City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. All right. Thank you. Uh will the uh city recorder please call roll. Mayor Jakola present. Council President Steinhevil here. Councelor Ki here. Councelor M. Councelor Salvage here. Councelor Mlan here. Councelor Workman here. Thank you. We'll move into consent calendar. Following items are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussions on these items unless a counselor so request. In that case, the item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. Agenda Lebanon city council agenda December 10th, 2025. Council meetings 2025 1112 city council goal setting work session and 2025 1112 city council minutes. Uh grant submitt uh resolution number 23 of 2025 business Oregon grant application for wetland delineation. Is there a motion? I moved. Second. Uh motion been made to approve the consent calendar has been seconded. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion passes. Okay. There is no public uh or there presentations tonight. We'll move into public comments. Citizens may address the council by filling out a testimony card and uh prior to speaking and handed to city recorder. Each citizen will be given up to five minutes to provide comment and to the council. The council may take an additional two minutes to ask clarifying questions. City Recorder will accept and distribute written comments at speaker's request.

Okay. So, it's a little it's a little new here. Uh for people that are coming up and speaking, the clock is actually right there and you have five minutes. So, we only have one tonight. Mr. Murphy, come on up. We'll give you five minutes once you start speaking. Sorry. Once you start speaking, we'll start the clock. Okay. I'll begin with what uh you all see before you and that is Lynn County Board of Commissioners. And I spoke to two of the three and they seem to think that that was a good idea to uh LBCQ plus whatever. Uh and they endorse it and uh as a Christian I do not.

uh it's going to destroy our country if we u promote this in uh Lebanon or any other city. Uh it's going to destroy our country. As a matter of fact, I want to start in Leviticus. Uh there's two scriptures I would like to give. And uh Leviticus 18:22, thou shalt not lie with mankind as with woman kind. It is abomination. That means man lying with man. Romans 1:25-28. Uh, I'll have to go to that one. I'll start with 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. or even their women did change their natural use unto into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the

woman, burned in their lust, one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseammly, and revi receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was met. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Uh in other words, there was no return. Uh they were uh bound for hell. Uh that's a sad thing. Uh and we today are at a turning point. Uh we allow these uh parades and all of this and we think it's all right. It's not all right. Uh God does not uh he frowns on these things and uh it's up to us as a a a small town even to stop this kind of nonsense. And uh we have to we have to even if we're not don't know Christ as our personal savior we need we must look at where our country has gone to. We started out as a Christian nation and where are we now?

We don't even pray in in city hall. We don't pray. That's a shame. U you you have 16 seconds. If you have another subject, Keith, that you want to talk about, you can come back on towards the end of the sess regular session. You'll you'll have another chance for comments. Uh Mr. Whitlock Whit Latch. Uh you I have a 10-foot easement on my property. That gives me 4T. Keith, I'm I'm going to do you a favor here. I'm going to give you two minutes since it's a different subject. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uh and uh I was not notified. Now the city is the ones that did this, not anybody, not the government, not the state. And uh I called them. And it's the city that does it, not anybody else. I was not notified and I was uh not given a a written letter and I want to know why I was not notified when it went from 5T to 10 ft. I would have to see exactly what you're talking about. That's all platted subdivision where you live. Uh we we we can't go in and arbitrarily take an easement. So Well, you did. Uh it would have been with a platted subdivision. Huh? It would have been with a platted subdivision back in back when they platted your subdivision.

No, no, it wasn't. Well, I I I can assure you we we we can't just go take it without your signature. Well, you guys do a lot of things that you're not supposed to do, but you get away with a lot, but uh I want to know and I want to see the paperwork that allowed you to do that. It should all be referenced on your deed. Huh? It should all be referenced on your deed to your home. Well, I'll tell you. That's why I'm That's why I'm here. If if you want to come down to the office, I'm more than happy to sit down with you and we can work through that. Okay, I've got the deed. Love to and it shows 5 ft. There may be what's called a public utility easement there, but I I don't have any of that information in front of me. So So if you come down and visit with me, then I want all of that stuff moved back over. Well, let's sit down and look at the plat and the surveys for that and and see exactly what we've got there. Okay. Does that sound fair? That That's fair because if if if it's in there, I want it out. Understood. Either that or I'll tear it out myself. Understood. All righty. Thank you, Keith. And you guys have a good Merry Christmas to you, sir. Merry Christmas. We have a couple more tonight. Ken and Miranda. Thank you.

