City Council - Regular Meeting

So thank everyone for coming. We'll establish a quorum.

Councillor Evelyn.

Here.

Mayor Fitch.

Here.

Councillor Nielsen.

Here.

Councillor Osborne. Here. Councillor Patrick.

Here.

Councillor Wedding. Here. Councillors Wicker. Here.

So please stand for the blessing by Pastor Chris Wooten from the Journey Church of Redmond. And then Jay's going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you for having me. If you guys want to bow your heads with me if you choose and join me with prayer. God, we thank you for the city of Redmond and for every person who calls this community home. We thank you, God, for those who have accepted the responsibility of serving and leading our city. I pray, Lord, tonight that you would give everyone in this room wisdom, that God would give the council members wisdom beyond simply having information. that you would give us justice and integrity. I pray that the decisions would be made fairly, honestly, and with particular concern for people who can easily be overlooked. I pray, God, for unity without requiring uniformity, that everyone here today could disagree respectfully and still work together for the good of Redmond. I pray, God, for discernment, that those in this room would distinguish between what is merely expedient and what is genuinely good for the community. I pray, God, for servant leadership, that authority would be understood as responsibility entrusted for the benefit of others. And, God, I pray for welfare for the city. Out of Jeremiah 29.7, you say, seek the peace and prosperity of the city. and i pray that the city staff and the residents in the room not only the elected officials that they're as they present reports or they bring concerns before as employees carry out significant responsibilities and probably people even enter the room with very different perspectives i ask you god please bless the city of redmond help its leaders to pursue a community in which people and families can flourish and in your name amen

So I sat down because I was just thinking we should change the agenda. And we're going to have a presentation first, an employee spotlight. So I don't know who's doing that. Steve? Because she has a little baby with her.

Good. All right. Thank you. Steve Ashworth, Deputy City Manager. Tonight we're doing an employee spotlight for Natalie Lance. Natalie's sitting back there in the back. Natalie was hired in mid-2023 to assume a new role for the city as the Outreach and Response Coordinator. Natalie's original focus when she started was really to aid code enforcement and law enforcement and enforcing the camping code and compliance with homelessness within the city of Redmond. As Natalie quickly handled that situation, and she moved on to really, I would say, the most proactive part of her role, which is working with the community in not just dealing with enforcement, but in a proactive way to help treat people with respect who are facing homelessness, make sure that they have the health and welfare needs that the community has to offer, and to work to find secure housing wherever she can to help them. So she has been doing that for several years. It is a very difficult job and one that she continues to do every day throughout the year. You'll find that she is out in the field probably more than she is in the office, out there working with all the different residents that are facing homelessness and challenges. One of the things that Natalie has also done, and she continues her commitment through the service, and she maintains a qualified mental health associate. She is a certified mental health provider, and that is incredibly important in the role that she provides. One of the things that I think is most telling and what I want to highlight is kind of a year in the life of Natalie. And I think this is really important for folks to know. Over the course of a year, she engaged with over 181 individuals out in the community. 47 individuals accepted case management, which is really important for this population. 57 referrals to shelter or housing. 15 connections to health and behavioral services. 83 clients she assisted get documentation, that is whether it's a driver's license or something in order for them to be able to qualify and get services. Over 101 client transportation to services or shelters. 21 individuals she helped get exit homelessness to a permanent housing situation. And then most recently, over 30 individuals transitioned into the supported managed camp. And the managed camp is up and running. And Natalie has been instrumental throughout the whole process. The one thing that I really appreciate about Natalie is her honesty. her directness, and I think we've all experienced that, that she's not gonna, she's not gonna come forth without her honest opinion and let you know what's really happening out there, and I really appreciate that. Natalie is a great asset to this community and to this organization, and I'm excited to spotlight her for all the work she's done.

Natalie, you gotta come up here. And now you can be, as usual, completely honest.

