City Council - Regular Meeting

and we're ready to go on the staff side and everybody who needs to be here is here so with that we can get started and a call to order of this work session of the western city council it is a tuesday june 2nd 2026 and the first item of business is approval of the agenda thank you mayor and i

We'll move to approve the agenda for this Tuesday, June 2nd, work session of the Westland City Council.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda of the Westland City Council for the June 2nd work session. Any discussion? Seeing none, call the roll, please.

Councillor Bright. Yes. Councillor President Baumgartner. Yes. Councillor Groner. Yes. Councillor Bonnington. Yes. Mayor Bielaszewski. Yes.

Yes. Thank you, so agenda's approved. That takes us to public comments.

There are none.

There are no public comments. Then that takes us to Mayor and Council reports. Councillor Groner requested to introduce a proposal during this time, so we'll do our reports as usual, and then Councillor Groner can make his, I'll give him the floor afterwards to make his, does that sound like an appropriate approach? So we'll start with Councillor Bright.

Thank you, Mayor. Last Tuesday, I attended as part of the Budget Committee for the Water Environmental Services Department of Clackamas County, and the budget was presented and was voted in favor by the Budget Committee. So the Board of County Commissioners will adopt that budget in early June.

Council President, I'm going to go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I attended the Clackamas County Business Alliance lunch, which was a legislative update and also a presentation by a local pollster, which was very interesting about trends in voting trends. And it wasn't necessarily about trust in government. Let's just put it that way. So we can continue to be educating and make positive steps in maintain our transparency as we always do. I also attended the Willamette Falls LOCS Authority Board Meeting. The LOCS are moving forward as scheduled. And then I attended, let's see, the, oh no, that was the week before. That was the South Fork Water Board Meeting. I think that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President. Appreciate that report. And I will just share that I had a great time attending a civics class with the Council President over at Westland High School yesterday to talk about the city and engage with the youth of Westland. And I plugged our Youth Advisory Council there as well. And the YAC actually had their final meeting of the year this past week as well. So I attended that. And with that, I have nothing to turn over to Councilor Droner.

Yes, the Sunset Neighborhood Association is going to be having a summer gathering on the 23rd of August, and basically been working on that. There'll be food, there'll be music, there'll be arts for the kids. All are welcome.

Thank you, Councillor, for that report. Councillor Bonneton? Yeah, let's see.

Last Thursday was the Clackamas Cities Association dinner, which I attended in Oregon City. Looks like that was about it. Okay.

Thank you, Councillor. I forgot one thing.

Oh, go ahead. That was very important. I also attended the groundbreaking of the Temwada Village, the important groundbreaking ceremony. And if anyone's interested in finding out more about the project or just the groundbreaking ceremony, there's ample coverage of it. But it was really encouraging to see... Grand Ronde tribal members and other members of local governments working together for that project. It's very exciting.

Thank you, Council President Baumgartner. And at this time, Councillor Garner, would you like to speak on your issue that you would like to raise with the City Council?

Thank you very much for this opportunity. So I'm going to be making a proposal. And let me give you the background for that. No one seriously expects ICE to build a detention center in West Linn. The city's compact hillside neighborhoods make it a very unlikely ICE target. As a West Linn City Councilor, my proposed new ordinance would require a public vote for any facility temporarily housing more than, say, 200 people. This ordinance would be triggered by a proposed private ICE detention center in West Lynn. This ordinance would send a clear and unambiguous message. This community has values and that these values have teeth. I would expect that West Linn voters would approve something like a hotel or a hospital, but that they would soundly reject a private prison company operating a detention center in West Linn. Rather than a blunt ban to which courts have shown increasing skepticism, such an ordinance would be content neutral on its face. It would apply equally to hotels, hospitals, and yes, detention centers. It would not single out the federal government, nor would it explicitly name ICE. It would simply empower West Linn residents to have a say on large-scale facilities that fundamentally alter the character of their neighborhoods. It would be difficult to argue that a 200-plus people being housed in a commercial warehouse doesn't qualify Since a detention center is unlikely, this proposal is largely symbolic, but symbols matter. When cities across the country are scrambling, often with limited legal tools, to express opposition to a federal policy of mass detention, a well-crafted local ordinance serves many purposes. It demonstrates democratic self-determination It puts private property owners and developers on notice. And crucially, it may inspire neighboring jurisdictions to act in kind, creating the kind of regional resistance that gives pause even to a well-funded federal agency. West Linn is not a city without influence. As an affluent, engaged community in Clackamas County, it has the civic infrastructure to pass such an ordinance thoughtfully and to defend it if challenged. And the legal ground, while complicated, is not entirely unfavorable, particularly when the ordinance is drafted broadly, applies neutrally, and is rooted in genuine public health and safety concerns.

rather than ideological targeting.

Critics will argue that cities should leave immigration policy to Washington, but zoning has never been totally apolitical. Communities have long used land use law to shape not just skylines but also values. To say that West Linn cannot use the tools of local governments to express who it is as a community is to misunderstand what local governance is for. This is not about obstructing federal law enforcement. It is about a community asserting that its residents deserve a voice in what gets built and what gets operated in their backyard. Let the voters decide. That, after all, is the point. I'd like to make a final comment. I think silence is complicity. So my proposal is basically that the city frame such an ordinance for a future vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor, for raising that issue. And I appreciate your passion on that topic. And we've had multiple discussions about that. And I know you've talked with other councillors as well. and counselors in our system have the right to propose ideas at a city council meeting I think that's the right way to do it but our council requires a majority to move policies forward and so at this time you know we are not aware of any proposal request or activity involving an ICE detention or processing facility in Westland and given that my personal opinion is that it's not It's I don't believe in pursuing this item I don't think it's the best use of city council time or resources given the city Issues that we've been addressing and are trying to address with our financial planning initiatives and other major projects And so I think our focus should remain on those issues directly affecting the community and residents in Westland and I appreciate your Proposing that and you know if the majority of council would like to pursue that policy I would do so, and I'm happy to open the floor up if anybody else has any thoughts or we can move forward in the agenda. I see no other thoughts, so thank you, Councillor. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for bringing that forward with us today and for your passion on that topic. With that, we can move then into the council discussion on community advisory group quorum issues. Was there any staff report on that matter, or is this kind of meant to be left to the council to discuss for the community advisory groups?

I'm happy to support your conversation, but I don't have a formal staff report. I think this issue is placed on the agenda after Council talked about it perhaps just at the last work session, noting that a number of CAG meetings recently have been canceled due to lack of quorum. I think you wanted to dive into what might be happening and what some ideas might be to fix the problem.

yeah thank you thank you for that um any opening thoughts on the community advisory group issue or how to address the quorum problem that we're having i mean we have several groups that then this can be an ongoing discussion but several groups that we've been struggling to recruit members for and uh they're not being there's counselor bond to mention that there was some lots of cancellations of some of the boards. So we just wanted to have a council discussion about how to proceed and, you know, things that come out of it could be a membership drive or changes to certain community advisory groups because of the lack of community interest that we've seen over the last few years. So I'm happy to open the floor up. Councillor Bonnington.

