City Council - Regular Meeting

going to call the uh Monday, November 24th edition of the Hermiston City Council and Urban Renewal Agency to order with a declaration of a quorum. We appear to be missing Ms. Meyer, Miss Littton, and at this time, Mr. Baron. Uh, would you please rise and help me with the flags? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat]

All right. Fair warning to all. Uh been sick the last four days, so uh head's a little fuzzy. If I'm a little out of sorts, please forgive. Uh, Mr. City Manager, do we have any changes to the agenda? Oh, yeah. Nice. It's been frozen. Dandy. All right. Uh, presentations. First off, uh, presentation from the facebased advisory committee on food insecurity information. Good evening. My name is Dan Mayhan. I serve as the uh chairperson on the faith-based advisory committee. Uh thank you for this time and opportunity to share with you. Council member Hayward encouraged us to update you just on some recent developments. Uh earlier this month in November uh 4th, the uh first Tuesday of the month, we held a uh lunch gathering which we've been doing over the last couple of years, once a quarter or so, just trying to get ministries, uh churches, businesses, organizations that serve in the area of food insecurity here in Hermiston together for encouragement, for networking, for uh really awareness of what each other are doing and how we can better serve in this area. And as many of you know, or I assume probably most of us know, uh the timing of this was was very apt as we were facing the SNAP crisis and and things were unclear at that point. Um, and we had our largest gathering uh to date with 18

different organizations or churches represented. nine churches and nine different organizations in town, including um the Oregon Department of Human Services, as well as Agape House, a Valkyrie, Stepping Stones, um the community counseling, uh services, Made to Thrive, um we had some folks from the city there, as well as the uh Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ, their bishop's house, And then we had churches represented from New Hope to the Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church uh the Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ, Oasis Vineyard, Solid Rock Community Church, Zeal, First Christian, Templope, Espironza Yammore, and the Hermaz Church. So we had a very diverse group and it had a lot of energy, a lot of connections and a lot of sharing of what was already being done. And then we had an update and I'm going to have in a couple minutes uh Mark uh from Agape House just share a little bit of what they've been seeing. It was great for us all to hear what they're seeing on the ground at the food pantries. And just a quick update even since then talking with a Valkyrie and their pantry. I don't know if you know they they once a month are doing a pantry. They served over 600 individuals this month. That was a 300% increase from prior months. And so there's a there's a need that is present. A couple of exciting things that came out of that lunch um and out of further conversations is that there is a group uh e a wide multi-ecumenical group of volunteers uh from multiple churches as well as others in the city

working together to try and start a Friday lunch for those in need to add to the existing three other meals available. um two lunches and one dinner that are currently being served on Monday, Wednesday afternoons and then Thursday evening. Um so that's being worked on by a couple different groups. Also, one thing that came out of from the uh youth advisors is at our faith-based meeting, the youth adviserss were there this month. We got to talk with them and and ended up that one of the adviserss brought her uh FCCLA club and they helped at Oasis Vineyard to repack 740 pounds of rice and beans, macaroni and oatmeal to take to agape house and a Valkyrie for food distribution for those in need and um supplement those things that that were there. Um, we've also seen an increase in churches doing food drives to help support those and just a a broader increase of others wanting to be on the mailing list for uh our next gathering and and updates of of what's happening in in that context. So, um, we wanted to yeah give you that update. Mark, do you want to just come and share a little bit from Agape House and what you guys are seeing in that context?

Sure. Good evening, Mayor City. Welcome, sir.

Uh, as you know, I'm Mark Kamolski. I am the executive director of Eastern Oregon Mission, which takes care of Martha's House and the Agapy House. Well, I can tell you about six months ago, we were notified by CAPCO that the supplies that we are usually getting from CAPO on a monthly basis will be diminishing every single month. And it has. Uh over a year ago, we would get two and a half pages worth of items to check off of what we could use. Uh as of right now, we get a page and a quarter. It is a huge drop. There are many times that we do not get some basic foods that we'll have to purchase, which is rice and beans, a normal staple, spaghetti sauce. We are now currently, and I don't have the November numbers because those are not in yet, but as of October, we were doing over a thousand families a month, which regulates to about 4,000 people a month. We also do about 250 homeless people a month. And we are currently also doing the uh students with the backpack program which is 275 students that are combined on a weekly basis that we put together and we have gotten some increase in that because of some of the students that are families whose SNAP benefits were cut and they couldn't get a lot of the stuff that they could get for their normal family uh meals. So, we can say that right now I have contacted uh a state representative Greg Smith who's who actually came and met with us and then went back to Salem and had a meeting and we did a virtual meeting uh with Zoom with the people from the Oregon Food Bank, from Capco, from uh other different organizations and then also for the state representative to hear what I'm telling you now. uh the

demand is high as and has increased. We've seen an increase especially with seniors that cannot make that last week's worth of uh money that they get on a monthly basis stretch. They tell me multiple times in the last week, do I buy my medicine? Do I pay a bill? Or do I buy food? We've actually even heard the stories of people buying dog food to eat because it was cheaper. and god forbid we never want to see that happen again. Uh we've had more veterans that are living on a fixed income in the same manner. When we talk about the SNAP program that was discontinued earlier part of this month, I can tell you that we opened up on a Tuesday. I'm usually there at 7. The doors open at 9. At 800 a.m. we had over 20 vehicles with families waiting outside. Wow. That first week we had people we had to turn away at the end of the day because the lines were still that long. And you got to remember a gapy house is run by volunteers and just a few paid staff. So when it's time to close those doors, those volunteers are ready to go. And I can't ask them to stay longer. I just can go out there and say, you know, please come back tomorrow. And they did. And again, they were there an hour before we open. So, we've done the best we can and we will continue to do our best. We are hoping that with the state representatives office and the Oregon food bank that heard from me the other day that they can look into getting more supplies because we are almost like the bread basket bread basket out here in the east where we grow so many products but then it's transported to Portland and then Portland transports it back here. Well, there's many times that when we get those products brought back here,

they're spoiled or they're rotting and we have to throw that away. Uh I am the first one to say I try not to throw anything away. So, what we've done is we've contacted a local par uh pig fam farmer and he gets the the food that has gone bad or bread that has gone green and he can use that. So, we really try not to waste anything. But again, uh, with the help of Oasis Church, bagging rice and beans when we needed it most was a great help. We have when we had this meeting together with the churches and the organizations. I wasn't alone in in telling stories like this, but we all knew that it was hurting each and every one of us and every se segment of the population. So, we were trying to just devise things, say, "You got more flour and I have more beans or something. Let's just swap to make sure it works. Get it, you know, to get uh to the food where it's needed the most." So, we're hoping that the Oregon Food Bank with the help of the state will increase their a lotment to give us more. We have been contacted by local churches and civic organizations and also kids groups at the high schools to do food drives in the next couple weeks and we're hoping to get that done. A member of our board uh is also trying to get together and have a stuff the bus event in the later part of of December and as soon as I know more about that we can inform you. But just letting you know that uh the need is great and the the resources are dwindling, but you should know about this. Do you have any questions?

Council H. Um thank you for letting us know about this and everything. Um what could businesses do to help or and get a hold of you guys to help you guys? Um and call us. see if if you guys can if they can do a food drive. I do know that Rogers, uh, Toyota, Subaru, and GM have each did a food drive these last two weeks and have brought in canned goods and things that we need. Uh, and if they a company needs to know what we need, just call me and we'll answer those questions and tell you what our needs are. So I

I just wanted to say one other thing um in that regard is uh over the last couple years we actually developed a a joint website that's called feed hermistston.org and so you can spread that out to people and that communicates where there are services that they can go and get food. And so the more people know about that, the more then they can direct people for where those resources might be or partners uh that they could bring food to and and partner with us. Also, if somebody wants to be a part of the mailing list of our food insecurity gatherings, they could email me at oasis hermistston umgmail.com and I can add them to that list, to that mailing list, and we can keep them updated. We're just trying to build community and connection so that we can all better serve our neighbors and those in need. Uh the only other last thing I'd like to leave you with is I have Robert Loria right here. He is our new president of Eastern Oregon Mission. Uh he was just elected a couple weeks ago. So I'll be working closely with him and reaching out more to the community. Thank you again.

Well, thank you. I appreciate appreciate your uh information. And this is, you know, I your hard work that you're providing to the community with uh all this is is to be above and beyond commended. Um and to reiterate that's feed heriston.org. [snorts] Okay. So then that and that's to receive services and Yeah. both goes both ways.

All right. Perfect. All right. Any other council comments, questions? All right. Well, again, thank you, gentlemen. [snorts] Uh, next up is uh presentation by Mr. Smith on the My Hermiston app. This is going to be uh by Daniel Watenberger. Hey, good evening, Mayor and City Council. Thanks for having me tonight. I'm Daniel Watenberger with PAC West. I'm the communications consultant for the city. I'm going to walk you through the new app tonight. Um, do you guys have the app? Who's got a couple? All right. I see some names. I don't see all the names. So, I know if you've registered on the app. I don't know if you've downloaded it. So, we launched My Hermiston in November this month. And, um, we've had about 210 people that have downloaded it and about 50 people have created an account on it. Uh we're going to kind of continue for six months promoting out what the app does and and and getting as many people on it as we can. Um it's a really one of the reasons the city decided to go with this app is it's really about two-way communication. So it has the ability to submit requests, contact the city, but it also has a way for the city to reach back out through the app and and connect residents. And so we'll talk about that a little bit. So tonight I'm just going to walk you through, if you haven't played around with it a little bit, how the app works um and and then how kind of what's happening simultaneously on the back end for the city uh as these requests come in. So um first of all, it's available on the app store and Google Play. So pretty simple. If you've downloaded an app before, all you do is type in either Herman or my Hermiston. It'll be the first one that pops up uh with the Hermaniston logo on it. And we're and we have uh right now a few more people on the on the iPhone that have downloaded it than the other, but it's available both places. Um and then once you open

the app, the first thing you'll see there is the image, the banner image, and then start request. And then down below that, there's some menu items that just connect directly to the city website. So the app is kind of a one-stop shop. If you're if you're there, it'll it'll let you get to pay your bill, ask questions, look at some of the departments, look at calendars, those kinds of things. But really, the reason the city has this app is for this request. uh process here. So, you go to it, the big button there, start request. It's going to immediately ask you to create an account. Um the reason to create an account is pretty simple. It's just first name, last name, email, and a password. So, it's not asking for any more detailed information from you. Um but the reason to create an account is then you're able to track your requests after you file them and get updates as those things are are done. So, um you can skip you don't have to create an account. You can put something in anonymously, but the value of the app really is to is to have a account on it. Um, so then you'll see a list of topics uh when you get to that next step once you have your account. Um, and it'll it'll range everything from water, street issues, parks and wreck, um, police, non-emergency type things. And there's also an other in case you don't see what you're looking for. So, you'll go through and select, say, this is a graffiti issue. You see some graffiti on your street. Um, you'll go and you click that and it'll say, "Okay, do you want to upload a photo?" So, you can either take a photo right there on the spot or if you've already taken one, maybe you've gone home, you can upload it from there. Um, photos very helpful to have because then when the the crew responds, whether it's a a street issue or or um or uh whatever the issue is, they can, you know, visually see what they're looking for when they get there. And then it asks for your location. You can type this in. It'll automatically, if you have your um if you have your location settings on on your phone, it'll put it right where you are. If again if you've gone home, you want to put it wherever you saw the issue you're reporting, you can drag it or type it in to do that. So the the app's then collecting this information about what what it looks like, what um where where

