City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Dunbrow.

Present.

Councillor DeForge.

Present.

Councillor Hagedorn. Present.

Councillor Ugarte. Present. Councillor Rustin. Present. Councillor Warrington. Present. Councillor Weber.

Present. Thank you. This time I will entertain a motion on the consent agenda and the previous meeting minutes. Thank you. Mayor Dunbar, I move to adopt the consent agenda. Okay, it's been moved by Councillor Ford. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councillor Ruston. Move is committed. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda and reduce meeting minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, now we move on to public comment. I have six, seven. Okay, I have seven plus one on one. So when I call you up, please come up to the microphone. You'll have three minutes. Please state your name, whether you're a resident, non-resident, or a resident. And as a reminder to council, council and the public, council may not respond to a public comment. If they did bring it up, they can bring it up during council reports. So first we have Russ Sheldon.

I'm Russ Sheldon, and I'm a resident. Can you hear the microphone okay?

No, we might be turning on. I just said it, so it is.

Okay, now we're, all right, Russ Sheldon, resident, mayor, councillors, and members of the public. Tonight's agenda includes two important decisions, renewing the city's contract with its legal council and appointing an interim city manager. Under the circumstances and if properly vetted, I support both actions because they represent an opportunity to restore some measure of stability to our city government. However, I also believe it's important to recognize why we find ourselves in this position. Over the past two years, North Plains has experienced an extraordinary amount of turnover. We've seen council resignations, the departure of experienced staff, leadership vacancies, and increasing legal expenses. Regardless of how anyone views about the reasons behind these changes, the result has been instability with City Hall. Hiring a parliamentarian won't fix this. Experienced public administrators are not easily replaced. They carry years of institutional knowledge, professional relationships, and operational experience. When the knowledge leaves without a deliberate transition plan, the entire organization becomes more vulnerable. Hiring a parliamentarian won't fix this either. Appointing an experienced interim city manager is an important first step. Renewing the city's relationship with experienced legal counsel also provides continuity during a difficult period. I appreciate those decisions because at this moment, continuity matters. But these appointments alone are not a plan. My question to the council is simple. What is your long-term strategy for restoring stability, rebuilding public confidence, and ensuring continuity of government? How will you retain qualified employees? How will you recruit qualified experienced leadership? how we preserve institutional knowledge, and how we assure residents that North Plains is moving towards stability rather than continued uncertainty. Residents deserve more than temporary solutions. They deserve a clear vision for the future and one that demonstrates thoughtful planning, transparency, accountability, and a commitment to effective governance. I support the actions before you tonight because they are necessary under the circumstances, but I also hope they mark the beginning and not the end of restoring stability, rebuilding public trust and providing leadership Northline deserves. The residents of this community deserve to know not only what the next step is, but where the council intends to lead our city over the coming years. Thank you.

Next up is Lori Perrone.

First, I'd like to start. My name is Lori Perrone. I'm not a resident here. First, I'd like to start by saying thank you. Thank you for all the hard work. We see it and we appreciate it. And it's not easy. So please know that we recognize that. I would like to speak about the chair and city manager selection. Unfortunately, the city charter doesn't cover rules or code for this process. We do, however, have the recommendations of the leading cities. Obviously, our city has had more than our share of obstacles with the resignation of the previous city manager and several other others in an unexpected and expected to be the last census. So usually secession plans are put in place in a timely manner. But obviously you did not have that opportunity. Finding an interim city manager soon is critical, but it must be done in a transparent, inclusive way that brings the other decision makers, the whole council to the process. While legal counsel's role is to ensure compliance according to Oregon State local laws, it's vital that they maintain a neutral stance nor play any role in the decision-making process. As a manager counsel form of government in North Plains, no one person should influence the process or recommend a candidate. Rather, the whole counsel holds the final hiring authority. Each counselor has an equal voice in voting, selecting candidates, and making a final decision on the interim city manager. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Coach Kimball.

Good evening. I've been here for 52 years. What I heard Russ speak tonight, I did everything he had said. Okay. The only thing different is the last bill, Lori is not coming back. Now I understand Robin's going three. very, very stable people in this community. I'm just heartbroken that this is happening. Never in 44 years have I seen anything of this nature at all. There's been a few people, we've got none of our city manager, but we looked for one and then we let the other one go. You did the opposite, Kendall. Now you're looking for one. And good luck. Also, I feel that the outside influences are destroying our city. Are you guys happy about that? I and all the people behind me and a lot of residents that live in this town and I have hundreds of friends. We all love this city. And I think it's apparent that you do not. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Emily Waldron.

Hi, my name is Emily Waldron. I am a rural 97133 resident and proud to be the third generation of my family involved in North Plains and caring about our community. I would first like to say for all those complaining about us outsiders, it literally is written in the city charter and code how rural residents can participate, which tells me that from the founding of this town, the idea was for our whole community, not just in town residents to be able to participate. And I'm related to a lot of people who participated in committees and council here. I was going to speak just about the HNA, which I'm glad it seems like we spoke about in executive session. I hope that you all are looking at overturning that and passing a resolution because we're not legally required to do it. And as soon as that passes through LUVA, we are then going to have the state forcing us to do it. And I'd rather it be the community that decides how we grow for housing versus the state. I'm also just going to speak about some concerns with the candidate being brought forward to you for interim city manager. The Lebanon Times, which is where he served as a city manager, released the 80-page report discussing how much we've boldened staff There were 11 staff members under him that all came forward talking about it being a hostile work environment and unfriendly to them, including eight department heads. So it's concerning that in a time where we have a lot of strife and turmoil in our community, to see someone who perpetuates that being the selection that's brought forward to you all to approve for the city manager. And it would be nice to see you all be able to choose the interim one. I know it's just an interim and not the permanent, but looking at our community and what's happening, it seems like there needs to be more thoughtfulness in the interim selection because yes, that person's only going to be with us for several months, but those several months are setting the tone for a lot of things happening in this town. Lastly, I just want to say you all are going to be discussing the TGM grant, and it's kind of concerning to see so much focus on the TGM grant and about expansion when we are behind around things on the Brownfield grant. which was awarded to us and that would deal with cleaning up areas that currently are inside our city limits. And that should be handled before we look outside in order to do what we can with what we already have.

Thank you. Next up is Ricky Smith.

My name is Ricky Smith. Taxpaying resident Nora Flames. Last election, when the four were elected, their marching orders were to fire the city manager, city recorder, and fire the city attorney. This was well known by all, especially the staff at City Hall. What made it worse was the relentless attacks by strong towns on social media. This did not go unnoticed. What did get noticed was city council not standing up to the city staff. That's wrong in all ways. These are friends and colleagues that work with each other every day and have to endure this criticism. Why do you think they're leaving? They don't have their backs. Look at the lives you have ruined. For what purpose? Now you are stuck hiring a city manager with a strained past because he is it. Is that fair to the remaining staff? No. Last meeting when Councilor Hagedorn brought up hiring a parliamentarian, Robin Hagedorn mentioned that it's not in the budget. Parliamentarian action on Robin's part. Councilor Hagedorn's response, we will put $3,000 towards it. At the $200 figure she suggested, that is only 15 hours. Not very much when city council meetings are lasting around two hours or more. You have an approved budget. We need to stick to it. Also, last meeting, there was discussion on signing the city attorney to a contract. The attorney said that they would extend the contract for three years, a contract which North Plains could cancel at any time. Cancel the divorce, argues not to return it, extend it. He wanted to find a cheaper firm. He was insulting to the attorney sitting right in front of him and couldn't form commentary. There are very few times that practice material law There's a few of that practice with this below the city would be lucky to find a new firm let alone one that is it's been less expensive. Thank you for being the one voice on Council standing up for the city said thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Smith. A resident of North Plains. Last city council meeting, the council discussed replacing the city attorney at city council meetings with a parliamentarian. There are 241 incorporated cities in the state of Oregon. None of them employ a dedicated parliamentarian. This duty to advise the mayor on questions of meeting order is assigned to an existing city official. who is there already and outside the discussion of the counselors. This is almost always the city attorney or the city recorder. Thereby, the city receives two services for one expenditure. While a city attorney or city recorder can function as a parliamentarian, a parliamentarian cannot function as a city recorder or nor as a city attorney. The parliamentarian cannot keep the minutes or handle votes, nor give the legal advice that may be required during the council decision. A parliamentarian is only running a meeting. All 241 incorporated cities in Oregon are part of the League of Oregon Cities. This organization operates as an agreement between all incorporated cities and is how the state of Oregon has chosen to train and aid cities in carrying out the city's responsibilities and governance. The League of Oregon Cities brings 100 years of experience in training city officials in their duties, including free training and parliamentary procedures for city councils. If that is not enough, training to go can be requested for training specific to a city and tailored to a specific problem, including direct instruction on city rules and procedures. It can also include instructions on city budgets, how $3,000 for a parliamentarian cannot magically appear or transfer from a different category. The budget has to be spent as previously approved. I am asking the city council to not employ a dedicated parliamentarian. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Instead, use the resources you already have. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up is Meredith Faulkner.

