City Council - Regular Meeting

of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

All righty. Thank you. Will the city recorder please call roll? Mayor Jacquela, present. Council president Steinheel here. Councelor Ki here. Councelor Angelford here. Councelor Salvage, Councelor Mlan here, Councelor Workman.

All righty. Thank you so much. Move on to consent calendar. Following items are considered routine and will be acted be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussions on these items unless a counselor so requests. In this this case, the item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. Number one, the agenda, city, uh, Lebanon City Council agenda, April 8th, 2026. Appointments, Charlotte Webby, budget committee. Uh, board minutes is number three. Planning Commission May 21st, August 20th, November 19th, 2025, and February 18, 2026. Senior Disabled Services Advisory Committee October 15, 2026. Number four, council meeting or council minutes 2026-03-11. work session and regular meeting. Uh 2026-03-25 city council special meeting. Is there a a motion to approve or

move for approval? I'll second. Motion's been made to approve. It's been a second. All in favor? I.

All opposed? Motion passes. No presentations or recognitions tonight. Move on to public comments. Do we have any cards? Well, I'll read it anyhow. The cities may the citizens may address the council by filling out a testimony card prior to speaking and hand it to city recorder. Each citizens provided up to five minutes to provide comment to this council. Council may take an additional two minutes to ask clarifying questions. The city recorder will accept and distribute written comments at speaker's request. And we don't have any tonight. So, we'll move no public hearings. We'll move on to the first regular session item. This might be a might be a quick night. We'll see. Uh Lane County Emergency Telephone Agency disolution. And Chief Stevenson give your report. probably doesn't have any batteries in it. Frank, you can just tell me and I'll say it for you.

Okay, we're we're on we're on pace to to have a quick night. But then I handed then you said that and now look now look where we are. Yeah. It was green for a second. I know. Mean we get to grill him. He sits there. Yeah.

I did. I broke it. Can you everybody hear me now? All right. Thanks. Sorry about that. I must have pushed the button too hard. So, what I have before you tonight is a resolution of dissolution of the Lynn County Emergency Telephone Agency Committee. Basically, and I'm going to do my best to try to uh explain this the best way I can, but in a nutshell, and I'll give you the quick background history on it. In 1986, there was eight different uh 911 regional centers. and they decided uh that was a lot. So they made a decision to form um one county statewide or one county PAP operated by the Lyn County Sheriff's Office and uh this was under an inter agency uh agreement. Um it was the ETA service provider committee that made was made up of local fire and law enforcement representatives and it was basically uh established to provide oversight to the IG and it's been over 40 years now that we've been operating with Lynn County as the number one PAP which is the um public safety answering points also known as 911. and we've had zero issues and uh really it's it's come to attention um that the committee is no longer in need and um basically it's it's just dissolving and it's no longer in need of of oversight of the 911 center. So my recommendation uh is to approve the resolution of dis dissolution as all the requirements of the original IG have been met. I will do my best to answer all the questions that you might have.

Any questions? I got one. Frank, what does that system cost or is there a cost to it? There is a cost but I have I I don't know what that cost is. We don't pay into it. We have our own dispatch center. It's a tax. So all the taxes go into the 911 center. So that's what taxes go into that. So there will be some kind of savings.

No, there won't be any savings. It's it's it was at no cost to us. It was just we agreed that 9 that Lynn County would oversee the emergency center for 911. So all 911 calls will go there. And instead of it being divided eight separate ways, it all just went to one one place. Does that make sense? It does. So there's really no there's no there was no cost to us. There's no cost savings. It's all the same. It's just the the reason why they're dissolving the I the the the committee basically is it meets all the uh inter agency government agreement. It has for over 40 years now. It will have no effect on service at all.

It'll have no effect on service. None whatsoever. We're not losing anything. Everything is going to operate the same. It's still the primary 911 center. We're the secondary. So, we're considered a secondary 911 center. So, all those calls get transferred to us. They're just the ones that handle the original calls going to that. All right. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. So, what you're saying is an adequated system that this is it's it needs to just be gotten rid of.

Yeah. Yeah. Basically, the committee all all it was made up of all different agencies. So, Lebanon, Lynn County, um, Lebanon Fire, Albany Fire. So, it it was just there to oversee like the funding that the taxes would come in, where it would go to, and and things of that nature. And it's never really been uh any any issues. Any other questions or discussion? Is there a motion? Move for approval. I'll second.