Well, I'm a little nervous because public speaking is not my forte.

but I really appreciate this highlight and I appreciate Steve and I appreciate all of you. I wouldn't be able to do my job if it wasn't a coordinated effort with the city and the county and all of the service providers that really pay attention to these matters. I think that the city of Redmond is definitely kind of leading the way in terms of for the issues that Oregon faces in many different counties, whether it's rural or urban.

Thank you. Kat and I have sat in a meeting a month, every month, for the past couple years. Kat, you can go first. Can I go?

I'm just going to say working with Natalie is amazing. She does bring an honest and forthright manner, which I truly appreciate because I think I do the same. I don't mince words. But having somebody here at the city who has boots on the ground, that has been tremendously important to us in working through the issues of homelessness and being unhoused. And she does it with such a heart, and that's hard to do every day. So I really appreciate you.

So in our meetings dealing with homeless and housing situations, they're usually attended by probably about 10 people, including the commissioners and their staff and people from like Jericho Road. And I would say in almost every meeting, everyone's looking to Natalie for guidance and solutions. So the one word I would describe you as you're truly awesome and we really appreciate it. Katherine.

I just want to add to the list too. I appreciate that you've built genuine relationships with the people, not just the numbers that we see here, who are experiencing the vulnerabilities of homelessness. I think that you take your perspective and you center it on what they are experiencing as individuals. I know you know basically everyone by name. You know what conditions have gotten them there, some of their unique idiosyncrasies, and you use that to help navigate everyone whatever is the best path forward for them. And I appreciate that. Not only do the members of our community who are experiencing homelessness, but our service partners all know that you are the person to go to because you are the connector. You are bringing them together to make the solutions for Redmond. And I'm so grateful to you.

Thank you. Now we won't torch you anymore. It was public speaking. Oh, John, I'm sorry.

I was going to torture you just for a minute more. So I serve on the board for Oasis Village, and I also am the city representative for COIC. I can testify with 100% certainty that in both organizations you were spoken of in kind of hushed tones and awe and admiration. So thank you for what you do and thank you for, I mean, yet again, kind of proving how far Redmond punches above its weight class when we talk about services to our citizens and when we talk about responsibility and professionalism and doing the right thing. So thank you for setting that example, especially in such a contentious and problematic area. Thank you.

So now I know you got Kaylee with you, so Godspeed and get home and enjoy the evening. Okay, next we have motions as a result of our executive session. Shannon. So just to recap, we had an executive session on key evaluation. And so Shannon will go over what happened, what we need to do.

Go for it, Jason.

I just have a few introductory words. Good evening, mayor and members of city council. I'm joining you to discuss extending the city's employment contract with Keith Witkowski for the current fiscal year, 26-27. This follows as a motion from the council's executive session and just very briefly, human resources for the city supports the annual evaluation of the city manager as required by the employment contract which is led by the council president, Councillor Wedding. If feedback has been previously discussed with council, city manager remains effective in their position. So the motion before you includes recommended updates to the city manager compensation package to remain competitive. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Otherwise, we'll turn it over to Councillor Wedding and the rest of council for any further comment.

No, thank you.

Okay, I will read the motion. I move to approve the following change to the contract with Keith, of course, I'm going to mess up your last name, Witkowski, effective July 1st, 2026, changing the monthly pay rate in Section 3A to $18,746 per month and deferred compensation in Section 8B to $2,708.33 per month. Okay. I think it's fair to say that Keith had a very glowing recommendation from the

Evaluation, I think it's what a 3% COLA increase and similar on the deferred compensation, something like that. But it's consistent with the normal practice.

Yeah, the deferred comp was 0.7% increase, but that takes it, yeah.

Okay. So any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Okay.

