City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Good evening and welcome to the 04/27/2026, to all city council meeting. I will call the meeting to order. First item on our agenda tonight is a pledge of allegiance led by councilor Gonzales. That brings us to announcements. Our first announcement tonight is mental health awareness month proclamation.

And we have Gary from NAMI outreach and development. Clackamas County. Welcome, Gary. Thank you. I appreciate that. Sure.

That was a really quick follow-up.

There you

go. There's a button. Okay. Well, and thank you very much for inviting us today. This, as you probably know, is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're here to tell you a little bit about what we're doing as NAMI Clackamas. I presume you're all familiar with NAMI Clackamas because in front of you, you have a bag which has things in it. Number one, one of these. This is everything you ever wanted to know about NAMI Klackamas. Inside, there's a crisis communication card, which is things to say in places you can refer people to if you run into someone in crisis. Also inside is our special theater night flyer.

We have a very special theater night with Clackamas Repertory Theater. That's a fundraiser for us. And on the back of it is a listing of a little bit about what you're supporting, which are some of our support groups. And last but not least, you also have in there a genuine Nami Clackamas stress ball. Now that guy is guaranteed to remove all stress and anxiety in thirty minutes or less you get your money back, so keep that in mind. So I'm going run you real quickly through the basics about NAMI so you know what we're up to and what we're doing. So first question I have though is someone want to answer or throw out an answer of the average time between the time that someone suspects they might have a mental health issue and the time that they actually go and seek help? What do you think it is? Years? Okay, how many?

Five years? Okay. Well, you're not really close. It's eleven years. Okay, now we know that that's not access even though it's difficult. We know that's not cost even though it's costly. What we know is that it's stigma, first and foremost. And how do we do we take care of that? We change the conversation, we talk about it, okay, we bring it up, we start the conversation, especially if it's appropriate, we ask the question, are you okay if we find someone that we think is in crisis or is having some difficulty? And what that we also want to change our language around referring to people as their disease.

That's not what we do. They're not schizophrenic or bipolar. They have that disorder. Sooner we can separate people from their disease, the better we're able to participate in their recovery. Okay? So, a lot of other language around suicide. People don't commit suicide, they die by suicide. You commit crimes, you commit sins, you get committed. It's again a very judgmental word. And what that does is it changes the perception, it allows people to seek help, and we know that seeking help, sharing stories is what really saves lives because that's what we're about.

And we're really looking to stop the stigma and really allow people to seek help, maybe get that eleven years down to eleven months, eleven weeks, who knows, maybe even eleven days. So what's an army? We have 600 affiliates around the country. That means those blue and green don't mean anything, no political affiliation, no nothing. Okay? They're just there to differentiate the states. But there are 600 affiliates, every one of them has access to the same programming. We know that peer support changes lives. We've been at this since '78 evidenced by the fashion statement in that picture. Those are all wearing tie dye t shirts if you notice.

Some success stories, my favorite is that top one which is that we brought them out of a foggy depressed existence and improve the quality of their life, that's our mission statement. So what do we do? We have classes, a peer to peer class for people with mental health issues and a family to family class for everybody else. Those are both eight week classes, they're mostly both well they're actually they're both online and in person and then our basics is a six week class for family members, caregivers, parents of younger children because we know that younger children have developmental issues that may be either masking or confused with a mental health issue. So you kind of want to know how to tell the difference.

There's no absolutes. Also, some ways to advocate for that youngster because we know that they don't have the language. They just don't have the words, and the system is still not set up to meet their needs. So that's what basics is about, those are the three classes we offer on a quarterly basis. We also have regular support groups, three peer support groups for people with mental health issues every week.

We have two family support groups, one weekly and one monthly. We have a couple of family book clubs, LGBTQIA plus support group, women only support group, and Art with Heart therapy group, Gather for Games which is a gaming group online, so we do a variety of different outreach like that, support groups, and we also have a suicide bereavement group that we host in our office and a compassionate friends for people who have lost a child. We also have support for adults in custody in jail. We have three mental health classes a week for cohorts of 10 adults in custody, a support group for both men and women, and a post release support group that we just started. That's really to serve the needs of the adults in custody because we know the jails have become the new housing for people in a mental health crisis and yet they have no support services whatsoever in the jail.

So we're fortunate enough to have people from the jail behind it and the former jail commander on our Board of directors. So that helps a lot. We also have peer support specialists. We have three on staff, they provide one on one peer support and services, those connect you with all kinds of community resources and they'll be there to help you navigate your way through them. The best part about all of this, community presentations by the way, sorry I got a slide ahead of myself.

Community presentations is something else that we do like this, but we also do longer ones, Mental Health Matters, In Our Own Voice, Ending the Silence goes into middle and high schools throughout the Clackamas County School Districts, and then we have Question, Persuade, and Refer, which is a great crisis intervention tool. That number there is a number of free presentations that we gave last year alone. I probably gave about 60 of them myself. So the best part, no diagnosis, no referral, no insurance, no cost. Everything I just described to you is absolutely of no cost to anybody in need.

So all you need is a need, which is the world's worst business model you understand, okay, which is why we do things like fundraising. We have a comedy night in March. We do a Nami walks coming up. See I have my official Nami walks hat on. I'm not wearing this just to be cool. Know, I got my Nami walks hat. Nami Walks is coming up in May, on May 16 at Peninsula Park. We have our Party With a Purpose Gala, is dinner auction in September, and then our Champions Circle of monthly donors. And then one of the things that you have a flyer for is our theater night, Laughter on the 23rd Floor with Clackamas Repertory Theater. Tickets are $25 early bird, thirty after I think it is May 30, okay.

But all the funds, thanks to Clackamas Rep, all the funds, not a dollar, not a proceeds, but all of it goes to NAMI, Same thing is true of our Stumptown, which is coming up in December. We're not sure of the date, but we believe that's going to be for Annie at Stumptown stages downtown. So those are the things that we do. We also use volunteers. We'd love any of our volunteers that are willing to come forward with lived experience to either teach classes, facilitate support groups, or just help us in a variety of different ways.

So we've just inherited what we're calling the West Wing. It's another little office that's just a little west of our current office in the same complex. And so we're looking for people to help us clean up and fix up and get that thing ready for habitation. So that's one of the volunteer opportunities. That's really it. Unless you've got any questions, that's my presentation. We can get right to the proclamation. That's also my little therapy dog over there. I thought I'd bring him along just for comic relief.

Alright. Any questions for Gary? Councilor Brooks.

Is that your dog?

That's my dog. Yes.

And what's your dog's name?

My dog's name is Carlin.

Carlin. Oh, I can see that.

Named after?

George.

George, got it. That's right. Because he makes us laugh so much.

Can you, do you know how many, when we're talking about stigma, how many, people suffer from mental health issues?

Well one in five people are going to experience a mental health issue in any given day, any given month, any given year, so in their lifetime. So it's basically one in five or twenty percent. And you know we find that there's a lot of comorbidity, lot of coexisting conditions, So people that are suffering from substance misuse, typically will eighty percent will have a mental health issue. The vice versa is true also. So many people with mental health issues have substance misuse issues.

Yes. We just found out too that our firefighters and police officers are pre diagnosed or pre accepted for PTSD diagnosis. So I just think that the look of what mental health is, and I really appreciate your discussion of not calling people their diagnosis, just like you wouldn't say, that guy's high blood pressure.

That's right.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And you know the thing is that it's much more likely that you'll recover from a mental health issue than it is from cancer, diabetes or heart disease. It's just that it's a process with mental health not necessarily an outcome. Yeah. Another question.

President Pratt.

Oh I'm just wondering if the kids and younger people if there's a little less stigma on having a mental health issue or if it's still a big problem.

Well the answer to that is yes. It is more open. They are more open about it. There's more discussions around it, but it's still a big challenge and there's still a lot of stigma around it. You know, we have NAMI on campus clubs that we've tried to start, for an example, in high schools, and we've had a lot of pushback. Not necessarily complaints or arguments, but you know just a lot of apathy. So yeah, it's challenge, but it is something that is being discussed a lot more. We're getting when we do our Ending the Silence programs in the high school classes, we're getting a lot more good questions, especially specifically related to their situation. There's hope.

Hopefully yeah. Councilor Brooks will do the proclamation.

Thanks. Okay. City of Tualatin proclamation, whereas mental health is part of everyone's overall health and well-being and mental illnesses are prevalent in our county, state, and nation, with one in five adults experiencing a mental health issue every year, and whereas stigma and the resulting discrimination is a primary obstacle to early identification and effective treatment of individuals with mental illness and their ability to recover to lead full productive lives, And whereas approximately half of chronic mental illness begins by the age of 14, and suicide is the second leading cause of death of individuals aged 10 to 14 and 25 to 34, and whereas long delays averaging eleven years occur between the time symptoms first appear and when individuals get help, and it is therefore essential to cure the stigma and discrimination that is the primary cause for those delays. And whereas every citizen and community can make a difference in helping cure the stigma and discrimination that for too long has surrounded mental illness and discouraged people from getting help, and whereas public education and civic engagement improves the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness, now therefore be proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Tualatin, Oregon that Tualatin recognizes May 2026 as Mental Health Awareness Month in the city of Tualatin to increase public understanding of the importance of mental health to promote identification and timely treatment of mental illnesses and to cure the resulting stigma and discrimination.

Introduced and adopted this April 2026. Thank you very much for your work.

Thank you. We appreciate it.

It's a great organization.

Yeah. Nikki, go ahead and present it. Thank you, Gary.

Thank you.

We're going to do some agenda maintenance here. We're going to give the members of LEAP a few more minutes to get here. Hopefully they can do it. So I'll go ahead and move on to National Police Week proclamation. Chief Pickering, welcome.

Well, good evening, mister mayor and council. National police week is the annual observance in The United States dedicated to honoring the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. National Police Week pays tribute to the bravery, dedication, and selflessness exhibited by law enforcement officers across the nation and shows appreciation for the vital role that law enforcement plays in maintaining public safety. Each year, during police suite, the names of the officers killed in the line of duty is etched into the limestone wall at the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington DC. This year, 111 names will be added to the wall honoring those who died in the line of duty in 2025.

This memorial honors more than 27,000 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty since we've become a nation. And a side note, so back in 2019 when I was in Washington DC for the watch the FBI National Academy, I was there during police week. And one of the events that goes on is the candlelight vigil where the Capitol Mall is full of law enforcement officers and families of those who have died on a candlelight vigil in one of the evenings. On a visit to the National Law Enforcement Memorial, I actually met the two stonemasons who have etched every name in the wall of the limestone. Two guys out of Colorado who come every year and donate their time to sandblast the names of more than 27,000 officers etched in that So on behalf of the men and women of the Tualatin Police Department, I wanna say thank you for your continued support and collaboration in ensuring the safety and well-being for our community.

Your dedication to fostering a partnership with law enforcement is instrumental in the mission to serve this community every day. We truly appreciate the commitment of providing the necessary resources, guidance, and advocacy that empowers our officers to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in the service to this community. So thank you. With

that, council president Pratt will read the proclamation.

Yes. Thank you to the whole police department for what you do for our community. Whereas the Congress of the United States of America has designated May 15 as police peace officers Memorial Day in honor of the federal, state, and municipal officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty and the week in which it falls as National Police Week, and whereas it is known that on average one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in The United States every fifty three hours. Since the first known line of duty death in 1791, more than twenty six thousand US law enforcement officers have been made the ultimate sacrifice, and whereas law enforcement officers, including Twalton police officers, are our guardians of life and property and defenders of the individual rights of freedom, and whereas the city of Twalton is proud of our law enforcement officers and wish to recognize their commitment to the public safety profession, and whereas the Tolleson Police Department and officers provide the highest quality services and are committed to the highest professional standards, working in partnership with our community to meet the challenges of reducing crime, creating a safe environment, and improving our quality of life for all.

Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the city council of the city of Tualatin that the City Of Tualatin designates the week of May 2026 as National Police Week in the city of Tualatin to call attention to our police officer Tualatin police officers for the outstanding service they provided for community. Introduced and adopted this April 2026.

Thanks, Chief. I'm do the public service first. Okay. Next up is public service recognition week proclamation led the discussion will led by Stacy, our human resources director. Welcome, Stacy.

Hi. Good evening, mayor and council, and thank you for the proclamation tonight celebrating our city employees. National Public Service Recognition Week occurs during the May, and our city has the opportunity to honor our approximately 200 employees with this event. Our employees truly are public servants who tirelessly serve our community in a variety of ways, ranging from our police staff, the library, the court, or public works, to employees who work behind the scenes to include finance, maintenance, IS and yours truly HR with our internal services. Our city of Tualatin employees can be counted upon to show up, act with heart and perform their work in a professional manner which has lasting positive impact on our community.

To celebrate our employees during Public Service Recognition Week, employees will be recognized each day with small tokens of appreciation ranging from a drink of choice from a coffee truck, breakfast treats, an ice cream social, small tokens of Tualatin logoed items, and a lunch served by our executive team. This year's theme is good vibes and each day will reflect the positivity and good vibes of our employees. Recognizing our employees during Public Service Recognition Week is the city's small way of giving back to our employees and saying thanks for their hard work performed year round. Thank you again for the proclamation tonight and for helping us celebrate our employees.

Alright. Thanks, Stacy. Councilor Gonzales will read the proclamation.

