Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. This Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 meeting of the Lake Oswego City Council is now called to order. Ms. Hawkins, would you please call the roll?

Mayor Buck?

Here.

Councilors Wendland? Here. Burdick?

Here.

Corrigan?

Here.

Edmonds-Manz? Here. Atkin?

Here.

Emma Boop?

Here. Thank you. And now, everyone, would you please stand, remove your hats, and join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First, we have a proclamation. Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated September 15th through October 15th, is an opportunity to recognize the rich histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic and Latin communities. This year's theme is Unidos Somos Mas, or Together We Are More. It celebrates the strength of our diversity and the ways it brings us together. Here in Lake Oswego, we celebrate our Hispanic and Latin neighbors and invite everyone to learn, celebrate, and uplift their voices and contributions. You'll find these proclamations as well as all other City Council proclamations on the City website. Next, I'd like to invite for public services to please come forward. You'll be hearing from Cindy Rogers and John Olivares about their return to excellence plan and the steps they're taking to improve service reliability for our residents. We're looking forward to hearing this update and we appreciate you all taking the time to be here. Good afternoon.

My name is Cindy Rogers, and I'm your municipal relationship manager for Republic Services. And then I'll let John and Steve introduce themselves.

Good afternoon. My name is Steve Baker. I'm the operations manager for the hauling divisions and the garbage company that services Lake Oswego.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. John Olivares, general manager for Republic Services. Been with Republic Services since 2018. First four years, I was Steve's position. Then I got promoted to general manager up in Seattle in 2022. And then in 2026, five months ago today, I came back here and I'm a resident of Lake Oswego, living in the Uplands neighborhood. And my stepdaughter started her freshman year at Lake Oswego. So glad to be back. Great. Good to have you here.

Our presentation this afternoon, we will provide a brief overview of the services that we deliver for Lake Oswego residents and businesses. We'll also address some staffing challenges that we've recently experienced, the actions that we have taken to address those challenges, and then ongoing efforts to continue to improve on service reliability. Before we move on to the next slide, I want to draw your attention to the two trucks that we intentionally chose for this slide. The larger of the trucks is our electric truck, and the smaller truck is our tight access truck. I think it's kind of a stark difference between the two different styles of trucks. We use the small truck in areas where a normal sized garbage truck will not fit because the roads are narrow. So think about Lakefront Road as an example. In 2025, we serviced 11,846 residential customers. Each one of these customers is serviced by three separate trucks every week, totaling 35,000 stops every week. There is, of course, a trash truck, a yard debris truck, and you can also put your food waste in your yard debris as a reminder, a truck for your commingle recycling, which includes your glass bin. And in your glass bin, you can place your batteries in a Ziploc bag, and then motor oil in a labeled milk jug. We also offer additional services for residents, including bulky waste pickup for items that will not fit in your roll cart, and drop boxes for larger projects. We serviced 412 commercial customers in 2025, and then commercial customers with dumpsters can receive trash service six days a week, four days a week for recycle, and four days a week for food waste. And the service level is based on the needs of the business. In 2025, we did 1,769 industrial halls, and industrial halls are big drop boxes or compactors. We also do two bulky waste events every year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and these events are very, very popular. We had 186 vehicles at our spring event last year, and we had over 500 vehicles in our fall event. Something new that we started last year was partnering with the Mattress Recycling Council. So now the mattresses at those bulky waste events are collected separately and recycled instead of landfill. So as a reminder, Lake Oswego's next bulky waste event is October 3rd at our transfer station in Wilsonville. Community involvement and support is important to our partnership with Lake Oswego. Most of our events are ones that we've done year over year. We do touch-a-trucks, birthday drive-bys, an Earth Day e-waste event, and the Sustainability Resource Fair. We also provide in-kind donations for the Lake Run, the Rotary Lobster Feed, Lakewood Theater Festival of Arts, Girl Scouts Christmas Tree Recycling, Oswego Heritage Council car and boat show, and then the upcoming annual pumpkin toss, just to name a few. So please feel free to reach out to me about any other opportunities where we can work with the city or any nonprofits, especially if there are opportunities for us to volunteer our time. AND I WILL HAND IT OFF TO JOHN AND HE'LL TALK ABOUT OUR RETURN TO EXCELLENCE PLAN.

THANK YOU. I WISH THAT JUST SAID OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND NOT A RETURN TO EXCELLENCE. SO WHY A RETURN TO EXCELLENCE? GOING BACK TO 2018 WHEN I STARTED HERE, AGAIN, STEVE HAS CONTINUED THAT TREND EXCEPT FOR A SLIGHT HICKUP HERE RECENTLY. LAKE OSWEGO HAS ALWAYS BEEN RANKED AS ONE OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERS WHEN IT COMES TO OUR CUSTOMER ZEAL METRICS. CUSTOMER ZEAL METRICS INCLUDE SERVICE RELIABILITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, AND ON-TIME PICKUPS. UNFORTUNATELY, STARTING IN MARCH, CONTINUING INTO APRIL AND MAY, WE HAD SOME UNFORESEEN STAFFING ISSUES. SO WE WERE SHORTHANDED DRIVERS AND WE STRUGGLED TO MEET OUR CUSTOMER ZEAL STANDARDS THAT THE LAKE OSWEGO RESIDENTS HAVE BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO AND DESERVE. So giving, I started, gave Steve and the supervisors the autonomy to staff appropriately. They decided that we needed to staff up to 26 drivers. Twice a week, we peak at 21 routes within Lake Oswego, and that's just... residential and commercial 21 routes. A couple days we run 19, but we peak at 21. So they told me they want 26 drivers, and as of the middle of August, we got to 26. So we're staffed appropriately where we need to be. This will allow us to easily cover scheduled vacation time, unforeseen sick days, bereavement days, FMLA days, and so forth, right? We got overstaffed by five on those two peak days. So staffing is fixed, which led to the big problem of some service issues. Other than staffing, have been working with city staff and corporate communications department on how we can better enhance our communication with the residents. This primarily hinges on us having an accurate phone number for our customers. Anytime that we are going to have a service delay due to staffing issues, which that should be a thing of the past, weather delays, holiday changes because of the holidays, we'll send out a call blast. And everyone should get a voicemail, automated message that tells them of the schedule change or the delay. So if we have the correct number, you all are getting that communication. But if we don't have the right number, everyone's out left in the dark. So we're still contemplating what we're going to do, whether to send out postcards, put a flyer inside, an insert inside your bill on how we're going to do that. But that will help us better communicate with the residents when we do that. Also, the last couple of months, we have increased the supervisors, managers, myself's presence out in the community doing audits. I've been out there lifting lids on the afternoons, been approached by a couple residents thinking that I was dumpster diving, but had to quickly show them my shirt with the Republic on it or my business card. Steve, as you can see, he's in a safety vest right now. I know he was out visiting drivers before he came here, and knowing Steve, he's probably going to go visit one or two on his way home this afternoon. Finally, we are not perfect. We have not performed specifically March through July to the standards that we think we should perform at. We are a very metrics and scorecard driven company. Referencing back to that earlier slide, we do a little bit less than 12,000 single-family homes a week, which again, that's three times. They see three drivers, garbage, recycle, yard waste. So we have 36,000 attempts with just residents. to impress how good we are at service. 77 multifamily dwellings that get picked up multiple times a week. 412 commercial customers picked up multiple times a week. 1,700 industrial halls. So lots of opportunities to show you what we could do. I believe on the 2025 annual report, we disclosed that we had 90 complaints. 45 of which were missed pickup related so that was for 2025 so that breaks down to around eight Complaints a month four of those being missed pickup related March through July Because of our staffing issues that almost doubled in both categories where we 2025 we have eight complaints a month March through July that was 11 per month and And then missed pickups were around eight. So missed pickups doubled. But return to excellence was very evident and clear in the month of August, where we only had three total complaints, two of them being missed pickups. So back on track with staffing. Have a lot of new drivers. There'll be a little bit of a learning curve. But if August is an indication of the direction we are going forward, you guys will get back to having great service from Republic Services. And that's all I had to share. I think as a team, that's all we had. And we're open to any questions.

Well, I want to thank you all for being here, John, Steve, Cindy. Lake Oswego has enjoyed a long relationship with Republic. Over the years, we've had the opportunity to look at other providers, but we've always maintained a relationship with Republic in large part because of the service that you provide. And I think we all understand that things always aren't going to flow perfectly, but it's always in the response, how we measure the service of a company. And we appreciate your responsiveness here. to the concerns that we heard from residents about these missed pickups. And I think they were even more acutely felt because it is so unusual. Many residents who've been here a long time are used to this, you know, never happening, perhaps even in decades. So then when it starts happening, people start wondering what is, you know, what is going on? Because you've set the bar so high. So we appreciate your commitment here. But my colleagues all have a lot of questions. So we'll start with Councillor Mance. Oh, did you have a question, Councillor Mance? You'll take it.

WHAT'S GOING ON. I THINK THAT IS ABSOLUTELY HELPFUL TO ALL OF US. I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED PROBLEMS THAT SOME FOLKS HAVE HAD. I DON'T KNOW WHY. LAUREL STREET MUST BE THE HAPPY STREET, BUT I HAVE HEARD FROM OTHER CITIZENS. SO IT IS SO LOVELY TO BE ABLE TO GO BACK AND REPORT TO THEM AND FOR THEM TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT WE'RE SEEKING EXCELLENCE. SO THANK YOU.

COUNSELOR MANS. COUNSELOR AFKIN.

JOHN, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I THINK I HEARD ONCE THAT A GOOD RELATIONSHIP HAS ACCOUNTABILITY, VULNERABILITY AND EMPATHY. what I heard you today exhibited all those three things. Similar to any other industry, you've gone through your challenges now. And we've seen this from COVID forward that every industry has done this. I ask that you sit down and go, what's our lessons learned? and make sure that doesn't happen again. You don't have to share it with us here, but as an industry, I think you need to sit down and do that, if not already. So these 12 new drivers, what happened? Where could you have seen that happening? And then pull the trigger on it. I think in the past when your team was here presenting, I've always said your drivers are most professional, kind, and caring service that I've seen in my neighborhood. I try to run out there so I can wave at them. That professional. And the services you provide, it's highly needed and people count on them. You're like the Swiss clock that everybody expects to be on time, and they count on it. So you have set a very high standard, and I'm glad to hear that you're trying to return back to excellence. Thank you.

Thank you for those kind words, and I know Steve knows this. In operations, going back to my days at UPS, Iron Mountain, other companies, I've had three models be properly staffed, always have good coffee in the morning for the drivers, and never screw up their pay. Yep.

Thank you. Councillor Corkin.

Republic Industries invited us out to visit in August, which I really appreciate, and I went. And I was glad that I went. What I learned was they have pretty strong sustainability ethic. They operate trucks with natural gas and EVs. Now I can just go buy a truck and I can tell you what kind of truck it is. So they are moving to modern sustainability standards. It's a big business, but they are definitely heading that direction. They have company values that support opportunities for all. And I saw that when I was out there walking around talking with the staff. They have people from everywhere and they're working hard. They have high They have a very high retention rate for employees. It's 91%. I think that's pretty good. I think one of the things they didn't say, but I think that I understood was FLMA has had an impact on their business as well. I know anybody who operates a business has experienced that, and they are certainly, certainly the same. So I had a great experience. I appreciated all the information they shared with me. And one of the things that we talked about, they asked me if I would bring it up, is tell us about what the cameras on your trucks do. Thank you.

So safety, they make sure that our drivers are doing what they're supposed to be doing. If they have harsh braking or maybe they don't have their seatbelt on or going too fast, all these different things. There's all kinds of alarms systems that tell them if they're too close to another vehicle in front of them. So a lot of it has to do with safety and is making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to with The trucks, you know, it's a $500,000 truck out there. We wanna make sure that they're driving it correctly and taking care of the community, so. Of course.

Concern always with communities like ours is mass surveillance. So, how much of your footage is shared? What can you tell us about that?

So, we mean as far as with the driver or with others?

that the trash trucks might pick up just because they're everywhere that could be conveyed to another party, aside from just from like John, perhaps.

So most of the cameras are in cab facing, so picking up what the driver does. So we can share that information with the driver. Knock on wood, we haven't had any serious accidents or anything like that, but I'm sure the police could ask for in cab footage, right, for seatbelt usage or distracted driving. The camera can pick up side view coming out of the side of their mirrors and stuff like that and so forth. But I'm not, I don't know, we switched companies who run the cameras for us like three years ago and the main reason was because the prior company we used did not give us 100 percent authority to just have it be our own information. They were able to share it with others. So now this new company that we started using three years ago, it's our information. It can't be shared with anybody else unless we OK it, which we don't. It's just really used for safety purposes. It has dramatically increased the safety of our drivers across the nation, specifically on it. ALERTS THEM VERY LOUD IF THEY'RE NOT WEARING THEIR SEATBELT, ALERTS THEM VERY LOUD IF THEY'RE USING THEIR CELL PHONE, AND THEN AGAIN IT PINGS THEM IF THEY'RE GOING OVER THE SPEED LIMIT AND IT PINGS THEM IF THEY'RE DOING HARSH BRAKING. AND THEN WE GET ALERTED AND THEN WE CAN LOOK AT THE VIDEO AND SHARE THAT WITH THEM FOR TRAINING PURPOSES.

IT'S ONLY IN THE CAB.

There's a couple of outward-facing cameras as well, but that is more to where if there's a harsh brake alert or it senses an accident, those cameras will turn on.

Turn off recording license plates? No. Okay. I think that's what a councilman is getting at.

Good question. Councilman Wendlandt. Yeah, they're getting the numbers off of each little bin. That's what they're getting. I just want to thank you. I expressed the same comments as my colleagues. One other thing that is not part of your presentation but was part of the packet was the financial part. And I think something that I want to stress, Republic has been an exceptional partner with keeping costs in line and our rates very effective and efficient. And they've worked very hard at ensuring that we have the right staffing with balancing the right financials. And as many business owners that are on the council know, the extra costs with some of the legislative policies that we've had in Oregon, you have to We even had it at the city where we have to hire two additional people, two fire people to cover all the leave acts and everything else. And I'm not saying good or bad. I'm just saying it's a cost of doing business. But when you look at the financials that were in your packet, I think you've met your targets of getting the profitability that you need as well as the money for capital expenditures. And you continue to buy newer equipment like the PROPANE AND ELECTRIC WHICH IS FABULOUS AND SO I'VE BEEN ON COUNCIL FOR A LONG TIME AND I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF HAVING YOU WITH US MANY TIMES AND I JUST VALUE THE PARTNERSHIP AND YOUR ATTENTION TO MAKING SURE THAT WE'RE GETTING THE BIGGEST BANG FOR OUR BUCK AND And I recognize my driver in the picture that I say good morning to every Tuesday morning, and we wave. So I won't tell you which one it is, but he's the second one from the left. But anyway, and just great staff anytime. And they're very accommodating when cars get in the way and park. They get out and they move cans. They do everything. EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE. EVERYONE GETS A LITTLE BURP EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. SO I WOULD SAY DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. YOU'VE LEARNED, YOU'VE DONE, YOU'VE REACTED, AND YOU CONTINUE TO GIVE US GREAT SERVICE. SO THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. COUNCILOR MOVE.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. Thank you, City Manager Pro Tem, because when the question was in front of us, you went your way, meet with them and talk. That's wonderful. I really appreciated that. But, you know, I am a business person. I have racial problems sometimes. When teachers are sick or stuff, I'm obliged to be there. And I don't know that you folks can go drive a truck when someone is not here. But the question I was asking is, Is it because of labor-related problems? Because from March to July, it's a long time for a problem to linger around. And I don't feel OK with it, because five months to serve a community, like each community, whatever. Like me, personally, if I tell my parents, I'm having a staff problem. It will be solved in five months. They won't accept that. And I did not have the, I have a business account. I have a residential account. I never experienced And I also really appreciate the fact that you always send messages. I was in Europe, and I was receiving the message. And I say, what is that? So that's good. But I think five months is a long time. And my question is, why it took that long to staff? Is it a labor-related question, like the union? And I would love to know about that.