Before I get to the microphone, I'd like to go look at this poster. I don't want to wrangle it up here. the title of the poster. My name is Meredith Bach. I live four blocks from here. And I'm always glad when I can meet somebody at Jesse Mays. And I was amazed that in the last meeting, somebody in attendance here did not know that Jesse Mays was a woman. That poster has a twin sister in a frame someplace. It might be in a closet here. It might be at City Hall. If any of you find it, I would like to have it installed in the room permanently because when I talked to Jesse's son, Hilmer, who was 100 years old, he handed me this rolled paper and said, we had two of these made and one was framed. And I was over here the day that it was introduced, but it was never installed. So now I have two things to request of City Council, which is that you approve we place a boulder to the left of the stairway as you enter, and that we will have manufactured a metal plaque with Jessie's photograph on it, the one in the lower right there, with a little bit of information that she was a school teacher. Her father ran the grocery store here in town where we still have our little market. And so I think this is the one good news thing that we could all agree on in these many meetings. And I researched the cost with award specialties, about $500 for the metal, with the information in the photograph. The boulder and the installation and so forth will be done by our friend Butch Kindle, who knows how many sites. So I will await an email. And if I don't get one, I'll come to the next city meeting. And who knows what I'll have in hand then. Thank you very much.

Okay. All right. All right. I'm sorry, we have one on the line. Let me go. Please. I am. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. My name is Linda Gallus Merton, representing Strong Towns, North Plains, with members both incorporated and unincorporated. We're here tonight violating our own admonition that the URA and Council need clear separation, but we did not want to wait for the next URA meeting to give you some well-earned praise. With that, we say thank you for the thoughtful direction you are taking. We want to commend the Board for seeking the guidance of Tiberius as you work through important decisions about how urban renewal resources can best serve the community. Bringing in experienced guidance reflects a serious, responsible approach to stewardship and helps ensure that the Board's choices are grounded in sound strategy and practical implementation. We also appreciate the Board's work to implement a grant program that will truly help businesses located inside the URA boundary. A well-designed program can make a meaningful difference in mitigating blight and ensuring that public investment is directed where it can have a clear and direct benefit. We also want to recognize the Board for beginning to hold regular meetings that are collaborative, deliberative and effective. That consistency matters. It gives the public confidence that the board is working openly, listening carefully, and making progress in a way that reflects both accountability and shared purpose. So thank you. And now we want to praise the Council for its efforts to bring on board a parliamentarian. you've been hamstrung by rules of others' making. A parliamentarian can provide focused, real-time guidance on meeting procedure, motions, debate, and decision-making without turning every procedural question into a legal issue. Parliamentarian support is far more cost-effective than relying on the city attorney for routine governance questions. It reserves legal counsel for matters that truly require legal analysis, while giving the counsel immediate, practical help in running orderly and productive meetings. It also strengthens public confidence by helping the Council follow clear rules consistently, reduce confusion, and keep discussion moving in a fair and transparent way. You heard it yourselves at the last meeting when an issue arose. It was parliamentary. BEH had to admit that they weren't parliamentarians, thus could not advise at that level. Council is on the right path with this, and we commend you for being persistent and bringing parliamentary guidance to meetings, especially since Charter requires adherence to Robert's rules. So thank you very much again.

Thank you. That's done. All right. And that concludes our public comment. What do you mean? Next up, we have... Is Amanda online? Do you want to start over? I'll give you a hand turn. I'm assuming you're talking about me. Oh, sorry. Yes.

the only Amanda on here. I was confused. I was waiting to hear everyone else's. I've got the monthly finance report included in the packet this month. I did do a little bit of reformatting. I'm happy to take suggestions or if anyone is interested in any specific information. The biggest change that I made is that we will be presenting a full four to six weeks late. As I was re-reviewing May, which was presented last month, there was outstanding feedback transactions. So in order to present it accurately, we'll be reporting about six weeks late. If you have any questions, we're here for you. There's also a little, basically a little blurb based on what we do in lieu of a finance manager and part of city manager review and approvals that are happening inside of the city. We have come on board alongside city staff, working with several of the staff in the last few weeks, just making sure that your processes stay in place in lieu of those absences. So.

Thank you. Counselor, questions? Mayor Dunthorne.

Thank you, Amanda. This is really great. I appreciate this. Do you think that there is any hand reports within our software that you think would be informative to us that wouldn't require a heavy lift from staff to prepare?

Not off the top of my head. In order to create these, let's see, on page two and four, Maybe not four. Six. Those are pivot tables straight out of the general ledger with this month just to set it up. It took me a little bit more time, but they will pretty much be an exact match to system generated reports.

Okay. Is there anything that you think that we should know that we haven't asked for?

Again, not off the top of my head. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions?

I have one on page 2. Sorry, it's page 2 of the report. It shows the general fund community development has a red number of 87.5% and there are other red numbers as well. Can you explain what the red numbers mean and do they get darker red or lighter red or something like that so we can tell how harmful those are?

So for the most part, they basically indicate that you are over the expected 45.8%, which would be 11 months into your fiscal year. I did manually highlight those. So if there is a slight up or down adjustment. I see one there is 47.5. Basically, they're manually adjusted just to take note that you are slightly over budget. There's most likely a reason I did not have a chance to dig into the community development materials and services expense. But I can, I would assume that there was probably a major expense that was budgeted for the two year period that was probably just purchased this early on. The other ones specifically we can talk about under general government 419, the 61% that's highlighted materials and services expense is over. We talked about that a little bit above. It's because the fees specifically for Marina in lieu of the finance manager position and some of the work that we've been doing to get the audits caught up goes under materials and services expense rather than personnel, which is definitely under budget at the 32.7%. The bigger picture would be the blue lines, which would give you by department where they're at. And none of the departments in total are over budget for all combined categories.

Thank you, Amanda. All right. We will move on to resolution 2353. For the player position. So, Rowan, we want to... Sure.

So, you all have asked to table this until the next meeting, but Rowan was on vacation, so it's two meetings later now, but we brought it back for your consideration. And I, from my observation over the last four weeks, I can confirm that Rowan is working out of assistant planner class, doing more planner, even some planning manager-type tasks, having learned from our previous manager. And so I do support Rowan being promoted to planner.

Thank you, Robin. At this time, if any councilors would be ready to comment on this, I'll let the board take a motion.

Your number is there a reason why this isn't an open job request as opposed to feel like it's just promotion right.

