obligations. the 188 million for contingency funds. What What do What does that include? Because I've heard you mention that the infrarant is going to go specifically to construction. The uh TIFIA grant is going to be allocated potentially to the tolls. Um what about like uh any additional operations or capital improvements? Is that coming out of the contingency fund? What what does that

comes out of the the toll revenue that'll be collected. So long-term maintenance and operations is one of the buckets that you put your toll money in. So whenever the rating agencies and the loaning agencies for a tiffy loan look at what you're doing, they give you a bucket of money. You've got to have toll reserves. Um I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, but there's a operations and maintenance reserve, there's a capital improvement reserves, there's a contingency reserves, and then there's a bottom bucket of like extra money, right? Um they we look at that and that's what uh funds those buckets going into the future. So the 188 in contingency right now is actually made up of 65 million in uh what they call escalation. So every year we estimate how much escalation there will be on the project and that's escalated out to basically the center of construction being the peak point and then it tapers off from that. So the six years of construction, it's what the escalated cost of those items would be as well as a contingency bucket that's just there for potential overruns or unforeseen conditions that you may run into. we have a year where the contractor shut down for months at a time because we have a really bad winter that could affect and cause a delay and and might need money to to cover that delay cost. So that's what those that 188 contingencies is covering.

Thank you. I also realize that I was rude and didn't thank you for being here and just thank you for your patience uh in being here. the the next question or maybe just a comment is I I really appreciate um the information being available both English and in Spanish. That's that's incredibly important. So, I appreciate that. Um please let us know how we can help be a good partner to you when it comes time to informing the community about some of these tools uh information. This is something that I I assume a majority of us get asked consistently. So, once you once you know, let us know so that we can also message that. And I would say that goes both ways, right? I mean, you all often hear things that we don't hear. Um, so anytime you hear something or you hear something that you're just not sure about or you're not able to get it on a website or somewhere, let us know and we can try to make sure it's available to folks. Um, or make sure you have the right information, so you're giving it out to folks. Um, we try to be very transparent. The authorities big goal has been transparency. Um, so, you know, we do the best we can. We don't always get it right, but we try. Um, but yeah, it's a two-way street. You know, the more we hear from you all, um, the better we can do. So,

thank you. I really appreciate the the input, the surveys that have taken place again in both English and in Spanish. Thank you for being here. Hannah, I have a couple of questions. Um, just for clarification for for myself and for everybody else, um, you're now working directly with the bridge authority on the plan for the new bridge, right? So um is the responsibility for maintaining the existing bridge until the new bridge is complete is that still rest with the Port of Hood River?

It does. Yes. So the way the what was set up was the the Port of Hood River will own the existing bridge up until the day that the new bridge opens and then there will be some type of transfer of that that facility over to the new authority and then the authority will remove the old bridge. Um but up till that opening of the new bridge the the port will maintain and own it.

Okay. Then my second question kind of relates to that contingency and part of what you just mentioned a minute ago. Um I see that there's contingency funds available, but I'm just curious if something happens um to the existing bridge before the new bridge is completed. um the in addition to like contingency funds, do you guys have some kind of a contingency for expedited construction or is that kind of um just I'm I'm thinking about the incident in Baltimore in 2024 and just how quickly they were able to replace that bridge. Um but I I'm just curious if if you know just always kind of thinking ahead.

Yeah. And the contingency funds that we have right now are not necessarily money we have in the bank. those are just future contingencies for construction. Um but yeah, I mean the best thing that we can do right now to be prepared for that um is to get the design done and have a design ready to go. Um we've got the contractor on board. So if something would happen, we could immediately put a contract in place, get the funding and uh have keyway very quickly go out this summer at 60% design. If we have received or do receive all of our funding, that is one of the options is to go ahead and start going to construction um and get things moving as quickly as possible. So the authority's always been trying to look ahead and be prepared for um different scenarios. We're right now working on our every year it seems like we come up with plan A, B, C, and D, right? Because we always are pivoting. We have no money, we make no money. We we kind of live by what we get. Um so right now we're actually running through scenarios of, you know, what if we get funding this summer? What can we do? What if we get funding next summer? What does that look like? What if we get partial funding? What does that look like? what if they change and have a new federal uh uh uh aotment of funding, right? Come out with new grant programs. What does that look like? So, we're always kind of trying to figure out a backup plan to our plan um and see what we can do to to try to make this thing happen. So, um but we've been so far it's been really good. We've been very successful with it. And uh I mean even we came had a period of time where we were about what two weeks away from running out of money and we were able to to scr by and had the new uh new legislative session from Oregon Washington come in and fund our design and kept us going. So we're hoping the same thing happens with construction. But when the money comes, we've always said we'll be ready to go. So

great. Thank you very much, Amanda. And then Doug.

Um again, thank you for being here. This was really interesting and I really appreciate having this update on the bridge because it's a big talking point, big deal around here. Um, I am just curious. I feel like uh public perception and whether it's true or not, but has been we've been collecting tolls for a hundred years to be ready to build a new bridge or whatever. So, I'm just curious if any part of this budget or the funding for it is coming from money that has been collected for the past hundred years or if that has all just been used as maintenance and as we've just been going through the time.

Yeah. And I don't have all like I don't have a big history in how the port handled their funding or anything like that. Um, what I can tell you is that all of the money of for the new increase is all 100% going to maintenance and to the new bridge. And then July 1st of this year, all of the tolls collected, 100% will go towards the new bridge and maintenance of the existing bridge. There will be no other additional money spent anywhere outside of that. Um, I don't know the exact dollars. I know in our account, we have about $8 million that we've collected since doing the toll increase. um that goes towards providing that reserve account that we need in order to get that Tiffy loan. So, it's kind of like having your um you know, if you're getting a mortgage mortgage, they want that 20% down. It's kind of the same thing. We're collecting that uh that revenue for that reserve for that tiffy loan. So, and we've gotten up to just over 8 million an hour or right at 8 million that we've collected through that. So,

so it's just been the increase that has been specifically designated for the new bridge. It hasn't been like 20 years ago. those tools are not in a pot somewhere. Not that I'm aware of. Right now, it's just been the uh the money that's been incremental. So, thank you.

I'll echo. Thank you for being here and for your patience to get to this moment. Appreciate all the work you're doing. Um just to follow up from councelor Mitchell's question. The other thing that I hear a lot about and you know I could draw some pretty simple conclusions about this but level of service and just you know what maintenance and how many disruptions there are. Obviously, there's no lift span anymore, cabling, you know, steel grates. Uh, you know, what's what's the expected sort of um maintenance schedule that will close the bridge? How often will that happen is the the secondary type of question on the existing bridge? Um, I don't really have all the details. We No, for the new bridge.

For the new bridge, oh, for the new bridge, it'll be way better, right? So, um, we could talk about that all day. So luckily um with the new bridge is actually going to be built off offline of the existing bridge. So we can do about 95% of that new bridge without impacting any of the traffic that's on the bridge. Now the really the only impact will be when we tie in uh the roundabout on the Washington side and then tie into the intersection um right here at Marine Way Drive um and tie in there. That's really the only impacts to traffic uh for the most part. Um with the new bridge with the 12oot lanes, 4ft shoulders, and then the the additional emergency lane, um there will actually be enough room that if a car breaks down or there's an incident, you can still get two lanes of traffic past um a disabled vehicle so that they can be, you know, somebody can come out a mileong bridge. You know, the possibility of running out of gas or your car breaking down on that mileong bridge is is there. and we wanted to make sure that there was enough room that two cars could still get by. So, we've tried to accommodate that on the new bridge. So, um should be tremendously better um than what it is today. We're also sloping all of the lanes, all of the deck in one direction so that in the future if there is a big growth here um there could be modifications to the bridge to actually accommodate four lanes um if that was ever necessary in the future. Right now, traffic projections do not show that unless there's major land use changes um or major influx of people. Um the two lanes should serve this area for a really long time and I'll come back in 50 years whenever it's busy. Somebody can tell me that I was wrong. So,

thank you.

Grant, there's an additional feature of this bridge that this bridge will be the first in the world that you mentioned yet if you want. Yes. Yeah. No, it's a great point. So, one of the things that we did on this bridge was knowing that the Columbia is such a sensitive river um for salmon migration was we brought on a company called um salmon safe and what they do is actually certify projects so that the storm water runoff um actually does not impact uh salmon. So they make sure that both not only the runoff of the storm water but also your construction methodology uh meets the requirements and will not impact um salmon. So they're part of our team. They're actually looking at the design and and construction methods to actually make sure that um we're minimizing or not having those effects. Uh we will be the first bridge uh in the world um that uh will be certified salmon safe. So, they've worked with big companies like um Amazon and Nike when they were building their big facilities to try to have a zero impact kind of footprint um from those facilities, but this is the first bridge. And knowing what our existing bridge is, and I like to remind everybody that when you go to your garage and you see that big pile of stuff that's under your car, that's all the buggy pile of stuff that actually is in the river every time somebody goes across it. So, uh you know, one of the biggest environmental things that we could do is actually get rid of the old bridge. Um, so you know that's another you know great point to make sure people are aware of and that you know what the impacts of that bridge are. I mean nothing is secure from it. We had a wreck what a month or two months ago where fuel was dumped into the river and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Right. So it's not a not a good situation at all. So

that Thank you uh counselor. That's a great point to highlight and I'm certain something that not many folks knew. I had no idea until right now. So, something to highlight. Thank you. Anything else for Mike? Thanks again for your patience and your great presentation and your ongoing hard work. The the the zeros are somewhat dizzying, but I feel like we got the best team we could on it. Well, thank you very much. And anytime that you need us to come back, and like I said, anytime you have a question, you have our emails, reach out, let us know. We're not that far away and uh we're happy to come back, talk to you. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you. That brings us to our consent agenda. We do have an OLCC permit application, but I would entertain a motion to approve numbers two and three. So moved. Moved by Stpina. Second. Second by Rivera. Any discussion? I will just comment that uh it has become in terrifyingly short order a normal thing that we are now renewing the emergency declaration. Like these are the times we're in. Here we are. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor? Yes.

Opposed? Chair votes eye. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh, I would entertain a motion to approve the Tiara de Lobos Winery OLCC permit. So moved. Moved by Stpina. Seconded. Second by Cavaleri Glattus.

