City Council - Regular Meeting

Those of you that know, we had the if I was mayor contest happen again this year. Um, earlier today, Kennedy joined me and we celebrated our elementary school winner, but I invited our high school winner to come join us and I wanted him to get to gavvel us in so I have to first I'm going to let you introduce your name because I'm going to botch it and I respect names too much to do that. Uh, so good evening everyone. My name is Fatir Anoir. I'm an ex I'm actually an exchange student from Indonesia. I get hosted in Lafayette uh in the first six month of my exchange year. So yeah, glad to see you guys.

So the year I said it um entered into our contest very last minute, like an hour before deadline. Um um the video will get shared. It's an amazing video. Um but I just want to um share that we have sent his video on to the state contest. We're rooting for you for that $500. But for you, from us, here's a certificate that just says that you're a high school winner. A gavvel because every mayor needs a gavl and some beat headphones, right? Is that what we said we're doing? Yeah. Beats headphones. Um the gifts thing is in there for Amazon in case or something off.

I love it. Thank you. But the real fun of why you did that is if you would like to be the mayor and gavvel us in a open meeting nervous. Uh good evening everyone again. My name is Fatir Anoir. I'm gonna give you the fulls size one. Oh the fulls size one. Okay. Again uh my name is Fatir Anoir. I'm from Indonesia and I'm gonna open the city council meeting of Lafayette tonight.

Thank you. Um you're welcome to stay if you want or I know it's a school night. Yes. Congratulations. So with that our meeting well you know me I have a whole collection of them. Okay. So with that, let's uh rise for our flag salute. I pledge algiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

You guys will get to meet the elementary next month. They're going to come to do the pledge of allegiance. And we didn't have any. Okay, roll call. Kennedy. Preswell

present

here. And we have a full council. Okay. Um, citizen input on non-aggenda items. There's no one on the list. Okay. Then I don't need it. Okay. So, um I guess just one last call to the audience if there is anyone that wanted to give public input on a non-aggenda item. Okay, moving on. Um additions or deletions from the agenda. Brandon, I believe there's

Yes, Madame Mayor. Um I'd like uh 10F to be the RV appro uh approval for uh an extension to an RV permit for 10196 and then 11E. I would like to have a quick discussion on water and sewer funds. Okay. Is that okay with that one? That'll be 11. Mhm. Thank you.

Okay. I'm good with that. Um is there any else to add or delete? And let's go farther on. Um uh there's a proclamation. So, um this is April and it is um tradition throughout the county and beyond uh that it is child abuse prevention month. So, I'm just going to read this proclamation and um yeah, whereas child abuse is considered to be one of our nation's most serious public health problems with scientific studies documenting the link between the abuse and neglect of children in a wide range of medical, emotional, psychological, and behavioral disorders. And whereas it is estimated that one in four children will suffer significant abuse before the age of 18. And in the fiscal year 2025, over 176,000 contacts were made to the Oregon Child Abuse Hotline. A total of 45,868 received reports were assigned to CPS assessment. And of all competed CPS assessments, 7,797 were founded for abuse involving 11,669 vict victims. And whereas the physical, emotional, mental, and financial impact of abuse falls on children of all ages and abilities who come from all economic, racial, and social backgrounds. And those crimes affect many more families, family members, friends, neighbors, and community. And whereas effective child abuse prevention efforts succeed because of partnerships created among state and local government agencies, schools, faith communities, civic and community organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the business

community. And whereas the city of Lafayette is dedicated to strengthening child abuse survivors and their non-offending families in the aftermath of crime, building resilience in our communities and working to prevent abuse and neglect. Now for now, therefore, I hereby proclaim April 2026 to be National Child Abuse Prevention Month. May it be proclaimed. stuff. Just a quick thank you to Juliet's House and other organizations for all the work they do um with that. Okay. Um on to number seven. Presentation by Yamho County under Sheriff Brandon Bow Bod. Did I say it wrong?

Perfect. Okay, perfect. On fiscal year 2425 statistics. Brandon, I didn't know if you need to say anything before he comes up. Yeah.

Okay. I'm just gonna be honest. I'm not feeling great. Uh I'm probably going to have Kev Whley do most of the talks. Okay. I I did have the honor of coming. I wasn't going to miss it for the world. I did present AMD provided there's sheriff kind of take our attendance. It's a super busy time of the year for everybody with budget and everything else. Um you should have in front of you all the packet that was put together. I'll have uh Captain Whitlo kind of go through each of those pages if you'd like. I mean, however you guys want to present it is fine by us. We'll go through each page if you like. If you have some questions, we're happy to answer. And I I will say this, there's kind of a caveat to some of these numbers. It's kind of how you look at it and how you create and pull that data to be able to establish what those numbers are. So, some I'll do my best to try to explain this. So, will Captain Willow on some of those if you have questions, but there's a numerous reasons as to why let's say the arrests are down. That could be something that Pammy brought up in fact. And you know, we have different pathways and avenues now. instead of getting arrested and going to jail, there's a bunch of program. So, those are some of the things, but my name is Brandon Battle. I'm the under sheriff. Uh, like I said, I'm not feeling great. I'm probably turn the mic over to Captain Willow, but I will be here.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Hello everyone. I'm Todd Whit. I'm the patrol captain at the sheriff's office as the sheriff said. So, uh, everybody has the packet? We do. Fair enough. Okay. Mayor, do you prefer I just go down and we just go through each page? You can go however you want. Um, yeah. I I think I can't speak for council, but we pretty much when it's in writing, we whatever you want to share, we don't need a playbyplay unless you really want to give it. Well, we'll respect your time. I' I've read it and studied it. So, we can go through it. We can go through it quickly. If people have questions, we can certainly answer those. So, okay.

Uh, first page is the activity report. And this report spans from 2022 2023 fiscal year to 2024 2025 fiscal year. So shows your current population and the two FTE those so those are the two full-time employees uh that we contract with here in Lafayette. Um below that it's the same fiscal years has calls for service case numbers and cases ending in arrest. So uh from 22 23 3500 roughly 23 24 3,300 roughly and then a little bit of a spike 2425 with 3,700 roughly of that 447 422 442 cases and then the arrests stayed pretty close through uh those uh three different periods. So 143 145 and then 149. So, uh, there are some notes, uh, down there. The asterisk case, uh, counts are per case number. They represent several charges, several defendants. So, you could essentially have a case number that's pulled that has three different people that were investigated. Doesn't mean that they're all arrested, but there could be multiple people into that one case number. So, or it could be a single. Any questions on that one?

No. No. Uh the second page, the large graph. It's the top 20 calls for service by type uh for the city of Lafayette. Uh it's probably pretty easy just to start at the traffic stops and then go clockwise around it. Okay, pretty self-explanatory if anybody has any questions there. It's been a significant increase in traffic stops this year. You can thank Deputy Morsy and Deputy Me for that. I was just talking to him about that. probably the fact that they lo any questions on that one.

Uh the next is all calls for service based on day of the week. Uh which is a little bit unique to look at. Why is Monday so active? Yeah, it's interesting though over last year. Last year it was uh it was switched I think. I would have thought it was Friday. It's surprisingly the same kind of It's very similar every day. Yeah, that's pretty even pie chart. Yeah. Yeah. You got, you know, Monday's your busiest, Sunday's next, and then Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday. I wonder what's going on in the world. It's a Monday

because it's a Monday. They're all about red. Any questions on that graph? Okay.

Next one is all cases uh by uniform crime report. We refer to it as UCR. So u it's designated by color. It's a little bit difficult to uh completely understand all of that. Uh but these are the top uh tier ones. Obviously the non reportable offenses. There's a you see a large number there. Those are things that aren't reported in UCR. So, those could be uh your runaways, um civil disputes, anything like that that doesn't have its own classification uh for crime reporting to the state of Oregon or to the FBI.

Questions on that? And then the next is case investigation the status of those only for fiscal year 2425. So of all those cases that we saw at the front, this breaks down essentially where all those ended up at.

What's an administratively closed? That would be a case that uh there wouldn't necessarily be an arrest made. There would not uh there could not be maybe enough evidence to uh prove a case. Uh it might be u I don't know what's another good example under sheriff of a administratively closed case that we district attorney's office maybe doesn't prosecute. Yeah, that would be another one which doesn't happen all the time but it does happen. Um

happens. Yeah. We would we would have one where there could be a case in the public where we investigate and a victim doesn't want to be a victim. We would close that case out as victim refuses to cooperate. Okay. So it wouldn't be like a plea bargain or anything like that. That's not No, we would not necessarily know the DA's office. If they refuse to prosecute one, it's usually because there isn't enough evidence to move forward. Okay. What's the difference between administratively closed and cleared by exception for what else? Uh there by except a good one would be uh victim refuses to cooperate.

Yeah. Yeah. I was mistaken on that one. That would be a better ex close by exception. It would be there was something in there. Um and probably victim refused to cooperate would probably be the best one that I could think of. Um, another example, insufficient evidence for a case. That could potentially be one. Okay.

Yeah. And then inactives are uh not enough to proceed forward. Open, you know, we're hoping that uh there's additional evidence or something that might move forward. pending would be a case that could be down at the district attorney's office uh either waiting for them to make a decision or it could be something where we send something to the lab or waiting for the lab to come back.

Next one's uh traffic stop outcomes. That's pretty self-explanatory. Like I said, do you see more people pull over in Lafayette than any of the other towns? Was it I believe last year it was shared to us that like we there was some deputies that would come do random patrol even though they weren't like assigned off yet the OT ships for um like clicking our ticket and cell phone seat belt stuff. You bet. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was the cell phone or seat belt. There was some grant or something where they

we get I think there's five different grants where we have an opportunity to do seat belt distracted driving, speed enforcement, crosswalk enforcement, so forth. Gotcha. We just had some this weekend I think or the weekend before that too up here. Yes. Okay. Probably some uh traffic important stuff. Did you weren't you guys wearing some OT for that? So I was going to say there was multiple pulled over at the same time. I'm assuming it wasn't. That's like every day. Okay. Well, I recognize PJ and I didn't recognize the other one. Okay, we'll put it that

uh and then the next is all calls for service uh by primary responding deputy. So, in this case, and it breaks down going back to fiscal year 22, 23, 23, 24, and then 24 25. This shows all calls for service, who's taking those case numbers and calls for service here in Lafayette. And if you look at it, it, you know, would appear that it's kind of skewed that you have real deputies, you know, taking a majority of those calls, but some of that is they're responding after PJ's gone home or when uh Deputy Me has gone home. So, does that percentage increase like if there's two deputies responding versus one?

No. Okay. And do you ever have a time that like let's say our deputy is on duty but for some reason they just got pulled for something really big at the same like they're on duty somewhere else and so then a rule person comes in because another call comes in. Yeah, absolutely. If Deputy Morsey has custody or a follow-up that takes him out of the city and if there is a call for service that occurs then then rural patrol would come in and that call for service. Any more questions on that one?

