City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'm calling to order the Salem Housing Authority of City of Salem uh for Monday, January 26, 2026. Will the recorder please call the role? Commissioner Tyen, present. Commissioner Matthews here. Vice Chair Gwen here. Commissioner Brown present. Commissioner Bain here. Commissioner Nordike is absent. Commissioner Vney is here. Thank you. Resident commissioner Viegas is absent. Chair Nishioa,

I'm here. Thank you. Vice Chair, uh, do we have any additions or deletions? There are none. Great. Ah, thank you. Need to do the pledge of allegiance first. Will all please rise. Councelor Bang, will you lead us? Or Commissioner Bang, of course.

[applause]

Thank you, Commissioner. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Glad we could find the flag. Um, are there anyone Is there anyone signed up for public comment? Question. We don't have our sheets, so I guess we just need to check.

Sounds like no one has signed up for public comment with Salem Housing Authority. So, vice chair, we are now to the consent calendar. [laughter] Do you want my I move approval of the consent calendar? Second.

We have a uh motion and second by councelor uh commissioner Tyan. U vice chair, would you like to go ahead and tell us about the consent calendar? Our consent calendar this evening consists of item 3.1A December 8th um housing authority minutes 3.3A um asset capitalization threshold and that is it.

Thank you. Any questions on the consent calendar? If not, will the recorder call the role? Commissioner Tyen. I. Commissioner Matthews. I. Vice Chair Gwyn. I. Commissioner Brown. I. Commissioner Bane. I.

Commissioner Nordike. Um, let's see. I'm sorry I just arrived late, folks. Um, I will declare a conflict of interest as to consent agenda item 3.2A and 3.2B. So, I will not be participating in that or voting on the matter. Councelor, this is the SHA meeting, so those items aren't on this agenda. This is Oh, excuse me. 3.3A. Goes to show I definitely arrived very late. This is just consent calendar of the Salem Housing Authority. Oh, okay. I don't have a conflict of interest with regard to that consent agenda, so I'll be voting yes. Thank you. Commissioner Barney

I, Resident Commissioner Vegas absent. Uh, Chair Nishioa I. The motion passes. Thank you. We don't have any public hearings. Um, no special orders of business. So, we are now to information reports. and Nicole, please introduce yourself.

Good evening, chair and commissioners. I am Nicole Yudes. I'm the housing director for Salem Housing Authority. And tonight, we do have a a pretty jam-packed program management report that we did fill with a lots of uh wonderful information. Just going to highlight a couple of things. um that we have uh this last previous month we did put out 3.3 million just a little bit over three million in housing assistance payments to the community of of Salem and Kaiser. Um this is total units least of 3,048 and over 9,000 individuals that we've helped serve. Um we do have some additional information that uh about federal impacts. Um, one of those is going into the federal impacts that is talking about us making sure we are uh utilizing our funds uh uh accurately. And out of that, I wanted to make sure that everybody understands that we have 144 vouchers out on the streets currently. Um, and that we have another 40 that are in income eligibility. Um, after doing some two-year tool analysis, which is what we call, this is our budgeting and and organization to be able to see with the basically the ups and downs of voucher utilization. This is about what we estimate for 2026 that we're going to be able to get out in the streets. So, that's a pretty low number compared to, but at least we're not in shortfall status and we're getting some vouchers out there. Um we do have um six additional in our family unification program that are out there on the streets as well. This is a new program that we're partnershiping with with keeping families together which is a family reunification program with wraparound supportive services. So we're excited to be partnering with ODHS and many other partners um to make that happen. And then of course we do have some availability in our VASH uh voucher

um program. Um, as well as that, I just wanted to highlight um, many of you have heard me talk about the coordinated entry system and um, this is the homeless services coordinated entry assessments that are done in order to place individuals into um, the appropriate sheltering or what they may qualify for permanent supportive housing. Um, I have been working with the Midwell Amit Valley Homeless Alliance and I'm pleased to say that we were approved for an al alternate coordinated entry approach. We utilize that alternate coordinated entry approach over the month of December and we were able to in less than one week fill a Sequoia housing unit um with a gentleman who was able to move in before Christmas. Um, he was so impressed with the the coordination and the collaboration to make that happen. This unit previously had set for multiple months because it was a thirdf flooror apartment and the referrals weren't coming in for the correct usage of who could qualify or make it up into the that thirdf flooror apartment with no elevators. So, we're really pleased to see the impacts of that turning around our turnaround time and getting people back into the units more quickly. Um, so I appreciate all the support from everybody during those processes. I also wanted to highlight a key collaboration that we've had. We have a partner out there that um we are are proud to partner over the years, but Dev Northwest I wanted to highlight today. Um they helped us out over the holidays or or the end of last year with a call. Um many of you realize that we are uh the housing authority in the capital city of Oregon. And you can imagine how many calls we get for HUD um at our office. And so we get a little confused with some of the calls and we do our very best to provide the best customer service. We received a call for Josephine County from a couple uh that was disabled um and they were about to

get their home foreclosed on and they had very limited uh technology skills and what we were finding in Josephine County is that their access was limited without having technical capabilities and computers. Uh they literally had a landline phone with a voicemail box and that's what they were uh trying to make contact with. So they were getting a lot of uh stops in the way and uh they were about just a few days shy from getting a tax assessment for closure on their half a million dollar farm and uh Dev Northwest we contacted them and their team were able they actually can serve the entire state of Oregon. So, their team was able to get in, be able to help them uh make that $4,000 payment uh happen so that they could continue to keep their home with their limited funding and work through solutions into the future for uh future tax assessment payments. Our goal is to ensure that everybody remains housed that we can say whether that's Josephine or wherever, but so if we can connect it to a collaborative partner here in Salem that can get them the help in the other areas, that's what we're going to do. So, I just wanted to highlight their team in a quick turnaround to make sure that somebody didn't lose their home and their uh generational wealth that they had built in that home. Um, and then on top of that, I'm going to turn it over to Jessica Blakeley who's going to go over the federal impacts uh for the housing authorities uh in Oregon and answer I'm happy to answer any questions.

Yes. Before you leave, I just I'll just check. Anybody have any questions for Miss Utes? All right. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome.

Good evening everyone. My name is Jessica Blakeley. I'm the deputy director for the Salem Housing Authority and I have the great privilege of being able to follow our legislative affairs. And so I wanted to bring um forward the information that I discussed with the legislature uh just a week ago um in discussing what some of those impacts are that are coming and impacting our local housing authority. So, I won't go through the slide up here because I know we have a full agenda, but I'm just going to touch on a couple highlights and be available to answer your questions. Um, some of the things that we've we've expressed that are a little bit challenging is the conflicting guidance that we're getting from HUD, um, which will come like via email into our inbox or maybe to Nicole's inbox. Um, but it doesn't really come with any backup. One example is basically changing the way we do criminal screenings. They're saying to rescend all 10 years worth of guidance that we've been working on and to now use arrest records, for example. And that conflicts uh with our state law and it also conflicts with the policies that we have in place. And so um you know, we're kind of holding steady just waiting for an actual law change to be able to address whether or not we move forward with any of these communications that are coming forward with HUD. Another thing that we're watching is the budget. As many of you know, they're set to uh look at the uh transportation and housing and urban development appropriation um likely in the Senate this Tuesday. So, we're hopeful and we'll be we'll be watching to see if they come towards some form of resolution. There's differing opinions. Some folks want to um basically keep everything packaged up before they'll approve and move it forward. Some people want to pull out the HUD bill and move it forward so at least that can advance um with budgetary authority, but we don't know. um which direction that will go. So, we'll follow that closely. If they don't pass by Friday, uh we will be preparing for a shutdown. Our agency has already prepared for that. Um in the event it doesn't happen, great. In the

event it happens, we're ready to go. Um so, communication will go out uh to our local landlords and and to you all. Another uh very important things is uh right before we went out on the holiday in December, HUD told us that we need to start saving monies and stop issuing vouchers. And so after doing a lot of deep diving into that notice that came out from HUD, um which basically says we want you to do, you know, they give us a list of maybe 10 things they want us to do immediately. Um and if you're in shortfall, you must stop issuing vouchers completely. Thankfully, we're not in shortfall, but one thing that, you know, we used to rely on our field office at HUD was to monitor our voucher usage and our budget utilization. And when we did get close to that shortfall situation, they would step in and they would help us manage the forecasting of the budget and the vouchers that go in and out of the street. Um, one of the things that we're deciding to do in-house now is take on that responsibility and that capacity. So, our teams interdep departmentally have now collaborated and will begin doing the work that HUD and SHA did together by monitoring the voucher utilization a lot closer and a lot stricter on a monthly basis. Um, so we're still waiting to kind of understand what it means. Um, they they are likely to or have proposed fully funding the HCV program. But let's say even if they do fully fund the HCV program, it's not to the amount that's actually needed to adjust for inflation and to adjust for the higher rents. And so nationally, even if they do say fully funded, it's still going to come at an $800 million shortfall. Um, so that's why we're really implementing these strategies now, so when they do happen, we're good to go in the future. And so I'm really proud of the team for getting together and and and pulling that in house and we can monitor that uh a lot

more carefully. Uh today also um our administrative fees which is our staffing costs. Um in this presentation I let the legislature know that a lot of housing authorities are facing layoffs with their staff or not being able to hire key positions. Um and that has happened to SHA as well. We're holding at 64 full-time employees rather than our old budget authority of 72. Um but the great part is we don't have to we can protect all of the staff that we have right now um in that 64 total. Um so so we won't actually have to lose any positions as a result of it. Um but the administr the administrative fees that come from HUD um they usually you know a normal grant we get to take 10% of and put it into our bucket for staff. HUD says well you'll get 90% of that 10%. And so what we're forecasting right now in 2026 is the likelihood of them bringing it even lower to 76 to 85%. So our amazing teams have worked um behind the scenes to try to identify sources of funding and maybe how we can adjust things to make sure all of our staff are retained and they have done so. So we're really proud of that effort. Um some of the things that we will to date and have implemented with these costs saving measures is uh requirements around portability. So we will no longer pay um or we'll no the way we bill for the um the outside agencies when they come into our jurisdiction rather than absorbing it we'll be billing it. So that's um a mechanism that we can use. Um we will be limiting the issuance of new vouchers as Nicole said the ones that have them in their hands today are is the way it's going to stay outside of a very limited number. So, it does mean probably a little bit of stress for the community because we won't be able to open the waiting list like we wanted to. Um, but at least we'll be able to retain the households that we do have. Um, and then we will not be able to issue any new project based voucher contracts. And,

um, one of the things that, uh, we've been doing a lot is is uh, scrutinizing the rent reasonable test a little bit more. So, when the rent increases come in and they simply pick the payment standard, HUD says you can't do that. you must pick a reasonable rent for your market or the market rate whichever is lower. And so we're really working hard to make sure we're scrutinizing those rent increases as they come in because we've received several that are at least double or more than double the rent. Um so despite all these impacts, um the one program that we know we will have to make uh uh big changes is the public housing. that one has been slated or or to be cut pretty substantially, but we knew that um and that's why we're working on the disposition strategies. We recently sold Shelton Village, so that one's closed and out of our inventory, and we're working on the scattered homes, transitioning those into the affordable home ownership. Um and then we have one other multif family building left in the public housing program, which will be demolished and rebuilt. And so that one's already in pre-development as well. So thankfully we only have a few year path to to rely on the public housing program before um its changes get catastrophic for us. So I'm happy to open up for any uh questions.

Commissioner Tyen. Thank you Madam Chair. Um Miss Blakeley. Thank you. I'm I'm curious if you have um a number when you say you you'd get 90% of the 10% or 75% of the 10%. What is that cut equate to for your staff in terms of actual dollars to run your agency?

That's a great question. Thank you. Uh so we were looking at that and we we believe that that results in about four positions. Uh, so we've made the strategic hold on a couple of positions knowing that we just won't fill those because that would be terrible to have to hire and then potentially lay off. So, um, we've identified those key positions in that program itself already. Um, assuming they do go that way, it won't impact our current staff level. Thank you,

Commissioner Matthews. Uh you mentioned that even if the [clears throat] funding gets fully gets fully funded, there's still an $800 million shortfall uh just because of inflation and the fact that rents go up. I'm assuming that's a national number, right? That's not our number. So what is our actual piece of that $800 million? Thanks for the question. I'd have to go back and look at what the statewide impact number is. Um and I'm not sure of the percentage and that's just with the assumption that we are funded at 100% of our program too. So, um, but I can follow back up with you on that number.

The other question, and maybe you may not have the answer to this because I'm not exactly sure what this means, but it says in your thing, it says part of the what they're changing with this HUD bill or the HUD um, adjustments, are conducting more rigorous rent reasonleness testing rather than relying on payment standards. What does that mean? And how will that adjust how our people are qualified or

Yeah. No, it's a very good question because it's it's very confusing and honestly um I don't remember a time where we've ever been faced with this. This is more of like a market condition issue. So, our payment standards are set at a certain amount and within the last couple years they've really gone up pretty high. And so, when somebody uh a landlord per se requests a rent increase, um they have the ability to request a rent increase up to the market. And so it's been very unusual that our payment standard has been above the market because we have to choose the lesser of the market rent or the payment standard. And so I for my 25 years of career, there's not been a time where you'd say the payment standard was lower than the market rent or higher than the market rent, excuse me. And so we've never really had to do that deep dive before. Um, but weird market conditions are happening all over. As you've brought up, you know, Portland and just some of the the nuances that are happening with our affordable and our market rent compression. Um, in this particular case, we'll get a landlord that goes, "Okay, well, we're just going to select the payment standard on all these rent increases." And then we get them and we look at Zillow and we look at apartments.com and we look at Craigslist and we look at all the things and we're like, "Well, that's about $300 above reasonable." So versus just, you know, limiting our capacity and just signing off on those, we're scrutinizing them a little bit more to make sure that they align with the proper HUD policy. I think that's it then. Appreciate all of that information. Good luck. Um I guess we'll know more by their next meeting or maybe we'll know more. If that is it then our meeting is adjourned.

Okay. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency for the City of Salem on this Monday, January 26th, 2026. Will the recorder please call the role? Board member Tyen, present. Board member Nishoka, present. Board member Matthews, here. Board member Gwen, here. Board member Brown, present. Board member Vang here. Board member Nordike here. Board member Vney here. Chair Julie Hoy here. Moving on to additions and deletions. Board member Nishioa. Uh we have none for uh this for urban renewal.

Thank you. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment? No. Moving on then to the consent calendar. Board member Nishioa. Thank you. Uh the consent calendar includes uh 3.1A which are the draft urban renewal minutes from December 8th, 2025. And um that is that concludes the consent calendar. Thank you. Any questions? I move to approve the consent calendar. I did. Do we have a second? [laughter] Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions on that? All right. Will the recorder please call the role?

Board member member Vney. Oops. I board member Tyen. I. Board member Nishioa. I. Board member Matthews. I. Board member Gwen. I. Board member Brown. I. Board member Vang. Board member Nordike. I.

Chair Julie Hoy. I. All right. Moving on. We have no public hearings. We have no special orders of business. We do have one information report. Item 6A, purchases approved administratively from November 1st, 2025 through November 30th, 2025. All right, that appears to be everything. So, if there's nothing further on urban renewal, we are adjourned. I'd like to call to order this meeting of Salem City Council for January 6 26th, 2026. Will the recorder please call the role?

Councelor Tyen here. Councelor Nishioa present. Councelor Matthews here. Councelor Gwen here. Councelor Brown present. Councelor Bang still here. Councelor Nordike here. Councelor Vney here. Mayor Julie Hoy here. Moving on to additions and deletions to the agenda. Councelor Nordic, I mean councelor Nishioa, I apologize. No worries. Um I move for approval of additions to the agenda. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions, discussion? Um the additions will be um adding uh item 5e, a motion by Mayor Hoy. Thank you. And excuse me, there's also a presentation that we added as well. Thank you. Um I we have a presentation. Is there a number to that or is it four? Number 5B. 5E. 5B. A 5B. We also have a fi a presentation 5B edition. Great. Any thoughts or questions on either of those?

Sure. So, I just wanted to clarify uh with the mayor's motion that agenda item there was a clerical uh mistake and we did not add it last week. So, that's that was the reason we realized it this morning and so we have added that. Just want to clarify that. Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Brown. I. Councelor Bang. I. Councelor Nordike. I. Councelor Vney. I. Councelor Tyen. I. Councelor Nishoka. I. Councelor Matthews. I. Councelor Gwen. I.

Mayor Julie Hoy. I. Moving on to council and city manager comment. Did anyone have anything they'd like to share this time around?

City manager. Oh.

Um thank you so much. Um so I just wanted to I would like to make some um remarks regarding information report on safe uh clean and healthy Salem. Uh so for public awareness, Safe, Clean, and Healthy Salem is a city initiative focuses on a coordinated effort that combines law enforcement, public health, behavioral health services on improving safety, cleanliness, and overall livability in Salem. Council approved a supplemental budget to advance this initiative in October of uh last year. Since that time, staff have been working on implementation and we made good progress on this. So, I wanted to kind of take a minute to talk about uh the progress that we made so far. So, we expanded homeless service team and clean Salem crew to cover 7 days per week. Before it was a 4 days a week service, so we expanded that to 7 days a week. a new community health uh response team reach was launched last week on uh January 20th. So this pilot combines medics and behavioral health clinicians to respond to emotional distress overdoses and other non-emergency calls. So as of today we are hearing positive feedback from the community about the HSD officers and their work in connecting unhoused individuals with the right resources. So the number of referral connections for January so far is 31. Um I want to publicly acknowledge the HST team for their incredible work and Chief Omar thank you. Um I very much appreciate you recommending this as an immediate priority. I think we are seeing good outcome. [applause]

And the second piece of it is the expanded um cleaning services. In December 2025, the clean Salem team, so that's the new name for SOS team. They're now called Clean Salem. The Clean Salem team removed 41 41 tons of waste, nearly double December 2024 totals, showing increased responsiveness with expanding that program to 7 days a week. On Tuesday last week, we pulled 10 tons of trash from the Wallace Marine Park and that was just in like in one day. And the the the third piece of it is uh so before I kind of start talking about the reach, but I appreciate our clean Salem team uh manager Jake Snell and uh and and his team for their hard work on this effort and the reach pilot started last week and I know Chief Gerbat in his presentation he will be giving more updates on that. I'm not going to talk too much about it, but what I wanted to take a minute to talk about for this safe, clean, and healthy initiative, um Marian County provided a resource on for behavioral health and Salem Chamber and Main Street provided $180,000 funding. So this is um the city and I um very much appreciate the collaboration from county and business um community on this. But I want to also thank I had the opportunity to talk to homeless advocate groups and many community groups on this. And I want to um take a minute to thank for your suggestions, your time. A lot of your personal time went into coming and meeting the with the city staff giving those suggestions. So I very much appreciate you guys and um

this is um this is a huge lift for the staff. We you know everybody is busy with their day-to-day work but this is kind of add-on responsibility uh taking something uh an initiative initiative of this magnitude and executing it so quickly and uh bringing this to implementation and moving forward. This is good work. I I am very glad that we are tiling uh we are trying this pilot program and so more to come on this. So we'll have more conversations as we uh move into the year. But I just wanted to uh thank staff for the work that they have done on this.

Thank you for that. That's good news progress. Anyone else? Yeah, councelor Tyen. Thank you Madame Mayor. Um, I just uh perhaps as a native motan who proudly serves uh his community here in Salem, I don't think we should let uh the moment pass just acknowledging what uh the communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the the Twin Cities are uh undergoing right now. And um the what I see as a paramilitary occupation of uh that community that I have family members in and [snorts]

um for reasons that um don't justify the what we're seeing. And um I I assume some of our public will speak to this later during public comment, but I just really want to say the names of the people who've been uh killed uh that we know of. Renee Good and and Alex Brey. Um they didn't deserve to lose their lives trying to watch our government operate. And um though our community is asking us for uh a response from the city government, we a month ago declared a state of emergency related to this. And um I don't think anyone who voted yes or no on that wanted to see a situation that was much worse than the one we saw um in our community. Um, but that is unfortunately what we have in front of us in Minneapolis. And um, I just want to acknowledge that. Um, I want to call it what I believe it is. And, um, stand in solidarity with our community even if they they come to the city and don't feel like we can give them the respit that they hope for. Um, I do believe that in 10 below weather and and in the conditions of Minnesota over the last two weeks that that community has demonstrated a path forward for observing federal action and standing in solidarity. And um heaven forbid that we have to do something similar here in Salem, but if we do um I trust that our community will do it in the spirit of nonviolence and in the spirit of solidarity with the people who are being

targeted. Um and I would just call on our community to continue to carry that spirit forward. Um, even as you ask us for things and and hold our decision-m accountable, know that the real power against an oppressive force like the one that we're seeing in our communities is the people. And um, I just encourage everyone to uh, make a community um, and uh, carry that forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Tigan. Councelor Nordic.

