City Council - Regular Meeting

And heavenly father, we come before you this evening with gratitude for this town, for its people, and for the opportunity to be here together. We ask for your wisdom and guidance for each council member and servant here as they discuss and make decisions that affect our community. Lord, grant them clarity of mind, unity of purpose, and hearts that seek what is good and just for all. Help this meeting to be marked by respect, thoughtful listening, and a shared desire to strengthen the place we call home. May the work done here contribute to peace, growth, and the well-being of every resident. Lord, give these leaders um strength and endurance to finish strong as they tend a full agenda in Jesus name. Amen.

You guys want to stand for the flag salute? Remove your covers if you got them. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. And I did roll call in my mind. I see everybody's here. And I announced that uh Victoria is online. So we do have a full house a quorum tonight. And we're going to get started with a resolution and resolution approving commercial activity at Riverside Park and a fee waiver for the 2026 Southern Oregon Regional Tree Climbing Competition. And we're going to start with a presentation from Brad.

Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Um yes. So we are bringing before you tonight a request um related to Riverside Park. Uh this is a special event um or a commercial activity I should say um and a fee waiver request both kind of combined together. Uh this is the southern Oregon region tree climbing competition and this is coming to the city from the Pacific Northwest chapter of the international society of arboriculture. Um and it relates to your council goal of public safety enhancing the level of community use involvement and presence in a public space. So the the uh international society of our our borough culture their their northwest area which covers Oregon, Washington, Alaska and I forget there's it's quite a large area. Um they have uh actually I do know it's right there on the slide. Uh British Columbia is included. Um so they have a mission to promote appreciation for trees and advance our boric culture through education, research, technology and certification and they have sponsored for I think I read about 20 years uh tree climbing competitions. Um they are multi-day events. The first day I I believe is really just uh more of a check-in and kind of equipment uh review and things like that. Uh so the primary would be the second and the third days of the event. Um, and they are proposing that it run April 10th through 12th in Riverside Park. And as you have seen several times now, uh, you're aware that we have this commercial activity section that is in the municipal code. Um, and they are requesting permission underneath that code section 6.46 to uh, have a commercial activity in the park. Um this the fees that are involved are listed there uh behind me at a total about $521.

Um they're focused on the Centennial Gazebo area and the Upper Picnic Grove. We do I believe have Mike um online with us tonight. If you have any further questions can dive into it. But a few event details that were in their application which is in your packet. Um it's an athletic education competition and uh they have about 70 participants expected to be there. Um it is open to the public to come and watch. Uh the they are proposing food trucks but no alcoholic beverages. Um they will be also providing a service to the city um which we'll have here in a slide that uh essentially before they come to the event um to do some tree climbing and to clean out some dead wood and to kind of prepare the trees to make them safe for the event. So here's the proposed sections of the park that uh they're looking to use. Again, the this is East Park Street on the bottom. Um and uh the upper picnic grove area is fairly close to those upper level restrooms and then the Centennial Gazebo um adjacent to the softball field there off of Vista Drive. So, this this this area is what they're proposing to to utilize. In terms of cost implication, uh 521 would be the waiver. Um they have estimated based on their history of doing these kinds of events uh5 to $10,000 of inind that would benefit the city as a result of uh the the tree work that they would do to prepare for the event. Again, this was certified arborists that would be coming in and doing that work to prepare. Um and that would all be uh essentially donated to the city that we might otherwise have to pay for. Um so that's the the overall

summary. As I mentioned, we do have um Mike with the with the group here online. Um for further questions, the call to action is listed as tonight as you do have as you saw the events coming up fairly quick in April. Um your alternatives are there to either approve the the resolution to allow for the commercial activity and the fee waiver um both or you could split those apart. Um and then there's a recommended motion. Thank you, Brad. [clears throat] Any questions from council? I got Eric and then Rick. Go ahead, Eric.

Thank you for the presentation. I had a question in terms of liability to the city um in case somebody gets hurt. How is that covered? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, my understanding is that this would actually be considered a recreational activity and there's recreational immunity um, in all of our parks for, you know, virtually anything and that's under statute. Um, so that would cover people walking on the trails and tripping and breaking an ankle or, you know, other things like that. So, I think we're on the liability side, we would be covered underneath that. Perfect. Thank you so much. Uh Rick,

thank you. Brad, when I was on a tour in Alaska one time, I saw this type of competition. So the question I have, if they're climbing a tree, usually that tree doesn't have any branches on it. Do they have their own pole they will be providing or do they take one of our trees and delimit to the point where they're able to perform that? Uh well they have not requested to uh delim any of their public trees. So [laughter] um we we do have the applicant online though, right? Yes, we do. Yeah. And I think that probably would be a good good question for him to address. Okay. Thank you. Do we have him online to address that question?

Yeah, I'm happy to. This is My name is Mike Oxundine. Thanks Mike for Yeah, thanks for being here tonight. Um yeah, so what you're thinking about is like a timber sports competition. Um which would be like spar climbing a tree. These this competition is about using ropes moving through the canopies as um as professional arborists would be pruning to preserve trees. Um and so there's no impact there's no negative or adverse impact to the trees that we climb. Um, and in fact, we go through ahead of time and like clean out any deadwood or any potential um, risky situations and clean up the trees um, for the competition as well. So, thank you.

Awesome. Any further questions from council? All right, seeing none. Thank you, Brad, and thank you, Mike. Um, we'll open up to public comment. Is there anybody in the public uh, in the audience here tonight that wants to weigh in on this um, application for a resolution? All right. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to council for further discussion and or action. Uh Kathleen. Yeah, it it uh looks like Can you get your mic? I have it on. Oh, sorry, can't hear you. [laughter]

Well, it looks like um there is an agreement to hold the city harmless for anything that's going to transpire there as far as liability, and they do have to take out a certificate of insurance. So, I think we are covered all the way around. But it sounds like a win-win situation with them removing some of the waste and the the limbs that are dead and broken. And so it sounds like a really nice nice deal for both sides. I'd be in favor of it. Uh further action or I mean further discussion or action I got Joel.

Um the other thing is is it's a convention. I granted there's only 70 people coming. Each of them have a person with them. That's 140 that are probably staying in a motel, eating in a restaurant, um, paying our tourism tax. So, unless there's other comments, I was going to go ahead and make a motion. Go right ahead. Please. Oh, I I'll move to approve the resolution allowing commercial activity and to grant a waiver of the park reservation fees at Riverside Park for the 2026 Southern Oregon Region Tree Climbing Competition. And as Rick said, if you come to a live limb, uh, cross over it. Don't cut it down.

So Joel, I just want to clarify. Um, we do have two actions on board. Are you, um, motioning to approve both actions? Okay. So, the motion is on the table to [clears throat] approve the allowed commercial activity in Riverside Park as well as wave the reservation fees for Riverside Park with a second from multiple people, but I'm going to pick Eric. Uh, any further discussion? Okay, I'll go into a vote. Joel, yes. Um, Eric, yes. Rick, yes. Indra, yes. Joel, I mean, Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Kathleen, yes. All right, resolution passes. Thank you. Next. And I am also a yes.

Oh, sorry, Victoria. I totally I announced that you were online and then I totally forgot you. Uh, Victoria is a yes. Thank you very much, Victoria. Please speak up or or or or put your hand up so Karen will tell me. Thank you. Uh, [clears throat] next on council actions tonight is a resolution awarding lodging tax funds to for the spring 2026 cycle of tourism promotion grant program and Dana is going to lead us in the presentation.

Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council, members of the public. I'm Dana Pierce with the economic development division for the city and um as the mayor said, we're looking at the spring 2026 tourism promotion grant award recommendations. This resolution would award funds for the spring 2026 cycle of the tourism promotion grant program. These funds um the resolution will award lodging tax funds for four grant applicants for tourism promotion. It relates to the council goal of economic growth. A little bit of background. In April of 2023, the city council approved a resolution to establish this program. And in both fiscal year 24 and fiscal year 25, $35,000 was awarded to nine organizations to promote tourism activities. In fiscal year 26, $35,000 was allocated for from the tourism promotion service budget for awards that would be reviewed in two established grant cycles in fall of 2025 and then spring in 2026. This fall, $15,000 was awarded to three applicants, and for the spring, we have $20,000 remaining. The applications for the cycle opened on January 1 and they closed on February 12th. And the grant review subcommittee, they reviewed and scored 12 applications this time and met to discuss an award recommendation for the city council. A little bit more background about the program and the rules for this um for the tourism promotion grant. Um, we did identify surplus tourism promotion dollars um and then establish the grant criteria. The funds for the program are used to assist eligible businesses and nonprofits with $2500 to $5,000 each to promote events and services that will

attract tourism to Grant's Pass. Some of the other criteria include being a registered business within the city, located in the urban growth boundary and then also that the expenses that are used need to be lodging tax eligible which means they're attracting people from 50 plus miles away or leading to overnight stays. This table shows where the grant review subcommittee scores landed. You can see there were 12 applicants and the grant review subcommittee is recommending awarding full funding to the top four scoring applicants and I can I guess list those now. It's Crash and CMAC Main Street Grants Pass Rogue Valley Mountain Bike Association and Hellgate Jetboat Excursions. This table shows what was requested and what was recommended. So you can see of all of the applications, the majority asked for full funding totaling $59,000 in requests with $20,000 available for awarding for each of the recommended applicants that um the subcommittee would like to um recommend for funding. We have Crash and Steck Productions. This is a little information about what they're requesting funds for. Um they're proposing year-round concert series featuring nationally touring artists. Um their target audiences would be central Oregon, Oregon coast, southern or Wamtt Valley, and Northern California markets. They scored the highest and had the strongest application. You can also, I should mention, um there's a detailed grant review subcommittee report in your packet. It's on page 14 as exhibit one. Uh, moving on, we have the grants Main Street Grants Pass. They're proposing to use the funds to promote Cruise the Road, which is a 4-day multi-genre automotive festival. This would be a revival and expansion of the tradition