Consentogen, we'll do city announcements. So Keith and Keith and I met with Warm Springs on Friday. And we'll go over it a little later because the primary issue was over water matters. But Warm Springs did ask for one assistance. As you know, they had a significant fire this summer that affected the reservation there, a number of people lost homes. So they've just asked us to indicate that they do need some assistance for those people who lost their homes. There is a place to donate on the website. It's right in front of us. So if any of you can offer money or other forms of assistance to these people who lost their homes up at Warm Springs, that would be much appreciated by them. So thank you. The next thing I wanted to talk about was the park and rec district, the pool. We communicated with Katie this morning. They're going to be opening next Monday on September 14th, where people can access the pool or the hub, as they call it. And then there'll be official grand opening, I think, October 3rd. But that's good news. The bad news is that 35th and Highland will not have any improvements before it opens. ODOT has given us a design of some improvements there. They will mostly help traffic because there will no longer be any ability to cross Highland at 35th, nor will there be any left turns out of 35th Street. There will only be a left turn from westbound Highland onto 31st Street. There won't be any great pedestrian crossing. So still working on it. I think we meet monthly or almost bi-monthly now with ODOT on some of these issues. But as you can see in the news, they are not very well off financially. And so unfortunately, we are suffering some of that consequence. The last thing I wanted to talk about was the elections. Last week, Tobias Reid was here and spoke about the election process here in Oregon and some of the challenges that they're having. It was amazing the summary that he had about really the assault on the election process by the federal administration. kind of gutting the financial support for any cybersecurity back in early 2025, dismissing the election commission at the federal level and then stacking it with a number of loyalists. And now the latest one is attacking the post office to an executive order, trying to disrupt vote by mail, which is almost the only way we can vote here in Oregon. So more to come on that, but it was a fairly dark picture of what is at least being attempted to disrupt the election this November. The second thing is on local issues. About four years ago, we had a discussion about signs between the sidewalk and the street in front of homes where people maintain the parkway there is what we call it. I think we agreed that people can put signs in that area. Um, so I, I'm assuming that's still the case, but I just wanted to make sure that was the council's understanding as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the last thing is some people have brought up that there is a rule on signs that signs cannot be up for more than 75 days. Um, there, um, so there are signs up there that, uh, probably are coming up. There's been a couple of signs on the commission level. They've been up there since spring. We're not going to police these. It's kind of an honor system. But just want to let everyone know that that is the rule. And so that's it on that. And then we'll go to the consent agenda, which is made up of the minutes of July 14th and the minutes of July 20th for the council. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I move to approve the consent agenda. Second.

Moved and seconded, any further discussion?

All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

Next, we have an ordinance, and this is ordinance 2026-12, an ordinance granting a non-exclusive telecommunication franchise to Vero Broadband LLC, and repealing ordinance number 2020-11.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Valerie Taylor, building collections manager here at the city. I'm here tonight requesting the council approve a five-year non-exclusive telecommunications agreement with Vero Broadband LLC. This agreement is, as you can see, they acquired Bentel at the end of 2025. So this is kind of the aftermath of that, putting this in place and then removing that current Bentel agreement that we have. So this will take its place. Vero Broadband currently operates in about four states. We're going to be the fifth state for them. And they're planning on servicing about 4,400 homes per fiber.

Okay. And let's see, do we have to, you want a first and second reading by title only? So is there such a motion?

I move to have a first and second reading of ordinance number 2026-12 by title only. Second. Second.

Moved and seconded any further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Redmond ordinance, ordinance number 2026-12, an ordinance granting a non-exclusive telecommunication franchise to Vero Broadband LLC and repealing ordinance number 2020-11, an ordinance granting a non-exclusive telecommunication franchise to Vero Broadband LLC and repealing ordinance number 2020-11.

Is there a motion to approve ordinance 2026-12?

I move to approve ordinance 2026-12. Second. Moved and seconded.

We'll do a roll call vote.

Councillor Evelyn. Aye. Mayor Fitch. Aye. Councillor Nielsen. Aye. Councillor Osborne. Aye. Councillor Patrick. Aye. Councillor Wedding. Aye. Councillors Wicker. Aye.

