City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I will call our meeting of September 14th to order. We will start with the flag salute, which I would appreciate if our Council President, Councilor Schaaf, please lead us in.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Can we have a roll call please?

Councillor Cornwell? Present. Councillor Bravo?

Present.

Councillor Schaub? Here. Councillor Wilk? Here. Councillor Kentu? Here. Councillor Grijalva? Present. Mayor Lonergan? Here.

thank you moving on uh announcements do we have some announcements i have a few here um a transit route change coming september 28th changes are coming to the city's bus routes beginning monday september 28th we're adding new stops to better serve our community and make it easier to get where you need to go we encourage encourage riders to plan ahead and check the city's website for route maps schedules and additional information And then we have Coffee with a Cop, October 7th. We invite the community to join the Woodburn Police Department for Coffee with a Cop on Wednesday, October 7th from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. You can stop by either location, the Safeway Starbucks or the Starbucks on Arnie Road. Come and meet the officers and staff who serve our community, ask questions, and enjoy a cup of coffee together. Coffee, conversation, community. We hope to see you there. And on behalf of the Woodburn School District, they would like to say thanks to the Woodburn PD for their extra patrolling over the past couple of weeks. The district appreciates their support and commitment in keeping students safe as they return to school. Oh, Oktoberfest is this weekend. Starting Thursday through Sunday. So go enjoy the festivities in Mount Angel.

I'd like to welcome our neighbor city, Mount Angel, to have a great Oktoberfest. It's been going on for over 50 years.

And are they doing the shuttle again this year? Yes, they are.

Are we doing a shuttle from Woodburn to Mount Angel this year?

Yes, they are doing the shuttle. And that's at the Woodburn Transit over by the freeway? Correct. And going out to Mount Angel. And it probably, I think last year it went until 9 p.m.? Correct. Does that sound right? Okay.

Awesome. Thank you, Council.

Yeah.

So we do have one appointment. We have... Unfortunately, a long-term member and our chair, Chair David Piper, retired, and we talked about that at our meeting in the park and recognized him and wished him the best. And we all received a handout on a new potential member, Antonio Ramos, who's been a longtime resident of Woodburn over 36 years, a current assistant principal at one of our schools. He's coached soccer in the past for his family. I have talked to him and he is eager to join and be part of Woodburn. Any questions or concerns? Then I would entertain a motion to accept Antonio Ramos to our Park and Regulation Board.

I move to accept the nomination of Antonio Ramos to position 7.

Thank you. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor signify with an aye. Aye. Opposed? Mr. Ramos, thank you very much. We appreciate your Your interest in being part of Woodburn's community, our park board member. So moving on, I do not have any community government organizations. I do have one thing on reflection I would like to notice. We are all aware of a few days ago, we recognized the 25th anniversary of 9-11. Pretty tragic day in the history of Woodburn. And I want to thank our Woodburn Fire District for having an event. I happened to drive by there that morning and on their ladder truck they had a huge flag draped down to the street and recognized the first responders that have been involved in that and the family members that have been involved in something that's ongoing. And on behalf of the city of Woodburn, I'd like to also give our condolences and appreciation for those heroes that did an awesome job back in 9-11. And it's a day that we'll never forget. So with that, moving on to, we have a couple proclamations. First one is recognizing our Hispanic, Latino, and Indigenous Heritage Month. And I would like Councilor Bravo, please, to read our version in Spanish, please.

All right. Proclamación del mes de herencia hispana, latina e indígena del 15 de septiembre a 15 de octubre del 2026. Considerando que las personas que se identifican como hispanos, latinos, indígenas de México, España, el Caribe, América del Sur y Central han contribuido a la historia, la cultura y la prosperidad y los éxitos de Woodburn desde la década de 1880. Y considerando que Woodburn le rinde homenaje al valioso y diverso patrimonio, cultura y legado histórico de aquellas familias que llevan aquí generaciones, así como a los miembros más recientes de nuestra comunidad. Y considerando que las comunidades hispanas, latinas e indígenas de Woodburn constituyen el 60% de nuestra población, entre los que se incluyen líderes, Líderes políticos, maestros, estudiantes, profesionales de la salud, la agricultura, militares, seguridad pública, industriales, comerciantes, líderes de negocio y organizaciones y empresarios que participan activamente en nuestra comunidad y en la orientación de nuestra próxima generación. Y considerando que el mes de la herencia hispana ha sido reconocido a nivel nacional del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre. Y considerando que el Ayuntamiento de Woodburn reconoce y honra la diversidad cultural y la historia de las herencias de hispanas, latinos e indígenas en nuestra comunidad y por todo Oregon. y considerando que el ayuntamiento de Woodburn se compromete a colaborar para abordar los desafíos actuales que enfrentan los hispanos, latinos e indígenas de Oregon en su lucha por la igualdad y el acceso a las oportunidades de prosperidad. Ahora, por consiguiente, el alcalde Frank J. Lonergan Thank you, counselor.

And I would appreciate it if we get Councilor Bernalda to read the proclamation in English, please.

Proclamation. Hispanic, Latino, and Indigenous Heritage Month September through October 2026. Whereas people who identify themselves as Hispanic, Latino, or indigenous from Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, south of Central America, have contributed to Woodburn's history, culture, prosperity, and successes since the 1880s, and whereas Woodburn honors their rich and diverse culture, heritages, and historical legacies, those whose families have been here for generations, and some of the newest members of our community. And whereas Woodburn's Hispanic, Latino, and indigenous communities now constitute 60% of our population, including leaders, policy makers, educators, students, healthcare professionals, agriculture, military, public safe, industrial, trades, business and organization leaders and entrepreneurs, actively involved in our community and in mentoring our next generation. And whereas Hispanic Heritage Month has been nationally recognized to be September 15th through October 15th, and whereas the city of Woodburn acknowledges and honors the diverse cultures and histories, the Hispanic, Latino and indigenous indigenous heritages in our community and throughout Oregon, whereas the city of Woodburn is committed to collaborating to address the ongoing challenges that still face these communities in equity and access to prosperity. Now, therefore, Frank Lonergan, Mayor of the City of Woodburn, hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th, 2026, to be Hispanic, Latino, and Indigenous Heritage Month in the City of Woodburn, encourage all community members to join in this observance and participate in the events that celebrate the rich history and culture. In witness, the seal of the City of Woodburn will be affixed.

Thank you, Councilor. We had the opportunity, as for several years we have been recognizing the Hispanic, Latino, and Indigenous Heritage Month starting, like we said, September 15th. We actually always seem to start a little earlier and had recognition this last Saturday at our plaza. And I want to thank our city staff member, Yanira Herrera, We put on a very good event. We had some wonderful dancers and kids as entertainment with beautiful colored dresses and doing several performances throughout the afternoon and evening. And then, as we've had in the past, out of Portland, the Mexican consulate came down and performed a beautiful flag ceremony brought their horses down and recognized the Mexican flag and the American flag. And it was quite an honor to be part of that and recognize it. And with that, we have, it's an honor to have our Consul Carlos Quincenal from Portland as being online. And sir, would you like to say a few words?

Thank you, Major Lonergan. I just want to thank all of you and particularly to you, Major Lonergan and the City of Woodbourne for this important proclamation that acknowledges and honor the Hispanic, Latino and indigenous Oregonians. It certainly represents a source of inspiration and motivation for all our communities. I also want to thank you for hosting us and celebrate with us as Mexicans the Mexican Independence Day, as you already mentioned. It was a great celebration and we are very grateful that we are always welcome there and that there is an important Mexican population that is part of the development of the city of Woodbourne. And I just want to finish reiterating the will of the Council of Mexico. By the way, we are celebrating 30 years of the opening of the Council of Mexico in Portland. That was in 1996. So we have been serving the community during the last 30 years. And as mentioned, I want to reiterate our compromise to continue working with the City of Woodbourne for the benefit of our communities. Thank you very much. Muchísimas gracias. Un fuerte abrazo a todos.

Well, thank you very much. I want to thank you for your support and help with our community and the support of our citizens with immigration, education, work. You've been a good friend to Woodburn for 30 years. So we hope to get another 30 out of you, sir.

Thank you. Another 30 years. More. Okay.

