City Council - Regular Meeting

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This webinar is being transcribed and summarized.

I'll call it to order the pre meeting for the Wetland City Council. It's Tuesday, 02/10/2026. Got four city councilors here, with the exception of Lou Groner, who hopefully will be here soon. Finance Director, Lauren Breithaupt, City Attorney, KLB Climb, City Manager, John Williams. And with that, we start going through the agenda.

We've got approval of the agenda, public comments, mayor and council report, And there may be a public comment on golf carts, which we received an email about. Thank you for that. Mhmm. And then we've got a smart transit presentation. And I didn't touch base with Kathy, and there's going to be a on the mayor's council report, community advisory group member has I think they're not showing up the meeting, so there's an amendment to the agenda to just take that vote.

Not we will do that. Just wanted to give everybody heads up. And then we will extend the agenda. Mark Sandip will be here also from Wilsonville. Interesting timing. We'll presenting a good briefing on the line that they're running right now. And, hopefully, everybody saw also the TriNet's response to our letter that I sent out to the city council. They we sent them a letter, and they gave us a nice response. And I delegated to the city manager to schedule the meeting, which I met on councilor team. Thanks for being here.

Yeah. Okay. So the business meeting, one item on there is a resolution. So I'll turn it over to John to introduce the topic and this is really following up on several meetings that we've had.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The only business item is the revision excuse me, proposed

revision to

the master fees and charges to add an increase to the park maintenance fee and this is the increase that is related to constructing the operations center. So relieving the general fund component that's by catching up with parts maintenance fees.

So the proposal in the packet is a March 1 start date. Lauren will be here either now or at the meeting to explain sort

of the mechanics of that. And to answer any questions, Megan will love to be here if you have questions about parts item.

Thank you. Any how I like to ask you this is ask anybody who has any questions that will require some research between now and the regular meeting so that that can do.

The only other thing that I would mention is that, we did make an error adjustment, on Page 19 of the after fees and charges. The total fees were correct, but the breakdown of them were incorrect or old. So we just updated it in this version. But I wanted you guys to know that. That is changing also.

Do you have a question I might want to ask because it's been to me a few times. There's a difference between single family and multifamily homes, and I think a lot of people are assuming that is some sort of like misguided socioeconomic. The research I did showed me it was a

very different thing, but I I didn't get

on my own an answer.

But I I guess I'd like to

ask about that. Everyone has that benefit of understanding where that came from. Sure. We'll be happy to answer that in the regular meeting.

Anything else? Okay. Councillor Groner is entering the room. Welcome, Councillor Groner. I'm glad you're here. We're just about to wrap up the pre meeting actually, but we're on the topic of the Works Operations Center fee increased vote.

Okay.

And if you have any questions of staff that they need to research before the No, I'm fine with that.

I apologize even to doing my tech.

It's not the time of the year. Okay. With that, we see no other questions on the Yeah. I'm the increase pay for the operations center. So we can then, I think, get to the city manager report and, return the meeting. So, I've that the other business has been trivial. Okay. We can we are adjourning the pre meeting. See you at 06:00.

And we can, go ahead and we're at 06:00, so I will call to order. This meeting of the Westland City Council, it's Tuesday, 02/10/2026. And, as always, for our business meeting, the first item of business is to do the pledge of allegiance. It's a tradition. So please rise and face the flag. Yeah.

Ready to begin? I

Thank you everybody. And next item is to approve the agenda. We have one modification to add item four b, community advisory group appointment decision.

Council

mayor. Thank you. I move to approve the agenda for the 02/10/2026 Westland City Council meeting adding four b, community advisory group appointment. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda adding item four b, advisory group appointment. Any discussion? Seeing none, go ahead and call the roll, please.

Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Councilor Brake? Yes. Councilor president Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Bronner? Yes. Mayor Belassocca?

Yes.

So the motion passes and the agenda is approved as amended. And that takes us to public comments. And I understand we have one tonight.

Steve Fearing.

Mister Fearing, welcome back. Thank you. And we have received your handout for draft ordinance, and I gave a copy also to the city attorney.

So Okay.

Just make sure your mic's on, state your name and city, and then we take it away.

Okay. Well, good evening. Thank you, for allowing me this time. My name is Steve Fearing. I've been a resident in West Linn, Willamette area about fifteen years or so.

And I'd like the council to reconsider adopting an ordinance to allow golf cart low speed vehicles in the West Linn, specifically in West Linn, specifically the Willamette Historic District. In at least the last ten years, the carts have been increasingly growing in popularity. And then last summer, they were not allowed to continue all of a sudden. Similarly, e bikes, e scooters have increased in popularity and use, and an ordinance was adopted for those electric vehicles. I think it's time to do the same thing with golf carts, low speed vehicles to regulate and clear up any misconceptions.

Many cities in Oregon have created ordinances, manzanita in particular, using the same state statute that I'm proposing here that allows golf carts when you're not even near a golf course. Example ordinances that I have, if anyone wanna see them, are not adjacent to golf courses. I'd like to read the draft ordinance. At this time, it'll take less than two minutes. A study of Westland, Oregon, and then you determine the ordinance number.

An ordinance allowing the use of golf carts and low speed electric vehicles designated on city streets, whereas Oregon revised statutes eight ten zero seven zero on eight twenty two ten dash three permit municipalities to adopt ordinances authorized in the operation of golf carts and low speed vehicles on public roads within the city limits notwithstanding standard vehicle equipment laws. And whereas the city of Westland recognizes the desire of residents to use such vehicles as a safe, sustainable, and community friendly mode of local transportation. And whereas the city finds that the safe operation of golf carts and low speed vehicles can can be accommodated on certain designated streets without interfering with regular traffic. Now, therefore, the city of Westland ordains as follows. Section one definition, golf cart, meaning motorized vehicle designed for operation on a golf course capable of speeds not exceeding 20 mile an hour.

And b, low speed vehicles, which means four wheel electric vehicle with the top speed between twenty and twenty five as defined under federal safety standards. Section two permitted areas of operation. Golf carts and LSVs may be operated on city streets where posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour or lower. Operation is prohibited on state highways or roads with speed limit exceeding 25 miles per hour except to cross at an intersection. Specific streets may be designated or excluded by the city council by resolution.