But yes, that's why some of the government is.

And I because I wasn't the originator of it, I'm not I'm not sure.

I'm sorry.

Councilor Ugarte, I just wanted to bring this back for discussion as I know that previously at the last meeting there was not support to pass a resolution at that time. However, I think we as a council need to look at the bigger picture of the desert of city staff that is remaining. And I would implore each of you to consider looking at the big picture that Rowan already is doing a majority of these things at an assistant planner level. So I am in support of Rowan being moved into the official planner position. However, to Counselor DeForge's point, I've mentioned this before, and I know it's going to be a while before we have capacity to implement this, but I would love to have something within the city for career progression so that we're posting open positions and it's fair and equitable for everyone to apply.

Anyone else recognize or take a motion?

Councilor Weber, my one question would be whether or not there's a rush to this or if it would make more sense to delay until we have an actual city manager, because to me that's an important part for city manager is kind of creating this to them deciding how they want to do it. So that would be a question to me whether or not there's an immediacy that means to be out.

He was there. I think the City Council Chambers and to Robin's point, Rowan is currently doing planning duties. If we don't want to promote her, then we're going to be cut back on city services. So she's working above her job, or they're working above the job description. It's not reasonable to ask somebody to do that, especially considering we block their staff. So again, I understand your point, but But that's not really the issue. Again, the issue is, is this a, do we move Rowan into a role for, do we promote Rowan into a role that is currently being done, or do we cut back on city services? It's more of an actual or objective question. So motions, comments, or remove?

Mr. Lorington? Thank you. I don't know, Rowan, what they do or don't do. I just have to go by advisory by the city manager and other. What I am concerned about some is the city here is constantly saying we're over budget and we shouldn't be spending money. So if we do this, are we going to get bill back from the city? So I don't know. A, we're spending more money. B, we need a city plan, right? So one or the other. I think we're going to get in trouble for one or the other.

Motion or questions?

Councilor Ugarte, I would, just to piggyback off of Councilor Warrington's comment, you know, I hear you and I think that fiscal responsibility is important. However, in the big picture of, you know, maybe 10, maybe $15,000 more and looking at the bigger picture of if we do not promote someone into this position and they're doing work well above their scope, do we think long-term that is sustainable or do we think that there's a risk that we're creating? So for me, in my opinion, this is an investment into the future and I don't see an issue. with this position, again, considering the business-critical level we are at with city staff in this town.

At this point, everyone spoke except for Councilor Rustin and Trustee President Hagenhorne. Do you have a comment?

Just, yeah, I've got a question or a comment. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm on. Okay, Councilor Rustin. I guess my only question on this would be... Oh, thank you. My second thought. Does Rowan meet all of the essential job functions that are listed on the job description? And at the end of the day, I think that would be my only concern is if there were any qualifications that we would hold another candidate to if this weren't on the job description.

Well, thank you, Council President.

I'm thinking long-term. I'm also thinking long-term about this, but because we're expecting to hire a permanent city manager within the next few months or after the new year, Can you explain why it's important to establish this position now rather than allowing the needs to be managed or to evaluate the organization's long-term staffing structure and needs relative to the position the city is in for rebooking?

It's either that or the services because we can't have people who work above the job description. It's a fairly binary decision. We either got services or we have resources. It's just product management. So I'm just saying that is kind of our options at this point. We're very short on staff. So with that, is there a motion to comment on it?

Councilor Ugarte, I move to approve resolution number 2353 to authorize the city manager to create a full-time planner position as described in the job description attached to this resolution as Exhibit A and incorporated here by this reference.

Okay. Resolution 2353, move for approval by Councilor Ugarte. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, Councilor Rosen seconds. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, motion fails. Moving on, 2357, authorize MPA and UPSA. Can I get a roll call? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. So we'll do a roll call vote. So, um, I'm going to bring the rest of the time. 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 don't know. I don't know.

Well, thank you, Mayor. And I will turn it over to Emily. But just to explain the risk of continuing without a contract in place as you look at other options. Thank you.

So this item was on the agenda last meeting. And you had decided to table it. There's also an item under new business. on the city attorney subcommittee. And so as the city explores other options for city attorney, BEH is still appointed as the city attorney under the charter. And as such, we do need a contract in place. And I just want to explain my answer last meeting. I interpreted the question on risk as past risk. and answered that there was not, because up to that point, there was not. The parties did not realize that the contract's term had expired and continued operating under its terms. But now that the parties know, we're in a different risk posture. And so my recommendation tonight, again, is that council approve the contract tonight, even if the subcommittee's work is ongoing, to that item. just to explain the city may terminate the contract at any time and for any or no reason. If you look at paragraph five in the contract, it says that. So there is literally no downside in approving the contract tonight, and there is only risk in proceeding without a contract. So lastly, I got a question about putting forward a shorter contract, but because there is no penalty, for terminating and the notice period required, a 30-day contract is no different than an indefinite contract in this case. So my recommendation, again, is that council pass the resolution approving.

Thank you. With that, I'll take any questions or entertain a motion on 23-57, I'll throw this in to DEA HPSA.

Councilor Ugarte, I move to approve resolution number 2357 for the renewal of a personal services contract with Beery, Elsner, and Hammond LLB for a period of three years from July 1st, 2025 until June 30th, 2028.

Okay, motion to approve 2357. Councilor Ugarte, do I have a second? Second. Councilor Rosen, second. Any discussion? Or, yeah, any discussion, sir? Okay, with that, we'll take a roll call vote. Councilor Forge. Nay. Councilor Ruskin. Aye. Councilor Garcia.

Aye.

Councilor Weber. Aye. Councilor Warrington.

Nay.

Councilor Hagan.

Nay.

And mayor votes aye, motion carries. All right, resolution 2258, on-call engineering contracts.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. We have Brian Feeney here. Brian, would you come forward?

Thank you.

Yes.

It should be on.

Yeah, good evening, Councillors and Mayor. Brian Feeney, 3J Consulting. for the past five years we have been the city's contract city engineer, as well as support the GIS services, which we can talk about in the next resolution. But our overall five-year contract was a public RFP that fired our contracts up. So the city eventually would need to go out for a public RFP for another city engineer, you know, or continue on services. There are other options we can look at later. This is just to continue city services as a city engineer until the council or the new city manager so chooses to move forward with that on-call contract. So this is just a one year for the $100,000, but it is very similar to what you were looking at with the city attorney. We cancel that anytime. So, you know, council or I should say the new city manager comes and selects the city engineer, we would transfer those services full continual if we were selected.

Thank you. Any questions or motion on what you think to do?

I have one thing to add. Excuse me.

Yes, please.

I just wanted to give a couple examples of the services that 3J provides here. One of them is weekly inspections on our construction and the burn hole development. So it's something that we definitely needed to avoid a gap in service and have this contract abridge the time until we can do an RFP. Are there any other examples of some of the routine work you do? I saw a list, but

YEAH, NO, I APPRECIATE THAT. I'M SORRY, I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT IN A LITTLE BIT MORE DETAIL. BUT YEAH, THIS CONTRACT WOULD BE FOR JUST THE GENERAL CIVIL ENGINEERING AND INSPECTION SERVICES. SO ANY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STUFF THAT COMES THROUGH LAND USE PLANNING, WE WOULD DO PLAN REVIEW FOR THAT, PERMIT APPROVALS FOR THAT FOR THE CITY PUBLIC RIDEWAY SERVICES. AND THEN INSPECTION OF THOSE CONTRACTS OR OF THOSE DEVELOPMENTS OUT THERE. SO ANY BRINN HILL DEVELOPMENT, ST. EDWARDS CHURCH RIGHT NEXT DOOR, THEY'RE IN CONSTRUCTION Anything that you see in active construction out here, our services are helping inspecting, making sure those are done per city, a group of plants. One of the things that this contract would not do, and it is kind of on hold right now until you go through that on-call public civil engineering services, is any of our current CID projects will work in the city. Because those are larger engineering projects. There are larger budgets that need to be given to design. So some of these field tasks, projects that have been in the works for the last couple of years, getting close to being permitted or bid, as you guys have seen in my monthly reports, those are on hold right now because we would end up using up those services if we went into construction and had to have full-time inspection or full-time engineering on that. It just wouldn't be covered. So, good. Anything else to add?

