City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone it being six o'clock.

I'm gonna call the Coos Bay City Council meeting to order Would you all rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

Thank you and welcome. Any public comments, Christine? Thank you. All right, so public comment period is intended for the public share ideas and concerns. It is not intended for the interaction discussion with council. There may be opportunities for the public comments during specific agenda items that require public hearing. Members of the public are requested to confine their remarks to questions or issues under discussion during this time. During any designated comment period, individuals shall not engage Impersonal attacks shall not impugn the motives of any speaker and shall at all times while in session conduct themselves in an appropriate manner. No person shall make personal impertinent slanders or unauthorized remarks or become boisterous while addressing the counsel. Thank you. First one is Ken. Ken, you got a comment this evening?

Good evening, everybody. First, I want to thank all of you for everything that you do for the community and state. And I want to thank the doctors, the nurses, the police, the fire department, and all the above. And second of all, September 11th will be my 32nd year living in Coos Bay. It's the best place I've lived in my lifetime. And October 10th will be my 50th year living in Oregon. So I've enjoyed it. Been the best decision I ever made. So thank you.

Well, thank you. And it's great to have you here. And it's always a pleasure to have you at the council meeting. Dean Lundy, how are you?

I'm fine, thank you. Hi, guys.

I'd like to mimic what Ken said about the city being the most beautiful place. It reminds me of where I grew up in San Francisco. I'm here tonight to talk about the new bicycle map. Again, ODOT put out the new coast. coast map, every, in the coast map and we have them at our fabulous, these are the maps, we have them at our fabulous visitor center down there and I've been trying to picking them up and handing them out as much as I could. And each city on the whole coast has a little vignette thing. And I've been handing these out. I've been copying them. This is a blow up of the North Bend Coos Bay new bike map that they just put out because June 5th, they celebrated this new map, and they celebrated the new law about road building for ODOT with a sidewalk and a bike path. And I remember, it might have been a couple of years ago now, we were going to get the final plan that we paid for. The people paid for the drawing for the Shero Road from commercial to connect to ocean and that's on this map is ocean shore side on the backside of the college over there is where they suggest we ride now and it's really beautiful back on the backside. I don't know where North Bend ends on that bike path and Coos Bay starts, but it's really, it's going to be beautiful, but it isn't marked and it isn't striped. The striping that North Bend has done on Newmark is the way it should be done. That's the torch down striping with the glass beads in it because we get weather here, boy, that, you know, it's, you know, so that's, anyway, oh, and concerning the bike paths, we can't legally ride on the sidewalks. We have to be on the street. And we have to ride with the traffic. And we had a drawing. We hired a professional engineering group to draw that Sherrill Road up to Mingus Park. And boy, it would be pretty easy to do, I think. Uh, Thursday afternoon at four o'clock in this chamber, uh, the park department is meeting. So I would love it if you would think about, uh, sharing what the city has on that, on that plan and, and, and where we can progress from here. Thank you very much.

Thanks Dean. I believe the parks commission is aware of it and has that plan or has reviewed it.

Yeah, we've reviewed it. It's something that we are definitely taking into consideration. This body has talked about that plan as well, and we're just trying to figure out how it's going to fit into the bicycle and pedestrian master plan, which we have a grant four that we're hopefully starting fairly soon that will kind of identify the key areas and focuses that we want to look at and help to design and refine the bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan. So that is part of it. It's just how is that going to tie in with everything and we want to make sure we do things right.

If we're gonna spend the money and wasn't part of the problem anything Once you're gonna start on Front Street and coming across that then we needed a light and no doubt wasn't willing to fund that I mean that was really a hang-up because it was gonna be an expense So I guess if it could start on the other side And I'm just throwing that out dad.

There's there's lots of things that need to happen and then the front street master plan or the front street master plan thing will tie into this as well and there's there's a lot to go so if I can add a correction ODOT actually is going to fund the rapid flashing beacon there on northbound

101 there at front and market. We actually entered into agreement with them. What about a month ago and I think it's on market then right? Yes, so they they're being good partners.

Okay, and then from there we've got We've got some work to do on Front Street. Sure. Well, of course, we've got some work to do on market to Anderson to ocean Yeah

Well, I think the fun isn't the final phase for front Street first day of first phase Finalizing the design almost done.

So we're supposed to get 60% design in September.

Okay. All right, which is now September, but all right So If there any other public comments just because you didn't sign up doesn't mean that you don't have the ability to come up and speak Welcome. It's good to see you here

My name is April Keeley. I'm the new director of the Coos Bay Downtown Association.

It's nice to see all of you. Speak into the mic, please. Oh, gosh.

Thank you.

My name is April Keeley. I'm the new director of the Coos Bay Downtown Association. This is my first official week, so it's been very exciting. We're in the middle of painting our office, so we can move from the fourth floor down to the main level of the hall building. And I don't know. This has been a great adventure so far.