Yes. I will abstain from OLCC permit applications. This is not a reflection of these establishments, businesses, or their owners. Rather, I object to the fact that we don't have enough transportation options for people who visit these establishments. As a result, they may end up getting behind the wheel and putting themselves and others at risk. I'd like to highlight the broader public health responsibility this council holds. The recent adoption of the code allowing transportation networks is a step forward, but access remains limited, especially during late hours and in our upper valley. If we and our countywide partners are able to provide adequate transportation during late evenings and weekends, I will start approving OLCC applications.

Thank you, class. Uh, I got a little lost. Did we move in and second? We did. Uh, any further discussion on this topic? All in favor? I extensions? Yes. Opposed? Chair votes eye motion passes. Uh, great. takes us to the action item of West Cliff Westcliffe sewer extension quote for cost estimations. Will thank you mayor and I have a presentation to pull up.

Excellent. So this is part of the project that we've been calling Mariposa 2.0. know, which is shorthand for um the uh city council goal and action item project of um supporting another affordable or mixed income uh housing complex. Um, so I'm going to uh just quickly go over the steps to date in that project to kind of uh place set and then talk about this um properties history um that is the subject of tonight's item and then uh talk about possible uses and next steps specifically uh talking about estimating the cost to extend sewer. Um so this uh project included a first step on September 8th where we reviewed a list of six uh properties publicly owned properties for their value either to um site housing or to create resources you know by selling them uh to invest in housing elsewhere. on October. In October, the um agency board received a report on different models of affordable um housing of publicly supported um housing production. And uh that is uh you know, we may want to do another Marosa Village, which is a lowinccome housing tax credit, but that's very specific uh type of uh housing. Um it's rental. Um there's a lot of um other strings around it with federal funds. And so we received a report that had other models that we could consider um as we look at um property that we already own. Then on December 8th, the city council narrowed its focus down, at least initial focus, down to two parcels. Uh one is uh over the state street lot. Um a parcel that we own that extends from state all the way up to Sherman. um a good twothirds of that has always been unused and I think um a lot of folks just uh overlooked it and maybe it had no value for uh you know when we first

got it in the mid1 1980s because it was so steep. Um but certainly that is highly valuable um property now. So the council um on December 8th uh gave go ahead to partition that and uh ceue it up for uh later discussion on putting it up for sale and that work is currently ongoing. The second property is uh 2.5 or 2.4 acres over on Westcliff Drive um that I'm going to talk about tonight. And we didn't have Next Steps ready for you on December 8th. So that's what um we have ready for you tonight. So first a quick uh bit of history and uh where this uh property that we own over there comes from. So, we purchased that property as part of a larger approximately 35 acres in uh 1924 uh I guess the same year that the bridge was built. Um learn that tonight. Uh but we uh bought it for $12,000 and the uh so in 1931 is where this map comes from. And this map is actually of all of the north basically half of um Hood River County. So, it's not I wouldn't say perfectly um accurate, but this would have been the parcel and it's right on the uh border of the city limits at the time. And the intent was to um uh build and expand what was called an auto park at the time, which is basically like a KOA drive-in campground. And that was like brand new thing uh back then. So, it was exciting for uh when cars were becoming widely adopted to drive out to the gorge and um camp out here. So, the city uh had an auto park already that was uh I guess very very successful and they wanted to build a new one. So, they bought this um this property and um as uh from what I've gathered from an editorial at the time uh this was a

failure. um the original auto park which was now in private hands was um still the most popular and still where people went and so um I I don't think this auto park uh went anywhere and uh but even though uh it didn't seem to last as an auto park, it was still in the records for about the next 80 years called the city auto park area. And so this is a um license in from 1997 for the skate park ramp and I think what's now Rotary Park and it lists the area as Morrison Park and then City Auto Park because I think a lot of people still knew it. Um so this is the rough boundaries of what that original parcel was. However, it may may have extended down to um Cascade Avenue. And I'm not sure how far to the east it's uh it extended but certainly right about uh these boundaries. So from 1941 to 1951 we sold off those parcels that are right along the bluff for single family homes. Um and uh one of the homes was bought by Dr. Wells uh forgot his first name but who Wells Island is named after. Um, and then in 1951, we sold 14 and a half acres for the construction of I84. Uh, and I'm trying to find out if that actually included where the current ODOT maintenance yard is now, but like I said, I can't find the the the actual boundaries. um when we uh had our very first zoning map. So again, when like zoning was invented, um it was uh R3 uh zone all all throughout that area. And that was back when it was basically one parcel.

Uh and then in 1976, we um I found that we s uh declared surplus and sold several parcels in that area. I'm not sure if they were part of the original one or not, but basically where the Rio Bellow Rio apartments are now um plus another um property uh closer in on Wasco Street was sold. Uh and then uh in 1980 the city's comprehensive plan uh noted uh that parcel to the south uh where the discolf is now as public space uh as open space public land but all the parcels to the north of I4 were still um R1 urban low density. Uh 1983 was when Morrison Park was included in the 19 uh was in the our park inventory, but it's not clear if that included the parcels north of ID4. I'd say it probably didn't because just two years later, those parcels north of 84 were declared um surplus, although no sale um was recorded. It's kind of similar to the parcels that we sold um on Sherman a couple years ago. Uh they had been declared certain like we were selling something we've already tried to sell before. Um 1986 a feasibility study was commissioned for an RV park on lot 700 which is where the disc golf is. Um just um kind of interesting as we look through what we different things we've tried to do on these parcels. And then in 1992, the found uh on a zoning map the first time that the parcels north of ID4 were labeled as Morrison Park and zoned open space public facilities. So I'd say this is yeah the first time it was documented

to kind of be maybe not of residential use. And then uh in uh 2016 2019, we attempted to uh reszone lot 700 and that resulted in a uh um charter amendment uh that now requires voter approval um whenever we repurpose a park. And under that charter amendment, because there is at least that 1992 zoning map and some other um and we have also at times included those parcels in the inventory uh of what constitutes Morrison Park. Um we're um staff is suggesting that if we do anything with this now lot 600 uh that's on Westcliff Drive should uh go to a vote and that's been discussed with the city attorney who um who agrees. So I just want to keep that as we think about next steps know that eventually where we lead is a is a vote. So getting into those possible uses and next steps, the the 2 uh 4 acres is generally flat. It's undulating. Um a phase one environmental assessment noted that the kind of difference between the high and the low elevation is about 10 ft and there's been no prior use of any kind on the site. Uh specific that um no evidence of any prior use. It's served by water um but it isn't served by city sewer. So, if this was to be used for housing, could maybe fit about four units on there served by septic. Um, but if we could get sewer service out there, it could serve um probably 18 or more um uh homes. It would also uh any future development surrounding this area would be able to hook into that um sewer and then all the existing homes there if they wanted to decommission their septic and hook up, they would be able to.

And uh so what we have for next steps is a cost est is uh is pay uh uh hiring grling or working through the urban renal agency to hire grlin to cost estimate sewer extensions. So, this is a quote to get a quote, unfortunately. Um, and uh, so they've asked it'd be about $20,000. The um, uh, quote, uh, is in your, um, packet. Uh, if sewer extension is feasible and reason and reasonable in cost, um, we would say one of the next steps would be to place the property on a future ballot before we spend any significant uh, additional dollars on it. So, um I guess before authorizing this 20,000, think about whether or not, um placing up, uh the question on the ballot is something you'd be open to doing. And if not, there's really no reason to cost estimate sewer um going out to the property. And then, uh if approved on a future ballot, uh we'd be able to move forward with development. So, with that, uh answer any uh questions you have and there's a suggested motion in the packet.

Thanks, Will. That was very informative, Amanda. And then Doug, then Ben, and then Glattus. Glattus and then Beck. Um, if we do move forward, get to the point where it is on a ballot, do you have any idea what the timing of that would be? Like, how far into the future, what ballot we might be to um totally uh at the city council's uh discretion. I think we could go everything moved as quickly as possible. It could be May. Uh we could also go in November or we could wait um given that we might have another we have a ballot initiative and we may want a time relative to that um of this year you're saying May or 20 I don't know this May. Yeah. This is an election year. Yeah. Okay. That's pretty fast. Okay.

Um so really anytime it could happen. Yeah. Really anytime. Um you know we've had we've owned this for 102 years so you know it's also not a huge rush either. So, well, we want our project to happen. So, Doug and then Glattus.

Uh, yeah. Thanks, Will. Um, yeah, I mean, I I think that uh if we want to get this going, uh, we have to get it on a ballot sooner than later. I'm just kind of curious, you know, you talked about the 1992 sort of change in the maps and all of a sudden it's being referred to as Morrison Park and whatnot and the recommendation, you know, and consulting with Dan was to, you know, to go to the ballot. um is that just because we feel like that's the safest option so that there's not a luba request or or you know challenge or something like that that that goes along with that. I mean it clearly like seems to me like up till 92 it's being referred one way and it's like oh there was a change. Is that change legal? Is it legally defensible? All that sort of stuff. I I do anticipate you know um there will be push back from the same community members that pushed back against slot 700. uh and uh we're going to need to have some bonafide information to combat any misinformation about that project.

Right. So, uh any any thoughts on that, you know, uh from staff about whether Dan's on or um or what you think will about Yeah, our firm recommendation is to is to send it to the ballot. Um there was the zoning map um that would have been approved by ordinance. Um and uh also when in our um legal filings during the reszone of lot 700 uh we included lot this lot 600 uh in what made up Morrison Park. Dan, anything more to add there?

Not really. I mean this I could not say definitively um whether it would be subject to a challenge but the charter amendment appears to say that anything that's a park especially if it's a park associated with recreational uses is subject to the charter provision and um you know I didn't think and I still don't think the risk uh is worth it I the the alternative is to go ahead and proceed with development and then someone challenges that by filing in circuit court that it didn't follow the charter provision. We go through circuit court that's not exactly quick, simple, or easy and who knows what the decision would be. It' be a legal determination by a judge. It wouldn't be a jury thing. And uh if if it turns out that yes, it appears to the judge to be subject to the charter amendment, then we pull the train back into the station and start it up again after going through the ballot measure. So it's up to you.

Yeah. But I I'll add to from a practical perspective, no developer is going to want to sync a lot of money with this cloud uh hanging over it.