Sorry, I just want to make sure I didn't press it. Any questions or not, I will. Yeah, I've got a question.

Oh, shoot. So what I'm hearing is it's entirely practical for us not to approve this. In the event that this wasn't approved, what would be the... We would not have a city engineer to shut down construction.

I'm not sure.

Thank you. Mayor Dunro, can we clarify why an RFP process wasn't started in time for us to have options?

Yeah, that's a great call.

I'm sorry, I won't get the answer.

Yeah, the people that do know that are not sitting. So, no, we can't clarify that. Any other questions or do I want to take a motion?

Councillor Ugarte, I move to approve resolution number 2358 to enter into a contract with 3G Consultant to not to exceed $100,000.

Okay. Councilor Garty moves to approve 2358. Do I have a second? Second. Councilor Rustin seconds. Councilor DeForge on, or I'm sorry, is there any discussion? Okay. Councilor, I'm going to give a roll call vote. Councilor DeForge? Aye. Councilor Rustin? Aye. Councilor Garty?

Aye.

Councilor Weber? Aye. Councilor Warrington?

Aye.

Council President Maynard?

Aye.

And there was a motion to use our 2359. Proprietary G. I. S. I'll turn it to Robin or Brian.

Right. I will do my best on this as I am not the g. I. But about 3 years ago or maybe 4 years ago, we know the city creating new. Yeah, this is. We were able to create. For multiple uses for both lanes planning for engineering. We were adapting it for the public works side with the public works director to get his staff or their staff, you know, whomever it is, to document city's assets, water main reservoir, fire hydrants, water main, starting to get in there about a maintenance cycle on that, kind of bring the city a little bit more into what other jurisdictions have out there now. That map's also used by planning for their, Land use designations helps out, makes it a little bit quicker to find that rather than across the mountain. And then we've also scanned in all the city's ASBOs that we were able to find. So anything that a new development needs or assets, water lines, sewer lines, or whatever it is, it's in that database. So it's a lot easier to find than going into some roll maps somewhere in some archive or something like that when you take it outside. That takes management of that. So right now, the service is just to keep that up to date. Washington County gives you updates all the time. So our staff goes in there, make sure that we grab that information to Washington County. Make sure the city assets are updated. Robin or Robin, do you have anything to add?

I do have one thing to add and I might also, but I remember that Dustin had talked about this being a precursor to being able to do. use software to read our water meters instead of paying for the manual reads and that kind of thing. So this was a step in that direction.

Yes, I'll just say having the GIS managed by 3J and having that resource available to us is definitely an asset to planning and a bigger asset to Public Works, especially considering the nature of the department at this time. Continuity in that resource will be important.

Okay. Questions or motions.

I have a question. Councilor Rustin. You're going to have a lot of questions. You said you helped develop this GIS system. Is this a proprietary system that only your firm will be able to manage for years to come or be dive in?

It's not 100% locked in, but we did create the database. And with our GIS at depth, obviously it's a program that we The city has a license board, but we created all that data. That data is of ours. So some of that information you would lose. But I would have to dive into a little bit more on the specifics of that or what that retention is. But currently right now, my understanding is that that is a proprietary database.

It met the qualifications as a sole source because of the proprietary nature of the system. database.

Well, I guess, you know, a follow-up question on that is, is it smart for us to tie into a proprietary system, whereas, you know, I think the county or the city, their GIS, I don't know, are they all proprietary systems that are built, or is there, like, a universal standard that would be an alternative?

Um, my, I have limited understanding of this. Maybe Rowan knows more, but I've seen conferences, a lot of, um, A lot of presentations on different proprietary GIS and they are all proprietary that I've seen, but maybe Robin has other information.

I'll concur with Robin. GIS systems are each individual and the data is complex and layered. Switching up who and how those are managed is complex.

And I'll just go further because on my day job, I actually sell the underlying systems for GIS. And I do keep firewalls to be clear. There is no conflict. I've already declared this to the state. But in my experience with other cities outside of the state of Oregon, it's all very proprietary. And it's the worst thing to deal with if you have to replace it. I'll just say that. I don't deal with GIS piece, but I know all about it. with it so everything i've been told is proprietary but i'm obviously mentioning it so please don't quote them that's that's as much as i understand from the sales side so okay then i guess the same question that i would have for the one previous to really have an option not to approve us i mean if we don't want to go back out or we got to go find them

I don't know if it was not approved they would stop updating and and we would I guess have to. We lose access eventually.

And we still are going to start the process all of them.

However, I just a little clarification on the numbers so it says 200,000 but it looks like for the term but the term is for 2 years that right so it's a 100,000 per year and then What are we paying currently right now for this service versus what we're going to pay in this contract?

Gotcha. Last couple of years or this previous year, don't quote me on the exact numbers, but it was less. It was more than $100,000. And when we created the database a couple of years ago, it was a lot of labor intensive to get that information into that system. So, right now we are averaging in last month. We haven't worked on anything just in July. I should say, just because we don't have a contract for that. But the previous month we were around 6000 dollars. On that, so it fluctuates, it will probably be less for a little while because it's just a maintenance of it. A lot of the lift was when the public works director was asking for more information to be added to that system. So really. Depends on, you know, when you have your new city manager, you know, the work structure on your one information they want to have added to the system right now or anything that's right. So we're just downloading whatever Washington County has or the state has for updates. There will probably be less than that average of, you know, 100 grand divided by, you know, 12 months.

So for clarification, this number is in the current budget.

Yeah, that's right. And then there will be some new areas added or some new things added when our construction is finished, correct?

Yeah, I mean, as construction ends, we get that updated. So once the, whoever the engineer of record was for that development, they give us assessments, we get that information. So, yeah, so there is new information added, but yes, this is just a continuation of what was approved by city council. And last but not the worst.

Questions or all cameras.

A motion sorry, we're going to move we prove 2359 work here is not a contract in the questions.

I have a motion from the board to prove 2359 or so. There's a Russian side it's a discussion. All those in favor, say aye. All right, sorry, I'll do a roll call vote. Sorry, mistake. Councilor Forge. Aye. Councilor Resnick. Aye. Councilor Garza.

Aye.

Councilor Webber. Aye. Councilor Warrington.

Aye.

Council President Hayden.

Aye.

And Mayor goes aye. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. And Rob. Um, all right. So next is resolution 2362. So is Heather on the line? No, you and I are on this one. Okay. So I'll just give you the short of what happened. You all have received updates from myself and from the city attorney that's working on this with me. We had a total of three qualified candidates. One declined, one was not available until August and was likely to be gone in a month. So we brought forward the current candidate. He's here with us. So I'm going to invite him up, ask some questions, and then from there, we will discuss and I will . So Gary, do you want to come up? Hello. In order to keep this orderly, let's just go, let's just go one at a time. So try to keep your questions limited. Let's try to get this done in a reasonable amount of time. Councilor DeLorge. Thank you, Mayor Delgado.

Welcome. I noticed in the Lebanon audit, when you were sitting manager, it looks like you were able to pass without any significant findings or delays. Do you think that you would be able to help us complete our audits? It's true.

