City Council - Regular Meeting

Stacy, you're probably this one. Sorry. Trying to make sure we're ready over here. Um, while she's working on that, um, so, uh, just to make sure that we're all on the same page and we have the same documents in front of us. Um, in front of you guys, you should see a document that says CO budget and URA retreat discussion guide.

Um, that's intended to be our guide and what we're going to try and take care of tonight. tomorrow night and then if necessary. Um you'll see there's nothing written in for for day three only because I would rather for us to have conversation that's quality rather than rushed. Um and so anything that we don't get to on any one particular day, we'll just start pushing it over into um the next day with the intent for us to be able to get done tonight by no later than 9. Um that being said, I plan on um only accomplishing what is intended for day one tonight and not bleeding over into day two. um so that we can just kind of uh um simmer on the information that we kind of we go over today um and allow for for uh thought process without a compressed amount of information coming out all at once. Um the other document other documents you should have in front of you should include the uh trend analysis. This is the exact same document that we went over in December, but we'll talk about more of that when we get to that. There's another document titled information paper. uh that's in reference to uh PACE E and we'll talk about that when uh when we get to there as well. And then finally, um the spreadsheet that you see printed out in front of you is a spreadsheet of um all the things that the uh um directors came to the table with with um if we were able to provide the service that we think and or feel is best for this community and what it needs. Um this would be all the stuff that we would like to be able to bring to the table and see become a part of the next budget. Not asking you for for you to approve anything in regards to that. Just simply as we continue to traverse through and I'll talk about this more later. In fact, I'll pause there because I'm getting ahead of myself. Um, with that being said, what I'd like to do is I've prepared a uh in my my documents or my notes here, I've actually written out this kind of as a script um for myself. So I ask you to forgive me for doing a lot of reading mainly because I want to

make sure that I hit all the different points that we're going through on any particular decide slide as well as I'm ensuring we're having the quality discussion that it that uh that I would I'm hoping will come from the evening. Um last week I also sent out to everybody an email that said hey guess what this is going to look completely different than anything you're used to. Um, part of that's because I've not done this with the grand before, so I didn't necessarily have a great idea of what that was. Um simultaneously when we had my uh performance expectations um conversation um when uh the instruction that I received from there um following that you allowed for me to be able to come back and share with you a for lack of better term get well plan um with what I what I see is ultimately going to be three different options of the direction that we go coming out of this retreat. Um and so um I definitely have a recommendation of where I would like to go. Um, but when we're done uh getting through all of this, I'm hoping that that will be where you would land. Um, simultaneously, we're prepared to execute on any one of the three different options that I'll be providing to you at the culmination of um, halfway through tomorrow's um, time together. Um, so unless you have any questions with that, I'll go ahead and dive into the script. Um so this is a working session f focusing on understanding priority setting and direction. It's not a formal adoption as I'm sure all of you know. You'll notice this retreat is structured. The structure is not to con meant to constrain the conversation but to support it. If the discussion needs to go deeper in the particular areas, we'll follow it there. So I'm not I don't want you to feel like we got to hurry up and move. We'll go where we have to go. If we don't finish this conversation day one schedule, that's okay. We'll go into day we'll carry it over into day two. Um bottom line is I really don't want this to become just a check the box um uh event. I want to

make sure that that you guys feel as though this is high quality conversation. I'm leading us all in the direction that we that we are need to go um as a as a unit. Um unless you have any questions there, I'll move on to the next slide. All right. So, uh the second slide is the day one municipal budget purpose of the retreat. Um again, the u as we continue to have this conversation, the intent here is to have a shared reality that is that this retreat sets direction for formal budget development. Um, today is about building shared understanding of our fiscal reality, clarifying priorities, and preparing council for the strategic decisions ahead. This is not about final decisions today, but it is about clarity. Oh, sorry. I thought we were there. All right. Uh, third slide. Um, Heather, you take up.

It's me.

Yeah. So, um, as we had kind of gone over during the budget science work session, um, it was illustrated that how we budget based on, uh, local budget law, our expenses far out revenue. So, it showed a huge deficit each year. But when we really looked at it at what we budgeted budgeted for personnel because that one we have to just assume at 100% because we can't assume that we're going to be make some positions. Our actual materials and services and capital outlay it shows we're a lot closer. That gap isn't quite as big as what it did in the budget. So um and then also putting on top of that the 750,000 contingency that we very rarely dip into. So most of the time they're very fairly even. Um, so it it does look like structurally like imbalanced that it isn't quite it it seems odd to be honest with you. It looks very different. So, um, and most of the time it does look like we're tapping into savings, but fortunately the past 5 years based on that thing I sent you guys out, we really haven't had to tap into our savings. We've actually been putting some money in. And so putting that money into reserves is a good thing. And based on the resolution that you guys passed in 2022, I believe we updated the resolution. 50% of it goes into our general reserve um for capital needs, future capital needs. 25% goes towards streets and the other 25 just stays in the general fund. And so I think we should really keep with that trend in order to stay with the purpose of what our our capital um improvement plan is. So um reserves are stabilizing. They're not necessarily solving everything. Good. Okay. Um, I'd like to take us now to that SWAT analysis that we talked about before of that document that I handed

out to everybody. Um ultimately the short answer from the information that's here is I see this is um being the mechanism that helps us decide when we're looking at forming the budget and what we're going to do go going forward that this is your priority for us to be looking at making sure that number one um is what we're trying to achieve. Number two and all the way down to number 15 is what we're trying to achieve um in regards to how what we're thinking about while we're looking at the budget. So, when we're talking about priorities, I think in the past, as I understand it, there was probably some different forms of conversation that took place before we got to this point. Um, but I would like to open it up for conversation um at this stage in regards to whether or not there's agreement with that being the lens that we're looking through or whether or not something else would like to be added or taken away with regards to that. Um, I would in any official document that I would generate in the future, um, I would probably only include the top five as being, um, what our primary efforts are at and then everything else is is if we're able to, they're things we need to take into consideration.

Can I ask a question? Yes. Okay. Um, where do streets fall in this category? because I know isn't the aging infrastructure basically the buildings and so forth or is that counted as streets as well or

so I love that you're asking that question I don't I wouldn't argue that it fits nicely within any one of these categories um but I would agree that that's a priority that we need to talk about um especially when our ARPA funding is running out um and therefore the standard that we achieved last year um is not something we will be able to achieve in the next year without us supplementing that ourselves in some way, shape or form. Um we've had a lot of conversation about around a couple of ways to do that. Um one of those includes us talking about a potential levy in association with gas tax, I should say. Um um in order to help us get after making sure we have the funds to keep up, do our best to try and keep up the standard that was set last year. Um, but I don't think we're anywhere near we we'd do that. I think it is something that probably needs to be talked about further.

Any other thoughts? Anybody see that the lens should be different? I thought the community blight was put up there with a structure when we did that little uh big charts or no. Um we did we did we did have it on there but when I sent this out to everybody and asked everybody to rank um based off of how it aggregated is this is how it f unfolded. Yeah. Gotcha. John, how do you interpret workforce to business?

How do I interpret it? Um to me there's a lot of different ways that you can look at it. Me personally, the way I would define it is making sure that we are as healthy as we can be for the for the going into the future. So, um, in order, it isn't just simply keeping it because you have it. It's about, um, doing the best to position yourself to ensure that you're the best for the future. Um, in the best case scenario, that would mean retaining what you have um and working with what you have to if it's if it's not already where you need it to be, training it to get where it needs to be. Um, if it is where it needs to be, then obviously we're good to go. If it's not, well, then you do the hard work that's necessary in order to get yourselves there. Best case scenario, keeping what you have. If not, being being willing to um do what you have to do to move on to um making sure you get what you need.

Yeah. I I'm just thinking as far as, you know, action items that the city can take along that line that that's a little more difficult for me to come up with, you know, specific action items than some of these others. So, I was just kind of curious what um I I can tell you we've had a lot of conversation about this. Of course, we're in collective bargaining season now, right?

Um hands down. Um we've met I take it back. We haven't met with the police department yet. Um, but I'm I feel confident in saying through our conversations that we've had leading up to that is that money is like at at the forefront of concern there. Um, so I I foresee it's going to be a difficult um ability for us to close the loop in regards to those agreements if we're not coming to the table with offering some additional um pay increases within there. I mean, the in the the range that I've seen so far that's being requested is anywhere from I I I think I'm understating it when I say 3%. Um, the low side has actually been 6% and the highest has been 10%.

So, just to clarify, you you you view that as narrowed in on the lens of the city's uh employees, not necessarily the the community workforce. I'm I'm sure I'm sure I understand the question in terms of workforce stability and how you define that because that like that's that's certainly specific to the city's employees. Are are we kind of narrowing this in on the city or is this the broader discussion workforce? No, we can absolutely take it broader if you'd like. I was looking at it through the lens of our own workforce. Um do you want to talk about it from a community?

No, no, not necessarily. Again, that's why I I wanted to, you know, just kind of bring that one up is, you know, because as we talk about these, I I want to know what, you know, how you have interpreted what that workforce stability means, how narrow or broad that is. Again, is that community, is that city only? You know, we certainly have senior leadership, which I think was intended to refer to city employees, but I I I wasn't sure how how to interpret. Again,

um I I would say one of the things that I'm trying to communicate consistently as I'm doing all of these um either ad hoc or deliberate town hall meetings um is I'm trying to make sure that the message, one of the messages that's communicated is our employees that serve the community are as important as the community itself and simultaneously the community is as important as our employees. I don't want anybody to get the impression that I think one is more important than the other. Um it that to me is is a critical reality that everyone because I can tell you like some of the conversations I've had within the community. I went to one meeting where um strong opinions were shared with me in regards to thinking that our employees are all overpaid. Um but they also don't without having the opportunity to see behind the curtain. Um they that opinion is um risks being um illinformed. Um, and so my uh desire and hope is through these communication channels that I'm having that I'm gonna we're going to start telling our story better and more often so that people can understand especially if we go where I'm hoping that we'll go, I think they're going to start to see the services that they're getting improving as well. Um, and so and and with the best case scenario, um, no additional out of pocket money on their behalf in order to make that possible. Um, but that's a lot of work to get to it. I will say in the worst case scenario there's there's a chance that there will be more money out of the pocket but I think they'll trust us when that time comes. Simultaneously going back to your uh correlation in regards to the community itself I think when we um if we do what I think is very aspirational um but achievable um it will have a a great impact on the community and the incomes that they see within the community as well because it'll it'll it'll cause some positive growth. Yeah, thanks for the clarification. I think when I had filled out this survey, I think I had interpreted workforce stability as being community workforce stability. You know,

as we'd listen to the hospital struggling to find employees and some of our larger other larger employers in the area. Um, and so I I just again I I think it's nice to have that clarification for how you had interpreted that because I I would agree with you. We can come up with specific action items that council can take that refer internally to the city's workforce. um you know broader in the community that that's yeah that's why I warranted that clarification and no and and I think for deciding our priorities here today we should we should operate with a shared um agreement on what that definition looks like. Okay um or split it out and say it's two separate deliberate one for the community and one for the um for the city. Thanks.

Oh, and I think that makes sense too because I think that we will talk a little bit about workforce development, workforce retention when we start talking about it, economic development. So, I think I think you'll touch this subject on sort of both internal and communitywide as we go through this. I just want to make sure that we're clear about how we're defining that as we approach it in the discussion. So, thanks.

Just one other point of relevance. When I think of that, I think of uh success succession planning and uh you know long-term retirements in public works or you know police chief succession or you know the fire department didn't have a deputy chief for a long time. So some of that overtime has been solved but that is what I think of when I see that is a lot of Kyle staff that are 30 plus year employees that are gone in the next two to five years. I kind of put that under senior leadership. Yeah, it's not always though. It's a lot of frontline guys too that are just a lot of institutional knowledge, guys and gals. So, I made a note to uh um break that out as two separate action items.