Section three operational requirements. Operators must be at least 16 years old, hold a valid driver's license, comply with all applicable traffic laws. And b, golf carts must be equipped with headlights, taillights, reflectors, rearview mirrors, slow moving vehicle triangle. This also would include seat belts, turn signals, and so on. Maximum occupancy is limited to the number of seats in the vehicle. Section four prohibited uses. Operation on sidewalks, parks, or trails is prohibited. Operation under the influence of alcohol or drugs is strictly prohibited. Racing or reckless operation is prohibited. Section five, enforcement and penalties.

Violations of this sort shall be considered a class c traffic violation subject to fines as established by city code. Six, severability. In any portion of this ordinance is found to be invalid, the remainder shall remain in full force and effect. And then it says effective date would be thirty days following its adoption and then passed by the city council.

Three minutes? That was you're you're at time. Just give us a closing. Give us a the sentence or two to close out.

The on the personal note is that as they've been used over the last ten years or more, they've been going to the city events and going to the businesses. And I've talked to a number of business owners, and they appreciate and they recognize the people that use the carts and come up, and they usually attend the businesses and meals and events a little bit more often, especially in the summer. You'll see a lot more carts being used. The majority of people driving the carts are probably older like me that can afford it and and also a little bit more conscious about safety and especially in some of the narrow streets because we're looking at specifically the Willamette Historic Area, which is confined by streets of 25 miles an hour or less. And then once you get past that, you're not allowed it's not allowed.

So there's just a confinement right there. You have the river and then the Willamette Historic Area.

Well, thank you for bringing this issue back to us and we have received some preliminary legal advice on this topic and we'll, I think, maybe discuss it in the near future and I know that they'll be putting a summary of golf cart regulations and rules in in an upcoming newsletter and the OWL. I have a question.

If you would like, I could give you the cities and their ordinance number if you wanna look it up where I have copies of them. The other thing, one thing the city Detroit does, they have the golf carts register. And so you know who's got the golf carts, and then they pay an annual fee, like, $50 or something. So you're aware of of who has the golf carts, and do they have all the safety equipment they're mandated to have. So that's another option that people I've talked to in the community will be willing to do as well.

Council president has a question, and you you can send that list over to us for sure. Thanks.

I just I'm curious. How much do you think people will respect these ordinances? For instance, I'm just this is very anecdotal, but I happen to be last summer, maybe it was, on a sunny weekend morning. There wasn't a lot of traffic. There were really nobody parked along Willamette Falls Drive, and there was a golf cart parked.

They'd come up to have breakfast at the Westland Saloon where they serve breakfast. They'd driven up the sidewalk and were parked just on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant, which I mean, you could get by. I'm not saying there wasn't room because the sidewalks are very wide. But I guess my hesitation is giving people an inch and they're taking a mile Sure. Quite frankly with especially with the differences between the two vehicles, and then the police are gonna be in the position potentially then.

Anytime we change or make an ordinance change, we're inviting the police then to take it upon. It becomes their job to enforce. So that's the thing that I carefully consider is not the people who are all gonna be doing it by the book and by the letter, and we're gonna do everything as you say, well meaning and and do it right. I I worry about just the kind of give people an inch in their start driving things that aren't low speed vehicles and saying that they are, and then the police officers having to figure out. I don't know. These are just the concerns I'm having. Although, if everybody just was reasonable, I think it would be a great idea.

I totally agree with that. And there's always gonna be exception to the rule just like there are with the e bikes and e scooters. I'd see violations. I've read their codes, and I see violations. I don't know what they do with that.

Well, actually, this the e scooters didn't work out that great here. We they pulled that program because Oh,

they did. Are you talking about the bird

Yeah. The bird scooters that were

He might be talking about No. No. No. No.

Other privately owned e scooters.

No. There's a Westland ordinance that allows

Well, you're right. That's another concern that we get a lot of concerns from the public about.

No. I

understand. But to answer your question, one thing that's helpful, we are already into a group chat with people that own golf carts. And I think if we were to be proactive with that and explain that this is really a privilege and to talk amongst ourselves and get together and say, let's let's take responsibility and and let's not put it on the police. Let's not put it on the community. Let's just say this is a privilege and, you know, kind of police ourselves.

And I I because most of the people that are in this community, like I said, are are older, you know, and are willing to reason about that sort of thing. But, yeah, how do you control that? It's it's a good

I appreciate the the presentation and the suggestion. Do. But I just wanted to share if that's my main concern about Well,

I guess my question would be, because golf carts had been being driven and used throughout the community for at least a decade. Why all of a sudden it was they're pull we get pulled over twice.

You're an interesting enforcement question. Councilor Groner has a question and then I'd like to move on.

Yes. Mister Fearing, do you have any idea how many golf carts there are in West Linn?

I think we're up to 15 to 20.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, I certainly appreciate your leadership and bring bring you know, coming up with this potential solution and, you know, representing your neighbors and fellow golf cart advocates. I understand the issue and the frustrations, and I'd like to try to find a solution if we can. But it can't happen here tonight.

So Sure.

We'll continue to have discussions. And I, you know, I started out in the city the same way you did getting involved with one issue of mine was high school parking, and then it, you know, sparked my whole

I used to live over there. I'm aware of that situation.

Well, we we had a good compromise on that one too. So with the bridges. So thank you.

I appreciate your time and having the venue to to speak to it. And, like I said, if there's any questions on the other city ordinances that have adopted it, if you wanna look at theirs, get the ordinance number, I'll gladly give it to you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks for bringing it back to us after now that the weather's turning. It's a little bit too it's a little bit too nice right now though. It's wintertime, you know. Thank you. Okay. With that, any other public comments?

No. That is all.

Okay. Thank you so much. We'll go to mayor and council reports, reports from community advisory groups. And I can happy to oh, go down the line. Councilor Bright, kick us off today.

Thank you, mayor. I attended the career day at Rosemont Ridge Middle School. And the past couple of years, I've sat at the table and just talked to them about what it means to be a city councilor. This year, I decided to volunteer in a different area. And so I worked at the real life simulation. So the students were given career choices with a presumed salary, and then they had to decide if, like, if they had student loans, if they wanted to buy a car versus taking transit, and all of these different things. I worked at the student loan table.

Wow. Very

awesome. Lots of great engagement.

Thanks to you and the other city councilors who went to career day. Rosemarie, those are some lucky middle schoolers. Go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. Yes. I also attended career day, and councilor Bonington and I were at the table for just representing council generally and meeting. It was like speed dating two hundred eighth graders. And so we just they just come through and come through, and and they wanted they've got a list of questions, and they ask you the questions, and they're all so earnest.