I was able to have a clean audit for each of the five years that I was there. I understand that there are some issues with getting some past audits finally approved by the state. I believe I can help with that. Of course, I'm not really into what all those issues are, but I'm ready to jump in and do what I can. Absolutely. Is there any more questions? Yes, Rossi.

Yeah, just a quick question. When I was reviewing this, I didn't see any written, you know, mandates or priorities as outlined. So knowing what you know, what would you come in and address for a second or third? What would I do? Yeah, what would you look at for a second or third?

First of all, as an interim manager, it's my job to bring some stability. Oftentimes, cities that are looking for interims are dealing with situations of instability. So I hope to bring my 34 years of experience here to help prepare the way for your future, set the stage for your permanent manager, assisting in the recruitment of that manager if that's what you want to do. And as I talked with Mayor Dunbrough earlier, I would like to talk to you about visioning and the strategic plan. There would be a decision to be made if that's something you would like to put off until you have a new council with the 27 coming on after the election or that's something you would like to begin. I could very much help you with that. I did a visioning and strategic plan in Lebanon and we were quite successful in implementing about two thirds of the action items that the community set out. before I left the city. So my perspective is I need to come in, help the city with your financial situations, help the city establish what your vision forward is going to be, and assist you in recruitment of your next permanent city manager, fill other vacancies. I understand you may have some of those too. So I believe I have the experience. I definitely have passion. I believe very deeply in community and enjoy working with people. And we look forward to helping the city where I can.

Great. Thank you for the questions.

Thank you for being here. My name is Counselor Ugarte and You know, I'm not familiar with how much you know about our town, but it's built with a lot of people who care deeply about this town. And in the spirit of transparency and the people sitting behind you tonight, I want to just ask a really tough question and just ask how can you elaborate on the news reports about being placed on administrative leave? Because I know that is a concern of constituents and I'd just like to give you the space to share your thoughts.

Yeah, no problem at all. I don't know that it's a secret at all that being a city manager is a political position. And sometimes politics go sideways. I was accused of abrasive conduct against another employee who had some serious emotional and mental issues. The things that were alleged to me about me were simply untrue. Now, this was a conversation between two people. Can I prove one way or the other? No, I can tell you what my side was. But beyond that, what I can tell you is that the reason I'm sitting here right now is because I was recommended to you by Eric Jensen, to your city attorney. Eric is the owner of Jensen Strategies, which is a leading city management recruitment firm in the state of Oregon. I've been through Eric's hiring processes and city manager recruitments twice now in the last five years. This is after I left Lebanon. He has thoroughly investigated me. I know that he has told other councils they have no reason to be concerned. I am a friendly, collaborative manager My employees like to work with me. I always receive comments from them about how they enjoy working with me. Because of what happened in Lebanon, I even created my own website. You can look it up. It's called aboutgarymarks.com. And there I put on there the comments from many of my Lebanon employees and what they thought about working with me I think you'll be pleased with what you see. Again, politics is not always what it seems. And the things that were alleged against me by someone who had emotional troubles, and I feel badly for that individual. I tried to help them, but those allegations simply were not true. And I will stake my 34 years in public service, successful 34 years of public service, against those accusations. I've been a successful manager. I know that I can come and help North Plains at this time. And I'm ready and willing to do it. So I hope that addresses your question. But I hope you can tell from me right now that I'm a sincere individual. And I only want to help this community if you would like to.

Thank you.

Councilor Weber.

Councilor Weber. You're at the age, I think, where you could retire if you wanted. What kind of excites you to want to come take this kind of position at North Plains at this point in your career?

Well, in fact, I retired a little over a year ago from the city of Dallas, where I finished my career as a public works director, because I so enjoy the actual infrastructure aspects of city government. And so I spent five years at the city of Dallas. I think you're asking about what is my passion for? And why are you excited to do North Plains? I'm excited to help North Plains because I alluded to it earlier. I'm an individual who dedicated my career to service to local government, to city governments, because I have a passion for community. I think everything in human existence is supported by infrastructure. What kind of a community would you have if you didn't have roads, you didn't have water, you didn't have sewer, you didn't have parks for quality of life, you didn't have police and fire protection? You would not have much of a civilization. And so to have the privilege to help those services be brought to a community is just very exciting to me. And like I said, I have 34 years of doing that. And, you know, five days ago, I had no clue that I would be standing or sitting here before you. But here I am because the passion still burns. And I was given this opportunity for a short-term gig, if you will, And I thought, hey, that sounds like fun. I would love to be able to do that. And I hope that you give me that opportunity and I think you'll be happy to do. But quick answer to your question is, I'm just passionate about city government and the services that are provided and how essential they are to the life of a community. That's one.

Sorry, this is my phone. A couple of questions. Our previous city manager had kind of two hats, the city manager and the finance director. Are you on board with that? Is that something you can do?

I've done both, yes. So, yeah, I can do that. I can be your city engineer or not your engineer. I can be your public works director. I'm not an engineer. I want to put that out there. But, yes, I can do that.

Yeah, I'm hoping that's not a long-term thing, but for now, probably we need to do something like that.

I think for the first, my first two cities that I worked for, we didn't have finance directors. They were very small cities, and finance was up to me. So that's not something that's foreign to me.

Okay. I'm hoping that you are into or will be transparent with everybody, the board, the council, with your communications, what questions you have. So the city is in a bit of turmoil. So the more transparency we can all have, the better. So I just want to make sure we're all aligned with that. And then the last thing is you live in Lebanon, right? How's that going to work?

Well, right now, getting five days ago, my wife and I have been scrambling with the prospect that I might need to be here this week. And so we're about to be able to settle a temporary residence nearby where it would be more convenient for me to come to work. I won't actually be in the city of North Plains, but close by. And in fact, since you're bringing it up, the contract that's before you has me beginning work tomorrow. to secure and finalize my living arrangement to be able to work here, I really need tomorrow to be able to do that. I could be here and work on Wednesday. So I hope that answers your question.

Thank you.

I think everyone has a response for that.

Yes. My colleague Heather talked to Mr. Marks about that earlier. We anticipated that it was after the packet deadline that we Learned of that, however, Robin has agreed to extend for one more day. So if council does appoint Mr. Marks, there will need to be some motions to amend the resolution, as well as a motion to appoint Robin to continue for additional.

Hello, Gary. I have a question. I'm hoping you can tell us about it's fine. When you inherited or worked through a significant conflict involving staff, elected officials, and the public, what was happening? How did you assess the situation? What specific actions did you take? What was the outcome? And looking back, what do you believe was the most important factor that assisted with restoring trust?

A situation with... Tell me about in time.

when you inherited or worked through a significant conflict involving staff, elected officials, and the public? What was happening? How did you assess the situation? What specific actions did you take? What was the outcome? And looking back, what do you believe helped to remediate the situation?

Oh, sure. So I was the city manager of Whitefish, Montana. And I had a situation where the municipal judge had decided that he did not like the clerk. The judge is independent from the city manager, but the clerk works for me. The clerk was a very nice gal, and I didn't understand why the judge didn't like her, but he did, and he wanted me to fire her. So I wasn't going to do that because it wasn't ethical. Her performance was good. At the same time, I had an issue with another employee who was working on our utility billing counter. And we had received complaints from the public that they weren't happy with how she was representing the city and so forth. And so in talking separately with both of these employees, I discovered that each one would have rather had the other's job. And so that's what we did. And in fact, the municipal judge actually was very favorable to receiving this other employee. And so it was a matter of listening to all of the different sides of the case and trying to creatively problem solve the issue. And I did in that case, the public was, I never received a complaint from the public for the gal who moved into the utility billing position. She was always very charming and everyone loved her. And the gal who went to work for the municipal judge thrived in the position because she didn't really have a lot of public outreach and she was doing something she loved and the judge was happy. So it's all about listening and thinking creatively about how to address an issue and seizing opportunities when you conceive them that might work to resolve an issue. And I think that one would resolve very successfully.