that we know as the cruise in downtown Grants Pass. They had a strong outside promotional strategy as well. The Rogue Valley Mountain Bike Association has been working on a dollar mountain trail park pamphlet map to guide tourists around the trail park and also to nearby food and shopping lodging establishments. They would also provide information on multiple mountain bike locations which would encourage overnight stays. The promotion of this asset would um help with offseason tourism. And then Hellgate Jetboat Excursions. They requested funds for a curated media familiarization event which would bring travel writers, content creators, influencers, and regional media. The grant review sub commmittee felt that the residual impact of this event will provide a significant boost to tourism. This is a list of the rest of the applicants that um we're not recommending funds for at this time. Um this was the most competitive round of grant applications that we've had so far and the committee did have um strong healthy debate and discussion about how to um recommend awards this time around um but determined the highest impact for tourism would be um to provide the maximum award to the top scoring applicants. The cost application for this resolution um it comes from lodging tax dollars. There's $35,000 allocated in the fiscal year 26 tourism promotion service budget. 15,000 was awarded in the fall of 25 as I mentioned before and 20,000 remains for the funding for this cycle. These funds are distributed as a reimbursement upon the submitt of eligible receipts. The call to action is this evening, March 18th, and it is at council discretion. Um, the alternatives would

be to approve the recommended funding awards for the applicants of the spring 2026 cycle, modify the recommendations or deny the recommended awards. I do have a motion here and I'm available for questions.

Thank you, Dana. Um, questions from council. I've got Victoria online and then Rick. Go ahead, Victoria. Um, hi. Yeah. Uh, I was looking at the applicants and I know that um I I was just wanting to know why the there were two on here that I know have proven for um for tourism and that would be the uh the active club of course boat and uh also the other that I was looking that was oh the the um horse races. I'm not as familiar with the tourism that comes in from that, but it just seemed like those are two that are have been proven in our community to bring in tourism and uh the new one the crash and CMAC is kind of a new one. So we don't have a track record on that one. So, can you explain a little bit about how the two that I mentioned might not have uh been in the finalist for this and then the new one was? Thank you.

Yes. Um well, it really came down to the scores from the subcommittee. Um when we do the scoring, um the scoring is weighted for applications that meet the criteria for tourism promotion. So they demonstrated that that attraction of um folks from 50 plus miles away or leading to overnight stays. Also attracting folks in the off season. So that'd be between September and May. And then um providing a detailed marketing budget. So some of that waiting um may have affected that. But ultimately the scores are where the subcommittee leaned into. Uh, further questions.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Victoria. Further questions. I got Rick and then Rob and Indra. Rick, thank you, Dana. So, besides being weighted in offseason and so forth as being part of the criteria, are there other elements in there that were part of the criteria to evaluate them for the score?

Yeah, we actually have a pretty detailed scoring sheet. And so, like I said, some of it's weighted, some of it um a lot of it is based on the application, what that applicant presents. So, we have to review it as as it is. Um even though we do maybe know a lot more about various um organizations in town, we really have to look at it just um as the application is presented to us. Okay. And then last question, um, are we eligible to assign additional lodging tax funds to this account if we want to expand the grants?

Um, well, the TLT dollars uh are certainly part of the annual budget review. Um the city manager's recommended budget, you know, is is prepared and as you know, the budget committee will be going forward. And so the the recommendations there um you know, do continue to allocate $35,000, which has historically, you know, been what the council has wanted to see allocated to that. But um you know the during the budget process uh if that's something the council wants to review we can certainly look at but it you know it it means a shift between different priorities and different line items in the budget.

Okay. And it's my understanding u the lodging tax funds are healthy and that's been one [snorts] of our better accounts. So, I didn't know um if we the council have that opportunity to reallocate the portion that would be designated. Thank you.

Council does have the ability to reallocate some portions of the TLT funds coming in. If that's something you want to try to look at for this year, it would require, I would imagine, a workshop for us to have that discussion because all of the TLT dollars are allocated to other resources. If that's something that you want to provide direction, you're like, "Well, I think we should have $50,000 or $70,000 allocated towards this project, then giving me that direction in advance of of the budget would be appropriate and we would make those modifications may need to come back to you with regards to if you want to pull additional resources for this, where would you like us to to reduce in some of the other categories."

Thank you for that clarification. Uh further questions I got Rob and then Indra. Uh Rob. Yeah. Dana, could you uh uh say again who actually is on the scoring committee? Yeah, the scoring committee is made up of two members of the tourism advisory committee, two economic development staff, one ad administration um staff member, and um a representative from the destination marketing organization. So that's a total of five. Six actually. I'm sorry. Could you just say them again? Sorry. Yeah, it's three staff members, two tourism advisory, and one uh destination marketing. Thank you. Yeah. All right. For the questions, I got Indra.

That was part of my question, too. Can you name who they are that's on there? Yeah. Um, let's see. Um well me Dana Pierce um Heather Smith who's also in economic development Mike Sakino Dan Buck um Constance Pallaya and um Susan Sloum. Thank you.

Thank you. And I guess my question is uh and being a liaison to the tourism and knowing how close the staff is with different committees. [sighs] So if there's an application where you don't know because you know a lot of the people involved if there if there's one where you do you ever do follow-up questions? If there's an application sometimes someone on the committee can answer it because they're in the know. They know that. Do you know what I'm saying?

And so that can be answered. But if there are questions on applications that you're not sure about, do you just score low or do you do any followup with the applicants? Historically, we have done some followup. Um when this program first started, we had a lot less applicants and so we could um I think take a little more time to go back. Um I think in this scenario we had a healthy number of applicants and some really strong applications. So I don't think that there was um we I guess the subcommittee didn't feel like a need to have to have any other questions answered. Go ahead if you got more.

Just one more. Um, and then historically, do you give um the money the grant to organizations that are new, just starting out or that have established that they can hold events and have hold of held events and that it's established that their events are successful or do you give money to um startups? historically how is there a

both yeah both have always been considered and I think if we were to look back it's probably uh close to half and half you know or um maybe not in every application cycle but we definitely have had um application cycles where we had more people that are more established that and then other that with less people that are new and then in some cases more people that are new but it's definitely a Thanks. Uh, and further questions. I had Kathleen.

So, I was curious, uh, with this new, uh, first one chosen, how famous are these national touring artists that would maybe come here? I mean, what are we looking at? Do you know some of the ones that they've recruited? No, I don't know that detail. Yeah, further questions. I got Rob and then Eric. Rob, I'm a follow up to what Kathleen was referring to. Um, what is the uh what is the seating capacity at the the venue at the hive where these national acts will be performing? I also don't know the answer to that. I'm sorry.

So, we really don't have any idea of how many people they could be drawing to the area. They currently do have concert events there at the Hive. Um, we could get ask I guess get some that answer from someone. I don't know if someone knows that. I don't know. I'm just I'm just wondering how you you could have been able to ascertain what kind of impact it might have on tourism without knowing the the uh seating capacity. Okay. Further questions I got Eric.

Yeah. I just don't wanted to know about this. Um, I noticed the Chamber of Commerce endorsed the uh the 50s uh car show. I wanted to see how that stacked up against all these other ones in terms of scoring and why. Well, like all of the applications we the scoring just evaluates whether they have um you know support from the community. We do look at those um letters of recommendation and and it's included in the scoring and in the deliberation as well. Do you wanted Dana to maybe pull up the that one slide that that had all of them listed?

Oh, the list. Oh, sure. Yeah. Um this one is Would you prefer this one? This is the one that shows the scoring.

I see it. Thank you.

Uh, further questions? I got Indra. I guess a kind of a followup to Eric's question is I'm wondering about the classic cruisers too who've been doing their event successfully for so long of a time and the cruise is is a new thing I mean what so when you score everyone scores is there then discussion about it I'm assuming and can you give a reason kind of just general discussion why the classic cruisers got zero and or and the classic cars got zero and the Rogue Cruise got all of it or 5,000. Thank you.

Yeah, the um Rogue Valley Classic Cruisers and we did um they did request a call with us. So, we did talk to them um and share some information about their application. Um it really came down their application wasn't super strong. they didn't answer all of the questions and they they didn't have a detailed budget to show us how they were going to spend the money to attract folks. Um, and th those are all pieces of the scoring criteria. Any further questions from council? Okay, one more. Andra,

so they've received the grant in the past. Do you recall were you involved in the scoring? So do you recall did they have a more detailed budget in those instances or No, people just kind of knew what what they did. No, they have um they they have had it with more detail um where it answered more of the questions of the application. So when you followed up and talked spoke with them, did they still have no they couldn't tell you what they would spend it on? Is that what you're saying?

They didn't provide us that information in detail. They had a total amount that they're requesting. Um other applicants provide a detailed budget of how that those funds would be spent. So we have a clear understanding of the outreach that's happening. Mayor, would you mind would you mind if I just finished up the staff report with with one comment? That would be great. Thank you, Brad.

Um yeah, and for those that um since this program started before the some of the the newer councils are on here, maybe just a little bit of background. So this this um is a relatively new program, but I just wanted to reiterate that the um from the beginning the the the council has always had the final say on these of course um and the review committee um is really just trying to you know go through that detailed checklist um and come up with an initial but it you have you have complete latitude um at the council to to change the full application materials. are in the pack and that's you know we try to do that so that you can judge for yourself if you have um a different agreement. We just need to we just need to have on the record um if you disagree or you know you choose a different um group to be to be funded so that that's that's clear in the record.