How does that the um like rule versus the city or city rule? How does this compare to what you're noticing at the other cities that you guys contract with? Very similar. Okay. Yeah. Very similar. And it's all based on hours of service. uh you know uh your closest would be Dayton. You know Dayton has only one FTE. So you see a lot of calls for service taken in Dayton because that particular deputy is only working 40 hours,

you know, in a week and what do you have uh 128 roughly uh in a period of time. So they're scooping in and World Patrol takes those. I see. Uh, the next one is top 20 calls for service by type. Very similar to the graph we looked at a couple pages back. Does break them down by year in the colors?

Questions on that one? And that's the last one for that presentation. Anybody have any other co any questions? Yes. Based off of that, this isn't the first time having to or listening to one. I was able to get that information from this. I don't think there's any questions. You guys are very appreciated. Thank you very much,

Captain. Um, so last year the council agreed to doing a two-year contract um, you know, to kind of control costs for the second year of that CBA. How are we looking going into next year? I know we'll be okay for this coming upcoming fiscal year, but do you have any outlook on how things are going for two years from now? That would be a question for sheriff. I'm happy to hear that. I can tell you that obviously sheriff came and pitched that there's more calls coming in and your staffing to FT doesn't quite fit that. Um I can tell you that we will have to look internally how we're going to handle things moving forward in the future.

If it's not staffed appropriately for whatever that might be and that could mean calls hold if they're not priority until your contracted deputy gets on duty. It's not uncommon for some contracts with different sheriff's office where you just you're paying for hours, not for a body. Obviously, we want this pretty face here and we want me here, too. So, you have a face and somebody to talk to. So, that's that's something we've we've looked at. Um, but I would expect come next contract time, you'll see you'll see an ask for maybe some more, meaning maybe another body. And if not, then that's fine. I mean, you guys make that ultimately you make that decision. We don't. Uh I understand the dollar we go so far but uh we're we're strategizing to look at that. That could be something that happens with pretty much all our contracts is not where they need to be. opening up. So property wise, I think um I don't know what the cost of living is going to be our next bargaining because we'll be bargaining with not only the deputies but sergeants as well. So

So with when you when you say unless it's a priority, a call would be held until the rule come. Yeah. Maybe you have a cult theft you don't have a suspect on. Okay. That might wait until people something that's not time time sensitive. Yeah. If obviously if it's a priority memory whether you're paying for it or not we're here it's how we operate right now because we can but if you were to look at our rule patrol my north car city sitting in Lafayette because there's so much going on it's not fair to the to the north district of our county and that just is what it is and flows but hope that makes sense. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Yeah.

Okay. Um, hey, Deputy Morris. Thank you for your service. Yes. Yeah, we love our deputies, by the way. All of them. And our um what is McMahon's a sergeant now. Okay. And we love our sergeant. Okay. Um consent agenda. I think just looking for I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Okay. Kennedy, can you call a roll vote? Counc. Cardwell. Hi. Council. Council. Hi. Council. Hi.

Mack. Okay. And agenda passes. Um, next up is I want to make sure I get to this page because I'm going to need the prompts. Okay. Is a public hearing um continued from February 12th. So, the purpose of this hearing is to conduct the reading of LA2025-01 allow mobile food cart units in the C1 district. This hearing is a continuation from the February 12th, 2026. The hearing is open. Are there any conflicts of interest or abstensions?

Okay. Is there any objections to that? This is under our jurisdiction. No. Okay. Uh staff report, Brandon.

Uh thank you, Madame Mayor. So after the after the public hearing was opened uh back in February uh during the staff report and then some um discussion from the business community, council and staff had a work session last month to kind of tweak the uh the deliverables of the policy goals which we which council felt pretty good with last year with last month. Amanda the development clerk was able to kind of draft all of that from last month. um cleaned it up. We tightened it up and what you have before you is the revised uh staff report and the prospective ordinance that'll be read later on tonight. Um so everything that was conveyed from the uh last public hearing and then last month's work session is now on the staff report and conveyed on the um legislative amendment portion of the LZDO.

Okay. So we're accepting the updated staff report, not the one from two months ago. Is there anything else that you have amended? Okay. Um, are there any proponents that wish to address council? I assume Alex is happy with the new wording here. I did talk to Alex.

Um, any opponents that wish to address council? Okay. Um, questions of proponents and opponents from the floor and council directed through the mayor. But since we don't have any, we'll move on. Um, public agencies. Do we have any public agencies here to speak? Okay. Letters. Do we have any letters to Amanda or Kennedy? Did we receive any letters to take into consideration?

Okay. Is there a rebuttal from the proponent or there's more? Um staff recommendation. Okay. Um staff recommendation will be um to con when the public hearing is closed. We feel that everything that was um revised u meets the policy direct directives from the council and we feel confident that um it should pass once it gets to the second reading next month. Okay. Um with that I am going to close the hearing. Um, and we have deliberation of council of finding a fact. Is there any discussion among counsel?

No, I think we're ready to get forward the second reading. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you too. Nice job, by the way, too. Especially since we kind of already talked during the work session. It would have surprised me to have some deliberation. So, I don't think it's that we don't have any questions. I think we they were all answered and we're ready to move forward. So, thank you. Okie dokie. And then that we that's done for that right we're done with public hearing. So um number 10 is action items. So our first one is bid acceptance of headwork screen procurement. Um Brandon although I saw Jordan but

madame mayor while um while our city engineer is getting prepared um you you'll have staff reports from Tetratech. Normally the staff reports you grab um from either done by me or city or full-time city staff will have a motion. Um whatever motions come out of the bid acceptance, you'll want to make sure you um if they all were to pass, you make a motion of the contractor how much uh it's for um and with the city administrator to authorize the contract. Contractor name and amount. Yes. So, it's probably make sense to just do one at a time.

Yes, that's what I was saying. So, each one will have but it'll be the bid the contract of the bid amount and then the all documents um authorized by the city administrator. Okay. Okay. So, hello Gordon. I told you it was early.

All right. So uh the first bid we have is the headworks equipment selection. So this is a little bit different than a normal bid. Uh we are just picking the equipment and then once we know the equipment we'll get with that manufacturer and figure out the exact design that we need to put it in and we'll bid that out separately. So this is just for the equipment. Uh I've done that on uh some other projects. So it's not a unusual step to take when you have some big piece of equipment that you're designing around. And the other reason to that we decided to do that after talking with uh staff is it's taking so long to get equipment delivered that we wanted to get that going

as fast as we could while we're doing the rest of the design. So hopefully in the long run it speeds up the process a little bit.

I appreciate that. So, we had a virtual bid opening on March 26, 2 PM. We had two biders, uh, Husters Water Division and Duperon. And in the letter, you can see the two bids. The Husters was 17237 and Duperon was 188,000. uh the low bid and both bids were good. They had all the documents that they needed and uh Cooers is a good company. They've been providing this type of equipment for 30 40 years. Um they're known so is Duperon. They're both considered uh good equipment. So from our standpoint, you got two good bids. So also because they're not doing construction, we didn't have to check the contractor's board. They're not a contractor. We're going to have a second bid to get a general contractor to put it in. So the expected price was between 160 and 250,000 based on talking to various uh suppliers u before then. So they're right in the middle of where we expected them to be sort of on the lower end actually. So our recommendation is that we award the project to Cooers's water division for 172,237. And

if you do that, we'd have to wait till the uh bid protest period is done and then we can actually send out the contract. Is there so the the date and stuff on this that doesn't matter that it says that this the bids came in before opening or is that when the 25th uh I must have a typo they were the bids can come in earlier. Okay. Um I think one of them actually did come in and it just sits there waiting for the

and then it just you don't open it. So, these are both tier one companies and you're going based on price a little bit less. Well, in a bid like this, Oregon law says you have to take the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Uh when you're doing a threefold system, which means the cost is under $100,000, then you can look at them and say, "Yeah, but I want this one because have a reason X, Y, and Z." Once once you're over the hundred thousand and you're in a competitive bid, um you can throw them out for cause, but you better have a good cause.

Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So, basically, your recommendation is saying if there's nothing wrong with that one, we're good. Right. Okay. And we budgeted for this. We're good. and your confidence level is high with these both of these companies. It sounds like for what their past reputation is in their business practices.

It's good equipment. I mean I we we have we happened to have done a headworks uh study back east where we looked at all sorts of equipment and this is for somebody else not for you guys but uh we looked at all sorts of headworks equipment and all sorts of uh suppliers and these two were considered two of the better uh equipment manufacturers for for Headworks. So, it sounds like you're pleased with the results of our bids. Yes, I am.

So, I move to approve um and award the Headworks equipment selection project to Jamat Booster for the bid amount of 172,273 237 and allow Brandon to execute the contract.

Okay. Do we have a second? Okay, I have on the table a motion to approve sters in the 172,237,000 and to authorize Brandon our city administrator to um handle all the authorization. Um Kennedy can call hi. Hi Matthews. Hi counc. Hi Okay, been accepted and we are moving forward with our headmarks.

Next one. See, there's a reason Gordon is still standing here. Um the next one, the um staff report is what was put on your seat today. Somehow it did not get made into the packet, but it will be included added in. But I'll hand it off to Gordon. So, which project is Madison? Madison.

Madison. Okay. So, we had a again a virtual bid opening, which is how most of them are done anymore. Um 2 o'clock April 2nd. Um this is for Madison Street. There were uh three schedules. We broke it up that way in case the bids came in high. You have some options as to what to do. There's a base bid and then two alternatives which were essentially sidewalks in certain parts of the project. There were 10 bids.

That is a lot of bids and we have heard anecdotally that there's not a lot of street work out there and people are kind of hungry. So for you guys that's good.

Yeah. Um, two of the biders didn't provide the first tier form, so we can't even consider them. So, they have actually two hours after the bid opening that they can turn that in. A lot of contractors wait and if they know that there's no way they're getting the bid, they just won't turn it in. If they had been low, they would have turned it in. That's just how that usually works. The other eight bids were responsive and in the bid tab they've been arranged in order and you can see the low bid was Hawworth at 223,29250 and the highest was Civil West Construction at 375 and a little and it was a pretty good spread between um Howorth was a a fair amount low. So I did call him up afterwards and say, "You good with your bid? Did you forget anything?" Because they have 24 hours in which they can withdraw the bid

if no penalty. Yeah. When somebody is leaving a fair amount on the table, I always call in the long run, it it helps you. You don't want somebody that's forgotten something. Uh but he said he was very comfortable with his bid and not a problem. Do you think it's maybe just a lack of work? So,

uh I think it's two things. One is lack of work out there. There's a lot of competition. Uh on another project. Um, we had a contractor say, "Gosh, you want to do some add some stuff to this project because I'm kind of out of work and I'll give you a good price." So, that's anecdotal, but getting 10 bids also lets you know

it's pretty competitive out there right now, at least for this kind of project. uh Howorth, you know, we checked the the contractor's board. They're fine. And uh as far as references, we've worked with them. Yeah. The reservoir. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they've always done well for the city. Inner tie work. I think they did. They did a lot of stuff. They did the inner tie. They did the reservoir. They've done other street work in town. They've done the water projects in town. Okay. Uh they've probably done a dozen projects in large. Yeah. And they they've all turned out really nicely.