I thought it would just be helpful if I restated my statistics, which were that year to date, we have had... 36 scheduled CAG meetings and 24 were held. I believe this was to March 18th that I did these. So we had at that point a 33.3 cancellation rate and that wasn't terribly alarming. It was March 1st to May 18th that became the problem for me. when I saw that it became a 45% cancellation rate. So nearly half of all these CAG meetings were getting canceled. The reason for that was not readily clear. I think just anecdotally, most of us could assume that has to do with Quorum, although probably with a few other reasons scattered in there. But that strikes me as a big problem. I don't know how many total members we have of these, but they They volunteer their time, they get ready, and then these will be canceled at the last minute. And that kind of compounds itself when multiple meetings get canceled in a row for the same reason. And then we have a hard time getting people re-engaged. And it's a process that builds on itself and doesn't lend to the kind of engagement and successful community advisory group experience we want to see. So open to solutions.

Thank you for that. We'll go to Councillor Bright and then Councillor Gronach. I saw her hand come up first.

Thank you. I generally talk to people in the community about the specific openings that I'm aware of. And You know, maybe I need to start carrying around a paper application that somebody could then fill out and drop off at City Hall or return to me and I could bring it here. I don't think it's any kind of ill intent. People get busy. I also think it would be maybe helpful to be able to define some of the obligation. What are we asking? Some of the community advisory groups meet once every other month. So that's not particularly a heavy lift, but we need people to understand what they're signing up for.

So would you suggest putting something on the city website that kind of clearly specifies the obligations like on the application page?

I think that would be helpful. I guess the challenge for that is there's, you know, some advisory groups require a lot more effort than others. For example, the ones that meet every other month versus planning commission that could meet twice a month.

You're the liaison to utility advisory board, correct? That's one where their charter body, we have to have them make a recommendation on water rates and they play a key role, but they have four vacancies. and I think we've missed at least the last three meetings maybe four so perhaps with that one we could have a kind of some increased correspondence going out to the community about the that that group in particular I don't have a particular proposal today to about our thoughts on how to remedy the issue but I'm appreciate talking about it for sure I believe it is supposed to be our policy that minutes of advisory groups

have basically a roll call of those present and not present. But at least most of the minutes I've seen do not contain that. And I think that might be a useful incentive for people to come. And if a meeting is canceled on account of a lack of quorum, perhaps minutes that just state it was stated and these were the people who were here and these were the people who were not here might be a little incentive.

Thank you. Thank you for that, Councillor. That's a good suggestion for the minutes. I think some of the groups have that.

I think we're supposed to do that, but what I've seen, it's not obeyed.

I appreciate that. Councillor Bonnington. One thing I think we might look at is condensing them. Not necessarily getting rid of groups, but in the case of utility advisory board, maybe since TAB only meets every other month, it could be a joint effort. TAB and utility advisory board. I don't know if that's something you'd be willing to talk about. Same for most cities have their CCI as part of their planning commission. So there might be a couple more. advisory groups that would be best condensed into a single group. But at the same time, probably having a very clear mission and a very clear definition of what these groups should be doing and working on so that there's never a situation where they feel like they're just meeting to meet. I don't think anyone wants that. So that would be one solution, I guess I would suggest.

We could explore that for sure. Maybe have a little bit of research done on what that would look like on those two bodies that you mentioned. I'd appreciate that. Council President Baumgartner, please.

Thank you, Mayor. I am a strong proponent of not reinventing the wheel, so I would be curious what other cities are doing and have done that worked. And we might... benefit from implementing. I would agree with potentially combining advisories if that's something that makes sense. Also being aware of which ones we are mandated to have. So also pursuing that. And just having, I think that if I remember correctly, it has been an issue in the past that advisories don't maybe have a clear understanding of what the expectations are, whether it's before people sign up I know when I was looking to get involved in the city in 2019 or so, I didn't even know community advisory groups existed. Someone told me that there's the Parks Board, and that was the only one I knew of, so I applied to that one. But if there's some way to just make it communicate better maybe communicate with I don't know if neighborhood associations are a tool we could use to get the word out for opportunities where we could either go ourselves to present or staff or or they could just present themselves the The boards of the neighborhood associations know what community advisory groups are and they don't need us to tell them. So if they wanted to cover it, that would be helpful. So that's just some ideas and we can keep talking about it.

Sounds great, Council President. Thank you for that. Councilor Bright.

I do want to remind everybody that staff did send us kind of the history of all the various groups and showed us where the vacancies are. But I certainly agree with the Council President that we could use the neighborhood associations and maybe not present to them. But I would certainly be willing to meet with the neighborhood presidents or individually meet with neighborhood presidents for coffee and talk about where these openings are and the impact that these groups can have on how the city does its work.

So it sounds like, Councilor Bunting, go ahead before we wrap this up.

would be a great idea except that we only have maybe four or five neighborhood associations that actually meet regularly and have elected officers. So it's actually kind of another problem that extends into there. So we have those four or five, maybe six on a good month neighborhood associations that are fully up and running and they are super engaged and definitely have good attendance. But we have the city that's not covered. So I think we've talked about working with them to see if those neighborhood associations want to combine. But it's almost a larger problem that is definitely not unique to Westland. There's a lot of cities, a lot of areas struggling to find volunteers and people who want to be involved for a variety of reasons. So, yeah.

Thank you, Councillor. And now we'll go back to Councillor Bright from there.

One more, I've been thinking about having some kind of volunteer roundup, and that would cover things not just the community advisory groups, but perhaps the friends of the Robinwood Station, other non-profits. I know that we have people in the community that spend their time volunteering in parks, picking up trash just when they're out and about, and maybe having an opportunity where people could see all of the opportunities that we have to engage in the community that would also be family friendly where they could do certain things with their kids, picking up trash in parks or various things. I just don't really know how to get this started and I don't want to put a lot of work on staff that is already at their limit.

MAYBE IT'S SOMETHING WE COULD DO AT A MARKET WITH OUR BOOTH THAT WE ALREADY HAVE.

THEN I'M GOING TO TRY TO SUMMARIZE WHAT I'VE HEARD AND SEE IF THERE'S A CONSENSUS.

I THINK THIS IS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO PURSUE SOMETHING WE'VE TALKED ABOUT A LITTLE BIT THAT OTHER STUDIES DO, WHICH IS A COMMUNITY ACADEMY. That would be something that community members get recruited for, sign up for, and they get kind of a buffet of experiences in different aspects of the city. And it gives us a nice pool of people to pick from for advisory groups, for planning commission, maybe future counselors, things like that. But people who really know what they're getting into and how things work. So maybe that would be something to formally start pursuing.

have seen that happen in wilsonville where they have a community academy and it's i think it's worked out well for them so i don't know how that what that process would look like to steven start that up whether we have the bandwidth to to do that um but so i'm kind of i'm counselor bright one more thought

Just when I worked for the city of Lake Oswego years and years ago, I participated in the Lake Oswego Community Academy that was not put on by the city, but by the Chamber of Commerce. And it was very robust. They had people from various businesses, as well as the school district and the city. And the group was community members, community leaders, and a few city staff. It was very interesting.