Okay, I'll take that one. Yes. So we kind of got surprised in early March with two retirements out of the blue. Then I think that was quickly followed up by two employees in March, April, surprising us that they were moving to the Midwest or East Coast. We had to terminate a couple of employees for some safety issues. And then we had two employees relocated here within Oregon, but to other companies. So I think that accounts for like eight people right there. It all happened right there in March or April. That's also no fault of Steve, but that's right when we had the transition of the other GM retiring and me starting. So there was really no eyes on it for like probably March through the middle of April. And then I started, and then Steve came to me, and we were able to jump on staffing. So now when we hire somebody to have them go through a background check interview with Steve's supervisors, Steve, HR, me, we try to get through that four or five interviews as fast as we can. We demand then that the candidate come and ride with one of our drivers for at least a couple hours so they see what they're getting into. then we make them the offer, and then it could take five to 10 days for a background check to come back to say the employee is cleared. Then we afford them the opportunity to give their current employer a two weeks notice. So the timing of it all starts to add up. So we were able to start hiring employees. If we hired an employee April 15th, it's probably May 15th until we see their first day on the job. And then there's a 25 business day training period that they will be out with a, what we call a behind the wheel instructor driving. I think when Lynn, when we visited in front of your house, right? Patty was out there with Jess as she was training towards the end of her day. So the whole onboarding period when we hire a new driver from the first interview until they can go do a route by themselves can be like 70 to 90 days. It's close to three months. Yeah.

I really understand. I do the same. I background check people. But like for me, five months is a long time.

So I think where we dropped the ball was there was really no fault to Steve, but there was no eyes on it. There was no general manager here for that month and a half time frame. And we fell behind.

yeah and so should have been a lot and you know that's what i want also we hear that it's a you know the fault is not our customers they need to be served by reliable you've always been to us until now like we have that problem and is there any remedy para you know i'm speaking french Any remedy, you know, because that thing happened, what did we tell our customers who had missed pickup, who had some problems struggling? Because if you have trash in your home for some houses, having it one more day is a challenge. It's really... So what was the remedy to that?

To the staffing issue?

No, but to the people who were impacted.

Okay.

Yes.

Yeah, so we would get the customer call and say they had a missed pickup. We would try to get to them within the next morning. We'd have what they call a go-back. You go back in the morning, just leave your cart out, and we'll get it in the morning. Instead of putting it out at 6 o'clock, just leave it there, and we'll take care of it the very next morning. And some people got credits. But the thing we were running up against also was being short-staffed, but DOT hours. So we can only run 57 hours per DOT. So they would get right up on those hours and then we can't run anymore. So that was part of the issues with FMLA, DOT hours, not making excuses, but that's just the reality. But we would take care of the customers the best we could.

Thank you very much. Councilor Mann says a quick follow up here.

Yes, thank you. At one point in time, it was discussed that we would be able to commingle our glass with our recycling. I'm assuming that will not be happening for whatever reason, the logistics of it or the practicality of it. Is that true? Because that seems to take a lot of time.

So, yeah, we have the glass bins. We want to keep those commodities separate. Okay. Yeah, it's a single stream. We're trying to keep them separate. It's better of course.

And I can jump in just to add a little bit more. The reason that glass in here cannot be commingled in with your other plastics and paper is because the facilities, the sort facilities where the material goes, they can't have the glass be commingled. So it's not really our... because of the Recycling Modernization Act that just recently went into effect, July of last year. So what can be put in your commingle is, through that piece of legislation, is dictated by that piece of legislation.

Just wanted to clarify that. And could you explain to the cameras How people would arrange for a drive-by birthday?

Yes. Yes. Call me. Yeah. They can reach out to us either through staff or to our customer service or, yeah, just if they have a... A LITTLE ONE THAT IT'S THEIR BIRTHDAY AND THEY LOVE THE GARBAGE TRUCK, WHICH THEY ALL DO, THEY ALL SEEM TO DO. OUR DRIVERS LOVE TO GO BY THERE AND THEY'LL DO A LITTLE GARBAGE RECYCLING YARD DEBRIS PARADE FOR THEM. WE USUALLY REACH OUT AND CHAT WITH THEM FOR A WHILE AND GIVE THEM A LITTLE BIRTHDAY GIFT AND Yeah, so there's many children in my neighborhood. We do quite a few of them. Yes. Yeah. They're fun for all of us. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks.

That's what I was just going to ask.

Technically, no. Technically, no.

What?

I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU TO THE REPUBLIC TEAM FOR THEIR PROFESSIONALISM AND AS COUNSELOR AFGHAN NOTED, JUST BEING UP FRONT, LETTING US KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS, SOLVING IT AND MOVING ON. SO THANK YOU. THAT'S TRUE LEADERSHIP. I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. AND I ALSO JUST WANT TO NOTE SARAH STITH, OUR SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM MANAGER IN THE BACK. manages this contract and has been doing a bang-up job. And so thank you, Sarah, for making this all happen, as well as the tour. Thank you for that.

Thank you, Lynn. And if there's anything that we can do to help get the word out around people updating their contact information, the phone numbers, emails. I get a lot of email things. I mean, we could definitely, I would think we can do that. Yeah, we're glad to do that. Yeah, that's key. We saw that even recently with emergency alerts. I mean, it's great. We have all the tools to get the alerts out, but you do have to sign up for all these things. So it's a good reminder. But again, thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. We appreciate it. I know we're going to be seeing you again soon. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda, we have our 2026 Council Goals update, and we have Assistant City Manager Megan Phelan joining us to give the update. Hi, Megan. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, council and the mayor. Thank you for having me today to give you our third quarter council goals update. It's hard to believe we're at that time in the year. It just seemed like yesterday we were doing all of our council goal setting. You'll see in the report in the packet that there's been progress made on some of the goals, and yet some of the goals will still continue as we head into the fall. I am here with members of the exec team and other staff that represent some of these initiatives, and so we're here to answer any questions that you may have.

Colleagues? Questions on the goals? No? Oh, Councillor Corrigan?

I just opened right up and here it is, the tabletop exercise using AI modeling to determine how quickly wildfire is likely to spread in natural areas. So if someone else would like to speak to that, I think it's important. But the three of us went yesterday out to Clackamas Fire Training and had quite an experience and discovered that the AI representation is the stuff that nightmares is made of. I don't quite know how else to say it. impactful it is to realize what would happen if someone threw a cigarette butt out in the wrong place in our city. And the other piece of that is the interaction between how you have to fight a wildfire and how you fight a structure fire. So I would like to bring everybody's attention to that and I think that I would encourage all of us to go out there and understand that and then I'm hoping that will be something that we'll continue to work on in terms of raising public awareness. That's really, I'm sorry, I needed to get that pitch in. It was quite an experience for us all. I'm glad you all had the opportunity to go.

Yeah, thanks. Thank you. Questions? No? Okay, Megan, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Folks, now is the time on the agenda for public comment. And if you are here to provide public comment and have not already done so, there's white slips like this on the back table. If you could please fill one out. But I have one person signed up. Steve Dole. Steve, come on forward. You have three minutes to give your comments. Glad you're here. Just say your name. We know that you're Steve, but just darn.

Good afternoon, Mayor Buck and members of the City Council. My name is Steve Dole. I am a lifelong Oregonian, and I have lived here in Lake Oswego for 53 years. As part of my testimony today, I am submitting a packet of correspondence with the Mayor, City Manager and Council regarding the anti-Semitic trope displayed on the Lake Oswego marquee earlier this summer. I've also supplied you with newspaper stories about these issues. Let's be completely honest. If a local business used its marquee to explicitly single out and prod any other minority community in Lake Oswego, this council wouldn't be hiding behind boilerplate emails about the First Amendment. You would be racing to a podium to condemn it. The fact is the manager explicitly admitted he was targeting Jewish residents and you are choosing silence, a double standard the community sees right through and is unacceptable. This isn't a one-off mistake. It's part of a documented pattern. In 2016, it was an offensive concentration camp poster in our high school cafeteria. In 2021, it was an anti-Semitic flyers in our community, in our county, excuse me. and recently a community member's car was vandalized with swastikas. Hate does not happen in a vacuum. Mayor Buck, you wrote to me saying that issuing a council statement is too challenging because you might get trapped by competing demands from other groups. Let me clear up two things. First, I am not asking for government censorship. The First Amendment protects private speech, but it absolutely does not restrict this government body from using its own voice to condemn bigotry. Second, standing up against anti-Semitism on our main street isn't a matter of political scheduling. It is about setting a basic standard for civic respect. Hesitating to speak out sets an administrative precedent and is an abdication of elected responsibility. History shows that staying silent to avoid political complications costs way too much in the long run. To solve your problem of getting trapped by competing statements, I am asking you to take three concrete actions. First, adopt a baseline condemnation policy. Establish a permanent standing rule that this City will officially condemn any public targeted rhetoric against any religious, racial or minority group removing the need for a council debate every single time an incident occurs. Second, utilize public media channels. Use the city's official newsletter and press releases to explicitly state that anti-Semitic tropes have no home on the streets of Lake Oswego. Third, engage local community support. Partner with regional organizations like the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, and other organizations that represent minorities in our community to provide actual resources for local businesses on keeping messaging respectful. Please schedule a public hearing on this. If you are not going to do this, please advise. In the movie, Do the Right Thing, Demare says, always do the right thing. I ask this council to stop deflecting, enact these measures, and simply do the right thing for the City of Lake Oswego, its citizens, and its minority citizens. Thank you. I am happy to take any questions and encourage you to do so about me, my background, or my motivation. Thank you, Steve. We appreciate you being here. Thank you.

There are no questions. Thank you very much. Next is Andrew Edwards.

Hi Andrew. Hello Mayor Buck and councillors. I'm here as a private citizen today in support of our Lake Oswego Public Library and I am or have been a volunteer with the Friends of Lake Oswego Public Library for nine years and I am the current president and have been for two years. The Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library assist the library, as many of you know, in fulfilling its mission through advocacy, funding, promotion, and volunteer support. The Friends support more than 100 special programs every year at the library, which is beyond their regular budget. And we're proud to be a primary supporter of Lake Oswego Reads, a multicultural events, and other activities throughout the year. Through our work, the Friends with the Library, we've seen firsthand how much these opportunities mean to the people in Lake Oswego. We are currently engaged in our fall membership drive, and I invite you to become members as well as our community. The community support allows the Friends to continue funding programs, events, and opportunities that expand access and enrich the library experience. One example is the Summer Library Challenge, for which the Friends provided a free book for every child who participated. This, I think, is amazing. 1,731 youth participated this summer. All 11 school districts participated. and even 565 adults participated, collectively logging more than 1 million minutes of reading. I know you're calculating right now 60 into 1 million, so we'll leave it at that. STEM presentations, and they built a lifelong love of reading. We invite the community members, as well as council, to come and become members of the Friends so we continue making these experiences possible. The summer library challenge, however, also highlighted limitations of the current space. I know you are all too familiar with the limitations at the current library. You've had particular studies. You know that more than $10 million in renovations in 2024 were estimated to make the library acceptable in all its uses. The library staff holds weekly programs in the park because space inside the library is too limited, especially this past summer. At the end of this summer, poor air quality and a high heat index meant the end of the summer party featuring Red Yarn, one of the region's most popular children's entertainers. So that was a little bit disappointing. They had to be moved inside the library where the staff moved shelves, set up chairs, put down blankets for more than 171 people to see this program. So imagine what the library could do if we could have more space and more access and parking.

Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you being here. And what is the baseline cost of membership to join the Friends?

Why, I thought you'd never ask. It's $25 up to $10,000. So what should I put you down for, Mayor?

Well, I'm already a member.

Congratulations.

I encourage all my colleagues. Member, we'll start calling you out right now. That's not a library card thing.

LIBRARY CARDS ALSO PROVIDES YOU WITH FREE MOVIES AND FREE MUSIC AND EVERYTHING. BUT, SIR, YOU CANNOT BE A LEADER OF THIS COMMUNITY AND COME AND SAY, I AM JUST A CITIZEN. I DON'T EXCEPT THAT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT.

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE.

THANK YOU, COUNSELORS, FOR YOUR SUPPORT. APPRECIATE IT.

THANK YOU. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. IS THERE ANYONE ELSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PROVIDE PUBLIC COMMENT? Okay. We are going to move on to the consent agenda. On the consent agenda, let's see, we've got a few things. A few things on the consent agenda. Three items. We have our meeting minutes from May 15th to May 28th. Resolution 26-34 is adopting a tree retention deficit fee. And Resolution 26-48 approves Megan Phelan as our City Manager Pro Tem for the remainder of this month into the 1st of October there. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I move to adopt the consent agenda. Second. All right.

The motion was made by Councillor Corrigan and seconded by Councillor Mann. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That motion passes 7-0. Okay. On to council business. The first item on council business is consideration of resolution 26-38. This is the approval of municipal grant awards. I'd like to invite our management and program analyst, Teo Ramirez, to talk to us about THE UNI GRANT AWARDS. GOOD AFTERNOON.

IT'S GOOD TO BE HERE WITH YOU ALL. MY NAME IS TIO RAMIREZ. I'M PROGRAM MANAGEMENT ANALYST IN THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE. SO TO GIVE YOU A QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE 2026, 2027 GRANT APPLICATIONS THAT OUR SUBCOMMITTEE REVIEWED, THANK YOU COUNCILOR AFGHAN AND COUNCILOR CORRIGAN FOR SERVING ON THAT COMMITTEE AND REVIEWING 19 APPLICATIONS. WE HAD 62,000 TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTS AND 46,000 IN SOCIAL SERVICES GRANT APPLICATIONS. THE RECOMMENDATION FROM OUR MUNICIPAL GRANT SUBCOMMITTEE IS TO AWARD EIGHT INITIATIVES IN THE COUNCIL GOALS CATEGORY, TOTALING 43,000 ROUGHLY IN TOTAL AWARDS AND FOUR INITIATIVES IN SOCIAL SERVICES TOTALING ROUGHLY 27,000 WITH SOME REMAINING FUNDS BEING AVAILABLE for this council to allocate in the future to different initiatives and remain flexible. THESE ARE THE EIGHT INITIATIVES THAT WERE RECOMMENDED TO BE FUNDED. ALL OF THESE APPLICATIONS WERE RECOMMENDED TO BE FULLY FUNDED FOR THE REQUEST AMOUNTS. SO THIS INCLUDES THE LAKE FOREST NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION FOR EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, EVERGREEN NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION ALSO FOR EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND EMERGENCY CASH, THE OSWEGO LAKE WATERSHED COUNCIL FOR DOING EMERALD ASHBOARD OUTREACH THAT EXPANDS ON THE CITY'S INITIATIVES TO ALSO DO EAB OUTREACH. This kind of doubles down on those initiatives and goes wider to reach out to more homeowners associations, businesses, to make sure that they know the effects on private property. The Asian American Student Union to expand their cultural education to two additional holidays. Gifting Gears, which expands safety gear and volunteer support at an annual biking event. Lake Oswego Sustainability Network for feasibility of affordable clean energy district, and thermal energy network technology in the Foothills District. Sorry, some of these are mouthfuls. They're going to do really great work. Old Town Neighborhood Association for first aid and CPR and some more emergency preparedness-related activities, and the Oswego Heritage Council for some different design and weather-resistant outdoor exhibits to transform their Rose Garden and make it more accessible for their history walk. So this totals 43,450 initiatives, eight initiatives, and that is the dollar amount. And then moving on to the four initiatives that were not recommended for funding, some of the conversation that came out of the subcommittee was there are remaining funds left over, but TO BE GOOD STEWARDS OF THOSE FUNDS, IF AN APPLICATION CAME IN THAT DID NOT MEET A CERTAIN THRESHOLD, WHICH WAS DETERMINED BY THE COMMITTEE TO BE A 75% SCORE ON THE APPLICATION, THOSE APPLICATIONS SHOULD NOT BE AWARDED AND THOSE APPLICANTS SHOULD COME BACK IN THE NEXT ROUND FOR FUNDING, IDEALLY WITH A STRONGER APPLICATION SO THAT THE COMMITTEE KNOWS WHERE AND HOW THOSE DOLLARS WILL BE USED AND THAT THERE IS A GREAT IMPACT FOR LAKE OSWEGO WITH THOSE INITIATIVES. We give feedback to the applicants in different ways that are denied. In the last two cycles, applicants have reached out. Often they reach out on their own. just saying, hey, can we meet and get feedback to understand how to strengthen our application, where we provide the scores for the different categories to them, and express the comments that were made by the subcommittee on why they were not selected to be awarded. In addition, there's this notes section on the far right that just breaks down what their score was, why they were not funded in the case of council goals because they were below that 75% threshold, and then what categories were the strongest on their applications, and then the categories that need improvement in the future. Moving on to the funding recommendations for social services, there were four organizations that the subcommittee recommended for funding. One is the Tualatin Food Pantry, which supports about 3,000 Lake Oswego residents annually through shopping-style food pantry. The Children's Center, which does trauma-informed medical assessments, follow-up care, and therapy for Lake Oswego children who have experienced maltreatment. CLACAMIS WOMEN'S SERVICES FOR ADVOCACY, SAFETY, SHELTER COUNSELING, AND PREVENTION SERVICES FOR LAKE OSWEGO SURVIVORS AND CHILDREN AFFECTED BY VIOLENCE, AND LAKE OSWEGO MONSTERS ROBOTIC, WHICH HAS STEM OUTREACH EVENTS, CAMPS, AND SCHOOL PROGRAMS FOR LAKE OSWEGO ELEMENTARY ENGINEER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. THIS TOTALS $27,000 IN AWARDS AND FUNDS FOR INITIATIVES. And again, there were three organizations that were not recommended for funding by the subcommittee. They were below a 70% threshold. So this is about a 5% difference from council goals. One of the comments from the subcommittee was that one of the scoring criteria is how this directly relates to a specific council goal, which doesn't necessarily fit. So that was... THE THRESHOLD WAS LOWER AND THAT WILL BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT AS WE MAKE MODIFICATIONS TO THE SCORING CRITERIA IN THE FUTURE FOR DIFFERENT GRANT CATEGORIES. AND THEN AS YOU MAY REMEMBER FROM MARCH, WE TALKED ABOUT PURSUING A SPONSORSHIP PATHWAY AND WE'RE CONTINUING TO WORK ON THAT. SOME OF THE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE EVOLVED FROM RECURRING INTO RECURRING FUNDING RELATIONSHIPS AND THAT NOT ONLY IS APPLICABLE ON THE COUNCIL GOALS SIDE WHICH HAS A RULE THAT WAS ESTABLISHED WITH THE PIVOT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE GRANT PROGRAM OF THREE YEARS OF THE SAME INITIATIVE BEING FUNDED IS NO LONGER ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE THOSE GRANTS. BUT ONE OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE SUBCOMMITTEE WAS ALSO EXPLORING BRINGING SOME OF THE SOCIAL SERVICES GRANT, LIKE RECURRING GRANT APPLICATIONS INTO A SPONSORSHIP PATHWAY AS WELL. THIS WOULD IDEALLY PROVIDE LESS HOOPS FOR THEM TO JUMP THROUGH ON AN ANNUAL BASIS. POTENTIALLY ON A BI-ANNUAL BASIS THEY CAN APPLY TO RECEIVE GRANT FUNDS. IT'S ONE APPLICATION. over two years versus two applications, one each year. They'll have more certainty for funding. Those are just some things that we're looking into exploring and we'll come back with a recommendation for this council in winter to be adopted and approval to continue to move forward. One of the recommendations is also to reserve $10,000 for LO for Love. This is the first initiative that is maturing out of that three-year initiative from being funded under council goals. So our recommendation is to continue to fund them through this year as we figure out the sponsorship pathway and come back with you for a plan. That is the route that they'll go into, but just that this money is kind of set aside for them. And there is that plan for that. And then the consideration, as I mentioned on the social services side, is to bring the Children's Center and Clackamas Women's Services into that sponsorship pathway. It pulls them out of the normal pool of applicants that continue to apply each year and provides them a more sustainable pathway forward, a strengthened partnership with the city to fund those partners that continuously score very high on the applications and less administrative work on their teams to continue to receive funding. So that is about the sponsorship pathway. The recommendation is to adopt the resolution before you, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you all have. Thank you very much, Teo.

