City Council - Regular Meeting

again. Okay. So, I was like, okay. Okay. I am going to call this meeting of the lobby at city council to order. Uh, please rise for the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice. Kennedy, can you please call? Yes. Barwell here.

Councor Mackey here. Mayor Malcolmson. Yes. Councelor K. Okay. So, real quick um role um after the conversation we recently had about setting example for the planning commission and the budget committee about excuse not excused. I just want to put on record that I'm going to start defining advanced notice as if we give no extenduating circumstances, sickness, illness, emergencies, but advanced notice is before the agenda gets posted since we're all subject to quorum. So I'm just I don't think you can do that.

What? I don't think we can define advanced notice. Well, unless our lawyer or unless we have the council. I'm just David check that. I don't know that we do that. Well, unless I hear otherwise. How about think of it as a courtesy then? Certainly, we can. Yeah. Well, we're elected officials, so we can't we can't. But, um, yeah. So, you know, just as soon as as you can tell, then we can know what to expect. If we're going to have like like you said, a quorum. We're going to have a quorum, then we need we need no commentary. You should I just order checking.

So, Brandon, would you is it okay if Brandon looks into if we if the chair of whatever means just like if I wasn't at the meeting, it would be on um council president during RO to acknowledge Yeah, my absence however she feels it. But that's that is how whether it it impacts it or not. I'm that is how I'm considering for my interpretation advanced notice out of respect to each other and to our city staff that since we are subject to quorum. So anyway, um we'll move on. Uh citizen input on non-aggenda items. Was there any?

Yeah. Okay. Um, last call. Any one public input? Okay, we will move forward. Um, additions or deletions to the agenda. Does anyone have anything that look at it scrolling through? Okay, consent agenda. So, this just takes that motion or I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll second. Um I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as motion or as presented. Um all in favor or can we call roll? Councelor Baros. Hi. Councelor Gillan. Hi. Councelor Carwell.

Hi. Councelor Pollson. Hi. Councelor Mackey. Hi. Okay. Consent agenda passes. Moving on to um number seven fiscal year 2526 quarter one budget presentation. So Brandon share the screen real quick of giving me an issue on that.

Councelor Carwell, do you see a shared screen of the budget presentation? I do. Thank you. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, as long as I can see it out there. Okay. So, just as paper,

yeah, you can follow along on paper. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. So, as I've been doing um in my tenure, I like to try to do um quarterly updates um as uh as they occur and we close out the first quarter. So, I'll just go over a couple of things. If there's any questions you have, um you can cut me off or wait till the end. Um starting off with general fund revenues. Uh looking pretty good so far. The reason why we still have 95% of our budget remaining is the only property taxes we've gotten so far are going to be the delinquent taxes um and obviously our um transfers from other uh other funds. So our franchise fees will be coming in throughout the year as uh will the property taxes on uh expenditure side. General admin we're looking good. We're right at 75% left. Um that'll actually will go down as some of the um um obviously the transfers were already done at the beginning part of the quarter um and some of the projects that we did out of there and things that were paid out earlier in the year at the first part of the fiscal year are showed early. So that we're never really close to the full 100%. So just kind of giving you some guidance on that. Uh on the planning side, um haven't had much done in planning. Most of the planning uh with just emails back and forth and some of the things we're working on with the planning commission right now like the um like the um uh the mobile food cart units and then uh we'll start doing some probably some TSP work with the planning commission. Um minor things and updates [snorts] throughout the year. So, um, but that won't be anywhere near the 100%, but we still have about 83% of, uh, that fund left. Looking pretty good on there. Um, building, uh, the building inspection fund. Um, haven't had many building inspections yet this year. Um, we're seeing the tail end of the halt phase 5,

uh, complete. Uh, the remainder of those lots are going to be sold to the developers to develop them. Um so we should see some of those inspections um finished off here soon as well as some of the cons commercial inspections for um Mandy's Pizzeria and uh City Center Market and then any other commercial entities that are working through the process. Now um courts uh looking pretty good so far. Uh we have you know about 82% of that left over. We never really touched the full um budget on that. We tend to budget pretty uh conservatively um on our revenues and um liberal on the expenditure so we have some wiggle room. Um the police services obviously that's always going to be right on the nose there. Uh we're pretty much meeting we're at 76% remaining. Um on the park side um we got about 82% left. Obviously, most of that's just going to be labor um and materials and services as we head into the winter um Christmas uh holiday time. And then the next part of the summer, you'll see that M&S um start to uh match to what we uh budget for expenditures. Um lastly, on the fire side, uh that's always one that we we monitor closely. We're uh 72% left. So, we're actually um trailing the projection. So, um I'll just get with chief next week and just make sure we tighten up some spending as we move into the second half of the budget year just to make sure we don't have we don't have any planned um uh expenditures that may uh um any planned expenditures that may put us um closer to that full budget amount. So, I'll chief on that uh next week. Um, and you can see there we still have about 7 to 7% of our projected budget on the general fund expenditures um, left

as we head into the second quarter. Any questions on the general fund stuff? Good.

Okay. Um, on to the sewer fund on the revenue side. Um, so far we got about $287,000 in um, sewer rate so far this year. So um, we're at about uh 74% of our fees right there. And obviously the grant, you see that 1.5 million that was planned in there for that Canyon View pump station grant that we didn't get. Um, but I have a feeling we're going to be seeing some other grants. Hopefully we may be able to latch on to before the end of the fiscal year. Um, which also matches the expenditure. We had that expenditure there as part of that capital improve that capital outlay. Um, obviously that would have been some matching funds etc. And so um, that obviously won't be spent if we don't get the grant. Um, so we're looking at about 94% left, but a lot of that is um skewed because of that 2.25 million in capital outlay, but everything else is looking pretty good when it comes to salaries, personnel, and M&S. If you look at those individual, um, category lines, water revenues, um, run about, you know, a little more than half a million dollars, uh, on regular revenue so far. So, we're we're matching up with what we what we expected so far this year. Um on that end, expenditure, same thing. We're doing pretty well so far. Um obviously um the contingency is going to uh inflate the uh remaining budget number there, but everything's looking good when it comes to salaries, personnel, materials and services, and capital outlay. On the street side, um we haven't really done much with streets. Um I'll have a small update on uh Madison here um during my notes. Um so I mean we still have most of our street money for this year there. Um uh on expenditure side same thing personnel salaries M&S and then the capital outlay which is going to be

going towards the planned Madison uh project and with any um ancillary projects would come out of that. Um SDC revenues as I mentioned earlier um uh we we'll be seeing the tail end of phase five. Most of those SDC's have pretty much uh been paid out. We'll see some other um depending what happens with those last few lots and they'll be selling off the developer. We'll see that balance grow and then obviously on the STC expenditure side uh we don't have a sewer project that we have right now um to expend for that. So there's that. the water SDC. Um that's pretty uh pretty simple there. We don't really have any uh water SDC projects this year. Um so that that fund will grow um with any uh with any applications that come in that would have SEC's applying to it. And then uh the capital outlays there, but we've only spent $6,000. I think they were on the last some some of the new meter um notes that we had to get or some things to do with the the last of the um new meter push. Uh street SDC revenue. Um it's there um where you I'll be using some SDC's um on the street side. I need to confirm with Gordon that it was in our last transportation system plan. There's some information we're saying, so I need to do some more research, but we're adding some curbs that I have emailed to you all. um on the bridge street. We decided that when we did the inspection, they were using curb stops and that doesn't look well. I don't like the way that looks for my for my community. So, we decided, Greg and I decided to get with Tetro Tech to extend to repaint the curbs along bridge, replace those curb stops that they put. It's like six curb like it's like parking curb stops and they put six along to kind of make a sidewalk.

And um they said that there aren't people who kind of really do those curb stops anymore. we pretty much said we need to find somebody. So, and there's some others along Bridge that are pretty torn up and they were beat up that um and that would be we're trying to see if we can use SEC funds out of that um so we can continue to have the other street money for the projects that we had this year. It'll look a lot better. Um if you drive down Bridge tomorrow, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. The curb stops along Bridge that need to be replaced and we're going to expand some. So, um and I think that'll only be I think $13,000 I think the last one we talked about. Yeah, it was just shy of 12. Yes, just shy of 12. So, it won't there won't be that much out of the STC's. Those curb stops are at fourth and bridge. Fourth and bridge. Yes. Sorry. Fifth and bridge.