Great. Thanks. One I'm kind of looking at is the housing seems up high, which is a big problem, but as a city, what can we do to fix the housing? We can't go out and build houses because we don't have the money for that. But can we change different ways to promote people to build houses in our community? Um we

so one of the things that uh um I admittedly this is one of the areas I've not had um enough time to fully dive into to to understand the many I mean other than my own experience in trying to move to the town um I can say that I there's more that I need to learn here to be able to speak to it intelligently. Um, but one of the things that uh you'll see me talk about a little further into this is this development of a five-year strategic plan. Um, within that I would like to include um, one of the things that Timothy and I have spent some time talking about from both his economic development hat and his urban renewal um, hat um, is the need for us to revitalize those plans um, for a whole slew of different reasons. And we'll talk about the urban renewal stuff when we get there. Um but uh um new a new plan that'll get after that which would include also looking at how we're getting at after housing stuff. But like you guys know already there's so many different competing issues on that topic. It's even if we had a whole bunch of houses to build, we're not getting a um a huge influx of people coming in right now that are creating such a demand that if we don't do it, we have a problem. But at the same time, if we don't do it, then why would people want to come? So it kind of goes into economic development too then because if you don't if you don't include that or increase it, you're not going to get the people.

100% agree on the thought process. What I can tell you is is not for lack of Timothy uh um not and uh Mike um not putting their uh their brains to that effort. Um, what I can say is is we're working through um developing something that we can come back to you with and give you a what you see as a realistic plan of how we're going to get after that. Obviously, there's no guarantees. Um, but what I can say is that I think we can get aggressive and there's room for us to do that. Okay. But I I'd be too ignorant right now to say what that's going to look like. So, that economic development ties right into workforce stability and everything 100%. Yeah. housing, all of it.

I would argue the first priority ties into all of that. Yep. If you don't mind, I was going to share that uh I noted number three through six all have the same score of 28.

And just for your information, I'll share with you specifically related to number six, homelessness. Uh calendar year, our end of year numbers are all in. So, calendar year 2025, um we continue to trend in a positive direction in terms of the calls for service that we're receiving related to homelessness. So, just to give you a snapshot, uh we peaked out like over the last four to five years, um calendar year 2023, we had 238 total calls for service. We were very busy with those calls. uh calendar year 2025 just ending we were down to 149.

So that's a 25% decrease over the previous call uh previous year. So 24 so and we keep seeing this uh so it's positive movement. I just wanted to share that with you so that maybe you can factor that in as you consider that. Can you give us a reasoning why you think that's is going down like that?

Um there's a a myriad of things Maryanne. Um when we if you remember when we passed the new city code, the new city ordinance related to uh where people can camp on public property, that had a significant impact in the calls for service that we were getting because prior to that, we were all statewide wrestling with how do we address some of these things that the law had created for us. And so we created that through a team effort. Um and because before we were getting so many calls for service related to Max Square, right? And then we also had the warming station that was on Third Street

and so there was a lot of conflict in the downtown the core downtown area. So through some of those efforts and I don't want to suggest that that's the only reason um but through some of those efforts and then the location of where the warming station is now uh we have very little conflict up there and so a lot of just constant pressure and I think Lieutenant Hayes could offer it's like our officers have been working super hard in order to deconlict with the people that we you know deal with uh that are experiencing homelessness and trying to resource them. And so I think that our efforts are moving the needle. Uh and I I wish I could say that we could put it clear to zero, but that's there's other factors.

But do you think it's going to the increase as the warming station closes for the year? Well, but this is not a new the the warming station working cyclical like that when they open in the fall and close in the spring. This is not new. I mean, we have been experiencing this now for a number of seasons where they're at and and so no, I mean, these numbers capture that. Okay. So, that's not a like this spring when they close, that's not a new thing that that I would anticipate that will uh change our calls for I was just kind of wondering if some of the homeless were moving out of the area, do you think?

Um, well, here's the facts. I don't I'm sorry if we get too far in the weeds. I don't want I don't want to suggest that it's the case, but it's so the people that we're dealing with, Maryanne, that cause calls for service to the police department, so many of them are either drug addicted or suffering with mental health issues or both. And so we're also that's where it's a very complex topic and it's not just in Lrand, it's everywhere. uh we work really hard and have great partnerships with our uh mental health providers and we have done as much as we can to squeeze out of uh that orange all the juice that we can and and I think that it's working and

did the greyhound not coming here anymore have effect on that potentially I don't we don't have a way honestly Molly to track that but but I can tell you that it wasn't uncommon that we would get a call for service because somebody was causing a problem on the bus and now they're Right. So, um, it very likely could. There's, like I said, a lot of variables at play, but I'm just suggesting it's I don't think this is I'm I'm always cautious with numbers because, you know, there's anomalies, but I I think that what we're looking at here is it's trending now, third year in a row where it's going down, down. Yeah.

Chief Bell, does that include the houseless numbers for families in the school district? because I know that the school district works really hard with families who are houseless.

Not really. Okay. Uh because what I'm sharing with you is calls for service into our dispatch center related and what we categorize those as somehow related to homeless or houselessness. Um the there's an entire population of people that would fit that definition of being houseless. But they and that that's where it's not fair to lump all of those individuals into the same basket because not everybody that is experiencing houselessness is creating calls for service to the police department. We're what we're seeing and dealing with is when people are underneath the freeway overpass out on Island Avenue, when people are in the foyer of a business, you know, when they're trespassing, when they're creating a disturbance of some type, those are the calls for service that we're getting. So, John, could I ask you with the um with the housing or with the homelessness list number six, those families in the school district, was that to me was part of my reasoning for my numbers that I gave you because I my family was houseless in 2021 when we had to move back to Oregon. Um, and I just know that we weren't alone as a family. Um, and that that means there's kids out there who are dealing with houselessness. And so I took that into account when I was ranking it. Does that constitute as um homelessness in number six for the for reasonings of being able to move forward in this discussion?

I I hesitate to cast an opinion on your opinion and um I I would say that you what's motivating your thought process is appropriate and right. Um, and so it ranked out where it ranked out because I think some other people felt at least in some way similar to it. So, um, I I would I I would say if the value in this conversation would be how does that stack up against the other things that we know are kind of important in the city like example being pouring a lot of money in the streets or pouring a lot of money into things having to do with that. That's the difficult decision, right? because the humanist in all of us wants to care about the human while at the same time we recognize the very real problem on the other topic. So I I I I I I don't want to say anything that would sound like I don't think that what you're highlighting isn't important, but in a world that, you know, where three or four I'm using as an example, three or four people have this problem and we have an entire community that has a very robust street problem. Like as much as we would or actually I'll use as a different example. I was visited recently by um her I won't say names um somebody who has a very strong and legitimate and rightful concern in regards to uh disability access in all the buildings along the path um along the road here. Um and rightfully they have an opinion that everybody should have those thought processes those accesses fixed um and made made easier for people with disabilities to get there. and they on their own said until I had a disability, I didn't realize it was a problem. It wasn't a concern to them. Um, and so simultaneously I the explanation I had to give back to was was like look, it's not that people don't care. It's that when it comes down to the cost of doing business, let alone any building code requirements. Um, but

when it comes down to the cost of doing business and what it takes to try and make right for a couple of individuals versus the mass, um, the they defer to the lower cost. Sorry for the inconvenience, but maybe my question I didn't ask it correctly then. No, no, that's okay. I understand everything you're saying. I think what I'm wondering is if we should include the houseless numbers from the school district in the homelessness topic. I don't see anything. I don't see how it would hurt. If anything, it' probably bolster uh um the reasonings why it's on our list. I think that's a good idea.

I'm not sure what like what you're what you want me to do with Oh, I'm not I don't want you to do anything. I just wanted I mean, we're seeking clarification, right? And we're trying wasn't your initial question like do we agree with this ranking? Oh, yes. Yes.

Okay. So, I just was curious. I I I I would bet if we were to pull those stats, it would it would affirm the reason why it's where it's at on the list. Um so what I'm unless anybody wants to talk about this any further, which is okay if we do. Um what I'm hearing right now is is that um for the most part, this is the lens that we will look through in regards to how we're determining what we're budgeting. um uh in conjunction with the the services that we intend to provide depending on the guidance that we get for how we're approaching the overall budget as a whole and the other side. What I will recommend is is that with your guys's concurrence, um I will uh look to creatively um combine these in. So like numbers one and two, I I I see those probably staying separate, but one and two becoming a single action item, three, four, five, and six becoming a priority listing. But the all of these different things within it would be categories or elements within those priorities. And then the same thing with I'm sorry, 3, four, and five would be numbers um seven, eight, and nine. and then that would make up or comprise the top five priorities um of how we're looking at things going forward in the lens.

Um so I'll make sure that the elements within each of the stated priority topic includes these elements of concern. Um and number four would be broken out to be uh looking at us from an internal and external um community uh workforce stability.

Okay. our community uh in the entirety of us. Um and with that being said, I'll go on to the next slide. Heather, so no additional news that you guys already know. Um expenses continue to increase every year. Revenues remain stable, the same. So, um, especially like with this next budget year, we're going through negotiations. It's still a very, very big unknown as to what those personnel costs are going to be. But, of course, we'll try to keep them as minimal as possible. But with that in mind, we can continue doing status quo and we could do that for a few more years. But eventually, if we want to keep doing status quo, keeping the services that we have, we're going to have to start cutting, whether it be personnel or services. So, that's just something we kind of all need to think about. I mean, yeah, the past few years have been good to us and we've been really good as far as keeping our expenses down, but eventually that's just going to keep going up and revenues are going to stay the same. So, either we'd have to find a new revenue source or start cutting services. So, that's kind of just a general snapshot of the general fund. Nothing new to me.

Yes. And when we before when I said that we'll have three different options for you to choose from, that would be one of the options that she's very referring to is that we could stay status quo in the way we're doing business. And it was made abundantly clear to me um that that's not something that we would prefer to do going forward. Right. Right. Right. And the time frame of that intersection of expenses and revenues is three to five years. Yeah,

that's a reasonable assumption. Um, one of the things that came out of these collective bargaining conversations that I've had, real or perceived, um, is as they said, you've been telling us that for the last 20 years. Um, and so what we can say is is looking at the numbers, what she's telling you is absolutely the reality that we're seeing, barring there being some element that changes it like it did the previous times. So, um, it's I I think the best fact-based decision here is what she's telling you, what Heather's telling. I'm sorry. She's a nerd. I can call her. Any other thoughts or questions? I'm sorry. Did you have anything else, Adam?

No, I'm pretty short and sweet.

Um, all right. Um, going to the next slide. So, unconstrained cost service um staff reality. Um, don't by any means um look at this slide and take the impression or think that I'm saying that we should operate unconstrained. That's not what what I'm intending to communicate here. What I can tell you is is if you pull up your uh um the spreadsheet that I showed that I handed to you guys, um this this sheet isn't containing everything that we're looking at in regards to budget. If we were to just if you were just think of what you guys approved for budget last year as being the standard, that would be the standard plus this. So, what you see on the list here um are things that we we would if in order for us to be able to provide the best police service that we c possibly can with what we have for resources currently, they're doing the best that they can. But in order to go to the next level of what would be right for this community, um the spreadsheet shows to you um what is proposed in what regards to do that. So, an example being um the addition of of two additional personnel or police officers for the the police department. That would be and that and that depicts the rough estimate of what that would cost to be able to do that. Um to include um whether or not you want to have any conversations about, you know, what what they the police department might want to do with those positions. Um and then there's some equipment and um is there anything else other than equipment that's on there? Um, so personnel and equipment for the police department.