Thank you very much. So, that we do have another proclamation on our National Adult Education Family Literacy Week, which I would appreciate if our in-house educator, Councilor Cornwell, would please read.

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. Whereas more than 43 million American adults struggle with foundational literacy skills, when 62 million lack basic numeracy skills, more than 28 million lack basic digital skills, and millions more seek the education, credentials, and workforce training needed to fully participate in today's economy, And whereas already 69% of American employers report challenges in finding the skilled talent that they need. And whereas illiteracy costs the U.S. economy over $300 billion per year in lost earnings, lower productivity, less innovation, and increased need for government assistance. And whereas adult education and family literacy programs open doors to opportunities by helping adults earn high school equivalency diplomas, improve English language skills, prepare for college and careers, strengthen digital literacy and the ability to use AI and emerging technologies, and build the skills needed for lifelong success. And whereas a strong adult education system strengthens our workforce, helps employers meet growing talent needs, increases economic mobility, and builds healthier, more resilient families and communities. And whereas adult education providers, including community colleges, school districts, literacy organizations, correctional education programs, workforce partners, libraries, and community-based organizations deliver high quality educational opportunities that transform lives every day. And whereas, as our nation commemorates Americans' 250th anniversary, expanding access to adult education honors the promise of opportunity by empowering more Americans to participate fully in civic life, contribute to their communities, and help shape the nation's next 250 years. And whereas National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week recognizes the achievements of adult learners, honors the educators, volunteers, and partners who support them, and raises awareness of the essential role adult education plays in strengthening families, communities, and the nation, Little bit more, and whereas the National Association for the Transformation of Adult Education serves as the nation's leading advocacy organization dedicated to advancing public policy, strengthening grassroots advocacy, and elevating the voices of adult learners and educators to ensure adult education remains a cornerstone of America's workforce and future prosperity. Now, therefore, I, Frank J. Lonergan, Mayor of Woodburn, do hereby proclaim September 13th through 19th, 2026, as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. in the City of Woodburn and encourage all community members to recognize the value of adult education, celebrate the achievements of adult learners, and support the programs and educators who create pathways to opportunity for individuals, families, employers, and our community. In the witness whereof, I have here to onset my hand, Frank J. Lonergan.

Thank you, Counselor. That proclamation also hits home here in Woodburn. I want to thank Chemeketa for being such a big part with adult education here. It's certainly an asset to not only our students that want to go on and help themselves after high school, but also adults that have the opportunity to go forward and pick up. If it's not a complete degree, it certainly is help in certain classes. And then I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that school down in Corvallis that also was willing to help out anyone that wants to go down there. So with that, moving on to... It's an honor to have a couple presentations. Our first one's gonna be from the Aware Food Bank. I invite you to come up to the podium. Another good partner and friend of Woodburn.

All right, good evening, Council. Thanks for having us here today. Tonight, my name is Ian Dixon McDonald. I'm the Vice President of Programs with Marion Polk FoodShare. We're the operators of Aware Food Bank just across the street. And we just wanted to come down this evening and thank you for the incredible support that we've been able to experience over the last nine months or so through funds that were provided through CDBG and support from your staff to feed Woodburn families. And I just wanted to say a few words with gratitude for that. So first I just want to recognize how amazing it's been to work with the staff from City of Woodburn. We work really closely with Jamie Jonk and Jesse Cuomo and Renata Wakely in particular. And all three are just amazing collaborators and have been incredible supporters of our work and really helped make this funding come together to feed families here locally. AS WELL AS THIS COUNCIL, WOODBURN, THE CITY OF WOODBURN HAS BEEN AN AMAZING PARTNER TO THE FOOD SHARE FOR MANY YEARS, GOING BACK TO THE FIRE AND BEFORE THAT. SO JUST WANTED TO RECOGNIZE THAT. I KNOW DAISY HAS MENTIONED TO ME THAT MARY LONERGAN COMES BY THE PANTRY OFTEN AND HELPS INVOLUNTEERS. AND COUNCILOR WILK IS ON THE BOARD OF MARY TULK FOOD SHARE. SO THERE'S SOME WONDERFUL CONNECTIONS HERE BETWEEN THE CITY AND OUR ORGANIZATION THAT I REALLY THINK IS UNIQUE. the same level of, I would say, engagement and support with many city governments the way we have with Woodburn. So thank you for that. So we saw last fall the possibility of really unprecedented need for food in our community. So this is when there was the potential for SNAP benefits to be paused for a large group of our population that relies on those benefits for food. That really was going to be disastrous. And there was a lot of fear in the community that this support was going to go away. We also saw a lot of inflation and high cost of living during this time. So those things in combination, we were really bracing ourselves for very long lines and a lot of families coming to pantries not getting everything they needed. And you all responded in really an amazing way that made it so When families come to Aware Food Bank, when they came to Aware Food Bank over the past nine months, they were able to see full shelves. They're able to see food there that is culturally relevant for them that Daisy and her team could pick out. And they were able to see food that could truly feed their children and their families and their grandparents at home. So we're just enormously impressed by the work that happened with our partnership. In total, through the city, we were able to spend over $430,000 to purchase food for our local community, for your local community. And that translated into over 350,000 pounds of food that we were able to distribute over the last nine months. And that food, and we have a calculation that could, how many meals is that? So it's roughly 300,000 meals that families here in the Woodburn area were able to feed to their families because of the support that you all help provide. The food that we purchased with these grant funds didn't just go to AWARE. We spread them around the whole Northern Marion County area, specific to Woodburn. So they also supported St. Luke's, which is another pantry here in town, and the Woodburn Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church, as well as the meal site at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church. So all those sites were able to get food from the grant. In terms of just impact that we're seeing right now, just we thought we would share that where we're estimating serves around 6,000 unique families every year, or no, sorry, every month. 6,000 individuals every month is about the average that we see. And we're distributing about 1.2 million pounds of food a year. So you kind of see even in that 1.2 million what percentage of that came from this food purchasing grant, this 350,000 pounds. And that's equivalent to about 1.4 million meals that the Just the Aware Food Bank provides annually. We are continuing to see more children, more seniors, more community members come into the pantry, especially as the cost of living remains pretty high compared to where wages are that we're seeing. So we also share that we can always use, as the community hears this, and we can always use more help. We're an organization that's hugely dependent on volunteers, so we're a great place. Daisy and her team are wonderful with accepting volunteers. and food. So we, as groups do food drives and we find other local food donors in the area or food purchase funds, we can always put those to good use and get those out to the community. And one other thing I wanted to add is we were also able to use a lot of these funds with local vendors. So the money that came in through the grants came to Marion Polk FoodShare, and Daisy and her team spent much of that money locally. So things like masa flour and tortillas were purchased from local woodburn manufacturers, so putting that money back into our local food economy. That's really all I came here to say. Just wanted to say thank you. We have a little plaque we'd like to provide you that was signed by all of our different pantry coordinators who received food from the grant as a way of saying thank you for the support. So we'd like to leave that with you today. And if you'd like, we can take a picture.

Thank you. We have questions, comments from the council?

Just thanks for all you do. Yes. Thank you.

All right. Thanks. We're sorry there's such a need, you know, and obviously not just in Woodburn, but around the world right now. But we are so appreciative that you guys are here and helping fill that need. And hopefully, yeah, we can support you and carry on as long as possible. So you guys, like, I know Council Willock is very involved with being on the board and knows the importance of being here, but also the ease and respectfulness that you give to the citizens. So it's so important. Thank you for that.

Your team does a great job with that.

And the mural is beautiful, too. Oh, yes, and the mural.

That was a city partnership as well, of course. So your mural commission or public arts committee provided funds for that. Thank you.

So just to share a word on the mural, I took pictures and provided them to the board of directors for Marion Pope Food Share as the mural was progressing from start to finish. And each and every board member responded at what a wonderful mural it is, facing our city hall, representing our community. And I think I speak for all the residents of the city that You guys rock. You have a wonderful facility, and you serve people in tremendous need, and you do a great job doing it. Thank you. Thanks, Mark.

Do you have anything to add?

Yeah, I just want to echo everything Ian said. And yeah, I just want to thank everybody from the city. I know Ian mentioned Jamie, Renata, Jesse, but also Yanida, who I see over here. Yanina, Mark, Soraya, everyone we've interacted from with the city of Woodburn has been wonderful. So I just also wanna thank you guys for your support and the work we're doing wouldn't be possible without community partners like you guys. So thank you so much.