Fifth and bridge. Yes.

Um park SDC. Uh same thing. Um not much movement in terms of the revenues there. Um but we are we'll still see some of that as those applications come through. And then the park SDC expenditure. Um nothing there. Obviously, all the outlay money this year will be dedicated towards um the veterans park conversion into a dog park. Um at the bottom of the page nine, you see our our FY CIP. Yellow means in progress, red means either completed or stopped and then green means finished. Uh as you see uh the INI uh we've already started the process on that as are the street repairs um which uh Gordon spoke to you about a few months ago. wastewater facilities plan. Still looking at Q1 of 2026. Um Gordon, we spoke right before the meeting and he says he wants to give a pretty firm with h with after the discussion of the strategic planning meeting. He knows the focus is going to be on the sewer um and what that looks like. So he wants to try to get as close as he can to an accurate representation of what that's going to look like so we can start having those conversations. Um, we after talking with Greg and and Gordon, there was a miscommunication on when we had to start the lagoon dredging um with some of the reservoir work um and Bridge Street, it got kind of put to the back burner, but after talking with Greg and Gordon, we all felt comfortable that it would be good this year to maybe hold on to that um save that money and then look at doing it next year. Um, and Greg feels confident, as does Gordon, that any um any bioolid or anything um we're not going to have to worry about trashing it this year. So, we're going to we're already planning to do it next year um before the rainy season. Um and then obviously those other those other items are related to the fire grants that we applied for. Now that the federal government um uh will be back open soon, we are hoping to get responses from our reps uh staffing because uh there's some words going out

that AMG grants are being awarded, but we have yet to hear anything. Chief said me an email a few weeks ago. Hey, what's going on? Obviously, I didn't get respond back from our um our reps and their staff. Um well, at least the staff members, not directly the reps. So, I hopefully we get some clarity on the AMG grant if we were if we were approved for that or not. And then obviously the Canyon View um station rehab is still there. So if we can try to leverage some grant funds before the end of the year that is still there. So any uh questions, comments, anything on the quarter one financial is the resurfacing on Brit Street paid for? Did we cut the checks?

I signed it. Yes. Yes. Yes, we did it. Um the last uh change order uh change order four is going to be be able to be be approved by me because those will be those curb stops they're working on. And then uh just an update on that while we are speaking about it. Um the um everything's been ordered. We're waiting for the supplier. We're hoping um obviously with some supply chain issues. We're hoping to have those um installed hopefully by the first or second week of December. So [clears throat] anything uh councelor Conwell? I don't know if you can hear me right now. Yeah, I could hear you. Um, the presentation couldn't change the page. I couldn't do that. So, I was hoping to get a copy of that. Yes. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes, I will send that over to you right after this meeting.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, can you see us now or is the screen still there? Perfect. Okay, you're good. Thank you. Okay. Any any last any questions? Are you guys ready to move on? Ready to move on. Okay. That moves us to discussion items. Um, discussion of future of fire and emergency services. Uh, Brandon, I will pass that over to you to me. Go ahead and send us over to councelor Carwell while it's on my mind. Appreciate it.

There you go. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, so as I mentioned a few months ago, there was um some discussions on where we see the future of fire services with annexation, with the IGA. Um and we finally met myself, councelor Burroughs, um Chief Hec, um his chair, uh Tip, uh we had count, um uh County Chair Johnston here, and then we had some members of SDAO just um and then also previous Sorry, what's SDAO?

Um the special districts association of Oregon. They're kind of like the LCIS for fire districts and any other water and special districts. So, we had [clears throat] a conversation there um just about the historic, you know, what what led us to this. Um there were some conversations about, you know, annexation, what that would look like. Um tax rates, which are all presented to you um in the um in uh the email form. Um and just discussion about what that would look like. Um do we foresee oursel, you know, moving forward with the district annexation? Um, I will tell you, um, and Chief and I spoke about this. I speak with councelor, um, Burroughs about this. I think annexation is probably the one thing we probably I I I would suggest not looking at that immediately just because there some some of the rep representation items for representing the city of Lafayette as a whole. um and what that would look like. Um and if wanting to form a district, what that would look like, how it may be cleaner, it can um more voting power for the residents. Um but then that would mean dissolving one based on a vote of another and then the county would actually have to make sure it goes to ballot. Um but ultimately at the end of the conversation, which is why it's on the agenda today as per council burroughs, just to have a discussion with council on the current state of the fire, where you all see it. Um the reason why I did bring it up um mentioning to um as a city department, it's been mentioned a few times in the past on this day about what it would look like if we just brought back fire when we were discussing police. So I brought all that there. Um and um one more thing that I know I'm missing regarding the meeting. Um actually am I missing anything?

No, just uh the the thought of uh um hiring a company to Oh, feasibility study. Yes, there you go.

Visibility study. if that's something you wanted to explore. Um, if you were looking at doing a district, if we are looking at doing a district or moving away from the IGA form or whatever, if we if the council wants to look at um employing uh a feasibility study with new Carlton to see what uh forming a district would look like. This is a very early conversation, very early. This isn't anything that we expect to happen next month, month of that, six months from now. But I know um this has been this kind of precedes me, but I know it's always been kind of lingering that the IGA was kind of a temporary solution. Now it's been about 3 years now or so and we just kind of want to see if we want to we can move forward with that and keep it as is. But I also know that New Carlton is asking if this is something that we want to um employ

with forming the district. That would be where we're connecting with the district of like McMinnville and Tolton too. Is correct? No, I will. No, it would be just it would be dissolving how it would work is you dissolve the Carlton Fire District and um the Lafayette Fire Department and then form a whole new district which would incorporate Lafayette and Carlton together. Okay. I I just got confused because I remember there was discussions of like partnering up with McMinnville and doing a district and so

Okay. So, um, what do you mean by a reduction in general fund revenues if fire services are removed from city control?

So, one of the things that I wanted to make sure because I know uh McMinnville um there was some education there was some perceptions about the education of the uh the vote in Minnville and how that would look on recapturing the the tax rate. So, um, the tax rate to the the the tax rate to operate Lafayette buyer as it is, and I sent the email out yesterday, I want it, it's about one point, it's about $160 per thousand. And what in in the discussion that we had with New Carlton was whatever we decide I need to a make sure that the city isn't isn't headed towards compression because after talking with some peers and looking at what can happen compression can happen meaning compression meaning we are providing services that we don't have the money to provide out of the general fund which then leads to levies which leads to other fees on on utility bills. etc.

Or leads to cost cutting

or cost cutting. Yes. But when you when we don't have the money in the general fund, then it we lose the ability to move money around other funds like police services or parks. Um there's only so much that we can actually fund with the general fund. So I want to make sure whatever we do that we protect our tax rate to an extent. I mean, obviously, if if a district was formed, we'd have to concede something, but I want to make sure we recapture that over a span of time because there's going to be an expectation that we reduce our tax debt, but then eventually we're going to have to recoup some of it because of the um it could be a 5year, 10 year, 15 year thing. I think most trying to recapture some part of their their tax rate. And with our tax rate being one of the higher ones, many cities don't want to lose that ability to have that tax rate. Um, I know with McMint, so with New Carlton, and if I'm throwing numbers out, I catch straight. Let me know, please. Um, it's one [snorts] three, right? Uh, I mean, I don't really think that we need to get into that part of the numbers yet because it's this is like a really early conversation. That's what we're kind of trying to explore, I think, is what that looks like overall.

Well, I think the money matters. The money matters more than anything. So, I wanted to make sure I can throw numbers out there because I don't have that exact number for you right now. Okay. [clears throat] So, real quick, the meeting focuses on three potential paths forward. Is there a reason there's not a fourth, which is continue with our IG as is? Yeah. Well, I thought that was I mean, it's in other spots, but the meeting goes in three. Yeah. Whether they continue fire operations of the IGA with NCFD. So, it's would be looking at if we want to do if if the council is if the council wants to look explore what it look like to to cease our fire department

and to explore a district, then I think New Carlton would also come together with I'm assuming they're going to have to come together on the feasibility study.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, we had that one done in 2020. um you know that was a greater for the you know the entire county but you know basically what came out of that was that you know it would be a good idea for consolidations to happen. Um but I think you know exploring this is worth the the option or worth a worth the time to do. Um, I'm looking more toward the future and what the future is going to hold and we can always continue doing what we're doing because what we're doing is working, but what does it look like in the future? You know, are we going to have to make changes in the future that if we make them now, they're already set and we don't have to worry about it.

