City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress. Okay,

councelor Peralta. It is 7:02 and I'd like to call the city council meeting to order. Claudia, can I have a roll call? Councelor Chennowith here. Councelor Giri here. Councelor Cunningham here. Councelor Tukulski present. Council President Peralta here. Mayor Morris here. If you're able to stand, please stand. will lead the pledge of allegiance.

It's time for public comment. Any interested audience members are invited to provide comments and any comment provided that requires some type of follow-up will be assigned to a staff member. Anyone may speak on any topic other than a matter in litigation, a land use decision that is or will be in front of the city council or a matter scheduled for a public hearing at some future date. Comments will be limited to four minutes per person for a total of 32 minutes. If you are on Zoom and wish to speak, please use the raise your hand feature or chat feature and send a chat to the city recorder team. You will need to provide your contract, excuse me, contact information prior to being promoted to speak. Once your turn is up, we will announce your name and unmute your mic. Claudia, do we have anybody signed up? It's Mark Davis. Welcome, Mark. Mark Davis. Let's see. I just have to say city, right? This isn't planning commission.

McMinnville. Um I'd like to follow up on your conversation from the work session. I think your selection sub subcommittee should include a private citizen who's not connected with the planning department, the planning commission, the city council, etc. I mean, you got realtors, you got, you know, property developers, you got bankers, you got a lot of people in this community that have concerns about housing. And I think that having an outside voice, you know, there doesn't need to be the majority, but just somebody else to to chip in their comments would be very helpful. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Can you share that with Evan, Heather? Okay, Claudia, do we have anybody else?

That's everyone that signed up. Okay. and nobody on Zoom or anything. Okay. Next, we have our consent agenda. Does any counselor want to remove any item from the consent agenda? Okay. Seeing none, do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda as proposed? I'll move. Councelor Cunningham. Second. Second from councelor Gary. Any further discussion? All right. Claudia, Councelor Chennowith, I. Councelor Giri, hi. Councelor Cunningham, I. Councelor Tokulski, I. Council President Peralta, yes. The consent agenda has passed unanimously.

Next up, we have um resolution number 2026-16, a resolution approving an employment agreement with Adam D. Garvin as city manager. I'd like to call on city attorney David Light to present.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have a short slideshow to go over the employment agreement that is included in your packets. Um, this agreement substantially is based on um the agreement that the city had with Jeff Towery in the past and on some other things that have been discussed with the interim city manager and myself and director Hedges as well as certain best practices, reconfigurations, and other ideas that we tried to put in to make a better agreement at this point. Uh, I would like to spend a little bit of time just walking you through some of the um more salient points that make this differ from what you may be used to in the past. Um, aside from two highlighted portions of this agreement, I'm not setting aside time to discuss the other terms. If you have questions or concerns about the other terms in the agreement, you should do that hopefully best while I'm going through the portions of the contract. Um, does anybody have any questions about background before we begin?

Section one speaks to employment and duties. Um again this is fairly straightforward. I wanted to draw your attention to uh two changes or considerations to salient points. One is with regard to ethics that is section E. What we did here what I introduced here is something that's generally considered a best practice and largely for the protection of the city manager position. Uh it's the idea that a city council will not request the city manager do something unethical and includes a code of ethics along with that. That's the international city manager association code of ethics. It's a wellrespected document. Um, but I wanted to point out that that's a new addition and is there specifically not to necessarily call the city manager to meet those ethics, but specifically that the council will not ask him to violate them. Um, outside employment is something that is uh relatively straightforward. I don't think this term was changed as far as um its actual scope, but as you know, um interim city city manager Garvin has uh business interests in the city. And this acknowledges that those exist, acknowledges that he will continue to have those interests and not be prevented from having those interests while at the same time saying that he will devote a full working time to this position. term and termination. This is section two of the agreement.

One of the changes is what I hope is a further clarification of what for cause is in the city with regard to this agreement. Um this was an effort at um synthesizing things that I had seen in other agreements and um municipalities as well as making something that is understandable, workable and protects the interests of the city. Um as you can see cause termination in 2D has three parts to it. The first is generally unsatisfactory performance. That's tied with a cure period. So if the council were looking to terminate the city manager for performance-based issues, they would have to notify him of those performance-based issues and give him 45 days to cure those issues. The second one, just to um be very clear, that does not apply to termination without cause. If the council is going to terminate without saying that it's a performance-based issue, if they're just going to do this at their will, which they have the will to do, um that 45 days and the performance identification does not apply. Conviction of or entry of a guilty or no contest plea to a felony offense. um it's a generally understood term and is not tied directly to work with the city. The last one is is a little bit broader than that. Violation of law or engagement in misconduct that has caused or is likely to cause material harm to the city. This is specifically with regard to business inside the city.

If we have questions over a section, are we supposed to bring that up now or at the end?

Uh, you could bring it up now. I'm still going to hit those two sub points determine termination, but I'll let you know before I go on from this point. Um, death and disability, it's a straightforward term. I'm bringing it to your attention because it wasn't really well uh formulated in the last city manager contract. uh basically says if there is death or disability that the contract is terminated. Um and mutual agreement. This is a new term that allows the parties to agree to separate and make their terms at that time. Uh it's it's a situation in which we would be in a uh an effort to negotiate this. It allows us to negotiate that in that case. It would be outside of the rest of these terms which would normally agree if the parties are at odds with in one of these situations. It's just another opportunity. That's all I've got before moving on to the next one.

Councelor Chennith.

So yeah, I am um wanting one of the things I was hoping to see in this agreement that I do not see in this agreement um was actual definition on a term. number one um and an opt out option at some point in time down the road two three years um say I I didn't have a fixed thought in my mind of what that what that time frame looked like but um I don't see any of those types of wording in there and would like to see them in there. Um is there a reason why we don't have them in this particular contract that's in front of us? Um uh there are a handful of reasons why they're not in this particular contract. Uh the first one being is that this largely reflects the last city manager contract that we had that didn't have a defined term. Um that is relatively common among city manager contracts that I reviewed. Um terms are also relatively common among city manager contracts that I reviewed. I don't know exactly what you mean by opt out, but I will um happily answer that once I explain the rest of this. Um there's a legal concept that is implicated here that my professional group has been over the last few years talking quite a bit about and that is this idea here in Oregon that subsequent city councils cannot be bound by the decisions of prior city councils when it comes to governmental functions. And it's generally understood and agreed that the hiring of an executive officer, the appointment of exe an executive officer is a governmental function. And so

cities deal with that in a number of ways. And I think the two major ways that I understand and see are having no term but explicitly saying that the contract remains at will of the council or having a term that corresponds I would say to the shortest time between council elections. In our case that would be two years. and then mechanisms for advancing that contract at each of those times. But but there are contracts that are out there that are 5 10 years in length.

And I can't say what the thought process behind that was um or whether they had considered this concept, but I think that those are the two approaches that are available to us here. So on on the opt out, what I'm saying is I'd like a an opportunity for us two years down the road to have a revisit of this discussion with a if amicable breakup, so to speak, if it's determined that it's just not working out. So an opt out opportunity that is fixed within the contract. functionally a two-year contract term here. That That's basically what that is. I guess we could put together a mechanism for whatever follows, but functionally I hear you asking for a two-year contract.