Thank you Brad. Uh any further questions from council

Joel? So in my mind I was just going through um number of people attracted by event um and it's kind of ambiguous. Um though there's several that stick out obviously the horse racing, the active club, the band boosters u and so and you're right they might come anyway. A lot of them would come anyway but they do pack they bring in a lot of people. uh jetboat excursions. Um the bike is just starting out. I'm not sure where those brochures are going to go. Uh are they are they just here in town? Are they going they're going to go like with all the motel where you see brochures and tour Oregon or something like that or

Yeah, they have an intent to distribute them um beyond the Rogue Valley up the I5 um to

Okay. And then the difference between the two car rallies. Um um there was difference in applications obviously. I I just wonder in terms of the uh one has done it before the other one hasn't. And um how it went before? Did it go it? From my knowledge it went really well. Um at least there was a lot of people that came in. I we had people I had friends from Powers come over to it. Um, that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen with the other people, but one has done it and the other one hasn't. That experience then did that play into it at all?

We do, I guess, think about some of these things. Uh, I mean, the CL the cruise the rogue event is a multi-day event. Um, or I guess more than multi-day than the um, Rogue Valley Cruisers. Um, sorry I lost my train of thought. I was um That's okay.

In alignment with what you were saying though. Um, we do look at at various things related to each event, when it's happening in the year, how how many people we think they could could be attracted. Um, we talk about Crash and Cac bringing in concerts. Well, they're bringing in multiple concerts throughout the year that's going to bring in even though it's a smaller amount of people than maybe you'd see at a large event like boat, they're going to be coming in throughout the off season. Um, so there there's all a lot of things do get considered, but we do have to rely a bit on the scoring um because that's one way we can narrow it down and evaluate it.

So the um the wineries do that also. they they'll bring in uh music. So I I assume it would be something similar to that with probably a similar result in terms of uh people attending depending on the capacity, right? It would be a series of concerts over multiple weeks.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? All right, Shay. Thank you very much, Dana. At this point, um, I'll open up to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience that wants to weigh in on this, uh, resolution? All right. Seeing none, I'll bring it back to council for further discussion and or action. Uh, Kathleen. Well, I'm just looking at some of the ones that weren't chosen uh or that had uh lower scores, and they're definitely annual events that we know bring in people from 50 miles away or longer. Maybe it's just one time a year, but they bring in because they're annual, because they're traditional, people are aware, they come to them. So, I was wondering, you know, kind of uh I see that the the committee wanted to choose some new features. It seems like everything on there is new. Even the jetboat is a new uh angle on attracting tourism. So I my thought is to modify this list and uh approve two traditional ones that we know bring people in that we know are uh crowd-pleasers and maybe choose two new ones. So that's my thinking on this.

Uh further discussion. Um Victoria, did you want to did you have any discussion for this topic? Um yes I did. I uh Kathleen was cutting in and out so I couldn't exactly hear her proposal. If you could I it might be her mic. I'm not sure but if you could sum up what uh her suggestion was that would be helpful. And then yes I I had one is a a suggestion as well but mine might be a lot like her. So I I wanted I didn't want to repeat it if it was but I didn't hear it. Well Well could you sum it up again, Kathleen? Sorry.

Sure. Sure. I can do that. Uh I was uh wanting to modify this list uh and incorporate two traditional crowd-pleasers and uh maybe try than two of the newer one, vote on two of the newer ones and have a u uh not have every single new program on this list.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Um well yeah what I was thinking was a little bit along those lines. So um I know that boatnik had its largest year last year and with further advertising since it's already a popular event. I think that would be a very uh that would be money well spent and uh so I would like to see the grants pass active club to receive these funds over and the the crash and CAMAC productions may be really um successful but we don't know if they are. So, it might be a good idea to give them a year and uh if they're going to be doing it anyway and and have them be able to gauge the tourism that they do bring in and then come back next year. So, I would like to propose to swap the active club with the crash and CMAC productions. And uh so there's one I would like to see that happen. Okay. Um, further discussion, Rob?

Yeah. Um, so just I I think that um all hopefully the whole council realizes that we're not limited to uh a $5,000 maximum. I should say we're not limited to $5,000 for four different um four different groups. I mean, just for instance, it could be five different groups of $4,000. So, it's not necessarily one or the other. We could reduce some of these and also add some just so that everyone's clear on that. Um, I'd also, you know, when I look at, um, you know, some of these, the benefits that I see on on a few of these would possibly be measured in the dozens or maybe hundreds of visitors. And whereas if you know the active club were to increase um their advertising sum, the benefits could very well be in the thousands or tens of thousands of visitors. So you know when I'm looking at dozens or hundreds versus thousands or tens of thousands, you know, I understand because I I looked and I understand the criteria and I realized for instance Crash and CMAC productions had a beautifully written application. either they have a great grant writer or a very talented AI person or just talented writer. But to me that doesn't necessarily impress me. Now that may I understand that's the criteria of the the committee. They have to be impressed with an application. And frankly the active club uh their application in some ways was bare bones. In other ways it was the most impressive. And what I'd like to say, you know, and the the parts that were the by far far far and away the most impressive to me was some of the results that they've gotten, you know, um with with, you know, the collateral benefits, in other words, of supporting them and increasing them. You know, they've talked about direct funding for approximately 50 to 70 different youth organizations covering

everything from high school marching band travel, etc., etc., uh continuing a warning of $10,000 plus in annual scholarships uh you know to go to college and things of that nature and I understand that may not fit into the committee's criteria. Me as a counselor would fit into my criteria. So to be able to increase them to some degree to possibly thousands or or tens of thousands more visitors with some more advertising dollars to me is frankly a no-brainer for the council. Um and again I understand that their application uh was not quite as as slick or beautiful but um um that doesn't impress me as much as their past results and the collateral benefit that we get. So you know for me at a minimum you know I would want to increase the number of of recipients. It doesn't have to be four at $5,000 each. I mean it can be this $20,000 divided up a number of different ways. So, but again, I'm I'm very much in favor of including the active club uh frankly this in every year as long as they continue to uh produce the results they produce. Um, as far as uh you know, classic cruisers versus Main Street, things of that nature. I mean, I don't know. Just throwing it out there. It's possible that both could get 2500 if if people want to do it. It's not either or. Um, thank you.

Uh, any further council discussion and or action? Intro.

Yes, I had written some modifications as well. I totally agree with the active club. They bring in so many visitors and not just for that weekend because people that come for the weekend also come back because they see how great our area is and they continue to come back. So, it's not just uh for that weekend. I also know um between the uh classic cruisers and the new Cruise the Rogue uh there's a little bit of disagreement with that and and I feel like um it would be a slap in the face to the Cruise the Rogue who've been doing it for 30 years to give them no money and then give this the new entity. And I'm all for Main Street and I see that growing and I'm so happy it will grow the the cruise, but we have now uh two weekends in a row in my mind competing with the car shows and so it's not turning out too well. But just just so there's no hard feelings, I would like to see that split to 2500 each, that five um that $5,000. And then, you know, I'm for letting new people try. Maybe it'll be a great thing. Um, the Hive's a great place. A lot of people um go there. They do a lot of events. And obviously the committee thought that the the mountain biking association deserve to get money. I think the maps for the trails is an awesome idea. I know a lot of people are working on the biking trails and to get um that really going for outdoor wreck and I think that's going to be a really u money making thing for for tourism. We

it's just going to take time. So I would be for um 5,000 for the active club um 5,000 for the jetboats. I think that's going to be a great idea and bring lots of tourists. And then I would be for splitting the 2500 each for Main Street Grants Pass and Rogue Valley Classic Cruisers and 2500 each for Crash and Mac and the Mountain Bike Association. Those are my thoughts. Erin, did you want to add to discussion?

Yeah, I do. Just JC and I have been been talking. JC's been crunching some numbers. Uh, two things. One do want to mention in case council doesn't know, we are a sponsor for boatnik and we do provide them $5,000. So they do get some city sponsorship dollars separate from this pot, but it was mentioned that they don't get anything and we do have a sponsorship with with the active club for boat nick for $5,000. We do have the ability based on some unspending uh or projected under spending for council to if they want to so allocate up to $10,000 uh to continue to sponsor additional individuals if they want. We could probably fit that into the budget or you can keep it the same at as you have allocated. Just wanted to make sure that that that was uh an option for you.

So to summarize, Aaron said that the city already does sponsor the the boatnik with an annual $5,000 as basically a hardline sponsorship as well as there is sounds like an additional $10,000 that could be reallocated to go into this plot. Okay. So, uh any further discussion? Andra, where is that 10,000 coming from? It's just under spending in certain areas. So, we had a vacancy this year in economic development. So, part of that salary savings would be realized here.

I I guess I'll just start. I would say that no, we don't want to draw money from other pots for this. Any further discussion, Kathleen? Uh be before, sorry, I'd just like to correct that. That's not another pot of money. A portion of the salaries of economic development staff is attributed to the tourism promotion program because they help her run the program. And so the salary savings of that vacancy, there is a piece that comes back here. Kathleen.

Yeah. Well, if we're looking at breaking the money up a little bit here, I would like to this is what I want to see happen. Uh I think supporting Main Streets Car Cruise and the classic cruisers the same with uh 2500. I think uh giving the active club a little bit more 5,000. Um the bike association for sure to get them up and running with their pamphlets 2500. Um, and bringing in the band boosters. I think they deserve some uh uh money from this pot, too, just because they're a traditional uh crowd-pleaser, bringing in lots of familyfriendly activity, uh competing with other bands across the uh state. I think that's a welldeserved uh support there. And then being able to support the horse racing as well. That's I've heard uh people say that we don't have enough horse racing only three times a year. Well, maybe we can expand that if we give them some money, too.