That's great. Well, I'm so glad for you and the organization. Thank you. You've been pretty busy for the first week.

Yeah, it's been kind of wild. I have talked to some business owners and a property owner about starting a mural on the side of Bay Appliance. I have seven new members of the Downtown Association, and we're moving our office. So it's been fun.

All right.

Thank you. It was nice to see all of you.

Thank you. Well, I look forward to seeing you and all the things that are going to be happening.

Thank you.

So is there anyone else?

No. Go ahead. Go ahead, Joe.

So is there anyone else that wants to make a public comment? No? All right. We'll move on. Next item on the agenda is a presentation, Wild Coast Trails Association Pony Creek Watershed Plan. Nicole?

Yeah, I'll start us out, but of course we have a representative here that's got a presentation to walk through. So essentially this is a presentation that came before the Water Board and it was asked to be put on our agenda so that the City Council could also see that same information and maybe provide feedback on where the city itself might land in regards to trails in the Water Board property.

Yeah, I knew this was presented to the water board, and this was done four years ago also. I don't know if you did it, Zach, but I know your organization did. Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I wasn't involved at the time.

And so it's something that Mayor Engelke and myself both were there, and we're hoping that the water board would take it on. And so here we are, full circle, and hopefully we can get this thing moving forward. So I asked Nicole to put this on the agenda for us. So thank you for being here.