How close am I supposed to be? Um, so I don't have a lot to say. I'm I'm hoping maybe I can we can have a little discussion here, but it's this is a specifically about the big uptick on the homeless problem that's happening on Berlin Road. And we realize that that is private property that is happening on, but we've uh, you know, we've lived there for several years off of anyway. And uh when we first got there, there was a real problem and we were kind of told how to handle it and you know, we got a letter from the property owner and we were able to talk to the officers about it and it really got better and within the last year or so it has gotten substantially worse. And um we have a real concern because I know that it's private property and so there's different trespass issues and things like that, but um it's starting to feel like a real security problem. I've seen bonfires and things that, you know, I really should have called in about. And eventually you just kind of get to a point where you um you kind of are wondering what's able to be done and what is being done. And so I'm not coming at it from a accusation of, you know, anything not being done that should have, but I'm I'm curious if there's any plans or if there's any way for that to be addressed because um you know, I know that it kind of feels like it's out and so it's not right in front of everybody and it feels like kind of a good place for it, but when you live on that road, it doesn't feel that way. And when you can't send your kid to get the mail or take down the trash or something because you're worried about who's there, it really becomes a safety

issue and it kind of makes you anxious and a bit angry about it. So, I'm just curious. Okay. Did you have any comments? I'll wait for a moment. Okay. Um Ron, I think uh our city manager can address that because we have been keeping an eye on that. So, right. So which which part of Berlin road like if you're coming out east? Uh basically the first mile and a half or so before it gets to the curves the big curve around and we're aware of that. Frank have we contacted property owners in there to determine. I'm not real positive on that one. I'll have to check and I'm I believe we have. Um usually we're on top of those kind of things but I'm not real certain about that area. Okay. Just so I know what you're talking about. Are you talking about the old carnival site? Yes. It's it's that it's the ponds. It's even the section of road along there's about every 100 feet there's a trail and a camp that corresponds with it and and I know that they're up at the rock pit above and you know I know it's they're people and they're somewhere but I'm just you know you get to a point where it starts to feel like it's all kind of being funneled into one area and you kind of have to uh we have your contact information here. let us uh contact the property owners and see if we can get uh trespass. So, we have over the years we have been in and we've gotten all of those. Okay. We actually helped facilitate getting that to the police so that they could have trespass and they have trespass people there in the past. Okay. So, I don't know if anything has changed now that they're not able to, but I know we've we've talked recently to the property owner and he is still okay. more than happy to have people trespassed for that because okay, you know, he has the cleanup problem, too, if if it's basically his property, right? So, let me give you my my card to you and give me a call and then I can look

into it a little bit more. I know we we've been out there. I just don't know how recent. Um, but I'm very aware of the issue out there. Oh, I know you're aware of it. I was just kind of curious what the plan is. We've got a long-term plan or a short-term. It's really hard when it's private uh property versus public and you have to have the cooperation and and uh some uh work with the property owner to make sure that they don't return to that specific area. But I I I haven't I don't remember the last time I talked to the property owner, but I'm not sure if uh my other co-workers have. Okay. Ken, do you know how many acres that is? Um um so it's I know it's like 250 acres on the hillside, but the part by the river I don't know probably like 50 or something. It's about I think it's approximately 50. Yeah. Where the ponds are and all of that. And there's some where the bees are is a different property owner. So they are two different lots. Do you know how many trails are going in and out at or is it just one main spot along along the road? As soon as you pass like the the landing for the old Let me let me stop you right there. Can you give him two more minutes since we're I'll take my five since we're doing back and forth here. So, two minutes. May I take my five instead because I haven't spoken. Just him. You know what? I I let someone else do that tonight. So, go ahead. Okay, that'd be great. Um, so I think it is approximately that like whatever acres. I actually spoke with Mr. Bower, if I'm pronouncing his name. Um, actually as of last week and I know as of April of this current year, he went ahead and filled out that form for a no trespass and for people to be arrested. Signs have also been posted up that says they can't stay the night as well. And so I spoke with him and made him more aware of the specific larger camp that you're probably aware of. Um that's over on the like south end of the ponds I guess you would say which would be his

