City Council - Regular Meeting

May we have a roll call, please? Councelor Cornwell, present. Councelor Bravo, present. Councelor Shaw, here. Councelor Wilk, here. Councelor Kentu, here. Councelor Vhova, present. Mayor Lteran, here. Thank you. Um, we have some announcements. We do. All right. What can you do, please?

We're hoping that um everybody who can and is willing will join us this Friday at 9:30 for the Mill Creek Community Center and Settle Meyer Park Improvement Groundbreaking. That's this Friday, the 13th at 9:30 a.m. And then on Saturday, Valentine's Day, uh, movie and popcorn at the Bun Theater and they're showing Dirty Dancing. And the pastor found that fun. I like that. Um, uh, let's see. February 19th at 10:00 a.m. they're doing an adult recreation trip to the Albany Carousel Museum. Um it's $25 per person. You can see the city's website for more information and to sign up for that. And then uh Monday, February 16th is President's Day and so the city hall and library will be closed, but transit will be open for holiday hours, which is 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m.

Great. Thank you. Um, we have a special presentation this evening and I would like to invite Pastor Steve to come up to uh tell us about Is that full of money? Pastor your golden humber is in there. I sit here and please Okay. Wow. Well, it's my privilege to be here tonight to represent the French Prairie Quanis Club. Last month, we held our 10th annual Woodburn Chili Cookoff.

In the last 10 years, that event has raised now $18,500 for community events or organizations like the Wear Food Bank, LA Inc., the Oregon Battle of the Books with the Supplying books to the kids in schools. um ray of hope thrift store the the um school leaison fund that they have through the school district. So among the other things that we help support it's always a all you can eat chili lunch and but the fun part of it is a chili competition. This year we had nine teams competing and uh we had two from the fire district, we had one from the school district, we had some students from the school, we had the Rotary Club, forget them, a couple Kuanas clubs were represented and uh a couple other groups. Of course, I think you know one of the things we do, we raise money from sponsors. We had thousand dollars in sponsors this year. Great sponsors. We raised money at the door, almost $1,000 there, too. But we also have people that have to vote for the chili. So we want people to sample every chili and it's kind of like not like Woodburn elections but like Chicago elections. We want them vote vote early and often and every dollar they cast is a vote. And so we also had five judges. Our esteemed mayor was part of our team. our uh city manage manager Scott Derekson, our assistant city attorney Chris Kilmer, as well as the love Santa President Bonito Poente and the president of the senior states board Alan Lindberg. So we had those five judges, they were sequestered in silence or secret where they tested it all and they're the ones who determined the judge's choice. The people determined the people's choice and this year we're excited to say that there was a tie for the judge's choice, the top choice. It was between the brother team of Waqin and Juan Larios, the sons of

Superintendent Larios and the Chief of Police Jason Milikin. The tie breaker unfortunately was the people's choice award and that went to the brothers. So they won out. So, but the chief almost won that. But the fun part of this competition has always been the first responder challenge, police versus fire. I have here a very heavy traveling trophy that the chief did not see much of last year because we had some issues with the names. But it goes to the the winner of the fire versus police. There are this is the 10th year before this year. Fire unfortunately had won five times. Police had won four, but the chief won last year and we are glad to be able to report that he won it for the second time in a row. Even So again, this year's event raised over $2,300. As I said, bringing our total to $18,500. So it's my privilege to present this to Chief Jason Milikin. If you'd come forward,

your back here, Chief, this is All right, we'll do it. We'll do it. All right. You're the key till next year. Oh, no. It's it's it'll stay. Okay. Thank you. And the 11th annual will be next year. It's on January 23rd, 2027. So, mark your calendars. I think the city each office should have each team. We should have some chili some skin in the game. All right. Thank you. Steve, before you leave, I want to give you a special thank you for you taking this on through the the Kuanas

and being so positive about it. I every time I saw you'd mention it out mentioned to the chamber and other events. Um it's become a big event a lot because of of your help and support of this moving to the estates this year. We had record attendance almost 200 people there. Wow. Which was great. And so we plan to stay there and the foodies club phenomenal helped us as well. So it was a allaround effort. If anyone doesn't know, Pastor Steve is is the pastor of Hood Church. And so now it's kind of a sideshow push and chili. Sideshow, I guess. So no, thank you so much for all your help and work on this and for this. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

So we do not have any appointments. Uh we do not have any community government organizations. We do have a proclamation and a presentation but um Mr. Tu who is uh president of the Oregon Vietnamese uh organization is going to be a little late. Um he had a meeting at Qualitin first and so I told him when he got here then uh would read the proclamation and let him have a few words. So I am going to table that. So we will move on to our presentations. North Marian Tourism Collaborative. We have a whole team that's going to All right. Well, in honor of the mayor, this should only take about 45 minutes to an hour.

Oh, boy. Uh, well, good evening. Is that all this? Okay. Um, I'll move and you can take the seat.

I'm Jamie Jon. I'm the economic development director um for the city of Woodburn. Good evening, mayor, city councilors. Um I'm so thrilled to be able to share information on the North Marian Tourism Collaborative. When I started this job just over 10 years ago now, I know it's crazy. Um one of the directives that Scott had put forth as as it came from the council was that we really wanted to focus on some tourism in this in the city. Um, so we looked at what we had as far as our assets go. And we all know that we have amazing food pallets and of course we have the outlets and a number of different things, but a lot of our tourism assets really are outside of the city. Some of our bestkept secrets in this region are outside of our city as well as inside of our city. So we started reaching out to all of our neighboring communities, nine of them in total, which Jamie will go over with you in a second. and we started building on that and built a regional approach to not only tourism but economic development as a whole. We've really been fostering that with our uh neighboring communities. So we had Marisella on board and she kind of started the whole endeavor with this North Marian Regional Tourism Plan and uh it's just turned into an amazing organization with an amazing board of directors and our staff still continues to support that. Jamie and Kayla really do the bulk of the work with that. But I'm going to turn that over to Miss Jamie Z and Kayla Maxwell to share with the board and let you guys know what we're doing for tourism in the city of Woodburn. Now,

thank you, Jenny.

Hello. Uh, good evening, mayor. Good evening, counselors. Thanks for giving us some time tonight. Um, so as you can see, we're going to be talking about North Marian to tourism and the road map to 2040. Uh, next slide. Cool. Um, so just some background. Jamie gave a beautiful intro. Um, but the North Marian Tourism Collaborative represents local communities, businesses, and visitor destinations within the North Marian region. Um, and this group was established in 2019 in response to a shared interest from all of you among other local jurisdictions and stakeholders to strengthen tourism promotion and coordination across the region. Prior to the formation of the collaborative, tourism marketing efforts were largely conducted independently by individual cities, chambers, businesses, which really limits the regional visibility and reduces the overall effectiveness of those promotional activities, you know, on a larger scope to the nation. Um recognizing this opportunity to leverage our shared resources and instead present a unified regional identity, all the participating communities uh work together to create this approach to destination marketing and management. The collaborative was formed to serve as the destination management organization or DMO uh with the primary purpose of driving economic activity through increased visitor awareness, coordinated branding, event promotion and regional marketing initiatives. By pulling our funding uh sources like transient lodging, tax revenue and other sources, member jurisdictions can support professional marketing services, regional campaigns, website development, and visitor information efforts that would be difficult to sustain independently. Since its formation, this group has focused on promoting North Marian County as a destination for overnight stays,

day trips, agurism events, and recreational activities. They support our local businesses, our restaurants, our lodging providers, our wineries, our event venues, and it also generates general economic activity for participating communities. And just some statistics on the Wamut Valley, we're in a beautiful region. In 2024, in the Wamut Valley alone, $2.57 billion was spent on direct travel spending. S this sustains over 23,000 jobs in the tourism sector alone. This created $107 million in state and local taxes, including income tax, gas tax, rental car tax, and transient lodging tax. And just another fun stat, for every $100 spent by visitors in the Wamtt Valley, $30 goes directly back to locals and employee earnings. And all of those statistics are provided by Travel Oregon, the state's uh travel agency. Slide. So, where are we today? Um, today the collaborative is an independent 501c6 destination management organization as of April 20 2024. We've accomplished a multitude of successful projects that you can see on the screen. Uh, many of which we're still supporting today. We have a mobile visitor center kiosk that you may have seen around. It travels across the county, provides visitor information at our seasonal events. We maintain multiple social media platforms with a professional social media agency and a tourism information website encou encouraging people to explore. We continue to support the tourism industry by inviting local businesses and tourism oper operators in North Marian to quarterly networking events with prominent speakers who can bring resources and assistance to our business owners. And finally, our staff also provides Placer AI analytics to any

interested business. This is super meaningful for business owners. It provides critical marketing information. It includes visitation data, telling a business or an events manager where their customer base is located, how many visitors come to their business, what are their best hours, the days for their business, demographics of their customer base, all of this information that a local business owner would really not have access to otherwise. Um, and this is supported by the city of Woodburn, which is wonderful. Um, we also continue to create marketing campaigns and advertise across the region, the state, and the country in various print and digital publications promoting North Marion. So, just some of the structure. Um, in recent years, the collaborative has continued to evolve to improve our governance, our transparency, and our sustainability. Member jurisdictions have worked together to formalize roles, responsibility, financial commitments through an intergovernmental agreement. This structure ensures consistent oversight, accountability, and compliance with applicable funding and reporting requirements. Through continued regional cooperation, the NMTC supports economic development objectives, enhances our visibility, and strengthens the region's ability to compete for visitors within the broader WAMIT Valley and statewide tourism market. And with that, I'll turn it over to John, the vice chair for the North Marian Tourism Collaborative Board.