So, with forming our own district where we have more like staff and firefighters here more often than what we have under the I guess kind of what's the difference in the services that would be provided? So if you form a new district that is going to change uh tax rates and everything, so there is the potential for that to happen. I would my my preference would be that we would be able to bring more people in, but again, you know, that all depends on what tax rates involve and all that. So um how much we're putting out and I think

No, I I get that. I just I'm trying to make sure I'm following it because back when a few years ago when I was involved there was a lot of conversations of like partnering up with McMinnville and like Twolitin services and so I just want to make sure that I'm understanding what the differences are. Well, and if we formed a new district together, we would then have a seat at the table at like on the board. Yes. That's why I approached an no annexation because annexation they would absorb us. They would still have the same board. And I mentioned losing the community. An election would change that. It could change that. Yeah. And we would also lose a ton of our own financial control. Mhm. Which

y is a big deal. Mhm. Because we're at the mercy kind of like with other entities like utility rates, whatever. for whatever PG wants to say we're paying. We have we lose control over a piece of our budget that is currently a huge piece of our bill. Mhm. 42% last year was going to do you have concerns with the current ID? I don't. It's working fine. I'm just looking to the future. Okay.

You know, I I read through the feasibility study. I looked to see what that said. you know, it says that eventually that is the best way to go. And I I truly believe that a consolidation of a lot of these small departments is what will have to eventually happen. And my thought is is we can look at this now and explore the options. Um because we want to, you know, I don't want to get down the road and now we're trying to backpedal and look in the rearview mirror and man could have. What's the cost and turnaround time on that study?

We also had a study that told us our water rates were going to be great. Okay, we've moved on from that. I've got I've gotten v varying numbers just because the size of systems singular double. I mean, so I've gotten everywhere from 35 to 110, but some of those 35,000 to 110,000 for well that's for bigger I mean that's for bigger organizations merging. I think it would probably be on the lower end probably. So 25 to 30

if I'm not saying I'm for this because I kind of feel the same if I'm understanding building correctly of like handing over that control. But if we annexed into New Carlton, what is the we have how much debt for this building? Annexation versus district. Okay. Yeah. But if if we let, forgive me if I'm wrong, like New Carlton absorb, you know, we go into New Carlton, not a new district together. But do they take over our debt with the fire department, the fire? Yeah, but they take over the control. No, I know they take over the control. I'm just I'm not saying before that

worked out. But yes, most of the time that would have happened that way, but it would still be on the people different way for it. But it doesn't seem viable. Yeah. Okay. So, which of these are there any completely off the table for anyone? For me, it's one and two. Okay. So, councelor Gilgan, you want to either continue the IG or follow back and regain full control? Yep.

Okay. I think uh the there's a big question mark with the bond to create a new fire district about um absorbing the building into a new district with the debt owed by the people of Lafayette and somebody else holds the paper on the building per se if you want to call it that. Yeah, I think that there there there's a big hurdle to figure out. I I don't know if uh Carlton as a city would want to even do that. Well, probably because our citizens are still going to be paying a big chunk of it and they get a fresh new they just charge us in a whole different way.

It's just a different way for our folks to pay. So, but it's a big big step to sell that to and it's also just a lot like Brandon, would you say 42% was I just um Yeah, the email I sent. Yeah. Um, so last year, um, take out the $55,000 in grants we had and out of the million dollars we received in property taxes, $454,918 went to fire. So your 42% of that went and then obviously the other portion goes to police, which takes another bigger chunk, another 45 or so percent. And then we have Do we really want to lose control over 42% of the budget? I don't I wouldn't do that. I don't know if our citizens would even go for that.

Well, would anybody here give up control over 42% of their household budget? No. No. Like I I think that's I think that's pretty crazy. No. Especially because I'm not seeing any gain from doing that. They might absorb our debt, but we'd still be paying them in a different way to pay for that debt. Um councelor Burroughs, I know that as our liaison um for the fire, is there anything that you want to make like I hold very highly any input you have on this or I'm curious to hear

you were you were there so well I was letting people speak before I spoke that you know that's I'm not trying to sway people but um I don't see [snorts] a shiny object that makes me want to do Uh, I I see the the down below the pros and the best pro I could see was a potential pro. It wasn't even really going to happen. It was a potential pro. So, um, and I started out the meeting when we got together with a question, if it's not broke, why are we going to why are we messing with it? Why are we going to fix it?

And that doesn't mean it isn't going to need to be fixed in the future. I just think that maybe I don't know if this is the right time. But I also hear I also hear I hear what the chief is saying though too because if we wait too [clears throat] long to look at for me in a new district that we could lose some leverage for negotiation in the future if it came to that point that we needed to do that. I don't think we should turn a blind eye to that. Yeah. And that's a good point. But I also think that the the size of our city as far as like actual physical, what are we just over one square mile? Yeah. Right. Like

if depending on how far in the future it is before we grow to that point, if the bond's fallen off by then, there's actually a potential that we can provide better service for the same amount of money we're already doing now because the bonds off and that money goes towards operations just fiscally speaking, right? So it so essentially like maybe our own fire station and staff in le of paying to the bond right because if the bond's done the station's paid for and that's in the future that's a long way away but can we provide the same amount of service that we get now for but in 30 years maybe we have to maybe double in size or two square miles like

we can still get there you know what I mean? I think the the the thing with uh having more people paying into the fire district, I think that that makes sense. Having more residents, more houses, more whatever you want to call it, more people paying in. Spread spread it out, have more, you know, that makes sense. But I don't know if we couldn't. [snorts] And uh that might be something that we do as a city to tell us, can we run our own fire department or what we're what we're spending. Now, can I ask you a follow-up question? Sure. When you say more people paying it, are you talking about Lafayette residents? Are you talking about residents of the district? Like

the district? I I'm I'm not going I I'm c crossed off um um quite you know quite a while ago. I just have a feeling that when these districts form, our citizens are going to carry more of the load because of the amount of debt we're bringing into it compared to assets bringing into it. So, I'm not sure that it will really change a lot as far as what our folks are paying. Even though there's more people paying into it, there's also more expense because we're talking about more service area, more equipment, more vehicles, right? That'd be more uh what I'm concerned is is that things stay the same and we're paying more, right? Yeah, that's my concern as well. So yes,

I I kind I I came with an open mind, but the annexation I was like, it's going to be it's going to be a tough cell tonight for someone to change my gut on the annexation part. Uh the creation of a new fire district. There's nothing that's popping out like a shiny beacon going, "Hey, do this." But I'm open to that idea of if we're missing something of a here's the benefit. How many more years is left under the IGA? Currently 2027. It's 5-year term, but there's a 180 day out for either side. Either side 180day notice also has an automatic renewal,

right? But regardless, either side can get out on 180. So even if there's a renewal, yes, still you're only committed for six months. No, I remember that and I get that. I'm just I'm looking at does it make sense for us to budget to consider doing a study in the next few years to see if a district is going to make sense or not. Yeah, I think everybody knows how I feel about those studies. Well, I'm not talking to you. [laughter] Just real quick, I'm talking to everybody. Council Carwell, since you're on Zoom, I want to make sure I haven't missed you wanting to chime in, have I? No, actually everything I wanted to say is being said already. So, okay. I

I just think that if we have the youth here saying, "Hey, I think this is realistically going to be the end result." That's good. Shouldn't be too late to the game. I I think we should be listening. I don't think we should go out, no offense, $35,000 is a lot of money to just say, "Okay, now we're going to do this, but okay, in the next two or three years, can we look at budgeting this in?" I know obviously the price will probably go up a little with inflation, but budget this so that we can do the study to get the idea if that's going to make sense because I have concerns if we wait too long. It's kind of like the water tie-in situation with Dayton. It's like now you're trying to come to the table. No, where were you five years ago?