Yeah, understood. Um, yeah. So, I just say to council, start thinking about could you support uh, you know, that being on a measure and what what would our messaging be and and all that. Just start turning the wheels because uh, yeah, I think that'll be contentious. Go ahead. Well, similar uh question as councelor Stina. What what would that messaging be moving forward if we were to say that this is going to be on the November ballot when we plan to have housing and a police facility on the ballot as well? Do we have that discussion now or will you come back at a different time so that we can have that discussion like how should we move forward to make sure that you have the clarity that you need uh in order to to do so.

Thanks does not timing does not need to be decided tonight. Um we could find that it's going to cost $5 million to bring sewer out there and now it's moot right. Um so uh finding out the cost of sewer extension uh is really a threshold question. uh answer that and then um we can get into the timing and approach and messaging. Um just uh you know beginning with the end in mind. I just didn't want um didn't want any um misunderstanding that eventually vote of some kind would be needed if we want to develop this.

Um so in addition, thank you for that. In addition to that, let's say this all goes well, voters say yes. Do we have a plan in mind as far as uh maybe we would partner with Big River Land Trust for example, like how would we move this project forward? Is it that we sell sell it to somebody and then they help develop similar to what we did with Mariposa?

Yeah, that um do I have that in there? Yes. Uh so that was in there um as one as um in the fact sheet um about partnering with a land trust to build permanently affordable homes. So I think we do it as a open probably as an open solicitation um same way that we chose community development partners but maybe say that we want to focus on um land trust um you know this because of the characteristics of this property really fits um you need a certain um economies of scale to do another low-income housing tax credit and a Mariposa thing. Um so this one really does lend itself to more the land trust model. Yeah. And some context on that, the the disgust was six figures investment by the housing authority for nothing. So they're super gunshy about participating again. But community land trust is different different uh different uh vibe. uh the housing authority has done some community land trust work sort of at a lower price point and so there are important policy questions for us about whether we would want to have an 80 to 120 CLT or like a 60 to 80 CLT.

Yeah. And it's also a completely different parcel too, you know, in terms of like what's actually going on there. Um I'm going to ask it what's probably a dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Um, just in terms of like the order of operations on here, like I understand, you know, philosophically moving forward with well, you know, we got to uh figure out if we can even do sewer there and what the cost is before we move forward on it. Um, however, I don't know how much it costs to get on, you know, what it costs. I know I asked this last meeting, but what it would cost to get on the ballot because you could also look at it as well if the community is not going to support it and it's cheaper to do a ballot measure as opposed to sinking money into a you know um this uh sewer thing that it's a move point if voters don't approve it. So, I'm just trying to think of like I understand the why this order of operations does make sense, but I'm just throwing it out there like, well, would it make more sense to go up for the ballot first because it's maybe cheaper and if people don't support it, then we don't have to spend money on this. I'm just putting that out there. I don't know.

Yeah, it's a valid question. I I'd say, you know, I'd defer to all your uh judgment because that's more of a political question. Um you could uh you could find yourself in in the circumstance though that we went out to a ballot um got approval and then find we can't do sewer and then just nothing happens and it was a lot of yeah stir in the pot kind of for nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that distinction. I I appreciate the question too, Ben. It's not not I disagree. Not a dumb question. Um but there's there's money and there's stirring the pot. Those are different kind of steps required in those two. And I I I I get it. It's not just a money thing. Thanks Will for that. Is political capital more expensive than regular capital? That is a great question, Doug.

Yeah, and I think it just sort of to councelor Rivera's point, you know, I think as we start thinking about this, since there will have to be some pretty heavy messaging on this, I think we should think about, you know, putting it on the November ballot in context with um affordable housing in general because just putting it on the ballot is is not going to be uh something we can do. I want to understand the words you just used, Doug. You said you suggest we think about putting it on November in the context, meaning you support that or you you want to call our attention to the the risks of putting them both on the November.

No, I I more that I would I would think it'd be risky to put it on May uh or at least it would take us a lot more time and effort um to speak about this particular project. if we were speaking about it in the context of the ballot measure that we're looking at for November, we wouldn't be doubling our efforts if we did it in November.

Thank you, Anna. And then Glattus. Um, to that point, I think maybe we should see if the voters will support affordable housing projects. So, we have money for it and then see if it's like I almost think, you know, we can say we have some ideas in minds for in mind for projects, but we're not, you know, um, we'd have to see if we can get the funds for it first and then maybe say, okay, here's the project. Will you support this particular location? I would almost say we we'd have to do it like step one, step two. But um I have a couple of questions and maybe this is not necessarily important anymore, but um was this particular lot 600 classified as a park in the parks master plan? And then what's the current zoning of this lot? I didn't think that was in here. And then my last question is um you said there could be 18 units. Uh those are like single family homes under like a a community land trust model, but is it is there a possibility for multif family housing on that lot or like all of this just depends on whether or not we can get sewer there in the first place, right?

Yeah. Uh 18 18 units was in a town uh town home configuration. Um I don't know about multif family. Uh so I think this this was R3 then it was R1 then it was open space public facilities. I think that's correct. So we have to think about we need to zone it I think to R3 at minimum maybe and then maybe C2 if we wanted multif family and I I think that would be a lift for that ability with um what's around it. Um, so that's where we've really been thinking the density of maybe 18 town homes is um about the max density. Um, I don't know if if this was identified in the parks multi-jurisdictional master plan um as a park. Um, but I can I can find that out. Do know um certainly has never been signed uh or used as a park and I I think most people probably don't know it's publicly owned. I'm sorry. And that was a you had a a a number of points. Did that Did you get

I think that was everything. So it is currently open space open space. Yes, open space. So current zoning. Oh yeah, those are those are great questions. Back to the which you know does it go on the November ballot? Um, a couple meetings ago, Abigail and I joined Mark Bailey where we talked about, well, what would you do if you had money for housing? And we gave a couple ideas. This could be added to one of those potential suggestions. Um, I think I might have missed where you mentioned the timeline, like when would we know about the if this is possible to connect sewer out there?

Um, I don't have I don't know how long that will take. Um, that's where I, you know, I'd say if everything went really quickly, we could hit May, but probably it's more like November, um, ballot. Um, so I don't have a an estimate from Grey Lact. Well, I think when you do, and then if you can bring back the question of the, you know, Mark's uh, parks master plan, what would the the zoning look like? Um, so that that can help with the messaging points that we are advertising to the community. If we want to put this on the November ballot, then we have to prep be prepped for all those talking points for the messaging to constituents.

Yeah. Um I'll just add the as far as what zoning to go after is actually a city council decision. So the city council was um the applicant for the reszone of lot um uh lot 700 and uh chose the zoning that um allowed the project that was intended at the time. So, um, you know, I the I just assumed kind of a low density zone because of what's around it, but um truly that that would be a decision for the a later decision for the council as the applicant to make.

Yeah. So, I think when the the time comes and we find out a little bit more information, we can make that decision. Uh, as councelor Mitchell pointed out, this area is a little different than maybe the others. And I think the the community has seen that we've done a good job with Mariposa Village. And so now there's a concept that folks can actually visualize which I think only helps the messaging that we can give is we've done this project once. Here's what it would look like. Maybe a little bit different for for project number two. Thanks.

I think for me I we should really be aware that if we're saying Mariposa 2.0, people are going to think it's going to look like Mariposa 1.0. That is not a town home town home CLT model. That's that's completely different. So, let's be smart about how we refer to a project that's going to look quite different from an existing project, which is a great project, but it's not going to look like that. Uh, Ben, did you I'm sorry, Amanda, really quick on that. I've been thinking like when you put the first slide up and it was Mary Posa, I'm like, can we please think of another name for this? So maybe we can all try to do that because yeah, it's confusing and and we should have a better name.

Yeah, I meant to mention this earlier, but thank you for your work on this. I can imagine it took a decent amount of time to dig up all of that uh historical information, and I absolutely love stuff like that. I found it really fascinating and and interesting to just kind of learn the chain of custody, if you will, or providence of of something. So, thanks for your work on that. It's really fascinating.

Thank you. It's fun. auto park is so interesting to me. Like I thought you described it really well kind of kind of like a KOA and I was just talking to a friend about a possible trip they were going to do in Europe and they were totally talking about like auto parks in a way that seemly not quite what I am familiar with over here and I think even we talked about the parcel up by like the Twin Tunnels trail head is like a campground or there's a lot of a lot of notions flying around and it's funny to think that there was like oh there's a good auto park let's have another auto park and whoops it failed because the auto park was really fun and it is not there anymore but you know just so so interesting

and that editorial was very sassy in there the newspaper the glacier was very defensive and I found that very amusing so at one point the motion could be that we're going to uh pursue the costing of the sewer right that's that's that's a possibility of this discussion I'm sort of hearing that is compared to some other directions but I'm not rushing us but I I I'm reminding myself and others that that that might be what we what we act on tonight. Grant, did you have

Yeah, just a couple of thoughts. Either way, no matter what we decide, the ambiguity of this particular lot is going to exist until it's resolved one way or another with the public. At some point, it will have to be defined as either a park or not a park. Um so without any direction in this case or any some council is going to need to make a choice at some point. Um so are we going to do it in relation to this housing project or are we going to kick the can down the metaphorical road

including just to spin that out a wee bit like maybe developing it as a park would be what happens. I'm not advocating that, but just thinking, oh, maybe that's what the community will decide they want.

So, be being our number one goal being being affordable housing, is there any other way to effectuate that goal on any other parcels as we've evaluated or developed using Will's analysis. um he's come back and said, "This is a parcel that we could use to do it, but given the ambiguity of this site, is it worth going out and saying, "Hey, can we remove the ambiguity and do it or not?" So, do we want the public to answer that question for us now before we go get a sewer arrest or not? That's what I wonder. Doug,

I think, you know, just based on the previous discussions we've had about different parcels, this does seem like I mean, even given the fact that it needs to go to a a ballot measure or uh to a vote rather, um it seems like a one of the best parcels we have for this type of um development, right? So, I I for one think it's worth spending, you know, the 20 and some change to understand what the the sewer line is going to look like. Um, and then we can decide at that point, you know, is it is if it's a not too expensive of a sewer, you know, if we want to develop this this site as a as an optimal site. I think we've at least done the due diligence, you know, relative to other city properties. This one seems like a pretty good one. Um, location, topography, etc. So, I think we should still proceed with considering this one. Um, even with that that asterisk on it. Do you think it makes and my question was purely financial like does it does it make more sense because either way the public is going to you know like I know we say well it doesn't matter if we get sewer there well it also doesn't matter if you know the public's like no we don't want you to dis dispose of that for that purpose. So in terms of the order operations like and money is it and I don't know is it cheaper just dollars not putting political capital into the financial equation at this point but is it would it make more sense financially for us to be like all right let's tackle the ballot measure problem first if that's cheaper and then if that passes okay then we can spend $21,000 on the sewer quote I don't know the answer like I don't know what it costs And I understand again philosophically knowing yes, we can get sewer on there and then pitching that to voters like I totally get that part, but I'm just I don't know.