Fantastic. Yeah. And thank you all for having me. Really appreciate it. And I want to thank, you know, we have a couple of the representatives from the Water Board here. So I want to thank their partnership in this so far, as well as Carmen has been a big help as well. So it's taken a lot of people. I think some of the people you may have talked to before are still a couple of our board members, Dave Hernandez and Adam DeMarzo. So I want to give them credit because they've put a lot of love into this in the past and it's evolved and changed over time. So we'll get into kind of where we're at right now. And I don't think the clicker is working. So, I did not. That's half the battle, right? Okay, so, there we go. All right, so I'll just start out with just a little bit of who we are. Wild Coast Trails Association, formerly known as Wild Rivers Coast Mountain Bicycling Association. It's a total mouthful, so we condense that down a bit. Plus, we focus a lot, not just on mountain biking, but other trails as well, so we thought it was good for us to kind of update our name based off of our mission. We're a 501 nonprofit. We're based in Coos and Curry County. And we have 10 volunteer board members. We've largely been a working board for many years, but we do have two paid staff. We have a program director and a program coordinator who I think is actually joining from the Zoom. His name's Reed. who manage our maintenance kind of day-to-day as well as our long-term planning, budget, and fundraising and things like that. So that's kind of who we are as an organization. We're responsible for managing Whiskey Run, Winchester Trails. We partner with the City of Coquille in managing 100 Acre Woods. We do a lot of work out there. Vasa species removal, regular maintenance, things like that. And then we also have a really cool trail project that's growing and it's built off of some kind of existing infrastructure down by Agnes, Oregon. So that's in the Gold Beach Ranger District. And then we have some kind of other trails that are, you know, out in North Spit and, you know, we don't really directly manage those, but we've been trying to kind of legitimize those trails. Those are old school trails that have just been out there forever and we've been in talks with the Forest Service and the BLM and stuff to manage all that. And then we of course have Blue Ridge up with BLM up there too. So lots of trails, lots of experience. Our organization's been around for about 11 years now. And really over the last four or five years, kind of around the time I started to get involved, which I'm now the board chair of over the last couple years, we've really tried to make the organization a lot more mature and kind of really legitimize our operations. We have this great track record, but We were a little disorganized in the past, and we wanted to really kind of formalize all the good work we've been doing and try to make it a little bit more legit because our funders believe in us, and we've proven that we can do the work, but we've been doing a lot of work to really mature as an organization over the last three or four years or so. That's us. We have brought in over a million dollars in grants for Whiskey Run just on its own. We have a good track record for fundraising and spending that money, and then keeping our stakeholders, our land managers in control of the whole process. So what we're here today to talk about is a project that, as you mentioned, has come up before, which is a trail project on the Pony Creek Watershed. Really the idea behind this is this is really more for locals than it even is for tourism, is the way that we're seeing it. So we have all these great trail systems all around the area, but if you live in Coos Bay, North Bend, Charleston, you have to drive to get to these trail systems. And, you know, it's a 30 minute round, you know, 30 minute one way, you know, hour round trip. to get out to Whiskey Run, for instance. So having a trail system that you could literally bike or walk to in town is a massive advantage for livability and accessibility for our community. So that's really what we're looking to do is just have... But a small trail system in town that you can actually access without having to get in your car and go to it. So of course there are tourism benefits to this. If people go, you know, to come to the area to ride Whiskey Run, which is kind of the crown jewel, then they can stop in Coos Bay on their way out of town and, you know, stay another night and ride that trail system too here in Coos Bay. So it does have tourism benefits as well, but our belief is that this is more for the local residents than anybody. So on the livability topic, we really see trails as vital infrastructure for the community, not only for the people that are here, as I mentioned, but for attracting high-value community members, people that we really rely on, like our health care professionals and things like that. A lot of these people like to mountain bike. They like to hike. They like to trail run. Just be in nature. That's part of the reason, as several people have mentioned now, that they come to live here, because it's an amazing place to live, the weather's fantastic, and we have this beautiful nature. We really want to give more opportunities for people to be able to recreate outside and have it be accessible very easily. So, you know, one of the things we might hear is like, okay, yeah, I don't really care about bikes. As I mentioned in the beginning, like, we're a trail organization. So we care about all the trail users. So whether it be hikers, runners, bikers, et cetera, we want all those people to be able to use the trails. We think that it benefits everybody. And I think a lot of people have, you know, maybe they're not bikers themselves, but they have friends and family members who are, or that might be hikers or birders or just nature lovers that want to get out in the woods after a hard day at work. So, you know, also one of the things that we'll bring up too is like all of these recreational opportunities bring tourism dollars in, but they also just bolster our economy. If you have people that want to stay here and work here and live here because we have great infrastructure like this, it helps our local economy as well. On the topic of accessibility, so the driving barrier is very real, as I mentioned. It's a 60 minute round trip to ride Whiskey Run. It's about the same distance if you wanted to go ride 100 Acre Woods in Coquille. Speaking personally, as somebody who used to live in Coquille, it was really nice to be able to just hop on your bicycle and ride up to the trail system. I can't express enough how amazing of a feeling it is to not have to get in your car to go ride your bicycle because you know almost sometimes those things kind of butt heads and you know we've talked about some of that like you know having bike lanes and stuff but that is really a pretty awesome experience or for you know the run club when they do their Wednesday run to be able to actually go up to a trail system that's well maintained and do running up there and things like that it's just fantastic. There's about 20% of Coos Bay residents that are under the age of 18. Some of them might not have their driver's license, so they have to rely on a parent or a friend who does have their driver's license in order to take them to a trail system where they can go ride their bike. So having the local trails allows, like I said, people to be able to reach it from directly in town without having to do that. There's some common myths about trail systems. I won't read everything on this slide. I don't think we need to, but there's a couple key points that I want to hit. One is damage to the land or kind of vandalism, things like that. In our experience, any time that we have had authorized legitimate use on a piece of land, it drastically decreases the amount of illegitimate use. You know, there's obviously on this property that we're talking about, there are people that go up there and do nefarious things. You know, they're camping up there, they're dumping trash, they're doing drugs, like whatever it is. We all know we've seen that. If you talk to any of the neighbors up Elrod Road, like they'll tell you they've seen some shady characters going up into that piece of property. And I know the water board has had to deal with that as well. having people that aren't supposed to be in there on that property. If we legitimize it, it really polices itself because people that are out there to recreate don't want that kind of activity on the land they're there to recreate, and the people that are out there doing nefarious things don't want to be seen. So it often kind of polices itself in that regard. And we think it's really beneficial for the water board to have an extra set of eyes out there because I think, again, most of the people recreating out there are upstanding citizens and they want to see the land taken care of. That's one thing that I will say. We do hear as kind of an objection sometimes, but we feel like that's not been our experience as a trail organization. Um, the, there is some concern around, you know, kind of erosion runoff, that kind of stuff. Like I know we've talked a bit about this. Uh, we have a solution to that. I think that, that, uh, works pretty well, which I'll kind of show on the map and I'll kind of annotate it as we go through that. But, um, we don't, we don't, we believe that if you, you know, get professional trail designers and you have, you know, the right environmental studies done, if necessary, you can keep that kind of stuff away from the actual water supply. And, you know, if you're thoughtful about the trail design, you, you prevent erosion and things like that. There is also recreational immunity. So, you know, we have Oregon law to protect the landowners, you know, the water board and the city in this case from any kind of lawsuits or anything like that if anybody were to become injured on the property. And then, of course, we're going to bear the brunt of the fundraising so it doesn't cost the city anything to have this there. We will take care of the maintenance, the construction, all of the scoping and things like that if this were to move forward. So now the exciting stuff. This is the proposed map. We've talked to Ivan and the water board about maybe starting as a phase one in the Joan A. Slough area, which is that little property out there. This would likely be more mountain bike optimized in that zone just because you would actually probably have to get in the car and drive there. You wouldn't really be able to walk there. You'd have to cross Libby and you'd have to traverse through all those woods there. So we wouldn't want people doing that. So you would have to kind of drive out to that Charleston area and park somewhere out there. So that would probably mostly be mountain bike focused there. the beginning but ideally what we would like is along that kind of eastern and southern border of that property you know these lines are approximate we would like there to be more kind of cross-country focused trails that are friendly for hikers and birders and nature lovers and runners etc and mountain bikers that we are kind of calling the rid So that sounds like it may be more of a phase two. Obviously, we would love to do it all in one go, but that's kind of the vision for how these trails would be outlined and kind of the mix of the type of trails. And if there was any concern about trail user conflicts, like bikes running into people, we could always separate the trails by five feet and just have them direction. or something, that's been a really good solution that's worked in other places too. So that is something that we could talk about. I've only got a couple more slides because I know time is sensitive here. So I'll move pretty quick because I also want to leave time for any questions or discussion. So funding, I kind of mentioned, we're very good at fundraising. And all of our projects in the past have been funded by a variety of funders. TSOC and ACFA have been great funders, Bandon Dunes Charitable Foundation, as well as the Oregon Recreational Trails Program. So we feel that both for feasibility studies, design, construction, any kind of environmental studies that need to happen in partnership with the Water Board, that we could completely fund this project without any burden to the city or the taxpayers. We feel very confident about that, and we can get into more details about that if we'd like, but I just want to be aware of the time. This is a rough timeline. As Nicole brought up, we met with the Water Board a couple weeks ago, and now we're here. So ideally, we'd love to move into more serious talks if there's an appetite to move this forward. We are going to be meeting with North Bend on October 26th. They have a working session with their city council. We're already on the books for that. And Jessica's expressed some excitement about this too, so we're excited to work with them as well on this. So ideally, if everybody wants to move forward with a version of this plan, we start going into those kind of planning meetings. We get a professional trail designer out here to work with us that we'll contract out to do design. And then we'll try to be pretty aggressive with our funding so that we can try to break ground. Next spring or summer would be awesome. Of course, all these things are flexible and change as we know. So as far as supporters, I would love to leave you guys with this hefty stack of letters of support that I have from a variety of people in the community. Mark from the city of Coquille. Bunches of people. I don't know who I should give this to. mull over and see some of the people that are interested in this project julie miller from tsoc i talked to her today she really wanted to be here she couldn't she had another obligation but she's been incredibly supportive as well it's dave lacey from oregon coast visitors association so we've got a lot of supporters for this project local businesses a lot of people at the medical center and hospital folks like that that really want to see something like this happen and i just have to reiterate like we have a really good track record in being good stewards of the land and working on these types of projects with a variety of different land managers. So we're happy to be a partner in this, and that's really all we're looking for from you all is just partnership and just opening the discussion and continuing to move it along. That's really all we're looking for here. Thank you.