Thank you.

Yes. Okay. So I will just say that I had a good conversation with Gary and Heather and, you know, His background seems to fit what we need for the moment. He's also, it's okay to say, he also told me he does not want to be here long term. He was good with the six months, but he is looking to help us transition. This is not his permanent goal, but he was very excited to be here to help us. So with that, I will entertain a motion or any council discussion, unless you have, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be going off particularly. Martin, anything you'd like to add or say?

No, I just appreciate the opportunity to be here and to be considered. If it's your decision to have me come and help you out, I'll be excited to do it. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Okay, so I will assign any discussion, comments, or motion.

All right. Councilor Weber, I would make a motion for the approval of resolutions number 23 and 62 with the changes made that extend Robin's position through July 21st and delaying Gary Mark's beginning to July 22nd.

I think we probably will need a separate motion to appoint Robin, but that is fine for this.

All right. So, uh, yeah. So I have a motion to approve 2362 with an amendment, which you're going to write down, Councilor Water, if we get this approved. Okay. Just so we don't make a mistake. I have a second.

I'll second.

Okay, Councilor DeForge. Second. Um, any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, uh, the new roll call vote. Thank you for your amendment. Councilor DeForge. Aye. Councilor Rustic. Aye. Councilor Yardley.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

You should make a motion to appoint for them to serve as City Manager of Road Town through July 21st, 2027.

Okay, can I get a motion on that? Can we just say so moved? Sure. Okay, Councilor Weber moves. Second. Councilor DeForest seconds. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries unanimously. With that, we're going to say to the I'll call it a three-minute break. Three-minute break. We'll be back at 1 p.m. after.

That was so good.

Right. Yes. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know.

I know that.

Yeah. I have a meeting this Wednesday. Yeah.

Yeah.

Every time we do that.

Yeah. So I know we've been on today.

Right now, we've already got a house party. But it's not getting sent by. But I've got things for it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so yeah, those are Yeah, sometimes they are there. Sorry, we have a little bit of outside.

We don't have the most All right, thanks. So we are trying to find everyone here.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. Yeah.

And we're back to session. Okay, so now we move on to understanding business. There wasn't a UTP PAC meeting, so Councilor, no updates? No updates from me. Thank you. Amanda Taylor from Arenas, do you have an opinion on the product or wrong in reference to you? I don't know. Well, that was a space of love.

Thank you, Mayor. I believe Amanda did have a few things, and I also have, just in case Amanda wasn't copying on the same email as me from Enquire, I have a few things from them.

Perfect. And I struggled a little bit since I was caught off guard at the beginning. I want to formally introduce myself. Amanda Taylor from Marina and Company. I've been with Marina for almost just a few weeks short of five years with 20 years experience beginning in local government. So with that said, the audit update, we're happy to say that Unqua did get back to us on Wednesday afternoon with some very immaterial changes that we've quickly turned around and sent them the final copy on Thursday. We reached out and Robin reached out to see how soon they could issue and we found that the engagement partner who is required to sign the audit report is on vacation for the next 10 days. So I had hoped to have excellent news for you tonight, but unfortunately it will be at least another 10 days before we hear back. So also we've reached out to Roy Rogers from Polly Rogers to begin the process of engagement letters for the urban growth audits as well. so we can get to work on getting those caught up.

Well, thank you. Questions? I know everybody's got questions. Who wants to go first? Find it out. Councilor Weber.

Councilor Weber, obviously the audit has been a source of frustration for us because it's been going on for a few years. We were told there was a hope we would do one in 60 days, then one in 45, another in 45, and now we're seven months later. What can you say going forward to kind of reassure us? What's a reasonable timeframe going forward that you can meet for the next year?

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm not the auditor. So it's a little bit out of our hands. I can say that we turn around requests in our office very, very quickly. I can also attest to what Robin mentioned at the last meeting that auditors are very municipal auditors specifically are very, very overworked at this point as the market continues to shrink and We do have a couple of other clients that are just as far behind as you. You're definitely not alone in this process. And we usually complete two to three per year as we get them caught up. But that's, again, very fast paced, very responsive, a very large audit firm that has many more staff than Umpqua does. So it is out of our hands, but we do everything in our power that we can to move it forward.

Councilor Warrington here. Can you tell me about the 2022 draft? Is there one? Have we seen a 2022 draft with any notes or anything we hear about it? It's elusive. Can you confirm?

We drafted a financial statement and sent it to the auditors several months back, actually. The final draft of that financial report went to the auditors on Thursday. The auditors will then insert their report, audit report, single audit report, as well as the Oregon Minimum Standards Report into that PDF, and then it becomes final. There's definitely a draft available. We hesitate to release them because it's easy to remove a draft stamp on a financial report. You don't want that getting multiple copies out to your vendors or your banking institutions. It's definitely available. So if you'd like, just follow up with Robin.

Thank you.

I think that's reportable.

No questions.

Anybody else? I'm sorry. I was trying to follow the 10 days thing. So what are we, what's going to be in 10 days?

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

I did have something to add from the auditor side, because after we got that message, I did follow up with an email. I understand Ash is off the next 10 days. This evening, council will ask me if there's anyone else at your firm who can bring this across the finish line. How would the team like me to respond? And then I also told them about Gary potentially starting. But the response was, unfortunately, Ash is the only one in the firm who can approve audits to go out as the engagement partner slash president of UVF. And so please let council know we're unable to complete the report until we have final S S financial statement. Since we just received those, we can now compile, which is Ash's responsibility. So this draft is what I was talking about last meeting. It was called a final draft and I knew Bill had been copied on it, but it was since then revised a few times with like a $4 error and a, you know, that's something in the wrong spot or something like that. So it would be responsible to release a draft that's now revised, but I would recommend waiting until everything is together, even though it's too bad that the vacation came at this juncture.

So the way that then I think I would interpret that, and I'm not only in Richard's understanding, this is what I'm taking away, our understanding is it's likely that in 10 days it We've got her ashes back to them.

If I know what I think I'm hearing that but I know it's not really speak for the financial statements are completely done and there's 2 other parts what we're looking at and that.

Yeah, I don't know for the single out of report and the Oregon minimum standards report.

I'm trying to try to think. Okay, clarifying, does that mean our next council meeting that Umpah and Marina will be here to discuss the audit results?

I would say if it has been issued by the next meeting, I will plan on attending. Otherwise, I plan on attending the second meeting of each month in order to present the financial report.

So, yeah, so potentially. But that is progress. Thank you. Thank you, everybody, except for Ashley and Barbara. Just appreciate all the work everyone's doing. And I will say just on the public marina, I did get a lot of positive feedback on marina as a firm. So I just wanted to shout out to the councilor and with Amanda since she's here. From other city managers when I was traveling. Okay, so nothing else on that. We'll move on to council rule government. Oh, council rule and government data acquisition. We didn't get to that, did we? Okay. So I'll remain in the position of business. Yeah, we've been slightly busy. All right, so now move on to new business. There's discussion of drafting a letter to the Port of Portland. Who wants this one?

I believe I brought this forward last council meeting based on public comment. There was public comment about a change in the Hillsborough Airport and there's going to be new traffic. jet traffic that would impact residents of North Plains through noise. And there was also conversation about lead being introduced in the community. And so the suggestion from the public comment was that the council write a letter to the court, not supporting the development of the new hangar at the old airport. And I wanted to bring that for council discussion and resolution.

Okay. Uh, and then we haven't done this.

That's a good idea, but who would procedure when you do it? I mean, I can answer that, but you're not going to like it.

