City Council - Regular Meeting

Good

evening, everybody. Welcome to the 12/01/2025 Newburgh City Council. I call this meeting to order. It is really good to see this many people here to take part in our citizen government. Thank you for showing up. That being said, I have just a little bit of bad news for you. We are, after the pledge of allegiance, going to have an executive session. So there'll be a little bit more on that. I'll I'll announce that. Let's I'm sorry. Let's work our way to that. Rachel, shall we start with a roll call, please?

Certainly. Councilor McBride?

Here.

Councilor Wheatley?

Here.

Councilor Yarnell Holloman? Here. Councilor Kilburg? Here. Mayor Rosacker? Here. Councilor Turgeson? Here. Councilor Carmen?

Here.

Thank you.

Alright. Would you all stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of The United States Of America

Two more sister city ones.

Another one? So

Two more sister city.

So I started to tell you about the executive session. We are going to have a short executive session. After this announcement, the council will move to separate meeting room not open to the public. Once we've concluded the executive portion of this meeting, this meeting will be opened again, and we will resume our open meeting. The city council will now meet in executive session for the purpose of considering information or records that are exempt by law from public inspection.

The executive session is held pursuant to Oregon revised statutes one nine two point six six zero two e. A representative of the news media design designated staff and other person will be allowed to attend the executive session. No decisions will be made in this executive session. At the end of the executive session, the council will return to open session, rejoin the open session Zoom link, and continue our meeting. One other announcement, we have a lot of people who have signed up for public comment, so we're going to limit them to four minutes. So while we're in executive session, please revise what you might wanna leave out of your session. Well, thank you very much. We'll see you. James, this is gonna be short. Right?

Yes, mister mayor. We'll keep it, as brief as we can for sure. Yeah.

That's not always the case.

Yeah. No fault of yours. It's very true.

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So, at this point, we're gonna, remove ourselves to the executive session. Alright.

Thank you everybody for indulging that. The first item on our agenda, business item as always, city manager report. And, please, Will, take it away.

Thank you, honorable mayor and honorable councilors and members of the audience. This is the city manager's report for the events of smashing November 2025. Community development. All TVF and our land use, temporary, and main station reviews were issued, and this is for the station rebuild that's coming soon to a building adjacent to this one. There's an uptick in vacation rental application since the new rules came in, and lots of compliance letters have gone out.

Several more developments are underway as well as the housing that I mentioned last time. Kalina phase one is recorded and phase two will be recorded soon. There will be many hundreds of more residents coming to our city in the near future. Community engagement, we had exciting news on child care infrastructure growth thanks to the removal of that category of system development charge, boosted participation in ongoing storm water survey that we're doing, kicked off street sweeper naming contest. They simply wouldn't listen to me.

I asked to go with the name from last time, mister scrubby face, and they said no, so we're doing another competition. We shared emergency preparedness resources for vulnerable and medically fragile folks for the winter as one of our regular releases, and please don't throw gloopy disgusting stuff down your sink, it clogs your pipes. Nobody wants a fatberg scandal in Newburgh. And here are some of those campaigns. Don't invite a fog to clog Thanksgiving.

And there's our good friends from ODOT insisting on doing night work to build their ramps so that they can keep us all awake. If you want to see who to complain to, we have their names on the city website. Okay, city recorder working on our work plan for '26, finalizing applications for board committee commission terms. It's never too late to volunteer to help your city. We had an OGEC public meeting training, very well received city county dinner, where each city got to say just one thing that was important to them, and we had a fun quiz including the number of UFO visits to Yamhill County was one of the quiz questions.

It was fairly smashing, and of course training on new council and committee rules. Admin grants update, we have lost our grant writer. He has gone off to become a library director. Yes, good bloke but he will be missed. So we're recruiting right now for another grant writer, 35,000 will be received from FEMA in the next few weeks, there's another 340,000 from FEMA that will arrive fairly soon, that's work that he was doing towards the end before he left, connected to the flood that we had.

Other grants have been passed on to other staff while we are in the hiring process. He also digitized all of the paperwork for the entire engineering department in less than six months, by himself. That was thousands and thousands of documents. If you're listening Dylan, thank you. Groundwater treatment plant filter covers, this delicious unfunded mandate is pushing forward, final submittal is nearly complete for the fabric building that will cover the contact basins, delivery is expected early in 2026.

We are hoping that final completion for this project will be about April 16 and Cedar Mill construction appears to be ahead of that schedule and they are currently on budget. The clarifier stress test, now there's a phrase to roll around your tongue, perhaps one of the most important things that the city has done in a really long time is we ran a stress test on our clarifier at the wastewater treatment plant, to see if we could get it rated at a higher level, so that we would not need to build two extra clarifiers when we upsize the plant. Each clarifier can be 7,000,000. The guys really worked very hard, we passed both levels of the clarifier test, we were able to put 8,500,000 gallons of sewage through it in one day. So things are looking good for the wastewater treatment plant rehab, and I can say with some tentativeness, but maybe a little confidence, that we're going to be able to do the wastewater plant rehab with cash that we have saved up, and not need to take out any extra debt to do that.

So this was a really important test, and more about that soon, as soon as we get a response from DEQ, which we're waiting on that response to the test. It's a big deal. For the month of November finance did tons of things, the UB Clerk attended the census water meter conference, finance and HR attended a BOLI conference, discussed the new W2 requirements that came out of the big beautiful bill overtime ruling, met with Nueva Global on the red light camera implementation, and court staff are working on rolling out the electronic submissions to DMV, that's another part of this new electronic infrastructure. Andy HR attended the Pairs disability webinar, attended the BOLI forty first annual employment conference, CIS anti harassment training for lots of our staff and especially for all of our new supervisors, and discrimination retaliation training was part of that mix. Library highlights, the library front doors reopened on November 18 after major repairs and picks are coming up.

48 spots for kids craft sale are full. Come and support your local youth crafts on Saturday December 5, a good time to buy all of your decorations that you might need. Also, Clozie reading for all ages November 22 to January 3, keep up the reading during the winter, and the second library puzzle competition drew a crowd of competitors. And there is, oh I have a question. Yes I do, I will chastise Corrie later.

And there are the new fantastic, not slippy, can't fall down and do yourself an injury steps, and there is something from the craft sale, and kushunk, public works report. No matter what your allegiance may be in the realm of football, beavers are not your friends. Two beaver damaged trees had to be removed at the Fernwood Lift Station, those pesky critters. Also, we installed a new composite sampler for the influent flows, an equipod fuel level indicator, replaced failed block heater on a generator, repaired a flat tire on the tractor, had the contractor remove two beaver damaged trees, and we're still working on that equally pesky screw press where the gearbox melted itself onto the drive shaft, and that is proving to be very challenging and we're still waiting on parts to arrive. Parts for the screw press, not for the beavers.

There is more details about the clarifier test, The big thing here is that we have to now get DEQ to accept the new rating for the clarifier. If they accept the rating, the city overnight will save $7,000,000, so this matters. A huge shout out to the operations team who pulled many long shifts and ran over time to do this test at the same time as the screw press was broken and they were doing dewatering manually. Think about that for a minute, so that's pretty huge. Water treatment, a few of the many tasks that we've done recently, an entrance gate was repaired, backflow device inspections, hypochlorate generator rectified some wiring, and maintenance did just some of these things as part of its work orders.

Lots of sweeping has been happening lately, and we've also got a leaf suction device attached to one of our trucks, we've been picking up leaves that way as well, and we replaced a burnt out flat panel light in facilities, many items were moved to Setty Hall and setup was completed for the latest Red Cross blood drive. The fleet completed lots of tasks and the new bucket truck has arrived to replace the wibbly wobbly one we were using before, and wibbly wobbly is the technical term in this case. Five seventeen Michelle Court, new water service being installed, I always like to show folks a few of these in the field pictures. 2526 Holiday Lane, a leak on the customer side replaced, a new meter box handle installation, and there is the leaf season arriving, storm crew working to clean clogs, and it gone really fast this year I noticed, so good work for those guys. And Main Street waterline reporting, ODOT and the city of Newburgh engineering teams are collaborating on reporting and planning the upcoming waterline projects along Main Street and that's ongoing.

And that is the summary for everything in November, which was one of the most important months that we've ever had because of that clarifier test. So any questions folks?

Thank you, Will. Do you you kinda brushed over the fog part, and we have a lot of people in the audience. This might be a good time to explain since nobody here from public works. You wanna give it a thank you.

So my honorable colleague in public works, Russ, said that he wanted to go on a date with his wife tonight, he didn't have an agenda item, so I said yes. So I'm going to give a good swing at this, okay. Fog is the collection of fats and oils which can bundle around things like rags or wipes that should not be put down into the system. So anything that can create a blockage, can build up fats, that is the beginning of the problem and we don't want to do any of that. So always be careful folks not to put anything down into the system that could block the sanitary sewer line. It can be very expensive to repair, and it wastes a lot of time. It can even cause backups into your house.

So the remedy, of course, is if you have grease from your cooking, pour it into a container, let it cool, and then dispose of it in the garbage. Thank you very much. Next on our agenda is public hearing. And, I already said I was going to allow four minutes. We had more people sign up for public hearings than that. I should probably keep it to three minutes. But so what I'm gonna ask is if you can try to shorten your message to three minutes. But four is gonna be the absolute limit. Please understand that at public hearings, counsel is here. We're listening to you.

We hear you. We will pay attention to you, but we are not going to have a dialogue about your item afterwards. If you want a dialogue with any member of the council, please email them. You can find their email addresses on the city website. So that being said, Casey Banks, you're gonna be the first today.

Hi, Casey. Welcome.

I have

a red light, but it's on.

Okay. Well, good evening, mayor and counselors. I'm speaking tonight about what I experienced in our community on Thursday, November 20 regarding ICE in our community. I volunteered as a rapid responder that day to help document any unlawful ICE activity, particularly near our elementary schools. Volunteers were called to this task because ICE operated drones and a helicopter were spotted the day before over Edwards Elementary and the school district office building.

Throughout that day, I witnessed at least two ICE vehicles in Newburgh without any license plates, and one of them was driving over the speed limit in our city limits. I don't keep it secret that I think that ICE's work is immoral, but the fact that ICE is violating traffic laws in our town, I think, should be a concern for everyone. As a rapid responder, I was informed that ICE agents have surveillance technology that includes license plate readers and AI software that can predict traffic patterns. This raises concerns about personal freedoms that I know are way above our city level governance, but there is a matter that I think our local police force could help

us with. You see, on

Thursday, November 20, as a parent of an elementary student, I received two emails from our school district that day. The second email informed us that ICE activity was happening and reminded us about the school policies designed to keep our kids information safe. And I'm so proud of our school district for the ways that they are proactively supporting students and families during this time. But the first email was informing us that the phone lines for the entire school district were not working. The email gave us an alternative phone number to you should we need it, and I appreciated that.

