City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, how fun is that? Nice job, Glattus. Consider this a honorarian. Is that $50? Is that your $49 pennant? Shall we?

Good evening everybody. Welcome to your city council meeting. Thanks for coming. April 13, 2026. I'll call us to order. The first thing we're going to remember to do is silence our cell phones. Then we're going to stand and say the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do we have any agenda additions or corrections, Abigail?

We do not, but I will take a minute just to note that we originally had a public hearing scheduled that was cancelled um as the applicant withdrew their appeal. Um that was done before the agenda went out. So, uh the agenda was not amended or changed, but I know there was definitely public interest at that time and just wanted to acknowledge that that had been cancelled. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Next, we have business from the audience. We have a few folks signed up. Um, first Tina, followed by Mark, and then Julie. There's There's Yeah, there's Make it turn green and you're in business. Hope it was green briefly. There you go.

Hey, good evening, uh, counselors and mayor. I'm speaking tonight as a member of the Hood River Valley Residence for Parks and Recreation, and I want to thank you for taking up the Parks and Rex district's pool bond and operations levy resolution. Your willingness to consider it signals that local leadership understands what's at stake, and the stakes are real. The pool is operating on borrowed time. Without the bond, it's not a question of if it fails, but when. Without the levy, community ed ends after the summer. The partnership between the schools and parks and recreck ensures every elementary student in school in the valley gets swim lessons. The American Academy of Pediatrics sites research showing that formal lessons reduce drowning risk by 88%. That's not just a stat. That's kids in our community that come home safe. Our pool sees 65,000 uh visits a year and the community ed programs serve 3,000 people annually. They're your neighbors, your co-workers, your kids' classmates, the seniors in our community, people who rely on these programs to stay active, connected, and safe. And according to the district, the district's tax tables, 75% of households would pay less than $27 a month for the two measures combined. So, if you approve this resolution, you give volunteers something real to point to when we're out canvasing, talking to voters. Between now and May 19th, volunteers will be out every day having these conversations about the pool and parks because they believe that when people understand the facts, they'll vote yes. And I hope that you'll join them tonight in supporting the resolution and helping make sure that Hood River Valley keeps the pool and the programs that make this place a special strong community.

Thank you, Gina. Thank you, Mark. And then Julie saying for the the little presentation about the proclamation. So I don't I think that I'm not supposed to be. Great. Although I did. And then Julie, would you like to speak then or now? I haven't spoken before, so if I screw this up, let me know. You're right. You're green. You're good.

Green. Green is good. Um I want to say uh I'm excited about Mark's proposal for Dark Sky. I teach environmental science at CJCC and um I was encouraging students to come with me tonight but we could not get it together to actually be here at the same time. So at some point they will start showing up which would be nice. Um I would like to see more stars in the sky particularly with the you know remarkable pictures of Artemis 2. Um, so very exciting stuff. And I'd like to thank you also for the parks department uh works uh because um although I don't I'm not a swimmer, I do believe in parks department and um doesn't appear that the administration does. So thank you for considering that. Um that's all I have to say really but thank you very much. Thanks for coming letting me speak. Next on the agenda is uh an appeal to deny a site plan review. Is this the hotel or is this something else for Dustin?

Yes, mayor. That is correct. We uh had that originally scheduled, but then we were notified by the uh applicant's attorney that uh they were dropping their appeal and so there is no hearing tonight. Great. Thank you. Next, we have the dark size. the dark skies proclamation presentation. Mark Xan Miller, thanks for being here. Counselor, landlord,

here may counselors. Um, I had this beautifully written little short thing and I said I'll read it so I don't just riff and I left it somewhere so you you get to listen to me riff. So, uh, thank you for taking time. Uh, I'm Mark Xan Miller. I'm one of the co-leaders along with Mike Hendricks and uh Mike McKG of Dark Skies Gorge, which is a small group. We have about 160 people on our newsletter. Um, and we are in alignment with Dark Skies Oregon and International Dark Skies, which uh educate and advocate about the benefits of being conscious of of dark skies and the fact that light pollution is voluntary, right? No one wants to light up the sky and and decrease our ability to see stars. You just don't think about it. And so, uh, we are an entity that tries to educate, um, people about that fact. And things like this proclamation that we're asking you guys to approve today are a big part of that, uh, education. You know, there was in the, you know, uh, Mike and Trisha got a article in the paper this last week. Um, if you Google dark sky, it's it's it's quite the thing. So, so, um, and and it and it's a nice it's a good thing. Um, light pollution is getting worse. Um, there's one study up to that it was increasing about 10% every year and that over a 10-year period, the light pollution in the scenic area get got worse by 33%. So, as things build up, as people don't pay attention to what their lighting is, light pollution is bad. Our visibility of the stars goes down. Um, it's there's plenty of scientific research that says that lake pollution is bad for human health. It's bad for birds. It's bad for insects. It's bad

for little mammals that are trying to find the bugs that are flying around in the sky. Um, and it's being able to see the stars is really good for our souls as humans, right? I mean, if if you're out in the dark and you and you can see the Milky Way, it it's it makes you feel better as a person. So, um, this proclamation, the work we're doing is all to bring attention to that. Um, lights, lighting that is dark sky supporting is no more expensive than lighting that isn't. It's just paying attention to down lighting to knowing that it's uh you know what's too bright, what's brighter than what I need, what I principles that are in that on that card are is as simple as it gets for being dark sky conscious. Um, advocacywise, the the the big thing we're working on talking to is the is the Hood River development code. There's there's a two pages in the draft about outdoor lighting. It's plenty long. Um, and we'll be back to talk to both planning and you guys about how can we make sure that that gives us the tools to be good neighbors and uh and reduce the impacts of light pollution. So, it all starts with uh proclamations like this one. Uh there are eight other cities and three counties and the governor are all signing on to the proclamation in in Oregon and in the gorge, Wasco County and White Salmon is joining us as well. So, so we hope that you can approve the proclamation and um keep getting the good word out there. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mark. And thank you to Mike. We've corresponded over the years to advocate for this position. I appreciate your your good your good uh your good work. Uh we we have the draft proclamation in the packet at this time. It would be appropriate for us to deliberate and determine whether we will pass it. I don't think you have an action to a proclamation. I think you you mayor just declare the proclamation. It doesn't come with a suggested motion.

Everybody okay with that? I'm I'm going to read some of the whereases because there's some great language. Whereas the experience of standing under a starry sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe encouraging a growing interest in science and nature particularly among young people and visitors from other from outside the local communities and for a host of other reasons. Therefore, be it resolved that the city of Hood River proclaims April 13 to 20 as International Dark Sky Week and encourage residents to enjoy and protect our precious dark sky as a resource. May it be so. Thanks you guys for Glattus. Go ahead.

Thank you both for this and everyone that's involved. Uh completely agree in supporting this. But as I was just reading the second whereas that the mayor just pointed out in any opportunity that we have to include locals, right? Cuz we live here all year round and yes, it's important to have young people and and those that are visiting, but just being more intentional moving forward about the people that reside here all year round and how are we being inclusive of other languages? You know, Mark, I know you've heard me say this for many, many years. Uh, this is great information, but I challenge you all to think about how is this inclusive in Spanish as well because over 50% of our population is Spanish speaking and how are we including them in sense of belonging and sense of community. So, those are my my two cents. Thank you so much for your time.

Anything else on this matter? Moving on, we have Commissioner Hackett in the house. Board member by the commissioner, parks and recck commission. No no board member. Thanks for being here. Any any opportunity? I didn't get to correct you. Excellent.

Uh just wanted to thank you all for for uh having me here. I know. Anna, did you I I didn't want to Oh, okay. Um so I have Oh, this moves. All right. Um, so I have a presentation that I'll quickly go through. Uh, really what this is intended to do is just lay out what we are proposing as a parks and rec board. Uh, there is a bond and levy that is coming forward. Um, do I do anything with the presentation? We're just gonna You're on Zoom, so we're just going to share it. You don't want me to do your it.

There you go. It'll probably work best if you use the arrows on the keyboard. Rocking. You're ready.

Um, and again, this is uh part of of the proposal that we have. We are seeking uh support from the Hood River City Council on our bond and levy proposal. Uh, and um I'll I'll just move through it quickly. This is intended to be a very brief presentation and then if there are any questions I'm happy to answer. Um but this will be on the May ballot that will be mailed out to the electorate in a couple of weeks here. Um this first slide really is just the uh history of where we are in terms of the funding the sources of the funding and then how it's progressed over the years. Um, you can see, you know, measure five and measure 50. I've said this to a number of people. If I ever run for for state office, those are two things that need to change. Um, those those two ballot measures or sorry, those two measures are are really hindering, I think, the the municipal um funding. Um, this is just before and after. Uh, in 2024, we did propose a a very very different uh pool bond. uh and now we've uh gone back looked at kind of what we need to do to to maintain what we have and not expand upon it. We listen to the electorate. Um you can see that alternate funding purple. Uh I think that's one of the things that I'm most proud of. We've uh created a foundation um kind of similar to what the library went through when they reestablished themselves earlier. the foundation had been there previously, but but parks and recck harnessing um kind of that alternate funding and then assisting in the construction of the bond. Um this is a depiction of of what what it is that we'll be looking at. Uh pool and the uh therapy pool are are the same size. Uh the the footprint is the same.

This is on the current location of the uh pool. Now that's where this pool will be built. Just for one data point that came to my mailbox this week this weekend. So that mailing like happened at least in my neighborhood. No. And just a quick aside. So that we contracted with a company to do a mailing. They sent it early. That was supposed to arrive with your ballots in two weeks. So what they've done is they've offered to have a second mailing for free. Well done.