Thank you, Councelor Tyen. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh, councelor Tigan, I echo everything you just said. Thank you so much. You put it so well and I'm so sorry for everyone impacted by what has happened in Minnesota most recently. I am having conversations with people across our community, and people are scared. They're scared that it will happen in Salem. They're scared that it will happen to people who just happen to be present when ICE is on the scene. They're scared that it'll happen to their loved ones or they're scared it'll happen to their parents while they're in the classroom. They're scared. And of course, that fear most importantly is felt by our communities of color. So, nobody is above the law. That was why I brought the motion to declare a state of emergency in our city. Nobody, nobody is above the law. So, I will take the remainder of my time here, my privilege as a counselor to hold a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives. Thank you. Thank you, councelor Nordike. Anyone else? All right, then we are moving on to proclamations this evening. Our first proclamation will be uh presented by councelor Nishioa uh recognizing blue star mother's day.

Just testing. Sounds like it's working. Hi Hi. So good. I didn't realize we'd be friends. And who's are you? Janine. Yes.

Would you like to come forward? Great. Thank you. So, I will give you this while I read this. Whereas Blueest Star Mothers of America was founded via a meeting of mothers of World War II servicemen in Flint, Michigan on February 1st, 1942, leading to mothers hanging Blue Star flags in the windows of their homes, expressing pride in their servicemen protecting our nation's freedom. And whereas Blueest Star Mothers of America was officially chartered by Congress in June 1960 as a nonprofit organization with more than 200 statewide chapters of over 6,000 members and growing in number supporting active duty service personnel, promoting patriotism, and assisting veteran organizations and one another. And whereas this community of blueest star mothers understand the unique pride, devotion, and worry that comes with having a child serving in the US armed forces. Whether that child is in active duty, in the guard, or in reserves, or is a veteran, Blueest Star mothers are part of the sisterhood that offers unconditional support during the military journey. And whereas blueest star mothers across the nation, including our Oregon chapter, celebrate the unique sisterhood and support our troops and veterans each year on February 1st, recalling the founding members mission. We endeavor to promote this awareness via designating February February 1st, 2026 as blue mother as blue star mother's day in the capital city of the state of Oregon. And now therefore, Julie Hoy, Mayor of City of

Salem, does hereby proclaim the day February 1st, 2026 as Blue Star Mother's Day, and encourage all residents to join in this observation dated this 26th day of January, 2026. Thank you very much. We're going to get um Would you like to [applause] say Thank you all. I have the privilege and honor of being the president of the Oregon chapter of the Blueest Star Mothers of America. We are a small but mighty chapter that represent mothers of our armed forces throughout the entire state. We support one another. We also support our veterans via um sendoff events for deployments and return events. We also support um our veterans um through different types of activities and um we also participate in fun things like parades and send care packages to our military as they serve overseas. And we would welcome all of you joining us as either members as blue star mothers yourselves or as associate members who support us in our organization. Thank you so much. You can check out our Facebook page and our website. And before I go, also um challenge coins are a very big thing across our military. And um and meeting Julie at I'm also a Air Force mom, a Marine Corps mom, and an Army mom. And I met Julie at the um Marine Corps ball this year. And I was so impressed by her um support of our military. Um, I would like to present her with a challenge coin from the Blueest Star Mothers of America, thanking her for her support. [applause]

Thank you so much. Okay. It's my uh privilege to welcome from the BB Black Foundation Greg Peterson, executive director, Cynthia Richardson, board vice president, Artonia Jeml, board secretary, Selene Coleman, uh also with the board, and Pastor Ronnie Brooks, board member. Thank you. [applause] Come on over. Whereas January 19th, 2026 is celebrated nationally and by the city of Salem as the observance of the birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And whereas Dr. King is recognized as a leader in the movement to establish civil and human rights for all people. And whereas Dr. King focused on building peaceful communities based on equality and justice. And whereas the city of Salem has reaffirmed the personal liberties of its residents and does not tolerate any violation of their civil

and human rights. And whereas the celebration of the life of Dr. King helps honor those who contributed to Salem's diverse history and culture. And whereas the recognition and study of Dr. King's life and work helps assure a rich and diverse community future. And now therefore, I, Julie Hoy, mayor of the city of Salem, Oregon, do hereby proclaim January 19, 2026 as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Recognition and urge all residents to reflect and learn about his life's work so that the community will continue to uphold and respect the civil and human rights of every individual dated this 12th day of January, 2026. Julie Hoy, thank you. Which of you would like to speak? [applause]

I first would like to thank the mayor, city council for your recognition of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the recognition of his holiday, his celebration. I want to ask for consideration for all of us. in consideration of uh his legacy of the work of the civil rights movement and what happened in light of how we exist today and how we're living today. As we're going to step into a month celebrating Black History Month and the recognition of not the disparities that happen, but the perseverance of a people and what happened over 400 years of persecution and slavery. As we look at our country today and what people are having to overcome and encounter, it was the perseverance of a race of people who overcame that. We want to celebrate that. We want to encourage and ask each and every one of you guys as we go into Black History Month and celebrate that to take the initiative to study our history. If we don't understand our history, we're doomed to repeat our history and we're headed down that path. what we're experiencing today. We don't have to continue to experience these disparities against people, against culture, against livelihoods. My I have 10 grandchildren in Minneapolis, Minnesota who walk out our houses every day afraid of going to work or going to school or what they're going to face. But as a people within our own culture, that's been our life's experience. We don't wish that upon anybody to have to repeat that. But we have to understand and study and appreciate that we can overcome this. But it takes all of us together in the civil rights movement and the march with Martin Luther King. It was the whole community that came together and we can no longer allow ourselves to be separated as American

citizens. We we're under a country that is based on one nation under God. And we cannot leave God out of what we're trying to do. And we need to figure out, we need to figure out, we get to make a choice on our next actions, but we need to make our next actions together. Otherwise, we will never overcome the persecution that all communities are facing at this moment in time. And I just want to thank you guys so much. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you. [applause] We need to experience One, two, three. [applause] All right, moving on to presentations. We have a presentation from Marian County on county ordinance regulating street vendors. [snorts] AJ Clawson, welcome. Good evening, Mayor Hoy and city councilors. For the record, my name is Alvin Clawson. I'm the government relations manager for Marian County, but more importantly, I'm a proud former city of Salem employee for this very library that we're sitting in. So, um, thank you guys for having me here today. Um, you guys are going to hear from city staff about this later. Um, it's I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse, but I um am here to ask you guys to support um opting into Marian County's enforcement authority um under

Marian County Code 1010 to approve a 180day trial focused on Lancaster and Cordon and to come back after that trial uh with data and determine whether the expansion is appropriate. I would like to share some um concerns and challenges that we are facing. Um first and foremost, we are uh playing jurisdictional whack-a-ole. Um, one of the issues that we're having is we're going around enforcing and uh, one of the things that I learned in being a library employee is that the city of Salem and Marian County is a complex puzzle mainly around Lancaster and uh, it goes in and out and a lot of uh, vendors will uh, we will enforce on them in Marian County property and they'll move across the street and go to city of Salem. and we respect your jurisdiction and don't want to uh send our people into your guys's area. Um some of the challenges or concerns that we have with um the street vendor um being unauthorized is there's a lot of unregulated um vendors who have unsafe food practices. This is a public health issue which the county um is majorly concerned with. Some of the food is being prepared in unsanitary conditions. Things like meat aren't being um stored at the right temperature. Um many of the uh food stored is in coolers or trunks or improvised setups and that that is a major concern for public health. Uh one of the other things that we are facing is workers uh worker safety and sanitation. Um being uh unregulated

street vendors, there are many challenges um like no access to restrooms. You'll see people on the side of the road in 100 degree weather without water. Um and there's nothing nearby. Um and there's no uh clean food prep environment. The last point I wanted to uh hit on is um many of these are in um public rideaways right off of freeway and highway um off-ramps. These are dangerous areas. People are going high rates of speed coming off of the freeway. I5 and Market is a prime example. We want to make sure that these people aren't getting hit on the side of the road. One of the major concerns that the Marian County Sheriff has is a lot of these um could be uh human traffked people who are brought here to do to sell on the side of the road and they're being abused. And we don't have if they move into the city of Salem, we don't have the authority to come in and interact with them to um hit on that topic. So, um, you guys will hear about this later. I just wanted to, uh, stand up and give you some of our talking points and let you know why we are asking you to adopt this ordinance. Any questions?

Councelor Tyen. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, thanks for the uh, presentation. I guess I'm curious what the what the driving force behind the mo like the motivation to bring this to to us. Is it people are getting sick, people are getting hit by cars, or is it that the people who are trying to enforce it from the county just can't cross the street?

It's actually a combination of all three of those. Um, we were enforcing on a food truck that was unregulated on Lancaster and they had raw meat sitting out and a whole bunch of people got sick and uh they moved right across the street. Our employees can't cross that street. They can um regulate the truck at in the health and human services aspect but not in the enforcement aspect. I I I not clear on the distinction. If it's food being prepared, doesn't Marian County inspect all food providers within the within Marian County?

It does, but we can't remove them from that area from like a law law enforcement perspective. So, we can't we can say, "Hey, you're supposed to be closed down. You have to leave." And they could just sit on City of Salem property. Well, property within the City of Salem, not City of Salem property. So, I guess the other maybe this is a a me question and not a you question or an us question. So, is there not someone at the city of Salem to call? If you've seen something, the person crosses the street, they're now within the city's jurisdiction. What's the then what right now?

We can absolutely do that and I believe we do. Um, this just encompasses the rest of that, uh, ordinance. And that ordinance, um, I do have what it does. Um, it targets the problem. Well, I apologize. Uh, the city code is adequate, but this makes it more uh, cohesive, I would say. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Councelor Nishioa.

Thank you. Um to expand on that, when you say it, it sounds like it's not necessarily as much of Marian County wanting to come on to the city side, but more policies that need to be addressed. I again I'm trying to also understand the need for this and and if there could be other mechanisms such as a code change that could then enforce it and we can do that or have contact to Marian County and Marian County S.

Absolutely. We would absolutely welcome that. If you don't want to adopt uh this uh code, we would absolutely encourage you guys to do your own. Um, this does I believe this would allow sheriffs to cross that line and um help our code enforcement, but we can also reach out to um City of Salem Police and use that as enforcement as well. Councelor Matthews,

this may be less of a question for you, so maybe it's better for later on uh when we actually discuss this this motion. But so would it be a code enforcement aspect within our jurisdiction or would it be a police aspect? I know you just mentioned you could call Salem PD, but would this actually be a code enforcement? It would Mitch is giving me the thumbs up back there. Oh,

so counselor, my suggestion is to kind of wait until the staff give um our report and then um more questions can follow at that time if that's okay. Councelor Nordic. Thank you and thank you Mr. Clawson for being here. What county what efforts to the county do to uh engage in outreach to the vendors who would be impacted by this change?

So there are actually many steps that we take before we even shut somebody down. We do education um prior to anything. A lot of people are very excited to start a business but don't know what steps to take. So we often, for instance, that food truck that we uh met with on Lancaster, we actually engaged with them three or four times before we put a closure on them. The first step is always education, how to start the business, what you have to do to stay within regulations. Then there's uh two warnings, and then we always engage in um potential closure afterwards. Uh, thank you. And I think my my question was actually, did you talk to the vendors before you passed this change of regulations at the county level? And if so, what did their testimony or public comment look like?

I don't know the answer to that currently. I would have to go back to our staff and see. Any other questions? City Manager, did you have something? No. Okay, AJ, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me.

Okay, looking forward to that um item a little bit later in the agenda. All right, then we are moving on to public comment. We have five people signed up under item two. I'll call two names at one time. I'd just like, you know, to remind everyone of our decorum. Treat each other with respect. Everyone will have three minutes to speak and uh and we'll get through through every bit of it. So, um I'll call two names at a time. Please come forward to the podium. Turn the green light or hit the button till the green light comes on. State your ward or your address for the record and your name. uh Kathleen Trepa and Lenel Wilcox. Good evening, mayor, counselors. My name is Kathleen Thorp, T H O R P Ward One.

[clears throat]

So, we are engaging in a little bit of threeminute education looking at our homeless population concerns. And one of the first things I want to bring to the attention of the council is the fact that um Salem has lost some homeless services that are impacting our community. Project Ael has had to close its doors. Excuse me. Um, The Rock has had to reduce staffing and hours of operation due to decreases in funding. Both Project Able and The Rock had offered day center, mentoring, peer support, wellness services, partner connections, and other supports. The church at the park had to lay off 17 staff and have reduced by half their adult outreach services. And sadly, Salvation Army co-ed shelter is closing its doors in 5 days. I spent some time interviewing a gentleman by the name of William Cahal. William is a retired RN and he worked in M the Marian County Jail. He worked at Oregon Department of Corrections at Bridgeway Health. He's a registered nurse. The question that I put to him is, is corrections a viable pathway for homeless, excluding, of course, children and elderly, and is being homeless a crime in Salem? So, basically, what we talked about is criminalization of homelessness and enforcing quality of life ordinances relating to public activities. What William and I talked about was what does it cost to incarcerate someone in

Marian County? We have costbenefit analysis that go along all of the time. On the [clears throat] Marian County website, it estimates $84 a day and estimates raise to as high as $200 a day depending on what services are available. Does Marian County have availability? Do we have capacity? Basically, Marian County Jail has a capacity of about 400 inmates in total and and that's when they're fully staffed and they seem to be full a goodly amount of time. Marian County Jail typically runs close to capacity and if overfilled they release folks. We have limited uh resources available to people that are experiencing alcohol or drug detoxification. And finally, the national and I'm going to have your your time is expired. Thank you. Next up is Lenel Wilcox and then Tia Turner. I don't know if I Oh, sorry. Hi, my name is Lenel Wilcox and I live in W one. Today, I'm focusing on safety and livability connected to people who struggle with mental illness. There are some of the many people we still still see on the streets in spite of how much money we've invested to house people and provide homeless services and shelters. Um, some experience behaviors that make shelter or housing a challenge, yet few would meet the understandably high bar for civil commitment, so they fall through the cracks as they live and die on the streets. Um, some behaviors seem scary, even if the person doesn't harm anyone, yet help isn't as simple as seeking mental health treatment. So,

sharing some examples, one woman hears voices all the time. She shared, "It's like a noisy restaurant where everybody's talking at once. You can sometimes hear specific words, but mostly you just hear the den and the noise makes it hard to remember things, focus or have a conversation, and the voices don't like her. After trying many meds, one med finally dulled the voices a little bit so she could function better, but the medication causes depression and weight gain. So now the voices hate her more and call her a fat pig. She's always hearing, thinking, and speaking around and above the voices in her head. I don't know if I could even be functional through all that. One man called me and tell me told me that he and his wife were kicked out of apartments and shelters because she's yelling all the time because she's hearing horrific she's seeing horrific things happening to other people. But we can't see those things. If we did, we'd probably be yelling, too. He shared that this happened slowly and meds haven't helped. He loves her, but doesn't know how to save her. He promised to be with her through thick and thin, good and bad. So, if they can't live in a place and shelters can't take her, he's going to live with her on the streets because he signed up for life. One lady struggles with multiple personalities that yell often, so she has to stay outside. We can't have her in the shelter. She came to our door in total tears one night, explaining that she's exhausted and just wants to sleep, but they are screaming. She wonders if we have earplugs. We gave her earplugs and hot cocoa, and the voices still screamed in a very real way. This is happening to her, not by her, and she wishes they were gone. She came back to the door in tears and complete exhaustion and handed me back the earplugs and told me they don't work. What can you say to that? We live among warriors, and they're often shunned, feared, and treated as if they're vermin, dangerous, subhuman. Yet, mental illness can happen to any of us at any time in life, for

any reason or for no reason. It could be your friend, your parent, your child, or you. There's a quote that I love. Halloween, a day that we get it right. Strangers come to us, beautiful, ugly, odd, or scary. And we accept them all without question. We compliment them, treat them kindly, and give them good things. Why don't we live like that? Thank you, [applause]

Tia Turner and Bob Cartwright. Hello, I'm Talia Turner and um I live in Kaiser. Um my uh forgive me, I don't really know how to speak C-SPAN. Um my daughter is in elementary school right now. Uh I don't know how much thinking you guys generally do, but like try to put yourself back to when you were in high when you were in elementary school. Um it was generally a time where I was surrounded by friends and it was pretty uh pretty cheery even when it was not usually fun. Um, but now I want you to imagine yourself in elementary school at recess hearing that ICE might be at the school. And I want you to ask yourselves if you're doing anything more than just performing allyship to oppose that that's going on. Um, I'm here uh for the candle light vigil um with Latinos Unitore and they're making the emergency declaration demands $400,000 in emergency funds for impacted families. Coun City council members must demand that Marian County drop federal and state lawsuit that challenges the Oregon sanctuary promise act. Local law enforcement must end the use of underco cover vehicles to improve public safety and reduce fear and confusion for families. Salem police must enforce criminal and traffic law violations against any ICE agents. All federal and immigration agents must identify themselves in our city. Um, I'm not hopeful that you'll meet these, but I do

want to kind of drive home that for your words of allyship to not be performative, you kind of have to do something besides be complicit. That's it. [applause] Bob Cartwright and Phil Carver. Mayor Hoy counselors, I'm Bob Courtright. I live in Ward 8. I'm here tonight on behalf of 350 Salem. Uh and talking about item 5D. You have written comments that we've submitted on the preferred scenario for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Uh our message to you tonight is simple. This plan needs much more work. It identifies the right goals and outcomes, but it's missing the key ingredients that are needed to meet those goals. To meet our greenhouse gas emission goals, we need to reduce driving by 30%. The plan's major strategy for doing this is to roughly triple the number of trips that we make by walking, cycling, and transit. That's the right strategy. The problem with the plan that we want you to understand and address is that it doesn't include the kind of comprehensive actions that are needed to achieve this goal. Instead, it proposes modest steps like building more sidewalks, expanding bike lanes, and building more transit service. But there's no evidence in the detailed planning effort that's been done to show that those efforts will meet those goals. The analysis simply assumes that we will triple the share of trips that are made by walking, cycling, and transit. Um, that's not adequate to get us there. In addition, the strategy for increasing walking and biking transit trips falls way short of addressing the major thing that the city can do to accomplish that objective, and that's to get most housing and other new development in walkable mixeduse neighborhoods. The science of reducing

BMT, vehicle miles traveled, is clear. People who live in highly walkable, mixeduse neighborhoods drive less and walk, bike, and take transit more than people who live outside such areas. State plans and rules recognize that and say we should be planning for 30% of our housing in walkable mixeduse NA neighborhoods. But the preferred scenario that you're forwarding to the state or proposing to forward to the state only includes about half that amount of land or housing in such areas. So again, our key conclusion for you is that this preferred scenario is missing the key ingredients that you need to to accomplish this goal. What we're hoping that you will do is first aim for that 30% target in the plans that the city is doing to get most of our housing in walkable mixeduse neighborhoods and along the core transit network. Uh second, the city should be using the upcoming transportation system plan update that's supposed to start soon to include a detailed plan and the supporting analysis for actually accomplishing that goal of getting a tripling of bike, walk, and mode trips. Uh we look forward to working with the planning commission and your staff and you as those efforts move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Phil Carver.

Good evening, mayor and city councilors. For the record, I'm Philip Carver. I live at 107 Newport Drive Southeast, 97306, and I am the one of the two co-coordinators of 350 Salem. We have hundreds of members in the city of Salem. Um, my first point is that adopting this plan, if you do adopt it later in this agenda, you're making a serious promise to meet these vehicle mile travel goals. And if not, if you really are not serious about meeting these goals, you should send the plan back to the staff to revise it. Um, meeting these goals will require substantial changes in the transportation system plan and in zoning and planning. Um and specifically the mayor and the city councilors will need to do more be more aggressive in supporting more dollars for chariots in your in your meetings with the legislature and your lobbying of the legislature and in public votes. Um the there are many other benefits of meeting these goals than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Um, infill and walkable mixeduse neighborhoods do three things. They lower the cost of citybuilt infrastructure. This saves the city money. The building in far-flung areas of the city costs a lot more than than infill or mixeduse walkable neighborhoods. Um, people like this kind of housing and they need this kind of housing. Um, this type of housing is much more affordable than standard um, single family housing. Um, it's more affordable because the dwellings are smaller and we need smaller dwelling units because our family sizes are are shrinking. We have more older people and we're not having as many children. And

so that means smaller family sizes. And most importantly, if we can have areas where you don't need to own a car or sometimes need to only own one car rather than two cars, that saves the the households 20% of their annual expenditure if you don't own a car. And that's a huge savings. So, it's smaller dwellings and not needing to own a car is part of affordable housing. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. That's all we have for public testimony. We are moving on to the consent calendar and I believe councelor Nordic, you have some uh something to say about the consent calendar. I do, madame mayor. Thank you. Now, I'd like to declare a potential conflict of interest with regards to items 3.3A and 3. Hold on. So, I got 3.2B. potential conflict of interest as it could provide a financial benefit or detriment to a relative. So, for that reason, I will not be participating in the vote and I'd like to know what the city attorney would recommend in terms of my participation on the remainder of the consent agenda.