property. So between where those ponds are all the way up to Brewster there's at least three camps. Oh yeah. More if not more. Um and actually today there's a new sign that says I have permission from him and with his name listed on there. Um which is inaccurate. Like I said, I spoke with him just the other day, but um as my husband already communicated, um I'm surprised I'm not crying right now. I'm just kind of kind of keeping it together. I don't feel safe at all at all. And even your mission statement says to feel safe, and I don't. And I know I'm not the only one. So again, we want to work with the system. We want to do it right. We want to be respectful. Um I'm going to stop before I cry. Do you know how many people are down there? there'd be no way for us to know except for the traffic coming up and down the road, you know, like there's there's a lot of walking and biking traffic that you kind of assume is probably related, but you don't I don't know who the people are. Have you had any crimes committed against you by anybody? Yes. Yeah, we've had um property stolen, but um and our gate damaged. Yeah, we're Yeah, we've we've had things, but it's there was there was a time where it was really bad when we first got there, and it got a lot better. Yeah. And a lot of it had to do with just, you know, we were more vigilant about calling and and we were actually told by the officers to to go ahead and call and because, you know, we you we didn't want to be that squeaky wheel that's like, "Oh, it's them again." And they said, "No, the only way we can do something is if you call." And so, but we want you to squeak. Yeah. So we don't know if we don't here yet. We did do that. It got a lot better and then it's just kind of crept in and just recently we've realized that you know we we have no idea how many people but it's probably dozens. Right. The last council meeting we attended the first and then this would be our second was when there was um a rule put in place where they had to have a place for them to be and one of the proposals was on Berlin as I'm sure you sometimes remember and one of the things

that was talked about in that meetings if you see an uptick to report it and so we have done that but we're trying to really announce that now I also people are bringing them food now um so we have cars coming dropping off coolers of food bags and bags and bags of food unloading full carloads of food dropping furniture dropping furniture for them to take down to the camp. Um, yeah, again, I don't feel safe. And it's hard to be mad at somebody who's trying to feed people, but at the same time, you just kind of like, you know, just wish that you weren't bringing food. Maybe bring them to the food or to Yeah. to So, what kind of structures are down there? Is it just tents or is there motor homes or are they building structures or I don't know. I I haven't You can see a lot more from the road now that the leaves are gone. There's one in particular by that's just plywood and tarps and just various lots of things going and but there was the other day where I went by and I should have called and I didn't but I was just kind of tired. It was the end of the day and there was a bonfire that was probably 20 foot flame shooting up and I got out and stood on the bank and had my headlight shining over there and the person saw me and started shoveling dirt on it and got it knocked down and that's why I didn't call and then later I you know I just think about fires getting out of control. So, I realize this time of year, it's not like in the summer where it could burn the whole town, but it's still, you know, bonfires and things seem kind of and I have two contact numbers for Michael Bower on file. Like I have it at not with me today, but I do have two separate phone numbers. He's very willing to talk to whatever he um whomever rather. He was not able to attend today um due to just being busy, but I um hopefully he'll be able to attend in January if needed, but hopefully not. But I do have contact information for him if needed if that's helpful.

One of my concerns is that if the police go down there and kick all these people out, where are they going to go? I know. And that's that's what we're saying. We know people have to be somewhere, but at the same time, you know, more maybe more visible is better, too. You know, just for Well, I think the key to that is private property, right? Private property. So, it's different than if they're public someplace. That's I I understand. I feel you're and believe it or not, we all have that. I have private property. People have stole stuff from me, too. It's not quite as blatant, but I don't think they should be building fires out there. And I completely hear your concerns. Right. So, so th this issue has been brought to our attention. We've talked about with some other property owners out there. So, we'll we'll get a spotlight back on it and see what what what's going on out there because I I I've seen them before along the road there. So, thank you so much for for coming and letting us know. Thank you so much. I just have one further question. What do we do from here? So, we What's the problem? You have to be the squeaky wheel. Yeah, you have to call. I mean, obviously the police, right? But I mean, do we just keep showing up here until a problem solved or what would you do if you So, I'm I represent Ward 3. I would like you guys, if you're not around at the end of the meeting and you're you don't have to stay, please email me. All my all my information is at the on the city website and and uh I will I will work with you guys on that. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Going to move into regular session here. There's no public hearings tonight. So, first one tonight is resolution number 22 for 22 uh or 2025. Um public works director come forward. Come on down. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, uh, here before you tonight to ask for a transfer of appropriations and authorize a purchase of a camera