Save some money. Go ahead. Do we have an understanding of how much it cost the last time that lot 700 was discussed and the marketing for that? just to give us a better understanding of how much we would be spending in addition to the 20,000 to put this on a ballot.

Um so, uh the Lawson Edge was voter initiative initiated, so we didn't spend any money um at that time and I don't know how much the um the political action committee that started that spent. Um, as far as what it would take to put this question on the ballot, it really is uh quite similar to the discussion that we're having with the um with the housing and police um remodel one is it's purely how much effort you want to put into it. If we're just talking about filing fees um which is like the bare minimum, it's going to be far less than even the contract in front of you right now. Like hundreds of dollars.

Yeah, I think so. I don't quote me on that. I sounds like I need to get that exact number. um but pretty marginal for like the bare minimum just kind of lob up the question and put it on the ballot. If we want to get behind that with any sort of campaign um that's where again like the other one I I would need to um speak with consultants like I'm doing right now and pull together budgets and level of effort and timelines and stuff. Well, I think we based on the polling that has been done around housing and affordable housing that there is an appetite from our constituents to have more affordable housing projects within the city. So, I I feel like do we really have to pay for additional polling and some of the consulting work? I would say no. Um, but if paying $20,000 helps us understand the amounts of homes that we could put on there and then figure out next steps, I would I would support having a better understanding of what could be built on there to help with some of these talking points for putting it on on a ballot.

That resonates with me. Also, I want at I want out of respect to our voters, I'm imagining talking to somebody, hey, would you would you choose to to allow this parcel to possibly be, you know, CLT or shared equity or whatever? Like, oh, really? Could it be? And I'd say, well, we don't know because we didn't ask about sewer yet. But if like the the hypothetical thing like we're running all their brains through the ringer. So that to me it's like a respect of the voters to have enough information so that it's a real question, not a hypothetical question. Doug,

I was going to make Sorry, Grant. I don't know if you're supposed to be um same point. You know, I think I think this is we will has highlighted to us that this is due diligence that's required for this parcel to ensure that it's developable. we say it's going to be $25 million for a sewer. I don't know, just throwing that out out there. Just something that's cost prohibitive. Um, then we wouldn't do it, right? So, to me, this is this is the remaining due diligence. Similar to, you know, the Sherman lot at one point it was it was, you know, the the it's too steep to build on, but times have changed, right? So, like we didn't have to spend extra money to figure that out, but for this, I feel like this is the remaining due diligence for that parcel.

Great. Uh, one other commentary to sort of address council Mitchell's uh concern of cart horse. Um, this could be looked at as doing our own due diligence and escalation prevention for development. Um, we'd be doing some homework and getting it to market faster, time savings, cost savings in that respect. So, if we could be looked at in that manner. I think we're ready to consider a motion to research sewer. That's what I think we are. Doug, uh, I'm ready to make a motion. Oh, boy.

Uh, I move to authorize $20,594 for the urban renewal agency to manage the cost estimation for sewer extension to the city's lot 600 on West Cliff Drive. Moved by Stpina. Second. Second by Mitchell. Further discussion? All in favor? Yes. I opposed. Jes motion passes. Thank you.

Thanks, Will. That felt to me like you provided us with a really useful amount of information. I'm I I have a lot of respect for that. That doesn't happen by falling off a log. Thank you. Um, next we have a couple of discussion items. An update on the uh Yeah, that Quick update.

Thank you. Sorry about that. Uh this is an upgrade update on the city's response to federal immigration efforts. Uh so you have quite a bit of information in your packet. I also want to note that I believe um one of my colleagues from the next door is joining us and if uh if he wants to turn on his camera and introduce himself uh be happy to talk a little bit more about what we've talked about with listening sessions and kind of a timeline for that. So hey Ellie, can you give us an introduction? Evening folks. Ellie Beo from the next door and I live up in Parkell. Nice. And Ellie is a program manager. Is that correct? director of programs with the next door

and his supervising staff who have been working with me to figure out what uh a town hall and listening sessions would look like. So, not to go over the things that are in your um council packet, but just um you know, we have the emergency declaration that's now kind of on a routine thing. You have that through the end of the fiscal year, June 30th, before that needs to be renewed. Um at the last meeting, I had a um conversation about communication. I've tried to add some pieces about communication here and capture some of the points that I heard.

Uh and then um I added some timelines for what I heard and a desire for quicker turnaround um with the stat city's social media and not waiting until traditionally we've tried to have something on the website to point to before we would put out social media and a desire that we put things out on social media first. Um and even if we have to say this is breaking news, more information to come. So on the top of page 26, I had uh what I thought were achievable uh timelines of just um social media posts within five business days for uh council action, probably earlier, but um those we want to be uh precise with and a press release probably again um within 10 business days, but probably faster. And then verified immigration enforcement activity within three business days, hopefully the same day that that verified activity is noted. Um, and then continuing to do general immigration uh enforcement content. Um, continuing, you know, know your rights information. Um, city specific information, all of those pieces. Um, so I'll stop there and then, um, I can run through very quickly if you'd like just some of the actions that the city has taken and then um, hoping that we can talk a little bit more about the listening sessions. I'd like to just chime in here that I've been I speak to Abigail every week and uh I I I am quite anxious that these awful times are not going to have a long-term negative impact on the uh the machine of the city operating because while Abigail is preparing these presentations on this topic of the federal government invading our city, she's also negotiating with the union and supervising all the staff and managing the capital expenditure plans for the storm water that we heard about a month ago. Like there's there's a city to run while we're being totally

pummeled by this other emergent critical issue. And uh uh he wins if we break ourselves trying to survive these times. So, let's just be I want to send out a huge shout out to the city staff, all of whose job has gotten harder because we're worried. Are we about to have a crisis uh invasion through the front door or through the ambulance or through the police car or whatever. So it's it's it's quite awful and the awful is shared across the board by uh folks whose families are directly impacted who we've heard from many times at the at the lect turn but uh the people providing the services of the city are working two jobs right now and thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I want to I want to echo uh what the mayor has mentioned. Thank you, Abigail, for your leadership that not only are you helping us come up with communications for the city, that you're also doing it for suggestions for many other cities uh throughout the state. So, I do appreciate that. Um, you know, one thing that I I believe, you know, we've done this before, whether that's through fires or COVID, there's been some additional emergent need that has come up. And I continue to look forward to how do we learn from this situation so that we can make it easier for staff and everyone involved in the future. Um and again want to appreciate council direction to say this is important. We need to understand and how do we also get messaging out to our constituents. So echo the appreciation to everybody involved to getting us a clear plan so that there is more clarity moving forward. Um I I am looking forward to understanding what the listening sessions will look like and what the t town halls will look like. Um, specifically, will will there be um sessions that are designed around how do we potentially add to um some of the current language that we have out? What are some additional items that folks would um need to hear from us that would come out out of that and then how would we put that into action moving forward? But again, want to appreciate everyone's efforts on this and recognize that these these are challenging times. um and that right now it's immigration. Hopefully it's nothing else in addition to that moving forward. Uh thank you councelor. I had an interesting conversation with a um couple city managers from Oregon and Washington recently about uh crisis

communication when the crisis is not immediate. uh we you know co definitely tested our communication systems where it was like uh this is ongoing there's no longer breaking news and yet we need to keep it to the front of people's attention and this has a similar tone to that and it is a different type of communication than our traditional top- down emergency communications

yeah I'll echo the sentiments of the the mayor and and the council president you know it's it's a tremendous amount of work thank you thank you to the staff um our community members are severely impacted by this. We have staff members whose families are severely impacted by this. So um recognize the importance, but I also want to echo what councelor Rivera said about having this type of framework in other situations like this. Um you know, we're sort of building uh the airplane and flying it at the same time right now to use that analogy. Um, and I think that we should make sure that uh the work that we're doing here is is able to be repeated with with other types of events. Uh, you know, where there's there's confusion in the community. Uh, and I can think of a number of different reasons that might be that aren't related to the federal government. So, um, my hope is this framework that we're building out for communication can be used uh, in all those instances. I also just wanted to mention a point that I forgot is how useful this all is for community trust and transparency to them which is a part of our work plan. And when our constituents see action coming out of our words that makes them have more trust in us and believe that we are hearing them and that we're not just uh we're not just saying things to say it that there is action behind our words. Doug.

And yeah, just to the thoughts that I've had about this as well is, you know, building that community trust, ensuring that we're getting the messages out to the community, that we're doing that in a way that meets how they consume information. I know we'll have discussions about social media in the next uh agenda item that we have, but just making sure that we're able to to to you know, I I think that the things that we do like Hood River 101, great example, newsletters, videos that we put out, um you know, about the city council meetings, but you know, we we we do have the press here, which is amazing to be able to summarize what's happening and some key actions in city council meetings, but we don't have a whole lot of viewers of the the city council meetings on YouTube. Those of you that are watching right now, thank you. super super appreciate it. But um you know we we live in this 24-hour news cycle now and people uh you know are expecting get to get information in an expeditious manner and to have it be concise and clear. Um and I think you know for us to build that trust within the community and ensure that we are presenting that we want to have a dialogue with the community that we're listening to the community and that we have actions uh to back that up. I I think this is this is all related to that. you know, we've been talking a lot about, you know, the this and under the the uh the immigration enforcement issue, but it it speaks to all the different issues that might have this type of attention. Um, as I said before, so uh appreciate all the hard work.