Um, can you clarify? Was it 3.2 A and B you had potential conflicts on? That is correct. 3.2A and 3.2 2 B, but there are still some other items. There's a 3.3 A, B, and C. And I'm not declaring a conflict with regard to anything under 3.3 or subsection. Council President, if you could just pull those two items from consent, we'll we'll consider them under special orders of business. So, which which two? 3.2A and B, we'll move to the special orders of business.

Thank you. All right, councelor Nishio to the cons. See if I can pull this off. All right, so um I'm sorry. I I'm sorry to interrupt, mayor. We have two individuals that didn't sign up. They've driven um quite a long ways to speak to item number two and they're wondering if they can speak at this time. I personally am okay with that. Is anybody have objection? Okay. No. Uh, I just need names. Please come forward and make sure that green light's on. Announce your name, your ward, or your address for the record.

Good evening. My name is John Cotch and I'm uh from Ward 5 and I represent Community Medical Services. Um, I am the director of community and public relations over at Community Medical Services, which is currently an opioid treatment program. Um, this is our first location in Oregon. And I'm here to talk to you guys today about what we do and a little bit of what we're experiencing currently at this site. Um, this site is located at 702 Church Street. And, um, we've been in this building for about two years now. What we do is we provide, uh, opioid treatment. We know that there was opioid epidemic. I myself am very proud to be standing in here tonight as I was a person that was homeless for seven years. Um, experienced incarceration and was uh addicted to opioids for a very long period of time. And now today I get to come up here and represent a company that is helping to help other people every single day. And so what we do is we provide medication assisted treatment. is the gold standard for people that have been using fentanyl, heroin, painkillers, and so on. We also provide counseling, peer support, nursing, doctor's visits, and just wraparound care for a person. We do not believe in weight lists. I actually like to refer to them as deathless because people with opioid addiction die while they're waiting to get into treatment places. And I have 30 dead people in my phone at least right now. So, I'm here today to talk about what we're experiencing at this location since we've been open. Um, at what we would normally would expect for people to be in, uh, the clinic is being there's barriers being put up. Um our people are have to come into treatment every day or every couple days when they first start and it uh and as you can imagine being in outpatient care it

their brains and the way that they are thinking can be very discombobulated at that time. Currently we have a neighbor um hope by Northwest human services that I specifically love and love what they're doing and trying to help people. What I don't love is what's going on out front of our building. As part of that, as part of that, I have been over the past few weeks, I've witnessed people having sexual relations in front of my property. I've witnessed people selling drugs and I have witnessed weapons. I uh I'm scared for the people that we treat as it's not safe and it's not uh a good recovery environment for them. So, what I'm asking is uh for any feedback or any help um in how we can address the neighbor as I don't want them to get in trouble or anything like that. I just want to help people. That's it. Thank you. [applause] Thank you for your testimony and congratulations on your sobriety.

[applause] Okay, the next person who came of distance to speak, come on down, please. Oh, okay. Thank you so much. All right, then we are going to get back into the consent calendar. Councelor Nishoka, did you have time to organize your I think so. thoughts there. Okay. I move for approval of the consent calendar with moving I moving items 3.2A 2 A and 3.2B to special order of business. Second. We have a motion and a second. Counselor, anything to your motion?

Um uh yes. So, the uh consent calendar consists of 3.1A uh draft minutes um uh draft city council minutes and um from January 7th and uh draft city minutes from January 12th. 3.2A is being moved. 3.2B is being moved. 3.3A um uh authorized the creation of a mid-year sanator sanitary sewer project in West at West Salem's pump station. 3.3B authorize a settlement and execution of a settlement agreement between city and the former employee on terms of set forth in this report. 3.3C authorize city manager to resolve the matter um of workers compensation claim in um the amount of 550,000 payment will be made from the city's self- insurance claim form and that concludes what we will be consent calendaring.

Great. Does anyone have any questions on the consent calendar items? Seeing none, will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Vang I. Councelor Nordike I. Councelor Vney I. Councelor Tyen I. Councelor Nishioa I. Councelor Matthews I. Councelor Gwen I. Councelor Brown. I. Mayor Julie Hoy.

I. All right. Moving on that we have no public hearings and we have many special orders of business. We'll start with item 5A, the consideration of Marian County regulations for street vendors. Mitch, I believe, is coming forward.

Good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. My name is Mitch Nichols. I'm the compliance services manager for the city of Salem and I'm here tonight to talk about the Marian County street vending um rules and the regulations and the ordinance they've just adopted or adopted this past summer. I'm going to give you a highlight on it and uh pull out some of the um not pulling out anything but just giving an overview of the uh of the ordinance and how it functions and how it would function inside the city um if they were if you were to opt in. I'll also follow it up with my recommendation or our recommendation um to introduce the ordinance. It was 257-19. It amends Marian County Code Chapter 1010. Um allows for the option of extension of Marian County Enforcement Authority inside city boundaries uh and vendor licensing. The purpose of the county amendment uh first and foremost is to improve safety for street vendors and the public. uh enhance traffic flow on roads and sidewalks, protect property and owners and consumers, uh and ensure better emergency vehicle access to the uh to the park sites or the staging areas. The county definition of street vendors is any person or entity offering street vendor products for sale at a non-permanent location within a public road or within 500 within 50 feet, excuse me, of a public road rightway. That's a pretty good setback. um pretty substantial. The requirements, they must have a license by the county and they must have insurance. Uh and as the county testified earlier, they're also required to comply with the uh county health laws. Legal access, uh the vendor operational restrictions, legal access from public roads, safe and legal parking, uh written permission from property owners if on private property. Um there's an exception to that where if the business actually on the property is operating the vendor stand or the vendor location, then they're not required to license.

Uh operational hours are 7:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. And restrictions uh on location and obstruction. And obstruction would be the parking or location of a vehicle or signage so as to obstruct line of sight on a roadway or a sidewalk where people can't actually see around it when they're trying to exit or enter the road. the city street mobile vendor licensing uh the SRC requirements business license for mobile food units and street vendors proof of health and sanitary licenses is required uh inspection of vehicles carts and licenses vendors licensed by the city operating within the city are exempt from county enforcement and [snorts] I made that clear with commander Robart's when I first met with them to talk to them about how this would function if the U sheriff's officers or county code enforcement was enforcing within the city boundaries. I wanted to clarify that people licensed within the city were were okay and exempt from that. The enforcement and penalties are pretty substantial. Um these are our penalties, civil penalties of up to $2,000 per violation per day. Um license revocation for non-compliance. The county also included uh an option for impounding vendor goods and carts for violations. And when uh as they discussed with the the meat vendor that they were talking about or the the warm meats, that would be one where you might think about doing something like that to get it out of the public domain. The city code requirements um no semi-permanent locations in public rightway. We we prefer you not to be in the rightway when you're when you're uh vending. Uh permits required for traditional street vending uh which is the ice cream trucks and so forth that you see flying the residential areas. regulations on for vendors on private property. Our planning department does a really good site plan review for any vendors that are sitting up at a at a single location for any for any length of time. That gives us an opportunity to

look at zoning, signage, and all the related bells and whistles that we enforce when we do those site inspections. Staff recommendations um are to opt into county enforcement for 180 days. Um trial period on Lancaster Drive and Cordon Road only. Um the potential for improved compliance and resource allocation can help us address unlicensed activity near city and county boundaries. And this speaks to the challenge that they are having with a vendor being cited in the county but then moving across the street to the city. Um what we'd like to do is come back in February um with a uh with an ordinance and I'm ad livinging this because January 12th has passed um and a review after 180 days for continuation of of your decision if you choose to opt in. Um I have had a good conversation with Commander Robards and I'm confident that they can do a fair job of enforcement. Um, I'm also interested in seeing how they'll interact with us and I would like to work with the county as closely as possible with them on this enforcement so we can we can address any issues they find in the city. Um, if it is in city ordinance that's being violated. Be happy to take any questions. Um but in conclusion, importance uh of the updated regulations and safety uh and compliance leads to more collaboration between the city and county and more effective enforcement. [snorts] Your questions, please.

Yes, Councelor Tigan. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Sorry to be first on the jump for all these uh good conversations. I'm curious um Mr. Nichols, thank you again and for all you work your work in the compliance division. How many staff do you have to enforce um the city's uh licensing and things like that around um food vendors like this?

Well, currently we have food vendors in every district and all six police districts and we are just now hiring our sixth code enforcement officer. We're in a recruitment for that to get that person up, trained up and and ready to go in about six months. Um we we handle residential, commercial, industrial complaints all the time and we have a very substantial list of complaints to respond to. Um vendor complaints don't have that we don't receive that many of them uh inside the city. They they do a good job of managing their own sites. Um they're familiar with the rules and they have been visited on site and they have been inspected. um and they're they will reach out to us when in fact they find another vendor operating without a license. So we've got a we've got a good rapport with them right now the ones in the city. We have not addressed those in the county. However,

can I just clarify your answer? So are you saying you have six staff that are spec specifically working on food vendors or you have six compliance officers and food vendors vendors are part of their job? They are part of their job. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Sir [snorts] Nishielka, did you have something?

I did. Thank you very much. And again, thank you Mr. Nichols for being here and your presentation. Um, do you feel that uh this is going to be [snorts] best for the city because you are overloaded with the responsibilities and and I'm again just trying to understand um it sounds like the county came to us uh not us to them. Um, and so I'm I guess I would just like to understand the city's um feeling on this six-month trial and what would you be judging the benefits uh if if it eased up the work for our code compliance officers or if it was able to do something else.

We we would look at the efficacy of the of the program itself. Is it reaching the people it needs to reach? Is it delivering the information they need in a timely manner? Is their communication piece really robust? Um, ensuring that the people that are subject to the rules really understand them well. Um, those are all things that are part and parcel to a great enforcement program. Working with the county is um, it's something we do periodically. Um, but more through interlocal agreements and so forth where we wouldn't have that type of agreement. we'd be opting into an ordinance to allow them to enforce within our within our boundaries within the municipal boundaries of the city of Salem. And I haven't got examples where I can look at and see where that has been successful or not. So, I'm interested in that 180day trial period to really flesh out some of the dos and don'ts of the program and see what if anything needs to be tweaked before we move it further down the road.

Thank you. So again, just clarifying with with the data that's going to be provided in the 180 days. I guess what I'm trying to understand is what is it that you're looking at? And I'm also going to ask a quick question. Is this going to just be on the border of the city and the county on Lancaster and that's it? I just want confirmation on that.

So that that is correct. Lancaster and Cordon Road uh will be the only two streets where we do where the enforcement would be allowed in that 180day period. We wouldn't come further into the city than that. This gives us an opportunity to look at a concentrated area. Um, look at the number of violations written, look at the number of compliance orders given, look at the number of voluntary compliance issues that the more voluntary compliance we get, the more confidence we're going to have with it. You know, that's it's not we don't I don't envision just these, you know, swarms of enforcement officers having time to go out and enforce every day in this kind of environment. It's it's kind of pick your fights as you can. Um the the information that we don't have is what's a challenge for us and that's getting it especially from unlicensed vendors. That's really difficult for us to run down because they've done a good job of masking them their identities and stuff and we don't know who they are.

We know where they're at though. Councelor Matthews. So from the enforcement and penalty slide I was trying to figure out. So, the civil pen penalty is up to $2,000 per violation, license revocation for non-compliance, and county can impound vendor goods and carts for violation. So, are the first two there are those through our SRC that they'd be enforcing? Those are and then the third one would be their own county enforcing. And I wanted clarification from the county that if they were enforcing in the city that they found a city licensed vendor that that vendor was off limits. Okay. They're they're operating as long as they're operating and closed. can call us if they if there's a problem and we'll go out and do the investigation.

Okay. And then just would they go to municipal court then for like if let's say that there was a penalty or a violation predicted does that actually go to a municipal court? No, it's a quasi judicial process in front of a hearings officer. So they could they have an opportunity to appeal any violation we write. Yeah. Okay. Um I can't speak for the county appeal process, however. Right. Okay. [snorts] Councelor Nishoka, thank you. Um some clarity. Are these primarily food trucks or are they vendors that may not even have a vehicle and they're standing there selling goods?

So, both. Um there's a lot of food vendors, but they're by and large are probably the most compliant. The the pop-up ones that I've seen are animal vendors um selling puppies and kittens. Um there's also um stuffed animal toys and stuff like that that just pop up on a property uh or in a parking lot. And this past weekend was a great example. I drove down Lancaster on Sunday and was stunned at the amount of vendors that were there on Sunday that weren't there during the week. And I couldn't imagine, you know, I tried to picture in my mind whether it was in the county or city at the time. Just wondered how big a job the c the county is going to have. Thank you.

You bet. Councelor Norbec.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, so walk me through a couple you maybe a hypothetical in terms of how this would work. Let's say we adopt the county's ordinance and there's a vendor on the city side of property who's have compliance with that. Would we collect the enforcement fee or would Marian County under those circumstances? So, when when we do the enforcement um and it's a violation of city code, we would we would collect the fee if there is a fee imposed. Um if the county does it, we're going to have to have a conversation about that because that hasn't been a part of this situation. We don't we did not discuss the hearing and appeal process with Commander Robart,

right? Because um you know, obviously that's the only cost recovery mechanism that you have. Exactly. So, that's a really important detail to hammer out. Yeah, it it is.

The other question I had was uh a question that I brought up earlier. Have the vendors been approached? Do they know that this is coming? Do they know that we're being asked tonight to make this agreement to adopt this? Do they know that the Maring County has already passed this rule? I'm just wondering and has that engagement been in Spanish or any other languages? So, I I have not participated in any outreach whatsoever. Um, as far as the county's concerned, um, I had asked that question of Commander Roards and he said he wasn't familiar with any outreach, but he thought there would be some. I haven't seen any to date. I haven't talked to any vendors that actually had [snorts] received any notices from the county um, telling him that this was coming. I saw no public meetings.

Okay. Thank you. You bet, Councelor Gwyn. So, you said Sunday you drove down Lancaster and saw vendors. So, I'm just curious, um, is this going to be a complaint driven by Marine County or are they going to drive down on a Sunday and pull over and talk to these folks?

So, their sheriff's do deputies work 24/7 and their code enforcement staff work pretty much like ours do, uh, 5 days a week. So, I would say weekend enforcement, if it's up to anyone at the county, it'll be up to the sheriff's officers to do the stopping and the talking. Um, I haven't well, I wish I had had more time to speak with Commander Robarts because he had a he done a pretty good job of putting it all together, but uh just wasn't as available as I needed him to be. At the end of the day, um the the enforcement part is are is is really going to have to be nailed down well because we don't want to confuse the vendors and that's our biggest concern is confusing the vendors. Um the communications that could have been given to them. Um if they were, they weren't shared with us. So I wish I had better information for you. Councelor Matthews,

I'm going off the memory of the Marian County representative that was here a little earlier, but it sounded like they had a kind of a tiered system of their enforcement that it didn't sound like they went in with penalties initially, right? They go with an education structure and then another education structure and then a penalty, right? Is that right? And and I'm assuming this is predominantly unlicensed vendors. And so I'm not sure how we would necessarily how the county or us would directly reach out to anyone when we don't know exactly who they are. Yeah, we have to approach them. We actually have to physically go to the property and knock on the door and ask them to speak with us and notify them that we don't have an we don't have a record of a license at that location and ask them to get licensed. They'll be voluntarily, you know, you can they can voluntarily comply at that point

and they're not required to uh pay a penalty immediately. Gotcha. Okay, councelor Tigan. Yeah, thanks Mitch. I know lots of questions on this, so appreciate um standing on

as we go through it, but um the thing that I and I know the Marian County Sheriff has a wide variety of um responsibilities, right? And so when I hear it going from city code enforcement, which is civil and not necessarily part of our law enforcement structure, and going to the county and the sheriff and their law enforcement structure, and I know they do civil enforcement as well, but just walk me through from a a vendor's perspective, it feels a little bit different for a city code compliance officer saying, "Hey, the temperature of your food isn't right." to a sheriff saying, "Hey, the temperature of your food isn't right." Like that that feels significant to me. And and I'm just curious, maybe it's different in the county and and it is the sheriff that's doing that sort of um inspection of county sites, but um just kind of working through that.

Sure. Um from from what I understand is the county code enforcement officers will be the primary contacts for the vendors. um they're they're only working five days. You know, they may have to modify their schedules to work on weekends if that's the case. That that hasn't been shared with me or us. Um what I do know is that when the when the when the sheriff's officers approach anyone, of course, it's their official capacity as a sheriff. And that is quite a bit different than a code enforcement officer that's not dressed in carrying weapons and so forth. So the messaging is really difficult from that perspective and it may not result in the type of compliance we're after. You know voluntary compliance is good but when it depends on who's delivering the message and how that message is being delivered as well.

Councelor Matthews is the county representative still here or is he already left? He's already left. Okay. That's unfortunate. Um Mitch, I don't know if you'll know this or not. Um, so like with the temperature scenario, it it wouldn't be your code enforcement officer or the county code enforcement officer that would actually check that. That would be the health inspector. Yes. It it would be a matter of if generally if a vendor is using coolers, it's likely that the temperature of those may be out out of scope and so especially if they're unlicensed and they're using a cooler, we'd be going after the licensing aspect. Is that right? It wouldn't necessarily be the health aspect.

That's that's correct. Okay. Um, you know, the some of the the majority of complaints we see deal with obstruction, a sign too close to a sidewalk or obstructing a driveway entrance and stuff like that. And it's pretty easily remedied voluntarily because they're attended carts. When we visit with them, they're immediate. They they respond involuntarily correct it. Um, just sometimes they hire new people that don't know how to do the setup and so the new person doesn't set up exactly the way the person that knew how to do it did. So, we just do a little education and move on. Councelor [snorts] Rang, did you have something?

I did, mayor. Thank you. Um, so I'm trying to understand how widespread this issue is. Has the county when the county approached the city, have they provided you the data they've collected on how many um they've cited on their side and then crossed over to the city side and the county isn't able to do anything. You're sh I see you're shaking your head and so I I think the answer is no.

Yeah, they didn't they didn't provide that and I didn't have the benefit of listening to the hearing uh where the commissioners adopted that back in July I think. um that would have given me some insight. I think that would have been helpful tonight.

Thank you. I I appreciate all the work that you've put forward in bringing this proposal. Um can you uh share with us what the county city collaboration um looks like in a situation that um in that situation that does happen where they cross over the into the city prop property in the city and the county reaches out to city enforcement to address the issue like what does that process look like? Is there a process? Is it ad hoc? So, right now they we they they do call us periodically when when that happens, but it's not with any any structure that I'm aware of. I haven't I haven't received any of those calls. Perhaps our officers have. Um you know what it looks like for me is that when the sheriff's officers are allowed to enforce or the county code enforcement officer are allowed to enforce inside city boundaries, they will enforce their code. Right. But if that vendor is licensed by the city, they are off limits. And if there is a violation, they'll call us and they'll we'll finish the investigation for them because it's our rules that are being broken, not theirs. So if they suspect a violation of city code, then the expectation is they'll call us. And I'll [snorts] memorialize that in writing.

Thank [snorts] you. You're welcome, Councelor Gwyn. So, if that's the case, does your staff have the capacity to respond to those calls with only six in the entire city? We we get to them. Um sometimes I try and help out myself. Um and particularly if I know if there's an officer in the field um in that area, it's helpful to send them over as quickly as possible. Those types of violations, there is a safety a modicum of public safety to concern ourselves with and that's that's also a priority for the county. Um, so we want to get to those as a as a higher priority call. So some something else will get bumped.

Well, I uh I want to thank you for the report, Mitch. It is a pro. It's an issue out on Lancaster. Uh it's very [snorts] apparent and it's very disconcerting to see food products that pop up uh in the night

and or on the weekend and you don't know where it's come from and there's no license for the business. It is an issue and I believe this is a great opportunity for the city and the county to try to work together in a complicated geography. our if if you haven't been out on Lancaster, um our [clears throat] particular uh business is in the county property. Directly across the street is city. Next to them is city. Next to us is county. It's just goes all over the place out there and it makes it very hard for uh education and enforcement. So, um I think a six-month opportunity to see what we could do together and how it would how it would work. And you you'll come back with something I to bring an ordinance that would give us more details on

how we would communicate with the county on this, what the interactions would look like. Yes. Um so, I personally am in favor of this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor uh Matthews,

I want to go back just real I'm so sorry to go back to the the penalty aspect. The and I assume there aren't a lot of collections on this traditionally. Is that right? I mean, I see there's a $2,000 penalty, but are we traditionally charging a $2,000 penalty very often? Um we the only time we actually see payment is typically when a home or property sells and that um there's been a lean filed in the city lean docket and it's uh it's paid off by the purchaser. Okay.

Um or the seller at the at the point of sale. Um that's when we see the money most often. Uh otherwise those leans remain in the docket. Um, we've, as you know, we've got a lean forgiveness program that we're working with right now for to help people overcome, you know, spend the money on the on the abatement instead of giving it to the to the city, right? [snorts] But, um, the long-term gain for that is pretty substantial. We get properties rejuvenated and put back to use. So, we're we're hopeful that's that's gotten a good response so far, and there's still people interested in it. So, we're we're uh we're hopeful that we won't see a lot of penalties in getting collected if we get a lot of voluntary compliance.