Perfect. Um engineers estimate was 330,000. So you can see they're low. Um but our recommendation is to award it towards for 223,292.50. This is this is for Madison. We'll move the last the last paragraph just typo on the bridge street. Yeah. Okay. Does it say first street? It says the bridge. Very last paragraph says bridge. Mine says Madison. Okay. This one says Bridge Street. Yeah. Weird. I guess we're still stuck on last year. Just clear.

I think it's I think it's the Oh, this is the first version, not the second. Oh, my first had to I caught the typo and sent a second letter and then he printed real quick for us cuz And then he printed the first one was in a hurry. I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Sorry. Been changed in the other document. Second. Well, I move to approve the Madison Street Improvements Project to Hawthorne, Inc. for the bid amount of $223,292.50 and for the city administrator to execute the contest. Oh, sorry.

Hey, I have on the table a motion to approve the Madison Street contract to power um in the amount of $223,29250 and to um authorize Rand and to execute the authorization. Um yeah, any further discussion? Okay. Uh Kennedy, can you call a roll vote? Mackey. I councelor Paulson. Hi counc. Hi Carwell. Hi. Okay. On with the maps and projects at path as moving along.

We got one more. Okay. So last but not least in a moment we are on Tennessee. So, on April 1st, uh we had a virtual bid opening at 2 PM. Uh there was two schedules on this one. There's the base bid and then schedule two was essentially a deduct if we put in a shorter uh flag pole just in case the bid came in. Why? It gave you an option. um bids came in about where we expected. So you still have that option. So there were seven bids and three of the bids were considered nonresponsive. So, uh, one of them did not have a first tier form and three of the biders did not provide the non-olusion certificate and there was uh, we went to the city attorney with this one

which is in your packet which is the letter from David. Yeah. Okay. and said, "Is is this uh significant enough that we need to reject the bids?" And his opinion from the legal standpoint was yes, we have to reject those bids because uh if they don't say there was non-olusion, it leaves it open that they were colluding and that could affect their bid price.

Okay. So he said you we need to reject those and and it was a form required as part of the bid but it says that very specifically in the documents. So it um three bids were rejected and one of them just happened to be the low bid ra construction and they did not have the non- collusion form. Second low did they only about $4,000 difference so it's not a huge difference. There was a question on the non-olusion form that they used. The city attorney reviewed that as well and said it was a good form, legal and binding.

Okay. So, our well and we did check the contractor's boards and they're in good standing. We tried to check the references because we've never worked with them. Uh we left messages have not heard back. Is that common? Yes. Okay. People that are references, they don't have a dog in the game, so to speak, and if they're busy, it's like, "Ah, do I call this person back or what?" And often times, you don't get calls back,

but I wanted to let you guys know that. So, I can't tell you what these folks are like, and the references uh didn't, but they do this kind of work. Um so their bid was 26,795

and our our estimate was 200,000. There would be a $9,000 credit if you went for a 40 foot 40 foot pole instead of the the 70 foot pole. But the 2020 206 is still under our budgeted amount, right? Yeah, we have $300,000 for the project right now as it stands. Okay. What are the other costs that we need to expect, Brandon? That would be uh Gordon question. What other was we talked about some of this we were going to be on the force. Did we combine them back to get done? I think the flag just the flag. Yes, this is for the bigger flag, right? This is for the bigger one.

Yeah. Yeah. Included in the project. Oh, the actual flag is included in this. The flag. That's my question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's something we would still be on the hook for. And that would still be I think from the quotes was I have to double check. 10 9 or 10,000 maybe. So, we're still with Yes. Yes. Oh, I hope we're not paying for a $100,000. Oh, no. No, no, we're not. We've already seen the bids, but they're not on top of our head right now, but it was something like either anywhere between 9 and 14,000, I think it Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't too terribly expensive. Okay. Yeah. So, our our recommendation is to award

I don't know how you say it, slave co or the base bid amount which is the 206,795 that includes the 70 foot pole. Then installing it too. Oh yeah, that that includes installation. I have one more question. I'm sorry. You mentioned you tried to get a hold of references, right? Were the references names you recognized or would So, we don't do a lot of park projects. That's fair. So, you know, I can't say that I know any of those. I think one of them was actually a school district locally. Yeah.

They were probably on spring break when you too. Yeah. So, you know, it was agencies that do the would do this kind of work. So, it wasn't I did a park for my neighbor type of thing. And were certain those projects occurred? Yes, they occurred. Okay. Yeah. Um, I move to approve the Veterans Park improvements project to Sleepo for the bid amount of 26,795 and for the city administrator to execute the contract. I'll second.

Okay. I have on table a motion to approve Slate Co. for the Veterans Park um improvements in the amount of 26,795,000. Sorry, 26,79500 and um city administrator to execute authorized to execute the um contract. Um any further discussion? Hey Kennedy, can you please call a roll vote? Curswell. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Okay, motion passes. That's three bits. That's exciting. Yeah. So, just to let you know because there was some questions on this one, we haven't sent out the intent to over yet. I was waiting to Okay. See what you guys do. So, that'll get sent out. Okay. So, that's all I had. Did you want me to stick around for the um maybe they have a question if they have a question or two but can back yeah

um on to the support of ODOT small city a lotment grant for seventh street sidewalk installation Brandon.

Thank you madame mayor. So, I was bringing a proposal to the city council um regarding um you may remember we had applied for the safe brows to school grant in 2024 where it was going to go from Perkins Park all the way to bridge and then we're going to do ADA um sidewalk improvements etc. Um we came pretty close to getting the grant but we didn't receive it. I think we were like second or third away from um in our region from being able to get the money. Um, I know this council's kind of said, "Hey, no major projects until we finish sewer." Um, but I felt for at least the award amount of being $250,000 and with us being able to use SDC's from the streets um for the project that maybe council would be more amanable to the staff applying for a grant. Um, obviously, we won't be able to apply for the grant unless we have city council support. So, I was bringing that to you all tonight to see if you want the city c I mean the city staff to work on that grant um and install the seven the seven street sidewalks from bridge to Perkins um as a connected to the school with some walkability but obviously it's up to you all. I know there was a discussion on that, but it is SDC funds and streets, so there's that possibility to to you. Obviously, we use that, but want to see if there's any appetite for that.

My biggest concern is we're going to run out of SDC fund soon. Like I understand that we're not taking the money or those SDC's we can't really use to apply for sewer and stuff, right? Can they be used for something else? I'm not saying sidewalks aren't important, but Brandon, are there any other How do you feel about the reserves left in the specific SDC's if we allocate some of it towards this? And of course, this is all presumptuous of the fact that we would receive the grant and all that, but

with it being a major connector out to the school, I do like having the the sidewalks there. I do feel pretty comfortable with the the monetary aspect because we still have about 600,000 or so by the time we would do anything major with bridge in the next decade. Um we would probably have some additional reserves there. Um I would be cautious but that's why I've kind of wanted leaving it to you all. Um if if the connecting to the school from bridge and having the sidewalk improvements there are impactful we can go ahead and do that. Does this project go all the way to the school? It goes to It goes It goes It ends at Perkins. And then Perkins already has sidewalks.

And there's sidewalks for Perkins. Yes. School is already just exit down to bridge. Yeah. Carbon gutters, carbon gutters, storm water, ADA sidewalks. So not just sidewalks travel to the school, but it now also gives some bridge to the park. Does it make more sense to wait to try to apply for bigger grant? Is there okay? You've got input. There aren't very many grants for street projects. So, I don't think you're going to get a bigger grant than through the small cities, but okay.

It would be unusual. There's no particular program for that. And and I will say um this Madison project will probably be the last street project we're probably going to do for a couple years. We've done some pretty impactful projects with Bridge Madison. We did Monroe when when we first got here. Um so the street money we get from the state from the gas tax and all that would stay in the account unless spent. So um that's obviously an account that we can put savings into, earn some interest on, etc. Um but it's all about how you feel. Um, I I think it would be a worthwhile project to to apply for and I think it would be a great accessibility project, but if there's worry about long-term finances in 15 20 years when it comes to streets,

how many blocks of sidewalk are we talking about? Folds like 160 grand for a block of sidewalk. No. So the project, if you look at the project, if you put a sidewalk in, all of a sudden you got to put a curb in. Sure. Understood. And so now you got to put in the storm water. No, I understand there's the ancillaries that go with it, but I mean, well, storm water is more than ancillary, isn't it? Well, no. I mean, if you put in the sidewalk, it comes with other things. I understand that. For us to get sidewalks there, we're talking about like 150 grand per block. Yeah. Essentially, yes. Perkins already has

includes street. We're just getting to the first street of Perkins. Yeah, it also includes overlaying the street. So, it's Are there a lot of potholes on that one? Seventh Street could could definitely use an overlay. Not sure if we had that on our list or not, but if it wasn't, it was a close second of adding that one on. Yes. So, we're looking at Do you know how much pedestrian traffic we have on set?

I could have gave you an official number, but anytime I'm walking around or the school time there is school school aids kids, I know there's a lot of people who walk from um bridge and 12th through the to get to the YCTA bus that walk down Seventh, but you can pretty much walk down anyway to get down to to third. I know that seems to be a popular route um all the summertime, you know, with the kiddos. I wonder how many more would walk with having the sidewalk. If they had that choice, they'll go

and that's what we use for the small city um the safe rest school but the capacity for student connectivity um public transit connectivity vehicle connectivity having the storm water when you know with the rain. So we kind of used that in our in our previous application but okay so I think it makes it grants make sense to apply to in my view and frankly if we got the grant then we have a decision to make. If we don't get the grant, we don't have this decision to make anyway. But if we got the grant, I know it'd be crazy to turn down a project when you have a grant awaiting, but we've done some stuff that other cities would probably think is crazy financially. It's worked. But I think we probably apply for it.

Committed like you apply for this. Is that a commit? I mean, I can apply and say, you know what, council decided not to do it once they looked at, you know, the overall cost they have to do it. I mean, that's applying and they but applying. I need council support in the minute saying that they're authorized city staff to do this. No, I think I think it definitely makes sense to apply but then you know how long will this take to come back? Uh probably that probably less than six months. I think that they normally do the they do them every year. They do every year but it takes longer. Yeah. But in six months from now we might look up and be like, "Oh yeah, we got to do this. This makes sense now financially where we're at." So I think and we can report and if we don't spend it obviously with the SEC's then we don't then we don't use it.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's wise to do that. So, um I move to authorize the city staff to apply for the small city a lotment grant for the seventh street improvement project and utilize CC improvement funds for the city's matching portion. Okay, I'll second. Okay, I have on the table a motion to approve authorize city staff to apply for the small city lotment grant for seven street improvement project and you will utilize SDC improvement funds for the city's matching portion. Any further discussion? Okay. Kenny, can you please call the vote? Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. Motion passes. Okay. So, yeah. Keep us in the loop on how that works. Good. Okay. So now we are on to the first reading of ordinance number 655. Um amending the LZDO to allow mobile food units in the C1 district. Is there any um I don't have my script. Objection to reading title only. Is there anything else I need to ask Brandon before I read? Um you have a list there.