sanitary sewer camera launch lateral launch system. With all the directional drilling we have in our rideway right now with all the fiber optic cables being placed in the roadway, currently our method of locating unlocated laterals or unlocatable laterals is to climb on the customer's roof and run a Jameson reel down that we can hook up and get a signal to identify where their pipe is. either that or use a contractor to do what we're we're trying to do or or do extensive excavation in their front yards to find the lateral. So, this piece of equipment will allow us to locate them from the sanitary sewer main while we TV and inspect and clean the sanitary sewer mains. Uh in order to purchase it, we need a a transfer of appropriations for resolution. It's provided for you there today. Um and happy to field any questions. Any questions? Camera that can see around corners. Basically what it is. Yeah. This shoots right up shoots right up the pipe. Follows the fittings. Have we have we seen uh other other cities use this technology? We have. Okay. Yeah. All our neighboring cities. Yeah. Every everybody and you were like excited. Well, yeah. We were I just don't like having our guys get on people's roofs. Roofs. Yeah. Well, we we just we just paid a contractor to do a section of Grove Street off of Elmore, which was Oh, I can't even remember how many houses. Not Not a ton. And it was $9,000. So, this this will pay for itself uh in no time at all. Okay. I'm surprised to hear that the city of Lebanon doesn't have a sewer cam. Yeah. public works director made a critical oversight when he bought the camera equipment.

On that note, is there any other comments or questions? Will the city attorney read the title of the resolution? Resolution number 22 for 2025. Am I on? No. There you go. Resolution number 22 for 2025. A resolution authorizing a transfer of appropriations for the city of Lebanon fiscal year 2526 budget. Is there a motion to approve this transfer? Motion to approve. Second. Motion's been made to transfer. It's been a second. All in favor? I. All opposed. Resolution passes. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay, we'll move on to the city of Lebanon 2026 27 legislative policy platform adoption. City manager and our legislative consultant Shawn Tate to give the report. Go ahead Sean, take it away. Right. Thanks. Um, Mr. Mayor, counselors, directors, and team. Um, for purposes of the record, Sean Tate with Tate Public Affairs, proud to be the lobbyist for the city of Lebanon. Um, I understand you all have had you all received the um legislative platform document in the packet for the meeting. uh and and I'm going to assume that we don't need to go through it line by line at this point, but I would like to make just a couple of quick points um about this. First one is I really think this is something for the city and the council and the and the team to be proud of. We did not rush this. We had a I think a very thorough um process uh with a lot of comprehensive feedback from a bunch of different folks at a few different

levels. And I think we've created something here that's going to be very useful for us. And secondly, and lastly really is that in so much as this is a great guiding document, it also needs to be a living document. Right? I think we've talked about this before. Um, policy and politics change and priorities shift um, sometimes without a whole lot of warning. So, have to be able to look at a document like this from time to time and make sure that it always is accurately reflective of our of our priorities. That said, um, Ron, do you have anything else to add? No, I think it's a it's a helpful document, especially with the lobbying that we're doing. uh advocating for the city. Uh it just gives us some guard rails on on where the city council wants us to focus and and how they want us to focus. So, I believe it is a good document. It'll be on the website for the public to see um where our council stands on these issues. And um yeah, I I I don't have anything further to add than that. All righty. Thank you. Is there comments, questions from council? I take that silence as a no. So is there a motion? I so move, sir. I'll second. Motion's been made to approve the the platform. It's been seconded. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thanks for your help, Sean. Thanks, Sean. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate you. Take care. Okay, we'll move on to the purchase authorization for the Lynx Transit. City manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Uh what I have before you here tonight is a request to allow

