City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026 City Commission meeting. We are now going to convene the meeting and I would ask for Mr. Lee to do the roll call.

Commissioner Mitchell.

Here.

Commissioner Wilson.

Here.

Commissioner Smith. Here. Commissioner Morrow.

Here.

Mayor McGriff.

Present. If you are able, would you please stand and join us in the flag salute?

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

How are your eyeballs? Good. Okay. Let's check them. I was gonna have your backup. I had some tech help. And some tech help, okay. All right, good. All right, tonight under item number three, we have two items that we're particularly proud of. And the first one is the If I Were Mayor contest. And I would like to have our, are you gonna come up, staff? Let's do a quick introduction.

Good evening, Commission and Mayor McGriff. My name is Hannah Schmidt. I'm the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Oregon City. And I am thrilled to be able to announce that our first place winner for the If I Were Mayor contest in the high school level multimedia section or category won first place at the state level. So that's extremely exciting. And tonight we are here to be able to present Ziri Zhu with her $500 check from the Oregon Mayor's Association.

Wow. And she is here.

Come on up.

So the Oregon city is a member of the Oregon mayor's association, it is a an affiliate group of the League of Oregon cities, which we have been. Actually, we are chartered members of the League of Oregon cities and this contest has been going on for a number of years, but we have only this is our third entry, I believe, third entry, so we started this contest in Oregon city about three years ago and our first. time out, we had a second place statewide winner. She, Brittany went to Candy Lane Elementary School, and she's now in middle school, I believe. And then our second year out, we had, did we have another statewide contest winner? Yes, that's right, we had Justin, who was second place in the multimedia contest, and now we're on our third entry this time. and we have a first place. So it's a sense of pride for me because the other two cities that win all the time are Albany and Lake Oswego. So now I can go in your face, Lake Oswego and Albany. But they got the other two prizes though. So they're always good. But we have a little friendly rivalry between some of the mayors. So Zoe, Zuri, it's just my honor and privileged to present you with this award from the oregon mayor's association and i hope this is something that you can use it'll go towards your college education and we are so proud of you and i wish we had time to show it which would be great because i don't think everybody would click on the link but it is just amazing and i just want to thank you so much for all of your hard work and we are so proud of you and our oregon mayor's conference is in august and i will be walking around very very proud because they're they will announce it there as well and uh They might even actually show your video at the conference. So I'm hoping that we can do so. But they usually post everything. It's just really exciting for the city. And so onward and upward to year number four. Yay!

or something like that?

I'm really glad I got this opportunity and I got to create by doing what I love and like filming a video game especially. And yeah, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

And for those who are interested, we're not showing the video tonight, but you can scan the QR code at the back of the room. to be able to watch the video and I encourage you all to do so because you already spent a lot of time and effort on it. So congratulations.

What was our award?

we had 100 so she's gotten 600 in prize money for this fabulous project thank you again yes So next on our agenda, we have a proclamation. So many of you are aware, may not be aware, but June is the beginning. Well, we're in three days into it. So we have a Pride Month proclamation. I'd like to ask Commissioner Smith to read that. All right.

Whereas all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and this nation was founded on the principle that every individual has infinite dignity and worth, and whereas members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community have fought bravely to live openly and authentically and to celebrate who they are and who they love, and whereas because of the acts of courage by millions who came out and spoke out to demand justice, and by those who quietly toiled and pushed for progress, our country has made great strides in recognizing what those brave individuals long knew to be true in their hearts, that no person should be judged by anything but the content of their character. And whereas the efforts and achievements of the LGBTQ plus community have allowed all to enjoy greater dignity, freedom, justice, and equality. And whereas acknowledgement and education remain essential to help eliminate prejudice wherever it may exist. And whereas the city of Oregon city is unequivocally committed to supporting visibility, dignity, and equality for LGBTQ plus people in our diverse community. And whereas LGBTQ plus individuals have made immeasurable contributions to cultural, civic and economic success of our country. And whereas recognizing, celebrating and standing with the LGBTQ plus community provides an opportunity for all Oregon city residents to strengthen alliances, build acceptance, advance equal rights and create a better and more inclusive community.

Now, therefore, I, Denise C. McGriff, on behalf of the City of Oregon City, City Commission, hereby proclaim June 2026 as Pride Month and call upon the people of Oregon City to join their fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance. And I will sign this today on June the 3rd, 2026. I believe the date for the event that's going to be held at the college, I saw something when I was there.

Oregon City Pride, it's...

is it august august uh i don't have the date i think it's august 26 is what my brain is telling me but we'll get that announced so thank you very much my agenda's here underneath all these papers So next on our agenda, we have public comments and these are items that are not currently on the agenda today or any day that's today. I understand that there are a number of people here who are going to be commenting about the same thing. I appreciate the fact that you came out tonight because it's still a lovely night outside. But if you are going to say the same thing, we are aware of the situation seriously. And if you agree with the person ahead of you, please just say that. We would appreciate that so much. We do have other people here who want to speak as well. And I apologize. So if you didn't print and I can't quite read your name, I'm apologizing in advance. The first name I have here is Lee, and it looks like B-E-L-O-W, and I can't read the rest of it, I'm sorry. That's okay. No, don't talk from the audience, please. I've called your name, please. I will get to the next person on the list. Sorry, I thought it was you, but I couldn't read your last name, I'm sorry.

If you could please press the button.

Yeah, turn the green button on. Here you go. Good job. Hi, for the record, my name is Lee Bilowski. I am the operations manager for Energy Kayaking, and I run the Flatwater Center underneath the 205 Bridge at Sportcraft Landing, and I am here to speak of... the constraints and downfall of our operations due to this construction. And mostly to speak to the fact that I see it every day. I sit there every day and I deal with it every day. Our participation or our visitor rates have declined immensely over the last few years of this project. Just the noise alone is a hindrance for any course or any class that we want to conduct in this area to the point where it almost becomes impossible and we've been losing revenue because of the situation as well, and also the parking situation has been. Very let's say unique a lot of the parking has disappeared there at times that the parking lot will be taken over by the construction without any notice. closing the parking lot down and not allowing our visitors to actually access and therefore not being able to realize that they can still come down to our programming due to these complications our business continues to see a struggle and i'm here to ask the commission to consider that but they consider something that I know that you guys are going to be going into a session later on to discuss and it's what we're all speaking to today. Please consider the requests that we have put before you. Thank you.

Good evening, David Mayby, Oregon City resident. I understand that the deliberations with ODOT are over. That's fine. But the problem I have is, there's no relief for the businesses. Some things that may or may not have been said in the past, I'm just gonna kind of do a quick wrap up. The sport craft has been there longer than the bridge. It's been there longer than many of you have been alive. Some of the concerns I've heard is, well, if we do something for them, we gotta do something for the people of Malala. Well, you know, getting the project done on time at Malala would be one thing. And the other thing is just name all the businesses on the Oregon City waterfront There they are, those two. We're no longer a mill town. We have to become either a bedroom community or a tourist town. They're our tourist industry right there. So, you know, there's many reasons to do something for them. And then as a kind of a comprehensive statement, you guys are a terrible HOA. You've jacked up their prices by four times. And that isn't like $1,000, that's tens of thousands of dollars at a time when they're economically depressed. And then said, oh, and by the way, it's gonna keep going for another three years. So at the very least you could do is reduce their rents down to pre-construction levels. You clearly weren't going broke. They were doing something to draw on an income, but you've interfered with who can visit them. You've interfered with what they can park in their driveway. The only thing you haven't done that an HOA does is tell them how tall their grass can be and what color they can paint their building. But other than that, you've imposed onerous fees on them, and they are what's left of our tourist industry. So don't make this the land of missed opportunities. Help them out. Both of them are things that bring people to our city, and you should consider that. So anyway, that's it, thank you.

Again, I'm apologizing in advance. I'm just gonna call Jacob because I'm sorry, I can't read your handwriting. So if you would just spell your last name, please. Not criticizing your handwriting, I just can't read it. I see, I've got V-E-R-H and then the rest of it, I don't know.

All good. My name is Jacob Verhaeg.

I am... Could you just spell it? Yeah, V as in Victor. Got it.

E-R-H-A-E-G-H.

Okay. Thank you so much. I'm just going to put it on there so that he can read it. All good.

Thank you. Yeah. So I am a manager for energy kayaking. I've been in Oregon City for 10 years as the youth program manager and the marketing manager. And the main thing I wanted to bring up is our summer camps. I learned how to paddle when I was three years old because of my parents. And our goal is to get the next generation of kids out on the water and recreating responsibly. And the biggest thing the bridge has brought up is safety and accessibility issues. We love to go to the parks and walk to different locations and having the construction there hinders that and makes it really hard or impossible to access these parks. And the other thing is safety. We have a lot of kids on the water that we need to go underneath the bridge through the construction sites, and we're trying to find ways to minimize that risk with kids, with barges, and trying to avoid them when possible, but a lot of our route requires us to go underneath the 205 bridge. And so that's my main points is looking for any way to make sure we can keep things safe and accessible for these kids and the next generation of people and to improve the access down on the Long Island Falls. Thank you. Thank you.