Or was it on the back of No, I give you two. find it. Shoot. Okay. I thought it was all that one. There it is. Okay. Okay. The purpose of this public hearing is to conduct the first reading of ordinance 655 amending the locket zoning and development ordinances to allow mobile food units as a permitted use in the C1 district. I am opening the public hearing. Wait, that was I guess I don't have to open the public hearing anymore. The door, right? Well, with the first treating is still

Okay, that's another public hearing. Okay, so I am confidently opening the public hearing. Are there any conflicts of interest? Does council object to reading the ordinance by title? No. Okay. This is ordinance 655, an ordinance amending the Lafayette zoning and development ordinance to allow mobile food units as a permitted use in the commercial core C1 district. Is there any public testimony? Um, staff report, please.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um so as we've been talking the past few months actually preceding that uh we finally have the ordinance ready for council consumption to read by the first reading today which by title and then if all goes well um next month you will all be hopefully approving the ordinance so we can then start rolling out our mobile food unit policy. Okay. Are there any further comments from council? Looking forward to Patrick's coming.

Okay. Then I'm going to close this public hearing and the first reading is done. Okay. Um so um added is 10F um about our feed permit. Um Brandon, I'm going to hand this over to you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, um before you you have um an RV a and temporary RV occupancy uh permit extension. Um they we granted them originally um about two weeks uh because the code enforcement officer had seen uh that we had some people living in RV and it took a few weeks to uh them actually come in and do the application. So with that I felt that two weeks would be appropriate. Um after that um especially due to the length of 6 months they would like to request that would have to have to come in front of council as they have in the past. Um so before you today I think we have Tiffany and Richard King if they want to come speak about um their concerns why they need the RV extension and um the council can deliberate on that.

Okay. And in your packet um I sent out the email and also printed it. It's the permit permit application and the letter from the kings regarding their their need for the extension. So, um we'll do it the way our council rules ask us to. So, we'll let you share public testimony input and then council will say thank you and then we will deliberate and discuss and so yeah.

All right. My name is Tiffany King. I reside at 1019. Been there since 2017. My husband has been there since he was 10 years old. So, We took over the family home. Um, we are currently in the process of possibly buying a home with my aunt and uncle. Their living situation changed at last minutes. They had lived in the previous residence for 25 years. And when they were in the process of buying a home, their um landlord at the time decided to sell the current house that they ran in and um left them out to dry. So, uh they have an RV. It is in good condition. It is in our yard, in our uh driveway. It is put together. We didn't realize that there was a city ordinance. And so as soon as we this brought to our attention, we immediately applied and um and then we realized that we're going to actually need some more time. They only use the RV unit as a sleeping unit. They go to the restroom in our house. So we use the kitchen in our house since nothing is done in the main RV. It's all done in the main house. Um we are requesting six months because they are in the process of buying a home and we're just waiting for everything to go through. Um, that's where we're at.

There any questions from council Washington? Thank you. Okay. Any other public input on this topic? council and just

so the big thing here is we've had I feel like we've had a lot of beef coming in front of us over the last few years and um you know definitely sympathize in the situation but I think we need to hold with how we've decided in past cases um you know and so the reality is they're using the inside of the home if they're able to stay inside the home that's great but I don't think we can make an exception to be seen especially 6 months that's just um what did we offer in December we had like two recent weeks we had I think 10 days we did on the last one and that was

because they needed they were changing the dining room I believe to accommodate for them to stay in because that house had like one or two bedrooms the one prior I believe it was before councelor Mackey was on council was a family in the middle of winter. Yeah. Then I think that one of them the owner came back and was like, "Could you get like a monopoly?" Yeah. Happen with that one child involved and we extended it in the middle winter. I looked um earlier today at how much it is to have an RV site, a monthly RV site. And I think I found them for 500 a month.

So that's an option. I I kind of feel with council president Paul Pollson that we al it's this is the parts that I don't like because my heart says one thing, my brain says another, but then I also know that we set a precedent um already. It doesn't mean it's black and white, but it does mean that we've kind of laid out. Could we give them a little time just to get out of there, you know? So my thought was, you know, recommend a extension of a week to allow them to make arrangements inside No, it I'm sorry.

I was thinking, you know, week from the day or through the following Friday, give them time to make arrangements inside the home for them. Um, or if not, you know, they are disabled, so I don't think we should end it today. Um, Brandon, what was the what was the date of first contact letting them know that Um it may be in the March. Her letter says March again. Yes. Let me let me prior. This is really hard for me. I think people should be able to do it. But I know there's all those laws.

Well, it's because of infrastructure, too. I know. I understand. But just hard. Okay. So, Brandon, what do you need from us? Do you need a motion or just a uh is an action item? So, um it's a request either approve or deny. So, I move to deny the request, but to grant an extension um through next Friday, which is sorry, April 17th at 5:00 pm um to allow them time to make other arrangements. I have a second. I can second that.

Okay. Any further discussion from council? Okay. I have a motion on the table to deny the request for um permit extension, but to allow for um transition time through next Friday, the 17th at 5:00 p.m. And can you call a roll vote? Barack.

Hi, Boston. Hi. Kennedy, can you confirm to me how many we have? Four days, two minutes. Okay, so motion passes to deny the permit. Brandon with the extension. With the extension. Yeah. Sorry. Um I just didn't want to I was trying to you know, you approve it, but you're not approving the motion. So, um Brandon, will you please follow up with them with what needs to happen? Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Um, so we are on to 11 which is discussions. The first one is fire department capital funds for the fire. Brandon, I'll yield this to you. What did I miss? We have he had e water and sewer. Oh, that's going to be under discussion. That's under discussion. We're still up here. Oh, yeah. I just wrote it in. Thank you all. Okay. Normally I'm the one that skips it. Okay. So, uh, fire department capital funds for the fire engine. Brandon, I will hand this over to you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. So, last month we were talking about the money that we had in our fire capital equipment fund. Um, after getting with staff um and looking at ways to utilize the So, in your in your packet, you'll see the fire capital budget. And so, under capital outlay, we had equipment replacement and building improvements. Well, that $152,000 in each line item was actually carried over from the bond close out. And so there was an assumption that that money could have been spent on a fire truck because it's would be allocated into since it's capital outlay, we can use capital outlay dollars however we want. We just have the line items there. Um, but we did confirm that with the bond council, the money has to be spent on exactly what was the intent of the bond that was voted on. So then that leaves us with $330,000 now for a fire engine. So what I was looking at doing over the next few years, instead of putting $75,000 annual transfer, um, we would recommend doing an additional 100,000 to making it 175 a year. Um, obviously on year three, we would look at maybe bumping that bumping up up that a little more based on what the fire engines are looking at about that time. Um, and we would obviously transfer that from the general fund like we do normally in the budget cycle every year. Um, there are all other alternatives. We can do smaller increases, but that would limit the purchase. That would limit the ability to purchase sooner and would increase the cost long term. Or we could do bigger increases. Um but reducing the general fund by nearly half million dollars in a single year eliminates the safety net. Is

that really smart with what we have going on with the water station? No. Well, I have a little bit of good news on 11E that may be able to have some discussion on this. Okay. But I just want to see if there's an appetite from the council to increase that to 175. They want to go more a little bit. I want I want to be able to make this this engine happen within the next few years. But I also know since it is general fund money, that's the only type of purse we can mess with where it affects other departments. Did we make decisions the last few years on how much to put into the fund based off of that we thought we had money from the um bond.

Every year we've talked that we need to substantially increase it because right now we're not putting enough in there for replacements. Yeah. Last year, the year before last year we So last year we put in three years. Yeah. So last year in 242 25 and then this year we put in we went from 750 to 75. So the past two years we've had the extra 25,000 extra. I remember at the last budget committee councelor Mackey and I had long discussions that were brought up about the concerns of that that we don't have enough in there with the years that we're looking for life on these items. So,

no, if we so three years, if we did 175, three years would bring us to about 855,000 or so. Um, based on cost escalation of cost increases, how things happened, the economy at that time, that may be an appropriate number. Um, if you felt a little bit more comfortable to get towards maybe 900,000 or so, we can maybe bump that up. And is our other option, and I'm not saying I'm supporting this or not, that we our other option would be to finance it. With the cash that we have on hand plus an additional payment to next year, I think we would be able to have a significant down payment. Um, and we can we'll be able to pay it off.

I'm not saying I'm just putting it all on the we'd be able to pay it off quicker and say, "Hey, we want to go for a uh a five or 10 year note on the vehicle and just pay it off quicker." But I know that's something the council doesn't want council's not really into. I think we definitely need to explore increasing it from what it has been because we are going to run into a huge dilemma. But I think we also need to be cautious with the sewer and the water plant. So you're that the first note you made was 75 to 175. Right. So, just because I didn't I know we've talked, but I wanted to broadly be out there.

What you're doing budget stuff right now. Yeah. How do you feel as far as comfort goes with that increase overalls in 100,000? I I feel good. Um, I think with some future a conversation we're going to have in like 10 or 15 minutes and looking at the general fund. I mean, if we put if we put $175,000 into the fire capital fund, we would have about with what I'm projecting here in a few moments with water and that discussion, we would probably have about $700,000 of unencumbered money, meaning money we're going to have in savings and not touch by next year. No.

No. Move around. Yes. Certainly. Yeah. So if if if we take this what we're looking at now and then we say okay we go from 75 to 175 that would now these are all approximate numbers because we're still in the early stages of the draft to get over to you all but we would have an ending unappropriated fund balance of about $700,000 just sitting in our general fund. So, you're saying we don't it's not like we have $100,000 that we can't wait to put towards this, but you know how to make and I worry I mean I if the council's like, "Hey, let's do 225."

I would feel okay. I think once you start getting into, "Hey, Brandon, can we pay this off in two a year or two?" I would feel cautious. Um I think I think the city would be in good shape if you wanted to go to 225 and it would still leave us some some room. There's also another option I have that we clearly won't like. It's not like it you all would love it as chief and everybody else, but I I would just worry about all the great work we've done financially over the past few years together.

A lot of that may kind of decline. Um, we can kind of talk about that here on 11E, but um, I think 175 is amanable, but if you wanted to go 225, 230, I think that's So, can can we suggest like a ballpark going, hey, rough estimate, like we're comfortable with 175 to x amount once you actually sit down and crunch other numbers. We want a firm. We've been crunching. I mean, I can tell you right now, hey, we can buy a engine next year and we'd be perfectly fine. But perfectly fine and being comfortable is two different things. And what else are we ignoring in order to do that? Yeah.