Am I on? Yeah. Okay.

So, uh, my name is John Zubris. I'm the executive director of the Woodburn Area Chamber, but I'm also the vice chair on the uh North Marian Tourism Collaborative Board. Through funding support from Marian County, uh we recently worked on a professional tourism and creative consultants uh to create a destination strategy, operational funding strategy, a marketing plan, and branding guidelines. The destination strategy is an all-encompassing plan to strengthen attractions, help differentiate North Marion from other destinations, and increase visitation, all while growing the collaborative's organizational capacity to achieve these goals. The strategy begins with a vision narrative. The narrative is meant to be read as if you're standing here in North Marion in 2040, and it represents what local leaders and members of the tourism ecosystem would like to see accomplished by the collaborative. So it reads as such. In 2040, North Marian is known for its delicious food and expansive fields, reflections of this region's diverse and enduring culture. North Marian is a little world tour between Salem and Portland, where international cultures and Oregon's rich history are woven throughout our small, charming, and wellpreserved downtowns. The seven key focus areas listed here all have extended narratives as well to highlight the main goals and outcomes that the tourism ecosystem of North Marion would like the collaborative to accomplish. Next slide. We move from the vision of success statement into the strategic impact areas. These four areas serve as the framework for the destination strategy and guide how MTC prioritizes its work. Impact area A, it focuses on building the collaborative organizational capacity, growing financial resources and staffing so we can fully implement the strategy.

We'll expand on this further when we discuss the operational funding plan. Impact area B is centered on strengthening relationships across the North Maran Marian tour tourism ecosystem. Impact area C is delivered through the marketing plan. The goal is to increase awareness, drive year-round visitation, and position North Marion as a unified destination. Impact area D focuses on experiences, enhancing what already exists and diversifying the types of experiences available for both visitors and residents. Together, these impact areas create a long-term adaptable roadmap that will guide NMTC's decisions and investments for decades to come. And the next slide, please. Alongside the destination strategy, the tourism consulted team created a five-year operational funding strategy for us for the NMTC. Many designation organizations rely on tourism lodging tax revenue. As a new nonprofit, NMTC does not currently receive direct TLT support in the name of the organization. While that may be a future opportunity, our immediate focus is building sustainable funding as we establish organizations legitimacy and increase our capacity. The funding plan is built on the idea of diversifying revenue so the collaborative can function as a stable central hub for the region and fully implement the destination strategy. Of these key strategies include launching an annual partnership model for businesses and nonprofits and securing participation and funding commitments from all nine municipalities and Marian County through cooperative agreement agreements. We also will introduce partnership marketing opportunities allow members to amplify their messaging through NMTC's channels

while helping offset the marketing costs. Grants will remain part of our funding mix, but we will be strategic and pursue those to that directly support the destination strategy. One early success of this approach is our industry ambassador model. Bowman's Farms and Gardens piloted a 25% contribution within the hidden fees that you pay when you buy a ticket. So, they added 25 cents and they committed to collecting that and then uh passing that on to the collaborative. It's a unique way for these uh our tourism partners, especially the large uh number tourism partners to help support our tourism efforts and really not take any money away from from from what they're doing. And so their event is actually helping us and and we can we benefited from the visitor activity and we didn't impact Bowman's revenue and that helps us to reinvest in there. So together, these strategies position us for long-term financial stability while keeping our focus on delivering value to our partners and the region. Next slide, please. We also work with the consultants to identify optimistic yet attainable financial goals by July of 2028. Our goals include having a fiscal budget of at least $250,000 going into fiscal year 2029, having all businesses and organizations that actively participate in the collaborative, contributing annually to NMTC, and lastly, that all nine local municipalities in Marian County are financially contributing to those efforts.

Good evening, Mayor Lon and city council members. My name is Sam Koff. I am the marketing manager at Bowman Farms and Garden and also the chair of the NMTC. At this time, the NMTC marketing committee worked in tandem with a creative consulting firm to create this marketing plan which has the objective of North Marion becoming known as a unified destination and having increased awareness and visitation. The plan is categorized by four key strategies which are stated as outcomes. Strategy one is that North Marian is positioned and perceived as a welcoming, vibrant, culturally diverse, multi-experienced agurism destination. We will work to have all the necessary marketing assets, channels, and tools needed to effectively promote the region as a destination. and we aim to have visitors who are inspired to visit North Marian year round. Lastly, our goal is to have strong partnerships and a tourism network that can provide multiple outlets to tell North Marian's story. The plan identifies three target audiences which will guide our marketing efforts, including urban explorers, festival and culture seekers, and garden and nature enthusiasts. Next slide, please. Some examples of actions that NMTC will be pursuing in accordance to the plan include creating a master marketing program calendar, enhancing the existing photo library, designing an illustrated map of the region, creating a consumer e newswsletter, and running marketing campaigns through both print and digital marketing. As you can see, the marketing

plan identifies a multitude of tangible tools that NMTC will look to create. One project that we have already begun on is the creation of an illustrated map. We are working on a print and digital map highlighting all 10 communities and key experiences within each. This will be distributed to top destinations across North Marion to display in visitor-facing areas. as well as a rack card at key locations across the state and on and on digital platforms. While the plant focuses on producing these outputs, we are now adding the measurement layer to track their impact using Placer AI which NMTC has access to through the inind donation of the city Woodburn. Thank you very much by the way. We will monitor visitation, lodging, and visitor spending as well as event attendances. This will allow us to produce an annual marketing impact report for our partners, municipalities, and Marian County, ensuring that the tools we create are delivering measurable value for our to the region. Next slide, please.

I also just want to highlight on the previous slide, sorry, Sam. Um, for fun, I don't know who knows. Did you know you can climb a tree in Silver Falls State Park? And the member that owns this business is on our current board. So, I think these exciting recreational experiences a lot of people that live in this county don't even know is an asset that we have. So, all of the pictures that you're seeing in these slides are all various assets we have throughout the county.

Yeah. And actually one and not to divert too much, but we always look at the whole strategy is twopronged. We we want to bring people to North Marian but also educate people who live in North Marian about other places they can visit within North Marion. So okay uh moving into our branding guidelines. I want to highlight our positioning statement for the region. This is an internal strategic tool that defines how the North Marian brand is different from other destinations and how we want the region to be perceived by our target audiences. On the slide, you'll see the public condensed version of the positioning statement. The full version exists internally and you're welcome to review it later if you'd like. There's a wonderful stretch between Portland and Salem where flowers, forests, and farms come alive all year round, and 10 close-knit communities team with festivals, events, and people from every background and livelihood you can imagine. So, come visit and see why North Marian is always so colorful. Here is one of the uh one iteration of our new logo with the always colorful tagline incorporated. As you have seen throughout the presentation, we have primary color palette that is full of vibrant and warm spirit. The colors in combination with the logo and tagline differentiate North Marion as a region and ensure a consistent and eye-catching presence. Lastly, next slide, please. Lastly, we can see we received 10 illustrations that re represent the region. These images draw on a painted

style that reflects the handpainted farm stand signage in North Maran that we see all over. They celebrate natural beauty and feature actual produce and iconic local items that feel handcrafted and genuine. This highlights both the abundance and welcoming spirit of the region. We will be utilizing the branding guidelines to transform our presence and reinvent North Marian. Additionally, we'll be creating a marketing toolkit for the businesses and municipalities in the region to start utilizing and identifying the area as one unified destination. We are so excited for the tourism ecosystem of North Marion to come together under one name, one region that is inclusive of our 10 communities. Thank you so much for your time today and for giving us the opportunity to present to you. We are grateful for and look forward to continuing our working relationship with the city of work Woodburn. Thank you. Muchas gracias.