I suppose I mean, that's not really what I want. I just want the ability to to transparently um it's not like Adam and I hate talking. This is always so weird to me to have these kinds of conversations in front of somebody, but it's not like Adam has been uh through a bunch of schooling on in this particular field. Um he has been tried with what I would call some medium difficult situations that have occurred um in his interim time, but we haven't seen how things happen in a high pressure high difficult situation that comes his way. Um, I would just like the opportunity as a protect protective mechanism to the city. Um, as well as in some ways a protective mechanism to him. He gets two years down the road and he's like, I don't know why I signed up for this. I want out. Um, I think both of us having that opportunity to walk away at two years is a worthwhile option. I suppose one could argue that your um the way that you've written the ability to terminate this contract kind of allows for us to do that, right? We can have a negotiated departure. Um but that's only if both sides agree. That's

right. Um, what I'm looking for is something that gives us an out without a high uh financial pain tolerance to either side um or pain exposure to either side. I think put into contractual terms that is again to your contract. Councelor Peralta.

No, I just need to clarify my thoughts before I So my concern I mean I I get where you're coming I get where councelor Chennowith is coming from with respect to wanting to to have some type of performance review in a couple of years that might trigger uh a different kind of path than what's currently envisioned in the contract. I just don't think it's fair to set a two-year term for an incoming city manager where we're saying whether it's the current applicant or a future applicant, you know, come to McMinnville from somewhere else or drop all of your business interests and become the city manager and you really only have a two-year contract. I just think that's a really difficult situation to put a potential executive uh position into. Um so I I'm pretty comfortable with the contract that was drafted um to this point. I know there's some questions that we need to figure out. Um, but I I wonder um, David, in your experience, have you come across any contracts where there is some type of performance review and it it triggers some type of possible out at that point? Maybe with maybe with consideration. Like I said, I've seen a good number of these that have very short terms, two or three years. Um, I cannot say off the top of my head the rest of the me mechanisms that they had surrounding that. Um, and I'm sure it runs the gamut. Um,

I Yeah. So, I I'll just say I'm comfortable with what you've drafted. I I'm mindful of the of Chris of councelor Chennowith's comments, but I'm I'm at least comfortable with what we dropped.

I think in a way um termination for cause unsatisfactory performance if we weren't happy that's kind of where that would fit into. So it's there. I've been concerned with 45 days. I think that's less than what we give all of our other employees to come to um rectify an issue. Um, so that I'm a little concerned, but is that fair? I mean, if Adam's fine with it, great. But I think there's other employees that it's it takes longer to, you know, what is identified, how much time to to change it, that 45 days isn't a lot.

That's a fair consideration, and I I will definitely let Adam answer that himself, but what you have in front of you is what we have tenatively come together on so far. Um, okay. If if he comes around and asks for more, that would be concern. I think that might address some of what your concern is. Adam, I'm going to ask you. Are you okay with the 45 days? And I guess my concern also is the the politics of it all. I mean, so is the council a supermajority vote or have we not got there yet? We haven't got there yet.

Okay. Um, as far as the cure window, I mean, I I think that's a I looked at that with David as far as a a window. It's, you know, that we're going to move through a process. There's going to be a review. You guys are going to identify some things and you're going to know, you know, if those are short-term curable things or if they're more uh long-term things that have been building. So if you guys want to create some additional space there in that window and move it to 60 or 90 days, I'm definitely open to it. But um I was also trying to you know be amicable through this process.

Yeah, I feel like a 90 days is more uh reasonable because depending on what it is, it's very vague. We don't know what the issue might be and it may not come up for a while in order to see a change.

So I'm fine with the 45 days. Um, I I think politically speaking, the the way political winds blow, um, I don't I don't I I don't think cuffing somebody to 90 days necessarily is a good idea for future council to have to stick to that 90-day window. Um, David, am I hearing you say to me, if I want a 10-year term, you're not willing to write that? I think that it has some real legal problems. The council can direct the terms that it wants to direct. I can advise you of the legal issues and I think that there are Oregon specific legal issues with a term like that.

Okay. Question. Do city managers I mean that seems like a long term. A lot of city managers don't even stay in their positions that long, do they? Uh was here for nine. Right now, the average city manager is 5 to seven years in a seat. McMinnville's been unique that it's seen city managers sit a long time. Uh, you know, with Joe Dancer and Kent Taylor. Um, as far as what I've found in the industry since coming into this inter role, that window keeps getting shorter and shorter. It used to be 7 to 10, now it's 5 to 7. Part of that is political landscape. Part of that is

Yeah.

The intent of of putting language like that in a contract is saying we want you to stay for a while, right? More than anything, you have the outs to get out of the contract. Both sides do. Um it's not that we're guaranteeing they're going to stay 10 years. It's making a statement of of what we are hoping to see happen. Um, and the reason I'm asking if you're saying no, you won't do that is because if you're not willing to give write a 10-year contract, then having a two-year out is kind of pointless, right? Um, the whole point of a two-year window is that you're you're wanting an option out of a longer contract if it's not looking like this is working real well. Um, and what you've written is a yeartoyear essentially is the way I well kind of the way I view it. Well, it's it's an ongoing perpetual is a better way to put it.

Yeah. It's a contract without a term. The city manager serves at the will of the council. Um, okay. Councelor Pala, I was just going to ask the board. I mean, does anybody else share the same concern or can we move on to the next point for now? Councelor Takowski.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. The the only concern I have is the 45 days from receipt of unsatisfactory performance. In the position of city manager, it's hard to make changes within a short time period. And I don't believe that 45 days is long enough. I'd like to see something at least 60 because it's hard to turn the turn the tides that quickly in a position that has such a significant impact on everything. Any other input on um that 45 days?

I think your point was well made, mayor. Okay. So, are we 60 or 90? I think I think I think 60 is is probably the right way to go because I I think ultimately, you know, the the the cure doesn't have to be fully cured. It just needs to be in operation. It needs to be going well. If if we can't see that something's not headed in a good direction after 60 days, then I'm probably sweating. Okay. So I think 60 would be fine. All right, councelor Chennowith, are you good with 60?

Okay. Well, great. So 60 it is. Okay, councelor 60. Okay, we're going to change that to 60. Thank you. compensation and benefits out of sections four and five.

May I ask a question before we move? And I can skip something. Councelor Tekkowski, if you're going to compensation benefits section four and five, we haven't talked about section three severance was was the intent to the highlighted sections. We have their own slides. I am just bringing you through the sections that currently we're together on. Uh I will get to separate and we haven't passed the area talking about supermajority yet. There is not a supermajority in this contract. I think so. You're talking about term where we just were. Oh. Yes.

Termination by the city. Majority vote of the city council in accordance with the charter. That's B. Again, this is a contract without a definite term and the city manager serves at the will of the council. Um, so majority is four. You want to make it? Go ahead.

I I just the political winds in this state are concerning to me. It it and we haven't seen it in as bad in McMinnville as some other cities have experienced with uh radical shifts based on politics rather than based on doing what's best for the city. Um, and I'm just I'm just nervous about not having some sort of protection in place, and this is more for Adam than it is for anybody else. It's for the city as a whole, to help prevent those political winds from shifting and being taken out for reasons that are not have anything to do with his ability to do the job. Um so

so are you proposing instead of four five five probably. Okay. So the proposal on the table is a supermajority of five. Yeah. Versus four. Any other but it would need to be it would need to be written such that it says supermajority and let the numbers fall where they are because currently we only have five people. This is true. If I may speak to that before further discussion. I think this is problematic under the charter which requires that the city manager be appointed and um renewed by a majority of council.

Yeah, I don't think it is because that doesn't say anything about terminated. Um that's talking about renewal and that's talking about appointed. That's about keeping. That's not or or hiring. That's not about removing. Understand your point. But the generally accepted constructive principle is that the power of appointment includes the power of termination unless otherwise stated.