Well, and those are what I think what you're mostly talking about is like residential leans, but I'm more thinking about with this vendor program specifically. Do we see a lot of vendor leans that we do? A lot of vendor penalties, anything not not traditionally. And so,

I mean, I do want to know, I guess, how the structure of the payment situation is going to be if this were to move forward. I think that still is the only piece that I'd be a little just not even concerned but just curious about. I guess I think it would make sense in some scenarios for the county to expect payment for their services. Uh on the flip side, I'd like to see what ends up coming. Um I guess for me, I can I can understand the county's need here in the fact that we have an alternative need against state property, right? we're in this situation on state property regularly where we clean up our side and we need the state to do something and they don't or whatever. [snorts] And so I I get that concept and so I think for 180 days for a pretty close eye I think it's reasonable to me but definitely with a close eye to make sure that it's not too punitive to make sure there's not um you know too much enforcement if that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely. And we'll we'll we'll track compliance as closely as possible to to get that data back here for our six-month update. I would just like to add maybe to include materials for the sheriff's department so that when they do go out and they do have interactions, they get the education they need to come into compliance. Absolutely. Yeah. Councelor Nishioa.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, this question is directed to our city attorney. I think some of us have um sort of expressed some concerns that may not be clear in this agreement and I'm wondering if if we should get those clarified before we vote on this motion.

Dan Aerson, city attorney. the one question about um the fines and penalties associated. If Marian County is doing the enforcement, it's their penalty. So, that would go directly to them. Uh so, there's no to me there's no confusion on that. It's it's their enforcement. It's their penalty. They would recede it. Um I'm not sure of any other uh ambiguities that need to be resolved.

Does anyone have [snorts] any thoughts on that? Um, okay. Am I am I being called on? I'm not sure. But um I think uh there was some questions raised about how uh Marian County um the process for how this county ordinance came about. And then I had my questions about how widespread this issue is. So I think um to me those are good points to have additional information for before I can decide which way uh to go about with this program.

Um we can certainly work with the county to see if we can bring back more information on how they came about with their ordinance and the any kind of data they have regarding enforcement issues. The next step in this process if council approves this act recommendation would be for us to bring back an ordinance uh to uh consent to the county enforcing within the city under this trial program. In speaking to their county attorney, um he had hoped it could go through, I believe, the month of August, which is usually their their high enforcement season, and that would allow them to complete cases that that initiate during the summer. Councelor Matthews,

city attorney, I had a question just for clarity on your explanation of kind of where the funds would go or any citation fees. So it it sounded to me like some of the penalties they would be um possibly utilizing would be SRC's. And so if that's the case and it goes to a hearings officer, do we pay for that hearings officer because it's a a Salem code or do they pay for the officer since they're or the hearings officer because they're doing the enforcement?

Sorry, sorry for the confusion on that. No, they would be using their own penalty structure and their own hearings officer for enforcement of cases. So, it's uh this the $2,000 up to $2,000 a day civil penalty was referenced in into the city's civil penalty structure. So, I I don't know what the county's uh you know, penalties would be for this. Got it. Councelor Nordic.

Uh thank you. Yeah, I I don't feel that I have enough information at this point to feel comfortable approving this. Um, I have not heard that the people who would be impacted the most by this ordinance have had any input and I have heard nothing no evidence whatsoever that there's been engagement by the county and this is a new ordinance. I don't know how many times they've enforced their own ordinance.

I don't know how many fines they've placed. We heard concerns that the food may be unsafe. I'd like to know how many food safety violations we're talking about. We heard the term human trafficking getting thrown out. Where's your data for that? Um, I am more than happy to entertain ordinances to ensure the safety of our food supply, the safety of our vendors, the safety of our workers. I'm all in favor of all those things, but I need to see some data to indicate that this is necessary. and if the county wants us to jump on board with this, then you need to show me the numbers in order for me to feel that this is an appropriate thing. And again, this is a new ordinance and I think they're probably still working out the kinks. Um, and I also have concerns about our own ability to enforce it. I I've worked with our code enforcement officers. They are extremely busy. This is a city that is growing every day. They deal with all kinds of code violations all over the city. I remember years ago when they came to us asking for us to provide them with bulletproof vests because their work sometimes takes them to some very unsafe areas. So that was a request that they made of this council years ago. So I would be more than happy to work with the county on this, but I would like to see the answers uh to the questions posed by my colleagues tonight. I would like to see more data demonstrating that this ordinance is suitable and appropriate. And if you want to bring that back to us, there's no reason to wait until another few months. I'd be more than happy to entertain this at as soon as you can get the information you need. Okay.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. Do you want to speak to the motion? Uh, so I shall read the motion. I I move to allow Marian County to enforce the amended Marian County Street vendor rules enumerated in Marian County Chapter 10.10 inside the Salem City limits.

Second. We have a motion and a second by Gwyn. Anything further to the motion? Councelor Tigan.

Yeah, thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I'll just stay um I I appreciate both the county and the city for their presentation. Um, for me personally, I'm I'm not going to uh support this motion or this 180day trial period. I do feel like um the boundary between Salem and the county is already very confusing and we're sort of putting double jurisdictional authority over this boundary. And I've heard a lot from the business community about making businesses easier to run, about not putting more rules upon folks. And this is one place where it seems like Salem has rules, we have the staff to enforce those rules, Marian County has rules, they have the staff to enforce their rules. Um, by giving Marian County authority to come over into Salem and start enforcing their rules on our side or I I didn't even think we had a really great depiction of what we're actually doing in the meeting. um the folks that I think about in their, you know, food carts and things like that, those are food carts that turn into restaurants. They're sort of the engine of um you know, our culinary scene. And so I I'm just going to say that this doesn't feel right to me, so I'm not going to be supporting it.

Councelor Matthews, I'm sorry. I guess this is a clarifying question. So, so we're kind of talking about businesses as a whole, I suppose, in this scenario. But it's my understanding this is really predominantly unlicensed. So, it's not businesses that are traditionally turning into a restaurant per se or or in this business community. It's it's unlicensed vendors. Is that right? Mitch is not in. Yes. Okay, councelor Tyan.

I mean, I guess you won't know that they're unlicensed unless you go up there and talk to them. And so I think that's part of the to me the the jurisdictional question and confusion. Now uh I think the best way to clarify our jurisdictional question is to you know annex uh Marian County's property out to Cordon Road, but I'm sorry it's not going to happen. Uh that would definitely clear up the the jurisdictional questions. But, uh, short of that, I think, um, this enforcement across the lines to me is just I've said my piece.

Well, I'll add to that. Um, Councelor Tyen, I think then the city of Salem needs 24-hour code compliance because those pop-ups are happening after business hours and they're they're many of them, I'm sure, operating out of unsafe kitchens and it's unsafe for our community to be consuming food like that. So that's really the truth. Um, Councelor Brown, I understand you may have a comment.

Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Just sitting here listening and I want to follow counselor Nordik's um input in her reflection because she asked for for data. She said she's looking for numbers and and I stand with her. It's like, show me or show us what's going on behind the scenes. Because on one hand, we say these individuals do not have licenses. U but I have yet to hear what these individuals look like. And what I mean by that is who are these individuals? Are these primarily Hispanic business owners? But how can they be a business owner if they don't have a license? And so my concern is for Mitch and even the county, come back with some real data so we'll understand because if you want me to vote on something, you need to put your cards on the table. If not, let it go. If the county wants to come in and do something, then let the county come in here and do it. I yield the floor.

Thank you, Councelor Brown. Anyone else? Councelor Bang. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, I, uh, Councelor Tyan kind of took the words out of my mouth. I I agree that I'm a little hesitant to vote yes on, um, this agenda item. Uh just a couple weeks ago, we had the Salem uh chamber come and present to us and their ask was to do no harm to not overregulate or overburden our small businesses as they are the uh engine to our city and um making our city u more livable. And um I I appreciate the energy and effort put into bringing this proposal to council, but as I'm reading the uh staff report, something that really catches my eye and makes me even more hesitant to move forward with this is in the report itself, it says city staff believe that the city code adequately protects the public and are specific to the regulations and licensing of these activities within the city. Opting into the county ordinance has the potential to cause confusion for the public and the jurisdiction given the difference between the counties and the city's regulations. And so I I think uh councelor Tyen brings up a good point about how we're uh putting jurisdiction regulations over each other and causing even more confusion when that's not our intent. And so and it goes back to my initial question of you know where's where's the data? how widespread is this problem? Like I I I want to see that we are actually going to be adopting ordinances that are addressing something that our community really needs. And if the data is there and the presentation is clear to me, then um I think it's worth

considering. But as it is right now, I just don't think I can vote yes on this motion. Thank you.

Yes, Councelor Nordic. you so much, Madame Mayor. Uh, thank you, Councelor Tyan, Brown, and Vang. I agree and appreciate your comments. Yeah, we just heard from the business community, please don't overregulate us. We just had a group of business leaders sitted in this auditorium telling us, please don't overburden us with fees and taxes and regulations. And so, I'm very mindful of that. And I don't feel the business community has been consulted on this change, which would have because that's what unlicensed vendors are. They're business owners, too. They may not have a fancy, you know, brickandmortar establishment yet, but they are business owners, too. And they should be treated with respect and dignity just like someone who has a brickandmortar store. So, I feel that that's important. And I'm also mindful of the fact that there's very well could be an educational barrier here, a language barrier here, and I'm not seeing that addressed. And I feel that if we're going to be transparent and making changes in what we do as a city, when it concerns people who are just trying to make a living in this town, that we need to do our part. We need to do the outreach. Bring the outreach to them. bring the pieces of paper to them showing this is what we're thinking of doing for the regulation of food trucks, street vending, any outdoor sales. Did you know? And here's how to sign up. Here's how to provide testimony. Here's the name of your counselor. Here's the name of your representatives. Your opinion matters. And so I feel that this is really important. For all those reasons, I'll be voting no. Councelor Quinn. So, I'm um really conflicted. not only because

I feel like that there's things that are not being said, which it it seems like what the county is after is what Mitch was talking about, the Sunday drive where folks are selling oranges or they're selling stuffed animals or flower arrangements, whatever it is, um on the on the side of the street, but the county is not being transparent with us as to what their concerns are and what they're after in in my opinion. Um because I don't feel like it's only I mean they're they're talking about food vendors, so I automatically think food trucks. So I think about and and there's a 50-foot setback. So, I think about the corn dog truck that is on Commercial Street or was just a week and a half ago in front of Furniture Row and it was right up next to the sidewalk. So, are they in vi violation because they're not 50 feet back? What about the tie truck on Candelaria and Commercial that sits almost right on the street? Are they in violation? You know what I mean? like I'm not exactly sure what it is they're after and I feel like I need more information too. Anything further?

Councelor Matthews,

two questions. Well, one comment, another question. I guess in my mind, I think about it a little bit the opposite. I think about the business owner that is paying the licensing fee and is now at a complete disadvantage because you're able to sell your product not paying the licensing fee for a lesser value because you're not following the rules. And so by us saying we're not going to do anything to increase our code enforcement to make it where we're going to require people to follow the rules that already exist in our code. Um and so we're not going to do that. Uh, and we're also not going to allow the county to take their offer of saying we'll they'll pay their own staff to go and and enforce the rules. Uh, it seems to me like a disservice to the businesses that are paying the fee that we're requiring them to [applause] pay. But but nonetheless, it seems like we have some questionable a lot of questions to be answered. And so I guess before we just vote nay on this, which is probably where this whole thing is just reading the tea leaves here. Um, is there an opportunity to just put a pin in it until some of these answers can come back? Cuz it doesn't sound like anyone's fully closed off to the idea. It just sounds like everyone wants more info.

Councelor Matthews, would you be willing to make a substitute motion? I asked the question earlier if we could postpone it. And so if that's what you want me to make a substitute motion about, I'd be happy to do that. I'll go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. You You're welcome to make it. You were the first one that mentioned it, so I think it's appropriate as long as you're comfortable making it.

Very comfortable making it. I move to pro um um postpone this motion um allowing county to enforce uh amended Marian County street vendor rules until we have more information and second

I'd like to add to the motion if if I may, that in the meantime we start a pretty rigorous effort at the city level to educate the vendors on Lancaster and Cordon Road. That sounds fine. I'll second that.

Okay, Amy, are you okay with all that? I'm okay if Dan's okay. Maybe I'll uh explain what I thought I heard and you guys can tell me if I got it right. So, uh councelor Nishioa's substitute motion was to postpone consideration of the uh item until council had more information. And I think based on council's discussion, we've got a pretty good idea of what information you're looking for. And then uh the mayor's amendment to the substitute motion was for uh staff to uh perform outreach with uh street vendors to educate them, I suppose, on the county's ordinance. Was that the idea?

And the city's ordinance. And the city's ordinance. So based on that, I think I understand what you'd like. To be clear, it would likely be the county's responsibility to educate those vendors on their or on their ordinance. I we have no control over what the county does or doesn't do. So, I can't speak to that. But we can't add it to our ordinance and expect them to do it, right? So, it would be in our ordinance or in this motion to have the city of Salem educate vendors on Lancaster and Cordon Road.

Correct. Okay. So, we vote first on I apologize. Councelor Barney, did you have your hand up?

I did, but I think you covered most of it because um you addressed um defining what we need to move forward and um you know, should we postpone it and what sort of information we need? It sounds like we might need some code amendments and an intergovernmental agreement possibly, but I agree. We need more information at this point. Thank you. Anything further?

So, procedurally, I'm since I get to be a parliamentarian, I'm just going to say that's one combined motion. That was a friendly amendment. So, the motion on the floor is to postpone consideration until council has more information and for staff to do outreach with the um the the street vending community. Sounds good to me. Sounds good to me. Sounds good to me, too.

Okay, we have one motion to vote on. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Nordike. I councelor Vney I councelor Tyen no councelor Nishioa I councelor Matthews I councelor Gwyn I councelor Brown nay

councelor Bang nay. Mayor Julie Hoy I. Motion passes. We're moving on to item 5B. Salem Fire Department, a mid-year update on the reintegration of ambulance service. Chief Gerboth, welcome to the podium.

Well, good evening, Mayor, Council President, City Council. Thank you for having me tonight as I present anformational item on the six-month update since the Salem Fire Department has assumed ambulance service. I'll briefly discuss the history, our system volume, operational performance, fiscal performance, and the future of our system. In March 2024, the city council approved the Salem Fire Department to reassume ambulance service effective July 1st in 2025. I cannot overstate the immense effort that was required to make sure this service took place in such a short period of time. In a matter of months, we specified apparatus, secured ambulances, implemented dispatch changes, delivered IT services, secured facilities for personnel and supplies, modified fire stations, purchased equipment, established distribution processes for that equipment, built a budget, executed a human resource effort that hired more employees at one time than ever in the city's history. That included re uh recruiting, hiring, training, securing uniforms, ensuring all operational logistic needs were met to safely and effectively launch this life-saving service. I am going to uh move forward. Um this was this was certainly a massive undertaking, but this required coordination across all city departments. strong mayor ma labor management coordination and all hands approach from our department workforce and all this got done with a clear focus on improving service to the community while not impacting the general fund. So we brought on 60 new employees on July 1st and u 52 EMTs and paramedic eight support staff exceptional employees that

have been delivering exceptional work within the city of Salem. It's important to note as I mentioned that this is an enterprise fund. This is not general funded. This is funded through service delivery reimbursements and um and does not impact the general fund whatsoever. Brad, I don't know if you have a little adjustment because it's only pulling up part of the window there. Okay. Okay. Is that as good as I'm gonna get? All right. Okay. Well, um All right. Well, the EMS fund, uh we're paying for ambulance system, new division headquarters, dispatch costs, IT, human resources, and fleet management. So, system volume and performance. uh our system volume was based on uh 54 transports per day. Uh what we're doing currently in the first six months, we've seen 55.7 transports today, a 3.2% of uh increase over anticipated transports. So, um we ended the year in 2025 with the most call volume we've ever seen in the city of Salem. Over 36,000 calls. We had uh 1.3% increase in our fire volume and a 9-point increase or 9% increase in our medical emergencies. So um we are seeing increased volume and uh more volume than we anticipated uh when we started the

system. Our interfacility transports that is when we transport from one facility to another. Oftent times that's an out of town transport. It might go from Salem Health to a a hospital in Portland for a surgery. um 276 times we've done that and that was not included in in these uh 55.7 transports today. I will tell you we uh you can see Kaiser Fire Department has picked up the most of these. Uh we concentrated on providing a 911 system that is going to serve this community and to do that we deferred many of the inner facility transports and so I'll talk about that later. When we look at our uh system of compliance and our system performance uh our response compliance we're required to maintain a 90% goal between both counties that we serve Marian County and Pulk County. We're doing that and uh we're exceeding that compliance and uh we've done over 10,000 transports during the first six months. One of the uh areas that we look at, we'll look at the service that was provided previous and one of the areas we look at is unit scheduled hours. So our previous provider was required to provide 1,030 hours per week of uh scheduled uh advanced life support unit hours. this uh fluctuated wildly. Um we only went back a year. If we go back another year, it's much worse than this. But um it was inconsistent. We did not have consistent service. Since we took over on July 1st, we began with 1,080 hours. And currently we are staffing 1,168 hours a week. And at no time do we reduce our hours. Uh if somebody calls off, we use overtime. if uh we have constant staffing and so we don't have those system fluctuations that happened previously.

Chief, yes, councelor Tigan has a question. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just to clarify that last slide. Um so that represents the amount of hours being scheduled by our former ambulance transport provider. Not scheduled, actually delivered. That's the delivered. Correct.

Okay. So that's Faulk and then the blue line is Salem after that. Okay. Thank you. Correct. Also, uh, one of our metrics that we track for system delivery is level zero duration. What level zero is is that is time where there is no ambulances available in our system. They've all um they're all consumed either on emergencies, they might be the hospital offloading, but they're not available for a call. Um, again, if we went back, it would be even worse, but um 175 hours a month um at one point um that's almost 6 hours a day. Um right now we're down to about 27 minutes a day is what we're averaging. Um oftentimes we'll go in and out of level zero. We may have uh level zero for 5 minutes and then and then back into uh normal uh status as ambulances become available generally out of the hospital. So vastly improved uh system status and what that has done for us is is reduced our reliance on mutual aid. up until uh we had the service. Uh you can look back and again it wouldn't be worse, but almost over 500 calls of mutual aid per month. That's thousands of calls, right? Over 6,000 calls a year that other agencies were coming into the city of Salem and transporting patients. One is um it's not efficient because they're coming from farther away. It's a it's not as good a service. Second is we don't recover any of that revenue. That revenue is just leaving the city and it's going to other agencies. Since that happened, um we well last month we had 46 mutual aid calls compared to well over 500. So um we are definitely managing better um and owning the city of Salem when it comes to our transports. Our fiscal performance. So when we look at our uh total budget that we created uh currently our materials and services budget over the first 6 months has been 23.93%

consumed and our um personnel services has been about 32%. Uh we will see so we're significantly below the budget numbers that we uh put forth. We will see our materials and service budget um increase as we have additional write offs but we are definitely well within the budget that we set forth. When we look at our payer mix, um this is the how we get reimbursed and um we are still in a better position we thought with our payer mix. We thought we'd be about 80% of federal reimbursement. That's the Medicare and the Medicaid. Uh we're about 76% right now and our insurance is a little bit better. So, we're actually seeing better reimbursements than we thought were going to happen. When we look at our total system charges and collections for the first six months, um we have gross charges, our net collection so far, 4.2 million. our accounts receivable about 12 million and then um as you see our collections are now increasing. We mentioned six months before we really knew what the system was going to do. We're now in that six months and we're seeing now our collections reach where they should be. So December uh 1.2 million and then u we're already going to be probably over that by the end of January. So u we're seeing the positive trend in the system with our personnel expense and our material service costs. We're in the positive and um we are trending in a healthy direction. When I mentioned that we're an enterprise fund and other we support the other city services, any of the cost to run this system comes out of that enterprise fund. It does not impact the general fund whether it's uh human resources, fleet, IT. The one thing really important here though is dispatch costs. For the 20 years prior, any time prior, uh dispatch costs were always paid by the general fund. Even when we had a private provider, those dispatch costs were paid by the general fund. This year we're paying over a million dollars out of the MS fund to the G to our dispatching costs and that is a direct relief of over a million dollars from the general fund. That doesn't

include our balance. Right now, uh we have a positive cash balance of uh close to a million dollars. And this is exclusive of our ground emergency medical transport um uh augmentation that comes with Medicaid. It's important because this was talked about quite a bit on the roll up to establishing ambulance service and are we going to be sustainable without GMT. That's how we built the system was make sure we were uh we should get our first GMT payment in May of this year. Um obviously it's only half a year but um we expected to exceed over $2 million that'll go to the EMS fund moving forward. So we do have two pilot programs currently in existence and then I'll I'll talk about some of the others but uh reach I had mentioned uh we have mentioned that as a clean healthy and ha clean health and safety initiative easy for me to say and uh we've talked extensively about the community health and response that they are providing. Uh they went live on the 20th I can tell you on the second day um everything that we were hoping to happen really happened on one call. We had a um we had reach dispatch to a medical emergency the doctor's offices in downtown. Uh we are dispatching them initially to calls that we can relieve off our heavy equipment. So we relieved an engine company by responding to this call. When they responded it was to a um an older lady that had Parkinson's. She has Parkinson's. She was um it was uh she was in a crisis where she was shaking heavily and uh the medical office wanted to transport her to the ER and our reach team and our medical health professional um started talking to her and was calming her down. They got to the point where she was no longer shaking and found out that she was in a communal uh living arrangement where she was being abused and um it was a stress reaction that was that was being caused. It wasn't the Parkinson's, it was the

stress that that took place. We canceled the ambulance. Um, we were able to call the police over. They took a report and then we actually took her in the reach vehicle to the uh Marian County Crisis Center where she could get respit and then start connecting with services. So, we avoided an engine being dispatched. We avoided an ambulance being used and we avoided an unnecessary visit to the ER on day two. So those are the uh types of uh metrics that we're looking for and to continuing Kaiser Fire Department. I think Chief Russell's here tonight. I see him there. We have a great partnership with the Kaiser Fire District um uh through auto aid and then for their paramedic program. I mentioned uh mutual aid calls. Kaiser Fire District was one of those uh uh fire departments that was providing thousands of transports out of the city of Salem every year. And because we have done, and by we, I mean the members, our EMS professionals have done such an awesome job of owning the city and providing this exceptional service. Kaiser Fire District for example, their one of their ambulances is no longer going on very many calls. And so is it even sustainable? So when I mentioned IFTS earlier and we defer IFTS, we don't recover any of that revenue. We do have first right refusal. We have entered into a revenue sharing agreement with Kaiser Fire District. So now when we do get an interf facility transfer and we defer it to Kaiser, Kaiser will pick it up and then we do get a portion of that revenue which we never did before. It's a win-win for both Kaiser and uh Salem. Additionally, when they're in the city, if they're not on inter facility transport, they can help pick up a 911 call um and avoid that level zero. So it's been an incredible uh partnership and I think really some of the best of government and moving forward. So um we have made I think what has been extremely successful about our system is that when we went into it we were going to be nimble and we knew that 6 months in was not going to look like day one.