Nice. questions from the council.

No, I'll just thank you guys for your work. Um, my husband and I have a little side business that partially depends on tourism in the area and I can vouch for I get comments that people are either going to Bowman's or Wood and Shoe and your guys' work helps tremendously. So, thank you. You guys do a lot to bring the 10 communities together. I've seen it over the last few years and it really is good. Obviously, Woodburn is is is one of the bigger communities, but being able to reach out to Donald and Aurora, this is great. So, no, thank you. Like, council,

I'd like to also thank you for the support that you as have given us uh to to incubate the whole NMTC. I was very visionary. So, I hear the monks are trying to sell off Aqua River. Any chance you guys can pick that up? And I also hear the monks were mentioned on NPR. That's pretty sick. Uh, pretty cool. Powerball ticket.

Um, yeah, we'll we'll schedule a meeting. Um, I also just want to highlight though, I want to uh pay a tribute to some of our board members as well. I realized we forgot to kind of mention who's on our board. Um so currently participating on our board of directors are representatives from the city of Hubard, the city of Donald, the city of Mount Angel, Marian County. Um our regional destination marketing organization. Um each region in Oregon has a DMO that resents represents them. Um so for the Wamut Valley Visitors Association, we have a representative from them. Um, and then private businesses, the tree climbing business I mentioned, Portland Rose Balloons out of Aurora, Powerland Heritage Park out of Brooks, Bowman's Farm and Garden out of Jervis, Wooden Shoe Tullet Farm out of Woodburn. Um, the Five Oaks Farm out of St. Paul, lay Petite Beastro out of Hubard, Silverton Chamber, and the Woodburn Chamber. So, as you can see, we really are building on this regional collaboration. And like Sam said, that is an ode to all of your interests and your vision and your ingenuity in thinking of how much more powerful this group can be if we all just get together. So we really appreciate it.

For sure. Keep up the great work. Yeah. Could I add just one comment? Well, two. One is I just kind of know I think there's some brains behind this outfit and it has really grown a lot and Woodburn's growing. We have a lot of newer community members. We have a lot of folks that have lived here for many years and have never been to the Powerland Antique Museums. I mean, so there's a lot of promotion out there, but I want to call out Jamie Junk because I know she has spent a lot of time on on talking this up and and giving it some legs and really making it a reality. So, thanks, Jim.

Can I make a comment about tourism in general? you know, when we as a as a community, you know, we want to make this a great place to live and work. And so the local tourism component really can't be overlooked. You just you want people to come from out of the area and bring their money. That's that's a great bo for the economy. We've talked at length over the past about that. But as we bring new employers and new people to the area, talking to our current residents and the people that are local and helping it become a fun place to be, there's a lot to do. And that really helps us recruit people that want to live here as well.

The tourism is not just about bringing other people. It's about making it our area a great place to live and work. Sure. And it's also straddling that balance between getting too many people here and ruining the quality of life of local communities. So, you always have to balance make sure you walk that balance. Um, I've seen way too many places like in the Caribbean where cruise ships showed up and just totally ruined the whole vibe and feel because, you know, suddenly a little town that have 2,000 people have 5,000 people descending on them from a cruise ship. That's that's not okay either. Good point. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thanks, So, next we have a legislative update committee or

well, we don't have uh Zach here this evening, our lobbyist. He's busy working, I think, in the legislature tonight. But I will say that there are some legislative activities underway. In fact, um the staff and I and the mayor and councelor Wilk um are planning to visit the capitol tomorrow. Uh we have a couple meetings and then the mayor and councelor Woke will take our two spots in testifying in favor of the city's um housing bill. Um there's other legislation that we're following too. There's been some proposed uh legislation that would address the fault camera system data and data security. And of course, Woodburn is interested in seeing what the legislature may or may not do with that given the controversy and the work that we've done around the camera system license plate reader program in Woodburn. So, we're keeping an eye on that. I will have Zach here for a more robust conversation, but I think it's fast and furious right now in the capital. Um, I've talked to a couple lobbyists uh today, Zach, and then also some friends of mine that I've known through the profession. They're all working tonight. So, um, so we'll we'll we'll get more about probably what happened when we see Zach next time.

Okay. Thank you. Next up, we don't have any I don't have any communication uh going into business from the public. This allows public to do items for consideration that's not already scheduled on the agenda. If anyone would like to come up, I'll give them a mic for speak for three minutes. Not seeing anyone rushing up. Then we'll move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda is items that uh are considered routine and may be adopted by one motion. Any item may be removed for discussion at the request of city councelor. So I'd like our city recorder to please read the items allowed that are on the consent agenda.

The items on the consent agenda are as follows. Woodburn City Council minutes of January 26, 2026. Municipal judge employment agreement. Authorization of a lot consolidation and grading of a public utility easement PUE related to the Mill Creek Community Center project. Liquor license application for 99 Petroleum LLC. Liquor license application for Woodburn Woodburn Petroleum LLC. liquor license application for L TE Tacos LLC and new development activity January 2026.

Thank you. Does anyone care to pull anything off of the uh consent agenda? I don't want to pull anything off, but I do want to make a comment on the uh Judge White House uh who was here at our last meeting and gave a very uh good presentation on on his work here in the city and and his dedication to to us. I followed up with a a thank you to him and showed our appreciation support for it, but also gave him an opportunity to a question that I forgot to ask him was if we had any uh ordinances or or laws that he thought might not be might need some um uptake or or something or any new laws that that uh he had any input on. Actually, he said no on all of them. that that that we were in good shape and uh all was well. So, good to know. So, with that, I would uh entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented.

Mr. Mayor, I would uh make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Mr. Mayor,

um pardon the interruption. I do want to make a note on um the municipal uh judge employment agreement. Um there is a typo um on page nine of the agreement related to the compensation amount and I just want to make sure that council is briefed on um what that amount is as part of your approval process this evening. So um it is listed in the agreement. Um it's spelled out as $125 per hour, but it is $150 an hour which is noted um you know in number format. So, the $150 amount is the correct amount and that will be um be updated in the agreement as part of your approval this evening.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. So, with that uh amendment renew my motion. Second. Then uh all in favor signify with an I. I motion passes. Thank you. Um, moving on then, I do not have any table business. We do not have a public hearing. So, we'll move on to approval of the guaranteed maximum price amendment for the Woodbury Community Center project. So, a small little item that's going on south of us here soon. Yeah. Little contract we're asking you to approve. Um,

well, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Uh, you know, it's been long time in the making. um probably 25 years if you go back to kind of the start of the city's effort to come up with a concept and even fund a community center project here in in Woodburn. I think uh we had a couple of unsuccessful bond measures in the early 2000s, probably 200 and 2001 if I remember correctly. Then we uh regrouped and in 2007 undertook a feasibility community or a community center feasibility study that uh wrapped up in early 200 state in 2008 right before the great recession hit. And so we had this great plan to move forward with but the economics of Woodburn and you know the state and and the nation actually changed rather dramatically. So that plan didn't move forward for quite a while. Um, we had some new life injected into it uh during the 2017 legislative se uh session. Representative Teresa Alonzo Leon advocated pretty strongly for the award of a million dollars in uh state lottery bond funds which is funded by lottery revenues that really kicked off the redesign you know work for this particular project. And then we received another um significant much more significant award in during the 2021 session that allocated $15 million to the city of Woodburn specifically for this project and that was again a a lottery bond funded grant award. So you'll probably remember in 2024 the city made an attempt to pass a bond measure to fund a really large and um comprehensive community center project. We basically took the the $20 million that we had in hand, which was comprised of the $15 million lottery bond award plus an allocation of park system

development charges. And those fees, for those that don't know, are fees paid by developers that are restricted by state law to be expended only on projects that add capacity to the parks and recreation system. So you can buy new parks, build new parks, build new recreation facilities, or do expansions to those that add capacity. Um, and the idea is to really accommodate for the increased growth that's taking place in the Woodburn community. So we can't spend those on maintenance or operations or street repairs or anything like that. So when the bond measure failed, we reinvisioned the project to really identify the core components that were critical to the community that we could fit within the funds that we had available and uh have spent the next or the the past year working pretty diligently on that particular project. You may remember in uh March of 2025, you awarded a contract. It's a construction manager, general contractor, uh, contract to triplet Wellman, a local contracting company that has a fantastic reputation in the region and throughout Oregon. And so they worked handinand with city staff and our design team, Opsis Architecture, over the past nearly, you know, 11 months or so to come up with a design for this project um that meets the needs of the community. And it's been really the first time that the city of Woodburn has ever used this construction manager general contractor or CMGC contracting approach. So it was a big learning experience for for us. Um the contractors used it a lot, our architects have used it a lot, but the city really never has. And what it does is it brings the contractor to the table at the beginning part of the design process. and they are instrumental in looking at the design that the architects are putting together and