And I'm gonna say something for the record for, no, go ahead, thank you. That's obvious. Again, we don't own the bridge. So I'd like to call on Sam Drivo. And again, if we've already heard it, please say you agree and we'll be happy to get to the person that we haven't heard from yet.

I'll make it quick. I'm Sam Drivo from Oregon City with Energy Kayaking. And I just brought some of the staff tonight to just speak to you so you could put face to names and understand that there's other and other folks other than me have been banging the pavement here for the last couple of weeks. And I don't want to belabor the point as much as to say that I understand the situation and wanting to move the project forward. We all want it done. And I understand that you're having an executive session after this tonight. Mayor McGriff I appreciate you you know making room space for that and I really appreciate you guys listening to the other business interests the other citizens about how we could collectively and constructively improve the situation for the next five years because we know they're going to be in the water for a couple years they're still going to be under the parks and we know it's not your problem but we see and deal with it every day and we've been we're here for and we're really hoping that it can get completed. So thanks for the consideration tonight and having the executive session, that's a huge step and it makes all the trips here to speak to you guys worth it. So thanks and we'll talk to you soon.

Mr. Ziegler. And yes, I can totally read your handwriting.

You get an extra star today. I'm so used to having somebody sitting next to me. This feels empty being up here all by myself. Do I need to hit a green button? Yes, we can get you a surrogate over there if you'd like somebody to sit with you. Well, yeah, please. But we'll get started because I know I only have three minutes. Anyway, it's a pleasure being in front of the Oregon City Commission. I had the pleasure of talking with several of you last week as the Confederated Tribe of the Grand Ronde celebrated their groundbreaking ceremony of Tumwada Village. And what I got out of that event was how important the river is to this community. Cheryl Kennedy talked from the heart about the heritage that her people have experienced on the river, especially the falls, for not only generations but centuries. And I think we tend to underestimate the value that the river has for Oregon City. We are truly fortunate and blessed to have the confluence of two amazing rivers, the Willamette and the Clackamas at one location. Most communities never ever get that opportunity. So we as a community need to do everything we possibly can to maximize that opportunity. She called it home and a healing. I call it an opportunity. And you as the commissioners have an opportunity. As tonight, as you go into your executive session, you're gonna talk about a lot of different things. But as a young child growing up in Oregon City, I grew up here, I graduated from Oregon City High School. I remember in 1964, watching a house go over the falls. The Falls wasn't there. It was a river. The flood was so bad. And then I remember what happened in 1996 when the floods came through Washington Street, Tony's Fish Market, areas like that. Those are natural causing events that we have no control over. Let me repeat that. We have no control over that. You have control over what you decide in tonight's executive session. Tourism is the backbone because you have this tremendous opportunity. If you lose the kayaking company due to their problems and challenges of the five-year extension of barges and pounding and cranes people being scared of being close to that. If you lose them, and if you lose Sportcraft Landing, the only fueling station on the Willamette River between I have no idea. You can't get above the falls because the locks aren't open. But between here and the Columbia River, you lose a tremendous tourism opportunity. And there's a huge ripple effect with tourism. You get people coming here to spend time experiencing the benefits of the river. I got to finish up here. they're gonna spend money elsewhere. So this is a huge opportunity that you need to really think about. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak to you tonight.

Thank you, Kent. The last slip that I have is for Michael Sugar. Oh, wait a minute, sorry, before you come up, sir, I wanted, sorry, Salacia, I skipped over you. Forgive me. I was, I put your memo on top of it. and I'm apologizing in advance, I just saw this. I did not see what you submitted. So I'm sorry.

Yeah, no worries, no worries at all. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. My name is Salisha Johnston. I am a tourism industry consultant and currently serving as administrator for interim executive director of Destination Oregon City, the community's nonprofit destination management and marketing organization. I am here with two members of the DMO's board of directors, our Chair Holly Sol Fortmiller from Best Western Plus River Shore, and our Vice Chair Leigh Bilowski, who you heard from previously. Oregon City is in a time of transition and redevelopment from a mill industry community to a river tourism destination. There is no first city without this river, as you know. There are no settlers, no Oregon Trail endpoint, no founding indigenous story without Willamette Falls. The falls gathered the fish, the fish gathered the people, the people gathered into the community. We owe our entire identity and brand to the Willamette. Right now, the businesses that put visitors on the water to experience that living heritage are fighting to survive. The DMO recently completed research for a visitor experience report and found that seeing Willamette Falls from land is Oregon City's most consistent visitor disappointment. But seeing them from a kayak is the destination's most highly rated experience. Energy is the only business that makes that possible, and energy has lost 50% of its business since construction on Abernathy Bridge began, similar story with Best Western, et cetera. The parking is essentially gone, the ambiance is disrupted, the perception among visitors is that the waterfront is closed. Oregon City's entire on-water visitor economy now consists of three businesses, Sportcraft Landing Moorage, Energy Kayaking, and S&P Water Rentals, a newer tenant at Sportcraft representing private business investment into the river tourism economy that the city says it wants to encourage. However, the letter of agreement between the city and ODOT has been signed. So the window to negotiate business mitigation protections into that agreement is closed. That was a missed opportunity. So tonight I have one direct ask. Retroactively reduce Sportcraft landing lease. Sportcraft has committed to passing those savings on so that relief flows immediately to the businesses most impacted. Without requiring a direct payment to any private business, it is the cleanest and most legally straightforward tool available to you right now. I'm also leaving a document with additional ideas for the commission's consideration, including a request for letters of support and details on the DMOs open for business campaign launching this summer, which will bring coordinated marketing, activations, and media attention to this waterfront. The city has an opportunity to be a meaningful part of that story. Oregon City is building towards something extraordinary on this river to water village broke ground recently The future is coming and the tourism businesses that are being asked to survive additional years of construction deserve to be a part of it So tonight I'm asking you to make sure that they are.

Thank you Thank you very much Now Michael sorry

Good evening, I'm Michael Sugar. I'm a resident here, also a high school teacher over the river and through the woods. Here to talk about two things that are, I don't think particularly, in my view, shouldn't necessarily be the responsibility of the commission, but to refer to a prior speaker, I think Mr. Ziegler, I think there may be two opportunities here that either tonight or sometime in the future may come before you. And so just wanted to flag those. The first is with regard to our school situation and the Loader Road project. I can understand a project that started 11 years ago and is still not done being a source of frustration for the city government. And that is reasonable. At the same time, we are in a situation where longer than I've been alive, we are now I think 35 years of off and on education crises that just keep snowballing. And I think at some future date, you may hear more from teachers or parents in the community and concerned about that. And if there is an opportunity for you to help in that situation and find some sort of compromise that helps protect some of the education services in the community, I know that would be appreciated. That is ultimately, I think, the education funding situation is something that I believe ultimately the state should be managing and should not be landing on the city's desk. Nonetheless, that's where we are in this situation. And if you do have an opportunity to help, I just hope that you would debate it and consider options that may come about. The upside of the Loader Road project is it makes the Abernathy Bridge project look efficient. And the... In light of that, if I were to switch hats here, I spent Monday evening down at Energy Kayaking and was wildly impressed. And the number of thousands of kids they teach to put on life jackets, that they provide the best access to the falls, that an affiliated nonprofit of theirs has pulled out some, what is it, 100,000 pounds of trash, is that right, out over the rivers. And as I think ahead to the tourism opportunities here, as the mayor put it earlier, we don't own the bridge. And frankly, I think this is another thing where I wish the state was doing more. I'm not there yet. And I would be advocating very hard for that in Salem. In the meantime, if there is an opportunity to do something so that this business that has indeed weathered both the pandemic and the five-year plan for the construction can actually make it through to the end of it and be a foundation for the future tourism economy, I think that would be awesome. Thank you so much for your time tonight. I really appreciate you.

Thank you so much. Mr. Conkle, I am wondering if it would be appropriate for me to make a factual statement with regard to the transportation facility project that is on High School Lane. Just for public information. So I just want to share with the public that as was previously said, so the project involving the transportation facility bus barn slash project started in July of 2020. Since then, we have issued five extensions. The most recent one was this last November. We are awaiting the school district to finalize their documents and submit them, and that last contact was in April. So we are anticipating that they will file those documents to modify the conditions of approval of their and detailed development plan that was filed again back in July of 2020. So once they do that, the process will start and we will be letting people know what that is, but we are waiting on Oregon City School District folks to file. that's where it is right now so again not everybody's familiar with all the planning jargon but they filed a master plan for the development not only the transportation facility but other things they wanted to do over time and that's why we have people file master plan so we get a general idea of what the course of development is going to be over time and they have quite a while to to implement the full master plan. This particular project has taken a lot of time because circumstances somewhat were beyond school district control, such as COVID, and that we had no control over, neither did anybody. So for the public that's listening and my two friends that are in the audience, that's where we are today on that project. So that's just public information.