Councelor Peralta, I I just philosophically don't I'm not comfortable with the supermajority provision, but I'm also persuaded by the city attorney's comment that it's not consistent with our charter. Um, I mean, we're paying him for legal advice. I trust the legal advice. And if it's not consistent with the charter, it's not consistent with the charter regardless of my opinion or your opinion. You know, that argument is not persuasive to me. But I am curious why it is you're comfortable with not or you're uncomfortable on general principles with the

We can talk about that offline, but but I am I am definitely in alignment with the city attorney's view of the city charter. Any other counselors have comments? I would not be supportive of it making it super majority. Councelor Cunningham, I would not be supportive of making it a super majority. Councelor Sakowski just input. I mean, we already have if you want.

Well, thank you, mayor. I I too am concerned about politics uh intervening in personal life of a a dedicated uh city manager. And it does concern me that that person could be removed uh without cause by a per potentially vindictive uh city council or perhaps maintained by a city council that enjoys what the individual is doing. but doesn't necessarily meet the needs of the city as well. Um it the politics concern me. They they do and regardless of it doesn't matter which side of you know anything. It just it concerns me personally for the individual that signed up for that position. I would be in support of a five or excuse me I'll just can't use a number super majority just because it feels as though we should be protecting the protecting the opportunity that this person has taken. But I would love to hear why you you think that that's not a great idea or if you do

um substantially because the charter calls out a majority of council for the appointment. Um, and I think that creating a super majority would overburden what is called out in the charter at that point. Um, if we're talking about the the political winds of subsequent city councils, um, first that speaks to the point that I was making earlier about Oregon law and I appreciate the opportunity to reiterate. Um there's a principle in the state that subsequent councils can't be bound by prior councils and so political winds do shift things um specifically with regard to government functions. I think it is legally incumbent to preserve that with this agreement lest it be found illegal. And second of all, as far as the blowing of political winds, um, sometimes that's that's just understood, particularly with a chief executive position. Um, the protection for an individual in this space is the severance provision that's tied to not for cause termination, termination without cause. We haven't negotiated exactly what that is, but the fact that it exists is exactly that protection.

All right. So, can I make one more comment? Yes, you may. So, I I I appreciate what you're saying about the city charter and I understand. And so if we're sticking with the majority of the council, u I can understand that. But it seems as though we also have to take into consideration the magnitude or the value of the severance as well. And if those two don't align, then I would have a hard time saying that I don't want a supermajority. If the severance package is such that it doesn't provide for a soft enough landing for this individual to continue on into another position, correct? It's hard to it's hard to answer that first question without knowing the second. So

we can absolutely rely revisit this if you feel the need at that point. We don't need to make this a one-way train. Thank you. More questions on term. May I

compensation and benefits sections four and five? Um the significant difference between uh Adam's interim city manager contract in this section and this contract is that it reflects a car allowance that was the same as in Jeff Cowry's contract. It is $500 a month. I think it's $500 a month.

So it's 500 a month. He doesn't get mileage unless he goes a longer distance. Correct. That's part of the mileage. Got it. And everything else is the same as what he already has right now. Councelor Cury. Uh on a salary, the 198,120 annually, equivalent to step 12 on the city manager salary schedule. Will you remind me the context for where 12 is? Is 12 the top, the middle, the bottom? There are 15 steps. 15 steps. Very good. Thank you, Councelor Chennowith.

Does that start at So, are we saying that 12 is we're moved up from 15 to 12 or 12 is the 12th step up the rung? It they increase 15 would be the top step. 12 is three below the top step. He's at where he's at right now. That's where he's at right now already. Yes. He didn't take an increase.

All right. Any other questions? Okay. Performance evaluation. Um, this section was mostly just beefed up a little bit. Um substantially it was tied to the terms of this agreement. Uh that includes the city manager's job description, the terms of this agreement and uh also the city manager's performance in accomplishing otherwise adopted goals and organizational objectives. I'm sure you are well-versed in um the public meeting laws that say that we can't review those objectives or direct those objectives uh during an evaluation, but we can talk about otherwise set objectives and how a city manager is meeting them. The change between annual and biianial, the last city manager contract called for an annual review. It was a challenge to meet. This calls for an annual review until we hit even numbered years after four years and then bianually. So every year for the first four years then bianily

okay councelor Chennowith and that actually helps to quell some of my concern um by doing that annual review. So thank you for that. Yay. Um just to point out one additional point, the council does not lose the ability to conduct additional reviews if something comes up. Any other questions on that? Sorry. Chennowith would like to know how that works. What the review process

if we're going to conduct more reviews? You said you just said we're don't lose the ability to ask for extra ones. How does that work? Do we have to give them notice? How does how does that transpire?

Depends on what exactly it is. is if we're conducting a performance review, then yes, that includes notice provisions, uh his opportunity to opt out of an executive session, uh a handful of public meeting law, things along that line, but yes, professional development in section 8. This was um modified slightly to reflect an expectation of continuing legal education and specifically require uh attend membership and attendance to OCCMA conferences. Um, what it goes out of its way to do is not bind Adam or the council to other particular conferences or opportunities, but to obligate the council to not fail to fund these opportunities as they may arise. Um we we also include a section about local engagement uh historically that dealt with particularly service clubs. Um here it includes service clubs or other local engagements as the city manager see sees valuable.

Any questions? Are you good with that or approval of the council or with the requests? No. Gary, do you have a question?

And finally, in section 10, confidentiality, this is not really a departure from anything. It's uh best practice. It points out the abil the the truth that the city manager holds a lot of city business closely and I mostly wanted to point out to you that it's in here. This is the extent of the contract that I wanted to call out for particular review before moving on to the two highlighted negotiation sections. If you would like to ask me about other parts of the unhighlighted contract, I'd be happy to hear them now. Councelor Chennowith.

Yeah. So, um, just cause if if if city manager breaks confidentiality, is that qualified as just cause? Let's look at the cause section. It would depend on exactly how conf confidentiality is broken, but I mean I'm my answer based on what you said is no. It would not qualify as just cause. But

I think if you look at D3, 2D3, we've got engagement in misconduct that is caused or is likely to cause material harm to the city, including but not limited to misappropriation, breach of trust, neglect of duty or failure to perform duties in a matter that is consistent with applicable law. Not only is that terminable, it's not subject to the 45day cure period. Thank you. Councelor Tukulski. Yeah. Uh, if I may go back to section looks like eight for a moment, the professional development area, is it okay if I go backward for a moment,

please? Yes. So, um, based on my experience in other areas of, uh, business, if you don't have some oversight into like section B talks about professional development opportunities and conference attendance when attendance is required by or relevant to uh, an individual, those can sometimes turn into opportunities for I'll call it waste or you know, a junket that you can articulate, yeah, it has a little bit of relevance to my position, but people might be, you know, flying around the world every two or three months to 10 something that's relevant. I would be more comfortable moving forward in the professional development area if we could at least have a bit of oversight there. And I don't know who would provide that oversight, but it see it doesn't seem completely responsible to just allow a in this case a city manager or anybody to just continue on with whatever they think is relevant and spend as much money as they see fit. So I I actually agree that it I mean the city manager works for the council that approval of a proposal approval to by the council

currently as it's written that would include attending a city manager lunch. Oh no that's much too low of a level. I mean, it's the bigger events, I think, is what Dan is. It is if you're going to be flying internationally for something or I don't Would you like to set a dollar amount for council review for uh any of single instance of spending? Councelor Peralta would like to ask you a question regards to this. Yeah, just point of clarification. I mean, don't we don't we budget isn't the aren't these line items in the budget? So we handle handle the approval of this during the budgeting process already.

There's a certain amount of discretion into how detailed those lines get, but it has been my experience that particular conferences are called out in our budgets. So item D in that same section calls out the the reasonable annual funding um and the adopted city budget process. as far as item B and the and C and how why they're more vague than others is um Jeff's contract called out specific service organizations and I wanted as I continue to rebuild relationships around the city I wanted to have flexibility to uh choose who I engage in and not be uh stuck with one organization um as those relationships organically come to Okay.

