City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council meeting is now in session. It's time for a roll call. I mean, for a pledge of allegiance. Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have some open seats at Brent. Council President Hagedorn.

Oh, so.

So we'll do roll call. Roll call. Lori would tell our names and check us off on the paper. Okay. So council. Present. Council, present. President Hagedorn. Present.

Okay. Councillor Webber.

Present.

Councillor DeForest.

Present.

Councillor Warrington.

Present.

And Councillor Garthay and Mayor Dunbar are excused. Thank you.

All right. At this time, I'll take a motion for the consent agenda approval.

So moved, Councillor Webber. I would move for consent agenda. Second. Councillor DeForge.

All right.

Any discussion? All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? Sounds like that's unanimous. All right. And now, um, let's move on to public comment. We've got a packed house. Go get cozy. Hi. Hi, I don't. Let's table that, please. Um, Chancellor Weber is going to be my timekeeper today. Oh, great. He has an important role.

He will say at time when, uh, 30 seconds to go, I'll raise my hand, and then at the end, I'll just raise it again.

Okay. i'm going to first call people present and first one up is paul harwood plan for city manager like me to turn on the mic um to make sure it's on yeah go ahead and pull it up pretty close thank you hello and for all of you hello lena northlands i'm linds

My question is around the plans for the city manager. I know we have a plan to get an interim city manager that we've been able to discuss in our last meeting. And I know Robert is acting in multiple roles right now. So my question is, what is the plan for us to get the interim city manager? And one of the factors contributing to the timing and also works with Robert and Martin for Rose, how long is she supposed to serve in the interim role and will she receive additional compensation for these folks? Significantly. Does the Council have a chance to discuss all this? Because we haven't had any meeting and you didn't notice sort of publicly concerning city manager.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

next up lisa ferrari harwood resolution 2356. we're not hearing very well i'll get close i'm used to using mics so hi my name is lisa ferrari harwood i've been in our plans about a year so i'm new to uh sitting in front of you council so thank you so much My question is regarding Resolution 2356, because it is on the agenda this evening, so I thought it was pertinent. WashingtonCounty.org states that North Plains is participating in the Portland Metropolitan Planning Program and pays no fee to do so. According to both Portland Metropolitan Planning and Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments website, which states it charges about a $2,500 a year fee based on population, there cannot be crossover of services in these two governments. The city just paid about $80,000 solely in severance of the city manager, and hiring a new manager and possibly staff is also going to require some more funding. So I would like the council to, before they vote on this resolution tonight or if they've already done some fact finding, to consider this closely at this juncture financially for the city. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Next up, Butch Kendall, subject, firing a city manager.

That's perfect. The last thing. City Council, my name is Butch Kendall. I hate to go back and drag through old things, but I have to express my views. It wouldn't be any good if I did. I have to let them out. I am here tonight because of the action that you took on June 15, 2026. I am angry of you five who voted terminating Bill's contract. What a senseless mistake. You're citing the Felicity Gallows-Merton influences that Bill was not a competent city manager. Bill had all the qualifications necessary for city manager and that was proven and he was exonerated. I question Linda Gallus Burton's morals to sway council to vote Bill out. And I believe you owe this community a written explanation of why you terminated Mr. Reeve. I think that would be very appropriate. Since the inception of North Plains governance in 1963, myself and all councilors who served with me for 44 years, we were never paid or promised compensation. In the 40, I see here. Okay, the last thing. Been here all these years. I'm just sad and I'm heartfelt for what's happening. I mean, this is my livelihood. This is where I live. And I just, I'm sure for the direction that we're going, unless you can- Did I hear the time up? No.

Continue, please. There was an interruption online.

Okay. like i said i think i've been thinking this the better every night since since 2045 this was really it's hard i shouldn't have to be worried about that at my age at 83. i did my i did my kind and uh i want this to move forward thank you thank you next up ricky smith subject messed up city council i'll say in a white

My name is Ricky Smith. I live in Sunset Riggs, 10704 Norfolk 285th Drive. I'm an actual taxpaying citizen of North Plains. I spent two years on the parks board, six years on city council. I decided to give the new council a chance to run the city. Now I find myself in shock at what you have done to North Plains. with the exception of Councilor Ugarte, who is the only same councilor on the board. Councilor Rustin, who joins you tonight. In 18 months, we have accomplished nothing. What you have done is left North Plains in pathetic shape. Let the city manager go. We have no financial director, no public works director, no city recorder. Who prepared the agenda packet tonight at this meeting? You put poor Robin Doherty in charge of a sinking ship. The rest of the staff are overworked and collecting overdue, which is expensive to the city and will likely be looking to leave also. You had to cancel a planning meeting because of no staff. You have forced limited hours for city to be open because of staff shortage. You have forced city boards and commissioners, commissions have no respect for realizing that you are over your head want to hire an expensive parliamentarian but you are not capable of running a meeting did you even learn the basics and the training that you were offered to me who is keeping an eye on the budget are you staying within budget as required by law north plains weekly update reads like a disaster total embarrassment we have the oregonian opb the forest road paper sharing articles on how messed up the city has become under your stewardship now you want to hire a company to do recruiting for staff and absorbent rates can you ask yourself what kind of person wants to step into a city as an incomplete collapse especially when someone on the city council has no regard to following protocol continuing goes behind their back undermining staff who are cancer on this city and should all resign to so that more planes can, you know, I still like to answer, who put the agenda together tonight? And I like to put this public record.

Thank you. Next up, David Barnes, subject jet hub at Hillsborough Airport.

I'm here to alert you to an issue that's taking place in a neighboring city, Hillsborough, with the input of another neighboring city, Portland, who has decided to send something like 5,000 to 10,000 jets over your area in the future. by allowing the project to proceed to build a jet hub for private jet owners on the Hillsborough Airport. This was approved by the Board of Portland and the Hillsborough City Planning Commission. The city council has to approve this project. So a lot of the community is opposed to it. The part I want to talk about, my wife will give more details here, Um, they pushed this project through based on, um, a community meeting that held only with people who resided at the airport and pushed it through by, uh, lying to get environmental approval waived. And, um, those of us who live under flight tracks from Hillsborough will all be affected. but they only consulted people within 500 feet of the site. And there are many other reasons to oppose it. Lack of neighborhood notification, violations of civil development code, failure to perform environmental assessment, failure to include ,, failure to protect humans and wildlife, potential loss of property values, economic inequality. We have filed an appeal, and it will be heard on August 18th. And we think that it would be really valuable for the City of Northern Plains to weigh in with some kind of letter or expression of concern about this to the City of Hillsborough to remind them that this doesn't just affect people within five times their feet. the airport it affects huge part of this region and it is a very negative event thank you thank you next up stephen hasher subject ura

I can get my glasses out so I can breathe.