Could I could I ask one thing? Like just for instance, the um the AD um a uh shower benches. I mean, I know it's a onetime cost. Could could somebody in the community just go ahead and volunteer that cost? They do. They would. They would. That happens all the time. Buy park benches and whatever. Yeah. Okay. these this is John's request was look we need to get it all on paper so everybody knows all the things it doesn't mean that that's the reality of what we're going to have to spend okay

so in the past as I understand it and I'm kind of going to staff to correct me if I say this wrong as I understand it before we'd get to this point um normally in December the staff would have fed um every all the their desirements I guess you could say um to uh to the then city manager um who would then make decisions and then bring to you what it was what he decided was probably best within the his understanding of the priorities. Um my desire here is is that instead of making that decision on my own, letting you know fully what the team um wants and what it would cost in order to do that. That way when we're making decisions about what comes out, you'll know that hey, something got cut. Um like one of the examples in the past might have been uh the uh provision of a um body to the drug task force. Um and so if you didn't know that that was actually discussed um well then that could leave you blindsided. The intent of this document is so that you're not blindsided on the things that you're um potentially uh wittingly or unwittingly w weeding out um in order to approve a budget going forward. I sure appreciate that. Just to clarify though, so these everything here is something that was not previously budgeted. Correct. So like right cuz I I thought we had budgeted for additional officers. We just had filled or at one point we not filled those. But so we're now saying we need to grow this by two more in addition to that. Is that

you want to speak to this?

Um we haven't added any new police officers for quite some time. If you you may be remembering uh several years ago we added two 911 dispatchers. That was a lot more palatable because we used 911 uh funds to to help offset the cost associated with that. Um but I think as stated earlier um you know I think there's a a pretty wide agreed upon um sentiment that we would like to have a dedicated ability to do drug investigations. we just don't have the staff to do that. Um, and essentially what you see here is, you know, ideally to operate what we feel like on all cylinders, we would have two additional sworn police officers. That would give us the ability to have that uh dedicated drug investigator and also one police officer. And what we that would en enable us to do is have um four police officers assigned per shift. That doesn't mean that it would be a minimum staffing of four police officers every single day. But what it would do is enhance right now more days than not, more shifts than not we have two police officers, two two uniform sworn police officers on duty. this would enable us to move towards having three uh on a very regular basis and and all that would do, David, is just um the number of calls for service, the complexity of calls for service a lot of times um you know related to mental health uh our officers are just stretched thin and and so we're not able to do the quality of follow-up investigations and things like that that we would like to be able to do.

Thank you. Yeah. Would it would it be beneficial to have a mental health officer? You know, that's a mo I'm sorry. No, no. I was going to say it's funny you say that and I want you to keep going, but um Merl has actually taken on that very task in his organization recently. Not an officer, but um if you want to share what you're doing. A mental health professional working on part of the team.

Yeah. Um we uh started um for our crews. We have a mental health professional that comes in every a local mental health professional that uh deals with first responders. Uh she comes in every Monday and um deals with the uh talks to the guys for an hour. It's a mandatory meeting. And so so uh I don't know that might you could use that maybe somehow. uh for that um you know outreach besides the uh uh you know in our department we do that but maybe out in the community use something similar to like that. Is that kind of where you're

I I was thinking of more of a mental health professional um dealing with the people on the streets so the police can do policing and less mental healthing. Yeah, I'm happy to speak to that just for a moment. So that's a model that has been explored in a lot of US cities. I have no idea how successful that is.

Yeah. So, I think a lot of my takeaway and what I've been paying attention to with the chief's association and nationwide is that the larger metropolitan communities, it's more effective than more rural like ours because even though we have a lot of those calls for service, if we if we were paying that person to do that, then there's going to be a lot of times that they're not doing anything. and we have established and have really great working relationships with our mental health professional partners like at CHD. Um, and it's not so much the constraints that we're up against are not so much those partnerships or the personnel. Oregon state law is absolutely suffocating when it comes to what we can do, the options. I mean, we address it, we go, we deal with it, but there's not those durable solutions. We honestly need involuntary inpatient beds. And so, you know this, right? Um, but I I will share with you uh that Lieutenant Hayes has been spearheading an opportunity that came to us within the last two weeks um to uh get on board with a grant that has been um essentially it would potentially allow us to hire a what we would call a community service officer. This would be a nonsworn position. So that would it would be cheaper to have that person. Uh it would be faster to get somebody on board. We wouldn't have the 10 plus months of training. Um but the the model would be they're not a they're not going to they wouldn't specialize in u mental health diagnosis and treatment. But what they would be is that resource. So those homeless persons or those individuals that we're dealing with regularly that

you see walking around that everybody's like why doesn't somebody do something with that person that cso could they would because we already know these people right but instead of waiting for calls for service they could proactively go make those contacts uh hey and have those personal relationships we wouldn't put them in like a police uniform they would be in a uniform but it would be more you know approachable So they're not enforcing uh to build that trust. And the idea is, hey, are you taking your medications? Hey, did you make your appointment? Did you make it to your appointment? And make just try to kind of heard people if that's not too crass of a term to to

The idea is preventive, please. proactive proactively address these things so that they don't result in our businesses and other residents calling because this person is trespassing on their property or you know whatever. So, we'll see. Uh but that's kind of promising. Hopefully that's not too far out of bounds on the question. But I personally do not think that at hiring a and quite frankly I I'm intimately familiar with the challenges with hiring mental health providers and I think that it would be futile honestly because th those that are regularly employing these folks are having a real hard time uh recruiting and retaining them as well

but using the ones that we have. That's right. And at the library, we've used the CHD mental health crisis line a couple times and they come down and we'll talk to the individual and help them if if it's needed. So that's a really good resource that we have. Thank you. Mental health. I have a question, John, on who uh provided the IT suggestions. The which one? the IT. Okay. So, I

Yeah. Um, so the IT uh there's several requests that I've made um of the IT team um in order for us to be able to look at um those those what what's listed there as potential solution sets. Um is there a specific one? Is it combination that either I asked them to do it or um what they recommended to me was a need. So, if you have a particular one that's you're interested in, I'd say I'd be easier for me to answer that question.

Um, no, just where all these requests are coming from and are they really wants and musts and um yeah, I just feel like we're not getting great value out of our IT services at this point. I would so is throwing more money at it helpful or is it not?

Yeah. Um I would say that my my assessment um having come from the worlds that I've come from um the process of going from where you were to where we want to be is just always going to be painful. And then it in and of itself is always going to there's just the costs are just going to continually inflate. Some of the things that are on here are tools that are meant to help us be more efficient and improve the way that we either communicate um not because we're we can't talk to each other but it's how we communicate over and collaboration tools um that we would utilize online. Um example being um you know right now we have to have version control at one location with multiple people um trying to populate those documents and the only way to do it um effectively now is is for everybody to have to do it send it back to one person and have them copy and paste perfectly viable way to do business. Um, simultaneously if we post it in we have in teams um there's a collaboration mechanism in there where you can post it there and people can go in and make the changes right there real time and then everybody gets it at the same time um versus having to wait for somebody else to be able to populate it.

Is that Google Doc? Um it's like Google Doc but this is this is through Teams instead of that's just an example is is what we're looking at.

So we don't have that capability right now. Um, we don't right now everything's unless somebody's doing something different than I understand. Um, uh, right now it's like if I want something done, I have to send it out to somebody like we're literally working through that right now with this new strategic platform that we're trying to build out. Um, I can't there's just things I just don't know well enough to do it. So, I can't just send it to put it in one location and tell everybody to go in and update the needed information. I have to send it out. So, like right now, Mike and um and Joe are working on one version of it. It's coming back to me. I'll send it to the police department so that they can do it. They'll get send it back to me. I mean, that's the only way I can get it done. And that to me takes a lot more time and effort in order to get something accomplished. Um because it's one thing to do what I just explained to you. It's a whole another thing of when they have time to get to it and another thing when I have time to get back to it in order to take it to the next level. So all those things are just things that take more time. Um the desire to create tools like that is not not something that it is placing on us as a requirement. It's something that if we're able to do I would like to be able to do to help improve our efficiency.

So is this $35,000 must to upgrade software to give us that capability. I'm not sure why we don't have that kit like everyone has. Oh, Office 365. Yeah.

Yeah. So, we we had a very long conversation with it in regards to this and some very rightfully emotional responses in regards to the topic of it. When it comes right down to it, Microsoft has a model that forces us that at some point in time we have to go to the next thing. Um, and that's what's happening here. So, it's a have to have because not because they they they've done the best they can. They even came to the table with alternate options for us, but the problems that it would create on those other options would be far more laborious. Um, not it would be doable, but just like we're talking about this team's collaboration effort, um, it takes us to a whole another level of pain that just slows our slows down our ability to do business. So Microsoft in their infinite money grabbing wisdom um created the mechanism that forces every so often where you have to go to their next level platform otherwise you're going to close out what you've been operating on.

And so that's what that cost is that you're looking at there is if we want to keep doing business we have to go to the next level and that's an annual cost. I'm understanding that correctly. Um, no, no, this this one that says ongoing annual it's a subscription model. That's what I was wondering. 35,000. It's a subscription model instead of the license model. They don't do license models anymore. Well, that's the problem is that every few years you're you're not licensed, then you have to a huge capital investment

and that that price does that include what you said over here in the notes that it it's 311 per additional users and that total is what we're seeing in the annual cost. It's already calculated into that or that's the base. So, this is based on the assumption that we have everybody using it. we could see the price come down when we that's the problem is is figuring out who's going to need it and who doesn't. Um and so right now I just told them to plan as though we were doing it with all of our personnel. Um as well as any projected possible growth um in that way we had a worst case scenario number. Okay. So that's not the base that's the width that that's the maximum. Yes. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Where is our office located now?

Right now they're located over at the library. Um, but we're in the process. We've got a really good plan going in the that thanks to Mike. Um, that's going to end up ultimately getting them into this building down into the basement, but not taking away the break room. Yay. John, do we know what other other cities our size are doing? Are they doing this same model and just forking the cash over? Okay. They've all got the same complaints. Okay. Um, I I I hate to I don't like to say it like, oh, there's misery loves company, right? Um, but the end result is is we're never we we're right to sit here and talk and be mad about it. Um, but at the end of the day, it we just got to accept it. Yeah.

Right. And and that's fine. I just, you know, it makes me wonder if, you know, leave Oregon cities or or, you know, something like that can negotiate, you know, some a better better price or better contract terms. And I mean, to me, that's what I'd be looking at because these are these are sizable numbers. And um and if if you've got a group of municipalities, you know, badgering Microsoft and saying we want a cut rate deal, right? Um you might get somewhere. Yeah, absolutely. I will I'll reach out to them.

Um what I can say is is um it's actually now that I'm thinking about it. I didn't I didn't bring up this suggestion that you talked about um but I asked them about what our to get to find out what our negotiation room is in regards the topic. Granted it's the IT people that are making the conversation on my behalf. Um but when they came back to me um their explanation was is like they you're you're going to need what we have so we don't need to negotiate it. You either have it or you don't. Um, and so again, it's and I and I'll verify. Um, but what I can say is I think they're just they've just backed us into a corner as a society, not just a city.

And that may well be the case. I just I was just curious if that would have been the next Y. Yeah. No, it's a good question. Thank you. Any other um any other IT ones that you would like to talk about? Um so city hall is yeah ch city hall basically that that's me. How come the police had put in a want for your cameras for the police to wear their cameras? Isn't that something you guys were wanting? Yeah. Body cams. Body cams is what they're called.

Yeah. A little longer term I think. um contract year, other higher priority needs. Gotcha.

Uh we did a um um we worked through a a project with our insurer CIS this last year. It's there's in Oregon it's not required or mandatory. And so I don't know Molly if you have ever heard me speak to that. Um the previous chief of police felt the same way. Uh, I've always maintained that if you wanted us, the community wanted us to have body warn cameras, then absolutely let's do it. But I've always been very fiscally conservative in the terms like I really bristle at the idea of doing it just to do it because it's a very high cost to get in and it's an ongoing cost. And

uh 65,000 Yeah. Well, that's a 5year contract. Yeah. Um and so but it's also a thing where it's a personnel because we have to maintain the records and and so that's fine. We're all about it if that's what the community demanded. But what I can tell you is based upon the number of uh citizen officer complaints that we've had and the issues we we very well understand the potential risks or the accusations. We just haven't had those circumstances that bore out that that rose on the level of priority. It's like let's spend these dollars when right

we need a police car, you know. Um but uh you know we're we are exploring grant opportunities and we've constantly been looking at if it becomes a like a state or a mandated thing if there's if there's funding that comes with that. It's like great you pay for them. We're happy to put them on. And in fact, the officers in a lot of years would love to have them. But we're pretty indifferent, you know. But but that's Does that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you didn't have any wants. So, or just Yeah. Yeah. He's all about business, right?