The land use approval for that improvement was actually five years prior to that. I think the city has been extremely patient and cooperative with the school district. And the reason we do master plans is so that those other public agencies can plan and put money aside to make the needed infrastructure improvements that support the development that they're proposing. And the emphasis is that they're proposing. That's correct. So I think, you know, I think the city has gone above and beyond in providing multiple five extensions on top of a five-year agreement that wasn't met for a significant number of reasons, as well as working with them to try to reduce the scope of the project and the costs associated with it.

So I'm going to move on to number five. Again, this is very, very exciting and we would like to get our annual report from our youth advisory commission. So would our chair and vice chair please come up? Also, let me just brag about Justin again, second place winner statewide last year at the If I Were Mayor contest.

Hello, I am Justin Evers. I am the chair of the Youth Advisory Commission. I have been on the commission for the last four years, and this is my final year.

Hello, I'm Sydney McFarland.

Can you move it closer, Sydney? No, just pick up the whole thing. You can move the whole thing.

Hello, I'm Sydney McFarland. I'm vice chair of the Youth Advisory Commission, and this is my second and last year.

I think without further ado, we can begin the report. So we're gonna start focusing on the structure of the commission this year. We've, I believe, changed it a little bit to the previous year. We're gonna talk about the events that the commission has visited, the different working groups and what we have worked on this year. And we're gonna end with what we've done for recruitment and also, the areas that we've toured as part of the commission. So starting with this year's structure, we broke off into four working groups this year. We'll get into those a little bit later. I was not a member of any of the working groups. Instead, I acted basically as somebody who was there to support all of the other working groups. I would float around between them, help them if they had any questions in addition to Hannah being wonderful with that. basically help them provide direction and act as a point of contact if they ever didn't know specifically what to do on the youth side. We had 15 members this year with this very handy breakdown of who's who. And I think generally we saw a pretty good amount of success in terms of what we did. And speaking of what we did,

So the Youth Advisory Commission has been involved with a lot of events this year and some of the ones that we're pretty proud of is first of all the If I Were Mayor contest where we got to help pick out some of the winners, especially for the essays and posters. And so, yeah, there we have Zuri up there who we saw earlier. And then also we tabled at the Spring-Ford Community Resource Fair where we basically got to give out pamphlets to reach out and talk about the Youth Advisory Commission and what it does and to notify the public of it.

So taking a quick look at all of our working groups this year, we had these four. I'll first talk about our education and nicotine addiction groups. The education working group was our new working group this year, and it basically formed to, it started with a lot of conceptualizing of what people wanted to do this year. We got a pretty good aim on that. And we managed to get them with an education access brochure, which was one of the materials handed out at that spring resource fair. And then for our negative addiction working group, they met with some senior regional lead of the American Heart Association, as well as discussing where we wanted to go, especially with the Senate bill that we campaigned for last year not passing. And basically, there was a lot of discussion there regarding what the commission wanted to do with that both this year and looking towards the future.

And i'll be talking about the houselessness environment working groups so with the houselessness working group. they've worked with father's heart and the loved ones shower events to try and help and provide youth input and youth engagement within those events and then they also had a prior goal of getting mailboxes for houseless youth so. It can help with job opportunities or simply getting mail. And then with the environmental working group, that's a new one this year. And the primary goal is to engage youth into the environment of Oregon City. And here's more about the Environmental Working Group, because this year they hosted an event where they helped clean up the pollinator garden at the River Access Park with the help of a worker from Parks and Rec. And it was successful with removing a bunch of the invasive plants there. And then we also signed a letter of support for the Greater Oregon City Watershed Council, which is basically helping support the idea of more events to be hosted with Oregon City to help clean the watershed.

As for recruitment for next year for the commission, as you saw earlier, we do have six seniors on the commission this year, so there's a pretty high turnover rate in terms of new people we need on the commission. We did a few different outreach things. A group of us went to Gardner Middle School to present to the middle schoolers who will be high schoolers either next year or in the next couple of years to just encourage them to join the commission. We also designed, updated, and distributed a YAC brochure, because we noticed that a lot of the ones people had were out of date. And we also coordinated with the Oregon City High School's student council to advertise through the school itself.

And this year, the Youth Advisory Commission took a lot of tours of facilities within Oregon City, even the police department here. And it's been very educational for the Youth Advisory Commission since a lot of the members join not only to serve the community, but to also learn about the community. And so by having those tours, it really helped the commissioners learn about the city they live in. Wonderful opportunities.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. I just want to acknowledge Hadley Taylor. You should have had you come on up. You're the secretary of the Youth Advisory Commission, correct? So I just wanted to let people know. So the Youth Homelessness Working Group consisted of Jack Soleri, Hiram Freestone, and Max Bishop. Youth Nicotine Addiction Working Group was Miles Kinney, Gabby Ramsden, Elijah McFarland, and Emma Artman. Environmental Working Group was Sydney McFarland, Cole Soleri, and Hadley Taylor. And our last group, Education Accessibility Working Group, was McKenzie Gilmore, Betty Chappelle, Donald Bradyhoff, and Evan Conley. So everybody was doing something, and we had you, Justin, as our facilitator to help everybody get on the right track. So we appreciate all your work.

Mr. Mauro, would you like to say something, please? Yes, thank you, Mayor. Thank you for your presentation and for both of you specifically as seniors who have already had your last day of school and are now just awaiting for that very special ceremony here in a few days. I just want to wish you all the best. It has been such a pleasure working with you the last few years. The contributions that both of you have brought to the Youth Advisory Commission is exactly what I had in mind when I created this. And so thank you for being a part of of shaping what this organization looks like and helping to make sure that the future students who are involved have a strong foundation from which to work. So thank you. Thank you.

Do you want to say anything? Yeah. to mirror a lot of what Commissioner Morrell said, I was able to attend several of the meetings. And again, just love and appreciate how involved and passionate all of you were. I think that's just a fantastic thing to see youth in the community that care, that are dedicating their time outside of school and sports and other extracurriculars to actually do things in their community, I think is pretty admirable. Appreciate for our graduating seniors the time they spent. I'm looking forward to new folks coming in. So thank you.

I think, is it correct, we've already received some applications, which is very exciting. I want to thank you all for the brochure because I started to put some in my car. And so if I happen to see anybody that's eligible, I'm handing it out and talking to them. I spent quite a bit of time towards the end of the school year at Tumwata, and I must have given out at least 10 brochures. So hopefully that results in some people submitting. You went to Springwater Environmental. We've had a number of two or three applicants and also commissioners who are from North Clackamas Christian, which is really great. We haven't been able to break the barrier of those homeschoolers and some of the other schools that we've submitted information to time and time again, but we're still working on them. We hope that they will be interested in joining. So you guys are our best ambassadors. So thank you so much. And we'll see you at our next meeting.

Thank you.

All right, next on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda consent agenda, and we have items A through G, and I just have a, oh, excuse me, A through H, excuse me. And I just have a question to ask our city attorney under item 7A, and I just want to pull that temporarily. So if we could have a motion for adoption of the remainder.

Move to adopt the consent agenda minus item A. Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Commissioner Mitchell.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Commissioner Smith. Aye. Commissioner Morrow. Aye. Mayor McGrath.

Aye.

Motion passes.

So my question is, I believe it's more for the city attorney as opposed to our engineers, but I did want to just take a moment and thank the Public Works Department and Dana and your staff for the work that you did on the transportation impact analysis documentation. I did manage to get through 99.9% of it, and it was a lot of work. It's much more understandable than the previous document. I think you made some good clarifications, but in light of some of the new state laws that have, how shall I say, nicely promulgated upon us in our cities, not just Oregon City, A question that comes up time and time again, and I'm sure that you already anticipated, Dana, what the question is. It involves transportation and traffic are, you know, number one and number two things that people are concerned about in this community. And I just want a clarification for the record because I get asked all the time, about this so we have in the state law it says that if it's a development is of 12 units or less that there isn't going to be any traffic analysis because it already will be adding to the traffic that's already there and I think there was a statement in here about if it was at a level of service f It's not making it any worse. Now, I have told people that I think we have a level of service G and H and I out there in places in Oregon City that they're beyond failure, they're past failure. So the question that I get asked a lot is something that has been probably since we've had a planning department. I'll just use a slight example. So if there were 12 units to come into, let's say, Kenema, given their roadway widths and the fact that it's substandard all the way around and there's nothing we can really do about that, that will have a substantial impact on traffic and transportation and intersections in that particular neighborhood. But because it's 12 units or less, There really isn't anything that the public can do or say, and the city is not going to be analyzing that in any way to say that, well, we might be able to do this to mitigate. We might be able to do that to mitigate. And I'm assuming that that is correct.

