City Council - Regular Meeting

What's up, Dwayne?

What's up, Jack? How are you, bud? Good to see you, buddy. Cindy, do you want to sit over where I am? Should I move over?

Okay.

I Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. . . . .

All right, I have 703. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Will the recorder please call the roll?

Councillor Irvin?

Here.

Councillor Hink? Here. Councillor Lammerman?

Here.

Councillor Merida?

Here.

Councillor Settlemyer?

Here.

Councillor Wilson? Here. Mayor Solsby?

Here. I'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you.

Items to be added to the agenda.

There are none. Special presentations. Item A, audit update by Summer Sears.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Can you hear me okay? So my name is Summer. Summer Sears. Good evening.

A little louder?

Okay. I am the consultant that the city has hired to help catch up the books and get audits caught up as well. My background, I am a native Oregonian. I grew up in Staten. I started my career with a large audit firm. So I do have experience with audits. I got my CPA license and then found my way into local government. I absolutely love what I do. I love working with local governments in the past 15 years. That's what I've been specializing in. So a lot of experience. Please ask questions and I will do my best to answer them. So Mike has asked me to give you guys some information about audits in general. what is required, why they're required, and then where we're at with the audits and what the timeline is to catch up. A slide show here for you. So the talking points, we're going to do an overview. We're going to talk a little bit about why the city is behind in its audits. We'll talk about the impact of those prior audits and what we're finding on the current budget year, what you guys are looking at now. We'll talk about the results of the recently completed audits, open projects that we're working on, and then our timeline to get caught up. So for our overview, we're going to hit the major questions, the who, what, where, why, when, and how. We'll go through there. Again, please ask questions as you go. Just interrupt me or throw up a hand. So for audits, who is involved with audits? It's mainly the state that's establishing the need for municipalities to get an audit. It's required through statute, and that's prior legislation from a long time ago. If an organization, a municipality has over a million dollars worth of expenditures, they have to get an audit. If they have less than that, there are different procedures they can follow that are a bit easier. Granting agencies want to see audits, lenders want to see results of audits, and there are other regulators as well. So when it comes time to actually go through the audit process, who is involved? Just about everyone in the organization, as far as council, management, staff are going to be involved. And then you have the entire audit team. Council is going to be involved with the audit in January. making sure that it's happening, right? The oversight piece of it, but also you're likely going to every once in a while hear from the auditors asking for an interview. They might want to ask you some questions and they also usually send out a form to counsel asking for whether you individually know of any fraud that may have occurred or if you know of conflicts of interest and have they been disclosed, that kind of thing. City Manager is taking a lead role on it he's definitely involved your finance director and staff they're the key to preparing for the audit coordinating through the audit and then presenting results. Optional is a subject matter expert. Some organizations can cover that, cover the technical pieces of getting through the audit and others need some help. That's part of why I'm here. Other staff, all of your department heads and other staff in other departments are getting involved. They can attest to that. I'm sure it's kind of a pain when they're working on important things of the day, but it's appreciated that they take a minute to help us through this with the audit and answer questions. The other key piece is the independent CPA firm. So I am a CPA, but it's an independent CPA that you have to hire to do the audit. They have special accreditations and licensure to do that. What is an audit? It's an independent examination of the organization's financial statements and activities. So what the auditor is trying to do is they're going to come in and they're going to give council and outside bodies some level of assurance that the financial statements and the activities of the city are accurate and that they're being transparent. They're looking at the statements themselves. You've seen an audit report likely. It's like 100 pages of excellent reading. And yeah, they're going through and making sure that that's accurate, put together correctly. They do look at accounting practices of the city within all of the departments and internal controls. And then they're looking at some legal compliance. It could be with debting agencies, but they're definitely looking at budget law. The city has adopted a budget. Are you following it? Is management staying within the limits of what they have been authorized to spend? If you're lucky and you're getting a lot of federal loans or grants, you get to do a special audit on top of the financial statement audit. That same audit team will come in and look at how you're spending those funds, whether you have the processes in place, and we'll provide an opinion on that as well. That's called a single audit. And auditors will always tell you, hey, we're not out here looking for fraud. If they see something, some kind of red flag, they'll bring it up to us, but that's not their responsibility. That's not their ultimate goal. So that's the what of an audit. How about a where? Where does this happen? For about a week, we have an audit team come on site. We try to stick them in a closet or down in the dungeon or something like that where they're really comfortable. I'm totally kidding. They're in the conference room. There's a team of two or three of them with their laptops. And they spend the better part of that week looking at records that they need to look at, but also meeting with management and like shadowing on the processes and internal controls that we use. It takes quite a bit of time. Then they go back home. They work remotely from their office or home office, and they are documenting what they've found. They're looking at additional records, and they're pulling together their opinion. That's where the audit's happening. Why are audits happening? So These are the buzzwords, right? Accountability and transparency. And they're buzzwords, but they're very important for gaining and protecting public funds and building public trust. Those are the key reasons that audits exist. There's also certain legal standing and regulatory needs. And that's another reason why audits aren't going to need to happen. I'm going to take a moment. Any questions at this point? We've got the who, what, and here's the why. Yes. Yes.

So you said that when it comes to audits that people issuing loans or giving out grants, they want to see audits. What does a city or a municipality do when they want to see audits, but there's multi-year backlogs of audits that haven't been done?

It's a transparent conversation about here's what we have and here's what we don't have. Here's why we are behind in our audits and what we're doing about it. We have many granting agencies and not as many lenders, but some lenders as well that have the flexibility to consider the special circumstance. We're looking at a grant now. The city is working through a grant application where that was the situation. They wanted three years of audits. And we don't have completed audits for that. So it's conversations and documentation, official letters from me or from the audit firm saying, this is what's happening. And they try to get assurance for that. If it's not enough, it's not enough. And you don't qualify. Does that answer your question? Okay. Anything else? Councilor Rubin.

Thank you, Mayor. When there is a deficiency found and your action plan is filed and you're through the process, you're in compliance. What is the what's the duration of time that that basically is looked at or counted against the city? Is it dependent on the granting agency or do they drop off at a certain point?

It completely depends on the granting agency or the lender itself. Um, the state primarily is looking at three years as far as deficiencies or delinquencies come in, but different granting agencies have different expectations and requirements. Same with the lenders. So the most I've seen is back five years for what that's worth. Anything else? What else? Carrying on. How about the when? These are annual audits. Your fiscal year end is June 30th. You have six months to complete the audit. That includes preparing for it, getting the auditors in and out, preparing that big document in the report, the auditors doing final reviews, and then issuing their opinion. If you get close to December 31st and you're not going to make it and you have good cause, you can file for an extension with the Secretary of State's office. If you can show good cause, And it can't be happening for several years in a row. You have to be getting on top of it. But they can grant you an extension. If you make it by that extension date, then your audit is not considered late. It's considered timely. The typical audit process, we're talking about when this is happening. So finance staff, departments, we're all thinking about and knowing that an audit is going to be coming up, right? So that's always in the back of our heads as far as what documentation do we need to be keeping and what substantiation. Come springtime, most auditors in a normal process will come in generally for a few days again. And that piece of the audit where they're looking at processes, documenting processes, and then observing those processes and doing interviews, they'll try to get that done in the springtime so that after year end, they can focus on the more substantive work of looking at individual transactions. July and August, that's right after your fiscal year end. That's when finance staff and finance director are hustling to try to get all the reconcilations done in the books and get the books closed and ready for the audit. The auditors are going to come in September, October timeframe, generally speaking, and do what they need to do. And then November and December is finalizing the reviews of the audit and talking through issues, getting a game plan and communicating that with council and outside parties. How do we get these audits done? It takes a lot of time. And I did some research and found a study that tried to quantify about, on average, how long it takes to prepare for an audit and get through an audit. And this is what I found. So there's a table in the middle. And that is staff hours to do a single annual audit. I like how they organize this. It definitely tells a story, right? So if your city is very well organized, this is for a small city, like 20,000 or less population. If it's very well organized, staff can generally get ready and get through an audit in 50 to 100 hours. Typically, it's going to take closer to 200 hours. If things are especially complicated, you have especially complicated services that you provide or specialized transactions or a single audit, it may take longer, the 200 to 350 hours. And I didn't prompt this, but it brought up significant problems or backlog. So the city is experiencing backlog and it's the same process, the same prep, but because it was several years ago, it takes a lot of extra effort time to get prepared. I've been working on, I'm about two and a half years in helping with two and a half audits. That was not clear. Since I've started working with the city, we're through two audits and then getting ready for the third. And I'm about 500 hours in. So that can hopefully give you a scope. The CPA firm, on top of that, spends another 200 to 300 hours, generally speaking, to do what they need to do. Questions on that?

Councilor Meredith.

Thank you, Mayor. So one of the things that you've had to do is recreate those past year's financials so that people understand what all these hours are dedicated to.

Yeah, exactly. So I started with the fiscal year 22-23. That's the first year that we tackled. And that was about a year ago that we started working on that so it was still pretty far behind. You had, you had finance staff in place at that time, and they definitely knew what they were doing, but there were turnover issues and other timing issues where they were not able to get through it. So then a few years go by, right? I'm coming back in. I don't know the organization as well, but I know municipalities really well. So it takes some time to get to know the organization, but then also working through all your different services that you perform, making sure the accounting is right, everything is balanced, and we have all the schedules ready for the audit. So yeah, we're going back a few years. Yeah. Anything else?

Yeah. Councilor Sotomayor.

Is it customary to get a report from you when you're ready for the next audit? Or do we just kind of celebrate or think about things when audits are in the books?