Two things I'd like to highlight at this point. It seems mostly relevant. Grant and I had a chance on Friday to be in a quite small room with Senator Jeff Mkeley. There was maybe 12 of us with the senator before the super packed uh town hall that he held up there. And the the most memorable line from that meeting was the senator who you know has been our US senator for 16 years and is running again. And I mean that guy is in it and knows how to do it. He said it's going to be a rough ride. And I really was sobered by that. like he's not like, "Oh, here's how we're going to like procedurally like protect America." So that I mean that that was a sobering line. And then also this week I did something which I hope was a good idea. The governor's office contacted me and asked if I would like to sign on to a letter and I have joined 30 mayors to write a letter to the honorable Christy Nome and Mr. Tom Homman or however I say his name, like hopefully this does not bring more thugs to our door, but it seemed like a good thing to join and and and opposing the the the invasion of the government. Glattus,

thank you. I was going to wait to bring that up in my council comments, but just appreciate your efforts, mayor, to to add on to that and that it's not just Hood River. there are many other cities across Oregon that are navigating these gray lines and I think that the more clarity we have from top down um it doesn't put you know this council and other elected official governing bodies in in these situations um because what is happening is uh you know it's it's out of the ordinary I heard you know so much media and somebody said couldn't we just for a five minutes have some precedented times. I thought that was a great like oh my gosh.

Well, if I could uh move on just a bit, I I think you have a summary of some of the work that we have been doing. Some of it, you know, is maybe not visible, but critically important. And that's uh training uh on our policy with staff. Um we've met with almost all the departments. Those have been really important um meetings. I've learned a lot from them and I'm just once again so inspired by their dedication to public service. Um you can see that we've got signage up. Um, we I just you got to meet our court municipal clerk before the meeting. Uh, and he's been uh working for actually since co people have been able to attend remotely, but we've really tried to publicize that. Um, we're working on a postcard. Um, I know postcard is very oldfashioned, but it is the kind of thing that you can put on your refrigerator and and refer to anytime or you can hand to somebody. Um, so it has a little bit more permanence than some of the other pieces that we would do. Uh I believe we have received the first um copy of that design and we're already giving feedback to um page books and hope to get that done uh fairly quickly. Um we met with um thank you to council president Rivera who facilitated a meeting with uh rapid response last week. Um so I learned a little bit more about that. We have kind of a plan going forward. Um continuing update our website and then as I said uh coordinating with a number of cities talked to some cities today about hosting a webinar for um city managers across the state. Um and then uh monitoring state actions at the legisle legislature of course they're in a short session right now. Um so as I see those things come up I will try to alert you if uh you as either as individuals or as a elected body wanted to um weigh in on those um as the legislature takes action. So uh lots of different levels local level state level you know coordinating with other cities. Um, but if I take a minute to just uh dwell more on listening sessions in a town hall. So, back in December when I presented you kind of a long menu, it was kind of overwhelming, a long menu of kind of options. Um, I heard from you an interest in really wanting to hear from the community, not just the people who

feel safe enough to come to city council and talk to you publicly, but also people who maybe are impacted who do not feel um ready to come uh speak in a public forum. And so, that's when I contacted the next door uh who have lots of practice about listening sessions. So maybe if you could take a minute to tell us uh what that format format might look like and um how you recruit people and what the timeline would be and what your cool background is.

Yeah, thank you mayor and and city council members and also just a big shout out to Abigail. I know how busy she must be and really her diligence and leadership through this process has been really inspiring. It's clear you're all uh supporting our community which means a lot. Um and uh my cool background is the Templord in downtown Mexico City, the historic district. So thank you for asking on that, mayor. Uh yeah, so we are planning four listening sessions for uh Hood River City residents, but also part of the conversation we had with Abigail is recruiting folks who also work in the city of Hood River but may live in the upper valley because you know ICE enforcement or whatever may happen uh could happen within the city limits and if folks are working there, they need to be prepared. And also part of that is maybe talking to some business folks uh who employ people who might be impacted by all the immigration uh stuff that is happening. So that is going to be part of the focus. Our community health workers uh who have strong relationships uh council member Rivera has worked with many of them and and knows their connections to our community. I have personal connections as well. Um, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness around the long-term impact of these sessions. And not only is it fear, but maybe it's also a lack of knowledge that people can attend uh council meetings, right? And so I I think a really good opportunity will be that people get informed that yes they are open for people to come and listen and give opinions uh to the meetings

themselves moving into the future. So hopefully uh as you all talked about this will help set the stage to not only increase trust but also awareness of how to be civically engaged in our community. So kind of the format that we're planning is likely going to be a virtual meeting just because of all the safety issues that uh you have likely heard about. We want to make sure that people's identities protected as much as possible which is why it's not going to be an open forum to begin with. It's going to be an invitationon event and we're looking at likely anywhere from 9 to 12 participants per listening session to make sure that people have enough time uh to give their opinions uh to let you know what they're thinking but also uh to ask them did you know you can address city council right so it it's going to be part of learning for participants as well as engaging them in what you all uh would like to know from them in terms of what's on their mind in this current climate that we're living in. Uh we're thinking about a 90inute listening session. So that's kind of the format that you're looking at. Do you have any questions that I could help answer?

Abigail, you're on red. I don't

Oh, thank you. I'll add just quickly uh some other pieces we've talked to as four sessions. Um one I asked be focused on employers as you said because I think that's an important perspective and then one also um Janet Hamada really advocated that we do one that's specifically for high school students or um that we think about youth and the impact that this is having because it's a really unique pressure that maybe we as uh adults in our working lives are not thinking about. and then the other two being more general public. And then the other piece just as kind of the vision of what we originally had, although I realize the timeline, this is taking a long time, this is perhaps slower than we had all hoped, is that we would do four listening sessions and then a town hall that could be more public could um uh you know invite people to come and speak publicly, but then the next door would at that listening at the town hall provide an overview of what they heard in those listening sessions. So there would be some public accountability of what did we hear, but it would be again in a way that protects the people who um participated and and ensures their cander with you.

Thank you both. Ellie, thank you uh for just giving us an overview of what we can expect to see um for confidentiality reasons. you know, don't don't mention when the listening sessions are, but do we have a general timeline as to when these sessions would be initiated and then potentially tenative date for when the town hall would take place.

Yes. So, we're looking at toward the end of February, mid-Marchch for the listening sessions and then uh sometime in April for the town hall meeting and uh in between that town hall meeting, you'll likely get kind of a summarized report of what we heard, a written report of what we heard at the listening sessions and also you'll hear from our team members at the town hall.

Great. Thank you so much and appreciate your partnership and and willing to step in and help us. As Abigail mentioned, um you know, the next door is expert. They are the experts in this. Um they're going to think about popular education. How do we think of different ways to make sure that folks have awareness and are truly empowered to come to either these meetings or to give their input um during that time for any potential safety reasons. So, just thank you for being willing to collaborate with us and for taking such good care of our constituents.

It's near and dear to my heart. As you know, I'm an immigrant myself and you know, this impacts me personally. I I was uh in Portland earlier or late last week at consulate and it occurred to me when I saw this dark uh tinted window vehicle I jumped a little bit and um it's something that hadn't happened to me in the past. I have the privilege of you know being documented and being able to walk freely theoretically. Uh, but when I saw that vehicle, uh, it gave me a sense of fear and I even told my wife, you know what, I I I should have had you on speed dial and on speaker just in case. So, it's it's real and unfortunate. So, thank you all for your leadership and and support of our communities.

Thank you, Ellie. Ellie, thank you. Anna, can you give us an idea of better of how um us as council can participate? Will there be like I'm thinking about the public meeting rules and and um the laws in our state. Um will it be like one or two of us gets to participate in each session or um you know and then the town hall will be all of us or what? Because I'm I'm I'm eager to participate.

That's exactly right. Thank you counselor for the question. I was just going to jump in and say really eager um looking for the next order to provide us dates so that we can get those on your calendars. uh that I think we're looking at, you know, 15 to 20 people and so we don't want to um so probably two counselors who could attend um because we definitely don't want a quorum there that would lead to any kind of um public meetings law. Um, I've also, uh, I think I mentioned this early in the process, um, but also have talked with the county administrator and the superintendent about if we, if we create this, I want to put it around your schedules because you are busy folks, but if it works that the school board could send a member and or the county could send a member because we are all serving the same public and would like them to be able to hear rather than asking people um, from our community to testify and provide comment um, over and over. we'd have one session where representatives from all three of those bodies could participate. Again, not a quorum of any of them. And then a town hall would be something I try to schedule so that all of you could be there. Um, and said that will have to be um part of next door's job is the logistics, which is really sometimes the hardest. And one of those will be finding a place where we can hold something where a large number of people can attend inside city limits because that's a requirement of our um public meetings. My followup to that is for um for us is um once we get this information, will this be an agenda item or what are what are we planning on doing with the information that we get from um these listening sessions and uh and then in the town hall? Like I mean is that something once we have the dates we can put something on our agenda and say here's what we've learned and here's you know our ideas for what our game plan is.

Yeah. Yeah. I would say yes like a listening session would be you know take in this comment maybe you have some comments and questions for people but then another session in which you talk about what you want to act on and part of the scope with uh the next door is to provide recommendations on things that they think city council could do. Um and then part of that might be an executive session um with your attorney to figure out you know some of the legalities of of pieces of that. Um but most of it would be a public session you would hold um after the fact.

Doug Ellie, thank you for being here and for all the work you're doing on this and for partnering um with us to make sure this happens. One thing that you said that I thought was really important to to highlight is, you know, just the fact that, you know, we we're receiving information right now at city council. We've been working with community groups, uh you know, outside of chambers. We've had people come speak to us. We've had people write in testimony. Um, and this is another way to engage the community. Um, and the fact that you said, you know, this is also an opportunity, and I think this is a good thing that comes out of this, and unfortunately, it's a terrible topic, but just letting people know how they can interact with the city, right? And it doesn't necessarily have to be a listening session. I mean, right now, I think it's really important to be able to offer these types of options and provide people safety and and whatnot. But I my hope is that through this, you know, and I've been saying this the whole time is, you know, this this is when we have to make sure that our community members feel supported and through this they they will they will feel that they can come to us a lot more, speak to us more, know how to speak to us more and I think that's the silver lining out of all this. So I I was really happy to hear you say say that that piece of it as well in addition to just receiving the information. Uh thank you for highlighting that.

