City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Colleen, for getting us going. Thank you, Mr. Schultz, for getting the list. Tonight's reporter is going to be Mr. DeForge. We're at two minutes, and if you could raise your hand, maybe, if you could, for a 30-minute mark, that might help. For the 30-second mark. Okay. Do we have any online comments that is on here as well?

The top two were submitted to us. I don't know if they're in person or online.

Okay, very good. We will go into clinical order. We've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine public comments. All right. Are we ready, General? Larry Gonzalez, come on down.

Do I have to say my name before I leave?

Yes, please say your name for the record. Name, address, pop it.

And make sure we've got the mic on. It's mic on. There you go. Green is go. And you could tap on it maybe. There you go. Larry Gonzalez. I'm a resident of North Plains. My address is

I got what 3 minutes.

City Council members thank you for the time. The current state of city government is of great concern to me as well as others. At one of the last meetings, a city attorney said that there was an emergency or a crisis. She also said that the state of city government was without precedent in Oregon. Specifically, the churn of city council members, mayors, city managers, and city staff is unsustainable and dysfunctional. This dysfunction points to a lack of leadership. Some of you have been on the council for 18 months or longer. There has been enough time to learn how to do the room. You've been offered multiple resources. The city should not have to pay for a parliamentarian to show you how to run a meeting. In his resignation letter, the previous mayor raised legal and administrative concerns about this city council. While it might be easy to blame previous administrations, you are the current city council. So please be transparent and clarify what the previous mayor meant by legal concerns. Learn to do the job or step away. There's no shame in resigning if you're not up to the task. The residents of North Plains are counting on you to do the right thing. Please use your own judgment without being influenced by outside interests. At the end of the day, the people who pay the price for your actions are in action or the residents of Northern Plains. We cannot afford the current chaos. We need city offices open during business hours. We need stability and competent council members who will take this job seriously. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Mark Watson. Welcome.

Hello. For the record, my name is Mark Watson, 335 Northeast Edison Street in Hillsboro. I'm also a member of the Hillsboro School Board. Oh, I'm the vice chair of the Hillsboro School Board. Sorry, that's recent development. I'm here to deliver a letter to you all. from the chair of the Hillsboro School Board, who's unavailable to be here today because she's dropping her freshman son off at college, which is always fighting me some tears. For 22 years, I lived in Aloha. I live in Hillsboro now, but for 22 years, I lived in Aloha. And being in the Hillsboro School District and not being part of Hillsboro is something that I think I've often felt with y'all. along with the folks in Cornelius, folks in Farmington View, the folks in Westview. There's many places that are in the Hillsborough School District that are not part of Hillsborough. I don't think people talk about that enough. So I try to evangelize that whenever I can. And I've been coming to your council meetings on a semi-regular basis since I was elected to the spot. I'm here to let you know that the school district is going out for a bond measure this fall. We're working on the... measure number and the title should be in the next couple of weeks. As you probably know, district staff cannot advocate. They can only provide information. So they would be happy to provide you information, but elected folks like you and me can't advocate. So I think what is a note from our board chair and a potential endorsement form. And if you'd like more information, happy to get coffee or chat or come back for a formal presentation. We will end up past the deadline to do a public endorsement by the time we could probably set up something in a formal meeting. But if you want just individual information, as you also know, bond dollars and general fund dollars are different. You go for a bond, you can buy over general, over... Generalization, you could buy things. Build a building like we did here at Equality Ridge. The last bond, we did $17.5 million of improvements at North Plains Elementary. But you can't pay ongoing teacher salaries or bus drivers or nutrition workers. But if you don't have a bond or you're not replacing equipment with bond dollars on a regular basis, when the HVAC system at Liberty High School breaks to the tune of over a million dollars, you have to use money that would normally go to teachers and bus drivers and nutrition workers to repair that equipment. So most of this bond is preventative maintenance, roofs, boilers, things like that. There's no grand giant project that's flashy or whatever, but as you all know, running a municipality and having to fix buildings yourself, these are important things. So if you'd like to support the bond, Just drop them off over there. Where's a good place to drop off?

Perfect.

Thank you. And thanks so much for your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Next up is Marianne Vander Velden. Federal Brands and Site Box. Marianne Vander Velden, 31585 Northwest Cottage.

Yeah, we have been talking about sidewalks on Main Street from commercial to Pacific since, well, I think it's been at least three years. And I noticed online it just keeps getting pushed back and back and back. So now it's on for next June, which I'm really hoping it won't get pushed back because that street has a lot of pedestrians and it is not safe. And we really need those sidewalks. My biggest concern is I know there was a federal grant and I'm hoping we get started on it before that grant expires. So does anybody know anything about that?

I'd like to remind council we're not allowed to respond. Right. Okay.

You may want to think about that because if there's a timeline on that grant, you're in trouble. You're losing a lot of money. So, um, That's it. I mean, I'm getting tired of waiting. I need to see some action. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Next up is Pence Richards.

Thank you. My questions were answered during the work system. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up is Susan Brown, Open Meeting Law.

Good evening. I'm Susan Brown, a rural resident in North Plains 97133. Counselors, I'm here today because what happened on August 11th, 2026 was not just a procedural oversight. It was a violation of Oregon's public meetings law. When you recessed into executive session and failed to reconvene in public, the entire council meeting was never legally closed. Decisions made in executive session are illegal. Actions from those decisions are also illegal. Failing to publicly adjourn the council meeting also legally taints the rest of the meeting's content. That undermines the transparency and accountability this community is entitled to. I and five others waited patiently to be invited back in as promised by Councilor DeForge. When the doors were finally opened and the waiting public sat down, we were informed the meeting had already been adjourned. I heard the same story from folks who waited patiently on Zoom, but the meeting never resumed. But this violation is part of a much larger pattern. Council President Mandy Hagedorn described the departure of our city manager, our beloved library director, our city recorder, and the entire planning department, the closure of city hall due to insufficient staffing, the inability of candidates to submit required election paperwork, water bill payments being rejected, and many more normal city business interruptions as simply organizational change. Gaslighting with the term organizational change implies a thoughtful professional plan. No plan has ever been perfectly debated, no goals, no rationale, no transition strategy. It is described by our city attorney and the secretary of state of Oregon as unprecedented. What we are witnessing is not organizational change. It is chaos on purpose and is the fruit of a private plan discussed behind closed doors even before the election of November 2024. That chaos was on full display with the hiring interim city manager, Gary Marks. Council President Hagedorn voted yes to hire him, and four days later, he resigned. Instead of taking responsibility, she posted on Facebook that, quote, before city council's official vote to bring marks on, I was not involved in the preliminary search for candidates. I didn't see candidates' names and wasn't given the option to review resumes, unquote. She didn't have enough information to make the right decision. Thank you, Susan.