Later that day, once I seemed to have left Newburgh for the day, a school employee told me that the phone lines were working again. Now I know that ICE being in our community and phone lines going down on the same day could be a total complete coincidence. But given their surveillance technology and specifically targeting Edwards Elementary, I do wonder if ICE was somehow able to intentionally mess with our phones somehow. So if they have not done it already, my request is simply that our police department work with the school's IT department to determine what is causing these phone line outages and to make those findings available publicly. Thank you.

Thank you, Casey. Next, Elaine Koskela. Hi, Elaine. Welcome. It's good to see you.

Good evening, city councilors. I'm also here to talk about ICE. ICE raids in our community, but more from a 10,000 foot level. My background's in sociology, so this is very much coming out of that background. I want to answer,

how did we get to

the point where masked men are cheered on by a portion of our population while ICE agents terrorize people? And I think that having a masked and armed man come at you is terrorizing. I think that smashing windows, dragging people from anywhere, literally anywhere, doing away with sanctuaries like churches and schools is is pretty awful because we need our schools to be safe. We need our students not to live in fear. Same with our places of worship, I hope.

How did we get to the point where racial profiling is legal and due process just doesn't happen? What are the effects of this financially and mentally on all of us here in Yamhill County? So go going back in time, immigration issues are not new. We've had issues as long as I can remember. Congress came up with a bipartisan plan that then president Biden said he would sign, but Trump ordered his people to not allow it to go through.

He needed immigration to not be functional so he could run on his campaign on it, which he did, using brown and black especially, but also others in immigration as scapegoats. Okay. So there are legitimate things we disagree about with immigration. There's a lot of questions, like how many people do we allow to come in who who are really truly poor if they're fleeing, a war or if they're they're being somehow, hurt in a country? And should we allow people who are not white Anglo Saxons to come in?

And, how about other religions than what, a lot of people are claiming is the base of our country? So if someone is Muslim, should they be allowed in the country? These are questions. Right? But what I'd like to say, instead of having dialogue about those things, a dehumanization process happened. And it really began in 2015. I'm going to give you a quote from Trump. 2015 on the campaign trail. When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us.

They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists, and some, I I assume, are good people. What an alarming list. He did note an exception, but even that exception sounded like a put down. Maybe some are good people. Unfortunately, Trump's words have gotten a lot worse since 2015, and they include a much broader group of people. He regularly uses slurs and put downs, and he doesn't make exceptions anymore. He just doubles down. You might remember that he called Tim Waltz a a retard.

He also just recently looked at a woman who asked him a question and said, quiet. Quiet, pity. That should make all of us uncomfortable. So that has been normalized. So what is dehumanization? And I've gotta make this fast. Dehumanization is a process, and it's a process we've gone through where we make humans less than than human. And then that allows us the moral exception to, actually hurt them. And I think that's what's happened with immigration. So I'm here to say, does that mean that we don't have any rules about immigration?

Absolutely not. That's not what it means. But I want to advocate for our local politicians

Thank you.

To make rules that are humane

Elaine, thank you.

And that humanize people instead of dehumanize them and don't use violence.

Next is Sondra Martin. Hi, Sanda. Welcome.

Sanda Martin Newberg. Good evening, mayor Rosacker, and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to make public comment this evening regarding the presence and unlawful detainment of members of our Newburgh community by ICE agents. I hope you all are in agreement with me that the immigrant community brings enormous cultural and economic value to our city and county. They work here, pay taxes, pour dollars into our local county, worship here, volunteer here, and enjoy all that Newburgh has to offer.

Their work in the agricultural, hospitality, educational, manufacturing, and business sectors is critical to the health of our community. Their cultural contribution in sharing their customs, food, and celebrations allows us to learn and partake in new experiences that widen our knowledge of different cultures. The narrative that immigrants are drug dealers, murderers, and rapists can be dispelled with natural national factual data that actually shows just the opposite. The truth is that the majority of immigrants in this country are hardworking, law abiding individuals that contribute to society in multiple ways. We are actually blessed to have them as our coworkers, our family members, our neighbors, our church members, our businessmen and women, and our friends.

I hope you recognize the value they bring to our city. I hope you agree with me that any attack on any group of individuals in the community is an attack on the community at large. No group of people should be targeted, intimidated, and traumatized by armed masked individuals based on skin color. No group of people should be stopped, questioned, and unlawfully detained based on skin color. No child should live in fear that while they're at school, their parents will be kidnapped from their home.

No family should be hiding in their homes, skipping work, school, medical appointments, and food shopping because they fear being separated by ICE detainment. I have several questions for you as elected officials to consider and act on. How are you protecting our in immigrant community members against the unlawful targeting arrest and detainment by ICE agents? How is the Newburgh Police Department protecting our immigrant community members from ICE agents? How will Newburgh Police Department respond if a 911 call is placed by an immigrant that has been pulled over by eight ICE agents and is seeking help?

Will you make a stand like other communities such as Forest Grove and Hillsborough, which declared a state of emergency and drafted a resolution establishing a sanctuary jurisdiction? Thank you for listening. I look forward to the council publicly addressing my questions because up until now, we've heard nothing except from two council members. Thank you.

Next will be Joni Zimmerman. Hi, Joni. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and council members. As a resident living just outside the city limits of Newburgh for the past thirty six years, I am appalled at the lack support shown to our immigrant community by the mayor and most of the city council. It is unacceptable that only two of our city councilors have spoken out about the federal agents that are terrorizing our local immigrant families. The majority of immigrants that have been detained in our county and nationwide have had no criminal record or, at the worst, received a minor traffic ticket. Even those that may have a criminal record often have been sentenced, paid their debt to society, and moved on to live productive and upstanding lives.

The oft repeated lie that federal agents are targeting the worst criminals simply doesn't hold up. US citizens have been detained and traumatized as well simply because of the color of their skin or the fact that they spoke a different language. Furthermore, the detentions have been carried out by masked, armed, unaccountable men at times and in places designed to cause the most harm to families. They have included the use of unjustifiable force and caused unnecessary property damage. Peaceful protesters have been subjected to unwarranted pepper spray or other force, and observers have been threatened with arrest for their lawful filming of ICE tactics.

In this town, the lack of visible support for our residents speaks volumes. Our immigrant families, documented or not, are terrified. Schoolchildren are worried about their families, and surely, that must affect their ability to concentrate and do well at school. This breaks my heart and scares me to death. All of us have to wonder whether the police would even respond to protect someone who called 911 reporting being detained at gunpoint by masked men claiming to be federal agents but showing no proof of such.

Do we have to wait for a tragedy for the service and protection people pay for with tax dollars? I'm calling on you to make this city safe again for everyone, not just those who look like you. I want the police to respond to any 911 call involving someone claiming to be federal agents and verify their identity on the record. I want them to hold ICE accountable for breaking laws in our city. These are frightening times, and I want the mayor and city council to go on the record and affirmatively support our local immigrant communities.

I want them to speak out against these lawless acts of ICE. I want them to come down on the right side of history. Thank you. Next

will be Rainey Sweetman.

Good evening, council. I am a student here at George Fox University, and I'm here to urge members of the city council to require ICE agents in Newburgh to clearly identify themselves and the vehicles that they drive. I am utterly appalled at the current state of our country. The United States was built on the ideals of individual freedom and the pursuit of happiness, and now our government has turned against these promises. Individuals who come to our country seeking safety and survival are being targeted, detained, and in extreme cases, deported without just cause.

I myself am an immigrant in this country. I was not born here, and I am privileged enough to be Caucasian because I will never be racially or ethnically profiled by ICE. I am now a legal citizen, but so are too many of the individuals who are being kidnapped, detained, and, again, in extreme cases, fully deported. These actions don't reflect justice or peace. They reflect fear mongering and discrimination.

Now ICE has reached Newberg, and memories members of this community must live in fear even if they are legal citizens. No one should have to fear the government. If the council is not prepared to challenge ICE directly or take a stronger stance against these unjust practices, then I urge you to at least require ICE agents to drive in marked vehicles and identify themselves clearly and separately from the NDPD. Title eight section 287.8 of the US code requires that all immigration officers identify themselves. There is no reason that this council council should allow ICE agents to operate below this already low standard. Thank you for your time.

Next on the menu or next is, Jessica Yu. I wanted to make a comment about the clapping. We typically do not respond in such manner to speakers at the city council, so please take that under advisement. Hi, Jessica.

Hi.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Jessica Yu, and I moved to Newburgh approximately one year ago. And, honestly, I've been amazed by how incredibly friendly everyone in the community has been and how willing everyone is to lend a hand. It's been a completely different experience than I had expected moving from a bigger city to a smaller town. People readily ask if I need any help at stores.

Neighbors initiate conversation. And the first thing I saw about law enforcement in the area is that they took the time to check on someone on 99 West who is possibly experiencing a crisis to make sure they are okay. In June, Newberg landed on national news when beloved comedian member Moises Sotelo was detained. People across the country rallied behind Moises' family and raised a 160 k to support them in the hopes that he could return home to Newberg. Unfortunately, he was deported to Mexico despite having been in the process of obtaining his citizenship, and his family has been torn apart and divided.

Since then in this county, at least 15 families have been torn apart in a similar manner. Yet in the last six months, I still haven't seen our city respond to the massive increase in ICE activity to support our community. It's not a matter of if or when something bad happens because it has already happened. So what is your plan? What is your action?

What will you do the next time one of your residents is threatened with arrest while armed with a weapon visible in the public area, shoulder checked while filming activity from a legal distance, pulled over by four vehicles and searched with no explanation, detained despite being a US citizen. What will you do when vehicles are abandoned in commercial lots and highways? Minors are being pulled out for in our county, questioned about their parents by unidentifiable armed and masked individuals. These are not hypotheticals. These are all instances that have either happened in our city or count county.

This is not about legality or whether someone is documented. It's about how you keep your community safe while masked men and unmarked vehicles threaten people who are being lawful. I'm not asking you to move mountains. I'm asking you to do what is within your power to keep the community safe that you were sworn to protect and represent. With that, here are some ideas.

One, require the Newburgh Dundee Police Department to verify identities of ICE agents when they're called to respond on scene, stop or limit the use of unmarked NDPD vehicles through the end of the year, publish a public statement committing to not working with ICE as is in compliance with Oregon sanctuary laws. Generate a plan for how to protect the community from unlawful stops and behavior by unmarked vehicles and masked individuals, including how SROs will protect our schools. And lastly, instruct federal agents to leave when they are using city property to surveil our community like they have at Rogers Landing. Thank you for listening, and I hope you take what I say to heart. Because twenty years from now, the people won't remember what I said today, but they will remember what you decided to do from this moment on in the next few weeks, months, and years.