So it sounds like the request for staff are kind of researching a little bit from other cities in terms of what they are doing with their community group structures to avoid the quorum issues. We're kind of comparing what we're doing to what a couple of other neighboring cities are doing. And then maybe the main research issue is just looking into the process for combining community advisory groups. I know we have some municipal code on that, and maybe the pros and cons of making the CCI the planning commission. That's kind of what I heard from council during this discussion. Any thoughts on that proposal?

I would be willing to take on, so we're not putting this on to staff, and I would be happy to do, we could even... Send a list of jobs, or I don't know if it could come from the city. I don't want to have a serial meeting, but I would be happy to offer up to do some of this research.

Maybe we could do some research on city councils, take a look at other cities and just kind of how they're structured in their advisory groups, like see if we have way more than other cities or way less. Maybe LMC. maybe League of Oregon cities has some interest in that question but the main thing for the city staff I think is the legal issue of kind of combining community advisory groups or what that could look like and then this the CCI in particular right it's an important group and we've that's the one group that we've had that has consistent membership turnover and issues getting people to come in and then people come on and then they resign because it's not what they expected it to be so There's some, you know, what are the pros and cons of that? Making that the planning commission is a thought that I have. And then we could circle back at a meeting and talk about it. What do you think of... Oh, Councilor Groner, sorry, I didn't see your hand there.

Yeah, something else occurred to me. Perhaps some sort of recognition process. I can imagine each advisory group nominating one of their number as an outstanding member, and maybe someone else, perhaps the Council, choosing one or several awardees with some reasonable prize.

Cool. I appreciate that thought. That's a good thought for the table. Do you... Mr. City Manager, how do you feel at this point based on the discussion we've heard?

We're happy to support your discussion on this, and we can do some of the research. I can be in touch about pieces that might be helpful. I guess my general observation would be my experience working with CAGs over the years, not just here but in other places, is they feel most valuable and most engaged when the work they're doing is needed, requested, wanted. This council, you all have worked hard in recent years to give each CAG a bit of a mission. We've been doing that process through your retreats and other other things, but the existing groups don't always match with the priorities you have as a group, and so in recent years you've created task forces to work on other topics, for example, the waterfront group. There's other things where the existing lineup of CAGs doesn't always match your priority areas, and I think one idea might be to take our pool of volunteers and really identify the issues that you feel as a council you need advice on. And then even possibly some sort of reconfiguration could be possible or limited duration task forces or something like that. Because I think people really, the folks that we work with as staff who get involved, They really want to be useful and they want to do good work and they want to be asked things that matter. And so I think figuring out some system where we're not just, I think if we don't take on some of the root causes of maybe some low level dissatisfaction that's out there, I don't think, the advertising or the recognition is necessarily going to do the whole job. I think we really need to make sure we have media work for these groups. And it may be a different lineup. I like some of the realignment that you're proposing. I think we should look at that. I would also suggest one thing we could do is talk to our existing volunteers. I wouldn't want to go too far down this path without the people who are already serving or maybe some people who have left and asking, you know, We do exit interviews with employees. We could do exit interviews with CAG members and see how it is. And I think we could all continue to improve. Another area... that I think has caused some problem over time is when there is an eager group of folks who are working on a thing that's not necessarily a council priority, that doesn't necessarily have a budget allocation, that doesn't necessarily have a staff person here who does that thing. And these folks want to work on a project Um, but there's no support existing. Um, and that's been a problem too. And that's, that frustrates us and frustrates them. So I think more of that vertical alignment would be really helpful where, uh, we know that if, uh, there's a council party that we need to help staff that I assigned staff to it, that staff person works with a group of people who know what they're doing. Um, otherwise council bright already mentioned some of our issues with being able to do too many different things. When we have a thing that's being proposed by a community group that's not in our core mission, that's been problematic over time and frustrating for everyone. So I think all of these are pieces that we could look at. I did write down a bunch of the research that you're looking for at initial level. We're happy to start there. Sounds good.

Appreciate that and agree with your thoughts, especially about reaching out to the community advisory group members. getting their thoughts as well. And of course, if we ever did make realignments or discontinue a group, folks could be reassigned or redistributed to other groups of interest to them. And we don't want groups spinning their wheels and things like that. So thank you, Mr. City Manager, and we look forward to continuing the conversation over the summer. So we'll do that and talk about the research soon. With that, we can then move on then, I suppose, in the agenda, unless anybody has any closing thoughts on CAGs. Okay, we have four proclamations to get through. We've got the first one is the Juneteenth Proclamation. I've distributed them out to City Council before the meeting. Councillor Bonnington will read the Juneteenth Proclamation. Thank you.

Whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, formally abolishing slavery in the United States of America. And whereas word about the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was delayed some two and a half, years to June 19th, 1865, in reaching authorities and African Americans in the South and Southwestern United States, and whereas Emancipation Day observations are held on different days in different states in the South and Southwest and in other parts of the nation, and whereas June 19th is Juneteenth, combining the words June and 19th, has been celebrated as one of the oldest known commemorations of the ending of slavery in the United States and also focuses on promoting and cultivating knowledge and appreciation of African American history and culture. And whereas in 1997 the United States Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 11 and House Resolution 56, officially recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day, and whereas the City of Westland will observe June 19th each year as part of our commitment to anti-racism and social justice, encouraging a day of recognition, reflection, education, and celebration, now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of Westland to recognize June 19th as Juneteenth.

Thank you, Councillor Brunton, for reading that. I appreciate it. And then Councillor Groner has the LGBTQ Plus Pride Month Proclamation.

Thank you. Whereas our nation was founded upon and is guided by principles that include the belief that all people, are created equal, and that each person has inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that each shall be accorded full recognition and protection under the law. And whereas the city of West Linn is committed to being a safe, welcoming, and equitable community for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, country of origin, disability, or any other identity. And whereas the month of June was chosen to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City on June 27th, 1969, a pivotal moment in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ+, civil rights movement, and whereas the ongoing pursuit of justice and equity for LGBTQ plus individuals is carried forward by courageous advocates, allies, and families who continue to push for a more inclusive and compassionate society, and whereas Pride Month offers an opportunity to reflect on the history and progress of the LGBTQ plus community to celebrate their countless contributions to culture, civic life, and public service, and to renew our commitment to the work ahead to ensure safety, dignity, and belonging for all. And whereas the city of West Linn affirms this commitment by flying the pride flag at city buildings throughout the month of June as a visible, meaningful sign of solidarity with the LGBTQ plus community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of West Linn that June 2025 is LGBTQ plus Pride Month. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councillor Groner, for reading that. And next we'll go to the National Pollinator Week proclamation to be read by Councillor Bryken. We have esteemed staff from Parks and Recreation. Would you all like to come up and... Well, Councillor Bryken, read it, and then we can have a... a discussion about pollinators, so go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Whereas pollinator species such as thousands of species of bees are essential partners in producing much of our food supply. And whereas pollinator species provide significant environmental benefits that are necessary for maintaining healthy biodiverse urban and suburban ecosystems. And whereas pollination plays a vital role for the trees and plants of our community. enhancing our quality of life and creating recreational and economic development opportunities. And whereas for decades, the City of West Linn has managed urban landscapes and public lands that include many municipal parks and greenways, as well as wildlife habitats. And whereas the City of West Linn provides recommendations to developers and residents regarding landscaping to promote wise conservation stewardship, including the protection of pollinators and maintenance of their habitats in urban and suburban environments. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of West Linn that the month of June is Pollinator Month and June 22nd through 28th is National Pollinator Week. The City of West Linn is an affiliate of Bee City USA, and we urge all citizens to recognize this observance.