providing feedback primarily about the constructibility of the design and they really have their kind of fingers on the pulse of the contracting market and even kind of the material supply market. So they can really see what's going on with the impacts of tariffs and just kind of the availability of certain types of materials. and they provided a lot of feedback throughout that process that was uh critical to actually coming up with a design that meets the needs of the community and actually fits within our budget. Having said that, we found from the point that we kicked off uh this project in early 2025 to the point that we got pretty deep into um its development that our our cost estimates were escalating and escalating and escalating and it was kind of reflective of the kind of the impact of tariffs and just kind of the economic conditions in the country and in the region in general. So, when we went into the actual subcontractor bidding process, which took place what, probably three weeks ago or so, we were running into that with an anticipated construction cost estimate of $18.5 million. And when you couple that with all of the other costs, what we call the soft costs that go into the project, and so those are our design fees, um our system development charges because believe it or not, we pay system development charges even on our own projects because our project is going to have an impact on the water system and the streets and the park system. And so those are fees that we pay too, just as any other developer does. Um you know, we've got to buy furniture, fixtures, and equipment. And so there are other costs in addition to this construction contract. Um so the project was looking like it was running pretty high over budget. So we were thinking that we were looking at about an $18.5 million

construction cost going into the bid opening process. What we found was that the response for this project from the subcontractors that submitted bids were really overwhelming. Um, Triplet Wellman said that they've never seen a response like this for a project. Um, and I think it signaled the fact that the, you know, that the construction market was starting to slow down just a little bit. The timing of our project, um, was also really good. the size of the project really kind of hit a sweet spot in the market and uh they received 350 bids or so from subcontractors to do all of the various components of the project which really overwhelmed them. They're used to seeing a couple you know 150 to 200 bids for a project like this. So, what that resulted in is that instead of an $18.5 million uh construction cost, they it came in around $17.2 million. So, that's $1.3 million less than we thought we might see when we went into that um bid opening process a few weeks ago. Um that still does put us over our original cost estimate for this project. When you add in the soft costs, we were targeting a $20 million project. we're going to be running closer to like a $22 million project. Um, but that is still within the realm of uh something that we can accommodate primarily because of the significant amount of growth that's been occurring in Woodburn and we've been collecting a lot of parks and recreation system development charges which once again can only be built spent on projects that expand the parks and recreation system. So, so we have the funding in hand to uh complete this project. When you take into account the $15 million state lottery bond grant, um you know, more than $6 million worth of park system development charges. There

are some other revenue sources that we have on hand. Um the work that uh Jesse and Ranatada did to secure a state legislative allocation for the Settlemire Park project helps as well. And we even have some other funding requests out. And if those come through, we're trying to raise funds to help with a lot of the furniture fixtures and equipment for both like the multi-purpose room, the commercial kitchen, the fitness room spaces. Um, and so we could even uh kind of bring down the burden that we're that we're placing on our park system development charge um revenues. So we feel good about this. It's a little It's a little more expensive than we went into this project anticipating, but we've now negotiated what's called a guaranteed maximum price agreement with the contractor. Um, and so this $17.2 million guaranteed maximum price that we've negotiated also includes a 5% contractor contingency. So that's about $800,000 worth of that amount is being reserved by the contractor for unanticipated cost overruns because things happen as you get into a project site and you're doing demolition and you start digging in the ground and you know the conditions may not be what they expected. They may be dealing with some you know wet wet water conditions and some unstable soils that may require some additional cost. So, they have a contingency a contingency set aside for that. Um, so in addition, we're asking the city council to not only authorize the uh $17.2 million guaranteed maximum price award and tech technically it's just slightly more than that. I think it's $17,200,778. Plus, we're asking the city council to also authorize staff to

award up to $800,000 in additional um support to the project for owner directed project enhancements. So there may be opportunities that come along over the course of the project that we may see value in actually upgrading some of the, you know, the materials and the fixtures that we have currently speced into the project. And one good example of that that we've really not made the decision on yet because we kind of want to see how how costs go with the project once it's under construction. But for instance, these would be things like uh locker room flooring because right now we're looking at brushed concrete locker room flooring, which is similar to what we have in the aquatic center currently. It's not the most attractive, you know, and you've probably noticed that over the years it starts to discolor a little bit and even though it may not be dirty, it kind of looks like it's a little bit dirty. So, we're considering um installing an epoxy flooring surface instead. and uh you know, we definitely have the funding to do that with this additional award that we're asking the council to authorize staff to utilize, but we're going to wait to make that decision until we get a little bit further into the project to just make sure that we have um you know, the resources available to make those decisions. So, that's kind of what I had for you. Jesse's here as well. I don't know if he has anything to add. Um

I think you hit everything. I'm just here for any additional questions. It's there's about a 9 million pieces to this project, so two heads and we only miss half of it at that point. So right question so Jim that 800,000 is that coming from are we looking for outside funding to get that or is that SDC is also

that's funding that we already have on hand. So the funding sources that are described in the staff report accommodate that additional $800,000 kind of set aside allocation. But if we are successful in bringing in some additional outside revenues then it would just decrease our reliance on funds that we have on hand to accommodate those. I I do have one point to point out. Um so the um contractor contingency that 5% as well as there's actually some additional pieces in there that are kind of contingency but not built into their contingency. Um those in total whatever isn't spent throughout the project actually is returned to the city as well. That's a great point. So um for some reason if triplet does not use those funds it is returned back to the city. So

I have a couple of questions. Absolutely. Okay. So then the 5% contingency is the contractors is trip and the 800,000 is the staff decisions that we make for us the city is yeah that yeah where we where we said no we want to spend a little more in that particular area. Yeah. Then the other question is that the timeline remains the same. Great question. So no none of this as the contractors have looked at the project and see what needs to be done and submitted their bids. Did anybody say where they were going to need more time? because I really want to see the timeline. Yep.

We have a we have a very detailed project schedule that uh we've put together in partnership with the design team and with Triplet Wellman. We just talked to them about it last week. They feel like it's a very solid schedule for now. Schedules change as you know. So things move about a little bit, but all the subs um were basically bidding on the project with the schedule that was presented to them. And so given so these 350 subcontractors that submitted bids, triplet Wellman went through all of the bid categories and there were probably at least 50 bid categories. So you're seeing things like demolition and site work and plumbing and HVAC and electrical and so on and so forth. So there were like 50 different categories. And so they met individually with every low bidder. And this is one of the benefits of the CMGC process because we're not really allowed to do this when we do a traditional bid like design bid build project. We take the low bid

and we hope that the low bid contractor has the capability to do the project right. But in this kind of process, the general contractor, Triplet Wellman, met individually with every one of the low biders and went through their bids with them line by line to make sure that they captured everything that should be included in their scope of work. And in many cases, they identified omissions and so they had to work with the contractor to work those out. And then if that contractor was no longer the low bid, then they pushed them aside and then went to the next one and went through all of those. So the vetting process took them probably three weeks to complete and so they feel like the amount of due diligence that goes into the bid evaluation in this process is very significant and schedule is a big part of that. So um we are with the council's award tonight. will be executing the contract probably tomorrow and uh they are plann so we have a the ribbon cutting as you know or the groundbreaking on Friday and then full demolition starts on Monday so it's going to kick off a week from today

and we are you know the schedule is targeting a completion in late spring and so we are of 2027 20 sorry 2027 I don't want anybody to get Yeah. No, no, got to keep it realistic. So, we are cautiously targeting a summer 2027 opening. Okay.

And if everything goes really well, we may be able to open at the beginning of the summer, you know, but delays do happen. And so, it may be something like it could be kicking a little bit later into July. We hope not, but uh that that's what we're looking at and we feel pretty good about the schedule right now. Um, and I want to build off what Jim said about the vetting of the subcontractors. Um, and to the timeline is so they not only met with these subcontractors, but they also make sure they have the capacity to do the project. If it's a kind of um smaller mom and pop, hey, we only have three people on staff. Um, they really do investigative work to make sure they have the capacity to actually complete the work. Um, so and they have the ability and they, you know, they've done this for decades and they know many of these contractors which helps a lot. So that aids in that we don't have a subcontractor that all of a sudden drops the ball and delays the project because this is obviously a welloiled machine. And if you have one contractor that is out of out of line, it messes up the whole timeline. So

because it's ultimately on triplet Wellman. So if they have a sub that's not performing, then they're responsible for you know the cont our contract is with them and so they're responsible for making sure that it works. So they want to make sure that they have a good team. Has the city ever had a bigger project? probably wastewater treatment plant, but um in terms of like a you know like a community facility, I'm I'm not aware of one. You know, the aquatic center, I mean, it was 30 years ago, but that was somewhere around a $2 and a half million dollar project. And um this is this is bigger. Yeah, this is bigger. Any other questions, comments?