Thank you.

Thank you. Andy Andy Byerly. Welcome.

I need these glasses these days. Mayor Rosacker, members of city council, good evening. I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. My name is Andy Byerly, and I am a resident of South Newburgh as well as a director on the Newburgh Dundee school board. Tonight, I'm speaking to you as a community member concerned about what's happening here, not in any official capacity.

I sit here before you as someone who loves this community and its people. And given your public service, I know we share this love. Tonight, I want to address the widespread fear caused by ICE activity in our community over the past couple weeks. This fear is crippling. Within Yamhill County, we've seen multiple neighbors detained, including confirmed US citizens and at least one minor.

Many people in our immigrant community are terrified to leave their homes to go to work, take their children to school, and travel to places of worship. This destabilizes families, compromises children's education, and impacts our local economy. This anxiety is an immediate threat to our communities' well-being. I want to urge us all to uphold state law. ORS 181A.

Eight twenty prohibits state and local public agencies, including the City of Newburgh and the Newburgh Dundee Police Department, from using resources to enforce federal civil immigration law without a valid judicial warrant. This is not a political opinion it's the established law of our state. Several concerns demand immediate transparency and action. Federal agents have been witnessed operating motor vehicles with swapped license plates or even no valid plates at all. Local officers have been documented with federal agents, including during drone operations launched from city property near Edwards Elementary School while students were on the playground.

These actions compromised both public trust and the physical safety of our residents. Council has an opportunity to act now. Tonight, I urge you to issue a clear, multilingual public statement affirming your commitment to ORS 181A. Eight twenty and related laws that assures residents that no city resources or personnel are supporting civil enforcement efforts without a judicial warrant. Newburgh Dundee Public Schools issued such a statement to families enrolled in the district and, as a previous commenter noted, that helps a great deal to create clarity about what's happening and how the district will continue to respond.

Our entire community, including our children and young families, needs and deserves this safety guarantee. Additionally, I urge you to publicly show your support for our immigrant community, which helps keep Newburgh a great place to grow. Thank you for your careful consideration and attention.

Next will be Fred Gregory. Hi, Fred. Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, mayor and city council members, for this chance to speak with you this evening. I'm a longtime Newburgh resident. My family moved here in 1962 when my dad, believe it or not, his job moved from Portland to Newberg. After graduating from college, I spent twenty seven months in Vietnam working with war displaced people, and that forever changed my life. In the early eighties, I helped relocate a thousand Vietnamese refugees to the Northwest, and in the process was called a communist.

And why did I want to bring communist to our country and undermine it? I can happily report to you that they are doing very, very well and believe in a free market economy maybe more than most of us do. Also spent a year helping one of my fellow coworkers from Afghanistan leave the country surreptitiously with her family and her husband and three boys. She ran a small business development program that I was responsible for, and I'm happy to report that instead of coming to The US, she was able to get to Australia and is happily working there with new arrived immigrants. So I'm talking about kind of personal experiences and the impact of of immigrants on my life.

It's been huge. Terror does rain in our country, in our city. I'm married to an immigrant who's a doctor who's still afraid, and she speaks English as well as any of us do. And I have two children who are immigrants. One of them is not here.

For those who believe that all all people have to do is follow the law and get in line and and go through the process. Let me give you our family's experience. My daughter was 25 years old when her mom and younger brother came to be with me. She was not allowed to come because she was too old. Later, we applied, and she applied to become a citizen when she was 28 years old.

She's 40 and not allowed to come yet. She's followed all the rules exactly. So those who believe that all people have to do is follow the rules and it'll work is a little bit of a falsehood. It may in twenty or thirty years, but it doesn't work for people who are facing crises right now. So I love this community. I I lived here for some time, came back to it after being away for forty years internationally, and I don't like what's happening to our community as a result of federal policies. I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm simply expressing my opinion as a citizen. Thank you.

Next is Jesse Cunningham. Is it Perez Cunningham? Still a different name than you gave me.

Here's Feuler's Day Off.

Okay. True. Welcome. Good to see you.

Thank you.

It's okay. I got it.

Is the red light mean on, or is that off? That's off.

The victim. Okay.

Good evening. I'm Jesse Ferris Cunningham, District 5 resident. I wanted to thank everybody that's spoken before me, and I'm sure after me that they're gonna be mirroring a lot of the internal sentiment that I have so far as our our community is going, and that's not what I'm talking about tonight. I thank you council, mayor, members, and community for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm not here with demands, but with mirrors, and a few asks to consider when making decisions.

Some of us in this community are already living like it's an emergency. We're showing up to name the things we cannot fix because until they're named, they'll keep being ignored, and so will we. We have residents sleeping in cold and unsafe conditions right now. Many of us are already packed up and prepped like disaster could strike tonight because for us, it could. Let's speak the quiet parts out loud.

If you're a single adult male unhoused in Newburgh and the temperature is above 32 degrees, there is no place for you to safety sleep. There's no place to reconnect with humanity outside of business hours that don't cost something, and it's not possible to get an entry level job and afford your own housing unless within this community, unless you're lucky enough to have a roommate or a partner or family. Those last parts, they affect all genders. That is the silent policy of our current shelter and social systems. We need to make sure the public and our community understand that clearly because we are the ones it's affecting.

There's invisible walls built by budget choices. There's no transcription for council or other committee videos even though that helps both disabled and neurotypical residents. There's no reader for written comments unless you request ADA accommodations, which many people don't even know you can qualify for. ADHD? Need a cane?

That counts. There is no consideration to offer child care at or near the meeting locations so that already busy parents can concentrate on the discussions held within these rooms instead of what their children might be doing. There is no reliable transportation that gives someone to a civic meeting and back again, especially if they're using a mobility device. I personally want to attend a county meeting on December 4. That date marks thirty six years since I was hit by a car, the start of my physical disability life.

I found the meeting, found the bus route, did the work, found out that the last bus to come back home is at 07:04. The meeting starts at seven. Sure. I can and probably will video. And as I'm sure most of you sitting here tonight can attest, I'm different when we're able to show up. You hear me different. You see me differently. The energy is different than in a video call, a phone call, an email, or a short message. People watching these meetings online often feel like they're screaming and to avoid. There's no space to comment.

There's no way to ask questions. There's no follow-up path. And for those juggling disability, trauma, caregiving, that disconnect means the threads and the thoughts drop. We have public information. We're developing AI, and I still don't see where we have an outreach model that draws people in, especially those without the access to email alerts, websites, energy to decode overlapping policies. How are we measuring success on engagement? There's a little bit more, but I'll stop. None of this is a personal critique. It's a reality check. You don't have to fix everything tonight, and please adopt the practice of naming what isn't working.

Speak it out loud. Make the part make it part of the record. Because the people are already living in the fallout. We are the record. If only anyone would look. Thank you, guys.

Alright. I was gonna be disappointed if you guys didn't clap for her. I saved this one for last solely because under the subject line, he wrote, thank you to the city. And I figured at this point, we, we could that'd be a good message for us to hear. So Dave Brown, welcome. Good to see you.

Yeah. Thank you. I it's always interesting to to come here. I think it's, like, my fourth time meeting. I appreciate you guys letting the public speak. You know, living here in town for a long, long, long time, it's just great to live in a town that's safe. And, know, Will, you do a great job. Our police department does a great job. I haven't met some of you, but I I believe it's the the city council's job to represent everybody in Newburgh. And it's always impossible.

You know, we're just not gonna make everybody happy. But the way you guys take care of our streets, downtown, you know, I think, you know, a lot of businesses are thriving right now. You know, the the Christmas stuff that's that's coming our way. The street on Elliot Road, thank you so much for all of that work. That's amazing.

After working at the high school for twenty years and and and, you know, dodging cars on the road when I walked down that, when I would go for walks, it's it's fantastic. You guys have done a great job. And so I don't think you guys get enough praise for all the good things you do. And, I wanted to specifically say, for a lot of my friends and the people I know, the police department keeps us safe, and the city makes everything work and happen. Couple years ago, Will, you said you were gonna I was pretty impressed you're gonna you know, like, a five or ten year plan to build a new waste treatment plant. I never thought of that. You know? I driven by it a million times, and I'm like, well, that's good. That's why you're a city planner. And that's the stuff we need to have happen.

And so with all the tough stuff going on in 2025, I just appreciate the fact that we have a a city council that shows up and helps the people of Newburgh. You're not always gonna get it right. You're not always gonna get it wrong and stuff. But I just wanna say, Judy and I wanna how much we appreciate you and Merry Christmas.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Now let's move on. Next item on our agenda is a consent calendar. We have the AI policy. Would anybody like to make a motion? Go ahead, Mike.

I move that we accept the consent calendar as presented.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to approve the sec the consent calendar. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Motion passes unanimously. Next item on our agenda is our sister city relationship. We have a presentation from Allison.

I apologize to all that I have my back to you when speaking. Can't do anything about that. Just the way it set up. Good evening, members of the council and residents. It's very nice to see everybody again.

This could be a little bit disjointed, and don't worry, I'm not going to go through every slide on this step by step. I'm just going to start by saying that Will asked me to take a look at sister city relationships and provide him feedback and an impartial assessment. I am I understand that this is a council decision, but I've just tried to look at the origins of the relationships and give you some information. I think the questions are, why did we enter into these relationships? Are the reasons we entered into these relationships still valid in 2025?

And then I felt that the last question is, would the residents of Newburgh support us using their dollars to send people on trips to either Pozdorf or or to Japan. And is that the best use of our dollars in in 2025? So that's how I started out looking at it. I am going to go off on a slight tangent about the origin of sister city relationships, and I won't speak for the hour that I could on the origin of sissy sissy relationships because what I think you all know, but what others in the room may not know, is that, my work for twenty five years came out of the same White House meeting that that Eisenhower had to form to promote sister city relationships. That was the Peoples to Peoples movement, and for twenty five years, I worked for the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, which was formed by Eisenhower in 1958.

So I could tell you more about that meeting than you would wish to hear. Eisenhower, just a short version, was the supreme allied commander, as you all know, and he liberated a camp in Germany. And he was incredibly distressed by what he saw. And when he became president, what he wanted to do was have American sourced and verified information about situations overseas, about how refugees were were being treated overseas, and he formed the US Committee for Refugees to educate the American people. He also formed sister city relationships, the main goals of which were to foster understanding, exchange ideas, and commercial ties through citizen led diplomacy.

