City Council - Regular Meeting

get started. I will call to order this work session of the West Lund City Council and the first item of business is approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

Yes, I move to approve the agenda for the June 15th work session of the Westland City Council. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda for the, she's correct, June 16th, 2026 City Council work session. Any discussion from the City Council?

No.

I see none, so we can call the roll.

Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Bonnington? Yes. Councilor Bright? Yes. Councilor Groner? Yes. Mayor Leschowski?

Yes. Thank you. So the motion passes. We have changed up the order of business a little bit to put the police matters first tonight, because we have some on-duty folks. Want to make sure that they can be here for the several items that we have. So we've got life-saving words, a hero award, and a meritorious service award, and then a police accreditation presentation. So we will welcome up Chief Otis Rollins. Thank you for being here. And again, welcome to all of our esteemed police officers and community members as well. So nice to see a full house.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, city councilors. Thank you for your time. We really appreciate you being here tonight. I have a series of presentations to do tonight. And while they are all exciting, the first one that I'm going to do is super exciting because we get to recognize a community member. As a matter of fact, this award is called the Community Hero Award because this particular community, this resident, what I'm about to read to you, acted in a heroic fashion, and I think that he deserves to be recognized tonight. So I'm going to ask Tame Al-Jabouri, better known as Timo, to please come up and sit right next to me.

Well, welcome.

Okay, mom's gonna, mom's gonna record this thing. Mom's gonna, all right. All right, so again, this is the Community Hero Award. So the Westland Police Department is proud to recognize Tame Timo Algebore, a nine-year-old third grade student at Trillium Elementary School with the Community Hero Award for his exceptional awareness, quick thinking, and concern for his neighbors. On the morning of May 22nd, 2026, while enjoying a day off from school and skateboarding in his driveway, Timo noticed something unusual. he saw flames coming from the side of a neighboring home on Weather Hill Road. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Timo immediately ran inside and alerted his mother. After confirming the fire, his mother rushed to the neighboring home and alerted the family. Thanks to Timo's attentiveness and quick action, the residents were able to evacuate safely along with their pets before the situation became even more dangerous. Timo's action serves as an outstanding example of what it means to be a caring and responsible member of our community. At just nine years old, he demonstrated maturity, awareness, and a willingness to act when others needed help. His quick response may have prevented a tragedy and undoubtedly helped protect the lives of his neighbors. Timo and his family have called Westland home for the past two years, and we are grateful to have such thoughtful and community-minded residents among us. Today, we proudly recognize Timo for his vigilance, courage, and commitment to looking out for others. His actions remind all of us that heroes come in all ages and that even a single person can make a tremendous difference. Congratulations, Timo, and thank you for helping keep our community safe.

Shall we take a picture?

Absolutely. We have to have a picture for this.

Wow. Stand right here. Right in the center, right by the ceiling. There he goes. Thank you.

Is that all you have for us tonight, Chief?

I may have one or two or three or four more things to do. The next presentation that we have tonight, these are life-saving awards. And we actually have three life-saving awards to present tonight. So at this time, I would like to ask Sergeant Travis Nicholson, Officer Churchill, and yes, Officer Greg George, please come up. You guys can sit down. Just go ahead. Yeah, you can sit down. So before I read the awards, I just wanted to take a couple seconds just to note that service is the first value in the Westland Police Department's core values. Service is the backbone and the foundation of what we do. And when the opportunity arises, there often is no higher level of service that a police officer can bestow upon the community than to take actions that would save a life. And what you are about to hear on this particular night, that's exactly what these three police officers did. They courageously went into action and they saved the life of one of our citizens. So to Officer Greg Jurich, Officer Ryan Churchill, and Sergeant Travis Nicholson, you are being awarded the Westland Police Department Lifesaving Award due to your courageous and exemplary actions on October 31st, 2025. On this date, at about 11.14 p.m., Sergeant Nicholson, Officer Churchill, and Officer Jurich were dispatched to an overdose call. The reporting party stated that his brother was overdosing on fentanyl and he could not reach him inside his bedroom. As the officers arrived, they learned the reporting party had successfully gained entry to the bedroom, and they also pushed their way in as the citizen's body was still blocking the door. Sergeant Nicholson, immediately recognizing the citizen was unconscious, administered two doses of Narcan. As the citizen was still not breathing effectively or responding, Officer Jurich stepped in and administered a third dose of Narcan as the citizen was still not breathing effectively or responding. Sergeant Nicholson made the quick decision to move the citizen into the hallway for more space to administer aid. Officer Churchill immediately began CPR on the citizen while Sergeant Nicholson administered another dose of Narcan. Officer Jurich took over chest compressions, and a couple minutes after that, Sergeant Nicholson stepped in and continued the CPR. To Alton Valley Fire and Rescue arrived and continued life-saving procedures on the citizen, and at the time TVFNR placed the citizen on the gurney for transport, the citizen was now partially awake and breathing. Officer Jurich... Officer Churchill, Sergeant Nicholson, your rapid response assessment of the situation and immediate action directly contributed to the survival of a Westland resident. Your actions are in keeping with our core values and the highest traditions of the Western Police Department and our profession. Thank you. If we line up for the pictures, I will also hand each one of the officers and Sergeant Anderson their life-saving work kit that they will be able to wear on their vests as a reminder of their actions that night. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, that's good. Thank goodness for Heather.

Thank you.