me to purchase a couple of buses for our Lynx Transit system. Uh we had programmed $200,000 in uh this year for a grant. Um, Kendra Oliver was able to extend that and applied for two buses and got grants for both of those buses, uh, which is what you see here. One is for a new bus to kind of help with our service, um, as it's growing, and the other bigger bus is basically set for a replacement of an existing one that's kind of life cycled out. Um with that um there may be a budget amendment coming um because we did only appropriate 200,000. So if we spend uh that uh why we'll bring that budget amendment but they went through this with the state uh through state procurement and got their three quotes and this is what they came up with with Northwest Bus Sales. Uh one for 137,000 and the other one for 144,000. Uh along with that, you'll see that there's some additions with the cameras, uh the graphics that go on it, and um the different things inside the bus. So, with that, I'm recommending that uh the council approve uh me to sign to purchase both of these. Uh it's all grant funded through state and federal grants, and I can answer any questions. Hopefully you pretty much just answer, but I just wanted to make it clear so everyone else this is not City of Lebanon money. We are getting this from the federal government and we we're getting reimbursed for the money for the buying these buses. Correct. Yes. Yes, you are correct. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Is there a motion to authorize this purchase? Motion to authorize. Second. Motion's been made to authorize this purchase. It's been seconded. All in favor? I.

All opposed. Motion passes. Move on to the next item. Resolution 2025-24, resolution authorizing the city of Lebanon to declare vacant uh vacancy of ward one. Will the city attorney please read the resolution? Title of the resolution. Oh, I'm sorry. Go to you first. I thought I was gonna get out of it. Yeah. Well, city recorder. Uh, yep. Thank you, U, mayor and city council. As you know, councelor man has submitted um under our city charter. That position becomes vacant um tomorrow because councelor man's position um still had one year left. His term expired December 31st of 2026. Council will need to appoint um someone to serve the remainder of that term. Um once the resolution passes and the position is declared vacant, we can advertise the vacancy and begin accepting applications, um our proposal is that we conduct interviews on the second meeting of January um at the noon meeting. And if the council has an applicant that they choose, they can appoint at that meeting and then we would do a swearing in um on the first meeting of February. If the position remains um unfilled after six weeks, the charter does allow the city council to go out um for an atlarge position. Um and that would be somebody who was not just from W one. Um that way the seat doesn't remain vacant for an extended period of time. Absolutely. Tonight's resolution um simply formalizes that ward one seat is vacant and it will be filled by appointment and I'm happy to take any questions. Questions from council.

So we're looking at that noon meeting on January 28th. Is that what you're proposing? Correct. Okay. Just verifying. Thank you. Any other questions, comments from council? Okay. Now, now I think I can say this. Will the city attorney please read the title of the resolution? Resolution number 2025-24, a resolution authorizing the city of Lebanon to declare vacant the Ward 1 city council seat held by councelor Carl Man. Is there a motion? Move for approval. Second motion has been made to approve. It's been second. All in favor? I I All opposed. Motion passes. Okay, that completes our regular session. We're going to move into department reports. City manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Couple things to report tonight. Um, one, I wanted to kind of cover what our communications committee um survey uh some of the results of that. We had 94 responses. This is all in uh the human resources human resources director staff report as well, but I think it was worth covering. Uh we did the survey for about three months. Uh got a total of 94 responses to try and get a gauge on what the community needs from us in terms of communication. Um we got some good feedback. Uh and what we found is most people use our website that really want to get information. Um, so with our communications committee, we're trying to uh find ways to bolster our website and social media to where we're getting more information out. Um, email notifications. We've got uh ways that folks can sign up and get email notifications from press releases on various different things. Um, and then

of course word of mouth, but sometimes that things get lost in translation. I think one of the key takeaways was uh the um demographics. Uh most people that responded to the survey I believe were in the age range of uh 55 and above. Uh one of the things of course that they uh would like to see is is a newsletter, an email newsletter. Uh, I can say that we've done that in the past. And what ends up happening is after about 3 months into a newsletter, you start to run out of material and it's it's it's not it becomes non-effective at that point. Uh, at least from our experience. Uh, so I think the takeaway on this is we're going to continue to bolster our website, continue to uh push stuff out on social media. Um, we're trying to get more people to attend our council meetings. It's kind of nice to see all the people tonight to attend the council meetings. It's it's good to hear from folks. So, uh, with that, do does anybody have any questions, comments on on what we did there? We found a quarterly newsletter at my place of business works pretty well. Have you considered that? I mean, pretty be pretty easy to get a mail email list and it's cheap, right? Yeah. And and we could we could look at that. The senior center does do a quarterly newsletter right now. Um and and maybe that is something that we could we could take a look at uh moving into the future. I just know we used to do them um on a frequent monthly basis. No, I get it. We do the same thing. You run out of stuff. You just you just run out of things that that uh um to say and and as fast as our information is coming, everything that we're putting out, it wouldn't catch. So, but we'll look at it. We'll definitely look at it. Any other questions? Uh the only other thing I have to cover tonight is uh it kind of related to the houseless issue. Uh we met with the