Motion's been made to approve the dissolution of the uh Ling County Emergency Telephone Agency. It's been seconded. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, Chief. Move on to the next item, municipal jail operation levy poll results and council direction. City manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um Sean, if you want to come up in case we got questions, um uh throughout this. So, uh what we have before you tonight is kind of the um uh another recap of the polling results and get some council direction as we move forward with uh potential levy for the municipal jail. Uh I won't go through too much of the background, but uh in March we had Betsy Schultz, who council authorized to hire Pacific Northwest Strategies, uh begin performing work on the the jail levy. And the first phase of that included some polling. Uh JL Wilson Research um or JL Wilson with Nelson Research uh did statistical polling on the week of March 16th. Uh just to kind of recap that the gen general sentiment uh 67% of respondents approve of the Lebanon Police Department 63.7 indicated reopening the missable jail is important. So we had some initial ballot support of about 48.6% 6% um and support increased to about 66.3% when respondents learned that there wasn't going to be an additional cost with the levy falling off. Um that's kind of a recap on that stuff. Um some of the considerations for the city council uh as we move forward if you choose to move forward uh potential comp competition from other local tax measures in November uh 2026 or May of 2027 um the expiration of our general obligation bond in 2026 uh which currently cost taxpayers approximately $1.17 per thousand of assessed value. Our operations levy is estimated to be about a dollar per thousand um of assessed value to fund the jail. That

includes staffing, medical uh and operating costs. Um so those are some of the considerations for council to think about. Uh some of the roles and limitations. Um, I think we've covered this quite a bit, but um, city staff, including myself, the chief, um, we're limited in providing information to the public in terms of we can provide factual only. Um, that's going to come down to a council, um, you know, or a pack, um, or outside agencies doing that work. But what we're allowed to do is put together fact sheets and and do some of that kind of stuff um as we move through this. Excuse me, I've got a little bit of a cold here. Um so one of the um we prepared three options for y'all tonight. Um option one is to prepare a measure for the November 26th general election and um move forward with that. Uh, option two would be to prepare a measure for the 2027 special election if you thought that you needed more time to maybe educate the public or um to move forward with that. One caveat of that is remember that special election we're estimating cost somewhere between 60 and $100,000 whereas in the general election uh it's all funded. Is there a cost in the general election, Julie? I think that just gets lumped into the

I think there is a cost but it's um because we're sharing it with so many different entities.

So it's substantially less. Um and option three would be to uh not uh pursue a local option levy at this time. Those are the three options. uh staff did not make a recommendation on which way to move forward with this uh as we're leaving that up to you to give us guidance and we will uh move forward with the direction that you would like us to move forward on. Uh with that I'm more than happy to answer any questions. I know that was fast. uh before you've also got uh kind of a little guideline that Betsy Schultz put together kind of gives a a layout if you choose to move forward in the November general election. I think if you were to move forward on that um we would start crafting things. Her recommendation is is to wait until after the May election is over. Uh Sean, you want to add anything to that? Yeah, I think the the timeline does get us started early in May in terms of developing messaging and message collateral and things like that, but not really engaging much until after the until after the primary. So, it's there there's there's a lot of work to do and a and a we have a a good amount of time to get it done in, but we would have to start on time and hit our marks, so to speak, throughout the process. Yeah.

So, with that, are there any other questions for us? I think some of my questions are going to be for Sean. So, Sean, the um and Bet Betsy isn't here, so you're going to receive these. Um on some of these, so the community outreach launch June, like some of these pieces, like how does that look with council? Um, do you have to limit that to to not a majority of council to have meetings to talk about like messaging or or community present? And maybe this question too for you and for community presentations or can that be everyone on council participating just with public meetings laws. And

if I recall, Ron, and you'll have to back me up on this, we had this discussion and there was some concern about quorum when and if a majority of council members were working on this together in one place. But I don't remember what the resolution was to that conversation. Do you?