So I know the agenda has the accreditation award last. Does anyone mind if we do the accreditation award and then save the meritorious service for the end? Is that okay? It's your discretion, Chief. Go ahead. I'd like to welcome Scott Hayes. Scott Hayes is joining us via WebEx. Scott Hayes is from the Northwest Accreditation Alliance. And Scott, before you jump in with your presentation, I'm just going to take a couple minutes and kind of just introduce what we're doing here. So three years ago, the Westland Police Department set out on a project to become an accredited police agency. And to my knowledge, up to that point, the police department had not gone through an official accreditation process. And so for those unaware, accreditation is a comprehensive process And it can be an arduous process where an independent accrediting body will go through and review a police department's policies, procedures, protocols to ensure that the standards are up to the level of professional best practices. And so three years ago, we embarked on that journey and we completed that. And the lion's share of the credit Three years ago, as tonight, we'll go to Toni Swanberg. Toni Swanberg is our record supervisor and the executive assistant, and this really has become her project. She probably completes about 98% of this, and this is a process that takes many, many months and many, many hours of hard work. So I thank Toni for all of her dedication, hard work in making this award possible. And so three years ago we completed it. We became accredited and that accreditation only lasts for three years. And so in three years time you need to go through the process again and supply all the same information that you did to the accrediting body last time. You got to do it over again and you become reaccredited. And Scott Hayes is here tonight to make sure that we officially did it all correctly and that we are indeed reaccredited. Scott.

So thank you, Chief, and good evening. I just want to make sure that you can hear me okay.

Yeah, we can hear you. Go ahead.

Good evening, City Council and members of the community. As introduced by the Chief, I'm Scott Hayes, the Executive Director for the Northwest Accreditation Alliance. I appreciate the opportunity to address the Council and present the West Linn Police Department with its award of accreditation under the leadership of Chief Otis Rollins. Law enforcement is experienced experiencing a changing society with increased demands for police accountability and transparency. As in our past, our profession must face these challenges and work with our communities to address their concerns. Accreditation is one step towards building community trust. The Northwest Accreditation Alliance Board is comprised of members of the Oregon State Sheriff's Association, the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, and we provide accreditation services for 117 law enforcement and communication centers in the state of Oregon. Accreditation goals are straightforward. they are there to support the continued improvement of law enforcement services to establish best practice through professional standards, promote agency accountability and transparency, and to enhance overall operation and management. For the West Linn Police Department to become accredited, it had to adhere to 111 law enforcement standards. Compliance is generally expressed through policies and procedures in adherence to Oregon state law the Oregon Administrative Code, constitutional provisions, and city rules and regulations. Our standards are established based on national best practice and changes in federal and Oregon law. In addition to meeting all 111 standards, the agency must also demonstrate compliance by adhering to established policies and current best practices. Then, as the Chief mentioned, reaccreditation occurs every three years. This is a monumental step for any agency to be evaluated by an independent outside organization and have their policies and procedures scrutinized. I'm aware that several staff members were involved in the process, but I would like to acknowledge Accreditation Manager Toni Swanberg for her diligent work in preparing the agency for their assessment and review. Chief Rollins, City Council, on behalf of the Northwest Accreditation Alliance and its board of directors, I'd like to congratulate you on receiving your award of accreditation. There you go.

Wonderful news. And I thank you to Toni Swanberg, especially for all her work. I know she worked hard on that. Wonderful. So where is that going to go now, the accreditation plaque?

This will go right next to the original accreditation, or probably replace it up in the records area right front desk. Sweet. Yeah. Thank you, Scott, for being here.

Thank you, Scott. Appreciate it. You're more than welcome. Thank you, and have a good night.