As far as council review, uh, to what David, I mean, there's a lot of things that I go do right now that are very low dollar amount. Um, and so a full council review would be pretty burdensome. As far as if we wanted to say like an out ofstate conference or something of that nature, that needs to come before council leadership. and I get in writing from whoever coun council president and the mayor is at that time uh a written you know I send them an email they write back acknowledging that's good um I would be amicable to something like that so there is some guard rails that get to counselor Tokolski's point but a full counselor review for anything I think is a little much

absolutely that is definitely not what I was implying I think it was more of you're not going to Italy just because you want to go to Italy that we would like to authorize authorize that or not authorize that. Answer Gary. Uh yeah, I don't think this line is a concern I share. I think the desire for that level of scrutiny and uh is in conflict with the confidence you should have in the person that we're handing this level of agreement to. So I don't share the this concern. Councelor Chowski.

Yeah, if I may. And then council channel had something. I cut him. Yeah. Um and I don't consider it a level of scrutiny. I just consider it a level of transparency. And I'm not asking to bring it to the entire council because that would be ridiculous. But it would be nice to understand if um if there's a large trip plan that it's brought before the mayor and the council president at least. That's all all that ask. Councelor Chennowith.

Thank you. Um I would actually uh concur with with S on this one. Um, I feel like the the budget process, we set up a budget amount for this kind of stuff. I feel like in the curing process of behavior that we have set up an earlier portion of the contract, um, if we see them flying around the world, um, we'll be able to cure that in a 45day window or 60-day window. Um, so I don't really see the need for that. Um, I do I I appreciate his willingness to bring it to leadership and I think that's a good thing. Um, but I I don't see the need for any contractual change on this one.

And I just add that you bring a lot of stuff and tell Sal and I what you're doing. It's great already, but I appreciate councelor Tokulski's concern for sure. Okay. Towelski, did you have anything else right there? No, I support what you said. Thank you. Okay.

Shall I residency that is section six of the contract. Adam requests a term broader than strict residency as he hopes to move to property near but outside city limits sometime in the future. To give some context to this request, Jeff Tower's agreement required residency. Uh this sort of requirement is not otherwise required by law or charter and cities in my review run the spectrum from strict incity residency to no requirements at all.

Councelor Chennowith, if we're going to put any sort of requirement along those lines, I think zip code is fine. Councelor Gary, when in uh in your experience with other city contracts, the what's the intent behind the residency requirement? That is a similar policy concern to that which counselors themselves are subject to. It's the idea that somebody involved so closely with the management and execution of city policies is subject to them.

I'm good with zip code. We have a lot of rule that aren't in the city limits but are mundle addresses and I am absolutely a-ok okay with that. Mayor, I also think that idea is a great idea, but in terms of um the current housing crisis we find ourselves in, it seems like maybe it's an outdated idea in this particular case. Councelor Tokowski. Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, thank you. I was just looking at the McMinnville zip code in the map and it's uh I'll just say interesting. Uh, I would prefer something a little bit more gracious. Uh, as an example, you couldn't live just east of Laf Lafayette, uh, and be a city manager, but you could live, you know, almost to Sheridan and be the city manager. So, to me, a zip code is easy, but it doesn't really make sense. I'd rather just say within the county, Yamill County. Okay, so we have a county and a zip code proposal. Council Gary.

Um I guess sort of what what's our budget committee makeup requirement sort of I think that we bumped into it there where if you're not a property taxpaying citizen, we don't want you weighing in on the property taxes of our city. I I think like the budget committee has a residency requirement and so I I see that the the concept being that like what you said but building on the actual uh you can have a 97128 zip code and not pay taxes into the city's budget. I chime in. Yep.

So the from my review of city manager contracts the residency requirement is very antiquated. Um, as far as local city managers, the AMD city manager lives in McMinnville. The Lafayette city manager lives in Newberg. The Newberg city manager contract has no residency requirement even though the city manager does live in the city limits. That is by his choosing. Uh, I will still maintain property uh in the city, multiple properties in the city that I pay taxes on and city service fees on and everything else. Uh, this is to really get at a piece of property I purchased a number of years ago that I eventually looked to build a house on. Um, and having a city limits residency requirement would guarantee a very short term for this position.

And let me be clear, I wasn't saying that I wanted a zip code. I said if we're going to have any requirement, you know, I I'm good with county. I don't I don't I don't see that. I'm not I don't even see the need for the requirement, frankly. But councelor Peralto, do you want to weigh in? My only comment is that this is a one-off. So because the next contract we do will have different provisions. So from my perspective, it doesn't really matter whether it's a county or zip code. The only question is are we okay with them living outside of the city limits which I So I think the okay

I think the answer is to just don't write one, right? There's no residency requirement. It's not a zip code. It's not a area. It's just don't write a residency requirement. If I may, as the attorney here, um, if we don't write one at all, then he could technically move out of state. Um, you would have to deal with that as you saw fit. Um, but there are a lot of fair arguments that commuting and attending meetings remotely would be sufficient. The ability to show up to the city, especially in emergency management situations, is not nothing. And I would recommend at least considerating considering these ideas. Okay.

So, we can either go Yamhill County or we can do uh mileage from city hall as well. Somebody has to calculate that. But go ahead. I just want to double down on Yamhill County. It'll make it easy. If you do mileage, it's like, are you, you know, did you drive the back row? Did you drive 47? Okay. Yeah. So, I think the majority of us are fine with Yamhill County. Right. Thank you. Okay.

Severance. This is section three. And again, as you can see in section three, tied particularly to termination by the city without cause. Item requests 12 month severance applicable upon execution of this agreement. Context, like I said, severance is tied to termination by the city without cause, not applicable to other termination situations. Jeff Tower's employment agreement included six month severance again applicable upon its execution that um I've got it here though and I had originally proposed in here a new idea an increasing scale whereby each year of employment added a month to the severance amount with a particular cap which I had proposed at six months. Did you have a proposal where you were going to start at for the increase starting at zero?

At zero without a term I'm I need to have more than that. I think to be fair, councelor Chennowith, I like your idea better than I like Adam's idea. Um I think do think it needs to start with a base number of months though. I don't think starting at zero is fair um to anybody. Um so that that's my first thoughts and I'll let this go forward from there.

Adam, thank you mayor. So in my request for that, it was from review and other city manager contracts of lower population and higher population. Um Forest Grove for instance in instance a smaller city has six months. Willina has three months. Newberg has 12 months. Grants Pass is uh six to 12 month sliding scale. Oregon City is a six to nine month sliding scale. Woodburn's nine months. Albany starts at a six-month base and grows a year or a month per year of service capping at 12 months. Okay. Yes. Councelor Gary,

do you have the salary schedule for those? Uh the average salary of those was 210 to 240. Very good. Councelor Takowski. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. On the slide, we haven't define what severance means. Are you talking about salary plus health benefits and all the other benefits or No, it's specifically to salary on the salary scale. Other benefits are called out separately. Okay. So, you're just we're strictly talking about a salary at this point. That's right. a lump sum payment upon termination based based on the salary scale. Thank you.

I'd like to propose six months with one month per year at a cap of 12. Council Cunningham. Yeah, I I think uh the six months, but I might say that um after two years it starts bumping up by a month every year.

