City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I have 7 p.m. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Irvin here. Councelor Hank here. Councelor Lamman here. Councelor Meriday here. Councelor Settlemire. Councelor Wilson here. Mayor Solsby here. I'll rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Items to be added to the agenda. There are none special presentations. Public safety telecommunicators week proclamation. Public safety telecommunicators week. Whereas the professional public safety telecommunicator is the vital link between the citizen or victim and the public safety provider who will respond to assist and may apprehend a criminal, save their possessions from fire, save their life or the life of the loved one. And whereas hundreds of dedicated telecommunicators daily serve the citizens of Oregon by answering their requests for law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services by dispatching the appropriate assistance as quickly as possible. And whereas Cottage Grove maintains South Lane 911 and our telecommunicators serve the citizens of Cottage Grove and surrounding area by answering their requests for law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services by dispatching the appropriate assistance and quickly as possible. And whereas the professional telecommunicators of South Lane 911 have shown amazing dedication and loyalty recently in the midst of many challenges. And whereas in 1994, President William J. Clinton signed Presidential Proclamation 6667, declaring the second full week of April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week as a time to celebrate and thank telecommunications personnel across the nation who s serve our communities, citizens and public safety personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now therefore, I, Candace Solsby, mayor of the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon, do hereby proclaim April 6, 2026 to be public safety telecommunicators week in the city of Cottage Grove and encourage all citizens

join in the observance and show appreciation to their south lane 911 telecommunicators and all telecommunicators in win in witness whereof I have un here unto set my hand and caused the seal of the city in Cottage Grove, Oregon to be affixed. this 23rd day of March 2026. The next proclamation is for child abuse prevention month proclamation. Child abuse prevention month proclamation. Whereas child abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community and finding solutions requires input and action from everyone. And whereas our children are our most valuable resource and will shape the future of the city of Cottage Grove. And whereas child abuse can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects that have lasting consequences for victims of abuse. And whereas protective factors are conditions that reduce or eliminate risk and promote the social, emotional, and developmental well-being of children. And whereas effective child abuse prevention activities succeed because of the partnerships created between ch child welfare professionals, education, health, community, and faith-based organizations, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and families. And whereas communities must make every effort to promote programs and activities that create strong, thriving children and families. And whereas we acknowledge that we must work together as a community to increase awareness about child abuse and contribute to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a

safe, stable, and nurturing environment. And whereas prevention remains the best defense for our children and families. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Candace Solsby, mayor of city of the Cottage Grove, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as child abuse prevention month in the city of Cottage Grove and urge all citizens to recognize this month by dedicating ourselves to the task of improving the quality of life for all children and families. In w in in witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and caused the seal of the city of Cottage Grove to be affixed this 23rd day of March, 2026. Chief Chase,

thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you. We have a couple of uh guests here tonight from uh Kids First Child AD ad child abuse advocacy center in Eugene. Um, Jacqueline and Terry and we would like to request a photo with you uh the four of us if we could. Item C, presentation by CIS general counsel and city attorney.

Thank you and good evening. So, um I guess I want to preface this to let uh not only the council know but also members of the audience. This is a presentation that's been scheduled for a considerable amount of time. The council has not had a training since 2024. Um, and we have this wonderful and unique opportunity to have uh general counsel for um, city county insurance services here to present. We were given a block of 60 to 90 minutes. Um, and I just want to let everyone know that that's we're going to use that time. There's a lot to cover and uh so if if there was something else that the council wishes we could accommodate but that's we're starting and that's what's happening next. Okay. Wonderful. Well, I believe Okay. Thanks. Um I I I believe that you all and maybe the audience are familiar with me. My name is Carrie Connelly. I'm with Local Government Law Group. I've been a a government attorney since 1994. Um, I began advising the city of Cottage Grove in 2014 and as I mentioned, we have the extreme honor of having general counsel for CIS here this evening. Um, Tamara Russell has been uh an employment attorney. She was a partner in two reputable firms before um moving to county to CIS uh in 2013 and um and has moved up is now their general counsel. She has uh I mean decades of experience with employment law advising entities on uh scope of authority and so you all have heard me speak before. I am going to help set the framework of what is the scope of authority, what rules, charter provisions, etc. govern um the council

and staff at the city of Cottage Grove. But Tamara has the unique perspective of being able to show that in action. What does scope of authority really look like? What is within without that scope of authority? And um what are the downsides in the event of acting outside the scope of authority? So, I think with that, I'll let Tamara kick us off. Okay. Well, thank you for having me this evening. Um, for those of you who may not be familiar with CIS, although I'm hoping you kind of know who we are, we are the city's general liability coverage provider. And that's not the only line of coverage the city has. The city has several lines of coverage with us. Um, the reason I'm here is because CIS staff members and I go around the state to city councils like this one and we talk about roles and responsibilities of elected bodies. Why do we do that? Because it's for reasons that Carrie already mentioned. We find that highly effective councils are the ones that are least likely to be sued either by their own employees or members of the public, whatever the situation may be. And we just find it's a good time to get, you know, when you're all so busy focusing on so many other things, it's good to have some designated time to just focus on these issues for just a little bit, just to be reminded of what's in the charter and what do the laws say and what are the potential consequences, all that fun stuff, I like to say. Um, but that's why we're here. This presentation was not tailored to this council. This is the same presentation that I have made to other city councils up and down I5. The only difference is what Carrie is going to be talking about tonight because she's going to be focusing specifically on the city charter and specific rules that apply to all of you. But the portion my portion is not anything about all of you. It's just like I said what I present to every council that I have presented to. Now you are welcome to ask questions this

evening uh as I present. You don't have to wait until the end even though I do have a section called let's play stump the CIS and city attorneys. if you really want to go there because that's kind of my favorite game. But um you are welcome to ask questions during this presentation. I would just remind all of you that because this is a public forum, nothing that we say in here is confidential, right? So just keep that in mind when you're asking questions or if you want to talk about certain issues, that is something to keep in mind. Um so anyway, we'll talk about kind of eight habits of highly effective councils. We'll talk about what it means to act within the scope of your duties as that is defined by law. We have a little bonus section on social media because we find that elected officials get in trouble with that the most. Not understanding like when is your account private, when is it public, what's the blend between the two, what are the consequences of not keeping these things separate, that type of thing. And then like I said, if there's any questions at the end, I'm happy to answer them. Um, unlike Carrie, we're not going to go I I don't think we're going to go an hour and a half tonight because we lose attention as a human being after about 45 minutes to an hour. So, I'm going to keep it under that. But if you want to stay and talk, I'm happy to stay. It's completely up to you. Okay. So, the eight habits of highly effective councils. And what that means is, is the council acting like a team? Um, you are a team, right? We're going to talk about this a lot. None of you have the authority to act alone. You have to act as a body, the majority of the body. That is what makes you a team. But the question that I want you to ask yourself, just to yourself, don't answer out loud. Thinking about now the dynamics among this council and how you all interact with one another. Do you consider yourself a highly effective team? Are you working together? Are you finding consensus? Are you having civilized conversations? Are you having

dialogue or are we debating? Are we acting as individuals with our individual interests? So ask yourself, are we acting as a council or as we acting as a group? Because I think there's actually a difference in that as you will see. So what are the principles of a team? Pretty easy, right? Um how do you define a a high functioning council? It's somebody that's acting like a team. So that means we have shared goals. You were all elected on individual platforms with individual interests and you all have different like I think probably goals in terms of what you want to accomplish here. But the reality is is that you can't achieve any of those as an individual. Like I said, you have to have a way to find shared goals. Finding that consensus, finding that way to put your interests into some kind of scheme that others can then add their goals to so that you have this common interest. That's the only way you're going to operate as a team, not coming in with individual goals. You also provide a space where everybody gets a chance to contribute, right? We're all allowing everybody to present their own views on issues. We're not like just cutting it off to certain people. Uh nobody feels threatened by conflict. Uh there's room for everyone to express their own ideas, their own opinions because we hear everyone out. And most importantly, we create an atmosphere of trust and encouragement, right? Because if we're acting as a team and we only want to hear our side of events, we're not then going to be paying attention to everybody else's views around us. And that again means that we're not acting as a body. We're acting as an individual. And that does means that you won't be able to achieve everything that you want to achieve that way. Participative decision-making, it's no different than what I've already mentioned. It just means that before you make a decision, everybody gets a chance

to say what they want to say and you then you make your decision. Everybody gets that equal say before the vote is taken on whatever the issue is or whatever the matter is. So habit number one, thinking and acting strategically. Um all this really means is is that as a city council, you are the strategic planners. You are the big ideas people. You have the ideas for how this city can be a better place for people to live here and how we can have more business here and how we can have clean water and all those important issues. But you don't have what I would call the tactical plan. That is handled by your staff. That is handled by the experts and the consultants that you hire. You just come to those people and you say, "Here are our ideas. Now we expect you to enact them and we expect you to implement them in such a way that furthers our collective goal and whatever it may be. So you have to have these strategic plans in mind, right? Bigger pictures, the big view of what this city needs and what it wants. That is the best way you can act then as an effective council to get to those goals that everybody shares then as a common entity. Habit number two, these are a bunch of skills that I think are really important for individual counselors. The first one is what I would consider to be soft skills and we will talk about this a little bit more later, but do you have those interpersonal skills that allow you to work with just about anybody? And how do you work with just about anybody? You make sure that you listen. You make sure that you give the other person time to talk. You expect the same in return. You treat others the way that you want to be treated because that's how you can sometimes come together then and build a consensus and work as a team when you have that level of respect. Uh task skills. Um it's not just the knowledge to do a job, right? It's not just what