Next up, everyone's name player.

Good evening. My name is Kimberly Sinclair and I'm a Hillsborough resident at Cam Morrill Drive here in Washington County. I'm a Hillsborough City Councillor and I am a candidate for Washington County Commission for District 4. I'm here today not representing my governing body or the mayor or any city staff. My comments are my own as a resident. To the mayor and to the North Plains City Council, Thank you for your commitment to your residents here in North Plains. You inherited a crisis. I commend the remaining council and city staff for stepping up to provide stability during this transition. I support your August 17th resolution. I request that you initiate a comprehensive third-party forensic audit. You are managing the fallout of past leadership but this action would affirm your resolve to correct the course. I encourage you to take the time that's necessary to conduct this audit thoroughly. Returning to state financial compliance is not about assigning blame. It is about uncovering the facts. A rushed process serves no one. Residents deserve meticulous, verified accounting to fully rebuild public trust. You cannot govern effectively without accurate data. Taking the time to do this right will provide the baseline you need to resolve financial order and set a responsible strategic direction for the city. Exercising your oversight to account for every public dollar is exactly what this moment requires. I stand with you and thank you for your courage to lead in this difficult moment. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Next up, Russ Sheldon, leadership.

I'm Russ Sheldon, and I'm a resident of North Plains. Good evening, member counselors. I want to speak tonight about something fundamentally about the effect of leadership, and that's critical thinking. Every decision a leader makes begins with how they think. The questions they ask, the assumptions they challenge, the facts they consider, and whether they are willing to look at more than one perspective before acting. Critical thinking is disciplined curiosity. It means slowing down, understanding the root cause of a problem, considering the broader consequences, and making decisions based on facts and the long-term interests of the organization, not short-term emotions, personalities, or political pressure. For the North Plains City Council, that responsibility is especially important because you work for the residents of North Plains. Leadership isn't about being the loudest voice in the room or following the loudest voices outside the room. It is about initiative, accountability, sound judgment, and taking ownership of the consequences of your decisions. North Plains has experienced a significant turnover and the loss of institutional knowledge and experienced community leaders. That makes thoughtful decision-making even more important, not less. Experience isn't everything, but experience matters. So does listening to those who have different perspectives. The question every councilor should continually ask is simple. What is the best long-term interests of the residents of North Plains? Not what is best for a particular individual. Not what is best for an activist group or an outside organization. And not what is politically convenient. What is best for North Plains? That is a standard I believe our residents deserve from their electorate leaders. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, John Platt, audit.

Madam President, members of the council, my name is John Platt. I live in Helvetia where I've lived and farmed on 70 acres for the last 46 years. In the minds of some, that makes me an outsider, but I consider myself a stakeholder. For those 46 years, I have visited North Plains at least three times a week, spending cash on food, car repairs, music, recreation, and hardware, until New Holland moved to greener pastures in Cornelius. I was also able to purchase tractor parts following a trip of about five minutes from my home. As a stakeholder, I'm very concerned about the 2022 audit results. because it appears that city government officials, in their zeal to pave over productive farmland to make room for data centers, ignored the most basic duty, fiscal responsibility. The results of the audit are a blot on the city government that must be remedied. After reading the audit, I'm particularly concerned about finding 2022-003, insufficient retention of supporting documentation for adjusting journal entries. It is considered a material weakness. A material weakness was defined in the audit as a deficiency or a combination of deficiencies in internal control such that there is a reasonable possibility that material misstatement of the district's financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. With this finding, one can't help but wonder what other city records were lost, ignored, or purposely discarded, and what other city departments were as casual with record retention. I suggest that you authorize a forensic data retention investigation to take a look at the other departments, human resources, for instance, and determine whether or not the same casual retention of records occurred as well. Now when you as a council didn't make this mess, you now have a duty to clean it up. I appreciate the service that you provide as volunteers to North Plains. And I hope that the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune will make a U-turn when they head for your desk. Thank you.

Thank you. So final person on the list is Emily Waldron, Data Centers.

Okay. Hello, my name is Emily Waldron. I am a rural 97133 resident. And I guess I'm actually gonna start with a quote from former Councilor Rush Sheldon at the April 3rd, 2023 City Council meeting. regarding the failed audits for 2020 and 2021. Just saying that I want to make sure we're taking it seriously because this is serious. So I thank you all for taking our failed audits and incomplete audits seriously. It's on YouTube should anyone want to watch that fun meeting. But I would like to talk about data centers and also some issues with transparency. At the last council meeting, I introduced to all of you a draft written by some lawyers and attorneys and different people in other states, as well as people working within Oregon Data Center Defiance. Some information that has come to light for me within that is that, and I want you to make sure you all know, the previous council and previous city staff made this sort of resolution and the work you have to do around different ordinances very, very difficult to undo. And that was done on purpose. So an example of that is that the current comprehensive plan listed on the city website is the plan dated from 2019. The city did not include publicly the amendment that was passed in 2022, which mentions data centers. The only reason I have seen that amendment is because of public records requests with DLCD and that information being included in those public records requests. So I kind of got a little loophole to get it. But if you were just to go on the North Plains City website That plan amendment, which mentions data centers I think 34 times, isn't easily accessible. There's also ordinances that are going to be impacted should you want to ban data centers in town, including ordinance 484. So that may be something that you all need to explore if you can amend it or rescind it or what you want to do. But to begin, I know we have limited planning staff and capacity. Our planning commission hasn't met in a few months. And based on North Plains code in section 155.125, it does say that things have to come to the planning commission first. They're not meeting, so I can't go to them. I'm coming to you. So as a council, it would be maybe you want to recommend to them that they take up this issue and force them to meet about this issue versus them waiting for a permanent city manager and then a permanent planning staff to be hired. And I was going to ask, there is a fee in the planning fees that if you try to approach the city for an amendment to our code, you're going to be charged $6,493. And the work I do with Strong Towns and ORDCD, I have worked with land use attorneys who are willing to help us as an organization to give public comment to all of you. But if you're wanting to do the data center amendments, I would ask that you waive that fee for us to be asking the planning department to change the code to ban data centers. If it comes in discussion that you all want to move forward and I can go appeal, then I would like to ask for that.

Thank you. That is it for the last on our list. Mr. Schultz, should we do a final online suite?

I think that would be appropriate to make sure everybody gets a chance to be heard.

Is there anybody online that has a public comment? I don't need to call from Colleen to help us drive this. And there is. So we have a hand raised. All right. My glasses are not as good as they could be. Excuse me. Point of order.

We don't have to fill out the form before we can see that. We can't just do it at the end, right? We have to, there's a cutoff time for people to, yes. All right.

Excuse me. I sent in my request today long before three o'clock.

Okay.