The truth is, I mean, I'm sorry, but I I'm just going to go ahead and say it because it just I want to champion the work that your police officers are doing, right? Uh we drive home our foundational values all the time and our you know look the work that the police officers are doing it doesn't make people happy all the time. Right. Correct. But the truth is that they are doing it you know with professionalism and treating people the way that they would want their family to be treated. And so we don't have very many complaints. We just honestly don't. So I hate to spend that money because I'm a taxpayer too. I just hate to spend that money if it's not necessary. Right. Gotcha. Gary and I have talked about this for several years now, haven't we? Yes, we have. Yeah.

I can tell you that some agencies that went all in because their community demanded that. And I if if our community demanded that of their police department Okay. Yeah. Um but I can tell you that it has created lots of of challenges, not just fiscal, but a lot of fiscal challenges. And and we just talked about it and the challenges with it. Body cams are it and so keeping up with the maintenance and the upgrades and the software. I mean, we would be increasing a risk there as well. Good point. True. Moneywise. Yeah. It's a cost. Yeah. And even if we get grants to help pay for that, that's arguably, you know, a season of money. It's not a forever money.

Um, so at some point in time, we bear the full cost of that. Yeah. Good point. Could you talk about um the the outdoor community programming space and why on the north side versus in between the two buildings where it's always sunny.

This is just a dream of mine. I was just dreaming big like we were told. This is just something that's been in the back of my head just it's it's a lot of wasted space back there and um doing we have done a couple programs in the past along in between the buildings and we've been throttled by sun. So, I just thought to start there, it's by the community room, so it's an easy access if we have something inside and then to move to the outside. And then, of course, with the farmers market people, we thought they could use it as well, so they would have access right there as well. I mean, that would be something we could add on, right? Okay. She's dreaming.

So, at this time, we're going to take 10 minutes. We'll go 10 minute. Everybody take a 10-minute break. I'll be back here at 7:10 and we'll continue on. There he is.

Mr. So, unless anybody has anything um more that they'd like to talk about in regards to the spreadsheet, um I' I'd like to just kind of recap in regards to the spreadsheet that the purpose of the spreadsheet is so that you are fully aware of what our subject matter experts assess as needed to provide the community what it not just uh what it needs, but also what we perceive to be what's expected. Um that said, the team does not expect that all of this is to be realized. Um it would just be uh be great if we can get close to it. Um not just for us, but for the community before you move on.

Yeah. I Yeah, I want to go into the all of the city hall um requests. Also want to hear about the fire department from them because we haven't heard from them and I just kind of like to know what you would think. Sure. Do you want to go first with that?

Okay. Um so like uh they were saying John asked you know for what would be the ultimate fire department. Um and so um the first one on there is the ambulance that is a must every um we have to keep that going that capital to binding ambulance ambulances that is our it's what we do. So, we got to keep they uh go run a lot of miles, a lot of engine hours every year. So, we need to to keep that capital going in there. And we've done that for the past. Yeah. Yeah. And it's something that that is kind of already in there. We need to continue to keep that.

So, is it already in the Yeah. So, basically, it's 50,000 we put into generally reserve for future purposes of the ambulance. Oh, so it's it's been there for a while. Okay. Um, so that it's really good deal. So when we when we go to buy an ambulance, we actually

ambulances nowadays, they're in the $275,000 range. Um, and I don't expect it to go down any um any kind of uh fire apparatus is going to going to um ambulances, fire trucks, whatever. We're talking for engines is up getting close to a million dollars. uh 850,000 to a million dollars. So, uh it's just all all expensive. So, that's a must. That's what we do. That's how we provide protection to people and that's how we could get sick people to the hospital. Um question real quick on that. Yes, sir.

So, when you do an ambulance, are you doing a cabin chassis or are you doing a complete? Um we for the last few years we've been able to do some remounts. Um, we're to the point now where we can't do that anymore. All our old ambulances are gone. So, we'll have to start buying new and building them from the ground up. So, I just curious because I know how your newer ones seem like they're more of a cap chassis where, you know, I didn't know if the the back section was reusable where you could, you know, they can't, you know, they they were used for a long time. So when we get to that point, we can start reusing those other ones, but the next one will have to be big round up.

Okay. So are you looking at the grant for the ambulance? Uh no, we just usually we've just been purchasing them with capital funds. Yeah. He just they just keep putting money away each year. So when it is time, we do have the money for them. Yeah. That being said, we are pursuing a grant on one of the larger vehicles.

Yeah. We're in the process right now of working on a new rescue vehicle. Um, and we'll try for an AFG grant. The federal government was shut down for a little while, so that slowed all that process down with the AFG grant. So, um, I've heard heard that maybe in February they might open that that grant process, but we also have money set aside to purchase uh purchase one if we can't get the grant. So, you're not guaranteed every, you know, all the time you get a grant. So, um, but he's doing the best that he can to use other people's money before we use our

Right. That's what you're asking. Yes. Yes. We'll we're going to go that route and then, uh, we'll uh, if we if we can't get that grant, then we'll go ahead and see what we can get for the money we have set aside. So, Okay. So, did you say this already has been budgeted for though? Because I thought these were all new items that each year we have been budgeted. This is this is for next fiscal year, but we have budgeted in the previous years. So, we've been putting money 50,000 away for the past few years. Yeah, it's just something, you know, John asked us to get together our wish list. So, just making sure that's on there is is a big wish for me. So, um

I promised them I wouldn't take anything off the list that you guys would be able to see. What's the ease fire ease alert firefighter alerting system? Right. So, this is one of uh my firefighters came to me with this uh proposition, but it's actually a wristband that they can wear. It wakes them up at night um easier so they're not because what um when you get woke up at night, we have speakers, lights, everything. They all come on all at once. There's people speaking to you out of speakers and it just wakes you up. Your heart

just gets going. um uh faster and uh releases I think it's cortisol that uh and it's over over time it's bad for you. So this this system here um would um wake them up slower got a vibration and then gets bigger and our lights will eventually and and speakers come on but it just does it slow slower. It's like correct. Yeah, for sure. So, it's not as startling.

It's not as startling. Yeah. If you um you know, over the years I think back and it's it uh your heart just beats starts beating so fast and and it's bad for you over time. Um this this was brought to me by one of my firefighters. There's a couple of different ways. There's some grants out there we might need be able to get for that. Uh wild horse is always a good one to try. So, I I possibly going that route with it or they had a couple other possibilities on there that we'll have to talk about. So, um as anybody, you know, more firefighters is always always good, but it brings its own whole set of problems to the place for them to stay, which you know, if we got three more firefighters, our infrastructure is we're done. We'd have to build Yeah. We'd have to build on. So,

yeah. How many do you house right now? Six. How many do you have room for? Seven. Oh, okay. With dorms. I mean, we could always make room, but uh yeah, seven is what we have. Put CS in your uh in your training. Bunk beds. We could go to bunk beds. I don't know how guys would look like. Oh, guys like bunk beds. You guys, that's not true. Oh, okay. To think if they slept in the ambulance, they'd be ready.

They'd be ready to go. Yeah, for sure. But, uh, you know, people are are always always good. Uh, it does bring it, you know, it brings obviously more money to the budget that you have to spend. Uh, cuts down maybe on a little bit of overtime. We we have the same thing as what Gary was talking about earlier, you know, just trying to staff to a minimum. there's always one, you know, some vacation, sick leave, you know, so trying to keep that minimum staffing so we provide the best, you know, service to, um, to our customers, you know, count here and in the county. So, um, as with everything, you know, our calls, we get more calls with the, uh, our receptionist would be great to take some of that, uh, pressure off. Uh we have more um you know phone calls, more paperwork that we need to do and it helped our admin administrative assistant out a whole bunch to you know have that that help. When you run more calls there's a whole lot of everything else that gets bigger too. So um just having a receptionist would be great and fulltime would be would be the ultimate. So, um, and then the gurnie, it's just a we have three ambulances now with gurnies. Um, and, uh, we have a reserve ambulance if some one breaks down. It does not have a gurnie in it now. So, it creates issues,

uh, trying to swap it in in and out. Um, and so it'd be ready to, you know, say we had a mass casualty or something, we could put it in service quicker, right, with a gurnie. And those are 25 grand. Yeah. Oh, I had what? I had 25 here. I think that was for We were looking at maybe a used one. They're in the 37,000. Yeah. And that's just the gurnie part, the part that the uh slide that it goes in on. That's a whole separate piece. That's another 30,000 or so. So, yeah. But those are pretty amazing out there. Yeah, I've seen them. Not like your old one where it

Yeah, this one. When I started, we have to had to lift them up and, you know, now they're all battery powered. Yeah, it's great for the, you know, backsl. Well, that's why I walked like this. Yeah, that might be good. Yeah, too. So, it's a, you know, it's it's a, you know, something we'd look at. You know, like John said, not all these are, you know, reason. I don't know if it's reasonable, but they're reasonable. They're reasonable, but um it's a lot of money, so I get that. But Okay. Yeah. Any questions on Mike? You only want one?

Yeah. Actually, I have two, but John weeded one out on there. Jack Yeah, actually one got inadvertently missed, but actually this one's coming off anyway. So, this is permit software. I think we're the last department in the city to still be doing things manually. And just about everybody in the city is electronic in one way, shape or form. Just the only general fund department. But any but anyway uh um we got lucky because the state building codes division through the building permitting program has a planning module and uh and that's paid for, you know, the whole permit software is paid for through the building permit program. So you got your want then? I got I got my want and it's free.

Oh wow. So anyway, What's your what was your So my other my other one is is a absolute mustave. Um we are in a no we're going to be in a pickle and so so we have a choice but uh last year I think it was last January uh the state law changed on elevators and what goes into uh elevator safety. And so in 2030, we're going to be required to replace all of the guts of our elevator in order to be in compliance with with state law. And so so what actually changed and what are they requiring? It's the brake mechanism, the pulley stuff. There's oh jeez,

there's all kinds of stuff. It's way over my head. Yeah. But it's about 120,000 bucks to replace all that stuff. And so right now we've been putting about eight grand a year away uh in capital reserve for city hall. And I think Heather I think you kind of told me before what do we have 45,000 bucks in there now after this year about 42. Yeah. And so so anyway uh so the ask that inadvertently just kind of got weeded off because I actually asked John to delete this and I think it just kind of fell off on accident the wrong one. But uh but anyway but the elevator piece uh I'll be asking that we bump that eight grand up to 15 grand. So in 2030 we'll have enough money to actually replace that. Okay.

Hoping that we'll have a retrofit or they'll come up with something between now and then so it won't be that expensive. But uh but that's money we've been putting away for roof stuff or some other catastrophic thing and and it just turns out that we just have to cross our fingers that something bad doesn't happen and we get to actually use that money for the elevator. But uh but anyway, so that's that's something that you'll see added to the list uh that I'll be asking uh John to consider and is to bump that 8 to 15 for our capital reserve stuff for the elevator. I I'll put it back on the list. He he said right I accidentally took the wrong one off.

I'm sorry. You wanted city hall. Yeah, there's a lot of new things. Yeah, sure.