And so when we started we started with two basic life support ambulances. Uh we knew that there's some calls that don't require an advanced life support uh capable unit. Um it was not well you they were not well utilized and so immediately we moved those into advanced life support. We went to uh we reclassed two of our EMTs to paramedics and really increased um the service delivery in the city. As we continue to look at data uh level zero where we are, we have taken one of our peak hour uh ambulances that was on 10 hours a day and right now we're filling with overtime to make it a 24-hour unit. And uh we have seen a reduction in the volume at night that was um honestly uh oppressive for our crews. And so that has been highly successful. Later on, the next um item is going to be asking for two additional EMTs and two additional paramedics. And that is to fully um uh support that unit as we move forward. We are in the midst of one more operational deployment that'll happen in the next couple weeks and that's just moving uh a couple of our ambulances around now that we have good data on how we can better serve the community and cover uh some of the areas uh during certain times of the day. We're moving forward there. And then uh going forward, we really need to look at um operational necessities. We know we're going to need a we do need two more ambulances. We need to get those in the system. Uh we need to establish a vehicle and equipment replacement fund and um a fireball or something right outside here. Yeah,

we have one of our best battalion chiefs is going to go handle that. So, Chief Grace is uh exceptional. So, as I mentioned, um, as we move forward, um, operational necessities and, um, in addition to the ambulances, having an equipment replacement fund, and then I'm going to recommend that we have a, um, a reserve fund that's going to be in place to make sure that, um, we do have, uh, contingency for our EMS fund. In closing, I really want to thank the elected officials, um, city leadership, the numerous city departments that assisted and still assist, our labor management relationship, and most importantly, the members of the organization that serve the city 24/7, 365, our dispatchers taking those calls, our firefighters that helped train the new AMS workforce and covered overtime shifts on ambulances, and our EMS professionals. who with their dedication and this life-saving work to the city is what has made this an incredible success. I am happy to answer any questions that you have.

Sorry, Chief, just a little distracted by the action outside. Um, and great work. Really, I'm I'm so impressed with what we've been able to do and look forward to to more. Thank you, sir. Councelor Tigan,

thank you. Next time I'll I'll let someone else go first. Um, I know other people might ask about overtime and and I think we'll get there with the conversation about adding EMTs, but considering sometimes you're at the mercy of like issue mashup when multiple things are on the agenda for the night. So, I'm wondering if you've worked with um the climate action staff to try and um account for the number the the decrease in miles driven when you say, you know, maybe hundreds of trips aren't happening into the city um from outside or if we're shifting uh from uh you know full um fire trucks down to ambulances. Is there any sort of accounting for the um I don't know the change in on the roads uh gas burned that sort of thing as a as a savings marker

out of all the I think we have been an incredibly uh becoming and and certainly getting to an incredibly datainformed organization we have done nothing on climate so um it's something we can certainly add to it um but we have not taken that in account now okay thanks anyone Councelor Nordic. Uh, thank you. So, uh, Chief, I received, uh, some questions about the REACH team, and I think, uh, you're going to be repeating it over and over again. Can people contact REACH via 911?

U, if somebody calls 911, um, we will direct that resource if it's appropriate. Also 988 um if people are not familiar 988 is our mental health um uh phone number for mental health crisis and depending on the call uh they are being directed uh via that line as well.

Okay. Okay. And the reason I wanted to mention that is I I think there was legitimate concern that people wanted to know how do I get a hold of the reach team? And I'm so glad that we're not coming up with a separate phone number that instead our own dispatch is being trained to screen the calls just like they already do. They already determine whether to send an ambulance or whether to send an officer. Uh they already do that work. So, I I knew the answers to your question, but I think it's important that we reiterate it over and over again. Our public safety professionals, our 911 dispatchers are trained to help identify the right tool for the right job. So, I just wanted to reiterate that.

Thank you. Yeah, it's important to note too that this is a partnership with Marian County right now for the pilot program. So, we know that there is certainly a need on the west side on the west side. Um, absolutely. uh just uh for now during the pilot program we're we're going to make sure that it is sustainable and um and where there's a return on investment and if so then um we'll look to expand in P County as well. Councelor Nishioa,

thank you Mayor. Um, thank you, Chief Gerboth. And, um, I'm really pleased to see uh the the need because you're showing that um, needing these additional people will serve our our city far better. So, thank you for that. I also, um, as councelor Nordak brought up, the reach program, um, I thank you for that information about just after what, day two, um, the improvement on that. My guess is you might be coming back to us uh sometime uh showing how effective this program is and we might need to entertain adding another reach vehicle. So um primarily I'm just saying thank you for the great work and for really getting everything um so well organized and um and help for our community. Thank you.

Thank you. And I I um it is because we have exceptional staff and um and it is the people that are doing this work every day.

All right. Well, um anybody have any other comments or questions? Yes, Councelor Barney. Uh Vney does. Thank you for taking over. Go ahead. I do. Thank you. Uh my question is in in regards to the REACH program. Um I'm curious is to is there a way to predict how the new REACH program will reduce our EMS response times?

Is there a way to predict it? Well, we we're tracking the metrics currently and so once we do the pilot and we're into the pilot and we can start pulling the data, we'll be able to tell you affirmatively whether we have reduced those times or not. Um just that one antidote that I mentioned, um that's data that we're tracking where we relieved an engine company, an ambulance, and an unnecessary emergency room visit. So, those are some of the metrics that we're going to be presenting as we go through the pilot.

Okay. Uh, thank you. I No, I appreciate that. I'm just thinking of taking some of the pressure off one area might help with other areas. So, I was just curious. Thank you. Anyone else? [snorts] All right, Chief. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll stay here for the next uh item if Perfect.

Yeah. On to item 5D, I believe. No, 5 C. Sorry, turn the page. 5C. I shall make Oh, sorry. Are you Do you want me to make the motion or did you have a comment?

So, so thank you, Chief and Councelor uh Vney. I was going to say with the reach program, our goal is to bring information back to the to the council on a regular basis so that you can actually get to see it. But the other piece of it is I think it's important to remember we just started on this on January 20th. Uh we definitely need some solid data before we come to a conclusion on what's working and what's not working. So I think it's going to take some time. So thank and I agree with you. I think it's important to see how it's impacting other services. The other piece that I failed to mention uh with the reach when I talked about the safe clean and healthy Salem uh initiative with the reach program uh Chief Gerbot was the one who recommended that program for Sale Salem. So Chief I appreciate your leadership in uh setting that up for Salem. Uh I think we're going to see some good things happening. what I wanted to make a quick comment about 5C. Um, so I want to kind of highlight a few important points regarding these positions. So with our operational structure, it's important that we maintain response capacity and also protect our revenue. So those are the two that are very important for the operational structure to be to be uh solid. So the the city should respond to all calls and because that gives us more revenue uh but also we should be the the the primary responding agency and any calls we do not respond uh we cannot respond is loss of revenue. So I just kind of want to highlight that uh with the current um coverage for the additional calls right now is maintained through like we are paying overtime and so we are already spending

this money. So the way I look at it is redirecting that money more for per permanent staffing. That kind of helps with the staff burnout and also it's kind of redirecting your um dollars towards on a sustainable um you know model. So, so expected outcome um of adding this positions what I see or or you know the chief uh chief's vision with this two is to see a measurable reduction in overtime that's what we are hoping for and then also protect the re revenue but in that process we are improving uh reliability and also you know saving lives like so there is kind of a something that we can definitely keep monitoring as we go and then make adjustments ments as needed in the future.

Well, um I will tell you our workforce is exceptional and the performance that they have provided over the last 6 months. I can't overstate how good this is. Really, I am I'm shocked by it. not because of um of being here just in 6 months u and uh to have this brand new workforce serve this community in the way they have is truly exceptional and we have some of the busiest ambulances in the state of Oregon. No question. U so when we're right now we're filling it with overtime. U we do know that um we can continue doing that. Overtime um does trend less expensive than a full-time employee. However, um and we do use overtime to maintain our fiscal prudence in certain situations in this particular area. Um it is really about human capital and about our people and we are asking them to work on the busiest ambulances in Oregon and then possibly the next day get forced to work more overtime. Many of many of our um EMS professionals are parents, some are single parents and then to to try them to force them to work overtime and then get more child care. it. The reason that we have not had a large amount of um loss of our employees is because we've been nimble and because they know help's coming. Um we have we have lost very few employees. This is generally a very transient workforce. It's one of the reasons that our um uh personnel expenses are lower because we anticipated having to retrain and do more because of a transient workforce. We have not seen that. What we've seen is employees are incredibly dedicated to this city and to this organization and um I want to maintain that. I feel that if we're going to rely on overtime, it is really going to hurt morale. Um it will u then lead to some retention

issues. Um so I want to make sure that we can support our employees in the absolute best way they're doing it because they are supporting our city in that way. Anyone have any questions? Councelor Barney, go right ahead. Thank you. Okay. I I I have a number of questions and I'm not sure exactly which order to go from. First of all, these four positions, which fund are they going to be paid out of? I guess that's my first question.

Everything is funded through the MS fund. any any systems any system personnel cost materials cost it all comes through the EMS fund none of this is general fund okay so we are just this evening at least approving additional positions so there's no impact on the general fund correct

okay okay thank you um I also wanted to ask about um response times and acuity. I sent an email earlier. So I was just wondering if we have been able to tease out response times for um based on acuity of different calls like higher acuity calls versus lower acuity calls and response times. So our response time compliance the 90% that I mentioned that is specifically for advanced life support calls. Those are life-threatening calls. So um so lowery calls do not focus into our uh compliance are required compliance through the county.

Okay. Okay. Um well thank you. That helps a lot. I don't have any any more questions. Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah. Councelor Vang. Uh just a procedurally uh clarifying question. We are now discussing 5C. Right. Okay. I I think I miss uh councelor. I have not made the motion yet. That's why I was just checking with the city attorney if I needed to do it. Um and it sounded like he was okay with questions going forward and then I'll make the motion. Oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure I was tracking. Thank you. Councelor Nordc, did you have something?

I did. So, uh, first of all, I I I thank you, councelor Barney, for pointing out what I was going to be sure to point out, too, that this is not a general fund ask. And I think that's really important because we are trying to keep a very close eye on our general fund. So, uh, there are so many benefits that we're already seeing from bringing ambulance service inhouse and the fact that we can hire or create the positions here, 4.0 zero FTE positions without taxing our general fund is a win in its own right. I apologized as I stepped out briefly, but um are these positions that are these new positions that you're adding? Are you reopening positions? Do you have staff who can slide into these slots right now or are you going to have to post a recruitment for people to apply for?

Yeah, currently we are filling those with overtime and so we have a we have an established list. Um, we have a recruitment. We've actually made uh conditional job offers um and started backgrounds for additional positions. We have not made job offers for this these positions, but we have started backgrounds just in case they do get approved. All right. Anyone else? Councelor Bang.

Uh thank you, Mayor. Um, Chief, I appreciate you uh highlighting um needing a work life balance. That is uh how you speak to a younger person for sure. So, um I'm glad to see this on our agenda item. Thank you. Thank you, [snorts] Councelor Matthews. I wanted to clarify just a couple things. So obviously you mentioned that we're already filling these with um with overtime and it looks like I was kind of going back to your chart from the previous presentation. Uh like in October we started seeing a drop. So I'm assuming it's around then that we started filling these with with overtime. So seeing a drop. What do you mean a drop? Well, I'm looking at the mutual aid calls received.

Oh yes. And then at the same time you also see an up in um staffed hours. Yep. That's when we staff the hours. Yes.

Yep. So So kind of going off of that, I guess I have a couple hesitations. So, Juan, you mentioned OT is in theory more practical, financially practical than um than an actual fully burdened position because you don't pay the benefits and you don't have those aspects on an OT position. Um, but I think my bigger concern is and we've talked a lot about the reach team tonight, but one of the premises of the reach team is that it's also supposed to kind of be that saving grace that it's supposed to reduce that call volume. And so, it sort of feels like we're doubling down on reducing call volume. And frankly, it's easier to reduce overtime in six months when the reach team is successful or not or wherever we're at and re-evaluate the where we're at in the call volume at that time and how much call volume the reach team was actually able to take away from the units as opposed to fire four positions when we say, hey, actually breach team was super successful. It ended up taking that that burden of call volume and now we don't actually need this this full 24-hour unit. Um, and so I guess that would be that's kind of my hesitation with with going forward and hiring the four full fully burdened uh employees as opposed to continuing to use overtime even though I understand that at least for the next six months it would be a burden on the employees but ideally not as the reach team is hopefully successful.

Yeah. So understand the overtime was created when we took a 10-hour unit and made it a 24-hour unit. We add it 14 hours a day and the 14 hours a day are not times when the reach team is even in service. It's only in service 40 hours a week. And right now our level zeros that we're seeing are actually around that midnight hour. And so uh we need the coverage overnight. That's why this unit was put into service. Part of our operational deployment that I mentioned is going to be moving stuff around a little bit to hopefully um reduce that level zero because of uh placement. But um but this is these are these are necessary positions. reach team is not going to reduce it. It I mean there may be people that no longer call and we can reduce the 911 burden. Absolutely. Having a 9% increase over one year, um I'm not sure that 6 months of 40 hours is going to uh uh be able to mitigate 9% increase in call volume. Uh it's just not realistic. But 6 months doesn't sound like a long time, but it's a long time when u when you're a single mom and you're trying to get somebody to take care of your kids the next day. Um it it to me it we need relief and um this does not account for people that are on paid leave organ FLMA, they're injured, they're sick. Um there's a number of other um openings that happen that we have to fill with overtime. This just adds to that burden to our employees.

Yes, I was going to um add to that counselor. So we are going to learn a lot for the next 12 months because we have the pilot program starting and then we are kind of trying new things. Uh but every budget time that we look at how these positions are you know we kind of evaluate all the positions anyway but for right now I I I do think that it is important that we add these positions. One is to relief the staff of the overtime. um you know as we are kind of seeing a newer workforce not thank you for saying that counc like uh we don't see staff wanting to do overtime they're looking for that work life balance so that's kind of one but also one of the pieces that gives me a little bit more um confidence on this is we can always adjust positions through vacancies but I think it's important to see how it is for the next 12 months and we need to function for the next 12 months. And we have to have the you know uh response capacity and also my the the bigger piece with it is like what calls are we missing and we need to be able to serve those calls. Anyone else? Okay. Council Nishiela to the motion. I get to make it now. [laughter] I move to approve the addition of four full-time equivalent ambulance medic positions in the fire EMS division as of January 26 2026.

Second. Second. Oh, we have a motion and a race uh give it to Nordike. All right, councelor. Anything further to your motion? I think we have heard all the comments and questions. All right. Will the recorder please call the role? Councilor Barney. I councelor Tyen. I councelor Nishioa. I councelor Matthews. Hi Councelor Gwyn. I councelor Brown I. Councelor Bang I. Councelor Nordike I. Mayor Julie Hoy I. Motion passes.

Thank you so much for your support. Appreciate it. Thank you chief. Thank you. All right, we're moving on to item 5D, uh, approval to submit the Salem Kaiser Regional Scenario Plan. Councelor, go right ahead. I will make the motion. I'll do it ahead of time. Um, I move to direct the city manager to submit the attached regional scenario plan for approval to the state department of land conservation and development. Second motion and a second by Gwyn. Councilor to the motion. I think we're going to be hearing a presentation. So, um I I'm sure we'll have questions after that.

Yes. Uh good evening, mayor and city councilors. My name is Julie Hansen. I am your uh transportation planning manager at this time of night. I hope I can remember my name. Uh I will be giving a brief presentation on this uh agenda item for tonight. I wanted to uh start by also introducing Ununice Kim um our long-range planning manager and she and I have been working very closely together on this project. Ununice takes the lead on the land use elements and I take the lead on the transportation elements. Um also tonight with us we have uh two representatives from the state of Oregon. Uh we have from the Oregon Department of Transportation uh Brian Hurley who is from their climate office and we have from um Department of Land Conservation and Development, Bill Holmstrom. And so they are here to help answer questions that you if you have questions about these state regulations. There we go. So, first this is about Salem in motion. It's a multi-year project that we have been working on to implement the state's climate friendly and equitable communities rules and update the city's transportation system plan. So, there's really two parts of updating our transportation system plan under these new rules. The first is this regional scenario plan and then the second is the more um traditional transportation system plan master plan that you have um interacted with before. Why are we doing this project? Uh a key driver for this is the uh state rules that were adopted in 2022.

These rules aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, increase housing choices, and create more equitable outcomes for Oregonians. Um, and this is what's referred to as the climate friendly and equitable communities rules. However, this effort also builds upon the R Salem project which um was adopted in 2022 by city council making many amendments to our comprehensive plan as well as the city's climate action plan. So all of these efforts really together are driving the Salem in motion project. So, uh, regional scenario planning, as I've said a couple times before, this is a state requirement. The requirement is applied to jurisdictions within, uh, metropolitan areas in Oregon for our area. That includes Salem, Kaiser, and Marian counties specific to the area that's outside the city limits, inside the um, urban area. Now, PK County does have some property in this, you know, area. However, their population is uh pretty small and they were eligible for and requested an exemption based on size. Um both the Department of Transportation and Department of Land Conservation and Development provided funding for this planning project. The project was guided by an advisory committee of elected and appointed officials from the the jurisdictions required to do this as well as by um chariots. While chariots is not subject to these requirements, they are a very integral part of our regional team to uh achieve the required targets.

And so what we are trying to do through the regional scenario plan is achieve the state greenhouse gas reduction target which is a reduction of 30% by 2050 with a [clears throat] starting baseline of 2005. It's important to note that this is actually measured in these rules by a reduction in vehicle miles traveled per capita. So, I want to talk a little bit about what this plan is and what it's not. Um, because this is sort of a new um [sighs] a new beast of planning documents. I probably shouldn't say that. It's just a new variety. It's not like our current master plans or comprehensive plan plans. Uh this plan is a essentially it's a report that identifies highlevel policy changes that the jurisdictions can influence. These are identified and a preferred scenario and then that preferred scenario needs to meet the state goals. I'd say one of the most significant parts of this plan is the performance measures and targets because this is how the plans um aspirational goals are translated into actions that we will be tracking over time. The regional scenario plan will also be a guide to developing the Salem transportation system plan and it provides a policy framework for future plan and code amendments. uh the plan is purposefully aspirational. It is striving to really create change in our community. So on the counter side, what the plan is not um this is not a specific land use or transportation plan. Uh it doesn't uh directly impact what people can or cannot do with their properties. It does not identify specific projects or policies to be included in our

transportation system plan. It does not amend or otherwise expand the urban growth boundary and it's not financially constrained. It's also a plan that um you as the city council actually is not required to adopt or the the adoption the approval authority for this is actually with the state. So that's why we are seeking your approval to submit the plan to the state. The state will then decide whether or not the plan gets approved. So the preferred scenario in order to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction target otherwise referred to as the vehicle miles traveled reduction focuses on these six area policy areas. We refer to them often as like levers or dials where we can make change. So like land use uh transit uh active transportation these are things where if we make changes it can influence the uh amount of that people need to drive in their daily lives. So the plan first looked at the a reference scenario which is what is essentially business as usual. So if we just continued with our currently adopted plans, what would we expect to see? And the result of that analysis was a 10% reduction by 2050 in the vehicle miles traveled. That did not meet the 30% requirement. So therefore, we needed to work on changing some of those um levers and getting to that requirement. The preferred scenario actually gets us to a 32% reduction. So as I mentioned before, the performance measures and targets are really where we take those turning of those dials and translate them into actions that we are going to be responsible for um working towards.