Are you talking about in this situation that we're in right now or in a normal case?

I guess I'm not sure when you did the 23-24 audit or the one before. Okay.

Yeah, so the one before, the 22-23, we finished that up in April, and the auditor and Mike and I met with the audit committee and presented those results, and then we brought those results to the council. The auditor was here, and he did a presentation, a high-level presentation of what he did for the audit and his results. Councilor Irvin.

If I recall correctly, the audit committee, wasn't it still in draft form when that was presented?

I think you're right. I think it was. It wasn't quite finalized, but it was close.

Have we actually received the final?

Yes. Yes, we had the final before we presented it to council.

That was the final. That was just of 22-23. Correct. That's the most recent final we've been presented with, correct? Correct.

So 23-24, the next one, is in final draft form. We sent that late last week, addressing any final comments that the auditors have. They've gone back. They have the final draft, and it's basically ready for their audit opinion to be dropped in and final publication. So it's like 99.5% ready to go. And I'm really excited about that. It should be issued this week, and then we'll meet with the audit committee again and bring it to council. Good. Anything else? This is great. I love the question.

Can you give us a sneak peek?

I'm sorry? Oh, a sneak peek? I have a sneak peek in here, actually, of results.

Yeah, I was flipping through. I mean, from what I understand that we've been presented with, the issues that really plagued us were occurring and were found in that previous audit. So the timeframe that the not full accounting, both columns occurred was in the year that we do have the completed audit. Are there things that we should be aware of now? Or do we have good news awaiting us in this current draft audit of the 23-24?

I'm going to say it's some of both. Again, it was like two or three years ago. So to some extent, that is what it is. But to another extent, you've made great strides and have stable staff now. So the situation's a little different. I'll get into the details more, but there's nothing else catastrophic like you guys have been dealing with over the past six months. There's nothing else that we've found coming up like that. Yeah. Councilor Wilson.

Okay, so that's 23-24. Yeah, that'll be hopefully issued this week. So 24-25 is where we're at in that process.

Yeah, I've got the full timeline in the slides as well in the presentation. But the bottom line is that we intend to, and the goal is to have you caught up by the end of 2027. So December 2027. That's the goal. And the auditors are on board with that timeline. Thank you. Anything else at this point? Okay. So speaking specifically to city council's responsibility, and you have a one or two pager in front of you printed out as well that you can read through at your leisure. But the bottom line is that city council as a governing body is responsible for the high level oversight of city fiscal affairs of the organization. So what that means for the audit is making sure that an audit is happening, keeping pressure on management and others to make sure that it's happening as quickly as possible to get caught up and staying on time, and then making sure that any issues are being addressed. So, yes, hi.

As quickly as possible seems to be the operative term here. Yes. How would you counsel a counsel to discern what as quickly as possible actually means?

My best advice, like if I was in your seat, I would be asking the question probably every single meeting, where are we? Again, I'm an accountant, I'm a CPA, so I'm more sensitive to the finance side and the foundation underlying issues. internal controls and processes of the organization. Like I care about budget and strategy and what we've got going on with services now. But you also want to think about the regulatory side and the longer term. So my best advice is just to keep asking the questions. That's the best you can do with due diligence. If it seems like it's going further than you would expect, maybe dive in a little bit deeper, meet with counsel, meet with me, get some more information. Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you. There's another element to it. OK. And I notice I may be getting ahead of your slides. Yeah. But the landscape where there are fewer auditors, where there are firms that are going through turnover themselves. Yes. So just availability of them.

Exactly.

I'm just curious in your experience working with municipalities, where does that factor in with the state, with delinquencies, with even granting agencies, if you've had that? And what are we up against? Is the forecast of that even worse now? Yeah.

So if you look at the number of municipalities that are getting behind in their audits, if you look at the last three, four, five years, it has absolutely skyrocketed. And there are a few reasons for that, and we can go into that more. But the state understands very well why this is happening. They're asking a lot of questions of auditors, of CPAs. of organizations. Like, why is this happening? It's coming through with extension requests, but also, you know, as we go through and are catching up these audits, I'm calling the secretary of state's office, Amy John. She's the manager over the audit division and I'm giving her updates. Hey, this is what's going on in cottage Grove. We're working on these things. These are our challenges. Just want to let you know that, that council cares we're in here working. And that seems to go a long ways. Granting agencies, it depends on the agency, right? For the grantors, some understand that dynamic and others don't. That's basically all I can say.

Is this a state, a primarily state or region issue, or is this a trend across the US?

There are a couple of different factors playing into it, right? And they differ. So we're jumping ahead a little bit. So some of these slides later in my presentation, we'll, we'll skip through, but it's silver tsunami, right? There are a lot of different catch faces, but silver tsunami, where you have all the boomers that have all this institutional knowledge, start retiring and haven't had a chance to bring up the people that are still at the organization. So they're taking off. And what we're left with is a whole lot of folks that maybe know accounting, but don't know government, which is pretty specialized. And that flows through to auditors as well. So those factors are nationwide, if not global. As far as, to some extent, the auditor supply, there are other states that the state performs the audit, not an independent CPA. So that's a different dynamic, right? They still have the same requirements as far as completing the audit, but you don't have the same competitive situation going on in those states. So it's a little bit different and kind of the same. Anything else? Points? Oh, I didn't even cover that slide yet. Okay, so repercussions, consequences, if we're behind on the audit. The state doesn't have a big hammer. If a city is late, as you guys probably know at this point, they're not coming in and withholding state funds. They're not penalizing. Right now, they are just doing their regulatory job. There's nothing in the statute that gives them authority to do anything else what they do do is at least once a year if not more they issue a report and they send it out to their entire email list and it's a report of all the delinquent filers it's this huge list and it is substantial there are hundreds of municipalities in Oregon on that list that are behind with at least one audit. And it shows each organization for three years which audits are behind. So if you're behind all three, then you'll see that. If you're only behind one year, you'll see that as well. That does go out to the press. Some press picks it up. And then it becomes the court of public opinion, right? You may have citizens making statements and other impacts from the media and from the public. Those are substantial repercussions or consequences of being late with the audits. But from an operational standpoint, Especially with so much going on, like the city of cottage grove has you are looking for granting opportunities right you're looking for loan opportunities to finance big projects and it becomes more and more difficult without having those audits in place. To get substantial financing. need to go through the bond markets which requires a bond rating through moody's standard and poor etc and without those audits you cannot get a rating or an upgraded rating so a quick uh summary about why the city is behind mike you may want to speak to this too, if you have other things, but it comes down to several factors, all creating the perfect storm, right? So we had extended absences and turnover in the finance department, including the finance director that always sets things back. You have regulators at the national level creating new rules and standards for how transactions need to be reported. And there have been a few of those that have come out in the last three or four years that are just beasts, I will say. It takes a substantial amount of effort for staff to go through the legwork to do what these rules say we have to do. That takes time that oftentimes the finance department doesn't have. There are also auditing requirements, new auditing requirements. An auditor has a whole prescribed list of things they have to accomplish, and that continues to get more and more complicated. The audit firm that you guys are working with, that the city is working with, has also had substantial turnover. And that's something they've been battling and has definitely slowed our process in getting you caught up. They're working on it. It's a struggle to recruit finance, government finance especially, and they're feeling that just like the city is feeling that. So then there's the state of the industry in general, like we've discussed. Questions about that? OK. So as we've been going through these prior records, getting everything balanced, there have been things that have come up and have impacted your most recent budget process. You guys are aware of this. But as we have been working and as we continue to work, when we find errors or issues in prior years, those carry forward to the next year, which carries forward to the next year, which carries forward to the next year. So that's where this beginning fund balance concept has been coming from. And those are the issues that you've been addressing over the past six months. I'm not going to hash through those again. You guys know what they are and have been dealing with it amazingly well. As we continue to go through the audit, I can't promise that we're not going to find anything else substantial. I would be really surprised if we find anything that big. I'm not expecting that at all. We are going to have adjustments, and some are going to help your fund balance, and some are going to hinder your fund balance. As we find major ones, we will be bringing those to your attention. At this point, as I was preparing for this meeting, there was an adjustment from a couple of years ago related to the industrial park fund that was a couple hundred thousand dollars. And so I was planning to bring that to your attention. And then earlier today, Eric and I were looking at something and found another adjustment that offsets it. So that's kind of the environment. That's what we're looking at. But if anything substantial comes up, you will be hearing about it. Results of recently completed audits. So audits in general, when your auditor gets done with their audit, they're going to give you an opinion. That's the level of assurance that they're providing to the public and an acknowledgment of how the audit went and the position of the municipality. So your gold star is an unqualified opinion. That's saying the auditors were able to review the records. Everything looks good. They didn't find anything major that means that this statement is potentially wrong. And they don't see any major gaps in your processes or internal controls that you need to deal with. The next level down is, yes, everything looks good with a couple exceptions. few areas here that we either couldn't audit or had some other issues. An adverse opinion is I've never seen one, to be honest, because they are to be avoided at all costs. It means that the auditor did go in and they did issue an opinion, but it's not a good opinion. They found major discrepancies, major issues with processes and internal controls. That's not going to happen with you guys. Same disclaimer, same situation. Disclaimer just means that the auditor came in to do an audit. And because of whatever circumstances, they were not able to complete it. Either the records weren't ready, something else was happening to where they were not able to provide an opinion. So they will give a letter, an opinion that is saying we can't give an opinion. That's the disclaimer. Where's the city at? The last couple audits we've been doing, it's a qualified opinion. Every one thing looks good. There are a couple exceptions, which are areas that they were unable to audit. And I'm going to go into those. There's a very good reason why they weren't able to. So I'm going to be discussing two audits as if they're completed. I consider 24 completed. It's basically in publication or production. For 23, these are the issues that came up and that you would have heard about from the presentation. So again, it's partially qualified opinion. And there were two reasons. In this timeframe that they're auditing, we're talking about major rules and pronouncements that came out that we're going to take a ton of work to get ready for. We had a choice as we were going through and trying to get the city caught up. We could have called a timeout. stopped trying to get caught up, work through these new pronouncements and everything that's required, and then pick it back up and keep going. We chose not to do that. We chose to continue prioritizing getting the city caught up at the same time working on these projects so that by the time we do get caught up, those are in place and ready to go. So there were two pronouncements that are the exceptions to the opinion for 23. The audit did call out a deficit fund balance for the industrial park fund, but there were no budget deficiencies. There weren't any areas that were over budget and they didn't have any other findings on internal controls or processes. So I think that's great news. I think this is a good result. I'm happy with this. For 24, a little bit rougher, but still good news. So it's the same partially qualified opinion. There's one more exception, which is easements. So So the city tracks and lists capital assets, right? For important reasons. And one thing that hasn't been tracked historically is the value of the easements that the city has. And that needs to be done. It hasn't been caught in the past, but we did catch it. And so that's another project that needs to happen. We're only going to be looking for substantial ones, but we've been talking with Faye about how to go about... identifying and valuing the easements. Once we can do that, then we can get it into the books and this exception goes away. Deficit fund balances. Again, we're working a few years back, but there were a couple other funds that joined the Deficit Fund Balance Club, the Street Fund, and the General Fund Reserve Fund. These are the deficit fund balances that fed into the beginning fund balance that you guys have done in the current budget. So those, in essence, have been or are being addressed. Sounds certain.