I had a question. Or is this the first part where it's a guaranteed maximum price? This is not before when it was a $16 million estimate did we have a guaranteed maximum price at that stage. This is the first stage that is guaranteed. It took us nine months of design work to get and cost estimating throughout the entire process and the receipt and evaluation of subcontractor bids to get to the guaranteed maximum price. And that's one of the that's kind of one of the hallmarks of this contracting style is that once you get to that guaranteed maximum price, that's it. Locked in. Unless we say

we want to add, you know, something of, you know, greater value, then then we can amend that and that's what that $800,000 is for. But any other, you know, cost escalations that happen kind of on the construction side, that's that's included in this guaranteed maximum price. And that's what their, you know, 5% which is big. It's $800,000 contingency is is for is for those unanticipated. And then I was talking to a constituent today and there was a couple questions. One has already been answered about the bidding for the subcontracting.

I'm I'm pleased with 350 bids, so I'm sure that they will be too. Um, and then was there any discussion about having any sort of design changes to make up for the increased cost so that we can make that up somewhere else by taking something away more cost reductions in the project like in design or

well we did that all throughout the design process. So this whole what you know a lot of times you hear uh value engineering kind of thrown about um which you know gets a bad rap because usually when you're running over cost you're looking for things to cut that might cause problems in in the long run. In fact that happened with our current aquatic center costs were running too high and so they value engineered the uh HVAC system and then they you know they kind of like

wish we wouldn't have done that because in the long run it's cost us more money. It actually caused a lot of damage to the facility. The indoor air quality was poor and the city had to come in in like 2008 and completely replace that system with something much more functional. So, there are certain things that you don't want to reduce cost on and ventilation in an aquatic center is probably the number one thing.

Yeah. So, and to that point, I maybe I'm speaking a little out of term, but I think we value and engineered this to a product that we didn't think we could take more away and feel like we're giving justification to the public, right? Like you take more of the event space away, it becomes a small community room that we might already have in town. You take more of the exercise space away, we might as well just keep the back room at the aquatic center. So, it's it was a balance of like where are we really doing? Well, and that was kind of our conversation is that it's already gone from a $60 million project down to a $20 million project. So, a lot of that fine-tuning has already happened.

And we've mentioned this before in past presentations, but we were really methodical with triplet as well as offsis of like where can we get the best quality material that is low cost. So, like doing the concrete floors throughout the facility is intentional. It's a lower cost surface that's has longevity to it instead of doing you know hard wood throughout or things like that and so trying to do different strategic ways there was a lot of effort between the team as well. Um one other point to the price pricing so when you see like masonry work that is actually the bid for the masonry like that's their bid for that they they might be in multiple categories for some reason but that's actually from one of the tile. Exactly. There's a lot of tile.

There's a lot of tile. Yeah. So, so those were actually the numbers from those subs um that you see there. Great. Thank you. And this final plan still leaves the possibility of sometime in the future additional growth. Absolutely. Yep. In fact, we we designed the facility so that there's like a spot to drop in a gymnasium kind of right over on on the south side, you know, kind of there's a south hallway that goes towards the locker rooms and the fitness spaces. And at the end of the hallway is where a future gymnasium could go and it kind of opens right up into it.

Well, thank you both for all the work you've done on this. I know that uh a lot of us have been interested in supporting and and working on it different angles, but I know Jim, you've been around a long time. Long as I've been here, 19 years, and the project predated me. Yeah, it did. Jesse, it's probably older than what you are. Thank you both for and and you know Ranatada as well. She's been a key part. It's kind of been the three of us have been kind of the key project team here. Um and also you know there's a lot more people involved our whole you know planning and building department as well. They've been key players in this too and they've helped kind of evaluate the project and work with our team to refine it. So

a lot went into it. Yes, I'm well aware. So with that, I would entertain a a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a motion that the city council acting in its capacity as the local contract review board number one approve the guaranteed maximum price GMP amendment in the amount of 17,200,778 to the construction manager/general contractor contract with Triplet Wellman for construction of the Woodburn community center project. The GMP includes a 5% contractor contingency for unanticipated construction related cost overruns. And number two, pre-authorize the approval of contract change orders or amendments up to $800,000 for citydirected project enhancements or scope refinements.

Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion signify for I. I. I. Opposed same. Motion passes. teaching. Good job. Thank you all. See you Friday.

So with that, I am going to backtrack and I see Mr. Tube is here and we're invite him up and I we have a proclamation that I will read on our Vietnamese uh American lunar new year celebration and I will start with that. How things going in? Everything is going smoothly in Twin. So we are so sorry that we have been late. That's okay. Not a problem.

So regarding the proclamation, it is a Vietnamese American lunar lunar new year celebration. Whereas the Vietnamese Community of Oregon is an organization whose mission is to unite, support, and foster pride in all members of the Vietn Vietnamese community in the city of Woodburn and throughout Oregon. They act to ensure all Vietnamese Americans understand they have a voice and a place in society. And whereas the Vietnamese community of Oregon achieves this by passing down Vietnamese culture and traditions from one generation to the next while striving to strengthen relationships with other ethnic communities throughout Oregon and southern Washington. And whereas the most important of these tradition traditions is that of the Lunar New Year celebration, a celebration of joy, history, and culture for all Vietnamese wherever they are in the world. And whereas this important tradition has been celebrated and organized by the Vietnamese community of Oregon in the city of Woodburn and neighboring cities across Oregon for the last 50 years. And whereas we continue that tradition today by showing our support to the Vietnamese American communities, not only in Oregon, but across America, to be an example of unity for future generations. Now therefore, I, Frank Lan, mayor of the city of Woodburn, do hereby proclaim February 21st, 2026 to be the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration day in Woodburn and encourage all residents to observe this day. So, with that, I would like to present you with our proclamation. And I would like the council to know that we received a certificate of appreciation from uh the Vietnamese American Society. So would you'd like to say a few words? Good evening, Mayor Lunigan and the city

council members. I am Tout, president of the Vietnamese community of Oregon. On behalf of the Vietnamese communities board, I thank you so much for recognition of Vietnamese Luna New Year that will be held at Glamak High School on February 21st, 2026. And you said that I just send the certificate of appreciation. And I also had this uh handmake picture of uh the uh scene in Vietnam to present the mayor to remind him of the time that he served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Wow. Thank you very much. Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much for the Okay, moving on. We have approval of Rainar Rain Road lift station emergency repair project. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Up and running and neighbors love it.

Yeah, that's what I hear. So, uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of council. Um unlike Jim and Jesse, I went ahead and spent the money before I asked for it. So,

um and my second year in a row, might I add, uh we had the same issue in 24 out on another project. So, anyway, seems to be Christmas seems to be the time when, uh we have some sewer issues and have some sink holes. So anyway, uh we're just um bringing this back to council um for approval of uh payment for an emergency repair that happened on our um collection system out by the Rainineer pump station off of Reineer Road. Um we had a pretty good sinkhole. We had an employee fall in it. Actually was walking across it to do maintenance and actually fell in the hole. Uh luckily he was able to get out of it, but uh with quick response from staff and uh great help from Kaney excavating um they got in and got a lot of work done in a short amount of time. Um also did a quick emergency repair and then we found out that we had some other issues with the pipe. So we went ahead at the same time to save some cost and um completely replace the pipe from the street into the uh into our pump station. Um, so basically with that, all we're doing is looking for you guys to okay our uh purchase of fixing a pipe.

Thank you. Any questions about it? This was the sewer, not not the freshwater. Correct. This this was a sewer pipe and all cleaned up. No, no, everything cleaned up. We did have some issues with some downstream residents that had some rock that got pushed into their pipes. They contacted us and we got that all taken care of and for them at our cost so that they didn't have to deal with it. Great. I would entertain a motion then.

Mr. Mayor, I would uh make a motion to award a contract to K& Excavating Inc. for the performance of an emergency repairs to the Reneer Road lift station in the amount not to exceed 161,572.75. Do we have a second? Second. Move and second. All in favor signify with an I. I. I.

Opposed with say motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we have a construction contract roof replacement project for the library. Man, we dishing out a lot of money.