Thank you, Linda. Okay, we will hear your request. If you could resend it to us for the record and documentation, that would be great. Thank you.

Happy to. May I start now?

Please.

Okay. So good evening, Council, President and Council. My name is Linda Gallus-Merton, representing Strong Towns North Plains with members throughout 97133. We're here tonight to recommend that the city hire an independent forensic auditor to review fiscal year 2022 because the audit record shows a serious and continuing breakdown in financial accountability, not just a minor accounting issue. This problem persisted over seven years. The most troubling fact is that none of the corrective actions from 2021 and before have been completed. In fact, not even begun. Corrective actions are formal commitments to fix known weaknesses. When they are ignored, as the previous council did, the same risks remain in place and public funds remain vulnerable to errors, unsupported spending, unauthorized transactions or misuse. In the 2022 audit, two additional corrective actions have been identified. Unresolved findings from one year combined with new findings the next year show that the city's financial controls need more than another routine response. Most importantly, the auditors found that the controls necessary to properly account for expenditures are not in place. That finding goes directly to the city's responsibility to safeguard taxpayers' dollars. If the city cannot show that spending was properly approved, documented, recorded, and reviewed, then the public should not be asked simply to trust that everything was handled correctly. A forensic audit would provide an independent transaction-level review of 2022 expenditures. It could determine whether payments were properly authorized, whether records support the spending, whether costs were charged correctly, and whether any transactions require further investigation. This is not about accusing anyone in advance. It's about establishing facts. Hiring a forensic auditor would also protect the city, its staff, and the public by replacing speculation with evidence. It would show that the City Council takes audit findings seriously and is committed to restoring strong financial controls before more public money is put at risk. Thank you, thank you for your consideration and for this ad. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Excuse me, what order did that person give their address?

Linda, she did not, but we can certainly ask for it.

I'm here representing an organization, and I said, with members throughout 97133.

Point of order. Yes. We previously had discussed and passed a resolution last year, I want to say, regarding not asking for addresses, but instead resident, non-resident, rural resident. So anyone else, please feel free to chime in, but that's my understanding of our current expectation for public involvement.

Thank you for the reminder. It sounds like we're taking care of all that. Is there anybody else raising their hand, Colleen? Okay, looks like we're good to go. Thank you. We will thank you to everybody who provided comments tonight. We're going to close comment period and move on to unfinished business. We've got in front of us a resolution 2366, and this resolution is for a fair percentage rate of signers. The resolution establishes they offer a signer hierarchy and allows one signature. Mr. Schultz, would you like to introduce this?

Yes, if you don't mind. We had this same resolution in a slightly different form last week. Council was interested in a hierarchy of who had the capability to sign, so you'll notice on this resolution. It shows the city manager, interim city manager, as being the priority signatories, find and check. And then it shows the mayor and council president as being the secondary. And they would only sign if you can't find either one of the first two. And you don't always have an interim city manager available. That's the reason. And number three is the library director position. So that should satisfy the request to put an order with the ability to sign. Any questions? I'd be glad to take a quick question.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Schultz. Council, it looks like we have a resolution 2366 in front of us. Is there a motion to adopt as presented?

Council Member Garte, I move to approve resolution number 2366. Council Member Garte, second.

We've got a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing there's no discussion, we can proceed to vote. All in favor of passing Resolution 2366, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. We've got a passed resolution for check signature hierarchy. All right.

From the last work session.

I'd like to add something to the new agenda and I'm out of process here. I'll acknowledge that, but we discussed the opportunity to authorize our city interim city manager to begin the search to bring in two recommended candidates. And Mr. Schultz, is there anything I should add for this before we move to a motion?

No, I would appreciate a motion from council to direct me to bring the two candidates presented in a work session and part of the record to come in for an interview. I think this Thursday, if that fits with everybody, the meeting will be at 6 p.m. If that once again fits, and I will notice it as such, it will be a public meeting. I think what I propose is I'll be glad to put a list of questions together for each one of them. which fits municipal selection. And then you guys have other ways to do that. So with that, I'd appreciate that motion to direct me.

Okay. Is there a motion to adopt resolution to authorize Mr. Schultz to proceed as presented with the interim city manager search?

If I may. It would just be a motion that you're adopting, not a resolution.

And it is a Zoom meeting you're talking about.

Yes. And the last one of them says, hey, I want to come and show up.

Councilor Webber, so moved for the motion.

All right. Do we have a second? All right. So.

Councilor DeForge will second.

All right. Um, any, all those in favor to proceed with the motion by my fiber.

All right.

And that was five. Hey, excuse me. No.

Oh, I don't pay. Yes, sir. Thank you. So I'm ready for me. We now have another resolution in front of us for 2367. Mr. Schultz, would you like to take it away and speak to this?

Sure. What you have in front of you is the 21-22 audit, which will bring us one year closer to being current. We still have a long ways to go. The 21-22 audit, I've looked through it. The material comments have been addressed by our accounting firm. Is she here tonight?

I'm online, Russ.

You're online. Would you like to talk about the audit and your material findings?

Well, so I'm not from the audit company, but I am with Ryan and Company, who is your consultant, your liaison with the audit firm. I guess my first thought would be to point out a couple of facts between the 21 audit that was issued on 7-3-2023. We were initially hired, I just ran through, our first invoice to you was July 1st, 2023, so about two days prior to the last audit being issued. so it was almost impossible to correct any actions that were taken or journal entries that were posted without support prior to 6 30 22 if we were not hired in 2023 um hence most of the responses to these findings are that you did as soon as the 21 audit was issued you hired us we've corrected most of those actions but this 2022 audit was the in-between period where you either were not yet aware, didn't have the ability to implement, or staffing turnover was one of the big ones that was noted in the 21 audit. So this resolution and corrective action plan is almost verbatim what it was the year prior. As someone mentioned, there was additional findings, but that was also a change in audit firms. So they have a little bit different practice on how many recommendations they make per audit item, per material weakness. What I can also say is that some of these findings, you know, maybe there was a transfer between one fund and another that was completely legit authorized by the board, but the backup or support for that actual transfer wasn't made available. There was no findings that resulted in journal entries with any material amount. The audit findings are only that the internal controls over the transactions were lacking. And that's what you corrected. when you hired us in July 1st, 2023. It did take us a few years to get caught up on bank reconciliation, payroll, not payroll being processed, but being correctly recorded. We are current to date with July 31st bank reconciliations being completed already. So the corrective action plan is true in that journal. And that is one of the reasons that it has also taken us so long is with previous management, we had trouble getting those journal entries posted. We may have drafted them, put them into the system, anyone to post them for us. So beginning with our agreement in June, our staff will either prepare them or city staff will prepare them. And then either I or Matt Apkin will review them and post them independently of any executive or city manager going in and posting them, which is the way it was before. So I can say with confidence that I believe as of today, and even as of two years ago, the majority of these issues will be corrected and the next audit should be substantially less. In addition, I've gotten the auditors to tentatively agree to a schedule that we should be current by June of 2028. I realize that's a long time out from right now, but that is about five months per audit. And that's very reasonable. So I'm very hopeful that we can make it in that time.

