City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, folks. It is 630 on Monday, August 17th. I'm going to call the state and city council meeting to order. I'd ask Councilor Hayes to lead us in the pledge.

I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I thank the city of Staten and encourage all residents to reflect on the history of our nation, appreciate the freedom secured by our Constitution, and recognize our common bond as citizens. Constitution Week, dated on Staten, Oregon, the 17th day of August, 2026.

I believe that Linda Bannister is here to receive the proclamation or to take a picture with the proclamation.

Sure.

A photo op. If you would be so kind. Sure.

How do you want to do this?

Do you have a camera or do you want us to take a picture? We can take a picture.

My husband would have to take it. So maybe your camera. OK.

I would have you guys move the flags for us. this we have another meeting we're not gonna have another meeting at the time but that's why we did it today so thank you very much for doing that yeah absolutely did we get for that coffee she can take that one i've got one you can sign oh yeah

If I use my teacher voice, I can tell you that the connection between Daughters of the American Revolution and this week is that it was initiated by a petition by the Daughters back in 1955. I'd like to say that was before my time. And also then, it was put together as a legislative act by our Congress, signed into law in 1956 by President Eisenhower. And so ever since then, we've kind of been guardians of presenting this week of reflection and learning and education. We do everything from asking for proclamations. Abigail Scott Dunaway chapter right here in Staten. This is our first time asking for proclamations, which we appreciate very much. And we work jointly with the Staten Library to have it displayed.

Awesome. Great. Thank you very much. All right. There is no public hearing. All right.

Correct.

So that leads us to general business, and that's League of Oregon Cities Legislative Priorities. Julia.

Thank you. Every two years, the League of Oregon Cities seeks input from their member cities on the top priorities for them to focus on that legislative during the long session. In your packet on page 17 is the beginning of their entire list of things that they are proposing or suggesting possibly be considered. I went through that and identified in your packet on page 13 through 15, or 13 through 16, the initiatives that are relevant to Staton. I didn't specifically identify my recommended but identified what the LOC would propose to do and why there's a connection to Staton. And they want cities to identify as a whole the top five, and similar to what we did a couple years ago, I'm seeking input from council on what their top five priorities you want me to forward to the LOC are. Okay.

So this is similar to what we did last year? Two years ago. Two years ago. Okay.

And at that time, as a reminder, one of the things that was not on there was homeless discussion. You did do your top five priorities, but also asked me to convey that to the League, and I did. And they had said at the time that it was because of the timing of when they put this out and when the the ninth circuit court had made some decisions. I think that that's why that hadn't been on there. So if there's anything, I guess my point is if there's anything that's not in their legislative priority suggestions that you think should be put forward, you can certainly say that as well.

Okay. Is there a deadline for responding to them?

September 25th is when they've asked for some time. Yeah.

Okay. With that, it's an opportunity for a public comment on this topic. Okay. It doesn't look like there is. Council? Any discussion?

Mr. Mayor?

Councilor Sims?

I mean, I rank my top five. I could say what those are if anybody wants to do it that way and go from there and see what everybody else thinks. But I had number one is infrastructure funding. what I put number two I put transportation package that's on the back page and the number three I put ratepayer assistance and I put number four as on the third page is maintain affordable energy while supporting grid hardening and modernization and I put my fifth one is land availability and land use streamlining and It's on the second page.

Okay.

Mr. Mayor.

Councillor Patty.

Yeah, I'd echo those. Those were all in my top five as well, except for one little difference is I'd probably maybe highlight the public meetings law clarity. That sounded... I mean, maybe that's a little self-centered on our part, right? But at the same time, it's like, okay, this would be helpful. I don't know how everyone else feels about this, but I'm fine with removing nine. I feel like we're always increasing taxes on that kind of thing and don't see results of it.

And that one's the alcohol revenue modernization that you're referring to.

I myself would like to think about this a little bit more, if possible. Is council prepared to make recommendations tonight, or do you want to wait until the 25th? That way Council Orrick can have an opportunity to weigh in.