We're starting to talk the uh director position FTE. Um, ultimately what I'd like to be able to do is is I think everybody's aware that I'm putting a lot of time and energy into um, civic engagement. And one of the things I'm afraid of in regards to that is that I'm not putting enough time into the workforce that it needs as well in order to do this to the degree that I think is most right. And I can explain what I mean by that if you want me to. Um so what I would like to be able to do is establish using a current um director position um a which would be an accretion of their position that would include duties associated with being a um deputy city manager. The intent would be to for their the additional duties. They wouldn't be in the hierarchy of overseeing the other um directors. Um but they would have a very substantive role um in regards to uh um helping making sure that that same level of engagement that we're doing um out in the community is occurring within our own workforce. Um but they to some extent, not to some extent, to a great extent, they'll still have their regular duties, but we'll modify things. My desire and intent with that would be somewhere after the budget is approved um would that we'd hold some form of uh um formal um selection process um that would lead to and really the this is kind of an opportunity for everybody else to know the question that I'm going to ask and want to come back is is what I just told you tell me how you see you would get it done in order to be able to make this happen and capture my intent. Um, and then based off of what the anybody that says that they're interested in wanting to uh to do it, um, based on what they share with me that they, uh, um, how they see the business getting done, um, we'd make a selection, a panel would make selection of that position and then we would go

there and that would end up moving um, the person, whoever's in the position, not everybody's on the same band. Um and so depending on where the band in it would end up moving um either if it's somebody that like uh um Gary or uh um Kyle as an example and the band that they are at um whoever would be selected would be at the same band um but if one of them were to be selected for the position well then depending on where they're at in the in the steps um one way or another they'd get a um they'd get

and so we I built this in here to plan or we're building this in here to plan in a worst case scenario of it being the mo currently most expensive employee um versus uh um the uh um cheapest employee that that would happen with. Do cities of comparable size have a deputy? Yes. Yeah. But how would any of our directors now be able to fill in both roles? Right.

It depends on which position gets selected. But I can also tell you that's the purpose of the selection process, right? is for us to collaborate on what right looks like um and make sure that we're not um dropping anything off from what they're currently doing that is critical while at the same time enabling the other uh things that I would like to see um happen within that position. So there's a there's a there's a map I mean there's a road map to get there. Um but it's that that dialogue won't be determined until at one I know who wants to put in the put in for the position. Um, what I plan on doing is just breaking a pool stick and throwing it in the middle of the ground and whoever's left standing gets the job.

That didn't go over as well as I had. More customers for you. Ste's got Ste's got the height and weight advantage. So,

um, all right. So, going to the second position. as I've looked at all of the different director positions here currently and I'm not uh anti where anybody is uh placed at this time um but in looking at the criticality of the duties that Heather has in her position in finance um I feel as though she her position needs to be put on that same tier or the same uh level that um uh um public works and fire and uh um police are on and so I would like to bring that position up to be at the same level of um as as the others. Um so that would be the purpose of the second one that's on there.

Okay.

Um the uh third position um so our yeah I think we've had a lot of conversation on this. Um ultimately I feel like there's a lot of other people's money out there that's being left behind. um we've been able to generate a lot of conversation in regards to the potentiality of getting some grants. Um but our ability to invest the time and energy necessary into it to be able to do it widely versus just oneoffs um is lost. Um, and so, um, one of two routes that we would look at this, and I'm just using this as a planning figure, um, that we'd either contract somebody to do that work for us, but the problem we have with most contracts is they won't manage it once we get it. Um, and so, u depending on where we land at the other side of this, um, the the cost of those um, would be intended to help us not only go after and get uh, grants, but also to manage them once we get them. um that there's been times in the past and Heather correct me if I say this wrong um where we've been at risk for some sort of a problem in regards to our audits um because we've our bandwidth is full um and trying to make sure we're keeping our eye on the ball and meeting all the compliance requirements um risks putting us in trouble. Um, and so having somebody whose job is to make sure that we don't get into trouble, um, would be a whole lot better than, hey, amongst the, you know, hundred other things that everybody's working on on any given day, um, I would like for you to just focus on making sure that we do what we need to do.

This absolutely would need to more than pay for itself. Very hesitant. Yeah. I I I also put it in there as a limited duration position. Um because that way we'd have a chance to be able to prove whether or not we're getting what we want out of it. Um and so if we if after a few years up to five years, if we reach a point in time where we're like, hey, we're just not getting the bang for the buck. Um then because it's limited duration, it'll be an easier for us to separate that position than it would be of any other one.

So would you like this full-time or a part-time? Um my I I I think we would have enough work for them to be able to do with help with multiple things. Um in planning, we're talking about uh some some additional help that they may need over there. Um that would be something that they could take on some additional duties there as well. Um so still still kind of building the plane while we're um underway. Um, but I I think there would be the organization would re reap great reward um if we were to establish those that position. Yeah. I I had a question and please correct me if I'm wrong. So you're not considered a director even though you're the department head CPA person.

I am a director. Um there's just different levels of directors that we have. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Gotcha. So police, fire, and public works are grade. I don't know. It kind of goes down from there. Starts rec down. Yeah, there's different grades. Just gotcha. Okay. Yep. I just want to raise this grade.

I like the concept, you know, at least discussing, you know, becoming a grant writer. I know in the past we've relied on each of our directors to sort of write their own grants and I don't I don't know how much of of you know their time that entails. I suspect it's, you know, dependent upon what's going on at the moment, but um, you know, that also has the ability to lift a little bit of burden off other people's backs. And I' I've often wondered if there are grants that maybe we're there are some missed opportunities% because of of of you know, just the circumstances. I mean, we all have

we can only do so much and so I I do like the concept of having someone who is fully dedicated to searching out grants and then that allows our directors to say this is what we need. This is what we're after. And then you have someone who has a lot more bandwidth to go and and get into the weeds and go after them. And um I I think that does have the potential to have a a positive return on investment, but I like the idea of hedging that so that it's not locked in long term. I would agree it would have to it would have to pay for itself, but I think it it's got the potential to do it. They always say they can

to John's point the bigger deal is the management to be honest cuz you know writing takes you a chunk of time but then it's the reporting the management the the deliverables right that's that's the really difficult part for staff because then you're in the middle of the project and you have that stacked up on top. So that to me is the most attractive part. Yes, obviously the money but enough for that um overhead to cover their cost for sure. And I could get one by February. That would be perfect. I mean I I did a little bit of proof math here that if you just add up the one time

and the recurring expenses you're looking at you know a million32,000 on the um one-time expenditures and 811,000 or you know that's again this has changed but and I realize this is kind of a wish list but that's just the musts that's not the wants that's not the you know these They're just the musts. And so in order to bring that about, we have no choice but to generate revenue. Grants are a whole lot nicer way of doing that than um taxes, which are usually what revenue generation means from a municipal perspective.

Well, in a in a few slides from now, we're going to talk a lot about that and I hope that you will remember everything you just said. I will.

Um, thank you. I appreciate that. Um, let's see. uh public information engagement program. So um ultimately in this make sure I'm talking the right thing here. Um so um I think as you guys have I've said before you guys have seen me doing a lot in regards to trying to get out and engage the public. Um, one of those things we're going to talk about in some of these later slides, and you've heard some loose, uh, conversation about it, um, in the budget retreat, um, and then probably at the this the town hall when we did that, um, with within the this overall strategy, which I'll I'll be honest in saying right now is going to be my recommended course of action and how we we move forward. Um but within that that action um I I see in the future the potentiality that no matter what we got to we have to relieve the strain that's on the uh on the general fund. Um even though like uh Heather described earlier um we could probably go three to five years without there being some problems. Um but we that pressure is just going to continue to grow and grow and grow and grow. Um, I believe that we have within our midst, um, the ability to put the framework in work in place to be able to start trending towards um, increasing and improving our revenue generating efforts. And that's going to be a whole lot longer conversation than what I can have or that we would have time for here, let alone not fully defined yet. Um but what I can say is is that um in there that plan is going to be a framework that gives us the ability to get to the point in time where there's almost not quite but almost a guarantee that we could actually completely solve that problem. Um which might include actually the solution would be in the worst case scenario uh the establishment of a special district in order to be

able to give us the relief that we're looking for. Um what I hesitate to do is there's a wait till we get there to start communicating with the community um in regards to that reality. So all these different tools that you're seeing me talking about here all of them intertwine and interconnect with each other. Take in my mind take one away you're weakening the likelihood of the success. Um the uh um civic engagement effort that I'm planning on putting in is going to be keeping the community real time aware of how we're tra traversing that that tiered plan. Um so that they know real time when we've gone from one um attempted solve to another to another and then to another. Um that way when and if we reach the point in time where we have to go to the community and ask for um the establishment of a special district um well then they've been able to see that we've done the best that we can with the money that we have already and we're not just coming back and arbitrarily because I my my experience um in talking to people right now is they're not aware of the problems and therefore the default answer is no. um because they just make the assumption that we're just not doing a good job in managing our money. Um and so to me, the way the only way we're going to solve that problem is getting after letting them know now and keeping them well informed and the these tools, the civic engagement is one of them. Um, and that's on multiple different tiers, which includes, um, I think maybe some of you might have seen I sent out a, uh, um, an email that talked about the newly established city hall, um, Facebook page. Um, that's going to um, resonate beyond just simply Facebook. it's going to go to all the different social media platforms because as much as I would love to be able to hold a hundred um town halls a month and trust that people will show up to all of them, um the bottom line is I got to go where the

people are. Um and the intent of that is is to make sure that I'm keeping you guys real time informed. Um keeping the public and community real time informed and keeping our our staff real time informed and where we're at in all of that. That way everybody can know with great confidence. So, I can tell you that the um civic engagement and funds that I'm wanting there is meant to help fund um helping me to be able to do all those things that I just um described. And that then and that isn't cheap. Um that would also at some point in time grow into our economic development plan um on how we're utilizing those same tools to help us attract more people to come here. better than what we're currently getting from the chamber, better than what we're currently getting from any other local entity um that's meant to try and attract somebody while at the same time we're dealing with all those other problems that you guys talked about um that are factors that are preventing people from wanting to come here. But what I can say is if we don't have a deliberate strategic plan that's act that's actionable, realistically actionable and resourced the way that it needs to be um well then we can't expect to get any kind of a different result. Um and then the only option that I would see that we would have based off of that would be to start cutting services. And so, uh, um, I think our community, my assessment, deserves, um, I I I have to be careful how I say this because, um, I'm I don't want anybody to feel insulted. Um, when it comes right down to it, I think the community, we have a great community, an amazing community. Um, I think our team is providing amazing um, services considering the resourcing constraints that they have. Um there's an argument and I think that story isn't being told enough. There's an argument that um our services are amazing despite um our resource constraints and we need to tell that story simultaneously. I think our

community needs better than they're getting. Um and the only way we're going to do that is is to increase our revenue. Um and there's a multitude of different ways to do that. But what I believe is within our current framework, we have the ability to potentially solve the problem with what we have already. And that's all because of the work that was done before I ever got here. Um, but fortunately, I've inherited something that's created an opportunity for us to be able to do that. And everything you see remaining on this list is all the beginnings of trying to put that framework into place. And when you get if you guys approved on the other side of this that strategic plan development, what you're going to see behind that is a very uh visionary um and aspirational um economic development plan um that will be modernized and ready for our current situation. And we're going to I'm going to propose that we resource that plan um to actually do it. I've used this example a couple of different times. I apologize. I feel like I'm like way ahead in the uh presentation, but this is to me the what justifies what we're what I'm asking for here. Um in economic development and urban renewal, um 70 75% of that position is paid for, Timothy's position, as you know, is paid for by urban renewal dollars. Um 25% of it is paid by um out of the general fund. Um, I would argue when you actually at the time those plans were built, they were built wonderfully with the right intent. And in the near future, Timothy is going to um have a work session with you. It's going to show you just actually and it's amazing how much value we've gained in the urban renewal. It's actually really impressive what's come from that. It's going to answer a lot of the questions that you guys have had before. But that being said, um what we've done in urban renewal with the funds being the way that they have and what we've done in economic development with the resources that we've given to it, it's it blows me

away how great we've done. Like we've as a community, we've done an amazing job. And that was with an underresourced position. So I can't imagine what we would have been able to do if we had resourced it to meet the plan that was written. So the intent is is for us, this is the beginning of that. Um, but the intent is for us to build the plan and we either we either build the plan with the idea that we're only going to resource it with one position or we build the plan um and then resource it with the with the positions that we need in order to accomplish the goal that we want to accomplish which is more revenue for the city. Right. Um, and so, um, if you approve on the other side, I've I've held back from, um, going too too aggressively into developing that plan yet, um, because what I don't what I don't that's going to take time, energy, and effort in order to give that. But if we're if we're not already there and in support of that, well, then I don't want to I don't want to put time and energy on the staff's part um, or on my part if we already are leaning towards not wanting to do that. But the intent behind what we're going to do and this is the early framework for that um the intent what we're going to do is is do the best that we can to solve the problems with the money we have already which includes using money that we've traditionally just stored away and said hey let's let's just and we've done a brilliant job like Heather was saying like it's amazing how much money has been able to be put away but I'd say it's raining and it's and it's time to tap into some of that that fund um to put the framework in place um to be able to make sure keep keep the status quo of what we have right now. Put the framework in place. This is the early stage of that. Um and then give me the chance to show you that it's working and lead us towards the place where in a worst case scenario um the community feels confident that a special district

is necessary. Um but the goal will be to never get there. Makes sense.

