City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you everybody. I'm going to call to order a joint meeting of the urban renewal agency and urban renewal advisory committee on March 9th, 2026. Uh welcome. We've this is fun for us to meet down here in in a joint session. I think you know all the opportunities we get to do this was amazing reaches some cool milestones that have you can bring us together but uh I'm going to call this to order by reminding everybody first to silence your cell phones. Um there are no agenda additions or corrections. Uh and just before we get started with business from the audience, I thought it'd be really good for all of us just kind of go around and introduce ourselves. So uh Kate, if we could start with you and just kind of go around the room. Sure. Let's start with the chair of the committee.

Hello. Oh, I'm Kate, chair of the urban renewal advisory committee. Paul Blackburn, the mayor of Foot River. And for the folks who aren't here as often, there's snacks right through that door. So, just like jump at some point. And I'm Jeff Hunt with the advisory committee. Lindsay Arvin, newest member of the advisory committee. Welcome. Doug Stpina. I'm chairing the advisory board and city council. Ben Mitchell, city council. Anna Cavaleri, city council. I'm the other Doug today. Doug Brooks from the advisory committee. Awesome. Grant Pson, city council. Amanda Geeki, uh, city council. And I used to be on the advisory committee. So, it's fun to be all together. Yeah, for sure.

Uh, with that, uh, yeah. Uh, oh, and Steve's Steve's online. Great. Steve, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself online, we can see you. We can't hear you. You're muted now. You're good. Sure. I'm Steve Winkle. uh on the advisory board. Thank you. Okay. Um now we will go to business from the audience. Uh is there anybody signed up in the room for urban renewal or urban renewal? No one in the room. Nobody in the room. Is there anybody online? Megan's not online. So wait a minute. Oh yeah, she is. She should be able to address you now. Megan, can you hear us? Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Thank you. Okay. I love technology when it works. Okay. Megan Ramy, 1886 Belmont. I am the Safe Roots to School Manager for Hood River County School District and I'm joined by a couple members of the Walk and Roll Club. Uh say hi, guys. Hello.

Hi. Um we just took uh a tour of the proposed improvements on Taylor Pine 12th and 13th and A and um they were given the essentially the slides that you guys um got and um they not only understood them but they were able to um essentially navigate from like say Jackson Park to Main Street elementary and say which uh which routes they would take. So um so yes, we are very supportive of these uh improvements. Um and uh they're also in the city's safe routes to school plan and are the first step in bridging the east to the west neighborhoods together in the Heights. Um, one seed I'd like to plant is for uh potentially a quick build during the construction of these improvements, and that's a parking protected bikeway from Pacific to June on 12th. Um, this would give people options, begin to change behavior for 12th, maybe mitigate some traffic issues, maintain two rows of parking, and reduce the vehicle lanes to one on 12th, which is easier to control during construction. Um, yeah, either that or maybe consider this quick build for whenever progress is lagging because of construction or because of funding. Um, so lastly, I know later on the city council agenda, you guys are considering supporting the T-Mobile Ford Foundation hometown grant for safe roosters to school improvements. And I just want to offer a huge thumbs up for this as well. So between the heights and the regular city streets, um the city is making real progress uh to complete uh a network

that is safe and fun for kids. So thank you guys all so much for your support. Thank you, Megan, and thanks you for the valued input and for everything you do. Anybody else sign up? Uh not. Um sounds good. Okay, let's move to regular business items and the presentation of Taylor Avenue and enhanced crosswalks at 30% design. Will

Yeah. Thank you, Chadina, Chair Hoffman, members of the agency board and agency committee. Um Nathan Klaskki the with MIG um who's the project manager is here to present um the 30% designs for the Taylor Avenue um shared east west uh shared use path and also advanced crosswalks. I'm going to uh set the table a little bit then mostly just uh hand it off to Nathan. Um so as you know the uh this is the product of many years of planning and it's just the first step in realizing the heights uh streetscape plan. Uh this uh it's the uh initial two projects of the 11 project um plan that uh does need to happen in sequential sequentially. Uh we brought MIG on to just quickly dovetail off of the um creation and adoption of the high street state land to move immediately in to uh engineering these um designs as we did a full RFP to get a design team on to uh complete uh take the these designs all the way to construction documents as well as the third project. Um and so we are on graph right now for construction of 2027 2027 of what you're going to see tonight as well as uh some additional um ramps and um sidewalk work along 15. Um so tonight you are going to be presented the designs and I'll let you know that next steps are also we're going to present these to the public at an open house. Um we are um pretty well solidified uh with April 17th at Working Hands Brewery from 400 PM to 7 p.m. And that's going to be just a kind of a passive openhouse uh event where people can drop in and out. There'll be no presentation, just visuals and then uh staff will be there to ask questions. Um

giving uh the public the same information that you are now receiving tonight. Um, so with that introduction, I'll pass it over to Nathan to take it away. Nathan.

Thanks, Will. Um, really excited to be here. Um, I was the project manager for the Heights Streetscape plan work over the the three phases that wrapped up a couple years ago. So, it's really exciting to be here again and be kind of showing some preliminary design information. Um, so, as we'll mention, we're going to just walk through the 30% design work that's been done. Um this submitt package was um submitted I think about a week and a half ago to city staff. Okay. Okay. So as Will mentioned um we're going to be talking about the first two projects Taylor Avenue neighborhood connection and then also the key east west um crossings of 13th Street and then kind of a a quick hit on next steps. Um I assume a lot of you are very familiar with the streetscape plan and the implementation plan um that will just u mentioned and sort of the 11 projects that make up that plan. We're talking specifically of the first two, those smaller pedestrian and bicycle improvement projects that are really focused on improving safety for people walking and traveling kind of across really focused on getting people east west across the heights, but also the opportunity to kind of also help some of the um improvements for people driving at at those intersections and locations. Uh so the image on the right shows the the footprint of the um proposed improvements. um actually goes a little bit further west than this Taylor Avenue one. This was an exhibit that was prepared um to get the surveyor on board early on. Um so with that, so here is sort of an overview of the improvement um on Taylor Avenue that makes that kind of trying to tailor connection. U there sort of I'll talk through this in sort of three components. um going from left to right, the sort of west connection um and kind of making that connection um safe and comfortable

for people who are traveling along the street. Um the main improvement is a shared use path along the north side of the street. Um in the Heights Streetscape plan, um a two-way cycle track was shown adjacent to a sidewalk. During the 30% design, we got some additional survey information um from the project surveyor um that reduced the rightway available um a rightaway area that was available. And so we had to kind of go back to the drawing board a little bit and figure out how we could continue to provide both bicycle and pedestrian access east west for people while sort of balancing the the goal to maintain as much on street parking as possible. And so um that decision was made with an shared use path. Um here you can see kind of how you kind of make that kind of wiggle connection down to Pine Street. Um and then the other kind of piece to highlight on this first slide are the these yellow stars are locations where rectangular rapid flashing beacons. So pedestrian push buttons will be people walk up to them, bike up to them, hit a button and activate the lights. Uh and so down bottom left is what those look like in the real world at different locations. So the the plan is to have one on the north crosswalk at 13th Street and then um the north side of Taylor at 12 and then also at the south side of Taylor. Um so kind of starting on that that western edge um Taylor and 13th. One of the things that um as we kind of were developing the design and looking at different layouts is really trying to figure out how to um make this intersection crossing safer for people walking and biking and really kind of create particular for people that are approaching in the street sort of bring that conflict area away from 13th Street. And what we decided kind of

working with city staff is sort of extending that shared use path west through the first parcel on the north side of Taylor. Um so that that as people are coming into and out of um the Taylor Avenue, they're pulling that complex away from 13th and that way cars that are turning on to Taylor from T 13th have a little bit more time to kind of slow down, look for people and it's not h you're not having all that mixing happening right at the intersection. Um again I mentioned the shared use um the RFB will happen here along the north side for that shared use path. Um longterm in the height streetscape plan when traffic changes to two-way the goal would be to also have um RFBs on this the south side of the street but that's something that given the time until that future improvement happens we're just moving forward with the RFB on the north side of the street. Um this crossing is supported with um curb extensions. So kind of really trying to shorten the crossing distance um with physical curb extension on the the west side of the street and then more of a a kind of striped um paint and post type installation on the east side. And the curb ramps crossing um the street here will be the same width as the the Sher's path. um looking at the block of Taylor between 13th and 12th Street. So, one of the big changes that's kind of part of the streetscape plan that will get carried forward into this early um implementation project is changing traffic on Taylor from two-way to just having oneway westbound traffic. And so in order to take that 55 ft rightway that we have and um provide on street parking and the shared use path which includes sort of separation from the the parking area, we have to narrow the roadway down to 14 ft. Um so here's a typical crosssection that's looking to

the east. So you can see shared use path, 10 foot wide shared use path um for walking and biking. There's a little bit of a buffer from the ride ofway line that will allow uh the project to kind of work through some of the encroachments that are happening with the rideway and kind of tie into existing conditions. And then a continuous planting strip um with street trees um between the the shared path and on street parking um park parallel parking on both sides of the street. And then there'll be a kind of a narrower kind of 8 foot wide sidewalk on the south side of the street. So um looking at 12, this is where you know it's a little more um complicated to kind of provide that bike connection. And so here as I mentioned earlier the idea is the you know the shared use path east west connection is on the north side of Taylor RFB crossing to support that. Um but to get bikes moving through this location, on street parking will be removed on both sides of the street. On the east side of the street along um Pine Street Bakery and I think this is the brewery where the open house is going to be or through there. They'll be have a buffered bike lane um that's similar to this picture in the bottom right. Um so striped buffer with um vertical guide posts on that right side. And so that's northbound bikes that are moving with traffic. They'll stop at this location, have an opportunity to hit a push button, and then cross with the lights. Um people biking going the other direction will turn into um 12th Street at the intersection and go on the opposite side of the street. So they'll be kind of going against the flow of traffic. And because of that, um they'll be in a much more protected facility on the west side. And so here again, um this image in the bottom left

shows sort of a similar condition where you've got this kind of protected concrete jersey barrier um that provides um a barrier between vehicle traffic and um people biking. Um to make this happen, there will be a little bit of a lane shift. And so the existing um northbound travel lanes will shift I think it's about a foot or 1 to 2 feet to the east to be able to provide a little bit more space on the west side where we need to fit in that barrier plus a little bit of kind of space adjacent to that in the bike zone bike lane. Um, another part of the project, and this goes back really to the early urban renewal um, goals for the the neighborhood is the the goal of undergrounding some of the power overhead um, infrastructure. And so existing overhead utilities, there's power and then there's also multiple communication utility providers out there. So during the 30% design, um, we've had some initial conversations with them. We've gotten um some information on from Pacific Power on preliminary designs um for their work to be able to remove some of the utility pools that are out there. Um and that will include installing a large vault um that we're currently um hoping can go in the alley south of Taylor um and then some of the other vaults um on the north side. But there's a lot of infrastructure to kind of make that transition happen. So what's shown in yellow are the kind of anticipated limits of undergrounding um based on the preliminary coordination that we've had. Uh Dan Noden who's on the call. He's um representing working with um Will as the owners rep is um setting up um and reaching out to the individual franchise utility providers to kind of start to get them going on their undergrounding designs. um the utility providers will do the design and then the civil

engineering team will integrate that into uh the the streetscape work. One of the other goals from the height streetscape plan was opportunities to integrate green storm water infrastructure. And so we have looked at um both Taylor Avenue and then a street where there are um curb extensions that are going in and drainage is being collected to provide u opportunities for storm water quality treatment. So to collect uh to treat that runoff from the roadway surface. So those um green infrastructure kind of bio retention systems. Here's a picture of an example um in a built um condition here um using you know plants and um uh kind of a specific soil media mix to filter the runoff um and then ideally infiltrate um one of the things that's going to be happening. Not sure on exactly on the timeline, but the city's been working to um coordinate with the geotechnical engineer to do some field testing of the subsurface um soils up there and confirm the infiltration rates. One of the things that Annie Robinson, the city engineer, that had let the design team know is the goal is the desire to infiltrate storm water where possible to reduce the demand on the downstream system. So again, in yellow here are four locations where we have curb extensions that coincide with um where storm water is being collected um and opportunities to provide that water quality treatment. And then the last part of the project are the intersection improvements at 13th and A. Um similar to um the improvements kind of further north at Taylor um RFB crossing on the north side of the crosswalk. We've got a curb extension along the north on the northwest corner here. um originally um and it's shown in the height streetscape plan is to kind of coordinate this with

a future um Columbia transit stop. Um we've done some preliminary coordination um with them during 30% design and um with the two-way or one-way traffic still existing in kind of that two-lane setup um along 13th um we worked with them and it was determined with the traffic engineer that it' be better to continue h to for future have a bus stop on the south side of a street and so the curb extension that had been shown in the height streetscape plan on the southwest corner um was removed um from the scope hope to plan for a future bus stop if and when Columbia Area Transit wants to do that. Um and then on a street there are curb extensions um on the northwest corner and the northeast corner and one of the things uh there is kind of really trying to uh support the existing um parking patterns that are um exist along a street today. Recognizing that the long-term buildout of a street kind of going to that 11 project implementation plan is really way down the line and so really setting up these curb extensions to work the best u for today's um scenario. So that's the the highlevel key points of the project. Um as will mentioned um there's an open house that's being planned for April. Um we're planning to put together some boards and pro um share the design progress. Um the as the project moves from 30% design into 60% design, the city is working on um an RFP process to um select a project team to move the project forward. And that is going to include some additional curb ramp improvements um as part of the jurisdictional transfer um that Will's been working on with ODOT. Um and uh future design phase will also include uh sidewalk retrofit along 13th on the east

side of the street. So that's the third project um from the implementation plan. So that um 60% design work is I'm hoping to get started in May and I think you know with the with the goal of um having construction in 2027. So with that I will um open it up to questions and um comments from the group. Thanks Nathan and I'll just um there's you know no motion here no decision just presenting this uh you know there's still very much time to make revisions but as we move from concept plan to now 30% designs 60% designs 90% designs um things become more and more baked and solidified and changes become more and more costly um so that's kind of where we are in the in the process um still can make changes but the the hurdle to make those changes is getting higher and higher. So

with that we'll uh yeah love to have your uh questions, feedback, discussion. Great. Greg, let's thank you. Uh thanks Nathan for being here. So the only cat stop that we have potentially planned right now is that at 13th and a street or are there others other stops besides that one? Yeah. So, the height streetscape plan kind of planned for one both north and southbound on 13th Street. Um CAT obviously doesn't operate on 13th today within the Heights. Um and so it's a long-term change for them. Um but there we we haven't talked with them about sort of an interim stop, I guess, call it northbound um within the the district.

Okay. Thank you. I'll just add to that. Um they right now cannot serve this roadway until the uh until the roundabout is in and traffic has changed. It's um they can't take a right from May onto 13th. Yeah, I hear that. Thanks for that. As you were talking about 13th and 8th Street though, the idea of carving out what would be a future stop. So as we think about another section just carving out that that could also be another location in the future just so that we are planning ahead for that. Please thank you. Additional questions Anna.

Um I was just curious about the the financial impact piece of it where it says that you know the concept plan was like 2.3 million our current plan is 3.89 89 or in the memo Nathan that you put together for us um I think the the cost is 3.084 084. So kind same ballpark. Um but are we proactively looking for opportunities to mitigate the increased cost to encounter for inflation or unforeseen contingencies or should we just expect that the longer this takes the more it's going to cost us? I mean I I get that that's how it works but um I just wonder what our options are to try to keep our costs a little bit real also um or lower. And then the um memo that was included shows that like owner construction services are not included in the estimate. Permit fees for public rightway work is not included in the estimate. Agency soft costs aren't included. Um irrigation costs are not included. Gas line relocation. All the things that are not included. So like do we have an idea of what those things are? The not included costs are going to cost us?

Yeah. Yeah. So, the the cost estimate that was in there was strictly for the construction cost estimate. Um, it didn't include the soft costs, which are kind of the design fees moving forward. Um, you know, I don't think there's an expectation. You mentioned irrigation. Um, you rattle a couple others off. Um, gas line relocation. I um you know we need to confirm but typically um depending on the um agreements that the gas utility has is they're typically moving um at their own cost um as a part of being in the public right away. Um so um the height streetscape plan ranges had had a range um there was sort of a middle number but you know we expect um things do change during the design. Um I know we had a conversation with Will on sort of you know where are some of these cost changes coming from. Um one you know there's more streetscape work um to the west of the project area. Um the height streetscape plan also didn't include um utility costs. There wasn't necessarily there was some storm drainage adjustments that were in there based on anticipated scope but like water and sewer um were not part of the streetscape plan projects. where is there is a a meaningful amount of water and sewer work as a part of this project and you know I think the expectation and will you could probably talk to this a little bit more is that the funds to perform those parts are coming out of potentially some utility rate payer dollars or utility buckets rather than streetscape uh heights dollars

yeah um point you to I don't have the number but it's the last page of the staff report where it gets into a bullet point I guess of what were the cost some of the cost drivers and the difference um between what was expected in the concept plan level um and what is now in the um current engineers estimate of probable cost thank you page five any additional questions grant please

related to council cavalary's question um are there the not to make assuming this is roughly the final design. Are there any decision points that you or any council need to be aware of or prepping for so uh this group can be ready to decide on those things and not uh or or maintain decision velocity and not necessarily stall this project and m maintain decision velocity because delaying these things at a government level can add to desolation increase risk on these sorts of things.

Yeah. less increased cost. You know, a big driver of costs was was increasing the length of that shared use path approximately 75 ft to the west. So, if anyone wants to slam the brakes on that now, uh it would be good to know before we go into continue continue um levels of design. Uh I don't think it's going to change the timeline much, but we will have a discussion about uh water, sewer, storm um contribution toward the plan. Um, we cued that up a little bit. It was a few months ago about creating uh anou between the city and the agency really lining out uh expectations around uh who will pay for what. Um and uh that's still planned to to um ink that agreement. We we have quite a bit of time. Uh this is going to construction in 2027, so we have some time to work on that. But that's an upcoming decision point. Um, I think that's mostly the the changes that Nathan

Yeah. One one other that comes to mind is, you know, the the work that's going to be added to this project moving forward with the curb ramp retrofits. Um, is a lot of, as you guys are very well aware, um, the pavement condition is is in really poor shape in a lot of places. And um my understanding is, you know, ODOT's going to provide funding for, you know, a curb ramp replacement. And there will be opportunities to kind of say, "Oh, it'd be great to chase this and go a little bit farther with that improvement and sort of really kind of being very methodical and clear and kind of consistent in the decision on sort of where the um termination points are going to be for curb ramp improvements. um at the other kind of BC um and Belmont intersections and then you know I think Belmont specifically um there's a lot of opportunity to improve uh safety and operations for people driving, walking, biking, kind of crossing the street there. Um and so you know within the the funding that's available, what are sort of the kind of limit of um improvements that people feel good about and willing to invest in now knowing that you know there there might be a while to get to um a bigger change down at the Belmont intersection.