owners of the Champion Mill um this last week. Um our police department has been out there multiple times, made multiple arrests um for the trespassing and the stuff that's carrying on out there. So, we met with these folks on um I believe it was Tuesday of this week and uh had a discussion with them about the cleanup. Um they were asked to clean it up once and then it's gotten worse and so what we came to resolution was that we would go through an abatement process. Um basically the city is going to go in and do uh the cleanup on this property. Uh, and it's a kind of a unique property because as you all know, we're doing environmental testing out there. Um, which kind of we're in need to be out there. Uh, but the abatement process will also constitute a lean on the property for all the staff time that we use. Uh, the property owners have agreed to uh, pay for the dumpsters to get the site cleaned up. I think Jason's crews will go out and um mow the vegetation down, keep the ve vegetation down. I think this is probably the best long-term solution that we have so that we can see what's going on out there. Um and it kind goes to your folks's uh issue that you have out on Berlin Road. We're well aware of it and u at at this point that's the direction that we're going. Just so if you do hear that uh this is not the city doing work on private property for free. Uh we will recoup those costs once the uh property is sold. So Trey, you have anything to add to that? Didn't the city go out there about two or three years ago and do that? We did. We did that uh after they had a homicide out there and multiple other things had occurred on that site that were unsaavory and we actually went out

and cleaned that up. uh we did not charge on that because of what had happened out there. Uh we don't feel like that's the spot that we can be in at this point. We especially on private property, we need to make sure that we recoup our costs and uh it is the property owner's responsibility. Um I think they're kind of stuck in a rock between a rock and a hard place and not having the resources to do that. So this seemed like a the best alternative. I was just going to clarify they they also have the option of just paying for it as we go as they go. So, it may not be a lean on the property, but it'll be covered and they're going to get a price, you know, that's probably better than anywhere else they can get because the city's not in the business of doing this. So, they're covering the hard cost uh labor and that kind of stuff. So, it's kind of a it's it's kind of a win-win. They get it for probably the least expensive way and we get to address the problem and taxpayers aren't paying for it. Having seen photos of of what's out there, I assume we're trespassing folks from that property each time we are. Okay. Yes. The problem is is they didn't clean up their belongings uh like they were asked the last time and so these folks's belongings are still there so they're continuing to go there. Um so hopefully when when it's posted uh again we've got to go through a process in the courts. um we give these folks uh resources and tell them that they do have to clear their property out at that time. Now, is that property easily accessible by the police department? Um they can get to it from both the u uh cheetah lake side there at the boat ramp and also um they're behind the new tractor supply. But again, I think what when it was cleared the first time, we had a whole lot less issue out there or

or maybe not a whole lot less issue. I I think the issue still probably arose. This makes it to where it's visible. And um it's kind of like when you're doing burglary type stuff, you know, you want visibility so that our police officers can see uh these folks that are out there most likely don't want to be seen. And so they're kind of hiding down in the brush and and I think they barricaded the end of Birdell there. Yeah, you can still get in there. You can still Yeah. Yeah. Th this this solution, this model for addressing this issue has already been performed a couple times by the county and it and it works. Um it's uh terrible that we have to to go to this level, but um to to fix issues sometimes you have to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. So I would say that these property owners were were good to work with. Absolutely. They're frustrated as well, just as I'm sure the property owners uh that were mentioned earlier are frustrated. I think the chief wanted to mention something about how the cleanup would go. Oh, so yeah, I mean anytime that we're going out there and contacting individuals out there, we're bringing resources with us. So, we bring Second Chance um all the local resources that we have and try to give them the opportunity to to take us up on that offer of um getting having a place to go, having shelter and everything like that. So, it's just a matter of unfortunately, they just don't take us up on that opportunity. So, every time we go out there, we do enforce the trespass. Um, it's a citation to appear in court and we tell them they have to leave. They do leave, but like Ron has mentioned, they are able to come back. If their property is still there, they're going to come back and and if it's in a in a place where they can hide, then that's where they're going to go. They don't want to be seen. They don't want resources. They don't want to