So, we will you'll be hearing more from us. Um I just thought that was a a very gracious thing for them to to own the mistake that they've made, but then also allow us to reach out to the electorate in a in another way um in a couple weeks. So, um that is a very factual document and and um I think is great. It does a tremendous job of of um showing all of the things that we're trying to do. Uh this is is just a a kind of a a heat heat map of kind of what the different um sources of funding are. Again, I think the thing that I I'm most proud of is is the donation piece, the foundation and harnessing um private uh donations as well. Uh this is the uh bond and the levy. The bond is uh half of what we asked for last time. Um and it will build a pool that is square footage wise uh the same uh one. Yeah. And then the levy um you know will uh uh also has been reduced by 10 cents uh less. But that is that was uh something that we just tried to hone in on and and really look at what are we doing? How do we support trails, recreation, community education and and sports teams for kids? Um this this is a hypothetical of of the timeline of it. Um, we we provide this just because we just want to make sure that the folks understand that this isn't something we're sitting on, you know, but it's also not going to happen May 20th, you know, there's there's a process that we need to go through to to um confirm the things that we've said we're going to do and then put those into action with a a a engineering diagram. That's that's something that

can be built upon. Um yeah, and again that was just a a meant to be a very quick overview of what we're trying to do. Um we again are looking for um your support as as uh influential members in our community and um this is part of my outreach. Uh not that you're not special, but I'm been speaking to PTO's uh the port uh all the special districts, the library, um just again to make them aware of what it is that we're trying to do and again the tax base because everything is and because of the limited means we have of of generating funds is it's all tax based. So as folks in their own considerations, they need to understand what we're trying to do here.

Thanks, Brian. Of course. Go ahead, Grant. Um, thanks for the information. It's a good capital lift. Um, our current facility requires ongoing maintenance and all that fun stuff. Anytime you invest a bunch of money into a capital facilities, there's going to be ongoing operational cost after the facility is built. Current facility is for example a fabric roofed facility. This one does not appear to be. So, it looks like a solid roofed structure. Can you perhaps elaborate on the long-term operating costs and how that perhaps reduces or minimizes operating costs long term?

So, right now we are expending capital in terms of time and staff to to keep that thing going and it's it's prayer and hope um that's what really is maintaining our ability to to run this pool. The facility that we're proposing is um going to be a permanent roof. It's not a fabric roof. And the maintenance costs associated with it. Um you know, we're we're trying to be optimistic, but it it it it won't change much, but it will be more efficient and we'll be able to do more with the dollars that we have. the the notion that that we're going to um have have a tremendously less costly pool is probably not going to be realized. pools are expensive to run and unless you uh um have them built alongside a fitness facility um they are uh difficult to to maintain in terms of of um breaking even but that community resource that does not minimize that that community resource in any way. uh we're we're having programs to for for all kinds of folks to be be able to come in and use it and so and we'll be continuing to do that, but the the costs are going to be what they are a future cost of maintenance and so those aren't going to be savings.

Sure. U as the the decision to perhaps put the pool in a solid structure as opposed to a fabric structure. Uh would you say that uh operationally minimizes the operational cost of that structure long term?

It will be more efficient in terms of energy in terms of of the staff um and the um or you know rolling doors by removing you know oneweek closure for removing the panels. We'll still have that public or that sorry that that uh outside inside experience. Um but it'll it will be more efficient. It will be more energy efficient. Um and the the engineers that we've worked with are are um pessimistic about uh the viability of a fabric group that they were pretty impressed that it's been it's still uh upright. Honestly, how so?

Uh given the snow load, wind load, and and environmental conditions uh and even the sun. I mean that that the the um what do you call that the when the the sun hits fabric and it it compromises the strength of the fabric. Thermal cycling. Yeah. It it it is like I said impressive that we've we've been able to make it as long as we have. So they didn't expect the canvas roof to last nearly this long anyway? No. And if we were to place it with a similar or like structure, it would not last nearly as long as this one.

Thankfully, you know, so if if we did, you know, if we went down that road of of looking at a fabric structure, and the the best case scenario is a roof that would last 20 years, best case, and the replacement of that fabric would be anywhere in the range of 15 to$18 million. So, uh, we are proposing instead a 50-year facility that has a permit. You mind if I have some? I'm I'm I'm the sidekick.

Kate McBride. I'm the uh chairman of the political action committee, Hood River Valley Residents for Parks and Recreation. Um, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, the question you asked, Grant, was um, just gonna take off your presentation so that the people at home can see you. Oh, more clearly. Oh, keep going.

Um, the the costs on the pool. Um, there's been some major I think there was 25 different things that happened within the last year that were not planned maintenance. They were issues, big issues that came up. And part of the problem is even though the cost might be uh somewhat similar when the new pool comes in, you aren't going to have these unexpected catastrophic issues that are sucking money out of community ed trail maintenance maintenance and additional things put into parks going into pool because it keeps breaking down um and they can't get parts. So I would that was one of the things that I remembered that that we talked about or

that's the similar the similarity in terms of running a pool. Um yep as well as uh it sounds like the life cycle cost of this building yes will be greatly extended thus lowering the operational cost of this building every single year it's in operation. So it sounds like from what you're saying the planning process is by design lowering the operational cost of this structure compared to what we have now. Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks. Um what I was gonna mention before, but I wanted Brian to go ahead and be able to do his uh presentation is um we spoke back in March and I during council comments, I asked if you guys would be receptive to um inviting Brian and and Parks and Rec District to here to listen a little bit more about what their plan was and we said that we would. And then um Brian gave provided me with a draft resolution and I enhanced it. So, the one that is in front of you guys, I I changed some of the wording a little bit. Um, specifically, I put in and I I do appreciate like I think the the verbiage that you gave us, Brian, was that the city of Hood River acknowledges that Hood River Valley Parks and Recck District currently manages essential public services, including youth and adult community education, and then so on. And I added, we appreciate it. Um, I I added a couple other things, too. Um, one of the things that I try to always think about as I go back to our mission and the the mission of the city of Hood River is to um provide essential services at the lowest possible cost to continually enhance the quality of life in Hood River. And this and actually the Dark Skies presentation does the same, clicks all three boxes. Um, I really do appreciate that the um the the amenity of having the pool and the trails and all the things that our district does for us uh is is low cost to us as a city organization and um and it really does enhance the quality of life and it is an essential service like to keep our our children safe um and have them learn how to swim um is is really really important. So, uh, some of the verbiage in here is mine, and I just want to say how important I think it is that, um, we as

a city support this, and thank you guys for, um, letting Parks and Rec come, and thank you guys for doing the work that you're doing. Lennis,

yeah, I appreciate both of you being here today and for this resolution. Before I go into a comment, I was curious to know more about your foundation. During the listening sessions that I attended, I was able to chat with uh the gentleman that is running the foundation and I was asking around, you know, this pool supports a a spectrum of ages, right? And a lot of that has health impacts on those individuals. So I was curious to know since those listening sessions, what sort of conversations have you had with like the health care agencies around additional ongoing grants? I did mention Paul Lindberg. He's a community impact health specialist. He really has brought in he and Clar millions of dollars into the region specifically focusing on healthc care sectors and collaboration and that's how there have been additional dollars that have been given. So my my question to both of you is since those listening sessions, has there been more intentional collaboration for grants so that it can continue to cover ongoing costs or programs um when all this is said and done?

So just one quick the grants that we're able to access largely uh deal with um the grounds and so it's it's a not an operational piece. It's not a programming piece. Um, and those are the ones that we're we're able to to see that is continuing with Mark uh uh and and his focus on that and Marcy uh and all the staff um are are looking at how to, you know, bring in those kinds of dollars. Um some of the the depiction that that was up there previously was was um including was inclusive of both uh the foundation's contributions through with grants and their own private and their own fundraising, but also um um what we're what we're hoping that we can all bring into this this uh this this bond uh with this bond. Um, in terms of the direct outreach, my understanding is that would be through the the parks and wreck itself and not the foundation. Uh, and we're relying on the foundation to be a fundraising room for us. Uh, and and we're we're we're able to, you know, like I said, Mark is is, you know, the Parkdale Park is a prime example of of when what we were able to harness with uh with through grants.

And so, I I'll definitely talk to him. uh we have our board meeting on Wednesday and and u make sure that we're you know including that. Uh I know with um the uh hospital um we're planning on I'm planning on uh outreach there. Um and so yeah, I'm I hope that answers a little bit or gives you some insight into what we're trying to do.

Yeah, I mean continue to tap into that realm because this is again it impacts what are called social determinants of health, right? all those factors that give someone a better health outcome in the long run. And I think the program pieces um like the Swim RX for example that has been funded by the Columbia Gorge Health Council for a number of years now for all Medicaid recipients. So, you know, keep keep going and tapping into them for for program money for some of the Yeah. for the programs that exist. And overall, I I again I appreciate you both being here. We do share taxpayers and and I appreciate the the sessions that have taken place in both English and in Spanish. The materials that have gone on gone out. Please make sure that materials continue to go out plain language English and in Spanish. And you know, I hope that this can just continue to be to be the beginning of more collaboration, more partnership in the future. Um because we we do share taxpayers, you know, all of us combined in addition to the county. So, I appreciate you both being here.

Thank you. We are heading for a motion eventually. We're ready for that.

I just wanted to thank you both for being here and, you know, share your sentiments about five and 50 and like I have a whole lot of conversations with people these days. Uh, you know, being that there's so many people that move from other states and don't quite understand the tax structure, it's it's quite a barrier to even go out and, you know, have to try to explain that. And I think the materials you've given so far. I was just talking to somebody about this the other night. It's pretty clear and concise like why the problem is there and whatnot. So I think you did a really good job with that. And uh yeah, I mean I think I had similar thoughts about the last time you went out for a bond. It's I I don't want to live in a community that doesn't have a pool and doesn't have services uh and trails and all these sorts of things. And uh it's unfortunate that the economic environment is what it is and we have no control over that u in any of the tax you know taxing districts or or anything. So it's I know it's it's a tough thing to ask for when people are hurting but I think it greatly improves the quality of life of everybody in the river and surrounding area and yeah I would support it again this time. I move we approve resolution 2026-05 supporting the Hooter Valley Parks and Recreation District's May 2026 bond and levy measures.