And how long does this current engine I I get that every year costs go up, but how long does our life expectancy on that? Well, it's it's the hours ran chief, right, on that. And it was what 2,200 on the hours ran. Yes. Yeah. So, our difference is when we were doing the water pumper truck, um, that was not working, right? Like we were at like it was older than anybody on the day. Well, we had to jump it and it was joke. That's all. I took it as a

I got it. We're not talking about the antique property. Okay. What was the lead time change? Eight months, right? At least. Yeah. What is the purchase like terms look like? Is it all up front or do they require a down payment? Because you're obviously they're building it.

It depends on what company you go with and what they do. Some uh you can lock in the price by giving it all at once. Um, some of them if you um, sorry, I'm trying to make sure that I word it correctly. If you put like a down payment down, that locks in the price for that and then you would finance the rest. Uh, it just really depends on the company and what they're willing to do. Well, if your concerns were with the new ones coming out, the significant significant changes, which then the price is going to increase, the availability of the old ones aren't going to possibly really be there

and then change in model, right? Yeah, there's a significant change in coming with the upcoming model. And good news is we we have money in fire capital for the building probably for the next hopefully generation of equipment replacement and building improvements. We have $300,000 there. So, that's a plus side. At least that's dedicated just to building improvements if anything goes wrong in the next generation. Is there funds that we have allocated for that that we no longer need now that we realize that? No, because it's tied to the bond, so we have to keep it in there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But what I'm saying is we're not putting extra money into what the bond can cover, right? The the bond is covering all those expenditures. Yeah. and and so the left whatever was left over the bond had to be transferred into a specific requirement just to be spent on the building. So that will always be there. So that until that get that can't be transferred anywhere that can't go anywhere. So you can always add to it but in terms of specifically to for the bond that's bond related. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So John Wayne talked we're going to have to bite the bullet. We got to decide when we want to bite the bullet and how big a bullet we want to bite. Yes. And every bite is a healthy bite, but the bigger bite you take, we may have to worry about some malnourishment towards the end. What was the price range again that we were looking at if we went with the correct It's 7:30 on a on a Thursday. I'm trying to keep everybody smiling. That's all. Do you recall, Chief, what the estimated amount was for one based on the current year model? the one that we uh is it for 770, right? For seven. That's what I thought.

And we could always in a year come back and say, "Hey, that 175 was not cutting it and we've got issues and Yeah. But I think the concern is if we don't make a decision soon, it's going to be $900,000." No, I know. The next model is supposed to be substantial changes. Okay. But yeah, but I mean we've council's done a really good job the last several years of being financially conservative to keep ourselves healthy financially, right? And so if 175 is comfortable level, I think we do like we don't everybody's probably been through this in their own household. You don't have the money to buy a new car, you can't buy a new car, right? Like literally.

Yeah. I mean, literally been through everybody's probably literally been through that situation. I think that one of the reasons we've been successful financially on this council is we've applied basic budgeting rules. We all know how to use a home to the city, right? We don't have the money, we don't have the money. Let's save for it at the smartest pace we can. And if that's 175, it's 175. If it's 185, it's 185. But I think right now we need to determine how much money we're willing to put into that every year. We can't control future costs. We can just chase them the best we can. Mhm. Well, if that's the route the council's going to go, I think we should be looking at the $225,000 range because we know that's coming.

Can we just with what we are talking about here in a range, can we revisit these this range of numbers after we get to E on our discussion items? So, would you like to discussion until after E? clarification in my letter. We're talking about three years, three fiscal years because it bounces back for three, two, three. But three, that's what I thought. I I I like the idea knowing that things have been hinted that you might change our opinion um of tableing this until after E or whatever the official

Yeah. And it's and it's this is just discussion here, right? So we're just so if we just hold the discussion and then revisit it after key, I think it'll give us all more context on the full budget. Brandon, do you agree with that? And then that given a little bit towards the budget committee also. Yeah. And Mr. Tom, the press is like 30 minutes. So we will hold agenda A 11A and finish that discussion after discussion 11. Okay. So with that um B which is city council meeting public comment process.

I asked Brandon to put this on the agenda after last month. Um just make sure that we're all on the same page. Brandon, do you want to still do the staff report? Well, you can go. Okay.

Okay. So after last month, I believe um an issue that I saw was different assumptions of how things are handled. And then when I went back to look at if we have any council rules or if there's anything that's printed on the agenda um or on the website that leads people to how we handle written comments, which I think are becoming more and more common in this day, um that there was nothing. And so I reached out and um looked around to other cities big and small around us because those people I easily had contact with. And um every city has that I talked to has statements on how they handled the campaign. So I put this together with Brandon's, you know, guidance to make sure it was staff something staff felt comfortable with. But I do think that we need to some official statement that says here's how we handle written and here's when they're due by

well and I think I'm going to just be blunt the stuff on social media I thought was very disrespectful but in any case if we're going to have one set of rules for public input and then like people coming for grants or giving input on other items I need we need to be consistent across the board because you yourself have specific specifically made comments of well you want this you need to come to the council. So then for somebody to send a letter long page letter so it wants to be read into the record but then for you to essentially give backlash on social media I thought was rude and uncalled for and trying to maintain consistency. So if we're going to move forward I wanted consistent across the board because I did not appreciate that. And what didn't you specifically appreciate

the way you handled that on the social media post what I said following up or yeah essentially taking the side of that you thought that it was unacceptable in all of this when you yourself have people I'm gonna I'm gonna process check us to get back on track here. I don't think we need to social media stuff here. Here here's my viewpoint on written statements. If we read them out loud, we have to consistently do so. If they're just submitted to the record, I think it helps with efficiency. On nights where you might get 40, like it, god forbid, we have another water fiasco of 2023. How many written statements could you get today from something like that? Do you want to sit and read them all? County had 1,500 about elephants with some

and then and you know, everybody loves a good elephant, but even so, like we don't want to sit and read all those for efficiency, respect for folks time who might be here to see something else or participate in another discussion. But furthermore, if someone writes a very very vulgar letter, we if we're reading everybody's, we can't just you're basically making the mayor say things she may never say out loud. So then you're content choosing

and if she doesn't do it, then we're selecting content, which is a first amendment issue. So I think there's a reason that you have counties and state governments that submit it into the record rather than it aloud. And I think that's the appropriate thing to do for public meetings. People are welcome to come in here and speak their own words. I have no issue with that. I encourage them to do that. I like to see people show up for that, but it's a very slippery slope to guarantee that we're going to read everybody's writings into the record for for many reasons. And the only reason that I went that route was um the month prior I had asked about one that was submitted if that person had requested and I was um guided to believe that I we had on rules and that's when I realized we didn't that we read it into the record. Um, so I even though I told that resident, yeah, come and, you know, or write a statement to be read, um, that was based off of what I thought our council's rules were, I um, completely support not reading them out loud. I don't like one, yeah, 1500 elephants, but um I don't like that I could act or whoever the mayor is could accidentally change the tone of what's written. And I think that if you you know a written statement is exactly that, you've put it into record.

I know counselor Kill had something to say. Yeah, I have no idea what's going on. I'm so sorry. I don't have Facebook, so I'm I feel like I'm missing. Okay, so Facebook aside, last month um for public input, I was going to read into record that. Yeah. And so council said, "No, we it was written. That's good enough. Move on. Don't read it out loud." And so because of that, we needed to read. I think and to me it was important enough because the assumption was it was denied for the content of the letter which it wasn't it was so okay I was like what did I miss I remember something

so this yeah I brought this to Brandon because I do think that there is a something missing in how we handle things or written to share how we handle things so that we don't find ourselves in that position both in the meeting and after the Thank you. So, are you just wanting us to let you know if everyone likes the Jag direction this is going and for you to draft something for us to amend council rules or that is what I'm looking for. there's staff direction if we're going to include this into the council rules or keep it as is or

I think it should be specified in the rules now. Uh I have one suggestion. Yeah. The statements mailed must be delivered by the deadline which is a little bit outside of control. Can we just say something like postmarked at least x amount of days prior to the deadline? I got I I think the reason that I pulled that from other people's things is if it's it can't go into the packet if the packet if it's not received. Yeah. I just think it's Yeah, that's fine. I mean, what can we can't put in there if we don't have it? So, I guess that's fine. Yeah. No, I Yeah, I know we can't control it, but it's like how do we

No, you're right. Yeah, we don't have it. We can't put it in. But if you want something heard, come in and read it. You could send someone to read it yourself. Well, here's the thing. Everybody here, I I I like to assume that we all read our materials before me, right? It's not like it's going unheard by the council. If you submit writing, we will read it. We'll take it under consideration. We always do. It's part of our job. It's like included. But if it's really something you want said out loud on the video, on the stream or whatever, then yeah, you gota you gota come in and take your piece and that's fine. I invite people to do that as well. But just because it's not read out loud doesn't mean that the folks up here aren't reading it.

And if it is submitted after the packet, it does then go into the public record anyway. It's just not in the pre-posted packet. Okay. So, does that make sense? So to move forward with okay moving on to 11C city hall office space expansion and Brandon I'm handing this one to you.

Thank you madame mayor. Um, so I know we've been talking about city hall and some we we've been here for the past couple of years. Um, especially since we added um we added an employee after Kevin had departed and separated some of those duties. Um, we have um, as many of you can see, we have been maxed out and we are looking at possibly creating one if not two new rooms. um most likely one um but depending on how the bathroom situation would go because we're looking at capping off that bathroom um making um a room and cutting into the council chambers. Um we have some personnel changes coming up. Um when Kennedy comes back from uh a leave, she will be taking on responsibilities with court, taking that away from Jamie. um she would need some private she would need her own space as well as um I don't have a lot of privacy. I take a lot of phone calls and have my lot of my personal discussions in the in here. You could probably ask Kennedy how loud I am in my office and so there we're we're we're becoming on top of each other and it's at the point where we we need to swallow we're never going to have a city hall. It's never going to be approved, but we need to find ways to keep this city hall functional. And a lot of this conversation came up after we started looking at the quotes for the customer service and expanding that window, having a little bit more of a professional um and more efficient flow through in the uh welcoming area. And so when we were talking about that, we said, "What happens? What if we were to look at this?" And then we said, "Okay, well, we're getting very deep into what we want to do. We should go to council and see if council would support us looking at adding some office space. Um some some cons. We would we would still

need to do court here because the money's here. Um we would definitely probably have to resituate the room for council. Um unless the council is like, hey, maybe we go to a community center. Not saying you have to, but that can be an option because we're probably going to have to resituate this room for meetings. Uh because that then we would be putting we would be How far out are you talking? How much space are you talking? Probably going to probably go to where that outlet is and coming all the way down to here. Okay. So that takes out all of our seating like Yes. And so we would have to re situate it. No, because it's grandfathered in the previous council looked

and then it opens a whole again. And you know, we we trying to get by for the past couple years and know um it's just there needs an element of privacy. We're working on a a staff promotion where that person's also going to need to have a room because they're going to be overseeing an employee and we're just on top of each other where nobody has anything. So, money aside, if you're if the thought is to take space out of this room, I'm going to support moving council meetings over to the community center. I don't like the idea that we would not have space for the public. I think you should explore back to us with some members.