There needed to be measures for each one of those six policy areas. And so some of those measures are at the local level and some are at the regional level. So, I put some, you know, examples up here for Salem. Uh, one of our, uh, prefer uh, sorry, performance measures relates to paid on street parking in our downtown area. And I'll give you a little clue. We've already met that target. So because the base year here was um 2021, so going to 2050 um the actions that were taken over the summer with beep beep Salem um got us to that target. There's also a target for active transportation to, you know, build out our planned network of bicycle and tr and pedestrian facilities and increase the house housing near transit. At the regional level, the performance measures focus more on the transit district stuff. So, transit service miles, the transportation options program, which is um operated out of the transit district, and then there's also a measure for new arterial lane miles that's shared around the region. It's not reducing uh any arterial lane miles. Instead, it's looking at what we already have in our plans out to 2050 and capping it at that. So, the recommendation tonight uh is to direct the city manager to submit this regional scenario plan to the state department of land conservation and development for approval. Once it's submitted, there'll be a comment period at the state level and they will have um they will either approve it or ask for modifications. They do have an appeal process. While that's happening, we will continue to

transition into Salem in motion phase two of transportation, which is really getting down to the nuts and bolts of what are the um projects and policies that we um want to have in our transportation system plan. And we will need to of course look to um advancing these performance targets through that phase 2 process. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Anyone have questions?

Councelor Tigan, please go first. I waited. I waited. Julie, thanks for your presentation. Um, I think you answered one of my questions at the end there. We've heard from some folks tonight just about sort of when do we get to the good stuff if this is the the high level stuff and it seems like the the transportation system plan which is coming is really the time to do that. So just want to confirm um that's where the next level of detail occurs and that we've got a plan to tackle it.

Yes, that is correct. My but my question too is that this is this is a regional plan and it sort of seems like Salem has a disproportionate responsibility to achieve the target because we have so many miles within our system um and maybe we have a population that's more interested in these kinds of changes. So what's the relationship between these um jurisdictions when it comes time to measure who's doing their part to reach the target at the end? Is that a state function? Is does that happen between the jurisdictions?

So the targets were set up like I said as both local targets and the regional targets. So in the local targets um each of the jurisdictions look towards their their networks you know how many miles of streets they have how many miles of sidewalks and bicycle facilities and also look towards their plan network uh and so the targets for each of the jurisdictions came out of that effort and so we will each be required to report on our own there and so like if Kaiser is not meeting theirs or Maring County is not meeting theirs it doesn't impact us. Um on the regional level, the regional performance measures we will need to collaborate but a lot of that is going to be with transit. So um because you know transit service doesn't stop at the city limits. You guys had all that conversation about street vendors earlier and the same applies for transportation. And so we will be working with chariots to see how those measures be are being met. If there are shortcomings, we will be looking to see each jurisdiction what can we do to assist. Um and what's out of our control versus in our control. Does that help? It

does. I mean and I um I played some role I during one of my committee assignments is helping push this program along a little bit. Um take no credit for it. I was just there for a couple meetings. Um, but I I am interested long-term in whether there's a solution for if Salem ends up doing more um maybe there's a market to be created between the jurisdictions for those who um do want to create vehicle mile um reduce vehicle miles traveled or increase bike lanes and those who don't. um or if Kaiser or the county doesn't want to do it and they want to pay us to add um bike lanes to our streets and get the regional credit. Um I'm just much more interested in a a market system here. So, thank you.

That that would be interesting and I don't know that anybody exactly proposed that. we could take that to um SCATS when we're applying for grant funding and say, you know, hey, we need more because we have, you know, more targets to meet. And I will say that with those targets, one of the um benefits, I guess you could say, of having these ambitious targets is that it will be a selling point on grant applications. I know that Marian County really wanted to focus on their pedestrian network and that was a big part of their push is to try to support grant applications going forward. Councelor Matthews,

so I'm going to piggyback a little bit off councelor Tigan and I also a big proponent of getting paid if they wanted to pay us. So I think that's a great idea. Um [clears throat] but uh kind of similar to the vein that he was just talking about. So like when looking at the specifics of like what are the requirements and and I shouldn't say requirements what are the proposals in for instance bike and pedestrian network Salem currently has about 300 miles our proposal is to more than double that with 638. In contrast uh Marian County currently has 27 miles and their proposal is to go to 51. our cost is going to be exponentially more substantial in order to try to meet this type of goal and possibly not financially feasible not just on that one but on other ones that we don't have control over like the chariots expansion you know whatever area that is and so I guess this is maybe more of a question for the state representatives that are here but what is the outcome if we aren't able to meet what we already acknowledge are aspirational goals um what does that We have an answer prepared. [laughter]

I will let the state speak for the state.

Good evening. Thank you again. My name is Bill Holmstrom with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. Let me just make sure I understand your question. and you're asking you've uh set certain targets to go in future years and what happens if you don't meet those targets for whatever reason may be financial maybe other reasons. Um so we have a a reporting system that we're setting up that every four or five years depend different metropolitan areas will have different time frames. um you will submit a report saying how we've done on our targets so far up to this date. And on targets that you haven't met and we don't expect everyone to meet every target every time because it's going to be very difficult to do that. You're going to have a set of uh corrective actions that you will propose to say this is what we're going to do to try to get there. This is the reasons why we haven't got there so far. This is what we're going to do to try to get more toward our target the next time. Uh and then we'll take a look at those reports when they come in and uh either approve or say not good enough. Um but that's that's how it's worked so far. So far we've only had one um only we've had Metro they've been doing this longer than everyone else in the state. Uh we've had them do one report so far and um they proposed a set of corrective actions. They didn't meet a whole bunch of targets. Um and um we said that was okay and that's working its way through the system now. Um, but that's that's this how this system kind of works is that you would propose a corrective action and then we would make a determination on that and you would work the next few years on hopefully getting closer to those targets.

Sure. Okay. Somewhat direct question. Can you financially penalize us if we don't hit our targets or if we don't agree with the corrective action that you give us? Uh, councelor Matthews, I think technically the commission has that authority, but it's been used once I know of and I've been there 18 years. So, I I think it's very unlikely.

Okay. And I only mention it and it's again it's just my concern of I like the idea of being eligible for greater grants potentially because we're taking a larger role but I also have fear that we're taking a larger role and therefore possibly cornering oursel into a situation that we can't get out of um because not all of the region is entirely sharing the weight it feels like when I'm looking at these numbers. And so that is that is my my main concern with this. But I do understand the concept of it also can benefit us in grants. So um yeah, I just those are my thoughts.

This kind of reminds me of the housing production strategy, right? Where we get these really big goals and we make a plan, you make a plan, and we send it in and we get word back on whether or not we're doing enough and then we try to do more. Is that about oversimplifying? But yes. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Anyone else? We're moving on to housing now, right? I just want to make sure we're not done yet.

I wasn't moving on to housing necessarily. I was just making the point that this this what do you call this process is the same where the state says we want you to achieve this and we say we're going to try and do this and then it just keeps going back and forth. Okay. The same agency wrote the rules for both. Anything else on this topic? Okay. Thank you very much. Councelor Nishioa, do you want me to say the motion again? Would you please?

I will. I move to direct city manager to submit the attached regional scenario plan for approval to the state department of land conservation and development and the second was Gwyn. Okay, thank you. Anything further? Seeing nothing, will the city recorder please call the role? Councelor Tyen I. Councelor Nishoka I. Councelor Matthews I. Councelor Gwen I. Councelor Brown. I, Councelor Bain, I. Councelor Nordike, I. Councelor Barney, I. Mayor Julie Hoy,

I. Motion passes and we're going to take a five minute break before the next item.

Calling this meeting back to order.

Councelor Matthews. Okay, Councelor Matthews is making his way back. Um, we're now on to item 5e. Y. Okay, great. Um, find the right place.

Right. Okay. I move to direct staff to coordinate with ODOT to formulate a plan to address cleaning and maintenance of ODOT rightway within Salem. second.

We have a motion and a second by Matthews. And I'll speak just a little bit to this motion and have notes for that. Okay. Uh, I wanted to bring this to council in order to address the topic of collaboration with the state of Oregon, ODOT specifically, as to the current state of their properties within the city of Salem. City Manager Numbrey, I know you and staff met with ODOT this last week. Uh, would you please give us an update as to their intentions?

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um so the council and the community has been um asking a lot of questions regarding ODOT properties and the cleanup. So I have met with them few times and the city attorney and I met with ODOT last Thursday and so we focused our conversation on um four four um major issues. So the first one was uh we wanted to see a schedule from ODOT on their cleanup and we were informed that um ODOT was reviewing their cleanup schedule but because of um but they were hesitant to commit to any [snorts] um timeline because of their budget uh budget challenges. So that was that was last Thursday and today um our staff and Gretchen Bennett is one of them uh met with ODOT staff for [snorts] operational coordination meetings that happens like once a month. Uh so the good news is ODOT has given us um the cleanup schedule from February 5th through April 9th. So that's kind of 3 p.m. today. So it's kind of fresh news. Um so I personally very much appreciate um ODOT efforts on this like so having that schedule is helpful. Uh so the second topic was on um installation of uh fencing and boulders. Uh we brought this to ODOT's attention I think probably like a month ago or a month and a half ago. And then at that time ODOT indicated that they were working on a a statewide plan because this is not just a city of Salem issue. It is a statewide issue. So in this meeting we asked for a plan for this and they were um what they

what they let us know that it is currently on hold due to budget challenges. So they couldn't give us any additional details on that. So that was the second one. [sighs and gasps] We also the the the third issue was or the third topic was uh we asked if the city can install fencing or boulders on on on ODOT properties and seek reimbursement later from ODOT. Um they did let us know that they couldn't make any financial commitment or the funding commitment right now. Again, they're dealing with budget challenges. So they don't want to make any commitment until [snorts]

uh March short session. Um so of course this requires an uh IGA. Uh but they did say that they were going to look look into options and get back to us on that. So that was kind of the third one. Uh the last one was the the coordination and support from Salem Police Department. ODOT has been asking for Salem [snorts] Police help um with their cleanup. Um so I'll I'll have the city attorney give an update on that item because there is uh there a lot of u legal issues associated with it.

Thanks Christian, city attorney. So uh there's two pieces to this. One is whether it's legal for uh city of Salem police to enforce uh uh uh ODOTs or the state's no camping regulations on ODOT right away and ODOT property and and two sort of the uh practicality um of the city police actually doing that on on the first question. It's legal for us to to enforce laws on on ODOT property similar to any other private property. Um if we were to accompany ODOT cleanup crews uh as they're uh clearing abandoned camps from the property, um our practice is similar but somewhat different than the the state's practice where they would have uh Oregon State Police accompany their um ODOT crews during the entire duration of the cleanup. Typically, when the the HST and the SOS team respond to sites, uh the the HST team members are there usually initially, but they're not there for the entire duration. So, there's some differences in how we we do it versus the way the state does it. But, uh legally, we can do it. But whenever you're uh in the type of situation, police would face increased liability and the potential uh to be challenged if in if in the rare occurrence we actually have to um arrest someone for trespass or something like that. So, it's possible for us to do it, but we'd want to work with uh ODOT and Oregon Department of Justice on the terms and how we would do that and probably look for an IGA to determine it. That's just a that's just whether we could or not legally. It's not whether we agree to or how that would work as far as uh whether they would compensate us and what the terms of our assistance with them would be.

Thank you, Dan. So, that's that's another piece that we still have to figure it out is like our police resources are also um maxed out, right? So, we don't have additional FTE or resources to uh give ODOT for this effort. Uh, one of the one of the pieces that we did talk about is if there is uh some kind of a reimbursement from ODOT, if our Salem Police uh helps with that effort and I think because of their budget challenges, they could not uh commit to that either. Uh, but there is definitely uh some work that I'm going to stop there. Sorry, I had my thoughts, but those are internal thoughts, [laughter] inside voice.

Well, that seems uh promising. I'm glad you were able to meet last week. Unexpected. Um I think we need a plan that gives us direction that requires accountability and I want the community to see real progress. So, I'm asking how soon might these properties be cleaned and fenced or landscaped? Um, I understand we have a we all have a fellow constituent um who suggested using the boulders that were all found when they were preparing the property for Costco. Um, things like that. When might we be able to see some movement in our community? Oh, how about this? Can staff bring back an update on that after further communication? Sure. So, I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly. Uh, thank you for bringing uh boulders at uh Costco location. As soon as we saw the email, Gretchen was on top of it. So I don't know where we are at with that but um so mayor I just want to make sure that I'm understanding uh correctly on this. So you would like for us to bring some kind of a report back on what the plan is to clean up th those properties from like working with the between the city and the state or from the state.

Yes. Okay. and how um yeah, how soon we might see that progress or

um so I I'm I'm going to work with staff and um get some kind of an information back to the council but I need some time to think through um just to kind of give that time commitment whether it is going to be 3 weeks, four weeks, 6 weeks, I I have to talk to staff about this and get back on that. The one thing that I did hear from Gretchen today, Gretchen Bennett, Director Bennett today was in the operational coordination meeting um I think what I heard that Mian counties is willing to help by sharing their resources in advance of cleanups and also they offered law enforcement assisted diversion program resources to connect individuals to write services. Uh so that's a positive news. So we'll um work with the state and county and then kind of look at our resources. Uh it's going to take us some time to come back. Um the house is that is that okay to give you some information.

I think that sounds great. The council next week really glad to hear that the county's willing to be involved and that's their involvement is not just with cleanup, right? it's uh with perhaps mental health and addiction services or connecting people to the the services that they need. Yeah, that's what I heard from Director Bennett. Gretchen, do you want to come and just give Are you is that is that it? Okay. So, maybe hopefully by next um council meeting I'll be able to give the timeline on this because there are so many moving pieces right now. So, uh we'll we'll get something back to the council. Thank you. Does anyone else have uh questions or comments? Councelor Nordike.

Uh thank you so much. And so thank you Krishna for the latest update. I know that you and city staff have actually been talking to ODOT for several several months. This is uh the latest communication we've had from ODOT, but it's certainly not the first. And I know it's not going to be the last. I know that with these budgetary woes that ODOT is facing, I'm sure they're getting questions from city councilors and cities and counties all over the state because homelessness is truly a statewide challenge. There are people looking for shelter everywhere they can find. Whether it's Grants Pass, Brookings, Oregon, downtown Portland, downtown Salem, this is happening everywhere. So asking ODOT to prioritize us and let us skip to the front of the line is a big ask. And so I know that you and Gretchen have been working diligently for many, many months on this and so thank you for continuing to lead and coordinate those efforts. Um, I know that I had brought up the Boulders idea back in November of last year, and I was hopeful that if they weren't able to immediately put us in the front of the line, if if they had a budget to install boulders, fencing, or what have you, could we just do it ourselves and then seek reimbursement later? But I complete I'm not surprised by your response though, that ODOT is saying we can't even commit to that right now. their entire budget is in jeopardy because the transportation bill is such a mess. So, um, and I I certainly hope that our leaders in the legislature will put partisan differences aside and come up with a plan for transportation. Um, but in the meantime, it means that there are a lot of downstream effects from having transportation funding up in the air across the entire state. And this is just one of those many downstream effects that we see. And we

all want to balance affordability with transportation funding. So I am hopeful that the legislature can address the challenges that we face. So um I appreciate all the work that you're doing and I agree that having an intergovernmental agreement or IGA would make sense should we go down that road. I do have a question though. Um, it seems like ODOT was quick to suggest that we use our police force. Uh, OSP has patrols in the Salem area. Is do they give a compelling reason for why they can't simply use Oregon State Police resources instead?

Yeah, thank you, counselor. I think that's because of their resource limitation on the OSP side. And so the I'll join the club [laughter]

also with the cleanup uh the when OSB has to be with the ODOT um cleaning crew for the entire time. So that's a huge commitment and they don't have enough resources to kind of address that. Uh the other piece that I do want to I uh forgot to mention was with the you know thank you for kind of bringing that idea of can we do the installation and then have ODOT reimburse [snorts] late uh and collect reimbursement from ODOT later even to kind of enter into an IGA it's going to take some time I don't think it's just like it's going to happen tomorrow uh so but I think we should at least um kind of explore that option and have that ready uh for future Anyone else? Councelor Matthews.

Um, so I kind of liken this to if you own your if you have a home and right next door and your home's you've kept it clean and you've not have any code violations and then your next door neighbor has a million code violations and they're not doing anything about it. It's pretty frustrating to be the the person that has the the house that doesn't have the code violation is getting impacted by the by the code violation house. We're the code vi we're not the code violation house uh in this scenario. We've allocated our resources. We've doubled them to the SOS team. Uh we've doubled them to the homeless services team. We've doubled our resources in a time that we don't have the financial capability to really do it. Uh in order to be able to solve our problem on our properties and so I think it's tough for me when ODOT utilizes the well resources are problem. Yes, welcome. And so, but it doesn't hinder the fact that we're doing our part for our properties, but our neighbor isn't. And so, I guess that that's the frustration for me. And so, I I know that um you know, and I I'll ask this question, but I sort of know the answer already. So, from a a sighting standpoint, if this was a neighbor and you had code violations, we talked a lot about it today already, we would in theory be able to site them and hold them accountable in some way. uh with our code. Is that an option with ODOT?

Councelor, in theory, you're correct. Um we could uh likely issue the state a citation for property code violations. Our enforcement mechanism uh from after providing a corrections notice would be to work with the property owner towards progressive compliance. If that wasn't successful, we could eventually issue an enforcement order. The enforcement order would be appealable to the hearings officer. Uh if that uh enforcement order was upheld by the hearings officer, we could issue civil penalties. Um our way to enforce and get collection on a civil penalty is to lean the property, which is where it becomes a problem because we can't lean the state's property. So while we could go through that, it probably would not be productive.

Okay. So, so the answer is no in the end. I mean, [laughter] we can cite them. We have no teeth in that sighting. Got it. That sounds right. So, okay, that was my piece. Councelor Vney and then councelor Brown.

Thank you very much, uh, Mayor Koy. Um, I had a question about the, um, city manager's comment about the cleanup schedule being February 5th to April 9th. um what is included in that schedule? Obviously, since I represent West Salem, what areas does that include? And does it include that area along Highway 22 along the river and also the underpass or the areas under the highway at Wallace Marine Park?

Thank you, counselor. I'll have Director Bennett answer the question because she has the details on this. Yes, thank you. Uh, Councelor Vney and Mayor and Council Gretchen Bennett, community services director. Yes, all of those locations. They have areas along I5 under the Marian and Center Street bridges. The areas adjacent and around the uh Wallace Park in West Salem that are their properties. The area at the edge of commercial at the I5 commercial cutoff. Um I actually didn't bring the precise list with me. It's back at my desk. But those locations, the the ones that represent their properties is all included. The Indian school area. Yes.

Okay. Uh can I kind of add to the add to that just a little bit? Go right ahead.

Um I just wanted to say that a lot of this is related to the state highway fund uh which and the recent bill which has been referred to the voters. Um, ODOT is really really struggling with funds and the state highway fund um funds funds their maintenance facilities and they have had to close what 12 maintenance facilities and they have workers that uh do these cleanups out of the facilities and so I'm really concerned because well even ODOT has recently had to uh end its agreement ment with PDX to do cleanups in their areas. I've seen increased trash and debris along I5. And so I'm really hopeful that the legislature can help us with this because ODOT needs funding to help us with these maintenance of our roads. Um and so I'm hoping that we see some of this moving forward. Thank you, Councelor Brown.

Thanks, Madame Mayor. I'm going to follow councelor Barney in that um only because madam city manager, with great respect to you and your team, I really I really see this as an impossible task for you. Um not trying to sound like a defeist, but I I struggle because you and your team are doing exceptional work. Um, but at the same time, I'm not convinced that the state is going to be able to meet us halfway. And and I'm not talking about, you know, Was Marine Park or even downtown, but when we think about W five, you know, whether it's Fiser Road or whether it's off of Hawthorne, there are so many properties that belong to the state. And and I'm just not convinced that they're going to be able to do anymore. And the reason I say this is because three and a half years ago and throughout this current uh governor's administration, you know, we we gave her over half a billion dollars to deal with all of our housing concerns and and we're not there yet. And so, as much as I appreciate you and your team, I just I I struggle with this being on on our shoulders again, knowing that we do not have the funds to take care of it. Um, so anyway, so I I'm not exactly sure how this is going to um to play out. Uh, but I want you to know that I'm in your corner and however I can best help you and your team to to clean up our city, uh, you know, definitely sign me up and I'll be there. I yield the floor.