I uh Julie and I have talked about this quite a bit and I think um what we've come to the conclusion of is if there is a anorum of you it can be discussed in this setting, right? Um we just can't provide input, you know, yes, go, no, don't go. Um that that's totally up to you. But I think that that would be our recommendation is is those discussions about how you all as a body want to move forward could happen in this setting so that it was during a public setting, right? Okay. It would just be us as staff just kind of sitting back and going, okay, you know, how do you it wouldn't be any different than

I'll use counselor Workman who is a strong advocate for the jail and he's he's mentioned that how many times in a council meeting. I don't think it's any different than that and how you guys move forward with that. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I unders well it uses the word guardrails and that's kind of what Yeah. And and once once we get into this I think we can have Betsy here. I mean some of the things we've talked about as staff, right? We can we can do a one pager on the facts. we can um if we chose to do a town hall um about the facts, we as staff could do that if if we thought it was necessary. I think where it gets a little gray would

pass that off to counselors for the advocacy piece. I I think even with the city promoting it, so we couldn't go advertise a town hall, at least what we've read

for come hear facts about the jail and on the back end of that have a pro group or a negative group in there unless we Julie, correct me if I'm wrong, unless we had we opened it up to everybody, right? So, let's say there was a pack form that was proj um and you were going to you were going to give a spiel at the end of whatever staff said, you know, as in terms of, hey, here's the facts about the jail, when it was closed, uh how much it's going to cost to operate and those types of things. We couldn't advertise that.

I understand because a pack would be putting on the back end. Okay. So, what we can do as staff is go to that meeting and we could we could um potentially give facts, but I think I think it gets a little gray. It's it's probably best to keep those separate. Sure. Um but you can organize it. If we can't I can't advertise it. So, I can't notice said meeting where you're going to have a pro, then it gets into the politics of it, right? And how would we advertise it? Well, that's up to your pack, right? And this is off of Oregon government ethics stuff. Yeah. So, Ron Gray,

this meeting scenario that you're talking about, if staff were to just prepare a factual video, um could could that be shown at the meeting w without any staff people attending? But but you know have a presentation the pack whoever pro against whatever then discuss afterwards in a town hall setting.

Yeah. I mean we I think we as staff will prepare that uh I'll call it a one pager which is what we use at the legislature. So you give a list of the facts and it'll be a little bit different than that than a onepager but we'll give a list of the facts and your talking points about the jail but it will remain neutral. So, that could be used there. Um, could we do a video where we did that? Sure, we could do a video where we were there. I think we want to look into a little bit more, and this is where Betsy will come in, is if let's say you all organized a uh a town hall, right? And you advertised it through a specific pack, whatever that is. Can myself and the chief show up and go, "Well, here's the facts about the jail." I think that I'm a little fuzzy on that still. I'm not sure that we can actually do that, but we might be able to.

Well, you just can't make a recommendation, right? But I think the association, if we go to something like that, kind of insinuates that you could I mean, we're probably out overthinking it maybe a little bit. That's why I want her direction on that. It's no different than when we run for office. We couldn't have Ron come to a election event and talk, you know, from the city standpoint that Oh, yeah. He does. It's the same thing. Yeah. I I'd do it, but it'd be my last day. So,

so, so, so the recommendation is we wouldn't do public facing outreach until after May 19th is when the primary is. So um so for May 19th the next deadline is August 14th by this document here filing date. Yeah ballot title is that the first deadline that we we reach. I have a I have a point to these this these questions.

Yeah that that's when the ballot but you during that time you could be doing I mean you could be doing a lot of outreach. I mean, I think we've looked at uh several cities who've got operations levies and looked at their websites and um what those look like and so we can put that information on our website, right? Purely factual. We can develop a one-page sheet, I call it a one page, it might be two pages that's that's set out in all of our buildings to give everybody the facts. Um, I want to talk to Betsy about what our role would be, whether we as city staff try and engage the public with just a factual like town hall or if we let the pack and this council do that portion of it. Um, what we can provide, I know we can provide, we can say, okay, well, you want to reserve X building for your town hall event. I couldn't go out and advertise that or notice it like we would notice a a city council meeting or something like that for the city. We couldn't do that piece. So that would be where you guys would have to notice that. Does that make sense? Essentially my my reasoning for answer asking that question just was to make sure that this group understands how handsoff they have to be when it comes to to this. that really has to be carried by council. But with that, I want to make sure that Ken gets to his question, of course.

Well, what I was going to say is is it it looks like our our first deadline's August 14th, and we're going to be waiting until May after May 19th to really kick into doing this. So, with the ma the main advocate for this issue not being here tonight and another counselor that I just I just communicated with, he he's on shift. So, um I'd be okay with tableabling this until next next meeting where there's actually enough people. I'm not for kicking the can down the road at all. I'm all about making decisions. However, the main advocate that's been pushing this is not here to give his testimony and to to uh to to voice his his uh opinion on on this issue.