Yeah, that's fine. I mean, we got until the 25th, right?

Yes, there's one more business meeting between now and then, so you absolutely can.

Let's do that. So thanks for bringing it up. Let's make sure we focus on getting this back to the next meeting, which would be, what's the date of the next meeting?

So the next meeting is actually planned on being just a joint work session with the Parks Board. So the following meeting is September 17th, I believe.

OK. So we can be prepared to give the rankings on the 17th. That'd be great. Yes, please. And if someone can inform Council Ortt about it.

I'm sorry. Alyssa corrected me. It's the 21st.

September what?

21st. OK.

I guess, Julia, do we have tracking of what the LLC has done before when they got this feedback? Have they really carried out what the wishes of the cities were?

Yeah, so every year they do... at the end of the legislative session they do a legislative summary of what what they did both to promote but also to protect uh so i can certainly send you the the last um a couple of versions that they've done so you can see what progress they made or stopped on certain bills okay just on top of my head i would agree with counselor patty on

account through sims definitely on the infrastructure for sure for me um and i really want to see something i think it's in here about um clarifying the whole land use issue i thought that was in here somewhere right wasn't it yes yeah so those are my just off top of my head couple ones but i will also give you my official ones on by the 23rd 21st right

21st is the next meeting where we'll be asking you to make a formal recommendation So we're gonna delay that one until the 21st that was us to communication from city staff I Have a lot and tonight so one of the things that has come up both at the council meeting and in some of the one-on-ones is the park and ride and the Landscaping at the park and ride not being great I've reached out to ODOT and they have a program, essentially it's an adopt-a-highway program that would essentially give us the permission to go there, seek volunteers. It wouldn't be a city, we wouldn't use city resources per se, but we would use city to get volunteers to do a work party type of thing to help clean that up. I am prepared to submit that application tomorrow, as early as tomorrow, there's an alternative where we could just get a permit to just do a one-time cleanup, and so I'd like your feedback on one. Are you supportive of us submitting an Adopt-a-Highway application that would give us a little bit more, well, give us the authority to organize, but then it's also a commitment of periodic cleanup for one to three years, and that's a decision as well, or a one-time cleanup.

do nothing I would like to have us at least ask sublimity for their assistance the temporary thing to me is all fine and dandy for the immediate time but it's going to grow back yeah so whatever council wants to opine about and

That was certainly my plan, was to reach out to the City of Sublimity as well and have a joint cleanup party with both cities.

Mayor, I agree with Sublimity joining forces with us. And what equipment will we be using?

Our own personal equipment to take care of this?

Yeah, it would be people bringing their own supplies.

So the commitments for how long, Julia?

so the when the on the permit form it says you know a proposed start date and a proposed end date and the proposed end date it says one to three years so we could just do it for a year see how we feel about it and then renew or we could do longer i guess as long as it's not requirements of having the permit like i don't want to go out there and do snow removal right mr mayor

Yeah, Council House, go ahead. If I remember correctly, you know, they didn't want to clean it up anymore from certain vehicles that were abandoned there or people camping there and such like that. They actually asked us if we wanted to take it over, and we unanimously said no, that we were not going to maintain it as a park and ride and such. So I'm questioning why are they still, you know, I mean, I'm not saying it's a bad thing if we go out there, but at the same note, it's like you do it once. Are they going to expect it again and again?

I think that's what the adoption is. The adoption piece.

Yeah, and just to clarify, I reached out to ODOT based on comments and complaints that I'd had saying, hey, this is overgrown. Their response was essentially they use adults in custody to do cleanup of different of their facilities and amenities, and it's prioritized based on availability, and so they'll This is not how she said it, but they'll essentially get to it when they get to it. And so I asked, well, what if we wanted to organize a volunteer group? So it's not the city spending city resources to clean it up. It's us just sort of facilitating the cleanup.

So just for clarity, Julia, so the sidewalk that is adjacent to the park and ride, that's encompasses the actual ODOT property? It's not split between county and ODOT or state?