We should also explore some other creative solutions. So, and I mean I I know that we cannot renovate the what do you want to call that space? The garage a record room. Um but like depending on how much money you're looking at adding offices a year. Does it make sense? City owns that that part of a lot. Does it make sense to tear that down and look at a long-term plan of building it out? Like I think

if we're going to spend close to the same amount of money to cut our space already, does it make more? Because look, the city's not going to get smaller, right? It hasn't endeared. So, if we're trying to be wise financially moving forward, this seems like a what could end up being an expensive band-aid, right? And if we're going to be expensive, let's make it more than a band-aid. Let's make it a long-term solution. So, you're a situation where you'd want staff separated in two separate buildings, or do you think you need to be staying at one?

Well, no. I mean, I talking to Jamie, talking to the one contractor can I think the project between the customer service upgrades for being about eight or 9,000 and this we may be able to get everything done for 50 to 60 and we have about $300,000 in there. Um, I know anything we do adding or extending is going to be much more costly than that. And I, it is a band-aid, but we also want to keep some comfortability if, god forbid, something does happen here, we at least have some type of collateral in the hundreds of thousands to use if we need to say, "Hey, we we need a new city hall because X

if we're like another local city who had an old and they had to move out of theirs." So, I I know it's it's not it's not my preferred band-aid, but we're we're on top of each other, and it's becoming very it's there's a lot of staff tension because of the lack of privacy and the lack of space. I mean, Kennedy has to sit next to a bathroom here, everybody flush. This bathroom, that bathroom's acting up sometimes. So, we're actually talking about maybe adding a second stall in here so we have two bathrooms. So it's just like getting to the point of because right now you're using this space a lot for meetings and then to use that bath, you know.

Yeah. I didn't my my concern is the space that leaves for I think court it's enough space. I'm an expert on what happens with court, but I think I don't think that it leaves enough space for and I'm not against moving. I mean, that's my opinion. I I I I like the idea of, okay, can we just blow down those firebase and build something that we actually need? But if you're saying the cost of this is as low as you just said. Yeah. I don't see the

But I think it's as low as it is for now, right? Oh, yeah. For now. And as the city continues to grow, which it will, it has its improvement track record, right? At some point, the community center is going to be too small for city council, right? And then and this place is going to run out of office space. We're going to need to add more. Like at some point, we're just chasing and playing catchup.

So, I think we just need probably look at more than one option here, different approaches, if that makes sense. Then then would the council be amanable to we have 300 let's say we'll have 350,000 for the next budget year. Would you feel comfortable if we just made all of that a part of the budget and then we discuss some options and if there was some valid options that the council was immenable to we at least have the money next year's fiscal budget to take care of those. Yeah. Yeah. Because we can always end up not using it all and not doing option A, B or C. So if it's budgeted for it, I think that's fine. We just, you know, we may or may not.

Yeah. I think if there's 300,000 or whatever in the fund, I'd like to see what we could do with that amount. Okay. But yeah, with my I mean, I I didn't hear any other council what their opinion was on what space it leaves for council meetings, but that was a square footage. It's pretty It's decent, but it's also it's also a record storage room, and you have the the deputies right there. So it's kind of right it's not I mean it's enough for like a threebedroom two bath you know it's like a weird analogy but all right the one bay is actually a double it's a tand we can't we can't a lot of issues

it would need infrastructure like actual stability once you once you start updating then all the things that are grandfathered if we start adding loadbearing wall then we're going to have to make it ADA we're going have to do all it's going to be a whole thing there was issue with like earthquake stuff. I mean, city halls, you don't want city halls falling down. Oh, this I mean, this isn't earthquake proof. If if the big one could be small for the next six years. Yeah. When you start off, so Brandon, did that give you enough direction?

Okay. So, next up is 11D, which is the city administrator review process. Um, Brandon, I will hand this over to you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, so I was just my uh my yearly review will be coming up here around the June's uh council meeting. So I was just proposing doing the same thing we've done uh for the past two yearly reviews is have the Midwam Valley COG, which we are a member of. So there's no charge for this for for the review process where they would do what they did last year before that where they would facilitate um the scores and the pros, cons, goods, bads, all that stuff. and then we will present it at the June meeting like we always do. Um just kind of wanted to see how you all felt about that.

Um McCrae, what is her official title as executive director? Okay. So, um McCrae, who's the interim executive director, has reached out to me um touching base on knowing that um Brandon had reached out and um she seems to have a pretty good head on her shoulders of how to fine-tune some of the process too, but also um yeah, she's reached out, you know, that there's some change from what how Scott handled it. But for the most part, it it'd be them scoring it. But I think the biggest difference for her is she would like to and I support this discussing the results with council prior to our employee getting the results.

Brandon, how do you feel about the cog involved? Like do you want her coming in and discussing stuff with us? I mean, I'm okay. I technically though I need to look at that but I I would need to have that review before like there wouldn't be any discussion of my performance evaluation without me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brandon's position is he like the same process that we've done for the last two years and I don't see why we shouldn't do that. I'm you I think you all know me well enough that um the cog has ruined my appetite for their involvement. But if that's it's your review process and if that's the process you would like to use, I support that entire

my my only concern and I appreciated McCrae's viewpoint on this was I what I did not like last year was that um we as a council did not get the information all of it prior to the council meeting yet. Um, Brandon already was privy to that information and it just seems as an employee like I've I've never known a position where the employee gets have the information before the person giving that's a that's a simple fix they can yeah so what I'm saying is she she caught that too and um I I guess I don't see the issue with that.

Yeah. I mean the review is already done by the time I get it so nothing can be changed. and we just kind of discuss my scores. So you see it before we deliberate. Well, I mean like no, she she puts it all together and then she sends it out to me and I just give it to you all because the review is done by you all and then we just kind of discuss the results. That's I don't have an issue but I was fine. So I don't have an issue with the club being involved in using that sentence as a free resource, but I wouldn't want to pay for the code to do it. The results aren't secret, so I don't see any issue with Brandon having access to it. Did we get all the result? Like, did we get to see everything last year? The I give them out and I give those

um the p the the people when you like solicited um feedback from the general. No, that's that's that's for me. I have a concern with that. Well, I disagree. I think we need to follow the same process that we have been. That's what Brandon likes is worked. We've been given all the information. So, yep, I agree with that. Yeah, I'll support whatever. I don't like that we don't get to see everything that comes in. Well, I mean, but if you're if you're worried about input from like constituents in the city, I mean, they they can all reach out to us correctly.

Do they know that the council doesn't see their statements? Yeah, it's peertopeer. I mean, it's like I do a peer 360 like a couple years ago. I don't know who says what about me, but I I reach out to residents and I get those scores. Do those residents without a doubt know their council does not see those stations? I say it's for my my personal evaluation. Yeah, he doesn't have to even get Yeah, I don't have to do that. So, you're just doing a personal review or at the same time that the council doing review? It's two separate peer review. Yeah, I do I do review of people in my profession and then I ask people in the community, hey, would you mind giving me some feedback on my performance? Okay.

And that's just them to me on how I interact with them. It has nothing to do with them as my bosses. And again, the city citizens are well aware if they have issues, they can come to us. So we have monthly city council meetings for reasons. Is that enough for? Yeah. Thank you. So on to an added item 11E. So we'll Brandon, I'll hand that over to you. All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So preliminary budget numbers. Um we can pay off the map, water, and light debt next fiscal year. Excess in the one we're budgeting.

Yes. So meaning we can knock out four years of payments. We have money. We have enough money in the the the Mac water light um searchcharge and then we have enough money that we feel comfortable we we would be transferring $467,000 from the general fund to the water fund we pay all last four years. Um, that's a good thing because I know that's this council wants to get away from the Mac, water, and light debt and finish that debt. So, how many years left do we have on it? It'll be four years. So, four years. So, we would be paying years 7 8 9 to 10.

How much will we be say saving by paying that our bills get lowered? The interest um we did the we did the math on that when myself, councelor Genie met. I think it was like 30 something,000. It's more than that, but but it's also dependent on the LGIP because the interest it's also it's hard to you can't give an exact number haven't figured it out. It was it was like like $100,000 or so in interest by knocking it out. Um save our citizens money from that sir charge. Well, that's kind of so that we would be we're looking at next year's water fund. was saying no water no water rate increase and

getting rid of the $15 fee. But I met with a private bank um after talking with councelor Gillian and um Jamie on hey listen my council is not amunable to creating the debt with the state and the collateral that we would have to put on to the rateayers. Can I give a little context here? The idea is in order to finance this through the state, the state will not finance it for us unless we jack up our sewer rates to a certain level so that we can qualify for the debt. So we would be increasing our sewer rates for the citizens just to stack them with debt.

Right. So the idea of a private bank is we can still get the same debt without jacking the rates just to qualify for. Okay. Sorry for a second. I thought you were saying what he's was wanting from the private was the jack rate like don't play with sorry I talked to one bank obviously we would actually have to go out for bid we'd have to we're still years out from that but we can probably get a local community bank who would want to do some community partnership project they can probably lend out around 10 to$13 million lend out

we would need collateral of probably around I said, "Hey, we can probably put the CL at $5 million." So, next year, we would be starting off our sewer fund with $600,000. Obviously, we have to do lagoon work. Let's say we put we're talking about putting a specific line item in the sewer fund to pay for the sewer um upgrades. We can probably start next year with like say $250 to $300,000. So we probably have about four to five years and make up $5 million. So where do we get that $5 million?

Yeah. I want for context, I want everybody to understand 5 million is a lot better than the 15 to 20 million we need to just pay off the treatment, right? So the idea is we're not going to have 15 or $20 million to do the wastewater treatment plant. Like that's an entire year's budget either, right? We're not just going to have that. So the idea is instead of jacking up everybody's sewer rates just so that we can qualify for that if we go a private banking route. We can still qualify for the debt without jacking up everybody's sewer rates on top of that. But in the NRM, we have to get to five million for collateral to qualify for.

How do we do that? So that $50 we would most likely obviously we would council would say okay instead of the Mac water light fee it would be the wastewater facility upgrade fee. $15 a month brings in I forgot it was like 300. I mean don't quote me on that. Don't quote me on this. I want to say the um the max life fee brings in like 325 a year. 325 a year times five brings us about $1.8 million.