Wonderful. Thank you. Whereas public service is an honorable calling that involves a wide variety of challenging and rewarding professions, including providing recreational services, maintaining public safety, improving transportation, protecting our environment, and performing administrative and management activities, are essential to efficient and effective operation of the government and whereas Tualatin City employees contribute significantly to the quality of life for Tualatin community with their commitment to excellence, high ethical standards, and diversity of skill, and whereas excellent in the delivery of public service helps keep Tualatin strong, prosperous, and a wonderful place in which to live, work, play, and volunteer, and whereas this commemorative provides an opportunity to express our appreciation for the many contributions public employees make to our daily lives. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the city of city council for the city of Tualatin, Oregon by the Tualatin City Council that the week of May 3 through the 2026 be public service recognition week in Tualatin City Of Tualatin. And the council encourages everyone to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of public employees introduced and adopted this April 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Now we're going loop back to item number two, National Prevention Week Proclamation. We have a member of LEAP. Come on up.

Give me one second.

Sure. Welcome.

Okay. Hi. My name is Jeremiah. I like to go by Jay. Welcome.

I am a member of LEAP, and my whole goal and as well as every other LEAP member is to make sure we maintain the prevention agenda of drug use in our schools and overall our city. Our first activity we are planning are mental health rocks for art cafe. The goal is to paint positive messages on rocks to place around the school campus of Tualatin High School and the community at large. Make an impact on someone's day by coming to our art per cafe on May 11 and or twenty second in Room 157. 1 57, or join us at Blender Dash upon the

It might

be easier to see on

that one.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Join us at the Blender Dash to support this effort. We will also bring this campaign to Hazel Brook Middle School on a date to be determined. Our second activity will be mandala poetry starting at May 5 from 4PM to 5PM for all ages.

Learn with others across the country during a Zoom training, how to clear your mind and use the mandal mandalas to focus and reflect and find your center. Powered by the Heron Project wellness series, leap and toileting together, location, Byram Elementary School Portable one. Registration is required in advance for supply reasons. And our third one is the mental health rally in front of Tolleson High School. High school in May.

If you are interested in participating, helping or helping with donuts and hot chocolate, reach out to us through Cindy. Date is undetermined. Contact Cindy at Cindy@TualatinTogether.org. And we have our flyer, which is prevention is connection. You like to read? Oh, okay. Join us as we bridge mental health awareness month and prevent national prevention month. Mental health rocks, Mandela poetry workshop, mental health rally. It's everything we went over.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. Council here will now read the prequelation.

Stay there one second.

Not so fast. It's my first time.

You're doing

Yeah. You rock. Right? Okay. City of Tualatin proclamation.

Whereas substance misuse and mental health challenges continue to impact communities across The United States. According to the 2023 national survey on drug use and health, approximately sixty one point two million or thirteen point three percent of Americans aged 12 to 20 used illicit drugs in the past year. Additionally, nearly six million excuse me youths ages 12 to 20 reported consuming alcohol in the past month. About fifty seven point eight million adults experienced a mental health illness in the past year and twenty nine point five million individuals were classified as having an alcohol use disorder. Whereas commitment and support, with commitment and support these and other substance use and mental health challenges can be prevented.

The focus of National Prevention Week is to change the prevention landscape by providing evidence based and accessible resources to facilitate collective action and story sharing. By showcasing the work of our partners in prevention, we can confront the societal changes, challenges surrounding substance misuse together while celebrating stories of prevention. Whereas this is a message we need to spread far and wide, the impact of mental and substance misuse disorder is apparent in our local community. An estimated five thousand and fifty eight people in Twalton, Oregon are affected by these conditions and we have the power to change these numbers and more importantly change lives. Whereas through National Prevention Week people become more aware and able to recognize the signs of mental health and substance use disorders.

Equally important, community members from all walks of life will learn what they can do to create a healthier tomorrow by helping to prevent these problems. Being a shoulder for someone to lean on, leading someone to get help for a mental health or substance use or misuse issue before it worsens, setting an example by staying substance free, and other actions like this all play a role in keeping the people around us and ourselves healthy and safe. Whereas we and others across The United States need to recognize the seriousness of substance use and misuse for youth and mental health challenges in our communities, the power of prevention, and the tireless efforts of those working to make a difference. The small daily actions done by individuals combined with the actions of families, communities, and coalitions come together to make the larger bold movement of prevention. Now therefore be it resolved that the city of Tualatin hereby proclaim May 2026 to be National Prevention Week and call upon our community to join us this week in celebrating the compelling programs and events that support increasing awareness of an action around mental health and or substance use disorders year round.

Introduced and adopted this April 2026, city of Tualatin, Oregon. We'd also like to say a special thank you to the mayor in his last Tualatin Life report. The kids have all seen that or the club, all all of them have seen that, and we didn't bring our thank you note tonight, but we'd like to recognize you and say thank you for making sure that the entire community understands a little more about prevention, helping us get the word out.

My pleasure. Thanks for coming. All right. The last announcement is mine to make. Behind me, you can see the board.

The announcement of the State of City. I'll be doing my last State of the City on May 19. May 19 might sound like a familiar day because none of us anticipated or dawned upon us that that is primary night. So it's going be a popular night that night. So what I am suggesting is fill out your ballot, drop it off the library, and then drive on down to the Grand Hotel for the state of the city from 05:30 to 07:30 at the Grand Hotel.

What will be involved this year is we're going to have city council review what has been achieved the last year in Toowalton. And then I'll reflect back on my sixteen years as a City Councillor and as Mayor of how Toowalton has changed over the sixteen years in addition, not just growth wise and population wise, but as it has a better city with some fantastic amenities and projects that we accomplished together in City Council. So we're just inviting everyone to come that night. The bonus that night is that we have secured sponsorship for the event, so that we'll be having free heavy hors d'oeuvres and adult beverages and refreshments. So if you have time, come join us.

It is a free event. You don't have to register, just drop by the Grand Hotel on the nineteenth at 05:30. I'll say get there early because hopefully it will be packed. You never know. But again, get your ballot done first then come to the event because it's going to be a fun event and looking forward to saying hello to everyone and enjoying this last City Council state of the city on behalf of myself.

With that, we'll now switch over to the next section of special reports. We have outside agency grant awardee, Bordenfree Clinic. Jordan, welcome. Public comment. Public comment is an opportunity to address the City Council on something that is not on tonight's agenda. Please keep your comments about three minutes. Again, have you don't have to be signed up. I have no sign ups right now. I'll take the folks in the meeting room first and then go to Zoom. The folks who want to comment about the library cooperative will do that comment later on.

So we have anyone on Zoom or the meeting room that would like to give public comment tonight. No. Alright. With that, we'll move to the consent agenda. The consent agenda are items that are considered routine. They'll be adopted by one motion unless someone accounts would like an item removed and heard separately later tonight. Tonight's consent agenda consists of two items. Item number one, consideration approval of the work session and regular meeting minutes of 04/13/2026. And then item number two, consideration of approval of late liquor license renewal for 2026. Would any counselor like an item removed and heard separately later tonight?

Seeing none.

I move that we adopt the consent agenda as read. Second.

I have a motion and second to adopt the consent agenda as read. Any discussion on those motions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? It's unanimous. Thank you. Now we can listen to Jordan about an update from the Borland Free Clinic. Welcome Jordan.

For real this time?

For real. For real. I'm just eager to get you up here.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. It is a pleasure to be with you and thank you for the invitation. I believe I was here almost two years ago following a significant capital project at Borland Free Clinic. And so I'm grateful to be back and more so just grateful for the support of this community.

And for you all, some of you in specific ways, but all of you in terms of the grant support that we have received over the last few years. So by way of introduction, my name is Jordan. I'm the executive director at the clinic. I have been in this role since the beginning of, 2022. And I also have the privilege of serving on the, chamber health and wellness committee and most recently for Washington County's, CHIP steering committee, Community Health Improvement Program.

So while not a resident, I feel very much, tethered to this community. And so I want to thank you again for welcoming in the many ways you do. I have just a few slides to introduce and talk about our work. First of all, we are a free clinic. We are one of only two free clinic in Portland Metro Area in the Tri County region.

For those unfamiliar with the free clinic space, it is as it sounds, so like we heard from Nami just a second ago, there are no costs attached to the services we provide to our patients. And while we do our best to keep external services including prescriptions at a reasonable cost, We do the best. We don't put any costs or burden, financial burden on our patients. There is of course other ways in which people can receive free care or discounted care specifically through charity care programs like you might experience at hospitals or through FQHC's Federally Qualified Health Centers like Virginia Garcia. But the problem is the strain that that puts on our healthcare system as well as the access questions and so while most recently numbers have dipped in terms of insured Oregonians, the fact is that above and beyond healthcare insurance what we talk mostly about is healthcare access.

And so one of the things we are aware of is roughly six month waiting time for folks to get in to see primary care physicians and that includes myself in non medicated non free clinic spaces as well as other issues accessing specialty care. So we have been around as this timeline states since early twenty ten, but we didn't open until 2017. So next year we are excited to celebrate our ten year anniversary, which is a significant milestone for us. In 2018, we began offering our primary care services, which is the bread and butter of what we continue to do. And then as I mentioned a minute ago, post pandemic, we were able complete a $1,500,000 capital build out to renovate our corner of a vast underbelly of Rolling Hills Community Church to present our patients with a look and feel of quality healthcare that they receive in our space.

This year we are anticipating some enhancements in our work and a transition phase. We are looking for our very first paid provider to bring on to our staff. One of the things that remains unique about us in comparison to not just other free clinics in Oregon, but regionally if not nationally is that we have yet to hire a staff member who is also a physician. And so we are able to do the work that we do and the extensive services you see offered here. Thanks to the many volunteers who contribute to our work and that includes clinicians but also board members and other individuals who help in various ways.

So we know it takes a village, know it takes an army and we are able to offer the care that we do thanks to many, many dedicated individuals and so we and our patients are grateful to them. We also can't do the work we do without the partnerships that we have and so healthcare as you know is a very intricate system. And so the fact that we are able to receive in kind services like external labs through LabCorp or our relationship with Providence internal medicine residency program, so they help staff some of our to the mobile offerings that come up to our doorstep to serve our patients. We're just able to provide more and more through that. And then of course, there is the support.

Our revenue is completely grants and individuals. And so like the city of Tualatin, we are able to do the work that we do, thanks to the generous support of others. Just a little note on our impact. One thing I'm proud of is that we have grown in our services and service offerings every year that I have been around at the clinic, that goes all the way back into the pandemic. Last year, we served over 500 unique patients and that is pretty good for only twelve hours of services a week.

And so we are proud of that number and having crossed that 500 mark for the first time in 2025. Last year, our patient appointment count, and so that includes returning appointments as well as individuals who we may just interact with over the phone through prescription refills or other interests. We're over 1,300 appointments that we're able to get. Vast majority of those of course are uninsured. We do offer what we call bridge appointments for folks who maybe are on OHPMedicaid.

But given their wait times, we prefer that they move on to their primary care physician. It's just depending upon how quickly they are able to make that happen. I mentioned the volunteers. Our demographics is that we have a primarily client base of people of color, 44% of which are Hispanic, for whom we offer on-site Spanish translation if needed. We estimate there's not a science to this, but we do or there is, but to the best of our approximation, we're able to estimate that last year we offered over $300,000 in free medical care to the community.

I do want to point out that via zip code analysis, we're able to determine that about roughly a third of our patients come from the city of DeWalt, specifically. The last thing I want to highlight is just the headwinds that we're facing as a nation in terms of healthcare and the impact that that is bound to have on our communities. We already know about the complex healthcare environment in which we all reside, some of which I've already spoken about. But anything from choosing a plan to anticipated costs and determining co pays to navigating financial aid services to getting the specialty care that one needs and referrals, let alone wait times. There is a lack of specialty care services that we and other federally qualified health centers are able to access these days.

There has been a program you may be familiar with Project Access that has been funded by health care systems over, I don't know, I would say the last ten to fifteen years. That program has been sheltered due to funding cuts and issues related to the health care systems. And so that used to be our way of having patients who need external services to go into the hospitals to get donated care. Right now, it is sort of everyone for themselves trying to negotiate those services and making sure that patients have a place to go. We're lobbying hard and working with PanOut to help resurrect that program, but it takes time.

Meanwhile, all of us are familiar with HR1, the big beautiful bill. And while some of the provisions in that have yet to come fully online, some have already taken place. And so as I understand it, we've already seen a drop in enrollment coverage from around 97% in Oregon to already around ninety four percent to 93% and that is due to things like this. So we have an anticipated drop in Medicaid coverage due to the introduction of work requirements. So that's roughly around twenty hours a week that individuals have to be employed in order to be eligible for Medicaid, which is already a high threshold or low depending on how you ask the question because you can't make very much money to be on the Oregon Health Plan as it is even with bridge programming that hopefully the state continues to fund.

In addition to that, redetermination for continued Medicaid coverage is going from one year to every six months and the administrative burden that that is going to cause is going to negatively affect people. We're also looking at funding shortages across the state as well as limited eligibility for our non citizens. And so I have heard estimates of around 200,000 Oregonians will lose coverage over the next few years. Obviously those numbers are only guesses at this point and the real data lags a few years and so we will see what happens. But we should also mention that this doesn't just affect the lowest income individuals in our community, the loss of marketplace premiums or the tax credits for those premiums as well as increased premiums for everyone else is a real thing.

And so last I've heard, your average person making under 400% of the federal poverty line has already experienced a jump in about $50 to $200 a month in their premiums through the marketplace. Of course, they can get it when it's open. So one more negative thing that I'll offer, sorry to be a downer, But there was just a series, if you're familiar with the health forum run by the LUN report, there was just a series this last month on primary care in the state and how difficult it is to access. I mentioned this a minute ago, but just to put some stats on the board here, you can see that primary care wait times in the Portland Metro lag behind the national average by almost double. The acceptance rate, that is clinics that are serving Medicaid patients in the Portland Metro, are grossly behind national average as well as the Medicare acceptance rates.

So you're just seeing less and less entities being there for the individuals who need it most. So I would be lying if I said the free clinic is here to save the day. That is not possible. But we are here to do our part and we again are just so grateful for the support that we have in this community and from this group. And so, yeah, we look to grow, we look to expand, and we're hoping to meet that need as best we can. Any questions?