Thank you. So questions from the council?

You said you met with the water boarder a couple weeks ago. Yes. What was their response to this?

Well, I mean, I can certainly, I don't want to speak for them. I think it was mostly positive. I think there's, you know, obviously things that we're going to have to work out. It is a, you know, Ivan and I had a really good conversation about this last week. It's a culture shift. You know, right now there's no recreation on the water board. And Ivan very aptly mentioned, you know, it's kind of either all the way open or all the way closed. You know, there hasn't been this kind of like, well, we'll allow some activity and not others. So we have to kind of figure that out. It's kind of new territory a little bit for the water board. It's a different type of kind of cultural and way of thinking. I think we can work through it. Technically, City of Coquille has some water infrastructure on their property. The reservoir is not really where people recreate, but there's some examples there. There's examples in Newport and other areas where there's recreation there. I think we can make it work. I think it just requires thoughtful design and if there's any risk of environmental impact, we'll go out for a study to fund that and figure out what that is and we'll mitigate it.

How many municipal watersheds in the state of Oregon allow this kind of access?

I don't have a number, but Newport is one example, Ashland is another good example, and Bend as well. Those are the ones that come to mind that are like really popular destinations for this type of thing, but there's quite a few out there. I don't have that exact number though.

Yeah, I did a little digging when I saw this was on the agenda, and it's very few actually.

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, yes, about 1%.

Got it. Sure.

So I would be interested in understanding why that number is so low, because I know outdoor recreation is a and and I don't think anyone here doesn't support that type of activity. But I think maybe it maybe possibly it could be what you said, you know, it's THERE COULD BE SOME ISSUES, AND I THINK THAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT.

YEAH, I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU.

IS THERE ANY POSSIBILITY OF HEARING WHERE THE WATER BOARD IS?

WELL, WE WERE GOING TO HAVE IVAN COME UP, BUT YOU KIND OF JUMPED IN AND ASKED HIM HOW THE WATER BOARD WAS, SO YOU JUMPED AHEAD OF THE SITUATION. BUT I WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU HAD ANY QUESTIONS FOR ZACK. Um, you know, I, I support this and I have supported this, and this is important to me and has been to Mary. Okay. We went before the board four years ago and what was suggested then was a bigger, um, situation. And Ivan was reluctant, but he did also mention at that time, there was 200 acres that was potentially, and Ivan can, can, can confer with this about 200 acres. It might be a possibility to work with. It seems like that's what you're doing and suggesting, but it seems like And I don't care what the percentage is for watersheds throughout the state I know what has been successful and can be done and I think it can be done in a proper way Especially since Ivan has taken the lead and and I'll have him come up and speak for himself But I think that we can get there. I would like to see this board this council give a recommendation letter and I think it's important on multiple levels for the locals, for tourism. And, uh, yeah, and it's been, it's how many trails you do have already and have been wonderful. So anyway, any questions for Zach before we move on?