And anybody who says middle schoolers are wouldn't wanna work with them is doesn't know. They just don't get it because they were wonderful, and it's such a great opportunity to also get out and see our rest of our community. Tonight, I was at Market of Choice, and one of the students I met at Career Day was in line with me, and we got to chatting. So it was great. And I also went to a c four meeting, which wasn't nearly as much fun, but it was interesting. I mean, virtually attended that. So that's about it.

Thank you, council president. Couple updates on my end. While you were attending the c four meeting, I was at a rotary club meeting at the at their monthly meeting giving a city update and had a great thirty minute presentation about everything going on in the city. And it always amazes me when I start trying to compile a list of everything we're that's happening just on a on a monthly basis the city. It's it's a lot.

And I'm proud of the work that our Citi staff and council and community are doing and and all these different policy areas, one of which we'll talk about later tonight. And then also had a breakfast with Pam Pierce from Community Living Above talking about the dispensary issue and also some other issues. And she leads the teen advisory board at the high school. So that was a great meeting and we'll look forward to continued engagement with her and potentially having her at a city council meeting at some point. And she did some great work on the substance substance prevention with representative Walters, major legislation passed.

So hopefully to have next time Jules is here, maybe we can honor her for that work because that was pretty impactful. So with that, that's my weekly report. On to councilor Groner.

Thank you. Well, I attended a session on sanctuary law that was given by our esteemed city councilor, miss Klein. Learned a lot, and I think that's the reason we're seeing all these employees only signs which may have been slightly overdone. There's one right outside this door and I think the public is allowed in here during our meetings. But it was very useful. Learned about the difference between a federal magistrate judicial warrant and a non administrative warrant. Sounds a useful session. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor Groner, for that. I'm glad you were able to attend, and thank you city attorney for all your work on all the different issues that are bubbling up across the city. So appreciate you. Councilor Bonington, go ahead.

Yeah. As was, mentioned, I was at Career Day as well. And, that is that is a really fun event. I remember doing it when I was in eighth grade at that very school in that very gym, and it's really special to be able to come full circle and participate in that. To borrow a reference from the offspring, the kids actually are alright. This is my conclusion from from being a part of that. Also, last Thursday, the economic development committee had a meeting, and they received a briefing on vision 43. And they are prepared to make some recommendations at their next meeting to us regarding that. So that's that.

Thank you, counselor. And thank you. Any anybody forget to report anything? Anything they wanna get out? Council council president Baumgren, go ahead.

Thank you. I forgot to mention that we had a wonderful meeting of the Waimea Falls Trust at the historic City Hall Building, which is really a great meeting space and available to the public to rent for events, I will add. But we had a great meeting and we're at this moment planning to respond to a letter from Grand Ronde. So we're doing some tribal relations work that's very, nuanced, and I appreciate the leadership of Kate Brown a lot in that work that they're doing.

Thank you, council president. That meeting room is Westland's best kept secret. So if you keep talking about it, that's gonna be booked up all the time. So that's what a wonderful space. With that, seeing no other reports, we're gonna move to item four b, which is a it's community advisory group appointment. I am going to place before the council removing Alyssa Cruz from the economic development committee. And I would entertain a motion to approve the appointment removal. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve removing Alyssa Cruz from the Economic Development Committee.

And just for the record, I think this is due to non attendance at meetings. So with that, please call the roll.

Councilor Bryke? Yes. Councilor President Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Groner? Yes. Councilor Bonington? Yes. Mayor Bialystovski?

Yes. Thank you. So the motion is approved. And now we will move on, to a wonderful presentation from our guest from Smart Transit from the city of Wilsonville, and I'll turn it over to the city manager to introduce the topic. Sure.

Come on up. We very much appreciate having the opportunity to hear what's happening at Smart, particularly what's happening here in our own area. Obviously, transit changes are much in the air considering TriNet's service reduction proposals, and so SMART becoming an increasingly successful service in our neck of the woods, and are here to talk about their new service. So I'll let you guys introduce yourselves, and thank you so much for being here.

Alright. Thank you, and good evening. I am Dwight Bershier. I am the transit director for SMART, which is South Metro Area Regional Transit. We are owned and operated by the city of Wilsonville, and I am joined by.

My name is Diana Cochler. I'm the transit operations manager for SMART in the city of Wilsonville.

And I bring greetings from city of Wilsonville, mayor O'Neil, and the city council, and a special greeting, and I gotta get this right, to city manager Williams from my immediate supervisor who is the assistant city manager for the city of Wilsonville, Gina Troja. Without that, I would not be employed in the morning. So if you would pass that along to her, I appreciate it.

I will email her and acknowledge receipt. Absolutely.

The only other thing I noticed that we only have three hours for the presentation. We had clearly five hours of material. So we will try to drag our feet as best we can. Alright. So we'll jump right in and I'm trying. Okay. Alright. Oh, we went too far. That

went way

too Alright. So I'm gonna give a little bit of background about SMART, just kind of a history of it. We became SMART. Well, some of us were born that way, but the city became smart back in about 1989. So we've been operating transit in the city of Wilsonville for thirty seven years.

We started as wart, believe it or not. We grow on you was our tagline, and it had a little And at some point, someone decided that's why the green on the buses, but somebody decided that it would be better to be smart than to be a wart. And I can't argue that point. Again, we are owned and operated by the city of Wilsonville. We currently operate nine routes, but as you will find out, we are expanding our service, and Diana will talk about some of the recent expansions that we've undertaken.

All of our service is free. That makes us somewhat unique. We push very very hard. The city council supported this decision. We made this decision a few years, probably about five, six years ago. And I just I wanted to make sure that our service was equitable. And I couldn't come up with anything. I tried to come up with something that was more equitable than free. And I couldn't. So we provide this service.

We're able to do it. We operate the service, believe it or not, in the black. We are consistently in the black, and it just works out really well for our customers. We even service can be we go to Salem, we go to Tualatin, and soon we'll be going to Westland, coming to Westland, and Oregon City, and then on to Clackamas Town Center. We also do transportation options, which mean we don't just look at buses.

We do bike rodeos. We do walk a thons. We we get folks out in the community and engage them. And we also engage our businesses and make sure that they have all of the information they need to make informed decisions regarding transportation. How their workers get to and from work.

It's not always the bus is not always the best option, and so we offer those options as well. And then, of course, the smart department is all also the fleet department. And so my responsibility as the director is to oversee the operation of the buses as well as the fleet department, which services those buses, but not only the buses. Every piece of equipment in the city of Wilsonville that has a motor, an engine of some sort, Our department services those. So right now that's right around 425, 430 pieces of equipment that we we maintain.