If I may interrupt you a second, this is Amanda Taylor from Marina and Company who is speaking with us right now. And Amanda basically is our finance manager, if you will. Sorry, I should have introduced you, Amanda. Please keep going.

And I was done, and I certainly should have introduced myself. I did the same thing last time. I apologize.

Thank you, Amanda. Any questions for Amanda?

Councillor Weber, a practical question. Each of these material weaknesses that are listed include a plan of action. Who was it that actually, was there a team of people or who drafted those plan of actions?

I retrieved the document that was produced by the former city manager for the 2021 corrective action plan. And basically. Changed it to these knowing that we we were hired by this time and that we are the ones who will be in those journal entries and. Assisting with implementing these procedures.

So, Amanda, this is raw Schultz. Are you saying that the previous city manager wrote those action plans or did you and Marina company right that action planning.

I believe the former city manager was the original author of the 21 document, but these were certainly updated by me.

Okay. I'm still a little unclear. So the current one we're looking at for the 2020 audit, who drafted the plan of action?

The letter dated August 17th that's included in the packet today was originally drafted by the prior city manager for FY21. And it was updated by me for the FY22, since the majority of the findings were pretty much the same. Am I misunderstanding the question?

So are you saying that the majority of the findings were also the same ones that were in the 2021 audit?

Yes, because the 2021 audit was not complete until July 3rd, 2023, long after fiscal year 22 was complete.

Got it.

Do we have any more questions?

Sure, a couple of questions. Amanda, if you were trying to explain this 99-page audit document to the general public, how would you describe this audit?

The audit itself, the financial statement or financial report, as you will, which I would love to talk about financial reports. You guys might have to stop me here. It really just talks about your... Your girl, I'm going to just reference here specifically. If you were to scroll to page 21 of the agenda packet, it's page 15 of the audit. It talks about your saving a net position. on both governmental activities and business type activities. It gives you very detailed information on what your cash is, your receivables are. I didn't think you were going to be too interested because this is four years ago. These receivables have hopefully long been collected. Your cash has turned over many times. The next page, and it kind of splits across a little bit funny basically because of the way that it got inserted into the document but that's okay it comes down and shows you on the right hand column the top of the page the footer says page 17 has your change in net position let me make sure i'm on the right line is 3.6 million dollars so that means literally during fiscal year 22 you brought enough cash you paid down your debt And you had a positive net change of $3.6 million between both governmental and business type. Governmental was 2.5. Business type, which is your water fund, was over $1 million, which you used to pay down debt and build more infrastructure. Definitely not a negative. In terms of financial statements, financial feasibility, how you're doing, it's definitely not a negative. The issues are, and that's what everyone's focusing on, is on the internal control portion of it, which just means the auditor picked X number of transactions. So many of those failed either authorization or support documentation. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they were wrong. It's just that the procedures were not in place.

Thank you. If the public were comparing this result to other Oregon cities, do you think that this is like an average audit? Is it below average? Is it above? Average, what would you characterize this as?

I would say for an organization that's four years out, I would expect to find material weaknesses. Otherwise, you would be current and everything would, you'd be on the ball, I guess.

Yeah, and so most Oregon cities, are they able to complete audits generally on time?

I wouldn't know offhand what most would be. I can say that the naughty list with the state, you're definitely not alone. Yeah. Sorry, that's what we call it, the naughty list. We're working to get you off the naughty list.

Stay tuned. I have a couple more questions, but I want to stop at the bottom of my counselor desk.

Thank you, Mr. DeForge. Counselor Ralston, Ibarate, any questions? No problem.

Judy. Hi, Amanda. This is Counselor Ibarate. Thank you again for being here tonight. I just had one question, in your professional experience, would you provide any reasons why we should not conduct a third-party independent audit? We've heard a lot of public testimony tonight, and I am just curious if you can shed any light on that in your professional capacity.

Fantastic question. I guess my short answer is Is that they are expensive and the auditor did not find dollar amounts that were missing only internal controls like. For example, one journal entry that we did make was $3 and 97 cents a forensic audit is going to be very expensive very time consuming and unless. Unless we think that there are you think someone thinks that there was active theft or something that you're going to recover from a forensic audit. I hesitate to say, but I don't see a benefit. As much as I would, I'm capable of doing a forensic audit. I am a CFE as well as a CPA. I do review your transactions. I review things. I'm not making an opinion by any means, nor am I the auditor, but I see a fair amount of your transactions. And based on your current budget, your lack of staff, I just don't see the benefit.

Thank you very much.

Councilor Rustin and Councilor Warrington.

Councilor Warrington here. I don't really think I have any questions. I'll give my time to Councilor Forge.

Councilor Rustin, I'll defer to Councilor Forge. Okay.

I guess one more question for you. I guess first I want to thank the staff and Marina and Unplugged for this audit. I accept that this audit is an accurate representation of our financials. The thing that I'm stumbling over is the plan of action. I want to make sure that if we ask our council president to sign something, that it's a thoughtful plan that will resonate with the public. My quick reaction is that the tone feels optimistic. And I wanted to make sure that we don't paint a rosy picture of our control recovery. Does that resonate with you at all?

I would say you could consider this optimistic. I tend to be a pretty optimistic person. And since I will be the one communicating with the auditor this next go around, I would hope that I can use those forensic skills that we were just talking about and drag the support for the journal entries out of the server somewhere and make sure that we aren't missing support for the items that they test or that we do have the authorization or that I can find a way to prove it to them to remove those findings.

I guess I would suggest to the team that we be collaborative and if we ask our council president to communicate a plan for the state that it would be conservative as opposed to optimistic, but I'll ask another question. So like on the finding of 2022-001, it talks about journal entries. If I go to the unfiled recommendations, the recommendations are more lengthy. They talk about written documentation, qualified accounting personnel, regular bank accounting, reconciliation, supervisor. I feel like In general, our communication of the plan only discusses one small aspect of the audit findings, and that kind of concerned me. Couldn't we be more thorough in how we communicate the status of our control deficiencies?