I don't have clarity on that. I think that it depends on who you talk to and what they say, but my understanding is that similar response has been, you know, our code enforcement officer has reached out to Marion County, and it's on their list, but it doesn't necessarily make it a high priority. And so if we get permission to do that, that would allow us to have some volunteers to go out and clean it up. Okay.

Mr. Mayor?

Councilor Carey? It's a good idea. the first time is going to take some pretty serious equipment.

If somebody were to get injured, who's liable?

I guess I would need to double check with our insurance, but there is a liability release waiver that's required for anybody that's participating. And then there's, you know, some documents that we are supposed to hand out to people that are participating about safety.

Well, thanks for the update. And it looked like that's bad. He looks like that's a question.

Yeah. Uh, thanks Julia for bringing this before us. Uh, so if we get a, a permit, like you're talking about, is this through the county or is this through the state? What are we talking about?

This is a ODOT, um, permit for the adopt a highway program.

Okay. So if it's a state process, isn't it state approval that like, I guess I'm confused on that. Like, why would we need state approval if it's a county?

The park and ride facility is ODOT. Okay.

Okay. That's why I was asking if the sidewalk is county.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to ascertain.

Okay. I'd really like to get that grass cut, even if I go do it myself.

And that's the challenge, and we've talked about that, is that as a city, I can't say, hey... Anybody come out and help us clean this up. I don't have the authority, the permission. I can certainly reach out to the county and see if they would require a similar adopta program for that portion that's right of way, that's not the park and ride lot. But I think that if we had the approval from ODOT to do the park and ride, that

sort of automatically you know you're as a property owner generally you're responsible for that area to the street so I would assume that that would be something that we could do as well but I can look into that more um okay thanks for diving into that let's maybe see if we can get clarification on the separation between the state and the county piece and address it because certainly that the weeds in in my estimation are on the sidewalk on the border of the parking

lot so I don't if we can get clarification on that okay so we'll let it slide until then okay next thing on my list so we did have somebody that spoke about the detour at damn drawdown and we will be talking about that more this evening but I just wanted to say publicly that we did file a several motions on Friday to intervene in the Marion County and the Salem lawsuit. We're also continuing working on the emergency response planning. We've been meeting, I think we've met two or three times now, and we're meeting every two weeks to go through that. And then we're also well on our way, maybe pun intended, on updating the 50 well in preparation for the drawdown as well. I mentioned the movie in the park already, but I wanted to say this again. I mentioned this in our weekly update, but I wanted to say it publicly as well. This is the brainchild of our parks and public works staff. They wanted to do a fundraiser. They actually asked me to donate money to purchase a screen, which is really cool. There's donations from previously from the covered bridge that helped with some refreshments and then Sharon Dippity Salon donated a popcorn maker machine. So this is all pretty much donated items and then there'll be volunteer labor to run the concession stand and the movie. So I just wanted to highlight that, that that's really cool that staff felt it was really important to do a fundraiser, and I just wanted to highlight them and say, awesome job. I know this is going to come up, so I'll get in front of it. Public Works Director recruitment, we did have our first review was last week. We do have some applicants. We have a few qualified applicants, but it's not a very deep pool. So, in talking with the recruiter, we think that there's a few things that we can tweak in the job announcement and really highlight the proximity to Salem, the proximity to Albany, even the proximity to Portland, and see if we can draw a little bit deeper pool of qualified applicants, and we're also going to look at how we're advertising the pay range a little bit more. So it's not closed, but it's progressing. I think we're shooting to have another review by the end of the month. Okay. So that's where we're at with that. I also, in reviewing my contract recently, I would realize that there's a clause in there that says that I am supposed to get council pre-approval before out-of-state travel. The ICMA conference is out of state. And I would like to attend that. And so I would like to get council's approval to attend the ICMA. It's the International City Managers Association Conference. I actually have gone to a couple and they've been really, really informative and inspirational.

What is that, Julia?