And this is a picture of our transit center. Oh, yeah. You and that's the end of our presentation. We thank you very much. I

didn't know

what happened.

Yeah. You're she's fast on the trigger there. I'm fast. Alright. Alright. We're getting back.

We're getting back.

Yeah. Yeah.

There we go.

Now we know how long the presentation will be.

It's a five hour deal. Alright. So I'll turn it over to Diane.

Oh, thank you, Dwight. Thank you for for the humor and thank you for making us welcome at this at West Linn. The the plans for expansion of transit service and the growth of transit service come as part of the trans transit master plan, which was adopted by the city of Wilsonville back in 2023 and it established division not only for the new services that we're providing, but most importantly for the infrastructure to support the services. So bus and shoulder program on I 5, you're familiar with that service enabled us to connect Wilsonville with Tualatin right around Bridgeport. But most importantly, it helped us assure that we adhere to the schedule, and we are able to provide timely performance for the passengers who use that service.

The program along 205 just opened. We're actually our first test drive is tomorrow afternoon if you're interested. We will be going on the bus on shoulder along 205. And that was a prerequisite to starting the service to Clackamas Town Center. Again, traffic congestion is unpredictable, and that would allow us to operate on schedule between Wilsonville and Clackamas Town Center.

We just, in early January, started service to Woodburn to again provide that employment connectivity, economic independence to our residents who work at Woodburn, specifically with the opening of the Amazon fulfillment center. Almost 3,000 employees live there. And we'll talk a little bit more about our transit oriented development and that connectivity to Woodburn and Amazon employment complex. Our goal is to open to start Clackamas Down Center April, May. We're still working out those details.

We're actually started our class of drivers that is necessary for us to step up in order to get that service started today, and all in the time to get the service going. So depending on how quickly they get certified and we can get them their commercial driver's licenses, and how quickly we can get that going will determine whether we start at the April or first week in May. But regardless by that time frame, there will be service between between our communities. And also in this April, we're opening our customer service center at our transit oriented development facility. We'll talk a little bit about that in the in the in future slides.

How are we funded? I think given the uncertainty in the transit industry nationwide, it's not limited to Tri Med, it's or any other service provider. Smart is unique from that standpoint that the funding sources are solid. They're and most importantly, the financial responsibility would represent not hovering, front board, ushering the and being responsible for those public dollars and and tax dollars. What enables us to operate, as Dwight mentioned, in the black.

But those are traditional sources, federal and state formula dollars. We're successful in the competitive grants. Everybody's familiar with the straight state transportation improvement funding program. And we have all of colors of funding through their formula discretionary and regional coordination. Of course, the city of Elizabeth has its own payroll tax.

So a combination of this funding sources is what enables us to not only provide what we currently have, but also plan for the future. I think one of this star attractions for the city of Wilsonville and accomplishments is our transit oriented development facility that opened doors as an affordable housing of a 121 units with two twenty units specifically set aside for emergency type of housing arrangements at our Vuela TOD facility. What's what's the most important from transit operations that our transit center is adjacent to it. So we're literally in the same parking lot with the TOD. And our customer service center is slated to open doors in April.

We're getting the keys on March 1, so we're very excited about that. As we look at the transit TOD facility and how it relates to the Glaukomas Town Center, every service route that's smart operates will go through that facility. So everything will begin and end over there. So in addition to SMART services, you are able to catch Weststrain that operates from that facility. And we will as with the opening of the customer service center, you will have a human touch to make sure that people are able to plan their trips, connect to other facilities, pay for their transport for for the transit process, and anything else that is required to bring transit that human interaction that sense of security that some of our passengers need to get to get onboard transit.

And I think it's important to underscore the way we designed our service was to provide this service, whether it be to Clackamas Town Center, all points in between, or to Amazon, was to lift people or to give people an opportunity to lift themselves out of if that is a possibility, out of the circumstances. I did not. I never want transportation to be a barrier. People getting to the services that they need, and that is why we provide it at no cost. So there is no excuse.

We're providing this service right outside the door. We're hoping that it's able to to change lives for future generations, just for generations to come. It's something that I'm really excited about. This was a piece of land that the city owned that had a big pile of dirt on it and a lot of weeds. And I showed up here in 2017, and I did.

I said, we're gonna build something here. And there were people that laughed at me, and that's okay. I didn't know what it was going to look like back then, but I knew it was going to be something special. And I will go on record in saying this is probably the most attractive building in all of Wilsonville right now. So some of the developers have know, we've we've set up we've set the bar here with this beautiful building, and there are also there's a 121 units of a four a 100% affordable housing.

20 of the units have been set aside for Clackamas County emergency housing. So those units, I hope, will never will never need them, but they will sit furnished waiting for individuals that somehow find themselves without a place to stay temporarily. They'll have a really beautiful place to stay with transportation right outside their door. So really, really, probably in the there's probably sixty five years of experience between I'll let you do the math and figure out who has what. But there's probably about sixty five years of transit experience between the two of us.

And in all of my days of doing transit, this is the one thing that I'm most proud of. I moved 80,000 people out of harm's way during Katrina, and that, you know, was was huge. But this this is gonna help generations to come. I get excited about it. So I'll let you take over.

Take over. Yes, please. Well, we're all very excited. So with we're excited to get the keys on March 1, get the facility ready, get the customer service ready. Just to give you a sense of excitement, we're recruiting for three openings with three customer service representatives and we had over 200 applications. So the excitement is not just at the stable with transit nerds. The excitement is in the community.

It's contagious.

It is contagious. Yes. Currently, SMART operates Monday through Saturday, six days a week, but we currently do not service the transit center on Saturdays. As soon as we open the customer service center, our attention is for every route to go through through the through the transit center and provide that connectivity, that accessibility to the residents of this facility. The goal is again to connect to civic facilities, to libraries, to parks, and everything else that Wilsonville has to offer. Now let's talk about two x. What are we doing? Why are we doing? And when and how is it going to work? Most importantly, funding is secure for this for this service.

It's both stiff funding that is formula funding for city of Wilson and regional coordination dollars. So funding has been allocated and is available for the service. And again, the goals were established to provide that inner city connectivity and connect educational, medical, and other civic facilities along the route. Through the city of West Linn and Oregon City, we'll have several stops. We'll begin at Riverside.

We'll begin at the transit center. That's the hub for the operations. From there, we're going to Riverside High School. We met with the principal and had conversation with the assistant principal of Riverside High School, and we will be serving that location. Most likely come fall semester, given our start date, that facility will begin to come on on campus.