it is, and then this information. Then you'll have a screen where you type in what the issue is. So you say, I've seen some graffiti. It showed up this morning. And then you click submit. And this all goes to the city. And it and it uh goes then to depending on which department you've chosen. That's why you have to choose the department. It'll send it to that person that's responsible for responding. You'll get a notice on your phone there that says um it's been submitted um what your request number is. Um you don't have to remember that. It'll it'll it'll be saved for you, but um it'll it'll let you know. It'll and and then on the back end, the person on the city side is seeing, okay, a request has come in. So then they go out and they um send someone out to go look at it depending on what the request is, what their process is, and they'll they'll um go go take a look at it. And the next step is now you're able to go back and see the status of this request. So back on the main screen of the app, um on the left hand side, you can do track requests. And when you click on that, it'll show up all the requests that you have submitted. So you'll see there's two there. one that's been closed already. So, one that you've made the request, the city crews gone out, responded, said, "Okay, we've looked at this." Um, the one you've just filed is still open and you can go look at this at any time. Um, whether it's been closed or open, you can go back and look at it. Um, so you can look at what the updates are. This one doesn't have anything yet, but if uh say the the code enforcement officer goes and takes a look and says, "Oh, look, yeah, there there's graffiti here." and then that they'll type in, okay, we're thank you for letting us know we're responding to this. They go through their process. Maybe there's an investigation, whatever there may be that the um the city crew will respond in through the app, but when they type things in, you'll see it on this end. So, um and then once that the um issue is closed by the city, you'll get a notification on your phone saying this issue has been closed and you can um

kind of see any conversation that went on that they had responded to you. um on the back end for what the city's looking at. They there's some internal conversations they can have. Maybe it it's a request that comes in from for one department, but they say this really isn't our issue. This is needs to be handed over there. They can share that around. Um so you're not going to see all that conversation, but you're going to see everything that's kind of outward facing for uh for the person that's making the request. So you can follow up your request, you'll get that notification. Um I just wanted to point this out too. uh the app on on the phone is makes a lot more sense because you can you know file a file a request right when you're you know at a park you see an issue you're in the street you see an issue but there is a desktop portal as well at hermistston.govmy /myhermiston. You can go and type in uh your request there. Same thing happens. Um goes to the same place. It's just you don't have the ability then to follow up later. You can sign in on this this one with the account you've created on the app. Um if you if you're just if if you're at home and want to do it that way. Um I will say the phone the phone app is a little bit easier to use just because it's kind of designed for that. But but both work. So, that's kind of the the incoming uh that's the process for submitting a request. Have you guys played with that? Do you have any questions about how how that part of it works or what happens on the city's side? All right. Okay. No, it's uh I've I've had chance to use it a little bit. uh haven't had any a need to put anything into it, but uh

that seemed pretty pretty uh I don't want to say basic because that, you know, makes it seem Yeah, it's Yeah, it's it's it seems very very simple to use and it's I think it's a great tool for us and I applaud you guys for getting that working.

Yeah. So, yeah, very few bells and whistles and that's on purpose. So, um, and now for just a couple minutes on on the other side of we haven't rolled this part out yet. We're we're ready to though is the the other the uh um the notification process. So, once you have a an account there, um you can set up and and and set up notifications to receive on your phone. And so, same thing on the lefth hand side when you open the app um there's a notifications bar. When you click on that, it'll show all the notifications you received. At this point, it says nothing. The city hasn't started sending those out there yet. Um but on the upper right hand corner if you go to settings you can choose which notifications you receive. So to start the city has these these two options um city events and traffic alerts. So traffic alerts would be pretty much major construction. So when Garen Harper gets underway next next year some point we'll we'll send out a notification when that happens just so people know to avoid the area. You know we have those those big projects. Um probably not used for short-term traffic. if there's a traffic jam, we're not going to try to alert everyone about that. Not not useful. Um, we can also based on where people have set up their account, uh, we can alert people in a certain area. That's probably more for larger cities, but it is available. Uh, the city events is more for things like, uh, city chats when those come up quarterly. um city events that are like the um we're not going to do one for this year's tree lighting I don't believe but but those types of events as the city kind of develops a policy on how often they want to be communicating with people but we do have the ability to do that so if there's major city festivals those kinds of events we can alert people you know a week or two in advance just so they know something's coming up and they can always go in and say I don't want to get that on my phone they can opt out of the city events um but it gives us the ability to to just kind of communicate more directly with people as they sign up so we'll probably um do a little work through the newsletter to let people know how this works and how they can opt in and out to make sure people are just getting what they want because you know we all get a lot of alerts on our phone we don't want sometimes. So making sure we're not

we're giving the people the option to to get these without kind of forcing it on them. So yeah and that's the how the other end of it works. So any questions about the notification system? U one question I have I'm looking through our city website right now. Will this be on the website instead of them have to remember my heristant?

Yeah, so it's in the news section right now. So if you go down to the news, it's also and I'm forgetting which menu it is at the top. It is on in one of the menu options. Um I'm having trouble visualizing the website right now. So um it isn't. Again, the goal is to have people have the app and not necessarily go through the desktop, but there will always be a link to get to it through there. Any others? Well, looks like you got off easy on this one. Well, it's an easy app. So, yeah. No, I question I'd be doing I'm looking forward to being able to tell folks, you know, if they have questions or they, you know, have issues. Yeah.

And being able to report something or, you know, wanting a better and easier process that, you know, this is the a super easy way to go. Yeah. And please do spread the word as you guys talk to people and they they ask, "How can I get in touch with the city?" This is going to be the easiest way to do it. So, okay. Thank you, sir. Oh, I had a not a question on notification, just an app question. Sure. Um, I'm just curious if we've received any feedback from users since um we've released the app about any features they wish had been implemented that we are now working on.

We haven't. No, I haven't. I don't know if we No, just going to shake there. So, I don't think we have. Um, again, just came out this this last last about three weeks ago. And so, um, probably once people have kind of settled in and we continue to promote it, we'll probably do a survey just ask if if you've downloaded the app, if so, what's your experience like? Anything you'd like to see? Um, the company is very, um, yeah, been very good to work with and helped us get it up pretty quick. So, thank you.

All right. Thanks, sir. All right. Uh, [sighs] next up is citizen input on non-aggenda items. Anyone wishing to bring anything before the council that is not on the agenda is asked to please do the following. Limit your comments to not more than five minutes. State your name and address for the record and direct your comments to me. As such, anybody wishing to come forward. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Luke Dyn. Uh own business is here in town for I don't know 25 years or so. Um, I've had a lot of questions lately about the recycling thing. We're in the recovery business for animal feed. We take food back to animal feed, working with the county to put in a compost yard between Hermiston and Pendleton. Um, we have public meeting tomorrow in Pendleton if anybody wants to come. Um, but with talking to the employees and everything, I they just asked that I kind of look it over and see what the thoughts were and what their increases. And so I had a few questions I sent in on the other meeting, but there wasn't public comment. So, um, I was just curious with Pendleton now getting bought by sanitary.

Hold on one sec. Yep. Now, this is for non-aggenda items there. We do have we do have stuff on the uh on the recycle stuff. That one I didn't. So, yeah, if you want to bring that up, then that would be that. Yeah. So, just basically just want to let everybody know that we're going to do that organics. if you guys want to come look at that. It'll be out off exit 193 working with DEEQ and uh the county to get that compost permit put in. So, okay, perfect. Thanks, Chris. You bet. Look forward to you here in a few minutes. All right. Any other non-aggenda items?

Welcome.

Hi. Um, I'm Rose Thomas. Um, I live an 83 West Cherry. I live next door to the Coolies and we're back to this situation. I've been fighting with you guys for 5 years about this house. I just I've had meetings with you guys privately. I'm at a point to where I don't know what needs to be done, but something's got to be done because now it's becoming more than a nuisance to me. I'm tired of my peace being disturbed. I called you guys last week a couple times. Um, I'm over it. I've been dealing with it for 5 years. I'm 59 years old. I'm disabled. I'm tired. And I want to know what are you guys going to do? At what point do I need to try to find somebody who would be willing to take my case on to come against my own city because you guys aren't doing anything to help me. This house is getting worse and worse by the day. I deal with it in the summer. I've seen fights. I've seen people stabbed. I've seen you name it, I have seen it and nothing's going on. So now they're running a homeless camp in the back and I don't want to put nobody out of their home. That's not what I'm about. But you are not equipped. Chris and nobody else over there is equipped to run a homeless camp. It's getting disgusting over there. You've got tents. You name it. It's getting worse by the day. I told my sister, I go, "Did you look in that backyard?" And she's like, "No." I go, "You ought to see it. It is a wreck." And she goes, "Oh no, not again." I said, "Yep. Here we go." I said, "I have to deal with this in the summer. I have to deal with it in the winter." And I go and then this last weekend is when it really got out of hand because he called me out of my name. Now I don't cause no problems with this boy. Nobody over there. Like I told him, you keep that over there and leave me alone. I just want to be left alone. But when you call me a FNB, then

you've gone too far because what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to be disrespected. I'm not going to put up with it. And I've got too many family members that love me enough to where they're not going to let those people disrespect me because I don't do nothing to bother them. Okay. You've got 20 people living over in that house. It's mice infested. I've been told rat I meant um roach infested and bed bug infested. And I'm like, why isn't somebody doing something about this house? Why is it still standing? Why are they still there? Why is all this going on? I don't get it. It's the biggest trap house that everybody knows about. All hours of the night, you got people bringing. The other day, I'm seeing this guy out my window. I'm looking because I don't sleep good because of the traffic, a lawnmower. One guy was with a bike. Another guy had some other container. And I'm sitting there going, "Oh my god, here we go with stolen merchandise." Now, I can't prove it. I can't say it's stolen, but come on. At 3:00 in the morning, it's stolen. You ain't coming there packing stuff, carrying a bike, and then got another one if something ain't stolen. I mean, it's it's just becoming worse and worse and worse by the day. Now, somebody knocked on my door today. I went up. Hello. Can I help you? Oh, I just I'm from over next door. I just wanted to come over here and see if you're okay. Are you all right? I go, "Yeah, I'm fine." He goes, "All right. I just wanted to come check on you." And I said, "Okay, well, thank you." Now, I don't know this man from Adam. I shouldn't have actually opened up my door, but you know, I'm thinking it was a family member, so I I you know, I don't deal with those people. But anything could happen to me. And I've never met him. I've never seen him. But I'm like, why is he coming to my door? Like I told Chris, I don't come to your house. I don't bother you. I don't bother your friends. My company don't park in your yard. I said, but you've got people that think it's okay to park in my yard that I've had to tell them, "Get out of my yard. This is my yard. Why are you parked here?" Oh, I know

such and such and so and so. So, what does that got to do with me? Well, he's your family member. I said, but what does that got to do with my house? Well, I thought it would be okay if I parked here. No, it's not okay for you to park here. Are you visiting me or are you visiting next door? I'm visiting next door. I said, get your car out of my yard and go next door. I said, cuz I don't want that at my house. I don't want people to think that I've got drama going on over here. Park over there at his house. Then the other day, some guy got arrested. And I asked the officer, I said, well, tell me this. you know I live there. I said, "Every cop knows I live there." Why would you let that man park his motorcycle up on my yard, put his junk, his backpack, and leave everything in my yard? Why wouldn't you say, "Well, don't you think you better go knock on her door and see if it's okay?" Well, that's where he opted to park. I said, "Are you listening to me? You are a police officer. You know I live at that house. You know he wasn't visiting me." I said, ' So why would you let him park on my property? I said, 'I'm not going to be responsible for his motorcycle.' I said, 'If some I'm not going to have my homeowner's insurance pay for it if it gets hit or stolen or whatever. And he says, oh well, I left it right here. What happened to my stuff? Where's all my crap I left here? I said, I don't know that man. And so I had those guys come over from next door. I said, you come get this motorcycle off my property and you come get it right now. I said, because I don't know this man. He's your friend. Why is he parking in my yard? He visits you, not me.