Thank you. A couple thoughts. We did a supplemental budget with transfers. Was that addressing these deficit funds? And then what would be the difference between a deficit fund balance and going over budget?

So when I speak to going over budget, when you adopt a resolution and adopt a budget, there are appropriations in there. Those are buckets, like spending buckets. And management has to run this organization and spending within those buckets. If they're going to go over those buckets, something's going on, they need to come back to council, explain what's going on. and get additional authorization to expend or figure something else out if council won't approve it. Over budget is when management overspent in a certain appropriation. A deficit fund balance. So within the city's financial world, there are funds and each fund there's like general funds, street fund. They're generally organized by resources that need to be kept separate from everything else for whatever reason they need to be kept sacred. And so each of those get its own entire set of books that the city finance department manages. Each fund has a balance at the beginning of the year. They receive revenues during the year. They spend money during the year. And at the end of the year, there's a net resource amount left over, hopefully. That then goes into the next year and continues on. A deficit fund balance means that that balance at the end of the year was less than zero. So that fund, that business division, that separate set of books, spent more than it had overall.

So if we have to have a balanced budget, you can't budget spending more than you have.

Yeah, you can't budget with a negative ending balance in any of the funds. That's correct.

So that's why I'm not sure how they're not wanting the same thing happening. You'd be over budget if you had negative and you didn't because you can't budget zero or less.

Mr. Sauerwein.

But good evening, your honor members of the council. Let me give you a specific example. The street fund from the 2023, 2024 budget. The issue was really timing. At the end of the fiscal year, we have until, you know, the fiscal year ends at the end of June. We have until the end of August to go back and make changes if we receive bills. We all know sometimes you get bills two, three months after, you know, they had the expenditure. So we're able to go back and do that. Now with the street fund, at the end of the year, we had not received all of our reimbursement from FEMA yet. And that reimbursement didn't come back until September. So in essence, we had $74,000 less than we should have at the end of that year, but we had $74,000 more in the next fiscal year because we'd received the FEMA reimbursement. So a lot of times you have to look at these things in context over multiple years. This is a concept that we haven't introduced yet in Cottage Grove, but it's something that Eric and I have certainly talked about, is this is the reason you'll see some cities do two-year budgets so that they're able to address and look at 24 months rather than just 12 months. But these sort of things are going to happen. But again, these are exactly the questions that we want you guys to ask. These are exactly the things you should be looking at and asking us about. But again, often it's a timing issue because of when revenue comes in as opposed to when we expended the funds.

Agreed. Great point. Thank you. Mr. Stewart.

I'd like to add just another little piece on the street fund that makes it really difficult is the state collects the gas tax and disperse it. So generally history has shown that the state will pay the state share of the gas tax within about a month, month and a half of receiving it. We found that actually it almost takes two months for them to distribute the local gas tax that they collect. So take for instance, We've spent all of our resources come June 30th for that year, but we won't actually know the true number that we received for our gas tax, potentially till the middle of August or the end of August. And that makes it really difficult because there could be some sort of circumstances where people don't buy as much gas and we over projected. So we really try to use... a 10 year period of time in our chart to say, okay, this is the average, this is the, you know, this is where we're finding that the trends are changing. And then you throw in a year like COVID and it's all up in the air. So, um, This refund is probably, I would say, one of our most difficult funds to really keep track of and balance and make sure. And we really like to try to keep enough contingency to be able to make that supplemental budget request if we feel something is going to go upside down within that two-month period after our expenditures have stopped being spent. So hopefully that helps.

Thank you. Other questions at this point? Okay, so those are the most recently completed audits. We talked about the exceptions to the audit opinions, the qualified opinions or unqualified opinions. There were the accounting pronouncements, right? Those two big beasts of accounting pronouncements. And then there was the easements. So those three projects are happening simultaneously by the finance department, public works, working together at the same time. that we're trying to catch up the audits. So the goal is that by the time we do get the 26-27 audit, which would be December of 2027, that we then have an unqualified opinion and all of those exceptions have been addressed. So that's the timeline goal and the unqualified opinion goal. These are just more details about the Sorry, the timeline. So 24 is going to be issued, I'm assuming this week. 25, our goal is by December 31st. Fiscal 26, which is due December. We're going to ask for an extension on that, given good cause, and try to get that done by June of next year, which would be about a year late, but still much better than we have been. And then comes 27. And that's our chance to get caught up. Questions about that?

Councilor Urban. So a budget is adopted, say, June of 27. Okay. When is the expected or typical due date for the audit for that year's, for 27-28's fiscal year?

So let me make sure I understood the question. So we're in June of 2027, which is the end of that fiscal year.

Yeah, thank you. So we're talking about the budget that starts July 1, 27, runs through June of 28.

Okay.

When is 27, 28, but audit due?

December of 28. So it's six months after the end of the fiscal year. It's when it's due to the state, unless you can get an extension.

And then the other, from the previous conversation about the cause of a delinquent fund balance is typically a timing issue of funds, revenue, typically revenues received.

Generally speaking, that's usually what's happening.

When you're going, when the audit, I presume, is... freezing itself in the timeframe of, it can't look forward, right? It can't look at any. So that's why it's saying, even if the funds had come in for the 24, three 24 budget, if they'd come in in August, like we were talking about, they were, it was delinquent at June 30th. Is that, or yeah, for the, for that previous budget, is that the idea that,

I think we're close. I don't want to get overly technical, but if we're looking at a June 3rd hard cutoff date, right? If you have earned revenue, you can report it as a receivable.

It's a cash account.

This is accrual accounting. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

So you would record a receivable knowing you're going to get the revenue in the next year. You're going to receive it next year, but you get to show it as the previous year's revenue with a receivable. Governmental funds, so not your utilities, but your other governmental funds, say you can only report that as the prior year revenue if it comes in by the end of August. It has to be available to be spent as of that June 30. That's entirely a government concept. So I'm trying to answer your question without getting too technical, but that's how the timing works.

And then this is certainly will show some ignorance as to municipal accounting. In all this process, I'm like, who's checking the bank account balance?

Yeah.

Where, you know, as far as being negative, like in standard person's experience, you would get a, you know, your overdraft protection just kicked in kind of thing.

Yeah.

Is there a concept of that happening? I mean, can there be a deficit balance, but money still in that account? Because we're talking about, you know, they're separate.

Right.

There's not all separate accounts or is this all the pooled account? Right. So that never goes negative or like how, why, what does that not really come up?

Your actual balance in the bank. Let's say you have a million dollars. Do you get a bank statement? It has a million dollars on it. The city staff have processes in place to monitor that every day. They're looking at that balance and the activity in that account, but also. the upcoming activity? Is payroll coming up? Do we have a major expenditure? And making sure that there's money in the bank for that. So I don't worry about your bank accounts going negative. In the accounting records, It looks a little different, right? Because the accounting records consider, just like balancing your checkbook, consider you may have checks that you wrote but haven't cleared the bank yet, right? So the bank says you have a million dollars, but in your head and in the accounting, you only have $900,000. So you're going to see a little bit of a difference there. Not sure if that answers your question. Mr. Summerwinds.

Just to give you a little bit of the view from internal city staff, we have people reviewing our bank accounts at Somerset on a daily basis. And every Tuesday, I meet with folks in charge of our accounts payable, and we talk about our cash position. and whether or not we need to transfer money out of the state pool to meet payroll, or do we have a big bond payment coming up that we need to transfer money out of the state pool for? So again, we have those conversations every Tuesday morning. That's just part of our internal operations.

So we have bank accounts locally.

We do have some. Mm-hmm.

Then there's money held in the state pool. They're both accruing interest, presumably. What determines what's locally is really what we're operating off of? Is that the idea?