In the city of West Linn, we will proceed on 205 To 10th Street to we'll stop in front of McDonald's. We've been working with your public works and engineering department, and the stop there is approved. So we'll forward our specifications for the sign and so forth to make the stop available right in front of McDonald's and 10th Street, 205. From there we'll proceed back on 205 to the Oregon Shopping Center, and we'll be connecting there with several Tri Med routes. Again providing that regional connectivity, and also Clackamas shuttle operates from there.

So we'll make sure that we coordinate our purchase and and arrival times accordingly. At the Clackamas Town Center, we'll have two stops. One, right by the platform to the max green line to prove again connect to the light rail services. And the second stop will be at the Tri Med bus hub facility right next to the movie theaters. We are working with Sandy and their transit services to connect our operating schedule with theirs to align that, to make sure again that regional connectivity with the promise under the STIP program will be able to deliver through that service to our communities and constituencies.

Our goal is to have thirty minute headways during peak times. Hopefully, we can work this make this schedule work and staffing aligns that that will be the optimal operating schedule. We are looking at sixty minute headways during off peak times. And currently, Monday through Friday with coordination, information, and building of the community awareness and ridership. Most importantly, we're looking to extend the service to the weekends as well to Saturday at least, and then we'll see where it lies beyond that.

Again, is that provided by the state transportation investment. As we begin to finalize the the services, it's going to be around 10 x. It's going to be hot pink where all the routes are coordinated, and we're beginning to continuing to work with our partners along the route to make sure that the stops are signed, provided that everybody is aware and welcomes the service when it arrives by the first week in May. We have some brochures here about our Woodburn service, so if you're interested in that we'll pass them around. Obviously, we'll deliver prepare collateral materials that will be specific to your service.

And we'll continue to work with the City of Wesley communication team to ensure that coordination, communication, awareness to the community is passed on from us and coordinated with our staff. Be happy to entertain any questions you have.

Thank you for that uplifting, wonderful presentation and that built facility you built over there looks very looks very cool.

You've gotta come and see. We'll do a a grand opening kind of deal and you guys have to we'll invite, you know,

it's Your whole city the city council must be so proud of over in Wilsonville of that accomplishment and the fact that you can provide free service too is unbelievable when you think

it would Yeah. Them, we wouldn't be able to without the city council and mayor support going back to mayor Knapp and then mayor Fitzgerald. They have been very supportive.

Any I'm gonna open the floor up to questions from city council. Councilor Groner. Yes.

Thank you for your presentation. Eye opening. You made a statement that you're running in the black, but you're not collecting any fares

That's true.

From riders. And so I presume this is various state and perhaps county and local sources of tax sources of funding. Is that Yes.

Wilsonville has its own payroll tax as does TriMet. Ours is just a little less. And so we collect that and then we get our share of the STF, STIF, which is a state transportation improvement fund. So we take all of that and put it together and it allows us to provide the service that we do at no cost.

And I have a second question. If West Linn was interested in such a service, would it be more reasonable for us to sort of join you in a common service or have independent service along your lines?

Counselor, I was here last in 2019 sitting right here. I think it was mayor Axelrod who invited me. And we were talking about I remember there were a lot of hills involved, and they were talking about shuttles. And as I explained then,

it

is one of those things that this body and the same body over at the city of Wilsonville would have to, you know, come up with a plan. So it's it's above my pay grade is is what

I'm Okay.

It's it's a political question.

Exactly. No. Understand that. London law. London law school. Otherwise.

Yeah. No. I yeah.

Well, I appreciate you bringing it up, counselor, and that's something we can definitely take up. And I've we we could talk to the mayor and city council over there and, you know, about that.

They really are nice folks over there.

They they're they are they are nice folks. Yeah. For sure. And, obviously, a big it's a big policy discussion and decision with lots of ramifications for both communities, and I'm sure you're hearing from other communities as well given the transit news going on.

Yes. Yes.

We are.

Council president Baumgartner has been very involved in the transit conversations lately and has a has a has a comment for you. Go ahead. Question.

Thank you, mayor. Yes. I think we first met at a bond summit for the school district that was held at at the then brand new school on Advance Road. Yes. The middle school. Yes. The middle school.

That was some

years ago.

Yeah. It was. I think that was, gosh, 2018 maybe? Yeah.

I and I arrived here in 2017.

So I have been thinking about this off and on quite a bit. One of my first appointments, volunteer appointments was with the transportation advisory board here at the city, and so, not having a background in transportation, but having used, of course, driving a car was I embarrassingly introduced myself as being my expertise was I use the roads. But I have also, in my life, used transit in that I lived in West Linn and Lake Oswego and rode the 35 downtown back and forth, basically. But it is it's very important, as you point out, for equity. Yes.

And so that's really what drives me. And when I hear from our community members that whether they're people using actively themselves directly using or employers who need small businesses, need their employees to be able to get to work, and they're using and soon losing their way to work. I'm very concerned about that with the TriMet line service line cuts. So I'm looking forward to all of these discussions, and I would love to check out the bus on shoulder opening. So if there's riders if you're looking for riders, sign me up, and I'd love to come and tour the the new congratulations on that, the new building and housing for people that's so critical, critically needed.

So thank you.

If I could share just briefly just an incredible story story. I am a bus rider myself. I ride the bus on a daily basis. And we've been operating the 10 x or 12 x to Amazon for about three weeks, not quite a month yet. And I was on my route the other morning riding in, and over the radio, I hear the driver of the 12 x or 10 x. The 12 x.

12 x.

Call in and say, hey, can you leave a note for the driver this evening at 06:15 to make sure to keep an eye out for these passengers that are working at Amazon. I'm bringing them there right now. It's literally like 05:00 in the morning. I think our first trip is 04:45 or something like that. And and they said and the person says, I got a, you know, bus load, probably half a dozen people, and it's their first day at Amazon.

And my heart just I went, oh my. This is why we do what we do. Three weeks ago, these folks weren't working at Amazon, and there wasn't this same service. Now we're operating this service, we're in it for about three weeks, and I've got a busload of people on their first day. And, you know, I just, like I said, it just, whole day for me, was just grinning. I came in and told the team, guess what, first day at work. How special is that for those individuals? And then to have a company that you can call and say leave a note for the the evening driver. Now that driver is not even at work yet. Right?