Thank you very much. We appreciate what you do. So do you have anything to add? But introduce yourself, we'll just get you on the mic.

Hello, I'm Sophie. I'm a communications coordinator here at the food chair. And yeah, I'd just like to echo everyone else's words. Thank you for all of your support. And we'd love to present this little plaque to you. So, yeah.

Picture time. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, let's get the whole. Can you squeeze in just a little?

All right, there we go.

One, two, three. Thank you all so much.

We will proudly hang this in our homes.

Before you leave, I just wanted to say how proud we are of the building. I know what you guys were working with before, and now with the modern conveniences that are there now, it makes your working environment so much better.

We're proud of it like you are. We know you are. Thank you. So next we have a fun recap of our fiesta. Great event, as always. Jesse, it's all yours.

Yeah, well, good evening, Mayor and City Council. Jesse Cuomo, Community Services Director. It's a little different this year than past years. I'm kind of dragging all the staff into it. We'll get into the details.

I'm sure they were very happy and proud to be here.

Oh, they were so happy, right? They were like, thanks a lot, boss. No, but it really is selfishly for me. Because I've done this event for nine years now. This was logistically the smoothest year we have ever had. And it's a testament to these people. Emily can be here tonight. She has a sick kiddo and sick herself. But this group here is really the group that kind of planned this nine months out of year. We have Jeff Crabtree, our parks and facility maintenance supervisor. Many people might not see him. He's kind of here early and doing all the things behind the scenes, him and his team. He oversees six parks, park maintenance staff, two custodial staff. They spend a lot of the lead up getting into Fiesta to make sure Legion is beautiful and ready for the hustle and bustle of Fiesta. and then just supporting us throughout the whole event. The past two years have driven afloat, all these great things. Obviously Mari and all the pieces, they actually have some slides on here, but I really wanted to, Mari and you have slides to talk about, but I want to just say how appreciative I am for everyone who is involved because I always, the staff always kind of laugh at me because they get kind of sappy around the end of the day because it's such a heavy lift. You don't think about it because we're just kind of you know, plugging along and plugging along and plugging along, and then it kind of all comes together. And when you have a year like this, I just really wanted to say thank you to my staff, and I wanted to present them to you, because you don't get to see them as often. A couple of them you do, a few of them you do, but Jeff, you definitely don't, and he deserves some kudos. So I wanted to call him out tonight, so. I told him I wouldn't put him on the spot for a speech. Gave him the Counselor Cantu treatment. Well, perfect. So this year, I'm going to go through a few slides, throw a lot of data at you, and then we have a nice highlight video that's hot off the presses. Got it an hour ago. that I want to show you as well. So this year we had 61 total vendors at the event between sponsors, food vendors, artisans, all those pieces. We do really try to create a nice balance throughout the event so it doesn't feel too commercialized with too many of one type or too food heavy or really kind of have a balance of these different pieces. And kind of one of the ways we do that, because we also have to deny, we denied 30 vendors this year, or put them on our wait list. We have a vendor review committee that we've kind of taken a few park board members off each year the past several years, and they help us review our applications. And so we have a review process So it's not just city staff that are making these decisions. We obviously have some historical knowledge of some of our vendors. Some of our vendors have done this event for over 35 years. Some are new. We get probably three to six new vendors a year if we have a small cycle of transition. But yeah, I just wanted to call that out. And kudos to the vendors, too. Over the past several years, the relationships have gotten so much better. You've probably seen it if you come every year. The quality of their booths have increased. There's just so much community pride in this event, and it's not just from the staff. It's really shining throughout the whole event. I'm going to hand it over to Yanir now to kind of give the final recap on Fiesta Court and all the work they did as well as the car show event that was a week prior. So obviously we have Fiesta, but a week prior we obviously do Coronation now in the plaza, which has actually been really great and kind of highlighting the car show community and things like that. From a logistics standpoint, it's been a godsend because doing the car show at Fiesta was always a pain in the butt. And it's a lot cleaner, and it actually kind of shines on their own now, which is really nice. And it puts something downtown during the week at Fiesta, which is really nice. So I'll hand it over to you for that.

Thanks. So I won't go too much into detail, because you already received a full presentation on Fiesta Court this summer. But we did have nine girls who participated from two different school districts. And they participated in about 234 hours skill building workshops collectively and cover topics like team building, interviewing, public speaking, self-care, just a variety of topics, as well as did 274 hours of community service. And that is just the summer. So they are with us May through May. So if you were at the Hispanic Heritage Celebration this weekend, you did see a couple of the girls out there. So just in that summer, they did those 274 hours. They also practiced their public speaking. So they came to City Council, out to some of the service groups like Kiwanis and Rotary, as well as some of our events. So they did a total of eight public speaking opportunities. And then as Jesse mentioned, we had the coronation the weekend before, so that event typically sees between 60 to 80 vehicles and bikes at the event. And then we did have, this was our biggest attendance yet, so we had about 500 people at the coronation.

And the event's only a few hours. If you haven't attended, it's, what, a three-hour event? Three-hour event. So to have that much kind of influx quickly into downtown and getting to do that is kind of a nice show. And another note, Yanira, is the 18 years of Chemeketa's partnership. She pointed that out to me. I wasn't aware of that, the partnership of supporting the court and the program. So as you mentioned earlier with the testament to Chemeketa and how they've ingrained themselves in this community, this is another example of that.

We also wanted to share a little bit of information on the parade. So this was our biggest parade to date that I'm aware of.

Any of us are aware of, I'm pretty sure.

Usually I see about 60 or less pre-registered entries for the parade this year I had 84 pre-registered and then we still did day of registration in total we saw 1071 registered folks walking through the parade or driving through the parade as well as 188 vehicles so we do have a couple car clubs as well as businesses from the community that come out and drive through with banners and balloons and candy and all sorts of stuff. I think Jesse mentioned there was some mesquite that was being handed out during the parade. Some real inch popsicles. Yeah. As well as Miranda's text me a picture. Miranda's bakery was handing out pan dulce during the parade. Lots of candy. So a lot of really great stuff for our community.

We're a dentist's dream, I tell you.

And we had one grand marshal.

Yes, yes, we did. And with that, sorry to take over with you, Nir, but I would like to have Judy come up really quick and recognize our Grand Marshal, Judy Messiah, and have the mayor present Judy with something kind of fun here.

This obviously was not a one-day event. We recognized a number of you all year at Grand Marshall. So thank you so much for representing Woodburn and all that you've done.

It's thoroughly important. Thank you very much. Can we get a picture?

They want you up here. We've got to do the photo ops.

Can we see? Yeah. Oh, that is beautiful. That is beautiful.

And all the photos and videos you'll see is from for you. They've done all the videos with Jamie's group and everything else. And they're working on more videos. So kudos to them, too. All the parts to hang it are on the back, John, so you know.

Jesse, I've got to add that the t-shirts were quite a...

Yes, well, you know, that's a testament to the whole city. Winning an award, you know, several people put in a lot of work for that. So that was a hit. And you'll actually get to see that in the video coming up. All that, All-America City Award, you know. Only community west of Texas, just saying. But, yeah, if you want to finish up really quick with the stats here, Yanira, and then we'll...

Yes, so we had 105 applications total. We had 72 horses that went through the parade, if you counted. And one pony. And a pony. I did make that distinction.

Very important. And they left very clean streets behind them, right? For the most part. For the most part, yes. There was one sidewalk, I guess.

But people, the community is so great, offered to come out and clean. As well as I already mentioned the 19th day of applications. In total, we estimate 5,479 folks watching the parade, which is about a 19.8% increase from last year, where we think it was about 4,572. Wow.

And I think everyone feels like it's more, right? But I haven't had the privilege of actually being on the route. I don't think I ever want to be. I'm happy doing what I'm doing on the front end. But I was talking with Judy and John before the meeting, and I have seen the videos and photos. And I think it's so wonderful that people, it's an event. The parade itself is an event. People are barbecuing in their front yards. And it's like they have their canopies up. It's like a part-day event. And so it's a really awesome thing. We had to change up our staging this year. Whether he wants it or not, kudos to Jim Rau, our assistant seating manager. I don't know if I could do it without him helping me run around. It's just a lot of organized chaos, as I call it. But it was a really great year for the parade. I'll let Mari take this piece over.