Yeah, our operating funds, what we write, our checkbook is at Banner Bank. We earn a higher rate of return on the state pool. So we try to leave as much money as long as we can in the state pool. But now, for example, we do payroll twice a month. We transfer money from the state pool into Banner Bank to be able to meet payroll as close as we can. So we get as much interest as we can off of it.

And then at the state pool are, are those all separate accounts like enterprise fund, like street fund is its own account at the state pool, or is it all a big pool? So you really do rely on your, your accounting system.

Yeah, you do. Yep. So both the, both the operating accounts, the banner bank accounts and the investment accounts are considered considered pool. They're shared by everyone. Um, It absolutely relies on the accounting system to keep those funds sacred. Again, each one is a separate set of books, and your accounting system is built for that specifically. It's a governmental accounting system, and it works really well. It has a whole function to make sure that the cash, the shared cash, is allocated appropriately and kept in the right bucket.

So the risk truly is... Between the computer and the chair.

Human error? Pretty much.

Yeah.

That is what I brought for you today. Other questions?

Anyone else? Thank you, Summer.

Thank you. And I am really grateful to be working with the city. I'm enjoying this project, working with your staff. I love what I do. And these kind of projects are why. So thank you.

I just want to really thank you, Summer. You have done an incredible job of dragging us kicking and screaming into the 21st century in a number of different ways, and I really appreciate it. And I would just offer to the council, Summer is our independent CPA. If any of you would like to talk with her or have a conversation, please do so. We'll be happy to provide you with the contact information.

Appearance of interested citizens. This is the time for citizen comment. The council will first take comments addressing items not listed on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. The council will then take comments addressing action items on the agenda for a maximum of 30 minutes. Individual speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer, provide their name, identify whether they are a city resident, and if so, their ward. Please limit comments to three minutes or less with council approval. Comments regarding any matter scheduled for a public hearing may be provided only during that hearing. The council will not make any decisions based on public comment. However, staff and council may choose to ask questions or comment following the conclusion of citizen comments. We have two people signed up. Del Gangle.

Thank you, Dale Gangle, Ward 1. I'd like to start by thanking Police Chief, Police Department Chief Chase over here. He's doing a bang-up job. He's doing a great job. But we've got things we've got to address in this city. Finding needles on our streets and our sidewalks and so forth ain't going to cut it. I know Mr. Suttelmeyer thinks it's not a problem. So I figured I'd just bring this in and show you. This is a problem. I've found these less than six feet apart. I had nothing but a water bottle to put in. That is not a proper sharps. We need to do something. This council right here is responsible for the safety of this city. Get a community awareness program going. Get it on the radio. Get it in the newspaper. Put sharps containers in our batches. Obviously, we're not going to get rid of the homeless problems around here. Do something else then. What am I supposed to do with these things? The chief tells me earlier he's not going to take them. Maybe I can hand them through the window up here. What am I supposed to do with these things? They don't belong in the garbage. That's not the right thing. We need to do something with it. I think some kind of a community awareness program would be great. This guy here has got his hands full. We can't be calling the cops every time we find a needle in the ground. This man is doing a great job. I don't want to burden him any further. And you guys are doing a great job, at least most of you. But I want to do a little bit more. We're going to do some safety around. And please, listen to the public. I mean, this last meeting we had here, everybody that got up here was dead set against that tower going in. Every last speaker up here was against it. They went through anyway. They aren't listening to the people. We need to... Take advantage of the people's words. Mr. Sotomayor, would you like to dispose of this for me? I would very much appreciate it. All right. I thank you for your time. I don't mean to be rude, but something's got to be done with that. It's getting worse. It's not getting better. We got to do something. Thank you very much.

Jack Jacobs.

Hello. There's two items on the list, but I talked to Chief Chase and he said the one I'll address with him tomorrow. I am a crossing guard, uh, at ACE on 10th. Okay. So chief chase has been great in regards to having squad cars there, you know, kind of trying to, uh, detract the drivers from speeding like they do in the morning. Um, and, uh, we put a speed, uh, auto speed indicators, you know, we've done that. Um, Okay, so, and we put these signs, or these little, I don't know what you want to call it, things in the middle of the road saying, again, state, you know, state law that you got to slow down for the kids, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so I have an Aussie that likes to be walked. So I live between Gateway and 10th. So I'm walking down 10th all the time. And so... I looked up my Excel spreadsheet, did some calculations. Just kidding. So anyways, basically the speeding there is 25%, probably 25 to 35. 35 to 50 is probably 45%, maybe 50%. And the rest of it's 50 and above. What? It's 25 there. There's school. You have the park, Bohemian Park. I had a guy today, this afternoon. White Tahoe. Muffler's not working. Okay. About the early 2000s. The gentleman's about 25 to 30 years old. So I'm just looking at him, staring him down. He gives me this Pete, the one fingers peace sign. Okay. So you know what he does? I said, eh, eh, turn around. He turned around, okay? He was going to accost me on just looking at him. So anyways, I got one minute left. Okay, so here's my suggestion. I had the same thing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Alloway Avenue. You have Taylor Street where the school is, right? And it would be great for a derby run, derby car run, right? So what happens, these guys... I'm coming downhill. So maybe they don't know how fast they're going, whatever. So here's my suggestion. And I don't know, maybe I need to talk to city manager who's responsible for facilitating this process, but there's, if you're going towards Bohemian from Taylor, there's a dead ends into 10th, it's called Quincy street. My suggestion was, would be put a stop sign there. Okay. Something like you did on Main Street, right? You put stop signs there to help facilitate the non-speeders. My suggestion, and maybe you guys can help me understand how to move forward with that suggestion with putting a stop sign in Quincy. Okay.

Thank you.

Because somebody's going to get hurt bad by these speeders. A lot of kids. Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. Mr. Stewart, would you have any guidance on Or if he wants to know how to put a stop sign in, oh, he's...

Yes, Mayor. So generally we take a written request for a stop sign to be placed in a certain location. And I turn that written request over to our traffic engineer at Branch Engineering. They'll do a full-blown study and they'll make a recommendation to the council is to add a stop sign, don't add a stop sign. They'll analyze it and give me a recommendation to present to the city council. Very much similar to what we did at the intersection of Adams and 6th Street.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Councilor Urban.

Do you have a, thank you, Mayor, a general sense of the cost of a study for a sign, sort of a typical?

Mayor, Councilor Urban, I don't have a cost to do the study. I could probably go back through the Study that was done at 6th and Adams and probably be able to get a cost to you and then it could cost in the neighborhood of $4,000 to $5,000 to install signs depending on the intersection.

Councilor Sotomayor.

Just knowing that area, if we had an engineering firm ask, is there too much traffic coming from the side to warrant that? I don't think that's the nature of what this stop sign would be for. It would be to stop people. I mean, the speeding thing. Would an engineering study consider that? you know, the breaking up of traffic in the straight line thoroughfare like that?

Mayor, Councilor Sotomayor, yes, that's exactly what happened in 6th Street. As you may recall, 6th Street was free flow from essentially Highway 99 to Main Street. And there's always been stop signs. There was always a two-way stop in Adams. In the recommendation from branch, the reason that the recommendation was to support the four-way stops was because of a vision impaired portion of the street. So typically all your streets have a classification and then they have the classification. They go by essentially the state's guidance for four-way stops. what recommendations are for roads council does have some leeway to flex that recommendation so take for instance speeds typically the way you're supposed to determine speeds you do a full blown traffic study it figures out what the average speed is and then there's a formula that you use to determine what the posted sign or speed should be in that street And since over the last, I think, four or five years, the state legislature has passed some regulation that gives the city the ability to reduce the speed below what the state recommended or the state practice of setting the speed. So I don't have the specifics in this instance. 10th street is a major collector i believe most if not all side streets have stop signs on them not aware of any any street on 10th street that flows right into town from a side street so they'll look at the major collector they'll study the number of trips the average speed has taken place and they'll make a recommendation they'll look at vision clearance another recommendation as yes they would recommend slowing uh down but typically you can't it's not legal under law because um somebody wants to stop sign there has to be justification stop something it just you just can't you gotta there's rules to govern the operation of the road that's generally that the way there has to be a justification to allow something that's um not there

I live off of that street, and one of the things that I think of frequently is there's not a lot of indicators of the speed. It is a wider street. There's... I would... not that it excuses people to go well in excess, but I think if you're driving down by Bohemia, there's not a lot of cars on the road. 25 just naturally feels a little slow. So I think a lot of people just pick up the speed and go, and there's not a sign that says 25 miles an hour for, I don't know where they actually are all posted. Until you get down to Ace, then it's 20 in a school sign. Maybe part of the solution is a couple of additional signs just to start with.

Mayor, Councilor Irvin, I don't disagree. We did that on Taylor from Gateway. We added additional signs. I would say there's no conclusive evidence that adding those signs actually slowed the people down. I think you pointed out exactly what takes place. We have it in multiple locations in the city. If you go over the connector, it's 25 miles an hour going downhill. When you get to the bottom of it, it's pretty easy to be going 40 miles an hour if you're not paying attention. You have to pay attention to this driver. And there's mechanisms for getting people to obey the rules. One of them that is probably the cheapest and one that's been very effective in the past is locating our speed trailer on a location over there because it's making people aware of their speed and then they tend to follow it. And there are probably going to be drivers that don't care how fast they're driving. But for the most people that it's brought to their attention, they'll stop. And it doesn't necessarily mean there needs to be a police officer located there. There are mechanisms to try to get folks to follow the speed limits.

Councilor Haynck.