Thank you. Okay. Next, are there any comments from citizens at the meeting? Wow. Okay. Great. Keith, any comments from city manager?

No, I mean, thank you again for the evaluation. I really enjoy working for all of you. I have a good time doing the job. It's really fun, so thanks.

Good. John, let's start with you.

I'm good, thank you.

Just want to congratulate everyone who started going back to school today. Hope you enjoy your school year. Remind everyone to watch your speed in the school zones. Please don't run over my children. And also, I think this is the kickoff week for youth soccer. So I hope everyone has a good week and beginning of school year.

I'd like to address the comment about signs that they were applied to me. I, Keith, either one of you, I talked to both of you and the code program, code director, and got the understanding that political signs did not apply and they could be put out. That was in July. Am I wrong?

So we don't make... any distinction for content for signs. So all temporary signs, which campaign signs are considered temporary, it's a 75 day. So I don't know, they could be put out at any time, but it's the window is still 75 days from whenever they're put out.

So there must have been a misunderstanding when I asked that question to everybody, because in July I hadn't put anything out. And I asked, can I put these out now? And my answer I got, and I didn't read the messages,

was yes you can put them out there's still a time frame but that was not but that was not you asked if you could put them out I mean it's still you're fine right even as the mayor was saying we're not it's not like we're hiring code staff to enforce this stuff so right I didn't want this to happen yeah that's why I asked the question to all three of you yeah well and the code enforcement

Thank you.

Okay. Believe me, there's not going to be mayor patrol on sign just like there was four years ago. I just want, there's been a lot of stuff we've been working on not in the council setting that I thought might be a good idea since we have such a short meeting to go over. The first one is local improvement district for 27th Street. And James, do you want to come up and just indicate where we're at on that?

yes uh james wood finance director here at the city of redmond um thank you mr mayor good evening council um the 27th street lid or local improvement district as mr mayor referred to it as is an extension of 27th street from hemlock to maple street right now there's no there's no street there and so the project would be to uh put in road water and sewer and for local improvement districts specifically oftentimes there's um the ben there's uh properties that but the project um the project itself and they benefit and so right now we're looking into the cost for the total project as well as what the benefiting uh customers might be assessed in terms of a a benefit um or contribution towards the project. So it's with engineering right now. We plan to come back in December's informal to bring the results of that. And at which point we then have the option to continue to proceed forward with an LID, the local improvement district, or go a different way.

Any questions on that? I just don't want to get too far ahead without the council knowing what's going on.

I have a comment. just for the fun of it. This was one of those things that we talked about and then we backed Bernard because there wasn't an appetite for it and yet now staff and engineering are working on it. And I find that to be an intriguing concept when my recall was we all pretty strongly said we're not comfortable with another taxing district in a residential area, maybe commercial. And this is a residential area, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Any other comments? So on the northwest side of town, we have considerable development occurring, in fact, quite a bit of development occurring. When school starts this week, 19th Street becomes a disaster, plain and simple. The more we have alternate routes, north, south, east, west, the better off we are. I think what the council indicated before is they didn't have an appetite to work on it this year while we were looking at projects of considerable depth, including the wetlands, the police, the airport terminal. So nothing's happening on this other than there's some analysis, and that's going to come to the council in December. The council can decide whether or not it's a good idea to move forward or not. Thanks, James.

Thank you.

So next one is obviously Friday is September 11. And just want to make note of that. It's the 25th anniversary. Nothing specific is planned. But I do want to recognize that that is occurring this week. And so we'll have the flags out downtown. But there aren't any specific ceremonies that I think are planned at this time. We're going to do an east side arterial status, but I think Jessica is not here. Keith, I don't know if you have anything from Jessica on that.

I just have the timing. I talked to her last week. So in terms of the timing for the project to be done, the 9th Street should be done in spring, you know, if everything continues to go as planned. And then the 19th Street roundabout near the fairgrounds would be done before the fair. So if we continue to progress and overcome some of the other conversations that are happening in terms of timing, the whole project should be done before the fair next year.