All right, so I get to share fun, fun, fun data. I'm not saying that everything else wasn't. So just this year's attendance, we were at 27,485 people at Fiesta, which is about 2,000 more from last year, if I'm looking at my stats correctly. Yes, you're right. And then the other thing, because I do all the social media, and so it always just kind of amazes me sometimes what takes off and what really gets traction. And I have to say our social media this year really did have traction on its own. So the numbers that I'm going to give on these are basically combined with all our advertising partners. So we're looking at Radio Poder, which Radio Poder, Telemundo, the Woodburn Magazine, La Campeona, and Bustos Media. So we did a combination between print, TV, and radio. And I have to say radio is probably our biggest place, and social media also. So altogether, we had about 728,000, a little bit more than that, is our social media reach. And that is basically how many unique people watched our content.

Wow.

The next one, this one got me. We were at 1.6 million views on our content with everybody together. Last year, altogether, we had about 1.8 million. This year, we had 1.6 million. The city alone this year had 1.1 million alone. We were more than what we had last year combined. So it's just really interesting on how social media and on how all of that works. We had all our partners posting media for us. They were also sharing posts and all of that. So... I'll get to that at the end because it's a win-win situation. It's a win-win when we do social media and we do advertising, not just for the city and getting our information out about the event and what it's about, but it also helps them too. We can see that, and we saw that specifically with Rayo Poder because she provided some information, some data for us. We have 15,000 likes and shares. That's just people liking and sharing. That's not including comments or links, clicks, on the links. And we did a lot of those because we were doing, sending people to our website and to our event link also. We did commercial with Telemundo, so that's kind of our media, our TV media coverage. We were on, we did about 646 radio ads and mentions, which is about 645,000 listenership for both Radio Poder and Bustos Media together. And then we did a mailer also So like on Vicky from Radio Poder, she shared, our social media engagement went up 137% with their fiesta, with them posting Fiesta Mexicana on their social media. What this meant for them was 40,000 new views. And why is this important for our partners and for us also is because they get more views, they get more followers. Radio Poder is a key channel for us as a city to get information out to the community. So if they get more followers, We're hitting more people with the information that we need. So for them, for all of us, it's a win-win. For Radio Poder, for the city, and for our community. So there's a reason why we do the advertising, because it's just not to get information out about the event, but it's also about advertising.

all of this. And how Mari is mentioning that we put out content on Radio Yanira hosts a radio program twice a month on that program where we're doing community shout outs we're doing all these things we're bringing on other nonprofits putting out education in ways just trying to hit people you know the best way possible so that is definitely this is so important as well as This data is really important also for our sponsors, because I've told everyone before, you know, this event really goes through sponsorship, vendor fees, and then kind of gate. We get a little bit of revenue from gate and a little bit from the carnival, but it's a break-even event. And so to be able to share this kind of reach and things like that is really impactful to sponsors as well. Some of the bigger sponsors, really, they're gonna have a reach. And Amazon's gonna have, they have, everyone knows that. But like the smaller folks, this really means something to a Greenlight Garage or our smaller, more local folks because they're getting more reach than they ever could have imagined in this way. And it's at a low price point in the way of getting that kind of engagement. So it is really, it's really important to share this in the kind of context and it allows us to operate this event.

Exactly, and just some key points to note from this, so between May 1st and September 1st is kind of where we pull the numbers, because that's where we really go into the push on our advertising. Just for the city alone, our city Facebook page, this is all on just Facebook page, our views increased over 2,000%. Our engagement increased over 2,700%. Facebook visits increased 2,500%. And we increased our followers on our social media page almost 17%, which is close to a little bit over 1,200 new followers. So that's a lot of new people that we're getting information out to.

And this doesn't even factor in that we were on multiple news programs. Yes. We were in Statesman, we were in maybe had a blurb on us. A blurb on us. But we were over several other pieces of media that this isn't even accounting for. So testament to Mari and all the work that went into that and our partners who really helped push this. Yep.

And then let's look at in terms of economic impact because an event does bring money into our community through sponsorships, through the vendors, the supplies that they're purchasing in terms to run their booths. So it's all coming in. So we basically looked at what Fiesta brings in. There is a whole long... There's a formula on how to figure this out. However, we're a smaller event. We're a day event. So we're really looking at day visitors. So for one, we're not looking at overnight visits at all. So Travel Oregon really does look at $50. a person per person that their spend is at an event coming in. And we looked at numbers from 10 miles and beyond. So between 10 and 50 miles, I think. And that was about 50% of the people who showed up at Fiesta come from 10 miles or beyond. The other 50% is local from here. And we were able to pull that from place or data. So that's one of the programs that Jamie has through economic development. So we're looking at those numbers. We're looking at $687,000 of economic impact to the community.

That's people purchasing gas. That's people spinning at the event. That's a lot of things. And I spoke to multiple vendors, and this goes to the relationship. Years past, they kind of wouldn't tell me how well they're doing because they're always nervous that we're going to be jacking up rates. That's not what we're here for. But this year, I had multiple vendors say, hey, I made what I did last year in Saturday and Sunday alone. So Sunday was just all kind of cream on top of what they did the year before. And so I think economically, I think people are feeling it. I think they're doing less big trips and maybe doing more regional or local things. And I think this was definitely a fit for that. As Mari said, with our attendance, it was an all-time record for us. We kind of squeaked it out by about 400 folks. But that was without some of the components like a pickleball tournament. Unfortunately, our partner wasn't able to operate that this year. So we might have seen even larger numbers with things like that. Other pieces I want to point out. So both of our parking lots are managed by the different soccer clubs in town. So the girls soccer team from the high school manages the main Fiesta lot. And then the additional lots are managed by the Woodburn Football Club. And that brought in $9,000 per their programs to be able to pay. I got a really nice text message from the the soccer coach of the high school saying, hey, this pays for our pinkout, this pays for some team dinners. It's just something. And honestly, for my side, it's one less thing to worry about. It's one less logistic to worry about, and I'd much rather them just do it. And so that was great. We had record numbers in the tournament itself. We had 52 adult teams, 67 youth teams. Obviously, not all 67 youth teams are playing FES actually at Legion. because they play throughout the tournament. I'm sorry, they play throughout the week, so they're playing somewhere in town. So the soccer tournament is actually the week leading up to Fiesta, and then the semifinals, finals, and things like that are at Fiesta. And then, oh, go ahead.

Before you move on on that one, so you had 119 teams between adult and youth.

Yep.

Obviously, some are obviously from Woodburn. How many and how far do we reach out to draw teams in?

So that's a good question. I don't know exactly, but I know the adults definitely bring from Hillsboro north, even further north, and then Salem south, the youth teams. I know it's really Portland heavy, Salem heavy. I did talk to, whenever I could catch one, one of the parents who weren't one of the Woodburn parents, walking around with their team, I'd always ask them, hey, what is this? Especially the youth folks. Like, how is this compared to other tournaments? Because these parents are doing this all summer long. They're chasing their kids from tournament to tournament to tournament. They're buying McDonald's or they're stuck at a field for whatever. Hey, you come to our tournament, guess what? You have a carnival. you come to our tournament and guess what? You get to go shopping. You get to have some fun with it. And so when you have, like in my case, if you have a nine year old playing and then you have a four year old, at least you have something to do with the four year old. You know, things like that. So everyone was so ecstatic. I talked to Bree and Myra after the tournament, and they were just like, everyone is so excited to come back to this tournament because it's just different. It's just so great. And then they did a cool thing called Goalie Wars on Friday night, which was a cool draw. It's like a one-on-one goalie thing where you score, it's just one-on-one soccer on microfields. It was really cool. It was a new ad. Data Vision helped support that. So just really neat to see. But the draw, I think, is getting bigger and bigger as people see the quality of the tournament that they put on. And again, we don't touch this. We manage to make sure the field times are there. We say, hey, this is when you can play too. We're aware of everything, but we don't have the capacity to actually operate the tournament with everything else going on. So Bree and Myra with that, Juan and Gio with the adult tournament, they manage that. They manage the refs. They manage all of that. That's their thing. I walk over and say, you good? And they're like, good. And I walk away.