Thank you as well. Great. Anything else uh on this topic? I' just wanted to give you all of these updates and uh appreciate your um your attention to this matter and we will keep you updated as we progress on the listening sessions and town hall. So, watch for my emails. Thanks everybody. Great. Thank you. Uh moving on to the social media policy in these times. It's a important thing to keep keep a breast and figure out what we can do and how to do it and I know that uh council president has been working with Abigail more directly and I'm eager to get caught up.

Yeah, thank you. Uh so um desire for uh social media um accounts like official accounts, city sponsored accounts for elected officials and an option um for each of you certainly not requiring you to do this. Uh so took some time to identify what are some of the areas um that we want to be clear. This is different than a personal account and as an official government account there are different rules and um laws that we want to make sure that we're complying with. So I tried to compile all of those into kind of a draft policy. Um, and Dan had provided me a really in-depth kind of comprehensive citywide policy, but I my preference is to bring it down to a policy that is specific to all of you and then we have a separate policy for the city's

um you know this the city of Hood River accounts, the ones that speak on behalf of the city as opposed to individual elected officials. So, uh, you have the content there in front of you. And Dan and I are here for your questions and, um, general feedback. And if we, uh, get a general sense of where you want to go, we can bring this back to you at your February 23rd meeting for adoption. I think it's such an interesting topic. I was at a rally recently and a high school kid asked me like, "Are you allowed to say stuff?" And I said, "Dude, the thing about being elected is you can say just about anything you want

because you know it's out there." And then I get evaluated every four years or two in my case two years. Your case four years versus Abigail is like quite restricted in what she can and can't do. And but there's like the tracking and recording if we're going to, you know, officially speak in our roles. Uh somebody has to, you know, keep a copy. Like back in the old days, you would have a chronological file of paper. But uh I'm excited for us to modernize where where we're at on this a bit more. got us.

Uh, I just thank you Abigail, thank you Dan and staff who've been working with this as we talked about a previous item, right? Like what is our response and and something that we've chatted in our check-ins is how do how do we help you, right? And what do those talking points look like so that they're all aligned? We're saying that consistently, same things as much as possible, but yes, also recognizing that um, you know, the our first amendment gives us the right to free speech. So, how do we how do we balance all of that? So, I just want to uh thank you for getting everything together and um as you mentioned, not something that all of us have to take on, but I think this is a way that we can support our city staff in communication efforts moving forward.

Yeah. And I'm I'm very encouraged by this. I think strengthen numbers is a good thing to, you know, get our reach uh out there a little bit more to, you know, as it says in here, you know, repost content from the city. Um, you know, I think I think there's certain things that are in here that that should be obvious to us at this point, but I think, you know, the thinking for me at least, just thinking if I had a social media account wouldn't change about, oh, well, this is what the city thought, but this is what I thought, you know, or what the council thought and this is what I thought, right? Like so this isn't an attempt to usurp any sort of of that, right? Um but I but I think you know just being able to post content, speak to you know things that were discussed at a city council meeting in a in a in a small sound bite you know just to make people aware of where they can watch things. Um reposting you know all these sorts of things. You know this is how a lot of the people in our community consume information and there's a lot of garbage that's out there on social media but you know there's a lot of good stuff too. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics, I think, sometimes to figure out um what's what is good information, what's not good information. But one thing that I know in in in my personal life is, you know, getting information from the city of Hood River is is a lot better than getting information from, you know, uh a social media rant on a on a community page, right? Um, so us being able to have that presence out there cuz we're not going out there and arguing and debating with people in comments sections with, you know, that are riddled with bots and people that don't live in the community or people that are just trolling and whatnot. I think this provides us an opportunity to to to still engage with the public in in that that media form without stooping to sort of the the bad sides of social media. And I think some of the the work that's been put here and what I've read in here and what you know um you know councelor Vera you you had shared with me you know what they do at the state level and whatnot it all seems very well defined and not ambiguous about you know what we should and should not be doing. So I thought that this was really informative and uh put some good guard rails in

there about what this is for and what this is not for. So thank you for the the work that's been spent on that. Thank you. uh looking for I'm just gonna kind of run through here and say scope and content if there were any questions.

Uh one of the things I I don't know if there needs to be a clarification about it, but one of the things that popped in my mind is I know that some counselors uh um I'm the only one here who has not had to run an election. Um but we'll have like uh campaign accounts and does I know that what we're talking about here is kind of like hi I'm an elected official. this is my official, you know, like Facebook or Instagram account. Is this also a policy for um counselors who would have like a campaign account?

That's a great point. And we should probably add some language that this is not to be conflated with campaigns. Thank you. And Dan, uh I appreciate you being here. Please chime in anytime. Don't let me speak on that.

Right. This is um not for campaigns because we uh cannot devote public resources to partisan campaigns. Um so you're on your own with regard to campaigns, but also it's not uh your communications through social media on your campaign website or social media outlets that's not considered subject to the public meetings or records laws. Um, and you're a private citizen in that respect. When you're communicating uh through your portal as a uh city as a government uh elected official, it uh is subject to the public uh records act. There shouldn't be any meetings there uh to worry about. and and the other minefield on the public side uh the city government side that is um is infringement on people's first amendment rights and so these open uh public forum versus limited public forum it's a difference in how you limit what people can say in the comments and exchange on your social media platform because understand if you have it fully open to all form of communication and comment, you're going to get some really shocking bad things by way of comments and death threats and those sorts of things. And so you need to consider that when you delete uh comments and material from these uh uh platforms.

Great great point about um campaigns. I'll definitely add that. And then as the city attorney was just talking about content, I wanted to note um on page 29 of your packet was a list of uh contentneutral reasons the city can delete. And those are the um rules that we already use. And when we do have uh a post um or a comment that uh that we think is appropriate to be deleted, we we screenshot that. We document that. We write a short explanation of why it met this set of criteria and it's not based on content. So actually would not have those kind of limitations. Uh to be clear those are contentbased

restrictions. Profane language profanity is first amendment expressive conduct. You can rest you can restrict for all those reasons when it's a limited public forum. When it's an open public forum you can't. So that's why you need to be careful to, you know, if you want an open public forum, you got to be prepared to take it all. And if you don't want all manner of wacky, wild death threats type things, you need to keep it as a limited public forum. Thank you, Dan. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. Um originally the intention wasn't necessarily I councelor Stpina mentioned this a little bit to debate some of the decisions more of like let's um elevate some of the message that has already been created. Uh let's not you know debate I think this decision was was valid or or wrong uh moving forward and appreciate the clarity that council Mitchell was asking for. Uh I had a similar question written down and appreciate the limited public forum also just something along the lines of how would we enforce I mean Abigail I just heard you talk about a process piece should anything be inappropriate there would be a screenshot maybe actually just putting that in here so that it is really clear for us like how would we enforce um any concerns that would arise u for some of the content. Thanks. Under those bullet points, I had a short note and I can expand on that that uh I said request to block a user or delete a comment must be reviewed by the city manager. And the only reason I said that was to have a consistent process that that each person it could be the city attorney, it could be the um community engagement um coordinator. Uh and then again the city would need to keep a record of of that. So we can create a form if it happens a lot. Sometimes for me it's kind of too vague and it helps to have like examples and I beg your indulgence ahead of time. So like if I have an individual account,

I don't think it's like forbidden for me to say, "Oh my god, Doug was so dumb in what he said." That's not forbidden. It's like not nice

and it's like politically like like clumsy and ill- advised for accomplishing my goals selfishly because like we work together but but making the distinction helps me understand it a bit more. We're talking about like the hateful comment from the viewers. Like I get that, but like like code of conduct on council nearly but not quite translates into code of conduct among ourselves on social media. And that's not so obvious to me. And actually, mayor, I have another distinction for you, which is uh you do not, it's likely you do not want to comment on each other's social media accounts. Uh because you might inadvertently start a serial meeting in which you have now, you know, if four of you, if one of you posts and three of you comment on it, you've now held a meeting. So, uh I would encourage you to refrain from uh posting on each other's um social media accounts, regardless of

even if he says something, even if you're articulate or or regardless of the content you're going to post. Thank you. You'll probably want. But yeah, does that resonate with any like it's it's kind of it's new I mean wild west and new terrain and whatever the metaphors are. Amanda and then Glattus I guess along those lines. Is that only our official council ones or is that our personal ones too? Well, we're still the council like

that does a little Well, uh I'm going to yield to the city attorney, but I think that if you posted, you know, if uh councilor Cavaleri has a official city account and now you post as an individual, I don't know that you can actually take your city council hat off uh in your post. It's difficult to do that. Um you know, is it are you communicating in the conduct of city business? Like what does that mean? I think you said like in my individual opinion or maybe you could post on the like cute puppy dog post because that's not coming before council, but if there was a topic that may eventually end up on one of your agendas, you would have to be very careful about posting. And it I'm just it's easy to avoid altogether.

So, we do animal control, so no cute puppy dogs for you guys. Um, but I did if you could clarify this limited public forum thing again. I don't understand. Is that something that we set? Is that like a setting? Dan, do you want to give us a quick overview of

Yeah, a good example is if we want to, for example, on the city's Facebook page, kind of old school stone age technology, want comments on a proposed like a project like um the uh you know, running sewer over to a tax law 600. Um, you can solicit comments on that and it uh people can comment on that and if they start talking about um, you know, your your mother having sex with farm animals, those can be deleted as off-topic and out of outside of the confines of the limited public forum for which this conversation was established. And that's that's what the kind of results you sometimes will get. Um, I was sort of involved here in Portland when Sam Adams was running through the problems he was having. It was extremely public and there was no way to limit the conversation. So, it doesn't crop up in smaller cities, smaller jurisdictions, but be mindful of, you know, limiting the uh public forum for specific topics, soliciting comments on this or that or expressing your views on this or that. And if it if it comes off topic and it gets into the outrageous, we delete those. And last time I checked, we don't have to retain that comment string. We just delete it as being off topic outside of the limited public forum subject.