Go in the closet.

City Council of North Plains, I'm here to talk to you about the urban renewal and vital changes. As you all know, I'm the next mayor of North Plains. I was on the city council when we created the agency 20 years ago. So I know a thing or two about it. It's important to note that the active word in urban renewal agency is the noun renewal. Okay, that's what it's for. The agency is property tax base. In other words, the city of North Plains agreed to forego property tax income that would normally receive in order to invest in businesses and the renewal boundary and in doing so in a way that increases the property tax value. That's how we get our funds back. So telling businesses that the agency will give grants for things like repairing doors or replacing air conditioners or paying for exercise equipment are all clearly outside of the agency's realm. Furthermore, the agency does not give grants. That is not a thing. So when the chair of the Urban Renewal Agency is running around North Plains telling all the businesses to apply for grants is setting up a potential for legal action against the agency and thus the city. Bill, as you know, has taken heat as a direct result of Don Weber's bad actions. It's Weber who should be taking that heat, not Bill. Don Weber needs to go back to the business he spoke to and apologize to them. You are all members of the URA. Decisions are discussed and made as a group. No member, including the chair, can take any action without the agency's knowledge and approval. Councilor Weber acted as known without prior approval or direction from either the URA board or the city council. You have a chair of the URA that is acting like a loose cannon, and you guys need to keep a close watch on him because his actions have the potential of dragging the city into legal jeopardy. Councillor Webber clearly has not read the North Plains Urban Renewal Plan, which is why he has no idea what he's doing. Does he even know the existence of that document? Have you all read it? It has clear goals and objectives listed in the URA, which Webber is not following. At the very least, in order to protect the city, Don Webber, who, as I said, is a loose cannon, needs to be removed as the chair of the Urban Renewal Agency. One last comment. I don't know who you guys are taking your advice from, but whoever it is does not have the best interest of North Plains. In all the 45 years that I've lived in this city, I have never seen city government in such a distressed state. You guys are breaking the city, and that makes me very sad.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Nikki Barnes with Sky Harbor Hangers. I apologize if I did not pronounce your name correctly. Okay, great.

My name is Nikki Barnes. I live in Manx, Oregon, and I'm here to talk about the Sky Harbor Hanger Project, which my husband.

Before you go, can you hold the microphone close to you?

Thank you. So, Chair, members of the Commission, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I wanted to follow up on some of the things David mentioned. On May 27th, despite compelling testimony from more than 150 concerned residents, the Hillsborough Planning Commission approved the Sky Harbor proposal to construct seven hangars for 30 business jets and two 20,000-gallon above-ground fuel tanks on 13.70 acres across from the Hillsborough Library. The decision was based on remarkably narrow parameters that failed to consider widespread long-term impacts. It's important to bear in mind that these hangars are to serve billionaires and multimillionaires. And part of the problem is under the big beautiful bill, they were given the opportunity to write off their purchases of private jets. So that means we have a flood of private jets on the market and they're coming in communities across this country because they need a place to park them. This is an exclusive hangar. it's not going to have any transitory traffic and they claim that they're paying for the hangar but the reality is that the public pays for the runways air traffic control air traffic controllers taxi taxiways and all these infrastructure costs these people pay next to nothing for the privilege of using this airport and the sky's overhead I want to remind you that private jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger, and a typical private jet emits about 810 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in a typical year, equivalent to 177 passenger cars or 9 class 8 heavy duty trucks. Now this is all Coming forward, we're in a statewide transportation crisis. We're reading about cuts to TriMet. We're reading about cuts to the Lyft. And yet the Board of Boardmen feels like they have the right to foist transportation for billionaires on this. Something's wrong with this picture. It's no wonder Oregon has a transportation crisis. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And last in person would be Laura Desheimer, Northlands Food Bank. And for everybody here, you were handed out a flyer from her, and I believe that's probably what we're talking about today.

Well, everything that I'm coming with is all happy stuff. So we are having our volunteer barbecue on Sunday, and I would love all of you to join us and Robin. I would love for you guys to come up and meet all of our amazing volunteers. We have 47 volunteers who work every week and we have about 150 volunteers who support us throughout the year. So it's going to be a really fun day. It starts at one o'clock and I can email you all the information about that. The other event is the Kickstart to School and that is on the 18th and it is for all of our families who need an extra hand up. We're giving away free brand new shoes, coats, school supplies, backpacks. We've got a lot of medical services and dental and vision services. And I would love for all of you guys to come and volunteer and help us set up on Friday or via the event on Saturday. So we can serve up to 700 students and it's K through 12. So yeah, I'd love for you guys to come and join us and meet all my amazing volunteers. They're fabulous. So that's what I needed. Thanks. Thank you.

We have a line and I'll ask her to unmute.

Good evening, Council. My name is Elizabeth Beaupain, and I am a resident of North Plains and a local business owner. I'm here tonight to follow up on my previous public comment regarding the denial of Happy Place 2023 tenant improvement grant application. Since then, I have submitted additional documentation and email correspondences that I believe demonstrate inconsistencies in how my application was handled by the previous city manager bill. Bill stated he did not move my application forward to the EDC because it did not qualify, yet he was the one who previously told me we did qualify, and those emails were provided to the council. Bill also confirmed that Happy Play never received a formal review by the EDC, and I believe that should be corrected. tonight i'm asking what actions the council intends to take to address those concerns or if they're waiting for a new city manager to take office before addressing this i did also want to say thank you to the council for holding city leadership accountable and for taking concerns about the city's audits and the administration of the grant programs seriously as a resident and small business owner i hope future grant programs and Future grant programs are administered through a clear, transparent, and consistent process so that every applicant is treated fairly. Thank you guys for your time and attention to this matter.

Thank you.

Is that it? Just to, because I'm not 100% familiar with this role, we have an email. I'm not sure if Linda Gay was smart and intended to do a public comment or or not. So I see her here. So maybe. You can ask her to unmute if that's what was intended.

Good evening everyone. No, we are strong. Council will not be giving any public testimony this evening. Thank you.

Very good.

Well, Don, I don't know if I'm going to hire you as a timekeeper.

Next up is resolutions, and we have an important one. Is appointing Jason Rustin City Council for the remainder of the year ending December 31st, 2028. Resolution 2355. Do we have any motions?

I would make a motion for approval of resolution number 2355.

Yes.

So, all right.

Councilor Orrington seconded.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. All those, any nays? Sounds like there's a no. So it looks like that's unanimous. That staff is the O of office, swearing in, Jason Rustin.