We have enough fields here between schools?

We could use that, you know, possible one behind the middle school would be great. I think it would definitely help their tournaments. We actually don't have enough fields for the adults. We have enough fields to run the youth tournament leading up, but the adults, we're trying to find some fields up here, and we just don't have it leading up. The adult teams are kind of picky, especially when you get to the 40 overs. They don't want to play too close to each other in games because they just don't feel it. Um, actually last year we had a time crunch and instead of doing 45 minute halves, um, the tournament organizer went to the over 40 guys and we're like, Hey, do you want to do 30 minute house instead? And they were like, Oh God, yes. It's good. Um, but no, so it would definitely benefit us to have an additional facility that could host the larger, um, ages and in time and it's coming, hopefully. And then, again, this is looping back to Jeff and the whole team and everyone. There's at least 130 people between, again, the soccer folks, the folks in security. There's 45 security guards that work the event at some time. We're peak at 30 at once. There's just so many things that are going on. Jeff and his crew, PD, thank you to Chief and Assistant Chief and the lieutenants. and the whole detective team. It's a lot of planning. PD, with the parade, they bring in other officers from other communities. This is not just for people. We do the logistics for getting everything kind of buttoned up, and then everyone else just floods in to make this happen. So I want to call that out again. It's really important for me to do that. Any questions before we pop on the video really quick?

Just a couple of quick comments. One is, I feel like I should always say this, like maybe I'm going to jinx this, but I would challenge any community that can have 27,000 people turn out for an event, thousands of people participate in the parade, and not have a single critical public safety incident throughout the course of the entire weekend.

And it's been year after year after year after year.

Congratulations. That says something about the police force. Yeah, about our security, but it also says something about the nature of the community as well. It's very much a family-orientated event, and it's treated that way by the people who participate. So it's really great. And then one other statistic I think is worth mentioning is Jesse's Fitbit had long steps and some 70 miles over the course of that weekend is what Jesse did walking around that park. Yeah.

I put it on my car tire on the way home, but other than that, it was fine.

Yeah, so it really is an all-hands-on-deck weekend for the city.

Yeah, really, it's a blast and pleasure. Any questions before we do the highlight video?

No, no, no.

All right.

I wanted La Toria.

Ah, that's it.

I love that booth. Right?

That's been a fun ad the past few years.

Oops, sorry.

again thank you thank you I was watching the dancers on Sunday afternoon big headdresses drums beating yeah they went on for like 45 minutes yeah non-stop I know man yeah they were good thank you thank you very much thank you whole team that was very very well done So moving on, we do have some business to do. Next up is business from the public. This allows the public to introduce items for the council consideration not already scheduled on the agenda. Comment time will be limited to three minutes. If anyone in the public would like to come up. And I will say we are going to have a public hearing here in a little bit, which if anyone wishes to speak on behalf of, yay or nay for data centers, they have an opportunity to speak during that public hearing. If that is the case and you wish, I'd like you to please fill out a comment card so we have a name and city where you're from yay or nay on what you have to say. But right now, I'm looking for other business, if anyone would like to come up and speak on anything else that is not on the agenda, I would invite them to come up and speak. And not seeing anyone rush to the mic. then we will move on to our consent agenda. And items on the consent agenda are considered routine and may be adopted by one motion. Any item may be removed for discussion at the request of any city councilor. Could I please have the city recorder read the items aloud on the consent agenda?

The items on the consent agenda are as follows. Woodburn City Council minutes of August 10th, 2026. Building activity for August 2026. Liquor license application for Gina's Taqueria. Liquor license application for Mead, Tierra, and Fios. Traffic Photo Enforcement Report, May through July, 2026. Acceptance of Public Utility Easement at 682 South Settlemyer Avenue. Acceptance of Public Utility Easement at 1560 Mount Hood Avenue.

Thank you. Is there any item the council would like to pull off the consent agenda and have more information on? Not hearing anything, then I would accept a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented, please.

Yes. I move to accept the consent agenda as presented. Thank you. Do we have a second?

Second.

Move to be seconded. All in favor signify with an aye. Aye. Opposed? We do not have any table business. Moving on, we do have a public hearing. And this is a moratorium on the development and construction of data centers. And again, at some point during here, I will solicit testimony by opponents and then again by opponents. And I can see some people are filling out form thank you for that so I will open the public hearing and see do we have any declarations from any of the council and if you have any stock in an AI building anything we need to discuss good then moving on to a staff report Thank You mr. mayor so tonight before the City Council is a consideration of adopting a moratorium on data centers for the city of Woodburn

The history of kind of how we got to tonight. Currently there are no data center applications pending or submitted to the city. And I think this is an important point for people to know that the city is not currently considering any data center applications at this time. However, the city has been in a position to know that there have been data center due diligence done by companies in Woodburn on industrial lands and that those uh those conversations have led to concerns with staff about the city's ability to support such a project based on our infrastructure there was you know a lot of diligence that was required for us before we i think we could really proceed with any kind of serious consideration of such a project um that those concerns uh created some opportunities for us to look at our current code and what that meant for the city that led to some legislative amendments that were done by this council to change data centers from an outright use potentially to conditional uses which gave the city more leverage and authority to condition any future projects that came before the city to ensure that we could protect the public's interests and the city's infrastructure any such proposal ever were to develop um once the city council was done with that the city then filed a notice of moratorium with the department of land conservation and development the 45-day notice was to let the state know for statutory requirements that the city council would consider tonight a moratorium on data centers the moratorium would provide up to 120 days initially for the city to conduct some analysis to get better information about what infrastructure, what code requirements would be needed, how the city could manage or even consider such a project based on our infrastructure limitations, based on our existing master plans. To help us with that, we hired Thomas Consulting Group, who is our technical experts on data centers. Staff, we concluded that we didn't have the level of expertise in this technology, particularly considering how rapidly it's changing to really evaluate and be able to apply data center impacts to Woodburn's codes, to Woodburn's processes, and to our infrastructure capacity. And they're here tonight, and I'm gonna have them introduce themselves to the council here in just a minute. And then the hearing tonight, we have, the hearing tonight is for you to consider a resolution which is later on the agenda. The resolution would create a moratorium on data centers per state law initially for 120 days and then potentially not to exceed a renewal for past six months if we chose to do that. The moratorium allows the city breathing room to not have to consider a data center while we concluded the work that we need to do to determine how we could regulate or even support if possible such a project that work would be done with the help of thomas consulting group and our planning department Now having said that, one of the things that I'm going to say is that one of the concerns that we've heard from the public, but also concerns that you're hearing from your staff tonight, is based on our current understanding of data centers, that the water impact to our system would be significant. And that it could exceed the capacity of the city's ability to provide water to a single project. And in fact, there is a per acre allotment for industrial use of water in our water master plan. And no data center that we're aware of could operate within those parameters as it sits now. So with that in mind and the criteria for moratorium, the staff would recommend that the city council, in fact, adopt the resolution and impose a moratorium tonight as a staff recommendation based on just the concerns that we have. And it gives us the time to do the analysis to get better information.

And the moratorium is for 120 days.

Initially, 120 days is the opportunity to extend. I don't know. I mean, honestly, that's a lot of work that we need to do. In 120 days, we'll come back to the city council and tell you if we feel we've completed that work or if additional time is required for us to complete the analysis so that we can be better prepared and put better tools in place to manage a data center proposal should one come to Woodburn. And so, Mr. Mayor, with that, Thomas Consulting Group is here. They're going to be our technical arm, if you will, to help us in this work during the moratorium period, but also provide us technical information at staff level to help us evaluate impacts and to identify tools that we may need to put in place down the road. But I'll let them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about who they are, Mr. Mayor. They're here virtually tonight.

Okay, we'll turn it over to the Thomas Consulting Group and thank you for spending the time with us tonight.