you brought to your individual elected roles. It's also a question of do you know what your roles are on this council? What does the charter say? What do our rules say about that? What does the law say? And Carrie will get all into that in a little bit, but this is just to put it the thought in your mind now. And then third, rational skills. Do you have the ability to be objective? Can you deal with problems and issues that come your way rationally? Or do we immediately react without putting a lot of thought into it? If you have the better sense of being objective as an elected body and as an individual member of this council, you will achieve more because you are acting then from a situation of I'm hearing everybody out, right? I'm not just coming to this with my view and saying it's my way or the highway. I'm going to hear what people have to say. I'm going to hear what they have to say and then I'm going to make a decision. That is how you develop those kinds of rational skills. Third habit, um making sure that you know the roles and responsibilities for each of you. Um if you don't know how a mayor or city council fits into the overall governance of the city of Cottage Grove, you're not going to be able to do your job because you don't know the parameters of it. So, this is why we're going to spend a little time, Carrie is talking about what those rules are, talking about the different documents that kind of govern what we all do as an elected body, and then we'll see where we go from there. Carrie, take it away. All right. Well, we're staying at a high level for this next slide. Um, just to really drill down on the form of government that city of Cottage Grove has is a council manager form of government. and that was selected. Your form of government reflects what Tamara's been talking about. You have a division between this high level um policy oriented body that's elected by

the taxpayers and residents and then a delegation of um administerial tasks to your staff. And um it's that's really just what that term means, a separation between political and administration. Next slide. This is established in your charter. So, looking a little more closely at what your charter um outlines for your city council, what are the delegated authority or reserved authorities to your body? Um your big picture as you just heard from Tamara. Um you have authority to adopt ordinances. That's your legislation. You have the authority to adopt administrative resolutions. Um the or ordinances are in charter chapter 4 administrative resolutions. Charter chapter 5 orders are how you exercise your quasi judicial authority. And let's just talk a little bit about so everything all three of these are still big picture. So, you set your long-term planning goals as a group, that sets your policy, and then you start thinking, how do we make sure that that happens at some point down the road? We're going to set a framework of ordinances that then allow administrative details like fees to be set by resolution. And when, so setting those aside, that's your legislation and administration. And then orders are when you have an individual person like a land use applicant that is before you and saying under your ordinances that you've adopted I think I get to do X Y or Z um and I don't want to pay your administrative fee under the rules that you've adopted and I'm looking for you to say yay or nay. Is that a fair application of your land use regulations

of your nuisance code etc. So you sometimes have one person in front of you that because of the way your ordinance is set up, you've reserved the authority to make those to issue orders. It is highly unlikely like that doesn't happen very often, right? Does anybody remember the last time a land use decision came to this body? And it I mean maybe one a year if if that. Um, and so I just want to emphasize that you do have some quasi judicial authority. That's deciding something um applying a body of law to an individual person, but you don't exercise that authority very often um because you're you're big picture people. Uh now hiring hiring similarly is very limited. Your charter says you get to appoint your appoint and hire your city manager and you appoint your municipal judge. Those are charter sections uh 33 and 34. Um and that's all that's what you do. Everything else is delegated down to staff in terms of hiring, interviewing, disciplining, um uh terminations, etc. So, let's turn to what you've delegated in the charter. Actually, it wasn't you, the council. It was you, the people, delegated from the council to the city manager. Um, the city manager provides some policy support because again, they have the professional expertise, the time and the staffing to develop data on which you want to base those ordinances. So, they help guide your policym. truly that is reserved to you. Um what you're involved with is making sure that you're hiring a professional

administrator who can provide you the guidance that you need in those in that policy development. Um city managers are highly trained, experienced individuals who serve at the pleasure of the elected governing body and their jobs are policy support. You adopt the ordinances, they implement them, they help the planning commission or staff to make those planning decisions. Um, that's the quasi judicial side of things, issuing licenses, issuing permits, and then providing that staff oversight that we already talked about. So, where is all of this in what's been adopted so far? We've already talked about your city charter. your city charter was adopted by city voters. Sometimes the council can initiate um changes to your charter, but you can't make those changes. Those need to be approved by the voters. Um ordinances you adopt resolutions implement those ordinances. We talked about that. And the authority doesn't rest with any single elected official, but with the majority of your council. We're going to talk about numbers on the next slide, but I just want to keep bringing that home. No one counselor up here has the authority to make a decision for the city or to direct your staff. And I'm I'm going to talk about that a little bit more also because um of issues that I see in all of my cities that come up. Uh so my my I think our goal with the uh the purpose of this training is to really emphasize staying in your lane, knowing what your role is, what has already been delegated to staff um and elsewhere. And then Tammer is really going to bring home the elected officials can be held responsible for actions um toward city employees and third parties if you're

outside of that lane. So let's move on to the next slide. So council authority requires two things. The legal authority that we've talked about charter statutes ordinances and then numbers. And for your city four is a quorum. You have a council of seven which is six counselors plus the mayor. And so always be counting heads. If you're talking up here and you think I've given direction and I'm expecting at a future meeting to have an issue brought back and briefed by staff, was that was there actually a consensus of a quorum? And if not, um staff is specifically directed by me and by the remainder to please not spend time on that. Their time is very valuable and already spread thin. Um and and so that's one of the things that I just kind of try to when I'm here I say I hear one counselor asking for something or others interested in that in that or not. Um and that is in this room and it's also outside of this room. So there's no authority to speak on behalf of the council outside this room unless the quorum uh a majority of a quorum said you get to go talk to the chamber of commerce on Tuesday and we really want you to be able to talk about this particular measure. Here's why we're the council. We're in favor of it. Thank you for speaking on our behalf. We really want it to be that express before it you're posting on Facebook saying the council thinks or the council wants. Um, just catch yourself before those those words hit hit the public, hit the newspaper, hit the media. Um, let's see. I I like you acting by motion, but of course we sometimes act

by consensus. And let's see, I'm trying to I'm trying to abbreviate um the points to to to hit the high points. Um I really also like to emphasize decisions don't need to be unanimous. It's a democracy and it is fine once people have voiced their positions for the uh majority of a quorum to move a different direction. Once that direction has been taken, however, via motion or consensus, um those who were not in favor of that council movement, that's the city's position, which means it is now your position when you're speaking on behalf of the city. And so there's it is important to have diverse opinions, but you're a team and ultimately that team acts together once decisions have been made. Next slide. So, the delegations to the city manager. Um, yeah, we've we've already talked about how you have limited council employer authority. The code and the charter delegate operational powers to the city manager. And I just want to talk about those. They're literally in the charter for the city manager that you appoint. you choose based on his expert he or she his or her expertise um to prepare the budget that's in the charter direct day-to-day operations in it's specifically stated organize city departments and administrative structure administer and enforce all city ordinances resolutions franchises leases contracts permits and other city decisions hire supervise and fire personnel I'm quoting from the charter and so I think it's really helpful because If you see that an ordinance isn't being implemented in the way that you personally don't believe it should be implemented, that is outside the scope of your authority. And even if the council as a

whole thinks that an ordinance or anything isn't being implemented appropriately, you are able to give feedback to staff. you are able to um give your uh direction to the city admin manager, but you're relying on his or her professional expertise and you may not know the whole picture and so you're not you can give feedback in personal uh evaluations but you should not be directing that kind of implementation even if it's from the dis. That's my that's my opinion. I think you'll hear some examples from Tamara later on that. Um and and it is bound to happen. No good deed goes unpunished. So you individually and you as an a body are not employee advocates. So if an employee comes to you, it happens time and again. You're trying to do the right thing. An individual counselor thinks I can help this employee. I can improve the morale of staff by going around the chain of command and taking either of this into my own hands. We're going to talk about this as a council. You've just stepped outside of your uh scope of authority. Or I'm going to go directly to the city manager and guide him or her on what h how to improve this employment situation. Again, you've stepped out of the scope of your authority. And so my tip is if you're being approached, say you go you direct them appropriately. The the rules are set up so that you can get public input here and then not respond. You can defer to your professional staff to handle employment situations, public situations in uh ordinance enforcement properly. Um, and if you're approached individually at the grocery store, then you just say, "Go

talk to whoever it is, the department head, the city manager. Here's our complaint form." Um, I know you've heard this before from me, but I'm just using this opportunity to to give those tips again. Turning it back over to you, Tamara. Okay. So, back to the habits of effective councils. Um, this habit refers to u consistently evaluating what you've done, right? None of your work is really a oneanddone kind of thing. Um, if you view it that way, then you're probably not living up to your full capabilities as a council. So, whenever you pass an ordinance or a resolution or something, go back and look at it at some point and say, "What is working? What is not working? What did we overlook? What are we hearing from people since we passed this that they like or they don't like? What kind of feedback do you get after you've taken official action? Because those leaders that actually consistently evaluate their own work are the ones that in fact are doing the best jobs because you are doing your job and representing this city and representing the interests of the city. When you continually assess what you've done, even if at the time you thought it was wonderful and perfect, situations change, facts change, the laws change, maybe we need to reassess it, but you never stop assessing your own work. And you always give it kind of a fresh look after a little bit of time has passed. Habit number five is allocating your time appropriately. This slide represents what I think are some of the main functions of an elected official. And when you look at these four functions, I mean, there's not one that really stands out as being more important than another. They are all important to you and your individual roles on this council. But you as an individual need to think about how best to allocate your time. So if you are just focused on for example community relations, you're not then focusing