The reason I say this and mention my background is because in the beginning from 1950 to nineteen nineties, the only way you could really do that was to send people overseas and come back with verified information, which you then reported to the American people, one year old in behind. The the US committee, published the World Refugee Survey for forty six years. And then in 1990, something happened. The Internet happened, And the US committee had to reevaluate its or its decisions because it was spending a million dollars sending people overseas when they could get the information the same day through the Internet. And so I am when I started to look at the sister city relationship, I started to say, you know, has the situation changed since since we we founded those relationships?

And and I looked at why Newberg set up the relationships. It and they're different. So if you look at the Japanese relationship with Wadayama and Asago, you can see that for four over forty years, it's been a student cultural exchange. It fits very well into the original rationale for why we had the the why sister city relationships were sent set up in the first place. It also has not cost the city anything because it's been primarily a student exchange with the with the school between the school and Warayama, and the city is not paying anything because it doesn't send any kind of representatives.

Now I was a bit surprised when I made this evaluation because I noticed that the Poystdorf relationship wasn't really set up until 2007. And and considering the fact that by 2007, the world had already shifted and we and we were we were no longer really needing to go anywhere to make a cultural exchange, I couldn't really understand how that had happened in 2007. And all I've really been able to discover is that it was resident advocacy that started a relationship with Pozdorf. And I've tried to understand, you know, I understand the wine connect connection, the Gruner Weitlinger that the Austrians, you know, make in that city. Even though, just out of information, the Gruner Weitlinger grape that's used in Oregon was first introduced by a Hungarian fighter pilot.

So I I'm just saying it was a bit mysterious to me, I'm just being honest, about why we set up that relationship in the first place. But I went on from that to say, okay. So are the reasons still valid? That's difficult to know, because, you know, I had to evaluate what the relationships were. I think is the cultural exchange with the students still valid?

I think that's often a parental decision about whether they want their children to experience something and go overseas or when they're at school. But it's not actually costing the city anything, and it's been going on for forty five years. It's a little bit different with the Poysthorf relationship because what we're asking is to send staff representatives or council representatives to Pozdorf and spend money to do so. I looked at the city policies because I think that was part of the council's question whether there were policies about, you know, paying for council members or paying for staff to go. That we do have policies about staff travel, and I would have to say that I don't think you will find any staff member willing to spend 4 or $5,000 to go to Europe to represent the city that won't be reimbursed.

So if if anyone is going to go, this the council will have to make a decision to actually pay for the staff to go to either Japan or to to Poysthorf. You can click through, Will, but I'm not, as I said, going to go through. The commitments, as you see, for Poysthorf would be a four year cycle. We would have expenses when people come here. It was quite an elaborate visit the last time, and then we would send people there.

And for Japan, again, it's primarily a student relationship. Could you move on, Will? Because I don't want to go on to the I'm not gonna go on to the cost. I just want to say about the cost that when you look at these costs that I've given you, you're talking about, very much back of the bus, the cheapest flights I could find for a sixteen hour journey to Osaka and a two year cut the two hour car drive. You know, this is not going to be a pleasant or luxurious expenditure, but it is still gonna cost the city about $10,000 for each city every year.

And so then move on, Will. I did the little bit of a thank you, SWAT. You're so helpful, Will. I looked at whether we should continue the long standing relationships, and I will say that I don't see Austria and Japan in the same light. Japan is is one of the biggest foreign investors in Oregon.

We have more than a 150 businesses in Oregon that are Japanese. We have three or four in Newburgh. And I think that there is also a cultural difference between between how relationships are viewed in Japan and in Austria. It takes a very long time to establish a relationship with the Japanese business community. This is not something that this goes generationally, and I can say this quite well because, again, as many of you know, I lived and worked in Japan.

I married to somebody who is Japanese, and I have a Japanese daughter. So I I know very well how relationships are evaluated. I I I looked at whether the wine industry was in any way profiting or we were profiting from our visit to Poysthorf, and I honestly can't say that I can find any way that it does. I do think that the vineyards and the wine owners might profit from going to Austria if they were I mean, the vineyard owners go to Chile. They go to Australia. They go to New Zealand. They go to places which grows wine to evaluate how this is done. They could go to Austria. They could go to Germany. They could go to Chambagno.

You know? But it I'm not sure that this is value to the residents of Newburgh. And I think the weaknesses that the world has changed, the original purpose of the cultural relationship that was set up in the fifties. People are now gaming with Austria and Japan in the evening on their computers. They, you know, they are are Tiktoking with with with those communities.

They don't really need to go to Pozdorf or Osago to to to have a cultural connection to those countries. So when I looked at the value, as I said, I could see it for the wine industry, tourism, and student exchanges, but I the threat would be to suspend a sister city relationship. And I think that threat is particularly stronger for the Japanese community. Because when you suspend a relationship with the Japanese community, that could have an effect on how they view Newberg as a business friendly location for Japan. I just think it would be different.

I'm being honest about that. Next slide, Will. I think we're done, aren't we? So I think, the decisions for council are to either continue both relationships as they are and allot budget funding. And I I do have to say that I know that you don't want to raise rates or raise taxes, so $20,000 is not nothing.

And so if I'm being asked if the city should spend $20,000 to send people overseas, I also think the optics right now would be very difficult because you have people out there who can't afford their bills, who can't afford their grocery bills. How is it going to look for us to send people on a trip to the wine country in in Austria? And I think that to keep the Japanese relationship would cost the city nothing because we're not sending anybody, and it doesn't actually cost us any money.

Yeah. Please.

Scare me for myself.

No. Thank you, Alison, for doing this. And when I when I asked Alison to develop a short presentation about this, it was from a completely neutral perspective. First of all, to illustrate if we had any policies that were relevant to this and were very lacking in those, certainly zero for council travel, we don't have a formal policy, but also to do a SWOT analysis and look at it from a completely neutral position and give a recommendation to council whether the hard message of whether or not it's a good idea to continue. Frankly, and I mean no offense to people deeply invested in this relationship, I cannot, after looking at this information, see economic value to continuing the relationship that we have with Pozdorf.

I know this will upset some people to have me say this. I personally went to Pozdorf. I paid a lot of money out of pocket to do so. I had a great time in Pozdorf, but if I were to look at the SWAT analysis and see do I think this is in Newburgh's clear economic interest? I could not say that for a fact.

I feel that the wine industry, if they feel that is of value to see other forms of viticulture they would want to visit or pay for visits to other wine growing regions. So I would say that I am in line with Alison's recommendation. I think that the three and perhaps four, depending on how you count it, Japanese businesses which are located here, that has primacy, there are jobs there, and we should think about that. Any questions folks?

Before we get into questions, we have some public comments. Let's go ahead and take those, and then we can address all those. Thank you. So first, guess who? Walt Rout, I believe, was one of the people responsible for creating the sister city from Bolidorf. Is that not that is correct. Thank you. Welcome. Thanks for coming.

Good evening. My name is Weitraud Kindler Gurtzen, and I started this relationship about twenty years ago as I lived in Poysthorf briefly and also my children, some of my children, went to Church Fox University, so I came to Nuburg. And I am a resident of Nuburg most of the time and Austria as well. I think I saw quite many different similarities between the two cities. And it was not only in the wine industry, it wasn't only because it's a small town, It was for other reasons as well because I have been part of the Austrian American Council where we have had exchanges.

And so what I did is about twenty years ago, went to the city manager of of Nuremberg and talked to the mayor in Poysthorf, talked to the mayor here. Actually, I talked to three mayors who supported the idea and the fourth mayor who I hope who will support our relationship. And we also were supported by the Austrian government and by the ambassador of The United States to Austria who thought it was time as the world is getting smaller that it would be good to have more sister cities. They are all over the world. It is the first sister city for the lower part of Austria with Nuburg, and everyone was very supportive.

We got quite a support in Newberg. And I think I wish that missus Allison, I don't know her other name, I wish she would have talked pardon me? Osaila. I wish you would have talked to me before because you were saying things which weren't quite correct. I'm sorry to say that.

But I think when we had the exchanges of travels, basically, the city did not pay for any travels. Everybody paid their own flights. And once they got to Poysthorf, they were invited, at the beginning invited because I have to tell you, we also had four different mayors in Poysthorf. So there have been some exchanges, and, you know, everyone thinks different. City council members change, and so there were some changes.

At the beginning, the accommodations were invitations. Nobody had to pay, but it just so happened. Then when Will went to Austria in the last minute because of a different mayor, they had to pay for accommodation. But part of the accommodations are paid. The food is all paid by Poystov.

So basically, it is only traveling, you know, by plane, which does cost if you get it early enough, the tickets are about $1,000 Right now, I guess somebody said $6.50 if you make a reservation right now for next September. Anyway, so it isn't as expensive as you thought, and the city of Nuremberg did not pay $20,000, if I understood you right, for any travels to Poysthorf. So the reason we started this exchange, because we felt it is important to have cultural exchanges. If there are some exchanges in Bitsug of business, and as a matter of fact we do have with Mr. David Adelsheim an exchange between the wine industry in the Poysthorf area, and we also had some vintners come to to Newberg to do business, also to Portland.

They are doing some exporting and importing. So this is actually going under the name of the sister city of Newburgh. So I would like to ask you to support the exchange between our two cities. It is only to the benefit of the city of Nuremberg and also to the benefit of the citizen of Nuremberg because it gives you a different view, which I think it's made easier by the exchanges we have started. So I would like you to both be in favor of our continued relationship with Poysthorf.

And I also want to mention to you right now, we have a wonderful person who stepped forward. His name is Brandon Sleighton, who will come who will come and will get involved to make sure this is going to be a successful endeavor. So I thank you for listening to me, and all the best when you vote. Thank you.

So the next person is going to be Brandon to speak. But prior to that, I'd like to take just a couple minute break. Let's try to get back in three or four minutes. Thank you, everybody. Brandon, welcome. You already got your introduction from wall trout. So

Yeah. Good evening. Brandon Slider here. Thank you, mister mayor, council, and staff for hearing us out tonight. I have to change a few of my talking points because the staff made some really good talking points that I really appreciate. When I was originally contacted about supporting the Poysthorf connection when I had already had an interest in the Japan sister city, I was really excited. And since then, I've been educated on the history of the Poysthorf sister city connection. And I began supporting coordination for next year's delegation and working with local community leaders. So you might imagine how surprised I was to find in tonight's packet the recommendation to suspend the Poysthorf Sister City program. One major factor missing, however, is community involvement.

My plan has been to enter 2026 and form a five zero one c three nonprofit organization in order to support both sister cities. The purpose to raise awareness and to really treat both connections equally. The main challenge I think is awareness. Whether the public knows about these connections or whether they even know what a sister city is at all. But it's a challenge that we can work to mend.