Great. Questions for Jordan. President Pratt.

I just want to clarify like on the Medicaid and Medicare acceptance. So like Medicaid you're saying that if someone had Medicaid and they went to a clinic only 8% of them would accept it?

Correct.

Oh my gosh. Thank you.

Other questions?

Not a question, just a comment. Thank you for being in our community and I am very proud of the Born and Free Clinic that serves a lot of people that I know within this community. Thank you.

Other questions? I was excited I saw on Facebook the announcement when you were looking for a new provider and your ability to hire someone hopefully you can find doctors are hard to find right now, so hopefully you can find someone. The only big question I had is remember it's been a while with the new facility and the increased amount of privacy, the ability to serve women and your goal to increase and ratchet up your women's services. How's that going?

Yes, it's going well. We have a number of I would say gynecological specific providers. And yeah, woman who comes through our clinic is offered that service. Twice a year, we offer a free full day of physicals as well as mammogram screenings and that's in partnership with OHSU Hillsboro's mobile mammogram unit. So I don't have the specific numbers on how many increase but more than half of our patients that I mentioned before are female. And so yes, we love that service and we're grateful for the providers that we have that are able to offer that care.

Yes, because I appreciate once you had the new build out that the privacy was lacking last time is now there and that's fantastic. And how is the new facility doing? I mean, you're still chugging away and you haven't outgrown it yet?

No, we well, it depends on I have some ideas around additional services, and, there has been very, very preliminary discussions with the church around possible expansion. But, as far as the space is concerned, yeah, we continue to get, wonderful comments about, how it looks and feels not just from the patients but from the volunteers who are more excited to work in a space like that than our previous.

It's a lot more professional.

Yes, exactly. And so yeah, we're really proud of the space. It is serving us very well. And yeah, we have definitely grown into it at this Great. Yeah. So thanks for asking.

Cool. Anything else? Council Brooks.

Thank you so much for your presentation. That last set of stats I took a picture of because it's I think it's just so important for people to understand and especially as we're moving forward. And I'm curious, why do you think that our state lags so far behind from your perspective on serving people that are on Medicare?

Yeah, great question. I would point specifically to a very, very progressive agenda around I don't mean that in a loaded sense, but just a very strong push to ensure more individuals in the state without enough adequate understanding of the amount of providers that are needed to support those individuals. So I think that has been a disconnect in this day and yes to Mayor Frank's statement a second ago, we are looking for a provider, but part of the primary care shortage is the lack of primary care providers. And that is true across healthcare, so I don't want to say it's specific to Oregon. But primary care physicians, the generalists, the advanced practice folks, the folks who do a lot of the maintenance of care of our population aren't always the best supported financially.

And so I think that that disconnect between having those basically the workforce to support the people who have access or have insurance has created the difficulty we're seeing.

Thank you. Yes.

I just want to thank you for your efforts and all your work over the years and your fundraising abilities and your leadership abilities to make the Bournemouth Free Clinic happen and operate here in this area and being able to find those funds to expand your services and hopefully find that provider. It's been a lot of work and I appreciate what you've done. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks, George.

All right. So that brings us to general business item number one, eviction prevention discussion, Megan. Welcome, Megan.

Okay. Testing.

Good evening, mayor

and city council. My name is Megan Cohen, and I'm the homelessness city county liaison for Tigard, Tualton, and Sherwood. I'm just getting over a cold, so apologize if I have to take a drink of water. I'm here this evening as a follow-up to my last presentation on safe parking. There was interest expressed in exploring some other options, including getting some more information around eviction prevention.

So that's what I'm here to do this evening. It'll be a really high level overview of what it sort of looks like in our area right now and what is happening locally. So with that, I'll go to the next slide. So the agenda will cover some background on eviction prevention, current landscape, Tualatin investments, enhancement options, and then, of course, time for questions. Should breeze through it pretty fast.

So just to provide some background of why we are here this evening, Like I mentioned, we had a safe parking presentation in August 2025. Coming out of that, council had expressed some interest, not in looking at safe parking moving forward, but other options to support eviction prevention as sort of the underlying issue, for that program. We've also had a series of, other sort of public conversations. One was the housing forum in December, which community development put on really fantastic. Thank you all for being there.

I think we heard from, our community that evening about several different challenges, including, accessible transit to affordable housing being a huge barrier, which I know you all have been working on that issue with TriMet, hearing about the additional, like, utility payments that people are paying on top of their rent, which vouchers aren't covering, and then just hearing about sort of the ongoing challenges around cost of housing, finding affordable housing, those things as well. And then, at the city council advance in January, you all identified, eviction prevention as one of your city council priorities, priority 2.4. You'll also see I listed the priority 2.3 on there about sort of staying informed around SHS, including Metro, which I'll come back to later in the presentation. And then one thing that didn't make it on the slide because it's so recent is last weekend's forum at Saint Anthony and the discussion that they held on immigration housing, which I know three of you were able to make it to the best showing from all of the cities, actually, which is great, I think, for Tualatin. And just the challenges we heard specifically from the Latinx community there on issues that they're having with tenancy, with being able to find good, secure, and affordable housing, and then sort of the challenges on top of that of immigration enforcement in the area.

So all of that kind of brings us here to chat a little bit more about what we're looking at in terms of what's available for eviction prevention right now. So starting with what are the funding streams? Eviction prevention comes from sort of all the streams federal, state, metro, SHS. We're kind of in that sweet spot of having both Washington and Clackamas County, and then private sources such as churches. All of the sources across the board have been cut in the last year by 50% or more.

Pretty serious cut, and it has had, very felt impacts. Need has also risen, of course. Right now, in this moment, how do people get rent assistance? One, there used to be sort of this process of, okay, I call Community Connect. I have to have my eviction notice.

If I have that eviction notice, then they can go through the process of paying my landlord and resolving that. Well, last year that changed, and it was now you have to wait till you get to eviction court. So when you get to eviction court, there will be a provider there. They will be able to help forgive that so that you can move on from that. Well, that is no longer available.

So right now, really the only source of rent assistance outside of those private sources or local connections is that you have to be receiving services from Community Action. And then they can provide rent assistance through, the funds that they have available, which are extremely limited at this point in time. Other than that, you know, we've seen our community really galvanize around doing like GoFundMe's for folks, trying to figure out how to do shared housing, get really creative. And I think in the provider world, we sort of have two strategies. One is just real talk with people, having conversations about paying paying for rent and getting everything else covered through any other stream.

So making sure that your food is coming from a food pantry so you don't have to pay that cost. Having getting utility assistance if there's a provider that's able to pay for that, being able to just wherever you can get those other costs covered, the primary amount that you're making should be going directly to rent because that is gonna hardest one to cover. So that's one conversation. The other conversation is really just on safety planning, like what's next. We know that we're not going to be able to get you out of this situation.

Is that is there family that you can move in with? Is there temporary living that we can figure out for your kids? Are there shelters that we can start to look at referring you into? Because we know that the shelter wait list can be anywhere from, two weeks to a couple months. So, those are kind of the conversations that we're having with people who are finding themselves in the situation of, not being able to pay their rent.

We've and that is really the primary source of eviction here in Washington County and Oregon. So on the the lighter side of things, we do have some local Toalton investments. We have the Toalton outside agency grants. We've been able to do a few grants to organizations like Just Compassion and Family Promise. They're not necessarily eviction prevention specific.

Some of them do like youth programs or moteling, but they are supporting organizations that are helping to move and use funds creatively to help people and bridge those gaps between when people might lose their housing and get new housing. So it really does any way that we can support those organizations is always really appreciated by our providers and recognized for that investment from Tualatin. There's my position. I'm just the problem solver, I guess, in this area trying to figure out how we can connect, how we can get people into the right places to make sure that they are connecting with people, and that that as soon as they can get access to a service, they get it, and they're not having to wait more time. I think that's really my ultimate goal is everybody is aware of SHS and knowledgeable about it directly in our area, which I think we've had a lot of success doing, in the last year and a half.

We also have our utility bill assistance program here. That's run through community action. That's a great assistance program to be able to do some of that forgiveness around utilities. There's different qualifications on that, but it is something that we're able to offer. And then the last two that are sort of around this are the legislative agenda, which has included housing and eviction prevention and advocacy from you all, and then also investments in affordable housing like Planbeck, of course.

So those are all things that help make housing more affordable and look at what kind of policy and change can we have here locally that that will make it a little bit easier for folks. So we've identified a couple opportunities for enhancement. One, the first is just sort of continuing that legislative agenda advocacy. Think specifically identifying opportunities where the state can provide more funding or at least not cut more funding around rent assistance, anything in that area that would have an impact. The second one is outreach and connections to services via our library and police.

I wanted to share one awesome thing that we've been doing for the last three months while the Tigard Library has been closed. We were able to connect with several providers who have been tabling at the Toalton library. So Comfort Zone, HomePlate, and Just Compassion. And they've each been there once a week directly connecting with folks and trying to get them connected back to services. It's been a really awesome opportunity.

Unfortunately, both comfort zone and home plate are being impacted by funding cuts and so they won't be able to continue. But we've created, I think, a really great system with just compassion and just trying to make those connections directly at the library and refer folks in. So I think just doing more of that. We've also had really great experience with the police. And when they go out, like, to a Motel six where somebody is being asked to leave, referring them directly into emergency shelter and those types of things as well.

So I think just finding more opportunities where we can do that would be helpful. Third is the involvement in decision making at the county, metro, and state level. I think most importantly, the HHS ARPOC committee has now kicked off in its new form. And so I think I could do a better job of following those meetings and just following what's coming up for conversation there, advocating for Southeast Washington County. And I know the mayors are really involved in that as well and just trying to figure out what other things what voice can we have in that process.

And then the last two are really specific to Toowalton. There's the option to sort of focus the outside agency grant program allocations. So we could do something like put priorities over the grant allocations and say, we really wanna focus on funding housing or eviction prevention projects this time around or dedicating a specific amount of those grants to that could look all sorts of different ways, I think, and or dedicating a new funding allocation specific to that. So that's sort of the very large overview from from big to small on different opportunities there are for enhancing this. And with that, I will just turn it over to questions.

Questions from Megan. Council Brooks.

Thank you very much. My first question is when we talk about the gap, so you said 50% of the funding and then there's all these access limitations and entry point limitations. I guess the first thing is I wonder if you could just send us that in like a form because I think if we were going to do advocacy with anybody, if we have all that information together, we can talk about what we've heard in listening sessions from our community, if we're going to do a tailored approach for our community with a community needs assessment and then have that information. And then I'm kind of curious what the gap amount that we've lost is about. So if we were going to talk about funding allocations, would it be specific service providers that we could tap?

How would we bridge those loss connections and make those determinations? And so would it just be a dollar ask, or would it be finding out where there might be money from foundations or any other unlooked at monies. So that's my first question. And then my second question is can I see that one slide again? The last one.

Thanks, Brooke. Yeah. I guess it was the money and the information, I think, that you gave us in the first point. I think those were my two questions. So sorry about that.

No. That's great. And I appreciate you being at that Saturday, February on the eighteenth. One of the other things that was brought up from that was tailoring resources for landlord. That's right.

And the idea was that there are some landlords that are really responsive and some that aren't. And is there a way of having some kind of a database? Some cities have done that. And I think it would be good for both education of programs that are available as well as what the rights are of tenants. And then if there's been a history of really, really bad things. Like we heard a couple stories of things that really nobody should live with that I feel. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilor Sacco.

Thank you for your presentation and the work that you do. So focusing the outside agency grant program allocations, I think that's an interesting idea. And I would love to give to everybody that applies and and wouldn't and I would hate to to not sort of continue what we've been been doing. However, if we deem that this need is greater, I would be interested in understanding how how much we give goes to not not only specifically eviction prevention, but, like, the food pantry, like you said. Right?

Like, that that those services help keep people housed as well. And also there are multiple agencies that we give to that I think contribute to that. But I would be interested to learn if we gave larger amounts to agencies, would they be able to do more with large I guess making sure that our dollars working the hardest that it can for our community. That's what I'd be interested in learning. And then I could you explain maybe a little bit more of the new funding allocation and kind of what like, how would that work?

What would that look like? And I know you probably don't have all the details, but just just a little bit more information about that bullet. Sure.

I think, if that's something you wanted to look at, we could discuss some options and bring something back. I imagine, we've seen some other municipalities like Hillsborough, dedicate specific eviction prevention resources. Most of them have done it, for families impacted by immigration enforcement, which was a big need in the fall. And so they really, what they did is they just, you know, had a dollar amount dedicated those fundings. They were direct allocations to organizations that had connections with the community, and then those organizations were responsible for doling out the eviction prevention, rent assistance payments.

So I would imagine something similar could also go through a grant process too, but I'm not imagining something that we would run, but that we would probably grant our contract to outside agencies that already have the ability and the knowledge on how to do

that. You.

Councilor Hillier.

Thank you for all of the above. And to dovetail on counselor Sacco's question, I'm curious to know also in that list if there are agencies that maybe cater to youth zero to twenty two probably, if And you I wonder how many youth right now are being impacted, do you think, in our community? And if you don't know, that's a really not on this. But it's something I think about, so you can answer me later if you want.

I can get more specific data. I know that Oregon struggles with the highest rate of youth homelessness in the nation. Home plate has been reporting a lot of challenges with serving youth. More of them are inside families than outside, like unaccompanied youth. But definitely definitely seeing a lot of youth being impacted and having some conversations with the school district

as well. I know Dorian at Home Plate is just yeah. Any dollar that goes to that place is a dollar well spent. I'm kind of curious. At one point, we learned that there are other low income providers here in Toalton outside of Plumbach. And I just wondered, do we are they are they as long of a waiting list kind of as everyone else? Or how do we partner with them? I mean, I Plumbach has a different, you know, setup, and I get that. And I'm just wondering about the one or two other places here in Toowalton.