It is correct. I want to add to that, however, it is correct that we're not going to do a transportation impact analysis on a development by development basis for middle housing projects. That is correct. However, when we do update our zoning, or we do adopt a new transportation system plan, we, the capacity of the roads as part of that planning. And we adopt a capital improvement plan that collects system development charges to pay for those roads. So these units, although we're not gonna study them on a project by project basis through a transportation impact analysis, we are still going to collect system development charges for those units. And we can improve roads in Kenema and other places consistent with our transportation system plan and capital improvement program.

And thank you for that. We don't change that every year. And we would have to take some time to anticipate those sorts of things. Because I could think of some places where maybe we could not that it will help, but sometimes putting a stop sign someplace so that there is at least intersection. We could improve an intersection in terms of requiring some site distance issues, because a lot of vegetation's out there and other things like that. But the public's ability to be able to participate in things of that sort has been severely constrained. And again, that's the thing that I have tried to explain to people. it's going to be very difficult, I think, for us in the coming years to try to involve our constituency when at every turn we have been kind of told we don't have to. And that doesn't mean that we shouldn't. So I've been just encouraging people to ask questions and pay attention. So thank you very much. I appreciate the explanation because you said it better than I could have, and I do appreciate it. So can we have a motion to adopt? Item 7A with resolution number 26-11.

Move to approve consent agenda item A.

Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Commissioner Mitchell?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Commissioner Smith? Aye. Commissioner Maul? Aye. Mayor McGriff? Aye. Motion passes.

All right. So tonight, we do not have any public hearings. So item number eight, we're just gonna skip right over that. And we're gonna move to item number 9A. It is resolution number 26-12, adjusting solid waste collection and disposal fees effective July 1, 2026. That would be our illustrious public works director and our local business owners at Oregon City Garbage Company, B&B Leasing. Pam and Will. You don't need a companion next to you, do you?

All right, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Dana Webb, Public Works Director, and I'll allow our guests to introduce themselves.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Will Mathias, I'm with Oregon City Garbage Company.

And I'm Pam Bloom, Oregon City garbage owner.

All right, so tonight we are here to present you an adjusted solid waste collection and disposal rates. So I'm just gonna very briefly provide a little bit of background on solid waste regulations. So at the state level, solid waste is regulated through our ORSs, identifying a legal framework for managing solid waste in the state of Oregon. That includes permitting, regulation, and oversight of landfills, transfer stations, and collection services. It delegates authority to local governments to franchise waste haulers and sets statewide policy to reduce environmental impacts through proper waste handling. It also identifies setting statewide recovery goals and defining recycling programs. We then have a regional oversight through Metro and they adopted a regional waste plan, which then is looked at within the Portland Metro area. And then locally, Oregon city has our municipal code chapter 8.20 solid waste collection and disposal. And that is really where we see how we identify rate setting for solid waste and disposal within Oregon city. So I won't read all of this to you, but our code identifies kind of a process and expectations for setting those rates. And then each time our solid waste hauler is looking at a rate reset, staff meets with them and we walk through those components of their rates and look at our customer base. And so what I can show you here, and this is a little bit different than was in your packet. a little bit more updated information. And so this is a regional rate comparison. And what you'll see in the red rectangle is the recommendation in the packet was for a 6.95% rate increase across the board for each of the four container sizes. And I'll kind of follow up on that here in a moment. And so that really shows in that scenario that we initially presented, those green boxes show the lowest rate for each cart. So Oregon City would maintain that lowest rate for the 20 gallon cart. And then other agencies would have the lowest rate for other size carts. So then I'll quickly give you a little overview of the single family customers. So this is a breakdown of the customers based on their cart size. So you can see in 2025, we had a, and then in 26, we've shown the updated. The 20 gallon cart is approximately 8% of the customers. And so last year we held that 20 gallon cart at the same price. We did not increase it. the kind of policy direction at the time was to hold that constant with the hope that we would see more users choose a smaller cart and choose to create less garbage. You can kind of see here that there wasn't a lot of new customers in that group. And so we're not sure that too many people took that opportunity to save money by having a smaller cart. The majority of our users in Oregon City used a 35 gallon cart and then about a quarter or a little more used a 65 and then we see about Currently, 13% use a 95-gallon cart. You can see in the new customer column, a majority of the new customers identified a 95-gallon cart. So we did not see that decrease.

But that would be more like apartments and multiple units, or those are individual homes?

They are individuals, Mayor. These are all single-family customers.

That's a lot of garbage.

So when I sat down with B&B this year to talk about the rate increase, based on that information, we've proposed a flat rate increase.

We didn't see people choosing the smaller carts.

So providing a flat rate across all of them felt like the right way to go with it. Last year, the goal was to try and incentivize those smaller carts. That rate increase was spread across the larger carts. And so I think one of the concerns was the larger carts are often used by larger families or multi-generational families. And so providing a more balanced sharing of the cost felt like the right way to go. So we did have a request to bring you a second option was not originally included in your packet. It has been added to the online packet and a paper copy has been provided at the dais. So this slide shows the container size, the 2005 rate that was adopted in that first column, the flat option A of adding 6.95% to each cart, and then the alternate rate option And so in that scenario, we were asked to bring back an option that held the smallest cart, the 20 gallon at the same price with no increase again this year. The ask in that scenario was to allow the 6.95% to the 35 gallon cart, and then to identify between the 65 and the 95 that lost revenue from holding the cart. the 20 gallon flat. And so that this kind of compares option A and option B in front of you tonight.

Are there any questions?

Thank you. Where did the alternate option originate?

It was a request of a commissioner.

Okay. And then could you talk a little bit about what the multifamily rates look like?

So, yes. Multifamily rates currently, they are all increased in the rate sheet by the 6.95%. There isn't a rate that we've held. There's not a option B that is presented on the multifamily rates. Those increases range anywhere from $1.98 for a 20-gallon customer to $3.86 for a 95-gallon customer.

Is there anything that can be done to add to the billing that suggests to tell people that there is a smaller fee if they use the 20 gallon? I know I read everything that you send in my bill, but...

We can certainly add notes to the billing when we send out a notice about rates. Oftentimes when customers call after a rate adjustment is approved, we'll let them know that there are options available and we make sure to point that out to them. If they're at all concerned about the rate increase or their overall cost, that there's options in a lower cart size may benefit them.

I think something that we probably should put on the record is that these fees are not coming out of thin air. They are a direct result to the tipping fee that Metro has increased. And I don't think that that was brought up. I sit on the Regional Solid Waste Advisory Committee and we talked about this earlier in the year and I will tell you it's a very large committee and I would probably say that over half of the committee members did not support a recommendation to the council about the rate increase because it appeared to many of them that the level of service was getting smaller but that the fee was going up. And I think an example of something that some of the citizen members were concerned about is that we no longer have the Metro paint program. And that had a lot to do with the company that was doing it for Metro and they couldn't find a suitable replacement. So now it's contracted out. They are shifting some personnel around. So there's gonna be less people at Metro South, which is the other thing that there was a concern about. Plus there's gonna be a few less people at Metro North. So there are extenuating circumstances that are falling downhill on the local haulers. And I just wanna make sure that the public understands that that is 99.9% of the whole thing.

Yes, Mayor, and if I may add, for customers who may have a concern that these rates have increased over the last several years, disproportionately to what a CPI index or something like that might be, disposal is the single largest piece of our cost structure. It's 30% of our cost structure, and those costs have increased 80% in the last six years, and that is Metro, and for whatever reasons that they might increase those rates, it's really... As a hauler, we're still paying that bill and we've appreciated that you've allowed us to pass through those costs. It really is important to our business.

I know something that did come up at our last meeting. They were talking about the increased fuel costs to get from here to Arlington. And it has gone up substantially. Again, not within the control of Metro or any of our local haulers. It's... a result of other outside circumstances. And that was one of the things that they did put in a contingency, but then how you put in a contingency for something that you don't know how far it's going to go. Go ahead, Michael.

Yeah, I did ask for that second option. And thank you for putting that together. Obviously, I asked for a year ago, and I think the year before that, Obviously with the intention to encourage people to use a smaller can and throw less out, and it appears it isn't working. But I would still be in favor of option B. I'm really surprised on that new customer chart how many of the new customers, almost half, had a 95 gallon container. When the demographics say family sizes are getting smaller and all of a sudden we have 300 new customers that are throwing out almost three times as much as the most common one.

I don't get it. Well, something that would be enlightening is that if you drive through your neighborhood on your garbage day...

I don't see them. I walk through the neighborhood twice a day on garbage day, and I stop at most of them because my dog loves to stop at some of the cans. I've noticed in my particular neighborhood some of the things... I just don't see the big cans.