So I would just like to put out there um that No, I'm sorry. Please continue. I'm sorry for interrupting to have this negotiation, Adam. If we just said six, one month for every year capping at 12 for two years. Well, four or okay so let's say for two years

uh I would like it to start from my higher date not waiting two years for my higher date be beingings that uh if you look at the the norm for this city this size it's 9 to 12 months so and then you look at the salary I didn't ask for any of that to move um and the salary range of comparable cities is 210 to 240 from what I found so the six months and one month each year. Yeah. Basically, all the needs program might be amocable to. Capping at 12. Correct. Yeah. Could you state that again, please? So, he has six month severance immediately.

After every year, he gets one additional month not to exceed 12 months. Okay. You're amicable to that?

Yes. So those are not terms that I have reviewed in particular. Um so I just want to make sure that I understand we understand the breadth as we go through here. So it would be six months upon execution. So it could be six months next week. Next week, if something goes on and Adam is terminated without cause, that would be a lump sum payment of $100,000. And then that would increase only upon a year from that time. And again, tied to termination without cause, the up to 12 months, which is at this point $200,000. But by that point would be more.

That is concerning the way you just said that. Um uh I I I everything was great except for the first couple sentences. Um um I don't know how comfortable I feel about it being starting on day one as opposing to starting on day 365. Um been here nine months.

Okay, that's a fair point. That that makes it a little better to add to that. Is it for me it's not about me specifically. It's about what is the position and what is what does the market bear and regardless of who you guys hire for this position you're looking at a minimum of 6 to 12 months from my research of comparable contracts from day one.

From day one you're asking a different candidate to move here from out of state or out of the area most likely. So they're going to want severance on day one. Well, and that's what Jeff Terry had, correct? Through his entire term. Yes. Okay. Any other concerns? No. Good with that. Now's your time.

I'm good with it. 6 months to 12 months increasing by one month each year starting at execution of this agreement. Yeses, I think it was two two years starting from your interim manager hire date. Is that what I heard Adam argue for? No. Okay. Sorry, I missed two years at all. I didn't hear that that made its way into the consensus. It did not. It's gone.

Okay. And then to be clear, we are working off of which date? The execution date of this agreement.

What? What? Yeah. What other date the interim city manager hireer date where other benefits have started to acrewue and that's where uh step increases as this agreement is written that's where step increases would happen uh cola would happen at July one just like other um executive level staff if there's a cola for other executives staff I guess for That's what I said.

So, how this contract's currently written, uh, everything transpires to that hire date. That's in the first part of the contract that everything's tied to the original hire date of August 18th.

August or now. Now this might

Yeah. I mean, I will say it for the record. I mean, the one comment that I have is that Adam was hired as an interim and so it sounded like from the comment that was made that that then he would be eligible for step 13 in July of this year. No, in in August on my anniversary date. But in August of this year as opposed to the anniversary date of your of your official hiring Mayor, may I ask a question? Others may not have an issue with that, but yes, councelor Takowski.

Yeah. Uh, city attorney Lyenberg, is it required to process a cola for every employee or is it something that you can forego based on conditions? Uh, the city has foregone colas in the past. This contract is tying the city manager cola to other executive level employees. if understand if they receive one he receives I guess the only thing I'm throwing out there and feel free to shoot it down is um I would propose there's no cola for this 2026 year but we go retroactive back to the interimm hire date for the severance and everything

comments mayor could I make a comment about that director Hedges Sure. So, our uh apologies. I'm here. I'm listening. Um the cola is specifically built into our salary schedule. So, separating a cola out from a step increase is difficult on the administrative side.

Okay. Now I sorry if I may jump in and make a clarification because I think that we've actually just come to a point where the interim city manager and I were not in accord and maybe didn't realize it. But my read of this contract is that the step increase would not occur until a year after the execution of this contract. This is tied to a city manager position, not an interim city manager position. And I would I would lean in to S's position on this and agree. I think this should be all all of the all of the the the the things tied in this contract should be tied to the hiring of city manager, not to a previous position he happened to be filling.

That's going to go down into all of the benefits that we have identified below. All of which we have not increased but have allowed him to carry over at whatever level they are here. You're looking to change those as well. Well, isn't okay. I'm confused by what you're saying. You're saying that you have some of this contract based on his interim hiring date and some of this contract based on his new hire date. His non salary benefits are tied particularly to his interim hire date. So vacation that he has acred, sick days.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah. That may Yeah, that No, I wouldn't want those things to qualify to the to the new hire date, those should roll over. Um, management leave, sick leave, vacation. Just a moment, Vicki. All of those speak to the interim city manager hired it. Director Hedges, I just want to note uh that going without a step increase this year is essentially asking Adam to go without a pay increase for a year and a half from the time he started as the in the interim position.

Thank you. Y comments I would say in general I'm fine with this contract at this point and uh with the six month severance and and the 12 and I had I appreciate director Hedg's comments about about um the year and a half without compensation increase.

Everybody else okay? I hear nothing that I'm going to say you must be okay. I'm good. Hey,

finally to complete this, the resolution itself calls out um not that we have a completed agreement attached, but that I will complete the agreement based on what we've discussed here tonight. Um that includes the filling in of both highlighted sections severance and residency and it includes a change of the cure provision from 45 to 60 days. Uh upon my finalizing of the contract to that effect, the mayor would then be authorized to enter into that contract with Adam.

And did you say deleting the residency on there, too? Yeah. Uh clearing up the residency to the way that you requested, which was particularly changing it to Yam Hill County. Okay. And I would like to make sure I see the contract before my name's put on there. I don't always see all resolutions be a wet signature. So, I'd have you sign it. Councelor Chennowith did miss one.

I did miss one topic I wanted to cover and and uh so I'm sorry to backtrack a bit here. Um uh sections 2.1 and 4.2 of the job description. Uh 2.1 provides oversight and manages all activities of city departments through executive team and utilize department director recommendations to appoint and terminate all city employees except except municipal court judge. Section 4.2 responsible for interview hiring disciplining and terminating employees. Um, I I I want to make sure as we're looking to bring on a new city manager that we're really clear about what the charter says regarding the hiring of um administrative appointed administrative officers. Um, so to be clear, those two sections are not referring to those officers. Correct. to a certain degree they are. Um I'm aware of the charter provisions of course that you are speaking of, but these provisions are also broader than those and include some more uh oversight and action with regard to employees. Um, I'm not going to jump ahead to where I believe that you're going with your concern. Yes, this applies to named executives.

No, this does not supersede the charter. If the charter said something different, this would not then supersede it in any way.

Okay. But to me it seems like it clearly clearly is saying something different because the power of appointing the um appointed administrative officers is specifically in the hands of the council according to the charter. And this is using the same terminology and wording to give the city manager that authority. Can you cite the part of the charter you're talking about?

Sure. Charter 11. Additional officers of the city shall be a municipal judge, city recorder, C2 city manager, city attorney, director of public works, chief of police, fire chief, treasurer, and such other officers as the council deems necessary. Each of these officers shall be appointed and may be renewed by a majority of the council. And then you want to finish. Well, there's more to that, but that's the key portion of this. The the council may designate any appointed officer to supervise any other appointed officer except the municipal judge in the exercise of his judicial fun.