And that would be where we need you to come on up, sir, and let us see where he's been and we don't we're on set place, I will see i'm not i'm not real familiar with the owl but let's go like right here.

All right, you can kind of face the audience all right all right and.

So. i'm sorry. Either way, everyone. Okay. All right. Sure. We can do both. All right. So you can repeat after me. I, Jason Rustin.

I, Jason Rustin.

Swear that I will faithfully support the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Swear that I will faithfully uphold the laws of the Constitution of the United States of America.

And the state of Oregon.

And the state of Oregon.

And the charter and ordinances of the city of North Plains.

The charter in order, it says that the city of North points, and I will perform the duties of city counselor duties of city counselor for the city of North Plains for the city of North Plains.

To the best of my ability, the best of my ability so long as I may continue in that capacity. So, help me God.

As long as I continue that capacity, so I'll be good.

Congratulations counselor and you're good. take your notes with and we'll get you your ipod and badge super thank you for your bravery

Oh, everyone online.

It was a funny story. Oh, well, okay. It's recorded. Next up is Resolution 2356, authorizing an IGA with Mid Willamette Valley Council of Governments. Emily. Yes. Would you please brief us on this?

Okay. Yes. Thank you. This IGA is just so that the city may become an affiliate with the Miami Valley Council of Governments. And the benefit of doing that is that they can help provide city services, staffing services to the city right now while we're in a period of transition. This IGA just, as I said, allows the city to become an affiliate. The cost is $500. Stapp, If, as the city uses services, then there are lots of associated with that which are included in one of the exhibits, but some of the services that Stapp, They provide include city recorder services planning services recruiting services, etc. Stapp, Basically other sort of municipal needs and so Stapp, Maybe That, I think, is everything I have. Macrae was supposed to attend online. I don't know if she's here. Macrae, if you're online, maybe you can unmute. She's, I think, the director.

So, OK. At this point in time, I'll entertain a motion.

Councilor Ford, I move that we approve Resolution 2356, Authorization of Intergovernmental Agreement with Mid-Land Valley Council Governance.

Councilor Weber, I will second that.

So at this point in time, we've got a motion on the table to entertain approval of 2356, and we've got a second. Is there any discussion?

Yeah. Justin Fields , City of Boulder, Actually, when I was looking at over and i'm sorry if I missed it, there was a mention of a local service plan in the might not. Justin Fields , City of Boulder, Just just pull it a little. Justin Fields , City of Boulder, I didn't see the attachment on there, so I was wondering, does the attachment actually exist, and if not, will it will not so how will that define moving forward.

So my understanding is that this. So what's before you now is just the opportunity to join, become an affiliate, and then that will follow. So then the services will be determined in the local service plan later.

Councilor Warrington, does that mean then that they won't actually start working until we approve that plan?

No. So my understanding is that you're approving it and then you're Amy Nunez, it's raw is within Robin or the acting for interim city managers role to determine what services are needed and then maintain those once she's in a once the city is an affiliate. Amy Nunez, Okay, so.

Amy Nunez, Any more questions. Amy Nunez, we've got a motion on the table it's been moved and second all those in favor.

Amy Nunez, hi hi hi.

Amy Nunez, Right any votes. Amy Nunez, don't think that's a no emotion berries.

Amy Nunez, Okay, before we continue on one other related item and raise at this moment, so in order to for the city manager pro time to appoint or remove any employees. Amy Nunez, We need the approval or she needs the approval of the Council and Robin has been in conversation with sherwood's deputy city recorder. who has agreed to help the city with city recording recorder duties on a temporary basis. So do you want to say anything about that?

Thank you, Emily. And yes, Council Robin here. The plan for substitute city recorder lorries will return on September 14th is having hopefully to hire this temporary experienced city recorder, and also have the Mabel Lannan Valley Council of Governments as a backup. She had her vacation this summer and so forth, and she could only work about 10 hours a week. So that was part of the plan of having to have a replacement city recorder for this area.

So then, oh, go ahead.

I was going to ask Council President if she would like me to entertain a motion to authorize Robin to hire a substitute city recorder and Mid-Valley as backup.

We have a second.

I'll second, yeah.

All right, so we have a first and a second. Is there any discussion of hiring an interim city recorder but as much as you needed during this time period. Is there anybody opposed?

I'm not opposed, but I have a question. Is it something that we actually vote on, or is that just your realm of work, and you just do it? Maybe you can answer that.

yeah so the um typically the city manager is able to just hire employees but um the city your charter says that the city manager pro tem has all the duties and responsibilities of the city manager except may only appoint and remove employees with council's approval but we are actually in this case seeking council's approval to appoint the sherwood city recorder to meet a temporary understood thank you

yeah so is this just exclusively for the city recorder or is this where you have the ability to hire or fire anyone that you'd like um clarion what the ask is please um um i would be able to hire or fire anyone as i understand it in this role um without castle approval no excuse me is that

Stapp, Yeah, I think I understood your question. Sorry to interrupt as they are. We just are these council just approving hiring the Sherwin city recorder in this room, and that is what the motion is for. I understood. Stapp, And what we're asked just correct.

So if there was a follow-up, we needed a second Stapp, or something like that. We'd have to have a second ask. Okay, thank you. Stapp, All right.

So we've got motion on the table. It's been. It's been Stapp, debated all those in favor. Unanimously approved. Aye. Nobody said nay. So motion carries. And next up is resolution 2357 authorizing execution of agreement with Barry Osner and Hammond for municipal legal services. Robin, Amy, Emily, if you could kind of give us a briefing of the situation, what the ask is, that'd be great.

Thank you, Council President Hagedorn. Just to introduce this, it's to correct an administrative oversight of a, of renewing the agreement with all the kerfuffle going on in the city. And so this is to renew the agreement for the next three years from July 1st this month through June 30, 2028. We use city attorneys to review contracts, help with employment law questions, and meet public meeting law complaints.

Emily, is there anything that you would like to add?

I can answer questions if Council has any. As Robin mentioned, and as is in the staff report, it was an oversight that the contract term expired. And for that, I apologize. We have mechanisms in place now to make sure that it won't happen again. And if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Well, are there any motions on board to entertain one?

I would recommend that we solicit feedback from other law firms before we sign them for a three-year contract.

Do you have a motion?

No, it was a comment. I move that we table this discussion.

So I've got a motion on the floor to table. We have a second.

I would second that. Councilor Weber?

And for clarity, move to table. Can you define that a little bit further? Councilor DeForge?

I would recommend that we defer this until we've had time to be diligent and compare rates and services before we go further.