Uh further discussion. I've got Victoria online. Victoria,

yes, thank you. Um I wouldn't be for taking money um more money and putting it into here just because there are so many other things that we need to fund as well beyond this. But I am uh generally in agreement with most of what everybody says. But uh but I would swap still would like to see the the grants pass active club uh get the $5,000 and the the newer one the crash and CMAC maybe see how they do for a year and come back later for that because uh the active club even though we do sponsor them uh they are growing. We're we're the second largest um event draw I think in the state of Oregon is what I heard. So, uh being able to help them with further advertise advertisement to grow it. I I don't see a problem with that if they end up giving getting a total of $10,000 $5,000 from one pot and five from another. So, I would like to see the the the switch there. and uh the other uh splitting between the newer um I think sounds all right too, but I would also not be for adding money to it because of so many other things to fund.

Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion I got Seth.

Yeah. Um I don't know. There's a lot going on here. I mean I'm I'm okay with how it stands to be honest with you. Um, I will say on the main street front that we've had conversations with the Rogue Valley Cruisers in the past um have tried to partner uh on that front and um either way it's fine. Um I will say though that Main Street is bringing the actual crews through town back. So that is a huge um thing that we've missed over the last I don't know what it's been five six years. I'm not 100% sure. So there's that piece. Um I think the other thing the point maybe that people are missing is some of these you know I mean like active club is great and they bring a lot of people and like you know Aaron said we've already given them some money uh from the city. Um but the ultimate reality here is that this $5,000 this is not an entire marketing budget right? So this is just supporting right all these organizations hypothetically hopefully are going to spend more than that or need more than that. So, I like the idea of supporting newer uh initiatives and newer um events to try to draw traffic in versus saying, you know, go out and try to do it yourselves in year one. Again, because $5,000 to crash a CMAC could be a lot. Um and to the active club, it could be less. But again, um yeah, I I think it's fine where it's at. I trust the committee. Um, you know, and I think everyone in here has put a lot of work in. So, but again, the ultimate reality is that it's $5,000 and that's a lot for some, little for some. Um, but it's going to ultimately take more than that and they're all going to invest more in their marketing budgets.

Uh, thank you. Any further discussion and or action? Rob?

Yeah. not um I think we've got quite a bit of support for the active club, but I do want to just remind people, yes, we sponsor them for 5,000, but uh in their application, um they're t they've talked about the recent $16,000 grant to Grants Pass High School for sports uniforms and STEM equipment. Uh tens of thousands of dollars in annual um annual scholarships. So they're already uh uh giving us a tremendous return on our investment and I you know to to invest more with them uh could just potentially again add um uh possibly even increase that uh dramatically. They're already giving us far more uh bang for our 5,000 bucks in addition to tourism in addition to everything else uh all the collateral benefit that they give us. So, uh, they they completely um they have my trust, that's for sure.

Any further discussion or action? Rick,

we have a lot of valid applicants here and who do a lot for the community and I think that's a real benefit. Uh what concerns me though um we've put together a committee to review this with specific criteria and if we start deviating and again we as a council have the ability to to change the rules but I think um the committee has looked at this and I think it deserves a certain amount of recognition because when we start deviating from that then we're not using our recognition of the committee and the work that they've done. Also, we're not recognizing the criteria. So, I think if we start changing things too much, uh, we need to re-evaluate where we're headed. Thank you. Further discussion, I got Indra.

Yes, thank you for that, Rick. I agree um to a point that I respect the committee's work and and it's not easy and thank you, but also ultimately when we make the decision, we're accountable to people out there. We will hear from a lot of people um that are out there that are are counting on us. With that said, I um I too favor the um organizations that give back to the community as Rob mentioned. And so I think Kathleen's um suggestion was very similar to mine except for the one thing she would like to give money to um the boosters. I have a soft place for the kids and the band and the boosters work really hard and put a lot of time and money. I would not object. I said 25 uh for Crash and Mac and the biking. I think the biking would be my preference over Crash and Mac. So, if if counselors preferred to give that money to the boosters, I would be for that um piece. But I would like to hear from the counselors that haven't spoken what they're thinking. So I just want to remind council as well is this grant program is using TLT dollars which is basically the intention or the implementation of TLT dollars is to attract people from 50 miles away or greater. So with that sentiment, you do have to take that into accountability um when you're deciding these funding factors because if you are deviating from the spirit of where the funds are coming from, you know, I think it's been very much said that these some of these organizations that were mentioned do a lot of community activity, which is great, but you that does not necessarily align with the spirit of the TLT

dollars, which is to actually attract people from 50 miles plus. So, just keep that in mind when you're discussing these these grant friends because this program is set up um being funded with those dollars with that aspect of trying to get more people from further away to get here. So, um with that, I have Victoria online first and then I'll go back to you Andrea and Kathleen. Victoria. Um, yeah. I think I would just like to go ahead and make a motion to take the funding from the first the Crash and CMAC productions and push that to the active club and to split the $5,000 between the two car shows. And uh that's maybe people would like to make other motions past that, but that's the motion that I would like to make. that that I am making.

Okay. Just to clarify with you, Victoria, before we go into further discussion, uh your motion is to um reallocate uh $5,000 um from Crash and CMAC to the active club and split the 5,000 to two 2500 to each of the different car shows. Is that correct? And everything else stays in place. Everything else stays in place. I think people might want to then further there might be a little bit more splitting uh perhaps, but I think that's a good clear start.

Okay. Um does council understand the motion fully? Could you repeat it? Um, so the motion is at hand is to move $5,000 award from Crash and CMAC to active club and split $5,000 into $2500 increments between the two um cruise the two cruises. Everything else stays in place. Yes. Thank you. So there is a motion on the table and I would be looking for a second unless there was other questions.

Okay. So I'm I'm sorry Clint just to clarify. So so that motion uh maintains the $5,000 for the mountain bike and the full amount. Yes, it would it the the motion would be to keep all awards in place except for the modifications mentioned. Okay.

Yes. I was thinking that maybe people would want to do some another motion after that for other uh for others, but I just thought that that might be a good place to start to take care of the things that I'm hearing that counselors are looking to do and that I also agree with. So, so if we pass this motion that are we saying that we can still have a second motion to then further further divide this? Is that you would have to have a friendly amendment to the motion?

Oh, yeah. That that would be that would be fine as well. Okay. All right. So, the motion is at hand to award um Main Street, right? Yes. Yep. Main Street.

So, it would to award as listed here, Main Street 2500, um Bike Association 5,000, Hell'sgate 5,000, Grants Pass Active Club 5,000, Rogue Valley Classic Cruisers 2500. That is the motion at hand. Seth, further disc. Go ahead, Seth. I don't have a second yet, so I don't know if there's quite Okay, so I got a second from Eric. So the motion was uh tabled with uh by Victoria and seconded by Eric. So further discussion I had um Indra, Kathleen, and Seth. So, Indra,

well, that was before the motion, so Okay, Kathleen, I'm done. Yeah, I'd like to make an amendment to the motion. Um, can I do that now? You can ask for an Yeah, I'd like to ask Victoria for an amendment to that motion. Since uh Hellgate already gets 5,000 from the city, I would like to also discard them as well as CMAC. And um I agree split the money between the two car shows. Um give uh the active club 5,000 and split the other 2500 between the bike association and the boosters.

So Hellgate does not get $5,000 from the city. Oh, I thought you said that the city already gives them money. That's active club.

Oh, active club. They already give money. Okay. Excuse me. I misunderstood that. That changes it up a bit. So, okay. I'm asking you to amend the motion to splitting the money between the car shows like you already mentioned, splitting the money between the bike association and the band boosters. And um then yeah, splitting it I guess between the um well if the active club already gets money between the racing uh racing association and the hellgate. Is that clear Victoria?

So is that two splits I heard? Yeah. Hellgate and um Ban Boosters. Hellgate and Boosters. And the other was a split between the Mountain Bike Association and which the horse racing. Oh, the horse racing. Yeah. Um that kind of fits with a lot of things that I was hearing from people. So uh uh but I'm also open to hearing discussion on it. But I would say yes that I would be agreeable to that friendly amendment.

Eric, I go to you as the second for the first motion and Victoria has agreed to a friendly amendment to her first emotion. Are you agreeance with that? Okay. Yes. So, I'm going to try to list this before we go on into further discussion. Go ahead, Rob. Okay. So, Kathleen, did you uh as part of your motion, was it to reduce the active club dollars? Is that what I heard? Yeah. Yeah. If we're already giving money to them, then Yeah. If it is the 5,000, if we're still giving them 5,000.

Oh, no. I I I I didn't hear it as the active club. No, I I wanted to keep the active club. Uh I thought you said other. It gets so confusing, especially when you're So, apologies for that. Um yeah, I wanted to keep the active club at the 5,000. I thought you were splitting between the two car shows and then uh but you were splitting the uh mountain bike with the boosters and uh then may I guess I did not understand the rest of that. Apologies for that. So I I did not want to split the the money for the

Okay. So active. So as the way I understand it, Victoria is not accepting to the friendly amendment as stated. So, we still have the same motion on the table, which is um $5,000 to the Active Club, um 2500 to Main Street, and 2500 to um Rogue Valley Classic Cruisers. Everything else listed stays the same. Um further discussion, I have um Indra and Seth. Indra,

so I would like to make a friendly amendment. Victoria. Um, keeping, and I think this is along the lines of a little bit of what Kathleen's asking for, too. Keep 5,000 for the active club, 5,000 for Hellgate, 5,000 split split Main Street and Classic Cruisers, 2500 each. And then split the 5,000 for the Mountain Bike Association. split that into 2500 for mountain bike and 2500 for the band boosters. And I would say I understand what you said Clint about the boosters, but they do bring in bands from all over the state. So they bring in people from all over way out of town. Um so it is a tourism thing. Um did you understand that Victorian

that? Yes, I did. And that's actually the friendly uh um amendment that I in my mind was hearing from Kathleen. So I would say yes to that. Okay. So, um, Victoria has accepted your friendly amendment to further reallocate 2500 to the split the 25 split the 5,000 that was going to the bike association to 2500 for the bike association and 2500 for booster. Eric, since you were the original second on that, are you still seconding the friendly amendment? Yes.