You certainly could. As I mentioned, the difference in finding writing is an art. Only art that we get as accountants and the the it is difficult to respond to seven different action items on four different material weaknesses that are really all related to the exact same thing. And in terms of being positive that's kind of the one of the reasons that I didn't come straight out and say that these things have act 100% been implemented. Each of the findings says improvements began in either fiscal year 23 or 24, began implementing changes with the hiring. It doesn't say that those are absolute. We certainly could, but it would be an awful lot of repeat, especially between one and two, where I think they're five out of the seven items are exactly the same thing. The other thing to note is that these... This letter and this certification and corrective action plan is due to the state within 30 days of the issuance, which would have been the 7th. So you've got about 20 days to get this letter to the state. So improvements began. The date of the audit report starts the clock, which is August 7th.

I see. Okay. Let's see here.

I guess one of my last comments would be, I feel like we're being asked to sign something, or the council president is being asked to sign something based on your amazing understanding, which I appreciate, but we don't share that understanding. Would it be possible to get an update on our control environment, our current control environment, so that we could also have the same understanding you do about the risks?

Yeah, I'm not quite sure exactly how that would look like or how it would go, but we could certainly work with Ross and get you something.

Amanda, if I could ask you, this is Ross, what happens if you don't sign this?

You'll continue to get notices from the Secretary of State that you've got a failure to follow your corrective action plan.

Is there any other penalty for not signing?

I'm not sure. To be honest, I haven't had one not be filed within 30 days.

Thank you. I guess my suggestion to the team would be to approve the resolution, but ask that the letter be amended to reflect the more conservative and thorough description of our contours.

And leave it up to Amanda to write that. It's on the record if you say so.

All right. Is there any other comments? I think everybody's spoken except for Senator Weber.

Councilor Weber, just one other question or you can reflect back to us. But in March of 2023, the previous council shared concerns about the last audit, which was a failed audit. And it began a three and a half year process to finally getting one more audit. So there's been a lot of frustration. There's been a lot of feelings that promises were made. I guess, so that creates a question with council always, Marina, you were around in that process. You sat in the room when we were told we would get three audits by June and we finally got the first one 8 months later. So are you comfortable now? I think as Councillor DeFord said, and I would second that, we would prefer a more conservative response that is clearly doable to avoid future frustration. So are you comfortable when you say the deadline for the next audit that that's a safe, no problem

I am optimistic that each one will roll on the back of the other. So as soon as one doesn't take or one gets done a month late, the next one obviously will be a month late. We have two or three things occurring during that time period. One, Unquote Valley Financial had their due diligence on their first audit with us to take longer than normal. I'm not sure exactly what the time frame was between July of 23 as going out for RFP, getting that response from Quad Valley Financial, along with the city management having difficulties completing bank reconciliations. They just simply weren't ready for that audit until they hired us in July. I don't know when Quad Valley Financial came on, but I do know that we drafted and reviewed the financial statements in January and pushed hard. I do have the engagement partner from the audit firm agreeing to my tentative schedule. So... Yes, I may be hopeful, optimistic, but I will push to every ounce of my capacity, but I can't pull the auditor's signature on that report. So I'm saying best case scenario would be September, 2028, five months per audit.

Thank you. We have a resolution in front of us. Is there any further questions before we move on?

Yeah. Councilor Russell, I guess my question is you outlined what the corrective actions are. With the next audit, will we have any kind of validation if those corrections were in place and effective?

I feel, yes. Bank recommendations were definitely completed, reviewed, signed by someone. I personally have done some of the 2025 ones here in the last few weeks. So I Those review processes weren't done prior to the previous city manager leaving. So I've stepped in to do that for you basically through FY25. So we know that they were there and working. Same with journal entries, utility billing.

Okay, thank you.

Do you have a follow-up question? Thank you.

Council, you can say anything. Thank you. Amanda, I wanted to also just get your professional knowledge on, you know, there is a mention earlier regarding thinking of a more conservative approach and, you know, kind of reworking that final letter. My question is, if we do take a more conservative approach and maybe, you know, Catastrophize this to be a worst case scenario does that have any impact to the city's credit worthiness and I asked that because I know we are we're already facing the audit scenario, but I'm just thinking about future. credit worthiness and projects, we might want to do, and if what that impact might look like going forward.

This letter basically, from my understanding, just acknowledges to the state that you do have those material weaknesses and that you are working on them or they have been completed or what your timeline is. If there was a significant journal entries or misappropriation of funds on the federal grant section, significant findings and question costs, it would probably be a much bigger deal. This is simply acknowledging to the state that you have deficiencies and that you are in process or have completed correcting those things.

OK, thank you.

All right, are there any further questions? So is there, do I have a motion to adopt resolution 2367 authorizing city officers to approve the 21 to 22 audit plan of action as presented?

So, Council President, I'm happy to make that resolution. Just to be clear, I would still request an amendment that the letter be redrafted to a different tone. And I just, before I do that, I want to check with the council team to see if there's consensus for that amendment or what the council chair would advise.

Councilors, do you have a... You're comfortable, though, approving the resolution with that?

I would recommend that we adjust the tone of the letter so that our council president is signing something that I feel is a little bit more accurate, but still approve the resolution with that agreement.

Mayor Ross, may I? Please. I'm not quite certain by changing the tone. There's about three pages of written data there. I'm not certain how you would change that tone. give me some more definition to that.

The example I used was that the plan did not address all the recommendations in the audit. And I felt that that was missing. And I would like some more clarity over which controls are still in progress and when they've been fixed.

Council are working here. You're not changing the tone, but you're adding more detail to the tops. Is that what you're after?

I think that's an accurate statement. Ross, does that give you? Yeah, that's much better. Yes, I agree. Thank you for the clarification. So, Council President, if I have consensus, would you be okay with me?

Yes, sir. What I think I'm hearing is a counter motion. amendment to the motion to revise the letter to reflect more detail around recommendations as well as clarity on controls.

So point of order, you need to vote on that amendment and then vote on the amended resolution.

Do we have, so what I'm hearing is there's a motion on the board to adopt 2367 with the amended The two amendments proposed by Comptroller DeBorge addressing a letter to address add detail around the recommendations and clarity around controls.

I'll bring that motion.

Second. Council member, second that.

So we have a first and a second. Is there any further discussion?

If I may, I'm sorry. I'd like to ask Amanda if That's awesome.

Certainly, and I can work with you to get that fine-tuned so you can bring it to the mayor for signature.

Great. Thank you.

Is there any further discussion? That was my exact question. All right.

I'm sorry, I do have a question. So is that going to change the timing of any filing or anything like that, the list redraft or? If council finds I'm not certain who would approve the new wording. Yeah, let's out come into formal council. And your next council meeting is 14. 8 or more, and you've got 20.

My suggestion would be that based on this direction, Amanda, and you prepare it, and you submit it without our further review. OK. If you're OK with that, that would be my recommendation.

So do we need to restate the motion? Okay. All right. So seeing that there's no further discussion, all those in favor of adopting Resolution 2367 as amended, please say aye.