Okay, so we've got a second on the floor. Thank you. And I probably should have asked if we have any conversation, any questions. So now that I'm open enough, I see Jason's looking at me like he has questions. I see Anna. I heard Anna move to take off her glasses. So I will call on you first, Councilor Warren.

Thank you. So the motion to postpone it or table it, I should say, it seems to me that would put more pressure on Robin without a city attorney, right, for however length of time this tablement goes. Amy Nunez, I I don't nobody wants that nobody wants that. Amy Nunez, But i'm not sure the way forward either because getting contracts is always a good idea to right, so how, how do we do this without putting on Robin. Amy Nunez, And emily's raising her hand so. Amy Nunez, After your. Amy Nunez, time it's okay yeah go ahead.

So I just want to note that the city attorney is a charter appointed position and may be removed at any time by the council, by a majority of the council. The contract may be terminated at any time by a majority of the council. So a temporary solution, I think, I will just put it out there, is to approve this contract. We can reduce the term if that is the council's direction. And then consider continue moving forward with analyzing other options and then, if that's the direction Council wants to go it's a matter of raising it again. In fact, if I may just add some commentary, the reason this happened is because almost none of the other cities have. Because, according to the Oregon rules professional. conduct that all attorneys are bound to a client may terminate at any time so it's more administratively convenient for us to just have contracts without term because you can raise this at any time for any reason so um that that's not to suggest that you extend our contract indefinitely it's just to provide more explanation for why this happened thank you counselors um so

what with this lapse what exposure does the city have by not having an agreement in place from the past year the past year and moving forward if this is not approved right now what's the city's exposure so our we are still bound by the contracts terms the term just expired so we are still operating as if the contract is in place

you're still, we're still indemnifying you, we're still providing privileged advice to you. It is better to have a contract in place for both parties, but because we are appointed as city attorney at a level and less terminated or that's, and terminated by either side, then we are acting as your city attorney.

So if you're acting as city attorney and you're going to continue whether we approve it or not, What does it matter whether we approve it or not?

I think it's better for both sides legally to have a common business.

I don't understand the difference. I'm sorry. You just said that you're still continuing to act and as a city attorney privilege isn't effective and that's what's been going on for the past year. What does it matter?

I would say it is administratively better and both sides are more protected. I don't think that your side is at risk at this point. But I think both sides are better protected if there is a contract in place, which is my recommendation.

Also, Lord, you can also kind of tell me to share your thoughts.

Yeah, I think in the motion in the second we weren't calling for not having legal representation. I think my only concern is we should take a little more time on this. It might be a time to just uh we've been well represented for many years but it might i think uh i'd like more conversation on whether or not we should perhaps bid this out uh just to create kind of a competitive process uh so i guess i feel like if we've already gone 12 months to wait another month until next meeting doesn't seem to me to be a a bad idea and allow for uh when we have all the uh counselors together to have more discussion on this matter i heard

An element of time as a consistent piece of feedback from everybody. You guys have kind of a little bit of a divergent directions. So can you clarify, am I hearing a motion on the table to move to table this to 720? Approved. Yes. Okay. So it sounds like it's unanimous. that there is a motion on the table that unanimously approved to revisit this on a 720 agenda.

Will the Council President be okay with us back finding and learning about other law firms?

Are you putting another motion on the table? Yes. Okay. I hear a motion on the table from Councillor DeForge to my motion is to authorize the council to conduct fact-finding to learn about other law firms to bring it back to the council's purposes as a part of the discussion for 720 um do we do we have rule provisions that would allow independent fact-finding or would count the legal guidance be that we would need to have a uh a

I lost the subcommittee. The subcommittee established to do the survey. So typically it's staff that would do that type of fact finding in light of Council Blanton's comments and the situation. I don't know that staff has the capacity at this time to really do that. Council can authorize, you know, it's counselors to do take actions, I think. What I would probably suggest is either a subcommittee or nominating one counselor to do that fact finding instead of like generally the council.

Okay. I would like to, what I'm hearing is a motion on the floor to establish, I will entertain a motion on the floor to establish a subcommittee

um with a nomination process led by council president i'll be and i'll entertain a motion to our second i will bring a motion to authorize our city counselor city council president to form a subcommittee for the investigation of law firms

I'm hearing a motion on the table by Councilor DeForge for the City Council President to authorize a subcommittee formulation. I think I remembered that correctly, so that's amazing. I still have vacation brain. Do I have a second?

Councilor Warrington will second.

Okay, moved by Mark, second by Councilor Warrington. Do we have any further discussion on this matter? Questions, comments, concerns? To my left, I see a couple Councilor that may have comments.

No, I don't really have any comments right now.

OK, so do I have? Let's talk.

I want to make sure that we're not all going to be on the subcommittee. There's maybe two people on the subcommittee, not all of us, right? They can't do that. That's a great point.

I will entertain a motion. On the floor to formulate a subcommittee and defined by two people of Council. i will ask for a share of show of hands after we get past the comments to pick the council counselors that will be in the committee um that is with the motion i'm hearing do i have a motion on the table that somebody can repeat what i said i'm going to authorize the council president to form a subcommittee of two counselors to investigate law firms for the city all right Moved by Mark, second by Anna. I'll ask for, does the sensitivity of this matter, I'll ask for a roll call vote. Can you help us with that? Write that down, Robin.

Okay.

Okay. So I'll just go from left to right. Councilor Warren. Stapp, And counsel on our part of the board. Stapp, Council president. Stapp, I'm sorry. Stapp, I'm sorry. Stapp, Okay.

Stapp, Okay. Stapp, Okay. That was agreed for the consent together. Do we need a break? Are we okay? We're ahead of schedule actually, but I'm hearing a yes. So we're going to call a five minute recess and we will return at 7.55.

And so recently, absolutely. Sometimes.

This. Institute.

I mean, it's just sitting out. Yeah. You know, but yeah, so I read it by the mayor and I have questions about and then

You know, there's not the best way to imagine that. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you are supposed to sign it. They're not going to be motoring.

I thought you might be able to hear better.

I was going at every round. I thought it wasn't expensive and I thought it might go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. um . . . . . . . .

I know it's going to be written on a nice paper.

Oh, just to be sure. You know, if you're sure.

Yeah. Yeah. But I have those guys. And then you can. Yeah. Like, like, it's just pretty. i just i'll forget that's it I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Then I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, you know, for some reason, they have it.

And I don't want to mess with it. It's like, I know. I don't know. That's a lot of worry. I use it, but I haven't got it.

So I get it.