Great presentation. Can you give us a little reminder here? So we had, give me a little reminder. So we had this two-step process, okay? We had like one set of grants and then there was a second set of grants. And some of these, I think we, I mean, some of them have happened, right? Like there were, I think we gave some money to LOSN and they had an event around the thermal. Was that the event funded by this? These are new applications and new initiatives.

So it's not the same.

Yeah. Oh, was that event? Okay. Oh, I see. Oh, so it's a different event. I see. So these are different than ones we, even though some of them might be similar, different. We have not approved any of these yet.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. Is the process going forward this kind of like one-stop process, allocation process for these community grants? Or is it this two-step? We give out some and then we wait and then... THERE'S ANOTHER ROUND OF APPLICATIONS.

YEAH, THE FEEDBACK THAT WE RECEIVED FROM THIS COUNCIL BACK IN MARCH WAS TO ONLY DO ONE CYCLE PER YEAR. SO THAT'S THE PLAN THAT WE HAVE MOVING FORWARD UNLESS THIS BODY DECIDES TO DO OTHERWISE AND THEN WE CAN GO DO THAT. BUT WE ONLY PLAN TO COME BEFORE YOU ONE TIME THIS YEAR TO DO THE ALLOCATIONS. AND THEN THE REMAINING FUNDS WILL IDEALLY BE FLEXIBLE LIKE LAST YEAR IN NOVEMBER WHEN WE SAW FEDERAL CUTS TO SNAP PROGRAMS IN THIS You wanted to allocate funding to local food pantries. Ideally, these funds would be flexible in those situations to respond to community needs.

Right. Okay. So the cadence of this, we can expect that next fall, we will not be hearing about these until then, every year, once a year in the fall.

Like a report back on the progress?

Oh, the new grants. No, no, no. On the next batch of grants.

Yes.

Okay. And then reporting on the progress. Yes. What do we hear? Do we...

We will come back to you to report on the progress. We're still getting the cadence worked out, but ideally we're coming to you at the beginning of each fiscal year to go through sponsorships and to go through the newest grant applications that were scored and recommended for approval for that fiscal year. I remember one of the comments that we took into consideration was we need to get the dollars out the door as soon as possible at the beginning of the fiscal year and give them the entire fiscal year AND FLEXIBILITY INTO THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR, WHICH WE WORKED OUT WITH THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT It's a lot easier if it's within the same biennium, but there's also those extensions that they're able to request on the front end of their applications that they need 30 to 90 days after a fiscal year ends to continue to complete their initiative.

OK. That's great. Thank you. And thank you to you and to the committee. Who served on this committee?

You did.

Councillor Corey? And Councillor? Thank you both. Oh, and Councillor Rance. Oh, you served on the committee?

No, no, no, no. I don't know.

Well, we haven't gotten to you yet. Okay. Okay, go ahead, Councillor Vance. Don't worry. All right, go ahead, Councillor Vance. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Dale, for all of the work that you did. Also, thank you to Councillors Afghan and Corrigan. It is a lot of work. and your deep consideration for doing THE RIGHT THING AND GOING THROUGH IT. I KNOW YOU SPENT FAR MORE TIME THAN YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE PROBABLY GOING TO SPEND ON IT. ALSO, I WANT TO THANK THE COUNCIL WHO IS HERE IN 2025 WHO CHANGED THE PROGRAM. IT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN IT WAS BEFORE THE WAY IT'S SET UP. SO THANK YOU. I KNOW OUR COMMUNITY GREATLY VALUES THESE GRANTS AND I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALL THAT YOU DID. THANKS.

THANKS, COUNSELOR MANCE. COUNSELOR WILLETT.

DITTO TO WHAT COUNSELOR MANCE SAID. I KNOW IT'S A LOT OF WORK BECAUSE WE'VE ALL SERVED ON THE COMMITTEE AND IT'S LIKE CHOOSING WHICH CHILD YOU WANT TO SUPPORT. BUT WE HAVE A LOT OF WONDERFUL REQUESTS. I GUESS I'VE GOT TWO QUESTIONS. I don't get, do we have a three-year policy? So how do we, like LO for Love, which I'm not saying to support or not support, but if we have a three-year policy, so we're just gonna let LO Love just kinda go around that? Is that kinda the idea?

THIS IS A POLICY THAT I INHERITED WHEN I CAME OVER TO THIS WONDERFUL CITY. CURRENTLY THERE IS A THREE-YEAR LIMIT ON THE same initiative being funded for three years so if the initiative changes but it's the same organization or it's a different initiative but the organization is supported by the city in other ways and that's fine but the intention from my understanding of why that rule was put into place was because as initiatives mature and grow there would be a sponsorship pathway that would be city-wide for these initiatives to go into so that the city the city can continue to partner with them, but then it pulls them out of the pool of new applicants that are applying each year.

Okay, so then LL for Love will get $10,000, but from a different source.

Yeah, and that's going to be the sponsorship program that we're going to, pathway that we're going to develop is, where is this money coming from? Some of the comments from the subcommittee members was that we should not be asking for the council for additional money. It should be coming from the same pot of grants that is already allocated each year. So at what level does that need to, what pot of money does that need to be from the resources that we already have allocated? And as well, what is the review and application process look like for that sponsorship pathway? Obviously, we're not going to fund these initiatives in perpetuity, but what does that review process look like to where it's not a huge administrative lift on the organizations, but the city can REMAIN CONFIDENT THAT THE INITIATIVES THAT THEY'RE FUNDING ARE TRUE TO THE INITIATIVES AT THE, YOU KNOW, FIVE YEARS AGO VERSUS NOW THAT THE INITIATIVE HASN'T MOVED AWAY FROM HOW THE CITY WANTS TO BE INVOLVED.

OKAY. I'M STILL CONFUSED. SO WE'RE TAKING THE MONEY OUT OF THE SAME FUNDS. WELL, YOU HAVE THE MONEY AND THE FUNDS, BUT IF WE'RE GOING AGAINST THE POLICY, THAT'S WHERE I'M, I JUST, IT HAS MORE TO DO WITH FUTURE, SO future groups could go four or five, six years. Is that correct?

Well, I think what we talked about, and Ali, you may wanna wait, is we do need this policy to be into play. We do need this policy to be put into place, right? But there are funds remaining in this cycle, I believe, if we could do that. Correct me?

So the idea from the three years came out of discussions about two years ago was that this money should be treated as an incubation. So when community groups are saying, I have this idea, how do I start it? It's they're able to apply for the money and once they have three years of successful track record, then they are then allowed to apply for a long term sponsorship. The idea is not long term indefinitely that they'll get money every year, but we get them in a cycle that it's probably a two to three year contract that says this is the money, here's the expectations, as opposed to them applying year after year. But the goal is that we're not necessarily funding every organization that's on the current grants for perpetuity for the rest of the time. So that's how that carve out would happen.

OKAY. MADISON, CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF?

SORRY. I'M MADISON THESING. I'M THE DEPUTY CITY MANAGER. I'VE BEEN WORKING PERIPHERALLY ON THE GRANTS SINCE THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE TOOK THEM OVER IN NOW 2024. OKAY.

YES, THANK YOU. OKAY. SO, OKAY. THE OTHER THING, AND I THINK YOU GUYS DID A GREAT JOB OF PICKING AND CHOOSING. I HAVE A CONCERN WITH THE workshop on feasibility of a clean energy district and thermal energy network for the Foothills District. I kind of think that's government and not really community. I think that's going for one of our projects, that we should be funding that if we want to do that with Foothill money. I really think this is sacred ground when we have community grants that are really towards giving people the resources to do a project or an event or so on that everybody gets into. I just have a problem with, especially $15,500, which is a substantial amount of the total. And it's not that I don't think the work should be done. I think this is in the wrong place for it to be paid for, because I really feel that anybody could take on an initiative of something that the library group could come in and say, we want to do a study on libraries and get a community grant. Does that make sense? I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE COMMUNITY SERVICE SEPARATE FROM WHAT I WOULD CALL A SPECIFIC INITIATIVE FOR A LAKE OSWEGO CITY GOVERNMENT APPROVED. SO THINKING ABOUT THAT, WHAT'S YOUR THOUGHTS?

COUNCILOR KORGAN, IT IS THE LARGEST ONE.

Right, yeah. I think the concept behind that is much like the Oswego Lake Watershed Council educating people about the Emerald Ash Borer. I think what the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network would like to do is educate people who are interested in the potential that exists in the Foothills development. And what this is about is setting up be like a giant heat pump, like the heat pump in your, the heat pump that you use at home, using the the temperature that's in the ground to do this in a more sustainable, modern, low cost way. And it's not really, I don't know what this is gonna look like as we go forward, whether the city has the opportunity to go off track that far to help people understand what's possible. So I think that's what they are attempting to do here. There are some of us who went and listened to this a few months ago. They had a lot of really experienced, educated people there who worked in funding these things. So it could be a real thing, but I'm not sure that the city on its own can go off track that far to figure that out. But it matters to people in our community. They put their time and their effort in on it, which is why we felt it was worth funding. I don't know, Councillor Afghan?

Thank you, Councillor Corrigan. It was also the way they did their application that supports the council goal with combating the climate change. And what they want to do is bring people, consultants, local residences together and see what are the opportunities that we can explore. I don't think the city does those kind of things as opposed to THE COMMUNITY WANTING TO DO IT. SO IT'S A PULL VERSUS PUSH. SO IT IS A LOT OF MONEY. WE DID HAVE A LOT OF CONVERSATION ABOUT IT. BUT THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE TO HAVE THOSE KIND OF CONVERSATIONS. IF IT SUPPORTED THE COUNCIL GOALS AND THEY GOT A HIGH SCORE, WE WENT THAT DIRECTION.

Okay. Yeah, no, we, I, that sounds, I.

You're doing three workshops for under 10.

I'm just saying that we're doing a lot of education. And I just look at traditionally, I would say that if you look back 20 years on all these grants, primarily it's to help neighborhood associations. It's to help community groups. It's especially like earthquake supplies and whatever. I don't want these funds to necessarily be in this. advocacy role of education per se, I think it's in the wrong column. I think these are educational funds versus community impact funds. Because I could pick 10 different subjects that we're working on as a city council to use this grant money to put a a group together and hire a consultant and talk about things. That's all I'm saying is, you know, and I just think that's my viewpoint of what these funds have traditionally been used for, to support culture, activities, events, and so on in the community for the betterment of of everyone versus just educational.

I think what you're referring to is the social, the other categories we have. These are supporting the city council goals. And our goals, one of them is black and white, combat climate change. So if we don't want to do that, then we should start from the beginning of the year and say, we're not going to do this. Because this group have come forward supporting what we have set forward. Now, you can say, if this is so serious and the group want to do this and they're following our council goal, I'm scrounging at the dollar amount and reduce the dollar amount. But this is black and white supporting this council goal.

Right, but I think we also have a sustainability advisory committee that could probably do this for free. So anyway, that's just... We'll put you on the committee next year. Yeah. I'm just...

Thank you. I get a voice. Your comments are well taken. Thank you, Councillor Woodland.

I will be supporting this, but I'm just... I just think we have to be aware of that.

Thank you. No, thank you, Councillor Woodland. Councillor Boone.

Thank you. So, yeah, I really talk... I think maybe the context, John. I talked to the lady who explained what is thermal energy. I really never heard of it. I heard of it, but I have never thought that there was that concept. And she was saying that it could even give all electricity to new things that we build there. But it's in the making. So I think it's the right place for the sustainability network. If they could do it for us, it's great. Because probably if we were doing it as a city, it would cost more. I was happy on your questions on funding some organization and not following the three years. When I first saw it, I said, why? I mean, because I'm glad you explained that it's organized. And I really like all those three organizations, Hello for Love, I love Clackamas Women's Services. They're doing wonderful work. And honestly, them, for example, they should always be part of what we do. They're serving. I know what they do every time. And Children's Center, I mean, the only problem I have why we didn't fund the Lake Oswego Film Festival, because we should have a film festival. And I know. You have, you know, I really appreciate the work. I've been in there with the mayor. It was the hard time when it was hard to give money because we didn't, there were a lot of politics or something behind. So thank you. And the only reason I'm talking is for Teo. I'm very giving you a cheer up. It's the first time you come here. We are very proud of the work you're doing in the city. So people should know Teoh, and thank you very much for your work. Thank you, Councillor. Yeah.

The second. Thank you.

Third, actually.

I may have been here a time or two before. Yeah.

I've seen you three. Councillor Afghani. I also wanted to add that one of the conversations we had in the team was fiscal responsibility. So if we have long-term support for any organization, we cannot come back to the city council and ask for more money. So we said we need to set good role models and stay within our budget, even though we're coming forth with new recommendations. So staying within the budget. AND SECOND THING IS SPECIAL THANKS TO MR. RAMIREZ AND MS. THESING BECAUSE THEY HAD TO DO A LOT OF GOING BACK AND FORTH TO THE APPLICANTS MAKING SURE THAT IF THE INTENT IS GOOD BUT THERE ARE MISSING INFORMATION AND THEY'RE we go back to them and not black and white reject them because their application wasn't perfect. So credit to you two. Thank you so much, especially Mr. Ramirez. Thank you so much for making those calls and making sure that we honor the intent of the process as opposed to managing the process. Thank you. Thank you.