enough time on the other items that are listed up here. You are not being then actually a fully effective member of this council because you're not fulfilling all of your roles and responsibilities. So think about that like think about how you spend a week. In what way do you spend your time as an elected official? How often does it fall into these four categories? and where might you be in a position to do more in one category and maybe less than another just so all these different interests are balanced out and you are providing that full rounded kind of service habit number six turning back to Carrie for just a second um following the council rules and the council rules are really helpful in to to implement that habit five which is allocating time appropriately. You've adopted rules. The council charter is required to have rules. Um the rules were adopted by resolution. They were last updated in 2024. They are changeable. So if you don't if they aren't working for you and if they're not working for your public, this body can decide to modify them. But they have been drafted and think about it to ensure that your business meetings which are council meetings are um efficient and productive and so to the extent that any one element of the habit five is taking priority in your meetings you might want to think again to say how is it that I'm burning out staff how is it uh by going too long how is it that I'm uh things that weren't prepped or on the agenda are are taking up the vast majority of our council meeting time. Um you your time is incredibly valuable and your volunteers so you have lives, you have other things to focus on. We want

to make sure that time in meetings is spent productively um and efficiently and you're getting stuff done that needs to be taken care of that you have previously prioritized in your goal setting. So, um I I think that the rules written were really were written to support Tamara's best practice habits. Uh it is important to be able to hear from the public. Um I just I I the rules don't expressly state, but they certainly imply that um issues raised by the public don't need to be addressed in that meeting. And my strong recommendation is they should not be addressed in that meeting. They could be if a quorum, a majority of a quorum is interested in having staff follow up on a particular issue that's raised by the public, great. That can be briefed and placed on a future agenda and then talked about more efficiently and effectively than multiple people brainstorming in that moment of I think this and I've heard this and I'd like to see this. It's really hard for staff to respond. um professionally even though they are going to your staff will respond on on the spot if they're asked to. I just don't like having them asked on the spot like that. Um and that is in the rules. I one of the problems with rules is nobody's familiar with them. So I I'm I make sure I have a copy with me at meetings. Um if you see me flipping around over here, I'm regularly looking up going, "Is this are we are we following the standard protocol?" Um, and I I think I've already mentioned, but I I see in many bodies elected officials who want to be responsible to their public. It is the number one reason you're up here is because you care about citizens and you care about the community. And sometimes the best way to take care of them is not to respond in the moment. So not letting

your meetings getting hijacked by things that seem preeminently important right then, but they're not on the agenda. It's not really fair to staff either. Um, all right, that's enough. Okay. Um, kind of dovetailing on what Carrie said there about, you know, wanting to do what's right for the community and looking out for the community and hearing their best interests. Um, one thing I've seen ineffective councils do is that they listen to the same people in the community over and over again. They don't actually go out and talk to different people, people they might not normally associate with, different groups. There's no outreach. There's no roundts. There's no listening sessions. Um, you're not taking in the views of everybody in your community, but just the people you feel most comfortable with or who are most like you. That is not the sign of an effective council because at that point, your council is not doing what it was elected to do, which is to represent everybody. So a habit of a highly effective council is just continually seeking those objective assessments and trying to hear all the different opinions so that you are making the most informed decisions that you can when it comes before you to whatever the decision may be or whatever the issue may be. And then finally I would encourage you to never stop growing or learning. Um, you know, in my 29 years of law, I'm amazed at how every week at least, there's something new in the law, something crazy for me to learn. And it's no different from any of you in an elected position, right? And the League of Oregon Cities, of which the city is a member, provides elected officials like you with a lot of training opportunities. Um, you can go online right now on their website and watch their elected essentials training which covers everything from ethics law to public meetings to public records, all the things Carrie's been talking about being a good leader, that type of thing. You can watch all of that online.

Also, they have a quite a few training sessions coming up in person. So, in May, for example, if you were interested in going to one of their small cities meetings, they're having one in Harrisburg, not too far from here. and you could interact with other people from other elected bodies the same size as yours, smaller, larger, depending on what's going on. Um, but you can kind of interact and talk to other people who are in positions similar to you about what they're experiencing. Maybe you're experiencing a similar issue as another city and you get chance to talk to them about how they're dealing with it. But that's how you learn too. Um, so I would encourage you to take advantage of these learning opportunities and kind of, you know, make it a goal of your own to never stop learning to figure out there's always got to be something new to learn in this job because trust me, there is. Now, because we do live in a current system where debate rages on and people have become less civil, I think it's important for all of you to remember that when you have a discussion about a heated topic or you're talking to someone about a heated topic, to take the high road, to be the bigger person in that discussion and to not um have such a conversation kind of deescal not not deescalate but kind of devolve into something that isn't a colleial professional kind of communication. You don't accomplish anything uh with yelling or accusations or kind of statements that are like, you know, you're wrong, you do this, you do this kind of a thing. Um we always say that it's best to avoid using phrases like always and never in your communications because that sounds a lot more aggressive, right? You never do this. You always say this. That's not a good way to get your point across. We encourage you to use eyes, right? I feel that. I feel that. I hear you say that because that's a less confrontational,

more collegial way to talk to somebody when it's a really kind of heated situation. Um, also, um, non-verbal messages. We all do this, but sometimes we don't think about it, right? we're talking to somebody and we're getting so agitated or excited that we end up talking over another person before they get a chance to finish. Or you sit there and you with your arms crossed and you're looking up into the ceiling while somebody's talking. So you're demonstrating your frustration with the situation when really what you're also doing is demonstrating that you're not listening. So those non-verbal cues, try to be mindful of those as well, even if they, you know, feel like it might be appropriate for the moment. um being hum you know showing humility in conversations. If you've made a mistake about facts, if you find yourself raising your voice when it comes to a conversation or a particular topic or a conversation, be the first one to be like, you know what, I'm wrong. I shouldn't have raised my voice. I'm sorry. Right? Humility is the best way to deescalate a situation and to make it a lot more of a kind of a good conversation as opposed to a debate. um ignoring someone. Um Carrie brought this up. If if the council votes uh on a particular issue, yet you continue to raise the point that you wanted to raise, you were in the minority. Your side didn't win, quote unquote, that's not a good use of communication as well. That's not a way that this council is going to move on or get passed. You may not agree with the majority position, but it does no one any good to take up time of the council to then continue to advocate whatever your position was that lost. Um, and that does not improve communication at all. So, basically, I want you to think about in these situations that get tense or kind of heated, um, am I being listened to and am I listening to that person? what am I doing to suggest that I am listening as opposed to just shutting that person

down and not paying attention to what they are saying? And then of course debate versus dialogue. Uh we always encourage dialogue as opposed to debate. Sometimes that's easier said than done, but you might remember some of the principles of a team that I talked about at the beginning of this presentation when I said, you know, everyone um contributes. Uh no person feels threatened by conflict. there's room for everyone to express themselves and their ideas. That is dialogue. That means there's no room for this debate which which nobody ever wins, right? It's always in a contest to see who's going to come out on top. Um so you know thinking about when you think about um how to make a discussion as a dialogue and not a debate think about the things that are up there like listening to understand style is collaborative assume that others have information that might actually be relevant to what you what is being said even if you think that person has no idea what they're talking about. Right? So, just kind of keeping that open mind. Um, and even when things do get tense among yourselves or if you're upset with people in the community or you're upset at staff, remember that everybody does want what's best for the city. You just all have different ideas about how to get there. And if you can't find a way to bridge those differences, to come up with that consensus, that commonality, this council will achieve nothing. And so I would encourage you to think about that at those moments when things seem to be very debatable or very much not about moving forward in a conversation but just trying to prove who is right and who is wrong. So returning to that question I asked at the beginning, think to yourself again, is the Cottage Grove City Council acting as a team or are you acting as a bunch of individuals with your own individual goals? And I hope that as a result of hearing these things, you'll think about if we're not acting as a team, then what do we do to

make this better on this council and how do we move forward from here? All right. So, now some of the legal issues that Carrie mentioned earlier, I do need to give you a quick law class and I'm very sorry because I know none of you probably wanted to go to law school for a reason and I totally understand that. Um, but I'm going to keep this short. So, I want you all to become familiar with the Oregon TOR Claims Act. Uh, for those of you who don't know, that is the law that allows private citizens to sue local governments for the torchious acts of employees of those local governments. Um, this law had to be passed by the legislature in order for these lawsuits to happen. Um, now there are hoops that were attached to the Oregon Tor Claims Act that are still in effect today. Um, for example, well, let me back up. What is a tort? It is not a dessert. There's no e in tort claims act, right? So, let's just be clear about that. Um, tors are basically any breach of any legal duty that the government and its employees owe to a member of the community, right? Could be anything, negligence, defamation, whatever. Um, but that would be a tort. It just doesn't include things like breaches of contract or things like that. those are considered to have their own separate remedy. Um whereas things like you know defamation or negligence or things like that that's more spelled out in the law under simple mechanism. Um in anytime anybody wants to sue the local government they have to give the local government what's known as a tort claim act notice and there are timelines that the individual has to follow. It's 180 days before they can they have to give notice 180 days of the harm. um and then they have to file a lawsuit within a certain time after that. Damages are capped, but the number grows each year. So, for example, an individual suing a s a city um the most that a single

claimant could recover in a lawsuit like that in 2020 was around $789,000. Um today, in yesterday, yeah, today it's 2025. Okay. 2025 the cap is at $855,200 and that amount increases every year. And then the law also provides certain immunities. You may have heard people talk about recreational immunity or discretionary immunity. These are immunities available to people like you and acting your official capacity and they are things that prevent lawsuits from attaching to you if they are exercised properly. Um so anyway on this slide what you see in the first upper paragraph is the scope of the Oregon Tor claim act and basically it says you know that every public body is subject to a civil action. Like I said this is what allows people to sue the city and other local governments um when those officers employees and agents are acting within the course and this within the scope of their employment or duties and they're doing so in a governmental or proprietary function. Okay. So what does that mean? It means that if any of you did something wrong or if any city employee did something wrong and it resulted in a lawsuit, the lawsuit would be against the city because it would be assumed that the employee, the elected official, officer, whatever was acting within the course and scope of their duties. And what that means is is that the city has an obligation to indemnify you, which means that they will defend you and provide an attorney and cover the damages and things like that. What that also means is that CIS will step in and provide coverage to provide the attorneys to cover the damages and things like that. So that is the scope of duties and then also how the indemnification applies. Now the city is not obligated to indemnify any of you or its employees or agents things like that if any of the