Correct. Supervise. That particular portion is giving the ability for us to s hand hand over supervisory responsibilities to somebody other than the city manager should it be deemed necessary. But it's not about um appointing, it's about supervising after they're appointed. In so far as that goes, like I said, uh these sections apply to all employees of the city and apply to some activities by the city manager or responsibilities is a better word of the city manager with regard to those employees that are not implicated by the scope of this section of the charter. However, in so far as this section of the employment agreement and the city manager job description were to be in conflict with the charter charter, they would not supersede it. So, Adam, what would be your position as our new city manager on the hiring of the listed people mentioned in this section and how would you handle those? That's uh a dense question, Councelor Chennowith, but uh I know it's an important question for yourself and something that you've brought up continuously for the last year plus. Um I think that there is definitely an opportunity to have more council engagement through a hiring process of directors and ET. That said, I do think it's important for me to be able to carry out the uh your policy direction and administer the city that I do uh choose my own team but bring you guys along through the process um but not

give you the outright authority to hire somebody and I know that conflicts with your belief of

Yeah, I think the charter is clear that the appointment process belongs in our hands. Um, the other thing I would say is a charter review is something that was talked about in our August goal setting this uh 2025. It wasn't one of your top five goals, but it was up there. Uh, there's a League of Oregon Cities conference in April. I know the mayor and I are going to attend and there's also a charter uh workshop in there that I intend to attend as well. Um, so providing the whoever the policy body is for the next goal setting, if that's a top five goal for that year, we're going to address it. Okay. Um,

went down. Oh, just director Hedges, did you have something you wanted to share? I did. Thank you. uh the charter specifically that you mentioned this section of the charter talks about appointment uh and what the job description talks about hiring which are two different processes and those positions do come to council for appointment so we are following the process that's outlined in the charter

I appreciate that perspective in no other government does appointment not include the process of hiring if you look at the presidential level you look at the governor level you look at any government body that does appointment the term appointment consistently refers to the entire process of hiring. Um, I understand that we as a body have absolved previous processes through our voting and I understand going forward we're absolving those processes if we vote. I get that. Um, but at the same time, the appointment process is not just a a rubber stamp at the end. It's the choosing of who we want here. Um, and there's a reason why we have a secondary ordinance on the books that included the city manager to have the authority to be involved in that process. It's fair and it's right that the city manager be there. I welcome the comments that you made that you would include us and I think that's important. Um, I hope that this will become a priority to get fixed. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah, I think he has a point that we need to address and we've talked about it before, but you are absolutely the one to supervise employees and we'll discuss it later, but let's make sure we don't forget it. Okay, anything else? That's the end of my presentation. Any other counselor? Any other comments before we move on? Okay. So, we've made our changes. You're going to change the contract. I'll review it and wet sign it.

Uh, so far we have not passed a resolution to that effect. Okay. I have a a motion to accept that resolution. I have a motion. So, I have a motion from councelor Peralta. I have a second from councelor Takolski. Any additional conversation, comments? Claudia. Councelor Chennowith.

Hi. Councelor Giri. Nay. Councelor Cunningham. I. Councelor Takolski. Hi. And council president Peralta. Yes. Uh, resolution 2026 passes by a vote of 4 to one. Hey, congratulations. Thank you. Like we're all exhausted, but

okay, we're going to move on. um consider the second reading of ordinance 5173 and I am going to call on attorney David Light. Thank you, Mayor. This is the second reading of ordinance number 5173, an ordinance approving a comprehensive plan map amendment docket CPA1-25 and zone map amendment docket ZC2-25 for approximately 26.07 07 acres located at 2325 Northeast 3M Lane, 160 Northeast Atlantic Street, 2305, 2245, 2225, 22215, and 2205 Northeast Cumulus Avenue and tax slot R4422C 01102. Council have any questions on the second reading? Do I have a motion? Mayor,

before you do that, can we just state for the record that this ordinance did not pass unanimously support at the March 14th meeting requiring the second reading to be conducted at this meeting? Thank you. Okay. So, not hearing anything. I move to approve ordinance number 5173 as presented. Second. Any further discussion? AIA Chennowith. Nay. Councelor Giri. Hi. Councelor Cunningham. Hi.

Councelor Tulski. Nay. Council President Peralta.

Yes. Ordinance 5173 is adopted by a vote of 3 to two. Thank you. And thanks for reading that extra bit that I skipped. Okay, we're going to move on to advice and information items, reports from counselors on committees and board assignments and department heads. And I'm going to start I'm going to start with Chief Wood. I'll try using the microphone instead of just using my big boy voice. Uh MPD is launching a new program uh in the coming months. We're going to uh launch a bike patrol program. Program is going to be funded through grants uh that we've received from Min McMminville Industrial Promotions and Visit McMminville. Uh we're going to initiate the purchase of some bicycles and equipment and then uh once we have the equipment in hand, we can start planning the training program to get our officers back out into the community on bikes. We're we're really excited for this opportunity. Bike patrols are infinitely adaptable and can be used to address any many different kinds of crime problems. They can be used for highdensity events uh and policing areas that are difficult to reach by car. So, we're very, very excited to have this program coming back to McMinnville. Uh, on the 8th of April, we'll be welcoming Officer Justin James. Uh, he will be starting his position as a police officer with MPD. Uh, Officer James is a lateral officer. He's going to be returning to MPD after a brief hiatus uh where he was a police officer in South Carolina and then most recently with another Oregon law enforcement agency. Uh we're excited for him to come back to us and get him back in an MPD uniform and on the street.

Great. I love all that. Thank you. Public works director Goff Huncker.

Uh yes. So today, notwithstanding, it is spring time out there. Um so for most of our operations and wastewater work, we're moving into our summer window. Um things like working on athletic fields, moving on to the summer permit at the plant, things like that. So, all that work's ongoing. Uh, quick update on the TSP. Our, uh, review committee reviewed proposals and we had some very strong proposals and we elected to move forward with interviews. So, we're going to be having interviews with those consultants on Wednesday next week, April 1st, and we'll be making a selection from there and then moving forward into the contracting process, which we would bring to the city council. Um, also want to give some congrats to Eric Grimstead, who we hired as our wastewater services manager to replace our soon to be fully retired Leland Kester. Uh, Leland, Eric is officially in the role as of uh yesterday. So, Leland's just a very experienced, very well- paid intern at this point uh for three days a week, but he's helping Eric with that transition. And then we also want to say congrats but a farewell to our city engineer James Loftton who has accepted a position as the assistant public works director uh for the city of Corvalis. His last day will be the first. Um we're already working on a transition plan. Um that job is already posted on the city website. So we're looking for that. But that job can be a hard one to find a replacement for. City engineers it can take a year or more sometimes to find a replacement. Luckily, I do have my license, so I'll be taking on a lot of the city engineer duties that are required in the code um in addition to my role, but we'll get through it. And that's all I had.

Thank you, Scott Burke, information systems. Sure. Mostly um internally just from us, we've been reconfiguring a fair amount of storage this spring. Just uh it comes handinhand with budget process and we look what we need to proc or purchase in the future, do some planning. So, a lot of infrastructure work that uh we're always happy to say nobody noticed, but uh we keep pretty busy in the background sometimes. Thanks. All you do, city reporter, Claudia Cisneros.

Yes. As a reminder, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission statement of economic interests are due April 15, so please submit those. Um the W 3 applications are due this Friday at 5:00 PM and do want to state a correction. We previously were set to have interviews at 6:00 pm. We're going to have them at 5 or 6:30. We're going to start the special uh meeting at 5:30 to add a ordinance on there. And that's all I have. Thank you. City Councelor Scott Cunningham.

Yes, thank you. Um, historic landmarks uh did meet this last week um where they um added on or swore in swore in Grant Mandel uh as their newest committee member. Uh that meeting then moved to a discussion of a demolition application for historic resources. So at which time I had to vacate that meeting due to it being a quasi judicial manner. Um MCM11 also held uh their second meeting of the year. Um they too are uh swear in a new board actually um a new slate for their executive board and they have uh one of their board members Lisa I'm sorry about the last name uh is is termed off her second time around uh and so they are looking for new board members. They have a good list but if anyone out there is interested in our local broadcast that would be fantastic. There's a position uh coming available. uh affordable housing uh committee did not meet because they're eagerly awaiting the approval of the CCT program.