That is late September. LATE SEPTEMBER, EARLY OCTOBER. I DON'T REMEMBER THE EXACT DATES.

WHERE IS IT?

THIS YEAR IT IS IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA. YEARS PAST. I DIDN'T GO TO THE ONE LAST YEAR IN FLORIDA. IT'S ALSO BEEN IN AUSTIN, TEXAS, AND MINNEAPOLIS. I can't remember the city. I can picture it. And this is in the budget, so it's not something that hasn't been budgeted.

Mr. Mayor. Councillor Patty. Do you need a formal motion for this, or what do you need?

In the contract, it says council pre-approval, so I don't know.

We approve.

I think that would be great to have a formal motion.

you want a formal motion i can make one is that what you're asking for sure okay uh mr mayor i motion to allow city manager to travel out of state for the conference i second okay there's a motion in a second to allow julia to travel to the imca conference in long beach we don't know the date you know what the cost is going to be um not off the top of my head no

Motion and a second. Any further discussion? I'd like to know what the cost is and I'd like to know what the outcome is going to be. What the outcome? Is there agenda for it as far as what the workshops are or whatnot?

Yeah, I'm not sure. It must be out because registration is open so I can certainly send. Oh, it's October 17th through the 21st. Okay.

So is the motion to second? Any further discussion?

One thing, Mr. Mayor. I'm kind of curious. Does our membership cover some of your attendance fees to this or whatnot? Say that again. Does our membership to the organization cover any of this?

So I have to be a member of ICMA. Well, I don't have to. It is cheaper for me to attend if I am a member of the ICMA.

I was thinking of LOC for some reason. I was confusing organizations. That's my bad.

Don't worry about me.

So are you a member of IMC?

I am a member of ICMA.

And who pays for those dues, us?

Yes.

What are those dues a year?

I don't know off the top of my head. Yeah, it's in the budget, and we can certainly provide that line item information.

All right. There's a motion and a second. So what does counsel want to do here? Melissa, can you pull the counsel?

Yes. Councillor Sims?

Yes.

Councillor Carey?

Yes.

Councillor Patty?

Yes.

Mayor Quigley? No. Councillor Hayes? No. Motion passes 3-2.

Thank you. I've got two more. I'm going to ask Jennifer to come up. She wants to get a a motion of support for us applying for a Transportation Growth Management Grant for our downtown. So, Jennifer?

Yes, thank you. So we've talked about getting a parking management study last year, and the ODOT funds dried up. So they have a new program this year, a TGM planning grant, and we spoke to ODOT a little bit about what we wanted to do, and they kind of we said that it would be within the historic district area. And we also talked about, there's been lots of ideas, wayfinding signs, looking at short-term parking, looking at stop signs and all those different traffic management studies. And so we really thought that we could look more holistically, even one ways and different types of parking, all those. And again, They really thought it'd be better to have looking at it as a revitalization plan targeting transportation. So the grant is actually due August 21st, which is Friday. So I do need, if we're going to do it, I need support from the city council, but I can tell you a little bit about it. I believe last time the city got a TGM grant, it was 2007. So it's been a while. It's a joint program between ODOT and DLCD. So it is all It's a technical assistance. They either hire a consultant or they do it themselves to do the plan. We do have to approximate how much money that would be and I came up with a scope of about $175,000. We would be required to have a match but it can be all in kind time so no cash from the city. We are It does require staff time. We'll have to put together like a quarterly report and put volunteer hours. But the plan does include a lot of community engagement, and it includes coming to the city council and explaining the plan, and that would all be volunteer hours that would be considered in-kind time.

So let's see.

Like I mentioned, let's see what I gave it a name. Staten Historic Downtown Revitalization and Multi-Access Plan. I did talk to the Historic Downtown Staten group on Wednesday, and they were very supportive of it. And some of the businesses will hopefully be writing support letters. I did talk about the revitalization calling it that, and I knew that they were getting away from that, but they thought that a plan, we're still in the revitalization section. It's just you don't want to brand it that you're revitalizing. So they kind of gave me a background of why they changed their name. I didn't. So let's see. So it will include community engagement. It will look at the plans that we've already done to build on those, which is – obviously the transportation master plan, the safety action plan, and then the revitalization plan that was done quite a while ago in 2010. So there's really a need for an update, what we planned and what we need to go forward. So if you have any questions or I'd love a motion of support,

Jennifer, I have one question, and thank you for that report. Will that funding include a traffic study if we decide to go one way? And who does that study?