Moved by Rivera. Second. Second by Pollson. Uh further discussion. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? Chair motion passes. Thanks you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Go get them. I'm gonna give these to Abigail. Um, it has our website if you'd like to make a donation. I have to. Um, we also have signs. You can let Abigail know if you want one and I will make sure you get one if you'd like one. I have enough for all of you in English and three in Spanish. Great. Thanks, Kate.

That takes us to our consent agenda. We do have uh one OLCC for Cal's Own Pizzeria, my favorite pun of the month. Um so we're going to pull that off, but I would entertain a motion for approval of 1 2 4 5 and six. Uh mayor, I also have just a quick uh addit to the minutes. Great. Uh go ahead and tell us about that, will you?

Sure. Uh, under committee reports on page 13 says that councelor Mitchell stated at the CAT meeting a grant was approved. Uh, it wasn't the grant. Uh, it was the board approved uh, the application to submit for the grant. Great. Great. Thanks, Ben, for that correction. Staff, did you capture that? Gi given that small small change, I would entertain a motion for 1 through six minus two. So moved. Moved by Stpino. Second. Second by Cavaleri. Uh any discussion on the modified consent agenda? All in favor? I opposed. Chair votes I motion passes. Thank you. Now for item number two. I would entertain a motion.

So moved. Moved by Pollson. I'll second for Cal's own. Second. Just want to say. Yeah, exactly. Second by stina. 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 this council holds. A recent adoption of code allowing transportation networks is a step forward, but access remains limited, especially during late evenings, during late hours in our 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, Glattus. Uh been moved and seconded. Uh any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstension. Abstain. Rivera abstains. Chair votes eye. Motion passes. Thank you all. Uh takes us to the consolidated schedule of fees. Mr. Ljenetti. Thank you. Is the unofficial kickoff of the budget cycle.

So, uh this the city of H River annually adjust user fees, rates, and charges each year in preparation of the budget. Um each department has reviewed and updated the charges for services on the attached consolidated fee schedule. Uh and these are sub uh submitted for the 2026 2027 fiscal year. Um incrementally adjusting fees in alignment with an appropriate inflation index helps charges remain stable on a real dollar basis, lessens the need for periodic fee revisions and is consistent with the budget preparation under resolution 20207. Um this process is also consistent uh with the measures proposed in the fiscal sustainability strategy um which has been discussed in the last couple meetings by council. Um city general fees uh have been adjusted for the western states CPI index which increased 2.9% uh over the last calendar year. um building certain building and planning fees are linked to a construction cost index uh and that increased two and a half% during the same period. Um some notable chart changes in the fee schedule include parking. Um uh street lots uh so the cascade front and state street lots all remain sold out consistent with up uh with uh adopted parking procedures. Uh this fee schedule increases those monthly charges um by increasing them from $65 to $70 a month, an increase of $5. Um the price for the Columbia lot, uh which has now also reached occupancy thresholds, has also increased $5 to $30, but remains an affordable option for downtown employees. Um hourly parking rates remain $1.25 an hour. The city offers three daily parking passes for me spaces, each based on a$125 per hour rate and an eight hour parking day. Daily work permits, one-day passes, and a hotel guest parking pass are each available for $10 a day. Work permits

are associated with downtown construction activities. One-day park passes are available for at the front desk for walk-in customers, and the hotel pass is available for bulk purchases by downtown hotel operators. Um the cost of these passes remains unchanged in the fee schedule. The remaining parking fees not addressed above uh have been adjusted for the inflation index consistent with prior year practices. Um planning fee schedule went through a larger adjustment in the previous fee schedule. Uh the 2027 fee schedule applies an annual inflation index um adjustment across most planning fee categories. Um, parking and loo fees were implemented by resolution 20208 uh and had been adjusted only for changes in CPI until it was increased 20% to $4,240 in the previous fee schedule. The current fee schedule proposes an additional increase of 20% uh to just over 5,000 per parking space. Uh the increased fee continues to allow developers to pay a set fee. Her parking space and move construction consistent with the terms of the resolution and funds collected under the in fee are deposited into a dedicated fund to operate, maintain and expand the parking system of Red River. Um building fees is a restricted fund separated from the general fund and the use of those of the revenues generated through building fees reside exclusively in building fund operations. The 2027 consolidated fee schedule is the third year of a categoral update of these building fees. Um the building fees are informed by the jurisdictions of Wasco County and Hood River County and changes for the fiscal 2027 year provide for a 5% increase in most mechanical and structural permit fees and a similar 5% hourly fee increase for inspections and administrations and administration. Statutory requirements provide that these building

fees additionally be reviewed by the state of Oregon building code divisions. Uh as such your review is an initial step in the process that also requires sub subsequent state approvals. um system development charges uh the current fee schedule reflects the second year of SDC rate adjustments um which are consistent with the comprehensive evaluation of the city's impact fee uh which was completed in April 2025 by council. So these increases are those that were outlined in those resolutions that were passed. Uh construction and writeway fees which appear in section nine of the of the schedule um are primarily the engineering fees. These provide fees uh these these provide for reimbursement for the engineering department for time and expense for providing plan reviews and construction observations. Many of these base fees were updated with the 2019 adoption of the standards document but were unchanged since that time. So, current changes to the fee schedule include general fee increases to better reflect engineering work, a 3% review fee that is part of a level two site plan review and in and reinspection fees that are consistent with those employed in the building fee schedule. Additionally, the grading fee schedule has been updated for inflationary increases and now moved uh to this engineering schedule. Um, this has been approved by the state building code division. Uh, as far as removing in from building fees and migrating up to this schedule. Uh, under utilities, I'd like to note that the current fiscal year is the final year of the city's existing 5-year utility rate plan. Um, utility rated utility rate recommendations for the coming fiscal year are not included in this fee schedule uh and will be presented to council under a separate presentation. taxing and transportation network

company licensing charges. Uh so the revised chapter 520 uh allowed for TNC's um and the requirements that were associated uh therein. Resolution 202520 initially established an annual license fee of $1,000 for TNC corporate applicants plus a fee of $100 for each driver accessing the digital network to operate in the city. Um, based on discussions with TNC's and to better facilitate alternative transportation options, the current fee schedule reduces the driver permit to $50 per driver for each driver conducting more than 10 trips per year in the city of Hood River. Um, does not change uh the corporate license fee, but establishes a maximum fee cap of $2,000. Lastly, the use of city property. The Stratton Rose Garden located uh on the off the Second Street stairs is the only city park available for private group rentals. Um recent reservation activity has been for larger events ranging from 70 to 100 people uh and with more frequency than those traditionally hosted in the past. The fee schedule provides for a three-hour rental fee increased to $250. This rate corresponds to other public event sites of similar capacity in other regions uh and for the increase in maintenance costs for the more frequent use. All fees uh are included in the fee schedule that's presented as part of the council packet. Um and staff recommends a receipt of this of these fee schedules review of the fee schedule and preparation for a public hearing at the next council meeting for adoption. Uh the city may also direct fee schedule changes or request modifications to consolidated fee schedule. Thank you.

Thank you Chris. So many items in here each of them essential to our operating the city. Uh some of them we may want to talk about uh you know a sub a substantial amount. I don't want to hold up the the vast majority of them because some of them are more complicated and we may not be all in agreement. So, sort of in general, what I'm imagining is that we will perhaps identify the ones that we can't all get behind and sort of cherrypick those out and be able to move ahead on with the process for the the the again the vast majority of them. Uh to sort of that's that's my vision. Go ahead.

Uh may Thank you, mayor. And I also understand that there are some of these that you would want to pull out and have a policy conversation about um which would be more appropriate as a you know noticed item on its own piece. Uh I will say we need to have something in the fee schedule fairly soon so that we can move our budget process forward. So I would make a recommendation um and you have a hearing at your next meeting. So, this is not a motion tonight, but I would recommend that um you know, staff has brought you recommendations and use those as placeholders in some case something were to happen in the next couple months until you have a time to have a proper policy conversation, properly notice it. If you want us to do any public engagement, so just to recognize that we can't go without any guidance on fees uh while you debate or discuss, we need to have something in place. Hannah,

I'm generally okay with most all of this except for the TNC thing. I I think we were waiting to hear back from TNC's and I just I I don't I mean I appreciate what you're saying about like let's have a placeholder, but um just based on public comment that we all received um I don't think there's a lot of equity in reducing fees for one category of taxi and transportation network company. um folks and not doing it for someone else and I just think that the enforcement piece is going to be difficult. So um I know I I heard what you said like we're not really gonna have a policy discussion about this or tonight, but as a group we already decided that these were going to be what they were. Um I don't I don't really like the idea of reducing the permit um the the driver of permit fee for TNC corporate applicants.

Nice. And if I may just a little bit of background to where we are on that. Um I think it was back in February is the last time that we heard from Uber as a company and then uh Lyft as a company. I had reached someone. They've tried to connect me with the right person and that has also probably been a month since I've gotten anything. So we are really struggling to connect with those two companies. So why why would we reduce the fee if we haven't really connected with them yet? Well, this was based on last on the last conversation. So this is where we this is where we landed um with we were in consultation with Uber and so this is where we landed with Uber. I identified them and we're going to go to council with this fee schedule if they have any final comments and they haven't they haven't.

So as we are right now um just to be clear um there is a fee schedule that exists. It is as in resolution 2024520 I believe. Uh so it's $1,000 per for the for the corporate license, $100 per driver, um which is not necessarily defined. Um, it's all self-reported. Um, and so, uh, as of right now, my understanding is neither Uber noryft are are sort of legally operated within the city. Um, I don't I do not believe you can use the app, uh, to to call them. So, um, uh, this would be proposed change, right? So, so absent action, the right the existing resolution remains in effect. So procedurally, at least one of us wants to talk a little bit more about the TNC number, but we will make a note of that and move forward with the whole piece and with the the sort of season is open now for ones that some of us want to talk more about. Is that kind of the way we're going to proceed?