That was actually going to be my question. Since it's hoops of fire to get a stop sign, what would you recommend being... possible solution. Sounds like you just answered that.

I still think that it's probably worth having the engineering firm look at it. So I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. I don't know what the outcome is going to be. But in short term, We have these devices. We have a trailer mounted speed sign. We also have some fixed speed signs. I have to check and see if we got batteries and that they're operational. But it's very possible that we attach the speed sign to a fixed pole that will also work just like the speed trailer and try to get that up so that folks understand. Let's give them an awareness about faster driving.

Councillor Wilson.

Yeah, another solution that is done in multiple cities, and I'm not a huge fan of them, but is speed bumps, raised sections that tend to slow traffic.

There, Councillor Wilson, yes. That is an option. It's been one that the engineers that give advice to this body have not supported. Um, doesn't mean that, um, the council wouldn't correct that to happen. But I would ask that you would have. A professional come in and speak to you as to what impacts that could be. You know, hitting a speed bump faster than they're supposed to be taken can. As a car to do things that maybe you're as a driver are prepared for, which in turn could have some pretty negative impact. So. It might possibly be something to consider, but I would ask that we would bring the professionals in to educate if that's where the council would like to go.

I like the idea of having a study. I like the idea of having one of those battery-powered speed signs somewhere like southbound facing maybe even around Bohemia Park. Seems like that would be a great first step. And I agree, speed jumps are a little dangerous. There's channels dedicated to big ones and it's pretty scary.

Yeah, speed jump might be the better way to put that. It's not a challenge that we're get our airborne.

Undulations ahead.

Thank you. all right it is 8 10 p.m and i now open the public hearing on on file number a 1-26 annexation of map tax slots 21-03-05-10-00902 and 00904 This hearing will be held in accordance with the land use procedures required by the city and state of Oregon. At the beginning of the public hearing tonight, staff will identify the applicable substantive criteria from Cottage Grove Municipal's code. Public testimony is limited to three minutes per person. The timer will go off at the end of three minutes. Each person may testify only once unless called back to the podium at the request of a counselor. The applicant will first have an opportunity to present the proposal and address any issues raised by the staff report and recommendation. The council will then hear a public comment in favor. then neutral comment, and then we'll conclude with comment opposed to the application request. City staff may then present additional material and recommendations based on public testimony. The applicant will be given the opportunity to have the last word. After each presentation, I will ask for questions from counsel. Those wishing to speak should be signed up on the comment sheet or be waiting on the phone. When called upon to speak, please step up to the podium. We are recording this hearing, so please also clearly state your name and address when you're called to speak. This will help in preparing accurate written minutes of the hearing and assist with mailing copies of the decision to all interested parties. If you have written testimony or other evidence to submit, please give that to staff so it can be entered into the record. Council members are required to disclose any conflicts of interest, bias, or ex parte contacts that they have had with the proposal or the applicant. That is, whether we have any financial or other personal interest in the proposal and whether we have spoken with anybody about the proposal outside of the hearing. Counselors may only participate if they can do so without undue bias for or against the application. Do any counselors wish to make disclosures? Counselor Irvin.

I did receive a phone call a few weeks back from a constituent that wanted to share information about or ask what I thought about this. I didn't have a lot of information about it at the time, but they did share that there were issues with Lane County from a tax perspective, and I thought something to the effect of fees. But I said, I think if this is going to a public hearing, then this is – I think we should wait till to that time to go into detail, but the conversation got to that part before I could address that. So I don't know if there's any additional detail that needs to be added to that, but that's ex parte contact I've had on this issue so far.

Thank you. Councilor Sotomayor.

I went by the lot and observed that there were buildings in pretty poor condition. involved um didn't really make a change in in what i was doing but i was wanted a visual of what was going on and did witness as the letter described there was a house very near here with a kid jumping on a trampoline you know definitely there are um other households nearby

Councillor Leverman.

Kind of piggybacking off of Councillor Urban's ex parte, I was listening to the paper show this morning and some talk of this topic started to come up and they were starting to address some of the tax issues and I immediately turned off the paper show and quit listening. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Anyone else?

Are there any challenges from the audience as to conflicts of interest, ex parte, contacts, or bias related to any member of the City Council? Is there a motion to allow or, I'm sorry, skipped ahead. State law requires me to tell you a number of things at the beginning of this hearing. First, the applicable substantive criteria that apply to this application are contained in the written staff report and will be identified and discussed in oral staff report. Second, your testimony, arguments, and evidence must be directed towards these criteria or other criteria in the development code that you believe apply to this application. Third, failure to raise an issue accompanied by statements or evidence sufficient to afford the decision maker or other people an opportunity to respond may preclude appeal of this decision on this application based on that issue. Finally, to the applicant, failure to raise constitutional or other issues relating to proposed conditions of approval with sufficient specificity to allow the city to respond to the issue precludes any action for damages in circuit court. May we please hear from staff?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So on June 1st, 2026, the real property owners of 77918 Highway 99 and an unaddressed parcel, the map and track slots of 21-03-05-10-00902 and 00904, properly initiated the annexation of these parcels by requesting the use of the expedited procedure allowed under Section 18.04.050 of the Cottage Grove Municipal Code. On July 9th, 2026, one request was made for a public hearing regarding this matter, as is permitted by that section, and one public comment was also dismissed. The criteria for an annexation as outlined in Section 18.04.040 of the Cottage Grove Municipal Code are as follows. A, the property is within the city's urban growth boundary. B, the property is contiguous to current city limits. C, unless the proposed annexation area is surrounded by the city, the majority of property owners and electors within the proposed annexation area have consented in writing to the annexation for a standard procedure with a public hearing or all property owners and at least 50% of electors within the annexation area have incentive in writing to the annexation for an expedited procedure without the public hearing as per ORS 222.125 or 222.170. And then the last criteria is adequate services and infrastructure exist or can be provided at the proposed annexation site as per the applicable comprehensive plan designation. These services and infrastructure include provision of water, sewage service, storm drainage, and streets. The subject properties are located within the city's urban growth boundary. They are contiguous to city limits. The property owner did consent in writing to the annexation and existing public facilities, services, and transportation networks already support the subject properties. City services exist within Highway 99 and include water and sewer. And at the time of development, the applicant shall adhere to the stormwater requirements of Section 14.35.200 of the Cottage Grove Development Code. The subject properties are adequately served by police service, fire protection, and a thorough transportation network. So the application meets the criteria laid out in the municipal code. The concerns that were raised in the public comments, although each one. So the first one was safety. The public comment alleges that the property owner intends to establish and operate a community housing or homeless camp on the site and request safety measures to be put in place. There are no proposed changes of use with this annexation application. At the time the property owner wishes to change the use of the property, that change of use application and other applicable applications shall be reviewed by the Community Development Department. Another concern was culvert and drainage protection. The public comment requests that the city require a certified drainage and stormwater management plan, a maintenance agreement or easement and an inspection schedule and reporting required. As I mentioned before, there's no development proposed and therefore there is no nexus for me to require these items for the current use. At the time of development, these concerns shall be addressed as is required in section 14.35.200. The third issue that was raised was property lines and fencing. The applicant was required to provide a legal boundary description of the proposed area to be annexed, which they submitted with their application. The city has no basis to question its accuracy or boundary markers. As with the other concerns raised, fencing might become an issue at the development stage, but boundaries and private fencing disputes are civil matters and they have been for neighbors to work out between themselves. The concerns raised during public comment do not speak to the criteria of the code. And as I said, they will be addressed appropriately during any future development applications. The proposed annexation of the subject properties is in compliance with the standards and criterion of ORS 222.111 sub one and the college government municipal code chapter 18.04, which governs the requested annexation.

Thank you.

May we please hear from the applicant. Thank you. We will now hear public comment on this matter. I'll begin with the proponents. proponents Dwayne Toddy.