Councelor Chennowith

uh MVLC met on Wednesday the 11th. We agreed to the following priorities and action items for 2026. Action items are new for us. We haven't had them on our list before. Um the priorities are as follows. Third Street Improvement Project, Northeast Gateway Redevelopment, McMminville Landing Infrastructure, public infrastructure, Newberg Dundy bypass and Housing. Action items are as following. Uh we're going to look at research, develop, and recommend funding for a one-stop model known as a business concierge service. Um and then secondarily create, research, develop, implement a unifying targeted community brand to attract new businesses and private investments to Mcbinville. Uh next month or next meeting, I will bring to you guys a final report on the 8212 Ron Noble grant that we did uh coming out of COVID. On Thursday the 19th, I joined the parkway comm uh was president of the parkway committee. Uh we all can see the progress that's occurring at 2A, the interchange um at um the end of the bypass in Newberg. Um three lights should be going up over the next six months and pretty soon you'll be able to actually make the interchange directly to Wilsonville Road. Um also on Thursday the 19th, I joined the Oregon Transportation Safety Action Plan update which focused on crash analysis. Um sure no one's surprised there's a noticeable increase in crashes throughout this time frame um due to distracted driving um that's occurred over the last five years. An interesting statistical fact that might catch some of you surp by surprise though as there is that there's been a steady uptake in accidents since late 2015. While this is not causal, it's coincidental perhaps um or correlation.

The other thing that happened in late 2015 was the legalization of marijuana. If anyone is leadership is in interest, if anyone in leadership is interested, I can send you a slide deck of that event. Um, so you can take a look at the information there. On election notes, I did want to take this time to make the community aware that there is an upcoming YC Commissioners uh forum being hosted by We Are Mack at the McMminville Community Center at 11:00 a.m. on April 11th. be a great opportunity to learn about all those who are on the ballot. That's it. Councelor Peralta.

Uh thank you, Mayor. Midwam Valley Council Government's board of directors met on March 17th. U they elected a new uh chair and vice chair. Betsy Earles uh who is uh on the board of THC Community College is the chair. Uh Kit Johnson is the vice chair. Um they adopted uh new rates for the year uh for uh members and we got a presentation on uh updates to MWAC and the transportation plan. Thanks.

Um I was lucky enough to be able to have a tour of Homewardbound's new facility that's um under construction, though you should be fully open. They're targeting early June. Um, I attended the McManville leadership community discussion meeting on 312 with local leaders. On March 13th, I attended the chamber greeters which was held by the school district and we were presented with a program from their business pathways program and there was um quite a few students that presented to about a hundred of us that were in attendance. I also on the 13th joined the chamber for ribbon cutting. the new tractor supply store is open and also attended the wine and food classic a local fundraiser which is always a good time. Um I on 317 was a monthly water and light commission meeting. I wanted to just let everybody know that was the last commission meeting that would be held in that facility. Um they are in the process of moving into the temporary facility um down at the end of Third Street because they are remodeling adding 14,000 square feet to the administration building 18,500 ft to the warehouse facility and they should be returned to Marsh March Marsh Lane not March Lane summer of 2027. On March 18th, I was able to attend with Superintendent Courtney Fura and Lafayette Mayor Hillary Malinson and myself at Washer Grade School. News Register came out to do an article about our new campaign, which is we care about kids. And the three of us are going to attend a many events to um basically take care of our kids and let them know that they are wanted and that they are they we like what they're doing. We want to encourage positivity. And it was a beautiful morning that we got to play on the playground. And couple things for this body is if you have any proposed questions that you

would like considered for the W three candidates, please have them to Claudia by the end of the day on Monday and they will be considered for the reading. Questions will not be going out ahead of time to council or to applicants. And then also um you need to respond to Claudia. We have for the council and a few staff to go on a wreck tour, an aquatic tour. You need to respond to Claudia to let her know if you're going or not. Councelor Gary,

thank you. Uh I I'm I'm saying yes. I RSVP. Yes. Uh Visville had um an all online meeting, mostly business, so I'll uh provide a more thorough update next time. No Murak meeting. Um and so the two things I wanted to update on were more of staff kudos. Uh early in March I volunteered uh through the school um with uh my son Hyram's third grade survival swim program which all the third graders do the survival swim. It was kind of fun to Adam and I went through the program together when we were putting on our clothes and jumping in the school and now now I was helping all the kids do that and um the city does that every year. And I think my my favorite part was the um I got reassigned to a new job and I had to get moved over and do this other swim test with these kids. And I I asked new pool manager uh Josh, I go, "What's what do I do at this station?" He was like, "I don't know. This is all new to me, too." So, uh it's a unique program to McMinnville. They've been doing it forever and it's really cool. So, it was fun to be able to participate and it is just a mad house of an entire third grade in the pool for an hour. Just kids everywhere and all those lifeguards head on a swivel. It was it was impressive feat and a ton of kids uh got uh graduated and now um are better, stronger, safer swimmers. So, appreciate all the staff there. And then I also just on the heels of of James uh Loftton moving I wanted to say to him and your staff, thank you very much. Um as maybe half of all the emails we get are traffic related. Um uh your team was able to help the we had a concerned citizen um over here uh in in this neck of the woods uh ask about the citizen initiative petition through the current TSP about uh getting a four-way more safe. Um James responded and and took that in and um through review of your

your public works employees and and police department. They analyzed traffic data and deemed that that was necessary to put in a four-way stop and they went ahead and did it and it's in very effective and James led that process. So uh appreciate you guys getting the work done and especially Mr. Loftton. So thank you very much. Fourway stop. Uh cows fifth fifth cows fourth in cows over there just one block behind the building department there but yeah so thank you councelor Takulski

that's good we needed stop signs in those ones they're sketch yeah so uh airport commission meets on the 31st otherwise I haven't had much opportunity anything else that's it Oh, councelor Chennowith,

I'm sorry. I would be remiss if I didn't say I also got to tour the library this last week. Um, and had a great time going through all of the different areas of the building. Um, uh, it has been five years that I've been on council and due to COVID and then just due to weird scheduling things, it just never worked to do it. Um, but kudos to the staff of the library. Um, love the area of the library of things. I can't wait to see some more of that making its way back into our council meetings and and presentations. Um, and thank you very much to our library director for hosting me and taking me through. City manager, Adam Garvin.

Thank you, Mayor. It's been a busy couple weeks. Uh, we had round two budget meetings last last week which consumed a lot of time. In between those budget meetings, I met with uh stable table partners one-on-one to talk about the melc addendum um as well as individual items. MDA had concerns around event permits and barricades visit McMinnville. I should tapped for the half of the money we needed for the mountain bike program and Dan was very excited about that and helping out. Uh met with Patty and John at MEDP. Um hosted the Yam Hill County City Managers for coffee on the 13th. Attended the Cog Regional City Manager lunch on the 20th. And um continuing to pursue surplus opportunities with McMinnville Water and Light with their move. They're going to have some extra furniture. So you guys um will eventually be seeing some new to us uh outfitting of some city buildings from their move and their generosity as well as they have some vehicles that we're going to replace some needs in our fleet. Um and then Monday, yesterday, I had lunch with Doug Riggs, our state lobbyist, and just to recap on the legislative session one-on-one with him. uh show him appreciation for the work his team does and supporting us in that. Then also talk about uh his appetite for any additional work uh with Jod's retirement. Um, and then I also received the community center appraisal back that uh Heather executed uh with a consultant for that. And so need to review that still, but wanted to let you know that's moving along. And then after we get done with these tours, look forward to having a discussion and a recap and a public meeting uh as it

looks like we're going to have a quorum on those tours. So we'll have to limit any deliberations or comments during those tours. Thank you. Thank you. City Attorney David Lmberg. Thank you, Mayor. Nothing from the legal department tonight. Community Development Director Heather Richards.