We already renewed Scott's contract, so we're good. So, all right. Good evening, um, mayor, city council, Jesse, community service director. Um, so before you tonight is a a recommendation to approve a construction contract, um, with Rooftoppers, Inc. for a, um, a replacement of the library roof. Um so this um project as you can see in the staff report um kind of starts back in 2012 where we did a citywide kind of roof analysis um several buildings um the library had um at that time the the roof was about 34 years old on the metal roofing and about 20 on the flat roofing the membrane. Um they both had a little bit of um estimated life left in them but they were they were terming out. Um, since then we've kind of patched and made things work and we've had some leaks here and there and some water features in the library that were unexpected and um, we finally are in now a position financially with some carryover of arbor funds. I think the last little pennies there and some other funds um, that we're looking at doing um, the replacement. So again, um, this is the original to my my education here is the original metal roof of the library. So 1978 obviously not the 1914 Carnegie library but the other one. Um and so um this will you know hopefully give us another good 30 plus year lifespan on that roof. We're also looking at redoing the gutters and downspouts during that time as well. So, um, we did have seven biders, um, and so, um, we went with the lower bidder, um, with roof toppers. And then we're also asking for an additional 15, uh, $50,000, um, for possible contingency because roof projects can be unknown. So,

any questions concerning the bid? Roof toppers as good as any of the others just Yeah. to my again we this is a little bid process but one thing I do feel confident in roof toppers just did the annex across the public works annex across the street from the library and that seemed to be a very good project and um Curtis or none of his staff have complained about water features in the past few months so we'll take that as a win so how long of a project will it be to to do this

um they're they're hoping to start you know obviously weather permitting um in the spring and then they're thinking two to three months but we'll see once we actually sit down with roof toppers we're planning on again having the library open during This time we've asked them to just work on sides of the building. So we'll have to um divert traffic to the either north or south entry depending on what side of the building they're working on. So they're going to do all the work from first street. They're not going to be down second street at all. Um they're going to be on second right in front of the mayor's house specifically. So I've actually asked extra for that. So I think 6 a.m. I think we're staging at that house.

They're actually get him get him harnessed up and get him working. That's how we actually got brought down the cost. So just so you know. whatever works. Okay. Um, any any other questions? Statements? Then I'd entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd make a motion to award the construction contract for the roof replacement project for the Woodburn Library to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder, Rooftompers, Inc. in the amount of $498,184 and approve an additional $50,000 for this project as a contingency for potential change orders that may arise during the construction for a total award of up to $548,184. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Move and second. All in favor signify with an I. I

oppos are the same. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Jesse.

Uh next up, we have awarded professional services contract for electrician services to Engleman Electric. Jesse and I are taking turns here back and forth. So, uh here I am again. Um Mr. Mr. Mayor, counselors, um this is an award of a electrical services contract that allows um the city to basically save quite a bit of money um for electrical repairs that are made by staff that we have on board. We do have three what are called LME, limited maintenance electricians that can perform tasks as in replacing existing um equipment like for like and then upgrading it based on what the code is. Um, this allows us to make these improvements um, at the wastewater treatment plant, water treatment plants, and throughout the city. Um, and allows us to hire a um, electrician who actually oversees the work on an annual basis. So, we track when we're actually doing the work. He comes in and does an inspection and signs off that we've done it correctly. And then we also have the state comes in and looks at our list and then goes through it with that electrician. and then they end up certifying that we've done everything that we're supposed to do. So, with that being said, that allows us to we have to hire a um electrical contractor to oversee that program. That's that's part of the rules. So, with that, we sent this out to um the existing um company, which was Ingleman Electric, um who has been doing this um for since 2013. It's actually our contract had expired. We're finally getting around to get it renewed. and several other companies actually bid on this. Engelman was um the apparent low bidder and good bidder. So that was a good thing for us. So anyway, just wanted to bring this before you guys and let you know that this is a program that allows us to have a pretty good cost savings. Um one of the things

in the future that may um change a little bit is the fact that the Lmemes are kind of um retiring out um across the state. It's a hard license to get because you have to have so many hours. It's almost like being an apprentice and have to go through and work under someone that has an electrical license. So, in the future, as these people retire out and we're not finding people that are qualified, we're going to end up hiring electricians to do work that we're currently saving money on by having someone with a lower license. So, but over time, I just want to throw that out there as far as that goes. So, for right now, this is a pretty good cost savings for us. um looking for you guys to allow us to enter into this contract.

So So they bill on an hourly basis. He would bill on an hourly basis. Annual guarantee. This this also allows us to have him come in and do other electrical work that our LMEs can't do. So like if you guys wanted to have a new plugin stuck in here, we're going to call him so we don't have to go out to a lot of other electricians. He's also doing the that other work throughout the entire city on projects. So we actually have him under contract. So, he's only billing us for work that's actually done. Any other questions? Entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to authorize the city manager to enter into a professional services contract agreement with Ingleman Electric for electrician services. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor of the motion signify with an I. I. I. Post with the same. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next up we have possibility of a ballot referral and options for an advisory question on residential street speed reduction.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. from time to time and throughout my entire career, uh, speeding pops up in front of the city council as an issue of concern for neighborhoods and um, I think with the growth in the community, people have been more attuned to traffic issues as they see more people moving and living in our community. One of the ideas that um, has been brought up from time to time was is for the city to reduce um, speeds on our city streets. Now, it's not as simple as you might think. The city council does not have complete control over the speed limits within our town, but we do over some parts of our of our street system. And so, the idea, the question for the city council is should the city council refer an advisory vote to the community, the public, about whether or not speed should be reduced from 25 m an hour to 20 miles an hour on those eligible street systems that we could reduce the speeds. Um, now the You'll see a map attached to the staff report and I just briefly want to kind of talk about that because not every street would be impacted. You'll see that um uh major arterials, throwaways, service collectors, access streets uh would remain at 25. Also, business districts would remain at 25. However, city streets, neighborhood streets, we could reduce the speeds from 25 to 20 miles per hour, but not not all the streets. and you'll see that a lot of the streets that we primarily hear concerns about are ones that would not be impacted. Uh that was an interesting piece of information and data that came out as part of the work that we did on this. Um so I could see that some people would be, you know, supporting that they were going to, you know, they live on a street that has been a street of concern in their neighborhood and then they're not impacted by the reduction of the speed limits because of the nature of design of that street and it designation. So uh something to consider there. However, the city council can reduce speeds from 25 to 20 miles per

hour in predominantly neighborhood streets and uh other cities in Oregon have done so. Other cities have chose not to do so. So, it's really just a a policy question um to the community and then, you know, for advisory vote to the to the city council about whether or not that's something we want to pursue. Now, I didn't tell the police chief I was going to call on him. Welcome to police chief job chief. But uh I've talked about it quite a bit with the police chief and what this means from a traffic enforcement. So in order for a speeding ticket to uh be I'm going to say this word juditable in municipal court it's typically 11 miles an hour over the speed limit. So in order to really site you know really to sight somebody at 11 miles per hour over the speed limit. So if it's 25 now you're 36 miles per hour. If you lower the speed limit to 20, it reduces the level of speed required for this traffic enforcement to issue a citation in a city street. Um, however, we we'd want to educate the public. There'll be a lot of people who are driving probably thinking they were within that 10 miles per hour and then all of a sudden they get, you know, maybe they might get a ticket if the if the speed limits change. But, um, but this is really the the question. Should should the city council refer to the public um an advisory question in the may ballot? Should the city reduce speeds on eligible neighborhood streets from 25 to 20 miles per hour? Uh and then I I I think McKenzie might want to add maybe some of the the legal and the aspects technical aspects of getting this on the ballot.

Before you do, can you explain the code to me on this map again? The so what streets are eligible? What color? green, yellow.

So, the roads that would um likely be eligible are going to be the gray ones. So, really like all of the faded um what I would call neighborhood streets that you're looking at. So, we're actually we're kind of doing it in reverse. We're calling out the streets that wouldn't change. So, things like minor arterial, which is that orange, um the service collector, which is green, and the access streets that are blue. Oftentimes, those are the ones we get the most complaints about. Um but those um based off of their current designations would either stay at their current 25 mile an hour speed limit and actually um I think a couple Young Street in a certain section is 35. And so you know those uh speed designations would remain and the ones that would likely then be eligible to be lowered to 20 are the faded gray um streets. most notably Hard Castle and Settle Meyer, Young Street, Ben Brown Street, and others that we we hear about would not likely be affected by the speed reductions based on their their designation under state law.