Thank you. It's our honor to be here. My name is Jen Cecil and I'm with the Thomas Consulting Group or TCG for short. TCG is a national public sector consulting firm that works with local governments on complex policy and infrastructure issues. Over the past year, we've worked with cities across the country that are trying to understand and prepare for data center development, including Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, Lansing, Michigan, Jackson, Mississippi, Kansas City, Missouri, and Akron and Cincinnati, Ohio. And we've also convened national peer learning networks so cities can learn from one another as this industry and the policy landscape continue to evolve. My own background is in local government. Before joining TCG, I spent more than a decade in municipal leadership, including seven years directing New Orleans permitting and planning center and serving as capital budget director for roughly $600 million rebuilding program. Our broader Woodburn team brings in additional expertise in municipal operations, land use and zoning, infrastructure and planning, environmental and regulatory policy, public finance, governance, communications, and data analysis. And I want to emphasize one thing about our role here. We are not coming into Woodburn with the position on whether data centers are inherently good or bad or whether a particular project should or should not be built. Our job is to provide independent research and technical assistance so that the city can make those decisions for itself based on objective information and Woodburn's own priorities. We've already begun reviewing the city's existing plans, codes infrastructure and utility planning documents and regulatory frameworks. From there, we'll look at how communities around the country are addressing issues like land use and compatibility, water and wastewater, electricity and infrastructure, noise and operational impacts, fiscal considerations, community benefits and public engagement. Ultimately, it's our goal to help Woodburn develop a clear and practical framework for evaluating future data center proposals consistently and transparently so that when those decisions come before the city, the council, staff, and the public have good information, clear standards, and useful tools to work from. We appreciate the opportunity to work with Woodburn and we applaud your leadership for taking the time to engage in a thoughtful process around this rapidly changing industry. We look forward to supporting the city and the community throughout the process.

Thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any questions right now from the council? I do appreciate you and your team that have already made yourself available to the council with some initial education on our part. For my part, it's been very beneficial. Has the whole council been able to be part of that? Yes. That's been very, very helpful, and I know the staff is going to be involved in that, too. Thank you very much for the beginning. Work in progress.

Mr. Mayor, so Chris is here tonight to, I asked Chris to talk a little bit about the land use pieces of the moratorium and what that looks like for the city council. Should the council impose a moratorium tonight? What we can expect seeing going forward.

So, you know, when we think about what's going to happen sort of in the next 120 days, right, because that's a real question, I think it's, and this is what I think staff's really looking forward to having this consulting team on board with us, and they've been great so far, is, you know, we're going to be looking very specifically at all the definitions that we have. We're looking at What are the thresholds for review? Is everything covered not just in our zoning code, but we're looking at ordinances like noise ordinances. We're going to have the fire department involved. Does the fire district need different training for the battery energy storage systems that are going to be in place? The real issue is it's the scale of these developments. They're just beyond anything we've seen before. We're talking about potentially hundreds of diesel generators on one site. What does that mean in terms of noise? What does it mean in terms of exhaust? What does it mean in terms of all kinds of other environmental issues that might come off of that? And when you hear about closed loop systems and evaporative systems for cooling, it's being done at a scale for, we're talking about 300,000 square foot facilities that run all the time. And that gets into not just the water usage, but what happens to the water when it comes off the site and what kind of condition is it in. It's pretty rare that we have to deal with sort of looking at decommissioning plans, right? What happens to that site in 10 years if technologies change? What does that mean? But that's the kind of thing we need to look at. So these are, I call them sort of known unknowns, right? There's a lot of things we don't know that we really need to get our hand on or a handle on. And we see other cities. This is certainly not anything new. This is probably the hottest item just on the presidential governor side and all the way in Salem and Hillsborough. at the national and local level. So we can see this and get a feel for it. So that's the reason we're acting so quickly. We wanna make sure that we can get the moratorium in place to give us the opportunity as the city manager said, to have a bit of breathing room and to clarify our codes and get them straightened out in time. As you know, I can't modify things like zoning codes very quickly. I have to go through a whole separate process for that. So we really need to get up and running pretty quickly. And we have been, and that's why we've engaged this team to move forward with us.

You will primarily be working with the Planning Commission first, and then things come up eventually.

Yeah, a lot of this is definitely going to involve the Planning Commission for certain. And again, ultimately, any of those ordinance changes ultimately come back to you all for a formal adoption.

Thank you. Any other questions? We were talking earlier and I want to thank you for the staff report. It was very informative and beneficial to a lot of us. So thank you for everyone that was involved in that. I don't have any questions at this time. Then I will open it up. Do we have anyone from the public that would like to speak in favor? Any proponents?

Just to be clear, this is a moratorium that would prohibit us from reviewing any data centers for the next 120 days.

So what you're saying is a proponent would be someone that supports the moratorium. That's correct. Rather than an opponent of this, what we're doing here in the public area.

And then just for clarification.

Thank you for that clarification. So that is people in favor of the...

So our vote would be, if we're in favor, would be yes.

I have received two letters that we'll put in the record in the last several days. One from a Dr. Jones Sinclair that supported moratorium and against the data center. And another one from Ariel Kaplan, who is Ward 5, who has the same has the same interest in supporting moratorium. Two people who would like to speak in favor of that tonight would be Mr. Freeland, here to come up. Sorry. Okay.

Good evening.

Hello, I'm Devin Freeland. I live in Woodburn. And I just wanted to say that I am in strong support of doing the moratorium. And I'm glad that the council's decided to vote on this and put this in place. And that you've listened to the community who came to the previous meetings and asked for this. So thank you for that. And yeah, I just want to express my support. Hopefully we can go forward supporting what the community wants. So thank you.

Well, thank you for coming out. We appreciate it. And Dagmar?

My name is and I live on 586 Grant Street in Woodburn. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, city council members. And if I understand you correctly, the moratorium is that for 120 days, no data center decision can be made. Is that correct?

We would not entertain a data center application for 120 days unless otherwise extended.

And tell me what the process is on how the public can be heard in that process. So after the 120 days, what happens then?

Any application that comes would go to the Planning Commission after review. Public has a say going to the Planning Commission.

Okay.

And then it would come to the council if the council .

And in support of the moratorium, I guess I don't quite understand how the moratorium technically works.

If we vote to support past moratorium now, that is it. That means that for 120 days.

So it's a 120-day delay for any application. So I would support that. Would that still mean afterwards the public has a chance to speak up?

Not necessarily. It could be extended. It depends upon where the city has enough information to make a decision to accept an application. So, yeah, not at that. We don't know what's going to happen four months from now.

We're trying to develop a game plan to protect us, protect our city, protect our land, protect the water, protect the infrastructure, all of it. Yeah.

And I'd let our city attorney to jump in on that. I'm sure he has some input.

Yeah, so during the moratorium period, staff will be working with the consulting group, and as needed, things like the zoning code may be brought for revisions, things like comprehensive plans around water, wastewater, stormwater. it's determined that in order to ensure the city's protected, should a data center development come for an application, we need to make modifications to our planning documents. That would happen during this moratorium period. So the moratorium period is for you know, ensuring that the city can take those steps, put plans in place that would adequately protect the city so that, you know, once the moratorium period expires, whether that's after 120 days or whatever extension may be needed, you know, then the city may at that point in time reopen the application process. But again, have better preparation to evaluate applications adequately And then of course, you know, any planning applications of that size and magnitude would probably go to the planning commission and possibly city council for additional public hearing before any project would be approved.

And Mr. Mayor, one of the things I think I'm going to add to this is one of the most important aspects of the implement this moratorium tonight from my perspective is that it prevents the submission of an application tomorrow. If an application comes in tomorrow and there's no moratorium, then there's a vested right established to that property owner on the existing rules which we may find inadequate down the road because we didn't have the moratorium in place to do the analysis to put the rules into place. This has happened in other communities where applications have come in before the moratorium was implemented and those rules were in place at that time are what that application is subject to which those communities may find inadequate in terms of protecting their interest down the road. So the moratorium tonight, it protects the city and gives us the opportunity to evaluate our systems and our plans and make sure that there are enough tools in place that we feel good about protecting the public's interest in the eventuality we ever get a data center. I don't know if it's eventual, but should we ever get one, then we'll feel good that we have done the analysis and the work and we've got what we need to properly analyze it.

The main thing, Dagmar, that I think the analysis is going to show us is what we possibly could accommodate.

When, let me ask you, so you're implying when you say we want to protect the city, so I only looked at a handful of data centers so far in other states and how much of a upheaval that has created. And does that mean if a landowner comes here and says, I want to sell my land to a data center and I have the finances to do it, then the city would have to grant it?