Excuse me. Point of order. Yes. You have to adopt, you know, maybe first, so we've got a motion on the floor to adopt. Okay. To advance the resolution and a second.

Okay.

In favor, let me know.

So I'm going to make a motion to amend the resolution 2367.

He already did that, right? Yes, he did. Oh, I second. Yeah, so it's now.

So now it's on the floor to vote.

Yeah, call the question.

All right. So all those in favor to vote for the resolution, please say aye. Aye.

Aye. Just the amendment.

Yeah, just the motion.

Just the amendment for the resolution. The vote was on that first. Got that. I heard all eyes.

I heard all eyes. And so.

Now we're going on the resolution as amended.

All right. So now can we get a vote, a motion on the floor to vote on the resolution as amended?

Yep.

As amended. I'll make a motion to vote on the motion 267 as amended. Good.

All those in favor? All right. Bye. Bye. Motion carries.

Amanda, I'll be in contact with you tomorrow.

All right. Next up is reports. Thank you, Brianna, for being so patient with the library.

Council President, I'm sorry, before we move on, I just wanted, in our work session, we suggested that we were going to authorize building demo. And I just want to make sure that, was that going to be under new business? I just wanted to make sure. Authorize. Did we discuss in the work session that we, in the council meeting, we wanted to, we had two action items. One was to authorize your search, and the second was, I thought, I heard, to authorize building demo of the Honeywell property.

Did I not hear correctly? I have not asked for a motion on that. Okay.

All right. Library reports next. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you, Council.

Thanks for reading the report. Do you have any questions about the library report?

Just commendations. My granddaughters love to go to the library. They love the way the staff interact every week. There's a constant turnover of new projects. And I'm very glad they didn't win the new bikes because we have enough bikes. But it's wonderful little projects you have to encourage summer reading. So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilor Ugarte. Thank you, Councilor Ugarte. I just wanted to say thank you for being here outside of a typical capacity and just really highlight the work that the library has done despite recent turnover. I am always so thrilled to see the library, whether it's at my kid's school, it's at a parade. The library itself has a really great presence in our community. So I want to say keep doing that. And also, I just really want to emphasize what a great idea the canine therapy dog sessions for kiddos to read to a dog. I thought that was a really neat idea. So thank you. Thank you.

I would just like to You know, celebrate the fact that we've had a 16% increase over July 2025 for checkouts. That's pretty cool. So that's quite amazing. Thank you for being on this program.

It's been an incredibly busy summer.

Are there any further questions, comments? Looks like we are on to our next question. Now we're moving on to the police chief report, Mr. O'Reilly. Better us.

Good evening, counsel. I'm O'Reilly, chief of police, North Plains Police Department. I know you have my report, so I'm just here to answer any questions if you have any.

Councilor Ugarte, she's ready.

Councilor Ugarte, are you ready? Thank you. I just had a quick question. As we've been discussing city staffing, and I know we have a contract through Washington County, but can you remind me how long you're enrolled? Do we need to worry about backfilling you? I know it's a special assignment, Deputy Jones.

So it hasn't been formally announced. My temporary assignment goes through September, but I've already been chosen to be the permanent chief. It's just, I believe, I don't know this, excuse me, I don't know for certain if the sheriff's officer is waiting until my temporary assignment is over to make the announcement, but I am the, I will be starting in September the full-time chief of police.

Thank you. Wow, congratulations. Thank you. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I mean, any other questions.

HAB-Jacques Juilland- It was just very positive to read that the garlic festival flowed so smoothly. No big issues. And I'm sure it helps just to have the friendly presence wandering around the world. So, HAB-Terry Palmos- I would say, yeah, I'll take a little credit but

And I've never attended. I've been in the parade before. I've never attended the Garlic Festival. And so I wasn't really sure what to expect. But between, I would say, between the North Plains Events Association, Public Works, and the Knights of Pythias, I'm probably leaving someone out. The way that they set up the event and coordinated the event and ran the event, I think that went a long way towards how the event went. and how people behaved at the event. So I was thrilled to not have to do anything other than be in presence at the event.

That's all right. Anybody else? Councillor Warrington, I see here that you're saying that Deputy Schultz has officially retired, which is great. And Deputy Parker Vance is taking this place. Has that already happened? Do we get to meet Deputy Vance?

I would be happy to introduce him. He was at the barbecue. I don't know if he had an opportunity to be there, but I would be happy to bring him to a city council meeting to introduce him to everybody. I apologize for not having thought of that. He has been here for two weeks now.

Awesome. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.

He's been with the sheriff's office for, I want to say, seven years. Wow. So not new to Longford, just new to North Plains.

Perfect.

Thank you. Councilor Igarte.

Thank you. You know, that reminded me, I just wanted to formally thank Deputy Schultz for his service to North Plains. I know he was a long standing pillar and had a lot of great successes from North Plains. So please extend our well wishes and his next endeavors.

I will pass it on. His next endeavors are in Nicaragua. He moved with his family to Nicaragua. So, but I have his number.

Maybe we can send a postcard. All right. Excellent. All right. Any further questions? Okay. That's a no. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item C, Community Development Monthly Report. Mr. Rob Schultz.

This monthly report, is anybody here from 3J? I don't see them.

No?

The three days consulting before I read through this and the thing that impressed me one through 12 was On hold until they know the construction schedule on all the staff. So almost everything engineer is on hold right now.

So

The next interim's first job on the scene where it takes to get some of the stuff off of on. So that's what I would say.

For our plan for answers that we just established. Any questions. Like there's any and we need so we'll move on to the next on the agenda public works so

Cody Brown is here, his first council meeting. So please be gentle with him. I think he's here.

Hi, I'm Cody Brown. Right now I'm an interim public works supervisor. First list I've ever written out. So don't be mean. Nice. Any questions about it?

Also, questions. I see some thoughts. Don is always talking about public works. I'm surprised he doesn't have anything to say.

Just a formal commendation. You've been working with Isaiah and just really doing a wonderful job on the bathrooms that look very nice, which is kind of a symbolic thing when people go in there with their kids. So thank you and pass that on to Isaiah.

Yes, thank you. We've been hearing about that for a while. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilor Warrington, anything on hold for you? Just checking. Is anything on hold?

There is certain things on hold because I don't have the authority. The rest of the stuff I run into, we're sending to 3J for them to go through.

I see. And they're on the previous list that's on hold? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Councilor, are you there? Thank you, Kasturi Karte. Again, just want to say thank you so much. I know there's been a lot of behind the scenes things that we don't see that you and your crew have been taking care of. So thank you. I did want to follow up. I had thought about the Glencoe Opportunity Area and how you or how Ross had mentioned that we've spent a considerable amount of money cleaning it up. And I wanted to ask you if you had any insight or any thing that could help prevent that, right? So being proactive instead of reactive. And I was curious if a partnership with North Plains deputies to do patrol checks and sweeps throughout the day would help or what would help you in that scenario?