Thank you so much, Councillor, and how fitting at the state of the city that we're going to recognize Cheryl Borden, who does as the lead volunteer in the pollinator garden at Mary S. Young with one of our community impact awards. So with that, I'll turn it over to staff from Parks and Recreation if you'd like to make any comments. And you've brought a wonderful stuffed animal who makes an appearance every year, and I've seen it ever since I got involved with the city council. So please take it away.

The city of West Linn is excited to celebrate its seventh year as a Bee City USA. Being a Bee City USA means we are committed to protecting pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and other beneficial insects and animals that play a vital role in our environment.

As a Bee City USA, Westland works hard to promote pollinator-friendly habitats, encourage the planting of native flowers, and support practices that help pollinators thrive. From backyard gardens to public parks, every pollinator-friendly space makes a difference. We are especially proud of our pollinator garden at the Marius Young Park. This garden is maintained by master gardeners who choose the best plants to encourage pollinators to visit. Similarly, our Parks and Rec team would like to encourage all of you to stop by and visit as well. As summer approaches, it will be in full bloom and buzzing with pollinators.

And part of our commitment to being a Bee City USA community is that we will be hosting a pollinator week celebration on thursday june 25th from four to seven at marius young park right by the pollinator garden we'll be partnering with local organizations to provide flowers fertilizers hands-on crafts and educational activities that focus on the important role pollinators play in our ecosystems we encourage the community members of all ages to come and join us on June 25th as we celebrate our pollinators.

Thank you for helping make Westland a safe place for our pollinators.

Thank you so much for that wonderful presentation and the coordination there between you two as well. We appreciate it and we're so grateful for all that you do in our parks and all the events and I know we're getting ready for the busy summer so Thank you so much. And Council President has some words to share as well.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll be brief. I just wanted to thank all the volunteers, especially that spend time at the Pollinator Garden, and to say that it was an important part of my nature walk that I did for the full moon on... sunday night because we walked over to the pollinator garden and that was fun because the moon was not up yet and nobody there was really interested in waiting to see the moon come up because it was all nearing our bedtime so i guess we're of a certain age anyway thank you for the pollinator garden any other thoughts i see none so thank you so much for being and joining us for a little bit of our council meeting as well

So we'll see you there at the end of the month at Mary S. Young. And with that, we have a Love a Lamprey Day proclamation to be read by Council President Baumgardner. And of course, this is in anticipation of the Lamprey Festival that's happening pretty soon as well. So Council President, take it away.

Thank you, Mayor. Whereas Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus, are ancient jawless fish that hold immense cultural and ecological significance at Willamette Falls, and whereas Pacific lamprey are known by their indigenous name Assum or Xuyas, and whereas one of the last major harvestable runs of Pacific lamprey in the Columbia River Basin is Willamette Falls, and whereas celebrating the Pacific lamprey emphasizes their cultural value and the need for preservation and habitat restoration, and whereas despite being a cultural stronghold, Pacific lamprey is a species of concern due to population declines caused by dams, habitat loss, and climate change. and whereas Pacific lamprey, who have existed for over 400 million years, are only collected using traditional methods including hand-by-hand small mesh dip nets and gaffing hooks, and whereas there is a goal for one million adult Pacific lamprey to pass Willamette Falls annually by 2035, Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the City Council of the City of West Linn that June 25, 2026 is Love a Lamprey Day in West Linn, Oregon, and Council calls upon all community members and civic organizations to celebrate Pacific Lamprey by attending and participating in the Lamprey Festival to commemorate the remarkable life and contributions of the Pacific Lamprey. dated this second day of June, 2026. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

And we have some guests who we would like to take a photo with if they would like to take a photo with us. All right.

Sounds good.

And if we could take just a brief break. Take a break for a photo. Yeah, if that's all right.

Sounds great. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council President. We'll gavel us back in after the recess, thank you, and just to wrap up the Lamprey discussion, do you know the date of the Lamprey Festival, just so we could put that in for folks who are watching?

It's in the proclamation. It's the 25th.

The 25th, so Love of Lamprey Day is also the festival, over at Clackamant Park.

Yes, sorry, yes, it said it somewhere in here, but yes, 25th.

25th, okay, we'll be there. That'll be fun.

It starts at 10 a.m. Don't miss the lamprey.

Sounds good. And a couple of festivals ago, they cooked up some lamprey there and everybody got to try one. So that was an interesting experience for sure. So great event. With that, we can then move on into the agenda. We've got one item. It's item six of business today, which is the electronic bike and scooter enforcement discussion.

uh... that arose recently just from community concerns and complaints of the police department have been getting so turned over to city manager and we can welcome up thank you mayor uh... yes uh... this is a topic that has been uh... quite a bit of interest for our community and police departments been getting quite a few calls about it you may have seen some proactive public relations that they're doing which uh... Captain Garland will talk about. The purpose of today's meeting is to get direction from Council on a possible ordinance that could possibly assist with enforcement and clarification of rules on what is legal, what is appropriate, and how to drive in Westland these vehicles. So I'd like to recognize Captain Bill Garland, who I think will be serving. presentation but also city attorney Kaylee Klein has been working and and Kristen James from our legal office have been working on this topic which turns out to be more complex than one would think and with that little teaser to keep our viewers watching we'll introduce captain Bill Garland so bill you just want to press a little button make the green light on and we promise we will get you a nametag if you do a fantastic job here today