So let those numbers add up until we this will probably need to be a search charge. That's pretty significant. How long and how much ballpark but there are no grants or so. We can apply for grants but those grants are going to ask us to jack up the rates. That's me. Greg and I were in a meeting yesterday a ro a rural development grant. Okay cool. Your median income needs to be less than AMI. We have a $98,000 median income. We're one of the richest cities in the state. It doesn't look like it, but we are. And we're going to have to jack up our rate significantly. And then Greg's like, "Yeah, we're going to get off this call. This ain't going to happen." So, in terms of jacking up rates, what's the jacking up the rates look like compared to a $15 sir charge?

It's substantial. Substantial. And because I know the community has responded most like mostly well to just having the flat fee compared to what it was in 2023. I agree. But we were also told that's going to fall off when the back water and light dead. Well, it's going to fall off from the water. Yeah, it's going to put on the water side accomplish the water thing. But now we have to I've been having I've been having conversations that that that 460 or whatever that we still owe. We can tell that like we could use that money for something else, but we chose to use it to pay off the water debt before we get into the sewer stuff. Yes.

How much it would be? Yeah, I have not heard how much we're talking. No, I I mean, we discussed 50 to 60ish range a month. We just need to figure So, does it make more sense not to pay off the Well, well, I think the thing is to get one major project done saying, "Hey, we were we paid this debt off early. We we we were fiduciary, we were responsible of our fiduciary, right, and paying this off even after the mistake at the 2023 rate fiasco. Any rate consultant, any rate analysis, any guy from OAWU to APWA, they're all going to say you need to do this rate. The council's not gonna want to do that.

We sell it as oh yeah, it's $60 rather than us having to jack up your rates and you have the $15 for some people. I know. I'm still of the opinion I don't want to do a $60 charge. I'd rather keep the search charge close where it is and find the rest of the money somewhere else. Right. $60 is insane. Didn't we get some listening up with the US not doing business with Dayton anymore? That money goes well that money is going to additional money for Mac water and light and I mean we're still putting it's going into Mac water. Okay.

And now our water fund we we feel comfortable not going for a water rate increase this year. something minimal. But I think this year to to like smooth everything over if if the council is going to want to focus on funding sewer do that we did that back in 2020 and that landed us in a huge and we just finished telling them you guys are the responsible thing to do is 3% every year so that we don't find ourselves I think we said 4% well we four but yeah we can we can do a lower one this year just by virtue of we can do CPI which 2.5 we should have an increase again there has to be an increase there has to or else that contradicts our whole premises of

otherwise. So, so water rates aside, going back to the sewer side, it come over roughly five years of putting the money away, it comes out to about $60 per meter. That doesn't mean we have to do a $60 search charge per meter. We can look at creative solutions. However, that number works given that the water debt is paid off. If the water debt's not paid off over the fiveyear cost of paying it now versus five years from now is five years of interest. That is extra cost we have to have money to pay for. Right? So we're just looking at look the water treatment thing sucks. It's a ton of money. We got kind of hosed from decades ago, right? But we we have to tackle it. So we just have to find what is last another five years.

Well, Gordon said um he says we're getting to the finish line on this. Um, realistically, he said we probably would probably be ready to break ground in probably 5 to 6 years if we were like, "Okay, current the current status of this place. Is this even going to hold up?" Oh, yeah. I mean, it'll it'll and Gordon Gordon's aware of that and the facilities planning had some expensive breakdowns recently. Fixes. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing I want to mention, the $50, $60 a month that Brandon's talking about is does not match what we'd have to do to the rates to qualify for public finance like it would be significantly.

Can we separate the whole concept of sewer aside? Do we want to pay off Mac water and light early? And so

bought that 15 wrapping up on a search charge elsewhere. Yeah. Well, and then so here's where the caveat for the fire truck engine is. We have money in the water fund where we can use the general fund money that we were going to put to pay Mac water and light into the fire engine. And we can make our water fund less solvent by paying to by being on the hook, more of that $467,000 in the general fund and put that money to the engine. We're trying to find creative solutions to get all three things done, but it's going to take some hard work to get one of the three things done. So, do we want to rip the bandit off now and and plan for it or wait two or three years and say, "Hey guys, we've been planning this for two or three years." And then charge them $75 a month. like we we need to address the sewer like like wastewater plant this next budget.

There's like no ifs or bus but we have to starting addressing it either something like a big rate increase and $5 something needs to be done because in three, four, five, six years if we're all here or we're not here, we don't want to do the same disservice that we had to walk into. So this this is a hard conversation for you all. I mean, we don't need to finish this conversation tonight, but we just need some we just need some direction on how we want to go because we got a budget meeting coming up in two weeks. So, the money the to pay off the debt is sitting in the bank as our reserves, right? Yes.

As part no that chunk that we were talking about that we have so many days of reserves and standard is X.

I I think we should be paying off that debt. what we choose to do for sewer. Yes, we don't have the $15 sir charge. So that changes maybe what how we move forward. But even if our sewer treatment plant was perfect, why are we charging our residents when the money is sitting in the bank when we can pay off that debt? It also will show to our residents that we're paying off our debt and debt's important to us to pay off as we enter into the next.

Well, you can look at it too that the reason we have the money the bank or into the bank is because of the search charge also. I mean that was a that was an in that influenced us having the money to pay off the debt. I'm for I think paying off the debt is a great idea. And uh quick calculation of four years of that search charge that's almost that's about 700 and some odd dollars per family that they're saving are that going to have toxer but water.

The reality is that search charge isn't falling off after 5 years. That's just of the debt. Well, that surpal piece of the debt, right? Then we have to pay the debt that we acquire from the bank. We talked about in the fire station that meeting when we explained to people that this sunsets, we can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but the council at the time will have to make a a cognitive decision, not just, oh, we've got this search charge, so we'll use it. they we would have to decide purposely to do a search charge for something else instead of oh we already have it so let's use it

yeah the Mac water life debt service search charge will fall off however because of the situation we're in for water treatment we may need to institute a a new search charge but it would be on the sewer not on the water I know a lot of people are going to say oh you just moved it from one place to another we're in this position we have to come up has something for this. And yes, I'm all ears for other ideas, but the idea of adjusting rates to something that's going to be significantly more than a replacement search charge, why would we do that? And and rates are going to have to be impacted.

Rate payers are going to be impacted no matter if the state says, "Guess what? Your system's failing. You're going to do it. We're forcing you to do it." Or we we're proactive. So either way, people are gonna it's gonna we're gonna feel hit. And it's like they like to know black and white that search charge amount versus if we went to them again it's going to be a large raise but we don't know but we think your bills would be x amount and then sorry it was more than that. They like that black and white is what I took away. A set amount is a lot easier than saying we're going to increase your sewer rates you know 111% or I'm pulling numbers that's not

set that one also that this is a search charge just for that. families can more swallow a $20 search charge. There's no way we can do a $60. And that's my thought, right? I don't want to do the full 60. I'd rather have a search charge cover part of it and then let's get creative with the budget to find the rest of the money, right? That's what I would rather do. I don't know how feasible it is. That's probably more of a Jamie question. I mean, we don't have any money in the sewer fund to really because I mean, we're not going to rob the water fund to pay the sewer. We're not going to rob the general fund to pay the sewer. Sure. Sure. I think my point is we might just have to find other places to tight and tighten the belt or find other places to generate. You mean from the general budget?

It could be. Yeah, could be. We're just going to have to figure that out. But look, it's just like we would at home. If at home we didn't have money for a major project that needed to be done to our homes, we tighten not going to happen because we have to do we shouldn't be sitting here treating our neighbors money differently than we treat our we tighten our belts. we get it done the way we showed the right way without jacking rates just to take on debt. That's crazy to me. And um most people aren't understand how bad it is at the water plan. Yeah. Yeah.

I I think whatever direction we move, it needs to be clearcut, not try to sweep things under the rug and pull one over on our residents. And it needs to be I do like the idea of this is the other option we could have gone which your monthly bill would have been. It doesn't make that you know $60 a month is palatable. It's still brutal but

it's still brutal even half of that you know. So while we're talking that is there any aspect where the council feels that we put a higher burden of the payback to Mac water light underwater fund and use additional money to do an engine to think about this one a lot of I mean the current engine is working I think it's going to make more sense to contribute for the next couple years I know we might eat the press a little bit, but if we're gonna I mean with the cost of gas right now and what PG& has done over the last couple years

continuing I mean we can't leave that search charge there and then expect people now to add another search charge for some people that $20 is their gas for the week or maybe now two days gap so do I understand you correctly you're saying pay off the water debt so we can get rid of the water search charge. Put whatever it is 175 or whatever it is. Brandon can bring us rough numbers to the first budget committee meeting, but 175 or whatever a year towards the fire engine and then let's start getting to work on the water sewer treatment. So, we're saying yeah, and

I think we're going to need to be very creative with our overall budget and focus on our like my go-to is not $60 increase instead of tightening. We can't do that to families. We got to we got to get creative. We got to tighten the belt. And I That's not to say that maybe we don't have to re-evaluate the search charge in a year or two. Yeah. But that first initial I mean it just can't be that and we need to have some kind of rate increase every year. Also, make that mistake again as a council.

I just want to give credit to Brandon also. 2023 the water thing were crazy. the the the fact that we coordinated all this and with what he's doing with the budget, we're able to pay off the water early, that's pretty pretty crazy considering where we were just a couple years ago. So, just want to give credit there. Yes. Well, and I I think it's great for for council, too, that we're all in support of that direction. Well, it appears we're all in support of that direction of Yeah. where we were in two that was in 23. Never again fire truck. Is there an option to look at going in on that with Carlton

shared? No. Will you will you ask Carlton's chief to get back to us? Yeah, the only reason I who owns it, who pays for insurance on it, or is it partusing it trying to see if they're in the way to accomplish it both?

Well, we just got to, like I said, we just got to be I think the council's been really good financially for the last handful of years and we just have to to keep doing it maybe to a little more because we're balancing a few different big projects now, but they're they have to get done. So, with that being said, it looks like we have the direction on the fire engine on the water debt. Now, since the water debt will be paid for, are we going to take that debt off the $15 search charge or take that off? That is part of Okay.

But that's not to say that we're not going to need a different search charge for water at sewer. But for now, we said we told everybody debt was paid off. That would fall off. Has to fall off. I mean, legally, too. We should start getting the news out that there's going to be search charge coming on the Yeah, probably people should be giving notice. We should probably, but that's going to draw questions like how much we might wait till the at least the first budget meeting so we better ballpark. Well, that's why I'm confused because I was told to drop it off, but yeah. So, the question is when do we start campaign?