And it's just getting to a point to where we got to do something about it. Premer, let's let's just let's get down to the brass knuckles. What are you guys going to do? We can't do anything about it as a city council, okay? It will be looked at. We'll bring it to the to the city manager, the police department, and the appropriate departments. We will talk to them about that. But as a city council, it's not something that we can, you know, we can't go over that house and and move everybody out. There is a a huge process that has to be gone through. Okay. I've heard this for 5 years. So, how long does the process take? 20 years. I don't have an answer for you.

Hell, half of us will be dead and buried by then. Is that how long it's going to take to get rid of this house? It's I mean, where's code enforcement? How come it's not getting cleaned up over there? It's a wreck. We don't currently have a code enforcement officer. So, I got to put up with this even worse using the bathroom outside and everything else. As I said, we're going to forward it to the to the appropriate divisions. And that's at this point in time, right now, at this moment, that's the best I can tell you. Mhm. And that's it. So, I got to keep putting up with what I'm putting up with.

So, at what point are you going to protect me? What point is the city of Heriston going to protect me? As I said, ma'am, that's what's being done. Okay. Well, let me put it to you like this. Let's hope and pray nothing happens to me. Okay. Agreed. That's all I'm going to say. And I'm not a threat. It's not a threat. It's a premise. Thank you, ma'am. Okay.

Any other non-aggenda items? Okay, moving on. Consent agenda items. We have consent agenda items A through K. Are there any council questions on consent agenda items A through K? Seeing none, public comment. Okay. Council comment. Do we need to have anything removed? Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items A through K? So moved. Second.

And moved by councelor McCarthy, second by Councelor Hayward. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Wow. That short of people. That's fast, huh? All right. Passes unanimously. Uh congratulations to our appointments and reappointments to the various uh council confirmations and positions on various committees. All right. Nothing on the items removed. [sighs] Next up, uh October monthly financial report.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, um Mr. Palasios had to leave early today to take care of some family medical uh challenges. So, I'll be stepping in and uh delivering the financial report. So, again, with the urban renewal area, we've split the the uh financials into four separate funds. Uh the North Hermiston area is the one that will have the activity in it this fiscal year. We're finalizing uh purchasing of rightaway and um continue to hope to bid this um for construction next year. Uh we're through the whole um we're we're a third of the way through the the fiscal year and with monthly revenues uh we're almost 200,000 a little over our projection based on the past three years and most of that increase is due to an increase in franchise fee revenues. Expenses are over uh by about a million and a half. Again, as we've been saying every month, the um we had to make a large expense or a transfer uh to the new building fund out of the general fund. And so it's showing up kind of out of the ordinary, but all the rest there are a few departments that are over. Um but every most of the um the different departments are on in line. uh some of the parks related uh funds are are over just because of seasonal activity and as the fiscal year moves on those will kind of self-correct. Special revenue fund the um new building inspection fund is on that new that page

with the with the other uh special revenue fund activity. EOTech revenues. Again, we actually just today I received the final paperwork we needed from Amazon to start uh seeking reimbursement for the RV park project. So, we should see revenue start to catch up with the expenses we've done on design uh for that project. Utility and street funds. Uh the street fund is a little below revenues just because of timing of when we receive gas tax uh revenues from the state. Now, uh, some capital projects and I think this will be Mr. Morgan. Yeah, I just tried to go quickly. Uh, Gear and Harper, hopefully you've all seen the signs if you driven through that intersection. So, uh, construction's coming 2026. So, uh, be prepared for that. Remember, uh, when we say that the intersection is closed, we mean it. It's going to be closed for many months. Uh, and that includes the crossing of the railroad. So, uh, coming in kind of from the backside of Home Depot will be closed for construction, um, in 2026, uh, probably summertime, summer to fall, but [clears throat] it's going to cause some, uh, impacts, so be prepared and ready for that. Uh, see, North First sidewalk continues, still working with the railroad on rightway acquisition. Uh, regional water system backup generators, still uh, moving toward design. Hopefully, we'll bid that. We have a lot of projects coming up to bid here uh this winter. So, expect probably January, February time frame to see us bringing a number of projects to you for accepting bids. Well, number six, coronation structure again uh getting close to putting out to bid here in December, January time frame. Uh lift station number five, uh again also getting uh ready for design. Uh East Evelyn Gravity Sewer Line um

design has started. Uh so that'll be bidding here in the spring. And then the Orchard Avenue waterline replacement. Uh we've mentioned it before. That's the other uh kind of big um visible disruptive project that will be experienced uh next year. So uh expect contract or uh bid opening again probably February time frame. Uh so construction of Orchard Avenue between 7th and 11th basically uh most of next summer and fall uh will cause some uh challenges for folks going through that uh vicinity. Uh this is listed as Dogwood Street. That's really Dogwood and Northwest Second, the LI that we worked our way through this past summer and fall. Uh so design is underway and we'll be u again also opening bids on that probably January, February time frame with construction taking place uh midsummer to to late fall. So also the Aqua storage recovery project um we should be going vertical on the building over that uh ASR project here in the next week or two. And then uh the well number four controls project continues to to move along well. Hopefully we'll have it uh back up and running before the next irrigation season. And then uh last bullet point there uh Southeast 10th Street Bridge uh project. Um that one is interesting. Uh so that is the uh bridge over the canal next to uh the BMCC campus over near the new uh subdivisions going in. Uh reason I say that it's interesting is because that one is uh counter cyclical from what we would typically see for our construction projects. So uh also expect um that one to be going out to bid sometime in the spring summer time frame and so that construction project will actually be taking place uh once the irrigation canal is dry. Uh so that construction will take place predominantly over the winter next winter, but uh that will result in a complete closure as we remove that bridge um next winter. So uh

be prepared for that because that'll also cause some traffic disruptions. Uh last piece I think for myself, uh the hanger up at the airport um substantially complete uh and we anticipate having some new tenants moving into some uh new hangers up at the airport here in the next month or so. and and then we're about ready to drop the library off of this list. Uh just basically punch list items, things that uh they're finishing up. Sherman Park is ready to go out to bid and would be constructed next summer uh construction season and then public safety center continuing to work on the interior. Uh you can see the paving's completed. They've they're working on the gates and so forth on the uh the new new parking areas and uh things are still on track as far as um you know a late winter opening of the building. Any questions? Council questions. Public comment. Council comments.

Okay. So, can I get a motion to accept the October monthly financial report? Motion to accept. Second. Second. Moved by Councelor Hayward, seconded by Councelor McCarthy. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. 6 or 5. 5. [laughter] Oh, and Mr. Mayor, I did receive right before the meeting began a note from councelor Baron that he was not feeling well and that's why he wasn't able to come. Okay. So, his absence is excused. Okay.

All right. Uh, [sighs] next up, resolution uh 2397, master fee schedule recycling rate. Say manager Smith.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of the council uh this evening we're bringing back to you the uh recycling uh rate proposal that was brought at the last council meeting. Uh we presented uh all of these same slides to the um solid waste committee uh right before this meeting. So I apologize for those of you who sat through that. Uh we're going to be going over all the same slides. I will try to expedite it uh a little bit though. So um again at the last uh city council meeting um we uh brought uh at the request of sanitary disposal a rate proposal for $8 per month fee for implementing curbside recycling. uh that is remaining the same. Uh the major change is that we're now bringing also a proposal to uh provide a 15% uh reduction in that rate for qualifying low-income customers. So their rate would be $6.80 per month. Um most of these slides are going to be addressing uh topics from the last uh council meeting. So uh just going a little bit more deeply into the answers on some of those topics. So, uh, there was a number of things that came up, but generally speaking, some of them that came up were, you know, can we just ignore, um, the state law that requires, uh, curbside recycling now, uh, also there was some discussion about the fact that sanitary disposal is a private for-profit company. And so, uh, if they're profiting off of this, you know, what does that mean for our rates here in the area? So, we'll talk a little bit about um, how solid waste collection works in our area and around the country. Um, and then also, uh, talking about, uh, you know, how we can implement a low-inccome, uh, rate or a a rate that's lower for some of our low-income residents of the community. Now, uh, I'll go through a little bit of, uh, interesting dynamics uh, that go along with some of the terminology that we use. Um, because, you know, I've been referencing that the recycling modernization act in 2021 uh, really requires cities like Hermiston to

provide curbside recycling. Uh that's, you know, true in one sense, but it kind of comes down to semantics. Really since the 1980s, um the state of Oregon has had this opportunity to recycle law. So ultimately, the city of Hermiston has really been required to be offering curbside recycling for many, many years. Um uh but Hermiston, as well as a lot of other communities, have been operating under what would be considered an alternative permit. And that's mainly because of our distance to end markets and a lot of other aspects that make curbside recycling in our communities uh just financially um unfeasible. Um so that alternative permit requires us to still provide the opportunity to recycle just through um different means. And so that's why we have uh I'm sure you've all used the recycling depots around town. Those are the big rolloff dumpsters where you can take your cardboard and you know different things and drop those off. So you still have the opportunity to recycle. It's just not curbside. So the RMA in 2021 ultimately it it really eliminated that option for us long term uh to have that alternative permit. So effectively, you know, that's what really mandate mandated us to to have uh curbside recycling service. Also at the the last council meeting there was some discussion about um you know if the u producers the folks who are generating recyclable material that ends up making its way getting purchased in into the state are responsible for you know covering the cost of recycling then why do the local customers have to help pay for curbside recycling and so I think it's important to remember that you know through that uh legislative process it was really pitched as a shared responsibility model so uh requiring that the producers have to share uh the cost of recycling the material. So that's things like making sure that it makes its way to end markets, covering the margin if there is a margin to still um you know cover the cost of actually recycling the materials. Um uh also you know covering