So I very much. Yeah, I think they might have a little reason. And I just want to say,

all right 755 city council is now back in session and now we're moving on to unfinished business first up is the ucd pack meeting a big counselor before you have to report back are no updates from me okay next up is the audit update and interim or pro tem city manager okay it's um i'm putting the activity back okay okay uh so on um june 30th i did invite or i did um let um staff know that

Council expected them to attend to answer a lot of questions and I didn't hear back, so I followed up today and their response was that their team will not be able to attend tonight's meeting. So I knew that Matt from Marina was back from vacation today, so I did reach out to him and it looks like they do have a Marina staff person on the meeting, but it is technically outside of their scope. to Matt let me know to attend meetings outside of business hours and so forth. So we might need to, if this is going to be a regular expectation, we might need to look at an estimate for that. But he did provide an email update that I'm happy to read or if Amanda, Unless I'm mistaken, I believe Amanda's here from Lorena. Is that correct?

Amanda Taylor on Zoom?

I am here on Zoom. I'm just kind of a spectator today, though.

Oh, okay. Sorry to put you on the spot there. I thought maybe that's why you were here.

Thank you. Okay. So,

Matt met with part of the audit team on the 18th of June and went through questions they had, but one of them had internet issues and said there were still a few questions. I reached back out to them on June 24th to see if we could schedule a time to go over and read their questions, and I have not heard back from them. Since I have not heard back from them, there is not a lot to update. But Matt is happy to schedule a meeting to talk about it. So I will follow up on that. Can I ask just in my role if there's anything that you all as council think that would be reassuring for the public to hear about our financial processes we have in house? Like I've been a check signer since 2019. I could tell you people about that process or the fact that we use financial software to record every

raise sense and and that kind of thing excellent question i i believe by seeing the faces there's probably a lot of questions and counselor deforge leaned into his his microphone first since i'm going to call him thank you i'm excited about this so um thank you for all that you're doing robin um we want to support you as and continue to move the audit forward do you feel like has staff been able to answer questions? Are we continuing to move it forward in those interim periods?

Well, the monthly staff portion for the audit we're waiting on is done. I mean, we've answered everything and it's been in Umpqua's, it's been Umpqua and Marina for the last six weeks or so.

um that they didn't need him and needed anything else from us not to be mean which is what i say before i start being mean but i wasn't super dazzled with the answer from marina about they reached out on the 18th and then we reached out on the 24th it sounds like we're not marina umba are having an issue resolving things and our taxpayers are expecting answers we promised them 60 days and we're now in month seven is there something that we can do as counselors or as city managers that would help them resolve this or create some urgency or some expectations so that we could get some resolution to our first odds

um that's something that i could try and um look into some this week at the oregon city county advantage association conference um there's going to be a lot of really great resources there and so there's a few people i could talk to to ask for recommendations for that since there's so few municipal audit firms um this is similar to the experience we have as our former auditor. So I'm not sure. I think it's a great business idea for anyone who's interested in. But I I don't. Besides just saying the Council expects you to be here and you know they they said there. They were working on it as fast as possible. But I'll ask some of the more experienced finance and city managers and so forth this week.

Just to push back a little bit, asking two questions a month doesn't feel like as fast as possible. I fully support our staff and appreciate their efforts. I feel like we're not getting what we paid for out of our auditor. And I would like to set an expectation that we resolve this.

So, Councilor Warrington here, is the 2022 audit draft done? Have you seen a draft?

We received it. Bill said he received a draft of all the financials, but it didn't have, I guess there's another part of the audit that has like recommendations for controls to tighten your controls and so forth. And we haven't gotten that part yet. But all the financials are done, so there's nothing else the staff can give them.

Yeah. So I'm wondering, this is out of the timeline for people who work normal hours. Instead of attending the meeting, do you think that they would be able to submit a document for each meeting that they can say, I'm just throwing something out because I can't attend? Sure.

Yeah.

Summary like what she read?

That was, yeah, that was from Marina. I'm from Umpqua.

Something of substance, right?

I can certainly set that expectation that there's a...

I'm not asking you to police anything. I'm just, you know, I don't want to add to you, Robin. I'm just trying to help.

I would really agree with that. That's why we hired Marina, was to support our process without burdening our staff. And that seems like a really easy request. What is outstanding, who's accountable for it, when's it due? That seems pretty easy.

If I was the, you know, the contractor, I would find that reasonable. Okay. So. Thank you.

I'm looking to my left and I see two people. One person leaning close to his microphone, Mr. Weber, and he'd like to ask questions about this.

Councilor Weber. uh my suggestion would be i guess it would be a motion i just get the sense we've been talking about this with on call for over three years that there's more going on than we're aware of behind the scenes i don't know perhaps some cause frustrated or i don't know why they would refuse to talk to us come to a meeting because it's outside of business hours probably because it's outside of business but they didn't submit anything in writing i don't know why they wouldn't give us a written summary I so anyway, just jumping from my thing. I'm not an expert on this. We haven't had one person on Council who is a CPA. I would make a motion that we authorize Councilor DeForest to call both Unpa and Marina and see if there's anything that we could do as Council to help make their jobs work better. Again, I want to call not to accuse them, I want to call to see if there's something we're missing to break through this sale.

Before I ask for a second, I see Emily compelled for me.

So I think that that would not maybe be allowed by the charter. The city manager administers contract and that's a duty that is delegated to the city manager so this that sort of um interferes with the uh council manager separationally i think that you can ask robin to do the i was just trying to save her time but i would withdraw that and if you're able to just talk to him directly again it just feels like the communication is not flowing very well and we could maybe we'll have a table with the conference

Pardon?

Maybe they'll have a table at the conference.

And you can... That would be awesome. Okay.

Yeah, unfortunately, they wouldn't be allowed to tell Councilor DeForge anything, as I understand it, since he's not an employee. But that's how I understand it.

It'd be fine. Okay. I see a question on the table from Councilor Robinson.

Just out of curiosity, is there, in the agreement, is there any kind of reporting mechanism that's stated in our contract with either the auditor or either Umpqua or Marina as to what the deliverables are and what their reporting requirements are?

We would have to look into that. I don't know off the top of my head what their scope of work is. I don't either. Okay. Perhaps a follow-up that we can look forward to.

And I recall a question that I do have is actually a comment for Acting City Manager. I remember seeing in the City Manager departure package, they included the need to amend the current contract to add more, a broader breadth of professional work. I saw this in email. So that might be something to follow up on and potentially explain some communication disconnects that we're experiencing.

From the president, which?

It was a email with Marina.

Yes, so that happened. And we did do a contract for some additional services like that. The report you all wanted from them.

The amendment post 615 to the contract to reflect the expanded scope and role that accounts for the departure of the current city manager or the prior city manager.