Is that just more of like a policy wording thing than

that's state law? it well that it's kind of case law but yes you would you would establish this and make clear that you know here this conversation I'm looking for input on x y and z subject you know if you're just pushing information out one way direction that's no problem it's when you open up the the social media platform for two-way conversation and people can comment on each other's comments then it's really hard to restrict it but you do what you and you know early and often to limit the scope of the conversation so that no one can object when you know you delete the profanity and the outrageous comments. You say, "Hey, this was set up for this conversation. Your comment was way outside. We did not allow to be posted." And so the claim you would get is a potentially a lawsuit, first amendment lawsuit that you uh uh uh infringed on their constitutional right to free expression because hey, you had a open public forum. An example of open public forum is the town square where people can get on their soap box and say anything they want about any topic they want.

So it's more like a disclaimer that we put. I'm just trying to like understand the actual it's a being able to limit like in this meeting we limit public comments to three minutes a a person right uh at the salmon fountain people can stand there and talk uh as long as they want right so the fact that this is a limited public forum that is a public forum so that on our Facebook page and in that way we're covered and when we delete we can be like well we told you it was limited Yes, I think the the 3minut comment is not limited. That's an open public forum

and you don't get it that much you but some jurisdictions get outraged obscenity screaming. That's three minutes of comment. They're allowed to do that. First Amendment protects the right to redress your local government. There you go. That's unlimited. And you can't tell them, "Hey, no fbombs in a city council meeting. you're out of here. That's a violation of First Amendment rights.

Uh councelor Giggi is bringing up a really important uh piece of all this from what I've seen in other um elected official accounts is that within their profile, they do have a link to all their policy. So, it's very clear upfront when a message is deleted that it was on my page. it's linked on there and you violated some of the policies that we have and therefore that's that's why your comment has been deleted. Just so that folks know the type of accounts and um if if we want to be really clear about maybe some scripting that we add to these profiles that are consistent um we we can have that conversation as well. Um my my other question is just what do you what do you need from us moving forward so that we can continue to have these discussions? Uh sounds like at another meeting and then uh when when do you see some of these policy pieces with what has been brought up today added so that these can come to fruition?

Thank you. Uh I I think what I'm hearing right now is that this is on the right track. there's a little bit of polishing to do and I want to consult with Dan and really make lock this in, but I can bring this to you at your next meeting if it's okay and just bring it on consent. Um, I'll send you the me the language ahead of time, but it sounds like there are not really major changes you're looking for this. And then once that policy has been adopted, then um I'll be asking Jie Vanderpoo to help um set up those accounts and and give you a little bit of overview about how the city has worked with those things. So we can work on that last week in February assuming the policy is approved.

And then go ahead.

Uh okay. Um so uh lost my train of thought for a second here. So I took a League of Organ Cities training like real early right after I was elected. Um, and just like to the other counselors, I would just say like similar to like when we discussed like having devices and whatnot, you know, we had discussions at that that training about social media and they're like, "Yeah, you know, you you can have your you can run with your with this account and have your personal account, but you can't start like conducting city business because if you do or any of that like on your personal account, then you're subject to, you know, Freedom of Information Act requests and all these sorts of things. So whether you all want to post or not, I think at least having that if you ever want to say something like, "Oh, I'm really proud that we passed this today." Like saying that on your personal page, it's a bad idea, right? So I think, you know, we might all have different appetites about what we want to post and u or like how often we want to post and that sort of stuff, but I think this to me is just procedurally pretty clear. Like I know that if I'm going to run for office, I can use this account. I know if I'm gonna talk about indie Rock, I'm gonna use my regular account or the Bears or whatever, the Bills if you're if you've been. Uh and then then I have my official city account. It just allows me to to to feel a lot more safe about communication um and and where those right, you know, accounts can can be for the right types of things, right? So that's that's why I'm also encouraged about this. This is maybe a question for Dan. Given what councelor Stein just talked about and given the linked nature of social media accounts, how a lot of them are linked to personal accounts require personal verification through an individual's cell phone, through individual accounts or other personal identifying information in order to verify that that user is indeed that individual and thus linked to the individual through personal identifiers. Um is there any or even setting up on

people's personal devices um is there any concern or danger in crosspollization or call it hacking um of personal devices? Should uh elected officials accounts be used on say their personal cell phones or similar um outside outside of non city approved or provided devices? Yes. Any protections or concerns that city council needs to be aware of about that before city council takes action?

Do not cross-pollinate. Keep your your personal device and communications that are personal on it separate from your city device and city communications period. Thank you.

Um I was just thinking too maybe this is kind of a a Jackie thing when this gets instituted. Um I really appreciate that it is, you know, optional. It's something that people that want to participate in can and the people that don't don't. But maybe on our um website where we have bios and stuff, you can if you are participating in social media, you could have links to your your city social media accounts. And if you're not, you could say something like, "I don't participate in social media, but you're welcome to email me or talk to me at the grocery store." Anything else? I I appreciate this kind of ties into the conversation we had earlier um with Ellie of like how are we approachable and how do you contact your city government? And one way is to come up and say hi and start a conversation or send an email to our city email account or engage in social media if that's how you want to do it. But um maybe that's how we can uh link people to us and and let them know how to communicate with us is through our bios on the website.

Anything else on this topic? We're going to take a break and then finish off the last bit. We have an executive session and we'll be back in four minutes.

Uh thank you, mayor. Um before I start, I'd like to turn over to our urban regional administrator who has uh some updates for you and a question about upcoming meeting.

Yeah. Uh thank you. So um tenatively um we think we would have the 30% designs for the Taylor Avenue enhanced um uh pedestrian bike crossings and the enhanced crosswalks at um Taylor and A Streets ready to uh show at uh the March 9th meeting and wanted to ask your opinion. uh you know uh we've traditionally like to have one or two joint meetings with the advisory committee every year and we haven't had one of those in a while and so wanted to ask uh thoughts on March 9th for a joint uh meeting joint agency board uh advisory committee meeting to receive the 30% designs for um the the heights project that'll uh be a chance to meet together and also with us um the consultants having to present it twice

and March 9th is one your regularly standing govern. Yes. Yeah. You're act joining you for the first part of that meeting. Chair Scapina. Yeah. Will thank you. And Will and I discussed this at our meeting last week and um you discussed it with uh with Kate Hoffman as well, right? And uh yeah, I think it's a tremendous opportunity for us to do this. Like we don't have a whole lot of chances to do this kind of thing. It seems like this is a great milestone and a lot of people are asking what's going on and whatnot. So this is something for us to get together with our our valiant uh committee members and uh you know celebrate a little bit of the success that we're starting to see with that project. So I'm fully in supportive of it. I hope you all are as well. Others to comment on this.

Thumbs up. Super. Thank you. And thank you Will. Uh just a couple other updates. Uh also logistics. Um I had it had been pointed out to me that March 23rd is the beginning of spring break. So, I checked in with all of you and there was a um thank you all for being most of you are really very willing to be flexible, but there was a preference for March 30th. So, let's plan to hold the meeting that day instead of at the 23rd. Um so, uh might uh I will ask the city reporter if we can look at changing my schedules when I meet with you so that that'll prep that time um so that you'll be ready for the meeting. But we will get you all of that information. And should we try to get Mark Bailey that morning as well, Abigail? I know that's another

reach out to him. That's a great thought. We generally meet with him before our second meeting of the month. So, um, he does just a public shout out to Mr. Bailey. He really does his homework. He often watches our meetings. He has read the packet. He's always very prepared. I I don't love being on the radio, but I do talking enjoy talking to him.

Mark, I don't know if you're listening, but I have an alarm on my phone at 11:55 every day because I'm like, "Oh, in five minutes I'm going to listen to Mark." other updates I have for you. Uh our new fire chief, Josh Rogers started today. So, um I I didn't want to make him come to this meeting on the very first meeting, but I will do a formal presentation uh of him and you get to meet him at the February 23rd meeting. But we're excited to welcome him here and looking forward to um working with him. And uh Chief Damian is his last day is the 13th. So, the two of them got a week to overlap. And then Chief Damian is actually uh willing to contract with us working uh just in an advisory role and picking up pieces as necessary. So looking forward to continuing working with him and very thankful to that. Um I also want to note the port received uh the ace Oregon project of the year award this year. So congrats to our colleagues at the port um for its response to the incident that happened on June 23rd, 2024. This is where the truck was carrying a piece of equipment that then rose up and impacted I think it was six overhead partial um six overhead portal braces. So that was a major um piece and they did a great job of the communication and uh doing the emergency corrections uh and getting that really critical bridge back on track. So congrats to our colleagues in the port. And then my last um question or comment for you is at the last meeting you had um in the public comment section someone came and uh asked you to look into licensing cats and I don't think you um got a chance to discuss that at the end of that meeting. So I know if you had any time to think about that or if there's uh you want to discuss it at a future meeting or if you have any direction for me I'm happy to follow up with that resident if there's uh questions you might have or I just wanted to close the loop on that one. So much happens from the beginning of the meeting to the end of the meeting. I I forgot to bring that up last time.

What? Um I feel bad saying this, but I forgot the specifics of what was discussed is that there wasn't clarity around cats, right? I think there was a and I'll let everyone chime in, but I went back and watched that piece of it. uh was just a request to license cats and have some uh enforcement around uh felines that don't stay in their own yards. So, I think the the example shared was a cat named Waffles

who I think had been digging up the garden and actually had uh gone into this resident's house um and has generally caused damage in her property. a property of being her garden and her yard, not necessarily in her office, but an unwelcome intrusion.

I'd be I'd be open to just having the discussion for licensing cats. It sounds like that doesn't take place and that does create an inequity for for dogs, right? Like that's clear. Should that be clear moving forward? um in regards to policies around their yard versus my yard. I I think if we follow whatever we have in process and if we don't already have a policy that's set in place, uh open to hear what my peers think. Amanda,

I guess one question that comes up for me is um like enforcement of that too. Um, I mean, I could be wrong, but I don't even know if like dog licensing is really enforced unless they get picked up and they're not licensed, right? So, like um and and then like do we have the we already we have the talks with the um shelter and the sheriff's office and stuff like that. So, I think all that's a factor too of like staff and responding and how does that look like if you get Paul? Um, and I don't know if we can make all cats be inside cats like is that something that really will do? I don't I think it's an interesting never thought about that before. Um, so it's piquing my interest, but I have a lot of questions surrounding it. So,

I mean, we heard from one resident who's kind of bucking the trend of how everyone in the country kind of deals with cats. We have a chamber full of people that want to license cats and figure out how to keep cats in yards and everything. I'm all for it, but this seems seems like an isolated incident. often how we handle a topic in this area is are there four of us that want to talk about it. That's kind of the the acid test. Give me four thumbs and I'll put it on the agenda. Nope.