You know, are we going to be in that same spot for the district? because also I don't know if there would be discussions of looking at partnering up with Dayton AMD the smaller communities or if it would just be Lafayette Carlton. Um I know chief had a conversation with um other uh entities probably a year ago maybe we had that meeting uh yeah but it was more just like uh was there any interest in it and there there seemed to be interest but it wasn't it didn't go anywhere. Yeah. But that's my concern. Later down the road, are we going to run into that issue if we do need to form a district?

But again, we can potentially increase um our service level by forming a district, but it depends on what the tax rate is when that happens. But do you think that we really need that in Lafayette right now? I mean, just because based on the reports I'm seeing, I feel like you guys are handling the services well right now. But I mean, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. it. Like I said before, it's working fine now, but I'm looking for like you're welcome to come up and join us if you want

later on in the future. Like trying to make this something that, you know, the saying of, you know, keeping things the way they are is great except if it's not broken, you know, eventually, you know, there's got to be some maintenance done on it. And I feel like looking into this and trying to make that happen, you know, sooner rather than later, that's a maintenance taken care of. Okay. Because with district, it's easier to maintain it going forward compared to an IGA. What problems would it fix is my question.

So right now it wouldn't fix any problems. Honestly, what it can do is, you know, I'm looking at in the future what it's going to do. What it can do in the future, you know, 5, 10, 15 years from now. You know, as the city grows, you know, we're able to change, you know, how many do you think we have on staff or um, you know, the ability to that economy of scale is is really the biggest thing. you know, combining resources is always going to be better than not.

And do you think that's a necessity with the fact that Lafayette and Carlton can only grow so much bigger than what they are right now?

Cuz like it makes sense like McMinnville, McMinnville's just exploded, but they have room for growth. And so it makes absolute sense to me when a city can grow quickly. But the reality is I can't see Carlton or Lafayette growing much more than what it is currently at least for a long time until farmland's bought up and some resoning's done. Um my concern is any any big change goes to the voters. Correct. like

even late. So, we just came from a planning visioning meeting where we talked about our number one goal is the sewer um water wastewater treatment. And I would love in a magical world that something doesn't have to go to the voters for that, but something's going to have to go to the voters. I I'm very protective of not overloading our voters on changes in levies and bonds and changing I think that's their right.

I think it's their right. But how do I say this? Just like for instance, I wouldn't want to go for forward with like a park levy or bond um right now where it would impact them because I really want to protect our options for wastewater. I just feel like this is a huge change in the midst of when we said right now we just really want to focus on but the reality is this wouldn't happen overnight. Absolutely not.

You you've mentioned a couple of times it depends on the tax rate. Can you explain that? So um whatever we would decide on the tax rate for the new district you know obviously the voters would have to to approve that and they have to you know the way a district works when it's formed you know you have to dissolve if you're dissolving a district you have to dissolve the two districts or district and department. Um, and then it has to be funded at a new tax rate. Whatever that new tax rate is that's decided upon that will sustain the district into the future because there would be a fire district tax applied to the property tax.

Yes. And then but that's not u it's not coming out of the city tax base. It's just totally separate. So where is it coming from? The district districts have their own taxing, right? But it's coming from the same people. Correct. Right. Yes. Okay. Over a large area. That's a I know I have one more question or maybe not one more, but uh uh is Carlton fireboard and Carlton city having conversations like we're talking right now?

So the city already um is not a part of the fire district. The fire district is completely separate from the city. Okay. So, it's a fire board. The board is um has the they take care of the district and that's it. Like we don't have anything to do with the city. Okay. We provide fire service. So even if we created a new fire district together then that also we would be just like Carlton where the city is removed from it and it's Yes, it is the district's. So we're still giving away that control. So, what's the temperature of the uh the fire port? What are what are their leanings? It's worth exploring. Worth exploring.

I like to see numbers and it's worth exploring. Yeah. Hard numbers would be a good thing. It's a lot of money though. Well, that's what I'm saying. Plan and budget for this. M shows you're vetted at least and you did something that would just decision making outside of actually doing something involved looking into the the greater good of the area. But it is a lot of money. It makes me nervous. It's a way to make citizens pay more, you know, so you can grow the fire services. miss what we potentially may be asking down the line too.

Yeah. And I'm just hearing potential this potential that which there's that's hard for me as a taxpayer to be like well the potential this where it's not guaranteed. It's also a risk of what we owe on this building and how long we owe on this building. But we're still the money the money still has to be paid back, right? No, I don't disagree, but I'm just saying we're looking at still having the building still has to be paid back, but there's also going to have to be funding for the new fire district. [clears throat] So, like I don't think anyone's taxes are going to decrease this. No, of course not. But what I'm saying is

the IGA falls apart or we don't renew it, then are we going to be in a worse off situation with the debt that we owe on this building? Our fire department got by before the IGA. The city hasn't grown much since since our No, that's not true. Geographically, we've had a bunch of homes go in since the idea. No, we've had we've had the one neighborhood, but like this city has gone from what one square mile to 1.1 square miles. You're number who are receiving these services, who could be at risk for these services, who need the services. population has grown.

Population. Sure. My my point is in response time the size of the city, the geographical size. Yeah. But that's not realistic when you're talking the services being provided to people. You're talking that based on population of people. Not wrong in saying that how you figure numbers is cost per person in the city is the annual budget for the fire district or is it per capita like as far as size or is it per person population wise? What we fund of fire department? That's just a policym decision. I mean, pretty much we take it every year. It grows just because of, you know, raises and cost of living, materials and supplies. We don't factor per person. It's just how much of the general fund are we going to proportion to the fire because they need for the next year to operate.

Yeah. I think but it's not like them like the like the state shared revenue where you get like your your gas tax or like you get like tax based on per capita, you know, like funding. It's just completely based on how much we want because technically and when I think what council good is getting into losing local control. God forbid there's ever an issue where hey we're have we're going to have a tight we're 20 2008 comes again man we need to cut back where can we cut back from we're going to skim here skim here skim here we lose that ability to skim from places

one other thing that I thought was that came to my mind too with with the choices that we have uh the two choices that that I'm considering either taking over or creating the district was uh uh a while back a few months ago McManville talked about putting a paramedic or an ambulance uh in uh Lafayette and the three-way um IG was uh uh problem problematic problematic so I think that's why that got backed up I think that could be a positive for our citizens is having the paramedics here now

the the two choices that that I look at it could open up that door. So would everyone be able We need to avoid any connection to make fire. We need to form I I think we need to avoid any connection of connecting fire districts or fire services with money to rent. They were they were they want they were they respond to us already anyway, right? So this was this was a winw win situation. Win for them win for us to have it be a contract. We wouldn't be connected. So if it was a win win situation, why'd it fall apart?

Because it was problematic having three person three party. Um does anyone object if we all shared what we feel is and isn't on the table for you? Like for me one and two right now I don't feel is on the table. My my focus would be do we do three or do we keep it status quo and keep the IGA?

My position is um the city elected us to represent them in their best interest and if we're hearing that down the road the district is what's going to be best for them. I think we need to be exploring looking at the costs to do a study to provide that information to make a sound decision because right now we can't make a sound decision without that information. So, but yes, I would not support um an annexation, right? I mean, that just doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. One's off, two is feasible based off kind of what you've said is that we look and decisions based off fact that we investigate what's best and three. So two and three are so council carwell any um maybe three. I I just want to make sure that citizens aren't paying any more than they're already paying for the same service, you know,

is is there a reason I I kind of see evaluating three as a shorter term issue. Is there is it possible that we could fine-tune if we like status quo versus three for now with keeping on our radar or slowly working towards the feasibility of down the road?

But that's what I'm saying. I think that's investigating all of this. It's keeping the status quo of what it is, but it's exploring what would it look like costwise and everything with the district, with the services. What would it look like if Lafayette did resume full control? And that's what I'm saying. Without the information, how can we make a sound decision that's best for this city? So, you're saying a feasibility study that includes number two and three, not just

Yeah, I think it's a complete investigation, but I think the reality is again, we're not going to have the money to do that this year, maybe not even next year. This might be two years down the road, but I think the chief is right. We need to be looking at the future and considering things. I think that our analysis is better done by projections based on Brandon and Jamie than paying an outside analysis. I think they can look at the numbers and project the cost for us maintaining our fire station.