some of the costs that would be there you know no matter what the cost of trucks, carts, some of those types of things. And so important to keep in mind that the the producers um because Hermiston is the largest community in the entire state of Oregon that does not currently have curbside recycling, we're one of the top, if not the top um target for receiving funds as a result of the RMA. So Hermiston is slated for receiving about $1.35 million in this current cycle uh to help purchase trucks, carts, you know, all those types of things to stand up a recycling program. Now u I think the the shared part where it comes in with the local customers is I think you know if you put yourself in the shoes of the producers who have to you know foot the bill of recycling um they would not really appreciate it if on the local level uh we were to roll out a you know collection service uh where we you know have maybe we only really need two you know trucks at a time but maybe we just have 10 trucks out there and they only pick up 50 carts a day and we pay our drivers $100,000 a year each and you know the city takes 100% markup. You know if the producers are covering the cost of collecting the materials then why wouldn't we do that? So uh I think ensuring that the local customers cover the actual cost of going out and picking up the recyclables helps to ensure that it remains a a costefficient service um and in order to get the materials to the end markets. Uh, finally, uh, you know, I've used the term unfunded mandate a number of times in the past. Um, you know, technically speaking, a funded mandate or an unfunded mandate has some really specific, um, uh, definitions in state law and they do mean some things and they would factor into our potential, um, legal, um, strategy. Um, so it's important to understand that, uh, DEEQ does not consider this to be an unfunded mandate. um you know, we can get into that if we choose to go down the legal

path. Um but because the state has um required the producers to uh fund or share a portion of the cost of recycling, also I think because the city of Hermiston has the ability to collect fees for this service or pass those fees on through the customers, uh that's where I think it would be challenging for us to make the case that it is an unfunded mandate. So again, the producers are contributing about $1.3 million for the cost of the service. So that would be a challenging hurdle for us to overcome. So when we look at um the the question of well what if we just break the law you know what if we just um say no we don't want to do curbside recycling uh so we're not going to do it um and if we get fined you know if we bake that into our cost assumptions maybe it ends up being cheaper uh than than otherwise. And so you know it's it's a good thought. Um, but when we ran that question to ground, I was not prepared uh to answer that question last time. Um, I followed up with DEEQ, they got back to us with their estimate for what the fines would be. Uh, and so we anticipate that if we were to go that route, uh, total fines, you know, would be somewhere in the range of per customer in the community, it would add a cost of about $1,500 per year uh, per account. Also important to keep in mind, you know, if you were to just come uh to the front counter here on any given day and just hang out for a while, uh there's a lot of folks that move to the area from out of the region, um and it's a it's a pretty regular occurrence where they are [clears throat] surprised that we don't already offer curbside recycling. They some of them want curbside recycling. Um so I think, you know, there's quite a number of folks in in the community who who actually expect curbside recycling and have been looking forward to this service. So, but really it probably only takes one um that if you know there's [snorts] a state law that says we are required to offer curbside recycling and we're voluntarily choosing not to do that. You know, in

addition to the the state uh fines from DEEQ, you know, there's always the possibility that we could face a a civil suit from a a resident who's saying that city's denying them the right to or the opportunity to recycle. So, keep that in mind. Um just going down a little bit more into detail. I went really into detail in this with the solid waste advisory committee, but it's important [clears throat] to keep in mind that the requirement to provide curbside recycling is not sanitary disposal's requirement. It's a requirement on the city. Sanitary disposal just happens to be the vendor that we use to provide our collection services. So, uh the fines in state law are $500 per day. So, in the absolute optimistic scenario, we'd be looking at about $183,000 per year in fines. Uh that's if it was only $500 a day. important to keep in mind that DEEQ was very clear to point out in their response that um if the city is obviously not making any attempt to comply with the law, uh they have the ability to find up to $25,000 per day. So, I think if we were to um directly overtly, you know, be uh clear that we're not going to comply with the law and we're just going to eat the cost of of uh fine of the fines. I think we would see that escalation to $25,000 a day pretty quickly. uh which would ultimately end up in a realistic scenario of somewhere around $9 million per year in fines. Uh also important to keep in mind, you know, there is cost associated with these things that aren't just the fines. Um so, uh as soon as we launch into this, I'm sure that DEEQ would have many questions for us. Uh and those can only be answered by uh paid staff. And so, uh, myself, city manager, city attorney, you know, I think we would find ourselves spending an a lot of time, uh, responding to requests. So, uh, my best guess is that per year it would probably generate somewhere in the range around $30,000 of diverted staff time. So, that's staff time that, you know, it's not going to cost the city anymore. But what it costs the city is the opportunity cost of, you know, myself,

city manager, city attorney have a lot of other um council priorities that I think um uh would otherwise be getting worked on. Uh but instead, they'd be diverted to to working this issue. Additionally, some of the other costs associated with this option, you know, we'd probably have to go out and get outside legal counsel. Uh but probably the more expensive aspect would be um hiring some state level lobbyists uh to monitor the legislature. uh cuz I can assure you that if we were to go the route of uh breaking the law, uh DEEQ staff would uh make it a priority uh to make sure that they present the legislature with options to uh close whatever loophole uh we believe that we're exploiting. Um, also I think important to keep in mind out of the 87 cities across the state that are over 4,000 population and therefore required to do curbside recycling. Um, the the 80 of them already have curbside recycling. So there's only seven of us that don't. That's Pendleton, I think. Uh, I know Umatillaa Boardman, I think Baker City, Ontario, and possibly Milton Freewater. Um, reason I bring that up is because um, the political math doesn't bode well for us if we were to go that route. Um, because not only do 92% of the other cities that are impacted by this already have curbside recycling, uh, but the seven of us that don't are really all compacted into just three out of 90 state legislative districts. And so I don't think we would be in a position to garner a lot of

[snorts]

um, friendly support from any other communities that frankly they already do this. Um, so, uh, I think we would probably be on our own from that standpoint. So, uh, trying to run this to ground and see, okay, well, let's game this whole thing out and see what the apples to apples cost comparison would be. So, in the absolutely most optimistic scenario, if we were only find $183,000 in a year, uh, and our other costs were somewhere around $100,000 per year. Total annual cost of just breaking law would be about $283,000. Divide that by 6,000 customers and you end up at a monthly cost of about $3.93 per customer. But it's important to keep in mind that doesn't generate any extra service. That's just pure cost in the form of fines. So, uh, if we really want to get to an actual applesto apples cost, you know, for what we're actually paying for and what we're actually receiving, you know, we need to look at, um, the $8 a month for recycling service compared against $3.93 a month for just paying fines. And so on the top row there, you know, you'd have to assume that the typical customer has a 90-galon uh per week garbage service taken out over the year. That averages out to a 390 gallon per month uh garbage capacity that they receive for $295 per month. Both options would still receive that. Uh if we went with the recycling option, it would increase costs by $8 a month. Uh however, that household would receive about 206 gallons a month of solid waste removal capacity uh from their household. So they are receiving some uh tangible benefit in exchange for that $8. Um on the other side, there would be no cost increase uh for that uh portion of it. However, the next row um the recycling option would generate no fines. Um the other option would generate almost $4 per month in fines. So the total cost ends up showing that the just eating the fines would on paper

appear to cost less. Uh however, if you're looking at the total uh cost per gallon of solid waste removed from the home, again, the recycling option actually results in additional removal capacity for the home. So, so it ends up actually costing you more for what you get. Um if we were to go with that $3.93 per month fine option. However, again, I can't stress enough uh that that is probably extremely optimistic. Um I think we're much more likely uh to rapidly blow into the $25,000 a day fine range. Uh so realistically, probably what we're looking at uh would be about $9 million a year in fines. Divide that by 6,000 accounts and that's where you see uh per customer in Hermiston, we would see an increase in cost of about $1,500 a year or about $126 a month. So again, just kind of summarizing it all, you know, if we're really getting down into it and we decide, well, what if we, you know, go this route, you know, it's nice to think about, but I think once we get down to the to the brass tax, uh, the harsh reality would hit very quickly when we start racking up $25,000 a day in fines, you know, quart million every 10 days. So, and then also important to keep in mind, you know, we'd probably agitate a pretty significant amount of constituents who actually want curbside recycling, but now are expected to pay $1,500 a year um not to be able to curbside recycle. So, uh that is kind of talking about the the fine option. Uh the other aspect that I want to talk about, and I'll try to go quickly again, we talked about this a lot in the committee meeting, but just taking a high level look at uh our solid waste collection options uh here in the community. So, you know, solid waste collection is not rocket science. Um, you know, anybody can do it really. Um, but it's risky. And so, um, there's a couple of different models to provide solid waste service. Uh, you know, the

private sector absolutely can go out and do it. The public model would be cities can absolutely go out and pick up, uh, have city staff go out and collect solid waste, uh, themselves. And so, uh, also important to keep in mind, I think we take this for granted a lot being in the United States, um, but, you know, solid waste collection and removal, getting it out of your home and, you know, out into an appropriate location, um, is absolutely a fundamental public health service that is really a a foundational local government uh, obligation. And so, uh, I think we we need to keep in mind that. And being in the United States, we rarely see these uh types of disruptions. But I'm sure every single one of you have probably seen, you know, the nightly national news and every so often you'll see, you know, uh the city workers in Philadelphia or New York City or somewhere go on strike and you see big piles of trash start to pile up. So this is one of those foundational uh types of services that if we uh mess with it too much and we cause disruptions uh those problems start to mount rapidly. So as I mentioned local governments can absolutely provide this service themselves. Uh but we face some challenges. So uh one of those is scale. You know we were limited to the the customers inside of our own city limits. Um and so um if we don't have more customers to spread overhead costs across that's a challenge and that's a headwind for us financially. Uh also um as a general rule of thumb you know we're using uh public sector employees generally speaking they're going to cost more than private sector employees. Uh and also uh the challenge with public sector unions can drive up some costs for us on the private sector side of things. You know they face challenges themselves. It's expensive to operate a solid waste system, huge capital investments in, you know, the the trucks and all those types of things. And, you know, they need to be guaranteed that they can recoup those costs. Uh, and so

that's a big risk if there's competition from other providers coming in and poaching uh customers uh when they need to be, you know, recouping cost. you know, some customers they frankly lose money on and so they need to be able to retain uh the ones that you know cover the cost and help to pay the freight on these uh these services. So uh generally speaking I think the prevailing model for providing solid waste services in the United States is going this private route. uh but governments generally mitigate that risk by providing an exclusive franchise and what that does is it pro protects the uh solid waste provider from other competition um so that they can be guaranteed that um they can cover their cost. So it ensures efficient service, it guarantees revenue to cover capital cost. Um it allows efficient businesses to still make a profit. Um so they have a certain revenue or rate that they can charge and as long as they're efficient they can maximize profit and that still may be cheaper uh than going any other option. So uh the government has a strong interest in maintaining a solvent solid waste provider uh to avoid service disruptions which ultimately result in piles of trash and uh public sanitation challenges. So a little history on uh sanitary disposal specifically here in Hermiston. So, sanitary disposal uh is owned by waste connections, which is a national uh company. Uh [snorts] it was purchased by the local sanitary disposal operator in 2022. Uh I was fortunate to work with the the local operators uh since I arrived in 2012. So, we worked together for about 10 years and you know, they saw a lot of the the escalating regulatory environment coming. Uh they were coming up on retirement, so they you know, needed they were going to be retiring anyway. Uh but you're seeing the disappearance of a lot of these mom and pop operators because the regulatory environment from the state is getting so burdensome uh that you really need to have larger and larger companies in

