City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everybody. Welcome to the Newberg August 17th, 2026 city council meeting. I call this meeting to order. Could we have roll call please?

Would everybody please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. So the first item on our agenda today is a presentation from the Newberg Animal Shelter. Welcome, hi Rick, again.

You might ask around, somebody might give you big dollars to take that puppy home today. Solve both your problems. Thank you. So we have no general public comments today. Everybody wants to speak to the same issue. So I close public comments. Rachel, we didn't have a city manager report. What do we do?

Thank you. Next, we have a proclamation. We are getting ready to go to a trip to Poidsdorf, Austria. um next month so this approximation whereas the cities of poisedorf austria newberg oregon have been sister cities since since september 8 2006 and whereas throughout the 20-year partnership the two cities have fostered a strong relationship collaborating collaborating on social and economic programs that have benefited each respective city, and whereas the City of Newburgh continues to find value and influence from this sister city program and looks forward to more collaboration in the future,

so next item on our agenda is the joint report of tlt receiving entities newberg downtown coalition the chamber of commerce and taste newberg come on up please

I want to say thank you. When I started four years ago, almost, this was one of the things that I wanted to see done was some improvement in the appearance of our city downtown. You guys have done a wonderful job. As I've expressed many times, the lighting is amazing. Glad to see the art finally going up and thank you for what you do. I know it's a big lift for all your volunteers. We appreciate them.

Welcome, Scott and Katie. Good to see you guys.

Scott, I mean, we've had at least one conversation about exactly that. I do look forward to you being a partner and trying to find people to reoccupy the buildings that are going to be left vacant. That being said, I took advantage of the sourdough course. Please tell Jan that I make very good sourdough. I make about a loaf every week, almost every week. So thank you. Very nice.

Thank you, Scott. I knew you were that kind of gentleman.

So this is all very interesting. We have a long meeting to go through. Well, how about we bring you back for another round at a different time?

Comfort have questions. You did a very thorough job to this point. Thank you.

All right, it's 7-11. Let's take a five-minute break and come back and get with it. Thank you. All right, if you'll take your seats again, please. So the next item on our agenda is the reason a lot of you are here. This came about because, uh, counselor Wheatley called me and, uh, one, well, I should start one of one of our citizens, um, sent a letter to all the council members and, uh, we have to be careful what we answer to. But, uh, counselor Wheatley gave me a call on Friday, I think it was and said, I think we need to put this on the agenda. After we talked about it for a while, we decide

You said there were three issues that we wanted to discuss.

Thank you, Rachel. Who would like to kick it off? Mike, go ahead. Yeah, good point. It is time for public comments. Mike, hold your water. So we have first Brittany Rowles. Welcome. I'm sorry. Oh, he's trying to read the bottom line to settle for anything less. Thank you.

You exceeded your time and that word was going too far. So thank you.

Thank you. Next will be Saunda Martin. Hi, Saunda. We haven't seen you in a long time. I thought you were in Europe.

i know these deaths aren't being reported on pardon your time's up your time's up okay you don't have to be rude stick at the rudeness next is shelley's home

Robert, don't leave, you're next. Okay, thank you. Jane Condie. Welcome.

Thank you. With that, Mike, you have the floor.

affirming every voice in our community and that this is a safe space for everyone just so you know i do not set the agenda for these meetings the city manager sets the agenda for these meetings and i have the right to approve them if i don't put on an item that this council you included made a vote that said that any two counselors can put an item on the agenda and i have no authority over that so anyway this is uh yeah robin let me be clear about my point

Turn your mic off and let the people hear. See, this group of people who... This all started because of Blair Stribble. He sent us a letter, and now let me... this issue right here today in newberg every issue started you're gonna if you keep this up you're gonna have to leave okay all right i have no problem with that memorial that's out there i never did I have no problem with the last memorials that were out there. In fact, I was not for limiting free speech that came from staff. We put that on the agenda so that the council could inform staff on how we felt about free speech. We all agreed

I absolutely did not. I have never been to a Charlie Kirk memorial anywhere on the face of this earth. I have never, we never had a moment of silence, as several of you have mentioned in this council. No, we did not.

All right. I would like to see the minutes that show that. So anyway, this issue is not about memorials. The question is, is that the right location for a memorial? Do we want to have memorials that we want to, as a city, condone memorials? We have not. We simply allowed that to happen at that place. The part of the problem with having a Memorial at that place is it belongs to everybody. It doesn't belong to one group or another. When one group has their equipment there, then another group comes in and they're either accused of, of of violating it or they feel uncomfortable because you feel li

I've been very clear in the meeting at the topic of hand and stop picking on on the mayor. Peggy

Would you like to put that item on the agenda for a future meeting? I'm saying... Let's move on. We're not talking about campaign signs today.

I'm not laughing. I'm getting really irritated because you're bringing up stuff. You're making accusations against people that aren't even here. What accusation? I mean, who's putting the signs out? It's not your people. I know that. It's everybody else.

So the last item on our agenda is the exemption to competitive bidding for wastewater treatment plant.