I I think especially if we're looking at doing a joint district with Carlton and stuff, I think that's going to be more than outside of the scope of branding. Um, and that might be a discussion to have with Brandon of, hey, look at the past study that was done and do you think that's out of your wheelhouse? Again, this is all information that we don't have. I No. Okay. I think we're disconnected here. I I think that we something that's not going to cost us 30 grand to have a study done is having Jamie and Brandon look at projections for what it will cost us to run our own fire station. I don't think they can project what a district would

Okay. Yeah. No, that's where we have the disconnect. But then it's also keeping in mind that I think you're Carlton might be willing to offer to split half the cost for the study. But again, we have to get that information and then budget accordingly. That was my recommendation was what Carlton put in on it.

Well, I mean, if we're going to do a joint study, it should be 50/50, plain and simple. I will say I did have that conversation um numerous times with Jamie. Um I mean it's pretty much operating as it is. We've been putting money into capital improvement I mean the capital outlay fund for the vehicles. We're paying off the debt. I mean the only foreseeable issue would be any new construction you know any type of ladders that we would need to buy our engines any type of vehicle infrastructure in terms of major infrastructure is already in place already paying on it until 2049 if not a little sooner isn't vehicle replacement on the horizon too

yes but we've already budgeted that's we already have money for that so that's something that so whatever we spend now would be would be obviously the burden of the new district if that were to happen um I would make sure that anything that we purchase is, you know, that there's some depreciation value of that given to the district. Yes, we were, we had it for two years, but 28 other years, you're on the hook for type of thing. We would have to negotiate that, you know. Um, but in terms of running it as is. I mean, it's just running it's like operating the IG, it would be the same thing. We would just be taking it back in house and having to worry about the staffing. So,

which is a lot of extra work and I mean, we're pretty short staffed. Um, I'm [clears throat] gonna say that for me, number two could be on the horizon. Maybe bring it back in a year or two to even consider. But I' I'd like to spend time discussing that aside. Yay or nay for that if number three if we're have if we want that or if we want to stay where we are.

Well, I don't think it's just something we can turn a blind eye and say we'll look at that in two years. If that's something we want to do, we need to start. budgeting now that should be being built into the budgets going forward. I think it's irresponsible to just put that aside and say, "Okay, we'll deal with that in two years." And oh, here's a $45,000 study, we really need to do when we fit a budget to that, start saving up. We can budget it a year, though. I mean, how would we do it for a brush start? You can budget year. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Isn't it more fiscally responsible to budget

and again that allows time to have conversations with Carlton to start looking at who would do the study get actually compreh just happen overnight. I think that the reason I'm I'm hesitant to put money towards a stud is just looking fiscally where the sides are and where we are with our debt load and our quality and value of equipment and whatnot. I think that if this were to come to fruition, having a rough idea of what the cost burdens are going to be for different constituents, it's just hard for me to justify putting money towards a study when I I have a pretty good idea of where it's going to land. pretty good idea. Still not knowing, still not having the information.

There's also a good chance that after we did the study, Carlton may say, "I don't we don't want to do that." And that's fine. But it's still getting that information to make the sound decision. Right now, none of us here are professionals in that field. And again, we were elected to represent their best interests. And part of doing that is gathering the correct information. Now, if the chief was here saying, "No way. Absolutely not. That's a terrible idea. This would not benefit the city." Okay, that would make sense. But he's here today saying, "No, I think in the future this is going to be realistic,

but there's no current problem that we need to fix, but we want to pay for a study that will end up costing our citizens more money in the long run to to not fix a problem. Is it not fixing it or is it doing due diligence by admitting defeat and not knowing everything that we could possibly know about this and handing it to people who could actually say, "Here's some things that you guys didn't talk about or discuss that we bring to light for you guys. Here's some potential possibilities." The other thing that came to mind was Carlton could potentially just completely disagree with it and say this did not pan out the way we thought it did.

Yeah. But that could be us, too. Well, but I think the likelihood is it's one way or the other. Either it's not going to pan out for us or it's not going to pan out for them and we're going to end up spending tens of thousands of dollars of something that doesn't come to fruition or it could pan out for both and we save half the cost because two cities are doing the study together. I don't think it can pan out for both by the numbers. Somebody's going to end up paying a heavier burden and it's most likely to be us just based on our debt load for our new fire station. Yeah. But that's on the city because of the debt that they took on

that that just comes with the territory. But to sit there and turn a blind eye when this debt's going to be around for the next 30 some I think we're looking at different paths forward. But I I think it's just different paths forward. I don't think either side is turning a blind eye. I I think there's valid reasons for both approaches. So then if there's valid reasons for both approaches, why aren't we exploring them? I think I think the better approach is not exploring it. And I think there's valid reasons for that.

Is it feasible to have you and Jamie tell us what it would uh what would be the cost and the changes for us running it ourselves? Running the fireart fire department ourselves. Yeah, I mean I I can get those numbers, but like like I mentioned a few minutes ago, I mean, we're already operating as as we're continuing to operate. We're we're making every we're planning every single budget like it's I mean, it's still our fire department. We just don't run it operationally. So, we're we're forecasting out every every year putting $75,000 into vehicle equipment, $25,000 into this. So, I mean, also, not just numbers, uh what would that do to the workload of logistics,

you and the staff? And I mean, you know, are you going to be uh heavily involved for too many hours? We don't we don't want you to do that. That's not what we want you to do. What is it something that is uh feasible to do workload wise, too? I mean, does that understand what I'm saying? I I don't think I am. Okay. I I Are you saying is it something that the staff wants to take on by running a department? I I think he's saying not only the numbers but also like would we need to add somebody or else running the department would take 90% of brand he's already overextended right well that's what we're saying it's like we're trying to fold in all the costs not

all that and and uh if you know what's the feasibility of doing that so you know I I I don't want to pile things

let's see where we going with that so Like for me the way I see it right now is we've got this IG and part of the benefit of that is New Carlton is doing the HR administrative aspect of it. What we pay out of that though is l lack of control. For instance, I'm not saying nay or nay against our chief or for our chief. We don't have a say in that. We hand over that controller that tomorrow they could say adios and oh here's person we're giving you as chief right is that how I I'm probably going to say something um

wouldn't hold you to it but we're on record aren't we if if they say if we say car new Carlton we'll give you 180 days

Mhm. We are better suited to continue operating at full capacity than they are because they are use their their operations are geared towards our 50 towards our 50%. It would be a lot harder for them. I mean we don't want to do that but I mean if if they close up if they said guys we something happened we close up shop tomorrow it would be hard but we it would it would still be able to be done but we want to want to do that. That's why there's ample notice etc. Well, I guess for me I if they only have to give us x amount of notice to say, "Hey, this is not working for us anymore." And it's mutual. Yeah, it's mutual. I want to know what's going to happen to like where would we land? What's the backup? Yeah. What's our backup plan?

Because maybe that is and I think that's what the chief is saying. While this is working now, what if something changes in the future? Yeah, I think we're all saying the same thing. I think you just disagree about what the future looks like. Well, I I think there's disagreement in terms of whether to start being to start budgeting and exploring a study being done by the district.

So, tell me if I'm wrong here. Is it a hey Brandon can you and Jamie get together just get some loose numbers on what we're looking at of keeping number three the same versus or doing number three versus keeping the same and while we do that start the work on deciding if we want to do feasibility study

yeah I think we need to be exploring that I think we need to be finding out concrete estimates finding out hey would Carlton be agreeable to doing 50/50 okay how long are we looking do we need a budget for a Do we need a budget for three years? You know, does it make more sense to wait till this final phase with Holmes is done so that the chief can see, hey, services have gone up this amount, you know, all that stuff. But right now is the time to be planning for that, not just turning a blind eye. Well, the idea is to start budgeting for the next fiscal budget. we talk about in April. We can look at well hopefully before that when I ask you fiscal year your priorities and

what it looks like to fold that in but also get the temperature on Carlton and then they're stop what I'll do is I'll um I try not to go to the meetings because I don't like to step on liaison's toe unless I'm invited but maybe I'll attend the next meeting with you. Okay. When is it when one when one of the meet when are the meetings? uh second Tuesday. Second Tuesday. Okay. And your goal [clears throat] of going with him to is to gauge how serious they are. Just that and to be supported just if they have any questions out of me or anything. Just kind of like how they have questions for Chief. If they have anything for me, I would just be there.