I think that's a good idea, Ken. And Dave Dave Workman, if you're watching this YouTube, be here or be square. So that I think there's a a fourth option of tableabling it until May because our our it's the second second Wednesday of the the uh the month. That's I know that would be what look at our calendars 13th 13th. Do you see anything timing wise that would prevent us I mean the only thing is we wouldn't have a lot of um material totally ready at this point.

That's my one concern. So, we would be that that would be the only downside to that is waiting another month to to put those materials together, which I don't know that it's going to take that long. A lot of this is going to come from the chief. I think the rest of it is just a matter of formatting and but what what are your thoughts on that? I think it's I think it's fundamentally survivable. Um, I'd hate to give up a month to be perfectly blunt because the longer time you have to communicate about your messaging, the better opportunity you have to hone your messaging. So, I would expect some of that still goes on in the meantime, but I think we could get through it. Okay.

Is there any other questions or or discussion? I I I'd like a little bit of clarification. It's very clear to me that the city staff um is is constrained to being only neutral and factual. Um I I wasn't quite understanding what Michelle was asking in regard to um the uh role of of the city council and and uh there being a quorum or something. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that if we're all at the same pack event, there might be issues because then we're essentially talking about something we have voted on and it's council business and we're asking the public to also vote on and if we're out there altogether, my understanding, and obviously the city attorney isn't here, I wish he was because he could correct me if I'm wrong. Um, we could be in some perhaps hot water. So that's where I'm concerned on that's where I brought that up. So I think as long as we stay under three at those kind of events, I think we're okay. But I'm just kind of shooting from the hip on if this is correct or not.

Julie, that's my understanding, too. As long as you stay away from a quorum, then you're not violating any public meeting laws. Um, I also did want to talk to Trey about it and I plan to do that when he comes back. But I think that any time that you gather as a quorum, then it's a, you know, needs to be a public meeting. Well, particularly for this one because we would be talking about something that is a city issue like if we're at DSA, you know, I mean, has different different rules apply there. Does that answer your

make sense now in that light? Okay. and she she's kind of laid that out here um in in her last page there. Uh one counselor often emerges as the key connector to the community. It could be one or two, right? And so they're kind of reporting back to this body. I I think we know who that is.

I do too. So I I think there's nothing wrong during council comment section, you know, that that happens um every meeting where you guys discuss what's going on or hey, I'd like to see us move this way or or that way because then it is in the public facing, right? So the public sees how you all got there rather than at some meeting at the senior center or wherever it happens to be. So a lot of rules. So, regarding a town hall, we'd obviously have to do some advertising or send out mailers. Yes. Or something like that. Yes. Who pays for that? That would be the pack.

Has anyone else talked to a pack about this beforehand? Assuming there's some association in town. I I've been kind of busy. Okay. With some other stuff. I did check with one pack and there is uh some agreement that there would be help. just put it that way. So, and I know there's another pack and I'm hoping that other members could maybe check with that one. And one of the other things that we've thought about is is maybe putting something in our utility bills which would be similar to what our one pager is on the facts, right? So, we could put those kinds of things out, but we can't advocate one way or the other whether this should go. So, that's where this gets a little bit tricky.

Well, that that would solve the issue of sending out a mailer. Yeah, it depends on how you So, ours is going to be strictly here's it's not going to as a as a pro jail person that you are, right? It's not going to have, hey, here's why you should vote for the jail. Ours is going to be, hey, here's the Lebanon Municipal Jail. Here's what it's going to cost to operate. Here's why it closed down in 2022. Uh, it operated this way. we don't have the funding to operate it moving forward. So, it's going to be strictly fact-based. So, as a pack, a pack can put out other forms of uh voter information, right? Hey, this is why you should vote on this because we want to stop XYZ from happening.

But with a utility bill, you could just state on the utility bill in a message that there's a town hall meeting at so and so place at so and so time regarding the gentle. I don't I don't think you could. No, no. I can't advertise anything for pro or or con. There's no difference in me trying to pit on for my race put on the utility bill saying, "Hey, we're going to have a meet and greet with Kim Jacob for House District 11 there. You can't do that." But the message would just be that there's going to be a town hall meeting.

Yeah. I I think we'd still If it's not something that the city is actually running, then I would say no. You couldn't do that. It would have to it would have to be done by the pack through either like Facebook. Uh it would have to be done through a mailer that the pack does some something to that effect. That's why I said in the last meeting about this subject, this is strictly on the council to make it happen. The city is not involved in it. So

So can a sitting counselor uh put money in this pack for advertising or flyers or whatever? Okay. Yeah. We just can't use city properties for advocating for Would Right now be a good time to talk about matching funds?