following things apply. If there is malfeasance in office. If there's willful or wanting neglect of duty. if there are actions or omissions outside the scope of duties. So in those circumstances, if it's proven that any of you or an employee or an agent did any of those things, there would be no coverage and you would have to then be personally liable for any damages that occurred as a result of that, which is not fun, right? So let's go into this a little bit deeper. When is an elected official act acting outside the scope of their duties? Well, Carrie just told you it's when you take actions that are outside the city's charter, the bylaws, the rules, the policies that you will pass to, you know, govern your your actions. And the moment that any of you step outside of those roles, like Carrie was saying, um, if you do more than what the policy allows you to do or what the charter allows you to do, that is when you are acting outside the course and scope of your duties. And that is when personal liability attaches. And it's easier to fall outside of those boundaries than you think. That's why it's important to act when you have a full understanding of what it is you're doing as an elected official on behalf of the city versus as an individual. And I'll give you some examples of that in a little bit. For example, unlawful personal conduct. If any of you engaged in unlawful harassment or retaliation or discrimination against a member of the community or a member of city staff, that would be acting outside the course and scope of your duties. If you engaged in some kind of conduct that violates Oregon ethics law, also outside the course and scope of your duties, any willful violations of law. If you attend a training and you know what the law requires and you decide to do it your own way anyway, that would be a willful violation of the law and that would take

you outside the scope. And beyond those unlawful conducts, there's also conduct that I would call lawful, but it is also going to result in personal liability. And Carrie kind of gave some examples of this, but here's an easy one. We get claims against CIS members across the state all the time when an elected official just shows up at city hall and starts sitting in front of somebody's desk and say, "What are you doing? What are you working on? I need to see what you're looking at. I need to see your file. I need to see what it is you're talking about with members of the community." That is viewed as interfering with that employees ability to do work on behalf of the city for the city. And that is what will get you in trouble because you have no supervisory authority as Carrie pointed out to be directing the activities of staff in their day-to-day interactions with the community and in the performance of their duties. Similarly, if there's no if there's nothing on the agenda that says we're going to talk about employee Bob today and we're going to talk about, you know, his performance evaluation, then it's really not up to you to use time in a city council meeting to talk about employee Bob, right? Because then you are acting outside the course and scope of your duties. You have no supervisory authority over employees, and that's what can get you in trouble. again. Um, so and I also want you to think about with these non-legal examples that I'm giving you, there are a lot of ramifications that we see at CIS as a result of elected officials doing this with staff. So, for example, right now with one of our cities, we're dealing with a situation where two members of the city council really berated this one employee uh at the city quite a bit because they did not like how she was handling certain matters at the city. And I can't go into more detail about it other than to say that um by all accounts, by an outsers's perspective, she was doing her job. What she was doing was making decisions that

were unpopular with the elected body. And these two counselors in particular took it upon themselves to openly chastise her during city council meetings, post things on their Facebook page saying how awful this person was and she needed to be fired. and basically saying to anyone in the community they could talk to about how they understood that, you know, the community wants her fired and they're trying to do all they can to make that happen. Well, as a result of that, she goes on a medical leave of absence. So there we lose a key person in the city for 12 weeks. On top of that, then she's determined to be disabled, which gives her additional time off on top of that 12 weeks. So now we're talking about 24 weeks of time off from work and they have nobody in this role. And on top of that, she's got a lawyer. She's filed her TOR Claim Act notice, and now we're looking at trying to get this resolved so that we don't have to deal with a lawsuit. That's an extreme case, but it's not uncommon to see. We are seeing more and more of these cases where for some reason elected officials feel like it is their go their job to basically go and berate employees when it's never been their job ever. Um, you know, if you have an issue with an employee, um, don't bring it up in public. Think think about, if nothing else, the reputation that you are setting by such conduct. I can't tell you how hard it is for local governments to find employees today. And part of it is because they turn on YouTube, prospective employees, and they see how a city council acts and they see that they're yelling or they see that they're arguing or they see that they're berating employees in these public forums and people are like, "Why would I ever want to work for that city, right? We hear that quite a bit." And we also hear, you know, employees filing workers comp claims because they're experiencing stress at work as a result of the criticism they are feeling. um you lose employees who have been here for a while. And most importantly, and

this is the part I also would like you to think about, your actions will then spill into the community, right? You are all the leaders of this city and your actions determine and set the standard for everyone else around you. And if you all act like a bully and a you know, somebody who's just mean to people, um you are setting the standard. And we see that then play out in communities and we don't want to see that happening. So remember that too that your actions do have ramifications not only with your employees but with those around you. So going a little bit further, I mentioned this just briefly. We at CIS provide coverage just like the Oregon Tour Claim Act says. So if you're acting within, you know, the scope of your employment or duties, you will have coverage. Um if you don't um then you know attorney fees and damages become your personal responsibility. I say it's the city's concern because it's really up to the city at that point whether to provide any kind of coverage because if you're truly acting outside the course and scope of your employment or duties, then there's no obligation on the city to provide you with any help. And that's when personal liability can attach and that's when it can get expensive for you. um even if you have an insurance policy, a personal insurance policy that might protect you in a situation like that. It won't cover everything. Um so it can be kind of a scary situation for for a member of an elected body and um you know that that can be a deterrent then for others to run for office and we don't want to see that happen either. So just really in a kind of a practical sense um your personal assets are usually not at risk if you are doing good faith votes, if you're making policy decisions, if you're taking official actions, right? These are all the things we've been talking about during this presentation, which means you got to stay in your lane. You got to

act as a body. You got to treat people professionally. And if you do, that means that personal liability is probably not going to attach, right? And then that means that you won't have to worry about coverage if there's a lawsuit brought by somebody who's unhappy because you will be covered. Um so these are the rules that I just want you to think about and um take seriously because it's serious to us. Why is it serious to us? So here is a list of claims number only that have been alleged against public officials across the state of Oregon. Um, this time period you can see is from 2024, end of 2024, 10 years looking back. Um, more recent statistics don't really change these numbers all that much, but these are the top claims brought against public officials. Discretion abused is a big one that can be everything from you improperly decided a land use ordinance to you denied uh a permit the wrong way. You didn't take into account somebody's consideration on some issue. That covers a variety of things. Defamation is the big one, though, because again, that's when an elected official is saying something about somebody else that they view as defamatory. And maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but it's an easy way for an elected official to get targeted to be perfectly honest in a lawsuit. Um, these other ones are pretty straightforward. Constitutional rights violated, ADA violations, uh, malfeasants, intentional wrongdoing. Those are kind of hard to prove, but they're they're alleged against elected officials all the time. misfeasance, accidental error, just a fancy way of saying that. And then here's the value of those claims over 10 fiscal years. Um, it's cost CIS $1.3 million to settle those claims, defend those claims, take them to trial, whatever the outcome may be. Um, it's cost that much money to resolve all these claims. And you can see how they break down sort of you know

in that pot uh what was allocated to each type of claim alleged against the elected officials. Uh there is some coverage uh by CIS if you are accused of an ethics violation. So, for example, if somebody files an ethics complaint against you with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, uh CIS will provide currently $7,500 to pay for your attorney to give you some help in responding to that complaint. Um there is a cap though of $15,000, which means that we will only do that for two of you. Um, we had to put a cap on that because several years ago we didn't have a cap and we were seeing some local governments where the council was so dysfunctional that they were filing ethics complaints against each other and so suddenly we had like five ethics complaints going on. Um, and that's a mess. So, we had to put a cap on that. Now, as of July 1 of this year, we're increasing the amount of attorney fees that we'll pay on that. But note that you have to prevail in those actions. So, we don't give you the check up front. we basically you let us know that you get the complaint, you then get an attorney and then if you prevail before the OGC, then we will pay that attorney for you. Um, this also will apply to public meeting law complaints that are filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission because you may all recall that they also have oversight over that, but it does not apply to actions that are filed in court. So, if somebody took this council to court because they believed you were violating public meetings law and they wanted it stopped, you would be responsible for that. We don't handle those kinds of actions. Okay. On to social media and um maybe this is an issue for you, maybe it isn't, but I'm going to tell you how people are getting in trouble. First of all, elected officials forget that uh cities are responsible to maintain all kinds of records, right? not only for public records law, but because there

are record retention laws in Oregon that cities have to follow. And what some people don't realize is that um social media records can fall into that even if you think you're on a private account. So, couple things to point out here. These are not confidentiality laws. Um there's no way to allege, well, this is a purely private account. Maybe you can, but there's always this like test, this balancing test that courts will go through and they'll say, "Well, is the need, you know, for the public to know more important than your interest in keeping everything private?" There's just no guarantees about that. Um, and remember that here at the city, your city recorder is your records custodian. So, that is the person who makes the decision about whether records in your possession are something that we're going to have to produce or not. Um, your city recorder will obviously make that decision in conjunction with Carrie, your city attorney, but it is still a decision-making process that has to be made every time a request comes through the front door. You have a social media ecommunications policy here. And it reminds all of you that social media posts can be public records that are subject to these retention laws, public records laws. And that if you do have a social media post that falls into that category of a public record because you're talking about city business because you're representing what was discussed at a meeting as an elected official or worse you're talking about what was in an executive session which you should never do then you would have to turn that over to the city recorder. That is required under your e policy that you have here at the city. Now what needs to be retained? Well, you know, there's no specific rule under Oregon law about how social media falls into record retention law, but there is a requirement that you, as an elected official, hold on to any complaints you received or communications and distributions of information about city business that you exchange with others.