Anyone else?

Councelor Bank. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Um, Mayor, I appreciate your motion. Um, I think it is right to have our neighbors uh help with a solution, but I think councelor Vney and Councelor Brown bring up a good point that our neighbors are ODOT is in a funding not in the best funding position. And so I appreciate the motion. I appreciate the spirit of the motion, but whether it results in actual solutions that we can see, I I don't have a whole lot of optimism for, but I think it's still a step in the right direction. Thank you.

Councelor Brown, did you have something else? Uh, no, ma'am. I apologize. I'll take that down my hand. I'm good.

Good. Anyone else? Well, I just want to add a little bit that for the sake of all, I want to be clear. The people creating the need for cleanups are real people with real life struggles. That does not go unnoticed. The people living in unmanaged camps need help. Whether or not they want the help or not is another matter. I would just like to know where the state stands when it comes to the people. The people needing a place to land and then again when they're asked to move. Perhaps that's a question for another day in another room. But I am encouraged by any motion that takes our city forward and uh I'm optimistic. So, anyone else have comments? Madam Mayor, I have one final comment, please.

Sure.

Um, Madam City Manager, you you shared this with us earlier um during your presentation and the opening remarks with how many tons tons of garbage that um our city staff has had to clean up. And so I'm very appreciative of of those individuals. Uh I've seen them multiple times throughout W five. uh rain shine, you know, whatever it is, they're always out there cleaning up. So, I give them a lot of kudos just for being there and being consistent. Um I think there's value in letting our community know how much money we're spending on trash cleanup. And so my ask again to you and your staff is to come back with us just to let us know how much we're spending because until we can share that information with the state. I just don't think they're going to move. I I I want to be optimistic. I just don't think they're going to move. But I do believe we owe it to our constituents and to our neighbors for them to know how much we're spending how much we're spending on cleanup. And I also think it'd be great for us to unpack how much we would be spending on fencing, on boulders, because there are going to be some folks who say just because you put up some big rocks is not going to keep the homeless away. And and a part of me struggles with that because if you put up a big rock, we're just sending a message to some folks to say, "Hey, you're not welcome here." And so if a homeless person isn't welcome there, then a part of me says we got to find a place where they are welcomed. And so it's uh I think we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. No pun intended. Uh but this is this is not easy for us. And so my ask to you and your team is to uh please share with us how much money uh we are spending on trash cleanup and pickup. Thank you.

Thank you counselor. I do want to make a comment about and thank you for um your comments about the clean Salem team. I think the reason why ours is like working is we the combination of HSD officers and our cleaning crew going together and not just to clean up but also the the individuals to be connected with the right resources. And I think madame mayor as I was hearing I didn't hear your comments completely but you were talking about the people element of it. Um even from the the ODOT properties as they're getting cleaned connecting those individuals to right resources is important. So there is definitely that disconnect there. Um, I'm extremely proud of our team and they do a lot for the number of resources that we have with the cleanup, but it's just a dream team with the HST and the cleaning crew. The way we are uh working with the way they're working together to take care of um the vulnerable population and also to clean. Anyone else? Well, I I just want to add that the last thing I ever wanted to see in Salem or anywhere is the need for fencing and boulders. I really would prefer it if people got the help that they needed um to be able to live well and be housed. So, that would be my number one choice, but I look forward to the plan the staff will create and the progress we'll make moving forward. Yes, Councelor Nishioa.

Thank you, U Mayor. Um, I think what I'd like to do is uh have um a friendly amendment to the motion. Um uh so I'd like to move to direct city manager to provide updates about the potential uh coordination with ODOT uh for um uh to formulate a plan to improve cleanliness and maintenance of the right-of-way properties. So basically asking for an update. I'll second that. We have a motion by Nishio and a second by Nordike.

Councelor to your motion. I think because we've just learned that um our city manager and wonderful staff have recently had conversations with ODOT. I think that what we're trying to do is just um allow that to continue to move forward to see what opportunities might there be. So um your motion was asking them to already do basically I think what what they have done. So now it I'm hoping to see that we can get updates on progress of that

and how soon would those updates come? It sounded like um Mishnamburi was um thinking that it might take a little bit of time, but I don't know if I have a timeline to provide. So, counselor, what I was thinking for the mayor's motion, um I need to work with the staff to figure out what steps that we need to take in order to give a plan that has some actionable items associated with it. Um part of it is also I would like to meet with state again and then looks like county is willing to kind of help on their side. So now we have that information as of this afternoon. So So mayor if I understood your motion correctly you are looking for the staff to give a timeline of some actionable items associated with this. Is that what you're looking for?

Yes. Okay. So is that does that you know if if what the her motion is um directing is a timeline I'm okay with that that's basically I'm asking for the same thing this felt like reach out and start talking and because you already have I was just trying to say provide that timeline.

Yeah thank you counselor. So the one thing that I did say that I need some time uh I can't exactly give this is when I can't exactly say now this is when I I'll be able to give that timeline right so I need to talk to staff and um come up with a plan and then uh bring something back to council. Um, so procedurally we had the original motion which was in the the the mayor's written motion report and then now we've got a a proposed substitute motion that instead of engaging in conversations as is in the written motion it would be councelor Nishioa's substitute to uh provide updates to council.

Councelor Vney.

Thank you very much Mayor Hoy. Um, I just wanted to mention I was looking at the original motion with to formulate a plan to address cleaning and maintenance. Um, I think we and I appreciate counselor Mishoka's request for additional information, but I also want to just add the idea of uh the connection or coordination with HST and our SOS team for what they're doing to kind of complete that whole picture with connecting folks to services. I think we need to better have a better idea of how um the programs, the initiatives that we have can help coordinate with ODOT with the cleanup part to come to a positive uh resolution. I just wanted to throw that out there as more of a comment. I mean, I'm I I appreciate Councelor Nishioa's motion and I'm supportive of it. I just that's more of a comment. Anyone else? Yeah, Councelor Matthews,

I'm so sorry. This might just be because it's getting a little later and I'm not tracking quite as well, but I'm not sure I'm I'm not sure I understand the distinguishing difference between the two motions. And then one other qu clarifying question is on the timeline that's coming back or kind of the plan that's coming back whatever the terminology is. Uh is it essentially a timeline that we're asking for or is it like is it a plan I suppose because are we bringing are we asking you to bring back a proposal that we would support these services as ODIt's asking and the financial burden on us? Are we asking I'm not clear exactly what we're asking. I guess maybe it's maybe that's the easier thing to say. I'm not exactly clear on what we're asking staff to do.

So I'm going to state um well I'm I'm going to kind of um say what I understood from the motion. So this is what so the mayor I just want to kind of some clarification on this. So what you're looking for is a plan with a with a timeline about how we will be able to we can produce that outcome which is like the cleaning of the properties or fencing whatever those activities are. So that's one. But you all you also talked about coordination and how can the city and state um collaborate to kind of get to that outcome whatever that means that part of that is further conversations with the with the state about what can city do and what is state willing to do. So that's kind of your second point with your motion. Right. Perhaps the only thing that was missing was bringing updates to council

in that process. And ongoing updates to council. Okay. Does that help councelor Nishoka?

Yes. I think too because there's still a lot of uncertainty with funding from the state. I think it's really my motion, my substitute motion is more you're already talking and if there's opportunities to talk with the county as well, great. Um it's more bringing us up to date with the conversation so that we're aware um and not necessarily giving us a plan because we may not see that. But I also agree that part of that update would be coordinating with our own homeless service team to help provide services. So this is now stretching it out. And if it's only asking you to bring us updates on the work that you're doing um with the county or with the state and possibly the county, that might be a less directive motion and I can rewrite it. You know, like you understand what we're doing. I'm just saying bring us updates.

So maybe if I can help the process here. I think councelor Nishioa is just essentially um suggesting that staff update council on the work that your motion um asked staff to do. So, it's really an amendment and I think uh uh if the city manager is amanable to providing updates, we can just dispense with councelor Nishio's motion if you're willing to withdraw it and we'll provide those updates and we can vote on the mayor's motion. I shall withdraw my motion.

All right. Is there anything further? Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Nishoka. Hi. Councelor Matthews. Hi. Councelor Gwyn. Hi. Councelor Brown. Hi. Councelor Bang. I. Councelor Nordike. I. Councelor Barney. I. Councelor Tyen. Hi. Mayor Julie Hoy. I. Motion passes. We have two added items. Right. Go. Uh. Yes. I move that we extend to um I'll I'll just leave it fairly wide. I know we don't like it, but to 10:30. Thank you. Second.

We have a motion and a second by Gwyn and Matthews. She says defer to Matthews. And um now we have two additional We need to vote on the motion. Oh, we vote on the motion to extend. Will the recorder please call the role? I. Councelor Gwyn. Hi. Councelor Brown. Hi. Councelor Bang. I. Councelor Nordike. Hi. Councelor Vney. I. Councelor Tyen. Hi. Councelor Nishioa. Hi. Mayor Julie Hoy. I. And I promise if [snorts] we extend again, we'll just raise our hands or something. Easy.

Okay. On to items five. I think it's E and F. Uh 32. um 32 A and 32B. And I believe um uh I guess um do you need to make your statement again, councelor Nordik or? Sure. I will uh declare a potential conflict of interest on these two items and uh although as a potential conflict, you could still participate in the conversation. In abundance of caution, I will not be doing so. Thank you, councelor. I'm sorry. Can I ask you to describe the nature of the conflicts?

Yes, of course. So, as I indicated earlier this evening, the nature of the potential conflict is that the agenda item could provide a potential, how does it go? Detriment or benefit to a relative of mine. Thank you. Sorry to interject again, but does that apply to both items? Yes, it does. items 3.2A and 3.2B. Thank you.

All right. Um I move to adopt resolution 20226-02 terminating the tax exemption granted to two properties under the nonprofit nonprofit lowincome housing tax incentive program. Second motion and second by Gwyn. council to the motion. Um, it was on the consent calendar. I'm assuming everyone read the report and we can probably go right ahead and vote. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Gwen, I. Councelor Brown, I. Councelor Bain, I. Councelor Nordic has accused herself. Councelor Barney. I.

Councelor Tyen. I. Councelor Nishioa. I. Councelor Matthews. I. Mayor Julie Hoy. I moving on to the next item. I move to adopt resolution 2026-03 approving property tax exemptions for five lowincome housing properties in accordance with SRC 2.850-2.910. Second motion and a second by Gwyn. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Brown. I councelor Bang. I councelor Nardik has recused herself. Councelor Vney. I councelor Tyen.

I councelor Nishioa I. Councelor Matthews I. Councelor Gwen I. Mayor Julie Hoy. I. All right. We're moving on now to information reports. I'll read through them uh one by one and if uh anyone has any remarks, please let me know. Item 6.8, downtown paid on street parking. Councelor Nishioa.

Thank you, Mayor Hoy. Um, I just want to um say thank you to the um urban planning department and the crew that's been working on this. I'm really pleased that you are um going to be refunding the parking tax to those businesses that paid it. And um I'm hoping that we will then have the opportunities to see improvements and security um maybe even more robust in the parking garages. Councelor Bang.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so I was reading the staff report on the [sighs] uh downtown parking revenue and it says that the parking revenue in the first six months um raised almost over a million dollars. I think it was $1.1 million, which is quite a bit of uh revenue for the city. And I'm glad that is going to be used to make our downtown more viable and more welcoming. And so, uh, I think the city is charging $1.50 per hour. And I did some quick math division and over and if I did my math right or, you know, assumed that um, every person who came into downtown parked for just an hour to keep the spots open, almost over 700,000 people visited our downtown. That's, you know, just some basic assumptions. And to me, that's indicating that our downtown is doing well. It could always do better, but um that is a really good positivity, especially with um what is going on outside um outside of Salem, across our state, and across the country that we have this one spot that's really good and really positive, and I just wanted to continue to highlight that. Thank you. Anyone else? Councelor Nordic.

Sure. Is it am I correct in understanding that um this is the amount of money that we've raised through paid parking downtown is also alleviating some of our general fund burden because it's my understanding that in the past when we only tax the downtown businesses, we raised a certain amount of money from them. I I don't remember precisely what it was, but I think it was under $400,000 a year. And we still had a lot of need for downtown. So, we would supplement the money raised by the businesses with general fund dollars. And now, by hopefully sunsetting this tax and refunding those businesses, not only are we alleviating the burden on our downtown local businesses, but we're also reducing a little bit of strain on our general fund. I just want to make sure I have that right. Councelor, you are correct. Um, you know, general fund uh last in the past used to pay like $410,000 at least the last couple of years for security. Now the parking fund is going to pay for it.

So you basically helped general fund the parking fund helped general fund by $410,000 each year. Perfect. Councelor Matthews,

I did want to ask staff. So, I was going through the report and part of the premise with um starting the paid on street parking downtown was a survey and it looks like we have a survey, but it has 239 respondents. So, I'm assuming that's not a businessonly survey. And I think part of what we had talked about was surveying the businesses to especially because there had been a lot of concern that this would affect their bottom lines, right? Their ability, their customer base, that they'd see less people. Um I'm assuming that that number is too high 239 to say that that was the businesses solely that were surveyed. And so do we have any business data to to determine their I guess impact on this and their feelings on the success? I know financially it's been a success for us but

Try that again. Dana Decline, assistant director of urban development. Thanks for the question, counselor. Um, so we're not gonna need this presentation. I think we're okay. Um, but, uh, the survey was widely dispersed. Um, we did know that 82% of the, um, respondents were visitors. Um, and a majority of them were visiting um, for restaurants. there's like 42% of them of that 82% were were just coming for Eaton. Um so we did get some business data. We could probably cut that and slice that for you to get you a little bit information, but we do have a staff member um Derek who goes out and talks to businesses all the time. And we did get some variety, right? Some people really were challenged by their um uh customers having to pay for parking to come in for a quick um connection, but a lot of people really appreciated the turnover and the availability of um parking near their destination. Um both employ um the um the visitors as well as um the business owners. So um you get both answers unfortunately. Go ahead.

I'll mimic that. Anecdotally, I've heard more positive even from business owners. I mean, obviously, I don't think anybody loves the outcome, but uh generally it hasn't been as bad as they as they thought, but if you can find the actual quantitative data, I'd be happy to. I'll have a look into that. Councelor uh actually councelor Brown had his hand up. Thanks, Madame Mayor. Um, thank you for sharing this information about our downtown businesses. And my first question is this. How many businesses have not paid any tax? I'm sorry. Have not what?

Paid any taxes.

Oh, paid taxes. Okay. So, we had Oh, I think I did bring that information. I thought someone might. We had um of the taxes we had I brought that information. Sorry password last page of that. Okay. So we build $296,000 of that $229,600 were paid. Um, so we got a that was 186 invoices out of 320 332. So we're at a little over a half of the of the um businesses paying but more than half of the receipts.

And I'm sorry. Go ahead.

So what is the city's plan to recoup the funds from business owners who haven't paid anything? So actually the recommendation is in front of you today with the first reading of an ordinance where the the business tax would be repealed and retroactively to the beginning of the fiscal year. If you vote that then it will be the opposite. We're actually going to re you know reimburse businesses that did pay. That's that's in front of [clears throat] you today. But that's a vote that you guys have to decide next uh city council meeting.

And I appreciate you you sharing that because I read the information, but I wanted people at home to hear from you exactly what's going on. Um so those businesses who don't pay and there's no way for us to get the money from them, are they just off scot-free? Well, if we kept the business tax as is, then we could do a collection. But I think there's a question of if there's a desire to do that,

right? And I want to say before we even get to the vote, uh, that is a concern of mine. We started tonight's conversation discussing businesses or at least part of the conversation, you know, with business owners that are in, you know, trucks, vans on the side of the road on Cordon and um, Lancaster. So on one hand, we are willing to do what it takes to make sure that folks, business owners will be basically penalized if they don't have a license. But on this other hand, we want to give money back to some folks, business owners, they haven't paid anything.

That's a rhetorical question. Don't have to answer it. I just want people in the audience to see this. Yeah. I think the one thing I want to just be clear though is that the you get options on how you pay. So I don't actually know if people haven't all paid some portion because you could make a payment for your business tax all in one lump sum or over the over the year. So people that doesn't mean that people are in a rears. They could be literally just on their payment plan. Thank you councelor Matthews. I want to clarify something. So only the people that had paid will receive the refund of what they paid. Correct.

So if they didn't pay anything, they wouldn't receive any type of refund from those funds. That was my understanding. Yes. Okay.

Councelor Quinn. So, this is going to probably sound like a silly question, but what when do people have to pay for paid parking? Like, what are the hours? And the reason I asked that is because I just assumed I go downtown and I have to pay for parking. And I went downtown on a Saturday night, actually, dropped my daughter off and her and I were walking to her destination. and I get on beep beep and it won't like come on and then I walked over. So I thought, well shoot, the the app must be down. So I walked over to a one of the meters and it was during a time when you don't pay. So I'm just curious, what are the hours?

So in downtown it's 8 to 8 Monday through Saturday. You don't pay on Sunday. Um, and that's assuming it's not a holiday or one of the special Saturdays during December that we um made free this year. So, yeah, there is. Yeah. Councelor Fay,

this uh this is a rhetorical question, but something I hope staff consider in the future, but is there any way we could make those meters take like tap pay cuz sometimes I like don't bring my card with me and I don't carry cash or coins and I'm like gosh darn it. But uh yeah, it's a rhetorical question but something to consider kind of like work life balance, right? Yeah, exactly. You can use the app. Anything further?

Thank you so much, Dina. All right. If there's nothing else, will the recorder Oh, wait. What am I doing? It's an information report. I got lost in the testimony there. Sorry. Okay. We are moving on to item 6B, a quarterly information port report on economic development. Item 6 C, safe, clean, and healthy Salem update. Item 6 D, a hearings officer decision a zone change to expand the allowed uses to basic utilities and power generation facilities with a proposal to develop a battery energy storage system facility and sub and substation approved.

Madam, yes, sir. Go right ahead. Sorry, I should have raised my hand before um

we got to this one, but I just, you know, I've been we're going to run out of time to reflect here, but I I really want to reflect on some things that we've heard tonight. I started this meeting in my counselor comment talking about the seriousness of our national situation as it is in Minneapolis. But starting with our urban renewal area, we talked about how we've um used that authority to give $2 million to economic development in our community. We've talked about the success of launching our ambulance service 6 months into it. Uh what appears to be unmitigated success and growing. We just heard a great report about our downtown parking. People didn't know that that was going to work. It was a leap of faith by the council, the the previous council. That's been a success. Um the reach program just recently launched a great success story out of it. Uh the now CST, clean uh Salem team talking about um helping remove 10 tons of uh waste out of Wallace Marine in one day. Another success. Um, my child spent most of his weekend at the skate park in uh, Gear Park. Another success. I just I'm going to walk away from this meeting and we didn't even talk about it. Testing the water transfers from Kaiser. Um, we signed an emergency declaration, gave our staff the ability to uh, take action on something that was needed and another success. I I I feel like I really just want to acknowledge the amazing work of the city team and the decisions that we've made as as a council. Um as much as heaviness is going on, there is um real success happening in the city and and on the council and in the city

staff and I just don't want to miss the opportunity to also celebrate that. So, thank you, Councelor Tyen. Yes, Councelor Matthews.

I'm going to be a slightly more downer only because you picked something that I already had a question about to stop on, but [laughter] so I have a question about the 6D um to the fire chief actually. So, this is in my ward and I I came across the question the other day. It's essentially a lithium-ion battery storage facility that's being proposed there. And obviously, we're getting a whole bunch of fires from lithium-ion batteries specifically. And I mean, I I own a battery car or partial battery car, and I just got a notice in the mail saying, "Hey, don't park this close to your house cuz uh this may be a fire and we don't have any solution for And so knowing that and this being my ward, I feel like it'd be irresponsible for me not to at least ask, is this a concern at all to have these lithium-ion storage facilities um I guess in city limits.

Thank you for the question. Um I think they're absolutely a concern. It is a part of um an evolution at least a change in our society and how we're uh doing business. Um I came from an organization that was uh probably had the most progressive ordinances uh around that. We have taken those and we're trying to adopt them here as well for um new construction. Um looking at all the safety um aspects that have been added into those. Uh I've been on a couple of those fires that have burned for weeks and so um there are significant challenges with those. Um but there is a number of safety considerations that are now being added and we are asking the um uh the vendor that is constructing it to put those in as well as we'll probably come to the council soon with um an ordinance for battery storage facilities.