The city doesn't approve private property transactions. So we have no control over who sells property to who or what they intend to do with it. So the approval of private property sales is not any aspect of what we can do as a local government. But what we can do is we can ensure that our land use rules, that our plans that govern and protect our infrastructure are in such a condition that we could potentially deny a land use application because we'll have done the work to put those mechanisms into place. And that's what we would like to do. But in terms of controlling private property sales, we have no control over that.

So hearing your explanation, I would definitely say I would be in favor of the moratorium. The longer, the better. The more data you have, the better the decisions will be. Thank you.

So I let that go on because it was a good discussion on where we're going anyway with our council bill. So I appreciate that. Last opportunity, anyone else in public care to speak? Then does council have any discussion now? We have a resolution we're going to look at here in a few minutes that they have an opportunity to speak. Then I will close the public.

Well, I do actually have a comment, and I'll call it the elephant in the room, and that's this. And I've talked to a number of constituents, all of whom have told me, and I'm not saying they represent a majority of the city, but everyone that has approached me to talk about this, their comment is along the lines of, can't the city just say no? And so... It's a very toxic issue at this point. And so to change the subject a little bit, if somebody proposed to put a nuclear reactor, a commercial nuclear reactor in the city, I don't think the citizens' response would be much different than the current reaction to data centers. And so that's a question in my mind. Can the city just say no? And I don't know what the answer to that is. But what I do know is that we can put rules in place and analysis in place to determine whether or not a data center is compatible with our ability to continue to thrive as a city. I guess that's the way that I would summarize it.

Thank you. So with that, I'll close the public hearing and we'll move on to general business. First up, just happen to have council bill number 3310, which is a resolution. Can I have you introduce that please?

Yes, I'd like to introduce council bill number 3310.

Council bill 3310 has been duly introduced and as a resolution such requires one reading. May we have that reading please by the title only if there's no objection.

Council Bill Number 3310, a resolution declaring a moratorium on the development and construction of data storage, processing, and information technology centers, data centers, pursuant to ORS 197505-540. Thank you.

We basically have already had a staff report. Is there any further discussion on this? then could we have a roll call vote please?

Councillor Bravo?

Yes.

Councillor Kentu? Yes. Councillor Cornwell? Yes. Councillor Schaub?

Yes.

Councillor Wilk?

Yes.

Councillor Quijaba? Yes.

Thank you. Council Bill 3310 has been duly passed and therefore we do have more time. Thank you all for your involvement and support and help on that. Next up we have Council Bill number 3311. I'd like to introduce Council Bill number 3311. Council Bill 3311 has been duly introduced and is also a resolution. As such, it requires one reading. May we please have the reading by title only. There's no objection.

Council Bill Number 3311, a resolution authorizing execution of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Woodburn and the Woodburn Police Association for a contract beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2028. Thank you.

Do we have a staff report on this?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city counselors, Mackenzie Graham, your city attorney. I'm here representing our bargaining team this evening. I was the lead negotiator in reaching a tentative agreement here with the WPA, Woodburn Police Association, which is our rank and file. police union group. Also part of our team was Mel Gregg, our human resources director, as well as Deputy Chief Andy Shadron. I'd also really like to thank other members that are behind the scenes of the bargaining team, which included the city manager, the police chief, our finance director, as well as our senior HR analyst and senior finance management analyst, um those two individuals themselves actually run a lot of our financial numbers and help us in reaching this tentative agreement this evening we are very happy with how the negotiations went started earlier this year in may and wrapped up in august so you know very successful only had to meet a few times to reach this agreement but we think it is a very fair deal um it is within uh budget and the five-year forecast set by the city council It is a two year contract, which is standard for our rank and file office union. And I'm happy to go through any further details. Obviously the main thing is always the discussion about wages. So what may look different is our wage schedule this year. We did a modification from previous wage schedules that had some of our, what are called premium or incentive pays. compounded into a wage schedule that made it really hard for us to compare our wages to what we call our comparable cities. So comparable cities are those that are around the same population size within the same region as us and statutorily we are required to offer comparable wages to our comparable cities. And the reason for that is so that one, we're within market, but also to demonstrate that we're providing the same wages and benefits as those comparable cities. So what we did is we essentially flattened the wage schedule and we removed some of those premiums and incentives that were compounding and making it really hard for us to compare our wages to other cities. And we went with a flat wage schedule, so you'll just see one rate for all of our officers. There are six steps, and generally that will provide an average increase for our officers of 3.8% COLA for this year starting July 1. We do a retro pay. And then next year it will be a 3.5% COLA increase. So those are the wage changes. And then we did a major overhaul of our health insurance benefit plans that will start January 1, 2027. The premium share for employer and employees has always been set at 95% employer provided and 5% employee that won't change. But some of the plans that we're going to be able to provide in January are going to be just more comprehensive, better plans, and I'd really like to thank our HR director, shout out to Mel, who is able to work with a broker this year to find those plans that are gonna be available for the police union next year. We're really excited about that.

Any other questions? Who's the medical carrier?

So we're gonna be moving to Kaiser, and they're gonna be offering four different plans. One that's gonna be a Kaiser-only plan, and then what's called their preferred provider network, and both through PPO as well as high deductible for both of those.

Yeah. Any agreement right now is very difficult to manage or to agree to just because of medical and healthcare, not knowing where that's going. And so I applaud both the union and the city being able to come to that agreement and still maintaining just a 5% copay for the staff. That's pretty generous.

yeah i would um like you mentioned these issues have been really really complicated in other cities and you know we work with um across the table from a really really well represented union team and i'd really like to just thank them as well you know we you know this is the team effort on the city side um but you know without that good relationship this would have been a lot harder process to go through both of these changes both the wage change and the health insurance changes could have been much more complicated and drawn out. And so to get this deal done in four months, we feel really good about that.

The other thing I know how difficult it is with medical health changing or medical payments changing and not knowing where that's going to be. But personally, in the future, and I've said this in the past, I'd love to see a longer term instead of two years. If we could ever go three or four, it certainly makes it easier for both the union and the city.

Yeah, that's definitely been part of our discussions. You know, we just really have relied on this sort of past practice of two-year contracts. It doesn't mean that we won't ever, you know, try to push for longer-term agreements, but it also gives some assurance to the city when, you know, we always work within a five-year forecast, and so, you know, kind of halfway through that, we're already back at the bargaining table re-looking at the numbers in case things have changed. So, you know, there's some benefits for us as well, but I always, you know, we've looked at three-year agreements in the past, and with this union in particular, haven't been able to get there on a three-year deal.

I agree. Again, it's always a good job to close this up, so Mel and Mackenzie, thank you for that. Any other comments, questions that I would entertain? Could we have a roll call vote, please?

Councilor Quijalva? Yes. Councilor Cornwell? Yes. Councilor Cantu? Yes. Councilor Wilk? Yes. Councilor Schaub? Yes. Councilor Bravo?

Yes. Council Bill 3311 has been duly passed. Thank you for that. Next up we have a construction contract for asphalt maintenance for next year.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, councilors. I guess this is the third most controversial topic. Secondly, being ODOT's highways, but no.

Is there an ODOT?

Sometimes, sometimes not, I think. So what we've got here is we've got a asphalt maintenance program. What we're looking to do here is we're looking to replace some damaged sections of roads that we want to be able to go through and do a slurry seal over next year. So this is like the preemptive part of it. So it's a it's a three-step process the first step is when we go through into our crack ceiling try to get everything analyzed and figure out where everything's at second one is going to go in and replace a lot of the road sections that are bad when we've got cracking coming down from the top down that's too much that it won't handle or we'll have some base issues so we'll have to dig up the entire section of asphalt and then replace the base so this is going to let us go through and do a bunch of work in some areas and get our best bang for our bucks moving forward As you can tell, last year we did the slurry seal over Garfield. Most people drive down through that. It looks really nice. It's done a really good job. I think it's going to be a pretty good way of making a cost-effective repair, so this is just one step in that process. We got some pretty decent bids at the low end. We had a pretty wide margin there, but we think that we've got a pretty good contractor. They did the work for us last year as well. They've sharpened their pencil and done some pretty good work. So with that, any questions?