Thank you very much. Okay. So, further discussion. Um I need to get Seth in here be and then I'll try to uh clarify uh next round. Seth, go ahead.

Okay. I got two points. No amendment. Point number one, this is for anything beyond 50 miles. And I will tell you again, like I said earlier, some of these people will have more money for marketing, some less. 50 miles and beyond takes a lot of money to draw people into town. Um $2,500 not a lot. So I I'm just just to point that out. Second, um Main Street has come to council for probably the last year and a half. Well, we spent a year coming to council asking to if the city would consider supporting us. We came for originally with a three-year budget. that got nixed down to one year and then the night of the vote that got nixed to half of that and now you're nixing this to half of that. But all in the while we've gone out and we have found private funding. We've hired an executive director. We're trying to put on an event. We're trying to bring back the crews. Um I again I'm I'm just I'm just making a point. I don't have an amendment at this point. Um, but we've tried to work with the uh classic cruise club. Um, we set our date, they set their date after. It wasn't supposed to be like that. So, again, I I just I just want to point that out. Okay. So, I'm going to try to clarify this motion with a friendly amendment uh so we can have further discussion and everybody is clear because I hopefully I am. So grant funding has been would would like to be distributed per this motion and for the minute as such 5,000 for the active club 2500 for Main Street cruise

2500 for Rogue Valley Classic Cruisers 2500 for the Mountain Bike Association 2500 for GP band boosters and 5,000 for Hell gate which equals the total of 20,000 with the second Eric agreeing to the friendly amendment. Is there any further discussion? Does everybody on this dis understand the full motion on the table? Further discussion. Victoria, anything else to add?

Nope, that's clear. Thank you. All right, so no further discussion. I will go into a roll call vote and I will start with uh Victoria since it was your motion. Victoria, how do you vote? Yes. Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, thank you. Sorry, Kathleen. Yes. Joel, uh, yes. Um, Eric, yes, Rick, no. Indra, yes.

Okay, I got seven to one. So, that motion passes as amended. Um, so the granting is passed as the amended award was laid out. Does staff have full understanding of what we just did? Yes, we do. Thank you very much. Um, next on the council action items is a resolution amending the non-bargaining and teamsters classifications classification plans and Eric or uh, sorry, Aaron will lead us in a presentation. Great. Thank you, Mayor Councel. I'm just going to pause

brief presentation uh bringing back to you the discussion we had from the workshop with regards to some staffing changes and future budget development direction from the city council. Also have some additional information based on your questions from Monday's workshop. So, what you have in front of you in the packet is a request for a couple of things and just uh some of those are general information so you'll know where things are going. Also, from a community service officer allocation standpoint, we're not looking for any department any kind of level service changes. Uh the first item is just to take the general fund portion of the um community service officer that is allocated right now to downtown and move it from a numbers perspective to police. So no changes in level service, no changes in FTEES. It's just an accounting thing. It's just clear accounting that the CSO will be fully funded through police. That's it. The second is changing one FTE from an engineering tech to an engineering supervisor. That would be a net increase of about $20,000. That would provide some additional services to us internally and externally providing a supervisor level person out in the field which has been a service level that we've that's been requested from a number of the contractors and developers out there in the community. I have some information with the hierarchy to show you that you requested. There's also in front of you an additional one FTE for facilities maintenance tech as we discussed in at Monday. Right now, police and fire are taking care of the maintenance of the buildings themselves. their resources and their time would be better served in the field doing what they've been hired to do and us receiving one additional

FTE for facilities maintenance would be focused on those four structures allowing police and fire to focus on the services they provide. The other is a reallocation and responsibility modification of the urban forester to an urban forestertrail coordinator. This would be an increase of approximately $54,000 per year to the general fund as it was split before between public works and between uh uh the general fund. Public works is going to handle the urban forester requirements via contracts as they see appropriate on your DIS. There's also these because I know it's hard to see from here, but this is currently the hierarchy as requested by the council of the public works department here with the engineering supervisors. The change you see here, it helps allocate some changes and provides for an engineering supervisor to be there. Span of control is a little better for the assistant public works director and it helps provide some of that internal um strength when it comes to service delivery and external customer service. The facilities maintenance tech is shown here as the additional change. There would be a one additional facilities maintenance tech which would be added uh to the current municipal service workers that we have in place and that would be under facilities superintendent. Call to action is scheduled for today but it truly is at your discretion and I open it up for questions.

Thank you Aaron. Um, any questions from council? As you do remember, we did discuss this in length at a workshop. So, [cough] excuse me. I got a cough. I will call on you. One second. Uh, Joel and then Kathleen. Joel. Can you I have the new organization chart for the public works and the old organization chart. I don't see in my handout. Maybe I'm missing it. that second organizational chart. It's a separate handout separate that is okay. It's on the dis there, counselor.

Okay. I'm uh I'm struggling which isn't unusual. Kind of look at yours. Okay. Thank you. There you go. Okay. Thank you. Um the the question I had and I think the organizational chart will answer it. Uh how many of these um facility uh uh let's see where are the facility maintenance techs do we have? We have we would have one facility maintenance tech and two uh facility workers and two facility workers. Okay. So that's the workers that are underneath the municipal service workers. Jason has a correction.

No, it it would be one facility tech, one municipal lead. I actually noticed an error on your screen and I apologize. That was totally mine. We have a municipal specialist um and a municipal service worker. So there would be three facilities people doing the work in addition to the superintendent who is running the overall operation as well as doing the bulk of the RFPs for the for the major projects and and these four people then uh handle all of the the buildings that the city manages. Yes.

Okay. Thank you, Kathleen. Um, I was wondering when we talked about the facilities maintenance tech the other day, um, it looked like there was going to be an increase of 112,000 per year build directly to the for this new position. That is correct. Um, when I looked it up, maybe you can help me understand how it got that high, but when I looked it up, it looked like the average uh salary for this position would be more like 50,000. So that's uh that's salary and benefits. So that's an all-in cost of what it would cost the general fund to have this position. Okay.

Any further questions? Joel Rob, did you have a question? You

Oh, okay. I I I hate to ask this question, but I must. Um, do we have the money in the general fund to pay for it? So back to Monday's discussion, this was included in that bottom baseline of 18.5ish, but again, you've already made um direct you've already given clear direction as far as needing the general fund to remain above 25%. So there's a question of are you going to count realized savings or budgetary appropriations and we're back in that conversation. And so if you're going to realize budgetary savings, budgetary savings, this can be affordable.

Any further questions, Rick? So, I can see the merit of the facilities maintenance deck to make sure our buildings are properly maintained and we're protecting our investment. For a s a town of our size, is it typical that they have a maintenance tech or do they just take on that um assignment within the [snorts] organization? I think currently they are just taking it on as some extra duties within there. Um, as you recall from the PAVE audit, one of the things that was identified was that we were not um, maintaining our capital assets maybe as well as we should have. To do that takes skilled people. The building systems today are very technical. You need people that are trained in building operations, HVAC and water systems and everything like that. And so we feel that while it does feel like a lot of money that is spread across the four buildings, you know, but you're going to get a lot more back in increased asset life. And that's really what we're looking at here is extending the lives of your buildings which cost you millions of dollars.

Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none, thank you very much, Erin. [clears throat] I'll open up to uh public comment. Anybody in the audience want to uh weigh in on this resolution. All right. Seeing none, I'm going to bring it back to council for further discussion and or action. Joel. Well, I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to amend the classification plan.

All right. Do I have a second? Second from Eric. So it has been motioned to amend the non-bargaining and teamsters classification plan as stated uh with a second from Eric. Any further discussion? Indra. Yes, we spoke for hours on Monday regarding our budget wos and I I'm not prepared to um hire new a new position and promote. We're still working on the salary schedule. Uh we haven't gotten that button down. We started from scratch on that. So, we don't even know where that's ending up. So, I I'm not prepared uh at this. I feel rushed into this. I'm sure the staff has planned way in advance on on staffing needs, I'm assuming. Um but I feel like we should wait on this, so I'm not going to be voting for it.

Uh thank you. Any further discussion? Uh, Victoria, did you have anything to add? No, not at this time. Thank you very much. Any further discussion? Okay, I'll go into a vote. Start with Joel. Yes. Um, Eric, yes. Rick, yes. Indra, no. Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Kathleen, no. Uh, Victoria. Yes.

All right. So, we have uh six to two. So, resolution passes. Thank you very much. All right. We're going to move into appointments and uh we have sorry um first is uh three members to the tourism advisory committee and that would be your blue sheet in front of you. Um please uh mark down your preference for three members to the tourism advisory committee. Sign the paper and send it down, please. So we have four applicants for tourism event advisory committee and we are choosing um to appoint three tonight. Victoria,

can you can Can you get Victoria's preference, please? I sent it to the chat. Okay. Thank you, Victoria. Karen's getting it. [clears throat]

I think this is what it is. Okay, so tallying up everybody's preferences, we have six counselors for preference for Rebecca Anderson who is reapplying. um seven preferences for I'm sorry I'm going to butch this Wness Grow and eight preferences for Trevor House and three for C for Corey. So um the threeest uh the three people that have more preferences is Rebecca Win and Trevor. I would be looking bringing back to council for a motion to appoint three members

and I totally apologize. First three. First three. I'd be looking for council for a motion. Seth. Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve these three for um tourism bar community with Rebecca Winnis and Trapper. Okay. Uh so we have a motion on the table to appoint three members to the tourism advisory committee. Re um Rebecca Weenus and um Trevor. Uh, second, Joel. Second. All right. Any further discussion? I'll go ahead with a uh vote. Seth, yes. Um, Kathleen, no.