I'm not sure. I remember that email. I don't know the status, but I can follow up. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Well, can we kick this topic to death or can we move on to the next topic? Okay. The next topic is city council or the city rule government data acquisition. No update from staff. Emily, so. Sorry, maybe, maybe not. Okay, thank you. And then final topic, parliamentarian. No update from staff. But I do see a hand to my right. Councilor DeBorge.

Council President, not to cause troubles here, but as a way to move this item forward without burdening staff with Does this be another candidate of counselors being able to help out staff by researching lists and reporting back?

I think it's pretty self-explanatory, the research and what services they provide. But it wasn't something that was budgeted for in the current budget. And so we have to look at the boards and commissions budget and

um if it would if that's a you know an expense that we'd want to take on that would be a first step i think that asked if i remember was that the we investigate and report back with costs and so that we can make an informed choice so i agree that budget is a component of it but I feel like, should we be moving this forward? Can we take it off staff so that we can help out?

I, for one, have recently acquired screening, and I have a full sign of the hourly rate as an individual in my own personal research. Has anybody else here done research individually?

Yeah.

Okay. Councilor DeForge, what do you know?

um yeah i've uh investigated parliamentarians in the past and i believe their hourly rate was a hundred dollars an hour okay what was your force i called up the oregon parliamentarian association and got a couple of quotes okay counter to forge or uh weber you had a you're nodding your head like you've got some experience in this

Yeah, my interest in the discussion is a parliamentarian would probably be around $100. And there might be times at meetings we don't need both attorneys and parliamentarians. So parliamentarians could actually be cheaper than necessarily having to have our legal firm be present every meeting. So I think that would be a good option to look at is some meetings maybe only require parliamentarian, other meetings will require legal. So I think that would just help speed up the process. So if, yeah, my recommendation would be if we could gather some numbers together and see if we experimented for three months with the parliamentarian, how much would that take out of the budget? My estimate would show a couple thousand dollars. So I would be open to bringing that back at a future meeting.

Councillor Rustin, do you have any feedback on this?

No, stop.

Thank you. Councillor Warrington, do you have any feedback on this?

I love the save money piece of it. I would enjoy hearing what a parliamentarian would think of our process. Not that we don't know the rules and we need all this help, but I think it's more like how do other council handle these types of situations that we're in? and a path forward that makes sense for everybody. And it might save the city some money.

Okay. From my research as an individual, and I've actually been recently trained, the hourly rate was $150 to $200 an hour. The rate depends on how credentialed they are, if they're professional, they tend to be a little bit higher. Amy Nunez, National Association of Parliamentary Parliamentarians and then there's the Oregon Parliamentarians. Amy Nunez, When I had pretty good success when I got an email they followed up with me within like two hours and I had a zoom invite my inbox the next day. Amy Nunez, From my training, it is pretty clear that we as a city historically and currently are running our meetings rather informally and that's pretty clear. even down to how our meeting agendas are structured and framed. I do think that having a parliamentarian would help to tighten up our governance practices, and it's in everybody's best interest for good, sound decision making to be done. So my recommendation, and I'm in favor as well, too, to have a parliamentarian at least as a trial. We can see and do some we can establish some objectives what criteria for success would be if we didn't have one or even a workshop two hours there would be no harm in being educated as what we've been received feedback from the public we need you know education is power here and it makes us more functional and our government run better um so if there's i would entertain a motion to appoint a committee to find parliamentarians the budget not to exceed three thousand dollars

uh just robin out of curiosity on the the conference that you're going to would there be you said that they're going to have some people are going to have tables and things like that is this something that you've been looking into while you're down there to see how front one you know it is to part one carrie thank you councilor russell and i thought that same thought was going through my head that um i might be able to ask around about about that and um and i mean might i suggest that your first step be to have a parliamentarian

uh give you a presentation during a regular meeting um you can schedule that in a regular agenda like a 10 minute or 15 minute presentation um and then you could maybe find out a little more about it as a group if i if i connect you with the district uh seven director of the of knaps would that be enough to facilitate that for 720. okay um I'm not sure it would be 720 for sure, but we'll see what that agenda is going to entail, I think, because we don't want you, you know, I'll meet with the mayor about the agenda. Okay, thank you.

And we will follow protocol for adding items to the agenda.

Okay. And now we're on to new business, which is an update on the interim city manager search and extension of city manager pro tem appointment.

So I'll just provide a brief update on the search for an interim city manager. My colleague Heather Martin and I have been working hard to find candidates, but we have not found any that are both qualified and available for full-time work. um we have some additional feelers out um and are trying to sort of think outside the box for example i think in the staff report we were recently thinking maybe an assistant city manager from nearby city might um come on loan to the acting or interim city manager for north plains as sort of an opportunity for growth and that might be a option so um we are exploring options um but in the meantime robin has agreed to serve as acting city manager through the 20th the next meeting so my recommendation is to appoint robin we if you recall at the last meeting we just appointed her through either the appointment of an interim or today so we need to counsel with me to extend that other question yes

Just to keep things simple with regards to Robyn's extension, are there any objections here to continuing Robyn through 20, this current arrangement?

Doing a great job, Robyn.

Yeah, thank you. All right, there's no objections. We have a comment.

Can I ask a question? So I 100% want to appoint Robyn. I just wanted to jump in with a question. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" Is there a way that the Council could widen our search parameters and give you direction, so that we were able to consider a little more full list. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" So, for example, I think the the two criteria that i'm hearing that are filtering out people are full time. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" and city manager experience so for an interim I would be open to finance manager as an example, especially since we're focusing on audit so. Do you think as a council we could provide direction to Emily that the search parameters get widened and so that we're excluding, we're reducing the people that we're excluding?

That's a great question. Anybody? Emily, would there be any objections to this body giving you additional feedback on criteria?

No.

I'm expanding to a finance director. Sounds like you could. I mean, my only concern is that the mayor is the, um, doesn't need to work with me on this and he's out right now, but I, I don't imagine what that would be.

Councilor Weber. My other thing would be just from Robin, as you've done this for a couple of weeks, what you find are the issues you mostly know with, and is They're a special person who's not a city manager can help do something that would that be a finance person or whatever, because you're the one that's been doing it now and So I would welcome feedback you would have also Thank you, everyone.

I again this week, going to the Oregon City, County and Association meeting my one of my objectives is to find a new boss. No, I did want to try and give people our attorney's information if they showed interest and, you know, through networking to see if I could help. But I was going to ask sort of what your criteria is. I think the mayor gave a report that maybe has shed some light on that. But human resources is an important skill, I would say, right now. And we're pretty solid with financial with Marina's team and our two in-house accounting staff, finance staff.