So I hope that we can host events, Japanese summer festivals, Oktoberfests, as well as invite our counterparts over here to enjoy our events such as the newly created Nuvo Fest, which pairs very nicely with Feustorf Swine Culture. In addition to these big grand event ideas and fun connections, there's real movement happening. Mountain View Middle School is working to reestablish their student exchange program with Poysthorf, bringing it up to par with Chehalem Valley's own Japan exchange program. I've been speaking with George Fox connections that I have about potential involvement. There's wine industry leaders and community members are stepping up.

So the momentum is real. The new organization that I intend to form will raise funds so taxpayers don't have to pay anything. Our intention is not to ask the city to pay any money. We'll work to raise funds for both exchange programs, potentially at both middle schools to send kids over to host events and potentially even pay for the cost of potential delegates coming here so the city doesn't have to pay for their hotel stay as well. So I don't intend to ask the city to put a line item in their budget for these sister city connections.

If the staff and or council don't find it fiscally responsible to send a mayor or a city council or a staff member out of the city budget, that's a perfectly healthy conversation to have and I encourage it, especially as a taxpayer myself. But I would encourage you not to end a sister city relationship over that concern. And so regarding the delegation trip next year, one thing I do want to point out, it's not intended to be a vacation. It's diplomacy. And I totally understand and respect the concept of speaking online, but it's difficult to, you know, hold hands with these people, dance with these people, break bread and really enjoy their culture through the internet.

So I believe that we can raise cultural awareness, spark educational growth and come up with new business opportunities. I'll end here. I've got a lot of other things, but I'll end you with a quote from my daughter who couldn't make it tonight because next year she says I'll be attending Mountain View Middle School. And when I learned that the other middle school had an exchange program, but Mountain View did not, I was sad. But recently I heard that they might be reestablishing their connection between Mountain View and our Austrian sister city.

And this made me very excited, and I hope I can go. If you end being sister cities, you will be taking away my chance or others' chance to go. Please don't end it. So my hope is that you will commit tonight to maintaining the diplomatic relationship and understand that the community will step in from a financial aspect. Thank you.

Next, we have Eric Bransetter. Hi, Eric. Welcome. Thanks for being patient.

Thank you, mayor, counselors. I just wanted to really come and add my voice in support of the sister city program. It's something I've only recently learned about and hope to participate in. So I didn't come with a speech prepared, but, you know, I think there are intangible benefits to something like this. It's sort of like the tree planting.

You know? You can't can't line item, you know, the bet the, you know, return on investment for planting a tree, but it's still a good thing to do. And it was mentioned that, you know, you know, you can play video games with people, and I I do. I play a video game with someone from Panama, someone from Ukraine on a daily basis, but that's not the same as a cultural exchange. It just doesn't rise to that level.

And I, you know, I could read about Austria. I could watch YouTube videos about Austria, but it's not the same as being there. So I just encourage you, you know, even if you don't have a line item in your budget for it, to continue with the program. So that's all.

You got it. I wasn't gonna move on till you till you clapped. Right? Next, we have Lindsay I'm gonna say cop Kopjek? Kopjek. Thank you. Sorry. Welcome. I

know who the telemarketers are. I'm Lindsay Kopaczek. I am the assistant principal of Mountain View Middle School, so I'm speaking on behalf of our school programs.

Little hard to hear.

Sorry. Yep. Thanks. Can do. Good evening, and thanks for having me tonight. I know you presented that our schools are exchange programs, and we pay for that. So that's that is definitely part of it. I grew up in a generation where there's a will, there's a way. So I'd like to encourage that thought. If there's a will, there's a way.

I'd also like to think about COVID. What we know about COVID was it was great for us to be online, but there's so much more when we are in person and in relationships. There's mainstream, and there's margins. So what we know about Watayama, yes, Japan can be mainstream, but sometimes there's magic in the margins. And I wanna encourage you about when we had Peusdorf come and visit, the magic can sometimes happen in the margins.

And there's so many things that we learn in creativity in these small little pockets. And I wanna encourage you, I'm not gonna spend too much time, but there's so many things in the travels that I've been abroad and bringing kids here in Newburgh when I'm sitting in middle school, when I sit with kids, maybe when they're having a tough day, those kids that are sitting in the margins, that's where the magic is. So while Poystorf might not feel mainstream, these partnerships are where it's at, and the magic happens. And there are things that are learning. And I'll let the counterparts, and I'll let you do the work that you do.

But I'm here to support you. I'm here to support our kids. I'm here to support this community. But I need you to know that relationships are everything. And the in person pieces, these connections that we build together and these work together are so important. And the exchanges are more than just internet exchanges, video exchanges, videos, and games. They're really important. There's a reason we establish these in person connections. Relationships are everything. So whatever I can do and what our schools can do and what our kids can experience and what we can experience together, we're here to partner.

So I'm here to support these programs for our kids, for each other, and for our communities.

Thought we had one more we don't. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for showing up. We we really this is an issue that we really need to hear from the city. Oh, I'm sorry. Come on.

I fill that out.

You did fill one out. I don't know what I did with it. But come on up.

You're

gonna find it now in my pile? There's Lynn Weigart right there.

Here's the next one.

Thank you, everyone. My name is Lynn Weigart, and I, was one of the original ones that went to Poriestorff twenty years ago, almost twenty years ago. And so I've been back about six times. And there's like Lindsay said, there is nothing like traveling and going to another country, establishing friendships, establishing relationships. All of a sudden, the world is much smaller.

We had people go last year that had never been outside The US. They have been changed for life after they went to Puesdorf and experienced what they had to experience. And it wasn't just a vacation. I'm gonna reiterate that. It was cultural. It was economic. It was it was educational. And I just would encourage everybody to consider establishing this, sister city relationship as, as something that's highly important for not just Newberg, but for Poysthorf. They've come here. They've established friendships here.

We've gone there and done the same. This is I don't know how long ago, but the the the German classes at the high school, I'm not sure that they're even done anymore, but they were at one point. And if this would be a great time for that to be brought back to to learn the German to learn the German language. I'm kind of skipping around, but we were we were this close five years ago in establishing as a student exchange with the middle school students. And COVID hit so that all was was done away with.

We had to kinda start over, and we are now this close to doing that again. But not just with, education and student exchange, but also with, economic exchange. We've got, as someone mentioned before, David Adelsheim is has is producing a a a huge meeting next summer, at least he thinks he is, after hearing that this might not happen with the wine industry. And it's not just the Grunerveltliner with in Austria, but there's the other wines and bringing some of those wines to Oregon and having some of Oregon wines going back to to Poysthorf. There's a real big connection with Oregon and Austria regarding the wine industry.

There's also a professional exchange that we were starting to establish, and there are several companies in Pozdorf that are actually looking for interns, and we have certain companies here that are looking for interns. And if we could get those those two countries into a professional exchange and it and an economic exchange, that's one of our other objectives. So, I would I would hate to see all of this hard work that's been happening for the last almost twenty years kinda go by the wayside. So I would highly encourage you to reconsider and keeping the the sister city program, not just Poystar, even though that's where my heart is, but also the the Japanese one. And we do have someone who's more than willing to jump right in, getting his feet wet in helping to raise funds so that the city doesn't have to pay.

And I'm not sure where the money thing came from, but we go over there once every four years, not once every two years. They come over here once every four years, not every two years. So, and then when we go over there, it's all paid for by out of our own pockets. So, I wanna reiterate that, and I know that the money is is an issue as it should be for the city. So I I appreciate the fact that you're letting us come in and talk and try and, give you a little bit more information about what we've been doing, what has been done in the past, what we'd like to do in the future.

And I think that's the most important thing is all of the things that we all of the objectives that we have, in going forward, and we're almost there. And then we heard about this meeting tonight, and it's like, oh, no. We have to come and we have to come and say something. So please reconsider. Thank you.

Thank you, Lynn. Will and Allison, I know some of the councilors have questions for you. Once again, thanks. Thank you everybody for showing up. This is important to hear from the citizens on this point. Quick thing about that first.

So first of all, I think I think before we before we take any questions, just I would like to add a couple of quick things. When I traveled to Pozdorf, whatever council decides is council's decision. When I traveled to Pozdorf, it cost my family $4,200. The hotel was not covered and we had to also pick up the airfare. So let's let's be clear about that.

A second thing is five years ago there was a discussion about starting a professional exchange. It was just about to happen then. And I see that we're still talking about this professional wine growing exchange which is just about to happen. So let's let's keep that in mind. Alison, do you want to say something about the money side?

Yes. I'm sorry if there was a misunderstanding. If you look at the slide about the money, the $20,000 is not about a visit to Pooisdorf. What I was taking was a round trip fare of $900, which I looked up, which is the economy fare from Vienna to Portland. If a staff member goes, we are bound by our policies to follow the GSA rates, the international rates.

And the GSA rates for Austria are $359 a day if it includes a hotel, and if not, it's a $110 to a $130 a day for meals. And if you took the fact that someone was going to stay there seven days roughly, I came up with the fact that it would cost about $1,000 in in paying the per diem for somebody even if they were staying in people's homes. And then it would cost $900 for the fare, so that would be $2,000. And then it would be two people going, and that would be $4,000. And then you can't go without gifts to either of these places, and the city would have to reimburse for some additional expenses for that.

So I came up if you compare it now in 2025 to Wills' cost, which was already two years ago, I was coming up with about the rough cost of sending two people for $10,000. But then I was also counting $10,000 in a biennial budget for the jap Japanese, you know, cultural exchange coming here. So this was a broad idea to council that it would to keep these relationships if the sister if we were going to pay for anything, would be an allocation of about $20,000 in the budget. And I think there's a difference between whether the community wishes to keep a cultural exchange going at its own cost and its own investment or whether the city of Newburgh wants to allocate $20,000 of budget funds to those sister city relationships. I am a globalist.

I love cultural exchanges. You must all know this. I've lived most of my life overseas. So I I understand what is being said by the residents. I'm just talking about whether Newburgh City residents should pay $20,000 towards that goal.

And can I add one more note on that cost? When Pozsdorf comes here, we also incur costs. Last year or last time they visited, we spent almost $8,000 supporting different events and things that they did here. So it is not just a cost when we go there. They're right when they say it's every four years, but it's like the Olympics. Every two years, there's either a trip there or a trip here.

So And fairly, we did not count any cost for staff time.

Well,

thank you for preparing the analysis. I guess the first I have a couple of questions. But the first really, I guess, is just coming from the place more from Will. What caused us to do this SWOT analysis? My understanding from the last meeting we had was that we were no longer going to have a line item in the budget.

At least that's what my takeaway was, was that we were gonna move forward with the city sister program and that we were going to solicit someone outside of the city to take on the staff time that has been occurred over a long time. And so I just would like to say that I it's not my favorite practice to bring forward something of this nature in a meeting where other people in our community have been shouldering this as well alongside the city. And I happen to be at the Poise dorf meeting planning for the trip next fall. And I want to say on the record, I've never gone to Poise Dorf because I also think it is a lot of money and I I understand the concerns of city of us paying for it. I don't I I support us not having a line item in our budget.