So, and Emily, here comes wrong. Legally, I mean, back into the council to do a resolution, send a letter for a report, but generally how this is done, in my experience, is councilors may, on their own behalf, not representing the city, send a letter unless council So those are your options. I'll just say I don't think this is something that we want to get involved in. It's not directly related to us, and we have enough of our own problems. I think we need to focus on our city, but that's my two cents. So what does council want to do? We can append this to an unaccompanied business for another meeting. We can just acknowledge that we don't like this, but we might get involved, or we can individual counsel, we can similar, not representing the city, or we can pass a resolution. I think, yeah. What's the council under? Yeah, no, let's continue.

I want to go with option two. Two. The second one we said.

Individuals not involved. Oh, yeah. And I'll just say, it's not that I am thrilled about this. It's just sometimes you have to pay for your battles. This is not a battle. So anybody else, ideas, thoughts, points, comments? I'm here with that. Jason. So I believe the individual councillor may write a letter. They just need to state that they're not speaking on behalf of the city. Is that correct? Correct. I just want to make sure we got that right. Uh, there's no need to call that city. It's an individual councillor. So if you would like to do that, that's fine. Um, just make sure that you state that you're not speaking on behalf. Just to protect yourself. Um, okay. City Attorney's Subcommittee. Um, uh, uh, uh, Councillor DeForge and Warrington, uh, knows for, to speak on this.

Thank you, Mayor. Council Warren, can you go first? Yes, go ahead. Okay, so just a quick recap for everyone. At the last council meeting, we agreed that we were going to form a subcommittee to search into options so that the council, as we renew a contract or select a new attorney, we can make an informed choice. So what Councilor Warren and I have done is we have started a search We have contacted attorneys and asking them if they are interested. We have had multiple firms say that they are interested. The preliminary evaluation criteria that Council Warrington and I have used, and I am 100% open to feedback from the council and the public and staff. And just to be clear, we've also reached out to Robin. She's provided us with some great feedback, which we will incorporate. We are looking for municipal and general legal advice, land use, employment law, procurement contract, onsite support for public meetings, support public records requests, training for elected officials and staff, experience representing Oregon cities of similar size, cost structure, responsiveness, and availability. And so in terms of next steps, what I just want to align with this council, so we're not making any choices for you. And we're not trying to filter anyone out. We're trying to bring you guys options so that you can make an informed choice along with feedback from the public. So the next step is we will continue to investigate our options. We're looking for feedback from you guys. And what we would like to do is, I think the best practice in this is the interested firms would come before the council and be able to answer your questions.

Thank you. I wanted to clarify the process. It was my understanding that we needed to send out an RFP. Can you help clarify that process?

Thank you, Councilor Garke. I did speak with another city manager about this and I got the information that this was considered an intermediate procurement and we do need to do a request for a qualified quote And so I pass this information along to Councilors DeForge and Warrington. Because the request for qualified quotes should include your, well, not only the requirements that the state has, but also your preferences of the body, it would be Good to discuss that here in the public forum to let your subcommittee know what are your most important qualifications. So that makes it into the request. And then your applicants could definitely come and talk to you.

I'd like to just as well comment on that. I looked at ORS 2798.025, application for public contracting codes. It specifies that RFP is not required for appointing a city attorney because law practicing the bar situation is not included in the public contracting code. An RFQ is optional. It isn't necessary or mandatory, but an RFP is not required for that.

Correct, Councilor Warrington. An RFP is not required. It's an RFQ that the other... I'm passing along another city manager told me that the city manager told me that it is required. So something that the attorney might need to weigh in on.

Can I jump in? I'll just take an action item to follow up with Emily and our new city manager to align our procurement process requirements.

I don't support that, no. I think we need to pause here because this is I would suggest that we table this and bring it back up in a work session because this is not any new business item. This is a work session. We don't have two councillors going off and making guidelines for the on hiring a city attorney. That's not how that works. You have to get the guidance from the council, then you have to go out and you go through the process. So I I'm my suggestion is that it works.

Just a point of clarification. We're not going out and making our own.

Did you contact people and give her a list of qualifications?

Potential, yes. But we're not saying that that was just an end-all be-all. But we are reaching out to potential city attorneys to see who has the qualifications. We're not making any decisions, thank you, or any such thing close to that. We're just gathering information so that we can bring it to the council so that we can make an informed plan around it. This is just the beginning of this process, not we're jumping into this and just going full bore without any guardrails. We're doing this very carefully.

I may add just one element of information. It does look like it will be at least $10,000, maybe $20,000 to transition to attorneys. We don't have that in the budget, current adopted budget. So I just wanted to make that visible. But we could have some risk of reaching out to attorneys before we do the qualification, the RFQ, because then it could be said we're doing it around a certain attorney or, you know, to, and so we tend to be really careful with our risk.

Councilor Ugarte, I also support tabling this idea and I appreciate Councilor DeForge and Councilor Warrington, you know, going forth and making the effort. However, This gives me a pit in my stomach of risk. And it reminds me of the conversation we had not too long ago about counselors reaching out for information representing that municipality. And I am not comfortable with that at this time, especially given the current affairs of our city. So I recommend that we table this discussion for a further agenda.

Councilor Rustin, Councilor Wagner, or Councilor Zanino. Thoughts, comments?

Counselor Weber, I'm not really so concerned that they're seeing if there's possible firms, but I do wonder if it would make a broader conversation in some sort of work session to frame if we're going to revisit this whole attorney representation. I think it takes more conversation in some sort of work session. to form things to move forward.

Thank you. Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President.

I would entertain committing this topic to a work session specifically.

So I'm going to say that that is a warning consensus. So let's put this in a work session. We'll work with our new interim city manager when he gets back in a work session to come up with some form of either an RQ or something that's relevant Thank you.

We did have most of the staff reports and a consent agenda this evening, just in the interest of time. This is pretty good, actually, better than I expected besides the agenda. So thank you. I'm exhausted. This has been a really interesting experience of your emergency acting city manager and I've learned a lot and next month would have been seven years at North Plains for me and I have to say it's the longest I've been at any job I realized and I think what kept it interesting was just learning all about how a small city runs and all the elements of that and I was allowed professional development here and It's a lifelong honor. And so thank you for, thank you to North Plains for, I don't know. I don't know what to say, but I just, I'm really proud of the library and where it is and they've been doing a great job. They're really stepping up and they're sad, but we're making plans for them to, be successful during this interim period and be a stable place that everyone in the community can continue to enjoy. Thank you.

Any questions for Robin? Or comments?

Comment. We have a card to present her. Did you find that? Blacking again.

So Robin, I'm going to try really hard tonight, but I guarantee you this is not going to end well. I just want to say, and we have a card for you, I guess, and I just want to say on behalf of council how grateful we are. You and I often have differing opinions, but we always have great discussions and you teach me a lot. And you've been pretty patient with me, and I'm really grateful. I'm sorry to leave you, but as you and I talked about, I care about you as a person more than you as a director. I want you to be in the right place, even when it sucks for me. Sorry, I shouldn't say that. But it's not great for us. But I'm happy for you. I know you're going to be great things. And I just wanted something that you had mentioned that stuck with me a lot was, You know, city employees are here because they love service. I'm going to push this. I'm sorry. But because they love service. And I've never been in an elected role. I've worked for governments before. But I think in cities, it's even more clear, especially in larger governments. In small towns, you see employees that just love what they do. And they're here because they really do genuinely love their communities. And You exemplify that. And the library is a testament. And again, a shout out to the friends, to the board, everyone. But Robin always made sure we had a budget somehow. And she always made sure the library was awesome. And I love books, and I love reading, and I love learning. So it's always been kind of exciting, even when we had to just try to make hard decisions on budgets. But somehow, it always worked out. Thank you. And there's time works, but I'm just very grateful. Thank you for that marriage.