And thank you all. Looking at these groups, whether it's neighborhood associations, the ASU, LOSN, Heritage Council, I mean, it's great use of public money leveraging just an immense amount of community knowledge. and volunteer time on the part of all these groups. And I think these are important dollar amounts that can help leverage the good work that they're doing, like you said, Councillor Afghan, supporting the council goals that are broadly shared amongst many people in the community as well. So we appreciate these groups helping to continue moving Lake Oswego forward. And thank you all for your work, helping do the hard work of deciphering through all these applications. Would someone like to make a motion to adopt Resolution 26-38?

Move to adopt resolution 26-38. Second.

Okay, motion made by Councillor Burdick and seconded by Councillor Winland. Any further discussion? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes 7-0. Thank you, T.O. Don't you go, don't, don't. Thank you very much, Councillor. Have a good evening.

I thought my friend behind me was next.

And next on the agenda, item 8.2, we are going, Madison is going to talk to us about the League of Oregon City's 20, 27, 28 legislative priorities.

Yes, thank you. I'm Madison Theising, the deputy city manager, and I am here before you for the League of Oregon City's legislative priorities. And so as we are gearing up for the long session in 2027, the League of Oregon City sends out a survey to every single city council to ask their feedback on the set priorities that they have as a running list. uh they form policy committees throughout the year through then summer and they they begin by a starting list and then all cities have a vote to narrow that down and then that is what the league focuses that's not to say that we can't focus on other areas or that we can expand on what they currently have listed but that is at least the guiding force for the league as they carry into the long session these priorities also carry into the short session so that's another thing to be mindful of IT DOES CARRY FOR THOSE TWO YEARS. WHAT I PROVIDED IN THE COUNCIL REPORT ARE TOP EIGHT POLICIES THAT I HAVE NARROWED DOWN, BUT YOU ARE ALLOWED AND HAVE THE PRIVILEGE AND RIGHT TO ADD OR ANY THAT WERE NOT LISTED ON THAT EIGHT, AND THE GOAL IS TO NARROW IT DOWN TO TOP FIVE, AND THEN I WILL SUBMIT OUR SURVEY ON YOUR BEHALF. WHAT I HAVE LISTED DOWN AS WHAT I IDENTIFIED AS THE TOP EIGHT, WHICH, AGAIN, IF YOU SAW ANY THAT YOU WOULD PREFER TO DISCUSS OR WANT TO EXPAND ON, THESE WERE THE TOP EIGHT TO AT LEAST GET US STARTED TO THEN, AGAIN, NARROW DOWN TO THE TOP FIVE. THE TOP EIGHT IDENTIFIED BASED OFF OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN NOT ONLY AS COUNCIL'S PRIORITIES BUT THE COMMUNITY AND OUR ORGANIZATION'S PRIORITIES ARE, ONE, RIGHT-OF-WAY AUTHORITY, CONTINUING TO PRESERVE THAT, INCLUDING REVENUE SOURCES. Two, public meeting law clarity. As you know, in the last session, that did not move forward all the way after a governor vetoed at the end. Number three is full funding and streamlining for housing production. As you know, we've had an extreme amount of volume of housing policies, but in pairing with additional resources to do that, as we have found, we can have housing goals And some of those goals are for affordable housing, but that's not necessarily what we're able to fund out of our general fund dollars as the amount that they need. So that's identifying more capital funding from the state and then streamlining some of the policies and processes that have been adopted in the last few years with all the mandates. So that's not only the ones from the governor's bill, but it's also the government's. climate, energy, some of those things from previous years, parking mandates, things like that. Number four is the energy grid hardening and modernization. As we know, after the many storms we've been having, we have PGE as our largest provider and is hit the hardest during natural disasters. And so that's not only hardening and modernizing, meaning maybe potentially that's undergrounding, but it's not bearing the full weight to our utility system. rate payers as well to do that work. Number five is a pretty long list of economic development and workforce development opportunities as a priority area. There has been a work group, task force, has been developing uh an economic plan that that has been guided through the governor uh representative wen has been on that as well and so we know there's going to be quite a bit of bills that are coming out of that work number six is the 2027 transportation package as you know from the last few sessions it has not moved forward and so i'm trying again for that Number seven is the infrastructure funding. So again, as we talk about housing, the backbone of housing is having adequate funding for infrastructure. So being able to connect to water, sewer, streets, and all that. Some of the most untapped areas of the state right now need significant infrastructure dollars, meaning billions of dollars. Again, tying those two things together. And then lastly, number eight is the rate payer assistance. So as we all have experienced, the rate of doing business is getting more and more expensive. And so how do we provide programs at the state level that provide some relief for some of our more low-income families? So that is the starting place for eight. The goal would be to narrow down to top five. That's what the survey is asking for. And then, again, if there's anything that I did not include in that list right now, but you want to talk about, you are more than welcome to add or subtract from that list, too.

This is just a way into the, thank you, Madison. This is just a way in so that the League of Cities, they're collecting this information from all of the member cities to kind of further hone their legislative agenda?

Yep.

All right. Well, colleagues, what do you think? We have the last chair. Councillor Manns, did you chime in there?

I have a quick question. In reading through all of the other recommendations of the LOC, one stood out to me, and that was the cybersecurity combined with well, I guess you would say hardening our cybersecurity. And I know that's not included. I do not know how relevant that is to our community. We do, however, have infrastructure projects. And I had talked to our director of IT about that off the record, off the cuff. But in building the water treatment plant, that seems to me that that might be something that might be more interesting to us. I don't know if my colleagues agree on that, if that's something that we should elevate. I don't know what to swap out on this list, because they're all vitally important. IT'S A DIFFICULT THING. BUT I WAS WONDERING WHAT YOUR THOUGHTS WERE AROUND THAT AND WHAT YOU BROUGHT BACK FROM LOC MEETINGS AND YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING SPECIFIC AS FROM THE LOC. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I THINK THIS IS THE REALITY OF THE INCLINEMENT THAT WE'RE IN, THAT THERE'S CYBERSECURITIES, THERE'S HACKERS, WE ARE BECOMING MORE AND MORE OF A THREAT. OR EXCUSE ME, WE AS AN ENTITY, WE KNOW ORGANIZATIONS THROUGHOUT THE STATE HAVE BEEN TARGET FOR RANSOMWARES. So I think that's just where we might want to be mindful of moving forward. And not only in the large-scale projects, but even our day-to-day data that we have, including our, I hate to call out, but utility billing and things like that, and making sure that we as an organization are protecting confidential private information as well. And we know that those data breaches are happening more and more. So I don't have anything specific from the League that said this is what the bill would look like. But I think as more of this is happening, and especially when you think about the League representing small cities who are not necessarily equipped to handle that themselves either.

And my secondary concern to that is what we've been learning recently about AI. I DON'T WANT TO BE AN ALARMIST. I'M KIND OF NEUTRAL LIKE SWITZERLAND AT THIS POINT IN TIME BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION. BUT, AGAIN, I SEE THAT AS A RISING CHALLENGE FOR PARTICULARLY FOR OUR CITY AND ALL MUNICIPALITIES ACROSS OREGON. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

COUNSELOR MANS. COUNCILOR CORDON.

The one that jumped out at me was public meetings law clarity. So yeah, I've discovered when you're working with boards and commissions, boy, this applies to those people who are kind enough and generous enough to donate their time to help us be a better city. And they are confused and worried about how they speak at these meetings and the things that they do otherwise, even tabling and all the other things that they're required to do. And I think that's uniquely unfair. And the fact that this made it all the way to the governor's office makes me think there's probably some pretty good agreement. Maybe they just need to put some more time in on that and clarify it, but we need clarity. So I would escalate that one for that reason.

Okay, so we have one. I saw a lot of head nodding for that one. Okay, mark that one down. Okay, public meetings, a lot of clarity. Councilman, thank you, Councilor Gorgon. Give all five, it has to include that one though. What are the other four?

Eliminating like the rate payer assistance, no. No, yeah, it's important, but if we are taking five, we need to take it out. And honestly, I'm not worried about public meeting law because the governor himself is subject to it. And I'm pretty sure she'll change her view on that. So, yeah, it's important, but we should not put on it. I think I'll take it out of the list. I'll take it off the list. And the... the energy grid hardening and modernization. So the rest is right of way. That thing, we shouldn't give it to the state. It's a matter of our independence, our cities, and our survival even. So you got it? I got you my five. What were your five?

Okay, as soon as you get the five. Did you?

Yeah, it's full funding, housing, economic development, transportation factors, and infrastructure funding. Okay. You have four, technically. That was four. Well, that's fine.

You can add five as you get the public meeting laws.

Okay, then public meeting law. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Okay, thank you, Councillor Booth. Councillor Willard.

I'm with Councillor Corrigan. I think number one for me is public meetings law clarity. Okay. I THINK FULL FUNDING AND STREAMLINE FOR HOUSING PRODUCTION IS NUMBER TWO FOR ME. AND BASICALLY MAYBE JUST TO PAUSE FOR THREE YEARS UNTIL WE CAN GET CAUGHT UP. FOUR IS ENERGY GRID. SIX IS THE TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE AND SEVEN IS INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING.

I had those five, too. Yeah. Okay, that's the key. The rest you can do. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. Councillor Afghan, how does that sound to you?

I think a little different, but almost consistent. Really? Yes. When I look at what are we doing at the city council and municipality, I look at three, four, five, six, and seven. So those are the type of things that we either must do or we're faced against it. So housing production, grid hardening, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure funding. So those are the ones that come priority in my head. But I know what Councilor Corrigan and Councilor Woodland says, if we don't clarify how we're going to conduct business, all of this may fall apart because we don't have the ground rules clarified. So I'm struggling which one I'm going to drop in order to pick that one. Or how do I look at the residences who cannot afford paying their utilities? How do I look at them? And it's a struggle for me right now. I'm on the struggle bus going back and forth. I can see your points, but I am struggling. So I want two through eight. That is seven.

Are you a leader?

Five. You know, this legislative session is going to be very difficult because the state is hard-pressed with the budget. So this is not going to be kind of a spend. I mean, they have got to figure out the transportation package in a way that's going to be meaningful and something that the residents are going to support. And they're dealing with a lot of these cuts to healthcare, social services that impact residents. So, you know, just thinking about what we, we're kind of always left picking up the pieces in a way at the local level and how we support residents on the margins, given those cuts that the state is facing. I didn't see, I mean, it's more of a, there's also these like preemption things they keep getting into. Again, like right out of the gate, they're talking about This is not to say anything that we'd want to do here, but why is the state wanting to just blanket preempt the license plate reader cameras and data centers? It's like, leave that to local communities. You have many local communities in Oregon who love having data centers. Now, we don't even have a Costco here, right? So it may not be for us, but it's like...

We don't have a lot big enough.

For some communities, they would like it. I just don't see why the state continues to poke its nose into things. It has enough to worry about. It can't pass a transportation package. Then it comes and gets its nose into local government and tries to make local decisions for everyone. I REALLY THINK I MEAN AS MUCH AS WE CAN WITH THE LEAGUE WE'RE ALWAYS PUSHING BACK ON THAT BUT WE DEFINITELY HAVE IT JUST RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE I MEAN HERE THEY ARE POKING THEIR NOSE INTO THINGS THEY JUST JUST FOR POLITICAL BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY'RE BIG TOPICS AND EVERYONE'S INTERESTED IN THEM SO LIKE OH WE'LL DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SO WE DON'T NEED YOU TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT YOU KNOW LET YOUR COUNTY COMMISSION LET YOUR CITY COUNCIL GO TALK TO THOSE FOLKS ABOUT IT So, I mean, these are, I think for me, these are fine topics. I agree with Councillor Winland on the, you know, the ones he picked. I think there's the broader challenges we're seeing out of the state. I think we're going to have to continue watching for more housing, you know, legislation coming through that we'll end up having to implement while we are still implementing all these other things. PIECES OF HOUSING LEGISLATION, I THINK ENCOURAGING THE STATE OF THE MONEY THEY DO HAVE TO START TAKING MORE OF A CARROT APPROACH AND HELPING TO FUND INFRASTRUCTURE IN COMMUNITIES THAT ARE DOING GOOD WORK AROUND HOUSING, THAT ARE STREAMLINING THEIR CODES, THAT ARE ENCOURAGING PRODUCTION, I THINK WOULD BE GOOD. But I think they're just going to have to focus on some of these big, you know, we saw what happened the last session. They just did not focus on the big importance of the transportation package and then brought it up at the last minute.

They left it to the last week. It was the number one issue.

It was the number one issue. And the public meetings law clarity, you know, is important just for all of us volunteers being able to do our job. Oh, okay. Yes, please. Councilman and then Councilman. I'll give you your phone. How do they line up?

The faster that will be clarified. Energy grid hardening and modernization. Infrastructure funding. That's kind of a pie in the sky. I know how that works. my suggestion, my off-the-book suggestion on cybersecurity and AI guardrails within the state if we're not getting them from the federal government. What's that, four? Mm-hmm. Okay. And probably finally, hmm, You want some help? It's really tough. It's really tough. And again, it's kind of high in the sky. Full funding and streamline for housing production. I just don't see the full funding part, but the housing production...

Okay, those match.

The streamlining, yes.

Those match what Councilwoman put it, yeah. Okay. Except for my off book.

Yes, my off book.

Okay, your off book.

Okay, thank you, Councilman. Can we do the off books next?

So I'm in complete agreement with Councilor Corrigan. I think that public meetings law clarity, it needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly. I'M ALSO, I'M RIGHT ALONG WITH THE MAYOR AND COUNCILOR WENDLIN AS WELL IN TERMS OF MY TOP FIVE. AND I JUST WANT TO SAY I CONCUR WITH COUNCILOR WENDLIN THAT I THINK WE JUST NEED A PAUSE ON ANY MORE CHANGES FOR HOUSING. see how things are gonna play out and give our staff a break. I also concur with the mayor in terms of get out of the weeds. So I'd ask the state to get out of the weeds. I think they're getting a little too deep into what I think cities can manage. And I'm good with overall goals and objectives, but let us then figure out how to do it. So anything that's kind of getting too in the weeds, I definitely would like us to step up. AND FINALLY, THOUGH IT'S NOT IN TOP FIVE, I HAVE TO SAY I DO CONCUR WITH COUNCILOR MANN'S IN TERMS OF THE CYBER. I THINK THAT IS A BIG RISK. I THINK IT'S NOT DISCUSSED ENOUGH AND THE MORE WE CAN DO AROUND THAT, BUT AGAIN, I'LL STICK WITH MY TOP FIVE IN ALIGNMENT WITH COUNCILOR WENDLIN AND THE MAYOR, BUT THAT ONE IS RIGHT UP THERE AS WELL.

THANK YOU, COUNCILOR BURRICK.

Big surprise, I concur with Councillor Wen. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I really think that's the way to go.

Yeah, okay, that's good. Remember, this is just to the leak.

Yeah, no, anything works, but what's the difference between three and seven, I mean four and seven? Because hardening and modernizing the grid is infrastructure. That's a big difference.

Infrastructure funding is huge with water, sewer, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, but that's infrastructure, too, in terms of... No, I agree with you on that.

So do we have the... Thank you, Councilman. Do we have the five? Transportation, infrastructure, energy grid, housing production, public meeting. Yes. Okay. Great input. Yeah, everyone's on board. How about that?

And I've made note of the additional topics, and we will incorporate that in our legislative agenda.

Okay. Yes. Again, this is just to the League. We can have our own thing, too. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate you bringing this forward. Thank you. Okay, next item of business is Arts Council of Lake Oswego Annual Public Art Plan. Nicole Nathan, so glad to have, so pleased to have you here. Thank you for taking the time.