But to be pulled aside by someone from the meeting and told about this conversation here is tough when there is a group of people that have been doing a lot of planning and organizing. I know the mayor is aware of that. And so I wondered if did this conversation come about because of concern of paying for counselors because I want to be very clear that I never once thought the city was going to pay my way. And I remember when you went, we were very clear with you that we did not want you to pay your way and you had just taken the role. So while that is a huge expense to you and your family, I also wanna reiterate that that was not the expectation placed on by counsel at the time.

So yes.

Could I'm sorry. I'm I've I lost track of what you're saying. You do want the city to pay for will? Is that what

I wanna know why this conversation is coming up in the manner that it is. It feels like it came about from the last meeting that we all had when we discussed counselors and the mayor coming and that there was concern around the cost of the trip. And I thought we had already had an agreement of counsel as to what I'm proposing right now, which is that it is not paid for by the city at all not $1 as Brandon stated. He's already forming a five zero one c three, which is what I thought Direction we were taking. So I don't even know why we're discussing this when it is going to live outside of the city of Newburgh responsibilities.

When the group of people that are running the Sisters City program are sitting in the back of the room saying hold on a second. We thought that the marching orders were that this group of people were going to own the relationship going forward through a five zero one c three and fundraise the private funding for the relationship. So I I'm confused why we're why we're even analyzing this.

So to answer the question, the reason why we brought this forward as a discussion item is because there still is an OGEC question that has to be answered. And that question is that if a city is going to be sending delegates to another city as a sister city relationship, there has to be a policy about it. That's the bare minimum as a resolution has to be formed covering the issue. So this is not directly related to who would be paying for what, this is more of us really trying to get rid of strategic ambiguity. There has been ambiguity for a long time about this.

We have a sister city relationship, but there's no budget line item. Staff are often asked that they should really should go, but then they're expected to pay out their own pocket. We would just like some clarity as a staff because if whichever decision council makes, we have to do one of these things. We either have to have a line item or not, if we're going to have people going formally to do this exchange and there are some expenses, we need to have a resolution per OGEC ruling or not, or it can become purely a voluntary relationship between two cities and two sets of industries, and that would be good too. So when I asked Alison to prepare an independent PowerPoint for this evening, While it did come out of our earlier discussions, it is not causally connected to our earlier discussions.

It is purely to seek clarity. Alison believes that the relationship in the modern age does not have value, and I know that may not be a popular opinion, I can see the point from a fiscal point of view myself. And really, we just would like to know what council would like us to do because we are spending dollars, and we're always being asked to spend dollars with no policy.

Can I just so just to clarify, I do not I support us not paying out of our budget for his counselors, for a mayor, for when the delegation comes from either Japan or Austria to Newberg? It is all funded through the five zero one c three or private fundraising.

I

totally understand the concern about staff feeling the pressure, and I don't want if we need to provide that clarity today that this is a fully voluntary program that we support. And, you know, we all find value things whether that is a cultural exchange or an economic exchange or whatever it be. I think it would behoove us to continue the relationship for those that are interested in continuing it forward and having someone like Brandon who is doing this on his own time as a volunteer to form the five zero one c three is a gift for the people that are interested, and I think it also saves the city our resources that are constrained.

I mean, I agree with councilor Jana Holloman. I that my goal in presenting tonight was to ask the council if Newburgh should pay for any portion of either sending people or when they come, the $8,000 that they come here. That's my my goal to Will. Was there a reason to justify the expenditure over two years of $20,000 for this purpose.

So my question right now is, you know, we have a set date of early September going to Poysthorf. You know, 05/2001 c threes take a long time. So what happens if we don't have the money? You know, flights are gonna have to be booked. What happens if we don't we haven't fundraised?

And what happens when Pozdorf comes here and we haven't fundraised? Assuming that we've kept this relationship going, I don't want to I don't want to spend city money. I think the relationship is good, but it seems like a luxury When we're fighting to get roads fixed and sidewalks built, I think our citizens would agree that we need to spend our own money, but I am concerned that we would not be able to fundraise in time for September. I'm not sure how that would work. This is

This is what I'm getting at, and I'm trying to not I'm trying to ask the question without asking it, but where did this come about? Because what do you mean that there's not time to fundraise? I I was this a specific instance that preempted this conversation in this way? Because okay. Because when when we say private fundraise through a five zero one c three, yes, that will take probably a year to be able to fundraise, and we won't be able to fundraise in with small grants until Ploysdorf comes to Newburgh.

But it I was never under the impression as a city councilor when I was interested in going to Pozdorf this time that I was going to get any financial help from the city or private fundraising. So the private fundraising is just for long term sustainability of the program. This trip in September is going to be funded by the individuals that are participating in the trip. So if that's an OGEC issue, that that would I would wanna know if there is an issue of us paying our own way there.

I believe that if it is not the policy to pay for the expenses, then that abrogates the OGEC issue and we then would not need a resolution. But people could then still pay to go by themselves, and staff would know that it's an actual decision without any undue moral pressure.

I can answer part of that too. Because I called OGEC and asked them for an informal opinion on this. And one thing we would still need resolution on is if Poysthorf is providing hotels for you to stay in, there is value above $50 there, and we will need to have a resolution approving that, accepting that as part of this relationship.

I think that's just the mayor.

They yes. But that's still that's still over 50,000. Yeah. But that's still over $50.50 dollars, so we would have to still pass a resolution. That's part of what's what this is coming from is we have to we have to get our ducks in a row and follow all the little little details of, government when we do this.

So and then we have a sort of a moral conundrum. Right? If we accept free hotel rooms there and we write an an OGC compliant resolution and then they come here and we're not covering the expenses, which we're saying we're not, how does that work in real life?

Well, I think it's it's on us as elected officials. It's not the responsibility of the city, in my opinion, to pass a resolution to clarify what we already take training for. If you're accepting anything over $50, you shouldn't why are you I I just think that if this is that big of an issue, then we should just say, well, you can't accept a hotel room. You have to pay for your own hotel. And and if it is strictly voluntary and there's no, you know, perks for being a city official to go.

Go ahead, Mike.

Okay. So it seems like to me we need to we need to come up with a policy. We need to have something set up. And to to go to Austria, I I from a business standpoint, I don't I don't see anything there. I like the Japanese, connection, but I'm okay with continuing as long as we have a policy we need to get a resolution put together where if somebody wants to go to either one of them, they pay for it out of their own own pocket.

And I wanna make sure that who whoever is coming to visit us, we shouldn't we shouldn't have the staff have extra work be put on them. And, again, then we're spending money out of city funds, which I don't I don't wanna see happen. But if we can come up with a policy that's dearly that clearly states you're paying for it when you go there, it's up to you. And anybody that comes here will welcome them, but you're gonna have to pay for your own funds, your own, you know, your own way to to get here. I don't know how that's gonna go across, you know, in people's minds when they think, really?

Okay. But if it works, then I wanna go that direction. I don't wanna spend. We have too many other things that I believe are more pressing financially that we need to spend our money on.

I just wanna add my comments. I, I'm in total agreement about not spending city dollars on this nice, wonderful, cultural, friendly relationship. When I think about the city of Newburgh has about 26,000 citizens and maybe, I don't know, a tenth of a percent. Not even that. There are so few people who get involved and even know about this, let alone benefit from it.

I think it's it would not make any sense at all to, have money coming out of our budget to take care of it. I was actually even as we're sitting here, I'm thrilled, about Brandon starting a five zero one c three because I think cities in general and schools, the exchange in fact, if Puesdorf added a educational exchange with the middle school, I think that would be wonderful because I think quite a few kids go to that, come back and share about it, and it impacts them young in their lives where it would I think that is probably the biggest benefit. But for the same city council mayor people to visit each other every two years, I'm not sure what the ongoing benefits there. I know the council isn't identical on either side for all of that time. But I guess I'm I guess I'm not sure why the city of Newburgh official city of Newburgh has to be in charge of it.

Maybe it could be this five zero one(three). I'm just thinking out loud, and they could invite the mayor or the city manager or some person from to to go as as a paid you know, their their expenses would be covered. Others could be invited to go if they want. But what about other citizens? What about a business person from Newburgh going or a teacher? Trying to think of other examples of cross cross our city positions to to do more than just city city staff and council and mayor.

The the scenario that I think I'm hearing is pretty clear, which is that we're not going to dedicate a line item or a portion of a line item to expenses. We still have one remaining issue that we do need to resolve, which is if Pozdorf is going to provide us with hotels stays, then we're going if we if we're going to accept those, we're going to have to write a resolution so that we can accept them. And so I need to know if that's what the will of counsel is on that because then I can draft a resolution or not draft a resolution.

Yeah. I just, I guess, wanna put my thoughts out. I think I think one of the things that I'm hearing is that there's two separate issues, one of which is the value of these cultural exchange programs. And I think my personal is that there is incredible value in relationship and connection and having those cultural opportunities to experience something outside of Newburgh, outside yourself, and really learn and to grow. And I think that that happens at the youngest of ages with our middle schoolers, if that's something that their parents want to support with sending them.

I think that's an incredible opportunity. I also think that there's opportunity for us as adults to continue to learn and expand our own exposures. I do grate a smidge at the thought internally of TikTok and Fortnite taking the place of those cultural exchanges, that in person connection is incredibly, incredibly valuable. And with that, I do think, I think and so I am a little confused on how we got here, is that my understanding, I think it was like the meeting where we had, like, TLT and the chamber and everyone, We had made the decision to exit this out of the city and have another organization take over. And I do think that that is the proper space that it lives outside the city as a collaborative relationship with the city.

Brandon, if you wanna take this on, like, more power to you. Thank you for doing that. I think a five zero one c three is a really lovely way to honor and maintain this tradition in a way that doesn't burden the the city. I similarly, when I expressed interest in going to Puesdorf, I never expected that a scent would be covered for me. I was fully intending that if I am able and lucky enough to go, that I would be paying for all of my own costs.

And I think that that's appropriate for us if we are electing to go. And I love the idea of having business leaders and teachers and other members within our community getting to have this opportunity as part of this formal connection. So I think that feels like one component that feels meaningful. I think the other piece that maybe is part of how we landed here I just think, how do we as a city be good stewards of the relationships and the connections that are happening within the community? Hearing the amount of effort that has been put in by individuals who have been doing this work and maybe a lot of the legwork alongside of but outside the city hearing that maybe they weren't as aware of this decision leading up to that leading up to tonight feels really challenging.