I would have to go back and look. I know that we have some properties that have LITEC in them. So they're not necessarily run, yeah, like by a CPA. They just have requirements in terms of AMI that folks are making coming into the units. So it's less of sort of a dedicated process like something from CEPA or REACH.

That makes good sense. Thanks. And then my final thought is maybe I'm just not understanding the nuance of the term houselessness. But it seems like we focus on rent. And I wonder about people who own their homes that are behind because of all these circumstances. And are these resources the same for people who have a home and could experience houselessness? I get that they have an investment, but I mean, the goal is to not have them have to sell their home to so I was just curious about that.

Yeah. That's a great question. It is not the same. There are organizations, like Opendoor Counseling Center is able to do some, mortgage assistance. I don't know what that's looking like these days, but I know they've been able to do, some programming around that. A lot of that is, again, working with folks to, maybe think about doing shared housing or something like that as well. So it's yeah. It is in sort of its own realm from the rent assistance.

Thank you. It just feels like that should be included in our conversations a little bit. Think we're going to see shifts in the next eighteen months Strongly agree. Yes. I would just love us to and even if it's learning on our own, send us education or whatever it is so that we can use the right language. But I'm pretty passionate about that. Thank you for all your And I think all your ideas are great. I wish that I could even personally give more to some of these agencies. This is really important work. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Other questions? Vice Pratt.

Thanks, Megan. I guess I came to eviction prevention because I talked to like just compassion some other organizations and said, to me it's like how can we most effectively use the dollars we give to help the most people? So that's what I'm looking for. And I guess, like, is there like I don't know if you could do this, but like a dollar amount. Like, if you for every $500, it does this kind of thing. So it's real clear Yes. Concrete, because I like that.

Yeah. We can definitely bring that back to you.

And then the other side of it is on the legislative agenda advocacy and the involvement with the county and metro and the state. And I don't wanna put more on you, but like if there is something of coming where we can advocate, is that something you can like shoot an email to Mare because he's good at sharing? And so that way because some of us do write letters and talk to people, so we'd be glad to help advocate if it's a big issue.

I appreciate that. Please give me more work. I'm always happy to help you work to Walton. Yeah, think a good example is one of the things that I had learned about was the Portland mayor's ask to Washington County for HHS fund, and that was something that I tried to get out as quickly as possible. So the more I can be in spaces where I can hear some of that, I'm happy to make it back to you all. And then if I can be helpful in providing more context or anything like that,

I would love to do that.

Great. Thank you.

Any other questions? Councilor Brooks. The

other question I had was about the utilities program that we're running. There have we used all of our dollars? Have we been how's that program been going, I guess, is my question.

I would have to get back to you with the exact details. I think we do it on, like, a monthly allotment, and there's sort of a dedicated amount. So I think it's been budgeted out, and I'm sure we'll expend the funds for that program.

Okay. Yeah. I'd just love to see how it's going so that when we're taking all these things into consideration, if there's something that's lagging, then we can understand that when we're looking at this overall picture. And I very much appreciate your work.

Any other questions? Well, very much appreciate your work. As Councilor Brook just said, Megan, I know it's an uphill battle for you every day. Your job is not getting easier. Dollars are being cut and it's impacting people. And it's frustrating to both us and you trying to keep people's lives intact with dwindling resources and exceeding demand. I give you credit for what you do and I appreciate what you do for us.

Thank you. I think we're lucky to be in a community that has amazing things like Borland and those types of services where, you know, when your medical costs aren't being covered, that can be another reason to be evicted. So it's great to be here this evening, get to hear more about what they do too. And, if I, I think I've got a lot of feedback from you all this evening, so I'll take that back and then get back to you with more information.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. That brings us to item number two, a review of library cooperative intergovernmental agreements between the city of Tualatin and Washington County. Presentation will be given by City Manager, Lambos. For folks in the audience who want to chat about this, what I'm envisioning is we'll have Cherilyn do her presentation. Then I'll open the floor to folks who are signed up or don't have to be signed up, who'd like to comment on the presentation or their thoughts on the library cooperative IGA drafts and then we'll go into Q and A, the counselors with Cherilyn. With that, floor is yours, Cherilyn.

Thank you, Mayor Bubinec and members of the city council. Before I, start this, I am remiss at in my, manager's report to not call out it's Bates' birthday today. Wow. Bless his heart. He had, like, work. I told him, like, can you send us staff? He's like, no. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. Anyway, so thank you for being here. Yep.

So let's just jump right in. I feel like I've got quite a bit of detail on in the presentation, and it's probably more detailed than I would ever recommend our staff, including in presentations. However, given the visibility of this and the sensitivity around it, I thought it would be a good idea to get into some level of detail. And so we're going to talk about the background and history of cooperative agreements, getting here and the timeline, who makes up the cooperative and who's responsible for what, and then a word about the centralized collection project since that is called out in who's responsible for what. The funding of the cooperative, which is a big piece of this, the structure, roles and decision making and then accountability.

So just a little history of the cooperative. So it was formed in 1976 after Beaverton put in some money for a study of library services and then a number of communities went together to form the cooperative. Then a voter funded tax measure for libraries in Washington County was passed in 1976. When measures five and fifty went into place, that was rolled into the general fund of Washington County. There's been a strong historical commitment, although not a legal commitment, which we found out a number of years ago, several years ago that there was no legal commitment for that, but there has been a strong historical commitment to designate those funds for libraries.

So in 1977, Tualatin joined the party And then starting in 2006, there have been a number of local option levies every five years that have been passed to supplement the funding of the Washington County General Fund. Of the 2627 total WCCLS budget, which is over 51,000,000 in year one of this new IGA, approximately 45% is made up of the County General Fund and 55 is the local option levy. So we're currently under two separate IGAs. The first one is called the Washington County Cooperative Library Services Agreement. It is a perpetual agreement between the members of the cooperative and Washington County.

The current agreement was created in 2006, approved and there have been two amendments since. So one in 2007, which added North Plains to the cooperative and then in 2016 added Aloha to the cooperative. Right before the yes, so 2015 when the local option levy, when we were going into that local option levy, was the levy was raised to account for Aloha. And then once that levy was passed, Aloha joins the cooperative. So that IGA sets up governance structure roles and process.

So it creates a governing or says who the governing body is, the executive board and the policy group. The second is the public library network services and funding agreement. So that is a five year agreement that follows the term of each one of the levies. And so this one we're under right now is 07/01/2022 through, the June. Well, it says June 20.

It should say June 30. Typo, 06/30/2026. So this outlines all the operational terms, the minimum operating requirements, ownership and management of the information network, which is a really big deal. The services and support provided by WCCLS, the services that are provided by the member libraries, and then the funding. So that first one there is going to be replaced by this new governance, IGA Governance Agreement.

It does add much more detail about roles and responsibilities. It tightens up definitions and structure. It goes from approximately a nine page IGA to I think around a 20 page IGA or 16. And that is because it adds quite a bit of detail around structure rules and responsibilities. The second one, the PLN IGA is the new operating agreement.

And again, it has much more detail and clarifies many things. Fundamentally changes the funding structure and we'll walk through all of that. So how do we get here? So the funding and governance project started back in January 2024 when it was anticipated that we were going to that the levy was going to be up at the end of it was going to be on the ballot in November '25. And the library director and I directly were in were directly engaged and involved hundreds of hours across the cooperative working on the funding structure and the governance project.

In October '5, the funding allocation methodology and service boundaries were approved. We brought that to you in September '5, and that was the basis of your support for the levy and moving forward with that amount of the levy and the allocation, how it was allocated. Of Of course, in November, the five year local option levy was approved by 58% yes, so strong support throughout the county. And then starting in January through right now, we've been working on the governance and IGA with all of the members. So kind of a broad statement before I get into the rest of it.

So the IGAs are laid out in a structure not of my doing. And I it it doesn't always make sense to me, to my pea brain. So how I am gonna go through it is kind of random because I think it I think it will tell a better story of the cooperative and who does what and the funding. But by the end of it, I think we will have gotten through both IGAs and we can pull up the IGAs and walk through them if you would like at some point. But I think how I've laid it out, how this has been laid out is a little more intuitive at least for me.

So who makes up the cooperative? So Washington County, WCCLS, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, is a department of the county. They are governed by the Board of County Commissioners, and they provide the critical infrastructure and support services that connect all the independently operated libraries into one county wide system. And that is laid out, and and we'll talk through that. There are nine well, are 12 member libraries and they're called contractors in the IGAs.

So nine cities, Banks, Beaverton, Cornelius, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, North Plains, Sherwood, Tigard and Tualatin, and then three nonprofit libraries. So Aloha, Cedar Mill and Garden Home. So they each have distinct service boundaries and service populations. That is a new thing in this operating IGA. We have never had service boundaries or service populations.

The funding allocation was built on service metrics like collections and circulation. Then it became very much a black box of the unexplainable and hard to defend to say how much Tualatin was getting versus Tigard versus Sherwood. And so this new funding methodology is based on a clear and defensible methodology. So section 14 of the operating agreement outlines those service boundaries and service populations. Just to talk about Tualatin's a little bit.

Tualatin's service population is 30,148 and is based on our what is in our boundary. It also includes the city of Durham. And it does what it does not include is the area the un annexed area in Basalt Creek. So there is a section in Section 14 of the operating agreement, Section 14.5 that's called modifications resulting from annexation. And that outlines when we annex that area in Basalt Creek that we anticipate annexing, that will be added to our service population.

Although there is not anticipated to be residents, but we still want to the The part that's annexed right now is ours. Does that make sense?

Do you

want to ask a question about that? Oh, that's annexed. That's annexed. That's in our. Yes, exactly. West Of Boones Ferry essentially.

Alright.

So let's talk about who's responsible for what. So this is outlined in section 12 of the operating agreement based service levels to be provided by the contractors. This section is greatly expanded and clarified. The only requirements before were essentially two, member libraries had to be open forty five hours a week and have one full time equivalent employee. So the we spent many hours talking about what base service levels were and what was valid for that we basically would get paid for.

Starting so collections and materials, 12.1, local collection comprising books, media, other materials at a minimum through 06/30/2027. And we'll talk again about the collection central centralization. However, the at minimum doesn't just refer to the collection centralization. It also we can provide and maintain local collection. It's still undefined of what amount that would be because that's part of this collection centralization process.

But at a minimum and potentially into the future, we provide and maintain the local collection. We also provide and maintain well, this is after June 30 access to community focused collections comprising physical books and media in priority languages to meet local patron needs provided by WCCLS. So that refers to what will happen after the centralization collection project is complete. 12.2 community outreach and engagement, we have to provide a website that has all the information on it and also link to WCCLS. We provide personnel, so we have to provide staffing sufficient to support forty five open hours a week.

We provide fifty four? Sixty four. 64 open hours a week. So we're well above the base service level. At least one full time equivalent employee, exempt employee, so that is a supervisor, a library director, manager, supervisor.

And then schedules to ensure paid staff are available during those open hours. And then programs and services, there's I listed in summary here, but in person services for and programs for people of all ages and then regular and consistent programming based on community demand. You know this, we do an amazing job at all of these things. We are known for our programs and services. Sarah Jessodawson is here.

She's our Public Services Manager and she brings an amazing network of program of folks that bring programs and I think hands down we are known for having our programs and services are what is the top, let's go with top notch, yes.

State of the art.

Yes. So we meet all of these in spades. Continuing on in Section 12, technology. So we provide staff computers, scanners and printers, circulation technology to support the operations and then free public access computers with Internet access. We also provide and maintain public spaces, so access to the buildings and services and then a minimum of forty five hours of open every week.

So characteristic of the cooperative is that the money cannot be spent on the WCCLS money can't be spent on the building. Routine maintenance, it can be, but all the member libraries own and operate their own building. And so we can't use the funding for land acquisition or construction. So it is our library. And then operations, so basic policies in place and annual statistical reporting that's required.

Also in terms of what we're responsible for, so Section eight outlines of the operating agreement, outlines the duties and responsibilities for the network. So that is a huge part of the WCCLS net program in and of itself, and we have duties responsibilities associated with that. I will say that Bates and his team have had their eyes on the IGA in terms of making sure that they have comments in that it works for us. And then Section 15.1 of the operating agreement talks about compliance with Title VI. Back a couple of sections, because I wanted to talk about us first before I talked about WCCLS.

So section 10 talks about what WCCLS, the county department, is responsible for. So they're responsible for the base service levels. Beginning July 2027, as according to the plan right now, community focused collections comprising physical books and media and priority languages to meet local patron needs. They provide access to the ILL, the interlibrary loan service. Mail service to folks that are homebound.

That is the service that WCCLS manages. They manage the digital collection and then also digital learning tools and databases. Community outreach and engagement, WCCLS provides a website and then county wide engagement and partnerships. Technology, this is a really big one. Free public access, wireless internet access, so the WiFi.

Online catalog access 20 fourseven, an events calendar interface, the integrated library system. They provide inventory tags, security tags and all the library cards that we use, all the circulation technology and then the information network as outlined in Section seven. In terms of operations, they also have basic policies and annual statistic reporting requirements. They also run the courier service, pickup and delivery, which is integral part of getting our getting the materials throughout the cooperative and then facilitation of reciprocal borrowing agreements. There's three other sections that talk about WCCLS' responsibilities.

So Section three is ownership and management of the information network. Section seven is respond duties and responsibilities of the network. And then the compliance with title seven of the title six, I'm sorry, of the civil rights act. So just a word about the centralization project. So this is a multiyear effort to transition from a decentralized model of collection management, and I know you can read as well, but to a centralized approach.