Does that make sense? Excellent. Ben, uh, in terms of the, uh, interim, uh, bike lane, uh, situation on the Pine to Taylor connection, we don't know how long that's going to be interim, right? Because we don't know the timeline necessarily for the traffic flow reconfiguration or do we? Yeah, it's uh be there until roundabouts in please. Questions or comments?

Oh, um Nathan, I'm looking at the interim bike lanes. Um I'm afraid some people may not find the aesthetics real pleasing. Um and this may also feed into the next agenda item, but I think we should look for opportunities to make it clear to the public that these are short-term. These are an interim that it's not going to be that way. Uh eventually same question. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll just add just uh I've already brainstormed with Megan Ramy, safe rest of school um coordinator about maybe uh as a class project or something like that painting the Jersey barriers. Um and that's uh but we can brainstorm additional ideas as well to make them a little bit more attractive. Don't make them distracting. Um, I think a little bit better than just concrete. No employ project for kids.

Um, speaking of aesthetics, as you showed us the green infrastructure, I mean, that's not really what it's going to end up looking like as far as like what's planted there, right? Like we're going to look at something that's a little prettier, maybe less water, right? like just wanted to voice that. Yeah. I mean, the the the this is an example of a a site somewhere else, you know, I think from a plant establishment and kind of figuring out what's going to work best um both from a kind of survivability and sort of from a maintenance standpoint, but also sort of aligns with community goals. So, yeah, kind of figuring out plant pallet is something that we'll want to get into at 60%. Okay. Thank you.

And I I had a question related to that as well. So, but we us on council have spent a lot of time talking about rain gardens and these types of things. Um, we'll be keeping in mind, you know, that we're keeping, you know, the the maintenance something that's harmonious with what what the rest of public works is maintaining and we're not going too far off of it or is the heights that unique that we might be limited in our Okay. No, absolutely. We uh Annie, the city engineer, attends all of our meetings and has had discussions around um aligning it uh with continuity with our other um systems that we use that we're planning. Uh so we're doing a lot of this work in downtown as well.

Uh getting some proprietary systems and making sure that we keep that in mind as we're designing what systems go in the heights so that they're the same. Um I do know also just that the heights has though um very um a high quality I guess it would be it infiltrates a lot of water naturally a lot more than down here right um so it's going to do a lot more work on its own up in the heights. Awesome. Please.

I'm looking at the Pine to Taylor connection and I'm thinking about a car like driving down 12 and turning left onto Taylor and a bike trying going the other way and making that split. And I'm thinking that's like a a head-on situation without like any flasher or warning. Just wondering. Yeah, I think that's something I I it's a it's a good comment and a good observation and you know as kind of we kind of get farther um continue the design sort of thinking about the ways to mitigate that um will be important.

Additional comments or questions? Amanda? Um I just want to say looks great. I'm really excited like we're at this point and um yeah, I feel like it's been this is the whole reason why I got involved with the urban renewal committee and now I'm here on the city council and like just feels really exciting to be at this point and we're so getting so close to actually doing something. So, yay. Uh final question I have was related to what what Megan Ramley asked about earlier. So is there anything in the design any time to be spent you know in consideration for the construction period and you know uh you know how to manage that type of flow in in the interim.

Yeah construction management will be part of getting to construction documents and putting it out to bid. um as far as whether going down from single lane, you know, on the south end uh for that um stretch Pacific to Belmont. Um you know, I'm not a expert in construction management, but we'll bring that up uh to the folks that are when we get to that point. um that could also be a standalone um demonstration project or you know on its own if we want to tackle that you know uh when we have bandwidth too

right yeah I just I think it's really nice to hear the people that are using it currently and them sort of envisioning that and you know the kind of on the ground eyes eyes in that in that situation sort of that input I think is is valuable so yeah um look forward to that too anything additional Okay. Well, Nathan, thank you so much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. This is super exciting. Um, and I think we'll be moving on to our next agenda item. Awesome. Well, thank you guys. Have a good evening. Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much. Yep. Bye. Hey, Will talking about uh additional ideas around how to communicate what's going on around here.

That's right. Let me uh invite uh Matt Pope to join us. Matt is a resident uh resident of the Heights and brought what I'm going to present to you um to us really. Um so actually I'll probably I'll let Matt just introduce himself and maybe kind of his motivation to bring forward this um communications tool. Yeah, thanks Will. Can everybody hear me and see me? Okay. Yes.

Yeah. So yeah, thanks for inviting me today. Um I know you know several of you in different ways and uh know your commitments extend well beyond this role. So just want to take a moment to recognize that and just share my appreciation um for all that you all do to make this city a great place. Um so quick introduction. I'm kind of a relatively new member of the community. Um River is kind of the final stop on my um after my wife completed her medical training. So, prior to that 10 year journey, I was at King County DOT um in the road services division and kind of various tech roles for about 13 years. And then when we moved to the Bay Area, um about 12 years ago, I shipped in the nonprofit sector still in tech. And then during that time was volunteering for code for America um kind of hacking on uh software systems for uh you know, governments that didn't have budgets or skills to take on those projects. Um, so I'm also a planning commissioner, um, and really an avid follower of kind of how the community shapes, you know, takes shape and evolves. Um, and as a Heights resident, I've really been following this, uh, and providing feedback on this streetscape plan as it's been developing. I'm really excited about this all happening uh, and you know, seeing things um, uh, you know, getting real here, uh, real soon, which is super exciting. Um, one thing I've noticed is that there's with with, you know, so much happening, it's kind of hard for people to keep informed and up to date. Um, and and since I've kind of followed a lot of this stuff, uh, and you watch a lot of meetings, people come to me and ask me like, you know, what's happening next or what's going to happen at this intersection? And I've been able to help out a little bit. But there's definitely kind of more efficient ways of doing this. Um, and so I saw the, you know, the act and your app's conversation around the the kind of the physical information board, um, and kind of concerns I think from the board around costs and kind of update complexity. And so I wanted to sort of throw out another um, option that's more of a digital digital um, platform concept. So I built this prototype and um, just

to see how that how a concept may take shape. Um, and at the end of it, I kind of had something I thought was sort of interesting and actually useful. So I sent it over to Will and um he was interested and so he Dan and Jackie um and I met up and we kind of talked about where it could where it could go or how it might be used. Um and really but I just want to share that my really my intent was just to kind of spark conversation. Um so this can either help you all decide what you want um um or or it can be that you know or or it can be a solution itself. So, I'm not not trying to just drop in drop this in as it is and say this is the solution, but I just hope it sparks conversation and maybe it's kind of along the lines of something that you want. And just a couple caveats before you see this demo or if you clicked on the link, the Spanish translations were all uh you know machine translated without any verification. So, they should be cleaned up and verified. And also the videos that I embedded um were just placeholder videos. But I just wanted to show on that first project. I just wanted to show that they can you you can embed the YouTube videos and they'll change based on the language. So I just used a couple of sample YouTube videos. And back to Will, but I'll stick around for questions and feedback. And thanks Matt.

Yeah. So without further ado, I'll um show you the prototype that Matt put together. And I'll just emphasize that Matt did all of this on his own initiative on his volunteer time. and I really thank them uh for taking such an interest in the heights. Uh really um impressive work and I think it's going to be uh quite helpful to us.

Um so I'll just page through and there's a link to this in your staff report if you got a chance to look at it yourself. I'm just going to uh page through a little bit. Maybe Matt can add on and then we'll answer any questions, get feedback. And all I'm looking for tonight is do you does this look interesting? Do you want me to um dig into the logistics of um migrating it to city uh agency uh infrastructure and and see what costs are and kind of work it all out? Um so here is the site. Um it has uh each project in sequence and each project when you click on it is its own unique URL. That means it can get its own QR code. Supports um text. Uh it shows the even when you're in individual projects still shows them in sequence where you can page through. Uh supports um visuals either pictures or diagrams and then also can have videos so we can have someone talking about um each one of each one of the projects. Um uh as Matt noted, there is embedded uh uh Spanish translation and we can also get in there and um make sure that it it's um you know true to true to a natural speaker. So the idea is to uh you know if we want to build this out is u do so and then we can promote it uh on our website through social media platforms and then also we could place QR codes um on the sidewalk where uh in the rough proximity to where the future projects are going to be or we could have them on a on a post um you know something like we have heritage or you know prominent trees around town that have a little post that has a little information on them. We have that with just a QR code. This is streetscape

plan project number, you know, six and then people can scan it and um get access to this info. Um so those were the really big features that stuck out to me. Matt, any other sort of key key functions amenities?

No, I just I think it Yeah, I think it I was trying to figure out how and you know maybe this isn't the kind of you know paradigm that's the best. So we can kind of work on how folks you know land on a project and they navigate between projects. But I just thought that this concept of um you know how do I how do I understand that this is a sequence of things um you know some of which are further along than others um so anyway this is it's just sort of a it's concept we can evolve the concept in terms of the how do you move between projects um and definitely add different content blocks and different information as as people want so it can evolve Mayor Blackman,

thanks so much, Matt, for doing this. I'm intrigued by this code for America thing you did. It occurs to me like our project is one of so many projects that you've seen and worked on. And what what kinds of adjectives, if you were to describe this to a code for America colleague, like what what is this project? Like what what are some of the attributes? Is it you know a citrus waiver YXR or like you know how would you describe this to a colleague?

Well those yeah th those those project I mean I did lots of different projects a lot of sort of internal system um you know software development for jurisdictions um in the Bay Area. So the projects really were born out of some issue or challenge or opportunity that the that the local government had and they maybe just didn't have the resources, the money or the skills um on staff or you know to kind of implement or really even conceive of and then you know design and then build out these software systems. So we were people that worked in the technology sector supporting um cities um and counties in you know implementing tools that they wanted to have and they couldn't and they couldn't you muster. So I didn't I didn't actually work on any sort of information sites like this. This is I think kind of like a mini site or just a just a website. Um

thank you. Most of the stuff I held on was a little bit more interactive and kind of you know data back kind of databased systems. Is there an overall kind of FAQs like what is the height streetscape project? What's the total budget if it was like that over not just each uh project of the 11 but the overall Yeah. There is there's a height project web page already on the heights um uh web page. Yeah, great. That that that's that answers I think.

Yeah, I think that's the qu that would be one of the questions is how does this connect in and kind of intersect with the the great content that already exists. I mean you guys have years of content um that's great on the LE's website already. So I think that'd be a good conversation to have. Thanks. Oh, do you know how to

Oh, yeah. I think this is great. Um, and I was wondering if you could talk to is this something that city staff could very I do a lot of dabbling and I upkeep several websites because it's not that hard. Is this the kind of project where because these are dynamic projects that are having lots of, you know, or regular updates that it would be fairly with a little training that city staff could handle this or would you imagine it would be volunteer-led um or both?

Yeah, either way, I'm happy to. it it is pretty straightforward to update and I'm happy to to train and then support um city staff on doing that. I'm also I think I put in the note too. I'm also happy with some sort of kind of service level agreement that works for both of us just do it and on a volunteer basis. I just mean like make sure we have the same, you know, expectations on when you send an update to me, how quickly it gets done and and how much time I have to get updates done. So I'm also happy to to support either way. I think that's as we if if you all like this and we can go into the how do we actually operationalize this with the resources that exist. Um I'd like city to be as hands-on and um not dependent upon me as much as possible, but I'm also pretty dependable as a volunteer. So I'm also happy to take on that role, too. Yeah, I'll just um reinforce that Matt has showed me the back end of this and I would feel comfortable changing any of the text maybe after spending a little bit more time with it changing the image. Um and then also I trust Matt is you know took all the time and effort to put this together. if we need anything bigger. Um, and then one of our next steps would be, you know, linking this in with connecting with our web master uh at Gorge Web Design um and getting her to look at this and thinking through how maybe it would translate overly.

Awesome. Thank you, Anna.

Um, I love this. I I think this is really really cool, Matt. Thank you so much for putting the time into it and even just preparing it as a as a prototype. I think it's really awesome. Um, I I think that communications on the Heights project is really really important and and I just um I didn't I didn't love the first idea that was pitched to us at our last council meeting of a you know fabricated sign, but this I think is going to be really great. And um as I was playing around on your website today um after looking at materials, it reminded me of a a story um an NPR story I had heard about that the city of Boulder in Colorado has this interactive website where re you register as a resident or person that comes to the website and um and that way the city is able to collect the the people who are looking at the website and providing input like you can get kind of an idea of who's contributing. And then it's an interactive there's an interactive map where people can go to an intersection or a park or whatever and make suggestions on things that can be um improved or just provide feedback about that area. And um I I think that that's kind of a a little bit more of a a enhanced or a feature that that's that could maybe be considered. But um the website was called Be Heard Boulder and it's kind of a offshoot of the city's communications plan of just another way that people can interact with the city. Um and when I saw your website, it inspired me to go do a little bit of digging on that. I'm wondering if that might be a feature that we could look at or consider, Will, or um or if it would be really an expensive technical enhancement or whatever to have something like that. maybe having it just for the heights area as a as a pilot of like, you know, if people want to come in and I like the idea too of the um the QR codes on the sidewalk or

whatever, but I just I think that that is going to be in different locations. I think that's just going to be reach a broader audience than a static metal sign. Um I'm I'm really excited about this. I think it's great. Yeah, I think I think I mean that's a that's that's a super interesting idea and I think I wouldn't um I wouldn't necessarily commit to implementing that on this side, but I'm really interested in that or having a conversation around what that could look like and that might be a a kind of an additional feature build. Um definitely open to having a conversation around what that might look like to add add a feature like that. I think that this is a this is a static site. So there's it's not taking in any information from from you know the user and once you kind of step over that line you you're kind of the level of complexity gets a little bit significantly higher and so and also the level of responsibility once you start taking personal information from folks. So it's it starts getting a little bit more complicated. I'm always interested in having conversations around uh you know technology ideas that serve the public interest. So,

thanks. We'll have coffee.

Yeah, I I will second everything councelor Cavalary mentioned. I love this. Thank you, Matt, so much for putting the time and effort into creating this. Uh, I'm also open to additional feedback, whether that's on the main landing page of the city website for feedback. I love the QR code on the gr on the sidewalk. Um, as I was looking at the material, looks like it's like a sticker like I don't know if that could even maybe go on some of the windows. I know in our last meeting we were having discussion about how could businesses support if they want to and if it's like a little sticker decal that's on the window. Um, since the QR code isn't changing, uh, the website will that it could directly link. So, that was another option. And as far as the Spanish translation, I'd be more than happy to support. I really like the layout of how it's like the word project and the little bit of information, then you click in and it's more information, but my only concern is that everything doesn't translate literally from English to Spanish. And so I'd be happy to help Jackie or however it may be to simplify the information in Spanish so that folks have uh plain language summaries of what's on there. But thank you so much. I really like it. Well, to that to that uh you know the discussions about QR codes and signage and we can post and all that. Um you know should we approve this? When could we expect something in terms of a plan and would that require additional dollars to you know talk to somebody about fabricating that? Is that something public works can kind of just do? So what what's what's we were to like put QR codes on post out there? What what are you envisioning for that?

Yeah. uh you know I'll look at local vendors um you know print and sign it um set up you know if there's other folks around town that uh do uh get quotes see what it will cost but yeah that's the next step um I don't know how long it will take you know we'll set up a meeting with de Hollesman from web design uh you know work through that um I don't know how long that will take please

um first I agree with the comments I think this is wonderful so thank Thank you. Um, one real small comment, not to micromanage, but you have estimated completion date. I think it'd be important to have the estimated start date, and I know that's a shot in the dark sometimes, but um, my one comment on again, I love it, but uh, I have some friends and family members who actually aren't that techsavvy, and so I don't want to abandon non-technology. We we need to get the word out every way we can, but again, I think this this is really good. I have an idea about that actually. I was talking to um Xan Miller, Mark Dan Miller last week and we were he asked me why didn't you like the sign idea and we just had com conversation about how important the communication piece of it is and one thought we both said was um that same section that Megan Ramy was talking about between Pacific. like um where Dutch Brothers is to um I don't know what that store is now. It was the dry cleaners and then the hot tub store or something. But there's a chainlink fence right along there and then there's the chainlink fence coming up 13th right by Jackson Park. And um I mean it's funny because I not to be hypocritical um hypocritical about signage, but chainlink fences are ugly. What if we put some banners on there? like, you know, what if you could have some some kind offormational thing that, you know, provides some art or and information along the chain link fences and we're utilizing um infrastructure that we already have that isn't very pretty and we could put some information on there just to let people know as they go by like, hey, this area is going to change. And I think that that would be a lot less expensive than the fabricated, you know, custom sign. Just an idea. Any additional questions or comments?

Matt, again, just want to thank you so much for this. Uh, you know, yes, you're already a planning commissioner and you're doing this pro bono and everything. So, yeah. Yeah. Can't thank you enough. Super excited to see this get added to the agenda and especially with this uh grant. Yeah. Uh, I move the agency support further investigation of the use, cost, and management of the prototype heights streetscapeformational platform presented tonight. I'll second. Okay, that was a motion by Bolton, a second by Rivera. Any further discussion? So, is this just the board voting here? No. Everybody, it's advisory. Awesome. Okay. So, all those in favor?

I. Thanks, Steve. Those opposed chair votes eye passes. Thank you so much. Thank you, Matt. Really appreciate you asking. Well, I don't think there's anything for you in terms of administrator updates today. Okay. Um, any updates or comments? We don't usually get together, you know, this kind of stuff from from any board members or committee members. Speak now or forever. We'll come soon. I have to say, I really appreciate the agency coming. This is awesome. It's nice to get to sit at the table with you guys and have a conversation and um thank you very much. I hope we can do it more often. Same. I know you do. I would love it. Yeah, absolutely.

Sounds like more opportunities for this should be taken up. Well, it's not just about the snacks. Yeah. And you know, uh Kate and Will and I meet meet uh often to sort of talk about what's going on on the board, what's going on with committee, you know, all of our board meetings, we we get your input, but it is just really nice to have. So, let's let's keep doing it. Awesome. Okay. Well, with that, I'm going to adjourn the urban renewal meeting and we're going to take a quick break so we can reset for city council and and reconvene that. Appreciate it. Thanks everyone. China.

here. Hey, I have your name on the list already.

Good evening everybody. Thanks for coming to your city council meeting March 9th, 2026. I'm going to call this to order. First, we're going to all turn off our cell phones. Then, we're going to remember as we gather today that we respectfully acknowledge the land on which the city of Hood River sits is the ancestral home of indigenous peoples. This includes the Neespur, Yumatil, 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. Next, we're going to stand and say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Do we have any agenda additions or corrections? Abigail? Yes, mayor. I'd like your permission to add a OLCC permit to tonight's agenda. I believe the city reporter sent that to you earlier today. Thank you. I I I have a note to remember that and if I forget to remember that feel free feel free to take me.