I think so. Although I'd like to clarify. I think councelor Cavaleri was asking that we keep the current fee schedule that was passed by the previous resolution until such time that we bring you a different fee. So no. Is that correct? Not not the one that was put in the proposed fee schedule. It just I'm I'm trying to balance the like are we going to talk about line items now or are we going to decide here's the list of line items we're going to talk about and let's get this thing passed. And this is a little bit closer to we're actually now sort of debating about it and we don't have time to debate about all the ones that any of us want to talk about.

Mayor, my question would be then if we if we adopt this now and then who was like great, we're all going to pay 50 bucks and we're in and we're moving forward like I is that what would happen or is there an effective date because I I what I'm saying is it's not equitable for us to agree to a reduction in a rate and then decide to talk about it later that at that point it's too late. I just think that it'd be better to keep the fee as it is currently as it was in our resolution, but this is um up for conversation. I I'd rather talk about that now than adopt this in its form and then say well we can always change it later.

I would I would second that. um let's keep it as is or how it was previously written and if today is not the time that we're going to have that discussion that we have that discussion but we go with what we already have as opposed to adopting what is written in our packet for TNC now because it does create an inequity and I know that staff has been working hard to try and reach transportation networks and that we haven't heard back and it absolutely makes sense to not go down that route if we haven't had buyin and at the same time that the the county still doesn't have this adopted in in in the county, right? And that also impacts if these transportation networks come here because the city of Hood River is such a small population that it makes more sense if we were expanded. So, I think there's other policy pieces that impact the TMC as well. Uh in addition to that, I think uh if we can talk about parking and Lou later on as well. And then I was just curious about the the street trees. there was like a 6% increase and I'm trying to understand the calculation and you know what about smaller projects like how are we making that equitable so that

uh do you see the current fee schedule for lift and as an impediment for working with them or they're like oh they're twice the fee of somebody else I'm just making things up here but does that hinder the conversation I think the fee schedule as it currently sits is they are not going to operate in the city under those terms. And so, uh, we had been discussing with them, but we have not reached a final conclusion. So, if we were to lower the fee schedule, do you think they'd start returning your phone calls? Is kind of what I'm getting at. Not sure. I mean, uh, you mean lower it than what was than what's listed in your packet today? No. No. Is what's listed in our packet? Yeah, that's when we lost track of them, so I don't know. Okay. So,

and we can certainly invite uh the Uber rep has would be willing to come. I mean, if we can reach her, she has in the past indicated she'd be willing to present to you uh at a future meeting. So, we can end with that. I'll just say that I'm I'm in favor of I I don't feel like it needs to be passed today if we can do it soon after this. But, if we have to lower the fee, I think we have to lower the fee to be in line with what other cities do and not make it

make us stick out like a sore thumb and say you're only a little tiny area. Uh I think it's really important for us to get that extra uh transportation option. That being said and also as part of that entertain reducing the fees for the taxi operators. So if I'm keeping track that's uh two different points of view on this issue that we have now heard from counselors. Keep it keep it higher perhaps bring it forward. Right. Mhm. Uh other other the grant that amendment perhaps put it lower but also the tax gaps and fair. Thank you. Keep it equitable. Keep it. Okay. Yes. Good point. Thank you. Good grant.

This is starting to sound like a policy discussion around TNC's and not a just fee discussion. Um I would propose that if we're going to have another TNC policy discussion, we have another TNC policy discussion at perhaps a different time. um we set our TNC and taxi fees I believe intentionally when we did that um in ratios to each other I believe equitably. Um so if we wish to revisit those we should at some point revisit those um perhaps not in this forum or in this fee schedule right now. Um so if if there's interest in doing that in the future, we should do that in the future. I don't think we should go about um changing policy, which I think is what we're talking about by changing a fee schedule in this manner in relation to each other, which I think is what the conversation we're having if I'm understanding what's going on correctly. A Amanda and and then Subpina and and River.

I just want to say I'm in favor of keeping it the original resolution for now. Come back, talk about it later. Change it. Um, also in favor of talking about inland parking at some point in the future. Um, and guess it. Also, I just had some really uh this is a personal thing maybe, but I was very confused about the light pole banner hanging. Uh I think that I understand it now. It's not your sign is being charged $90 per hour, but it's the labor to hang the sign. Is that correct? Okay. I was like used to a lot of the announcement.

Okay. Thank you. That's good clarification. That's so why why is a a policy change if we're adjusting the fees because if if we are changing policy by adjusting fee we could change policy by adjusting any fee by staff action if does that make sense well we can do that though I think right like

we because we would like we wouldn't be doing it if staff would be doing it we we would we would be shap We we had this massive discussion about TNC's and set fees intentionally earlier um and through this action we have a recommendation to change this particular element of this fee structure thus change the the intentionality of the policy that we set.

Well, it could be could be viewed in that in that way. Well, I I mean I think moving the I think correct me if I'm wrong here like anything that's a fee that's on here we can revisit at any time, right? So to me, you know, if I think like moving the actual fee amount is a discussion that's more towards the fee schedule and I don't I don't see a policy shift. I think we tried to be equitable with how we decided it before. So I think in the spirit of you know again I don't want to I'm agreeing with the mayor. I think we should debate it tonight, but I I think uh I'm not sure it changes the intention of policy.

Sure. May I suggest that for the hearing next in at your next meeting, we bringing back the original status quo fee. um because this is uh because I think one that's the majority I'm hearing and that is the current status quo and then I if we will try again to reach uh our TNC businesses out there and see if they wish to come to a meeting and try to get that scheduled so you can have a full conversation about the fee and any other policy issues you might have around TNC's. Also, I uh I've talked to staff and I think we can try to get the inloo um parking u scheduled for May 11th. And that would be I think just a history of like make sure we all have a shared understanding of how we got to the inloo fee we currently have and then be asking you about any other policy questions or public engagement or you know how you want to move forward on that. So we already got that one pencled in for May 11th. So should should the inloose fee be treated the same status quo until that conversation's

um yes great question Chris thank you guys

I just wanted to make a comment that you know I was the one that brought up policy around transportation network just because the the county hasn't adopted anything right and so that could be one of the issues why we're not hearing from some of these transportation networks when they're saying hood river is so small right so I think I was the one that threw out the word policy But my intention was let's table this one. Let's leave it as is with the original resolution and then let's talk about it at a later time. So I I was the one that threw out the word policy. So I'm just wanted to um I don't know I lost my loss of words. clear that everyone

other fees other than TNC and in lie that we are interested in uh uh having a more thorough discussion of Chris actually I just want to acknowledge Ca's comment on the street trees I wonder if you could say on that because I know that supposed to be 6% that should I what I suspect has happened is that sort of is two increases it should have been it should have been two and a half% so let me let me revisit that and I'll come back with that as well thank Thank you, Chris. Uh, Ben, and then Doug.

Yeah, I had the same note about uh street trees. I also noticed that the demo permit fee also had gone up by a significant margin compared to other elements. I was just curious um about why was all Can you give me a reference on that? Um that is on page 48 of our packet. I think it went from 58 to $110. Okay. I think. And that's in building or planning. Good question. My computer went to sleep. So building. Say it in building. Is that Amanda? It's building.

Yeah, it's building. I see that. Um I I believe that is intentional. That was uh put forth by the building department. And so I'll need to have them uh specifically respond to that. Glattison. And then Anna, I also had a question on page 36 of the packet. It talks about tribal member parking. And I was just curious to know like how many vouchers have been redeemed. Well, because I see it says fee waved, but I was just curious to know like how many have been issued. Yeah, we we have been keeping track of that. I can get you a copy of it. That's okay. Cool. Thanks. Ben,

um I just wanted to ask about the the Stratton Rose Garden use. Um I I rarely see anybody up there and it's such a beautiful space. I is there a reason why we're doing just a three-hour time limit? And I mean, can't we do we do we I mean that I guess I guess that's a policy question for later, too. But um I think we should be encouraging people to use our public space as much as they would like. I I'm not opposed to a um a rental amount, but three hours is barely enough time to get in there, set something up, and have a party and then get out.

Thank you, Anna. So, in my view, that's like on the list of like ones we're going to talk about, but not before we have the broader. Thank you. That's exactly I'm hoping uh Glattus and Doug. Okay, I promise this is my last one. I think it is actually uh the downtown metered uh spaces would love to have a future conversation about that. I think uh so um as part of the we try so as far as downtown meter spaces and specifically the hour the hourly rate or

uh so as it relates to that um we try to be we're trying to be very intentional with regards to what those rates are. increased 25 cents uh which is a 25% increase um two years ago. Uh as part of our budget um we are including some work to do an updated parking study for downtown policies and I suspect that part of that would be revisiting um at what point rates should be increased. So again um understanding the sensitivity to sort of you know of that issue um just making sort of an off-the- cuff increase uh is is inconsistent with our policy practices. And so I want to follow up with Ben.

I just wanted to clarify my um you know question about the demo permit fate wasn't like to have it pulled off or we debated I just just it was a curiosity guy. Just want to make that clear. Doug, last one I swear. Um so just related to what what Glattus was saying too and maybe this is related to Chris. So the the $10 fee for a daily parking rate, will that be revisited as well? Uh in addition to like the$125 per hour. Yeah. So it's I mean the methodology for that is a$125 per hour parking rate and then an eight hour parking day. Yeah. Um so it would it would logically change if the hour if the hourly rate changed.