And I understand the OGEC component of that, and maybe this is just some presentation feedback, our resolution says suspend the sister city relationship. It doesn't have anything about OGEC policy needs as a component of the discussion. And so I think the policy decision, this is really important, and I think we want to be ethical. None of us want to go to city council jail. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing from an ethical standpoint. But I think maybe that ethical component got lost in the keep it or kill it framework.

Yeah.

So that's my thought. The OGEC, the hotel room, that we just need to have a resolution that from OGEC, if you go, you cannot receive anything more than $50, whether that's a hotel room or a glass of wine, period.

I I think there's a couple issues here. The big the biggest one we need to determine is do we want to have a sister city relationship with Pozdorf Austria? And if we do, then we need to recognize that there's going to be an expense to that. There's an expense to everything we do. We spent $500,000 on a striper that we could have bought for half that price because we we wanted to have an electric sweeper.

I'm I'm I'm not saying that's a bad move. I'm just saying compared to this, that's real money. This is basically a rounding error. $10,000 a year on our budget and our one point or, $130,000,000 budget is really not an item that should take this much staff time on. Our city manager is fully authorized to determine whether or not we make expenses to this.

That being said, if this council does not want to have that program, then that's what the vote should be. Now I'm gonna suggest that we, you haven't weighed in on this, so please do if, when I'm done here. I'm gonna suggest that we need to talk to some more members of the community about this. So I'm gonna suggest that we table this item to a future meeting to make the actual determination on. But, Derek, you've you, the only one, has not had a chance to speak.

Did I misunderstand? I thought you said if we created a resolution, we can make an exception for people to go and it wouldn't interfere with the law. Is that correct? Like, could pay or someone on the council could accept money to go could accept this gift in as long as we had a resolution, it would be fine.

So, yes, by if we have a resolution stating that travel to Pozdorf and Ash or and Japan as part of council duties and this is part of the job responsibilities, then then OGEC is confirmed as a hypothetical that this would be a safe situation. So we would need a resolution approving that that is part of your compensation, basically, and that we are also authorized to accept the hotel stay and things like that from Hoistdorf. So that is where we would need for the ethical, boundaries. Does that answer your question?

I think so. So if I play this out like Brandon creates his five zero one c who wants to pay for a trip for the mayor and whoever else. As long as we have this resolution, everything's good.

Yeah. No. That's that's that's the hypothetical I was thinking through is if it's the five zero one c three is the actor and it's bringing on electeds to go on the trip. You know, how does that play out? The resolution does create a a safe a harbor to an extent based on OGAC guidance.

It's not a it's not a formal opinion. It's not statutory. It's the guidance under this current, you know, staff makeup, quite frankly, of OGAC. There is some coverage there in that and under your hypothetical, counselor Carmen. I think that the details of the resolution exactly on what's covered and what's not covered is where we kinda get into the, the stickiness, if you will. So

I find value in sister city relationships to some degree. We've had, we've hosted students from Japan. It was lovely. We still stay in touch with her, you know, ten years later. It was it's great cross cultural experiences. I I appreciate us spending money for Puesdorf. I just I don't see the return in it. And so that that's that's a no for me moving forward in any way you shake it. I mean, this many of

with the money.

The money part of it, spending money on these things. But if we're bringing community together and we can get a resolution that if people wanna pay for someone else to go and it we make it legal, I'm fine with that. I just don't think the city should be playing a role in that.

So, I suggest that we need to take a little bit of time on this, talk with more members of the community before we make an official action here. Does anybody object to that? Do you object you wanna decide now?

I wanna add to it. Okay. Jeff, but I I think it would also be smart to have a resolution drafted so the next time we come back together, we don't have to wait for that to happen. Potential maybe a couple potential drafts.

Alright. Thank you. We're gonna move to yes, James.

Oh, mister mayor, I just I I think councilor Kilburg's suggestion works quite well. I'd I would wanna kinda temper expectations on the on the content of that resolution. It's a little bit of what I was sharing with, in response to councilor Carmen's question is that the the scope of the permitted expenses has to be pretty, tailored, if you will, to the to the either the the particular cost or whatever a value is being exchanged in order to fit within this kind of what I'll call administrative safe harbor that OGAC seems to be forming in its guidance. So it may look more like a bullet point setup or some more questions, quite frankly, for counsel as far as what what would be acceptable from a policy standpoint, but certainly something staff can can do.

Do we need to have and this is, like, legit. Do we need to have, like, a standing resolution on the books, or can it be one of those things? Like, we support this relationship, and ten years down the road, Brandon's rolling in money and can pay for the whole council to go. Like, can we do, like, a one off? Because, like, we did, like, a one off resolution where, like, Elise could speak for Bill or Bill could speak for the entirety for that one meeting. Like, does it have to be, like, a standing forever resolution, or can we do, like, a one off in support of someone going when the time comes? Does that make sense?

I I think so, councilor Terkinson. So the the if I'm understanding the question correctly, can we have can the city and can council pass a resolution that's kind of tailored to a particular occurrence or trip versus just kind of in perpetuity, if you will? And the and the answer to that is yes. It's helpful, but then but when looking at the resolution itself, they're gonna look at the scope as far as the trip, but also the scope as far as what the cost or the exchange of value is. I think that's gonna help strengthen or weaken if it's not tailored the coverage.

So next time we bring this back, let's make it a work session item, and you heard what the council wants to do. Thank you. Next is a public hearing for the Butler property sale. Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Next is the Yamhill County transient logic tax proposal discussion. So, Will, are you presenting, or do you want me just to summarize real quick?

Whichever you prefer, mister mayor. I'm happy to present if you'd like me to.

Oh, I'll just go ahead and proceed here, Will. Okay. We, you saw the document from the packet. The county is considering doing a transient logic tax, which Newburgh and several cities already, have, so it would be an overlay on our tax. The question here that I asked Will to ask us is do we, the city of Newburgh, want to weigh in on specifically the overlay tax on top of of what we have in the city?

In my opinion, none of what the I mean, the rest of it is a county's per prerogative, and we have no business weighing in on the county business. So I would like to have the discussion solely about whether or not we want to, take a position on the overlay on Newburgh portion of the tax.

Thank you for your forbearance there, mister mayor. I was changing tablet slides. So, both in the last agenda item and in this one, the staff were asked to come with an opinion. So that's what we do when we're asked to to to give an opinion. So in in this case, the question is about the TLT idea for TLT overlay.

And overall, the executive summary of this is that we have received a proposal from commissioner King that is not supported at least in the Yamhill County packet that I reviewed with a survey of major hoteliers in McMinnville and Newburgh. For example, it may be that hoteliers would support an additional one or 2% tax overlay simply for the Newburgh and McMinnville portion, but we don't know this because there was no survey work done. Second, at face value I saw this as somewhat of a strange proposition. It's my understanding that in Yamhill unincorporated areas many types of short term rental are actually not permitted, and so therefore the tax burden of this additional one or 2% would fall squarely upon the hoteliers inside the municipalities and not in the unincorporated area. So when asked to provide a staff opinion about this, the staff opinion is that I feel that our council should not be supportive of this unless one of those underlying aspects is examined more clearly.

For example, a survey of hoteliers, a proposition of what the tax revenue will be used to do, or some other things that would more clearly delineate the purposes of the tax overlay. So that's that is the recommendation by staff being me.

I did happen to talk to, our number two contributing TLT hotelier, Patrick Nofield. I happened to ask him for something else and just said, hey. You know, commissioner King is proposing a 2% increase. And he said, it's disappointing that Commissioner King is focusing on increasing an industry specific tax that will potentially impact economic development. So mister Nofield is also building a couple more hotels in the McMinnville Dayton area. So, I mean, he's our number two TLT contributor, and he's concerned about it. So I just thought I did ask one of them.

So I I I don't wanna see the county we first of all, we shouldn't be telling the county what to do, and they shouldn't be telling us what to do. And I don't wanna see any type of an overlay from the county come on to the city in any way, shape, or form. But it does kinda seem odd to me that that, commissioner, King would bring this I mean, is the rest of the county commissioners on board with this? If they're not, is he kinda being lone ranger here and approaching Newburgh or what? But, nevertheless, I don't want to have any type of overlay coming onto the city of an extra tax in any way, shape, or form.

Let the county do what they want in the county.

I tuned into the meeting and listened to it because I was interested. And I'm also curious why we're talking about this tonight because it feels very preemptive. This is a very early conversation the conversation I listened to where a commissioner King truly just asked the question and so when it says in the resolution that there wasn't surveying done what he said the meeting was that he asked he was asking the question of the other two commissioners because he wasn't going to continue on with the conversations. Having if it was a hard no. So out of respect for us and for the other commissioners, it was a question and some preliminary information preliminary data.

That was what I gathered from the conversation. It was not to put it on city council agendas and to discuss it as to whether we were supportive of account of an of a city overlay. There were also I pulled up the graph. There were nine I think different options nine times four maybe like what is in 30? Can I do math thirty six thirty six options in the grid of which many of the options were no city overlay and it was just the county land and I under so this feels I guess my question I have is did you reach out to commissioner King as our board of commissioner liaison before we put it on the council agenda to ask some of these questions because I'm curious?

I'm asking you since you're the mayor.

I have not talked to commissioner King about this. No. I'm, I'm I'm glad you brought up the percentage because Robin had misstated that it was 2% in the document, which is very long. But, the first few pages, the executive summary, and the first few pages, he talks about 2% overlay. Later on, he talks about 3% over or, I'm sorry, 1% overlay. And then at the end, he has one, two, or three. I did not see any option with zero on it, but that's you know, I I don't care. And, again, what the county does is none of our business. Business. None of my in my opinion, is none of our business.

The question, in my opinion, is should Newburgh take a position on any tax, and this is definitely a tax that is going to affect Newburgh. So that's you know, the question is open. I I have not answered it. I think we should. I think we should make it clear that we would not be in support of the overlay on Newburgh. But I'm only one of seven council members, so it's up to you guys. Robin?

So I'm one of the I'm the liaison on Tace Newberg, and Lee Jensen happened to tell me about this proposed tax. So I watched part one part of the board of commissioners meeting, and then I had a phone call but couldn't finish. But I think Kit Johnston, one of the commissioners, wanted more information. And as a city, you know, I'm liaison on taste. They do all our tourism.

I mean, you know, that's their bottom line. They have to think about these things, so they ask around. I ask around. I asked, you know, our hotelier. And so that's basically I'm giving feedback from the city so that we can go to the commissioners and say, hey. We talked to these people. This is our stance on. I think this is what you know, if you're a commissioner, you would wanna know what your cities and your major hoteliers are thinking. So that's I think this is responsible. I mean, this is a big deal.