Now is the time for business from the audience. No person shall be disorderly, abusive or disruptive of the orderly conduct during this time. There shall be no audience demonstrations such as applause, cheering, display, signs, or conduct disruptive. Such conduct may be caused for immediate termination of business from the audience by the mayor. No person shall address council without first being recognized by the mayor. And we ask that you please state your full name for the record when it is your turn. So I have Brent, Michael, and Mike Ketler on the sheet. Do we have anyone online? Jen just Okay, so Michael, who's on my sheet, is online. Thank you. Brent was online and is now here. And then Mike Kentler was asking if he wanted to speak at the beginning or during the item. I don't have a strong preference. Do you have a preference, Mike? Great. So, let's have you speak during the item. Let's hear first from online uh Mr. Sprag, I believe, is on Zoom. Mr. Sprag, can you hear me?

I don't hear you, Mr. Sprag. Hi. Thank you very much for being available. I can hear you. Can you hear me now? Yes, I hear you. Thank you.

Wonderful. Uh just a moment, please. I got a little bit of a technology uh delay happening on this end here. Uh one moment. Let's see. So, uh first thing I wanted to share with you is made a lot of progress uh in the Steven Hayes Memorial uh service and service award that we'll be updating you with more information about soon. Uh to start with, we'd like everyone to know that in honor of Stephen Hayes, who we w lost recently um and who embody the values of service, we'll be accepting nominations for the Steven Hayes service and service award. Uh to start with, you can bring those down to ground coffee shop where there'll be a box where you can write anyone's name who embodies the values of service and put them in the box. They don't have to work in service but just um like Stephen did demonstrate the practice of considering things from another person's perspective uh in their daily work and the the value that that creates. So that's coming up shortly and those will be the nominations box will be available ground coffee. Uh let's see. And then the other uh thing I wanted to touch base on here I just got to find the document. Excuse me. Thanks for your patience. Let's see. Uh, okay. Here we go. Thank you. Okay, let's see here. Uh, okay. So, as um this is pertaining to the availability of uh council to hear public Oh, just a second. Sorry, I'm having some technical issues. Yeah. To hear uh public testimony. And this is

um originally testimony that was provided for the city council um in summer of 2024 where it was attempted to be provided. It was sent to Jennifer Gray, city recorder. Uh let's see. It was on uh Okay, excuse me. It was uh sent on October 15th at 11:40 in the in the morning. So, it was sent on time to be uh available for city the city council meeting that night. For some reason, uh city recorder received it. And you know, there's no she doesn't really have any discretion in what testimony provide to city council. It's all supposed to go. So, it was curious. She had a concern about whether it should be provided to city council or not. and then ultimately uh spoke with a city manager um and apparently after that discussion chose to not provide it to city council. Uh the original subject of the testimony was a really unfortunate incident uh that involved Hood River City Police. It seems that the Hood River City Police were kind of weaponized against a member of our community. uh somebody called them up as a person who's known to have done this before too. Uh and made some pretty outrageous claims that were there was no evidence for uh and the police in an effort to protect public safety reacted swiftly but maybe not with a lot of care and it had pretty negative impacts on a member of our community and her children. So that was the subject of the letter. But the the thing that I'm testifying about tonight was the fact that when provided to uh the city recorder, a choice was made to not submit that to city council. Um the city manager, Miss uh Elder somehow to go along with or encourage that decision. Uh this was a year and a half ago. It was a very serious incident and

I'm very sorry that this is the first time that it, you know, unless the city council's heard about it before. If they did, they heard about it probably with a manufactured pretext to try to obiscate the issues. Mr. Sprag. Yep. The threeminut timer went off a little bit ago. If you could wrap up, please.

Yeah, I will wrap up. And I want to say that um this is this very concerning. Since that time, there's been other efforts made to attempt to discourage people from testifying as city council. Um Mr. Mayor, I I'm not sending a judgment, but I would like to point out that I thought it was a very strange option for you to communicate that you kind of brag about the fact that you do not listen to your voice messages or read the emails provided uh as mayor. And I think that's a really weird look and I think it'd be really helpful for you guys to actually encourage people to, you know, because you're not there all the time. So you need to know what's happening in your community from the people who are interacting with the city staff and you need to be curious about it and you know and take take different perspectives seriously. So we really appreciate that. Thank you for your time today. We'll look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Thank you Mr. Sprag. So I realize Mike and Brent the question is it's going to be I mean I'm going to mess this up but here we go 45 minutes before we come to this topic. So, I would encourage you to be in charge of your own time budget. And if you'd like to speak now or speak to the point at the time, we have a public hearing and whatnot before that item. So, I I invite you to to make a choice to testify now or or in that moment. Great. Thanks, Mike. Brent. Great. So, come on up if you would, Brent. There's a red disc. Touch the white mic and it will turn green. No, that wasn't clear. Sorry.

There it is. There you go. Now you're on. Okay,

Abigail. Um uh my name is Brent Foster of Green Thumb Projects. We do green building. And uh I I I guess the the reason I'm here is to say that actually the permitting process and inspection that the city has now is pretty much the best I deal with. Imperfect. Sure. I wish everything just got issued right away, but like honestly so far better than you name the city. Uh I can look north. Uh I had uh was trying to build uh multiple rental housing units and literally almost sold the property because I was so frustrated with both the planning uh mainly the planning process, right? And and it was just I was dealing with somebody who lived in a city far away that I couldn't talk to. They didn't know the area. When they said the property lines didn't line up, I said, "Of course, that's because you're looking at GI GIS. I've got an actual property survey. You are relying on bad data." But I instead of being able to actually call them and tell them that I had to interface through some email system that had weeks of delay often between even getting a reply. Uh please don't mess it up like th this is again imperfect and I understand uh the general concept. I had a nice talk with Abigail this afternoon. I understand some of the intention behind it, but anything that opens up the city permit or plan review process to people who do not live here scares the poop out of me. Excuse my French. Uh, that will go along with the weirdness I just felt with saying the pledge of allegiance, which by the way is like the weirdest time I've ever had saying that, but for obvious reasons. Uh, aside from that, aside, uh, the value that you get from having people who live here and work here actually implement permits here is is difficult to overstate. Um,

the the city of White Salmon just hired someone. So now, like, my difference in dealing with someone on the next rental housing that I'm building versus the last is like night and day, right? I dealt with Claire night and day. Please don't don't ever send us back, right? That is a bad that is why the list of emails I have from other builders who are all probably too tired to be here tonight is like there's a lot of fear and and and for good reason. That said, you know, I had a nice talk with Abigail and I understand some of the incentive to be able to bring in people with expertise on non-standard projects, right? That to me sounds entirely different from kind of opening the door to potential residential or even standard commercial projects. And so I without uh going on too long, I would just say adding that to any context that you adopt or any potential partnership agreements. I' I've read the agreements with the other cities, it, you know, I can see it on its face. It sounds good on its face, but to the extent it opens the door to take us down another path, it's really problematic. Uh so I would say if you were going to approve the agreement simply including a caveat that said this is not to be used for residential projects. This is not to be used for standard commercial projects. Uh I don't know there other maybe other people here who have other input and context why it needs to go different than that for as as a residential builder uh someone who does some occasionally commercial small. uh that would probably meet the bulk of my concerns. But uh so with that I say thank you and also just to acknowledge that at the core of this is like when I interface with people of the city I've got multiple permits before the city right now I think six or seven couple different projects it's it it is really positive and so if you need to hear that understand that that's why dealt with city of Portland last year please uh you know thanks

you are layers ahead so thanks Brent thank you much. All right. Say hi to the wife and kids.

Um All right. That takes us Mr. Kettler, you'll be still still with us. We'll take it to the public hearing. Right. I will read a script. I call to order a public hearing for resolution 20264, a resolution adopting a supplemental budget for the '05 2526 fiscal year. Let me begin with a description of tonight's hearing. First, staff will provide an overview of the supplemental budget. Then, we will take public testimony. Then, finally, we will close the hearing, deliberate, and render a decision on the proposed resolution. Final adoption may occur in the regular portion of tonight's meeting. That is tonight's procedural introduction. If anyone has any questions about the process as we go forward, please feel free to raise your hand and ask them during the public testimony portion of the hearing. A quorum of the council is present. Do any counselors have any conflicts of interest to disclose in this manner in this matter? Seeing none, we will hear from staff.

Great. Thank you. Um so, uh this is a presentation of resolution 202604, which is a resolution adopting a supplemental budget for the current fiscal year, uh fiscal year 202526. Changes in revenue expenses or operating conditions regular require appropriation adjustments for the fiscal year. In addition, the city of Hood River's financial policies provide for city council review of the beginning fund balances as verified from the completed audit. Um the Q2 supplemental budget re resolution 2020604 makes several adjustments to the city's adopted budget for the current fiscal year. um each are outlined by fund and by the change in appropriation. For each of the city's nine funds, the differences between the budgeted and the audited beginning fund balances are updated in this supplemental budget. Several funds saw updates for how the budgeted loans are accounted for based on guidance from the completed audit for the prior fiscal year. And additional adjustments include items directed through council in this in the fiscal year to date that have budgetary impacts. The appropriation details, I'm sorry, the appropriation details are provided in the resolution. Notable appro appropriation adjustments in the supplemental budget are as followed for the general fund. An upward adjustment to the opening fund balance reflects the uh external audited bud balance. The increase in ending fund balance resulted from a combination of below budget departmental expenses uh particularly related to uh department employment vacancies, a reduced shortfall in the I'm sorry, a reduced shortfall subsidy in the building fund, unfunded loan commitments to the urban renewal agency, and savings fund considering increases in departmental expenses are related to engineering expenses to provide for a third party engineer process review contract. conted during the period and non-EP departmental expenses to account for the fire chief

search costs, community listening sessions contracted through the next door and additional bond financing survey expenses which were approved by council. The supplemental budget also reestablishes a pension reserve fund in the amount of $250,000 uh which will be utilized to support the city's public employment retirement uh obligations. the road fund, water fund, sewer fund, and storm water fund each see upward adjustments to the opening fund balances along with um some loan recategorizations or other minor appropriation corrections. The same is true for the restricted revenue fund. In the internal services fund, beginning fund balance is also adjusted upward uh in the amount of approximately $1 million. Vehicle purchases and internal fund loan budgeted and the equipment replacement fund were both below budget, contributing to much of this beginning fund balance variance. Administrative expenses in the internal services fund recognizes greater than budgeted expenses for legal services related to ongoing federal litigation as well as additional changes related to the to the audit. And lastly, interfund loans reclassify internal funal loan availability in the vehicle fund. The reserve fund creates the pension fund uh appropriation which recognizes a transfer from the general fund and also in the reserve fund the fundings to Mariposa village reflect actual advances during the fiscal year and reclassify the loan as a special payment to comply with accounting treatment as identified in the annual audit. Adjustments to special payments also provide for a $10,000 forgivable loan to the urban renewal agency which is approved by council through an intergovernmental agreement dated January 15th of this year. Finally, the fiduciary fund has a small upward adjustment to the beginning fund balance pending your review or questions regarding the supplemental

budget. the staff's recommendation for council to adopt resolution 20264 uh to adjust the adopted budget for the for the current fiscal year. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Do any counselors have questions of staff before we take public testimony? There will be another chance after hearing none. Jen, has anyone signed to signed up to speak on this matter? Abigail, do you have any? No. Is there anyone else from the audience who would like to testify on this matter?

I will now close the public hearing and open the council deliberation and that includes asking questions of staff. Anna,

um we spoke a little bit last week about um the the transfer of the uh surplus into the uh PERS fund piece and it's a $250,000 surplus and then I read through your memo which was really really helpful and I kind of thought about a little bit and when we discussed this you kind of explained to me this is the biggest bang for the buck of what to do with surplus money but I'm curious if if we were to deliberate the idea of using that surplus somewhere else, would we have to we wouldn't be able to approve this supplemental budget, right? We would have to um you'd have to come back with a a new supplemental budget if we didn't want to put that surplus into that reserve.

That's correct. Okay. And then I guess I have a question for the council of of do we all feel like that is the the best use of surplus funds? Go ahead, Glenn. I'm curious to hear if there was conversation about where else could those funds be allocated. If it wasn't here, where would they be located?

So, uh, under normal circumstances, those would just go to the beginning fund balance. They would just sit in the general fund reserve. Um as as discussed very very briefly uh there were savings in the uh general fund budget that related in a surplus an operating surplus of about $280,000. Um now that is a result of a number of sort savings. There was about a million5 uh in total amounts in the general fund budget that were budgeted and for one reason or another were not utilized. Um, of that amount, $670,000 of the of sort of the general fund savings below budget came from um the department departmental expenses. And so because there were significant employment vacancies uh and because PERS is an extremely small portion um of the uh of the largest obligation within the general fund which is payroll. Um it was the it was the suggestion of staff that a portion of the savings from employment expenditures be allocated towards an employment expenditure use. Uh so it is not a policy of the city to just spend surplus funds. Um it was a this was a recommendation from staff to take savings from a portion of the savings from employment expenditures uh that were not spent because of vacancies and put that towards an employment. If I may add one item to the specifically PERS, uh Oregon PERS occasionally uh opens up an opportunity for what's called side accounts um which in the past has had a 25% match from the state. Uh so having dollars available that we could put in a side account when that window opens uh was another important uh consideration uh because it's hard to pull money together kind of at the last minute when the window opens. having a a count of our own

that's ready so that when an opportunity like that comes up from Oregon PERS which is maybe is not uh it's not every year uh so being ready uh and having this already designated was definitely part of our thinking and we did that once before and saved ourselves a whole lot of of pain and suffering at York can you remind us the shape of that or Chris yeah under so uh under

um the the city was able to take advantage of the 25% uh matching funds from the state uh invested a million6 uh that was in the PERS well portion that was in a previous PERS reserve stabilization fund combined with 25% match from the state and created a $2 million side account uh that the city benefits from today. Um that was in 2019 and so that account currently exists. Um so just as part of that um the per stabilization reserve fund is a fund that has existed in the past and was and was depleted as a part as a portion of that investment. And over the years, I've heard so many kind of war stories about, oh my gosh, woe is us. The PERS obligation of certain municipalities or organizations is so big. It's really such a drain. And the city has really been beautifully buffered from that because of this prudent sort of war chesting that we've done. And I I I think this is just a great idea because the the growth curves are lessening, but the the the the pension obligations are enormous. So I think uh it would be super smart to uh bank against this future exposure.

Doug, I just want to echo that I agree with what the mayor just said. Just letting everybody know that. Right.

Yeah. Um the and some of this Abigail explains some of this I believe uh the recommendation was is for it to go into PERS. Uh is there any analysis or explanation beyond matching funds as to why the recommendation is for it to go into that fund for the matching accounts versus other another strategic liability that we have acrewing on the books over the long term? Yeah, I think it was um the general logic is uh in the general fund employment expenses are about 74% currently uh of the general fund of general fund revenues, right? Pension fund expenses are about 16% of payroll expenses, right? And they tend to be uh you know outside of well they tend to be the most volatile, right? because they're sort of set by the state and are a function of as much state obligations right as they are sort of city control. Um so in general given that a significant portion of the savings of the general fund was as a result of sort of uh employment rate to vacancy savings uh trying to take those funds towards an equivalent use um it towards the most volatile component of the largest obligation right seemed to make the most logical sense. Um it also sort of was a was a reserve that currently existed, right? And uh and so um its use, maintenance, right? And and sort of and and sort of how it's how it's accounted for is is pretty pretty well established within the city.

Ease of implementation is there. Um there's no other acred liability that necessarily has a match like 25%. Correct. Yeah. Not that I can. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Thanks, Anna. I'm confused. So, Abigail, your comment was that um sometimes the state offers a 25% match, but we don't we're not currently in a position where they are tax. It's just that we would set this money aside for when they do offer it and then we'll we'll provide it at that time. Is that the idea?

Yes. So, in my understanding uh is it is in the past when this is offered by the state um it is uh it's competitive, right? And it's a it's a sort of uh sort of first come first serve, right? And sort of amounts dictated by the state. They don't always offer it. We have an idea of when they're going to offer it. Like is that something they did offer one last year? You know, I don't I don't know when the I don't and they have not uh made an announcement for this coming year as of current.

Okay. Um, if I may, mayor, I uh we council also received a memo from um councelor Pollson that kind of had just other considerations for financial management and ideas of of things. Um I want to say thank you. I don't I hope you guys got a chance to read that too and I want to thank councelor Pollson for putting that together. Um, and it in reading the memo that you provided, Chris, and then that together, I kind of it just made me think a little bit more about like, you know, is this the best and highest use of our resources? And we have a bond ask that we're thinking of going out for. Um, does it make a lot of sense to say, well, we have extra money, but we're putting it towards this. I like I just want to make sure that that the decision that we're making here tonight is is goes back to our mission of um I always have to write it down because I I try to remind myself of providing essential services at the lowest possible cost to continually enhance the quality of life in Hood River. And um making sure we have a a staff that's paid is definitely part of that. So I'm not I don't think it's a bad idea and I really appreciate you walking me through that. this is the biggest bang for our buck potentially. But um I just I'm I'm wondering if we if we need a little more time to think about what our other options are. This is the only option that's being presented and how much time we have to um decide whether or not this is the supplemental budget that we want to approve.

Then Ben,

yeah, I briefly have looked at it. I have not had a ch the memo that councelor Pollson sent. Thank you so much. I've not had a chance to connect with staff about that. So, I would be open to pausing to have more time to discuss that since I haven't I'm not sure if everyone else has had a chance to check in. I just I haven't. So, I would be open to putting a pause on this. Uh I still have some other questions, but to address that one, I'd be open to waiting after I check in with them. Uh can you explain why the state of Oregon uh does this essentially why they are incentivizing municipalities to uh contribute to these site accounts?

Um I mean my understanding is and will may be able to to address this better. My understanding is that the the pers organization is generally incentivized to put as much money under management as possible. Um it helps them uh it helps them sort of match their um their immediate obligations under the PERS funds with sort of funds held. Um so the more money that PERS can put under management, the more stable it is the system is for PERS. Um and so they'll incentivize the they'll incentivize municipalities accordingly. I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

Um yeah, I'll add and see if I can say this in SE in plain language. Um, so you're um there's a funded status and you're, you know, we're at 100% funded if we've set aside as much money now to be on track given assumed uh payrolls, giving assumed investment returns that we're going to have enough money to pay out future retirement liabilities. And right now, we are less than 100% funded. And as long as you're less than 100% funded, you don't have enough money in the market generating returns. And actually, most of PERS returns are from investment returns. About 75% of uh an individual's retirement payout comes from investment returns. So if you spend time less than 100% funded, you're essentially digging yourself into a hole. And so the state uh wants to help create an incentive for um side accounts that will help the systemwide get more money under management, get more money turnurning from returns and help build that virtuous cycle that um then just helps everybody. I want have another question, but I'm not sure if anyone else has a question around PERS before I jump into something else. No. Okay. Uh, you talked a little bit about vacancies, and I I want to understand that better. So, you're you've taken money because we haven't hired, we've lost staff, whatever it may be. But if we're using that money and moving it around, does that put us at risk to have a lean team and the inability to rehire at some point?