Thank you, mayor and counselors. It's a pleasure to be with you here today. As you saw in your packet, we have a annual work plan before you, which is a new thing. It is something that we have not done before, but in regard to our public art master plan, which was passed in 2024, that was one of the recommendations that we implemented. so that is the what under section two of that new of the new public art guidelines which went along with the public art master plan the mayor and city council are to review and approve the biennial artwork plan so how this work plan is proposed this year as an annual one-year plan just to keep the alignment as to our budget, the city's biennial budget, as well as the contract between the city and ACLO. And as we know, this is the first time that you've been asked to approve a work plan, and it was intended to be developed after the approval of the contractual agreement between the city and ACLO, and that was just passed in June of 2026. So in your packet, you have the work plan document. And so what I'm going to do is just help illustrate some of those things that are in the work plan so you can see how that happens. So it will show our contractual commitments in service to Lake Oswego as well as other programs that we do, which also serve the city, and help us to be thinking about identifying, prioritizing, funding, and implementing new public art projects to further enrich our life here in Lake Oswego. So one of those things is maintenance and conservation of the city's public art collection. As you'll see here, we are currently, like right this minute, working on the elephant on Boones Ferry Road. So we're mitigating some of the rust that has become prevalent on there, as well as taking care of some biological growth. and corrosion, so that is happening as we speak, that will take place this week. In addition, one of the pieces over at Glenmory Park in the flow, that plaque needs to be replaced, which ends up being on the shorter basalt piece there, so that has weathered, really needs to be replaced in whole, so we are doing that. Also, acquisition of art on behalf of the city, also happening right now over at the library. Echoes of Belonging by Sahara DeFreeze is being installed. The panels went up today, and the rocks are already done, and we look forward to the dedication of this on Saturday, which I know a couple of you will be joining us at. Deaccessioning of art. We talked about this a little bit when we came to you with the contract. Fairy Tree has a lot of different problems. And so it has gone through both the Public Art Committee as well as to you to recommend deaccession. And what you see there on the right is actually the first step in documenting the piece. So that actually was a, the piece has been 3D scanned So in a different kind of presentation, you could see a super cool video, but now you just get to see a picture. But a few weeks ago, early in the morning, before dawn, which we hear is the good time to do a 3D scan, One of our staff members met a contractor over there and they took a 3D scan of fairy trees. So we will be able to have that as a digital file to be able to put in the record. We know what it looks like, we know how big it was, all of those things. We could reproduce it in some way, shape or form, but then that provides a historical context for that piece.

Look forward to Christmas tree ornaments. Yeah, little mini Christmas tree ornaments at the fairytale. Fundraiser. Fundraiser, huge.

Huge.

It's going to be huge.

Excellent. So also one of the things as part of our contractual agreement is a annual exhibition about life in Lake Oswego. So that is on view right now. It's called What We Behold. And that's up through the 30th of October. It was curated by Kendra Roberts, who is the director at Blackfish Gallery down in the Pearl. And she also is on the public art committee. So she did that for ACLO, which is a beautiful show. You should come see it. I don't know that I've seen any of you down there. Just saying. We're also working on our Percent for Art projects, including South Shore. This is just some... inspirational images that we have, that we've shared with the fire department and so we are in the midst of putting together our selection committee for that. So that's moving right along, very exciting. Also, one of our Percent for Art projects that we're managing is over at RSEIC, so phase two. We are at the point now where we are being, we are going to be soliciting submissions for artwork, and that will happen here in the coming months. A selection committee decision, we anticipate that in the fall, and the artwork would be installed in spring. The area that we're looking at putting a potential mural is on the restroom building and a portion of the maintenance building. We know that there's gonna be some fencing and some other aspects where you won't be able to see a lot of that, but we think a good combination of areas that will be visible to the general folks who are visiting the park. Gallery Without Walls, of course, we have the eight new pieces that are installed and part of this year's cohort. So those are what you see here. And we will also be celebrating those at the Cultural Exchange on September 27th. with docent tours as well as the presentation for People's Choice. The next cohort, that call opens shortly here, October 1st, and we start that process all over again. So that will happen between the fall and then into spring and summer of next year. The Cultural Exchange, as I mentioned, will be part of that on the 27th. These are some of our attendees from last year. They were very excited about making paper bag puppets. GroGroo figured heavily in the characters, so that was amazing. We're going to have some other stuff for them to do this year. And then, as I said, Pup by Ben Dye, is the 2026 People's Choice winner, so that will be awarded to him at that time. Here are some of the other things that we do that are not specifically part of our contractual agreement with the city, but still provide a lot of great things to the city. So our 2026, 27 exhibitions, again, what we behold will be followed by our annual holiday marketplace, which everyone loves and enjoys. Art Mart will be happening over at, at Merrill Hearst in January. We did a AP student art show this year, and we will be repeating that in mid-February. And then our winter spring exhibition will be late February through April, and then spring summer will be May, June, and July. Some of the wonderful programs that go along with what we do as part of the AP Art Show, we had some great student work. It was really amazing to be able to see work from high school students that you just wouldn't believe that they were in high school. It was pretty fun. We also do, of course, all kinds of docent tours for both students as well as adults. So this is a group from the International Learning Academy that came by and we got to take them around to the sculptures as well as see the exhibition inside. Also, we have programs that align with the exhibition. So that includes things like an Ikebana demo, which happened in March in conjunction with our exhibition, Thinking Through Mud. Public art and private developments. So we are working both with Hacienda as well as Habitat for Humanity to place some sort of artwork or piece at both of these locations. So at... At Hacienda, it is located on the corner of Boone's Ferry and the cross street. So that's mostly a public corner for the building. That's where the community room is and other such things. And so we're working with them on that as well as helping them to formulate a process, see how that goes. In regard to Habitat for Humanity, we are looking at some sort of artwork that would be in the shared green space, which is both publicly accessible as well as part of the development. So those are both really exciting things that are happening on Boone's Ferry. please pardon the spelling error, building connection between and with our community. We have been working informally with the cities of West Linn as well as Oregon City to be able to highlight Highway 43 as an art corridor. So the piece you see there on the left, Lotus Tower, that is located on the Merrill Hearst campus. So that is one of the pieces. There are some that have been identified in Oregon City at the end of 43, which would also be there. West Lynn, there have been some staffing changes in their Parks and Recreation Department, and that's who we were working with. So we're on a temporary hold at this point, but we expect that to pick back up. once that position has been filled. In the mystery is the next piece you see there with the rainbow, that is at the new LO Middle School. It's very fun, it's right on Country Club and so it's really visible. It was a great way to work with the school district to be able to cite pieces at the new schools. So we've been working on doing that for a long time and it was great to see this come to fruition. Sponsorships of Gallery of Thought Walls sculptures. So everyone from individuals to businesses sponsor the sculptures that come to town. So we have everyone from individual families to Edward Jones and Farmers Insurance. Lastly, you'll see that we work pretty extensively with the chamber. Wine Walk 2025 is just one of the items and ways that we work with them. We hosted networking this past Friday and there were 90 some odd people who were able to come in and see what we do, see City Hall and really know what art does in their community. And volunteers, we've heard a lot about volunteers today. They're really the engine that helps keep us going. We have guided tours that happen only because we have volunteer docents. We have conservation volunteers who assist with a number of different items and aspects of taking care of the collection. And then we had a terrific summer intern this year so she helped us do quite a number of different things and was able to do anything and everything which was terrific. And then of course, fundraising. What we have to, what we do throughout the year is funded partially by the city, but then also we raise money to support our programs and our staff. And that includes fun things like Holiday Marketplace, again, coming up. Art Elevated, our auction, which happens in the spring. And of course, Art Mart, which happens every January. Love Art Mart. That is all that I have for you. So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to take them.

Thanks, Nicole. Great presentation. You guys are doing a lot of really good work. It's exciting to see all the different mediums, all the different programs you're running, all the outreach. I think it's very cool getting the art installed at the new housing along Boone's Ferry. It's very cool. Really help integrate those spaces into, you know, the rest of the community here. Yeah. Colleagues, Council verdict, please. Oh, the other verdict.

I heard verdict. I JUST WANTED TO THANK THE ARTS COUNCIL FOR ALL THE WORK THAT YOU DO BECAUSE ONE OF THE THINGS THAT DOES STAND OUT, FLOWER BASKETS AND THE ARTWORK WITHIN OUR CITY. AND YOU DO SO MUCH. AND I REALLY APPRECIATE THE, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE DOING A LITTLE MORE PARTNERSHIPS WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY. I THINK YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE SOME BUT ESPECIALLY WITH THE SCHOOLS AND THEN ALL THE WAY DOWN 43. I THINK THAT'S REALLY EXCITING TO SEE AND I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. I LOVE THE EVENTS. SO I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE HOLIDAY MARKET AGAIN. AND YOU KNOW, GALLERY WITHOUT WALLS IS DEAR TO MY HEART AFTER SERVING ON THAT COMMITTEE FOR MANY YEARS. AND JUST BEING ABLE TO GO OUT AND SEE THE ROTATION OF THE ART SO IT KEEPS IT EXCITING, IT'S ALWAYS KIND OF MOVING, IS JUST FANTASTIC. SO THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WORK.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER COUNSELOR MANS.

NEW SPEAKER NEED TO GO? I echo what my colleague said. And the growth of the Arts Council and our arts programs in Lake Oswego has been phenomenal. And the fact that we're able to get art into buildings that often in other municipalities don't have art is stunning to me. I just love that. The amount of volunteerism that happens in the Art Council I don't think people fully understand. I mean, some of our colleagues who've worked in this understand, but it's amazing. They don't expect any, grand gesture, they just want to see the art out there. And on a personal note, I would like to on air give a shout out to a student artist who you mentioned, Fifi Pollack, who is a fabulous artist. I have a couple of her pieces in my house as a matter of fact. She is now off to college studying fine art so our own lake oswego up-and-coming artist exactly exactly yeah her work was pretty incredible her work is amazing so and her whole family came to the opening and it was really fun to see i know they they are very supportive of her art which is a fabulous thing to to see but um thank you for all you do thank you thanks counselor manson counselor gorg

Yeah, thank you for everything you do. I think you help us express to the rest of the world who we are. And I think the only thing that I would add to what my colleagues have said is you guys delivered an amazing bang for the buck. Thank you very much. And thank you for all the volunteer interest that you get. You do a great job. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Boop? Yeah. I mean, I'm very proud of you. I have been introduced to Gallery Without Wall by the Veselys, who are my dear friends. And ever since, our school, every year, every single year, our school toured the Gallery Without Wall, like elementary school, because we know that art is an anti-destiny. It's what gives forms and shapes their styles. And you're giving Lake Oswego its style by putting all this art everywhere. It's really amazing. If there is any program I want to fund, it's that one, because it's what makes us human. And Saturday, we'll see great things happening also. And I'm glad Councillor Corrigan and I were there when we were making the decision on that. And thank you for your work. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Councillor Afghani. Thank you, Councillor.

Either what the other councillors said, But I want to specially thank the art council for including art pieces at Hacienda and the Habitat for Humanity. This is a ACT OF INCLUSIVENESS AND WELCOMING THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO COME TO OUR CITY. SO JOB WELL DONE, WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THAT STRATEGY, THEY NEED TO BE THANKED. THANK YOU. COUNSELOR MULLAT.

DITTO, BUT I THINK WE NEED TO HIGHLIGHT ONE THING THAT YOU FORGOT. and this is extensive and art is everywhere, but this group does an exceptional job of maintaining our art collection, which I think they don't get enough credit for that because Gallery Without Walls is exposed to the environment 12 months out of the year and there's a group of volunteers and we have expertise on the Arts Council and of making sure that we're taking care of everything that we have out there. And so kudos to you guys. I mean, you should really have that as part of your presentation, because that's a huge effort to manage an art collection as big as ours. And Nicole, you do a fabulous job on making sure everything is, you know, every piece by name. You know when it was done. The Encyclopedia of Art for Lake Oswego is sitting right there. So you do need to do a download someday. But very appreciated all the efforts. And again, our community volunteers are just exceptional at stepping up to the plate. So just want to give a shout out to you. Thank you. Thanks. Councilor Winland. Councilor Mance.

I'd be remiss and I think my colleagues hopefully will agree that I would like to thank all of the sponsors over the year who have sponsored our large art pieces in order that we have those throughout the city. So that is my thank you to all of them.

Thanks, Councilor Manns. Thank you very much, Nicole. We really do appreciate you bringing this forward. Art in Lake Oswego is one of the things that makes the community very special and unique, draws lots of visitors, is enjoyed by all of the residents, and enlivens every kind of corner of the city, provides a lot of culture. If we were ever, I will say, we are bringing one new piece of property on board, and that's the cemetery. And I'll tell you what would fit really well in the cemetery is those armless and headless figures that we have down there. Don't you think? Yes. You know what?

That is something that the Public Art Committee can consider.

Okay. Put that on the agenda.

Can I make a motion? Yeah. I'd like to move to approve the Arts Council of Lake Oswego Annual Public Art Plan. Second. I'd like to move to the arts.

No. Yeah.

That's up to the Arts Council.

All right.

Yeah.

Motion was made by Councillor Wendland and seconded by Councillor Burdick. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you very much.

It's always a pleasure to come see you.

Thanks very much. All right, folks. We're going to take a brief five-minute recess.

Okay, we are back in order.

Thanks everyone for waiting. Next up on the agenda, we have consideration of Ordinance 2980. This is an e-micromobility device usage. I'll invite Police Chief George Burke and Captain Clayton Simon to come forward. And while they're getting set up, we'll ask Erica to please read us the hearing procedures for this public hearing.

We will now open legislative public hearing on Ordinance 2980, amending Chapter 32 of Lake Oswego City Code. We'll start with a presentation by staff and then public testimony.

Thanks, Sarah. All right. Chief, Captain, good evening. Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'm George Burke, Chief of Police. I'm accompanied by Captain Clayton Simon. Back in July of this year, we came before you during a study session, presented some information regarding some e-micromobility and an ordinance, proposed ordinance, or at least a draft. We took feedback during that study session, went back to the drawing board, incorporated the changes that were directed by council. And I'm going to kind of get ahead a little bit and tell you that ultimately what we're going to be doing is asking for you to adopt the resolution as proposed. I would also like to say that I owe a lot to Captain Simon because he did the heavy lift on this, did the research, and really did a lot of the work to make, to put this ordinance together for all of you. So I'm going to turn it over to him to give you the details of the changes that we put in place. He's pretty well bullet pointed. There's not a big presentation for you to look at and admire and go through. Pretty much seen it and we just want to make sure we're here to answer any questions.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. Yeah, we are the presentation. So sorry, no visuals, just what you see up here. But just really quickly, I appreciate Chief's words and support there. But it was also our city attorney's office. It was our city manager's office. There were a lot of folks that helped contribute to this, including yourselves. So there was a lot of folks that helped out, and I really appreciate that. To kind of quickly get into it, we simplified a certain device terminology when we look through it. It's a complicated subject. We wanted to make it simple, so we tried. We updated the antiquated provisions related to bicycles and where they could park and how they could be ridden to make sure that they aligned with state statute. We added clarifying information regarding device types, their lawful operation, and locations. and where those devices can be operated. We also added some more descriptive language, identifying what both unsafe operation and what unreasonable speeds are. So it's not an all-inclusive list, but it gives a good framework for people, anyone reading it, to understand, hey, this is kind of what they mean by those two things. We added an escalation of penalties. So if you get subsequent violations within 12 months, it escalates the fine, and we work with our municipal court on some of that. Let's see, we developed public information materials. It isn't necessarily within the ordinance, but we sent out those things on our social media sites. We worked through the city's website. I appreciate Parks and the library and the ACC for letting us put up our literature there for folks to see. And we distribute those materials all throughout the community and And again, the revisions, everything that we've kind of put forth is intended to improve clarity for riders, parents, community members, and law enforcement while obviously maintaining the approach that supports education, safe use, and reasonable enforcement. And that's what we've done.

And really just to reinforce what we're talking about is really we're looking at safe behaviors. And it's nothing against e-micro mobility devices. Certainly encourage especially creating accessibility for a lot of folks who may not otherwise have that accessibility or that ability to be mobile. It's just about how people behave while they're using the devices. I ALSO WANT TO COMMENT ON THE FACT THAT WE'VE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, AND FUTURE PLANS ROLL OUT, WE'LL DO SOME EDUCATION PIECES WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, AND I LOOK FORWARD TO SOME AGREEMENTS BETWEEN US AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT ON HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ON SCHOOL PROPERTIES.

GREAT.

OKAY. ANY QUESTIONS FOR CHIEF CAPTAIN?

NO QUESTIONS? SO COUNCILMAN BOOT, QUESTION?

I agree. Thank you very much, Clayton and Chief. We have a lot of folks reaching out to us, sometimes very angry that the city has to do something. The problem I have, there are some of these devices that we should tell people they are outright unlawful to do, some of the e-bikes that they remove the stuff. Is that right?