Thank you, Mayor. Um at my at your last city council meeting, I shared with you that we um have a vacancy in our code compliance program. It's advertised right now. We're collecting applications for that. However, we had 53 open cases two weeks ago. I wanted to let you know we've worked through those. We've closed 37 of them. we have another 16 that we're working on now uh with property owners that were a little bit more complicated. So, good to see that catching up and uh the community has been great, very gracious in working with us and resolving these issues. So, I appreciate that with everyone. Um also wanted to let you know there's several um quasi judicial projects working through our system right now either at the historic landmarks committee or at the planning commission. Just to give you an additional warning about that, these could all come to you as an appeal process. Um, and so I know there's a lot of community chatter right now about projects. I know there's a lot of people uh reaching out to city council members to share with them their thoughts about them. Uh, if you do receive those emails, please share with people that you're not in a position to be able to review them or discuss them with them, forward them to us so that we can enter them into the public record. um because uh these could eventually come to you for decision- making.

Thank you, Finance Director Katie Henry.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I'll start with uh municipal court. We have had a a difficult month a bit due to some family emergencies with the with our judge. So, um there have been several court days where we haven't been able to hold court. um last minute where we weren't able to get a prom judge. So um we are optimistic that he will be back on April 1st, so back with us for next month. Um and we have shored up some pro Tim to be on call. Um, so we're hopeful to get everything going back on track, but if you hear anything from the community, we haven't been able to adjudicate um a lot of cases this month because of the judge's situation. Um, on the uh finance side, we have good news and bad news. The good news is we've finally had a breakthrough in the transparency software. And this afternoon, I was able to see the first data that was integrated between our current accounting system and the transparency portal. So, we're not quite there, but it's the first time we've been able to plug from one system to the other without me having to download, change everything, and re-upload. Um so we are really close on that which is exciting um to be able to get that going really well for the public and for our budget. The bad news is on the budget side we spoke with the um software company today and we are still running into errors in the reports that they are creating. So, we do not yet have the reports that we use for the budget that

have everything. So, for the budget book, we don't yet have a report that can do that. Um, he was hopeful, as we said, that we do need to get these to the printers as soon as possible since we it's almost time to get them to you all so that we have time to review them. Um, but just so you know, we don't yet have a working report to do that. So, I hope to come to you with better news next time. That's all I have for you. Thank you, Director Henry.

Okay. Miss anybody? In your packet is the February 26 cash and investment report. Anybody have any questions? Okay. I will now adjourn the city council meeting at 8:43 PM and go in and go into the urban renewal agency meeting. Right. Anybody need a break or can we just keep going? Okay. I'd like to call the urban renewal agency meeting to order at 8:43. We have a resolution to consider resolution number 2026-03, a resolution of the McFimble Urban Renewal Board authorizing the city man McFill city manager or designate to enter into and manage a development agreement with Hops Homestead LLC for the Bungalow Lodging Project at 931 Northeast First Street. I'd like to call in Heather Richards, community development director to present. Thank you, mayor and counselors. In your role as board members of the Urban Renewal Agency, we're bringing to you tonight a recommendation from the McMinnville Urban Renewal Advisory Committee for a property assistance grant to um what is called the HOS Homestead Project. This is outlined in resolution number 2026-03. um to let you know it is located in the urban renewal district. So that's one of the first qualifying criteria. It's on First Street on the northern edge of First Street. It's a unique property. It's actually

two legal lots. One lot has a historic bungalow and one lot has a garage on it. Uh the project is both a redevelopment project and a development project. So, the bungalow has been restored and new construction has occurred on the property as well. Um, the new construction is two bungalows and ADU and the garage has been remodeled as well. This is all to put together a project that is a boutique lodging and event center project in the downtown area. Shannon Quimby, who is the lead on this, is actually here tonight as well if you have any questions for her. Uh for in terms of a project description, it is uh meant to be a a lodging project. It will have 16 rooms associated with it and then also the opportunity to do small events on site. It's a 1.15 million investment, redevelopment, and new construction project. To qualify, the project must be located within the urban renewal district. It must be new construction or substantial rehabilitation that increase that increases assessed values in the district and creates jobs. This project does both of those. It needs to comply with federal, state, and local codes. This project is actually already underway. So, it's achieved all its land use approvals as well as uh building permit issuance. It needs to leverage at least $4 to every $1 of urban renewal investment. this project will leverage $10 to $1 for the remaining costs of the project that they have applied for. So, they still have about $550,000 remaining on the project to do. It also needs to address two or more of the urban renewal plan goals. The request is for $50,000. Um, as I said, it's partially constructed. They still have approximately 550,000 remaining to be done and their leverage is $10 for every$1. They have provided findings

that shows that they meet the program criteria for both for economy for encouraging a unique district identity for historic preservation and for development and redevelopment. So four of the five in terms of the due diligence. Um the products that we received and that Murak reviewed was the application and the findings associated with that, a business plan that the um that the developer provided to us, a construction budget, a market study and a pro-forma. Murak looked at those then they looked at re previous awards that the agency has given and the types of projects and to which those um awards were given. If so the urban renewal agency has the ability within this program, the property assistance program to be pretty flexible on the types of terms that you come up with to participate in helping a private uh project move forward that you think meets the goals and objectives of the urban renewal district. So, we in the past have done grants. We've done forgivable loans. We've done combinations of loans and grants. We've done loans that where we've put off the payment um the payback for a couple of years. We've done interestonly payments for a couple of years. We've also done loans where if it's paid off early, there's a reduction in the loan amount. So, it's been creative across the board based on the impact of the project itself and the needs of the project uh after review of the urban renewal advisory committee. So, after their review, they voted to uh to make a recommendation to you as the urban renewal board to offer a three-year forgivable loan in the amount of $50,000 plus interest. This three-year forgivable loan would be uh forgiven proportionately over that three years based on two performance metrics. So, uh finish of the the construction project. So when they get their final certificate of occupancy, the the recommendation to you is to forgive $25,000 at that

milestone and then after two years of operation, forgive the remaining 25,000 plus the interest that had been generated up to that point. Uh the loan would be paid back if they don't meet the performance. So if there's at either of those milestones, they're not meeting the performance, they would pay back the loan and whatever interest has been generated on it. We will ask for a personal guarantee for the loan at the time of signing and there will be a payback in full of the forgivable loan if the property sells within five years. Those are fairly standard terms that we've used for other projects as well. There is approximately of $140,000 uh currently in the fiscal year 26 property assistance program remaining for you to deploy if you choose to deploy into this project. And I'm happy to answer any questions. And as I um said, Shannon is here as well.

Any councilors have any questions? All right. No questions. So, do I have a motion to consider urban renewal agency resolution number 2026-03? So moved. Second. Have a motion from councelor Cunningham, a second from councelor Tulowski. Any further discussion? Audia. Councelor Chennowith. I. Councelor Giri. Nay. Councelor Cunningham. Hi. Councelor Takolski. Hi. Council President Peralta. Yes.

The resolution URRA resolution number 20263 passes by a vote of 4 to one.

Thank you. The city council will be going into the conference room for a close to the public executive session pursuant to OS1 192.6602E to conduct deliberations with persons you have designated to negotiate real property transactions. Did any does any counselor Thank you. Does any counselor need to declare an actual or potential conflict of interest or recuse themselves regarding these executive sessions? For the record, I recuse myself because I own property next door and will not attend the executive session. I will now adjourn the Urban Renewal Agency meeting at 8:51 p.m.