Good evening. Thank you all for your service to the community. I'll say that first. Dwayne Toddy, 77561 Highway 99, about three quarters of a mile from this property. I'm not opposed to the plan. I'm not opposed. in support of the plan. But first off, both Michael and Robert, Bobby, the folks that wrote the letter, wanted me to let you know that you couldn't be here tonight. One's a coach and does sports, and the other has family from Alaska. And so I thought I'd mention that. If they're not watching, I'll share with them that the city says that there's no compliance issues with their concerns at this time. I have a couple issues here. I'll lay them out here. If I'm out of line, let me know. And I'll try to state the reason why I'm bringing this up. And if not, then I'll move on to the next. So the first one is this ODOT culvert issue. A lot of people don't know there's a, the ditch, the ditch on highway 99 ends at the property line there. And then there's a culvert that runs, I think diagonally underneath that property and underneath the trailer park to the back of the trailer park, then down along the tree line. And then it runs into this, the, the, old KNND building through the homeless, the old homeless shelter and then into the storage facility and then underneath the proposed R Street expansion and back out to the highway. So there could be an issue if if you're going to if they're going to plan to build two homes, put concrete, put asphalt. Everybody knows that wastewater drain water will go into that ditch. And then it's apparently it's an 18 inch pipe. nobody knows the condition it is in, that would be a concern. So I guess that could be addressed at the time that there's a proposal to split this and put driveways in and houses. I mentioned earlier, I did contact a city councilor And I did talk on the radio this morning about the taxes. This person, I won't name him. There's no need to. They own multiple properties, a dozen or more, in Lane County, several in Cottage Grove, several in Crestwell. They're currently delinquent on their 2024-2025 taxes, at least $2,000 per property. The one that we're speaking of today is delinquent, $2,054. Two of them in Crestwell, delinquent. Almost 2,000 on one, over 2,000 on another. One on Mosby Creek and one on Sears Road, all delinquent in taxes for 2024, 2025. So at the bottom of the staff report, it says cost, zero, none. If you get money out of the guy, good luck. If not, it does cost money. It costs money to run this. Compliance records, there's at least 13 records. Some of them are duplicates. If you go on Lane County Records, you'll see dating back to November of 2005. Lane code 5.74, garbage and waste, 11.10-20. RVs, occupied RVs on the property. Then in 2007, the same thing. 2018, solid waste, and that was after the fire, so the county was complaining about the burned building. 2018, so September and October. May of 2021, same thing. They requested a demo of the building. They named it a dangerous building. Occupied RVs. And then in October of 2020, they never complied with that process to abate the dangerous dwelling. Fines, fines and fines. Do I still got a second mayor? Let me know when I'm OK. Lots of fines. As far as I know, none of them have been assessed. Two hundred dollar a day, three hundred dollar a day, thousand dollars a day. The property was sold to another party in 2021. Personal opinion to avoid fines. Then they took ownership of that property back again in 2023. So they lost it or didn't have it for two years. They now have the same person now owns it. in order to comply in December of 2023. And since then, the county has stated that they're no longer looking at the properties pending the outcome of the annexation. So I will mention that Section 5 of the ordinance requires adequate services to be placed out. I know there's water that goes to Weyerhaeuser. I'm assuming it's on the east side of 99. I think that Mike, the excavation has sewage, city sewage. So I think there's sewer there. It's served by police and fire. I have some of these... records here i'll share with you but it's it's i don't have a lot of paper and ink at home so i'll give you what i got and you can do your research um let's see what i got here i'll close with uh With saying I'm concerned about adequate services. Now, I don't live in town, so I don't have to pay for this. But what I wrote here at the top is the constituents and the representatives should be concerned about this. They should be concerned about the water. They should be concerned about not receiving the taxes. It costs money to do business. And if you're not getting the money, it's hard to collect. It takes several years to get the property. And then I'll say in annexation, the compliance standards, If the annexation is in compliance with the standards and criteria listed in Section 18.04.040 and any other codes that may apply, then I see you've got to approve it. Otherwise, Carrie will let you know why you can't, and then we'll address the issues at a future meeting. So like I said, I'm not opposed to it. I'm not in support of it, but I think this is information you guys all need to know.

Thank you. Linda Olson. Do any counselors have further questions of the individuals that have testified? May the staff have anything to add?

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Thank you, Duane, for bringing those up. I appreciate the drainage issues, yes, it will be addressed the development parcel acreage does trigger our stormwater management. code, and so, if they were to redevelop anything 1000 square feet impervious surface or greater they do have to do stormwater management, it is something that I chatted with our public works director about just to confirm. As far as the taxes go that. I have a large packet on my desk of similar properties. It's not pertaining to the criteria. I understand the concern, but it doesn't pertain. As far as compliance records go, I can't speak for Lane County, but I am the lead code enforcement officer here at the city. It is something that we've been made aware of, discussed it internally. If there is a situation where we do need to do enforcement, that is something that we would do. Um, and then as far as the services provided, um, and I, I might be paraphrasing a bit here, but the costs borne by the residents of the city, if they are wanting to tie in an extent that is on the applicant. So, um, thank you for raising these concerns and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions? Councilor Lamberman.

Madam mayor, council, uh, So are any of the neighboring properties already annexed in or would these just kind of be an island?

Sure. Mayor, Councilor Lamberman, no other neighboring properties are annexed in. The nexus is Highway 99 that was recently annexed.

Don't we normally have to have a connecting property?

It is connecting to Highway 99, which is under the city's jurisdiction. Not jurisdiction, pardon me, but city limits was extended down to the edge of the urban growth boundary, and that was mid last year.

Okay, so because the easement is considered city property, that's why they're able to annex in versus like a real property next to them?

In this case, Councillor, Highway 99 would be considered that real property that's in city limits. So that is the same situation.

All right, thank you. Anyone else? Councillor Sotomayor.

Isn't the idea of us stretching south kind of something that we're working on in general as far as our plans?

Mayor, Councilor Sutter-Briar, I won't speak to that city policy or direction per se, and maybe Mike or Faye can chime in, but it is within the urban growth boundary. The intention is eventually all the land that's in that urban growth boundary will become city limits. I know there's been discussion of bringing services a little bit more to those areas because, you know, septic's failing or they need to get on and they can't legally. And so that was an internal discussion that we've had for a couple of years since I've been here. But if either of these gentlemen would like to jump in, please do.

Mr. Stewart.

Mayor, Councilor Sotomayor, so having the request to annex it down to the end of the city limits, the urban growth boundary was twofold. We have Weyerhaeuser down there that has multiple properties. We have Fox Lumber and we have Kimwood. At one time, there's been informal conversations about trying to see those entities annex into the city limits. And we're still hopeful that at some point they will. But the Highway 99 makes that connection so that they would be able to annex into the city those properties. And that makes it possible for all those properties that are outside the city limits but inside the urban growth boundary that are adjacent to. So whether it's the rodeo or the businesses or the additional homes along that road could eventually, if they choose, annex into the city, either by necessity because they have a septic system that failed or a well that failed. they could acquire city services if they annex into the city.

This is the final chance to ask questions of staff before we go into deliberations. None? Councillor Lammerman.

Madam Mayor, Council, Mr. Stewart, in relations to this property, where are our current utilities available? running out to are they already water and sewer already within proximity of that? Or if they opted to tie into both water and sewer? Would we then have to take on additional costs of running utilities out to that property?

Mayor, Councilor Lamberman, so we do have water, sewer, and storm that is parallel to that property on Highway 99. There is a sewer line that is on the west side of Highway 99. I think I misspoke. I don't believe that there is a storm line out there other than what was mentioned as a collecting culvert. And then the water line that exists is on the east side of the railroad tracks. Typically, it's required if you're within 300 feet of city utilities, then the county is going to require you to go talk to the city and try to hook up to their utilities if you have a failure, such as your well or your septic system. And right now, I'm guessing the water is just right there at the property line, or excuse me, sewer, and the water is across Highway 99 and the railroad tracks, probably within about 75 feet of the piece of property. And the cost would be borne by the property owner. It's not going to be the city that will pay to hook it up. If we run the water line, they will be paying us to do that. All right, thank you.

I now close the public hearing and the record file number A1-26 at 8.34 p.m. This evening, there is a public hearing regarding declaring surplus property. These proceedings are being recorded. I will now open this public hearing at 8.35 p.m. This public hearing will be held for the purpose of taking comments on declaring surplus property. We will now have the staff report from City Manager Mike Sauerwein.

Well, good evening, Your Honor, members of the City Council. This is really part two of our discussion regarding the alley between 6th and 7th Street. You'll recall that Faye spoke with you about a section of the alley that's between the Armory and the old City Hall building. We're now moving down further to the alley where we're talking about the section that's between the Armory and the Woodard building. You'll see the yellow section on the map on the screen on the right hand side is where the armory is and on the left hand side is where the Woodard building is now. When we discussed the section between City Hall and the Armory, we talked about the fact that we wanted to preserve the alley so that if in the future there was a change in ownership or change in purpose of that building, that I think we need the other map.

Go ahead.

Yeah, that's when we went. You'll recall that we talked about that, you know, if somebody were to want to turn the old city hall building into a retail space that we wanted to preserve the width of the alley so that they could get a truck through there. So if they wanted to use the back of the building, the alley as a way to load product in and out of that building. And so at the same time, we wanted to make sure that we had room in the alley to be able to build the lift on the armory building and replace the ramp that's currently there. So this first map shows the yellow line is where we would be extending that same width of the alley past the Woodard building that we did past the old city hall building. Does that make sense to everybody? Okay. On the next map, what you will see is where the parking space is behind the Woodard building. If you go out there right now, you'll see that there's a parking lot behind the building. The difficulty has been that half of that parking lot is on city property and half of it is on the Woodard building's property. And this has historically led to some issues where we've had some abandoned vehicles back there and other issues back there. What we've worked out with the Woodard folks is that if the city gives them an easement, not transfer the property, give them an easement to the portion of the alley, which is on the city property and half the parking, they will maintain the parking and use it as parking for their building. uh they've also agreed that you know if we have a large event going on at the armory if we need to be able to bring a big truck in there and park it to load and unload for the armory you know they'll certainly work with us on that so again this is kind of continuation of the discussion we had on the other part of the alley and with that i'd be happy to take any questions you might have any questions councilman

Thank you. In those discussions, does the maintenance understanding end at the end of the parking lots themselves, or does it include the whole section of the alley that's between those two buildings?

Well, the city would continue to own and maintain the alley itself. In fact, if you go out there now, really, it's kind of a good faith effort. The parking places have been repainted, and that was done by the Woodards.

Anyone else?

We will now take public testimony. For all persons testifying, please state your name and address for the record. And we did not have anyone sign up for this. Does anyone wish to speak?

Please come up to the podium.

All of these from our late arrival. I'm Chris Ellis. I reside in the apartment building at the north end of that alleyway. And I would be rather concerned if they do convert that building and the other apartments across from me into commercial space that we'd have additional traffic, trucks, and other activity going on there, which could be disruptive to the residents of the apartments. The other concern I have is an ongoing one right now concerning the security light on the armory on the roof there has been out.

I'm sorry, Chris. This all just has to pertain to what we're hearing right now. That would be something that you could bring up to the city manager, public works. Certainly.