Okay. So that that is something I'd like to discuss at some point too. Um the lot have the lots when's the last time all the lots were full? Well, he he uh you mean all he he told us about some of us? You mean every single lot? Well, yeah. the the three major lots are full right now. I think this is the first time the Columbia lot has been booked. That's what I'm saying. Like

it's like in recent maybe years ago, but I doubt it. Um we'd have to find out. I'd like to know, but we're at capacity, you know, we'll obviously adjust rates based on that. Theoretically that, you know, brings some more spots in, but we're kind of at this inflection point. I kind of feel like and been hearing from some of the downtown businesses about a lot of cars being parked all day from you know uh people taking advantage of that program due to lack of parking. I think it brings up what should that fee be and should we be revisiting things like a parking structure and whatnot. So um again not for tonight but that that $10 fee sticks out to me is something that should be discussed not going any further than that. to that point. I know that uh my uh my choice of what to say has been limited by the uh pending appeal for the Marriott. Now that that has been withdrawn, I really don't want to wake up tomorrow and hear that some other hotel has been proposed and thank you very much. We're going to take this in Lou fee that I think some of us are interested in revisiting. Um, so I I don't know about the right order of operation or speediness of that, but how anybody else feels about that?

Just that I'm hearing your urgency and and uh and as staff that if we could start that conversation May 11th if that's okay. I mean, you have one meeting before that, but from a bandwidth issue, I don't think we can bring it to you on the 27th. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And just and just to be clear, sort of functionally um all of these fees that we're discussing at any point in time would not be eligible or not be uh implemented until July 1st, the beginning of the fiscal year, right? So absent other action, the existing fees for everything that's being discussed here sort of remains the same. That would include parking and load. So So what June 30th hotel application old fee, current fee it? Yeah. Yeah, that's

Thank you. I understand. I I don't mean to be like so cranky and like let's get this done. I just I I like how we're issue spotting and not dis deliberating each issue. I think that's really really great. Any any other issues that we want to make sure get captured so that staff can help us uh have the discussions we want. So

this is great. So I think my my takeaways here uh based on the discussion that we've had with regards to the the uh public comment um that would be the next city council meeting um with regards to TNC's uh that would be a separate discussion at a separate time. Um the fee schedule will reflect that the fees remain unchanged be a notation there. Um other things that uh that would be the same for fem pardon I'm sorry the pardon fee and loo um there's additional discussion as regards to the demo fee on building just an explanation to that uh I will check the street permit fee I'm sorry the street tree fee to correct that um or see if that is correct um and then we would discuss the three-hour limit uh time limit with regards to straten Did he miss anybody?

Great. And come back with some data on the tribal. And to Chris's point that uh a week from Wednesday is the second chapter of the budget season. We have our first budget meeting if I'm not mistaken. So, let's just have that all on our our calendars. It's coming up Wednesdays in April and May. Great. Anything else on this topic? Did we provide the the input we needed and wanted? I have what I need. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Chris. Uh, the ICE update.

Thank you, Mayor. just wanted to take a few minutes in your meeting today to hear back from you about the listening sessions that we recently conducted. So, you'll remember back in January, I think it was, it's been a long time, uh, we contracted with the Next Door to um, facilitate listening sessions around immigration enforcement, recognizing that we probably have some community members who are never going to feel comfortable or safe enough to come and present to you in public. And so, we wanted to make a safer space. I want to thank all of you for making the time. All of you attended a session. I also got to attend one. Um Jackie, a community engagement coordinator, also attended one or two of them. So want first of all to hear if you had any thoughts or wanted to share your impressions um about that and then I'm going to share a little bit of information about the town hall scheduled for April 23rd. So I'll turn it back to the mayor to facilitate. Uh, one of us Doug Doug or Ben sort of spoke a bit about it. You were asked when's the time and you had sort of had had some responses that you you shared. Uh, I think that was sort of in the the direction we were were going if anyone cared.

And if I could I guess I sorry to interrupt just for the public to know um these were um like I say uh they were invitation only. They you know was only two counselors at any one time. So it was not a public meeting, not a quorum. Um and we had four um focus groups. Two of them were in Spanish. Um one of them was uh focused and and was invited uh business leaders and managers and then the fourth was um a youth focused meeting. So just to acknowledge that they were not for of the exact same meeting. They were very intentionally um these particular groups. Thanks Abigail. Anybody go ahead

join me on this. Uh so yeah, Amanda and I um we attended the the business edition in English. So we got to hear from a lot of local business owners. I think thematically uh a lot of what they talked about was their impact on their employees. So the same things that we would have heard in in other sessions uh based on the output from the next door, you know, um family members that are afraid to go outside. Um certainly felt like that came up quite a bit. Um and as that related to businesses, businesses had to make a lot of adjustments say offering delivery services um which they didn't many of them noted they didn't feel good about charging additional fees um or anything like that. So um just out of the kindness of their heart just you know kind of offering more services to adjust. Um all the businesses felt impacts um all the businesses had employees that were afraid to come to work. all businesses uh you know were were I suppose you know a subset of them were saying that they were really confused about what they should be doing. Should I put up signs that say don't come come in here ICE? Is that making us seem like a target or what are we allowed to do? Those sorts of things. So I think comes in line with you know just more education that we can provide uh that's out there about about their rights. Um but yeah, I think just reading through the reports, you know, we can consistently say I think from hearing about the employees that uh that's a huge impact and there's a lot of stories that these businesses are collecting from their employee base and whatnot. Um so a good conduit of of understanding of of what's out there. But yeah, um difficult conversation. Um I think everybody was very happy to be able to have a forum to do that. um that seemed to be very important, but yeah, uh didn't didn't make me feel good about what's going on out there anymore before. It made me feel good that the city's spending time and energy and

money and considers this an emergency. Anything to add?

Yeah, I would just say, yeah, it seemed to definitely affect employees and customers um and just business volume in general. Um, the other thing that kind of stuck out for me was that I think business owners and even people just that work at businesses, uh, I think they kind of act as leaders in the community. And so people come to them looking for advice or um, information or things like that. So guidance, I guess. So it seemed like the business owners were also taking on this responsibility of like being having that um you know looked to for those things. And so I think if we can try to resource the business owners so that they can be more of that for the community also because they're talking to a lots more people. So

yeah, well said.

I talked last time so and jumped the gun clearly. So if council has anything to I'll let her speak on it.

Thanks. I um well I thought you did a good job of summarizing exactly what we got in our report and um I I think that the listening sessions were very worthwhile and the biggest takeaway I had was um we need to do this stuff more often like um I think Glattus you said you know it it makes a big difference to show our our community that we come out and seek their input not that we always just wait for them to come in here and speak to us during during their three minutes of public comment, but that we go out and engage with them. And honestly, I've seen all of you guys do that. I mean, all of you are really really good at that, and I I try to do the same. Um I I come back to, you know, I think this was very worthwhile. I'm glad we did it. Um and I come back to so what what are we doing now? And what can we do now? And um you know what you know I still feel like as a city there's not much we don't have authority to actually do much um like what you just said Amanda about uh you know helping our business leaders be um supplied with information. Uh you know I think that collaboration is a big key and you know that's a good uh chamber of commerce thing. I mean although I think our chamber is now more focused on um the tour it's called visit Hood River so I think it's more tourist um directed but which we're we're grateful to have tourists here but you know maybe Rotary I guess would be a good group of like how how can we engage the business community to be supportive to our locals. um collaboration a collaboration and accessibility and communication I think is is the things that we can do. But as far as you know what authority do we actually have to do anything to

really protect our citizens I'm not I'm not sure what that is. I still don't have that answer. Just real quick the there is a chamber it's vis there's like a there's visit hood river and there's a chamber but the visit hood river you know they facilitate it. So to your point, like maybe we could be arming the chamber with information that we have so they could disseminate it and filtering that information through there. Yeah.

Um I had an opportunity to join one of the Spanish sessions and you know there's there's a couple of themes. one, folks were so very grateful that we as a council decided to do something and to have intentional conversations in a safer environment for folks to just freely express themselves. Um, I mean, what I heard was really heartbreaking. For the most part, most people don't know that they can reach out directly to counsel. They had no idea about our emails, phone numbers. So I think there's communication efforts on our end where we can do better to partner with organizations around how people can get a hold of us because anyone can get a hold of us. Um didn't have an understanding of like our meetings, what we do. We can have all sorts of policy that we amend to our resolution to state like we're going to have you have to have a judicial warrant, right, to come in and and take somebody But what we've seen in the last couple months is that this federal government doesn't care. They will they don't follow rules, right? So I think there's policy pieces that we can absolutely add to add more teeth as we've heard from folks say. I don't know that that would necessarily be followed. What I also hear is a cry for more mental health resources such as suicide prevention for for youth, peer support for the people that have been impacted who have physically witnessed this and are still traumatized. And I know that we don't do healthcare, but how do we better collaborate and partner with organizations that are already providing those services? Because the next door provides some of

those services when community health, right? The the hospital provides some of that. So, I think it's going to more conversations with our peers around who's doing what, but then how are we all consistently messaging that through our social media, on our websites, you know, whatever it may be. but that it's one consistent message so that folks know, okay, I can go to the next store for this, I can go to the food bank for that. And then the other piece that we discussed early on is what sort of fiscal impact do we have? Is it $10,000 that we give to said organization? I know that we had asked Chris like what is that contingency fund look like for these, you know, at a time they were gonna they had taken away SNAP benefits, right? Like can we do something? do we do something? What are those dollars that we have reserved for these rainy days that we have seen and will continue to see because there's still a couple more years of this administration and some of these challenges. Um, the other piece that I heard quite a bit was while folks appreciated the video that went up around police where our police officer talked about like, you know, what they wear, that that message needs to continue, right? And to inform people about what our local police looks like versus ICE officers, for example. you know, what is um just create for the police department to create more trust and rapport within the Latino community and that it's not just a one-time thing. I will agree with councelor Cavaleri that there's there's pieces that we, you know, we can write all the policy we want and and this administration isn't going to do anything about it to honor it. And and we are also seeing other cities that are in a similar situation. And most recently in our last session that took place within the Oregon legislature, they do have new rules around masking,