Thank you, Robin. I will acknowledge I have the mayor's report and I'll be reading it during the council reports. It's pretty robust and that should answer some and shed some light on some of the questions I've heard so far. Councilor Warrington, Ruffin, do you have any feedback on the hunt that you want to share or?

No, not at this time.

Okay. I think it's fair if you guys have any feedback or criteria, wishes on the next city manager ideas, Please shoot an email to Emily, our acting city manager, and the mayor. I bet you they would appreciate any guidance, thoughts, and concerns from the council. Just do not... I'm seeing that the acting city manager wants us to send that feedback to the lawyer, and do not copy the council on it.

Pardon me.

the we're trying to have communication with the city attorneys go either through the mayor or myself to then help control the costs uh but just doesn't conduit okay so your wishes and dreams in terms of the the hunt for the city manager to make their lives easier please send that feedback to the mayor and the acting city manager thank you next up on our new business is the community development block grant CDBG urban requalification process. Robin, I did not, and Emily, I did not see anything in the meeting packet.

There is nothing in the meeting packet. So this is sort of forecasting that an IGA will be coming to you on the July 20th agenda and that IGA is to remain within the Washington County CDBG consortium. which is a partnership between Washington County and cities that pools and administers Federal Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, and also home funds from HUD to support affordable housing and community development. The city has been in the consortium for many years, and the IGA will continue its membership. And if the city decides it wants to remain within the consortium, the deadline for council to approve that IGA is at the end of this month, which is why I'm forecasting it now. And then it'll be before you on the 20th. And there'll be more information in the staff report and just packets. So the 20th is going to be a critical meeting.

Okay. Next up is

reports and robin we have a city manager report and during this time typically what follows is council reports i'll just keep my very short thank you because uh the time um but i just want to say that i it's important to me to you know i take pride in my work and it's important to me to do a good job and i feel like um you know the current circumstances i think would be pretty impossible for anyone to you know do suddenly do five people's dogs um i am doing my best and i think it is physically painful to have to cut any services of the community um the seven years i've been a library director we've never once closed for uh staff shortage we have we have one city attorney bill um charged to the library sometimes you know and so it's It's a pretty uncomfortable situation and I hope we can find a new person soon.

Oh, Robin, I do want to say that you've been doing an amazing job. Your leadership is definitely shining right now. I do want to bring attention to some enhancements that she's brought to the city, which is our display. It's small but important so we can see who is on the phone and It prevents us from having to go to the audition.

Thank you.

Okay. Now, council updates reports. I'm going to start at the right. I'm being prompted to read the manager's report first, so I will read it. Counselors, since I am not at this meeting, I am providing a report on the status of the interim city manager search. When looking at applicants and recruits, the city attorney and I looked at the following. These are for the interim city manager, not the permanent city manager. One, city management experience. Critical, since we need to stabilize and move quickly on both on recruiting a full-time city manager and completing critical tasks. Two, Oregon experience.

Critical, since Oregon laws, especially land use, are incredibly specific and restrictive compared to other states. And three, small city experience.

We need someone who will focus on the issues in our city, not the broader metro or large city issues. While we did receive interest from two or so Canada's, neither met more than one of the qualifications and were deemed not to be a good fit. We are working with LOC, the Oregon Mayors Association, and a few other groups to find qualified candidates. Some of the other small-town Oregon mayors have shared interim city managers they have used who were able to follow guidance of council and keep the city moving forward while recruiting a full-time replacement. We anticipate bringing candidates forward during the July 20th meeting. I am recommending that we ask Robin to serve as Acting City Manager until then so we can review candidates and bring a recommendation to Council. Robin has done well managing multiple roles, I agree, and should be able to keep things moving until then. It is important to remind us all that we are short-staffed with the departure of City Manager Public Works director the city recorder on leave and our planning assistant on a planned vacation time I would ask that the council recognize this and be patient with staff as they work through this thank you Aaron Dunbrough Mayor Northlands just a reminder and I'll get we officially appointed Robert to July 20th should we do we need a formal motion or would technically or is a unanimous consent with no dissent agreement it's i'm not a parliamentarian because of my understanding that it's pretty clear that the council has decided to appoint robin to continue robin's employment through the 20th yes okay so so it's sufficient no bloody conference car needed we're good robin you're here till the 20th and we want to thank you And if you need coffee, you know, tea, let us know. Treats. Free treats. Visible labor. Okay.

We're here to support, as always.

That said, we heard the Mayor's report. Next, I'm going to put Councillor Warrington on the spot to start us off with the Council update.

Oh, very brief as well. The last couple of weeks has been busy. For everybody, especially Robin, I want to say that I went through the library board as an exhibition on 6-17 where there was two library board members added. I believe it was an in-city and out-of-city. So are she and Julian, if I'm not mistaken. When do they start?

uh thank you counselor you appointed them in your consent agenda this evening um and uh our seed was online um but we put it on the consent agenda in the interest of time it's always your option to pull those off if you wanted to um talk to them and so i was wondering when they could get to start yeah so their appointment uh their terms start So I want, but they'll be able to come to the July library board meetings. They didn't miss anything by having it be today.

Awesome. So welcome to those two. Um, and then my next meeting is the person rep coming up on seven 13. So that is, we'll see. No, we'll see how that goes.

Right. We're going to play it by ear. Thank you. Yeah.

Anything else? Or are we moving on to Councillor DeForge?

Councillor Magidorn, first comment is I want to recognize Councillor Webber. He attended Ex Officio at Mac and he identified a $30,000 issue and he was able to help resolve it for the City of North Plains. I know he's a modest guy, so I wanted to make sure everyone recognized that. So thank you, Councillor Webber. There you go. Second, I want to follow up on a council comment about the aviation issue. I thought that was kind of interesting. Jets, if they were taking off from the Hillsborough Airport, could potentially create a lot of noise for the citizens of North Plains. So I would recommend that we authorize Robin to write a letter supporting that we do not want these hangers in Hillsborough

Thank you, Councillor DeForest. Staff are not allowed to write political letters. I would have to be a councillor, as I understand.

It's not a political letter to the Port of Portland and the City of Phillipsboro.

We've done stances like this historically on other city issues related to Phillipsboro.

I'll have to just confer with legal on that. from my understanding of the rules.