It's not a question. It's a comment for Zach, but, uh, most of Cribbins was instrumental in spearheading. She was one. Yeah. Trails and has had a good working relationship with you. So, uh, I think it's important for us to, And that continues to this day. And I see this as nothing but a positive. And I think it's been even longer than four years they've been discussing trails on the water board property. At least the 20 years that I've been here, it's been a question. I think it's... I think it's a great idea. I just want to, from my perspective, I want to make sure that you guys understand that's an actively managed forest. Of course. And that's not going to change.

Yeah, no, and we're...

The riders and people that use that need to be aware of that. But I'm with you. I think that the... I hate to stereotype, but the category of people that are going to be using that are going to be like a private security system back there tattling on everyone who's not doing something they're supposed to be doing. So I'm not concerned about nefarious activities with the group that's out there. I think it'll be actually helpful to clean it up. Yeah, that's my two cents. Thanks for your presentation.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

Yeah, and I know with the Whiskey Run, since Troy brought it up, that you built the trail, and then with the county, they had some logging they did with the timber, and so you had to change to adapt, and so you were willing to work with them. So I think that just shows what you're willing to do to make these things happen.

Yeah, we have a great relationship with Lance, the forester out there, and Lindsey, and Cole, and the whole crew. And so much so, it maybe even would have been a little different even 5, 10 years ago. But the relationship is so good that they even said, hey, we're going to save you some time. and we're going to rebuild one of these trails for you, which is unprecedented. We've never seen that happen after a logging operation that they go back in and repair the damage themselves. We had to go in and touch up a couple things. But we were absolutely blown away about how far that partnership has come. So it really speaks volumes to that. So thank you again. Appreciate it.

I'll chime in just for my, I mean, it's probably no surprise that I'm a supporter of bicycle infrastructure. But in terms of the livability aspect that you brought up, and it being more for locals than it is for tourists, I've always thought that a great approach for tourism is locals first. If you build the livability of your community, it's just apparent in everyone's countenance when you come into this town. You're like, wow, people are happy here. Wow, what's going on? So you brought up the three towns that have recreational trails on their watershed. Thank you very much. All three of those are extremely livable towns. I have traveled and stayed the night in all of those, and I have enjoyed the trails in all of those communities, and it has been a pleasure. I always bring my bike when I go to Ashland or Bend or Newport, and I always have a great time. And I think it speaks to being able to get there, and then you can just hop on a bike and do whatever you need to do and enjoy. and recreate with very little barriers or anything to hinder your accessibility. So for me, I'm really glad that you came to talk to the city council about this. This seems to speak to the livability portion of how that would be part of our future focus, our legislative goals, our planning goals, whatever that might be. And as a member of the Water Board, we're tasked with more focusing on the water quality itself, the water system, development of the water system, and the safety of all of our residents. But this is kind of a weird nexus between using a resource, our land, Building the livability part of it, which is maybe the more the City Council's focus So I appreciate you bringing this to our attention and seeing how we can help.

Thank you So Ivan, can we hear from you? And thank you for coming. I appreciate it. I know it was an invite and you didn't have to accept but I'm glad you did Yes, no, no worries at all so

I can go back to this how this all started ago I think Joe and Jessica and the city manager Nicole and the city manager for for North Bend and and myself and a couple of water board members at the time met about mountain biking on the watershed at the time The current board of directors was not supportive of any type of open watershed, whether it be for hunting, fishing, boating, recreation, hiking, mushroom picking whatsoever. We met to discuss the mountain biking and the big part of that was the main part of the watershed has so many environmental impact statement buffers and has so many ODF and W and DEQ buffers. We didn't really want to see any type of open watershed in that portion. And we looked at the two hundred eight two hundred and eighty about 280 acres in the Joan a watershed and That seemed more of a doable Solution to install mountain biking trails or trails For for that purpose At the time the board said that I think the timber lots were six units in the Joe and A watershed that made up that 280 acres. They said pick, I can't remember if it was two or three units out and see if you can build a proof of concept mountain biking trails on those two or three units. And I think it was about 100 acres. And the response we got back is no, that will not work. and we want in the main part of the watershed. And I think that's where the dealings fell apart. Now, with Zach back, I think there is a board of directors who is still looking at that proof of concept, but looking at the Joneigh area of possibly allowing that whole 280 acres over there, pick kind of where mountain biking would work. So this is really the first back and forth we've had with Wild Coast Trails. It was TSOC at the time heading up those discussions. So from that point forward, I kind of look at that as like a negotiation back and forth. The Water Board's first goal is, number one goal, is to protect the public drinking water supply. A close second, a 1.2 or a 1.1, is to, you know, make safe, reliable drinking water for the community. And that's what we do. So thinking about mountain biking trails, I think the Board would still like to see a proof of concept on that 280 plus acres was what was discussed and possibly talk about the phase two of the trails in the main part of the watershed. Um, anywhere along that, see where it drains. There may be, there may be also some, um, municipal code stuff that needs to be, um, looked at to see if the water board of directors can even approve a civic use within the watershed. There may be some language in there that was found that we were looking at today that's kind of wonky. So this is definitely a process and piece, but I think the main part here is that the Water Board of Directors would be supportive, last time I talked to them, of the Joneigh area as a starter.