right? You you have to be able to identify yourself. So, as our district attorney sits here in this room, the state is trying to also add more protections. whether the federal government sees it that way or doesn't, you know, I there's so many gray spaces that that local jurisdictions are having to navigate right now. And yeah, I think we're we're just in a tough time. But what I do see that we can absolutely do is continue communication efforts. What are those fiscal pieces? And then as much as we can, what are the policy pieces that we can add more more uh language to our existing resolutions and and that we continue more events like this or sessions like this for other matters so that our our community really can come in and that we are co-creating policy together because we don't know everything. We don't speak for everyone and it's important that we continue to extend those invitations to come and tell us directly what you think and that we continue to partner with organizations that are willing to do this work. So that's all for me. Thank you, Councelor Rivera. And you know, I think some of the things that you just said and some of the things that we've learned from other cities is, you know, what can we do? I think by us continuing to become experts and and keep the the eye on this, um, you know, Abigail has put together a lot of amazing information that's that's other Oregon cities are getting, right? Um so I I think by us continuing those types of efforts um we can disseminate that information people will start coming to us for that type of information if they are continually engaged. I think that's part of it as well. And I also think we need to think about, you know, some of the the the impacts and, you know, I

know we don't have endless money. Um, but how can we support some of these businesses that have been affected? Um, how can we support the next door if they are have programs for example that uh can support affected community members? um you know is is is is there any funding that we can offer to to help bolster that type of activity? You know, when council river and I met with um several other cities and had a lot of information uh relate to us by, you know, the mayor of Hillsboro, you know, Hillsboro has got a lot more money than Hood River, but you know, programs where they where they have tow truck drivers that are that are picking up cars that have been left. um you know they they've been able to filter some money and and and funds and whatnot to affected businesses you know and I I know it might not be something that you know will move the needle as much as as as a city that's got more funding but at least us demonstrating that will continue that and foster that collaboration with the community. Um, and I think that's that goes a long way right now based on what I heard in these sessions, right? Um, we have some repair to do. And I think I've said it before, you know, if we're not showing up for this community now, then they'll they'll forget about us forever or for a long time. It'll it'll be a lot harder to repair. So, um, I think we have to keep doing what we're doing. As I was sitting in the session, I remembered that I think it was 11 years ago, there was an article in the Hood River News declaring that the first ever Spanish language testimony had occurred to city council. And I was thinking about how many folks we've seen, you know, trying to find the the white dot on the red circle like it's not super comfortable to come talk to us even if you have no concerns about your immigration status or your English language skills. and getting to be ringside. It was like a fireside chat watching a facilitated discussion asked questions asked in Spanish

answered in Spanish and I just got to watch it was such a valuable uh piece of communication that happened. So kudos to us and Abigail and Next Door for setting that up. It was really a valuable piece of programming. So glad we we did that. Glattus. Yeah, I just want to reiterate again that just how much I personally appreciate that that this council is doing something about it. And you know, I had mentioned at one point when I was growing up and and seeing ICE at Safeway and we knew like everyone has to hide, our council at that time did not do anything and it might have been because they didn't know, right? They didn't have trust and rapport within the community. But I appreciate that we're doing something, that we're saying something, and that we own that we don't have all the solutions, but that we can co-create together. So really just thank you for go us.

Uh Amanda,

I was just wanted to add something similar to Paul. um that I heard a lot of it's hard to come to council, it's scary, it's hard to fit what we want to say into three minutes. Uh that they people appreciated having the opportunity to tell more of a story. Um so I just like want to I think we do need to obviously communicate better how to reach out to all of us. Um, and I encourage us to like respond to that and a like and go and meet people and have conversations even if it's not a facilitated group conversation. Um, I think that's super important. So, yeah.

Abigail, were you grant ahead?

Uh, second Amanda saying that is I view council's responsibility to meet people where they are at. We it is our responsibility to go out to the community talk with folks anytime they want to talk with us. Uh we should be out there meeting talking with folks at any point they can contact us however they wish to contact us chat with us anytime. Um something I think that would be pretty simple straightforward for us to do not cost a lot of money is we put together the networks of people we know resources that are available. we have a lot of this already. Um, and build out the network of connections that we know have established that will help people if they're going through any sort of trauma in any way, shape, or form. Um, wherever that may be, should anything ever happen, um, that if anything does happen, we can help them through any sort of traumatic event like this. So, that that's a that's a really quick way that we can we can we can address a lot of this,

right? you are as as you guys were speaking I kind of had in my mind this idea of I don't know if our current website already has this but a community resources link I think we do but that's where you can say like fish food bank um the next door uh you know any of these groups that want to you know businesses you like just community yeah um connections type stuff like having links to that would be One more thing. Um I saw I think it was in the report that we got about people maybe wanting to um reach out to us anonymously. Is there a way like on our website where they can like do they have to enter an email? Do they have to put a name on something where they could just submit a comment and not be known?

That's a good question and I'm not sure the answer. I will follow up. What that makes me think of is not quite it, but uh I get phone calls, you know, on my city voicemail and it shows me the phone number, but if somebody were to call and say, "Hey, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to tell you who I am, but here's my opinion." Like, I could find them by calling them back, but they don't have to leave their name, so I don't doesn't seem quite right. But and this day and age, I'm not like wicked looking forward to have a big old tell me what you want and don't tell me who you are. Like that's that goes bad. Yes. But I think like I don't know this felt more like a safety issue. Oh, I understand. But I can see the trucks driving through the middle of that loophole in a big hurry. on it.

I mean, we have been talking about community engagement framework and so maybe this is one of those pieces that we do highlight because Oregon public meeting laws does state that there can be a public public records request and folks names can be, you know, if they're even if they're sending you an email and they write anonymous on there, we still have their email. Um, so I think we should continue having this conversation of what does that look like and how do we make it I don't know. We have a checklist that we're giving out to these organizations and they're capturing comment and they're submitting on behalf of folks, right? Something like that. Now I'm thinking about like the actual suggestion box like that. Yeah.

When I was a kid, we had a workplace with that. Like you could write it on a piece of paper and put it in like that was anonymous. Anything else on this topic?

If if I may add, I had the opportunity to attend one of the sessions and what was particularly gratifying for me as the leader of your operations. Whereas uh the comments that we heard from staff that felt that uh that the city as a whole and that staff members are also supportive of our residents. Um, there was in the session that councelor Pollson and I attended, there was a little shout out and some appreciation of our police, many of whom speak Spanish, uh, feeling like they weren't going to turn us over to ICE, that that there really was a distinction between federal agents and our local uh, police officers. And I was gratified to hear that that that has been received and we will continue to communicate that. So, also just want to say on record, uh, thank you to Jackie Vanderpo who has been coordinating all of this with the next door. So, uh, thank all around. Um and then I wanted to take just a minute to share with you. You all have heard a little bit about this from me but hear your feedback and then also just publicly comment on um the planned uh uh town hall. So we have now that we have done our really quiet private kind of safer conversations. We want to have a more uh public conversation that is also not standing here at Adas uh um in this meeting space but um so next Thursday we will have a town hall at the middle school. I believe it's been moved to the auditorium but we'll have people there to direct. Um, and the way I see that format is uh you all some opening comments to kind of get things started and then the next door will be giving a report on things we heard in the listening sessions, other things that they're observing in the community, some recommendations they might have on how the city might respond to those things and then one or two other agencies, you know, a healthcare provider or mental health provider or education um to also give their perspective. So you get that high level kind of agency view and then open the floor for folks to give their comments and share their experiences. Um it's really set for just two hours. So this will be a fairly short piece.

5 to 7. Is that right? I believe it's 6 to 8. 6 to 8.

Um I will look that up before we finish tonight's meeting and confirm that. But I believe it's 6 to 8. Um and then uh just some closing comments and some impressions from all of you. This is not a policy meeting. Uh this is not where you're going to make any decisions. It's really that time to take all of this feedback and and hear from folks. And then you you have another that's Thursday. You have a meeting on Monday, April 27th. That's not a lot of turnaround time, but uh we'll create some space on that meeting for you all to share uh what you heard or what things you thought of over the weekend. Um and then if you have any direction for me on any action you'd like to take. So, it's a multi-step process. I'm sorry about that. But I think it really allows for you all to have some space to process it. Also, if someone wants to follow up with you directly afterwards, there's a little bit of space between the town hall and your next meeting and then two weeks later for any kind of action that you might direct.

I just want to talk this through a little bit that some of us were at Senator Widen's town hall like two weeks ago or 10 days, whatever. At that town hall, the structure pretty much is the public asks and the senator responds. At this town hall, same name, it is not going to be that. We are not going to respond, right? you because it is looser than you know normally people sign up they get exactly three minutes we might even have a timer running um this could be a little bit looser than that but depending on how big the crowd is um you will have to kind of modulate how much time you want to give each person well and again that's but it's not a it's not a dialogue it's not a facilitated sit down conversation

even a question and answer I mean it's mostly it's listening that's what I want to get clear on so we have sort of the right expectation going in class I think just setting I mean yes you're spot on and that we reiterate that to folks in at the beginning of the meeting like we're going to do our best to answer as many questions if we don't get to them like here's a parking lot of things we're not making any decisions today our intention is just to listen to what you have to say

that's right thank you for that um and I I would ask you know if you have availability to stay afterwards if people might really want to approach you one-on-one maybe they weren't um you feeling comfortable publicly speaking, but they might grab you before the session, before you um leave. So, uh have that opportunity to bring your business cards in case anybody wants to follow up with you or send you an email. Um those pieces. So, make it a little bit more relaxed, but it will still have to have some structure in order to be finished in two hours. I I love the parking lot idea. Will there be any sort of like a whiteboard facilitator like like tools? I mean I'm I'm I will be chairing like I I don't want to feel under under prepared.