And, uh, Joel, yes. Uh, Eric, yes. Um, Rick, yes. Indra, yes. And Rob, yes. Victoria, no. Okay. So, two nos and uh so that those three members are appointed to tourism advisory committee. Thank you. Next appointments is sorry. Go ahead. I I I wanted to uh discuss this one first. Make a motion about this first. Okay. Because I um Can I announce what we're doing first?

Sure. I wanted to uh ask the council if they wanted to because we're picking seven and the strength of some of the candidates was so strong. I wanted to possibly see if uh council would agree to expand this number to either eight or nine rather than the seven. Okay. So, we have uh next on our appointments is appointing seven members currently to the small business task force. We do have a number of candidates in there and Rob has uh recommended for discussion to increase that number to from seven members to eight or nine. Correct. Any counselors want to further discuss that? expanding the number of people on task force. Kathleen,

well, if I remember correctly, we had this come up with the COPA uh committee and it was advised not to have so many because um a lot doesn't get done. So, I would be probably against raising that number to keep the med committee in a sizable amount of people to get more done. Um, further discussion I had Indra and then Rob. Andra.

Uh, yes, I do remember that discussion. I also looked and we do have quite a few strong members. I actually had a hard time pairing down from nine. So, I would go with that. If not nine, eight would be better um than seven. Rob.

Yeah. Um, just to address my my memory of the uh the COPA, I believe that was a request to go I think from 9 to 12 and I believe that the 12 was considered to be an unwieldy number but um I don't believe that eight is an unwieldy number. Um many of our committees have in that ballpark uh right around eight. Um, and again, the the strength, especially in the at large positions, was really strong. And again, it's I still think that that eight is definitely a workable number. That's that's what most of our committees are in that ballpark. Thank you. Uh, Aaron,

council may want to consider choosing an odd number. And if you want to add more, maybe go into the nine to avoid any confusion with ties for recommendations to council. So, you may want to look at the number nine. It just make it simpler for for a task force. Any further discuss any further discussion on increasing the number um on the small business task force? Rick, I'm also supportive of Rob's idea of going to nine people. I think it would be an advantage to have additional people involved with the task force, which I think is an advantage and I think nine is a manageable number. Thank you.

Okay. Um, Indra, as you being the champion of this of actually building this task force, are you on board with increasing to an odd number as such as nine? Yes, that's a a very good idea. Nine. Uh, Joel. So, I just have a question because there's only six categories and if you have Go ahead, Erin. You know my question.

Yeah. So, to fix that, council, moving forward, if this motion does pass, we're still in discussion, I believe. Is that correct? If this motion does pass, uh it would be recommended unless council wanted to do another way is you have you have five specific categories. Technology, food and beverage, finance, agriculture, and retail, and then you have at large. So, what I'd be looking for from you just to keep this clean would be a vote for one person in each of those five categories. Clarify under retail, there's one, two, there's four under retail. But if you clarified your vote for just you circled the one you wanted or checked the one for retail and then any of those additional leftovers would be available to be at large recommendations. So at that point in time you if you you wanted the rest of the three also at large if you would just put a L there or at large. So I would know that that's a vote for an atlarge position but not a retail position. So it looks like we do have um um an appetite to increase the small business task force to a number of nine. Um recommendation is to pick pick um one person for each category and all leftover people could go into the atlarge category and you would increase the atlarge category to fill the nine to four.

Does everybody understand that? So, basically, like Aaron said, if you picked one for each category, retail has four um four applicants and whoever you didn't pick for retail could go into the at large body, would you be choos you'd be choosing six basically, but you would need four of those six. So one person out of each of the five and at large you would need to identify four which would be a combination of whoever you did not choose for retail including the other three. So you would have technically six people to consider for four at large positions.

Is everybody in understanding? Victoria, do you understand? Yes. No. No. Um, can we get a second and a vote on that? That way we can adjust the res. Absolutely. We're just getting clarification on that motion. Okay. So, we actually have um um I'm going to take Rob as as saying a motion to go to nine. Nine.

Okay. So, Rob's motion to go to nine, increase the business task force to nine members. Um, a second from Rick and um Aaron has actually explained how we do the the the picking process. So, with the motion to increase the small business task force to nine, um, we have a second on that. I'll go with the roll call vote. Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Kathleen, yes. Joel, yes. Eric, yes. Rick, yes. Indra, yes. Victoria, yes.

Okay. So, we will increase the small business task force to nine members. So, please take your yellow sheet, pick a member for each category. Whoever's left over goes into the ATL large category, and you need to pick four members for the ATL large category. So, please do your homework. Uh, sign paper and send her down.

Yeah, we'll get a second. So, while we wait on that, I'm just going to go into the a motion appointing an urban tree advisory committee. We only have one applicant that's reapplying. So, if I would just look for councel for a motion to appoint the uh Doug who is reapplying. Joel, I'll make a motion to um have Doug Trip be um uh accepted as the urban tree advisory committee. Okay. And a second from Rob. Um further discussion? I'll see none. Go ahead and vote. Uh Joel,

yes. Eric, yes. Rick, yes. Indra, yes. Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Kathleen, yes. Victoria, yes. Yes. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and put Doug as appointed to the Urban Tree Advisory Committee. Just a note that we do have two openings for that committee. So, um there will be one vacant spot in there, but Doug will be um reapplying and has been re established on the tree committee. Thank you very much.

[snorts]

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, orange. Okay.

All right. So, um, council has [clears throat] a preference for technology for, um, Lanny Sullivan. Food and beverage would be Danielle Clarman. Clarman. Um, finance would be Todd Typton. Agriculture would be Carrie Boltz. Um for retail we have a strong preference for um Nick Gates and then for at large we have um Lindsay Brooke, Dwayne Lumpin, Charlotte Heights, and I guess we kind of have a tie for Ward Warren and Mullen. Is that right? You said three and three.

Four. Three and three. That is correct.

Okay. So technology we're good. Food and beverage we're good. Finance we're good. Agriculture good. Retail we have a strong preference for Nick Gates. For at large we have um a strong preference for Charlotte um Lindsay Dwayne Lumpkin. And then there's a tie for Wardw Warren and uh U Maline Hindershaw Melinda sorry and I don't even have my glasses on. Sorry guys. Okay so for at large we would have to say let's see we got one two three. So you would be um you you have three people that are are higher preference for at large but then you have a tie between the last two uh with Melinda and and Ward. So with that information um I would be looking for a motion and I'll help you through it. It could be. It could.

Mayor, if I may suggest since you do have pro strong preferences on all but the the the fourth atlarge member, maybe the first motion would be to approve and then have a second motion between the two. Yep, that sounds good. So, I'd be looking for a motion to approve um your strong preference for technology category, food and beverage category, finance category, agriculture category, and Nick Gates for retail category. I'd be looking for that motion first and then we'll do the atlarge second. Well, you would include the three strong ones. Okay. Three strong ones at large is um Lindsay Charlotte and Dwayne Lumpkin.

Rob. So, so moved. I make that motion. Okay. So, it's a motion on the table to appoint um Lanny [clears throat] for technology, Danielle for food and beverage, Todd for finance, agriculture, uh Carrie Boltz, and um retail would be Nick Gates. Uh three at large would be um Lindsay, Charlotte, and Dwayne Lumpkin. Second. Second with Joel. Um I'll go through a vote on that. Who was the one that made that motion? I did. Rob. Rob, how do you vote? Yes. Seth? Yes. Kathleen? Yes. Joel? Yes. Eric? Yes. Rick? Yes. Indra? Yes.

Victoria? Yes. Okay. So, those people are appointed. So, we have one more to appoint at large. And you had a tie between Melinda and Ward. So, I'd be looking for a motion for an appointment at large. Rob, I make a motion to appoint uh Ward Warren for the final at large position with a second from Joel. Any further discussion?

Joel, I was just thinking looking at the two candidates resumes and I I compliment both of them for applying. One has a long history with the city of Grants Pass. The other one's history, if I remember correctly, was uh um associated with Cave Junction. Um, and uh, so I I think the candidate that's much more familiar with the city of Grants Pass would be preferable. And geez, if we went up to 10, we could have both of them, but I guess that's not. So that's why I'm going to vote for Ward. Okay. Thank you for your input. Uh, Joel, um, we'll go into a vote, uh, to appoint the fourth member at large as Ward Warren. Joel, um, Rob, yes. Seth, yes. Kathleen, yes. Joel, yes. Eric,

yes. Rick, yes. Indra, yes. And Victoria, yes.

Okay. All right. You have appointed nine members to the small business task force. And I will give you that piece of paper so you know who it is. [laughter] Thank you very much. Sorry if there was any confusion in that, but that was a little complicated. Um, next on our agenda tonight is public comment. This is an opportunity for the public to address the city council on items not related to a public hearing or council action item for the council. The intent is is to provide information that is pertinent to the city's jurisdiction. Each speaker will be given two minutes to address the council as one body, not two individuals. At conclusion of public comment, council will have the opportunity to respond. This meeting will proceed in an effective and courteous manner. Citizens and council members will be allowed to state their position in an atmosphere free from slander, threats, and other personal attacks. Signs or placards, outbursts of applause, campaigning for public office, or other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. If you have a question regarding any government provided service or a current city policy, please contact the city manager's office in attempt to resolve the matter. We have three blue sheets of people who signed it up for public speaking. So, I will start with um Brittany Doyle. And I'm sorry if I messed up your first name.

That's okay.