I hope that it would look at that type of study. It would be either ODOT themselves doing the grant, or then they would hire someone, and we would not be hiring that person. ODOT would be, which actually... It makes it much cleaner. It's work to hire, to put an RFP out and hire someone.

And in my experience, and it might have changed since I've been doing those types of things, generally, it's consultants that they hire. So it would be, you know, the typical, you know, Kittleson or that's the only one that's coming to mind, DKS are sort of the top ones that seem to be working through ODOT. So it would be consultants that have been pre-vetted through the TGM program for both the land use consulting and the traffic consulting.

Jennifer, so if we do this study and come up with a plan, would that help us get a grant to actually do the work downtown?

I think it always looks very positive when you've made a plan. There isn't a setup like the safety action plan where there was a second phase where you could get infrastructure, which we've submitted an application for that. there isn't necessarily a program right after that. I did see there's an infrastructure grant.

It doesn't hurt. Certainly having the project lists and the prioritization and the public support helps in any type of grant application you're going to apply for.

Okay, thanks.

So I want to confirm this. Are you asking to apply for a grant that's produced? It produces a document by ODOT with our input.

So they would either do it themselves or hire a consultant. One of the major components of it would be community engagement, asking you what you want in the plan. Yeah.

I guess, again, I want to – because I don't think Jennifer's done one of these since she's been in Oregon – It is funded by ODOT and DLCD. They, the contract, they're the ones that contract with the consultants. They are certainly at the table, but it's still our project. It's not them doing it. And we just are putting input. We're, we're a project team lead. They're just paying for it and providing some guidance.

Okay. So the projects that are the grants we've gotten in the past, when you say 2007? Yes. What's materialized from those?

It was the revitalization of downtown Staten. And what came out of that were the design guidelines and the land use code for the downtown area. I did tell them that I think we're pretty good on land use, but they do like to review that as part of the grant process. but I think we are looking more on traffic more than the land use component, but they'd like to see both.

Okay. And the only thing that's going to cost us is entire in kind service.

And on that, it's not just staff. So volunteer time counts. And so that's a big, so you planning commission, a task force has value. And so it's not just staff time.

And we believe we have the capacity for all those individuals we're going to ask to participate in it.

Say that again?

All those individuals that we're going to ask to participate in it have the capacity to participate.

The planning commission and council or the task force?

Yeah, and then the other folks that we're going to recruit, the revitalized downtown state folks. Have you tested the waters is what I'm asking to make sure we have enough people to commit to it.

I don't think we specifically have, but generally when you ask for task force members, I think it's very doable.

Okay. There's no money.

So we do need a motion. Generally, they'd want a resolution, but a motion will do, and then we'll just provide copies of the minutes showing that there's council support.

All right. Well, don't all speak at once.

I got a question. What is this called again?

Yes, it's a 2026 Transportation and Growth Management Planning Grant, so TMG grant. for the state and historic downtown revitalization and multi-access plan. So that would be pedestrian, auto, bicycle. Do you want me to?

So 2026 Transportation and Growth Management Grant?

Yes.

That's probably enough for a motion. I'll make a motion to allow us to apply for the 2026 Transportation and Growth Management Grant.

Now the second.

There's a motion and a second to apply for the 2026. Say it again, Councilor Sims.

Transportation and Growth Management Grant.

There you go. Anybody have any further discussion? Jennifer, I do. Do you have the capacity, should we be awarded this grant to do this? You have a lot on your plate. Yeah.

I do have, I do have a lot of my plate. I kind of estimated how much time that would be. And it would be about a day a month.