Yeah. The um the next door is uh they have several different roles here. Um one they will be providing translators or interpreters. Um so people will have headsets. Um so that will be another piece like we want to make sure that when you speak or when uh anyone speaks that there's enough time to allow for interpretation. Um and then they are responsible for providing um minutes and a report after the event. So I don't know that that will happen in the in the moment but I will also be there and I'm happy to like facilitate a parking lot and other kind of action item not action items but other important things that need to get captured and and then Glass is the intention of the town hall to address specifically the ICE issues or are we going to be talking like can anybody come and speak to us about whatever they want?

Great question. Thank you for that. This is specifically uh to hear about the impacts of immigration enforcement and I I think we in all of our public messaging. Yeah, I I was just going to say um Oh, I lost my train of thought. Uh no, that's okay. Uh the parking lot um that if maybe we as staff can just or all of us sitting there being intentional about the next door like, hey, make sure you write this as a parking lot item so that it does come back and they are because they will be note takingaking during that time. Exactly. Right. Sorry to keep Nope. This is why I set this to the side. This is great.

Feeding a fed horse. Is that what the Peter people tell me to say? Um there's two things that are not going to happen primarily. We are not going to like deliberate among ourselves like well I disagree we should you know that's not this and I'm we could answer questions but like people are going to say what are you going to do like I'm not going to tell them what we're gonna like it's not that that's right. So I just I'm thinking for all of us and for me like going in with that right space. Okay. Anything else?

And I will um I and Jackie and probably some other folks will be there to greet people and answer any questions people might have as it gets started. And and this is a you know such an informal piece that mayor if you need to stop and like clarify or or you know give some additional guidance that will be appropriate and fine. I have been to a lot of events in the middle school gym and it is the biggest auditorium in this county and a risk is that like a hundred people come and it feels like nobody came. I will shepherd them into the state. So much better. Yeah. I was just going to reiterate that you know as you're facilitating that you establish these ground rules early on that we're not going to debate and that just reminding folks.

We will write you a script that you can use as a guide. such an emotional tragic topic. Like people come in hoping we're going to like deliver them from the beast and I hate that. Yep. Anything else? Amanda, I just wanted to say that I'm going to miss the town hall because I'm going to be out of town and I'm not excited about that. Um so when I'm not there, please do not take it as a I'm not interested in this, but I could not be there. So I look forward to reading the report when I get back. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, councelor. Anything else on this topic?

Great. That takes us to data centers. Uh just I'll briefly I heard about this within like 36 hours from Doug and Senator Weiden. There was some chatter at the town hall about the this is probably the wrong way to use this word, but the intersectionality of like land use and water and technology and electricity and like if any of us knows what the heck's going to happen with AI, good luck with that. But, uh, it's so local. It's so local. And the when I heard that the Dallas was taking water from the Hood River, I was like, say what? I mean, it's so happening right now globally and locally. And so that's go. Doug, do you want to speak to this?

Yeah. I mean, the reason that I brought this up, um, Abigail, was this the time for that or Okay. Um, so, you know, um, we don't have language about data centers in our code. We have language about size of buildings and whatnot. And, you know, arguably there's not a ton of land here that it could be used for, but, doesn't mean there's there's no land. I feel like also it's a it's a message we need to send to future councils as well. Um I feel like it's very enticing. Um I mean we tal we started today talking about measures five and 50. How do you fund a city property taxes from a giant data center is one way to do that and it could be enticing. Um so you know uh as as the mayor mentioned it's it's really a local governance flash point across the United States right now. Uh we've seen a lot of what's happening in the Dallas um you know being one of our neighbors. Um, I wanted to do this to be pro proactive out of an abundance of caution, hence a moratorum. You know, if existing code or updated code from the audit's going to address this and we feel like we don't need the language or or anything like that, that that's that that might be what ends up happening. But, you know, until that point, I think it's really important for us to hit the the pause button. uh and what concerns, you know, uh the mayor just mentioned a few of them, but you know, there's evidence that's showing up that the energy cost and grid strain is showing up in residents energy bills, right? Um uh water consumption is a huge issue related to this. It takes a lot of water to to cool and to operate these data centers. Um you know, it's job creation is is is overstated. You know, it's it's good for construction temporarily, but it's minimal full-time employment for these large facilities. Um there's a lot of environmental and public health concerns. Uh diesel generators are often used when there's a lack of uh available grid uh electricity. So all sorts of stories coming from, you know, Virginia and Tennessee of uh massive pollution uh

related to to generators that are temporary. Um and then there's a lot of unstudied and unregulated effects as well. Um this is a highly unregulated sort of uh environment. Um there's definitely equity and land use issues that are related to this as well especially in the limited space in Hood River and you know the there's something like you know I don't know the number is debatable but there's a lot of activist groups that are organizing across the US to delay or ban data centers uh in this like hyperscaling environment. Definitely Senator Bernie Sanders uh uh has been out there really kind of you know bearing the torch on this and trying to get a lot of information um disseminated amongst Congress. But you know there's uh there's not a whole lot that's being done in our current environment uh regarding you know uh billionaires uh you know spending money and and whatnot. So, uh, I think we have to be a little bit more proactive than we usually might be because governance is not there until there's more transparency about, you know, the effects of these kinds of things. I just think we need to hit the hit the pause button is what that this is all about.

Thank you, Doug. Glattis.

Yeah. Thank you, councelor and I do appreciate all your comments that you've made and and agree. Um, I I understand why some cities do this. I was uh at the League of Oregon Cities last year talking to a counselor in Prineville and you know he's talking about they own the railroad, they have Meta or Facebook, you know, whatever and all these centers and now they're they are their own bank and they don't have to go bond and Yeah, I I see I see, you know, the the Oh, man. I'm sorry. It's been a long time. Yeah, it I I see the appeal and that it brings in revenue for the city. Um, but as we continue to see around us that there's a lot of secondhand impacts, right? The environment, some of the issues happening in in the Dells and that this was a a hot topic for the Oregon legislature in in this current session. Um, and at the same time, I think that we still have to figure out what are the businesses that we are bringing into Hood River because Hood River will only continue to grow. I know that I tell Dustin this all the time like do we put the gate once we hit the 10,000 and like you can't come in anymore, right? So I in agree with talking about data centers now, but what are we intentionally doing to attract certain businesses and public private partnerships so that we can figure out housing and all that. So I I do think we need to be more intentional about that language in the future and how we see that um because we've also seen this in other cities where that has been a successful partnership. So, I appreciate you bringing this up and and would welcome to hear others others thoughts.

Amanda, I definitely support um yeah hitting pause and doing the moratorum and till we can figure out how to yeah write it into our code and figure out what we want. But for now, like like you were saying, like is something going to sneak in when we aren't thinking about or like before we can do anything about it. So, I would like to I'd support that. There's a motion on page 68. If you want,

I move we direct staff to to bring uh a draft resolution imposing a temporary moratorium until December 31st, 2026 on the acceptance, processing, and approval of applications for data center development within the city of Hid River. Moved by Rivera. Second. Second by Mitchell. Further discussion. I didn't mean to rush us along too far there. All in favor? I yes I

opposed chair votes I motion passes thank you what did something happen I didn't hear a vote from my comrade in the blazer but we did pass we did pass a thing but we are we would like to hear it's fine the folks want to hear I would love to hear hear your comments, Fran. Yes, council. Yeah, bring say it. It's What are you thinking? It's irrelevant. So, where we put a moratorum on, we are moving on. Thanks, city manager comments.

Um, if I may just wrap this one particular piece up, I just want to note a moratorum is simply a pause. It is not a pro. We did not have a full and I did not bring you a pros and cons list of data centers whether good or bad. um that you will be touching uh you may be touching pieces of this uh as you um uh entertain draft code as part of the code review process. So I want to recognize you might see some of this and then when we're through that you may wish to direct us to do some research or community engagement or something before the moratorum is up. So it's a pause it's not really a decision. Um, so if there's future things that you're going to need, I'm gonna check back with you probably uh end of summer to see if there's any action you're going to need in order to make a full decision uh by the end of December, if that sounds okay. So,

so then does that mean that as we continue our code update that our next time that we'll talk about this is the end of summer? No, I was just saying in the code the code update you will touch pieces of this. If that does not satisfy all of those pieces, then I will check in with you about what other research, what else will you need in order to make a decision, which could include community engagement, include more research, best practices from other cities, all of those things, consulting AI, right? But at this point, none of that is included. It's just a pause.

And my hope for this was was essentially that providing a lens so that when we are talking about the development code audit, people go, oh, this is kind of like what would would this would this impact data centers at all? Right? So I want counselors to be able to think about that and by doing this moratorum it kind of brings it to this is a temporary. Yeah. So I I I agree with your sequence of events. Yeah,

I I know we are done discussing that, but um I I I am feeling council or Paul's feeling of um I there's no harm in in supporting this moratorum, but I think we're we've got a solution in search of a problem. Like I don't see how this could ever happen here, but you never know, you know? So I I mean it doesn't hurt to to say, "Yep, let's put a pause on it." But the reality is I I cannot imagine where within the city limits anybody would come and approach us and say we want to build a data center here, but just in case we're covered. Lot one. Yeah.