So what I can tell you is that's that was a really long explanation. um to explain why these things are things that I'm asking for. Um the uh clear point strategy that you see at the bottom that you guys have heard me talk about uh dashboards. Um, we are actively working to build our dashboards out and that's going to that's that thing that I talked about in my original uh that last interview that I did um where we're um where we'll have the ability to communicate with the with you and with the community and letting them know how we're performing in accordance with the resources we receive and what community expectation of that's going to look like. When that's done, it's going to change the world in the way that we can communicate amongst each other, let alone with the community. Um, and it'll uh um give us the best opportunity to be able to help us traverse those those those different stages that I was talking about before in a way that gives the the community confidence that we're doing the best that we can for them.

Sorry, I can speak to one, but I I can tell you everything that's on the list list, it plays into everything I just said. Excellent. I didn't see anything from public works. Uh most of these are like effect on the general fund. So none of my projects and my asks affect the general fund. That's right. I did not participate. Okay.

But but I'm glad you I'm glad you brought that up. But one of the conversations that we had and we kind of alluded to it earlier was the whole ARPA fund thing running out. Um, the question is, do we want to keep the standard? And if we want to keep the standard, then we definitely going to have to tap into one of two things. Pursue the gas tax, which I got to say, like there's a part of me that's not interested in that because I want to show the community that we're doing the best we can with what we have before we start going to them and asking them for money. However, I also think the community needs their streets fixed. Um, and so if we don't, I my my my thought process would be for us to flood some of that money that we have into their program um to help them keep up some of that energy um to give us time to get some of these other things into place before we start going back to them and asking for them to um pay some funds. Again, giving us the opportunity to show them we're doing the best we can with what we have before we ask them to start paying more taxes. I think the ARPA funds are a great a great way to show that I don't think we need to pull from general fund. You can say with this additional funding that we had with the ARPA funds, this is what we delivered on and it made lots of people happy.

So if you want us to continue, then this is how we get there. Oh, I'm I'm with you there. But then the question is how do we like right now are we we're almost out of that money now, right, Heather? Correct. Um, so in the very near future, it's going to go back to the way it was, but we have some real data uh and you know, uh, to show what we can do. Oh, 100% agree. Um, yeah, but the question is is do we want to let that lag for a while before we get there or do we want to keep it going? And that's that's the question I'm posing for you guys, right? We want to keep it going. Um, our desire

we have so many things that need financial attention. I think that's part of this discussion is where we put that. 100% agree. Yeah. I think you know part of this priority for aging infrastructure I mean when I read that I streets was top of mind. Um I think the last time that we floated the concept of the gas tax to the community I think was very very poorly communicated. I think we would all agree that yeah

we did not appropriately explain that. But I there are few other ways that we're going to fund that that are going to be as impactful as a gas tax both in terms of the magnitude but also I know I think the last time we did a study maybe a little bit dated now as electric vehicles have become more commonplace but we figured that approximately I think half of that funding would be coming from out of town residents and I can think of no other way that an in town resident gets you know, double the money that they put in into their streets other than that gas tax. But the reality is we're a we're a major stopping point on the interstate. We feed a lot of the, you know, the the bedroom communities around us. Um, you know, come and gas up here and and and they drive our streets and and that helps to pave our streets. So, I I think, you know, I I for one I I don't I don't know that I'm comfortable with saying, "Hey, we're going to pull a bunch of funds out of the general fund and and use that to back fill streets for temporary." We need to right now I think act. In fact,

we do. I think we wanted to last time until the state came out and started talking their transportation taxes and we realized I was dead in the water. But um you know I mean I think I think that's anyway that just my my two cents on that. I don't know how the other council members feel. But I think I think it's be more of a better for a work session on a gas tax cuz right now we are not one of the lowest places to get fuel. All you're going to do is hurt big time cuz people are going to keep going versus stopping here. We do put a gas high keeping going. But I think that would be more. Yeah, I don't think they I would think that better for works. Yeah, that's a little work session for discuss. I agree.

Yeah. Yeah. And that was what I that was the guidance I wanted to get was hey, let's let's table it for for further conversation and exploration. I do know we're we are hitting up against a close timeline of when we we will have to make a decision on it. So, we'll have to get that on the calendar here fairly soon. Yeah. But and I think a lot of it depends on too what the state what happens with the state transportation tax. Yeah. It might be smarter for us to get ours done before they do the that's currently. Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, as David said, you know, last time we took a run at the state gas tax, we didn't provide enough time to do that educational front end selling. Uh the statewide, you know, it was petitioned. It's going to be on the ballot. It was turned over to the voters to be removed. So in December they will vote on the six cents gas tax. So that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. And early estimates are is that that vote will pull out about a 3 to 5% more voters who are going to vote against the state gas tax on early projections. So depending on what it would do locally, we don't know. But that's a pretty big swing. So it's kind of a weird political climate of but it's kind of like okay if they pass it here and what if it gets passed then then they're going to have a higher pass. Yeah. So it's really kind of one of those

Yeah. Yeah. Um I I would say going back to all this civic engagement stuff that we're talking about, this is a story that we can start telling, right, and working with the community and getting them seeing and knowing and understanding. Um combined with whatever additional efforts that would normally be done. Um I what I would I it's way too early for me to have a overstatement of an opinion on this, but I feel like we're trending in a direction where the community is going to trust us. Um and so um I I would say let's continue to build on that. Um and then yeah, we have to decide on the timing in regards to I agree with what Justin I think we need a work session. Totally agree.

But we also have other infrastructure that has needs. We have a pool that has lots of of physical needs. We've got library that has needs. So I think we need to look at all of those. Um, and that then and some of the this I I don't know that we have the time to wait for a full flesh out of the strategic plan in regards to the gas tax. So, we'll have to move on that more rapidly. Um, but uh um all these things that you guys are talking about are all things that also affect our ability to attract people to come to our city.

Absolutely. Um, and so, um, what I feel like what I owe you is things that we feel like are going to be the biggest bang for our buck to make us attractive to other people to want to come here. Um, and so it's I'm not yet in a position to where I can speak it that intelligently enough. Um, but what I I do know is there's like you guys do, there's so many different competing issues, but what we have to we have to break the way we've been doing business and start trying something else. Otherwise, we're just going to end up getting worse and worse and worse.

And I I it doesn't fall on deaf ears on my perspective that I realize there's risk associated with all this. But I can tell you I'm going to try and build the plan to mitigate that risk as much as possible. And part of that mitigation is is making sure we're keeping the community informed. Um so that when we arrive at a point in time where we have to ask for that, our odds of getting it are improved. Not not guaranteed, but improved. Right. Okay. Good. Sounds good.

Okay. Um do you want to talk about any of these other uh other ones that are on the list? answer any questions. All the depressing statistics are right there. library does actually I I will say John I think you know this is a

this is usually the staging ground for work sessions that get planned throughout the year and so I you know I hope we're you know maybe taking some notes um I for one think you know we're we're going to have a work session on gas on a gas tax that needs to come earlier in the year so that if we do decide that that's something that we want to potentially explore putting on a ballot that there's time uh because those things take a lot of time to you know educate and move.

Um I I will um if you give me a couple of days I'll come back to you with a proposed sooner rather than later uh time for a work session that in the not that I'm trying to just I think some people maybe wanted to and some didn't but I know we have a work session that's currently planned for the 8th is it the 8th of February? Uh, yes. I guess I think so. Yeah. That we could Sunday. Potentially we could It's the 9th. Oh, it's 9th. Monday the 9th. So then there's a a potential we could bump what we have planned for that night and do this instead. But I don't know how we'll have to talk and make sure that I'm informed well enough to be able to make sure it's value added for you.

Yeah. I mean, I'm just thinking, you know, not not June, you know, or later. That's that's not useful. Yeah. Agreed. Okay. Um, I'll come back to you guys with some pos recommendations when we have our next city council meeting. Okay. Thanks. Um, all right. Moving on to continued unconstrained. Sorry.

Number six. There you go. Cost is doing service. So before we uh talk about budgets, tradeoffs or priorities, we need to be clear about something foundational. The slide is not this slide is not about what we want to do. It's about what is it actually costs to deliver the services the community already expects safely legally and to in at today's standards. This is not the future expansion. This is not a future expansion conversation. This is the cost of folding the line. Um some uh depth to add to that is today's standards equals yesterday's standards. Expectations rise even when services don't expand. Um compliance can be an issue, uh training can be an issue, technology can be an issue, safety, documentation and redundancy and coverage. And so I ask you guys um if you have some conversation on this, what has changed in the last 10 to 15 years that increase the cost of delivering the same service?

I can repeat the question if you guys want. Increase everything. Yeah, exactly. you know, price. I mean, to employ employee anymore, you know, you have all the benefits to go with that. The cost of living, you know, I mean, supplies, materials, everything, health insurance, it all. Yep. Yep. Agreed. Um, as you know, standing still costs more every year,

which is kind of what you just said. Um, unfunded does not mean unnecessary. Deferred does not mean optional. Um, if I if I was to ask you what what your definition of deferred, absorbed, or unfunded is, um, could you give me your definition um of deferred? Put it in the office. Kick it down the road. Kicking that can. What about absorbed? Just take it in. Yeah. Fund it somehow.

Um I would I would propose that it would mean work staff are covering by stretching, multitasking, or going without. Yeah. Okay. Taking it on. Yep. And then unfunded doesn't happen. It's not going to happen. Real requirements with no ongoing funding source. That's like the the state coming down and saying, "You will do this, but we're not giving you any money to do it." Right.

Um I'm not trying to be alarming when I s when I ask you these next questions or say these next things, but um these are things I think you already know and I want to make sure that we talk about it though. Um these are not decisions to not do work. They are decisions to accept risk.

Um and so anything that we're not doing obviously there's risk. Um when we're not doing streets, there's risk. Well, there's a whole lot of things I find there. Um, unfund unfunded items represent deferred risk, not deferred desire. Another question for you. If this stays unfunded for five five more years, what breaks first, people, systems, or assets? All of it. What? No. I Which Which one do you think breaks breaks first? Oh, service. Service. What do you mean by that? Well, they're not going to do what we want them to do. And they can't.

Our employees. Yeah. Our employees. Yes. Okay. And our services that they offer. They can't do it all if you don't if they don't have the funding. Yeah. What effect does that have on our people? Well, they don't get the services that we say we'd like them to have. Y they expect expect us to have. Yeah. To keep a safe community. I mean, we have a great community here. I agree. We have wonderful people. We have a great staff, but they can't be they can't per they can't perform miracles. Yeah. But they I will say that they get beat up a lot about what they're not doing. Um and that

is tiresome andast at least runs the risk that we'll end up having employees um that just check the check their time card. Okay. Um and aren't necessarily going above and beyond anymore. I'm not saying that that's what we have now. What I'm saying is it does it's not unreasonable for it to breed that. But it's a perception that they have. Yeah. Because no matter what, they're going to get yelled at. That's right. Yeah. How sad.