Yeah, well, I've seen them, but you should see what is sticking out of them. things that could be recycled, you know, in the gray bin that they're not doing that. And I just think we need, you know, I think that we need to talk to our friends at Clackamas County who are the ones who are supposed to be doing the educational component to really put the hard press on because we can't keep filling up Arlington with stuff that shouldn't be in there. But do you want to make any more comments? Do you want to make a motion? Oh, go ahead.

I just have a quick question, unrelated, but related to your work. I believe the purple bins, are they called Recycle Plus? Is that what it's called? Our Recycle Plus program.

Oh, there we go. Except I have a white one now.

Yeah. I would love to, I appreciated hearing about this however many presentations ago because I've had people reach out about why don't we have Ridwell and I've been able to point them since then to this program. I was just curious if you had information about the uptake in that program and what the advertising might look like for that because I think a lot of people still may not know that this is an option. Sure.

Well, first of all, I really appreciate you bringing it up. It's a program we would love to see expand more. We have about 150 customers in Oregon City. We would love to see that number increase. It's an opportunity to recycle things that can't go in your regular recycle bin, textiles, film plastics, and clam shells, and I'm sorry, I'm missing one all of a sudden.

Isn't it number one, plastic? I'm trying to look at the list on my refrigerator that says, I think it's number ones that can go in there.

Yes, yes, that's correct. And then, so it really is a good program. We offer both the purple bin and we also have the white metal bins that are more, you know, that go on the porch box. They're a little smaller, but they're nice bins. You can get a lot in it. Yes, so... We would love for more people to take advantage of that option. Now to your question about advertisement, we do put, we've put on our billing statements a note about Recycle Plus. We tried to get out and talk to community organizations more, including the McLaughlin neighborhood and others as well, just to make sure I'm sure people are aware of this. There is, you know, we do get, Clackamas County does surveys and asks about awareness of the programs and there's still a lot of folks out there who aren't aware that your local hauler has this program and we're glad to provide it and we want to provide it. We've also been in Trail News and other publications, city publications, so we're trying to get the word out there.

Great, and that's great to hear. And I had assumed about the billing statements, I am a multifamily customer, so I don't... We don't see that. Yes, thank you.

The other thing is anybody that pays online, like I don't get a bill, so you're not seeing that information that's in with the bill.

Is there stuff on the online bill that people can be made aware of about these other programs?

So I believe all the same notes would go on the online bill, but I will make sure if not going forward that, because it is a separate process in our billing to make sure those notes get added to the online bill as well, but we will do that as well. We really want the program to be taken advantage of. And there's a small monthly fee, it's $2.50. It really kind of pays for the use of the box, But otherwise, it's a per use fee, which for most people, it's a pretty reasonably priced option.

Well, I appreciate the fact that you've got the two options. You can pay in person or you can pay online. And I pay mine in person because you've got the best ambassador there sitting at the front desk that I have to visit every month so I can say hello to her. She is fantastic. make sure to let her know i know she enjoys visiting with you she loves she's a great like i said great ambassador she's helpful to people and just really nice it's esther so um so do we want to do we need to make an amendment to the resolution can we pass it tonight with that minor amendment

So I believe we've gotten all of the attachments and what we would be adopting is attachment A labeled alternate rate option B. Okay. I would like to just take a quick opportunity before we finish the topic. Oh, yes, thank you. This is a big one. To remind folks of safely disposing of batteries. So batteries, types of batteries that can be recycled in the curbside program are alkaline batteries such as triple or double A's, C's or D's. Those do not need the ends taped. A 9-volt or a 6-volt, those need the ends of the batteries taped, as does a carbon zinc, a lithium ion or a battery button, and then rechargeable batteries need the ends taped. And then you place those in your one-quart Ziploc bag, and then you place that on the top of your glass recycle bin.

truck truck fires and transfer station fires have really become an issue with all the with all the household products that have batteries in them there was one recently with a different hauler it was a dyson vacuum battery that's embedded in the product and gets compacted by the truck and it sparks a fire and so certainly these types of batteries but the ones that also cause fires that are relatively common are like your power tools or your lawn tools that take batteries And we would welcome those as long as they're not bulging or leaking to put those in the glass bin as well. We'll collect those separately from putting them in a compaction truck.

I thought that the batteries that you have to take, I recall you're supposed to put those in a separate bag from the other. I put mine in the, if I have those, I put them in a separate bag with the bag that has the other batteries in it so that they're not commingled in there.

They can go in the same bag and we'll take, you know, if you have multiple, so many batteries, it takes multiple bags, please put them all in. But if you do separate them, that's great. They could go in the same bag there.

Okay, thank you so much. We have a motion to adopt resolution 26-12 with the alternate rate option A? B, okay, B, sorry.

I'll move to adopt resolution 26-12 with rate option B. Second.

Commissioner Mitchell?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Morrow? Aye. Mayor McGriff? Aye. Motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Really appreciate it.

If I may, I'd like to... Oh, please. I'd like to compliment Oregon City Public Works and Oregon City Fire Department because when we have had fires, wherever it's been, they have been there immediately. So kudo Dana for such good work, but you need to know that they're just great. We think so. Yeah, I do too.

Thank you so much. Thank you. I have a procedural question. Someone has signed up to speak on item and I thought we were just going to be adopting findings because we're not accepting any new testimony or anything else. It's just the adoption of findings. Could you clarify that?

That is correct. The record is closed, so there won't be any more public testimony. The plan is to have staff present a short, short, very short summary of the changes to the findings, just so. the commission is aware, and then a vote.

There won't be any more testimony. That's what I thought, what I wanted to clarify. So I'm sorry, there won't be any testimony on item 9B. She said no. The record is closed. Everything is closed. It's just for the adoption of findings. That's why I just asked, because I knew you'd signed up. So please go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor McGriff. Commissioners? Did you wish? Okay, we are here this evening with revised findings and conditions for AP 2601. At the May 6th city commission meeting, the commission approved the appeal and directed staff to move forward to provide these revised findings and conditions that implement your direction, which was to allow the applicant to utilize OCMC 1744060 subsection L, that's that part in the geologic hazard code that allowed a discretionary review based on a technical review showing that development could occur within the geo hazard area. Staff has provided those revised findings. They're on page 61. to 63 are the majority of the revised findings. What this approach does is it retains the city's need to maintain a path for clear and objective standards for housing, but also allow a discretionary path at the time of development review, which subsection L per your direction allows. Staff shared the revised findings and conditions with the applicant before they were posted on the agenda. The applicant asked a few clarifying questions but did not raise any objections. So both the detailed development plan and the general development plan revised findings and conditions are attached to your agenda this evening. And with a motion, the city commission will adopt those findings and revise conditions and staff will mail out a final notice of decision after this is adopted. And we're available to answer any questions you may have.

Are there any questions about the findings? Again, we're not adding any new information. This is just strictly what we've got in front of us. Nobody, okay. Yes, you do. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Regarding the path, what is the, do these conditions dictate the route of that path?

Oh, no, when I say when a path is, we have a requirement as a city government to have a clear and objective path for approval for housing.

No, I didn't mean... Right, I didn't know if you were- I mean the shared use path.

No, the shared use path will be reviewed under the subsection L. So through the technical review, the path and any part of development or parcel B could be reviewed through that subsection L, which is a technical review by geotechnical engineers to ensure safety at the time that the development application is proposed.

the DDP happens.

Okay. And as part of the conditions of approval, it moved that north part of the pedestrian path onto parcel B. And so at the time parcel B gets reviewed, both the development and the pedestrian path will be reviewed under subsection L. Okay.

And what about the question of whether or not to build it or a fee in lieu?

Well, because it was moved to parcel B, it'll be reviewed at that time. So the fee in lieu was not applicable because it was being moved to a future detailed development plan. So it would not be built as part of the parcel C, which is the road, which was what was approved as the detailed development plan. So just to recap, sorry, that's a little bit of a detail. What is approved tonight is the general development plan, which is a master plan, which allows the geohazards subsection L, which is the discretionary view in the future, when development occurs in the geologic hazard area. As part of that review, it also indicated that the pedestrian path that's not part of the street will be reviewed at the time parcel B is developed. So it's pushed onto parcel B and will be reviewed at that time. It can be built through the subsection L. It won't be built.

If I can add a little bit. So the Planning Commission had lots of different considerations for the path itself. At the conclusion of it, there was direction of the path needing to be in a generalized certain location of the same height as Parcel B and to be processed at the time in which Parcel B is considered so that you can do an appropriate alignment of it. Although there was consideration and questions about paying a fee in lieu, that was not ultimately part of the planning commission's decision because ultimately the path is not final and considered as part of the GDP other than being needing to be there and be at a certain height. And it's not considered as part of the DDP for parcel C because it's not the affected area. And so the appeal before the city commission was just regarding the, the geo hazard interpretation. And so for just ultimate clarity, the conversation about the path, its location and whether to accept a fee in lieu, is punted to a future application date. Thank you. That was well said.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Is there a motion to adopt the findings?