Yeah, I have done that. I'm just I want to let you know that it's been ongoing for some time now. And I am concerned about public safety at that alleyway. And it's dark, you know, all the time. So that's my comment.

Thank you. Are there any other questions from Council? All right. I will now close the public hearing at 8.41 p.m. Consent agenda. Councilor.

I move approval of the consent agenda as presented. Second.

We have a motion with the second. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item eight, resolutions and ordinances. Resolution declaring surplus property and approving access easement. Mr. Sauerwein.

Well, good evening, Your Honor. As I previously stated, staff recommends the adoption of the resolution. I'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

Any questions? I'd entertain a motion. Councillor Rubin.

Mayor, I move that the City Council adopt resolution number 2190, declaring surplus property at 40 South 6th Street in the alley between 6th and 7th Streets and authorizing the easement agreement.

Second. We have a motion with a second. Any more discussion? Councilor Irvin.

I just want to commend staff for taking this step. I think this is going to be an important piece of the beautification and the usefulness of the downtown corridor and be an asset towards the use of the armory and a goodwill show of faith to great community partners that we have in the Woodards.

All right. We have a motion with a second. Will the recorder please call the roll?

Councillor Sotomayor?

Aye.

Councillor Wilson?

Aye.

Councillor Merida?

Aye.

Councillor Lammerman?

Aye.

Councillor Irvin?

Aye.

Councillor Hink?

Aye.

Mayor Solsby? Aye. Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you. Ordinance adopting annexation file number... dot A1-26 for map tax slots 21-03-05-10-00902 and 00904. Ms. Crockett.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. The required public hearing for the annexation of 77918 Highway 99 and an unaddressed parcel, map and tax slots 21-03-05-10-00902 and 00904 has been held. At this time, staff recommends that the City Council hold the first vote on the ordinance for file A1-26. The ordinance was prepared and has been available for at least one week prior to this meeting. This ordinance could be adopted at one meeting and staff recommends approval.

Thank you. Councillor Rubin?

Thank you, Mayor. I will make that motion. I move that the City Council adopt ordinance number 3211, adopting the annexation file number A1-26 for MAP tax lots 21-03-05-10-00902 and 00904. Second. We have a motion with a second. Any further discussion? Mayor Mrakas, i'm serving just appreciate the process, I appreciate folks with concerns voicing them and for staff. Mayor Mrakas, lineating the criteria that we have laid out and and where those concerns lie with that criteria so. Mayor Mrakas, Thank you. City Council Chambers, Yes, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Well, the recorder please call the roll. City Council Chambers, counselor hank.

Councillor Irvin.

Aye.

Councillor Lammerman.

Aye.

Mayor Soulsby.

Aye.

Councillor Wilson.

Aye.

Councillor Sotomayor.

Aye.

Councillor Merida.

Aye. 6-7. Thank you. 6-1. Oh, sorry. 6-1.

Yes. I wanted a few more up here.

Lighten my load. All right. Business from the City Council, Award of Pavement Preservation Contract, Public Works Director, Bay Stewart.

Thank you, Mayor. So on August 20th, 2026, city staff posted an invitation to bid for the pavement preservation projects. The projects involve pavement improvements to three roadway segments. The first is on Row River Road, which is the base bid. The second is West Harrison Street, which is alternative one bid. And finally, Gateway Boulevard, which is alternative two. Work includes full depth recommendation, reclamation, cold plain pavement removal, Saw cutting, excavation and removal, compaction, construction of new pavement, sections and reestablishment of the pre-existing pavement workings. Sealed bids were due by 2 p.m. on September 2nd, 2026 at Branch Engineering located at 310 South 5th Street in Springfield. The intent to bid was advertised on August 20th, 2026 in the Daily Journal of Commerce. Two bids were received and opened on September 2nd. And the following bids were received from Wilders Construction Company. The base bid for Row River was $689,721.60. Alternative one, which is Harrison, is $430,099. And the alternative two, which is the Gateway, was $219,745.00. and 50 cents for a total of $1,339,566.10. The second bidder was Knife River Corporation Northwest. Their base bid for Row River was $746,568. Alternative one for Harrison was $482,936. And finally, the alternative two for Gateway was $221,385.30 for a total of $1,450,889.30. The bid packages have been reviewed and found all to be responsible and responsive. Branch Engineering's recommendation is to award the contract to Wildish Construction Company as the low responsive bidder. Staff's recommendation is that the City Council award the Kiesgrove pavement preservation projects to Wildish Construction Company. budgetary impact, I want to share with you on this, that the street fund will receive, if these are approved, will receive an inter-fund loan from both the storm drainage reserve and the water reserve to pay for these preservation projects at approximately $700,000 from each reserve fund. And then a Long-term debt will be set up for both of those reserve funds to pay back the funds over time, hopefully within three to five years is the goal. And the interest will be paid at the prime rate at the time that the notes are set up. Are there any questions of counselors?

Any questions? Whoops. Councilor Mary Day.

More just a statement. These are some of our most well-used and abused streets in the city. Without any action, they're going to be gravel roads back to the way they were in the 1950s. So I would heart heartily encourage my fellow counselors to support this before they degrade even further. I would also recommend wildish because of our positive experience that we've had in the past few projects that we've worked together with this company.

Now serving

Thank you, Mayor. I agree. It's wise use of resource to preserve the pavement before it degrades to the point where a full rebuild needs to be done. I agree we've had good experience with Wildish. I know on Friday we had some discussion about the loaning between funds. But what I hadn't picked up on is that that's a temporary thing to pay back the contingency funds in the storm through the use of long-term debt. Because I think part of our conversation in three to five years was that, oh, well, the interest is paid back internally. But if we're taking out long-term debt, that's external, is it not? So that does this loaning, long-term debt accrual makes an already expensive process all the more expensive. So in terms of taking care of this immediate issue on these roads, Yes, I'm supporting this, but I am. This is dire. When you start having to take out long term loans to pay for streets. I mean, that's that's a financial spiral kind of path. So I'm very concerned about that. And well, I'm eager to. to address that. But I think the here and now is it's probably going to be more expensive if we don't preserve it than the alternative. So I don't know if anybody, I'll make a motion. I just thought I should declare and make it clear.

I live on that section of Harrison.

I don't think it'll cost me any more or any less to drive to my home. So when we're talking about whether or not I should not vote on this, unless somebody has a problem, I would like to stay in the discussion.

Thank you.

I have the same concerns as Greg. Sorry. But I know what it looks like when you let roads deteriorate and working for ODOT and knowing what that damage and what that expense costs long-term, like down the road, it's catastrophic compared to what we're seeing here.

All right. I'm going to make a motion.

I move that the City Council award Cottage Grove pavement preservation contract to Wildish Construction Company for the base bid of $689,721.60. Alternate one bid of $430,099.00. Alternate two bid of $219,745.50. for a total of $1,339,566.10 and direct the city manager to sign the contract and all associated documents.

Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion with a second. Is there any further discussion? Councillor Lammerman.

Madam Mayor, Council, Mr. Stewart, I've heard a couple of individuals on this body refer to this as preventative maintenance. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of these aren't preventative. They're removing it all the way down to the road base and then laying down new asphalt, right?

Mayor, Councillor Lamberman, that is correct. There will be on the Route River portion because that road has technically um deteriorated past the ability to just grind and repave there will be an enhancement to the base that we use in a product a technique that um essentially rotor tills the pavement and the base together mixes in concrete and then paves over the top of it um This road probably, according to our engineers, probably should have been repaved 15 to 20 years ago to protect the base that's failing now because of the condition. We're cautiously hopeful that we'll be able to do limited base work on Gateway and limited on Harrison right now, but that'll be based on once the pavement is removed and the base can be assessed. So at this time, That was more closer to a payment only, but there will be some base work in both those projects.

Same thing with the gateway, correct? That's correct, yes. I think the only one that's not showing that extent would be... Harrison? Yeah, Harrison.

It's just unfortunate if we would have had the resources to do the preventative maintenance. As Councillor Hanks said, it would have been... This may not be happening right now, but unfortunately, we weren't able to. I don't know if you drove Row River Road over the last couple weeks, but just this last rainstorm that we had, within a day, they were beating out the potholes with the heavy truck traffic, and I'm afraid that that road is just about to the point where it'll be gravel until this actually work gets done.

my only other comment uh in regards to that is uh on gateway i really wish we would have looked at at least doing the the one single center southbound lane and concrete uh due to longevity because that is the worst damaged lane of that uh traffic way um and you can see how well the exit turning on to go northbound is holding up with the concrete there but uh I know the number you had Branch send us in our email was about three times the cost. It was exorbitant compared to when you had said it would be about 10% higher. But yeah.

Anyone else? All right. Elsa Merida.

I'm Director Stewart, I believe you did address part of that is stating that the thickness of the asphalt will be increased to provide longevity in that section.

Mayor, Councillor Merida, that's correct. The pavement will actually be, it's been four inches, it'll be six inches. Hopefully that'll extend the life longer than what it's been. I don't believe that section of the road's ever been rebuilt. since Gateway was built, but I don't have a firm knowledge of that. It's just my speculation of living here. So it's lasted quite a while under four inches, and I'm hopeful that the added two inches in any base repair will extend the life of it beyond what we've experienced so far. And if we can make the point of doing preventative maintenance with slurry seals and chip seals, we should be able to see that last a long time.

Thank you, Director Stewart.

We have a motion with a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

No.

Six to one. All right. Concerns from council. Council member day.