order to spread a lot of that overhead cost across over more and more customer accounts. So uh it's unfortunate but we're simply losing a lot of the mom and pop operators uh all around the west coast. So this thing is sensitive day. Uh a little bit of background also for sanitary disposal. They provide uh service here locally for Herston, Umatillaa, Boardman, Stanfield, Echo, the unincorporated count portions of the county. Uh but also coming soon uh it was announced here recently that waste connections has purchased also Pendleton sanitary disposal. Pendleton Sanitary was a similar operator to Hermiston Sanitary Disposal um local operators but again with the challenges of regulatory environment they've chosen to sell out and waste connections is taking over uh their service as well. Uh also very important and I got into this uh pretty deeply with the uh solid waste committee but uh important to keep in mind waste connection zones two very critical components of uh the waste disposal infrastructure in our region. Uh so they own the transfer station and so that's where we would be collecting or anybody would be collecting material uh inside of Hermiston in collection trucks which you don't want to be driving those long distances. You take those to a transfer station, load those onto a over the road truck, then you're hauling it to something like a landfill. That's the ultimate disposal location. Well, Waste Connections also owns the landfill in the region. And so, Finley But Landfill from Heriston's about a 60-m round trip. Uh so, uh uh the fact that Waste Connections owns both of those two pieces of infrastructure uh forms a critical component of any decision- making that we need to make uh with our solid waste service. Uh also, uh most of you here uh are not aware, but I used to work for the city of Cheni up in Washington. Similar size to the city of Heriston. Uh a little bit smaller, 13,000 population. Definitely different different demographic uh because it's a college town, much more

what you consider to be congregate housing, a lot more apartment complexes. Uh that can be served a lot more efficiently um in terms of just serving a handful of dumpsters rather than hundreds and hundreds of individual carts in front of single family homes. uh city of Cheni municipalized their garbage service in 2011. So they took that over uh provided that service with city of Cheni uh uh employees and so I spent a lot of time analyzing that decision um and ultimately wrote my master's thesis on um providing public sector um services through private sector contracting and you know why that's a good thing in a lot of instances um and so Genie uh they uh one of the big components that makes it possible for them to do their service this way uh they're located only 26 milesi roundtrip from this Booking County waste energy incineration facility which is the ultimate disposal location uh effectively like their dump. Uh so they are able to completely avoid any cost of having a transfer station. Uh the capital costs of constructing or purchasing uh a transfer station are very expensive as well as the ongoing operations. Uh so you know very different uh type of a scenario but that's an example of one community that has uh municipalized their service but they're definitely an outlier uh these days. Uh also, um so I think if the question comes ultimately all the way back to well, you know, what about if the city could just uh we don't like the $8 a month, you know, cost of of collecting the recyclables, you know, why don't we just do it ourselves? You know, it would be very challenging and and uh complex to decouple the recycling aspect from our existing franchise with sanitary disposal. Uh but you need to understand we have a franchise with sanitary disposal that's on what we would consider to be a five-year rolling term. So every January 1st uh if we give them notice by January 1st that we want to make some of those changes then there's still five years to roll through before we can actually make some of those changes. And that's ultimately to

protect them so that they can make sure that they're paying uh off the debt associated with you know buying trucks and carts and those types of things. And ultimately when I say it protects them, it ultimately also protects our customers because that allows them to efficiently, you know, buy a lot of their capital and not have to pass risk on to the local customers. So, so we can make some of those changes, but it would be challenging if we wanted to go that route. Um, to the point that, you know, frankly, um, if we went that route, they may decide, you know, we're not going to decouple the recycling aspect. you just have to take over, you know, the entire solid waste, garbage, and recycling aspect from us. You know, in that case, we'd be faced with, okay, well, who's going to do this um service for us? There are no local mom and pops anymore. Uh so, if we put some of these services out and expect somebody else to provide that service, we're really looking at waste connections, waste management, or Republic services, all of which are very large national companies. So, we'd be experiencing a lot of the same um issues that people would raise questions over. Uh so, I mentioned Cheni's alternative. City Hermiston could absolutely do our own uh collection if we wanted to. However, important to keep in mind uh administrative overhead is going to be very expensive for us. You know, uh [snorts] we have uh from sanitary disposal uh Kevin comes and presents. We would need somebody, you know, on his same level. uh we'd need a department head level staff person who understands uh the solid waste industry inside and out uh to be able to go speak with the EQ manage you know multi-millions of dollars of capital um in their department multiple employees those types of things. Um so we would have to have a whole extra department headle level person that we can only spread across 6,000 accounts. Also again keeping in mind we would only own the collections um not the ultimate disposal locations. So, we'd still essentially be paying retail uh rates in order to dispose of that material. But then again, as I mentioned, you know, we would lack the scale to spread a lot of that overhead across. You know, we only

have 6,000 accounts. I mentioned during the committee meeting that, you know, we have about 6,000 accounts uh sanitary disposal just in our area. This is before they take over Pendleton. My guess is they probably have 15,000, maybe 20,000 accounts. So the city of Firmston probably only makes up about a third to a quarter of their total customer base in the area. So um they can spread those overhead costs across many more customers than we would be able to. [clears throat] Now important to keep in mind also that if we were to go that route and say well we're just going to take over our own service uh we would instantly generate a lot of enemies uh from our neighbors uh because we would drive up their costs. Um Hermiston represents the most dense community in the area. So, uh, we would be considered the highest value, uh, area, uh, for a garbage service. So, if we take all of our, you know, highdensity, um, customer accounts, uh, that means that those collection trucks that only get one and a half miles a gallon, you know, they got to be driving out these country roads and all the way out to Echo and Stanfield, uh, without the guaranteed density uh, inside of the city of Hermiston. So, guarantee it would drive up the costs for all of the surrounding communities if we were to do that. Uh so uh it is reasonable to expect that instantly our phone would start ringing from all of our neighbors asking well hey why don't we do a regional approach and we'd all you know go into it thinking it's going to be great. Uh but of course if we do a regional approach say we had Hermiston Umatillaa Umatillaa County Stanfield Echo you know that would represent 33 completely separately elected officials uh every single one of whom would expect to have a co-equal role in setting the rate and so I think as we all understand that would get to be very challenging so I think even heading into it with a a positive attitude eventually inflation is going to catch us um cost of fuel would go up cost of labor goes up all of those cost of tipping fees uh would go up and so eventually we would have to go out to all 33

separately elected officials make the case ask for rate adjustment and then I think that's when the classic infighting would ensue you know you'd have some city councelor from echco or somebody you know looking through the financials and identify that you know we probably would need to carry something like a 10% contingency or a 10% um reserve and so they would identify that as probably Hermiston's profit uh and so eventually somebody would say why don't we just contract out with the private sector. You know, let's unleash the private sector. You know, they can probably do it more efficiently than us. In which case, we would probably go that route and we'd be right back where we started where we'd probably have waste management, uh, Republic or Waste Connections, uh, ultimately winning the bid. So, uh, in summary, you know, private for-profit vendors fill a very critical role in the solid waste ecosystem. Uh, public options are possible, uh, but they carry risk and cost. Um, and so with all of that taken into consideration, I think it's very possible and and actually in our case, I think very likely uh that even with a for-profit vendor taking a profit, I believe they probably would still be the lowest cost option for us in the community. Uh, however, also keeping in mind u the critical nature of providing solid waste service is makes it something that even if it's questionable, um, I don't recommend that we uh mess too much with the service. uh out of fear of having you know large piles of trash rapidly piling up. So uh keep that in mind. Uh final major topic to cover is the uh low-inccome rate assistance program. So mentioned we're bringing back the $8 a month regular service uh is what we're proposing for the regular recycling service. Uh but also we're proposing this time [snorts] uh adding in uh the option for folks who qualify for the low-inccome utility rate program a 15% discount. So it' be only $6.80 per month uh ultimately which has to be paid for uh through a lack of

general fund revenue. So uh who pays for uh this program? So important to keep in mind that in exchange for protection from uh outside competition uh sanitary disposal gives 15% of their gross revenues to the city. So the city keeps 15% of all revenue generated by sanitary disposal within city limits. uh the lion's share of that goes toward covering our front desk and billing staff and and billing costs, you know, so every single time somebody calls with a question because, you know, their service got missed or they forgot to take their card out or, you know, all those things goes through one of our front desk staff. So, um there's definitely costs associated with uh with providing that billing service. Uh, also the city keeps a three and a half% franchise fee which is absolutely um in the the ballpark and frankly on the low side for how cities operate these franchises. And then also we have a one half of 1% uh portion of the franchise fee that goes toward funding uh our annual spring cleaning event. So, uh, the way that we would pay for this, um, low-income utility assistance program, uh, would be in the city simply waving our 15% markup in order to allow the low-income, uh, customers to receive the service, uh, at the city's cost. Um, so that probably leads to some questions about, okay, well, if the city's keeping 15% of all the revenue that comes in, you know, is the city going to be generating a whole bunch more revenue from the uh, recycling program? It's questionable uh yet to be determined. Uh I'm not an economist, so I can't run the the models for price elasticity, but uh suffice to say, at our last council meeting, I went way into depth on how customers will have the option of um choosing their own adventure when it comes to uh the price that they pay for garbage because they have the ability to potentially downsize their garbage service. So, uh, if, uh, they're faced with an additional $8 for recycling, they may downsize their

garbage service, in which case that decreases revenue or doesn't increase revenue as much as just simply adding $8. So, uh, we'll see how much revenue actually increases coming to the city. Also important to keep in mind, you know, whatever additional revenue comes into the city as a result of this, uh, should not be considered to be just pure profit, I suppose, for the city. Uh because again we're fully standing up a whole additional service. Uh so this is going to generate a whole bunch more calls in the form of you know what can I recycle? Oh gez the you know recycling is only every other week so I forgot to bring my recycling card out. Can somebody still come pick it up? You know so just lots more calls will be coming in. Additionally um significantly increases our facetime I guess you'd say with DEEQ in terms of compliance uh with recycling issues. So that's going to drive up staff time. Uh and then also it's again just a whole extra service that we have to come and bring uh from time to time uh to explain rate requests. And so I started keeping track of of my time and and kind of the other uh staff's time. And so, uh, since bringing this issue back, uh, for a second time, in terms of opportunity cost of of other items that the staff could have been working on, uh, I I think bringing this issue back a second time probably cost uh, the city somewhere around $2,000 in staff time. Uh, so that's I think kind of the the costs that are in play with operating a system like this. Uh so the city paid low-inccome assistance program. Some of the counselors were here at the time, but in 2019 uh the city council uh did a fairly major uh overhaul on our uh assistance programs for low-income uh households. Uh which is to say we actually started some uh there really was zero low-income assistance uh taking place for utility customers prior to 2019. Uh and frankly, uh many cities don't offer any uh low-inccome assistance programs for utilities because, uh it is a cost. Um and so it's important to keep in mind, you know, I think a lot of us have the