I'd rather them ask it straight to us than channeling through Chief. just out of respect. He's just because we share him as our chief doesn't mean he should be talking put you in a a position where you know you're the middle man. Yes.

That's from my thought. I get that. But if we're evaluating if we want that agreement or not, I don't think there's anything wrong with them being here representing this and communicating both between both sides. Obviously, both sides will need to have direct contact as well, but I feel like that horse is sufficient. Okay. So, Brandon, do you have enough So, do we give directions direction from us or did we just confuse you?

I I got I think I have enough. Okay. Okay. Um, moving on. Discussion 8B and that is city council. No, that is United States of America's 250th anniversary celebration July 4th. Um, I will yield it to Brandon, but um, please know that I am the one that asked him to put this on the agenda. Hoping this can be a quick discussion, but Brandon, is there anything you want to say before I No, thank you, Madam Mayor. I mean, I think the staff report um kind of sums it up. We have a big uh 250th anniversary of the United States of America coming up and um we probably need to start planning here to make sure we have the biggest and best event in the country if we want to have

if we want to have the biggest and best event in the country. But I think we will.

Okay. So the reason I asked Brandon to put this on the agenda is if we want or are expecting something different for this coming year, we need to decide that so that one we don't put LPAT in a position where we're expecting bigger but there's no funding or putting the work on them. Do we want to keep some work? I know that I've um so I I'm just if we want something bigger, we're almost already late to the table with pulling all the entities together in January. So, um you want to do that? Cool.

Yeah. Um is there anything specific you're wanting? Private money. Private money. Public money. Okay. Okay. So,

um I would like what I'd like to see is the uh Veterans Park memorial or monument. I got to put calling it a memorial because it's a monument uh with the flag and the plaque and the boulder and um I got interest from the Daughters of the American Revolution with for a liberty tree to be planted with a footstone underneath of it. Um, I'd like to see that like dedicated on the 4th of July or near the 4th of July. Is that possible, Brandon? Timewise. Not holding it to it, but Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, a tree or the flag pole dedication

dedication. Yeah. But I mean the boulder I mean it depends on I know um I'm not saying Veterans Park 100% done, but either the tree or the inauguration of the flag. Yeah. Is that something? Yeah. I know Greg and I talked about the I'll deter to you because you have some stuff about the flags. Yeah, we want to hear how tall the pole is. Yeah, I bigger bigger is better. Yeah, for the flag pole. Um it would be nice if I had [clears throat] a little bit of input on how how big is better. Okay, as far as your question goes, one downtown. Not sure how far our

engineer is on design for Veterans Park. I know we reached out to him just recently uh inquiring about how far along we are with final design plan. I would I wouldn't I don't think I want to say that that's doable right now. It could be to have everything finished uh for the 4th of July. Hold up. What would it take? I think we're waiting on I think we're just waiting on final design.

Yeah, I I do have something from Gordon regarding that. I was going to get to my into my my uh my wrap-up that I think may kind of give us some uh progression. I think the biggest thing would probably be like a boulder and I mean the flag probably wouldn't be that I don't think the flag would be an issue. Get a flag pole. Yeah, that's what I would like to and you've done some work on that too. I've done some work on the flag pole. Um, Newberg's flag pole is 70 ft high. 71. So, we need to beat that by 6 in. Do we need live wires to hold that thing down? It's uh uh that one would cost us uh over $20,000.

Sounds right. And then you need to figure the concrete and uh put them just don't pound it in the ground and the lighting. And the lighting. Uh I talked to Elmer's flag and banner in Portland. It's very very good conversations with them. Uh they have all the flags we would need. Um they would bid for placing the flag. I don't know if our contractor would be will willing to place they would bid placing the flag pole. Um the flag if we bought it from Elmer's would be and that's another thing that the Daughters of the American Revolution were interested in is is uh you know that kind of perked their interest to buy some flags. Uh Newberg has two.

Good weather, bad weather. Yes, exactly. Um Elmer's will, if you buy it from them, they will repair it for free for as long as it's able to be repaired as it flaps in the wind and it gets wet, whatever. So, um, so it extends the life of owning the flag if you buy it from Elmer. So, um, they do, uh, have access to the poles. They don't keep that type of thing in stock. They just don't, you know, have a shelf full of 70 foot 70 and a half foot.

So, it would be there would be uh shipping charges. They they say they drop ship down to Texas. So there would be shipping charges on top of Texas to deliver, you know, we would deliver uh most likely it would be a three three-piece pole. So it doesn't it come down, you know, the interstate 70 ft long with lower flags at the end and whatever. So um they are interested. Uh I talked to the American Legion. They're going to talk about us at their next meeting. I volunteered to go and answer any questions if I could and he said, "No, I I got it. I got it on when I did my spiel over the phone." He says, "He's got it." So, um, they are interested, but I don't know how much we'll will tweak their interest, but, uh, I think that us getting entities, local entities involved is a really good thing. I I do uh the the the ladies that I met with had great ideas uh for for um fundraisers, but uh but and they were excited. They're ready to plant that tree today. And I said, "Well, no, no, we haven't moved the fence yet. we haven't got, you know, we haven't we're not quite ready, but so so uh not wanting to quell someone's exciting excitement for jumping on board of our project. Well, if we can get some some movement and some idea for them, that would be great. Well, I guess since we're talking the park, I might as well bring it up now instead of waiting until

since it's since it's topical.

So, um just got this before. Okay. So, [clears throat] adding a concrete sidewalk on the inside of the park to the memorial rock and flag. This includes a 5 foot wide sidewalk and some earthwork. This uh is to this is added to the park work, meaning it will be bid out with the rest of the work. Should be about $15,000. Adding a sidewalk on the outside of the park along Bridge Street. This would include a five five foot wide a five foot wide sidewalk, curb and gutter, small amount of asphalt from gutter to existing AC, converting the ditch storm system to a pipe system, and add an ADA ramp. If this is added to the parkwork, it would probably be about $120,000.

Oh, okay. So, I like the idea of buying a flag. [laughter] Big cut. Okay, that but I will down the road. That'd be great. I will say the ditches on bridge are probably something we're probably going to need Greg. This is probably something we may need to address as we continue to grow in Bridge Street because uh if we have to take a ride away for anything those ditches are going to be so we don't have to do we're not saying that not part of the park

anything we do on bridge later on will have to be filled in. We'll have to probably run utilities through there and whatnot. Um, just looking at the Bridge Street when we did the the final walkthrough, I was like I I was like, if I walk over here anymore, I'm going to want to spend more money. So, no, not that I want to, not that I want to for safety and my safety. And that's why we don't have council Gilligans in my next. Um, okay. So, yeah, I don't know about you guys, but that's a lot of money to come up with. We can look at Can we get can we get back on to the uh fourth of July? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So, do I hear it's okay for me to pull any of the entities together to collaborate with them in July in January knowing that we aren't every year. Good thing we should all be getting together for fourth of July and big events. Yes. Um, and from our aspect, we want to see if at all possible getting that poll that flag up so that we can dedicate it on America's 250th birthday. Okay. Whether the dolls are roaming or not. What? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

I'm full of false hope. Come on. Um, okay. LPAD is also looking at um working on a fundraiser to do a flag at Perkins. We've already done some work on that and I think it was about a few thousand dollars, right? $3500. $3,500. Do we have to reopen up the um parks master plan for that? That's a flag pole. I mean, we could just I mean, we can put it there. I mean, it's flag discretionary funds if you want. So, Okay. Okay. Well, I was looking for a fun reason on that one. Okay. So yeah, flag pole keep going with So I'm hearing from the city from our end the way we really want to is get that flag pole up. What about

what do it take to do like Well, we've got the flags, right, that we put up for Veterans Day. We put those up on the 4th. Yes. Right. Yeah. What about the banner holders? Is that something we would have to purchase some? Yeah. Block those. Yeah. Yeah. The only banners we have currently are ones. Yeah. So, is that something you guys are interested in if it doesn't cost that much? Ones that don't say 250 that we could use each year. I'd be curious what kind of private money could Okay. And we would have to get approval from We have to get a a permit for PG. Easy to do street. No, they hang on the PGE poles. They're

Oh, okay. Yeah. Like we this past year for Christmas was the first year we put up those blue programs for those yet. I'm way ahead of you. For once by the only time. All right. Okay. Thank you guys for that. Um let's go on to action items. Okay. 9A, a memorandum of understanding with the city of Dayton regarding the joint shared system. Brandon.

Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. So, after almost three years of talking about water and making sure we take care of our finances when it comes to uh shared agreements, finally have an FOU in front of you today. um that will um the city of Dayton assumes Lafayette's payment obligation under the financing agreement for the for the treatment plant. They also suspend its collection of the maintenance fee from Lafayette and then they also bear all costs and associated with the operation of maintenance um excluding Lafayette's booster pumps. Um this is something we've been working on for well over a year since Jeremy came on board. Um when we spoke about the inner tie um I think they realized that it was probably going to be a financially daunting task for the city to take on. Um so that's when theou progressed to say okay you guys need to figure out what you need to do for your system. We need to stop paying into a system we're not using. Like I mean Greg can tell you probably before I got here we haven't probably pulled a quarter of it since.

And so that's just we're just throwing money down the drain and we're putting money into Mac water and light when we need to use any secondary source water. So, the money that we do have budgeted for waste water, for the water treatment, um any additional secondary source water needed in the summertime, we would use that money from saved from Dayton to offset that. But I also think it's going to help us um put some money into the um the the balance the ending balance and cash carry forward for water for a few, you know, uh water projects, etc. So, um I don't foresee spending all the money that we put into Dayton for that. But then it also takes the cost of Greg and and our our public works team's time on working on that. Um there were some issues all the time with SCADA roll outs and I mean I don't know if you want to talk about anything that would help support this and the operations. Yeah, I mean just, you know, reference to the SCADA, I know Dayton just had a pretty significant upgrade on their SKA system a couple years ago. Uh,

that's about it. I don't I It was over $100,000 and Lafayette was on the hook for half of that price for their skate system that Lafayette has absolutely no access to. So, let me help move this forward. I move to approve the memory of understanding between the city of Lafayette and the city of Dayton regarding the joint water project improvements and authorize the city administrator to execute the agreement. I will second that.

Okay. I have on the table a motion to approve um as written in our packet. Uh any final discussion? I have one just making sure I understand this correctly. They are credit like crediting us each month our payment. It's coming off of our balance owed on that debt. They are paying our debt. Yeah. On our behalf and then and then the the twice a year pay that we give them for operating the system. We will be holding on to that which is going to be going to Mac water light. But we're not just holding on to it. They're taking that off of the amount we Right. That's a good question because theou says suspend. Yes. Meaning like we're not we're not having to pay.

Are you sure that's what I mean? Yes. Okay. I've already talked to Jeremy today about our December payment. Okay, good. Okay, that was my only concern is, you know, I was thinking like my school loans and stuff like I can defer things but my balance still sits there. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Any Okay. Um I have a motion by council president and I have a second by councelor Gil. I'm just We don't have Kennedy to call. I'm here. Oh, okay. Brandon, will you please call roll vote? Councelor Carzwell. Hi, Councelor Burrough. Hi, Council Gillan. Hi, Councelor Mackey. Hi, Council President Olson. Hi. Okay,

I'm going to bang it because that's a fun. Okay, Brandon, sign that. Too bad we couldn't give some of this back to the rateayers. Well, in the long run, we it benefits us and we'll figure it out. Okay. Um 9B first reading of ordinance 653. No objection to your reading by title.

Okay. Well, wait. I have to open the public hearing before you can say that. The purpose of this public hearing is to conduct the first reading of ordinance 653 amending the Lafayette Municipal Code section 7.30 down to 7.370 relating to door-to-door sales and solicitation. This hearing is open. Are there any conflicts of interest from any counselors? Good night. She no conflict. Does council object to me reading this ordinance by title? No.

None. Okay. This is ordinance 653 amending the Lafayette Municipal Code section 7.30 to 7.370 relating to door-to-door sales and solicitation. Is there any public testimony? Is there any staff report? Says ask for staff report. Not in addition to what we already have. Okay. Um any further comments from council? Okay. I am closing this public hearing. That moves us to department reports. Brandon.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to thank Kennedy for all the work she put into LOC uh today, but not only just LOC, just really taking the burden off of staff on all the event planning we've been doing and um knocking out of the park from National Night Out to all the things she's doing. So, thank you, Kennedy. Um I really don't have much. I know I've been pretty act um been doing a lot of work with the TSP updates. Um we will be going over our contract selector for that uh tomorrow with the state. We're also moving pretty quickly on the housing capacity analyst. We al we already got a contractor for that that the state assigned for us. We're going to have two major generational documents going on at the same time. Um, Kennedy will be my staff helper with the TSP and Amanda who is our new community development clerk who is uh experienced in planning will be taking on some of the housing stuff um so we can um take some of that away from Jim and we can kind of do some more of that in in house. Um, and there was um I I'm unless there's any questions on anything, I did want to tear some of my time to Greg to have an update about some screens and some stuff that happened this weekend. If you want to go into that.

Yeah. So, [clears throat] um, my apologies for missing uh, last month's council meeting. Apparently, that was not a good time for me to be on vacation. As you all are aware, we lost our screen system down at the wastewater facility. Uh, with that said, knock on wood. So far, we have met compliance. Um, take the car as well. You always do that, too. That's your second time done it in like six months.

But, uh, with with that said, as far as being able to meet compliance, I don't know if we can continue to do that too much longer. Um, we did have a pretty major setback this last Saturday that took pretty much all day. Uh, we had to call in an outside contractor, which is possibly on a Saturday. Uh, we had a pump go down. That was a result of the screens not working. Um, and pulling the pump that went down. Uh they found some rope that was up underneath the end propeller. Uh had those screens been working, that rope probably would have been scooped up and discarded versus being passed through the screens and put out into the basins for that pump to uh suck up and pretty much burn a $12,000 pump up. Um, in talking with Brandon and Jamie, it sounds like they have given me the green light to go ahead and move forward with purchasing some new screens.

Getting bids. Getting bids. Sorry. They they have to purchase. Yes. I mean, if you would like to buy it with your own money, I'm not That's pretty good. I can probably afford one piece of that. [laughter] Uh, yes. uh state requires us to get three bids just because of the price of the screens. Um I don't think we have to go out to bid, but we do have to collect three bids. So I am currently working with Gordon and um our outside consulting all the flows um and getting those three bids. We've collected two already. Um I am still awaiting two more back. The price of those screens, it's pretty vague there. Greg,

what do you expect? money just with the two bids that we've gotten back already. I'm going to shoot a little high on this one. Um, we're probably looking at about 150 just for screens. That's about Brandon. What about install? That does not include install. that does not include our engineers time to review it to make sure that these screens are going to be usable later down the road when our facility master plan update. So that's just the screen purchase in place,

but the screens the screens can be interchangeable with the next headworks. That's why we want to make sure as part of that. I don't mind with I don't mind coming to you all asking to spend that money, but like I've said going back to last year when we started talking about this, I don't want to recommend spending money that we're going to be throwing down the drain because another option was we can rent them for three months to $30,000 a month. Well, $10,000 a month, right? It's $10,000 a month for three months, but that's it. Like three months, like you can't do more than three months. So, it's like a very short-term temporary solution. Um, and I didn't feel comfortable doing that and wasting $30,000 to be back out here in four months with our guys out there on weekends.

So, yeah. Is as much as I I hate to put the burden on the staff, uh, rent screens at $10,000 a month, it's way cheaper to pay staff overtime to come in and clean them after hours. U, it does not cost us $10,000 a month in overtime. Um, it burdens the staff, yes. Uh but I think we are staffed well enough now. Thank you Brandon for that um as well as um all of you uh that they seem to be handling it fairly well as of today.

And we and we did have a conversation with them last month after the screens went down. Um and thank you to the new news register for really shining a light. I've gotten some positive feedback on that article. Um a lot of people are still flushing stuff down the toilet bowls. I mean, um, but, uh, I digressed. What was I getting queue on that? I'm not sure. Oh, I know. I talked to the staff about it. I said, "Hey, I don't hate me. I don't want to spend that money." They understood. They They understand the the finances behind this and and making a reactionary decision so quick. So, they understood and I and I assured them and I thank them all the time and as does Greg. It's going to be a little hookup for a little bit, but they get overtime pay before the holidays.