So this was identified in the funding and governance project as having the potential of saving and the what is touted as the number is $2,000,000 savings system wide. There has been some question of whether that is an accurate number, but that is the number that has been associated with centralized savings. Currently, all the member libraries manage their own physical collections. So the digital collection is already centralized. WCCLS manages all of that, including all aspects of the process from acquisition to disposition.

So we have folks in our library that work on all of that. Acquiring then and Sarah can speak much more eloquently if you have questions about all that entails. We spent we budget just over $200,000 and that was in 2526 for collection development. So and we that gets allocated by youth and adult and all the various collections. The primary drivers for this effort are efficiencies across the cooperative.

So duplication of effort, every library has folks that are doing something of the same thing. And then lack of consistency in how each member library does this, and so in policy and practice. And then there, like I said, financial savings realized as a result of the efficiencies. I will say that Tualatin has been in a different position than many of the member libraries. Many of the member libraries are facing budget cuts and the attraction of these savings is very real to them.

And so through this process, any savings realized we are able to keep. So in Tigard for instance, they have approximately this is a guess, but it's an educated guess. Let's say four staff people that are dedicated to collection development. They are able to not fill those positions and realize that savings. They also are not like we wouldn't if we cut the full two ten million we could cut the full $210,000,000 and keep that for other if we needed it for other areas in the library.

So the attraction for libraries that are facing budget cuts is very real. And the centralization project is not being driven by Tualatin, as you I'm sure you know, but it is being driven by member libraries that both big and small that are facing real budget challenges. So the timeline for this project started in February in discovery and readiness. We're in that phase right now. It was launched and there's a lot of data collection.

There's a contractor consultant that was hired, ARC, that stands for something. They've done site visits. They are working with our staff. We had a number of our staff participate and give lots of good information. They're doing a current state assessment.

When that phase is complete, then it will enter into design and co creation, so policy and procedure framework and all of the things necessary to implement, ultimately leading to the goal of centralization and implementation. And stated date has been July 2027. We'll say that and it's on the next slide, but the we are very unsure of that timeframe and want it to be the right approach, not the fastest approach. And so we are advocating for an expanded timeline if it's necessary. And the consultant has said that they will recommend that if they find that it's not workable by July '27.

You know this, but the local collection is highly valued by our users. There was a survey conducted in 2024 when we first started this funding and governance project, and respondents indicated that selection of materials was the second highest factor in choosing which library to visit, only second to location convenience. So what we're advocating for is timeline adjustments and flexibility as needed, a phased rollout as appropriate. There are certainly some collections that we have that would make ultimate sense for being centralized right away that it's just there's not a lot of difference between what happens at our library versus what happens at Hillsboro versus what happens at Sherwood on some of

those

collections. But others, we may not be phased out as quickly or phased in as quickly. So then a system that allows for some local collection ownership. Like I said, we are willing to hold money and buy materials and have a local collection that matches our patrons and our community. And so we will want to advocate for that.

And I do believe that I have we have indications that allow us to believe that that will be possible. And then a community focused collection as informed by our staff and our patrons. And then involvement is in what is spent on collections at member libraries and input into how that money is broadly allocated among the collection areas. Feel like I had something about hang on just a second. Oh, yes.

So there are benefits to being part of the cooperative, really. So access to all items. And so the Tualatin owns right at 100,000 physical items is in our collection. The cooperative members holdings is about 1,500,000. So we have our patrons, we all have access to all of those as opposed to the 100,000 items, materials in our library right now.

And there there's a huge benefit to to having access to all of that. I know as a a library user, I go on the website, look for Women by Kristen Hannah and put it on hold. I don't know whether it's at Tualatin or at Forest Grove. All I know is that I get a notice three days later that my book has shown up, and then, oh, I see it's from Cedar Mill. And it is very seamless to the user.

I know people do come in and browse absolutely and our local collection is really important and has to be unique to Tualatin. But there is huge value in having access to the entire collective. So a little bit about the funding. It's actually a big, huge thing. So section 16 covers all of this and Exhibit C of the operating agreement.

We presented this to you in September. Basically, it starts with our service population. So I mentioned that our service population is about 300,000 it's about 30,000. And then we are given a number of FTE units, and ours is 15. And there was a calculation around that.

And then that is multiplied by a number that so it's 128,000 per unit. And that is an average of what the in the members, not the nonprofit members, but all the member libraries of what FTE is with the all the overhead. So what it costs to provide the base service per unit. So that's multiplied 15 times 128,000, we get our base service allocation of $1,900,000 Then there was a shoring up. So they wanted we determined that every library would get at least a 5% bump from what where we are currently at.

So Tualatin in the 'twenty five, 'twenty six budget is was at around $1,900,000 actually a little less. So they gave us a 5% bump, which is $57,000 So our proposed allocation is just a little over $2,000,000 and that is the base for year one. And then everything escalates on top of year one. So year one, 26,000,000, 27,000,000, dollars 2,000,000 and change is our allocation. And that's again documented in 16.3.1, the allocation model.

16 also talks about the purpose of funds. We mentioned this a minute ago, the provision of library services, the base service levels, the allowable costs, so we can use that for overhead, administrative charges, routine building maintenance, furniture, fixtures and equipment. We cannot use it for capital improvement. WCCLS will maintain a three month fund balance, which is different than what the county policy is. It is smaller.

And a number of libraries argued for a smaller fund balance because then the county has because we all have our own fund balances and so that ended up being less than the county. They agreed to that. And then the funding distribution of how the funds will be allocated. And then the revenue in years two through five, how that will be escalated or reduced. And there's a chart that talks about like if the general fund, the county general fund and the levy see an increase, then our allocations increase by that same percentage.

If the general fund and the levy are flat, then our allocations are held flat. If the general fund and the levy decrease, then our allocations are decreased by that same percentage.

Councilor Brooks?

I feel like it's a lot of information. I have like questions piling up in my head a little bit here. I just want to understand the first thing, which is the amount of people that they're estimating that we have in our community. And I can understand for residents, but we have we always talk about we have more people that come in to work here, 30,000, I think, a day than we have residents of 28,000. And my other question around that is, I know that we have more people that live here now than in Forest Grove.

The Forest Grove's numbers are bigger than ours for some reason. So that was just a quick look. So I'm just kind of curious about those the numbers, the allocation numbers. And then I guess the reason why I just had to stop here is they're already having a downturn in their general fund as we speak. So I don't understand how you have a baseline. Like, I don't I don't quite understand where we are right now.

So the general fund increase or decrease is intended to be the property tax increase or decrease, And we are not in a decrease of property tax. No. So that yes. So it like whatever the projection is, which they projected like four percent for the coming year for twenty six-twenty seven general fund property tax increase.

So we're saying it's the general fund not the reality of the general fund but what the

The property tax increase.

The factors are of the general fund? Okay.

Yes. Okay. And that is certainly true for the levy because the levy is calculated at like From

the a property Exactly. Tax So that was my one. And then I have a question just about like you talked about doing our own collection, still maintaining one, or if we can get that across the I'm confused about the collections because I know that we have like, we have those book sales that we do to benefit the library and that we have look for the foundation. And I'm kind of like, we have a way that we can already get books from other libraries right now. So I just don't understand what the difference is between centralizing our collection and having the whole like, we can already access books from other libraries right now.

So I don't understand the difference here exactly.

I'm just not clear. Can we come

Yeah, if we can. I just I'm just confused. So those were just my questions that came up.

I'm trying to hold questions to the end because

She might have the answers.

Yeah. Because she's got Cheryl's got a lot more slides.

Got a

few more.

Just write down the

Sorry.

Councilor Sacco, do you need it right now?

Well, just real quick because you just said you said in the way that it's intended. The general fund is And so that that specific, I guess, language, is that the way it's written?

No. Okay. So this next slide.

Nice segue.

So total projected revenue is the local option levy revenue plus the delinquent local option levy taxes plus the county general fund transfer equals the total revenue. And what is written in the agreement is projected county general fund transfers are determined through the county's annual budget process. That is a risk. It's a risk. This chart is the example of what is forecast, but that is what is written.

And the county has adamantly said, the Board of County Commissioners has said that they will not commit a dollar amount to that it is there through their annual budget process. So in the asks at the end, I personally think that this is the biggest risk of the entire both of the IGAs. If we're I said in the former slide that the 45% is the county general fund of the $51,000,000 And that if I mean that 45% is a lot. And if they determined that they are going to take that away, we can't sustain our labor. But nobody can.

Like that is the cooperative. So that is the biggest risk. I will say that even through these last three years of budget cuts, so they've had the county has had huge budget holes. And they have continued to transfer from the general fund to WCCLS and we have seen an increase every year in our allocation. They have maintained that.

And they have maintained their commitment to the digital collection even in budget cuts. So if that history is comforting at all, they have maintained that commitment in huge budget cuts.

But the increases weren't as high as they were supposed

to be? They were not. They were not. We got two percent one year and one percent one year.

Gosh, she's got more.

Sorry. Revenue from user fees, so we retain the if we collect revenues, fees, we keep them. Adjustments in distribution, so I don't think this would ever apply to us because we don't have a branch. Hillsboro and Beaverton both have branches. But if you open an additional branch, don't get additional money in this in the term of this agreement.

And if you close a branch, you must maintain at least one service outlet. But if you close a branch, you don't get a decrease either. And then they'll distribute the money quarterly. To talk about the structure of governance. So this is the structure for the cooperative, not our local library.

So when we say the governing body is the Washington County Board of Commissioners, that doesn't mean the Board of County Commissioners is You determine governing body for our local the budget. You determine what happened. We determine what happens. Tollenton staff or our staff. But for the WCCLS, the governing body is Washington County.

Then there's an Executive Board. So that's outlined in Section four of the governance IGA. It's 12 voting members representing the 12 contractors and it's the city manager or designee. And then there's a number of non voting members including the Washington County administration, the WCCLS manager and then the Chair and Vice Chair of the Library Leadership Group. Then the library leadership group is also outlined in the governance IGA, same type of thing, 12 voting members is the library director or manager or designee, and then non voting member is the WCCLS manager.

And then WCCLS is has its own section of governance. So the exec board roles and responsibilities have three main ones, and then there's a number of things outlined under each one of these. So strategic leadership oversight and accountability for the cooperative. We're the liaison to our local organizations and governing bodies and advisory to the Board of County Commissioners, the County Administrator and the WCCLS Manager. There's a schedule of meetings, not fewer than four times a year, election of officers, quorum, voting.

I put in here one vote per member of the exec board. There's been a movement, primarily the larger libraries that has not been supported by everybody else to have weighted votes and Tualatin has not supported that and what's ended up in the IGA is one vote per member of the exec board. And then there's some information about adding or subtracting members. The library leadership group, which was formerly called the policy group in the existing IGA that this replaces, has operational leadership and subject matter expertise for the cooperative, liaison to local staff, community members and advisory groups, and then advisory to the exec board and WCCLS manager. And there's a number of things, other things that are addressed including that they meet monthly or as needed and then again they get one vote each.

And there's a lot of detail under each one of these five point four point one and I see another typo in there, I'm sorry. And then WCCLS has a list of roles and responsibilities as well. So they are responsible for funding infrastructure, leadership, collaboration, coordination, subject matter expertise and providing infrastructure and cooperative wide library services. They are the steward of WCCLS resources and services that link all the libraries and then they're the liaison between the board, the administrator, the exec board and the library leadership. So decision making is listed out fairly well.

So it's in Section seven as well as in Attachment A, the decision making matrix in the governance IGA. So collective decisions are defined as actions or recommendations that materially affect the cooperative governance, funding and services. And then 7.2 outlines the decision making structure and then a voting mechanism for collective decisions. We're requiring two thirds majority vote. That became very important going through this process and we all realized and agree that the two thirds majority vote is important to maintain.

And then failure to achieve a two thirds majority vote, there's a process for when that happens. And so then Attachment A in the governance IGA talks about collective decisions and has a long list of what the collective decisions are. And then local decisions, which it has a list of those as well, which we agree with. And then the WCCLS decisions, which are much more limited in paper. Accountability, and this is I'm almost done.

Section 17 of the operating agreement, so we're back to the operating agreement, talks about accountability. So we have shared reporting requirements. We have to demonstrate compliance with the agreements related to use of the library funds and delivery of the base service levels. We agree with this. It is important us to be accountable.

Having ongoing communications and then a cooperative process for addressing issues. Yeah. This did not exist anywhere in any of the IGAs. It is a little loose and we would like it tightened up to look more like a dispute resolution process. But it is important to have something like this in the IGA.

So if we were to go through the IGAs, you would see that I covered almost everything except for some of the more legalese. I'm happy to talk through any of those if you would like. And Kevin is here. He's had his eyes on it. So what's next? By May 1, so this Friday, our feedback, our initial feedback and comments are due to the county. So Kevin has had his eyes on it, like I said, information services, Bates has had has comments. Our risk management team has looked at it. Subject matter expert review, Geriann looked at it. We've had others in the library with eyes on it.

Your comments will be included in that. We have two opportunities for additional work sessions if we need and we can talk through that more. On May 12, the Board is looking at it again and to discuss our feedback. And then on '26, are set to adopt recommendations and move forward with the signature process. And then on June 30, our current levy expires.

I will say that it and you may have questions about this. It is important that we sign an IGA. We do not want to be under the existing IGA or extend the existing IGA, the operating IGA because the funding formula is so vastly different and is not in our best interest. So it is important that at least for the operating IGA and the governance IGA is we don't have a ton of comments on the governance IGA. But anyway, the current levy expires June 30.

And in order to get the money under the new formula, funding allocation formula, we need to be a party to the agreement. I'm done. I'm sorry. I know that was so much detail.

Put you up one more slide.