best of intentions in in rolling something out like this. Uh but it gets to be challenging when we're talking about a city of 20,000 people, 6,000 accounts. um in order to ensure uh that we're preventing fraud or abuse, we have to have, you know, really strict um mechanisms in place uh rather than just simply taking people's word for it. So, um, so we're faced with this balancing act of implementing these low-inccome assistance programs because we have to create systems that are, um, stringent enough, uh, that folks who aren't otherwise qualified for it don't receive it, while also still making it usable enough that those who actually do qualify for it and actually do uh, need it and the systems intended for uh, can actually receive the that assistance. So, so it it can be a little challenging um to to be sensitive on creating these programs. So, in 2019, the council being sensitive to potentially creating a, you know, unlimited or runaway uh policy, uh they chose to limit the low-inccome assistance program to no more than 50 accounts per year. Um and at the time, the threshold for qualifying for those that assistance was set at basically the federal poverty level. Uh so over the years uh anywhere between five to 10 users actually qualified. We did receive quite a few other applications for it but uh somewhere between 5 to 10 users would actually qualify for it each year. Uh recognizing that council had set a limit of 50 uh finance department staff in 2024 chose to increase the uh threshold to qualify for the program to 175% of the federal poverty level. And so that's what the table is there on the right hand side. So that is the current qualification criteria for receiving low-inccome assistance through the city of Hermiston. Uh so for example, a family of four in Hermiston right now uh could receive low-inccome assistance if their income was less than $56,000 per

year. Uh as of today, there's approximately 20 users receiving uh that benefit. Now uh I'll be the first to admit uh a $1.20 per month does not sound like a whole lot in terms of assistance. Uh but again, you know, that's set up as a percentage of what this additional recycling service is. So the recycling service rate is set at $8. So 15% of $8 is $1.20 per month. So um that is just on this service. But I think it's also important to keep in mind, you know, the total cost that the other rate payers in the community have to to cover uh in order to pay for these services. So, in addition to the 15% recycling discount, uh if you qualify for the low-inccome assistance program, uh you're also eligible for a 17% discount on garbage service. Uh you're also eligible for a 50% reduction on your base charge for sewer services and also a 50% reduction on your water services. So, uh, in total, uh, if you qualify for the low-inccome assistance program, uh, per customer, that comes out to about $500 per year, uh, in subsidy that has to be provided by, uh, the other rateayers in the community. So, if we uh game that out and we look at if there was total uh of 50 total beneficiaries, comes out to a total cost of around $26,000 per year divided by the remaining 5,950 uh account customers in town. And it comes out to an average cost uh per household of the other rate payers of about $4 a year. Uh which is, you know, not much, but it it is a cost um to the other rateayers. So, in summary, I tried to make it quicker than the uh committee meeting. Uh to the question of could we just ignore the the requirement. Uh we could, but it would end up costing your typical uh rateayer about $1,500 per year. Um we talked about, you know, the different types of service models for collecting solid waste and recycling. I believe

what we have right now is the best option that we have. Uh and then also we discussed uh the alternatives for implementing a a low-inccome rate for low-income households. And so that's why we're recommending a 15% discount uh for qualifying households. So with that, I'd stand for any questions. Council questions. [snorts] Council Roberts.

I have potentially three questions depending on how the answers go. So um first of all, um how did we reach the $8, uh proposed rate? So, we didn't reach it. That is the proposal from sanitary disposal. So, that is their cost for the staffing to collect the materials. Okay. And of that $8, we get 15%. Correct. Okay. Are we going to have to hire more staff to in uh to cover the increased calls and staff time?

That's an interesting question because it's certainly going to increase some of my staff time and other staff. So, we probably won't be able to pinpoint and specifically point to this is the additional staff person that we hired, but again, as other, you know, requirements in the the community continue to grow, we'll probably end up adding another staff person at some point, then this might be one of the requirements that they help to oversee. So assuming that right now we don't have to hire new staff that the current staff um can can handle the increased volume of of workload um is there a reason that we can't just offer the $680% rate across the board um and then um just increase that in the master fee as we do other fees over time. we take a look at it year by year, but right now can we can we offer that? Would that cover the costs?

I suppose you could. I think what I would recommend is because we're not operating in a vacuum. We have the other communities that are also adopting this rate at exactly $8 uh per month as well. So, I think to get this program up and operational, I'd recommend that we start at that $8 and then again, as I mentioned, you know, inflation is a real thing. So, as other costs go up and we shake the system out and we see how it's operating, I think potentially keeping that in our back pocket for looking at, okay, next time they come back for a rate adjustment or some of those things, that's when we look at potentially eating into that. So, I'd recommend that we get our feet under us, see how it works, make sure that the system operates, then we can look at, you know, going that route. That's what I would be my recommendation.

Other council questions? I did have a couple myself. Um, so [clears throat] I'm sure this is this would probably be a question for Kevin, but we pay when when garbage is hauled off in the form of solid waste, it has it somebody has to pay to take, you know, like we give it to them, they take it someplace else, and it's paid to dump it off, right? Yeah. So all of our garbage ends up at Finley's landfill, right? And we So we have to pay to leave it there. Yes. Recycle on the other hand, when it goes to be recycled, it's bought.

It depends on the material. So some materials actually have a market. Others, you know, and again, depending on, you know, it's just like any other commodity. So depending on the year, depending on what's going on, you know, for cardboard, the price may, you know, we may get paid for cardboard or we may have to pay to get rid of, you know, other types of materials. So Kevin is actually on Zoom, so he may be able to answer that question a little bit better than than myself. I never fully trust our Zoom connection. Sorry, Lily. But um so we'll see if if Kevin might be able to to answer that. Kevin, I had to go home sick. It sounds like everybody is going home sick today. So Kevin, are you able to answer that question?

You can you uh can you uh repeat it, please? Can Can you repeat the question, please? Kevin, we can't hear you if you're talking.

Oh I'm I'm on Okay. Well, we'll let him keep [clears throat] trying to mess around with it, but um so that that's as we're kind of talking [clears throat] through that topic. Yes, some some materials are purchased, others are not. And so that's where [clears throat] the producers um they're helping to cover our cost to get it to end markets. So you'll remember Kevin mentioned that we're hauling all of our materials to Clackamus. And so the producer responsibility organization, they're helping to cover our cost of hauling all the materials to Clacamus. And then whatever that, you know, margin is for, you know, even if it's purchased, there's still a cost for us to get it there. Um, it's not a huge profit. Some things, again, we actually have to pay for people to still take recyclable materials.

We have to pay for them to take it, correct? To reuse it. Yeah. You know, it's it's kind of like um well, it's probably a bad example, but you know, uh if you think about things like um the energy industry, you know, where there's windmills are turning, there are times when the electric markets turn negative. And so, similar type of a deal. I mean, just because you're reusing it, the costs involved with reusing a material. It it may be less than harvesting new material, mining new material, extruding new material. Uh but sometimes we may need to to pay people to take it. Yeah.

Okay. And finally, um if we do pass this tonight, when will these fees take effect as for the as when as it relates to the recycling? Yeah. So, they will technically they'll take effect immediately, but nobody's going to get charged this rate until we actually roll the service out. And so, that service isn't going to be until probably the summer of next year. Okay. So, there'll be plenty of plenty of fair warning. Correct. Yep. All right, councelor Hayward.

Um, since we have to pay for the stuff to go to Clacamus, is there a way that we can look for like a local area that's taking like cardboard or something, something somebody local to save the cost a little bit? Yeah, I mean I think that would be the the ultimate uh end goal, but I think that's the the issue when we're dealing with commodities like this is um we like to think that we're a big area, but you know, we need much much bigger area to be draining all of those recyclable materials. So, there just simply aren't any other uh recyclers in our area. When it comes down to it though, that part of things, we are not in charge of who recycles it.

Yeah. you know, we once once they pick it up from the curb, it's all on them, just like with the garbage. Yep. Okay. Any other council questions? All right. Public comment. You're up.

Luke D's uh have businesses here obviously. Um first of all, I want to say franchises for residential are I believe in them. They're great. Not gonna knock Kevin and those guys. They do a great job. Um, all three I work with Republic Waste Management and Waste Connections every month. We do it Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Texas. So, going to say Waste Connections knows what they're doing when it comes to that. Only thing I'm going to challenge is is the money, the the economics of it. I mean, we live in a pretty low income neighborhood. Um, and with Waste Connections now being the regional waste company, uh, I would just question like have we worked with Um, and all that Pendleton and everybody and are they all jumping on $8 a month increases or are they not? And if they are a regional company, can we get it to that size and scale that Mark was talking about? Um that we can get it, you know, maybe negotiate that down a little better for our constituents. Um what else is there? Uh your questions on recycling? We sell cardboard out of Hermanston for $90 loaded on a truck. So there's some money in it. We do it all the time. Uh we recover cardboard out of our own facilities across the Northwest and the price out of Hermiston right now is between 80 and $90. FOP they pay the freight, they take it to Portland. So if you guys want to take, you know, that that leads me into my other question on if we're paying all the expenses, is there a rebate? Do we get to look at it? Do we get for any of the money coming back that they get paid once it gets to Portland? Does that money get divied back up between us and Waste Connection somehow to help pay for the increased $8

a month? $8 to me doesn't matter. I mean, I'll pay the $8, but I have a lot of employees that are pretty concerned about it on top of the 37% increase they've already paid over the last two years or whatever. So, um, you know, and let's be honest, if you look at the 10K for Waste Connections, they were 8.9 billion last year and they their EBA was 2.9 billion. So, I'm going to guess they probably understand the business. Also, in their 10K, they focus, it says right in there, they focus on rural communities because they're profitable, they're easy to control. So, maybe we want to look at that as well. Um, that's really all I have to say. If you have any questions,

thank you, sir. Let me know. Any other public comment?

Welcome. Thank you. My name is Christa Vanvine, citizen of Hermiston for almost five years now. [clears throat and cough] I had planned Give us your address, please. Oh. Uh, 764 West Alder. Okay. Thank you.