So, that's something that could easily fall within social media. And again, you don't really get to decide that the city's city recorder gets to because they're the records custodian by law. Um, so when you ever have something like that and you're like, I don't know if this is really a public record, just turn it over, right? If you're asked, that's best because then somebody else can make the decision and tell you, you're fine. This isn't public or no, sorry, we're going to have to produce this. If we do produce it, is there any redacting we can do? There's all kinds of an analysis that goes through all that. Um, any content that pertains to the conduct of the public's business is considered a public record. Um, so any content on a personal account, uh, definitely could fall into that, but definitely any content that you post on a city account will fall into that. Um, but even if you're using like the city internet and you're just posting on your private social media account, um, it could be recoverable. It could be direct messages. It could be posts that you made on the private account. It's really a very fact-specific inquiry. So, I'm sorry I'm not being more explicit here. Um, but these are kind of the general parameters of it. And we always say then that, you know, any city needs to have basically two types of social media accounts, right? One that is your official business and one that is private. And just remember, like I said, and I keep bringing up um you know, private accounts may become public because if you use them the wrong way, they can become public and Carrie will have an example of that for you. So u hysterically the Supreme Court had the opportunity US Supreme Court had the opportunity to decide between two tests that various circuits were federal circuits were applying to determine had a public official turned their private what they called were their private

social media account had it become public and the um let's see so the just just first off it it might be counterintuitive why would anything that I post on a private Facebook page in anything that I want some if I want to delete somebody's post if I want to block somebody how in the world could that violate the first amendment so um the first amendment right of free speech is it says congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech it protects individuals right of free speech it limits governments and government officials from infringing on that right and so what you want to make sure is that when you're operating writing your social media account if you have one that you haven't gone far enough. You haven't talked city business on it so that somebody would say I get to post whatever I want and you can't take it down and you can't block me. Um so the way that the Supreme Court articulated the test is so unhelpful in my opinion. Um did the individual possess the actual authority to speak on in your case the city's behalf on that particular matter? How hard is that as a counselor? You you have high level policy authority over everything. You have no administrative authority over anything. But if you're talking about sewer treatment plant and the need to improve it, what is that? Is that in your authority or not? Um and that any any speech that you posted uh exercised that authority. So the example on the next slide um in Linky a city manager used his personal Facebook account to post about both personal and city related matters um related to the CO 19 pandemic and Linky posted responses expressing dissatisfaction with the city's pandemic response. Freed deleted

the comments and later blocked Linky. Linky sued and alleged that Frerieded posted in his capacity as city manager he was talking about city co 19 policies that ostensibly he was either creating or implementing um and then blocked him and the plaintiff claimed that violated his first amendment rights. Well, the court uh simply said it's really difficult to draw the line between private and state action. Um especially where an official routinely interacts with the public and may look like they're always on the clock. It makes it tempting to characterize every encounter as part of the job. Again, as an elected official, I would take um extreme caution. Labeling something as a private page isn't sufficient, and it really depends on what's the content. The Supreme Court specifically said it's context dependent. Um they didn't give us a bright line. They sent it back down to the lower court to apply their test. Um and so our really our uh word of caution is not comingling personal with city communications. And I I think you've got some more guidance on that.

Yeah. So again, our recommendation have two accounts. You have the one that talks about city business, the things you're authorized to talk about like Carrie mentioned early earlier. And then you have the personal social media account where you talk about your family and your dog and restaurants that you like to go to and your travel, all that. But the more you can make that clear distinction, the more you will be protected, right? The more that means then that your private account really will stay private and you're not allowing then like politics to kind of seep in there. Um, so that is our key takeaway. But then also we also recommend at CIS that you know every member, every city, every county has some kind of social media policy for its elected officials that talks about how hey we're all elected officials but we all have to be professionals too because even if we're not wearing our elected official hat, people view us that way. And in a lot of these court cases, it's how the public views you, not how you view yourself when you make these posts. So having a policy in place that says, "Hey, all of us are going to have these separate accounts and we're all going to be professional about it is a great idea." Recognizing again that you have no privacy. If you are conducting business, city's business on social media accounts, there is no privacy attached to that. Um, and that visitors to your accounts have first amendment rights. So even if you don't like what they're saying, you can't cut them off. There's no way to do that lawfully without running a foul of their first amendment rights. Because if you were holding yourself out as having a public account, you will be viewed then to be the government and therefore you have to honor those first amendment rights of the people who visit your site and post things that you may not like and coverage issues as well, right? So, if you are posting things on your social media account, that's this kind of mix of personal and private stuff or personal stuff and public stuff um and then you decide that you're going to go after somebody in the community and you

kind of tear into them on your this website, that could be outside the scope of your authority, right? And so that would be a problem then when there might not be coverage attached to it. All right, so with that, are there any questions? Did I stun you into silence? Are you awake? Told you we'd keep it under an hour. All right. Well, with that, thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate that you were staying alert and awake. I know this is kind of tough stuff to listen to, but um I'm grateful that you had me here today. We really appreciate it. So, thank you.

Thank you, Tamara. Thank you, Carrie. All right. Appearance of interested citizens. This is a time for citizen comment. The council will first take comments addressing items not listed on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. The council will then take comments addressing action items on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. Individual speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer, provide their name, identify whether they are a city resident, and if so, their ward. Please limit comments to three minutes or less with council approval. Comments regarding any matter scheduled for public hearing may be provided only during that hearing. The council will not make any decisions based on public comment. However, staff and council may choose to ask questions or comment following the conclusion of citizen comments. And because we have so many people here this evening that want to uh stand at the podium, I will ask that you be respectful of staff that many of them have been here since 7:00 a.m. this morning. And so let's keep it to the 3minut limit. Right. Dwayne. Okay. Mark D. Tim Cavini. Forgive me if I get these names wrong.

Hello. Uh, my name is Tim Keany. I'm live in the city and I'm in Ward three. Thank you, mayor and council members for this opportunity. I wanted to say a few words about the Cottage Grove Library and u first of all Cottage Grove Library is one of the primary providers of free technology for those who cannot afford it at home. that offers free Wi-Fi computer access for job seekers, students, and low-income families. Second, I see the Cottage Library serves as a kind of a third place, a safe, non-commercial space where people can gather without expecting to spend money. I've seen it help vulnerable populations in our area. The library provides a dignified climate controlled sanctuary for the housed and help combat social isolation for seniors. It offers also offers uh early literacy programs like story time for toddlers and summer reading clubs for students. They help to uh narrow the achievement gap before and during school years. I believe the Kottis Grove Library as a guardian of truth and privacy. In era of fake news and data tracking, libraries prioritize verified information and user privacy. The cottage library helps distinguish facts from misinformation. And I find people like Natasha there uh very helpful. They help with research.

Um, and sometimes we look at our little phones all the time and I think sometimes a simple search engine might miss those ideas. Um, I believe that privacy advocacy is uh unlike the online platforms. The library does not track or sell user data. It protects intellectual freedom and personal search history. There's a censorship resistance. Libraries actively fight against book bands and ensure diverse viewpoints and remain accessible to all citizens. Um, let's see. I go to the library at least once a week and we get together at uh play ukulele with a couple of friends and that's kind of fun. In conclusion, I think it's a Cottage Grove offers the library as a good return on investment for the community by allowing patrons to border to borrow books and other tools. Libraries help reduce individual costs and promote environmental sustainability. My hope is that this library will continue to be a vital part of our Cottageg Grove community and that all people here can benefit from it. I hope that you'll vote in favor of keeping the library open. Thank you.

Thank you.

No problem.

She ran away. But uh yeah, um I'm Markowski. resident here and um I just want to say my experience you know regarding the library issue is just that you know I grew up as a kid in Chicago and I remember all these fond memories are going with my mom as a kid on our bicycles to the library and it was just a part of my culture and I see that here too people you know the people that want to learn the library is the best it's it's our basic source of uh like other guy just said it's the it's the most reliable source of information so much garbage out there these days and uh it just breaks my heart to think it taken away an institution like that and it just seems like our quality of life in this country just gets harder and harder all the time but that's like a draconian move it's like we just get wipe out one of these major sources of education and information and knowledge is power and it's like we're giving up an awful lot and uh and from what I can tell I don't know what all the details of how we're up 1.6 six million short all of a sudden. But that seems like a serious issue and I'd like to hear more about that in the future and what you know what are the who's responsible if and you know who's liable for that kind of thing. But most importantly I I think that one way or another closing the library would be a big mistake because if it's closed I don't think you're going to be able to reopen it. It's easy to close things. It's hard to start them up again. And uh I just I just think it's like crossing a line socially. It's like man who what what's going to be left the schools next? I mean it it seems like it's one of those critical infrastructure things that people have always relied upon. And uh and it would definitely break my heart to see it go. And that's all I got. Thanks.

Thank you.

I'm going to ask that we don't applaud just so that we can get through all the speakers. We want everyone to have an opportunity to speak. Amy Merry Day um greetings. Um we often hear a question um how much is the city um spending on the homeless? Uh, we recently saw the clearing off of a camp on U South Gateway that um I think was um a place where the unhoused were camping and uh I noticed recently that um they've been taking off they the ivy of the trees around the disc golf course and creating a line of sight um from the road at the North Douglas Regional Park. Um, we need to see itemized budgets from all departments so that we can keep track of what we're spending um, our money on. Thank you.

Thank you, Fred Kan.

Good evening, mayor, council, managers. Um, my name is Fred Kan. I live in uh in a a little pocket of the county surrounded on all sides by the city. Been here for 20 years. Um I'm a member of Cottage Grove Friends of Democracy, but I'm here speaking for myself. We are a consensus-based organization. Um, we're a lot of people very alarmed at at hearing about the the draconian budget cuts coming to the library in the in the current sea of red ink in your in your budget deliberations. I'd like to ask you to rise up to uh the the challenge of being a high functioning organization and take this library issue as an opportunity to engage the community and find solutions to keep this level of service as it is or even even increase it. Um the the library is not just another line item in the budget. The library is an iconic piece of this community and I let me help you read the room. Who Who's here because they want to support the library and are alarmed about cuts. Um, this is a community issue. It's a great opportunity for the city, for you city leaders to help the community come together and look for solutions to problems that may look insoluble if you're just looking at numbers in a spreadsheet. But um I think the community is here and willing and able to get involved and solve the problems and keep the library functioning. Thank you.