Absolutely. So maybe I would frame it as I would recommend a future agenda item to discuss the Hillsborough Airport aviation issue and how it impacts the city of North Plains. And last one, I would also like to request an agenda item for the housing needs analysis policy or discussion So we have an executive session scheduled to discuss this. This would be a public meeting where we could share thoughts on policy. And so I would request that that be an agenda item scheduled for the 7-20 meeting. And I would recommend, I know there's a lot going on with agendas, but I would recommend some urgency around that one because I believe there's legal deadlines and it would be It would give the public and the Council an opportunity to align on this important issue. Can I get, Council President, would you mind if I ask for Council consensus to support that agenda item? Yes.

Do we need Council consensus on the earlier agenda request for the aviation letter? Sure, great idea.

For support for that one?

Yeah, my support, Councilor Weber.

I think the only question is, who should write the letter? I don't want to add more to Robin.

I think that's what we need to discuss, is who has to write it and what does it look like.

So it's a discussion item on the 20th. Right. Okay. Councilor Weber or Maureen, are you going to agree? Sure. Okay. So union has support for both requests. Anything else?

Nothing else for me. Thank you.

Sure. Okay. I'm going to skip over to Councilor Weber.

Dave Kuntz, And protocol, we were talking about is that we have agenda items we're supposed to suggest them during council reports, so I have a couple suggestions, I would like an agenda item, where we would discuss the urban growth boundary and the tgm. Dave Kuntz, grant process, where we are currently and what our options are going forward, so a discussion of those items well it's one on.

We do have a recurring item on our agenda for UGB PAC meeting updates.

Can we repurpose that? Yeah, I don't want to. You could repurpose it, but my thing is more to be specific. We have a TGM grant process. Where are we in that? What are our options going forward? Who's going to be handling that or what are our options? Yeah.

Okay, well, you have my support to add it to a future date to be determined during the next offering and planning of the agenda scope when the mayor is back and the acting city manager has a moment to take a pause and think.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Sorry, you gave your name to you, Jason?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, thank you. Sounds like there's going to be support on that as a future topic to discuss.

uh my my second issue counselor weber is that we would ask marina to be present uh the second meeting of every month is when the finance report is given since marina is acting as our finance manager uh i would uh recommend that they come and we compensate them fairly for whatever that is it's not in their spoken word we should pay them to come but that would make sense to me that they would show up uh once a month Mayor Mrakas, Is that the finance report or the.

Mayor Mrakas, I mean i'm not sure if showing up because it's so late or just maybe submit a report once i'm like a mouse something we discussed a memo yeah I think that might be a happy medium.

Mayor Mrakas, Council president, so when we approve the bill bill brought this forward in the contract, I believe that it was told to us that Marina would be available to answer questions. and So I feel like this request is consistent with the contract that we approved.

Well, in the spirit of the current situation of staffing that we're at, I think 720, what we might be able to do is give some questions to the acting city manager and mayor. Those can maybe be consolidated and that can be submitted to Marina in advance in support of offering a memo for the 720 meeting. And then we do have a placeholder on the agenda under unfinished business that further discussion can potentially be had if there's unfinished discussion or questions that the memo does not satisfy. Is that satisfactory to you guys?

So we're kind of just weighing in here. I think that maybe these questions and also the city manager Sort of the traits that you are looking for should be directed to Robin and not the Mayor, just to avoid any potential for serial communication issues. So independently, do not Bobby.

Yeah, just direct both of those to Robin. So for clarity, Council, the City Manager questions, comments, concerns, traits, and the Marina questions. they'll use to guide an updated memo please direct them to robin and aaron do not copy anybody that is the direction um i do have a couple updates but before i um turn on my updates i want to welcome our final council we probably have no update but if you want to share some thoughts i would welcome that uh yeah i think it's a little premature for me to give updates on what i've been doing

Since I've been sworn in, you've all seen exactly what I've done, so that's on record. No, just thank you. I'm looking forward to the next two and a half years. I think that we're at a very interesting point, and I would encourage, I've had a couple people reach out to me. Please feel free to reach out to me with my city email, which is... First name, dot, last name, network name, dot, dot. So eventually someone will teach me how to access that. I'd be happy to sit down and get to know you and hear what you think we should be doing.

So thank you. Exciting. Welcome.

And again, glad we have not scared you away yet.

Not yet.

Okay. In a final council report on the 18th, there was a WACA session that I had the opportunity to attend. They also had an executive session to discuss current litigation, which I cannot discuss, but my answer is that they recently completed a compensation study and their business item was basically a recommendation and formalization of implementing updated salary range updates for six job classifications in order to stay competitive in the 911 labor market. This market is very, very, It's hard to attract and retain good people and they're definitely hiring. I recommend taking a look at their website. There's good people. So their staff is going to be looking forward to some salary updates this year and they budgeted for it. So it's going to be a soft landing pad to be able to provision for those. Again, the financial impact is modest, very debudgeted, and there's potentially another CFO role where they're going to have a slight adjustment. And I think they were behind up to like 24% in his salary, which was amazing. So he's going to also, his salary is also going to go under review and keep up on that. And then, of course, on Saturday, I had the privilege of meeting with the parliamentarian for some training. Um, he was the director of district and then director of the national association of parliamentarians. Um, very knowledgeable man. Um, basically my motivation was given in the complex environment we're living in. I wanted to make sure that I could sharpen my own skills in order to best represent the citizens here. Uh, what I found the most useful was it was really how to power council rules. Robert Roberts rules or municipal code charter. They're not, they don't live independently. They live in context into a situational use case. And they just take a little bit of, you just gotta lean in and learn. And so it was really enlightening. What was really ironic is reading the new city council rules, apparently they specked out an outdated Robert Troll's book. Robin, you might wanna look into this. It was an outdated guide, last published 1943. And the latest one is 2020. So Robert's Rules Revised, I'll follow up with you on that one, it was kind of ironic. And then of course, even down to how we format our agendas, they don't follow the MSUN methodology. So historically in forward looking, we have been thinking of our skill sets. In fact, I enrolled in a class, I left you guys a handout, that's a part of the paper pile that's in front of you for $99 starting on Wednesday, you can enroll in a weekly class. it takes you through the first 11 chapters. And at the end, you have the opportunity to take a test and become a member of the NAP. So I will be there. Hopefully I can see you guys there. So this information and skill, it's beyond city council. I think it has a lot of skills that could transcend into the professional world or even volunteering in committees. So I highly recommend that you guys joined. And that is all for myself and what I have to share. Really excited to also share more knowledge. And I think I might also write a white paper and send it to you, Robin, to share for the next council that gets my observations and what I learned. And that is it. And on that note, I also learned that while we have adjournment as a line item, we don't need a motion to actually adjourn. So if there's no further questions, comments, concerns, it's 841. I'm going to adjourn tonight's meeting. Okay.

Thank you.