Okay. For our last presentation, our final presentation of the evening, I would like to invite Detective Catlin Blythe to join me up at the table. Sir. so tonight i will be reading and awarding detective catelyn blythe with the meritorious service medal award again so to my knowledge this is the first time that the meritorious service medal has been awarded since i have been at the westland police department This award is given when a particular person within the police department goes above and beyond and just exhibits exceptional service in the course of their duties. And so I will read this. It is several pages long, so please bear with me, but it is worth it. Detective Blythe, while serving as a patrol officer, you demonstrated exceptional investigative skills, determination, and commitment during a complex, multi-jurisdictional crime spree that impacted the Westland community in the spring of 2023. On April 21, 2023, Westland police officers responded to a series of property crimes that occurred throughout the city. Over the course of a single night, nearly 60 criminal offenses were reported, including vehicle break-ins, vehicle thefts, burglaries and significant property damage. The combined losses exceeded $20,000. Early evidence, including surveillance footage, indicated multiple suspects were involved. You immediately began an extensive investigation and quickly linked the Westland crimes to approximately 15 similar cases being investigated by the Oregon City Police Department. Among the most concerning incidents was a residential burglary in which the suspects entered an occupied home while a mother and her children slept. The suspects stole numerous items, including vehicle keys and credit cards, which were subsequently used to steal a Toyota SUV and make fraudulent purchases in Portland, The stolen vehicle was later recovered. Recognizing the complexity of this case, you authored a detailed affidavit and search warrant utilizing cellular technology in an effort to identify potential suspects. This marked the beginning of an investigation that would require extensive technical expertise, analytical thinking, and persistence. As additional crimes occurred, including another residential burglary, involving the theft of vehicle keys and a second stolen vehicle, you identified significant similarities between the incidents. Surveillance footage from a Portland business showed the same suspect using stolen credit cards in connection with both crime series. A major breakthrough occurred when evidence recovered from one of the stolen vehicles led you to a Franklin High School student whose information was found among the contents. Through diligent follow-up, you developed investigative leads and place potential suspects in the same geographic area as both the recovered vehicle and the fraudulent transactions. On May 2nd, 2023, you distributed a regional law enforcement bulletin seeking assistance in identifying the suspects. Shortly thereafter, Oregon City Police investigators contacted you with information connecting the same individuals to their cases. Notably, a vehicle identified by Oregon City investigators matched the same vehicle previously observed by West Linn officers near several crime scenes. Your investigation continued to expand. When one of the suspects was arrested on an unrelated weapons offense, you conducted a jail interview and identified numerous inconsistencies in his statements. Through subsequent search warrants for vehicles, cellular devices, Google accounts, and cell providers, you obtained critical evidence that placed the suspect at multiple crime scenes throughout West Linn and Oregon City. The digital evidence also established communication between the suspects during the commission of the crimes. Over the course of this investigation, you authored numerous complex affidavits and search warrants, You successfully combined digital evidence, surveillance footage, license plate information, victim video recordings, fingerprint evidence, social media content, and online marketplace activity involving stolen property to identify three primary suspects responsible for the crime spree. Your investigative efforts extended beyond Clackamas County. Through the analysis of cellular location data, you connected one of the suspects to a violent home invasion robbery in Corvallis. Recognizing similarities between your investigation and information contained in a regional bulletin, you collaborated with Corvallis investigators and provided evidence that ultimately linked the suspect to both the Corvallis robbery and the Westland crime series. After identifying the suspects and compiling a substantial volume of evidence, you developed a comprehensive presentation for the grand jury. Understanding the complexity of this case, you worked closely with peers, supervisors, and prosecutors to ensure the information was organized, understandable, and effectively presented. Your efforts resulted in the indictment of two suspects on 20 felony charges related to the West Linn and Oregon crime series. Additionally, one of those suspects was separately indicted in Benton County for the Corvallis home invasion robbery. These crimes generated significant community concern, attracted media attention, and created substantial pressure to identify those responsible. Through your persistence, technical expertise, collaborative approach, and unwavering commitment to justice, you successfully solved a case that may otherwise have remained unsolved. In 2026, both suspects ultimately pleaded guilty to burglary in the first degree, unlawful use of a vehicle, and aggravated identity theft. Each received a sentence of 36 months in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections. One suspect was sentenced on April 27, 2026, and the second is scheduled for sentencing on June 25 of 2026. Detective Blyth, your outstanding investigative work exemplifies the highest standards of professionalism, dedication, and service to this community. For your exceptional efforts and unrelenting commitment to bringing these offenders to justice, you are hereby awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. So tonight, Detective Blythe received his enamel pin that he will be able to wear in his uniform. Later this year in September, in our annual awards and recognition event, Detective Blythe will actually be awarded the full medal that he will be able to keep in the shadow box for a memento on this. So there's an actual medal that comes along with this.

Thank you.

Can we have every member of the rest of the police department come up and can we take a picture of the equation, please?

Big group of them. We got a scooch in there. We got a scooch. Everybody needs to touch shoulders and scooch.

There's an aisle, yeah, there you go.

Thank you. Thank you all. Hi, good to see you. Thank you.

initial accreditation, kind of a response to some of the problems the police department has had? I don't know.

We were accredited a few years ago, too. I don't know. It's a good question. Well, uh... Thank you, everybody. What a wonderful series of presentations. And on that last one, I was just thinking back to the media coverage. There was more than 50 vehicle break-ins from April 20th and April 21st. And that actually sparked the city council to discuss in goal setting how to reduce property crime. And that really made a lot of headlines in West Linn. So amazing to hear that it was solved. And thanks to the dedicated work of Detective Blythe and the detective division. Great end to that, and thanks to everybody for being here as well. With that, we can move on then, if everybody's ready, to the public comments. And do we, has Ms. Cummings signed up to give a comment? I think I saw her fill out the paper. Okay, Ms. Cummings, welcome. And we have received via email the write-up that you sent in.

Oh, I did not email it. Have you received the hard copy?

Do we have hard?

You all have the hard copy?

I think it was scanned and given to us.

Yeah, it's in my email.

I specifically, and please stop the clock for a minute. I'm not finished. It hasn't started yet? I'm not ready to start. It hasn't started yet?

I won't start the clock yet. Go ahead.

For a procedural matter, I specifically gave you hard copies.

Because this is about a breach of privacy.

A serious breach of privacy. I don't even know how to talk about it, but I want to confront you in person, and I want you to know that this is serious. As a nurse, in all my years as a nurse, one of the most important things we did for our patients to build trust with them was to protect their privacy.

So somebody take the first one. We have stapled copies here. We've got two here.

I want you to read this and I want you to get back to me in a week. And if you don't,

Do you have a comment to make? Or are you just sharing this with us and asking us to read it and get back to you?

I'm telling you, the city has been committing a serious breach of privacy. I'm not going to tell you what it is in public. Mayor Bialystoski, when you wanted my personal notes, the reason I couldn't hand them over to you was because they had to be redacted. We offered them to you 12 times and you refused to take them if they were redacted. So maybe you don't understand this. But as a planning commissioner and as a city councilor, the records that we got, the records that we read, had people's personal information redacted in the record that was available to the public, okay? Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. We'll take this submittal under advisement. Thanks.

That is all.

Then with that, we can move on into mayor and council reports. Would anybody like to make a report from community advisory groups or city business in general?