Thank you,

Jim Locker. Regarding the library, I want to thank all the other folks who've talked. They've nailed it down pretty good how important this is. Dear I thought I would just ask Google, is public access to books a sign of civilization? It says yes. Public access to books is widely considered a key indicator of a civilized thriving society. Libraries function as social infrastructure and memory banks promoting democracy, literacy and cultural preservation. They active they act as accessible centers for knowledge, community, interaction and intellectual growth which are crucial components of social development. I think they pretty well nailed it. I think everybody here already had some pretty good ideas and a lot of good bullet points regarding what these points were just made. I know that literacy through quite a bit of our history has been an important indication of of uh how healthy that society is. Whether it be the arts, the different cultures, the mathematics, the science, all these things are really not any more important than the library that gives people access to these as they grow up. And so I think that uh I don't know if they're don draconian or not, but I think it's pretty important that that uh at all costs these libraries should be supported and continue into the future. Thank you.

Thank you,

Jack Jacobs. Alex Drew Thank you, mayor and counselors. My name is Alex Dreer. I live in Ward 4. Um, I will I'm here to ask that as you ch tackle the budget challenges ahead of you, you not balance the budget on the back of the library, which is a very community-f facing asset. I want to share my experience with the library. Um, as a new mom when as coming out of COVID, I wanted to meet other young parents. And when story time opened up again at the library after CO, I was so excited, still wearing a mask. And I went to story time, uh, baby lap time as well as bilingual story time. And I met some lifelong friends. Um, we call ourselves the library moms. We have a group chat. And um most recently, one of our library moms uh her husband was in the hospital and she doesn't have family around here and the other library moms took turns watching her kiddos uh while so she could go visit her husband in the hospital. Um and I will also note that she lives a block away from me and I never would have met her except at the library even though we live we're neighbors basically but we met at the library. It's a community space that's just promotes you meeting people um with no agenda. Um I also want to note my kiddo now is in kindergarten and at her school library she can get one book a week and I don't know if um you've ever read if you give a mouse a cookie every night at bedtime uh for a week but it's not enough to have one book a week. um

at the library. I actually my daughter asked like, "How many books can we get here?" And so I did ask the staff and they said 99, but if you want more at a time, we could talk. Um so I go home with stacks of books. We've read all the good dog books. She was going to come do public comment here tonight, but it's past her bedtime. Um and I want to also note that at the now at the library at the bottom of your receipt your that says like turn your books back in on time. Okay. Uh, it says how much you saved by checking these items out instead of buying them. And it's always over $100. And I do take my money and go a few blocks to Main Street to go shopping uh because I save so much money at the library. So, it's an economic engine. And I just want to um say all of that and thank you also for your careful consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Perry Moore. Good evening, Mayor Britten Council. My name is Terry Morf and I am a part-time resident of Ward 4. Um, I have used your library every time I come here, but I'd like to really address the idea for homeschooled parents and charter school kids. their libraries are not as huge as your local library and if you want to have access for education I love what you said sir um there's a such a wealth in your public library that is just not available for charter schools homeschooled parents you need to have something for them to expand upon their educational experience and I hope you'll keep your library open. It's a wonderful place. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for being considerate of the three minute. I I really appreciating all of you. Vanessa Ma, good evening. Uh my name is Vanessa Moya Lopez. I've lived in God cottage Grove for almost six years. I am a resident of Ward 4. Uh I'm a working parent, a wife, a mother of your six-year-old. Um some combination of my family is at the library about once a week. Um we go for books, an outing, an activity. It's a safe and pleasant place for us to land. The librarians have become friendly, familiar faces that recognize us and are happy to chat, answer questions, help with any request. Ezra, my son, knows that they are people that we can trust. For people like us that don't have disposable income for books or paid activities and those and for those with limited mobility, like my husband who does not drive, the library is an invaluable resource with immeasurable benefits. It benefits our family in a way that those without such limitations may not realize. We have virtually unlimited access to book stories, something that would not be the case if we had to purchase books. As a kindergartener, my son is learning not just the mechanics of reading, but the joy of it. We discover people and places he has yet to experience in his life. He's excited to return to favorite books and to find new treasures. We usually need to set a limit to not the 99 um set by the library. Otherwise, who knows? we might bring home that many. Um, additionally, he's learning to take turns and share. He's grown confident talking with other people in

this space, which as a co baby, uh, was a struggle for a very long time. Now he walks in like he owns the place. From baby lap time when he was younger to Legos to crafts, rock painting, and countless other events, we've enjoyed and appreciated them all. And that's just my son. Um, I too have rediscovered the joy of reading. Um, I often browse the aisles on my own to hunt for a book or an author I've heard about. Uh, it's not just books. On bad weather days when it's too hot or too cold or too smoky or too wet to be outside, it's where desperate citizens and families go to get out of the house or out of the elements. We don't need to go far or plan ahead or spend any money. It's just a little local adventure that helps us keep our sanity and is only a walk or a short drive or a bus ride away. Through it all, the librarians are kind and generous with their time and their knowledge. They provide stability and heart at a time when we all crave a little more of that. Please remember that the library is a touchstone of our little town where we all feel welcome to come and share space and feel a part of something. And isn't that the goal of a community? Reducing library staff and/or library hours would be a tragic loss for Cottage Grove. Thank you.

Thank you, Bruce Kelch.

I'm Bruce Kell. Oops, sorry. There you go. Loud enough. Um, I live outside the city limits in Holderman Road. had been with friends of the library for probably the last 10 years and many years ago in the late 80s and 90s I was on the library board when there was a library board. Um you'll hear all these stories and you'll hear what libraries mean to people personally but I as as a council and as a budget committee as you move forward I have great empathy for you making decisions. You're going to be looking at the numbers, the cost of everything, the price of everything. But what you'll be hearing in these comments from people, you know, this this group of people show up just on the whiff of the hint that their library may be closed. Whether it's true or not, the budget process isn't over. But this is just the initial response of how deeply uh the library plays an important role in our community. So, as you're looking at the numbers, the cost of everything, please start looking also at the value. the value of the community and as you listen to the people that are speaking, what are the values behind that? What does it mean to the the community to have a library that's thriving, that's important, and is an integral part of our community? So, please do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Audrey. Audrey Milan,

mayor, city council, thank you for your service to our community, which I know can sometimes be a thankless job, but I strongly support continued funding for the library. Last year at History Pub, our head librarian, Natasha, gave a presentation on the history of our library. And it turns out it took over a hundred years and worked by generations to have the beautiful library we enjoy today. They began just by sharing and talking about books, expanded to teaching people to read, improving the literacy of our town. From a small room in an attic to a small building to a small library to our library today. Along the way, they also faced calls to close their tiny library they had. And luckily for us, they prevailed. In July 2000, the si the city celebrated our new current library and community center. As the sentinel reported, the project was an impressive testament to community coordination and public private partnership that helped cottage grows win in 2004 its second prestigious national all-American city award. No doubt you've seen the stats of use at our library. From 2024, over 2,000 active library cards, over 27,000 visitors served, over 35,000 physical items, ebooks, audiobooks borrowed, over 3,600 computer and tech help sessions, 274

programs with 1,500 attendees. Today we have a beautiful, quiet, peaceful, calm, clean place for our youngest community members to our oldest and everyone in between. Last year, after hearing the presentation on the history of the library at the August 12th city council meeting, Casey Woodward said, "I felt as though she was defending the honor of my grandparents." Even though the library has moved from the physical space they created to a more grand and glorious space created by a broader citizenry, it remains dedicated to the same ideal that the library is the credle of our democracy and needs our community support. Our library is a living, breathing legacy. It's our heritage. and we and you are stewards. Let's not squander our library legacy nor our responsibility to ensure the future of our library for Cottage Grove residents to come. Thanks.

Action items. All right. Now we'll move on to some action items. Ricky Crawford. Agenda item 8B.

Ricky Crawford, Ward 2, um here in Cottage Grove. I'm here to speak about um last week's agenda item a little bit to follow up on that. I heard everybody's um saying that we didn't have the monies and funds for a permit system to do something like that. Um, so I kind of played with that idea on my way home trying to figure out a way to to make it low cost. So I come up with the idea that I emailed to all of you folks. I hope you'll support that in some way. Tweak it, do whatever you want to do with it. But um, the problem I'm dealing with across the street of my house is real. Um, I had to call the police again this weekend because there was a man over there with a pitchfork saying that people were trying to kill him walking around with all the cars and stuff over there. And um while a pitchfork is not illegal to carry around, if you're not emotionally stable, that might not bode well with children and stuff like that around the neighborhood. Um it continues on. Um I'm just asking for your help and hopefully support. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris Wagner. Agenda agenda item 8B.

Good evening, Chris Wagner. Ward three. Um, I've heard about the uh proposal to uh convert the 72-hour wait time that the city has to adhere to now down to 24 hours. I'm in support of that. I think anything you can put in your toolbox to deal with this issue is uh good news for everybody that's suffering from all of this. Um, however, on the the permit situation, I think you should let the 24-hour rule play out, see how it's administered before you uh open up a big can of words, create something that might be unwieldy. So, take it one step at a time, but be making steps. So, that's my thought. Thank you.