No. I think the first thing we need to do is decide if if we're going to vote on this tonight, vote to to do it this year, to do it in 27, to not do it at all or to to shove it until or table it until till May. So the the main advocate for this levy that's voiced his opinion for the last three years is actually present to be in that conversation. I think those and and correct me if I'm wrong. This is open form. So, um I think those are our four options right there. Three of them were provided by staff. The last one I'm going to throw in there just because of the obvious absence of two counselors.

I don't think postponing it is going to change the vote. I really don't want to lose a month either. And I would I think I think we all kind of know Dave Workman would be the lead on this and I guess if he isn't then we could come back and discuss. Speak about it. So he could speak the next time. Very passionate about it and I I just don't I feel what Sean pointed out losing a month of of time to get materials ready and it would be nice just to be ready to go on May 19th.

Yeah. um instead of have staff perhaps scramble a little bit to build a a page that has information about it that's factual or start discussing you know strategy on on our end or any of that like we're we're waiting until that date and I I don't like losing the time. Um I do respect exactly where you're coming from on Dave not being here though. Um but I feel like he would be a yes. Pretty resounding yes. Well, yeah. So, so do I hear a motion?

We haven't talked about the the timing yet of the November and May. I want to go back to that. Does Does anyone see benefit in waiting and spending the extra money to put it on a ballot or are we all kind of thinking that this should go in November 26? I think it should be in November 26. Absolutely. I agree. I agree. Okay. Well, I guess I never mind. I guess we are ready.

Um Okay. I move that council direct staff to proceed with option one, which is to prepare a measure for the November 2026 general election uh for a 5-year local option levy. Second. Motion's been made to move on municipal jail operation levy for 2026. It's been seconded. All in favor? I I I. All opposed. Motion passes. You're welcome, Dave. Wherever you Hey, Dave. It's yours now. We will start back in May.

I ju just so on the record, I'm for this, right? I just wanted to make sure that that right if we could have a a full council on this that it it already shows a little bit more transparency. You know that one of the main advocates for this and I know he probably wishes he was here right now. Um that's the only reason I brought up the fourth option. And I want to add the only reason I pushed for this going now is because we did that roll call vote in the past where I knew that everyone was on board to do it. And that's the only reason why I think we should why I went forward with with this extra time. So,

okay. And we'll we'll either do a work session in May with Betsy or have an agenda item at least to uh to show you what we've what we've developed on uh one pager kind of getting the website ready. Um nothing nothing public consumption until uh we get out there past the the May election. Um and we'll move forward that way. Great. Okay. Okay. Okay. Next up, department report, city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I don't Thank you, Sean. have a whole lot. Um Boys and Girls Club auction is coming up on May 2nd. Um I think we have four seats available. Is there anybody here interested

at a different table? Okay, Trish and I will come. Okay, so there's six. Need two more. Okay. Okay. Just you single or Oh, no. Me, me and the wife. Okay. So, full. We're full. There you go. All right. Um, if you could get that list to me so I can get it to Yeah, I will. Uh, Casey. Yeah, I'll send you that in. Okay. Better write it down. Mom, is there a cost to that? Uh, I do not believe so. No. Am I correct in that? Yeah.

Then I'm definitely good. Uh, the only other thing I've got is budget. Uh, April 16th at 1 PM here. That's Thursday, April 16th at 1 p.m. All we're going to do is uh hand out budget books and read the message um, and basically give it to you to digest, come up with a chair and a vice chair, I believe, and then also uh, set the dates for the actual budget hearings. So, so that's a short meeting. Never mind. It shouldn't It shouldn't be too bad. No, unless I read the 15page budget message. Please don't. Okay, we're talking tomorrow, right? No, no, the 16th of this week. Yeah, next next week. Sorry.

Next. I'm like, "Oh gosh, I hope it's not tomorrow." Yeah, I was going to say, "Wow, I lost some days there." Uh, that's all I've got unless you've got questions for me. And that was at one o'clock. One o'clock. Yeah. All righty. Thank you. Move on to uh is there any items from council? No.

No. Okay, we'll move on. Is there any uh anybody from the public or press that would like to address the council? So, next scheduled council meeting be uh city council meeting May 13, 2026 at 6 p.m. City and urban renewal agency budget committee meetings April 16th, 2026 at 1 p.m. Um, at this time we'll adjourn the the regular session and move into an executive session as soon as the room is prepared. So,