I move to approve the revised findings and conditions for AP 26-00001. Is there a second?

I didn't know if you heard me. Second. Yes, I did. Thank you. Yes, it's been moved and seconded.

Commissioner Mitchell.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson.

Aye.

Commissioner Smith. Aye. Commissioner Morrill.

Aye.

Mayor McGriff.

I am going to be voting no for the same reasons that I voted no on the previous review. I like everything else in the conditions. I think the conditions are great. I don't agree with the geotechnical portion. I thought that what the planning commission had proposed was adequate and could meet the standards.

Motion passes.

Thank you very much staff for all that work. We appreciate that. That was a lot of work. All right, let's move on to item C. We're going to ask, oh yes, sorry. So we're gonna take a, we'll come back at 8.30. Thank you for returning, Chairman. Of course. Appreciate it. All right. Our next item is item 9C. Go right ahead, Mr. Lehman.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. I am Jared Lyman, Communications Manager here at Oregon City, and I'm bringing forward five designs for the new Oregon City flag. I'll walk you through the process we went through. It started off after the Commission had indicated that they wanted to change the flag. We wanted to make sure that we did include some public input in the process. We started off with what I call the flag poll, which solicited responses from residents on what aspects of the community they thought would help make the best flag, what colors they wanted. We got about 230 responses on that, so there's a pretty good return there. We provided those results to the volunteer membership of the North American Vexillological Association, who then incorporated that information into many designs. And what were those results? The results of the survey?

Yes.

Obviously there were two colors that stood out, but... The green, blue, and white were the most popular colors. Willamette Falls, the elevator, were the two of the most commonly answered responses on the poll as well, which I think you'll see reflected in the designs as well. um after they submitted a lot of designs they were reviewed by staff we had them reviewed by a representative from the grand ron tribe as well for a cultural review and then after some refinements back and forth there these are the five that we'll be submitting to the public what the plan is is we'll show these five to you get public input and then bring it back we'll go into that a little bit more I wanted to kind of touch base real quick on what some of those design principles are. If you remember when we did the post a while back, a lot of people were submitting very busy designs, AI generated things, showing pictures and scenes and whatnot. And it's not really what kind of the best practices of flag design are. It should be simple. meaningful symbolism, just two, three colors, no lettering or seals, and distinctive, easy to recognize from a distance.

Or animal seals either.

Yeah, those either. Or squirrels. Yeah. It's got to be discernible from a distance. You shouldn't have to stare at it to try to make out what everything is. Something memorable as well. So one of the concerns that we had was when you start trying to include too many elements You start trying to become everything to everyone, and then you end up in a situation kind of like where our flag is today, where you have to count 14, 15 different items on the flag and try to figure out what everything is. So the goal was to create something simple, something, you know, you're not looking for depictions, you're looking for symbolism. So that was kind of the concepts behind the designs that the NAVA membership put forward to us. This first one is a stylized depiction of the elevator. This one was also specifically mentioned by our tribal reviewer, said to them it also kind of evokes the fishing platforms that they still use to this day to harvest lamprey and so forth. So there was even a double meaning there that wasn't even initially intended, but they really liked. Just anecdotally, this one has been getting a lot of positive comments from staff that has seen it and so forth. And you know, it kind of sticks with you as unique. You can really see the elevator there with the slope of that one line. The second one is a simple representation of Leonard Falls. The original presentation actually had it higher on the right and then lower on the left. I asked them to switch that. So it actually depicts what Leonard Falls kind of looks like from Oregon City, kind of going the right direction. Next one again, Leonard Falls.

Before you leave that one.

I'm sorry.

I said before you leave that one so we don't have any... I kind of look at as both rivers, even though that one slopes down for falls because we've got, you know, we're at the confluence.

And that is true. And that is one thing that you kind of find out with a lot of these designs is a lot of people, it pulls different things out of from different people. So that's another one of those indicators there. The next one, again, Willamette Falls. This one is kind of meant to represent the horseshoe shape of the falls, kind of a seam from above, again, incorporating those common colors from the survey. Next one, kind of unique, but it's meant to, again, signify the falls with the slanted, you know, blue and white angle, just a very simple representation of the falls. The O, broken into two colors, is also supposed to be an O and a C, representing Oregon City. And then option five, just a very simple banner, just the angled blue and white again to represent Willamette Falls. So the idea was to share these designs with you this evening so that you gotta look before we put it out to the public. I have a post ready to go live once we're done that showcases those five results and a page on our website all ready to go that'll explain the options and a link for people to provide their feedback. Then on the 17th, I'd like to bring these designs back to you with the resident feedback so you can incorporate that into a discussion and hopefully choose a new flag. And just to kind of further incentivize that, if we can get that flag design approved by the 17th, I can actually get it included in the laser light show for July 4th. So just a little incentive there.

Okay, well, why don't you hold tight? So we have a comment from Mr. Gifford of Small Flags of Oregon City. You look like you're ready to go to a tennis match because you're in your summer whites.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners.

Just bring it a little closer. The mic. Bring it a little closer to you. No, just move it closer to you, the mic. It's about as close as it's gonna get. Yeah. No, I didn't mean you move, it moves. Yes.

We'll figure it out.

Okay, thank you.

I apologize for the hat. I still find these lights really bright for my eyes. Thanks very much for all this work, Jared. I really appreciate it. As a professional flag person, I did have some comments on these five designs, and I'll start from the end. The blue and white looks like a nautical flag, signal flag, and that much white on the fly edge is gonna be invisible in the sky. I would not want to consider that. The other one with the OC on it is sort of an acute adaptation. I wouldn't put much faith on that. The same issue with the white on the flying edge. Some flags have hoist edge and a flying edge, I understand that. The one before.

Is this gonna have like little gold fringe around it like some of the flags do? Those are for indoor flags, not for outdoor flags.

door flag. Occasionally a parade flag may have the gold fringe, but that's not common. The one before that with the arch on it, well, frankly, I saw it more as an arch bridge issue rather than a the top down of a toilet bowl. So it's cute, but I think rather quotidian in design, only slightly better than the one before it, which, in Joyce's words, had the great comment of it's too much like what a lot of other people have done. It's almost too simple. The one before it, and

Go back to the river.

No.

Did you already talk about that one?

I'm finished with that.

Okay.

This one.

Maybe I was chortling to myself, so I didn't hear what you said about the river. I don't like to use the word.

I don't like to use relative uniqueness. Something is very unique or sort of unique or kind of unique. It's unique or it isn't. It's like pregnancy. You either are or you aren't. This flag is unique, and the angularity, it's striking. It's really not offensive, I think, to anyone. I think it's so different that it's memorable, and that's what flags should be. what about the white on the bottom the white on the bottom is a little disingenuous you could put it up just a little bit and and put another color underneath that but you don't put much under the water you know i mean the water is the bottom you could put a blue stripe across the bottom but it seems almost redundant Sorry, I can't talk anymore.

That's okay. I was going to ask you because that was an idea I had. I thought, why don't we have a small blue stripe under it? Because the white to me just gets lost. The green could continue along the bottom. Or the green. Continue the green along the bottom. Awesome. Thank you. And now we have Mr. Smith.

If I could address one comment that he made. The design of the horseshoe-shaped falls actually is kind of derivative of another version that was submitted initially that was of the arch bridge. It had some more detail to that. The arch bridge was one element that our tribal representative called out as not wanting to include due to sensitivities of the bridge's location, tribal history, burial grounds, and so forth. So that was one reason why any arch bridge references weren't included in these final five.

Burial grounds?

What he said to me was that it was built on desecrated tribal burial grounds.

On either end? The bridge. That's what the person said. What the person said. Okay, that's what I thought you were saying. I'm just kind of like, okay. Okay.

Can I say one thing? Looking at the different designs, the blues are different shades and colors and I don't know what the right word is. Hues. Okay, thank you. I personally prefer the hue on the two and three, the one that represents the river and the one that represents the falls, that softer blue. That to me is just a little bit, it's almost neon. It's the sky. Sure. I mean, it's just my personal preference.

Adam, did you have something you want to add, please? Just that I, for one, I agree with what Commissioner Wilson just said about the colors. And I guess I'll just hold the rest of my comments for once we've had the opportunity to go through the public process. I have the one that I would lean toward.

Excuse me, just a quick phrase. There is the consideration of blue-green color blindness, which is a common malady, mostly among males, but there's a lot of people that cannot distinguish between those two colors.

Yeah, the 52% is still the majority there. Thank you. And it's interesting, when I print, I mean, when I printed mine from my personal printer, they all have the same blue. But the one that is the elevator has a small strip of, I don't know how it did it, but there's a small strip just below the line when I printed it.

It's an artifact of the file making. So that'd be something cleaned up when sent for final.

But anyway, I thought, okay, I like that.