That's why I asked if we have commitments from everybody else, that's going to assist you in doing this. Cause I know you have a lot going on.

I do.

I'd hate for us to get this grant and then not see it through.

I think, I think we can see it through. I think it's important. Um, many people have told me different ideas. Like we explained, um, you know, the stop sign at Marianne and 3rd and wayfinding, I feel like it will give us the ability to look at all those things as one whole. And I think it will also provide technical assistance for us to, you know, instead of looking for each piece. So I believe that it would be a better investment of time to do it this way.

Okay. Typically on a grant, what's the timeline of acceptance or denial?

I believe it's October, they tell you. And they want you to be completely done with it in three years, but I think more like 18 months to a year and a half.

Okay. Anybody else? all right all those in favor say aye aye aye aye motion carries five to zero okay i have one more zero sorry sorry go ahead was it five to zero five it was okay um one more update um chief johns um has an update i believe

Mayor, council, and staff, as you're well aware, you're literally in the middle of safety town tonight. So for the week, the council chambers become our camp clubhouse. And I know you've heard some of this stuff before, but this year we've got 46 campers, 20 youth volunteers. four adult volunteers, and then the main commitment of staff is from myself, Melanie, and Kim. So lots of great things happening. The houses that you see around the room came first year through donations. The cat cars in the back that the kids ride daily also came through donations. Today, each camper went home with a life vest that was through donations. And they've got helmets that they're wearing all week as well. And those will go home with them on Friday, again, made through donations. So very well supported by the community and local professionals to bring the safety lessons this year we had a private party that donated money to purchase the t-shirts so a lot of support behind it and that's appreciated you guys are all invited to attend graduation on Friday at 11 here And in addition to all the community events that we've participated in this summer, I thought I would do an update on our activities and a few examples of our patrol and enforcement. So we've been taking some reports of kids throwing rocks at cars. And when I say kids, people under 18, juveniles this weekend. We had a very timely report from a citizen with good information. Officer was able to get into the area quickly, and we were able to make an arrest. So one juvenile was taken to juvenile detention, and then two others were referred to the juvenile department for charges based on the circumstances. Today, if any of you have traveled Shaft Road, saw a U-Haul that was crashed out. Basically, it was witnessed going across oncoming traffic traffic into the ditch when it was dispatched through our dispatch center. We discovered it slightly out in the county, but based on the circumstances and that we were there, we dealt with it. The person that crashed out, misdemeanor suspended, some other driving issues that were addressed, initially refused to give us his ID. And when he said to the officer, I'm not telling you who I am because I'm not going back to jail. And the officer said, why is that? And he said, because I have Linn County warrants. We kind of knew game on. So he was taken into custody. Unfortunately, he also chose to spat at the officer. So he added additional charges of harassment. So my day started with fun here at camp and transpired to assisting Officer Brewster out on an arrest on the crash. Also, we've been dealing with... Some nuisance reports ongoing, and I know Councilor Carey had some questions about it. So we do have a nuisance property ordinance. There's very specifics to it. It's got to fall into a certain timeline. We have pushed it forward on this, and we're going to be sending out mailers on that to address it, and it goes on. To the property owner, to the people there on the property, and basically is demanding compliance. Otherwise, then it goes through some kind of stiffer penalties through the courts and through the property management. Over the weekend, we also responded to apparently, as the officers described it, a brawl in the street. Everyone was related by blood or marriage, and apparently this was an ongoing issue. A person was arrested and had previous assault charges against someone else in the family, so unfortunate news. that we've got to be in there, but we responded quickly and made arrests. The other thing I just bring to attention, we continue to take scam calls. And there's two that are pretty popular right now. People get into the jail roster and find out who's currently in jail. And then they find out family members and start calling or emailing or texting family members. And as we know, with sentiment with our Loved ones, it plays on heartstrings, and unfortunately, people are getting scammed out of money in hopes that they're bailing out their family when they're not. The other one is jury duty. People are getting called, texted, emailed to say you've missed jury duty. Anytime you're requested to pay with gift cards or Bitcoin, that is going to end up being a scam, so... Those are just a few highlights from the week, and hopefully we'll see you Friday at 11.