obey the the rules and regulations and that they that they need to. So, but a lot of that is, you know, in the next time we'll go out there, we'll do the same thing. and we'll bring resources alongside with us and in hopes that they'll take us up on that and and and get the help that they need. So, and finally, I know we want to move on. You know, these people get cited. They don't they don't show up in court. They get a failure to appear. I mean, there are people that have 10, 15, 20 failure to appear and unfort well fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know. There's no jail space. I mean, we're not we can't we just don't have the jail space. So, they've kind of started to figure that out and they certainly are paying the fines. So, all righty. Any other questions or comments? I just want to say I do appreciate that uh PD is working with services each time they go out to offer that in case someone does have a change of heart. I think that's really important and an important part of that strategy. So, thank you for that. All righty. Thank you. We'll move on to items from council. Do you have any items? I This is I'm going to show my ignorance because I'm not ashamed to. I'm looking over at the report finance checklist and for some reason I don't know what who Michael Nelson is that we give $27,000 to. It's in Brent's list, Brena's list. And I should probably I would hope somebody does, but in his financial checklist there's two different entries. 196,000 and 41,000. the same kind of question roughly. I'd have to ask Brandon on that. I think it's interesting. You caught I saw the same thing. Well, I just look for big numbers and I get it. Pacific Power. I get that one, but I don't know who Michael Nelson is. Anyway, I uh have to say I don't either. So, let's Can you find that out for me? That's a

quarter of a million dollars. I'd kind of like to know what that's going for. Yes, I will find out. send out an email to the entire council. How's that? Thank you. I'm sure Brandon's listening tonight, too, so he can fill us in on my phone. Thank you for solving that mystery for us. Any other Not that that's a one to just blow by, but is there any other items through that one? No other items from council. Okay. Did you have anything else? Okay, we'll move on. Is there any other additional uh public comments that need want to be made? Come come forward, Keith, if you want to if you want to speak. I couldn't un figure out half of what you guys were saying, but when it come to the last part, why don't you make them go to work and clean up their own mess? That that has been tried and it they don't want to work. Well, I know I know they don't, but you can make them work. Uh Gingrich and uh Clinton, if they didn't work, uh they wasn't given anything. So, it worked back then. the the the problem is is is this problem the problem of houselessness, homelessness, whatever

you want to call it, um is not one of lack of effort. It's usually based in either drug or alcohol addiction and mental illness or a combination of the two. I've went out on the u the um the operations out there at the the the lake and the way they live. No, no sane person lives that way at all. So there there's other issues. So when we go out there, what we try to do is offer him services like the chief was was talking about earlier. We offer them services. We try to we try all the time. Da Johnson, all the community policing officers go out of their way every single day to help this population that's that's uh living this this lifestyle. And the majority of them, all almost all of them, they don't want to change. Yeah. But you guys give them the uh place to sleep every night. Uh I mean, you give them incentive not to work. You may want to address them. You may want to address it with Salem. We don't have anything to do with that. We we have done what we are legally obligated to do as a municipality in the state of Oregon. Well, I I none of this makes sense. They they shut down all the mental uh facilities here in Oregon. And they they built the one in in uh Eugene, just out of Eugene. It was open for one year. millions of dollars and it then they shut it down and a private entity bought

it for zip just about and now they're all running around causing havoc. It Oregon is just makes no sense whatsoever. And we've had stuff stolen where I live and nobody does anything about it. I've called the police. They don't half the time they don't show up. Well, I I will I will come back at you and say we do do a lot, Keith, on this subject. There's a lot of behind the scenes that the public doesn't see. the additional work that staff does, the additional work that public works does, cleaning up messes, the the amount of time that council takes questions, we pay for it. Well, you're you're absolutely right. The questions that we take going out on on some of these things to see how they're conducted there. A lot of efforts put into this. Um, we are trying to find solutions that fit the the resources that we have. We don't print money like the federal government and we don't get grant after wait no let me let me finish we don't we don't get grant after grant for these these type of things so we find solutions that fit what the city of Lebanon needs to to help with this is our money that you're using you're absolutely right and and we work hard for our money even though I'm retired. They work. They don't work at all. And they benefit more than I do. It makes no sense whatsoever. And you're wanting to take everything I've got