Captain Garland. The captain has a nice ring to it now. No longer sergeant, now captain. Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you, and good afternoon. So yes, electric scooters and e-bikes have become a growing concern for members of the community. And over the past several years, the West Linn Police Department has experienced a substantial increase in complaints involving electrical bicycles, electric scooters, and similar electric devices, electric powered vehicles operating throughout the community. And the majority of the complaints, they involve one or a combination of these factors, either juvenile riders, unsafe sidewalk riding, excessive speeds, failure to yield to pedestrians, riders operating unlawfully under Oregon age restrictions, and near collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians. These complaints have become and are becoming significantly more common over the past two summers and now represent one of the most frequent quality of life and traffic related concerns communicated to the Westland Police Department by community members. And most of those concerns have to do with pedestrian and child safety, traffic conflicts, operation in parks and business areas, sidewalk riding again, and lack of rider awareness regarding applicable laws. And while Oregon law does regulate some aspects of electric bicycles and scooters, the current statutory framework presents several operational and enforcement challenges. The West Linn Police Department has identified several limitations with relying exclusively on existing state law. And those are that Oregon law is far more straightforward regarding e-scooters than e-bikes. And there is no simple standalone ORS that uh... directly prohibits underage operation of electric bicycles in the same manner as scooters uh... the current laws uh... for community members to be difficult to understand and uh... enforcement statutes are fragmented across multiple o r s sections and some violations rely on indirect in enforcement mechanisms such as sidewalk operation or helmet violations so as far as our enforcement plan goes at the PD. It's going to have a couple phases. Phase one is going to begin now and through the end of the school year. And our approach will primarily focus on education and voluntary compliance. And we're going to encourage our officers to conduct educational stops on folks who are operating those vehicles illegally. Explain the applicable laws. We also have information cards that officers will have. We're also distributing those at the middle schools and the high school amongst the folks who are most likely to be operating those vehicles. Correct unsafe behavior and then whatever practical will notify the parents. And the purpose of that phase, again, is to increase awareness, improve safety, and give families an opportunity to voluntarily correct and correct the behavior before the summer begins. And then the plan is, after the school year ends, our enforcement efforts are going to intensify and citations are going to become a more regular enforcement option, particularly for repeat offenders, dangerous writing behavior or situations involving blatant disregard for law or public safety. In summary for my piece, The Westland Police Department believes proactive legal regulation will improve public safety, increase clarity, improve consistency, support educational efforts, and better position the city to address a rapidly growing community concern moving forward. I'll turn it over to City Attorney Klein.

all right great thank you so much captain that was a very nice intro setting the framework for the ordinance we're about to discuss so i met with the chief and the captain a couple weeks ago and wasn't surprised to learn but in fact this is one of the major issues in our surrounding jurisdictions the chief mentioned i think at the last three or four consecutive chiefs meetings, e-bike regulation and the dangers they pose to youth is a big concern among our community. And so I wanted to understand the framework that we have to work with pursuant to state law better and see where we could, the legal department could potentially be helpful. And so I laid on your chairs the draft ordinance in case you didn't have it in front of you. and if you don't mind turning to that, I think we can walk through this. Before I jump directly into the text, I wanted to clarify one of the things that was mentioned in the staff memo, and that is that under current state law, you must be 16 years or older to ride an e-bike or e-scooter. Those age limits, oh, I think there might be one on the chair next to Councillor Bonnington, if you're missing one, sorry. Under current law, you must be 16 years or older to ride an e-bike or e-scooter. Though that age requirement is going to change, there was quite a few changes in House Bill, I believe it was 4007 that was passed in this legislative session that make it a little more complicated in terms of ages depending on the type or class of electric vehicle. And that's why as we move to the definition section, you'll see class one, class two, class three. Ideally, I didn't want it to have to be complicated, but there's different age requirements for the type of bike. And so we did basically mirror state law. And so what was said earlier is you do have those requirements for age, but in the scooter enforcement section of state law, you have an express statute that's called unlawful operation of a motor-assisted scooter or e-scooter. That's a Class D violation, and that's what officers would use to cite an underage scooter rider for riding the device. Unfortunately, whether it was a legislative oversight or not, there's no parallel enforcement statute in state law for e-bikes. And so what Captain Garland was getting to is if we have riders under 16 years of age in West Lynn If PD wanted to cite them after this education initiative, they would only be able to use the state statutes of illegal sidewalk operation, so they would have to be on the sidewalk, or not wearing a helmet. But they can't cite for being underage and riding. And so that's where we talked about, you know, it would be helpful to have that mechanism pursuant to our local code. And that's what this establishes. But I basically, I have one primary question for you today at this work session, and it's whether you want to take one of two paths. The first path is what the chief brought to me, which is simple ordinance. We can just have under 16 e-bike riders and adopt that in our code. Or path two is take a more comprehensive regulatory approach, which is a lot like what Happy Valley did very recently. They enacted an ordinance for e-bikes, and it covers not only the age restriction, but protective headgear requirements, so helmets, covers operating rules, and it covers unsafe operation. And so as we sat together around a table and put this together, we thought, well, it might actually be better to have a more comprehensive package, then you won't have to amend it later, and it gives police more options. And so if you flip to page one and two, you'll see pretty much most of the Sections of regulation, again, section two, age restriction, section three, protective headgear requirements, section four, operating rules, and section five, unsafe operation. So I was interested in maybe going down the line from you which type of strategy you like, whether you would prefer something just specific to age or something more comprehensive like this where, for example, operating rules you can't have more than one rider on an e-scooter which we see a lot you need to be giving a signal by voice bell or horn before you overtake a pedestrian or other cyclist so basically rules of the road that help ensure public safety that's a great policy question to bring to city council so i'm happy to open up maybe we get any any questions first before we

to kind of share thoughts on that issue. Councillor Groener. Thank you. Could you?

Yes, I thank both of you. While I do appreciate the need to sort of plug loopholes and have better definitions legally, I think most children and teenagers are not assiduous readers of our ordinances and the code. So I think the education part of this is probably, from my point of view, the most significant. And so I'm curious how that's going to go. Our local police, the schools, and the highway department all have an interest in the safety of the children, and I think a role to play. Some of it might be signage, our signage. The other thing I'm very interested is sort of what is a trajectory of a, let's say, a 14-year-old who's just driven through a stop sign and is noticed by the police or reported to the police. And perhaps he does some further violations later on. What is the trajectory of that student and his interaction with the police?

In that particular instance, I mean, we're talking about a violation of a traffic code. And we would contact them. Within the context of electric scooters and e-bikes, we would contact them. And as we mentioned before, the first thing is to correct the behavior and then educate both the rider and the parents as to the statutes having to do with operation of those devices.

Have you had any problems getting identification from students? Because I imagine a lot of students don't carry the same kind of identification an adult would.

In general, no. They're very forthcoming with their names and where they're at and even contact information for their parents if that's necessary.

Thank you.

Is there another part of the question?

Yes, that's the first contact. If there's a second or third contact, what further steps get taken?

As I mentioned, Yeah, the first phase, obviously, is the education piece, and then for repeat offenders. So as we get into the subsequent phase of our enforcement plan, the focus is going to be primarily on education. But for folks who aren't educated or won't be educated on it and they're repeat offenders, well, then the option to cite the parents primarily or even the rider becomes more prevalent.

Thank you.

Uh, counselor bright and then council president.

And I guess before we move on, move on, counselor Gruner, did you have any input as to whether you like this more comprehensive ordinance or just an age requirement that would allow them to cite underage writers?

Uh, I mean, my leanings are toward a more comprehensive bill. But again, I think education is, from my point, a really high priority.