Because they're, you know, 06:15 trip in the PM. Leave a note so that we keep an eye out for them. And Amazon did us really well. They have a bus stop for us, plenty of room. They welcomed us there. So anyway, I just thought that is a great story that you'd appreciate.

That's very inspirational. Thank you.

Wonderful story. A lot of good stories. There's good things happening with Smart.

We love what we do.

Appreciate it.

We love what we do.

You're passionate about the work. Yeah. For sure. I can I can tell that? Councilor Bright, you know, any other comments?

I just appreciate the partnership partnership with you and the fact that you're taking the time to make a stop in West Linn in a place where we're losing service, unfortunately, is very notable and noteworthy. And I appreciate that. And I'm sure our community members who use that service, like council president said, are gonna be very appreciative and, obviously, would love to continue conversations about places where smart can backfill, but also understand, you know, the political dynamics surrounding transit. And so just eager to I think on behalf of city council, our staff, we're very eager to collaborate wherever possible to for the betterment of our residents.

So We're in the business of moving people. We don't care where they live or, you know, we just want to move people. And and I would be remiss if I didn't thank ODOT for their partnership. You've seen the shoulder, you've seen the signs, you've seen the markings. If I hadn't mentioned, SMART is the only Oregon based transit agency that is allowed to operate on the shoulder of the interstate. So we're very proud of that, And we will never take that for granted. Safety is prime is is paramount. We haven't had any incidents on her I 5 service at all.

That's amazing. And I think it's definitely for the efficiency, when you look at the traffic that builds up on I 5 And 205, if you have to sit in traffic, you're in trouble with this turn because you're an hour late. But with that service, can stay on time hopefully.

That's We do we do have individuals from time to time that haven't seen the signage. And so when the bus goes by them on the shoulder, my phone rings and I have a person on the other end yelling at me about unsafe act.

Oh.

And I said, what happened? The bus went right by me on the shoulder. I said, was it speeding?

They go, no. No.

But it

just we're stuck in traffic. And I go, sir or ma'am. I said, it's it's allowed. There's there's signage. And they apologized. They said, I never saw the signage. I said, it's a program that allows buses, in this case, smart to operate. But they're they're they are livid sometimes when a bus passes them on the shoulders. Yeah. Not the driver's fault. It's Dwight's fault. You have any

Yeah. Council president has another

Oh, sure. Follow-up.

I just wanted to add, as kind of a another case, a happy case story is that I am picturing, and I'm pretty sure that what you are creating here, this this connection, this to extend what was the '76, I'm pretty sure that that, at least in this one case, a business that's gotten a hold of me that says their employee won't three of their employees won't be able to get to work anymore. I think this is going to offer them at least an option because they're coming from the East Side Of Portland. And so they could get themselves maybe to Clackamas Town Center and then be able to do this transfer. So, this is really I mean, it's critically important. So

You know, we have the route laid out, but we're flexible, we're fluid, we're nimble. And if we need to make some adjustments along the way, Diana will be looking at that, we'll be looking at numbers. And we're not as concerned with, you know, making sure that every seat is filled. We like just going where people want us to go, and we offer smaller vehicles. And if we need a larger vehicle, we have those as well. But on this type of service, we use smaller vehicles, and it seems to work out pretty well. They're they're less expensive to operate. Yeah.

It's great.

They're just a lot more a lot more flexible.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Thank you. Anything else? City manager Williams, any comments on your end for this is No. The only thing I'll say

is we've told you this before, but we are happy to help with the communications, with the outreach, with rolling the service out whenever you have the details, whenever you're ready. You have the contacts at our staff level, and we're just thrilled to have you. Welcome to Westland.

Alright. Thank you. And speaking of communication, Gina Troja.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Please tell Gina that I said.

Hey. Well, thanks thank you so much for being here. We look forward to continuing collaboration, and I'm gonna call mayor O'Neil in the coming days, and and we'll And come when

we do the grand opening.

Love to be at the tour.

Yes. Great.

Thank you so much. And what a great story for you to be able to share that that might solve the community members' problem we've with accessing work. Yep. Yep. Very powerful. Just to have transit reduced down and to just getting people to work is is really grounding during all these policy conversations we're having, you know? That's thank you. Okay. With that, we can now move on to the consent agenda. So is there any objection from the city council to our meeting notes? Got one pair there. If we there's objection, we have to pull it off and talk about it. So I looking across the table, I'm seeing no objections. I always ask that. So with that, please make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Thank you, mayor. I move to approve the consent agenda for the 02/10/2026 Westland City Council meeting, which includes the 01/13/2025 meeting minutes.

Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda, which approve which includes the meeting minutes for 01/13/2025 council meeting. Please call the roll.

Council President Baumgartner? Yes. Councilor Brunner? Yes. Councilor Bonington? Yes. Councilor Bright? Yes. Mayor Beliszewski?

Yes. So the meeting notes are approved. And as always, Kathy, thank you for your work on the meeting notes. And Teresa and the Teresa, the team at ABC, who that's awesome. Always appreciate that.

I just want to clarify. I said the wrong year. It's 2026.

But Oh, that's

on Just to to point that out.

There's a Scrivener's error, so the motion should reflect that it's actually 2026. So thank you. We could have just moved to approve the consent agenda, and then it would but you know what? That's totally okay. It won't change anything.

So thank you. Consent agenda is approved. Staff have been thanked, and now we will move on to the business meeting, which has only one item on it, an important one, though, agenda bill twenty twenty six zero two 10 o two, resolution twenty twenty six, which is revising the fees and charges as shown in attachment a and updating the master fees and charges document in the city of Westland related to the parks maintenance fee for the operations center construction. And with that, I'll turn it over to the city manager and just note for the record that this is a follow-up on several council discussions we've had about this topic.

Mister mayor, that's exactly what I was gonna say. Once you have stolen my thunder, but my only speaking role this evening is to introduce Lauren to present the staff report for this item, and to note that it does come from direction you provided at your February 3 work session. So Lauren, thank you for being here and for doing all the behind the scenes work to get this ready.

Of course. Yes. So this is a resolution to update the master fees and charges based on what the council has talked about. This is the only there's only two things that are being updated in this master fees and charges document. The first one I'll just say is the correction of an error in section 8.4.

The total fee remains the same, but the breakdown of the fee was incorrect on the last version. So we're just updating that. The other part of this is what we're here for tonight, but it is a increase of the parks maintenance fee by $5.2 per month, per residence. This is to help pay for the operations center cost, the parks portion of that, which is in the general fund. So that portion is about 561,000 a year, and or estimated to be that, and this would cover exactly that.