And I know that once this goes out on social media, people are going to go, these are too simple and too derivative. Right. knowing what we know from that very helpful book, that's how a good flag is designed. So I am pleased with the options that are before us and I have the one that I would prefer, but again, I'll wait until the public has had an opportunity and we'll definitely weigh that when it comes to the final vote on the 17th.

So that the comments that we're going to receive, those are advisory. Correct.

Mr. Smith.

Sorry, I'm drawing. So I've been drawing since I've seen these and not because I want to insert, because that's how my brain works. And so, and actually hearing your presentation and seeing them again, I've completely changed my mind on some of them. And I think what's so great about, and by the way, I love the guidebook. I teach graphic design at the high school. I use that guidebook as an assignment when we have done flag designs in the past at the high school. Because the last couple years that this has been a topic, I've had my students do this. I'll go through all this. to see the different imagery and things like that. And so I spent five minutes just drawing one because I think my first instinct was, yeah, they're too simple. But I think I may be changing my mind a little bit. So one of the things I drew today and not knowing and understanding the full context of all these symbols, which is one of the things, you know, that I think makes these so simple is because One, well, just an example, when I met with the city manager today to show these, I didn't have my computer, but I drew all five of those flags by memory today, because I knew exactly what they looked like. And so that in itself says a lot. What I did, too, is I saw that arch as a bridge until I read the descriptions and said, oh, that's the horseshoe of the falls, which we know it's not exactly like that. But I will tell you the first one that I saw that stood out to me the most was option one. And actually, now that I'm looking at it more, I have a thought on it because when you do a logo design or a symbol or a flag, there is a lot of other things hidden in there that you don't see at first. And one, I think that the option one stood out to me, one, because it is different. It is different because you don't see some of those angles like William stated. But as I looked at it more, i think people should understand one thing that i see in it now so having the natives perspective was great to understand that that's the elevator but it's also something else which talks for the spread of history of this town but here's one more thing i started seeing that green square stand out even more that green square which to most people is a green square But how did all the green square in the Portland flag or the green square in any flag typically refers to forest or parks or whatever? Well, if we know the history of our parks in Oregon City, they started as public squares. by Dr. McLaughlin and that's a public square it's a public green square in that flag and then when we had that conversation about well does that white line along the bottom stay a white line well maybe it does stay a white line but maybe there's a thin green line that finishes the bottom of the flag because you know what that is that's the promenade Like I said, mine has a very thin green line on the bottom. And the meaning to that flag with having that representation to the park, even if it just stays that green square. But I think you could finish the bottom with a green strip that would also be broader than that green square as the start of the parks and how we are today and how that highlights that white. that white line at the bottom, which could mean so many different things, right? Streets, pathways, everything. And so the more I look at that one, it's starting to resonate with me as well. Option two there are symbols you can see there too, because I can see a roll of paper, but then you're like, okay, well, is that toilet paper? Or is it a roll of paper, which is also very much part of the history of this town too. We didn't do toilet paper on our side. But I think that's what's great about some of these symbols that are so simple, because a lot of people are like, they're so simple, but how much is really in there that we can pull out? And if people start seeing it that way, I think maybe we look at these all together. You can see the one that I submitted just as a thought because I did see that Archway maybe putting components to this. I don't by any means wanna see my logo submitted into this process. It's just a way to think through it to show that are these things being represented or could they be merged in some way? Because sometimes when there isn't an overall, if there isn't always an overall 100% winning choice, then sometimes you morph ideas together. So that's all I was kind of brainstorming. Anyway, I'll just leave it at that, because I think that there's some interesting things in here.

Go ahead. A couple of things. I do agree that that more subdued blue works better. And if you all look at the page from the staff report where it's showing the four designs, you can see that line, that thin line across the bottom on your screen. And it does make the design a lot better. And that may be too thin to be able to be printed. I think it's too thin. I think it needs to be a little bit thicker. But you can get the idea. And it really does kind of anchor the bottom of the design to me. And the other thing that I want to just make sure that what we hear from the public is advisory. Correct. Not that I want to necessarily. Because two of these, there's no way I could support no matter what. Correct. And honestly, that that's the reason why we're going framework.

Cause I wanted to have the residents provide feedback, put their two cents in, but at the same time, it should everybody vote on something and the commission for whatever, for whatever reason did not like that one. I didn't want to cause a friction between you and the residents. So yeah. How many initial entries were there? I don't have the exact number, but it's around, it's more than two dozen. I mean, some of them are variants of the same design, but it was more than two dozen. I'd love to see them all.

Just to see them.

Yeah, I know.

Not that we need to see them as part of this process. That's not what I'm saying. I just love looking at them.

No, I agree, yeah. The one that I... that I sort of get but don't get is the one that's supposed to be indicative of O and C. It's like, you know how the two, the O and the C come together the way they do in the Oregon City High School thing? That's, and part of it could be blue and part of it could be white, but it doesn't, it's around, it looks like a bullseye thing to me. And I, you know, when I read your descriptions first before I looked at the pictures and I thought, if i do that maybe and i don't think i want to be looking at the flag with my neck crooked like that but the oh and the c are going in the you know it's either that way with it linked in with them going into blue because that's not that and i totally agree with what william said about number five it i had to look up that flag that is a nautical flag yeah

I'll just ask this. Do we have to put all five of those out? That was what I was actually going to say. I think it's pretty clear that we would all leave out four and five.

I don't think any of us would even consider, and so I don't know if there's value in getting public input on flags that we hear.

I would say five definitely is out, wouldn't you say? I would say four and five. I don't have a problem with leaving four in because I don't think people are going to go for it, but it's a nice kind of a round number. It's up to you guys. If you want to leave four and five out, then we submit three designs. Consensus?

Well, I don't think I would have a consensus yet on that. Okay.

I would be fine sending all of them. Okay. What do you think? I would really say one, two, and three. Okay. Rocky?

I would hope the same result would happen either way, but we don't know. Yeah, I would focus on the three.

Okay, so we have one, two, three, and I'm just leaving number five out, putting one, two, three, and four in. He wants them all.

Should we leave number four in just for the ringer? So my question would be looking at number four, would any of us genuinely consider?

No, okay. So I'll go with the fourth. So we're going to submit one, two, three, and four. One, two, and three.

I will do that.

I've got some changes to make to a draft post, but it'll still go live tomorrow. Okay. Can it also, again, just the commentary on changing the hue of the blue? Yeah, I will do that as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think we'll be able to get the little line in below it. And I will, yeah, I will do that as well. Okay, all right. Thank you for all your work on this. Awesome. Thank you. Awesome, awesome. Okay, next and last but not least, it is the Chief Sean Davis Show. Items D and E. I'm not D, so. I know, but we're, you know, I'm just giving you credit for it, too. Come on up. Come on up. You're a public service. You know, it just goes right in there, right?

Aren't you in charge of the blues or something like that?

I think the code might say you are in charge of the privies.

Yes, it does. That's what I said. Have you done your inspections yet for 2025? I did get a report from Chief Band on his inspection, so we know that that was done in 2024.

All right, good evening, Mayor and Commissioners, Dana Webb, Public Works Director. I'm here tonight to present to you the follow-up from our work session in February, where we discussed the inconsistencies within our utility services code sections. And so really tonight, the red line language within your ordinance is to clean that up and make each of them more consistent, as well as to address the discussion we had about stormwater exemption. So again, back in February, we shared with you, we have four different chapters within our code related to our storm drainage, sanitary sewer, water and pavement maintenance. And just a quick, this is really to clean those up in the service charge adjustments and appeals. It really clarifies the process and what qualifies for adjustments. And those do vary slightly within the utilities. And it explains that very clearly what those criteria are. And then as requested, it states, there's no appeals as part of that process. For exemptions, it clarifies that vacant and unimproved properties, essentially, like if you do not have a water meter, you do not pay a water service. So that one is very clear. If you do not have a sewer lateral, you do not pay for sewer service. But in those instances for like a stormwater or the transportation fee, if you have a vacant and unimproved property, you would not be charged those monthly service fees.

And that's for all properties?