Yeah, and I would want to add to that. We don't have a color printout today, but the police department worked on it on educational materials, and they look really great. I forwarded them to you, I think, about a week ago or so, and they're being printed up. And I just think they're very user-friendly, easy to understand. They have all the laws that apply to both e-bikes and e-scooters, and they're visually fun and engaging for youth. And so those have been printed in a small size, like about this size, so that during that education campaign, they can be given to youth that are stopped. And they will also be posted. Thank you because I don't think very confusing education is going to be productive Thank you, okay, thank you councillor bright, please Thank You councillor for that

I'm in favor of the more comprehensive ordinance. I think that provides more clarity. There could be behaviors that you see that would be in the simpler version age that you wouldn't have any enforcement ability over. So I think writing kind of the rules of the road. And I think in the education, and I'm not exactly sure how we do this or if there are companies out there that actually, you know, would any of these young riders, probably some of the older riders could use it as well, have classes. I know if you have a driver's license and you want to ride a motorcycle, you need that motorcycle endorsement. Is there any kind of thing that anybody in the state is working on in relation to that?

That I'm aware of currently, no. Really, in the grand scheme of things, the scooters have been around for a while, but the e-bikes, which are capable of greater speeds and I think are... probably a bigger danger, ultimately. They're still relatively new. I mean, it's just within the last few years that you've started to see more and more of them operating on the streets and the sidewalks and in public areas. So as I was saying, to my knowledge, there is no rider education program or course for e-bikes at this time.

Thank you for that. Council President, what are your thoughts on the ordinance before us?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Anytime we've been presented with the potential for new ordinance that will be enforced by the police department, my first question would be what their preference would be. But I think maybe the more complete and detailed would be a better option, but I would actually want to hear what is more enforceable or what would help enforcement rather than pick it myself because I don't know how that'll be to enforce. And the other point I just wanted to make is I'm trying to picture the complications and challenges of enforcement with individuals who are on speeding vehicles that can maneuver Are we getting into potential chase situations? I mean, obviously not. I mean, I'm sure the answer is no, but that's probably only one element of challenge with enforcement or even just engagement in education. I was wondering, thinking more kind of along the lines of what Councilor Bright was thinking of, an opportunity for youth to engage in something that's positive, even like I'm thinking of some kind of a skills competition or e-bike rodeo kind of, I don't know. I know that bicycle, what is the bicycle safety event? What is that called? The bike rodeo. Okay. And isn't that to educate and talk about safety?

It is. And actually, now that you're talking about it, it does make sense to expand that just with, you know, as many e-bikes as we see on the road these days. It would make sense to expand into the e-bike realm.

Yeah. I'm trying to think of something that will be engaging. I mean, I've worked in schools all my career, and that is the trick, is to engage people in something that they want to participate in, about learning, in this case, safety, which can save lives, honestly. I mean, not to be too dire about it, but I think we're talking about the possibility of... accidents happening that can be pretty severe, potentially. I have also seen lots of riders without any protection gear, including a helmet, although at least sometimes they're wearing a helmet, but just a helmet if you're on a bicycle speeding along that's basically a motorcycle. The injury is concerning to me. So anything we could do to encourage, and rather than the other end, which is enforcing, and then talk about engaging parents. How do we engage the parents when we're talking about the younger, especially the younger kids? And I'm open to ideas. I don't have any myself.

Well, so to answer your first question, we would favor the more comprehensive ordinance as far as. I think this is something that's going to evolve over time. We have our plan and it's flexible. We can adjust it as necessary to help us achieve the desired goal, which is to educate folks on the operation of these things and the dangers that could come about as a result of unsafe operations of those devices and just making... making the streets safer for both motorists, pedestrians, and the folks who are operating those devices legally.

Yes. I actually have a friend who had her little dog passed away. He was older, but she would walk her dog in the park at Fields Bridge Park. Fields Bridge is one of these parks that may feel a little bit more remote, so it might feel a bit more tempting to just treat it like it's a little back road. And so I would often see e-bikes going really fast on these paths. And this lady and her little dog, who was hard of hearing because he was older, would wander out in front potentially of one of these bikes whizzing by and nothing ever happened, but she was afraid. She stopped wanting to go walk her dog in the park because she didn't want something to happen. So we don't know how many times that's happening, but we certainly don't want people to not feel safe for instance, walking their dog because they're afraid of e-bikes. And that's one of the things I'd like to somehow figure out, how we can help make the community more safe and welcoming at the same time. Because the reality is e-bikes are here to stay, I'm sure. And we want them to be used. I think they're handy. They're a very useful tool for independence and kids getting to where they need to go. But they can also be used in a not so thoughtful way, I think. I don't think kids are intending on, of course, they're not setting out to make people scared. They're just not really aware maybe of what the impact is.

I just had an idea when you, the last two counselor comments about education, because that is a really important component. And I thought about, you know, what are events that could touch a lot of people, a lot of families, and like we have the old time fair coming up. You know, if the police had a separate booth and it was e-bike, e-scooter rules, you know, and you have like kids have to provide the right answer, get a little prize or something like that just to engage students. Young people with officers and walking away understanding now these cannot be ridden on the sidewalks and all the rules and the ways in which either them or their parents could be sighted if they're not following the rules. So we encourage their use in a safe manner. I agree they're very handy in Westland with the topography we have for young people to be able to get around. And I think PD's push is really just to ensure everyone's safety.

Definitely. Thank you for that.

Thank you, everybody. I agree with the more comprehensive approach. I mean, I don't think it makes sense to have only an age restriction, but then not be able to address things like aggressive, intimidating, or reckless behavior towards pedestrians or cyclists, which is probably the number one complaint that we hear about. A couple comments. One, I think the school year is going to end pretty soon, and then if we're wrapping up the education campaign, I think it might need to be extended a little bit just because if school ends and then we just adopt the ordinance and start issuing citations, I think that defeats the purpose of education. So maybe we could extend that out a month after we, I mean, is this going to be an emergency ordinance?

It's actually not, which is why it is. It feels a little fast track, but we're bringing it to you today at the work session. And then, um, based on your feedback here, which sounds pretty supportive and that the ordinance wouldn't change that much, we would bring it back to next week's business meeting to enact. And then it would go in effect 30 days later. So it wouldn't be until about mid July that it would actually be in effect.

So you could have a 30-day kind of education campaign and things, and that would be great. But the other thing is just I'm curious about from an enforcement standpoint. It looks like things get much more complicated after January 1, 2027. And I just like how we can tell if somebody is 14 or 16 years of age or whether they're riding a Class 1 or Class 2 or Class 3 e-bike. That's a complicated enforcement situation. So I don't know how we can – plan for that. We just want to keep people safe. That's the whole purpose is we want people to be able to ride their e-bikes and get around like everybody said. This is kind of a public safety measure where I think the enforcement will be focused on people who are creating a danger for themselves or others. That came to my mind looking at how complex it's going to get after. I don't know if there's any thoughts on that.

As far as the age is concerned Yeah, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, as you said. And it wouldn't necessarily be, hey, that person looks like they're underage and shouldn't be operating that. It would be their behavior, how they're operating that device that would get the police attention and warrant a contact from us at that point.