So that's at 280 acres that Zach had talked about phase one? Yes. Okay. And the phase two is their intent would like to be able to move forward, but at this point you would support the phase one, 280 acres? Yes. Okay. And the municipal code, are you talking, so that falls in us, or does it fall with the water board?

It's a municipal code for the city and also what's in the watershed management plan working with DEQ.

Okay, so it would take both then?

Yeah, I think it would take both, possibly updating and just making sure we do the right thing.

Sure, gotcha. All right, any questions, anyone?

I'm curious from the trail building perspective what the, I would assume there's some economy scales if you're able to do phase one and phase two concurrently. Is that accurate?

Yeah, everybody hear me okay?

That's not an issue. We've done that. We did that in Coquille, actually. The phase one's complete. Phase two's starting soon. So that's not uncommon. Whiskey Run was three phases. It's great to do it all in one because you don't have to have the trail builder travel out multiple times and they can just kind of come and stay and get it knocked out. Multiple phases is no problem at all, though. So that's not an issue whatsoever, and we're grateful for...

All right. The next item on the agenda is consideration to adopt Resolution 26-30, amending the city's fee schedule. Who's going to handle this? Chelsea, how are you?

Good. Good evening, Council Mayor. We spoke about this in July, presented an analysis of the Community Development Department fees compared to the actual cost of services, where it was determined that our current adopted fees are... well below the actual cost of services. And so the proposal to address that, to bring fees up to that 100% cost recovery, would be to phase them in over a five year period where all business license and planning fees would increase annually by an equal amount until that fifth year where they'd hit the 100% cost recovery some fees that aren't changed would be those that apply to the small business operators our general business license that one would go up to full cost recovery but all the other smaller transient businesses drivers rental leaseholds those types they would not reach a full cost recovery. They'd hover around maybe 49%. And then there are some planning fees that are already cost-based and those wouldn't change. So in your packet, the Exhibit A has the fee schedule with the proposed fee changes highlighted for year one, and then Exhibit B kind of sets forth the methodology for how the fee increases were determined and how they are proposed to phase in over the five year. fee schedule and if council chooses tonight staff's asking that we adopt that resolution 2630 which would include the full five-year fee phase-in schedule those year one fees would take effect immediately and then every subsequent year the fees would take effect automatically on february 1 And then that resolution also includes a regular annual increase of the fees based on CPI that would help us just maintain those costs over time. So if Council has any questions, happy to answer those, but simply asking for...

Questions for Chelsea? Anyone?

I just think it's thoughtful and reasonable.

Yeah, I do too, and I think, I guess we're in the hopes that the CPI adjustment will allow us not to have this come back all the time. We should be able to hopefully keep it in line. That's the goal. And that's the intent for all the fees in the future, hopefully? Hopefully.

Right now we're just looking at community development department fees, but hopefully we can bring all fees up. Okay. Yeah.

Anything else? If not, I need a motion to accept Resolution 26S30, please.

I'll make a motion to adopt Resolution 2630, amending the city's fee schedule, which includes the full five-year schedule with an annual fee increase based on CPI.

Second.

to move in a second to adopt resolution 26-30. Is there any other comments or discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes. I'm hesitating because I'm always waiting for people online to vote, so there's always a delay. All right, next item on the agenda is review and approval of recommendation legislative priorities for the League of Oregon Cities. Nicole?

Yes, thank you. So we brought this LOC ballot to you previously in a meeting in August, and because there's a lot there, and there's obviously some diverse needs across the city, We gave a little bit more time to kind of go through that. I think there was some really valid points that were brought up during that meeting, specifically around the state's limited budget, as all of us are sitting in that same boat. What you have before you is still our recommendation as we provided. Those are our needs, right? That's what we need advocated for us. And just the methodology behind it was we all, as a management team, kind of voted for our top five, and those were the highest votes for those areas. So happy to answer any questions if you have any, but...