No. Because uh this is so the the purpose of the appropriation sort of and the the budget resolution is to address that in this fiscal year, right? So this would have this has no impact as far as next fiscal year. I want to take a moment to appreciate the hard work of all the people on Abigail's team that, you know, every single one of these bar graphs with the little white space on the top means they made do without spending it all. And good job everybody. Thank you.

And there's no hint of when we'll know about the EIF. I know that councelor Cavalary already asked that one, but yeah. We don't even know if like it's a pattern every two years. I I mean I don't I if it's not any regularity I I do I do know that it did come up uh last year. We did not participate in it because there were not a plan to do so. Um and so I don't know, you know, I don't know when it will come.

I I'll just add how how the dominoes fell. The last time we did this is um I think it was back in like 2016 we were really ramping up for PERS rates uh increasing really high basically foreshadowing where we're at today right now. We're kind of cresting the hill but it was um so bad in 2016 that PERS was doing a road show um around the state kind of uh explaining that things were going to were going south. And actually, I remember Mayor Blackburn sitting uh in the Dallas city council chamber um seeing that presentation. So that message got out and city council here decided to put I believe $500,000 away uh at that time into a per stabilization fund around 2017 2018 and um it sat there and then it was yeah about a year or two later we just happened to have the chance to get in there uh and uh an EIF uh incentive fund came out from the state and we were positioned to get it because we had funds set aside And uh it was just just a funny anecdote of it was like um getting concert tickets. You uh sat there, you had had to practice how to enter your information quicker than the next person, uh wait for the clock to tick over a minute, get in there, request your money, and it was like uh allocated in the first four minutes. and remind us if the mana does not fall from the heaven again we have this money allocated for pers which we are obligated to spend on pers anyway which we have an enormous pers I mean it's then we spend

uh thank you since I didn't have a chance to check in with you can you just generally explain the um the influx or the uh you called it the upward adjustment just across the board I'm It says in several categories upward adjustment. Upward adjustment. And I'm trying to understand based off of the audit how

Yeah, absolutely. So, uh when we enter the when we enter the the budget process, we do an estimation as to what the beginning budget the beginning fund budgets will be um for each of the individual funds. Um and so, uh the audit then does a reconciliation of what was actually spent during the year. Um and that comes into a reconciliation as far as what is the ending fund bal fund balance for the previous year which then becomes the beginning fund balance for this existing year. Um so given the given the appropriation uh that sort of you know that that requires a balanced budget um you know it is it is beneficial for the the city to um slightly underestimate what the opening fund balances are so that it has a little bit of room and so that when sort of the budgets are spent right there's uh there's not downward adjustments in expenditures. Um in many cases there are also adjustments where the city has not spend certain funds. Um I will use sort of the the uh internal services fund as an example um because that was one of the larger budget adjustments. There was uh vehicles were not available to purchase that were budgeted. Loans, internal loans were not made to individual funds that were budgeted. And so because those funds were not spent um and were assumed to be spent in the budget, they then roll over to to the uh the beginning fund balance. Another large increase was in the sewer fund. um a lot of projects that had estimated spending in fiscal 25 were not spent. Um that has a larger fund balance. However, that money will be spent in this current fiscal year. Right? So that's not necessarily budgetary savings. That's more time. Right? So so budgets can change for either of those two reasons. Either timing of funds being spent um or you know funds that were not spent.

This is my last question, I promise. Um, okay. So, given that I assume you've had time to look at councelor Pulson's memo that he wrote, Yeah. what is your overall recommendation for the potential $250,000 that we were just discussing to keep it in PERS? Like it can only go there or it can go to all the other suggestions that councelor Pollson made and I have not had a chance to check in with you.

No, that's fine. Um, so, uh, the recommendations in that in, uh, in that memo I thought were prudent. Um, I discussed with Abigail and I I think at some point she'll circulate, um, with you and that that several of those suggestions are things that are either underway um, or that we would include in the budget. Um, I think separate and apart from that is this idea of addressing um, you know, sort of payroll expense. And so, uh, I would I would say, excuse me, that, um, this does not contradict anything in that memo. Um, it does not compete with anything in that memo, right? This is just sort of an an augmentation of, uh, of things that are addressed in that general concept. Um, which is that, you know, sort of the city the city needs to begin to think about how it best balances expenses with uh, revenues, right? And so being able to put away these funds now um you know sort of when it's when it's opportune is is of benefit.

Grant um just or our edification um do you provide detail on what it would mean in dollar amounts to be 100% persed? Do yeah do you have that number on top? Honestly I I do have that number but I don't have it here. Okay. So so you could provide that I will also this is this is where it gets very complicated. Yeah, that's that's

that's a that's an actuarial balance. Um so it's you know so that number sort of varies from year to year depending on um you know employment right expected retirement um you know sort of existing rates right so it's uh so it does vary from year to year um but I you know I but it's a it's you know it's best expressed as a percentage I don't know I mean I I'm guessing where 65% 75 I can't I don't remember I'd be th I'd be throwing

and then prudence uh regarding that percentage and uh where optimally the range that we ideally should be atification for councelor to council to know ideal ideal ranges quote unquote uh what makes sense for us to be at

so so certainly certainly a consideration absolutely um I think that sort of as finance director you know one of the other considerations is how do you best sort of smooth out your expectations of what the expenses are going to be sort of year-over-year. Um so one of the aspects that that Will's mentioned um you know there was a period of time when when PERS are projected to increase significantly right uh the projections with PERS are still that that rates are going to increase although not as significantly however uh it's s it it is very very dependent on investment returns at the PERS level um and given everything that's happening economically right now and all the volatility right it's it's anyone's as sort of what the returns will be and the impact to the city is in its rates, right? So, it's a it's a volatile aspect of uh the largest expense that's very very difficult to pinpoint and so putting a reserve aside from it, it really really does help um should the city need to use that reserve to sort of meet expectations or smooth out overall results.

Yeah. And just for the rest of council, um this conversation is separate from that memo that I sent to everybody. But try not to conflate the two or overlap the two. Thanks. I'm glad to hear that because I like the sound of both and like we can put this PERS investment in place and still take more of a look at the the additional ideas that you you pulled together. Uh th this would end in a motion eventually. Correct. Uh go ahead. I move that city council approve resolution 2026-04 to make appropriations and address the adopted budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year.

Moved by Stpina. Second. Second by Mitchell. Further discussion. All in favor. I I opposed. Me. Uh Cavalary votes nay. Uh chair votes I. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you.

That brings us to the second page, the consent agenda. And we that's where we have the addition. We have now two uh two OLCC uh permits on the consent agenda, which as is our custom, we will I will I will take the two permits off. So, I would entertain a motion to approve items one and three on the consent agenda. I did have a quick edit to the minutes for February 9th. Great. Go ahead.

Um, on page 20, uh, where we get to city manager comments, uh, there's a reference to the CAT licensing enforcement. Um, it says they agreed it was not an item that they did not want to move forward on, which is a double negative, so I would suggest changing it to they agreed it was an item they did not want to move forward on. Thank you, Ben. Uh, still waiting for a motion. So moved. Move to approve the consent agenda as amended by Stpina. I'll second. Second by Rivera. Uh, discussion. All in favor? I I

opposed. Chair votes eye. Motion passes. Now I guess I would entertain uh the OLCC. Let's just do them one at a time. Move to approve the OLCC permit for the Columbia Gorge Hotel. Moved by Grant. Second. Second by Anna. Uh discussion. Glattus.

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 do not 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 that we hold. And recently there was a report that I saw from the district attorney where it talks about how over 25% of all DUIs account for the cases that are prosecuted uh by our local DA which I think is troubling. The city recently adopted code allowing transportation networks and that's 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, Glattis. So, this has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Abstension. Abstain. Rivera abstains. Chair votes I. Motion passes. I would entertain the other OLCC permit motion. I move that we approve the OLCC application for Bella Enterprises, Inc. Moved by Cavaleri. Second. Second by Geeky. Uh discussion. I will abstain for the uh reasons I just listed. Uh all in favor? I I opposed. Abstension.

Abstain. Chair votes eye. Motion passes. Good job everybody. Thank you. Uh action items, building evaluation support agreement. Dustin,

thank um within your packet on page 32 to 42, uh you have what is known as a BSA, which is a building evaluation support agreement, which is been developed by the state of Oregon really in response to the ongoing need for building official plan review and inspection services. this is one of your core functions. Um, late 2024, early 25, the state came up with this agreement to standardize IGAs that make it easier for cities to share resources and other municipalities. Uh, the Basa is a voluntary agreement that we can use to request and share services between building departments for our building plan review inspection admin official services. uh and it promotes some efficiency by eliminating the need to negotiate various IGAS if we wanted to pursue them um with our neighboring jurisdictions. This mutual aid system is similar to your police and fire system that you have now allowing us to draw on resources from the area and it improves some of our access without having to add overhead and really staff up this department uh as we see um the need. The Basa doesn't obligate the city, nor does it represent really an operational significant change. Um, for the city, it's really we ba we base our program around a city employed building official with contract services uh predominantly uh through Hood River County. Uh, and we have no interest in in changing that right now. It's really intended to supplement that current relationship and and arrangement. and it adds access to about 40 other municipalities who have already joined this um and c both cities and counties throughout the state that are in this um they go from Portland to

Bend to Pendleton and everything in between. Uh and it does add options. Um right now we often hire some specialty experts um for certain things that aren't provided through the county. Geotechnical, structural engineering. This gives us options to have some of those folks on call through other city arrangements. Um we have IGAS with the state fire marshall for some of that planning work. This this opens that up. I think uh one of the things I wanted to mention is you know I see some of the comments coming in on this and I think really I take it to some extent is referendum like we'll we use uh Brent's you know he's happy with the current arrangement he's happy with the current flow and I think you're going to hear that from another folks this is not about terminating our current operational arrangement with the county I think we that's that represents a pretty significant change that wouldn't be done just a simple IGA. Um but really we we want a change of that m magnitude really has a whole lot of operational changes that we would have to go through. Um really the proposed is it's about supplementing and adding to that and giving us some access uh promoting some redundancy at key positions. Um by one person out you know the our current providers are it's a small core group of people. uh I feel inclined as an operations and manager to always have access and options and redundancy. Um it this helps us tie into that. It provides us some expertise that we don't have access to now in some subject matters that uh that we do have to employ uh and it really provides some depth to the program adding some resources to deliver plan reviews within stated time frames. Uh you have that in in the agreement. I know some concern is you

start farming this out to third parties, the time frames, you know, extend, you have additional uh or no access to these folks. You see some stated time frames in here that these folks are are supposed to deliver by with some really kind of known resources. So with that, um again, I I think the concern that we're looking at terminating the agreement is isn't that's not what this is intended to do. Our budget that we're working on and proposing next year really represents a continuation of the city building official county arrangement and this really provides some greater resources to add to the program that we have now.

Thanks Dustin. If it's all right, I'm going to encourage us to ask questions of Dustin now and then we'll hear from Mr. Kentler who I I think has built over a hundred homes in our community certainly knows the the business. Um and then we can ask more questions then. So, first before before Mike, we'll go ahead Glattus and then Anna. Thank you. So, what I think I'm hearing you say is that essentially what this does is allows for more of the specialty support that the city currently does not have, but throughout the state is where you're picking from those experts. It can be specialty support or it can just be

added support. So if I have if I have volume and I have backup, I can call on someone. If I have a complicated situation, a foundation, a hospital, a helellipad, you know, or or something of that's bigger, I can draw from a municipality that's done structured parking that's done multiple elevators, that's done multifoundations. I can draw from those experts and structural engineers like Mariposa. Now, I have a third party structural engineer that we pay because we don't have a structural engineer. Okay,

that is that I can go and get that from a municipality and have a reviewer that has those uh those credentials um rather than going third party, which I have to do now. Thank you. I I appreciate the healthcare lingo in there. Um sorry, that was that was just

No, that helped me understand. I speak that fluently. So overall, I'm hearing you say that this is going to help enhance the process, but does this um put us in any sort of risk given that you're seeking expertise maybe from other cities, counties that you know we are very unique, urban growth boundary, all those things. Like does this put us in any sort of potential risk is one of my questions. It shouldn't because even though we're unique, you know, the state's building program uh was established 1973 just like state's planning program it is relatively standardized. So

it is the although we implement a planning program, we are implementing the state's planning program. Although we have a building department and program, we are implementing the state's program. So there is a lot of crossover between the two. um we are unique, but we are essentially supposed to be following the same law. Um and that's intended to help you know what what the state didn't want to do is have one builder go to a municipality and all of a sudden the rules change dramatically when they go from one place to another because of local amendments. This that exposure of unique planning aspects shouldn't be as great when it comes to the building code. the Oregon specialty code, the residential specialty code. They're essentially they're supposed to be like for like as we travel from municipality to municipality.

Okay, two other questions. Does this potentially extend any sort of timelines that could add additional time costs to folks that are to our builders? It's not intended to do so. So you see in, you know, if I if you see the dates and turnarounds that are in there, I don't have any stated dates right now. Um, so it says 10 days for a residential project, 15 days for a commercial. I don't have any agreed upon time frames with the county right now. So

uh it's certainly not intended to to do that. If I'm backed up and I have plans that are having problems or complexities, I I hope this would be an opportunity to reduce that and turn things over faster. Broadening my resource pool is not intended to protract the time frame. Right. Right. I'm not a builder and so I'm just trying to think of, you know, if if this were to happen, would there be some sort of process or have you discussed some sort of process if there is a timeline extension? like how would you operationalize that?

How would I operationalize a timeline extension? I I really would have to track it. I mean, at this point, I think the best thing we could do is build a relationship with one of these municipalities and have that. So, just as we do with the county, we have an IGA with the county. We operationalize that through relationship and time. I would have to do the same thing with someone else. So I think one of the things that we would hopefully glean from this is if we use some different opportunities I would see who do I like how they operate and do I have good responses and what technology or process can we learn from and those that I think are a bad fit. Okay.

So the idea of you know inspectors I think that's something totally different. Um I think it's rare that we're going to ever be looking for someone to import an inspector from out of town. I think that's probably the last thing we would be doing. Um, plan reviewers, I'm going to see who turns these things around fast and, you know, do we have good responses or is this thing miserable and is it making everyone miserable because we're not we're a bad fit. I think that's or we're going to learn something to say, wow, these guys do a great job. We should be doing this here every time when it's our process. I think I don't want to just say trial and error, but it's going to be experience and and building relationships just as we do here at home.

Okay. I want to thank Mr. Foster for his comments earlier and Mr. Cutler, thank you for being here and for uh I know you're going to give some input. I I was curious to get your perspective around his comment where he mentioned that this not be used for residential and commercial building. I

think that's what he does. That's the I think his concern is that um his experience with third party out of town and white salmon which is still in a lot of ways Hood River um the same provider is the provider over there um it just has concerns about that experience. So I think a big piece that we have is you know we have in-house building official we have local like our program it's authority it's official is is housed here and that was very intentional for us to not let that be out of town. So even if you have technical review issues you do have a point person here within the city that makes that can have discretionary conversations that can have has local exposure and build relationship. It's not someone fully removed and detached. I think that is the pain.

I don't think any residential project is they're not all the same. Small ones can be technical. I have 129 dwelling units that is a highly technical spot. Right now it's a residential project. Um between hotels and retrofits. I I don't think there's a you know there's sometimes basic commercial but I think you know when you look downtown and you look at our buildings retrofitting seismic retrofits multi-story mixed occupancy I think we get into a lot of complex situations right that requires it requires professionals on both sides and it requires discretion on both sides and people willing to work together and I think that's it's it's hard to substitute the human factor there and I think that's what you concern is about dehumanizing it and being removed from the community of of people that you work with and that again is relationship building. However, sometimes we have to have conversations in our relationships. So,

you hear that? Go ahead.

I just want to thank all the builders that are here today. It's so important for you to be here and and I appreciate you doing so. We rely on you, right, to help build homes for our community. this is the most expensive place to live in the state and how do we bridge that partnership with you? Also, I appreciate you being here. Please know that you can contact any one of us like what is working well, what is not. We want to do everything that we can policywise to support all of you so that you can keep building here in our community. So, I really thank you for being here and please continue to join us and please feel free to reach out to any one of us and either any one of us would be happy to sit down with you. Thank you.

That thank you Glattus for saying that. This is right on. Um I had a couple of similar questions. So um I guess as I was reviewing this, the first question was why would we want to participate in this statewide arrangement and I was a little concerned about um potential liabilities too just because like you know Glattus was saying we're in the Gorge Scenic area and there's nuances between um between jurisdictions I would think. Plus the the contract has requesting party and um service provider. So I didn't know if like your thought was well we can always when you know in your spare time reciprocate and provide uh services to other jurisdictions. And then I was thinking there's probably a lot of small cities like ours that don't have the bandwidth to be um proactive. So this is kind of a silly agreement because it's going to be a whole bunch of requesters and not enough providers. So wouldn't it be more beneficial like under the urban renewal agency we have a list of qualified providers and maybe um if you are looking for support maybe there's you know you're under this agreement it looks like you're going to be potentially paying there's the consideration piece where there's a percentage option or an hourly option. So when you do outsource the work that the planning department or building department would be needing under this agreement, um you you'd be paying for it anyway. And you're saying that's one of the justifications you had for this was potentially, you know, you pay a third party or an outsource for for some consultation on on some things anyhow, but why not have that list of qualified people locally that you can, you know, can can converse with when we need this backup? That's my first question. Well, one, it's probably very little if uh ever going to be utilized for planning. So, issues with urban growth, I mean, it's it's not a planning document. So, I'm not going to outsource

any planning stuff through this. It's it's really building. It's all building. So,

uh issues of zoning, EFU, scenic area are really non issues to that. They're really all agnostic to the bu to buildings. So this is structural technical building aspects. Uh I would I I will be shocked if we're ever not a requester. And so we are one of those small municipalities looking for probably a larger agency with with more headroom and more bandwidth that has space within the volume. So there's 240 municipalities within the state. 50 of them are above 10,000. So, I mean, you're looking at a pretty small pool. When you look at the BAS group, you are likely going to have a small number of large agencies that are really the ones that have the bandwidth and the headroom that are looking to fill their operational gaps. So, when things slow down and you have employed 100 building inspectors or plan reviewers, you need to fill their time. So, th those are the groups that are going to be looking to take um take work on. So, and us 190 or the the smaller agencies, we're the ones that are going to be looking for that performance. So, am I going to have free time? Likely never. And nor do I am my 1.5 full-time equivalents that work here in the building department uh never have free time. So um however if they do it there'll be either catastrophic or it'll be you know opportunity for them that that is does not present itself. So

um you mentioned earlier that this uh program was implemented in 24 25 like a year and a half or two years ago. Um why why are we just hearing about it now? Like what um what what's the purpose of the timing?