So, Council has asked that we take a look at that and increase that to, help pay for that portion and help supplement the general fund.

And the parks maintenance fee is the parks maintenance budget is little bit stretched thin, correct? You know, already?

Yeah.

Which is parks kind of why we're doing this.

Exactly. So the parks maintenance, or the parks department is inside the general fund, which is our fund that is stretched a little thin and we'll have concerns about in the future bienniums.

You. Anything else to add

to that?

I don't

think so.

Okay. Well, we can any questions of, finance director? Councilor Bonington, go ahead.

Yeah. In the the interim between the last time we discussed this and now, a few people have asked me about the reason multifamily is lower than single family and what the origin of that is and when that's billed to a,

like, a

30 unit apartment complex, is it just being billed one fee or is it 30 fees in addition to the use? Basically, the concern seemed to be that it was making an assumption that multifamily housing needed a discount for economic reasons. So if you could explain.

So as I understand it, that's not the reason for that. I believe this was implemented when the Parks Maintenance Fee was implemented in 2007. And the reason is, as it explains in Section 6.9 of the Master Fees and Charges, is that multifamily residents, we can't really account for the vacancy rate, and so they are on one meter, and so could be 30 apartments on one meter, and some of those apartments could be vacant, but we're billing for the full 30 units. So this is a slight discount to those to account for the vacancy rates.

And it's a very small difference. It's approximately a dollar a month and the rate is per residence not per complex, to be clear, if that's a question you were asking.

So if it's 30 units, then it has 30 fees assessed, but they are slightly lower, and then that difference in the fee is to account for the fact that inevitably some of them will be vacant?

That's correct. And the comparison to single family home, if the single family home is vacant, not accruing bills.

Right. There's no one paying the bill.

Okay. And would a duplex count as multifamily? Okay. So that's where it Yes,

would if they are on the same water meter. Generally, duplexes are on the same water meter. But sometimes they have them separated for whatever purposes. So if it is on the same meter, yes.

Okay. Got it. Thank

you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor President Baumgartner.

Thank you, mayor. And thank you for the information. And just to, I think, revisit a concept we've already discussed, but, I had a phone call from a resident today that reminded me. People are expressing concern about the need for this increase. And I know that we talked about maybe being able to communicate with the public, just kind of to help people understand why we're doing this.

I've heard several people express concern that or an understanding that we had made the announcement that we had the money for the construction of the op center, so why are we now raising a rate to pay? So I'm just again, we've talked about this, but I'm just bringing it up again because I got a phone call this afternoon that reminds me of just the questions that people have. And I'm totally confident in the need and the reasonableness of a rate increase. I'm just trying to anticipate how to communicate that to so that people feel they they understand what it is.

Do you wanna take the communications part of it? I mean, we do have a communications

I don't even have a question, really.

I'm just

I I I didn't take it as a question. Danielle and Doug and and others communications are working well, others those are the two people who have communications on this, are are have some messaging ready to go to explain the rationale for this, to explain the history of the consideration of this, and to talk put it in context. For example, one of the pieces is we are paying for more than 80% of the project costs with our existing fees and rates, and this is the only increase anticipated related to this project. So that's that's part of the messaging. I think And the careful deliberation that the council and the community has put into the need for this project over time and the special circumstances of the general fund relative to the dedicated utility funds, all of that is are are pieces of puzzle.

And so we have we have some some plans for that after you make this decision.

Yes. Well, I think anytime I get a communication from a community member, I consider that to represent at least 30 other people, let's just say, off the top of my head, that have the same question. I'm sure it's even more than that. I was able to put in a plug for offering that this person could apply to the utility advisory board, So because it it helps us all that we have community members who are concerned to participate. But, anyway, I I meant that in a very well meaning way, and they took it that way too.

So but I I just think that this is important, and I appreciate all the work that the finance department has done and you have done, Lauren, about this because we don't take it lightly. And I think all this work shows that we don't take it lightly. So thank you all.

Thank you, council president. Any other questions? Or we can council council president can a motion can be made, then we can have discussion, statements, and I have a little short message to read.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I will make a motion. I move to adopt resolution twenty twenty six dash o one, revising fees and charges as shown in attachment a and updating the master fees and charges document of the city of Westland related to the park's maintenance fee.

Second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt resolution twenty twenty six zero one, revising fees and charges as shown attachment a, and updating the master fees and charges document of the city of West Linn related to the parks maintenance fee. Any discussion from city council? Councilor Bright, go ahead.

I just wanna say that I think people in general don't want their costs to go up, and this is maybe a more difficult one for them to wrap their heads around because they don't see that physical thing. We have not yet built the operations center. We haven't seen any of the efficiencies that come from this. This taking a long term view and it's maybe harder to just see your rates go up. We do have a low income rate that is available to people.

So if people really are feeling a hardship for this, they can contact the, utility department and talk about what they need to do to qualify for that. And so there are people that if they're in hardship that we do have some help for them.

Thank you, councilor Bryke. I appreciate that. I will just make a quick comment here. Listen. As mayor, I know that asking residents to pay even $5 a month more in their fees is not easy.

It hasn't been easy to discuss it with counsel, and I've carefully considered comments from the public. Because this is a especially a time when household budgets are tight, and we've talked about the economic climate, and in part, that's contributed to the rising cost of the project. But because this is a onetime long term capital investment, it isn't something that our regular city budget can responsibly cover without impacting core services like parks maintenance, which hence the $5 a month increase. And our current operation facility, which was purchased in '19 the nineteen thirties in the Sunset neighborhood and built around that time, was really built for a much smaller city and really is no longer adequate for the needs of the of Westland. And if you've seen the photos, which are online at yourwestland.com, it's clear that the space doesn't work for modern public works, parks maintenance, water sewer, emergency response for various reasons.

I mean, there's insulation hanging out of the walls in different places. The water department is in a is in a cabinet right now, for example. I mean, we have a lot of people that serve the facility, the you know, when you could take a tour, it the SCADA system is right in a small cabinet, and, you know, that's not really adequate for a city of our size. So Westland has grown tremendously, and our infrastructure needs have grown with it. The operations center, I think, is an essential investment in how we take care of our city every day, giving our crews the space and tools they need to work efficiently, respond faster during severe weather and emergencies, and maintain the system we all rely on.