It's 2%. We won't see any of the dollars. Our, you know, our businesses will pay for it, but, you know, we don't get any TLT from it like we do our others. So it's an extra expense that the city of Newburgh does not benefit from. So

I'll

just go ahead and voice my opinion on it even though whether it's out of order in terms of coming to us. We already have a 9% TLT in Newburgh. So people who come to Newburgh, they're gonna spend $200 for a hotel or actually gonna spend 218. And as a traveler, it irritates the heck out of me when I when I learn something's quite a bit more, so I don't wanna raise it at all. I don't want people coming to Newburgh to get a bad taste in their mouth because the TLT has gone up again or more than what it is currently.

And just in general, just raising taxes as the answer to everything, it goes against the grain for me. So

I would like to, make a motion that we, the council Newburgh, expressed to the, county commissioners that we would not be in favor of an overlay of any tax overlay over the, properties within our city limits.

Can I still say something, or are you gonna call him a I'm confused what's happening?

Could you Second.

Alright. So we do have a motion and a second on the floor, so now is the time for the comment. What would you like to say?

I'm not saying that I'm for a city overlay. I'm not saying I'm for a county TLT. What I'm asking for is it feels very strange to have a vote on a resolution on a topic that hasn't even had a resolution or a discussion of any sort by the body that's going to be administering it. There's months if you look at the actual timeline, it's like a year timeline that we're talking about. So when Robin says she went back and spoke to other health tellers, I totally support that.

And that's exactly she's doing her role as liaison to taste. That's great. Commissioner King, I'm assuming, is doing the same with other DMOs and hoteliers across the county as well as the Yamhill Tourism I something committee he talked about in the in the overview he did, but this feels is there like is there a reason why it was last minute added to the packet and the agenda to have this discussion prior to Thursday's board of commissioner meeting? Like, what is the reason that we're taking a position on this when there's no position to even take because the information, as everyone has said, isn't all there yet?

So I asked Will to to add this to the agenda because it came to my attention that this was on there at at the last commissioner meeting. I did not watch the meeting. I did not go back and watch it. I instead unload downloaded the their packet, and it was a 140 some page document that was provided in there. I was only interested in the 15 or so pages that had to do with this.

I think that, if we wait until they are into the discussion, they're not gonna hear what we have to say. They're going to move forward or not based on other information. I just wanna give them give them a piece of information that says that city of Newburgh is or is not in favor of an tax overlay on on our, motels. I don't care what they do in the county. I I mean, that's that's their business.

We've got five hotels in Newburgh, and we've got a lot of, short term rentals, legal short term rentals that are operating in ours. The tax already is 9% plus it's per 1% to the state, so it's already 10%. I will be meeting with the new general manager of the Allison soon, and I will certainly ask that question to that person, her, as to whether or not the they feel that they would be in favor of this. In the past, when we when this general subject was raised, their leadership, which, of course, has changed, but indicated that there is a point where it becomes a real drag on on the business, and they don't wanna reach that point. So I I can't speak for them.

I have not talked to them, but, I think let's let some other people talk.

I guess I feel hesitant making a decision when I don't or making a statement about something where I don't feel like I have all of the information. This feels like the start of a proposal, and I didn't have time to watch the county commissioner meeting. But I am, like, I am curious about more data. So, like, what were the changes in lodging rates after the implementation of the initial TLT for the city? We have feedback from one hotel person, but you're meeting with someone in a week from now.

Why are we not deferring until we have information from all of our local hotels? We have all of this information going out to our short term rentals, getting them in compliance with our new short term rental policy. Why are we not proactively reaching out to the community to have increased information from our local constituents about how this may or may not impact them. Know, Robin, I heard you say that we're not going to get any of this money. Guess do we know that for sure?

There's a talk about building a board that will be responsible for the distribution policies. What if there is a possibility that we would be getting a cut of finances? So we don't know. And so I think I am hesitant to make a decision based on hypothetical information that we don't have. We don't have any objective fact based data outside of our personal opinions that are just not their opinions.

At this time, they're based on the start of a proposal for the start of a discussion that the appropriate research information data gathering to make an informed decision hasn't yet occurred. I also I think I just want to be really hesitant that we don't inadvertently say that a commissioner was stereotypically trying to get this information on our plates before because it sounds like this was not commissioner King that put this to us, rather we solicited this information and put it on the agenda ourselves. So I guess I just wanna be really cautious that we're not inadvertently saying that people are moving with malintent when this was something that came from us as opposed to an outside request that we review this information. So I am not comfortable making a full decision and declaration when I don't have actual facts.

Well,

I don't need a whole bunch of facts. All I all I care about is is that I don't care what the the county does in the county, but I'm not ever going to I should not say not ever. Most likely, I will never agree to anything that the county tries to put on our citizens. And so I'm okay with with passing this this this motion. I'm okay with that.

You know? Let the county do what they wanna do, but I'm I don't need a whole lot of facts and figures because I don't want the the county putting an overlay of anything on top of us, period. We just let them know that that's where we're coming from. End of story.

That's fair.

Just for consistency's sake. Consistency's sake here. I am curious why it hasn't come up here about the parks system plan that went through that is proposing to increase our park fees at Rogers Landing. None of this Council had a concern about that and it passed. Yeah, they put it through that was in the that it went through the parks.

It passed the park committee of the recommendation of how to fund parks. A major piece of it is increasing Park fees of which Rogers Landing is called out as one of the prime examples. So that is a very similar that's a fee on residents not a fee on visitors, but I'm just I'm just asking the question. I think it's a fair question to ask if we are anti County enforcing fees or taxes without a conversation that also applies. So I would fit I follow where Jerry is I am not stating whether I'm for or against it.

But if we're going to take a vote today, I'm going to abstain because I don't think we have nearly a must as as much information as we need to make an informed vote.

I will answer your question as far as Rogers Landing. That's a county park. It's county property. It's outside the city limits. So therefore, once again, I don't think it's appropriate for us to determine what the county does outside of the city of Newburgh. I do, in fact, think that it's appropriate for us to determine what the county or what happens within our borders.

I'm a little torn. I I from what I've read, I feel like this is a little premature, but I also, like, agree with Mike. Like, I I mean, and a lot of other people, I don't want to see another overlay on the city. But I also they're gonna do what they wanna do, right, despite what we say. So I'd rather not get in a pissing match with the county, but I don't know. I'm torn.

That's a very good point. The the county is gonna do what the county does. We have no sway in what they what they vote. I think I'm I'm pretty sure that they can impose this tax without our permission if they choose to. I think this is just a move to allow them to understand that we and Newberg are not going to or or not gonna be favorable to what they do. I think they'll take that fairly seriously. But, anyway, is there any further discussion? So we have a motion on the table to know, I've had it in my

This is what I've captured, so tell me if it's not right quite right. To express to the county commissioners that we are not in favor of any tax overlay on our city or TLT tax.

Is is there any more discussion? In that case, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Nay.

And you wanna abstain?

I'm abstaining.

I wanna abstain as well for data.

And is do you wanna state your reason as well?

Yeah. I think I stated that we don't have enough information or facts to make an informed decision.

Alright. So the motion does pass. So the last item on our agenda is the Butler property sale. Are you per presenting, Will? Oh, is are we letting our attorney present?

So for the for the few of you that are still here, this is one of the more interesting items that we've had this year. Alright. This hearing is to consider the sale of the Butler property, property owned by the city of Newburgh that we refer to as the Butler property. At this time, I will open a public hearing. Citizens will be able to testify in this issue by first submitting a public comment at the back of the table should they wish to speak.

If any of you wish to speak, we will honor that request. So I hope I this meeting is now open. So do any of the members of this council, board, committee, or commission need to declare a conflict of interest, absentation, or ex parte contact? Good enough. It's time for our staff report.

Alright. Thank you, mister mayor. Thank you, council. James Walker, your city attorney. Back in 2024, council passed a resolution declaring the Butler property, the property at, 411 East 1st Street as surplus property.

Just to move kind of through the fast forward through the timeline, in the summer of this year, council approved an LOI or a letter of intent to to sell the Butler property. And before you now is resolution twenty twenty five dash 4,003, a resolution that would approve the the official sale of of the Butler property. Also included in your council packet is a is a final version of the purchase and sale agreement that is not yet signed by the city because, that's why we're here to say in this in this hearing to, see if council approves. But it is signed by the prospective purchaser of the property, which is an LLC, called Heated Candle LLC. You also have a summary in your packet of the of the what I would call the main terms in the purchase and sale agreement, but, just a a couple of items to highlight.

The the property would be sold by the city to Heated Candle LLC for a purchase price of $341,250. This is a sale of the fee title interest. So this is a this is a sale of that fee title interest. It's not a long term lease or or ground lease. It's it's a conveyance of of the full bundle of sticks, if you will, in the ownership interest of the property.

As far as next steps, if council were to approve the PSA today, then we proceed with having it signed. That would then begin a due diligence period, where the purchaser has the opportunity to perform, you know, physical inspections, review title, items like that. The due diligence period is outlined to run for a period of thirty days with the closing then set to occur ten days after the conclusion of that period. So, potentially, we could have closing of the sale, in approximately forty days. Think that covers the the highlights, the main items. Will, do you want to add anything? So

the only thing to really add, and thank you, James, for that good coverage of all of the timeline steps, is that it has long been our intent to utilize the revenue from this sale proceeds towards our debt reduction plan, and this would add over $340,000 towards that intent, and it would get us there just in time. So this is a great thing to get one of our pieces of debt retired, and staff fully recommends completing this transaction.

Sorry. We're all fixated on the, the little blonde boy. So at this point, if any members of the public wish to speak, this is your chance to get five minutes on this subject. I'm going to close public hearing or public comments, and now it's up to counsel. Who would like to start?

I'm in support of the sale.

Yeah. I I was just going to do that. I'll I move that we adopt resolution twenty twenty five dash four zero zero three regarding the sale of this property.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded. Rachel, I better let you redisc our new procedure.

Alright. It has been moved and seconded, and we have that. Okay. So the motion has been made to adopt resolution four zero zero three, a resolution approving the sale of certain real property and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an agreement for the sale of real property.

So is there is there any more discussion? I would like to let the members of the public know that we have discussed this several times in executive session. We've had, this has been an ongoing issue for the better part of a year now. Right, Will? We've made the best deal that we possibly can, and, we feel that it's a good deal, I I believe. You'll we'll know in a minute. So is there anybody else who would like to comment? Seeing not, we need a vote. Rachel?

Councilor McBride?

Yes.

Councilor Wheatley? Yes. Councilor Yarnell Hallumann?

Yes.

Councilor Kilburg? Yes. Mayor Raffsecker?

Yes.

Councilor Turgeson? Yes. Councilor Carmen?

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, we still ended up we still got done before 09:00, so let's, this meeting is adjourned.