No, Councillor. So the only device really that is completely on public roads and public property that we say, hey, you can't ride, regardless of age, are the non-compliant mobility devices. And those are those kind of e-motos that you see. They look like dirt bikes. They don't have any pedals on them. And you're riding those. If they can fall within the classification of a moped, In other words, the person that is riding it has a driver's license, you don't need an endorsement for it, and you can get it registered with the State and it doesn't go above 30 miles per hour and it doesn't essentially produce more than 50 cc's, those can still be actually ridden in compliance with the moped laws here in the State of Oregon. But those are really the only devices that we're saying you can't. Everything else you can, it just depends on where and by whom. Yeah, so the goal really is we know how important these are for folks to get around. I was talking just at the break, you know, my mother, I think I mentioned before, she's got one, you know, to ride around at the coast, big fat tire, e-bike, you know, just so she can get around. And so certainly we do not want people that are able to lawfully ride these things and do it in a safe way. We do not want to prohibit that at all. And I don't believe that our ordinance amendments do that.

That's because I just want people to know we are not against progress. These are new stuff that happens. I was discussing with the mayor, which I always do, that I'm against this. But the idea even of not riding for a child, like a real bike, is even not healthy. like kids should pedal, you know, and no, that's, no, it's, we should, we have to be, I'm an educator. I mean, we have some time, the same way we are saying no cell phone at school. I think we should even go to tell, if you are like between 12 and 18, you should pedal your bike to school, not like go. It's like, and it's the parents also, like, that have to take their responsibility that it's not, good to give your 12-year kid an electric bike. They should go, move, do something, and get healthy. So for that reason, I really am 100% for these things, the enforcement of these rules. For our city. Thank you.

Yeah, and I appreciate that the educational component of it as well That seems to be the biggest problem is that you know if people are very confused about the difference between e-bikes and these other types of e micro mobility devices the emotos people probably think that they're buying their kid any bike and You hear things like, oh, age has been even reduced on class 1 e-bikes. Most people probably don't even know what a class 1 e-bike, class 2, of the e-bike classification. So we see these non-things that aren't really e-bikes. They are more like electric motorcycles of some kind, which, again, could be ridden with a little license plate and a driver's license and with the endorsement and all that kind of stuff. So they can be operated safely, but by the right people, with the right licensure, insurance, and whatnot. So I think that education will help. Because I mean, that's the nationwide problem, is the confusion that's been kind of injected into this market, the proliferation of devices, and the ease with which people can get them. It's not like you go to a local bike shop and they say, oh, well, we understand the rules. I mean, you're just buying it online. And it's kind of confusing. So this approach of keeping everyone safe, I mean, these bikes, In our infrastructure, we do want everyone to be able to get around the community using different modes of transportation. But they've got to be able to do it safely and not in conflict. not in conflict with other modes, people walking, with cars. And I think there is something, because these are particularly vulnerable road users, because they are oftentimes kids. Or anyone who's walking or on a bike, whether it's adult or kid, is, of course, a more vulnerable road user. And we're sensitive to the fact that already those road users are I mean, they're vulnerable because they're up against large cars. And so we want to make sure we're cultivating an environment here where it's safe for everyone. We're not just saying, well, cars will do what they're going to do, and everyone else has to kind of adapt. But we're creating a safe environment for all the different types. And that's complicated because, I mean, we have created a car-centric thing. I mean, it's hard to unwind that, obviously. But other safety initiatives the department IN THE CITY ARE UNDERTAKING WITH INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS ALL PLAY A ROLE IN THAT. SO THIS IS JUST, I THINK, A NICE PIECE OF THE OVERALL KIND OF SAFETY PUZZLE AND INVESTMENTS AND POLICIES THAT WE'VE CRAFTED TO KEEP EVERYONE SAFE. SO I APPRECIATE YOUR GOOD WORK. COUNCILMAN.

TWO QUESTIONS. I LOVE THE POLICY. I THINK IT'S FOR POLICY IT'S PRETTY STRAIGHTFORWARD FOR US, BUT WE LOOK AT POLICY A LOT. I guess my question is when, I'm assuming this is going to pass, what's your plan on figuring out how to get the message more clearly without somebody having to read through a 14-page document? Are we going to have like a postcard or something that gives you basically the the three main elements that we're after.

I'll deal with the first part of that, which I think the first outreach for us is to work directly with the school districts. We'd take a look at the population that's really utilizing the e-microbial devices, especially in ways that are more unsafe. So that education piece will happen directly with the schools. We already have some meetings set up where we'll invite parents and students in, and we can have the presentation and kind of go over the details of that. I'll turn over to Captain Simon over any other outreach that we're doing or materials.

So it's like you read my mind. And so we actually have a postcard with all that information on it that actually directs folks right to our website via QR code. And we have other additional flyouts. This is what's out at some of the other city locations for people to see and what we've posted on our own website. We're actually meeting. We work with Madison and the city manager's office to connect with the schools. And so we actually have a presentation set for, I think it's the 5th or 6th of October. Don't quote me. It's one of those two days over at the new Lake Oswego Middle School. And we're going to invite folks in so we can answer questions what is clearly a large group of folks that are probably wondering, hey, how does all this really apply and what is it we can do? So we have that coming on. will obviously be reaching out in many of the ways that we have already done, so in the past saying, hey, if this is successful, hey, this is live, this is what to be expected, so people know. We have actually given a lot of these postcards out. I appreciate Lauren quickly putting these things together because we have been giving them to our officers who are giving them out to folks, whether it is through an enforcement contact or just a community contact saying, hey, you guys need to know about this stuff.

Well, you can get on the district email blasts, which would be very helpful, that go out to all the parents with your information. So make sure you do that, because you can blast that out to all the kids' parents who should know. The other part, enforcement. Will we see a gradual change, or are we going to be make a statement so that people wake up and go, okay, we're serious?

I think we've been making, we've been doing a lot in education over the last couple years. I'm not going to say that we're going to go from education to immediate enforcement. I think there's a happy medium in there, and I think we will, our officers have the ability to figure out what's appropriate at the time where they're making those contacts. There are a lot of people we've had repeat contacts with. So I would say there's probably less leniency with them and more leniency with folks who we're just now having contact with the first time.

One of the benefits of folks, if they end up being cited under this particular ordinance and working with our municipal court, is there's kind of a first-time diversion or safety class. So there is the ability, even with enforcement, to have education on the front end and nothing count against you.

Thank you. Councillor Afghan.

This is going to be a cultural shock for our city. And I, for one, WILL VOLUNTEER TO HAND OUT AS MANY CARDS AS YOU GIVE ME SO I'M YOUR AMBASSADOR TO REDUCE THAT CULTURAL SHOCK. AND IF YOU WISH, THE NEXT COUPLE, THREE FARMERS MARKET, I'LL BE STANDING THERE WITH A VOLUNTEER BADGE AND HANDING THINGS TO PEOPLE SO THEY UNDERSTAND THESE ARE THE GROWN-UPS WHO BUY THE devices for their kids so they also understand that this is coming and this is serious. So I think you should use us as your ambassadors to make it happen. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Okay, we will Go ahead and open the public hearing, and I'll ask if there, but I don't know if there's, is there anyone here who wants to testify in the ordinance? I don't see anyone, so we're going to go ahead and close the public hearing, and then we'll entertain a motion to enact ordinance 2980.

Move to enact ordinance 2980. Second.

Okay, motion made by Councilman Boop and seconded by Councilman Verdick. Any discussion? Thank you, Ken. Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes 7-0. All right, thank you, Chief. Thank you, Captain.

And can I just add a thank you to them as well? Thank you to both Captain and our Chief for moving this pretty fast. I mean, it's been a growing concern, but really kind of reached its peak this spring, and they did a great job thinking about how to move this through and make sure that the cultural shift happens. So thank you to both of them.

It's good work. Good cross-jurisdictional work, too. Applause. OK. OK. Moving on, we now have a study session this evening on the code audit, kind of a two-in-one here. We're going to talk about the code audit project. I'll invite Associate Planner Evan Franstad to please come forward. And we're going to talk about the formation of a technical advisory committee related to the code audit project work as well. Is it the last one? GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING.

GOOD EVENING MAYOR AND COUNSELOR. OKAY. SO AS MAYOR BUCK SAID WE ARE HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE CODE AUDIT PROJECT. And our project team is myself, I'm Evan Franst, I'm a senior planner with the City of Lake Oswego. I've been here for a little bit over 12 years. Also on our team is Jessica Nwanalu, our community development director, and Eric Olson, the long-range planning manager. To my left are our consultants, 3J Consulting, Lee Alligood, she's project manager, and Karen Tolstad, she's our community engagement coordinator with Veritas Collaborations. And for the, I guess to give you an overview of what we're gonna talk about today, today's a work session for an early checkpoint with the council on the code audit project to receive feedback on the background report and a draft public involvement strategy before we begin the full audit project. I'll briefly provide the project's background and purpose, summary and overall process, current work and timeline. Then I'll turn it over to 3J Consulting who will provide an overview of their work to date and include key findings from the background report and an overview of the public involvement strategy. So the request to council is to provide feedback on the consultant's findings and areas of focused on the initial review of the CDC, provide feedback on the draft public involvement strategy and improve resolution 26-52 to form a technical advisory committee to provide technical input throughout the project. As background, the subject of the code audit is LOC Chapter 50's Community Development Code, and this regulates land use and development within the city. The CDC is a framework that guides how development occurs in Lake Oswego. Over time, the code has become increasingly complex due to many factors, including multiple code amendments, adoption of detailed overlay districts and infill design standards throughout the city, and new state requirements. The need for an in-depth comprehensive analysis of the development code was identified in both the 2022 economic development strategy and resource plan, as well as the city's housing production strategy and is supported by city council initiative to begin comprehensive review of the development code to identify barriers to housing production and economic development and implement code amendments to address those barriers. So the Community Development Department currently has two projects that work in tandem. We have the Rezoning for Housing project and we have the Code Audit project. The Rezoning for Housing project will evaluate cities' mixed-use and commercial zones in order to increase housing capacity to address the city's deficit of land needed for housing in the next 20 years. The Code Audit Project, as I discussed already, addresses city regulations and development review processes in the CDC to make housing construction and business development more predictable and efficient. The audit will look at code rules, procedures, and requirements that make it harder to build housing or support local businesses and economic development. The project will also provide recommendations for how to ensure compliance with new state housing mandates while maintaining community standards. Rezoning for Housing project evaluates commercial mixed-use other non-residential areas where zoning map changes may allow for more housing, especially multi-family housing. It will identify focus areas and analyze them to determine appropriate upzoning scenarios. And here are the main focus areas for the code audit project. We look at usability, efficiency, housing, economic development, and compliance. It's organized basically in five areas. We're looking for how to make it easier to use the code, streamline the development process, better support housing economic development, and ensure the code complies with state requirements. Here's an overview of process. Basically, there's two phases. So the first phase is currently underway. We're in the research and analysis phase right now. The next phase, which will begin in October, is the COVID audit itself, where we review the CDC and identify regulatory barriers and process inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement. That will be followed by the final audit report, which incorporates staff, stakeholder, and public input and provide recommendation for addressing identified issues. The next phase is implementation. This is where we get into the code amendments. We'll develop proposed code amendments based on the audit report and obtain public and advisory body feedback at that time. And then after that, we will, planning commission will review recommendations and followed by a city council consideration for final adoption of the code amendments. And here's an overview of where we are at currently. The first task was to conduct research and analysis that is providing the background report that was attached to the study session materials, attachment one. This was completed in July. Three-day consulting will provide more details after I finish up here. The first step was to do interviews with staff that includes city staff with planning building redevelopment economic development and engineering department as well as representative from the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce to identify key issues that need to be addressed. We're in the process of conducting focus groups with different stakeholders and in the local housing and business communities and the neighborhood chairs group will talk to them at the end of the month. And this is to gather input regarding barriers to housing and economic development, city review processes, and other issues that impact timely, efficient, and predictable permitting. 3J is currently in the process of drafting a public involvement strategy, which Karen will discuss. The final strategy will be completed by the end of the month. A city council study session is scheduled for November, where we will We can discuss the final public involvement strategy and whatever else you would like to discuss, you can talk about tonight and we can cover it in November. And here's the project schedule. So the project will be completed in approximately 18 months. So that's in the winter of 2027, 2028. The audit phase will start in October and end in April with the final audit report. Then we begin the code audit phase, which will begin in May through January of 2027. Both the PC and the council will be consulted throughout the project to provide direction on the key policy issues and priorities, review and refine the findings and recommendations of the audit report itself, provide feedback on the proposed code amendments, consider and adopt final code amendments at a public hearing. Next, 3J Consulting will give an overview of the background report and public involvement strategy. We can answer any questions at the end of their presentation. So here is Lee with their presentation.

All right. Thank you, Evan. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I will provide a pretty brief and high-level update, but I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have when we're through. So as Evan mentioned, my name is Lee. I'm a planner with 3J Consulting. We're based in Beaverton. And our team, though we have just two of us here tonight, includes a number of people with specialties in urban design, and planning and public involvement in all different areas of this project. So it's not just us. We have a team behind us. This is the first time we're with you here tonight. Although you've heard about the project, I believe, a number of times, this is our first meeting with you all. So we're excited to talk to you and let you know what we've been up to. Next slide. So the objectives of the project, as Evan mentioned, is to remove regulatory barriers to housing and economic development, to retain standards for high-quality development, which Lake Oswego is known for, to comply with recent housing-related state legislation. As you all are aware, there's been quite a bit of activity on that front in the last few years, and also to streamline the community development code and make it more user-friendly and easy to apply. Next slide. So the background report is a review of existing plans and previous efforts. So that includes your comprehensive plan, your economic development strategy, your housing capacity analysis, housing production strategy, neighborhood plans, all the documents that the city has adopted over the years that then feed into the CDC. We also did kind of a preliminary review of the Community Development Code high level just to see where we need to focus our efforts on the next part. And we had interviews and focus groups with a number of people, city staff as Evan mentioned. We also talked with developers and builders who are active or have been active in Lake Oswego, architects and consultants, planning consultants that represent applicants in Lake Oswego and employers to hear from them. what their thoughts are about how the code functions and where it might be able to be improved. So the issues that came out of those conversations, and I don't know that any of these are surprising, but the code is difficult to use for applicants and staff. Over the years, it's become kind of unwieldy. It's been updated a number of times to respond to specific issues, but there hasn't been a wholesale evaluation of the code and the structure of the code and how you can find information that you're looking for. And I think universally, the users of the code recognize that it has opportunities for improvement. Lake Oswego also has a number of overlays that apply in addition to base zoning throughout the city. And sometimes those overlays conflict with the base zones. They have different standards for the same things, and they can be very confusing and difficult to navigate. And finally, there are some building code thresholds that can prevent people from building some of the middle housing types that are permitted but perhaps not as desirable because they're subject to commercial building code rather than residential building code. And so I'll go through just the areas that Evan lined out. So the code structure, we are recommending reorganization of the code based on the conversations we had with city staff as people who apply the code and as applicants who are trying to find information in the code. There's also an opportunity to combine a number of design standards to create a simplified menu of design requirements, not necessarily to change them, but they exist in a lot of different locations. And it would be easier for people to find them if they were in one place. And then our team also did an analysis of the overlays, design districts, base zoning, and found that there are at least 52 combination zones in the city when you apply all of these different regulations together and then sub areas within each area. So there's certainly an opportunity to consolidate some of those overlays and design districts and make them more streamlined to find and to apply. For housing, this is another variation of the theme. There are neighborhood overlays that have been adopted by various neighborhood associations and that are applied on top of underlying zoning and, again, can have some conflicts and be difficult to interpret and to apply. And some development design standards in our conversations with developers add regulation and complexity, but don't necessarily improve the outcome. So it doesn't necessarily result in a different or better product. It just creates another layer of difficulty. And I will say it's, I think, important to note that no one said we should just throw everything out. No one said we shouldn't have design standards or development standards. They appreciate the role of those standards in creating a unique Lake Oswego feel and community, but they did have some really constructive thoughts about ways that it could be streamlined and result in high-quality development while removing some of these complications. And finally, I noted that development standards for middle housing are the same as for single detached dwellings. And among the developers we spoke with, they mentioned that that does make it difficult to develop middle housing because of those standards being the same. Slide. Economic development, the sign code came up over and over again as a challenge for businesses, particularly, and for staff. Also, the use categories in the code are, for the most part, current, but they don't necessarily accommodate hybrid or evolving business concepts that are just being developed. And staff spends a lot of time trying to figure out where things should be categorized. There's also tenant improvements, and this isn't fault of the CDC but there are also a lot of unanticipated code requirements if someone's changing the use of a business or if they want to expand a business and maybe now it has to meet updated fire code requirements things like that things that tend to come as a surprise to people when they're doing tenant improvements and food carts and food cart pods were mentioned a couple of times as a potential opportunity to increase foot traffic downtown and bring in a different type of a client or families, younger people, that might not currently be coming down as much. But they're currently permitted only as part of temporary events. So that's something that came up in those conversations. Legislative compliance, you all know, again, there's been a lot of this happening. And it's generally around review procedures, standards, and then housing types. So there are a number of slightly distinct but not the same review procedures for housing applications. And then limited land use decisions, which basically don't allow any discretion, have been expanded to include subdivision plots, partition plots, and expansion of nonconforming uses. City staff is aware of this. They've been applying these. these new standards while we're updating the code. But those are things that will need to be codified. There's also been some rulemaking around middle housing. And so one that just was adopted at the end of August is around cottage clusters. They've increased the average square footage. It used to be 900 square feet footprint. Now it's 1,400 square feet in area. and also adopted rulemaking that minimum lot size and dimensions for middle housing types have to be the same as single detached. Under the previous regulations, there was some leeway to have larger minimum lot sizes to have slightly different standards. That's no longer the case. then housing types middle housing can now be attached or detached so a duplex could be two detached units or one or two attached units there's also provisions for bonus units for certain types of middle housing developments and then a new housing type that's come out of the recent legislation is single room occupancies so those are things we'll be looking for as we're going through the code audit And the timeline for this project is great because it allows us to reflect the rulemaking that's going on. And that won't be completed in some cases until January 2028. So we'll be able to incorporate those into these amendments and make sure that we're covering all of our bases.