I have a few. So on... The 10th, I attended for kind of my own curiosity as much as anything else because the residents of Stafford have been reaching out about their concern of the PGE power poles. I attended the Clackamas County Transportation System Plan update outreach at the new Riverside High School. And so I had a few conversations with some of the county transportation folks there. The next day was the Clackamas County Business Alliance lunch featuring Senator Mark Meek. about the transportation situation and that was very interesting and a good opportunity to talk to other area a discussion of the potential proposed renaming of Willamette Park. Willamette Riverkeeper and Tualatin Riverkeeper both presented at that. I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding because I don't think there was ever a request for the parks board to present us with an advisement an advisory so that has been done by the parks board individual members. And I appreciate their time and diligence but I don't think we're there yet so we can talk about this and. That's kind of a another conversation have for another time. On the 13th, I went to the Westland Historical Society's presentation, their show, Vintage Vaudeville Variety Extravaganza, which was fun and a good example of events for the community and beyond that are held at the robinwood station and it was a great use of that space the next day the westland historical society had one of the two open houses that are required for the mclean house that now that it is on the national registry As a historic home, it needs to have open hours twice a year, so there's another one coming in November for anybody who might have missed the very warm day on Sunday where we were having tours. But it was very nice to see McLean House and just chat with... some of the McLean House longtime volunteers who have worked so hard to keep that house going, that historic site. There was a Willamette Falls and Landings Heritage Area Coalition board meeting yesterday and in the evening of Juneteenth celebration at the Westland Library that I attended that was excellent, presented by the Oregon Black Pioneer Organization. It was 450 years and 45 minutes and boy was it An excellent and amazing presentation. Upcoming this Saturday, I will be hosting a birding outing at the wetlands in Willamette, meeting at Berner Boat Landing at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, the 20th. And everyone, please remember that next Thursday is the Lamprey Festival at Clackamette Park. That is it for me.

What a robust and full report and week you've had. Thank you.

Oh, sorry. I also represented our city today at the unveiling of Kate Brown's official portrait at the state capitol, which was a lovely event.

Thank you, Council President. That sounded like a great event. I also attended the 450 Years of Black History event yesterday at the library, and I just want to thank Doug Erickson and the library staff for putting on that excellent program. And what else? Oh, attended a tour of the Tualatin Food Pantry as well out at Rolling Hills Church, which was a nice event. Nice thing as well, talking about how we can partner with the Tualatin Food Pantry as well because they serve many Westland residents. That was nice. Thank you, Council President, for attending. Council Breik, anything? Okay, we can go down the line. Councilor Groner? It's only been about a week. Any other reports? Councilor Bonnington?

Just a little bit more on the Parks Board. They did provide that. official advisory proactively, but I agree it's a process confusion thing and we need to probably figure out if we're referring something and a group wants to then proactively give us something, how we handle that, how this should all work. We don't often get communication directly from our advisory groups, so they can understand it. Yeah, I think it was pretty well covered what their advisory was. There was more discussion about they would like to see us talk about a pride event next year because they feel like every other city around here has something to that effect. And it would be nice to see us have one as well. So bring that up. Thank you, Councillor.

Thank you for raising that. We can think about that for next year. I agree. I saw a lot of cities having those in Lake Oswego, Wilsonville, Tigard, et cetera. So thank you. Councillor Bunting, go ahead again.

There is a fake flyer floating around about a medieval ramen festival. that the parks board is definitely not putting on. Just want to make that very clear. That is not a real thing in case anyone tries to show up at Willamette Park for that.

It's not happening. I think I've seen that. Hopefully they won't show up if it's not happening. They'd be pretty disappointed, I think, if whatever's going on. What's going on on social media? I don't even know. Who's making these posters? Anything else on... Mayor and Council reports. With that then we can move on to another very important topic, the Council priorities update. So how are we doing on our priorities, Mr. Williams?

Thank you, Mayor, for that leading question. That was perfect. I appreciate that. I have a lot of information on this, but I think, as always, when we review council priorities, there are things that you know and do and think that would be very helpful to add to the conversation. It's also a great opportunity for us to check in on how much progress is being made and what progress and is it enough. And what would you like to see? As a reminder, these priorities updated every year by council in your annual goal setting session or priority setting session represent the topics that the council intends to focus your time and energy on. More so than a complete listing of everything the city does or city staff priorities, it really helps us focus your agendas, understand what you're trying to achieve and match our staff time to that. And so these priorities are available on the city's website and really form the foundation of how we set agendas here and complement your work and support your work. So I'll just go through them real quick, and please add or ask questions as I go along. We are scheduled until 7.20. No, just start at 7.20 on this. Okay. I'll speak slow. No, I will not. Going through them, you listed financial strategic planning first, and this is something that I don't think I need to give too much of a separate update on tonight. This project has really turned into a community-wide discussion of the city's financial future, and we're calling it Framing Our Future. There's a lot happening. You all introduced elements of it at the State of the City recently. We have social media posts. We have videos being made. We have articles in various places. We've been providing updates to Council weekly and through a lot of other mechanisms as well. Really what we're after here is a conversation with the community about what the community priorities and values are, what services they are hoping to see, what projects they're hoping to see, and a discussion about our ability or inability to fund those projects and services. And so having a conversation about that match and really trying to get to a place where we are sustainably providing the services that our community wants. And so council's had a leadership role in this. You've been providing direction. Many of you have presented to various groups. You've, as I mentioned, the state of the city already. And I think we're going to be moving into a phase. We'll be engaging our community advisory groups a little bit more on this. We're hoping to have a work session later this summer where we talk about maybe how the CAGs could help with this effort in reflecting priorities in their special areas of knowledge. I think would be very useful. We expect over time there will probably be community polling, there will probably be open houses as we move through this, and pretty much every engagement technique that we can think of to help us all understand what it is the community's feeling, wanting, and and what their thoughts are on potential solutions for this. I always like to say there's no predetermined outcome of this. We're really just trying to understand and provide a sustainable match over time to what the community wants and what we're able to deliver. So I would say of all of the council priorities, this is probably the one that has had the most time and attention across our entire staff as an organization and effort put in. and a lot of time and effort put in by you all as well with more to come. So I'll stop on that one and just see if there's any questions about that or direction on that. I won't stop after each one, but this is an important one, so I wanted to make sure that you are getting the information you need and the resources you need to be successful on this one. Thank you, Mr. Williams, for that update on that.