Oh, do I? Oh, yes, ask some counsel. Thank you. So this is an initial list. So advocate for sustained commitment from the county general fund to the WCCLS.

You know, there's people running for county commission. You have your connections. I that is a super important aspect of that the county continues to maintain their commitment to the general fund transfer. Also advocate that Washington County commit to maintaining community focused local library collections and then commit to involving us in annually determining the amount to be spent on collections at our library and input into how that money is broadly allocated among collection areas. And then reinforce the need for and the importance of strong communication and ongoing collaboration throughout the cooperative.

That's our initial list.

All right. All right. Thanks. So I'll go ahead and open to the floor for public comments on the WCCLS draft governance agreements. So I have signed up. I have the twelfth and library foundation, Emily. And then after Emily, you do not have to be signed up. You can come on up if you're in the room or raise your hand in Zoom. Try to keep your comments to three to five minutes, please.

Well, it's a pleasure to be here this evening. My name is Emily Yonker, and my husband and I moved to the Tualatin area about eight years ago for work purposes, and we have loved it and don't have any intention of going anywhere else anytime soon. I have been involved on the Tualatin Library Foundation board, and I'm actually the treasurer. And I'm here to represent the board. We had a meeting last Thursday discussing this, and, I have come prepared with a statement, from our foundation.

As a board, we are unanimously opposed to the Washington County Corporate Library Services inter government agreement as it currently stands. The libraries in Washington County are independent community and nonprofit libraries who contract with Washington County for certain services. We do not have a county library system nor have the voters in the cities and service areas voted to create such a service or system. This IGA would remove the power to purchase the materials in all the libraries located in the Washington County from the individual community libraries and give that power to the WCCLS. While the IGA states that the individual libraries can provide input, the WCCLS can ignore that input or just go along with a couple of other libraries and what they want and not what Tualatin wants.

We believe that we should retain the community focused local library collections within the community and not let a committee of county members who don't spend any time getting to know us or our needs make those decisions. The IGA would take away our choice of what is or is not on our shelves. However, it doesn't take away the accountability. As a community library, the city retains accountability in any dispute, and we shouldn't have to defend choices made by the county. We, as the Library Foundation, appreciate the connectivity that is provided by being a county library within Washington County.

There is great benefit in having the interlibrary lending options so that we can access all of the materials. But we believe it is in our community's best interest to retain as much control of the library as possible without the county overreaching into areas of our community. This is our library in our community and should remain under our control as much as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room would like to provide comment? Don't see any hands. Is there anyone in Zoom, Nicole? Those folks in Zoom, this is your opportunity to raise your hand.

I'll give you another shot just in case. I've seen hands go up. Alright. With that we'll move on to the barrage of questions for Sherlyn and or our city attorney because I know I've got some, but open to the floor first for questions, comments, discussion. Councillor Gonzales. I'm going

to go with comments. Okay. I know that when we initially talked about this, we knew that it almost we're almost tied. We have to almost do this. We cannot fund our own library as Tualatin can, so it sucks.

This organizational chart that was displayed is just so arduous. It reminds me of the state's general fund that when there is issues with not funding police or fire or sometimes schools, because the general fund isn't properly funded, then we are gonna be in a bad position. And this just adds one more service under that general fund. I know it's a local general fund and the WCCL has been properly funded based on what you said. But it it is a thick bureaucracy.

You know, before this had happened, Tualatin at one time maybe funded its own library. But now, we really truly need to think about fundraising and having our own money just to meet the gap. Because, you know, when the general fund gets stressed for whatever reason, we will suffer. And I hate to say it because it's it's very cynical. I understand that, but government has it has has a bad track record.

So and here we are gonna be part of that big pool of money. I I really wish that this meeting could be broken up in two because this was a lot of information. And we could have come prepared, but I know that this needs to be signed and it's if I had a vote right now, I'm gonna say no in me, and that's what we're asking right now. But I am really concerned about this, that we're gonna lose our local control, and we're gonna be having to go talk to a council person and advocate for them. For what? Just to fund our minimum requirements that we need for our constituents. So this is just to me a bad situation. But I understand it. And it's that's

a bad situation. Others? Councilor Sacco.

I have a long list. I'm sorry. But so in so in the the chart that that breaks down what everybody gets, I'm I'm sorry, should I know this. But so the 17,000,000 that goes to WCCLS, what all does that pay for? Like, in broad strokes, not in detail.

It pays for all of the stuff that they that that is in the operating agreement that they provide. So hang on. In section 10. So it includes collection, courier service, which includes like physical sites and all of the things that go into the equipment, the reciprocal borrowing agreements, the entire network.

Yes. Just out of curiosity, how many salaries does that pay for?

How many salaries does WCCLS ask? I

don't know. Maybe I'm really sorry. Forget that, but it's a fairly thin organization. Okay. Okay. Alright. Thank you.

I can we can find that out.

Alright. Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah. That amount is not only, you know, spent within WCCLS. A lot of it is redistributed among the member libraries. So that's not just internal spending for them.

Okay. So is that then in addition to that like because in that chart there was like you know, all the cities and then 17,000,000 WCCLS. And so I guess is more of that distributed out then?

The $17,000,000 is WCCLS' budget, but that also includes the reserve. Okay. And it includes their salary, it includes the physical sites, it includes the courier service, it includes collection, and all of the information network. Okay. So

it includes collection. So how so going to this idea of, you know, the centralized collection and then we would retain some and I of our own local collection, what what percentage would we then retain as our own local collection? And how is that funding different between the centralized collection and the local collection?

That is yet to be determined. And the but the $17,000,000 does include funding for a consolidated collection. So they would they do the collection development. They would buy the materials and hopefully with our input and that's what we're fighting for. But the and then the amounts for every city, we can spend that as we we determine. So if we want to spend it on some local collection Mhmm. We can.

Okay.

I believe. We

are still in that. All the libraries have had their meetings with the consultants. We are still waiting for to hear their recommendations, but we have in our conversations with them, we have heard that they understand that there are a lot of individual concerns at each library. We don't all do things the same way. We and excuse me and so and 07/01/2027 all the things that we still own that we purchased are still ours.

If there are things being purchased cooperatively that are from the cooperative that become, you know, part of what's available on our shelves Mhmm. The ownership right now is WCCLS, but there's they still haven't worked out mechanisms like what happens with the accession and and what happens with those items who makes those determinations. There there's a lot of unanswered things to be worked out on the plans.

Okay. That's good. And so the work that the foundation does, does all that work stay within Tualatin still? A 100 a 100%?

There's been no mention of local support groups having to allocate centrally.

Okay. Okay. Perfect. Oh, yeah. As it relates to the collection and that what they purchased. Okay. Thank you. So with this new agreement, are we going to see open fewer open hours and will our service levels decrease? Absolutely not. Okay.

What reassurance do we have?

I mean, it's part of our budget process. It's like our our our like, that's what we're funding. We're funding the hours. We're funding the services. Like Okay. You'll see it in

the budget committee meetings and So if anybody had any questions and those budget committee meetings are coming up in May and they're able to attend.

I wanna can Yes. I dovetail to

your question?

To we alluded to the general fund transfer, say the county's expectations doesn't meet reality of what's gonna happen that year. They decrease the general fund transfer, we would then have to make it up at our budget to keep the library whole. Correct? Presumably, We take the hit for them to keep our hours and keep our library open.

If we take a cut in our distribution, from our $2,000,000 distribution, and so we have a $2,900,000 budget in the library this year, and we got less than $2,000,000 from the county, we would have to find a way to make that up.

So Doctor. Kastor Sucker, I just want to make that point.

Yeah, thank you. So going back to the the the biggest risk that that you mentioned, projected county general fund transfers are determined through the county's annual budget process. So how do we mitigate those risks? And besides just advocacy, I mean, what other steps can we take?

I do not have an answer for that. I I do not have an answer for that. They have been very clear that they will not put a guarantee into the IGA other than year one.

Okay. I'll have to think about that for a second. So you mentioned that there was conversation about bringing up weighted votes. That seems a little bit I guess I don't wanna say that anybody has poor intentions, but I guess just in any context, that seems a little bit like a power grab, where if you have more if you're if you're bigger, and you want more say, and then that you know? And so I and I understand that that's not what was written in.

But is there anything in the details that maybe we didn't see that would cause pause that there are that maybe the bigger cities are getting more than bargained for or any sort of, I guess, risk with any larger cities taking more having more of a power grab in with with the way that the language is written today. That that isn't that isn't, I guess, in our face that we wouldn't necessarily see.

Not from Tualatin's perspective. I I think that is not so there have been issues between Beaverton and Aloha. That is the primary area that has been challenging of who's responsible for what areas and that service that service area. And Aloha has been very frustrated through this process. But none of those impact Wallatin.

Any grabs, I mean, we've had good conversations with Tigard about Durham. We've had good conversations with Sherwood about the Basalt Creek area. Very collaborative discussions. And I mean at the end of the day, you know, is it a risk that the bigger libraries I mean they have their own arguments that they provide many more resources and that they there's a reason why they're big and that they should get more. But I think the language protects that one vote. Okay.

Two more for now. So the the boundaries. So if I if I understand this correctly, previous to this agreement, were we funded by by the boundary? Nope. And now we are funded by the boundary. And I saw the math, of course. But so is our boundary does that include our Clackamas County or all of it includes all of our Tualatin Yes. Folks? Yes. Okay.

And, I guess I'm just concerned about I I think councilor Brooks said it earlier, people coming in, coming I know that's with every city. However, know, just it's it's concerning that, you know, how that's gonna play out as far as how many visits and and all of those things. And are we really getting funded the level that we need to

be funded? So when we the consultant did an extensive equity analysis that took into account a lot of different factors. And ultimately, it it it was super unclear and it it skewed the the numbers and like the it it just became over overburdened. And so we all went back to this is the simplest, clearest, cleanest for most. And preserves the has a symbolism of I mean there's defense, it's defensible.

My last question, and it's just a clarification. So there was a mention of the funds couldn't be used for the actual buildings. Was that a change or is that just that's how it's Okay. Always Alright.

I think that's it for now.

Great. Councilor Hillier.

Thank you. So I'll try not to duplicate anything. So I think on page 13, had a list of things in the in the what was it? The operating or the sorry. One of the agreements. Yeah. The yeah. The operating. And so I'm curious what's the timeline to get answers on those questions as far as sorry. I kinda got out of there.

Sorry. Let me pop back over there. Page 13, I think it was. You had said we're advocating in the collection project for timeline adjustment and flexibility as needed, the phased rollout as appropriate, a system that allows from for some local collection ownership, a community focused collection as informed by our staff and patrons, and involvement in what is spent on collections at member libraries and input into how that money is broadly allocated on collection areas. So do we have a timeline for those answer?

I mean, like, is it before June 30 this year? No. Well so what the heck, right?

I mean we're in the process of I mean we're in the centralization collection centralization project that is not supposed it's not gonna be like turned on until 07/01/2027. So like we've got a year and more to go. But the funding, that list of funding that goes into effect on July 1

is

based on it takes into account the savings that are anticipated.

So these $2,000,000 a year, right? The $2,000,000 a year savings, But yet, we still don't have answers about any local control for that even when we sign it. Because I think it's evident we have to sign it. I think it's certainly an onus on us to advocate in a whole lot of ways. Because I mean I remember commissioner Tree sitting here and talking about the cost of the digital collection, know, all these different things and it's like, well, I sure wish there'd been a little more transparency at that moment or maybe they didn't know.

I mean, I think it's possible that, you know, when you have consultants, they uncover different things. And I I understand that, but I'm I'm just not sure it's in the best interest of our community. But anyway, do you so we've talked about this, the savings. Like if Beaverton has a satellite one, they get their allocation, they close the satellite one, they still get to keep the money. Well, so do you think that clause is an advantage or a disadvantage? Like if we decide to shut something down and we just keep the money, do we shift it? Or

They have to

keep one. But there were other examples of if you take an FTE, I thought maybe you'd said Tigard was shifting something and they kept money.

That's they just with the centralization project. So Sorry. I'm confused. No, I'm probably confused. I'm so sorry.

With the centralization project, whatever savings we find locally by shifting collection development to the county, we get to keep those savings. So the county will now be funding the purchase of the materials, where we have 210,000 in our budget to fund materials. So we technically, like that's going the the responsibility and the and the county is budgeting for that, but we have it in our budget. So we could technically use it for something else. Sure.

So when you say our budget, is that the money that when we as councilor, when we as the community go through the Tualatin City budget that we allocate to the library? It's not Yes. So it's not what they're giving us. It's all

kind of mixed together. But, like, our library budget is made up of our general fund contribution and the county, the WCCLS transfer, as well as Clackamas County transfer.

Those braided funds are fun,

aren't they?

But that's all part of our general fund. But yes, you ultimately you counsel ultimately decide the library budget.

Okay. So you you think it's an that that that is acceptable. That stands out to me as a concern. And maybe I just it's because I I'm not understanding the process as well. But that's okay. I can continue to learn more. And I fully agree that you need to push for some sort of resolution clause in there. Think that even with the best partners, clearly it sounds like Wilsonville and Sherwood are being great partners with us for all things, but there needs to be some sort of yeah, I'm concerned about that. It's enough. Thanks.

Okay. Councilor Reyes.

Thank you, Cherilyn and team from library. Just comments and maybe a few questions of clarification so I can understand. I really believe our our library I've been to several of these libraries. I I visit them, just Hillsborough and Beaverton. I feel that our library is very robust.

There's always people there. I'm not I mean, I'm not discerning maybe I'll go on the wrong time when I because I'm in that area a lot, but it's not as robust. And there's like ours. And I go based on what I see. If I see a lot of people, I'm like, woah, something's going on here.