Thank you. Thanks for asking that question, Shane. I appreciate that. I mean councelor Matthews. [laughter] Whoops. It's getting late. Anybody else? Okay, we're moving on then. Oh, councelor Barney, go right ahead.

I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councelor Matthews, for bringing that up. It's funny because when I read through that land use action, my thought immediately went to, okay, we're building this on top of wetlands and how much impact are we having on the riparian area along Pringle Creek? So, um, hey, we all work together on these things. Thank you for bringing up what you did.

That's great. Thank you. We are now moving on to item seven. Oh, we have no ordinances. Uh, 7.1, a first reading. Let's see. Ordinance bill number 126, an ordinance relating to the downtown parking district amending SRC section 7.070. 080. 090 and 102.045 repealing SRC section 7.060.10.110.120.130.135.14.150.160.170.180.19.20.201 excuse me. 2110.2.24 240 and250.

I move to advance ordinance bill number 1-26 to amend SRC chapter 7 and 102 to repeal the downtown parking tax to sec to the down the parking district tax to second reading. Second motion and a second by Tyan. Anything further? Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Vain I. Councelor Nordike I. Councelor Vney I. Councelor Tyen I. Councelor Nishioa I. Councelor Matthews I. Councelor Gwen I. Councelor Brown. I.

Mayor Julie Hoy. I. Motion passes. And uh here's to the city recorder in reading all those numbers. Great job. Um, on to public comment. All right, we have a few folks. Maybe additional folks.

Oh, yeah. I got that. Sorry about that. Um, I'll call two names at once. Please come forward to the podium. Hit the button till the green lights on. And you'll have three minutes to speak. Uh, first calling Honus and Patrick Carney. Congrats on saying my name right. Uh, Honasan Incorporated. I'm once again asking that city council make efforts to remove and bar ICE from entering our city. Again, ICE and Border Patrol have mur murdered another American citizen in plain sight and in broad daylight. If this is how they treat white Americans in public, imagine what they do to people like me behind closed doors. In fact, a letter sent on January 22nd of this year by the Homeland Security Committee says that 53 people have died in custody since the beginning of Trump's term. Oh, but they're just targeting the rapist and drug lords. Just let them do their jobs. Yes, I'm sure ICE is keeping our streets safe from prek children like Liam Khor Ramos. They're detaining toddlers, teenagers. They are targeting our schools and our children. If you've seen the pictures of the detention centers, you can see that they are not being fed properly, not being kept clean, psychologically tortured, and who knows what else. Sadly, I will say that the only difference ICE has between now and its establishment in 2003 is that their cruelty has premiered into the public. If you don't believe me, watch the 2011 Frontline documentary, Lost in Detention. For those of you with a short memory, Obama was president from 08 to 16. I also asked this council to adopt a mask ban for all law enforcement while on the clock. Identifying information should be clearly visible, such as department name and badge number. When I went to a BLM protest in 2020, a man antagonizing the event pointed his AR at me and my wife and pretended to shoot us. Salem PD was literally standing in front of me. I pointed out what happened. He rolled his eyes at me. I tried to get his ID info, but surprise, he had his name tag and badge number obscured. Ask anyone else who went to

those protests. They'll corroborate my story. Better standards must be put in place. Then again, SPD doesn't have a good track record at protecting POC. You would think that they'd be more creative in their approach to oppose ICE, seeing how the union president's wife is Cuban. How do I know this? He told me after he followed me out the last council meeting. He followed me into the parking garage and in an unprompted effort to change my mind regarding y'all's headquart decision, provided me with the Macob details of the young girl's murder. What an odd way to try to convince someone. Is this the institution you support wholeheartedly, Council Nordic? the same institution that caused Bedum and death threats to the council. They must be a special sort of naive to think that they're not on the hook for unintended consequences. As far as I'm concerned, if you break someone's window while playing baseball, you take responsibility. Just because it wasn't your intent doesn't absolve you from the consequences. SPD should be held accountable. I don't care how many passive aggressive texts I get from your campaign manager counselor. I will always call you out when you fold under zero pressure. To quote Dr. King, I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block on his stride towards freedom is not the white citizens counselor or the Kulix clanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice. Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. Lastly, I would like to make a good faith correction to Dr. Brown. We don't do jobs nobody wants to do. We are construction workers, agricultural workers, teachers, nurses, doctors, sanitation workers, and much more. We are workers essential to the function of society and the economy. [applause]

I called Patrick Carney and Sandra her. I don't believe Patrick Carney's here. Sandra her and then Christina Marquez. I stayed here um for nearly four hours because this issue is very important and that's nothing compared to the work that we're having to do in the community because of what's happening. I'm I'm [snorts] here to urge you all to adopt the social service fund that was adopted by the Salem um budget committee on January 14th. This recommendation was a result of the ongoing community-led efforts that advocated for the city to declare a state of immer emergency in Salem with the allocation of $300,000 to support families impacted by immigration enforcement. What is surprise that our advocacy for that is pro migrant will lead to a good outcome for all community members regardless of their immigration status. Latinosito supports the allocation of $400,000 into emergency services available to all community members experiencing economic hardship. We also urge you to move this to an agenda item for the next city council and work directly with community based organizations to make these funds accessible. This funding will not end the violence caused by ICE that we are experiencing which has reached even non-migrant community members, but it has it will set a precedent on how local governments can materially support our community beyond symbolic rhetoric. As someone who actually handles budgets, I can tell you that $400,000 to reach the overall community is not

enough. We would need about a million dollars in the budget to be able to do that. However, $400,000 is a good start to support our community members experiencing financial uh crisis. And if you don't know where to get those funds, I can tell you that they're available. You can tax Amazon or Walmart which operate in our community and make sure that you do get those funds available that that would be available if they pay t taxes. I urge you to pass this and add it to the next agenda item so that you can hear directly from the community because while I heard a lot of good things happening in Salem, our community is experiencing a crisis and regardless of what was passed um recently with the emergency declaration, we're still experiencing those material um reality of having ICE perpetuate violence on in our community. So, please take this serious and move forward by providing some material benefit to our community. [applause]

Thank you for your testimony, Christina Marquez and Sophia R.

Good evening. Good evening. I just want to stress uh the urgency uh the urgent need for allocating these funds, these emergency funds to support immigrant families. Back in December, uh two of my uncles were detained on their way to work. Uh both of them were construction workers. Um their absence on my family has been huge. first of all emotionally uh but also economically without their income to support my family. My aunt is now on her own in charge of taking care of uh four kids and because of her health it's difficult for her to keep a job and so it's been really hard for her to pay for her bills and just to keep the household running. Thankfully she has some of her family members that have been able to support her. we've been able to help her pay for for lawyers, food, um uh for her kids to be able to go see uh their their father at in Tacoma. But there are families out there who don't have that, who don't have the ability to rely on family members or friends. Um and people are already struggling economically in their day-to-day lives. So when something unexpected like this happens, it just pushes families further into poverty. So I believe there should be emergency assistance specifically for immigrant families uh to prevent or minimize uh them going into poverty and especially for immigrant families because a lot of us oftent times because of our status don't qualify for federal and state state emergency assistance. uh like the temporary assistance for needy families program or the SNAP program. We don't qualify for those. So that's why it's

important to have uh emergency funds specifically for immigrant families. Um the kidnappings of our families and neighbors h will have long-term impacts and lifelong impacts to the families but also to our community as a whole. And so I urge the city to take the steps to uh prevent and stop um and minimize the harm. First by providing emergency funds to immigrant families as soon as possible. It is long overdue. PE families are waiting. Kids are waiting and then second to stop uh and prevent the detainments. These detainments are unethical first and foremost. No one should be criminalized for migrating. Um but they're also unconstitutional. Uh there are many reports on on how these have been unconstitutional. Nor warrants for forced entry uh ice vehicles not following um uh traffic laws. Um and so what you're seeing in Minneapolis, it's already here. Maybe there's not as many agents here or it's not as visible, but it's happening. Thank you for your testimony, Sophia R and Jaden V. Oh, we're going to need to add some time to the clock.

Um, uh, I move to, uh, extend the meeting until 10:45. Second. Might be, might be a little more. We have How many are signed up? Just say 11 and then we'll All right. And move to 11. Okay. Second. Great. I'm just going to ask, are any opposed? Well, we're all Okay. No. All in favor? Hi.

Thank you. Okay, moving on. So, Sophia R and Jaden V. I am a student in Salem Kaiser School District. Every day I live with a fear of I showing up at my home, at school, or my streets. If it's not fair that I have to live with this fear, I just want to go to school in peace. That is why I ask that you approve a budget that will help provide resources to our community. We need actually support, not just words. Do the right thing. Thank you. [applause] Thank you for your testimony, Jaden V and Marisol. I am a student in Salem Kaiser School District. Excuse me. Just I'm sorry to interrupt, but are you are you Marisol or Jaden?

Marisol. Jaden isn't here. Okay. Thank you for that.

Yeah. I am a student in Salem Kaiser School District. I am here once again to demand that this city council finally take some action. I demand that you approve the $400,000 that to going into your community. This money is not the is not the solution but a needed support to give access to resources for families. We don't need your fake tears or your fake words. We need your real action. We you need to take action now. Support immigrant families and children that make Salem what it is. All of us have the responsibility to stand with families impacted by ICE. And you as a city council have the obligation to have actions behind your words. The working-class immigrant community is the heart of Salem. You owe it to us to be transparent and to advocate for our safety and well-being to not just say the right words, but have action behind those words. We demand you immediate $400,000 to impacted families who have been impacted by ICE. We see the same videos you all see in online. We see ICE shoot and kill illegal observers who are only trying to document the horrors and crimes of ICE that is committing every day across the country in Oregon and in Salem. We see all this. We see the pure hatred behind the eyes of ICE. We see how violent they are. And we need you to be behind the community and follow the lead of what the community demands from you because it is about survival. People are dying. What side of story will you be on? There is power in the people. There are more people advocating for the end of family separations than ever. You will your political legacy be supporting nis on our streets.

When kids experience having a loved one detained, they are never the same again. The pain that is felt and the loss is too much to put into words. Not one more community member should be kidnapped off our streets by mass men that lie and terrorize our communities and that are literally killing in our streets, killing people. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony, [applause] Liz G. and Cynthia R. Please state your name so we know where we're at. Thank you.

Well, hi. I'm Liz and as a student, I see the anxiety of what ice in our community is causing the depression, the sadness, the shift in schools and culture. It affects our health and mentality and physically. I sit in the hallways, the bus stops, the classrooms. We lose sleep thinking about the violent executions. We see the videos of going around Minnesota over the past months. We see the videos of our own neighborhoods, too, of them dragging parents out of their cars on the way to work, breaking windows, holding up guns, the abandoned cars on Lancaster, too. We see similar images in history class like in Nazi Germany, in the countries that the US invades. We ask ourselves, when is this going to end? How many children are going to bed crying to themselves to sleep? How many parents have their lifespan shortened because of the stress they're going right now? How many kids are going missing in the hands of ICE? And how many people have to die for people to start caring? The bare the bare venom you could do as elected officials is stand with the immigrant families that have been impacted and implement the $4,000 in emergency funds to families that have lost their loved ones because the rent is not going to wait. Their mental and physical health isn't going to wait either. Often it's the main provider that gets taken. Family separation throughout the history has always been used as a tool to cause trauma to indigenous, black, and brown communities. We must end this now. Family separation affects their access to a roof over their heads, access to food, and basic needs. Step up, pretty words aren't enough, and our families deserve better. And thank you.

[applause] Thank you for your testimony, Cynthia R and Evelyn.

[clears throat]

Renee Good and Alex Prey were were murdered executed in cold blood by ice this month in Minnesota. In Portland, not even 24 hours after Renee Good's murder, I shot at a husband and a wife in an attempted murder with a goal to kill in cold blood once again. Keith Porter, a father of two, was shot and murdered in cold blood by ICE in LA on New Year's. Last year, more people died in ICE detention centers than ever before. And at the rate this violence is happening in, more people will continue to die this year. Last year, in our own streets by the Torito near Center Street, ICE agents pointed a gun at a 10-year-old child. A 10-year-old child has to live with that image for the rest of their life. Last year, the Salem Police Department also pointed guns at youth protesting against families being separated and protesting against ICE. The correlation is clear. And so was your silence in both incidents that could have easily ended with lives lost. Is that what you're waiting for? It feels like a ticking time bomb. If you don't invest in your community and their very real needs right now, you are all cowards. And you have proven it time and time again. We demand that you implement $400,000 in emergency funds for families impacted by deportation. How many people have to die? How many children have to be exposed to the violence? ICE used a 5-year-old child as bait after being detained with his father to try to lure and detain more of his family members. There's a video going around showing kids and their mothers in offensive detention center screaming to be let out. Kids that could have easily been children of the Salem Kaiser School District. There's

testimonies of families that describe the dehumanization in detention centers, the AC being turned on full blast in on purpose in the middle of winter, the psychological torture, the sexual assault, the medical neglect. This is all public information. It is a decision that you all make to look away. Just like some of you have decided to vote no on declaring the city as a state in of emergency or letting um or setting aside funding to support directly impacted families. It was also a decision a decision for some of you to spew discrimination during the discussion on street vendors on Lancaster. People are dying, but some of you put more of an effort in criminalizing black and brown people than anything else. And it's disgusting. If you are not standing up for immigrant families, you are on the side of ICE. It's not a complex issue. You either support the families impacted, you advocate for the parents inside detention centers to go back home to their babies, or you you support mass men terrorizing our communities. There is no middle ground. There is no neutrality. You being silent,

your time is expired. will cause people to continue to die. I'm sorry. Your time is expired. [applause] And was your name Cynthia? Are you Cynthia? Yeah.

Okay. When you do come forward, please state your name so we can make sure we get everyone. I'm calling Evelyn. And then Jackie Rocher. I don't see Evelyn. Jackie Rochet. And then Alex. Good morning, Jackie Rocher, Ward 4. I just wanted to come back in regards to the whole sign code situation that you guys have been hearing a little bit recently. Um, I shared on social media and one of my friends shared about her own experience in a neighborhood and that the sign in a neighborhood that sits on her property had an issue with the sign department. And there is an article that came out this afternoon. So, I'm just going to read the article until my time runs out. In Battle Creek Heights, a volunteer neighborhood project meant that meant to replace a worn vandalized entrance sign has ended with new steel signs sitting beside a resident's house taken down after city staff told the organizers to the replacement exceeded what's allowed in residential zone and would require a zoning adjust adjustment with a fee of $1,989 to keep it in place. It looked really cool, said Shawn Cleave, a Battle Creek Heights resident who helped lead the project. Even last month, I had someone email, "What happened to our beautiful sign?" Cleave said the neighborhood's original sign had been deteriorating for years after students waiting nearby for South Salem High School pickups chipped and broke off pieces. For a while, neighbors tried Patchworks to fix it, replacing letters as they disappeared. In an email to the city, homeowner Debbie Shields, my friend, said the letters were being stolen on a pretty consistent basis and estimated the neighborhood had to replace letters or at least at least six to eight times. Eventually, residents decided they

wanted something more permanent, harder to vandalize. So, he put forth about $1,000 of his own money and efforts and neighbors raised additional funds while collecting feedback from residents and kids. The group chose to chose a cutout steel design made from weathering steel often called quartin which rusts into patina and then stabilizes. He said the sign was fabric fabricated locally by metal works northwest which describes itself as familyowned custom steel sign fabrication shop in Salem. The residents installed it themselves anchoring it to the wall 5 10 minutes of work. They said they put in solar powered LED backlight so it would be visible at night. What surprised them was to learn that the replacement would require a permit even though the sign had been there for years. I didn't know that we had to go through a permitting process to replace the sign. He said, "That's bad on me for not being a little more proactive." When he contacted Cleave said that said the city contact on the issue was Stephanie Meyers identified in a city of Salem permit system document and a senior zoning inspector. In email threads forwarded to Salem Business Journal, Myers told the homeowner she could help them apply for a permit sign and asked them to confirm measurements weight and cost. And then they go on about all of it. The cost would be $1,800. Um cuz I'm running out of time, but they had to get the resoning to replace the sign on somebody's property. So, and the total cost for the resoning came out to 1989. Just

Thank you for your testimony, Alex. and then Alex. My name is Alex. Uh, I'm in fourth grade in school. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! for immigrant. [applause] All right, Alex and then Rachel. Alex. Uh, ward six. I'm here to ask you guys to please uh fund the families that are being affected by the state of emergency uh to allocate the $300,000. Um, also earlier when you guys were talking about uh basically going after uh people from Cordon to Lancaster, if that language wasn't shocking for you guys, those undertones, then uh uh we're pretty much screwed for as people of color, uh working-class people. Um, I'm glad that some of you guys voted no.

I'm sure you guys understood how racist those undertones were. It sounded a lot like redlinining. If you guys don't know, look it up. Um, from quarter to Lancaster. Come on, how overt can you get? Also, the Marian County is also suing Oregon to get rid of its sanctuary status. Come on. We can't get a break. Working people can't get a break. It's ridiculous. Mayor Julie Hoy, you you were very active in that conversation. You were like, "Yeah, yeah, go after them." Uh, what are we? An eyesore? When the cars are being left on the street, that's not anything of your concern. But when you see brown people selling oranges, flowers, stuffed animals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go after them. I agree. Let's do something. Come on. That language is ridiculous. They didn't even try to hide it. I feel like I'm doing you guys a favor by telling you how discriminatory that agenda item was. But someone has to tell you guys that because ICE combined with sheriffs going after working-class people in the early mornings, it's crazy. On Sundays, Sundays, what a surprise. You see those vendors on the street, that means everybody's working Monday through Saturday. And on Sunday, that's when they sell them that stuff. But you don't know that or you just like you didn't know when that happened outside Japetto's Torito market like the

10-year-old girl got a gun pointed at her. She's a constituent. If you guys want to talk to her, talk to her family. It's possible. Nobody cares. That language was overt. Come on. Do you guys need like a consultant telling? I'm sorry. Your time is expired. Your time is expired. Thank you, Alex. I'll call the next person, Rachel. Rachel, come on forward.

No. [applause] Well, shoot. Um, I'll be quick because I know it's late. Um, Councelor Tigan, thank you for your statement um, at the beginning of the meeting tonight. Um, but it's it's been a rough month. Um, I think because the work that Renee Good and Alex Prey signed up to do is um, some of the same work that I have signed up to do. Um, yeah, and I'm white and they're white and so I felt that. But I was pleased that Honas mentioned and many others have mentioned that there were also 32 that died in ICE custody whose names we don't know um in 2025 and at least eight I guess this year so far. Anyway, it goes on. Um I'm glad they mentioned that. Um I was pleased to see the budget committee vote on January 14th to recommend the creation of a social service fund despite the no votes from Mayor Hoy and councilors Gwyn and Matthews. I don't see that the minutes from that meeting have been published yet, so I'm unclear on the intended time frame, but my ask tonight is that it come before this body as soon as possible. This community needs to see more tangible action taken to assist those who have been impacted by abusive federal immigration operations. I think the majority of you recognize this. So again, I ask that you move to put this on your agenda as soon as possible. Thanks. All right, [applause] we have I think there are a couple of folks who weren't able to sign up who wanted to testify. Are they still here?

Is it okay?

Alan Rocher, please announce your name. My name is Alan Rochet. I'm in Ward 4. And thank you for your time, mayor, and and counselors. I appreciate all your guys' dedication to uh serving as a volunteer and taking the abuse regardless of uh your position. You're all doing a great job of uh representing your wards in the way you see fit, and I commend all of you for that. Um just a couple points of order that uh I keep hearing that are challenging to me. Um we want to ring this bell that we're a nation of laws, but yet we want to override those laws to suit our needs when we want. Then we get mad when those national laws are enforced. And I find that challenging because it trickles into the same ideology that was brought up tonight when we were just talking about just compliance for businesses. compliance. It wasn't based on food only carts. It was compliance on being a legitimate business. Back to the legit legitimate thing. Seems to be a challenge. Some of [snorts] you forgotten what that means. But I own a business. I do it right. I do it with integrity to honor my employees and my clients on purpose. And we say compliance. I think it's great that people are out there trying to provide for their families doing these popup vendors, but really go down and pay your $15, $20 for that permit. So, you're a legitimate business. Follow the laws that you're asking and demanding protection from. It's not hard. It's simple. The same things you come up here and demand, you refuse to follow. And that's challenging to me because yes, do we have the funds to reach out and help? Absolutely. It's a tragedy what's happening in our country. We have the media exploding things

beyond understanding and people are reacting accordingly. ICE officers are over just they're out of control in some capacities, but they are law enforcement and they put their lives on the line every single day and they train for situations just like that. And when people interfere as a civilian not understanding what they're walking into, they're putting themselves in harm's way. They don't deserve to die. I agree. We have the money that we allocated for the airports. Absolutely. If we have that and we have a way to help our community, let's do it. I'm for that completely. But still understand, we are a nation of laws. You can follow them or you can suffer the consequences like some people were saying. And there are consequences when you break laws, not just the ones you agree with, but all of them. And we need to remember that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony. If uh there's no one else to speak, we are adjourned.