Um, I had planned on thanking Mr. Morgan for his information at the committee meeting, but since he repeated it all again, now I feel angry just teasing. Thank you very much. That was a lot of work that you put into that, I appreciate it. Um, as people as a a household that moved here almost 5 years ago from the Portland area, we were surprised that there was no uh curbside recycling here in Hermiston. So, I just want to go on record as being a household that does definitely support this. Um, I've observed our family dynamic, our our recycling change. We were a curbside recycling family. We paid attention to when it went into our garbage can. We paid attention to curbside. Um, in Portland, you had to sort it into different bins. So, here at least, we wouldn't have to. Uh, but what I've witnessed is unfortunately a decrease in our recycling. Now we have to store our recycling in separate bins in our garage. We have to wait until there's enough for us to take it to the the recycling station. Um, it it is an inconvenience, which I know sounds kind of ridiculous, but when you're talking about garage space, you're talking about behaviors, and then you're talking about loading it into the truck and taking it and sorting it there. It there's a cost, right? Um, I'm really looking forward to, and I I ask you all to pass this. I'm very much looking forward to a I guess a resumption of good, healthy recycling behaviors. It would encourage people to have less waste. It would encourage people to sort their waste better. And I'm sure other people would do what I'm planning on doing, which is sort much better. and that way I can

choose the smaller can and offset that some of that $8 a month fee. Um, I think that it is very much for the betterment of our local and state communities to do so, but then also for our environment. I just think that it's good for Hermiston. It's it's good for all of us, everyone. So, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Any other public comment? Seeing none, uh, council comments. Councelor Hayward,

I'll start it. Um, I don't like mandates. I don't like pushing stuff on people. My comment is I get where this is coming as a mandate from the state. Um, I know the younger generation, the younger 18year-old through the 30-year-old probably won't care about recycling, just wants to throw it out in the trash. I'm 100% right there with them. I know there's other group above them that cares about recycling, some that don't will recycle and then the older. I think if you want to recycle, it's your choice. You shouldn't be forced to do it. Um, but this is a mandate from the state. Um, I think it should be optional if they choose to have it or not, but this is a mandate.

Other Yes, ma'am. I just want to thank you for the presentation that you did. I think you provided a lot more information than some of the questions that we had at our last meeting. Um I think I worked for the garbage company many years ago um as a bookkeeper for some of the cities that they serve. Um so I saw the the recycling aspect and the the waste aspect of it all. I also think we are living under critical times and I know that it, you know, $8 a dollar may be tough for some of our constituents. I would also agree that, you know, as leaders, um, we also have to model what we want to see from our constituents. Um, I think being mindful of our environment, being mindful of the things that we can recycle because honestly, um, I feel very guilty when I'm tossing plastic containers because I know climate change and all of that. Um, so I had not thought about what the gentleman said about some of the rebates and whether we can collect some the money back that is being recycled with cardboard and some other stuff. Um, I don't know if that is something that um the uh the director of waste management can answer or if he will be able to answer at some point when he has better connectivity or if he can send you that information. But I think I would be um I would be curious to know that answer. that I fully support being able to recycle as we know that when there have been containers out in the community to recycle uh tires to recycle other items like refrigerators, mattresses,

they've had a great turnout from the community and I would certainly hope that many people see it um as also a need and and just our way of being responsible with the amount of garbage that is being put out that could be recycled. Um, but I like the option of also offering a way for those that may be a hardship the possibility of them paying a lesser price. Any others? Council Roberts. Um, Mr. Morgan, thank you for the information. It was very well structured. Um, highly informative. Um, I just want to put it on record that I'm not against recycling. I'm not against sanitary disposal making a profit. Um, I'm like councelor Hayward not supportive of what is perceived to be unfunded mandates by the state. Um, were it not for this law u people's costs would not go up. I know this needs to pass. I really do because we're over a barrel and I think Mr. Morgan made that very clear that if it doesn't pass, DEEQ is going to come down on us hard and we really don't have a choice. And and so while I support recycling, it it's that that being thrown over a barrel that I don't like. And um I just want to say as a symbolic gesture, I plan to vote no simply as a protest to the state saying you have to do this. I I don't like that. So, just putting that out there. Um that uh the local constituents don't always need to be the brunt of higher costs and I I

don't know how to get around that. We I think councelor Leelso said at a previous meeting, the state of Oregon hasn't found a tax that they don't like. Um so I just somebody's got to stand up and say no. And that's just kind of where my brain's going on this issue. So that's my comment. Thank you. Any other council comments?

Yeah, like that. That's where I'm going to go. I I agree with what councelor Roberts and what councelor Hayward have said. Um, I think this issue is a tax increase that again perfectly illustrates how out of touch the majority uh leadership of the state is with our community in Northeast Oregon. um in order to appease their guilt about causing waste and harming mother earth and their belief in anthropogenic global warming. Um they feel compelled to force the rest of us to pay taxes to appease that guilt. I don't share that guilt. I don't believe in anthropogenic global warming or that we're killing mother earth or any of these other things. Um, I recycle though because I think it makes sense. I take my stuff to the the depot. If they can reuse it, great. If they end up throwing it in the landfill, fine. I don't care. But to force this tax increase on our citizens is is wrong. Um, because I think in essence this is a religious belief that people hold and I don't subscribe to it. Don't make me pay for it. If you want to pay extra to recycle your goods, to appease your guilt, you might guess, but don't force that on everybody else. Um, I don't think I'm going to vote no on this only because, um, the consequences are too high of rejecting this. Our city can't afford to pay millions of dollars to the state, the DEEQ. I think if there is any silver lining to be found here, it's the fact that the other tax increase where people are saying, "Oh, we're going to tax the producer." That's not a tax on the producer. That's

a tax again on us who are going to pay the producers more money for their products so that they can give that money back to the state to fund our recycling overhead. If there is any silver lining, it's in the fact that the people on the west side of the state are going to pay more money into that fund than we are because there's more of them. So, every product that they buy is going to contribute more money to that fund and more of that money as a percentage is going to come to our community to help fund our overhead. So, they voted to tax themselves more than they voted to tax us. Great. I'm in favor of that. So, I just wanted to say again to sum up uh this illustrates how out of touch the state legislature is with our community and our values and um I think it's very unfortunate that yet another tax increase is coming from them to support their outlook that we don't necessarily share here. Thank you. Well, Councelor McCarthy,

he's sure. Um, [laughter] I think it's a dangerous place for us to make claims about any particular group supporting uh this mandate or not. Um, as it's been uh presented by Mr. Morgan in the staff report whether you were in this meeting or the earlier um uh advisory committee meeting um we do get a significant amount of people who come to Hermiston who are expecting recycling to have um that number of people is only growing as we continue to have developments um in and out of here. So I actually tend to agree um with other counselors about uh it doesn't feel fair or right to impose um a particular mandate um on our citizens. Um however despite the the fairness of it, what we really have to make a decision is not necessarily based on how we feel about it. It's the best way that we need to move forward. So what we're really trying to consider is really just do we want to take the risk or do we want to implement a program that we do have residents requesting for. It's not necessarily correct to say um that this is completely um misrepresenting our constituents as we've had people here tonight um speak speak to it. We've had people who come expecting to pay it. This was a similar conversation we had when we invoked business licenses where people are coming into Hermiston expecting to pay a business license. Um, this is the relative standard. Um, this is the direction things are going whether or not we like it. We just have to make the best decision about how we're going to move forward. Um, Mr. Mayor, based on some comments that were said, it has caused me to have a question for the staff. Would it be

appropriate at this time to ask it? Yes. Um I'm just curious. Um we are at five council members tonight. In order to pass this uh how many votes are required? Yeah, just a majority of those who are in attendance tonight. An ordinance is the only one that requires a majority. Inordinately higher number five minimum.

Okay. Thank you. [sighs] I agree with councelor Kelso and basically everybody up here that passing or you know for for the west side of the state to tell us that we have to do something over here that's going to cost us more money whether we want to or not. That ain't right. It isn't. We we see this frequently. Now, I'm not saying that recycling is a bad thing. You know, if you choose to recycle, that's great. Great for you. I I don't I don't have a problem with that. Um but to be told that I have to do that, I don't like um you know, yes, we're all grown-ups. We all have to do things that we don't like to do. But at the same time, [clears throat] I don't like it. I can't get any more eloquent. So that's what you get. Uh so at this point in time, we have three options available to us. Well, two, possibly a third. Uh, we can adopt resolution 2397 and lay upon the record. We can reject resolution 2397. And if that's the case, then we have another option available to us. At that point, can I get a motion for one of those two?

I move that we approve resolution 2397. Again, it has been moved by councelor McCarthy and seconded by councelor Duron that we that we adopt resolution 2397, the master fee rescheduling with the $8 recycling fee and has been seconded. Roll call. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion passes four to one. with councelor Roberts in protest as he said in the no column. All right, that means we do not have a need for an executive session. So, we can go ahead and remove items 10 and 11 from the agenda. All right, now that we've eaten up all the clock on that, thank you, Mr. Morgan. was uh I know we put a bunch of work on you, but you know, if we're going to if we're going to make our citizens pay pay more, we need to be able to fully explain as to why and what our options were. And I I appreciate all the effort that you put into it. So,

it's always fun to dust off my master's thesis, you know. All right. I looked at medical lake while you were doing cheny work, by the way. All right. Committee reports. Do we have any committee reports? Yes. Stick the clock. We held the curbside recycling advisory committee. So, no kidding. So, do tell. You just listened to the results of that. So, thank you most of you uh for being here for that. You sure you don't want to add anything more to that? Yeah. Eight bucks a month um reduced uh reduced rate for the lowinccome. All right. Fair enough. Any other committee reports? Councelor Duran,

the parks and rec committee met and we finally had a quorum after a long time. A long time. Yeah. Congratulations.

Thank you. And there was um discussion regarding the naming of the basketball courts per u councelor Baron's request and basically we've put it off because uh we need more information. So more information will be gathered by the parks and recck director and we will discuss it at our next meeting. Uh we also discussed the uh the money that was requested by councelor Linton to be given to uh the senior board. And again, um, the committee felt that the amount that was thrown out, um, or was provided didn't not really specify what the $30,000 was going to cover, you know, if it was given to the senior board. So, um, some of the members asked if maybe the senior board could provide a copy of their budget and maybe perhaps a representative from the board, they could attend the meeting, but no decision was made on any of that. But that was just discussed.

I was going to say, yeah, don't

that was just discussed. Um, and there are openings in the parks and wreck um department. They're looking for the operations coordinator and um it was discussed that the AEDs were placed in parks um thanks to uh some grant money that was received by Good Shepard Community Health Foundation. Uh one was placed at the pickle ball courts, another one at Funland and the Heroes Complex. Um, and the new welcome sign, the Hermiston welcome sign by the airport. I don't know if anyone has seen it. Um, it they said that besides looking great that it's um provided a reduction in water usage and it's low maintenance for um for for the staff and it was funded by the water department. And um our next Oh, they also encouraged um they're looking for volunteers to prepare the festival street for um the tree lighting ceremony. So staff volunteers will be working um December 1st through the 4th. And I believe the time is from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm. So, if any of us, you um um volunteers that would like to help out with that, um I think the director would be happy to see some of us there. Um the Hispanic Advisory Committee also met on November 17th and we had a resignation from one of our newest members. we had a presentation from DHS um so that they would explain some of the um the SNAP benefits and and some of the things that were still available for uh for the folks that live in our area.