to help them. It Where's the logic in all of this? I I don't understand this at all. We We don't want to do any of that, Keith. We're mandated to do that. Huh. We We spend I think I'm proud to say we spend as little money as we can do to to handle the situation with what's forced on us from Salem. And that's really what Trey said is the absolute truth that comes from Salem. We're we're doing the best we can. So, I'm going to take the last three seconds here and say that the city of Lebanon works hard to help find solutions for this issue on many different levels. And for if anybody out there in the audience thinks otherwise, I I I welcome you to to run and and sit on this council and answer the phone calls and all the other stuff that we do on a daily basis. Become a Republican state. That's what you need to do. And get rid of all the illegals. Well, I I appreciate your comments, but your time is expired. So, yeah. I I look forward I look forward to the next council meeting, Keith. I really do. Okay. Thank you. And I won't be here. Okay. All righty. Merry Christmas, Keith. I've got to go somewhere. Is there any other public comments? Please come forward. Hello everybody. My name is Jose Jesus Samaton and I've been living here in in Lebanon for seven almost eight years already at the uh First Grove Mobile Home Park. I believe that that's out of your

jurisdiction because it's out of the city limit. But I have a concern and lately it's being worse with all the empty units that are in the park and all the drug dealers and drug users hanging there. Um I just trying to understand same as the guy that was talking here just why seems to us that to us that there's nothing done to to solve this issue with all that people that freely using drugs, freely selling drugs and affecting in the families. One of the one of those families is my family. I find out that uh that they just do whatever they they want to do. I'm talking about the drug dealers and drug users with no consequences at all. Me as a father, as a grandfather, I have a family and I know that my responsibility as a parent is to to keep my family united and those them drugs are affecting my family big time and because seems like no one wants to do anything about it. At least it seems to me like that because there's no consequences at all for that people. They do whatever they want, whatever they like, whatever

I mean there's people I really appreciate they work the sheriff department too, but if they got arrested in the next one or two or three days, they are out again. And now they come to us to the people that uh point at him or or or or know what they're doing and then become worse for us and hopefully someone can do something about it. Our our our city, our families, our people is being affected big time. And I also wanted to say that when the police officers of the sheriff the sheriffs recommend them to go to a shelter or or or or get help if they go to an agency or an organization that offers them a shelter. It's they they lie on the paperwork. I have proof of that because that h it's happening to me right now. They lie on the paperwork to to make him qualified. That's not that's not help. That is not something that will resolve this problem. and just try to find more solutions for this. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Jose, could you ask you a couple questions? What park are you talking about? Fair Grove Mobile Home Park right next to the distillery on once you go past Walmart like quarter mile after you pass Highway 20. Yeah. County. It's county. Yeah, it's county. Can you spell your last name? A M A T O N. I I wasn't going to write it down, but I know she did. A M T O N. A M A T O N. Amaton. Well, we sure wish we could solve that problem for you. It's a tough one. If you stay afterwards, I'm happy to put you in touch with your county commissioners who are likely the better better place for you to to make this speech to. But um while it's out of the city limits, I mean um just kind of dovtailing on also some of Keith's comments. I mean our police officers do respond obviously maybe not to your mobile park, but um I just pulled up the chief's report and it's 1,254 calls for service, 65 arrests, 293 traffic stops. So, I just want to clear that narrative from both uh recent comments that our police are not doing anything. I mean, they're they're answering calls as they come in as often as they come in. Um they can't fix what what issues occur in Salem. They can't create housing or stop addiction or add beds to behavioral health. So, um I imagine that's a very frustrating place for them to be in. So, I just kind of wanted to clear that up for everybody. Oh, yeah. and and I really appreciate the work that you do and the sheriff's departments do, but there's not that much they can do cuz they can arrest them and and then they

going to be free the next day. So, it's frustrating for them too. I would imagine it is as well. Yeah, just as it is for us up here. So, thank you, sir. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. Is there press in any more public comments or is there press in the the room tonight? Okay. All righty. Thank you. Uh next scheduled council meeting will be January 14th, 2026. Oh, wow. Going to have to get used to writing that down. Uh 6 p.m. and then January 28th, 2026 at noon. Okay. So, what we'll do is we'll adjourn the regular session and then we'll move into an executive session. We will take a 10-minute break and before I re uh reconvene as executive session.