It was just December 24 when the state started ramping it up. Uh, I didn't trace it back to a house bill. Um, but I believe there's probably some push from the Oregon or the the governor's office as a part of housing accountability and protection to move this along. Um, HAPO, which the is a housing and uh production office, is a joint office between the state's building department uh and DLCD. they have really started to push the state um as as resources and they're looking at opportunities where roadblocks within within the process of housing coming out of the ground. Sometimes it's it's access. We had a we had a pretty difficult time trying to find a building official stick with them. The opportunity to find qualified and employable uh inspectors and plan reviewers is rare. That's a rare it it it's hard to get access to those folks. So, this is the opportunity for the state to start spreading those out. So, even our own county, you know, they they work with Wasco County even for certain plumbing and electrical and they they are plumbing and electrical folks and and we have to rely on other agencies to to get the job done here. This just widens the net. So I think the state acknowledged in 2024 and 25 it is the state's building program. It did have some opportunity and some authority to do this. So we had looked at IGAS. I mean we have IGAS that are oneoff. It's really the state that had the authority to say we're going to open this up and we're going to set a standardized agreement and use some of its powers from the DOJ to say this is this is going to be okay. We're going to allow this to happen. So, is this kind of the easy button as opposed to revisiting the IGA that we have with the county or maybe negotiating additional an always revisit that um because it's a little different arrangement. You know,

we work with them all the time every single day. I don't see this as a daily operation. This is a this is more of a again a supplement to that. So, we have we have an ongoing operation with them that is that is really consistent. there's really doesn't begin and end anywhere. Whereas this I think is this is we call someone and say do you have time to review some plans for me it's more intermittent not ongoing. So and then Grant

just two quick comments for me. Uh I just wanted to thank Brent Foster for coming. You know shot me an email and texted a bunch earlier and we really listen. We we really value when people can do this. uh you know if you can't be here in person we read all the emails Jen provides us you know input and whatnot. So thanks to those of you for showing up and making comments today. It does help our job quite a bit. Um also want to acknowledge that you know as Dustin mentioned we ask a lot of our planning department. I remember probably the first uh you know work session when I joined council Abigail noting well all the critical projects are for planning again right so um I I can see that there there will be times you know where you're stretched a little thing where you're going to need some assistance and um I think that this this you know this base gives you a little bit more options and I think uh you've made clear uh that that you know the valuable feedback from the building community would be considered if you know anything were to adversely uh artificially length in a timeline or or or draw things uh you know a little bit outside the lines uh compared to expectations. So um just appreciate that you're stretched so thin always and looking for creative ways to to mitigate that.

Thanks. Um related to that question, I don't have any context or information from folks builders outside in other communities that I've used based on um how successful that process is. Um so without that context, how are we supposed to really evaluate how well this new uh program is working statewide? Um so have having some more of that I think would be helpful. uh it being so fresh I mean literally getting introduced in December and October of 2024 25 it's really it's it's unknown now the concept of IGAS between cities uh is very normal again we operate with that with a county um this just makes it a kind of a standardized approach so whether we're going to know whether it's a nightmare or is it you know is it plus minus indifferent we're going to have to try it before I know. So, um, that's that's really the case. I mean, I've used other municipalities. I've had mixed success in them. Um, so this is this is the opportunity to to expand that.

That's a it's a bold ask of builders to uh to ask on an unknown, unproven program. Um the the the next question that I would have is um on this is given the structure of this agreement uh how does this agreement differ from the structure that the city had with CLA the last agreement that was similar to this?

So uh CLA this is this is all municipalbased and it's all oneoff the CLA arrangement was a full program. So every operation from intake to output and every point in between was that this this has doesn't replace the city's program doesn't replace city's building officials plan reviewers or any of the infrastructure around it. The CLA program was 100% operated by that. So that's the big difference. So

is that that the only difference? Uh I think that's the major difference is that was a all the program was incorporated in a third party. We operate the program with city employees now. So in terms of the other credentialed uh officials, you know, we're not just asking anyone to do it. All the agencies that are involved are credentialed programs through the state. So they have personnel, they are obligated to have training and credentials within it. So, it's not we're turning them over to good luck. I'm in the I'm I'm looking and I'm asking someone to perform.

Thanks. Forward to hearing feedback on. Shall we have Mike come up now? Thanks, Mike, for being with us. Come on up, please.

Uh Mike Keller. Uh yeah, thanks for the time. Uh my questions were really simple before this started and now they got really complex uh because of the feedback and and so forth. Yeah, I I think uh at a base level, we understand that this isn't uh a quick fix to get rid of the county or anything like that. You're going to hear a lot of feedback of that, which is probably the surface level piece. Uh I think what I'd ask of of you all to really understand is does this pigeon hole us down the road? Well, yes, today's presentation says this is not our goal. This is not our intent, but will it and what uh I guess um assured we have that down the road this this inter agency agreement that we're going to have will it potentially run us into an outfall that we'll no longer be able to come to an agreement with the county and then in turn we'll be here in a year or two years and saying well we couldn't come to resolution with the county because of this because we used the funds from the building department which are dedicated funds now we don't have the budget to meet the end goal here. Uh I think that would be my only like question that I'd really point out at this point because some of the stuff got addressed because there was stuff that's talked about, well are we going to use it for planning? Are we going to use it for building? The comment is we can't use it for planning because they're dedicated funds for building only. But then it keeps getting brought up that we'll use it for planning to take off the workload because the planning department is so overwhelmed. So if this is a planning issue, then red flag right there out the gate that this can't be used for planning because it's a building department agency only and those are dedicated funds. So, I think those are the questions that I think I want you guys to fully understand before you just dive in and say, "Yeah, let's do this. This is great." Have we actually looked at the long-term outfall that this is going to cause for our city? And are we pigeonholing ourselves into, "Yep, we're in this agreement. We've dedicated these funds. Now, we're using these funds. Oh, there's these eight agencies that have figured out the system. They're the only ones that going to be able to work the system and work this inter agency agreement. They're the ones that are

going to have success." So, now we're limited to picking only these eight agencies. and we've now, you know, pigeon told ourselves to not be able to uh continue to work with the county or work locally or actually hinder our building department to be hinder to be less successful. There we go. So, that would be what I'd want to make sure you guys understand before you say yes, let's do it. Have we looked at the long-term outfall? So, thanks. Any questions for me? Thank you, Mike.

Yeah. Yeah. Stay right there. Anybody? I feel like I always have questions for builders. So, I want to echo um Councilwoman Rivera's comment earlier of if we ever have an opportunity to sit down with any of you all, please reach out to us because I feel like I get to learn something every time I I do talk with you all. Um, I also appreciate the um the forwardlooking your your insight about, you know, if we if we were to approve this kind of contract going forward and the city started to rely on outsourcing, you know, building inspectors or whatever it would be. Um, then does that does that create some kind of a wedge between the relationship of of the county and and again not having um local resources here that that would be available to builders to talk to? And um I just I I wish that I had a better understanding too of like what are we doing in our community at the county level, at the city level to to bring in um this expertise or or grow it locally so that we would have um these resources here. But I my feeling is just I I prefer to have these resources locally. Um yeah, that's

Yeah. And and to clarify to that, I would say I don't necessarily say that this is a bad thing. It could be a really good thing for the community. I just think if if you guys are asking those questions, then maybe it's not a good thing at this moment and it could be in the future when you know those for fact. So thanks. Just want to not a question for you. Just wanted to speak uh to that. Um if you could forward sit down. Yeah. Yeah, you can hang you know. Oh, I will everybody's got back problems today.

Uh Glad I I will take you up on that sometime when the future when I got some free time. I will give you a presentation what it's like to go from start to finish on developing and building in Hood River and the problems and and currently in housing. So, I'll take you up on that. Yeah, I would just like to say I I I think we want to have local resources do this. I think it's incredibly hard to staff given the fact that we have such high housing costs here and we've lost a lot of city employees because they can't afford to live here, that kind of stuff. So, I I think this is all related to that. Um or if we want to discuss adding to the budget bunch of money to hire more people for the building department and pay them a wage where they could live here, I'm all for that, too. But I kind of feel like Dustin and and staff are are in a in a tough position because of that. And I know like in previous years we we've run up against that before where it's like, "Oh gosh, we'd like to have somebody here. No one no one's applying because it's not enough money because they can't find somewhere to live." So I think this is kind of like related to the housing crisis kind of stuff.

Um Dustin, thank you for all the work that you do. Really appreciate it. Someone here said it. I don't know if it was Abigail, but I heard it like this is a pilot. So, I feel like there's a 30-day like we can opt out of this. We can learn as we go along because I know that you are stretched very thin and so is your team. Um, so I just wanted to mention that and and yeah, echo the sentiment of wishing that we had more of these local resources, but the reality is that we don't for a lot of the reasons that councelor Stapina mentioned. And so I just wanted to make that comment that this is a pilot. We're figuring it out. Hopefully it is to enhance and to provide additional support to you and your staff. And um sounds like we might have another comment from an additional builder.

Great. Go ahead and turn on the microphone, would you, Mr. Sullivan? and white partic.

Okay, great. Tell us your name and tell us what you'd like us to know. Billy Sullivan and I'm a builder in town and I've done a lot of work in the Heights uh commercial storefronts and also recently finished um title 17 cottage uh development those four cottages uh middle housing code and I would have probably a lot more work in the heights if it wasn't for Claire and Claire basically made it possible for me to work and So, we're the builders are a little sensitive to new agreements and we really don't want to go back to where the third party out of out of the area uh plan reviews and inspections and so we're here voicing our concerns. It's it's uh the language in the agreement is is a little confusing and we we need some more clarification and it it seems like there should be some sort of protocol when the city needs to go to a third party. It seems like um at first I'd like to say the county is extremely capable. They have engine they have I I've never come into a situation where they've needing people There's already a system that exists. If the county cannot do their work, if they if it's beyond their capabilities, they can go to a different place. They know they can go to the state or they can go to a different municipality. That happens still. That happens all the time. It and and and it continues to happen. Um we have a extremely capable county building department. They're fair. They can they answer the phone. You go up there. They work your problems out. You go to a third party, even Gresham, and you want an inspection the next day, good luck. That does cost money. It might not cost the city money,

plus the builder's money. It might be two days, it might be 3 days. Here, we can walk in and if we need an inspection that day, they'll do what they can to get us an inspection, which means an immense amount. And these people are very bright that run that run the county. Um it it if anything the contract with a county it it's they have a we we the city is operating on a I believe it's a one-mon contract if the if dusted and the city is is not planning on changing anything. Why not give them a year contract or a better contract because how it's very difficult for them to run their personnel. They don't know within the end of the month if the city's going to, you know, pull the contract on them. The the county is very stable. It stabilized the building. The buildings know what to expect. The builders know what to expect. It's been working fantastic really. And and you know, if we do enter into this country, it'd be nice to talk about this this agreement with the state, but if we do, it just seems like there should be some sort of protocol. If you're going to go to Gresham or Bend or whoever to ask for um assistance, well then there should be a steps to, you know, for you to go out to have to uh satisfy that. So, you know, I I understand I really understand how all this works and I think

I think the agreement is probably it's just the next step, but it has been going on. different municipalities of trade labor and I mean I know I think the county manages Wasco County they used to do white salmon this is all before an agreement like that it hap it's been happening it's fine and it works thank you so thank you Pasquali would you like to speak come on up sir thank you you're good you're green green go

yes good baron own. Um, I'm a builder in town and um, the bad old times when we farm things out like Claire, those were 10 years where the builders paid the price for having to wait for inspections, having to wait for documents, having to wait for second and third and fourth reviews. That doesn't happen in town. In town, we bring things in. If there's a problem, they call and we resolve the problem instantaneously. They follow the law. They they they're insisting that state codes are followed, but they don't insist that these things take time and effort. Dustin said, "Well, gosh, we can try this because we won't know until we try. All the trial and error and all the tribulations are usually paid by the builders. And at the end of the day, when the builders can't bear it, they're paid by the homeowners or the people paying for the projects. So if affordability is a concern, this new shiny thing that's being proposed is just a new shiny thing. We have a great supply of of building officials and building um um expertise in town right up the street. And and if anything, if you want to make this better, as Billy suggested, give them some slack. Things like this doesn't create any security for them. In fact, if anything, I spoke to one of the

one of the people up there today said we feel unappreciated. They may feel unappreciated by city hall. I can tell you they're appreciated entirely by the building community. And once in a while, as I offered in my in my written testimony, get a bunch of us together instead of consultants from out of town. We are your free consultants. We are part of this community. We'd like to contribute. You folks spend your evenings giving of yourselves and your time because you want to contribute. Let's work together. in this community. We've got a lot of skills. We've got a lot of passionate people. Let's use them, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Pasquali. Like like many things, this ends with a motion if we wanted to. How we doing,

Lis? I feel like I am not ready to move forward while I understand this is a good idea. Um and I understand how this is intended to enhance overall. Um I would love an opportunity to have further discussion with any of you that are available uh just to better understand. I'm not stating this is a bad idea, but I feel like I just I I need more information to better understand. Thank you, Clattis. Anna,

um I also would like a little more time to have some context for this. I feel like um I I appreciate the comments of the builders and I would very much like to have an idea of what our arrangement is with the county before um before I I know that we need to supplement that. So, I' I'd like to hold off. Ben, uh, this is a question for staff, but is there any time-sensitive nature in terms of having to sign this and potentially missing out on an opportunity? I'd also maybe would like to hear Dustin address some of the things that were if you had any feedback regarding to some of the comments that were just made.

Um, I have lots of feedback, but um, I don't know if this is the time or place where off the cuff marks back to the planning side of things. This is by no means there's zero planning involvement. It is exclusively and I think I mentioned this, it is exclusively dedicated to the building code services program. So terms of crossing over um there's there's no supplementing the planning department through this. I have staff that work both sides. They're not just all of a sudden one building. Uh our program is set up and budgeted to respect the restricted funds. So we that that part again it's really agnostic to the planning department. So even though the planners are very busy um this doesn't do anything for that. However we do review building permits we do cross over we do admin support uploads. So you know having that even down to the administrative support can be useful. Um certainly I appreciate the concern about uh losing some access to your inspectors that's fine and sense of urgency. Um, no. Just not doing it just takes it out of the takes it out of the program for now and and I don't have it. So, I will continue to contract with third party because there's things that I still have to do and I have contracts now. It's just not going to be municipal employee. So

to some extent it's like every other business but uh there's there's there's very strict sort of not limits or caps but the the building department needs to pay for itself but we we really do not staff the building department to have someone sitting there hoping that an applicant comes in. So then if three applicants come in on a Thursday morning, then there's it's a hurry up and wait situation when the economy absolutely ground to a halt in like 2009. We had to lay people off like there's nobody coming in and the taxpayers are paying for them. So tolerating the fluctuating workload is a very big challenge for this function. Um so nobody had said that yet. So I felt that was a useful thing to to add. Glattus,

I I just want to add that if again not opposed to this, but I'd love to have an additional conversation with you and if this is something that we could revisit. I believe our next meeting is going to be a big one and busy maybe two meetings from now. Like does that seem feasible to folks? Um if not, you can all make a decision. I will I will abstain and I'll still follow up with you. Yeah. Next meeting, the planning department will be busy.

Doug, I trust the staff's recommendation here. I also trust the feedback from the the builders and uh I don't see a need to withhold this, but sounds like others do and look forward to more discussion on it. Right.

Having gone through the CLA process, um I will not be making this motion in any way, shape, or form. Um this is a new pilot project uh going through this as a test subject uh and what have you in introduces a level of risk on our local building community uh with um unforeseen exploratory routes uh which they have no no vision of no no pathways through at this time. and we and we have no uh additional um uh guidance or clarification on how this is performing in really anywhere else in the state, how well it's going. So, I can't make the motion.

I think I count four nos, which sort of seems like let's not sorry, hold on. Let's not make a motion or you you know, we can always find out what people think by by voting. I would like if if we're going to decide to to not make a motion to give some direction to staff like here's what we would need to to want it back again or or are we ready to say you know no nay never so go ahead Gl

yeah I it is not that I don't trust you I fully do uh I just don't fully understand some of the county pieces and how that plays into this given some of the comments. So for me, it's not a no. It's just I want to understand to be able to vote. So I just want to speak for myself. It's nothing against you. I appreciate all that you do, all of it. I just don't fully understand some of these components men.

Um I agree. I'd like to know more about like the current process and think that's been mentioned, but also um I think it would be nice. I think Billy said it to have like some sort of you know if the weight at the building department is this long then like some kind of parameters to like using this or if there is no specialty person in the county then we go to this thing. Um, I mean, I I think that that's how it worked, but I think from what I'm hearing, it it would put a lot of people's minds at ease to have like that formally stated.

I want staff to have adequate direction. I don't hear anyone making a motion. I don't make motions. Anna, um I move that we direct staff to provide additional information about the county IGA and how this particular um agreement would would dovetail with that uh before we listen to before we consider this again and maybe we could do that at the first April meeting. Moved by Cavaleris. Can I just add a little piece like the protocol piece of the third party? I think that would be important to stand with additional ideas on language for protocol of when it would be implemented. I like that plan.

Still moved by Cavaleri. I'll second. Second by Rivera. This is you know what we we're trying to get there. Let's not move too quick. Uh discussion on this. Do is this is this what we want? Do we all kind of understand what what the question is here? Ben, I don't know that I would necessarily need a protocol because I do like having staff have that agency and not making this potentially more burdensome for staff, but I'm open to exploring what that might look like. But, um, I just wanted to state that I'll take the same as Ben. Thank you. uh discussion grant.

I look forward to to more input from our building community on whatever discussion we have around this further discussion. All in favor? I I opposed. N uh five eyes. Stina votes nay. Uh, chair votes time. Motion passes. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for coming.

All right. Where are we? It's not really 7:30. It's really 8:30 and we started at 7. So, we're going to take a we're going to take a break. We're going to take a fivem minute break. Good job, everybody. All right.

Thank you everybody for your earnest work and hard pondering and balancing and counselors for your service. If it was easy, you know what they say. All right, we're going to kick off again. Abigail, are we ready? Okay, I think we've accomplished action item one. We now have safe routes to school T-Mobile hometown grant sponsored by T-Mobile.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh the safe routes to school uh coordinator Megan Ramy brought this opportunity to us. Uh let us know that she is willing to do the heavy lifting of uh writing the grant. Uh but uh nonprofits and individuals can apply. that's the city that would need to apply. So, looking for your permission to apply for a grant that would uh possibly provide up to $50,000 and those uh funds could be used for the projects that were listed in the packet on page 43. So, Glattus, I'm sorry, were you done? Nope, that was it. Just uh can I answer any questions?