We also had a presentation from Ubu Valkyrie and they did talk about the the food bank that they have. Um because the amount of people that are showing up the the need has uh grown. It used to be offered twice a month, but now it is only offered the second um Friday of each month. And uh it was discussed that um the deos muertos was a big event as well as the Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month celebration on October 4th. And uh one of the goals that will be revisited is how to increase the Latino vote. And um the city manager was there also to uh give a presentation on the you know the some of the projects that the city has been working on and has completed and to also seek feedback about any thoughts about what the city would what um community members would like the Carnegie building to look like. And was there anything that I forgot? Very thorough.

Okay, that's it. Thank you. I mean, you haven't had a meeting in so long you had to take really good notes. Yeah. Had a lot to talk about. Yes.

All right. Any other committee reports? Council Roberts Airport. On Wednesday the 19th, I attended the library board meeting. Um it was announced there that they are going to be having an opening. Um they have a staff member who's uh leaving in December. So that will be posted here shortly. Um it's an entry- level position. So if you know anyone who uh may be interested in working at the library, have them take a look at the website soon. I'm sure that'll be posted. Um the building renovation uh as was stated earlier, some of the punch list items um are getting finished up. The trim around the front windows and the front entry is complete. So that's looking good. Maker Space is not 100% ready yet, but they're getting closer. Uh Mr. Rose plans to uh look uh again at strategic planning with the uh renovation that kind of took a back seat because it's a huge project. So, um going forward, they're going to look at the best ways to be using the new spaces. Uh look at kind of what's been done in the past, start brainstorming some new ideas. So, uh it's going to be exciting to to see how that moves forward. Um, one of the things that I felt was exciting about the meeting is the attendance. We had three board members. We had three youth adviserss uh who by the way were very engaged and asking a lot of good questions. So, that was fun to see. We had a citizen in attendance. We had uh myself as liaison as well as Mr. Rose. Uh we had two middle schoolers who showed up and sat in on the meeting and uh they actually also asked uh they wanted to do a school project and so they're going to be working with Mr. Rose to uh to do a school project and interview staff there at the the library. So um very uh well attended meeting for for our library board and uh I was just excited to see that we had our youth adviserss and and some middle

schoolers there um engaged in what's happening at the library. So, uh, that's your library board report. Excellent. Any others than mine? All right. Well, I I have a couple, too. Um, uh, we had the, uh, the and the first actual dive into the charter review, uh, charter committee. Um, we went through the first four sections of the charter. uh looked at the different uh beginning and the mayor's duties and the council's duties and uh in an initial dip into the uh layout of the um different wards and their possible changes in their structure to come closer to what a uh a uh um population base looks like. it it may you know it's not at I don't think it's in its final form but it's you know they're they're working with it to make it you know easily replicatable at this point in time and defendable which I'm sure [laughter] Mr. Tvy is very much happy with. And then we have we have another we have another meeting for that coming up here in next week actually. I think it's on the 3rd. So, uh I know one of our counselors was there to uh listen in on it. Um also, uh we had our uh first public finance meeting as well and that we just kind of laid things out and got things, you know, the figure out of how things were rolling with that. So, um, it's, you know, it's not anything too extravagant at this point. We got to figure out, you know, what it is, what information that, you know, we want, what we want to discuss and what, you know, what what things need to be. And,

uh, so that's those two. With that, it's my turn again. Uh let's see. Um we had several uh had several uh ribbon cutings over the last couple of weeks. Um I know I missed out on one due to uh prior engagement. Um I congratulate Planet Fitness on opening up. We had a couple of uh new uh housing development open houses. Um the Monav Vista place went over and had a look at most most of the council was able to make it for that. Got to go through that really nice house and so um they were very uh very accommodating for that. um coming up in the immediate future. [sighs] Uh it's almost that time. Yeah, I noticed the I noticed that uh there's a large green protrusion in the middle of the road out there. So, um that's what we have that coming forward in in the uh near future

on the fourth

in the near future. Okay. Yes. On the fourth, um I know there's other things, but my brain is fuzzy right now. So, council president, thank you. Uh just want a quick um heads up is that we've got Hermston's own Christmas market coming up on the 29th, uh 9 to 4 at the community center and the Harkin Rider Center. Uh don't forget to do I'm just going to give everybody a heads up. Don't forget to do any last minute uh Thanksgiving shopping early. Uh you will thank you you will thank yourself for doing it and so will the workers that you're not bothering at the last minute on Wednesday or even early Thursday morning. Um also Festival of Trees coming up on the 6th um right here in town and just kind of keep an eye out. Uh we've got the also with the tree lighting member we're bringing back the lighted parade. Um I think I'm going to be uh working at working that as well. So I hope to see everybody out there.

I'll be there somewhere. Yeah. I never seem to catch you. I know it's weird. Council reports. Council Hayward. Um I did go to the ribbon cutting for the Mount Aissa homes. I do gota say give a shout out to the woodop group at the Hermanson High School for the work they did. That was amazing and everything. Then also um I know Mr. Civy is looking at retiring here soon. I didn't know if we were doing anything for him, but I want to say now we're just going to kick him out. be like Kades for what he did. He's done a lot for the city. He just needs to be recognized. Yeah, we're just gonna throw him out.

Council Roberts, I had the uh honor of attending a ceremony on the 19th. Um, this occurred just outside the city off of Punan Center, but it was uh a tunnel to towers foundation event if nobody's heard of that. Uh, they build mortgage free homes for uh severely disabled first responders and veterans uh who have been injured or killed in the line of duty. Um, we have a new uh member of our greater Hermiston region uh Army Sergeant Jason Walker who was wounded in 2013 uh on tour in the Middle East and the Tunnel to Towers uh has given him a mortgage-free home uh up off of Co Lane and uh it was a a very humbling uh thing to go to and uh and see the work that that foundation has done and to be able to honor Sergeant Walker. And so I just wanted to say welcome to the community, Sergeant Walker, and thank Tunnels of Towers for the work that they do uh in in uh in not gifting homes. As they said, it's an obligation as fulfilling an obligation that we have to those who uh give their all for us. And so um just a great experience.

Any others? Councelor Kelso, I want to thank councelor McCarthy for mentioning the Festival of Trees on the 6th. It's our 30th anniversary this year and unfortunately, well, not unfortunately, but tickets are sold out. So, if you don't have your ticket already, um, don't plan on going. But I did want to say on the 7th, uh, we are having family day, which is a free event every year at the community center from 11:00 in the morning to 3:00 p.m. There's a lunch provided, chili lunch from noon to 1:30, and we'll have live dance performances, games, and crafts, and cookie decorating. So, please come see us on Sunday at the community center. Thank you.

Run. Since you brought it up, um, another council member brought it up. I do want to say thank you to Ron Cibi for all the years that he uh spent working as the street superintendent. Um, and thank you for um, also doing something uh, for him to highlight this milestone for him. Um I know that well I had the opportunity to talk to him um not related to CD matters but I just we happened to talk about work and stuff like that and so I I told them you know um when someone that has put in that many years they are walking away with a lot of institutional knowledge that is hard to replace. And so um you know I I am sure that the city will continue to be in great hands with uh whoever steps into that new role. But you know he knows all the nooks and crannies. He has experienced and has seen a lot of growth over the years. Um, so you know, I know that I didn't work for him directly or anything, but I just feel like there are not enough words to to say thank you to someone that has dedicated that much time to one entity such the city of Hermiston. So, you know, I don't know that he is listening to this meeting. He probably has other things to do. But, you know, I do want to say thank you for for your hard work and thank you for also serving as a mentor to the folks that will, you know, that will continue to see the streets and and uh for just sticking around and working for the city day in and day out. Um, and I'm happy that he will be able to take vacations without feeling guilty,

without having to take his phone or having to answer any questions. So, um I'm happy that he has reached this milestone and and just a big thank you. I also want to thank the uh police department for um you know, year after year working with the schools, working with our youth to make the Christmas Express possible. Uh I know that there's a lot of need in our community and um the food that is given out, the toys that are given out during Christmas um helps a lot in our community, especially uh you know during the winter months. So thank you. I know that your staff meets with counselors with with our um Hermiston School District administrators to make it happen. Um but I know that you guys do a lot of the work as well. So thank you for that. You know, I was kind of flippant with about Mr. Civvy, but you know, you are absolutely right. He has put in a huge amount of time and we it is a huge loss to the city for with all of the institutional knowledge that he takes with him. And um you know, it's it's he's always he's always had a good sense of humor, so I'm sure he would have appreciated the the comments. But uh yeah, he's a uh he will be he will definitely be missed and we we wish him well. Um also I wanted to I wanted to take a moment to say I also got to attend an echo city council meeting here over the last few weeks. Um it was interesting. I'll just leave it at that. So

have interesting ones too. Yes. Like tonight uh youth adviser. Hi What you got for us?

Hello. Oh, okay. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jaclyn Kardes. Um, I'm a junior at the Hermiston High School and I'm part of the city council committee. Um, I have a a few events to talk about, current and future happening at the high school. Current current, we have a canned food drive happening. Um, so far we started last week on Monday. So far, estimated we have 2,000 2,000 cans so far, which is great. I think it's like really wonderful for our community to help one another. I think it really builds our bond and like I think it's just amazing to see others help each other. Um, but not do we we obviously take cans from current students, but we also take it from the community. You don't have to be a student enrolled. So, if you ever want to drop off cans and help out or give money, you can always just drop it off at the main office at the high school. Uh, another special thing that our school is doing, National Honor Society is doing a toy run. So, basically, anybody that has any toys to donate, you can always just drop it off at the office, too, if you have any questions. Um, a lot of high schoolers so far, I'm not sure how many toys we've donated, but it's definitely a lot. um to donate to those that like those kids that just want a good Christmas. You know, I'm definitely privileged enough to say that I can give out the um toys. So, it's really nice seeing others think about others in the community, especially kids who just are so innocent and just so nice and it's just so nice seeing um people who can give out toys. Um, another thing, we have uh a a theater play coming up soon, Greece. I think I'm not sure when the dates are yet, but um I'm guessing January. And if you guys are able to go and see, I think it'd be really great. I think the theater kids would really love to see the community go and support them. Um some future things are sports. We have

basketball, girls and boys coming up, wrestling. Um, but yeah, that's really it so far. That was pretty pretty good. Thank you. Thank you. Well, Mr. City Manager, what you got? Well, I want to tell you that I have new and increased respect for high school teachers. I um was at the high school all day today teaching civics,

teaching about the city of Hermiston with all the city uh the senior civics and uh AP government classes and it was really good. I appreciated the opportunity to do that, but I was very uh drained by the time I was done.

As I say, we out ready to go to bed tonight so I can go back tomorrow and do day two. But uh I think I really appreciate the high school giving us a chance to talk about the city and to talk about the importance of local government and how uh being involved at the local level can be a great um way to give back to the their community and a great way to have a positive impact. So it was very good and that's all I have. Outstanding. Well, unless anybody has anything else, we're adjourned.