When I you you mentioned something that there's gonna be a lot of commissioners running or a lot of that going on. Who and I know you you mentioned the manager and library manager and director sit on this commissioning boards. Is that from do we was that the role of our library director to sit on that board of the commissioners that are making decisions? The decision makers. Do you sit on that?

I sit on the executive board, and the library director sits on the library leadership group.

And you are making decisions as well when you're so when they propose and say, we want to add a LOA into this coalition. You get to say so or you get to vote on that? Or is that kind of like

Not that decision. That is a Board of County commissioners decision.

Right. But I'm wondering who are these ultimate oversight? Is that Commissioner Snyder? I mean, like, who and then Yeah. And who else? What other commissioner? Like, the Clackamas like, no.

Just Washington

County Just Washington County Commissioner.

All five commissioners. The whole the board of commissioners.

So Schneider okay. Can we say their names? Hanson Harrington. Harrington.

Lily. Mephisa five. Ham Trees. Jason Schneider.

So they make decisions for all the libraries within our Yes.

And they're trying to take more control

over it.

Right. I understand that they're trying to control. But like I thought we so no one's representing us in that. Like, they're they don't have, like, representations of city. And I'm I'm just trying to understand the governance and decision makers and people that decide who joins the WCCLS group. Like, I know that Aloha was added. I know Something Plains was added. Then there weren't part of the they're not a city. They're not established. They're not like I remember this. I don't know if that's if I'm correct if I'm wrong.

You're alright.

But I remember that that was part of the that we were talking about sorry. That that they were gonna get a portion, thank you, portion of money or funds from this coalition even though they weren't part of the they were not established cities.

Right. There's three nonprofit Nonprofits. Libraries.

Cedar Hills is the other one.

Cedar Mill

Oh, Cedar.

Garden Home, and Aloha. Okay.

So I just wanna make sure that I'm clear because I wanted to like because I will speak up and I know that, you know, so you you said if you can speak up in advocacy and do I will do that because it's not fair. Like, we were talking about that. It seems to me that it's not fair, obviously. That was one clarification of decision making. I saw Beaverton twice. Is that on the map that you showed?

Yes. They have two locations. They have a branch. They have their main library and then a branch library.

And a branch. And they're closing one?

No. They're not closing anything.

And they're still getting funds?

It's based on service area. Uh-huh. And so their service area and then they get every city gets to choose how they serve their area. So Beaverton has chosen to have a branch library and but they get the same amount of money for that service area.

Okay. So it's not like they're getting a portion

of them in Extra money for the branch. No.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Just click like I say, clarification because there's not a lot we

There's not a lot

of clarification. For me, as far as decision makers and governance. And then if we can go and advocate because we need to it sucks. And if we get to that point where you if we get to the point where those $2,000,000 are decided that the $2,000,000 that we're getting from the from the county are decided to be cut, that's gonna be the problem. Right? That's and we we still don't know where we're gonna get that if that happens.

And it wouldn't be the full 2,000,000 because, like I mentioned, the the levy Mhmm. Is separate. That we're gonna get that. And so that's 55% of the total. And the 45% is the county general fund commitment. So that's what's you know, technically at risk. At risk. Is the what the county general fund puts into it. But 55% of it, which I'm not saying that we if they if the county took away the full general fund support, like, we're left with 45 That wouldn't we would have a terrible time.

Right. Like, we

Thank you. I hope our city people out there are listening and choose wisely in November or whenever we're voting. Thank you.

Who wants to go first between you and council Brooks and council Sis?

Thanks. I don't understand how the population is determined exactly. So I think it would be good for us to have the numbers of what our city is losing and gaining compared to the other cities. Some of the concerns that I have in situations like this is that we'll do a really good job scrimping and saving on programs, and then less efficient programs get funded from efficient programs until the efficient programs break, and then everything is terrible. And I've been in libraries across the country that look underfunded by looking at them and by being in them because they can't really afford to be keeping them up.

You know? So I think it's really great that we have a foundation. And I guess we're fortunate too that we have a small percentage from Clackamas County. I don't really know the choice points exactly because we have a testimony that has a unanimous vote to not sign this, and I imagine they're smart people. So I don't know where where we would I don't know what the like, if we didn't sign, what money we have, what gaps, and how important it is to our community to have our own collection.

Like, is it GoFundMe important for the library? Like, I don't know I don't know all these answers right now. I do think that them releasing this at this short of a timeline is pretty bad. I am curious if Commissioner Schneider has shown up to any Library Foundation meetings or concerned citizens meetings at our library about these questions. And I think that, you know, that open house type of a thing with whoever, we can invite all of them to the community to ask these questions because this this is a very I mean, we we're losing and then I'm just gonna speak to, like, the elephant in the room too.

Like, commitment, professionalism, etcetera, of long term employees, that's hard to put a price tag on. We were already losing in this moment, in my opinion. And it's something sideways about this whole conversation, and I don't feel clear enough on this conversation right now about what our choices actually are and exactly what the community thinks about this in this moment. And I don't wanna be I'm also irritated because I feel like there's been several times now where our community is like like the side hustle of the county, frankly. And when something's not working out at the county, somehow we're getting the the short end of the stick.

I don't know where why exactly that's going on, but I think that advocacy is really important. I'm not ready to be saying I'm doing anything for this agreement until there's some answers that we have to the questions that you've raised about having our own collection, about what determines this particular thing, what this budget shortfall has to do with this overall numbers that we're dealing with. It there's so much vagary, and it'd be different if, you know, like, we didn't just get programs just thrown on our list without ever even being told about it. So I'm at the point where I don't trust them to follow their word. And it seems to be getting more complicated by the day.

And the biggest concern I have is doing really, really good work, people doing really, really good work. And instead of being rewarded for it, you get penalized for it by supporting things that might not be as efficient and effective. So those are my concerns right now. It's not really a question, I guess, but there's too many questions on this for me. Like, this is I don't think I've ever had a presentation like this here. Thanks.

Mr. President Pratt.

All right. Okay. So it's been a while since we got our presentation, and the last one we got, it it I'm just trying to clarify, like, this allocation because it showed a log in this huge amount, blah, blah. So are you saying that now the whole allocation is based just on this pop service area that they've determined?

This formula.

The formula is based just on our determined service area. Is that correct? Or we're No. It's it's it's service area and then FTE units and then cost per unit. All those things go into So how do they determine FTE units? It is a factor of the service population.

So it's the same thing, basically, essentially? They're just It it Okay. That's okay. We don't have to go into that detail, but it's more just based on that, what you showed tonight.

It's what it cost to an average cost to serve the population for the base service level.

But it was looked at just where they determined the service area not Like, I know there's a lot of Lake Oswego people that come to our library. We just serviced a ton of people from Tigard. So the actual use wasn't taken into consideration. Right. Okay. So that seems a little inequitable there,

but okay. They came up with

a formula. When commissioner Snyder and commissioner Therese were here, so what happened is there you know, like you showed that money, there was an old levy, then ballot measure 50. It went in the general fund, and they allocated it to, what, three years ago? And then all of a sudden, they took some of that money because they were short. Mhmm. And then they passed this levy, which had a huge increase in it. So, okay, we're we're we'll be guaranteed that levy money. But when they were here, they were very clear that they would not say they were gonna you know, that general fund money wouldn't be dipped into further. So I have a huge concern about that. I mean, they didn't even say they'd try not to.

So it it seems likely that will be the outcome in future years. On I'm not understanding why the big rush when to allocate this money when the savings can't come until this the service starts in twenty seventh, so that's confusing to me. Like, why do we have to sign this IGA now when there's all these we don't even know how it's gonna work.

It's it's Well, we don't know how the all the collection centralization piece will work, but the the levy expires on June 30. Right. And so we need to be in a new IGA to allocate the levy funding.

So is that all we really need to do? Because we're being asked to sign something that's not clear. It's just I don't know how we can do that. It's like sign this unknown thing.

I mean With no parameters.

It's not an unknown thing. It's it's like the centralization project is there's there are questions about that. But that that is a a piece of it.

Well, on the other part with the voting stuff though, it seems like from my understanding the process so far, you should have your executive committee should have had votes and input, but it doesn't seem like that's necessarily what happened. Input was not collected. I mean, I'm not hearing anything about any community outreach on this other than they came and maybe talked to the councils once. It's like, it's the whole thing we fight it with the state where they just say, boom, you're doing this. And and on the uniqueness, I think you sent something that there was a survey, a large percentage of the people, the uniqueness and we hear this on the CAC, the uniqueness of our community is very important to our community, and this is taking it away.

I don't would

push back on that, that it's taking that away. I the I mean, the the centralization project has some unknowns that we will continue to fight for. But the IGA as a whole, the operating IGA and the governance IGA is much is much more clear and than what we're currently under. The decision making process is much more clear than what we're under. Like yeah.

Okay. On the operating one then, is there a I guess I would ask that if if that decision making process isn't followed as it should be, what's the way to deal with that?

Is And a great what's in the accountability section right now, it describes a process for raising that issue. We think there should be a stronger dispute resolution process.

Right.

Yeah. Okay. And then back to the I've got the collections. I'm trying to get through this. What concerns me, I I get I guess, and I get some of the centralization of the, you know, the fiction and things that everybody, every library would want. But it it seems so unclear if we have any autonomy to to get the books that like, community probably wants different books than banks would generally want, you know. We probably want less books on agricultural things. And so I I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about our collection of things, our maker space, like, what what's what is getting taken away from us there? We

don't know yet. So once again, we're asked being asked to Well, I

agree agree to what we don't know.

What so far, what seems to be what seems to be on the table. The makerspace is a program. It is not a collection. And so that that is not That's part of it. Of But, yes, we have a library of things. Some libraries do, some libraries don't. We have the best board game collection in the county. We have some other unique things. We don't we believe there will you know, that centralization won't touch those, and it'll be up to us to decide that that is something we're gonna continue. That's still a TBA because the process has not been set out. But

Because we own all of that now. We own that. That's not being transferred to the county.

But adding to that collection, is that something we still have the autonomy to do?

We believe so.

Yes. We can understanding is the budget we have, we can determine what we are what we are doing with it. It's the We don't know how how deep they're going with the centralization yet.

Okay.

We believe we'll still have some ability to have some local decisions. And then is is I know it started out with centralization was going to be cost saving, but then somewhere along the line, or it's something that isn't necessarily the case, so do we know it's going to

save money? We have not ground I have not ground truth that. Okay. What there was an effort to understand what all of the all of the libraries were investing in collection development. And so like nine employees here and six employees there and four employees here. And if the and the county is hiring like a certain number, let's say five, to do all the work of that that was happening independently at all these libraries.

But they're taking funds to do that?

And that's part of their $17,000,000

Okay.

Guess I'll just get to the bottom line here. It's so unclear, but what are the ramifications if we don't sign these? Because this is really hard to say yes to something that is like a muddle.

We don't get the funds?

Come on, Jim. Sorry,

but that's about wine. You know, this is

From what I'm hearing, that's what it appears. I've reviewed both of these. I have a bunch of questions for a lot of it are are legal terminology, things like the indemnification clauses and the governing and operating agreements. They're they're substantially different. They should be substantially similar, if not the same.

I understand they might be a little different. There's some one big problem I see in here potentially. I did note the lack of a dispute resolution process. In the operating agreement, there is a it looks like a in 17.4, there's a cooperative process for addressing issues. But that's it it it's a little vague if a contractor can't meet obligations under the agreement or they have an issue with cooperative wide policies.

But I don't I didn't see that that addressed if there was a alleged breach of contract by a contract a disagreement by a contractor. There's no dispute resolution process. Obviously, big question about if the board decides they don't have that 45, they wanna allocate substantially less than where we normally get. There's apparently not going to be a mediation process agreed to. I No. I haven't talked to the county. I imagine that the reasoning would be that they have to follow budget law. They have to provide a balanced budget.

Right.

And having a contractor or contractors that could potentially subvert that and force them to divert funds to this when they didn't have it for other things. I I would imagine they wanna make those decisions, but I haven't spoken to anybody at the county. I haven't spoken to any of of the other contractor attorneys or the county attorney. That seems like that might take a while Well to have attorneys agree on anything as I don't know how many attorneys I may even going to have to talk to

This is true.

The process of of having to to look at this. But I think the the biggest thing I see in the operating agreement, it's in section 18. It's the termination.

That's where I was going is on that right there.

It's it's 18.1. And I won't take up the whole time here, but I the the biggest issue, and I will wanna speak about this, but it says the county may terminate this agreement effective the end of any fiscal year upon sixty days notice if in the county's sole and reasonable discretion, continuation of the agreement is not in the public interest or sufficient funds are not So appropriated or otherwise there's a there's a non appropriation clause. And then there's another, what looks to be this public interest, which is a termination, in my reading, a termination for convenience. So the county can terminate it for any or no reason. Their description.

I could read this as the county has the ability to terminate it as to an individual contractor. That's one the things we wanna talk to. So if we had a contractor that was potentially a squeaky wheel or an executive board that were squeaky wheels, could the county, using this language Mhmm. Terminate individual contractors, which chills, potentially the leadership group or the executive boards recommending power, any kind of maybe cooperative process for addressing issues. It might be that a contractor would not want to bring up issues if potentially the county could just terminate your participation. And I'm I'm not saying that is how it's been.

Well, that's what lawyers supposed

to do.

Look for the worst case scenario.

Right? There is there is clearly a termination for convenience clause that the county can terminate this agreement either as to all parties or individual contractors for any or no reason. Okay. And that's an issue because it affects contractors. The termination affects us much more than it affects the county.

And so the fact that our taxpayers are paying their property taxes and that library levy, they would just it wouldn't matter. They would just be paying for everybody else at that point. Okay? So at this point, you're gonna take a recommendation or will our comments be shared Oh, yeah. With the county, and then you'll come back to us with whatever answers they may or may not give you? Okay. I guess we're We'll

put it on another agenda.