Agreed. Um can you uh can you explain Oh, no. I think we already asked that one. So, this is like skipping oil changes. You save money until you don't. Um, I want to tie it back to uh funds carefully. Um, when we appear financially stable while deferring these costs, what we're often seeing is timing, not sustainability. Um, so, uh, what in any one of these topics that we might be talking on the new list or the way we've done business in the past, um, one way or another, we we've got to we've got to do something different now, right? At least I I would argue that we need to. Now that we've uh surfaced the unconstrained cost, the real work begins deciding how to responsibly close the gap as I think you guys are already working towards. So I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the next slide unless you have any questions on this. Um, so if nothing changes, I would ask you to uh talk to me about what what happens if nothing changes

status quo that it goes down. What do you mean by that? What will they be able to do what they need to accomplish to have the city running the way it's running now? It'll be gold below status quo. It only gets worse from here, right? Get worse. Yeah. Yep. Anywhere from having to cut personnel to having to cut things that we're providing to the community.

Um, and I I'm I'm not, you know, I'm willing to make hard decisions in regards to personnel situations, but when I look at the community and I feel like in my interactions with them that they already on their own feel like they're not getting the service that they need. And then we come to the point in time I realize that's a hard decision we have to make sometimes and I'm and I and I'll do it if I have to. Um but if if they're already complaining about how bad it is, well then we're only going to make it a bigger complaint, right? Yeah. So at least what I would say I'd like to see coming from that is change needs to happen.

I think every city in Oregon, if not the nation are is arguing that that's true. Anybody have anything more they want to add to that or All right. So, um, this kind of goes into some of the conversation we had earlier when I was talking about the, uh, um, strategic plan. Now, there's going to be several layers to the strategic plan, but I feel like this is the best time to introduce this concept and talk about it a little bit more in depth. um in your uh um information

sorry in in for uh information paper in the handouts that I gave you is a little bit more of an expanded um version of that. I'm willing to talk about it as in-depth as you would like right now, but I'll try and be short and saying give me the the but it's break time. Oh, it is break time, isn't it? Do you guys want to take a break? No, I thought I just could keep going myself for everybody else. I think it's just a quick five minute. Everybody can stand up around progressing.

got to stretch their legs a little. Yeah. Sorry. I just want to keep going. Oh, I do too, but I do like stretching my legs. I like to stay focused.

Okay. So, um I'll I'll move through this a little bit quick. I think you guys have heard it through me a few from me a few different times. Um, but the FTI is the fiscal transformation initiative. That's what I'm referring to um as our strate that's the strategic plan that I've been referring to. Um and then within that uh the intent of that is going to be to at the end state of accomplishment um we will create the relief on the uh on the general fund that we need in order to be able to um continue to do these great things for the uh the community that we would like to without the the fiscal pressures that are there. Um and I feel incredibly optimistic that um at the at the outset of that um whichever whichever the actual solve is that brings it about um I feel incredibly optimistic that the um um that we will be able to set conditions in a way that makes it so that we'll be like 15 to 20 years from now before anybody's talking about we got to try and solve a problem again. Um but it's just a matter of us being able to uh put the work in now in order to to make that possible barring there being you know crazy uh um economic situations occurring in the in the nation or or the state that changes that but but I feel optimistic that we can do that in this PACE E the primary alternate um contingency emergency and extra emergency each of those are a stage in which the Each of those would be a plan that's intended to bring about the solution that we're looking to achieve, that end state that I just described. Um the goal would be to um achieve it in that primary effort. And then if we start to see evidence that that's not succeeding, well then we would escalate to alternate. Um if that's not succeeding and there'd be triggers and we'd be able to communicate all those triggers with the community real time

within each of these stages. And if when we hit those triggers, they know that we've now gone from alternate to contingency. And they also know that the extra emergent is that point in time where we're looking to establish that uh that special district.

So all of this is intended to be a way for us to communicate plainly with the community. Um give them real time knowledge of where we're at in regards to that plan. And the desire or intent would be for us to be able to achieve that full um uh general fund relief. um by no later than five, I'll say worst case scenario, six years. Um but um I believe within that plan, we can build it in a way that would give us the relief that everybody's looking for, barring things I can't control, obviously,

right? Um so unless you want to talk about this particular slide a little bit more, I'll continue moving forward, John. I like the the concept, but what we haven't gotten insight into is how is this how is this going to raise at the end of the day this is about raising revenue

and we can tax and raise revenue or we can create new sources of revenue but that's really it. So what I haven't seen is what are we actually doing? I mean these are a lot of words but it doesn't tell me how we're creating. So, that's where I've been saying that I want to be able to um to get permission from you guys to work on developing this plan. Um I can give you the concept right now and the concept um that we would give you more granular detail by the time I asked you to approve it. Um would be for us to build out this economic development team first get the plan that we that we need and want and then secondly resource the plan um to be able to do the work that we want it to do to start generating it. It starts with the grant writer, but then it expands into the um to the expansion of the economic development team andor depending on how we look at urban renewal. Um there I think there's some nuances within there that can help a little bit as well. Um, but by all means, I don't have all the answers to that question right now, but by the time I would ask you to approve a plan, those questions would be answered and we'd have the ability to um make sure that whatever budget we approved for the next fiscal year um um you we have the ability to audibly change course of direction quickly. If you're feeling like that fiscal that strategy is not right, um then then the next option we'd have in there is is for us to go to what um what a fully balanced budget would look like right now. Um and that that would give us when I say balance without having to tap into um into savings at all. Um, and so the the my my desire is to be able to show you the roadmap and give you confidence that we would actually be able to have a realistic and actionable plan. Um, but to be able to have given it to you in the time that I've been here already. Um, hasn't been

able to been achieved as of yet. Um, but I do feel confident that by April or May, I'll be able to tell you with confidence what that would look like. Um, and what that exact road map would be. and then you you'd be able to say like now we're not seeing it or like hey I've got confidence or tweak this. Um but um I I feel very confident with the expertise that we have on this team right now um that we can um um we can get there. So our time frame is April or May to get eyes on what this plan entails. So I just because again I mean I I look at this and I think

the only word here that says to me revenue is economic development. you know, cost savings. I I just think we've had eyes, every pair of eyes in this room has been on the budget on how do we save money, how do we pinch pennies, how do we do this? I I'm concerned that that's not going to be a viable source of any meaningful cost savings because we've I think we've squeezed the juice out of that orange again and again and again. And so, uh, you know, I mean, I just I just want to be clear of what we're looking at because I think, you know, if this is an economic development plan, I'm going to get that. I just I want to see that this is going to get us somewhere. Y and instead of just sounding good, right? Okay.

Yeah. 100% agree with you. Um, to me, it goes back to what I was saying before um in regards to what was previously historically approved for economic development. um great things came from what was planned, but I would argue it wasn't resourced adequately. Um and so what I want, even if we came back with the same plan, which we wouldn't, but even if we came back with the same plan, we would resource it differently than it was before, thereby giving us the opportunity to generate more revenue. Okay. Um better. Okay. Um but I agreed it need it needs to be realistic. Okay. So I I mean I'm hearing this is going to be a lot of discussion around economic development planning. Okay. Yes. Thanks. That's what I thought you were you're talking you were referring to this mostly to begin with with economic development. Is that correct?

Correct. That's what I thought.

Um my right in early conversations that we've had so far um is that in over this next year um this next budget. So the f like I said before the first plan would be get the that stuff that I that's on the list getting that approved that's going to be intended to get us through that first year. Um behind that is going to be the time where we're going to ask you to probably give um us put that framework in place to put all those other things into motion. I don't know if we're going to be able to see the in fact I'm positive we're not going to see the full desired impact of what we want from implementing that framework within two to three years. But what I do believe is you'll see evidence that it's trending that way. Um and then and then from there will give us confidence of whether or not we need to stay stay the course or we need to call the audible and start working with the community to implement that uh um special district or new levy.

Okay. Okay. I understand. But but I agreed it's going to take a little bit of time for us to be able to make it all happen. But Timothy said he's got it. He'll carry it all in his back for us. Really? That's nice of him. Where you been hiding it from us all these years, Timothy? I've been working on it. Um, let's see.

Hey, Timothy, I got a job over and you can hit me tomorrow. All right. So, um, I've got a lot of content in this. All right. I'm just going to keep going for it and I'll try and I I I told you before I wasn't going to rush us if we end up carrying over to Wednesday. I hope everybody will be okay with that. But I want to make sure that conversation's quality. Um this slide uh captures the core tension underneath everything we're we we're about to discuss. On one side, service expectations continue to rise. That's not a criticism of the community. It's reality, right? Standards evolve, risks increase, laws change, technology changes. What residents reasonably expect from their city today is different than it was even 10 or 15 years ago, as we discussed already. And importantly, this isn't about adding new services. It's about what it now takes to deliver the same services safely, legally, and today's standards. um with the exception of course of what we're talking about in regards to fiscal transformation. On the other side of the equation is funding uh capacity. Funding capacity doesn't mean that that we wish we um doesn't mean what we wish we had. It means what we what our revenue system can reliably and sustainably produce. For most cities, including ours, the capacity is constrained or relatively flat. Even when Bless you, even when revenues grow, they often don't grow at the same rate or in the same places at as as our co at the same pace as our cost. When those two lines move in opposite directions, rising expectations and constrained funding, this mismatch

forces prioritization, as we've been discussing. And I want to be clear about something important here. Prioritization is not optional. It's already happening. The only question is whether prioritization happens intentionally through leadership and strategy or by default through crisis, deferred maintenance, staff burnout, and reactive decisions. That's why this gap is the core challenge. Expectations rise while funding remains constrained. The purpose of this conversation and this retreat is not to eliminate that gap overnight. It's it's to acknowledge it honestly and decide how we manage it responsibly, which I think goes back to what what we were talking about in the last slide. At least that's what I'm proposing as a solution. Um option A would be toward strategy. Once we understand this tension, the work shifts from explaining the problem to choosing our response. Um, option B toward decision points. Everything that follows, tradeoffs, phasing, investments, flows from this reality, and option C toward shared ownership. This isn't a staff problem or a council problem. It's a governance problem. And that means we solve it together. So, um, I'd like to have a little bit more discussion if we could on, um, what must change? And so, from your guys' minds, what, um, I could simplify it and say, do you do you feel like what I've been sharing with you is a truth that deserves more conversation? Um, or do you see it differently or have other ideas of what things must change?

I'm not trying to back you into corner. I'm just trying to provoke conversation. I think we all know change has to happen, right? You know, unfortunately to continue service, what's that?

You cannot avoid change. And so with that, you know, I mean, how do we adjust to keep up with the changes to ensure that we are giving the citizens what they deserve? I will say, John, I I like having the broad overview that that makes makes it look a little bit more um strategic, purposeful, proactive. Um but I I you know, at the end of the day, it's going to be about the the meetup and again, how do we generate revenue? And that that that remains to me the overarching question. That's where the rubber meets the road because none of this happens if we cannot generate new revenue. That's either going to happen through economic growth, attracting new businesses, new residents, or it's going to happen through taxing existing residents. We all know which one of those we prefer. But um but so again, I love the strategic overview, but I I I don't want to get lost in the clouds too much. I want to see where that again where where does that rubber meet the road? Where's the meat to this? and um and and you know I'm eager to this is an important step but I'm again I'm eager to bring that down and say now how's it going to happen?

I'm 100% with you. I could tell you that I want to rush to what you're describing but I'm worried that I'm forcing somebody to move at somebody else's pace that may be more comfortable with that than another. So I my approach and and intent here is to make sure we're all moving together at the same pace. Um, even though some might want it to be faster or some might even want it to be slower. Um, uh, and I I apologize if anybody feels like I'm talking down to them in any way in regards to that. What I kind of at the beginning I when I talked about this, I was like, we have to have shared understanding. And, um, I think when we move too quickly, we risk leaving somebody behind. Um, and I don't I I I'd hate for us to arrive at the time where we're getting ready to approve a budget and you feel as though something didn't get done that needed to be done. Um, and so it it it is my my propensity is to move much faster than this. I think the staff would probably even agree that I'm frustrating in that way. Um, because I tr I do move quickly. Um, but I have to force myself to slow down at times and there's been a couple of times where that's gotten away from me. Um, but the uh the bottom line is is we're all well well-intentioned. Um, the way that I'm doing it now is deliberate. That's why I created a script because I would I would rush to the to the I'd be giving you the the three choices right now if we had our choice in it and we'd be moving into urban renewal at the beginning of our meeting tomorrow. Okay.