Next slide.

So there were a number of items that came up in conversations that we feel are important for you all to be aware of. They're outside of the scope of this project. But the sign code, as I mentioned, came up a lot. The permitting and post-land use tracking process, people had a lot of really positive things to say about the planning staff and the land use process. But things could be improved on the back end, they're going through the development permitting process. People mentioned reviewing the system development charges. We understand that that will be happening when you do the transportation system plan update in a few years. And also, as I mentioned, food carts and food cart pods, which is kind of a different conversation than just economic development. So I'm going to hand this over to Karen to talk about the draft public involvement strategy.

She gave me this one. Before you is an at-a-glance chart of the different audiences and some plans, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the strategy first. Obviously, code audit isn't a very sexy topic when it comes to public engagement. Oh, that's an exciting one. It's not really a magnet for public engagement, particularly at the outset. like right now, where there aren't specific proposals. There's just an evaluation of the code. So the team has recommended doing the public engagement later after the code audit is underway, and there are very specific proposals and changes, and then go out to the public for that. There are different categories of public. Of course there's stakeholders and we know that the stakeholders have a very vested interest and we won't have trouble getting input from them and many of those interviews have already taken place. Neighborhood associations are both public and stakeholders as property owners and it's critical to have them involved. Normally there really isn't much public interest in code audits. But because of the cottage clusters and the foothills redevelopment project, clearly you've already seen some public interest from specific sets of folks. What is going to be absolutely critical is that we have clear and easy to access tools for those folks to weigh in and to get up to date information. Prior to actually having that information, we're going before the Neighborhood Association's chairs committee this month. Again, there's really no information to share but to really let them know how transparent we're going to be going forward and to have them in the loop now on what that plan is going to be. So the first three categories there are the stakeholder groups and the neighborhood associations that presentation is happening. And then later when we actually have some potential decision points for you to make, we will be going back to the neighborhood associations and giving them content, getting them to be able to invite their members directly to each of the neighborhood associations so that those folks can weigh in. There will be a large set of what I would consider more traditional tools. So for all of those people who are dying to weigh in now, and there's a lot of them, we're going to have a robust website, web pages with detailed information that they are going to want to just really get in and see the nitty gritty. and have some tool that allows them to weigh in when there is an opportunity. We know that there's a lot of things that are going to need to happen in code that there isn't much opportunity because of the state mandates. So we also want to be careful that we're not setting up expectation that people can weigh in on things that they really can't influence. For that reason, we're suggesting taking a very educational approach for people to really understand what some of these mandates are and what the city can influence and cannot. Those more traditional online robust tool with lots of information and two public meetings for those folks who are really eager to come in person will be promoted through media releases, social media, newsletter copy, flyers in public places, a lot of the traditional things. Also work sessions with the city commission WITH THE CITY COUNCIL WITH PLANNING COMMISSION AND WITH THE TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE. HOWEVER, CODE CHANGES INFLUENCE THE CHARACTER OF THE CITY AND AFFECT EVERYBODY. NOT JUST THOSE PEOPLE WHO ARE DYING TO GIVE INPUT TODAY BUT THE REST OF THE COMMUNITY. AND THEY AREN'T GOING TO BE VERY INTERESTED IN GOING THROUGH A MULTI-PAGE WEBSITE OF DETAILS. to understand. And so basically, anybody who is not coming to city council meetings now and is not going through detailed web pages, those are underrepresented audiences. You're not hearing from them. You'll hear loud and clear what a lot of folks think and want and need. But we need to reach out to those that aren't being heard now in a way that they can, that is relatable to them. We're not going to promote code audit, come give me a much. So I have some examples of how that might look. But one of the things the project team is recommending is more of what I call a quick and dirty survey tool that's particularly for mobile devices. And that's more of a visual and a caption that are relatable to people. They are not bureaucratic talk, not technicalities, but really where people can weigh in. But the tool itself is only as good as how we promote that tool. And there's only so many people who hang on the words of all the city newsletters, no matter how fabulous they are and all of that. And a lot of those in Lake Oswego and in many, many cities are busy families of child-rearing age. You're not seeing those in public hearings very often and in public meetings. Lower income residents. renters, people from ethnically diverse communities. We don't really hear from them, and we need to reach out in different ways. And that's one of the things that Veritas Collaboration specializes in. And to put it in a technical term, we'll call it intercept conversations. But what it really is is people talking to people. So while we want to have, while there's a need to have two public meetings for those folks who want to come to that And we're recommending that we use budget that would be for a third one to actually have face-to-face conversations with people that we bump into in casual settings. And we have a program that we initiate that I would kind of call following the breadcrumbs. And that's reaching out to regular folks in the community right now when we've already started doing that. in communities, in neighborhoods all around the city, just saying, hey, there's this code audit thing going on. I know it doesn't sound very interesting, but let me tell you, here's a couple of the things that it's going to do. Like, you know the ADU that was just built behind your house? And they're like, so we've had people saying, oh, wow, that is interesting. I want to weigh in on that. And so we already have a handful of people throughout the community that are saying, when it's time, reach out to us and we'll help you. And oftentimes, we get invited to, Oh, church coffee hours, PTA meetings, just casual things that's happening in the community. So on the next slide, I believe, oops, well, we can go to key messages. So also with that public talking in terms that they understand and care about, one is that there is the need for There's different data out there, but at least 2,000 new housing units over the 20 years. So for folks who really aren't in favor of middle housing or even more increased density, the data shows there is housing that is needed. And thoughtful and strategic planning now can help ensure that we maintain the unique qualities of the neighborhoods. while expanding opportunities. So that is where people can weigh in. The code amendment decisions that you make can have some influence on those things that are already mandated. So to help people understand that and have them weigh in in order to protect the character of the community that they value so much will be important. Also, on the educational component, middle housing is here to stay. I don't think this is the opportunity to let people say that we don't want to do that. It's going to happen. but we can shape it, city can shape it to some extent. So on the next slide, I think we just have, oh, it's awfully small, but this is kind of an example of specific changes that might come your way. And I hesitate to even put examples. These are just kind of made up to show a little bit of an example. And there's been a lot of discussion about the courtyards in the cottage clusters. This example doesn't talk about whether we're talking about easements or tracts, but having it just be as simple as a courtyard and cottage clusters can improve the appeal of this. And then once you have a proposal, like should we mandate tracts or should we let it be an easement or whatever, putting that in everyday terms and saying, we are thinking this, what do you think? And it's just a very simple, hate it, love it, think about it. ALSO WE ARE WANTING TO INCORPORATE SOME OF THE REZONING FOR HOUSING EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT PART OF THE CODE AUDIT PROJECT TO NOT OVER TAX THE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES. SO IN OURS WHEN THERE ARE VERY SPECIFIC PROPOSALS LIKE PERHAPS changing the zoning in certain underused commercial areas for mixed use can provide these benefits, what do you think? Just very, very casual. So they're not reading pages and pages about it, they're doing that. This isn't gonna give you qualitative facts and figures about how many people think this and that, but it'll give you a sense of what the community members think and feel that aren't weighing in in other ways, and also, Whether that input will be different than the input of the folks that are giving input in the traditional ways, what it does do is show the residents of your community that you care about their opinion. You're going above and beyond not just having a public hearing or a public meeting, but really want their input. It will expand that outreach and hopefully introduce a whole new group of people to the beginnings of civic engagement. So I don't know if you can see, but we're proposing a little card. It's funny. We were just talking in the last session about a postcard. So we also, in this intercept conversations, would just approach someone, hey, you know what? This is going on. And here's a QR code. In the past, we've had good luck with having people right there go, oh, let me scan it and see, and kind of walk through it. If they're not really interested, we'll just give them the card and go. But the terms, the expressions would be casual, colloquial, and friendly. in order to engage a whole new group of folks.

That's my update. Great. And we'll, as I mentioned, have time for questions if you want to get more into that. In terms of next steps, as Karen mentioned, we're meeting with the Neighborhood Chairs Coalition next Saturday. We'll be presenting to the Planning Commission on the 28th and then taking the inputs from those conversations into the final public involvement strategy. And so September kind of wraps up our initial task, this background review and initial review. And then, as Evan mentioned, we get into the nitty gritty of the code audit. And we will be coming back to you with some questions about how you'd like us to approach the action plan that we're putting together as we go through that process. And questions for you all. Really generally, do you have any questions about the initial findings of the background report and the review, and any comments or suggestions about what Karen described in terms of the public involvement strategy? OK.

Great, thank you all very much for the presentation. It's so nice to get to meet the two of you. Evan, thank you for bringing them in. This is a, you know, you did a nice job outlining because we have kind of several things going on here all in one. I can see how it might get a little confusing how to break it up between YOU KNOW, OUR REZONE PROJECT, THIS CODE AUDIT PROJECT, THESE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TYPE OPPORTUNITIES, AND THEN DIFFERENT PLANS THAT ARE INTERFACING WITH THE HOUSING PRODUCTION STRATEGY, THIS IS OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN, THEN WE HAVE OUR NEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY, THEN WE'RE GOING TO HEAR MORE IN OR ADOPT IN OCTOBER. AND THEN LEARNING ABOUT HOW WE WILL ENGAGE WITH THE COMMUNITY ON THAT, I REALLY APPRECIATE WHAT THE PHILOSOPHY OF YOUR FIRM, KAREN, AND WHAT YOU GUYS ARE GREAT AT, BECAUSE THAT IS THE BIG CHALLENGE, YOU KNOW, IS GETTING FORWARD, ESPECIALLY ON A TOPIC LIKE THIS, YOU KNOW. SO MY COLLEAGUES HAVE QUESTIONS, COMMENTS. COUNCILOR IMBOUB, WE WILL START WITH YOU.

THE ONLY I KNOW, THIS IS A BIG JOB, AND WE ARE WORKING, IF I LIKE, I look at this a little bit late. We are working on a grant, right? And the grant, and the problem I have is for, I don't know if I can, there's someone who disagree on our zoning and there's something going on. And people will most likely challenge this thing. Like when we finish, they are going to challenge it. There will be Luba appeal and stuff. So do you think that the timeline on February 28, like when it ends, the grant and the submission, do we like, there is a time? Because people will challenge. When they challenge it, what we are going to do? That was one of my question. And if you can respond, and my second question was, yeah.

I don't think you have to be concerned about land use. This isn't a land use issue that can be appealed to LUBA. This is going to change the law, the code, and that's not going to be affected by what's currently underway in LUBA.

Thank you. I'm just, I was worried about that.

And just like today, we had a legislative public hearing for the micro mobility devices. We would have the same thing when these code amendments are proposed in 2028. So people who are dissatisfied will have an opportunity to come and testify.

Testify. Okay. Good. So the other thing is just people like me, when we talk the language of overlay, which is even for me when, oh, this neighborhood have this overlay, this other one has. And I'm kind of lost because I'm not in construction. I don't know. And that's why I would like, if you were asking us what to do, to have concrete questions. Like say, do you want the overlay to be removed? And like those questions, those would be very helpful for a person like me because I'm a lay person on this.

Absolutely. When we come back to you, we'll have some concepts that we'll have developed and we'll want to get your input. Basically, how far do we go? Because there are a number of different ways that the city can pursue removing barriers. Some of them are mandates, but a lot of them aren't. So there are a lot of decision points that will be coming up that we'll be wanting to talk to you. And to your point, asking pretty specific questions about how we should proceed.

Other than that, thank you. I was very happy to read all of these, and yeah, thank you.

Well, similar to Counseling Group, I was saying there might be other categories, but it really would be helpful to understand what is kind of legally required and what is administrative, you know, kind of more like policy neutral, and then what is discretionary policy change. category but that would be because I mean some of this I know is it clean up and then some of it is we have no choice and then we're to really identify for the council with the actual decision points I would be kind of must may should kind of thing yeah absolutely uh councillor Afghan thank you mr mayor uh these are comments we don't have to debate them uh I

read a lot of overlays and I also saw in your presentation about hybrid. Let's be kind to the overlay. They were there for a reason and there are going to be issues coming up that we don't have a choice because of the new legislative. We have to cross those out black and white, but they were there for a reason and I if I look at some of the conversations I've had, they were there so the neighborhood character is preserved. And we know that there has been a lot of new construction to every neighborhood that has had overlays. And nobody came here and say, THIS OVERLAY CAUSED ME TO DO X, Y, AND Z. I KNOW COUNSELOR WEDLAND CAN BRING UP SOME EXAMPLES, BUT MY THINKING IS THAT LET'S BE KIND TO THE OVERLAYS BECAUSE OF A SPECIFIC REASON. ON THE HYBRID, I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THAT CONVERSATION. BUSINESSES IN HOMES, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO SEE A STOREFRONT ALL OF A SUDDEN IN A NEIGHBORHOOD SHOWING UP. AND I THINK THOSE ARE THE CONVERSATIONS THAT I'M SURE YOU WILL HAVE WITH GENERAL PUBLIC. I'm thinking school district, we need to talk with them because they're a school district and they're the large property owners also, and maybe also Chamber of Commerce. We're talking to the brokers who are in the real estate business, but Chamber of Commerce, from a business point of view, may have some ideas also. Thank you.

Councillor Afghan. Councillor Mantz, over to you.

Thank you for the presentation. If I'm not mistaken, we've gone through some iteration of this in the past. Obviously not to this degree and not with these issues, but what is the number one issue that you see in putting this together as far as our stakeholders are concerned.

I think the common theme is not that we should get rid of all the overlays or any of those things, but that it's just really, really, really hard to find the information you're looking for. And it's really hard to figure out how all of these different layers interact. And it's really easy to get things wrong. And so I think both on the city staff side and on the development community side, they want to do the right thing. It's just hard for them to find what that is. So I think that's the biggest one.

Okay. And the neighborhood overlays are not disappearing per se, or is that legislative?

We're not suggesting, certainly not at this point, and probably not ever, that they go away entirely. But you have situations where, for instance, a number of different overlays regulate the same thing, like the amount of hardscape on a property. But it's worded slightly differently, and the numbers are slightly different. There are opportunities, I think, to retain the intent behind these neighborhood overlays, but to simplify it, rather than having the same requirement STATED MULTIPLE DIFFERENT TIMES, JUST TO HAVE IT IN ONE PLACE. SO THAT'S WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR. YEAH. OKAY. LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO KIND OF CLEAN THEM UP WITHOUT WHILE CONTINUING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PURPOSE OF THE OVERLAY IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHICH IS TO PROTECT NEIGHBORHOOD CHARACTER.

AND IN NEIGHBORHOODS THAT HAVE NO OVERLAY, ARE ECLECTIC, have no sidewalks or sporadic sidewalks, how will that, how will they be impacted by any of the work that you're doing. Is that a part of it or not necessarily?

It could be. Some of what we're looking at are development standards that apply to all residential zones, for instance, setbacks, floor area ratios, things of that nature. So it could affect neighborhoods even without overlays. Things like sidewalks tend to be part of public works standards, things like that. We probably won't get to that too much.