All right. Thank you for that. I just need that clear direction and I'm happy again to uh respond back to the resident, let her know. Um, you know, council at this time is declining to take an action, but you know, I can also explore with her if there are other things. You know, certainly one uh I'm a big fan of mediation and so six rivers dispute resolution might be able to help her have a conversation with her neighbor or some other um resources. So I'll have that conversation with her. Thank you. Those were that those are my comments for tonight. Thanks. Committee reports. Anna, nothing for me. Ben, bad time for a week then. Um cat meets on Wednesday, February 18th.

Oh, the other cat. Yes. And I think they have licenses for their bus drivers. Glattus,

thank you. Uh MCAC did meet and I completely apologize. I did not send you all the point in time overview. Um, so I I will send those all to you as a highlight just so that you have awareness around um what that survey did bring some of the outcomes and again Hood River County is still one of the highest utilizers of those services. Um so I'll send that link to you all and then maybe I'll I'll bring up some of the highlights at the next council meeting during comments. Um the Seruda board meets on the 11th as I mentioned in our last meeting. The Seruda students will be coming to Hood River uh this next coming month in March. Um more to come there. Just going through my notes. Uh the county doesn't meet until next week, so I'll have an update for you all at the next meeting. I do have an opportunity to uh attend some community partner meetings that are specific to ICE in our community. Uh the last meeting that we had was really around um Mr. Sharp presenting who's one of the attorneys here in our area some of current laws that and processes around that. Um there will be another one tomorrow. Uh, and then I still continue to attend additional meetings specifically for immigration that are with other elected officials across this state just having these conversations. Where are these gray areas? What are other cities doing that we could all potentially replicate? The letter was brought up that the mayor did sign. So, thank you to our mayor for signing on to that. That's everything for committee updates.

Thank you, Doug. None for me this week. Grant, none. Amanda, nothing.

Couple things for me. I work in Clickat County and drive on 14. And next time you go to Dicky's Farms to get corn, which will be soon, holy smokes. Like 60 housing units. Apparently, some will be occupied in May. Like these are small apartments, like six plexes, and there's like 10 of them. It's like a huge amount of housing right over there, which is not our doing. And I don't truthfully know if they have STRs, but I was uh communicating with the mayor over there a little bit. Like that's a great development. I'm so excited about that. Just a private developer named McKenzie, and you can Google bingen McKenzie, whatever, and learn about it. But wow, awesome. Uh whoops, my thing went away. Sorry. I also uh I'm the the port is the commissioner I'm in liaison with and I asked tour commissioner tour over there for some stats about the use of the bridge and he was able to give me hourly stats on a weekday and a weekend and it was so fun looking at that and pondering and what does that mean and the bit the busiest hour on the bridge is inbound to Hood River at 8 am which surprises no one like I get it But but it it's a little bit more spread out in the evening going the other way. but what that means and the implications for our workforce and our residents and our businesses and I don't know it just was it was fun to to realize that that uh data collection you know thing and enables us to have that kind of information and uh that that was fun to fun to learn about and ponder and I'd be happy to bring that if if others are interested in you know we could drill down quite a bit further and then finally uh I often say that I'm the chair of the housing authority I'm the chair of the nonprofit organization that is the development arm of the housing

authority called CCHC Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation and we're looking for a board member and the housing authority is made up of electeds but CCHC is simply a nonprofit. So if anybody has great ideas for uh not surprisingly it's mostly you know white men of about my age. So, if anybody has a way we could expand the richness of that board, uh, we're we are looking for a volunteer. That's all for me. Uh, council comments. Amanda, I don't think I really have anything. Grant, nothing. Doug, uh,

I just wanted to, uh, speak briefly on, um, I think Abigail brought it up during the discussion we had, uh, earlier with, uh, Next Door and whatnot about how uh, or maybe it was your your comments. I can't remember exactly what you said, but you talked about when when Glattis had uh, facilitated the meeting with rapid response. Um, I was part of that meeting also with Chief Holy. I just wanted to say I thought that was a really good meeting. um for understanding how we can receive communication from uh organizations like the rapid response just to understand what's going on on the ground. So um that that's you know we've been talking a lot about pushing information out but this is was another uh like like the listening session is an opportunity to to learn about how we get receive information. Uh, and so, uh, the other thing I wanted to mention is I saw Dan Rayfield's office put out the um, you know, this wasn't just created, but just, uh, for people's awareness, if, uh, as we were talking about like what our police response usually is and and is not, you know, um, if residents want to document something that's happened in regards to an ICE event, um, there is a really good way to do that via the attorney general's office. Um so Dan Rafield's office has a form where you can you know uh upload video and upload pictures and descriptions of events and whatnot. Um so so that um if if somebody wants to share something about that that you know that with the attorney general it's very easy to do that. So I would encourage you know committee members to to go to the attorney general's website to look that up and see how that form works. And it I went to it yesterday seems pretty easy to use. So, um, that's another way to get information out to, um, uh, you know, the attorney general's office, which I think is it's great that they're collecting that information, but, uh, also making it so easy to to use. Thanks.

Yeah. I also want to thank um our chief um Jackie Abigail, counselor Stina and um Martha from the rapid response group just to have a discussion around how do we collaborate? How do we replicate processes that already exist? What does communication look like moving forward? Um and just appreciate uh folks taking the time to sit down to how do we support each other during these times. Um, I also wanted to mention something that continues to get brought up and so I think it's just important to say something. I've also seen some messaging from the county around the amount of scam calls that are taking place specifically saying like hey we're the county you owe us money. Um, so maybe we can have some messaging around that like what would the city you know how how does that process work so that um we don't have any member of our community um giving money. I recently heard an article that um a local individual was scammed out of $100,000. So, I think it's really important as we start talking about, you know, how does the city engage with folks um and and really appreciate some of the videos that I've seen recently around identifying public works and what the police does or doesn't do just in communication specifically to ICE. Um, the other point that I wanted to bring up is during my check-in with Abigail, we were looking at draft draft retreat agenda and I just wanted to offer my two cents of what historically the retreats have have included in the agenda. Usually, it's been a time where we sit and discuss our council plan, what is working well, what is not, you know, how are we measuring success? At our last meeting, we had a longer discussion around communications. Um, but there was one question that came

up there that for me I just had I was a little unclear about and um just something for you all to think about as you continue your next check-in with Abigail around what you'd like to see on there and if if we all want to stick to a work plan or not. um what has worked well, what has not, where what does a work plan look like for the remainder of the year. Uh in our B in our bylaws and our polic chart bylaws and charter, it's really clear about council process. So, for example, the mayor sets the agendas during the calls. If the mayor calls on you, you can say whatever you want. We all talked about freedom of speech earlier. I can say whatever I want during that time. I can say whatever I want during council comments. It can be as short as long as I'd like for it to h for it to be. The mayor can't stop me from saying something. Um, so I just want to I'm not understanding if there's a question around how our policy for process works as far as like council procedure. Um, because I felt like there might have been some confusion. So instead of just assuming, I rather just bring it during my time here in council comments. um you know is there clarity around should we revisit what the bylaws and charter states that gives us that direction or was it more of um like an interpersonal issue that has happened. So I'm I'm trying to better understand some of the draft items that are coming up in the agenda and that council has clarity for how our procedures work through our bylaws and our charter. So I just wanted to make note of that completely open to whatever my peers want to discuss but there are some policy pieces around the governance and how that works. Uh and that has already been defined. So I was curious if folks wanted to revisit bylaws and charter um in addition to some of the other items

that we have discussed for the retreat that's coming up. Uh besides that that is everything for me. Thank you. And nothing for me and

I'll be fast. Um I uh just appreciate Dan's comment and the and um Amanda your question about public versus limited forum. You know I thought or open versus limited forum and um I I thought it was really interesting that Dan brought up that like during public comment it is pretty open forum like anybody can come and talk to us about whatever they want. And I'm curious if um you know before each of our meetings I always like go back to our mission um and what it is that city government does. And our mission actually says provide essential services at the lowest possible cost to continually enhance the quality of life in Hood River. And when I think about what essential services are, that's public safety. Um so ICE and then the scam thing that you just brought up, Glattis. um infrastructure and utilities, uh administrative and regulatory stuff like building permits, uh code enforcement, land use. Then there's general administration, which is like our our um you know, public records and and recordkeeping, and then um sometimes parks and w that doesn't overlap with parks and recck stuff. I was just thinking that, you know, I wonder if we might be able to um be more efficient in our interactions with our community if they understand what it is that we do and can do for them um and what our our role is. And then I was told that, you know, before my time on city council that when people come for public comment, there was councils previously that would say, you know, uh, state your name, state your where you live, um, generally and what your comment has to do with the the essential services that we provide to to the city. Um, and then that kind of narrows the scope and they can still speak to us

about whatever it is they want to talk to us about, but it's helpful for us to understand, you know, why are why are you coming to us? What can we do for you? You know, that kind of thing. So, um, just kind of an idea of, you know, maybe in in our listening sessions and stuff, I I remember I think Glattus you had made the point of, you know, we're there to listen to them, but maybe there are things that we should be communicating to them as well. And maybe that's what is our role and if if there's things beyond the scope of city's role that we're being asked um to consider. Can we provide resources so that we you know I don't want to be somebody that's like that's not our job but maybe we can say but here's maybe somebody you can talk to or here's what we can do to facilitate a connection so that we can we can help support you. Um but yeah that's just kind of what was on my mind with that. Thank you. That brings us to the executive session. Uh I will read the script. The city council will now meet in executive session pursuant to OS192.661H to consult with council concerning the legal rights and duties of a public body with regard to current litigation or litigation likely to be filed. Representatives of the news media and designated staff are allowed to attend the executive session. All other members of the audience are asked to leave the room and we will end the public broadcast. Representatives of the news media are specifically directed not to report on any of the deliberations during the executive session except to grant except to state the general subject of the session as previously announced. No decision may be made nor final action taken in executive session. The executive session is anticipated to last 25 minutes. At the end of the executive session, the city council will be adjourned and no action will be taken. We will now discontinue the live feed and recording.