Councillor Groner.

Yes, thank you. I was wondering, do you envision our getting some sort of analysis of the feedback from the public at some future date?

For sure.

And when might that be?

Yep. I think we'll have the first phase of that probably later this summer, possibly by the time before your August recess. We'll be summarizing what we have heard. And we'd also love to have a discussion with you about what you're hearing in other venues that isn't necessarily being captured. One great place to look is on our Framing the Future website. There is an ability for community members to post ideas and actually have a conversation. So if you ever want to get a live look at what people are saying, at least the folks that are comfortable posting something in that venue, it's an interesting look through of what we're hearing. Thank you. You bet. Councilman, was that it?

No, you covered it. I mean, that site was never intended to be the only thing.

Correct. It's one tool. We know there are folks that maybe that mechanism doesn't work for or maybe they don't want their co-owns to be public or whatever it might be. There's probably a lot of other ways that we need to be recording and providing the information to you.

Thank you. Looking forward to continued conversations and council discussions about that. item and great work to the whole team with the website and next steps as well.

Yeah, good. Several of the other items are sort of folded into framing our future. For example, the next one, transportation safety and funding. This was a discussion that council had about safety projects, but also a larger conversation about Highway 43, about transit services in West Linn, about multimodal connections, and a broader conversation about transportation revenue in our state, not just in our local community. I think a little hidden fact of the failure of the transportation package is that the City of West Linn was scheduled to receive almost $350,000 from the state in the first year of that program, growing over time. And that would have been a very nice boost for our street maintenance program and our transportation safety program. FOR A LOT OF DIFFERENT REASONS THAT PACKAGE DID NOT ADVANCE. THERE WILL PROBABLY BE ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT IT AT SOME POINT IN THE LEGISLATURE AND WESTLAND WILL BE PRESENT IN THOSE CONVERSATIONS. WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT WE KNOW WHEN WE KNOW AND YOU'RE TELLING ME WHAT YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HEAR IT. BUT RIGHT NOW I THINK WE'RE MORE FOCUSED ON THE LOCAL SOLUTIONS THAT WE CAN BRING TO THE TABLE. You have just received a presentation from SMART on their new transit service, so we're getting a little transit service, but we're losing some tri-med service. We are working with our fellow community, Sherwood, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, on studying what suburban cities can expect and can hope for in terms of transit. We're working on a project in... I almost said Steve is here. I just want to make sure Steve is here. Steve has been our key staff contact on this. I think the initial round of this work with Apello Cities is going to be understanding suburban transit demand. Where do people want to go? How many people are there? Where do they want to go? And are there ways that we can, as a region and as cities, provide transit service that matches that specific need? I think communities like Westland and Lake Oswego don't have the same transit needs that a gridded higher density city like Portland has. But Portland sort of dominates the transit market here in our region for very good reasons. But there may be things that we can all do. And so I'm excited about that study and about that conversation that will be stimulated there. And I appreciate council leadership on this one as well. Highway 43, I can't say there's been a tremendous amount of progress on finding ODOT funding for Highway 43. Small projects have happened. You know how many years and how many dollars it took to improve that little intersection down there on Highway 43 at Merrillhurst. Great looking project, but we still have three and a half miles of non great looking highway to work on. I just recently had a meeting with city manager, interim city manager in Lake Oswego. They are also interested in the highway 43 conversation. So I think there might be some room for Lake Oswego and Westland to work together on this. One possibility for example is to lobby for return of funding to that to the state program that was looking at these small highways that ODOT owns and how can we upgrade them maintain them. and be smarter about them in the future. We are basically constructing our last project. This is all in transportation safety. The last transportation project that's using some of the 2018 bond funds is happening in the Sunset area. You approved construction recently. It's also using some local street maintenance funds, but it has a big chunk of bond. And Councillor Bonington, I want to thank you for a great suggestion to sort of link that project with the Framing Our Future initiative on the lines of this project brought to you by, do you like transportation projects? If so, check out Framing Our Future and learn more about how these are provided in our community. Because I think there's been a lot of improvements that have happened in the last six years, and with that funding source running out, the rate of that is going to be dropping off again. Councillor Bronner.

Yes, thank you. I noticed people putting in water lines near Sunset Park, and I understand there's going to be sidewalks and crosswalks in the same area. I'm hoping those two projects don't involve tearing up the streets twice.

We are hoping to do it in the correct fashion. Thank you. Much appreciated. So I think that's enough. That's a sort of overview of work happening in the transportation safety realm. This is another realm, funding and transportation, that you all have been individually active as well as leaders in our region, participating in C4, going down to Salem when the time is right, connecting with our state representatives on transportation funding, super, super important. There's things we can do locally, but there's things that we need the help of the state and the region to do. So I appreciate your leadership in this area.

maybe we need to have a first joint meeting with the lake oswego city council and talk about 43 i love that idea because there's other things to be talked about too uh yeah we have neighbors on both sides yeah we do we've had some with oregon city thank you denise and we could have someone like us because i know we probably should talk about 43 and whatever else we need to be the stafford road project we could get an update on that and things like that so Yeah, we'll work on that. Great. I love that. Because that's a great idea. We have good legislators also that have strong ties to the area. So a 43 could be something we could make something happen with and get it better. So with that, any other comments on transportation? Seeing none, we can continue on.