There you go. job security. I I don't know if it's oversp speakaking um to maybe just throw out a soft number total costwise. Uh I don't want to sticker shock you uh or make anybody pass out. Um after it's said and done, we probably are looking at about $500,000 give or take with installation and all that. Yes. And engineering costs. Um the 150,000 is just to purchase the screens themselves. Then we got the the inellation.

So you're saying from beginning to end, hey, my crew doesn't have to come back in now because the screens are working. It's going to be happening. So is there any way for us to start the upgrades on the thing or this is just going to be part of the initial upgrade?

Well, that that's why. So, when I spoke to Gordon earlier, I was like, um, he's like, "Yeah, I'm working on the wastewater, especially with the screens being down, like just put a hiccup in everything on top of other things I have I'm working on." He's like, "First quarter 2026." He's like, "Because of the because of what came out of the last strategic planning session. I want to give a good number, an accurate number, because it's going to be a number that nobody's going to want to put out in the community, but I need to make sure that I am giving you the best as your city engineer, the best estimate of what the council and the city and the staff are going to have to work with with the number." and he wants to get it as as good as possible. He wants to like I've thrown out everything from 8 to 28. I heard a number early this week, 22. I don't know,

Greg. So, we talked about the install cost and all that. If these work with the new system, we're going have to pay to install them again, right? Unfortunately, yes. But it would get us us out of the emergency that we are in now. Saturday's cost to the city. I don't know what that was, but it it's definitely going to weigh pretty heavily. The longer we wait, the more breakdowns we're going to have and at some point we're going to be paying more in breakdowns than just unfortunately paying the cost of the screen right now. That's right.

How long did the last ones last? I don't quote me on this, but I want to say the facility was built in what 96 or 98 and they are original to that. And they're supposed to be changed out every years. Every 25 I bet. So you all are going to have to get a smaller flag pole. If we put it on a hill, then it's Russell's gonna come back next month and talk us about the 80 foot slack. But however, now we'll build them. That's right.

However, I I I can assure you all that uh between Brandon and myself and our engineer, we are being a little choosy on the screens that we get um so that we can uninstall them and reinstall them when we do the facility update. So we're not just Well, that's what I was asking. Can we do the first update with this so we don't have to do that? What are you guys doing? You guys are drawing blind. So you're you're saying it's going to cost us probably half of a million, but that doesn't mean we get cross half a million off of our amount that we're going to be paying when we cut off like 150 for the material. Okay.

It's just it's unfortunate there. You know, we it's all been in the back of our minds for quite some time. those greens were on their way out and and council knows that this is a big issue we have to fix and they and this is a need we just talked about last month we know about this so yeah okay

so expect expect that at our short meeting next month it'll probably be this and the second reading and then anything else will come up um may have an OLCC license um and lastly um I know we're going to have probably a follow-up session to kind of go over things in January um but um I did reach out to Macwater and light they said they can they they can take the any any money is good money. Um but they won't give us a discount for paying off early. But did talk to Jamie after her and I shared some passionate adjectives about the the situation. We could make it work. Um if we needed to pay off early.

Yes. If things happen, I'm just fine because I know that was something you asked to bring back this meeting. Um I did find it. It would it could be done. It would just our savings account would be it's doable and then we decide if we want to do it. Yes. So that's something when I come back in January $500,000 come up because screens went out. That's why I said it's doable, but do we do it? Isn't it different money? No. Well, I mean the screens start money from the water, but I mean water. Yeah. But then eventually we can be Robin Peter to pay Paul to pay Paul to pay feed. Exactly. So

we'll talk more about the the budget in January, February when we start talking about that. Yay. It's already coming up. Get ready. I know. Three more months. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Budget budget time. Everybody save the time of the year. Okay. Your favorite time you get to chair. Brandon, you know department reports? Yes, I am. Okay. Council reports. Council President Pollson report. Councelor Gilgan, Councelor Carzwell, no, not today. I do have a question about the public works monthly report, though. Oh, okay. Sorry, I should have Let's backtrack real quick to number 10 Department reports question.

Sorry. Yeah. Um, I'm looking Let's see the public works report down. There's a a graph that's showing the previous month water production and the current month water production. That's because you have them. Yes, it's showing um that those charts there. It says city distribution minus 43.74%. That seems substantial. Yeah, that's what uh my numbers came out to be. Uh some of that could just be some major leaks that we've had uh this past month. 40%. Yes. Okay. Do we know where that came from? Like you're saying it could be

distribution. Okay.

I Yeah, there's I we're not we don't have like a major leak right now. Um it's always been in the back of our mind that we've had numerous concerns with the water loss for uh years. Uh why it popped up at 40 almost 44% uh this past month. Uh my apologies. I don't have that answered for you other than uh we did have some service lines that we replaced that were leaking pretty heavily. Uh that definitely contributes to our water loss. Uh construction out at uh the new subdivision. It's hard to monitor how much water they use if they just hook a hose up to a meter that is not in service

and we're not billing for that. Um Okay. Cuz I thought the new meters, weren't we supposed to dial in more on the leakage? Yeah, but if when we go out to put a meter in on a new lot out at the new subdivision, if they haven't signed up for service yet, we're not billing for that. Okay. Um, I've caught them in the past. It's been a couple of years since I've caught them in the past. Hooking straight up to the city side shut off uh without even a meter on there to begin with. Waters. That was quickly quickly shut down. Um, I feel like that's an S ton. Is that a whole bunch of water? 40%.

Yeah. uh overall city city we produce uh 16 million 1110,000 gallons. So yeah 43% of 16 million is is quite a bit of except for whatever 17 million gallons random and some of that some of that is because we were just we had work done to well 10 um we lost some water there just for uh flushing purposes. Well, I yeah, I see joint water systems up to 29% from 2.84%. And when that I probably need to change that now that the MOU is being changed. Uh maybe we just put Highway 18 on that one. Yeah.

System, but that includes Highway 18 as well. That's the transmission line coming into town on Madison. Thank you. Okay. So yeah, I guess just you're already keeping an eye on it to make we we account for the flushing that we do. We we monitor that. So I guess I would be concerned if I saw next month it was still up. Yes. But a one time thing it's too soon to find figure out if Yeah, we'll we'll double check that too because especially with the production stuff I've been I've been I've been on about making sure we we're tracking our production. Um, so some of that may be towards production like he said for the wells and stuff, but yeah, I'll double check that and we'll have an answer next month on what it was.

Okay, back to El number 11. Uh, councelor Carzwell, any council report? No, thank you. Uh, councelor Burroughs, no fever heard what I did. Yeah, you got your own section. Um, councelor Kit Hill is not here. Councelor Mackey. No, at this time.

Okay. And mine will be fast. Um the holiday light decorating contest. Um I can't wait to share that um excitement from that, but we're we're going to have a fun uh our citizens will have some good prizes coming up. Um the cut off to be part of sponsorship is Saturday morning. So um soon I'll be sharing that. I think I might need to come back in December just to ask you guys to officially say that the money that's come in can be put towards water bills. I think that's what we had to do last year, but that's just a like incent. Um, I invite you all to be at our uh tree lighting this year, the day after Thanksgiving, uh 6:00 p.m. Joel Perkins. It's going to be short and sweet. Let's get people out of the weather. Um, next week is that uh youth uh night that's in collaboration with um a local um organization and the school district. Um I do want to just quickly highlight that there is a toy drive going on for the fire department. Chief, what's the cut off date for toys?

Um the cut off to receive toys. Yeah. Um, we'll take it right up to the 20th. Okay. So, the 20th. Okay. So, I just thank you guys for doing that toy drive again. Yes. Sorry. Sorry.

Um, lastly, just um a project, not a project, but some facilitating that. Uh, Brandon and I did this mostly um this month having to do with just food pantry stuff. Um we have connected some residents that have stepped up to help team up with the Lafayette food pantry to make sure that um that's up and running or whatever need is needed in the community including a citiz a resident donating a fridge so that and freezer they're now able to do perishables. So I just um thank the residents that did step up um when they wanted better not better service but one person that's hard to run a food pantry. So other than that, um I'm ready for number 13.

I move to adjourn. We need a second. I'll second. Okay. All in favor of adjourning. Hi. Hey, we are journal.