Yeah, we can't really do like we probably should have waited. If we're going to do something, we need to do something small for the coming as soon as the last payment is made to Mac water and light. There can no longer be on a water bill a debt service searchcharge that cannot even halfway through a billing thing though is I think it's time that we start informing the citizens that hey looking at getting this paid off early this will come off but heads up we got a big

there's a sewer coming and I I think we need to get the information out of what's going on at the sewer station and why it has to be replaced and the other possible consequences so that they understand what we're all considering. So EPA all because the average person I mean if I were on council I wouldn't have a clue of what you need of a sewer plant. Doesn't that just work and we're not the only city dealing with this. So I think sharing that that's very common right now in society. I think by having that transparency and that info out because yeah, I think we got to start the search charge

like yesterday like like with this come July even if we're not 100% sure what we're doing with our long-term sewer funding to start a search charge that starts building. It has to in the bank. Yeah. I wonder whether but making clear that we know this is coming and to minimize this we were smart here we're getting the money we're going to get this paid off and knowing that's coming we want to take our general fund I think people will swallow that feel a lot better

and I will say it's not very common right that the city cities are taking off a search charge even though it's got to come off when it's paid we're choosing that that is one thing I would be very mindful debate and switch. I've seen it nationally with my peers where scale back something. Oh, you took it away for six months a year and then you come back with one or the or just ignoring that for instance like school bonds. Well, it doesn't change your rate am your tax rate amount. No, but it that one clearing dropped it for 5 seconds before you put the new one on.

But that's what I'm saying. And I think getting the information out and saying we recognize this. We know this is going to hurt. We're getting this debt paid off quickly here early. Well, but this is coming and we're trying to give the heads up. Well, and we're paying off the water debt early because we know we're going to need a similar situation for the sewer and we don't want people paying two surgeries. But that's what I'm saying. saying get that info out and get the info out of why what's going on with our sewer plant, why we need it done and why we're doing it this way rather than Yeah, I think just full transparency town hall meeting at the fire station.

We'll save that sucks. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, we're right. I think we got a got a good idea. You got a good idea. Did you get I see a little confused, but I'll see you to be confused. What are you confused about? Yeah. Ask questions. We're gonna we're going to pay the water debt off.

Drop the drop the Mac water light off. We're not going to have any type of revenue coming in for next year for the sewer fund unless we do something mid year because we're not going to be able to project anything because we're going to project for the Mac water light to drop off but not project any revenue for the sewer fund to come in at all. Are we looking at maybe like a mid this to you? So I thought we were going to be looking at adding a search char we need in July. We need to start looking at that water suit or that sewer sewer search at the budget committee. Like we need and that's why because I was because I was just told no we need to not have a

search the water the water is a debt service when that debt's paid it has to go away and no matter what we do with the sewer I want to pay off water so so so that you're looking like I was really trying to convey it's going to go from Mac water and light search charge to sewer fundu wastewater wastewater facility upgrades very very possible from one month to the next I think when will we be looking at paying off Mac? How soon can we pay off? We would pay that off in the next fiscal year. So that's what I'm saying. I think honestly the sewer sir charge has to start July. Okay, of this year. Okay. I want to make sure all the trying to convey but it looks like it went to different places.

And I think that's why I'm saying we need to be clear with the citizens. We know this is going to hurt. We're getting this other debt paid off early. This is going to fall off. I think it helps to look at them different. Right. There is a debt service searchcharge that there is no negotiation that goes away when the debt goes away now. We're we're probably going to need a wastewater upgrade search charge. Yeah. We we'll figure that out. We'll get it put on but you have to look it up separately. Right. Like just one for one thing. But for a while there might be the two.

That's very possible they'll both be on at the same time and we don't know. where we're talking that so we were going to scale away. The reason why we approached saying, "Hey, we may not need to look at a water rate increase this year because we got a little we not not the healthiest, but we got healthy, but we still have that $5 search charge. The $5 search charge would have been more than what a a rate increase would be. Would you be amanable to then just maybe looking at getting rid of that $ five dollar water maintenance search charge

so everybody's on the same page $20 search charge on your water bill $15 of it is a debt service $5 is a maintenance. So two different search charges that make $20. So instead what we're doing is we're saying you're saying take off because instead of having a small maintenance one which some of that could go towards sewer we're just going to do one new searcher. So instead of two, it can be one. And even if you say it, let's go $15. Well, then the $5 one is still gone. So there's some of they'll be saying, why is there a maintenance one? There should be a maintenance charge because we're going to have maintenance over the years.

Well, that was because of lack of increases from the council years here. So now that we built up a contingency fund, so you're saying the original reason for that $5 sir charge to build up that contingency or maintenance fund because we had we had we had no reserves. You're saying mission accomplished on the $5 charge until something I think we I think we need to find a way to make this a win for the community. And if there's a way we need to scale back something, if we just do the increase and we do yearly increases, we're not going to have to worry about in 101 15 years. Hey, we need to make up for short-sightedness from 10 years ago. We just need to get some money to the bottom. Go ahead.

My concern with that is we locked out with the arpeons for a lot of the water meters. What happens in 10, 20, 30 years? Those need to be replaced. I don't think it makes sense to take off the maintenance. I agree. And I'm also going to say, look, you can want a win for the community, but a $20 million project, I don't care how you spend it, it's not like it's it's just not their win is is that we were smart with the money and we're getting the debt paid off sooner on the map water and like and the win and the win is also that we're trying to find a way to fund the project without jacking people's rates by crazy events, right? like we're the wins just they might not be as obvious as we the win is the less of the two evils

but we're doing the best we can for everybody we really are that's that's the win that's not the win you want I'm sure but that's the win and we're committed to not sweeping this under the rug so that because yeah you could take off the fires but then like you and I both know that money is going to have to come from somewhere whether it's through the radio like it's I don't I don't want I don't want smoke I don't want smoke in mirrors Yeah. I just I don't want to be and I don't want them to think that that $5 was tied into the $15 and if they both dropped off at the same time, it'd be like okay. Yeah,

makes sense. Okay. Like the whole situation sucks, right? Million dollar project is not I don't think people realize councils don't inherit a brand new start at zero, you know? So, it's also hard for 4,700 people to come up with 10 million bucks. I know, you know. I mean, it just is I think council kit was going to cost so much. See, it just doesn't the math doesn't work. So, doing it saving doing it like like you're talking about with the fire truck and the water and paying off early.

We like that in my at my house, too. I like to pay stuff off early. I just it's I think it's the best approach without treating our neighbors, right, the constituents like ATMs. We don't want we don't want to be like that, right? We don't want to be wasteful. We want to do it as efficiently as we can for all of us. Like everybody sitting here pays the same property taxes that the folks who voted for us do, right? Yep. Everybody wants the same thing. Treat them like teammates really. That's right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, you had enough or you got enough with that. So, we accomplished a also right in all that. Okay. So, now we're on to department reports.

Brandon, I do have time next week if we need to touch base. Um, so Brandon, I'll hand over department reports to you. Thank you. And if anybody has any questions on the department reports, just have some notes. Um I Greg and I before the meeting met with a wrestling promoter out of the Eugene Salem area and we're going to be working at having a wrestling event at Common Park. Um thanks Chief. Hi Chief

on uh it'll probably most likely be a Sunday afternoon in August at around 3 p.m. Um you know I'm a big wrestling fan and there's been a a big wrestling promotion in Portland closed down and the guy in Eugene is looking to get into the Portland area. I said well we need events in town. Um, we have a great I mean we have a community center you can use for staging and talent. Um, I think we could probably get about 150 200 people there at comments wrestling. I know it sounds hokey and it sounds nerdy but we spent a lot of money. It's like I travel for baseball basketball in wrestling. So I would expect that I do have members of the governing body there if they're all going to be there. That's going to be I'm not wearing a leotard or whatever either.

No no nobody to get involved. So um we'll we'll touch base on that. Um, this past week we sent out the second letter, certified letter, over $215 or so of certified letters uh for sidewalk enforcement. Um, within the first month since we sent the letters out, we've had about two or three rideway permits come through, right? Yes. Three.

Yes. We have some people doing some work on there. I even think um the HOA um one of the HOAs got together and is looking to get a higher contractor out um and then um some of the others are dealt second not second letter notices. So hopefully we'll start seeing more work on those sidewalks coming at the clients. Um May 8th is the cleanup day. We have a few people already signed up uh that Robert has worked with to identify for the curbside pickup. So, if you know anybody who needs that curbside pickup who may be disabled and they can get it to the front, but they can't get it down to the um uh Terry Park, please reach out to me or Robert and we can kind of get that scheduled. What was the total number of people they allocate for?

About 20.

Yeah. Um Rocology will be here next uh next month to ask for their rate increase as well as talk about their audit. Um we the housing capacity study uh we're moving pretty quickly actually. We actually have um a project advisory committee uh that was established that we're going to be working together uh May, August, and December. We'll have some community events at National Night Out, um Harvest Fest, and possibly another virtual event for the community so we can kind of talk about how we plan to grow with UGB and housing um over the next generation. Um, as a reminder, the o the OGC filings are due on the 15th. If you haven't done them, do them now. They do fine and they do fine quick. So, make sure you get all that taken care of. Um, and my fuse. Boom. And I just want to thank council for approving a lot of the major projects uh tonight and over the past few months. I know it I've had conversation with council members. It says it's like it moves at a snail space, but government doesn't work as fast as I'd like it to move as you'd like it to move. Um, and I know finally we've been together for a while. Some of these projects are finally starting to come through and we're finally starting to show uh what we've been doing together. So, thank you for the patience and time and um the ability to make things happen. That's it for me.

Okay. And that's for all of them or Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we don't Are there any questions on any of the other reports like Greg's here and stuff? Are you guys ready to move on? Okay. Council reports. Anything? Councelor President Pollson? No. And councelor Kogan? I have nothing. Councelor Carzwell. Negative. Councelor Burroughs. No. Councelor Khill. No. Councelor Mackey. No.

I'll make my very quick. Um before I forget, I just want to thank Lafayette Community Church for another um what seemed to be a successful egg hunt for the community. Um reminder that our financial statements are coming due for um is it the what's the actual entity that wants that? Is that the Oh, GC. Yeah. On the 15th.

Yeah. So, our financial statements are due on the 15th. If you have not done them, um the movie in the park is still kind of at stalemate. I was waiting to hear back from TTA. I haven't heard back from them. Um I have been the wings, the Lat. Um but in the meantime because there's a time crunch to get figure out funding. If you have any other leads of someone who would like to um sponsor the movie aspect part, I would love to hear that.

Or you raising a hand you want to do it. Okay. Or else um we probably have to table it. Although we have wrestling coming up, so at least that' be another event and maybe is a moving part to wait. Um, and then just encourage you guys, uh, Yamahill County, um, the clerk today at the commissioners meeting shared a big update and it was very interesting for anyone that's interested in how elections, any changes from new laws, um, what they're doing proactively. Um, all of us are elected. It's kind of interesting to hear the steps. It was very easy to follow and informative. But one of the things she shared was that the county has a program now where you can sign up to have a notice if something with your um address pops up in their system. Um it helps with scam. They can't decide if something is legit or not that comes to them. But what they can do is they can alert you that hey, your address has popped up for whatever a title or I don't know the jargon. So that's an interesting thing. It's on their YouTube video. Other than that, I'm looking for German.

Okay. All in favor? Since we have that meeting tomorrow, Yeah. Yeah.

Mouse.