Thank you, Amy. Merry Day. Agenda item 8A. Uh we've often heard that a city should run like a business. Uh we're facing a budget gap. We don't understand the gap. If our city council members were asked to explain it to a reporter how it happened, I very much doubt that they could explain it. I know that my own husband has difficulty explaining it to me. In a business, if there was a 2.5 million or $5 million gap when you double it because we spent the money in a business, there would be an investigation if that was a mistake or if there was fraud. Okay. So, in a business, a person would be held responsible. A person would be fired. I have another question. Is our interim finance director still a part-time position? Miss Mary Day, did you want to speak on item 8B as well?

Uh, I might take three days to uh prune my prune my fruit trees and pull my uh trailer up there on the street. Might take me three days to fill to prune my fruit trees. Uh, public streets are not owned by the people who own live in the house in front of where the street is. Um, why are you not creating a system to generate money around this issue? You could charge for the right for me to try put my trailer there for three days. I'd gladly pay a nominal fee or citizens could be given a certain number of free parking stickers per per year. But public streets are not privately owned. We've heard people say, "Well, people have the right to prevent people from parking in front of my your house." No, you don't. Okay, you do not own the street. I made a quite an effort to find how this ordinance would be enforced and I didn't find anything in the minutes. But luckily I was able to contact the council member of my ward and ask the question and found out that it would be complaintdriven. Okay. So, I have a question. Are you trying to foster discord in our community by asking neighbors to report each other? I thought we were trying to get along. If this ordinance goes through, I have a

question for the city attorney. What does it take to prevent selective enforcement? What data do I need to collect to show you that people who routinely park for 10 days at a time and put their their rig in front of their house never never get an orange sticker. But the homeless, the poor, they get a sticker. You are asking for a lawsuit. Tonight, I learned I need to wait 180 days if you pass this, but I will be collecting pictures of cars parked in front of places that are not stickered after 24 hours if you uh pass this. Clearly, this is an example of what we heard about tonight, but it was not good practice, which is to immediately respond to complaints from people and come up with an ordinance that will satisfy some people's complaints. This is not thought through.

Day, thank you. Thank you, Boris. Edy, did I say that right? Forest Amy Tedric public hearings. There are none. Consent agenda. Council. Thank you, mayor. Move approval of the consent agenda. Do we have a second?

I second. We have a motion with the second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Resolutions and ordinances. 8. A. Resolution adopting a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2025-26 and making appropriations. It's Mr. Kola. Well, good evening, your honor, members of the city council. Um, as we have discussed, this is really the next step in helping us write our financial ship. Uh, there were accounting errors discovered in the budget process uh after the adoption of the fiscal year budget and this will resolve those issues. Do we have any questions? Councelor Merid.

Thank you, Mayor. Is uh Eric going to be able to provide us some information that was promised? Eric was not able to be here this evening. So, uh can I answer I can I answer your questions? Um I I had asked specifically if he could trace why certain funds were affected and others were not with these discrepancies

specifically which funds. Um again I'm just trying to get my head around the entire process. It started with an initial accounting era about registering income. I mean uh liability is an income revenue and then I am learning there were um debt payments spent as other as uh debt payments were spent for materials or

well let me let me see if I can give if I can give you just a quick timeline. uh in May of 2025 when city staff prepared the 20252026 fiscal year budget uh the most recently completed city audit was from fiscal year 2021 2022 resulting in two years of missing actual data which would have been used to accurately establish the general fund uh beginning fund balance. Uh fast forward a couple of months to September of 2025. We received draft versions of the 2022 2022 audit and the city from the city auditor which provided a good starting point to review the beginning fund balances going forward. It's kind of the important point. In November of 2025, in preparation for the next audit, interim finance director Eric uh Coutur reviewed the city's fin fiscal year 2023 2024 financial records and found substantial critical accounting errors, including budget columns that did not balance, which is a clear indication of serious accounting problems. In addition, only portions of the fiscal year 2023 20224 supplemental budgets had been entered into the city's accounting software. Now, these situations have been rectified and city staff's implemented policies and procedures uh to prevent these problems from reoccurring. So, you know, bring ourselves to March of 2026. All of this has resulted in significant adjustments to the 20252026 budget uh which was accomplished through the supplemental budget.

All right. I I guess I will have to make an appointment with him to get the information I needed. Thank you. Yeah. Uh as I've previously stated, I strongly encourage each of you to make appointments with Eric and talk with him directly and get your individual questions answered. Uh, we want to make sure that you have the information that you need.

Anyone else?

Council Irving. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion concerning the supplemental budget. Uh, I move that the council adopt resolution number 2176 adopting a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2526. Second. We have a motion with the second. Any more discussion? Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Hike, could you repeat your vote, please? Sorry. Hi.

Yes. Thank you, Councelor Lamman. Hi, Councelor Mereday. I, Mayor Solsby, I. Councelor Wilson, I. Councelor Irvin, I. Motion carries unanimously. Item B, ordinance amending municipal code title 10 vehicles and traffic section 10.20.050 and 10.20.060. Mr. Sour Wayne.

Well, good evening again, your honor and members of the city council. Uh, this is a followup to the discussion we had at our last city council meeting. Uh, at that time we talked about the difference between having a 72-hour notice and a 24-hour notice. uh council directed staff to come back uh with an ordinance uh for your consideration with a 24-hour notice.

I would entertain a motion.

Servin. All right. In the spirit of having a motion on the table to have discussion over, I would move that the city council adopt ordinance number 3207 amending the Cottage Grove municipal code title 10 vehicles and traffic section 10.20.050 and 10.20.060. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion with a second. Any discussion? Councelor Lamman.

Madame Mayor, Madame Mayor, Council, thank you. Uh, just to clarify for some of the statements I've heard, this is in addition to the state 72 hours, they're already allowed, correct? So, it's not just you have 24 hours. Uh, just to clarify for some people that are missing that little chunk of information, it's not just 24 hours. Thank you. Councelor Merid.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I would like to pass down through the council um information that we received a while back about um a law enforcement utility fee. So, um, I would like us, we've heard a a stream of concerned citizens address our council about a number of issues. Um, we've also heard from our police department that they are uh under intense pressure due to staffing shortages to answer all those concerns of our citizens. Um we currently have in our organization chart several vacancies. Um the the goal is to have two uniformed officers available at every shift 247. Um it's difficult to do if you're missing a few of your key players. Many of the quality of concern, quality of life concerns uh are lacking from uh ability to there. We have to the department has to prioritize the high uh demand cases. That leaves little time to to uh address the quality of life issues such as trash, illegal camping, uh nuisance vehicles. they are dealing with the with the big stuff constantly. In addition, when you're running that close to the uh chest with a limited staff, um when someone is out on medical leave is away on a conference has to appear in court, you're stretching the team pretty far. So we we we've heard repeatedly from the chief that you know the while

the intent and morale is is is there on the team there is the the fear of office or burnout. We would hate to lose any office due to burning out because they're having to cover overtime shifts uh fill in for colleagues that aren't there and um stretch themselves thin. We want we've we've worked very hard to rebuild our our department. We don't want to have to lose them. So if we do increase the demands on the department, it would be in my opinion excellent if we could provide the resources to help them be successful. When we discussed the possibility of having a utility fee at $10, that would cover uh currently we have one detective that's able to take on cases. They inherited quite a backlog of cases. They're they're getting some help from the Oregon State Police to clear that backlog, but that won't that won't be available forever. So ideally we would be able to add a second detective which is currently vacant and um add a 1.3 FTE uh community service officer to address these concerns of our citizens. So I would say if we could combine these two tasks, could we could we incorporate the long discussed utility fee to bring our department the resources they need to address these constant concerns from our citizenry. I think these are two separate issues that we need to have further discussion

on. my opinion.

I'll start.

I guess I would like to hear Thank you, mayor, for for the um law enforcement's perspective. this particular ordinance does it add an additional time constraint burden uh to to implement?

So, Mayor Councelor Irvin, um as was discussed when we talk about being complaint driven, um this clearly doesn't address any staffing deficiencies in the police department. Um it changes the dynamic a little bit but um it doesn't it doesn't allow us to be proactive. Um it will be um mostly complaint driven. What it does is with the 24hour time limit right now we have one part-time community service officer um with the exception of a few night shifts here and there where the patrol officers can deal with some of these things. they're busy dealing with criminal behavior. Um, so we rely heavily on our part-time community service officer to address these issues specifically when it comes to illegal parking. Um, so what this allows is for his shift to start on a Monday and for him to see something or for something to come in or him to see in our online reporting system that that a complaint came in over the weekend. He can tag that. he can he can watch it on a Monday, 24 hours later, he can tag it. So, um and then within 72 hours, what happens is after he tags it, there's a there's a case number taken for that particular vehicle that was tagged. Then, as time allows, we can go back out and and tow it after 72 hours. Sometimes it takes us longer than 72 hours to get out there and tag it. But right now as it stands, if he tags it on a Monday and in 72 hours or he finds it on a Monday and he has to wait 72 hours and go out and then tag it um after it's been illegally parked for or it's been parked for 72 hours, um then we wait another 72 hours to give them a chance to move the

vehicle. So, um, it's it's extremely timeconuming to track all of that and it makes it more challenging when you've only got somebody who's working roughly 6 hours a day, 4 days a week. So, um the benefit in having that 24-hour time frame instead of 72 hours is is essentially um you know just a basic you know time constraint on our current resources. So, thank you, Chief. Councilman,

a I think a related question. I had a memory that there was a former council member um Garland Burbach who I remember there was conversation about um recruiting him to be a parking enforcement uh role in the community. I this was maybe eight years ago. Uh but I wonder what is a not you know what are the requirements uh if we were to engage community for certain roles would parking enforcement be one of those roles that wouldn't have to be a a paid officer. So Mayor Councelor Irvin I think those are things that could be explored. Um, one of the key things to remember is, you know, I think it was a year ago when I gave a presentation um about staffing and the Oregon administrative rules around staffing volunteers in the police department. So, um, in order to have like reserve officers or volunteers within the police department, the the Oregon administrative rules require us to essentially do the same pre-employment screening that we do for a police officer. Um, sometimes that can be challenging for those who um are are strictly interested in a volunteer position. It doesn't mean that it's impossible by any means because um some of our neighboring communities do have uh pretty robust volunteer programs. Um it does take um money. There's cost associated with that pre-employment screening process. Um it takes time and resources to have somebody to manage and oversee that. So it's not costneutral. Um it it it's definitely possible. It's something that we've talked about um how we can get volunteers more involved um in some of these um lower quality of life things. Um parking may be one of those things that we could we could look at. Um but again, it requires somebody with the time to write the program, put

together the policy manual, the procedure manual, um uniforms training, pre-employment screening, all of those things. So, um, as we sit 2 and a half years into my tenure as the chief of police, um, that hasn't risen to the top of my priority list just because I've been busy trying to do other things. But it doesn't mean that it's not a good idea and it doesn't mean that it's something that I wouldn't be interested in trying at some point. Thank you, Chief. Yeah. All right. We ready to go to a vote? We have a motion with the second. Will recorder please call the Oh, question.