Um, but but is that okay? Um but but uh and we can do that if everybody's comfortable and wants to do that, but I I just don't want anybody to feel like I'm leaving them behind. Right. I just think so. I mean, Heather and just so I'm clear because we we talk budget numbers and sometimes there's the the ones we present to the state and then kind of how it ends up. I mean, what I've heard is that if we're really if we're being realistic about it, we think that 3 to 5 years, we're if we don't change something about what we're doing, we're in trouble. So, again, I just So, if if you guys want to go to the so what of this, I'm I'm prepared to do that right now.

Um my my intent tomorrow at the conclusion of the municipal budget portion was to give you three options. Um the three options would be status quo, what you've had in the past. Um um current um uh let me go to the slide to make sure I'm saying it the right way. Okay. So, um, my honestly, we could like if you guys feel comfortable with my recommendation is here, then we honestly could conclude and go into urban renewal tomorrow. Um,

I don't think we should skip over anything, but so then I I you tell me where you want me to go right now. I think you just continue on. Don't be skipping over. Okay. That way everybody's on the same track. Okay.

Um, okay. transition year and phasing logic. Um, not all changes happen at once. Clarity now prevents disruption. Um, important that we have shared like we're just talking about shared clarity. Um, and when I say we have, I'm saying that the community has the same clarity that we have. Um, that our council has this shares the same clarity with the community and that our all of our city personnel have the same um clarity as well. Now again, all that civic engagement is intended to make sure that we're all operating with the same information at the same time um and making decisions together based on the same information. Um so this this is kind of setting the stage for where we would want to go in regards to the conversation include I'm concluding it for today. Um but we will pick up um with the same slide tomorrow but with some different uh um nuance to it. Um but this slide is about discipline and invites us to reflect. Um we've spent today building a shared understanding of the reality we're operating in the costs of services the gap between demand and funding capacity and why prioritization is unavoidable. Before we move into day two start to start and start talking about specific funding architecture and decisions we need to be clear about what we're carrying forward from today. This is not about solving everything right now. It's about capturing the consensus principles that should guide the next set of decisions. Question for you guys. Um what what if you have an opinion on it and beyond what you've shared already, what structurally needs to change? Any

thoughts? I think we need to look at the workload placed on city employees, especially the directors in the room. Um, you know, that that invites some sort of structural analysis to see do we have this provided appropriately? If we have the work divided um appropriately distributed. Yeah. Yeah.

Um I'll ask a a different question. What can't what cannot remain in the general fund? Yeah. What you mean like should we budget it out of for Yeah. What what if what opinions if anything do you have of what we should take out of the general fund? If you were to say right now cut services, what would you say needs to be removed? Oh, nothing. I'm sorry. That's my feel. Nothing. I don't want to take anything out. Right.

Okay. I I like that thought process. But um if we were at a place in time I can say is when we sat down and I and I received the uh um the desirements of what wanted to come out of my first year here um a very real um constraint was created.

So what I can say is I can give you what you're asking for and I'm willing to give you what you're asking for. what I would like to be able to do is give me time to get you where you want it versus saying it has to be right now. Um, and but but that's where I want this plan to come into fruition because I want to be able to show you a a a realistic plan um that will help me get us there in a timeline in which we will be there by. So, are you saying for this budget year you think this plan can go into effect this budget year? I I'm saying I can give you a plan that you're willing to approve that we will start well the first layer of that approval is those things that are on the the list here.

Um so I'm preemptively setting the stage on the assumption that we're going to um continue to move that way. um what I can what I can one way or another even if that's as far as we ever go um that's going to that that will still yield benefits for us if just the things that I've asked for from the city hall perspective let alone anything else that's on the list there's other things I think that that what the police department's asking for is a is a is a need um that we that we really need to look hard at how we make that happen um but um and I could probably make the same argument on most of the other things are on the list but what I can say is is we can w with the allowance to um change the way we've been doing business in the um from the past. Um some of some elements of it might look the same as what's been done in the past, but with a plan that's going to show you how we're going to get out of that. And rather than saying it has to happen right now in this budget year, um I can show you a guar what I will say is my drop dead guaranteed date um of when you will see that happen. Um, but give me the chance to show get us there versus saying it has to be right now.

I think right now we are we're stretched in providing services with what we have and personally I would like our services to be elevated across the board. Agreed. Um but uh also look ahead and don't want us to drive off a cliff. 100% agree with you and I my commitment to you is is that this plan will show you how we I think I can do everything you just described. Okay.

Not putting the department heads on the spot, but what do you guys see that cannot remain in the general fund? I mean, it's your budgets that create that. What would I know it's a loaded question, but it's just people like everything orange has been squeezed to use that. I mean, there's no my budget specifically is t like I'm at 99% like I can't unless we're cutting services, right? But but it's just people. Yeah. Like there's no right there's there's no way to get around it.

The turnup is dry. There's just no there's not enough money to operate. The pool's, you know, 25 years old, so it's it's getting to be it's falling apart, right? So that's just the normal atmosphere of what a pool does. And if you don't, you know, fix it or whatever. We aren't because we don't have enough money. So then it's people you're doing other stuff. That's what you have to do. It's the oil change analogy. Exactly. you have to cut people and therefore you can't do the work that you have to do because you don't have the people. I understand. That's my my honest take. I mean there's just there's no way around making any kind of impact without people. So you can say I'm going to close the pool for two hours a day.

It doesn't cut No, it's mad. Yeah. It's just not going to move the need customers mad. Yeah. Our community irritate. Well, we've been there, right? But on the flip side, without without revenue to to continue um services, something something's got to change. I mean, we're all there. So So somehow we're how we're budgeting has to change. I mean, we're Yes. But our revenue, like you like like we've been saying, our revenue has to change in some way. Like the answer to this question, no matter what is revenue has to change. It does.

The question is is how do we get to the revenue? And I'm we're we're going to develop multiple different options of how we get there with the best case scenario being it never causes another increase in taxes. Um I will say that I think that as long as we can show the community we've done the best we can with what we have um in order to to keep that from happening then I feel confident in saying that we can we can stand in good faith in front of the community. you have to improve this either levy or this special district or we this is what's going to go away, right?

Um and I think you guys have already run into the past every time you've ever said we're going to cut something um you end up with people showing up in force and in making it a very difficult decision to make even though people want to make the hard right decision. But what I think part of the reason is going back to the civic engagement um that if we're if if the p when the public arrives at a point in time where they have to make a decision and they they aren't informed on the decision then their automatic response is going to be no.

Um and so I'm not saying we're guaranteed we're going to get a yes, but I can tell you that Kyle and I went up and had a long conversation with a group of people on one of the streets up here. They they they called us up and said, "Hey, can we actually one of them wanted to talk to me? I'm like, "Hey, if you got some neighbors, bring them out. Let's have a conversation." And we're talking about all the things that are wrong in their street. And we went from upset people that were mad about what they weren't getting to people are saying, "Hey, what can we do to help solve the problem? What can we contribute to fiscally to help solve the problem?" That is the the result of civic engagement. Um, and so what I can say is as we do that on steroids and start to continue to communicate with the public, I think we're going to have more people that are trusting the circumstance and willing to help us help them.

It's going to be a buy in, though. Yep. And that's exactly what it is. Up until now, I I have no opinion on how we got to where we are. All I can say is is the appetite that I'm witnessing when I go out into the community right now is thank you. Yeah. Like I you they they whether they had the opportunity or not before, now they're indicating that they feel like they're being listened to and and they're not even saying I want you to give me what I want. They're saying I just wanted to be heard, right?

Um and so I feel like and I and I'm telling them I can tell you everything I'm saying here today, I stay on message. I don't depart from it in any point in time. I'll speak real with them, but I'll also tell them like this is this is where I'm trying to lead us and the intent is for us to stay away from new taxes, but if we end up there, I want you to know with confidence that we that's the only option we have left on the table that or cut services. And I want them to know I'm going to do it. It's just educating them as well as where we're coming from or where everyone is coming from building the budget. If it's not there, it's not there.

So, something's going to have to give. We have to you you'd balance your budget in your own home, right? Um it's no different than where we are right now. We have to do it. But I I would argue that the city's done such a great job before I got here um that were positioned where we actually have an ability to try and solve it in that creative way, whereas there there are plenty of other cities that would I wouldn't have shown up and have what I have at what we have as our disposal right now. Um, and the fact that we have that gives us a chance to do better for our community, better for our employees, and better for the o the overall relationship.

So, so John, I mean, I think what what I hear is I mean, you're saying, you know, give give me time and and be a little patient with me. I mean, we know what that time frame is. At least we have an inkling of what it looks like. Um, and we have because of of good decisions made in the past and a little bit of luck, uh, you know, we have a little bit of a piggy bank that the city can work from. And I think, you know, if if if you if you show me something that the council, the city can invest in that we think is going to bring the return that we want in the time frame that allows us to keep providing the services that we have. um with the hope to grow those in the future. I'm all on board. Um you know, I I think we're eager to make good investments uh with the city's resources. I think um you know, what what we what we want to make sure we're doing in the meantime is that we're able to maintain those critical services and that we're not going to go, you know, put ourselves in in a situation where we we have eaten through our reserves and don't have a return to show on it, don't have a path forward. Um, but you know, I mean, nobody's expecting a turnaround in in six months, not even a year, that's just not realistic. But if we can lay the groundwork so that in that, you know, fiveyear projection that we have, we've put in the work now, we put in the planning, we've got the economic strategy, whatever it is that, you know, the gas, whatever it's going to take to put us in that healthy position to meet where we want to be. Um, I think that's what we're after, you know, and the purpose of this meeting, of course, is setting the agenda for the next year. So, what do we do now in year one of this period to make sure that we're doing what we can and we're going to stay on that proper time frame. So, I'm eager to hear what you have.

So, if if everybody's in agreement with what was just said, to be honest with you, that's the conclusion I wanted to come to at the end of the municipal budget retreat. Um, and so, um, what I would like with your guys's permission is is that tomorrow when we come and we'll just go right into the urban renewal. And I'll repeat back to you now and send you a summary tomorrow. Um, that what I'm hearing and understanding is based off of our discussion um, having to do with the SWAT analysis and the lens that we were looking at through there. um providing a uh um best as possible budget that comes out and helps us make sure that we're getting after those things as our priorities um those top five categories um that that we will have that captures those intens while at the same time um I owe you a strategic plan that you guys feel um happy about that will give us the ability to start that first implementation phase that we're I'm talking about in here. Um that will also set us on that glide path to get us towards that fiveyear um uh realization that we're all talking about. Um but I would I want to add to that though.

I don't want you to feel like I'm looking to drag it out to five years, right? Like I I will do everything I can to make it or we will do everything we can to make it happen as soon as possible. Um but what I can say is I the these tools are what are going to help us get there or not get there. at least as I'm seeing the world right now. Um, so if everybody's okay with that, I'll probably that summary tomorrow and when we come back in tomorrow, we'll start off with urban renewal and that would actually mean that you'll probably be out of here by no later than 8:00 tomorrow. Okay, sounds good. Under promise, come on now. I actually think it'll be earlier than that. So, that was a that was an overstatement.

We'd only programmed for him to take nine minutes. I think I think we I think it's very achievable for us to do that because he's he's good. No pressure. It'll be a full day. Be a full 90 minutes. We have a lot to cover and Yeah. No, I think if everybody's good with it, as far as I'm concerned, we're good for tonight. Anybody have any questions before I turn the meeting? So, we will come back in tomorrow and get on to our second day. Thank you for coming and thank you for your input.