Thank you. So, there's a there's a list on page 43. My question, yes, full support. Um but how like help me understand the acuity of these projects or what would the 50,000 fund like a little bit of all of them only one or two like help me understand that

the understanding is that these would um because most of these projects what you see here represented is mostly thermoplastic um some restriping the these are not major projects that would c you know this is not um a bridge across Indian Creek parallel to 12th This is these are small projects. So when the safe routes to school team um looked at our projects, they prioritized these because they're easy to achieve. They're not tied to other projects. Um and these are um work that we can already do. We wouldn't need to contract out or have, you know, a big um contractor. So these felt like these were very easily achievable, which is an important criteria for the T-Mobile grant. It requires that projects be shovel ready and would be um you know soon to be implemented. So these have a short timeline and are fairly simple. The other thing I would say is when we look at safe routes to school projects as a general rule we have prioritized those closest to the school and then we have moved out. So we don't have projects that are um really far from school. Some of these would uh be further than mo our other projects have been but that's because we've tried to start school centered and then moving out. So that's another piece of criteria when we look at those projects. Mhm.

Anna, I think we're like the question sisters. We have the same You're always thinking of what I'm thinking. Eternally curious. I appreciate that. Um, yeah. I I'm curious if that those were one of my questions of of the 10 projects listed in the memo. Are they all shovel ready? And what can we really do with 50k? And um, but you you've kind of addressed that. If awarded, does the city receive all of the 50,000 or is there some allocated to the school district? And you said something at at your presentation where an individual cannot apply for this grant but an entity can. Why is it the city instead of the school district?

Because the projects uh proposed here are infrastructure projects which as part of the safe routs to school program the city's responsible for infrastructure. The school district is responsible for education and programming. Okay. Um great. Okay. Thanks. That was my question. Oh wait. And if awarded, does the city receive the whole 50,000 or And does it all go to thermoplastic or can it help pay for Adam's people? Um, that is a great question. I think we have traditionally um done that. Our safest school projects have generally just been the supplies and the city has absorbed the labor costs. And so to say it in like an awkward way, sorry everybody, like does this give us the money so then we have to do stuff that's less important than the stuff we wish they could be doing?

I don't think so. So, the city um in the last several years of budgets, we've set aside $50,000 for safe cuts to school projects. This would um free up those dollars to do something else. Great. Thank you. Um we need a motion, right? Yes, please. I move to approve the city's application for the T-Mobile Hometown Grant. Moved by Gakei. Second. Second by Pollson. Discussion. All in favor? Yes. I opposed. Chair votes eye motion passes. Dustin Planning Commission. Thank you, Abigail.

Thank you, mayor. As a routine part of your business, uh you are here to appoint uh planning commission members. We have one vacancy current uh on that planning commission. We had the opportunity to interview three candidates uh which uh two of you volunteered, councelor Stpina and Cavaleri. Uh we have a recommendation to appoint Tina Mcnary to the planning commission. Just so you know, uh we have next two uh positions will become through the rotation in October. Um so we'll continue to advertise. We have a motion to appoint so fit. Thank you. Any comments from the the gracious volunteer counselors who did this? Uh go ahead, Grant.

Sure. uh would would she continue to serve on URA as well, serving dual roles, or would she drop URA and serve just on She mentioned she was open to to dropping the role. So, she said this was a priority um for her disposition. So, it would really be up to you. Not asking if it's correct. Just asking if if that would be a thing or not. I I have no authority over that. So, I think she she expressed in during her interview her willingness to surrender the act position. I think she more or less said that if there are other people that want to do it, she's happy to to step aside. If there are not, she's happy to continue to serve. Doesn't Kate Hoffman serve on both? She serve she planning.

Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. Um, and there's uh supposed to be at minimum one planning commissioner on the uh advisory committee. And so Kate fulfills that role, but there's nothing um prohibiting additional. Um if I may, mayor, I I just wanted to say thank you to the folks that um that applied. It was a really difficult decision and um I I think that if we could encourage Mary Alice Winters or Lars Ryerson to encourage um to apply again or or uh be involved with the city in any other capacity, we'd be lucky to have them. But all three candidates were amazing. It's nice to have such a great pool of folks to choose from.

Go ahead, Glaz.

So, given that we're going to have some positions that are available, do we um like do you reach back out to the applicants as like alternatives like, hey, we interviewed you. We would love to have you join. Here's the two positions that are opening up. Uh we have in the past uh especially when we had multiple people um be like there was a run where we couldn't get anyone to apply. Um but certainly um we've had applicants actually that are on now that weren't initially selected that we went out and reached back out to. So um we will likely do that just based on this experience. I would entertain a motion, Amanda. Yeah, absolutely. I'm just I driving the bus. Go ahead, Amanda.

Um, I guess I would just ask Doug and Anna did the interviews. Is that right? Was there like something that I know? Well, I know we went through this with before when we had the limitations and is that the main reason that Tina's being um per or s what's the word? Oh, commended or like um what was there something that stood out about her as opposed to the other candidates? Um yeah, they were all great. Like what stood out?

Yeah, I I mean obviously her her previous uh tenure with the planning commission was positive. Uh she was very effective in that role. So that went into the decision. Um she's highly qualified in terms of her her job experience, her her college experience and also her dedication to time. Um you know we got some questions from the others about like you know how much time has this taken everything and Tina's been um very dedicated and you know comes to city council meetings all that sort of stuff and it's just kind of present. So, I think that that went into our decision, too, is just like her availability and being willing to be uh you know uh kind of at at everything um in addition to her her qualifications, her job experience in her previous tenure. Anything to add?

Yeah, I I um I have to say that again all three were were pretty impressive. Um but I really what stood out to me about Tina was her masters in urban planning and co-housing projects. um her her experience in co-housing projects um that she you know when we asked her about you know what what do you see as the relationship between the planning commission city council and staff she talked a lot about collaboration which I you I always appreciate hearing um that you know there's collaboration between the planning commission and the city council and the staff role is implementation and um she said that you know uh most important role of hood river planning commission was maintaining livability to manage growth and I just I her her responses were very insightful. Um, but I I have to say the other candidates had really great experience and it it was a really hard choice, but I um I don't I don't think we could have gone wrong with any of the three, but we're lucky. I think Tina would be excellent.

I move to appoint Tina Mcnorthy to the Hood River Planning Commission. Move by subpoena. Second. Second by Mitchell. Discussion. All in favor? I. Yes. I opposed. Chair votes. I must passes. Go bond planning.

Thank you, mayor and city council. Um tonight we have the next step towards um potentially taking a bond to the November 2026 ballot. Um, similar to earlier tonight, I'm just going to set the table a little bit and then hand over to Jake Wagler with um, practice uh, to help walk through some of the uh, options we put together for you for um, uh, outreach and engagement um, approaches. Um so uh this goes back to your um council uh work plan and actually in some ways goes all the way back to 2022 affordable housing strategy which recommended um using a bond uh to support housing uh this year. Um but uh we had a a primer on bonds. We went through all the different projects we might uh support with bonds. uh did some polling, additional meetings, whittleled down to um the police station uh renovation and also a housing bond um on January 26th. And now we're coming back to you with okay, we have our potential targets. What would an information uh and engagement um approach look like? And so we have uh um practice folks and I have been meeting with vendors um having uh discussions putting getting quotes and putting together logical uh groupings of uh services that would be needed for um different approach strategies. And so what we have for you tonight is uh a basic approach, a medium approach, and a high approach. and to give you the elevator pitch for each one. The basic approach is to give you the a least cop cost option to run a professional um uh you know a professional campaign. Uh it's essentially a one-way communication tool um that reaches folks that um are normally engaged with the city um and it just gets the bare minimum information

out there um but also costs the least amount of money. the uh medium approach has much more of a two-way um two-way engagement uh approach, particularly as we um focus the housing bond. There's a lot of work that could be done to refine what a housing bond looks like. And so uh the medium approach has some um more uh yeah two-way engagement. And then uh number three, the highest cost option is um really gives us the the very best um what we think is our very best chance of approval of the bond. Um it's the highest touch kind of most professionally supported option that um has the greatest amount of communication push um out to folks who may not already be engaged with the city um know about our commun communication channels. It's reaching that low engagement voter who may go out there and vote in November but isn't going to be maybe paying attention until we sort of get their attention. Um, and uh, the third option gives us the resources to reach um, kind of that most wide broadcast range. Um, and so with that basic introduction, I'm going to hand it over to Jake to get a little bit more into the details. Jake,

thanks Will. Um, hi everybody again. My name is Jake Wagler. I'm a partner at PRAIS. We're an Oregon based firm. Uh I'm here in Portland and we work with a variety of local jurisdictions around the state to help tell their story, engage the community and prepare for uh to refer a bond to the public. And

I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt. There's just a housekeeping. Our screens are usually on tonight. They are not on. Is there no present? Is there anything I should do? Okay. The we we think the screens are not working and so sorry for the interruption. Carry on, Jake. Thank you. No trouble at all. Um and we are currently working with the city of Tigard on their police facility blonde which will be on the May ballot. So lots of fun lessons to be learned there. Um so today if I can share my screen if that works and I can get that is we will we can we have a shared very large screen. We just have to turn our heads as you can probably see.

Perfect. Um and then if I can remember how to do a normal uh slideshow. There we go. Um, can everybody see that? Okay. Yes. Perfect.

Brilliant. Um, so as will teed up for me as I go through this presentation, I think it's helpful to think about this in a couple ways. One would be the three phases of the bond measure referral. The first would be the work we'd be doing from now through the end of May, which we would call the design phase. This is a chance where we would engage the community and stakeholders to kind of better understand their priorities and their understandings of what the city needs to be focused on with this measure. And then as we kind of finish the ingredients, we bake that cake and present it to the public in June and July. That's an opportunity to kind of say this is what we're going forward with. This is the best approach and this is why we're proposing to put this in front of the voters. But that still also gives us some time for some feedback and to make sure that we have real confidence that this is something the voters will support. And then that final phase of course is happens after that referral which would happen in late July or early August by the council. That changes the dynamics a bit. Um your staff becomes more restricted in what they can talk about at that point. They become under secretary of state's restrictions around what public employees can say about a proposed ballot measure. But there are still things that can be said. And so we'll talk a little bit about kind of what that scope would look like. And then as we'll also reference, we're kind of offering you three options. One would be the pure basic model. This would be kind of a just the facts, kind of getting basic information out there and hopefully uh people like what they hear. The medium would be kind of a more middle path, allowing for that information sharing, but also more back and forth and more context and kind of nuance the conversation as I hope will be obvious as I go through the specific elements. And then of course is the high option, which would be, you know, let's do everything. Let's buy the Cadillac with all the cool accessories on it because we want to make absolutely sure that the public is ready to take on this when we put it in front of them. So, as I move forward to the next slide, I'll say we get back to some graphics cool graphics a little bit. I did not do this because as you'll see later, a lot of the rest of the presentation is about the timing of the proposals and the

options. But in this case, we're looking at things that will be staying in place throughout the conversation. And so when you talk about the basic model, these are ongoing services throughout all three phases. Uh we would provide project management. We want to provide translation services. We know so much of the community, our Spanish language, um and Latino communities that we want to make sure that they are fully included in the conversation, making sure that the city's website stays upto-date um so that we can continue to share information throughout the conversation on your official channel. And then doing some renderings of the project, some on call support from your architectural firm. So as we kind of narrow in and make that final recommendation, we can offer a visual representation of what we're talking about. And so those would be kind of the basic options. Then if I can advance my own slides, uh when we talk about ongoing activities at the medium and high level, uh these would again would be activities that would happen through the full duration through the November election. continue do that project management, the translation services, the website, the renderings, but also add more on call support uh so that we could have live translation at events or the things like that that would kind of um this would reflect kind of the higher level activities that I'll get into in the next few slides as well as doing some more advanced work on the website including embedding videos, adding a calendar of upcoming activities, doing testing to make sure it's ADA compliant, search engine optimization to make sure that if people are searching and saying what's going on with this bond thing that they find it high in their search results, contact form management, some other things like that to improve efficiency. So now we get into actual those three phases that I started with and I'm going to walk through and kind of for each phase I will give you the basic option and then you'll see the options that get added on when we go to the medium and high option. So in this again this is the bond designs page. This is when we're having a conversation. This is when we're trying to learn from the community and I'll say as as sadly is reflected here, we don't do as much learning as we maybe would like to with

some of the bit bigger options. So in this case, this would be doing a station virtual tour where people will be able to understand better the need to update the police uh station kind of the outdated facilities there. So we could do a virtual tour that we could share on the website or in presentations to kind of get people a visual understanding that the speaker training would be for you all and staff so that you all have the tools and the information whether you're doing formal presentations or you just got stopped in the grocery store to have that conversation with a community member and help them understand kind of the decisions into the bond proposal as well as doing an ongoing PSA program through your local lead uh radio stations. We know that radio is a real hub of conversation for the community and so this would allow us to be broadcasting out over the course of that period information about the proposed bond. So then we add in the middle level of activities. Um you'll see those are in lighter blue so you can see the contrast here. One would be adding in a community survey. Um I actually was uh sat in I think last time when you guys got polling presentation. And I'll say uh a community survey is adjacent but not exactly a poll. And that you're probably familiar with is setting up something on the city's website or a host like Jot Form or Survey Monkey where we would allow community members to complete a survey and give us their opinions on this topic. um it's not statistically as valid as a scientific quantitative poll, but it is still a really good way to solicit information and to make sure the public has a chance to kind of air their concerns or their thoughts or preferences as part of the conversation. So, this would involve designing that survey both for English and language Spanish language speakers and then pushing that out through the variety of official channels that the city has to communicate and make sure that we get a lot of responses. In addition, we'd like to do a town hall in May. This would be kind of one of the last steps in the design phase. This would be kind of the open invitation for the entire community to kind of learn about the work we've been doing over this design phase and then in kind of a chance for them to weigh in and give their us perspective

before we start to kind of make some choices. And then we had the high level of activities again. And so this is the what we just talked about, but adding in additionally a Latino focus group to work specifically with those communities and make sure that we heard um from them about their concerns about affordable housing or public safety as well as doing some planning around the second floor space. We know there's a conversation about the second floor of city hall and using it for some space uh for city purposes. And so this would add into that budget kind of those additional resources to to work with a vendor to get that those answers in place. So that's it for uh phase one. Then we move into phase two. All right, we have a pretty good idea what we want to do. We just need to make sure the public is there with us before we go to the voters. At a basic level, that kind of involves three things. One would be doing some print and presentation collateral. That would be giving you some handouts, someformational se sheets. Some communities I find like to use posters. Sometimes it's making a PowerPoint presentation for you all to use, things like that. Um and having those there as well. Similarly, we'd want to do digit digital content collateral production. So, this would be things like social media posts, uh updates for your e- newswsletter, website updates, all the things that we can use through online channels to kind of communicate with the public. And then continuing that radio PSA program, again, we could transition to doing different ads in this month, which would focus more on here's the package that's going to come uh before voters and the plan to refer it. So, again, that's the basic level. When we talk about the middle level, we add in a couple things. One would be doing more video and digital content promotion. And so that would be adding in doing some video content. Uh this as we know in this modern digital age, uh video tells a story that a some words or even just a still image doesn't. And so much of our attention is driven to what's kind of engaging online. Video really helps you kind of break through. And so we could do in addition to those social media posts, do some short informational

videos and package up in a way that's accessible on social media. Uh, and then in addition to just putting them out there, we could use promotion strategy to make sure that they're actually reaching the voters. I don't need to tell you all anytime you're doing community engagement at the local level, you're going to get a chunk of the city, ideally maybe 30%, if you're doing real good, they're going to show up. They're going to be engaged and give you thoughts. And then you're going to have the rest of the public that's not. And so, as we think through putting this before the voters, I think it's important not just to create an opportunity for them to come give you information, but actually be giving information to them proactively. And so by running lists and doing uh digital marketing advertising, we can specifically target the voters in Hood River. And so allow them to make sure make sure that they know that information before you put it before the before the public. In addition, we'd like to do an additional town hall. This would be your chance to talk to the public one more time. Say, we did this design work. Here's all the effort we put in, the resources, and the time uh at the city level, and this is why we're putting forward this measure. Then at the high level, we continue to do a lot of stuff, but we also have a couple other opportunities here. One would be to do some housing data analysis and storytelling. Um, we think there's an opportunity to look and tell some deeper stories about that data, about what it's doing in the community. I saw some of it referenced in the packet today about the amount of the population that has to travel to Hood River to work because they can't find of housing they can afford or just the housing scarcity overall. And that also might help us understand uh and tell a clear story about where potentially to put that housing. I'll be interested to see what I mean it's a it's a cool feature. It's just a question. Is it worth the investment to you? Similarly, polling and I will say I think we had maybe talked about doing polling at the medium level as well. So I think if that's my mistake in this presentation, but we also would encourage you to think about doing an additional poll before you refer this to the voters. Uh we did some really good data in January. I think it was really helpful and give you confidence in moving forward. But uh I don't need to tell you that the headlines are changing every day. You know, uh oil prices are going up and down. Tariffs are on. They're off. And

so all those things kind of impact voters perceptions. They're things we can't control. But before you go ahead and refer this to the voters for a November ballot, it'd be good to know in July what they're thinking, where they're at, and that this is something that you can realistically expect them to support. Um we don't want you to have done all this work and then not be successful at the end of the process. So then as we move past phase two again that hinges on the referral to the ballot um which has to happen by the middle of August but also depends on your council schedule. Uh and then we move into postreferral and we have to be a little careful here as I mentioned there's some restrictions on what the city can do but we want to be intentional about what we can. Um so first is continuing those local radio PSAs. We can do those in a way that is careful to give neutral objective information to the voters about the measure as well as doing similar online digital content. So again, that's posting on your social media accounts, putting updated information on your website that complies with Secretary of State's rules about what you can say about a ballot measure, uh making um other types of content that you can put out there through your e-newsletter, for instance. And so we want to make sure that um we are putting that out there and making it easily available to the public at a base level. In addition, we would recommend if we want to go to a middle level doing a direct mail piece. Typically, this would be an 8 1/2 by 11. So, essentially the size of a piece of paper that would show up at the end of October to B when about when ballots are arriving. So, it' be very timely piece of information to provide for voters. And again, we do that in a neutral objective way. We've worked with Secretary of State on a number of these uh different measures. So we understand the required information that needs to be put in the language that can't be used and what is going to comply with being objective and neutral information. And that's a again a valuable piece of information for you to share with voters as they're deciding how to evaluate this. And then if you want to go with the high activity level, I think there's a couple other components we want to look at here. One would be doing an additional level of staff for uh training. And your in-house council or contract council may be able to do this

themselves. We always work it out with the city. In this case, this would be us as practice doing a presentation to city employees about what they can and cannot say now that the measure has been referred. Uh you as elected official, I will say have an open uh range to say whatever you want. So this is a little distinct for elected officials versus the staff of the city, but it's an important distinction to draw. Uh similarly, we think it would be helpful to do a Spanish language PSA. As we talked about earlier, you know, we know a significant portion of the community does are uh Latino or Spanish language speakers and so we want to be able to make sure that they're getting the information that we're making available in English language on that local radio program above. So that is the presentation. Um I think I've thrown a lot of information at you. Happy to dive into any of all of it and answer any questions that would be helpful.