Next priority was community gathering spaces, and I clearly remember the conversation we had here in this room at the council retreat about community gathering spaces. There are a lot of things the city does to support community gathering spaces, but I think there are some more things that could probably be done. Some of it's on a little bit of a hold while we search for a new parks and recreation director. For example, our There really hasn't been much that's happened on the property right down the hill here and thinking about what the next vision for that could be. We all still love that idea. We just don't quite have a staff person to lead the work on that. When I think community gathering, I think a lot about our other facilities, the library, Robinwood Station, Sunset Fire Hall, the adult community center. There's tons that are happening there. But I think what the council was looking at, there were three things. Involve the community to understand where gathering spaces are desired. Explore enhanced use of the Parker Road property. And new or improving existing... Explore creating new or improving... Okay. All the eyes that have looked at this, I still need to work on the grammar here, what we're looking at is how can we create new places around the community and I think there might be some news on that in the second half of the year as we continue to work on work programs, get a parks and rec director here and be able to move forward in this area. But you think about all of the things that are happening, we just had a presentation from the Friends of Robinwood Station about that gathering space and about their heavy utilization of it and their goals to improve it and I think that's that's really exciting and I know those groups appreciate council support for for those places Council break, please

I just want to say that we're getting some kind of, I guess, cross-pollination of different things. The Westland Historic Society did an Ignite presentation at the Robinwood station. And instead of just the people that are very familiar with the historical society and have been active participants in that, we had a lot of local neighbors that saw the sign up at the station saying, oh, I might be interested in going to that. And so we had a lot of people show up and talk to the Westland Historic Society that maybe wouldn't have run into them before. And I think we have opportunities to do things like that throughout the community.

Wonderful. That's wonderful news. Thank you. Any other comments on community gathering spaces? Something very important to the City Council. We want to have gathering spaces.

We do. uh... next on the list was continue improvement of community advisor group in neighborhood association programs uh... and this is one the council just discussed earlier in the month and uh... so if we're thinking about these topics as topics that you want to spend time on uh... i appreciate you bringing up things that you want to work on in these and so uh... we talked recently uh... about uh... quorum issues uh... at community advisor groups of what can be done about that there are some research that was requested, which is happening and we will reconvene on that topic very soon. You've also spent time on this in many other ways. I think about the work programs that were created and sent to each community advisory group, which they are following. I think about your role as liaisons to individual community advisory groups. You're each spending time every month going to meetings. Neighborhood associations will be getting their grants soon if they submit the materials requested just to prove that they're meeting the criteria. So I think continued communication about the CAG work programs and continue to meet with CAGs as they request over the course of the year. And you'll be hitting the target on this goal, I believe. But if there's other things that you're looking for or other things you want to do, I think one piece we haven't spent much time on in this room is neighborhood associations. We've talked more about CAGs and a little less about neighborhood associations. We have some very active ones, some moderately active ones, and some inactive ones right now in West Linn. But that might be a topic for a different day. Next is drinking water system capital needs. This is another one that you have spent council meeting time on and will do more on. The capital plan has been completed. We had an initial work session discussion about SDC rates and about water rates and we will be back to council on each of those soon scheduling agenda items for those another area that will be looking at a lot I think is water supply this year I mentioned that recently we all know there's potential water shortages You three of you are on the South Fork Water Board and so investing time and effort, council time and effort there and making sure, I think it's a very hidden part of being a city councilor that no one in West Linn actually understands even where our water comes from, let alone that we're co-owner of a water supply system let alone that three of you have to go to multiple meetings all the time and be thinking about that water supply system in a totally different, or a semi-different hat from being a city councilor. Obviously we have, one of the goals on here is continue to advocate for funding of the water transmission main on the Abernathy Bridge. We shared some good news on that recently. We still have under council rule, lobby ODOT and state legislator for fair funding of the project. We did a lot of that. I think that horse has left the barn, and we have probably gotten the money from the state that we are going to get on this project, which was incredible and very much needed and appreciated, and we are taking advantage of it. But there is still going to be a significant local share to that very expensive project that we're going to be shouldering here. Council President Bunker. Go ahead.

I just wanted to ask a question on that. I had just been thinking about this recently. I seem to recall that we had been asked to commit to pay no matter how much it eventually costs. Is there a ceiling that they've given us on the cost of replacement of that main since now the project has changed its completion date?

That's a great question, and I may have to get back to you. There was a cost that we were provided that came from the original construction bids. The part I don't know is whether the timeline extension makes us liable for any increased costs. I think that's a fabulous question, and we'll try to track that down. Thank you. It actually appeared that there was some good news that costs were going to be a little lower than we expected as they did work. But it's been very, very difficult for us to get details. And as you've seen, the timeline is fluid on that project, which I wouldn't want to manage that project either. It's a big project, very difficult. But the lack of certainty has been frustrating for us as well.

Thank you. I do recall the cost increasing and changing at least three times before we even started going out to ask, seek funding on those various trips to Salem and DC that we embarked upon.

Successful trips, we often call them, to Salem and D.C.

I was grateful for that. However, I just want to keep a good sharp eye on that cost.

That's a great question. Thank you. Thank you. We will try to track some of that down. The one piece I did want to talk about here is I mentioned that you had a work session on the capital plan. You had an initial discussion of rates. The rate issue and our ability to adequately fund the water system is still problematic. You all are very familiar with this issue. You know, in an ideal world, we would have a very large infusion of money into maintenance right now in order to minimize long-term total costs to the rate payers. But because of rate limits that we have in our charter, enacted for a very good reason, but those rate limits make it difficult to apply the funds in the most ultimately cost-effective way for our rate payers, which include me. And all of you. And so we will have continued discussion of water rate issues with council. And we will need your leadership and guidance on this. But that's for a future meeting.