You could correct me as you state your name. And you have two minutes. Hi guys, my name is Britney Doyle. Um, I am here tonight because the current construction on G Street. Um, while important, it's having a real and immediate impact on the small businesses on G Street. Um, I've noticed a lot of comments and social media things happening, they're very slow. um as the construction has to happen. I totally understand that not every storefront on G Street has construction in front of them, but their customers are not allowed to get to them. Um I don't know the solution for this, but I do know that we could possibly do better. Um whether that's the city puts out a sign where all that construction is that says the businesses are still open. Um I think it would be cool because I think providing an environment where people can hang out. There's an empty street. The construction is on Fifth Street, not on actual G, but G has to be shut down because of Fifth Street. But there's a huge open street just sitting there with no trucks, no construction. My booths are not on the ground. I do not know the logistics of the construction, so I can't say that I know everything there has to do with it. But I think it would be a cool opportunity um to turn the inconvenience of this construction happening and supporting the businesses who are relying on it. All of these businesses are coming out of winter who were slow to begin with and now the sun is shining, spring break's here, and everybody should be out shopping and walking downtown and a lot of those businesses are getting negatively affected by this. So, I wanted to save that point. Um, I don't know what the solution is, but I think we should open up conversation about doing something for those businesses. This construction project, I think, is going to take a month, but as we all know, there's always delays in construction, so who knows how long it's going to take, but that's what I'd like to say. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Uh, next up, I have Mitch. All right, Ra. Ra Brown Grants Pass. In the summer of 85 and before, we had thunderstorms nearly every weekend because most people watered only on weekends. Summer rain was clearly tied to the amount of water our sprinklers put into the air. When drought was declared in the summers of 86 and 87, we were told not to water our lawns or wash our cars. We had 103 days in ' 86 and 98 days in ' 87 of no rain. In ' 86, we started hearing about fossil fuels causing global warming and separately that fresh water is only 2% of the water on Earth and must be conserved. This was the beginning of the most widespread and destructive hoax ever conceived. Conserving water has caused untold mi misery for millions of people and animals around the world who have lost their homes because of overpriced water rates. Jacking up jacked up higher and higher to pay the overhead as people use less and less. Water is not precious. It is vital. Every city with a water plant controls its own water rates. You, our council, are responsible for the price of our water.

Break with the past 30 years and bring back the rate system that kept our city green, clean, green, beautiful, and safe from wildfire by putting a proposed charter amendment, utility bills, rate setting, and contingency funds on our ballot. Grants pass. Voters will start the rateayers revolt. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our portion of public comment, general public comment for the night. Uh, next in the agenda agenda for tonight is the consent agenda as shown on the screen. Kathleen.

Yeah, I would just like clarification why point A was taken off. If we could have some clarification on that.

Yeah, we can do that for you. Excuse me. Uh, thank you for inquiring. Um, yesterday I was made aware of House Bill 4148 that passed and is awaiting the governor's signature. I haven't had a chance to review that bill, but there was some concern that that may have an impact on uh potential contract language. Um, so after some discussion, we decided to take a look at the contract just to make sure that there would be no no impact whatsoever. I'm I did a lot of that work today. Um I should have any potential modifications out within the next day or two and hopefully we can have it on the April 1st agenda. But I just wanted to dot the eyes and cross the tees to make sure that there was going to be no issue as a result of upcoming legislation.

Kathleen, and is that just with this contract or with other city contracts? Yes, the um House Bill 4148 has to do with the TLT dollars and how those could be allocated. So just wanted to make sure that we were protected that the um the other side's protected and that everybody's on the same page when it comes to allocation of funds. Joel um

based on our last uh discussion on u Monday on the general fund uh I started the quarterly report just for monitoring u and um I it it we we have to set the timer at two minutes uh because it shouldn't take very long but I I just wanted all the council up here to um u JC's already done the work and he already had gave it to us last Wednesday um and just to point out the pertinent facts of that. There was one one question I had uh tax revenue went down this year compared to last year and I wanted to know why and JC's right on top of it. And the other thing uh was how to calculate that uh uh percent of uh reserve and carryover um and and they do that on a quarterly basis so that we keep up to speed with what's going on in the general fund. So uh two minutes and then geez if you have to question beyond two minutes save it for next meeting. [laughter]

Thank you Joel. But does does your conversation regard in regards to the consent agenda or can we go through that first? It's with regards to the consent agenda the report. Oh sorry. Okay. So, basically, you're asking to let's star E and have a two-minute conversation. Two minutes. Okay. We got to be disciplined. Okay. So, do you have a specific question for JC in regards to the quarterly report?

Um, I would ask him first off, if he was a council person, where would he what would he pay attention to on these reports? and then specifically the uh uh apparent down increase uh downturn in um tax revenue and uh how to calculate the the percent carryover. A lot of questions. Hopefully I can get that all in two minutes. Can you do that in two minutes? That's

I'll try and be efficient. Uh first question that I heard you say out was the property taxes. So again, I've put out in front of you the purple and green sheet. So the purple is fiscal year 26 or the quarter quarter ending December 31st, 2025. And the green sheet, just so you can look at it, is the 2025 quarterly report for December of 2024. Um, as you'll notice, the second line down, property taxes in 2024, fiscal year 25 were about $20 million, and then they're slightly under $20 million in fiscal year 26, which is the purple sheet. That's just a timing variance. We got more property taxes in January than we did last year. Um I'm guessing it's a little bit due to the changeover in staffing that Josephine County had. Um as of the end of January, we're looking to be about $600,000 ahead in property tax receipts. Um uh compared to last year, so it's completely normal. I know it looks like a that we're short, but we are not. uh in the event that we were to be short uh that would be something that we would definitely come forward to council and we would make plans and arrangements as far as any budgetary adjustments that we need to make. That's the first question and I think I took all the two minutes maybe. Um the the next is um so the quarters are done as a report for ease of kind of seeing these budget to actuals. So every quarter is another 25%. So the first quarter in the end of September is 25%. So when you're looking at budget to actuals uh you should be at or below 25% and so on and so forth where December should be 50%, the March quarterly report should be 75 and around the June time period that would be around 100%. Now again there are some seasonalities like you'll notice on your purple sheet that property tax does come in well above the 50% because we do get a majority of the

uh revenues in November. So again, it's kind of looking in that uh there are some seasonalities uh but for the most part as far as operations are concerned, you're looking at 25% per quarter. Again, we try and call that out in that quarterly financial report to kind of show and point the finger at some of those things and some of those funds that act a certain way. Um but again, please feel free to ask any of those questions. And I think I'm missing one of the questions Joel had. Oh, yes. policy balance target.

Yeah. So, to be more transparent for the uh public, we started putting the policy uh target on there, which is the current um financial policies, fund balances. Um as of Monday, you've made a a you've given staff to make a direction to change those based on the proposed uh new financial policies. So, we'll make an edit as soon as those are adopted via resolution. Um but what it is is that ending fund balance dollar amount. You need to divide that by the sum of the budgeted total expenditures removing contingencies. In some of the other funds, you're going to remove transfers and that'll be more your enterprise funds because those are kind of not included as part of operations because it's just a con it's just a contribution to capital. But that is the gist of how you calculate that.

And so my expectation would be we just have these two sheets u every quarterly report uh because it allows us to monitor the general fund and u we can keep track of it for so we make sound policy decisions. Yeah. And I would add to that comment that it's not just a general fund. uh all the other funds that you've lined out in programs that have a fund balance policy now will be included in that quarterly report and should be uh tracked and monitored as well. Perfect. Joel, are you satisfied?

Thank you very much. Thanks for your consideration. Okay, so can we have the consent agenda up on the count on the screen now? So, I bring back to council um for some action in regards to the consent agenda as listed on the screen. Indra, I'll move to adopt the consent agenda and a second from Seth. Any further discussion? All right. Um we'll go to a vote of um Indra. Yes. Rick, yes. Eric, yes. Joel, yes. Kathleen, yes. Seth, yes. Rob, yes. Uh, Victoria, yes.

All right. Cassend agenda passes as shown on the screen. Uh, next on our agenda tonight is uh matters for mayor, council, and staff. Bring it back to uh myself and council. Is anybody have anything to bring up? Rob? Yeah. Um today we had um I'm the council leazison to the citizens advisory committee on the um Midland Washington project. There's an what's the official name for that project? The Northstar project.

Northstar project. Um I thought that the meeting went really well. um very very well um as far as um general overview [snorts] of uh what the committee's role would be and and timelines and so forth. Um there was um one aspect though that uh was a little bit troubling. Um the I'm not exactly sure how the members of this committee were chosen. I know they were chosen by staff and council was not involved in that decision at all. And to me a glaring uh weakness on that committee is that there was no one from the development community um asked to participate and um you know what um I feel that that we need to correct that. I think the council needs to correct that and it could be done a number of different ways, but um uh my my concern my biggest concern was that the um the consultant uh seems to know seem to know what they're doing, which obviously was a good thing. they got hired. But I would like some kind of real time spotchecking and overview of somebody who's in that world to actually be able to verify that the consultant is kind of on track in in the right way. I mean, we we've seen recently of a consultant, we'll call it, I'm going to call it a rogue consultant that that uh ran without any spot checks and delivered a product that I I feel was a disaster. And um I'm looking for this Northstar project to be positive. I'm sure we all are. And I think that if we have someone from the development community as a member of that um committee, I think it will really benefit the council and the public. Um second to that, you know, when I started thinking about, you know, who who who do

I know in the development community who's really knowledgeable in this area? Who's the best civil engineer around? um possibly in southern Oregon. I started uh immediately thought of Justin Gerlet. Um for people that might not be familiar with his work, part of his work was the soccer complex and the flying lark and all that stuff that he did for Travis Borisma. Um he's been before council many, many times. Anyway, I called Justin this afternoon um and I, you know, I said to him, "Look, I I understand this is what you do for a living and I'm out looking for a freebie and uh is it possible that you could squeeze us in and maybe volunteer time to be a member of this committee if council so so uh desired?" And he said it was quite likely that he could squeeze that in for us. And to me that would be a real positive to have a member of the development community of his level of expertise um would just be nothing would do nothing but make this committee uh more viable and easier to get behind. So uh I'm not exactly sure where to go with this now, but I'd like to get um some support from council to uh either a um look at all the members of this committee. I don't know if that's necessary uh because council did not, you know, to me it was a kind of a strange precedent for staff to have chosen everybody with council being out of the loop. Uh this is the way I that's what I feel. So, you know, should we look at everybody and reconstitute this committee or should we um look at adding a really qualified uh member in the development community to make this process even better? But um I'd like to hear what any other counselors have to say and then maybe I'll make a motion.