And then just talking logistically about um ballot measure. So, if the council did want to move forward with putting this on the May uh ballot, that election is scheduled for May 19th, um we would need to publish a ballot title by February 27th. And so if the council did want to move forward, um that means, you know, taking a version or um I provided some draft language in the staff report this evening that could be then placed into a referring resolution format and could be voted on at the council's next meeting um the second meeting in February. And that would um allow us to meet the publication deadline um and again allow us to refer for the May 19th election. Again, this is an advisory question. So, whatever, you know, results we get would be shared with the council and the that's not binding. The council doesn't necessarily have to act on an advisory question. It is still at the council's option. Um, but that would at least give you, you know, the um electorate information to help advise um the council. Again, that's why it's called an advisory question. Um if the council decided that they wanted more time to consider, you know, the ballot title that's been prepared this evening um or just doesn't feel like you know the timing for a May election makes sense, we can always revisit it for a future election as well. The idea about an advisory question is is just a widespread impact this would have on people's writing behavior um and and ensuring that people one were informed of any changes and two that uh the community would would want that to happen as opposed to just unilaterally imposing us on across the community without first getting input.

Help me understand what the options in front of us are. I understand we're being asked as to whether we want an advisory vote. We could also do a a mandator vote which would have the effect of law or we could just take action ourselves. Is that correct?

You could move to take action yourself. The idea with an advisory vote would would be that the city council could take that input from the vote and then direct that a plan be developed. If you chose to to implement a speed reduction based on the vote, the council could then direct us to work on a plan. We'd have to roll that over a period of time. For example, I don't think it could be effective, you know, upon the certification of the election just because we can't change or buy signs and do all that work that fast. We'd have to roll it out over a period of time. And then there's other questions about enforcement in that period of time. And you know, we we'd really want to try to, you know, do it in a way that was methodical until it was complete as opposed to an election that just made it effective overnight before we could change signs. You know, we would be able to force, you know, um this be limit where the signs weren't posted incorrectly again. So, it it just gives us more opportunity to implement the council's decision as opposed to having a mandatory vote. And of course, the council does have the authority just to simply move forward with it. you know that um if you wanted to, you certainly could do that. Um you couldn't you couldn't impact those streets that were designated on this map uh that by but you couldn't in the streets that were eligible to reduce those speeds too. You could do that for sure.

Well, I always think democracy is a good thing and getting the pulse of the of the voters does seem like a good idea. Just wondered what our range of options were. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, Scott, will we uh receive a a a list of all the streets that were I mean other I mean I'm looking at this map, but you know, I'd like to see the names of the streets. Uh the public works director has all the answers for you. He probably has that list now. Is that

what some of Yeah. And and and this was just kind of a a a broad overview. I mean, these are the ones that, like you said, these are the ones that we know that we can't change. Um, and there are a few I I talked to McKenzie about this earlier. There are a few streets that we don't have identified on this map um that may not be able to be lowered to 20 m hour because they come off of a road that's 35 miles an hour. So, you can't go from 35 to 20. So, when you turn off of a 35 mph street, there's going to we have we haven't researched enough to know how far down that street we can go before we can turn it into a 20. So again, this was just kind of the cursory part of it to say, are we going to move forward with this? Are we going to come up with a cost to find out? You know, we have to change all of the 25 mph speed signs to 20. We change the sign, there's a standard that we have to change out the post and the anchors. So there's a lot of money that could be involved in this. And that's again like Scott said, doing this over time. It may be a two-year plan in order to do a neighborhood and continue to roll through it or it may be done, you know, faster depending on what the overall costs are. So to say that we to know exactly which streets we can do, it's kind of hard. But the deeper that you get into a neighborhood, the more likely that your street is going to be a 20 mph street. So if you're, you know, if you have to turn off of two streets to get to a street, you're more than likely going to be a 20 mph street. Kind of give you an idea.

Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Here they go.

Okay. So when we had this conversation, you know, this was one of the options and as you uh highlighted and I can see very clearly the streets that I'm concerned about. There's no this is not going to help us. When it will be an appropriate time to get the reports regarding uh educating on what the current speed limit is, the flashing lights, you know, the issues of the speed bumps that are safer for fire trucks. When will we be hearing it? Could could it could we be considering that this which one is going to affect better our overall goal of safety on the streets if we already know that this uh referendum won't uh won't target the city's my gat street or hard castle where where people want folks to slow down. When do we start talking about the flashy lights and the other things that we could invest our time and money on to address that?

We well the core of the core of the issue of course is human behavior and how to regulate human behavior and that's a very difficult thing to do. You know, it's hard for me to believe that, you know, we have a municipal court in here what, several days a week. And um you know, I I I'm sure that everybody in here was caught speeding because they were caught. They knew that they were speeding. At least whenever I've been speeding, I know that I've been speeding. Um so, we're talking about trying to regulate human behavior. And so, the flashing signs, the speed signs, we have been making those investments. We have been trying to upgrade our I do think those do have an impact. I think we've been able to measure some of those impacts on some streets. Um, but I don't think they're going to I mean, my opinion personally is it's hard for me to see how there's anything that's going to really make people comply. This is an enforcement tool that we're talking about. We're talking about spreading a broader net to try to catch people who are, you know, marginally on, you know, speeding. So, um, and I do think that, you know, there will certainly be people in the community who support that, you know, who support lower speeds posted in their neighborhoods. I don't know that people will, you know, the opinion if you're drinking and driving or if you're speeding, you're probably making poor decisions anyways. But the question is is do we have then ability to try to hold people accountable for the behavior?

So, this is the outcome of what we were talking about in our goal setting session.

Yeah, we've talked about this on and off a little bit. Um I do think that there were members of the community who asked. I recall that people were asking us to lower speed limits and so you know we started thinking about what would that really look like. We had to do a little homework on that. Um some of our streets are you know like I say are our street system is regulated by statute and our ability to rate you know to change everything is limited. Um you know and and speed studies you know those are also very tricky too. It's kind of we've talked about looking at speed studies in areas that have been reported, you know, high high speeding. However, the way that the speed studies work is that if it demonstrates that people are breaking the speed limit, typically the state will adjust the speed limit up to accommodate the average speed because they'll say it's safe for people to drive that way that it's actually posted lower than what it ought to be as opposed to what we would intuitively think is that people would try to mitigate the the level of speed. The state will simply accommodate the speed. So we're pretty careful about where we conduct speed studies just because it produces results contrary to what we think people would really want.

Saddle for example, correct and others. So uh you know really this is a policy question where the community would support it in their neighborhoods. It would impact I think quite a few people over time. A lot of people would see changes in their neighborhoods and the speeds would be different. So, you know, the council could consider the committee's input if we wanted to, you know, direct a plan be created to implement this over a period of time or not. It's really just a policy goal for the city, but a an advisory pulse of the community. I think councelor Wilson said that well,

yeah, I I support that idea and it's not going to fix all of the issues that we have around speed, but but I think certainly getting the polls and helping educate voters about it is a good idea. And And in particular, the streets that would be affected are also ones that tend to be narrower and have fewer sidewalks and and so there's a greater safety hazard in my opinion with speeding on on those streets such as the street where I live.

Yeah. And this doesn't mean that we're going to stop looking at other alternatives to try and reduce speed. We've talked Scott and I have talked about and Jim have talked about some striping, trying to figure out some ways to to, you know, in some areas that don't have sidewalks that are really wide streets. Maybe trying to figure out a way to do striping and parking and different things to kind of, you know, give some visual and, you know, move cars in a little closer to park, but yet give people an area to walk next to the curb between the parked cars. You know, little things like that. I mean, just trying to figure out, but we don't want to really jump in and start doing a lot and then, you know, we come in and have to make a bunch of changes and then we've wasted money. So, we're looking at other communities. We're looking to see how they've done things in the in the past. there's some new things that are coming out and just, you know, trying to be cautious about trying to move forward in a way that's cost-effective and and doing the best that we can do with the resources that we have.

We we also too spend a lot of time, I know I have spent a lot of time talking to people about engineering standards and traffic standards uniform that we can't do some things that people want because it'd be in violation of the uniform traffic manual. Yeah.

Um it's more complicated than just, hey, why don't we just do that? um because then there's liability attached to decisions we make if that causes an accident or if it's a somebody is injured in it because there was a a non-engineering standard solution implemented. So, uh the North Front Street overpass, the safe uh route to school project, if we look at that, I think that was pretty effective um in terms of the types of modifications that were made and how um and how it um created visual cues and and other things for for traffic over that. That's the kind of thing we'd be talking about.