I do want to say my experience in working for a water district, Clackamas County has historically had water districts and cities that wanted to keep water rates as low as possible, but it hasn't really worked out that well because every year we get further and further behind on maintenance of the system that we have. As the liaison to the Utility Advisory Board, I had suggested that we actually get a water rate study instead of just every year doing 5% so that they could define to us how far behind are we. We have that information. We haven't really talked about it as a council. It was in a council packet, but we were deferring having that discussion. But it also appeared from the rate study that was done is a couple of years of a pretty high hit. But then after that, we could get to a 5% a year. And with long range planning and careful consideration, 5% is doable. We just didn't start at the right place when we had the limitation put in the charter.

I appreciate that. It's a difficult issue. And people are struggling with bills. We know that. So it's complicated. People also like clean water. Okay, so moving on, the next two are our friends, the long-range community visioning projects, the West End Waterfront Vision and the Vision 43. Steve and Darren were good enough to give me a live update today, so I have some dates and thoughts about this. But these are both pieces that you have, again, individually and collectively spent quite a bit of time on, some more than others on some projects, very much appreciated. and much more to come as we've shown with the waterfront vision project the simple act of completing a vision is actually turns out to be the easy part and even though that part took Darren 10 years and all of us 10 years but now we have 20 years of implementation or 50 years of implementation of what it's going to be. But at least for the first time we have a true community vision. And I can say that there's an incredible amount of value in that so that when I go places and talk to people who might hold funding strings or might hold planning materials or whatever it might be. Having an adopted vision plan that I can point to and say, this is the community's vision. This is the council's vision. It's adopted. Look at this. Look at this language. It really helps in those conversations. So it's a great tool for us moving forward. Specifically on the waterfront plan, as I think you know, We are working on a metro 2040 planning grant submittal for the next phase of the the implementation work that will be in this summer and Consultant selection process in the fall and a community engagement plan and really diving into the work in 2027 So it's going to be an incredible resource if we're able to get it We all know we have some potential allies at Metro and interest in this project. I think is just building and but takes a little time to get the time to get the money to do the work correctly. Meanwhile we and many of you are working with stakeholders all the time on waterfront implementation and it's there's a lot of exciting work happening ranging from the trust to the Grand Ronde to things that are happening on private properties adjacent to and near. So I think there's going to be a lot of, there might be some practical work happening this year on the waterfront and then even more time and effort spent next year. On Vision 43, work continues on this. The Planning Commission will be talking about it tomorrow. Planning Commission briefing and update on the 17th. Final draft documents for the core division plan and the zoning amendments in June and July. Final community review in August using an online open house stakeholder outreach. Planning Commission legislative public hearings, council work sessions, public hearings in the fall and winter of this year. So keeping that project moving forward. Very, very exciting. So and if you have any questions, I guess he's here. But if there's no questions, I will move on. OK, moving on. Environmental protection and sustainable city operations, actually quite a fair amount to report on. I want to appreciate some of the key staff in our organization that work on this. Formerly Megan Bigjohn, but Dylan Digby, staff out in public works, a lot of folks really interested in this topic. You will remember council conversations about sustainability members searching for grant funding. And so there is quite a bit of work happening. So the first strategy was making progress on a list of high-impact sustainability measures. That list was created. That list is available. We've discussed it with council before. It's been used to incorporate sustainability features in the planned operations building. We're doing LED upgrades in city facilities all the time when we can. Public Works and Dillon are working on an alternative fuel or electric vehicle policy, purchasing policy that we'll bring back to Council for further discussion. One I really want to note here, and I do have some bad news on this one, one of the ones folded into this topic was monitor and plan for the Emerald Ash Borer and the Mediterranean Oak Borer. The ash borer has new sightings very close to West Lynn now. Previously farther separated, but now there are findings in Tualatin. And so the ash borer has a devastating impact on ash trees, which are a vital part of certain ecosystems. There is going to be a whole new round of community information in all of our surrounding communities Our park staff and Dylan are working on this There's a real shared effort between the state the counties the cities on the ash borer. It's going to be it's going to be a thing And if it's gotten from everywhere, it's gotten to Tualatin It's most likely not going to stop at Tualatin and save West Linn We are going to have the ash borer here, and there's going to be real impacts for public and private property owners on what it can do to these ash trees. And it's very, very unfortunate. uh... on other topics uh... i know the mayor has met with some business owners talking on the piece about evie charging stations in private property lots uh... that uh... that hasn't yet born fruit but maybe will over time in there i don't know if you have any to know where to report on that but i i appreciate the effort that you put in there to see these two spots at the library yeah that's that those are great uh... we do have the new spots the library uh... And one final thing I want to note on this is in here was this gas powered equipment question. And Dylan, I really appreciate Dylan, has joined. There's a regional consortium group that has formed on gas powered equipment. There's nothing governments like doing better than forming a task force to look at a thing. But that is what's happening. There are regional agencies getting together so that we're not addressing it city by city, so that you have one ordinance in one city, one ordinance, no ordinance in another city. Knowing that contractors, landscapers, a variety of companies work in multiple cities at a time, makes sense to coordinate. And so they are looking at cost effective and real world solutions that maybe could be brought forward on a regional scale or a sub-regional scale. So that's pretty cool. Okay. Sustainability. Two more. Sustainability. DEIB. Our internal task force continues to work on DEIB issues. In fact, we had a discussion today about putting some logic and process possibly into our proclamation system here. What events do we honor? What events do we mark? How do we mark them? How can we better connect a city council proclamation with actual actions that our staff do or that community members do? I think in some cases we have proclamations that match really well with, say, think of Arbor Week. where there's a very strong set of events that happen. Our parks department is working on it. There's a number of examples like that. There are other proclamations that just get made and there's no It's a proclamation. As we say, it gets issued, and we don't have anyone even to hand it to. And so we are working to understand that connection, and I really appreciate our staff's commitment to doing that. There have been a lot of outreach events. In here is tribal engagement. There's quite a bit of tribal engagement, again, led by many of you, including most prominently Council President Baumgartner. lot of exciting tribal activity in this region, and it's just thrilling to be part of it from the groundbreaking over at Tumwara to the Lamprey event coming up next week. I just feel like there's more and more visibility into the fact that we have this active, thriving, amazing community here in our region, and it's fun to be part of it. Also in DEIB, you've already mentioned the event we had last night and the materials, excuse me, I have something in my eye, materials that we have at the library. I thought that was a really, really powerful event and they have more resources available to us which we're planning on saying yes to. Yes, please. So still quite a bit happening here on DEIB. I think it's exciting. The last topic is one that probably needs the least maybe summary, which is we apparently have a goal of constructing a new city operations facility. And there's quite a bit of things, quite a bit of work happening on this. You're very, very familiar with this. Just thinking a little bit about the deadlines. You know about the hearings officer process. You know about the dates. The last and middle dates are the 17th and 24th. We expect a hearings officer decision within a month of that. Meanwhile, we are working on the early work site development package that you approved recently in council and the community will start seeing that work starting to happen on Salama Road in the next few weeks. So that is one that I think It's it's sort of the most specific of your goals and the one that has the most specific measurable outcomes So that's a quick run-through of council goals. I would say if you asked me I would say If your goal was to spend a lot of time on the topics that I just have summarized I think you have done an excellent job of that and I THINK THERE ARE ALWAYS THINGS THAT COME UP, THERE ARE ALWAYS NEW TOPICS, THERE ARE ALWAYS RECOGNITION AWARDS, WHICH WE LOVE, BUT I DIDN'T GO BACK AND DO THE MATH, BUT YOU SPENT QUITE A BIT OF YOUR TIME INSIDE AND OUTSIDE MEETINGS ON THESE PRIORITY TOPICS AND I THINK THE RESULTS SHOW. SO THAT IS MY SUMMARY UPDATE OF YOUR PRIORITIES. I HOPE THAT'S HELPFUL.