It's gonna benefit all of our maintenance departments, parks, streets, storm, sewer, everything that we do. And so it's really it's not about luxury or expansion. It's really about ensuring that the people who keep our city running can do their jobs safely and effectively and also efficiently, now and into our city's future. And so we didn't take the take the decision lightly. The council president has shown me a figure that the population of Westland in 1930 when we bought the site was 1,956, and, we probably built it do we know the year the site was the building was built?

In the fifties, the population then was around 4,000. So you think of how much Westland's grown over the years. Now we're at 28,000, and we have a 110 lane miles of road to maintain and all tons of parks and all the diff and all all the different expansions in our system. So I'm confident in this project, and just I I feel like the fact that we only have to do a a $5 a month increase is a bargain for what we're getting for our community. And I'm glad it didn't have to be more for this essential project.

So but also totally hear the concerns about the cost of living, and that's why we take it lightly and try to keep our fees as low as possible to accomplish critical infrastructure. So, anyway, that's my soapbox. Just wanted to put that into the record and and for those that are listening and insight into my thoughts, I'm sure it represents others as well. Council president, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. And I appreciate all of those you sharing all of those thoughts. I just wanted to share that the person I spoke to today was very grateful to hear that the careful consideration we had made specifically on the cost of the op center and the value engineering, which there was a time in my life I didn't know what value engineering meant. So getting the cost down that we did and that I let the person know that we, for instance, cut down from three buildings to two to cut cost as much as possible on this project. So I just I think really what I'm hearing from people is they need reassurance, and that's what I'm hoping we can do.

I'm not saying we weren't already planning that. I'm just kind of reiterating that that would be really important for people and helpful for them to kind of put it into context. So that it's not easy, but they understand the need.

And perhaps in our communications we can talk about that, value engineering efforts that we undertook. And there's a component on the city's website that talks about it as well. And that's an important point because we did shave 10,000,015 million dollars off the 12,200,000.0 to be exact of the It's significant. Councillor Groner.

Yeah, thank you. I've been reading about the American Revolution and one story that sort of got to me was when a British parliamentarian heard that Americans wanted taxation, no taxation without representation. He said, well, he had never heard of anybody who wanted any taxation with or without representation. So nobody likes taxes, and they have not for a long time. But we do have a communication plan, and I think it's a good one.

And I recommend that people look at our city website and understand it. But I think it has to be communicated on several levels. In business, we used to talk about the elevator pitch, a one minute summary of your argument. And I think you've come pretty close to that. Maybe it was two or three minutes. But we need all those methods of communications. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Appreciate that add. And definitely important to communicate the need, and so thank you. Anything else on the topic? The The motion has been made and seconded. So with that, I will ask Kathy to call the roll.

Councilor Brunner? Yes. Councilor Bonington?

Yes.

Councilor Bragg? Yes. Council president Baumgartner? Yes. Mayor Miyazovsky?

Yes. Thank you. So the motion passes, and resolution twenty twenty six zero one is adopted. And thanks to the finance department for and park parks department as well. This is the parks maintenance fee, the parks directors in the back. So thank you, and looking forward to a a greater day in Westland when the new facility is built and all the employees are able to do their job in a more efficient and safe and wonderful manner.

Thank you.

So, with that, we can move on then to the city manager report.

Thank you, mister mayor. I thought you were gonna point out that I have an hour to do this report according to the agenda. Normally, you call that out, but Speak slowly. I will speak very slowly. No. I I don't have too much to report tonight. Thinking about upcoming meetings, your, next confirmed meeting is your council retreat on the twenty seventh, Friday the twenty seventh. I'll be working with the mayor in the next couple of days on the agenda and certainly trying to discuss that with each of you. We have two work sessions coming up, February 17 next week and March 3. Neither of those have any items right now.

And so we are proposing canceling the seventeenth, our work session next week, because we have nothing for that agenda. We thought we would not yet to make a decision about the third because things may come out of your retreat that need to be worked on more. So that's our proposal. I'll confirm with the mayor tomorrow, but unless there's any items that you have a pressing need to add to an agenda, you may be looking at having a short week off next week. Okay.

Just a couple of notes about upcoming events. Hope you all have the meet the chief event on the eighteenth at the library on your calendar. We're looking forward to that. We have no idea what attendance will be like. We've been debating how many light refreshments will be needed, but we are looking forward to that event. Think great opportunity for the community to meet or to remeet chief Rollins, who is official this week, officially on the ninth. So congratulations to chief Rollins. And then swearing in, obviously, the weekend the week after that at 1PM. Up another upcoming events, Vision forty three open house this oh gosh. This Thursday, I believe, at six at the library.

I understand the first event was quite good, and we're looking forward to the second one. And I appreciate this is just a continuation of all the outstanding public involvement that has been done all the way along this project. Two events that I really appreciate that our parks that our recreation department does, Valentine's related, the Valentine's dance at six at the ACC on the thirteenth. This is a dance focused on folks with physical or cognitive disabilities and a really heartwarming event. So if you know folks who might be interested in this, that is a that is a really great event to attend.

There's also the sweetheart family dance on the fourteenth, on Valentine's Day. This is for kids four and up to attend with the family members, so another great event. Also, at the library, there's a luminary takeaway take and make kit. So a little mason jar kit that creates a Valentine candle kind of So that's available at the at the library, which is really cool. Work wise, something that took quite a bit of work over the last few days was reviewing all of the bills that are sweeping in in the legislature.

We are pleased to have Doug Riggs helping us breaking the way. Doug is gonna be working to provide opportunities for the mayor and council to attend in in Salem and meet with legislators. Obviously, it's just a whirlwind. There's already a deadline this Friday for legislation, and so there's just a lot going on. We are seeing continued efforts on housing.

There's new rules the new new regulation loosenings being proposed in a number of areas of housing in the UGB and there's always efforts happening down there on that. But lots of other things going on as well, So we're trying to track all that. Last thing I will note for our calendar is just a reminder, we are closed on Monday for President's Day. And wishing you all the best for a great long weekend.

Thank you. If only I had if only school was canceled on Presidents Day at private school. Lewis and Clark, they had school over there now. Not a long weekend for law students. Okay. Any other anything else for the good of the order? I appreciate the meeting tonight, and wonderful presentation from SMART, and look forward to continued collaboration with them. And seeing nothing else, we can I'll I'll by the way, I'll communicate with city manager tomorrow. And if anybody thinks of any agenda topics that are pressing and need to be on the agenda for next week, we can add those on. And, otherwise, we'll cancel the agenda and then substitute in our retreat.

So there's still a meet, you know, three times in a month, but we'll just have the retreat as our third meeting instead of the work session. So with that, seeing nothing else, we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.