So, other questions, discussion for council? I mean, I like the idea of casting a broader net. There's only so many people that us six can talk to. And so this just opens it up to get the feedback of the community because while there are a lot of people that complain about speeding, there's maybe just as many that want to keep the speed limit 25 when so this is a way to, you know, get a pulse on that. Councelor, I think that the challenges part that you I think has been brought up by the council tonight will be educating the public about what streets will be impacted and which ones won't because I there's no doubt there'll be an expectation that

you know I've complained about speeding my neighborhood's concerned about it my raised issues and then they're going to then find that they voted for this and then that's not going to change because of the designation of the street. So educating the community about how it works, what's impacted, what isn't will be a challenge, but I think I think we're up for it. I mean, we're envisioning kind of anformational website where people can go and maybe look and see and uh trying to explain, you know, the things we can impact and the things we can't in terms of speed reductions, but we'll work on it if the council wants to do it. So, I don't think we need a motion, but are you looking for one or

um yeah, if you do want um staff to actually prepare that resolution, I think a motion would be helpful. Um, it can be as simple as, you know, please return at the next meeting um with a draft resolution for the May 2026 ballot referral. Mr. Mayor, I'd make a motion to uh have uh staff return to our next council meeting with the draft resolution. There second for vote consideration. All in favor signify with an I.

I post same. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Curtis. Scott. Moving on. I do not have any other business. Uh there's one item on the planning commission. U if we anyone want to call it up. Not hearing anyone. Then we'll move on to the city manager report. Uh Mr. Mayor, I don't really have much to report. We're um we're in deep with the legislature in short session. It's been a little bit uh crazy and then a lot of the work you did tonight um is also uh you know it's been a lot of work leading up to to this meeting tonight. Uh I like to say that um I think I'm pretty proud of the city and the city council for being able to approve these types of projects for a community our size. There's a lot of a lot a lot of good things that uh have been are being put into place and being built. So that's really exciting. Even roof replacements. I Jesse won't tell you this, but I did try to delay that. In fact, I did the roof repair on the library for a while because it's so expensive. And then I guess water and paper don't mix well. So, uh, but we found a way to to fund that improvement, too. So, a lot of cities defer maintenance on a lot of their public facilities because the cost. Um, so I hope you feel good about our ability to maintain the community's assets, but I don't really have anything else to add, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Moving on to mayor and council reports. Councelor Grain. Uh I just wanted to ask one qu follow-up question regarding the community center development. Probably uh the actual operating costs, staffing and everything else. We'll be reviewing those then not until the budget for 2627.

Yeah, we have some of those uh costs being built into the proposed budget. Yeah, we're right in the middle of the bud budget season, too. So, we're busy working on on the proposed budget and they will include some of those costs. the council. Remember that the city was able to fund a million dollar community center fund that that's going to be a bank of money that is going to sit in reserve to pay for upstart and operating expenses. We're going to turn that capital that wasn't designed as a capital fund, but we're going to be turning to an operating fund. So the goal is that we will have a year or two of operations funded in the when the startup that will create a record and a history in terms of the revenue generation and we can see what the costs are, what the general fund needs to to um to support the operations there and maybe what we need to do to try to have a cost recovery strategy that is more viable. So we will have at least a year and a half, two years, hopefully more already banked when that opens up to create a track record and pay for the startup costs, personnel and other things.

I know folks were concerned about that too. Will we have the money to run it? Well, you know, that's always a great question and you know, sometimes yes and sometimes no. It just, you know, it just depends. But I can we have a million dollars. I mean, this is another financial success for the city that we took a million dollars and set it up to ensure that we could start up and operate that facility for a period of time until it could, you know, have a a history of what it's going to cost and we can devise a strategy for cost recovery on it. So,

thank you. And then that it was a very good meeting on Friday morning with the community members regarding um the support and I I was hoping to have a few more residents and and community leaders, but we had some strong vocal voices there and um I actually even learned more uh on this whole issue. Thank you for that meeting and I hope that the community follows up and allows them to make those presentations as well.

Well, if I could just add on quickly, thank you for saying that. Um I I was A lot of people u committed to attend that meeting and then only two people did but but that information is available on the website. The city has made our flock impact analysis available for the public review on the city's website. Anybody can go look at it. We've turned over the flock data base to media outlet. Uh they can compare our work to whatever work they want to perform on their own. And we've also made the city councils and the city's legal opinions around the city's authority on immigration available to the public. And I hope people who have questions will go look at it. Exactly. And then call us if they have any questions about what we made available. Yes. Thank you.

For some counselors that might not be aware, there was a a meeting by by invite that we had at the chamber last week um talking about the flock system and updates on that. and then uh our counselor's uh page on uh immigration status and what Woodburn and the police department can do. Because of public meeting laws, we did not invite every counselor. So, I will apologize to those that that couldn't that tried to show up or those that did try to show up and we sent home

but uh we certainly are open for additional uh input and conversation to c everybody up to speed. So, no one was we did not mean to slight anybody for not being invited, but uh uh council said it was had great potential and it's it's unfortunate that some other members of the community did not show up that you have um I saw in the news today that the city of Portland discovered a million dollars laying around. Just wondering it was over a hundred million laying around million. I I can assure the city council.

I have not misplaced nor is there a misplaced Benny. Uh we're not going to find $100 million laying around. But boy, if I could have a problem, I would be happy to admit it if it happened for sure, but uh unfortunately we don't we're not going to be there. That's good. That's good. It's a good problem. Yeah, that is a good problem. Council

Well, we are a much smaller city, so maybe 100 or 200,000 wouldn't be out of the No, I'm sorry. That was bad joke. You know, I I had a follow-up conversation with um Brendan Murphy, the chief deputy uh district attorney, and um you know, I I I'm I'm pleased with his approach, his very concern for our community, uh particularly around the immigration enforcement issues. And I think it's noteworthy that um He's one district attorney in the country that has actually brought criminal charges against a federal official for um you know hitting and and killing uh a bicyclist. U and unfortunately due to um to the way that the federal government um accords immunity that case has was lost in this appeal. But but they had the courage to actually bring that case and try to hold an official accountable for their wrongful conduct. So we are trying to that it thank you. It's good to see you.

Thank you. Um and um I just want to add that it's nice to be back. missing two um city council meetings was like um I had lots of reading to catch up on. And number one, I just want to say to um to Jamie and her crew, I thought that the um North Mary u tourism collaboration, I was excited um and thinking that nine other I guess 10 other um you know, little um Bergs or whatever you want to say, I guess cities will be a part of this. I I think that's It's exciting. Thank you. U lot of hard work and you know it's just I just want you to know how much I appreciate that. And the other one uh is the community project. I know you know what our vision was you know $60 million project which I was all excited about but obviously um our citizens said no. And so we had to revamp and I think thatim um Congratulations and um Jesse, you guys have done a fantastic job of, you know, you know, calming it down and doing the best we can for the community. I'm really looking forward to seeing that and also being at the ribbon cutting. And um the other thing I wanted to say to um um was about the Rineer project. Um I happened to go over there um that day after the fellow u fell into the um sinkhole and I thought the staff that you had there, the workers were absolutely fantastic and I talked to a few of the residents and they were very pleased at um all the work that the city had done and um Ian K

I think it was Yeah. um contractors. I think you know they did everything was cleaned up. It was beautiful. I thank you. I know that the estates thanks you. So um other than that I do want to say thank you very much to um uh councelor Wil for um calling me offering to help and pick up groceries along with Scott and our mayor. Listen, it's just been um wonderful to receive um the support that I've had, not only from neighbors, but from this family that I have. Thank you. Thank you. We're glad to see you back. Thank you, Counc.

Uh I had the opportunity to attend that uh community meeting as well on Friday that uh councelor Wilk and um councelor Ghalva attended, echoing their thoughts on how that meeting went. Um just thank you to um Skyler with the police department for that comprehensive and detailed report. Um and also thank you to McKenzie for that um that legal opinion. Um very thoughtful and just really appreciate the work that went into that. So thank you Carl. So a couple things. Um one I'd like to congratulate all the Seahawk fans for

good game yesterday. Very good game. long time coming.

Um, I had an opportunity a few days ago to go to United Credit Union's grand opening and I welcome them to the city. Did a very good job in their building and they had a had a very good show and and people that that showed up there. So, now I need to make a uh a serious clarification for something that was said earlier tonight. I never served in Vietnam. I was in the service at that time, but somehow Mr. Tu made a mistake. And I've never told him or anyone else that I was ever in Vietnam. But I don't want to take away from those that uh that did serve the the great men and women that have sacrificed and made it over there. So I will make a point of talking to Mr. Tu and uh thank him for recognizing the city's position. But believe me, I need to make that clarification. With that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Second. Second. All in favor sign. I thank you.