Any further discussion in regards to um Rob's ask? Seth. Yeah, I mean I would be in favor of adding uh a developer. Um I don't know if we need to look at the whole thing, but definitely a developer. Rick, I'd be in favor of adding Justin Gerlets onto the committee. Thank you, Indra. I guess I I would ask staff. It seems like council has always been involved in committee selections. So, is this unusual or typical for something like this?

Um well, I can take a crack at that. Um so, councelor Pel is right that a formal citizen committee um always comes before council. Um this is a you know a fairly unique project in that the uh the city hasn't taken on such a largecale um you know urban renewal right sort of from the very beginning where the whole point of the contract is community engagement before when we met with the consultant uh the first time in our project management team they expressed um you know that in some of the other communities that they had worked in that it has it's helpful for them particularly ually being out of town developer or consultants to just have some locals that are going to help to ground truth and you know kind of just keep it real um as they're working through the process. Um so we said great you know we can we can help put that together. Um so to your question councelor is it unusual? Yes, it would be um I I don't think it's unusual for a project that you know the council's already approved a contract um you know an award and part of the scope of work um a large part of the scope of work was to do community engagement um and so the consultant is a specialist in that and this is something that they you know kind of wanted to see so um there's certainly no intention of trying to bypass I mean all the things that for this project are going to come before council. Um, this is not an advisory committee to the council. It's really just a, you know, a more informal group of of folks that understand the north the north project, uh, Northstar project and can kind of give some feedback. Their their intention is to meet four times total over the course of the 10-month project. Um, so I mean I I I hear councelor Pel's concern, but we can

do that. Just one last point. The it it consists of eight people. Um councelor Pel is is the representative for the city council. Um chamber of commerce has a representative all care. Um the urban area planning commission. Tourism advisory committee. There are two business owners, community members. And then we have a north end resident slash uh business owner. Um, so that that's that's who the group consists of. Joel,

um, so I owe an apology to the Chamber of Commerce. Uh I was there along with the city manager and we said they were going to um seek they were interested in the in the uh being on the committee and and uh doing that and um they asked when the applications were going to be open and they hadn't been opened yet uh and they were looking for them and then all of a sudden the committee's formed. So I apologize to you for that. U I think we got ahead of ourselves a little bit in in terms of information sharing at the least. Um and um um yeah, that that would be the least. We we got a little ahead of ourselves. Um and so I just ask for chambers understanding and uh and that's not that's not the way we want to do business by saying one thing to the public, me saying it to them and then we do it a different way. Yeah, we can approach this any way council would like. Uh but the chamber does have representation on that.

Good. Yeah, Rob.

Yeah. And um I just want to uh make it clear that um the one developer uh probably uh maybe the smartest guy I know in in southern Oregon on this subject, uh Justin did not give me or did not say that uh he's 100% on board. It sounded like he was very agreeable. He wanted to know how many meetings there were and how much they'd be spaced apart because he does have a a pretty busy schedule. He's already doing uh the uh uh the task force with uh Clint and and others. He's doing other things, but he said he could probably do it, but if if it wasn't him, we still I believe still need somebody from the development committee to basically keep the consultant grounded in certain in certain um parameters. uh just to make sure and the consultant may not need that. But as far as as a counselor, uh I want to know that there's somebody in the room that can speak that language who's basically looking out looking out for counsel and looking out for the people. So, I'm hoping that Justin would seem to be really gracious to to even consider it. I'm hoping that he could do it, but I guess I' I'd like a motion tonight that it's uh someone from the development community and we will reach out uh to Justin or others, but someone from the development community.

Indra,

uh yes, I I think that's a good idea to have someone from the development committee. I guess my my second concern would be with as with any committee um are there a variety is there a variety of representation on there for instance different viewpoints on there not all the same viewpoint people so I would leave it to Rob maybe he's been the liaison to uh let us know if he feels like that's the case and if if he does um I don't know that any change would need to be made but if he doesn't feel that way. U maybe we would want to look at the members and make a change.

Yeah, that's a that's a great question. Um it's probably too early to tell um because we're you know in the um we'll say we're in the gathering information phase or about to move into that with regards to uh particular market surveys and things of that nature, market analysis. Um, you know, while and we did, you know, we made it clear today that while, you know, we might have a hundred people in town that wish that we could put an aquarium up there or whatever, uh, it's probably not going to happen, you know. So, the bottom line is we're going to try to look at what is realistic and what the city needs. And I think everybody is in agreement with that concept. As far as what other the different concepts are, we're we're many months away, I think, from different concepts. So, I really don't know if we have different opinions. Uh many of the uh familiar names that are on different committees and commissions and so forth around town. Um how they're going to be when we actually do come up with different possible uh avenues or directions rather. I I I don't know if it's going to be [snorts] uh but I'm sure that's but the whole point is we're going to have part of what we talked about today was significant public engagement. As a matter of fact, the next meeting or shortly after the next meeting is public engagement. I think it's April 16th or so. It's probably a meeting in council chambers with the public to at least kick it off and try to explain what the concept is. So, I I don't know if we have diversity there or not. Uh I'm going to imagine we're going to hear a lot of diversity from the public. Um as far as from the committee goes, I I really don't know. Joel.

Um, if there was no more discussion, I was going to go ahead and make a motion. Is that okay? Um, I make a motion that we get somebody from the development community to be added to that task force u to contribute in a positive manner and uh um leave it at that. Okay. So Joel has made a motion um to echo what Rob has brought up to bring in um another member to that uh task force for um to represent the development community. Is that correct, Rob? Correct. And Joel. Oh, and we got a second from Eric. So any further discussion, Indra?

I would agree with that. It's probably kind of rude to invite people onto a committee and then tell them no. So, I think it's early and we go forward with it as is with the developer. Okay. Uh, bring it back to a vote on the motion to to add a representative from the development community to this task force. Um, Joel, yes. Kathleen, yes. Um, Seth, yes. Rob, yes. Indra, yes. Rick, yes. Eric, yes. Victoria. Yes. Thank you. Um Brad, do you understand? Do you have direction?

We do. Thank you very much. Um anything else from council for discussion? So Rob, uh just to make that clear, um whoever that choice is would come back to council for approval, right? Brad,

thank you. Uh well yeah I mean we I we will just bring the whole group I think is would be appropriate um because you you didn't review the first few because again this isn't this there's no authority given to this group so um but we can I guess in my opinion we should probably bring everybody um if the council wants to add just one person it would be a little strange to appoint just one of the eight members. Sure. So basically it comes back to council before going to make the change. But yeah, great. Thank you. Okay. Any further discussion? Indra,

I just have a couple things. So, first I want to publicly apologize to JC. I was incorrect about him sending the accounts and signitories. So, I found those and he did send them. So, I wanted to apologize for saying he didn't. Second, um we do have a lot of uh there was a new email about trash and garbage from homeless all around, specifically Agnes, Washington. Um I know where I am up in the north end of town. I had uh van seats uh pulled out and left in my parking lot uh yesterday. So, I'm just wondering, I know the city has hired uh someone, Connor, we've talked about trash a lot recently, to go around and pick up trash. It I mean, it could be anyone, but when the um camp is closed, I'm wondering if the money we're saving doing that we could spend on just some someone going around picking up trash in our city. So, I'm just throwing that out there as something to think about because it it it is all over and it's an eyesore and I think if we can hire someone to pick that up, that would be really nice and I think people our residents would be grateful for that. And then lastly, um the G Street construction. So, um I think Britney had a great idea about maybe putting businesses or open up there and and I would be for the city uh helping the businesses in any way and if putting a sign that often helps. I mean, we've seen that in other areas of construction. So, I would be for doing that.

Rob.

Yeah, I'm also uh in support of that uh sign at both ends of the closure. I just want to add a little clarity though to what she said. While it may appear to somebody, if you're looking down G Street one day, you know, they can't figure out why it's closed. At least, you know, she may have said one day it was there's at least three times, maybe four times that I've seen when I've gone by and I go by there at least twice a day. You know, sometimes they're working and sometimes in the same day they are not working. And there's been uh actual work on uh G Street and the curbs and so forth and they were pouring concrete um on the curbs and other things. that so to I think from a consistency standpoint um from the public I think it's best that for a period of time the roads closed because I I could think of being really aggravating for someone to say yeah I drove down this road yesterday and now I can't today or you know so I think it's got to be consistent for safety and uh ultimately it's it's painful but I think opening and closing you know hour by hour half day by half day I think is really unrealistic Anybody else? Victoria, did you have anything for this portion? Um, no. I I was going to talk about the the street signs about Britney uh as well. Um, so whatever can be done to help the businesses um and customers know that they're open would I agree with that needs to be done.

Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Um staff have any comments? Just will follow up on the signs on both ends. Businesses are open so and and save those signs for when 8 Street closes. [laughter] We'll put those which is next month. Okay. Yeah. Well, yeah, we'll set precedents. Yep. All right. I think I think that's it from staff. Anything else from staff?

All right. Um, thank you very much. So, that is all for our public meeting and we will be going into executive session now, but our uh general public meeting uh is basically over at this time. The council will now meet in executive session.