Mr. Mayor. Chief, real quick, that was my report tonight was to thank you for your communication with me over that situation.

Absolutely.

I know a lot of times we kind of side on one party's assumption or opinions, and it was nice to find out from you both sides. And so thank you for following through on that very much.

Absolutely. You're welcome.

Mr. Mayor.

Go ahead. Yeah, Chief, I just want to say thank you, as always, for Safety Town. My daughter came home after volunteering and she had praises to sing about it and had a lot of fun with all the campers and just creating those relationships. And I think that's so cool. So it sounds like you've been very busy. I know I reached out to you over email like a while ago about some individual in Pioneer Park. I saw some social media, just some speculation about what he was going to jail for, why officers' weapons were drawn and that kind of thing. I was just hoping maybe you could dispel that with some reality as to what was being said on social media.

Yeah. So, and I need to, it wasn't in my wheelhouse to think about, but it is an individual that does become very animated, usually is very loud, usually involves biblical references and becomes very alarming just by the tone and the I guess the chanting behind it and whatnot. So we were called based on what was reported that there was a weapon known. And to us, we don't know if that means seen. They know that they've had one before or what that is based on the amount of people in the park. We did have our two officers and then an Almsville officer come over. So my understanding is there was not a weapon displayed in the disturbance itself. But my understanding is his behavior was very concerning and alarming. He did go to jail and he was given a park exclusion.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Chief, I know you've all been dealing with an RV and folks living in the RV. I appreciate that. Maybe you can fill us in a little bit in general about living in RVs in town.

Sure. So there's a lot of different circumstances behind it. Some can be abandoned, meaning no one has any interest in it, and they're just abandoning junk on our road. So we can address that through the abandoned vehicle. Others, like the most current one, someone is living in it. And so we've been addressing that through citations, but also being thoughtful to see if someone needs resources based on that feedback and what has been offered to the person that has not been changing the situation and doesn't not seem applicable in this situation. Unfortunately, as well, too, It's packed with personal belongings, a dog, so that brings other issues. And then it's a significant burden on tow companies. So while we follow the code, there's also certain restrictions to us in the reality of if we can follow through with that.

Okay, thank you. I think I would ask for a favor. I got some feedback about just folks living in their vehicles downtown. Maybe we could revisit the code just to see what y'all can find some kind of thing we can do to, again, help that individual per se, but also to really look at the code. I think It's if we can look at 10.12.050, maybe we can add something to it or whatever you all think about reviewing it, just to see if there's some way we can mitigate that a little bit more. The particular complaints that I got was from several different people. And the individual that I'm speaking of is actually in residential area. And I've been reports of outburst and knocking on people's doors, asking for assistance. So just bring it to your attention. Maybe we can do something to address that.

So absolutely.

All right. Thank you, Chief. You're welcome.

That's all I have for my update. I will just add on, and I know, Mayor, you and I texted about this this morning, but just as a reminder for everybody and anybody at home and anybody in the audience, it's really helpful if people do a real-time call to police non-emergency rather than waiting and telling you guys about it, and then you telling me about it, and then me telling Chief about it. You know, if people are encouraged and actually do call police on emergency, the officers can often, like with the issue with the kids throwing rocks, you know, it might not be the first time, but eventually they'll get the information and they'll actually be able to see something in real time and have more opportunity to do something about it. With that, that's all I have for my updates.

Okay. Council? Councilor Sims?

I just had one thing for Julia. That board that I volunteered for that Jordan was on, Councilor Bort?

Yes.

I think I needed a letter of recommendation for that, too.

That was one of the… Yes, I saw that. I'll need to research if that needs to be from who that's from. I must have done that for Jordan, and maybe it was just… That's what I was thinking.

Okay. That's why I assumed.

Okay.

That was all I had.

Okay.

Anybody else?