OK, good.

But I think, you know, The code updates will affect the entire city. So that's a really important reason for Karen's approach to make sure that people who wouldn't normally care are aware that, you know, this is going to touch their lives in some way.

Perfect. Thank you so much. And thank you for all the good work. It's awesome.

Just one thing that followed up on something Councilman has mentioned. I noted in the report, one of the barriers listed was right-of-way dedications and infrastructure requirements, but we find those are very important to being able to develop safe infrastructure. So I just did not like that it was even listed as, and I don't know if that was

I think that the issue wasn't so much that they exist as that there are some areas of the Community Development Code that address the same requirements as public work standards or infrastructure codes. And there's some confusion that comes from that. Like the CDC includes stormwater, requirements, which are also in other documents and regulations. So it's less about the fact that people have to provide infrastructure. I agree that's critical. But more about it can be difficult to understand what rules apply when they are located in several different places.

OK, that makes good sense. Thank you for clarifying that. Councilwoman?

Well, I've been waiting for this project for a long time, I think almost forever. And I guess my overarching part is to keep Lake Oswego character while really simplifying the complexity. And I loved your reporting and your slides because I think you're Exactly right that we have so many things that have been developed over so many decades that They're good for the time and then somebody else had somewhat of the same idea and added it ten years later and then somewhat the same idea and So there's three or four things in there that say the same thing, but they're all different and so cleaning it all up is I think a huge challenge and I think it's it's going to make life for the person that is interacting with a project so much more efficient and so much better. So I'm super excited about that. I agree that our chapter 50 is very clunky and confusing. Now, to the experts in City Hall, it makes total sense. But the question is, how long, Evan, did it take you to master chapter 50? It took probably a while, right?

I'm not sure if I have. Oh, you have? Right, right. Yeah, you learn things new about it all the time.

Right. And I'm hoping, my hope for this whole project is that, while you still have to be a professional probably to read it, because I don't think the normal person can ever read City Code, regardless of what chapter we're reading. But the big picture is that it's... It helps our planners to become more efficient, and it helps our community members who are working with planning to be clear and objective. So that's my big thing. I think on the communication part, We've been dealing with this as a council for, gosh, for a long time. And I think we've been, I think the overarching message which you've probably been told is that We don't want this. We don't want that. And we say, well, unfortunately, we have a state mandate that says we have to. Well, you're the city council. Fix it. So in gathering your information, it's what our mayor said. What can we control versus the state law? And to have that super clear so that we are giving you good input instead of just complaining, which We don't complain like us. We just give advice. So that's kind of what we do. And then the big, I guess, question is, is there going to be like one author to start at the beginning and write a new chapter of 50? Or is it who's going to actually writing the code? Because I look at it sort of in biblical terms where there's 42 chapters, whatever, all different authors, whatever. I just want to make sure that it's a well-written device. So will you be writing the code and we prove it? Is it all on poor Evan's shoulders? I hope not. How is that going to work?

So there is a team of us. And so we will be working on the code updates. But the ultimate code revisions will be in one voice and consistent internally. We do have team members who are specifically focused on urban design. So they'll be looking at design standards and things of that nature and writing that part. But we're all going to be working very closely together. And the ultimate product will be internally consistent and thoroughly reviewed. But it would be a big job, I have to say, for one person to do the whole thing.

And then I don't know really how you're going to approve this as you go through in chunks. I mean, it's going to be an interesting process. And I just give my future colleagues just all kinds of accolades for getting to deal with this next year. But the big picture, I guess, is... I mean, if I could write the rule book on this, is that, I mean, getting the input from community members is always kind of our secret sauce in Lake Oswego. I mean, there's a lot of engaged people and whatever. But when it gets down to really defining what we want. It's the fine art of writing that we're going to have the need to keep this character. And I can't speak for the council, but I'll speak for me. I mean, it's like to the state. I mean, I'm like... They've shoved a lot of stuff down our throats. We actually took the deliberate process for three years to go through to do our own plan, which a lot of cities didn't, because we care so much about Lake Oswego and all the work before us of people really making the character of Lake Oswego the character of Lake Oswego. And we've got a great thing going here. And so we're trying to maintain that. Having the grace, as Councillor Afghan said, maybe for overlays, but maybe instead of 52, we have five. I don't know. Whatever. I'm not saying, but simplifying it. But get it so that we do have the ability to be like Oswego. And I don't want the cookie cutter approach. We've spent way too much time to not be the cookie cutter and just take the downstream force of Salem to us. We spent the time to fight back. And we're still willing to fight back. And I think councils are willing to put the time and the effort into making sure that we have as much as we can and then maybe some to maintain like Oswego.

So anyway, I think your outline of exactly what you're doing

IS SPOT ON FROM SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT PLANNING. SO ANYWAY. THANKS, COUNCILOR WINLAND.

I MEAN, IT'S A GOOD point here, thinking about some of the objectives and goals of this work. And we've just been talking about the overlays. So I use that as an example. So once upon a time, the community thought it's a great idea to do these overlays. But some of the feedback, as unique as the community is, that we have heard from people is like, well, we just have a few people building all the same houses. So it's like, well, is that what we intended with the overlay? Probably not. And because of the complications of the code, it blocks out people who could come build in the community because it's just too complicated. So you have folks who specialize. And this is not unique to LO. They specialize. They work in LO. They work in Westland. They work in .. They just know that code really well. And then they build what they build, which is kind of like the same thing. And they're good people, you know, and all that. It's not any shade on them. But it is worthwhile to maybe like at the time to say, well, what are our goals with these overlays? And then at some point in time, maybe now to look at, are we meeting those goals with the overlay? Or are they actually maybe working against us a little bit? Like if we want unique housing types, is that, are we getting unique designs? Or have we kind of, channeled this into, you know, kind of the one size fits all because that's kind of what we end up getting because it's so complicated. Like, well, I'm just, I'm not going to mess with it. I'm just going to build this thing. I know it works. It's LO code compliant and a chunk to chunk to chunk. So when we do this work, I think similarly, it is worth looking at what are our goals and objectives and how can we measure them. So that down the road, we'll go through the work of engaging with the community and making these revisions. But then down the road, a future council can look at this and say, OK, are these things working as intended? And some of this, again, because we have these different goals that we are trying to meet here. So we have our housing production strategy. Very quantifiable is in rezoning, we can rezone to provide x number. We could say this rezone would allow this x number of housing units. Great. And then we have a production strategy that sets some targets and whatnot. And that's just a piece of that overall strategy. And then when we look at these code, the code audit, are we trying to, do we have time metrics? I mean, we heard feedback, at least on the staff level, that actually they feel like the permitting process is pretty smooth. and that they are turning permits around. The biggest problem is just incomplete applications. So are we trying to reduce the number of incomplete applications by making the code simpler? Is that a reason for the incomplete? I don't know. It would just be good to set some of these metrics. So then down the road, we can say, hey, we spent Metro's great money, which is, you know, our money, our tax money, and it was a good exercise because we streamlined the code, but it also met these metrics that we were trying, you know, to gauge the work against. So that would be a helpful thing, I think, to kind of set that from the outside. What are our goals in regards to these different um parts of this overall audit and when are we going to how can we measure them and some of it not all everything is quantifiable but to the best of our ability i think that would be helpful in general because we all like accountability in this work so we're not just doing it because it was a thing to do and we see this like in housing production right nationwide housing shortage what's everyone doing oh well we're going to streamline the code that's great because it's like a thing that everyone can do but is it actually producing more housing I mean, it's not bad. Having streamlined code is a great thing. We all agree with that. But then what is actually going to produce? And a lot of that's outside of our control, which is actually such a big question. That's why everyone just goes to these little things. Oh, well, let's do away with this. Oh, let's do away with public input. But those are not really the things that are standing in the way of housing. And then, especially with regards to public input, it's just undercutting people's faith in government. And I think it has the opposite effect. And people find other ways to stand against it instead of bringing people along and understand how these can be really positive changes for the community. So it's a lot of challenges. But I think that we can, I mean, we always try to, ALWAYS TRY TO VALIDATE THE FAITH PEOPLE HAVE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROCESS BY DEMONSTRATING THAT TRUST BY BEING ACCOUNTABLE TO THE THINGS THAT WE'RE DOING. SO THIS IS A GREAT PROJECT, COMPLICATED, AND I THINK IF WE CAN SET THOSE GOALS AND DESIRED OUTCOMES AND THEN A TIMELINE AT WHICH TO KIND OF LOOK AND REVIEW THEM, IT WOULD BE GREAT. AND EVEN LOOKING BACK ON SOME THINGS WE'VE DONE BEFORE, HAVE THESE BEEN EFFECTIVE? involving, I guess I'm curious, how this work on economic development, how will that, this is kind of code-related stuff, and tying it into then our upcoming economic development work plan a little bit? Does that kind of fit in there?

That's our understanding. So we're focused on the code piece. There's a lot of other components, like the sign code, like permitting, building permits that are going to be outside of scope. But we're going to do what we can to make sure, for instance, the desired business types that people would like to see, that those are uses that are permitted in the commercial zones, things of that nature. And if there is a certain kind of tenant improvement that's triggering land use review frequently, maybe we want to look at changing THRESHOLDS OR SOMETHING OF THAT NATURE. WE HAVEN'T GOTTEN TOO DEEP INTO THAT YET BUT THAT WILL BE PART OF OUR NEXT PASS.

YOU MENTIONED THERE'S JUST TYPES OF BUSINESSES THAT AREN'T FOUND IN THE USE TABLE.

There are. And there's some flexibility for staff to interpret or the director to interpret. But there are also just emerging business models or businesses that include two types of uses that are a struggle to define. And that goes from the use all the way through SDC charges. What are we classifying this for? System development charges, things like that.

I think we have some zones, too, that really restrict the type of business. And it's not really logical because it's supposed to, like, for instance, a zone that's supposed to be less intense, but it allows the more intense. It doesn't allow the less intense. I don't know who came up with the list, but there's some of that.

That's nice.

Well, we found that even downtown. It wasn't you? No. It was not you. Well, we found that downtown at Lakeview Village. I mean, we said, well, it's going to be this retail center. Then, of course, they kept coming over the years and saying, well, we can't find these kind of tenants. And I think at one point we just said, yeah, just, I mean, whoever you can put in there, just like put them in there.

So do you have future modeling that you're working off of for commercial development? I mean, in the sense of, I mean, it used to be kind of a model of saying, OK, you have to have this much retail, this many da-da-da-da-da-da. I think we need guidance as a city to say, hey, we need flexible code to take us into the future because there's just not, when was the last time that a retail store started? I mean, we're hoping that we have the retail stores and they're gonna stay in business, I mean, and survive. But I don't know, I guess from your expertise in suggesting the types of services flexibility, I guess, in our zoning to make sure that we attract as many businesses we can that would fit the right formula of what's to come. So if that makes sense.

We do have a marketing specialist on the team who's been doing a lot of work in Lake Oswego, and so we're working with her to identify, you know, what's kind of the sweet spot for making sure that you're activating the public realm and all the things that the code is trying to do. but also allowing some flexibility for perhaps new types of businesses. I think the brick and mortar business world has changed quite a bit in the last several years.

I mean, I know we need a ton more hair salons, face Botox. We need all the things.

Specialized clothing stores.

Well, yeah. But I mean, I'm saying we've almost become over-inundated with exercise studios. I mean, they're great because the parking lots are full. but it's just trying to figure that part out for us.

So yeah, we did, and I didn't mention that, but we do have a marketing specialist on the team who's very familiar with the Lake Oswego market as well.

Well, so to guide this work, we're going to put together this ad hoc technical advisory, this TAC, so we have a resolution.

That's the next thing on the, last thing to, last request, unless anybody else wants to speak about the project, but yes. We're requesting that you approve resolution 2652 to form an ad hoc code audit technical advisory committee. And at the next council probably will be on the consent agenda to assign the members.

Yes. So we're going to work on that.

We're going to work on that.

I got ideas. Evan, I did want to ask, because as I was mentioning before, it's great we have, I think one of the billets on the TAC is for a builder with experience, which of course makes sense, but it might be good to get someone who doesn't, who has been kind of, you know, coded out of LO because of, you know, the gospel according to heaven. And maybe someone familiar, just to get that perspective, or someone who works in a different, you know, because we're just going to get, you know, there's an element of this that's a little protectionist, too. So I think we've got to be careful. Yeah, put it out. I don't know.

Yes, we should get together and discuss.

Maybe there's enough flexibility on there for us to make sure we get the right voices.

Yeah, we can add other members. Right now, the list is kind of small. Yes, we can do that.

Just don't make it too big that it's ineffective.

Do you want a motion, Mayor? Yes, that's what we're trying to prevent.

Approve Resolution 2652 to form an ad hoc code audit technical advisory committee.

I second. Okay, well motion made by okay councillor man's and seconded by councillor Afghan. Is there any further discussion on the tech? No, okay all those in favor say aye aye Opposed motion passes 7-0. All right, Evan Lee Karen. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate you so much Thank you.

Good luck May the force be with you Well tonight is a notable night

because and it's a sad night in a way um but a night of gratitude because this is lynn's last meeting with the council it is not an easy job to come in and serve in a temporary position in the city there's there's limitations you know on it but it's a very important job and lynn came into um lo well of course lynn has been in lo it's been kind of very special to have a long time neighbor like Lynn, someone who's been so engaged at a statewide level, at a regional level, and a local level for so many years, serve in this really critical role and give back to the community in this way. And coming at a challenging time. It is never easy to come into any organization that's in the middle of a transition at a time where many people are learning of that transition right at that moment and come in as the leader when people know that it's time limited too. We all know that those dynamics can be very challenging. But Lynn, definitely you did not operate like someone who was only going to be here for six months. You really shepherded the organization through this time of change. You brought in so many new ideas, new energy. You did so much community engagement out meeting with neighbors. MEETING WITH FOLKS OF ALL TYPES IN THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY, DEALING WITH THESE KIND OF DAY-TO-DAY ISSUES OF PEOPLE, I MEAN, REALLY WANTED YOU TO BE HERE A LONG TIME. WE HEARD SO MUCH GOOD FEEDBACK FROM FOLKS ON YOU BEING, YOU'RE SO SOLUTIONS ORIENTED TO THE PROBLEM, SO PROACTIVE. YOU PROVIDED ME JUST INDIVIDUALLY SO MUCH SUPPORT ON THE REGIONAL THINGS THAT I DO THAT I HONESTLY NEVER HAD IN MY TIME AS MAYOR. SO IT WAS SO GREAT. I FELT LIKE I HAD THE BIGGEST EXPERT IN MY YEAR AT ALL TIMES. And so I'm really going to miss working with you, but just wanted to extend on behalf of the community our most sincere gratitude to all the energy, all the care and passion you brought with you to this job. You've touched this organization in a special way and really prepared us for this next transition with Denzel coming in. You set everyone up here for success, and I just can't thank you enough.

honor to come back but it is also humbling when you all are looking at a code audit on things that i passed 20 plus years ago you made these overlays apologies for all the overlays as you we know everybody is special everybody is unique um It has been an honor. I couldn't have done it without your leadership. You guys were open and always there and available. And I really appreciate that. And the staff were just amazing. Thank you to all of you who are still here. waiting um and it is it has been refreshing to see the level of dedication inside the agency to make the city the amazingness that it is and why we all want to stay here for so long so thank you keep doing the good work i will be cheering from the sidelines we'll serve on any committee in the future um and uh really look forward to this next phase of like Oswego and the shepherding that you're all, whether you're here for three, four months or whether you're back out in the community or you're on council, I know that there will be shepherding going on to make sure that the big things that y'all started get done. So thank you. Thank you for your, your leadership.

Colleagues? OK. I know we're all eager to go and celebrate right after the meeting.

But first, we have an executive session.

I'm sure all these people are still hanging out. So Erica, would you like to read us into executive session, please?

The Lake Oswego City Council will now meet in executive session under ORAS 192.660-2-D to conduct deliberations with persons designated to carry on labor negotiations in subsection F to consider information or records that are exempt by law from public inspection. Pursuant to ORAS 192.660-4, representatives of the news media are excluded from this executive session. No final decisions will be made. And at the end of this session, we will adjourn the meeting.

Thank you very much. We are going to conduct the executive session in the side room. We will, as Erica mentioned, this will conclude the broadcast portion of the meeting, but we are going to recess and then we'll reconvene in the side room.