So will 9th Street be closed at 126 till next spring?

That I don't know.

Okay. Okay. And then on growth management, one thing that I worked on with the Department of Land Conservation Development is the idea of having Cascadia reserves. What that means is, is that when Cascadia subduction event occurs, There's likely going to be a considerable influx of people from the west side of the state to the east side, particularly central Oregon, from the Dales all the way down to Klamath Falls, perhaps. So the idea here is that the state, and this would be for the 29 legislature, so it's not anything urgent or even particularly moving at full speed right now, but it's the idea that we were to get money from the legislature to identify various areas for expansion once the Cascadia subduction event occurs, and that just would not be Redmond. It would be every city in Central Oregon, probably including the Dales, Klamath Falls. If you identify those areas to accommodate an influx of people fleeing from the coast and the west side, we would have a an ability to plan and engineer what those infrastructure might look like. And there is a concept that we might have as many as 200,000 people moving from the west side to the east in wake of the Cascadia subduction. The idea of the Cascadia reserves is to, one, plan those, but also that with the governor's proclamation following the Cascadia subduction event, those would automatically come into the urban growth boundaries without a lot of red tape, two or three years of red tape. So, DLCD actually was quite excited about that idea. And it's just something that we're, not even we, I'm working on with DLCD. So I just wanted to let you know that that was going on. Does anyone have any questions or comments on that?

Okay.

As indicated before, we met with Warm Springs and their attorneys on Friday to go over principally water issues affecting the basin. I guess to put it in a real brief summary, I think Warm Springs shares our concern about the effect of the piping project on the aquifer. particularly how it affects the Crooked River. We talked about transfers, and there's two types that were talked about. One is internal in Redmond, which Josh knows a lot more about, but they indicated there were some technical issues that they had to work through, and so they were going to put their people in touch with Owen and Josh on that. And the second one is the application that we have before the Water Resources Department to transfer two CFS, two cubic feet per second, or about 500 million gallons a year from the Deschutes River based on a 1912 certificate to groundwater. All transfers are kind of being held up for review by the Warm Springs Department. And so we talked about having that transfer as part of a pilot project, which we have to discuss with Josh and Owen and others. But there seemed to be interest in looking at that. The perspective that we gave to Warm Springs was that when you look at the basin as a whole, As you all know, cities only use about 3% of the water, yet we house almost 90% of the people and 85% of the economic activity. And those percentages are just gonna increase in the future because most growth will occur within the UGBs. And then you have to address what will happen with that Cascadia event. So there's a very complex web in dealing with the BASIN WATER ISSUES. YOU HAVE WATER WATCH. YOU HAVE CENTRAL OREGON LAND WATCH. YOU GOT WATER RESOURCES. YOU GOT THE SHOOTS RIVER CONSERVANCY. SO ANYWAY, I THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD MEETING IN TERMS OF HAVING AN OPEN DISCUSSION BETWEEN WHERE OUR INTERESTS WERE AND WHERE THEIR INTERESTS WERE. BUT THAT'S KIND OF WHERE WE ARE WITH THEM. Highland Avenue ODOT we met with them last week I think it was and they are going to embark on a study of Highland Avenue at first they were just going to do it from 27th to Hemholtz and we said that would not work because it has to go all the way back to 19th Street because as all of you know that Unless we get four lane west of 19th Street, the backup at 19th and Highland will continue to get worse and worse and worse because it goes from two lane to one lane, basically. So I think they were amenable to that, but I won't say it's a final decision by them. And 19th and Maple, all the underground work is done, so that reopened, which was great. There's been questions as to why that's a light instead of a roundabout. And as I understand it, the main reason is because of the right-of-way limitations. So that's why it's going to be a traffic light in case someone asks. So those are kind of the things that are going on day to day. Does anyone have any questions or comments?

All right. Well, then we're adjourned.