Yes, what we have before us if I understand correctly is what you did staff voted and these were the top five correct But there were other ones to consider just have lower votes Yes, and this came before us and the previous council meeting and then we decided to give the council a bit of time To look at it digest it and see if this is what they want to do or adopt or add it or change it So there we go I think my only and I did spend a significant amount of time with us in between meetings the

And I agree with your recommendations. However, I am still curious about, of course, PERS, which is not an option. But the Administrative Procedure Act reform also felt really significant. And I wondered if transportation is like a given, that that's going to be a priority no matter what. And so curious if you have any comments about that.

Yeah, I do think that the transportation package is going to be a given because the state has their own transportation needs. They're going to have to come up with a solution there. I also know that in this last session, there was a bill that was passed that required the legislative revenue officer to go analyze the incoming revenues and where there were gaps and possibilities for shifts in revenues. at the state level, and that report's gonna come out in December, December 1st. That's maybe gonna guide the work of the next session. We'll, you know, I guess see from that, but, you know, there's two sides to the equation, right? Revenues and expenses, and we need to poke a little bit at both sides, and I think there are, ours are a lot revenue related, although, there is that expense side we could look at. That's PERS, that's, I mean, there's a list. You could definitely be looking out for the expense side of things. But, you know, certainly, we can certainly, you know, swap out any one of these or all of them if we feel like the administrative procedures is something we should be, you know, putting as a priority.

Again, I just know that we're headed into a legislative session where there's not a lot of budget for anything extra. And so I'm just curious about the strategy related to are there things that don't cost money that would help us work more effectively, and is that a smart strategy for the LOC going into this session.

Yep, that's fair. And seeing some of the pieces within that administrative procedures, having sat on, I'm sitting right now on a rules advisory committee at the state level, And there is, I think, some space for expanding the folks who sit on those groups that are local grassroots people. Also bringing the right financial folks to the table to kind of identify where it says here, the fiscal impact statements. I don't think they always capture that. And then I don't think they go back and audit it.

Or a rule gets proposed, which might work in a more urban community, but is really challenging for us to implement. Absolutely.

And Jacob was not able to be here tonight, but four of his aligned with the staff. And the one that does not was support responsible municipal use of technology instead of the emergency communication system resources, just for your information. Any other thoughts?

I thought it was well put together. I think those are all integral and important to what we're doing and helping us move forward. I mean, we're all going to have one that tagged us. I'd like the energy resilience, but I am fine with moving forward with the five that we have because those are all important and key to us moving forward.

I would second that. The one that pops out is the expedited local renewable energy generation. Energy seems to be at the top of the list of discussion points with data centers and various things coming around. I know that the country in general, especially with lots of transportation moving to an electric grid system, is going to be an issue. Just more production over here would be a priority of mine. Maybe we can just do that individually.

Yeah.

So I don't know. I mean, is this administration procedures in that reform? Would that be really impactful to us or not?

My experience just on this RAC committee, I think there are pieces of it that, yeah, there's a different, I mean, the RAC committee I'm sitting on is not something I had experience in. It speaks to fuel tanks and having seismic retrofits, so when there is a spill, they have the appropriate financial responsibility certifications on file. A piece of that spoke to impacts to local government and it said negligible. which is maybe true, but also is likely not, because from our perspective, when we know 90% of the fuel that comes into our state is in that Portland hub, if that goes down, there's pretty big impacts to the rest of the state. So I agree, those fiscal impact statements may need a little different attention, right?

And just to be clear, I'm good with our five. I just think that one was, like, I mean, as Troy said, that we're all going to flag probably one that also stands out to us.

Yeah. So, I mean, this is fine. I think we can start here if you want. Or if someone will make the motion to include one and take one out, that's fine, too. What I do think is important, though, we need to keep in mind that one of the goals that we've had is collaboration. And we work strongly. Now, we've reached out, and we have a group that meets every quarter. It's the hospital, the county. The college and the port. And so what we've agreed to do is that if things come up in Salem, that we all try to go up there and support each other. So I think it's important if they see something on this or we do, that we need to make sure that we all try to support each other. And maybe it'll help us get some traction early way up there.

And just because this is what we put before, LOC does not mean we can't also do some side work.

Right. Alright, so you need a motion on this or this consensus.

What do you I don't think we need a formal I think I mean you're welcome to do one, but just consensus Okay, is there an agreement that we just go ahead with the five that have been suggested by staff?

That's what I kind of get.

All right Yeah, I was gonna I'll make a formal motion that we approve the city of coup space preferred top 527 28 legislative priorities and authorize the city manager to forward to the League of Oregon cities second

All right. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the list that has been established by our staff and reviewed by us. Any other comments or discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the question. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is city manager's report.