Thank you very much. Yeah, thanks Jake. I'll just add um a very detailed uh sort of table of what's all included is on page 55 of your packet. What's in and what's out. Um couple things that might uh there's certain things that are on different levels but uh are basically turned up in intensity. So radio you saw was in the basic but I just want want to note that when you get to the higher it's also more radio. Um, so with that, um, Glattus and then Doug. Um, thank you, Will. Thank you, Jake. Can you go back to your last slide that you just had up because I want to understand something.

Absolutely. Give me a second. I gota There we go. Okay. So, August through November, local radio PSA. And then at the bottom, I heard you say, and as an additional deliverable for the high, we could do a Spanish PSA October and November. Do I have that correct? We didn't hear you, Jake. That is correct. Yes. And I'll say also, you know, that is the quotes we got from different vendors. If you know, for instance, you wanted to shift the timing of these, I think that is also certainly possible. And point, these are all kind of things we can dial up and down so we can shift resources to whatever makes the most sense for council.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'll I'll add um for the local PSA, we can take the PSA that we have and translate it. This highest level option is um working with the next door directly to do like a standalone specific uh PSA. Okay.

Thank you for that. I I just wanted to I didn't want to assume that there was like an unintentional inequity here of we're only going to have it a local PSA in English and then if we pay for the high package we'll have a Spanish PSA. And so I'm more than happy to help support however it may be to reduce cost in any way, but that we have to have messaging in English and in Spanish. So that was the only piece that I wanted to um to clarify I will come back with a question because I know I have it and it's in my picture and scratch.

Thank you. Um so as we think about this I noticed uh right at the very very bottom of the of uh you know the table that will was just showing you know the the percentages. So is is there like a benchmarks that says if you're asking for something in X category, you should be spending 1% or more on your you know your PSAs, all all the work that you're doing to make sure that a bond gets passed. um is if it's you know so I I guess is there any correlation so you know if you want to get an $18 million bond pass you should spend x amount of dollars relative to the percentage of what the the total amount is

it's not as easy sorry will do you want me that one yeah I want yeah you take that

I would say there is not an easy and simple rubric here um usually it depends on how many voters you're trying to talk to right because whether I'm going to shoot a video that talks to 100 people or a million people, it costs so much to make that video, right? And so the real question comes into how many people do we need to talk to? What does it take to talk to them? And so I do think that this reflects kind of the ranges of what we would recommend in terms of the intensity of the radio program or the digital communication. Um, we actually work backwards and say, okay, we expect you to have a audience of a few thousand voters in that election. And so how much do we need how many times we need to show or have them hear an ad to remember it? And so those ranges we've recommended all are kind of in that minimum to maximum range of like enough so that people remember it and not be like, "Oh my god, I heard you so much. It drove me nuts." And so that's our goal with the spending ranges here is more of what's going to help saturate the audience and make sure that when they fill out that B like, "Oh yeah, the bond. I remember what they were telling me about that the other day." Um, I would always say to your point, you know, that these are all very small percentages of the overall bond. Um, so to me it's well worth the price, but um, you know, obviously that's I'm in the business of that and I think but to answer your question, there's not like a precise rule if you want to spend 1% of the bond cost on your communications efforts. And I guess sub question to that is, you know, is is there a demonstrable sort of benefit by adding on the things that are in the medium bucket or the high bucket? I mean, you know, is is there anything you can tie towards effectiveness or is it just more or less you you can you can say that you've reached more people more times that increases your chances just as a you know rule of thumb. Yeah, I mean I think there are some differences in the medium versus high and I'll say those are also kind of

reflected although we had video content promotion in both categories, you know, the medium and the high. Um to Will's point earlier, they are different levels of communication. And so the high level is like this is the most we would recommend spending. You know, this is and that's why we call it the high is like, you know, let's take the full full court press, try and do everything we can to communicate with them. Um, and then there's also some choices made about kind of different texts and mediums. Like we didn't talk about doing TV because it would be quite expensive to try and really reach your audience and TV just because of how fragmented that audience is nowadays and how many different platforms we'd buy on. So, uh, I think we both kind of dialed up the level of activities in these different things as well as rep offered some different options that could be added or subtracted, you And I'll say like uh to the point made earlier, you know, reaching uh non-English speakers or Latino audiences is a really important question for the council to figure out because uh you know, it is a significant percentage of your population. It is a significantly lower percentage of the people that actually vote. And so I could see people making a good argument of like, well, if we don't engage these communities, obviously they're not going to vote. And so that's important for us to be intentional about that. I could see people also saying, "Well, let's focus on who's most likely to vote." And I think there's an important conversation to be had there. And you can go both ways,

right? To perhaps ask a bolder version of counselor Stina's question in the packet, uh, given the three different options under the high category, it's stated that, um, the option is designed to maximize the reach and probability of bond passage. Um, might I ask what that probability would be or the deltas in between low, medium, and high? Or would that be perhaps a uh too speculative question for you to be able to answer?

And and I'll jump in there because I'll have to take responsibility for that verbiage. Um, you know, the probability makes it sound like we can plug this into a statistical formula and uh yeah, we absolutely can. Um, so I I I shouldn't give that uh impression. Uh I think the rationale really is in the staff recommendation is the medium is our impression of what council's minimum engagement expectation would be. And so um and then and the high would be roughly where we see um really diminishing uh rates of return of additional effort after that. Um, but it doesn't get any more scientific. Um, and Jake, I don't know if you have anything to add to that.

Yeah, and I will say I wish I could put hard numbers. You know, I'd make a lot of money in the betting market probably. But um what I can say just to add more information here and echo everything Will said is you know your polling numbers that you did in January certainly show that this is a doable proposal but it's not a slam dunk you know and so I think part of our intention here is to say the public was open to the conversation but they told you they needed to hear from you and and here are some better explanations as the conversation went along before they're going to sign off. you know, some measures we pull initially and it starts at 60 to 65% support. And so it's like, well, what do we just need to do to keep the public there? And with your numbers in the 40s, it was more of, and in the ' 50s, it was more of like, how do we help that conversation proceed? So that's why I think we're offering those higher levels of communication. I certainly don't think it's necessary to go at that high level. We're just trying to give you the highest rate of confidence. And I know I can't give a number, so that's not very helpful. I think the other piece for you all to think about is how much you're comfortable putting something on the ballot and not knowing it's certainly going to pass. You know, some governments feel like if we put it forward to the voters, I want to know it's going to get done. You know, so I want to see that really high level of approval and public support. Um, which is getting harder to find and on any issue right now. 60% support for anything is getting harder to find. Um, others are like, you know, we're going to make a proposal and it's up up to the voters to decide. And if they chose no, then that's good information and we'll go accordingly. So, I think that's the other piece to think about is, you know, if you want to feel really confident that this is going to pass and that there's very little risk of failure, then that's why we recommend the high option. And again, I know this would help if I could put real numbers on that.

Thanks. And then Oh, go ahead. Great. Go ahead. Yeah. And then uh one one other question I had was um is is this a set price or is this are will there be offramps built into this should additional information come to light if at some point during this process we discover additional information and we need to stop for whatever reason. Okay great great question. uh we can course correct at any time even if we choose say the medium today and then uh you in July we want to step up to the high uh we have that game plan all these folks are are ready to roll ahead

uh thank you so I I I do like the medium package but this is also under the understanding that we're going out for one large bond as opposed to two separate bonds or is is that is it two separate bonds? Is it one bond? Like I just want to make sure that you all have that clear direction because when we look at the preliminary polling, there's more support for housing. And I'm not saying I don't support a police department, but our preliminary data tells us that housing has been prioritized. And so I would love to maximize that and have two separate packages that go out in November. So I think that's my my first question is is all of this under the assumption that it's all one combo.

No. Uh it's agnostic and we don't have to make that decision till late July, early August. Correct. Um, I'd say one thing, uh, the medium, uh, get back to, uh, uh, Jake noted in the, um, presentation. The medium medium option includes a poll, but a very basic poll. I saw that. Um, and the high option includes a much more nuanced messaging uh, poll where we can get into things more like how does it change if we group them, separate them.

Yeah. So then would the short poll even that's in the medium package now as we get closer would that reask do you support both? Do you support either or is that when you're all thinking about asking again?

Jake I'll defer to you. Yeah, I think and if you can remember back to the January poll, we did kind of ask those initial questions like would you support an $18 million bond that would do X or a $9 million dollar that would do Y. We will definitely ask those questions. You know, offer a few different like what we would call a ballot title test, which is the language very similar to what they would actually see on their ballot and give people a few different options. And that would be the basic or the in the medium package, the basic option to be extra confusing. That would be the smaller polling option that's reflected in the medium uh option. The the question with the higher poll is that do we then go on to maybe test some of the issues or the messages that we tested in January? And that would of course help inform a conversation as you know about do we put these together as one package? Do we do you know do we do parallel packages? So I think you know the more information we can provide you the more you can kind of inform that decision with a larger poll. Of course, it costs more. And that goes to the point earlier I'll say a lot of the cost escalators luckily happen later on, whether it's the polling or the direct mail piece or ramping up the radio. Um, but those do cost resources to get out there and communicate with the public.

Yeah, I hear that. Um, the last comment question that I have is around voting and the importance of folks to vote, right? So, just a suggestion, not necessarily stating that either one of you have to do this, but partnering with a neutral party that can help with voter registration so that when we talk about the radio ads, like if you have not registered to vote and you want to vote, like here's where you can go and do that. whomever that is, whether you're it's an agency or you're referring them down to the DMV, but there should be some level of like voting capability or that registration during some of these events should individuals feel compelled to want to register and I think that helps us in the long run that there could be more folks that would be registering to vote. Thank you,

Amanda. Is that like and then Doug?

Um my question is is this like um an all or nothing kind of thing? Like if we choose medium, would we be able to like pick one or two things from the high to add in? Like the storytelling sounds really useful. Um or the higher, you know, level level of polling. Um or do we have to say it's medium or high and it's all medium or all high? Yeah. Uh, no, we can construct a customized, you know, program tonight, but I, you know, I don't think that we'll probably get there with, you know, seven members of the city council, um, you know, having like constructing this from scratch, you know, and that's maybe one far extreme, but certainly if there's broad consensus of like bring this one down from the high and put it in the medium, absolutely, if you want to give us that direction, we'll we'll run with it.

Okay. Or if it's something You know, we could talk about it tonight, but if it's something that we decide we want, you said we could switch to the highlighter. Could we also pull other pieces? We could maybe do that at a later date, too, if we absolutely have time to ruminate on that. And absolutely,

yeah, just, you know, speaking to a couple of the comments that that Glattus has made already, you know, I think a lot about, you know, the do we split them up or do we keep them together? I think, you know, I keep keep going back to splitting them up is a is a good idea just to be able to not co-mingle the the two too much. Sounds like, you know, either way, we're not going to have a concise message that blends the two perfectly that will make a spot 30 seconds versus 45 seconds or something like that. Is that is that fair to say that we could explain them equally as two different bond measures in the same amount of time with the same amount of money? Jake, do you have any opinion on that? Whether uh there's cost implications to longer messaging if it's

Yeah, I mean, it gets to how much detail you want to provide, right? I could definitely say it's the safety and housing bond. Get that in in 5 seconds or less. Um, but to your point, I think you're right. The more things you have to talk about, the more you're spreading the conversation around. Um, you know, one thing I I'd heard there was some interest in video, which is great. I that's why I was promoting it earlier. Um, one thing that we've done with other jurisdictions is shoot what we would call kind of a series or chapters of a video. And we'd think about, you know, maybe three or four different segments that each are 30 to 45 seconds. You know, that's kind of the real sweet spot for how long you're going to watch something on your screen before you scroll away. And so we will tell those little pieces of the story and then weave those together into a longer two to four minute presentation that might make more sense for Rotary or some other kind of more inerson captive audience presentation way. So we've done some strategies like that where we will break out each piece of the messaging. But you're right when you're talking about a male piece you know 8 and 1 half by 11 only takes up so much space and so you are sacrificing sometimes some of the detail to make sure you're talking about everything. The counterpoint, of course, is a bond with something for everybody has something that appeals to everybody. And I will say that that's been a surprising thing I've seen in a lot of polling over the last year is those measures where I'm like, no, if we just give them one clear option, they're going to prefer that. Don't as well as the ones where it's like, well, I like that part, so I'm on board with it. And I think, you know, we did already kind of clarify. We we, as you'll remember, tested several more options earlier, and now we've kind of focused down to h housing and public safety. I don't think two is an impossible number, but you're right. You know, two takes more time to explain than one.

Yeah. I I just feel like also, you know, combining them, it's like you have to make a bunch of statements about why they're combined before, you know, you know what I mean? Like that kind of thing. So, I mean, it sounds like we we can get some polling data and everything to get that decided. And the the other thing that Glenn has brought up that I'm you know, seriously concerned about is, you know, voter suppression efforts that are taking place in this country right now. And I feel like if we want to get a bond passed now, we got to get people go to get out there and vote, people to mail hopefully be able to mail in their their ballots. Um so yeah, I think this is kind of a an interesting, you know, predicament that we find ourselves in where there is this this effort to likely silence a lot of our voters um that we would need to pass this kind of thing, the people that care about affordability, you know, the the people that have been targeted uh you know, and whatnot. So, um, it just leads me to a lot more of we got to spend some money to get this this passed and, you know, take some care to do it if if we want to do it at all. Jake, at our level, do we get to have like ISP location and targeting on the social ad placements and subset of that I remember in some highly energized elections like nearly every like for example YouTube spot was sold and you know Kla Harris could not for love money buy a spot in Greenwich, Connecticut and do we run the risk of you know cost inflation or bumping up against compression in that way or I would love to just understand a little bit about that.

Yeah, it's a good question and yeah, we use kind of voter targeting. We use ISP cookies all the different tricks of the trade to try and track you down and saying you know these are the thousand 5,000 people we want to talk to in Hood River and whenever they're online we want to track them down and talk to them. So we do use that tracking method rather than you know some people would buy like Google or you know a particular platform. We just say we don't care what platform we're on. We just want to talk to them. Um I would not worry that much about the market getting saturated. Um there are not a ton of competitive federal races in Oregon. Um the only really costly race in November is probably going to be the governor's race. So there will be some pressure upward on prices, but it won't even be you remember in 2022 we had three candidates. We had Senator Johnson in as an independent as well. So we had three separate candidates spending $20 million. I think we're only going to look at like $40 million this year. So a real bargain of a ginatorial race. So uh it will impact things, but not in the way you're describing happens during a presidential election.

Thank you. Ben um in the actual text part it says video content production and then in the uh chart it says digital content creation. I'm assuming that's the same thing. Okay.

Uh close. Although the promotion is again like so think about when you're on Facebook you'll see an organic post and then sometimes it'll say like sponsored next to it. The distinction is we can actually tell Facebook, I don't want just to wait till people come to the city of Hood Rivers or Facebook page, I like wherever they are, I want this in their feed. And so that is layering on that paid digital marketing to push it into people's feed or put it on the website as an advertisement that they'll see. So that again goes back to trying to reach the part of the public that's not going to proactively seek out the conversation.

Um, I was talking about digital content. I know there's the promotion element, but there's digital content creation and there's video uh production. Um, and I was just curious if you can talk a little bit about what would be entailed in the video content production. Exactly. Sorry about that. Um, and yeah, digital content we would talk about kind of more basic things. So, images, text, copy, post, things like that. Um, video production is a a little bit bit of a different endeavor. And Will, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think where we landed on this budget was that we would actually bring out a production crew and do an a do a whole set of conversations kind of as I described earlier to you. Um, we could have members of council. We could have community leaders. We can think about kind of what are the right messengers to deliver that message. So, we'd want to figure out how to tell that story, whether it's talking about the police station, the challenges of the police force for the current operations, as well as kind of the challenges created by housing insecurity in the community, whether that is someone who works there and wants to live there but can't find a place to live or a family that is struggling to balance the cost of housing with everything else in their life. So, we would actually go out and shoot those and then produce them into, like I said, kind of that series of of stories that then could be woven together in kind of a longer version. Gotcha. So, this is under theformational videos uh portion underneath the chart. Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah. For for what it's worth, I'm a believer in you got to spend money to raise money. So, I I I think the higher end is is is wiser. Do we How much level of how much level of uh of of of input are you looking for tonight? Uh a a medium a basic medium or high. All right. Somebody want to give that a swing?

Uh okay. Well, sure. Let's do the gauge. So, who thinks that the the right thing is to say basic? Who thinks the right thing is to say medium? Who thinks the right thing is to say hi? There you go. That wasn't even close. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, it would be nice to have a motion for the minutes. I move the city council select the high bondformational and engagement approach for a November 2026 bond election and direct staff to return with a public education and engagement plan. Second, second by Stina. Great discussion. All in favor?

Yes. Opposed? Chair votes. Motion passes. Thanks everybody. Wonderful. Jake, let you know next steps. Um much of this we can get going underneath the city uh manager's um you know signature. So we're going to get going immediately and then you will also see um additional contracts as as they need to come back to you uh in order to implement. Thank you. Good job you guys. Thank you. Uh city manager comments. Abigail.

Thank you mayor. I have just a couple quick comments and then I'm going to call on the city attorney uh as well. So Dan's getting ready. Uh first just there was a mattress recycling event conducted uh by Hood River Garbage this last week and they collected 50 mattresses. So good work to them and appreciate them um find sustainable ways to take that. Uh second just a quick ICE update. Uh listening sessions have been scheduled and I think all of you will have a session. I really appreciate your willingness to do that. Uh, and um, the town hall, while we've been sitting here, I think the town hall details are pretty much finalized. So, I will uh, ask Jackie to send an email tomorrow. Um, I think it's confirming the date and I think we've got a location. So, more information on that to come very, very soon. Uh, and then finally, I've asked Dan to speak a little bit uh, in preparation of your next meeting on March 30th, which is the fifth Monday, backed up one week because of spring break. Uh so on March 30th as you are aware uh we will be having the hearing for the Marriott proposal. Uh and so I asked Dan if he could come and join and speak a little bit about conflict uh bias and exparte um uh

contact uh before uh just right now so you and the public can hear it a couple weeks. You've got a little bit a couple weeks between now and then. And then in the meantime, if you have questions about specific concerns you might have, please feel free to reach out to your city attorney um with any follow-up questions. So, I'll turn it to Dan.