So they actually drive by and check quite often. Whenever we're around, we'll pull in and check. We get multiple break-ins, which They have to go and search the house. We don't board anybody in. We have actually seen where some of these hurt themselves trying to get in. There's been trails. So it's getting tiring trying to keep people out and safe.

Would you say that most of these opportunities are occurring overnight when people are breaking in? Is it hard to pinpoint?

I'd say mostly overnight. But we have seen one or two throughout the day.

Thank you. And then just my last question was, if you had a crystal ball for a timeline of the quotes for the Jesse Mays roof, when would that be? I'm just thinking about the rainy season coming up. And I know you have a ton on your plate, but.

So I've been digging through the files. I found some of the quotes of companies that he had a previous public work record in. And I'm getting in contact with all of them again to see if the quotes are still good or they have to update on it. My question is, do you guys want a composite roof or a steel roof? Because there's a big price difference in between. We can vote steel roof. Yeah. I don't know that. I'm still thinking about it.

I think it sounds like we're still have consensus and counselor warranty and she's going to go through the minutes. She'll be able to tell us the day time and maybe what, when, what the record was. And maybe that'll help too.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay.

I got your answer.

Yay. Are there any other questions for him? Okay.

All done at the first time. Yes.

All right. So moving on to item P, a picture of Jesse Mays.

So we had a picture of Jesse Mays in here that somebody hung up by themselves. I don't even know who it was. I talked to Cody about it. And we just want to remind everybody and for the record, if you want to hang something on a city building, uh that's going to go through public works ultimately uh for that patient in particular uh i think that should go through the parks board the parks board should recommend that the city manager were titanium and public works will make sure it gets put up appropriate code everything else so that's really all i've got to say on that i don't think it spurs any hang with anything. So with that, that's all I've got. Questions? Thoughts?

Oh. Public Works Commission sessions, are they meeting?

There's no public works. I'm sorry. As far as I know, I haven't checked.

I don't think it has been for quite a while. Yeah. Okay. So something's happening on the parts of rec.

Okay.

Well, at the next one, maybe they can. Okay. We need to figure out what that is.

Thank you, Councilor Warrington. Is there any questions on the inform from Mr. Schultz? All right. We can move on to item F, July finance report from Amanda Taylor-Marina. Again, if you're still on the line.

I am still on the line. Really, this month's report at Ross's suggestion, I added in a little cash summary rolling back to 2023. He said that might be of interest to you based on your questions last time. So I've added that in there. Other than that, we've got AP running this week now that we've got check signers and we are doing great. I already have an engagement letter for the FY23 audit was signed back in January of 2024. So that should kick off as soon as I get an info request from Cloud Valley Financial. Is there any questions on the finance report?

I don't see any eyebrows raised. All smiles here. Thank you, Amanda. Last but not least, the city manager report item.

So I had a half dozen things to talk to you about, but we've talked about them through the course. I still have a couple of things left. When will your next staff meeting be? Traditionally, when it falls on a holiday as it does in September, it is the next day, which would be a Tuesday. I'm assuming that's okay with council and therefore we will officially notice at this meeting September set. Council meeting the September.

I'm saying that not that.

It's there. Clean water services is working to get it right here. Signed by us. It would be timely for them for that to be that the next council we are going to send a to each of you in your mailboxes, so you'll have time to look at it. It's about 20 pages or so. However, I will tell you that the city of Bank's attorney has reviewed it. And I believe, sorry, it says on the IG, but I think Cornelia's and there's another small city have reviewed it as well. So thanks, have a lot of their city attorney review it. Their city attorney passed it out to the other small cities. They've reviewed it. Everybody's OK with the way it's written with some corrections. So they've already gone through all of that work. So I know, of course, you guys happen to have our attorney review it as well, and banks. And as I said, they're OK with taking their work and using it for ourselves. So please take a look at it if you have questions or comments. I'm going to send it out to you tomorrow morning tonight back to my desk. You should have some time to look at it. I think it will be on the next agenda. And hopefully there will be a resolution for approval. If you have comments, correct them to me only, not over to counselors. But I'll be glad to try to work with any comments. I agree to get that thing set to go. It doesn't go, it doesn't go.

Council Member Garza. to hold that microphone.

Thank you, Counselor Yucarte. Ross, I just had a question. Sure. I appreciate you kind of vetting some of the other cities and their stay-at-home approval. I'm curious if once we receive this IGA draft tomorrow, if we saw something cause of concern, would we be able to have the city attorney review the IGA or would that require a motion of the next meeting?

There is nothing on the floor right now, so if you ask for that, that would be something that I would initiate. But do talk to me first, and maybe I can foresolve a complete city attorney review of the whole document.

OK, thank you.

You bet. That's all I've got for the IGA. Let me go. Ruth, the Mays Center, we talked about that. And then 6 o'clock on Thursday is our innovative council meeting. That's the way we'll post it, depending on the availability of the candidates. So with that, unless you have questions for me, I'm complete with the city management report.

I don't see any eyebrows raised. I'm going to stop you on silence. We'll move on to council comments and reports. Mr. Ross, Tim, can we start with you and work our way down?

Sure. Thanks, Mr. Ross. I just wanted to, sorry, hit on this again, make sure I understand. We had talked about having all various committees come and give an update. Do we set the time for that?

Or is that something that, how do we go about getting that scheduled?

Well, It would be my proposal with council's acceptance, for instance, where reports are tonight for the library, finance, and so on. Those are always the second meeting. So at the first meeting, if I can get the boards in to report, it would be under reports on the agenda, parks board report, planning committee report. So they would just walk through the reports, much like they did And is there a standard format for those reports as to when they, you know, or is that something we need to outline as to when they've been meeting, you know, what initiatives they have, what they need from the council? There's no, no, no, that I know of, no formal request for a report. So if you've got something specific you want to hear.

Is that something I can just email you? Yeah. Or do we have to go over this right now?

Yeah. Okay. I'll do that then. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Great.

Anything else?

Nope.

Okay.

That's it. Thank you.

All right.

Councilor Ugarte.

Thank you. Councilor Ugarte. I don't have much for my council report. I did want to review upcoming boards and commission meetings. Should we assume that the foreseeable future, all boards and commission meetings will be canceled? And I'm just asking because we all have ex officio duties. Yeah. that have already been assigned.

I'm afraid I'm kicking that down the road to the interim. I would think certainly canceled for September, except for we're trying to get up here to talk to you, which might be a good way to get them canceled, if you know what I mean, to tell you guys what they're up to and then suspended for September 8th. I don't know. It depends on who you selected, what you stayed for one. The library, I think.

I plan on doing the library board on Wednesday. And I'm fully capable of doing that.