Okay. Thank you, Sherwin.

Thank you. So just to be clear, so we are the contractor, To all of them will be the contractor. So we also can cancel in sixty days providing the proper notices, But we're still out that money. We will still need that money to continue to fund it. If we're paying our taxes and we're not getting those dollars, it even says here that even though this contractor cancels the contract, it does not affect the other contractors either. So they get to stay in and benefit from that pool of rep of money.

The I think that's the correct reading, counselor.

Thank you. So would you agree that that should also be in the other outlined in the governance in both agreements that it's lacking in both agreements, counselor?

Are you talking about the speaking to the termination

Yes.

Language?

Sorry. Yes. I'm still on that.

That that's one of the issues we'll we'll have to discuss with the attorneys whether that needs to be in there or not. There there are several issues. I'm I brought up a few, but, I do understand in in the governance agreement, I I understand the need for a supermajority for the executive board and the leadership group, that that serves several purposes. You know? One, if if there if there are recommendations made to the the ultimate decision maker here, and it is the board, the the executive board and the leadership group, they they essentially act as one of your boards or commission acts when they report to you As you ultimately make decisions, they make recommendations.

That's what these two groups do in these governing and operating agreements. The board makes the ultimate decisions. But the super majority, it it it ensures that there's broad consensus among contractors and protects the minority view. So you don't have a group of seven, forcing or sending recommendations to the board as if if you had broad consensus as to all 13. But there's one issue I noticed that may not really be an issue in all is there's a pretty complex, collective decision matrix that maybe we don't need because I don't know how what decisions the executive board or leadership group would make that weren't really considered collective decision requiring a two thirds majority.

And there's examples given the, in the addendum. So if you get to a meeting and maybe you have the argument on whether it's a collective decision or not, and do you have just a majority vote? Is a majority vote required? Or do you have to have the super majority? There's just issues like that are outstanding.

Thank you. And I have one last follow-up to that. Do you see any places where there is any sort of recourse if the county, if WCCLS breaks any part of this contract? Are there and is there anything glaring or when you review it?

The there is a I think it's in the operating agreement. But and again, it goes back to whether I don't know the whether seventeen point four, the cooperative process for addressing issues would be if is that was that the intended mechanism for things like that? If we if we allege a breach, there is no technical dispute resolution process. So given that this is an agreement Right. Even though, again, and this is one of the things I will recommend is have this attorney group is set out what our remedies are for breach.

What is what constitutes a material breach versus just a run of the mill breach that may not, constitute further legal action. But given the lack of any any dispute resolution or remedy for material breaches, I believe that technically, there could be a potential for legal action to a circuit court.

Thank you very much.

Council Brooks.

There's also that part in that that you're talking about the collaborative thing with the escalation piece that would have to go to such and such before escalation. So I don't know what the definition of that is. And then the other thing is if there was ever a falling out or they determined to just cancel the agreement with us, does that mean they keep our collection? Like, do we lose assets then? And, you know, like, or is there, you know, if it was one year into it versus five years into it?

And my last question is, because it just seems very strange that we pushed and we helped get this levy passed, that there would be an agreement that we would be asked to participate in that puts our citizens at risk of losing their assets of their library and the money that they put into this levy. So I don't I don't know what the just seems like a very strange one way kind of a thing.

I don't

believe that's the risk. I

mean, the risk is also the millions of dollars, but I mean, there's if if if you can terminate a contract because of a random I just you know, I don't feel like I would have these conversations if it was maybe a while ago, but I have less trust for the company than I used to, unfortunately.

That's a fair question, Counselor. I don't think that the if this agreement was terminated by either us or the county, that they would have access to the collections that we had purchased with city funds. I don't think that would necessarily be the issue. And I will state that this is an intergovernmental agreement. We're not having this is not a contract with a private party.

There is an expectation when you're entering into intergovernmental agreements of good faith, fair dealing, being reasonable with one another. We have, as you know, many, many intergovernmental agreements with other local government cities, counties, and that's rule number one is you don't attempt to take advantage of another governmental entity because there are other agreements out there and that potentially could be affected by bad faith interactions in one of these other agreements.

I will just say again, I think that community outreach would mitigate a lot of these problems if they would have done due diligence. We would never do something like this without community outreach. Even if there was things that we couldn't bridge, there's a piece about people not being able to come to their government right now and influence how their government works that is a big conversation in our communities. And it feels very authoritarian and not approachable and, like, the small guy getting left out. So I just feel very disappointed that they haven't come to our community to talk about this more, especially since they asked for our support with the levy and kinda said they would do right by us.

So I'm just saying it out loud.

I agree with counselor Brooks. I think that we went out there in good faith, trusting that they're gonna support us and give us the funds that we need to operate. And we went out there and told our community to vote, to pass this levy. And here we are in this situation that there's a risk of them deciding based on this projected county general fund transfers are determined through the county's annual budget process. So that I just hope that that also is also in the on their part, they're not not breaching, but, you know, be accountable for and in good faith of what they came here and talked about, at least that one meeting that he commissioner Snyder came and talked about it.

So I hope that by signing this agreement or IGM with all those questions that we have and all, you know, clarification, they honor that that they would not cut any fundings for any funds from us, that they would support us in our all of our programs that we not programs, but in whatever in the the things that they fund us. I just to me, I just I hope that we're not thinking of that they're not gonna come through with this. I I I really hope that what they said they were gonna do and support us with the agree agreement comes through. That's that's kinda like what I'm thinking Mhmm. And that that it's it was in good faith.

And we all went out there and rooted for that, and here we are in this situation. Situation.

I'm just wondering, like, I know that's a legal term in good faith. And, I mean, from our lay perspective, that's where our problem lies. We don't know that they're going into this with good faith because they haven't been a trusting partner to us. So what does good faith mean in the legal

sense of the term? They have been a trusted partner. They have been a trusted partner.

But they're saying we're going to do this and you could take it or have no money. That's what But we're

saying you that they have not been a trusted partner. They have come through. Even when they have had budget cuts, they have increased our allocation. They have made a commitment, and I they they have. Like, they have been a a funding partner for us.

Well they have been a funding partner. I'm just saying that it feels like we're being dictated to, I guess, is my point.

I would say that there are many things in this agreement that we advocate for and that we advocate for clarity on roles and responsibilities and that that that this I these IGAs are full of things that are in our best interest. That there that there are risks. Absolutely. There are unanswered questions. Absolutely. There are things that needed to be tightened that need to be tightened up. But this is not they're not I do not believe that they are trying to pull the wool over our eyes on this.

Okay. That's good to know. I just there's so many unanswered questions that we don't know that

at this About the centralization process. But there are that And maybe that is just an overwhelming, like, we can't get past that. But that is a minor piece to that is a portion, a component I of these

get that, but it's just it's it's hard that we're supposed to be partners in this, but we're being told to sign. It's like a, just trust me kind of thing. I feel like it's hard for us to feel like we're being real responsible to our community when we're being asked to sign on to something with so many unknowns. That's what's really tough

here. I get

it. Done.

Alright, because I got pages here, so be ready. Alright. I'll start off with questions for Kevin. Six point two point one point two, the definition of centralized collections is to be a collaborative process. Where is that defined in the agreement? And this is in the cooperative government's agreement. What is collaborative process? Because what I'm hearing from library staff, it has not been a collaborative process.

What was the reference again?

6.20.10.2 of the cooperative governance agreement. It's the only mention of centralized collections in the governance agreement. It just matter to me what's usually you have definitions I'm not seeing a definition of what collaborative processes given you're hearing here that there's a mistrust of the county in a collaborative process.

Mayor, don't see Are that not required

for that? Is that not required in IGA?

I don't believe that they think so. I believe that they think in intergovernmental agreements that we always that's inherent in any intergovernmental agreement is that we work in good faith to collaborate and to effectuate the terms of the agreement and to resolve disputes amicably. But I agree that that term is not defined.

Okay. Moving on to the role of the WCCLS manager, and that's section 6.2.3. So my question here is at 6231 through 6235. The WCCLS manager based on what I'm reading here cannot dictate policy to the executive committee nor the expertise committee. They can suggest something, but they cannot dictate or run as an performance administrator of the cooperative that the cooperative itself is supposed to be running policy and services.

My fear here of getting to here is that the WCCLS manager can take on a role that I don't envision isn't appropriate in a cooperative. That the cooperative executive committee are the ones who are supposed to be driving the train, kinda like we're doing with you with Cherilyn that the city council drives policy and drives a lot of things and it's your job to enact it. Same thing with the WCCLS manager that the executive team, the executive board and leadership group is filling that role and that that manager is not to be setting policy, defining services or creating services and pushing it down. Correct. Do I have that right?

Correct. And is that what because I'm seeing nothing here in six point two point three that gives the library the WCCLS library manager those powers.

Correct.

Okay. Because the impression I have now is that the current one is doing that.

Mayor, I agree with Cherilyn. That's how I'm reading it.

Yep.

I haven't, this is my second reading of that particular, provision. But, yes, I I do agree. That's the that's the most plausible reading of it. Okay. Again, in these meetings we have with the county and the other contractors is to ensure that that's the case. If that has been an issue in the past, we can ensure that is the role of this WCCLS manager and not take on anymore or serve the power of the executive board.

Okay.

Well, I should say that that was not defined at all in the current agreement.

Okay. This is definitely for Kevin. Item number 10, interpretation. What the hell is that paragraph? Number 10 of the cooperative governance agreement. Okay. On how to interpret the agreement. Yeah. I'm not a lawyer. Brian Green has gone, what are you talking about? It's a bunch of fluff. I'm like, what are you talking about?

Yeah. This is a this is standard. This goes back to the working in good faith.

So you're you're okay with this paragraph?

We see this in not maybe not all intergovernmental agreements, but in I've seen this this in a lot. And so if there were a a dispute about what a particular provision means is that well, it says, liberally construed and Yeah. Is for the general purposes of the agreement. So you'd go back to the witnesseth statements, the whereas sections, and that would be potentially a way for a the parties to come to some mutual resolution. And for some reason, when there like I said, there is no dispute resolution clause.

If there were a a court or some other trier fact involved, they might look at this this interpretation language that everybody agrees they had the opportunity to have attorneys look at it, so they're not, they're not at some disadvantage. And then, yeah, any ambiguities with respect to any provision of this agreement will be construed fairly as to all parties. So that goes back to the good faith and fair dealing. How much how much weight would a, trier of fact give that? I'm not sure it could come into play if there were some honest disagreement to the parties, if there was some provision that was so vague or overbroad that it was impossible for the parties to potentially resolve the issue because that would be a potential mechanism.

Right. I just want a clarification on that one. Sherlyn, going back to your structuralized collections that the consultant would be listening to the cooperative members about a possible delay in the 2027 deadline. And but you mentioned someone would decide to do that and who's would that be the board? Who decides that okay, you know what, we're going to push pause on centralized collections for another year?

Who makes that decision? Is it the board? Or is it the executive committee? Who makes that? I mean if you guys decide, hey, you know, we're not going to make this and we need to punt this, who ultimately makes that decision? Question.

It might eventually get to the board, but I right now, it is a project of WCCLS and the library leadership group Mhmm. And the member libraries. So like the consultant is the lead and we're all working together to implement it. So if like if it gets to a point where everybody understands that it can't be fully implemented by July '27

At two thirds.

That goes through the decision making structure of the starting with the library leadership group who are involved with it right now.

Right. Mayor, I agree if that's determined to be a collective decision, it would go through the two thirds super majority with the Board ultimately making the actual decision. Final decision.

12.6 public spaces. Over the control of our library, the facility itself. Can you I just want clarity that the county can't dictate to us the use of our facility. I mean there are certain things, minimum operating hours, stuff like that I don't understand. But could they, again being worst case scenario, invoke some kind of restriction or something on our public space that we don't like and don't want to happen in our library, but two thirds majority of the cooperative says yes.

That's in opposition to what us as city councilors want for our library. I'm just kind of nervous at how much say the cooperative has on the public space in our library. And is it again for Kevin, is it defined well enough for you in this agreement?

Upon initial review, I don't believe that the county would have that ultimate authority to determine how we use our public spaces. I think it gives the it has requirements, and those are specifically set out. That's what control, I guess you would call it, the county potentially could have over the library, but nothing else. That seems like those kind of questions would be local decisions. Yes. That would be solely within the power of, if it's day to day operations, the manager or designee.

I just had the same note you already picked up on, already 17.4%, cooperative process for Tristan issues that needs clarification, but you guys already addressed that that are going to seek better clarity on how to address issues. The termination, I also had an issue I underline or show Maria that in the county's sole and reasonable discretion that's crap. Sorry. That's that's if you're going to kick the contract to the curb just because they piss you off, I'm sorry I'm saying these words, that's not right. And that's sole and the reasonable discretion, who how do you define that legally?

Well and and, again, mayor, how how I define that, that acts as a termination for convenience Yeah. In in the county's favor. And perhaps they did not really realize what they were drafting, but that's that's exactly how I'm reading it is that, again, for all the reasons stated, they it acts as a termination for convenience, for any or no reason. I would also separate that non appropriations clause, which I do understand why they have that in there given the the 45%, and they'll determine how much of that goes to each contractor. I understand that.

But those those need to be separated out in my opinion. I think that, hopefully, a few attorneys agree with me on that and rework that language. Definitely, I I would not want to see a termination for convenience in contract like this. We have other termination clauses that provide well, there's mutual terminations that we can obviously, we would be okay with. But if there's going to be a termination where the the county has the the upper hand, it would I would wanna see it be for a breach, a material breach of the agreement.

And if we're gonna have that, have a dispute resolutionarbitration clause, so we're not kicked out of this agreement and then lose 45%

of our

funding potentially.