Questions? So a couple here. The streets you mentioned are Montebello. How far are we going? Is this several blocks? Are we doing a couple miles?

Well, this is only going to be about 1,700 square yards of damaged asphalt. So it's going to be various locations. But this is in preparation for, I believe, the Montebello 123, Paradise Point, and South Settlemeyer to have that slurry seal over the entire area. So we're ramping up what? what we did last year. So we've, like I said, we've gone through and done all of our assessments. This is fixing the bad spots with this contract. And then next year we'll go through and do that slurry seal on all of those streets.

And can't help but notice the engineer's estimate. Normally you guys are right on and then normally come out pretty good. Here we're about 50,000 below, including the contingency.

Yeah. And it's just because of the, I mean, just the oil prices. I mean, it's just, it's constantly changing. These guys are throwing numbers out. Of course, they're looking to do this work. in the spring, I believe, or right now. So, yeah. So it's just a shot in the dark. So we started working on this a while back and we just hit it sometimes and sometimes we don't.

Chair Greg Musil.

Okay. Thanks.

Chair Greg Musil. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of them high up around the 230,000 mark, so. Chair Greg Musil.

Any other questions, comments? Then I'd entertain a motion to ‑‑ Okay.

I move to award the construction contract for the 2026 asphalt maintenance project to the lowest responsible bidder, which is 9th River Corporation Northwest, in the amount of $129,825.28 and approve an additional $40,000 for this project as a contingency for change orders that may arise during construction.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. All in favor signify with an aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Moving on ODOT is around and alive. ODOT Transportation Safety DUI enforcement program. We have a staff report.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. My name is Andy Shadron. I'm deputy chief with the Woodburn Police Department. And hopefully what I'm going to talk about is not too controversial because we're just going to be accepting money. But what you have with your staff report there is a recommendation that our city manager is authorized to sign an agreement with ODOT to continue into our third year of our sustained DUI enforcement program. So we currently have an officer who, full time, DOES DUI ENFORCEMENT WITHIN THE CITY. SO WE'LL BE OFFICIALLY ENDING OUR SECOND YEAR OF THE SUSTAINED DUI GRANT THIS MONTH BECAUSE IT WORKS ON A FEDERAL FISCAL YEAR THAT STARTS ON OCTOBER 1ST. SO WITH THE THIRD YEAR, IT'S A 50% REIMBURSEMENT OF THE OFFICERS FULL WAGE AND BENEFITS AND THE OTHER 50% IS MATCHED BY CITY FUNDING. With that authorization, we can continue with that program with that 50% reimbursement. And that total amount, I apologize, total amount of $100,406.10 would be to fund 50% of that position. Any questions, comments?

It's been a very successful program, unfortunately.

Yes, we've seen it be very successful. In fact, if you refer to the report, we did a three-year look at our DUIs from 2022 to 2025, and we are now at 104% increase in overall DUI. And we only officially started the program at the tail end of 2024, but that increase has definitely been there. In fact, the chief just put out a public social media message about one of our kind of a record breaking weekend for DUI risks that we just had recently. So the way we look at it is that every DUI intervention is really a life that we're saving. In fact, one of our first officers in that position was interviewed and talked about a personal story where his own father, who was a DUI driver that perished in a crash, and one of the things he kind of talked about was what if there was an officer that might have stopped him and saved his life. as a broad impact, not on just others, but also the people who might be offending. And again, 100% preventable, because these are choices people can make to not drink and drive.

Do we have more than one officer that is, obviously all the officers are trying to stop.

So it's not just one officer doing all of these arrests. This is a team effort. So we have one officer that's solely their position is DUI enforcement. They work for four shifts, four 10 hour shifts in the graveyard hours. coincide with the weekend so like it's Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday and sometimes it moves we adjust the schedule for events or national holidays and then but yeah that's that collective increase in DUI's has really contributed to the entire department we have a really good department that's really proactive officers that are really go out there and look for for impaired driving

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you.

I would entertain a motion to accept the ODOT grant.

Yes, I move to authorize the city manager to execute grant agreements for a third year of an ODOT TSO application for the Woodburn Police Department sustained DUI enforcement program if funding is awarded.

Thank you, do we have a second? Second. Moved and seconded by Councilor Bravo, I heard first. So all those in favor signify with an aye. Aye. Opposed with the same. Motion passes, thank you. Except then I hope that we're able to continue in the future after this year. Thank you, Andy. I do not have any other business. We do not have anything from the Planning Commission. So moving on to City Manager's Report.

Mr. Mayor, just briefly, I can tell you a couple things. The Mill Creek Trail component that will go from Seminole Park to Hermison Pond, the extension segments, is being bid by ODOT. We hope the work will start by the first part of 2027, but that project's out to bid starting September 24th.

uh also at centennial the new basketball hoops are up and the court has been repainted and should be open by this weekend all right good news that's all i have that's it then moving on to mayors and council reports we will start down with council

I don't have anything to report. I just like driving by the new Aquatic Center or the new Community Center, watching it go up. It's really exciting.

Good work there. It's looking good. It's looking good. Councilor Cantu?

I just want to reiterate the Fiesta Court. I didn't get to participate in all of the days of the Fiesta, but they did a little presentation at the Chamber of Commerce that Friday morning. and everybody knows I don't love public speaking so I did go up to the group of girls and let them know what an excellent job that they're doing and you know just to see their transformation from when they first presented towards the end was really great so thank you for all the work that you did with the girls that is really an important point we see that yearly and that is one of the

main benefits i think that i personally get yeah from looking at the court how they they do mature progress over that several month period so yeah and hats off to you you know great job working with that that crew and people that work with you they really it was a very talented career yeah great job thank you that's it that's it okay

I just want to say that if you look at the totality of our agenda tonight, It exemplifies why we were named an all-American city. We have so much on the ball and going on here and just really proud to live here and to be part of the ongoing effort to make our city what it is.

I really appreciate that. I'll get you one additional all-American piece. All right.

You know, on another note, City Manager Scott's report reminded me when you mentioned Hermanson Pond, it got honorable mention in the Mid-Valley Awards that the Statesman Journal sponsored as a destination recreation location. That's important. Thank you.

I just want to say that as a Beacon Councilor, we need to read an agenda packet prior to our meeting so we're familiar with what's going on. in this agenda packet scott derrickson our city manager and chris kerr our community development director and i'm sure that our attorney mckenzie helped put this package together about data centers which gave me a better understanding and then also with hiring the Thomas Consulting Group. And we're having education from that group as well. It really gives us an opportunity to protect our city. And it's so involved. It really is. It's not as simple as just, hey, we're going to put this little center here and everything is going to be. It has long-lasting effects on the future of all of us. So anyway, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for making this so important.

understanding for me that's all thank you we'll send council bravo yeah echoing what my fellow council members said i i'm going back to the fiesta i was very excited to participate in this year's parade i was a little nervous that i was probably gonna hit another kid with the candy luckily that didn't happen and i sat next to the mayor and councilor wilk and they took the honors this year so but yeah Good job to everybody involved in putting Vesta together. It was amazing and you felt the energy. So awesome job.

Yeah. Thank you. Council Furnwell.

Echoing both Councilor Schaub and Councilor Bravo. The material you guys put together in the agenda allowed me to say to people that wanted to understand what the data center, the plan was, I would just say, read the agenda packet. It's all right there, and it's public information, and it'll be there for the public to go look at. If they're confused what our goals are, it's right there. And then as far as the parade, I just want to thank the whole fiesta, not just the parade, but the parade is, I'm the most popular person in town, I swear. You unite our community, and there's so much joy. That's all I can say. It's just, yeah. And to have your name being called by community members, which happened a lot for me. No, just, it was great. Thank you.

She was getting shirts out left and right. Yes.

So the only thing I have to add is the recognition that we received. We had the representative from the National Civic League that was with us that day, and she greatly enjoyed it. And then the presentation she made at the Fiesta, I felt very honored and proud of Woodburn. So that is all I have. With that, our next meeting is in two weeks on the 28th, Monday night at 7 o'clock here. So I'm going to ask Councilor Schaub to, I will not be here. Councilor Schaub, please take over for me. Absolutely. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. We're out of here.