Last week, I attended an economic study group, visioning group. There's been many studies or proposals about economic development in our community. One large community process was the 2037 Visioning Program, and that was in 2008. At this meeting, a number of the participants expressed interest. interest in reviving the vision keepers and revisiting that 2037 plan that at the end of this calendar year will be 10 years away from the realization of our visioning that was a result of a large public process and up until COVID was regularly visited by the vision keepers. As it was practiced, there did consume a large part of city staff in maintaining and monitoring the 2037 vision. um i have a copy of the ordinance i delivered mayor you were discussing with the city recorder so it's on the left so this is the ordinance that set up the vision keepers and it does give us a considerable leeway in my reading of it maybe carrie would have a different uh interpretation nowhere in there does it require city staff to perform any task. It does require two city councilors to represent the city. I would volunteer to be one of those councilors for the remainder of my term and would be willing to be an at-large member going forward. It also says no more than 15 members. It doesn't limit or name the minimum number other than naming the two counselors and four at-large members. It does encourage the, they call them the leads, and I did not ever fully understand get a list of all the leads i know the ones i were able to identify was the city of cottage grove south lane school district the sentinel the chamber the hospital the ministerial association family relief nursery um friends of mount david and a few others. So I'm not sure how many of the leads would still be willing to participate. We've been in hibernation for six years with the vision keepers, but I would like us to revive that. I would propose maybe a subcommittee to reach out and find interested members that would be willing to participate. reactivate the vision keepers and to function without the necessary staff time of the city. It does require certain reports to be made to the city council, but again, it does not state that the city staff prepare those reports. So.

Councilor Evan.

Well, what I want to appreciate the the thought behind this, which is to honor the work that was done by the community. And I support that. that effort I'm, I would offer perhaps it would be since this committee was established initially at the will of a prior council and maybe this council, if we're going to consider reenacting it, maybe we start with receiving kind of the, an update on the work that has been completed thus far, what the goals are, were stated and then we can you know think about uh that and see and get oriented with it once again I think that might help us direct any future committee if the the body needs to be if the ordinance needs to be revised or something that matter we can at least wrestle with we know what we're wrestling with that would be my suggestion I'd be happy to be part of that process counselor settlement

I agree the idea of a subcommittee getting a handle on this. So it's not so unfamiliar to many of us who don't know about it. So I would be happy to be a part of a subcommittee if that's something that the group would like to do.

I know we're at the end of our meeting, but I just need to do a time check. What everybody heard like 15. Great. Anyone else?

I feel like I'm talking a lot tonight. I apologize. We've now had a couple of public hearings of consequence that relate to our development code. And so what's the saying? Experience is the thing you get right after you needed it. That principle means that there's a, we need to do something about our development code if we don't like kind of the situation that we've been put in. And I would say, I would like to hear if there's consensus to direct staff to look at uh development code adjustments that one help clarify the visual impact kind of process uh for that we dealt with with the cell towers about what you know what click to clarify what we mean by that on-site location or or beyond you know kind of the community as a whole that would be helpful um and we could work through that process even from the ones tonight i agree that there's i You're thinking about trying to protect the financial assets of a community. You're talking about the workload on staff in addition to the financial burden that might come from enforcement action in that process. And I think it makes a lot of sense for us to be able to factor in, to have criteria to factor in, is this going to be a nuisance property? Or maybe there's a definition of that and that might be a criteria for avoidance. So those are factoring in the enforcement load of violations. If there were violations under a county code and they overlap with violations in our existing code, I think we would like some tools to deal with that and to make informed decisions for the benefit. So those are... Those are those two things. I'd also, I'm curious where we're at in our meeting with Weyerhaeuser. As a council, I think there was going to be a tour. There was kind of some phases had to be finished up, but just an update on that would be helpful.

Hello, good evening, Mayor and Council. So I believe the last conversation was that they were hoping to finish up by end of September, I believe it was. So I'll check back in and see where they're at and see if we can't get those scheduled. Thank you. Councillor Sotomayor.

thank you um i am also i guess i'm going to say i'm not sure that we just did what i hope we did are we going to do a subcommittee to work on vision keepers Are we so that is something that's happening now? And are we going to ask the staff to look at those issues that Councillor Irvin suggested?

Yeah, maybe what would be most helpful emotion on those things or just general consensus on that? Those are things that the council wants.

Good evening, your honor members of the council. Let's take those one at a time. As far as the vision keepers creating a subcommittee, if there's general consensus from the city council, Mindy and I can certainly reach out to council. Now, understand subcommittee has to be less than a quorum. So only three council members could participate in it. But we could certainly reach out to you for that. As far as the development code is concerned, what I would suggest is that city staff come back with some recommendations for how we could address those concerns. Perhaps some of the issues with visual impact or coordinating our code enforcement with county code enforcement, especially within the urban growth boundary, where potentially property is going to be annexed. That's something we could certainly come back with a plan for.

Councillor Sotomayor.

Thank you. That clarifies things for me a lot. And I just feel I need to do a little bit of response to a couple of issues that have happened lately, and one being with the issue with the cell tower, and one being with the annexation issue this time. I have... a lot of faith in our staff. And I think when staff says, these are the issues that our Code says we need to focus on that. For instance, tonight we had a person who was concerned with the annexation who acknowledged, okay, that means that the council will not, I mean, will proceed and annex this plot. I think last time with the cell tower, I had the same faith in our staff. I think that anything that I read and I empathized with people who were not comfortable with a cell tower being in certain places. But when you look at our code and our city staff says, this is what the code says that we need to prioritize, I heard a lot of things said that didn't negate what I heard our staff say. So when people are saying that I don't listen to input from the people who come and give input, I take exception to that. And I say that we've proven as a council that sometimes a great number of people support a certain issue. And at big events, no one speaks against those issues and still the majority of our group understands that their job doesn't necessarily change by what a group supports. So we walk kind of this tight line and the idea that people are not supporting things because, because they're not listening to input by the community. I just want to say, I, I don't want to say I don't have empathy, but I think I'm doing my job as best as I know how.

I got so excited about division keepers that I did forget to mention two other things. One is on October 10th, 930 to 1, there's going to be a volunteer fair at the community center where people that are seeking or wanting to learn how to volunteer, since we're encouraging volunteerism, whether it be for the library or any number of the organizations that exist in our town that operate through volunteers, there's The response the library is organizing a volunteer fair and inviting any groups that seek volunteers to have a table there. or a presentation there, so if you could spread the word that anybody that wants to volunteer show up, and you can sample from a lot of different opportunities to volunteer. And the second thing I wanted to do was praise public works. I had received a constituent concern about the lights being out in the Centennial Bridge and reported it into through the channels. And not only did that get solved, but the rotten floor planking and the failing handrails into the Centennial bridge and the invasive Ivy growth were all removed. So one fell swoop. So the Centennial bridge is looking mighty good right now. So thank you.

Public works.

I'm sorry. I got to do one more thing. After we did the talk about the speeding around 10th street, is there going to be a study or was that something we fell short of? Considering.

Mayor, Councilor Sotomayor, I think I saw three or four head nods, so I was just going to proceed with the oral request by the individual today to have that section of 10th Street studied by branch and see if a four-way stop or three-way stop would be recommended.

Wonderful. I just thought it might be nice to let that gentleman know he doesn't have to write a letter. I think you would have gotten one.

I just have a couple quick things. I need to recognize Ziply Fiber. They came into the city not too long ago, and you all remember that, and they presented us with a Ziply Fiber certified now, and they have been a consistent, great community partner to us. They're one of the reasons why We get some music in the park. They support the chamber there. And they actually just donated to the Mayor's Monster Ball. They are our entertainment sponsor for the evening. So thank you, Ziply. And then I have one more. So at the Mayor's Conference, they presented Cottage Grove with an LOC award. And I did not even realize we were one of the founders, founding cities. There was a group of them that got together and partnered with LOC to bring it to life. It's part of our brainchild. I didn't know that.

So I want to get these to you, Mike.

And also, don't forget to buy your tickets to the Mayor's Ball. They are selling online right now, and we're selling at about three times the pace that we did last year. Anyone else? Councillor Meredith.

I did run across the first radio, I mean, first newspaper recording that I saw the League of Oregon Cities. I can't remember the exact date. I want to say the teens or possibly early 20s, but they assisted us in going up against the state. The state wanted to relocate Highway 99. and would have cut off several streets of the city and the league of oregon cities went to bat for us against the state alignment of 99 now they're 100 years old all right report from the city manager

Well, good evening, Your Honor and members of the council. Well, I was going to bring up the volunteer fair, but thank you for doing that. Just a couple other events that are coming up that I want to make sure everybody's aware of. We have the Oktoberfest coming up September 26th. Of course, the Mayor's Monster Ball on October 24th. And the kids in my neighborhood, their favorite event of the year is trick-or-treating. This year, it's going to be on Friday, October 30th downtown. So they get two nights of trick-or-treating. Parents, beware. They get it on the 30th downtown and then also a 31st for regular Halloween. We also have scheduled a tour for all city council members for the city's water plant this Thursday, September 17th. Meet out at the water plant on Row River Road at 10 o'clock. And the tour will take two to three hours, depending on how many questions we get from council members. So please encourage all of you to come join Faye and I on touring the plant. And that would conclude my report. Lenny, you had something more to add?

Um, thank you. Good evening, Marion counselors. Uh, so because the vote on the annexation was not unanimous tonight, um, we will need to hear it again at the next meeting. Um, there is caution, um, to keep in mind the expert day contact, um, moving between now and the 28 meeting. So thank you. Just a heads up.

Thank you for that reminder. All right. It is 917 and this meeting is adjourned.