So I just want to make sure that's OK. Works for me.

And I know the library is really diligent in reaching out to their board and exhibitions.

Yeah, that's already been done. Okay. Yeah. So just to clarify the meeting on August 19, Councilor Weber will be in attendance for exhibition. Is that right? Okay. And then EDC will be canceled as far as we know for 9-2. And then Parks and Rec also canceled for 9-7. And then we can go forward from there. Is that right?

I would suggest. Okay. Okay.

Perfect. All right. And then, you know, again, I know we heard a lot of discussion regarding the most recent audit. And I am curious if, Ross, if you have a ballpark idea of how much a third-party audit would cost.

A forensic audit?

Correct. If we went that route.

I have been involved in there. And there are generally more The area. So you're going to pay that much.

Thank you.

Yes, I was. I know we have a very full agenda, but I wanted to build off a public comment from Emily about a data center more for you. And I think the reason why I would suggest bringing that forward is because With the connection we're going to have with the planning commission, it would be good to see if we could get alignment about the direction we should provide them. And so I wanted to offer that up for consideration to the council, if that would be something we would like to add to the agenda. I don't come with any sort of preconceived notions of what it looks like, that ordinance communicating to the planning commission, but I would just like to bring it as that to An agenda item. Next meeting your scientists. I'll leave the scheduling up to our interim city manager and council president, but that was just a, I think that's, that would be important to me. And I think it would align with communicating out different words.

I got it.

He's on it.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

I'll turn it over.

A quick thing. Hopefully I'm on the MAC committee, which is the Metropolitan Area Communication Council. We need to renew a contract with Comcast. It's a pretty complicated discussion, but I just want to make sure I'm authorized by it. It sounds like the other small towns and everybody's going to go along with this renewal of Comcast. So I'm just double checking. My plan is to kind of vote with the majority, which sounds like will be the renewal. So that's informational unless anybody has a big reason for me not to do that. I just wanted to check in since it's going to be a formal vote.

That's not important. Thinking basis.

Don't read too much into what my expression was. Yeah.

Okay.

MAC has gone through quite a bit of transition. Their previous director is gone. There was some things that went on there, but then they've also got an interim person and we're moving ahead now with some of this stuff. So I'll keep you posted. A request for me would be, I don't know how feasible it is, but the Urban Renewal Agency did not leave this month. I don't know if it's possible next week before you would leave, Ross, if we could have a meeting with Tiberius. I think Tiberius hopefully would be positioned to bring some concrete proposals to us where they could take over and run the urban renewal grant program and perhaps could be a little bit helpful even in the GOA process. The other thing is at that meeting, if we had a formal bid on the clearing of the land, I think the board could then decide if they would want to improve that out of the, because there's plenty of money in that fund to handle that. It would be nice to get the grant program going so I don't know if that's possible to get that let me look at that we are zooming I various. The other item I would say we could add to the next September agenda would be a discussion of where we are on the pgm. Process and are kind of a way of proceeding with that are where we are where we want to go.

So there.

So noted. Okay. Councilor Warrington.

Councilor Warrington, I also didn't have any exhibition meetings. I did go to a dinner at Grove on 14th to support the businesses for the North Plains Business Alliance. Had a great dinner, listened to some great music. I encourage everybody to visit there and have some food. It was a good time, good place to eat. I also submitted information for Chris Edmonds public record request this week. I also want to address a couple of the public comments that happened or were discussed. Someone mentioned, I think it was Larry Gonzalez, that the city attorney mentioned we're in a state of emergency. I just want to make sure everybody understands that the city attorney might have said she thought we were in a state of emergency. But my opinion is we are not. We have a great interim city manager who has cleaned a lot of things up. We have a public works, Cody. We have a city recorder that's interim. We have Bailey, who was now the office manager. We have a library person. Amanda is our receptionist, AP. Everybody is working as smoothly as they can. The city hall is open. All business hours and days as it should be. It's not a state of emergency. We do have some things on hold as we went through today. And that's to be expected with the transition we're going through. But I think we all need to just understand we're going through this transition as slowly and carefully and thoughtfully as we can. I also want to bring up Marianne van der Weiding. Sorry if I said the name wrong. She's inquiring about the grant schedule. I think we need to get that out. When does that grant schedule end? Let's see what's happening there. So I'm not quite sure how to do that. If someone could direct me on what grant that is and I can look it up and I can figure that out. I think that's all. Thank you.

My goodness. Counselor Ugarte has a question.

Yeah, lots of questions tonight. Thank you, Counselor Ugarte. I just wanted to follow up regarding Counselor Weber's council report and wanted to clarify, can you help us understand what it is that you're looking for for approval from back? Is it a franchise agreement? Is it running away? What is it exactly?

It's a, we have a standard franchise agreement with Comcast that's existed for quite a while. And every year they renegotiate it, the powers that be that work for MAC, the SAP, then they bring it to the board and ask us to approve it.

Okay. And then this might be a question for Ross, but then typically in my, my understanding is that those resolutions have been brought to council to approve for franchise agreements. And I just wanted to double check because we, have had some scenarios in the past that we have used an attorney for regarding franchise agreements right away. So I just wanted to tread cautiously before we potentially agree to something. I'm sure it's all fine, but I just wanted to mention that as a concern.

Councillor Weber, I'm assuming that that agreement is for the transmission of that information. I don't think it has anything to do with our franchise. And I also don't think you have much choice. It does not mean that you still shouldn't question it and be active in the approval of it. But those things are pretty much set by Comcast.

And you can either do them or not do them, what you want to do. Well, there's excellent staff who've negotiated that app. So there's not really much for me except to vote in favor once the staff recommends that I could vote against it, but it will pass because when it reaches that point, it's been vetted.

But I wanted everybody to be in the loop. I think that's reasonable. You can bring a resolution if you want to, but regardless, it's going forward.

Perfect. So it doesn't sound like a franchise, I think.

No, it's not a franchise.

Thank you.

That's not going to get difficult. or so.

We've got another question. I don't have a question. I just wanted to state one more time. In the thought of transparency that we've all talked about, we all want, it's right there. We're as transparent as we can get. We have a plan. We have a board. It's right there. So we're transparent. We have emails. talk to us, ask your questions, we'll be as transparent as we can. Thank you. Okay.

I guess I'm the last person and I've just been busy being assisting Mr. Schultz as needed and plugging holes and running around smiling as I can. So that is my update. And that brings us to the end of the agenda. Unless there's any further Comments, questions, concerns? I'll entertain a motion to close.

Move that we adjourn the meeting.

Second. All right. I hear it's first and second. All those in favor? Not necessarily, but we are today. Thank you. So the meeting is closed at 8.30.

Yeah.

Thank you very much. Thank you.