Just one. So, um I see the two issues as being more closely knitted than maybe the others. So, how could we readress this question about providing the police department with the resources they need? If not with this u ordinance, how how could we or is there even interest in the council to try to provide them with the people power to provide the citizens address their citizens concern concerns with their quality of life in the town. It's my understanding that this ordinance will actually make it a little easier in a workload for our current staff of police.

Mayor, I don't I don't think it changes our workload specifically. It just it it enables us to more efficiently deal with it, I think, is probably the best way to put it because um we'll still I mean we're we are still addressing this and I and I keep saying as much as I talk about the the constraints on our resources. Um, I know you guys have all heard me say that that the return on investment here in Cottage Grove, you're getting an incredible return on your investment because the officers that are here are really doing a lot of work. Um, so it it creates a level of efficiency that makes it easier um for our community service officer to be able to address these issues.

Thank you, Chief Council Me. Uh just one last thought if I can if I didn't lose it. Um so I I think in the discussion we had that we did want to um avoid creating a false impression that things would magically change. So Chief, do you uh can you comment on that? We don't want to lead them into a a false sense that things fall.

So, Mayor, councelor Merid, I think that's I mean I I kind of just talked about that, right? Is that it it doesn't really change our workforce. It doesn't change our ability to go out and necessarily be more proactive. Um it creates a different timeline that that uh creates an efficiency for us. So, thank you, Chief. All right, let's go to a vote. All right. All right. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Wilson. Hi. Councelor Meridane. Hi. Councelor Lamman. Hi.

Councelor Height. I. Mayor Solsby. I. Councelor Irvin. I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. concerns from council. I'm so sorry. I just want to be clear. Um, this was available more than a week beforehand and so that unanimous vote just passed the ordinance. It'll take effect in 30 days. Thank you. Y concerns from council. Councelor Merid.

Um, I'm actually um going to be councelor Settlemire as well. He um is in the Caribbean where there is a unreliable electric power as unreliable in councelor Merid, can I interrupt you? I'm so sorry. I just was uh made aware of our time. It's 9:04, so we need a consensus to move forward. All right. All right. Thank you. Go proceed.

Thank you. Um so another handout um he asked me to to share with you. Um, this is from councelor uh settlemire. April is child abuse prevention month. Our city is invested in protecting our children. According to our police annual report, there were 240 child abuse cases in 2025. These cases are identified as the department's top priority. The police department demonstrates understanding that handling these criminal cases is not only is not the only avenue to making important inroads in our community. This is evident also from their 2025 annual report. Community engagement activities such as participation in local celebrations, school presentations, shop with a cop, and coffee with a cop. It's easy to see all these efforts contribute positively towards fostering a safe and thriving community. We have other departments in our city that find meaningful ways to foster our safe and thriving community goal. It's easy to connect many of these wonderful points from Mayor Soulsby's Child Abuse Prevention Month proclamation to the activities that are scheduled for the month of April in Cottage Grove. Pieces of some of the points made are children are our most valuable resource. Safe, stable, and nurturing environment. Promote the social, emotional, and developmental well-being of children. This week, I have summarized some of what our city library will offer free of charge in April. I have a handout that we hope can share with interested

people. So, if you didn't get them, there were some on the table there. uh take care to look over such offerings as baby lap time, story time, and teen games. Next meeting I will have more activities from other resources in town. So that was from councelor Stomire. From myself, I just wanted to um uh praise the public works department for installing the Dyrell Berles trail markers. If you've been down uh uh River Road, you may have seen the green signs proclaiming that route is Daryl Berles, our local Olympian that appeared in both the Tokyo and the um Rome Olympics in 1960 and 1964 as well as breaking the National High School uh track record. So, thank you. And the the the panels for the kiosk I printed I picked up today from the printers. So, all systems go.

Thank you, Council Lamman. Councilman, I will make it quick. I just wanted to say thank you to the Chamber of Commerce and uh for uh their award night and for George who's here. Um, one of the things I think it's important to do in a community is to honor those who do good work and uh to recognize them uh and let that be known to others. And that was done at that night and it was a good time and we really appreciate that and uh appreciate. Thanks councelor Lamry.

I guess I should say Sean and I city staff won a first citizen of Cottage Grove this year. So really want to recognize the work that she does. She's quietly uh effective uh in town. So thank you Shauna. Councelor Lamman.

Madame Mayor Council, I'll try to do this without having my mic scream at me. Um I would like to second uh what councelor Irvin was saying about the chambers event. It was a phenomenal fun evening. Um, and it was awesome to be able to honor a lot of our business owners and members of the community. Um, with the presentation we were given earlier, I would say that we probably should revisit our city code and charters to look at giving ourselves a little bit more informative authority. Uh basically I I kind of got a sense of the uh everyone has a front stage and a backstage and our role is to stay on the stage with the city manager and the judge but don't look behind the curtain otherwise you might get in trouble. Um I appreciate all the members of the community coming out and speaking on behalf of the library. Um, I can say for myself and from what I know from the members of council, we haven't said anything about cutting funding from the library yet, if at all. Um, so I I I do appreciate everyone coming out. There was a question that was asked that what does it mean to the community? When we had brought up uh possible budget restraints at the last budget meeting, I know for a fact it was said multiple times, I won't pay even $5 if it means me being able to go to the library. And that was in regards to possibly paying $5 for a library card for the year. If you're not willing to pay even $5 a year to be able to go and access all the resources that the

library offers, what does it really mean to you as a community? Thank you. Anyone else? Well, I just want to also recognize Georgia Haskell for all her hard work and she is hating me right now calling her out, but you are a tremendous asset to the city of Cottage Grove and the businesses being the CEO of the chamber. And I am pretty positive after seeing the load that she still had in her truck yesterday that she had to go deliver back to the rental place that you are probably exhausted and you are still here this evening. So thank you Georgia and all your hard work. and Shauna and I was a very deserving recipient of that award and she has done a tremendous amount for this community over the years and so Shan I don't know if she's online but I just want to say thank you Shauna for that and uh with that I will no one else oh councelor Meridday

well maybe we should run down the list the volunteer of the year was the key club who was actually summoned from their work to receive their awards. Some still wearing their gloves. Uh the the nonprofit of the year was South Lane Fire and Rescue and the business of the year was warehouser warehouser. It was a great night. Thank you for that, counselor. All right, with that business from the city manager.

Well, good evening, your honor, members of the council. two very brief items. Uh first, I just want to remind everybody uh that this Friday we will be doing the striping um out here on Main Street. So, you know, uh there may be a little bit of a traffic hassle, but this is kind of the last piece until we come back in May and have our huge grand opening, which I encourage you all to be a part of. Uh, and the only other thing that I would raise is that we learned this week that uh from our friends at Business Oregon that the city has been awarded a $400,000 community development block grant. And uh these funds will be used to uh do regional h housing rehabilitation loan program uh through Lane County and through uh our partners at St. Vincent's. Essentially, what this does is it allows us to give zerointer interest loans and grants uh to low and moderate income homeowners in Cottage Grove so that they can upgrade their homes. I've worked with this program in other cities and we've done everything from putting roofs on people's houses uh to building ramps uh for folks that find themselves in need of access with a wheelchair. A number of veterans that have worked groups that have worked with us in the past. So, we'll definitely be putting this $400,000 to work and, you know, as a practical matter, uh it helps us uh build up and uh maintain our existing housing stock in the community, which is always good for a neighborhood. So, um congratulations and huge thank you to our public works folks uh who helped us get this grant through. Thank you.

Great job, staff. Report from the city attorney.

Yes, thank you. Um so, it was a pleasure presenting this evening. Um, thank you councelor Lamman for bringing up what what I was wanted to address, which is if anybody does have individual questions, we I understand we needed to get this movie uh this meeting going. Um, if you can route them through the uh city manager, he will get them to me and Tamara. And that issue in particular is a um understandable u perception, but it's but really think safety and numbers. So your council together can do a lot, can investigate a lot. Um but one individual cannot. Nobody is. The only alternative form of government, you have a city council, city manager form of government. The only other is a city council strong mayor form of government. So nothing that you can do in your charter is going to really change is the delegations. It's going to change who has the authority to do that. And my opinion having seen strong mayor forms of government is you're really lucky to have a professional uh city manager and staff under under that individual. Um but please forward any questions and Tamara expressed uh to me to you know she she was happy to answer those. Um, the only other I no other real comments other than if my husband were listening, he would say, "I hope Carrie's really paying attention to those communication versus conflict directions." So anyway, thanks so much for having us and happy to answer questions. Thank you, Carrie. All right, with that, this meeting is adjourned.