Mr. Hayes? Thank you, Mayor. To the city staff, I want to question, again, the public works director. Clearly, we have not had a 100% full-time public works director for two years. Not counting who was here in between, I just want to say we haven't had one for two years. and we're yielding several applications and now you've decided to extend it and you're digging more in bigger towns. I find that disappointing that you actually said we had a couple that were really good.

No, I said we had a couple that met minimum qualifications.

So? So I'm asking and I'm telling you I am disappointed. Okay. And I'm not really seeing the real reason in not being given one right now while you're looking further.

Okay. So, can I speak to that? I mean. Sure. So, generally, when you hire, you want a really good qualified pool of applicants from which to interview. and then ultimately choose the best one. If we have a very small pool of qualified, but perhaps not exceptionally qualified candidates, it is very normal to consider going out and getting more applicants. I want a good public works director, not a public works director. So, that, I mean, we can talk more about that, but that's why we are getting more. so that we have a really good qualified pool of applicants that we can interview.

Julia, I think to Councillor Hayes' point, it does resonate with me too. And from a standpoint of your update on Friday addressed the challenges of hiring in the public works department to the point where we're doing a second round of the admin person. So we don't have a public works director, we don't have the civil engineer, and now we're having a second round for the admin person. That's problematic for me because we also talked about during the budget committee about the streets that this body identified to be addressed that won't be addressed. And that just shows you that the projects that we had on tap aren't getting done.

So the projects, the streets will be addressed within this budget.

So there, that is the streets have not been, the streets are not being addressed.

They're in process. They have not been done yet. And we did talk with the recruiter a little bit about what's going on. I think that we, some of it, you know, from the public works director, if people don't really know state and don't know where it's at, don't understand that it is good proximity. So trying to make sure that we're sharing that. The fact that we're not PERS, I think, is potentially turning people away, especially more qualified candidates, people that have been in the system longer coming, you know, coming to a city that doesn't have PERS is potentially a deterrent. And so, we're looking at trying to maybe target people that are retired, you know, PERS, and then that's not as much of an issue. So, we're looking at that. It is a problem. I mean, it is concerning. We need to get these jobs filled, but we need to get them filled with great people.

Okay. I just wanted to express that.

Mr. Mayor, um, Julie, you brought up a really good point right there. Uh, just as far as the purse thing and like, this is something I keep thinking about. I know we've had conversations about this. months ago as far as upping the salary for this position to make it more lucrative for a potential candidate but should we include um making this a pers eligible position part of that conversation just to i mean to address this and get the candidate that we need

I don't know that we can. I guess I would need to do some more research on that. Please.

Thank you.

I know the police are in PERS, but they're the only employment group that is. And I'm not sure what it takes. I don't know that you can pick and choose staff that are in PERS. So that's something we can look into.

OK. Anything else? Julie, I have one observation. What's the criteria for using the street sweeper?

For using the street sweeper?

Yeah, how do we identify what streets need to be sweeped?

My understanding is that it's on a rotation. I don't know if Melanie would be prepared to respond to that. No? Okay. We can get more information, but my understanding is that there's like an East Dayton and a West Dayton, and it just sort of goes through a rotation.

That's fine. My observation is I'm sitting at the stop sign at 7th and... Virginia, and that road is just terrible. And the street sweeper comes by and it's street sweeping potholes. I asked this question years ago. I said, are we, and we're sweeping, are we taking the top level of the pavement off and then paying to dispose of it? And the public works director at the time sat there and thought about it for a minute. And he said, yeah, that's what we're doing. So I would ask that we be more thoughtful or more identify where the street sweeper should actually be utilized and not just send it on roads that can't be helped. And I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, thank you. I will get an update either in your weekly update or at a future council meeting to share with you a little bit more about the street sweeper program.

Anything else, Council? All right. With that, we're adjourned. And I would ask that the audience, let's take five minutes, and then we'll come back and we'll have an executive session. So how many of you take 645? What time is it now? 745? How about that? Does that work? That's 10 minutes. 745.