Mayor permission. Robin, you are a natural born leader. The last week that we been able to work closely with you. Four weeks? Oh, she is. Four weeks. Four long weeks, I'm sure, for you. You are a natural born leader. You are resourceful. You love goals. You are a grace under pressure. And I want you to know that I recognize that. And I'm grateful for it. And wherever you go, we'll benefit from that skill. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Anybody else?

Absolutely. Councilor Weber, on behalf of my five-year-old and seven-year-old granddaughter, I really say thank you. They love going to the library. The staff are all so welcoming. There's always fun stuff to do. And that was one of the first places I discovered when I was in North Plains, this cute little library that was so well run, directed by the staff. And thank you.

I really can't take the credit for that. It's the staff, especially this last, you know, several months.

Well, Robin, I'm going to echo what everyone else already said. They already took all the great phrases, but what I do want to say is you have been such a guiding light within the library now in the whole city and Truly, you are so selfless that you stepped into this role and feet to the fire and you are still holding true to your values. You're still doing the best you can given the circumstances. And I also want to just highlight the leadership that you have developed within the library to the fact that they are able to sustain it. And again, you know, We are going to miss you, but I'm really excited for you and your next endeavors. And just thank you again for everything you've done for North Queens.

All right. Thank you, Robert. And with that, we'll move on to council reports. So I'm just going to start with Councilor DePorge and Stephen O'Hardy.

No updates for me. I would suggest that we have a discussion with Engineering RFP

at the future work session. Oh, sorry. Yes. Yes. There'll be a future discussion on the future engineering RFP in the work session.

Yes.

Okay. Good. We'll make it happen in the future. Probably after the... I'll sit down with Terry and figure this out. Actually, I'm sure. And then we'll bring it to council. I need to get a list together before I'm getting out. Sorry. Councilor Ross.

Yeah, I had the opportunity to sit in the library board meeting last week. First, what I got to sit in on. They elected a new chair. It was Megan Poole, I believe. And introduced the new members, Frank and Julian. We talked a little bit about the $10,000 donation for the Friends of the Library. Most of the meeting was about the Friends of the Library update. questions around, talked about April 1, 2026, they've made $2,000 so far. We had a lot of talk about the Garland Festival. They're going to have a big sale there. It's the biggest fundraising event, so they'll participate. And typically that brings about $7,000 a year. And they're going to have an upcoming membership drive. And all of it was a very well-run meeting, and I think reflective of the job we've done. Thank you. That's great.

So I just want to give her credit for that. Yeah.

Thank you. Counselor, you don't have any ex officio duties to report on. I did want to bring forward some topics that were brought up during public comments. The first I wanted to mention was what would it look like for the city to help with the boulder and the plaque dedication in front of Jesse Mays? And again, I say this with all the lightheartedness, because I know there's not really much staff to pull from, but I'm just curious, forward-thinking, so you can respond to that. Can you remember?

I think a bronze statue of Jesse Mays would be really cool.

Yes.

And I've thought that for a long time. I saw a really nice one in Kansas City when I was there for a long time. Anyway, I know those kinds of things, I think, are things we have to contract out. To be able to do during this time of administrative transition, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. There's a lot of behind the scenes work that staff have to do even in that case. So I really would encourage you to do a goal setting sooner rather than later. to fashion some priorities for the city. And then that will give your city manager an idea of how to use the staff capacity. It'll even give you great information for your RFP because you'll have then read on priorities of the body and you know what you need to execute on that. So that's all.

Thank you. So TBD. Okay. The other thing I wanted to mention is National Night Out is coming up this Thursday from 6-8 p.m. here at Jesse Mays. I will not be here, but I really encourage all of you to come out, I'm sure. What month are you getting up? The 30th.

Next Thursday.

Oh my gosh, it is next Thursday. Thank you. Thank you. I was wondering why all the audience members are motioning. Thursday, July 30th, 6-8 p.m., National Night Out here at Jesse Mays. couple other topics I wanted to touch on is just thank you to all the community members that came out and spoke tonight. I think it goes without saying that as a council, we are, we're in a rock and a hard place. And, you know, I will, I will say that, uh, selfishly, I, I warned my peers of, of the possibility of, Hey, we don't have a plan. And this is what's happened. So I would just like to set the record straight that I do not support the scenarios that have happened, but we're in it and we're trying to make the best of it. The last thing I wanted to say is just thank you so much to city staff. Truly, I can only imagine what you are dealing with on a daily basis. I've heard rumblings on Facebook and, you know, I just want to say, you know, shout out to Chief O'Reilly. I'm sure the North Plains Police Department is solid in its state, but I think about the public works through the library, Rowan, Robin, I mean, Emily, I know you're also wearing a lot of different hats as well. So I just really want to say thank you right now because there's a lot of behind the scenes work that we're probably not even seeing. So just thank you so much for supporting our city right now.

I attended a a couple of different food banks events. There was a volunteer appreciation with about 60 people. That was a wonderful time just to see the people that volunteer and help the hundreds and hundreds of people that receive all the food bank help. Also the food bank sponsored a wonderful event last weekend with free shoes and school supplies and backpacks. And I was only there for a couple hours. I think there were some other people Councillor DeForge was there, I saw others, but wonderful event. Kids are so excited to get these new shoes and bags. And so I'm very appreciative. That's a wonderful asset to have in our community. On a practical level, the parliamentary discussion, for me, a good starting point would be to invite somebody to do something for us at a work session. or longer gathering if we're going to have it and then they could just do a little bit in service, but people could also ask questions. I think their wisdom could help speed us up at times. So anyway, that would just be my thought.

I'm going to call out that I there was no exhibition for me is there is no parks and rec meeting on 713. I did go to the URA meeting, as we all did on 7-14, where we requested Tiberias to help us with the process and then come back with information on that at our next URA meeting. So that should be very interesting. I do have an agenda item I'd like to add to the next meeting, if I could. A motion to discuss adding a header on the unfinished business part of the agenda for items titled follow-up items, meaning things that kind of slip through the cracks, the engineering contract for RFP, the Jesse Mays building, those kind of things that really aren't agenda items, but we don't want to let them go.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I need to hear what you're saying. So what you're asking is a subheader under unfinished business?

Yes. Correct. I like it. It would be a mechanism to ensure things.

If I could make the request, could we work with probably a new interim city manager on that? Because the way that our agenda is structured is based off of council rules. I need to double check to make sure that what we could do is we could put items on there with an asterisk or something, but I'm not sure we can change. I need to look at this with the, you know, I'm not saying I'm just, I don't know. And I need to double check before we agree to it.

I'm just asking.

No, it makes sense.

We can discuss it. Let's, let me talk to Gary.

It's council rules. It's not part of it. So we'll look into that in our talk with the Interim City Manager. on whether or not we can legally do that. So if not, it'll have to go into a council discussion.

Okay. And I just want to call out, we all should be one voice with the things that we decide and vote upon, even though we don't always agree. We all should support each other and be one voice, not, I don't agree, but we're all the same. There was one voice. So I just wanted to call that out.

Thank you, Council President.

With regards to items dropping from agendas, the Parliamentarian topic was missing from unfinished business, and there actually was progress made on that topic. I do agree that, while I agree and respect the Council rules to add and subtract things as time permits, as a courtesy for any chance for the public on this topic, because it is a lot of conversation on it. I've offered a status update, a timeline, and I sent it to you as well as Robin to share and distribute amongst council. I don't think that got shared. My request is also to have that entered to the public record so people understand the progress that was made on this topic. So I just want to give a friendly reminder on that note. Thank you.

Thank you. I had no ex-physio duties. I spent most of my time with the Interim Student Manager recruitment. So that's been taking up most of my time outside of work. And with that, I believe we are adjourned.