And then I've learned that most young people do tell their age, so please stop first. Some of us, how do you know? Well, it's pretty intimidating when you're pulled over, so they usually provide their information is my understanding.

And I guess you'd have to have some ways to tell what type of e-bike it is.

Yeah, I mean, the definitions looked confusing to me at first, and then the more I read them, like a Class 1 e-bike is really a pedal assist, and so it doesn't propel forward on its own. Those were kind of the first generation, and then you get Class 2 e-bike, which is one where you don't have to be pedaling at all. and you're pushing on the throttle and it's driving. And then the third class, it's more about how fast it can go. So, yes.

That's great. I've heard four comments so far. I'm going to go to Councillor Bonneton now.

I have to say that this is one of the issues I hear the most about and the most passionately about. People are really concerned about this. And they're really concerned that someone's going to be hurt or killed. And that may not necessarily just be the kid riding. It may be a pedestrian. I can't count how many times I've nearly been mowed down by someone going way too fast through the Safeway parking lot, for instance. It is really concerning. And right around this time of year, in the last two weeks or so, you really see people noticing that again as these start coming out. I would be hard pressed to believe that more than a very tiny percentage of the kids with these purchase them themselves. And that is why I think it's very important that the parents are held accountable for the behavior of them giving them these vehicles in the first place and not putting sufficient restrictions on them or enforcing the law themselves. I think that's where it really starts and the police should be the second line of defense there. Um, but because of how serious this is and how many injuries have occurred around the country, the fact that I've heard at least five examples in the last two years of a kid getting hit by a car, getting up and saying, I'm okay. And then writing off because they didn't want to get in trouble here in Westland. Uh, I really worry about what could potentially happen in the next few months. And so for that reason, I would actually be supportive of making this an emergency ordinance and getting it in place faster. I want to give you guys as many tools as you need to be able to do this successfully this summer. So that would be my hope. But I would also ask if there's anything else that you feel would be useful that this doesn't include.

Off the top of my head, no. I think it's important to get into motion, though, and get to where we're getting folks educated on this, and if necessary, the enforcement piece of it as well. But I think it's important to do something.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. And so I think having it in effect earlier allows you to have a broader set of tools in the toolbox to use for that. Even if the intent isn't to start really cracking down with the enforcement early, it's still an option, I guess I would say, and that's useful. And I know for a fact that people really want us to do something, even if they understand that this is already regulated by state law. So I think that kind of serves that purpose.

well counselor bonington has put a amendment on the table a little bit to uh on the emergency ordinance piece so we can discuss that if anybody has any thoughts i mean i'm certainly open to it my my concern is just making sure that that it's not an immediate enforcement situation for the the people who aren't violating like who aren't engaging in egregious behavior out in the community you know i just want to make sure there's an education component on that first.

It wouldn't be. We're not itching to go out there and write a bunch of citations for this. If we could get this completely solved through the education piece, even if it has to be extended through the middle of July, that's the objective, is to get people educated and have the violations not occur at all.

Appreciate that. I know that's everybody's approach down at the police department, so I'm open to either If a majority of council wants to make an emergency ordinance, we can do that. Councilor Groner, what are your thoughts?

Yes, I did a little search, and one of the things I discovered was that Bend has basically banned all throttle-assisted Class 2 e-bikes from parks and nature trails. So the nature trails are pretty narrow and not long sight lines in many of them, and so those could be a danger for fast-moving bike and pedestrians.

Any other thoughts on the emergency clause, 30 days versus making it effective next week if we've passed?

I don't think we need to do it as an emergency ordinance. I don't see an immediate emergency, and I appreciate if any of our police force sees egregious, dangerous behavior, those people can be stopped and talked to and cited if necessary. even before this ordinance is in place because of state laws that exist.

Yeah, I would say per section 34 of our charter, it specifically defines what you have to do to have an ordinance take emergency effect. And that includes a statement of explanation regarding the basis for the declaration of emergency. And I think that's a little challenging to do for this, although it is a really important issue. It's not one that I would normally consider to meet that definition. But if you don't mind, I still have two more things I want to discuss with you before we move on. So one piece is because we are planning to bring this to you at the next business meeting, that does mean it needs to be posted by tomorrow, to be posted for seven days. Kristen and I will go back, taking what we heard today, and do any final tweaks. One thing I do think we will change is Section 6, enforcement and penalties. I think we need to be more clear on what the fine amount will be. for each area. We originally have in here section B, each violation constitutes a class D violation. And after we've done some more research, it is clear that there are presumptive fines in state law for not wearing a helmet, whether you're a minor or a parent or legal guardian of a minor. And I wouldn't want to go awry of those presumptive fines in state law. So what we'll probably do for clarity is just have the fine under each regulatory section. So like the fine for age violation, fine for protective headgear violation, to make that more clear. But that moves into a different question. So one thing that we discussed, especially with the chief, is that under state law, the presumptive fine for... Endangering a motor assisted, again, this is scooters. Scooters is much more clearly defined. Endangering a motor assisted scooter operator is $25. So this is a citation for the parents who allow their child that's under 16 to ride the bike. There's also similar ones for not wearing a helmet. But we discussed the trouble with $25 not really being a deterrent. In fact, you may add up four violations over the summers, $100. And so we were curious if you had any appetite for something else that may discourage behavior. I don't think we have a lot of wiggle room there with the dollar amount of the fine, but what you will see in the enforcement section is that we are requiring if a minor is cited that their parent or legal guardian must appear with them in court. They will appear before our municipal judge, who's pretty stern and also will provide education to both the minor and the parent. But we were wondering, this is my fifth question, what you would think about requiring parents And so maybe that would... help I do know that under state law there are certain violations that do require appearance you can't just pay them online or over the phone like we do here and so it's curious what you thought about that I I wonder who who the parent will be calling

here at City Hall to complain about that. Inevitably, who are they going to call to try to get out of that requirement? Honestly, I don't know what the process is for a person who's required to appear, who doesn't want to appear.

Well, and there are other traffic violations under state law. If you're required to appear, it says so on the ticket. And that is serious. You must appear. There isn't really a waiver of that. You can have things set aside.

It's worth considering, I definitely think. Especially if we're talking about, unfortunately, the reality I'm sure is that sometimes parents are buying these scooters for There are minor children who aren't even of a legal age to be operating them. I mean, ideally that's not happening, but probably it is. So having a parent need to stand in front of the municipal judge and talk about that choice might be a good deterrent.

Thank you for that. I'm seeing nods. Councillor Groner had a thumb up.

I agree. I think it's a good deterrent. It forces the parents to think about it at least for an hour or so.

Councillor Bonnington.

Yeah, I'd be a big fan of that. I think it's a unique... a uniquely creative way of addressing this within the confines of what we have available. Would the officer be able to use their discretion about requiring that, or would that just be a blanket requirement with every citation issued?

The way I was proposing would be it would be for every citation issued to the parent or legal guardian, so it would be in the sections that apply to them that they must appear.