Yes. So if you have a empty land. Lot. Yes. For the delinquent charges, that's all been cleaned up and made consistent and allows the city to place a lien if your utility account is at a point where it's past due and should be addressed. That was not consistent amongst the four services previously. And then again, we had some inconsistencies in our code language about which of those services qualified for reduced rates or financial assistance. And so this cleans that up and essentially does what we've been doing in practice, which was allowing that across all four utilities, even though it wasn't codified. The second part of this is the discussion we had around the stormwater rate reductions. And so what we have proposed is for non-residentially zoned properties, we've proposed kind of two options. And so if you have a preexisting development, it's been cleaned up and clarified if you directly discharge into the main channel of Abernathy Creek, Clackamas or Willamette River, if you do not go through a city maintained pipe, culvert, bridge, or ditch. So for the most part, that means directly discharging into that water body. So it doesn't go under a roadway or through a ditch. And then based on feedback, we've also added a requirement that it complies with the stormwater and grading design standards at the time of filing the permit or appeal. So essentially what we heard is that we shouldn't be giving these reductions in billings to properties that don't meet our standard. And so if you meet all of those criteria for a pre-existing development, you would be offered a reduction of no more than 25%. And that was a number that really kind of matched what we shared with some of the other cities have done, where even if you're not coming through a city pipe, there are many programs that the city administers through the stormwater program that are of a citywide benefit. Our erosion control program, our MS for permitting, as well as stream shading and many things that just because your stormwater doesn't come through a pipe, you still have a role to play in those citywide regulatory programs. For new development, we've identified that they must comply with the stormwater and grading standards at the time of filing. and that they need to incorporate enhanced water quality beyond the standard requirements. These could be things like green roofs, rainwater harvesting, constructed wetlands. And in that scenario, the reduction would be proportionate to the total amount of water subject to enhanced treatment, but no more than 25%. So for example, if an area had 10% of the site covered with a green roof, they would get a 10% reduction. If they had a 50% coverage, they would be capped at the 25%. Because although they are addressing more stormwater, they are still part of contributing to those overall regulatory programs. And those are all of my slides that I've prepared.

We received some correspondence at the 11th hour. And I will say, honestly, I did not have a chance to digest the attachments. Could you address? that and any merits it might have. I don't, didn't totally understand everything.

The city received an email from Mr. Nesita raising concerns largely with the exemption section of the stormwater components and explaining that he would like to see a residential exemption for houses that don't drain into the city system. similar to what you've got here for non-residential. And during the work session, there was some discussion amongst the commissioners about exempting residential and that the decision was made that residential is such, our residences are so small and the stormwater fees are, similarly small, that it ought to be across the board, you know, no exemption or reduction. I think we figured out today that there are potentially, what, 15 15 residences that are similarly situated to the concern that Mr. Nesita has raised. But not withstanding that concern, the other things that Mr. Nesita raises, he's raised concern about using non-residentially zoned properties as the threshold to qualify for a reduction, arguing that it's not entirely clear what which are the non-residential zones in the city because housing is allowed almost everywhere except for industrial. And so I, you know, there might be something to that and maybe we need to change it to use rather than zone. Mr. Nesita raised concerns about the term vacant and unimproved properties because the term vacant isn't sufficiently clear. I would say unimproved properties probably includes everything that's vacant. So I'm not sure we need to make that change. So again, there was just, the idea is that there's a lack of clarity in the language. Legally, Mr. DeSita attached a case that challenged a fee as a tax. I am not concerned that this arrangement as it's drafted would violate and become a tax. This is definitely based on use and it would be a fee for the use of the system. And you've been very clear that even those properties that don't drain directly into the city system have costs, bring costs to the city's program through roads and cars and those sorts of things. And so I think you've talked about that, but I think Mr. Nesita just would like for you to revisit those those determinations. And I think that the staff sends ready to revise if that's what you're thinking and we're coming back with a revised version based on the feedback you provided. I think we've only come to you during one work session with some language and we've revised it pretty significantly. So we welcome the opportunity to help.

Comments or concerns, questions? Do we want to continue? I mean, I don't see any issue with the way it's written with regard to residential properties. Regardless of whether they're connected or not, there is an impact. I feel that impact is still there. Would be great if we could get those properties, you know, connected somehow or get their brain drains so they're not draining into the sewer. I think, didn't we have a program some time ago, it was disconnect from the, having to go into the sewer system. We were telling people to disconnect their downspouts so it goes into their yard or. I don't recall, but I would assume we did. Before your time. As part of the separation. Yeah, before your time, yeah. Any thoughts on that?

Keeping it the way it is? I would be interested in cleaning up the language as it relates to zoning and use just to be abundantly safe. And recognizing that the state isn't heading in a different direction when it comes to those definitions.

So what were you recommending? So I would propose any person seeking a reduction in the storm drainage fee or appealing therefrom may do so pursuant to a demonstration of the public works director or their designee that a property contains no single family or middle housing residential uses. That's which section? It is 13.16.100B. 13.16. But I think this language appears in other sections too, doesn't it?

Yes, we tried to get all of the language consistent, so we can clean that up in all of the sections. Actually, 100B is just in storm for this reduction program.

That sounds more than reasonable. I mean, I read it the way you said it, even though it doesn't say that, we're not pertaining to that.

So just so I'm clear, What I just read from 1316-100 about the reference to non-residential zone property only exists in 1316-100, the stormwater section. We didn't change it for the others. I mean, I just flipped through and I think that's right. I just want to make sure I understand.

The other sections are a very short exemption section, not specific like these two options with the pre-existing and the new development.

Would you be recommending we change that across the board or? We just have to change it in this one place. Just that one place. Okay. That's what I thought because I didn't see it anywhere else. Okay. Anything else?

Well, there's still the question of should we have, should you be able to get a reduction on residential property? We just cleared up the definition of what a residential property is. But are we sure, have we discussed, we did discuss, do we need to revisit residential?

I think with the small number, They've calculated we have 15 properties.

Well, I think part of the discussion too we had was again there is still cost incurred by the city due to this.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that I think there should be one. I was saying have we decided that there shouldn't. And you can't on a normal kind of residential lot, that water is going to run off of that property. unless you put a dike all around your property perimeter or something. So there are going to be impacts.

We have a consensus to leave it as is. Yes?

For the non-exempting residential?

Yes. Rocky? No.

I'm with it.

Okay. We want to leave it as is. Okay. And that was the only other thing.

Well, those were the two. Well, the third thing that Mr. Nesita would like is an appeal right to the municipal judge.

Yeah, I'm not supporting that.

I think that kind of does that cover all of his points? I believe so.

I think we got silence. So let's go with what we've got with that change in section 13, 16, 100.

We can either read in that change and adopt the first reading tonight, or we could come back in two weeks with the change.

Let's read the change in and get it, keep it moving. Okay. you just have to read that one i think i just have to i think i just have to read 13 16 100 yeah okay do we have a motion to do the first reading of ordinance number 26-1008 we take one second with the amendment fight amendment did i go too fast no we're just

It might be referenced though. There was a question about the number of time non-residential is referenced. Sorry, I didn't catch any of that. I think we're just, we were trying to scan real quick to make sure that any definition change that we have is consistent throughout the document. We'll do a coffee talk moment. Talk amongst yourselves. 056-1316-100-1330-0600.

say it say it say them again i decided i'm going to do everything right now no sure right now we're going to go get some billy bars and then we're going to come back that's right we could send scott out for some Blizzard fan myself? Yeah, I'm with you. Actually, the peanut buster parfait, I'm not aware. Have you tried a peanut buster parfait Blizzard? That might be too much. It's a thing. Is that a Denise thing, or that's like a sanction? I ask them to make it for me every time. And they make it for me every time. That's great. Then I don't have to eat the peanut buster parfait, which is too big.

I think we'd request, just let us go back, make sure we've got everything. We're trying to do this on the fly.

I feel confident that you do.

Okay. And then we'll bring it back in two weeks with the definitions. The same throughout the whole document and across all the sections. So we'd appreciate that. Do you need a motion to table it?

We don't need to table it.

I don't think we're, I think we're okay.

It's going to come back in two weeks. All right. Thank you, Dana Webb. We appreciate it. And now last but not least, the chief Sean Davis show. Air commission before he's the second. Wait, I didn't read the item. Sorry. So we're going to be discussing the second reading of ordinance number 26 dash one zero nine to enact an amendment to the Oregon city municipal code chapter one, 10. 08120, raising parking fees.

Correct. I'm here to answer any questions.

All right. Let's have a motion. Hang on a second.

Just a second.

I didn't see the chart of the new fines. This is not the chart for new fines. We're going to bring that back as a resolution on June 17th. Okay, thank you. For consent, this is just to change the language in the ordinance from 100 to 500. Okay, so the fees will come back another time.

Yes. As a resolution. Thank you. And I'll move to approve the second reading of ordinance 26-1009. Second. Second.

Carrie, do you have to do the reading? Sorry.

That's okay. Ordinance number 26-1009, an ordinance of the city of Oregon City amending the municipal code section 10.8.120 violation penalty.

Let's have the roll call, please.

Commissioner Mitchell.

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Commissioner Smith. Aye.

Aye.

Commissioner Mauro. Aye. Mayor McGrath. Aye. Motion passes.

Okay.

We're in business.

Are there any communications that we need to discuss before we adjourn?

No, I think the only thing we just to let the commission know our next regular commission meeting on June 17th, I will not be yet. And then I will be out on vacation the 17th through the 28th. So... It'll be the Alex Troutman show. That's right.

All right. Let's find a lot of hard stuff to ask her. All right. Let's adjourn the regular meeting of the Oregon City City Commission and we will reconvene shortly in executive session.