Uh lot one. Also, we we we do zoning changes, right? So, um it's possible someone could come to us with a big juicy deal and you want to fund your city for a while and not have to go out for bonds. You know, all we're going to have to do is take up all this housing. Bon photo. I don't know. I don't know how project development works. Um, yeah, city manager comments.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, just a couple quick items. Um, as most of which you already know, but I just want to put them into the record. One is uh Mariposa Village, the um housing list is now open for applications. Um, and we've got that, I think, on our city website and on the housing authority website. But it's so exciting to get to this milestone. So happy about that. Thinking also about housing. Um Big River Community Land Trust has sold the house on the property that the city donated to them many years ago. Oh my goodness, the number of steps that took to convey the land to the um to the uh community land trust and the good work that they've done. So excited to see that occupied. I believe they're closed at the end of the month. So that's really exciting. Um the um shelter has closed for the season. Um, so I want to uh acknowledge all of the good work that MCAC and their community partners did. Um, I've re received some statistics from them. Just a quick summary report. I'll send that out to you all. Um, one thing I did hear and I want to note is uh just generally in the shelter this year uh more people that they saw were older and medically fragile than they have seen in the past. And so that is a little bit more complicated and certainly um informs what shelter services might look like in the future. Uh, and then there's a lot of things happening next week. Some of which you've already talked about. Budget meeting on the 22nd and um and then the town hall on the 23rd. Thank you so much for giving up your evenings next week. I appreciate it. And then um finally, the bond web page is almost ready to be published and I'll send out an email with that uh address. But Will and Jackie have been working with our consultants practice um to get everything up and running and excited to have some information to share more publicly. Thank you, Abigail. Go.

Abigail, remind me when the groundbreaking for the Big River Land. I know you sent us an email. I can't remember. It's not a groundbreaking. They're looking to a very a small tour for council and select and it is on the 24th at 4. 24th and that's normally when I would meet with you, but you're out of town for the 27th. So, oh, you and I'll email you or I'll text you counselor councelor Mitchell. That would be the normal time when I meet with councelor Mitchell. So, I will connect with you about logistics. Thank you. Sorry to call you out like that. I just remembered. Thank you, mayor. Those are my comments. Committee reports.

Hold on. I'm interested in this, too, so I'm going to hold that up. We have bond messaging training this Friday, right? Yeah. Correct. Different sessions of that. There are two sessions like one at 10 and the other is at 2. I had four. Yeah, four. Yeah. Square on that. Okay. I will check in with Will about who's attending what and ask him to send out a reminder. Great. Thanks. Thanks. Uh committee reports starting with Anna. I'm not on a committee. Ben, uh Cat meets Wednesday.

Um Abigail had a lot of comments around MCAC. If you haven't had a chance to check out the press releases that Miriam Starret sends out, please do. High utilizer of services for Hud County. Uh appreciate this council having uh a year-round shelter on our work plan and that we are the only city county that provides fiscal dollars to MCAC. So appreciate that as well. Really with Yes. the granting that the Dallas does. Yes.

Wow. something I bring up every meeting. So, um, in the minutes that I was reading from our last meeting, I realized that I said there's going to be a letter for rule of law, and I meant to say it's for the oath of office that we all take to uphold the Constitution. So, you'll see that it's within the hands of League of Oregon cities that will be spread out to statewide elected officials and even it was even brought up at the uh, National League of Cities. So there may be other elected officials from other states that will sign on to that letter. So I want to make a correction. It was not rule of law. It was the importance of oath of office. Um I'm realizing that I forgot to share a link around fire mitigation. But given that we expect to have a very dry summer, um I know that in the past Indian Creek Trail has come up. If you've had a chance to go down, it has been cleaned up. But just having fire mitigation conversations as we move forward. I know that we banned fireworks. Um, but how are we collaborating with the county around fire mitigation overall? I want to thank Megan Remy for inviting me out to the Dolores Werta walk this morning. I had a chance to walk with some kiddos um to Main Street Elementary. There will be walks throughout the week at all the elementary schools in the county. uh Dolores Wuerta, she roamed these lands not that long ago and really ensured that farm workers had equal opportunity, housing, pay, all of that. Uh thanks to the library for their foundation feast of words that they had this last Friday, Saturday, I wasn't able to attend. I attended the debut of Konason which is the legacy of community health workers here in the gorge and man I love

healthcare but in the gorge um they we've had community health workers for a long long long time this is the second program in the nation in the nation in the US and it is just it was a beautiful film around how it started all the providers that were involved uh all the CHWs that are out there that you've heard in some of these listening sessions that are connecting directly with people um building trust and rapport and it just reminded me of a time when I had a panel of patients and was bringing all these issues that they were coming to me about housing and transportation. So it was just such a full circle moment for me to be there to be a part of that and then that is what brought me here because I was so frustrated with all my patients that weren't able to find housing and again transportation and just inequity of services. Um so thank you to the next door and everybody that was involved in putting that together. Uh those are all my updates. Doug,

uh, visit Hood River meets on Wednesday. Great. Uh, the region one transit meeting, open the meeting, approve the minutes, close the meeting. All righty. Anything else? Took two hours. Oh, good timing there. Oof. Oof. Amanda, um, I don't have any committee reports. I will because I'm the liaison I guess to the libraries take this opportunity to say yeah the feast of words event was um a great time and thanks to everybody for coming out and supporting the library.

Great. Uh I don't I don't have any comments council comments overall. Amanda, anything to add? Um, this is just something that's like I've had at least one person come and talk to me about it and um, so I wanted to bring it to you guys and I don't know if this is a we pull it out as a separate thing to talk about it or if it's part of the more when we get to the comprehensive plan and the planning and all that, maybe it fits better there. So, um, but I just wanted to throw it out there. um this person has um a tiny house on wheels and so I wanted to see if people were interested in revisiting since housing is such a priority um our code around houses on wheels. So, uh, again, like I don't know if that is a thing that we talk about at a meeting specifically or if it's a bigger code thing, but

great. Thanks for bringing that up, Amanda. As you mentioned it, I'm thinking that's exactly how we do. We like bring it up and see if any of us kind of a agree that that's a priority. And then quickly, I'm thinking and it clearly fits into like our priority, you know, council goals. It's not like we're slingingshotting off to do some totally different topic. So, uh, I see Grant's head nodding. Folks want to Yeah, tiny house. Well, Abigail and I will get on it. Thank you. Sure. Amanda, I remember when I brought this up when I first started on council, like, let's reszone everything. Let's talk about tiny homes. And like,

you didn't sound like that. Kind of. Okay. So, I appreciate that. Yeah, this is being brought up and as we think about updating our code and you know what we allow and don't allow. So, thanks for thanks for bringing it up.

Great. I would love to have a larger policy discussion about zoning and housing. That would be great. Um, dark skies was earlier. Um, we have nice little handouts or postcards, large postcards. Um, for those of us that remember about a month ago or so, we had a small power outage. Um, we kind of had dark skies forced upon us in a way. Um, so I'll share a quick story. We like stories. Um, my daughter, she's about she's two and a half years old already. Um, she likes the moon. So, yeah, at night she likes to go outside and see the moon. Um, so when the power was out, we went outside and saw the moon. Um, so we did that when the power was out and then she was looking around and saw the stars and it was great since all the lights were out and could see more stars and the moon and all that good stuff. So um yeah uh we enact some more of these policies um to have more dark skies, more kids can enjoy the moon and stars. Um, so think think of think of the kids. Um, enough enough sappiness. Um, yeah, I know. I know. Anyway, um, we had we had some folks come. I'll bring her here and she can tell you about the moon and you can do the

So moved. Do the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll you'll enjoy that more. Um we we've heard tonight from uh speakers and councelor Stpina about their love of measures five and 50. Uh correction.

Exactly. Uh I I would love for this council to since we we uh we there's there's things that we can hopefully enact on more of a local level if if we would like to as one voice push the state to perhaps take action on five and 50. Uh I would propose that we lend our voice to doing something like that on a local level and poke our state reps and senators to to doing Oh look I have thumbs. It's a whole lot of thumbs right there.

Hey, I like it. Um, so if we want to pass a resolution or do something like that, great. I got many thumbs on that. Yay. Thanks. Um, that's it for tonight on comments. Thanks. Thank you, Doug.

I don't think I have any comments. Uh, just just one quick note. Um, I do see our district attorney, Matthew Ellis, is here, and I I do continue to share his concern that, um, he has staffing shortages relative to processing, uh, you know, things like DUIs and whatnot. I'm not not sure. I'm not saying it's all the city's problem or whatever, but we have a problem. Um, so I just encourage, uh, dialogue with with Abigail and, uh, you know, the county administrator, etc., uh to really keep understanding the problem, the root cause of it, how it may be similar or dissimilar to, you know, trends in the past. Um, you know, we're talking a lot tonight about funding, about how we have a lack of funding, and just want to acknowledge that that the the district attorney's office is no different. So, the more we can collaborate with our partners on these types of issues, the more creative we can get. I think we should be uh spirited in that issue as well.

Thank you. I I did notice that you were here and similar thing I also checked out your report of the percentage of DUIs that your office is prosecuting. Uh and would agree with councelor Stina, you know, how are we connecting with the county? What is the next follow-up conversation as we go into budget to just how are how are we talking about these issues in a collaborative way? you know, governing bodies to governing bodies and not making any promises, but that we have this discussion and yeah, I I appreciate all the information that you've sent us an email about stats and whatnot, but I'm certain that we will also have other organizations that are coming to us for money and what do we have earmarked, you know, to we don't have unlimited funds, but yeah, what are those contingency funds that we can move around or potentially support.

Ben, uh, thanks for bringing up the tiny house on wheels, uh, thing. That's, uh, you know, I know it's not exactly the same thing, but kind of reminds me of our goal of mobile home park preservation that they're somewhat at least maybe philosophically linked in terms of um, you know, what they are and who they serve. Um, I will not be in attendance on the uh for the April 24th council meeting. Um, it will be my first one that I'm missing and I feel not good about that. I had a good streak going, but that's all. Yeah,

I don't really have anything. Fair enough. She said John. Uh, that brings us to the end of the agenda. Is there anything else for the good of the order, Abigail? There is not. You've done it all. We will see everybody on we'll see some of ourselves on Friday at the bond training and then uh budget committee Wednesday and then town hall Thursday and then Ben's missing a meeting uh but I think you said the date that is not the next council meeting is on the 27th. Yeah. What did I say? 24. Oh yeah my but it's it's that okay good. I just I don't want to be in the wrong place because there's a lot of meetings.