THANK YOU. VERY HELPFUL. ALWAYS GOOD TO GET A BRIEFING ON THE PRIORITIES. So I asked at the beginning how we're doing on the priorities and I think we're doing well. Thank you. Anything else, any questions on that or? Now it's the John Williams show because now you can give a city manager report after all that.

I was thinking that maybe that could be my city manager report. I think that was a lot. So really all I want to add to that is your next meeting is on July 7th. It's a work session. Again, we have West Water Environment Services, State of the District. Darren Wise will be here talking about Westling Housing Production Strategy. And at that meeting, I believe we will have the City Facilities Code of Conduct discussion, which a variety of staff have been working on. So those will be the main topics on the 7th, and Alyssa will be here in my chair for that meeting. Thank you. Anything else for the... One more thing. Thank you. I told Kathy earlier in the day, if I don't mention this, remind me. August 4th, currently scheduled to be the sole council meeting in August. You typically take a recess and we cancel the other meetings in August. August 4th is, at its normal time, would be a daytime meeting. And so sometimes we have moved that to an evening meeting to recognize it's the one business meeting. Just wanted to get council feedback on that date, whether that date actually works or whether the date needs to be moved. If it's fine and you want it to be daytime, we are just going to keep it exactly where it is. We'll make it a business meeting.

I will be out of town for that date. So we could need thoughts on if you want me there or if we can always move. We have one meeting in August. We could always move it later in the month if people... have a strong preference.

I have no preference, although I'm happy to move it to be flexible.

Would the 18th work for everybody? Is it the date for the council meeting?

That's my birthday, so rather not.

Oh, August 18th. Oh, no.

No, I don't want to make Councillor Bright work on the... Hang on, let me just...

I, for one, would like to have a meeting on November 25th this year.

Well, we can, counselors can work on scheduling and we can figure out what to do. Maybe we can, I mean. Do we know what would be on that agenda at all? I'm not sure anything has been placed into that agenda yet. The city charter requires that we have one meeting every month at least. And so we must hold one meeting. And usually we can move it around in August. We just have to have one meeting that month. It has to be a business meeting.

Actually, there is one item. It's the annual approve my public evaluation process. That's normally do that at that meeting in August and then conduct the evaluation process in August.

If we want to, if it works better for everyone to have the meeting on the 4th, I'm happy to lead the meeting in your absence, just to be clear.

I would prefer the 4th.

Okay, that's fine. And if I can, I'll call in. Since it might be brief if it's just one agenda item. Thank you. Carol, you can have your birthday back. I do have one more item. Councillor Baumgartner has an item for the good of the order.

On a sad note, I wanted to recognize our tribal partners at the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have experienced their second loss of a chief this year. Their second chief passed away who had just been sworn in to replace... The previous chief, and out of respect and tribal reference, I'm not stating their name, which is, I'm not sure what they're practicing right now, but I have just air on the side so anyone can look it up. But the elder passed away last night. Wow. So just to recognize their loss. And of course, it's difficult for small communities that have small populations and that they struggle with health issues and lack of access. So my heart goes out to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Anything else?

We can end with a moment of silence for that person and also for Sydney Lewis, a Westland resident who passed away in a car accident. So we can end on that note and thoughts to her family as well. So with that, we'll have a moment of silence and then we'll adjourn to our executive session. We are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.