Sure. Thanks very much. Uh Abigail, um I thought this would be a good opportunity to uh kind of give you a primer on these issues that you haven't seen for a long time. It's it's been a while since you had a quasi judicial permit application come before you on appeal. And uh this one is particularly a hot topic among the public. And so it leads to these three issues that come up um in there are exparte contacts, conflict of interest and bias. Uh in this case that's coming up unlike legislative actions that you see where you adopt code or comp plan amendments or new TSP. Um this is quasi judicial and you're acting as a judge in hearing this appeal. So like a like uh any judge in circuit court that wears a black robe, you uh are not supposed to be uh discussing this matter with anyone outside the hearing. You can't, you know, go and bend a a real judge's ear about a case that's before the judge. Um and so you as uh quasi judicial decision makers have to act in a judicial manner coming into this thing. And that means basically that you are obligated to uh be impartial uh and decide the case based on the criteria that apply and the facts and arguments in the record that comes before you up from the planning commission. I think they issued the decision just a few days ago, maybe today even. So, it's um the uh and the notice uh is of the appeal is out. Um and the the first issue that comes up is exparte contacts. You're supposed to limit your understanding of this case to strictly what's in the record. So, that means when you're at the grocery store and someone wants to button hole you

about the case, about the hotel or any aspect, you have to uh politely decline to discuss it. um you uh if you have any uh exparte contacts, any discussions with anyone or even if you've seen the site, if you've driven by the site and gleaned, you know, something about it just from driving by, that's information you have obtained outside the context of a hearing, you're required at the first opportunity, which would be March 30th, to disclose the substance of those contacts so that everybody in the room can hear what you heard or see what you saw and if it was erroneous or somehow uh you know not it was somehow not impartial they can rebut those exparte contacts. So that's that's one of the reasons for the early disclosure so that everyone understands what you know or what you heard and they can rebut the substance of what you had been told or saw. Um it's not a deal killer. It's doesn't preclude your participation. It's just a an additional procedural step that you have to go through. You have to disclose it at the first opportunity. Um,

and can I sorry maybe this is helpful as an anecdote to I don't but please tell me. So, so I was cross-country skiing with a friend and he said, "Paul, good job. I don't know whatever you did, but getting that planning commission to vote against the Marriott. I'm so happy you did that. How did you do that, Paul?

So, I mean it, we all are laughing, but truly like I don't feel like I learned anything relevant or substantive in that interaction, but that certainly was a contact by myself that nobody else knows like help me understand what do I do about that? that that wouldn't really unless you obtain some factual information or some understanding of the application or the proposal um then it wouldn't really be an exparte contact. It's has to be something substantive that you get out of it. Thank you. That's not just random opinions. That's kind of what I thought I wanted to I'm glad you said that.

Yeah. Sometimes and I don't know if this is true. uh there will be newspaper editorials about particularly hot cases and everyone reads a newspaper of course back when those things existed. Um, and that's an exparte contact because often times those newspaper stories uh contain factual information or you know make assertions and so the cure to that is well I read it and here's a copy we will include that in the record of the proceeding. So that used to be a bigger deal than it is today. But um you know if uh I would urge you to stay off of social media between now and then and avoid those sorts of things because it complicates you know that first hearing where everyone has to discourage their exparte contacts uh and allow everyone to kind of scrutinize them and rebut them.

Does anyone else have any questions about that? This is so important. Anna, go ahead. Um, are the the actual recorded hearings that the planning commission did when they deliberated this particular application, is that part of the record? And we're are we allowed to watch those ahead of Yes. Okay. So, that's not something that would need to be disclosed,

right? You're assume assumed to have access to the full record. Uh, you don't have to actually read it all. Um, but you have to have access to it and be somewhat sort of familiar with it. In the same way, you can attend those planning commission meetings. Um, a lot of times city councilors are scared off of attending planning commission meetings because that's part of the record. It's, you know, it's already part of the record and so there's nothing to disclose. If you do attend planning commission meetings in the in the future, I would just advise you to stay silent and not express any opinions or views or chew the fat with people while you're there because that leads to a second problem is bias. Um, if you express opinions at these planning commission meetings, one could conclude, hey, they're biased. Another word for bias is prejudgment. As I mentioned, you're supposed to decide the case based on the facts and evidence in the record and the arguments in the record and the applicable code criteria. Expressing opinions like that at such a preliminary stage like a planning commission hearing indicates that well they kind of jumped the gun here and and prejudged this case. So, um, when when I've seen bias become a problem, it's where, uh, there are maybe newspaper editorials or particularly incendiary Facebook postings about a particular application that are brought up during hearing and they're difficult to explain away that such strong statements and then say, well, I uh uh I' I've thought about it and I will decide this one based on the facts in the record. That's sometimes a little hard to explain, but ultimately if any of you face a a challenge due to bias, you are if you want to continue

participating, you need to be able to say that you are unbiased and that you uh have and will decide the case based on the arguments and the facts in the record and the applicable criteria. Notwithstanding, you know, maybe some body language or previously previous vague statements that might lead people to believe that you were sort of kind of biased. So, that's what you'll have to be able to say if that challenge comes up. Go ahead.

Just because we have a sec, uh, we did this on planning commission all the time. I feel like everybody felt like they had to say, "I've been by the site." We've driven by that thousands of times. Do we need to disclose that? It's an easy thing to mention. Okay. So, we will all mention it, right? It it it tells everyone you didn't spend the whole year in on the Baja. It's three blocks from here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you, Doug. Good point. Go ahead, Dan.

Um, so bias is the second one and uh the third one is conflict of interest and that's uh arises from the ethics statutes. It's personal to each of you. And again, it it you're supposed to decide these matters with no financial stake in the outcome. And financial stake could take a couple different forms. It could be an immediate family member is somehow implicated in the application or if you own property next door that could affect the value of your property. Um it could be a financial uh effect positive or negative. Um and so there under the ethics statutes there are two kinds of conflict of interest. There's actual and potential. And actual is you stand to have uh those financial stake in the outcome of the case. Um, a potential is well, you might and um it's kind of an indirect thing. If you're uh if it's a commercial application and you're in the business or you are a real estate broker and you um you know might be able to be a broker on the property, those are potential but not necessarily actual. Um and so you need to disclose both of them. And if you have an actual conflict of interest like if you are biased or have prejudged the case, you have to recuse yourself. You have to step down from the dis sit in the audience. You can't participate in deliberation or decision. If it's a potential conflict of interest, you disclose it. You discuss it. And if it's not actual but merely potential and it and at the end of the day it

doesn't, you know, blossom into an actual conflict of interest, you can still participate. You might be subject to challenge. Someone might file a complaint with the ethics commission against you, but um it's not necessarily a deal killer. So those are things you have to kind of evaluate on a case- by case basis and you know reflect in your own hearts whether you're biased, whether you have an actual or potential conflict of interest that um makes it impossible to be unbiased. Understand too that um some states, not Oregon, but some states have what's called the appearance of fairness doctrine and that's what applies to judges. So that um if you were in the business but and therefore one could claim well you have a conflict of interest here because if this is approved it'll be in competition with you in Washington state you could not participate because they have adopted the appearance of fairness doctrine. Oregon hasn't, which doesn't really solve the problem because you'll still be subject to challenges for um you know, conflict of interest, but it's not a dealiller as I mentioned. So, those are the three main things that you have to disclose before things get rolling at this hearing, but it's good for you to be aware of them as, you know, we still have a few weeks before this uh hearing comes up and you're going to be subject to perhaps some pressure uh as you, you know, wander around the the city and meet your neighbors. Questions?

Thank you. Sure. I have a specific one about myself. I don't know if that's appropriate, but Sure. Um, so Eagle News, you know, I used to be a reporter and the property owner, Eagle Newspapers, was my employer.

I'm assuming as I have not been employed by them for eight, nine years that that would not be considered a conflict of interest, but it would be considered exparte contact. Um, I don't see a conflict of interest uh because you have it doesn't represent a financial stake in the outcome of this application. Um, the other because you no longer work there, it's it's there's quite a distance in time. Um, what was the other aspect of this? A bias

or exparte contact? Um, I don't think there's anything about your employment history there years ago that gives you any factual information about this application. Okay. So, I it doesn't seem like an issue. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for asking, Ben. Hannah,

um, similar to Ben's question though, is is there kind of a statute of limitations because this application process has been going on for um, months and so I think we've all had grocery store conversations with neighbors about how do you feel about this or that. Um, is it, you know, when you say we need to disclose exparte contact about this, does that go back to when this application was first submitted? And I mean I I don't remember all the conversations, but I know I've talked to neighbors and friends and staff about this particular project. I just um I'm curious how far back we need to go.

I think you need to go back uh if there is anything factual that you uh learned about the application um that's outside the context of the hearing and it may be so far in the misty past that you don't remember it and that's that's fair and you can say that. But if someone just ex asked you to express an opinion, hopefully you didn't. Um or if someone expressed their opinion to you, that's not really factual information about the case. If they said, "Oh, there's, you know, something buried in the property uh that makes it uh unlawful to develop it as a hotel or something weird like that." you know, that would be factual information that you gleaned outside the context of the hearing and you would need to disclose that so people could debunk that uh kind of factual statement that was given to you. People's opinions don't really count as facts though. Yours or anyone else's your opinions might amount to bias but uh wouldn't be exparte contact.

Thank you. Any other questions? This is very important. Thanks Dan. Thanks Abigail for arranging for that. Yeah, reach out as as things evolve and if you have any questions. All right, we're still on Abigail. Done with Abigail committee. Amanda,

I did have an energy council meeting um last week and they're working on their work plan and that will be done I think this summer maybe. Um but we talked about a strategy they're looking at um out till 2050 to decrease demand of fossil fuels um increase demand for electricity and reduce energy consumption um as a whole uh even with population growth and there's some good numbers and it's looking like there's a path. So uh we'll see how it unfolds. Um some exciting news is the schools got their fourth EV which is a bus um and they have two more um electric buses coming. So that's pretty cool. And they think they already have they have like some vans and then at least one other bus. So um and the micro grid at White East will be completed this summer. um in the Cascade Locks fire station grant got awarded um to construct a micro grid there and um there was another grant that related to the school maybe the micro grid too but I got a little confused so

did you say micro grid event micro grid yes um so like I think it's mostly like solar panels that we can pull energy off of and Thank you. Yeah. Anything else?

Uh that's it for committees. Great. a week ago uh or in region one act had a meeting u that we discussed the capital improvement plans for ODOT there is a 10ear tenure CIP list and um chair you were from the county and myself gave a brief presentation on four capital projects countywide and in the city um and ours were added to the CIP um the two that I added that are in city limits are the roundabout at Mount Adams Cascade and the roundabout down at uh North Second and Riverside. Um so in in the scale of CIP related things, they are very very very very small but they are added to the CIP now. So

that's I'll defer to councelor Rivera on the Seruda sister city but it's badly happening. So I was in at the last meeting. I was in Chicago work. So but Glattus was there. Glattus.

Yes. Uh so there the Seruda fundraiser will take place this coming Saturday the 14th. Uh there's still a handful of tickets available. So if you if you need tickets, uh please reach out to Doug. Um uh he still has them. Um, students will be arriving Friday, March 13th. Um, appreciate city staff for helping with like the the planting of the tree that will take place. There is an August trip that will be the 6th through the 16th that is for Hood River students to go out to Seruda and then the adult trip would take some time uh this next coming year. So, thank you to all of you who have purchased tickets. Uh, that will be this Saturday, 5 to 7. Um, I am blanking on the venue, but

Mount Hood Winery. Mount Hood Winery. Thank you. Ben, uh, Cat will meet Wednesday, March 18th.

I'm not on a committee. I never have anything. So, nothing for me. uh the folks who came to present about the Hood River reads buttonhold me and said, "Paul, I just want your counselors to know it was so impressive watching you all work together. Like you listened, you made, you know, arguments and you didn't like insult. Like they were totally impressed with us. So, woot woot." Um I'm going to Sister City. I'm looking forward to that. uh meet the kids on on on Saturday morning and then to bid on some stuff on Saturday night and it's a fun thing if you're not involved I recommend and I was at a downtown business shopping and they had the welcome SUA visitors so it was really a nice community community thing happening out there. Uh that's all I have for mayor comments council comments. Anna,

we do have a couple of those. Um, I will not be able to make it to the Seruda Sister City thing this weekend, but um, I went last year and it was awesome. It was so cool to see the kids play a thumb rustling thing with the other kids. My daughter was there. It was inspiring. And so, um, I I won't need a ticket, but if I could make a donation, I would be happy to do so because that's cool. Um, I'd also like to ask my fellow counselors, um, parks and wreck will have two measures on the May 19th ballot. The first one is the bond to replace the pool and the second one is a levy for programs and um maintenance. And if you guys are interested in details on that, uh there's a website hrvc.org hrvrec.org. And I poked around on there. I highly recommend if you have a few minutes just to check that out. Um what I'd like to know is if you all would be amenable to um maybe adding to an agenda maybe March 30th or maybe not. um a presentation from parks, a quick one, um and uh potentially signing a resolution in support of their their efforts just because I think that um in the past we we we haven't the city hasn't always shown a lot of support to parks and wreck, although they are a partner of ours and I think that you know their amenity that they're proposing is highly beneficial to our city residents and something that is um important. So, I'm just wondering if um I have one other thing to talk to you guys about, but if if I would have three additional counselors that would be interested in maybe having that added to the agenda.

Abigail and I can work on the scheduling of that if that is what folks would like. So, can we quickly kind of would like to would like to spend some time hearing from parks and rack and talking about that? I got two thumbs over here. Ben, I can't see. No, not not on the 30th, but I agree. Not Yeah, not on the 30th. Uh um we we did support the last one. Correct. Well um I'm sorry I don't really want to talk about it. The question is do we want to put it as an agenda item? I'd be open to having them come and talk. Yep. Anybody I we got Yes. Thank you. We will agendaize them.

Great. I appreciate that. And whenever it makes sense um is fine. Um and then the other thing I wanted to ask about if if we had support on is um Grant. I really appreciate all the effort that you made in putting together that memo. I thought it was really informative and it was a great roadmap and that's something else I'd love to chat with all of you all about um on an agenda in the future.

So I think what's recently happened is we decided it was hard to schedule and so therefore we did not have basically like an annual goal set and that seems to me like an obvious topic for an annual goal setting some sort of a something. So that that sounds like an extended discussion sometime when we can all be available like that's yeah we we want to do that and Abigail and I will make a plan for when how how that might happen. Okay.

Yeah. Great. Thank you Anna Ben. Um, obviously we just had the legislative session. Um, and one of the I thought was an interesting bill that came out of it that I don't even know if it's something that's viable or not, but House Bill 4082 um, which allows well for a city of our size to bring in uh, up to 50 acres um, from the UGB into the city. Is that on your Yeah. Yeah. Um, basically ideally for um both uh seniors, people aed 55 and older and it's affordable uh I think it was up to 120% AMI um but also um with non-age restrictions on uh manufactured housing developments which I know that obviously mobile home park preservation is one of our council goals. So obviously I know that there are challenges with just both the geography and topography um of the land that surrounds Hood River. But it's something that I would be intrigued to learn a little bit more about to see if this is, you know, even if it's not 50 acres, if there's

viable way to do any of that. I know that Dustin knows a lot about this. Yeah. And I'm just pondering like how much seems like we should get maybe Abigail and I will talk and maybe it would be a memo from staff or something or we'll let us send you some background information and then see if there's a actual policy to discuss. Yes, I wasn't necessarily asking for this agenda just kind of talking out loud a little bit that I thought it was something interesting and thank you. Maybe we can explore. I don't know. I mean obviously some upside for us if Sure.

Great. And so staff will put a little I mean I guess do we agree that we want staff to put a little work into giving us some context about that? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks Ben.

Yeah. There were uh 304 bills that were proposed and only 35 of them passed. This is a short session which means there's only 35 days. Uh 269 of those bills failed. uh some of them will be placeholders for 2027. There are several bills that are uh could potentially benefit us. So I will work with staff to send notes and then maybe this is a annual retreat in addition to councelor Pollson's uh packet that we can have larger conversations around how do these state bills uh impact Hood River for us to talk about potential policy updates changes. Thanks

yeah just a quick one. Um, so I've been speaking to some downtown businesses. Visit Hood River. Um, going to have a discussion with Lockach from Lightwell. There's some sort of arguing about parking downtown right now because we are able to sell uh day passes, right? And I think a lot of the uh like for instance, the lightwell doesn't have any parking, you know, like on site. They're taking advantage of that. the businesses feel like it's it's encroaching on their day parking and that sort of thing. So, just want to get um you know, all the parties involved, you know, hear from them, so on and so forth. I don't know if there's an agenda item for this now or any any of that kind of stuff. Just wanted to put it on your radar if you're talking to downtown businesses or talking to the, you know, the people that might be taking advantage of those programs to buy those permits. Just kind of, you know, hear from everybody and what's out there. Um, but yeah, trying to do the work to have the conversations to fully understand the problem and the gravity of it from both sides, whatnot, and we'll report back to everybody from what I learned.

Thank you, Doug. Great. Likewise, I heard the same concerns as councelor Stpina. Um uh regarding parks, there is the the splash bash on Saturday if anybody would like to go to that. Uh families are encouraged to go. And is it a dinnertime thing? It is. What time is it? It is dinner time, 5:30 at the aquatic center, Saturday the 14th. So, the same time as the Providence Hearts of Gold and the Serum

ina in case you're not busy enough and want to do multiple things at once. Um, there are multiple things vying for your attention on Saturday. Um, and then what's the other thing? There are many things. Um, following up to the information I sent you guys, if any of you would like to discuss any of the memo uh that I sent. Uh we can grab coffee or whatever anytime. Just send me a give me a call, send me an email, let me know and we can get together and I can hear your feedback. Thank you, Grant. Amanda,

um I don't have anything, but I guess the one thing I will say is I guess it's good the library moved their fundraiser because it was traditionally this weekend. But I'll put a little plug in for it now. It's April 11th at the library. The foundation is having a fundraiser. Feast of words. Is that what? Yeah. Wow. Thanks everybody for your engagement. All right. Executive session. Script attached.

There we go. The city council will now meet in executive session pursuant to OS 192.661H 661H to consult with count cell concerning the legal rights and duties of a p 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 med media are specifically directed not to report on any of the deliberations during the executive session except to state the general subject of the session as pre 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 Abigail giggled at the end of the executive session, the city council meeting will be adjourned and no action will be taken. We will now discontinue the live feed and recording.