Okay. I guess I would be supportive if it's possible to allow the officer to have discretion in that. There may be situations where that's not necessary, but it is necessary to find them. I don't know. One question I have is if a kid is stopped with one of these, What happens after they're sighted? Do they just ride home? What happens?

No, if they stop riding one of those devices, the ideal outcome would be able to reach out to a parent or somebody who could come and pick the child and the device up and get them back home. Or find someone who's of age and has the correct equipment and everything and can operate it and get the vehicle back If absolutely necessary, and we don't have a tremendous capacity to store a bunch of scooters and e-bikes at the PD, but if we had to, we could take them into safekeeping and tell said parent or person who's able to operate them legally could come and get the e-scooter or bike.

Okay. I guess I view that as another version of the same deterrent if they have to go pick up the e-bike or the e-scooter. But either way, I think... the majority of the community will look at this and agree with the concept of really making the parents accountable for it because they really are behind what's going on. They really do make that decision to give the kid one of these and let them ride it all around town. So I'm definitely in support of that.

Thank you. Counselor, any other thoughts on that issue? I'm fine with the proposed language in there. So trusting the experts on this topic and parents start calling, then we'll deal with it then. Councilor Baumgartner.

I just wanted to ask about the emergency aspect of it. I wanted to weigh in that I don't think it needs to be an emergency ordinance at this point. And I think I'd rather spend a little more time being able to get it right. I know that we have to have it by what time or when?

We actually have it. We post it at 5 o'clock tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Okay. I was kind of intrigued about the information about trails.

That's a good point. That is something that we don't address in this ordinance.

And maybe we don't need to address it yet because this is more about... how someone's riding and who they are rather than where they are?

Yeah, this was crafted to address the problems that PD brought directly to me. They said they actually didn't cite as many complaints about riding through our parks and things like that. And like any other local law we enact, you could enact a subsequent ordinance that adds a section if you wanted to.

i i don't want to jump to the next thing if we're not even needing to deal with that at this point so i mean i'm sorry go ahead bike riding in parks has been a complaint for years as you know on trails there's been issues before mostly with non-motorized you know mountain bikes in parks for example on the single track trails i didn't quite pull it up as you were talking but we also have park rules have less of a force of law, but we should check how our park rules address bikes and then consider that issue. I like adding that issue in perhaps at a later date.

Okay, yeah, I had someone actually out in public and at this moment, I can't remember where I was or who the person was, but it might have been at the Bolton, goodbye to Bolton event that I went to because I actually went to graduate from eighth grade at Bolton myself. But someone specifically walked up to me and said, thank you so much for making Wilderness Park safer. for my grandkids because there was, I guess, a lot of people. And I'm sorry for people who enjoy trail riding in Wilderness Park, but the fact of the matter is it's not conducive to people walking on the trails. So anyway, it makes a difference, the things that we decide. And so I was...

glad to be able to hear that was a result so this is another concern then thank you council president counselor groener final thoughts yeah i'm part of a walking group at the adult center and we walk a lot of the trails uh and we not sure if it was a motorized bike or not but several times uh high-speed bikes have gone by and a lot of our people are not that steady on their feet and it could lead to an accident Thank you. I'd like to see that incorporated.

That's one where I'd prefer to study a little more, kind of the ramifications of that issue of, Mary, you brought this up, Council Gruner also, so I'd like to maybe take a little time to dive into that particular issue because that could come with some other ramifications. I certainly want people to be able to experience our parks, and we all do, but at the same time, Maybe there are some places where that's not so safe.

Okay. At least speed limits of some kind.

So with that, we can bring this back for post-it and then bring it back for discussion at the business meeting.

Okay. Sounds great. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for the time that both of you and also Chief Rollins put into this topic. We, of course, appreciate it. It was recently National Police Week. We appreciate all that everybody does down there to keep the community safe.

Thank you.

And with that, we can go to City Manager Report to close us out.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things real quick. Upcoming meetings, obviously your next gathering is on Thursday night, State of the City. Each of you will be doing a portion of the show, and I appreciate your... Your work, Mayor, especially putting thought and care into that and thinking about city issues but also community issues and having it be a gathering moment should be good. Six o'clock at the library on Thursday. Next meeting after that, next week, June 9th, we will bring back this ordinance for consideration. Also on the 9th, we have the annual fees and charges. consideration and the community grant awards plus Steve Cooper planning staff will be here with the planning docket conversation your second work session in June is the 16th all police lots of police good police recognition will have some life-saving awards at that event and a discussion of police reaccreditation which is always a good one and We'll also perhaps hopefully be having that continued discussion on city facilities code of conduct that I mentioned under city manager report last time. Rules and standards, guidelines for behavior on city property and city buildings. And I'll also be doing an update on Council priorities, which we haven't done in a little while, your annual priorities, what's happening with each of those. So that's your June schedule. Today you asked us to do more research on the CAG group quorum issue, and we'll do some of that and maybe connect with a couple of you on the research questions. I already mentioned we'll bring back the ordinance that you just discussed with the changes or with the decisions made. I do want to note on the calendar of the proclamations you issued, and several of you mentioned this, the Lamprey Festival on the 25th, the Pollinator events also on the 25th, so you can make a full date of events. The timeline works out great. I also do want to call attention to that presentation at the library on June 15th related to Juneteenth. This is the Oregon's Black History, 450 Years of Oregon Black History in 45 Minutes. That's at 6 PM at the library on the 15th. Should be a really good event. Actually, lots of cool stuff happening at the library this month, all sorts of interesting author talks, gathering events, so they're really killing it at the library right now, a lot of good stuff, although we will be moving primarily into outdoor season now with this weather upon us.

So that is all I wanted to cover today.

Thank you for your work today, and that's all I have for now.

Anything else for the good of the hour? Councillor Bonnington.

I have something fun I just wanted to plug a little bit. On the famous Westland community Facebook page, I have started a fun little game. Some of you may have seen a Reddit contest that was actually in the Oregonian last week where they pitted all 50 states against each other and Oregon ended up winning. So that was surprising. So what I've done is I've taken all of our parks, and we're having a parks elimination contest, and I've split them into five different categories, and each one is open for three days of voting, and then they move on to a second round, and then a final round where one v. one. Right now in the first round, it looks like Cedar Island and Cedar Oak Boat Ramp combined as one park, and then Westbridge Park and McLean House are going to advance. So... Voting ends on that tonight. Love to see as much participation in that as possible because it's fun and has absolutely no purpose.

So the parks won't be eliminated, which everyone loses. They will be sold to developers. No. Thank you. Great. Thank you for that update. And Council President Baumgartner.

Almost forgot to mention that I will be going to this C4 retreat with Steve Koper and going to be learning more about what's going on in the county. County-wide leaders and staff will be attending at Welch's. So that'll be fun. Thank you for that. Thanks for attending.

Always a good event and of course every year we send out an email and counselors can So if you're interested in going next year, we'll get you up to the Welch's retreat. With that, seeing no other business, we are adjourned until Thursday at the State of the City.