Wow. Yes, thank you. As if I wasn't already talking enough. One topic has come to me with just a general question. I thought it might be helpful to have this conversation a little bit here. But we're in fire season, right? And we see fire restrictions happening outside of our community, but not within our community in relation to burning. And so I spoke to the fire chief, and he's not here tonight. So Battalion Chief, gosh, Farron, is here and maybe can answer some questions if there are any, but... Ultimately, the fire chief has that kind of oversight, but the chief would probably lean into what this council would prefer if we were going to consider any sort of burning regulations that would tie into what happens just outside of city limits in the county. right adjacent to us. So I don't know if there's a gap that I'm leaving that would help understanding. And this can also come back to you in a future meeting. I just wanted to have that kind of conversation generally as we've seen areas around the state be engulfed in flames. And maybe we should be taking some actions here. Moving on, if we don't want to chat about that anymore.

Did you have any comments about this? Not necessarily. If there's any questions regarding it, I'd be happy to answer them. Really, in our response, a lot of what we respond to during fire season is illegal bird complaints. And a lot of them are... legal per our regulations. We allow burning all year long. A lot of communities are starting to fall into what the county does, like CFPA and everything like that. So it could eventually reduce how many responses we're having to illegal burning complaints if we follow a closer model of the county. In my experience, that's kind of what we saw was initially we had an influx of people calling in illegal burning complaints and everything like that. But then eventually it kind of died off. Then the rest of what we're responding to is typically transient fires in our wooded areas. Those are the ones that I'm... Personally more concerned about is those ones because there's more fuels to to take off and burn Enforcing those is pretty hard Not always finding the person there. Usually they take off before before we get there and everything like that so Finding which person lit that fire and holding them responsible for it Has been pretty challenging so but I definitely be happy to answer any questions regarding it

Any questions anyone?

Yeah, so can you explain you said Some cities are moving to just adopt what counties do. So how is ours different currently?

So so ours is quite a bit different than what County does so County goes by the the green yellow reds And as soon as fire season is enacted they pretty much shut down all debris burning they still allow recreational burning so like if you're having a campfire marshmallow stuff like that they still allow that sort of stuff during those times but they they tend to shut down the debris burning just because of the danger One benefit we have as a city is our response time is quicker than in the county areas. So we're usually there while it's much smaller.

We also have a diverse county, right? If you think about East Coos County is quite a bit different than Coos Bay.

Very much so.

Any other comments? Questions?

I guess I would say too, you know, in talking with chief Atkins, the reason this really hasn't been lifted for a change in how our code is, is because we are really, uh, fortunate to be in kind of this coastal layer, right? So our, we stay fairly wet and it's not as concerning. uh, to change that. So, but again, it's within his authority or mine, I guess he said that too. Uh, but we prefer that that be a code change, that it's just kind of a known thing, um, that the, that the city falls under our municipal code to put bands in place. So again, we can bring this back if that's something of interest and prepare document for if you guys want to enact something too. So just wanted to start the conversation.

Okay. Yeah.

Well, I think definitely if it's, you know, I mean, if the chief and the fire department believes it's something that we should do, then I think we bring it back. Okay, great.

Just as a reminder, we are having a 25th anniversary of the 9-11 event. It's coming up next week. It's at the Fire Station 1. It's open to the public, so of course we'd hope anyone from the public might attend, but really just an acknowledgement, it's gonna be relatively short, planning about a 30 minute time frame, but just an acknowledgement of the folks who responded that day. We do have, as many communities across our nation, we do have a piece of the World Trade Center there installed at Fire Station One. Hoping we can have folks in attendance and then also encourage community attendance. It is at 8.30, 9 o'clock. It's in the morning. Yeah. I think 9, 9.30. Yeah. Just a reminder, the Oregon City's conference is coming up. We've heard from a couple of you. If you're interested in attending, just let us know. We can get you registered for that. And then also coming up, which I think is on folks' calendar, but a collaborative effort to open up, reopen the Bologna Girls Ranch under a different kind of use, which is a collaboration of the county, the city of Coos Bay, and the Coquille Indian Tribe, helped fund a shelter that's going to be focused on teen families. So that is September 15th. There is an opportunity if you're interested and you can attend. It's happening, coinciding at the same time that the Northwest Indian Housing Authorities are having their conference here. So you can attend the conference during the session. We're really happy that Director Andrea Bell is gonna be here from OHCS, so she'll be able to speak too as they were the funding. the funding source for us for for all entities to put some dollars in for that so and then following the lunch there'll be transportation to tour the facility that's what I have all right council comments Sarah nothing for me thank you uh Stephanie nothing

Troy?

Sorry, nothing for me either. All right.

Carmen? Just a thank you for supporting livability in this community, this board, and also a thank you to the Wild Coast Trail Association for putting together a presentation. That was nice.

Yeah, I just want to chime a little bit. I think the water board I appreciate them coming here and working with us They're great partners. And so and in the trail system, so hopefully we can make it work. So that's the end of my comments and That being the case in it at the agenda